Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Moral die lemma

Walking to work over the last week has been surreal. The Tamils are protesting in Parliament Square about the genocide in their country. They have been there for days. Every day hundreds of disinterested workers wander past in a way that only the British could. Even I find myself grumbling at the sheer inconvenience of having to walk around the protesters. Meanwhile 15m away in a tent a young man is on hunger strike dying. But for god sake I have to walk around these people to get to the station at night.

What have we all come to?

But as with all moral issues, things are not that clear. Our immoral attitudes to their plight is sad. But think about what is being done. I see the right to protest as a fundamental right in the UK. I do not condone violent protests or civil unrest. So what to think about the hunger strike? It is suicide. It is also blackmail. The government is being told do as we ask or we will kill ourselves. This is a seriously tricky moral position. The government does not give in to terrorism on principle. Until the IRA of course. So should the government listen to these people? For sure but the move to hunger strike cannot be strengthening their position.

What a world we live in.