1 Man's Death vs 40.3 Million Lives - Why does death win?
I was ill. I had a temperature. It felt like the entire Scottish Rugby Team was jumping on my head. My whole body ached. Yes folks – I was ill.
I was also bored. They had gone to Sahara. They wouldn’t return until the next day. They had gone to Tadiwala Road. They wouldn’t return until night. They had gone to City of Child. They wouldn’t return until the weekend. Yes folks I was bored.
Bored. That was my emotion. Everyone had gone. I was all alone – 5 hours with nothing to do – then SAVED…the tv was fixed Hallelujah!!!! (By professionals this time!)
The day was slow – here’s how it went!
-I had the tasty vegetarian option of chicken soup
-Watched a good movie – David returned home mid-way
-We waited for a cheesy advert to finish – which turned
out to be a movie
-Enjoyed the musical talent of the killer plant in Little
Shop of Horrors
-Watched Ross break his hand in Friends
-Went out for food in the anticipation of Scrubs
-Found out how to tip with Mr Bean
-Watched the hazards of golf on the roof in Scrubs
-Then…switched on the news, which finally brings us to
the point of this blog.
Now, after that our collective minds have gone blank – we don’t know where to start. It’s 11.11pm on the roof of the Deep Griha Cultural Centre. The moon is bright in a sky of twinkling stars; we are eating orange frutella and admiring the shadowy outline of the palm trees. Oh yes the blog… we seem to have gotten a little off track – if only you could see the palm trees you would understand. They however are not the point of this blog. The stars and the moon are not the point of this blog. The point of this blog starts with a man’s death.
On Thursday 8th June the murder of Al-Zarqawi hit news channels across the world. Al-Zarqawi was the self-proclaimed leader of al-Qaeda and long-time ally of Osama Bin Laden. He was an evil man, but without any thought to his family or friends – yes he was human – his death was broadcast as ‘a great success’. The thing we can’t understand is why was he given the easy way out? Was dropping a bomb on his head really the best form of punishment that we could think up?
Wouldn’t it have been more detrimental to him to be locked up in a cell for the rest of his life and having to watch everything he has fought to destroy, rise up in triumph?
When did our world start to distinguish between a murder that is considered right by society’s standards and one that is considered wrong by the same standards? Who gave anyone the right to play God? Isn’t it right that we have the power to arrest and give punishment but not the right to take a life? Just because terrorists take this route do we have to conform to their ways? If we do aren’t we just as bad? We teach our children not to hit back – why don’t we teach ourselves the same lessons? We tell our children to walk away but then we go and blast people with fucking bombs. What example are we setting to future generations? "See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction." —Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 3, 2003 – George Bush
The way we choose our words can be very important as to how we perceive ourselves. If we say ‘we are determined to beat them’ with the possible connotation of kill, is that not just sugar-coating the fact the we are going to take more lives. Mr Blair must have spent time choosing his words carefully so as not to be seen as the executioner.
The second point of this blog starts with the little runny thing at the bottom of the news channel. We caught a glimpse of a tiny piece of information. We waited for it to re-appear through ‘world news’, ‘entertainment’, ‘sports’, ‘health’, ‘commercial’ and finally around came ‘science’.
“Scientists are developing a new way of tackling HIV by creating a drug that blocks the assembly of virus cells.”
That was it. Potentially, there is an opportunity to save the lives of 40.3 million people. Where do we go from here? The death of 1 man took over at least 3 news channels (more world-wide), the possibility to cure millions of lives was given a second or 2 running along the bottom of 1 of them.
We would say that developing a vaccine for HIV would be the greater achievement however the media seems to think that death is the answer. Mr Blair would at least seem to spend more time choosing his words about situations where as Mr Bush says “I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe — I believe what I believe is right."
Esther & David (& Hans…sort of)
"I'm also mindful that man should never try to put words in God's mouth. I mean, we should never ascribe natural disasters or anything else to God. We are in no way, shape, or form should a human being, play God." —George W. Bush, ABC's 20/20, Washington D.C., Jan. 14, 2005
I was also bored. They had gone to Sahara. They wouldn’t return until the next day. They had gone to Tadiwala Road. They wouldn’t return until night. They had gone to City of Child. They wouldn’t return until the weekend. Yes folks I was bored.
Bored. That was my emotion. Everyone had gone. I was all alone – 5 hours with nothing to do – then SAVED…the tv was fixed Hallelujah!!!! (By professionals this time!)
The day was slow – here’s how it went!
-I had the tasty vegetarian option of chicken soup
-Watched a good movie – David returned home mid-way
-We waited for a cheesy advert to finish – which turned
out to be a movie
-Enjoyed the musical talent of the killer plant in Little
Shop of Horrors
-Watched Ross break his hand in Friends
-Went out for food in the anticipation of Scrubs
-Found out how to tip with Mr Bean
-Watched the hazards of golf on the roof in Scrubs
-Then…switched on the news, which finally brings us to
the point of this blog.
Now, after that our collective minds have gone blank – we don’t know where to start. It’s 11.11pm on the roof of the Deep Griha Cultural Centre. The moon is bright in a sky of twinkling stars; we are eating orange frutella and admiring the shadowy outline of the palm trees. Oh yes the blog… we seem to have gotten a little off track – if only you could see the palm trees you would understand. They however are not the point of this blog. The stars and the moon are not the point of this blog. The point of this blog starts with a man’s death.
On Thursday 8th June the murder of Al-Zarqawi hit news channels across the world. Al-Zarqawi was the self-proclaimed leader of al-Qaeda and long-time ally of Osama Bin Laden. He was an evil man, but without any thought to his family or friends – yes he was human – his death was broadcast as ‘a great success’. The thing we can’t understand is why was he given the easy way out? Was dropping a bomb on his head really the best form of punishment that we could think up?
Wouldn’t it have been more detrimental to him to be locked up in a cell for the rest of his life and having to watch everything he has fought to destroy, rise up in triumph?
When did our world start to distinguish between a murder that is considered right by society’s standards and one that is considered wrong by the same standards? Who gave anyone the right to play God? Isn’t it right that we have the power to arrest and give punishment but not the right to take a life? Just because terrorists take this route do we have to conform to their ways? If we do aren’t we just as bad? We teach our children not to hit back – why don’t we teach ourselves the same lessons? We tell our children to walk away but then we go and blast people with fucking bombs. What example are we setting to future generations? "See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction." —Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 3, 2003 – George Bush
The way we choose our words can be very important as to how we perceive ourselves. If we say ‘we are determined to beat them’ with the possible connotation of kill, is that not just sugar-coating the fact the we are going to take more lives. Mr Blair must have spent time choosing his words carefully so as not to be seen as the executioner.
The second point of this blog starts with the little runny thing at the bottom of the news channel. We caught a glimpse of a tiny piece of information. We waited for it to re-appear through ‘world news’, ‘entertainment’, ‘sports’, ‘health’, ‘commercial’ and finally around came ‘science’.
“Scientists are developing a new way of tackling HIV by creating a drug that blocks the assembly of virus cells.”
That was it. Potentially, there is an opportunity to save the lives of 40.3 million people. Where do we go from here? The death of 1 man took over at least 3 news channels (more world-wide), the possibility to cure millions of lives was given a second or 2 running along the bottom of 1 of them.
We would say that developing a vaccine for HIV would be the greater achievement however the media seems to think that death is the answer. Mr Blair would at least seem to spend more time choosing his words about situations where as Mr Bush says “I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe — I believe what I believe is right."
Esther & David (& Hans…sort of)
"I'm also mindful that man should never try to put words in God's mouth. I mean, we should never ascribe natural disasters or anything else to God. We are in no way, shape, or form should a human being, play God." —George W. Bush, ABC's 20/20, Washington D.C., Jan. 14, 2005
posted by Volunteer at 4:22 am
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