War

I’m sure you are all aware, by whatever digital media you frequent, that there has of late been a notable increase in the number and size of war(s). With the many countries, clans, tribes, organisations and now businesses Involved in conflict, I find that I am less and less sure who is fighting and why. This, I think, is problematic. But what disturbs me more is not the fact that wars are going on - I think that there will be no end of wars for quite some time yet - but rather what occurred in a certain TV program I recently watched. This program brought up something, albeit surreptitiously, that I thought was long dead. The program used a fear tactic with regards to the current ISIS situation. It was reasonably well crafted and managed to maintain the style that the program is known for, but the underlying message bothered me. It boiled down to this: ISIS is not only coming, they are already here (USA) and want your pretty innocent daughters to rape, beat, and execute. You should be afraid and support the war.

I had thought that society had moved passed this; I didn’t think that the yellow peril were advancing or the reds were hiding under the desk anymore. But here we are, back in the 1940s and ’50s, fear mongering rife through the media. But this time there is a difference. In the previous wars both hot and cold, people had a modicum of privacy; they could discuss issues freely within their own home, car or workplace without fear of having every word recorded, categorised and interrupted by super computers.

I get it, don’t get me wrong, it’s a great tool for recruiting, for gaining public acceptance and promoting the various wars. And let’s not forget, the tech behind all of this is massively advancing the personal computing experience with cell phones, watches, car/device integration, automatic photo tagging, GPS and google maps. All of these are wonderful and I gain great pleasure from them, but the origins for many of this was born from a culture of fear - a need to know where a particular person was, who they were; a need to discreetly communicate and carry that information anywhere In the world at a moment’s notice.

All this is a little terrifying when you stand back and look at it. But this is the world into which we were born. But this, while interesting, is not the purpose of this post. The purpose of this post is to note my discomfort with the happenings of the last few days. As I write this, a second pilot has been found after the shooting (for lack of a better term) of the Russian Jet that allegedly crossed into Turkish airspace. Whether or not the crossing actually occurred, the response continues to mount on both sides. Russia seems once again to be positioning itself at odds with NATO, and seems to be preparing for war with Turkey, which is a little terrifying.

Russia is huge, Turkey, not so much. Go ahead – have a look on a map. I’ll wait.

A war between these two countries I fear would be a little one-sided with Turkey’s goose being somewhat cooked. There is of course a worse outcome. I imagine all of you will at least have heard of the Korean War; this war was essentially a Russia/China VS USA war in the guise of a civil war, but neither side declared (at least overtly) that the war was as such. But if Russia attacks Turkey and the USA comes to the aid of Turkey (as I think they are required to under NATO agreements) we could have an overt USA VS Russia war. This outcome terrifies. I thought that the anti-terror TV program was bad enough, but I’m sure the real thing would be awful, bloody and long, or worse: quick.

Now usually at this point in the post there would be a call to action, a thing to do, to say, to give money to. But not this time. I don’t know how to change the mind of angry leaders of the world or how to stop (perhaps) overly enthusiastic missile operators from firing. So perhaps we should all just watch, wait, and see what happens next. My suggestion to you is to watch from more than one media source and to form your own opinion on these matters, keep informed so that you know what has happened and what might happen next. And please remember that New Zealand has participated in such wars in the past. 

France

It’s awful, it’s horrible, it’s brutal, it’s a crime against all humanity. And it happens every day.

It was a long, long time ago – so long ago it seems most don’t remember already. Don’t get me wrong – I know it’s hard to remember – but can you remember 2400? I don’t think that that should be too hard; it’s a relatively easy number to remember. 2400 was January; specifically, it was the number of people who died from terrorist attacks in January. Don’t believe me? Fair enough, neither would I, so here is a source. 

By now you’ve probably read something about how awful it is that we don’t remember all of the other countries that have this sort of thing all the time, so I won’t start that – perhaps a better question is why we care so much about France?

I think it’s because France is what we would consider an “old” country. Iraq, Iran, Israel, even The US are all relatively new countries. But France, France was conquered by the Romans. It has history.

People trace their lineage back through France. It had musicals written about revolutions, great lines that are often quoted; “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

So we mourn for France, we mourn for the dead because of its age, because of the wars they fought, because of the history, and because they are “white” – and it doesn’t happen all the time. Yet.

But the truth is that this sort of thing is happening more and more often - remember the Paris riots? The Arab Spring? The London bombing? So much happening so often in so many places.

Now we are told that the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for this current attack, and as I write this I see another claim on the internet that the US has just killed a head of the IS. So where does this all end? The IS bomb a country, the US kills a head – but they seem like the Hydra of the myth of old: cut off one head and 2 more grow back.

It is now that I point out, all prejudice aside, that it seems all of these groups are Muslim. Now that doesn’t excuse any other religion. The Christians are responsible for so much death that it’s almost incalculable. The crusades alone are responsible for millions of deaths.

But I’m not changing my Facebook profile pic to the French flag. I’m not French. I’m also not changing it to the Israeli flag, though I thought about it, just to spite people.

New Zealand hasn’t had a terrorist attack, of the modern variety at least, so I can’t really speak to what that would do to our nation. But I’m not sure that the response would be as large as the response to the French attacks have been. We are not an old country; we are not well known in the world and I’m not sure we would get a speech from the President of the US of A quite as moving as the one given recently.

So let’s not get caught up in all of the hype, let’s not change our profile pics in a desperate urge to follow the crowd. Let’s really not use the “peace” symbol with the Eiffel tower in it – because if we know one thing about France in New Zealand it is that they are not anti-nuclear, which by the way is what that symbol really stands for. I do encourage you to pray. Pray for peace, pray for yourself.

But just to keep you up at night here is a question for you: why hasn’t an attack happened on Kiwi soil yet? We have good clean country, great farmland, so-so infrastructure, so-so politics, no real security to speak of, so why not here?

Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.

They will live again in freedom in the garden of the Lord
They will walk behind the ploughshare, they will put away the sword.
The chain will be broken and all men will have their reward...