The dead cost nothing
«Not the archers. Arrows cost money. Use up the Irish. Their dead cost nothing,» Edward Longshanks, king of England, tells his general as they are about to face the Scottish troops. The famous line from «Braveheart» comes to mind as I see oil prices reaching record levels, commodities following a similar trend in the international markets, the World Bank sounding the alarm and the superpowers grappling with the challenges of much-coveted growth. The dead cost nothing. Or, at least, they cost less than oil. Competition over the globe’s oil resources has fueled numerous military conflicts, civil wars and coups over the past half-century. How many lives, how much pain can fit in a barrel of brent crude? Life is not measurable. Or is it? People trafficking gives an indication of the price tag. A club owner can get a female dancer for 2-3,000 euros. A Pakistani migrant needs 5-6,000 euros to cross Eurasia in a fridge container. Another hopeful pays $500 to cross the Aegean in a rubber boat. And the energy-intensive societies of the developed or developing countries keep their toxic, polluting habits alive as they indulge in profiteering and unchecked growth. The Divine Passion, however one chooses to see it – as the revelation of Christ, an eschatological reminder, or an allegory for the finiteness and vanity of matter – also has something to tell us about the world we live in. It offers us the dualism of sorrow and joy, the descent into hell and the knowledge of life’s finiteness but also the joy of spring, the kiss of love, the deep faith in resurrection. Passion these days is the discrediting of earth and man. Resurrection is the overcoming of greed and materialism.
