{"id":1485587,"date":"2024-02-06T23:58:21","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T23:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmatilda.com\/?p=134341"},"modified":"2024-02-06T23:58:21","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T23:58:21","slug":"despair-disbelief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/02\/06\/despair-disbelief\/","title":{"rendered":"Despair &amp; Disbelief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Stuart Rees<\/em><\/p>\n<p>You can\u2019t help wondering<br \/>\nwhy the question about cruelty as a priority<br \/>\nof brave men called leaders<br \/>\nof arms industries, governments<br \/>\nand finance corporations<br \/>\nis never posed.<\/p>\n<p>You can\u2019t help wondering<br \/>\nwhy bestiality is considered<br \/>\nonly a preserve of an animal universe<br \/>\nand never enters the thoughts<br \/>\nof brave men called leaders<br \/>\nwho cross their chests for human rights.<\/p>\n<p>You can\u2019t help wondering<br \/>\nwhy history is forgotten<br \/>\nso that only one group of terrorists<br \/>\nare blamed by democratic leaders<br \/>\narmed with guns and righteousness<br \/>\njustifying their brand of punishment.<\/p>\n<p>I am incredulous<br \/>\nthat discrimination can be called democratic,<br \/>\nthat indiscriminate slaughter<br \/>\nis varnished as targeted killings,<br \/>\nthat hostages might be rescued<br \/>\nby the same violence that led to their capture.<\/p>\n<p>I am disbelieving<br \/>\nthat sentiments for humanity<br \/>\nare treated like ornaments from an op shop<br \/>\nd\u00e9cor that will not disturb<br \/>\nthe murderous goals of those intent<br \/>\non opposing the next ceasefire resolution.<\/p>\n<p>I am despairing<br \/>\nthat slaughter of thousands of women and children<br \/>\nis staged as theatre<br \/>\nfor brave men to wage and watch<br \/>\nbecause their minds cannot escape<br \/>\nthe racism that carves an identity<br \/>\nparceled and publicized by media<br \/>\nwho also know no other way of thinking.<\/p>\n<p>I despair that a cancer spreads,<br \/>\nthat drugs and surgery cannot be used because<br \/>\nexceptional countries are so above the law<br \/>\nthat no-one intervenes, genocide continues,<br \/>\nambulances are forbidden to collect the dying<br \/>\nand my despair cannot be lessened<br \/>\nby protesting in an article<br \/>\nor even by writing this poem.<\/p>\n<p>In response to months of genocide in Gaza and the West Bank written in Vincentia NSW, January 31 2024<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/newmatilda.com\/2024\/02\/07\/despair-disbelief\/\">Despair &#038; Disbelief<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/newmatilda.com\/\">New Matilda<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/newmatilda.com\/2024\/02\/07\/despair-disbelief\/\">New Matilda<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Stuart Rees You can\u2019t help wondering why the question about cruelty as a priority of brave men called leaders of arms industries, governments and finance corporations is never posed. You can\u2019t help wondering why bestiality is considered only a preserve of an animal universe and never enters the thoughts of brave men called leaders [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/newmatilda.com\/2024\/02\/07\/despair-disbelief\/\">Despair &amp; Disbelief<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/newmatilda.com\/\">New Matilda<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6692,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1964,73942],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485587"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6692"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1485587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1485588,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485587\/revisions\/1485588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1485587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1485587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1485587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}