Saturday, March 31, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
The Small Things, IV
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| "Japanese Macaques have found a clever way of beating the winter chill; they bathe in Japan's hot springs. Here a macaque relaxes in Jigokudani." |
I am only now realizing my fascination with nature.
I'm not too sure how anyone can look at some of these creatures and draw the conclusion that we are so very different from them. We have so many limitations and yet we have notions of grandeur relating to our superiority as a species.
Tragedy in Toulouse
By this point, many of you may already have heard about the murders in France. With everything going on in the world, its almost as if we have become accustomed to sick tragedies like this one...or maybe we haven't, when it happens in our own backyards. I don't really know. There just doesn't seem to be anything shocking about people losing their lives in very sad sad ways, nowadays. This certainly can't be a good sign :-(
Before getting up to speed on the specifics of this heinous occurrence, I read an excellent piece by Professor Tariq Ramadan as he attempted to offer some perspective on some of the relevant issues at play.
I wanted to add a few simple thoughts to the discussion, if I may...
My heartfelt condolences go out to all the French families affected by this man's vicious actions. Whether we have become accustomed to senseless violence or not, the loss of any human life is something that should always be considered tragic regardless of who the victims are and reflected upon thoroughly.
France's 'integration' issues are well-known around the world, I think. From my own personal experience, I have met a few young French people who have felt let down in their own society, the lack of opportunity and racism they experience for being ethnically, racially or religiously 'different'. The trend towards conformity and uniformity, in the name of secularism may have isolated people even further I'm afraid. The fiery rhetoric around this faux 'integration' debate (not just in France, but elsewhere) seems to be driving people further apart.
Not just in France alone, but elsewhere, the true promise of equality has failed to materialize. And there are unfortunate consequences to this reality, which makes it all the more important that we all engage civilly with one another and do our part to make our communities more inclusive.
We can sidestep the real issues at play here (exclusionary policies, disenfranchised youth, racism, etc) and focus on hot-button issues that really just serve to distract us from what is seriously wrong in our communities. Opportunistic politicians can blame 'high' immigration, a supposed failure of immigrants and coloured folk to integrate properly, etc etc, but that ends up leaving us nowhere. We don't end up having the right conversations about how to fix some of these problems.
Prof. Ramadan provides some useful insight in this regard.
"Mohamed—how typical the name is!—was a French citizen of immigrant background before becoming a terrorist of immigrant origin. Early on his destiny became tied to the surrounding perceptions of that origin. Now, in a final act of provocation, he has come full circle, has vanished into this constructed and distorted image to become the definitive “other.” For the French of France, there is no longer anything French about Mohamed the Muslim Arab."
"The overwhelming majority of the Mohameds, the Fatimas or the Ahmeds of the suburbs and the banlieues are French; what they seek is equality, dignity, security, a decent job and a place to live. They are culturally and religiously integrated; their problem is overwhelmingly a socio-economic one. The story of Mohamed Merah today holds up to France a mirror in which it sees its face: he ends up a Jihadi without real conviction, after having been a citizen deprived of true dignity."
And then appropriately follows with,
"Once more, this excuses nothing. But therein lies a crucial lesson for us all."
Before getting up to speed on the specifics of this heinous occurrence, I read an excellent piece by Professor Tariq Ramadan as he attempted to offer some perspective on some of the relevant issues at play.
I wanted to add a few simple thoughts to the discussion, if I may...
My heartfelt condolences go out to all the French families affected by this man's vicious actions. Whether we have become accustomed to senseless violence or not, the loss of any human life is something that should always be considered tragic regardless of who the victims are and reflected upon thoroughly.
France's 'integration' issues are well-known around the world, I think. From my own personal experience, I have met a few young French people who have felt let down in their own society, the lack of opportunity and racism they experience for being ethnically, racially or religiously 'different'. The trend towards conformity and uniformity, in the name of secularism may have isolated people even further I'm afraid. The fiery rhetoric around this faux 'integration' debate (not just in France, but elsewhere) seems to be driving people further apart.
Not just in France alone, but elsewhere, the true promise of equality has failed to materialize. And there are unfortunate consequences to this reality, which makes it all the more important that we all engage civilly with one another and do our part to make our communities more inclusive.
We can sidestep the real issues at play here (exclusionary policies, disenfranchised youth, racism, etc) and focus on hot-button issues that really just serve to distract us from what is seriously wrong in our communities. Opportunistic politicians can blame 'high' immigration, a supposed failure of immigrants and coloured folk to integrate properly, etc etc, but that ends up leaving us nowhere. We don't end up having the right conversations about how to fix some of these problems.
Prof. Ramadan provides some useful insight in this regard.
"Mohamed—how typical the name is!—was a French citizen of immigrant background before becoming a terrorist of immigrant origin. Early on his destiny became tied to the surrounding perceptions of that origin. Now, in a final act of provocation, he has come full circle, has vanished into this constructed and distorted image to become the definitive “other.” For the French of France, there is no longer anything French about Mohamed the Muslim Arab."
"The overwhelming majority of the Mohameds, the Fatimas or the Ahmeds of the suburbs and the banlieues are French; what they seek is equality, dignity, security, a decent job and a place to live. They are culturally and religiously integrated; their problem is overwhelmingly a socio-economic one. The story of Mohamed Merah today holds up to France a mirror in which it sees its face: he ends up a Jihadi without real conviction, after having been a citizen deprived of true dignity."
And then appropriately follows with,
"Once more, this excuses nothing. But therein lies a crucial lesson for us all."
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