Reeling

I think this has been about the longest time I haven't blogged . There are a number of reasons, amongst which, in this day and age my wifi access has been less than I would have liked, but also this last week has also been filled with horror at the unfolding events in Paris and Syria, both places I  view with a special fondness and a kind of love really. My friend Christine on the outskirts of Paris, described  their feeling about the  events as a  numbness- no one is talking,they are walking but in some kind of automaton fashion. And though I am horrified, I am at a remove  and  then there are many other horrendous bomb attacks and acts of terrorism elsewhere in Beirut and Iraq.

Turn off if you don't like any discussion of these issues surrounding these horrific events- and my thoughts are first and foremost  with the victims, their families and friends,and my sincerest condolences to them. My views are coloured by pacifism.

Of course the discussion about the consequences into the future have taken on many angles from extreme racism and anti refugee sentiments to a more tolerant view. For my part I don't understand the existence of this supposed nation, which I won't name because it is a terrorist organisation not a nation,  and which  the press perpetuates the myth of existing as a nation. I must say I was in Syria when  the "war" first started- just a few days prior to this war starting I happened to be in a room with a southern Christian, an Alowite and a sunny muslim,all three men were deeply concerned about their country , all three men included me in the discussion  as they knew I was deeply interested , but they all expressed the same sentiment , which was not knowing what was happening in their country, there wasn't any animosity amongst them, despite their different factions , just concern. We discussed the Al Jazeera reporting and all felt it was slanted and not true of what we were experiencing, and were certain that the reporting of everything everywhere else in the west, was quite different to what they/we were experiencing. For example a reported riot in Hama on a night I was there in fact was not a riot but football fans celebrating a win for their Hama soccer team and it certainly did not go on all night as reported.There were mobile phone shots of young men on the street with flags, which there were, but it was not a riot. And since when has mobile phone shots/video been reporting? At that time ( 2011) the concern was the Kurdish refugees on Syrias northern borders and many Iraqi refugees - some almost 2 million Khurdish  and Iraqi refugees, and of course on southern borders many Palestinian refugees. Syria, a country of maybe 21 million people housed some 3 million refugees the last time I visited, which i considered a remarkably humanitarian response to the many difficult issues on their borders. I am trying not to make judgements because the many issues are so complex and I am not an expert though certainly my view is pacifist and liberal, but as I listened to talk back radio today one  listener suggested that the real issue we were not addressing was "arms", arming militants and other extremists, and even  using arms in any way at all- the radio host whom I thought would have been  more liberal in his response, recoiled from this suggestion and responded with well they are there... the arms I mean and they ( who is they?) buy them- but the issue is ( surely?) someone sells them don't they? I think ultimately it is at the bottom of many of the issues - what better way to promote arms than the need to bomb someone who you might have armed in the first place....and who makes money out of the sale of arms because ultimately at the bottom of every war, despite the propaganda of what  is or isn't morally right  ( and most faiths have remarkably similar ethics) the war machine which makes money for a certain elite who profit from these events just keeps churning on and in its churning grinds innocent human lives.. Yes my view of the world is cynical because  I have studied history and read a lot of George Orwell, and I would have to say that most wars have been fueled by money and we haven't learnt a single thing from history. Sometimes I think they, those that war monger should just  inhabit a sinking atoll and let the war mongering idiots at it against each other- and not innocents who just want to raise a family and live quietly and be human.

And I have had time to ponder as I have moved down to my shed and have  little wifi access and have time to think and read. There has been lots of grass mowing and trying to make space in a shed which  was cluttered with the stuff of other people.

This is the view  towards the back of
my block. it's lovely but the grape vines need tending and the blackberries have gotten a bit out of control. I should have done more work over these last few years but I had really hoped it would sell. I have made a reading corner  on my verandah of the shed, and with no internet distractions I have been reading a lot, but I also have no power and water.It's also been  lightening and thunderstorm weather with quite a lot of rain. I must say since my visit to India I have remembered to be frugal with water (we certainly were when I was a child and we had tank water only) and well a lot can be managed with a gas stove and candle light , and then you can always sleep with the falling  dark and wake with the dawning morning- as if the birds would let you sleep through the morning! And it is almost summer and the days are long. I had forgotten the riotous sounds of a myriad  birds in the morning!