Exploitation Is Rape !, Revisited

This is a reprint of a post from Aug, 19, 2008. It’s still very appropriate…

People, traditionally suppressed in their complaint about exploitation, are rising up !

From CommonDreams.Org: Chevron Lobbyist: ‘We Can’t Let Little Countries Screw Around With Big Companies’ “Chevron Hires Lobbyists To Squeeze Ecuador in Toxic-Dumping Case”

From OneWorld.Net: Activists Applaud India Coke Plant Closure “Coca-Cola has shut down its bottling plant in Sinhachawar, India following a vigorous community-led campaign that protested the factory’s illegal occupation of land and exposed its “shocking” levels of pollution, reports a local corporate abuse watchdog.”

First men, then corporations run by men. First women, then mother earth…

What supports us as a human family has been and is being raped. People with no discernable heart are walking on our hearts with filthy, greedy boots.

The little “boy”, who used to dote on his “mother” and was her pride and joy, has reached “adolescence” and is threatening to sever relations with his best support.

Thank God all this is relatively temporary: people are rising up and saying no, mother earth is showing us some tough love, corporations that used to be free of opposition are facing tough times.

I feel today’s quote will add perspective to the issue:

“A candid acknowledgement that prejudice, war and exploitation have been the expression of immature stages in a vast historical process and that the human race is today experiencing the unavoidable tumult which marks its collective coming of age is not a reason for despair but a prerequisite to undertaking the stupendous enterprise of building a peaceful world. That such an enterprise is possible, that the necessary constructive forces do exist, that unifying social structures can be erected, is the theme we urge you to examine.”
The Universal House of Justice, 1985 Oct, The Promise of World Peace, p. 1

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Mother Earth Is Crying

What will it take for the leaders, political and corporate, to stop killing the very environment they use to make their profits?

From IC Publications, News from Africa: West Africa’s coastline redrawn by climate change: experts

From the Canberra Times: Adjusting for climate change a shared task

From Agence France-Presse: ‘Clock ticking’ on global warming: UN climate chief

One barrier to resolving this crisis is the highly fractured nature of our world community. There are, taking an opinionated survey, a few leaders of countries, some members of legislative bodies, a larger group of leaders and lobbyists for corporations, a number of representatives to global institutions, many leaders of religious communities, a few very rich people, and The Rest of Us . . .

Most of those groups are at-odds with each other.

Most people are struggling to just get along—making ends meet—dealing with depressive tendencies . . .

Many of our fellow family members in the world community are being treated like expendable non-entities!

Here are some personal responses, from Orion Magazine, to this crisis:

Storm’s Coming

Six Authors Respond to Climate Change

Recently Orion asked six authors to describe what the changing climate is doing to them personally–how it is affecting their hearts and souls. Here’s what they had to say:

A Quartet by Gretel Ehrlich

Anticipating Our Future by Jared Duval

Seeing Paradise by Jay Griffiths

The Source of Hope by Peter Sawtell

The Inner Climate by Pico Iyer

The Moral Climate by Carl Safina

The solution is not easy. The resolution of disunity is The major challenge facing humanity.

Today’s Spiritual Quote:

“Our efforts now and in the future to safeguard our common habitat and to promote the well-being and development of all peoples must be characterized by a unified approach within an effective universal framework. The unity we envision is more than an academic matter of geography, climatology or oceanography. It is based on the concept of the fundamental unity of mankind living as one world community, in which the problems of economic relations and the use of natural resources must be addressed from a global perspective with due regard for the wide diversity of climates and cultures. The universal framework proposed by Bahá’u’lláh over one hundred years ago calls for universally agreed-upon and enforceable laws, the equitable sharing of resources, fundamental adjustments to present institutional and economic relations, and world-wide changes in the values, behavior, and consumption patterns of individuals and communities.”
Bahá’í International Community, 1990 Aug 06, Environment Development

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Exploitation Is Rape

People, traditionally suppressed in their complaint about exploitation, are rising up !

From CommonDreams.Org: Chevron Lobbyist: ‘We Can’t Let Little Countries Screw Around With Big Companies’ “Chevron Hires Lobbyists To Squeeze Ecuador in Toxic-Dumping Case”

From OneWorld.Net: Activists Applaud India Coke Plant Closure “Coca-Cola has shut down its bottling plant in Sinhachawar, India following a vigorous community-led campaign that protested the factory’s illegal occupation of land and exposed its “shocking” levels of pollution, reports a local corporate abuse watchdog.”

First men, then corporations run by men. First women, then mother earth…

What supports us as a human family has been and is being raped. People with no discernable heart are walking on our hearts with filthy, greedy boots.

The little “boy”, who used to dote on his “mother” and was her pride and joy, has reached “adolescence” and is threatening to sever relations with his best support.

Thank God all this is relatively temporary: people are rising up and saying no, mother earth is showing us some tough love, corporations that used to be free of opposition are facing tough times.

I feel today’s quote will add perspective to the issue:

“A candid acknowledgement that prejudice, war and exploitation have been the expression of immature stages in a vast historical process and that the human race is today experiencing the unavoidable tumult which marks its collective coming of age is not a reason for despair but a prerequisite to undertaking the stupendous enterprise of building a peaceful world. That such an enterprise is possible, that the necessary constructive forces do exist, that unifying social structures can be erected, is the theme we urge you to examine.”
The Universal House of Justice, 1985 Oct, The Promise of World Peace, p. 1

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The Crisis of Faith

Things seem so gruesomely glum—so downright dour—so freakishly forbidding . . . Yet, there is Potent Hope. If you can accept it . . .

From the Washington Post: Credit Crisis Triggers Unprecedented U.S. Response
From China View: Former UN chief expresses concern over global food, fuel crisis in Ghana
From the New York Times: 1,500 Reported Killed in Georgia Battle
From the Boston Globe: Early retirement plans can be short-circuited by a crisis of one kind or another
From the Irish Times: Testimonies of atomic terror: lest we forget
From Nehanda Radio: Thousands face starvation as food crisis deepens in rural Zimbabwe

Pretty bad, eh? Probably gonna get worse…

I’m not being morose or sullen; not even pessimistic. I’m making a strong point.

What can extricate our Family from the multitude of crises assailing it?

Where is hope?

It sure isn’t in the things that have been tried for many years—the failed strategies, the materialistic grand-schemes, the corporate “solutions”, the political fantasies.

Something related to God, then?

“Oh, my, there he goes again. Poor Alex is flying in his nirvana of spirituality.”

Valid point. Just look at all the fine people, deeply spiritual, who’ve been slaughtered by the present system of managing human affairs.

Still, is dying for a cause proof that the cause isn’t valid? Is the apparent power of the politicians, corporations, and greedy-onslaughts-abounding any proof that a spiritual solution is not the best way to face such a sorry Mess?

Try this quote on for size:

“It behoveth everyone to traverse this brief span of life with sincerity and fairness. Should one fail to attain unto the recognition of Him Who is the Eternal Truth, let him at least conduct himself with reason and justice. Erelong these outward trappings, these visible treasures, these earthly vanities, these arrayed armies, these adorned vestures, these proud and overweening souls, all shall pass into the confines of the grave, as though into that box. In the eyes of those possessed of insight, all this conflict, contention and vainglory hath ever been, and will ever be, like unto the play and pastimes of children. Take heed, and be not of them that see and yet deny.”
Bahá’u’lláh, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, 3.17

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