Sunday, July 28, 2019

Why aren't we outraged?

I will not post the whole of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – even though it is just two pages in length. It is easy enough to find on line. 

But I intend, in what follows, to highlight the egregious, even contemptuous disregard of this vital document by some nations – even the fact that the USA, for some unfathomable reason, has not agreed to implement all thirty articles. China and Saudi Arabia are amongst the worst offenders – as is Israel.

We should all be outraged at the failure of many nations to hold by the Articles of this Document that they have signed.

Read on:- 

Article 1:- All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

NB. Australia, USA, Saudi Arabia, Israel, China ….. Take note.

Article 3:- Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

NB. Australia, USA, Saudi Arabia, Israel, China …. Take note.

Article 5:- No one shall be subject to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

NB. Australia, USA, Saudi Arabia, Israel, China …. Take note.

Article 9:- No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

NB. Australia, USA, Saudi Arabia, Israel, China …. Take note.

Article 11 (1):- Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence. 

NB. Australia, USA, Saudi Arabia, Israel, China…. Take note.

Article 17 (1):- Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
Article 17 (2):- No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

NB. Israel especially take note, in relation to their treatment of the Palestinians.

Article 23 (2):- Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

NB. Australia (and I’m sure many other countries) …. Take note.

Article 25 (1):- Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

NB. Australia, USA and I’m sure many other countries …. Take note.

Article 26 (1):- Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages …

NB. Australia …. Take note.

Article 30:- Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person and right to engage in any activity or to perform and act aimed at the destruction of any rights and freedoms set forth herein.

NB. All nations …. Take note.

Friday, July 19, 2019

Why?

I consider myself as “white” in that my ancestors all came from Europe and my skin colour is lighter than that of “people of colour”. And I recognize that in many ways this has allowed me privileges not given to those who skin colour differs from mine. Likewise I speak the only language I know – “English”! Furthermore my heritage and inherited customs are also “English”.  

But does this make me “better” than those with a skin colour that differs from mine?; or “better” than those who worship God in a manner different from the way I do?; or “better” than those who speak a different language – even two or more languages?; or “better” than those with different customs and a different heritage?

Surely, surely we can move on, beyond such puerile thoughts and beliefs?

We need diversity; we need the “differences” – these things give us a focus rather than just navel gazing. A lack of “difference” in a group or society often brings out the worst in people and the resultant “mob” formation may have disastrous consequences. One just has to witness the frenzied mobs at recent political rallies or at football matches in England and Europe, or the extreme neo-Nazis or any extreme religious group to understand the effects that may influence much larger populations. 

Should such extremes enter main-stream society then confusion and a breakdown of law and order is inevitable. This has unfortunately been witnessed too often in the 20thCentury. Apart from the horrendous massacre of about 6 million European Jews by the Nazis (1933-1945), there was the awful Pol Pot (1975-79) in Cambodia whose henchmen killed an estimated 2 million people. Then there was the deranged Idi Amin, the Ugandan president in the 1970s under whose rule about ½ million people died. Also never forget the “ethic cleansing” in the 1990s in what was Yugoslavia and the similar, current,  “cleansing” of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and the present day “re-education” of a million Uyghur Muslims in China. The list is almost endless. 

And why? In the name of all that is wonderful – why?

I know this sort of thing has been going on for centuries but can’t we learn anything from the past? 

Rene Girard, in his book “The Scapegoat” states that a Portuguese monk, Fco de Santa Maria wrote that, “As soon as this violent and tempestuous spark is lit in a kingdom or republic, magistrates are bewildered, people are terrified, the government is thrown into disarray….. All the laws of love and nature are drowned or forgotten in the midst of horrors of great confusion; children are suddenly separated from parents, wives from their husbands, brothers and friends from each other….” 

That was written in 1697! What has changed?

Here is a quote from a speech by Frederick Douglass (African American, a former slave, social reformer, orator and statesman) on the 24thanniversary of emancipation, Washington, DC, 1886, which has great relevance today:- 
“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails and where any one class is made to feel that society is in an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.” 

Then there is the famous warning by John Donne the 17thCentury sermonist and poet who wrote, “… any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

Maybe we should all bear this in mind?

Thursday, July 11, 2019

Paying the Ferryman

Life is not all doom and gloom. Nor is it always a fun experience. Happiness is elusive. It is necessary to arrive, always, at a balanced position where we are at the very least contented with our lot. 
Helpfulness and co-operation are the cornerstones of any society. We may be individuals each striving for our place in the world and striving to reach our self-determined goals but we can never do this on our own. Even the so called “self-made man” has had help from others along the way – no one can do this in total isolation. 
So what is the cost of ‘life’ to those who strive to reach their self-determined goals? What is the cost of ‘life’ to high achievers? What is the cost of ‘life’ to those people who opt for a career before all else? What is the cost, in lives, of a government’s oppressive or exploitative policies? What is the cost of ignoring the ancient, and very sensible, instruction to always treat others as you would like to be treated?
This proverb still applies: “Take what you want from life says God, take it, and pay!” 
In the present economic climate – even the long “tail” of the Global Financial Crisis is still affecting many people in many countries - it is not surprising that there is widespread concern about employment prospects, wages and financial security. So do not decry or be judgemental about someone’s choice to work as hard as they can to try and secure their financial future by whatever means at hand. That is their call and good luck to them. But they need to be very careful about the methods they use to “secure” their financial future. They must never forget that the Ferryman, who carries us all on our journey through life and across the River Styx to the afterworld, will demand recompense. This payment cannot be avoided and it is always paid in kind – we sow the seeds of the crop we will reap, like it or not. 
We will always have to accept the consequences of our actions and activities (good or bad) – and there are always consequences for every plan, for every activity and all behaviour. It is worth recalling the fate of Lehman Brothers, the ponzi schemes of Bernard Madoff, the greed and unethical behaviour of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKiline, the corrupt practices and fraud exposed by the Wall Street banks, Barclays Bank in the UK, the LIBOR scandal; the ineptitude and plain bad management of many European banks; the false accusations of “weapons of mass destruction” levelled by various politicians leaders against Iraq and the disastrous subsequent invasion of that country; the rotating leaders of Australia’s political parties and their questionable policies towards Australia’s First People; towards asylum seekers -  the list goes on and on and on... 
No one can ever know the full extent of the effects of any action they may take – we will never find any vantage point high enough from which to view the pattern of our life and how the threads interweave to form the patterns we have made – to see what good we do or what harm we have caused. We can never see the interplay between moral values which results in good and evil; in good or bad outcomes. This is why ethics is so important – it must be the first consideration of any person, company or organisation. By engaging in ethical conduct the welfare of people (staff, customers, patients, clients and voters) will be paramount; will be considered, first, before money, market share, first before shareholders, first before the CEO’s or any politician’s ego.
Remember this – burn it into your brain – without people there would be no business, no commerce, no industry and no money. Never forget that commerce and industry are for the benefits of people; that commerce and industry service the needs of people. People do not and never have serviced the needs of commerce and industry. To assume this is the case is to put the cart before the horse; to assume this is to consider people as tokens on some sort of economic game board - tokens to be moved at the behest of commerce and industry. This train of thought will lead only to business disaster and failure and the collapse of government (recall that Soviet Russia tried this and failed spectacularly); the Chinese are experimenting with this right now, to what end? One wonders at the possible outcome.
By being ethical – or at least being guided by ethical principles – will ensure that any business or personal action or activity is being driven by the best motives. To forget or ignore the undoubted fact that every action has a consequence (good or bad), in other words the “Law” of cause and effect, will itself cause problems. This is why there are ethical concepts such as trust, honesty, justice, kindness and compassion. All human actions and activities will have unexpected consequences but much of the unhappiness, the cruelty, the abuses will be minimised if the welfare and wellbeing of other human beings is considered first; by conducting all business and personal matters with ethics as the FIRST consideration. 
We have to live with ourselves and the results of our actions and behaviour. If ethics is disregarded or ignored to satisfy selfish ends the threads that entangle us all in the web of life will, eventually, trip up and bring down the perpetrators. 
The Ferryman is patient but will, eventually, demand payment, regardless. 

Friday, July 5, 2019

Silence was pleased

I always seem to be drawn to poetry for some reason – I can always find something to suit my mood.

While Milton is not a poet I refer to very often I do like some of his works. My copy of the Poetical Works of John Milton (9thDecember 1608 – 8thNovember 1674 – by which stage he was totally blind) is an 1889 edition once owned by my paternal grandfather. So it is a treasured volume.

Also I certainly have not read all the 222 pages that comprise John Milton’s epic poem “Paradise Lost” there is one small part of Book IV that I found and which has always touched me in a way that is difficult to explain.

“Now came still evening on, and in twilight gray
Had in her sober livery all things clad;
Silence accompanied; for beast and bird,
They to their grassy couch, these to their nests
Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale,
She all night long her amorous descant sung;
Silence was pleased: how glow’d the firmament
With living sapphires: Hesperus that led 
The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon
Rising is clouded majesty, at length
Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light
And o’er the dark her silver mantle threw.”

It’s just two lines that somehow deeply affect me:-

“She all night long her amorous descant sung;
Silence was pleased:”

Especially I love the phrase, “Silence was pleased”.

It pleases me!

In relation to Milton’s blindness he wrote the following which I also find quite moving.

On His Blindness

When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies: "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts: who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed
And post o'er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait."

“They also serve who only stand and wait” – again a line that resonates with me.