h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

On the train yesterday, I read more about what had been going on in Beslan. The stories and the pictures were very disturbing. Very young children being murdered for crying, terrorists killing each other if they refused to kill the children. It seemed to me that they no longer saw them as human.

I thought that holding feelings of distress, disgust and anger were only fuelling the hatred. I needed a way of releasing my feelings, so I tried the meditation where I breathe in anger and breath out love. It seemed to help. I've probably a lot more work to do.

Hi ZSF

You are so right in realising that having these feelings does ot help.

His Holiness Pope John Paul 11 sends a message to a conderence in Milan in which he asks everyone

"Not to give in to the logic of violence,vendetta and hatred, but rather to persevere in dialogue. The mortal chain that imprisons and bloodies so much of the world must be broken. Believers of all religions can do so much to put an end to this.

"...No war should find its incentive in religion. War cannot be motivated by religion"

"Conflict is never inevitable!. And religions have a special duty to remind all men and women of this awareness. This is what I would call the spirit of Assisi. Our world needs that spirit"

the Pope continues

"In a few days we will remember that terrible September 11 2001 that brought death to the heart of the United States. Three years have passed since that day. But unfortunately terrorism seems to increase its threats of destruction. There is no doubt that this calls for firmness and decision in fighting the workers of death.At the same time everythinng must be done to uproot the causes of terror expecially misery, desperation and the emptiness of hearts.

"Violence begets violence" the Pope continues

"War must always be considered a defeat of reason and of humanity. May men soon make a spiritual and cultural leap forward to outlaw war. Yes, never again war".

We can but pray and meditate together that this dreadful destruction of our brothers and sisters will cease and that the innocents are not punished as we have seen so vivdly.

With a sincere plea to Saint Francis of Assisi who did so much to allay war, and in humility,

Also ran1

Traveller in Time on his head
"I was not aware the pope did say something sensible.
Fully agree anyway, lets remember and honour the victims.

Only one point: Let us try to forget these terrorists they do not exist!

I know it is but it is the only thing _we_ can do to fight them.
Terrorists try to spawn terror in our minds, denyal <?> of their existance is our main weapon! "

I agree

The media coverage feeds their evil fantasies, and the more we are seen to wring our hands over these events, the more they are likely to continue.

That is not to say I don't feel the same as because I am as horrified as the rest of you. I don't know what the answer is, as media coverage will continue, and we need to know what is going on, I suppose but it is like fuelling a fire. The media is the oxygen of terror groups, and the constant barrage of news feeds fear too.

Somehow, we need to ignore it and carry on with our lives, or we shall all be afraid to live. And living in fear is what they want of us, next to our total destruction. NIce world we live in

Websailor

Thank you Traveller in Time for your observations.

I do not think that any of us were saying that terrorists do not exist. I thought the argument was that replying to their violent means only exacerbated the problem

I think that there cannot be one of person who is not repulsed by the action in Russia. The Pope was asking us to examine the other phenomenologically the covert) reasons for their behaviour. There has been so much genocide in Africa which was as tragic and uncalled for. Basically his argument was that violence begts ciolence and we have to, for our survival, find another way of sorting out our problems.

anyway, It was good to hae your reply. thank you

Also Ran1

I'd not seen/heard what the Pope had said. Thanks for that, AR1

Tit, Websailor , AR1 - Yes, I do believe that violence begets violence. I can't but think that the actions of the Russian government in showing the terrorists ' very disturbing video footage of the events in the school can only lead to more hatred and violence. There's a conflict between witnessing (acknowledging) and perpetuating the violence. The acts were indeed evil by any definition and it is important to recognise the suffering caused to the people involved. There must also be intense suffering by the perpetrators too.

I am reminded of such people as Archbishop Makarios, who was seen as a terrorist by the British before Cyprus was given independence and afterwards was just seen as a leader and his past appeared forgotten. The crimes were not quite as horrendous as these however.

The meditation I was doing was tonglen (for some reason when I posted first thing this morning I couldn't remember the name):

http://lojongmindtraining.com/

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/4/story_425_1.html

Good morning all you super people, <big

What a lovely way to wake up and find the gentle thoughts which you are expressing.

Websailor what a brilliant expression

"The media is the oxygen of the terrorists"

That is so true. Without it they cannot spread the alarm and despondency and terror which they manage to do. On the other hand, how on earth are we to get to know about the injustices and rape and pillaging that goes on.?

However, both 9/11 and this latest school holdup were so absolutely inhuman that one pities those who conceived the thought. How can minds be so warped as to even conceive such a horrific and diabolical plan?
What can be done - if anything - to aid, encourage and eventually change such warped minds.?

Lots of questions. In the meantime it is encouraging to find such proufound sentiments on this thread and thank you Zarquhon for setting our minds in motion.

With affection

also Run1

The Human Design revealer, Ra Uru Hu says that the same planetary conditions for Beslan were operating at the time os theTerror in France during the Revolution, where an entire class of people were deemed legitimate targets. It's tribal in origin.

Thank you for these thoughts, AR! i started the thread to help me cope. How much more difficult it must be for those directly affected!

I've been finding it all very hard to accept what happened in the last few days. I have a number of small children and I just can't accept that human beings would do this to small youngsters. Then again, I only have the darker events in history to confirm that the human being is quite capable of enormous hatred and evil.

My normal inclination is toward melancholy, I'm afraid. When 9/11 happened, we were on holidays in the Lake District. My wife says that once it happened I disengaged emotionally from the holiday, and she was glad when we all got back home. That's sort of the way I feel again now.

Dear Woodpigeon,

I believe that we each have our own way of coping with trauma and unhappiness- and tragedy and violent death.

Providing one does not rush out and wreck violence in retaliation, whatever way someone copes with the situation is fine.

It is totally tragic what happened. But I realise how absolutely terrible it must be to be so devoid of feeling that one can commit such horrors. I am deeply disturbed by that little ten year old, who apparently appears to be mesmerised by the whole affair and his near death. How is he ever going to come to terms with the situation.?

Kind regards

also Ran1

Woodpigeon,

Yes, having a small child myself made it all the more disturbing for me, and I had a nightmare, which I think was related to the issue. This is why I started the meditations. I understand that one of the TV commentators said that the terrorists had dehumanised the victims of this event. I can't imagine being able to do such a thing, although I have to recognise that if one person can do such a thing, then it's inherently possible for any of us to do it - a frightening thought.

AR! I don't think I've seen the story of the 10 year old, although someone today told me about a little boy in front of someone with his foot on a detonator - would that be the same boy? I agree that we all have different ways of coping. I hope that bringing compassion for both sides is the only helpful thing I can do. Even if there is no provable benefit, it still feels the right thing to do.

Funnily enough, I couldn't so the same for someone like the Moors Murderers. I don't understand why, unless it is that they enjoyed the torture and murder, whereas the people caught up in this event were a means to an end.

Hi dear ZSF,

Yes I fully understand that with small children one's perceptins are much more aware to the atrocities of this act.

That was the picture I was talking about. I saw it several times on TV. I do not get the newspapers any longer so do not know if it was printed. I suppose that the little boy's "indifference" was his way of coping with an horrific situation.

Go well my

Also Ran1

Having worked for the Sport bit of a 24 hour news channel for over 3 years, it's a shameful and sorry thing to say but I've become, well not exactly immune to this sort of thing, but certainly used to it. You develop this sort of shield that lets you see things but not really feel them so you can put it to the back of your mind and get on with your job. Then you worry, when you get home, that you have lost something as a human being - that you lack the ability to react in a human way. And you don't like yourself very much.

But on the other hand, it makes very little sense for your main reaction to something of this magnitude to be worrying about your lack of reaction. So I try to forget about that, too.

Hi No.6,

Thank you for your posting. I went to your home page to read about you and you certainly appear to be very busy. You also appear to lead a very interesting life. When you say you are a sports writer do you come across tragedies like the recent russian one in your work?

As I said before I believe each of us has to find the coping mechanism in order to keep on living in hope in the face of such tragedies. I believe that the media have a very responsible role to play, and that is to report what they see as it is. How are we otherwise to know about the injustices and violent assaults which occur? I also believe that the media respresentative who reports incidents in a transparent fashion is far more at risk than one who is biased either one way or the other. Therefore, the detachment which you experience is your coping mechanism.

However, should you ever be in a position in which it is transparently obvious to you that a particular situation is neither just or fair to one of the parties, then I am sure tht you would be able to report it as it is.

I remember seeing the first gulf war on Tv in south africa where I was living at the time.

I was horrified that I could actually watch the aircraft dropping their bombs and and see the tracer bullets flying to hit their target. What could I do about it except be appalled. However, just as appalling to me was the sight of all those burning oil wells at the end of the war. This wanton destruction of black gold seemed to me every bit as horrifying as the killing of the the various participants in the war. Yet what have I done about it? I do not think very much, escept try to continue believing that violence does not solve problems, and praying and hopefully working for the peaceful co-existence of people with different ideas and different cultures. And thank the Pope for articulating it so humbly.

sincerely,

Also Ran1

I think that this kind of thing not only scars those who are the victims, it also scars those who are the perpetrators and in a way, all who are involved as witnesses, including those of us who merely know about it because it has been reported.

No 6 - your reaction is completely understandable and also logical. It allows you to carry on with some sort of normality.

Who was it who said, 'Any man's death diminishes me' and also (I'm not implying they were the same person) that the flapping of a butterfly's wings one one side of the ocean affects the storm on the other side. Mahatma Gandhi said 'An eye for an eye leaved the whole world blind. We are all connected. So I choose to believe that my thoughts and actions affect the world, making it better or worse, depending on my choices.

I'm not convinced that this war is motivated by religion, although religion certainly has its part to play. I think it is motivated by a desire for freedom for the Chechens, and for fear of losing their identity. Probably the fear of losing their identity is the biggest motivator, and that includes language and culture. If there were Arabs present in the terrorist group, then it may be as reported that they are using this conflict to weaken an enemy and to gain influence and power. Not exactly a happy thought.

I would agree with the pope that the most fruitful way would be to tackle causes of terror expecially misery, desperation and the emptiness of hearts. That can't be done by refusing to talk to people. Jaw, jaw, not war, war. In the present situation, it doesn't seem likely that any sort of dialogue can be opened in the immediate future.

Sunday 12th September 2004

This afternoon on CNN in the programme entitled Correspondent, there was the most fascinating discussion between two foreign correspondents exactly along the lines of what we have been discussing.i.e the role of the media in these sort of situations. Also the effect on the media representatives of filming or reporting the really horrific tasks which they have to report on. One of the correspondents was suggesting that when this occurred that the foreign correspondents should have access to counselling such as is given to Foreign Aid workers when they have witnessed the dreadful brutalities which people inflict on one another. There was also a discussion between two correspondents from the Russian press. I only came into this programme at the end of the discussion so would like to know what was said before hand.

I am off to go and see if I can find something on it in CNN.com

Regards

AR1

I'm sure that they 8could* do with counselling, as you suggest, AR1 . I'll be interested to hear what you find out.

Hi ZSF,

I went to the site and typed in Correspondent. Eventually found the inteview with the two Russian journalists which I had missed. Apparently I think it is appearing in TIME magazine this week.Also the interview with the two English journalists. It was not I who suggested counselling. It was what the journalists themselves suggested. That is what I found so interesting.



Also Ran1

Can you post a link, AR1?

Hi, Everyone,

I think the only way to cope with reporting on such events would be to switch off a part of your emotions completely. The danger in that is that you might switch off ALL emotion, and that the feelings may never be allowed to return for fear of falling apart.

I watched the children talking (one young boy, one young girl, and a teenage boy) and was struck by their apparent lack of distress. I do not know if they were sedated in some way, or whether they were just numbed by what they had experienced.

Like everyone who has children, of whatever age, I felt the pain and I wondered how on earth the parents of the children who survived, and those that live in the area, can persuade the children to return to school, any school. The "Mummy's here", Daddy's here", Gran etc. "don't worry" which we all say when children are distressed or nervous didn't help these poor souls, so how can they comfort them and give them the confidence and joy they once had?

I suppose the people, all over the world, who have experienced such enormous tragedies too, would be able to help. I doubt that trained counsellors could possibly do anything more than listen. There are some things that only experience can help.

I think it is also a lesson for those who say we should not be patriotic, nationalistic, tribal, call it what you will. I don't believe those deep rooted feelings will ever fade. What they did is wrong, and will gain them no support, but I wonder what we would be prepared to do, if our own country was threatened and taken over. I don't believe in war, but jaw jaw or appeasement just does not seem work with fanatics, they just take it as weakness.

Fanatics all over the world do not need to DO anything now, just threaten, and the world goes into a panic. How they must be laughing. It must be easy if you have sold your soul to the devil.

Websailor