An injured Lebanese soldier being rushed to hospital!
In Karachi, the city is locked down!
Friends, four news items from Reuters and Al Jazeera caught my attention today. One was the flare up on the Israeli-Lebanon border which claimed a number of lives including one Israeli officer, one journalist and three Lebanese soldiers. Others were wounded.
It seems that the Israelis cut down a tree which the Lebanese claim was on their side of the border. Shelling began, and before long a firefight was in progress. Each side blamed the other.
The U.N. and the U.S. are urging restraint but the situation is potentially volatile. Worryingly, this incident, unusually, was between the Lebanese Army and Israel. Hezbollah wasn’t involved.
Another incident I noted was the killing of 45 people and the wounding of over a 100 others in Karachi in Pakistan by gunmen who raged through the capital. The army had to be brought in to lock-down the city and ensure that people remained at home. The gunmen, who came from various militias, were protesting the death of a politician who they supported.
The third was the killing of 12 people and the wounding of 55 others in Kut in Iraq, a normally quiet city. It was carried out by suicide bombers and many women and children were among the dead and injured.
Nearly 400 civilians were killed in bombings and other attacks in Iraq in July, almost double the June toll, Iraqi authorities say. Ironically, Obama is withdrawing combat troops from Iraq though 50,000 will remain there.
A forth incident took place in the U.S. when yet another massacre took place and nine people were killed including the gunman who shot himself. Apparently the man was a driver for a beer company and was due to face a disciplinary hearing.
Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell issued a statement of condolence to the victims’ families. “It was a senseless act of violence that has left us all shaken and reminds us just how precious and fragile life truly is.”
Now obviously all these incidents are unrelated. But are they?
Can you find a common thread in these incidents?
What do they say about humans?
What do they say about certain nations?
Do they carry a prophetic message?
I look forward to your comments.
I live in Alaska. A friend of mine from Washington state is in the process of moving his family up here. He tells me things are very caotic and people are overcome with uncertainty. He feels his family will be safer here than there. I wonder, is this the norm in the lower 48? I wonder what was going on in the life of that man in Connecticut that would cause him to (go postal) at his workplace. I understand he was about to lose his job. Lots of uncertainty? As for the Middle East, zionism is a threat to the whole world. I fear for the Lebanese people. Israel apparently wants still more land and access to water, oh, there is that natural gas find. David, people are just at their wits end everywhere.
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David G Reply:
August 4th, 2010 at 1:33 am
People are, 76-water, because the lowlife are running the world.
We, the world’s people, have been sold a lemon. We have been conditioned to think that greed is good, that war solves all problems, that capitalism and markets are close to Godliness, that the rich should be admired, that our only purpose is to be good little consumers and producers who should go to a version of a Church every Friday, Saturday or Sunday and, if we do, we’ll live for ever. What CRAP!
We need to fix up our democracy, take back our world, imprison the Robber Barons and the Warmongers, redistribute their wealth, then organize our world to ensure that there is justice, equality and harmony for everyone!
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Grace Reply:
August 4th, 2010 at 3:28 am
Yep, people are at their wits end. I know I am. Maybe it is astrological or maybe the stench of the death and radiation is firing people up.
http://gizmodo.com/5600704/the-explosions-of-every-nuclear-bomb-to-date
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“We need to fix up our democracy, take back our world, imprison the Robber Barons and the Warmongers, redistribute their wealth, then organize our world to ensure that there is justice, equality and harmony for everyone!”
That sounds great!
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Grace, it’s up to the little people to wrest their world away from the manipulators. We have great power, more than most of us realize. If we stand together we are an irresistible force.
Take care!
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When we are taught from childhood that the purpose of life is consumerism / capitalism how could things be any different ? These events are all tied together in the fact that we are severely brainwashed that we are here to serve the purpose of being livestock for the rich and powerful and forgotten the being part of human being .financial servitude has destroyed just about everything that makes life worth living who could think straight by being under constant stress this impacts our relationship with everything our families and to a lrger world . we have become by and large the walking dead .that happens when the human spirit gets fed to the machinery of all these political ,religious economical institutions , we can be a force if enough snowflakes get together it becomes a blizzard enough raindrops a flood this drought needs to end -cheers
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No matter where you go in the world everything seems to be more and more uncertian. The forces of anarchy seem to be overtaking our lives and so many of us feel helpless to do anything about it.
I know it makes me feel angry and afraid.
I can understand how someone feeling that way “looses it” and gives up using rational means to try to solve the problem since that never seems to work.
The powerful are doing everything in they can to take back what little the average person has managed to get for himself to have a decent life and there is no recourse to stop it.
People when pushed too far will sooner or latter fight back.
The people who get hurt and killed are usually also innocent while the true villains are unharmed.
I fear this will get worse as economic and enviromental conditions continue to get worse. The rich and powerful will continue to enrich the voices of hate to make sure we are fighting each other and not dealing with the real sources of our problems.
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76-water Reply:
August 4th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
You are spot on with the hate thing. Society has conditioned us on so many levels that we are kept busy fighting each other and stay splintered so an actual attack on the real issue is always dimminished. David is right, if we could all put our petty diferences aside and speak as ONE unified voice we surely would inforce change. With the apparent election of a democrat now propping up republican ideals I hope people realise there is not a nickels difference between them. It’s all smoke and mirrors to keep us devided. For some reason we are taught that skin color matters. We all bleed red. I would surely like to see in my life time all humanity come together for all humanity. We could better serve each other because it is the right thing to do rather for money and consumerism. I see some very good points being made on this blog…. More comments?
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Jeannie Reply:
August 5th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
You said it all so beautifully. We all share a common humanity, we are all part of the same family, we would all benefit if we joined together to make this world a safe place for everyone no matter their color or religion to live.
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Seems to me, we live in a culture that glorifies violence as the only resolution to any and all problems. Well this has been a long time favourite of humans but it has been given higher reason, almost divine reason one could say in religion. Thanks, you encoded our future beliefs! And then all around us we have air headed programs all perpetuating violence, not dialogue, is the solution.
Step 1:
This is your God
Step 2:
Your God is jealous and is the one true God
Step 3:
All other people are heathens and inferior
Step 4:
Kill Them
Step 5:
Rinse and Repeat
Replace God with nation, government system and so on and we get somewhere. So prophetically let’s hope there is no excuse to use any of the thousands of doomsday devices we have.
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Jeff, your comment is right on! The ‘walking dead’ is close to the truth.
Jeannnie, identifying the villains is the hardest thing to do. They are very clever and they’ll lie and trick to get every dollar they can while pretending to be lily white.
76-water, in Australia there is little difference between the two major parties as is the case in America. Getting each side to hate the other is par for the course. While people are polarized, they don’t ask the questions that should be asked, questions like: is there a better way? Is our political and economic system really helping everyone? Is greed the way to happiness?
Damian, I loved your comment especially step 5. Getting people to replace God with reality is proving to be a difficult task. In Australia we are having and election and the current Prime Minister is an atheist. On the ABC this morning I heard a gaggle of Christian women saying they wouldn’t vote for any atheist. Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
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In a past era the walking dead were known as working stiffs. We forget that we are on the receiving end of a long line of survivors. Our ancestors made it – and their hopes lie in us!
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The people known as the Great White Founding Fathers of The Republic known as America were the biggest bunch of non religious Masons we could hope to gather in one room. They were quite worldly people and for their days and lived very long lives. That includes most or all of the signers of the Constitution. I scoff at religious biggots. Why can’t they respect others, as they are respectively living their lives to their own liking? I grew up in a neighborhood that probably had 120 different religions practised on one block and we all said hi to the grocer and hi to one another and the kids played all day. There is something missing in our understanding of who the heck we are and our rightful place in the order of the Universe. Do the dead sea turtles, dolphins, Gazan children and mothers care that we loved Christ, Buddha, Mohammed or Moses? I don’t think so. I think if there are …7 Billion people..then there are 7 Billion ways of understading life and its intricacies. But how we treat one another is golden. I know its a burden. But at the end of the day it is what people remember.
Love and peace, all.
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Jeannie Reply:
August 5th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
I love your comment that how we treat each other is golden! You are so very right that that is what is most important. If only more people understood that.
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Try this on. I doubt it will change the scope of the war, but if you check out the other links provided you get an idea how the US spins the news. http//alcuinbramerton.blogspot.com
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Yes, Israel will even use a tree as a pretext to destabilize. It’s what they do. It’s the nature of the beast. Understanding is the first step to changing it.
Just say “NEIN” to 729
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David G Reply:
August 7th, 2010 at 5:09 am
Amerika, Israel, like America, no longer needs a pretext to use violence. The two countries believe they are above the law and what they want they should have.
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