The Silly Season runs during the Summer months when Parliaments are closed for the holidays and in the dearth of news, weird and silly stories about monsters in forests, alien signals in space and leather-clad politicians visiting Spanking Sarah in her boudoir abound. Unfortunately, in the West, this Season now runs 24/7.
A jocular start to the article but here, ladies and gentlemen, it ends unceremoniously. As Summer 2017 descends upon the Northern Hemisphere, as we take stock at the world around us, we are confronted by a tremendous political mismanagement in the West. In this critique I exonerate Russia because the Government is working for the people at home, despite the fact that it has been confronted by a profound social, economic and political turnaround since 1991 and abroad, fights for peace, stability and international law. I exonerate the members of the international community (largely speaking outside North America and Western and Central Europe) that mind their own business and do not interfere in territories that do not belong to them.
Such is not the case elsewhere. The Media, principally in the USA and the European Union (which for the time being includes Chief Poodle the United Kingdom), has been used as a battering ram to smash down any semblance of sanity, filling the newspapers and TV screens with ever-more absurd stories about Russia. Pride of place, as so often, goes to Sky News which this week aired a discussion in which a new device to tell pet owners how their animals were feeling was being discussed, and then one of the newscasters said "But what if the Russians got hold of this?" The insinuation was as absurd as it was a puerile attempt to press home a quip that "Russians" would use it to manipulate the household or turn the pet into a monster.
But let us answer the question, if the Russians got hold of it, "What" indeed? Would they perpetrate a twin atomic terrorist strike against Japan? Would they strafe kids with napalm in Vietnam? Would they carpet bomb Pyongyang and murder around two million North Koreans? Would they invade Iraq outside the auspices of the UNSC? Would they commit a spectacular mission creep in Libya and use military hardware against civilian structures? Would they side with terrorists in Syria?
No. They would not. But that does not matter. What matters is the fact that through skewed reporting and a careful formation of popular sentiment using a manipulation of fear, using buzz-phrases such as "keeping us safe" and barefaced lies such as "Russian invasion", while refusing to report the truth, most of the population of the USA and its Poodles have a negative idea of Russia.
They have no idea that the Putsch in Ukraine was illegal, they have no idea that the vote to join Russia in Crimea was legal, they have no idea about the Fascist massacre of Russian speaking Ukrainians by forces close to Kiev in multiple locations. They think that the Iraq invasion was about revenge for 9/11, they believe that the Israelis are fighting against savages and have no idea that it is Israel causing all the problems by stealing lands that do not belong to it, by bulldozing cemeteries, by shooting kids in the eye with rubber bullets, by kidnapping children, by allowing colonists to steal houses and farms and lands.
They believe that the invasion of Libya was justified because Gaddafi was killing his own people, only he was not; they have no idea that NATO breached international law in Libya, they have no idea that the USA and its Chief Poodle the UK committed war crimes in Iraq and Syria and that their political and military leadership are war criminals.
While committing these acts of military State terrorism overseas, the same countries commit acts of social terrorism at home. Government, by the year 2017, should provide different alternatives and approaches to social welfare, while guaranteeing basic rights. One would have thought that by now people would have the right to a house and that homelessness would be zero. This is not the case. One would have thought that by now universal and free healthcare would be a birthright. It is not. One would have thought that dental care would be free and excellent, It is not. One would have thought that public utilities like water supply would be free since this is a basic life-supporting item. It is not. One would have thought that by now the education systems would be producing material very well prepared for the workplace and that basic, secondary and higher education would be free. It is a business, and a surprising number of people come out of school unable to spell, count or write properly and are functionally illiterate. One would have thought that by now citizens would be able to walk anywhere, at any time of day or night,without worrying about their safety. It is simply not the case.
And so with immense social and economic, structural and developmental issues to solve, the governments of the Western countries prefer to control their population through brainwashing to hide their own sheer ineptitude. Looking at the social mess they have created, looking at how the echelons of government agencies live, and very well, and looking at how the population is forced to pay more and more for less and less, with disastrous results at home and abroad, it is hardly surprising that the people have to be kept ignorant. The West is a land of the haves and the have-nots. In 2017. And the people seem perfectly contented with the situation.
Is this the way things were supposed to be in the Third Millennium?
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
Pravda.Ru
Twitter: @TimothyBHinchey
timothy.hinchey@gmail.com
*Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey has worked as a correspondent, journalist, deputy editor, editor, chief editor, director, project manager, executive director, partner and owner of printed and online daily, weekly, monthly and yearly publications, TV stations and media groups printed, aired and distributed in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal, Mozambique and São Tomé and Principe Isles; the Russian Foreign Ministry publication Dialog and the Cuban Foreign Ministry Official Publications. He has spent the last two decades in humanitarian projects, connecting communities, working to document and catalog disappearing languages, cultures, traditions, working to network with the LGBT communities helping to set up shelters for abused or frightened victims and as Media Partner with UN Women, working to foster the UN Women project to fight against gender violence and to strive for an end to sexism, racism and homophobia. A Vegan, he is also a Media Partner of Humane Society International, fighting for animal rights. He is Director and Chief Editor of the Portuguese version of Pravda.Ru.