Brussels, terrorism and the ramblings of an old man

Today has seen yet another terrorist act in the world this time in Brussels, but behind each of these events is a complex and often distorted set of viewpoints by those who commit these acts.  One of the great anomalies of mankind is the difference between those who have and those who have nothing. I am lucky I have a nice home and eat well and have the opportunity to learn and give my opinion. Hundreds of millions of people don’t get the same chances in life; many millions are often given little or no choice in even the basics of life.  Just look at the present state of Syria, hundreds of thousands of ordinary people are desperate to leave a country consumed by war and hate and see the rest of Europe as a possible safe place to go. Yet the rest of Europe are now looking to find ways of stopping these people arriving, with politicians justifying their reasons to refuse to help with various excuses and paying other countries to deal with the problem in order to be seen to be doing their bit to help. Events such as today's make it even harder for ordinary refugees from Syria to get to Europe as people become increasingly paranoid about the Muslims that live in Europe already.

Of course this is the very point of these bombings, they are perpetrated in order to encourage fear and hate between countries and religions which sadly appears to be working as time passes. I don’t know what that the answer is to these events as the people who undertake these terrorist acts do it because they believe they are right. Let’s face it no one is going to blow themselves up for a cause they don’t believe in.  Which brings us back to the great inequalities of the human race across the world, I can’t help but think part of the reason for extremist starts with a feeling of social injustice. The leaders of many terrorist groups prey on the vulnerable who feel pushed out of society or that society has suppressed them.  Maybe if there was less inequality  in the world it would be better but then groups like IS (ISIS or ISIL or whatever) appear to have little interest in inequality within their own group and seem to want a world based on fear and hate.

If we must have a world based on one religion and faith then in my opinion the best choice is Sikhism, it seems to tick most of the boxes to a better world. . . . . . . . .I think.

The Paris Attacks of 13th Nov 2015 . . . . A Personal View Point.

What kind of logic can justify the killing of so many people in Paris last night.  The So called Islamic State say it is revenge for what is being done in Syria but the logic behind that is foolish and distorted by hate and the few deranged minds that represent the IS leadership.  Just how they can say this is revenge for the war in Syria when they themselves are part of the reason the entire country is falling apart, is in my view madness. ISIS claim to be followers of the Quran but their cruelty hate and vengefulness are not the actions or responses of any true religion. If any religion is to have a long term future then tolerance of those you may not agree with must be one of its cornerstones. Once you say your God is a cruel God who wants you to kill and torture the non believers then that God is one of your own making to suit your own aims. If there is a God then I would like to hope that justice will finally be brought to those who brainwash suicide bombers into such barbaric actions as last night      

It probably is true that the actions of America, Britain and many other Western counties have not helped the situation in the Middle East and it is probably true that the turmoil left after the Iraq war left a window of opportunity for IS to establish itself. But once they started to kill and torture anyone and everyone who they see as non believers then the world was left with little choice but to intervene to try and save the lives of the innocent folk of the area. People need to remember one of the goals of ISIS is to establish a wall of hate between Muslin and Christian, they believe that in the chaos of a war of hate they will rise and take over the world.  I think their leaders have some crackpot idea similar to that of Pol Pot and we all know how well that worked out.

One of the great irony’s of this pointless act of hate is that it will probably force the counties of the West involved in Syria to carry on as they are. . .  I think it is also worth remembering that only a short time ago a Russian plane was blown up with over two hundred innocent Russians on board. And many many hundreds of thousands of ordinary Syrians have died or are now refuges as a result of the complex conflict in Syria and Iraq. I don’t know what the answer is, but I do know one thing ISIS do not represent the word of God in any shape or form.  The greatest thing we can do to stop ISIS is for folk of all nationalities, religions and faith to stand as one and help each other to make a better world. 

Yes I know as if that is going to happen any time soon.

Predictions, Pirates, Sailors, Syria and the End of the World (again)

I have cunningly disguised my bit of 3D art 

for now as it is not entirely finished 

I am back and not before time I can hear you all say . . . . OK I can at least pretend you are all pleased to see me back at the helm of my favourite steam powered PC; with its very annoying and overworked fan squeaking at me as it desperately tries to deal with the internet and my spelling.  Well it was a lovely week pondering the world down in South Wales in a semi secluded lodge near the coast. It was quite interesting watching the sailing folk as they clambered in and out of their assortment of boats, but I was left with one rather puzzling question by the end of the week. You see you would think of sailing folk as lean mean fighting machines leaping from mast to mast with daggers and swords held between their teeth like pirates of old. This however was far from the truth indeed. As most of the ones I saw were rather unfit and overweight and at least half of them seemed rather elderly. Maybe this is why traditional pirates died out as a species, as they were just unable to sing (sorry Swing) from ship to ship on ropes going HAR HAR HAR.

Now while I was away doing some arty stuff watching sailors? and thinking, I sort of remembered something from way way back about that chap Nostradamus, sadly folk keep doing sneaky stuff to his predictions to try and keep him up and running, but I do recollect he first said the start of the End of the World would happen back in 1990 something, and since then folk have lost interest (when it never happened) and just use Google instead to predict everything. But I’m sure I remember that it was all due to start going down hill with war in the Middle-East and I am certain Syria was the predicted flash point. Look this was a long time ago now, we have not chatted for ages on account of Mr Nostradamus not being entirely alive. In fact the last time we met he tried to eat my brains and groaned a lot which did make me suspicious back then.

OK back to the point Syria is in a bit of a mess at present and both Russia and the USA are trying to bomb it to bits while avoiding accidently bombing one another. Now there is no doubt that President Putin is far more gung ho than President Obama but if say Mr Trump became President Trump, then I suspect he would be up for a bit of brinkmanship against President Putin. Let’s face it they are not going to be buddies and chatting on the phone to deal with those tricky international issues.

So maybe that Mr Nostradamus might have been right about the End of the World starting in the Middle East after all. I plan to wrap my head in tin foil, write poetry and do some art while hiding under the dinning table. . . . . still it could be worse I could own a VW. 

The Great Paradoxes of Modern Life Part 4

The Great Paradoxes of Modern Life Part 4

1. . . . One Small Step for Man One Giant Leap for Mankind

2 . . Oooooo I dont like them let's fire this big rocket at them

Malaysian Plane (flight MH17), Russia, Ukraine and Politics and Truth

its a small world

As we all know, yesterday a Malaysian Plane (flight MH17) was apparently shot down over an area of Ukraine held by the Pro Russian Ukrainians with what is thought to be a Russian supplied ground to air missile system. And although they deny it the overwhelming evidence supports this view.  One could argue it is foolish to supply such a weapon to a rag tag amateur army who have appeared to be somewhat trigger happy in recent times. The Russians however would argue that they are supporting their colleagues over the border against the puppets of the decadent western powers.

We would have to assume that this was in many ways a terrible accident and that they really did think that the plane was a Ukrainian Transport plane, but it is no less sad and appalling for that.  However what I find just as bad is that, even though Russia must know who did this they seem to blame the Kiev Government for what happened. They are saying that it happened because the Ukrainians who want closer links to the west are attacking the pro Russian Ukrainians.  Interestingly they are not saying that the Pro Russian Ukrainians did not do it, and to me President Putin statement yesterday seemed very chilled, I am glad he is not my leader, although I am not a fan of the one I have either or the potential future ones.

Wars are not nice, terrible thing have and will always happen, but it does not mean that people should not be brought to account for their actions when it is possible to do so. The innocent with no say or involvement should not die or be tortured because of the power struggles of others.  Maybe the people of power such as President Putin should consider morality a little more and be honest about events like this and tell the truth.  

I live in ever declining hope that one day the human race will be better than it presently is, 

The Principles of War . . . A Conspiracy Theory

Have you noticed that throughout history from the very first days of mankind us humans have had a bit of a habit of fighting one another, at a local level we fight one another outside the local pub. But we also fight in gangs running up and down streets and we then move on to the big stuff where huge groups fight one another over countries and finally countries fight one another with pointy sticks and large scary things that make large bangs.

Have you ever wondered why, well the first reason is it is a DNA thing we cant help it, it is a deep dark basic instinct from the days when man was still a small sea based beast doing his bit to survive. But there is another reason, well certainly one linked to the reason counties seem to attack one another with great gusto every now and again on the flimsiest of pretexts. . . . . . YES we are talking conspiracy theories (I am rather good at these).  

You see if you run a large country full of folk and all is sort of OK-ish all that happens is folk start fighting each other. They can’t help it, it is as I have said DNA triggered and beyond control. If you are in charge, it is not good having folk fighting because they start to blame you, the weather, the buses, taxes, seagulls, or the state of the economy.  So to avoid the masses turning on you and making life difficult the solution is to point the finger of blame on another countries, this has advantages for the leaders of the other country too, who can distract there own folk by blaming  you back.  Have you noticed that at any point in recent history there has always been a bad guy, until the mid eighties the East and West could blame each other or both point at China. Then that all sort of fell apart we all became friends and China made all this cool stuff dead cheap, them we had Iraq, Iran, Syria and the middle east, but that has all got so complicated no one understands it anymore, there was Afghanistan, but it is rocky bleak place and the folk there have been fighting each other for over two hundred years and will be doing so for at least the same again whether we like them of hate them.  We have even all blamed North Korea but  . . . . . . and I mean no disrespect to North Korea as a whole  . . . . they are rubbish and run by a tyrannical despot who is a mad as a hatter (purely my own option and I may be entirely wrong).

So we have been put in a situation where the political leaders have been worrying for ages about who we should shout at and attack next, in order to keep the folks at home happy. Who could possibly be the next bad guy.  I suspect at the last big meeting of the G8, G10, G20 they were all talking about the good old days of the iron curtain when folk knew where they stood, and them over there were the despicable rotters and we could build big walls and spy on one another and march about and wave flags.

Then some bright spark thought Hang ON CHAPS I have an idea what about if we have a bit of a crisis in say Crimea . . . . . . . . . . And all the leaders cheered and said we could build walls again and point pointy sticks at one another and build huge scary things that go bang. However President Putin said I don’t suppose there is any chance if we CAN leave it until after the winter Olympics, I have spent loads of money building stuff and everyone agreed it would be for the best, but as soon as they were over it would be tally ho with all guns blazing . . . . . . . . .

   

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