Crazyreal's Weblog

This is in reaction to an video saw on fora.tv about the question: should the burka be banned?

I am always extremely surprised when the attention is brought on the burka because it only concerns such a small number of women even in Muslim countries. When it comes up as the center of discussions as often as it does, I am always wondering what the objectives behind it are.

When the media and the governments are picking the burka as the center of their policy toward Muslims, what exactly are they expecting to create beside pointing fingers and showing to their population what to like or dislike “in our case it is mostly dislike” about Muslims?

The unseen consequences of these actions are that these discussions maintain Muslims in a circle of burka. Therefore whatever it is that Muslims women are going to do even if they have never thought of wearing the burka or nobody in their family had ever wore the veil just once, they will be seen solely as women who are submitted to their husbands and can not say a word at home unless their husbands give them the authorization. As for Muslim men, they would be seen as women oppressors who are forcing their women to wear the burka.

When the media and governments are acting like that, the only story people are hearing about Muslims is about the burka as if Muslim men were doing nothing else but thinking about how to force their wives and daughters to wear the burka.

It is dangerous for both Muslims and the non-Muslims. Indeed whenever a Muslim will meet a non Muslim, prior to his arrival at the meeting, chances are that the non Muslim will come at the meeting with a head full of what the media said about Muslims and the Muslim will arrive in the meeting thinking that surely, this guy must be thinking that I abused my wife, my sister or my mother by forcing them to wear the burka because he heard it on tv. This situation could create tensions among them when they don’t even know each other yet.

It is a meeting of two prejudices. They will rarely see something other than the prejudices they came with. I am not suggesting that they will never go beyond those but, we have to recognize that in most cases, people are not able to move away from the ideas that have been inserted by the media in their head unless the media and the government do the same kind of batching but in reverse which rarely occurs.

The question we should be asking is why is it that the government needs us to see the Muslim as people we ought to question the way they dress? Why should the government and the media put in our heads that we should monitor the dress code of some people? What purpose does it serve? Why is it that the people who are talking about the Muslims are often people who are not Muslim or Muslims who are not representatives of the majority of Muslims?

I just saw few minutes ago a fora.tv presentation by Phaedra-Ellis Lamkins who is the CEO of Green For All that was a very inspiring and engaging. It was both determinate and sensitive. It is very good that the green movement is now moving to installed itself in each class of the society.

Even though it was a matter that is affecting everybody’s life, it was way to often portrayed as something that was related only to the middle class and higher ones. We can only welcome the fact that it is also going into the circles of people who do not have the best opportunities around them. I think it shows that people see themselves as something more than the money that they receive or will receive.

If right at the beginning of their life or carrier, people see themselves as something more than money and the family they are going to built, the consequences will be that they will act as such in their everyday life. When they will be in a discussion whether it takes place at work or in any organization they belong to, the environment will not be ignored or dismissed. Indeed whatever are the positions and responsibilities they will hold, they will bring with them the notion of the environment.

Since everybody is aware of it and is concerned by it, the expectations about the environment will only grow in people mind. Therefore what green for all is doing is actually increasing not only the awareness of the environmental concerns but also is making sure that the actions the government takes, are not just limited to the middle class, upper middle class or rich people but that they reached everybody. The only way to make that happen is to include in the conversation the people who are living in the area that are the most vulnerable and where choices are extremely limited.

It should not be green just for people who can afford it but green for everyone. If we have only few people who are interested by the green movement, it will not be enough to motivate the government to act.

The more people are active participants to this movement, the more careful the companies are going to be before neglecting the environmental consequences of their projects. I am not suggesting that it will stop them from doing everything they can to go around it but at least they will find people in front of them who are ready to fight and do whatever it takes to reduce the pollution of their project. Usually these kinds of actions make a big difference.

At the end, I will say that it is a good thing that people see the environment as part of who they are. The more people will think that way, the more available they would be to take actions to not only protect it but to create the conditions that are going to make them enjoy it and live around it.

The more people are conscious of the relations between them and the environment, the more the companies and the government will be inclusive of the environmental concerns. Before implementing their projects, they will take that in consideration because even their employees will be aware of the consequences of their actions. When people are working for something they know in their heart is bad, they are not doing a good job. They do everything to leave the company.