Filed under: Somaliland | Tags: Fear, Peace, Religion, Somalia, Somaliland, Travel
hi all.
sorry for my absence lately. the wireless connection at the nicest hotel in east-addis has crashed, so i have been unable to post all the things i write. a time will come.
sorry, also, for the lack of capital letters. the keyboard i am on is effed.
i am in somaliland now. i only have a few minutes, so i will try to outline the highlights, and then will build on it when i get back to addis. forgive me if this is all over the place.
- somaliland doesn’t exist. look at a map. it is called somalia. but the northern third was occupied by the british while the lower 2/3 was occupied by the italians. the lower portion is the part that you hear about all the time – it has been in a steady state of war for more than a generation, with no signs of stopping. somalia is the most famous failed state in the world. somaliland is different. somaliland is truly unlike any other country i have been to. here, they have known a generation of near-absolute peace. they have defined their own borders, but the southerners refuse to accept them. they have a just police force and a respected rule of law. they have a representative democracy and parliamentary elections that everyone agrees are very fair. nobody complains about corruption. it is shocking. why the world refuses to accept and celebrate this apparent success story in this troubled region is a mystery to me. if i could invest in any country in africa, i would not hesitate to chose this one.
- the country is a mess, though. the phone lines are a tangled disaster. the roads are sand and the sidewalks are semi-paved. outside of the capital, i think the world is really underdeveloped. that said, the power seems consistent, the water seems consistent, and the internet is better than in addis.
- the people are the friendliest i have ever met. they are generous and kind, and never, ever ask for anything. this is an enormous anomaly in africa, where many people want to be your friend only to ask you for favours. here, they refuse favours, and seem mostly interested in welcoming me, making me feel at home and learning about canada.
- interestingly, the government is strongly secular, but the people are devoutly religious. i asked a man if i could build a church (not that i would ever want to). he said the government would welcome it, but the people would burn it down after ensuring that nobody was inside. they are quite happy with their religion. mosques are everywhere. the women are all covered from head to toe and 30% cover their faces as well. the women are terribly beautiful. in ethiopia, where the population is split along christian/muslim lines, religion is on everyone’s tongues. here it is different, and i ended up in a very uncomfortable situation when i bought a great wood carving of “There is no God but Allah,” and everyone around me (being friendly and curious) asked if I was muslim. i said no, and they asked more questions. soon i was surrounded by a mob, and was trying my best to be honest without being offensive. i think it worked, as nobody ever seemed hostile. still, i am technically in somalia, now, and the last thing i want to do is upset the deeply held religious sensibilities of such people as these. soon a koranic teacher arrived, and invited me to sit and talk with him. we have since met a few times. we have talked a lot about islam. he speaks like all those who have given their lives to their religion, without ever really considering the validity of any others. i love 95% of islam, but the other 5% contains some terrifying and dangerous words. that people entirely accept it as the word of god (like the bible) makes me feel very pessimistic about the future of out world. for example, if a muslim encouters a non-believer (including christians and jews), they must try to convert that person to islam. if that person refuses, the koran says that they should be killed as an apostate. needless to say, i am choosing my words with great caution.
- it’s amazing to be back on the road again. i’ve missed it so. when one casts themself into the unknown, it requires a person to take on something of a different mentality. certainty is not only absent, it is destructive and stands in the way of the fullness of experience. one must sacrifice control, utilizing it only so far as is relevant to a reasonable measure of safety. one must accept and befriend fear, for this is where the beauty and diversity of the world manifest. in harar, i set off in the dark of night to visit a pack of semi-tamed hyenas. suddenly, i was standing in the darkness, with a dozen set of circling, glowing eyes trained on me from the blackness around. the eyes belonged to the 2nd largest predator in africa. soon, i was feeding them strips of meat from a 6 inch long stick in my hands, watching their jaws – some of the sharpest and most powerful jaws of any land animal on the planet – open and snap close just inches from my face. i could smell the stench of their breath and could feel its warmth on my face. my guide said “kneel down” “stay strong” … then he threw a piece of meat on my back, and three ferocious predators jumped at my back and tackled me to the ground. life changes in such moment. one does not walk away quite the same. yesterday, i boarded bus in somalia, with no english speakers, into the backwoods neighorhoods of hargesia to find a market where camels and goats are sold. i didn’t know where the bus was going. i didn’t know where it would drop me. i didn’t know how i would ever get back to my hotel. but i did, of course. i found the camel market, heard fascinating stories, had some great conversations and saw the women of this land in a new light. soon, wiht the help of friendly locals, i was headed back to my hotel. but half way back, i spotted an adventure, hopped off the bus, and wandered into the darkened alleyways of a local market. two hours later, i emerged arm-in-arm with a teacher of islam, and full of new friendship knowledge and ideas. life on the road is made of such experiences. life on the road can only truly be lived if fear is befriended, and trust is placed in the certainty of the shifting waves. i have missed the road.
i’m out of time. more to come.
peace and love
Filed under: Ethiopia | Tags: Exploitation, Gaddafi, Libya, NATO, Propaganda, Truth, UNHDI, War
29 August, 11
The Great Libya Lie
“Obviously no government can be worse than the Gaddafi regime.” John Baird; Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs
So Libya is a terrible place and Gaddafi is a terrible, terrible bastard, right? That’s why Canadian taxpayers will spend an estimated $80 million to have Canadian planes drop Canadian bombs on Libyan people: to save the people from their terrible, oppressive, corrupt government.
Well … here are some fun facts about Libya’s place in the world. Remember that NATO did NOT intervene in Iran, Egypt, Tunisia or Yemen when their people revolted. In Syria, people are still being slaughtered by their government every day, while NATO does nothing but impose weak sanctions.
According the United Nations Human Development Index (2010), which gave Libya a score of 0.755, the people of Libya, under the long reign of Muammar Gaddafi, enjoy better health, better education and more wealth than Iran (0.702), Tunisia (0.683), Egypt (0.620), Syria (0.589) and Yemen (0.439), where NATO did not intervene for the good of ‘the people.’ Overall, Libya scored 53rd out of 169 countries, better than Mexico (56), Costa Rica (62), Russia (65), Brazil (73), Turkey (83) and China (89). Indeed, Libya scored better than 17 of the 20 most populous nations on Earth, representing 63% of the world’s population. Though there are certainly well-off people in those 17 countries, there are also 99 other nations full of people that Libya outperformed, including 44 of the bottom 50 countries by HDI, that are not included in this statistic. I think it would be reasonable to assume that 75% of the world’s population has a lower quality of life than that which was provided by the long reign of the Gaddafi regime.
But that’s not all. Maybe Libya’s people have health, wealth and education, but certainly the women of Libya are oppressed, right? Not so, it would seem. According to UNICEF (2010), Libya’s “Gender Inequality” rank is 52nd (out of 169 nations). This is better than Iran (98), Tunisia (56), Egypt (108), Syria (103) and Yemen (138) where NATO did not step in to create a better society. Incidentally, in terms of gender equality, Libya also ranked better than Saudi Arabia (128), Chile (53), Argentina (60), Uruguay (54), Mexico (68), Peru (74), Brazil (80), Venezuela (64), Ecuador (86), Colombia (90), Jordan (76), Turkey (77), Thailand (69), Indonesia (100), South Africa (82), India (122) and Pakistan (112), just to name a few. UNICEF seems to think that women have it pretty good in Libya. Maybe we should bomb Mexico instead.
But the Gadaffi regime is oppressive right, and the citizens of Libya endure terrible human rights violations? Again, the truth does not seem to be so terrible. According to Gibney, Cornett, and Woods (2010), as reported in the UNHDR (2010) Libya scored 3 out of 5 for “Human Rights Violations.” Other countries scoring 3 out of 5 include: The United States of America, Israel, Greece, Ukraine, Venezuela, Tunisia, Indonesia and Turkey. Maybe Canada should send planes into the United States to overthrow their oppressive regime and protect their human rights. Stephen Harper has called Israel of beacon of hope, but they rank the same as Libya for human rights violations. That’s strange.
Countries that scored 4/5 for human rights violations (that is, worse than Libya) include: Egypt, Iran, Syria and Yemen, where NATO did not step in to protect human rights. Other countries scoring 4/5 include Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Brazil China and India. Incidentally, Colombia, where Stephen Harper has just signed a new free trade agreement with the government, got the worst possible score (5/5).
Just for fun … Canada scored 2/5, along with such countries as Switzerland, France and Denmark. Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands all beat Canada, scoring 1 out 5. Other countries that had better human rights records than Canada include: Kuwait, Croatia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Cyrus, Singapore, Oman, Kyrgyzstan, Namibia and Surinam. Way to go us! But wait!
There’s more! According to Reporters Without Border (2009), Libya received a “Press Freedom” score of 64.5. This is pretty bad, compared with Norway’s 0.0 and Canada’s 3.7, though Libya had 0 reported journalists imprisoned in the year 2009. Libya scored better than Syria (78.0; 1 arrest) and Yemen (83.4; 2 arrests) where NATO did not intervene in the name of freedom, but worse than Egypt (51.4; 3 arrests) and Tunisia (61.5; 2 arrests). Iran, which started the upheaval last year, scored worst of the bunch (104.1; 23 arrests). NATO didn’t intervene in Iran either.
Ok. So maybe the Libyan people have a reasonable quality of life, and women are fairly well empowered, and many countries have worse records for human rights and press freedom, but the Gaddafi regime is a military dictatorship, and that’s bad, right? Wrong again. Libya, the great military dictatorship did not import more than $1 million in arms in 2009 (SIPRI, 2010). Compare this with arms imports by Iran ($91 million), Tunisia ($7 million), Algeria (Libya’s neighbour at $1.5 billion, with a “B”), Egypt ($214 million), Syria ($292 million) and Yemen ($45 million). Now it’s possible that they make their own weapons, or maybe there was an embargo, but still it seems a bit unfair to pick on him because he spends his money on something other than the military. Incidentally, Libya spends 1.3% of its GDP on its military, the same percentage spent by Canada (2008; reported in SIPRI, 2010). Compare this with: Iran (2.7%), Tunisia (1.3%), Egypt (2.3%) and Syria (3.4%). And just for fun, check out: the USA (4.3%), and Israel, that beacon of hope (7.0%, more than five times the Libyan proportion). Who is a threat to their neighbours?
Ok, ok. But the Libyan people are dissatisfied with their government, right? Wrong again. We are told that Libyans are miserable, but in 2008, only 2,100 people fled from Libya (UNHCR, 2010). Compare this with Iran (69,000), Tunisia (2,300), Algeria (9,100), Egypt (6,800) and Syria (15,200). And speaking of dissatisfaction, according to the Gallup Poll (2010), 64% of Libyans were satisfied with their standard of living. Compare this with: Japan (64%), France (72%) Greece (57%), Portugal (47%), Bulgaria (29%), Peru (54%), Russia (36%) and Iran (55%). Only 1/3 of Libyans were dissatisfied. And yet we helped an armed faction to overthrow their government. It’s worth nothing that the Conservatives achieved about 1/3 of the popular vote in 2011. Maybe we are next on NATO’s hit-list.
But Gadaffi is a selfish leader, who doesn’t care about his people. This is why only 88% of adults are literate in Libya (UNESCO, 2010). Compare this with: Iran (82%), Tunisia (78%), Algeria (73%), Egypt (66%), Syria (84%), Morocco (56%) and Yemen (61%). What a terrible leader this Gaddafi seems to be.
Canada, along with NATO, largely ignored the plight of Iran, Yemen, Egypt and Tunisia as their citizens rallied to topple their respective governments, all of whom scored worse than Libya on virtually every measure of human rights and quality of life. Every day reports are emerging of protesters in Syria being slaughtered as we stand idly by. Instead, we sent our planes and bombs into Libya, “to protect civilians,” to promote freedom and encourage democracy.
All this in spite of the fact that, on average, the Gaddafi government has provided Libyans with a higher quality of life, a more equal society and better human rights than are enjoyed by the vast majority of the people in the world.
So is Canada a peace loving country and a champion for freedom? Or did we support an armed uprising in a sovereign nation in order to install a government that would give Western corporations freer access to Libyan oil?
The United Nations statistics say that our government is lying to us. An estimated 11,000 Libyan civilians have died. Many were killed in our name, with our tax dollars and to our benefit.
Is this your Canada: killing civilians for economic prosperity?
I’d like to close the way I started, with the words of John Baird, the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs: “Obviously no government can be worse than the Gaddafi regime.”
No government, that is, except for the 67% of world governments that ranked lower than the Gaddafi regime for the quality of life they provided to their citizens. Lies, lies, lies. And 11,000 Libyan families watched their loved ones die over the past 6-months, which is to say nothing of the thousands of members of the pro-government forces, who risked and gave their lives to defend their nation against foreign invaders: us.
Peace and love.
27 August, 2011
(I couldn’t sleep last night, so opened my computer, and this came out very unexpectedly.)
We’re alive, you and I, for the moment at least.
Alive? What is life?
A moment of awareness perhaps, followed by another and another; a thought and a feeling as now becomes then, again and again, on and on, until it’s off.
Life: a moment of awareness; a now. So then how to live life well?
Certainly not worry; such a waste of the now. And anger too, and sadness: a once in a life-time moment of awareness, here now and never here again; a once in a life-time spent with back turned from the light, all energy focused on the bad and the sad and the mad. Once in a life-time: gone and wasted forever.
And what of desire, and want: a now that is not good enough; a now that could be better; a now that is wasted wishing for a different, and impossible now. And now it is gone, too. And now there is regret for the then that wasn’t and the now that isn’t and the what might be that never will. Another moment is lost and the end of moments is now one moment closer.
And of course, tomorrow won’t ever come; can’t ever come. Tomorrow will always be tomorrow, as today will always, always be today. Now is all there is. So now how to live well?
Love. To love is to succumb to the now, to accept the now, to embrace the now for all that it is. As soon as now becomes filled with all that now isn’t, love comes to an end, replaced by judgement and desire and regret. How can I be happy with what is real if I want what isn’t? How can I be happy if I’m not happy. And in a blink, now is already gone again, wasted again, wasted forever and never to return.
Victims of our thoughts, it is impossible to live now. Our thoughts run and run and run, from wishes to regrets to wants, always rejecting the now. “If only,” they say. If only then were different. If only now could be. Then … in that then … then I will be happy. Not now though. Now, there are just so many things that aren’t what I want. Just so many things that can, could and could have been better, if only…
But lo, what a gift is life! So many nows have been wasted, but here, blooming ever anew is another. And now another and another and another, as thought becomes feeling and moment becomes moment. Here again is another opportunity; an occasion to live, to laugh and to smile. Here again, is a chance to love, to give love and to feel love.
And soon, soon, so so soon … they will stop.
So then how to live, moment to moment? How to embrace this bountiful spring of life, as each moment lost leaves one less moment left to be lived?
Victimized by thoughts of desire and want? Trapped in feelings of anger and sorrow and regret? Choosing to reject the only thing that is real?
Or in happiness and love; in gratitude for this rare and precious treasure of a thought and a feeling and a breath. A single breath that will be only once and will never, ever, anytime, anywhere, ever be again.
And there it’s gone again already, but no matter, for here again already is another.
How shall I spend it? How shall I live?
I choose happiness and gratitude.
Now is for kindness and love.
Peace and love.
Filed under: Ethiopia | Tags: Courage, Hope, Inspiration, Jack Layton, Justice, Love, NDP, Politics
23 August, 2011
I had a pretty good day yesterday. I attended useful and interesting meetings, ate healthy food, had a good day at the gym and had a productive day at work. On the way home, I stopped into an internet cafe and checked my Facebook.
Jack Layton had died of prostate cancer.
I knew he had been sick. I had followed the conversation as his opponents attacked the NDP for appointing a rookie MP to lead the party while he sought treatment. But dead? No. He can’t be dead. Not Jack. Not dead.
Jack Layton was the leader of a political party. He will be remembered, in part, for leading that party to unprecedented successes. But for myself, and I’m sure for millions of other Canadians, Jack Layton was so much more.
Some Canadians believe that a society is measured by how it treats its weakest citizens. It is easy to cast judgement and condescension on the poor, the dirty, the criminal and the outcast. It is much more difficult to empathize with them, to hold their hands and to listen to their stories. The benefits to seeing, recognizing, accepting and loving the beautiful human being behind the poverty, anger and filth are beyond the power of words to describe. When one stops holding oneself above another person, no matter their condition, their behaviour or their past, and sees them as an equal – a brother or sister who is suffering – the beauty in their eyes quickly becomes apparent. Seeing the beauty and recognizing the human being, love quickly conquers condemnation. The desire to support them and help them to find happiness and hope comes to the fore. Caring then becomes easy.
Jack Layton cared. He dedicated his life to fighting for those people who society had rejected. He fought for the homeless, crusading tirelessly to create a more supportive system and compassionate culture for those unable to care for themselves. He fought for the poor, using what power he had to save them a few dollars here or there, knowing well how much a bus fare costs to a widow barely surviving on welfare. He fought for those whose gender identity didn’t match the societal norm, creating a more inclusive system and a more tolerant society. He fought for the criminal, choosing to empower their future potential rather than to criticize their past mistakes. He fought for compassion. He fought for tolerance. He fought for hope. He fought for love.
For those of us who believe that the greatness of Canada is measured by our goodness, rather than by our wealth, Jack Layton was our ambassador. He gave a voice – a powerful and passionate voice – to the cause of equality and justice. He gave us a vision to support, a human being to connect with and an idea to believe in. To taught us to believe in ourselves, and to fight and to fight and to fight through opposition and adversity and loss, and to keep on fighting until the fight is won. He gave us hope. He gave me hope.
Though I’ve never voted for the NDP, yesterday I lost my leader. Politics are an extension of human values, and in dedicating his life to the greatest of human values – compassion, generosity and love – he inspired me. He inspired me to stand up for my values, to speak up for what I believe is right and to never, ever back down. Though I met the man only once, and only briefly, he changed my life forever.
Thank you, Mr. Layton, for giving us a cause, a vision and a voice. Though our nation and our lives are now darker in your absence, your legacy and light live on in the hearts and minds of every Canadian who believes that goodness conquers greed, and that love conquers all. We will carry on. We will not give up. We will emerge victorious. Thank you, Mr. Layton. Thank you, and farewell.
