Climate Change Revisited

Despite the anti-science rhetoric that seems to have broad representation in the US Congress, climate change is a very real phenomenon that if unchecked will put the world's people in peril. If our collective behavior in regards to burning of fossil fuels continues unabated it will necessarily have a dramatic impart on peace and security in the world populated by future generations of human beings. The question we must pose to ourselves is, "Is this the legacy we want to leave behind?"

An example of what the future may have in store is what changes are occurring in the lives of the peoples of the Marshall Islands.

The Tragedy of Forced Migration

It is currently estimated that approximately 60 million human beings have been forced to leave their homeland propelled by the ravages of war, extreme poverty and hunger.  This is said to be the greatest mass migration in human history even when compared to World War II and its aftermath. 

The media is being inundated with images of the desperate acts made daily by men, woman, children and the elderly in order to find a new home – a place where they might find some stability and chance for the future.  These individuals and families are so determined that they are willing to risk their lives and accept unimaginable hardship rather than endure the daily terror they face remaining in the place where are all their ethnic and cultural ties lie.  It is a profoundly traumatic decision that they feel compelled to make in the hope of finding some degree of peace and security.

The predominant motivation that is driving these remarkably desperate acts is the horrific consequences of violence and war.  They are fleeing from what have become so-called “Failed States” that include the countries of Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Yemen, the Sudan and a list of countries with increasing instability that include Nigeria and the Congo, for example.

For the most part, these States and their boundaries were created as a direct result of the occupation and economic exploitation by the colonial empires of the past – British, Dutch and French for example. These areas of the globe possess important resources for the developed world and are of immense geopolitical importance as demonstrated by the military and economic involvement and intervention of current day superpowers such as the United States and Russia.

The current state of unrest in these countries reflects severe and seemingly intractable religious, ethnic and cultural differences that reside within national borders that were previously held in check either by a powerful colonial presence or a strong and autocratic leader or both.  Once these factors were no longer present, it left a power vacuum and its inevitable chaos.

This situation is no longer contained within the boundaries of the countries involved but is spilling over into the developed world – it has become a worldwide problem of immense proportions. If peace and social justice is to ever be attained, the world community needs to find creative and imaginative ways to bring warring factions together with the aim of establishing some kind of dialog to help diminish the level of violence so that human suffering can be abated.  This is a daunting problem with no easy solution; for, it requires that the peoples of this planet begin to think and act globally.  The human species on plant earth is becoming more and more tenuous; this state of being is also being threatened by the looming consequences of climate change.  It is the choices we make now that will profoundly influence the future.   

Lessons Never Learned

A current snapshot of the human world would reveal a very troubled, beleaguered and often deadly place for millions upon millions of humans.  If I were to create a partial listing of areas on the globe where human-inspired conflagration was evident, it would look something like this –

·         Millions of Syrians have already fled their country as innocents are being besieged and slaughtered by their own government and by pseudo Islamic State referred to as The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) led by a group of Islamic fundamentalist involved in atrocities of a most unsettling nature that are supposedly sanctioned by their Creator – behavior reminiscent of the early Crusades under the banner of Christendom.  This forced emigration is having an unsettling impact on the neighboring countries of Jordan, Lebanon and Europe.

·          The people of Northern Yemen are being killed in large numbers by aerial bombardment from Saudi fighter planes as a part of a coalition effort to derail the growing influence of the Houthis.  It seems that the United States is part of that effort supplying armaments including bombs and cluster devices.

·          The people of Gaza have lived under horrific conditions for years.  The entire population of this rather miniscule strip of land has been kept as virtual prisoners by the Israeli government that periodically uses deadly force to control and constrain them.

·         The African continent has many hotspots where regional conflict abounds including Nigeria, The Congo, Kenya, Libya and Tunisia.  The specific cause(s) for violence and aggression in each of these regions have different explanations, but the end result remains the same – horrific suffering and death endured by many.

The unsettling reality that underlies all of these examples of human discord, mayhem and destruction is the fact that even though we are in the midst of the twenty-first century – a time of remarkable change inspired by technological innovation and scientific exploration regarding the nature of reality – the lessons that human history should have taught us remain unlearned.

While historians and political scientists attempt to find the immediate explanations for these regional conflagrations as they should; for, that is nature of their work, an important point is missed.  What individuals who have the good fortune to live in sovereignties with stable governments under the rule of law and with sustainable economies fail to recognize is that the history of these countries is replete with blood, savagery and needless death in order to accommodate the will to power and dominance.  This to me is an inescapable truth.  All the sad and reckless behavior that typifies the current state of humanity is nothing new.  We, as a species, have been there many times before.

In my mind, the tragedy of the human experience is that we, as a species, have collectively failed to develop a new paradigm for living.  We seem to continue to embrace a world view in which differences in religion, political belief, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, cultural identification and economic status are paramount and provide sufficient reason for enmity, suspicion, hatred and violence.

We have failed to recognize that all members of the our species are worthy of living a full and fruitful existence deserving; of equal treatment and equality of opportunity and justified in the expectation of equal access to that which is essential to life – adequate nutrition, housing, healthcare, peace and social justice and security.  Without this all-inclusive mindset we are doomed to repeat this cycle again and again

Gordon Hirabayashi - a Study in Courage in the Face of Extraordinary Obstacles

Gordon Hirabayashi was one of the few Japanese Americans who had the courage and tenacity to challenge the legality and constitutionality of the curfew and exclusion orders imposed upon Japanese Americans during World War II following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor - December 7, 1941.

The following is a brief and concise biography authored by Cherstin M. Lyon from the California State University in San Bernardino, CA and published by the Densho Encyclopedia.

Pope Francis’s Comments on the, “Idolatry of Money” delivered on July 11, 2015 in Asuncion, Paraguay

The following are the comments made by Pope Francis in a speech delivered in Asuncion, Paraguay given on July 11, 2015 during his tour of South America.  This speech was given in order to address some of distressing issues surrounding social and economic injustice that plague so many of the poor worldwide.  He wished to draw the attention of world leaders to the degree to which the global economy is seriously out of balance - tilted in favor of wealth and profit resulting in a severe unequal distribution of wealth that is responsible for a great deal of human misery experienced by so many of the world's people.

His ideas and comments are certainly worthy of intelligent examination and discussion. 

 

"In our time humanity is experiencing a turning-point in its history, as we can see from the advances being made in so many fields. We can only praise the steps being taken to improve people’s welfare in areas such as health care, education and communications. At the same time we have to remember that the majority of our contemporaries are barely living from day to day, with dire consequences. A number of diseases are spreading. The hearts of many people are gripped by fear and desperation, even in the so-called rich countries. The joy of living frequently fades, lack of respect for others and violence are on the rise, and inequality is increasingly evident. It is a struggle to live and, often, to live with precious little dignity. This epochal change has been set in motion by the enormous qualitative, quantitative, rapid and cumulative advances occuring in the sciences and in technology, and by their instant application in different areas of nature and of life. We are in an age of knowledge and information, which has led to new and often anonymous kinds of power.

"No to an economy of exclusion

Just as the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say “thou shalt not” to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.

"Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a “throw away” culture which is now spreading. It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but something new. Exclusion ultimately has to do with what it means to be a part of the society in which we live; those excluded are no longer society’s underside or its fringes or its disenfranchised – they are no longer even a part of it. The excluded are not the “exploited” but the outcast, the “leftovers”.

"In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own. The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase. In the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.

"No to the new idolatry of money

One cause of this situation is found in our relationship with money, since we calmly accept its dominion over ourselves and our societies. The current financial crisis can make us overlook the fact that it originated in a profound human crisis: the denial of the primacy of the human person! We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf (cf. Ex 32:1-35) has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. The worldwide crisis affecting finance and the economy lays bare their imbalances and, above all, their lack of real concern for human beings; man is reduced to one of his needs alone: consumption.

"While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules. Debt and the accumulation of interest also make it difficult for countries to realize the potential of their own economies and keep citizens from enjoying their real purchasing power. To all this we can add widespread corruption and self-serving tax evasion, which have taken on worldwide dimensions. The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits. In this system, which tends to devour everything which stands in the way of increased profits, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of a deified market, which become the only rule.

"No to a financial system which rules rather than serves

Behind this attitude lurks a rejection of ethics and a rejection of God. Ethics has come to be viewed with a certain scornful derision. It is seen as counterproductive, too human, because it makes money and power relative. It is felt to be a threat, since it condemns the manipulation and debasement of the person. In effect, ethics leads to a God who calls for a committed response which is outside the categories of the marketplace. When these latter are absolutized, God can only be seen as uncontrollable, unmanageable, even dangerous, since he calls human beings to their full realization and to freedom from all forms of enslavement. Ethics – a non-ideological ethics – would make it possible to bring about balance and a more humane social order. With this in mind, I encourage financial experts and political leaders to ponder the words of one of the sages of antiquity: “Not to share one’s wealth with the poor is to steal from them and to take away their livelihood. It is not our own goods which we hold, but theirs.'

"A financial reform open to such ethical considerations would require a vigorous change of approach on the part of political leaders. I urge them to face this challenge with determination and an eye to the future, while not ignoring, of course, the specifics of each case. Money must serve, not rule! The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but he is obliged in the name of Christ to remind all that the rich must help, respect and promote the poor. I exhort you to generous solidarity and to the return of economics and finance to an ethical approach which favours human beings.

"No to the inequality which spawns violence

Today in many places we hear a call for greater security. But until exclusion and inequality in society and between peoples are reversed, it will be impossible to eliminate violence. The poor and the poorer peoples are accused of violence, yet without equal opportunities the different forms of aggression and conflict will find a fertile terrain for growth and eventually explode. When a society – whether local, national or global – is willing to leave a part of itself on the fringes, no political programmes or resources spent on law enforcement or surveillance systems can indefinitely guarantee tranquility. This is not the case simply because inequality provokes a violent reaction from those excluded from the system, but because the socioeconomic system is unjust at its root. Just as goodness tends to spread, the toleration of evil, which is injustice, tends to expand its baneful influence and quietly to undermine any political and social system, no matter how solid it may appear. If every action has its consequences, an evil embedded in the structures of a society has a constant potential for disintegration and death. It is evil crystallized in unjust social structures, which cannot be the basis of hope for a better future. We are far from the so-called “end of history”, since the conditions for a sustainable and peaceful development have not yet been adequately articulated and realized.

"Today’s economic mechanisms promote inordinate consumption, yet it is evident that unbridled consumerism combined with inequality proves doubly damaging to the social fabric. Inequality eventually engenders a violence which recourse to arms cannot and never will be able to resolve. It serves only to offer false hopes to those clamouring for heightened security, even though nowadays we know that weapons and violence, rather than providing solutions, create new and more serious conflicts. Some simply content themselves with blaming the poor and the poorer countries themselves for their troubles; indulging in unwarranted generalizations, they claim that the solution is an “education” that would tranquilize them, making them tame and harmless. All this becomes even more exasperating for the marginalized in the light of the widespread and deeply rooted corruption found in many countries – in their governments, businesses and institutions – whatever the political ideology of their leaders."

Gandhi - You are Sorely Missed

GANDHI you are surely missed

You chose peace over the darkness,

you offered up some hope to a world

lost within its bloody escapades

and endless cycles of retribution.

You chose simplicity and

unraveled your opponents by the

strength of your will and the

sheer power of numbers.

You chose a path where

compassion reigns and

love is the insurmountable

lever of change.

The human world was not ready then

to follow your guiding steps

to a better place,

it is not ready now

so inured are we to the

alluring potency of the sword that

brings us nothing but grief.

Definitions of War

Human conflict continues to circle the planet and enliven the darkness within the human world.  War may have many definitions.

Put succinctly -

Humanity's black hole,

ultimate testimonial to human failure,

great wheel of despair,

end of reason,

abyss of the soul,

mother’s lament,

outrageous waste of the possible,
assassin of the future.