| Our Brother’s Keeper |
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| Written by Administrator | |||||
| Wednesday, 18 October 2006 | |||||
Page 2 of 3 “And what did they say after that?” “They ended the session for consultations.” “Damn,” said Roland with gravity. “More or less the same thing in our track.” “What were they after you about?” Ben said. “Legal definitions, as always” Roland said. “But the emphasis was on our concepts of universality. Universal Rights, Universal Law, Universal Codes of Justice.” “What did you tell them?” “We said that in a legal context, universal meant applicable to all people without exception or restriction; that no one was above the law and that no one could be denied equal protection under the law.” “How did that go over?” Roland spat. “They wanted to know what our definition of ‘all’ was,” he said sourly. “So we ended the session for consultations.” “Ah,” said Ben, smiling. “I’m surprised they didn’t want your definition of ‘people,’ too.” “Right,” Roland said, nodding. “That will be next.” “Don’t you see? The Greys are looking for common ground,” said Nadia Song, liaison for the Culture Track. Nadia was petite and the Culture folks tended to be condescended to by the rest of the professional peacemaking community, so she compensated with a surprisingly assertive voice. “They are exploring ways for us to establish bonds of trust and partnership.” Nicolaas Lang, liaison for the Economics Track, made a series of five hand signs, each accompanied by a distinctive whistled note. Nadia glared at him. “Why would you come to this conclusion?” Nicolaas said, pretending he hadn’t just satirized her. Nicolaas was superbly dressed, as always, and held a cigar in his left hand that traced circular trails of smoke as he gestured. “What did they say in your session?” “We were discussing gender biases in art forms and how these inform a civilization’s actions and reactions,” Nadia said. Nicolaas appeared bemused. “But the Greys do not have genders.” “Exactly!” Nadia said. “The Greys have transcended the walls of gender bias, and so their civilization flowers with all individuals living as equals.” “They are sexless androgens,” Nicolaas said. “And their art is bland, I might add.” “They are advanced minds on a voyage of discovery,” Nadia said. “If you do not appreciate their art forms it only shows that you remain a prisoner of your bias-informed heritage.” “My heritage is informed by Florence, Paris, and Delft,” Nicolaas said. “If these are prisons then I am delighted to serve a life sentence.” “Ethnocentrism is why we are still at war!” Nadia said. “Technically at war,” Roland said. “There is an Armistice.” Everybody ignored him. “We are at war because the Greys picked the wrong backsides to probe,” Nicolaas said. “Men have done far worse to other men -- and women, I might add -- than anything the Greys have done to us.” “Jerusalem?” Nicolaas said. “Hiroshima?” Nadia said mockingly. “They don’t kill each other like we do with such enthusiasm.” “They kill us.” “We killed them. They came to meet us and instead of opening our minds and our hearts we opened fire. Think of how much we could have learned from them by now.” “We learned their technology, that’s enough,” Nicolaas said. “We’ve gone from lab rats to kicking their asses in two lifetimes. Rome is our heritage as well.” “Spoken like a man!” |
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| Last Updated ( Saturday, 21 October 2006 ) | |||||
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