h-member-login

MANGAWHAI'S NO.1 NEWSPAPER  header call 
Melody sales@mangawhaifocus.co.nz 021454814
Nadia n.lewis@xtra.co.nz 021677978
Reporting: Julia news@mangawhaifocus.co.nz 0274641673
 Accounts: Richard info@mangawhaifocus.co.nz 021678358

 

Archives

Worzels World - Third World War


Albert Einstein once said that he had no idea with what weapons the third world war would be waged but that the fourth world war would be fought with sticks and stones.

I may be able to help him out here.

At present there are over 70 regional armed conflicts raging in our world, more than at any other time in history. Life and property is being destroyed and precious dwindling resources squandered at an unprecedented rate.

Whilst peaceful nations fret over greenhouse emissions from cows and cars, no-one appears overly concerned with the carbon footprint of cluster bombs and cordite. Are we witnessing world war three? If so, what are the weapons being used?

Of course there are the media friendly ones, the advanced firecrackers of the modern military machine. Where would TV news be without armoured personnel carriers and terrorists in Toyotas with AK47’s?

There are however other weapons of war.

It has been said that the pen is mightier than the sword, and this may be so. However modern digital communications with their buttons and keyboards have consigned the pen to being more of a prisoner of war. The full frontal assault by courageous warriors with swords has been usurped by remote controlled ‘smart’ weapons for the wealthy and IED’s, rifles, and suicide bombers for the more desperate and less well-heeled.

Politics is another modern tool of plunder. Why bother killing useful labour units in order to steal their resources when regulation, negotiation and manipulation can just as readily divest people of their sovereignty, liberty, land and minerals which are the traditional reasons for war in all its forms. Sadly these are now, more often than not, casualties rather than spoils of war.

Everyone seems to be at it and even New Zealand has a few token troops overseas in ‘training roles’ waging a ‘war’ which most of us do not know for what reason it is being waged – with so many nations embroiled in the discord of explosive violent blood and guts, death and destruction, automatic gun fire, drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan, Russian tanks rolling through the Ukraine, fire fights with ISIS in Syria and Iraq and state-sponsored assassination all over the place.

One powerful nation’s absence from the fray goes largely unnoticed. China, who invented firecrackers in the first place, has kept their billion-plus citizens quietly safe on the sidelines. The Chinese may be inscrutable but along with gun powder they also invented chess, Mah-jong, Taoism, the fine ceramics that still go by that nations name and, last and probably least, Shineray motorcycles.

They are a clever bunch and anyone who has read SunTsu’s Art of War will know that the Chinese have learnt from history what their Western counterparts have not. They know that war is better won without recourse to the vagaries of pitched battle. In this third world war they are fighting with weapons of economics and productivity knowing that with the sheer destructive power of today’s advanced weaponry there can be no winners. The real winners will be those who patiently outlast and outlive the combatants to stroll on in when the smoke has cleared and pick up the pieces.

Yet there is another battle that has been waged since the dawn of time with countless casualties. It is the constant battle in every person between deception and truth, love and hate, fear and courage, darkness and light. In a world where everybody dies in the end it matters little whether the means of that end is a cluster bomb or a coronary – life here cannot be held onto forever although that doesn‘t necessarily stop some people trying.

There is though something that need not be lost. We can be born, live and die without losing our integrity, selling our soul or having it stolen from us by main force or by cunning and deception. These virtues are things which cannot be bombed into submission or taken by physical conquest. In this battle fear is the enemy, lies and propaganda the weapons.

The victor is as yet uncertain but my bet is for truth and love winning in the end, although perhaps not in the particular battleground that is this world. As far as that is concerned, bring on world war four. I have as good a stash of sticks and stones than most.

n prof_worzel@hotmail.com


In a world where everybody dies in the end it matters little whether the means of that end is a cluster bomb or a coronary – life here cannot be held onto forever although that doesn‘t necessarily stop some people trying.
ABOUT US
  CHECK IT OUT
The Mangawhai Focus is the only 'Mangawhai' community Newspaper and is the paper of choice within the local area.

For more information on distribution and circulation please 
click here
 

Directory

Archives

Contact Us


 

 

 

FOLLOW US

facebook   twitter   174855-378

CONTACT US


Sales: 021 454814
  sales@mangawhaifocus.co.nz
Editorial: 027 4641673
  news@mangawhaifocus.co.nz
Office: 021 678357
  info@mangawhaifocus.co.nz