Uncle Kaveh

Most of us go through life minding our own business, and not “rocking the boat”. That is the safe way to live. If we come across an injustice, we might complain, but at some point we’ll just leave it and move on and “not get involved”. But because of our narrow self-interest, injustices continue. This is how bullies get away for years. They know that the vast majority don’t want to confront them. And this is how dictatorships survive. If we all stood up and vocalised what we truly believed, it would be a better world. But most, including me, find it safer to keep our heads down.

But let us at the very least have respect for those few who do “rock the boat”. Jerome Starkey is a young journalist in Afghanistan. He sounds like a young “lad” in an adventure. But he decided to take on Nato single-handedly when he suspected they were lying about who killed some children and pregnant women in the Afghan war, and he exposed Nato, who then engaged in a vendetta to blacken his name.

Forget who is fighting whom and forget the politics. But let us salute the courage of a solitary young “lad” without whom a big lie would have gone undetected. He puts to shame the majority of other self-important “embedded” reporters who have become mouthpieces for the military and, at least relatively speaking, play safe.

If a young man can take on Nato and put them on the defensive, then surely we can have a little more courage in our daily lives, in order to reduce injustice. If a restaurant is serving bad food, let us not pay up and include a service charge and then moan outside. Let us call the manager and complain in person. And if we come across a bully, let us confront that bully.

I am trying to change myself in the direction of Jerome, and I have improved, but I have a long way to go.