Monthly Archives: Sep 2025

Try Not To Do Selective Outrage. (An Appeal)

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Sudan a nation riven by internal conflicts from more than since the 1950s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudanese_Civil_War

And on the 15th April 2023 things became even worse
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudanese_civil_war_(2023%E2%80%93present)

A land where mass killings, rape and roving brutal gangs masking as militias do as they please, preying on hapless civilians. These are daily events  heart-breaking horrors which basically the Western populations have not bothered about much. You can even be told off for mentioning it, as distracting from other calamities.

Consider these figures taken from the Wikipedia link:

  • Likely significantly more than 150,000 total killed
  • More than 700,000 children with acute malnutrition (with 522,000 likely being dead)[
  • 8,856,313 internally displaced
  • 3,506,383 refugees

And now between 250,000 to 300,000 are trapped in El-Fasher while militia forces close in, forces that see these people as foes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8wzzjze8xo

Now the thorny part.
We know full well about the horrors which are taking place in Gaza. We see that a right-wing nationalistic fundamentalist government backed by an ultra violent section of the population are running free of most restraints and are taking war to the ultimate most extreme sort – elimination of the foe from its land. And people have taken to the streets and social media in protest. Because Israel and the Middle East always attracts news headlines and attention.   
People are naturally horrified by what is taking place.
So I will ask of you. Why doesn’t Sudan warrant the same reaction?
Why are there no marches or protests?
The BBC News (much maligned by some activist groups) has kept up a steady stream of items. So has Al -Jazeera. PBS, CNN, ABC in the USA have reported on it. Newspaper columnists have drawn attention to it. There is a steady output of appeals from Aid Agencies and Charities on Social Media. The campaigning group Avaaz is currently running an appeal for signatures.
And yet…and yet..
Where is the Western Public Display of Outrage and Horror? 

And there are more out there, maybe not as large but as equally horrifying for the people living through them.
Need to know more? Here’s one window.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/armed-conflict/ 

Of course you my dear reader cannot be everywhere physically marching, you can’t contribute to every appeal, you can’t be emotionally invested in every one of the conflicts across this world, you’d be frazzled out in a month.
Spare a thought once in a while for those suffering, everywhere across the globe, day in day, lament for them from time to time and if you have a spare few ‘coins’ choose one charity to donate to. Make it your business to have at least an idea of the series of conflicts taking place. You don’t have a working knowledge of each one, that’s not possible unless you are a professional.

But at least care. And stay Woke.

Orem, Utah, 10th September 2025

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If you live outside of the USA and until today have not heard of Charlie Kirk, then chances are you will by now. A far right activist favoured by Trump and on the 10th September 2025 slain by a currently unknown gunman. In the eyes of The Right now elevated from a favoured son into a Martyr and a Hero. And unless you are someone devoted to the MAGA and Trump, where do you start?

There is a mirrored synchronicity of 9/11 unfolding. Firstly, because what would normally be a day of solemn reflection and for many recollections of where they were has now turned into another media event which will have effects on America. Although this one could have far greater repercussion, 9/11 tore at America’s heart and soul, this assassination has the capacity to shake a foundations already weakening by a series of other quakes. So where do you start?

Are you saddened at another loss of life through violence and worried for the future?
Are you angered and in mourning from a bright young man taken from you?
Are you fearful for you and yours at the random backlash by an extreme Right Wing has a propensity for violence, encouraged by a volatile president?
Are you just satisfied, taking a ‘Game On Stance’; even if it is only secured away in a small place in your being and will only be let out in some long coded way?
Are you detached with a ‘Those Who Live By The Sword Die By The Sword’ outlook?
Or are you far enough gone to just rejoice?

In writing this being British but essentially ‘intolerant of Intolerance’ I am detached. There are qualifiers though. Spare at least a thought.
For his wife Erika who was watching the event and his children, one old enough to possibly perceive some of what is happening. There is a pain none of us should ever wish upon anyone.
For those youngsters witnessing a close up killing who will have that image branded on their minds. Their innocence ripped away from them and Reality ground into their souls.
For those of his family and true friends, who have lost someone close.

As I write this, the breaking news on BBC is that the FBI have a weapon, possible forensic evidence and now they have an image of the Person of Interest. Whether this will result in a rapid detention remains to be seen. Sudden assumptions would have been made along the ‘Grassy Knoll’ line and the Conspiracy Industry would have gone into overdrive. We could have been forgiven for thinking the assassin was one with professional experience, the accuracy of that shot?  Along comes The Action Film scene through a scope, the shot and then camera to the face of a hardened veteran looking grim and stealing away. Instead, we might have to consider a young loner with an agenda, who was aiming for the head but hit the throat.

Motivations? One volunteer of an extremist group?  One truly lone gunman? Just looking to kill one particular target? Or seeking the chance to throw one final match on a forest of folk tinder-dry through polarisation and start the urban war the shooter yearns? Or maybe some disenchanted MAGA member? Or maybe just someone looking to make a play for infamy? Or someone so far out anyone with a profile would do?

Whoever and whatever. In a year with so far 150+ acts deemed as political violence this one comes perilously close to setting off a whole sequence of events, the parallel of which sits back in 1914 in a town with its named etched into history, Sarajevo and a previously inconsequential fellow Gavrilo Princip. Would that I might be just one person writing alarmist rhetoric. But I am not am I? A fear which has been simmering amongst Americans since Trump first got into the Whitehouse will have been notched up.

And I worry for you all.
For those who do not want violence at all; the innocents are always the first, last and most to suffer.
For those who dally with the idea of violence, because unless you have been in a place riven by communal violence you seriously do not know what you are dealing with.
For those who dream about violence, are you ready to live as people did in Northern Ireland for thirty plus years, never who is at your door, checking underneath and all over your car?

There is one person who I have no sympathy for and that is your president. He has dallied with violence, he has made NO appeal to those who did not vote for him, he has poured forth irrational invective. If he had cared so much for Charlie Kirk then why did he not use his presidential power to ensure the man had some more efficient security? Somebody else has died for you Trump. Because of your ego, your vanity, your stupidity. And I fear they will not be the last.

For my friends in the USA
For those I exchange views with,
For those I do not know, but just want a quiet life,
For those who will loose their innocence.
For those who will see their dreams turn to nightmares
I worry and fear for you