OznAsia

On Sunday night I watched the BBC's review of the week's news. It showed the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan along with Barack Obama showing their solidarity and talking about the need to suppress the Taliban in these two countries. And of course there is the suggestion that is so often raised that if the Taliban take control of Pakistan they will have access to Pakistan's nuclear weapons. The thought is planted in our minds but no one seems to want to take this suggestion any further. We are left with the thought to do what it will in our minds.

I want so much to give Barack Obama a chance. He talked about the need for change and he talked about withdrawing from Iraq. Is this man sincere? I hope so, but...

And then it dawned on me. Change? Nothing has changed.

I cast my mind back to the late 60s and early 70s, to the time of the Vietnam war. The justification for that war was the domino theory—if one country fell to communism all the others would fall too like a row of dominoes. We were inculcated with the fear of communism to entice us to accept that war just as now we are inculcated with the fear of al-Qaeda and extreme Islam so that we support today's wars.

Did the communist dominoes fall as we were told they would after Vietnam won the war?

'If you want to shrink something, you must first allow it to expand.
If you want to get rid of something, you must first allow it to flourish.
If you want to take something, you must first allow it to be given.
This is called the subtle perception of the way things are.'

Ajahn Sumano Bhikku
Monk in the Mountain

Labels: Barack Obama, Buddhism, Islam, propaganda, religion, terrorism, US, Vietnam

Friends, please do not worry. I am not in Mumbai. As it happens I have already moved on from India and these blogs are being posted after the event.

Nor am I in Bangkok. Please don't worry I've reached my next destination and feel very safe.

Labels: Asia, communication, India, news, politics, terrorism, thailand, travel

I've written before about the unfortunate need we humans appear to have—we must have someone to hate. I'm not sure why but it is unfortunately one of our traits. When I was growing up we were taught, perhaps in subtle ways, that we should hate the Catholics we walked past on the way to and from school. It seems they were also taught to hate us.

Australian Protestants and Catholics seem to get on much better now but unfortunately it seems Muslims have become the new Catholics. It is so easy to point the finger and say those Muslims are terrorists but we seem to ignore the fact that it was our Western alliance that invaded Iraq on a flimsy pretext.

I believe if we are to stop the bloodshed coming from each of our societies those of us who disagree with it should stand up and be counted. I'd like to think I'm doing that from time to time through this blog.

It is up to Muslim people to also stand up and say that they disagree with the killing that is done in the name of Islam. The reason for writing this blog is to share with you an example of just that. This is an inspiring poem written by a Muslim woman in India. I hope you'll read it.

Labels: blog, politics, terrorism

An article in the Nation newspaper in Thailand recently reported on an international health conference held in Sydney. An announcement was made from the conference giving an opinion that governments concern themselves too much with fighting terrorism while obesity is killing millions more. Isn't it ironic. We focus so much on the enemy out there when the greatest danger we face is ourselves.

Labels: politics, terrorism, trust