May 09, 2022.

Crazy photo op by Canadian PM is how a morning show television host describes the visit into Kyiv on May 8, but one should hear what the Ukrainian partners had to say about the value of a visit. That does not even need to be googled.  I find that getting animated about what the Canadian government should have done instead is not a conversation.  If you have been to or watched a decent church service you are sure to have seen a rare genuine conversation. Very little of what goes on in government houses and political CONferences or CONventions will pass for fundamental conversation.  Canadians talk about the weather a lot because we know that no-one is likely to think we are looking for any credit or recognition as meteorologists.  Having a digital footprint and using it to spread whatever comes to mind or what shows up in an internet search is not contribution to a conversation,  and having no expertise or professional standard as a compass, television hosts are the swiftly rising destroyers of conversation.

The converse Asian is a guy with a lot of loud talk which we suppose follows sober thinking, but we cannot say we knew how many nations would sit on the fence when borders change by force  as the Ukrainians are currently experiencing.

The PRC and a host of other nations are publicly neither pro nor con Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the early morning pundits on television are neither for NATO to join the battle against Russia as if Ukraine was a NATO member, nor are they against a veto in a democratically operated UN Security Council.

Cultural figleaf in play

War is what many want to see, including the cowardly.  If international laws have been broken then the international cops need to serve and protect.  The late US president G.H. Bush was able to gather a coalition against Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in what, though effective, turned out to be another poor demonstration of collective security.  Boots on the ground against all odds was last seen in the 1940s when Britain went to Africa to reverse the Italian invasion of Ethiopia.  There has never been an international action that mirrors NATO’S article 5, and war can be fought in many ways by the international community’s agencies to end lawless ventures. It seems that starting a shooting war should not be automatic especially in the age of nuclear vulnerability. Apparently, no-one at the UN, NATO, ASEAN, the Arab League, or the Gulf Cooperation Council can do anything more than protect what is left of their pride and precarious resource influence. None of the remedies are working, despite evidence of their effectiveness over the centuries. Neither diversity nor overwhelming majorities like language or religion have brought Asia, Europe, or the Middle East the security or prosperity one expects when the focus everywhere is said to be people-based, culturally-sensitive and non-destructive. Do African, Pacific, and Asian nations need eyes on Europe, China or Japan to achieve the better dreams of the next generation? You can be sure they are all asking “What next generation?”

What is a human right when death knocks persistently

People had better start looking for the real source of their rights, and it will certainly not be a religion a culture, or a thriving and centuries-old economy. Effective communities cannot base their longevity on the extinction of any of the rights of any of the members of the communities. Employers, employees, children and elders have inalienable rights but only people have rights because they are alive. Effective combat, against tribalism, government corruption, climate change, and even external military threats does not have to include hundreds of fatalities and wanton destruction of property. Some nations do have qualms about reckless decimation of their own populations, including their heads of state.  We count ourselves fortunate that we are not living under any of the ancient or modern wisdom that wants to pass as divinely designed. The ease with which human rights can be violated means that human life is not a concern of the nation as a whole. They all seem ready and willing to murder, assassinate or neutralize their own citizens. There are not enough people who understand that governments, kings, prophets, religious leaders, and politicians are not the guarantors of our rights. These functionaries are the ones who have allowed human rights to take a second place to their need to appear in charge. Collective security is a global ideal on paper, and the current roster of accountable nations do not have the smallest bit of humanity in their national DNA.

Guess what happens when people who do not speak the dominant language or follow the cultural priorities. They kill you. They put you in a ghetto or reserve. So people should stop pretending that the mantras of our many silos are part of a conversation that is changing minds. Mothers who are educated in every way are the solution for minds that need to be changed. Mothers have shaped human character when it matters most and their influence is at risk of disappearing. Who wants uneducated women training their sons and daughters? Can we stand the disappearance of Afghanistan and any nation alike it because we trust men who think nothing of the only entity declared the mother of all living? They have to know, if they believe all the prophets, that the nobility of women puts a lie to their so-called submission to God and enlightened governance. Lies and violence get exposed every time there is informed genuine conversation.