Ethio-American blog for the seriously light hearted
Friday, May 25, 2007
CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS…
…OR A DIVIDING TACTIC?
I have often asked that same question myself. Do the so called ‘leaders’ of our times really speak for us? Is the Western so called, ‘civilized society’ really civilized? Is fundementalist ideology Is religion, as it is taught today by most religions, really our salvation or our doom? Are we killing ourselves to save us from ourselves? What are we doing to each other?
Well, I hope we find the answers before it’s too late. Here’s a little video I found on the net that asks these important questions. Enjoy!
And those of you who find it easier to digest the realities of today’s troubled world through music, here’s a song by Alan Fletcher, an Australian singer/actor asking you if you are “Perfectly Comfortable”. Enjoy!
Lyrics
A Child questions the world with an innocent eye
Her future depends on your reply
Does she see a tear in your eye
Or are you perfectly comfortable
All that she sees, all that she hears
Determines how she feels in fifty years
Will she be still be living with grand daddy’s fears
Or be perfectly comfortable?
Are you perfectly comfortable with all that’s been said
All your child is offered in your defense
And if you’re perfectly comfortable
commit to offence
Are you perfectly comfortable going to war
Without moral sanction, against the law
Are you perfectly comfortable,
Fighting the world
If you’re perfectly comfortable that all has been done
Then gaze at your daughters and gaze at your sons
And ask yourself this question over again
would you be perfectly happy if it happened to them
And if you are perfectly comfortable
commit to offence
History books tell the tales
Of men in armor on their crusades
Must we repeat what they have failed
To do
Its so familiar, lets solve this with the sword
Its so familiar, we know no other way to go forward
Old men will decide
Who lives and who dies
They take the blame
But we wear the shame
The future to peace lies with you and with me…
for the child
Stop for a while, gaze at the smile
Slacken your haste, reflect on the face
Of a child
President Bush was given a Purple Heart as a present for all the emotional wounds and scars he has suffered. Apparently, being criticized for catastrophic failures as a disastrous president is equated with combat injury worthy of the highest honor.
Bill Thomas, a three time Purple Heart recipient for sustaining injuries in the Vietnam war bestowed the most undeserved, unearned and unmerited Purple Heart upon Bush in recognition of the “verbal attacks, both foreign and domestic, he has withstood during his time in office”. The Texas veteran gave away a symbol of America’s gratitude for the sacrifices he made to his country ironically to a man, who dodged the draft, ducked the National Guard and used his powerful connection to do everything he could to avoid serving his country.
Bush, who is yet to attend one funeral of a soldier, who has died of real wounds in the Iraq war he waged, disgraced wounded soldiers everywhere and cheapened the meaning of a Purple Heart by accepting the award.
The Purple Heart is special military honor awarded in the name of the President after being wounded or killed in a combat against an enemy of the United States. Mr. Bill Thomas insulted the quarter of a million brave men & women injured/ killed in the line of duty that are the recipients of the Purple Heart by equating “foreign and domestic critics” with enemies of the United States. Mr. Thomas by giving away his Badge of Merit to Bush disvalued the whole military honor by equating much deserved criticism with scarring combat wound and death. .Mr. Thomas among the irony-impaired Republican loyalists who put Bush in the White House and then kept him there after four years, should have thrown his military decoration instead of giving it to this President as Bush’s possession of the medal defrauds the Honorable servicemen and women by portraying him as a war hero
This President who has no valor or an outstanding achievement did not earn or deserve this award, but he felt no shame when he accepted this undeserved honor and recognition in a photo op at the White House. Bush should have had the humility, dignity and common sense to politely decline the veteran’s present but he added his purple heart to everything else he’s gotten in his life without ever having to earn it including the keys to the White House.
I wonder what the wounded soldiers at Walter Reed with missing arms, legs, severe brain damage and psychological trauma think about this?
This is a very touching and emotional video by an Iraqi American artist named TIMZ from San Diego Ca. In this 3 and 1/2 minute informative music video, he expresses the feelings of many around the world regarding this illegal and immoral war.
When the Bush Administration was first appointed to power in January of 2001, they arrogantly declared ”..the grown-ups are back in charge”. However, have you been watching the news closely these days about what kind of people are making major decisions on the lives of millions in Ethiopia and other Africans?
There’s Paul “The Wolf” Wolfowitz, who is neither an economist nor a humanitarian, but somehow found himself as the head (no pun intended) of the World Bank - just one of many G W Bush crony appointments. He failed miserably in Iraq, so he had to be promoted to a cushy job, right? Yeah, the same Wolfowitz that gave money to the Ethiopian government despite Meles regime’s atrocious record. Oh, I see how it works. Mr Wolfowitz gives money to everyone and anyone he screws. I get it.
First, like an 10 year old boarding school kid who woke up late for morning inspection, he licks his comb on camera, spits on his hand and and…aagghhh… just watch the video below.
Then he goes to a Mosque in Turkey and before entering, takes his shoes off out of respect, and like Shemsu the souk/kiosk guy from your neighborhood back home, (sorry all Shmemsu’s back home) shows his own personal ventilation system in his shoes to the whole world. I don’t know what’s more offensive to the locals, walking into a mosque with your shoes on, or walking in with those socks?
To top all of that off, he has an affair with an underling and compensates her financially giving her a raise without the board’s approval! I guess she gave him enough of those raises herself, if you know what I mean. Frankly, I say she is still underpaid, because any woman who is brave enough to touch that hair, and sleep with a man like Wolfie deserves all the money she can get. Ms Riza, you are a credit to your sex…no, not that sex. I mean your gender for being brave enough to sleep with that creature.
And what does Wolfie say when he is asked to resign? “You can’t make me!! I know you are, but what am I?” And then he wants to make sure that he is compensated for all his hard work.
And then there is Randall “The Caller” Tobias, Mr. abstinence and ‘family value’ type of guy. Randall Tobias, who was influential in the Bush Administration’s so called “abstinence only” Global AIDS coordinator, was a former CEO to the global pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly before being named ‘AIDS Czar” in 2003. A former pharmaceutical CEO leading the AIDS fight. Hmm, what a coincidence! Well, just like many of the Bush Administration officials, Mr Tobias comes with a lot of baggage. It turns out that, Mr Tobias loves him some ‘massage’ (yeah right) to help him come up with all these creatively wonderful and humanitarian AIDS policies.
Here are a few of Mr Tobias’ hypocrisies. In an online White House interactive chat, Mr Randall said the following about Ethiopia’s AIDS crisis.
Alexander, from Seattle, WA writes: As American, born and raised in Ethiopia, I am still concerned about the highst number of Ethiopians Dyning with aids. The American government has allocated in billions to fight the aids and Ethiopia is one of the recipiant countries. Is the us following up with the ehiopian government on how much of that mony is spent in fighting aids? and how?
Ambassador Randall L. Tobias Thanks, Alexander. Ethiopia is, as you note, among the nations most severely affected by HIV/AIDS. With a population of over 80 million people, it’s crucial that we turn the tide there, and that’s why it is one of 15 nations receiving special focus under President Bush’s Emergency Plan.
Making sure that we spend our money wisely is critically important, in Ethiopia and everywhere else we are working. Most of our U.S. funding is not actually going directly to governments, but to nongovernmental organizations - including many community-based ones - to provide prevention, care, and treatment services. For example, we’re partnering with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which has 40 million members and a unique ability to reach them with effective prevention messages.
In our partnerships with these organizations, we are requiring extensive reporting on results and holding them to very strict accountability standards. We believe we owe that to the American taxpayers, as well as to the people suffering in Ethiopia and elsewhere.
Mr Tobias was instrumental is having AIDS funds cut off in many countries because he did not believe in forcing sex workers to use condoms or other methods to prevent the spread of the disease. I wonder if Mr Tobias used….naaah, I’m not going there. Read on and on .
I was going to include Condoleezza “The Shoe Lady” Rice and her blatant lie about her role in the pre-war intelligence before the Iraq invasion and her refusal to testify in Congress, or George “Slam Dunk” Tenet and his new book in which he shamelessly revealed that his “slam dunk” comment was not about WMD and going to war, and Mr Alberto “The Amnesiac “ Gonzalez, Bush’s Tejano, and his role in firing US attorneys for prosecuting corrupt Republicans and not prosecuting Democrats in Congress…but, I only have a few more years left on this planet.
Yep, these are the people we are pleading with to save us from Meles Zenawi. Pretty depressing, isn’t it?
