Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

The Unified Crime of a Nation! | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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The more I visit the capitals of the Arab world, the more I believe that a conspiracy against mankind exists that is planned and carried out in that region. The goal is for man to kill himself! The conspiracy is against life and an eerie silence surrounds the plot. The conspiracy targets the environment, after the Arab cities have become refuge to clouds of pollution. Arabs now fear the water of their rivers as they have become haven for toxic substances and waste materials that eventually reach the seas and oceans.

We grieve when somebody dies and pity the flower when its wilts, yet we silently observe the death of the river and the cities as they choke. We seem to disregard that when a river dies, a life is wasted with it as the lungs of the universe are blocked due to the pollution of the atmosphere.

Are we meant to receive condolences for the death of the environment? Will what remains of the sea gulls, colored fishes and wild plants attend the service? Has man reached that degree of selfishness and ignorance to kill the environment in which he lives? Does he not realize that it is the environment that provides the air that he breathes, the food that he eats, and the water that he drinks? Does man not realize that he is the murderer who in turn is being murdered?

We know, though lack the understanding behind it, that man may kill his fellow men. We also know that man will celebrate his killing of a gazelle. However, is man evil enough to commit cold-blooded collective suicide?

In all the speeches and literature of governments, leaders, political parties, and election campaigns, the only major theme that is absent is that of the environment. Governments, opposition, liberals and Islamists, the young and the old, all collaborate to the conspiracy against ecology! Have you ever seen a nation that unites to kill itself and remain silent about that murder!

Our homes will turn into graveyards, and our rivers into swamps. If matters continue at this speed of destruction, a major crime will have been committed against our children and against those who are still in the wombs of their mothers!