To Carl, Roger, Bob, et al.
I am not super-active on this or any other list, but I do read a lot
of content and have attempted to interact personally with Bob/Moustafa
on these matters. What I find is that he is extremely good at
formulating these rants, but he puts forth no effort whatsoever to
respond to specific, well-thought-out counterpoints made by those of
us who have been the recipients of those rants.
What I find sad, but true, is that communicating with Bob about any of
these arguments he makes is a waste of time, as he knows what he
believes and has decided that launching these torrents of words in a
monologue is much more pleasing than engaging in a truly open dialogue
with anybody else. Bob, perhaps some of your rants should be directed
at Saudi Arabia, an extremely conservative monarchy which styles
itself as an Islamic paradise but which is perfectly content to engage
in multi-billion-dollar weapons deals with the government and
corporations of the United States.
Tired of Americanisation impacting your country, to say nothing of
Yemen? Perhaps Saudi Arabia should be a prime target of your verbal
venom, Bob, not just the United States or the Zionist Jews.
And for those of us like most of us on this list who happen to live
with blindness, I think this type of nationalistic and religious
bickering is a waste of time. I note that legislatures in both Israel
and Egypt are struggling with updating their disability laws so that
rights guaranteed to disabled citizens in those countries conform to
United Nations model standards of equality. Far better to work among
the different countries to make life better for all of us in terms
that will make a practical difference to the lives of common persons
who live with disabilities. I don't think it was blind Westerners who
ravaged the Middle East or who crashed planes into those buildings to
cause the horrific wreckage and slaughter on 9/11/2001. So I propose
we all find better, more constructive methods of dialogue and optimize
the use of our limited time and resources for the good of all. For
Americans, this would include encouraging the ratification of the
Marrakesh Treaty Implementation Act (S-2559), which now enjoys
bipartisan support in the United States Senate.
http://www.districtdispatch.org/2018/03/marrakesh-treaty-closer-reality/
This international treaty, whose language was worked out in the city
of Marrakesh in predominantly Islamic Morocco, has already resulted
doubtlessly in many more blind, Islamic youth in the Arab and North
African world gaining access to reading materials--including, one
would hope, Islamic religious literature. While the USA has been slow
to ratify this treaty, many American citizens were intimately involved
in the treaty's formulation, and many other countries already have put
this into force--including some African countries such as Botswana,
Burkina Faso, Burundi, Camaroon, Kenya, Ghana, Sierra Leon, Sudan,
Togo, and Chad--not to mention the Syrian Arab Republic and the
Russian Federation. Oddly, neither Saudi Arabia nor Egypt has yet
ratified. For the full list, see
http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ShowResults.jsp?treaty_id=843
Let's all use our time more wisely and work together for the
furtherance of good things that all of us should be desiring in
common.
-Kane