Parchment Shields
- Peter K F Cheung SBS
- Jun 20
- 3 min read
FADE IN
Act 1
INT. LIVING ROOM - 13:00
PETER sits on a massage chair, eyes glued to the TV.
PETER (V.O.): Since returning from Seoul last Saturday, I've been closely monitoring the developments in the international armed conflict between Israel and Iran.
Visuals of conflict flash on the screen.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): More retaliatory supersonic missile strikes by Iran targeting Israel.
Peter leans forward, concerned, absorbing updates.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Israel initiated the international armed conflict without provocation and is now seeking US support to join the fight.
Visuals of international responses.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Iran has its own support as well. Could this lead to the onset of World War III?
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I read that the nine nuclear powers possess a total of 12,340 nuclear warheads. Is that an excessive amount for our planet?
Act 2
INT. RESTAURANT - 15:00
While having prawn noodles in fish soup, Peter checks Yahoo!Finance and is greeted by a sea of red figures.
PETER (V.O.): It reflects the negative market sentiments.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): My wife and I have incurred significant paper losses.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Casualties aside, the warring parties are spending heavily on military goods, not to mention the substantial costs of reconstruction.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Why is this a forever war?
Pondering.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Ideological differences, regional power struggles, nuclear tensions and proxy conflicts all contribute to the tensions and hostilities among nations.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I believed that after WWII, nations would become civilised, peace-loving, and committed to rule-based governance.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): In the1980s, after studying common law, I specialized in International Law and obtained two LLM degrees.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I learned that acts of aggression have been outlawed, and the argument for anticipatory self-defence can't be justified.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): But international law is invoked only when it serves the narrative of the strong.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): When it doesn't? It's ignored and twisted.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Might makes right. Always has.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): As also demonstrated in the bombing campaign by US, UK, Australia, and Poland against Iraq in 2003, international law is no more than power politics.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The Eight-nation's alliance (Germany, Japan, Russia, UK, France, US, Italy and Austria-Hungary) against the old China in 1900 is another example.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The law isn't a shield; it's a decoration of the victor's parade.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The ancient Greek realist Thucydides saw the core drives of human nature - ambition, greed, fear, the lust for power - as unchanging.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Technologies advance, political systems evolve, but the fundamental motivations driving conflict remain the same.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): But the on-going Israel-Iran armed conflict isn't just physical; it's a war on the very idea of a rule-based international order.
Act 3
INT. LIVING ROOM - 21:30
Peter adds an AI drawing titled "Parchment Shields..." to a draft on his laptop.
PETER (V.O.): The strong build fortresses, the weak clutch parchment shields.
Thinking.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): International law, lacking a sovereign enforcer, is inherently weak and conditional. International convenants are just parchment shields.
Reflecting.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): All shields fail. Only God knows if parchment shields might one day prove stronger than anything else.
FADE OUT
END
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