Saturday, January 29, 2005

Hollow words

It's now almost two years, could be more, since Blair made his crusading speech about saving the world and in particular Africa, at a Labour Party Conference attended by Bill Clinton. He said that the world would never stand by and watch another genocide such as that which took place in Rwanda some ten or eleven years ago. Clinton has admitted several times that his greatest regret was not intervening to halt the Rwandan genocide. Believe me, he has no idea just how serious an ommission that is.

Since then much suffering has been inflicted on ordinary Zimbabweans. Tens of thousands have been murdered in the Sudan and many thousands more Africans have been tortured, raped, robbed and murdered at the hands of brutal and corrupt states. Let us not forget either that millions have perished in the Congo over the last decade during which the international community, to its eternal shame, has yet again remained silent and looked the other way.

So much then for crusading speeches. Blair's grand rhetoric rings very hollow two years on. He and the rest of the international community continue to fail the oppressed of this world. They lift not a finger against these tyrants. Indeed they sit side by side with the representatives of these tyrannical states in the UN Assembly! In doing so they give legitimacy to these corrupt states and the criminals that govern them and are therefore guilty by association of complicity in the murder of millions.

Were Mugabe sitting on the world's second largest oil reserves or in possession of a few decrepit missiles, he would by now be either dead or awaiting trial for crimes against humanity. This is the hypocrisy for which the United States and other powerful nations are so hated by the poorer defenceless nations. It seems that as long as they have no oil or WMD, any tin pot tyrants can literally get away with murder for as long as they choose.

So much then for Blair's hollow crusade. So much then for the integrity of the U.N. and the international community at large. Whilst we continue to tolerate the intolerable, we are all barbarians. Whilst the worth of human life is measured in barrels of oil, we are all guilty of crimes against humanity. When will we learn to value most that which is most valuable. How many barrels of oil for an ounce of humanity?


For poetry:
http://www.spearman.blogspot.com

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Gone

(For those who have gone, those who are going and those who remain behind.)

When the sun rises tomorrow,
I shall no longer be here,
I shall be gone from this dimension,
No longer a part of this world,
Which was my world and yours,
And will still be your world.

Where shall I have gone?
I don’t know.
But I shall have gone,
From you who loved me,
I feel it in my bones,
My time is close now.
My time has come, to go.

Though I shall miss you,
Though I am sad to go,
I have no fear.
In a strange way
I am ready to go,
Almost happy even,
For I know,
That this is not the journey’s end.
Another awaits me,
Just round the bend.

You will not see me again,
Not the way I was,
Nor where I used to be,
Though I may still see you,
Where you are, as you are,
And as you will be.

Oh! Make no mistake,
I shall miss you.
I miss you already
Though I am still here.

You were, you are my family,
My companions on this endless journey.
My heart is heavy but at the same time, happy,
Remembering the love,
The joy and the sadness,
We have shared,
For it is the sharing ,
That gives life meaning,
That bonds our souls together.

Yes, tears come to my eyes ,
With the sadness of knowing,
We shall not talk again,
Nor embrace, nor berate one another,
Nor laugh with and at each other,
At least not for a while anyway.

It’s hard to accept, I know,
But accept it, we must,
Because when the sun rises tomorrow,
The world and you will go on without me.

I shall no longer be here.
Where I shall be, I do not know,
But I sense that tomorrow
Will be my birthday,
The first day somewhere else,
A place much different,
From this world I am leaving.
But you have prepared me well,
For the next step of my journey,
All you who have loved me,
All you who have taught me,
All you that I have loved,
And even you, that I have hated.

So though I am sad to leave you,
I am ready to leave you.
I go without fear.
I go with a sense of anticipation,
Looking forward to fresh horizons,
And glorious new vistas.

Show me Lord, your wonders.
I am curious to see,
That which is greater still,
Than all I have ever seen,
There to await those I have loved,
And those who have loved me.

Friday, January 14, 2005

Link to British Parliament

Have an issue with British Government policy? Want to contact a member of the British Parliament? Be my guest and use the following link:

http://www.parliament.uk/index.cfm

Prince Harry

Why has our nation become so hysterical about everything and nothing? Flick through the channels on television and chances are someone will be screaming or shrieking mindlessly at someone or something on most of the stations.

If this were not bad enough, the guttersnipes of the tabloid press aided and abetted by a complicit and unscrupulous section of the media have now contrived to manufacture yet more hysteria over Prince Harry going to a fancy dress party dressed as a nazi. Well so what? That’s what fancy dress parties are all about. The nazis, like Atilla the Hun, the Crusaders or the Vikings are now part of human history and will therefore be a feature at fancy dress parties for millennia to come. Get used to it.

Quite apart from that, it is as clear as day to any objective observer, that Harry is not a nazi, quite the opposite. He was if anything, having a joke at their expense, for which the nazis have no one to blame but themselves.

The most shameful aspect of this whole affair is not that Harry wore a swastika to a fancy dress party. It is that everything good that he has done, in particular his work with Aids orphans in Africa, should be cynically and conveniently air-brushed out of the reporting by blood thirsty reporters sensing a cheap and easy kill and a good pay day. That is what is immoral and it is this, that is wrong with our society. This kind of "journalism" poses a far greater threat to our society than the foolish antics of a relatively innocent 20 year old at a fancy dress party. I'd wager Harry has more character and integrity in his little finger than those who connived to get the story on to the front pages of a tabloid rag.

That many of our politicians should have jumped on this bandwagon is a disgrace. Just as they have so often in the past, they have fallen hook line and sinker into this populist tabloid trap. They are now using the incident to persue their own cynical agendas in the hope that it may buy them a vote or two here and there, come the next election. We have a right to expect a higher degree of insight, judgement, intellect and integrity from our community leaders, who are after all, twice if not thrice, Harry’s age!

It might have been worse though. Harry might have upset the Pope by going as a condom. Phew!


Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Caring sharing Blair

Tony Blair makes crusading speeches about saving Africa, Iraq and the world but today on BBC's Daily Politics program, we hear that hundreds of Britains, some badly injured, were virtually ignored by foreign office officials in Thailand, who left them more or less to their fate. Some were rescued by German teams who were on the scene in double quick time and air lifted out by Lufthansa.

Some of those Brits may well owe their lives to the German Government and I am sure their families will be forever grateful. They will however, be extremely disillusioned with the efforts or lack of them, of the British Government.

I've said it before and I may well say it again. Jack Straw, our erstwhile Foreign Secretary, strikes me as a most uninspiring individual. The fact that Blair should choose this bland, boring and somewhat lethargic man for this important post is testament to Blair's own insecurity. Heaven forbid that he should choose a Foreign Secretary who might outshine him on the world stage.

Blair himself was on holiday when the Tsunamis struck and chose to remain there. As far as I am aware, he issued no statement at the time, nor did he send any message to the people in the afflicted countries. If he did, it was certainly not well publicised by the media.

More shamefully however, is the fact that it was not until Blair et al realised that the British people had given more from their own pockets, than the government was proposing, that Blair increased government aid to the Tsunami victims.

I must add however, that the manner in which some governments have strived to make political capital from this disaster is unedifying to say the least. They're like a bunch of jocks in the showers after a football game, competing to see who has the biggest penis! My aid package is bigger than yours. No it's not! Yes it is! One thing is for sure, their egos are massive.

So much then for caring New Labour! I am convinced that Blair is really no more than a holograph and not a very convincing one at that!