Amen.
And not just “land robbery”. They stole the souls of other human beings and immolated them in the fires of prejudice, discrimination, domination, torture and cruelty.
No amount of dollars can compensate for lost souls.
Not in this world anyway.
Sociologists who have studied the Palestinian People, who must live under one of the cruelest occupations in human history, have found that more than half of all Palestinian children under the age of 15 have lost the will to live.
When a child loses the will to live…what else is there?
What can ever compensate for such a loss? such pain? such emptiness?
Afew decent white South Africans, Zimbabweans, Israelis have bemoaned the theft of human hope from the victims of oppression, occupation and degrading treatment.
But “authority” is far too often – one might even say almost always – out of touch with decency – and so the conscientious complaints of the decent members of society are consigned to the same trash heap as the hopes of the oppressed. Consigned there by men and women whose belief systems are contaminated by the entitlements they grant themselves.
It’s almost enough to cause one to hope against hope that there really is a God, who is keeping track of these things.
One hopes that such a God…if such a God exists…will mete out the appropriate punishment for those who have filled our ears and minds with lies and stripped away the human dignity of their victims.
Truth and Reconciliation: A Response to Lord Anthony’s Post.
Amen Lord Anthony.
I started out writing this as a response to your post of yesterday. I ended up making it a post of my own. This is, in effect, a lament for the human race.
THE CASE FOR BELIEVING IN SOME SORT OF BENEVOLENT AND ALL-POWERFUL SUPREME BEING
You mention the “white landowners of Zimbabwe”. Those ‘land robbers’ who stole the property of those who owned it and transformed those owners into indentured servants.
What you say is true in the most fundamental and profound way.
And it wasn’t just the theft of the land. They stole the souls of other human beings and immolated them in the fires of prejudice, discrimination, domination, torture and cruelty.
No amount of dollars can compensate for lost and stolen souls.
Not in this world anyway.
Sociologists who have studied the Palestinian People for example – people who live under one of the cruelest occupations in human history, have found that more than half of all Palestinian children under the age of 15 have lost the will to live.
When a child loses the will to live…what else is there?
What can ever compensate for such a loss? such pain? such emptiness?
A few (very few) decent white South Africans, Zimbabweans, Israelis, Americans, Canadians, Britons and others have bemoaned the theft of human hope from the victims of oppression, occupation and degrading treatment.
But “authority” is far too often – one might even say almost always – out of touch with decency – and so the conscientious complaints of the decent members of society are consigned to the same trash heap as the hopes of the oppressed. Consigned there by men and women whose values and beliefs are reduced to nothingness, by the entitlements they grant themselves.
It’s almost enough to cause one to hope against hope that there really is a God, who is keeping track of these things.
One hopes that such a God…if such a God exists…would mete out the appropriate punishment for those who have filled our ears and minds with lies and stripped away the human dignity of their victims.
I am saddened beyond words.
We don’t have to look too far to feel the repercussions of those with power and those without! Just reading in the Toronto Star about the 82 year old man who got evicted from his Toronto housing in June and now thanks to the Star’s exposure he is getting it back. So many stories about so many people in Canada who have had the misfortune of being the recipients of so many atrocious decisions by the very people who are provided taxpayer money to help those in need. Taxpayer money pays their wages, too, whether it be federal, provincial or municipal! Talk about losing the soul! So many of us are being subjected to the whims of those “highly educated” persons in power. How come?
Recently I discovered the writing of Yves Engler, a Montrealer, transplanted from Vancouver who has been undertaking some major work on Canadian foreign policy.
It’s not a very flattering picture.
First things first…….
I don’t think it is correct to lump in Harper with your cabal of monsters.
Like him or not, he is competently managing this country during a crisis, at least as well as Ignatieff could with the same circumstances.
Last week Harper survived a non-con motion by dishing up UI and other goodies for the benefit of ordinary Canadians, especially those who have lost their jobs.
Not because he’s a super-nice man, but because enough of our combined opposition forced his hand.
In this instance Jack Layton did the right thing by supporting his arch-enemy.
Not to mention the PM’s recent selection of Gary Doer as US ambassador. Clever move, confounding his socialist opponents.
Whatever Harper is, he and his office have some pretty smart cookies in there. They may chafe at remaining a minority government and Harper may privately raise the rhetoric to his base about the crucial need for the next admin to be a PC majority.
Ain’t gonna happen, Stevie.
What his compromises are really doing is feeding our liking for minority governments, at least among the 7% of us who do any thinking at all, small but enough to steer outcomes.
There will always be thickhead numpties clamouring for majorities “to get things done”, ignorant that we have been well-served by minorities over the years.
Secondly, take a look:
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/ebci/haip/srch/basicsearchresult-eng.action?s=+&k=&b=true&p=10#pageControl
There are 113,213 registered charities listed with CCRA and my bet is many of them aren’t charities at all.
I don’t see anyone’s choice of religion for example, to be in need of financial assistance from the Canadian taxpayer.
Or their music hobby.
All kinds of tax-dodge cash could be available if this list was radically pruned.
Then perhaps publicly-funded protection and support, not story-hungry media, would prevent the eviction of 82-year olds.
I hear you L.A. but I can’t agree. Harper is complicit and in this stuff up to his nose.
He is revamping our foreign policy to eliminate the human rights component and he supports right wing causes regardless.
And no he’s not managing anything competently.
The more I experience…the more I learn…the more I become aware of the truth of things – and mark you – this has been a lifelong process – the more disappointed I am in the vagaries of capitalism…the motives of politicians…and the character of most of our politicians.
Don’t worry, never have voted for them and never will.
But I remain committed to a pragmatic view of our politics,not an idealistic one.
I read your linked Embassy piece and can’t get myself worked up about “tweaks to Canada’s foreign policy language that are fraught with policy implications…..”
Canada’s massive bureaucracies will always fart about with this kind of stuff and partisan academics will always cry foul.
Are their interpretations of our national language crucial to the unwashed like us?
I don’t think so.
And if this word-spinning is so egregious to our standing in the international community, why isn’t the opposition condemning it?
In any case, don’t you think it’s time for a radical review of our bullshit overseas?
We don’t have a foreign policy at all, we do as we’re told by USA.
We should be leading the way by withdrawing from the catastrophe of Afghanistan, not endlessly and mindlessly contributing to the hubris and carnage.
I read today that the Grand Fromage in NATO is telling the world we have to engage with the people in Afghanistan.
Stop bombing them. Engage with them.
That should do the trick!
But how do you get it started and make it work?
Get out of their country! And compensate them for all the harm done.
Back to Truth and Reconciliation……..
Unfortunately the Opposition is MIA thru the looking glass along with Harper, MacKay and the others…and you’re quite right that as things stand now, we have no decent foreign policy to speak of. It is indeed time for an in-depth review of the overseas B.S.
But who is to do it? That is the question.
Perhaps Harper Layton Hatter et.al could do with a little Jungian Analysis.
The Monster we are living with in far off Afghanistan is like experiencing a dream in which the dreamer falls endlessly into what seems a bottomless abyss inhabited by fire-breathing mythical creatures…until we wake up that is.
The “leaders” snore on in safe discomfort. Those of us who are wide awake can only feel the pain.
I salute you Lord Anthony.