Dear Val,
Today we feel sickened ...
Here we are in our oasis of peace & plenty where we all have enough to eat in a world where the number of obese people is the same as the number of those dying of starvation, a little oasis of mostly middle class, mostly well educated people where increasing xenophobia & hatred are acceptable. Where Carolyn can compare her car breakdown & subsequent adventure with the plight of penniless people fleeing for their lives, where Brian can be paranoid about an imaginary tax increase which could be used to help people in this land of relative plenty. An oasis where fear, hatred & right wing politics are becoming right on. As expats we are ALL immigrants, we just happen to have the luck to be born with either the right passport or the right colour.
A lot of us have at some point in our family history a relative or friend who suffered oppression & picked up sticks to escape brutality, many leaving family, friends & everything they owned behind. To the Brians & Carolyns of this world you try to imagine that, really imagine that, can't can you? no didn't think so.
"Why would we want these young men who wouldn't fight for their own countries coming to ours" asks Carolyn? Well i would imagine that as their own countries have mostly been bombed back to the stone age by modern weapons "hearts & minds" (don't let us forget this) i suppose if they could if they were lucky they could pick up a carbine to shoot a drone above at 60,000 ft, ha, ha, ha! or would it be a drain pipe posing as a weapon of mass destruction...
A lot of us have been on marches, signed petitions, donated money towards causes that we've deemed worthy... then to rest on our laurels many years on & site being part of those causes as giving one the right to invoke fear & hatred is disgusting. We as human beings have the ability & the capacity to make the world a better place. I was bought up to believe " Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself."
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
"First they came ..." is a famous statement and provocative poem written by Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the cowardice of German intellectuals following the Nazis' rise to power and the subsequent purging of their chosen targets, group after group. Many variations in the spirit of the original have been published in the English language. It deals with themes of persecution, guilt and responsibility.
Has anything changed? Probably not.,..
And on the same tack .... "Wikipedia drone strikes in Pakistan"
Pakistan's Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, has repeatedly demanded an end to the strikes, stating: "The use of drones is not only a continual violation of our territorial integrity but also detrimental to our resolve and efforts at eliminating terrorism from our country".[16] The Peshawar High Court has ruled that the attacks are illegal, inhumane, violate the UN charter on human rights and constitute a war crime.[17] The Obama administration disagrees, contending that the attacks do not violate international law and that the method of attack is precise and effective.
There is a debate regarding the number of civilian and militant casualties. An estimated 286 to 890 civilians have been killed, including 168 to 197 children.[6][8] Amnesty International found that a number of victims were unarmed and that some strikes could amount to war crimes.
WOULD YOU FIGHT OR WOULD YOU FLEE?
Thank you Val for your sound sense, i am just going to ring Jackie at Lauzerte, we would be ashamed not to help.
Very best Laura & Sid
