Two television programmes struck home over the last 24 hours. The first was The Land of the Lost Volcano in which scientists discovered new species by the dozen in the rain forests of Papau New Guinea. These animals once discovered had no fear and were happy to be picked up and studied. It was wonderful but the dreadful undercurrent was contained in the fact that loggers were only a few miles from the magnificent forests and if the forests went so would thousands of species of flora and fauna and probably the means of providing cures for many of the world’s diseases.
The second programme will stay with me for a very long time if not forever. Wounded was a programme about the rehabilitation of two soldiers who suffered appalling injuries in Afghanistan, one losing both legs and an arm, and the other both legs and impared sight. The work carried out by the surgeons and nurses was so humbling, only suprassed by the courage and bravery of the two soldiers. In years gone by they would not have survived, and I am sure there were times when they wished they hadn’t. I will never complain about any ache or pain again. It is nothing to what those guys went through and there will be many others to come to add to those who have been through it already.
I hope the world leaders swanning around in the US saw the programmes, particularly Wounded (I would have frog marched all politicians to a TV and ordered them to view it several times). Questions need to be asked and continue to be asked until all troops are properly equipped and protected against the beastliness and awfulness that goes on in these far off places in the name of democracy.
