Source : Google photo of slaughter of whales in Europe. Synopsis :The commercial killing of whales, whale sharks, dolphins and other sea creatures goes on unabated in spite of the whole world condemning such brutal acts because many countries insist that it is there tradition and the livelihood of many fishermen depends on it but does it? This blog looks at the slaughter and suggests ways to stop it to save all the whales and dolphins that are being decimated in the name of profit.
When I went to Japan, I was shocked to see the super markets openly selling whale meat that they fry for you to take home. They also sell dolphin meat and other sea food that the Japanese are so fond of. I found no awareness among the Japanese that killing the precious whales and other mammals for food is immoral and unethical because killing them has drastically reduced their numbers that they cannot recover from easily. There has been a worldwide cry to save the whales and stop this brutal practice in Japan and elsewhere so there has been a moratorium proposed on killing them so the Japanese say that they kill the whales for "research purposes" only but fail to show what research they have done so far or what is it they are trying to find out. The killed whales end up in the supermarket but that seems to be of no concern to them or the Japanese government. They say that it is a part of their culture since ancient times so they are not going to stop killing whales for whatever purpose any time soon no matter what the world opinion is. In the meantime the slaughter goes on unabated. The whales stand no chance of survival when big ships are used equipped with powerful harpoons and whale tracking devises. These large ships are fitted with winches that haul up the dead or injured whales easily up their specially constructed ramps where the butchers go to work quickly on the still alive whales and freeze dry the meat to be unloaded to the trucks waiting at the port of call. They do not mention what research they do while they are killing the whales. The whales are the most passive plankton eating mammals that in spite of their size never harm a soul. You can even caress a whale while they look with love in their eyes. They are extremely intelligent animals and known to help drowning people by steering them ashore or to shallow waters. They shed tears when hurt and show compassion to other animals. They also breed very infrequently so it is all the more important to stop this barbaric practice of hunting them for food by some nations. But whale hunting has been practiced since a long time by many countries where it was a thriving business. The whale bones were used to make stays for women’s garments and some artisans carved the bones into intricate pieces like they still do with ivory. The fat was used to make oil or make wax for candles in the olden days. The Eskimos still kill whales for the meat it provides them but they are restricted to kill a fixed number each year and are penalized if they kill more. The Japanese have no such restrictions and routinely ignore the plea of the International Whaling Commission that has no regulatory power that Japan recognizes although many countries abide. Source : Google photo of slaughter of dolphins in Japan Now let me mention the dolphins. In Japan there is a bay where the large numbers of dolphins are herded into by fast motorized boats and then clubbed to death by the butchers. The whole bay turns red with the blood of the poor animals that cry for help but can’t escape. It is so sickening to watch that you must never go there if you have an ounce of sympathy for these gentle creatures left in you. You will cry and feel sick at such massive slaughter of dolphins in a country that claims to be a civilized country with ancient traditions and history. They claim that their tradition including whale and dolphin hunting keep it going even today. Source : Google photo of slaughter of whale shark in Pakistan In the Arabic ocean near the western shore of India you will see scores of fishermen in their dinghys or small boats hunting for the whale sharks. The whale shark is another example of the inhumanity that is heaped on them by people who see nothing wrong in killing them for money. They harpoon these slow moving giants but the harpoons are attached with inflated goat skin balloons .The whale shark tries to get away but the large number of inflated balloons create a tremendous drag on the poor animal so it soon gets very tired and waits helplessly to be killed. Source : Google photo of whale shark in Donsol, Philippines If you ever see a whale shark, you will know why they are called the gentle giants. They never attack a fisherman and one can touch them in Donsol, Sorsogon in the Philippines where they congregate at a certain time when the krill is abundant. In Donsol fishermen used to kill them but now the killing has stopped due to stringent government regulations so the tourists go there in large numbers to see and touch the whale sharks. This has increased the tourism that the small town benefits from so new hotels and lodges have sprung up there for them where the fishermen have become tour guides. Alas this is not true in India where the poor creatures are still hunted by the fishermen using their primitive and very cruel but effective methods due to lack of government regulations or the poor implementations of the laws. I appreciate the effort made here in the Philippines to save these wonderful creatures and bring tourism benefits to poor fishermen who now take the tourists in their boats to show them the whale sharks. The only NGO that tries to save the whales and whale sharks and dolphins are the Green Peace people who have their own ships that follow the Japanese whale hunting ships and try to prevent them from killing the whales but they are chased away by the Japanese ships that use powerful water hose on them. Every single whale they save from the Japanese is a triumph for them because it ensures the survival of the whales but they do not succeed all the time and face tremendous challenges due to shortage of funds and constant threats from the Japanese whaling ships that try to ram them or chase them away with water hoses. Did you know that it was the FAO of the UN that developed the mile long nets that some ships use to trawl the ocean? These nets are so destructive that catch anything indiscriminately in the ocean that depletes the ocean stocks of fish , mammals or anything that comes its way. Later the fishermen dump into the ocean all the catch they can’t sell causing massive loss of life needlessly. The NGOs have pressured the operators to abandon this destructive practice but who listens to them? We get millions of tons of food from the ocean that is brought ashore by millions of fishermen whose livelihood depends on the catch. These are small fishermen with their small primitive boats so they do minimum damage to the ocean stocks. They release immediately anything they catch that they cannot find any value in so they do not kill the ocean creatures needlessly but the big ships with mile long nets are a very different story. The small fishermen do not catch whales and dolphins although I did mention the practice of catching and killing of whale sharks in the Arabian Sea near the west coast of India and Pakistan earlier. That practice needs to stop but who stops them? Then we have ocean parks in some countries where the captured dolphins and Orcas are taught to play tricks for the tourists who snap photos furiously and clap their hands pleased with their antics. Little do they realize that these are ocean living creatures that are kept in captivity in restricted enclosures suffering tremendous stress and have attacked their trainers and killed them in Florida not too long ago. There has been an outcry from concerned people to release them into the oceans where they are most happy because after all they are wild animals but who listens? When the motivation is purely money then the animals are kept in captivity and displayed to the public that buys expensive tickets. It is really no different from the zoos all over the world where the wild animals captured from Africa and elsewhere are displayed purely for the purpose of making money. The welfare of these animals is least of their concern. When an animal dies of grief and loneliness, another one is brought in. So I will come back to the issue of whales. They can’t be captured and brought in to be placed in water tanks because no tank can be big enough for such large creatures so they are killed in the ocean for the meat or for “research purposes” by the Japanese but they are not the only culprits. Many countries in Europe and other parts hunt whale commercially and ignore the cries of people everywhere to ban to practice. They say that their livelihood depends on it. The smaller animals like seals, orcas or the dolphins do not fare well either because they are easily captured and kept in restricted ponds or tanks where they are taught some tricks in return for food so these poor animals understand that they can’t escape and the only source of food comes from their trainers so they resign themselves to live in captivity. When they are free in the ocean, they do not depend on anyone to find their food. The largest of them like whales only eat plankton and krill that are found in abundance. They are by nature not aggressive although books like Moby Dick by Herman Melville puts them in a bad light and show that whales can be aggressive. By reading this article I want you to understand that what we do to these animals is not only harmful, it is outright immoral and a great abuse so if you are a Japanese, stop eating whale and dolphin meat. That will put pressure of the whalers not to kill the whales because the market for its meat will dry up so they will have no economic incentive to continue this dreadful practice. There are very healthy alternatives to whale meat. The ocean is full of other fish that reproduce faster than whales so catching them does not deplete the ocean. Please help stop the slaughter of dolphins in the Japanese bays because there are other easier alternatives and tastier foods than dolphin meat. Please boycott the Ocean parks where Orcas, dolphins and sea lions are kept in captivity just to make money. They should all be immediately released in the ocean where they belong. Such boycott will put these Ocean Parks out of business. Please boycott the zoos all over the world where wild animals , reptiles and birds are kept in captivity where they are so unhappy. You must see their unhappiness and realize that it is wrong to keep them in captivity just to please you so that you can buy expensive tickets that makes the zoo keeper rich. Please petition to private people who keep elephants in captivity for fifty years or sell them to the circus so that they can release them in the forest where they belong. It has been reported that some elephants are so enraged that they break free and run causing mayhem, destruction and even death. Caged Chimpanzees have been known to attack and kill their handlers in zoos and tigers and lions have been known to kill their feeders in some zoos. When I was posted in El Obeid in Sudan, I saw the caged lions in the park there. The kids used to poke them with sticks through the iron bars all the time that no one stopped them from doing including their parents. It enraged the lions to no end so literally you could see the anger and anguish in their eyes because they could not protect themselves. The stress often kills the wild animals. When I was a kid, I got a green pigeon from somewhere so I put it in a cage and was upset when my eldest sister released it quietly but now I know that she was an activist and did not like to see a wild bird suffer in a cage so she did the right thing. No wild creatures deserves to be captured or killed so we all can take small steps in saving them by making the next generation aware and become conscious of their sufferings. Collectively we can bring about the changes necessary to preserve them because once they are gone, they are not coming back. Do you want to live in such a world? Do you want the future generations only to read about them in their books? Can you not learn anything from the fishermen of Donsol?
Synopsis :We see women and young girls working hard in brick factories in India and other South Asian countries under slave like conditions , poorly paid and exploited by the owners. They are treated as bonded laborers because they borrowed small sums of money they could not pay back with usurious interest. This blog looks at this sad treatment of women and suggests ways to improve their lives through government intervention. I feel so sad looking at this photo. She is a young woman who carries on her head 10 bricks that weigh at least 40 kilos total and is seen struggling to put the last two bricks on the pile that she must carry. You can see the anguish in her dust covered face while a teen age girl who is just a child is seen just behind her who is also carrying a heavy weight on her head and struggling with the task as the weight is too much for her. Do you know who they are while they are forced to do such hard work when they should be doing far less strenuous work or be in school? They are the bonded laborers in the brick kiln factories in India where they are paid pittance for their extremely hard labor to pay off the paltry sums they or their husbands had borrowed from the owner that they failed to pay off due to very high and compound rate of interest. These women and children can’t run away because they are like slaves whom the owner abuses with impunity as long as he wishes. There have been some NGOs trying to rescue these women and children from this type of slavery but were attacked by the owners or their goons and beaten up while the policemen ignore their plight. There have been token rescue efforts in the past and some children were rescued and sent to schools but there are thousands of such kilns all over the country where thousands are enslaved this way who lose their health breathing the dust every day, lose their youth and get callous hands. Many develop deadly disease like tuberculosis breathing the toxic smoke and dust everyday but they have no medical insurance to pay for their sickness so they die young. They barely earn enough to get two simple meals a day if they are lucky consisting of a few chapatis and dal. They never get any animal protein or milk because they are too poor so they are malnourished. While the Government of India promises debt relief to millions of farmers and has sent some money to them already, it could be seen more as a campaign tactic to please the voters in the upcoming elections in India. The opposition parties also make fake promises like it but do not say how they will pay the billions required for such promises. No one has promised any relief to these hard working slaves in brick factories other than passing a few laws that make it illegal to treat women like this and make very young girls work there. But these laws are ineffective because they are rarely implemented on the ground so the business is as usual for the owners. At best or worst some bribe money passes into the hands of corrupt policemen so they do nothing. Who wants to hurt a milk cow? When the NGOs complain to the police, they are told that they will look into the matter but never do because of corruption. Young activists risk their lives trying to rescue the unfortunate women and girls and rarely succeed but when they do, the policemen and the politicians take credit saying that they are implementing the laws vigorously and punishing the owners. Such news make it to the media for a while where the politicians and the policemen are seen bragging about the success while the bewildered kids and women look on and repeat what they are told to repeat on camera thanking the authorities. What they do not show is what happens to these poor and destitute women and teen age girls who are illiterate and how they are living without any money to buy the food daily. Often they run back to the factories where they get a few Rupees that they need to buy the food so nothing really changes. The NGOs are often accused by the government of foreign funding and showing India in a bad light so they are banned and their operations closed putting all their noble effort into jeopardy just because they are trying to help the women when no one really comes forward to help. The desperation for money often lures the unfortunate women into prostitution when nothing else works. The insatiable demand for the bricks for building houses and commercial building nationwide fuels these factories that work overtime to meet the demand so these poor women find it very difficult to get out of the trap they find themselves in and want to escape. But there is no escape. It reminds me of the white trash slave catchers in the United States who were hired by the slave owners to bring back the runaway slaves so it became quite a thriving business for them and they got some rewards from the plantation owners so the analogy is somewhat similar here. Source: Google photo of modern Hyderabad India is a shining example of development that has put the whole country on a fast track to become the next super power and the model of development. You will see this as soon as you land somewhere and pass through brand new ultra-modern airports, from where you are whisked away in modern subway cars to modern hotels. You will see this when you drive on 8 lane super highways crisscrossing the nation flanked on both side by glittering steel and glass skyscrapers and huge malls, parks and electronic bill boards. You will see this in the massive housing projects where millions live in gated communities in comfort. You will see this in new railways where the modern train will bring you anywhere running at 160 km/hour speed and the new bullet trains and Hyper loop are under construction. You will see this in the new dedicated railway lines only for freight. There are constructions everywhere but the poor people who build these massive infrastructures remain poor and unknown. It is just like in Dubai where the poor and abused immigrant workers from India and Pakistan build their shiny cities but go back to their slums in the evening where they live in overcrowded rooms like animals. You too will be very impressed by what you see in Dubai or in India but you will never see or get to meet the poor people who build the new cities and highways or the airports. So the demand for the bricks for the nationwide construction boom makes these brick factories work overtime and employ the poor people under slave like conditions because they continue to make the most profit by keeping their production cost low this way. In other countries people make hollow blocks by pressing the mixture of sand and cement into a mold that dries up after a few days and becomes hard. It is perhaps the easiest way to make bricks or blocks that are then used to make buildings or very tall structures. In other countries they have automated clay brick factories even in poor countries like Rwanda where a machine is used to make the clay paste that is then fed through a mold to make the brick. The dried bricks that look like hollow blocks are then put in the electric oven to bake them at high temperature so you get a beautiful orange colored hard brick that is perfectly uniform in shape, size and strength. In rural Africa they too use a mold to make their clay bricks to build their round huts but they do it through the communal effort for free so it is a joyous community affair and no one is exploited because helping each other to build their homes is not a business but a selfless service. This is not so in India. There it is a cut throat business to make as much money as possible as fast as possible using many short cuts that involve using the poor uneducated people to make the bricks that the owners sell at a high price but pay the workers a pittance from which the small loans they borrowed are deducted with interest.This is the backwardness of a country that sends satellites to Mars and is the leader in the field of information technology where the computers are used everywhere. There is another serious aspect to this backward technology of making clay bricks the traditional way. These kilns use wood to fire up so millions of trees are felled to supply the firewood need nationwide thus depleting the forest cover not to mention the need to burn bodies for cremation nationwide putting great pressure on the forest cover in the country. The brick factories also use coal to fire up their kilns but we all know how polluting coal and wood burning are harming the atmosphere but this system continues unabated. There is no move to modernize the brick making process so this method of making clay bricks continues in most parts while very poor countries like Burundi and Rwanda are using modern methods using electric ovens to bake the machine made bricks. Here in the Philippines our house was built with hollow blocks made from sand and cement so they are hard. They are then put together by expert masons who use strong cement and sand mortar to build walls and use steel rods to enforce the strength of the walls. Then they plaster the walls with cement and give it a smooth coat of pure cement as finishing. The walls are so strong that it takes two men several hours to make a small hole in it. There is no shortage of cement in the market here. We ended up using over 2000 bags of it for building our house. But in India the construction methods are very different where due to 50 degree Celsius summer heat, the walls are made super thick like 14 inches to 18 inches with sand and lime mixture as mortar. There used to be a shortage of cement due to the demand so cement is still sparingly used in private construction because most of the cement is taken by the government for the national infrastructure development. The construction methods and materials depend a great deal on the local weather, the availability of materials and the cost of labor so people still use the traditional baked clay bricks that you see in the photo above. But this blog is about the exploitation of poor women and even very young girls who toil very hard to earn just enough to feed themselves a simple meal.When they get sick or old, they lose their jobs so how they can survive? There is no social security for them and they have zero savings to rely on. They cannot go to school so they remain in their poverty trap and can’t get any other job easily even if they can get free from the clutches of the abusive brick factory owners so it continues generation after generation. I have never seen so many women working in the construction business anywhere in the world except in India, Bangladesh and other South Asian countries.
You see them building roads, sky scrapers, dams, houses, irrigation canals, airports etc. but they are used as the brick carriers or mortar and water. They do not have the skills as masons, carpenters or steel masons so they are given the hard labor job. They are seen crushing stones under the hot sun just with a hammer, carrying 40 kilos of heavy bricks, carrying water and other things, beating the mixture of sand, lime and gravel on the roof with wooden mallets to make it waterproof and numerous other jobs often keeping their kids in the shade of a tree because they do not have anyone to look after them at home. I only wish that India pays attention to the plight of these women and frees them from this virtual slavery by modernizing the brick making process and creating alternative employment for them that are less demanding and better paying. Women can be trained to assemble things in factories like they do in China or they can be trained to sew clothes, shoes and bags. In other countries women are trained to assemble cars, motorcycles or bicycles and numerous other things. In Taiwan women assemble cell phones and electronics. Women with their nimble hands can do many jobs that men can’t. I truly feel sorry for these women who carry such heavy loads on their heads day after day and continue to suffer. They should be given other options in a country like India that is fast developing into a modern country but it should not come at a cost of such hard labor done by women. They could be our mothers. Note : My blogs are also available in French, Spanish, German and Japanese languages at the following links as well as my biography: Mes blogs en français. Mis blogs en espagnol Blogs von Anil in Deutsch Blogs in Japanese My blogs at Wix site tumblr posts Blogger.com Medium.com Anil’s biography in English. Biographie d'Anil en français La biografía de anil en español. Anil's Biografie auf Deutsch Anil’s biography in Japanese Биография Анила по-русски
Synopsis :What we understand by religion depends on who we talk to so there seems to be no universal agreement on what constitutes a religion. I look at the origin of religious beliefs and how far some have deviated from what they were supposed to believe. I also look at the degeneration of religion in the hands of common people and the reasons.
We hear almost every day a massacre somewhere in the name of religion or against a certain religion known for its extremist views and intolerance for other faiths. Today it is Christ Church in New Zealand and tomorrow it may be at your doorstep somewhere. Often it is not even related to a particular religion and may be related to hate crime due to the feeling of white supremacy some people have or it may be an anti-immigrant hatred that some politicians espouse for their pitiful political gains.
One such hater took the lives of innocent picnickers in Sweden who were out to enjoy the beautiful nature while another one mowed down school children in Beslan and Sandy Hook. The motivation for such crime is a subject for the criminologists to analyze but one thing is sure. This sort of crime will happen again and again somewhere as long as some people are consumed with hate for others that may be related to intolerance for other faiths taught by their brand of religion or it may simply be due to the white supremacy feeling that is very outdated today. The recent loss of lives in Pulwama in Kashmir and India’s swift retaliation deep inside Pakistan to destroy the terror camps and killing over 300 terrorists is an example that violence always begets more violence. Today I would like to look at the origin of religion and how some religions use their teachings to create problems for others while other religions preach tolerance and love for one another. The origin : We are all in awe of the tremendous power of the nature when we see the tornados destroying entire city blocks in seconds or tsunamis carrying away whole cities and towns in one swift motion. We are in awe of such power of nature that can rain down catastrophe on anyone anytime with a power that is beyond the comprehension of the mankind. The primitive man thousands of years ago was just as impressed by this power of nature that he attributed to some higher power he started calling the providence so the idea of divine power started to take root in his mind. At first it may have been a simple idea to attribute anything he did not understand to something divine and malevolent because he saw the nature’s power in the most destructive way that made him fearful so the idea of wrath of providence became rooted in the nascent religion that was to develop later. The people started to believe that they were to be punished if they did not behave well because the fear based belief worked quite well that was to become a basic tenet of some of the organized religions that were to come later. The Christians started the idea of hellfire and brimstone, purgatory and eternal incarceration there for the bad people that the Inquisition took to a new level by torturing and burning people at stake just because their victims were humanists first and religious second. It is a favorite topic in churches where the padres use the hellfire and brimstone line to impress upon the people to behave according to the laws of their faith. The Moslems have taken the idea of intolerance to a level that has seen increasing intolerance of anyone who disagrees with them that results in their worldwide Jihad. The Sufis and the Baha’is who are known for their tolerance of other faiths have been marginalized by the hard core Islamists who have declared war against all who do not believe in their ideology to impose their will on everyone else so the ISIS terrorists and their affiliates came along to cause mayhem. They have been beaten but the idea persists in the mind of their followers. If we go back a few thousands of years, we see that the idea of an organized religion was formed when a grave injustice was done to some people. The Old Testament says that the Jews were mistreated by the Egyptians so Moses brought them out to Israel and made some rules set in stone for them all as a guide to be a better person. The Ten Commandments later became a part of the newly formed religion called Christianity but we should also know that Jesus himself never set out to create a new religion on his own. He was a rebel who fought against the evils of the Romans and the usury of the Jews who were exploiting the people so he taught the concept of universal brotherhood and tolerance but also to fight injustice. His teachings were later misconstrued by the Popes who supported the Inquisition but Jesus never preached such violence against the innocent. So we see that the basic tenets of religions can be twisted later by some people to suit their political agenda whatever they may be that has caused the loss of millions of lives since the spread of intolerance. Now we go back a few more thousands of years and come to India where the Vedic religion called Hinduism was born before anyone knew what religion was or supposed to be so Hinduism is called the eternal religion. It is not based on just one book like the Bible or Quran but is an amalgam of rules and ethics found in many Vedas and Upanishads. Most Hindus do not read any of them except a few scholars who read and understand Sanskrit so they base their faith on the epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata that are stories rather than religious texts like the Bible or Quran. Only Gita is the outcome of the battle of MahaBharata that some Hindus read in vernacular because most people do not understand Sanskrit in which it was written originally. The story of Ramayana became popular when Tulsidas wrote it in Avadhi which is a dialect of Hindi most people understand and Mahabharata was written in Bengali and Hindi for the masses to understand. The translation of Gita in many languages is also available for the common man. The fact that the Hindus are quite diverse in their belief system resulting in many branches of the faith is owed to the diversity of people itself and the regional differences among them because there is no strict definition on who exactly is a Hindu or what makes a Hindu. The dogma based religions on the other hand make sure to define the adherents in no uncertain terms and require people to repeat the dogmas everyday in their churches and mosques. The dogmas are therefore used to galvanize people to accept the truth and the only truth that is thus propagated boxing people in so that they do not leave the religion and accept something else. The Islamists go even a step further and are told to kill anyone who leaves their faith and accepts another although most Muslims thankfully do not believe in such extreme measures. So from the primitive times to the present day we see the evolution of religions to rope people in by actively spreading their brand or converting people by coercion or force while others like Hindus and the Buddhists have chosen the peaceful ways of convincing people the values in their teachings so they do not actively evangelize like the Christians and Moslems. We also see a corruption of the original teachings found in any organized religion because of misinterpretation or false understanding of certain dogma. The Triple Talaq law as practiced by some Muslims was recently found to be unconstitutional and therefore illegal by the Indian Supreme Court bringing relief to women there although some still oppose it because it is the sharia law they obey. When we see the corruption in some Christian sects that practice polygamy and child sex abuse we know that it has nothing to do with the teachings of Christ. The moral corruption of the priests and nuns that have been exposed in many countries where children are sexually abused is another example that would have horrified Christ. Jesus never said that priests and nuns should not marry but this rule was promulgated by the Popes later on who interpreted the teachings of Jesus differently that opened the door of corruption that no one was truly exempted from entering including the Popes and Bishops. The Hindus do not have such rules and encourage all religious people to marry because they say that the marriage makes a person complete so a wife becomes a partner in living a religious life. It does not mean that some fake gurus are not sexual predators because they are and many are in jail but on the whole the Hindus live a wholesome life and not a depraved ones that comes from forced celibacy. Swami Vivekananda used to say that any religion in the hands of the common people degenerates into something else given some time so we see the birth of cults and sects based on some individuals who see profit in such person based cults and become rich. Many crooks use religion as a means to accumulate vast wealth tax free if they are good in hoodwinking the common illiterate person( Please read my blog related to this topic called The fake gurus) It happens in all organized religions because it is easy to convince the masses using certain charm and charisma and fast talking ability to part with their money. These charlatans use many tactics to accumulate vast wealth and show clearly in their TV programs how they do it. First they fill their audience with their partners in crime who pretend to be the fanatic followers who faint on cue by just a touch of a finger and then rise shouting Halleluiah they have been cured of cancer and all sorts of diseases. It impresses others to do the same because we as humans have a need to believe in something. The crooks take full advantage of this weakness in people and make huge profit. No one reads the fine print when these crooks declare Lo and behold, the lame shall see and the blind shall walk. You will notice that the Mullahs who train the young illiterate suicide bombers stay quite safe behind and send these young people to die by promising them all sorts of benefits in their afterlife that are quite easily made. This is the degeneration of religion that swami Vivekananda used to talk about that goes on everywhere so who keeps the common person on the right track and follow the dictates of his faith if not the priests and the mollahs? The only religion I know of that does not have priests is Sikh that does not believe in anyone interpreting the divine laws to anyone so there is no one between the person and the Divine. If you go to any Gurudwara, you will see a person reading the Granthasahib which is their holy text while others sitting there just listen or repeat what they hear. The Granthasahib was written in their Gurumukhi script that every Sikh understands unlike in other religions where the original script may be in Arabic that few understand or Sanskrit or Hebrew or even Aramaic that only scholars understand. So when the common man becomes dependent upon the person who interprets the script that only he can understand then it gives him a lot of power and liberty to push his own agenda that may be different from what he is supposed to teach. This is the degeneration of religion that Swami Vivekananda used to talk about. I think all religions have a role to play in guiding people to a better spiritual, moral and humane values but when this role is played by the interpreters then there is some room for mischief as we see in the corruption scandals in many religions. The Vatican itself is not spared although the present Pope is trying hard to regain people’s trust in them even if it is such a daunting task for any one person. ( Please read my blog called The Challenges facing Vatican today that is related to it) Sometimes I feel that the primitive man was a more God fearing person who lived an honest life and was always helpful and useful to his fellow beings. He was not tainted by the corruption that we find today in our societies and religions. He did not have fancy churches and temples or mosques to go to but he understood his duties and obligation to his fellow being better than the modern man. Even today the so called primitive people living in the Kalahari live by a higher standard of moral codes than us who go to churches, mosques and temples out of habit and duty than of pure religious volition to listen to the padres or Mollahs who repeat what we have heard many times and do not pay much attention to and do not practice in real life. I find among the avid church goers some of the meanest, nastiest, corrupt and immoral people who are simply put bad people who tarnish the humanity. The evolution of a faith should be positive in nature to make people better than before by keeping them honest, truthful, kind, loyal, faithful, moral, decent, dutiful, with empathy for others, sharing, caring for the needy, always doing what is right and oppose what is wrong, If any religion fails to teach these things then it does not serve the humanity in a positive way. It helps create a gap between the divine and the people that is then filled by the crooks who distort all the good values mentioned about and lead people away from it. What we need today is for the so called primitive man to teach us how to be a decent human being.
Source : Google photo Synopsis :I know that women all over the world are fighting for their basic rights and gender equality and have made some progress but in many countries they still face many challenges that they must overcome to get their rightful place as worthy partners in any society. I see a trend that is making men more aware that women are assets and can no longer be treated as before so it is a positive change.
Yesterday March 8 was the International women’s day that is celebrated in many countries if not universally so I thought of writing a few lines on the status of women today. Depending upon the country, religions and the types of societal norms practiced there, the status varies. In patriarchal societies like India and many others, women still face an uphill battle to gain equal rights and status while in strict Muslim countries where the hard core fundamentalists have the power, women are still behind men in their rights even to go to school, to have the right to choose their marriage partners and live on equal footing with the men. Malala Yousafzai was shot by a radical terrorist who had been ordered to kill her because she was promoting some thing as basic as education for all girls. Still they blow up schools for children and the Taliban routinely flog girls for going to school. Most women who live in democratic societies take it for granted their right to go to school, marry whom they choose when they come of age, drive, wear clothes they like and live where they want but these rights are not universal no matter what the UN says and no matter how many member countries pay only lip service to such proclamations like the International Women’s day because you will find that in many countries women are still fighting for their basic rights. I wrote a blog called The other halfthat might be worth a look that is related to this topic. Malala is an inspiration to all girls anywhere. The scientists say that men and women are fundamentally different from each other the way their brain functions, their sense of perception, the logic and sense of reasoning , understanding of spoken and written words, their reaction to real or perceived threats, their likes and dislikes, their resolve, their preference for certain colors, their choice of foods, clothes and their sense of smell. Did I leave out anything? Apart from the way the women are physically different from men among other things mentioned above , it puts them in a category of their own although the LGBTQ people will challenge this notion and say that they too are like women and demand the same rights as women including their right to use the Women’s public toilets but that debate is still on going. So let us set aside the drag queens, the transvestites, the tom boys and the rest and focus on women who were born with all the attributes that make them women as the word means. There is no denying that most women living in a free democratic society enjoy the rights denied them in other not so democratic countries. They can vote but this right was hard fought by them and it took them a long time to get it. Margaret Sangers name comes to mind who was a pioneer in women’s rights to have birth control but she was challenged by the fundamentalists in the United States who gave her a hard time. Rosa Parks fought for her basic rights and won it for all black people. The Lovings won their right to marry who they liked that took the intervention of the Supreme Court in the US to decide in their favor so inter race marriages are now legal and are gaining ground but someone had to be the first to stand up for her rights and suffered social disapprobation dominated by men. Malala is still fighting for all girls for their right to go to school and she has not yet won that battle in her country where the fundamentalists threaten her and all other girls. So in many countries they are still way behind their men when it comes to the basic rights enjoyed by the men and not women. It made big news when Saudi Arabia recently lifted the ban on women driving but driving alone is still banned. She must have a male relative with her as an escort but it is a small step in the right direction that may in time win them other rights. But to drive a fancy car is beyond the reach of most women in most countries where they face other issues far more important than driving a car like gender equality, freedom of speech, freedom to get an education, equal pay for the same job , a job that can lift them out of poverty, freedom to divorce abusive husbands etc. Recently the Indian Supreme Court ruled that the Muslim practice of Triple talaq is illegal and unconstitutional so the men who still practice it will face long jail time. This created quite a ruckus in the male dominated Muslim societies where the mollahs are agitating to repeal the law but the women are happy. The Triple Talaq is the way a Muslim man can divorce his wife by simply saying Talaq Talaq Talaq meaning I divorce you and can throw the woman out penniless and into destitution. The poor woman can’t get any assistance from anyone so what does she do? She loses her husband, her children and her home this way. But now the practice is banned. The Prime Minister Mr. Modi who pushed hard for this law is blessed by all women so abused.
Source : Google photo of Peshmerga girls who fought the ISIS terrorists and won. Women comprise of little more than half the humanity and have proven that they are capable of doing most of the jobs men do including the defense of the country. No one is a fiercer fighter than the Peshmerga girls who have successfully fought the ISIS jihadists in Iraq and Syria and killed them wholesale. Source : Google photo of Indian woman fighter pilot in the Air Force Women in India and Israel are fighter pilots and now take active role in the armies of these countries. I have written about how the Algerians girls fought for the freedom of their country when they joined the FLN to fight the French. The Vietnamese girls joined their brothers in their long fight as Vietcongs to gain freedom there so there are numerous examples of women joining the defense forces in their countries in record numbers. There were many women in the French resistance fighters ranks during the last world war and proved their mettle. In China women have fought the Kuomintang army with whatever primitive weapons they could muster and died in large numbers but now they are an integral part of their modern army. In America women are now joining the armed services and fighting along with men in the Middle Eastern countries so they have gained gender equality there in a positive way. They still face sexual harassment to some extent but that issue is being solved. But women do not have to prove their worth this way because they are capable of doing many things men cannot do. I will therefore quote here the following : “ Our generation is so busy trying to prove that women can do what men can do that women are losing their uniqueness. Women were not created to do everything a man can do. They were created to do everything a man cannot do.” So what can women do that men cannot do? Many women have proven to be better and wiser leaders of their country. Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Corazon Aquino, Benazir Bhutto, Angela Merkel, Margaret Thatcher and many such women come to mind. There are numerous female CEOs of large companies who are doing very well. But women prove to be more astute in dealing with state matters so two very important jobs in the current Indian government are held by women. The Indian defense minister is Nirmala Sitharaman and the Indian Foreign Minister is Sushma Swaraj who are both highly praised by the foreign governments. Women are largely responsible as the glue that holds any family together that brings a measure of stability in any society. They are also known for making the maximum sacrifice to keep it that way. It is not often that a woman deliberately destroys her family although exceptions do happen and I personally know of women who have done it for their own reasons. Women have more influence on the children than the men because a child learns many things from his or her mother including the language that forms the foundation of his or her personality. It is the mother who teaches her children all she knows, washes their clothes, prepares their food, cares for them when they are sick, soothes them when they are sad, encourages them when they need it to study harder, teaches them good values to be a better person, teaches them religion that helps them learn to be honest and truthful. Man’s role becomes secondary and more as a provider but that role too has been taken over in many households by women who are now working mothers. No one can deny the importance of mother in any family. I enjoy watching the National Geographic wild life adventure on TV where they often show how animals show how devoted they are in raising their off springs and how fierce they are in protecting them. You will see how a cheetah teaches her cubs to hunt or fend for themselves and how sea lions patiently push the reluctant cubs into water to teach them how to swim. Women do no less so the analogy with wild animals is quite apt. A woman will give food to her off springs first and eat later if there is anything left. She will teach her children the skills she learned from her mother and grandmother in cooking, house keeping and money management. Source : Google photo of a native American woman Just look at the pride in the eyes of the native American woman. She is proud of her culture, her heritage and in her ability to rely on herself for everything she needs. If you look at any American woman, you will know that she gets up very early in the morning to prepare breakfast for her kids, then brings them to school or day care center and then she goes to work. In the evening she returns home to prepare the evening meal, does laundry and numerous chores. When women fail to teach good values to their children, the result can be catastrophic. They can become social deviants ,drop outs and drug or alcohol addicts and end up in trouble. It does not mean that the father has no role to play in the development of a child specially the male child because he does. I learned many things from my father about honesty and hard work ethics but I learned more from my mother including the language. One can always make a generalization but not all mothers are ideal mothers because of their social circumstances . I was watching the story of Tonya Harding last night on TV and saw the reason for her downfall from the celebrity status she had achieved in ice skating competitions. Her mother was a divorced woman who worked as a waitress to support her daughter 's ambition to become the best ice skater in the Olympics but she resented her. She was a sour woman who saw herself as a failure due to her poverty and failed marriage so she failed to teach her daughter good values and manners . Tonya cursed and fought like boys, dropped out of school, got married to a good for nothing fellow who beat her daily, divorced him but knew that her ex-husband was planning to hurt her competitor Kerrigan to put her out of action. Her denial of the knowledge did not convince the judge who banned her from competition for life and fined her thousands of dollars plus 500 hours of community service. It was the end of her skating career while Kerrigan went on to win the silver medal in the Olympics but people soon forgot about Tonya although she was a better skater but very vindictive and with poor social manners she learned from her mother. But poverty as such is perhaps not the reason. Many poor women are wonderful people and sacrifice a great deal to raise their children properly. Swami Vivekananda used to say that the poor of India are the most religious, most generous and most honest people who try very hard to raise their kids and give them opportunities to study, get jobs and improve their lives. Women are known to bear pressure of any kind better than men and show greater resolve than men in general to overcome their difficulties. I have mentioned the Micro financing scheme in Bangladesh where women received small loans without collateral to start their business so many women took the loan to buy sewing machines to make clothes or opened a small general store and earned a living. They could send their children to school and pay for many expenses so it was a great success story. More than 90% of women returned the loan and were able to borrow more to expand their business. Their honesty had something to do with their religion that teaches them good values. I cannot praise women enough because I know my mother who was such an exemplary mother and a great woman and so is my wife. So take good care of this child, give her all the love and attention you possibly can. Give her all the opportunities to reach her full potential. One day she may be the leader of your country who will bring peace and prosperity to all. Source : Google photo of the child Those of you who still believe that you are better than women, just look at your mother.
Synopsis : The good deeds of some people as shown in the two videos below speak volumes on their own so there is no need for any synopsis. They are the good Samaritans we all admire and want to emulate.
1. https://youtu.be/ERbSldmUmRA
Source :U tube video of Sir Nicholas Winton who saved 669 children from the Nazis
2. https://youtu.be/ZIiBTP0spEA
Source : U tube video of Sir Nicholas Winton today in the BBC program
Today I just watched a video of a good Samaritan in England who has rescued over 669 children from death in Czechoslovakia in the hands of the Nazis during the last World War and brought them all to England and gave them a new life. He also asked the United States to take some of the children but they refused. He was so modest that he did this noble deed quietly but lately his wife found a diary in which he had noted in details all the names of children he had brought over to England and gave this diary to the BBC that ran a special program on it. The saved children are now grown up and came to the BBC program and gave the old man grateful hugs and kisses that brought the audience to their feet that applauded the angel.
We all have seen the movie The Schindler’s list where a German had secretly helped save many Jews from death so while the Jews were persecuted by the Nazis and sent to the death camps in Auschwitz and other such camps, we hear of Schindler and the British man who helped save so many people. There may have been other silent good Samaritans who out of sheer modesty had done the good deed that very few people know about.
In India we have a saying that says : “when you do a good deed with your right hand, do not let the left hand know about it “ It means you must not tell anyone what good things you do in life because it robs you of the glory the Good Lord bestows on you. We live in the world of evil where the mankind suffers from the persecution by those who resort to violence to push their agenda because they are evil and want to destroy the humanity that only wants to live in peace.
These evil doers never stop to create problems for others and often bring two nations to war or the prospect of war just like what has just happened in Kashmir and the swift Indian retaliation on Pakistan. We see this sort of provocation from the Pakistan terrorists based there again and again even if they are punished each time because the hate mongers are active who do not want peace and prosperity for all. They gained nothing but war and more bloodshed in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan after they attacked the World Trade Center in New York so many years ago. Yet they persist in making more mayhem elsewhere almost daily because of their mistaken ideology that propels them to commit the act of terror everywhere. The whole world is rising against them and may one day want them to face justice.
That is why it is all the more important to focus on good people who are saving lives and helping others. There are numerous NGOs that help the refugees, find new homes for them, save the women from trafficking and prostitution rings, help reconnect separated families due to war, find shelter and food for them and offer free medical help to those who need in war zones. They are the good Samaritans who constantly aid those who need and often face dangers themselves while doing so.
Many doctors ( Medecins sans frontiere or MSF) and nurses were killed in bombing when they were tending to the injured and sick people in Iraq, Afghanistan or Somalia but these brave people continue in their mission to help others disregarding their own safety. Many doctors and nurses died helping the Ebola patients in Africa but it does not deter other brave hearts to step forward knowing that they too may die.
But we find corruption in people we tend to trust like the priests who rape nuns and sexually abuse children (a recent case in South India) , people who send rescued girls from poverty to prostitution, who steal money from donations meant to help resettle refugees, who sell orphans to make money , who collect money for themselves pretending that it is for a good cause. The list of evil doers is very long indeed so there is the uphill struggle to stop them in every country where they are active doing bad things.
The big drug companies intentionally keep their drugs at a very high price to make huge profit so poor people suffer who can’t afford them but good people fight them by producing cheaper generic drugs.
The plastic makers keep on making plastic products that pollute the environment and kill the wildlife all in the name of making profit but people all over the world are fighting them by going plastic less and are recycling the waste plastic into useful things. Volunteers in India pick up waste plastic for recycling and tell people not to use plastic.
They are the good Samaritans who are trying to save the environment and the wildlife. There are NGOS that rescue the captive bears and other animals and bring them to shelters where they are given medical help and food. They are the good Samaritans. But to fight the evil in this world is an uphill task because the evils doers have the money and resources to continue their activities. The drug mafia collects billions of dollars and kills people by spreading deadly drugs everywhere but some have been caught and are on trial while others step into their shoes because of money.
People still talk about the 6 million Jews killed in concentration camps in Europe by the Nazis and have built memorial museum in Israel for them but no one talks about several millions Roma people ( Gypsies), homosexuals and other minorities killed by the Nazis and there are no memorials for them. Why no one came forward to rescue their children and bring them to safe havens? Were they less deserving than the white children who were saved by the good Samaritans? Why no one talks about them and exposes the brutality they were subjected to?
The tyrants of this world who brought great sufferings to people by massacres and tortures are celebrated by erecting their huge statues in Samarkand and Ulan Baatar while Idi Amins of the present era have never faced the justice because they were protected by other evil people.
Is there a single memorial to honor the millions of Native Americans who only wanted to live in freedom and preserve their way of living but were massacred by the whites? Why such crimes perpetrated by the white settlers are not mentioned in the text books given to children in America?
There are many things wrong in this world that need redressing but who fights the evil except a few good Samaritans who are weak and powerless but with good hearts to do what is right?
What we need today is the collective will of people who are courageous and are willing to take the risk of standing up to the evil in this world and fight them but they need the help and support of their elected governments.
In some countries there are no elections or fraudulent ones that put bad people in power who then abuse it to gain profit so such people personify evil. In other countries good people , minorities and people of different faith are persecuted by those who are evil and do it for political reasons to stay in power. But a day of reckoning is coming for the evil doers in this world because the weak and powerless have the power of good heart in them who will overcome all the evils of this world even if they sacrifice themselves in large numbers. We should be thankful to all the good Samaritans who have the courage and the will to face such challenges and who motivate others to do what is right, not just some of the time but all the time, not just for some people but for all who suffer.
Good Samaritan law
Good Samaritan laws offer legal protection to people who give reasonable assistance to those who are, or who they believe to be, injured, ill, in peril, or otherwise incapacitated. The protection is intended to reduce bystanders' hesitation to assist, for fear of being sued or prosecuted for unintentional injury or wrongful death.
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