[Oe List ...] Jaime Monday, October 20

[via OE]

Security in the Ageof Ebola
 
Batanes of the northern Philippines wakes up to rooster crowsfrom Formosa, but the neighboring folks cannot legally exchange chicken withoutthe consent of Manila and Taipei. Sovereign borders are a creation of the nation-states that folks ofBatanes ignored until Portugal and Spain, later China and Japan, made them payattention to it.  We know that Europeanimperial forces fought over territories in the Pacific in the 18th and 19thcenturies, leaving Spanish and German worldviews in Chamorro and Carolinian lifestyles.
 
For all the socialist bluster of Russia and the democraticaspirations of the United States, the reason the Kims are shooting at eachother across the 38th is because of the two Koreas alliances with theaforementioned entities.  With the USinheriting the mantle of British imperialism, it took the highroad of "Americanexceptionalism" and "manifest destiny", while taking advantageof the cheap labor and accessible resources of their good will's recipients.  
 
The former USSR had the good sense not to hang aroundNoKor.  The invisible hand behind SouthKorea and Japan heretofore have markings that read: USFK and USFJ.  Meanwhile, every one is taught to sing"Michael row your boat ashore."
 
American business already knows war is profitable, and withthe biggest military budget in the world, we are not about to give up conflictearnings.  NATO and SEATO were not set upso folks can hold hands around the table and sing Kumbaya!  We are no more interestedin protecting Kurds in Kudani than blasting the bejesus out of the IslamicState.
 
Fishermen in an atoll close to the Philippines alerted theirChinese counterparts that the "police are coming" and that they shouldmake themselves scarce.  There was neverany of "this atoll, this island is ours" when it came tofishing.  
 
While living in Majuro in the Marshall Islands, we had Taiwanesefishing boats dock to replenish provisions. Boats from Japan go "whaling" in Oceana - Tasmania to theAloha lands of the Pacific including Tahiti. Though engaged in catching the depleted resource of sharks and whale, dolphinthat swim with the tuna, the fisherman were never called to account for theirethical norms.  
 
Humankind rules over all earth creatures, with a socialstratification developed in the last 6K years rated according to race (paletop, dark bottom) and pedigreed schooling (Ha'vard and Harrow will do), on theone hand, and today, one's money-making ability in the nation-state of one'spatrimony, on the other.
 
Survival is, however, Mother Nature's prerogative, and inthe evolutionary process, a critical ingredient in the transmittal of geneticinformation are little creatures "at the edge of life" too small formicroscopes but may be filtered to be recognized and catalogued, particulatescalled viruses. Parasitical, theylive off their hosts; viruses by themselves are harmless until they start messingup with their hosts.
 
In the "civilized" understanding of how life issustained on Earth, human chutzpah takes precedence over all living organismsin the food chain.  Only when we have pandemicoccurrences of diseases are we reminded that our pre-eminence is more humbugthan innate skill.
 
Emergencies like the outbreak of viruses do not recognizenation-states.  Ebola from West Africa nowalarms the world with the little critters playing games with Texas Health Presbyterianand Carlos III in Spain.  Meanwhile, the tropicalvirus causing dengue wreaks havoc in China this year.  Two mysterious viruses are infecting Columbiaand Colorado girls.  Though down with theordinary sneeze in Dong Bei cold, itis still my immunity to a virus that determines my response to the added carbonin the air.
 
Genetic engineering, a cutting edge of our scientificendeavor, has been suggested to cause this viral proliferation, a consequenceof our messing up with Mother Nature's processes.  Regardless, viruses are not aberrations.  Our bodies are full of them, and our primaryposture to defend ourselves from it is more from the kneejerk response tothreat from the religion of fear rather than the science of health.
 
Immunity develops in healthy bodies that co-exist with germsand viruses.  Vaccines have short-termeffect as the adaptation process often results in stronger strain we aresupposed to be protected from.  No, thehuman specie needs to mutate so that it can be healthy enough to live withgerms and virus rather than be obsessed with secure boundaries, mostparticularly the imagined ones like those developed by nation-states, as if avirus and germ would stop just because there is a political line in place!
 
In a recent trip to North America, friends and kin alike spentmost of their time and resources in defense of their way of life, accent on"defense".  Ninety percent inthe expenditure vs. Ebola is combating fear. Our preoccupation with boundary security needs to mutate!  Fear constricts the mind!  Health is living sans fear.  In our hands, notin the fear of the Ebola, lies destiny!


j'aime la vie
pinoypanda2031 at aol.com

yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.wedgeblade.net/pipermail/oe-wedgeblade.net/attachments/20141017/9b18b8ac/attachment-0001.htm>