Ash Wednesday

Lent begins today ... fasting and abstinence, distribution of ashes. Day of repentance and remorse ... but sadly a day when 2 great journalists were killed in Syria - Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik. The reportage of the recent wars in the last years owe much to their courage in their reportage despite all the dangers. Also killed was civilian reporter Rani Al Saayad whose blogs updated minute by minute violence in the beleaguered city of Homs. What Marie said in her last report rings so true ... her sense of despair and hopeless when she realised the rest of the world is no longer interested in helping the Syrians from a massacre. The hypocrisy of the West - so eager to attack Afghanistan and Iraq, and helping the rebellion in Libya - in not batting an eyelid when Syria is involved ... is it because there is no oil to be gotten there?  The answer is more than that - it's the existence of Israel at stake. Now French and British govts pay lip-service in honouring Marie and Remi ... hollow words echoing from hollow hearts. Hats off to Bashar Assad ... Mubarak, Saddam, Gaddaffi, Ben Ali are all gone, but Assad stands high above these guys ... he remains, he survives and he kills without any fear of consequence because the West is tacitly behind him.

So we begin Lent with Ash Wednesday ... we turn to repentance and remorse for the rapacious greed and self-interest of the West because they no longer have a conscience to repent and be remorseful. As ash is sprinkled over our heads, we think of sprinkling ashes at the West and say "Remember you are dust, and unto dust you will return". The horrors of the Book of Apocalypse unfolds before us ... and the promise that God's wrathful and devastating justice will come ... and all this farce for power and wealth will return to dust.