THIS CANNOT GO ON
Channel: Afri
Date: 07/04/2023

THIS CANNOT GO ON

As the war in Ukraine enters its second year, growing more vicious and destructive with each passing day, it is increasingly clear that it is a war in which there are no winners (except the weapons industry) and in which hundreds of thousands of lives are being lost and destroyed. And this war adds a singular threat which was not present in previous wars and around which there exists a disturbing level of complacency.

This was most recently articulated by Rafael Grosse, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s Nuclear watchdog, after another interruption to the power supply of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant: ‘This cannot go on,’ he told the board of governors of the IAEA. He went on to say that he is ‘astonished by the complacency’ regarding this peril and warned the IAEA to guard against it.

But there is also a shocking and disturbing level of complacency in the body politic in general, and among the political elite in particular in relation to the potentially catastrophic consequences of this war. As it rages on, the people of Ukraine are being devastated; there is also a very real danger that our entire planet will be wasted if we fail to stop the slaughter and the use of ever more brutal and indiscriminate weaponry in a country which hosts four nuclear power stations. Rafael Grosse warns: “each day we are rolling a dice. And if we allow this to continue…then one day our luck will run out”. To underscore this point, the Doomsday Clock, created by scientists to symbolise the urgent dangers to human civilisation, and our proximity to "midnight" -- in other words, our destruction – is now at 90 seconds to midnight the closest it's ever been.

We must stop rolling this dice…it is time to begin to talk peace.

Even before the outbreak of this latest war, we were told that we had less than a decade left to avoid catastrophic climate change. What has the toxic cocktail of weapons used in this war done to hasten the rush towards catastrophe?

So, let the talking begin in an effort to bring this horrendous war to an end. 

The lesson of the Good Friday agreement is that talking succeeds where war fails. Perhaps we can have the equivalent of a Good Friday Agreement in 2023 to end the slaughter and to end the suffering of those caught up in this vicious conflict.  

For over four decades Afri has been involved in opposing war, promoting food sovereignty and tackling climate change - working especially with  Secondary and Third level students as well as with the general public. We organise the annual Famine Walk in Mayo, a Hedge School in TU Blanchardstown and Féile Bríde in Kildare. Thank you for continuing to support our work.

https://www.afri.ie