TWTWTW

What a strange week it’s been. For a start, I’ve driven out to the airport three times – firstly on Christmas Eve to deliver my daughter’s boyfriend for his return to Paris; then on Boxing Day to deliver my daughter for her return to Paris; then today to deliver my other daughter for her flight to Geneva because she’s off skiing.

In the middle of all that was Christmas Day which I spent helping out at a Community Centre where we prepared and served Christmas lunch to a crowd of disadvantaged people (mainly pensioners). That was a very jolly affair, but quite hard work. We also tore around the area delivering hot meals to several elderly people who couldn’t actually make it down to the centre. Everyone was very pleased to see us and it was very refreshing – and humbling – to be making such a difference to people’s Christmas when otherwise they wouldn’t have received any visitors at all. A far better way of spending the day than just sitting bloated and drunk in front of the Queen’s Speech, stuffing down a last mince pie and the first of many brandies.

But now this. We end the holiday with Benazir Bhutto being assassinated and as I write, already incarcerated inside the family mausoleum. What this means for Pakistan is anybody’s guess, but predictions of unwarranted bloodshed and chaos aren’t entirely unfounded. Pervez Musharraf will no doubt claim that she was a victim of religious fanaticism, but none of this can ever hope to be justified in the name of god. It’s an old fashioned power struggle at hand here, I’m afraid. It was perhaps short-sighted of her to believe that she could return to her country and survive. Her father and both of her brothers all met violent deaths, so it seemed inevitable that she would suffer the same fate. Perhaps she thought that her glamour and fame would make her unassailable, but even she must have known that facing such vehement prejudice and hatred would render her totally exposed. Perhaps she thought Musharraf would protect her - however, could she have been that naive?

Yesterday was undeniably a sad day for democracy, but moreover it was a chilling and gloomy day for the world. The fact that some extremists believe that they can shoot and bomb their way towards achieving the election result they desire places the remainder of the democratic world in a dangerous situation.

There’s no negotiating with such people; there’s certainly no case for appeasing them.; and no matter how much Bush & Co strut around puffing out their chests declaring a continuing “war on terror”, it’s also impossible to crush them. So what are the options? It’s too ghastly to contemplate. We will no doubt see civil war in Pakistan before long and whereas we may not care much about what people on the other side of the world do to themselves, we need to bear in mind that Pakistan is a nuclear power. Whoever eventually wrests that terrible power by any means other than a democratic route will inevitably place the whole world in peril. Ms Bhutto may not have been the most skilful of politicians, and there may well have been some dubious and shady shenanigans during her previous years in power, but she wasn’t a terrorist. Her greatest wish was for democracy in her country, and now that wish has been shattered by evil and mindless barbarians using the simple but horrific "authority" of guns and explosives. Take note of the picture above - such scenes deceive us into thinking that everything in the world is just lovely. I wish it were so.

Happy New Year everyone?