Saturday, March 10, 2007

Mayan Leaders Cleanse Ancient Ruins


GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Mayan leaders will spiritually "cleanse" ancient ruins in Guatemala after a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, unpopular here because of foreign policies going back to Central America's civil wars.

The leaders said they would hold a spiritual ceremony to restore "peace and harmony" at the Mayan ruins of Iximche after Bush tours the site on Monday.
"No, Mr. Bush, you cannot trample and degrade the memory of our ancestors," said indigenous leader Rodolfo

"This is not your ranch in Texas."

Comment:

This is a sad reflection on how the World now regards America under George Bush but is he the sole cause or the natural spawn of ill conceived foreign policy spanning decades? You tell me.

Making expedient short term choices on the basis of perceived strategic self interest is not the same as making the right long term moral choices. Foreign policy that fails to recognise that self interest can never be served when the common interest and morality are ignored is doomed to the outcomes with which we have become familiar in South America and more recently in Iraq (the West's support of Saddam Hussein) and Afghanistan (the arming and financing of Bin Laden) where strategic allies metamorphosed into deadly enemies. This has been the unending pattern of politics throughout history. Is it not time we learned the lessons of past failures and altered our perverted political philosophy by doing what is obviously right rather than what is obviously wrong?

Let those who seek short term gain through perverted thinking and corrupt action dig their own graves. Their victories will be shallow and short lived and we will be there to pick up the benefits when their houses of cards come tumbling down, as they inevitably will and do.

Political philosophies founded on temporal moving sands, have never and will never stand the test of time.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are others beside the mayan
people who are under this kind of
oppression. I live in the state
of Kentucky which was at one time
even while the Mayan's still lived
in these ancient cities, the native
people who are the Cherokee,the
Chickasaw,and Shawnee used this
land as their hunting,fishing,
and war ground here. People now
still find arrowheads and artifacts
that we really shouldn't pick up
and use as a soverneer. It belongs
to the people who used them a long
time ago. You wouldn't pick up
someones wallet and use it if you
found it would you? No you should
find the owner of the wallet and
give it back.
Judy Tooley

speakeezie said...

Thanks for your heartfelt comment with which I agree.