..is sit in awe at the horrific state of the world when I read the headlines for the days news.
Starting close and personal, last night at eight o’clock, a young teenage boy was stabbed at the bus stop in front of my work place. He died a few hours later. As I walked into work today, listening to music and bopping along, I didn’t even notice the flowers taped to the tree marking the spot where he was so brutality attacked. The man who did the stabbing apparently turned himself into the authorities right after his actions. There is no news as to whether he knew his victim or whether it was a random act of violence.
Thinking about this most recent attack so close to home, and thinking about the brutal string of killings that took place in the UK just recently, along with the brutal killings in China, and the brutal killings on Flotilla… leads me to the inevitable conclusion that this whole world is fucked. I don’t like to use swear words but really, what else sums it up?
I’ve just finished reading a few pages of comments from the link i posted just above for the taxi driver, and you know what disgusts me most? How the stories of the people involved in that have taken a back seat to pro-gun enthusiasts bickering about gun laws. I see the same old “gun’s don’t kill people, people kill people” nonsense. I think a better phrase is; Maybe Guns don’t kill people, but people with GUNS kill people. I get so annoyed when people point out that some murderers use axes or pencils. That’s true, but the one BIG difference is that axes and pencils have a primary purpose. Axes chop down wood, pencils write on paper. The primary purpose of a gun is to kill people or animals, and it performs that purpose really well.
You know what I’m in favor of? (Besides my number one choice of throwing all guns and weapons into a deep dark pit)
Replacing all bullets with tranquilizers.
Why hasn’t that been considered? With how many accidental deaths that happen in war, on civilians, in the line of fire and so on, knocking someone unconscious seems like a fantastic solution.
Ok, enough of that side track.
Back to the articles of the day!
Naomi Klein, one of Canada’s finest has written an article about the American student who had her eye shot out from an Israeli tear gas projectile.
This photograph, she says, of Emily Henochowicz’s bandaged face needs to be seen by the world.
Like many of us around the world, Henochowicz, a 21-year-old Cooper Union art student, joined protests on Monday against Israel’s outrageous attack on the humanitarian flotilla. But unfortunately, the protest Emily attended was in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and like so many protests in the West Bank, it was violently attacked by the IDF.
According to a report from the International Solidarity Movement, Emily was “hit in the face with a tear gas projectile fired directly at her by an Israeli soldier during the demonstration at Qalandiya checkpoint today.” Sören Johanssen, a Swedish activist standing beside Henochowicz, reported that, “They fired many canisters at us in rapid succession. One landed on either side of Emily, then the third one hit her in the face.”
Emily is a beautiful artist, who is clearly influence and feels strongly about social injustice. She’s an inspiration to all of us, who stand for light against the dark. Let’s hope she recovers quickly and returns home safe and sound.
Naomi ends by saying this:
She devoted her life to seeing, to witnessing. And for this she lost her left eye.
We owe it to Emily to look at her tragedy—both its physical and its metaphorical implications—as hard as we possibly can.
This is exactly what I mean, when I say that the least, the very least we can do, is bear witness to what is happening in the world. Take it into ourselves, and think about it. Look at how it makes you feel, and don’t be afraid to face the darkness.
This line of thinking leads perfectly into the next article I want to discuss.
Should you shut up about human rights abuses because they are happening far away, to people you don’t know, who have a different culture or colour or creed? There is now a growing movement across the world saying that, yes, empathy should be cauterised at national borders.
If anyone is still reading my blog by now, will you be surprised to learn that I disagree?
In the immortal tone of Cenk, “Of cooooooourse” they want to stop human rights groups from having an opinion across borders. World wide mobilization is the only way to achieve change for those suffering under an oppressive regime. When the government acting out the abuses censor their journalists with gag orders and lock up their progressive activists, who else will carry the mantle? Who else will hear the voices that are struggling past the silence? Groups that make it their business to know. The author cites examples of how governments are trying to end human rights groups work in Israel, Ethiopia and Honduras.
Half a world away, in Honduras, the same arguments are appearing, with the same motives. A year ago, President Manuel Zelaya was kidnapped and forced out of the country by a far-right military clique after making the mistake of mildly redistributing the elite’s wealth to the poor. Fake elections were then held, boycotted by more than half of the population. Now the members of the peaceful National Front of Popular Resistance are being mysteriously murdered across the country, along with the journalists who try to document these crimes.
For a long time I’ve wondered why the differences that divide us (skin color, religion etc), make such a difference to us when we all want the same things in life. Terence McKenna helped articulate it for me in his talks about how culture is not your friend. J. Krishnamurti gave it shape in my heart when he talks about the words that divide us and the fact that underneath it all, we are humans. We are the same. At the root of humanity, as David Korten has so eloquently described, we all have the same values, the same hopes, the same dreams.
The differences between cultures are less significant than what we share. No human being wants to be tortured. No human being wants to be starved. No human being wants to be imprisoned without trial or reason. Even in cultures where these acts are normalised by some, the victims still scream and beg for it to stop. In the moment the torture begins, or the cell door slams shut, the cultural difference disappears, and the basic human desire for dignity and safety is all that remains. It is universal. It is never the “culture” of a torture victim to want the torture to continue.
So as Johann Hari says….
So who are we to talk about Israel or Ethiopia or Honduras? We are humans, like them. Just as people there can – and should – oppose our Government’s crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, we should oppose their governments’ crimes against innocent people. It’s called solidarity. It’s one of the few things that can help the people of Gaza, or the women of Ethiopia, or the dissidents of Honduras now. Instead of sealing ourselves away behind cultural borders, we need more ships carrying hope to suffering strangers.
Now my question is why on earth isn’t this obvious to everyone!?
Moving to another story of The Freedom Flotilla, a man from my city of Victoria, Kevin Neish, recounts his experiences on the MV Mavi Marmara.
Neish said he was on the first deck near the stern of the vessel as the attack began and was about 15 metres from Israeli soldiers who were trying to board, using sound grenades and tear gas. He said the activists and aid workers forced them back.
He later found out that, at the same time, more commandos were rappelling from a helicopter onto the third deck near the bridge.
“When they repelled the folks down below, I understand the machine-guns on the helicopter started to shoot people on the deck,” said Neish.
“I was within 50 feet of the initial attack by the Israeli soldiers. I saw the flash grenades and the tear gas happening right in front of me, but there was no gunfire from the ship. It was attack from the Israelis. And then I was up top and from that point on, it was dead bodies of the Turks coming in and injured bodies of the Turks and the second deck mezzanine area … was literally full of wounded and dying humanitarian aid workers.”
Of course, Israel will expect us to believe their account of events, and assume that the 700 similar accounts are all incorrect. Even an ‘Al Jazeera’ reporter contradicts the official Israeli version. For me, it is important to note that he was held a fill three days before being released, even longer than the rest of the activists who were held between 24-48 hours. This, on top of the fact that all recording equipment was confiscated, and the fact that for the first 24 hours after the attack the only evidence was the information released by the IDF, tells my “spidy” senses that something is obviously up. I’m sorry, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the Israeli version is nothing but propaganda at it’s finest.
The unfortunate thing, is that it worked, on those who don’t look past the corporate media. Enough people heard the false claims that the people on board were linked with Al Qaeda that the damage was done. Despite the fact that the IDF posted a retraction a few days later, there are now swarms of people who are convinced it was all a group a terrorists. Muslim bashing and hate talks permeate the internet and air waves… and my points that the convoy was made of Parliament members, diplomats, Noble Peace Prize winners, and peace activists fall on deft ears. The only people who believe me are the small % of people who choose to be informed. Everyone else can’t possible be wrong! Bah.
Anyways, I should probably end here.
On a final note, my friend Billy posted this article about the term Feminist on his Facebook and it started a little thread about terms. This is my comment in reply.
I don’t know what term describes me best really. I’m so far out here on the left even progressives look at me askance sometimes. I can’t understand how it’s 2010 and we’re still fighting against racism, sexism, homophobia, and everything else in the world. And there’s so much to take issue with, where does one even start? Some days I rant about violence against women, whether it be domestic violence here in Canada, or acid attacks in Bangladesh. Some days I rant about Palestinians living under a cruel and inhuman occupation. Sometimes I rant about corporate influence on a global scale that’s pretty much the cause of the astronomical amount of poverty in the world. Most days I rant about it all in one breath. So for me, the term feminist is almost too limited. Because yah, I’m a feminist, I’m a humanist, I’m a socialist, I’m an equalist, I’m an “everything and the kitchen sick”-ist? ~_~
What you’re thinking about!