Still too busy too blog, sad about Onitsha and some paradoxes to chew on

My hectic week, persists right into the weekend. I'm exhausted but there's a sense of exhilaration as well, from juggling so many balls and meeting so many challenges in such a short period and succeeding. I probably need to catch up on what's been happening,in the UK and in Nigeria but the saddest thing for me has been the reprisal attacks on Muslims in Onitsha which has left so many dead....in addition to the several Christians killed in Northern Nigeria last week as a result of the Danish cartoons. I've blogged before on the pointlessness of vengeance and so won't repeat it here, but I mean, what next- more reprisals in the North and more in the South until we descend into a widening gyre of violence? I cannot even begin to imagine how hurt and angry the families and friends of the killed must feel- I know how angry I felt when I heard of the initial killings- but surely more violence is NOT the answer........ a message that would be well-heeded in Baghdad as well.........

Meanwhile, it's infuriating to see that the president's acolytes third term manoeuverings continue even when they risk inflaming an already volatile situation.....

I briefly overheard an impressive Christian cleric from Nigeria (missed his name) on the BBC, a few days before the reprisal attacks, apparently repudiating a statement from another senior Nigerian Christian cleric- an Archbishop no less- who had suggested that no-one held a monopoly on violence and that Christian leaders might find it impossible to control their flocks in the face of the provocation of the Northern killings. As I rush around on my various tasks, I muse on this paradox- a minister of a gospel of peace-spreading a distinctly unpeaceful message........

Another paradox I've mused long and hard on is the furore in the United States (which has nothing against Arabs, as we are so often reminded) over the fact that a Dubai based company has bought P&O, a UK shipping company that controls some major American ports. Many distinguished Republicans, proponents of the free market all, are now seeking to intervene in the market and reverse the sale on the grounds of national security; President Bush, perhaps for once actually understanding the implications of his actions is insisting that he will veto any bill that attempts to do this.......

In Iraq, Shiites and Sunnis united in their desire to see occupying American forces leave their land, turn on each other in an orgy of violence......which if anything is only likely to extend the stay of the foreign forces......yet another paradox....


Why do we find it so difficult to live up to what we profess to believe? I suspect (even if it's a banal and cliched thought) that if we did, there'd be a lot more happiness about.............