Tag: war

War’s Value to the Politician, Lifelong Warmonger vs. a Father

Politicians think in terms of election cycles, getting elected the next time is their highest priority. Beyond this, it is either the money the can make along the way from lobbyists, or the power they hold while in office, or the lucrative post-political job they can get to pave their way to retirement.

Warmongers are a different breed. War offers an expediency towards things they value most, an elite status that protects them from the everyday, they dream of empire and destruction of everything in the way of that empire.

“This is the way the kind of king you’re talking about operates. He’ll take your sons and make soldiers of them—chariotry, cavalry, infantry, regimented in battalions and squadrons. He’ll put some to forced labor on his farms, plowing and harvesting, and others to making either weapons of war or chariots in which he can ride in luxury. He’ll put your daughters to work as beauticians and waitresses and cooks. He’ll conscript your best fields, vineyards, and orchards and hand them over to his special friends. He’ll tax your harvests and vintage to support his extensive bureaucracy. Your prize workers and best animals he’ll take for his own use. He’ll lay a tax on your flocks and you’ll end up no better than slaves. The day will come when you will cry in desperation because of this king you so much want for yourselves…” 1 Samuel 8 – God’s Warning via Samuel

Fathers think and act very differently as their heart is with the next generations. Fathers think on legacy, think of love and selflessness, and would rather deal with war themselves than let their kids deal with it. Fathers would be willing to look like a fool to take the focus off the object of their affection, their son or daughter. Fathers would wage war, as a very last resort, to give their ancestors and their community more freedom and liberty. With freedom their offspring are most likely to thrive in bringing innovative value to others in their community. Sharing the fruits of what they love to do to others who can trade or barter back the fruits of their own talents and gifts. This exchange is called an economy, an environment of cooperation and friendship!

Jeff Deist from the Mises Institute has a short article out today about war, where he states:

Why do seemingly endless military conflicts persist, despite lacking any constituency for their prosecution beyond the DC beltway? And why does US military strategy appear incoherent and counterproductive, when viewed through the lens of peace? Why can’t we do anything about this, no matter whom we elect and no matter how much war fatigue resides in the American public?

The answer is not found in a facile denunciation of the military industrial complex or war profiteers, though both are very serious problems. The answer lies in understanding how the DC War Party operates. Its goals are not ours. It is not democratic; the government is not “us.” It is not political; its architects are permanent fixtures who do not come and go with presidential administrations. It is not accountable; budgeting is nonexistent and gross failures only beget greater funding. It is above all not “economic” — it operates in an artificial “market,” one created and perpetuated by wars and interventions ordinary people don’t want. War socialism, or what former Congressman Barney Frank brilliantly termed “military Keynesianism,” has taken on a life of its own.

War taken to the edges of our world are accomplished by an elite who operate in a cocoon of their own making, insulated from their decisions, while in true sociopathic style, have zero empathy for those caught up in their unleashed hell on earth.

Ludwig von Mises experienced this first hand:

Ludwig von Mises saw peace as the key to any liberal economic program, and argued strenuously against the fallacy of war prosperity. Even early in his career, before his horrific experiences as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I, he recognized the critical distinction between economy and war: the former characterized by exchange and cooperation, the latter marked by the worst form of state intervention:

“Only one thing can conquer war — that liberal attitude which can see nothing in war but destruction and annihilation, and which can never wish to bring about a war, because it regards war as injurious even to the victors.”

The victors DO pay a cost even when they do in fact win the war. In the movie ‘The Patriot’ (2000) the fictional main actor Benjamin Martin says at the close of the movie about reflecting on what we have won and what we have lost. There is a cost to war:

.. the loss is not only economic, it is also cultural and moral. War, the ultimate rejection of reason as a means of navigating human society, reduces our capacity for compassion and makes us complacent about atrocities. Worst of all, it emboldens and strengthens the domestic state — encouraging us to accept absurdities like TSA theater and SWAT teams with leftover military vehicles operating in peaceful small towns.

The small town life of the 1950s, the 1910s or the regional societies of the 1840s and 1780s are no more. Culturally and morally the society we have today in the United States is bankrupt. With the government’s effective pacification of the church via 501C3 exemptions, even the Christian religion has next to zero influence in changing or reforming society. Only an underground non-official movement of Jesus followers could positively impact this empire like it did to the Roman Empire in the First Century.

Until then, the atrocities abroad come home to roost.

 While US troops remain mired throughout the Middle East, a subsurface political war heats up in the US. This cold civil war creates the kind of hyper-politicized society progressives once only dreamed of. Social media outlets encourage even the most ill-informed and ill-intentioned voices to spread hatred against those with differing views. Goodwill doesn’t translate, so fake bravado hidden behind anonymity or distance are the order of the day. Epithets like “racist,” fascist,” “Nazi” and worse become cheap currency in the new vocabulary of meaningless words. Dissenting voices lose jobs, reputations, and access to popular platforms. Mobs form to attack political opponents in restaurants and shops, shout down campus events, and threaten online disclosure of their perceived enemies’ personal information.

The estimate length of time the US Military expects to be in Afghanistan is the same as it has been for Germany and Japan .. OVER 50 YEARS!

Jeff Deist ends his article with a dire prediction:

The hawkishness of neoconservatives and the “democratic socialism” of progressives both lead in the same direction, toward economic destruction and war. If you think American society is polarized and prone to lashing out abroad now, what happens with a shrinking economy and 40% unemployment?

The end of the rope experience like present day Venezuela may very well come to the American Empire. Prepare yourself and your family appropriately with self defense training and skills, adjust economically, be strategic psychologically,  and most importantly, get right spiritually toward being a loving father or mother of your kids, your extended family and friends as well as others in society in the future. Be ready to be a light in the darkness.

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More On US Sanctions – Will This Knee-Jerk Reaction Lead toward USD/Empire Demise?

From Iceland (where it is much safer to say the truth), The Saker article “Sanctions, Sanctions, Sanctions – the Final Demise of the Dollar Hegemony?” by Peter Koenig takes on this trend from all angles and states the obvious:

They [sanctions] are made to punish countries, nations, that refuse to bend to a world dictatorship.

Even ZeroHedge said back ten days ago:

… the relative surge in China’s ‘petroyuan’ futures contract overnight could suggest a shift away from the petrodollar to avoid US sanctions on Iranian oil..

A picture of USD hegemony:

.. and a picture of a significant shift:

So what is Peter Koenig saying? Here are a few interesting clips:

… Looks like everybody accepts this new economic warfare as the new normal. Nobody objects. And the United Nations, the body created to maintain Peace, to protect our globe from other wars, to uphold human rights – this very body is silent – out of fear? Out of fear that it might be ‘sanctioned’ into oblivion by the dying empire? – Why cannot the vast majority of countries – often it is a ratio of 191 to 2 (Israel and the US) – reign-in the criminals?  ..

You see, sanctions ARE effectively the first strike in most every war, from Gulf War I and II back to WWII with both Germany and Japan. It is rare when sanctions do not result in war because of the stress it brings on a nation’s people that causes politicians to panic into “doing something”.

Now doing something might not mean specific military actions, but maybe just imprisoning some criminals (US’s CIA) that are in various countries:

What if Iran, Venezuela, Russia, China – and many more countries not ready to bow to the empire, would jail all those spies embedded in the US Embassies or camouflaged in these countries’ national (financial) institutions, acting as Fifth Columns, undermining their host countries’ national and economic policies? – Entire cities of new jails would have to be built to accommodate the empire’s army of criminals.

Interesting times ahead for sure. But when a bully empire operates on lies, the patience of these nations will be tested. What of the American people? Well, the last line of this paragraph shows what we have become:

Imagine Russia – more sanctions were just imposed for alleged and totally unproven (to the contrary: disproven) Russian poisoning of four UK citizens with the deadly nerve agent, Novichok – and for not admitting it. This is a total farce, a flagrant lie, that has become so ridiculous, most thinking people, even in the UK, just laugh about it. Yet, Trump and his minions in Europe and many parts of the world succumb to this lie – and out of fear of being sanctions, they also sanction Russia. What has the world become? – Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, would be proud for having taught the important lesson to the liars of the universe: “Let me control the media, and I will turn any nation into a herd of Pigs”. That’s what we have become – a herd of pigs.

Actually, I have known pigs, and they are even smarter than dogs. Suffice it to say, the American people in general are sheep .. stupid and aimless, scared to be without someone telling them what to do every day or every hour (daddy / mommy government and its media).

So if the American people are dumb, what about its leaders? Well, there is a history there .. and if you knew it all you would NEVER trust the US government again. Consider just one parallel, Venezuela = Chile:

… Venezuela is struggling to get out of this dilemma which has people suffering, by de-dollarizing her economy, partly through a newly created cryptocurrency, the Petro, based on Venezuela’s huge oil reserves and also through a new Bolivar – in the hope of putting the breaks on the spiraling bursts of inflation. This scenario reminds so much of Chile in 1973, when Henry Kissinger was Foreign Secretary (1973-1977), and inspired the CIA coup, by “disappearing” food and other goods from Chilean markets, killing legitimately elected President Allende, bringing Augusto Pinochet, a horrendous murderer and despot to power. The military dictatorship regime brought the death and disappearance of tens of thousands of people and lasted until 1990…

I think the CIA would love to get back into South America this way .. as they are getting back into Africa after too much attention has been drawn to its Middle East collusion with Israel, Saudi Arabia and UK with ISIS. Peter Koenig goes on to state the facts about Iran, North Korea and China and the inability for the US to ever abide by treaties it is involved with for any real length of time .. just ask the American Indians:

The bottom line is a rot that is the swamp:

… What is really transpiring is that Washington is isolating itself, that the one-polar world is moving towards a multipolar world, one that increasingly disregards and disrespects the United States, despises her bullying and warmongering – killing and shedding misery over hundreds of millions of people, most of them defenseless children, women and elderly, by direct military force or by proxy-led conflicts – Yemen is just one recent examples, causing endless human suffering to people who have never done any harm to their neighbors, let alone to Americans. Who could have any respect left for such a nation, called the United States of America, for the people behind such lying monsters? ..

Our national character is mud. Our legacy means once the empire starts dying there will be a piling on of other countries demanding revenge on this nation who by then will be led by our kids and grand-kids. We will not have followed Thomas Paine’s advice:

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When Will “the People” React to US War Crimes? – Where is the Anti-War Crowd?

 

CONFIRMED: laser-guided MK 82 bomb made by Lockheed Martin that killed 40 children while they were riding inside a school bus in northern Yemen over a week ago

So, is anyone upset by this? When the atrocities of drone strikes on funeral processions hit the news under the Obama administration, a very large sub-section of the anti-war movement didn’t even blink. Under Trump, I thought this might change, HOWEVER, my guess is that the anti-war Obama supporters have found out how powerful and profitable one can be  in this country as a neo-conservative. There is no war not to like, as their hero Hillary might say. The left’s anti-war effort evaporated and aligned with John McCain, Mike Pence and other war hawks. War is indeed the health of the state, and when trade is disrupted, soldiers are next. Get ready for the draft (of boys and girls) since the US is ill-prepared for a conflict of this size with its volunteer forces.

Actor John Carrey has released the following cartoon what brings this truth home:

John Carrey is referencing the US-Saudi coalition in Yemen responsible for dropping the 500-pound bomb on the bus as it made its way through a crowded market in Dahyan in Saada province on August 9th, which both the US State Department and the Saudis had defended as a “legitimate military operation”

Maybe, just maybe this will spark an honest assessment of the foreign policy of the American Empire as it wages its war of destabilization across the globe .. from its ally Israel waging war on Palestinians to its ally Saudi Arabia waging war on Yemen, it is an epic wave of violence that is birthed and enabled from an empire desperate to keep its grip on this world.

The sanctions against Russia, China, Iran are an economic first wave strike in a war to maintain total control, and anyone ignorant of history are oblivious to this fact. Japan in WWII reacted out of ECONOMIC desperation that was facilitated by the US that directly led to the NON-surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Ever since Lincoln, the US has loved getting “the other country” in firing the first shot so the US could act as the white knight in coming into the war.

The Bible – Ecclesiastes 1:9 – author Solomon:

“What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.”

“Turn! Turn! Turn!” by the Byrds

To everything – turn, turn, turn
There is a season – turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

To everything – turn, turn, turn
There is a season – turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones
A time to gather stones together

To everything – turn, turn, turn
There is a season – turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace
A time to refrain from embracing

To everything – turn, turn, turn
There is a season – turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it’s not too late!

Yet Another War Fought by Another Generation of Americans – For WHAT?

As a kid who grew up hearing the lyrics of “War” by Edwin Starr:

War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing ..

Oh, war, I despise
‘Cause it means destruction of innocent lives
War means tears to thousands of mothers eyes
When their sons go to fight
And lose their lives ..
.. and I still volunteered to join the US Navy in 1976 after the Vietnam War, thinking this country learned from that experience that was based on the lie of “Gulf of Tonkin” incident. Only later, after Gulf War II did I learn that not only Vietnam was based on a lie, but so too was the UN Korean conflict that the US joined, as well as the “surprise” (lie) attack on Pearl Harbor that had this country join in WWII .. as well as the sinking of the “civilian” (lie) ship Lusitania prompting the US to join in WWI. I knew that the Spanish-American War was based on a lie (USS Maine blown up in Havana, Cuba was NOT accomplished by the Spanish) .. but the further I go back the more I understand that truth is the first thing sacrificed with nation’s politicians consider war. So it is past time to evaluate the 17 year war in Afghanistan, as another generation of kids continue the fight there.
As a father, I was late in advising my own boys as to the nature of war, the American Empire and the way this country has been using new generations of our kids as cannon fodder through the decades going back several centuries. I am blessed that my kids were more wise than I was especially after Gulf War II was launched. I am hopeful that my writings today help their kids critically think through these things before they consider joining OR being drafted into the American Empire’s military.
Here is a veteran’s take ( excerpt and book ) on the Afghanistan War. The Moon of Alabama led me to this resource. I will use some of their dialog to reflect on this war in the context of all the other’s this nation has initiated since Moon of Alabama actually goes BEYOND what this book does and gets to the root of the issue.

The piece includes remarkably strong words about the strategic (in)abilities of U.S. politicians, high ranking officers and pundits:

On one matter there can be no argument: The policies that sent these men and women abroad, with their emphasis on military action and their visions of reordering nations and cultures, have not succeeded. It is beyond honest dispute that the wars did not achieve what their organizers promised, no matter the party in power or the generals in command. Astonishingly expensive, strategically incoherent, sold by a shifting slate of senior officers and politicians and editorial-page hawks, the wars have continued in varied forms and under different rationales each and every year since passenger jets struck the World Trade Center in 2001. They continue today without an end in sight, reauthorized in Pentagon budgets almost as if distant war is a presumed government action.

That description is right but it does not touche the underlying causes…

Underlying causes? Go on sir, set the all important context to what many writers state as mean fact without doing more homework:

… The main military outpost in the valley was build on a former sawmill. Chivers writes:

On a social level, it could not have been much worse. It was an unforced error of occupation, a set of foreign military bunkers built on the grounds of a sawmill and lumber yard formerly operated by Haji Mateen, a local timber baron…

What is missing here is WHY this sawmill was abandoned:

Ten years ago a piece by Elizabeth Rubin touched on this:

As the Afghans tell the story, from the moment the Americans arrived in 2001, the Pech Valley timber lords and warlords had their ear. Early on, they led the Americans to drop bombs on the mansion of their biggest rival — Haji Matin. The air strikes killed several members of his family, according to local residents, and the Americans arrested others and sent them to the prison at Bagram Air Base. The Pech Valley fighters working alongside the Americans then pillaged the mansion. And that was that. Haji Matin, already deeply religious, became ideological and joined with Abu Ikhlas, a local Arab linked to the foreign jihadis…

S**T .. so this effort in Afghanistan is built on past military mistakes (but not in their eyes because continuous war means missions and money .. but I digress)

The U.S. special forces lacked any knowledge of the local society. But even worse was that they lacked the curiosity to research and investigate the social terrain. They simply trusted their new ‘friend’, the smooth talking Pashtun timber baron, and called in jets to destroy his competitor’s sawmill and home. This started a local war of attrition which defeated the U.S. military. In 2010 the U.S. military, having achieved nothing, retreated from Korengal..

Does this not sounds like Vietnam? Fighting for the same hill time after time while trying to “save democracy”? This is as bad as Abraham Lincoln’s “save the Union” bulls**t .. and if you still think he is “honest”, you have some research to do. The “Union” post 1865 was nothing like pre-1861 .. and this country post 1787 (Constitution replaces the Article of Confederation) is nothing like pre-1787. In fact, post Revolutionary War politics kept much of the previous pre-1776 politics with just a flag change when it was all said and done. Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion found this out the hard way.

Back to Afghanistan, as Moon of Alabama concludes:

… Back to Chivers’ otherwise well written piece. He looks at the results two recent (and ongoing) U.S. wars:

The governments of Afghanistan and Iraq, each of which the United States spent hundreds of billions of dollars to build and support, are fragile, brutal and uncertain. The nations they struggle to rule harbor large contingents of irregular fighters and terrorists who have been hardened and made savvy, trained by the experience of fighting the American military machine.
…
Billions of dollars spent creating security partners also deputized pedophiles, torturers and thieves. National police or army units that the Pentagon proclaimed essential to their countries’ futures have disbanded. The Islamic State has sponsored or encouraged terrorist attacks across much of the world — exactly the species of crime the global “war on terror” was supposed to prevent.

The wars fail because they no reasonable strategic aim or achievable purpose. They are planned by incompetent people…

Incompetent people (generals, deep state and politicians) leading ignorant people (who believe themselves to be patriots who will reserve our freedoms) to death, brokenness (PTSD, etc.) and abuse (at the hands of the VA).

.. The U.S. population and its ‘leaders’ simply know too little about the world to prevail in an international military campaign. They lack curiosity. The origin of the Korengal failure is a good example for that.

U.S. wars are rackets, run on the back of lowly soldiers and foreign civil populations. They enriche few at the cost of everyone else.

Wars should not be ‘a presumed government action’, but the last resort to defend ones country…

Amen.

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Don’t Judge the Past Through the Lens of the Present – New Amsterdam to Run Island

Things are not always what they appear .. whether it be history or this world. The movie “Shooter” said it well:

So this is more of a lesson in how we approach both history as well as current events, and how we can relate the two and become wiser. If the goal is to protect your family and property, you might want to seek wisdom and in the long run find yourself becoming more humble.

This article from Medium helped me how to unpack history in the lens of THOSE times, and also helped me connect the dots from something I was aware of:

  1. The British taking New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664 (without a shot fired)
  2. Battle of Medway in 1667 (as seen best for visual learners in the movie (English version) “Admiral“, the story of then Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter

It seems that #1 above was not received well back in the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch Republic). This action helped to kick off the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1665 culminating in a decisive British defeat by the Dutch Navy (60 ships) and Marines (1500 men) in June 1667. Basically, the Dutch had this planned the year before but since negotiations for a peace treaty were in process, this might give the Dutch a better position at that table.

Dutch Republic

The Dutch Navy under nominal command of Willem Joseph van Ghent and Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, over several days bombarded and captured the town of Sheerness, sailed up the Thames estuary to Gravesend, then sailed into the River Medway to Chatham and Gillingham, where they engaged fortifications with cannon fire, burned or captured three capital ships and ten more ships of the line, and captured and towed away the flagship of the English fleet, HMS Royal Charles.

The context is this:

England and the Dutch Republic both wanted to establish dominance over shipping routes between Europe and the rest of the world. The Anglo-Dutch Wars were how they settled this disagreement.

Think of these conflicts as international trade disputes — in which each side had a big navy and wasn’t afraid to use it.

The Second Anglo-Dutch War lasted two years, from 1665 to 1667, with an estimated joint loss of 52 ships. Over 12,000 men lost their lives.

The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Breda, leaving Manhattan under English rule. In exchange, England conceded to the Dutch the South Pacific Island of Run.

That is it. The Dutch had the upper hand after England was humiliated, at it took the ISLAND of Run (instead of the harbor that would become New York City) located  on the western side of the Banda Islands which is a part of the Maluku Islands now part of Indonesia.

I take it that didn’t help. I too needed a visual aid:

In this view, you don’t see the island OR the chain of islands it is a part of. So the Dutch got a deal? Well … as a matter of fact, yes they did. Again, you need to get in the lens of 1667 .. not 2018 to get this one. Our default follows:

Humans are amazing at making snap decisions, at extrapolating the broad view from the briefest glimpse. Humans see a pattern emerge that reminds them of something else, and — bam — they know exactly what’s going on. And all without a single conscious thought.

It’s a talent that’s served us well in the past. With a single glance, we can draw innumerable conclusions about our environment. What a lovely day. Such a warm smile. Oh crap, a tiger!

It’s this same talent that allows us to look at the terms of the Treaty of Breda and say, Something’s fishy here. The Netherlands got a raw deal.

Yup, we might call them stupid. Knowing what I know, I don’t think is was them. You need to understand the context. There are a few facts you need to know with this story:

First, spice was the 17th Century’s driver for worldwide trade:

Today, we take spices for granted. Every kitchen has a spice rack, or a well-stocked pantry. … But spice prices weren’t so reasonable in the 17th century. In fact, there’s an old French saying that goes something like this: You can buy a serf’s freedom for a pound of pepper.

Let that sink in for a minute. You could buy a person’s way out of a lifetime of indentured servitude with an item we can grab at the supermarket for $12.98.

Spices typically grow best in warm, non-European locales, which means that a lot of time and effort was spent just getting spices to Europe — thereby driving up the price. Case in point: Marco Polo’s first overland journey to Asia took 24 years. Sure, sailing cut that time down considerably. But then you had to factor in problems like scurvy. If it took 50 men to crew ship properly, you’d hire 75. Chances were you’d lose a third of your crew to sickness and death along the way.

Second, Europe’s naval power’s primary interest in the Americas was not settlement and not the fur trade. The English and the Dutch was trying to figure out how to get around America. The possibility of a short route up a river and getting to the “Spice Islands” drove these explorers. The Dutch had lost interest in New Amsterdam as it had little value to them.

Third, the spice that grew on Run best was nutmeg .. and the value of nutmeg in 1667 when the treaty was signed was similar to the price of gold:

The economics of nutmeg

The third fact to know is that of all the high-demand, low-supply, overpriced spices, nutmeg was king. It was the most precious spice on earth from kingdom to kitchen.

I’m not knocking it. It’s the secret ingredient in my homemade pancakes. It does a stand-up job dusted over eggnog. I wouldn’t want to imagine pumpkin pie without it. In the 1660s, though, nutmeg ruled the world.

It was literally worth its weight in gold. Incidentally, I looked up the price of gold, and, at the time of this writing, it’s trading over $1,250 an ounce. That would make the average quarter-ounce nutmeg seed worth over $300

So the decision was made and so did the Dutch cash in on their choice? (Do note that the British only held on to New York City for about 100 years)

Holland went into the war already controlling most of the Banda Islands. All but Run, to be precise. By the end of the hostilities, the Dutch had an exclusive monopoly over the most expensive spice on the planet. A nutmeg-opoly, if you will. And they held onto it until 1810. (At which time, the British used the Napoleonic Wars as an opportunity to capture Run’s neighbor, Banda Neira. They then shipped nutmeg trees to tropical parts of the British Empire, such as modern day Sri Lanka, effectively killing the Dutch nutmeg-opoly.)

That’s 143 years of nutmeg domination.

Or, 34 years longer than England held onto New England. Not a great bargain for the English after all.

So there you have it. In context you know know more about the big deals of the 17th century BUT you also can look at history and research for yourself how to get into THEIR shoes and try to SEE what they saw BEFORE you pass judgement on THEIR decisions.

Does this help? Can you follow the process to unpack history for your advantage which helps you, your family and your friends start to figure out current affairs in your country as well as in the world. It is my hope that when you read of situations in other parts of the globe that you would take time to research their world, their context and their culture before you quickly come to a snap judgement based only on your own lens.

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