We in the western world all have complicated connections - even the old fashioned Janet & John nuclear family
Dad goes out to work, but his employment depends on an intricate network of economic activity & on his ability to negotiate [with] those networks
Mum stays at home, washes, cooks, cleans & looks after the children. But even that depends upon intricate systems of water, electricity & food supply, shops, schools & transport
Some connections are remote - the oil for electricity generation, aluminium for the kettle or car &, increasingly, the food supply chain - fresh green beans from Zambia rather than just copper, dried cocoa or coffee beans
And these links are ever changing, some in ways of which we are not particularly conscious - we neither know nor care much where our electricity is coming from. Some changes impinge & require us to make decisions; for example, should I abandon Sainsburys & start to shop at that new Tescos which is nearer to home? And before that, should I have abandoned the corner shop & the local butcher?
Sometimes these links get horribly tangled up, so knotted as to disrupt the communications between them. Then we need to sort them out - either by carefully tracing & unpicking the individual threads or, more drastically, by chopping off the strands on either side & throwing the knot away
Iraq has become one such horrible tangle for our governments & way of life, involving religion, Israel, oil, weapons, democracy & the dispersion of population & refugees
It is not however possible to predict what we will be left with when we have disentangled the knot, however carefully we try to proceed. Which threads will be left still joined together? Which links will be severed? And which still knotted?
