Tendring Topics…….on line
‘Now
thrive the armourers…….’
This line, spoken in
the prologue to Shakespeare’s Henry V suggests
that as long as 400 years ago it was realized that the real winners in any
international or civil conflict are those who manufacture and sell the means
with which the combatants kill each other.
Henry V is Shakespeare’s account
of the campaign in France in
1415 that began with the siege and eventual capture of Harfleur, and ended at Agincourt . There a
much larger French army was defeated in its attempt to prevent Henry’s depleted and disease-ridden force from
reaching Calais , then an English possession, and
returning safely to England .
The campaign
was part of a war that dragged on for a century. It cost thousands of French and
English lives and thousands of pounds wrung from the ordinary people of France and England . Agincourt
was indeed a famous victory in which English bowmen and foot soldiers defeated
a much larger French Army and slaughtered large swathes of the French nobility
and chivalry. Whatever else may have
been its result there’s no doubt at all that, on both sides of the Channel,
those ‘armourers’ did very nicely out of it, and out of the century-long war.
Let us hope
that the war ‘the west’ has been waging ‘against terrorism’ since ‘9/11’
doesn’t go on for so long. In Iraq the flames
of conflict have been dampened down but not extinguished. The future of Afghanistan
seems likely to be similar, if not even bleaker. Libya could hardly be described as
a country at peace.
In Syria a motley array of rebel fighters (many
with a minimal knowledge of Syria
but a wide experience of terrorism) are trying to overthrow the government of
President Assad. We are being dragged deeper and deeper into
the conflict. At first there was just
aid for the victims, more recently there has been supply of ‘non-lethal’
military equipment to the rebels. The
government of the USA
has repeatedly said that it would take more positive action if it were
satisfied that the Syrian government’s forces were using chemical weapons. Now it proclaims that that Rubicon has been
crossed – Sarin gas has been used and it has claimed over 100 victims. The USA will therefore support the
rebels with military aid of all kinds. It is to the credit of our Prime
Minister that for once he strikes a note of caution. I hope that he will resist any plea to send more weaponry and perhaps troops from our depleted army, to ‘train and support’ rebel fighters, among
whom, eagerly gaining more murderous experience, are the very terrorists who
threaten us in the UK .
Reports
suggest that the principal backer of the Syrian rebels is Saudi Arabia ,
which is supplying them with both weapons and funds. Compared with Saudi
Arabia , pre-civil-war Syria was an oasis of liberty and
tolerance. Does anyone seriously imagine
that the rulers of Saudi Arabia, with its absolute ban on any religion other
than its own version of Islam, its religious police (who make the ‘thought
police’ of pre-war imperial Japan look like well-meaning boy scouts), its
subjugation of women and its medieval legal and penal code, want to see a new liberal
and tolerant Syria as preferred by Barak Obama and David Cameron?
It is probable
that Sarin gas, or whatever, has claimed victims in the Syrian conflict. But which side has used it? Barak Obama has repeatedly said that the use
of chemical weapons by the government side would result in more positive action
by the USA
in favour of the rebels. That’s just what the rebels need. Is it likely that
the Syrian government would authorise the use of a small amount of Sarin gas;
enough to provoke the USA
into action but by no means enough to turn the conflict in the government’s
favour? Nor would it be likely to do so
at a time when government forces are gaining the upper hand using conventional
weapons. Surely it is much more likely that the rebels have used it as a sure,
if desperate, means of gaining greater support from ‘the west’ in their cause? We were deceived into taking part in the
invasion of Iraq
by a dodgy dossier of ‘irrefutable evidence’ that Saddam Hussein had weapons of
mass destruction at his disposal. He
hadn’t. Nor had he, as was falsely claimed at the time, played any part in the
outrage of 9/11. We surely have more sense than to be again deceived into
military action by false or flawed evidence.
Perhaps we
should look on the bright side. Arms
manufacturers and salesmen (modern ‘armourers’ engaged in one of the UKs most
successful industries) are doing do very nicely out of the conflict. If the UK and USA give more support to the rebels, they could do even better. They’d make
more profits and might even be able to ‘create more jobs’ knocking a few hundred
off the UK’s two and a half million unemployed
For some that would be ample compensation for the destruction of a
country and for tens of thousands of its
inhabitants being slaughtered, mutilated and/or rendered homeless.
A little grand-paternal pride!
 |
| Nick and Romy in a Brussels restaurant |
I
am very proud of the fact that Nick, my younger grandson, has become an authority on international tourism. Shortly after
graduating he obtained a post with the European Travel Commission and was
appointed as their on-line Sales Manager.
Later, despite the fact that he was not yet thirty and that the UK had opted
out of membership of the ETC, he was appointed as the Commission’s Acting
Executive Director. Nick though, had no intention of becoming a senior
International Civil Servant or of limiting his tourism activities to Europe . With the experience he had gained and the
world-wide contacts that he had made, he launched his own international tourism
consultancy SE1Media Ltd. of which he is now Managing Director (www.se1media.com). Since then he has organised international
tourism conferences and seminars world-wide and has visited the tourism and
holiday-travel ministries of over forty countries.
Nick
had, of course, visited my wife and I in Clacton on many occasions as a child and adolescent. I don’t recall his ever expressing any great
enthusiasm for our town as a holiday destination. I was a little anxious therefore when, after
the guests at the celebratory lunch for
my 92nd birthday (see Blog Week 21) began to disperse, my German
friend Ingrid and her partner Ray announced that with the younger members of my guests, they would be going down to the sea front to see the cliff-top gardens
and the pier. How, I wondered, would Nick, now an international expert, regard Clacton's holiday attractions?
Clacton’s Memorial Gardens
I
am very pleased to be able to record that they all, including Nick, thoroughly
enjoyed themselves and were deeply impressed.
They appreciated the pier and its present rides and facilities. Nick was very impressed with the Pier
Restaurant with its large glass windows looking out on to the great sweep of
the sea and the new Maplin Sands wind farm.
There
was Ingrid from Germany
(originally from Zittau but now living and working in Bayreuth ),
her Austrian god-daughter Jenny, grandson Nick, and Romy, from Brussels ,
grandson Chris from Taiwan ,
granddaughter Jo from Sheffield and Ingrid’s partner Ray from Ipswich . It is good to think that they have all
returned to their homes with positive memories of their visit to Clacton-on-Sea
and the Essex Sunshine Coast
Oh dear! Sixteen year old Austrian Jenny has been gobbled up by an alien ogre from outer space, on Clacton Pier.
The
Pier Restaurant
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