I come from the verdant lands above the ancient sands of the once Fertile Crescent- a contiguous bioregion in the Middle East. Our family home sits at the crossroads of the hot savannah-deserts – southwest, and the cool forest-mountains — northeast. Again, my people were among the first agrarian civilizations to cultivate grains 10,000 years ago along a tributary of the Tigris. They then later traded nature’s abundance with other peoples from distant lands along the Silk Road. I sometimes wonder what would have happened to our bioregion if the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I had gone a different way for King Faisal I of Iraq and for the aspiring independent (yet fragmented and tribal) Pan-Arab New World he stood for? Might our Fertile Crescent have matured into a thriving, interdependent economic center in the 21C? Were former President Woodrow Wilson’s 14 policy points on free trade, democracy, and self-determinism appropriate, ideal, or practical for our very different world than the US? Then? Now?

What do you think? (See comment box below.)

Indeed, we were (and are) gardeners and explorers. We were born to steward this infinitely vibrant and richly cultured land. And, we still represent a diverse Babylonia of traditions and people. Our Islamic roots–they run only a few generations deep. We are a young faith, seeking healthy world soils and welcoming gardens. That said, Islam is ancient in its wisdom and also serves as a positive unifying force among us. At the core (as in most faith traditions), the Koran teaches love of a higher-universal power, strong family values, prayer, pilgrimage, and care for others in need. Fire is a natural force in our cross-cultural ecosystem. It is hot here. And we are a passionate people who can indeed run hot. So then, we must also become proficient fire-keepers, clever mediators, and rational negotiators… to keep the peace. Right?

Unnatural fires occur outside a normal range of variability (intensity, frequency), and can become very dangerous. They can have lasting detrimental effects on communities when they plasticize soil, sterilize seedbeds, create their own weather, and consume all life (even green growth) in their path… leaving once Natura Vera gardens, virtual wasteland for decades. In these extreme cases, unnatural fires become mute, fundamentalist forces of destruction.

This year the cedar has been especially dry. The threat of an unusual fire engulfing the Arabian Peninsula is now constantly on everyone’s minds and in everyone’s homes. This unnatural fire — sparked by ISIS (Islamic State-that many Islamic religious groups confirm have hijacked their true faith, grossly misrepresenting core teachings) and led by a false prophet named Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi; rages now across our Middle Eastern lands from the shores of Tripoli (e.g. beheading of 21 Coptic Christians from Egypt in Libya, Houthi rebels seizing Sana, Yemen’s capital, 39 tourists on the shores of Sousse, Tunisia, and 117 estimated dead in the Sinai Peninsula ) through Amman (e.g. Jordanian pilot enflamed) to historic Damascus (e.g. tens of thousands of Syrian people murdered and millions displaced since civil war broke out in 2012) to the Kurdish mountains and the deserts of Iraq (e.g. Mosul as ISIS’s center)… These are our people, members of our global community, dismembered. Lives and families destroyed.

Isn’t it curious that the hot spots hit above were exactly the same strategic centers, battlefields, and centuries worn trade routes, pivotal to us during the Desert War (e.g. Cairo, Al Aqabah, Jerusalem, Mosul, Baghdad with Damascus at the center) precisely 100 years ago and even earlier during the Seven Crusades at the turn of the Century? Doesn’t there seem to be a deeper, targeted, and twisted narrative playing out here in the history of our Middle Eastern fire return intervals? It’s almost as if our current narrative was lifted from the Book of Revelations, right!?

Sadly, this unnatural fire was not bound by the Peninsula, but rather spot fired across Europe (e.g. attack on Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris, extremist acts in Belgium), spread down to the horn of Africa (e.g. Kenya-East Africa, 147 people slaughtered on a college campus), and incited millions of migrants to seek asylum away from home (e.g. Syrian refugees in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Greece; and Tunisians smuggled to Italia across the Mediterranean, murdered at sea). Totals this year (to date) are estimated to be 137,000 refugee migrants arriving on the shores of Greece, Italy, Malta, and Spain…up nearly 83% from past years. Who would have thought that the embers of this unnatural fire could possibly reach Europe’s shores? I guess the recent news of the Syria refugees crossing into IMF loan-defaulted Greece and other Mediterranean countries proved its probability with certainty.

Clearly, it seems that no country or culture in the Middle East…and in the World remains unaffected directly or indirectly by this fire. And certainly, no country welcomes the specter of terror in their backyards. So does it then not seem strange that such a ruthless messianic force would be able to recruit assassins worldwide, raise millions USD in capital, acquire significant land, and launch an (initially) effective propaganda campaign — even as it has estranged itself from every ethnic and religious group from Syria, Iraq, and across the Peninsula? Shia, Kurds, Yazidis, Christians, Muslims, Shiites are all united against this unnatural fire. And, yet this raging flame continues to surprise, spot, and rage across our Fertile Crescent? How is that possible? What is it exactly about the nature of fire itself and the conditions of the world that have caused ISIS to burn so hot?

I imagine a longer conversation with well-studied world historians would first take us back to the Crusades where the Islamic State’s medieval mind appears to still live… and then, to the later imperial war (WWI) & global chess game for King Faisal I’s (& T.E. Laurence’s) Arabia. I’m referring again to the Peace Conference that saw the end of the Ottoman Empire after WWI and created geo-political boundaries that favored & followed natural veins of earth resources, rather than respected & established cultural divides among different tribes (e.g. Iraq- Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds).

I am simply a daughter of history, standing at the precipice of knowing something & knowing nothing about this unnatural force, but I would also add shortly here a point on education. There are many bright youth living in the Middle East— like me, eager to live fully and to contribute value to our communities; our world. Thus, perhaps the greatest legacy any world leader can leave us (like King Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia before he died earlier this year) is access to advanced education… and not just in the science of chemistry and physics; but in the alchemy of multi-cultural understanding and peaceful politics. Perhaps if every country (as many world wisdom leaders have suggested) sponsored courses in universal compassion, the business of ethics, and the morals of global leadership and trade; then this millennial generation (and seven generations forward) would not repeat the history of war which has already cycled itself here more than once across our Peninsula. Somewhere in the dialogue between you-me-my enemy-myself lies the authentic drivers toward our current narrative…. and this is what I am curious to understand.

What do you think? (See comment box below.)

Fire is hot. Fire is erratic and dances wildly. Fire can burn and even kill you. However, fire is only as powerful as the amount of oxygen and lifeless wood fire can amass within the vacuums of power where once verdant, healthy, prosperous Natura Vera gardens flowed fountains of living water… now parched land. You see my friend, Fire’s ignition triangle includes; 1.) a ripe environment (extraordinary global disparity), 2.) a primed fuel source (wood), and 3.) an oxidizing agent (energy and capital) to ignite.

Clearly, in our world today where the global wealth of the planet (est. $263 Trillion USD, April 2015, more than double $177 Trillion USD in 2000, c.f. Credit Swiss, WSJ) is concentrated in the hands of so few (e.g. 300 people own the same amount of wealth as the poorest 3 Billion people, c.f. The Rules.org), and where the rest of the world struggles to survive; global conditions are certainly ripe for a raging fire (or a nuclear conflagration, another story to tell).

Clearly, where literally billions of people lack access to clean air, water, food, energy, health, education in a world of ever-greater exploitation of Natura and ever-growing numbers of us; global conditions are certainly ripe for a raging fire (or a microscopic infectious disease outbreak, another story to tell).

Clearly, when global trade protocols continue to favor the unfair extraction of value from poor to rich countries (est. $ 2 Trillion USD/year) in forms of trade mispricing, tax avoidance (c.f. The Rules), loan interest, under-valuation of human and natural capital; global conditions are certainly ripe for a raging fire (or a grassroots citizen’s rebellion, another story to tell).

Now my friends from the East and friends from the West; you are my global family. I consider myself a global citizen. Yet, where I was born…

Where even healthy, empowering, and mobilizing Arab Spring uprisings still effected a chaotic geo-political winter in Tunisia and Egypt;

Where foreign uprooting of a draconian dictatorship unexpectedly left Libya essentially waterless and leaderless;

Where Western economic sanctions aimed to twist Iran’s political arms shut our Persian friends and neighbors out of world markets, limiting economic prosperity for over three decades…but no longer- Yeah, progress!;

Where millions of Syrian refugees from the Civil War have survived chemical warfare, a crippled economy, a crumbling, ancient urban center, and now a mass exodus to Europe and neighboring countries;

Where Al Qaeda terrorist cells (originally formed, funded, and fed by the West in Afghanistan 2003 to counter Russian Cold War antagonists) have now multiplied and preyed on desperate youth in economically-degraded parts of Iraq, Syria, Yemen and other powerless pockets in MENA;

Where the more-or-less stable countries of Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey have absorbed the millions of refugees from these crisis centers to add to the perennially displaced Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza strip…

… You can imagine that environmental conditions for an unnatural fire to ignite have been over-ripe for some time. So, isn’t a dramatic change in the socio-economic soil surrounding our cedar trees necessary now to thwart the efforts of this enflamed and unnatural fire spreading across our Fertile Crescent?

What do you think? (See comment box below.)

What is cured wood? Cured wood is wood that has lost its vitality, water, and life. It is essentially dry of soul, joy, hope, and personal purpose. It is wood that is primed for it’s own incineration (self-immolation).

This cured wood (weak and brittle; hard and strong) is what Islamic State hunts and collects across the region, preying both on the weak- already quite dry, and then recruiting the strong who are socially hardwired to protect these vulnerable others (Scott Atrin, Anthropologist, Terrorist expert). Islamic State is sharply successful in its recruitment (like other successful terrorists, dictators, militants with controlling, dominant aims) because the group leverages especially two core human principles– a higher sense of purpose and tribal loyalty. They target the unsung adventurer seeking purpose whose future landscape appears dry of hope. And optimally, they seek out bundles of dry (or drying) wood – groups of friends already knit together in strong tribal groups (e.g. soccer buddies) whose futures look similarly dark and uninspiring. Then, they reinforce these brotherhood bonds through pairing or group acts of terrorism. This is the danger of love and war. Both fuel it.

I imagine you could also list a number of other very effective primers for cured wood in our multiple media that has hastened the drying of once young, vibrant, happy branches everywhere in the world. For example, primers in mainstream film may include featuring titles like: World War Z, Elysium, End of Earth? And Discovery’s current slate- Mayan Misery, Dunes of Despair, Himalayan Hell, Nicaraguan Nightmare, Naked and Afraid… Or National Geographic’s Teenage Inmates, Pick your Poison, Sex Addiction, Funeral Strippers… And, what about popular TV fire primers, like 100 or Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad (btw: brilliant storytelling)? Indeed, there’s now a plethora of apocalyptic, dark story universes streaming across TV channels, radio waves, and Internet fiber optics that many in the mainstream flow are already virtually living in a Mad Max in the Matrix future world. Sadly, the Oculus (immersive) gaming galaxy is not much brighter. Top Ten Video Games of 2015 (Forbes) included — Assassin’s Creed: Victory (Ubisoft franchise that’s sold over 73 million copies since 2007), Battlefield: Hardline, Batman: Arkham Knight, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain— a venture into Afghanistan during the Soviet War.

Phantom Pain is “a Gothic world filled with shambling villagers and massive werewolves, where combat is fast and furious, but keeps a distinctive sense of challenge and despair.” (Bloodborne Marketing)

Thankfully, moral conscience is strong in the majority of human cultures and communities, so acts of violence taken outside virtual reality worlds and Hollywood blockbusters are not (yet) commonplace. But that said, clearly the appetite for violent reaction to conflict is piqued in these games…and as assassin’s creeds dominate more & more of our mind space then this is potentially very dangerous. Further, the increased proliferation of war crafts begs another question. What dark psychological fear-based reality are these violent story tones and dystopian story universes coming from? Do we really believe we are on an evolutionary path driving toward the end of human civilization? Are these games subliminally meant by the gamers to train us in survival of the fittest for some real apocalypse (e.g. Radioactive, by Imagine Dragons)? If so, will skill in weaponry and war truly save us from ourselves and best position us to be the fortunate few that beget future life? Or will the selfless hero, like Katnis in Hunger Games, who averts conflict (at first anyway) and who leads with compassion tied tightly to a strategic aim of protecting the common good (as well, common goods) survive the fittest? And if so, isn’t the road leading to compassion the one we are naturally intelligently programmed to take?

Agreed, there might be something healthy about identifying and calling attention to our deepest fears in these apocalyptic future tales. But where are our Gandhi, Mandela, or Malala hero characters in these future narratives? Aren’t they best equipped mentally, spiritually to guide us out of dark labyrinths? As well, shouldn’t we be more concerned than we are that the deluge of violent media may actually and more powerfully reinforce a violent cultural narrative forward and precipitate a dystopian future reality for our global society? If so, why not create, market, purchase, and play more games that rather immerse our families, neighbors, and friends in future worlds that we want to create? Yes, like Mine craft? Wouldn’t you like to see more cool hero characters that tackle the complex social and environmental challenges of our day with strategic STEM skill and innovative future design? Or do you feel that warrior characters yielding heavy metal weapons best stimulate critical thinking, creative imagining, and decisive problem solving for addressing humanity’s real socio-environmental threats? What types of games best train our minds and hearts for building trusted, mutually beneficial, long-term, and peaceful relations worldwide? Does Phantom Pain help us develop the conflict-resolution skills essential for real world UN negotiations on climate, nuclear energy, sustainable growth, and regenerative development? Are the lexicons, the character profiling, and the virtual worlds in Assassin’s Creed instrumental in maturing good fire-keepers and peaceful mediators for the US-Iran economic talks or the Palestinian-Israeli two-state reconciliation or the Turkey-Kurd boundary disputes, for example?

What do you think? (See comment box below.)

Imagine. What if our games, virtual worlds, and hero-driven narratives trained us in strategic diplomacy and ethical-servant leadership; instead of lethal espionage against scientists, combatant warrior techniques to fight imaginary wars, or draconian law enforcement tactics to incarcerate created criminals? What if we had more pop culture games to combat global challenges, yes like Games for Change (www.gamesforchange.org)? Would such cause-oriented games evolve more conscious, healthy, tolerant societies inside and outside of SimCity? Would the War Games of today, which enflame our reptilian brain; be as relevant or engaging as the Minecraft games of the future, which inspire our advanced creative brain to design new worlds that benefit our real world, evolving?

So back to our cured wood and unnatural fire– what if we gave our vibrant and young roots and shoots real adventurous, entrepreneurial, hero quests to embark upon, ones that reconstruct our communities, rather than destroy (bomb) them? Would the 2,000 + foreign youth (coming even from affluent families, Evan Perez, CNN) be drawn to ISIS’s propaganda or become so disillusioned by their ideological flag (Mathieu Guidere, University of Toulouse, France)? Would they turn to extremist groups if a STEM-oriented heroic mission stimulated their creative minds to solve more complex problems or if a counter-narrative to the Islamic State existed? What if exploitation and inequality ceased to exist as the West and the East together took bold, brave action to narrow the wealth-poverty gap? Would idealistic, adventurous youth turn to counter-cults to satisfy their sacred rage against social injustice if we were living in a more socially equitable world? Conversely, if resentment and frustration of moral injustice across the Fertile Crescent continues to build, then I imagine extremists will be more effective in convincing even vibrant wood to commit acts of violence in the name of building a new egalitarian state.

“Poisonous ideologies do not rise out of thin air. Oppression, corruption, injustice are the greenhouses for resentment.”

UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon

Imagine if now we dare to dream in the world of positive, regenerative, socially equitable futures. Wouldn’t we awaken our naturally intelligent conscience and melt our fears of The Other? Wouldn’t we rather fear that when “The Other is not well, then I am not well” (Nelson Mandela)? Imagine the world we would create if every human being realized that the fate and future of us all was tied to the fate and the future of us all.

“We need to strengthen the conviction that we are all one human family.” Pope Francis

Imagine if every person in our home was well watered, felt loved, valued, and respected as an essential thread in the world’s social fabric. Would there be any dry, cured wood among us to light unnatural fires? Being filled with living water and a sense of purpose is central to a healthy Natura Vera garden community. So, it is vital we ensure the main stems of our communities and their individual branches (especially the vulnerable young ones) receive hope-filled sunlight, rich soil nutrients, and abundant living water to thrive and to contribute to positive, green economic growth. Does it not make sense that if we- as world citizens, national governments, international corporations strive together to ensure that all in our family are well–physically, financially, socially; then there should be fewer impoverished, vulnerable, and desperate dry wood for unnatural fires to burn? Naturally intelligent; right? What then really blocks us from living in that Eden?

What do you think? (See comment box below.)

Further, have we in the West considered perhaps a deeper messianic wind blowing behind ISIS’s unnatural fire rage? We in the East remain tied to our histories, our Caliphates, our Dominions, our bloodstained soils. And for few extremists the battle between Roma and Islam still burns today.

“In the East, ISIS and others are motivated to extreme violence because at their core they truly believe they are waging a war against good and evil…and evil becomes anyone who stands in their path toward pan-Islam domination of the Arab Peninsula. So fond are they of the afterlife and so sure are they of the moral imperative for battle that even their ultra-violent and suicidal means to their perceived utopian ends are justified.” (Peter Bergen, CNN)

In the West, we are only too quick to judge ISIS’s clearly grotesque and 100% inhumane actions. However, we should not be first to cast a stone at messianic revolts in the Middle East, or anywhere else in the world. We in the West also committed our young shoots to sacred battle during the Seven Crusades in the High and Late Middle Ages. Christian Soldiers were also on pilgrimage, sacrificing themselves for a higher cause–the conquest of Jerusalem. This same unnatural union of religion, state, and war has prompted feudal (local) uprisings in Asia, led to the Rhineland massacres, the East-West Schism, and the Fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottoman Turks; as well, many centuries of undesirable (for some) rule. There are ample examples of popular revolt from our world’s past and present against governments, dictators, rulers, monarchies and kingdoms to sprout New World Orders…and thankfully one in particular led to the First New World Democracy.

While certainly not condoning violations of human rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in any form or by any person or even expecting to avert war when necessary to protect those inalienable rights, my aim is that fire’s message above helps add a very coarse historic perspective (definitely a much deeper, longer conversation) and just a touch of compassionate context, perhaps yes?

What do you think? (See comment box below.)

The best news I learned from fire’s triangle was that without a source of ignition and in this case, capital… There would be no fire. Without oxygen capital to ignite and to fuel the continuous flames of fire’s war or purchase the weapons of fire’s dance, there would be no global conflagration. Thus, we can thwart ISIS extremism in a significant way if we can snuff the sources of financing. So, how do we do that? Those who know about the business of terrorism would probably prescribe a short list, like the following. And, perhaps you have other ideas as well?

• Shut down the smuggling operations of stolen Damascus art.
• Stop the extortion of agricultural crops across borders.
• Economically embargo ISIS’s sale of cheap fossil fuel to vulnerable countries, like Syria. Instead, rebuild with distributed renewable energy.
• Continue to shut down the social media valve, and propaganda channels.
• Continue to maintain great caution and tight control of weapons sales, anywhere, everywhere, at all times.

World leaders are aware that the circular economy of armed weapons is quite robust, worldwide. That said, perhaps the silver lining is to learn from its black market flow. For example, what if we created a different kind of circular economy (theme of our next life principle essay) where weapons are systematically sourced out of the black market, smelted and turned into useful infrastructure–bridges, schools, entrepreneur centers, hospitals, telecommunication hubs for these broken, upside down communities? And, what if we re-directed the capitalist motivations of the brokers bribed to transact these deals toward these more positive impact investments? As a global society we expect to spend $1.6 Trillion USD (Millennium Project State of the Future, 2015) to re-build city infrastructure. Why not direct some of that capital toward service-circle investments in these communities? Match fund with the Aga Khan Development network, the Islamic Bank, and the other major development banks around the world! Right? Why wouldn’t rich Saudis and the wealthy Kuwaitis rather privately finance constructive ventures in our region? How appealing then would an extremist’s destructive operations appear, especially if any more Shiite mosques in Kuwait explode?

And what about the historic Iran economic-energy deal in front of us now, unlocking nearly $150 billion USD in frozen assets after 30 years? This international decision to broker peace and to reduce threats of nuclear war could produce a fresh portfolio of new investment opportunities for investors in the Middle East to build the education systems and local economies in Iran AND in neighboring countries. Wouldn’t focused investments in the wellbeing of our extended family across our shared Fertile Crescent effectively thwart ISIS’s oxygen capital and recruitment strategy, forever? And, wouldn’t a political shift FROM the competitive dominance of any one country rising in ISIS’s ashes TO an economically cooperative model in a post-ISIS future stomp out unnatural fires across the region, for good?

So what happens if we succeed in greening our geo-political-economic environment, in watering well our people, and in preventing oxygen capital from re-igniting more fires in our land? Can we expect to return to natural fire cycles and manage our peoples with skilled diplomacy? Can fire once again be a natural regenerative force in our bioregion?

What do you think? (See comment box below.)

Yes, I believe so, too!

Yet, our home today looks very different from the Fertile Crescent of the past and the healthy, socially equitable utopia of our intentioned future. So while we figure out how to mitigate unnatural fire in the first place and in the long term, we need now to deal with the conflagration that is already lit in our backyard. Thus, I invite you to join me in shifting our final discourse in Part II to a Smart Fire Mitigation Strategy.

Proactively speaking, a Smart Fire Mitigation Strategy involves Five Steps: Adopting a Firewise Attitude, Preventing Fire from Spreading, Containing the Existing Fire, Re-directing Oxygen Capital from the Existing Fire, and Extinguishing the Unnatural Fire… Completely.

Part II Coming Soon!!!