The World’s ‘Small’ and Forgotten Peoples

In my previous blog, I wrote of how Sathya Sai Baba – despite decades of stating that he will lead a spiritual revolution unparalled in mankind’s history – has profoundly failed to engage the world. ‘The backyard’, India, that he said he would first “clean up” is in parlous state. He says that the world respects him, and he and many of his handpicked speakers tell thousands of people gathered at his ashram, and over Sai Global Radio, how the world is increasingly coming to him. See When Disasters Overtake S. Sai Baba’s Promises and Sai Baba Is God Says Top George Bush Doctor

Except for constant preaching and saying that few will heed him, his impact on thinkers in the sciences, economics, politics, and so forth is not even to be compared with the effect of a gnat on the back of an elephant (to re-mint a saying of his). Read any discourse of his and one finds an extraordinary lack of engagement with the great issues that face ordinary human beings. His brief forays into science shows that he holds primitive notions. See When ‘Divine’ Magnetism Becomes A Dead Weight.

His mishmash of history, for example when he conflates early Christian history with Martin Luther’s 16th Century Protestant revolt, and gets Catholics and Protestants totally confused has to be read (after eyes have stopped widening almost beyond breaking point) to be believed? See Huge Sai Baba Gaffes

What sort of guide, then, can he be? When he can’t engage with the world’s major power players – and when his own ‘backyard’ is in such great disarray – what hope is there of his being able to better the lot of powerless groups in countries beyond, and yet the Sathya Sai Organization certainly aims to draw adherents to him in many developing countries. But those countries, despite their tragic drawbacks, are stirring to fend for themselves, as we can see below, but no thanks to Sathya Sai Baba, who would have it that all solutions reside in him and his so-called “divine organization” – the international Sathya Sai Organization, of which he says (and governments wary of powerful and deceptive cults will take due note):

“The whole world will be transformed into Sathya Sai Organisation and Sathya Sai will be installed in the hearts of one and all.” (Sanathana Sarathi, January 1999 – page 16)

Who Thinks of the Small Countries (apart from evangelization)?

Of course, all countries face threats posed by global warming and other hazards to sustainable life on this planet. But let us consider those peoples who have no systems of prior disaster warning nor infrastructure to deal with evacuation, provision of utilities, disaster relief, resettlement, and so on. Without world authorities facing – no, confronting – the formidable polluters and other profoundly conscienceless vested interests both great and small, these small and defenceless countries are lost. I was recently speaking with a local person, one of Australia’s top geophysicists until he retired. He said that he and his colleagues were warning Australian governments over the last forty years that great hazards, some of them resulting from human despoliation of the planet, lay ahead, but were consistently ignored, and commercial interests and political considerations allowed to hold sway.

Parts of the world are especially terribly attacked by the hazards of climate change, such as rising sea levels, vast drought and flood, freakish and violent weather conditions and so forth. There is a monumental threat to the earth as a whole.

But one may spare extra thought for those small countries who can do far less about it than the developed nations, whose quest for wealth, high security and ultra comfort has triggered off so many of the problems. Here is but one of many examples, where the larger nations, including my own, Australia, are ignoring the plight of those who come to them in anguish:

“The leaders of Tuvalu-a tiny island country in the Pacific Ocean midway between Hawaii and Australia-have conceded defeat in their battle with the rising sea, announcing that they will abandon their homeland. After being rebuffed by Australia, the Tuvaluans asked New Zealand to accept its 11,000 citizens, but it has not agreed to do so”. Rising Sea Level Forcing Evacuation of Island Country”. Lester R. Brown. Earth Policy Institute. November 15, 2001–

Desperate Smaller Countries Sticking Up For Themselves

Before the UN Security Council meets in a few days, many of these smaller countries are petitioning the body to take measures to protect their very existence. Here is one of the actions taken by a number of countries: Canada, Fiji, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Nauru, Palau,Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Turkey,Tuvalu, Vanuatu – in Draft Resolution 2 September 2008:

Deeply concerned that the adverse impacts of climate change, including sea-level rise, trigger population relocation and threaten the territorial integrity and sovereignty of some states, thus endangering international peace and security (this group)

1. Invites the Security Council to consider and address, as appropriate, the threat posed by climate change to international peace and security;

2. Invites the Security Council to work with the General Assembly to develop
recommendations with regard to the international peace and security implications of climate change;

3. Requests the Secretary-General, to report to the General Assembly at its sixty-third session on the international peace and security implications of climate change and on the actions taken by the Security Council in this regard.

(1. United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1771, No. 30822). The World’s ‘Small’ and Forgotten Peoples

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