What world are we living in now?

Taking another cue from Magus Young's blog on Yangon Monks, I would like to now pen down my thoughts and feelings on the issues around the world affecting us here and abroad. We are now living in a dangerous world, full of paedophiles, rapists, murderers, war-mongers, racists, homophobiacs and religious-haters.

Weeks ago, we have seen the horrible, brutal murder of Nurin Jazlin, who was murdered by a sick f**king bastard paedophile-cum-murderer. This horrible news did not end here. Years ago, we had seen the many news and cases of horrible and brutal murder of so many rape and murder victims. And just recently, Star Online reported a girl who was surpised to find that she was sent a nude photo of herself by an unidentified stranger, most likely a rapist or even a paedophile. These events show there are a hell lots of evil people out there; you just do not know if they even live next door to you. So caution is the word. At times, it's best to practise cynicism. Don't trust strangers. They may be dangerous people.

Backtrack to more than 4 years ago, we had seen the utter destruction of Iraq by that war-mongering s.o.t.b. George Bush. Many people perished, not to mention the many thousands who lost their homes to the savaging war and eventually civil wars. Yea, we know it's for the sake of the Iraqi people to remove that evil dictator The "Sad, Damned Who Sinned", but WTF! The s.o.t.b. literally destroyed people's lives, instead of bettering their lives. Look at what happened to Iraq now? We are so sad to see its current tumultuous state. Anyway, just "Make Love, No Wars", ok?

Now, back to us humans. Reflect on ourselves we must! Is this what we humans are capable of? Inflicting pain and sufferings upon others? Discriminate others just because these group of people are different in a way from the other groups of people? Maim and murder people? Annihilate people and their nations? Why?

Well, speaking about various types of discriminations in terms of religions and human races and gays/lesbians, I have always kept thinking about why would such discriminations ever happen. Why should there ever be racism, sentiments of religious-hatred (especially Islamophobia, ever since the tragedy of 9/11), and homophobia? Why would racists of certain race think that their own human race is far more superior than other races? Why would some religious-haters say that a certain religion is a disease of the world when the said religion IS NOT a harmful or NOT even a violent religion, but a very peaceful religion? Why would homophobiacs be so judgmental that they even think they have the same equal right as God to judge certain group of people that these group of people are the evil-doers by quoting verses from religious Holy Books? I think we all should END these sentiments of hatred; hatred towards the races of people, hatred towards particular religions and hatred towards a certain group of people. That's because I think that HATRED OF ALL KINDS IS THE MAIN NUMBER 1 MURDERER OF HUMANITY. Let's reflect for a moment the various tragedies that occur due to these types of hatreds:

A CASE OF RACISM
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(March 9, 2005): Judge Joan Lefkow, 61, was once targeted for death by a white supremacist leader, and her husdand and mother were killed by white supremacists in Chicago on 7th March 2005. White supremacist sites applaud the killings, saying that they are satisfied that 2 black people have been killed. The link to CNN news is here: http://cnn.com/2005/US/03/03/schuster.column/index.html

A CASE OF RELIGIOUS-HATRED
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(October 25, 2001): There have been incidents of Arab-Americans removed from planes because of fears expressed by other passengers. And one man, a Sikh convenience store owner in Mesa, Arizona, was killed September 15 by an angry bar patron upset by the terrorist attacks, thinking that the Sikh was a Muslim, judging by the turban that he wore. The link to CNN news is here: http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/10/24/rec.arab.americans/index.html

A CASE OF HOMOPHOBIA
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(October 26, 1999): Matthew Shepard was hit at least 20 times by blows so hard they fractured his skull six times, a coroner testified Tuesday at the trial of Aaron McKinney, one of two men accused of killing the gay Wyoming college student last year October. The link to CNN news is here: http://www.cnn.com/US/9910/26/shepard.trial.02/index.html

Hope that the reiteration of these issues wake us up from our "sleepy hollow" and hope that we can reflect on ourselves as humans who are capable to offer compassions, yet also capable of inflicting so much pain upon others too.

Let's do something small (not necessarily big) instead of just sitting here and rant away unpurposefully. As the famous classical verse says, Actions speak louder than words. Let's start small by helping the abandoned children's homes, the old folks' homes and the caretakers of unwanted stray animals by giving donations (not only financially, but also anything such as clothes or books or food) to them. Adopt a child or two if you can afford to do so. Visit the old folks and cheer them up if you have the time to spare. Adopt a stray animal as your pet so they would not be put to sleep. The all-time beloved late Mother Theresa has set an example for all of us. Her love for humanity has us admire her so much and inspired us to do good.

Let us all do these little kindness to help make the world a better place to live in, albeit the many evil "predators" out there. It's always good to do kindness, however little it may be, and at the same time, it is also a good practice to "always look over your shoulders" (be cautious, that is).

Finally, all of us hope we can make this world a better place to live in. So, how would you like to contribute your offer of good deeds to the society?