Simon: “As long as religious leaders can point out that other countries have more of what the people need to sustain life they will be able to manipulate their politicians and radicalize individuals to fight and bomb and attack the west. It is in our interest to make sure all our neighbours have enough to sustain life, only then will we be safe.”
As is true of the skirmish-prone middle-Eastern countries, as well as tribal-warfare-plagued countries such as the Sudan in Africa, things would be so much better for them if they would just stop with all this ridiculousl fighting.
Now, I know that sounds extremely simplistic and perhaps somewhat infantile, but when you think of it, it is physically within the power of such countries to make things so much better for their own citizens. But, of course, the seemingly core defects of human character expressed in such banal warfare – i.e., pride, greed, fear – have a continually ever-present ascendancy in human relations.
However, when all is said and done, all these refugee crisis situations – as well as the famine situations – are really all preventable occurrences – just like, say, lung cancer from smoking or traffic deaths from drunk driving or heart failure from extreme obesity are all . . . well . . . preventable occurrences. My point is that if all this totally illogical and self-defeatist behaviour was removed from the picture in these hot-spot countries – namely Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan, Yemen, etc. – then they themselves could focus on having enough to sustain life, and subsequently would not be in need of accommodation for their current refugee crises.
If I were to approach someone on the street asking for some change to buy a bowl of soup for lunch and I was acutely reeking of alcohol, then that person could rightly note that were I to properly deal with my alcoholism, then I wouldn’t need to be requesting the change required to eat in the very first place!
So, if the so-called leaders of these countries would simply do their jobs and work in the best interests of their own citizens – including the fostering of economic prosperity (which, remember, is physically within their locus of control) – then, technically speaking, the number of refugees would amount to a big, fat ZERO.
