Garden of Daisies

Peaceful protest, existence and life

August 29th, 2008

Matt Good ranted today about a refusal to take sides in the Georgia conflict because all sides are taking lives–and that is not something that can be justified.

He pointed out that this is not a conflict that began last month–that for a decade separatists have been inciting violence that has been killing innocents. And that’s just not okay anymore.

Yesterday was the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s I have a Dream speech. MLK was a man who stood up, with Ghandi as his hero to claim that it was in the courageous that you found the ability to turn away from violence. To peacefully demand your rights. …and he, and Ghandi proved that it was doable. If you refuse to fight, and you protest, and you argue for your rights and your needs as a human you will overthrow your oppressors. And why hasn’t that lesson been learned?

It breaks my heart to know that my own people failed at that task. When I read Irish history, and I learn about the otrocious and violent and vile behaviour of the British I can understand the anger and desperation that the Irish of the early 20th century felt…but that does not excuse, in my mind, their decision to take up arms.

I have been reading Edward Said’s “After Oslo: The End of the Peace Process”, and I recommend it. It is an interesting look at the years between 1995 and 2001 in Palestine and Israel, but moreover it is plea to humanity.

Said is very consistently critical of the Palestinian intellectuals and leaders. …He is critical because he sees them as being a people unable to mobilize their population culturally and ideologically–and he argues that since they leave their population unable to affect political change they drive them toward religious fundamentalism since people need some sense of meaning, or some sense that their actions will have purpose.

He argues that in today’s day and age we know that the way to win a struggle is with ideas, through propoganda and communication. And so he points out the spending money on security and arms is a waste for Palestine–they will never outfight Israel. Instead, he argues, they must begin to appeal to the world population regarding the violation of their human rights. And moreover, they must stop violating the human rights of one another. …they must begin peaceful protests that will cause embarrasment for those who perpetuate and exacerbate the circumstances in which they live.

It is unacceptable that we are willing to abide by the senseless taking of other lives. It is unacceptable that we are okay with hundreds and thousands and millions of people dying as long as it’s not in our country–as long as it’s not our people.

It is unacceptable that we frame the world according to countries and consider that a relevant way to divide human lives.

I attended a panel earlier this week of five Afghani youth visiting Canada to speak about their experiences growing up and working in Afghanistan. One of them touched my heart so powerfully he kept almost bringing me to tears with his assertive demands for hope. Many people in the room had questions to do with Canada’s presence in Afghanistan, particularly considering that there may well be an election coming up in the fall, in which Afghanistan would be a major issue. All five Afghanis firmly argued that Canada’s presence was postive, and that the developments and growth in Afghanistan could not be overestimated in the last 6 years. This one particular young man pointed out, furthermore, that it was the vaccuum of power once the Russia finally left Afghanistan and the West ceased to provide any more support (i.e. failed to provide any support to help Afghanistan rebuild as a democracy following the end of the Russian occupation) that allowed the Taliban to get power in the first place. All five young men seemed quite confident that if the international community left Afghanistan again now the same thing (or at least a similar thing) would happen again.

This one young man pointed out that Afghanistan is a very important and volatile location, and that it is important to the world community that such a thing not happen again. Moreover, however, he pleaded to the notion that no matter where Afghanistan was located–the higher point was that we are all in this together, as citizens of this planet…and that insofar as we care about democracy and human rights and peace for all people we ought to stay in Afghanistan and help our brothers their achieve those ideals.

And I was touched. Because so rarely do we look at it that way and genuinely mean it.

Entry Filed under: Politics