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COMMENT ARCHIVE
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archived on Sunday, 8 August, 2010
Friday, 3 July, 2009
Ireland, the EU and Lison
Back in 1996, Ireland stood poised on the brink of one of the most remarkable success stories of the century. It had risen from being an exceptionally poor state to one that suddenly found itself swimming in money.
The streets became filled with 4x4s, one car was deemed insufficient so people bought two, and all across the country property developers began throwing up shopping and housing estates by the score.
Banks began lending money practically to anyone who asked and to some who even didn’t—as if they were printing it themselves. But then the bubble burst. And the bottom of the bucket simply fell out.
The collapse happened not because of the global recession, although of course that had an effect. The straw that broke the celtic tiger’s back was plain and simple greed on a massive scale. Those elected into office to run the country and manage its finances did so to benefit themselves and no-one else.
There was no long-term view than incorporated the future. It was a case of get rich as much and as quickly as possible and the disease of greed was rampant.
The ordinary citizen was swept up in the melee. Indeed there was no-one to shine a guiding light as to how to adapt to suddenly having a deluge of cash instead of the shortage that the people of Ireland had known for so long.
Now, instead of providing a lesson to the world on how to build and maintain a country’s wealth and success, quite the opposite is apparent.
Now the country is being urged to vote to ratify the Lisbon Treaty in a second referendum to be held later this year. The reality of that is that politicians, who have screwed up and wasted the nation’s finances, and the cash hungry conglomerates are looking to be bailed out by the EU. And yet it was EU cash that launched Ireland on its prosperity trail a decade ago.
Those who shoulder the guilt for the nation’s demise are now seeking to apportion the blame anywhere but upon themselves.r
Ronnie Biggs—a vindictive decision
Forty-six years ago a gang of men robbed £2.5million from a Post Office train travelling between Glasgow and London. A few short weeks later Ronnie Biggs, one of those taking part was arrested, along with others involved in the robbery. It is on record that politicians and other high ranking government officials discussed the case in private member's only clubs in London before the men were sentenced for their parts in the crime.
The majority of those convicted of the robbery received 30 years jail—an unprecedented sentence for such an offence in the UK.
Fifteen months later Biggs escaped and fled to Brazil, where he lived for 30 years before voluntarilly handing himself in to the British authorities in 2001.
Now, eight years on and aged 79, Biggs is said to be seriously ill and close to death. The UP prison's parole board recommended that he be released on parole.
That recommendation was ignored by Home Secretary Jack Straw who commented that Biggs would “still be a threat” to the public of released.
Flying as it does in the face of the parole board's recommendations, whose very job it is to weight up such risk assessments, Straw’s decision can only be viewed as vindictive and without compassion. It reveals how much unfettered power UK politcians hold in the process of serving not the public but their own selfish interests.r
Lisbon Treaty–the Great Swindle
When the time comes for those in Ireland to vote in the country’s second Lisbon referendum later this year, the question arises—will they be casting their own vote or will they be merely reflecting the wishes of pro or anti Lisbon Treaty factions?
The fact that there is a second referendum being held on the issue is ludicrous enough in itself. In 2008, the people of Ireland voted to reject ratification of the Treaty. In a blatant show of political hypocrisy, the Irish government refused to accept the electorate's vote and almost before the ballot papers were dry those who wished to see the Treaty ratified were condemning and criticising the voters and calling for another referendum.
The Irish public’s decision also irked EU bureaucrats who had successfully forced the majority of EU states to ratify the Treaty without any say by the general populace of those states.
The Treaty is good news for conglomerate businesses but is of no significant value to the average person, who is being conned into believing that it is in fact the best thing to happen to them.r
archived on Tuesday, 23 June, 2009
The Turning of the Wheel
Believing in what you find can be tricky; especially if you grow up in a system of pre-established brainwashing.
We call such a system ‘education’, but the question must be asked: education according to whose criteria?
On the one hand we are told that we live in a ‘free society’ while on the other people are punished for failing to send their children to school. Such punishment and a mandatory requirement that compels people—remember, children are people too—to be press ganged into systematic ‘education’ immediately reveal the lies we are fed about our ‘freedom’. State education has become the manipulative tool of the State.
If you start actively challenging the realities of ‘freedom’ in society today—freedom that is little more than someone else’s idea of freedom enforced upon others—then the reality of the lie becomes clear through the response of those who take action to defend their perceived validity of that ‘freedom’.
We are indoctrinated to believe that society and all within it must be controlled in order to preserve order. Such control however is clearly failing to produce such results and serves more to perpetuate the authority of those enforcing the control.
People are infamous for jumping to conclusions about and forming pre-judgments of others. And the State has magnificent machinery in place to ensure that dissenters to its authority can be classified, categorised, criminalised and ostracised and worse if necessary. And you don’t need to be in China to see it happening.
Until you step wholly outside of the social system, you cannot view it objectively. Its very nature will influence your perspective, regardless of how detached you consider yourself to be. Reflect on the meaning of the biblical story about Jesus going alone into the wilderness to meditate and there being tempted by the devil. If you are born into pitch darkness and never see light then you will never know the true meaning of colour.
Ignorant servitude to a dispassionate, inherited system has created a monstrous self-perpetuating machine that is afforded greater respect by those serving it than is given to the value of the individual.
These truths have again risen to the surface in the last few years. Their reality can be suppressed but not subjugated. The human spirit knows freedom and the falsehoods of man. This is why throughout the ages those seeking to control others have sought to crush the spirit of those they seek to dominate.
All forms of repression and control have one commonality—the use of fear to enforce their aims. So the next time you consider you are being directly or indirectly told to do or believe something, please ask yourself just how much rational argument and explanation is being afforded to you to allow you to make up your own mind about the circumstances and ask yourself if what is happening is really satisfactory to you.r
archived on Monday, 4 May, 2009
Bye bye love, bye bye happiness...
Since 9/11 we have seen some of the most devastating changes in social infrastructures implemented throughout the world and some of the most damaging reversals to individuals’ liberties in modern history.
Governments in by far the majority of so-called democratic nations have increasingly adopted the view that they are there to dominate and control the people who put them into office regardless of the will of those people.
And all this is being done by governments who insist it is for the good. George Orwell would probably have been staggered by the extent at which doublespeak has now been perfected by modern governments.
Britain’s Labour government seems intent on keeping the country at the top of the global league of the most total surveillance societies. It has admitted it is building a secret spy centre that will monitor the travels of all UK citizens and their companions.
In his writings, Immanuel Kant said of democracy: “democracy is, properly speaking, necessarily a despotism, because it establishes an executive power in which 'all' decide for or even against one who does not agree; that is, 'all,' who are not quite all, decide, and this is a contradiction of the general will with itself and with freedom.”
He also wrote that any society founded on the principles of capitalism would eventually crumble to anarchy as the wealthy take ever increasing measures to protect their wealth against the growing numbers of those much less well off.
Are we as a species really intent on going down such a sordid trail?r
When Lies Are Acceptable
UK Foreign Secretary David Milliband should be booted out of office in disgrace. He lied barefaced to questions concerning US correspondence with the UK over the release of documents pertinent to a court trial, claiming no such correspondence took place. He has also by his actions sanctioned political interference in the decision making process of the courts of law.
The issue centers on the release of documents relating to the alleged torture of a UK citizen and Guantanamo Bay detainee and suspected terrorist.
The US has insisted that the UK withdraws from releasing the documents as part of an on-going court case concerning the alleged torture.
Milliband initially repeatedly denied there had been any such correspondence from the US regarding the release of what the US said was ’sensitive’ and classified information, the release of which would significantly damage US security. The letters sent to the UK by US legal advisors acting for the US Government make it clear that the release of the documents would damage intelligence co-operation between the UK and the US.
However Milliband has admitted being reponsible for blocking the release of the documents, which are said to reveal British complicity in the alleged torture.
Read the letters Milliband denied receiving.archived on Friday, 6 February, 2009
No such thing as Bad Press . . .
By refusing to broadcast the Disaster Emergency Committee’s video appeal for Gaza, BBC and Sky television gave far more global publicity to the appeal than if they had both broadcast it.
C’est la vie.r
A Double Dutch Dilemma
Long known for their adherence to liberality, tolerance and individual freedoms, a Dutch court presented a disturbing insight into the erosion of such Dutch values when it ruled that Dutch MP and film producer Geert Wilders must face prosecution for “making anti-Islamic comments”.
Mr Wilders film Fitna allegedly urged Muslims to tear out "hate-filled" verses from the Koran. The film sparked widespread controversy in May 2008.
The Amsterdam court overruled the public prosecutor who declined to prosecute Wilders, Reuters reported.
The ruling by the court on Wednesday, 21 January 2009 creates a dangerous precedent in drawing a division between freedom of speech and what is seen as permitted freedom of speech. Any gag on the freedom of expression through speech is to begin to gag the whole concept of freedom of expression, regardless of how unsavoury or distasteful some comments may be to some people.
Such a gag is also contrary to internationally agreed law protecting individual freedoms through Article 9 of the Charter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Holland is a signatory.
I have the right to speak of you in any way that I wish, if what I am saying is my opinion. Because I am saying it does not mean that that you have to believe what I say. That is your right.
If you express your opinion about me and I try to prevent you from doing so by any means whatsoever, then I am mounting a direct attack on your right to free expression.
The Dutch ruling smacks more of appeasement than of any real and legally binding justification within law. In essence it grants certain rights of freedom to some at the expense of the very same rights of freedom of others.
Mr Wilders has been accused of incitement towards violence, among other things. Perhaps the same might have been said of movies documenting the US atomic attacks on Japan.
The real judgment is your own opinion. You can view the movie herer
archived on Monday, 5 January, 2009
Happy Christmas and 2009?
When the final sequential days to Christmas finally arrive, we once again recall with an almost forlorn longing something we speak and sing of as peace and goodwill to all men.
Our spirits are lifted as we revel in something we feel but don’t even begin to understand, because a few days later we are all back to the same paradoxical stupidity of selfishness.
We invented Christmas. Us, not God, not some Messiah, you and me, or our descendants—those of us alive today merely propagate the cause of something we know so little of.
We invented it out of the sad despair born of the knowledge of our mortality and have been unable to elevate ourselves from the pit of our own ridiculous self imprisonment. We continue our external hunt for our elusive savior when we are our own saviors.
There is little left for us to do as a species on this planet other than to make our world a better place for all, today and tomorrow—an extremely simple thing to do–or we will be left to face the immeasurable consequence.r
Home Secretary living in world of make-believe
Speaking recently on the UK’s extensive use of DNA retention by police where the person involved was not convicted of an offence, UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she would continue to permit the taking of DNA from under-10 year-olds but said it “would not be stored”.
In a ruling earlier this month an EU court ruled that keeping the information of unconvicted persons "could not be regarded as necessary in a democratic society".
Ms Smith went on to say in a BBC interview that the government would “...look carefully at the [EU] ruling but what I want is to safeguard the world-leading position that we have in the use of DNA.".
The country’s chart standing in the DNA database league it seems is of greater importance to the UK government than the civil liberties of the individual.r
The ghosts of Christmas past
Thirteen years ago Ireland and its people stood poised on the brink of the biggest change in the modern history of the country—a change that could have sent ripples around the globe.
The Celtic Tiger was preening itself at the edge of the dark forest in which it had been lost for decades and was casting its gaze out across the new lands now open ahead. Things were looking better—definitely much better.
Alas, it was not destined to be. The change that could have put Ireland on the map as a ‘new society’ giving a positive new direction to other nations simply didn’t happen. Those running the country simply were not capable or prepared to move in new directions. They fell prey to the age-old quicksand of greed. As new money and business began to flood into Ireland and rapidly catapulted the nation into the top five economic success stories, so too the greed and greed-based corruption grew.
Soon it became obvious that those running the country were running nothing better than a fiasco of mismanagement. A financial surplus soon turned into a massive financial deficit with nobody seeming to know just where all the money had gone.
It was not confined to government. Materialistic greed swept across the country and turned the fabled Irish hospitality into little more than a past memory. The wannabees became the haves and soon the haves were disdainfully looking down their noses and the bonnets of their 4x4s at the have nots.
It didn’t have to be like that and it could have been oh so much better. But it wasn’t. Ireland could have stood in proud glory as a beacon of change and good in the world. Instead the capitalistic lure of material gain blinded the nation to anything else.
As Christmas 2008 approaches and the people of the world face up to the realities and impact of a global recession that was triggered by greedy profiteering, it is perhaps worth pondering on the parallels, for one day it will be too late to learn.r
The Lisbon
TreatyDicktative
In the latest unashamedly doublespeak commentary, Irish Minister of State for European Affairs Dick Roche says that by not having a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, Irish people are being denied their rights.
“Why should the Irish people be denied the opportunity to "save Ireland's commissioner"? Why should we spurn the opportunity to protect our sovereign position on corporate taxation? Why would we not want to secure additional guarantees that respect the provisions of the Constitution on the right to life, on education and on family issues? Why should the Irish people be denied the opportunity to copperfasten our tradition of military neutrality” said Mr Roche in a article published by the Irish Times.
The Lisbon Treaty, all EU citizens were informed, could not be implemented by the EU Parliament without the full ratification of all EU member states. It was originally planned to have such ratification in place by the end of 2008. Failing such all-member state agreement it was planned that the treaty would come into force on the first day of the month following the last ratification.
By June 2008 Ireland was among the last member states not to have announced full formal ratification of the treaty and due to provisions within its constitution was required to hold a referendum on the issue.
On 12 June 2008 the Irish people voted to reject Irish ratification of the treaty and as a result it failed to pass into EU law. Lisbon Treaty Dead, headlines screamed out.
A political debacle immediately ensued in which Ireland was castigated by pro-Treaty groups across Europe; the Irish people were accused of being stupid, ignorant or having been deliberately fed misleading information by scheming anti-treaty groups, while politicians sought to castigate voters for rejecting the treaty.
What none seemed to take to heart was that the Irish people had spoken with their votes.
Now we are witnessing the absurd Orwellian doublethink where a TNS/mrbi poll in the Irish Times asked voters would they vote Yes or No in another referendum if the Treaty was modified to allow Ireland to retain its EU Commissioner and if concerns on neutrality, abortion and taxation were clarified in special declarations. The result was 43% said Yes; 39% said No and 19% said they did not know.
The Irish government, unhappy with the no-vote, now proposes to hold a second referendum on the issue and said it would announce its decision in December, though any formal decision has yet to be announced. Taoiseach Brian Cowen has indicated that he intends to hold a second referendum on the treaty by October 2009.
Meanwhile EU politicians seem hell bent on pushing through the Lisbon Treaty regardless of the general wishes of the elctorate, as seen by the lack of any EU-wide referendum on the issue.
In the latest twist to the situation, a report has been given to the Irish Government stating that there are “no legal obstacles to prevent Ireland from holding a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty”.
'No legal obstacle appears to exist to having a referendum either on precisely the same issue as that dealt with on June 12 or some variation thereof,' the parliamentary committee on Ireland's future in the EU said in the report.
It appears that the fact that the people said ‘No’ does not constitute a legal obstacle.
If one thing is clear, it is that actions of government speak louder than words in do as we say and not as we do. Perhaps at the next general election Irish voters will be offered the chance to go back to the voting booths if their decision fails to find favour with the incumbent government.
Related news report
archived on Wednesday, 10 December, 2008
Under the thumb of state corruption
Two national Irish newspapers have been blocked from publishing the main conclusions of the Moriarty tribunal. The Irish Times and the Sunday Business Post were contacted by a solicitor acting for the tribunal late on a Friday night with the threat of an injunction, the UK-based Guardian newspaper has reported.
The Moriarty Tribunal, a public inquiry, was set up in 1999 to investigate if payments from Irish businessmen to Charles Haughey, the former prime minister, who died in June 2006, and the former communications minister Michael Lowry influenced their decisions in awarding telecommunications contracts.
The Guardian also reported that ‘The findings also call into question the veracity of the evidence these civil servants gave under questioning at the tribunal, which was headed by Mr Justice Michael Moriarty. The documents that the two papers were prevented from printing make clear that the judge does not accept the evidence given to him by the civil servants in question’.
Neither The Post, nor The Times which had to halt its press run, later published any information regarding the gagging. The Guardian however reported that ‘Irish government officials confirmed that the present Fianna Fáil-led administration will resist attempts by the tribunal to single out senior civil servants for blame. They said this could entail a further battle through the courts between the government and the tribunal’.
The Moriarty tribunal has so far cost the State €33.7 million of public money and it is expected that legal costs associated with the inquiry may top a further €500million.
Gagging a newspaper from publishing legitimately obtained details of a government-ordered public inquiry into corruption within the government is a Machiavellian development that can only portray all involved in an extremely poor light.r
Enforcing Order off Somalia
Pirates operating off the Somalia coast and in the Gulf of Aden must be laughing at their ability to continue hijacking merchant ships despite the presence in the area of international naval ships.
Naval forces patrolling the region say it is simply too big to police with certainty.
Declaring a total exclusion zone to all vessels except recognised bona fide merchant shipping and naval patrols would greatly simplify the problems. Any unauthorised vessel discovered within the exclusion zone should be given a non-negotiable warning of destruction unless it hove to and awaited the arrival of a naval boarding party. Any vessel ignoring this warning should be destroyed without further warning by naval patrols.The Lisbon
TreatyDictative
The Lisbon Treaty, all EU citizens were informed, could not be implemented by the EU Parliament without the full ratification of all EU member states. It was originally planned to have such ratification in place by the end of 2008. Failing such all-member state agreement it was planned that the treaty would come into force on the first day of the month following the last ratification.
By June 2008 Ireland was the last member state not to have announced formal ratification of the treaty and due to provisions within its constitution was required to hold a referendum on the issue.
On 12 June 2008 the Irish people voted to reject Irish ratification of the treaty and as a result it failed to pass into EU law. Lisbon Treaty Dead, headlines screamed out.
A political debacle immediately ensued in which Ireland was castigated by pro-Treaty groups across Europe; the Irish people were accused of being stupid, ignorant or having been deliberately fed misleading information by scheming anti-treaty groups, while politicians sought to castigate voters for rejecting the treaty.
What none seemed to take to heart was that the Irish people had spoken with their votes.
Now we are witnessing the absurd Orwellian doublethink where a TNS/mrbi poll in the Irish Times asked voters would they vote Yes or No in another referendum if the Treaty was modified to allow Ireland retain its EU Commissioner and if concerns on neutrality, abortion and taxation were clarified in special declarations. The result was 43% said Yes; 39% said No and 19% said they did not know.
The Irish government, unhappy with the no-vote, now proposes to hold a second referendum on the issue and will announce its decision in December.
Meanwhile EU politicians seem hell bent on pushing through the Lisbon Treaty regardless of the general wishes of the elctorate, as seen by the lack of any EU-wide referendum on the issue.
In the latest twist to the situation, a report has been given to the Irish Government stating that there are “no legal obstacles to prevent Ireland from holding a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty”.
'No legal obstacle appears to exist to having a referendum either on precisely the same issue as that dealt with on June 12 or some variation thereof,' the parliamentary committee on Ireland's future in the EU said in the report.
If one thing is clear, it is that actions of government speak louder than words.
Related news reportr
The English Labour
PartyDictative
Gordon Brown has again dismissed a government commissioned specialist review that recommended rejection of plans to introduce the ‘presumed consent’ of organ donating.
The English Prime Minister, coming increasingly under attack for ignoring advice on complex and sensitive issues and being increasingly blind to public opinion, said that he might still press on and introduce new laws despite the review group’s rejection of the plans.
The new law would permit the automatic harvesting of organs unless there was a specific request to opt-out, effectively affording the state a presumed ownership of people’s bodies.
Mr Brown also recently declined to accept the recommendations of another government special advisory group on the re-classfication of cannabis from a class C to class B drug.r
The Real War Against Evil
Spearheaded by a misguided US President and an equally misguided administration, the so-called war against terror brought forth a new twist to an old prodigy, the war against evil, or as President Bush described it, the war against the ‘axis of evil’.
Rocked by violent events of an extraordinary nature, people already insecure and unwittingly fearful became susceptible to greater maleability. An external enemy became the focus for what was termed ‘evil’, transferring the focus away from home grown wrongs.
Western civilisation has for centuries mistreated, maltreated and abused individuals and whole nations in a self-perpetuating orgy of greed and profit; from the enslavement of black people to the underhand removal of foreign leaders considered to be stumbling blocks to the power-hungry profits machine.
Evil is masquerading in the world today as ‘good’. Societies have developed that now place greater worth and value on financial concerns than on human lives. People go hungry, while killing machines wage wars that cost billions. Even to speak out against the machine can draw recrimination. This is the true evil in our world.
Until this is widely recognised, we will be continually at war against the wrong enemy.r
A New Dawn?
Thousands of words will be written and said between now and the 20 January inauguration of President elect Barack Obama—the first non-white and the 44th president of the USA.
Much has also been said, since the results of the election became known, in praising a ‘new start’ for the American nation.
For the past eight years America has been led deeper into a state of myopic fear and paranoia by power hungry leader George W. Bush, whose past actions rival that of any dictator. Nowhere is this more apparent than in free thinking countries outside of America.
Any incoming President of America faces a huge task in re-establishing respect for the country beyonds its shores and for now the world can only wait and wonder if, at the end of the day, the new President will be more than, in the words of the Who, ‘meet the new boss, same as the old boss’.
archived on Thursday, 6 November, 2008
The Dark Ages of Sharia Law
This website condemns without reservation the stoning to death of a woman in Somalia. The woman, at first said to have been found guilty of committing adultery by an Islamic Sharia Court, was later estimated to have been about 13 years old and had been raped by three men. When the family attempted to report the rape, the girl was detained. After being buried up to her neck she was then pelted to death by stones thrown by a group of about 50 men while a large crowd stood and watched in the coastal town of Kismao.
The woman, named as Aisho Ibrahim Dhuhulow, had pleased guilty to adultery according to local Islamic leader Sheikh Hayakallah. Amnesty International said it had evidence that the girl had been just 13 (see BBC news report).
There can be no place for any such barbarism in any society.r
Leading Islam to the Slaughter
The Islamic world must wake up to the sheer hypocrisy that is being widely perpetrated in its name by power greedy political manipulators.
Malaysian authorities are currently detaining the editor of Malaysia Today, blogger Raja Petra (RPK) Kamarudin under section 8 of its ‘Internal Security Act’ for writing comments deemed to degrade “the purity of Islam” and for writing material critical of the Malaysian government. Under the Draconian rules, Petra can be detained for up to two years without trial and the detention can be extended indefinitely.
Similar punitive restrictions remain widely in place throughout the Islamic countries. Political leaders and warlords alike have seized on the opportunity to mislead and manipulate Islamic followers. It is time such acts of religious attrition by those who seek no other goal other than their own selfish lust for power.r
Into The Witches’ Cauldron
There seems little, if anything at all, to be learned from the current global financial mess. When it comes to financial profiteering, human greed is indomitable and impervious to past mistakes.
We might learn that financial investments are inherently unsafe endeavours because they are founded on the concept of profit. Of course, profit in itself is no bad thing. Yet profit cannot develop without greed for greed drives the motive for greater profit. It is based upon a system of inequality and cannot exist without such division.
According to all analysts, the current global financial collapse is more severe than any in the last 100 years. In the early 1900s, financial depression helped trigger World War 1 and in the 1930s, a subsequent financial depression triggered by the costs of the first world war led to World War 2.
A statement released on the situation by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown included: “The global financial market has ceased to function, putting in danger the necessary flow of money to businesses and families on which all of us depend in our daily lives”.
We all depend on money in our daily lives. Why? Are we born with a wallet attached to our umbilical cord? All the arguments in favour of such dependence are put forward by those who benefit by such dependence. The rest are merely dished the crumbs off the table.
It is also extremely rich–no pun intended–that one prominent bank CEO said that banks felt hard done by and wanted a ‘level playing field’ when it came to the cash handouts from government. Where were the level playing fields when bank customers complained of unfair and excessive bank charges and had to resort to the threat of court action to obtain refunds?
In Ireland, the Government said it would use taxpayers money to guarantee €485 billion worth of bank deposits and borrowings and one senior Minister said he thought senior bankers’ annual salary should be subject to a €5000,000 cap. In the same week the same Government announced, through its budget, that it was withdrawing medical cards, affording free medical services, to those over 70 who did not pass a new means test.
In the words made popular by songwriter Lou Reed, we are all going to reap just what we sow.archived on Wednesday, 8 October, 2008
Into The Twilight
PROFITEERS who brought the US financial market to its knees through their greed were almost bailed out this week by the US taxpayers–the very people they screwed to begin. On Monday, the ‘rescue’ package, put forward by the White House, was rejected by the US House of Representatives, though it is by no means certain that the package will not yet eventually come into effect, costing some $2,000 for every person living in the US today. But surely hang on here, the people, as well as capital investors, put money into banks, which subsequently lost it, yet the banks and to a major extent the capital investors are being supported. Are the people?
Elsewhere, in the Gulf of Aden and in the waters off the Somalia coast—one of the world’s busiest commercial shipping lanes—Somali pirates seem able to continue hijacking commercial and private shipping almost with impunity, regardless of the world’s armed navies.
In the same week, scientists learned that vast quantities of the highly environmentally damaging gas methane were being released into the atmosphere due to the degradation of the arctic permafrost, raising awareness of a potentially catastrophic escalating snowball effect.
On a brighter note, light follows the twilight.r
Behind the subconscious of the Moon
Anyone who takes the time to study news headlines from around the world today will have little doubt that freedom of speech and self expression have become one of the most oppressed aspects of modern day life.
Countless numbers of people have been murdered on the directions of governments and ruling juntas for no reason other than they spoke out against their oppressors or against those wielding control and thus were seen by those they criticised as a threat. Hundreds of people are currently imprisoned, some are being tortured, for similar reasons.
Such oppression is by no means confined to the lesser nations. Similar atrocities have been and continue to be carried out in the so-called free societies of the world, including the United States and the UK. In the past month, journalists in Russian controlled states have been murdered by state complicity, adding to a long list of similar killings in eastern bloc controlled locations.
The myth of freedom is the tool used to control those living within such societies. Under such conditions, it is difficult at the least, impossible at the worst, to maintain an accurate perception of the realties of situation.
In such circumstance, the erosion of civil liberty becomes an easier task for those with vested interests in maintaining oppressive control. Oil is poured on an already slippery slope.
These are the harsh realities of our modern world—a world that has brought about the development of mass communications technologies but has also placed those same technologies in the hands of those willing and able to use them for their own agendas, irrespective of the consequence to others.
We have become sanitized to murder, destruction and wrongdoings carried out in our name by those who assume the mantle and uniforms of authority and ‘right’.
This, then, is the reality of ‘freedom’ in our modern world.archived on Tuesday, 9 September, 2008
One Dream, One World?
Russia invaded Georgia while billions of people around the world were tuned into the opening of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. While civilians were being killed in the fighting now taking place, Presidents Bush and Putin ‘discussed’ the situation whilst attending the opening of the Games.
It makes the whole reality of the current Olympic Games into an hypocritical mockery. Images of the Russian invasion of Georgia should have been displayed across the monitors and TV screens showing images of the opening ceremony and people should have been told that whilst they were watching the ceremony Russia has invaded a small neighbouring country with its military.
Athletes participating in the Games could have walked out and refused to participate further. Medals are valueless while elsewhere people are being killed through military invasion.
One World, One Dream is just not going to miraculously happen. We need to make such a thing happen. And that will not happen through inactivity.
To see things otherwise is nothing less than greater hypocrisy.
Time To Think?
In what one day might be termed Rumsfeldspeak, there are those who know that they think that they care. There are those who don’t know that they think that they care. And there are those who don’t think and don’t care.
Whichever anyone of us happens to be is purely a matter of life’s decision. For those who don’t care nothing really matters. Those who don’t care don’t think, right?
Wrong. They think prefabricated thoughts and so they think that they think. The real issue here is just who manufactured those prefabricated thoughts. But then, it doesn’t really matter because they have been implanted over so many generations that they have become imbued within our social structures. But then again it does matter, because thinking thoughts that might question the validity of those prefabricated thoughts has become, well, almost akin to a crime.
Thought crime. It’s almost a crime to think that such a thing might even exist. Would a man in the middle of a desert be thinking thought crime if he happened upon an oasis bearing a sign that said ‘private — absolutely no drinking’ and he questioned its validity?
If you think about it, you might see where this is going and, well, care about that. Otherwise, if you continue to be part of the sickness, you continue to contribute to its continuation. But then, perhaps nobody cares.archived on Sunday, 27 July, 2008
The Cold of the Desert
Those who sat through the movie The Day After Tomorrow know that it has all been said before and will be said again. That we are heading towards major catastrophe through global climate change is a matter of no doubt except to fools. History, where we care to look with dispassion, teaches us that global climate change is a natural phenomenon that peaks every 20,000 years or so. We are now overdue such natural shift in our planetary ecosystem.
To continue to apportion blame on industry and on individual users of fuels and energy sources that add to global warming is a ridiculous stance adopted by the ignorant. Human contributions towards climate change are certainly present but in such a fractional percentage that it may do little more, in the long run, than advance the coming catastrophe by just a short period of years. Global warming and its effect on the earth’s oceanic convection streams will lead to the dawn of a sudden and devastating new ice age.
Little is being done to prepare for that eventuality. Instead we see the continued senseless apportioning of blame that has its roots in ignorance.
Those who would speak of preserving our habitable world for future generations would be better asking themselves just how those future generations are going to cope with a frozen planet. They would also do well to ask themselves just what they are doing to ensure that future generations have at least a thread of hope of a survivable future through the efforts of their forebearers.r
Europe & Lisbon
With much of global public attention focused by media and government sources on terrorism and all its consequences, on armed conflicts and other politically dominated issues, the European Union’s moves towards ratifying the Lisbon Treaty passed through its stages almost like a thief in the night.
It is an unsatisfactory and thoroughly undemocratic process. Many EU member state governments have simply voted to accept the treaty regardless of public opinion and in many cases have done so without allowing their electorates any effective say in the matter.
A press statement by the EU presidency on the Lisbon Treaty spoke of the ‘benefits’ of the treaty and named states that had ‘ratified’ it but failed to provide any public detail of their processes of ratification nor did the press statement afford any mention to EU states that have not ratified the treaty and the public opinion in those states.
Ireland held a referendum on the acceptance of the treaty and voters roundly rejected to accept its ratification. Within hours, argument had split between the pro-treaty camps as to why Ireland had rejected the treaty and the blame was placed on both the anti-treaty brigades and the gullibility and ignorance of the voters.
The EU’s information web site says nothing of the real content and impact of the treaty but paints it as the only way forward for Europe. It is up to ignorant parties to read and try to make sense of the politically jargonised treaty text if they wish to understand what the treaty will mean. However, the full text version of the Lisbon Treaty was as incomprehensible to the majority of readers as it is such a mish mash of deletions, additions and alterations that it is impossible to determine the actual content in a meaningful way.
Among the treaty’s effects will be the creation of a centrally controlled European military machine known as the European Defence Agency, controlled by the European Parliament and beyond the controlling powers of governments of individual member states. It will also devolve many decision making processes away from the governments of member states and place much greater powers under the control of the European Parliament. In short, it is a major step towards the creation of a European superstate, as envisaged by France and Germany prior to the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC), which evolved into the European Community (EC) and then became the current European Union (EU).
But the reality should lie in the fact that despite Irish voters rejecting the treaty, its proponents roundly failed to accept their vote. That should by itself speak volumes.
archived on Friday, 9 May, 2008
The Diana Verdict
The verdict reached by the jury in the inquest into the deaths of Princess Diana, Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul is just one more page in a chapter that concludes that nobody will ever really know just what the true circumstances were that led to the fatal crash in which the three died.
Just one person really had that knowledge and driver Henri Paul took it to the grave with him. Since then the world has been privy to one of the most publicised inquiries next to that of 9/11 and certainly what must be the most publicised inquest in history.
The results of the inquiry and inquest alike are no less than the expression of opinion based and formed on and by the presentation of detail. In the case of the inquest, that opinion and therefore a decision on a verdict was reached by nine members of a jury of 11 men and women who sat through the 91 days of presented evidence and detail.
Yet regardless of what anyone thinks or believes happened on that Sunday morning in the Paris Alma tunnel, no-one has so far heard anything from anyone who actually knows. Because of that, those who seek the truth are left only with contemplations.r
How Long Will The Clock Tick?
Unlike other life forms on earth, the human race is in charge of its own survival or destruction and ultimately that of all life as we know it on our planet. Given that we remain a frightened, paranoid species capable of waging war on our fellow kind as a direct result of greed, the future is something less than rosy.
The money that has been wasted on wars throughout the world since Word War 2—supposedly the war to end all wars—could itself have been used to eradicate the very reasons for those wars. But it seems that such action would not satisfy the ambitions of our political leaders and the reality must be seen for what it is. Doublespeak may have been coined long ago, but in our world today those we look to for leadership have honed doublespeak to perfection.
We have so-called scholars around the world who are looking to find some sort of divine revelations in the work of the likes of Nostradamus whilst the reality of our existence stares us straight in the face.
It is our so-called ‘civilised’ world that has brought forth the euphemism“collateral damage” as a convenient excuse for the wanton killings of unarmed, non-combatant civilians in the many regions of the world where leaders have declared military conflict. To ignore the reality of our own stupidity is to ignore the fate of our own kind and that of others.r
archived on Friday, 9 May, 2008
Where Reality is Censored
Fitna the movie. Have you seen it? Have I? Who cares. There are thousands of movies depicting thousands of events, not all of them pleasant but real nonetheless. The real issue here is the self-trial of those who claim to uphold the values of freedom of thought and expression.
No-one in the so-called democratically ‘free’ world has either denounced or censored any movie that equates or portrays Aryans as nazis, for that would be denying the truth. The truth is also that not all Aryans were nazis.
Fitna has produced an abuse of authority wherein the movie has been made taboo by those who consider themselves endowed with the authority and right to tell other people how or what they should think.
The movie has also brought out the extremist elements within the west that are beginning to rot democratic freedoms from within. Such circumstances have been known to topple civilizations.
The European Union, presided over by Slovenia, issued a statement backing an earlier statement by the Dutch government on the Internet release of the film. Following the release of the film, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said: “The film equates Islam with violence. We reject this interpretation. The vast majority of Muslims reject extremism and violence. In fact, the victims are often also Muslims.
“We therefore regret that Mr Wilders has released this film. We believe it serves no purpose other than to cause offence. But feeling offended must never be used as an excuse for aggression and threats. The government is heartened by the initial restrained reactions of Dutch Muslim organisations.
“Muslims, Christians and people of other convictions can easily live together in peace. The problem is not religion, but misuse of religion to sow hatred and intolerance. That is why we are calling for respect for everyone's deepest convictions.”
The hosting company of the film’s website then closed the site down and included in a statement of its reasons: “You understand that we reserve the right to conclude that your conduct is in violation of the standards set forth in this Acceptable Use Policy, and we may arrive at such a conclusion even if it is based upon our opinion or mere suspicion or belief, without any duty to prove that our opinion or suspicion is well founded, and even if (i) our opinion or suspicion is proven not to be well founded or (ii) we provide other customers services that have similar characteristics or are being used in a similar manner as your services."
Since when has it been an offence to offend someone by expressing your mind? Self-expression is the very bedrock of freedom.
Such a view is a malaise born of human ignorance, fear and appeasement all boiling together in the same pot. Without freedom we are doomed to self-destruct as a species.
Finally, its is worth remembering that there are religious and political fanatics on all sides and that similar circumstances were ignored earlier last century with devastating consequence.
We must all remember that liberality must not be selectively applied. The Muslim/Islamic Jihad against the west has been in effect for many years.
To watch the movie and reach your own conclusions, go here.
If the above link fails to work go here.
This website has posted the video links not in support of the content but in support of the freedom of the individual to make his or her own decisions regarding what they see.China And The Marathon Olympic Decision
Calls for the boycott of the Beijing Olympic Games are reminiscent of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which became known as the Nazi Olympics. Despite calls from many western nations to boycott the 1936 Games, the Berlin Olympics went on much as usual and Germany’s nazi leadership went on to present foreign spectators and journalists with a false image of a peaceful, tolerant Germany ready to rejoin Europe in the wake of World War 1. As has been documented elsewhere, “Only a few reporters, such as William Shirer, understood that the Berlin glitter was merely a facade hiding a racist and oppressively violent regime”.
In 1980, the United States under President Carter announced it would boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics to protest the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Sixty-two countries joined in the boycott while others attended but deployed milder forms of protest. Countries that called for or participated in the boycotts in both 1936 and 1980 have stated that they will not implement a boycott of the Beijing games, despite China’s appalling record in human rights.
The Chinese government reneged on its announcement that if it was granted world consent to host the Olympics it would improve its human rights record. In fact the opposite has taken place, with violent repression of freedom of speech and expression and the internment of those who have been outspoken against the Chinese authorities, in much the same way as nazi Germany rounded up gypsies (Roma's) and Jews in Berlin.
There are those who maintain that sports events should not become a target for politically motivated issues. Yet those who support such a view are from countries who have strong economic ties and trade with China. Countries that were most active in supporting calls to boycott the1936 and 1980 games today have a concealed yet equally blemished record of human rights, including the United States.
Meanwhile the International Olympics Committee is silent on the issue of calls to boycott the Beijing games.
To continue to support the Beijing games on the pretext that it might ‘harm’ China and also ‘harm’ possible improvements to China’s record of human rights is dangerous, immoral and hypocritical.
To support the games without protest is to send a clear signal to Peking that despite the worldwide calls to boycott the games, it is quite OK and acceptable for China to continue its regime of violent repression.
Individual athletes have the option of choosing to go to the Beijing games or not. Their combined action could be the strongest non-violent action possible against tyrannical Chinese rule.archived on Thursday, 20 March, 2008
Through a mirror darkly
Modern societies are more connected within themselves and with other societies than at any time in recorded history. Throughout the world there are more telephones, televisions, radios, Internet connections and other means of instant communication and transfer of knowledge than ever before.
Yet despite such an abundance, our world is still racked by the cruelty, repression and violent oppression of man by fellow man.
This week, the US military attacked a so-called terrorist target in an intrusion into yet another country – Somalia.
Also this week, Israel launched a military strike on a refugee camp, claiming it was a base for insurgents against Israel.
No state of war has even been declared by the US against Afghanistan or Iraq. The decision to go to war was, primarilly, a presidential one. Congress took a very back seat. Under America’s Constitution, only an Act of Congress can declare America to be at an official state of war. Under such terms, the present US and coalition forces’ entry into military combat can be nothing more nor less than illegal.
In the latest bizarre twist of reality, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: “I condemn absolutely any members of the public who show abuse or discrimination to our armed forces.
“They should be thanked for the great job that they're doing, they should be encouraged to wear their uniform in public, they should be free to do so and the public will want to show their respect and gratitude.”
His comment was made after air force personnel at a Cambridgeshire base were advised by their camp commander to war civilian uniforms during off-duty trips into town due to concerns that local people who were opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan might ‘abuse’ them. His comments reflect a belief that he is authorised to tell people how they should think and behave.
In many countries around the world, people are being punished and jailed and sometimes killed for using freedom of speech or expression. Dark days indeed.
When battle lines are drawn
The battle lines have been drawn. Freedom of the individual is being strangled.
Freedom of thought, freedom of opinion, freedom of expression and freedom of belief are all under relentless attack throughout the world by those who are entrenched in self-idolatry and greed.
Those who are being corralled by such repression are being nurtured to believe that it is for their own benefit and overall good. The reality has become more grotesque than that portrayed in George Orwell’s fictionalised bleak world of 1984.
People have been arrested, sentenced to jail in countries around the world and stigmatised as ‘dissidents’ for speaking their mind on certain issues on Internet websites. Many websites have been shut down by those who fear truthful observations. Increasingly the term dissident has been used to imply that those who disagree with government are committing some sort of crime.
A dissident is no more than a person who disagrees with the actions of a government or with those who wear the mantle of ‘authority’. The right to free expression is universal. There is a very wide but forgotten difference between dissidents who voice opposition or engage in peaceful protest and the dissident who turns to violence as a demonstration of protest.
There are those who would resort to belittle those with clarity of vision by the use of ridicule and semantics. Yet the real criminals are those who oppress the right to peaceful protest or free expression. Anyone who attempts to oppress freedom of expression is an enemy of the people and, in the long run, an enemy to themselves.
Such situations and circumstance might be expected within dictatorship-ruled societies or former communist states wherein former rulers still seek to cling to old established powers.
Where such oppression and repression is allowed to flourish unchecked in states ruled by democratically elected governments, then you have the clearest signs of the expansion of fascist behaviour and dictatorship obfuscated by sweet talk.
The battle lines have been drawn. It is up to each individual to decide how to live with them and learn if they are part of the solution or part of the problem.archived on Friday, 4 January, 2008
For Auld Lang Syne
Christmas has come and gone for those who celebrate it on 25 December but little has changed. We have the continuing man-made atrocities in Darfur. Turkey has continued to bomb Kurdish villages once again on the pretext of defence against terrorism and it has amassed 100,000 troops on the Iraq border. The violence in Pakistan continues unabated following the assassination of former President Bhutto.
And almost exactly three years since the day of the Indian Ocean tsunami, Indonesia is suffering from a fresh wave of naturally occuring disasters in the form of severe floods.
It is perhaps too much to hope that the dawn of a new year might bring better times to our world. A little too much to hope for because too many in positions of being able to really improve our world are too entrenched in their own desires and aspirations of personal gain and well-being.
And yet we must continue to remain firm in the hopes of a better world and better lives for those whose days are filled with little else other than pain and suffering.
Auld lang syne is literally ‘old long since’. We cannot go backwards in time to days when the world was a nicer, safer and freer place, if in fact such time existed at all in our dark history as a species.
But as we go forward to 2008 and those of us whose lives are not filled with the daily horror of unrelenting violence prepare to dance and clink in the changes, we should think of those whose lives are so inflicted with such man-made suffering. Only by standing firm against the madnesses being rained upon our fellow human beings by those in power can we hope to bring about any changes.archived on Sunday, 30 December, 2007
Civilisation & What Future…?
As Christmas again approaches it is customary to reflect on the past year and to think of friends and loved ones and those less fortunate than ourselves. As John Lennon penned: And so this is Christmas, And what have you done? Another year over, and a new one just begun.
The reality is that friends and loved ones are dying in wars across the globe—wars that have been orchestrated not by the people but by politicians and despots who remain further removed than anyone from the scenes of conflict, suffering and death. And the less fortunate are often left to die by the roadside as thought their ill-fortune is their own fault.
There are those who continue to plan for the future as if everything is dandy and rosy and Father Time is standing waiting with open arms for their progress.
But where and what is that future? Regardless of the pussyfooting vocal appeasements currently being practiced between armed nations around our planet while those very nations are in states of active war, we are probably closer to the onset of global war and the very real threat of the wide scale use of nuclear weaponry than at any time in our modern history, including the Cuba missile crisis of 1962.
And then there is global warming and climate change. Over the past decade we have witnessed its growing dramatic effects and these effects will increase in both frequency and severity, much like an avalanche that begins from a relatively small impetus but which develops calamitous side effects in its passing.
The question of whether civilisation and humanity—or life as we know it—has a future is not an idle nor a scare mongering one. It is about our very survival.
Perhaps this should be the overall focus of our Christmas reflections.
Perhaps too we should give thought to the wars being waged by empirical powers in countries beyond their borders and waged under the pretext of combating ‘terrorism’. Empirical powers throughout history have enjoyed but one end result alike—the destruction of their empires.
If someone forced their way into your home and started telling you what you should and should not do, with the underlying threat of violence against you if you did not comply, would you sit back and welcome them with open arms? Or would you mount a defence against your own liberty?
It is easy to visit the colourful Christmas shops and forget about the realities around us in the world of today.
But unless we do so, Christmas may one day be a thing of the past for us all and not just for those forced to live in oppression and denial of freedom.archived on Sunday, 16 December, 2007
Iraq—What Possible Answer?
Occupation service personnel, armed opposition personnel and civilians continue to be maimed and killed in the ongoing war against ‘terrorism’, publicised by the main coalition administrations as a war to bring ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’ to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Service personnel within the occupation coalition believe they are part of a liberation crusade bringing the west’s defined ‘freedoms’ to the countries they serve in.
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have now continued longer than Word War II and there is still no clearer vision of such freedom to those living or deployed in either country, although the administrations of the western coalition broadcast a different story. Meanwhile the roadside bombs and suicide bombings and armed hostilities continue on all sides.
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have one aim in common—control of the region to safeguard access to its resources. One can only wonder what might happen should a foreign army invade the United States with a view to removing its administration and replacing it with its own set of values. Would those who took up arms in defence of their way of life be considered ‘insurgents’, ‘rebels’ or ‘terrorists’?
Short of total annihilation of the indigenous populations of the occupied countries, both wars are unwinnable. Lives will continue to be lost to no avail other than the continuation of the unattainable materialistic dreams of those responsible for pursuing them.
It appears that the bulk of world leaders today are doing nothing more than inexorably pushing the world to the brink of World War III.3,485 AFGHAN CIVILIANS KILLED
and 6,273 SERIOUSLY INJURED As of July 2004Figures vary from 76,662 to 785,957 IRAQI CIVILIANS KILLED
and 1,414,723 SERIOUSLY INJURED June 2007As of October 1 2007, there were 30,294 military victims of accidents and diseases so serious they had to be medically sent out of Iraq.
r
Nannie’s gonna keep you healthy & clean
The latest UK nannie state laws making it ‘illegal’ to smoke whilst driving beggars belief beyond all description. How long will it be before people are told that drivers cannot speak to passengers and vice versa for fear of ‘distraction’? Or cannot play music, or cannot use the GPS system to navigate on the roads.
This is not just an affront to anything that hangs onto any remote resemblance to civil liberties in the UK, it is a direct and blatant attack on the freedom of the individual. Do the fat slobs who sit in Government really know anything?archived on Monday, 12 November, 2007
What PM left out of Queen’s Speech
Gordon Brown has delivered the draft of his first Queen’s Speech setting out his Government’s schedule for ‘reform’.
Among other things in the speech Mr Brown referes to:
Regarding Europe, Mr Brown’s moves to make it compulsory for all travellers to and out of the UK to show their passports contradicts the EU’s policy of free movement of people throughout the EU. Britain, it seems, still believes in its defunct Empire days and wants to have its cake and eat it too. It has constantly evaded EU policy that it considers ‘awkward’ while embracing anything that it considers it can benefit by. It will be interesting to see if Portugal’s Minister for Home Affairs, Rui Pereira makes any reference to this when he presidea at the JHA Council's area of Internal Affairs, and is due to address, with his counterparts, the free movement of people in Europe.archived on Sunday, 11 November, 2007
Freedom’s just another word…
No longer should there be any doubts in anyone’s mind that individual freedoms in the so-called free world are under greater attack and erosion than ever since the end of World War II. Laws have been passed in the US giving US security services powers to intercept all telephone calls, internet traffic and emails made by foreign citizens across US-based networks. There have been no objections raised by foreign authorities, including the EU.
In the UK, where the world’s largest collection of individual’s DNA data is already on record, a judge has called for the entire UK population including foreign visitors to be put on the database. The suggestion has been supported by members of Government.
In the majority of democratic countries citizens must ask local or national authorities for permission to stage demonstrations or protests for even the simplest of complaints or objections. It all makes George Orwell’s 1984 appear almost juvenile in scope.
And as we remember another anniversary of the World Trade Centre attacks, this is now all being promulgated in the name of post 9/11 security. It is an insult to and nullifies the brave actions of the many men and women who in earlier times gave their service and often their lives in the belief that they were safeguarding the freedoms of their own and future generations.
Yet perhaps the most obnoxious attack on free speech is the closing down of former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray’s website by UK hosting company Fasthosts after the company was threatened with legal action by Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov in a bid to silence any negative portrayal of his person.archived on Saturday, 15 September, 2007
Right Winge Liberalism
There should not really be any accusation of discrimination or even any issue over whether a practicing Sikh should be entitled to wear a turban as part of the uniform of any national state body such as the military, police, fire or medical services.
If someone wished to wear a purple fez as part of his or her police uniform that person would be surely and politely informed as to the realities. A designated uniform is just that.
Those whose inherited customs contravene the customs of the country of their residence should either accept the customs they live within or relocate to a country where those customs serve as the norm.
To make an issue of this is to draw liberalism to a ridiculous level.archived on Tuesday, 21 August, 2007
Granny’s Monster Mash
The British nanny state is well on track, it appears. The fact that a 16-year-old schoolgirl should be banned by her school from wearing a purity ring symbolising her commitment to her own religious beliefs is itself stupid enough. The fact that a High Court ruling then upheld the ban on appeal drives an already inane ruling to an even higher level of absurdity. Those behind such stupidity should be walking the streets with heads bowed in abject shame.
But then, George Orwel’s ominous predictions of the future were glorified as imaginitive writing and little more, with no real attention to the realities enshrined in the thinking.r
Shell & Profit v ?
The on-going fiasco of the Shell pipeline development in County Mayo, Ireland is a stark reminder of just how ruthless the impact of greedy profit-motivated conglomerates can be.
It has become increasingly difficult for the ordinary citizen to learn how the oil and subsequently pipeline and refinery companies were granted access by government to residential, farm and EU designated protective land without any financial profits from the process earmarked for the benefit of the local community or the citizens of the country itself.
A report by an international fact-finding delegation documents serious misdoing in how civil protests were handled by the authorities and makes a number of recommendations. However, it is difficult to see how any recommendations may be implemented without the intervention of an independent, external agency empowered to enforce its deliberations on the issues.
Aside from the environmental issues arising from the proposals, people will be forced from their homes by the project and others will lose their livelihood with no recompense being offered by the companies or others set to profit or benefit by the scheme.
Where is any offer of fair financial settlement to those whose lives will be inescapably interfered with should the proposals go through to completion?r
The Rules Of The Road
Over one third of all European motor accident deaths are aged between 18 and 25, according to figures released by the European Union during the past month. Ireland—with one of the lowest populations of EU states—has the highest number of annual road accident deaths throughout the EU.
Ireland's Green Party has said that it wants to introduce driver safety lessons in schools. This is all well and good for introducing basic theoretical knowledge but alone is insufficient to increase driver safety with noticeable effect.
Cars are now much speedier and many young drivers are attracted to the dreamlike thrill of owning such a vehicle and speeding around cities, towns and villages as well as countryside roads. Add the growing popularity of turbo boosted cars and the recipe is ripe for disaster. Young drivers lack the necessary on-road experience to handle such cars, despite their belief and confidence that they can.
The only way to make drivers and the roads safer is to restructure the whole approach to the driving licence.
Any driver must become familiar with a particular vehicle's operational qualities before he or she can be said to be capable of safely driving that vehicle. Making it compulsory for new drivers to spend a significant number of hours behind the wheel of different cars, at a suitable location such as an abandoned airfield where they might come to understand the operational qualities of vehicles before ever being allowed onto the public road system would vastly improve driver quality.
And this alone is also not enough. What must also be tackled is the attitude of young drivers. No amount of schooling will change a hotheads desire to race behind the wheel or to think that they are ‘good drivers’.
The only sure way towards nurturing safer new drivers is to limit the type of vehicle they are permitted to legally drive until they can demonstrate their ability to safely handle their vehicle and remain within legal driving boundaries.
Like maximim engine cc limits are placed on learner motorcyclists in some countries, similar restrictions should be enforced on all new car drivers, with the relaxation of such restrictions dependant on a set number of driving hours reached and a demonstrable level of safe driver ability.
There must also be a much greater importance given to ensuring that drivers’ knowledge and application of the enforceable legalities of the Highway Code is of sufficient standard.
To attempt to tackle driver safety in any other way would be half-hearted and foolhardy.archived on Tuesday, 3 July, 2007 1:07 AM
Where the system fails
Nothing is a given right in life except our right to freedom providing that our actions do not cause intentional or unintentional harm to another or others.
The murders of two young girls in Wexford and the deaths of their mother and father, Ciara and Adrian Dunne in what appears to have been a suicide pact demands the question why no-one acted on things said to police or social services.
The fact that the young father and mother both went to a funeral parlour and made arrangements for a family funeral—facts also know to his own mother—should spark the questions as to why neither police or social services took action over this, particularly since Mr Dunne’s brother James had committed suicide in recent weeks and so the family would have been known to social services. It is reported that the undertaker had contacted police after the mother and father made their visit to make the funeral arrangements.
Mrs Dunne was found strangled and Mr Dunne was found hanging in the hall of the family home. The two daughters Shania and Leanne, had been suffocated.
It is reported that members of the mother's family had earlier travelled from Donegal to Wexford because of their concerns for the safety of the family and had reported their concerns to police and “others in authority”.
Any investigation into the tragedy will be meaningless unless full attention is given to address these questions.archived on Thursday, 15 March, 2007 10:51 PM
Star Wars = Rats Wars
Anyone with a basic level of intelligence might reasonably conclude that the human race is still entrenched in a dark age of its own creation.
Money spent throughout the centuries by nations to arm themselves either for hostilities or for defence against the hostility of other nations could have transformed this world into a paradise for all who live upon it.
Wishful thinking, yes. Reality, yes.
It is recognised that any important scientific invention has been used in war before in the majority of instances it has been used to benefit the population through peaceful deployment—although there is the argument that use through war has been for the progress of peace.
With the move towards the European deployment of the US anti-ballistic missile defence system—Star Wars 2—the lunacy moves another step onwards.
Nations are now beginning to dramatically wake up to the reality of global warming and its awful consequences. Be it caused by human activity or natural events—one scientists theorised that the world is moving out of a mini-ice age—global warming is real, rising sea levels are happening and the world terrain is altering.
Severe water shortages are forecast for the middle east regions and despite the wealth of some of those countries no desalination plants have been, or are planned, along the coasts. Water will become a scarce commodity.
Perhaps we will never pass out of our infancy as a species.r
Of Crime and Punishment
There is something starkly unpalatable in the announcement by UK home secretary John Reid that two new prisons are to be built to cope with the worst ever overcrowding of UK jails. Britain now has the highest per capita prison population in Europe.
We would expect more from a developed nation than knee-jerk reactions built upon unsubstantial comments such as the “public wanted more people in prison for their own safety”.
More and more we are seeing the use by government of innacurate use of ‘fact’ to justify an end. A perfect example of this is the forthcoming smoking ban—built upon the unproven yet postulated possibility that passive smoke is harmful. The truth is far from this distorted version of reality.
The end can never justify the means if those means are deployed purely to accomplish a given end that is built on uncertain foundations.
There are thousands of people in prison in the UK who should not have been sent to jail in the first place. Unless and until such issues are dealt with the associated problems will continue to grow.
And this does not tackle the fact that in a growingly unequal society more people will be pushed into situations whereby they will be categorised as criminals and dealt with as such.
To help straighten out such distorted circumstances we require a mainstream media that is once more capable of impartially examining issues of the day and not kow-towing to and redistributing propaganda.r
When Freedom turns Sour
Forty-five years ago in the UK of the mid-60s puzzled conversations revolved around the erosion of civil liberties in the UK and that talk was interspersed with worry that Britain was sliding into a police state.
Since those days of blossoming flower power and hippies, the drift towards nanny-state indoctrination and control has inexorably outpaced the development of real civil freedoms.
The erosion of those freedoms has multiplied many dozen-fold in the last decade and has been explained away through reasons that attempt to extol upon us that such things are being done for our own benefit.
In the last six years, many observers had drawn attention to the overseas military action of the UK—and other nations—and how the motive for that action has been designated as in the cause of peace, despite the loss of countless lives through war.
It remains unequivocal that neither Afghanistan nor Iraq declared war against the rest of the world and yet dozens of nations are now continuing to commit troops to an armed invasion of those countries.
When Iraq, under the leadership of Saddam Hussein, invaded Kuwait, other countries, including the UK, reacted by fighting a war of freedom and pushing the invaders from Kuwait. The motives for that reaction might be oilier than clear cut.
Oil is needed because as a species we simply have not devoted adequate resources to providing an alternative. Enough cash has now been committed by western nations to wars in the middle east over the past 20 years to provide luxury homes for every living person in the world.
Those who are fearful of looking this fact in the face will often blindly immerse themselves in their own sense of security, not realising how false its foundations have become.
Where such people are part of an administrative system, that sense of security rests on the control of those whom they fear might be a threat to their security. And so we have the growth in the erosion of civil liberties and freedoms.
It really is a matter of cutting off your nose to spite your face.archived on Friday, 16 February, 2007 12:43 PM
Firmly on the Road to Hell
"It has enabled China to create a cadre of experts that will be building ever more advanced aircraft over the next 50 years."
The above statement was made by Rick Fisher, an ‘expert on the Chinese military’ and vice president of the International Strategy and Assessment Centre, a research institute based in Alexandria, Virginia, US. His comment related to China’s unveiling of its new fighter jet, the J-10.
But wait. With the way things are developing in our world today, does anyone seriously believe that we will still be around as a cohesive species in a further 50 years? And perchance that we miraculously are, that we will be at all interested or even able to make more advanced aircraft?
We are continuing to hear people throughout our world glibly talk each day of nations that are building up their military to be on a par with their financial status in the world.
In the same breath and on the adjoining columns of our newspapers war is spoken of as if it is just an inconsequential aspect of our days.
The individual has in reality become less important to the blasé beasts of materialism than a piece of dirt picked up on a shoe. Such beasts even fail to recognise that they too are, just like all of us, one of us.
Can there seriously be a positive future for such an ill-inclined species?
Unless we are as a whole species prepared to heed the words of wisdom that yet remain available to us, we will irrevocably lock the door to our own prison cell in Armageddon.archived on Monday, 5 February, 2007 0:02 AM
Just who is the EU?
The EU has recently issued a statement condemning China for launching an anti-satellite missile that destroyed a Chinese satellite in space.
It may be pertinent for the conscientiously minded to question just who the EU is and what, or rather whom, it represents. The EU cannot be voted in, neither can it be voted out. Individual politicians, or MEPs as they have become known, can be put into or out of office through their national constituency votes. However, should they be voted out, their vacancy will immediately be filled with another EU political representative. In essence, the EU has become an autonomous body certainly beyond the reproaches and possibly the influences of the national origins of its elected members.
While condemning China for its actions the EU is progressing daily towards a multi-national European military defence in addition to a unilateral European police force.
Nobody can or should expect to be able to retain their cake intact and eat it too, or to burn the midnight candle at both ends without something going amiss.
Hypocrisy is a widespread denominator in our world today and the word hypocrisy means stating a belief in one thing whilst practicing the opposite.
Such actions will not reap rewards. They will only broaden the minds of those who remain committed to true development in our world.
Perhaps the EU could learn something from an old English saying.
Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
We all live in a glass house. It is more commonly known by the term planet earth.r
America’s cosmeticized Auschwitz
The free world should no longer tolerate the existence of Guantanamo Bay. It should no longer tolerate the lies of the current US administration with regard to the on-going wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In February 2001 General Powell assured America—and the watching world—that Iraq had not developed weapons of mass destruction, nor was Iraq in a position to use long range missiles.
In July of the same year Condoleezza Rice made the same comments on national US television.
Yet following the events of 11 September 2001—events themselves made possible by the previous support of Saddam Hussein’s regime by the US and Britain—the earlier statements of both Powell and Rice were buried in obfuscation.
We are being led to believe that the bombing of nations by a coalition acting in the name of ‘peace and democracy’ and the resulting horror though violence is acceptable while similar acts by ‘terrorists’ is unacceptable. We are being led up the garden path, but instead of a homely garden shed at the end there is an asylum housing the sane and staffed by the insane.
We are indeed witnessing a march to madness by those who lack the courage to admit to wrong and to acknowledge the damage being done as a result.
Politicians who nonchalantly speak of and sanitize war to support their own goals and who send their citizens to fight in them are the enemies of the world. Until we learn to differentiate between peace and war we will be on a continuing downward spiralarchived on Friday, 12 January, 2007 9:25 PM
When Lies Face Reality
So Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has now issed as statement warning countries which have criticised the hanging of Saddam Hussein that his government could review relations with them. Well, let him. Let him also remember that he is there in his country’s parliament by the grace of God—something his country forgot in the execution of its former leader, as misguided as that man may have been.
The Iraqi Prime Minister today said Saddam Hussein's execution was a "domestic affair" and warned countries which have criticised the hanging that his government could review relations with them.
In a speech marking Army Day, Nouri Maliki said that Saddam Hussein had received a fair trial and that his execution on 30 December was for the benefit of Iraq's unity. Leaked footage showing images of Shia officials taunting Saddam on the gallows has angered his fellow Sunni Arabs and increased sectarian tension.
This website disputes the realities of official versions of the news. If Iraq’s Prime Minister fails to heed that message, then so be it. There is nothing more telling than the Truth.r
Ring out the old...
As we move into 2007, we can only hope that the coming 12 months bring greater measures of peace, security and happiness into the world than we have witnessed during the closing year.
However, until humanity as a whole accepts that we are all of one origin and all born to the one God;, that violence, greed, indifference and inequality are the enemies of us all, we cannot hope to see real progress.
Until we are somehow able to tackle these fundamental issues that divide humanity, our troubles will continue unabated, exacerbated by the realities of global disintegration brought about by devastating issues such as global warming and AIDS.r
Britain’s Paranoia Culture
Britain’s Hazel Blears, the Labour Party chair, has said that she does not believe that loosening the licensing laws would “halt Britain's drinking culture”. She has suggested Britons “enjoy getting drunk because they enjoy risk-taking”.
Britons have been drinking beer for centuries. It is a national tradition on a par with Norway and the other Scandinavian countries, with whom Britons have ties going back to the Viking invasions of the eighth century AD and later the Norman invasion and conquest of 1066—the Normans themselves descendants of the Vikings who had settled in the northern reaches of France, hence Normandy.
To suggest that Britons enjoy getting drunk because they enjoy risk taking is sheer balderdash and an insult to every ordinary citizen who enjoys spending time at a pub—which remains the most common form of socialising in the UK.
Blears’ comments reflect the Nanny state mentality of the current government of the UK, which appears hell bent on dictating how people should, according to the government’s preconception, live their lives with scant regard for individual freedom.
But then this vision of Britain’s so called “drinking culture”, together with the witch hunt against smokers, both have their roots in common territory—the perceived loss of GNP and the detraction to the economy and well being of the nation as a result.
However, the well being of the nation no longer provides well being to its mass population, rather it succours the rich and has long done so.
What this, and future governments should wake up and realise is that the normally placid and somewhat malleable Briton will only stand up to so much dictatorial nonsense before revolting. And when that happens, ruling politicians will have but two choices—to call in and instruct the military to turn and bear arms against their own people, or to kiss their manipulative control goodbye.r
The clock stops for ousted Iraqi President
The death sentence imposed against former Iraq President Saddam Hussein at his trial for gross violation of human rights was carried out within hours of the former dictator being handed over to the Iraqi authorities by the US. He was executed by hanging shortly after 6am (0300 GMT).
“In a final moment of defiance, he refused a hood to cover his eyes”, said an Associated Press report. Yet surely “defiance” should read “bravery” for a human being standing facing the gallows with a rope around his neck.
His trial however cannot be said in all honesty to have been conducted by an Iraqi court where that country is currently a state occupied by foreign forces.
Hussein was convicted of human rights abuses in relation to the killings of 148 Shias in Dujail, north of Baghdad, after a failed assassination attempt against him as former Iraqi leader in 1982.
In the Ohio Kent State killings on 4 May 1970 of four anti-Vietnam war students who were taking part in a protest against the bombing of Cambodia, no-one was ever charged or brought to book, from the State Governor James Rhodes who called in the National Guard to the then President Nixon who would have had to give his authorisation for the presence of the troops. There is clearly a contradiction here in terms of morality. And it matters not if the State murders one or 1,000 citizens—murder is murder.
In a sane world, someone as globally influential as President Bush would acknowledge that in ousting Saddam Hussein, he acted out of what he believed was correct at the time. He should have then rejected the execution of Hussein out of humanitarian principle and urged his imprisonment. To do otherwise is to act the same as those accused and sentenced.
This comment will not explore the background to who put Saddam Hussein into such a position whereby he could wield such barbarism against his fellow men. Instead it calls upon readers to exercise their thoughtful analysis of the realities of what is taking place in our world today.
“The charge of which Hussein has been convicted—a reprisal for an attempt on his life—is standard operating procedure for the US military in Iraq, which has mercilessly bombed and strafed buildings and villages suspected of harbouring anti-occupation insurgents”.
In an ironic twist given the circumstances and reason for the court; the trial and its outcome have both been criticised and condemned by human rights watchdogs. Before the sentencing session began, former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who was a member of Hussein‘s defence team, was ejected from the courtroom after handing the judge a note in which he called the trial a "travesty".
The White House declaration of the sentence as “a milestone in Iraq's transition to a democracy” displays a travesty of thinking within the current American administration.
In a comprehensive report last month, the New York-based Human Rights Watch condemned the verdict as unsound, saying the court had been guilty of so many shortcomings that a fair trial had been impossible.
The EU had urged the Iraq government not to carry out the execution and issued a carefully worded statement through the Finnish news agency on Saturday.r
The criminal as the scapegoat
Speaking this week of a leaked government report, UK shadow home secretary David Davis said: “This secret report demonstrates what the government has been denying for years, that there is a massive shortage of prison places. That will mean more short prison sentences, more early releases and more dangerous criminals on our streets — and as a result more crime caused by the government’s inaction.”
Mr Davis’s reference to “more dangerous criminals on our streets” displays the lack of grasp that politicians have towards the realities of our society. Rather that focus on searching for a victim to blame, energy might be better spent on questioning why in our society we have people who in the first place are driven to commit crime.
In a world of equality, the motive factors behind by far the majority of crime would be absent. There will always be those who are greedy for more and will pursue the avenues of criminal activity to achieve their goals. It is such people who could be described as criminals.
Mr Davis should himself spend a few weeks in prison and get to meet and properly understand some of the people who are locked behind bars in the UK.archived on Monday, 26 January, 2009
Lies cannot shroud the truth of Gaza
Israel took an arrogant and unforgivable step in sticking two fingers up to the world and maintaining that there is ‘no humanitarian crisis in Gaza’. The country’s leaders have lied to themselves, to their people and to the world.
If a lie is told often and long enough, those unaccustomed to anything else will eventually begin to believe in it. These days it is referred to as political “spin”.
Among other arrogant mannerisms, Israel‘s refusal to permit entry of foreign journalists into Gaza demonstrates its leadership’s utter disdain of others.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza goes back over four decades. People do not fight for the sake of fighting. They fight because something is wrong. They fight for their freedom. Sometimes it is for their very survival.
Those in denial of this are those who stand to benefit from lies, or are simply ignorant of reality.
In the UK, Gordon Brown’s latest spin comment: "We will do everything that we can to prevent the arms trafficking that is at the root of some of the problems that have caused the conflict," confuses the issue further and does nothing to reflect the reality of the Palestinian crisis.
A sample of today's international headlines include: Five Israeli boats force Spirit of Humanity to turn back in international waters; Israel shells UN HQ destroying aid supplies; Attack on UN a 'grave mistake'; War in Gaza: UN aid compound set alight ‘by phosphorus shells’, and: Food, medicine destroyed as Israeli forces attack Gaza UN compound
Israel would do well to recall the ghettos of Warsaw and Berlin. Would the country’s leaders agree if the rest of the world said that the ghettos were not each a humanitarian crisis of gigantic proportion?
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