Global Nation Organization

Many of us have beliefs and dreams. I remember the times of Communism, when western leftists (I was one of them) said: “Sure, the Soviet Union and China are communist, but they are not on the right way of organizing a socialist society.” In those years, there wasn’t a single communist country around the world that could feed its people.

Today’s Muslims voice a similar argument. They often say: “Sure, Islamists aren’t true believers, true forms of Islam aren’t practiced in that country” or so.

Well, this might be so. But let’s have a look at the facts. Let’s look at the “real existing Islam,” “Islamic” countries that are either dominated by Islam, or have at least a population share of some 50 % Muslim population.

Have a look at the ‘Fund for Peace’ website, http://www.fundforpeace.org/web/, a non-governmental organization that studies and characterizes countries in the following way:

“ Quote: Country Profiles provide the public with insight into why a country received the score it did on the Failed States Index. They also include some analysis of change from the previous year. In addition to the social, economic and political/military indicators analyzed as part of the Failed States Index, we include a brief analysis of the core state institutions, which measures the capacity of the state to cope with pressures identified by the indicators. There is also a short prognosis for each country as well as recommendations. Unquote”

Based on such analysis, the ‘Fund for Peace’ has come up with a ‘Failed State Index,’ and also characterizes countries in four categories: red, orange, yellow green.

In the 2007 listing, we see the following:
Red zone, failed states:

Numbers: 1 – 32
Worst in class: Sudan, Islamic
Best in class: Niger, Islamic
Number of Islamic-dominated states: 18 out of 32

Orange zone/serious trouble brewing:

Numbers: 33 – 129
Worst in class: Colombia
Best in class: Bahamas
Number of Islamic-dominated states: 28 out of 96

Yellow zone, warnings:

Numbers: 130 – 162
Worst in class: Barbados (130)
Best in class: Portugal (162)
Number of Islamic-dominated states: 4 out of 32
United States of America = 160^th

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Green zone - fully functioning:

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Numbers: 163 – 177
Worst in class: Netherlands (163)
Best in class: Norway (177)
Number of Islamic-dominated states: None
Canada = 168th

This simple statistics shows: “The real existing Islam” is a state of mind that belongs to the doomed and failed states. It defines more than 50% of all failed states. More “real existing Islam” = more failure and doom.

What characterizes the exceptional orange and yellow (there aren’t any green) Islamic countries? Essentially three factors:

- Exceptional resources (such as oil etc) in respect of population size;
- And/or a relatively modern, tolerant form of Islam;
- And/or strong non-Islamic minority (the Chinese in Malaysia, for instance), endowed with exceptional skills and work ethics (and doing the job of the remainder).

Enough said.

© 2007 by Franz L Kessler

The Kayan, a rice-growing warrior tribe from Borneo Island’s interior, have an ambivalent historical relationship with Chinese immigrants and traders who settled on Borneo’s shores since a few hundreds of years.

The below little Kayan allegory should be a reminder to European and American politicians, who bask in the momentary glory of free trade agreements with China.

My message to these politicians, and quick-money-makers: you better watch out what you’re giving away! See the below story:
 
A Chinese man enters an inn and looks into another person’s
soup bowl.

“Oh. I see you eat soup,” the Chinese man says. “I would like to try your soup.” The polite person nods. The Chinese man first tastes, then finishes the soup.

“Oh. I see your soup has got meat in it,” the Chinese man says. “I would like to try your soup meat.” The polite person nods. The Chinese man first tastes, then finishes the meat.

“Oh. I see you have got bone in your soup,” the Chinese man says. “I would like to have a taste of your soup bone.” The polite person nods. The Chinese man first tastes, then finishes the last bone, too.

When I was a student of geology in Freiburg, Southern Germany, I once planned to visit a girl friend. She lived near Mons, in Southern Belgium, a few hundred miles away.  I looked at the map and decided to drive through North-Eastern France over night, an important shortcut so it seemed.

I had planned five hours of drive, but finally it took me more than eleven hours. The road I had chosen ran through areas with some familiar names – Sedan, Verdun, Douaumont, Lille - a road leading right along the western frontline of 1914-1918. In 1978, more than sixty years after WW I, it felt like a haunted, desolate area – empty villages, abandoned houses, hardly any lights on the street, and plenty of potholes on poorly paved roads.

And glancing outside, there were crosses everywhere. The entire landscape was nothing but a huge graveyard.
It told me that wars cast a long shadow – it took countries like Spain more than 140 years to recover from Napoleon’s Iberian wars, and Eastern France is still suffering from the consequences of WW I.

Memories about my weekend trip to Belgium came back to me, when I discovered an old binder with photographs. It belonged to my Grandpa Franz Kessler, who had been working as a railway engineer in pre-WW I Turkey, and then served as artillery observer on the “Western Front.”

Several times I opened and closed the book. Yesterday, though, I overcame my emotional weakness, and scanned the pictures – they are direct, gruesome but also very true. My Grandpa’ eye was relentless. He pictured corpses of fallen soldiers, exploded bunkers, graveyards and destroyed factories, but also amazingly normal scenes of playing children and a bath at the river. Several pictures also show the frontline on aerial pictures taken from either zeppelin or fixed-wing aircraft.

Have a look at my website: Matahari Sky www.flickr.com/photos/matahari.

The thirty-five pictures are organized in a folder called “Western Front 1915-1916.” History is important, particularly if transmitted from one generation to the next – forming a unique, personal and often propaganda-free view into the past.

I never met my Grandpa. Bad luck finally caught up with him when a grenade struck the factory chimney from where he was spying the enemy and directing the organs of death onto the French and British frontlines. Severely wounded on his skull, he retired from the war in 1917. He later died from a brain tumor, in 1935.

After having seen many war reports on the news or even the “History Channel,” I’ve come to the conclusion that war isn’t quite often portrayed by the so-called “embedded journalists” as what it really is – a terrible, unforgiving, grim, bleak episode of murder, torture and death. Those who win the war are those who survive. Some survive even better than others - staying far away from the war, and filling their corrupt pockets with the money of blood. War isn’t Boyz Toyz, wars consist of suffering and death.

May these pictures help to educate the world, and help to avoid warfare as far as it may seem possible!

© 2007 by Franz L Kessler

Shirley, Jack and neighbor’s Jim discover a strange rusty box on the old barn’s crumbling wall. Old tangled cables lead out from there, to nowhere near. Curious kids, they break the metal box open. Under several layers of cobweb and dust, there lurk a number of old porcelain fuses.

“Wow, this looks cool,” says Jim, and tries to unscrew the biggest fuse in the upper-left corner.

“Need a drop of oil,” asks Jack, who had found a can of lubricants, and is about to pour the viscous fluid.

“Hold, please hold on,” says Shirley, “we better understand first, what we are doing.”

I’ve been writing this little story as a metaphor for what’s going on our Planet Earth. All of the above standpoints are correct, all are needed, and very much in conjunction.

Our species has been gradually taking over the planet, to the point that many of its dynamics are the results of human action (or interaction), compared to physical forces, and non-human life that used to dominate the world.

Now, it seems, mankind is discovering, similar to the children in the tall tale above, some hidden command fuses that regulate world climate on a higher, and rougher level.  The clever monkey is finally learning how to cook. One might call these fuses: ocean temperature, Atlantic conveyer belt, atmospheric partial C02 pressures, and a few others.

The problem is that really nobody knows for sure what could happen, when these fuses blow. Some may have blown a long time ago, long before humans existed, turning the planet into Mars- Venus-, aquatic or snow-ball worlds.All models suggest extrapolated climatic developments could be dramatic, in particular for a larger-than-ever human (and already suffering) world population that requires very stable climatic conditions to remain sustainable. Even right now, habitat destruction is not only affecting wildlife, but human habitats, too. We’re burning our own house.

What I’m getting at is that the world urgently requires a global resources management system. The times, where everybody can pollute at will or catch as many fishes as possible from the ocean are over – but not everybody is realizing this apparent fact.

Yet before a common platform of action can be developed, there needs to be a common platform of human ethics. Our planet can only be successfully managed, if fundamental agreement is reached on practical issues such as “right of drinking water,” “right of clean air,” “right of food, ” “right of sex and reproduction,” for humans and other living beings, including plants.

Like Jim, the boy with the oilcan, we need to pave the road, and to iron-out the many (often unnecessary or theoretical) controversial standpoints that have developed during human history.

We cannot just say: “ this is what the holy book says,” but instead all efforts have to aim at generating an acceptable model of human fellowship, that includes element of religion, Law, and most important perhaps: science.

Only with a united model, mankind could possibly embark on her finest task: rescue and ecologically balance the natural forces of planet Earth. I do recognize an urgent need for action, yet, like Shirley, one top priority should be to understand the complexity of human interaction with our planet. Hence our efforts must target four issues at the same time:

• Address the most urgent issues, “extinguish the fires;”
• Bundle all available research to clarify questions of human-planet-interaction;
• Create a platform of universal ethics, and Law;
• Develop a long-term plan to sustain the biosphere.

Needless to mention, that these are high goals – yet our human race, plus the planets biosphere may depend on their fulfillment.

© 2007 by Franz L Kessler

Please note: The above video contains graphic images from the World Trade Center attack on September 11th, 2001.

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I will never forget the shock I felt on 9/11/01. I was about to walk out the door for the office when the CBS morning show cut into footage from a burning World Trade Center. I instinctively reacted with - terrorists have flown a plane into the building. Bryant Gumble tried to downplay the importance of what was happening by referring to the crash as coming from a small private aircraft. But I knew better, I knew it was a commercial aircraft and I knew what kind of person was responsible.

Immediately I called my family in New York to warn them they were under attack. The second plane had not hit yet, but as I said, I instinctively knew there was more to come. Soon three other jets crashed; one into the South tower at the WTC, one into the Pentagon and a fourth into a field in Pennsylvania.

As a frequent traveler, I could empathize with the fear the passengers felt as they realized they were being flown into buildings. Visualizing what it must have been like still causes me to shake. I can see how it was possible for terrorists to take control of the planes. I often sat in first class, so I knew upon take off the curtain between the first class cabin and the main cabin was drawn shut to block the view and give the first class passengers privacy. Many times the cockpit door was left open until the very moment the wheels lifted off the ground. And at that time of day, first class would have been nearly empty. If a terrorist sliced a flight attendants throat open in view of any passengers in first class, those passengers would most likely have gone into shock upon seeing blood spurt with every heart beat, possibly right at them, and pink frothy bubbles gurgling out of the victims open throat as they gasped for their last breath.

As the day wore on, the phones went down in New York. I felt blind and panicky; but, not hopeless. I cursed at the people who did this. And wondered: Where is our President? The only source of communication was what I could read on the Internet, hear on the radio or watch on TV.

A week later I drove from Florida to New York to celebrate the Jewish New Year with my family. It was a somber holiday to say the least. Much of my route went through rural areas; so there weren’t many radio stations. It seemed as though the only broadcasts I could get were from National Public Radio. For 1,000 miles my husband and I listened to people calling into NPR from all over the country, reaffirming their support for the people in New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania. As I drove up and down the road, so did my emotions; roller coasting from overwhelming sadness to utter rage.

Truthfully, I cried most of the way. When I arrived in New York, I saw the memorials in front of every firehouse. An outpouring of candles, flowers, cards, stuffed bears, photographs…oh the photographs of the lost and missing…I can’t recall ever feeling such deep sadness over such unnecessary loss of life.

All regular programming had been preempted by the tragedy of 9/11 throughout the week. We were shown brave images of rescue workers searching the rubble for survivors and of family members searching the streets, hospitals, and morgues, hoping to find their loved ones – dead or alive – just to find something.

I will never forget the sympathy from around the world as nearly every nation poured out their grief and support for America. Messages from people on the street and world leaders being shown on TV from England, France, Germany, Russia, China, Australia, Japan – nation after nation speaking out against the scum that carried out this horrific mission.

With a single resounding voice, we all asked: How could such a tragedy possibly occur? Everyone but…

News footage, as shown above from the West Bank, was far from sympathetic. Instead, it disgusted me. Palestinian’s were shown cheering and passing around candy after hearing the WTC collapsed under the force of gravity after being struck by two commercial aircraft which compromised its structure. CHEERING! Men, women, children – young children – were all cheering and praising Allah…all were filled with joy upon hearing and seeing of the attack. On one video a Palestinian remarked, “This is a sweet from Osama bin Laden.”

I will never forget the attacks on September 11th, 2001. Or the sight of people jumping from the WTC and the sound their bodies made as they exploded from hitting the ground. But I also, will never forget those cheers. Cheers I was sure would make the world wake up to the understanding of what separates Islam from humanity.

Unfortunately, few listened and fewer remember…

Obviously, there are many components contributing to a global resurgence of irrational perspectives, superstition, religious sentiment, and faith. From my own observations, however, I have come across an important element I haven’t seen mentioned so far: It’s called progress.

When I grew up as a teenager in Bavaria, Southern Germany, we lived through boom years and relative affluence. We had a house, cars, TV, holidays and so on. Little has changed in the sense that products today have really different purposes compared to then.

However, there is one big difference. The feeling has changed. As a kid, I repaired my bicycle. As a teenager, I fixed my radio; I built Hi-Fi systems and even tuned my car. Products often came from factories nearby.

These days I can hardly do similar things. Technology, in the name of progress and cost, has run amok, leading away from us at a fast pace. Electronic elements that steer your car, your washing machine are unique parts only the specialized workshop can replace and tune-up. The Hi-Fi set, arguably cheaper than in the old days, has become a completely incomprehensible set of irreparable technology. It’s all Chinese junk full of toxic metals that will end up in landfills soon, and poison aquifers. Does complex technology benefit the customer? It might, because it’s cheaper (thanks to slave work conditions), compared to what it used to be, in real terms. Does it fit the general public? Here my answer is a clear: No.

Progress has not only empowered people; it has also disenfranchised the customers. We clearly have gone too far! We have become a hopeless bunch surrounded by technology we are not able to master any longer.

Consequences of this finding are far from trivial. If me, the fairly well educated technical professional feels outwitted by progress, how would people with a lesser level of education feel and react? How do today’s teenagers fare, when they leave school? Where are the car mechanics jobs today? I was told that the new versions of Mercedes and Lexus cars are shunned by the wealthy African elites. Why? Simply because there isn’t anyone out there, who knows how to repair these vehicles, once they fall prey to the glory of African roads, and maintenance culture. Progress has run away from us in such ways, that playing catch-up has become an almost impossible task. Customers aren’t controlling the products that shape their lives any longer.

Feeling disenfranchised and disoriented people tend to turn to conservative religious or other emotionally-based value systems. It’s like the drowning swimmer who tries to grab whatever floats around. Regardless of being right or wrong, religious systems are beyond reasoning and hence give the illusion of comfort. What cannot be argued about must be right, ok? Unfortunately, however, this is leading people away from the real issues that we face in this world today – overpopulation, habitat destruction, climate change, drinking water shortage. People are lulled into systems of beliefs that feel emotionally comfortable but don’t offer any help for the problems of our overcrowded, polluted and freaking-out planet.

In a nutshell, the general public needs to reclaim its rights for the products it deals with.

There are a number of things that can be done. The ball is in the court of the lawmakers, but little is done given it doesn’t fit anyone’s special interest. In particular, there are three points that come to my mind:

1. Simplicity. Bills need to be written that spell out the degree of technology that should be applied in respect of certain commodities and appliances. Some products should use proven and simple technology, without shunning, however innovation and, yes, progress.

2. Green technology. An emphasis should be put on green technology, too. It doesn’t make sense to drive around in a 400 hp cars, with highly sophisticated electronics managing the ‘system’ to allow a ‘reasonable’ gas consumption, if a simple, 50 hp and environmentally friendly car could address our needs for a fraction of cost, little or no negative environmental impact, and so simple that can be repaired by our neighbor. It doesn’t make sense to produce non-recyclable packaging (acrylic plastic bottles, for instance), that have an environmental decomposition period of 10 years plus, if used for a product that is consumed in a minute.

3. Education is seen lagging behind; it’s often teaching for a world of yesterday’s technology and products. This has to change, too. Technology is also increasingly running away, and people have problems in mentally separating science from technology applications.

There is no doubt that reason, logical thinking, and modern education have solved many of our problems. Ratio has guided civilization out off the nightmares created by religious ignorance and emotional suppression. That’s why ratio, simplicity, science and technology need to be brought back to the people!

© 2007 by Franz L Kessler

These days, there is a lot of talk about globalization, multicultural society, and diversity. Very often the point is made that diversity is strengthening a culture, or society. But is this view correct? The answer is yes and no.
 
Often indeed, diversity has yielded a certain cultural strength – New York City, San Francisco, Tokyo, Barcelona can be cited as good examples. Diversity leads to strength, when elements of different character, but of a common root, are allowed to blossom. Japanese cultures thrives, for instance, on the concept that extremes can co-exist and strengthen each other. Diverse cultures are fascinating, attractive, exciting. They offer what people want: the freedom to choose one’s own genuine lifeform. Largely monochromatic cultures, such as Singapur for instance, appear dull, authoritarian and intellectually somewhat stifling.

Nobody wants to live in Saudi Arabia.

Citizens of New York may have different ethnic or cultural backgrounds but see themselves as New Yorkers. Recently, a lady of Iranian descent was  elected beauty queen in my native conservative Bavaria – she’s perfectly speaking the local dialect, never mind about the rest.  As long as there is a common denominator amongst a diverse population, diversity means strength. A common denominator may be culture, language, dialect, dress, ethnicity, history, faith, Weltanschauung, Law.
 
What happens if a common denominator is lacking? In this case trouble looms ahead. That’s when cars are burning in dirty French suburbs, and liberal filmmakers are murdered in Amsterdam. The lack of an intrinsic common root, or consensus, leads to parallel societies, or ghettos.
 
In a parallel society, the other part is ignored, if not plainly rejected. in the ghetto, the extremist always shines as a defender or hero of local values, though he or she may be a complete nut. Ghetto leaders work against the host society, they thrive like a parasite plant off the host society’s odds and general decay and corruption. 

Societies that are tolerant of this kind of ghetto culture are doing wrong. Keeping one’s eyes shut won’t solve the problem. Ignoring each other may work for a while, but can and will lead to social clashes sooner or later – at the next economic downturn, to be precise. It may and will erupt violently.
 
In world’s history, the most tragic example is certainly the failed (ultimate) integration of Jews into German mainstream culture. Although both sides had gone a very long way toward a permanent platform of common thought and culture, one catastrophic event (WW I and the economic disasters thereafter) was sufficient to wipe out hundreds of years of cultural synopsis, and ultimately created the landscape that allowed the Holocaust to materialize. It could happen, because a common cultural platform had only materialized at the level of the elites, whilst the majority uneducated lower class rabble was left cut-out of material and cultural goodies, and remained prone to anti-Semitic feelings.

There are many other examples, too. In SE Asia, the Chinese overseas minority is viewed with great suspicion, given their financial strength, self-centered cultural focus, and endowed with an often ruthless, and uncompassionate business style. They are seen as a hated, yet necessary element of society. A predator, just waiting to take over the land.
Currently, the most challenging subject seems to the integration of Muslim believers into the mainstream of western culture. Integration means that both sides cede part of their territory, and move toward the other position, in fair amounts given in respect to number and standing within the host societies.
 
Neither side may reject the other, nor expect the other of fully embracing ‘alien’ values. There can only be one common Law, and, as long as the host country’s population continues to believe and act in known ways, it won’t be halal.
 
This process will be a painful one for Muslims living in Christian or liberal host countries. The followers of Islam must abandon absolutist statements, such as owning the only way to God. It falls short of revising the ‘source code’ of this religion. Yet, the bottom line is: there is no choice. Parallel societies are and have been a recipe for disaster. Adherence to absolutist ideas means, ultimately, acceptance of bloodshed.

Finding a common platform might not only be a problem but a tremendeous opportunity in disguise: A possibility to pose society onto a platform of rational thought, law, ecology and common sense. But what are the chances to succeed? I’m a little pessimistic, when looking at the increasing rejection of rational values in favor of religious ideas.
Citing Murphy’s Law ‘what can happen will happen,’ a tremendous effort is needed on both sides to work on a truly common and reliable platform of co-existence, and beliefs cannot and may not remain taboo. What will happen, if these efforts remain fruitless? The answer is: mass murder and ethnic cleansing. Just look, what happened to Yugoslavia! A clash of culture will see no winners. Should the autochthonous (‘western’) culture prevail in a ‘clash of cultures,’ freedom might be preserved, but our dignity will be lost. Should there be a globally fanatic Islam, both dignity and freedom will be lost.

There is no choice.  
© 2007 by Franz L Kessler