Out of the mouths of babes
2002-02-17 || 9:19 p.m.

Read some thought provoking stuff in the Observer today.

Firstly, there was a piece on the ongoing war crime trial of Milosovic. One of the witnesses was a guy who was the first person into one of the concentration camps with ITN. Then there was the testimony of a man who was in one of the camps with his two sons. His eldest son had been killed. He'd seen him taken away earlier that day. His other son didn't know. The guards then came to him and said that he could either give them permission to execute his second son otherwise they would kill 10 other men. The guy said at the trial that he couldn't let his son's life be worth 9 other lives and so he had no choice but to say take him. There are really no words to describe this brutality.

A few years ago I fell out with one of my friends over the holocaust. I've read a lot of books about this. I think every testimony is important. I can't really remember how it came up in conversation but one of my friends said to me why couldn't I just forget about it. It was a long time ago and didn't really matter now. This made me livid. I don't think we should ever forget the suffering of others, its what makes us human. Without empathy what are we?

The other article I read today was a comment on Bush's idea to bomb Iraq to 'flush out the terrorists'. There was a good quote that went something like this: 'as everyone knows, the best way to spot a terrorist is to fly 30,000 feet above a city and drop cluster bombs'. Then the writer made a comparison between the war against terrorism and the UK's problems with Irish terrorism. How if only we'd been as clever as Bush we could have solved the Irish question so much quicker. Just drop bombs on Dublin and possibly Tipperary - just in case they are training in the bog. Then move onto those funding them - Boston, New York, Washington. Get 5th Avenue on St Patrick's day - score a bullseye. Oh, and then when the money runs out, as it undoubtedly will as the UK is small fry and the USA a rather big fish, round up anyone with an Irish sounding name, put a paper bag on their head and keep them on the island of Guernsey. BRILLIANT.

Only problem is of course we'd also have to bomb lots of parts of London that are also hot beds of Irish Republicanism. The article concluded by saying that the writer was surprised that this simple plan had been thought up by someone as bright and clever as George W Bush. One of the kids in my class surprised me the other day. We had an American guy come in to tell stories and sing songs. My kids were fascinated - it was the accent. In the afternoon he visited all the classrooms, sang and played around with them a bit then said 'any questions?' This, of course, is the best bit. The things kids will ask are infinitely entertaining. My 'liveliest' kid put up his hand and said: 'you know Mr Bush. Well I think you should tell him to stop bombing Afganistan. I know what happened on September 11th was bad, my auntie lives in NY but even so, its wrong and I'd just like you to tell him that' !!

Jesus, if he'd been my kid I'd've been the proudest mommie ever.

Out of the mouths of babes.