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July 07, 2005
London to Africa: Culture of Life vs. Culture of Death
Placing bombs in mass transit systems, at rush hour at that, is so beyond reprehensible that little needs to be said. Early indications are 40 dead, thousands injured -- perhaps hundreds seriously.
Will this now take the pressure of the G8 leaders to stop pushing the cruel policies that kill hundreds of children each hour in Africa? Will we now become even more callous to the situation in Iraq where what happened today in London happens once or twice every week?
Given the existing political arithmetic about the value of different lives in today's world, that's a likely possibility. What a shame, and what a dishonorable response to the lost lives, that would be. That, however, is not necessarily the only way the people of London, and England, and Europe, and the U.S., and the world could react. Perhaps, seeing so much blood, misery, pain, loss and death can shake us out of our increasinly insular, anti-empathic culture.
Perhaps it is time to bring over a Zapatista slogan to the anti-war movement: Ya Basta! -- or Enough! Perhaps it is also time to bring over another slogan from the global justice movement: Another world is possible -- if we so choose, with the courage of our convictions.
Posted by zeynep at July 7, 2005 06:14 PM