By William Markiewicz
(As other short items may follow, I've decided to group them together.)
Fight for Gaza (5/31)
Israel can check for weapons because Israel is at war with Hamas. All other civilian relations between Gaza and the outside world should be free because Israel does not rule Gaza’s population. Each unnecessary show of power is one more step toward war. Let’s remember from old/new history: At the end of the Spanish civil war, the Franquist planes dropped on Barcelona, not bombs, but bread. Barcelona was impressed enough to open its gates to Franquist troops. The Franquist gift was not an act of mercy but it certainly was good psychology. Sometimes the conciliatory act should come from the stronger. Otherwise it’s one more story expressed in Numancia, Masada and the Warsaw Ghetto.
The Spill at the U.S. Coast (5/04)
Let’s admit it: consumption means destruction. The weak species multiply ferociously to provide a supply for the more mighty predators. Usually they're successful if they don’t run into the too-numerous, too-powerful predators, like humans. But what if the prey is the planet itself? Jules Verne wrote that if the earth were made of coal, humans would burn the earth under their feet. Global collaboration among consumers is very difficult to achieve because everybody is too independent and thinks about their own immediate interests. It is a law that the wake-up always comes too late; movies and literature speak about it and up to now nothing is done. The present catastrophe in deep sea foraging shows its gravity in that we really don’t know how deep it is and how to effectively fight it. And what if, for the first time, we face something tragic and irreversible? Already now, too much secrecy is applied; we are condemned just to wait and see.
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William Markiewicz