A Monkey in Manhattan
This ape's thinking has evolved sufficiently to know that this is all there is.
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Dear Germany
Dear Germany
Greetings and best wishes from a recently retired maths teacher from Downton Abbey Land. I just wanted to write and tell you how much you are admired by generally balanced empathic people around the world. As I approach 60 and think today of the disgrace of our country’s lack of commitment to the refugee disaster, I shudder to think what you, in Germany, and the rest of Europe must think of us. I worry we will never win the European Song contest again through an absolute paucity of voting allies!! Could I bypass our government and appeal directly to you, Mrs Merkel, with Europe being our only hope for social justice and laws that protect and fight for the rights and hopes of working people. My wife and I have two empty bedrooms where greatly loved sons used to sleep but have now flown the coop. We’ll take somebody in a heartbeat and I know we’re not alone here, a sentiment that good people in Germany have shown in exemplary fashion. I hope crass stereotypical characterizations of the German people, held by some of my countrymen, will now be accordingly rewritten.
When teaching ratios, I used to give examples of recipes or mixing concrete to illustrate the proportional comparison of components. I’m afraid I also used to recall an engagement from British imperialist military history; that of Rhorke’s Drift, South Africa, where a garrison of 100 British soldiers was attacked by 4 000 zulus. That’s 40: 1 relatively. I’ve got to apologize here as I used to play with toy soldiers when I was young where we would work out relative strengths of our armies. Folks, there’s irony here, because twenty years later as a man approaching his thirties, I remember being enraged when this 40:1 ratio appeared again in commonwealth summit negotiations in which about 40 odd leaders of disparate countries tried, in vain, to modify Margaret Thatcher’s solitary implacable opposition to economic sanctions against South Africa.
‘Mrs Thatcher is prepared to go along with most parts of the package, but not with the sanctions. She is opposed to economic sanctions in any form, and even to the threat of sanctions, because she believes that they would not work and would damage Britain’s extensive economic interests.‘
– Sound familiar? A British leader willing to sacrifice, african or in this case middle-eastern lives for political statesmanship. Churchill was undoubtedly the man for the moment during the Second World War but tell that to the Kurds.
‘Churchill was particularly keen on chemical weapons in the 1920s, suggesting they be used “against recalcitrant Arabs as an experiment”. He dismissed objections as “unreasonable”. “I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilized tribes _ [to] spread a lively terror _” In today’s terms, “the Arab” needed to be shocked and awed. A good gassing might well do the job.’
Can anyone else see similarities between the aristocrat Churchill’s view then to our present etonian prime minister’s callous disregard for the Syrian crisis as if refugees lives are dispensable when you’re preoccupied with fighting for votes at home in the Brexit referendum. Bred to think so!
Our derisory offer to take 20 000 refugees in comparison with the 1 000 000 that your country has taken in, is near to a war crime. Especially as, when it suits their purposes, our leaders tell us we’re supposedly the 5th richest country in the world. The figures give a humanity ratio index of 50: 1
We’re getting worse!
A Monkey in Manhattan 