There have been some world events recently that I thought are worthy of discussion; for the sake of brevity, I thought I'd combine them.

1. Afghanistan. The big news has been how the Taliban gov't destroyed the Buddha statues at Bamiyan. They say that idol worship violates Islam, and that the only way to ensure the statues are not worshiped is to destroy them. There has been plenty of world backlash, including the gov't of Iran (known for fundmentalism) saying they went too far.

Well, how far is too far? Independent of the freedom of religion issue, does a person or group have the right to destroy that which is sacred to others? And how about the sanctity of religious belief? If my religion says I can't eat meat on Fridays during Lent (it does), I don't. But that doesn't affect anyone else. If my religion says I should destroy statues, does that make it OK? There seems to be a world consensus (sort of) that it's wrong to violate certain human rights. But this is different... there aren't any people being physically injured. To preserve cultural heritage is all well and good, but what if someone feels it goes against their religios beliefs?

2. Indonesia. The big news here is about how local Dyaks on Borneo killed many (don't remember the number) ethnic Madurese who had been resettled on Borneo.

Don't misunderstand me: I think the taking of human life is wrong. Killing is evil, period. But... doesn't some of the blame belong on the shoulders of the Indonesian gov't? If not for the ethnic resettlements, this wouldn't have happened. It was a time bomb waiting to go off. For one thing, ethnic groups in Indonesia have a history of not getting along. For another, the gov't made the mistake, the Dyaks claim, of assuming that just because there was more space on Borneo than Madura (an island off Java; home of the Madurese) that Borneo could handle the impact that the settlers would have. Space does not always equal sustainability; one has to consider the impact on the job market and the infrastructure.

I think the Indonesian gov't needs to rethink its stance on resettlement.

Do svidaniya,
Jannette ("What is this world coming to?")