It’s always the
same. Every time it’s
the end of any given year, at least in the modern chaos and mind-blowing world
that we live in today. We get the
same best of’s:
Best song of?
Best band? Or even the highs and lows of?
Whatever the
year, I’m no different, but feel that things happen for a reason…
It becomes
perplexing when the law of logic takes over the notion of synchronicity. When things can be explained away like, JFK
getting assassinated, because there was a hell-bent nutter on the loose and maybe Kennedy was involved in
things he shouldn’t have been. That is,
things that the general public didn’t know about.
Did Jim Morrison
really die of a failed heart in that bathtub in France or did his girlfriend
Pam, really poison him, because he had said that he’d leave her for another?
Whatever the
reasoning, it doesn’t always mean that it will be nice, safe or that people
will be able to stomach it. John Lennon,
one of the best song-writers of the twentieth century, an original crusader for
justice and peace, died because yet another mad loose
cannon was overcome by his obsession/sick brain.
Our personalities
are partially due to our specific star/planet line-up and our up-bringing, not
to mention our surroundings.
How though, can
something be explained like, the poorest most humble people in the world, the
ones who constantly suffer the most and complain the least:
How, why, do they
always have to be the ones to suffer the most?
For the first
time ever, Americans suffered a major terrorist attack on their soil on
Spoiled
middle-class women who either had jobs and partners with jobs, or at the very
least their partners had jobs and they had secure homes; with shopping malls,
carwashes, pounding hot watered showers, clean drinking water and an abundance
of food and drink at their finger tips.
Ground Zero
quickly became the symbol of a pampered, carefree yet vulnerable society,
unaware of the perils which rocked the face of the planet, while they were
rocking out in nightclubs, shopping ‘til they drop. Often whipped up into an over-hyped knee-jerk
frenzy over the latest kids to be toting a gun to school, because to bear arms
is a right…
To see a broken
homeless man probably in some doorway down in
Even if he had
nothing to give, if you were lonely, showed an interest in just talking to him,
he might offer you a fag and chew the fat for five minutes.
He sure as hell
wouldn’t hide behind closed doors, open it ajar and say, “What can I do for
you?” in a hurried, stressed-out, interrupted, slightly patronising
manner. You know, like the people next
door, where there’s an unspoken agreement that this is my cage and that’s
yours, you stay there and I’ll stay here.
No, this isn’t
community, just a row of cages. Like a
row of hamster cages all lined up in a pet shop, on display. Why?
Because people are afraid, don’t want to step out of their comfort
zone. They don’t want to be faced with
anything different than the usual misery they know and that’s so familiar. Unfamiliar, different, colourful, alternative
is just too much for them to cope with.
Let’s just all be bland, middle-of the road. Don’t turn this way or that, just toe that
line.
On the other side
of the planet, there is community. There
has to be. For people who are poor or
have the basics to live with, they must live as in harmony as possible. They all rely on each other and everyone has
a place, even the children. When
strangers make themselves known in a more than superficial/touristy way, these
people, let’s just say, Sri Lankans, give
hospitality, kindness and whatever meagre offerings they can muster up. A smile and out-stretched hand can cross any
language barrier in the world.
They might be
curious or conscious of skin which is paler than theirs, maybe they have never
seen a Westerner, maybe they have always been too poor
to travel. Maybe they have worked the
fields since they were young children, or need to keep the family fishery
going, never having a chance for school or too much social life outside their
community. They are humble, though,
possibly moulded by their government, who in the not so distant past was
controlled by a colonial power.
To keep analysing
why, or how, could make an active mind crazy with frustration. So, how ‘bout a simple question then—why why why, does it always have to
be,
That the poorest
and the most humble people of this great planet are forced to endure a natural
disaster, like a wave to wipe out entire towns, villages and communities that
might have been alive with the spirit that lacks in “our part of the world”!
Let’s just think,
for one minute, how the same wave would have been received in
The affluence,
resources and technology would quickly sustain any amount of hardship. Of course there would be losses,
there would be damages and probably fires.
Emergency crews, medics, probably even the National Guard, would all be
on tap like a bottle of fizzy soda, to rescue those who needed rescuing or to
be air-lifted to the nearest hospital.
The very latest technology and equipment would be at hand to help the
endangered.
There would be no
need to call for help worldwide. A state
of emergency/national disaster might be put into place, but the comfort of
having a job, shopping mall, livelihood or loved one would more than likely
still be there in the morning.
Through the ages,
We as humans
should remember:
That
we started waging war on Mother Earth at least in the last century.
The industrial revolution was not concerned with the environmental
impact of textile mills, factories etc.
It was progress progress progress,
and, of course, extract from whatever
The war on Mother
Earth intensified with nuclear installations and an electric avenue at every
turn. We turned our backs to the power
of the sun and exploited precious metals.
So, is Mother
Earth fighting back? If she is, perhaps it could be said that the lashing out
is indiscriminate. Are all the
prophecies right in their ancient visions and predictions? As the religious would have it, is this some
sick test of will and whatever God they aspire to is sitting back and having a
laugh?
Then again, are
these human-made religions taking into account the “natural aspects” of their
rationale? Do any of the clerics or
priests in their patriarchy, insight laws and rules to govern the way in which
humans treat the planet we walk upon?
No, they are too
busy making up rules and laws to govern the behaviours and habits of other
humans.
It is mostly the
indigenous tribes in any given society, pushed to the margins, pushed to the
very outer limits. For those who yield
the most respect for the earth. For
those who tread lightly on the earth, cultivating instead of pillaging, planting
instead of polluting, or harvesting sustainable living, are always against the
tide of “the norm” the new and improved.
The bright shiny glass of a new building. The bright lights of a sprawling city…
Get out of your
cages. Break out of those cocoons. Take off your shirts and warm coats for the
one who hasn’t got one. Chances are you
have one at home to spare! If we have
little to give, it still could be hope, all boxed up and ready to send.
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