It was painful to be witness to Our World This Week. This was a week that saw devastating Fires in Australia and a drought emergency declared in California. This was also a week that saw War raging onward in South Sudan and the Taliban again taking their fight to the heart of Kabul.
Of all the death and destruction, the one in Kabul was especially daring. This was done in the heart of the Embassy District that is supposed to be one of the safest in Afghanistan. A number of foreign nationals--including the head of the IMF Afghanistan office--died. The Restaurant Owner--a Lebanese--also died as a result of the blast despite all that he had done to be safe and to protect his clients. What is clear is that no one and nothing is safe in Afghanistan. After all that the World has done and the price paid, it is of profound concern as a Post-Invasion Afghanistan is yet to emerge.
Beyond Afghanistan, there is Iraq. It has been the view of us here in "Outsiders" that Iraq is a country in name only The uprising in Anbar and the resulting death is as powerful an indicator as any on the dissolution of Iraq. 14,000 People have taken refugee in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Kurdistan, in the meantime, has struck an independent deal with Turkey to sell oil. The Carnage in Syria also rages on with no end in sight as the World again is trying to get another peace conference going, even though one of Assad's key backers--Iran--has not been invited.
It is not easy to remain optimistic in the face of so much carnage and as the transformation of our World continues onward to a World that is increasingly automated and digitized. What one can hope for is what St Francis reminded us:
Of all the death and destruction, the one in Kabul was especially daring. This was done in the heart of the Embassy District that is supposed to be one of the safest in Afghanistan. A number of foreign nationals--including the head of the IMF Afghanistan office--died. The Restaurant Owner--a Lebanese--also died as a result of the blast despite all that he had done to be safe and to protect his clients. What is clear is that no one and nothing is safe in Afghanistan. After all that the World has done and the price paid, it is of profound concern as a Post-Invasion Afghanistan is yet to emerge.
Beyond Afghanistan, there is Iraq. It has been the view of us here in "Outsiders" that Iraq is a country in name only The uprising in Anbar and the resulting death is as powerful an indicator as any on the dissolution of Iraq. 14,000 People have taken refugee in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Kurdistan, in the meantime, has struck an independent deal with Turkey to sell oil. The Carnage in Syria also rages on with no end in sight as the World again is trying to get another peace conference going, even though one of Assad's key backers--Iran--has not been invited.
It is not easy to remain optimistic in the face of so much carnage and as the transformation of our World continues onward to a World that is increasingly automated and digitized. What one can hope for is what St Francis reminded us:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life
Onward.....
Also released to http://www.outsiderviews.com
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