There's a big difference between an individual crime, which is being
investigated and is tagged as "wrong" by the State, and a crime that
is committed by a State. Particularly, and this is crucial, a state
that calls itself a democracy.
If you don't know much about the situation in Palestine, Dave, it's
easy enough to find out. You could start with reading some Said, who
was one of the wiser commentators on the situation. And an acute
literary critic as well, so you could feel all literary as well.
I'm not a protest kind of gal. I've been to precisely one in my life -
the protests before the US invaded Baghdad. I knew when I went that
the protests wouldn't stop the invasion, which had been planned for
literally years (although I suspect it blunted the edge of the Shock
and Awe campaign - not that that helped later). I went because I
didn't want to be complicit with what I believed was a criminal
disaster with horrific implications for international law, that my
country was participating in, allegedly on "my" behalf. Everything I
feared came about, but only because it was so predictable.
I'm going this afternoon, not because I think it will stop anything
that's going on as the tanks roll into Gaza, but because the barefaced
lies that are being printed about Gaza make me angry, and because my
politicians are shoving out the usual mealy-mouthed evasions.
And yes, I think of Darfur and Somalia and the Congo and other
unfashionable conflicts, where atrocities take place every day without
rippling the surface. Or the more endemic economic crimes that enslave
people in "offshore" factories - like Amatil in Fiji, where they've
been shooting trade union leaders. Yes, injustice is everywhere. Yes,
I am a writer and not an activist. Etc. We all live with these
dilemmas. But I feel that while saying no might make very little
difference, not saying no is worse.
It's not about high moral ground. It's about the kind of world you
want to live in.
xA
On Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 11:51 AM, David Bircumshaw
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Early on the other day, about 30 yards from where I live, a guy was
> stabbed to death:
>
> http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/Woman-arrested-murder-probe/article-583469-detail/article.html
>
> will give you news details. Apparently his suspected murderer was a
> woman. I didn't know who he was, or who is believed to have killed
> him, all I knew was that on the morning police tape was around the
> streets and the very road I live on was blocked off by police cars and
> there was a forensic tent set up. Tonight, complete strangers have
> been straggling around mutually sobbing about the site of the death,
> presumably they were friends of the deceased.
>
> But I know nothing, or next to nothing, about it, even though it
> happened almost on my doorstep. Likewise, I know next to nothing about
> what is going on in Gaza and Israel, I can see no point in
> pontificating. If I, or anyone, could think of something to help end
> that tragedy that would be great, but, to go back, the other night, a
> bloke was murdered, a few yards from my home, I was watching a
> schmaltzy film on tv, and didn't know, not that I would have been
> capable of doing anything much if I did, other than calling the
> emergency services.
>
> --
> David Bircumshaw
> Website and A Chide's Alphabet http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
> Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
>
--
Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
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