Why are human beings so horrible to each other?

Yes you heard what I said. Why are we so nasty to our fellow man?

I can hear a few groans and mutterings coming from the righteous but like it or not, in one way or another, most of us are guilty.

It could be something as simple as an unkind word or even an unkind silence.

It could be a thoughtless motorist who is annoyed by an older driver who has had the nerve to get in his way, or an able bodied driver who has parked in a reserved disabled space.

It could be a customer in a shop who is being rude to a member of staff or it could equally be a shop assistant who has forgotten why he or she is being paid their wages.

There are many hard-working folk who are trapped in low paid jobs and there are those who struggle to survive day-to-day, let alone plan for their future.

We read in the papers about the thousands of refugees who risk their lives trying to escape from poverty and starvation and who are exploited and robbed of every drop of compassion by those who try to sell them false hope.

We read in the papers about those who die in their efforts to exchange a life in the fire for one in the frying pan. We read about the world rulers who steal their country’s assets and hide their crimes in foreign bank accounts.

We read about the genocide of millions of unfortunat eordinary people.

People who are slaughtered by their so called brothers. People who are starving to death for the want of a simple meal or a drink of clean water.

We watch the news reports of some of the world’s richest people in some of the world’s wealthiest nations making billions of dollars by supplying weapons and ammunition to other nations who seem hell bent on murdering their next door neighbours.

In some countries, followers of a particular faith will fight to the death with those who worship and favour the methods and rituals of a rival branch of the same God-fearing devotees. Just think of the animosity that rumbles on between our close neighbours in Ireland.

Pause and remember the wealthy English merchants who became pillars of the community with their ostentatious and generous support of art galleries and universities, support that had been funded by their lucrative and profitable investments in the American slave trade.

No doubt they gave thanks to their creator for their good fortune when they attended their Sunday devotions.

And I’m sure that the tribal chiefs who had sold their brethren to the slave traders would have been equally grateful when they offered up their own prayers.

Many of the descendants of those unfortunate souls, kidnapped and transported to the new world in chains, still suffer from the aftermath of mankind’s inhumanity.

When we come closer to the present time, I find it difficult to even think about the destruction and slaughter of the Jewish nation.

How on earth could the people responsible for the fate of those millions of innocent citizens ever come to terms with what they had been forced to do to these victims, whose only ’crime’ had been to be born in the wrong place?

It is impossible to understand that, with all of our benefits and privileges that we enjoy in today’s world, we still bury our heads in the sand and ignore the horrors that others endure.

Britain is one of the wealthiest countries in the world and people still sleep in doorways.

We often refuse entry to those who are classed as illegal and who are more than likely to end up in modern slavery.

Young people kill each other with knives and guns and become drug users and dealers. Their fate is sealed and their future guaranteed.

God bless you all and a Happy New Year.

A decade ago Pullyman - aka Michael Cowin - was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, a condition that affects people in different ways. Michael discovered writing and Island Life is featuring some of his musings. Sometimes topical, sometimes nostalgic, read about life as seen through the eyes of Pullyman