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In Perspective, Planet: A place I love in turmoil!

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I was saddened and horrified to read of what appears to be large scale executions of folk in Nigeria after an anti Western sect had attacked police stations and the police and army responded. At the end, it is claimed that, after the fighting had ended, over 1000 unarmed folk were simply picked up, even randomly, and executed in public with the officers showing their identity and not hiding their name tags. Of course, this film could be a forgery. It's been done before, but this attracted my attention and I am shaken by it. I can imagine some justification for killing "terrorists" who blow up police stations, but unarmed civilians is another matter. Maybe the inquiry that is supposed to occur will determine that the people massacred were in fact criminals. However, that remains to be seen.

Nigeria Police alleged killings_03.jpg


Nigeria Police alleged killings_02.jpg


Nigeria Police alleged killings_01.jpg

The footage, however, is worth looking at here.

As much as empathize with the Christian Ibo recently killed in Northern Nigeria by militants wanting to set up Sharia law for them too and as much as I dislike militant extremism of any brand of religion, it's hard to see this mass killing as being justified. I guess the police could argue that the men were not picked at random but were indeed terrorists who had changed into civilian clothes. Those with crutches could have been wounded in the last battle and responsible for atrocities themselves. Still, the scale is huge.

The only other explanation is that the people were indeed just residents picked at random as suggested in the Al Jazeera video. Perhaps this open public event was simply designed to utterly intimidate anyone in that area else who might contemplate doing the same thing, even if they were not guilty now!

Either way, we're not very advanced, now are we!

Asher
 

John Angulat

pro member
Sadly, Asher, there is no logical explanation for the evil and hurt humans inflict upon each other.
Witness Nazi germany, Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur, Bosnia, Kurds, the Congo, Sri Lanka and the senseless volence between Islamic sects...my fingers grow weary of typing and my heart grows heavier each day.
When will it end?
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Sadly, Asher, there is no logical explanation for the evil and hurt humans inflict upon each other.
Witness Nazi germany, Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur, Bosnia, Kurds, the Congo, Sri Lanka and the senseless volence between Islamic sects...my fingers grow weary of typing and my heart grows heavier each day.
When will it end?

John,

There was an instruction heard, "Shoot him in the chest not the head, I want his hat"...and there's no attempt to hide it all!
 

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Asher, I feel the pain. During my life so far, I have seen and felt that the human species has become
gradually de-sensitized to the misery, atrocities, suffering of others of our species. Of course, there are those that care, that feel the pain. However, the pain lasts for ever shorter periods of time, proportional to the nearness of the incident or the expediencies of the political wind.

It would appear that the tears have dried, the heart is empty and the mind has gone numb. The ears have gone deaf, the tongues have become mute and the divine feeling of mercy has been removed from this earth.

Regards.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
A rant against infectious hatred we seem to need to propagate!

Asher, I feel the pain. During my life so far, I have seen and felt that the human species has become
gradually de-sensitized to the misery, atrocities, suffering of others of our species. Of course, there are those that care, that feel the pain. However, the pain lasts for ever shorter periods of time, proportional to the nearness of the incident or the expediencies of the political wind.

It would appear that the tears have dried, the heart is empty and the mind has gone numb. The ears have gone deaf, the tongues have become mute and the divine feeling of mercy has been removed from this earth.

Regards.
Fahim,

That made me choke up and then I realized that things are not lost as we, (including but not limited to Muslims, Christians and Jews) representing such different poles, have the same shock, dismay and hurt. We cannot allow ourselves to be numb on not protest. We have to make sure that we, our children and their teachers inoculate the next generations against this.

I hope no one is offended by what I feel, but I see no way to heaven through just one gate! What father would allow only one entrance for his children to come to his mansion? So I see no reason for conversions. Just be good to others and listen to kind advice from your history. I see no superiority, just delusions festered by angry men. Then we must treasure each life. Isn't that something we might agree on? But it's not! The rub is, that others teach hatred and single paths to salvation and that's the monumental dilemma Fahim, that's the real issue we cannot cope with!

Despite all the history, most of the West thinks nothing but good of Crusades! No doubt kind people with open hearts were included, but thinking that's what went on requires a major removal of thousands of pages of history. Even now in the dawn of the 21st Century, we have not learned our lessons, neither we in the West nor the Muslim militants who have taken the same path.

In the time of the Spanish Inquisition, which by contrast with ~ 15 years of Hitler's 3rd Reich lasted 150 years, when folk were being tortured, portraits of Jesus were respectfully covered with a fine cloth so that he should be spared seeing what was done at his behest! What amazes me is that the lessons have not been learned. For both Islam and Christendom's conquests did, unfortunately, work equally well in spreading each creed and was justified by righteous intent to bring God to the unbelievers. But where has it gotten us? Hardly anyone has insight! Also there are widespread lies. Missionaries do indeed go to Afghanistan, Pakistan and other Islamic societies trying to convert the folks. Why totally escapes me! What blows my mind is that missionaries even go so far as to try to convert from one brand of Christianity to another! Imagine God likes one brand of "Believers in the Trinity" more than an other! How silly! Does God really rejoice that one is Lutheran or Roman Catholic and no longer Armenian Orthodox? Why does a piece of bread or dose of antibiotics have to have a brand of prayer and conversion agenda on the package? I point this out because it's my belief that this traditional Western behavior, is cut from the same cloth as the excesses of militant Islam which we, in the West, all naturally rail against and abhor.

So how do we escape this cultural conundrum? Maybe the Nigerian Police were also convinced they cannot escape while the militants live! So wiping out the enemies develops existential justification and it's own righteousness derived from that. So how do we break this cycle. Somehow, we have to teach respect for each man's path. That in itself seems far harder than any other challenge we have. We cannot bridge cultural divides that come from infectious delusions of superiority.
The reality is that with these teachings, we are going to continue to massacre those we can for a very long time to come. I do not have any illusions that we can do a lot to stop this in our own lifetimes.

Still, we can't give up. You may ask why this belongs in a photography forum? Why because we are interested in the planet as well as the pictures we take of it!

Asher
 

Bobby Deal

New member
It would seem that our species is sadly destined to remain barbaric for eternity. There is no logic to the unbending mind of the human being. Our unwillingness to accept difference and show tolerance to our fellow man when they do not see eye to eye.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
It would seem that our species is sadly destined to remain barbaric for eternity. There is no logic to the unbending mind of the human being. Our unwillingness to accept difference and show tolerance to our fellow man when they do not see eye to eye.

Bobby,

Imagine, people will go nuts about sexual indiscretions in movies making them classified so as to prevent children from being led astray. However, people being shot and killed are everyday entertainment fodder for our kids. This represents our hypocritical values. As orgasms could make people mad or destroy civilizations!

Asher
 

Darren Murray

New member
just another example of how this species is driving itself to extinction !!!

the only hope is that one day all the ppl of the world put down there prejudice,s greed and race and join together to make one nation that spans the world working together to end hunger,poverty etc
but what are the chances of that happening ?? id say nil :(

this is why im not religous
in my eyes religion causes more bloodshed and suffering than anything else you only have to look back in the history books to see this ...

allthough im not religous i respect other ppls beliefs and i live by the moto live and let live

but clearly to me the video show goverment sponsered murder plain and simple :(

sorry for my bad spelling
regards
darren
 
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