One of my all-time favourite movies, Magnolia, has a scene at the end where John C Reilly’s character asks us “What can we forgive?”
For different people I’m sure there would be different answers and completely different opinions on what they would see themselves as forgiving.
However it occurred to me that there are two big issues in the news currently that both involve forgiveness and while not directly related bear some resemblance in terms of how some would justify forgiveness.
One such case is the pleas from Australians to spare Bali 9 members Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran from the death penalty that has been handed down to them by the Indonesian government for the groups attempt to smuggle more than 8kg’s of heroin out of Indonesia.
The other issue is those teenagers and young men fleeing Australia to go off and join Islamic State militants, something that is a sure death sentence should they reach their destination.
When people speak of why Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran should have their lives spared despite knowing the risks and punishment when they committed their crime, is because of the belief that these men have been rehabilitated now, and that young people do silly things on occasion and should be given a second chance.
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran – Time is running out
For what it’s worth, I totally agree, I think Andrew and Myuran have clearly rehabilitated and could become valuable members of society again. I am also opposed to the death penalty and given the amount of drugs available in Indonesia it is clearly failing as a deterrent.
Although I’m not privy to the lobbying by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on the behalf of the families of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran and the Australian government, I think she should be commended for her efforts.
However where Julie Bishop and her government have not been so forgiving is young people heading off overseas to join ISIS.
As a nation I agree we need to be tough on terror and I am in no way trying to justify or make light of these kids actions. However it is worth remembering by not allowing them back into Australia we are all aware that this is as good as giving these kids a death sentence. That death sentence could come by having their head cut off for a propaganda video clip, blowing themselves up in a suicide bombing, or just killed in battle, any which way you cut it, these kids are not coming back in one piece.
Pick the odd one out… Jihadi Jake who only ended up blowing up himself and a truck
What some people seem to be saying is that those kids headed for Syria cannot be rehabilitated but those seeking to import huge quantities of heroin can.
Pardon me for saying that this is utter crap.
Both of these groups of people are made up of impressionable and disenfranchised youth that have been taken advantage of by those with their own agenda’s.
There are those that would rightly point out that those seeking to join ISIS are signing up to kill people as opposed to some young people trying to make a quick buck.
However it needs to be remembered that drugs also kill.
The most up to date records I could find of drug induced deaths from a reliable source showed that in the decade between 1991 and 2001 at total of 13,304 people died a drug induced death. That is an average of 1,330 a year or 25 people a week and all indications are that number has climbed substantially since then.
What Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were importing – death by overdose
I know what some are thinking, these were junkies, or people who died taking a calculated risk, however it is also worth remembering that these were just the drug induced deaths, there are no real figures for drug related deaths available. So these figures do not indicate the murders over drug deals gone bad, or the junkie that murders someone when he finds them at home after climbing in their window to nick their TV, nor does it include the fatalities on our roads due to drug consumption.
Over a similar period of time the death toll related to Islamic extremism in this country has been three.
So why is it that we appear to have a sense that there is no coming back for the kids fleeing to fight in Syria?
He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy…
If these kids can have their minds corrupted by a few video’s or a couple of websites and chat rooms than surely all the resources of this great country of ours can un-corrupt them. Is it really the case that we can train a dog to pick up our slippers but can’t educate a child that perhaps genocide is not a good thing to participate in?
It would appear that there are many within our nation that have complete faith in the Indonesian corrective services to rehabilitate inmates who showed no concern for others lives when committing their crimes, but yet have no faith in our corrective systems ability to rehabilitate at all.
I’m not suggesting that we should be softer on kiddie terrorists or that we should give the thumbs up to the execution of drug smugglers as I don’t think that at all.
What I am suggesting however is that maybe many out there have double standards when it comes to forgiveness.
It’s worth thinking about.
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These terrorist kiddies may have not managed to kill anyone here but they’re reeking havoc in other countries. How many innocent people in Syria and Iraq have they killed or are willing to kill?
Life long prison sentences are the least we can do to them. I’d prefer we saved some money and just put a bullet in them.
The kiddies may not be killing people, or failing at their attempts, but they are being used for recruitment propaganda which is being used to recruit some heavy duty terrorists…
I don’t think a bullet is the answer, and I don’t claim to have the answers, but I see a touch of hypocrisy in the nations judgement and selective forgiveness of misguided youth
Those drug deaths are mostly from prescription drugs and tobacco kills about 15,000 people a year. Which means while 13,000 people have died from drugs 300,000 have died from smoking in the same period.
Now to the hypocrisy over IS. We have defences forces all over the world running drives to recruit impressionable young men and women to go and murder other people in countries those young people have never heard of.
A recent report shows the US has slaughtered over 4 million muslims in the last 24 years but if muslims kill a few of each other it makes news and becomes something terrible.
I can’t stand the hypocrisy of the west anymore, our ignorance is shown daily – an example today is head of navy who used to torture refugees during Relex in 2001 and has been doing it again recently with great gusto including sending babies out to sea in orange vomit boxes to death or maybe survival.
He dares to wear a white ribbon condemning violence against women while his fucking navy is torturing kids and women, the youngest was 3 weeks old and the oldest was 98.
Another is the Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria, Assad has been bombing and blitzing it for 4 years and the world only notices when IS do the same thing.
Portugal is decriminalising all drugs and it has already seen a marked beneficial effect on society in holistic terms, not just the personal health safety outcomes for addicts.There has been no notable increase in drug usage, but a great drop in crime and poor health outcomes. The U.S Nixon era drug wars debacle has failed miserably, and seen criminals enriched and seriously weaponised , an entire crime strata of society (see Mexico) . What is also seen is a parallel & never ending wasteful spending on law enforcement and even more massive spending on the health budget.
President John F. Kennedy was a methamphetamine addict for his entire tenure and so later was Nancy Reagan (remember: “Just say No?”) The U.S is now moving towards decriminalisation, as they simply cannot afford to fight it and it has not only not seriously dented the crime bosses, it has made them even richer than the State. Both the drug addict and the State wasted their money chasing the Dragon, yet we see no reduction in drug use after 45 years of serious drug law enforcement, only an increase, if we place the date of serious drug crime law enforcement beginning in the U.S just after 1970.
Also, Marilyn, what recent report do you refer to in Para (3)