¡A votar!

Dentro de poco más de un mes habrá elecciones generales. Como siempre, a los partidos de la izquierda les importa más luchar entre ellos que contra sus verdaderos rivales.

Mientras tanto partidos como Vox y Ciudadanos no dejan de crecer. Y ell PP se frota las manos, porque en río revuelto…

Muchos votantes de la izquierda, enzarzados en sus guerras fratricidas, se quedarán en casa. Craso error. La derecha no se duerme, está al acecho. Si lo que pretenden algunos es un voto de castigo, o una abstención de castigo, serán castigados de verdad.

Ni el sistema ni ningún partido es perfecto, a la vista está, pero lavarse las manos y no votar tampoco puede ser una solución, porque las consecuencias pueden ser terribles. Hay que escoger la opción menos mala y frenar el auge de la extrema derecha.

Hemos visto lo que ha pasado en Andalucía. Que sea una anécdota. Hay que mandar de nuevo al pasado a los neo-fascistas. Son historia. Que sigan así.

¡Que viene el Relator!

¡Cerrad bien las puertas! ¡Apagad las luces! Que viene el Relator.

España entera tiembla con solo nombrarlo. El temido Relator, el Coco, el hombre oscuro que ha venido a destrozar la paz idílica que siempre ha reinado en este maravilloso país.

Habrá una nueva guerra incivil. Las plazas se llenarán de patriotas, enormes banderas ondearán bajo el cielo azul, y una vez más escucharemos a la multitud gritar Viva España.

Todo muy cómico, muy exagerado, muy español. Aquí todo es blanco o negro, Real Madrid o Barcelona, Derecha o Izquierda. Todo el mundo está indignado porque le llegan mensajes inflamatorios en sus móviles. ¡España se rompe! ¡Es el fin del mundo!

Y por supuesto todo es muy cínico. Los políticos actúan como abogados – tienen una explicación para todo. Es puro teatro. Lo triste es que tanta gente les siguen.

Entre tanto ruido es muy difícil oír la voz de la moderación, de la perspectiva, de la sensatez. Parece que para llegar al poder hay que hacer un curso en marketing agresiva, con continuos ataques al rival, y con los fake news por bandera.

Son tiempos revueltos. Hay agitadores haciendo muy bien su trabajo y los resultados están a la vista. Pero no nos conduce a nada más que la confrontación. No es un camino recomendable. Es un juego muy, pero muy, peligroso.

Lo que hace falta es un poco de sosiego. Hay que comprobar los datos, no tragar cada mentira solo porque se alinea con nuestra particular ideología.

Y sobre todo no hay que tener miedo. 

Bueno, menos al temido Relator.

Progress is a stubborn beast.

Progress is a stubborn beast. Too fast for some, too slow for others, it marches on steadily, relentlessly, oblivious to sticks and carrots.

Recently we have witnessed an attempt to hobble its advance. Reactionary forces worldwide are intent on slowing down the pace of change. This is only to be expected – the rich and powerful do not give up their privileges without a fight. We say that it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. But when it comes to wealth and position the opposite is true. It is harder to have had and lost than never to have had at all.

Ah, the old world order! White, straight, male and god-fearing. A place where boys wear blue and girls wear pink, where gays are outlawed or cured, where atheists are damned both in life and death, and where lesser ethnic groups just get on with the menial tasks. I know my place!

Nostagia for days that will never return. The world has moved on, woken up, grown up. Hence this desperate turning back of the clock. Trump, Bolsonaro, Salvini and the likes, modern day King Canutes ordering the waves to retreat. Let them rant, let them hold their illusions, have their swansong.

 They are the past.

They cannot last.

We carry on.

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.