Strange times

Strange morning. Blogging with Arafat's funeral, broadcast live by BBC World, going on behind me. It seems unreal, this amount of ceremony for that little man with - as my mother used to say 'that dishcloth on his head'. But wise. Wise of Egypt to step in and do the honours. In my previous life at the UN, I worked alongside Palestinians. Most of them didn't support him but all of them saw him as the leader who brought their cause to the world's attention - albeit by vile means. Easy to forget that he was also joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize... For the Palestinians, it must feel like they've lost their long-lived monarch. That's why it's good that he's being given a decent send-off.

Listening to the TV commentary, I realise how difficult - well nigh impossible - it is, to stand back and view the situation in the Middle East rationally, objectively and calmly once you've been involved with it to any degree. I just know that my former P. colleagues - a couple of whom are still friends - would gnash their teeth at the suggestion that they should make yet more concessions in order for there to be peace in the region. To them, to me too, it seems that they've already made so many concessions since '48. Even the fact that you can shut the Gaza Strip and prevent people from there going to their leader's funeral is not really right. In view of the horrendous suicide bombings in Israel, it's understandable, of course. And the world accepts it just as if it's business-as-usual. Which it is....

It's sad. Can this region ever make it? Do we really think life post-A will be better? Hope so. It could be the most fantastic place on earth, you know, if only...

I have no answers. And, in the meantime, I have to go and do the washing up before Bud comes home and complains that I'm not doing enough (i.e. anything) in the house. He's done much more than me recently - all the shopping and much of the cooking. A real gem of a man.