Last night I sat entranced at the bright red sky as the sun went down. Had I not been otherwise occupied I may have tries to get outside and capture the sky. Around half nine the sky was still stunning and I attempted pityfully to capture the night. It was almost like this. I awoke at ten past four this morning and found the sky lighter and still stunning. How wonderful this time of the year can be, if it doesn't rain or cloud over.
Of course as the sun shone I was inside the museum meeting good people and watching the boss work three peoples jobs. I could not help while working the shop, most unfortunate. The school was good, cheery kids.
I had to rush home because the man was coming to check out the sink that had sunk. Naturaly he came after two as planned, around five actually as not planned. They had been working in Camoludunum. Once here they quickly decided the job would entail replacing the entire unit, this meant a big job in a narrow space and both agreed it was time for going home. So this will be replaced in time, probably a long time, and I will struggle on with the damaged tap until he can work up the courage and time to do the job.
I might leave home while they do it!
Another outrage in Manchester, not the first they have suffered. The media are filling spaces with masses of speculation and little substance so I am avoiding them. When I awake at four this morning I heard the early news and the guesswork as to what was happening. I gave up as they began the tedious repeating of the same question to different people to get the same story over and over with little understanding of what was going on. This is not journalism just filling air time.
So what are we to do, what are we to make of this killing of around 22 people and wounding of dozens of others? The rest of the audience, mostly adolescent and teenage girls, will be somewhat traumatised for years after this. The apparent lack of stewards to guide or control them after the event was worrying and a greater disaster was avoided by luck it appears to me.
Today everyone is 'standing with Manchester' as you might expect. This is good but we must ask will it happen again and why does it happen?
The UK and the French, then the USA have been kicking Arabs about for over two hundred years. The needs of Empire, or just greed, have ensured the woshes of what was considered the backward Arabs was of no importance to London or Paris. The greater game was their concern and the dying Ottoman Empire and Arab opinion dd not count.
Britain and France under the Sykes-Picot agreement, with Russian acceptance, divided the dead Ottoman Empire between themselves after the Great War. The only Arabs considered worthy of discussion were lied to and their understanding of the situation totally amended to suit the agreement. They were not happy.
The resultant creation of several new nations, not all split thoughtfully enough it must be said, has led to nothing but war, assassination and bad feeling ever after.
Now in more recent times to save the west from the nasty Iranians under the Ayattollah the Americans (That nice Mr Rumsfeld again) gave the Iraqis help when fighting Iran and ignored the million or two dead and dying because they were not 'us' and anyway far away. What could possibly go wrong?
Well Saddam did not play ball for a start, the first Gulf War causing many thousands of deaths, but mostly Arabs, the second, needless, war cost more and being badly managed by Rumsfeld and Cheney led to the break up of Iraq, the growth of Al-Queda and Islamic State and how many other Islamic type groupings.
Now add Obamas desperate attepmt, an attempt desired by most in the US, to bring his troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan and see the fear rise in Saudi Arabia at the growth of Iran and their nuclear weapons. Result? The war against Syria led and paid for by Saudi's using ISIS and all the others to break up a peaceful and more tolerant state than Saudi Arabia. The result of this is the growth of ISIS and their attempt to build up and take over Saudi!
It gets confusing from here on so I will let you guess the rest.
Now we have young men in many places convinced they ought to be strict Muslims fed a diet of radical teaching by persons unknown. Those less competent as well as those who should know better respond to this as young men do who wish to change the world. Many have died fighting in the Middle East. Others have attempted action in the UK with only police action defeating them and usually with information from Islamic sources. Fed a belief that dying makes you a martyr and glory awaits encourages many to enlist. Young men respond to this and some take action.
Whoever took action last night considers his act worthy of his faith. With Muslim men, women and children killed by the west he considers his actions defending his faith. Any Muslim killed would be seen as a martyr also, others merely unbelievers. The fact that most were young girls will not deter him, the Middle East has seen many such suffer terribly over the years from Muslims and a few westerners would not cause the conscience much trouble.
We cannot defeat this behaviour by force. It requires propaganda and actions to stabalise the Middle East and deal with each nations fears. There appears little suggestion of such happeneing these days. The US has just sold billions of dollars worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, no doubt also to Israel, and anyone else who toes the western line. That will not ensure peace.
I thought I had a conclusion to put in here and I discovered I have none. All that is in my mind remains the thousands of Muslims who die this way and we care not. Baghdad, Beirut, Kabul anywhere in Pakistan all suffer outrages and most are not reported in the west. We stand with one another in the west heightening the separation of two sides, each outrage polarising opinion and killing sensible debate on both sides.
No wonder people read the media for easy answers.
