So as I woke up this morning, feeling like an 80 year old who can’t move due to the extreme joint pain I’m currently experiencing, I came across this post from UNHCR. Once again, it brought tears to my eyes. It made me furious that we are still here, years on, impotent as the once-great Syria is destroyed, as millions of Syrians, men, women and children, are forced to abandon their homes, betrayed by the world at large. Not only have they lost everything, but as they flee from their war-ravaged country in search of safe haven, they are set upon, blamed for everything wrong with the world. And people ask – when will this stop?

When will people stop looking for a better life, you ask? Isn’t that obvious – when there is no need to look for anything better, when bombs no longer fall on their heads, when torture isn’t part of daily reality, when the food they eat isn’t scavenged from the litter bins if they’re lucky, when they have access to medicine, to jobs, to the same human rights that you (most probably) and I enjoy.

Once again, people expressed shock and horror at the latest bombings in Brussels. Clearly, I too was horrified – and this was the closest I’ve ever felt it since my brother and his young family live there themselves. But was I shocked? No, in all honesty I wasn’t. This IS the world we are living in today, a world where the powers that be, on either side, wish to pit us against one another, to encourage polarisation, division, discord, a we-versus-us mentality. And until we realise that this is the biggest fallacy of all, the most dangerous one, the most insidious one, the one that I truly believe will be the demise of humanity as we know it – well then, until then there is no hope, all will be lost, and I will continue to not be shocked.

So, is it a Good Friday?

Further reading.