Hello Everyone,
Yes, it's me... Lady M. I am back after my little break. I hope you have enjoyed Sofia and Donald entertaining you but they are now on their hols until later this year. I'm sure you can guess what activity they will be engaging in!
I would like to begin my set of blogs with the introduction to my latest book published last year, Life is... Am I the only person in the world who does not believe that we are actually in World War Three? This war is unlike any other. It is not against people or countries but a new scourge, namely terrorism. Please read my intro and leave a comment if you agree with me.
"It is June
4th, 2017. I am writing this introduction while listening to the
melodic tones of Take That singing ‘Manchester we are strong’. They are
performing at the tribute concert, One
Love Manchester. Yes, I’m a woman so I can multitask! Thirteen days ago a
suicide bomber detonated a homemade bomb at the Manchester Arena as people were
leaving the Ariana Grande concert.
Twenty-two innocent people, including many children and teenagers, were killed
and more than a hundred injured. The attacker was Salman Abedi, born in Manchester, with parents of Libyan origin. Ariana’s reaction was to return to
Manchester for this tribute concert.
Terrorism
is the scourge of the twenty-first century and with the advent of social media
the world was aware of the Manchester attack within minutes. Foreign leaders
all made their customary speeches to ‘stand with Manchester’. The world unites
on these horrific occasions and this was the worst in the UK since the London
bombings on July 7th , 2005 when four Islamist extremists detonated
three bombs on the London Underground and a fourth one on a bus. This attack
resulted in fifty-six deaths (including the attackers) and over seven hundred injured
people.
This was
the second attack in the UK in two months. On March 22nd, Khalid Masood drove a car into people on
Westminster Bridge. He ran out of the vehicle into New Palace Yard and stabbed
an unarmed police officer before he was shot by a police officer. The incident
resulted in six deaths and forty-nine injured people. Then, the rest of the
globe supported London.
This
morning, I, on auto-pilot, switched on the television to see a ‘BBC breaking
news’ on the screen. Another terrorist
attack at 10.08 yesterday evening on London Bridge. The third attack on British
soil within three months. A white van had been driven into crowds crossing the
bridge. Three males emerged, carrying knives, and moved toward restaurants
stabbing as many people as they could saying, ‘This is for Allah’. At 10.16 pm their reign of terror was over.
After eight minutes of freedom the police arrived and shot the three attackers.
During those few minutes they succeeded in causing eight deaths and forty-plus
injured people, some critical.
Have
these ISIS people, who claim to be of the Islamic faith, ever read the Koran? Each Surah begins by stating that
Allah is compassionate and merciful. Allah does not condone merciless killings.
How often have we heard Muslims claim that these terrorists do not belong to
their religion? Islam is a religion of peace.
At the
moment I can see Robbie Williams
singing ‘Angels’ and a crowd of fifty
thousand people smiling and singing along with him. This is defiance. Some of
the audience were present on that fateful night but are not prepared to
surrender to terrorism. President Trump
has called terrorists ‘losers’. I
compare them to the classroom bullies who are basically cowards and can never
be allowed to win. As Friedrich Nietzsche
stated, ‘That which does not kill us makes us stronger’. This
audience are strong and united.
At
present the UK seems to be the terrorists’ main target. At this sad time I am
sure the people of France feel the emotion with us as they remember their
attacks through 2015- 2016 in Paris, Nice and Normandy. Who could ever forget
the slogan ‘Je suis Charlie’ after
the attack on January 7th, 2015 at the Charlie Hebdo magazine office when twelve people were killed? Germany
and Belgium, our other close European neighbours, have suffered from ISIS
attacks in Berlin, Wuerzburg, Ansbach and Brussels. Iraq, Turkey, Libya, Egypt,
Canada, Australia and America…yes, it is a global problem. Tunisia… a prominent
and memorable attack by a lone assassin on western tourists at a hotel in Port
El Kantaoui in June, 2015. This shooting was at one of the most unlikely
places… a beach where people were relaxing and enjoying a holiday. It resulted
in thirty-eight deaths and thirty-nine injured people. The assassin was killed
by the police.
I am
sure Americans shiver with horror at each new attack as they remember their
horrendous attacks on The Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York,
and The Pentagon on September 11th, 2001. Three planes were
successfully hijacked and hit their targets. A fourth plane did not reach its
destination, thought to be Washington, as the passengers attempted to overpower
the hijackers and the plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. This was the
work of another extremist Islamic group, al-Qaeda. Total fatalities were 2,996
and over six thousand injured people.
When
will our leaders actually admit that terrorism is not just a global phenomenon
but our third world war? One hundred years ago The Great War, later to be
termed World War 1, was coming to an end. It had been fought in various places
in battles and by man against man; by soldiers on horseback or on foot using
weapons of the era. Twenty years later in 1939 the world was at war again. It
was a still a war with battles and fought by soldiers on battlefields, those
men were fighting for freedom and a better future but it was a different type
of war using new weapons of the time… aeroplanes and bombs. In addition to
battlefields, it was a conflict fought from the air. Bombs could be dropped
from above destroying buildings and causing maximum damage to both life and
infrastructure. World War 2 was declared the war to end all wars but it does
not seem to have worked. I believe there has only been a short period of time,
(I read somewhere – fifteen minutes) when no country has been at war. There was
Vietnam, Chinese Civil War, Arab-Israeli War, Indo-Pakistani War, Korea, The
Falklands… to mention a few! All fought for a purpose, whether it be land, religion
or freedom.
However,
we are now in the twenty-first century and we have freedom, social media,
technology and materialism in a way never known before. Maybe the pendulum has
swung too far towards liberty and a tolerant society. As the last weeks have
proved it is not safe to cross the road or go to a concert. Looking back to
2015, 2016, neither is it safe to go on holiday, travel on public transport, go
shopping in the market, go out for a meal, sit on the beach or really do
anything. We have become prisoners of war in a world where terrorists are the
enemy. It is a different kind of war; a war where ‘attacks’ have replaced
battles. Not a war where planes drop bombs from the skies or soldiers fight
battles in fields. It is a war using twenty-first century knowledge and
weapons. Knowledge of how to make simple bombs capable of great destruction is
easily available on the Internet. Guns and knives are equally easy to purchase.
Our enemies are Islamist extremists who believe that martyrdom is the will of
Allah or maybe their heroes are the kamikaze pilots of World War 2. They are
just using different methods to find their divine wind route back to Allah.
In these
sad times we may ask what life is about. It is easy to be miserable and afraid.
It is easy to change our routine but we need to be strong and continue with our
plans. If we do that our enemies will not win. I, like most people on the
planet, have become a great fan of social media and in particular, Facebook. During the last six months I
have been posting daily. Firstly, it was Words
of Wisdom and then I moved on to Life
is… Some of my thoughts were
philosophical, others humorous. Sometimes I added photographs and emojis or I
dedicated certain sayings to individual people. On a couple of occasions I even
added a short story telling the inspiration behind the quotation, for example…Life is about turning left instead of right
and having an adventure!
I
noticed that I was getting a lot of those like
clicks and friends seemed to be enjoying my humble daily offering. I had an
idea… put all of my posts into a short book and publish them. I have placed one
of the Words of Wisdom after every
five or six Life is… quotations; some
Life quotes have illustrations,
either photographs from my albums or downloads from the Net under creative commons licence. All the
acknowledgements may be found at the end of the booklet after information on my
books.
I hope
that those of you who have downloaded this will delve into it on the dark days
and find that it puts the smile back on your face.
How
would I describe it? Humorous, philosophical, satirical, stimulating,
inspirational, illuminating, intriguing, thought-provoking, fresh, invigorating
and delightful.
Enjoy!
Post
Script
Since
writing this the world has experienced more disasters both of terrorism and nature.
More lives have been lost. There have been raging forest fires in Portugal, a
fire which was like a ‘towering inferno’ at Grenfell Tower in Kensington,
London and an attack on Muslims leaving the Finsbury Park Mosque, London after
evening worship. London is certainly getting its share of misfortune this year.
The question, ‘Why?’ is usually paramount but it is without an answer.
It is
hard to be positive or see anything good when these sad situations occur but
light always comes after the darkness and hope from despair. What I see is an
outpouring of human kindness and love. Even, at the mosque, the Iman protected
the assassin from being attacked before the police could arrest him. After
fires those who survive have nothing left. All their possessions have gone in
the blink of an eye. However, while the flames were still in charge and the
smoke pothered out of Grenfell Tower people were arriving with donations of
food, clothing, toys, essentials and luxuries to help the unfortunate ones
start again. Things take time and time is supposedly a great healer. Although I
am not sure about that.
What is
a certainty is that there will be more atrocities and natural disasters. All we
can do is stay strong and look after each other.
Marilyn
L. Rice, June 20th, 2017
I hope this has given you some food for thought. Please leave me comments or feel free to message me on FB. The book is an ebook and can be downloaded on Kindle.
Love and peace to you all, Lady M xxx
