A FEW THOUGHTS

Archive for the ‘The World We Live In’ Category

When we look around us and see that so may problems in the world are based on, or is projected from, differences in religious beliefs as well as religious “excuses” (the christian crusades, fatwas and jihads, one can really start to wonder whether we may have a bit too much religion in the world. I can certainly acknowledge the fact that religion is the key element in many peoples lives and that religion in most ways contribute to hope and peace of mind rather than war and chaos. Though I can not shake the voice in my head going “Come on, Enough already!” when I read about six “new religions” at the Matador Network, “new” being just a figure of speech meaning that these are religions more or less unknown in “the west”.  Though it seems that only two of these are beliefs dated A.D.; the persian/iranian Baha’i from the 1800′s and Mandaeism dated back to Late Antiquity.  The other four all seem to origin from before christianity/BC.

Baha’i was proclaimed by a young Iranian, who called himself The Báb. He said that a messenger would soon arrive from God, who would be the latest in a line of prophets including Moses, Muhammad and Jesus Christ. It was founded as late as in the 1800s, and all the prophets of the world’s major world religions are all accepted as valid, including Krishna, Abraham, Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad.

Mandaeism,  originally practised primarily around the lower Euphrates and Tigris, was a Gnostic Christian religion believing both Jesus, Abraham, Moses, and Muhammad to be false messiahs.  There are thought to be between 60,000 and 70,000 Mandaeans worldwide, and until the 2003 Iraq war, almost all of them lived in Iraq. Most Iraqi Mandaeans have since fled the country, and by 2007 the population of Iraqi Mandaeans had fallen to approximately 5,000.Most Iraqi Mandaeans now live in Syria and Jordan, with smaller populations in Western countries.

Jainism is an ancient religion from India that teaches that the way to liberation and bliss is to live a life of harmlessness and renunciation by living rightly after an ethical code known as “the three jewels of Jain ethics“: right faith, right knowledge and right conduct. Parshvanatha, the twenty-third Tirthankar, is the earliest Jain leader who can be reliably dated. However, Jain mythology asserts that the line of Tirthankars began with Rushabhdeva. Jains themselves tend to believe that Jainism has no single founder, and believe that Jainism is the one of the world’s oldest religions, predating Hinduism.

 Zoroastrianism was founded by the Prophet Zoroaster in ancient Iran approximately 3500 years ago and was for many years one of the most powerful religions in the world. Zoroastrians believe in one God, called Ahura Mazda (meaning ‘Wise Lord’). In Zoroastrianism, Ahura Mazda has an adversary called Angra Mainyu (meaning ‘destructive spirit’), and it is in the Abrahamic religions accepted that the concepts of Heaven and Hell, as well as the Devil, were heavily influenced by Zoroastrian belief.

The Yorùbá religion originated from the Yoruba people, one of the largest ethnic groups in west-africa. Yoruba includes one creator and approximately 400 supernatural spirits. The god Orisa’nla (The great divinity) also known as Obatala, chosen by Olodumare, descended from heaven on a chain, carrying a small snail shell full of earth, palm kernels and a five-toed chicken. He was to empty the content of the snail shell on the water after placing some pieces of iron on it, and then to place the chicken on the earth to spread it over the primordial water. Yoruba religious beliefs are part of itan — the complex of songs, histories, stories and other cultural concepts which make up the Yorùbá religion and society.

Mami Wata is another African religion that describes a water spirit known as Mami Wata. She is pictured as being incredibly beautiful with long hair and is frequently accompanied by an incredibly large snake. The religion holds that Mami will sometimes assume human form in bars or busy markets and also will abduct people while they are swimming or boating on the water. These captives are then released in dry clothes and better health, but only after agreeing to an oath of sexual fidelity to the spirit. Mami Wata is related to the Vodoun, which later has been transformed into what is knowns as Voodoo, these days in Haiti.

As a project manager in the IT-industry I would welcome an architect and migration specialist for a huge migration project of world religions, but that’s only in my dreams of course…

Newsdesks all over the world are now covering the situation in Haiti after the mindblowing earthquake that shook Port-au-Prince with 7.0 on the Richter’s scale.
I’ve just read the story about a couple, she working in christian aid in Haiti and got stuck in the collapse of the office building but manages to call her husband for ten seconds. He of course gets in the car and drives for six hours to get there. Manages to find the building in the rest of the chaos, jumps into a hole and finds his wifes hand waving. And after being pulled up with cuts and bruises she has now told rest of her family she can’t go home but have to stay to help others. Some of her co-workers had worse injuries. This is one of many stories we will hear I am sure. And we need to hear them. What we need to know is also that these are stories of people making it. We will not be told the stories of the hundred thousand or so that did not make it and the families they leave behind.

What struck me first was the idea of the stress and thoughts the husband goes through while he is driving for six hours with no idea of where his wifes is and how bad it is. What thoughts goes through a mothers head while se frantic digs through concrete blocks and dust for her children. What thoughts goes through a childs mind after finding his/hers family members killed. And what can they do, other than to search for loved ones.

Video of CNN in the streets of Port-au-Prince

People of Haiti are now digging by hand. Corps are lying around in the streets. They have no power or water. I know that help is on the way, but this is a situation that is not going to get solved the next week. It is time for each and everyone to do something. And I am sitting here in my nice and cozy home, 5000 miles away and wondering what the hell to do. Trust me, I have already praised the aid organisations, the volunteers, Wyclef, Brad and Angelina and the rest of the people that are standing up to help out. And I wish I could do the same. I wish there was something reasonably helpful I could do in this situation. Thats my grief. Not really much compared to the real problems. So…

If you cannot go yourself: Donate to those who can.

If you can not donate: Get someone else to donate.

There are many organisations on the way there and they need money to continue their work. If you do not know to which organisation to turn to: One of the teams that are able to help the situation are among others the Doctors Without Borders.  Here is a link for how to donate.
Please, let us not have another Tsunami- or Katrina-situation here.

Rescue teams. Get on your way. I beg you.
People – Get on your way – or open your wallet.

illustration by: Ron Tandberg

Both in our everyday life and on journey we are faced with new people and that often means making up an opinon on that person, his/hers beliefs, actions and way of life. Christine Garvin just wrote an interesting post at the BraveNewTraveler where she debates this issue and how we as humans interact with others based on what is often only our first impression. Maybe we all have something learn by some inner soul searching and maybe a more critical approach to our own fear and prejudice.

I just realized that Newsweek reporter Christopher Dickey is right about three things in his article “What Would Jesus Do in Gaza” where he discusses what he assumes is Obamas lack of effort to resolve the crisis in the Middle East. The three things are: 1. Obama is not the messiah. 2. Obama did not mention Gaza in his Peace prize acceptance speech. 3. The conflict on Gaza is for many the core question of peace among Arabs and Jews. I could be the first to stand together with Christopher Dickey in his wishes for settlement, stability and peace in that region. That IS the core reason for many of the problems we experience in the world today. I will even say that I missed Gaza in that speech myself. I will not argue with the importance of this matter or other matters in his article. What I do have trouble with is the angle of this. What Mr. Dickey seems to be doing is comparing Obama to a mix of the messiah and World Police. He started his article stating that Obama is not the messiah, so what is he?

He is certainly not World Police. I think that job is taken by a part-time worker called UN. Many global citizens has claimed that the U.S. wrongly have claimed the role as World Police several times. And sometimes they seem to go very up in that role, even though they dont get any extra paycheck for it. Some presidents have probably seen a paycheck in the future and navigated with that in mind. Anyway, it would be very wrong for any president of the U.S. to take on this role as he is just………….the president of One country. A large country yes. And the best armed country. And here is the dilemma. U.S.A is the best armed country in the world and have the largest set of troops ready to be dispatched to every part of the world where there is injustice. Does that make them a better or more suited cop? Does that give them the right to take on the role as World Police? Do we want the police man with the biggest gun to be the chief of police? Dirty Harry? So this creates a number of question in my head as I of course do not believe Newsweek to be ambiguous. 

The only clear reply I can come to on this matter is the following:
Our Newsweek reporter C.D. actually do think that President Obama is a mix of messiah and the world police (with G. Bush as former chief of police), and unfortunately a lot of people think the same thing. World Police from being Commander in Chief for the biggest gun in the world and messiah from the grace and panache of his speeches. Let me make my statement very clear: U.S. does not have a bigger responsibility for fixing problems in the Middle East than other countries in the word, for better or worse. It is not the U.S. duty or right. It is, however, the U.S. right and duty to act upon injustice as a fellow global citizen. And I must say that often U.S. responds very rapidly and efficient but that is from having decisiveness and large balls, not collecting an extra paycheck for being world police. It is just as must the duty of ANY other country in the world to respond to the conflicts on Gaza strip, especially their own politicians and the Israeli.

I thing this post is 33% request to European leaders to grow determination and …., 33% request to President Obama to maybe tone down the world police role (good speeches I will allow), and 33% invitation for the leaders of the Middle East to get of their … and act. The last 1% I think goes out to Newsweek for a nice and bold, but maybe a bit ambiguous, article. But I will keep my subscription for now.

We waited, it came and it went.. the christmas. Once again we have managed to prepare ourselves for christmas by endless shopping, decorations, baking, cooking, eating and drinking. I think christmas is great.. but it’s great when its over as well. Writing this on christmas day is of course with reference to our tradition as we celebrate christmas eve on the 24th of December, not celebrating christmas day the 25th. Christmas day, for me, is more about walking around in pajamas all day long eating cookies and left overs from yesterdays dinner. Today we also managed to get out for a quick exercise walk. It felt good.

Looking in retrospect to our traditions I can not disregard the some of the other, maybe negative, sides of christmas too. Although I most of the time enjoy christmas, and enjoy the tradition of it, it is also the time when someone feels left outside, is left outside, some sit home alone, someone is drinking their way through christmas and someone just don’t want to be a part of it at all. All this both to the neglect, sorrow and despair of other family members. There are familes where the bonds are strong and even stronger after their christmas celebration. There are families where the bonds are strong all year through but is hurting through christmas because they feel the everlasting stress and tension of keeping everything perfect and everybody content. There are families where the bonds are not as strong and where christmas is turned into tense feelings on “why bother in christmas when we don’t meet rest of the year”. And there are people without families or without contact with their families. I don’t think it is any secret which category we all want to be in, and I am sure there are other “categories” as well.  The common denominator is often one of these: Family. Parents. Depression. Inheritance settlements. Alcoholism. Drug abuse. Shame. Guilt. Reasons can be many, but the christmas being the time for everybody to enjoy themselves and have a good time, all the time, can maybe be that extra burden that someone doesn’t need. Christmas is a strong reminder of everything you wish were different.

We are experts in shopping, eating and drinking. We are experts in following medias promotions of traditions, customs and habits. We are experts in promoting how happy we are and how successful we are. And we are unfortunately also experts in looking the other way.

How good are we really at taking care of our own? How good are we at asking our next man how he really is doing? Have we learned how to forgive? Have we forgotten about the important things and the message of christmas? Did we learn it in the first place? What did we learn? I wish I could come up with a brilliant answer to all these questions, or some theory of humanity and mankind that would explain why things are the way they are. Why is not christmas just a enjoyable and easy holiday? Why all these thoughts? Why do he/she make everything so difficult?

Whether trouble is related to friends, aunts or uncles or your parents – you can be quite sure the situation is not very different across at your neighbour across the street, your co-worker or your friend. We all got them! So why are we so afraid of this? Why do we struggle to keep up appearance? I can see somebody is about to mention the argument of passing on good traditions and values to our children. But shouldn’t that be an all-year exercise? You don’t think your children wonders about why auntie Marge is hammered and depressed through every christmas dinner, or why their father is quiet throughout the christmas? Why not tell them instead of sweeping it under the rug? Let them later make their own traditions instead of trying to keep up with Marge. And why not try to confront our issues sometime between January and November instead of piling it up for the Grand Finale on christmas eve or day?

I wish everybody a merry christmas and a lovely new year, even aunt Marge who really is quite nice. I hope we next year may take a bit better care of eachother. Both our children and parents - disregardless of your age.

Once again the Nobel committee has awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, this time to the President of United States, Barack Obama. The president arrived early this morning and attended meetings with the Nobel committee, the prime minister, the royal family and later the award ceremony at Oslo City Hall. The Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel committee gave the presentation speech arguing that the Nobel Prize had not just been used to honor specific achievements, but also to give momentum to a set of causes. The Prize could thus represent “a call to action”. President Obama gave a long and thorough acceptance speech “taking the bull by the horn” and addressing the controvercy of both being awarded the peace prize and at the same time sending troops to Afghanistan.

In the evening the President and the First Lady showed their appreciation on the balcony of Grand Hotel Oslo to the ten thousand people paying tribute to the president. Surely some people also attended to protest against the president and the war in Afghanistan. They were, however, too few to even break through the cheering crowd. Later the president gave a speech from the banquet where he humoristicly mentioned that the Chairman during his speech earlier almost had him belive he deserved this.

For Norway, and Oslo as a capital, I think it is fair to say it is exciting to host such a big event for a person of his proportions. You can agree or disagree with his politics but he is the most influential politician of this time, and I for one am excited about his work and await the results with great hope for us all.

“Unfortunately, nature and the laws of physics cannot compromise – they are what they are” James Hansen argues in his book “Storms of my Grandchildren“. A brief excerption is now published at Newsweek online, and is highly recommended reading. Hansen is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, an adjunct professor at Columbia University and Columbia’s Earth Institute, and director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. 

James Hansen is being quite direct, and it’s in his right, arguing that as President Obama’s assertion that he would “listen to” scientists did not mean that he would not listen, perhaps with even sharper ears, to political advisers. This meaning that when the U.S. government on one hand defend an ineffective cap-and-trade approach for controlling carbon emissions, and on the other hand treat next-generation nuclear power as a pariah, you recognize that the government is not taking a strategic approach to solve the climate problem.

Quoting Hansen: “Our planet, with its remarkable array of life, is in imminent danger of crashing. Yet our politicians are not dashing forward. They hesitate; they hang back. Therefore it is up to you. As in other struggles for justice against powerful forces, it may be necessary to take to the streets to draw attention to injustice. Civil resistance may be our best hope. It is crucial for all of us, especially young people, to get involved. This will be the most urgent fight of our lives.”

At the moment 3 norwegians (as far as I know) are charged with death penalty abroad. Two in Kongo and one in Pakistan. Norwegians have since this summer followed the case and the trial of the two norwegians (Tjostolv Moland and Joshua French) in Kongo as they were captured, tried in military court and sentenced for murder after the incident in the jungle. The two have all the time claimed innoncent and told us they were ambushed and it seems like they only manage to get away because of their military training. Thet have not been heard during trial both because of the language barriers and what seems to be a very corrupt system. We now also just learned that another norwegian citizen has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani court for rape and murder. Damn it! If these guys actually have done what they are charged with theare are noe excuse and they should face prison and their penalties. However, being charged with these crimes in a foreign country is no joke and everybody is entitled to a fair trial where their arguments are heard. The three norwegians have been tried in some of the most corrupt parts of the world where lives are bought and sold for pennies. Now what have the norwegian foreign ministry done to aid these people and make sure they are tried in a decent way with possibility of defending themself. Nothing. In Kongo they have sent observers watching the trial unfolds, what may lead to the case worsening when that triggered the argument that the guys were spies for norwegian governement. What else have they done? Oh yes, the foreign minister is sitting back watching them being sentenced, waiting for the appeal trial, waiting for them to be sentenced again, watching them receiving their five or six death sentences and arguing that the norwegian foreign minstry has to wait until the sentences are legally enforceable before they take action. Are we to sit back and wait for the firing-squad? are we to sit back and wait for them being killed in jail while waiting for norwegian governement? It is about time they stand up and respond to what is an obvious corrupt trial where the judges has been paid off or is seeking political gain. These guys need a fair trial where they can argue their innosence and face the charges in an orderly fasion, not throgh a corrupt court. If these guys are guilty, let them face 20 years prison but do not let them die without giving them a chance, and do not accept a death sentence! It is time for the norwegian foreign ministery stop being such a coward!!!

Once again National Geographic have published their annual ranking on “sustainable destinations“. I am a bit surprised the norwegian fjords topped the list again, as they did five years ago. I would think there were more “sustainable destinations”, but that may be my subjective opinion being from Norway. I’m not going into that. I am not going to comment the top destinations at all. But the worst rated places;

Northern Red Sea Coast, Egypt
Packed with shapy mediocre resorts the area suffers from “chaotic development.” Urban sprawl is imminent and the coral reefs are being destroyed.
The seventh worst place

North Coast, Dominican Republic
A land of all-inclusive resorts where visitors hardly glimpse the real life of the place. The quantity of tourism arriving is a very big problem and as a consequence the locals are marginalized and desperate, and the experience is exploitive.

St. Maarten/St. Martin
On the Dutch half of the island tourism has gobbled up the culture, which is now defined by the hotel/casino industry. The French side is overbuilt but has avoided so far the fast-food joints, casinos, and concentration of duty-free shops.

Cabo San Lucas Region, Mexico
Sleepy fishing villages have been transformed into places where drinking tequila shots upside down is the number one tourist attraction and gated communities are the main economic activity.The fourth worst destination

Grand Bahama, Bahamas
True tourism folly—unfinished shells of hotels, tacky shopping areas and cruise ship hell. Wealthy outsiders have bought up all the beachfront, leaving nothing for anyone else.
As a result, the locals are extremely bitter.

West Bank, Bethlehem, Israel/Palestine
The tourism industry in this symbolic town is in shambles because of ongoing Israeli-Arab fighting. No matter what their politics, tourists here will be upset by the giant wall, the intimidating border crossing, the desolate and hopeless feeling of the city. I can think of a couple of other places I feel fighting is causing bad vibes for the holiday also, but this one was a good one. Second worst.

Costa del Sol, Spain
Ahh… Now the worst of them all. Costa del Sol in Spain. A place where both myself and half of Norway has spent vast amount of time;) But I think NG got this one right too:
Costa del Concrete was the big loser in the rankings, staying at the bottom of the list, where it was in 2004. This year it scored even lower, by 10 points. A textbook example of mass tourism run amok with high-rise hotels, crammed beaches, water shortages, pollution, and indifference to local culture.

Last week Daniel Stone at Newsweek wrote an article discussing the expectations to president Barack Obama in his leadership and his “choice of battles”. Daniel Stone is arguing that from being unable to attend the upcoming climate-change-summit in Copenhagen the president is now suddenly scheduled to attend and that this is related to Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen lowering the expectations for the conference and its output. I can totally agree that the conference should be in the the presidents top-list and it is extremely important that the bar for result from the conference is kept as high as originally planned, drafting a hard-hitting legal agreement and not conclude after the conference that “yes, environment is an important thing and we need to do something about it … sometime”. So I don’t have trouble agreeing with some of the arguments in Stones article. What I do have trouble grasping is his comparison between failure for no climate treaty being signed to the failure of not getting the Olympics to the U.S. when Stone argues “It would be like a repeat of the Olympics—an episode that, no matter how well spun, would paint Obama as a political lightweight and allow conservatives to argue that his global popularity and conciliatory rhetoric don’t actually deliver the goods for U.S. interests.”

“Delivering the good for U.S. interests”? Are we talking about the same thing here? The olympic summer games being held various places around the world every four years? The “festival” lasting two weeks? Are these games on the same level as the future of this planet in the eyes of the public, or is it just at the Newsweek desk they are that into sports? I can absolutely enjoy watching the olympics on TV and I think it is a great tradition to keep. And I can see that it does bring a positive impact for the country or city that host the games. However; should it not be in the interest of every human being, including Newsweek-reporters, that we in 25 years still have a fairly solid planet to live on, limited to approx. 70% oceans as today and not creeping up to 90%?

I can not start to imagine how demanding Barack Obamas, or any presidents, list of duties and priorities must be. And I can surely from time to time agree that I see world leaders not prioritizing the way I think they should. But to be fair I do not think lobbying for the olympics should be a priority for the president. Leaving that to the first lady and Mrs. Winfrey would have been fine by me. Maybe that actually would have had a positive impact on Chicagos part, the olympic committee not feeling pressure from one of the world leaders.

No, instead of crying about missing out on more billions or trillions in dept (by arranging the olympics … it costs money too you know) I think the U.S. public should embrace the fact they have a leader that have started more processes for changing the world to a better place than any other president in a very long time and hope that he can go out with triumph in 7 years. If so, that means good news for the rest of us. Starting a process on the dysfunctional U.S. health system (and lets be straight: it is only socialism if you are rich. It is still capitalism for the poor). Starting the process of banning nuclear weapons. Taking over the leadership after a long period of crazy spendings by former administrations- ending with one of the worst economic crisis of all times ! Taking over two massive wars that was, and still is, almost doomed to fail. If Mr. Obama manages to go through with just a small part of his agenda he will have succeeded. The only problem is that the way the public and media is handling this administration – if he fails only one of his tasks he will be portrayed as a “failure” and it will have negative impact on future elections as well. I am, together with the rest of the world, watching the steps of the president closely waiting to see if he delivers. But for heavens sake – give the man some slack, let us for now trust his game-plan and let’s keep our priorities in order!