Tuesday, December 30, 2008

UNARMED HUMANITARIAN VESSEL ATTACKED IN INTERNATIONAL WATERS

The SS Dignity arrived in the port city of Tyre yesterday under Lebanese naval escort after being attacked and badly damaged in international waters by Israeli warships. The incident occurred as the Dignity was attempting to bring journalists, peace activists, aid workers, human rights observers, and three tons of desperately needed medical supplies to the besieged Gaza Strip where relentless air strikes have inundated strained local hospitals with thousands of casualties. On board where the nationals of eleven countries including citizens of the U.S, the U.K, Greece, Australia, Germany, Ireland, and a member of the Cypriot of Parliament. According to former U.S congresswoman and Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney, who was on the ship at the time of the attack, around half a dozen warships surrounded the Dignity and declared it was participating in terrorist activities before opening fire with machine guns and ramming the vessel three times.

Although no one was injured in the attack and the crew evaded attempts to force their return to Cyprus the Dignity was badly damaged. The encounter left a gaping hole in the side of the ship that began drawing water. Under these circumstances the crew decided they would be unable to reach Gaza and sailed for Gaza. In Beirut President Michel Suleiman dispatched an escort of Lebanese warships to accompany the crippled vessel to port where it was greeted by cheering crowds. However, the three doctors and tons of medical supplies that could have saved dozens of lives are from Gaza's overwhelmed hospitals where the wounded are stacked in the streets and doctors are forced to make the difficult choices of which patients to let die.

Already Lebanon has promised a forensic investigation and the Cypriot embassy has lodged an official complaint over the incident, but there must be more accountability. The eleven nations whose citizens' lives were recklessly and deliberately endangered are entitled to an official explanation. The U.N has an obligation to investigate and if necessary condemn the behavior of the Israeli navy. A willful attack on a private vessel carrying out a humanitarian mission in international waters is a clear violation of international law which states that the sea can only be used for peaceful purposes. The most bereaved party though is not nations or international bodies, but humanity. This cowardly assault is a reminder that many still cling to a tribalistic ideology that subordinates human suffering to national pride. The belief system showcased by the attack on the Dignity is a threat to people everywhere and it must be resisted by people everywhere.

During apartheid South Africa the international community resisted this ideology with a campaign of boycotts, sanctions, and divestment. A similar campaign needs to be launched in response to the deplorable situation in Palestine. The attack yesterday and the bombing of Gaza are only two high profile incidents in a brutal pattern of racism and human rights violations. A nation that has so horrifically and systematically abused basic human rights, a nation that has institutionalized and militarized racism, a nation that not only kills scores of civilians in a bombing campaign, but then also prevents medical aid from reaching the survivors- those in that nation who enable those policies, either through their actions or their silent inaction, must be deprived of the pleasure of any contact with the civilized world.

This is not a campaign of revenge and it is not a campaign against Israel, like in South Africa many of the heroes of the anti-apartheid movement are Israeli. The sole objective of a campaign of boycott, sanction, and divestment is to undermine the deplorable policies and to isolate the regime that implements them. When the situation in Palestine is normalised relations will also be normalised. However, until then westerners cannot forget the millions of suffering human beings who are, in Palestine, suffering with the support of their governments and the complicity of their silence. From western China to the Western Sahara, from East Jerusalem to East Timor human suffering anywhere is a threat to humanity everywhere.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

SLAUGHTER IN GAZA

Israel thought it was clever in launching a massive preemptive strike against Gaza. The military said it was aimed at stopping terrorism. Already two hundred and twenty lives have been snuffed out. Israel mourns the loss of the thirty some Israelis who have perished in conflict this year, and there deaths are tragic, but seven times that many Palestinians have been murdered in a single day. Israel is not interested in fighting terrorism. This was an act of terrorism. It was a cowardly onslaught that made no distinction between civilian and soldier. It began just as children were returning from school. Israel says it was meant to deter rocket attacks, but they cannot be so naive as to not realize that a hundred rockets will be launched out of Gaza for every missile that is launched into Gaza. An Israeli civilian has already been killed in retaliatory attacks. Hamas has been made more popular by this attack than it ever has been before. This was not difficult to foresee. It is not difficult to see that there will be more retaliatory attacks. Perhaps it is because they foresaw this response the Israelis launched this brutal massacre. Perhaps they are only trying to provoke a response that will give them a pretext for further aggression.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

IQRIT REMEMBERED


Just south of the Lebanese/Israeli border is the remnants of an ancient Christian villages described by the Israeli government as an archaeological ruin. Iqrit was founded by Canaanites before construction of the nearby Roman ruins had even began, and unlike the Roman ruins it has had a sizable population within living memory.

In October of 1948 the town's 450 residents peacefully capitulated to the Zionist army with the promise and the hope that they would be allowed to remain on the land they had inhabited for thousands of years. In exchange for pledging loyalty to the Zionist state and surrendering their weapons they were promised peaceful coexistence within the nascent Israeli state. However, six days after surrendering the villagers were forcefully relocated twelve miles south to the town of Rama. On Christmas eve, 1951 the entire town, with the exception of the church and cemetery, were demolished by Israel.

Every month the residents of Iqrit and their descendants hold Mass at the church and dream of the day when they will be able to return. Despite favorable rulings in Israeli courts and the support of Israeli and international groups they still wait.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

"What has been lost in all of the discussion about the shoe throwing incident in Iraq is the right of the man to throw his shoes at a visiting head of state."


No, this is not another satirical post, it is a verbatim excerpt from a right wing blog. As amusing as watching Bush dodge the shoes of an Iraqi journalist was watching right wingers dodge the questions raised by such an incident is even more entertaining. Muntadhar al-Zaidi's case has revealed the deep unpopularity of the U.S "democratization" of Iraq, the discrepancy between the positions of the Iraqi government and the views of its people, and the flaws in that nation's justice system. After Zaidi hurled his shoes at Bush and called the President a dog, in retaliation for the Iraqis killed in the President's war, he was hailed on the street as a hero by Iraqis of all sects. In prison he was tortured and made to write a phony apology letter to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki. Does this sound like a democratic government that respects human rights?

A BAILOUT FOR THE REST OF US

America is on the verge of a cataclysmic economic disaster. In the last few days trillions of dollars have been wiped out in the stock market, credit markets have tightened, and the average American has sunk deeper into debt. Congress is reluctant to spend $700 billion to stabilize the markets and economists fear that even such a massive infusion of cash will not solve the underlying economic issues. The experts scrounging over the details of the bailout package are gifted economists, but they have failed to grasp a basic aspect of the problem. The trillions of dollars lost in the stock market, the $700 billion the government wants to spend to fix the problem, and the trillions of dollars in debt that started this problem exist only on paper. Nothing tangible has been lost.

A paper problem requires a paper solution. It is time for America to employ a strategy which successfully financed the Revolutionary and the Civil wars. With the $700 billion Congress plans to spend to bailout the Wall Street speculators that caused this problem they should bail out the common people. For a cost of $1 the government can print $2,400. For an investment of a mere $700 billion in printing presses and paper, the Treasury could send each American a check for $6,700,000. This is an instant solution to our nation’s financial difficulties. Thousands of unemployed printers will find work, stock prices and home values will skyrocket as the average American becomes a member of the upper class, the liquidity crisis will end as the markets burst with cash, the bad loans that led to the present situation will be paid off, and so will our national debt.

There will be some who say that this will cause inflation, but the word inflation is only a dysphemism for an investment opportunity. History makes clear that citizens prosper with this plan. When this system was experimented with on a smaller scale in America a wagon full of supplies was worth a wagon full of money. In pre-Nazi Germany, there are famous images of everyday Germans made so affluent by this plan that they burned money to heat their homes. Today, under the guidance of President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, the implementation of a similar economic policy has created the highest per-capita number of billionaires anywhere in the world. The most successful implementation of this policy, though, came in Hungary in 1946. Economist Thomas Pittenger reports that wages rose by over four quintillion percent during a particularly prosperous month in Hungary. Even common factory workers were paid four times a day with wheelbarrows full of money and while a return that impressive might not materialize in the U.S the example set by Hungary in the wake of World War II serves as a powerful testament to the benefits of this plan.
Congress does not need to worry about where to find the predicted $700 billion it will take to repair the economy. That is a paltry sum in an economy that could and should be booming with an influx of quadrillions of dollars. Unlike the version proposed in Congress this bailout plan will cost nothing, benefit the common people, and address the root cause of the economic problem: a lack of liquidity.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

ZIMBABWE: A MORE EFFECTIVE COURSE


It should be obvious by now that despite all of the rumblings the U.S government is not really that concerned about human rights in Zimbabwe. For all of the talk about the humanitarian situation in Africa's two anti-western dictatorships, Zimbabwe and Sudan, there is never a peep over the equally abysmal records of the continent's dozens of pro-western tyrants. Robert Mugabe is one of the world's worst tyrants he has transformed, in the words of one angry Zimbabwean, the bread basket of Africa into a basket case. He has plundered the nation's resources on a massive scale at a time when his people are fleeing the country en masse and suffering from starvation, record inflation, and disease.

How has such a man stayed in power for nearly thirty years? Mugabe began his political life as the democratically elected leader of the freedom struggle against white minority rule and British colonialism. He was a hero to the masses disgusted with western imperialism and racism. As his popular support declined he resorted to a combination of terror, force, and pay offs to purchase the loyalty of corrupt cronies. To stay in power though he still requires a degree of popular support. He achieves that by pandering to ultra-nationalism. He flaunts his credentials as a hero of the revolution, blames all of the country's problems on western conspiracies, and portrays himself as the people's only defender against such aggression.

Africans know that for all of the talk about human rights the west is more interested in seeing a less hostile regime take power than they are in seeing an end to the abuses of ZANU-PF. They look to Ethiopia, Rwanda, Egypt, and Equatorial Guinea and see brutal regimes that stay in power with American and British support. On his merits as a leader Mugabe will only command the support of those he can buy or intimidate, but by portraying western pressure on his regime as a conflict between east and west he gains the support of that segment of the population that will flock around a leader who waves a flag and yells "us. vs. them". To be fair most Zimbabweans are not fooled by Mugabe's conspiracy theories and chauvinistic rhetoric, but enough are to help keep him in power.

Western confrontation with Zimbabwe has been a blessing for Mugabe. It has helped him partially legitimize his regime and perpetuate his rule. Westerners are undermining themselves by publicly confronting Zimbabwe. All of their talk has bolstered Mugabe's credibility at home without improving the situation on the ground. Quiet diplomacy is a better route for the west to play. The U.S can encourage other African leaders to publicly work against Mugabe, as they have been in increasing numbers, while pursuing a more passive public face. Leave public criticism to human rights groups and African leaders whose comments cannot be construed by Mugabe as an attack on Africa by the west.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

BREAKING THE SIEGE





Gaza's 1.5 million residents have been living under an Israeli siege for over a year now in what can only be described as a grave crime against humanity. Millions of people are starving in darkness for no reason other than Israeli racism and hatred. Medical patients are dying in droves because the Israeli authorities have refused to allow lifesaving medicine in or patients out. They are a security risk we are told, that is why they must die from treatable diseases. People like three year old leukemia patient Isama Azlouri are dying a slow and painful death because they are a threat to Israel's security. The economy is in shambles, families are separated, hospitals cannot provide needed care, every facet of normal existence is gone. The only thought of 1.5 million Gazans is resistance. For them survival is resistance.

It is clear that sufficient humanitarian aid will not come to Gaza through Israel, which regularly refuses aid groups, human rights activists, international dignitaries such as Jimmy Carter, and foreign journalists entry into the coastal enclave. It is also clear that smuggling tunnels under the Egyptian border are neither safe nor practical for large scale shipments of aid and it is clear that the western governments are content to be complicit in this crime, it therefore falls upon ordinary citizens to fill the void left by their governments. It is time for human rights defenders, peace activists, aid groups, Arab governments, and all those who react with disgust to what is being done to Gaza's civilian population to join together and organize a Berlin Airlift style operation to relieve Gazans by sea.

On three occasions boats carrying Israelis, Palestinians, and internationals were able to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza. Two Arab ships were turned back. The aid carried by these vessels was largely symbolic, but even in the western media they garnered attention for the plight of Gazans. They also proved a valuable lesson: Israel might turn back Arab ships, but it is not willing to risk the international outrage that would come with firing on unarmed ships carrying western and Israeli activists bringing desperately needed aid to starving people.

These three small scale operations have demonstrated the viability of delivering humanitarian supplies to Gaza by sea, but they have not had a serious practical impact on the ground. For that to happen a large scale international operation will be needed. The Israeli government cannot be shamed into ending its siege. If it can listen apathetically to the pleas of a dying three year old girl than it will never be moved to change their policies by any sense of morality. That is not the goal of this operation. Israel relishes the suffering of the people of Gaza with a sadistic pleasure.

The Israeli government may be morally naive, but it is not politically naive. They know the consequences of harming western activists and journalists who would be on board the ships. They tried killing westerners in 2003 and it failed miserably. Westerners, of course, would not be the only activists participating. Israelis and Palestinians, acting out their dream for peace between the two groups, and motivated by their shared belief that human suffering does not carry a passport would join together to play a leading role. This operation would not appeal to any sense of humanity in the Israeli government. It would challenge that government to calculate what the suffering of the Gazans is worth to them. Journalists on the ships will witness for the world everything that happens. Israel will be forced to decide if stopping the ships is worth a major PR fiasco.

A campaign to relieve Gaza will not be an easy undertaking. There is no guarantee that Israel will not injure, arrest, or even kill activists, Israelis who participate will face arrest and prison terms upon returning home, Cyprus will be pressured to close its ports to the aid groups, and if the Cypriot government refuses Israel may try to sabotage the activists by planting weapons on the ships, or, as they did to the al-Awda, sinking them, and even if there is no interfere the financial cost will require an extensive fundraising campaign and the support of the world's major charities, logistically it demands organized coordination, and it requires the assemblage of hundreds and possibly thousands of international activists. It would be easier to abandon Gaza's 1.5 million residents, it would be easier to leave Gaza's ill to their fate in the Strip's inadequately supplied hospitals, it would be easier to do like the others and forget the plight of these forgotten people. But could we do that, could we consign the fate of yet another people to the unchallenged militarized racism of a government we would rather not confront?

Saturday, November 29, 2008

CONSERVATISM

Conservatism, when I hear the word I recoil. Images of fundamentalism, ethnocentrism, and dogmatism come to mind as I hear the word proudly trumpeted. Conservatism obsesses over ethnic and group identity. Everything is always us vs. them. Conservatives will never forget every little transgression against members of the group they associate with by members of another group. Their ideology always judges their group at its best and everyone else at their worst. In America it conflates the responsibility for 9/11 to all include Muslims and in the Middles East it conflates the responsibility for the Nackba to include all westerners. In every case they will be unable to see such events outside of an ethnocentric context.

Conservatives are fundamentalists. They feel threatened by the modern world and withdraw to an intellectually prehistoric existence. They retreat from everything new and unknown into a willfully ignorant mindset. They deny climate change, they cling to a narrow, and selective, interpretation of religion, they stage boycotts of stores who do not use "merry Christmas" in advertising, they listen to commentators and read books that tell them what they want to hear, and they remain absolute in the beliefs they want to hold. They have had to start their own version of Wikipedia because the factually based version was too threatening to their belief system. While liberals reformulate their beliefs to conform to reality, conservatives reformulate reality to conform to their beliefs. They believe what is comfortable to believe and are uninterested in anything that doesn't reinforce their preexisting viewpoints. In short they are almost impossible to reason with.

They are dogmatic. Their political beliefs are defined by words and symbols rather than ideas. Christian conservatives idolize Jesus, yet live a life antithetical to everything he taught about helping the poor, loving your enemies, and making peace. They exalt principles, character, freedom, and liberty, but they have only a vague idea of what these vague words mean. They are so attached to these words that they are more likely to be persuaded by a dictionary than by a logical argument. When Joe the Plumber was asked about his views on taxes, for example, he got defensive, called the interviewer names, and was unable to articulate any argument for his position other than "look up principles in the dictionary and you'll know what I mean."

The brand of conservatism preached by talk radio, right wing bloggers, and some religious figures is a morally bankrupt, intellectually deficient, and factually deprived outlook based more on circumstantial factors than any carefully thought out ideological beliefs, yet it is a dangerous political force that has been a major source of strife and hindrance of progress across the globe.

CHRISTMAS

A mob of stampeding bargain hunters trampled a Wal-Mart employee to death in a rush to be the first to purchase discounted merchandise most of them didn't need. The materialism that grips America, particularly around the holidays, is disgusting in light of the poverty that grips much of the rest of the world. It is ironic that America celebrates a holiday ostensibly dedicated to a man who led a humble life dedicated to serving the poor by spending money on things no one needs. Whenever I see a hummer with a Jesus bumper sticker or hear of people detailing their "Christmas shopping" I recall one of my favorite Bible stories, the one of Jesus telling a rich man that he must give his wealth to the poor before he could become a follower.

Friday, November 28, 2008

MUMBAI ATTACKS

It looks as if the tragedy in Mumbai is finally coming to an end. The world does not yet know who the attackers were or what they wanted, but it is clear that no grievance, not even the most legitimate ones justify the murder of over one-hundred and fifty civilians. Whatever cause the attackers sought to advance in the eyes of the world they have inevitably harmed, this is always the case with terrorism. Hundreds of civilians are dead, hundreds more are wounded, and millions are living in terror. The anger of a few can bring anguish to all of humanity.

In confronting man made disasters this is an important lesson to remember. It is important not to let anguish harden into rage, the same passion that drove the perpetrators of this atrocity. The victims are in anguish, that is understandable, we anguish with them, but we cannot allow more hatred to grow from that anguish. Many are channeling their anger at what happened towards the Pakistani nation and the Islamic faith. There is no basis for these allegations, they would not be justified if every attacker were a Pakistani Muslim, but they start, or perhaps continue a dangerous cycle. Enough people have already died senselessly. The bereaved must respond with restraint and avoid retaliatory actions. That would only create more needles suffering and continue the cycle that produced this attack. As a great Indian once said "an eye for an eye makes the world blind".

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

ENOUGH!

In the time it takes you to load this page and read the first sentence someone, probably a child, will have starved to death. They likely didn't know that in other parts of the world people would remark "aren't we lucky, there are a lot of starving people out there" in between bites of turkey. How could they believe, in their impoverished state, that garbage disposals take priority over them in the distribution of the world's uneaten food. Perhaps they were too young to know that things were different elsewhere, that they were born into the third world, but they died for no other reason.


The West has progressed since the Irish Potato Famine, when nearly a million people died, some eating grass on the side of the road, while Ireland exported four times its domestic food needs. The number of daily deaths from hunger has declined by 10,000 in the last ten years, but the problem has not been adequately addressed. As the industrialized world surges forward with research on potential cures for cancer, bio-fuels, and high tech computers two billion forgotten people languish in chronic hunger. The world produces enough food to feed itself, but the pursuit of bio-fuels, the overconsumption of food in developed nations, and the tons of food that are thrown out every day have kept the hungry starving. 30,000 people will starve to death today, but tomorrow, if we work together that number can be reduced to zero.

Monday, November 24, 2008

BRING THEM HOME




Most American have never heard of the Chagos people. Even among intellectual and leftist circles their case is virtually unknown. I had not heard their story until I stumbled across while doing research for an unrelated school project. The Chagossian were brought to Diego Garcia, the largest island of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, as slaves to work French Plantations in the 18th century. They developed into a distinct ethnic group with a unique language. Once freed from slavery the Chagossian worked as fishermen and coconut farmers in their tropical paradise. This way of life would continue until its tragic disruption in 1971.

In 1965 the archipelago was detached from the soon to be independent Mauritius to form the British Indian Ocean Territory. Under the Territory's Constitution the island's residents were not given citizenship and no provision was made for democratic government. Then in 1971 the British government agreed to host a U.S military insulation. The U.S was adamant that the Chagossian be expelled from their homeland. The British complied, deporting the entire population of the islands.

Today the Chagos people yearn to return home. Their great suffering is enough reason to support their return, but their plight is also a symbol. It represents to much of the world the desecration of nature by the lust of the powerful, it reinforces the perception of an evil American military empire, and it symbolizes the indifference of the powerful to the weak. Is this really how we want the rest of the world to view us?

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Kleiner Junge

I just heard this wonderful song for the first time and wanted to pass it along. My translation is at top and the original in German is underneath.

Small Boy
Udo Lindenberg

When he was a little boy

and he wouldn't want to eat

his mom said that many children where starving

He was shocked and ran to his piggy bank

With all of his money he asked his mother what they must do

But she answered that with his few pennies and the world's many wars she wasn't sure that he could do anything

The world has always been twisted

she said, so we must move on even if it makes us sad

but he thought that when he gre older he would be different

he cried all night

"what is with God"

and his mother answered

"He had the heavens to make and is far away"

"what about the Pope"

"He has a lot to think about, his birth control bans brings babies into the world that must immediately die"

"and what about the politicians"

"Many are total criminals, they lie , cheat, steal, and declare war.

They make people into murderers and babble their way to power"

The small boy would grow bigger

And his ego grew like a Palestinian refugee's ghetto

As big as a planet, but just as distant

He was different, he was big now, but his conscience had not shrunk

and if he became angry and screamed and wept in the office

They just laughed him out

insaneasylum, insaneasylum, insaneasylum

What is with God, with the Pope, the politicians, the terrorists?

What is with you?

Kleiner June
Udo Lindenberg
Als er ein kleiner Junge war

und mal nix essen wollte, sagte Ma

daß viele Kinder hungrig sind und sterben

er war so geschockt und dachte: so'n Wahnsinn

und rannte zu seinem Sparschwein hin

da war sein ganzer Reichtum drin

„Mutter, wir müssen was tun!"

„Mit deinen paar Groschen," sagte Ma

„kriegste diese Welt leider auch nicht klar

das ist hier nun mal so'n bekloppter Planet

wo die Menschheit schon immer total durchdreht

daran wirst du dich gewöhnen, damit muß man leben

auch wenn es manchmal traurig macht."

Doch er beschloß, wenn ich mal groß bin, werde ich das ändern

und heulte die ganze Nacht

„WAS IST MIT GOTT?" und Mutter sagt:

„Der hat den Himmel zugemacht, ist abgereist, ist ganz weit weg

und kümmert sich'n Dreck"

„UND WAS IST MIT DEM PAPST?" und Mutter sagt:

„Der hat schon viele auf dem Gewissen

durch sein Pillenverbot kommen Babies zur Welt

obwohl man weiß, daß sie gleich wieder sterben müssen"

„UND WAS IST MIT DEN POLITIKERN?"

„Viele von denen sind totale Verbrecher

sie lügen, betrügen und erklären den Krieg

machen Menschen zu Mördern und labern vom Sieg"



Kleine Jungs werden größer

und wenn's dann immer mehr um das Ego geht

ist ein palästinensisches Flüchtlingsghetto

bald so weit weg wie der fernste Planet

doch bei ihm war das anders - er wurde groß

doch sein Gewissen wurd' nicht kleiner

und wenn er mal ausflippte, schrie und weinte, im Büro, einfach so

lachten sie ihn aus

Psychiatrie - Irrenhaus Psychiatrie - Irrenhaus

Und was ist mit Gott? mit dem Papst, mit den Politikern, den Terroristen?

Und was ist mit dir?

THE TIME TO END SLAVERY IS NOW


Slavery is one of the oldest, most controversial, barbaric, and widespread human practices. America fought a war with itself to end slavery, William Wilberforce led a high profile campaign for abolition in the British Empire, and the institution is illegal in every country in the world. Yet slavery continues to thrive in every inhabited corner of the world. From the brothels of America to the fields of India 27 million humans toil in bondage.

It would be easy and comforting to pretend that this problem doesn't exist. There is no strategic reason to confront modern slavery, we have nothing to gain from fighting slavery, and some of us are even its indirect and unwitting beneficiaries. But so long as slavery and oppression persist anywhere freedom will be incomplete anywhere. For me, freedom means the ability to be myself. So long as that freedom comes by virtue of being a white, middle class American it will be incomplete. Slavery separates us from our fellow human beings and in so doing deprives us of a piece of our own humanity. In the words of an eleven year old Rachel Corrie "they are us and we could as easily be them". I've always wondered how people can joyfully remember their own national struggles for freedom while forgetting their millions of fellow humans who are not free.

Perhaps if they knew they would change. Perhaps if they knew that there are more people being held in slavery now than at any time in human history they would change. Perhaps if they knew that people are being bought and sold every day for as little as $35 they would change. Perhaps if they knew many cheap imports are produced in Asian sweatshops they would change. Perhaps if they knew the stories of families being torn apart they would change. Perhaps if they knew that a slave in Ghana could be rescued for the price of a new iPod they would change. Perhaps if they knew that an end is within sight if we join together they would change. Perhaps if we told them they would change.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

THE POLITICS OF STUPIDITY

My non-political friends are always surprised to hear it, but I can't stand election time. It is true, I am more involved, informed, and interested in what goes on in the political world than most other people, but my interest in politics is of an intellectual and humanistic nature. I am committed to understanding an issue before I make a decision and I am concerned before anything else with the humanitarian implications of that issue.

The politics of election time are the antithesis of the politics I am interested in. Election time is the fantasy of every bigot and pedant. It is a time when the affairs of government descend from partial to complete stupidity. It is a time when facts become irrelevant to convenient lies. It is a time when an understanding of complex issues is cast aside in favor of bumper sticker slogans and television ads. It is a time when compassion for fellow humans is a treasonous offense if they belong to a nation or religion on the wrong side of the U.S vs. Them divide. It is a time for the partisan fanatics to flock around their suddenly infallible candidate. It is a time for uninformed individuals to decide in a few days what the world's most compassionate and brilliant people struggle with for years. It is a time that I, along with most people I know, can't wait to be over.

Instead of focusing on actual issues politicians, pundits, and citizens are concerned about lapel pins, religion, teen pregnancies, war stories, and many other non-issues. Instead of trying to run a nation politicians are trying to run poll numbers. I don't have anything against having elections, with all its flaws this is still the most effective political system devised to date, I am begging everyone, though, to ignore the obfuscation in the media and think for yourself.