Fighting fire with fire won't help to put out IS flame

When asked about the alleged strike on Mohammed Emwazi, the ISIL agent responsible for beheading at least 4 Britons and Americans, as well as many others from different descents, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: "It would have been far better for us all if he had been held to account in a court of law".

Otherwise known as "Jihadi John", as nicknamed by some of the hostages he kept because of his British accent, Emwazi was the first real face of the terrorist group ISIL that the public were exposed to.

The interview was publicised is such a way to demonise Mr Corbyn. The human rights activist's comments were met with some disdain, and his unwillingness to condone what he viewed as an illicit strike seemed to leave a sour taste in many people's mouths.

"Surely if somebody is doing something wrong you act legally against them." He said. How absolutely disgusting, said everybody else.

Of course in a society encompassed by mass media and opinion polls, the attack on “Jihadi John” was very much seen as imperative in order to allay growing public fears over the scope of ISIL. With no significant action taken to retaliate to the beheadings, the government saw it as important to show the terrorists, and indeed the world, that such acts of terrorism would not be tolerated. A strike aimed at the perpetrator of some gruesome beheadings may serve as vengeance momentarily, but the move lacked foresight; Just because you get the guy in front of the camera, it doesn’t mean that the directors have stopped working.

That is not to say that such retaliations vindicate terrorist actions – far from it – but when something goes up in flames and you want to put it out, the last thing you should do is pour petrol on it.

It’s a question of morality can be summated as a battle of the cliché’s: two wrongs don’t make a right, an eye for an eye - neither seem to resonate when talking about something as devastating as the loss of human life. We live in a world where leaders simply cannot show weakness; cannot show humanity.  Airstrikes from Russia and France alike may well kill a few ISIL affiliates, but what about the innocent people it will affect. Do we show them no mercy, just like the gunman did so at the Bataclan?

ISIL are a group that were born out of a cesspool of hate. They believe in their cause and they are the epitome of a group who fight using violence as their weapon, who combat hate with more hate. Now more than ever human beings need to show solidarity and strength. If an act of strength continues to be defined by dropping bombs and destroying the world, then I worry for the future of humanity.

A week and a half later and the horrific events in Beirut, Paris and Mali make Mr Corbyn’s words seem all the more poignant.

I think I beat anxiety, but I should not get ahead of myself

Anxiety, it seems can have a couple of effects on its victim; It can either send you into a state of paralysis where you are worried, and self-conscious to the point that anxiety becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy (I have anxiety, so I'm anxious), or it can give people a swift kick up the backside into doing something

For me it was neither, and both at the same time. Whilst pacing around my room and questioning my sanity, mortality and ability to do anything, I'd often decide to go on runs in order to forget about everything. The verb; the doing of things. No matter what it was, I’d start doing things. My house mates saw this as strange (as well as annoying, pelting a sponge ball against my wall at half 4 in the morning because I couldn't sleep), but what was going on here was actually nothing productive. I wasn't turning a negative into a positive; I was just filling my anxious times with more trivial activities. Throwing a ball against a wall and catching it, now there's no reason to be anxious about that, is there?

But there was. I'm not going to lie and act like anxiety didn't have anything to do with the six or seven years of almost daily abuse of marijuana, coupled with intermittent spells of binge drinking and netflix. It was a result of the way I had been living my life. 22 year old me took a 4 month long, trembling, nervous look into the mirror and decided he didn't like what he saw.

My house mates would often look bemused by my heavy breathing patterns; habitually clicking my fingers, and sporadically leaving the room when things got too intense.  "What's the matter, mate?" was the outcome of this, as they would gingerly approach me later on in the day. The thing is, I would have absolutely loved to talk to somebody about what was bothering me, but when people would ask, I had no response. I actually didn't know what was wrong with me. There was no one definitive thing, and I feel like that is a recurring theme of the anxiety I experienced; you can't quite put your finger on what the problem is. In reflection I definitely think that it was my sub-concious telling me that I had to make a change. It was lots of little things that had manifested into this big, cloudy, ever expanding problem. In reality it was manageable, and not a big deal. The problem was, I couldn't believe that.

My anxiety was serious. I couldn't go an hour without the impending fear of doom settling down by my side, and I knew that it was always there to stay. There was never any welcome relief, just hope that it would stop. I was asking it away instead of telling it. It was that sort of attitude that, I feel, intensified my cycle. Instead of grabbing it by the balls and saying no, I don't want you in my life any more, I lived in hope. Hope that it would go away; hope that I would one day be OK. The thing is, with that sort of attitude, nobody would get anywhere.

In an ideal world, none of us would get anxious. None of us would get sad, lonely, or worried; none of us would die. When anxiety takes a hold of your life, you feel like a prisoner to your own thoughts and a fugitive to happiness. It's not like I can explain anxiety in a 1000 words to someone who doesn't understand; I couldn't explain it to the people who saw me go through it day after day, hour after hour. This article is for the people who do suffer, and I'm telling you that you can overcome it. 

What is apparent to me now, in my life presently and going forward, is that we should not always see anxiety as one-dimensional. It is a multi-faceted, complex emotion that ranges in severity both mentally and physically.  We should not always see it negatively, either. I believe that it is your mind trying to tell you to do something. That something can be anything, and productivity can definitely be a positive by-product of anxiety. As I sit writing this now, after an anxious quiver 20 minutes or so ago, I feel productive, happy and content. I feel like I can use this degree I have in Journalism, and that I can write something that people can relate too. I remember seeing  a quote on anxiety, that said something to the effect of, and excuse the paraphrase, "try not to see anxiety as the mask of death, but rather the pulse of life". That quote seems most poignant to me at this time.

Anxiety usually strikes because of an underlying issue. My issue was that my life had become shit, coupled with depression because my father tried to slit his wrists. I refused anti - depressants, anti - anxiety tablets - but said yes to therapy. Talking about things really puts things into perspective, no matter how warped yours is. I'm not saying all this too brag, I'm trying to tell you to look beyond the anxiety and ask what's really causing the problem; it might be the best question you've ever asked.

The chronicles of our insensitivity and trivialisation of all that doesn’t affect us - Chapter number: I’ve lost count

When the western world becomes aware of a crisis that doesn’t directly affect us, it is in our nature to take a second in counting ourselves lucky, another five seconds to feel terribly for those it affects, and then, completely forget about it.  Every now and again though, there is a story, or rather a crisis, which refuses to go away. Every news programme starts with it, every pub conversation - albeit swiftly - references it, and everyone guffaws at the fact that it doesn’t affect us. Hooray.

It is this jovial attitude towards global tragedies, such as the recent Ebola outbreak, that will one day prove costly for all those who underestimate its scope.  The reality that people are dying all over the planet escapes us, because “oh it’s in Africa” and “it’s impossible for us to catch it”. What’s strange about this is that every major government official is not treating matters so lightly.  It seems the prudent approach that health organisations are trying to impose only reach us as background noise, some filler for the six o' clock news that takes a back seat, whilst who’s been booted out of X-factor rides shotgun.

Whilst, for all intents and purposes, the virus is one that is very hard to contract, this does not somehow magically make the fourteen thousand cases and five thousand plus deaths worldwide - some in the west – disappear. The very fact that it is contagious should be enough to alarm us to its potential danger, never mind the fact that there have been carriers of the virus that have lived and breathed in our immediate airspace. Of course there is always a delicate balancing act with things like this, so as not to cause mass hysteria and worry - and rightly so. The problem lies with those who don’t actively follow what’s going on but still form an uneducated, amoral viewpoint. This kind of attitude and the virus itself juxtapose dangerously, and may lead us towards a potential underestimation of the magnitude and severity of the situation.

Whilst the virus seems to be under control for now, it is the general attitude – particularly among the younger generations –that seems to be less manageable. They seem more preoccupied with joking about it than actually thinking about the effect it is having on thousands of people’s lives across the globe. The Black Death seems a distant, forgotten reality. For all its relevance in terms of how quickly these things can mutate and spread, unfortunately it is largely irrelevant to those who weren’t directly affected. All those who seem so assured that we have complete control of the situation that they can tweet insensitive jokes don’t seem to understand the spontaneity and unpredictability of the world, and are ignorant to its dangers.  A more humanitarian, subjective viewpoint on Ebola might make us really appreciate what we’ve got, and strive to protect that.

A call for immediate action is not what I or anyone else should expect, nor ask for. The truth is, all many of us really have the time to do is spare a thought for others across the world who have been affected by this horrible virus; for their families and friends.  Our proximity to such a potentially devastating pathogen should not correlate with our lack empathy; at least not in the interconnected, media convergent modern world, where news spreads faster than the virus itself. To treat Ebola as a joke will only encourage others to mirror that.  Even if you can’t afford to help directly, then I implore you to at least give a damn. To donate to the cause, please text EBOL35 with your donation amount to 70070.