9/11

Last Thursday, GL had asked me to join her as part of the Soroptimist delegation at the Perdana Peace Conference, at PWTC. I had a thousand and one things to do (and more) but what the heck. It sounded interesting, so off i went without any preconception of what it was about. I didn't know anything about it at all except that Tun Dr. Mahathir was giving a keynote address and that would be interesting at the least.

We arrived on time and the hall was already filling up. Luckily we managed to get a couple of seats - though i did politely ask a sour looking gentleman, i mean, man, whether the two seats were taken and he looked at me as if i had asked if i could take his wallet. GL and i sat down and commented loudly about how could we expect peace on earth if people can't even smile at each other. Anyway, in a few minutes there was standing room only. When Puan Sri Gnanalingam, our SIROM President, arrived, there were no more seats. Except for one, next to the unsmiling man. She asked him if it was taken and he said yes so she retreated to the back of the hall. Forty minutes later, she came over and asked if she could sit there until the person arrived. He suddenly got up, grabbed his bag and stormed out of the hall.

Very bizzare.

Well, at least Puan Sri got her seat!

But i digress.

Tun Dr. Mahathir delivered his speech interspersed with a very strong video on the war in Iraq. There were dead women and children, crying children etc. Yes, many in the audience shed a tear or two. I didn't. I don't know why i didn't. I can cry over the smallest act of kindness but i wasn't moved by the atrocities. I felt that the video was overly biased against the Americans, although their actions were obviously very, very, very wrong - the massacres, the killing of innocent civilians etc. My CNN lobotomised brain automatically thought - what about the innocent people who died in 9/11? What about Iraq invading Kuwait? War kills. Simple. Kills Americans, kills Iraqis and anyone else at the wrong place at the wrong time. Tun Dr. Mahathir was advocating 'Criminalising War' and that by the US and UK invading Iraq illegally - because it wasn't sanctioned by the United Nations, effectively Bush and Blair (hmm i hadn't noticed the alliteration before) should be war criminals.

Dr Denis Halliday and Mr Hans-Christof Von Sponeck then followed with their speeches - they were both former UN Humanitarian Coordinators in Iraq at the Assistant Secretary-General level, and both argued strongly against the US hegemony over the UN. Dr Halliday stated the obvious - Killing is unjust. There can be no just war. I did learn a few things - that the US contributes 22% of the annual budget for the UN, which is less than USD400 million. And that it costs the US over USD5 BILLION per month to keep troops in Iraq. I left the conference with some extra knowledge but being a staunch 'make love not war' person anyway, I didn't feel particularly outraged.

Then coincidentally, on Sunday, i received an email about a documentary on 9/11. I was directed to a website called Loosechange911.com, where there is a video documentary about the whole 9/11 incident which proves beyond a doubt that there are questions which need to be answered. The details would take too long to list here. See the video yourself and see what you think.

It has changed my view of 9/11 forever.

As long as there are people who are above the law - unanswerable to anyone, the world will never be at peace. If Bush, the loudest proponent of war, remains in power - he is there because of the votes of the American people. America - wake up! I personally believe that Bush is there because he sold the soul of America. In order to get the significant Christian vote to stay in power, he agreed to the 'constitutional amendment to protect marriage'.

Maybe to the Christians in America, it's ok to go kill non-Christians. Maybe to the Christians in America, it's even a good thing to kill the 'heathens'. So in exchange for the right to kill, Bush agreed to kill gay marriages. How do gay marriages threaten the institution of marriage? What IS marriage? While celebrities can go around pro-creating at the drop of a hat without getting married, and people like Britney Spears could get married overnight in Vegas and regret the decision the next day, a man who loves another man can never get married because it is viewed as being against the law. What law? Something coming from love is seen as sick and illegal while something else coming causing death and torture is considered acceptable regardless of the cost. What kind of sick world is this?

Sorry - just needed to rant.