www.owohrod.com.

 

  Instead, the West is pursuing the strategy of imposing massive and indiscriminate sanctions - trade, economic and political and diplomatic - against Russia and it  people.  A kind of total war by all other means, but one which is intended to strangle Russia's economy and economic functioning. With the hope, if not the intention of making it incapable of continuing to wage war against its neighbour. An economic siege of Russia. However, this strategy is fraught with the difficulty of making it more difficult to bring the conflict to an end.  There are at least two major reasons for this difficulty. In the first instance, like sieges of old, economic sanctions tend to take quite sometime to weaken 'the enemy' sufficiently to force a surrender, or to allow those enforcing the siege to deliver the coup de grace.  Secondly, other events could occur while the Siege is taking place, to cause the pressure to be taken of.  Thirdly, the Economic Siege could provoke the Russian gove

  And now, we are confronted with the phenomenon of President Putin of Russia.  A powerful leader who has, it seems to me, metamorphosed from being a sane and competent leader with a justified and credible cause.  Namely that of securing his country's borders and security from the Nato-posed threats.  Into a leader struck by a pernicious psychotic episode, which has precipitating catastrophic invasion and attack on his Ukrainian neighbour.  It is in this respect that I see the President of Russia acting out of context.  He is acting as if he is a Medieval Potentate. A Ruler who has to be feared because he has, it seems, shed his clothing, his shield of moral, legal and empathic clothing, authority.  Opting for the preferred, for him, status of becoming a Renegade. A 'modern day' Genghis Khan, an Attila, an Alexander the Great.  He has unleashed a killing machine at a time of relative peace - even if we have to agree that this is something which has been largely restricted t

  So, context might not be everything, but it does counts for alot.  There is little or no point in us who are living in today's 21st Century. Thinking and/or behaving as if we are or were living in the 1st CE,( Common Era or Before Christ).  Even though the believers in the Abrahamic religions would have all of us who do not share their faiths and beliefs, submitting ourselves to a purported divine worldview or weltanschauung which would require us insult or suspend our critical faculties. Or at anytime during the centuries of hellish man-inflicted suffering that humanity has had to suffer and endure before and since, say upto World War Two.  Yes, I acknowledge that the West's invasion of Iraq, of Syria and of Libya were truly hellish for the people who were subjected to the terrible deaths and destruction which were thrown on them.  But those terrible wars, as far as the 'outside world' was concerned, and outside of the remit of the social media and the targeted disse

  And so it was that we gathered, at it were, at the cemetery to place my dear mother into the earth from whence we evolve, toiled to cover her coffin with it.  Had I not resolved to allow the professional grave-workers to carry out this strenuous task? Yes, I had.   But I had not taken into account the insistence of the Revd. Pitts on maintaining tradition; including members of the congregation, including family members, taking responsibility for filling the grave. Having completed this stage of the process, it was time to say our final goodbye to the physical body of my dear mother, and make our way to the designated place for having the reception.  Which we duly did, and was welcomed by a hot cup of delicious soup and a bread cob.  To be followed by a more substantial meal of rice and peas, white rice, vegetarian curry, and curried mutton.  And as I enjoy the reception/setup, and watched others doing so, as they make re-acquaintances with friends and relatives they, I might not have

  The eulogy by A was simply brilliant, reflective and evocative of the time she shared with and remembered of her 'Mama.  While the poem by R was similarly very thoughtful, accomplished and engaging. With others from  another granddaughter, and one of Mama's daughter-in-law. And finishing with a well-constructed semi-colloquial piece from one of my dear mother's surviving sons. But it was not all plain -sailing or euphoric, as the painfully scripted and badly timed and delivered 'tribute' from one of my dear mother's relative.   Would have caused many, if not the congregation to feel a collective sense of discomfort, and probably held their breathe. Not now; not now.  Not at Mama's funeral and not in the public's gaze, because, what can you expect to benefit from saying such things, from baring your pain in public, unless you seek to dishonour our dear mother? All of the different strands of the service was weaved together by the excellent management of

  No, Google is able to listen and understand what those of us, which are probably most of us, ask of it, and provide us with more often than not, relevant answers.  Which is not the modus operandi of the Christian God, the Muslim God, and the God of the Jewish people.  All three of whom, were they to be considered as different 'Gods', or the same 'God', worshipped by Muslims, Jews and Christians in different ways, according to their different cultures.   Are completely dependent on their believers to give them life and the power to 'do things', but only through actions of people. And so it is that, the same irrationality which prevents, intellectually blinds the theistic believers, the devoted Judaists, Muslims and Christians, et al.   From conferring on us humans the status of being the species with the greatest evolved intellect and power in our known world and multiverse.  Is also the the same irrationality that is preventing many of us, individually and col