Having a Big Back Yard.

I find it very difficult to read the international news these days because it’s too full of horrors. It’s all about children suffering disease and death through malnutrition, thousands dying in environmental disasters, thousands more being killed and mutilated in protest activities against brutal and self-serving regimes, children being burned alive simply for going to school, sexual attacks against women reaching ‘epidemic proportions,’ diplomatic cover-ups in international relations designed to protect the pecuniary interests of individual states and leaders, rather than the wholesome interests of humanity in general.

I used to be able to do what we’re supposed to do: switch off. It isn’t happening in my own back yard, so don’t worry about it. People have even said as much: ‘Charity begins at home, mate. If you start worrying about what’s happening in the rest of the world, it’ll drive you mad.’ They’re right; it does. But the world is my back yard these days, and so I can’t ignore it. That’s why I see a headline sometimes and decline to read any further. It’s my only defence.

But I have to conclude on a humorous note:

Did we all read what Putin said recently when there was a possibility that Edward Snowden would be allowed to stay in Russia?

‘He’s welcome to stay here as long as he stops making difficulties for our American partners.’

Laugh? Yeah, right. Russians and Americans united in a hail of mirth for once. Thank you for building that little bridge, Vladimir.