Orville Taylor | End game or end of days?

Let’s see how strong our religious leaders’ faith is. All these confusing stories from pastors who use their imaginations and pretend to know the infinite will of God and Heaven is. If Vladimir Putin presses the red button and cancels all our cheques. These may very well be the ‘Last Days’ but unless one is a servant of Paul, who is the way truth and light; then the simple fact is that we do not know. I am trying to listen through the din of news reports and credible sources; not blind speculation. Our parents and ancestors grew up with the horror stories from Matthew 24, and whenever there is any shake-up in the global order, we jump and scream as if we have God in some kind of WhatsApp chat group.

After all, Jesus himself said, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” So, please, chill and stop making up stories, because “the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect”. What we do know is that, there is a crisis and for all the posturing, we are in imminent danger.

The threat is very real and Putin is no joke. Up to the time of writing the Russians had sent bomber/fighter aircraft which are capable of twice the speed of sound, to our South America neighbours, Venezuela. Do not for any moment think they we will be unaffected if any hostilities actually begin.

To the best of my knowledge, I have no relatives or close friends living in Russia or of Russian origin. Every single female relative who share(d) my DNA and surname are American citizens.

An escalation of combat to include exchange of ballistic missiles would be not just the demise of my dearest kin, but all of us here in the Caribbean basin.

OWN HYPE

Putin actions should have long awakened the Americans who, unfortunately, like so many powerful entities, believe their own hype. Unfortunately, American self-delusion is not only a danger to themselves, but a major threat to global security and democracy.

Despite the evidence that the Russians had attempted to undermine American democracy in several elections; powerful American men and women have tried to downplay it, even as Rome burned. True, America is the greatest nation on earth, but they are not so in every area. For years, we watched Chuck Norris as a one-man army return to Vietnam to rescue prisoners of war who, somehow, the entire American military was unable to extricate for two decades.

We saw Arnold Schwarzenegger carry out some of the most unbelievable campaigns and all of 5’10” middleweight Sylvester Stallone, as Johnny Rambo, pull off some ridiculous operation in Afghanistan. Of course, the Afghans had kicked the Russians like a burglar caught in a Jamaican’s man backyard and after two decades, thousands of American lives and scores of thousands of permanent physical and mental disabilities among troops, the USA withdrew in a whimper.

DANGEROUS DELUSION

Hollywood has been part of this dangerous delusion, where the average American believes that America can crush all oppositions. Denzel Washington should have had more sense than to do the movie The Equalizer. Washington’s character, Robert McCall, a retired black ops veteran, single-handedly took on and destroyed an entire Russian gang based in the USA. Though implausible and on the outer fringes of reality and possibility, it was fun to watch. But in the end, McCall, a black man, sneaked into Russian, and eliminated a character, kingpin, who seems to bring to mind Putin. Then McCall finds his way back out of Russia and returns home.

If there was any shortage of bull excrement to fertilise my farm, the movie provided a surplus. Yet, many Americans actually think that something like that could happen. This kind of romance with fantasies endangers us all.

For years North Korea has mocked and played ‘chicken’ with America and its allies, the Chinese have pretty much done all that they want, and the Saudi Arabians and other middle eastern pro-American nations have embarrassed them with their human rights violations. Indeed, even the Nation of Israel, which has be UN and Amnesty International reports, have consistently punked its very strongest backer, defying them resolutions against it. Indeed, Israel has annexed territory, which it refuses to return, using the same pretexts as the Russians are using now, to justify the invasion and attempt to ‘recolonise’ The Ukraine, which, until recently, was in fact ruled from Moscow as part of the Soviet Union.

I love America, but the ‘World Series’ is a domestic baseball league and the NBA champions are not World Champions. Playing with or among yourselves is not true competition. Hopefully, this crisis will de-escalate and good sense prevails.

Otherwise, the dogs left behind by the Jamaican students in Ukraine will have our suppers.

Dr Orville Taylor is head of the Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.