What a terrible week it has been for so many. Bali brings the terrorist attacks right to our downunder doorstep, into our homes and our hearts. No one - could not be affected by the pictures and stories coming from this tragedy - But we must remember this happens around the world - everyday to someone's loved ones.
Am I surprised it happened? No.
I am no expert on terrorism, but to me it is just like any act of violence, just on a bigger scale. I think it has something to do with all the violence I have seen on indigenous communities over the years and what I learnt from that, while trying to figure out how to stop it.
The answer is the same - We have to fix the cause- not the problem.
You must remember I had never had violence in my life before I went to Cherbourg (an indigenous community west of Brisbane) at age 41.
Steven Bond who became my Soul Mate, like so many others, was a violent young man when I first met him. Yet I was never injured by him in all the years I have known him. Threatened yes, on three occasions, where I did fear for my life.
Why was I not injured? when so many other are. I kept calm and in control and could talk to him, calm him down, find out what the cause was, help to fix the problem. He wasn't fighting me, he was fighting the system, his demons and his situation. The booze and years of living with a pattern of violence made him this way. Underneath was a very gentle soul, someone I would trust with my life.
The problems indigenous people are facing from the grog, comes from what has been done to them in the past. What we have done to them over 200 years. The violence, is a result of frustration and anger built up over many years. They have as Yahya once said about youth in Afghanistan they have the "fire in the belly"
Will Steven mind me saying all this- NO, he tells every young person he can, not to go down the path he has been, it isn't the answer. Solving the problems of unemployment, low self esteem, motivation, pride, seeing a future for themselves is.
I look at the world situation and realise that it is just the same-
only on a much bigger scale.
What is the answer? I have searched, researched, read and thought about this, ever since going to Cherbourg so many years ago. It's the reason I wrote the One Mind One Voice poem. It is about Cherbourg, it is about the World, it is about Us, all of Us. My message to the world.
Arsenio Rodriguez sent me an article, by Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, ret.
Dr. Robert M. Bowman directed all the "Star Wars" programs under presidents Ford and Carter and flew 101 combat missions in Vietnam. His Ph.D. is in Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering from Caltech. He is President of the Institute for Space and Security Studies and Presiding Archbishop of the United Catholic Church.
This article is the best I have read, published in 1998. I think it is a shame we were not taking notice of what he was saying back then. September 11 and Bali, may never have happened.
Jimmy Carter, Dr Bowman's, old boss, just days ago was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. I wonder how much, the fact he is so against attacking Iraq, had to do with his peace prize.
A clear message is being sent to the world I would say.
Here it is, right at this moment, One Mind One Voice.org is just five weeks old. Who would have thought that, Caitlin Jean and her Granma Kerry in Australia would be part of a global group which includes two Nobel Peace Prize winners.
I hope to be speaking to Arsenio and some of the group in a teleconference shortly. They are busy bedding down the Global Strategic Alliance for the New Humanity, One Mind One Voice. The world will soon hear more of what we are all about.
Where it all goes from here?, I don't know, but one thing for sure, like Dr Bowman.
I am for a different approach to what Bush, Blair and Howard are pushing for.
Give me the peacemakers anytime. Retaliation is not the answer. Any injured child, is one too many, they all feel the same pain. They all bleed the same blood, they all cry the same tears. Each mother feels the same loss.
One paragraph that stands out in the Bowman article that I agree with 150% By far the world's best anti-terrorist apparatus is Israel's. Measured in military terms, it has been phenomenally successful. Yet Israel still suffers more attacks than all other nations combined. If retaliation worked, Israelis would be the world's most secure people.
I have put the whole article on the website, find the time to read it, Dr Bowman is an expert.
Somehow - just like the indigenous situation -we have to fix the cause not the problem.
That's why I am happy to have my name with Nobel Peace Prize winners, we are One Mind One Voice
Kerry Bowden
Global Strategic Alliance for the New Humanity, One Mind One Voice.
PS: Caitlin say
"Send someone you know my
Huggy hug, beats sending a bomb any day."
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