3266 - Morning At The Ferry


Imagine for a moment living a normal life in some medium-sized country. You are not rich, certainly not by first world standards, but you get along. Your dictator does not bother you, your kids go to school, your mother gets her insulin, war has been over for ten years, things seem to get better or at least not worse. It’s the only life you have and you have decided it’s good.

Then something strange happens. Some idiots fly planes into skyscrapers, somewhere in a city that you only know from TV. It has no connection to you or to anybody you know, even your dictator did not do it or support it, but for some insane reasons you get punished for it. Your country gets bombed, your dictator killed (good riddance at least), your country gets occupied, insulin (just like other medication) gets incredibly expensive. Your mother dies, your two surviving kids have no school any more and you hunger.

Would you feel justly treated? Or would you probably applaud an uprising, led by people from your own culture and religion, people who promise to throw out the occupants and their puppet regime?

Or, say you live in a country that for some years has experienced the worst drought in recorded history. For the last 42 years your country has been formally at war with a neighboring country, but at your age of 35 years you can’t remember anything but peace. Your dictator does not bother you, and although you are not rich, your country’s economy is rising.

Then one big super-power, a long-standing ally of that neighboring country, decides to bully every other country on this planet into grave economic sanctions against you. Additionally they support rebels against your government, incite a war in your country, all with the aim of forcing you to overthrow your own government.

Due to the sanctions your economy breaks down, your factories have to close because of a lack of raw materials and spare parts. The health system goes down the drain, hunger and poverty plague millions of internal refugees.

Who would you think is right? The super-power with its politics that you don’t understand, acting like an alien god without mercy? Your own government, increasingly brutal and desperate, trying to stay in power? Or maybe a new “State” that arises from the turmoil and seems to be surprisingly successful?

You can call this post “Support of a terrorist organization”, but it is not. It’s a challenge to think outside of your convenient place in a safe country and show a little empathy. How does it feel?


There are 2 comments

John Linn   (2015-09-28)

How does it feel? Not good. There are always two sides to every story and we mostly do not give equal consideration. And this kind of story happens over and over.

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andreas   (2015-09-28)

Of course it's only human, and if we gave equal consideration to everything, we wouldn't ever achieve anything. Complexity is beyond our capacity. But then, sometimes there are good indicators for when something goes terribly wrong, even in cases where we have not considered all consequences. Nothing is really simple. Simplicity is only available from the shelves of the populists - and in reality we all know they're wrong. It's just so damn convenient to pretend.

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