And as the evening descends - Jackson Browne, from “Everyman” To paraphrase Blanche Dubois’ classic line from “A Streetcar Named Desire”: How long can we get by with the brutality of strangers? I was reflecting on my personal reactions to the news and realized that those reactions are stronger, more emotional when I have some connection with or knowing of the people – human or otherwise – and place. Yet, an innate awareness that all human beings are brothers and sisters enables me to feel compassion or empathy for those I don’t know, and any human being can 'feel' that way for a variety of reasons, for example, in response to this recent headline: “50 dead, mostly kids, in Saudi-led coalition's 'legitimate' airstrike on Yemen bus.” An article by Kathy Kelly, “U.S. Is Complicit in Child Slaughter in Yemen”[1], gets to the gist: “U.S. companies such as Raytheon, General Dynamics, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin have sold billions of dollars’ worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries in the Saudi-Emirati-led coalition which is attacking Yemen. “Professor Isa Blumi [an associate professor at Stockholm University and author of the book Destroying Yemen,] believes the goal is to bludgeon Yemenis into complete submission and exert control over “a gold mine” of resources, including oil reserves, natural gas, minerals, and a strategic location.”Same old imperial geo-political machinations! Admittedly, I don’t react as strongly as when it’s a people or place that I have a personal connection with; in this case, I am virtually totally unfamiliar with Yemeni culture. Reports of the attacks are briefly making the news yet when thinking of how the atrocities being perpetrated against the Yemeni People don't get full-tilt coverage from corpserate media outlets and why people in general are oblivious to the situation, psychoanalyzing the scenario I figured it’s because 'they' are an 'other,' foreigners, strange beings from a different culture 'over there.' They are one of many 'others' to the Western elitist narrow-mind fixated on itself and the next hot story, next purchase or fun time. And one of many 'others' to the bickering left vs. right who rarely bother to mention being centered, in the non-political sense of the word. A video of a cat being tortured would likely go viral in the opposite way cat as cute is popular. Yet chickens being tortured daily in fascist factory farms continues to occur and Yemenis being tortured goes mostly ignored. Fascist factory farm chickens as meals and Arab children as news are varieties of 'others.' In a cyber-minute, I found something online to help me build a greater sense of connection with the Yemeni Peoples: “In Yemen, many kitchens have a tandoor (also called tannur), which is a round clay oven. Tomatoes, onions, and potatoes are some of the staple fruits and vegetables in Yemen.”[2] I’ve seen a clay oven when visiting the Pueblos in so-called New Mexico. I love to eat tomatoes, onions, and potatoes. Suddenly a smidgen of common ground, something upon which to build empathy because I eat too! Yet I am lucky to eat at all: According to Wikipedia: “The war has blocked food imports, leading to a famine that is affecting 17 million people. The lack of safe drinking water, caused by depleted aquifers and the destruction of the country's water infrastructure, has also caused the world's worst outbreak of cholera, with the number of suspected cases exceeding 994,751. In 2016 the United Nations reported that Yemen is the country with the most people in need of humanitarian aid in the world with 21.2 million.”[3]What could be the purpose of such devastation? A clue: “Meritxell Relano, UNICEF’s representative in Yemen, said children of Yemen face a bleak future. 'The future of the children of Yemen is dark,' she told ABC News. 'Right now, I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel -- no peace, no agreement, no cessation of hostilities. An entire generation of children will be lost and how will this country be reconstructed in the future?'[4]It appears that a genocide of a People and control of the land and resources is the so-called endgame. Suffering is suffering yet numbers amplify the suffering as well as the cruelty being perpetrated by human beings, in this case, in part, because of US-corporate weaponry sold to Saudi Arabia. On a Wikipedia page about Yemen there’s a huge amount of info about the country, with a history like any other. I could spend hours, days learning, yet I can't learn everything about all peoples everywhere . . . but at least a little bit helps to humanize and to emotionally dethrone the false kings and queens of status quo numbness. I don’t care who you are, everyone deserves to eat and have clean water; to not allow these basic necessities is a crime against humanity, as well as a crime against food and water who are not being allowed to serve some of their purposes! The Yemeni People and other 'others' are being blatantly dehumanized by deliberate brutal force and subtly dehumanized by ignorance, a word which also sometimes translates as: the choice to ignore. Another such story that stood out recently has this headline: “Settlers Destroy 2,000+ Palestinian-owned Trees and Vines, Backed by Israeli Authorities.”[5] I’ve read of a Tibetan Buddhist prayer where one prays for an unknown stranger. What a wonderful polar opposite to the ‘who cares about anyone else at the mall or in a foreign country’ attitude that is too-prevalent in American culture. America is freaked and numbed by its own schizophrenia, a manic-depressive schizophrenia built upon conflicting identities and conditions: the self-identity of the rugged individualist parading across god’s manifest destined country entitled to whatever it wants is now finding him/herself in a crowd, in a smaller world with fewer places to hide, to runaway to. And the cyber-world allows the perpetuation of rugged individualism by giving the People the ability to purchase whatever they want, to watch, listen to, and read whatever they want (well, except for the military-tech-media complex's crackdown on free speech and truth). This so-called freedom is akin to the populist imperialism underlying the revered American poetry of Walt Whitman, a poet who –perhaps because of the ignorance of his times – made mention of yet essentially overlooked the Original Peoples of Turtle Island. The world is a smaller place because of technology, and a smaller place because there are more people and less open spaces. Yet the world is also a larger place because of philosophies, arts, cultures, foods, interests . . . If I do not think or dream of everyman and woman, every endangered species, every pocket of pure air, every glass of pure water, every acre of untainted soil, then all I will have left to ponder is that the brutality perpetrated against strangers is a normal part of life. For more, a 14 minute interview posted in April, 2018: “What’s going on in Yemen? Interview with Isa Blumi” NOTES: [1] See here. [2] Yemeni cuisine [3] Yemen [4] “Saudi-led coalition airstrike kills dozens of children on bus in Yemen” and here. [5] See here. Mankh (Walter E. Harris III) is an essayist and resident poet at Axis of Logic. In addition to his work as a writer and small press publisher, he travels a holistic mystic pathway staying in touch with Turtle Island. See his new book of nonfiction with a poetic touch, “photo albums of the heart-mind”. © Copyright 2018 by AxisofLogic.com This material is available for republication as long as reprints include verbatim copy of the article in its entirety, respecting its integrity. Reprints must cite the author and Axis of Logic as the original source including a "live link" to the article. Thank you! |