Gerard Rochford
What did you find most encouraging?
My most encouraging realisation is that it is still the youth who are behind most of the positive movements against war, injustice and earth-destroying industries.
What did you find most discouraging?
The most discouraging realisation is that the legacy of the Bush-Blair-Brown axis still prevails. These men presided over the pursuit of unwinable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The indigenous Afghans have been fighting either invaders or each other for centuries and know more about how to defeat an enemy in that terrain than the USA/UK military will ever know. Did the USA leadership not learn from their defeat in Vietnam? The three Bs, Bush, Blair and Brown, also looked on as the bankers' greed misused our money to bring the economies of the world to near collapse while rewarding themselves for so doing. And how sad that so few of our elected MPs proved to be honourable folk.Was it Marx who predicted that capitalism ultimately consumes itself? He could still be proved right.
Which public figure did you most admire?
The public figure I most admire in the first decade of the 21st century is a symbolic choice – Ryan Giggs. Yes I know he is only a footballer and it's only a game. But he represents all decent young people at the top of their profession and seemingly unaffected by success, wealth and hero worship.
Which public figure did you least admire?
The public figure I least admire is a toss-up between Blair and Mugabe. Blair because he had enough people power behind him to resist the power of Bush. (And he has a Catholic wife who could have taught him the theology of a just war.) Mugabe because, as the rest of Africa stood by, he brought a beautiful nation to ruin obsessed by colonial battles long since won and indifferent to the suffering of the people. Blair betrayed the Labour movement but I guess did well in Ulster. So my vote goes to Mugabe who represents blatant tyranny such as also exists in Burma, China and sadly many other nations, some of them democracies. |
