V-Day

Saudi Arabia has done it again: stunned the world! Banning all things Valentine and all things red! No red roses, no gifts, lest they encourage "immoral relations between the umarrieds." One may argue that is the rule of the country and all who live under that sky must abide. But this is a country where a girl who has been gang-raped is lashed, where a woman is punished for being any more than a subservient property - what moral code are we talking about? This is like saying, in segregated America, that the rule of separating black and white should have been followed because that is the law of the land. Wrong is wrong - there is no justification. Not to say that Valentine is a necessary day - because any day can be a day for love - so spread the love to our fellow man!
Talking of fellowship, I have warmed toward Australia, which has joined a handful of governments in history who have apologized to the indigenous inhabitants of lands they took over. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized in parliament to all Aborigines for laws and policies that "inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss", singling out the "stolen generation."








Onto Denmark where newspapers are reprinting the "offensive" Mohammed cartoons. Yes it their right, but what is the point of recreating the ire of millions of people when it has already led to turmoil and deaths? But equally seriously, Muslims should see this for what it is and not consider a threat to their faith - if anything denounce the people who allegedly were plotting a "terror-related assassination" of Kurt Westergaard!Spielberg has withdrawn his services from the Beijing Olympics as a show of support to Darfur. China feels this direct implication of their impotence against the injustice in Darfur is unfair. Actually what is really unfair is the fact that hundreds of thousands of our fellow man in Darfur have been massacred, raped, and left for dead while we celebrate the greatness of the human race at the Olympics.
I sound like a bleeding heart liberal - but what I am is just as mortal and just as human as my brother and sister human anywhere in the world. No label can strip away the frailty of life.