World War III?

It’s a serious question, right? Are we headed to an all out escalation towards a global war or wars?

I don’t know about you but I watch the news, social media, read articles on what’s happening. Frankly I don’t get it.  This blog is a little different. I’m asking questions of you.

I honestly don’t get what’s going on in the conflicts, if that’s the correct term, that we currently face. The middle east is a mess, a confused mess of political issues. Korea I get a little more. I get dictatorships, I don’t agree with them but I understand the motives behind it. Power, greed and fear of losing it.

Am I wrong in thinking that money, greed and power are  the forefront generally? Historical issues being an excuse? Interference in other states affairs never end well. The middle east a prime example, I’ve grown up with the Israel, Palestine argument and am no clearer as to who is right and who’s wrong. Is there a right, wrong answer?

Now we have Syria, all sides claiming they are right, neighbours fighting for land they once shared peacefully. Familiar? I’ve met people from countries in conflict. I’ve asked what the war was about, I get answers such as, “You cant trust them.”  I’ve asked did you trust them before the war, answer yes.

So why fight.

Is it down to politicians? Do we,  the people, follow blindly their instructions, ideals, opinions.  We delegate our responsibility to the politicians that we and other democracies elect. Not all peoples have that opportunity, they don’t elect, or freely elect their leaders. Aren’t we just as under our leaders control as those of less democratic countries. The illusion of freedom?

Please tell me what you think. We have elections coming up in June. We have choices to make, will they be the choices we want or the choices our political leaders want us to make?

 

 

 

 

 

Bad stuff happens … so what?

Like millions of others,  this week has focused our minds on President Trump, Syria, North Korea and the latest ‘incident’ in Afghanistan. But how much did it really shock us? Of course anyone with half a brain would be concerned. As two old ladies talking on the bus today commented, “Do you think there’ll be a war?” said old lady one. Old lady two, “Yes, don’t you?” “Looking at WW3.”said One. “Afraid so.” said two.

A casual conversation. Could be discussing anything, day in the park, lunch, WW3. Have our attitudes changed so much? Can we, society be shocked anymore?

I think maybe, but it will take a lot.

Lets look at this in more detail. WW1 saw photography used to document war and its horror, but to many it wasn’t real. WW2 saw the holocaust  shown on film, still it wasn’t real to many were not directly impacted by it.

The 1960s to my generation saw TV available to many and news beamed directly, visually to our homes.

I remember as a child seeing on tv the Aberfan Disaster. (see link below) 1966: Aberfan – a generation wiped out…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/october/21/newsid_3194000/3194860.stm

For those of you who don’t know, a school was buried under tons of coal slag after heavy rain, 116 children and 28 adults died. People were glued to TVs, and news in the cinemas. Yes, we showed news in our cinemas before the films back then. I digress, it was the main topic of the adults around me.  It affected people in a profound, permanent way.

“More significantly however, I remember this as the day my Mom stopped believing in God. She could not understand how he had allowed so many people and children to die so horribly. ” Ruth, UK BBC News: On this Day  1950-1985 : http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/default.stm

I remember even as a child adults crying, in the street, at the shops. Great sadness, anger, questions “How could this happen?” It changed how mining companies, the government dealt with these common phenomena, dotted around all mining areas in the UK. Many were removed , others were made safe at a cost of £millions.

Anyone remember 14th March 1996, yes? No?  How about the place, Dunblane ? (See link below): Dunblane Massacre 1996

https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/mar/14/dunblane-massacre-scotland-killing

Another tragic event in our recent history. 30 years following Aberfan. 15 children and their teacher died in the school and another child in hospital, shot by a crazed gunman. An adult now, I knew the outrage, the anger, stemming from a helplessness, outrage that this could happen. But did I see adults crying in the streets, a few. In private behind closed doors I’m sure many more. The TV for many days, had this as a the main story. rightly so, it was a big story, raised lots of issues. Started campaigns for stricter gun laws. It changed the law, how we sentenced those convicted of gun crimes.

Syria (April 4th 2017),  31 years further on in our history. The world through technology is a much smaller place, we lived through 9/11 , where I  watched live TV showing people jumping from the upper floors of the tower,  endless US school massacres, Japans Tsunami, Chernobyl, the  Kuwait conflict, Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction.  Beheadings of kidnapped prisoners on You Tube. Getting my point?

So back to Syria, (see link below)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/05/syria-gas-attack-sobbing-father-cradles-dead-twins-19-family/

“More than 80 people have been killed” stated the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-39500947) on the 7th of April, the western world shocked by the death of Syrian civilians, many of them children, killed allegedly by Sarin gas, (I say allegedly because the powers that be are still arguing over the whos, whats and whys.). Was there, is there anger? Yes. Tears in the streets? Not many in the UK. We don’t cry over tragedy any more. Don’t be so outraged, we don’t. Think about it. Images of dead children don’t shock us as they once did.

Those iconic photos of Hiroshima/Nagasaki,  of Vietnam. You know the ones I mean, of the children  naked, burnt. These shocked , horrified ‘civilised’ society. These were rare images, today we witness daily horrific images in our newspapers, TV news and documentaries. In the films we watch even in some of our popular TV shows. Video sites have shown horrific images of executions, ok later removed or blocked.

We re desensitised. That screen in our home often doesn’t even warrant a glance as the news parades mages of the dead and dying. We skip past horrific images in our newspapers. Of course people still care, of course these things are still horrific. But it doesn’t affect us like it would have 50, 30, 10 years ago. Its a different world for those of us  living in the 21st century. I believe it’s a  sadder, less emotional world we now live in. It’s a world of poorer values. We have moral outrage but less moral responsibility. Ironically charities for famine, water, clothing and other aid  blanket these same channels. We feed off that screen on our wall, do we really watch it, take real notice of what its telling us? Do we question what we see on TV? Read in our newspapers, magazines? Social media once the bedrock of free speech along with the popular press now has false news stories. Fake news.

We are brainwashed. What should we believe? Who do we believe?

I call upon all you lovely people to ask what is happening in our world? To question what you look at.

In-fact  stop looking and start seeing. Stop hearing and start listening.

What difference does where you come from make?

 

 

Britain post Brexit is becoming a country of uncertainty for many newcomers to our shores and frankly also to those who’ve been here a while. The colour of someones skin, their accent, language, beliefs have no bearing on their right to be treated fairly, equally, with respect.

I’m hearing more and more people talking about sending “them” home, taking “our” jobs, “our” homes, “our” money, and “our” education.

“They get everything.”

Who are “they”?

I have contact daily with “them”…. Reality is very different. Whether asylum seeker, refugee, political, religious or financial immigrant.

Talking to someone from a country where freedom is not something available, where war is a 24 hour, 7 days a week, 12 months a year issue.  Where work opportunity is scarce or non-existent. Maybe  education a joke at best a fantasy at worst. Abuse and trauma a daily possibility in fact a probability. They come to the UK very often with nothing, no clothing apart from what they are wearing, no money, very few or no personal possessions: some without their family. Frightened, alone, and some unable to communicate.

If they are lucky their family is with them, or those that can be, through finance or circumstance.

 

Select one issue, education. We encourage, demand and rightly that newcomers learn the language of their newly adopted country.  That the culture, history, social skills are learned. Some of our newcomers were doctors, teachers, engineers, business owners or farmers in their homeland. Some have had little or no education.  Schools in a warzone or in a famine area are not commonplace, and take second, third place to shelter, medical care if that’s even available.

 

 

So we send them to college, charities help us teach them, government funds some of the education they need to survive in the UK. To integrate. What does education mean to them? They are individuals the same as the rest of us, a few fight it, don’t want it. Those are the few. Most soak it up like a sponge. It means freedom, opportunity and a chance they possibly have never had before. One gentleman, I’ll call him A, came from a warzone where his religion prevented him getting an education or work attended classes for three weeks, struggling with a complex often confusing language. He attended every day, arriving early for classes and working hard asking questions of his teacher. Circumstances meant he had to move to another city. His response to his teacher was “Thankyou for everything teaher. I will never forget you.”, and he cried. Why? Education was a lifeline he hadn’t been thrown before. This country had given him a chance, hope. The emotion in his voice told everything.

Women married at 13, their lives spent child rearing and caring for the family, now have the freedom to learn to read and write hopefully to work.

Yes “these people” want to work. Pay taxes, have a home, a car, a holiday… more than that many want to find lost families. They are not as a group of people any lazier than anyone else.

The argument that they are given everything when they arrive in this country is frankly a ridiculous lie. Go to the home of a newly arrived asylum seeker, a shared house maybe, a bedsit. Usually in a poor area of the city/town they’ve been assigned to. Private or council, if not furnished its second hand furniture from a charity. Also the only ones of “these” people who have cars are ones who work for them maybe some who are disabled.  I see working people daily, unemployed people daily, newcomers to the UK daily. Some have jobs, some own their own homes, some have cars, some go on holiday. Who am I talking about? I’m talking ordinary people.

Jobs: like the immigrants of the 1960s from Africa and the Caribbean countries they are stealing “our” jobs, poppycock, and balderdash. Offer the jobs like picking, packing, sorting, contract cleaning to the unemployed of this great nation and watch them laugh at you.

Back to my original point, the newspapers TVs are filled almost daily with stories of abuse and or violence towards newcomers to our shores. If you see anyone being abused, help them, intercede. The UK stands for equal rights, justice, freedom… doesn’t it? Is that for those lucky enough to be born here, the wealthy, for Christians or for everyone?

Bigotry, xenophobia, hate, intolerance have no place in 21^st century UK society.

Written by Philomath

Hello internet users of the world

Welcome to a new blog. Im new to this so a short introduction to myself and why I decided to start this page.

Im a middle aged married man with grandchildren. Im not political. Or thought I wasnt but Im finding myself increasingly annoyed by major events in this country(UK) and the world in general. As a 50 something ofcourse the little things annoy, anger me too.I have questions and opunions for my fellow man.

So a forum to discuss, ask questions, listen to your opinions was about due. I look forward to a healthy good natured debate.

Many thanks ‘Philomath’