Interview with Sharon Chadha - Part 10

Mac's last word

Before he has to yield the headlines back to the extremists....And now, for our last part of this 10-part interview with Mac Haque, our favorite Sufi rasta Baul jazz rocker singer.The last question I asked Mac was what advice he would give humanity.I mean, why not? If anybody should know what the secret of life is, surely a Sufi rasta Baul jazz rocker would, right?And so, here is what he said:

Humanity has never been game for good advice![Me: Ooops! That was a dumb question on my part. Nevertheless, he was kind enough to continue.]While we talk
about humanity – the forces of betrayal will always make inimical forces stronger. Now even the virtues of democracy are being viewed as some kind of institutionalized thugocracy.As Gil Scott Heron said ‘Peace can never be found if war is considered a solution’. And yet, too often it is ONLY war we think that will bring peace.The state of the world post 9/11 is nothing more than a legacy of hate. Unless we remove the hatred, the xenophobia, the racism, the future of mankind is certainly doomed.We also need to get over the prevailing perform or perish retinue and stop reckless consumption.For every citizen of the West to survive, a thousand Bangladeshis are imperiled to the spectre of Global Warming. In fifty years time – although I will not be a witness to it – scientific studies suggest that half of Bangladesh will be consumed by the sea.Once Bangladesh goes, and if humanity still doesn’t change its ways, mankind itself will be wiped out. And long before the year 3000 AD appears on our calendars.

So there you have it folks, the final word from Mac.Now while admittedly I don't see things quite the same Mac does, I know an awful lot of people who do. And they don't live on the same dELTA he does either or come from the same tradition or blah, blah, blah. So none of these details can be the source of any of our differences, can they?And that was really the point of this exercise. Because let's face it, if you didn't know where this Mac person was coming from - or anything about his cultural or religious orientation - I bet you'd never guess correctly just what his coordinates were.And that was my point here. To show that all this culture gap, this conflict of civilizations business is really just in our minds.On that note, now it's time to blast some music......Unless of course you are in Waziristan. In that case, just be sure to use your headphones instead of the speakers as you never know where those Taliban and Al Qaeda guys might be.If they ask what's up with the Bluetooth, just say you're on a conference call or something. Tell them some people from a place called Langley are trying to interest you in some $25 million business proposition.