Category: 2015

On September 7, we, in the United States of America, will be celebrating Labor Day. The majority of countries in the world celebrate this event in early May. For us, it marks the end of summer. For the rest of the world it marks the beginning of spring. We are like that: different, unconventional, and arrogant? It is the same when the majority of countries on our planet go by the Metric System of distances, for instance, Meters and Kilometers, whereas we go by the Imperial System, i.e. Miles, which was used by the British and who then let go of it in the 70’s preferring to go Metric! Go figure! Also, the rest of the world goes by Centigrade temperatures. We go by Fahrenheit, which makes us, again, inconsistent with the rest of the world. As another example, most of the world goes by Grams and Kilograms, while we go by Pounds and Ounces! I still cannot get used to that one and always ask the nurses at my doctor’s offices to adjust the scale readings in order to get my weight in kilograms. The whole planet says Football; we decided to call this international game Soccer! Not only that, at one time we also wanted the Football Federation to change some of the rules of the game to suit us and to change the size of the field, which they refused to do! Ah, America!

On the other hand, the Brits and some of their previous colonies still drive on the left, which totally behooves me! We, and the rest of the world, drive on the right. Occasionally – very occasionally! – we do seem to walk in tandem with the rest of the world!

Diversion of an old brain being over, let’s go back to Labor Day: It is a day to celebrate and acknowledge the labor and laborers of the world. I appreciate our world’s doing this and pausing, even for a moment, to recognize that without the sweat, the efforts and the hard work of most labor in this world our fruits and vegetables would rot; there would be no construction and, therefore, no civilization as we know it; no factories and all the products they produce; no nothing really!

I once read about a very touching idea that a woman practices, and that may apply to all of us who have a home helper (some still say “maid,” which I hope they will refrain from using), especially a live-in one, a cleaning lady, or an au pair, or a nanny, the driver, the gardener etc. etc. and, other than giving them the day off when possible, she hands them a card, a little gift, chocolates or something while thanking them for the labors that they provide for her. Wouldn’t it be lovely if we all did that?

If I happen to be at the grocery store or at the mall that day, I wish the clerks and salespeople a Happy Labor Day; although they are working (and hopefully being paid double!) I can still acknowledge their efforts by saying something pleasant.

I do that to anyone I come across who is laboring for me, for you, for us, for society: nurses, teachers, house painters, plumbers, electricians, garbage collectors, postmen (and women) and on and on. The positive collective effect of these little acts of kindness and pleasant greetings is tremendous! In our turbulent, chaotic, ungrateful, warring and belligerent world they go a long way!

For me, there are other categories of Labor that, sadly, no one acknowledges on Labor Day; groups of under classes that are below the grid, unseen and unheard. Their miserable existence deserves as much acknowledgement as the regular hard-working laborers that we come across every day.

The majority of those laborers – and they are estimated to be between 20 and 36 million across the world, because there is no way of finding the correct count – are the modern-day slaves. And while it is a fact that humanity has historically associated slaves and slavery with Black people who were originally kidnapped from Africa and then bought, sold, trafficked and traded throughout the White Western World and its Colonies, the modern-day slaves could be from Any Place: kidnapped white girls from the US and Europe; Asians, Indians, East Europeans, Malaysians, Africans and from all ethnicities.

Amongst them are young girls and boys (some barely six for the American, European, Arab and other perverts who want to have sick perverted sex with that age group); they are teenagers and they are whatever young age the “market” demands for its sexual exploitation purposes. It is shameful! It is disgusting! It proves to me, once again, that we cannot call ourselves civilized while there are those amongst us who still indulge in this abhorrent behavior! It is infuriating!

There are other modern-day slaves also: they are the bought brides (catalogue brides, some call them) who end up mostly as house slaves and sex objects for their owners. They number in the thousands!

There are slave children kidnapped and sold for the extraction of their organs – mostly kidneys – and the siphoning off of their young rejuvenating blood Some Arabs and Israelis have indulged in these terrible, horrible crimes!

Then there are the bonded slave-laborers – apparently, the Gulf States are the most notorious exploiters of these hapless humans. The process for this is that there is a “coyote” (trafficker in humans) who could be a person, a few persons or shady companies that offer the indigent person a job in the Gulf (or elsewhere) for which they have to pay thousands of dollars. They spend Years – yes, Many Years – trying to pay off that bond, this after selling everything that they own in order to pay the initial fee, and before they make any earnings whatsoever. Some of them commit suicide, some die from the horrible accommodations and meager nourishment at which time their loved ones back home are told that their demise was an “accident!” Heart-wrenching stories!

Also, there are the Mules, those unfortunate – mainly young boys – who are terrorized by the drug lords and cartels into transferring drugs mainly across the Mexican-US border and the Canadian-US border and who end up dying, incarcerated, raped and/or become drug addicts themselves! Our insatiable appetite for recreational and other drugs causes this! Despicable!

Child soldiers (girls are about 20% of those) are another class of modern-day slavery. According to UNICEF and other world organizations there are about 300,000.00 of these children in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. What barbarism and savagery this is!

Lastly, there are two kinds of up-scale slave labor that I think of on Labor Day:

The first of those are the educated, well-off middle and upper class members of society who are in jobs where they KNOW – yes, KNOW! – that bad things (illegal, immoral, criminal) are happening and who do not say anything, or resign and leave, because their pay-check is more important to them than their morals, their conscience, and the “right thing to do.” Some of them can be found throughout our political system, in pharmaceutical companies, food corporations, and high-tech companies, mainstream media bureaus, in the medical and dental professions and on and on! These despicable slaves are the worst of the worst, for they were not kidnapped, bought, sold, terrorized or anything horrendous like that. To the contrary, it is they who have voluntarily and knowingly sold themselves and their souls! And, unlike the other slaves, they do have an exit option that they do not choose to exercise. Absolutely shameful!

The second kind are the “chilled” slaves: those educated, well off men and women who live in a seemingly civilized society, but where their government surveillance is so subversive, so terrifying, so draconian that they are scared stiff of participating in political or religious discussions or approaching any other subject that could/might/perhaps put them in any jeopardy with their rulers for fear that the proverbial “men in dark suits” i.e. the secret service blokes will come and whisk them off never to be heard from again! Fear maintains the cruel grip of their governments on these slaves-of-other-kinds. Warning: If we, in the US and the West, continue on the surveillance path we are on, we might, very soon, be living under those same chilling conditions.

I believe that the United States and Europe, both of whom built their wealth and civilizations on slave labor, could have contributed to ending some of this appalling modern-day slavery. However, and to the contrary, they have caused it to blossom and swell with the constant wars that are uprooting innocent populations and shaking the very social foundations through which these societies have maintained their existence. Moreover, our contemptible speeches regarding “immigrants” aside, we know that we cannot survive without the hard work they do for us in our Western countries, and for our corporations overseas. Justice demands that we, at the very least, treat them with dignity, compassion and pay them fair wages and refrain from threatening them with deportations and walls and idiotic solutions like these. And, unless all of us recognize that and speak out against it, then it will continue unabated. Meanwhile, since we cannot individually do much in this regard, we need to, at least, be aware that it is occurring. Moreover, we need to raise our collective voices and our support for all the struggles for justice, respect and freedom that are occurring on our planet: for the Palestinian people and the Israeli-enslaved human beings of Palestine and Gaza, for our Black brothers and sisters in the US still struggling against the mindset of a slave culture, for the immigrant populations fleeing wars and circumstances that the US and the Western World have created with their past, and still ongoing, colonialism, to the victims of rape and abuse, to the unjustly jailed and to any and all causes that are enslaving fellow humans.

We also need to teach our children, educate our relatives and neighbors and anyone we come across that the days of any form of slavery whatsoever are over, and that we begin with ourselves and with not following any political, social or religious ideology that turns us into slaves. We should not be slaves to our spouses, or our community, to any religion, or to any political leadership. Our freedom and emancipation from any form of slavery begins with each of us individually. It is a precious right that we should fight for and never compromise.

Enjoy your Labor Day Freedoms and “If you see something, say something!”* Otherwise, you are just another pathetic ignorant slave!

*Slogan borrowed from the US Department of Homeland Security. They were targeting Terrorism. I took the liberty of adjusting that to talking about Wrong-Doings!

It’s not a matter of being cavalier about Death or Dying. Not at all. But the more people I talk to, the more personal accounts I hear of and read, the more I am convinced that our human arrogance about the end of life is quite exasperating!

There are deeply religious people who accept Death & Dying, whether it is someone very young or someone very old with a practical recognition and sense of peace. They rationalize that stance by sincerely and genuinely believing that it is God’s Will which determines when and how we die. My mother-in-law was of this belief; a pious woman who felt that arguing with God as to why He chooses to take certain lives, and when to do so, is blasphemy. That in no way negates the fact that she was greatly saddened at a loss, especially when it was that of two granddaughters: one in her early teens, the other barely sixteen, who died as result of a horrific car accident. It was, simply, her acceptance of God’s Decision that gave her the fortitude with which to console her daughters, as well as all of us in the family, and to continue with her duties and life with a calm and peaceful demeanor.

Not so many others, who upon learning of the death of someone close would exhibit the traditional tearing of the hair, beating of the bosom, wailing and sobbing, and cursing their luck, their fate, that miserable sentence handed to them. They oftentimes also question God, and occasionally rail and curse at Him.

There are, of course, all the other emotions in between these two examples.

It used to be when I was a young adult (seems like eons ago!) that we studied philosophy during which existential issues like Death & Dying were discussed and debated. We also read books and dissertations by philosophers; poems and sayings that focused us on the “naturalness” of death as another – and the final – passage of life. They hardly do that anymore these days. It is not a subject people are comfortable discussing. Why not?

I also grew up in a society where children were exposed to death from very early on, especially in the little towns and villages. We were not shielded from it. When I was barely six years old and spending part of summer – as usual – in my grandparents’ home in Kousba, Northern Lebanon, my great grandmother, Tarrooz (one of the Arabic names for Therese, or, the Virgin Mary) passed away. She was in her nineties. That evening, all my cousins and I attended all the commotion as my grandfather, her son and a doctor, attended to her and as all the relatives and neighbors kept coming and going well into the night. The next day, she was transported on her bed to the adjacent Saydeh (Our Lady) Church. We were told to stay up on the balcony overlooking the church’s nave as the mourners arrived and took their places in the pews. Around Tarrooz’s bed were lit candles on candelabras and chairs in which sat the traditional hired women dressed top to toe in black wailing and praying loudly. Their role was to induce everyone to cry – especially her closest kin – as one of the means of healing. We, of course, had no idea of the solemnity of the occasion and were looking with wonder and, from time to time, giggling!! After the long Greek Orthodox ceremony, the casket was carried and the cortege was marched through the main village streets and up to the cemetery. We were allowed to walk for a while, but were taken back home before reaching the cemetery. It was an amazing experience for me. Later on, and during different summers, there was always a funeral or more in the village and I was either allowed to attend, or had to simply look at the passing cortege from our balcony and get to sprinkle the coffin with the traditional rose water and flower petals, which was very thrilling! Such occasions prepared me intellectually and philosophically for accepting death and learning how to deal with it later on in my life.

When a young person dies due to disease, an accident, suicide, overdose or any cause it is tragic and very disconcerting to everyone involved. It is, moreover, terribly heartbreaking when it is three-year-old Palestinian Ali, burnt to death by Israeli terrorists! That subject needs a blog of its own. Today I am talking about older people’s death. That is, anyone seventy and over.

Nowadays, it seems to me at least, that we are being made to feel almost ashamed of dying. The main reason for that is because most people hardly ever die of “natural” causes anymore. Our end of life is a passage that finds most of us either in a hospital, or in a hospice, often attached to breathing machines and tubes and whatnot. (Give me Quality of Life rather than Quantity of Years Any Time, Any Day!) And the general sayings after someone’s death are: He died fighting his (disease)! She lost her battle with (disease)! That makes us feel almost guilty about dying, for how could we lose? Battles are supposed to be won, not shamefully lost! (Incidentally, is it any wonder that we are a nation constantly on the war-path? Does everything have to be a “fight” or a “battle?” We “fight” for our marriages, “fight” for our jobs and all else, and on to “battling” disease and “fighting” for our lives! It is, indeed, a scary and worrisome uniquely American mindset!)

Anyway, I recall a relative calling to tell me that his mother, a woman I loved dearly, had passed away. She was well into her late eighties. “This is a tragedy!” He said. Now, I understand the emotions he might have been going through, however, someone dying at that age is by no means a tragedy, is it?! It is sad, for a loss always is, but it is certainly not a tragedy. What I’m trying to say is that we must maintain a realistic perspective on Death and Dying and stop using language and euphemisms that make it seem frightening, alien and unnatural.

There again though, this important passage of life has been commercialized by Big Pharma and Funeral Homes and Services.

It would be quite nice if when we are dying – as is bound to happen anytime – we would receive only palliative care so that we are not in any avoidable pain or distress. And it would be much more sensible, as well as ecologically preferable, to have a simple cardboard casket and the simplest send-off possible, after which all concerned would have a toast and a drink, and then carry on with their lives joyfully. No dressing in that awful black, no flowers (what a waste! Donating whatever one wants to a charity is so much more sensible), no pretense, no hypocrisy, no fanfare, preferably cremation, not burial. Question: Are funerals to honor the dead, or another opportunity for the family to display their grief, or merely another status symbol? In most cases, I think, they have become that last and distasteful option. Why? What for?

I have no statistics, but I have randomly asked many people: How often do you visit your grandparents, parents, or loved ones grave sites? Surprisingly, very few ever do, if at all. And, usually, these visits occur in the first year or two after the death and hardly ever after that. Does that mean they miss or love their dead person less? Not at all! It just goes to show that, these days especially, tombs and grave yards should become a thing of the past. One more needless “tradition” we need to shed. Traditions are precious, and they are every generation’s way of teaching the young about values whether they celebrate birth, marriage or death. Therefore, we should have children participate in these events and not shield them, for instance, from looking at a dead, or dying, person, touching them, kissing them or talking about them. However, traditions need to be constantly updated, especially in our fast-moving and changing times. Even the ultra-traditional Catholic Church now allows cremation! Impressive! Unfortunately, like all other traditions, as well as most institutions in our present twenty-first century, humanity has not yet re-calibrated itself to mesh with the incredible changes on all levels that have been taking place in our world.

Also, when we speak of the dead, please let us not put on a sad face (or, the perfunctory mask!) and feel that we have to say something regretful and cheerless. When my children and I talk about their father – as we often do – we laugh about some of his idiosyncrasies, we talk about him with love, respect, ease and fun; we remember his good and bad with fondness, not with a mournful stance. We do the same about my parents, my brother, and my aunts who have all died.

Moreover, if we really want to honor people, let us do so while they are alive and not after they die, for it is meaningless then.

And to all people, but, especially, to the arrogant amongst us who are going to die just as we all are, Omar Khayyam said it well:

‘Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days

Where Destiny and Men for Pieces plays:

Hither and Thither moves, and mates, and slays.

And one by one back in the Closet lays.

And Mark Twain reminded us of a very profound thought that we should all heed:

“All say, ‘How hard it is that we have to die’ – a strange complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.”

And, really, doesn’t it need much, much more Courage to Live one’s life fully than it is to simply Die? Think about it!