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At the time of writing bombs are falling the Gaza Strip in Palestine and my screens are filled with what looks like hell. I think it is, if hell can be thought of as the worst of us; manifest at large – namely genocide. I go on to talk about War here referring to conflicts and the use of weapons more widely.

Questioning Warfare feels in some ways naive to me, and in other ways it feel radical, important and absolutely essential.

A month ago I was at the DSEI Arms Fair in London working on a project with the Quakers around their protest there. You’ll see in this video that there were some willing to stop the trucks coming into the site. Inside, delegates from companies around the world who supply arms were there to learn from the exhibitors about, in essence, new technologies of violence; make deals and build relations. My recording of Dear Friends features here.

Many voices on the road spoke of those most affected; communities, families and generations of close knit relationships that are displaced in a second. I wonder how this is considered inside the fair? Outside the words of Quaker history “We deny all outward wars and strife and fighting with outward weapons, for any end or under any pretence whatsoever.’ come across the police lines as another person is taken to a police van.

The cost of war I find staggering; millions per day for a major conflict and war destroys homes, crops, power supplies, industry, schools and hospitals that needs, of course, rebuilding afterward.  The life cost: take World War 2, an estimated 60 million people killed, that’s everyone who lives in the British Isles.

A moment’s pause feels right here

I strongly believe this points to us having a mental health crisis in our human family and those affected have access to decision making political power and weapons.

The military-industrial complex is such that the wheels of it, in a capitalist system, need to keep turning. With more munitions than you have need for, the conditions for conflict are then always potential and prepared for, it seems arguments become violent so easily.

I do also believe as I look to communities around me, that our day to day lives are inspiring. All over the world we see closeness, forgiveness, reconciliation and celebration. Peace, I believe is the flower in the tarmac, ever-present and essentially successful in it’s aliveness. May I learn, establish and trust it, strive for it and grow it, and may it grow me.

#Ceasefire

Playlist: please suggest more songs and please let me know your sharings and I’ll publish them below.