Sunday, July 29, 2007
To Blog Or Not To Blog
That is really the question . I have not written here for a long time . The main reason my enthusiam has dwindled is two fold : one is because there is no damned feedback . Nobody reads my blog , or I guess most people don't read most people's blogs . Some blogs get very noticed but in my experience , the vast majority like mine for instance are totally ignored or on very rare occasions visted by other neighbour bloggers who happen to surf by .
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
The Neo Dictatorship
There is no doubt that we are being dictated to in this country , which prides itself on freedom of speech and democracy. Yet although these high ideals , once associated with this great country once meant something , The mainstream political process has become devoid of any meaning and the plethora of authorities which preside over our daily lives have become increasingly more oppressive .
This type of Neo Dictatorship is very unlike the Brand of Hitler , Mussolini or even Stalin established in the last century , all of which ruled by violently devouring all opposition and maintaining power by instilling fear in their subjects and physically punishing or killing them if they stepped out of line.
No. That model of dictatorship although much more cruel and destructive , by definition was destined to fail at one point . The brand which seems to be spreading in most modern so called ' liberal democracies ' is outwardly more benign, pretentiously 'caring ' and 'progressive ' yet very insidious and all powerful . sometimes spreading its policies by manufacturing consent by subtle deception . One does not need to give examples , the current war this country is entangled in speaks for itself. This brand of Neo Dictatorship is spreading its tentacles by the day and changing the way we live by the minute. The alarming thing is that many of us are unaware of this happening and that most of us have not chosen to elect this ruling political party !
The mainstream political parties on the whole in this country have little difference in opinion or policy whether this is home or foreign policy . To be fair to the liberal party though , they did object to the invasion ,and the botched up failed conquering of Iraq.Yet does this party belong to the mainstream ? Although one of the most important political parties of this country's history , the Liberal party is effectively a fringe party , with due respect to genuine Liberals .
The number of eligible voters who have turned out for the past few general elections has been quite small .
In the 2001 General Election, Labour won 62% of the seats with 40.7% of the vote. Taking into account those who did not vote, that meant 24.2% of people eligible to vote, voted Labour in 2001.
In 2005 Tony Blwar's (misspelling intentional ) New Labour party won again despite the fact that only 21% of the 44 million electors supported his party - a record low in British electoral history.
Now given that we have a government whom only 21% of the eligible voters voted for , a figure which I am informed is lower than the percentage who did not bother to vote let alone the figure that voted for other parties . One can only conclude that we are governed by a group of usurpers that 79% or the majority of us are either passionately against ,indifferent to, or totally oblivious of! Yet this ruling party which some say has given away our sovereignty to two other bigger entities namely USA running foreign and military affairs , European Union controlling home affairs. If that is the case why do we have so many rulers in parliament when they are not wanted in the first place ? And apart from the hot air they puke in parliament and on TV Screens their job is a foregone conclusion predetermined by the real powers mentioned .
Yet in reality even if it is only a rubber- stamping or administrative , propaganda and law enforcement power they wield , by the Gods they wield it with impunity !
Now having established that we are living in an oligarchy( a word often misused by the current media to denote a group of wealthy Russian gangsters , but really means government over the many by the few), This oligarchic satrapy consists of various layers including local mini-dictatorships called councils . To these councils the main ruling party bestows various powers : for example to punish mostly law abiding individuals who have perhaps exceeded 30 miles per hour in their car on occasion ,or have dropped litter .
The councils have been given increasing powers to punish individuals and raise revenue for various of their pet projects .
Recently ,according to the forthcoming total ban on smoking cigarettes, the general ruling party has ordered all businesses and other establishments to display NO SMOKING!signs everywhere , there will be fines if this is not done .
Imagine a business man .(sorry!or woman ):although most know I am using generic terms here , the 'thought police ' of this regime may well indeed pick me up on that and accuse me of Chauvenism although they don't know me . I will continue , A business man on his own premises : say for example a publican who smokes himself and employs staff that smoke ,are aware of the dangers , and also informs the public that this is for people who don't mind the smoky environment . If this publican ,after 1st July 2007 ,when the law is enforced , is seen allowing a worker or customer to smoke ,he will be fined . So whatever your views on smoking , this is quite scary .
The very early prohibitive policies that Adolf Hitler introduced in NAZI Germany were in relation to banning smoking in public places .......So whatever your views on smoking , remember,whatever your favourite vice ,obsession or peculiar ,personal freedom is, respect that others have their own ,and fight for all to be accommodated , because next....:They may come for you !
This type of Neo Dictatorship is very unlike the Brand of Hitler , Mussolini or even Stalin established in the last century , all of which ruled by violently devouring all opposition and maintaining power by instilling fear in their subjects and physically punishing or killing them if they stepped out of line.
No. That model of dictatorship although much more cruel and destructive , by definition was destined to fail at one point . The brand which seems to be spreading in most modern so called ' liberal democracies ' is outwardly more benign, pretentiously 'caring ' and 'progressive ' yet very insidious and all powerful . sometimes spreading its policies by manufacturing consent by subtle deception . One does not need to give examples , the current war this country is entangled in speaks for itself. This brand of Neo Dictatorship is spreading its tentacles by the day and changing the way we live by the minute. The alarming thing is that many of us are unaware of this happening and that most of us have not chosen to elect this ruling political party !
The mainstream political parties on the whole in this country have little difference in opinion or policy whether this is home or foreign policy . To be fair to the liberal party though , they did object to the invasion ,and the botched up failed conquering of Iraq.Yet does this party belong to the mainstream ? Although one of the most important political parties of this country's history , the Liberal party is effectively a fringe party , with due respect to genuine Liberals .
The number of eligible voters who have turned out for the past few general elections has been quite small .
In the 2001 General Election, Labour won 62% of the seats with 40.7% of the vote. Taking into account those who did not vote, that meant 24.2% of people eligible to vote, voted Labour in 2001.
In 2005 Tony Blwar's (misspelling intentional ) New Labour party won again despite the fact that only 21% of the 44 million electors supported his party - a record low in British electoral history.
Now given that we have a government whom only 21% of the eligible voters voted for , a figure which I am informed is lower than the percentage who did not bother to vote let alone the figure that voted for other parties . One can only conclude that we are governed by a group of usurpers that 79% or the majority of us are either passionately against ,indifferent to, or totally oblivious of! Yet this ruling party which some say has given away our sovereignty to two other bigger entities namely USA running foreign and military affairs , European Union controlling home affairs. If that is the case why do we have so many rulers in parliament when they are not wanted in the first place ? And apart from the hot air they puke in parliament and on TV Screens their job is a foregone conclusion predetermined by the real powers mentioned .
Yet in reality even if it is only a rubber- stamping or administrative , propaganda and law enforcement power they wield , by the Gods they wield it with impunity !
Now having established that we are living in an oligarchy( a word often misused by the current media to denote a group of wealthy Russian gangsters , but really means government over the many by the few), This oligarchic satrapy consists of various layers including local mini-dictatorships called councils . To these councils the main ruling party bestows various powers : for example to punish mostly law abiding individuals who have perhaps exceeded 30 miles per hour in their car on occasion ,or have dropped litter .
The councils have been given increasing powers to punish individuals and raise revenue for various of their pet projects .
Recently ,according to the forthcoming total ban on smoking cigarettes, the general ruling party has ordered all businesses and other establishments to display NO SMOKING!signs everywhere , there will be fines if this is not done .
Imagine a business man .(sorry!or woman ):although most know I am using generic terms here , the 'thought police ' of this regime may well indeed pick me up on that and accuse me of Chauvenism although they don't know me . I will continue , A business man on his own premises : say for example a publican who smokes himself and employs staff that smoke ,are aware of the dangers , and also informs the public that this is for people who don't mind the smoky environment . If this publican ,after 1st July 2007 ,when the law is enforced , is seen allowing a worker or customer to smoke ,he will be fined . So whatever your views on smoking , this is quite scary .
The very early prohibitive policies that Adolf Hitler introduced in NAZI Germany were in relation to banning smoking in public places .......So whatever your views on smoking , remember,whatever your favourite vice ,obsession or peculiar ,personal freedom is, respect that others have their own ,and fight for all to be accommodated , because next....:They may come for you !
Monday, April 09, 2007
Kidnapped Sailors
It has been in the headlines for the past four weeks or so . The kidnapping of 'our boys ' and one girl we were continuously reminded by the journalistic side kicks of the government.
.
How do members of the armed forces in military uniform , thousands of miles away from the home land they are purportedly sworn to defend , get themselves 'kidnapped'. According to the Iranian military the sailors were in their territorial waters.
Mr Blair 'the Omniscient' was seen early on in the crisis outside his digs in Downing street stating categorically that there was no doubt that the members of the armed forces were in Iraqi territorial waters in which they had every right to be in . He as well as his miserable assistant the Foreign secretary Margaret Becket who appeared somewhat flustered over the whole affair insisted that in addition to the above 'we were there in Iraqi waters under a U .N mandate.' what ever that means .
So the affair unfolded throughout TV screens and propaganda sheets throughout the world as st he public and the cynical manipulators of their opinion got heated .
Many were heard stating over the airwaves of radio phone- ins: Bomb the Iranians !
It's hard to believe but I heard a growing intensity of belligerence toward this crisis, which by now had been dubbed the 'hostage crisis ' in the nation's propaganda press.
.
Now were they kidnapped? this implies that they were abducted for some kind of gain . Were the Iranians going to demand money for the hand over of the abducted? like a mafia gang kidnapping a rich child?. Or was it a hostage crisis. The fifteen hostages to be executed within a time limit if some impossible demands were not met?
How ludicrous This became . Now whether the fifteen were in or out of Iranian waters was immaterial . They were close. And for a country that is being threatened by the major military powers of the world ,that country would be a little defensive . Imagine if we saw a Chinese or Russian vessel outside the territorial waters but a little close and in our opinion , having no right to be there. What would our peace loving leaders do . Probably the same as their Iranian counterparts.
So as the debacle intensified , various hollow threats were made by by both sides and hey presto , just several days ago all the 'hostages' were released ostensibly by Mr Ahmadinejad , without condition ' as a gift to the British people ' .
Blair the 'Omniscient ' looked utterly humiliated and defeated by a tin pot tyrant who came out with an air of patronising confidence throughout.
Blair was literally speechless on his TV appearance when the release of the 15 was announced .
.
Some back stairs diplomacy could have been used , it's unlikely that what the public was fed through the TV and newspapers was all that took place .
The fifteen were apparently treated 'surprisingly humanely' as if we some how have the assumption that all that are not British or American are barbarians , regardless of history and current affairs indicating the contrary.
So the latest in this 'hostage/kidnapping ' case is that after a debriefing by their military masters ,the service people will be allowed to tell their story to the hysterical press for a gullible public for vulgar sum of money .....couldn't get any more bizarre could it?
Now what conditions did they sign with the Ministry of defence before being giving its blessing? you can reach your own conclusion .
But one thing is clear when military personnel are sent on missions of conquest , occupation and possible espionage or infringement of countries near those they occupy , then after capture they are termed 'hostages' and 'kidnapped ', it proves that we really are living in a very extraordinary world where language is charged with political motives where public disinformation is paramount for our leaders to continue in their mischief and in the process endanger the countless lives
of other people as well as our own service men in the process.
This is something which continues to escalate in the recent years with little or no opposition . So what next ? invade fiji on a pretext that they are planning to destroy the world and when we are busy ' debating ' this , we can forget the most recent outrages . The sooner we get rid of this one party state system and make politicians accountable with some respect toward democracy the better.
.
How do members of the armed forces in military uniform , thousands of miles away from the home land they are purportedly sworn to defend , get themselves 'kidnapped'. According to the Iranian military the sailors were in their territorial waters.
Mr Blair 'the Omniscient' was seen early on in the crisis outside his digs in Downing street stating categorically that there was no doubt that the members of the armed forces were in Iraqi territorial waters in which they had every right to be in . He as well as his miserable assistant the Foreign secretary Margaret Becket who appeared somewhat flustered over the whole affair insisted that in addition to the above 'we were there in Iraqi waters under a U .N mandate.' what ever that means .
So the affair unfolded throughout TV screens and propaganda sheets throughout the world as st he public and the cynical manipulators of their opinion got heated .
Many were heard stating over the airwaves of radio phone- ins: Bomb the Iranians !
It's hard to believe but I heard a growing intensity of belligerence toward this crisis, which by now had been dubbed the 'hostage crisis ' in the nation's propaganda press.
.
Now were they kidnapped? this implies that they were abducted for some kind of gain . Were the Iranians going to demand money for the hand over of the abducted? like a mafia gang kidnapping a rich child?. Or was it a hostage crisis. The fifteen hostages to be executed within a time limit if some impossible demands were not met?
How ludicrous This became . Now whether the fifteen were in or out of Iranian waters was immaterial . They were close. And for a country that is being threatened by the major military powers of the world ,that country would be a little defensive . Imagine if we saw a Chinese or Russian vessel outside the territorial waters but a little close and in our opinion , having no right to be there. What would our peace loving leaders do . Probably the same as their Iranian counterparts.
So as the debacle intensified , various hollow threats were made by by both sides and hey presto , just several days ago all the 'hostages' were released ostensibly by Mr Ahmadinejad , without condition ' as a gift to the British people ' .
Blair the 'Omniscient ' looked utterly humiliated and defeated by a tin pot tyrant who came out with an air of patronising confidence throughout.
Blair was literally speechless on his TV appearance when the release of the 15 was announced .
.
Some back stairs diplomacy could have been used , it's unlikely that what the public was fed through the TV and newspapers was all that took place .
The fifteen were apparently treated 'surprisingly humanely' as if we some how have the assumption that all that are not British or American are barbarians , regardless of history and current affairs indicating the contrary.
So the latest in this 'hostage/kidnapping ' case is that after a debriefing by their military masters ,the service people will be allowed to tell their story to the hysterical press for a gullible public for vulgar sum of money .....couldn't get any more bizarre could it?
Now what conditions did they sign with the Ministry of defence before being giving its blessing? you can reach your own conclusion .
But one thing is clear when military personnel are sent on missions of conquest , occupation and possible espionage or infringement of countries near those they occupy , then after capture they are termed 'hostages' and 'kidnapped ', it proves that we really are living in a very extraordinary world where language is charged with political motives where public disinformation is paramount for our leaders to continue in their mischief and in the process endanger the countless lives
of other people as well as our own service men in the process.
This is something which continues to escalate in the recent years with little or no opposition . So what next ? invade fiji on a pretext that they are planning to destroy the world and when we are busy ' debating ' this , we can forget the most recent outrages . The sooner we get rid of this one party state system and make politicians accountable with some respect toward democracy the better.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Art and civilisation
Its comforting to see that the arts are so respected . Especially the visual arts,my favourite medium .And indeed one where I am but an insignificant , minor , unrecognised but persevering practitioner in .
Our great leader Mr Blair himself was seen having a photo shot with some paintings by one of our all time greatest painters : Turner .
Mr Blair , two days ago posed with his enormous grin in front of this powerfully atmospheric sea scape in London's Tate Gallery and was quoted to have said in support of arts that they serve the purpose of :' ....Enriching peoples lives and their communities '.
Very comforting . The fact that somebody appreciates a great work of art makes one have an affinity with the other's finer judgement and transcendent leanings to the higher sensibilities ......
Again this morning as I read my favourite propaganda sheet ; the Guardian , I read about another man who judging by the painting on his wall was an art lover .
Yes this man : Terrence George Adams , reportedly leader of the most
feared gang of criminals in the country was jailed for seven years yesterday for a charge of laundering one million pounds . This apparently being the tip of the iceberg. According to the report , Adams was a ruthless criminal whose fortune was in millions supporting a lavish lifestyle for himself and his family . Police bugging devices have recordings of him graphically boasting about the removal of one his enemy's knee caps: 'His knee cap came right out there....all white ,Dan , all bone and white ..'
So this Criminal waved a salute to his wife and went down into custody yesterday
whilst the case on him gets bigger , hopefully his sentence gets longer on other charges so that he can rot whilst his fortunes wither or pay for his costly court case . Yes ,well maybe he can start some kind of art appreciation society in prison or something like that .
So two powerful men , both lovers of art , this is a sign post to some kind of higher human evolution surely ? But no .
Power , however transient is what both devils have had and used with violent consequences .
The major difference is that Blair has what some sociologists call 'legitimate power' and Adams the 'illegitimate '.
Ultimately it is the same thing as we do not have a society led by politicians that use this power morally or legally in certain cases.
Hopefully the other bigger fish or an art lover may one day be brought to justice and we can have a growing art lovers' movement down there in the cells , it will definitely be a civilising force ,maybe we could call this new movement: 'Bully ism'.
Our great leader Mr Blair himself was seen having a photo shot with some paintings by one of our all time greatest painters : Turner .
Mr Blair , two days ago posed with his enormous grin in front of this powerfully atmospheric sea scape in London's Tate Gallery and was quoted to have said in support of arts that they serve the purpose of :' ....Enriching peoples lives and their communities '.
Very comforting . The fact that somebody appreciates a great work of art makes one have an affinity with the other's finer judgement and transcendent leanings to the higher sensibilities ......
Again this morning as I read my favourite propaganda sheet ; the Guardian , I read about another man who judging by the painting on his wall was an art lover .
Yes this man : Terrence George Adams , reportedly leader of the most
feared gang of criminals in the country was jailed for seven years yesterday for a charge of laundering one million pounds . This apparently being the tip of the iceberg. According to the report , Adams was a ruthless criminal whose fortune was in millions supporting a lavish lifestyle for himself and his family . Police bugging devices have recordings of him graphically boasting about the removal of one his enemy's knee caps: 'His knee cap came right out there....all white ,Dan , all bone and white ..'
So this Criminal waved a salute to his wife and went down into custody yesterday
whilst the case on him gets bigger , hopefully his sentence gets longer on other charges so that he can rot whilst his fortunes wither or pay for his costly court case . Yes ,well maybe he can start some kind of art appreciation society in prison or something like that .
So two powerful men , both lovers of art , this is a sign post to some kind of higher human evolution surely ? But no .
Power , however transient is what both devils have had and used with violent consequences .
The major difference is that Blair has what some sociologists call 'legitimate power' and Adams the 'illegitimate '.
Ultimately it is the same thing as we do not have a society led by politicians that use this power morally or legally in certain cases.
Hopefully the other bigger fish or an art lover may one day be brought to justice and we can have a growing art lovers' movement down there in the cells , it will definitely be a civilising force ,maybe we could call this new movement: 'Bully ism'.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Anti war Demonstration February 24th , 2007 ,London
Well I actually did it. I attended a march in central London to demonstrate about things I have been angry about and felt that the government not only does not listen or care about but is actively in favour of causing serious mischief in .
I had been increasingly worried about the possible bombing of Iran . I have been getting a recurring feeling of 'deja vu' where despicable politicians from USA , Britain , Israel and their minions have repeatedly made noises about how the leader of Iran is so much like Adolf Hitler and that he plans to 'wipe Israel of the map ' and of course if that is part of his plan for Israel , imagine what he has in store for the rest of these poor and under prepared super powers ?
Hitler , 1939 was in charge of a military super power of his time , he did invade many countries and planned to dominate many others with an institutional policy of racism of the worst kind. But what these despicable politicians are saying and what is echoed by a bland and docile media is false , Iran has never in its modern history invaded any countries and neither did Iranian president , Ahmadinejad threaten to destroy Israel . Those who would seek various reputable or varied sources will realise that this is a fabrication similar to those used by Goebbels :' A lie is only a lie but if repeated enough times , becomes the truth ' . How ironic that the very same people that cry 'Hitler is coming ' are the same rascals that mimic Goebbels.
It is incredible ! I heard a top journalist on radio speaking to an American politician who was virtually advocating the possible air strikes on Iran repeating this mantra about Iran's leader wanting: 'To wipe Israel of the face of the map' and the journalist not challenginging the veracity of the statement. This is the lame media of the BBC world service , you can imagine what the traditional jingoistic right wing press and pro Zionist outlets have gone to town with .
So, amidst the distortion of the truth it is hard to single out exactly what is happening ,It would be wise to look for various sources and see their views. It becomes abundantly clear to me anyway that , Iran is no threat to Israel apart from maybe her military supplies to Hezbollah or other shi'ite factions in the region . And so what?; allies tend to help eachother . The US and Britain both stood by, did not call for an immediate cease fire whilst they watched children burn in Lebanon from the fire of an invading Israeli force. But not only that ,the scoundrels were supplying the highly equipped Israelis with more ammunition . That is the outrage.
So we seem to be being prepared to acquiesce as passive witnesses( albeit with carefully censored and selected visual information) to another example of American terrorism of the worst sort. At present there is a military build up in the middle east with American air craft carriers close by . Some independent journalists are saying that what the Americans want is to destabilise Iran so that it can disintegrate from being a unified ,sovereign state ,that they are encouraging rivalry amongst various ethnic groups in order to instigate a regime change and 'hey presto! ' oil , gas , military pathways etc are theirs .. But hang on , things are not that easy are they? look at Iraq ? . it's hard to believe , but although I may be deluded or reading the wrong reports , these criminals are planning again to do some bad things in the name of greed and generally to acquire wealth for the few rather than the many .
So I attended the 'peace march' . Nobody would come with me , nobody ,and I was wondering whether I should really go or not. but I did , I arrived by 12.00 at Hyde Park Corner. I felt lost and out of place being one of the very few loners their . I looked odd, not holding a placard or wearing a badge or distributing leaflets of my favourite cause. I ended up being herded into a line on a road within Hyde Park , very orderly and heading for Trafalgar Square .The crowd was ushered into a straight line of a width of at least 6 or seven people by the official stewards . It didn't look enormous to me but I could not estimate the size. I could not see the front. I waited standing , not talking to anyone , I wanted to be alone somehow in this crowd as I had come alone ,I wasn't in the mood of 'meeting wonderful people and making friends' but there was an implicit feeling that all present were friends and although I had pictured an event in my mind that could attract pickockets and other like minded scum , I was pleasantly surprised to see a genuine mix and match of all ages, classes, political persuasions and races all having some reason to be there in an atmosphere of friendliness and respectfulness.
Some had placards of 'Bush the world's greatest terrorist' others were definitely 'ban the bomb ' people of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament ' campaigning against the governments's recent decisison to renew the Nuclear submarine fleet known as Trident ,and various other causes .
In fact this variety did lack a specifically targeted common cause for a campaign and I guess that's what made it lack much collective passion and outrage to focus upon . However some youngsters were banging drums continuously to a 'Ba boom ba boom !' rhythm and were well coordinated , others were shouting into megaphones :'Come on everybody dance to this ; War what is it good for - nothing !' This song from the eighties being revived by a campaign supported by the renegade former 'new labour ' MP George Galloway .
I had been motivated by what I believe is a gradual process of public desensitisation by the government, right wing press and other hangers on ,in preparation for another major assault on a foreign country ;Iran .
I eventually found a placard with 'Do not attack Iran' and held this all the way to Trafalgar.
I waited a long time until the orderly mob started marching proper . We moved like a large snail . set into motion at about 1.00pm . I was getting inpatient by then but got to enjoy the various spectacles . Endless groups of inviduals desperately handing leaflets of their causes to who ever . I bought a copy of the 'Peace Times' for 50p and accepted leaflets for so many different political causes that it reached a fatigue level and I couldn't care less any more about 'jews against Zionism' , 'The Twin Tower Conspiracy ' the 'socialist Worker ' 'The Bolivar Revolution ' etc etc. I started refusing and saying ' Thanks ,I already have one' as they nodded in approval .
We continued to walk and after about what seemed like an hour but must have been 40 minutes ,I had just come level to Green park tube station . I could not believe it and thoguht to myself , well at this rate I won't be back in time for my afternoon
nap which I usually like to take at about 2 or 3 o'clock . But then I reasoned that this was a worth while cause and how selfish was I to compare my little nap to the real horrors we here to denounce. I passed 'Grosvenor House ' a big office block
where 34 years ago I started my first job as an apprentice telephone engineer ,the company had a meeting base at the basement of this building , how I had a flash back of arriving early one morning and getting a little too comfortable whilst waiting for the rest , had begun to doze; they never let me forget that , I eventually suffered the ignominious sacking after struggling for a year or so trying to be 'the apprentice ' ; Bastards"!. Such a long time ago I thought , what a young , confused boy I was, I needed understanding not mocking . A long time ago that was.
I left the unhappy memory behind and cruised along Park Lane or Piccadilly,whatever that road is called , I have walked past there so many times and thought to myself : this is were I belong , this is my home town , I was born in Nicosia but I don't have the same connection as I do here , I always feel a pang of excitement in my bones when I walk up the West End , where ever I have lived in London over the past forty years or so , that was not my place , not Burnt Oak , Manor House , Crouch Hill ,Edmonton , no the only constant was the love of travelling to the West End .
When I went to live in Cyprus in 1992 , It was the West End that I missed.
But this walk in the West End was different , I was the traffic , the road had been closed off for me to walk on instead of being used by the motorists . The cars had to wait for me and a few thousands of other faceless VIP's to carry on the march, get to the destination and then allow normal traffic right of way .
So amidst the thousands or tens of thousands of heads and shoulders , I looked up at familiar buildings , statues , restaurants , book shops etc, all from such a strange angle never before experienced , alongside the somemwhat eccentric jumble of activists made the whole view surreal . I was just staring at the buildings with loudspeakers blaring , drumbeats thumping , young girls' hips gyrating and me plodding along with a placard and mixed up thoughts of past present and future.
One thought whilst listening to a group in their late teens discussing the march and their anger againsts the government made me think, how slow I was again ,taking me forty nine years to get off my bum and join in a mass protest rather than staying at home and fuming .
By four o'clock or so we had reached Trafalgar Square , it was peaceful no bad incidents seen , no problem with police etc . We had made it . Placards were
discarded into piles on the floor as marchers watched the large video screen which projected the image of various speakers including George Galloway MP . A Spokesman for the 'Muslim Initiative' said many things about the misrepresentation of Muslims and how true Muslims will protest ligitimately etc. George spoke as usual in his rabble rousing manner , always worth a listen . He seems quite hated , many boo'd him as he spoke . there was a live link up with Bruce Kent, leader of CND who in my opinion made the best speech which in essence was:'think for yourselves ' don't just listen to the rubbish spoken around the corner in Whitehall etc.'
After I had listened to a few speakers , I did feel that the atmosphere was somewhat dead-beat and that the turn -out was a disappointment ,yet figures seem to be a matter of opinion in these marches , I would make a very crude guess at 10 thousand , but can't be sure .
I left , as I saw others trickling toward the Leicester Square Tube station .
This way I thought I could avoid a crush movement under ground . The trains were crowded, but I got back in good time with no complaints or major discomfort apart from exhaustion . When I returned home I actually thought it was worth it , just to show and be part of the expression to our leaders of the oligarchy that , 'you are not listening and you do not represent us, get that? I also managed to get two hours late afternooon's sleep .
The next day I watched some videos of the march on the internet posted on u-tube , Brian Haw, the man who is permanently camped outside parliament was the guest speaker that seemed to attract the most applause , his message was simple and a little blunt , almost naive ,peace not war , love etc , but many agreed and applauded . Seemed a little like a mascot of the left or the dissidents to me . A token allowed by the oligarchic system to demonstrate that big brother does love us all and cares and even allows limited protest outside its front door providing it does not get out of hand .
Well I hope after all this , that Iran is not attacked . Some may read this and think it's a naive notion because Iran may get stronger and stronger then turn on all of us and be able to destroy us all . I think that notion would be more naive and that an attack on Iran would be criminal. I may be wrong but time will tell .
Peace be with you .
I had been increasingly worried about the possible bombing of Iran . I have been getting a recurring feeling of 'deja vu' where despicable politicians from USA , Britain , Israel and their minions have repeatedly made noises about how the leader of Iran is so much like Adolf Hitler and that he plans to 'wipe Israel of the map ' and of course if that is part of his plan for Israel , imagine what he has in store for the rest of these poor and under prepared super powers ?
Hitler , 1939 was in charge of a military super power of his time , he did invade many countries and planned to dominate many others with an institutional policy of racism of the worst kind. But what these despicable politicians are saying and what is echoed by a bland and docile media is false , Iran has never in its modern history invaded any countries and neither did Iranian president , Ahmadinejad threaten to destroy Israel . Those who would seek various reputable or varied sources will realise that this is a fabrication similar to those used by Goebbels :' A lie is only a lie but if repeated enough times , becomes the truth ' . How ironic that the very same people that cry 'Hitler is coming ' are the same rascals that mimic Goebbels.
It is incredible ! I heard a top journalist on radio speaking to an American politician who was virtually advocating the possible air strikes on Iran repeating this mantra about Iran's leader wanting: 'To wipe Israel of the face of the map' and the journalist not challenginging the veracity of the statement. This is the lame media of the BBC world service , you can imagine what the traditional jingoistic right wing press and pro Zionist outlets have gone to town with .
So, amidst the distortion of the truth it is hard to single out exactly what is happening ,It would be wise to look for various sources and see their views. It becomes abundantly clear to me anyway that , Iran is no threat to Israel apart from maybe her military supplies to Hezbollah or other shi'ite factions in the region . And so what?; allies tend to help eachother . The US and Britain both stood by, did not call for an immediate cease fire whilst they watched children burn in Lebanon from the fire of an invading Israeli force. But not only that ,the scoundrels were supplying the highly equipped Israelis with more ammunition . That is the outrage.
So we seem to be being prepared to acquiesce as passive witnesses( albeit with carefully censored and selected visual information) to another example of American terrorism of the worst sort. At present there is a military build up in the middle east with American air craft carriers close by . Some independent journalists are saying that what the Americans want is to destabilise Iran so that it can disintegrate from being a unified ,sovereign state ,that they are encouraging rivalry amongst various ethnic groups in order to instigate a regime change and 'hey presto! ' oil , gas , military pathways etc are theirs .. But hang on , things are not that easy are they? look at Iraq ? . it's hard to believe , but although I may be deluded or reading the wrong reports , these criminals are planning again to do some bad things in the name of greed and generally to acquire wealth for the few rather than the many .
So I attended the 'peace march' . Nobody would come with me , nobody ,and I was wondering whether I should really go or not. but I did , I arrived by 12.00 at Hyde Park Corner. I felt lost and out of place being one of the very few loners their . I looked odd, not holding a placard or wearing a badge or distributing leaflets of my favourite cause. I ended up being herded into a line on a road within Hyde Park , very orderly and heading for Trafalgar Square .The crowd was ushered into a straight line of a width of at least 6 or seven people by the official stewards . It didn't look enormous to me but I could not estimate the size. I could not see the front. I waited standing , not talking to anyone , I wanted to be alone somehow in this crowd as I had come alone ,I wasn't in the mood of 'meeting wonderful people and making friends' but there was an implicit feeling that all present were friends and although I had pictured an event in my mind that could attract pickockets and other like minded scum , I was pleasantly surprised to see a genuine mix and match of all ages, classes, political persuasions and races all having some reason to be there in an atmosphere of friendliness and respectfulness.
Some had placards of 'Bush the world's greatest terrorist' others were definitely 'ban the bomb ' people of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament ' campaigning against the governments's recent decisison to renew the Nuclear submarine fleet known as Trident ,and various other causes .
In fact this variety did lack a specifically targeted common cause for a campaign and I guess that's what made it lack much collective passion and outrage to focus upon . However some youngsters were banging drums continuously to a 'Ba boom ba boom !' rhythm and were well coordinated , others were shouting into megaphones :'Come on everybody dance to this ; War what is it good for - nothing !' This song from the eighties being revived by a campaign supported by the renegade former 'new labour ' MP George Galloway .
I had been motivated by what I believe is a gradual process of public desensitisation by the government, right wing press and other hangers on ,in preparation for another major assault on a foreign country ;Iran .
I eventually found a placard with 'Do not attack Iran' and held this all the way to Trafalgar.
I waited a long time until the orderly mob started marching proper . We moved like a large snail . set into motion at about 1.00pm . I was getting inpatient by then but got to enjoy the various spectacles . Endless groups of inviduals desperately handing leaflets of their causes to who ever . I bought a copy of the 'Peace Times' for 50p and accepted leaflets for so many different political causes that it reached a fatigue level and I couldn't care less any more about 'jews against Zionism' , 'The Twin Tower Conspiracy ' the 'socialist Worker ' 'The Bolivar Revolution ' etc etc. I started refusing and saying ' Thanks ,I already have one' as they nodded in approval .
We continued to walk and after about what seemed like an hour but must have been 40 minutes ,I had just come level to Green park tube station . I could not believe it and thoguht to myself , well at this rate I won't be back in time for my afternoon
nap which I usually like to take at about 2 or 3 o'clock . But then I reasoned that this was a worth while cause and how selfish was I to compare my little nap to the real horrors we here to denounce. I passed 'Grosvenor House ' a big office block
where 34 years ago I started my first job as an apprentice telephone engineer ,the company had a meeting base at the basement of this building , how I had a flash back of arriving early one morning and getting a little too comfortable whilst waiting for the rest , had begun to doze; they never let me forget that , I eventually suffered the ignominious sacking after struggling for a year or so trying to be 'the apprentice ' ; Bastards"!. Such a long time ago I thought , what a young , confused boy I was, I needed understanding not mocking . A long time ago that was.
I left the unhappy memory behind and cruised along Park Lane or Piccadilly,whatever that road is called , I have walked past there so many times and thought to myself : this is were I belong , this is my home town , I was born in Nicosia but I don't have the same connection as I do here , I always feel a pang of excitement in my bones when I walk up the West End , where ever I have lived in London over the past forty years or so , that was not my place , not Burnt Oak , Manor House , Crouch Hill ,Edmonton , no the only constant was the love of travelling to the West End .
When I went to live in Cyprus in 1992 , It was the West End that I missed.
But this walk in the West End was different , I was the traffic , the road had been closed off for me to walk on instead of being used by the motorists . The cars had to wait for me and a few thousands of other faceless VIP's to carry on the march, get to the destination and then allow normal traffic right of way .
So amidst the thousands or tens of thousands of heads and shoulders , I looked up at familiar buildings , statues , restaurants , book shops etc, all from such a strange angle never before experienced , alongside the somemwhat eccentric jumble of activists made the whole view surreal . I was just staring at the buildings with loudspeakers blaring , drumbeats thumping , young girls' hips gyrating and me plodding along with a placard and mixed up thoughts of past present and future.
One thought whilst listening to a group in their late teens discussing the march and their anger againsts the government made me think, how slow I was again ,taking me forty nine years to get off my bum and join in a mass protest rather than staying at home and fuming .
By four o'clock or so we had reached Trafalgar Square , it was peaceful no bad incidents seen , no problem with police etc . We had made it . Placards were
discarded into piles on the floor as marchers watched the large video screen which projected the image of various speakers including George Galloway MP . A Spokesman for the 'Muslim Initiative' said many things about the misrepresentation of Muslims and how true Muslims will protest ligitimately etc. George spoke as usual in his rabble rousing manner , always worth a listen . He seems quite hated , many boo'd him as he spoke . there was a live link up with Bruce Kent, leader of CND who in my opinion made the best speech which in essence was:'think for yourselves ' don't just listen to the rubbish spoken around the corner in Whitehall etc.'
After I had listened to a few speakers , I did feel that the atmosphere was somewhat dead-beat and that the turn -out was a disappointment ,yet figures seem to be a matter of opinion in these marches , I would make a very crude guess at 10 thousand , but can't be sure .
I left , as I saw others trickling toward the Leicester Square Tube station .
This way I thought I could avoid a crush movement under ground . The trains were crowded, but I got back in good time with no complaints or major discomfort apart from exhaustion . When I returned home I actually thought it was worth it , just to show and be part of the expression to our leaders of the oligarchy that , 'you are not listening and you do not represent us, get that? I also managed to get two hours late afternooon's sleep .
The next day I watched some videos of the march on the internet posted on u-tube , Brian Haw, the man who is permanently camped outside parliament was the guest speaker that seemed to attract the most applause , his message was simple and a little blunt , almost naive ,peace not war , love etc , but many agreed and applauded . Seemed a little like a mascot of the left or the dissidents to me . A token allowed by the oligarchic system to demonstrate that big brother does love us all and cares and even allows limited protest outside its front door providing it does not get out of hand .
Well I hope after all this , that Iran is not attacked . Some may read this and think it's a naive notion because Iran may get stronger and stronger then turn on all of us and be able to destroy us all . I think that notion would be more naive and that an attack on Iran would be criminal. I may be wrong but time will tell .
Peace be with you .
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Pigs !
After this , I will no longer use that expression . Come to think of it we generally use such a term in a derogatory manner to describe one who is rude, insensitive , cruel or evil ; all very common and potent human attributes, not necessarily traits of the pig . It demonstrates how egocentric and psychotic our own human condition is .
How often have you seen or heard of a group of pigs , capturing , imnprisoning , torturing and executing another species for food ,clothing and other products and services which , in this age of technology , it could be argued, we could do without . Diogenes the great cynic philosopher used the phrase 'Thrice human ' for those he thought were lacking in any moral fibre or integrity . He got it right two and half thousand years ago .
How often have we seen pigs turn on their own species in large numbers and attempt to wipe millions of their own kind off the face of the earth ? I don't think they are a perfect species and I understand they can show aggression to eachother at times but to a miniscule degree compared with us smug humans .
I have been a life long lover of eating meat , amongst my favourites being a variety of pork dishes . However I have often had battles with my conscience every time I hear from animal rights activists that eating meat promotes and perpetuates untold cruelty throughout the world . I would think about it at times and then shove it to the back of my mind as I munched on a pork chop . It was too much of an invasion of my comfort zone to take action , even a little difference could be worth while. I even got close to working in a slaughter house when I went to live in my birth place , Cyprus in 1992. So much was my cowardice , that I knew deep down that if I took on the job offered to me in the abattoir , I would be so uncomfortable , seeing what went into providing my bacon , or pork kebab on the table for that matter, that I could of had to bring my meat eating days to a halt then and there . But I enjoyed it too much and refusal of the job allowed me to carry on without thinking. I continued like this for years, thinking about it at times but not making a decision . This year at the turn of the hour that brought in 2007 I was thinking again that I must do something as I have always admired those that choose not to eat animals .
So at the turn of the year returning home quite late ,I was hungry and demolished a tin of corned beef like a heroin addict .. Ahhhhhhhhhh,. Then I said ; tomorrow , I must and will do it , and so far, since that day , I have managed to keep away from eating mammals or birds , I feel quite proud of myself as I thought it would be impossible, still I have moments where I reminisce but over all I have found good substitutes for meet and still eat fish( that's another debate altogether) which I cannot enter into right now . And in my conscience I feel better and a little truer in my own self. I still can be accused of hypocrisy as I am wearing leather shoes and still eating meat of another sort but at least , that's several hundred pigs less for slaughter , and a little less hypocrisy .
Pigs are seen by some to be possibly the fourth most intelligent species after , humans, apes and sea mammals such as dolphins . Having had a pet dog for the first time in my life has made a difference I often pondered as I looked him in the eyes thinking how many millions of such eyes stare into the humans' eyes who do our dirty work for us in the factory farms. It is totally incongruent that we in the western culture deem cats and dogs as almost holy or sacred yet slaughter millions of their equals . This is exactly how we have been adjusted with little questioning .
Having stopped eating mammals and birds for almost two months , I felt a little more curious to search the internet about these animals . I was shocked by what I saw , for example a group of people in a third world country slaughtering a pig in the most gruesome , drawn out and agonising way ,leaving it to squeal and groan for minutes as they incompetently pinned it down and butchered it ..I had to stop viewing . I also saw another video , where what appeared to be some kind of 'celebrity ' chef showing, how he humanely and painstakingly reared two pigs all the way to the day he took them personally to the abattoir and watched them being slaughtered in a reputable establishment whose manager assured our 'celebrity' that the pigs 'did not feel a thing. ' , to be fair to our TV cook ,he did look emotionally involved and needed reassurance to believe what he saw.
The very strikingly surreal moments in this mini video were first , the filming of the last days of the pigs, as they were treated like pets in the chef's garden . The Tv cook was saying on their last day as he prepared to cart them to the abattoir that:'They normally run up to me to greet me in the mornings' they remained in their kennels, although it was drizzling lightly ,he said 'I don't think it's the rain , they must know something'. Thats the tragic side to it , that he felt they knew , however he was at the same time talking about the dishes and exciting recipes he was going to produce from them . The other bizarre moment was when the two carcasses had ceased twitching and had moved further down the production line , having seen them removed of all hair and been disembowelled , he spoke of various culinary delights as the camera drew close to the two features that distinguished these two strung up pieces of pork from their dead peers ; they still had name tags tied to them :Elizabeth and Harold .
Pigs !
How often have you seen or heard of a group of pigs , capturing , imnprisoning , torturing and executing another species for food ,clothing and other products and services which , in this age of technology , it could be argued, we could do without . Diogenes the great cynic philosopher used the phrase 'Thrice human ' for those he thought were lacking in any moral fibre or integrity . He got it right two and half thousand years ago .
How often have we seen pigs turn on their own species in large numbers and attempt to wipe millions of their own kind off the face of the earth ? I don't think they are a perfect species and I understand they can show aggression to eachother at times but to a miniscule degree compared with us smug humans .
I have been a life long lover of eating meat , amongst my favourites being a variety of pork dishes . However I have often had battles with my conscience every time I hear from animal rights activists that eating meat promotes and perpetuates untold cruelty throughout the world . I would think about it at times and then shove it to the back of my mind as I munched on a pork chop . It was too much of an invasion of my comfort zone to take action , even a little difference could be worth while. I even got close to working in a slaughter house when I went to live in my birth place , Cyprus in 1992. So much was my cowardice , that I knew deep down that if I took on the job offered to me in the abattoir , I would be so uncomfortable , seeing what went into providing my bacon , or pork kebab on the table for that matter, that I could of had to bring my meat eating days to a halt then and there . But I enjoyed it too much and refusal of the job allowed me to carry on without thinking. I continued like this for years, thinking about it at times but not making a decision . This year at the turn of the hour that brought in 2007 I was thinking again that I must do something as I have always admired those that choose not to eat animals .
So at the turn of the year returning home quite late ,I was hungry and demolished a tin of corned beef like a heroin addict .. Ahhhhhhhhhh,. Then I said ; tomorrow , I must and will do it , and so far, since that day , I have managed to keep away from eating mammals or birds , I feel quite proud of myself as I thought it would be impossible, still I have moments where I reminisce but over all I have found good substitutes for meet and still eat fish( that's another debate altogether) which I cannot enter into right now . And in my conscience I feel better and a little truer in my own self. I still can be accused of hypocrisy as I am wearing leather shoes and still eating meat of another sort but at least , that's several hundred pigs less for slaughter , and a little less hypocrisy .
Pigs are seen by some to be possibly the fourth most intelligent species after , humans, apes and sea mammals such as dolphins . Having had a pet dog for the first time in my life has made a difference I often pondered as I looked him in the eyes thinking how many millions of such eyes stare into the humans' eyes who do our dirty work for us in the factory farms. It is totally incongruent that we in the western culture deem cats and dogs as almost holy or sacred yet slaughter millions of their equals . This is exactly how we have been adjusted with little questioning .
Having stopped eating mammals and birds for almost two months , I felt a little more curious to search the internet about these animals . I was shocked by what I saw , for example a group of people in a third world country slaughtering a pig in the most gruesome , drawn out and agonising way ,leaving it to squeal and groan for minutes as they incompetently pinned it down and butchered it ..I had to stop viewing . I also saw another video , where what appeared to be some kind of 'celebrity ' chef showing, how he humanely and painstakingly reared two pigs all the way to the day he took them personally to the abattoir and watched them being slaughtered in a reputable establishment whose manager assured our 'celebrity' that the pigs 'did not feel a thing. ' , to be fair to our TV cook ,he did look emotionally involved and needed reassurance to believe what he saw.
The very strikingly surreal moments in this mini video were first , the filming of the last days of the pigs, as they were treated like pets in the chef's garden . The Tv cook was saying on their last day as he prepared to cart them to the abattoir that:'They normally run up to me to greet me in the mornings' they remained in their kennels, although it was drizzling lightly ,he said 'I don't think it's the rain , they must know something'. Thats the tragic side to it , that he felt they knew , however he was at the same time talking about the dishes and exciting recipes he was going to produce from them . The other bizarre moment was when the two carcasses had ceased twitching and had moved further down the production line , having seen them removed of all hair and been disembowelled , he spoke of various culinary delights as the camera drew close to the two features that distinguished these two strung up pieces of pork from their dead peers ; they still had name tags tied to them :Elizabeth and Harold .
Pigs !
Sunday, February 04, 2007
'I am not a Racist'
'I am not a racist ' This phrase is often heard nowadays , normally as an introduction to making some comment which may involve judgedment or criticism of another racial, cultural or religious group .
It was often repeated in the recent debacle on the so called British Channel four reality show of 'Celebrity big Brother ' when a young lady who has by the way become a 'celebrity' solely by appearing on a previous series of this show, Jade Goody , now a household name was accused of making racial remarks against a fellow contestant , Shilpa who apparently is a super star in India's film industry . Now I didn't watch the show but that wasn't even necessary ,for all the media and even the serious radio stations and newspapers had the antics of these characters as their main news story,it was difficult to avoid.As if not to broadcast the adventures of these 'celebrities ' the news station or newspapers might lose their readership or viewers .
So this Jade person together with another female contestant did some bullying and in the process made racial comments against Shilpa. I believe on one occasion she referred to the Indian actress as' Shilpa Pappadum'.
The radio stations and newspapers went to town and Jade was accused of racism even by the show's presenters , to which she bitterly protested :'I ain't a racist!' and cried as she said this , she stated that she 'takes people as they are '.
So what is racism ? , I would like to explore . I would think it is on an individual basis the belief that another race is inferior to one's own or of lesser intelligence or moral worth, or something like that . On a collective level I would say it is the outright opression or attempt to dominate , persecute or wipe out another race .
Now most people can be accused of racism if we take the first definition ,suppose I was to say I don't like the Swiss , does that make me a racist ? I guess so. I state that I don't like the Swiss because of they way they talk and their eating habits disgust me . Is this not my right regardless of government legislation. Is this not more a xenophobia , of which I believe is the natural human condition ? Most of us if honest find ourselves surrounded by a group of people speaking an unintelligible language amongst themselves , eating strange food and behaving in a manner which we are unfamiliar with would feel a little strange and possibly phobic .This does not mean that I would like to arrange a mass extermination of the Swiss people? Of course not ,it would probably mean I am a little ignorant of Swiss people and somewhat bigoted . If I got to know a Swiss person and became great friends with that person I would learn about his or her language and customs and might even become lover of the Swiss . On the other hand I could even get married to a Swiss person and still not really like the Swiss way of life or mentality although I would no longer be ignorant but somewhat bigoted or opinionated . So this type of racism although very widespread could be considered innocuous .
On the other hand supposing I had come accross millions of Swiss that had just immmigrated to this country looking for work and settlement . I might see them as a group that presents a threat of taking my employment opportunities and using 'My
Country's ' resources . And although I am an immigrant myself having been on the receiving end of this view myself , it could still be a possibility . Now if my xenophobia developed to such a degree that I joined a nationalist party that is dedicated to getting rid of these people in a violent manner , then what would follow if this party got into power and started to literally wage war on the Swiss immigrants would be real racism , a very dangerous thing .
So using the example of the Swiss seems quite sanitised as they as a group are quite affluent in the world and if anything are not known as immigrant workers or as an indigenous group that has been invaded. If we make the same comments about another race for example Australian Aborigonese , Jews, Indigenous Americans or Afro Carribbeans then it becmes much more emotionally loaed , sensitive , complex and explosive .This is because these people in history have been persecuted with real racism and are still feeling its consequences in today's generations .
Now lets come back to our original example with the two local white English girls making some derogatory comments , targeted at the Indian contestant's race . Well if race was used in the bullying process , this we could call 'type one racism ', the type that is near enough impossible to erradicate . It is the type of agression that would have been targeted at a ginger haired person or obese person , just down right cruelty targeting the victim's personal attributes whatever they may be . The 'type two racism' of course is the ugly face of racism. It has not only taken its place throughout human history and in the past few centuries but also continues to this day .Take the plight of the Palestinian people , a group occcupied in their own land , living with the utmost humiliation , degradation and under a racist regime imposed by the occupying state of Israel , which seems , with the support of the powerful western imperial nations to dominate every aspect of these peoples' lives crushing any organised military resistance with maximum force and devastation . This is racism , And I really wonder if this is our natural human condition given similar circumstances .
Yet even under this aggressive, destructive and institutional racism of the above example and many others throughout the world there is still a trace of hope as many Israeli citizens see the reality of this madness and struggle to influence their leaders' and their fanatical patrons to change some of their policies .And many Palestinians would want to make a settlement without the use of indescriminate violence .Some Israeli soldiers refuse to serve in the army for this reason alone . The killing that goes on between the two groups of this conflict creates fear and hatred .There is little choice for the Israeli or Palestinian , involved in this conflict to say 'I'm not a racist' ,Whatever an individual believes in this situation , it is 'us or them' , people are dying around them , they have lost relatives and friends, they live in fear of their lives taken by a stranger. So in this example when a group is threatened by another there is fear and suspicion of the other group, this could develop into denying the weaker group civil rights , the rest is the history of mankind; war , suppression ,violent resistance and revolution .
So when I hear people state 'I ain't a racist' , it means nothing. This is a cliche with the notion that:'There are good and bad in every race ', is so pointless , and begs the question . Of course there are good and bad , or likeable and less likeable people of all races but this has no bearing on what these good and bad people would do when the battle lines are drawn and often the battle lines are drawn between race , religion , region or political affiliation , regardless of the personality traits of individual members of either group.
So racism then is very difficult to define , it is true that at its ugliest it is when one group of people persecutes and attempts to eliminate another , on its most harmless it could be a person not wanting his daughter to marry a person of a different race . The one is abhorrent the other could be seen as bigotry or even by some as a freedom of choice and right of opinion . The danger is when the latter type escalates into the former and when people develop the belief that one group is inherently inferior to their own and that it is justifiable to exploit them , peresecute them and ulimately wipe them out . This is truly dangerous and could be the reason that the political correct legislators of the western quasi democracies
make even the utterance of a comment as mild as Jade's unacceptable . The 'thought police' having from their own point of view , good intentions , have taken away from us the freedom to think the unthinkable ; for whatever is good or bad about us we will ultimately have bad thoughts about people , sometimes even about their race without paradoxically wanting to exterminate them or consider them inferior, But Alas the Orwellian thought police of the political authorities have terrorised us to such a degree that when someone like the rich fool Jade says 'I ain't a racist ' you can see the look of fear on her as if to be branded as such ,she is signing a contract to being lynched.
So racism is a complex subject and should in its most dangerous form be unacceptable but to define it and to erradicate it is difficult as the cntradictions above show . Sadly it is not going away, for as our serious news stations are debating whether Jade is a racist or not and how terrible racism is , our good leader is sending more troops to Afghanistan and is maintaining others who in Iraq are risking their own lives to occupy a nation that was no threat to us : An aggressive, illegal war waged on citizens of another country ;That's racism , some must be accountable who are they ?
It was often repeated in the recent debacle on the so called British Channel four reality show of 'Celebrity big Brother ' when a young lady who has by the way become a 'celebrity' solely by appearing on a previous series of this show, Jade Goody , now a household name was accused of making racial remarks against a fellow contestant , Shilpa who apparently is a super star in India's film industry . Now I didn't watch the show but that wasn't even necessary ,for all the media and even the serious radio stations and newspapers had the antics of these characters as their main news story,it was difficult to avoid.As if not to broadcast the adventures of these 'celebrities ' the news station or newspapers might lose their readership or viewers .
So this Jade person together with another female contestant did some bullying and in the process made racial comments against Shilpa. I believe on one occasion she referred to the Indian actress as' Shilpa Pappadum'.
The radio stations and newspapers went to town and Jade was accused of racism even by the show's presenters , to which she bitterly protested :'I ain't a racist!' and cried as she said this , she stated that she 'takes people as they are '.
So what is racism ? , I would like to explore . I would think it is on an individual basis the belief that another race is inferior to one's own or of lesser intelligence or moral worth, or something like that . On a collective level I would say it is the outright opression or attempt to dominate , persecute or wipe out another race .
Now most people can be accused of racism if we take the first definition ,suppose I was to say I don't like the Swiss , does that make me a racist ? I guess so. I state that I don't like the Swiss because of they way they talk and their eating habits disgust me . Is this not my right regardless of government legislation. Is this not more a xenophobia , of which I believe is the natural human condition ? Most of us if honest find ourselves surrounded by a group of people speaking an unintelligible language amongst themselves , eating strange food and behaving in a manner which we are unfamiliar with would feel a little strange and possibly phobic .This does not mean that I would like to arrange a mass extermination of the Swiss people? Of course not ,it would probably mean I am a little ignorant of Swiss people and somewhat bigoted . If I got to know a Swiss person and became great friends with that person I would learn about his or her language and customs and might even become lover of the Swiss . On the other hand I could even get married to a Swiss person and still not really like the Swiss way of life or mentality although I would no longer be ignorant but somewhat bigoted or opinionated . So this type of racism although very widespread could be considered innocuous .
On the other hand supposing I had come accross millions of Swiss that had just immmigrated to this country looking for work and settlement . I might see them as a group that presents a threat of taking my employment opportunities and using 'My
Country's ' resources . And although I am an immigrant myself having been on the receiving end of this view myself , it could still be a possibility . Now if my xenophobia developed to such a degree that I joined a nationalist party that is dedicated to getting rid of these people in a violent manner , then what would follow if this party got into power and started to literally wage war on the Swiss immigrants would be real racism , a very dangerous thing .
So using the example of the Swiss seems quite sanitised as they as a group are quite affluent in the world and if anything are not known as immigrant workers or as an indigenous group that has been invaded. If we make the same comments about another race for example Australian Aborigonese , Jews, Indigenous Americans or Afro Carribbeans then it becmes much more emotionally loaed , sensitive , complex and explosive .This is because these people in history have been persecuted with real racism and are still feeling its consequences in today's generations .
Now lets come back to our original example with the two local white English girls making some derogatory comments , targeted at the Indian contestant's race . Well if race was used in the bullying process , this we could call 'type one racism ', the type that is near enough impossible to erradicate . It is the type of agression that would have been targeted at a ginger haired person or obese person , just down right cruelty targeting the victim's personal attributes whatever they may be . The 'type two racism' of course is the ugly face of racism. It has not only taken its place throughout human history and in the past few centuries but also continues to this day .Take the plight of the Palestinian people , a group occcupied in their own land , living with the utmost humiliation , degradation and under a racist regime imposed by the occupying state of Israel , which seems , with the support of the powerful western imperial nations to dominate every aspect of these peoples' lives crushing any organised military resistance with maximum force and devastation . This is racism , And I really wonder if this is our natural human condition given similar circumstances .
Yet even under this aggressive, destructive and institutional racism of the above example and many others throughout the world there is still a trace of hope as many Israeli citizens see the reality of this madness and struggle to influence their leaders' and their fanatical patrons to change some of their policies .And many Palestinians would want to make a settlement without the use of indescriminate violence .Some Israeli soldiers refuse to serve in the army for this reason alone . The killing that goes on between the two groups of this conflict creates fear and hatred .There is little choice for the Israeli or Palestinian , involved in this conflict to say 'I'm not a racist' ,Whatever an individual believes in this situation , it is 'us or them' , people are dying around them , they have lost relatives and friends, they live in fear of their lives taken by a stranger. So in this example when a group is threatened by another there is fear and suspicion of the other group, this could develop into denying the weaker group civil rights , the rest is the history of mankind; war , suppression ,violent resistance and revolution .
So when I hear people state 'I ain't a racist' , it means nothing. This is a cliche with the notion that:'There are good and bad in every race ', is so pointless , and begs the question . Of course there are good and bad , or likeable and less likeable people of all races but this has no bearing on what these good and bad people would do when the battle lines are drawn and often the battle lines are drawn between race , religion , region or political affiliation , regardless of the personality traits of individual members of either group.
So racism then is very difficult to define , it is true that at its ugliest it is when one group of people persecutes and attempts to eliminate another , on its most harmless it could be a person not wanting his daughter to marry a person of a different race . The one is abhorrent the other could be seen as bigotry or even by some as a freedom of choice and right of opinion . The danger is when the latter type escalates into the former and when people develop the belief that one group is inherently inferior to their own and that it is justifiable to exploit them , peresecute them and ulimately wipe them out . This is truly dangerous and could be the reason that the political correct legislators of the western quasi democracies
make even the utterance of a comment as mild as Jade's unacceptable . The 'thought police' having from their own point of view , good intentions , have taken away from us the freedom to think the unthinkable ; for whatever is good or bad about us we will ultimately have bad thoughts about people , sometimes even about their race without paradoxically wanting to exterminate them or consider them inferior, But Alas the Orwellian thought police of the political authorities have terrorised us to such a degree that when someone like the rich fool Jade says 'I ain't a racist ' you can see the look of fear on her as if to be branded as such ,she is signing a contract to being lynched.
So racism is a complex subject and should in its most dangerous form be unacceptable but to define it and to erradicate it is difficult as the cntradictions above show . Sadly it is not going away, for as our serious news stations are debating whether Jade is a racist or not and how terrible racism is , our good leader is sending more troops to Afghanistan and is maintaining others who in Iraq are risking their own lives to occupy a nation that was no threat to us : An aggressive, illegal war waged on citizens of another country ;That's racism , some must be accountable who are they ?
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Andrew Adams is Innocent!
Andrew Adams ,36 , was freed from jail yesterday after spending 15 years incarcerated for the murder of Jack Royal in 1990 . Adams was 23 years old and Royal 58 at the time.
After 15 years of imprisonment Adam's conviction for murder was quashed by Lord Justice Gage , Mr Justice Silber and Mr Justice Treacy . They ruled that 'criticisms and failures ' relating to the handling of Adams' defence and specially pre-trial had rendered the verdict unsafe. The defence at the time failed to prepare their case properly and did not give the jury the opportunity to hear important evidence about Kevin Thompson the main prosecution witness , which would have undermined the cae for the prosecution .
So Adams is free, and who had heard of him up until now ?, I certainly haven't. I guess the case must have been very high profile at the time , at least there was a good coverage on his release.
Cases like this can be very alarming and can put the abolition of the death penalty in good light .
Now Adams, according to the report by Karen Mcveigh in today's paragon of independent reporting and truth ,and possibly the best of a bad bunch of propaganda sheets The Guardian , was originally found guilty of killing Jack Royal in a 'gangland style shooting ' .The murder was said to have been a revenge attack for the death of David Thompson (No relation of Kevin Thompson) who had been fatally attacked by Royal ,the 58 year old retired science teacher, in a street fight in 1987 . It was alleged that Adams and John Hands (also acquitted of the same crime ) , were persuaded by Catherine Thompson , the dad man's sister to murder Mr Royal . She was also acquitted of soliciting murder. This travesty of justice followed a failed attempt to prosecute a Mr Walter Hepple for the murder of Mr Royal . The other irony to this case is that Mr Royal himself had been acquitted of murdering Mr Thompson ( a former business partener of his son) , Royal had been cleared of murder, and after two trials it was ruled that he acted in self defence .
It seems to get complicated . An innocent man though, adheres to one story however ridiculous or ignored , The truth sticks and is one whereas cunning alibis and lies are many and constantly changing. Good luick to Adams , I hope he gets the conpensation that he deserves. His only regret was that his mother was not there to witness this moment , as she died whilst he was still in prison.
Adams reported that he had mixed emotions and that he had to wait 15 years for the result he should have had in the first place. he thanked his current legal team and also expressed sympathy for the family of the murdered man Mr Royal as the killer is still at large.
The Chief Superintendent of Northumbria Polce ,Steve Bolam, refused to comment as he stated he had not yet had the opportunity to study the findings.
It is quite shocking how in a country that prides itself on its standards of justice , that this could happen . But when corruption sets in at any level of the process it is not difficult to see how one can be swept away , have an ufair trial and suffer the ignominity of languishing in jail for years for a crime one did not commit There are many ways this has happened especially in cases that are politically motivated . Remember the cases of suspected IRA members being falsely imprisoned . It was the Bradford , Guildford and if I remember clearly Birmingham groups of indivisuals locked up after falsified evidence , confessions taken after beatings by the police etc. SoundS like a cAse out of the annals of Amnesty international . But truly there are many ways a false conviction can be successfully upheld .Much depends on the competence of the defence or prosecution rather than the integrity of the jury .
justice has not been done,because nothing can compensate for those 15 years .Lets say that injustice has been slightly thwarted and the man has not been left forgotten like many others we have not heard of in this country and possibly hundreds of thounsands in other countries that languish in prisons within regimes that do not even pretend to value true justice , democracy or human rights .
After 15 years of imprisonment Adam's conviction for murder was quashed by Lord Justice Gage , Mr Justice Silber and Mr Justice Treacy . They ruled that 'criticisms and failures ' relating to the handling of Adams' defence and specially pre-trial had rendered the verdict unsafe. The defence at the time failed to prepare their case properly and did not give the jury the opportunity to hear important evidence about Kevin Thompson the main prosecution witness , which would have undermined the cae for the prosecution .
So Adams is free, and who had heard of him up until now ?, I certainly haven't. I guess the case must have been very high profile at the time , at least there was a good coverage on his release.
Cases like this can be very alarming and can put the abolition of the death penalty in good light .
Now Adams, according to the report by Karen Mcveigh in today's paragon of independent reporting and truth ,and possibly the best of a bad bunch of propaganda sheets The Guardian , was originally found guilty of killing Jack Royal in a 'gangland style shooting ' .The murder was said to have been a revenge attack for the death of David Thompson (No relation of Kevin Thompson) who had been fatally attacked by Royal ,the 58 year old retired science teacher, in a street fight in 1987 . It was alleged that Adams and John Hands (also acquitted of the same crime ) , were persuaded by Catherine Thompson , the dad man's sister to murder Mr Royal . She was also acquitted of soliciting murder. This travesty of justice followed a failed attempt to prosecute a Mr Walter Hepple for the murder of Mr Royal . The other irony to this case is that Mr Royal himself had been acquitted of murdering Mr Thompson ( a former business partener of his son) , Royal had been cleared of murder, and after two trials it was ruled that he acted in self defence .
It seems to get complicated . An innocent man though, adheres to one story however ridiculous or ignored , The truth sticks and is one whereas cunning alibis and lies are many and constantly changing. Good luick to Adams , I hope he gets the conpensation that he deserves. His only regret was that his mother was not there to witness this moment , as she died whilst he was still in prison.
Adams reported that he had mixed emotions and that he had to wait 15 years for the result he should have had in the first place. he thanked his current legal team and also expressed sympathy for the family of the murdered man Mr Royal as the killer is still at large.
The Chief Superintendent of Northumbria Polce ,Steve Bolam, refused to comment as he stated he had not yet had the opportunity to study the findings.
It is quite shocking how in a country that prides itself on its standards of justice , that this could happen . But when corruption sets in at any level of the process it is not difficult to see how one can be swept away , have an ufair trial and suffer the ignominity of languishing in jail for years for a crime one did not commit There are many ways this has happened especially in cases that are politically motivated . Remember the cases of suspected IRA members being falsely imprisoned . It was the Bradford , Guildford and if I remember clearly Birmingham groups of indivisuals locked up after falsified evidence , confessions taken after beatings by the police etc. SoundS like a cAse out of the annals of Amnesty international . But truly there are many ways a false conviction can be successfully upheld .Much depends on the competence of the defence or prosecution rather than the integrity of the jury .
justice has not been done,because nothing can compensate for those 15 years .Lets say that injustice has been slightly thwarted and the man has not been left forgotten like many others we have not heard of in this country and possibly hundreds of thounsands in other countries that languish in prisons within regimes that do not even pretend to value true justice , democracy or human rights .
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Irrepressible.info
A Happy New Year to all our readers!
.
The Irrepressible.info campaign continues to be hosted by
'The Meaninglessness of Life'
Also try our sister blogs:
'Pellas: The Incomplete works'
'Gallery Seventy Five '
and
'Me and Deo '
You will not be disappointed .A few people have visited after a promotinal campaign but not one comment!
It's good to have freedom of speech and privacy.
May Zeus be with you .
The Editor .
.
The Irrepressible.info campaign continues to be hosted by
'The Meaninglessness of Life'
Also try our sister blogs:
'Pellas: The Incomplete works'
'Gallery Seventy Five '
and
'Me and Deo '
You will not be disappointed .A few people have visited after a promotinal campaign but not one comment!
It's good to have freedom of speech and privacy.
May Zeus be with you .
The Editor .
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
The Death Of Saddam Hussein
Well it eventually happened , the so called government of Iraq , after a 'trial' decided to sentence Saddam Hussein , the ex tyrant of Iraq, to death for his guilt of crimes against humanity with regard to events that took place after a failed assassination attempt on him in Dujail in 1982.Specific charges included the murder of 148 people, torture of women and children and the illegal arrest of 399 others .
On November 5, 2006, Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging. On December 26, Saddam's appeal was rejected and the death sentence upheld. No further appeals were taken and Saddam was ordered to be executed within 30 days of that date. The date and place of the execution was secret until the sentence was carried out on the 30th December .
It was a globally public execution . We were bombarded with footage on the mainstream tv channels of Saddam Hussein having the noose placed around his neck by masked men . These images were repeatedly broadcast with no further scenes but that of the noose being placed around his neck . After the execution took place , footage from mobile phone video cameras was 'leaked' or released on the internet .This showed his executioners taunting him and the trap door opening , and eventually his body laid flat . I let morbid curiousity get the better of me and though I have never viewed anything like this before over the internet , found it very distasteful. The irony for his enemies though was that however much of an evil ruthless dictator the man was, he did appear to face his final moments with what many would hate to admit was dignity and courage .
So the Iraqi hand-puppet show of a democracy apparently carried out the whole farce , (not the USA military of course ). Yet the media tools of the establishment although pedalling this myth as if it were true , in the same breath kept on repeating that Saddam Hussein was 'handed over ' to the Iraqi goverment for execution . What was the U.S. military doing 'holding'him and doing just about everything else to him up to now?
So he is now dead , after a very dodgy trial to say the least. Now what many people with some common sense are asking themselves is why was the man put to death so quickly and why was the main charge that warranted the speedy death penalty , with respect to the victims, a relatively minor crime compared to the bombing of Halabjah and gassing of 5,000 Kurdish villagers of i988? .
Why wasn't he tried for this major mass murder ? Could it be because the American , British and many other governments would have been seen to be complicit in these crimes by encouraging , arming and generally doing business with him for their own interests against the bogey man of the time , Iran ?
.
Well it looks very much like it to me. Imagine Saddam being asked by a neutral judge (if that were possible)to testify in detail about these crimes and why he perpertrated them , and with whose help ? Of course it would be very embarrassing eventhough the major criminals ; his paymasters would still not have any shame whatsoever. They are a total disgrace and if they were to go to the gallows themselves for what crimes they are responsible for , I doubt if they would take it in the neck as bravely as Saddam did .
Does not this show to the world if anything that killing and state execution is barbaric full stop?
Surely it would have been more appropriate and civilised to maintain this criminal alive in a prison for the rest of his days? I wonder whether the implications of complicity not withstanding , that this is what America and and its British subsidiary really wanted ? For now the anger is raging thoughout many quarters of the Arabic speaking world and not necessarily because they are supporters of Hussein. There is a bigger principle here and it is to do with the demonstration and abuse of an oligarchic power that knows no rule of law outside its own agenda.
What unfolds next in Iraq is anybody's guess , the 'Crusaders' of peace justice and democracy have their attention on Iran at the moment. Regardless of the immense amount of suffering they have caused in Iraq , the scoundrels are beginning other plans and are gradually starting to dress them up with the same clothing via various sound bytes and mantras ,repeatedly chanted by their media , just like the clothes they wore last time!
A public demonstration is being arranged against these warlike intentions sometime in London this February . I never go to demonstrations like this , but due to the extent that our oligarchy has gone to in not listening to its subjects , I am
seriously considering to make an appearance.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Goodbye Mike and Manos
Goodbye to Mike Dickin the Talk Sport Radio presenter . I was shocked to hear that he died . I heard this today. He was involved in a six car pile- up yesterday and it
was reported that he died on his way to hospital in a helicopter.
What a shock . He was part of my life style.
Uncle Manos was buried yesterday .. I did't attend the funeral . He died about two weeks ago whilst on holiday in Egypt,his birth place. Manos was found dead in a hotel bath tub., no explanation, and an autopsy was not carried out by the Egyptian authorities . Manos was about seventy seven , the same age as my father Costas would have been had he not died five years ago .
I did not have a special relationship with uncle Manos . I guess he had bad relationships with most people: blood relatives or otherwise. I remember Dad didn't like him much . He was divorced many many years ago and remained quite bitter and depressed . Often appearing at family parties late and hungry. He lived a lonely life and what struck me was that he seems to have died a lonely death. May he rest in peace.
I have to admit Mike Dickin was a bigger loss to me . I used to look forward to listening to his show on Friday and Saturday nights, and when it was time for bed I would put my ear plug on and listen to his angry , passionate and entertaining reactions to the meaninglessness of the experiences he and listeners recited as well as the absurdities of a regime imposed by the elected government ,both
central and local branches alike.
He used to analyse the behaviour of the mini dictatorships known as local councils . How they delighted in taking people's money for parking vehicles against their rules or other even more bizarre and trivial offences. He would invite guests on the show who would be expert in how to take on the wrath of these mini despots and not give in to their intimidating tactics. He was a champion in this field of standing up to the nasty behaviour of jobsworth government employees.
When it came to political ,topical or more philosophical issues he debated excellently coming accross with a balanced view; neither too far to the left or right of the political spectrum . What I guess I admired was his cynicism or should I say realism. About politicians and their like . He also had a love of straight forward decency and expressed the anger and frustration shared by millions of listeners about the sheer stupidity of how the law and its minions affect our everyday lives .
He was not blinded by manipulative nationalism and although a proud Englishman shunned the values of being over patriotic to the point of allowing one'self to
become bigoted.Neither did he fear to challenge the exaggerated political correctness of the day and confronted callers about their own perceptions of their
religious , racial or political identity.
He was an unashamed , self confessed outright atheist defying the self righteous who claimed the moral high ground purely because they proffesed a 'faith'.
I did not know him personally but over the years he revealed quite modestly a lot about himself . He was a family man , loved Cornwall and had a life of varied achievements . I hear he was a musician , sportsman aswell as knowledgeable on all aspects of motoring . He seems to have travelled to most parts of the world and in conversation would occasionally mention as an aside ,within an appropriate context,his acquaintance with all sorts of interesting people , political demagogues as well as so-called celebrities . And he wasn't afraid to broadcast publically if he thought a particular character, however 'important ' or 'famous', was a 'pratt'.
It's a great loss. I tried to express my condolences to his family via talk sport e-mail as the station has opened a condolence book in which admirers were able to write their comments. Unfortunately it seems to be jammed . I have given up with that but felt drawn to write in this blog instead . It must be a shock for his family , his children are quite young although he was in his sixties according to BBC reporting .
It is a real loss to his close family , but also to his wider family many who like myself invited him in into their homes over the weekend .
Good bye to both . Uncle Manos who seemed quite unhappy with life. I hope he is no longer unhappy.
And Mike , seemed ,although to be angry about many things in this life , somehow knew how to get some kicks. I hope that if he was wrong about the existence of God , that he is treated with the utmost respect by all the immortals of Hades. He would be as good a catch for them as he was a bad loss to the living .
His most used catch phrase was 'My health is not in question '.And that is ironically so true now.
Goodbye
was reported that he died on his way to hospital in a helicopter.
What a shock . He was part of my life style.
Uncle Manos was buried yesterday .. I did't attend the funeral . He died about two weeks ago whilst on holiday in Egypt,his birth place. Manos was found dead in a hotel bath tub., no explanation, and an autopsy was not carried out by the Egyptian authorities . Manos was about seventy seven , the same age as my father Costas would have been had he not died five years ago .
I did not have a special relationship with uncle Manos . I guess he had bad relationships with most people: blood relatives or otherwise. I remember Dad didn't like him much . He was divorced many many years ago and remained quite bitter and depressed . Often appearing at family parties late and hungry. He lived a lonely life and what struck me was that he seems to have died a lonely death. May he rest in peace.
I have to admit Mike Dickin was a bigger loss to me . I used to look forward to listening to his show on Friday and Saturday nights, and when it was time for bed I would put my ear plug on and listen to his angry , passionate and entertaining reactions to the meaninglessness of the experiences he and listeners recited as well as the absurdities of a regime imposed by the elected government ,both
central and local branches alike.
He used to analyse the behaviour of the mini dictatorships known as local councils . How they delighted in taking people's money for parking vehicles against their rules or other even more bizarre and trivial offences. He would invite guests on the show who would be expert in how to take on the wrath of these mini despots and not give in to their intimidating tactics. He was a champion in this field of standing up to the nasty behaviour of jobsworth government employees.
When it came to political ,topical or more philosophical issues he debated excellently coming accross with a balanced view; neither too far to the left or right of the political spectrum . What I guess I admired was his cynicism or should I say realism. About politicians and their like . He also had a love of straight forward decency and expressed the anger and frustration shared by millions of listeners about the sheer stupidity of how the law and its minions affect our everyday lives .
He was not blinded by manipulative nationalism and although a proud Englishman shunned the values of being over patriotic to the point of allowing one'self to
become bigoted.Neither did he fear to challenge the exaggerated political correctness of the day and confronted callers about their own perceptions of their
religious , racial or political identity.
He was an unashamed , self confessed outright atheist defying the self righteous who claimed the moral high ground purely because they proffesed a 'faith'.
I did not know him personally but over the years he revealed quite modestly a lot about himself . He was a family man , loved Cornwall and had a life of varied achievements . I hear he was a musician , sportsman aswell as knowledgeable on all aspects of motoring . He seems to have travelled to most parts of the world and in conversation would occasionally mention as an aside ,within an appropriate context,his acquaintance with all sorts of interesting people , political demagogues as well as so-called celebrities . And he wasn't afraid to broadcast publically if he thought a particular character, however 'important ' or 'famous', was a 'pratt'.
It's a great loss. I tried to express my condolences to his family via talk sport e-mail as the station has opened a condolence book in which admirers were able to write their comments. Unfortunately it seems to be jammed . I have given up with that but felt drawn to write in this blog instead . It must be a shock for his family , his children are quite young although he was in his sixties according to BBC reporting .
It is a real loss to his close family , but also to his wider family many who like myself invited him in into their homes over the weekend .
Good bye to both . Uncle Manos who seemed quite unhappy with life. I hope he is no longer unhappy.
And Mike , seemed ,although to be angry about many things in this life , somehow knew how to get some kicks. I hope that if he was wrong about the existence of God , that he is treated with the utmost respect by all the immortals of Hades. He would be as good a catch for them as he was a bad loss to the living .
His most used catch phrase was 'My health is not in question '.And that is ironically so true now.
Goodbye
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Promoting the Brand
In the beginning it is meaningless: Totally bewildering , you have seen this on the expression of a very young child, new to the world . You don't even comprehend a thing and go on strenuously learning by dropping things out of the pram or tasting things that shouldn't be eaten.....Years pass ... you learn and then you begin to question things and get to the heart of examining this existence. Still no meaning and of course you can then like many before you: conform by borrowing, stealing or even inventing something meaningful about your life : It helps. Buying some 'meaning' off the shelf, accepting ideas of others who purport to know the enigma of being : An answer you were striving for . You can carry on like this for a long time until the meaninglessness returns , looms and reveals itself and leaves more mystery . Eventually life comes to its end , a glimmer of revelation the opportunity for you to make some sense of all this meaninglessness and see what it was all about :Alas! you will not be and therefore not able to acknowledge whether your life had any meaning at all , let alone conclude that there was any meaninglessness either .
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Mr Blaiunder ...........blunder ?
Breaking News
Mr Blair was, I am told by news programmes over the radio , interviewed by David Frost .The Interview was for Al Jazeera news station.That station that the U.S bombed during the Iraq invasion because it was squeeling to loudly : freedom of speech ?
Anyhow the old fossil Frost (About time they replaced him , aeons ago when I was a still a child and he was already an established TV presenting mogul ),suggested to Blair that the war in Iraq had..........'So far been pretty much of a disaster '. Mr Blair responded thus :'It has . But you see,what I say to people is :"Why is it difficult in Iraq?", It's not difficult in some accident in planning ,it's difficult because there's a deliberate strategy - Al Qaida with Sunni insurgents on the one hand, Iranian backed-elements with Shia militias on the other - to create a situation in which the will of the majority for peace is displaced by the will of the minority for war '
Please read his reply analyse every statement , think about what was going on in Iraq then and what is going on now , what Blair said the war was about then, and what he is saying now and what is actually happening now, then draw a conclusion about the facts and the amazing man himself ....has he conceded or has he got a little mixed up , dazzled by the shine of the journalistic , avant garde fossil?
Or merely just not bothered any more as its close to the time to hang up his gloves of real mass destruction and commence his tours of universities and 'give '
extortionate after dinner speeches........( save some crumbs for the victims Tone!)
Mr Blair was, I am told by news programmes over the radio , interviewed by David Frost .The Interview was for Al Jazeera news station.That station that the U.S bombed during the Iraq invasion because it was squeeling to loudly : freedom of speech ?
Anyhow the old fossil Frost (About time they replaced him , aeons ago when I was a still a child and he was already an established TV presenting mogul ),suggested to Blair that the war in Iraq had..........'So far been pretty much of a disaster '. Mr Blair responded thus :'It has . But you see,what I say to people is :"Why is it difficult in Iraq?", It's not difficult in some accident in planning ,it's difficult because there's a deliberate strategy - Al Qaida with Sunni insurgents on the one hand, Iranian backed-elements with Shia militias on the other - to create a situation in which the will of the majority for peace is displaced by the will of the minority for war '
Please read his reply analyse every statement , think about what was going on in Iraq then and what is going on now , what Blair said the war was about then, and what he is saying now and what is actually happening now, then draw a conclusion about the facts and the amazing man himself ....has he conceded or has he got a little mixed up , dazzled by the shine of the journalistic , avant garde fossil?
Or merely just not bothered any more as its close to the time to hang up his gloves of real mass destruction and commence his tours of universities and 'give '
extortionate after dinner speeches........( save some crumbs for the victims Tone!)
Monday, November 06, 2006
Hanging In The Balance
It's official , the life of the former dictator of Iraq is hanging in the balance.
Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by the Iraq 'government' yesteday .
He is to hang . He did prefer death by firing squad we are told , but no longer wielding power and ordering others to their deaths or being waited on by servants in one of his palaces , the former despot does not even have the luxury of his final choice in the menu of death .
The question really is ; 'Will he swing or sing?'.
Either way it could be troublesome.
If he swings on the end of a rope, the analysts are telling us his Sunni supporters will elevate him to a martyr and inflict countless more atrocities thereby destabilising the fragile 'democracy 'even further into chaos and mayhem.
If he sings, this could be equally disturbing. for his lawyer is already lodging an appeal . If this is succesful ,I imagine further charges will continously be launched against him until he is finally nailed down . But then he will have so much to sing about when various details of his previous crimes come into the open. He may well implicate various good guys who encouraged him along in 1980-88 in the war against Iran. The real weapons of mass destruction (Not the imaginary ones),the weapons used agianst his own citizens . Who sold them to him ? when and why? . He will have lots to say .
Either way then if he swings or sings , things are not looking good for the beleaguered people of Iraq and the board room Guerillas of The White House or Downing Street.
Now If he is eventually executed , how will he or his magnanimous victors Bush and Blair be entered into the sewage of history?
The Iraq /Iran war , a million casualties? from reliable sources. The persecution of his own people included for so many years of his reign. The figures could reach tens or hundreds of thousands it is not clear .
His adversaries though when considering the assault on Iraq using the most powerful weapons of mass destruction during the war to liberate Kuwait , the interim , the second invasion of Iraq in 2003 and all that followed , have exceeded him .
When one includes the suffering imposed indirectly whether intentional or not , one must be a fool to not come to the conclusion that America and its European province of Britain has caused more death and suffering .
Remember that we live in a world of selective reporting and sophisticated spin by devious politicians who dress up military imperialist acts of genocide as 'humanitarian interventions'. The facts are out there if one is willing to look for alternative views from reliable sources ; Unicef ? The Lancet? to name but
a few of the more establishment orientated ones for those that do not trust the brilliance of 'lefty ' commentators such as Pilger ,Fisk or Chomsky.
In conclusion , I can only make the following analogy to describe how all three scoundrels are related.
Remember that excellent film by Copolla : The Godfather? picture these elegant mafia dons, dressed smartly , seated in their plush offices , offering warm Italian hospitality to their adversaries . They speak of lofty virtues such as : family values , honour , respect .....and being a 'reasonable man'. How superbly portrayed by Marlon Brando . When the battle lines were drawn and there was a conflict of interest between major gangs ,the killings happen...men are machine gunned down whilst in a wedding or funeral , others are brutally stabbed by gangleaders' henchmen. These lower ranking henchmen and thugs often in the story , after serving their purpose as paid assassins , would be then bumped off themselves for security reasons. The poor buggers were vitims in their own right, sacrificed whilst the mafia dons in their suits regained power and restored 'order ' to the community.
Well, in the dumping ground of history all three of our players will be there : Bush the Mafia don , Blair the close and trusty junior partner of the family business , then The great tyrant himself in the role of the cheap , hired ,expendable thug whose fate is to be bumped of ......swinging after he helped to settled the score .
The devastion of Iraq is a big crime , Saddam is guilty but the price paid by his people at the mercy of their liberators is much higher than can be imagined or dared to be made public by a dishonest system of 'Free press'.
Saddam's life is now hanging in the balance but millions did not even have a fair trial.
Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by the Iraq 'government' yesteday .
He is to hang . He did prefer death by firing squad we are told , but no longer wielding power and ordering others to their deaths or being waited on by servants in one of his palaces , the former despot does not even have the luxury of his final choice in the menu of death .
The question really is ; 'Will he swing or sing?'.
Either way it could be troublesome.
If he swings on the end of a rope, the analysts are telling us his Sunni supporters will elevate him to a martyr and inflict countless more atrocities thereby destabilising the fragile 'democracy 'even further into chaos and mayhem.
If he sings, this could be equally disturbing. for his lawyer is already lodging an appeal . If this is succesful ,I imagine further charges will continously be launched against him until he is finally nailed down . But then he will have so much to sing about when various details of his previous crimes come into the open. He may well implicate various good guys who encouraged him along in 1980-88 in the war against Iran. The real weapons of mass destruction (Not the imaginary ones),the weapons used agianst his own citizens . Who sold them to him ? when and why? . He will have lots to say .
Either way then if he swings or sings , things are not looking good for the beleaguered people of Iraq and the board room Guerillas of The White House or Downing Street.
Now If he is eventually executed , how will he or his magnanimous victors Bush and Blair be entered into the sewage of history?
The Iraq /Iran war , a million casualties? from reliable sources. The persecution of his own people included for so many years of his reign. The figures could reach tens or hundreds of thousands it is not clear .
His adversaries though when considering the assault on Iraq using the most powerful weapons of mass destruction during the war to liberate Kuwait , the interim , the second invasion of Iraq in 2003 and all that followed , have exceeded him .
When one includes the suffering imposed indirectly whether intentional or not , one must be a fool to not come to the conclusion that America and its European province of Britain has caused more death and suffering .
Remember that we live in a world of selective reporting and sophisticated spin by devious politicians who dress up military imperialist acts of genocide as 'humanitarian interventions'. The facts are out there if one is willing to look for alternative views from reliable sources ; Unicef ? The Lancet? to name but
a few of the more establishment orientated ones for those that do not trust the brilliance of 'lefty ' commentators such as Pilger ,Fisk or Chomsky.
In conclusion , I can only make the following analogy to describe how all three scoundrels are related.
Remember that excellent film by Copolla : The Godfather? picture these elegant mafia dons, dressed smartly , seated in their plush offices , offering warm Italian hospitality to their adversaries . They speak of lofty virtues such as : family values , honour , respect .....and being a 'reasonable man'. How superbly portrayed by Marlon Brando . When the battle lines were drawn and there was a conflict of interest between major gangs ,the killings happen...men are machine gunned down whilst in a wedding or funeral , others are brutally stabbed by gangleaders' henchmen. These lower ranking henchmen and thugs often in the story , after serving their purpose as paid assassins , would be then bumped off themselves for security reasons. The poor buggers were vitims in their own right, sacrificed whilst the mafia dons in their suits regained power and restored 'order ' to the community.
Well, in the dumping ground of history all three of our players will be there : Bush the Mafia don , Blair the close and trusty junior partner of the family business , then The great tyrant himself in the role of the cheap , hired ,expendable thug whose fate is to be bumped of ......swinging after he helped to settled the score .
The devastion of Iraq is a big crime , Saddam is guilty but the price paid by his people at the mercy of their liberators is much higher than can be imagined or dared to be made public by a dishonest system of 'Free press'.
Saddam's life is now hanging in the balance but millions did not even have a fair trial.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Iraq inquiry
This very moment in The Houses of Commons ;those chambers of splendid debate and oligarchic virtue where we find ourselves in a:
' World of appearances where what appears to seem true is not equal to how the truth seems to appear '
(Pellas 2006)
There has been a a call for another inquiry into the trouble that won't go away from Tony Blair and his minions: The horror that is the Iraq war.
Obviously Mr Blair himself must be shivering up where his spinal chord should be as members from the Scottish and Welsh nationalist parties are calling for an inquiry.
The party faithful such as The foreign secretary Margarety Becket said there would "come a time" to learn lessons from Iraq, but this was not it. There was a danger of "sending the wrong signals at the wrong time" and appeared to set a deadline for operations, she said.
Blunket that other almost obsessionally allied and uncomfortably close colleague of Blair's mumbled something equally stupid:That inqiries going on would lessen the morale of our soldiers . Standard stuff.
It's amazing how the people with real blood on their hands seem to talk so passionately and defensively about our troops like they really care . It's so obvious that their support is one of condescension and manipulation , to keep the poor , dispensable foot soldiers feeling important and irreplaceable (which they are to their families but not to the likes of our leaders).
This very minute I hear the 'debate' or mumble on the net on a well known radio channel run by the government .I gathered the 'Ayes' were beaten by the 'nays' I am not sure I have fully understood what's going on . I will have to comment again later when I have it clearly reported on the news again . But if it is what I think I heard that the majority of MPs voting , again did not have the gumption to challenge and bring down these gangsters by not voting for the motion..... then I really do have to lose faith in the virtues of our beloved oligarchy .
May they sleep in peace .
' World of appearances where what appears to seem true is not equal to how the truth seems to appear '
(Pellas 2006)
There has been a a call for another inquiry into the trouble that won't go away from Tony Blair and his minions: The horror that is the Iraq war.
Obviously Mr Blair himself must be shivering up where his spinal chord should be as members from the Scottish and Welsh nationalist parties are calling for an inquiry.
The party faithful such as The foreign secretary Margarety Becket said there would "come a time" to learn lessons from Iraq, but this was not it. There was a danger of "sending the wrong signals at the wrong time" and appeared to set a deadline for operations, she said.
Blunket that other almost obsessionally allied and uncomfortably close colleague of Blair's mumbled something equally stupid:That inqiries going on would lessen the morale of our soldiers . Standard stuff.
It's amazing how the people with real blood on their hands seem to talk so passionately and defensively about our troops like they really care . It's so obvious that their support is one of condescension and manipulation , to keep the poor , dispensable foot soldiers feeling important and irreplaceable (which they are to their families but not to the likes of our leaders).
This very minute I hear the 'debate' or mumble on the net on a well known radio channel run by the government .I gathered the 'Ayes' were beaten by the 'nays' I am not sure I have fully understood what's going on . I will have to comment again later when I have it clearly reported on the news again . But if it is what I think I heard that the majority of MPs voting , again did not have the gumption to challenge and bring down these gangsters by not voting for the motion..... then I really do have to lose faith in the virtues of our beloved oligarchy .
May they sleep in peace .
Monday, October 30, 2006
Stern message about climate
There has been lots reported on all the media stations about the 'Stern Report' .
This individual who is an economist by trade has released a lengthy document warning us all about severe climate change if we don't all change our ways now.
The economist who is a 'Sir'and a highly renowned government spokesman made comments on how climate change , if we do not control emmision of green house gases, will damage the economy by 20% .
There were all sorts of dramatic and alarmist predictions spun off this report by the usual media pundits.
Devious cynical,politicians also quckly threw their tuppence worth in and were echoed on various TV stations chanting : 'Green Tax !' this ,apparently the answer often reached by our rulers. If something is being over used e.g cars, aeroplane journeys ,(Which politicians use more than the average man in the street), then tax it and it will go away .
Everything has to be so punitive , like punishihng naughty children .
Coming back to climate change . All of a sudden it is real and is with us because a member of the establishment has said so .
When organisations such as 'friends of the Earth' or other independent minds warned years ago , there would be a wise answer from ruling elite to dismiss all this . Yet now it is legitimised , not only that but we have to pay.
Why didn't these leaders impose limits on industries who were making quick profits with no thought of tomorrow? Still today why doesn't the government chastise water comapanies for example who waste more than a third of the water supply which they do not own by the way?
Why , to give a very simple example do beer companies not recycle beer bottles and give incentives to the puiblic by reward rather than punishnent : by giving a small deposit on an empty ? Why indeed doesn't the government force the companies to do so? Because they are part of the same oligarchy which serves the interests of a few.
You See there were various ways we could have at least slowed down this disaster. Also there could have been ways the government could have acknowledged its reality earlier on rather than avoid the issue then discuss it like an asteroid coming to hit us today .
And of course the punishment of it all! ...For example on a smaller scale , there was discussion on the main propaganda stations about teen drinkers. teenagers are binge drinking and endangering their health etc etc. The politicians then of course found a good solution , which was to increase taxation on alcoholic drinks !
How innovative , clever and effective !
So people prepare yourselves for more punishment by this oligarchy. Prepare yourselves for taxes that are : green.
Prepare ;yourselves for the repeat of the same old , same old punishment , which of course does not reach the privileged. But take heart that this punitive tax will be Green .
This individual who is an economist by trade has released a lengthy document warning us all about severe climate change if we don't all change our ways now.
The economist who is a 'Sir'and a highly renowned government spokesman made comments on how climate change , if we do not control emmision of green house gases, will damage the economy by 20% .
There were all sorts of dramatic and alarmist predictions spun off this report by the usual media pundits.
Devious cynical,politicians also quckly threw their tuppence worth in and were echoed on various TV stations chanting : 'Green Tax !' this ,apparently the answer often reached by our rulers. If something is being over used e.g cars, aeroplane journeys ,(Which politicians use more than the average man in the street), then tax it and it will go away .
Everything has to be so punitive , like punishihng naughty children .
Coming back to climate change . All of a sudden it is real and is with us because a member of the establishment has said so .
When organisations such as 'friends of the Earth' or other independent minds warned years ago , there would be a wise answer from ruling elite to dismiss all this . Yet now it is legitimised , not only that but we have to pay.
Why didn't these leaders impose limits on industries who were making quick profits with no thought of tomorrow? Still today why doesn't the government chastise water comapanies for example who waste more than a third of the water supply which they do not own by the way?
Why , to give a very simple example do beer companies not recycle beer bottles and give incentives to the puiblic by reward rather than punishnent : by giving a small deposit on an empty ? Why indeed doesn't the government force the companies to do so? Because they are part of the same oligarchy which serves the interests of a few.
You See there were various ways we could have at least slowed down this disaster. Also there could have been ways the government could have acknowledged its reality earlier on rather than avoid the issue then discuss it like an asteroid coming to hit us today .
And of course the punishment of it all! ...For example on a smaller scale , there was discussion on the main propaganda stations about teen drinkers. teenagers are binge drinking and endangering their health etc etc. The politicians then of course found a good solution , which was to increase taxation on alcoholic drinks !
How innovative , clever and effective !
So people prepare yourselves for more punishment by this oligarchy. Prepare yourselves for taxes that are : green.
Prepare ;yourselves for the repeat of the same old , same old punishment , which of course does not reach the privileged. But take heart that this punitive tax will be Green .
Friday, October 27, 2006
Run Away !
I remember years ago , my favourite comedy team: Monty Python's Flying Circus'.
Sometime in the early seventies if I'm not mistaken . It was totally out of this world,the first time I saw it . It was a mixture of surrealism , absurd humour and pure anarchy. It used to be introduced thus : 'And now for something completely different: It's Monty Python's ........' Superb comedy I watched it when I was a teenager .Well ,after the Monty Python team eventually disbanded , each went their own ways and made their own niche somewhere, John Cleese being possibly the most successful. Others became very obscure .One of my favourites was Eric Idle. Nowhere to be seen ......suddenly I hear he has produced or directed a west end stage show : 'Spamelot' ,I wish him luck ,maybe I should go and see this ?.
So as the original Monty Python show ended some major films were produced by the team , the most popular possibly being 'The life of Brian ' a spoof on Christianity , or more likely society's response to a religious figure. Other films were also produced .
I can't rember which film it was but there was one where the noble knights or renowned warriors were heard every time a confrontation with enemy occurred , to say : 'Run away !' as they retreated , I found that hilarious and so honest !
Well our government in America and its department in Britain have decide to 'RUN AWAY !' from the war in Iraq. After years of repeating the mantra; 'Our brave boys will stay in Iraq until the job is done !'(they have forgotten what the job was ) .
Well now it's 'Runaway!' time , just like Monty Python. Yes the bumbling clowns in charge of this miserable project to 'liberate ' Iraq are now even blaming the victims and I hear statements from our U.S government and its local branch in Britain saying things like : 'It's time the Iraqi 'government ' started to take more responisibility so that we can leave them to it.'
'RUN AWAY!' It's official our brave boys are to be instructed to start running. Of course it will not be expressed this way by our devious , obsequious politiciians. But it's amazing how this disasterous operation is ending in tears. Too many of our soldiers are dying . This is the reason . I believe that at least ninety Americans were killed in the last month . That's what hurts, public opinion starts to affect the leaders' opinion. But when Iraqis were and are still dying at a rate of a thousand to one or more that doesn't matter , didn't matter.......they are successfully transformed by media pundits and sly politicians into what John Pilger calls 'Non people ' .
Run away ! Sadly it has the ingredients of a Monty Python master piece .
Cause a bloody mess , destroy millions of lives of many nationalities , waste of human resources and wealth that could have been used for a better cause ....then have the the audacity to :
RUN AWAY !
Sometime in the early seventies if I'm not mistaken . It was totally out of this world,the first time I saw it . It was a mixture of surrealism , absurd humour and pure anarchy. It used to be introduced thus : 'And now for something completely different: It's Monty Python's ........' Superb comedy I watched it when I was a teenager .Well ,after the Monty Python team eventually disbanded , each went their own ways and made their own niche somewhere, John Cleese being possibly the most successful. Others became very obscure .One of my favourites was Eric Idle. Nowhere to be seen ......suddenly I hear he has produced or directed a west end stage show : 'Spamelot' ,I wish him luck ,maybe I should go and see this ?.
So as the original Monty Python show ended some major films were produced by the team , the most popular possibly being 'The life of Brian ' a spoof on Christianity , or more likely society's response to a religious figure. Other films were also produced .
I can't rember which film it was but there was one where the noble knights or renowned warriors were heard every time a confrontation with enemy occurred , to say : 'Run away !' as they retreated , I found that hilarious and so honest !
Well our government in America and its department in Britain have decide to 'RUN AWAY !' from the war in Iraq. After years of repeating the mantra; 'Our brave boys will stay in Iraq until the job is done !'(they have forgotten what the job was ) .
Well now it's 'Runaway!' time , just like Monty Python. Yes the bumbling clowns in charge of this miserable project to 'liberate ' Iraq are now even blaming the victims and I hear statements from our U.S government and its local branch in Britain saying things like : 'It's time the Iraqi 'government ' started to take more responisibility so that we can leave them to it.'
'RUN AWAY!' It's official our brave boys are to be instructed to start running. Of course it will not be expressed this way by our devious , obsequious politiciians. But it's amazing how this disasterous operation is ending in tears. Too many of our soldiers are dying . This is the reason . I believe that at least ninety Americans were killed in the last month . That's what hurts, public opinion starts to affect the leaders' opinion. But when Iraqis were and are still dying at a rate of a thousand to one or more that doesn't matter , didn't matter.......they are successfully transformed by media pundits and sly politicians into what John Pilger calls 'Non people ' .
Run away ! Sadly it has the ingredients of a Monty Python master piece .
Cause a bloody mess , destroy millions of lives of many nationalities , waste of human resources and wealth that could have been used for a better cause ....then have the the audacity to :
RUN AWAY !
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
'Celebrity 'child
Whata day ! hated being at work today .I have resorted to clock watching ; one of my favourite past times when I'm unhappy at work . Most jobs I have had in mental health nursing have been challenging, sometimes over bearing but also periodically rewarding. This number is a sinking ship with staff turning over before they can even jump off! A culture of bullying and a holier than thou attitude from above .
The highest of the pecking order almost act like celebrities ..
What is it with these so called 'celebrities '? 'Madonna adopts child from Malawi'.
The child's biological mother according to the press died at child birth . The father is still alive but cannot afford to keep the boy ,who is called by the Goddess herself David .
There were snippets of film on the 'news' stations showing the celestial body herself swirlng around in 'spiritual harmony ' with a local African woman : how basic ? how down to earth and primeval 'In sharing this dance the Goddess demonstrates as she deigns to shuffle hips and breasts opposite her host ,that
through dance we are all the same '.Yes!she is only a simple person herself really .
Now did Madonna really want to help the poor people of Malawi live a better life?
Did she really want to satisfy her motherly instincts ?
Or did she want to fuel her starhood with hydrogen and helium in order to shine brighter amongst a fast growing galaxy of equally shallow peers.
Or did she simply want to acquire a plaything which she could observe inherit her magical , superhumnan qualities and become a newly born star and be able to observe him as she grows old and say to the world :'I created David'.
I really don't know , but let's say the child was adopted because
1)She wanted 'to do good 'Well this one is a non starter for beings of her status and material wealth can do much more 'good' by digging into their pockets and donating appropriately to the community in Malawi and encourage some activity or service which sustains itself and benefits the community . In short she could have given the father enough of a start in life to at least enable him to bring up his own child.
2)I cannot believe she wanted to adopt this child so much because of her motherly insincts , for there was a report that David arrived in London airport this morning
in the arms of a 'nanny ' . So quick was the bond that the Madonna already has got the dog's body in . And what ever happened to Madonna's biological child .? Does she meet up with him/her ?
3)Okay let's go for the publicity . Maybe she didn't really want so much publicity any way? Yet I am sure she enjoys seeing the clip with the 'Malawi dance'again and again ........'what about new album?....African theme...........'You can see the ageing red giant of a burnt out 'star' already reincarnate into a bright white dwarf!
4) Plaything ? well she's probably played around with more than us mere mortals can dream of , but the Gods get easily bored you know. That's why they occasionally come down to Earth .
Well the working day ended . I heard on the radio that there is a project for as many members of the public as possible to be encouraged to write a single day of blog on a sight called 'history matters .com'Must investigate.
The highest of the pecking order almost act like celebrities ..
What is it with these so called 'celebrities '? 'Madonna adopts child from Malawi'.
The child's biological mother according to the press died at child birth . The father is still alive but cannot afford to keep the boy ,who is called by the Goddess herself David .
There were snippets of film on the 'news' stations showing the celestial body herself swirlng around in 'spiritual harmony ' with a local African woman : how basic ? how down to earth and primeval 'In sharing this dance the Goddess demonstrates as she deigns to shuffle hips and breasts opposite her host ,that
through dance we are all the same '.Yes!she is only a simple person herself really .
Now did Madonna really want to help the poor people of Malawi live a better life?
Did she really want to satisfy her motherly instincts ?
Or did she want to fuel her starhood with hydrogen and helium in order to shine brighter amongst a fast growing galaxy of equally shallow peers.
Or did she simply want to acquire a plaything which she could observe inherit her magical , superhumnan qualities and become a newly born star and be able to observe him as she grows old and say to the world :'I created David'.
I really don't know , but let's say the child was adopted because
1)She wanted 'to do good 'Well this one is a non starter for beings of her status and material wealth can do much more 'good' by digging into their pockets and donating appropriately to the community in Malawi and encourage some activity or service which sustains itself and benefits the community . In short she could have given the father enough of a start in life to at least enable him to bring up his own child.
2)I cannot believe she wanted to adopt this child so much because of her motherly insincts , for there was a report that David arrived in London airport this morning
in the arms of a 'nanny ' . So quick was the bond that the Madonna already has got the dog's body in . And what ever happened to Madonna's biological child .? Does she meet up with him/her ?
3)Okay let's go for the publicity . Maybe she didn't really want so much publicity any way? Yet I am sure she enjoys seeing the clip with the 'Malawi dance'again and again ........'what about new album?....African theme...........'You can see the ageing red giant of a burnt out 'star' already reincarnate into a bright white dwarf!
4) Plaything ? well she's probably played around with more than us mere mortals can dream of , but the Gods get easily bored you know. That's why they occasionally come down to Earth .
Well the working day ended . I heard on the radio that there is a project for as many members of the public as possible to be encouraged to write a single day of blog on a sight called 'history matters .com'Must investigate.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Niqab
This is a buzz word today. for hundreds of years before the last few weeks most people in this country would not be able to differentiate a niqab from a 'pickup'.
I got up early this morning , could have slept for longer but decided to get up and go to a well known super market to buy some provisions before the hoards of shoppers march in , I just cannot stand the scurry when it's a Sunday , and have that dreaded curse :work tomorrow.
I entered the supermarket and noticed that there were two or three women wearing the niqab . Well so what? It doesn't bother me , it's their choice ,If for whatever reason they don't want to show me their faces , there are plenty of other beauties around for me to ogle at .
I saw cameras everywhere in the supermarket , I remembered that I always have to take my bicycle helmet off when I go to banks. I was also asked to take off a flat cap when entering a particular establishment .
So with due respect to these ladies who were all quietly and independently of eachother doing their shopping . What if one was a thief ? of course some would argue that how can one so devout to a religion be so inclined . But I do not buy that argument . I dont't care if you are a Christian, Muslim , Jew , Polytheist or Atheist , what you say about yourself and your morals is separate from what you actually do.
Now if one of those ladies were a thief or come to think of it,( which proves my point even more) , they could have been men dressed up ? Lets say one of those people happened to be a thief . What use would the camera be?
This is not about religion . Even if it is about religion I argue that even religion is not sacred in a world of humans . For as Diogenese argued : 'We are thrice human '
I bought my sunflower oil , kidney beans, scones and some other items and returned.
Time flies , I must walk Wolfgang the dog and come back to eat and have a nap, the rest of the week I will feel deprived of sleep and mentally drained .
What is religion, I think I have read too much about it and disowned my own Greek Orthodox version . I guess there is some good in religion ...but I prefer to do business with those individuals that think for themselves about the mysteries of life and death , that can be honest enough to say they don't really know but are willing to learn .
Peace be with you .
I got up early this morning , could have slept for longer but decided to get up and go to a well known super market to buy some provisions before the hoards of shoppers march in , I just cannot stand the scurry when it's a Sunday , and have that dreaded curse :work tomorrow.
I entered the supermarket and noticed that there were two or three women wearing the niqab . Well so what? It doesn't bother me , it's their choice ,If for whatever reason they don't want to show me their faces , there are plenty of other beauties around for me to ogle at .
I saw cameras everywhere in the supermarket , I remembered that I always have to take my bicycle helmet off when I go to banks. I was also asked to take off a flat cap when entering a particular establishment .
So with due respect to these ladies who were all quietly and independently of eachother doing their shopping . What if one was a thief ? of course some would argue that how can one so devout to a religion be so inclined . But I do not buy that argument . I dont't care if you are a Christian, Muslim , Jew , Polytheist or Atheist , what you say about yourself and your morals is separate from what you actually do.
Now if one of those ladies were a thief or come to think of it,( which proves my point even more) , they could have been men dressed up ? Lets say one of those people happened to be a thief . What use would the camera be?
This is not about religion . Even if it is about religion I argue that even religion is not sacred in a world of humans . For as Diogenese argued : 'We are thrice human '
I bought my sunflower oil , kidney beans, scones and some other items and returned.
Time flies , I must walk Wolfgang the dog and come back to eat and have a nap, the rest of the week I will feel deprived of sleep and mentally drained .
What is religion, I think I have read too much about it and disowned my own Greek Orthodox version . I guess there is some good in religion ...but I prefer to do business with those individuals that think for themselves about the mysteries of life and death , that can be honest enough to say they don't really know but are willing to learn .
Peace be with you .
New Format
Due to extremely low readership,lack of corporate funding , advertising and mimimal time available we sadly announce to our loyal readers that the format of the
'Meaninglessness of Life'will have to change .
There will no longer be the 'News local and Distant','Trouble with Blogging' the 'Meaninglessnessness'stories or the uploading of Pellas masterpieces exclusive
to this site only .
In place will be occasional , self indulgent jottings of no particular coherence , relevance or thematic structure .
We hope you will enjoy this new streamline format , and like to say to thank all our loyal readers ....sob ....for staying with us ........It's all so.....meaningless.
'Meaninglessness of Life'will have to change .
There will no longer be the 'News local and Distant','Trouble with Blogging' the 'Meaninglessnessness'stories or the uploading of Pellas masterpieces exclusive
to this site only .
In place will be occasional , self indulgent jottings of no particular coherence , relevance or thematic structure .
We hope you will enjoy this new streamline format , and like to say to thank all our loyal readers ....sob ....for staying with us ........It's all so.....meaningless.
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Problems with blogging 4
The problem with blogging is that , in my case anyway I have not had much feed back.
I guess this answers my original question and decries the very raison d'etre of this blog .
Well amongst the billions of sites , pages or blogs on the net how and why is anybody in their right mind going to visit this blog? or find it worthwhile to spend some minutes reading this , let alone come back for more ....
Funny enough , one thing I have realised in this and another blog I have ,is that as soon as the very first post is released , I had some comments. This made it look like there were going to be many visitors and that one would not feel alone. I don't know if this is the policy of blogger.com : to give people the impression that many people are going to visit the site and thereby encourage one to carry on blogging or whether this was down to coincidence .
Now at one point I had a reader who kept on taunting and insulting me , eventually he decided he was going to sue me for libel. We have stopped our correspondence since then. But ironically , when all this was going on , I was looking forward
to checking my e-mails every morning and derived great sadistic pleasure in exchanging insults and threats with this person who disagreed with what I had written on political themes . Now I wonder whether it is safe to spout one's own political propaganda without attracting lunatics , and is it foolish thing to publish one's name on the blog in fear that one may be sued or tracked down and taken to account.
But as far as having one's voice heard , I don't know . So far I wouldn't rave to anyone in favour of blogging unless that person was writing a diary of something that would arouse curiosity such as a soldier in Iraq or a person with a bizarre job or of course if one happens to be of the good and the great .
I don't even know if this blog would come up on a google search , I have tried various key words and ;nothing . In fact I am questioning if apart from the need of self expression whether this is a useful medium for me .
Meanwhile , I will carry on blogging as it does fulfil a need.
I guess this answers my original question and decries the very raison d'etre of this blog .
Well amongst the billions of sites , pages or blogs on the net how and why is anybody in their right mind going to visit this blog? or find it worthwhile to spend some minutes reading this , let alone come back for more ....
Funny enough , one thing I have realised in this and another blog I have ,is that as soon as the very first post is released , I had some comments. This made it look like there were going to be many visitors and that one would not feel alone. I don't know if this is the policy of blogger.com : to give people the impression that many people are going to visit the site and thereby encourage one to carry on blogging or whether this was down to coincidence .
Now at one point I had a reader who kept on taunting and insulting me , eventually he decided he was going to sue me for libel. We have stopped our correspondence since then. But ironically , when all this was going on , I was looking forward
to checking my e-mails every morning and derived great sadistic pleasure in exchanging insults and threats with this person who disagreed with what I had written on political themes . Now I wonder whether it is safe to spout one's own political propaganda without attracting lunatics , and is it foolish thing to publish one's name on the blog in fear that one may be sued or tracked down and taken to account.
But as far as having one's voice heard , I don't know . So far I wouldn't rave to anyone in favour of blogging unless that person was writing a diary of something that would arouse curiosity such as a soldier in Iraq or a person with a bizarre job or of course if one happens to be of the good and the great .
I don't even know if this blog would come up on a google search , I have tried various key words and ;nothing . In fact I am questioning if apart from the need of self expression whether this is a useful medium for me .
Meanwhile , I will carry on blogging as it does fulfil a need.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Saturday, April 22, 2006
News, Local and Distant
Yesterday,it was the birthday of Queen Elzabeth II , the queen of England. She has just turned eighty years of age with a long stretch of impeccable service to her country behind her .Some say that she never steps a foot wrong , that she is dignified, aloof from the crude clumsiness of political debate and truly 'majestic'
in her demeanour . She walked about in Windsor where she has one of her many stately homes. Elizabeth smiled and waved ,amidst groups of loyal well wishers. The usual crowd ,who when graced by her presence will tell stories that they 'met the queen' and of how 'special' she seemed but also how ' ordinary ' and 'down to earth' she really was, etc .
Such is the pomp and ceremony , magnified a million times by the 'authority'of the news media ,that people, who by privilege of birth , with no real distinguishing features or accomplishments can appear like demigods . The very fact that one stands near such a demigod reinforces the status of a monarch. Anyway she is our
head of state and adds to the prestige of this great city,London ,possibly the greatest capital in the world.
After all,there are not many monarchs left in the world and a royal family is a living link with the past ,part of a nation's heritage ; an integral part of a peoples' psyche . Also Britain being one of the richest countries in the world is a great democracy where the ruling political party swears allegiance to the crown although in actual fact the monarch does not have exutive powers.
I used to sympathise actively with republicanism but come to think of it , what difference would it make ?. The royals would not have their official positions but nonetheless would probably still have colossal amounts of wealth . And a republic does not necessarily prevent an unequal society . There will still be individuals
that own disproportionate and vulgar amounts of wealth.
Now let's look at one of her contemporary counterparts ,abroad in a distant land .
King Gyanendra , the monarch of Nepal,one of the world's poorest countries is one of a royal family of a 237 year dynasty.He is not celebratiing a birthday , more likely he is mourning the possibility of losing his reign or even his head.In Nepal , he imposed himself by direct rule for the past fourteen months ,overriding any parliamentary rule of the country .Nepal has been suffering a maoist rebellion during the last decade, with little coverage in the west. Even the Maoist guerillas have agreed to do business with the major political parties , given the chance. The king's decision to take total power has resulted in civil unrest and riots in the capital Kathmandu.Curfews have been imposed and up to fourteen people have been killed by police or security forces. This martial law has not deterred the protesters.The king broadcasted a message to his people yesterday , partially capitulating and stating that power will be returned to 'the people' . However , the concensus of public opinion , the seven political parties, guerillas included , suggests that this is not enough. It appears that the majority want this king ousted all together rendering his status as powerless and obsolete .
In his broadcast , King Gyanendra praised his military servicemen for their'Discipline and valour' not mentioning any regret about the fourteen dead and countless injured . As I write ,reports are still being dispatched from Kathmandu of riots continuing. It looks like his days are numbered. The Maoists are willing to lay down their arms and negotiate with the other parties ,but all facets of the protesting parties seem to agree that this mornarch is not wanted whether as total ruler or even as a titular. I congratulate my brothers and sisters of Nepal in moving forward , but at a heavy price as is usual with such social change.
Meanwhile our Liz is enjoying her birthday week. But even if many are opposed to her position ,as seems to be the case in in 21st century Britain, they,and she know that in such a highly developed ,rich country , whether she and her clan stay or go , it will be timely ,and with the utmost of diginty .
Could our Queen offer any advice to her doomed counterpart of Nepal ? I am sure she knows the precarious existence monarchs lead .She is well up to date with public opinion and her agents are expert at the sophisticated techniques of marketing a monarchy in modern times only too well .
The history of England in the story of Prince Charles I could offer King
Gyanendra a very valuable and urgent education. King Charles I in seventeenth century England also imposed himself severely on the ruling parliament and was seen as a tyrant . The English civil war ensued which resulted in the King literally losing his head.
Elizabeth and her promoters have the advantage of this historical lesson. I hope King Gyanendra sent her a birthday card ,to which she could have responded with some private words of advice befitting only those of such axalted , royal status.Failing this only the wisdom of an idividual of higher social status than either
of these two mere demigods is needed .Only Athena , goddess of wisdom can save him.
Goodbye Gyanendra . Happy birthday Liz.
in her demeanour . She walked about in Windsor where she has one of her many stately homes. Elizabeth smiled and waved ,amidst groups of loyal well wishers. The usual crowd ,who when graced by her presence will tell stories that they 'met the queen' and of how 'special' she seemed but also how ' ordinary ' and 'down to earth' she really was, etc .
Such is the pomp and ceremony , magnified a million times by the 'authority'of the news media ,that people, who by privilege of birth , with no real distinguishing features or accomplishments can appear like demigods . The very fact that one stands near such a demigod reinforces the status of a monarch. Anyway she is our
head of state and adds to the prestige of this great city,London ,possibly the greatest capital in the world.
After all,there are not many monarchs left in the world and a royal family is a living link with the past ,part of a nation's heritage ; an integral part of a peoples' psyche . Also Britain being one of the richest countries in the world is a great democracy where the ruling political party swears allegiance to the crown although in actual fact the monarch does not have exutive powers.
I used to sympathise actively with republicanism but come to think of it , what difference would it make ?. The royals would not have their official positions but nonetheless would probably still have colossal amounts of wealth . And a republic does not necessarily prevent an unequal society . There will still be individuals
that own disproportionate and vulgar amounts of wealth.
Now let's look at one of her contemporary counterparts ,abroad in a distant land .
King Gyanendra , the monarch of Nepal,one of the world's poorest countries is one of a royal family of a 237 year dynasty.He is not celebratiing a birthday , more likely he is mourning the possibility of losing his reign or even his head.In Nepal , he imposed himself by direct rule for the past fourteen months ,overriding any parliamentary rule of the country .Nepal has been suffering a maoist rebellion during the last decade, with little coverage in the west. Even the Maoist guerillas have agreed to do business with the major political parties , given the chance. The king's decision to take total power has resulted in civil unrest and riots in the capital Kathmandu.Curfews have been imposed and up to fourteen people have been killed by police or security forces. This martial law has not deterred the protesters.The king broadcasted a message to his people yesterday , partially capitulating and stating that power will be returned to 'the people' . However , the concensus of public opinion , the seven political parties, guerillas included , suggests that this is not enough. It appears that the majority want this king ousted all together rendering his status as powerless and obsolete .
In his broadcast , King Gyanendra praised his military servicemen for their'Discipline and valour' not mentioning any regret about the fourteen dead and countless injured . As I write ,reports are still being dispatched from Kathmandu of riots continuing. It looks like his days are numbered. The Maoists are willing to lay down their arms and negotiate with the other parties ,but all facets of the protesting parties seem to agree that this mornarch is not wanted whether as total ruler or even as a titular. I congratulate my brothers and sisters of Nepal in moving forward , but at a heavy price as is usual with such social change.
Meanwhile our Liz is enjoying her birthday week. But even if many are opposed to her position ,as seems to be the case in in 21st century Britain, they,and she know that in such a highly developed ,rich country , whether she and her clan stay or go , it will be timely ,and with the utmost of diginty .
Could our Queen offer any advice to her doomed counterpart of Nepal ? I am sure she knows the precarious existence monarchs lead .She is well up to date with public opinion and her agents are expert at the sophisticated techniques of marketing a monarchy in modern times only too well .
The history of England in the story of Prince Charles I could offer King
Gyanendra a very valuable and urgent education. King Charles I in seventeenth century England also imposed himself severely on the ruling parliament and was seen as a tyrant . The English civil war ensued which resulted in the King literally losing his head.
Elizabeth and her promoters have the advantage of this historical lesson. I hope King Gyanendra sent her a birthday card ,to which she could have responded with some private words of advice befitting only those of such axalted , royal status.Failing this only the wisdom of an idividual of higher social status than either
of these two mere demigods is needed .Only Athena , goddess of wisdom can save him.
Goodbye Gyanendra . Happy birthday Liz.
Friday, April 14, 2006
Employmentlessness
Robin Sturgeon , worked in a furniture factory . He did not like his job , but he had to do something for a living .
Each day ,on his way to and from work , he used to see an old man seated by the local river bank, who seemed to be staring into the river and sometimes at the sky.
As time passed ,Robin soon got married ,this meant he had to work for some extra hours in the factory . After a while , together with his wife Annie , they
decided to buy a house of their own and a car . To achieve this Robin took on all the extra hours of work offered to him by his employers which meant he had to give up his regular football training , which he used enjoyed so much .
A few years later , Robin and Annie had children. So as well as having to cope with six very long days at the factory , Robin took up part-time house painting and decorating which he carried out at nights and on Sundays . He did what ever he could to generate that so much needed extra income.However , this meant that Robin had to stop visiting the local pub which he only used to do once weekly in order to meet up with some friends and enjoy his darts game.
Robin was an extremely hard worker and managed to do his own motor car repairs
and household maintenance in order to avoid paying costly professionals.
In the very little time he had to himself , Robin stayed at home with Annie and their two children ; Stuart and Jenny. Both Robin and his wife were just too worn out and exhausted to take their children out for the day.
One summer's day whilst leaving the factory , on his way to do some evening painting and decorating , Robin realised that the house he was heading for, was very near the spot that the idle old man occupied upon the river bank. Having three and a half minutes to spare, Robin's curiousity got the better of him. He hurriedly approached the old man and almost angrily asked if he had ever worked in his life.
'No' . Replied the old man.'I don't have the time'.
(Adapted from :'A Cynic's Book of Knowledge.' Copyright , J.Pellas 1990.)
Each day ,on his way to and from work , he used to see an old man seated by the local river bank, who seemed to be staring into the river and sometimes at the sky.
As time passed ,Robin soon got married ,this meant he had to work for some extra hours in the factory . After a while , together with his wife Annie , they
decided to buy a house of their own and a car . To achieve this Robin took on all the extra hours of work offered to him by his employers which meant he had to give up his regular football training , which he used enjoyed so much .
A few years later , Robin and Annie had children. So as well as having to cope with six very long days at the factory , Robin took up part-time house painting and decorating which he carried out at nights and on Sundays . He did what ever he could to generate that so much needed extra income.However , this meant that Robin had to stop visiting the local pub which he only used to do once weekly in order to meet up with some friends and enjoy his darts game.
Robin was an extremely hard worker and managed to do his own motor car repairs
and household maintenance in order to avoid paying costly professionals.
In the very little time he had to himself , Robin stayed at home with Annie and their two children ; Stuart and Jenny. Both Robin and his wife were just too worn out and exhausted to take their children out for the day.
One summer's day whilst leaving the factory , on his way to do some evening painting and decorating , Robin realised that the house he was heading for, was very near the spot that the idle old man occupied upon the river bank. Having three and a half minutes to spare, Robin's curiousity got the better of him. He hurriedly approached the old man and almost angrily asked if he had ever worked in his life.
'No' . Replied the old man.'I don't have the time'.
(Adapted from :'A Cynic's Book of Knowledge.' Copyright , J.Pellas 1990.)
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Monday, April 10, 2006
Problems with blogging 3
Trouble with blogging is that first of all it is addictive. I often come home from work in a rush ,or WITH a rush to to see my own blog . How vain but true I guess the only reason many of us bloggers briefly have a look at other people's blogs is possibly in a competitive manner , checking the opposition ,or even in a comradely supportive way : If I look at some blogs and make good comments , then maybe they would return the compliment . Well My most avid reader seems to have gone. This man, woman , child or computer generated message came to my blog as soon as I had proudly uploaded my First 'News Local and Distant'post . As already described in a previous post 'LEO' made a remark about me selling or giving my computer to a child as 'they have more brains '. I was really hurt at first to be honest. What followed was a rapid exchange of insults and political rows , mostly on his site . He, she or 'it' posted some messages that I could not publish and luckily managed to censor .So insulting and explicit had the exchanges become that in hope for a peaceful resolution ,I repeatedly asked 'LEO'to take part in a civilised debate about our differences of opinion, which I would be happy to post on this blog. I failed and received only insults and threats. I am a little ashamed to admit that I fought fire with fire . At one point ,after receiving countless verbal counter attacks on Leo's own blog , Leo seemed to have realised that there is an option for censoring incoming messages to one's own blog site, and sent me a message stating that 'we are even now!' Well for someone having trouble with blogging I assumed that this 'Leo ' would have known better than me on such matters. .Anyhow I have been warned by him, she , it,that I will be sued for libel as I accused Leo of being something very bad..........I do miss the messages from that source ,but as warned,I may even be subject to a law suit, I'll keep you posted.
Who reads this stuff anyway? I tried to see if I could find this site from other search engines to no avail. I guess it is mostly an internal site , of course you can find this blog if you punch in key words on google as it is run by the same outfit I believe. But what would one have to do to bring this or your blog for that matter into the front page of a several major search engines?
I looked at some other blog hosts ( if that's what you call a company giving you free blog space?). I thought it could be a good idea to try starting a totally different blog , but keep this going as I really feel I have established something here even if it is purely for my own entertainment, constructive criticism and for maintaining the delusion that my work has been published and publically exhibited .
I am stil encountering technical problems .If I did not have a teenage helper I don't think I would ever have uploaded a single image in a format that I intended . For example . The first drawing called : Leyla, Dozens of times I 'posted ' and received messages stating that it had been successfully published without any result. When I did get the help I mentioned, The picture was evenually published with a big blank rectangle next to it destroying the effect of a decent looking publication I had hoped for. Got there in the end and it was not as 'Simple ' as I had hoped .
I suppose I have learnt something about blogging and that is , as in any pleasurable
, addictive , possibly harmful habit; one has to take control and if not give up all together at least become its master and practise harm minimisation :I am logging off now.......for a while.
Who reads this stuff anyway? I tried to see if I could find this site from other search engines to no avail. I guess it is mostly an internal site , of course you can find this blog if you punch in key words on google as it is run by the same outfit I believe. But what would one have to do to bring this or your blog for that matter into the front page of a several major search engines?
I looked at some other blog hosts ( if that's what you call a company giving you free blog space?). I thought it could be a good idea to try starting a totally different blog , but keep this going as I really feel I have established something here even if it is purely for my own entertainment, constructive criticism and for maintaining the delusion that my work has been published and publically exhibited .
I am stil encountering technical problems .If I did not have a teenage helper I don't think I would ever have uploaded a single image in a format that I intended . For example . The first drawing called : Leyla, Dozens of times I 'posted ' and received messages stating that it had been successfully published without any result. When I did get the help I mentioned, The picture was evenually published with a big blank rectangle next to it destroying the effect of a decent looking publication I had hoped for. Got there in the end and it was not as 'Simple ' as I had hoped .
I suppose I have learnt something about blogging and that is , as in any pleasurable
, addictive , possibly harmful habit; one has to take control and if not give up all together at least become its master and practise harm minimisation :I am logging off now.......for a while.
Sunday, April 09, 2006
News, Local and Distant
Yesterday ,The front page of 'The Guardian' , one of our most respectd newspapers , was taken by a story about 'The British National Party'(BNP).This is a political party which according to most other political parties and commentators , is a fascist party with an ideology not far off from The National Socialists of Germany themselves.... Well the BNP would dispute this and maintain that it is a legitimate democratic party like any other. The front page article discusses the 'Turmoil' caused by the selection of a candidate by the name of Sharif Abdel Gawad, to represent the party in the approaching local elections next month.Although according to the party's leadereship this gentleman is a 'totally assimilated Greek-Armenian' , the grass root members of the party were not impressed . According to the article, the BNP websites were jammed with messages and postings demanding that this 'ethnic' as he was referred to , had no place in a party run by true British people for British People .
Well what does this mean ? the BNP is becoming more 'modernised' and inclusive that even an'ethnic' can take part , become totally assimilated and identify with the 'indegenous' people and join in their campaign of self preservation and actively keep out the new wave of settlers who like Mr Awad's own descedents came to Britain for a better life? Or does it mean that the leadership is out of touch with the 'purity' of the political party's ethos? Well I could not find much reference to the outrage caused by this 'ethnic' being selected when I visited what looked like an official BNP website: http://www.bnp.org.uk/. Maybe I didn't look hard enough or was on the wrong web site. Or could it be possible that the BNP have yet again been misrepresented by what many call the 'left wing media'?
Russia ,far away in Russia, there are parallels. That vast country which many historians would not argue , had lost possibly the greatest number of lives fighting against the belligerent Nazi regime of the mid nineteen forties. A Moscow correspondent of the same newspaper reports a fatal shooting of an African student in St Petersburgh from the barrel of a shotgun on which a swastika had been emblazoned.This was the fourth such killing of a member of an ethnic minority within a week . Eye witnesses stated that Lamzar Samba, 28, from Senegal, a student of communications was shot in the back of the neck whilst leaving a night club with a group of friends.The murders have been attributed to the rise of extreme right wing groups and gangs of ''Skinheaded' thugs.
So what is it with these 'ethnics' as they are often referred to by certain 'non ethnics'? I am an 'ethnic' , I guess the majority of the population of North
and south America has its roots and history in a far away place if ancestory is traced. Same could be said of Australia , New Zealand and so on. Have the Russians always been in Russia , are they somehow purer tha the rest of us ? I am sure too ,that they are the result of mass migrations of people from other lands. Let's face it we are all ethnics!
Look at England which is the largest ,most populated part of Britain also seen by many as synonymous with the word Britain .The Angles , Saxons, Jutes and other peoples that made England , had come from Europe in approximately the year 400 a.d . The Romans had even got there before That , and when these Angles (who gave their name to England) , Saxons ,Jutes and others got to England there were already other people in this land .People that had arrived in this land even before the Romans . These were the Celts and even they were a group that was found all over Europe .So there are more of us than you ......... and this Greek -Armenian who wants to campaign for the BNP could benefit by studying his own history and seeing the racist cruelty of persecution his ancestors may have suffered under the country which gave us the Ottoman Empire , because of ideologies that promote the idea that there is a pure race which is some how supererior.
Or maybe this is not all about ethnicity but the fact that local people of whatever racial background , after seeing that strangers coming into their country appear to receive welfare benefits , housing etc faster and better than they do?
If this is the case then the major political parties should be discussing some of these issues more honestly and acknowledge that the poor and disenfranchised will be
recruited and told that the 'ethnics' are to blame for all the ills of the present day.
Let's blame the Jews, the Africans, Greek-Armenians , the Muslims (regardless of
wether these are an ethnic group or members of a religion ).Lets just blame.....
This is the dangerous ground that seems to be gradually filled by the mostly white
seprematists in our midst. Both the Russians and british fought the Nazis .Yet sometimes people forget what an evil regime 'National Socialism' was.
And meanwhile Lamzar Samba another victim of racism in the country that sacrificed
so much. Yet the mindless , but organised thugs that perpetrate such crimes would argue , and I have heard this many times my self in England: 'My grandfather fought the war for us ,yet people like these foreigners come here and do this that and the other'. Not many of these indignant descendents of soldiers who sacrificed themselves for our future recognise that during both major world wars 'ethnics ' were there at the front too. Sometimes taken from far away lands to fight for the 'empire'.
Do we ever learn from history ?Is history totally subjective? Or is it just a sad fact that in human beings, there is some sort of xenophobia, tribalism or racism that is pumped by our hearts and flows in our arteries thus poisoning our brains ?
Well what does this mean ? the BNP is becoming more 'modernised' and inclusive that even an'ethnic' can take part , become totally assimilated and identify with the 'indegenous' people and join in their campaign of self preservation and actively keep out the new wave of settlers who like Mr Awad's own descedents came to Britain for a better life? Or does it mean that the leadership is out of touch with the 'purity' of the political party's ethos? Well I could not find much reference to the outrage caused by this 'ethnic' being selected when I visited what looked like an official BNP website: http://www.bnp.org.uk/. Maybe I didn't look hard enough or was on the wrong web site. Or could it be possible that the BNP have yet again been misrepresented by what many call the 'left wing media'?
Russia ,far away in Russia, there are parallels. That vast country which many historians would not argue , had lost possibly the greatest number of lives fighting against the belligerent Nazi regime of the mid nineteen forties. A Moscow correspondent of the same newspaper reports a fatal shooting of an African student in St Petersburgh from the barrel of a shotgun on which a swastika had been emblazoned.This was the fourth such killing of a member of an ethnic minority within a week . Eye witnesses stated that Lamzar Samba, 28, from Senegal, a student of communications was shot in the back of the neck whilst leaving a night club with a group of friends.The murders have been attributed to the rise of extreme right wing groups and gangs of ''Skinheaded' thugs.
So what is it with these 'ethnics' as they are often referred to by certain 'non ethnics'? I am an 'ethnic' , I guess the majority of the population of North
and south America has its roots and history in a far away place if ancestory is traced. Same could be said of Australia , New Zealand and so on. Have the Russians always been in Russia , are they somehow purer tha the rest of us ? I am sure too ,that they are the result of mass migrations of people from other lands. Let's face it we are all ethnics!
Look at England which is the largest ,most populated part of Britain also seen by many as synonymous with the word Britain .The Angles , Saxons, Jutes and other peoples that made England , had come from Europe in approximately the year 400 a.d . The Romans had even got there before That , and when these Angles (who gave their name to England) , Saxons ,Jutes and others got to England there were already other people in this land .People that had arrived in this land even before the Romans . These were the Celts and even they were a group that was found all over Europe .So there are more of us than you ......... and this Greek -Armenian who wants to campaign for the BNP could benefit by studying his own history and seeing the racist cruelty of persecution his ancestors may have suffered under the country which gave us the Ottoman Empire , because of ideologies that promote the idea that there is a pure race which is some how supererior.
Or maybe this is not all about ethnicity but the fact that local people of whatever racial background , after seeing that strangers coming into their country appear to receive welfare benefits , housing etc faster and better than they do?
If this is the case then the major political parties should be discussing some of these issues more honestly and acknowledge that the poor and disenfranchised will be
recruited and told that the 'ethnics' are to blame for all the ills of the present day.
Let's blame the Jews, the Africans, Greek-Armenians , the Muslims (regardless of
wether these are an ethnic group or members of a religion ).Lets just blame.....
This is the dangerous ground that seems to be gradually filled by the mostly white
seprematists in our midst. Both the Russians and british fought the Nazis .Yet sometimes people forget what an evil regime 'National Socialism' was.
And meanwhile Lamzar Samba another victim of racism in the country that sacrificed
so much. Yet the mindless , but organised thugs that perpetrate such crimes would argue , and I have heard this many times my self in England: 'My grandfather fought the war for us ,yet people like these foreigners come here and do this that and the other'. Not many of these indignant descendents of soldiers who sacrificed themselves for our future recognise that during both major world wars 'ethnics ' were there at the front too. Sometimes taken from far away lands to fight for the 'empire'.
Do we ever learn from history ?Is history totally subjective? Or is it just a sad fact that in human beings, there is some sort of xenophobia, tribalism or racism that is pumped by our hearts and flows in our arteries thus poisoning our brains ?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
