Political correctness

As I write, an Iranian pastor awaits execution for refusing to stop following the Christian faith. I've just seen a twenty-second news report on a Saudi woman who was given ten lashes for 'repeatedly driving a car'.

And there in a nutshell you have my objection to our involvement in the struggle going on in various countries around the world. We happily spend millions on supporting one set of people over another, yet how (once we have taken the dubious step of interfering in the first place) can we possibly prioritise where we intervene/interfere?

I was in my forties before I realised that our relative poverty as a family when I was a little girl was in fact due to my parents' choice to educate my brothers (but not my sister and me) at a private school. Personally I believe we girls got the better deal, but that isn't the point. I remember the atmosphere of worry in the house, the anxious faces when a brown envelope arrived, the hand-me-down dresses which meant that I could never fit in with the girls I wanted to be like...

Why am I telling you this? Because I am angry about the poverty I see around me. Just as my family's poverty was self-inflicted, our nation's finances are being drained by our involvement overseas. Don't get me wrong, I am totally in favour of Foreign Aid and I support several charities at home and abroad. But when I look at the money being poured into other people's wars, I am angry. I am angry that my friend in Hampshire, a single parent who wants to work full-time as she did before she lost her job, has been advised that she will be 'better off' if she only works 16 hours.

Better off in what way? Oh - materially... and there's the rub. Who is watching out for our spiritual needs as a nation? Who is making sure that children grow up with values which go slightly deeper than which version of PlayStation they can cajole out of their parents? 'Things' and 'money' take precedence; therefore it is fine to spend all the country's money on wars waged ultimately to increase our prosperity. Oil? Let's help the people we think will be most amenable to our demands in the future. Ooops, we accidentally tortured one of them before we realised his future value? Hmm - tricky one, we'll sort it somehow.

I'm extremely myopic but I feel clear-sighted compared with those who govern us. Do they not realise the wider implications of Iran choosing to ignore the UN interpretation of religious freedom? Do they not realise that one day Saudi women may revolt, rise to leadership and hold us responsible for ignoring their plight?

Of course, it would be even better if our Government spoke out not from an 'eye to the main chance' standpoint, but from the perspective of having compassion for the victims of such harsh regimes. Even a 'This shouldn't be happening' would be a start, and wouldn't necessarily sever diplomatic relations.

But - we go on prioritising according to potential materialistic gain. To our spiritual and moral peril.

Meanwhile, pastors are executed and women are punished for daring to drive their own cars in public.

It's a funny old world...