Alidad

Against my better judgment I keep reading about Syria. I have no particular curiosity with Syria, only I see it is as a place similar to Iran - a civilized nation and culture, essentially, heaving under a fascist goon regime. I am curious to see how many more people have to be massacred before states and their leaders feel they must react. The cynicism of politicians is astounding. Today's news reads that countries like South Africa and Brazil are reluctant to vote at the UN to criticize the mass murder in Syria. Why? Which interests or considerations can impede politicians from denouncing a brazen, medieval massacre? These same politicians then parade as "friends of the people" and shout out their populist discourse. What does it say about politicians and the political class, anywhere? It says - to me and I am usually right - that politicians are mostly scum. You have to be a shameless, putrid piece of shit to enter public-political life, especially in these resentful little countries where governments repeat their tired anti-colonial claptrap discourse and present it as 'public opinion.'

What about Russia and China, these kleptocracies run by the successors of the mass-murdering communists? Why do they veto any motion that remotely appears to be moral and decent? What kind of rotten societies have the communists bred there? The UN secretary-general has reiterated his concern or "great concern" or some such thing at the massacre of Syrians (he must have said something similar about Iran in 2009). Does this help? Are the UN secretary-general or UN bothered at all that they have the impact of a fart in the Gobi desert?

I met a retired UN employee a while back. An e-mail he wrote to a distressed friend included this type of spelling mistake: "don't be STUCKED in the past.." Is this a typical UN employee?

People are brave indeed to revolt in places like Syria, Libya (or Iran). It really is David versus Goliath. It must be the force of rage and despair; as the Colombian woman's book of memoirs states in its title, Even silence has an end.