Those who do nothing are complicit
Source: Cyprus Mail
THE WAY THINGS ARE
My early impressions of Cypriots were formed by friends introduced to me by my late husband, Andreas, a very good man, therefore the friends he chose were good people and I recognised good-naturedness in them. I was born to a very Catholic but very liberal-minded mother who liked to meet my boyfriends. She used to say: ‘Tell me your company and I’ll tell you who you are.’
It’s a pleasure for me to see young Syrian children walk down my street to school chattering away in Arabic. I say a few words to them in Greek and they reply fluently in Kypriaka. It never fails to send a surge of happiness through this old mind to think they are the lucky ones, the safe ones, considering all that has happened in Syria over the past few years. One young man I knew recently returned to an uncertain future but the pull of home was irresistible.
We’ve entered the era where political interest over principles and honour has become undisguisedly visual. Listening to the news these days I find myself angrily yelling at the radio as to why politicians and people ineffective human rights organisations use limp modal verbs when referring to what has been, still is, taking place in Palestine and crimes against human rights there, particularly against children.
They use the wimpy modal verbs (would, could) instead of a more demanding will when referring to what should happen, as more Palestinians die at the hands of the Israeli Defence Force. Whatever excuses Netanyahu puts forward, it’s obvious that his end game was what Donald Trump announced – a land grab, and illegal development by destroying the lives of thousands of Palestinians evicted from their homes to fill the space with settlers, presumably, helped by Trump’s real estate, with interest, input.
Anyone, failing to be moved by the prolonged plight of Israeli hostages and the utter anxiety of their families has to be heartless. From the start, the Netanyahu government’s first priority was not their immediate release. He dragged his heels until his fellow-thinker, Trump gained the White House, and he now feels safe to ‘Let all hell loose!’ Also Sprach Kaiser Donald! Nietzsche who wrote the weak will be broken, might probably have understood.
How much more hell can these unfortunates suffer while ‘free’ world leaders become complicit by abstention? Some willing to penalise their own aid and benefit systems to improve arms percentages to bolster the security of Nato Europe while assisting Ukraine’s defence against Russia, pathetically bowing and scraping to the leader of a land previously known as the most powerful democracy shielding the freedom principles of the planet, while he plays King of a do-as-I-say World. A man who intimidated and alienated good neighbour Canada that did not acquiesce, kudos to its courage.
As to the rest, tell me your company and I’ll tell you who you are. Europe’s lack of decisive action on behalf of Palestine indicates a seal of indifference. Nietzsche and Trump would have had some convergences in thought, Nietzsche’s ‘Gott ist tott …’ (God is dead) might have Trump telling him ‘No, he saved me to make America rich again.’
They might have agreed on the human task being to put a sense into creation (Loads and loads of real estate for Bibi). Free world leaders could find alignment with Nietzsche’s idea that, this life here is all we have and our duty is to stamp it with a significance that transcends it.
However, the lack of significance Europe attaches to the horrendous, continuing deaths of so many Palestinian children is measured against the significance they actively give to the defence of Ukrainian children. To Netanyahu he might have said, ‘Can you be your own judge and the avenger of your law?’ To which Bibi would reply, ‘I’m doing by best to avoid the words judges and law these days.’
Both Trump and Netanyahu believe God is on their side, they are supermen. He had his Kryptonite, they surely have theirs.
The original article: belongs to Cyprus Mail .
