November 2010 Archives

I was shocked by reports last week, e.g. Lara Marlowe’s article in the Irish Times, of George W Bush's admission that he approved of and, indeed, ordered torture. Torture is wrong. Not to be tortured, physically or mentally, is a fundamental human right. When things are totally wrong there is no point trying to compare magnitudes. The magnitudes of the impacts of wrongness may vary or may be immeasurable, but all things that are totally wrong are equally totally wrong.

Unlike me, George W. Bush is a religious man. I believe in love not hate, positivity not negativity, respect not disrespect, fairness not unfairness, justice not injustice, equality not inequality. I believe in freedom of thought, freedom of expression, freedom from oppression, liberty, the security of person, recognition everywhere as a person before the law, effective remedy for those whose human rights are violated—in fact, I believe in all thirty articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. My personal concept of God is very much identified with good not bad and with right not wrong.

The danger of supporting what is wrong is that there is no knowing where it may lead. I believe that any leader who advocates torture offends not just those who are tortured as a result, but all those they lead.

I have written this blog simply because it is right and feels necessary for me to declare that I believe torture is wrong.

The railway station in Newbridge is beautiful and quaint, persisting from another time. I appreciate beauty and form and function. However, I am an engineer of today, who is keen to address the needs of today’s society. I believe it is right and proper to dismantle (let me be blunt, destroy) beauty that has outlived its era. Let’s log it, digitize it or store samples of it in heritage parks or museums. The Earth is not big enough to leave our former built environment in place as we continue our development.

I need to digress momentarily. In my view, the beautiful stone bridge in the photograph is highly dangerous for the citizens of Newbridge who use it as a road. Newbridge has expanded greatly in recent years and that small narrow bridge without footpaths now links large housing estates to the town and schools of Newbridge. Children and parents with babies walk over the bridge in great numbers and are in danger from the two-way traffic.