Darkness at the Break of Dawn

Conflicting emotional states above and below

photo — authors own

I use that quote from Dylan as a title because it is so apt for my mental state at times.

At the moment, I am acutely oversensitive to the terrible state of events in many places across the planet, both from warfare and genocide, inequality and oppression, and general degradations of environments as a result of industrial abuse of our planet.

I was in Socotra earlier this year, which is part of Yemen and have been acutely aware of the terrible famines and struggles of ordinary people there and elsewhere. Socotra itself, though not directly involved in the war, is also enduring a power struggle between Saudi Arabia and UAE over control, but they are solidly Yemeni and wish to remain so.

When you are close to somewhere, or have known it in the past, these horrors are more acutely felt, in my experience. Similarly when I looked across the river that separates Romania from Ukraine earlier last year and thought about the terrible suffering there too.

What is worse is that it is all unnecessary. It could all end tomorrow if a few intelligent people took over and stopped the megalomaniacs from perpetuating their greed and lust for power.