- On Sunday, during the World Cup final, a Somali based terrorist organization called the Shabab detonated several bombs in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, killing at least 70 people.
- In Northern Ireland, the annual July 12 Orange Day march was marred by extensive rioting between Catholics and Protestants that saw 80 police personnel hurt, cars torched and widespread vandalism.
- The Prime Minister of Pakistan, in a speech before a rally organized by outlawed anti-India militant groups, has vowed to fight India for control of the disputed areas of Kashmir; all this just days before the highest level visit from India since militants linked to Pakistan killed 166 people in Mumbai in 2008.
- An aid ship organized by a Libyan charity is trying to reach Gaza while violating a naval blockade set up by Israel. The IDF (Israeli Defence Force) is preparing for a forceful interception of the ship.
Taking all of this into account, you now see where the title of this article came from. It just goes on and on and on and on. John Lennon sang, "Give Peace A Chance" however we are collectively so far from that ever happening, it will not be surprising if we don't just end up blowing ourselves up. After all, even Castro making a rare appearance after giving up power to his brother, gave some dire warnings about a possible nuclear conflict between the U.S. and Iran. Oh boy, let's go back to the good old days of the 50's when school children were taught to respond to the warning sirens by hiding under their classroom desks.
A poster has been floating around years; I first saw it back in the 60's, at the height of the Cold War and have always found it to be a hilarious look at the absurdity of a nuclear war.
|
Where is the world going? According to stats from the U.S. Census Bureau, worldwide, over 56 million people will die in 2010 or 107 per minute or over 6,400 per hour. However, the service also states that over 130 million people will be born so that will give us an increase in 2010 of over 76 million people. Gee, with all those extra people, I suppose we could afford to lose a few, eh?
Enough digressions, let's get back to hatin' and killin'!
I must be virginal when it comes to hate or maybe I am just easily flabbergasted but I continue to be amazed at the level of anger which exists in the world. All John was saying was give peace a chance but did we listen? Did we try?
In a previous article, I spoke of a school where various people seem to be able to get along.
A friend is the principal of a public school in an area where the students come from all over the world, from all sorts of backgrounds. The school board publishes a school calendar on which is noted every religious holiday and celebration for everybody: Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddha, Bahá'í, etc. and all students are always made aware of everybody else's observances. In fact, ofttimes the entire school celebrates various festivals so that everybody is observing Christmas, Rosh Hashanah, Diwali or Ramadan.
I remember seeing not only the students but the teaching staff all sporting Indian henna art for Diwali. It was a wonderful example of multiculturalism. Leave it up to children who come to the table with a clean slate to show the rest of us how getting along is possible.
Salman Hossain
This Muslim extremist, a home grown dyed in the wool Canadian has left Canada out of fear of arrest for promoting hatred running a web site to advocate his radical ideas. From the National Post:
Over the past three years, Salman Hossain has openly called for terrorist attacks in Canada, cheered the killing of Canadian troops in Afghanistan and urged fellow Muslims to "exterminate" Canada's Jewish population.
The message on his web site is one of anger, hate and a call to violence. He offers no rational arguments, no solutions, no viable alternatives to what he perceives as wrong; he merely suggests that killing and destruction are somehow better than what we have. This man exhibits such a focused, vitriolic rage; one can't help wondering about its antecedents and whether his sanity is in question. I predict he is going to have a sad life. Such rage will never be satisfied; such hate will never be quenched.
Baruch Goldstein
A comment to my article on Mr. Hossain read, "Gee-sus H. K. Ryest? That comes across as about as 'tolerant' as Baruch Goldstein". I had forgotten the name but once I looked him up, I remembered his 15 minutes.
Baruch was an American-born orthodox Jewish Israeli physician who in 1994 perpetrated the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, killing 29 Muslims and wounding more than 125. He was a member of the Jewish Defence League, a militant organization founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane, an ultra-nationalist. The FBI has stated that "The Jewish Defence League has been deemed a right-wing terrorist group".
By the way, to the person writing the comment that I am "about as tolerant as Baruch Goldstein":
- First of all, I do not advocate such acts. I think I'm pretty tolerant.
- Secondly, did you look at Hossain's web site? He IS advocating such acts.
I'm right and you're wrong. I'm far right and you're dead wrong.
I look at the above 2 names with a great deal of sadness: such anger, such hate with only one way out, to kill. I think of the public school mentioned above where children from a variety of ethnic backgrounds live together in harmony. The contrast between these ideas is remarkable.
The Camp David Accords, signed in 1978 by Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin seemed like an unbelievable breakthrough in the Middle East. Sadat was assassinated in 1981 by right-wing elements in Egypt.
I was both stunned and pleased at the Oslo Accords being signed by Israel and the PLO in 1993 in the presence of PLO chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. I thought these would be another breakthrough. Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing Israeli radical.
Where is the world going? Instead of fighting, we should be working together to fight global warming, capping the oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, bringing the basics of life to the poverty stricken areas of the planet. The world's military spending stands at over $1.5 trillion per year while the U.S. alone accounting for 46% of the total. This means that $225 per person is being spent for military purposes for every man, woman and child on earth and right now the global population stands at over 6 billion.
It may be corny; it may be a Utopian ideal but John did have a vision:
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...
References
U.S. Census Bureau: world statistics
http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/pcwe
Salman Hossain: Spit Take: Here? In Canada? - July 8, 2010
http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/2010/07/spit-take-salman-hossain.html
Wikipeda: Baruch Goldstein
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baruch_Goldstein
World Military Spending
http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending
2010-07-14
Twitter
Facebook
email blog updates to yourself
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment