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The Worries of the World

Two converging storm fronts seem to have hit Bangladesh's pressurised environment last week. One is clearly occasioned by rising food prices. Another is composed of Islamist and democratic protest around a new law empowering women.

The environment in Bangladesh is already highly pressurised because of the political problems there, and an 'anti-corruption drive' inspired by multilateral organisations that cannot get rich states to adhere to the standards they are imposing. This latter problem is largely due to the effect anti-corruption laws would have on the defence industry.

Protests have emerged over both issues that have begun to tear at civil society and order on the streets. If you add in a potential climate change because of farming practices and water problems, Bangladesh is evidence, if it be needed, of some of the darker potentials of the world, as the good ladies and gentlemen at Shariah Finance Watch have recently pointed out. It was their site that alerted me to this story and I should tip my hat to them.

It's wrong to link two issues without explaining them, but I cannot help think this Sunday of the islamist bombs that have today gone off in Catholic churches in the Philippines, where communities of all faiths and none are soon to face food shortages too.

The stories have been reported but neglected by the media here, or treated separately. Unfortunately, I think that more and more of this sort of thing will make its way to us, and then we will begin to see it on our streets too.

By degrees, the problems of resource depletion, climate change, islamist violence, and demographic imbalance are lapping at our feet and no amount of attitudinizing or liberal spinning is going to make them go away.

I'm gibbing at the descent pattern I thought us locked into months ago, and wish that we could go back and change things. As my fiancee has reminded me with a quote from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, however,

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it


Comments

Anonymous said…
Thanks for the kudos re: Shariah FinanceWatch-like you, we are working hard to stop the destruction of the west, Democracy and a life of freedom from shariah.
Allyson Rt
12:45 pm
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