Refugees or queue jumpers? Where is our compassion?

I know that many items of news have been reported as important over the past few weeks but none seem to have touched me, and obviously many others, as much as the plight of those who are variously described as refugees, asylum seekers or even as ‘queue jumpers’.

This matter, the refugees etc, is both an ethical and a political issue. The politics of this I will avoid because I really believe that any resolution MUST be based on ethics. The unfortunate people involved have, for a variety of reasons, left their home country and faced severe difficulties in attempting to reach Australia.

It is worth looking at what many of these people are running from. Think of what life would be like in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Sri Lanka, in Burma or Somalia. These are war torn countries, many with oppressive governments or, in the case of Somalia, no effective government at all. What does life hold for those in these counties, what quality of life, what hope for the future? If I lived in any of these places I would want to leave! In fact I did. Nearly thirty years ago I brought my wife and family to Australia from Zimbabwe – we were, I suppose, what would now be called economic refugees. There were other issues as well of course, the main ones being health and education. I had a wife who needed medical treatment unavailable in Zimbabwe and two young children that I wanted educated in a civilised country. Australia accepted us and as the saying goes the ‘rest is history.’

To get back to the refugees, or whatever you choose to call them, holed up in various boats, ships and islands there is:

Issue number one: If Australia does not want these people to even leave their home country then Australia and the world must ensure that conditions are made pleasant enough, at home, such that they have no real desire to leave.

Issue number two: If conditions at home cannot be made more pleasant then for God’s sake accept them as refugees. Treat these unfortunates as we would like to be treated, with compassion, consideration and kindness.

Think about it. Many countries, over the years have benefited by accepting immigrants. Even Australia!! America accepted, with open arms, all those who were in need – Irish (from the ‘great famine’ days) – and others from all over the world. And America is now the greatest country in the world (I am no great ‘lover’ of America and things American but I must give credit where it is due). Sure it has suffered a few setbacks and has more than a few shortcomings but then which country hasn’t? It is this diversity of peoples that gives America a vibrancy and an energy which is palpable.

We Australians seem to have lost sight of something – that Humanity is paramount. Being human is what binds us together. We are all human and should treat others the way we would like to be treated - with compassion, consideration, kindness and understanding. This is ethical way. This is the only way. What can be more important than having a good relationship with our fellow beings?

We are, after all, supposed to be a civilised, Christian country, living and upholding Christian ideals, morals and values. I wonder if we are?

Having some spare time.

Now that I have completed the first part of my exams, (for a BSc. in Psychology – still only first year!) I feel more at ease and under less pressure. I still have another in about two weeks but I do now have some spare time. This means I can now re-commence my writing and committing my thoughts to ‘paper’, as it were. It is actually a relief – I enjoy writing! It seems to have a calming effect on me. I get quite anxious if I don’t manage to find some time to write at least a few words. With writing I can collect my thoughts, express my ideas and hopefully, sometimes be creative and thought provoking.

The fields I prefer to write about, ‘Ethics and Life’, cover just about anything you can think of – so I have plenty of scope. There is always some ethical or life matter that needs to be written about.

Father Time - On growing old (or older).

Some people have a fear about growing old. They try to ignore it or fight it with every means at their disposal. We can see this in the plethora of programmes on TV showing how people go about getting a personal ‘make-over’ and teams given seven days to get someone to look ten years younger, and such like. The only ones who really benefit from all this are the medicos, advertisers and the TV stations.

The trouble is this is a losing battle and a ‘fight’ that can never be won! We all grow old. This is just an inescapable fact of nature. Some, particularly women it seems to me, may find this difficult to accept but inevitably they will grow old – and, with time, they will show it. Why not just accept the inexorable passage of Time? It was not called Father Time for nothing. Time has to be respected, in fact respect is demanded on pain of death!

We all have a mental image of what we look like; possibly how we would like to appear, to both ourselves and others. We all try to look our best - for us. But it is how we feel that makes the difference, and is what really counts in the long run.

I have found that the older I become, my expectations alter accordingly. I know there are certain activities I am no longer capable of doing, at least not to the same level of enthusiasm and ability as before. I know that I no longer have that grace and fluidity of movement that is part of being young. My muscles, certainly, are not as strong as they used to be; my tendons have lost much of their elasticity and my joints have stiffened somewhat and now I have my recently replaced knee joint – made from titanium. But I certainly do not feel ‘old’ – whatever that is supposed to feel like. My mind is still quite active and I hope to keep it that way by studying (psychology in my case) and writing as much as I can.

Age also has the benefit of allowing hindsight – I have nearly seven decades of experience to draw upon. Age also mellows expectations; life no longer has that intensity and urgency of youth. In the great scheme of things, if something does not happen today, or tomorrow, does it really matter?

There is another benefit that comes with age; age, in most cases, brings with it some wisdom; some ability to see further into life’s situations and to accept them for what they are. One learns to understand that everything has its place in the creation and what is more important, everything comes to pass; even life itself.

Peace of mind comes with this acceptance.

To me a good life consists of living for each day, being content with my lot (whatever ‘hand of cards fate has dealt’ me), not trying to change the world to suite my reduced capabilities but to adapt to the situation or circumstance as it is presented.

Most important of all time must be spent in developing and maintaining good relationships with family and friends – what and where would we be without them! It goes without saying that part of building and maintaining relationships is helping others, as best one can, to understand what life means, particularly children, because they are the future.

It would be a pleasing and satisfying thought, for me, if my life’s work may have contributed, in some small way, to my leaving this world a better place than I found it when I was born – right in the early years of the Second World War! But I am not building up my hopes too high!!

Studying

The past few weeks have been quite difficult. I am studying for my end of year exams and I have had a particularly onerous assignment to write. Never having written ‘academically’ before I find the constant need to make sure that everything I write has a citation and that I make sure it is properly referenced, rather irksome.

Please don’t think that I am not against plagiarism. I think plagiarising someone else’s work is abhorrent. The trouble is that I have read so many books on so many subjects over the years that when I write it just comes tumbling out. Most times I can remember where I first read something important; I can remember the book and sometimes even the part of the page that it appeared on (left hand page or right hand page) – it is WHERE in the book that I find difficult to remember. Also, over the years I seem to have assimilated by osmosis, or something, a great deal of information. After many years have passed, having to source the original can be very trying, to say the least.

In this regard I admit that I find Google Scholar very useful. It is amazing what information is on the web and how easily and quickly Google Scholar can find it. I am not talking about general stuff but scholarly, research type information.

But to get back to my point about finding that everything needs to be cited. This is a good discipline, I suppose, but very irksome and, quite frankly frustrating. It is certainly a challenge and inhibits the free flow of my thoughts. From an academic point of view it is important that I get used to it and learn to keep notes (with references!) for every topic or subject I feel is important or that may be useful.

It is still a pain!!

Promoting Jesus?

I was staggered to read in the Weekend Australian (26/27 September 2009) that a group of fifteen Christian denominations are about to launch a $1.5 million campaign to ‘promote’ Jesus.

Isn’t Jesus the ‘Son of God’, the creator of all that exists? Why does he need to be promoted? It seems a bit presumptuous – for us, human beings that God created, to ‘promote’ our creator. Anyway Jesus is not a ‘commodity’; Jesus is not a product. Jesus does not sell anything. Neither should Christianity. Didn’t Jesus condemn the money changers operating out of the synagogues (the ‘churches’ of his time)? So what are these people trying to do? Are their congregations diminishing; are their church coffers nearly empty and they are tired of scraping the barrel and need to recruit more members? The trouble is a belief, a faith, cannot be ‘sold’. It is not a one size fits all thing. The very fact that there are fifteen, out of God knows how many Christian denominations and faith based groups, emphasises my point. Everyone has their own interpretation of the central message that Jesus tried to pass on to his followers.

Now I have no desire to become involved in any discussions about religion (they inevitably become acrimonious) because as I said before, it is a very personal thing, and we all have our own interpretations on what it all means and how it affects us. But to me, and this is my own interpretation of what the central message is, has been quite plainly given to us by Jesus (and I paraphrase here using language from the King James translation):

• Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind and with all thy soul.

• Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

• Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

If one could follow and live by those three basic tenets or ‘commandments’ then I believe one would lead a ‘good’ life and die a contented and peaceful person. Apart from this I have never understood one of Christianity’s beliefs – that we should put all our individual problems on to the shoulders of one ‘person’ – Jesus.

To me Jesus is the intermediary between us humans and God. As humans, with our mental cognitive limitations, we are incapable of comprehending the total Majesty of the Creator of all. I think the best ‘description’ I have ever read of this Majesty is in the Bhagavad-Gita (I quote from Chapter 10, and selectively from verses 20 to 34):

“... I am the Self, seated in the hearts of all beings; I am the beginning and the life, and am the end of them all.

Of all creative Powers I am the Creator, of luminaries the Sun; the Whirlwind among the winds, and the Moon among planets....

I am the King-python among snakes, I am the Aqueous Principle among those that live in water, I am the Father of fathers, and among rulers I am Death....

I am the Beginning, the Middle and the End in creation; among sciences I am the science of Spirituality; I am the Discussion among disputants....

Of letters I am A; I am the copulative in compound words; I am Time inexhaustible; I am the all-pervading Preserver.

I am all-devouring Death; I am the Origin of all that shall happen; I am Fame, Fortune, Speech , Memory, Intellect, Constancy and Forgiveness...

I am the Seed of all being; ... no creature moving or unmoving can live without Me.
Whatever is glorious, excellent, beautiful and mighty, be assured that it comes from a fragment of my Splendour.

... I sustain this universe with only a small part of Myself.”

We just cannot comprehend all this so we need someone, a figure, an intermediary between God and us; we need something to focus on; that we can look up to and aspire to emulate, such as Jesus, or Mohamed, or Krishna, or the Buddha that will show us the path to follow.

Does this need promoting? I don’t think so.

Suicide!

Why is it that in all western countries suicide is considered either as a crime or that the person concerned is mentally deranged? Suicide is the result of a choice someone has made. Now I am neither promoting suicide, nor do I personally agree that is ever necessary to take your own life – but then I have never found myself in a situation which would lead me to believe that continued living was not worth while. I have never been in a situation where I had to make a choice between possibly stark alternatives; living under what are perceived to be intolerable conditions or taking my own life. Maybe if I was I would think differently.

Regardless, however, of a person’s views on life, why is suicide considered a crime or as the result of a mental problem? First up I believe many Christians will say it is selfish and against God’s will. How do they know this for a fact? Didn’t God give us free will? Free will, as I understand it, means that we can make up our own minds. Surely God would not, on one hand, give us free will and then on the other hand restrict our free will by ‘saying’ that we can’t do this or that? That is being hypocritical and I cannot believe that God is a hypocrite.

Anyway, how do we know what God actually said? Or how he said it? I believe the religious argument goes something like this – God gave us life, it is therefore not up to us to end it as we can have no idea, in the big picture, of the consequences or outcomes of someone ‘prematurely’ taking their own life. We are not supposed to try to double guess God’s plan.

I would counter this argument by saying that, if it is agreed that God did give us free will, is it not possible that someone’s suicide may be part of His plan? We just don’t know and I believe that continued discussion, based on religious ideals is fraught and likely never to be resolved.

Also it is a matter of degree, even semantics. I am not sure of the chapter or verse in the Bible, but somewhere it says (more or less), “Greater love hath no man than this; that he should lay down his life for another”. In English folk lore the self-sacrifice of Capt. ‘Titus’ Oates (a member of Capt Scott’s ill-fated1912 Antarctic expedition), when he walked out into a blizzard after uttering the famous words, ‘I may be some time’, is considered a ‘noble’, selfless act. He laid down his life so that the others might have a better chance of surviving. It may have been a ‘noble’ act yet it was still suicide!

And then how about those who cannot face life and get drunk every night, to hide their pain and anguish, thus drinking themselves to death. Their death might take 10 or 20 years to accomplish, so it is slow – but surely this is still suicide? This slow death is tolerated by our society even though those concerned (rather obviously) may have no real desire to live.

Then there is the argument that those who either attempt suicide or are actually successful must be mentally deranged. Those who follow this line of thought suggest that anyone who cannot appreciate the beauty of the world and cannot see their individual purpose in the great scheme of things must be mentally unstable. Well I have news for them! The last figures I saw, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, suggest that about 1 in 5 Australians (19% actually) suffers some degree of mental instability sometime in their life. These figures are similar to those for most Western, developed countries.

So either the diagnosis of ‘mental’ problems is suspect or there are a great many very unhappy people in the world. I suspect that the diagnosis of ‘mental’ problems is the ‘problem’. This is why I am studying psychology – I want to find out for myself where the ‘problem’ lies.

Of course there is another view (the sociological view) that goes something like this; that suicide represents a loosening of social bonding; that suicide is an indicator of society’s potential disintegration and therefore must be prevented, opposed and resisted at all costs. This where I believe the criminal element has come from.

To get back to my original proposition – that suicide is a choice – and no one, repeat, no one, can tell a person how they should react to an event or circumstance in their life. I personally don’t think I would ever commit suicide (famous last words!!) because I firmly believe that every problem has a solution; maybe not the solution, or outcome that is wished for or desired, but a solution none-the-less. To me someone who either commits suicide or tries to is neither a criminal nor mentally deranged, but just someone who is finding it difficult to cope with their present circumstances and is crying out for help.

All suicide is neither a criminal act nor is it the result of mental derangement and all ‘prevention’ efforts should be directed at alleviating and addressing this cry for help.

The word 'gay'

The word ‘gay’ is a perfectly good English word meaning a person who is carefree, happy and light-hearted and has been used in poetry and song. In earlier days it has no connection at all with homosexuality or lesbianism. I will admit it is an irritation to me that I can no longer use the word ‘gay’ in its original sense (I would not use it very often, but it is a useful word to have around). I mean if I had to say to my wife or friends that “Today I am feeling gay”, they would make some rude or disparaging comment about my sexual orientation. And yet I could quite legitimately say that – meaning I am feeling carefree, happy and light-hearted - which is a wonderful feeling.

Apparently round about the 1950s (according to my ‘ word bible’ the Oxford English Dictionary) things changed and the word ‘morphed’ into meaning what it does now – with homosexual connotations. The way these things happen is very mysterious.

This all came to my mind as, out of the blue (which frequently happens to me), I recalled that the British Royal Navy, in the 1950s, named some experimental Motor Gun Boats with the word ‘Gay’ as part of their name. One I seem to remember was called the “Gay Bombardier”. These were experimental in that they were the first (and possibly the last) boats to run entirely with gas turbine engines. They were very fast and, before the age of guided missiles, relatively heavily armed.

How things have changed! No one, today, would dream of calling a war ship ‘gay’ would they? I mean, Jeez, what is the world coming too?