I don’t know, and I don’t care

THE EDITOR, Madam:

When news first broke that pagers were exploding in Lebanon on September 17, the first person who came to my mind was Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond books. It all sounded like something dreamed up on the late novelist’s beachfront villa in Oracabessa Bay on Jamaica’s north coast.

Sadly, this was not fiction, but real explosions that killed about 40 people and wounded about 4,000 others when pagers and walkie-talkies they were carrying exploded simultaneously. Ironically, the handheld devices had been ordered by the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, which decided that pagers and walkie-talkies were safer than cell phones that could be hacked. Although nobody has claimed responsibility, it is presumed that Israeli agents infiltrated the supply chain somewhere between manufacture and delivery; installing deadly explosive into the devices, to be triggered later. Not all of those injured or killed by the exploding devices were terrorists, of course, with many innocent people, including children, among the victims.

Imagine for a minute if the shoe were on the other foot, with such a nefarious plot carried out by one of those countries regarded by many today as the Axis of Evil – namely, Russia, Iran, China or North Korea – with similar explosive devices surreptitiously delivered to the Israeli Defence Force. There would be global outrage expressing that this was state-sponsored terrorism, which it very likely was, and immediate calls for United Nations resolutions, etc.

Instead, The New York Times described the explosions in Lebanon as “eye-catching”, while the New York Post carried huge front-page headline of ‘Beep Beep, Boom!’ Other Western media described how ingenious and amazing the explosions were. Most frightening is that this could be the tip of the iceberg for simultaneous explosions of any other type of computer in cars, buses, trains or planes, for example. Our computerised world has just got a whole lot scarier, especially as Israel has the most far-right-wing coalition government in its history. Israeli leaders must be positively giddy when they realise that right-wing political parties are rapidly gaining popularity in several leading countries around the world — France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Argentina, to name but a few.

Meanwhile, the current US presidential election campaign (aka: The reality distortion zone) is mercifully drawing to a close. The eventual winner will be decided by a relatively few still undecided voters in a handful of states, where many would-be Democratic party supporters may be turned off by their government’s unwavering support of Israel. An old adage comes to mind when discussing elections: “What’s the difference between ignorance and apathy? I don’t know and I don’t care.”

BERNIE SMITH

Parksville, BC

Canada