The present conflict in Sudan once again demonstrates the abject failure of the UN and the international community to prevent or stop conflicts in Africa that have amounted to genocide and widespread human rights abuses.
In 1994 the international community stood idly by as up to quarter of a million Rwandan people were brutally slaughtered. This conflict then spilled over into the Democratic Republic of Congo, igniting a conflict that is still ongoing, causing several more million deaths. European and western lives are given priority over the lives of the rest of humanity. The US and Nato intervened eventually to stop the conflict in Bosnia in 1995 although their attempts to impose democracy there have arguably failed.
Little has been learned from the 20-year US-led unjustified war of vengeance waged against the Afghan people. In the resulting 2021 evacuation chaos, military dogs were given priority over Afghans who worked with western forces and whose lives were in danger. No accountability has been achieved for the ongoing trauma that the Afghan people are still going through. While most western citizens have been successfully evacuated from Sudan, far too little consideration is being given to the trauma being suffered by the citizens of Sudan. How many Sudanese refugees will be allowed into fortress Europe? Many of these conflicts in Africa and the Middle East have roots in European colonial abuses. There is now a serious risk of the present Sudan conflict deteriorating into crimes against humanity. When a popular uprising overthrew the autocratic government of Omar al-Bashir, their efforts to establish democracy were thwarted by the two main perpetrators of this present conflict, General al-Burhan and RST leader General Dagalo/Hemedti, both of whose forces were implicated in the Darfur genocide.
The United Nations is once again being prevented from doing its primary task of maintaining international peace by several of its most powerful states who are pursuing their national interests at the expense of the most vulnerable members of humanity.
EDWARD HORGAN
Castletroy, Co Limerick
Unbelief itself is a form of belief
April gifted us superb evenings to look at the night sky. A larger celestial body was visible from Holywood railway station and I assumed it must be a planet. Stargazers’ websites reported how Mercury or Venus may have been visible. We can be right about many things without understanding each and every detail. The evening flights dipping down into the harbour airport drop altitude from the head of Belfast Lough. We do not need to have a flight timetable, passenger details, flight crew numbers or pilot name to know an evening flight is set to land. This observation calls to mind a recent conversation with an enthusiastic young atheist.
An intellectual, a high achiever, articulate and impassioned, the young ’unbeliever’ sounded as if they had partially digested a library of Bertrand Russell books. Mind, thoughts and words are all just puffs of smoke (transient and imaginary) from the bonfire of evolutionary biology, with no deeper meaning attached to anything we see or feel or document. I did try telling ‘the believer in unbelief’ how the cat is already out of the bag once we present our thoughts or ideas in the form of language – unbelief itself is a form of belief. CS Lewis said: “A young atheist cannot guard his faith too carefully.”
The young atheist perhaps needs a trip to Holywood railway platform on one of these beautiful spring evenings. The little light on the near horizon may be courtesy of British Airways, but what about the larger planetary light? An ancient eastern mystic commented thus: “When I look up at the heavens, which your fingers made, and see the moon and the stars, which you set in place, Of what importance is the human race, that you should notice them?”
JAMES HARDY
Belfast BT5
NI does have to be treated a little differently
Unfortunately Northern Ireland (NI) differs from the rest of the United Kingdom (UK) in that it shares a land border with another country, ie the Republic of Ireland (RoI). As goods can slip easily over this 310-mile border, it’s logical that goods coming from the mainland should be checked before entering as they could easily end up in the RoI. Goods travelling the other way, ie from NI to the mainland, can’t readily pass over into France and other foreign countries. Goods leaving mainland UK either by ship or plane destined for foreign countries are checked, monitored, and observed. Therefore, if NI is treated differently from the rest of the UK in regards the importation of goods, it shouldn’t weaken NI’s integration with the rest of the UK and a softening resolve on the part of the British government towards NI’s position within the UK shouldn’t be inferred from the situation. Also the situation shouldn’t be used to delay the proper functioning of the NI Assembly as is presently happening.
LOUIS SHAWCROSS
Hillsborough, Co Down
Time to follow the money
The UK’s public sector debt at the end of March 2023 was £2.53 trillion. This now represents 99.6 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) according to the Office for National Statistics, which is quite staggering considering that pre-pandemic, the debt was approximately 80 per cent of GDP. Interest on this debt increased to more than £106 billion as a result of a rise in the retail price index – some £34bn more than the previous year.
What these mind-boggling figures mean for Northern Ireland is that the likelihood of a generous budget from the UK government for 2023 was remote to say the very least. Additionally, the British are now so fed up with the constant political shenanigans and grandstanding here that they would do anything to offload this troublesome part of the UK, including slashing the annual budget which is the highest of the three devolved governments.
Incidentally, in terms of wealth, the Republic of Ireland is currently the third richest nation on earth with an expected budget surplus of £9bn this year. Perhaps it is now the time to be financially realistic and follow the money.
SEAN SHERIDAN
Omagh, Co Tyrone
