There was a recent series on BBC TV. It was called, “The War Between The Land And The Sea.” Basically, an ancient civilization of humanoid-type sea creatures suddenly made themselves known to humans on land and complained about the mess human beings had made to their environment.
They wanted the seas cleaned up. When the humans hummed and hawed about doing it the sea creatures showed them how by taking all the human waste from the oceans and depositing it in the cities, creating an unholy mess. To see it happen was a brilliant piece of television. Sadly, from thereon the series zoomed downhill at a rate of knots until the sea creatures were defeated and the unlikely hero turned into a sea creature and swam off with the female sea creature with whom he’d fallen in love. The first two episodes were riveting, the third was mediocre, the last two pathetic.
At best it showed the human race up for what we’ve done to the planet. At it’s worst it proved how we can kill off whole civilizations indiscriminately.
As if there’s not sufficient evidence for that from the beginning of our history.
Throughout, I hoped the sea creatures would win in the end.
One reason why I don’t write often on Sparrow Chat is I’m too busy doing other things. Yet, when I stop to think what I’ve been doing, I can’t really remember. Busy doing nothing, or nothing of consequence. It’s like the old song from Bing Crosby:
“I’m busy doing nothing, working the whole day through, trying to find lots of things not to do…”
I see they’ve moved the Doomsday Clock forward again: 85 seconds to midnight. This time last year, it was moved forward to 89 seconds to midnight.
Meanwhile UK Prime Minister Starmer is in China cozily chatting away to Xi Jinping while the Chinese dictator is building nukes like they’re going out of fashion. They are most definitely in fashion, as Putin regularly reveals with Red Square fashion displays of his latest toys to obliterate the planet and everything on it. Simon Tisdall had something to say on that subject in today’s Guardian.
What is it with power? We are so totally incapable as a species of dealing sanely with power, yet we hand it out often to the worst possible people and then complain when they use it against us. We are so ignorant and unintelligent en masse that our only relief is to fight each other, usually at the behest of the power-crazed dictator we handed the power to in the first place.
In the news yesterday, a woman in Aceh Province, Indonesia, fainted and had to be carried to an ambulance after receiving 140 lashes with a cane for having sex outside of marriage and drinking alcohol. Her male companion also received 140 lashes for similar “offences against Sharia law.”
Sharia law? Who the hell came up with that? A power-crazed, body of men who were determined to subjugate people to their will using the name of a divinity to legitimize it.
Which raises another question: police, the military, they are there to protect the populace against individual threat, or a communal threat to the nation. They are paid by the people through their taxes. Why then do the police and the military not come to the aid of the people when they are being oppressed by their own governments? Every uprising, every protest against tyranny by governments is put down by the police or military happy to do the bidding of the politicians in power.
Okay, I’ve opened WordPress at the post page determined to write something. My last post was on New Year’s Day and that’s long gone. Well, to be accurate seventeen days gone, but with the speed of events taking place in the world today, New Year is ancient history.
I suppose if we ignore Ukraine, side-step Iran and place Gaza in the ‘For Later’, tray (with a goodly selection of other wartorn nations), then Greenland is probably the dire emergency of the moment. President Macron of France certainly seems to think so and has moved a number of French military personnel to the island to join up with members from other NATO countries already stationed there, or on their way.
In an interview given by M. Jean-Noël Barrot, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, to RTL on January 14th, he was asked:
“Q. – On Greenland, a meeting is being held in Washington shortly which looks set to be tense. (…) Trump, in fact, is taking the Putin approach: “I want, I get”. He’s threatening to do to Greenland the same thing Putin did to Ukraine, isn’t he?
THE MINISTER – In any case, Greenland isn’t for sale, because the Prime Minister of Greenland said so very forcefully, very clearly and very calmly yesterday evening. Greenland doesn’t want to be owned or governed or incorporated by the United States. Greenland has chosen Denmark, chosen NATO and chosen the European Union.
Q. – Donald Trump’s response: I’ll take it one way or another.
THE MINISTER – If it’s about taking it other than by buying Greenland, it obviously seems extraordinary, because for a member of NATO – the security alliance that has brought together North America and Europe for nearly 80 years – to attack another NATO member wouldn’t make any sense, it would be contrary even to the United States’ interests. And I’m hearing more and more voices in the United States saying that. And so this blackmail obviously has to stop. “
The blackmail has to stop. Easy to say, less easy to achieve.
The American President is drunk on power. He’s also a bully and a narcissist. It’s not a great combination. He has surrounded himself with yes-men. It would not be surprising to wake up one morning and learn that a battalion of US marines has landed on the island and taken control, probably resulting in a few dead Greenlanders, as happened in Venezuela recently.
One can only surmise how a small contingent of French and other European soldiers would react in that situation? Would they make a stand? Would US troops fire on NATO allies? Or would the NATO troops just stand there and look foolish while the Americans took over the island?
Perhaps the one hope is that sufficient Republicans in Congress would be so appalled by the situation they would side with the Democrats in swiftly bringing the debacle to a close. Perhaps.
I’m not a betting man, but if I were I would give this one a miss.
