Fairy tales the truest filter for understanding our reality

THE article by Martin Done, “When Pyng met Dong and the fire-eating dragon was slain”, which appeared in the Cape Times on Friday, June 8, is true for the wrong reasons. Fairy tales are mocked in general as being premised on false narratives, and yet they seem to contain the most truth about our reality.

I have often wondered why Western culture had fêted Jack as some sort of hero. He was duped into swopping a cow for beans.

He was given hospitality by a giant’s wife, and then he abused this hospitality by stealing a valuable goose that laid golden eggs, along with a unique singing harp. He then murdered the owner, leaving his wife who had saved his life a widow.

“Fee fi fo fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman.” These colonialists have been around for a long time. They have raped, murdered, left behind widows and fatherless children after looting those countries, including their lands.

On the topic of fire-eating dragons, President Truman dropped nuclear bombs on civilian targets in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. This was in contravention of Article 25 of The Hague convention of 1907, which prohibits the attack or bombardment by whatever means, of towns, villages, dwellings or buildings that are undefended.

Further still, what about the more than 3 million people killed in Vietnam, where the most extensive bombing and chemical weapons attacks on civilians by a foreign army took place.

More importantly, what about the fairy tale (or should we say lies) told to Congress about the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, a false flag operation that the US used to officially enter the war in Vietnam. Weapons of mass destruction became Iraq’s false flag for overthrowing President Saddam Hussein.

We know the story of Aladdin and of all the treasures in those lands. This is no fairy tale. Western governments have spent trillions fighting wars to extract the riches in the Middle East and elsewhere. Covert operations for the overthrowing of governments in, Panama, Mexico, Honduras, Bolivia, The Dominican Republic, Haiti, Hawaii, Granada, Uraguay, Venezuela, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Georgia, Yugoslavia and the Ukraine are but some of the countries that have been affected.

This brings us back to the Kim dynasty which has lasted 70 years. Their successful defence of the sovereignty of North Korea against the most brutal sanctions is remarkable. They were also able to successfully counter any threats by the US and its allies to their civilian population.

They have now taught President Trump the art of deal-making and silenced John Bolton. The US got involved in that civil war in 1950. More than 5million people were killed. The US signed an armistice in 1953 (discussions started in 1951). US Army Lieutenant-General William Harris jr became the only US commander to sign an armistice without having achieved victory.

If this is not a positive David and Goliath story, then the lens through which we are viewing it should be cleaned. If we were resident with Alice in Wonderland, we could heed her words: “If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what it is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be it would. You see.”