Today I voted yes in The Lisbon Treaty. I am still not totally sure if it was the correct decision....but on the basis of all that I heard and read about it seemed the best option. My principal reservation was the common defence policy. Of course if any of my neighbours in Emyvale was being attacked I would intervene to help. I am sure the people of Ireland would not stand idly by either, if other European countries were experiencing hostilities from foreign invaders. Indeed, we would expect support from our European Union partners, if we too were under threat. My fear is, that with a powerful army, the E.U. would interfere in matters beyond our borders, for political and economic reasons. Ireland has a long and respected tradition of peacekeeping as members of the United Nations which I hope the E.U. seeks to emulate.
As my old Latin teacher once said: "The only thing we learn from war is that mankind never learns from war"
In 1974 a group of young people from Sligo did a group exchange with a group from Coesfeld in Germany. It went on for a few years and we became great friends when we visited each others homes. One of the boys, I think his name is Rudy, gave me an anti war trinket. It is what I hope the European common defence policy is going to be all about.
hi i just happened on your website, and in reading it , you quote your latin teacher re, what we never learn about war,i would state the opposite and say we learn so much from war, and in fact whilst abhorent it is a vital part of humankind development,we would never have developed space exploration for example had it not been for war, so many good things have come out of war, indeed we learn and gain so much from it,without war the world would be a very dull place.to quote one of my teachers " without the winter we would never appreciate the summer" wars are our winters
ReplyDeletei like the website
sabrina kepler
actually thinking more on the subject of war,i would have loved to have discussed this with your ols latin teacher,,he was probably a pacifist,or someone who actually thought that there could actually exist a plant with so many billion people that would never fight with each other some time, he was in a happy dreamworld,no we need wars in order to exist, its part of what we are,where i would probably agree to some extent with him would be that some people in mankind never learn from war, some never learn from anything at all,but a lot of people do indeed learn from war and make the world a better place because of war,
ReplyDeletesabrinakepler@gmail.com
Thank you for your nice comments about my site Sabrina.
ReplyDeleteI think the application of many scientific discoveries have been applied to the development of armaments certainly, which is unfortunate, but I prefer John Lennon's vision of the world:
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
you may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will live as one. etc
It's an aspiration !
With regards your quotation about the seasons. I think Summer is very over rated. All the seasons have their own charm and each brings out the best in the other.
Kind regards
Nelius
absolutely i agree with your sentimsnts and john lennons, however dreaming is without risk,doesent cost anything, but there is a real world out there, which requires war as a vital part of the human psyche, we would not be human without the ever present need for war, not just conventional war but conflict in our everyday lives, however great or small,dreaming is fine for a short while, but as john lennon himself tragicly eventually found conflict comes knocking in some shape or form to us all and dreamers are the least able to confront and defeat it,i read somewhere else about your comments of adolph hitler,you are right about what you say, but in my opinion he is singled out far to much to represent evil, why is joseph stalin or paul pot never used,if america lost the war eisenhower would have been painted as the great evil for dropping the a bomb,we should not always just churn out the same old stereotypes,i agree with your sentiment that "the seasons bring out the best in each other" its the same with war and peace they need each other to exist as we know them,
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There has always been good and evil and will be into the future too....and it's true the victors write history in a a favourable light: to themselves. But the main point of my Rudy blog was that I did not want Europe to be just another agressive super power.
ReplyDeleteYes, John Lennon, a good man, died too young and for no good reason but his legacy remains and is a positive one for humanity.
I have not written about Hitler ever, to my knowledge.
My favourite people from the latter part of the last millennium are: Muhammad Ali, Louis Armstrong, Dr. Christian Barnard, Jacques Cousteau, Diana, Princess of Wales, Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, Henry Ford, Mikhail Gorbacev, Martin Luther King, jr, Nelson Mandela, Maria Montessori, Luciano Pavarotti, Pele, Elvis Presley, Steven Speilberg, Mother Teresa, Helen Keller, Dalai Lama,& Thomas Edison.
Who would you choose ?
hi yes did you not write about hitler in your piece entitled " millenium"? yes i think i would have to pick michael gorbacev, he did great things which probably helped save the world from the greatest of all catastrophes, he put his head on the line and almost paid for it by his life, of course he achieved so much as he got on so well with ronald reagan,luck plays such a part in these things also,another place another time and things could be different, some would say that the people who dropped the atom bomb on japan were great people also, it all depends how events turn out, who wins and how history judges them,other people would say the same people were cruel and war criminals, who knows? you say you have chosen muhummad ali as great, others could say he was a cruel violent person who made his fortune and fame from hitting other humans, hardly a candidate for a peace prize surely,you see it all depends where you choose to view events from,one mans hitler(or stalin) is another mans saviour of the human race from weaklings, tyrants and bad influences, they could say he was doing his best for his view of a better world and had he won we would be fed all the propaganda which suited the victors viewpoint, anyhow iv read your entire blogs, its fine and very interesting
ReplyDeletesabrina
"The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" is a poignant reminder of the legacy of ALL tyrants....no matter how you choose to view events .
ReplyDeletethats true. for me a jew of polish extraction, i would tend to have no love for hitler, but i also choose to view things from what i hope is the middle of the road so to speak.iv ofter thought what it must have been like to think the way these people (hitler, stalin pol pot etc etc) must have thought, to try and get into their minds, they more than likley thought that they were doing their best for the world,i read your piece of finding a bolt from one of our bombers from ww2, to some people these machines were flown by liberators, others would think you have a momento of a killing machine that killed and maimed thousands upon thousands of innocent people in germany,it all depends how we look at things i guess anyhow it was interesting talking to you, good luck with your blog
ReplyDeletesabrina
I think,that considering your background from a religious and national background,you are a very open minded person with a very forgiving nature. It has been an interesting discussion and I hope you continue to follow my blog.
ReplyDeleteOur views about people are always about limited perception.....one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter.
Kind regards
Nelius