Some of our regular readers have emailed us that Annikki and I have of late been blogging more on politics than on general life in Finland or India.
We are living in most critical times.
Annikki and I are socio-political writers. We do not write any fiction, but we write about life as we see it.
At the moment, the political scene is crowded with important information that we want our readers to know, be it in India, Finland, US, UK or any other country about which we do have the knowledge to write about.
Corruption is rampant in all these countries. Poverty, hatred, violence is spreading.
And President barrack Obama ended his State of the Union speech with the phrase "God Bless America".
Does that mean God should not bless any other country?
What special relationship has America got with God?
Is this not the saddest reflection of our times, as each country wants God to bless them in isolation of others?
Would it not be nicer for a world leader to say "God Bless all the people of this world - Agnostics, Atheists, Baha'i, Buddhists, Christians, Confucianists, Hindus, Islamists, Jains, Jews, Shintoists, Sikhs, Taoists, Wiccaists, Zoroastrians, and Druids, Tribals, ..."
Is that not what we want out of God other than His narrow focus on one particular country.
This draws me to an anecdote that I have used a couple of times on this blog, but which is worth repeating as it has a meaning at just this time.
our daughter's wedding in Exeter, 1992.
The late Gnani Perinpanayagam was a brilliant Sri lankan born, British socio-linguistics professor who worked during the final few years of his life in Finland in Oulu University. He and his late wife, Radha, were very dear family friends of Annikki and myself. They came to depend on us for adjusting to their life in Finland.
He told us of an incident when he had been standing by an escalator in one of the large department stores in London. From his looks he did look like a "foreigner" in London. A white teenager, obviously not very educated, came up to him and demanded to know: "What are you doing in MY country?"
Gnani slowly turned to him and asked in return: "What are you doing in MY world?"
The stunned boy was speechless and moved on.
I wish politicians would realise that when they promote nationalism and patriotism, they also promote divisionism, which is the curse of our world today.
The uneducated masses tend to play on this and from this core, based on the seeds of hatred bred by these "politicians, come the terrorists and suicide bombers that kill innocent women and children, just as "educated" politicians as Bush and Blair did the same.
I hope the people of UK and America realise that it is THEIR politicians who are the problem as they spawn divisionism and hatred among people! They are the true breeders of "terrorism". Any fight they carry out on "terrorists" will be fruitless, as THEY are the real "Osama bin Ladens" of this world!
If only they would give "Peace a Chance" and start a "Department" or "Ministry" for Peace with the same budget as their "War machinery" or Defence Department which is really an Offence Department, what a different place this world would be.
We can hope!
