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Don’t React; Respond

My last post dealt with the injustices, at least as seen through these Western eyes, of Sharia law; it’s harshness and lack of humanity. Since writing that article another Muslim/Western crisis has arisen, one I originally determined not to comment on as I had no wish to appear anti-Muslim, but as the Western media seems determined to whip up an anti-Islamic frenzy (at least, in America) I feel the need to instill a little understanding, if not sanity, to the situation.

The event referred to is the imprisonment in Sudan of British school teacher, Gillian Gibbons, for naming an innocent teddy bear, Mohammad.

In truth, however, my subject goes way beyond this single event. In many ways the jailing of Gillian Gibbons results from eighteen Saudi Arabian, and one Egyptian, hijackers committing the acts we now know simply as 9/11. Except, it was not so much from that act, as from the aftermath, that arose the events leading to Mrs Gibbon’s ordeal.

Recently, a blogger friend asked me this question:

“When you are outraged, do the words just flow or do you take time to pick and choose and rewrite?

Many years ago I learned perhaps one of the greatest and most relevant lessons it is possible for we humans to comprehend. It consists of just three words, which if we all adhered to them, would change the world we live in almost overnight.

It is this: “Don’t react; respond.”

Like everyone else, I get outraged at the many heinous crimes afflicting humanity today. Sometimes, I receive comments or emails railing against views I have chosen to express. I have a choice: either to react to those vituperations with similar rhetoric, or to calmly analyze what the protagonist is saying and offer my own measured response.

To answer the blogger friend’s question, when I am outraged I find it better to do nothing until the rage is passed, then I no longer feel the need to react, and I can address the subject with at least a modicum of logic and impartiality.

What has this to do with Gillian Gibbons and 9/11?

In the aftermath of 9/11, the world turned its sympathy and love towards the United States. Had America, in turn, chosen to respond to that sympathetic element, this planet would today be a different place altogether. Instead, under George W Bush, America chose to react to 9/11. We all know the results of that reaction. The aftermath has produced a split in the world between East and West. Muslims view the reaction of America to 9/11 as a holy war against Islam. The incumbent US administration has done nothing to counter that view.

America is known as a powerful nation and Muslims worldwide are frightened and insecure, fearing their religion will be taken away from them by the “Evil Satan” of America.

Let me suggest a possible scenario. First, I would point out that while teddy bears are imprinted in the Western psyche as cuddly, adorable, toys designed to make kids (and the more mature among us) feel secure and loved, this is not the case for Islamic children. Stuffed toys are not part of the Eastern culture. A bear is considered a violent, dangerous, animal in most parts of the Islamic world, so a stuffed one called Mohammad is tantamount to calling the the most holy prophet, violent and dangerous.

Now consider an American schoolteacher, say in Alabama or North Carolina, introducing the class to a pet mouse, and calling it “Jesus Christ”. Would not the strictly Evangelical Christian community raise vociferous objections to such a blasphemy?

I think so.

Don’t misunderstand; the charges against Mrs Gibbons are absurd in any logical person’s assessment. However, we’re not talking logic; this is not about response, it’s all about reaction.

The reaction from the more militant Islamic community in Sudan is based on fear. Fear of America, of the West, and most of all of George W Bush and his reactionary administration.

Most mature Islamic leaders, both in Sudan and throughout the world, condemn the reactionaries demanding Mrs Gibbon’s head on a silver platter, but it’s just another weapon for them to fight with. They know America is far too powerful to be kept at bay, should that nation choose to wage holy war against them. Mrs Gibbons is simply a pawn caught up in a reactionary game. Almost certainly, diplomacy will win the day and she’ll be released soon.

If you stamp hard on the paw of a dog, even a relatively friendly one, the sudden pain will cause it to instinctively try and bite you. It’s a pity that, as human beings, we have not yet evolved beyond the primitive instincts of a dog, and still have not learned that a considered response is superior to an instinctive reaction.

Filed under:

Where Is The Love?

I am happy to respect the personal beliefs of individuals, provided they keep them to themselves and don’t force them down the throats of others. When a dictatorship masquerading as a “kingdom” uses so-called religious laws to punish victims of violent crime, however, I believe it is time to speak out in protest.

Most will already be aware of the Saudi woman sentenced to flogging for being in a car with a man who was not her husband, even though the assignation resulted in her being gang-raped. Some may try to condone the punishment as a breach of Sharia law.

Personally, I condemn it out of hand as a breach of common humanity.

The greatest problem facing this world today is a surfeit of dictatorial powermongers using any means at their disposal to wreak havoc on the weak and unprotected. Such is the case with the Saudi Arabian regime, whose tyrant king is kissed by American presidents and banqueted by British royalty.

The latest twist in this gruesome saga is an admission by the woman, no doubt under torture, that she was having an affair with the man she met, and because she dared to seek an appeal her sentence was cruelly increased.

A Saudi “justice” minister stated the woman had, “confessed to doing what God has forbidden.”

It may well serve the purpose of such powerful and wealthy degenerates to propagate the idea of a “God” so disgustingly cruel and malicious it can applaud the application of its rules in this manner, but here is one individual who spits with contempt on such ideas.

The Christian “God” has been equally perverted by its so-called adherents into a crazed, merciless, abomination with no regard for decency or humanity. The purpose of this perversion? To bestow power and control on those who strip the minds of susceptible individuals and fill them with fear and degradation.

This world is rife with cruel manipulation and populace control, from the very wealthiest monarchs to the local priests and pastors, imams and clerics. Their religion is a warped black shadow hiding the truth behind all great religions.

That truth is: LOVE.

Love is missing from the minds of these people. Where is the love and concern for the Saudi victim of that most terrible act of aggression against a woman?

Without Love there is no religion. Without Love there is no humanity.

Jesus said: “Love ye one another as I have loved you.”

According to a hadith, Muhammad once said: “A true believer is one with whom others feel secure. One who returns love for hatred.”

One who returns love for hatred.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, where is the LOVE FOR HUMANITY in your darkly self-righteous, religious heart?

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The Smell Of Money

In his book, “The Informant”, Kurt Eichenwald reveals the extent of corruption rife in US industry, and at one industrial giant in particular, the Archer Daniel Midland Corporation of Decatur, Illinois. That corruption spills over into pollution. Eichenwald notes early on in his book how the stench from ADM fails to bother Decatur residents:

“Locals often joked it was just the smell of money being made.”

Five days of each week I drive past the filthiest, vilest, most stinking, particulate pollution I have encountered since the days of 1950’s Britain; days when factory chimneys belched forth their unchecked poisonous cocktails that directly resulted in dense, choking, smog killing thousands of people every winter.

Thankfully, British governments took action and forced industry to clean up its act. Now, strict pollution laws with efficient Environmental Health Departments to police them means most Brits can breathe clean, mostly unpolluted, air wherever they live in the country.

Heartland America is like 1950’s Britain.

There is a difference, however. In the US the government isn’t on the side of the people, as were the British governments of the fifties and sixties, it’s a tool of industry. The so-called Environmental Protection Agency is a farce, a pussy cat with no teeth.

Back in 1950’s Britain, the problem was local. Today, it is global. While much of the particulate pollution has gone from mainland Britain, gaseous emissions – the earth-warming gases of carbon dioxide, methane, and others, remain to some degree.

At the beginning of the 21st century, a protocol to the international Framework Convention on Climate Change was agreed in principle, and entered into force in 2005. That preliminary agreement became well known as the Kyoto Protocol.

To date, 176 parties have ratified Kyoto. Two major exceptions are the US and Australia.

With a recent change of government in the latter continent it seems likely Australia will be on board quite soon. Indeed, Kevin Rudd, the new Australian prime minister, campaigned on signing up to Kyoto.

Once again, it seems, the United States under George W Bush is to be isolated. (Some will argue Canada is also not a signatory to Kyoto, but that is untrue. Canada signed, but for complex political reasons mainly involving its economic partnerships with the US, is faltering after a change of government).

It’s become fashionable within the United States to criticize the Kyoto Protocol as ineffective. George W Bush began this trend early in his presidency as an underhand means of defending his lack of any positive environmental policy. One would expect this type of reaction from such an intellectual midget, but sadly, Bush’s views have permeated through to many of the pseudo-intellectual liberal elite of this nation who, while condemning Bush’s policies, trash Kyoto as ineffective.

Kyoto may not be the complete answer to global warming, but I get a little tired of ‘Kyoto bashing’. Bush & Co have done enough of it, without supposedly saner individuals jumping on the bandwagon. Kyoto is a commitment. It may not be a particularly binding commitment but it’s a start. It’s better than no commitment, and the US, at a federal level, has made no commitment whatever to combat global warming. While everyone sits around intellectually debating what’s right and what’s wrong, the planet is blowing up in our faces.

Kyoto was never more than a baseline to build from, a show of willingness to participate. Industrialized nations who refuse to sign it put greed and power above saving possibly billions of lives.

The cry goes out, “Why should we suffer while China continues to pollute and will soon overtake America as the biggest polluter on the planet?”

Stop blaming China. China hasn’t caused the problem, and European governments were cutting environmental pollution, albeit for less global reasons, when the phrase hadn’t even been invented in the States. What the US needs is a government with teeth. One that legislates to force motor manufacturers to produce cleaner, more economical cars (French cars of two liter capacity regularly return over 60 mpg, and out-perform their US counterparts) and corporates to clean up their filthy polluting industries. Then, and only then, can they a) begin to pressure China, and b) criticize the Kyoto Protocol.

Much is being made of the individual’s contribution towards saving the planet. Industry makes more profits from producing products that help us be “greener”. Yet industry is doing little to put its own house in order, and compared to industry the individual’s efforts are a drop in the ocean, particularly when many of the “greener” products are produced by factories continuing to pollute.

The US has no federal legislation governing the emission of carbon dioxide by industry at this time. The EPA lists six major pollutants covered by the 1990 Clean Air Act, but CO2 is not among them, and even though emissions of the six pollutants are supposedly limited, industry disregards the legislation with impunity.

American isolationism doesn’t work anymore. We are now a global community facing a global threat that requires global solutions. The Kyoto Protocol was an attempt to make that happen. Nation’s are struggling to meet the demands of Kyoto and the situation is aggravated by a US determined to sabotage it in the short-term interest of capital gain.

Meanwhile, for five days each week I continue to drive past the filthiest, vilest, most stinking, particulate pollution I have encountered since the days of 1950’s Britain. It emanates from the Archer Daniel Midland Corporation and its (now) subsidiary, Tate & Lyle. In 2002, apparently the last year of available figures, the Political Economy Research Institute compiled its list of top 100 US polluters. The Archer Daniel Midland Corporation was ranked tenth, above the Dow Chemical Company.

Of course, in our town – a ‘company town’ – nobody objects, nobody complains.

It is, after all, “just the smell of money being made.”

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