May 4, 2011

I wanted to write something yesterday and I put this blog together, but my content reviewer, Steve, said no, it’s all too fresh and too hot – don’t enter into a battle with words on something so contentious. But that’s what this blog is about right? A platform to offer “my” opinions, whether they are right or wrong, because we all have ideas about things and by launching this blog, I decided to declare mine to the world. So I’ve been thinking about what Steve said long and hard, but I still want to write this. I don’t think I’m right here, I just want to share a point of view and would be very pleased to hear what others think – not just about what I think, but about what YOU think. Discussion is what keeps me going. On Sunday, I really did appreciate that many in the US needed to “celebrate” the news of Osama’s demise. I missed being in WTC1 by the skin of my teeth, cancelling a meeting there the night before – so I do understand the emotion wrapped around that day. Walking the streets of NYC in the aftermath of 9/11 will stay with me forever, especially all of the photos on the Battery building. It was very powerful and very very sad. But it’s not just 9/11 that we link his face to. It’s linked to all the bad that has befallen not just America, but the world in recent decades – London, Spain, Bali, Africa, Yemen, India, Pakistan, and everywhere else a bomb has killed innocent people, as well as the excuse for Iraq and Afghanistan + its aftermath – where tens of thousands have been killed (estimates go from 90,000+ to over one million by the way.) Some people have suffered tremendously, losing loved ones, becoming maimed, having their way of life become a living terror, being orphaned and so much more – but it’s not just “the Christian nations” that have suffered. Thousands of Muslims all over the world continue to suffer at the hands of terrorists, but they also suffer through our ignorance and racism. Muslims are linked to this man and his ideals because they share the same religion, but that is all they share. Ask any Muslim and most will tell you he is not one of us. I asked a Muslim on Sunday how he felt about the news? He said, I feel great but Osama wasn’t one of us. He was something separate – he doesn’t represent me or my Islam. I didn’t ask him because I considered him linked to Osama because of his religion, I asked him because I wanted to know how a Muslim was responding to the news and the way it was being “celebrated.” He said he wasn’t comfortable with the celebrating and that it would potentially create even more problems. Well we all know that right? I really believe that now is a chance to take the moral high ground, because how this is handled now can improve things or make things worse – because one thing is for sure, nothing is going to change because Osama bin Laden is dead. If anything, I believe it will get worse, unless we wake up and really see the opportunity we have. Am I pleased Osama is dead? I don’t know if pleased is the right word. Does it make me sad that people like him exist in the world, hurting millions in their lifetime – absolutely, but then, it’s not about an individual, but about the world we live in creating opportunities for people like him to exist. That is the crux of the issue for me. How do people like him even exist? Well because people are doing bad things in his part of the world and eventually, when enough bad shit happens, people like him rise up and start fighting back. That’s the part of the story we seem oblivious to. While we’ve all been focused on this “War on Terror,” one question still hasn’t been answered and that is the why? Why do people like bin Laden do what they do? What motivates them? When September 11th hit, many of my American friends said “why do they hate us so much?” and I said: “ you really don’t know what your government and other European governments, along with your big corporations have been doing in that part of the world for 100’s of years? Really?” To this day, people are still not asking THAT question and most are unable to appreciate that there is ALWAYS another side to a story. The Christian World has plundered and disrespected the “Muslim” world for over 1,000 years and people in that region are pissed off. They’ve had enough and they have valid reasons for feeling this way. Let’s go back a couple of thousands years briefly (or not so briefly) and try and understand where it’s all coming from. These bullets are directly attributable to J.W. Smith, who wrote “The World’s Wasted Wealth II.” While I appreciate that this is long, if you even read three bullets, you’ll get a great sense of why we are going through all of this bullshit today! • “The Roman, Byzantine, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French, English, and Ottoman empires all demanded tribute from their outlying provinces and continually consumed this wealth-and eventually wealth from the center-defending against encroachment by competing empires • The Romans extended their empire around the entire Mediterranean Sea and part of the Bible is the record of battles resisting subjugation in the peripheral province of Israel. After 300 years of persecution, during the 4th century A.D., Emperors Constantine and Theodosius made Christianity the state religion and “forbade the worship of ancient pagan gods” • Over the next 1,100 years, as the Roman Empire in the West was overwhelmed by barbarians, the people of Turkestan – who had a long history of conquest and defeat, back and forth, with China, Mongolia,