A Pop Star Dies As War Intensifies ,

A strange world we live in .And to struggle to find meaning in this life is not
helped when we look at some recent events and the bizarre responses to those events that unfold.

Personally, although never a conscious fan or devotee of the performer I was shocked at the news and cannot deny how important his music has been to me for the main reason that he was of the same generation , He was only ten months my junior and hence I literally grew up with seeing him on TV especially when he was growing up as a child star.And there could be no denying that the boy had talent and could sing and dance , and that many of his early, as well as later tunes were ones that I loved to listen to even though I rarely ventured out to buy them for my collection .

Last week was the memorial service of Michael Jackson the great pop star who died on June 25Th 2009 after what was described as a 'cardiac arrest' the correct clinical term for a heart attack yet us in Britain, more used to not hearing this term that the American media used.

Apparently Michael Jackson was planning on a return to performing his last fare well concerts . We were told by the corporate media that he had up to 50 concerts to perform in Britain alone.......Other news sources stated that his needs for this return where financial due to the costs of his court cases having been accused of Paedophilia in 2005 .

The case of 'The People against Michael Jackson 'where various under aged guests to his home had turned against him and made allegations of being molested.This case lasted for five months and eventually Jackson was acquitted on all charges . One can imagine the emotional strain this can have had on a person who knows that billions of people know what he looks like and in a bizarre and superficial way know him deeply, as he has bared his soul for decades publicly . On a man whose visual appearance and over all demeanor did betray some element of extreme fragility. The many stories of his abused childhood by his father not withstanding.His unconventional attire and physical make up / plastic surgery , reclusiveness , ambivalence of gender and race etc all fed into the untouchable , unreachable , unknowable figurehead of many a music lover's worship . Hence He was a 'star' in the full sense that our shallow twenty first century with its love of celebrity status beyond all else has acknowledged.

Unfortunately, poor Michael died before he could bow out on stage. That is the saddest thing in my opinion.He cleared his name in a law court whatever his enemies may think , unless we have evidence ,it is only fair to have given him the benefit of the doubt. But the satisfaction he sought through the stage, the only means he really knew how to express himself was denied.

His funeral ceremony , or 'Memorial concert'was watched by millions on tv throughout the world on 7th July 2009 ,and many were there at the 'Staples centre ' Los Angeles to witness the tribute by many other shining stars who were close to him and some who performed.
It was difficult to avoid the ceremony. I heard parts of it on the radio as I was driving and commentators were describing a coffin lined with gold as some heartfelt tributes were made by his closest relatives whilst other performers performed and made eulogies which bordered onto to the scriptures of Messianic prophets...I must admit , with the greatest of respect to Jacko himself , I couldn't bear any more of it and had to switch it off. Am I bitter and twisted and unable to accept the glorified and great deserve this? or is it a matter of principle and the opposition to the deification of a person ,the very mixed blessing that could have led to his isolation and what seems to have been a lonely, miserable life?I don't know but after maximum tolerance had to use the off-button and switched it off.

I am sure that many will begin to do pilgrimage to where he is eventually buried and others will all but pray to him etc : this is the ultimate destiny of the celebrity status especially such a prominent celebrity : a replacement of old religions for new. And the inspiration to many more to strive to be that God or his Messiah at least .

By coincidence the same day that Michael Jackson was laid to rest with a golden coffin send off amongst a panoply of shining 'stars' , it was also the commemoration of the the London tube train bombings.

These took place on 7 July 2005 and are also known as the 7/7 bombings, a series of coordinated suicide bomb attacks on London's public transport system during the morning rush hour. The bombings were carried out by 4 British Muslim men who were motivated by Britain's involvement in the Iraq War.

A permanent memorial in the form of 52 metallic anonymous pillars of steel was unveiled in Hyde Park on the 7 July 2009, the fourth anniversary of the bombings, as a tribute to the 52 murder victims.Some radio programme presenters mentioned that this memorial was overshadowed by memorial for Michael Jackson , and indeed the news of the monument was totally blotted by the interest in Michael Jackson.

The memorial was unveiled in Hyde Park on the 7 July 2009.This is no disrespect for Michael but because of his memorial event watched by millions on live TV on the same day , the commemoration of the London Bombings did sink quietly into the back ground and sadly almost to total oblivion.

The tragic irony and the apparent meaninglessness of life and promotion of death in all of this ,is, that amidst the subdued remembrance of the victims of terrorism in London , the war raging three and half thousand miles away in Afghanistan approaches its eighth year without any 'success', whatever that really means to the architects of this war.Not only has it intensified with up to fifteen British service personnel killed in the same week of both above memorials but the spurious arguments in favour of the war continue to duck and dive , the current mantra being that these poor servicemen ,victims of our rulers and their sponsors' ambitions whether military, strategic , egotistic or economic have died for a good and noble cause.

Prime minister of Britain ,Mr Brown, when pressed about this bad news made mumbling noises about the good purpose of this war and continued to back it on the grounds that it is preventing a “chain of terror” stretching from the Afghan plains to the streets of Britain.

So this war , we are told is to prevent terrorism from reaching us. Even though one of the suicide bombers of the London bombings ,Shehzad Tanweer himself , stated very clearly on his pre-recorded suicide video tape that that motivation behind the bombings was the very presence of British forces in Afghanistan and Iraq at the time. So if we attempt to apply some logic it would go like this :

' The war in Afghanistan must continue and intensify because in so doing our forces will keep terrorism away from London and prevent people like Shehzad Tanweer and others from blowing people and themselves up in London in reaction to this war.....'

What can be more inconsistent and philosophically flawed than this statement?
Even the Great American President of 'Change ' Obama himself has said recently:
"The mission in Afghanistan is one that the Europeans have as much, if not more, of a stake in than we do. Certainly the Afghans as well as the Pakistanis have more of a stake than we do. The likelihood of a terrorist attack in London is at least as high, if not higher, than it is in the United States. And that's the reason why Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and others have made this commitment."

So here we are, eight years after the bombings of the twin towers and four years after the bombings of London and we are told that this war , formerly called 'The war against terror' is preventing terrorism.

Yet while writing this , terrorists attacked Indonesia .Friday 17th July there were bombings of the luxury JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta which killed at least nine people — including at least two presumed suicide bombers — and wounded more than 50 others.

In fact there have been possibly dozens of terrorist attacks throughout the world since September 11th 2001. So maybe the 'war against terror' has 'changed' again to the war of keeping terrorists out of The USA and its satellite, Britain. But even in this case as argued above the 'success' gauged by the number of 'foiled ' plots cited by the government , and that is only part of it.For as the war rages the casualties to Britain are sustained three and a half thousand miles away in British military uniforms! Things are very complicated and made even more frustrating to analyse when the fiction prevails.

So a pop star dies and this war intensifies. Even not being a great fan of Michael Jackson's I still believe he was a great loss and more important to many peoples' lives than these arm chair warriors , the Leaders of Britain and The USA who send people to die for the interests of the few rich and powerful and have the audacity to argue that their motives are moral and humanitarian rather than colonial.For if we look at history as a guide or template, the latter is a more canny , tried and tested reason for many a military intervention.