Norway’s Dilemma

Mr. Breivik has issues with Muslims living in Europe, so he goes and kills more than 75 Norwegian mostly Caucasian teenagers. I am sure many of us fail to see the logic but this is not the subject matter here. His punishment is.

How many of us recall the sad story of the young Norwegian student Martine Vik Magnussen, who was raped and murdered by allegedly a spoilt son of a rich Middle Eastern billionaire in London in 2008? She was murdered in March 2008, and on the evening of 1^st December 2009, a large crowd gathered outside the Norwegian parliamentary building before marching to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Pray, what were their demands? They want to put pressure on government ministers to do more to ensure that the suspect is extradited from his native Middle East country to London for questioning. No surprises that all efforts have failed so far. His country’s government since then has offered to try the suspect at home. However, the parents of the victim –like most Norwegians- believed naively that the country’s brutal and corrupt legal system, may punish the suspect with death and felt that it would not offer real justice for their daughter. What they wanted was for the suspect to stand trial in Britain. Now how naïve can one be? The suspect will never be found guilty at home. Not with his father being who he is. Secondly, wouldn’t punishing this monster with death, be a lesson to other parasites who may rape and murder other helpless people? Is our moral compass so screwed up that we accept monsters killing our loved ones, yet we are so “politically correct” to shy away from teaching those brutal criminals a lesson? Since Magnussen’s murder, opinion polls in Norway have showed that about 1 in 4 Norwegians support the death penalty, with the highest support among Progress Party (FrP) voters where the support is at 51%. (See "Frp-velgere vil ha dødsstraff i Norge" (in Norwegian). Aftenposten/NTB. 30 October 2010. http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article3881217.ece.). Most probably Breivik will receive life imprisonment in a comfy Norwegian prison where he will enjoy amenities 90% of the world population dreams of having at their shabby homes. The Middle Eastern monster will remain at his village surrounded with heavy security and enjoy his daddy’s wealth and free soda pops, and the parents of Breivik’s victims will live with a terrible scar all their lives, and people of Norway will remain “politically correct”.

Othman's shirt

Ones who are history-minded, 1355 years ago a Damascus based self proclaimed governor named Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, vowing to avenge the murder of the third Islamic Caliph Othman ibn Affan, carried Othman's bloody shirt as a battle flag. Almost all historians agree that Mu'awiya hoped to make himself Caliph and never really aspired justice. Ever since, Arabs have described self-aggrandizement in the guise of vengeance as "waving the shirt of Othman."

It was evident from the parliamentary discussions in Lebanon between 5^th and 7^th July 2011 how some parties in Lebanon were using Rafiq Hariri’s “shirt” and the subsequent specialized UN court that was created to investigate the horrendous crime –irrespective of who is accused- as a mean to continue their grip on the government, instead of discussing how to kick start a country which was once a cultural lighthouse in the Middle East, and now is a board game called “Risk”.

I say, have some respect for the martyred. I say, let us not repeat the calamities of the past. I say what Harriri said himself; “No one is greater than the country”.

The end of the world as we know it

Budget cuts, austerity programs, multi trillion debts (Yes, Multi trillion), sovereign debt defaults, food shortage, price increases, civil unrests almost everywhere, famine again in East Africa, crime, natural and manmade disasters. It's not looking good, is it? In fact, maybe it’s better not to look at all.

But acting like an ostrich when facing danger is no longer an option. Maybe it is time that the 'silent majority' challenges some of our so-called leaders and demand that our political masters face their responsibilities by ensuring that they come together in order to preserve and improve the quality of the lives of the citizens of the world.

But right now, it looks like we're approaching one minute to midnight, and our leaders (such as they are) are clueless, like the proverbial rabbits in the headlights just waiting for the economic and social meltdown that looks increasingly likely to be coming our way.

Let's look at the evidences, Europe is in shambles. Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain all, to varying degrees, are looking down the barrel of a big gun and will have to accept much lower standards of living for their people for many years to come.

The UK, is facing a similar battle. In the US, lawmakers are busy fighting each other, rather than battling the 14 trillion budget deficit and taking care of the disadvantaged. And as for Japan, that one-time 'economic miracle’? Well, Japan was written off years ago.

How about the Middle East? Well, which one? The “poor” Middle East or the “rich” one? The “failed” revolutions in Egypt, and Tunisia or the civil rifts in Libya, Yemen and Syria? Either way you look, its not very promising. Slogans such as “The people want to topple the regime” are taking them nowhere least because the slogans themselves are misleading. What about the “rich” Middle East? Well, most are behaving like “filling stations” with cheap gas and expensive stop shops. Many countries in the Middle East are still involved in longstanding wars or conflicts, and political change may be coming but at considerable cost both in terms of human lives and personal sacrifice.

All in all, the picture is not very pretty. Furthermore, many feel that we are close to a tipping point - unless lawmakers around the world raise their game and show some leadership, they will lose control to extremists, fundamentalists, anarchists, opportunists and thugs. And then there really will be meltdown, as social unrest morphs into social uprising, characterized by class warfare and, eventually, the breakdown of law and order. Dramatic? Hyperbole? Possibly. But impossible? Not at all.

And how about our leaders? Well, therein lies the problem – what leaders?!.
The ones that dither, talk clichés, mired in sex scandals, feudalists, senile, mired with fatal illnesses and superiority complexes? You can also forget the leaders of China and Russia showing any kind of solidarity with the rest of the world, while those in the Middle East are either worried about their own survival (literally), or their gas stations. Where, then, is the leadership we so desperately need at this time ? ‘Cometh the hour, cometh the man', they say. Well, the hour is surely nigh, but that man (or woman) is unfortunately nowhere in sight.