Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Feeling Responsible

Very good article in today's Straits Times. Kishore Mahbubani writes pithily on the need to balance an understanding of individual rights against responsibilities and how well that understanding has served those societies that have managed the spread of the coronavirus with some degree of success.

As I was reading I was thinking how obvious this all is and yet how profoundly blind some nations have become to the obvious. I suppose that semi-paradox lies at the heart of the exasperation engendered in folk like Peter, Chris, Phil and myself when we're exposed to those from our homeland who cry freedom in ways that are less than sensible.

When I got married I had to attend a series of classes on marriage in Islam. I can remember thinking how profoundly practical - and extremely useful - the lessons were. The rights and responsibilities of a Muslim husband were outlined to me with blinding, binding clarity - in bulleted points. It struck me then as one of the sanest lists I'd ever seen.

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