I am sitting in the Cleveland airport getting ready to fly back into the UK into what seems like utter mayhem. I have been glued to Twitter and BBC and Facebook for updates the last couple of days as the UK has exploded into riots in what seems like now perhaps 5-7 cities.
I read the newspaper comments from rioters at the beginning of it all. Frustrated youth and young people. Feelings of hopelessness. Lack of jobs. Anger at poverty, racial profiling, the anger of the killing of a 29 year old in London, lack of hope, lack of a future.
I think those newsreporters were being very kind. 4 days in and I have just one thought to it all. Utter selfishness. My friend just came home from work in Liverpool to find 15 youth coming out of the news agent. They had beat a man called Ali up who owned it. For what end?
Violence, destruction, theft and anarchy has burnt homes, businesses, cars, buses, tires (yes a pile of tires were also being burnt in Liverpool too) and for what?
Pure selfishness.
Rioters you have no point. You have no perspective. No understanding to how good we have it in the UK and on what suffering is in the world. It is just plain selfishness. It is lack of respect for other people. It is lack of respect for authority and lack of appreciation for what we have in the UK. You are not fighting the rich. You are hurting other peoples ways of feeding their kids and paying the bills. People's livelihoods are being destroyed. You are driving fear into your country and for what? Our UK riots are coordinated on expensive smartphones. I wonder how long the cost of your smartphone could feed people for in poverty stricken Ethiopia that is in another terrible food crisis right now? In one article I saw people saying it was because of the Tory government and spending cuts. We still have free health care when 1 in 7 babies dies before their first birthday in Afghanistan because of a lack of basic healthcare. Children in Haiti are still living in tents 1.5 years on from the destructive earthquake and the hurricane season is coming. I am guessing most rioters will go home to a roof over their head. Protesters starting in Egypt and then across the region a few months ago were protesting for the right to be free from dictators. They were overthrowing a lack of freedom to have their votes count. In some of the countries horrible violence was inflicted on those protesting for freedom from their own governments. The UK has been trying to control the riots without such tactics despite the violence coming back at them. Oh and by the way, I know many of the Revolutions that happened a few months ago starting in Tunisia and Egypt were using Gene Sharp's From Dictatorship to Democracy which is all about NON violent protest.
The UK has seen a sad day. A sad week when the reality of human selfishness has brought destruction on our nation. Pray with me for it to end and for justice to be brought and restoration to the many people affected in our country.
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