Not just our own children, but to all children, everywhere.
There are 6.5 million children under the age of 15 living in Ukraine, 15% of the population. In Iraq 2003-2006 1/3rd of all violent deaths were of children under the age of 15.
We adults, every last one of us, no exception, have a first duty of care to all the children, all of them, everywhere. This is a collective, species level responsibility.
I think that any adult who fails to see this is perhaps a little immature. There, I've said it. Do you get me? There's a significant sector of the adult world that is failing all our children. The War Makers and Wealth Extractors and their operatives.
Which is what the Ukrainian and the Russian Governments, the EU and the News Media all appear to be doing right now. Talking up escalation. Send in more weapons, send in more fighters. No-fly zones and Nuclear Options. War, war, war! More war! Viaggro?
I am really, really upset. I am angry, sad, disgusted and pissed off, I detest the war makers. I know the Laws that prohibit war, I familiarised myself with them after the invasion of Iraq, in 2003, and the Russian invasion is clearly a War Crime, and therefore Russia must be opposed, no question. Russia has no case. It's a dreadful thing, that the Russians continue to advance into Ukraine. I do not know what can be do to impede that advance, and of course Ukraine has the right to defend herself, under the same legal domain that prohibits wars of aggression.
What appals me is that there are no serious level headed discussions on how to achieve Peace outside Ukraine. The talk of more war seems to me to be adding fuel to the fire.
No discussions on calling for Peace can be heard on on our News Channels, I do not hear them in our Legislatures, nor are there prayers for Peace in our Churches and Temples, or if there are such discussions and prayers then I am not aware of them.
If there are such calls, they are not getting the air time they deserve, they are not being heard on an equal footing, for 'balance'.
I know they should be happening, I wish to contribute to them. That is why I write this blog and perform my music. I want a world living without warfare, living in peace and living in a humane mutually nurturant dynamic.
However, this past week I mostly hear breathless, excited discussions about how to win wars, be it civilians with Molotov Cocktails, the numbers and types of weapons to be supplied to defend Ukraine, or the sanctions necessary to cripple the Russian aggressors economy, or the aspirations of budding foreign fighters rushing to the so called International Brigade.
What about the children?
I understand those discussions about more war, self defence, defending a smaller country, defending democracy - I get it all. And whilst I support the sanctions, of course, I know that probably the majority of Russian civilians do not support the war, and that sanctions may well have an adverse impact upon their welfare, as the sanctions are aimed at those people, to nudge them to do something about their ruling class, and so I try to keep that in mind too.
When the warmakers reduce the thing to leaders, Assad, Putin, Blair, Mao, Stalin it obscures the reality of ordinary people trapped by circumstance of birth.
Ordinary people, on all sides, always pay the price. Dresden and Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Fallujah, Homs, Allepo, Gaza.
How can we avoid or prevent that dynamic?
For that reason I oppose escalating the war, I do not want to see thousands upon thousands of civilians murdered in war, I do not want to see cities and towns destroyed and left empty save for fighters and soldiers, tanks and artillery and rotting corpses.
We adults have a first duty of care to all our children, even before our countries.
An Irishman recites a poem 'The Box' by Abercrombie Lascalles, an English Poet. Stop for a moment, and listen to this and feel the need for peace. Then read on.
My perspective, where my heart lives.
Even as war is underway, it is more important than ever to look to how we can achieve peace. Nobody 'wins' in war, some people survive, that's all that really happens, especially when we have a culture where warfare is accepted as a tool of foreign policy of 'great powers', and is also a business model.
Scilla Esleworthy is someone who understands this need, having worked in conflict zones for many decades, helping to de-escalate conflict, helping people to find routes towards achievable peace. This is a Ted Talk that Scilla presented that is absolutely on point and entirely pertinent right now.
During WWI, before conscription, English women were groomed to hand out White Feathers to those who openly objected to fighting in the Oligarchs war. Those objectors were the among the most honest, courageous citizens of all. Also the most sensible. Refugees who flee before the bombs destroy their homes and villages are being wise, and often it is those who can afford to flee who do. The poor tend to wait until they have no other choice. Another layer of inequity, one that is rarely discussed.
True civilian courage
Chernihiv region, citizens are blocking the roads with their own bodies, they have stopped a Russian advance.#RussiaUkraineWar#Ukraine#StopWarInUkraine
— PrayForUkraine.live | Donate Now In Crypto (@PrayforukraineC) March 1, 2022
#Kyiv pic.twitter.com/CUgB13labg
Workers on strike?
The Russian soldiers ought to go on strike, knowing their leaders have forced them into committing a war crime, and their legal duty is to resist that, to object and refuse to follow the order to commit that crime. They should be given that option.
Invasion is An act of Aggression, which is the supreme war crime, in that it contains all other war crimes. All war crimes flow from that act of aggression.
There are a number of laws prohibiting war fare, international treaties and national legislation. The existence of these Laws is not routinely a matter of concern in out Schools and news media.
Applying the Law, equitably to achieve and sustain Peace.
We must understand that even those defending their country will inevitably commit war crimes. Indeed, in this instance War Crimes have been committed in and around the Donbas region for the past 8 years by Ukrainians on both 'sides' of that war, as well as by Russian forces.
We are all of us in this together and everything is connected. That is the nature of living on a finite planet, sharing a common biosphere.
Hypocrisy undermines Peace.
That hypocrisy is part of the problem, and the hypocrisy blocks progress towards peace everywhere.
Toxic Bully Cult
The entire competing militarised industrialised powers dynamic is cruelty and psychopathy institutionalised, and it is workers taxes that fund war, and it is workers who die fighting and it is workers and their families who are obliterated as 'collateral damage'.
Corneilius
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3 comments:
Enjoyed reading your blog. Agree with much of what you say - especially focus on Law enforcement and how easy it is for people to hang on to coat-tails of the corrupt and powerful. There is also a very strong narrative that needs to be broken about how in human history the "top dog" acts ruthlessly to retain his power at any cost - that's just how it is. This is certainly a strong theme in western cultural but just wonder what a new narrative looks like - one that starts to seriously question the old and pushes us towards a new brighter vison for humanity. I sense the younger generation are more a tuned, however they don't seem to see the upcoming dangers while many in the west live in a secure environment and the technology is now making them even more apathetical. I could go on on ... best Bharat Patel
Absolutely agree with your points mentioned in this post. The children in every place should be received equal treatments and rights. Therefore, the war escalation or any problems preventing children from developing normally should be stopped.
Thank you for your comments.
to 'Unknown' - spot on, we need to examine this theme of the Top Dog psychology being a 'norm'. I is not, it is a distortion.
To APKfun - a culture that genuinely centered on the welfare of children's development as a way to ensure a peaceful adult culture is really important.
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