There’s violence
and there’s violence
Iraqi insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was a violent
man, prepared to kill anyone, behead anyone, be ruthless for
the cause. But when we saw a framed photo of his head, killed
by a US airstrike in Iaq, it was just like the medieval practise
of putting a head on a spike; ‘here he is, we got him,
let this be a warning to you’.
There are many different kinds of violence.
The ruthless violence of insurgents in Iraq is one kind of
violence. The ruthless violence of US and allied bombing in
Iraq is another, or the destruction of a city like Falluja.
In the case of the Haditha massacre it sounds like US troops
may have been high on drugs and/or alcohol – more than
shades of Vietnam. The difference between killing someone
at close quarters or killing them from a gunship or fighter
plane hundreds or thousands of metres away is only in the
ease with which the perpetrators of the latter may be able
to feel emotional distance; the effect, death and destruction,
is the same, or possibly worse, comparable to no warning car
or suicide bombs.
The western world needs to rethink its violence
– which of course includes the passive violence of poverty,
global injustice, global warming and so on – and how
it relates to the rest of the world. Bush and Blair thought
they were doing a noble, decent thing in going into a war
in Iraq (despite what many people told them) and found themselves
up to their knees in blood. They thought they were making
another part of the world safe for democracy when what they
were doing was allowing sectarianism to flourish.
The leading superpower or superpowers of the
world have always, but always, had a misplaced notion of their
role and how others see them (which leaves little excuse for
Tony Blair to back Bush, beyond the faded trappings of Britain’s
‘white man’s burden’). But wealth could
be used differently, not to impose military ‘solutions’
which are merely imposing more intransigent problems but to
liberate humanity through clean drinking water, a halt to
further causes of global warming, and support for justice
of all kinds. With the UK set to spend £25 billion,
or possibly more, on a replacement for their Trident nuclear
weapons system this is not just a question for the USA. With
a policy which looked to share with, rather than shaft, the
world, the USA and UK would discover have true friends, rather
than interests, all over the globe.
Last chance salon
Once more the Northern Ireland Assembly has a ‘last
chance’ as it runs until November. As we have often
said before, it is never the ‘last chance’ –
there is always another one beyond. But, that said, the faster
that an assembly is up and running the better for the North.
The Good Friday Agreement system did not itself set up a brilliant
piece of political infrastructure but it is good enough to
be going on with, and hopefully in the fullness of time something
which is more satisfactory for the long term can emerge.
The DUP is still playing hard ball and shows
no sign of being willing to cooperate with others at this
stage. This uncooperativeness is a mixture of principle and
a desire to show who’s boss now. But while there is
always another chance you can also miss the boat – and
have to wait for another one to come in. And missing the boat
is dangerous because others who have also missed the boat
may decide to engage in other activities; there is, for example,
no serious problem in people drifting from Sinn Féin
to join republican groups not supporting ceasefires but it
happens and it is not impossible that defections could prove
problematic in the future, especially if Sinn Féin
has nothing to show for its dedication to the Good Friday
agreement. This is not a scenario unfolding at the moment
but it is not impossible.
The British government’s only attempted
carrot to date has been a promise that if the Executive is
back up and running at Stormont by November they and the Assembly
can decide the fate of the North’s education system
(the current plan is to get rid of post-11+ selection but
the two large unionist parties are keen to retain it). However,
until the DUP decides to work together with others, and that
would still mean Ian Paisley coming out for power-sharing,
the prospect is simply more direct rule from Britain for the
North
Meanwhile public opinion has shown itself more
for its silence and apathy than anything. The 1998 Good Friday
Agreement emerged because for a brief while politicians felt
the pressure from their supporters and ‘the public’
to make compromises for the common good. Unless public pressure
builds up – including among DUP supporters who actually
found local rule appealing when it operated – to support
a resolution, Ian Paisley and the DUP are likely to sit on
their political laurels for some time yet.
Eco-Awareness Eco-Awareness
Larry Speight brings us his monthly column:
Food Security
I notice on my almost daily journeys through
the Ulster countryside that except for crops grown in the
occasional polyester tunnels, often set on a concrete base,
little farming is taking place. One can travel for miles and
see fields without crops growing in them, fields without grazing
horses, donkeys, cattle or sheep. The occasional farmer that
I do see during the summer months is in a machine cutting
grass for hay. It would seem as if a pestilence has struck
the land, that a disease has killed most of the people. Certainly
a peasant farmer from a drought stricken country in Africa
would be nothing less than amazed by the absence of farming
on such green and fertile fields. Visual evidence would suggest
that farming in Ulster, if not the whole island, is a declining
occupation. One reason is the origin of most of the food on
sale in shops. Our daily fare of lettuce, tomatoes, carrots,
cabbage, cucumber, peas and potatoes, not to mention a whole
range of fruit and herbs, are imported from abroad. It does
not occur to most shoppers that this mass importation of food,
while our fields lie fallow, is a sign that the international
economic order is askew, and dangerously so.
While it is good for the health of the land
that no chemicals are being spread, wild flowers are able
to grow and insects multiply, for the Earth as a whole, the
decline of farming in Ireland is an ecological disaster. Crops
grown on an industrial scale in the poor countries of the
world such as Brazil, Kenya and the Philippines, sustained
by an array of toxic chemicals and mined water, then flown
thousands of miles, transported hundreds more by road, is
nothing less than an assault on our fragile planet, most especially
in regard to the global warming emissions involved. The disaster
that awaits us is that when this oil-based food is no longer
available because of high oil prices and water shortages in
the countries where it is grown, the skills necessary to farm
our own food will have been lost. In my estimate this will
happen within the coming fifteen years, which means that schools
especially in rural areas, should be teaching children ecologically
friendly farming skills, and a sense of love and affinity
for the land.
In addition, farmers should be given every
encouragement to farm in an ecologically sustainable way,
not only so that the Earth is enriched and there is healthy
locally produced ‘ensouled food’ on our table,
but so that when the time comes when mass imported oil-based
food is no longer economically feasible there will be a pool
of farming skills that can be taught to others. What is really
astounding about the decline of farming in Ireland is that
the statutory authorities, and the general public, are unconcerned
about what our food security situation will be like a few
years from now. By way of contrast, the government spares
no effort, or money, in pursuing the illusion of military
security.
