Hard to find hope in a world of horrors

Isn’t the world in a bad state? The Middle East is in meltdown. The Russians have annexed Crimea, and are rapidly advancing on Ukraine. Whose to stop them? The best the West can do is sanctions. What else can we do, nothing. We are powerless.

Vladimir Putin called Barack Obama’s bluff in Syria, Crimea and now Ukraine. Some say Obama is a weak president. But in fact he has as much power as Putin – nuclear power. Does Obama declare war on Russia? If that were to happen I imagine it would be a race as to who is first to press the button. That would signal the end of mankind. The threat of world war was never so great. I’ve just watched a documentary of the continuing oppression of the Syrian people by the Assad regime. There was utter devastation. No water, electricity, food. Homes demolished like decks of cards. Organised panic. People screaming, trying to remove tons of rubble with their bare hands, in the faint hope of finding their loved ones alive. For the first time in my life, I saw a man being shot dead. A horror I shall never forget. I saw people being beaten to death with baseball bats, much to the amusement of their torturers. All because of their beliefs. “Oppression” it’s not a word in our vocabulary. Oh how blessed we are.

Declan O’Connor