IMAGINE

John Lennon wrote the song "Imagine" back in 1971. The opening lyrics were:

Imagine there's no heaven

It's easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today

The following lines of interest are;

Imagine there's no countries

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace

Imagine no possessions

No need for greed or hunger

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world

And the world will live as one

Credit: John Lennon

Human animals are a troublesome and warlike race. In some regards, we are going forward, in others - backward. Just reading this morning's newspaper (yes, I still read an actual daily paper) the following are some of the less notable headlines that popped out:

Al-Qaida Fighters Helping Taliban in Afghanistan as US troops leave. 

Canada Begins Airlifting Out Afganistan Translators Threatened With Death By Taliban.

Inquiry Ordered Into Rape And Murder of 9-Year-Old Girl in India.

By Avoiding Oil, Investors Setting Stage For Higher Inflation.

New Deviant COVID on the Rise.

Is There Another Mining Disaster In The Making?

COVID Vaccination Holdouts On The Rise.

44-Year-Old Cyclist Killed in Hit And Run While On Charity Ride.

Hurricane Season May Be Worst Ever.

This is just one section of today's paper. There are many more but I think you get the picture.

LGBTQ Rights:

On the plus side of the last 50 years, great strides have been made in protecting the rights of LGBTQ humans. Homosexuality is no longer a crime in many countries but it still carries the death penalty in 13 countries including Iran, Brunei, Yemen, Mauritania, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, The United Arab Emirates, and Pakistan. What is the common denominator in these countries? I'll leave that for you to ponder on.

Most notable in the above list is Qatar where the 2022 FIFA World Cup is being held. In spite of the death penalty for gays still being in force in Qatar, that country's government insists LBGTQ people are welcome there. Really?

There are 69 countries that have laws that criminalize homosexuality including the previous 13. Nearly half of these are in Africa. Major trading partners where LGBTQ folk are not really tolerated, include China where being gay is regarded as a mental disorder.

It was just in 1967 that same-sex sexual activity was decriminalized in Canada. Bill C-150 was passed in 1969 by then Justice Minister and Attorney General of Canada, Pierre Trudeau who went on to become Prime Minister. Denmark was the first country to legalize same-sex unions. They provided almost the same rights as marriages with a Partnerships Act in 1989. Even though the law stopped short of calling same-sex unions marriages, couples could not be married in the Danish state church or adopt a child, the law was viewed as an important human rights issue at the time.

Murder:

Then there is the penalty for murder. A total of 53 countries still have the death sentence according to a study carried out in 2020. They include such notable countries as the USA, Japan, Singapore, and China. The death sentence methodologies including hanging, gas chamber, electric chair, firing squad, lethal injection, and death by hard labor (North Korea). In many of these countries, mental illness is not considered a reasonable defense in murder cases. An interesting sidebar to the issue of the death penalty is; many of the people FOR the death penalty are AGAINST women's rights to abortion on demand. Therefore, protect the fetus but kill the adult.

Human Children:

Children's rights are a big issue in western countries, less so in many less enlightened countries. The latter includes the usual suspects; Afghanistan, South Sudan, The (so-called) Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Somalia, The Central African Republic, The Republic of Iraq, Pakistan, The Republic of The Sudan, The Syrian Arab Republic and the miserably run, The Democratic People's Republic of North Korea. Interestingly, these countries are also the worst places to be a woman or to be a disabled person. It's also interesting to note that the many countries run by gangsters and thugs, the longer their country name and the more brutal the leaders are.

Case in point: The Democratic People's Republic of North Korea.

Corruption, Greed and Hunger For Power:

Corruption, greed, and the hunger for power are three major issues in keeping the human race from achieving enlightenment. While it is out of control in many non-industrial countries it is still a factor in the western world as well. The corruption scale runs from the least corrupt countries; Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, Singapore, and Switzerland that are regarded as the six least corrupt nations and scoring in the nineties out of 100. At the other end of the scale is Somalia and South Sudan at the bottom of the pile scoring a miserable 12 apiece.

An interesting note; the United States scores at 67, sitting behind Bhutan, The United Arab Emirates, and Estonia.

Wealth and Poverty:

There is a growing disparity between the haves and the have-nots, the rich and the poor. There are a growing number of billionaires but an even faster growing number of poverty-stricken humans, thanks to the global pandemic. The extremes can be seen here. At the top of the pile is Luxembourg with a median annual household income of $52,493 down to Togo at $571. Will the poor ever hope to close the gap with the wealthy? As long as there is greed, lust for power, and corruption not to mention bigotry and discrimination, never.

Bigotry, Hatred and Discrimination:

This exists in all cultures and all countries. Even though every human on this globe is genetically 99.9% related, we still continue to hate and discriminate against each other based on skin color, so-called castes, religious beliefs and, tribal origins; many of these going back thousands of years. Why cannot humans get it through their thick heads that we are all of the same family?

Mental Illness and Disabled:

It was not so long ago that people with mental illnesses and disabilities around the world were locked up in insane asylums where they were used, abused, and experimented on. Asylums began being closed down in the USA in the 1980s with the last facility being shuttered in 2008. In the UK, asylums began being closed in the 1960s. Statistics are hard to find, but to date, 130 countries have signed on to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This means there are 65 countries still treating people with disabilities and mental illnesses as pariahs.

And finally.

Weapons of War and Mass Destruction:

Some of the most brilliant minds on the planet have worked very hard to ensure their own demise. The current spending on weapons of war, murder, and destruction amounted to $2 trillion in 2020. (According to Stockholm, 26 April 2021) Total global military expenditures increased by $1,981 billion last year, an increase of 2.6 percent in real terms from 2019, according to new data published today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Check out this website and weep.

Imagine if that money were used to improve the lives of all inhabitants of planet earth? Imagine!

Then, imagine what the human race could achieve if we overcame all these factors that do nothing to advance medicine, science, care of the environment, care of children (our most important resource), the environment, the future of the human race, preservation of the remaining animal species and us.

IMAGINE!

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