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Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Tommy Wilson: Ramping up the war of words

Bay of Plenty Times
14 Aug, 2017 02:43 AM5 mins to read

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Tommy Kapai can no longer laugh off the back and forth between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un about nuclear weapons. Photo/Getty

Tommy Kapai can no longer laugh off the back and forth between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un about nuclear weapons. Photo/Getty

How do you find solace in such a crazy, unpredictable situation as the world is now facing?

We all have ways of coping with crazy situations andI have adopted this morning ritual over the last year of breaking bread with the birds on my front lawn.

Each week I buy two loaves of Vogels for my manu (bird) mates and, as I share this little ceremony, I have an inner meditation going on with the universe, imploring whoever is listening out there to take on my troubles and those of this world - and give peace a chance.

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Maybe it's a bit far out and a little cosmic, but it works for me, and, in a Woodstock kind of way, the drums of war are silenced by silence itself, save a few tweeting sparrows sharing some grateful bread.

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It sure does beat the tweets coming from the man who has his finger on the button of 17,000 nuclear warheads.

To try to laugh it off as two blowhards with bad hair throwing tweets at each other is not working for me anymore. It stopped when Kim and the miniature warhead factor kicked in.

It feels like we truly are right on the edge of existence, or as Barry Maguire called it in his happy hippy worldwide hit - The Eve of Destruction.

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Nobody knows how this will play out. I am hoping the sparrows on my front lawn have the inside info and are carrying it back to the big boys on the other side, who surely will have the last word, not these two class clowns with weird hairdos and even crazier ideals.

Fifty-five years ago in October 1962 was when we last faced the threat of an all-out nuclear war between Russia and the United States, when the Cuban missile crisis escalated into the highest-ever military alert in the post-war era.

In a televised speech of extraordinary gravity, President John F Kennedy made it clear that America would not stop short of military action to end what he called a "clandestine, reckless, and provocative threat to world peace".

Sound familiar?

Yes, it does, with the bad-hair boys who have their fingers on the button today.

However, the commonalities end about there.

The redeeming feature back then was that President Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, the Russian President, had good open channels of communication and, after 16 days of tweetless talks, common sense prevailed and the world breathed a huge sigh of relief.

I can clearly remember our teachers at Omanu School telling us about the Bay of Pigs and big bad bombs that could blow the whole world away.

But it seemed so far away it could never reach us. So I didn't think much of it and went back to thinking about more important stuff like kicking a footy around the playground, and wondering what Mum would have for kai when I got home from school.

Kai and good open korero is and always has been a great way to sit down and solve problems, so maybe Kim Jong-Un and Ding Dong Don should sit down together and talk.

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Sure, it could be the last supper, but anything other than ramping up the war of words to a point where saving face is more important than saving the world has to be a win for both sides.

Just as Brazil was the white knight which brokered the back down between Russia and the USA in 1962, China can be today and should be at the table.

Critics pour cold water on this theory because of the potential flood of refugees across the border into China should Kim lose control of his country. Others - somewhat tongue in cheek - subscribe to the theory China will wait in the wings at least until they get back the $16 trillion the US owes them.

One theory yet untested is North Korea threatened to launch a missile at South Korea but North Korea backed down after South Korea threatened to launch a sequel to Gangnam Style.

For me, it's time to hold on to hope and hang on to the thin threads of diplomacy still connecting these two countries together.

I will keep breaking bread with the birds on my front lawn and listening to the lyrics of the late great Glen Campbell, who will always remain Gentle on my mind.

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It's knowing that your door is always open and your path is free to walk
And it's knowing I'm not shackled by forgotten words and bonds
And the ink stains that are dried upon some line
That keeps you in the backroads
By the rivers of my memory
That keeps you ever gentle on my mind.

Adios amigo, be sure to send down some saints - we sure could do with them.

broblack@xtra.co.nz

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