2019 Diary
The layman is wondering once again …
What was the equivalent of the “right to freedom of navigation”, before the warships with cataclysmic destructive power were invented …?
I can imagine that when the Silk Road was the only route between the West to the Far East: there was no need for a right-of-freedom-of-travel concept …
People would gregariously welcome any merchant from any part of the world …
If not to trade, just out of curiousity, and perhaps for a chance to have a laugh …
But this naïve and primitive equation: of buyer and seller and business sociality: is of no significance: when buyer and seller, travelling on camels and donkeys, are replaced by military power and military power …:
Firstly, the advancement of navigational engineering and expertise have shifted the stage from land to sea;
Secondly: had the purpose of travel between the West and the Far East remained primarily commercial: the old equation would have remained essentially unchanged,
What has changed is the purpose of travel …
Understandably, in war time, nations need to mobilise their warships as they see fit,
In such circumstances, there’s no need for a legal premise …!
Nations will do whatever they can, if it helps their military campaign,
But in peace time: I can’t see any reason for the mobilisation of warships at all:
Apart from an intent of intimidation, and a clandestine long-term plan of war …
Hence, the rules of civility, and the declaration of “navigational rights” kick in … only as everyday clothing replaces military uniforms …
But the ludicrous part of the “freedom of navigation” concept, is that the nations which have championed it and practised it are the only nations who practise it, or are capable of doing so …
This is like the fox saying to the chickens: the right to bite is everyone’s right,
Hence, and long before China had warships: the US’s, and sometimes Britain’s warships: were sailing away close to the territorial waters of China, the disputed as well as the internationally acknowledged ones …
That’s not to mention the military bases all around it, which have enough nuclear power to destroy China many times over, well before China was capable of developing appropriate defence systems …
Perhaps in the minds of Western leaders: if you don’t defeat China militarily: you can’t make it a friend,
Drawing, perhaps, on their experience with Japan …!
So let’s get ready for the big confrontation with China, it has to happen, or else, China will not only control the entire East Asia and Australasia region: but indeed the world …
On the other hand, the Silk Road has been replaced now by navigation routes across the Indian ocean and the South China Seas …, which have to be made equally available to warships …
It would be naïve of Western leaders to believe that they can make the world believe that China wants to close or to restrict commercial navigation along those routes …
Why does Western media ignore this self-evident argument?
Well, Western Media is not controlled directly by governments, but by corporations which are openly the real drivers of Western domestic and international politics,
Of course, with the acquiescence of Western leaders …
Many of whom are … to put it mildly: warmongers … as their military campaigns in the last and at the start of this century clearly demonstrate …
You see, war is an ideology of existence,
Not that the advocates of it will admit it,
But to the contrary, they are best at painting themselves as the defenders of their people and the bringers of peace …
Books of philosophy and political science have been written about this animal instinct, to say that it is a driver of life, evolution, civilisation and religion …
So, from whichever angle you look at it: it is there as a fact of life …
Hence the glorification of it, and the military attires and parades … aimed at awing both the domestic and international onlookers …
The layman is not an expert in Chinese history,
But common touristic knowledge suggests that China has been building one wall after another on its western borders, for thousands of years … while the trade with the Middle East and the West never stopped,
The Wall is obviously meant to stop the invaders coming from the West,
I don’t know who exactly attempted to invade China from the west of it, apart from Mongolian and later Islamic ones …
In any case, it is not always easy to draw upon the past …
But until recent years, China’s focus had been on isolation and defence, rather than expansion and offence, if the Walls are to be of any psychoanalytical significance.
Technology, trade, growing population … have changed many factors in the traditionally balanced equations, and new balances are now needed,
If war is meant to clip China’s claws: it will also clip the West’s,
The only good outcome of it will be the total ban on the military of all countries going anywhere close to the borders of other countries, whether by land, air or sea: in peace time, even by agreement of both, visitor and host,
And economic stagnation will follow, exacerbated by what is referred to as Climate Change, which will be accelerated, if nuclear clouds are to linger in the major parts of the sky for a decade or two …
The layman is unentertained by the sight of big nations' leaders racing to love the Pacific Islands …
An effusion of love has been pouring onto those islands from China … and now from Australia … after local commentators and Western allies voiced their criticism of the Australian government’s neglect of those Islands for a long time …
Well, we’ve got to love those peoples, otherwise the Chinese will love them and build for them roads, airports, power generation plants and so forth …
We’ve got to love them, because if we do, we’ll have to defend them, if war breaks out in that volatile region …
This will put those Islands at great risk of total destruction … by the enemy …,
Those people should know who to be enemies with if war breaks out there: Australia and its allies or China …?
So we'll set up military bases there, and use those Islands as launching pads of missiles and runways for military aircraft …: in order to be able to defend them ... in case war does breakout …!
I just hope that the leaders of those small nations do understand the long-term intent of big nations’ benevolent campaigns, so they don’t take the bait and become a military asset neither for Australia and its Western allies, and nor for China …,
Thus avoiding to be a battle field for foreign powers and a sacrificial lamb for them ...
And speaking of the volatility of the Asia-Pacific region …: the layman can give a simple but a very effective piece of advice to the big nations of it, if they really want stability there, and less or no foreign military bases and warships on their lands and waters …, and of course less wise Western politicians lecturing them on the benefits of Western-sponsored peace, love and harmony:
And that is to put the past behind them and start working on building bridges of friendship and cooperation between themselves at all levels …
This way their problems will be managed locally, and their friendship with the West will be taken to an equitable basis,
The Koreas have made a couple of steps in that direction …, and Japan, the Koreas, China and Taiwan have to do the same, free of the sponsorship of Western nations …
This will diffuse the tensions, and the need for self-appointed international police constantly patrolling their airspace and waters will become superfluous …
Isn’t there sufficient intelligence in those nations to figure out such basic diplomatic self-sufficiencies …?
All they have to do is to look at the Middle East that is being destroyed by its own people with the help of big foreign powers: to see first-hand the long-term outcome of national grudge and ideologically driven hatred …
Painful at the start as it may be, the relinquishment of now rotten old national pride: is the only way leading to peaceful and neighbourly relations ahead in the future …
The layman finds Gareth Evans’ letter to the Chinese authorities … quite distressing …
The letter smothers the Canadian citizens detained by China with praise and sympathy, avoids the mention of Ms. Meng’s detention in Canada completely, and dodges the core issue of trade and technological competition between the US and the now giant China …
Mr. Evans, like most Western diplomats and commentators: believe they can wipe clean their governments’ finger prints with selective focus and good rhetorical skills …
Thus, the West can paint China as undiplomatic and uncivilised, while lavishing itself with praise for its international-law-abiding legacy …:
International law, sanctions and regulations which are being used to protect the interests of the West and its allies exclusively …
I don’t know why the expression “arbitrary detention”, which is being used by Western media, doesn’t apply to Canada’s action …
And I wonder if there’s a provision in the international law to make such an arrest without a prior warning …!
I also wonder if Bill Gates, for example, was detained upon a visit to China without a prior warning, on the basis that Microsoft scans and collects a lot of data from personal computers, putting the security of China at risk …: what would the reaction of the US be?
Western diplomats, academics and commentators are hiding their heads in the sand: the sand of their own political rhetoric,
But this is not going to insure their superiority in the world in this eventful century, but to the contrary: the disgust that it is producing in non-Western countries is only strengthening the resolve of those countries to break free from the US’s frighten-and-threaten kind of dominance …
Yes, the layman would be very concerned if Iran acquired technology which boosts it military power …
But the layman is equally concerned about the open-handedness that SA and Gulf countries are being treated to by the US and its allies,
Open-handedness which has resulted in catastrophes in various parts of the Middle East, of Biblical proportions,
The argument that the US uses is that those countries have not made blatant calls for the destruction of Israel,
And yes, this is very concerning,
But let’s be realistic, and let’s put the Israeli government’s paranoias aside …
And let’s put Iran’s threat into perspective …
A threat whose primary purpose is to flare the fervour of nationalism and religious bigotry in their own countries and the wider Shia population ...
Israel and the US have got to understand the mentality of the rulers of those countries … who believe they are god’s representatives on earth …
The irrationality of their beliefs makes it impossible for them to advance technologically and politically or in other way …: because they can’t relinquish the far past and live in the present …
Their mind is totally screwed up, they can’t make a coherent argument when they talk …
But let’s not forget, that some religious Jewish authorities hold similar beliefs …
And when god’s promises don’t seem to be coming forth: desperate measures and irrational statements will start to emerge from the once semi-rational nation in that region.
China, not being an Abrahamic religious nation: doesn’t buy into the gods of those religions, but indeed mocks them all …
On the other hand, a Chinese company has probably sold technology to Iran, like the US and its allies have been selling weapons to SA and Gulf countries …, both tempted by the export dollars,
An international law/sanctions which find one transaction legal, and the other illegal is an international law/sanctions that can’t earn the respect of the whole world,
The world should be gearing towards a human approach to problem solving, and Iran's, US's and Israel's strongly held beliefs in supernatural intervention to their favour: should be seen as equally fallacious.
And again, let’s not pretend that the West’s envy of China’s technological and economic advance: doesn’t exist,
Ever since the early nineties, when China started to rise: American diplomats have been blatantly saying that they will do everything they can to stop China from becoming a superpower …
If the West led by the US wants to remain the Superpower that earns the trust of the world they have to be fair and just … otherwise they will have to cop a lot of resistance, and their plots will eventually fail.
So, a letter which ignores the complexity of this issue, ignores Ms. Meng, turns a blind eye to the US’s support of criminal nations, and addresses the Chinese authorities as a bad boy who has to listen the wise West: will not go well in China, but will indeed be a subject of mockery from the Chinese people and authorities …
The World Economic Forum two days ago coincided with the Murry River disaster, that has shocked Australians, and every nation or individual around the world who still care about wild life and the environment …
The timing could not have been better …
I watched David Attenborough being interviewed by Prince William, earnestly,
But I couldn’t work out whether there was a mention of this problem that was still in progress while the show went on: in other parts of the interview that I missed; a problem which has been documented with distressing photo evidence of a catastrophe that could potentially be the end of a major ecological system …
Yes, life is an interdependent system with an intricate complexity …
And David gave an example from the past of the unexpected outcome that human interference in one link of the chain of dependencies: can bring about: many links down or up the chain …
But the Murry River couldn’t have been a better example …
I happened to watch today a phone video which I can trust, showing the thriving cotton fields farther up the river system … where, by the looks of things, cotton farmers have been recklessly drawing water from the system to keep their production at favourable levels …:
Even during the harsh weather conditions which have left some parts of Australia bone dry …!
Successive governments have traded accusations of mismanagement on this issue with one another, thinking that the layman is stupid and will believe their elections campaigns’ slogans: and will vote for them at the next elections,
But the layman is becoming totally numb to the sloganeering and the blame games of politicians,
The layman cannot be fooled for very long.
So, at the question whether the capitalist system is to blame at least partly for the Climate Change phenomenon and the degradation of ecosystems worldwide: David dodged the question politely …
Perhaps he was thinking in the back of his mind: wait a minute, it’s the capitalist system that has given me the resources to produce a wealth of documentaries, and to have them reach almost every living room in the world,
It’s the capitalist system that has helped me spread the enthusiasm for conservation and a better understanding of mankind’s relation with nature …
It’s the capitalist system without whose sponsorship and financing this very forum could not have eventuated, and couldn’t have been broadcast live to the world …
Hence the diplomatic silence …
But the layman takes a different perspective …
The catastrophe of the Murry river has been exacerbated, and perhaps totally caused by the unfettered greed of capitalism …
We don’t exactly know to what degree the drought and to what degree the excessive draining of water have each contributed to it …
Some experts have been saying that if the system was managed better the problem could’ve been avoided …
But let’s face it,
Cotton growers in Australia bring in billions of export dollars …
Governments do not want to upset them …
And I’m sure they all contribute to funding the elections campaigns of the major parties …:
Contributions which are conveniently called by politicians of all sides “political donations” …
In Western democracies this is totally legal, and don’t any one dare use the “C” word to describe it …
Western democracies would like to paint themselves as corruption free, or close it, to the world,
So they can be seen as a moral authority, on top of being rich and powerful,
Yes, there have been a few Western leaders, or would-be-ones, who are totally alarmed by the corruption disguised as platonic love between business and governments …
Unfortunately, commentators, mainstream politicians and academics are too quick to use the words up their sleeves to discredit them and ridicule them …
Socialist, anarchist, communist … are but a few …
Unfortunately, David, the capitalist system has overstepped its scope of governance by far,
It is no longer a provider of fair wealth and a fair go to everyone, but indeed the real governing power, that puts its self-interest ahead of everything else, including the environment, freedom of the media … and the democratic system itself:
All of which, are paradoxically, meant to foster it and insure its good health and fairness …!
If left to go wild without the overseeing of independent governance, the capitalist system would love to take us gradually back to the past feudal systems: where the wealthy and the landowners dictate legislation, policies and business rules to the stooges that they install in top government positions
The Government Shut Down that we’ve been witnessing in the US: is perhaps the largest-scale case of domestic human-rights abuse … that has taken place in this century,
I don’t know, whether it’s in the constitution of the US, or other legal sources … that this is written,
What kind of regime allows the incumbent president to punish his people financially … to the point of driving them to poverty and close to starvation: in retaliation to his political opponents, who don’t let him get his way?
The provision of such a “power”, by agreement of all sides of politics there, who all seem to have used it at various points in the past,
And the fact that, in the light of unfolding events, no one in the US has questioned the ethicality of it, and go on with their daily lives, while all the way bragging about providing charity - they shouldn’t have to - to the affected people:
speaks volumes about the low moral standing that this country has gone down …
The layman sees that the US was built in the past on good values …
Great thinkers in its early days have shaped and fostered its world championship of freedom, equality and justice …
After WWII, the US opened its arms and doors to refugees and anyone looking for a free and better life …
Then, …, things seem to have started to go wrong … when major wars were waged, and millions of civilians died in their own homeland upon US’s invasions …
The problem with wars: warmongers can easily sound very convincing: when they justify them,
And despite the availability of evidence on the total futility and ineffectiveness of such wars,
And despite the fact that it is almost always the case that the case for war was not made before getting engaged in it …:
The US’s authorities are sticking to their guns, and seem to be planning for more wars …
The US’s frighten-and-threaten approach to governance is hitting the American people at home now …
And no one seems to recognise that there’s a major flaw in the legal systems of the US, and the moral standing of its politicians …
I wish their allies provide them with friendly advice, to help them to change their perspective on this issue, to persuade them to abandon the shut-down power and wipe it out of their legal books completely …: rather than kowtowing to their every wrong …!
No one needs to be counselled on the values of human rights, freedom and democracy …: more than the US today
Verses of the Qur’an which are understood by mainstream Islamic scholars of all persuasions and political alliances: to command crime, and to promise rewarding it by a paradise of food and sex in an afterlife: are in the spotlight in Australia once again:
When a judge delivered his sentence to a bunch of terrorists, who plotted or perpetrated acts of terrorism in Australia …: and took the opportunity to criticise those verses, and even went as far as suggesting removing them from the Book, so Muslims stop committing crimes inspired by them …
Of course, the response of mainstream Muslim leaders was swift and delivered what was expected:
That also Muslims have suffered at the hands of such criminals …, who take those verses to an extreme … or whatever other words they use to imply that the wrong is not in the verses themselves, but in people’s minds who interpret them …
The point that Islamic scholars don’t get is that there is no watered-down version of their reading of those verses …
So if you believe that the Book commands the believers to punish god’s enemies: somebody will want to do it …,
If not here, somewhere else, if not about this cause, about another one …
So long as the commandment of crime is understood to be there: somebody sometime will want to carry it out, and then somebody will want to retaliate to them: by the same commandment: as is the case in the total lawlessness and absence of order in Islamic countries: where warring tribes and different Islamic political entities have been waging wars against one another for god-knows how long: all in the name of jihad and as a race to the paradise of food and sex …
Of course, the advocates of this reading of those verses will be quick to say that the state of the Arab and wider Islamic world is none but the result of Western and Zionist nations’ propaganda and conspiracies …, who are determined to destroy the Arab and Islamic civilisation completely …
The delusional state of mind that those theorists have got themselves into: blurs their rational thinking completely, and blind them from identifying and understanding their problems …
And how can they find any problems in themselves if the belief in the perfection of their sharia and the correctness of their rituals is so entrenched in their psyches …?
Not only are they the true and exclusive believers in the Almighty, but they also have the power to rule that whoever doesn’t go by their laws and rituals and doesn’t submit to them: have got to be kuffar (infidel), and their duty hence is to kill them and destroy them,
After all, god has given them the kuffar as an opportunity for jihad that they shouldn’t miss!
Hence I extend my invitation to his honour the judge, and to whoever else is willing to take a step outside the vicious cycle of religious competition: to read this Page’s readings of those verses in English, herein and on our Website circleofbeauty.org … (Surah 33 in particular) …
Black-and-white justice will not work in matters of belief and morality …
It cannot be the case that “only our Abrahamic religion is right, and all the rest are bad, unless they submit to us” …!
In their correct reading, those verses are, firstly, not about waging wars, and secondly, do not give anyone a heavenly authority to judge and punish others, and thirdly and most importantly: they call on the believing people to help non-believers by guiding them … thus making “love thy enemy” a universal law, rather than exclusively Christian …
When dealing with core beliefs, it is not easy for individuals who adopt them to view them from out-side them …
They are like the hardwiring of our morality and consciousness …
His honour the judge is too aware of the child abuse cases which have rocked Christian Churches around the world …
Recently, a head of a church in Australia said something to the effect of: if they admit to their fault let’s release them …
A statement which sent shockwaves in the minds of sensible people …
A core belief here is at play: and that is: god forgives people if they confess …!
So, god in his might and infinite wisdom created us sinful and weak and then sent his only son to salvage us, if we believed him …!
His honour will not like my comparison of the erroneous zones of Christians and Muslims, for whatever convictions he has …, and let’s not forget that in a court of justice: you cannot defend wrong by drawing on another wrong …, rightly so,
But this is not an attempt to defend Islamic crime by pointing to Christian crimes …
This is only saying that God is the source of human Virtue and Reason,
If those aren’t known: rest the mundane laws and religions: full of error …
I don’t know how in their minds the two major parties in Australia think that the layman hasn’t been cracking up at the patriotic dress up to the scandal surrounding the wealthy Chinese national’s donations – which amount to hundreds of millions by the look of things – to both of them …!
So if you haven’t heard the story, let me tell you briefly …
Last year, during one of their bickering sessions at parliament house, one party revealed that a wealthy Chinese investor had been donating heaps of money to the other side to fund their election campaigns … and went on to say that it turned out that the guy had links to the Communist Party in China, and was trying to influence domestic politics in Australia to China’s favour …
Although no one has showed us what the extent and the scope of the influence were … no one was surprised by the revelation of intentions …, except perhaps the receivers of the donations, when facing cameras and reporters after it was all out!
But the saga didn’t end there, because after a few days the other side produced evidence to that the same man had also been donating money to fund the election campaigns of the other side …, if you haven’t been confused yet!
Photos of members of both parties, prime ministers and opposition leaders with minsters and shadow ministers … flashing big smiles and donated cheques to the camera ... and to the triumph and pride of the onlooking donor: made it to the screens of all TV networks and to the front pages of printed news …
On another occasion, with dates that are a bit vague in my memory now … I remember our previous prime minister giving a strong termed patriotic speech about his keenness to stop China’s meddling with Australia’s domestic affairs and culture, and went on to say that he respects China’s sovereignty and would like China to reciprocate …
Again the extent and scope of the meddling and interference were never revealed … but only a brief mention of attempts made by Communist party members in Australia, or sympathisers therewith, to influence Australian politicians and community leaders to soften their tone of criticism of China: were made, giving the layman the impression that they do not go further than a push to be softer in their criticism of the Chinese government’s style of rule, particularly among Australians of Chinese origin …
The last chapter of bipartisan patriotism was opened just last week, when we were told that the donor had been stripped of his permanent residency in Australia, and that his application for Australian citizenship had been revoked …
The layman has no CCTV installed in the meeting rooms of political parties, but the mention of the donor’s involvement in a “peaceful reunion of China” movement has conjured up in the layman’s mind a few possible scenarios …
A wise Australia shouldn’t be concerned about a Chinese union with Taiwan, especially if it is achieved peacefully …, but to the contrary this could mean stability in the region and hence more Australian exports to the bigger and more prosperous China …
The only losers would be the countries which benefit from the lingering instability there … in whichever way they have been benefitting …
The layman sees that Australia’s major parties are taking a big gamble by assuming that the US and its Western allies will continue to play the role of a self-appointed world police for a very long time to come …
As the years go by, and the economic and strategic cards are being shuffled and redistributed constantly, and as the polarity of political views and ideologies are becoming more polarised in Western countries: don’t be surprised if some future presidents and prime ministers decide to cancel a lot of their costly heritage of international undertakings, and to alienate themselves from the relics of past colonial hegemony, and to open up to the newly emerging ancient nations on an equal basis of mutual respect …
This is Australia’s chance to be a role model in the region,
Australia cannot continue relying on its American bosses to model its international relations, forever,
Neither can it earn genuine respect in the region, if this is backed up by a superpower that can be described only as a loose cannon …
As events unfold in Venezuela …
The layman is in no doubt, that the same news media that are painting Maduro as a psychopathic killer who wants to see his people dying of starvation and sickness: as time goes by and the crisis has abated and the dust has settled: the same news media will be keen to publish leaked news about the US’s direct involvement in creating this crisis …
They’ll tell whatever sells …
The layman has seen it before, when in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq, news about WMD’s made headlines every day, then ten years later the best-selling headlines were: there were no WMD’s.
Indeed, this is a lateral view of a crisis,
A lateral view that goes to say that the real problem is in: let’s make up a problem, then we’ll solve it … and everyone can profit …
So don’t be deceived. This is not impartiality and freedom of expression.
It’s not coincidental that Iraq, Libya and now Venezuela have huge oil reserves,
Neither corporations and nor big governments want to see the money going into the wrong hands: i.e. not their own hands …
This is the problem that justifies creating a problem!
From the US’s perspective, the problem with Maduro is not that he knows - like many laymen and indeed leaders - that this is how and why world crises are created or exacerbated …
His problem is his ex-Soviet Union attitude and political language in which he got himself stuck, and which transpire every time he engages in commentary about his relationship with Western countries and big business, and his total unpreparedness to deal with any entity, at home or internationally, that he has deemed to be imperialist …
This sets off alarm bells in the minds of the US’s military, many of whom have lived through both eras of American paranoia - pre and post-Soviet Union - and justifies bloodshed and invasion,
With his lack of political and economic savviness, Maduro has thus made his country an easy target for Western interference and propaganda,
Hence, to the loyal Western citizen: let’s get rid of the communist criminal, and re-live a moment of victory of freedom over oppression …
It used to be the case that in Western capitalism: the relationship between government and business was summarised by: you row – that is the business – and we steer – that is the government,
But the relationship now is more like: we row, we steer, we move, we stop … as we see fit,
The purpose of capitalism is not anymore to boost economies and give everyone an equal opportunity to prosper …
The purpose of it now is to keep corporations prosperous …
They’ll tell you because if they’re not: you are not …
This is a vicious cycle that capitalism has got the whole of the world into
Let’s face it, massacres that are driven by religious hatred aren’t going to end, unless all religious wars, all religious wars without an exception: are declared over: by the religious authorities themselves who have waged them, or ideologically supported them …
It is not enough, if political leaders condemn terrorism,
It is not enough, if they show genuine empathy with the victims of it …
There are elements out there waiting for an opportunity to strike or to hike,
To strike and kill helpless civilians in their cities, homes, and on their travels …, for the supposed cause of their religion,
Or to hike up the emotions around the world: those very same people: when they become themselves the victims: as helpless civilians …
People are naturally empathetic,
Don’t exploit that empathy, to make excusable the false interpretations of the Books of religion,
No one is in charge of carrying out heavenly judgement here on earth,
And a god that takes a side in human feuds is not worth a worship,
So, while it's important to have political leaders denouncing religious hatred and terrorism: it is essential that their denouncement be based on a similar denouncement from the religious authorities …
All religious authorities without an exception have to start looking at addressing this issue within their own teaching and preaching institutes, very seriously,
If every religion remains convinced that they are god’s army and representatives, and have therefore a duty to destroy or subdue and convert other religions to their religion: for their god to be happy with them
: rest assured that religious terrorism is not going to wane
The Alt-right, a cocktail of populist paranoias,
Driven by atheism and religion, science a fallacy, race and economics …: the different groups which are seen by the media to belong to it: have one thing in common: the anxiety about Western civilisation and the survival of Western nations …
Not unlike the Jihadi movement of the Islamic world: this one too isn’t an organised entity and doesn’t have a central leadership,
Anyone harbouring sentiments of hatred to non-white non-European non-Christian groups of people: can be passively or actively said to be a part of it …
The passive members, however, and as in the case of Jihadi Muslims, aren’t so passive, after all,
Their contribution to spreading the paranoia, on social media, in the local pubs and clubs … and even in the sports circles …: is very significant,
And as the Jihadi movement cannot be extinguished by a military conquest: this one too, cannot be defeated solely by tightening gun laws and dismantling its active cells of training and preaching …, although all such measures will restrict and subdue its activities,
The defeat has to be an ideological one in both cases,
And this is a big ask from both the leaderships of Islamic countries and the Western ones,
Because, although many or all of those leaders have expressed their total disagreement with the ideology: the people do sense that in fact they do subscribe, at least partly to it, with the diplomatic constraints around them …
Although the ideology has been around for hundreds of years, it didn’t surface until WWII, and now in the last couple of decades, when migrations from Latin America to the US, and from Africa and the Middle East to Europe: became a serious problem,
Europeans and Americans don’t want to see their countries being taken over by strangers, who have little or no appreciation at all to their culture and the achievements of their modern civilisation,
And a dark future scenario has been envisaged: when the order and the civility of Europe are overridden by a primitiveness, similar to that of the countries of origin of those migrants,
It is not going to be an easy task to balance all those factors …, this is indeed a tough challenge,
But let’s not forget that Europeans and Americans have been invading other countries for centuries, for a variety of purposes,
It was very shortsighted of the European and American leaderships to assume that they were now the superior nations which will rule the world forever unchallenged,
And it can be argued that the state of underdevelopment in those countries, which has persisted to the present: is partly to blame on Western nations: which supported despotic regimes and treated the colonised nations unjustly and inhumanely …
But all this is past now, and non-Western nations’ destinies are in the hands of their people and leaderships, if they can live up to this responsibility …
If they can overcome their political and economic problems, migration to Western countries will no more be their everyone’s ambition,
Climate is contributing to the crises, by extreme weather conditions …: as if it’s saying to the world: this is a problem you all have to face, regardless of your nationalities …!
Indeed, the world is an interdependent place, no one and no nation can make decisions concerning their own future: without giving equal consideration to the future of other nations
Anyone with basic knowledge of the history of Western thought, politics and economics, listening to today’s self-proclaimed guardians and defenders of Western nations and civilisation: can immediately come to the conclusion that those have not a clue what makes up Western Civilisation, and why its success in the last centuries …
Western civilisation is not what it is because of the colour of its people, their religion or their racial heritage,
One can argue that: OK, but the values of freedom, equality and secularism … were born in the countries of Europe: which are white and Christian,
The arguments in favour and against such a statement can never settle on any conclusion, and leaning towards one or another is totally an individual choice, driven mainly by emotions rather than reason.
The new trends of isolationism, nationalism and economic elitism, however, are all the illnesses of undeveloped cultures, which also used to be those of feudal medieval Europe,
I can’t see how overriding all the achievements of the Age of Enlightenment can be a protectionist’s strategy: except as a barbarity confronting another barbarity,
There are a lot of challenges facing the values which make up Western civilisation,
A reversion to rotten old mentalities is not a clever choice by any measure to face up to those challenges, and indeed an escapism, driven by lack of creativity and intelligence,
So here we are, the birthplace of the values of freedom, equality and secularism: should turn back to the primitive political and economic systems: in order for it to defend itself and stay alive!
Hence, once again, religion and skin colour aren’t always associated with creativity and intelligence,
Western countries’ major fault in the past has been their unpreparedness to exercise their values of freedom, equality and secularism … outside their borders …
Their alliances and military campaigns were driven by old nationalistic expansionist bigoted values rather than those of the Age of Enlightenment, which those countries have upheld within their borders,
Any country now, regardless of its history, religion or the lack of it, skin colour or the multiplicity of it: that can view the other nations of the world as its co-world citizens, having the same rights as it has, and owed the same international respect that it has …: should indeed be rated as the most intelligent nation in the world
“No one is above the law” (regarding Julian Assange’s case) indeed Ms. May, even the British and US governments, and their forces in action abroad, during their self-appointed missions, and everyone in the world is entitled to know what’s happening in the world,
What makes “the law” law is the trust that the people have in its fairness,
But when the word “law” is used to dress unfairness … it has turned to a force of control,
And the masses’ tolerance or intolerance to any kind of control: cannot always be had under the control of governments,
Western countries are losing the credibility that they’ve enjoyed in the recent past: because they are resorting to the practices that they’ve set out to fight and eliminate …
Perhaps the result of the investigations into Russian interference in the last US elections and the US’s president’s collusion with Russia: can be taken as a sign that justice can still work,
The US’s president now owes justice: in that if he decides not to acknowledge it: whatever has been built will have to collapse, and he will find himself a victim of another smear campaign and a new wave of fake news,
And so does the British government, if it decides not to acknowledge it: its image in the World and particularly in Europe as a role model is fading as things are, and the unpredictable short and long term repercussions of Brexit or the cancellation of it: all hinge on the integrity of its justice systems and the officers who oversee its enforcement and application,
Governance is all about the representation and the carrying out of justice, and in different matters, regarded unrelated in a court of justice for legal reasons, justice as a human value doesn’t draw such lines, and in people’s minds everything is somehow related to everything else,
This is how the layman sees it
After every election, there are winners who go totally unknown and unnoticed,
They celebrate their win, they count their gains and pop the champagne privately,
They are the marketing and advertising gurus who designed the advertising campaigns of the major parties,
Millions of dollars, which helped sway opinions … one way or another …:
Make one wonder: is the winning party the choice of the people or the buying power of money …?
And one can argue that if it was left to the candidates to do the speaking on the various platforms of the media, without the hype of commercial style advertising: the results of the election would’ve probably stayed the same,
Two recent scandals, involving political parties in Australia and in Austria tell a different story,
Hidden cameras have revealed that election campaigns are being taken to a commercial level,
Political parties can estimate how many votes a million dollars can buy, and they are hence very hungry for donations …
Not surprisingly, the criticism that the scandals have evoked was directed mainly at the choice of the donor, who happens to be a foreign entity, considered dodgy or enemy by mainstream politics in those countries …
The issue of “buying” votes by advertising, however …: has not been raised as an issue by the critics, because they are all in it …
If this is the sort of democracy that we want, we should start taking lessons from the countries where the money is paid directly to the voters …
This is more cost effective,
And ordinary people benefit from it …
And it guarantees a 99.99% win, unrivalled
Between the Chinese authorities' paranoia, and the US’s lust for trouble …:
The Chinese people in Hong Kong as well as in the Mainland are squeezed,
The layman can’t imagine that there are no saintly lovers of the democracy which equates to an embossment of the US over Chinese politics, trade and industry: working diligently in lecture halls at Hong Kong universities to spread their dialectic American,
And neither can the layman see that the Communist Party is ready to grow out of the Bolshevik fear of freedom passed down from the Tsarian Russia era or Maoian China …
The layman’s thoughts and well wishes go to all the people of China, no matter how much they dislike their communist government or loathe and despise the US’s,
Truly, the people should never be used as a theatre for staging ideological wars …
Isn’t scary as it is: the volatile human spirit?
The phenomenon of Greta Thunberg cannot go unnoticed by the layman,
Like it can’t, by the experts in human survival at both opposing ends of the Climate Change debate,
The layman likes those names of mental and psychological disorders that … scientists constantly conjure …
The outstanding oratorical capabilities, precise and concise sentences, well planned sequence of argumentation, a perfect breathing technique upon delivery …, not to mention the right amount of an outpour of emotion: by a lovable child’s face:
Are a cocktail to reckon with,
If anyone has been wishing to know how legendary personalities in the past inspired and mobilised tens of thousands, or entire nations … for good, and sometimes not so good causes …: enjoy the live show,
But it seems that the inclination to call an uncommon type of personality: a mental or psychological disorder: depends on our ideological, political and economic convictions …
Will a genius psychologist in the future, perhaps with Asperger’s disorder: be able to see this: and call psychology’s selective keenness for observing, identifying and naming disorders: the biggest disorder?
For, the layman wonders why, for example, no one has tried to look at “greed” from a clinical perspective,
Perhaps such a research will immediately earn the researcher a diagnosis of envy of richer colleagues …, and an unfulfilled career ambition, and however logical and thorough such a research might be: it will be regarded by the wealthier and higher achieving academics as the work of someone suffering from some deprivation …
Greed is normal …
It is the motive behind progress and high achievements,
It should never be classified as a mental or psychological disorder …
Evolution loves it,
Religions turn a blind eye to it, and bless it, albeit not so openly,
But who makes the real decisions: when evolution is the driver and controller?
You never know, perhaps evolution, that supposed guy who is much smarter than god … might one day decide to exterminate the greedy: like it exterminates species which cannot find enough food and water for their overgrowing population, with hunting or grazing skills that are too impactful for their environment to sustain,
You’ll see psychologists then filling up bookstore shelves with new studies about this nasty mental disorder: which is constantly generating a destructive power …
The layman likes the deluge of the loving, successful and wealthy grownups’ advice to Greta recently, after her famous speech a few days ago …
They all have enjoyed the blessings of fossil fuels, which took them to school and university, generated their parent’s income and propped up their consumption power …
And as you’d imagine, some of them backed up their advice and critique by god’s teaching and power,
You see, god is aware of all this, he knows everything,
We, the humans, just have to trust the institute which knows him and his son or prophet …
If we acknowledge these guys: he’ll be happy with us, and he never runs out of new tricks in his bag,
Perhaps all the climate change is for those believers’ benefit,
As for the complete believers in Climate Change,
To those, don’t you dare mention Asperger’s when you report or comment on Greta’s campaign,
Perhaps one of postmodernism’s blessings is the demolition of the borders of “normal” to the human personality, to the point that: it is “whatever-ism” to mention alternative states of mind and personality, except for the purpose of praising them and defending their right of alternativeness …
The layman can’t see that the diametrical views on this subject are lending service to ordinary people or the environment,
The debate is only the battlefield for the big business: of oil, gas and coal versus the new energy generation technologies …
And of course, it is a subject for ongoing debate between different political parties,
If evolution is in the perspective: it is saying that the types of personalities which drive change cannot fit in the confinements of “normal” at the time,
The normal of our time is the hardworking consumer of goods, services and political rhetoric,
This one happens to include both ends of the Climate Change debate
The reopening of a battle front on the borders of Syria and Turkey couldn’t have come at a better time, for both presidents of Turkey and the US,
They both have major domestic issues to deal with,
Turkey’s president wishes to be seen as the hero who will send millions of Syrian refugees back to Syria, and weaken the Kurdish rebellion in parts of his country,
And the US’s, with a sufficient number of domestic problems to drive the entire of his team crazy, he’s hoping to move the spotlight away from those problems, in the hope that despite the world condemnation of his move, he will score some political and economic gain.
But who will pay the human price for their both campaign?
The Kurdish people are an easy target …
No country supports their cause,
The so-called international community doesn’t want to upset the big countries, by saying: hey, this people exists, and is entitled to self-rule …
The forums and the media which will never mention the “K” word are the Arabic ones,
Some Arab leaders have openly said about them: they don’t exist,
A statement which is an eerie echo to what the leaders of the Zionist movement in the early days of the establishment of the state of Israel said, when asked: what will you do with the Palestinians?
If we continue on with this parallelism, we easily come to the conclusion that the scale of the mobilisation of population, and the numbers of civilian casualties suffered by the Kurds … make the toll on the Palestinian people fade by comparison,
This is not to say that a smaller scale crime is pardonable,
But this speaks volumes about the Arab and Islamic leaderships, which seize every opportunity to tell the world that their rights have been violated, and that hence they can’t control their people from resorting to terrorism …!
If you want to learn about non-Arab Muslims’ plights in the world: don’t ask the Muslim Arabs,
In the past, when in East Europe Muslims were being forced out of their homes, and were being killed unarmed: it wasn’t the Arabs who volunteered to defend them, or at least to speak out for them,
But don’t you worry, Arabic media is buzzing with conspiracy theories about everything,
The competition between the various political and religious camps in the Arab and wider Islamic world, about who can come up with the most popular conspiracy theory: has redefined patriotism …
A patriot is someone who dedicates a lot of their time and energy, to listening to, contriving or spreading conspiracy theories …, and then staunchly believing them,
Such patriotism is the best excuse for the morbid reality of their infighting, and the pitch-dark outlook of their future, and the total collapse of their religious and secular ideologies and the institutes which represent them …
In the Arab mind, if Kurds, or any non-Arab group of people - and I don’t say a minority, because the total population of the Kurds between Turkey, Iraq and Syrian is over 25 million - : raise the issue of their independence: it is a betrayal,
It is a betrayal to Islam and pan-Arabism,
Their hope of an Arab nation, from the Persian Gulf to the Atlantic, is still very much alive in their psyches,
If they want to follow the footsteps of their ancestors who spread the Arab Empire: this one accommodated all Ahlu -Zzhummah (an Arabic expression which points to non-Muslim non-Arabs, implying the responsibility of the guardianship of Muslims over them),
Many khalifs and their local walis didn’t force non-Muslim non-Arabs to adopt Islam or to forsake their languages and cultures …
The existence of many such groups of large numbers in the Levant and Iraq, and in Turkey prior of Mustafa Kemal is a testimony of such a loose policy …
But these were the dark ages, who wants to look back at them for inspiration anyway,
I guess the Kurds’ issue highlights a world-wide problem, wherever minorities feel they have been unfairly treated for centuries, or forced to abandon their cultures and languages,
The best peace offering that the incumbent states can give them is the recognition of their cultural and historical identity …, and indeed autonomy and independence, if demanded,
They all exist …
Such recognition is the only way to move forward to a future where past wrongs can be forgotten,
As such, cooperation between the two parties can be real, productive and beneficial for both,
And friendship will flourish undriven by coercion,
Friendship and prosperity for both parties in every such conflict will never be bought by bloodshed and oppression
This Page has not judged anyone, and neither will it waver by people’s judgement of it …
If anyone have an argument to put forward, contradicting it or attempting to correct it: I’ve consistently said that critique is welcome and will be appropriately responded to,
And in the past, I was involved in a number of debates on other Pages, my contributions in which I’ve posted herein, and are still available for the readers …
If the readers have a criticism of the character of the author(s) to make, that’s for their own satisfaction,
No response will be given, even if the criticism is based on false information,
And if it is partially or totally correct, it will be listened to, but the judgement is not taken, nor does it constitute judgement,
The Creator judges us all, no one is above His Judgement,
But indeed, everyone is far above people’s judgement of them.
The issues that this Page raises are philosophic and are not an attack on any person,
It is everyone’s right to critique ideas and philosophies, and indeed religions’ interpretations of their Books, however,
Provided the state of anarchy that the Middle East is in, and indeed the world, muteness will not benefit anyone, except them who have contributed to this anarchy …
No forum has regarded the Qur’an its true regard, and defended it its due defence: more than this one …
At the time when the Qur’an is being accused false accusations: based on what comes out of the mouths, and what the pens write: of those very ones who claim knowledge and ownership of it …
So now they know that there is an esoteric layer to it? and that there is a purpose that they know?
Their state of disarray and total moral and spiritual collapse: speaks volumes about the purpose that they would like to believe that they know …
This Page will continue to do what it has to do, until its time is over …
And this is not any person’s decision or discretion
As the world teeters on the brink of an economic meltdown, and as governments and their central banks in advanced economies apply their every conventional rescue measure … all to no avail:
The layman finds that China keeps growing, although cautiously …
Of course, one might argue that China is still developing … and development does imply growth …
People can argue forever about the drivers of China’s growth, and the theories transpiring from such arguments can be diverse and diametrically contradicting one another …
The “end of history”, however, doesn’t seem to have happened, except in the view of those who subscribe to such a view …
The evidence is paramount, that traditional capitalism, or whatever other name economists have given it: doesn’t work anymore …
The fierce believers in it aren’t willing to admit it, and their ideological stubbornness will only drive their economies to even more rugged territories …
That’s not to mention the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor, and the social upheaval and political instability that this has been triggering off worldwide…
Ironically, these are the ailments that traditional capitalism is supposed to be an immunisation against …!
Military and trade wars will only delay a total meltdown, but will not stop it completely from happening …: especially if the major beneficiaries of those wars are the corporations, which illicitly dictate those wars and demand them from their governments …
A hand-off to governments will have to happen, to reign in the greed and the aggressiveness of corporations, which see their global power above local or international law, and above governments
I can’t see why Buddhist institutes have to hold a ceremony or whatever else, to recognise or whatever else the status or the title of a high lama,
The post that mentioned that has been taken off, but I have a feeling the ceremony will go on,
Is this meant to be secret, and was accidentally posted?
The ceremony that is being held many decades after a high lama had his title: makes one cast doubt on the Buddhist institutes' system of identifying buddhas or high lamas of any order …
For, if a high lama has demonstrated knowledge …, a ceremony will not add or diminish it,
If we argue that this is for the sake of inspiring the people: the danger lies in that the ceremony can be used on occasions where it is not genuinely warranted …
It is worrying when Buddhist institutes’ practices verge on ritualism, bringing them closer to institutionalised religions, such as Abrahamic religions, whereby the rituals are meant to gratify some supernatural authority, for it to return the favour …
I see that this is a fundamental cause of fundamentalism, rampant in all the religions of our time:
Rituals, prayers, invocations … which were delivered by messengers thousands of years ago … in the language of the time, to resonate in the minds of the people of the time: have lost their spirit, due to cultural, linguistic … and of course temporal change …
The words have thus lost their spirit, and the authorities which claim ownership of them and administer them on the terms and conditions that they see fit: have no choice but to stick to the literality of them: for the heavenly authority they envisage to be happy with them …!
The literality has no spirit, but indeed has a dark one:
In that it is a physical reduction: like all the natural world, like samsara, like everything that is not dharma,
High lamas should be able to deliver the same teaching, invocations and prayers … in their present time,
They, thus, do not recite what they have cleverly memorised …
Today’s mind distractions take forms which didn’t exist in the past: the words which pointed to them then: can point to them now: in the words of today, which exist now …
I hope this makes sense …
As a total outsider, the layman sees Brexit as a total distraction from the real issues that are facing the British people …
While we all hope that the wastage of time and resources on toing and froing about how and when to exit the European Union, if at all: ends soon:
We also wish that something positive will happen, rather than just the same same old politics,
But neither the Brexit enthusiasts nor the lovers of Europe are going to notice any significant difference in their daily lives and wallets,
And the laidback people who foresaw that from the beginning, I mean the ones who never felt threatened by the Polish invasion of England …: are going to say: we told you …
Brexit has been a distraction from the issues of corporate greed, low wages and corruption that is creeping into the once integrous political system …
Jeremy Corbyn’s agenda of renationalisation of utilities and services, raising corporate tax, spending on infra structure and schools, limiting or abolishing corporate donations to political parties …: have all been painted as a move towards socialism by the loud political commentators: who are on the payroll of big business and corporations …
It doesn’t seem that the demonstrations that have been raging in the streets of Paris and Barcelona ring an alarm bell in other developed economies …
Perhaps France led the revolution in the past, and will lead it once again
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