|
|
|
| A Larger View |
|
A Bi-Monthly Newsletter of the Inner Outer Partnership |
| Volume V Edition 3 |
May/June |
2000 |
On The Way To One Humanity
Jean-Michel met Pei while in Shanghai learning Chinese. Both in their twenties they
have been in love for two years, most of this time apart since he now lives and works in
Kuala Lumpur. But distance however much a hardship it may be to the young couple and
their marriage plans is not the real problem. The problem is Jean-Michel's French mother,
Claudine. Born and raised in North Africa, she is devoutly Jewish, and the idea of a non
Jewish daughter-in-law is more than she can bear. Although she had to deal with the
prejudices the French have towards North African Jews and though she has always been a
professional person and learned early on to balance the needs of her profession with the
demands of motherhood, in certain areas she has retained a parochial outlook. Pei is a
giving, loyal, solicitous, intelligent young woman who adores Jean-Michel, who is willing
to do what it will take to make the relationship work and is open to go way out of her way
to allay the fears of her mother-in-law to be. But Claudine can't see past the issue and
implications of religion. The happiness of her son, or gaining a sweet, kind and loving new
family member are obscured by her attachment to tradition, to what her family would say
and to what she has always looked forward to.
This transcontinental love story comes with a price for everyone. Since the couple will
not be living in China, Pei's parents because of the one child family policy will be
separated from their daughter for long stretches at a time. They have made their peace
with what they now accept they cannot change eased in part by the fact that their future
son-in-law could in rather fluent Chinese put their concerns to rest.
Being kept apart by nationalities, frontiers, politics, traditions, mores or religions is not
new. Somehow in our new millennium with globalization being irretrievably entrenched,
with cyberspace continuing to challenge rigid mind sets, old ways of thinking and spiritual
orthodoxies, one expects these sort of obstacles to be passe. Instead they stand to stare us
in the face even more so than in the past, for the number of such relationships is bound to
increase.
Regardless of our many nationalities and ideologies we all belong to one planet, to
one world, to one humanity and how distant the realization of this goal will be depends on
our ability to think through what it will take to get there and more consciously set out to
remove these obstacles.
Who's Responsible For What?
A woman's husband bought her a ticket to Las Vegas from priceline.com and
accidentally entered the wrong return date, keying in a 5 instead of a 4. priceline.com's
posted policy states that tickets are non refundable, that once the offer of a given price is
accepted the bidder is obliged to buy. Since it was a mistake, the woman claims that
priceline.com should make an exception. Were she to return on the 5th instead of the 4th
she'd miss a day's work. As it is she had the choice of either missing a day's pay or
paying the $50 fee to have the ticket changed, something she believed unfair.
priceline. corn, she argued, was taking advantage of middle class people. She felt so
incensed she wrote letters and complained wherever she could so that in the end
priceline. corn agreed to waive the $50 fee.
Had it been priceline.com or any other company who had made the error, any
consumer would have expected them to bear the consequences of their mistake. Why
should a different standard apply here? The policy is clearly stated and many have borne
the consequences of their errors. In agreeing to waive the $50 fee priceline.com's concern
for PR, image and the like is understandable but wasn't it a case of reinforcing negative
behavior? This customer may have been incensed but the degree to which she was does
not reflect the presence of an injustice. What is troublesome is that such instances cheat
honest customers out of the benefit of the doubt, create a burden for the seller, one that
customers eventually have to bear, and sends the wrong message - that the louder we
protest the more we are likely to be right.
Who's To Own Our Genes?
Lawmakers in Washington are finally talking about reforming patent laws to make it
that much harder for private companies to own the map of the human genome. Gene
research is a cornerstone of future medicine, it offers hope for curing if not eliminating
many diseases and promises other wonders as well. In a few months scientists will
complete the rough draft of the 60 to 80,000 strings of chemical code that spell the human
genome and determine who we are from the pigmentation of our skin to the kind of illness
we may carry.
Patents have been used to protect inventions and inventors making sure the
one who did the work received both the credit and the rewards. Today, patents are a fine
art, and many know how to use existing laws to maximize their own advantage. The first
human gene patent was awarded some two decades ago, and by now the U.S. patent
office has given hundreds of patents to biotech firms although their work was mainly
based on the work of computers decoding the chemical sequences. Ought they to have the
rights to something as unique and universal as the human genome? Do some things
belong within the public trust? Biotech companies have done the work partly to be able to
cash in on the patents and the financial windfalls they mean, engaging in a race with
government scientists who post their findings on the Internet for all to use.
Already such a
race has had disturbing consequences. The speed is being cited as responsible for errors
recently found in the coding of several genes. Since the research of these companies would
usher in useful and probably life-saving drugs, is there some way they can be remunerated
without infringing on the public domain? As it stands, for example, a researcher not having the funds to pay the patent owner of a given gene whatever the owner feels would
be due them may be prohibited from doing research in that area. The cost of an individual
test for say, a cancer gene, would automatically be increased to include whatever would be
owed the owner of that gene patent compounding the intricacies of health care costs and
the availability of such tests to the general public.
Superficially amending patent laws may not be sufficient, for as The Los Angeles
Times succinctly put it in a recent editorial, "genes are natural creations and everyone
should have equal access to them."
VIDEO PICK
A Simple Plan
What would you do if you somehow found four million dollars? Or even one? Would
you keep it? Would you try to find the owner? And if you thought this money was tainted
in some way, would you feel more justified in keeping it? Then suppose you did decide to
keep it, to what extent would you be willing to go to protect yourself from being
discovered? These are some of the issues dealt with in Sam Raimi's film, A Simple Plan.
It's not always an easy film to watch. It's not pretty and it's set in the harsh winter of
northern states, but it's not boring. What holds our interest is being able to identify with
how easy it can be to become prisoner of our own greed, our own blind spots about
money, and how simple it can be to rationalize our actions so that the money can still be
ours. It's an honest movie, many of us could easily be the main character. Is he trapped by
circumstances, or is it that his hidden misconceptions about money are allowing him to be
trapped by them? The realism of these characters as well as the understated approach of
both writer and director turn A Simple Plan into a fable.
THE PRACTITIONER'S PERSPECTIVE
Doing What You Don't Want To Do
I had promised to visit an elderly aunt. As time approached for the visit, I began feeling
very reluctant to make the trip, and it seemed to me for good reasons. The trip meant a 2-
hour drive to the airport, then an 8-hour plane flight, followed by a 3-hour wait before
another 1 1/2 hour flight and finally a 1-hour trip by car. Aside from the sheer physical
demands, I didn't want to leave my comfortable home and life partner and was regretting I
had ever agreed to go. I questioned my motives and wondered if my decision had been
motivated by some personal need or desire, perhaps to feel important. As I struggled,
clarity came and I realized the reason for the trip was neither my needs nor desires, but
what I could do for my aunt. As clarity settled within me, the discomforts of the trip, both
physical and emotional, were supplanted by a sense of joy. Indeed within a day of being
there, what I could do for my aunt and the need for my being there were quite evident.
How often am I clear about the purpose of what I do? Sometimes I do something solely
for my own pleasure. Its only purpose is my enjoyment and at times that's fine. Yet at
others I am challenged to do something I'd rather not do. Then although I often don't feel
like going through the effort, I know there's a higher reason for doing it regardless of
whether or not I feel like shirking from it. As soon as I can ascertain the motive as coming
from my higher self, inner peace is restored and joy can eventually accompany the doing.
It comes down to motives, and whether my reluctance comes from my ego or not.
But how does one know one's motives? How does one know if a particular action is
fulfilling a personal need or if it is part of the soul's agenda? Meditation is the answer for
me, but there are also clues I've learned to look for. One is how attached I am to what
I'm considering. If thinking about not doing something brings up a sense of petulance
because I want to do it no matter what, I know that I should be quite suspicious of my
motives. If I feel neutral about whether something happens or not, then I'm more assured
it is not overtly from the personal self. Another clue is if I find it difficult to meditate. If I
can't even bring myself to a state of alignment where meditation is possible, then it is very
likely that the personal self and my wants and needs are creating obstacles. In such a case,
finding some time to reflect, perhaps a quiet walk, might help to still the inner turmoil and
eventually make meditation possible.
Sometimes I can clearly tell what my intention was only after the fact. Even with the
trip once I had a crystal clear sense that going was not an ego need, it was only after I got
there that I understood why. More often, I have to go on my best understanding hopefully after meditation. At times I'm sure I'm on target and at others my personal needs and
desires prevent me from acting as the soul would have me do. Still, each situation I face
honestly enables me to learn that much more about the difference between my personal
needs and the bigger agenda of the soul and in doing so I grow a bit more into a mature
soul-infused human being.
Seed Thought
"To love God with all our hearts and all our soul and all our minds means that every
cleavage in human existence is overcome."
American Theologian Reinhold Niebulir in Interpretation of Christian Ethics
|
|
