Category Archives: refugees

Ayurveda, Brexit, European Union, God, health care, Jesus, new writer, plant-based lifestyle, refugees, society, vegansim, vision

Culling healthy animals is criminal

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According to one female farmer in the UK this week, “Culling healthy animals is criminal.” Let’s start with this disgusting euphemism “culling”. This word means: “to reduce the population of a wild animal by selective slaughter.” This word is used so that we think that it is normal and good that animals are born and reared in order to die in order to produce meat for human consumption. But any killing of animals is rightly termed as animal slaughter. But when there aren’t enough butchers around to slaughter the animals, then we “cull” thousands of them instead. And only culling is criminal, not raising them and slaughtering them for human consumption. Animals are sentient beings, just like human beings, and it should be made illegal to slaughter them. The pain and fear they experience in the lead-up to and while being slaughtered is exactly what any human being would experience. “To animals reared for food production, all humans are Nazis.” Ironic and tragic also , then, that the nations of the world with the largest religious communities eat the most animal flesh.

Next I come to why we have a shortage of slaughterers in the UK. Because of Brexit. Every reader of this blog knows that I have been pro-European since the age of 18 and that I vehemently opposed Brexit and all the lies that were told to the British people. Now we have one of the many consequences: animals being culled, empty supermarket shelves, a shortage of nurses and carers. The list goes on. And Boris Johnson thinks he can solve this problem by allocating six-month work visas to EU workers after all. The reaction to date has proved that he can dream on.

And talking of Boris Johnson and the EU, this week has seen refugees drowning in the Channel. Tragedy beyond belief. Boris Johnson’s diplomatic response is to post a three-page letter on Twitter in English addressed to the French President, Emmanuel Macron. Quite rightly, President Macron responded that Boris Johnson could not be taken seriously and that he is no more than “clown” leading a formerly great nation and potential ally of France. He is right, let’s face it. And why does Johnson not have any advisers who told him that he needed to have his undiplomatic letter published in French? This kind of insular arrogance beggars belief.

This has not been a good week for the UK. At least Boris the Buffoon can carry on drinking gin, ignoring his responsibility to all the children he has fathered and illegally celebrating parties at Number 10, as if Corona really were just a joke Pepper Pig illness that just kills off a few elderly people who we would be better of without anyway.

Meanwhile, the church also has nothing to say about human beings dying in the Channel who so desperately needed Christian compassion. Instead, they look on, vote for the most racist Foreign Minister I have experienced during my lifetime, Priti Patel, rub their meat-filled tummies and celebrate how much a non-existent God loves them, at least.

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”
― Soren Kierkegaard

Berlin, Brexit, European Union, politics, refugees, society, vision

Barmy budget

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This week saw Philip Hammond produce his pre-Brexit budget. A dangerous and hypocritical attempt to support our Dancing Queen, Theresa May’s claim that austerity in the UK has now officially come to an end.

What Mr Hammond announced reminded me of a very poor, unemployed British family that already has enormous debts that it cannot repay and who decide nonetheless to cut themselves off from all their remaining family and friends. Their friends all pull away and don’t even invite them to go to the pub for a drink any more. At the last moment, just as the last friends and relatives are now even blocking their social media connections with this family and deliberately changing their telephone numbers, mum and dad, Theresa and Phil, succeed somehow, by telling lies, in borrowing five times what they already owe and can never repay in debts. One evening, Theresa and Phil tell their obese children at the dinner table, as they are enjoying their unhealthy fast-food dinner, that everything will be fine. Soon afterwards, however, mum and dad die in a sinking ferry in the English Chanel. Shortly after the death of their parents, the four children realise the truth and spend the rest of their lives, in vain, trying to repair the tragic mess they inherited from Theresa and Phil.

The truth is, the Conservative Party has done a predictable volte-face after many years of so-called austerity in order to try to save face as the disaster of Brexit comes ever nearer. In order to create the impression of a wonderfully successful government, Mr Hammond has borrowed enormous amounts of money that the UK can never repay. And he has already committed to spending 97% of the government’s unexpected surplus in tax revenue from recent months rather than invest it or use it to reduce the frightening national debt.

As the nation is about to cut adrift from its only allies, he has plunged the Disunited Kingdom into financial and fiscal chaos. And based on what? There can only be two driving thoughts going through his mind. Either he is hoping for a general election in 2019 that will, thanks to their enormous, fake generosity, keep the Conservative Party in power while the Labour Party remains weak under Jeremy Corbyn. Or he knows full damn well that, should the Labour Party come to power, they will be saddled with such enormous debts that they cannot even try to reboot the economy with their customary application of Keynesian economic principles. Then, since the country cannot recover from all the debt, and after things have got even worse post-Brexit, the Tories of course blame Labour for irresponsible over-spending and economic chaos, they promise yet another chimeric economic recovery from a disaster that they had created, get back into power and the whole childish, cyclical, undemocratic tomfoolery starts all over again.

Meanwhile, across the Chanel, what a contrast is taking place in the Federal Republic of Germany. This week, Angela Merkel stood up before the nation and the world and took personal responsibility for the increasing unpopularity of her decision to allow over one million desperate refugees to enter the country in 2016. As a result, she will be stepping down from the party leadership yet remain as Chancellor until the next general election in order to provide stability in a time of great, global uncertainty. With great power comes great responsibility. What an astute, responsible, honourable and well thought-through response to an increasingly challenging political situation. Imagine Theresa May standing even before the 1922 Committee two weeks ago, taking responsibility for the Brexit nightmare and offering to stand down as party leader whilst offering to lead the country through at least until Brexit is behind her.

I find it so ironic that the UK government is pulling away from the very Community from whom it could learn so much. The ignorance caused by isolationalism is lethal. No man is an island. No leader and no political system is perfect, but in a globalised world, we need one another’s multi-cultural perspectives more and more in order to maximise creative dialectic and in order to hold a mirror up to one another and see our societal strengths and weaknesses from a variety of perspectives.

So, let’s end on a positive note. What could the UK currently learn from its more successful and secure neighbours in order to rise again triumphantly from its prevailing dust and ashes? Here are a few suggestions:

  1. Abolish the monarchy and the House of Lords. Move out of the symbolically crumbling Houses of Parliament with its silly, opposing benches and move into a round building that promotes intelligent debate and genuine democracy.
  2. Introduce teaching about politics in our schools, promote the establishing of alternative political parties and introduce some degree of proportional representation.
  3. Abolish all private schools and invest more money in state-funded education and training.
  4. Take greater responsibility for the environment, including the re-nationalisation of the rail network.
  5. Devolve power from London to the regions, counties, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
  6. Remain in the European Union, adopt the Euro as a currency, embrace freedom of movement by signing up the Schengen Agreement.
  7. Bring in new laws in order to curb social inequality. Has no one ever wondered why May, Hammond, Cameron, Blair, Thatcher are all Oxford graduates? (And I don’t say that out of jealousy because I am one myself).
  8. Reform the National Health Service as opposed to throwing away unbelievable amounts of money into an archaic system that is flawed at the core.
  9. Invest heavily into businesses that actually manufacture products that the rest of the world wants to buy. The UK needs to trade more products, not services.
  10. Finally, understand that we British are not Japanese, who achieve great results by team-work; we are not Germans, who achieve great results by systems and methods; and we are not Americans, who achieve great results – the present political climate excepted – by inspiring leadership and dedicated, creative followers, but we are a curious combination of all these attributes, which combined with a genuinely democratic political system and the right social culture, could with humility achieve results on a par with any other of the world’s leading nations.

“The tragedy for British politics — for Britain — has been that politicians of both parties have consistently failed, not just in the 1950s but on up to the present day, to appreciate the emerging reality of European integration. And in doing so they have failed Britain’s interests.” Prime Minister Tony Blair (2001).

politics, refugees, society, vision, war

Low-life blunders on

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This sick, jingoistic low-life blunders on after over a year in the role of the President of the United States of America. Every time I think he cannot do anything more outrageously unethical, he does.

As we have recently discovered, thanks to the “biased, lying, fake-news-ridden press”, his racist obsession with dealing with illegal immigrants entering the USA has led to the intolerable separation of children from their parents. The (so far) 2,300 children are not only separated, but being held in make-shift detention centres, given sedative drugs that are being presented to them as vitamin pills and some have so far never got to see their parents again (source: BBC news).

Even since this Auschwitz-like atrocity has come to light, Trump shows absolutely no signs of adjusting his zero-tolerance policy. On the contrary. This week he wrote on Twitter:

“We cannot allow all of these people to invade our country. When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no judges or court cases, bring them back to where they came from. Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and law and order … Our immigration policy, laughed at all over the world, must be based on merit – we need people who will help to Make America Great Again.”

America once was great, largely thanks to its cultural diversity. Just take a look at the names in the cast and crew list of some of the greatest US movies ever made. This man Trump is a disgusting, perverted affront to the values of humanity, the riches of cultural diversity and to the rights of children and families.

And the greatest irony in all of this is that the US likes to regard itself as a Christian nation. It is estimated that over 40% of the nation go to church every week and 70% regularly attend a service. If Christianity is meant to have a positive influence on the moral behaviour of a nation, then it clearly is not working.

At the end of the day, the increasingly hollow slogan “God bless America” is an insult to prayer, an insult to racial tolerance and an insult to human equality. Even more so when it comes out of the mouth of an ignoramus like Trump.

Let’s hope God wakes up soon and gives the Americans the president they really deserve.

“Is man merely a mistake of God’s? Or God merely a mistake of man?”   Friedrich Nietzsche

 

Berlin, Children, European Union, God, politics, refugees, vision, war

God’s revenge on the USA

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So, very sadly, I was right yesterday. Trump has already after only a few months in office gone down in history as the world’s biggest ever mass-murderer. Thankfully, his crass stupidity has opened up much bigger opportunities with other nations like China, leaving the US behind as a future “third-world” nation.

Maybe Almighty God will now spit the USA our of His mouth, just as He has promised to do with many others who do not obey His commands and just as He allowed to happen to His chosen people on account of their disobedience during the Holocaust (Deuteronomy 28, especially verse 49!)

Below is an account from Sky News today, who, for the first time ever, have taken a pro-European, as opposed to a pro-UK/US, perspective.

Mark Stone, Europe Correspondent in Brussels

 I was in the vast Paris convention centre late on that December night back in 2015 when the climate change accord was agreed.

The jubilation among the delegates was palpable. Politicians, scientists, activists were all ecstatic.

They were surprised too. After the total failure of the previous summit, five years earlier in Copenhagen, they had finally achieved what they had thought was impossible: almost every nation had signed the accord.

Nearly a year later, in November 2016, I was in a US rust belt town in Pennsylvania as America prepared to vote. Out of work and with their factories shut, the people of Johnstown, Pennsylvania chose Donald Trump.

:: Trump announces US will withdraw from Paris climate deal

His promise to “make America great again” had resonated across large swathes of the country largely because he promised to get their jobs and their industry back.

Mr Trump’s pledge to pull out of the Paris accord meant, they believed, that their factories would reopen, their jobs would be returned to them.

It was a cruel populist tactic and it has now been compounded. In an hour long statement on Thursday evening Mr Trump held true to his word.

“In order to fulfil my solemn duty to protect the people of the United States we will withdraw from the climate accord,” he announced from the Rose Garden of the White House with a jazz band and fake applause.

The factory workers are thrilled, naturally. But it’s impossible to see how, ultimately, it will make their lives better, let alone reignite their factories.

Far from putting America first, leaders globally now believe that he has put America last.

It will be left behind as other countries accelerate, with unprecedented enthusiasm, their green energy initiatives. That will have an economic impact.

The flurry of condemnation from around the world was a hint of how big a deal the Trump decision is.

In their joint statement, Italy, France and Germany expressed their regret and said they believed the climate deal gave substantial economic opportunities for prosperity and growth.

It’s true that the accord unlocked significant low carbon investment and innovation globally creating more and more jobs.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron, in a rare 11pm live televised statement, said: “I want to express myself a few hours after the declaration of the President of the United States of America because this is serious.”

“The US has turned its back on the world.”

“France will not turn its back on Americans,” he said, before inviting American scientists to come and work in France.

He ended with: “Make the planet great again”.

The EU Commissioner for climate action and energy, Miguel Arias Canete, issued a lengthy statement condemning Mr Trump’s decision and concluded: “Today’s announcement has galvanised us rather than weakened us, and this vacuum will be filled by new broad committed leadership.

“Europe and its strong partners all around the world are ready to lead the way.

“We will work together to face one of the most compelling challenges of our time.”

John Kerry, the former US secretary of state who was instrumental in ensuring success in Paris in 2015, described the decision as “an ignorant, cynical appeal to an anti-science, special-interest faction far outside the mainstream”. (Ed: Of course a veiled reference to Christians).

He added: “If the world doesn’t press forward faster, we’ll see stronger storms, longer and more intense droughts, more wildfires, a swell of climate refugees and intensified conflict around the world.”

China, once the climate change villain, is now seen in an altogether different light.

While Mr Trump was speaking in the Rose Garden, the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang was dining in Brussels with EU leaders.

It is China’s enthusiastic commitment, along with India and Japan, to stick to the Paris Accord that will, it is hoped, mitigate the decision by Mr Trump.

While there is significant disappointment and dismay at the decision, there is reserved confidence among politicians, scientists and activists that the pledges made in Paris in December 2015 can still be met.

So maybe there are a few silver linings to Mr Trump’s toxic cloud.

The world, minus just America, will now have new impetus, willingness and resolve to implement the Paris accord and ensure the fight for the environment can continue.

Already, extra support for developing nations to help them meet their goals has been pledged.

New bonds are being formed as old ones fray. The European Union and the world’s largest emitter, China, releasing a joint statement on fighting climate change is significant.

The European Union sees this as an opportunity to reassert itself globally.

And given that significant portions of the American electorate are against Mr Trump’s decision, it seems certain that climate change will now be a key theme in the next US election.

It’s not often that climate change features highly in election campaigns.

I fear ,though, that the silver linings won’t stretch as far as places like Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

America’s rust belt workers will be disappointed.

Ed: I rest my case.

Berlin, God, refugees, society, vision

So out of touch!

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In 2017 there will be a major gathering of the German protestant church from 24th to 28th May.  Doubtless the gathering is even more significant this year because it is 500 years since  the Reformation began with  Martin Luther in 1517.

One of the most striking aspects of this event is the large amount of prominent advertising with its slogan attempting to reach out to the nation with the good news about Jesus Christ: “Du siehst mich,” from Genesis 16:13.

This verse can be translated as “You see me” or “You are watching me” and the connotation is unavoidable. It smacks so strongly of at best Monsters Inc. with “I’m watching you, Razelski, always watching you” or at worst George Orwell’s “Big Brother is watching you.” And this at a time when, thanks to Donald Trump, “1984” has recently become a best-seller again in the US.

One of the least palatable ideas to many human beings is the idea that they are being constantly watched or observed by something or someone. This is especially unpopular in Germany where nearly all professionals are obliged to hold all private information as confidential, at no matter what cost. Germans set great store in protecting their private space and very strongly object to being observed by the police, government officials, hackers, etc.

If the protestant church is trying to reach out to the millions of unbelievers in Germany, then they certainly chose the wrong slogan! Whereas I honour and admire the great social work done by the church in Germany, when it comes to evangelism, they would have been much better off by choosing to quote their countryman, Friedrich Nietzsche, when he said: “Gott selbst ist tot.”

I guess the only consolation is that the church leaders have with this slogan quoted Hagar, the genetic mother of Islam, and so they will have at least managed to reach out to the growing number of Muslims in the nation.

Berlin, European Union, God, new writer, politics, refugees, society, vision

Ban the burka?

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Recently I listened to a speech given by Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the new German President, in which he spoke with such passion, factual accuracy and clarity about the importance of the European Union. It was an outstanding speech, almost on a level with Obama’s rhetorical skills, in which he pointed out, amongst many other things, the long-lasting peace, the abolition of dictatorship in certain key nations and the social advantages of being together as a union of nations. The financial advantages were barely mentioned. All of which goes to show how little the current UK government understands about the raison d’être of the EU, a fact that does not bode well for the current Brexit negotiations.

All the more surprising, therefore, is the recent EU decision to ban the wearing of the burka within its member nations. As I know from many of my friends here in Berlin, the majority of women wear headscarves and burkas for cultural, not religious reasons, and I am disappointed that the EU has not displayed its usual cultural tolerance in this issue. I do not think we should go down the line of “When in Rome, you absolutely have to do what the Romans do”, rather as Europeans have to do when they visit Muslim nations. Such a tit-for-tat attitude does nothing towards furthering cultural understanding and international co-operation.

I must admit, however, that the burka crosses a, let’s say “common sense” line, since it enables people to hide their identity when they are, for example, opening a bank account, registering with a local authority or crossing an international border. Yet this common sense issue surely has nothing to do with nationality, culture or religion. There are obvious, practical solutions to this issue if mutual human respect is to take precedence over cultural prejudice and racism.

To conclude, it occurred to me recently that the biggest problem with regards to the burka is that the wrong people are wearing it! How many beautiful women are daily hidden from our sight, when, actually, we would all benefit so much more, if only it were worn by people like Theresa May, Marine Le Pen and, for that matter, Donald Trump.

Berlin, European Union, politics, refugees, society, vision, war

The epitome of hypocrisy

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Quite apart from not having a single leadership bone in her body, Theresa May is increasingly turning out to be an incompetent, undemocratic and undiplomatic hypocrite. No wonder she gets on so well with Boris Johnson and Donald Trump.

Today she has had the absolute effrontery to lecture the Scottish First Lady and Scottish Parliament that they should focus more on “raising standards in education, taking care of the health service, reforming criminal justice, helping the economy proposer, improving people’s lives.” How outrageous! These are exactly the areas where May’s government has the worst track record in living history!

She also said, “A tunnel vision nationalism, which focuses only on independence at any cost, sells Scotland short.” Hello? She added, “There is no economic case for breaking up the United Kingdom, or of loosening the ties which bind us together.” Hello? So how come none of these arguments applied to the singularly nationalistic, economically disastrous breaking away of the UK from Europe?

Alex Salmond replied, “The days of Scotland being lectured to by high-handed prime ministers at Westminster, these days are over.” Let’s hope he’s right.

Funny how world politics ultimately relies a lot on chance and the influence of the gutter press as opposed to democracy, sound reasoning and moral values. Theresa May is only in power because David Cameron made a serious miscalculation and the leaders of the former Labour Party (we can obviously forget Corbyn) and the Liberal Democrats had no balls and stood down. I guess Shakespeare understood that when he wrote:

“There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves.                                                       Or lose our ventures.” Julius Caesar, Act 4, Scene 3.

I only hope that this same tide will as soon as possible sweep the likes of May, Johnson, Trump away into an ocean of oblivion and that the new tide will bring in some real leaders like Obama who understand the importance of human rights, democracy and unity and who can articulate these values with supreme eloquence. He was clearly much too good for the Disunited Sates of America and the Disunited Queendom of Not-so-Great-Britain minus Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Berlin, God, new writer, refugees, society, war

What is truth?

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Okay, so my blog entry from last week about God’s and many christians’ attitude to the persecution and murder of children in Syrian prisons caused a bit of an angry reaction in some readers. Sorry about that. It was not really my intention.

So here is my reply, in particular to the preacher who took objection to my “ridiculously naive, unacademic and fundamentalist” interpretation of Romans 9:8 or Galatians 4:23 and John 14.6.

I admit to feeling humbled and challenged by what she and others wrote. Including those who wrote that I am bitter and sour and just want to get my own back on the church for what happened.

I’d like to deal with the second point first because it is more straight forward. I am not bitter and sour, largely because I have been attending an amazingly high quality therapy for the last three years that has helped me to come to terms with all that has happened. Through this therapeutic process, I have learnt both not to bear any grudges and to accept the full responsibility for what happened. I have absolutely no one to blame except myself.

If I were to have an agenda, it would be simply to provoke others to question seriously whether or not they are trapped in a sect, as I was, or whether  they are living  their lives in a liberated, responsible and meaningful way.

Now to the second question. We are often taught that the truth is an absolute, otherwise it cannot be truth. That is, however, a singularly western non-sequitur. And the objections of Frau Dr. D. that my suggested interpretation of certain Bible texts was arrogantly naive provides significant evidence for this.

I honestly believe that this woman is a very sincere, studious, devout Christian who truly believes in Jesus and in the text of the Bible. Her underlying conviction is that my suggested interpretation of is based on a specific culturally-determined interpretation of the texts that is out of kilter with reality, history and the most respected methods of textual interpretation. She argues, and this cannot be denied, that, according to the Bible, Jews, Christians and Muslims all have the same roots in the one and the same God.

Ultimately, what this has shown me is that, even if I were to accept that the Bible alone is the infallible word of God, the breadth of completely differing interpretations by sincere believers ultimately transforms infallibility into subjectivity.

Believers who want to argue differently set themselves up as arrogant know-alls with a superior level of revelation and the obvious result is division, persecution and conflict. Which is in itself an abomination in the eyes of a loving God. It also means that God’s word cannot ultimately be regarded as infallible since subjective interpretation takes precedence over his ability to communicate infallibly with his creatures. And how absurd is that?

So, back to the bizarre syllogism that the truth is an absolute, otherwise it cannot be truth. Ultimately, both Dr D. can be right in her interpretation and so can the fundamentalists.

Therefore, paradoxically, there is a reality even higher than the truth itself, and it is this: that the truth is always subjective. I rest my case.

‘Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.’  Mahatma Gandhi

Berlin, God, new writer, politics, prison, refugees, society, vision

Has God trumped himself in Syria?

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I don’t know whether you’ve noticed this too, but in recent weeks the first items on the news have been dominated by this uneducated, politically inexperienced, racist old bastard called Donald Trump.

Just like the United Kingdom with their Brexit, the North Americans have played beautifully into the hands of the Islamic State. Unlike the UK and the US, IS understands that racism takes precedence over democracy … if the voters are stupid enough. Proof is: Trump tries to ban people from states whose citizens have never committed a terrorist crime on US soil.

Very much secondary in the headlines is the random persecution and murder of men, women and children, yes, children, in Syrian prisons.

I ask myself the question, therefore, a) how can a so-called God of love allow a nation whose population largely claims to be believing Christians allow such a fucking idiot to rule over their nation and b) how can this God of love sit by and watch these children, women and men be terrorized, abused and murdered in this way?

I went to church last Sunday, and the preacher, Frau Doktor D., assured the nervous congregation from Genesis, Chapter 16, that through the story of Hagar and Sarai, Jews, Muslims and Christians all come from one God and are members of one family and that they should ultimately get along well as such in the long term. This should give us all a reason for optimism and hope.

I don’t suppose that the dear doctor preacher has ever read Romans 9:8 or Galatians 4:23 , John 14.6,  etc, – which give Christians the right to say that only they are God’s true children and that all Muslims will go to hell. We do come from one family, she is right, but our dad loves only some of his children. Conditionally.

Whatever the case may be, Christians sit in their pews around the world, feeding their spiritual bellies, one step below the yoga class next door to my office, and most do almost nothing to bring peace to Syria.

If Jesus really did exist, it is very clear that he expected a radical, world-changing movement of people who were prepared to sacrifice everything to change the world. Rather like the IS, actually.

Instead, we have a group of largely passive, sedentary people who massage their butts and shout “Amen” to the likes of pukey Joyce Meyer and who ultimately do, let’s face it,  …..

nothing.

What gives me the right to be judgmental? Nothing, really. Though I did once lead a church in the UK that was pioneering and radical, rather like a Bugatti. Now, like all churches after a couple of generations, it’s become sadly no more than a Vauxhall Zafira church. Grey, compact, boring, predictable, neat and tidy and full of air bags.

Plus, I was the only Christian in a movement of about 50,000 people in the UK who was prepared to follow Jesus and to do something radical. But not one smug soul was prepared to come with me. The result: I failed.

My big question remains. What can I really do to help the plight of the people in Syria? Joining the church sure won’t help. So, can you help me? Comments welcome, as always.

 

 

Berlin, European Union, politics, prison, refugees, society, vision, war

Freedom of movement?

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Freedom of movement is something that many of us in the West take for granted. Most of us can get up and leave our home in the morning and travel to work, go shopping or visit a restaurant after work with friends. We can travel around the country without let or hindrance, and, if we have a passport and enough money, we can travel freely to many other nations of the world.

Imagine for just one moment, however, that you woke up tomorrow morning and you were told by the state authorities that you will no longer have the freedom to move around. You will no longer be able to travel to other countries. You cannot leave your town. In fact, you cannot even leave your house. You are to remain imprisoned there until you die, even though you have done nothing wrong. It is simply a legally binding decision made by your government. Failure to comply will result in immediate execution.

How would we feel then? Cheated? Outraged? Infuriated?Rebellious?

Why? Because any restriction in movement is a contravention of a basic human right. It is also at the root of what started the first war. “This is my property, the boundary to my land, and if you set food on it, I will kill you.” It is also a main reason as to why prison is considered an effective form of punishment.

All this is something that Ms. May, Mr. Johnson, Mr Trump, Mr Corbyn et al. cannot understand. In attempting to maintain free trade of goods whilst restricting the movement of people, they are placing material gain higher than human rights.  This is supremely unintelligent and morally despicable.

All in stark contrast to Angela Merkel who understands that you cannot have the one without the other. She also understands that no wall will ever be able to stop unwanted crime and terrorist attacks. She understand that walls simply provoke isolation and racial hatred, not prevent them.

Racism and evil do not run along national borders. They run through the heart of human beings. This is where it all starts and this is where we as individuals can choose to end it.