1 MAKING A START
Hi, well I really have to start now.
Maybe set down very rudimentary structure first.
1
Work out roughly what I am trying to say and to whom and why.
Lead on later to decide how best to get it across
2
To maintain progress to explore the content. I.e write
important bits
3
Explore what it might actually consist of.
1
I think I am trying to get over a message that things are
changing and to be happy we need to change too. Main changes: Reduce our reliance on material
things: Develop a positive
relationship with the rest of the world.
I am trying to say it to the richest half of the world’s population.
Why. The reason is personal. I seem to have a desire to address human problems.
I find it hard to look at small scale solutions. Rather want to address major
issues. Getting it across.
One issue is protection of myself. I.e If by following this
through I alienate myself from the society I depend on it will be
counterproductive.
There seem to be various possible media.
Once upon a time there was nature. Nature created a
universe with lots of planets in it. Sometimes new planets were made and
sometimes old planets died. One one planet there were lots of different types
of living creature. After a bit one type of creature came to dominate the
others. The other types were killed, eaten, driven away from where they lived
or made to do what the dominant type wanted. The dominant creatures were
divided up into different tribes depending on where they lived and what they
looked like. From time to time one or other of the tribes came to dominate the
remainder and made them do what they wanted them to do. In their turn each of
the dominant tribes was replaced by another When a tribe is dominant its
members think they have a right to enjoy life more than people in other tribes.
They sometimes try to do things to help people in other tribes but are not
prepared to make changes to their own lives to make things easier for them.
They expect people in other tribes
2 OVERVIEW
CHANGE
Life changes. The solar system, the earth, species, civilization.
Change can be gradual. It can also be sudden.
There are patterns of change but change is not entirely predictable.
Arguable that change only matters to us when it might happen to us when we are alive. [ Incidental point that each bound up with own changes anyway -- birth/death etc. ]
However there is the question about our progeny.
But also issue for many people about what their life is about. Sense of loyalty – caring about other people. People we know. People in the same group, religion, race, nation. Also loyalty to our species.
From this sense of perspective – pointless caring about our race and species if what you might achieve now could be lost over time. Why save a little child if its future is absolutely bleak.
Having recognised this need to be aware of boundaries of caring. Possibility that they overlap. E.g by not helping one group might endanger group you care more about. – Issue about justice. (Rio and Copenhagen treaties)
Two strands. Fairness and dealing with change. What change can we expect. Insofar as predictable:
Capacity of the world to support its population: At present not supporting its population successfully – figures for mortality, sickness starvation etc demonstrate that it is failing. However great imbalances. If we all had the same standard of living would the world be able to support us all at a reasonable standard of living?
Indications are that the world is becoming less able to support its human population. Climate change. Depletion of raw materials. Appears not so much that the world, of itself, is failing but the demands being made of it are increasing and it is not able to keep up.
All countries wish to continue increasing consumtion of the world’s resources. Ways have been found to use resources more effectively so that quality of life can keep on going up without commensurate consumption of resources. These are expensive to provide – possible for rich countries but not others. Also rich countries increasingly dependent on production of poorer countries so that whereas they have steadily given up environmentally damaging processes poorer countries have relied more and more on them.
This seems to leave a major escalating problem. Question is how does this shape up over a period. Assumption could be that all continues as before. Rich countries manage to avoid harmful affects of climate change etc. Poorer countries don’t. Probably resentment builds up. Terrorist groups not seen as being especially wrong when they attack the rich. What do poor people think about the 9/11 attacks?
But power is shifting. Some eastern coutries growing much faster than US and Europe. Africa remains poor. West increasingly dependent upon service sector but increasingly developing countries are able to develop their own service sectors and even export services (e.g call centres). There is a much stroger work ethic in the East compared with the West. Therefore as resources are depleted countries like China get increased share with growth in their economic power. With this comes growth in military power. The world order that favours the west evaporates. What is to be done?
Western countries tend to be democracies. Ideology has become less and less respectable and , as a result, politicians have become more and more responsive to expressed interests of constituents as opposed to overarching bundles of values to which electors subscribe. Political policies stem therefore from the immediate interests and tastes of the population and therefore inherently conservative – all about the status quo. The possibility of having government policies that do not support material expansion very unlikely.
Actual change has to come from the mass of the people. Various scenarios:
Community Action- tendence to weaken resolve because seen to be doing something. Actual disasters – leave things to be and allow change to take place gradually through inflation etc. The alternative is a new view about what life is about.
Attempts to make things happen through guilt and compassion tend to fail because of compassion fatigue. What is necessary is to persuade someone to behave differently.
2 Human Energy Needs
USE OF POWER
Humans, like other animals get their energy from the food
that they eat. Plants and other
animals. The animals they eat live off plants. Plants obtain energy from the
earth, air, water and the sun. Energy is stored in their bodies during their
lives and consumed when they die or as seeds or fruit.
Some of the resources they use to provide this energy are,
in most places, continuously available. E.g sunshine and water. The nutrient in the soil that provides
energy from plants arises from the rotted down remains of plants and animals
and waste matter they discharge.
Theoretically the sun is the most reliable provider of
energy for plants but, availability and intensity of sunlight varies from place
to place. Again water is abundant but its useability varies and its
distribution is very uneven. Nutrient from the soil depends upon the extent to
which animal and plant material has rotted into it over the years. Nutrient in the soil can be reduced
severely by erosion and intensive use of the land e.g to support a large number of animals. The nutritional value of soil can be
damaged if the land is polluted, covered or disturbed.
Humans, have,
as their population has grown and their technical skills have advanced, increasingly
required more energy than was necessary to allow them to move about or do
things for themselves. To begin with animals became important sources of
additional power for man especially for transport and agriculture. Increasingly
wind was used to power sea transport. Windmills and water wheels, became
important for manufacturing. Both
provide permanent sources of power although the strength and direction of wind
fluctuates.
Wood burning fires were utilized from early times for
heating, cooking and by industries such as pottery and metal work. The
availability of wood depends upon the amount of land that is available for
growing trees that is of the right quality and receives enough water and
sunshine. In some areas of the
world the demand for firewood is such that land is loosing its intrinsic
nutritional value because of erosion.
In recent years agricultural land has been planted with
crops that are harvested to meet human power requirements. The planting of these crops and
woodland to meet fuel requirements can only be at the expense of other
important potential uses of the land, most importantly to provide food. It is
important, as with all types of agriculture, that the quality of the soil is
not reduced because nothing is left to rot down.
The discovery of coal, oil and natural gas provided a
substantial increase in the amount of power available to humans. They provided
a lot of power in relation to their bulk and weight; were relatively easy to
extract and could be made available where required fairly easily. Moreover they
provided raw materials for the manufacture of new and improved products. Byproducts included fertilizers that
could be spread on the land to improve fertility. Supplies of coal, oil and natural gas are finite. The extent
of reserves is difficult to estimate. Costs of extraction vary with the result
that, as readily accessible deposits are used up, usual costs of extraction
will increase. The more difficult it is to reach deposits the greater the risk
of environmental disasters. Most importantly, significant, accelerating and
potentially disastrous changes to the world climate are widely attributed to
the increased use of coal, oil and natural gas for power.
Nuclear power has provided an additional power source since
the mid-20th Century. Supplies of uranium necessary are not
unlimited although supplies can be expanded through the use of fast breeder
reactors. Of great concern are great dangers of explosion and pollution arising
from the processes involved. Byproducts remain highly noxious for many years
after production.
To summarize:
- humans consume animals and plants to provide the energy needed for their bodies to function properly;
- the supply of animals and plants to eat depends on the availability of sun, water and good quality soil;
- the supply of good soil and water is uncertain;
- humans consume much more energy than they need for their own bodies to function.
- Many sources have been used to obtain this extra energy:
- animals
- wind
- water
- wood
- other plant material
- coal
- natural gas
- oil
- nuclear
The use of animals is limited by the amount of power they
can produce and their need for plants to live on that we need ourselves. Wind
is unable to give a consistent supply. Water dependent upon fall in level of a
large amount of water. Wood, plant material requires use of land also needed
for food. Coal, oil and natural gas are of fixed supply.
2 Palestine
The historical records clearly show that wars between
Jews, Christians and Muslims over Palestine and Jerusalem have been raging
since biblical days with no settlement in sight.
Starting with the Bible and supported by archeological
findings, it is clear that Palestine was occupied by non-Jewish Semites long
before the Jews claimed the "Promised Land," and long after. There is
not even evidence that there were twelve tribes of Israel who occupy the land
claimed by modern Israel. The book of Joshua is full of bloody gore on how God
delivered on his promise, but there are no sources outside the Bible that
verify that the whole of Palestine was conquered and occupied by Jews.
If the Book of Joshua is to believed, then it means
that justification for a Jewish homeland is based on land taken by war 3,300
years ago and lost by war 2600 years ago.
Zionism is described as the belief in the unity of the
Jewish people in Palestine. Zion got its name from the hill on which the temple
of Jerusalem is located.
The roots of Zionism go back to 587 BCE, when the Jews
were carried off to captivity in Babylon and their prophets encouraged them to
believe one day that God would allow them to return to Palestine. Known as the
Babylonian exile, it is recorded in the last chapter of 2 Kings and verified by
Babylonian records.
In 539 BCE the Persians captured the Babylonian Empire
and permitted many to return to Jerusalem. After the Jews returned to the Holy
Land, they remained Persian subjects until Persia was conquered by Alexander
the Great in 330 BCE.
Strife continued when the Greek rulers attempted to
enforce Greek religion and culture. The Jews resented the attempt and revolted
under the leadership of the Jewish Maccabeans. For a while, from 164 to 63 BCE,
the Jews had a brief period of national independence.
However in 63 BCE, the Roman general Pompey captured
Jerusalem and the Jews became Roman subjects this time. The friction between
the Jews and their Roman overlords continued until 70 CE, when Jerusalem was
annihilated and Jews where forced to disperse from the area. What is known in
Israel as the "Wailing Wall" is the only remnant of this last time
when Jews lived together. A small contingent of Jews made one more attempt to
capture back their land of milk and honey in 72 CE, but the attempt proved
suicidal. In brief, these are the historical claims upon which Zionists claim
Israel rightly belongs to the Jews.
In the long stretch of history preceding the twentieth
century, the Roman empire became Christianized under the emperor Constantine
(306-337) who establish the new capital of Constantinople in what is now called
Istanbul in Turkey.
From 150 to 650 CE, the Roman Empire split into three
distinct cultures and religions: the Latin Christian West, the Muslim world in the
Middle east, and in the far east was the Byzantium empire where Greek Orthodox
Christianity split from papal rule.
In 638 Muslim armies invaded Palestine and captured
Jerusalem where they remained for 1400 years. Palestine and Jerusalem became
holy to the Muslims because its founder Muhammad was believed to ascend to
heaven from the area of Solomon's temple. From the time of his death in 632,
Islam emerged as a major military power.
Beginning in 1095 and ending late in the 13th
century, the Christian Crusaders invaded Palestine seven times to take
Jerusalem because it was where Jesus Christ was crucified. By 1099 the
crusaders had control over the Middle east and Jerusalem. However, Christian
territories acquired during the First Crusade were gradually lost over the next
200 years. Jerusalem was recaptured by Muslim forces in 1187, and the last
Christian stronghold in the Holy Land fell in 1291.
In 1453, Constantinople was sieged by Ottoman sultans
and became what is known as the Ottoman Empire. Islam was still the dominant
religion.
In the twentieth century, World War I, ended control
by the Ottomans, and Palestine came under British rule. To secure help from the
Zionists, the British issued the Balfour Declaration in 1917, which endorsed
Palestine as a national home for Jewish people all over the world. During the
period of British mandate (1922-1948), the Jewish population grew from 50,000
to 600,000 people-the Palestinians numbered 1,300,000.
In 1939 the British terminated their support for
Zionism, but it was the Holocaust that secured western sympathy for a Jewish
state. By the time British abandoned Palestine in May 14th,
1948, American Jews convinced President Harry Truman to support the Jewish
declaration of independence for the new state of Israel.
Israel's Arab neighbors took up the Palestinian cause
and invaded Israel immediately after independence was declared, in a war known
as the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 to 1949. The war produced 780,000 Palestinian
refugees who were forced out to make way for Jewish immigrants. Israel has been
involved in four major wars since then—a clash with Egypt during the Suez
Crisis in 1956, the Six-Day War in 1967, the Arab-Israeli War of 1973, and
Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Christian evangelicals support occupation by
the Jews because they believe it is a necessary step for the second coming of
Jesus Christ.
Whatever anti-Semitism died down in western cultures,
it had to increase many fold in the Middle East. After losing four wars, it's a
good guess that the idea of terrorism took hold after Muslims saw the success
of guerilla warfare by the North Vietnamese against the U.S.. If we follow the
path of terrorist attacks, they started against Israel, migrated to U.S.
embassies and military installations, and finally to the American shores. When
American politicians screw up, as they usually do, it's American citizens who
pay the price.
Conclusion
It would be stupid to blame U.S. foreign policy as a
cause of the terrorist attack as if the U.S. was an accomplice, but certainly
it has endangered American safety and freedom. To put it bluntly, the American
government's self appointed role as the world policeman is pissing a lot of
people off. The United States has become the world's bully.
We have a situation similar to what we have seen in
the former Rhodesia, South Africa and Yugoslavia, where there is one ethnic
minority ruling over a hostile majority of another ethnicity. In South Africa
it was called apartheid, which I think is aptly applies Israeli policies against
Palestinians. For as long as the Israeli government imposes discriminatory
restrictions on Palestinian residents, the tensions are bound to continue.
Americans who frown upon racial discrimination at home
have every reason to protest American political support for its continuance in
Israel. If the Israelis were to treat Palestinians equally and the Palestinians
were to regain political power, so be it. That's what democracy is for. Second,
any form of military domination will only heighten Muslim aggression towards
the West. Beyond hunting down the evildoers, the U.S. should get the hell out
of the Middle East. But don't hold your breath.
Israel/Palestine
before 1917
At the beginning of the 20th century the Jews in Palestine
numbered around 70,000 and were about ten percent of the population, and in Jerusalem
they outnumbered the Arab Muslims and Christians. They were ruled by the
Ottoman Turks, but neither they nor the Arab Muslims around them had much
yearning for national independence. The Jews already had a sense of
independence. They thrived in communities in many of Palestine's towns, and
they welcomed those few immigrant Jews who were trickling into Palestine,
mostly from Europe. (Macro-history and World Report)
Increased discrimination against Jews in Europe was encouraging a
movement amongst them, Zionism, to secure a permanent homeland.
An official
letter from the British Foreign
Office headed by Lord Arthur Balfour,
the UK's Foreign
Secretary (from December 1916 to October 1919), to Baron
Rothschild, who was seen as a representative of the Jewish people.
The letter stated that the British government "view[ed] with favour the
establishment in Palestine
of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to
facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that
nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of
existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status
enjoyed by Jews in any other country." (Wilkepedia)
1917 to
1929
As a result
of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Palestine became a British protectorate.
It had previously been governed by the Turks. The arabs resented the terms of
the treaty and the occupation by the British. Violence between the two
communities escalated, in most cases, initiated by arabs. The British, because
of their many interests in the arab world tended to favour the Palestinian
arabs in these disputes. In 1922 they suspended Jewish immigration and
“redefined” the Balfour declaration
.In1922 the British mandate to
rule Palestine was confirmed by the League of Nations. A civilian
administration was set up with a constitution and legislative council
comprising 10 Arabs (including two Christians) and two Jews. According to a new
census 84,000 Jews lived in Palestine at the time comprising just over 11% of
the total population. An increase
of 1% from the beginning of the century.
1929 to 1939
A major conflict arose in 1929 following
allegations that the Jews had seized Muslim holy places. 133 Jews died as a
result of the disturbances. 87 Arabs were killed by the British whilst
suppressing disturbances. The Arabs complained that the Zionists rather than
the original Jewish inhabitants of the country had caused the unrest.
An official census in 1931 counted 759,952 Muslims, 90,607 Christians
(mostly Arab Christians) and 175,006 Jews. Jews were now 17 percent of the
population. Anti Semitism in Germany, Poland and Romania caused an acceleration
of Jewish migration to Palestine reaching a peak of 61,854 in 1935. This
migration supported economic development at a time, the Great Depression when
the US and European economies were stagnating. This was accompanied by a labour
shortage causing an influx of Arab workers. Despite this the percentage of Jews
in the population increased to almost 30% by 1936.
Palestine's Arabs wanted an end to all
Jewish immigration and, in 1936, they held a general strike against British
rule and attacks against Jews were intensified. 140 Arabs and 33 British died
in attempts to maintain order. In 1939 the British Government produced a White
Paper holding that the Jews should be prohibited from buying more land outside
their existing settlements and that immigration by Jews should be fixed at
75,000 p.a
1939 to 1948
During the period of British mandate (1922-1948), the
Jewish population grew from 50,000 to 600,000 people-the Palestinians numbered
1,300,000.
In 1939 the British terminated their support for Zionism,
but it was the Holocaust that secured western sympathy for a Jewish state. By
the time British abandoned Palestine in May 14th,
1948, American Jews convinced President Harry Truman to support the Jewish
declaration of independence for the new state of Israel.
Israel's Arab neighbors took up the Palestinian cause
and invaded Israel immediately after independence was declared, in a war known
as the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 to 1949. The war produced 780,000 Palestinian
refugees who were forced out to make way for Jewish immigrants. Israel has been
involved in four major wars since then—a clash with Egypt during the Suez
Crisis in 1956, the Six-Day War in 1967, the Arab-Israeli War of 1973, and
Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Christian evangelicals support occupation by
the Jews because they believe it is a necessary step for the second coming of
Jesus Christ.
Whatever anti-Semitism died down in western cultures,
it had to increase many fold in the Middle East. After losing four wars, it's a
good guess that the idea of terrorism took hold after Muslims saw the success
of guerilla warfare by the North Vietnamese against the U.S.. If we follow the
path of terrorist attacks, they started against Israel, migrated to U.S.
embassies and military installations, and finally to the American shores. When
American politicians screw up, as they usually do, it's American citizens who
pay the price.
Most of this is lifted from somewhere so do not re-print so that copyrights are not infringed.
Most of this is lifted from somewhere so do not re-print so that copyrights are not infringed.
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