a). They come back to hit you anyway
b). There is a direct positive correlation (surprise surprise) between arms sales and internal repression or external aggression
c).The more conflict there is, the more poverty + infectious diseases - which come back to get you!
d). It takes resources away from developing governments' budgets for health education welfare and
e). Guns kill people, and de-personalise the killing. I think that the more removed that the killer is from the experience of killing, the more horrific it is - this might be slightly unorthodox, but I think that fighting someone to death with your fists is infinitely better than sniping someone from a roof-top, or dropping a bomb from a plane, or sending a 'drone' out to do the bombing for you. The more guns are sold, the more this technology is progressed, the easier it is to take life away, the cheaper life gets, the more conflict starts, the more guns are sole, the more...... Many very vicious cycles going on here
f). They are bad for the global economy in terms of providing utility from our skills, training, effort, resources and finite materials, engineering technologies that could be developed by pouring money into useful things, like alternative energy generation, pharmacies and treatments for AIDs TB Parasites and Malaria.
g). They don't provide security!!! They may mean that the government which is arranging the sale of the weapons will get a good deal for oil or another resource in the short term, but if you are selling guns to boths sides of a conflict (Britain sells arms to 11 of the 13 sovereign states in "major conflict") we will not make friends long term! Russia had a booming arms trade, massive military complex second only to the US (now third, with UK climbing to second position) - but that hasn't given it any security, poverty is rampant, and the US waged an economic war until Russia was ground into dust - mainly because of its arms trade and because it was seen as a threat! If you want security, then just stop treading on everyone and keep quiet about any natural wealth in your country, and be a good example in terms of how you treat yourself. Will anyone invade Botswana? No, they aren't aggressive and they don't have too big an army. Spot on.
f). For the above reasons it is seen as hypocritical of someone signed up to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and discredits it so that it is a weaker lever against abuse of humanity abroad. They teach the world that violence is a justifiable means to resolve coflict - leading to more war.
g). Nearly all arms sales are illegal under both EU law and international law, as no arms can be sold that are likely to contribute to internal repression or external aggression - WHAT ELSE ARE THEY USED FOR? Defence? Defending your country in modern warfare requires "external aggression" or you will lose faily rapidly.
h). There are enough guns in the world, there is roughly one small arm for every 7 people, I don't think providing any more is a wise move, do we want to grow these industries and provide more jobs? So that there are 7 arms for every person?
i). If violence is unjustified (unless you are in very special circumstances, such as protecting other people from iminent death), then surely selling the means with which violence becomes easier is also unjustified
j). I think that peace, co-operation and stability for one nation relies on an appreciation of other nations and their differences, from a sound education into why people are the way they are, what needs need to be met by either side, what we can help each other with. As it says on a postcard given to me by someone very special "Peace cannot be kept by force; only by understanding" - Albert Einstein. Or an even earlier quote "Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding" Ralph Waldo Emerson. Can't we put our technological efforts into peacework - how best to resolve conflicts, create stability abroad, arrest the cyclones of violence and anger before they come back around to us?
When I talk about visions for social change, many people say "you're just young and idealistic, life just doesn't work like that" or "you just don't get human nature" - but whatever human nature is like, I know that it is possible for Britain to stop exporting arms, and I know that human nature will be better for it. So that is something that everyone (except for the 55,000 employees in the whole sector being subsidised by the government by around £10,000 to £14,000 for each employee depending on which variables you take into account, probably the most heavily subsidised sector in the country per job) can get involved in, whatever background, whatever outlook on life, I think that not to care about arms exports isn't apathetic, it's positively psychopathic.
OK, so the arms demand makes me happy (and a bit preachy... Sorry about that, it's a bad habit!), but the demand about furniture I think is fantastic. Really fun, which is what is needed really. I can just imagine a large polished mahogany desk with that green felt on the top sitting in a teaching room in Gaza with 2 walls left and steel structuring sticking out from the grey and crumbling building. Genius. Send a bit of opulence and refined workmanship to where it will be wholly appreciated, and stick out as a strong bold reminder that there are people that back in the UK that value people. There are people that are prepared to take time out of their day to arrange something to help. That makes me happy too! There is a tide of people doing their best, not just for themselves, their familly, their friends, immediate community or nation, but actually for people in a distant land. Humans are just fantastic, aren't they? Everyone is doing their best, even the arms dealers, they just get a bit blinded by ego perhaps, but they are still doing what they think is right for them - I think that's how the mind works, so there's hope.
To close off this rather long rant, about things that I haven't made the connection to the Middle East with, but hopefully with something worth reading in there, I thought I'd leave you with another quote from one of the many prophets and wise-men that seem to have hit the nail on the head over the past few centuries (how many do we have to have before we start changing???)
"Responsibility does not only lie with the leaders of our countries or with those who have been appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with each of us individually. Peace, for example, starts within each one of us. When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us.
When our community is in a state of peace, it can share that peace with neighboring communities, and so on. When we feel love and kindness towards others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace. And there are ways in which we can consciously work to develop feelings of love and kindness. For some of us, the most effective way to do so is through religious practice. For others it may be non-religious practices. What is important is that we each make a sincere effort to take our responsibility for each other and for the natural environment we live in seriously."The Dalai Lama
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