So Barack Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize. What on God's green earth has this go to do with my blog, you ask? Because Luca is clearly going to win the Nobel himself one day. We've already cleared a space in the cabinet, alongside one for an Oscar, the Booker prize, the World Cup and Robert Mugabe's formaldehyde-preserved head on a stick. If you've yet to notice the obvious all-conquering genius of my son, then here it is. It's in the eyes, see?
Just kidding. Nuclear weapons are evil in a pretty straightforward way. They kill people on the grandest possible scale. They were despised and feared, Frankenstein-style, by the very man who invented them.
Unless you were unlucky enough to live in Japan towards the end of the Second World War, then they have never been a particularly immediate threat.
But if a shadow has loomed over my generation and the one before, then nuclear bombs are it.
It brings me back to a familiar theme of vague, pantomime-like threats of my pre-daddy life that I could never seem to feel that worried about. And I don't want to be a sanctimonious old bore but these things are more important now the boy's here. Ban the bomb, make the world a better place for the kids, man.
Unless you were unlucky enough to live in Japan towards the end of the Second World War, then they have never been a particularly immediate threat.
But if a shadow has loomed over my generation and the one before, then nuclear bombs are it.
It brings me back to a familiar theme of vague, pantomime-like threats of my pre-daddy life that I could never seem to feel that worried about. And I don't want to be a sanctimonious old bore but these things are more important now the boy's here. Ban the bomb, make the world a better place for the kids, man.
Could he grow up without the bomb, or even with things heading gradually towards disarmament instead of proliferation?
Maybe. The last few weeks have seen unprecedented moves, led by Obama shelving plans for a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, getting rid of a major source of bitterness between Russia and the US - hence the Nobel Prize thing.
Maybe. The last few weeks have seen unprecedented moves, led by Obama shelving plans for a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, getting rid of a major source of bitterness between Russia and the US - hence the Nobel Prize thing.
And others have followed, probably just to bask in Obama's reflected glory, but followed all the same.
Gordon Brown has promised to keep less nuclear submarines, and even the Russians are smoking the proverbial peace pipe.
This isn't any old news. This is big important people making seemingly genuine attempts to make the world a better place. Bring it on.
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I understand what you mean. you definitely lose that carefree attitude when you have children.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt about it, you do worry a whole lot more when you have kids.
ReplyDeleteAs for everyone shelving plans, a cynic might note that post credit crunch, they all have a whole lot less money to spend...