I noticed that, too. Someone sent me the blurb about the murdered Yezidis and I did a bit more research and found out about the woman.
And you are right that killing 20 unarmed workers is bad, just as stoning to death one woman is bad. And you are right that whitewashing cultures is not of help to us.
The Kurds *are* badly oppressed, but that doesn't mean they are always right and "good".
Yes, they are oppressed and that is also relevant. I wouldn't dispute that. I am just bothered by the way we like to put white hats on people who are oppressed. There is an assignment of victimhood that I am uncomfortable with. And I feel like ignoring stuff like this dishonors them just as much as ignoring the oppression does.
And, to open another can of worms, the way we *use* the oppression for political or personal purposes bothers me too. This is a big one with the Kurds - their oppression has been one of our justifications for fighting Saddam Hussein, but only as long as it serves us, then suddenly they are on their own.
Another facet of this, to be fair, is that a lot of people got this news from NPRs Democracy Now, which only said that the Yezidis were taken from the bus and shot. That was end of story. Separated out from the Christians and shot. NPRs report made it sound like a killing motivated only by religious sentiments.
I realized this when yet another person posted the NPR snippet and I went to check the website and found that the "snippet" was the whole story on NPR. Perhaps that was all the info they had at the time.
So perhaps it isn't so much whitewashing as not having all the info.
Yes, I see this as partly related to the media image of the Kurds. It really demonstrates the need to search out information to verify what we read in the news
( ... )
The Violence Chicken & Eggblack_reaverApril 24 2007, 18:03:55 UTC
It is very difficult to trace a river of blood back to its source.
I black man mugged me. The black man was probably poor and oppressed. The black man comes from the shattered culture of slavery. Black men sold his ancestors into slavery for a war his ancestors started... Where do you draw the line?
The dialectic between the mugger and I is all I care to work with. On the one hand I benefit and have in a culture stacked against him. On the other there are a lot better ways to get what you want than by mugging the relatively innocent. He is responsible for his actions, though those heavily under the influence of drugs can hardly be called rational, but then again they got themselves into that mess.
Ultimately I have decided that if they want to mug me I can give as good as I get because the police sure haven’t been any help. That's my understanding of a peaceful warrior position. Violence is not an option, it's a last resort.
I had seen the story reported in various places by Pagan bloggers, but too noticed that the stoning was usually dropped.
The attempts to sanitize the issues to make them easier to digest is not helpful at all to our understanding of ourselves or of others. Thanks for your thoughtful response to this.
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And you are right that killing 20 unarmed workers is bad, just as stoning to death one woman is bad. And you are right that whitewashing cultures is not of help to us.
The Kurds *are* badly oppressed, but that doesn't mean they are always right and "good".
Reply
And, to open another can of worms, the way we *use* the oppression for political or personal purposes bothers me too. This is a big one with the Kurds - their oppression has been one of our justifications for fighting Saddam Hussein, but only as long as it serves us, then suddenly they are on their own.
Reply
I realized this when yet another person posted the NPR snippet and I went to check the website and found that the "snippet" was the whole story on NPR. Perhaps that was all the info they had at the time.
So perhaps it isn't so much whitewashing as not having all the info.
Reply
Reply
I black man mugged me. The black man was probably poor and oppressed. The black man comes from the shattered culture of slavery. Black men sold his ancestors into slavery for a war his ancestors started... Where do you draw the line?
The dialectic between the mugger and I is all I care to work with. On the one hand I benefit and have in a culture stacked against him. On the other there are a lot better ways to get what you want than by mugging the relatively innocent. He is responsible for his actions, though those heavily under the influence of drugs can hardly be called rational, but then again they got themselves into that mess.
Ultimately I have decided that if they want to mug me I can give as good as I get because the police sure haven’t been any help. That's my understanding of a peaceful warrior position. Violence is not an option, it's a last resort.
Reply
The attempts to sanitize the issues to make them easier to digest is not helpful at all to our understanding of ourselves or of others. Thanks for your thoughtful response to this.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
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