It’s been a while since I posted in the “opinion” section of this blog.  It’s been a stressful period, culminating in the loss of the final “elder” member of the extended Cogle family.  As the song says, there is …..

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

Certainly it’s been a time for reflection.  So much has happened over that short period. 

In Australia, the wildfires have intensified. More Aussie land is currently burning than exists in the entire country of Belgium. The smoke is causing breathing problems in New Zealand, 2,000km away. Half a billion animals have been killed. Eight people are dead.  The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, seems to care little about the effect on his country.  He even took a vacation in Hawaii during the crisis.

In the US, Donald Trump had bombed Iraq, in order to assassinate Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, who was in Iraq at the time.  There is talk of Iranian retaliation and disproportionate US counter-retaliation. The world waits with baited breath to see who blinks first. In the meantime we hear from Trump that he is “Heaven Sent” and we see US Christian leaders hands-on praying for him. On the flip side he was impeached by the House of Representative.

In the UK, Boris Johnson has taken an extended vacation in Mustique, amongst wealth press-barons and other businessmen; no-doubt to say thank you for the donations to the Tory party and the lies they help spread.  He didn’t even come back early after Soleimani’s assassination despite the obvious implications on UK troops in Iraq.

Whilst he was away his unelected strategic advisor has put out a call to hire a new kind of staff into Downing Street:  super-talented weirdoes, unusual mathematicians, economists, scientists or software developers. People who need to need to commit two years of their time, but who could be sacked within weeks if you don’t “fit” the profile – although he says he doesn’t know what he’s looking for.  Is this a refreshing new take on recruitment requirements, or given his hatred of the UK political machine and a desire to dismantle government as we know it, just a cynical way of trying to circumvent the civil service?

So I have to ask….. Is this the kind of leadership we really want in our world?

Do we just say “well they were elected” and leave it at that?  Do we believe in the political process and accept that those that have the majority can do what they want?

Or is it becoming increasingly obvious that we need to take direct action and state what we want?