You think you're so clever, don't you, with your snide little remarks written from the safety of your home with 24-hour internet access? Don't you have a point of view about ANYTHING? If that's the best you can do, you might at least not pollute the blogosphere with your puerile outpourings.
Is there anything I can say in my defence? I know I am by temperament one of nature's followers, not one of its leaders. In all the great movements that have marked my lifetime (in no particular order of importance and as they come into my head: apartheid, CND, Vietnam, Iraq, etc. etc.) I have been not so much against the march of history as indifferent to it. That's a pretty damning admission, isn't it? and if you don't want to speak to me any more I would perfectly understand and respect your position.
I hope and pray that, if ever I found myself in an "extreme" situation, for instance living in Nazi Germany or occupied France, I would have (had) the courage to protect and save those around me, if not actively to take up arms against the régime or occupier. I'm not explaining myself very well; what I'm trying to say is that talk is cheap. We talk the talk but do we walk the walk?
In the case of the current wave of protest sweeping across North Africa and other parts of the Arab world, only a fool or the worst sort of reactionary could possibly fail to applaud. I just want to point out that less than a month ago few if any of us took the slightest interest in politics in Egypt, Tunisia or Algeria. More to the point, neither did any of the western governments, except to proclaim their undying support for Hosni Mubarak and Zine al-Abidine Ben Al. Incidentally, what on earth is the point of maintaining embassies in these countries if their staff is quite incapable of anticipating events? And I find there is something faintly ridiculous in the posturings of those "bleeding heart" journalists with their brave dispatches from Tahrir Square. It would be nice if they could just occasionally admit that they, too, were taken completely by surprise by the protest movements. Also, I can't remember reading a whole lot of articles in the past condemning the oppressive regimes in Egypt and Tunisia.
Where journalists are concerned, I sometimes think the otherwise objectionable Vladimir Putin's quotation of an old proverb is particularly apposite: "The dog barks but the caravan moves on".
Is there anything I can say in my defence? I know I am by temperament one of nature's followers, not one of its leaders. In all the great movements that have marked my lifetime (in no particular order of importance and as they come into my head: apartheid, CND, Vietnam, Iraq, etc. etc.) I have been not so much against the march of history as indifferent to it. That's a pretty damning admission, isn't it? and if you don't want to speak to me any more I would perfectly understand and respect your position.
I hope and pray that, if ever I found myself in an "extreme" situation, for instance living in Nazi Germany or occupied France, I would have (had) the courage to protect and save those around me, if not actively to take up arms against the régime or occupier. I'm not explaining myself very well; what I'm trying to say is that talk is cheap. We talk the talk but do we walk the walk?
In the case of the current wave of protest sweeping across North Africa and other parts of the Arab world, only a fool or the worst sort of reactionary could possibly fail to applaud. I just want to point out that less than a month ago few if any of us took the slightest interest in politics in Egypt, Tunisia or Algeria. More to the point, neither did any of the western governments, except to proclaim their undying support for Hosni Mubarak and Zine al-Abidine Ben Al. Incidentally, what on earth is the point of maintaining embassies in these countries if their staff is quite incapable of anticipating events? And I find there is something faintly ridiculous in the posturings of those "bleeding heart" journalists with their brave dispatches from Tahrir Square. It would be nice if they could just occasionally admit that they, too, were taken completely by surprise by the protest movements. Also, I can't remember reading a whole lot of articles in the past condemning the oppressive regimes in Egypt and Tunisia.
Where journalists are concerned, I sometimes think the otherwise objectionable Vladimir Putin's quotation of an old proverb is particularly apposite: "The dog barks but the caravan moves on".
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