If you’ve got good health and a decent pension, being a retiree has a fair share of perks, not least of which is freedom from the downsides of going to work. As a beneficiary of those, I’ve been amusing myself by conjuring up sympathy for people with jobs that make me wonder why anyone would want them in the first place.… Read the rest
By any measure, levels of suffering, compassion and deprivation of human rights ought not be based on nationality, ethnicity or economic status. An attack on a small U.S. military outpost few even knew existed, and four months of bombing and artillery strikes that have been rained on Gaza flaunt that in reality, the exact opposite is the order of the day.… Read the rest
Author and screenwriter William Goldman encapsulated the movie business in two lines: “Nobody knows anything…Every time out it’s a guess and, if you’re lucky, an educated one.” There’s plenty of evidence the wisdom equally sums up prognostications and pronouncements on today’s major issues; American politics, the three Hs — Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis — and the Ukraine-Russia imbroglio. … Read the rest
There’s no doubt a simple (and worrying) explanation for how websites know I’m aging. What bemuses me is why the advertisements they target me with appear to have been devised by what can only be people with a life experience that, unlike me, doesn’t precede the digital age.… Read the rest
The outcome of South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is unlikely to have any more effect on the war in Gaza than the court’s ruling against Russia’s actions in Ukraine had on Vladimir Putin. But apartheid has some lessons Israel — and the Palestinians – would do well to absorb.… Read the rest
In the introduction to his hugely popular 1950s radio series “This I Believe”, CBS News broadcaster Edward R Murrow said:“We hardly need to be reminded that we are living in an age of confusion - a lot of us have traded in our beliefs for bitterness and cynicism or for a heavy package of despair or even a quivering portion of hysteria.… Read the rest
It is an irrefutable fact of life and human nature that New Year’s resolutions for self-improvement on a grand scale are “made to be broken”. Ergo, instead of perpetuating my annual failures, this year I’m simply resolving not to concern myself with vexations over which I have no control, will never understand and don’t need to give a tinker’s dam (or damn) about anyway.… Read the rest
The fate of two million blameless, miserable, often terrified civilians in Gaza came down to which variation of words diplomats and politicians in safe places could agree on. The answer was: none. The next “negotiating session” should open with the words of the leader whose name is synonymous with wisdom: “Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit – YOU choose.”… Read the rest
It’s not unreasonable to expect that those in a position to influence the war in Gaza, or make real progress against climate change, would know better than to be blindsided. Instead, they’ve willfully proven the veracity of Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegard’s tenet:“There are two ways to be fooled/ One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”… Read the rest
Sixteen years before UN Resolution 181 divided Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, Mahatma Gandhi noted: “If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.”
What is happening to the children of Gaza ninety-two years later is stupefying proof of how heedless hatred, venal cruelty and short-sightedness displace gentle wisdom.… Read the rest