Terrorism, cause or effect?

With the attack on the airport and subway system of Brussels, Europe has once again, in a short span of time, become the target of terrorism. By all means, this is a egregious act and not acceptable in any way or form. However, I find that there is a surprising lack of awareness in the general public, and in the media coverage, regarding the REASON for these attacks.

It seems to be a weakness in the human intellect. When we are faced with trauma and difficulties, our tendency is to look at the symptom. When we get sick, we look at and attempt to suppress the immediate effect. When there is a fight or conflict, we look at the drama – and this single dimension – the consequence that is here right now – becomes the entirety of our focus. However, as with all aspects of life, there is always, ALWAYS, an underlying cause. When it comes to human beings, that cause can never be simplified to the idea that some people are ‘just evil’ – or that they ‘just belong to the wrong religion’ – or that ‘they are immigrants’. Human beings are without a doubt more complex creatures than this – and hence – to understand terrorism – we must understand the human mind.

Terrorism, as explained by Chris Hedges, is born on the outskirts of the system. It is born in places where our western media seldom go, and even more rarely, report from. The reality of terrorism is that it is a social construct, in-fact, it is a part of our current system – it is a inescapable consequence of the inequality on which all of our collective designs are built. Terrorism is a SYMPTOM – not a cause – and seen in the eyes of forgiveness and clarity – it is an obvious call for help from the undeveloped and forgotten parts of this world.

In the western world, we tend to become arrogant and look at terrorism with an air of elitism. We condemn the attacks, yet we make no effort to understand them. We look down on the extremists and their religious doctrines, yet we make no effort to prevent such people from ever becoming extremists to begin with. We believe ourselves to be better than, though fact is that we, the western civilization, is as corrupted, as violent, as brutal and indifferent as the suicide bombers of ISIS. However, we are able to hide our real nature behind a facade of prestige, intellect, money and skillful rhetoric’s – though in being honest with ourselves – we cannot deny – we are just the same.

We call our terror attacks humanitarian interventions or peace keeping missions. We say that we fight for peace and democracy when we bomb cities of foreign countries. We lie that our intentions are benevolent, while fact is that there are always ulterior motives; geopolitics, profit, desire and greed. It is impossible to create peace or stability in a country through armed intervention, and it is easy to see that the warmongers are also those that benefit from building and selling the war machines. There has never, and will never be such a thing as a war fought for good reasons. War is in its very nature despicable – a crime against all of humanity.

Hence, when we look at terrorism, we must make the effort to understand it – and the only way to understand terrorism is through letting go of our elitist mindset and instead asking ourselves; what is it that can drive someone to commit suicide with a bomb, with the intention of killing and harming as many people as possible? What must someone go through, experience, think, see, to be able to make that decision? It is such an extreme act of violence, that the precursory events that creates a suicide bomber, must in themselves be violent, destructive and harmful. How are we collectively responsible for creating suicide bombers? Would anyone take their own life if they had everything to life for?

What we must understand is that, in this world, the majority of people are suffering. The majority of people are compromised, diminished, and placed into a state of lack where they do not have access to the very basic necessities of life. They are unable to create a life for themselves, and hence have NOTHING to lose – and THAT is the conditions that proceeds a terrorist attack – conditions of deprivation and pauperism – this creates people with no hope, no fear, and no morals. We in the western world are responsible for creating such situations of scarcity – as we in various ways impact the world negatively with our continuous drive for profit and expansion.

Terrorism will not go away until we decide to take responsibility for this world, and understand, that violence begets violence, and that the only way to come to a REAL solution, is through giving all a life of dignity.

Investigate the Living Income Guaranteed – and stand up for a world where all have enough.

The Shootings In Paris, An Act of War?

Friday the 13^th 2015, the day when an apparent terrorist attack struck Paris, and more than a hundred people got killed. The French president responded with saying that the attack is an act of war. However, I would say that this is not a correct assessment of the situation, and more importantly, it is not a effective way of approaching what has happened.

If we roll back the time for a moment, 11^th September 2001, two planes flew into the World Trade Center, killing thousands. The American government blamed the Taliban’s and decided to invade Afghanistan, and later Iraq, in the so-called war against terrorism. Obviously, it was never about a war against terrorism, as rather it was a way for the corpocracy of America to feed its enormous military industrial complex. Though, for a moment, let us assume that the war on terrorism was actually a real attempt to make the world a safer place. It is time to ask, did this war actually make the world a safer place?

The simple answer is no, and it takes no rocket scientist to understand that wars, whatever reason that is used to justify them, creates even more consequences. As such – we require a new way of dealing with things, a new way of approaching conflicts, a new way of handling consequences, were we do not hit back but instead look at how the consequence came about, and more importantly how we were a part of creating that particular consequence.

When it comes to terrorist attacks, it is not difficult to understand why some individuals in this world develop an urge to fight back against the establishment with brute force. The reasons are poverty, war, lack of education, and the nonexistence of opportunities. For some, born in the wrong country, at the wrong time, there is absolutely no hope, and for those, terrorism is a way of saying: ‘Look at what you have done to me! Look at what you have done to my life!’ – and that is what we in the western world must understand – that terrorist attacks is an indication that we have to steer things in another direction. Terrorist attacks is as much a cry for help, as they are a sign we humans have not yet been able to unite as ONE group.

Though, I will admit, it is very easy for me to say that ‘we have to change’ – but how to practically do that? What can we possibly do on a individual basis to have any impact on a global level? Truth to be told, there is no single person that can actually change the world, but we can change the world together, through each of us making the decision to stand up in our own lives.

For example, one solution that we can implement is to, when conflicts emerge in our own personal worlds, someone lashing out on us (a micro terrorist attack), that we then look at how we were a part of creating that conflict, and also why that conflict came about, and what we are able to do to in the future, to prevent it and find sustainable solutions – thus living the example of PEACE, CONSIDERATION, RESPONSIBILITY and UNDERSTANDING.

When we live what is best, when we stand as an example of a better, upgraded human being, a human capable of forgiveness, that will have a impact. Maybe it will not come through on a global level, though we will be able to see it in our personal relationships, in our communication with colleagues and acquaintances. And what does this world consist of but personal relationships, family relationships being the very core bonding that holds society together. When these relationships change, it is clear that it will have an effect on other, larger, collective relationship groups as well.

So, consequences are not bad, they are opportunities for learning and self-growth. Each consequence is a sign, a signal, that there is something about ourselves that we can change. This is so equally on a personal as well as global level. Thus, instead of saying that these terrorist attacks are an act of war – let us instead recognize them for what they really are – a cry for help and a indication that we can do better to ensure that each human being on this earth lives a life of dignity.

For more solutions and ways to tackle the current state of human affairs, investigate the Living Income Guaranteed.

Who Benefits From a War In Syria?

The Syrian war is a perfect example of how the western countries utilize media to sway and manipulate the public into a false understanding of reality. The story being repeated is how the Arabic spring during 2011 spread to Syria – and where the Syrian demonstrators desired to have democracy. However, Bashar al-Assad and his regime instead responded with violence, which lead to the current civil war. This is simplification and a biased view on what have occurred in Syria. Even though Bashar al-Assad have potentially taken actions that should be condemned, there are other indirect parties in this war that bare a great responsibility for what has happened.

“Both the Syrian government and the opposition have received support, militarily and diplomatically, from foreign countries leading the conflict to often be described as a proxy war. The major parties supporting the Syrian Government are Iran and Hezbollah. Both of these are involved in the war politically and logistically by providing military equipment, training and battle troops. The Syrian government has also received arms from Russia and SIGINT support directly from GRU, in addition to significant political support from Russia.

The main Syrian opposition body – the Syrian coalition – receives political, logistic and military support from the United States, Britain and France. Some Syrian rebels get training from the CIA at bases in Qatar, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The Syrian coalition also receives logistic and political support from Sunni states, most notably Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia; all the three major supporting states however have not contributed any troops for direct involvement in the war, though Turkey was involved in border incidents with the Syrian Army. The Financial Times and The Independent reported that Qatar had funded the Syrian rebellion by as much as $3 billion. It reported that Qatar was offering refugee packages of about $50,000 a year to defectors and family. Saudi Arabia has emerged as the main group to finance and arm the rebels.”

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Civil_War) (2015-09-23)

Thus we have western super powers engaging indirectly in a military conflict far from their own borders, through supply funding, weapons and training. We, the inhabitants of these western countries, should ask ourselves what is really going on? How is it that we accept and allow our leaders to use our tax money, to support wars far away with abstract, and bogus goals such as creating ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’ for the people in these countries?

It is ridiculous when you look at the situation, how we accept and allow our political representatives to abuse, and misuse their power, and utilize their public trust to support actions of war – and then some of us have the stomach to blame the Syrian immigrants arriving in Europe. Without the financial support of the western countries, there would not be a Syrian Civil War, and there would not be a refugee crisis in Europe. We have ourselves placed us into this position. We can not blame Bashar al-Assad, because without the weapons, the money, and the training, this conflict would have been long over.

It is evident that we cannot solve conflicts and disagreements through wars and weaponry. Still, this is the option that our governments gravitate towards when given the chance. Here we should ask ourselves, who really benefits from these ongoing wars? Who benefits from weapons being exported to lowly educated, and poverty stricken people in Syria, and Iraq? Who benefits from the world existing in a constant state of war?

”The most recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan offer an ominous example about what can happen when the rush to war is met with sharp spending increases coupled with little to no oversight or fiscal restraint. The Commission on Wartime Contracting — a bipartisan congressional body — estimates that there was $30 to $60 billion in waste, fraud and abuse associated with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — a total of $12 million per day. Even worse, at least $6 billion is completely missing, never accounted for, gone forever. That is a stunning amount of taxpayer dollars — yours and mine — to simply disappear into the wind.”

[…]

” The direct costs of the wars in Iraq and Syria may only be a small part of the new business that will flow to Lockheed Martin and its cohorts in the next few years. The new wars will almost certainly extend the life of the Pentagon’s war budget, known more formally as the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account. For the past few years, OCO has served as a slush fund to pay for Pentagon projects that have nothing to do with fighting any war. In its most recent effort to raid the OCO account, the Pentagon has proposed using it to fund eight costly F-35 combat aircraft that haven’t even been certified for combat yet. There will be a strong temptation on the part of the Pentagon to continue padding this slush fund to levels far beyond anything being spent in Iraq or Syria.

Last, but not least, the arms industry will join with the Pentagon and hawks on Capitol Hill to use the current Middle East crisis as leverage to lift the caps on the Pentagon’s base budget that exist under current law. If they are successful, it could mean tens or even hundreds of billions of new business for Pentagon contractors over the next decade.”

Stephen Miles and William Hartung, Huffington post, Who Will Profit From the Wars in Iraq and Syria? (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-hartung/who-will-profit-from-the_b_5915794.html) (2015-09-23)

It is time that we understand something, which is that behind the sanctimonious exterior of the international superpowers there are greedy and power hungry corporate interests. These interests determine the policy, the direction, and the decisions of our leaders. These interests have invested enormous amounts of money to get into the very heart of the democratic decision making process that we have come to trust. Hence, we cannot anymore say that we are living in democracies; most of the western countries are but corporatocracys. They are ruled by the law of profit and have no squirms about using war as a way of increasing cash flow. This is not acceptable, and as citizens of the western world, it is our responsibility to stand up and say no more. We cannot anymore accept and allow our tax money, and our political machinery to be used as tools of destruction.

I suggest that we implement a new economic system, and a new way of life. We have created the current situation, and we can reverse it. War does not have to exist – and together we can make it a thing of the past.

Investigate the Living Income Guaranteed.

Investigate the Living Income Guaranteed.

What is really going on with the Refugees – and what is the SOLUTION?

Europa is now facing a big influx of refugees, not only from impoverished African nations, but also more prominently, from the war torn nation of Syria. In mainstream media, the conflict in Syria is portrayed as a struggle between the ‘good’ rebel faction ‘Free Syrian Army’ and the ‘bad’ regime troops with their leader Bashar al-Assad.

The mainstream media story is that Bashar al-Assad for a long time abused his people, that became angry, revolted, and that these rebels have a legitimate claim to the government. What is not shared however is how USA, France and Britain is supplying the rebel groups in Syria with both arms, and training. The other side, the governmental forces receive political and military support from Iran and Russia. Thus – this conflict is really a heaven for war profiteers – and at the end of the day – that is what it is all about.

We can fool ourselves into believing that the Syrian is a civil war fueled by political and ideological motives – but the truth is that the Syrian war exists due to geopolitical power struggles and because the military industrial complex continuously requires more war on this earth to profit. When we talk about the Syrian civil war it is not possible to look at it from a normal country vs. country, bad vs. good mindset – because this war is a product of the structural inefficiency of our current monetary system.

What do I mean with structural inefficiency? The fact that companies are allowed to exist and profit on the designing and manufacturing of weapons is a grave structural misalignment bound to create wars – and whether these are civil wars or bilateral, or multilateral conflicts, it does not really make a difference. Fact is that when weapons are created, the open up the opportunity for people to use force to get things their way. If we ban weapons on a global level – would there be wars as we know them today – and – would there be refugees, as we know them today?

War is one of the primary reasons people are forced to leave their homes, their possessions, their friends, and the life that they created for themselves – and to wage a war you NEED to have weapons. Without weapons it would not be possible to dislocate people on a large scale, or use force to drive entire nations into a state of chaos. Weapons is the one tool that makes it possible for people to commit atrocities on a industrial scale – and both the first- and second world war are perfect examples of how mass murder will be the result of weapons combined with a unstable human mind.

Hence, the solution to the world’s refugee crisis is to ban weapons. The act of selling and distributing weapons is in-fact a crime against the human rights – the right to life – because the design and creation of a weapon implies the intention of taking a human life by force – and that is unacceptable. There is not excuse that can validate weapon production – national security is not a reason – because obviously the safest national security measure would be to ban all weapons world wide through conventions and international agreements. Further, economic welfare is not a reason – because war does NOT produce economic growth. War increase debts, which in turn creates the illusion that the economy is growing – but the real economy which exists of the flesh and blood human beings and their daily living – is completely compromised.

War is hell – and war needs weapons to exist – and if we want to really make a significant impact in this world that will change things for the better – banning weapons on a global scale would be the decision to make. And even though there will be tremendous fear in people of seizing there arms production – it must be done and someone must begin the disarmament. One country must take the first steps, and dare to stand in this world and bring through a new way of doing things. All revolutions must begin somewhere, and at sometime – and if we want to have a world free from violence and refugees – we must take that stand of not accepting and allowing weapons to be manufactured and sold.

Investigate the Living Income Guaranteed for a solution on how to restructure our financial system to stop survival and fear from being the primary driving force in the human life experience. And investigate Democracy Against War Now – and join a movement that is set on producing a world free from violence where we as human beings can truly enjoy life – and let go of the constant uncertainty and worry that our current world situation provides for.

The Secret of Creation

Image credit: original oil painting by Angela Treat Lyon at AngelaTreatLyonART.com

 

Yesterday as I was driving my cab (yes, I am a part-time cabdriver) I met a man originally from Lebanon. He’d migrated to Sweden around thirty years ago, and as I asked whether he looked forward to the coming winter or not, he didn’t hesitate to share his discontent with the Swedish weather and its environment. He shared his love for Lebanon and how he felt that Sweden was a much more isolated and generally boring country – not as much happened here. In Lebanon he could go up into the mountains in the morning, bathe in the sea at midday, and go out to dance with his friends during the night. One day in Lebanon would feel as an entire year in Sweden. Although these observations from my perspective are more conjectures than actual facts, it was interesting to hear him out.

 

After a while our subject changed. I asked him about Lebanon’s state of affairs, and in particular why he’d moved. He then walked me through how Lebanon had initially been a flowering state, with much of the world’s petrol money located in its banks, allowing for a fruitful and abundant lifestyle, but that this had come to a halt. The region had now sunk into an abyss of insecurity, with unstable country-to-country relationships, especially due to the apparent “interventions” by the America world police. He explained that war was now upon Syria and Iraq, and that the chaos was definitely spreading.

Now, to get into the core point of this blog, which is that of “loosing hope” – what is really interesting is what this man next began sharing: He expressed clear insights as to who creates and why conflicts are fueled in the middle east, and in the Arab states, it’s due to oil and because of greedy corporations located in America, that use the American people to further their own interests, and use taxpayers money to buy weapons, wage wars, and secure resources for their own benefit. He shared that something had changed from when he was a child, and that at this point in time, everything was about money, everything was about ME, and getting on top of things, regardless of the consequences this might create for others – and he expressed and shared this insight in a tone acquiescence and resignation – clearly he’d given up on humanity.

This is where we’re going to get to the wisdom, the gift that this man is sharing, because actually, through his words we’re able to see one of the primary reasons as to why this world has yet to paradigmatically change – the two simple words are: GIVING UP – that is from my perspective one of man’s greatest weaknesses.

Consider the following: How is it that we learn to walk? We stand up, we fall, we stand up, we fall, we stand up, and we fall – but never do we give up – and this is why we’re able to acquire the skill of walking. Babies as such haven’t yet been instilled with the concept of giving up – and yes: Giving up is a skill – it’s a mental concept learnt by example and it would’ve not existed in humanity unless we’d accepted and allowed it – unless we’d diligently been practicing it and making it a trait and habit that we pass down to our children, and that they in turn pass down to theirs.

Giving up is a trait that must be removed in order for one to have impact in this world – because to walk a process of change requires that one walk beyond one’s comfort zone, beyond what one have known to work, beyond what one believed and thought, because only then can the NEW emerge – and the new can only emerge through a process of trial and error – through a process of failure, practice and perfection – nothing in this world that exist as a fully functional and manifested creation has appeared without having gone through this process – and this is the secret of creation = THE WILLINGNESS TO FAIL.

There was a great quote by Zig Ziglar, a salesman, and he said some along the following:

“Failure is only failure when you don’t learn from it” and “Remember, failure is an event, not a person”

So, what are we able to learn from this?

If you’re truly passionate about creating a new world, then buckle up your seatbelts Dorothy, and be prepared and willing to fail countless times, because that is what it will take – nothing less. I for one have decide that I am willing to fail, make mistakes, and do the wrong thing, as many times as is required until I get it – until I do have an impact – until this world do show signs of change. And this is not because I need success as a motivation, it’s because I’ve decided that this is what I am going to do with my life – nothing more and nothing less – I will live to make a difference.

Thus for anyone out there that has given up, realize that the only way to break through, and make a difference in this world, is through failure – there is no other way – so pull your sleeves up and let’s walk the process of creation until this is done.

Investigate the Living Income Guaranteed and let’s get it done.