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MEMO TO SUCH AMONG THE ZEALOTS AND TRUE BELIEVERS IN A XENOPHOBIC BRAND OF AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM as expects all Americans not to salute any foreign leader or power, with the President expected to be Example and Role Model as much as "Prophet, Seer and Revelator:"
I think your harping too much (perhaps to the point of unhealthy) about President Obama's bowing to Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko @ the Imperial Palace in Tokyo during the recent visit to Japan when you think he shouldn't shows a woefully xenophobic intolerance on your part as implies that America is supposedly above all other nations, and that Divine Will and Ordinance justifieth.
Especially if your intention is to suggest that any American picking up "bad ideas" from overseas might wind up carrying some class of a Loathsome Disease known as Knowledge and Enlightenment which somehow "threatens to undermine Our Holy and Beloved Nation," but without any facts to substantiate. That bow of President Obama to what is essentially a figurehead "symbol of the Japanese people and nation" (to paraphrase the relevant section of Japan's Constitution--which, remember, we Americans helped write) was merely protocol in line with established local custom.
Remember the Spanish proverb: "He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies must carry some knowledge of the Indies with him."
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WOULD YOU BELIEVE (WITH APOLOGIES TO DON ADDAMS, A/K/A MAXWELL SMART, CONTROL AGENT 66) ... that a German telephone directory actually helped an Austrian history student locate a 90-year-old Nazi War Criminal wanted for the sadisto murder of 58 Jewish forced labourers from Hungary near the east Austrian village of Deutsch Schuetzen towards the end of World War II?
In any case, the "retiree from Duisburg" (as court documents officially refer to the suspect) faces charges for the incident in question, with substantiation therefor having been provided by three former Hitler Youth members in the district who witnessed the grusome proceedings (a fourth such, now living in Canada, is assisting German authorities in their enquiries).
(Ripley, take note.)
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ONE OF THE MORE COMMONLY-HEARD PLATITUDES AGAINST THE INFORMATION STUPORBAHN GENERALLY, AND ITS EFFECTS ON IMPRESSIONABLE YOUTH SPECIFICALLY, is that social-networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, among others, have become too attractive for virtual bullying, harrassment, cruelty and taunting ... and when the police intervene, the damage may have already been done, with results horrible dictu more often than no.
Such is the complaint from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) in Great Britain, whose Jim Gamble was quoted on the BBC as suggesting that such sites adopt the practice of Bebo in installing a "panic button" linking to the CEOP website in case users (especially children and the vulnerable) get suspicious about certain contacts and invites; CEOP, in its turn, takes details and provides information and contact details for their local police and various protective agencies, Childline foremost among them.
Inevitably, conservative Zealots and True Believers will respond by going into their arsenal of Tools and Answers to suggest that parents "take more responsibility for their children's websurfing habits" by embracing what borders on a Big Brother mindset, that the police should be left alone when it comes to "petty frivolous matters" like online bullying and instead focus on "more serious offenses" (replete with the usual racist bromides and screeds implying that White Low Church Christians are "morally and racially incapable" of committing Infamous and Notorious Crime), etc., etc.
But still, care needs to be taken when navigating the Information Stuporbahn.
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AS IF THE ONGOING PRESENCE OF AMERICAN AND BRITISH TROOPS IN THE AFGHANI THEATRE OF THE UR-RAHOWA AGAINST TERRORISM WASN'T AWFUL ENOUGH for the average Afghani to stomach eight years on, a newly-released survey of 704 randomly-selected Afghanis conducted by the aid and development charity Oxfam earlier this year finds where, among other things:
- the top five root causes of the ur-RAHOWA were seen to be poverty, unemployment, government corruption and ineffectiveness, the Taleban's continued influence, and threats from Afghanistan's neighbours;
- since the Soviet Occupation began in 1979, one in five Afghanis claimed to have been tortured and one in ten imprisoned @ least once;
- one in six are currently giving serious consideration to emigrating out of Afghanistan; and
- three-quarters of Afghanis acknowledged having had to flee their homes since the Soviet Occupation.
Perhaps the single best response to the ur-RAHOWA's impact upon average Afghanis was from an unnamed respondent in Nangarhar as was quoted thus by the BBC:
What do you think the effect that two million Afghans martyred, 70% of
Afghanistan destroyed and our economy eliminated has had on us?
Half our people have been driven mad. A man who is 30 or 40 years old
looks like he is 70. We always live in fear. We are not secure anywhere
in Afghanistan.
Another interesting beef uncovered in the Oxfam survey hath it that foreign aid doesn't quite reach those most in need, if that ... not to mention frequent calls for "all sides to [stop] targeting civilians" in the conflict, for international forces to enforce existing restrictions on air strikes and night raids and to timely investigate reports of harm to civilians, and for insurgents to stop seeking refuge in civilian areas inasmuch as it only puts the innocent all the closer to the front and its attendant risk for harm. "...and that is is a way."
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