Am I insane or is this?

There are times I read articles in newspapers and truly wonder am I insane? 

I remember a short story of a pickpocket describing himself as a ‘fingersmith’ and giving an account of his craft. Akin to silversmiths, blacksmiths etc he proposed his particular craft required no less hard practice or skill.  He needed to develop physical and mental abilities and even social skills to blend into crowds effectively. Skills such as being able to pinpoint a suitable victim were described with avid enthusiasm. You're almost convinced by his arguments and his total reframing of stealing as an art form of sorts. It almost takes a moral slap to remind yourself that he is talking about targeting the vulnerable, to deprive them of what is rightly theirs. Traumatising the innocent to earn his living and leaving scars that last long after the original crime has been forgotten by both the perpetrator and the courts (if they were ever convicted). The victims can feel isolated and foolish, robbed of their savings and pensions. Many look at the world around them with different eyes. Suspicious of all, trusting no one, even doubting their own capacity to cope in this new world of villainy.

Today's fingersmiths are multitalented and are everywhere. They run investor scams, telephone fraud, internet deception, abuse people etc and they have found their way into companies, governments, councils etc It seems perverse that our systems of justice seem laboriously expensive and are notoriously ineffectual. In the movies, the villain is tracked down by eager expert forensic investigators and Poirot-like detectives who remorselessly bring justice to bear. The truth is far from that reality. Murder cases take years and often go unsolved, assaults and rapes are often not pursued because witness statements/investigations are not actioned or recorded in a timely fashion. Even how things play out in the press can bear little or no relation to actual facts.  But that no longer seems to matter.

The 38-year-old suspect who stabbed a woman and poured acid on her face, we are informed, was not even questioned and instead of being arrested by the police he was taken to hospital for psychiatric examination.  The police found him in a disturbed state.  I can actually remember reading about the same character in the same newspaper attempting to murder the same woman in 2012. He hit the woman and stabbed his victim resulting in her losing an eye. On that occasion, he went on the run and spent five hours on a flagpole threatening to jump off. At the time he was actually still on bail pending proceedings for an earlier attack on a previous partner.

I remember the words of sympathy towards this particular individual as he perched on the flag. With increasingly important individuals in the community anxiously endeavouring to talk him down. Offering understanding and empathy to this poor misguided soul. To find that he has, six years later, stabbed the same woman and poured acid on her face is an insult to reason! Exactly how much abuse of women is to be perpetrated and accepted by the police, law and press.  Today's article depicts a dramatic picture of the poor fellow’s 2012 suicide attempt, clinging to the flagpole under the misleading heading ‘ acid attack suspect not fit to stand trial’. The article states that the victim is ‘ recovering well from stabs, burns’, oh well that’s okay then isn’t it? The article again places its sympathy squarely on the perpetrator and not on the victim. Are we to feel sorry for this man?  His victim had already lost an eye from his previous attack now she lies stabbed in hospital, her face douched in acid and yet somehow the perpetrator is carefully protected from even questioning, never mind arrest!

Am I mad or is this world becoming an art form in 'slight of hand’ and deception? With a choice of font size and the correct photo, they have turned the stabbed and acid burnt woman into a side character to the main story. The injustice of allowing the perpetrator to continue his rampage on the basis that, in the words of the police, he seemed disturbed.  Given that excuse won him sympathy and freedom before from the justice system the entirely sympathetic account in today's press does not bode well for this attack being treated any differently from the former.

Obviously, a man climbing a flagpole and threatening to jump off six years ago trumps a woman being stabbed, punched and having acid thrown in her face today.  Am I insane or is this?

Seeing the world as one community

Despite being brought up in a small village, Dungiven in the heart of the Sperrin mountains (in Northern Ireland), I was aware of a wide range of religions from my father. He was headmaster of the tiny secondary school and was an avid reader and educator. Thanks to him, a whole generation of children in that area knew the world map with an intensity that was unique. Not only were all children expected to know where Bolivia, Kenya, Finland etc but also the major seas and of course all the continents. In the early years of secondary school he got children to write the names of countries on a huge blank world map at the front of the classroom. Within a few more years the best students could draw their own world map and label countries and most capitals. He developed games to reinforce their knowledge and in that secluded isolated village, high in the Sperrins, it is delightful to think of so many youngsters having their minds opened to the world beyond their tiny village. In today's world of compulsory syllabuses, learning goals, lesson plans and regular testing no teacher has the freedom to make the choices my father did. I fear the educational system is poorer as a result. I like to think that there are a whole bunch of middle-aged ex-students of my father in Northern Ireland watching their TVs in amazement as Americans are stopped and asked about world geography and demonstrate a bewildering ignorance of such things.  These ex-student’s of my dad could grab a blank piece of paper and stun the interviewer with their insights on this planet of ours and the nations that live on it.

The second priority of my dad's education system was learning about all the major world religions. In Dungiven, where there were only two groups of Christians, Protestants and Catholics, viewing each other with considerable hostility, my father taught the pupils about Hinduism, Judaism, Buddism, the Muslim Faith etc. So the basic knowledge conveyed was an insight into both the world’s nations and the faiths that sustain them. I like to think in his own way he was giving all a broader vision literally, of the world they lived in and the forces that shape the people in it. He was not popular because of this wider vision. Ignorant fanaticism was infinitely more popular. As one furious farmer shouted, 

“Look you're trying to stay on the fence between Protestants and Catholics and there is no room on that fence!”

I like to think that, in fact, my father was not focused on just being impartial between two opposing camps in the community but had a vision of the whole world and the diversity of the creeds and nations to be explored.

Almost 37 years ago I was at university and encountered the Baha’i Faith. I met the Baha’i community during their yearly fast. I remember peering into a dimly lit university refractory to see a group of students sitting eating and laughing together. When I asked what was going on, someone said the university had kept the cafeteria open longer especially for the Baha’i youth as they were fasting and could only eat after sunset. It seemed bizarrely opposite to the hedonistic lifestyle most students usually adopted when free from parental control for the first time. It made me curious but, I asked no questions, just made a mental note to check them out sometime.

My next encounter with a Baha'i happened in a lab deep in the bowels of the physics department at university. A visitor was announced and Richard St Barbe Baker OBE was introduced.  This was the famous ‘Man of the Trees’, an organisation he founded that is found all over the world and is still in existence today, known as the International Tree Foundation.  He was ahead of his time (9 October 1889 – 9 June 1982) in that, even then, he knew the importance of trees to the planet, to our atmosphere and to the soil and ecosystem.  I was impressed that Baha’is  like him took such ethical stances concerning the environment.

My curiosity got the better of me and I began to talk to the Baha’i youth and attend their well attended international evenings which were known for serving food from all over the world. Everything I heard predisposed me towards this Faith. Radiant faces, the diversity of their backgrounds, their openhearted response to questions and discussion. This was no bigoted narrow set of beliefs but rather a calling to see the earth as one planet and mankind its citizens.  Its founder’s name was Bahá'u'lláh  and when I began to read his writings they had a huge impact on me.

“Possess a pure, kind and radiant heart that thine may be a sovereignty ancient, imperishable and everlasting.”

“Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch. Deal ye one with another with the utmost love and harmony, with friendliness and fellowship. He Who is the Daystar of Truth beareth Me witness! So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.”

The words seemed to reach in and open my heart to a new way of living, full of hope and endeavours.  I consulted my dad about this new religion, founded in 1844, and he bought me a book about Bahá'u'lláh called the King of Glory,  and had me inscribe on its front page the lines

“The truth will make you free.”

John 8:32

In this book Bahá’u'lláh's life of suffering, exile and imprisonment unfolded. Born in Iran, almost two hundred years ago, he became a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire and was sent to the prison city of Akka.  This is why the Baha’i World centre is found in Israel. His life story also demonstrated the power of goodness to prevail over fanaticism and hatred. The more I read  the more responsibility I felt for each member of this planet whatever their nation or religion.

If you are weary of deceit, falsehoods, disunity and division investigate a different path. Let the light of God’s words illuminate the way. There are no clergy in the Baha’i Faith, the equality of men and women is emphasised with refreshing intensity. In fact, Bahá’u'lláh stated if you cannot afford to educate all your children choose to educate the girl over the boy. Such is the importance of the role of mothers and educators of the next generation.

I like to think we were all meant to have a broader vision above our local realities. A view that lifts our heads from the small-minded pettiness of what we see around us. Our loyalties  to the entire human race must dominate every other allegiance. We all live on one planet and we must care for it and each other. Every action, every prayer should be for the betterment of the whole human race anything less does not beseem us.

“Let your vision be world embracing”.

Baha'i World Community

The bonds that build society not break it

It's been my pleasure meeting Libyan women on Malta. They’re, so far, universally nice, highly intelligent and focused. The young girls are most anxious to please their parents especially their fathers. Their thoughts are on education and progress rather than finding a boyfriend. All the ones studying at university, here in Malta, have unusual fathers. I discovered that all of this group have fathers who believe in the empowerment of women. Not only encouraging daughters to go on with their education but also to learn to drive and be independent supporting them with with financial and emotional support.

I began to think it was the self-selecting phenomenon. After all, if any of their fathers had disapproved and withdrawn their support either materially or emotionally none of them would've ended up lecturing at university in science and other subjects. But it speaks strongly of the role men can play in promoting the advancement of women. It is not something women alone can hope to achieve. I have become increasingly convinced that it is only when women come forward in every aspect of life and own the principle of equality that real progress can be made in our societies. Why is this so important? Well, because in many nations and cultures being born female constricts and constrains you. In China, where unknown numbers of girls were aborted, published statistics of the ratio between male/female births across huge geographical regions scream the deadly injustice of discrimination. This death toll is illuminated only in the macro analysis of populations and so flies under our emotional radar. It is the immediacy of suffering, the force of the single toddler lying face down and still on the beach dead that grips our hearts. Not the hundreds of thousands who suffer and die around the world. It is as if we are designed to care for those we confront on a one-to-one basis rather than larger numbers at a distance.

Perhaps this is an emotional survival tactic. In the tribe or family you need to be concerned about the health and well-being of those around you. Other tribes compete for resources and caring for them could jeopardise your own future. As nations formed, loyalties began to extend wider. The notion that the young and the old were our responsibility grew. Resources were set aside in these civilisations to cope with such needs. In time, such initiatives were not just aspects of a civilised nation they became almost what defined one. If the nation neglected the well-being of the vulnerable in their society it became critically and morally flawed. 

But the taking over of social care by institutions funded by governments had unexpected side-effects. It robbed families and communities of the one-to-one connection and sense of responsibility. If I pay my taxes that is enough. “I've done my bit” became the new moral maxim. Not everyone but many felt that community care was all that was needed. The vision of a well funded care system became the sought after goal. Every responsible nation’s aspirations was to provide such care efficiently and effectively. However modern isolation served to distance individuals everywhere. That subtle change in society blurred the line between being engaged in the well-being of others and a vague desire to meet their basic needs. A new Paradigm had emerged that satisfied consciences but not the heart. Governments urged the need for care in the community but what they actually meant was providing professional care to those still outside institutions. The tangible bonds between hearts that nurture and protect has gradually been eroded.

Economic necessity has meant workers must follow the jobs. Their movement fragments families. Long-distance relationships have become the order of the day not by choice but by necessity. But this is just a tip of the iceberg. The huge investment in entertainment but not education has meant we have allowed ourselves to become helpless bystanders in families, neighbourhoods and communities across the developed world. Distracted and removed from personal ties we have lost sight of  our responsibility to be of service to those around us.  In doing so we have also denied ourselves the nurturing of human spirit that service to others brings. Instead we have become followers in societies where the new God is consumption. Materialism believes that if our consumption can grow our economies and nations will thrive. Greed and competition have become the driving forces. With such a mindset there are many losers. Our environment, the living creatures with whom we share this planet, the ability to value the lives of ‘others’ all suffer. If selfish obsession is held up as the nation’s goal, what are we saying to our youth? In these fragmented communities, beset with forces unleashed upon them, wolves have indeed entered the pens. Drugs, sex, alcohol, gambling, gaming, food, fashion, fixation, fanaticism generate wealth from a growing captive customer base. The disenchantment of our youth is very real. Many fail to see anything of value in the society surrounding them.  It breeds hopelessness. 

Perversely, this very ability of young people to read their own reality is the hope for our future. The young have energy and are capable of transforming themselves in a short period of time. They can with their enthusiasm and attitude of learning leapfrog over our present day fumbling. But it has to begin with reconnecting at the neighbourhood level. It won't be easy, it will require a consistent effort to reach out when we have traditionally held back. It means opening up to bonds with neighbours, meaningful conversations, starting to visit each other and being comfortable in each other's presence once more. Focusing on building not breaking bonds at local levels. Creating safety nets for us all, the young, the old, the ill and the lonely. 

Once we accept we are one human race, on one planet not intellectually but with heart and soul, it necessitates caring for all those around us not just in words but deeds. It implies careful stewardship of this incredible planet. Our understanding of what it means to be truly united will reshape not just our inner reality but everything around us. Emboldening all with hope for a future world we cannot see just now. Inhabited by individuals, nobler than us. They will recognise the privilege to serve alongside others, to love and learn from each person they meet. The insurmountable problems facing this planet will melt away in the urgency of their united endeavours.