As discussed in the previous post each of us is a cause or effect. Law of reciprocity places each as one or other at any particular place and time. If we were to take recent events in Syria the sectarian divide between Shi’ia and Sunni faction created a dilemma. Assad is a Shi’ite and he has been trying to put down the rebels. Assad is a cause while the ensuing bombardment has its effect in creating some 11 million refugees. Is there a simple relationship between cause and effect? Russia has joined in the fray while the Saudi Arabia and other Sunni factions are whipping up equally an opposition. In each cause and effect relationship consequences as a result of so many other events are in flux which run into an area of ‘no man’s land.’ . (The cold war which the US and USSR waged in post WWII was at first about Germany; how did it spread around Vietnam Afghanistan and Cuba? it shall connect with the Middle East and now in Syria as well. There is no more Soviet empire but Putin’s gambit is to put his own stamp over the International politics.) Thus this no-man’s land is a swamp where all the unfinished business of old and new colonial rivalries shall run into. This is one area where man’s individual certainties tend to blur.
Even if Assad’s regime can survive the conflict for how long? This long drawn out conflict has drained the population as well as weakened the administrative machinery. Cause and Effect in short is not as simple as Indian arm-wrestling. I started with the crash of MH-17 and that of the Sinai air-crash. Is falling of the Russian aircraft as a result of the other no one can say. Natural law of nature has a tendency to bring what is up down since gravity is part of the equation. On a moral plane we need see such disasters as the means to contain man’s freedom to get away without being responsible to others. Man breaks moral laws in his individual choices but always such actions come at a price.
Let us consider a possible scenario: Suppose a multinational company in collusion with South American power-brokers set up a company to log timber. The company can destroy the rainforest and beggar the future of so many indigenous tribes with impunity. The company generate so much profit for the company and line the deep pockets of a few corrupt politicians. Where does moral imperative step in? If a flash flood should overrun later on what would that mean? Does it not mean a kind of retribution?
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Law and Justice do not always connect as in a direct line. I can cite parallels from cosmology and from moral philosophy. It is an anomaly theory.
Cause and Effect conform to it. Take prayer for example. Suppose I prayed God for a certain favor and did a number of good works to please Him and suppose I succeed would it mean God interfered with the divine will? It is often that in the interplay of several events that my prayers are answered or better still something else happened in my life more in tune with my present needs. Cause of my prayer and effect of it are linked in a roundabout manner. Still in effect it is as if God did answer my prayer. Now let us go onto cosmic matters. The Big Bang releases tremendous energy and there is an inflationary theory to explain this disproportionate amount of energy. Where these had come from? No one knows. We are not here discussing cosmic matters but about simple element of justice.
These days I have been hearing about Osama not getting due process of law.
First of all let me say Osama bin Laden was a lawless man.
Law can only work where humanity is enshrined in man’s hearts. Law- abiding citizens wherever they may be, shall appreciate it since they know if law is denied to them by some agencies they do have a recourse to justice in a court of law. Tariff war between nations can be sorted out in an International Court just as war crimes or any other do have a common platform to be heard. Law is accepted as the ultimate arbiter. We are not living in a lawless world but in a world where law is upheld. It reigns supreme well for most parts of the world. But we also have a number of lawless regions. Somali pirates for instance operate with impunity from a lawless region. Similarly are lawless regions from where terrorists can strike at will. It is this lawlessness and utter disregard to human values that have made Al-Qaeda succeed for a time. (There are groups like Taliban whose peculiar notions of law are drawn from barbaric times where women are stoned etc.,) These have no locus standi in any progressive modern society. In short lawless men either imposes their own law arbitrarily or law of the nations is entirely flouted. Osama caused death of thousands and thousands. These victims of all genders,age and faiths were denied due process law. If this be the case why should he be given a fair trial? Which court of law is appropriate when the victims belonged to nations all across the globe?
Suppose Osama was taken alive and was in American custody these terrorist groups would have hijacked some thousands of innocents from various places and held them to ransom. Why put more innocent lives needlessly to peril? Justice was meted out to a lawless man who never showed iota of humanity in his lifetime. Law and Justice need not always meet. If there were an extentuating circumstance or an anomaly it was here.
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