An article appeared in the New York Times today describing the cozy relationship between Raytheon, an arms manufacturer, Donald Trump and the Saudi Crown Prince, and you can take a look at it here.
Raytheon is working out the final details of the transfer of weapons technology to Saudi Arabia at the directive of Donald Trump. This action flies in the face of Congress who have blockaded, on humanitarian grounds, further involvement with the Saudi regime one of whose latest crimes was the murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi. And the bombing of the civilians of Yemen.
Human rights clearly have no importance to Trump or to many of the western nations who used to hold them as sacrosanct. Why? Because of the ascendancy in the international arena of countries like China, Russia, Brazil, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, regimes whose records in the area of human rights is abysmal, to say the least.
We recently noted the 30th anniversary of the massacre in Tienanmen Square. Yet each of these countries have trampled human rights consistently.
I was recently admitted to an International Relations group on LinkedIn after being vetted for quite awhile. When I first logged in there was a posting by the McCain Institute about a series of podcasts they were running around themes like human rights, the rights of women and the future of international relations.
I heard the first podcast which was a discussion among the three interviewers from the Institute who were running the sessions. One was a veteran in the field of international relations and the other two were relatively new in the field. They were in their 20's and 30's. One of the younger women was asked by the veteran if she felt hope about the emerging dynamics in the international arena. She paused saying she wasn't quite sure. That she used to feel hope but this was fading.
I wrote to her the next day and said that in spite of the unfolding of events in the international world, like the partnership mentioned at the top of this blog, she must never lose hope. I told her that I worked for many years with non profits in the US and abroad, grass roots organizations who were only concerned about the betterment of their communities. They never lost hope. They also were oblivious to international ruminations about the state of the world from think tanks like this. I also told her that I now work with emerging authors, some as young as 9, who will inherit the Earth, and that their visions spoke only of hope.
If you lose hope, then the liaisons that I mentioned earlier will win, and our world will remain ensnared in their collective delusional power. I don't believe in them, and I don't believe in their dark vision of reality. I believe their time limited as they represent a fading, limited and destructive world view whose due date has come and gone.
More and more of us are feeling the same way. And as more and more of us act, the more their power will fade. We who honor human rights and the emerging of a compassionate, inclusive world, one that also honors the Earth, have the power and the momentum behind us to effect change and to create a new world.
But we must keep our focus on hope.
The woman from the McCain Institute got back to me, encouraged, and told me that she felt there were many reasons to hope and that these podcasts would be her way to continue to share her vision of this hope.
Raytheon is working out the final details of the transfer of weapons technology to Saudi Arabia at the directive of Donald Trump. This action flies in the face of Congress who have blockaded, on humanitarian grounds, further involvement with the Saudi regime one of whose latest crimes was the murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi. And the bombing of the civilians of Yemen.
Human rights clearly have no importance to Trump or to many of the western nations who used to hold them as sacrosanct. Why? Because of the ascendancy in the international arena of countries like China, Russia, Brazil, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, regimes whose records in the area of human rights is abysmal, to say the least.
We recently noted the 30th anniversary of the massacre in Tienanmen Square. Yet each of these countries have trampled human rights consistently.
I was recently admitted to an International Relations group on LinkedIn after being vetted for quite awhile. When I first logged in there was a posting by the McCain Institute about a series of podcasts they were running around themes like human rights, the rights of women and the future of international relations.
I heard the first podcast which was a discussion among the three interviewers from the Institute who were running the sessions. One was a veteran in the field of international relations and the other two were relatively new in the field. They were in their 20's and 30's. One of the younger women was asked by the veteran if she felt hope about the emerging dynamics in the international arena. She paused saying she wasn't quite sure. That she used to feel hope but this was fading.
I wrote to her the next day and said that in spite of the unfolding of events in the international world, like the partnership mentioned at the top of this blog, she must never lose hope. I told her that I worked for many years with non profits in the US and abroad, grass roots organizations who were only concerned about the betterment of their communities. They never lost hope. They also were oblivious to international ruminations about the state of the world from think tanks like this. I also told her that I now work with emerging authors, some as young as 9, who will inherit the Earth, and that their visions spoke only of hope.
If you lose hope, then the liaisons that I mentioned earlier will win, and our world will remain ensnared in their collective delusional power. I don't believe in them, and I don't believe in their dark vision of reality. I believe their time limited as they represent a fading, limited and destructive world view whose due date has come and gone.
More and more of us are feeling the same way. And as more and more of us act, the more their power will fade. We who honor human rights and the emerging of a compassionate, inclusive world, one that also honors the Earth, have the power and the momentum behind us to effect change and to create a new world.
But we must keep our focus on hope.
The woman from the McCain Institute got back to me, encouraged, and told me that she felt there were many reasons to hope and that these podcasts would be her way to continue to share her vision of this hope.