Will Humanity Fail?
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 16 Mar 2020
Mazin Qumsiyeh | Popular Resistance – TRANSCEND Media Service
12 Mar 2020 – Will humanity fail or rise to the challenge?
Obviously human beings are being tested: pandemics spreading around the world (and after coronavirus, there will be others much more deadly), the collapse of oil prices that led to financial market collapses, the climate change (we have really 7 or 8 years left to make drastic changes in lifestyle to avoid the irreversible damage), the technology gone rampant and killings and nature (5G, chemical and biological weapons), the accelerating risk of nuclear war, and much more. How we deal with this as individuals and communities is really existential. There are bad signs and good signs. Let us give some examples of both and then of areas where we could go either way). Please post other good and bad news in the comments on this blog.
Example bad news first
1) Regarding Coronavirus, it has become officially a pandemic and the failure of many governments to take it seriously will have catastrophic consequences in those areas (like Italy and the US). Some governments are using the pandemic as an excuse to increase repression and discrimination instead of using it to bring peace with justice. The genocidal sanctions on Iran for example has been tightened causing needless deaths of many. And even though Israeli cases are far more than Palestinian cases, restrictions and blockade tightened in our ghettos/bantustans (our own apartheid regime) and settlers are free to travel anywhere. Bethlehem is blockaded only for its Palestinian residents not for the illegal Israeli colonial settlers living here. Iran released tens of thousands of prisoners to protect them; Israel brought in a sick doctor and cut services and stopped family visits to the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners. The catastrophic economic situation around the world impacts the most vulnerable communities. Poverty will skyrocket and the billionaires will stay billionaires! “Israel” with all its money and resources (fleeced from us and others) is focused on being anti-Palestinian instead of working to better the lives of all its citizens including Palestinians. Greece and Turkey play football with Syrian refugees and the genocide in Yemen is ongoing and I shudder to think what would happen as the virus spreads in such devasted countries like Syria, Yemen, and Libya.
2) The climate change catastrophic situation is not dealt with and the political structures look like will not be changed. Because of cheating and rigging to prevent Bernie Sanders from getting the democratic nomination (driven mostly by Zionists), the choice in November will be to vote for one xenophobic puppet and another (Trump vs Biden) or sit it out. Trump will win (the power of incumbency and more money from Zionist billionaires) and we will be run for four more years by a fumbling megalomaniac. In either case the US will continue to topple governments that serve their people and install puppets similar to the one they put in charge of Brazil who will finish off the Amazon rainforest.
Good news:
1) In many locations, people quickly responded aggressively to the virus and seem to have contained the situation including at the source of the virus (Wuhan province in China) where new cases continue to decline. Medical personnel around the world have been nothing less than heroes. Among Palestinians we were pleasantly surprised by how serious it was taken and every one of the 31 cases reported in the past few days has known source and well controlled with hundreds observing the self-quarantine (only two people did not and they are now forced to do so and maybe penalized!). So many people are helping other people. “Other good news in this front is the scientific development of simplified cheap tests and quick progress on anti-viral cures.
2) Young people around the world are aware like never before. Part of it is they understand increasingly how the system is rigged, that 99.9% of politicians lie to them, and that their future cannot be left to such politicians. They take things into their own hands, mobilize, help fellow human beings and are increasingly realizing that their future is at stake. Extinction Rebellion is the fastest growing movement on our planet.
Now there are things that we cannot predict where they go yet. Will decision makers do the right thing and learning from the past realize that “business as usual” cannot go on and that they need to think of the collective human interest? Will we learn that the horrors of World War I and WWII were indeed repeated including actions of ethnic cleansing and slow genocide even by some people claiming to be heirs to the victims of similar atrocities? Will some countries use Israeli made drones to oppress people & shut down borders to refugees or will they really work for peace and justice instead of supporting repressive regimes like “Saudi Arabia” and “Israel” who cause these problems? Will those who attended the large AIPAC conference including congress people realize there is so much more hard from that besides getting Coronavirus (four were infected and mingling)? Will politicians put their personal financial and political interests ahead of our (and their’s) children future? Will the world (including our Arab countries and Palestine) remain run by mediocre people focusing on their own narrow self-interest? Will Israeli society and global Zionists continue to drift farther to the rights (racism, fascism etc)?
We did not learn from our history. As WWII was ending and Germany and Japan were already defeated, the US fired the first two shots of the next war with the Soviet Union (that is the Hiroshima and Nagazaki terror bombing). Then we had Korea, Vietnam, Palestine and many many more atrocities against peole to serve colonial and imperial powers. In the past they got away with it. Today, this is existential to all humanity and as was said by a prophetic voice: we either live together as fellow human beings or we perish together as fools. When I said this to an audience in a recent talk in Europe, they asked about probabilities: I said 20% and 80% but the probability of 20% to survive as a species is getting smaller – the window of opportunity is closing. We must all reach deeper in our hearts and minds (and soul if you believe) and summon our best to fight. It is the epic struggle for our existence.
Gazan Girl Fighting Cancer Died after Israel Denied Her Parents’ Visit. She Won’t Be the Last
Five things to know/do
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/03/1059261
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Mazin Qumsiyeh, associate professor of genetics and director of cytogenetic services at Yale University School of Medicine, is founder and president of the Holy Land Conservation Foundation and ex-president of the Middle East Genetics Association. He won the Raymond Jallow Activism Award from the national Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee in 1998. He is co-founder and national treasurer of Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, and has written extensively about the Middle East. Qumsiyeh is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment, author of Sharing the Land of Canaan and Popular Resistance in Palestine, a professor at Bethlehem University and director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History in Bethlehem. http://palestinenature.org
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… “(5G, chemical and biological weapons),” …
…. “(driven mostly by Zionists)”…
How much of your tin-foil-hat nonsens and anti-semitic drivel do you expect anybody to pay attention to? So what is the purpose of it?
You are obviously a planted neo-con stooge.
How can “janeHolden” dare to call Mazin a neocon stooge when he is a highly respected Palestinian activist and writer ? His book “Popular Resistance in Palestine” details so many of the non-violent actions taken over the years to try to prevent the cruel and illegal actions of the zionist “democratic state of israel”.
Her comment disobeys your rules, of course, but also shows how invasive is the zionist constant pretence that any criticism of Israel, no matter how well-founded, has the label “antisemitic” tagged to it .
Dear rosemerry
You may consider it a “coincidence” that he is promoting thinly vailed conspiracy theories, but I don’t.
Please listen to Assange. Conspiracy theories are planted with one, and one purpose alone. To discredit real debate, real knowledge and real change.
Dr. Qumsiyeh: I welcome your introductory paragraph, noting that there are some “good” and “bad” signs/examples of the way humans are being “tested” now. And, I appreciate your invitation to join the discussion in the “comments” section. Obviously, your manner of presentation has antagonized at least one reader who has raised an alarm here amidst the comments. Rather than banter about each of your arguments, I’d like to suggest a better way to present your case: a better method of “rapportage,” if you will, not simply reporting what you aver to be facts, but actually trying to develop rapport with your readers before shuffling out invectives.
For example: why not start on a positive note? In grad school, I learned the value of “positive reinforcement.” Your intro entices us with “good news,” as well as “bad,” and then you unload with a plethora of splenetic statements about all the bad news. I don’t agree with everything you posit here, but it could be a much more interesting way to develop your theses:
“Young people around the world are aware like never before. Part of it is they understand increasingly how the system is rigged, that 99.9% of politicians lie to them, and that their future cannot be left to such politicians. They take things into their own hands, mobilize, help fellow human beings and are increasingly realizing that their future is at stake. Extinction Rebellion is the fastest growing movement on our planet.”
Frankly, I’m glad to think that “young people around the world are aware like never before.” I’d like to see some real examples of that! How, exactly, have these young people concluded that “99.9% of politicians lie to them”? Was there some kind of test? Who conducted the test; and, out of 1,000 politicians how was it deduced that 999 were liars? Are only “politicians” guilty of such deceit? One wonders: “around the world,” how many “young people” are “aware like never before” that most of their professors and most of the media “talking heads” are lying to them? Further, who or what organization has determined that “Extinction Rebellion is the fastest growing movement on our planet”? And, couldn’t we have a clear-cut definition of what “Extinction Rebellion” comprises before we conclude, with you, that it’s “good news”?
It seems that your presentation lacks 3 basic essentials: exemplification; amplification; and substantiation. You do not really exemplify your disputable statements; you do not amplify your arguments with careful documentation or vivid representations; finally, you do not lead us through the maze of pro and con arguments with satisfactory substantiation of your conclusions.
Thank you for the invitation.
Dr. Qumsiyeh: I welcome your introductory paragraph, noting that there are some “good” and “bad” signs/examples of the way humans are being “tested” now. And, I appreciate your invitation to join the discussion in the “comments” section. Obviously, your manner of presentation has antagonized at least one reader who has raised an alarm here amidst the comments. Rather than banter about each of your arguments, I’d like to suggest a better way to present your case: a better method of “rapportage,” if you will, not simply reporting what you aver to be facts, but actually trying to develop rapport with your readers before shuffling out invectives.
For example: why not start on a positive note? In grad school, I learned the value of “positive reinforcement.” Your intro entices us with “good news,” as well as “bad,” and then you unload with a plethora of splenetic statements about all the bad news. I don’t agree with everything you posit here, but it could be a much more interesting way to develop your theses:
“Young people around the world are aware like never before. Part of it is they understand increasingly how the system is rigged, that 99.9% of politicians lie to them, and that their future cannot be left to such politicians. They take things into their own hands, mobilize, help fellow human beings and are increasingly realizing that their future is at stake. Extinction Rebellion is the fastest growing movement on our planet.”
Frankly, I’m glad to think that “young people around the world are aware like never before.” I’d like to see some real examples of that! How, exactly, have these young people concluded that “99.9% of politicians lie to them”? Was there some kind of test? Who conducted the test; and, out of 1,000 politicians how was it deduced that 999 were liars? Are only “politicians” guilty of such deceit? One wonders: “around the world,” how many “young people” are “aware like never before” that most of their professors and most of the media “talking heads” are lying to them? Further, who or what organization has determined that “Extinction Rebellion is the fastest growing movement on our planet”? And, couldn’t we have a clear-cut definition of what “Extinction Rebellion” comprises before we conclude, with you, that it’s “good news”?
It seems that your presentation lacks 3 basic essentials: exemplification; amplification; and substantiation. You do not really exemplify your disputable statements; you do not amplify your arguments with careful documentation or vivid representations; finally, you do not lead us through the maze of pro and con arguments with satisfactory substantiation of your conclusions.
Thank you for the invitation.