Title “A People’s Tale over Time”

In old times, societies existed in tribal scales, each controlling and protecting a specific parcel of land, exploiting its resources, living from its riches; they controlled its borders and forbade strangers from trespassing. 

Over time, environmental changes, unpredicted natural disasters and other factors would lead to scarcity in food, water supply and other resources in certain regions compelling its inhabitants to invade neighboring areas to seize their wealth, assets, materials and either killing or displacing the original population that did not comply with their will or rule. Consequently, territories expanded, and rulers emerged with titles like sheikh, prince, king, emperor or czar, reflecting the evolving leader status in time. Different people adhered to different deities hence imposed their beliefs, rituals and worship practices on others.

In our current golden age, I thought and wished for myself, that world leaders would unite under global democratic principles and treat all humans equally, eliminating all kind of discriminations between different peoples. Nevertheless, this so-called progress witnessed a rapid advancement in armament and proliferation of weapons. Unfortunately, power presently lays in possession of lethal weaponry, regardless if its ethical use.

Many questions arise around the massacres that plague many countries and around the distance, democratic countries take from their claimed principles:

– How can a country claim to be a democracy when a religion lies at the base of its constitution?

–  How can a human be superior to others because of the religion he adheres to or because of his religious background and beliefs?

– Does being right belong to the war victor?

– Should the loser in a war lose all his rights?

– Furthermore, should human rights under the provisions of international law play a role in the above questions, or should that remain an unapplied falsehood?

– How can the world most powerful countries advocating democracy, allow the rights of ‘’self-defense” to certain people while denying this very right to other people being expelled from their land?

– Why would major nations obstruct humanitarian aids to a pleading and bleeding country while air bridging armored vehicles and weapons to their opponent?

– How can any country deny another the right to reclaim the homes and lands belonging to its people forcibly displaced, while granting seizing rights to a usurper imported for a distant land?

– I fail to grasp how a presumably well-mannered and kind people can transform into a merciless being, committing atrocities and indiscriminately annihilating anything and everything in its path.

– Claiming that the Creator favored a specific people with a specific land is inaccurate. If God ever bestowed something to anyone, no force in the universe can take it away from him, let alone needing weapons to preserve it.

– The number of individuals eliminated by that people over the last century exceeds by far those historically lost in the battles that expelled indigenous populations from their lands.

The bottom line echoes a famous Arabic proverb: 

“He hit me and howled then rushed to cry foul.”