Earthquakes and other nasties

Book stuff first. The Underdog Anthologies have reached number 20! I thought it was a dose of wild optimism to call the first one ‘first volume’ but the next will be 20. I never expected it to get so far if I’m honest, and yet it seems to have become something of a monster. Doesn’t make a return on investment yet but it’s fun anyway.

I have also found a local shop, only two towns away, that has a sort of free library. They don’t sell second hand books, the locals drop off books on a set of shelves and take what they like. Bring them back or bring new ones. There are some anthologies there now, and I will be dropping off other authors’ books in the future. This will work best with authors who have multiple books since those with just one book… well I’d just be giving away a free book. Dropping off one book might get a few people to look up the author and actually buy the others. It’s a limited market but worth a try. Anyway…

Many earthquakes have devastated Turkey and Syria in recent days. Some of them were huge. Whole buildings collapsed, many people are dead or missing. It was a massive blow for any country and aid is pouring in. To Turkey.

I have seen many pleas for donations from the likes of Oxfam and even Wee Nippy herself. Now, aside from my natural reticence to trust Wee Nippy with more than sixpence, I will not be donating. At all.

Why? Am I so cruel and insensitive? Have I become infected with the North Scots refusal to part with cash? Well, apart from those, there is another consideration.

All aid from the west goes to Turkey. The USA, EU and UK among others will send no aid to Syria because, well, sanctions.

That’s right. Politics comes before helping people from a disaster. Governmental tiffs are far more important than helping ordinary people who have nothing to do with that tiff and most likely know nothing about it at all.

I will not support that.

This does not mean that I poo-poo what happened in Turkey. Far from it. The tectonic plates there shifted several metres with devastating effects. No, I will not donate because their neighbour, Syria, is being ignored by my country for political reasons which now apparently override humanitarian reasons. People have died. People are trapped under fallen buildings. Will we help? Nooo, because… sanctions. It is disgusting.We should be helping the people of both countries. None of them are in charge, they are just people like you and me, just trying to survive ths mad world. And yet, because of politicians, the Syrians are not considered worthy of help by the bastards in charge here.

We are ruled by self important scum. If that wasn’t made clear by the events of the last three years, surely this will bring it to everyone’s attention.

But it probably won’t change a thing.