How should we live in these challenging times? (3)

By Samueli

In Part II we discussed the state of the world economy, natural disasters and how religions have not really helped much in bringing solace to a confounded humanity.

We now move on to present day deeds of madness which is the hallmark of the period in which we stand!

Under this heading one can easily mention the ever growing immorality, mindless terrorism, together with frightening corruption and acquisitiveness; and these are just a few of what one can mention.

One example of present day immorality is evidenced by countries that allow same-sex couples to marry.

Here is the list as of 28 June 2014: Netherlands (2001); Belgium (2003); Spain (2005); Canada (2005); South Africa (2006); Norway (2009); Sweden (2009); Portugal (2010); Iceland (2010); Argentina (2010); Denmark (2012); Uruguay (2013); New Zealand (2013); France (2013); Brazil (2013); United Kingdom (2014)

Year that same-sex marriage was approved is in brackets.

On terrorism we can recount the following recent ones:

1. September 11, 2001: September 11 attacks in the United States – 2,998 killed.

1. October 12, 2002: Bali bombing in Indonesia – 202 killed in a tourist area  as deadliest act of terrorism in Indonesia.

1. September 4, 2004: Beslan school hostage crisis in Russia – 344 killed during a 3 day hostage taking of over 1000 people.

1. July 11, 2006: Mumbai train bombings in India – 207 killed by an Islamic terrorist group.

1. August 14, 2007: Yazidi communities’ bombings in Iraq – 796 killed. This is second only to the USA attacks.

1. Since the current insurgency started in 2009, Boko Haram in Nigeria has killed tens of thousands and displaced 2.3 million from their homes and was ranked as the world’s deadliest terror group by the Global Terrorism Index in 2015.

Regarding corruption: the list below from Transparency International Global Corruption Report 2004 speaks for itself. It shows the names of Presidents and the funds they embezzled in US Dollars.

 1. Mohamed Suharto    President of Indonesia (1967–1998)                        15 – 35 billion
 2. Ferdinand Marcos      President of the Philippines (1972–1986)               5–10 billion
 3. Mobutu Sese Seko    President of Zaire (1965–1997)                                   5 billion
 4. Sani Abacha                  President of Nigeria (1993–1998)                               2–5 billion
 5. Slobodan Milosevic   President of Serbia/Yugoslavia (1989–2000)          1 billion
 6. Jean-Claude Duvalier President of Haiti (1971–1986)                                    300–800 million
 7. Alberto Fujimori         President of Peru (1990–2000)                                    600 million
 8. Pavlo Lazarenko         Prime Minister of Ukraine (1996–1997)                   114–200 million
 9. Arnoldo Alemán         President of Nicaragua (1997–2002)                         100 million
10. Joseph Estrada           President of the Philippines (1998–2001)               78–80 million

In Part 4 we will consider whether all these present happenings had been foreseen before now.