SOMETHING MISSING ?

Funny how long lost lyrics come back to you and current affairs brought to mind  Sheldon Harnick`s `The Merry Minuet,` which begins

"They`re rioting in Africa

They`re starving in Spain.

There`s hurricanes in Florida

And Texas needs rain.

The whole world is festering

With unhappy souls.

The French hate the Germans

The Germans hate the Poles.

Italians hate the Yugoslavs

South Africans hate the Dutch......

...and I don`t like anybody very much.....¬

And the way the world is right now confirms that not much has changed since those words were written over half a century ago. Nowadays we have riots in Catalonia, Hong Kong, Chile and Lebanon to name but a few.  Not to mention the events in Syria, the Turkish border, Yemen and goodness knows where else in the fractured world of humankind.  Then there are marches and unrest about things like climate change and the way things are in the good ol` U of K  the conflicting persuasions of Brexit will no doubt add to the list of places where disenchantment is showing its ugly side.

But there are some things that we don`t hear that much about - something`s missing.  The BBC, as selective as ever in its disjointed sense of priority, seems to be ignoring the ongoing incidents in France where the yellow brigade are still rampaging through the streets on pretty much a daily basis and yet we don`t hear much about it - same with Barcelona to a degree where brief BBC comment passes as in depth reporting.

And I wonder why that is.  Could it be, for instance, that the BBC is reluctant to draw too much attention to events within the EU for fear of upsetting our European friends and neighbours and more especially those, like the BBC itself, who are clinging on to the undemocratic view that the UK should remain a member of that discredited institution?   Just asking, that`s all, but it would not surprise me.

Back to climate change for a minute and back to the concluding lines of The Merry Minuet.......

"Thy`re rioting in Africa
There`s strife in Iran.
What nature doesn`t do to us
Will be done by our fellow man."