Fearsome Nature
Nature is not to be meddled with lightly. But we do so, regardless. Human beings seem to have a love-hate affair with nature. We respect, admire and love all things natural and then do our damnedest to tame the natural to come around to resembling what human beings feel more comfortable with.Increasingly, the news is filled with accounts of tragedy when hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and monsoon rains disrupt lives and bring dreadfully unsettled conditions to large areas of the Globe. And, alas, much of what we humans do, going about our daily lives, happen to be responsible for nature gone awry. Or rebelling against us.
Who knew that Iran, a country with so much going against it - from nuclear proliferation denunciations, to civil unrest resulting in defiance of government and religious heads so long accustomed to inventing its own rules about what constitutes human entitlements, not confusing it with human rights abuses, and a lack of appreciation from some Liberal-Democratic countries - also struggles with the knowledge that it is earthquake-overdue?
Groaning under the weight of threats coming at the Islamic Republic of Iran, a peaceful, religious-minded and world-friendly theocracy, it is little wonder Iran's Supreme Leader and its president feel a trifle hard-pressed not to wiggle their admonitory fingers at the rest of the world. Talk about bad planning - and this cannot be blamed on any outside agency - Tehran sits directly over a 80 kilometre fault line.
You know, grinding tectonic plates? And the country's scientists just know that sooner or later and perhaps sooner than later, they're in for it again; another quake - a BIG ONE. So President Ahmadinejad is thinking hard about this one, and has decided well, they'll just pack up and leave. Establish another capital city. Go elsewhere; to Bam, perhaps or Zarand - no, perhaps not.
In any event, it's spring, and where spring brings the delightful advent of tulips and daffodils elsewhere in the world, in Iran it launches the yearly crackdown by morality police. Any females of the species caught wearing "unIslamic" dress, beware. You bring down upon yourself the wrath of Ayatollah Khamenei and of course, President Ahmadinejad, and oh yes, the Republican Guard too.
Worse: lewd behaviour too may be held responsible for natural disasters. For, proclaimed Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi, if women do not dress modestly they lead naturally to adultery, and this in turn naturally leads to nature's catastrophic earthquakes. "Many women who dress inappropriately ... cause youths to go astray, taint their chastity and incite extramarital sex in society, which increases earthquakes."
So beware, kindly take note and by all means take appropriate steps to forestall disaster. A timely message to the faithful.
Labels: Middle East, Religion, Security, Social-Cultural Deviations, That's Life
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, April 21, 2010
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