INSIGHTS. IDEAS. INSPIRATION.
Whenever we can see the world through other eyes, we see something new. The more different those eyes are from our own, the more different our viewing experience will be. Maybe surprising, maybe confrontational, maybe something new. Our world is hurting, from sharp political divisions, disease and poverty, religious strife, conflict, a strained environment, looming resource scarcity and much more. If we can start looking at the world through each other's eyes, we may be able to develop the mutual understanding and discover the common ground we need to overcome these global problems. It's one world we share. It's one world we will pass on to the next generation. What kind of a world do you want it to be?
Come, don't be afraid, take a look thru other eyes.
A few photos as an impression of the road I am traveling. So if you want to have a glimpse of some parts and times of my life you are welcome to see what I have seen.
(Reprinted from Angkor News Blog - part of my new website helping to promote a friend's business in Cambodia.)
I have been to
poor countries as have many of my friends but I have never seen
or heard of one from my friends' experiences that evokes as much desire
to give something back as Cambodia. I think it has something to do with
the unbelievably friendly and indomitable spirit of the Cambodian
people especially in light of the unimaginable horrors of the Pol Pot period.
In a recent article I came across, a couple from Philadelphia,
On June 8, four masked Israeli settlers attacked several members of the Nawaj’ah family from Khirbet Susiya as they were tending their sheep on Palestinian property near the West Bank settlement of Susiya. The land the Palestinian family was grazing on is owned by a Palestinian resident of nearbly Samu’ Village and has been closed by court order to Israelis since 2006.
Because the Nawaj'ah family has been the victim of repeated harassment by area settlers, the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem had provided them with a video camera as part of B'Tselem's "Shooting Back" advocacy and information program. This allowed the entire attack to be filmed by the family and was used for the first time by Israeli police in their investigation.
With the aid of the footage police have arrested two alleged suspects. Police believe however that the Palestinians themselves may have provoked the attack due to their faux couture:
"... police say they are investigating whether the Palestinian shepherds
may have provoked the attack by not wearing traditional Arab dress,
thereby arousing the suspicion of neighboring Israeli settlers. "This is something that doesn't
normally happen," Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said. "The
way they were dressed could also possibly have been something which was
provocative and this might have been something which led to the actual
incident itself.""
In this closing article I would like to introduce one of the Middle East's great voices of change and take a look at how a billion Muslims think about some key issues that cause a great deal of friction in Western perceptions.
As I have tried to show in this mini-series, there are many positive and hopeful things happening in the Middle East and in relations between the West and the Muslim world. We can't judge what we don't know and we can't develop informed opinions based on insufficient, skewed or deliberately distorted information. Has it become a dangerous liability that the citizens of the world's most powerful nation, one which has such an outspoken desire and track record of imposing its vision on other parts of the world, primarily see the rest of their world through the narrow tunnel of the American mainstream media?
Yesterday was the fortieth anniversary of RFK's assassination. I have taken some time this weekend to watch and read some of the historical material about his run for the presidency in 1968, the events of his turbulent times and many of his speeches.
It was also this week that Barack Obama became the prospective Democratic nominee for the presidency. I can't escape the feeling that in many ways Obama's candidacy could be the fulfillment of the promise that RFK fought, and died, for in 1968. Although the things tearing America apart were in many ways very different in 1968, the country remains divided, often bitterly, along the fault lines of ideology, economics, lifestyle, race, gender and opportunity. RFK's message of hope and unity resounds as loudly today as it did forty years ago.
It's surprising and can even be transformational when we look outside the tunnel often imposed on how we see the world. Our over-reliance on mainstream media is not only limiting but it may sometimes create more distortion than clarity. Nowhere is this more apparent or important than when it comes to the Middle East and the misunderstandings between the West and the Muslim world. In this installment I would like to turn our attention to the conflict with Iran.
An alternative way forward with Iran
John Bryson Chane, the Episcopal Bishop for the diocese of Washington, D.C. wrote about his recent discussions in Iran with Iranian academic and religious leaders "who are very concerned about the possibility of a US military incursion against their homeland." Given the failure of traditional diplomacy, the Bishop makes a plea for a new creative parallel path of diplomacy:
"A new 21st century understanding of Track II
diplomacy, initiated through theological diplomacy, must go
hand-in-hand with the formal diplomatic search for the peace that has
always been at the centre of the Holy Books of both Christianity and
Islam."
In order to participate in the democratic process we need to be informed. Unfortunately limits of time and the tunnel vision that mainstream media creates rarely allow us to see the broader picture. This can lead to a lack of understanding and even worse to dangerous misconceptions. When it comes to the Middle East and relations with the Muslim world, our tunnel vision is a true recipe for bad policy and missed opportunities.
In the second part of Life Outside The Tunnel I'd like to share a few more hopeful points of view and developments that you may have missed or had no chance to see.
Our impressions of the conflicts in the Middle East and the tensions between the West and the Muslim world are naturally shaped and limited by what we know. And what we know of these weighty global issues is pretty much limited by the inescapable and inevitable tunnel vision created by our primary source of information – the mainstream media.
For example: The last weeks have been as usual a mixed bag in the Middle East. Bush’s visit was a resounding victory for Israel, an embarrassing defeat for the Palestinians and further confirmation of America’s self-righteousness for the rest of the Arab world. The resolution of the conflict in Lebanon was a welcome respite for the Lebanese but perhaps has sown the seeds for more serious problems in the future. The announcement of back-channel talks between Israel and Syria is hopeful but already the two sides are now fighting out their positions in the media which can only serve to significantly reduce any prospects for eventual success. Egypt’s mediation efforts over a possible Gaza truce between Israel and Hamas seemed to have died a silent death amongst all the real death that continues.
In other words, the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. Or do they? In today’s post I want to present a small tour of some hopeful things that may have been missed because they received such little and fleeting attention, or no attention at all, in the mainstream media. I hope this overview
We can celebrate many things on this 60th anniversary of the founding of the modern day State of Israel. There is much to be thankful for. There is much that we have achieved. Israel has been the source of many innovations in the areas of water management and agriculture, science, medicine and technology. The country enjoys its own form of democracy and for many of its citizens it has created economic prosperity with an open and dynamic economy.
(NOTE: This article is somewhat longer than what I usually present here. For
those who find it more convenient to read hard copy, you can download and print a
copy at the end of the article.)
The fact that the state of Israel even exists, after thousands of years of Jewish statelessness,
Am I the only one who thinks this presidential primary season is turning more and more into silly time at the happy farm? The gas tax holiday debate now raging between the candidates is nothing more than the idiocy du jour.
McCain got the ball rolling by proposing a summer recess from the 18-cent a gallon federal tax on gasoline. As he put it:
"I'd like to see families in America have a relief from ever-increasing costs of gasoline so maybe at the end of the summer, after this tax holiday, they could buy school supplies for their children."
Quite a sweet thought but since everyone agrees that the savings for the average American family would be around $30, McCain should have said ‘a bit of the school supplies for one of their children, maybe.’
It was another fun Queen's Day today. Here are a few impressions of how 500,000 people celebrated in Amsterdam: canal fun, street artists, flea market sidewalk sales, folks in orange.
Wednesday the 30th of April we
celebrate the official birthday of Her Majesty the Queen. Although
Queen Beatrix's real birthday is January 31, when she ascended to the
throne in 1980 she decreed that her mother's birthday, April 30, would
become Koninginnedag - Queen's Day - as a tribute to the much loved
Queen Mother Juliana.
Pangea Day is a global event bringing the world together through film.
Why?
In a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and
conflict, it's easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea
Day seeks to overcome that – to help people see themselves in others –
through the power of film.
The Pangea Day Event
Starting at 18:00 GMT
on May 10, 2008, locations in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles,
Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked for a live program of
powerful films, live music, and visionary speakers. The entire program
will be broadcast – in seven languages – to millions of people
worldwide through the internet, television, and mobile phones.
The
24 short films to be featured have been selected from an international
competition that generated more than 2,500 submissions from over one
hundred countries. The films were chosen based on their ability to
inspire, transform, and allow us see the world through another person's
eyes.
The
program will also include a number of exceptional speakers and musical
performers. Queen Noor of Jordan, CNN's Christiane Amanpour,
musician/activist Bob Geldof, and Iranian rock phenom Hypernova are
among those taking part."
The US Supreme Court delivered a 7 - 2 decision this afternoon finding that Kentucky's application of lethal injection does not qualify as 'cruel and unusual' punishment. Several states wasted no time in welcoming the decision and announcing they would be gearing up their murder mills now that the decision is in.
Kentucky along with 34 other states and the federal government use a three-drug procedure. The first drug administered is
