GUEST BLOG: Lois Griffiths – and you, are you ‘comfortable’?

ByThe Daily Blog

“British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson says he’s comfortable with the UK selling billions of dollars’ worth of arms to Saudi Arabia, which have been used to kill thousands of civilians in Yemen.” The quotation is from a The Nation Press Release , about a Lisa Owens  interview with Boris Johnson held on 29 July this year.  

Comfortable? Boris Johnson, British Foreign secretary, said ‘comfortable’? No qualms, no feelings of guilt, no sleepless nights, comfortable.

Congratulations to Lisa Owen and the Nation for challenging  Boris Johnson’s ‘comfort zone’ in July.

Jan Egeland who heads the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), visited Yemen and witnessed the reality of the effects of  Saudi bombing with US and UK weapons.  Millions of Yemeni people on the brink of famine, are facing a cholera epidemic as well. Egeland is not ‘ comfortable’ with what he witnessed.   “I am shocked to my bones,” he said. 

Perhaps the UK government reasons that since the US, the ‘leader’ of the so-called ‘free world’  sells Saudi even more weapons, there is no reason why UK shouldn’t as well. 

Maybe The Nation should interview the American ambassador and ask him if he  is ‘comfortable’ with the US arms sales to Saudi. 

American Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, is not ‘comfortable’ with the West’s support for Saudi bombing of Yemen. She and over a dozen other peace activists  held a week-long vigil and fast in front of the United Nations to protest the ongoing U.S. support for the Saudi bombing of Yemen and the Saudi blockade of Yemeni ports.

The  World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that  that the number of cholera cases in Yemen has reached 500,000! This is the 21th Century not the Middle Ages!  Katy Wright, head of advocacy for Oxfam is very uncomfortable. She condemns the US and UK  for supplying the weaponry and intelligence to Saudi Arabia that enables it to continue what it has been doing for years, ie waging a relentless bombing campaign against Yemen. “In backing this war with billions of dollars of arms sales and military support, the U.S. and the U.K. are complicit in the suffering of millions of people in Yemen.”

But why haven’t we heard more about the shocking suffering of the Yemenis? Why aren’t we outraged? Why doesn’t NZ demand that the US and UK stop providing weapons to the Saudis and instead demand a cease fire? Why doesn’t NZ demand an all out emergency assistance aid program? Is it because the Saudis are wealthy and are willing to spend big? Is it because the West profits so much from war? Is it because the Yemenis are ‘unpeople’?

This election season could and should provide an opportunity for the public to hear from all Parties about their thoughts for the role of New Zealand in the world. Does any Party dare to question NZ’s military and espionage ties, for example? 

Would NZ politicians  be ‘comfortable’ with such  questions? Let’s make them ‘uncomfortable’!

 

Lois Griffiths is a human rights activist.

 

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8 Comments

  1. Face it. The only reason these people are “comfortable” is because of deeply held (and presidentially led) racist beliefs.

    These people are poor, brown, and don’t speak English. Therefore they have no value.

    To add to their woes the Saudis (their mediaeval oppressors) are sitting on a shit load of oil of terrific interest to the Poms and Yanks.

    They are pretty much fucked poor sods…

    1. Disagree completely – remember these weapons are being used BY brown people ON brown people. He’d sell these weapons to ANYONE if he could away with it (including black people to use on white people (e.g. Russians)). The only reason he’s “comfortable” with it is because these weapons aren’t going to be used against him personally. These fuckwits don’t give a flying shit about anything that doesn’t directly affect them – yes that is the defining hallmark of a psychopath.

  2. It would be interesting to see the polling results of a party taking the courage to echo these thoughts.
    D J S

    1. Yes David
      For some reason it is seen as electoral suicide to even suggest something so risible as peace or neutrality in an election year.
      We only express our “discomfort” it seems when it aligns with US foreign policy
      It made me sick to the stomach to hear John Key mouth off the standard
      “Israel has the right to defend itself”
      when Israel was raining missiles down on a trapped Gaza civilian population in 2014
      We either make the next almighty evolutionary leap and abandon war, or we go extinct
      Thanks Lois, I appreciate your writing, always worth reading and somehow heartening to know there are others out there who want an end to the immoral arms trade

  3. I agree they will sell to anyone, there is no morality in any of it and they don’t care at all.

  4. Lois Griffiths is right to urge us to demand that our government and other political parties take a more responsible stance against global militarism that has displaced and brought misery to millions of people around the world.

    1. Lets all write to Jacinda Ardern what Labours stand is on this. My vote goes to the party that breaks relations with Israel and the United States and follow a truly independent course.

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