I just finished watching a package on BBC World News about drought in Afghanistan and the resurgence of the Taliban, taking advantage of the situation.
A Song of Hunger
(a 16th Century verse)
Thosuandes have famishede for food,
And thousandes more be lek,
Change nowe therfor your crewell moode,
And them to sucoure sek.
Thousandes ar pyned to the bonyes
With hongge, thrist and cold;
And thousandes in strong fettars gronnes
Yowe caus thereof behold.
The fartharles and wydowe pore,
The syk, the sor, the lame,
Ly dyeng nowe at every dore,
And none but youe in blame.
There is something deeply troubling about seeing small children severely malnourished, with their skin hanging off them, and knowing that we run their country. We, in this case, being primarily NATO countries, but not exclusively. I do believe we are right to fight the likes of the Taliban (Iraq is another matter) but we need to fight both on the military front and, more importantly, on the civilian front. Whatever we spend on fighting should be but a fraction of what we spend on the people. The military can only give us breathing space to create a fair and just civil society, history has taught us that.
And the first step to a fair and just civil society is to look after the weak. We should be ashamed of ourselves.