7 Deadly Sins of 2008

The seven deadly sins are rooted in what the early Christians considered as acts involving the most objectionable of all the vices. They’ve been the stock of fables and morality tales ever since. But they can also be applied to a catalog of the world’s worst events of 2008:

LUST, overpowering craving, as in Robert Mugabe’s crazed clinging to power in bankrupt Zimbabwe. As if inflation at two million per cent were not enough, a cholera epidemic has infected 25,000 people in a plague the  dictator denies even exists.

GLUTTONY, the gorging of food or drink, as in the global oil fraud where prices were driven artificially — through speculation and monopolization — four times beyond their true market value. Enrichment beyond satisfaction, followed by the inevitable purging.

GREED, the desire to acquire more than one needs, and chief cause of the current global economic crisis. Specifically, the conspirators who designed the sub-prime mortgage dodge, hooking millions of unaware Americans into obligations they had no hope of meeting. Then, the wizards of Wall Street “securitized” this worthless paper and sold it off to banks and financial insitutions around the world.  As the bail-outs go on, why has no commission been appointed to investigate this pattern of deceit? Why so few criminal charges? Will President Obama dig into this?

SLOTH, the indolence and laziness of the pampered, specifically the Chinese entrepreneurs behind the shoddy construction of schools that resulted in the deaths of thousands of children when earthquakes hit Sichuan on May 12. Add to these the criminals who enriched themselves by spiking milk with melamine, thereby artificially raising its apparent protein level.

WRATH, fierce anger seeking vengeance, the characteristic of the Islamic militants who plotted and carried out the November 26 attacks in Mumbai that killed more than 170. As is usual in Al-Qaeda-type raids, the victims were innocents, some tortured before being killed.

ENVY, the discontent of covetousness over another’s success (or presence), surely a factor in the interminable conflict in Palestine. The years ends with Israeli retaliation for Hamas attacks in retaliation of … and it goes on and on.

PRIDE, the excessive opinion of one’s own worth, an attribute of all those financiers and engineers who value themselves above the sanctity of nature, as in the plundering of the Alberta tar sands. One of the greatest environmental depradations on earth, ranking with the destruction of the troipical rain forests and the emptying of the oceans of much of its marine life.

And what will be the punishment for these seven deadly sins of 2008? Unfortunately, it is falling on all of us.