Fear and Loathing on 9/11

Now, the American people have got to go about their business. We cannot let the terrorists achieve the objective of frightening our nation to the point where we don't conduct business, where people don't shop.

- George W Bush (October 11, 2001)

9/11. Thousands of Americans were murdered senselessly through acts of aggression.

I can't but think what might have been. If we had true visionaries, true leaders, some ten years ago. But our society is one based on greed, consumptive consumerism, and violence. And our leaders are in place to keep us on task. And so that is the route we went. We could have stood in union with the suffering around the world. We could have moved towards lasting internal and international peace. But we were told - and we bought - that shopping is brave, that retribution is psychologically healing, that violence is strength.

We reacted through war and buying until we killed nearly a million people and destroyed many other lives through our economic policies.

from Dr. K Trotter blog

As I ponder and think back through my own natural jingoistic reactions, (how upset I was when I saw fewer flags on one block than on another. How I laughed at jokes at local Muslims' expense. How I wanted to get them sumsobiches) I wonder that 9/11 should have been a time for somber solidarity - for recognizing that even America is fragile. That we are connected to the thousands upon thousands who die daily in countries ravaged by starvation, AIDS, malaria, genocide, widespread poverty, oppressive regimes, and (largely connecting all these dots) globalization.

Globalization, by the way, was one of the primary rallying points for the Al Queada terrorists. When we deploy American imperialistic forts throughout sacred shrines, we are dismissing people groups and what is most important to them. How do we rationalize that our felt needs are more important than theirs?

9/11/01 should have been a moment of recognizing our shared humanity, the fact that we are all precious, that we all bleed, that we can live in moments of fear. But it became a time for more hubris. Instead of asking, "Why does violence happen to any of us?" we asked, "Why should violence happen to US?"


Now is the time to reflect. Now is the time to empathize and hear the suffering of not only our next door neighbors, but of our neighbors in Cambodia, in Nigeria, in Laos, in Ukraine, in Mexico, in the Phillipines, Puerto Rico, in North and South Korea, in Vietnam, in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now is the time for healing and strength that can only be found by banding together.

The Fourth of July in Sri Lanka

The week leading to the birthday celebration of the United States tends to be the biggest for my good blogger friends. Kurt Willems and Carson Clark and other moderate-to-progressive (for America, at least) Evangelical writers tend to generate a lot of heat for being Debby Downers while every body else is blowing crap up and singing "God Bless Amurika For Being the God-Blessingest-Country-Evah!!!" The genius in their writing is that they are Americans who belong to a tradition that often confuses America with God and who critique America as not being God nor Godly.

But my favorite Fourth-of-July post this year did not come from an American. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was not meant as a Fourth-of-July post. It just happened to be released on that date, and simultaneously speaking of the need for democracy, action, and liberty.

But not in the sense that those words have been co-opted to mean what they don't mean. Sri Lankan Vinoth Ramachandra is speaking of the need for the oppressed to rise with the oppressors and shake off the bounds of our oppression.

The gods of “ limitless growth” and “consumption” brook no rivals. For all the posturing of Western governments on human rights and human dignity, we know how deeply they have become indebted to repressive political regimes such as the Chinese and how deeply enmeshed they are in exploitative financial systems from which they cannot extricate themselves, even if they wished to. Like the client-kings of Rome, depicted in the Book of Revelation, Western governments have capitulated to the Beast and do his bidding (while pretending to be politically sovereign)...

If Greek coffers are empty, it is not because of social benefits given to the sick and the poor; but, rather, the irresponsibility of Greek business corporations who hid their profits in off-shore tax havens. Rich Greeks, with the blessing of their politicians, enjoyed public services while not paying for them. (And the Greek Orthodox Church, owner of vast assets, has also been exempt from taxation). But it is the middle-and working classes who are now being forced to practice “austerity” to rescue Greece from bankruptcy. Moreover, Greece is being charged interest higher than the eurozone rate. Like global warming and subprime mortgages, it is the poor who forced to pay for the sins of the rich.

Reforms in the financial sector, whether in the US or Europe, are purely cosmetic. None of the institutions and individuals who were responsible for the foreclosures of peoples’ homes have been brought before courts of law. Banks seem to be exempt from the bankruptcy procedures that apply to ordinary people and small businesses.

All this speaks of political failure. The racists, the corrupt, and the mediocre have taken over parliamentary assemblies. Even highly intelligent and moral leaders like Barack Obama have their wings clipped by financial elites. Politics in Canada and Italy is no different from India or Thailand. Given these failures of governments all over the world, isn’t it time for more of us to be get out on the streets like the courageous men and women in Athens, Damascus and Bahrain? Direct democracy is when the people themselves directly claim the right to decide the laws and policies that will shape their collective life. Their chosen representatives have betrayed them in favour of unelected business and banking tycoons.

I'm of the opinion that international Christian voices need to be listened to in the churches in the States. The very voices that can speak directly, authoritatively, and clearly about hard truths that those of us in the US - even those of us who try to speak up for the developing world - cannot quite fathom or imagine.

This is the voice that your local pastor needs to hear.

News

• I may never have liked the idea of CleanFlix. I may have thought that the originators of this idea (where the naughty bits in movies are edited out by a machine) should have picked another way to fight what they felt was indecency in film. And I would have definitely suggested that Christians should either watch movies that they believe in or not (or just show some discretion in how much they inundate themselves with and when it's ok and when it's not), but I never would have figured what a creepy flippin' perv one of the [Edit] alleged co-founders is. (Apparently, there's some confusion about what role this man has had or does have with Clean Flix, especially since it opened up a new service once the government called it illegal censoring.) There's a special ring for him... [h/t to Peter Chattaway]
  
• My wife wants ice cream again. She's nuts! It just snowed a foot within the last week. Half a foot within less than a day. I should just mutilate some snow, plop it on a cone and tell her it's a new flavor.
  
• But I won't. 'Cuz I love her.
• Voting is by Tuesday. I have to make a decision soon. And I'm stuck between the fighting pugilist and the optimistic dreamer. It's almost like choosing between LBJ and JFK. We know who got things done, but we also know who's vision it was that fueled Johnson and his energies. Also, what I fear is that this country is too conservative to elect a black man or a woman (especially one as demanding - to put it nicely - as Clinton) at this point. Which means that I think the all-consuming, post-9/11 vote-of-fear will go to whoever gets the Republican nomination. So, I'm wondering if I should cast my vote for McCain now. Although I do like Huckabee (probably because I don't know too much about him). You know what? I'm just glad Giuliani's out of the running. I think I can breathe easier now.
• We won't let these knuckle-heads babysit. But if they want to stick their tongues in a socket on their own, who am I to judge?
  
• The Bulls are super-sucking. I haven't blogged about them all year because they're badder than bad.
• In Brazil, and just in time for Carnival, police entered into Rio's shantytowns of Jacarezinho and Mangueira with automatic weapons and armored vehicles and killed seven alleged gang members. It's nice to know that the tourism industry turns the fascism crank in South America too.
• While we're talking about the poor, some really are eating dirt. And please don't tell me that what we do here with our money doesn't affect how other people live - or die. I don't wanna live a guilty life, but I don't want to pretend anymore.
  
• This town is either stupid or crazy. And no, I wouldn't want to live in a small dairyville that would try to arrest the president or vice-president of the United States of America, in the United States of America, until he can be "extradite[d] to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them." I'd rather not die in a hail of bullets.
• Apparently, Britney Spears is mentally ill. We had our suspicions - to say the least - a long time ago. But we kept watching her fall from grace with binoculars, endangering her children and everyone else near her - including herself - for well over a year. And the trailers I've seen for Remember the Spartans movie (besides overall sucking and not doing anything new) are, well, mean-spirited in that they highlite her erratic behavior.
  
• That's enough preaching for today.
  

Kenya on the mind

I just did a search on Kenya on my Google News Reader. Nothing since the 5th. A week and a half ago.

Nothing.

Not a blurb.

Not a peep.

As if the country stopped existing.

Or maybe as if everything is just fine and dandy again. And just as it should be.

Status quo.

And I suppose that's how it is. Once again.

The status quo of our news coverage is that we chomp down on international horror stories until we've had our full. And then we vomit. And then we gorge down on Britney Spears and have our full of that until those days are beyond us.

As if we're afraid to chew on and digest slowly the bitter roots that happen around and, indeed, within us. We have tasted it (or so we think), and that is enough. Give us saccharine.

I am a bit frustrated. Not just about this particular instance. Or the many similar (albeit in larger scale) ones from before (Liberia, Afghanistan, various regions of Iraq, Rwanda, Bosnia...). But what I see in myself as a willingness to go along with the tide. To be satisfied in being satisfied. To think that what goes, goes. And so should I.

Fortunately, the voices of the shut-out don't shut up.

Pastor Eugene Cho from Seattle had a guest blogger on his site last week who talked and amalgamated and linked to and wrestled with stories on Kenya.

This is my favorite of the three part series. It is from the mouths (er, keypads) of the countrymen/women themselves. Here are a few excerpts:

I was watching CNN as opposed to Kenyan television channels because I wanted to see what the world was saying about us. The world is saying that Kenyans, who had been on the brink of one of the most astonishing democratic transitions witnessed in Africa, degenerated, very conveniently for the West’s stereotypes, to a ‘business as usual: chaos and anarchy right on schedule’ version of the African story. These broadcasts are brimming with just barely-suppressed glee at being able to say that tribal violence is tearing the East African nation of Kenya apart, long regarded as an exemplary bastion of stability in the region. We have confirmed some cherished stereotypes and validated many racists worldwide. (read directly here)

By the way, how come CNN does not cover American soldiers or civilians bleeding and writhing in pain, yet they show such images from other places?? (here)

and:

Our politicians are not suffering. They have running water. Milk, eggs, bread, meat and even cake are delivered to their doorsteps. It is me and you, my friends, who risk being beaten up by mobs and shot by the police as we look for milk and bread for us and our own. And while our brothers and sisters and cousins and nephews and nieces are dying, pseudo-leaders wallowing in crass stupidity appear on TV to grandstand, blaming the chaos on each other. Listen, nitwits. We are not interested in your grandstanding and finger pointing. We want solutions. (here)

Kenya??

I suppose I would have never figured Kenya to devolve into these tactics. Maybe, no, especially, their neighboring countries. But not Kenya.


I knew it was a corrupt state. But I always thought that it was more, um... civilized, I suppose. I sound ignorant. And despite the fact that I once knew a good number of Kenyans, I am.

I wonder if, though, this had happened here in the US in 2000, after our hotly contested, and highly controversial presidential election (to put it nicely), how things would have turned out differently.

But rape and machetes and water cannons and banning of political marches and burning of villagers hiding in a church? There is a lot of desperation, and I suppose that I do not know nearly as much as I thought I knew about the state of the downtrodden and poor and ethnic conflicts (way to go, stupid imperialism!) in that nation.

Pray for Kenya. Pray for Kenyans.

By the way, from what I've read from the BBC: Focus on Africa magazine for this quarter, the two top contenders (incumbent Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga) are very similar - at least in terms of policies and political views. (Note: The Time article confirms this. Also worth a read for a brief recap and catch-up on the reasons behind the rioting and ethnic killings.) Odinga is calling himself a reformer, but apparently the only thing that will change if he's in power will be the temperament of the president - Kibaki is seen as laid-back and indifferent while Odinga is seen as a hot-head who does not suffer disagreements.