No One is Responsible

Two bank robbers die
overestimating the amount
of dynamite required.

Many infants being born in Fallujah now are being born with unbelievable grotesque features, apparently no head, two heads, a single eye, scaly skin, or other monstrous deformities. This is a situation 15 times greater than ever before. It is not hard to find the fundamental reason for this outrageous crime. It is the result of ecocide. Ecocide is a relatively new word that refers to the destruction of large portions of the environment, especially because of man-made activities. The use of Agent Orange in Vietnam, for example, but in the case of Fallujah it is more likely the result of the use of chemicals in warfare, like white phosphorous and depleted uranium used for anti tank and other ammunition. Of course there are some (those most responsible for this outrage) that will argue there is no proof of the connection between birth defects and the use of these chemicals (just as there was no proof of the connection between Agent Orange and the problems of Vietnam veterans for some time). This way of thinking (in the U.S.) has always struck me as truly peculiar because it seems to imply that human life, health, and welfare are basically less important than corporate profits. Recall all the denials with respect to tobacco and lung cancer. There was a known correlation between smoking and lung cancer, but the industry argued fairly successfully for years there was no specific proof of a connection and went on marketing their poisonous product anyway. I could be wrong about this, but it seems to me that in most cultures, even relatively “simple” ones, when something is suspected of possibly doing harm to people, especially children, they stop using it until they find out otherwise. This is quite the opposite of what we do here in the good ol’ USA, where absolute proof seems to be necessary before any action can be taken. This is precisely what has been going on with respect to the use of chemicals in our military. As there is no absolute proof of a connection between the use of depleted uranium and human deformities, we just blissfully go on using them (of course we only use them on “others” we have dehumanized who are therefore less important than we are). This goes along with the apparent belief on the part of many that the life of an American fetus is absolutely sacred, whereas the lives of millions of “others” are not. I guess you can also see this reflected in our failure to sign the international ban on the use of landmines. Everyone knows that landmines kill innocent civilians, especially children, for years and years after they have been planted. But what do we care, we don’t plant them here at home. It makes me wonder at times if our “leaders” are actually human beings, or perhaps some kind of “ghouls” artificially created by the Pentagon. There seems to be nothing that can stand in the way of our doing what we want (to others). I will never forget Madeleine Albright’s absolutely outrageous and inhuman response when asked if the loss of half a million Iraqi children was “worth it,” and she replied that it was! What I find most shocking of all about this Fallujah problem, is that no one seems to be considered responsible for it. An entire city destroyed and the survivors plagued with a monstrous ongoing problem and no one is considered responsible? I guess it was “just an act of war,” roughly equivalent to the act of shaving every morning.

The word ecocide actually occurs in my dictionary (Webster’s). I don’t know why this surprised me, but it did. I guess I was surprised because ecocide, as far as I know, did not occur with much regularity until a relatively short time ago (even the word ecology, although it existed, did not really come into vogue until fairly recently). The word “humanicide” has not yet made it into the dictionary, although you can find it on google, where it refers mainly to a band by that name. I have suggested previously (Morialekafa 8-26-04) that it ought to have another meaning, but so far this has not been accepted by anyone. In any case, I think it is a sad commentary on the state of the world when words like ecocide and humanicide have to come to mind at all.

Pity poor Dubai! They have had to ask for more time to pay off an 80 billion dollar debt. I feel so sorry for them, sitting there with their artificial ski mountain in the desert, their artificial palm island covered with expensive high-rise (empty) buildings, their expensive condominiums worth half or less of what was paid for them, their upscale shops that no one can afford any longer, people abandoning their cars at the airport trying to flee the country, and so on. Is this not the perfect example of capitalism and conspicuous consumption gone berserk? I suggest they move all those foreign workers they lured there and exploited so shamelessly into all those vacant condos and give them a real taste of the “high life.” Someone should write a history of Dubai (if they haven’t already). They could call it “The Completely Disgusting History of the Rise of Dubai and Its Predictable Collapse Into the Desert Sands.”

LKBIQ:
The ability to understand a question from all sides meant one was totally unfit for action. Fanatical enthusiasm was the mark of the real man.
Thucydides

TILT:
J. R. R. Tolkien disdained automobiles and thought the internal combustion engine was a terrible invention.