Reaping… the whirlwind

It’s interesting how pithy yet so profound so many Biblical sayings are!! Your Eyewitness hopes he doesn’t come off sounding like some religious fanatic or something!! But after all, those books – written thousands of years ago – can still hit you square between the eyes!! What does that tell us about mankind?? That we won’t change…or we CAN’T change?? Whatever the answer, that Biblical expression, “Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind” came to your Eyewitness’ mind as the news reports n from the new battlefield in Iran and the surrounding states come in– even as the Israelis mop-up their Gaza ethnic cleansing!!
On one hand, you gotta give those Israelis credit, don’t you?? Here they are with a population of just nine-and-a-half millions and they’re dominating a region with over 400 million enemies!! But in your Eyewitness’ view they can’t continue to do this forever – especially when they’re willing to poke the said enemies in the eye – seemingly on their own whim!! They’ve done this since 1967 when they rolled back the Arab armies led by Egypt – and ended up expanding their territory!! But for a people who actually produced the abovementioned Bible 4000 years ago, they should appreciate our saying, “time longer than twine”!! Sixty years ain’t but a blip in the ebb and tide of nations in that part of the world.
Yes…they had to respond to Hamas’ attack on their civilians – but did they have to launch an attack on Iran – which then forced the American’s hands to join in the fray?? This was a perfect example of “sowing the wind” – and your Eyewitness is convinced they’re gonna reap the whirlwind!! While they’re counting on the Yanks bailing them out – knowing that the latter have their own reasons for wanting to bring down the Iranian regime – they should know that ultimately America is 7000 plus miles away!! Meaning they’re gonna face the brunt of the Iranian fury to both the attacks and the decapitation of their top leadership.
First of all, unlike in Venezuela where there was a willing proxy to toe the US line – at least for now!! – in Iran, as your Eyewitness predicted, all it meant was ‘another Rasta” would take his place. In this case – even though the US demanded a say in this choice, Khamenei’s son – as Rasta as you could get – has been selected!! The second premise of the Israelis was that after the initial attack the subethnic groups in Iran – Kurds, Baluchis, Azerbijanis etc – would rise up from the boots on the ground – which everybody concedes are necessary to give a knockout blow to the regime.
We now see, this ain’t happening!! The whirlwind’s comin’!!

…mis-schooling
If it’s one good thing that came out of our colonial past, it was the respect students inculcated for teachers. It really came out of the respect for education by our fore parents who came out of slavery – and later indentureship – as the tool necessary to deliver real emancipation. As such, your Eyewitness was very disappointed to read about the violence that have become the norm with students in schools. And of the weapons they now tote around!
But let’s face it…this kind of behavior is coming straight outta Compton and other American inner-city ghettoes. Sadly, it’s the culmination of the glorification of that ghetto culture by youths and has taken over the schools in what are now called “hoods”. It started with the misogynic Gangsta Rap that glorified violence – and influenced Dancehall singers like Vybz Kartel etc – as the first step. Look what happened in Jamaica – which had the same colonial background like us.
We gotta get this out from the roots and not encourage it for Mash!!

…the miscalculation
Confirming your Eyewitness’ prediction, Iran’s hardliners staged a show of force yesterday taking to the streets to proclaim their loyalty to new supreme leader, who dashed Israeli hopes of a swift end to the whirlwind they unleashed!!