The End of Business

A wise man once described to me the meaning of the word "business", which is, in his words, the practice of giving for the purpose of receiving some form of personal accolade. The following is a tale of what "business" entails. After reading, ask yourself if doing "business" is such a good idea.

Judging by what I've been seeing on the news, this new calendar year of ours is not exactly off to a promising start. The "hot topic" seems to be the war Israel is waging on Gaza in retaliation for the incessant barrage of rocket attacks by Hamas in retaliation for the throttling of resources to Gaza in retaliation for... we would need many words to chronicle several thousand years of strife, yes? Just as we were becoming one with the idea of being broke, our masters are rekindling our fear of the "bad guys", thereby justifying the slaughter of a people about whom we don't seem to give a damn.

Of course, this isn't the only mess on our collective plate, I'm afraid. Remember Iraq? Yes, there's still a war happening there, in which people like you and me are dying en masse every single day. It matters not what year it is on the calendar; surviving the day is an accomplishment in itself. Have we become so habituated to the chaos in Iraq that it has escaped our consciousness entirely? And what about Afghanistan? Yes, there's still a war happening there. For thirty-some-odd years, the people of the region have had to deal with the same old shit; the only things that have changed are the uniforms and flags of the players. The announcements of our dead - only "our" dead, for "their" dead aren't even worth counting, let alone honouring - and the subsequent parades of their remains through our nation's streets have faded into the backdrop of our existence.

Recently, the government forces of Sri Lanka captured the de facto capital of the LTTE, known to us Western folk as the "Tamil Tigers", branded by our officials as bogeymen. As with the aforementioned conflicts, the coverage of this one is one-sided: no mention, save for the odd glib statement, given to why the LTTE exists or what its motives are; no mention given to the Tamil cries for justice; no mention given to the treatment of the Tamil people by the government of Sri Lanka. Perhaps thirty years of bloodshed could have been avoided if each side listened to one another.

Now, let us move onto a blooless yet equally nefarious conflict: the labour strife at York University, the institution I've been attending as an undergraduate student for the last two years. As we wonder if we will ever see the end to this dispute, I was met with a mass communication from the head of our department on behalf of the administration, announcing it is forcing the members of the Union to cast a secret ballot, to be monitored by our Ministry of Labour, on their latest offer, with the hope that we will return to class as soon as possible. To be honest, though I've paid heaps of money in tuition and graduate school applications, I don't know how eager I am to return to class. Universities have already shown they can dick us around without fear of reprisal by inflating our tuition year after year and treating us like trained animals who perform for treats - why else are grades the hallmark of learning? - now, it seems, they can do the same to their workers.

After writing these paragraphs, the lesson to me seems obvious: when you have the power, you are free to act in as underhanded a manner as you see fit to ascertain whatever you want. If I was feeling pessimistic today, I might resign myself to such sentiment; since this is not the case, I'm going to toss this bullshit aside and share an experience that gives me hope for the future.

My friend and I have taken it upon ourselves to challenge each other by approaching random people in the street and striking up a conversation, something most wouldn't normally do. Swirling through my head - and I'm sure his, too - were thoughts such as "S/he doesn't want to be bothered," "I have nothing to say to this person," "What if s/he is uncomfortable with my presence?" and the like, but once the ice was broken, it became easier and easier; the words simply flowed from me. I wanted to gauge their thoughts on how we could create a lasting peace in our society, and if they felt these wars abroad were connected to the manner in which we deal with one another, and, more importantly, how they feel about the interactions in their lives. I met a young lady from China who is attending university here; from what she said to me, she feels very isolated in these parts - my memory may not serve me correctly, so if I'm wrong, I extend my sincere apologies to her - though hopefully, having a "stranger" lend her an ear may have instilled a glimmer of hope. I also met a young man, also a student, from Turkey. Being of Greek origin, I could not help but comment on the tendency for Greeks and Turks to harbour disdain for one another, to which he responded by telling me of the multitude of Greek friends he has. If only my uncle and other Greek figures I know could have been there that evening.

Despite our differences in language or cultural/religious beliefs or skin tone or title, we all think and feel and breathe the same and have to deal with the same shit, be it labour, political or armed strife. These differences of ours do not penetrate the surface of our being, which is why I have hope for the future. Some day soon, we will all awake to the reality that, however overwhelming the world may be, we all must live in it together. Killing and maiming one another does us no good; when we pick up a gun and shoot someone else out of fear that they may do the same, we become that which we seek to eradicate; in short, we kill ourselves. We are not the titles we affix to our business cards, nor are we the flags that flap in the wind, nor the books from which we acquire our knowledge, nor the company we keep, nor even the very species by which we identify ourselves: whether on two or four or more or no legs, we all belong to the divine, and we are all beautiful.