A Change Of Mood

[poliphilo]

I used to write sermons for a living and I'm liable, if I don't keep a check on myself, to slide into pulpit rhetoric.

Which is one good reason for not writing too much about the tsunami. I don't trust myself not to be cheap.

But there's just this one thing I want to say: the public mood has changed. For the past couple of years it's been Them and Us and War against Terror and ugly, ugly, ugly, and now, suddenly, it's Brotherhood of Man. Westerner and Easterner, rich and poor, Muslim and Christian, believer and secularist- we're all in this together.

And wonderful things have happened. Pakistan sent aid to its old enemy India, national leaders have discovered that there are votes in being kind and the warplanes and warships are being used to carry food and medicine and water.

Comments

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

"I think the news progam is scare-mongering. I really do. I think it's putting a US government spin on what's happening over there."

well... sri lanka is in the middle of a ten-year civil war, and the northern parts of it are controlled by tamil rebels, and there is a terrorist organization known as the tamil tigers that has been active against the sinhalese government in the south for many years.

so it's not necessarily wrong to say that sri lanka is "rife with terrorist operatives" (although i think to phrase it as such is a bit overblown), but it's a different kind of terrorism that has nothing to do with the US (a fact that the new program probably didn't bother to mention-- which is why i don't get my news from tv)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

According to a news report I saw at lunchtime, the Singhalese government and the Tigers have called a truce in some areas and are co-operating to deal with the disaster.

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

maybe this will be progress for sri lanka, then.

could the program have been referring to indonesia? there are muslim extremists in indonesia-- remember last year's bombing of bali-- but their actions are directed mainly at hindus, not christians. bali is the only part of indonesia that is hindu-majority.

[sigh.] it has nothing to do with us. terrorism can be found in every place where differences exist between people.

on a side note, did you know that india has committed to giving aid to the other tsunami-stricken countries? why are the poorest countries the most generous? i am proud of india today.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes I knew that about India. It's impressive.

God only knows who that program was referring to. I just think it was trying to whip up paranoia. Bastards!

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

did you know that india has committed to giving aid to the other tsunami-stricken countries? why are the poorest countries the most generous?

I read somewhere or heard somewhere back after 9/11 that the people who have the least to give are usually the ones who give the most.

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

yes, a UN official said something to that effect last week...