Christmas is supposed to be a season of good will and forgiveness towards all men. I am finding that state of zen-like benevolence particularly hard to come by this year. There are some very powerful men who haven’t merited any kind of forgiveness.
Russia and Putin
Right up there at the top of my list is Vladimir Putin. It is bad enough that he has used his power to intimidate, jail or kill anyone who dares to stand up against his regime. It is worse still that he has run an entire country on the basis of corruption where those who are granted access to valuable assets, licences or land become fabulously rich. Meanwhile, huge numbers of ordinary Russians live in miserable conditions in run-down housing estates riddled with drug addiction and crime. Others are dead because of a bad war launched to distract from those problems.
Rarely has any great country seen phenomenal assets and natural resources plundered so relentlessly that it faces a bleaker future. Empty nationalist rhetoric is a poor substitute for real economic and social progress, particularly when well over half a million people out of a population of 143 million come home in a body bag or with permanent injuries. Murderers have been released from jail, exposed on the frontline of a brutal war and then released back into the community where they committed their crime to kill again. Those are not things that are easy to forgive.
Gaza and Netanyahu
Then consider the contribution of Benjamin Netanyahu to the progression of humanity. Before the latest conflict began he was facing such serious charges of corruption that he was highly likely to be jailed for his crimes. Many ordinary Jewish citizens took to the streets calling for his resignation and continue to do so. When Hamas launched its wrongheaded murderous attack it killed some of those protestors for the crime of attending a rock concert.
Netanyahu’s government failed to listen to their own soldiers who informed them of the extensive preparations for that attack and left their citizens exposed and vulnerable. The way he has conducted the war has left Israel increasingly devoid of allies on the world stage, as tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed. The evidence of war crimes has been so strong that the United Nations has issued arrest warrants. Self-defence is not supposed to involve revenge attacks against an entire community. Carefully targeted attacks do not level hospitals or kill doctors.
After over a year of war what exactly is his plan for the future of over two million people in Gaza or for the residents of the West Bank? How does that plan differ from ethnic cleansing?
I have never had any love for radical Islamic groups that want to wipe out the existence of the state of Israel and its people. So why would I stay silent whilst a slow massacre of Palestinians takes place and a war wages on to keep a prime minister out of jail for corruption? These policies are not the fault of the entire nation of Israel and certainly not the fault of an entire race. One man is responsible for the extent and the duration of the death and destruction we are witnessing.
The leader of the Western world
In the United States, another man who’s hard to forgive has risen his orange head. The descent of that once-proud country into a swamp of bitterness and anger is his doing. The leader of the Western world is now a pouting sulker who makes arrogance look like modesty. This same man told his male friends that women love it when he grabs them, incited a crowd to storm Congress, and makes foolish promises to solve all of America’s troubles on day one.
The most powerful nation on the planet has decided that the best way to deal with burning forests, increasingly powerful hurricanes and cars floating down the street is to burn every last drop of oil. Before he has even entered office, he tried to appoint a man facing serious charges of child abuse to the position of attorney general. Thanks to his election, Britain now faces a bleak future internationally and economically. Its once reliable ally has fallen under the control of fanatics who think the streets of London are controlled by ‘Islamists’, and that Britain is a tyrannical police state.
Demagogues have risen to power
The world has become a very dangerous place and demagogues have risen to power by voicing and increasing resentment and narrow nationalism. A cabal of very rich and powerful people has used every trick in the book to persuade those struggling to get by that increasing the power and wealth of the richest in society is in their interests. We are increasingly falling under the control of those who hide billions abroad or in cryptocurrencies and want to dismantle every aspect of the welfare state and undermine decent values.
In such circumstances, a season of goodwill is not what is called for. What we need is a season of increased determination to resist and fight back before we find ourselves living in a police state that resembles Putin’s.
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