Daily Lessons from Life 22 February 2012 - 2 Tales to Comment on ...

No. 1 "Afghan protests flare for second day over Koran burning - AFP 22 February 2012

KABUL: Hundreds of Afghan demonstrators took to the streets of Kabul for a second day Wednesday to protest against the burning of copies of the Koran by NATO troops.

Black smoke from burning tyres rose above the Hod Khail neighbourhood along the Jalalabad road, a major artery in the city and close to a number of military bases for the US-led NATO force in Afghanistan.

Last April, 10 people were killed and dozens of others were injured during days of unrest unleashed by the burning of a Koran by American pastor Terry Jones in Florida.

Last month, US officials scrambled to condemn four US soldiers shown in an online video urinating on the bloodied corpses of three Taliban insurgents.

The video, including one of the soldiers saying "Have a great day, buddy", served as a reminder of previous abuses committed by US troops during the war."

AND

"Wednesday, Feb 22, 2012 AFP - Outrage over video of drivers blocking fire engine in China

BEIJING - A short film showing car drivers in Beijing refusing to give way to a fire engine has gone viral online and renewed concern over increasingly selfish behaviour patterns in fast-developing China.

The amateur video - filmed on Thursday in an area of Beijing where a noodle restaurant was on fire - has been viewed by hundreds of thousands of netizens and has been widely featured in newspapers and on television.

Online users have even posted videos filmed in Germany or Russia showing cars pulling over on roads and highways to make way for emergency vehicles, in a bid to illustrate what happens in other countries.

There has been much soul-searching in China about a perceived rise in selfish behaviour after footage from a security camera showing people ignoring a toddler lying in the road unconscious and bleeding shocked the country."

2 head-turners of news. The 1 in Afghan is not unexpected given that it involved elitely trained military personnel. For me, not matter how elite they are, their is a macho culture and not many are good thinking people. Though they may be very good at what they are trained to do - to kill the enemies! The other in a 5000-year old civilization which really has no real bearing on its present day citizenry. Another supposedly shocking behaivors that questioned the core of decent human behavior.

Lessons for me are:

1. miliatry personnel are normally not very rational folks. Leaving them to handle culturally sensitive issues is like asking the rapists to look after a bunch of defenseless ladies half-clad!;

2. selfish behaviors will develop when the environment in which people function in become tightly squeeze, small little 'right things' to do become rare or even frown upon, and people lost in their own tiny self. Education there must be. At the same time, no amount of educaiton and exhortation will change a person's mindset and hence his/her behaviors when there is no self-motivation and self-awareness that something ugly had happened and things need to change for the better. When there is NO self-motivation, maybe there need be outside motivational push to get people to change their behaviors that will put the greater good of the majority of people at risk. The 'negative' motivator if you like need to be exerted on the culprits. Shaming is one of the way while recreating the disaster so that the culprit personally experienced the dire consequence may be another way;

3. the Americans and the allied forces despite spending billions of dollars into Afganistan for so many years DID NOT succeed in changing the fixation on the holiness of Koran. That is cannot be burned or disrespected in any shape or form shows that religious fervour is the most powerful motivator. As for the drivers who blocked the fire engine in Beijing, what is the motivator? Nothing as strong as religion and hence CAN BE changed by force! :-)

May human being be less emotional and be more rational when trying to solve the world's ills.