Gatwick is a taste of the next wave of attacks
THE next Isis attack – or whatever name they will have on the day – will be very simple but will be far bigger than 9/11. We got our first taste of what will happen last week at Gatwick.
From walking through an openair market in Brighton some years back and seeing these domestic drones for sale something clicked in my head, do they not realise the damage these things can do? Now anybody can buy them – no licence no compulsory ID just a hundred pounds and away up the road you go with a lethal weapon.
A few weeks ago I heard something in the air near Lansdowne Stadium I looked up and it was a drone hovering over the stadium.
This drone was saving security forces the bother of a full security crew going up in a helicopter to record movements of crowd control. Great.
But the other extreme will be when some morning, all at the same time, ten or 20 of these drones will be sent into the air close to different major international airports and guided into large passenger aircraft taking off where they will take down large airliners by simply guiding them towards their engines where they will be sucked into the blades destroying the engine and taking down the aircraft.
It’s frightening what the consequences will be. DAVID HENNESSY,
Dublin 4.
What’s another year?
FOR Marianne Faithful, ‘she realised she’d never ride through Paris in a sports car with the warm wind in her hair.’ The dream of her youth was dashed by reality.
For me it was ‘I’m not going to walk on the moon.’ As a child growing up in the 1960s the Nasa space program and the moon landing offered the promise of space exploration for all, and travel to other planets. Fifty years later it hasn’t happened and for me it probably won’t happen.
The end of the year brings another resolution – lose weight and a review of last year’s resolution – lose weight and again reality interferes with intention.
What should we all do – lower our expectations and almost achieve them or aim high and look for the best? The world needs more people to aim for that which we all think they cannot do, as a few will make it and the world will be better for their efforts. DENNIS FITZGERALD, Melbourne.
Bah humbug!
ONCE again, I didn’t do Christmas.
I didn’t have to fight over a parking space to buy cheap food, be blasted by festive Muzak and have a collecting box shaken under my nose by a man in a red suit and a fake beard.
Bah, humbug, my attitude might be, but the tree is still growing, a bird is alive on a farm and the postman hasn’t had to drag bags of unwanted mail from people I never see. ANDRE TRUELOVE, via email.
Brexit chaos looms
THERE’S a lot of talk that Brexit will cause all manner of chaos here in Ireland.
Even if there is some disruption and adjustments to be made here, it was/is not our Brexit as we were led to believe by the rulers in Leinster House and in Brussels, and that up with this we will not put!
The self-delusion in the Irish psyche is hilarious. Right up to the point when the great exodus of Britain occurs, there will still be the pathetic assurances that we are almost in charge, and Perfidious Albion will shortly come into line with our ‘demands’. ROBERT SULLIVAN,
Bantry, Co. Cork.
Don’t lose our morals
SINCE religion in Ireland and elsewhere has become discredited due to real abuses it’s important not to throw out the morality baby with the religious bathwater.
Political systems and democracy are also deteriorating. It is not religion or democracy that causes the problems but the abuses of religion and democracy.
To avoid chaos humanity needs a well-structured system of morality even if we are all atheists.
Democracy is deteriorating across the world, not just in areas like Turkey, the Middle East and Africa, but in western countries including the US, UK, Ireland and the European Union.
Self and national interests have replaced altruism and international cooperation that are vital for the survival of human society.
Humanity now faces multiple crises including environmental damage, the risk of nuclear war, ongoing conflicts and political turmoil that are likely to lead to catastrophic chaos because these crises are not being resolved and are intensifying.
Humanitarianism at international level has been corrupted by rendering the United Nations powerless and by the degradation of international laws.
Humanitarian intervention has come to mean overthrowing governments and destroying countries in order to more easily steal their resources.
It is not God or religions that are causing these problems, it is irresponsible humans.
If we destroy this beautiful planet we do not have the capacity to move to another planet, and even if we had, we would not deserve such a second chance. EDWARD HORGAN, Castletroy, Limerick.