The Shrinking World

Sidetrack: e.e. cummings rocks. "The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." How can you not appreciate a guy like that?

The random violence yesterday in Amman gave me pause.  Jordan is such a wonderful country – you get so into – so deep into – the people and the sounds of life here; all the while, if you go out into the desert, there's an incredible sense of escapism, with ruins and sand and a blanket of a billion stars thrown above.. and yet, I think this one random act of lunacy will depress the tourist numbers in the near future...

I read the Jordan Times today, over a breakfast of lamb kebabs and olives in a quiet downtown cafe.

Much of the world is in shit, isn't it?  If you had a map, and if you lit spots in the world where there's violence, I think the round ball of mud would light up like a jack-o-lantern.

• In Lebanon, there is a cease-fire, but Israeli blockade escalates a humanitarian crisis (although it also prevents Hizbollah from re-arming)
• In Burundi, a rebel group threw 3 bombs into a nightclub, in retaliation for govt efforts to squash an attempted coup – killing scores and wounding hundreds
• In Russia, xenophobia approaches red alert levels, after a rise in violence against darker-skinned immigrants from Central Asia, the Caucasus and foreign tourists.  A Russian town is under clamps after the residents mob-attacked Chechnyan immigrants who had fled the war-torn region
• Somalia - Islamic fundamentalists have taken large swathes of the country, including Mogadishu.  They have had successful recruits from the populace after it was revealed that the US govt was supporting secular warlords operating under the aegis of neighboring Ethiopia.  The East African coast could now have a strong Islamic govt to harbor al-Qaeda and other like - operations.
• Sri-Lanka - the already crumbling cease fire between the Tamil Tigers and the govt suffered another setback when govt forces took over the northern ports.
• Thailand - the south was rocked by a series of bomb blasts, probable causes pointed to Islamic separatists.  Earlier last week, Bangkok also found bombs intended for the prime minister.
• In Turkey, a series of bomb blasts perpetuated by a Kurdish separatist group killed tourists and Turks alike in Istanbul, Mamaris and other tourist hotspots.

Those were just the stories today – September 5, 2006.  Take all the stories of violence over a 6 month period and you'll see that virtually no country is immune from acts of terrorism, nationalistic frenzy, or neo-tribalism.  In the past year, Indonesia, Egypt, Laos, India, Pakistan, Australia, Spain, Greece – connect the dots and you'll see a rope of violence that is strangling the world.  I haven't mentioned natural disasters or the usual theft, murder and rape that occurs everyday everywhere.

As a traveler, I take precautions – but then against random violence, foresight is non-existent and hindsight will kill you.  I wasn't in the Roman Theatre yesterday because I was lazy and didn't want to go out.

What to do? Not travel? Everywhere in the world, the vise of wickedness tightens, and pretty soon, you can't escape it.  America, with it's high walls of capitalism and natural sea-moats, is not immune any longer. Do nothing, and the violence will come to our shores. Do something – what can we do?

I feel like there are a thousand strings, knotted and tangled, and we're trying to pull on all of them.. sooner or later, we'll find ourselves bound and gagged.

Four hours after the incident in the square, I had a salad and juice at Books@Cafe, a cafe in the Amman hills near the First Circle.  Young Jordanians sipped beer and exhaled the pale smell of hookah smoke. A couple of expats sat near the balcony, comparing journalistic notes.  The sun fizzled in the rust-haze of the city, and the half-eaten moon rose behind the square block houses.  At 7 pm, the clarion call to prayer echoed over the city's loudspeakers. At the cafe, more of the designer-jeans crowded walked in.

Looking over the city from the cafe's veranda, the city's flickering lights imitated the stars above.  Marred by violence to be sure, but does one act in a country of 6 million -- does it signify a lot or nothing at all?

1 : 6 million >> does violence have more weight than non-violence?

In a world of billions, where billions of good occur everyday, why does violence hold more sway?