Israel Seizes More Land

Israel is set on occupying even more Palestinian land in defiance of international law, the United Nations and President Barack Obama.

Israel, the big bully of the middle east, must think itself immune to international opinion and above any normal sense of justice. The only nation capable of exerting the necessary pressure on this outlaw state is the United States. Let’s hope that at the forth coming talks between Ehud Barak and George Mitchell this much needed pressure is applied in full measure. Unless Israel is brought to heel there can only be more suffering and death in this beleaguered part of our World.

Olympic Games

What a fantastic display was the opening ceremony in Beijing of the 2008 Olympic Games. Beautiful, exciting and at times emotional, at least it was for me. The effort, planning, imagination and energy that went into this event was staggering and just shows what wonders human beings can produce.

Quite rightly there has been a lot of criticism of China’s record on human rights but hopefully, in time, they will improve on this. It should always be remembered that we in the West are not innocent when it comes to human rights. Here in the UK there are frequent miscarriages of Justice and Parliament has just agreed to imprison people without charge for 42 days. In the US they still execute people, even in defiance of International Law and torture prisoners in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.

China has come a very long way in just 70 years or so and the standard of living and yes, human rights also, have steadily increased over this time. A huge country with a vast population that was mainly feudal such a short while ago progressed rapidly under communism and I submit, would never have happened under the capitalist system.

While we may rightly point out the faults in China let us not forget that we have many faults of our own.