The most deadly disease of them all
I’ve started reading again and I’m pushing myself to keep on reading Mohandas Gandhi’s The Stories of My Experiments with Truth. I’m pushing myself because it is ‘slow’ to me in a sense given that most of the autobiographies and biographies I read are from the likes of Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos and typically other entrepreneurial leaders. Generally their stories include the highs and lows of wealth, power, fame, massive legal battles, a fair amount of drugs (Branson), the risk of losing everything they love (all) and so forth. All pretty interesting to me, at least. Gandhi’s book, like himself, is rather modest. That is not to say I’m not enjoying in, in fact I’m really enjoying being able to experience from his writing the world as he saw it – especially as it spans the 19th and early 20th century and covers his journeys across the world. He is a person I have huge respect for and my respect for him continues to grow the more I read. Perhaps I’m writing this entry a little prematurely as I haven’t yet finished his book, but Gandhi used a word that jumped out of the page as I was reading. He said ‘disease’. I felt obliged to go on to look at how and why he said it, and how it is still remarkably and sadly relevant today - especially given the seemingly increasing tensions in certain areas of the world (I began writing this just a day after the tragic events that happened in Paris (and the equally tragic killings in Nigeria which, naturally, didn’t make our mainstream news)). To dive into the history of humans quickly. If we look to when our time began, conflicts often happened over desperation, at least in the early days of humanity. Man killed Man often to save his family and to gain access to food to provide for his family. Man killed Beast for the same reasons, for the safety of his family, and food for his family. Once these basic necessities are granted, the need for conflict (if there ever was a reason) should no longer exist. Unfortunately, at some point, whether it’s ingrained in our DNA (possibly) or if it can be taught/learnt and unlearnt (most likely), other factors such as greed can and do enter into play. This can be greed for power, greed for more food than we need, the greed of killing for fun, etc. Whatever the reason, the need to kill man or beast in the way we previously did no longer exists. Unlike our ancestors, we now understand the world to be spherical. We have vastly improved farming methods that produces enough food to feed the whole world. With rare exceptions wild beast do not present a threat to us. Why does conflict still happen? But I digress, back to the topic of this entry – Disease. Gandhi was talking about the ‘disease’ of colour prejudice. As were happening to other ‘coloured’ people in South Africa where Gandhi was at the time, and across so many other parts of the world, people were and sadly still are treated differently because of colour. As well as colour, one can include race, religion, political view, gender, sexual orientation, age, level of education, size, disability and any other almost unlimited number of factors, and this ‘Disease’ evidently still manifests across society again today, just as it did in 1895. The disease I refer to, taking Gandhi’s mention of the word and extending it to a wider context, is prejudice. The underlying prejudice of one person over another is extremely dangerous. We strive to cure cancer, HIV/AIDs, malaria, etc. but we are missing perhaps the most deadly disease of them all. Prejudice is a disease in the sense that it seemingly appears in a person and can cause all types of negative impacts; on both the person with the disease and, often more the case, the people that are in the ‘way’ of the disease i.e. those around the host. But the good news as proven so many times over – there are ways of curing it (or at least keeping it dormant). Note: Whilst I realise a disease and a virus are medically very different, in this context I use disease to represent disease and a virus and to mean roughly the same thing: professional friends don’t shoot me – that would be prejudice against me for my lack of medical knowledge ;) As mentioned, most of us now have no need to kill to survive. Food is abundant in large parts of the world, though sadly waste is too. There is no longer the need to keep a spear by the fire in case of attack by a wolf, a lion, a snake, or any other deadly potentially animal. Yet conflict and war is still common place in many parts of the world, and to me at least not always as obvious as guns versus tanks. Whilst many people blame religion for most wars of the world, I believe the underlying factor to blame for basically every act of conflict in modern times is prejudice (modern as in at least as far back as since time has been recorded). Jihadists, the Crusades, The IRA, ISIS, The Tamil Tigers, etc. Yes, these are all apparently religious fundamentalists ‘fighting for their religion’, but what about the colonialists? The former and current world powers of which my own beloved United Kingdom has been one of the very worst perpetrators? Was religion really involved there? Not really – to me, it was funded by greed first and foremost and then accepted by prejudice, often under the banner excuse of what makes one different to another – they had the choice of colour, religion, etc. and simply could take their pick. We know that throughout history various empires clearly deemed it acceptable to rape, pillage, murder and enslave a population for the ‘good of the country, the empire, the king, religion’, whatever it was apparently in the name of. Again, what made this acceptable? Prejudice, because the victims were somehow different to the perpetrators. Greed also has a major part to play in all of this too. In fact, to me greed and prejudice often (but not always) go hand in hand. Exceptions to this rule would be genocides such as those that occurred in Kosovo and to a similar extent, the Holocaust. These are horrific examples of prejudice, arguably where greed didn’t play a part or was minor. So if you accept my point that prejudice is the underlying factor in all conflict, at least in modern times, then it would be fair to say that prejudice has been responsible for surely many, many millions of lives, wherever conflict has occurred and still continues to do so. Prejudice is very deadly. However – let’s not prejudice off so lightly here. Prejudice isn't restricted to just the battlefield or concentration camps. Whilst I hate to get drawn into these sort of debates and I especially dislike it when people ask me effectively (and sometimes in these exact words), “which side are you on?” I would like to make a statement here. I find it a matter of complete ignorance and hypocrisy when I hear supposedly well educated people mention things such as, “Well the moderate Muslims aren't doing anywhere near enough” and, “If ‘they’ are here they are all and always will be a threat”. Far be it from me to stand up for Islam, or any religion for that matter, but such statements like this are beyond ridiculous. Those that comment often fail to realise (most likely ignore) that even rounded up to the nearest 1%, the total number of ‘Muslims’ who have committed crimes such as suicide bombing is 1% - and that’s rounded up – in reality it’s closer to 0%. Before my time, ‘terrorists’ most terrifying the UK were the IRA. These people were apparently ‘Catholics (who are also Christians)’, and killed innocent people. Again, is it fair to say that ALL Christians should be ‘A threat as long as they are in this country?’ Of course not, this would be absurd to most people. Now to the other statement I hear – “Muslims should do much more to stop terrorism”. I agree in principle that it would be an ideal scenario for those good people who go to Mosques and are within communities where hate preachers spread hate were able to oust these evil people. However, I say this with a caveat and with some questions for you, the reader. Did people know the IRA existed and had evil plans? Surely. Were these evil people all ousted by their communities to the authorities? Occasionally. Should everyone be expected to put their lives and their family’s lives at risk by coming to the police with accusations against people whom they believe to be mass-murderers? I for one wouldn't tell anyone in this situation that they should be expected to risk their life and come to the police. Whilst it would help the situation, how can we possible place this terrifyingly high burden on any good person? Finally on this point, without appearing to bash any one religion or race and without getting drawn into yet another debate - the KKK. How on earth they still exist in any form is beyond me. If a terrorist is termed a person or group who commits atrocities against those of different race, religion, etc. and hides behind a mask to cause terror of some description, does the KKK not have the guidebook to this? It is to my knowledge still legal to be part of the Klan, but to be associated with the likes of Al Qaeda, the Tamil Tigers and many other terrorists groups could put you in jail without trial… These groups have all committed atrocities in the name of their perverse, twisted ideologies, but only one has been properly outlawed. They all deserve equally the same love and respect from the rest of the world – absolutely none. I do believe in the right to defend, but at the expense of innocent people it is indefensible in my view. Equally, I can to an extent understand how people commonly referred to as terrorists in some parts of the world are deemed ‘freedom fighters’ in other parts. I mention many words above with inverted commas because it would not be fair to say “he was a Muslim, therefore all Muslims are threats”, “he was a Catholic, and therefore all Catholics are dangerous”. In fact, if one really wanted to stereotype about the average perpetrator throughout history of such acts of violence, the most common theme (apart from them all being human), is that most have been men. Would the world be better if women had more power? That’s another blog entry I’m gladly going to take on in the near future. Moving away from the mention of race and religion and back to focusing on prejudice again. Having spoken about conflict and war and again about terrorism in some detail, I’d like to look at perhaps less obvious prejudice. Prejudice doesn't have to kill to take a life. Prejudice happens in all walks of life, across the world. It can be something as simple as a person not being able to receive healthcare in a country because they cannot afford it. You may argue that those who earn money deserve the healthcare over those who don’t work, for example. My questions back is how can an unborn baby be less deserving of medical help than another unborn baby? How does that work? Prejudice can be a situation whereby people believe it to be ‘fair game’ to send abusive messages to someone famous, because they are famous. It can be a newspaper running an article that is worded in a way to appear to suggest a group of people are all of a certain disposition, based on a test group of typically less than 0.0001%. Some of these sorts of statements are incredibly dangerous, not to mention just plain awful ‘journalism’. In reference to the start of this entry, it is sad that food waste is common in many places where food is so scarce in others. This simply shouldn’t happen anymore. I’m not suggesting that prejudice is directly to blame for all of this. However, if you agree with me that war is caused by prejudice however you dress it up, then defence budgets are no longer needed. By freeing up defence budgets alone to divert to overseas and also domestic aid, the number of people needlessly suffering because of factors out of their control would dramatically drop. So is prejudice deadly beyond war? Absolutely, it’s a major killer and a dreadful Disease. I have some good news! Like pretty much any deadly disease, people throughout history and still today are searching for a cure. Whilst the entry so far has been fairly melancholy, I have some good news. We are at war with Prejudice. We have social scientists who dedicate their lives to tackling this most deadly of diseases. They don’t always wear white coats and work in laboratories – they are more often seen in the streets, supporting communities, helping people, breaking down the walls of hatred. Despite what much of the mass media suggests, as a species we are taking major in the fight against this disease. Black people in most parts can take the same bus as white people, gay marriage is becoming increasingly acceptable, slavery is illegal in most or all parts of the world (though we know it still happens), poverty is being hit hard across the globe, the number of charities continues to rapidly rise, etc. We can look to places and people who, if anyone does, have a right to be prejudice against others. For a moment, I’ll briefly refer to Cambodia, the people of Hiroshima in Japan and those that were at the Gay Pride (Southern Decadence) festival in New Orleans in 2014. Passing through these places last year, I saw mostly the opposite of what others would expect to see. Both Laos and Cambodia were badly hit during the Vietnam – USA war, neither countries being involved. The people of Hiroshima still feel in their minds and can physically see the scars of the A-Bomb that was dropped on the city in 1945, killing so many and destroying the lives of many more. The members of the parades at Gay Pride in New Orleans that I saw were subject to quite frankly disgraceful abuse from those who oppose homosexuality on the day – and probably throughout their lives too. Could we blame the people of Laos and Cambodia, the people of Hiroshima or the members of the Parade for holding some form of prejudice against other? Well no, I don’t think so. Yet, remarkably, I didn’t experience an ounce of hatred with these people. In fact, in Laos and Cambodia, Westerners (including Americans) are treated with the same smiles and hospitality as anyone else. In Hiroshima, the call from the city for global peace, particularly against nuclear weapons, is clear – the message they give is not one of resentment, but instead they tell the world how bad war and bombs can be. I found it absolutely hilarious to see people at the Gay Pride festival show pretty much nothing but love with kisses (and probably pity) to the very people who told them they were going to Hell because of their sexuality – amazing! There is a near infinite number of other areas for inspiration for us all, if you can see past mass media’s typically negative messaging. The internet and social media for example offer us an incredible chance to get to know and learn about other people from across the world. To protect each other when needed, to support each other and to share with each other. Yes the internet is used as a tool for terrorists amongst other bad things, but there’s so much good we can and do use it for. Remember the BP Oil spill in the US? Within days a team of students, academics and industry-people joined to find the solution by joining together online. Would the West help those in trouble when the government is preventing freedom of speech? Read about the Arab Springs and you’ll see how people from across the world provided those who were being oppressed with internet capabilities after governments there blocked access. This enabled people who were being oppressed to show the rest of the world what was happening and and ask for outside help. Ever heard of Open Source technology? Look it up, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Not everyone is determined to make as much money as they can and live for solely their own good. Away from the internet now, in my country the UK I am hugely proud of the National Health Service. Despite some of its downfalls (though I feel these are often overhyped anyway) it is a creation that I am proud to call British. The idea that no matter how rich or poor you are, what skin colour you are, how old or young you are, whether you are gay, straight, overweight, disabled, famous or even a criminal, you are still entitled to healthcare because you are a human. It’s humanity at its greatest. If instead of fighting for oil, fighting ideas, attacking religions, discriminating against other races, hating the poor (and rich) and simply talking negatively about others (bitching, in general) we took up arms in the metaphorical sense to fight prejudice, the world would be without doubt a much better place. It’s happening already – let’s keep battling to find the cure. Final note: If you’re still with here, thank you for sticking with me on this. As per usual, I’ve expanded on my points well beyond what I originally intended to speak about and have left promises for other future subjects. Being concise has never been my forte! To wrap up this entry, I’d like to share this video with you which I hope leaves you with a smile on your face to last the rest of the day. Please click/copy and paste the link below (tumblr doesn't want to do the linking for me!) http://youtu.be/Dz9pwjx9vSg?list=LLIaNYWb5DPApM8nz34cXdyA Tom













