Multiculturalism: Understanding Other CulturesWritten by Susan Dunn, MA Clinical Psychology, The EQ Coach
There’s an email circulating Internet about war entitled “Which War Are You Watching?—The View from Spain.” It appears to be from an individual. My version has it signed with “Un abrazo (a hug), Dwight.” (Dwight—if you exist-I give you credit.)Talking about how Spanish media presented war, it is definitely a controversial piece, but what about war wasn’t? “Deeply divided” applied to US and many other countries, and as I talked with clients all over world during this time, we all learned about one another, and about multiculturalism A HOAX? Doesn’t apply here. Whether or not this incident occurred, we’ll never know. If it didn’t, it should have. LANGUAGE One way we understand a culture is through its language. Here is an excerpt from this article, “The View from Spain”: “In one particularly poignant moment on Spanish television, after a series of unrelenting images of children wounded and dead (far more graphic than would ever be allowed in US), we were shown a Pentagon spokesperson referring to understandable levels of ‘collateral damage.’ “The Spanish commentator simply looked directly into camera, shook his head sadly and mused: ‘One wonders what type of human being can refer to death of a child as “collateral damage.”’ I have no defense of this statement. I abhor language of US military as much as this person does. I agree with him. And I have no idea what to do about it. What kind of human being would refer to death of a child as “collateral damage?” The US military, that’s who. But not me, and maybe not you. Intellectually I understand that if you’re going to send people out to kill other people, some of whom may be children, you have to use euphemisms. A euphemism is “the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something.” The military uses them. The military is also not “the US.” HOW THEY TALK I recall sitting in a board meeting being run by an ex-colonel during Desert Storm. Half of us were ex-military and half of us had never been near it – it was a social service agency, after all. That morning director, an ex-colonel, had what can only be described as a sanctimonious expression, and in a very in-group tone of voice, with excluding nonverbal behavior, announced that there had been “an incident of friendly fire.”
| | National Karmic DebtWritten by Ed Howes
A nation made up of many people behaves as a person and reflects overall native character or lack thereof. Public accountability demands public accounting. The karmic scales of justice are rarely in balance, once people are factored in. Which way are karmic scales tilted in Iraq? Has Iraq paid its global debt by living as a violent totalitarian state? Does it have great blessing due? Or is its debt only half paid? Has United States paid all its global karmic debts in spilled blood? Can it ever? The smart money is betting against it. Let's start with credit itself, as it impacts nearly everyone on planet. The penalty for exceeding national credit limit will be an end to easy and cheap credit. International credit lenders don't expect national debts to be repaid, nor do they want them repaid. Neither do credit happy politicians. A credit debt is a cash cow. It costs no one anything but a promise and a bookkeeping entry, but account is then maintained by paying interest that comes both from new credit and taxes on wage and salary slaves - or earnings. It is last beneficiary of commerce that pays all taxes, included in market price of goods and services. Those who benefit financially by maintaining national credit accounts prefer to see increasing debt. This allows them to siphon all profits from economy, great or small, if they so desire. They usually do not, so breathe easy. Scripture proclaims borrower is servant to lender. Many of us know truth of this from personal experience. If you believe elected, indebted governments set policies, you don't believe borrower is servant to lender, you must believe lender is servant to borrower. Please teach me how to live in that world. Who are top ten holders of U.S. national debt? They are policy makers. They don't want their pictures in papers. They don't give interviews to 60 Minutes. They just have their agents talk to presidents and lawmakers to make it clear what they want. They usually get what they want. In this case borrowers are not merely servants, but puppets. When you are listening to puppets, it is wise to read between lines and learn desires of puppet masters. Since national debt is a bookkeeping fraud, it does not really matter how great it becomes and best time to borrow is when rates are low. It is Karmic debt we have to look at closely. The laws of men are mockeries of laws of nature and universe. Spiritual law demands justice, if it takes ten generations. What we should concern ourselves with right now, is which way U.S. karmic scales are tipped and how badly. Do we want to tilt them further and in which direction?
|
