For more than half of my life I have identified myself as a composer, but I have come to feel that traditional composition is too narrow, too confining: true creativity knows no boundaries. This blog is my scream into the darkness: anything that strikes me as being noteworthy, that sparks my interest or angers me enough to inspire something to be written shall be fodder for this page. Please, enjoy the insanity.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
The Real Gaza
Once again, if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth ... a ... well, a lot! This was originally posted by Umkahlil and reposted on DesertPeace's blog.
The shame of this nightmare, as you refer to it (quite correctly, DP), is that so few in the rest of the world are aware of the situation. As someone living in Canada I can honestly say that I had no real imagery associated with “Gaza Strip”, save for those things that were largely associated with the ideas associated with the war (i.e. “war torn, desolate, desert” and etc.). Actually seeing that this is an area where people are trying to live … are living … it makes things look entirely different, and it provides images that are far more difficult to remove from memory – images that shouldn’t be removed from memory.
I would hope, however, that we are more than disturbed by the images. Being made uncomfortable, or being bothered is not enough; being outraged, on the other hand, is the first step towards taking steps towards change. We (the west) should be outraged at what we are seeing (Good grief – wait until my next post!) – and then, we should do something about that outrage. It’s time to take our elected officials to task for their inaction.
If we hold the United States accountable for their role in the recent actions against Lebanon by virtue of their refusal to intervene on behalf of the innocents being slaughtered then they are doubly guilty over the crimes against humanity that have been committed in Gaza: the United States has declared themselves the World Police, let them then perform that role without prejudice. The proof of the success of the present U.S. foreign policy is the fruit of its failure: if it is anything it is not humane, nor impartial in its treatment of displaced individuals seeking aide.
There must be something more that we, the ordinary citizens can do. I think it’s time to ask our political leaders why we are supporting nations where things like this are going on without an end in sight while our nation sits in silence (when we speak out on other issues).
To blindly follow the United States is to follow a moral pathway to hell, without the benefit of having done any good deeds along the way.
2 comments:
The pictures tell the story.
Regards.
The shame of this nightmare, as you refer to it (quite correctly, DP), is that so few in the rest of the world are aware of the situation. As someone living in Canada I can honestly say that I had no real imagery associated with “Gaza Strip”, save for those things that were largely associated with the ideas associated with the war (i.e. “war torn, desolate, desert” and etc.). Actually seeing that this is an area where people are trying to live … are living … it makes things look entirely different, and it provides images that are far more difficult to remove from memory – images that shouldn’t be removed from memory.
I would hope, however, that we are more than disturbed by the images. Being made uncomfortable, or being bothered is not enough; being outraged, on the other hand, is the first step towards taking steps towards change. We (the west) should be outraged at what we are seeing (Good grief – wait until my next post!) – and then, we should do something about that outrage. It’s time to take our elected officials to task for their inaction.
If we hold the United States accountable for their role in the recent actions against Lebanon by virtue of their refusal to intervene on behalf of the innocents being slaughtered then they are doubly guilty over the crimes against humanity that have been committed in Gaza: the United States has declared themselves the World Police, let them then perform that role without prejudice. The proof of the success of the present U.S. foreign policy is the fruit of its failure: if it is anything it is not humane, nor impartial in its treatment of displaced individuals seeking aide.
There must be something more that we, the ordinary citizens can do. I think it’s time to ask our political leaders why we are supporting nations where things like this are going on without an end in sight while our nation sits in silence (when we speak out on other issues).
To blindly follow the United States is to follow a moral pathway to hell, without the benefit of having done any good deeds along the way.
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