Thank You!

Well my trip to Palestine is complete, but like most good journeys I'm hoping this is the beginning of something, rather than the end. I went because I wanted to see (and record) what I witnessed, and I hope I did so faithfully and without hyperbole or exaggeration. I tried to be honest, and I tried to avoid, as much as I could, the convoluted complexities that are the political situation in that over-heated part of the world.

I'd like to thank the readers of this blog, who have got back to me in various ways. From the stats section of the blog, I could see that it was read in 27 different countries around the globe, admittedly sometimes only once, but often several times, and sometimes regularly. Readers in countries as diverse as Russia, China, Argentine, Croatia, New-Zealand, Tonga, Tanzania, as well as faithful UK and France. Thank you.

As I mentioned before, I think blogging is the perfect antidote to the relentless propaganda we're faced with on the television screens or in print, day after day, week after week. I feel very hopeful for the future, as I feel people are starting to raise their heads above the parapet to look around. It turns out that the reality you saw through your TV screens was not the world as it really is: the latter is a much more diverse, rich, fascinating and wonderful place, and I for one have always enjoyed moving around in it.

What does sadden me, however, is how little people care in general for their environment, and how easily they can be swayed and seduced by an appeal to the ego, but I do feel this is changing. I hope so. Many of the current troubles around the world, as mentioned before, are resource wars, with the better-armed factions arming other factions against local factions. We owe it to ourselves as members of the human race, to try to understand this, and to deal with it. We need to be aware of the pressing energy issues which the Governments are trying, ineptly, to deal with, but which in fact concern us all.

In short, we all need to take responsibility for our own lives, and in doing so see what we are doing to our lovely planet. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, and the latter might well be trying to defend his ancestral home-lands from some huge multi-national corporation that is trying, literally, to suck the energy out from under his feet. We need to translate this back into how we lead our own lives: is rampant consumerism the way to go? Won't it end up affecting you, somehow, some time down the road?

Do you really believe that 'you're worth it', when others are not?