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What is the issue

What is the issue

Author: Tomas Yoko
Date: 2016-08-26
Are we not the craziest bunch on the planet? It takes an image of a little boy, shell shocked out of his wits, blood trickling down his face, to jolt our collective consciences into speaking out against the horrific war in Syria, or maybe even just the horror of war itself.

So then how do we sit back and watch as a Sixty Billion Dollar arms deal is poised to be sent through to Saudi Arabia? The American assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, Andrew Shapiro, wants to placate our outrage with the great news that Israel does not object. WHAT? Absurd!

So much weaponry into a war ravaged region and the words of Pope Francis ring in our ears when he stated that powerful people don't want peace because they profit too much from war. It is almost transparent now, how the powerful and our leaders are churning the canon fodder that is the poor, into the massive profits that war generates.

Politics can almost justify the civilian deaths and children being used as mobile detonation devices for suicide bombs. We are so far down the road of corruption it stinks worse than a landfill site on a windless day.

Speaking of politics and the fabric of our new dispensation is slowly being woven by the new players and the old. Mzwandile Masina brought some relief to the ruling party with his election as Mayor of Ekurhuleni. Where the heck is Ekurhuleni?

Look what we can do with Sport. Look at the Olympics, oh but please turn a blind eye to the bickering and finger pointing and gender bashing and other ego fuelled anomalies. Not a word did I hear about doping in the recent Olympics, I mean after they dispensed with the Russian doping issue. After all the fuss that was made about Russian athletes, the Rio games was labelled the worst ever for dope testing.

Anyway, the medal haul our athletes pulled off made us all very proud of our country, even if it was tainted with a tad of racial slurring and gender discrimination, it may be proof of what an amazing nation we are when we are not hindered by quotas and apartheid.

But the war rages on, almost a side show while the Olympics were happening, now the focus comes back to civilian deaths and more and more bombs. Political and Media Adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban recently said, "If the West really wants to end this terrorism, why are they so upset about liberating Bani Zaid in Aleppo, which was responsible for killing thousands of civilians in Aleppo? They should have hailed the Syrian Arab Army that liberated these Syrian citizens from terrorism, and they should have hailed overcoming these terrorist groups that were sending hell into Aleppo." She berated western powers saying "There's no real stand against terrorism," not skipping a beat. "Not only do they not care about the lives of civilians in Aleppo or Syria, they don't care about the lives of civilians in Nice or Paris or in the USA. The lives of civilians in Syria is as worthy as the lives of civilians in any European country, and one should be human in this regard."Sound familiar?