To sum it all up then.....it's not been a great year, has it? When you think about Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria and Palestine there's two things that strike me. The first is the terrible atrocities which continue to happen there (which I feel I can do absolutely nothing about), and the second is the two-faced, self-serving, prevaricating, dithering, hand-wringing way in which "the West" continues to behave. The UN has become a total joke. The grounds on which "interventions" in these conflicts are made (or not made), and the weasel words which are used to "explain" these decisions, are frankly unbelievable. Rarely is it about logic or humanity or morality. Usually it's about politics, or economics, or national advantage.
The US has lost any credibility it might ever have had for world "leadership". Just look at what it allows to happen in its own back-yard - the destructive two-party politics, its economic crash-and-burn approach to life, the neglect of people on its own streets, its lack of proper medical care for the poor & under-privileged, its monumentally stupid gun laws.
Bankers? The Press? The Rich? The Politicians? They all continue to make it a shitty time to be alive. They do not deserve our respect, nor should they be allowed to continue to talk & behave the way they do.
What to do about it? Recognise it. Understand it. Interpret it into real language & decode the spin. Realise that these people are unlikely to behave any better unless we all work, day by day, in our own little way to stop them. Challenge what they say. Confront them. Ask hard questions. Vote with your feet and your spending power. Indulge in your own random acts of kindness, decency and straight talking. But above all - don't let the bastards grind you down!
A Happy and Kinder New Year to All................Andy
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