Goes on, and the beat goes on.

A journalist is dowsed in sulphuric acid in Ukraine for trying to expose local corruption. She died on the same day that a fellow reporter was shot in the back for doing the same. Kashoggi entered the Saudi Consulate only to be brutally murdered, dismembered and finally dissolved in yet more acid to dispose of his corpse. From Mexico to Russia, from Venezuela to Malta, whistle blowers are being assassinated in cold blood by ruthless, unscrupulous regimes that operate more like the Mafia than a political body.

Millennials beware. This is a growing threat to democracy and, more to the point, to citizens’ rights. For what is the point of democracy if it is only a choice between bad or worse? What really matters is society. Freedom of speech, tolerance, transparency and accountability. These are the pillars of a healthy, pacific system. If we accept the barbaric methods of gangster-like regimes, we will slowly but surely begin to lose those rights and become mere vassals.

These hard won rights do not defend themselves. They need to be protected perpetually; there are plenty of people out there prepared to do away with them if they come into conflict with their interests. And their interests are purely selfish, their agendas focused on personal gain.

So be vigilant, or the gains of hundreds of years of struggle will have been in vain, and once more we will become mere toys in the hands avaricious megalomaniacs.

Our fleeting remorse.

The refugee crises staggers on. For a brief moment the photo of a dead child rocked our collective consciences, but the news strides on relentless, and the image fades. Thousands drown every year after all. Nothing we can do about it, is there?
For those with a longer memory and a larger heart, here is a reminder that the drama has not yet ended.
Critical Moment - Better Life

Death of a Journalist

Very worrying trend. Reporters are being killed all over the world for trying to inform about corrupt regimes, and the world shrugs its shoulders: it is the way of things are, what can we do? Little or no reaction to date. We are in dager of slipping into a mixture of apathy and fear. Best keep your mouth shut or.....
So here is a linkk to a short story tha I hope will at least make you stop and ponder on the consequences of turning a bline eye.
 http://tommydakar.wix.com/tommydakar/short-stories

In the collection Unzip, first story, Fear of the Dark.

Turn on the lights!

Out of the frying pan

Worrying  times. Salvini, Le Pen, Orban, and now Bolsonaro, the radical right raises its shaven head once more. And the masses, digital pitchforks in hand, call out for more!

As the song said, “deep down we’re all the same, something to worship, someone to blame.”

And who can be to blame for all things evil printed in the media? Foreigners, misfits, sexual deviants, the poor, the wet left. Anyone will do. What is needed, or so these unbiased sources of information would have us believe, is a firm hand. No more nancying around; off with their heads!

From the USA to the Philippines we are told that only the Man in Charge can save the Nation and make it Great again. And the crowd, whipped up by promises of conflict and punishment, lap it up.

No time for rational  thought, for analysis, for  negotiation. No common ground sought, no compromise struck. Only confrontation, a taking of sides. You are either with us or against us.

A radicalistion on one side will lead to a similar stance being held on the other. Polarisation of opinion and beliefs leads to a breakdown in communication. The only possible result is conflict.

Which is probably the whole idea anyway. No doubt some obscure groups or other have every interesting in pitting one section of society against the other. Money will be made out the ensuing chaos. It is always that way.

Is there a way out? Naturally. It is time to keep a clear head, be well-documented, to listen to counter arguments, to find a point of agreement, to work towards a solution. As soon as a political debate spills over into a personal dislike, then all chances of a pacific settlement are lost.

The ideological split of the Spanish Civil War was a precursor the  devastation of the Second World War. Division will lead to war unless it is checked. Don’t let the demagogues get away with their selfish, short-sighted agenda. Humanity hinges on interaction and interdependence.

It is time to put a stop to the empty, inflammatory rhetoric and get back to intelligent, well-intentioned political debate.

A History Lesson

History repeats itself, we are told. It would be wise to heed those words. Perhaps we believed that, the war won, peace would reign eternally. But time rolls on, and each new generation needs to learn the lessons of the past or pay the consequences.

The world is slipping back into familiarly dangerous habits. Nationalism has once more raised its shaven head and is gaining ground. Trump and his America First, the Mexican Wall, his trade wars and isolationism. Putin, trying to revive the expansionist glory of the Soviet Union, to make Russians proud to be Russians by intimidation and shows of strength. Xi Jinnping in China, the new emperor with dreams of world domination. Tory Britain and its infamous Brexit campaign, voluntarily cutting itself off from Europe and wrapping itself up in the by now very faded Union Jack.

Even within Europe itself, the great defender of internationalism, there are governments and movements stoking the nationalist fire. In Italy, France, Austria, Holland, Poland. The list is growing. Extreme right wing members are regularly voted into local, national and European parliaments.

Such is democracy, you may well argue. But beware the propaganda of the nationalist parties. Their arguments are spurious and full of venom. The foreigner, the outsider, will always be to blame. Their will be ethnical and genetic discrimination, their will be the iron fist of the law, there will be only black or white, with us or against us.

We have seen all of this before. We have seen to what kind of society it leads. We have seen the injustice, the abuse of power, the slow descent towards war. And it is in our hands to stop this morbid fascination with neo fascism. If we look the other way History will not forgive us. We have the power, we have the vote, let us decide not to repeat the errors of the pass at the polls.

Such is democracy.

Perdiendo el Norte

¿Qué te pasa, España? ¿Estás perdido? Te veo desorientado, sin rumbo, dando palos de ciego. Estás casi irreconocible. ¿Dónde está este país que marchaba hacia el mundo moderno con paso firme, con convicción? ¿Dónde está este pueblo libre, solidario, tolerante y alegre? ¿Qué pasó?

¿Cómo es posible que tú, que habías sufrido en tus propias carnes la represión más brutal, ahora acepte que mandan a la cárcel a un chico por la letra de una canción? ¿O que endosen a otra chica un año por haber hecho un chiste sobre algo que ocurrió hace casi cincuenta años?

¿Y como explicarme, después de tanta lucha sindical, que la precariedad y los salarios irrisorios son la salvación de la patria?

Sabes que los desahucios, las amnistías fiscales, los rescates bancarios, los indultos a los corruptos y los sobresueldos en dinero negro son bochornosos, pero no haces nada para cambiarlo.  

El gobierno de turno está en minoría, pero no cambia nada. Al PP le van las cargas policiales, las leyes de mordaza, las puertas giratorias y los abusos de poder, ahí no hay nada nuevo. Al PP light, Ciudadanos, les gusta algo parecido, pero con ropa moderna, por favor. El PSOE vendió su alma hace tanto tiempo que ya no sabe lo que quiere o no, y lo que queda es Podemos pero no queremos, y viceversa.

Entre todos te tiene mareado, pobre España. ¿Dónde está el Norte, este lugar donde hay una verdadera democracia hecha por y para la gente? ¿Cómo llegar a la separación de poderes, la justicia social, el fin del clientelismo y los privilegios heredados?

Qué pena me da verte así, ¡con lo que tú eras!