Yemeni children are suffering and dying in droves
because both the US and UK current administrations value their weapons sales to
the Saudi royal family more than dealing with the humanitarian horrors evident
for years now in Yemen.
When it’s Arms v Alms, armaments win every time.
It was reported last week that, in the light of the
Khashoggi murder, John Cena – WWE wrestler turned actor – pulled out of an event
in Saudi Arabia. Not so Prince Andrew who went ahead and attended 'Davos in the desert' nor any number of representatives of
firms from around the world and including Britain and America – who were not
prepared to forgo the chance of lucrative profits just because the money might
be soaked in children's blood. So, it seems, a wrestler has more moral fibre than the
combined governments of the UK and the US. If it weren’t for Trump and Brexit
that would be hard to believe.
Emily Thornberry – who SHOULD be the leader of the
Labour Party but is currently shadow Foreign Secretary - recently spoke
passionately about the link between arms sales to the Saudis and Theresa May’s
pathetic side-stepping of this huge humanitarian crisis with an estimated
1.8million children under the age of 5 suffering severe malnutrition – and that
is before we consider those civilians dying in the air-strikes and dying
because they cannot access basic medical facilities or clean water.
In April 2016 I wrote a blog called Is Saudi Arabia the world’s moral cesspit? http://browngirloutsidethering.blogspot.com/2016/04/183-is-saudi-arabia-worlds-moral-cesspit.html
And that was before they chopped up Kashoggi in the
Turkish embassy without too much effort to hide the fact.
I now need to add that if you hang on to the bloody
robes of the Saudi regime for profit, you must be worse than a moral cesspit
– I just
can’t think what that is…
*
My new show previews on December 3rd
and I’ll post details next week
Happy to sign books brought along (after the
performance) or if you just want to get something more interesting for C’mas
than the dreaded scented candle – check out my book page.