Not By Bread Alone

On May 15, 2024 By southwerkIn business ethics

Sometimes reading and watching our various media, you get the impression that economic success is the ultimate determination of a nation’s success. This is the popular view in many circles. But if true at all, it is only partially true. The fact of the matter is – nations have value based not just on economic value but on art, culture and their civic life. It is better to live with a vibrant culture, movies, plays and books, – and better still to live in a society where the citizens can participate in the decisions that effect their lives.

Many participate in art. Some draw, some play an instrument, some participate in little theatre. But once in a while a person rises to the level of director, a professional artist. Successful societies run by the wise, experienced and based on a civilized tradition honor the great artists among us. But primitive and repressive societies do not.

There is no clearer indication of a society in decline than its attempt to destroy a human being for making art.

And here we have just such an example.

James Alan Pilant

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/acclaimed-iranian-filmmaker-flees-europe-210242828.html

Taken directly from the article above:

Rasoulof condemned the Iranian government in an Instagram post on Monday, calling it a tyrannical and oppressive regime, and posting a video that showed him crossing the country’s mountainous border. “If geographical Iran suffers beneath the boots of your religious tyranny, cultural Iran is alive in the common minds of millions of Iranians who were forced to leave Iran due to your brutality and no power can impose its will on it. From today, I am a resident of cultural Iran,” he said.

Who Are You Going to Believe about the Aid Workers Killed in Gaza??

On April 5, 2024 By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

https://www.yahoo.com/news/early-war-idf-gave-clearance-025500680.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/jos-andr-condemns-israel-killing-211711516.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/protests-expected-arizona-capitol-israeli-161916341.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/world-central-kitchen-aid-workers-235043732.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/israel-pay-compensation-dead-aid-161339785.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/israel-reportedly-used-lavender-ai-005212158.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/stephen-colbert-spotlights-world-central-082543158.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/absurd-israel-rejects-claims-targeted-023707328.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/parents-of-quebecer-killed-in-gaza-say-israeli-strike-was-targeted-killing-of-aid-workers-225908562.html

If you believe in morality and ethics, you have a duty to speak out particularly when there is an particularly offensive tragedy that has taken place.

Seven aid workers were killed by a precision drone strike. Israel is responsible for these deaths.

Let me begin by naming the seven dead aid workers: (I’m going to use a quote since I don’t want to get any names wrong.)

The victims have been identified as Poland’s Damian Soból, Australia’s Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom, Gaza’s Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha and American-Canadian dual citizen Jacob Flickinger, as well as the United Kingdom’s John Chapman, James Henderson and James Kirby.

These seven people are heroes, in my judgment, the best of us. They died attempt to feed and help other human beings. Their lives are a testament to the good that can be achieved by high moral values and the rare qualities of courage and sacrifice. God love every one of these wonderful people now lost to all of us.

Israel calls claims that the attack was targeted, “Absurd.” Yet, the food convoy had just dropped off food in a designated safe travel zone with the full knowledge of the Israeli military in clearly marked vehicles which were hit individually although they were hundreds of yards apart. Looking at the pictures of the destroyed cars I was shocked at the almost perfect precision of the hits.

I am having real trouble believing that Israel did not kill these people to deprive the Palestinians of food and to drive foreign observers out of the region so they can kill and commit crimes at will.

But there’s more. It is reported that the Israeli military established a ratio for acceptable collateral damage, that is, the killing of civilians. For a low level Hamas official it was okay to up to 20 civilians, for a high ranking as many as a hundred.

Israel has long been a United States ally. Sometimes I get the impression that they are shocked that we in the United States would question what they have done. But at this point in history, not counting the seven aid workers blown into pieces, 33,000 Palestinians have died in the current conflict and more than a million are starving. It is time to start asking questions and making demands. They depend on American money. That money should no longer be free of conditions. Why? Because the blood of the innocent is calling out to us and we have a duty as human beings to respond with justice.

Is Israel willing to make changes? I doubt it. There is this from the great state of Arizona:

An Israeli diplomat praised Arizona lawmakers for their support and condemned the international community’s lack of outrage at the harm Israel has suffered from the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. In a speech punctuated by three standing ovations, Israel Bachar, the country’s counsel general for the Pacific Southwest, refuted reports of starvation in Gaza and rebuffed calls for a ceasefire unless Hamas meets certain conditions.

It is pretty obvious to me that they feel with their allies in the media, politics and of course, American Evangelicals, they can just bluff their way through this. They can’t. There is too much blood.

We in the United States cannot escape blame. We give Israel about three billion a year and our total aid comes to about 260 billion dollars over the long term. Last year in response to the Hamas attacks, they received a 14.5 billion dollar military aid package. This emboldened that nation and every time someone dies at the hands of Israel, it is more than a little likely that U.S. dollars paid for the bullet.

Now, I am sure that some will do the “what about” argument so popular on the internet and on Fox News. So, here it is.

What about the crimes of Hamas? Aren’t you being naïve and serving their purposes by calling out Israel for their supposed crimes?

Hamas has murdered and kidnapped. They are currently holding hostages. They should be brought to justice. I am not on their “side.” We have a responsibility and a duty to humanity to do what is right. And what is right is avoiding indiscriminate killing, collateral damage and at the very, very least missile strikes on food convoys. And that is true whether “we” did it, our friends did it or our enemies did it.

You don’t do what is right because it is convenient. You do it because it is the right thing to do. We have duties in this life. If there is anything that I am completely sure of, it is that those seven dead aid workers deserve more a passing mention in a news feed. Something must be done about this.

James Alan Pilant

What are we frightened of? Fear and Dread in the U.S.

On February 19, 2013 By southwerkIn Opinion

What are we frightened of? Fear and Dread in the U.S.

Michael Brenner: The (Very) Few Proud and Brave

Fear and dread, deep and pervasive, are the abiding feature of these times.Existential threats from mysterious forces with no fixed address are most scary because they are not resoluble by focused action taken against a clear target. They gnaw at you as well as frighten you. That produces dread. Dread is free floating fear — it fixes on what might be, thereby magnifying anxieties of experiencing one more horrific events of the past.American actions in the ‘war on terror’ have been driven by dread. Dread that it may happen again, dread of the unknown, dread of the alien. It explains not only the radical thrust of Washington’s conduct in the Greater Middle East but also the dulling of critical faculties. That pertains to torture, kill lists and illegal surveillance as well as the ready resort to military power.

Michael Brenner: The (Very) Few Proud and Brave

I thought this was one of the most well written and provocative single paragraphs I have run across in some years. It’s not just beautiful, it captures the mood of our current era. I have often thought the same thing although minus the eloquence.

James Pilant

From around the web –

From the web site, Sec Semper Tyrannis:

The Obama administration faces two fundamental decisions. First, should it rededicate American foreign policy to shoring up the shaky structure of alliances and understandings among the five that has been central to its vision of the region’s strategic future? Second, should it redefine American interests and expectations in ways that favor the emergence of a more durable structure build to accommodate a more realistic set of expectations? To say ‘no’ to the former, and to say ‘yes’ to the latter is to choose a challenging course – diplomatically and politically. For it means forming a highly differentiated view of Islamist elements in the Middle East, a loosening of the servile ties that bind Washington to Tel Aviv, beginning an intricate, multi-party project in the intricate project in the Gulf, and – perhaps most challenging – coping with uncertainty as a constant.