A Small Island Man

Please! I invite you to come back in time with me to when I was not sixty-four but twenty-four. Fresh out of university with a first-class honours in computer science, awarded special commendation and a prize for outstanding achievement. I was on top of my game, hand firmly on the tiller of my small craft, charting a course to make a better world armed with the ruthless efficiency of my newfound craft. I was sitting in the smart living room of a townhouse just a stone’s throw from a world-leading Cambridge hospital. Around me sat the board of a newly founded company, created to provide efficient tools for the new science of genetic analysis, diagnosing everything from Down’s syndrome to cancer. We were going to make the world healthier, from cradle to crypt. Before business, the custom was coffee and cake. *Yabalkov sladkish*, a moist sponge with grated apples, cinnamon, sometimes walnuts. Delicious. A Bulgarian favourite. I don’t recall how the subject of digital identity cards came u...

White, male, and privileged talking. Born in the '60s in London, UK, to a working-class family that, while not rich, made sure I never knew what it was to be hungry or cold. I had free education, a full grant that took me to university to study computing, and a qualification that kept opening doors for me. I worked hard to make the most of those opportunities, but no harder than countless others who never got the same lucky breaks. And now, at sixty-four, I am only beginning to understand how dark white, male privilege runs. Day by day, the world unravels with ICE immigration raids under tRump's presidency, genocide in Gaza, and Starmer pandering to small-c conservatism with immigration paranoia and digital identity cards. All I see is a sea of complacency, a chorus of "I'm alright, Union Jack." It is an endemic, low-level, passive cruelty. And it leaves me queasy. Everybody looking after themselves and their own. I will judge you. Not by how you host your friends...

Me: I see Israel's actions in Gaza being described as Genocide. Is this reasonable? ChatGPT: Many human rights groups, UN experts, and even the International Court of Justice say there is a plausible case that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide. The Genocide Convention defines it as killing or causing serious harm to a group, or deliberately creating conditions to destroy it, with intent. Over 30,000 Palestinians killed, huge displacement, and starvation used as a weapon have been documented. Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, and B’Tselem say this meets the legal definition. In January, the ICJ ordered Israel to take urgent steps to prevent genocide — a sign the court sees the risk as serious, though it hasn’t yet ruled on the final charge. Israel rejects the label, saying it is fighting Hamas, not Palestinians as a people. Bottom line: Whether or not courts ultimately confirm it, calling what’s happening “genocide” is reasonable, not exaggeration.