BLOG POSTS

Competition. How we love our competitions. They pervade every aspect of our lives. We’re brought up to be competitive. The biggest, the strongest, the fastest, the most intelligent. The sporty, the business king, the top gun, the best footballer, the President of the United States, the Archbishop, the Pope. We are taught we must be always be better than the next man or woman, if we are to succeed in life. Playing only the second fiddle is to fail.

I’ve never been competitive. As a small boy I never understood basking in the glory of others: the local football team, the school House sports, the Olympics. When others talked enthusiastically of their team’s latest conquest over a rival, I was not part of the conversation.  I was happy to be away riding my bike, imagining it a bus or a train, or occasionally a pirate galleon.

After all, is it really a good thing to pit ourselves against others? Surely, is not the ultimate competitiveness – WAR?

The latest act of war was Israel’s incursion into Gaza and the West Bank, in retaliation for the atrocities inflicted on them by Hamas. Some competition! Hamas may be an evil entity, or freedom fighters, depending on how one chooses to view them,  but they are a David in comparison to the war machine Goliath that is Israel. That’s no competition, so why do we treat it as one?

All over the Western world university campuses are alight with the fervour of young people appalled at what Israel is doing to the Palestinians. Equally, there are supporters of Israel denouncing the campus occupants as anti-Semites.  Two sides yelling venom at each other like out of control fans at a football game.

This is no football game, so why treat it as such? Because we’re programmed from birth to take sides, one against the other. The truth of this particular situation is that both Hamas and the Israeli government are equally in the wrong. Hamas for its vile and unforgiveable attacks on innocent people, and Israel for its equally vile and unforgiveable attacks on innocent people.

There is no competition so why do we insist on treating it as such and taking sides? Isn’t it right that we should condemn both sides equally?

Maybe it’s time we learned to be less competitive in our lives and instead reached out a welcoming hand to the second fiddle, who after all is equally important in the orchestra, even though it plays a somewhat different tune.

 

 

^{PLANES OF SHAME}

^{“UK passes law allowing deportation of asylum seekers in Rwanda
A moral bankruptcy into which other European countries are ready to sink – Le Liberation”}

Last Wednesday’s front page of the French newspaper ‘Liberation’ pulled no punches in hitting out at British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his despicable UK government. Despite the British Supreme Court ruling last year that Rwanda was not a safe place to send migrants, Sunak has pressed ahead in a desperate attempt to placate the right-wing of his Party and save his own scalp. There are those in the Tory party who would happily throw him under the bus if local elections in May go badly for them.

No longer is politics about people. Or rather, the only people it’s about are the politicians themselves. There’s an old saying that people get what they deserve, and it’s certainly true of the British. Too arrogant to be part of the greater community of Europe, they were happy to blame the EU for the austerity that had been imposed on them by their own government for ten years. BREXIT was Boris Johnson’s “Make Britain Great Again,” moment, which he expected to lose.  He didn’t, and later paid the penalty when his own party threw him out for failing to make Brexit work.

Part of the arrogance of the British is the redundant propaganda of Empire. It still smarts to see those they once ruled moving in next door to them. One has only to watch and hear the enthusiasm of the British at the Last Night of the Proms as they roar out the nationalistic anthem, “Rule Britannia,” to realise the lure of Empire is alive and well.

Migration was a major reason for the British to vote for Brexit, but it wasn’t concern over the many poor souls who lost their lives crossing the English Channel.  No, it was more the fear that a Muslim family next door could cause their property value to plummet.

The Rwanda scheme further smears the reputation of a country that once prided itself on respect for the law and human rights. It is to be hoped that if the Labour Party form the next government later this year, that their promise to scrap the ill-advised Rwanda plan will be upheld.

^{Israel v Hamas/Iran, Ukraine v Russia/Iran – The Dogs Of War Snarl And The People Demonstrate Against Them. (Feb 26th 2022)}

One war in our faces, the other one forgotten. Have you wondered recently why major nations like the US and UK, have suddenly found the means to supply Israel with weaponry galore? Meanwhile, the now virtually forgotten “other” war in Europe, in which Ukraine and it’s people are innocent victims of intense Russian aggression, is being lost by Ukraine because promises of financial support from so-called allies have been broken.

Ukraine was a peaceful nation before February 2022. It had returned all its nuclear weaponry from the old USSR era It just wanted to be left alone. One evil dictator decided differently.

Initially, the NATO powers rallied round Ukraine in a great show of support. They would supply the money, the weaponry, the training, to beat the evil dictator, to drive him and his armies back into Russia whence they came.

One man in America put a stop to any further US involvement in that war. His name is Mike Johnson…

…the Republican speaker for the House of Representatives. His reason why he has denied Ukraine the funding they need? Donald Trump, his master, told him to.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has become a forgotten war in America. No matter how outrageous his tactics, and how vicious and cold-blooded his methods, Netanyahu will always have America at his back.

The Guardian described Israel’s attack on an Iranian embassy in Syria this weekend as, “…Israel’s misjudgment..”.  It’s doubtful Netanyahu misjudged. He knew Iran would have to retaliate or lose face, and he knew Israel could contain that retaliation. It was surely a deliberate plan to help reinstate “poor Israel” in the eyes of the world.

It worked. A statement from the White House, following a thwarted Iranian retaliation, caused Biden to state:

“I’ve just spoken with Prime Minister Netanyahu to reaffirm America’s ironclad commitment to the security of Israel.”

The attack on Israel by Hamas last October 7th cannot be forgiven. It was brutal, cold-blooded, and targeted, among others, young people just out for an evening of enjoyment. Netanyahu’s brutal and cold-blooded revenge was many times worse. Half of the 32,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza to date were women and children.

It is notoriously difficult to ascertain exact figures for deaths in Ukraine as their government calls it a “state secret.” Estimates vary widely. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights states that as of November 2023 at least 10,000 civilians had been killed and over 18,500 injured. Figures for military casualties are even harder to come by, though some estimates go as high as 70,000 killed.

Unless money and weaponry is found for Ukraine from somewhere , those figures are going to rise rapidly.

Perhaps the leading question in all this is when it will ever end.

If Donald Trump becomes the US President again in November, Ukraine in its present form is doomed. Trump has made his support for Putin very clear.  Mike Johnson is its caretaker until his boss returns to power. Trump’s move of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018, during his last presidency,  showed the world his support for Netanyahu.

Planet Earth is a precarious place to reside right now.  It could become a lot more dangerous for us all after this coming November.

16th April 2024 Addendum:

On opening the Guardian this morning, it came as no surprise to read the headline: “‘Sympathy shifted to Israel’: many fear Iran attack has distracted aid effort”

Netanyahu is no fool!