The Town Herald

The netpaper about Elftowners, by Elftowners, for Elftowners.

Runing's Rants

No Borders

by [Runingwhispers]

If you see the view of earth from space, you would be amazed at the sheer beauty of the lands and the vast seas, the rivers and tributaries. From a distance, the world seems at peace. Alas, if you get to know us you would think we thrive on conflict.

At the university, a professor once said to us during a lecture “Your freedom ends where mine begins,” and it has proven itself repeatedly and more so in the past few weeks.

This article was prompted by the fact that I could not get my usual supply of skim milk for breakfast, and the torture entered its third week. What does conflict on earth have to do with my breakfast - stay with me.

A Danish newspaper published a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed in an unflattering light. According to the Muslim tenants, depiction of the Prophet or any Prophet in any light is highly discouraged to put it mildly.

Publishing the cartoon sparked a chain reaction. In the predominantly Islamic countries, the adherents of Islam went to the streets to protest; in some countries, the Consulates and Diplomatic Missions of European countries were attacked.

It further escalated in one African country where there was no aggression shown towards the Europeans. Instead, the Muslims took it out on the Christians.

The evening I heard the news I was standing with a friend, a Nothern Muslim friend, I am a Northern Christian. We were both speechless – but we still hang out, no knives, no guns, no hassles.

The ill-fated Christians lived up North in a Islamic dominated culture but were from the south. The Southerners, seeing what happened took out their pain and anger on the Northerners that lived among them in the South.

The body count was probably the highest since the aggression began. First it was religious and then ethnic, all because of an individual’s sense of humor. Soon it would become economic.

The retail traders over here are typically Northern Muslims, and the best milk you can get is from The Netherlands and Denmark in that order. I get the skim milk from the Denmark brand. The market forces have decided not to patronize my preference going along with what the other countries had decided to do weeks before by boycotting Danish exports, so here I am drinking black coffee because of a joke that went sour.

I think we should learn to respect others and their beliefs. I may not agree with you, but I should accept that you have a right to express what you feel. Violence is not just physical, as we have seen in that case that will go down in the annals of history as the first crusade in the twenty first century.

My freedom ends where yours begins. If I know something I say or do will hurt someone else, even if done unintentionally, and par adventure I discover that it indeed will cause animosity, should I still proceed?

Maybe it is the accepted norm, maybe there is no other way to get around the situation except the way we know how, but now we see that people are getting hurt. A revolution is overdue.

Looking at the earth from space, we cannot see any borders, but that does not mean they are not there. Political, ethic, religious, societal and my favorite Psycho-idiotic not unlike the wind, we know the borders exist, we can feel their effects; it is something we should learn to respect.


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