This is the sixth time I have attempted to write my blog. So far, I
have come up with nothing worth reading because I cannot move past Theoden’s
quote from Lord of the Rings:
‘So
much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?’
Sadly, this is a quote for our times.
Theoden died fighting evil and was avenged by a
girl and a hobbit.
I leave you with this message:
Don’t
underestimate women or peace-loving little people.
4 comments:
I feel I'm living inside one of those dystopian futuristic novels - religion + technology? No, things couldn't possibly go that way, but they have - we're fighting a lethal mythology, and I have no answers. Ban all religions? But people are hardwired to believe, and they'd all go underground, and some would inevitably get nasty. The only answer is education, with an emphasis on a kind, all-embracing humanistic philosophy.
Totally agree. ��
When I come here, I try to put my political head away for a while: I find the language of politics tends to deaden. However...
When I was 22 years old, I was headed for computer work at GCHQ. They did their security checks, and the MOD invited me to work somewhere slightly less sensitive. A nearby RAF base. Many of the RAF people there were in their 30's and 40's. With little prompting they told me about some of their experiences in the latter stages of Empire. The behaviour of the soldiery when confronted by local rebellion in places such as Aden, Steamer Point. Or the Flight Lieutenant who, almost 20 years prior, had been in the Colonial Service in Kenya at the time of the Mau Mau uprising. Of seeing a one A4 sheet of paper which described the charge against a man, of being in possession of one bullet. The next few lines described a brief 'trial', and the last words were that the execution had taken place.
I supplemented my income by by pumping gas at a petrol station. The manager had been a soldier in WW2. Of his time in Burma, he described the herding of captured Japanese prisoners into a jungle clearing, and then hand grenades thrown in.
At 28 years old, I worked in Dublin, and soon heard from my Irish girlfriend, from Dundalk on the border with the North, about the behaviour of the B-Special constabulary as Britain sought to contain revolt.
At 31 years old, working in Brunei, I learned that the Sultan, with defence taken care of by Britain, still held prisoner people who had been involved in the 1964 uprising 20 years before.
At 34 years old, just about to leave Brunei, someone, supposedly from my employer, although I'd never seen or heard of him before, arrived from the UK, and invited me for a drink at the local big hotel. Over a bottle of Tiger beer, he asked me if I would be interested to work in Baghdad, writing programs for the Mukhābarāt, Saddam Hussein's intelligence services. Although the sum total of what I knew about that part of the world was what I had read in 'Lawrence of Arabia', I didn't much like the sound of this, and aside from the fact that I just wanted to be back in the UK, in my own home, with a curry or fish supper in my lap, feet up on the coffee table, and something good on the TV..........,
mention of mukhabarat conjured up visions of people hanging from hooks on a wall.
"Not really interested in that, thanks" He then asked me to name my price.
I declined again, and that was the end of it. ( My next project was with the NHS )
What I'm taking a long time to say, is that with the long history that this country has in its colonies, and the backing of dictators right through to the modern day selling of arms to countries where human rights are a sick joke, it's long overdue that the UK took a long hard look at itself.
The chickens really have come home.
And the required education is more than just for people with robes and beards.
Duh... the book was of course Seven Pillars of Wisdom, not Lawrence of Arabia.
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