Life, Work, Love and 2010

I haven’t blogged at all recently, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, my computer died, and i’m forced to use a disastrously primitive piece of computing equipment, which could blow up at any given second. And secondly, I don’t really have much to say. So, given that it is fast approaching the end of the year, I thought i’d sum up my year, for those who happen to be interested.

Life:
I discovered a significant amount about myself this year. I appear to be both growing up, and becoming what some would describe as immature. According to the unwritten rule, to be mature means to accept authority without question, to accept the framework on which we are all born, without question, and to give in to a chase for money, without question. To be mature, means to join a race for more, never satisfied with what one already has, we only reach maturity when we have accepted that we are greedy by nature (which, I do not accept). Therefore, I am immature. I would also argue that the most enlightened minds on the planet, exist for those very few seconds after birth, when we see the World as it supposed to be seen, with wonder; untouched and unnamed by humanity.
I like the idea that when a new born baby sees an ocean, he or she has no idea what it is, they do not have a word for it, they do not understand it’s characteristics, they do not know who put it there, what it’s purpose is, they don’t even have a concept of “purpose”….. which, to me, means the new born baby, is the purest and most Worldly form of life, they see the World with a beauty that you and I lost a very long time ago. When we grow up, we concoct these silly little absurd concepts, like “purpose” to suit our economic needs. Along with “purpose” other concepts, that just did not exist before human beings ridiculously invented them to suit certain economic, money making needs, include “race”, “Nationality”, “religion”, “self discipline”, “Sir”, “Boss”, “deserving”, “work ethic” and hundreds more. Who invented these terms?

Anyway, I digressed a little there. As you can probably tell, Philosophy played a huge roll in my 2009. I took a bit of a depressed stage, not understanding the point of me, earlier this year. I struggled to understand why people and friends can live life comfortably, and securely, blindly acquiescing to the notion that those who do not question, or think, or criticise, or employ a sense of reason and logic to the World around them, or even read a book at all in their lives, are able to live an uneventful, secure, blissfully ignorant life. I have no practical skill, no practical skill that is worth anything to the community that I live in interests me in the slightest. I do not want to manage a team, nor do I want to run a bar, or sell houses, or offer legal advice. In fact, I have no real idea what I want from life. I just know that when I’m at work, behind a bar, selling alcohol to rich people, there is a constant voice in the back of my mind saying “what the fuck is the point of all of this? What good is this? Why do you care if someone complains that their coffee isn’t warm enough? Where is the incentive to make money for a socially shielded man who doesn’t know your name and does nothing but criticise you? How fucking absurd is life. ” Yet, those who do not question, and just accept that “that’s just how it is“, will get on just fine throughout their lives. Then, I discovered Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, two beautifully eloquent and logical Existentialist Philosophers, who taught me in 2009 that the little voice in the back of my mind, was searching for meaning and purpose, in a Universe void of meaning or purpose. They taught me that the entire notion that a bigger picture exists, is so horrendously arrogant of humanity, that to embrace it, means we will never be happy, we will always want something more. And so, there is no black and white, no objective realities, just a mix of meaningless, dead, redundant ideas.

Work:
I started University this year. So far, so good. I study Politics and Journalism and Italian language on the side. The one issue I have with University, is it doesn’t seem to be teaching me much. Lecturers appear to be reading out loud, something that someone else has said. They seem to expect our essays, to be full of things someone else has said. Nothing is original, or requires original thought. Even a question titled “What do you understand by the term…….” does not particularly want to know what I understand by a term, instead wanting me to write down what somebody else has said about a specific term. Any form of subjective thinking, and critically analyzing an idea or concept, feels somewhat forbidden.
Despite this slight issue, I do really enjoy University.

Love:
I’ll simply copy exactly what I wrote in my previous blog entry, for those who missed it.
I want to meet someone, who makes me feel like Byron felt when he penned “She Walks in Beauty”. That’s not to say that I haven’t already met her, i’m pretty sure that I have. But, it’s far more complicated than not.
I worked out this year, that my own slightly promiscuous past was the result of my horrendous desire to feel wanted. It wasn’t an attempt to impress friends with my list of “shags“. I’ve never been one to give a shit about impressing people. I have spent the past six months going on date, after date in an attempt to figure out what it is I want. And i’m only human, I have my flaws and my insecurities. One of which, as already mentioned, is my need to feel wanted. Which, I accept is disastrously arrogant of me. But, on a deeper level, feeling wanted does not just resign itself to intimate encounters with nameless blonde haired brown haired black haired blue eyed green eyed tall short thin fat women from nowhere and everywhere, it’s a need to feel that as I person, my existence is not completely pointless, or absurd (blame Camus and Sartre for my assumptions on absurdity).
I do miss having someone to talk about my day with, or to cook with. I miss affection. I miss the feeling of not remembering how life existed without that person. I miss watching a film together, or becoming addicted to a TV show with or play fighting with. I miss planning holidays together. I miss spending weeks before her birthday trying to figure out what she wants and panicking right up until the last minute that she might not like it. I miss it all, especially the bond which certainly doesn’t exist with one nighters. But, in the search for that lasting feeling again, the tendency to let my guard down has crept in, which has never happened before. I discovered in the past couple of months, that I have a fickle heart, in that a simple smile from a beautiful girl gleamed in my direction, has the ability to make me think I’m in some sort of romantic comedy in which we’re going to end up happily married together by the end of the movie.
I do not want to end up like the couple who don’t trust each other. Or the couple who ban each other from talking to exes. Or the couple who claim to love each other within a few days of getting together. It is extraordinarily rare that I meet a couple who appear to actually belong together, often my instant reaction in my mind is quite pessimistically: “they wont last long“. This feeling of rarity affects my own life. It’s incredibly rare for me to see someone, and smile simply because they’re there. I’m constantly dating people I know just don’t suit me, or maybe it’s my fussy nature finding flaws.

Entertainment:
I discovered quite a deep love for poetry this year. Lord Byron, Sylvia Plath, Wordsworth, Keats, Kerouac, Ginsberg and Dylan Thomas, among many more.
Plath, for the way she dealt with turning a tortured mind, into the work of genius, is by far my favourite poet of all. To have the ability to turn ineffable feelings into beautiful language, is something I’m in awe of.
Lord Byron, Wordsworth and Keats, for the ability to romanticise the World on a level that speaks to me quite profoundly.
On January 9th, I intend to make my way down to The Tate Britain in London, to view the Turner and the Masters exhibition. To have works by Turner, Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt and Canaletto in the same place at the same time, is far too good an opportunity to pass up.
On a more superficial level.. I have a horrible addiction to The Sopranos and Lost. Seriously addicted. I could talk about them both, for hours on end. I’m counting down the days until the final Season of Lost begins. I want a Dharma tshirt!

Beliefs:
When two or three Muslim men blow themselves up in England, we suddenly decide that Islam itself, and it’s believers should be viewed with a degree of suspicion. Yet, when two, three, four, five, or more white British middle aged men get convicted for child abuse, we do not practice that very same logic, and decide all white middle aged men should be viewed as potential paedophiles. Why is that?
I’m not entirely sure why the City that I live, is very much more racist and Nationalist than it’s ever been before. The war cry of the stupid: “I’m English! I was born here! I’m a second class citizen in my own Country!” Is more and more common. Why? For what reason? White British, or Pakistani Muslim, it’s all a social construct, it isn’t based on science or fact or anything other than divisive mechanisms that humanity put in place. Cut us open, and we’re all red, the same red. Science has pretty much proven that biological determinism just doesn’t exist. We cannot distinguish intelligence, or work ethic, or a need to be criminally active, with a race. What we consider to be distinctive “races” are simply social constructs that we as humans, have invented. Therefore, racism and nationalism are largely futile, pointless, and fantasy, as well as being moronic, meaningless, useless, and childish.
We now in fact, put working man against working man. The BA strikes have left most working people deciding that the workers are in the wrong. They chose to ignore the fact that greedy incompetent management is solely to blame, instead choosing the blame the workers. Another social construct designed to keep the masses obeying whatever the top guys say.
It’s a new phenomena. For Centuries, the whole concept of white and black, did not exist. It was used as a tool of Capitalism in the early days of the USA and Colonial Africa and India, in order to divide white working class people and black/Asian working class people from forming alliances and challenging the powers that be. Before that, White Brits were killing each other, because one section was Catholic, the other was Protestant. Or one section was Royalist, the other Parliamentarian Republicans. We have always found pathetic excuses to hurt each other. Race, religion, and ethnicity is relatively new in that regard.
The cry of “They’re taking all our jobs!”. For every one Pakistani gentleman that gets a job over you, another ten White Brits will be given a job ahead of you. Are you starting from the rather moronic premise that White Brits deserve first consideration for a job, before any other colour or religious belief purely because they were lucky enough to be born here? If you owned a business, and a Muslim candidate for a job was far more suited than his White counterpart, why on Earth would you chose the White Brit? Why is colour, ethnicity and race even an issue? What the fuck is your problem? There is absolutely nothing British or English about the EDL and the BNP. They are utter scum.

Religiously:
I disregard all organised religion as highly divisive illogical myths filled with flaws, that just would not exist, had an all powerful, all knowning God actually created them.
That said, I do not disregard the idea of spirituality. In fact, I find the essence of humanity to be at odds with the essence of the materialist World that we inhabit, and so spirituality; as a mechanism to take ourselves away from that materialist nightmare, is a wondrous thing.
To find out just who we are, our strengths and weaknesses as human beings rather than good little workers, has been of monumentous importance to me over the past year. I’ve submitted myself to books on Taoism and Buddhism, I fill my bedroom with candles and incense sticks, which have a profound relaxing affect on me, much like the feeling I get, with the mellifluous nature of a serene mind, when sat overlooking an ocean void of all human touch, on a warm summer evening. The feeling of carelessness, unattached from reality for a tiny moment is so incredibly important to me. And so spirituality, and getting to understand myself has worked to both relax me, and paradoxically, make me more conscious of my shortcomings, unable to figure out (as of yet) how to correct them.

2010:
I want a weekend in Paris.
I want a weekend in Venice.
I want to fill my brain with relatively useless information, about Roman history, and Art, and Tudor history, and Political Philosophy.
I want to love someone.
I want to continue to question everything around me.
I want to read more Sartre.
I want to embrace romance much more.
I want to eat healthier and become a bit fitter physically.
I want a better job, that I actually enjoy and involves helping those who need it, rather than those who don’t.
I want to take up Photography again.
I don’t want to turn 24.

Too much to ask? One can dream.

Confusing the Soul

If I were asked quite specifically to describe in detail, music; perhaps Mozart, perhaps Mario Del Monaco firing out Nessun Dorma, perhaps Sinatra singing My Way, to a community of people who had never heard any form of music ever before, I would find it close to impossible. It isn’t something that can be extracted, it isn’t an entity, it has no physical presence. It is simply derived from beauty. When Michaelangelo created the Statue of David, Vasari commented that Michaelangelo’s gift for sculptor came from the sole, that he “carved forms from stone, as if he were pulling figures from water“. The only possible way to describe Michaelangelo’s work, is through wondrous metaphors, as Vasari did to emphasise beauty. There is no logical definition, much as there is no logical definition of the colour yellow. Asked to describe yellow to someone who has never seen yellow, is simply impossible. Similarly, within the realms of Philosophy, it is close to impossible to describe the soul. The distinction of soul from body has no words to describe, because the body and it’s perception of reality, is all we know. We do not know the nature of immortality, because everything we recognise either decays or dies.

I believe in science. I believe organised religion can be a force of dangerous dogma as well as a source of hope. But what both science and religion struggle quite effortlessly with, is the nature of the soul. I find it distinctly ridiculous (and quite coincidentally, Plato-esque) that Religion can take the concept of an unworldly force within each of us, and jump to the conclusion that it must come from a Heavenly World, which therefore proves the existence of God, who then must have created the World and Humanity, whilst listening to prayer and endorsing the Pope as his representative and successor to St Peter, on Earth therefore rendering the entire Bible legitimate. The idea that my body is simply a shell, which is injected with this life force we call a soul by a heavenly force, tends to make me a little uneasy about the nature of religious dogma, as if i’m a slave to the divine force that supposedly created me. Which, I refuse to be. Free Will and Organised Religion are not compatible. As this article from Jewishmag.com shows. They jump to irrational conclusions without question. They suggest that the soul must be intricately linked to the nature of God. And so they appear to be manipulating the idea of a soul, to fit their own system of beliefs. I do not accept that for a second. What makes that Jewish dogmatic principle of the distinction between body and soul, any more realistic than the Buddhist tradition of the reincarnation of the soul in the pursuit of Nirvana?

Nor can I accept Kant’s explanation, that the Soul is a force, striving for perfection, held back by our bodily, materialistic desires. Whilst the idea is certainly logical, Kant goes on to say “The pure practical reason must also postulate the existence of God“, and that is the part I cannot accept. I see a huge hole between the notion of an inner force striving for perfection (which is a perfectly logical argument, given the nature of humanity), and that particular force proving the existance of God. It isn’t quite that simple.

Similarly, I cannot succumb to the scientific notion, that we’re all just a mix of easily explained chemical processes. That such deep emotional sensitivity; dreaming, the tranquil sense of spirituality, friendship, affection, ambition, love, devotion, compassion and every other level of consciousness we experience throughout our short lives, are simply neurotransmitters playing games. It’s difficult for me to accept that everything I am, everything that makes me, me, everything that I try to be and try not to be, my hopes, my thoughts, my memories, my loves, my flaws, are all just chemical reactions. I feel entirely at conflict much of the time, between the materialistic nature of the World, the need for more, the thriving for physical wealth by any means necessary, the ruthless disaster of Capitalism and all it’s hostility toward fellow man; whilst at the same time there is a constant voice in side me, that tells me just how wrong it is to become too involved in selfish pursuits whilst condemning those less fortunate. How wrong it is to cause pain to someone else. I constantly have the quite intense feeling that there is much much more beauty to life rather than just simple existence, rather than the dogmatic notion that we are our job, our house, our car, waking up every morning at the same time for work, a holiday once a year, retirement, death. Whether that voice is the work of God, or of chemical processes, I do not know, nor does a Christian, or a Scientist. What I do know, is how I feel. I do not feel that the essence of me was divinely created, nor do I feel that I’m merely a mixture of chemical processes. Neither can tell me where the feeling of loneliness, hurt, sensitivity, and love are derived. Perhaps it is simply a case of millions upon millions of years of Darwinism both within nature and within society that has shaped the minds of generations who have thus become so convinced that the power of the mind is so great that it must come from a higher power. Perhaps that is true. The simple fact is that on a personal level, I can’t accept that my thoughts and my emotional mind set, is simple science. On a rational level, I can’t accept that it is all the work of a supreme, timeless, God.

The nature of confusion.

Ignorance labels….

In my warped mind, a noun is simply another word for label. And this is partly the reason why I’m spending today, angry at nouns. We all have far different qualities to the labels we find attached to us. And yet, certain labels are used to almost describe us in our entirety. Now, whether the manipulative nature of language, and specific labels are to blame for this, or whether humanity with it’s simplistic vision of the World (to the point where we’ve come to accept adjectives, almost more as nouns….black, gay) is to blame, is a different matter. A Muslim is viewed simply as that, and nothing more, purely because of the word itself. A Jew, carries certain connotations that others do not like. When used as nouns, Fat, thin, Liberal, Conservative, Black, Immigrant, British, Pakistani, Transsexual, Gay, seem to be used as a single mould, making up what we are, which simply isn’t true. “You’re British and you’re white“…. well yes, among a lot of other more important things that make up who I am.
A label acts to strip away the qualities of an object, the intrinsic beauties, whisking them together to form a single category. It doesn’t apply purely to humanity either.

It is difficult to cast our eyes onto a simple tree, and not just immediately think “That’s a tree“. The qualities, the natural beauty, the essence of what makes the tree, is condensed into that single word “tree” and so we do not begin to fathom the spectacular nature of it, our imagination, is manipulated by that single noun. It becomes meaningless, a word. We seemingly forget that natural beauty is far removed from anything man has created. Where does this beauty come from? It is only when we stand to look, to really look, that we open a box of new emotions. Perhaps, also the fact that you see a tree every day, takes away it’s beauty. “Every thing is spoilt by use.“

Sea. It’s a simple word that we all recognise. A common noun that evokes no feeling of extreme beauty, or tranquillity, it’s simply a word; a word that seemingly covers all situations for the particular object it is labelling. And yet, when we observe the sea, we observe something different every time. Everybody gets something out of it. A fisherman will have a different emotion attached to the sea, than a Thalassophobic. The sea on a calm summer’s morning, is far removed from that same body of water on a stormy day. The sea on an overcast boring grey day, is far removed from the sea on a clear star filled night, glistening. I should know! I’ve sat on enough coast lines in the midst of a starry night. The Sea is not simply a word, it is a description, a story unique to everyone.

“Immigrant” is a word that I have come to despise. It encompasses everything that is wrong with the World. It evokes a feeling of superiority. Suddenly an immigrant is simply that. Not a human, not someone who wishes the same as you and I wish, or dreams of a better life like the rest of us dream, or cries, or loves, or laughs. They are suddenly something alien to us, because that’s what the word immigrant has come to represent. They are hostile, different, a mystery that arouses intense suspicion, and for what reason? There is no logical reason.
Recently, in Belfast, a string of racist attacks against Romanian families has taken place. Some are suggesting that certain Romanians provoked the attacks. How that justifies smashing the windows of innocent families, purely because they happen to come from the same Country as the people provoking the Irish residents, is beyond me. But it does go a long way to prove that the label is to blame. The category of “Romanian” is to blame. An us vs them mentality, that has gone so far as to create a worryingly growing far right sympathy across the UK.

We are not all destined to be successful business men and women; we are not all cut out for a life of “hard work” making money for others in the hope of securing a holiday once a year every summer; we do not all care about owning the most luxurious car; we are not all obsessed with the Country we were born as if it were actually important; we are not all religious; we are not all white, or black, or asian; some of us are attracted to women, some to men, some to transsexuals, it does not matter; we are not all work minded, some of us are spiritually minded; some of us can sit for hours under the clear and serene world of the stars, others prefer to be tucked up in a nice warm bed; some of us love standing with our eyes closed and our arms wide open in the pouring rain; some of us see the beauty and the astonishment in a simple oak tree, others do not waste their time with such hippy nonsense; some of us pray five times a day, others only concern is money; some of us find it hard to trust or to love, others fall in love at the glimpse of a smile from a girl on the train station platform; some of us enjoy nothing more than tanning ourselves on sun loungers across the World; some of us are not burdened by narrow minded ancient Religious notions of what is decent and correct, others cling onto faith as a guide for life; some of us get that inner most feeling of life when we’re jumping out of a plane or rock climbing, others feel it within the simplistic nature of early Autumn mornings when gazing at ripening fruit “Blushing through the mist and dew“; some of us want to save ourselves for that one special person, others bask in a life of promiscuity; the World is a magnificent place because the level of diversity far outstrips the man made idea of common identity and categories. We are all different. Yes we have certain traits and features that bind us to others, but that similarity is far outweighed by the differences between us. The truth is, as long as you are not intentionally out to cause harm, then you are free to be as different and as diverse as you could possible imagine.
“Diverse” is the one label, I do not have a problem with.

The Climate Change Debate

I have always been sceptical about the suggested terror that Global Climate Change is likely to inflict on the Planet. I do not take seriously predictions of Armageddon, without real evidence to back it up. However, I do not believe for a second that the rise of 0.75 Degrees Centigrade over the past Century is simply the result of “natural occurrences“. For a Century which has seen the use of fossil fuels increase a great amount, whilst deforestation has never been so high; it would be naive to think that humanity has absolutely no affect on our climate, and that it’s all just one big coincidence. Of course humanity has had an affect on the climate. Of course humanity has to act to prevent catastrophe in the future. Of course humanity has a duty to protect endangered species such as the polar bear, and endangered habitats such as the Rain Forest. Responsible capitalism has to be the future. Not a capitalism based on the old “take whatever you can from whomever you wish” system. The system that told us in 2008 that losses through sub-prime mortgage-back securities would only tally up to around $170bn, when in fact the IMF estimated that it was closer to $4,100bn. The forces working for the Capitalist system, aren’t always right. And when they’re wrong, they’re very very wrong.

Whether Humanity has a small affect on global climate change, or a ridiculously large affect on global climate change, it should not matter. It will eventually become an issue that threatens a generation, and whilst Conservatives seem to be overly panicked about National debts being left to our kids, they do not seem to have a problem with a destroyed rain forest, oil drilling in the middle of national reserves and deadly droughts that seem ever so more widespread.

The Telegraph, itself a conservative newspaper reported in 2005 that “The present trend of warmer sea temperatures, which have risen by an average of half a degree Celsius (0.9F) over the past 40 years, can be explained only if greenhouse gas emissions are responsible, new research has revealed.“. The evidence from the cited study, is so compelling, it’s difficult to find anyone willing to argue against it.

As stated in my previous blog entry, The Conservative Party, on their local election leaflet stated that they “played a key role in making new laws to cut carbon emissions and promote renewable energy” clearly trying to suggest that they have a commitment to help tackle Global climate change. However, our Conservative MEP Roger Helmer (pictured on the leaflet) on his own private blog, states “The science of global warming: Why I believe that the Great Carbon Myth is not only unproven, but disproven“. The leaflet is a a clear case of Conservative propaganda. On the one hand, they’re committed to fighting climate change, on the other, they’re not. Of course, it is no different to the fact that the Labour Party are apparently committed to fighting Global Climate Change…….. whilst they install a third runway at Heathrow. Parliament has no hope of gaining back it’s respectability.

Whilst it is quite clearly true that nature itself plays a role in the changing of the climate over time, nature cannot account for three quarters of a degree centigrade higher temperatures since 1906. The only way to describe why global temperature has increased so dramatically, is by suggesting that there has been a sharp increase in greenhouse gases found in the Earth’s atmosphere. When polar ice is examined, gas found trapped in the core of the polar ice is analysed, it has been found have a 35% greater amount of Carbon Dioxide than in the last 650,000 years.

As I am naturally sceptical of the media attention global climate change receives, I am even more sceptical of the small amount of scientists who disagree with the widely accepted consensus, and the Conservatives who latch onto their objections. Why are they in the minority? Are they the climate change version of Creationists? It isn’t like the consensus is one big group of related scientists hell bent on World domination and fear mongering. They are respected experts in their field.

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences, which in 2005 the White House called “the gold standard of objective scientific assessment,” issued a joint statement with 10 other National Academies of Science saying “the scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action. It is vital that all nations identify cost-effective steps that they can take now, to contribute to substantial and long-term reduction in net global greenhouse gas emissions.“
Here, see for yourself: http://nationalacademies.org/onpi/06072005.pdf

Average temperatures have climbed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degree Celsius) around the world since 1880, much of this in recent decades, according to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that 11 of the past 12 years are among the dozen warmest since 1850.

A press release from the National Academy of Sciences (you’d expect them to know their stuff, right?):
“We urge all nations, in the line with the UNFCCC principles, to take prompt action to reduce the causes of climate change, adapt to its impacts and ensure that the issue is included in all relevant national and international strategies.”
This statement was signed by:
National Academy of Sciences, United States of America
Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Royal Society, United Kingdom
Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia
Academia Brasiliera de Ciências, Brazil
Royal Society of Canada, Canada
Academié des Sciences, France
Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher, Germany
Indian National Science Academy, India
Accademia dei Lincei, Italy
Science Council of Japan, Japan

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC):
“Even the minimum predicted shifts in climate for the 21st century are likely to be significant and disruptive.”

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS):
“The scientific evidence is clear: global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now, and it is a growing threat to society [snip]The conclusions in this statement reflect the scientific consensus“

National Research Council:
“Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth’s atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise. Temperatures are, in fact, rising. “

Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS):
“CMOS endorses the process of periodic climate science assessment carried out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and supports the conclusion, in its Third Assessment Report, which states that the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate.“

Geological Society of America:
“The Geological Society of America (GSA) supports the scientific conclusions that Earth’s climate is changing; the climate changes are due in part to human activities; and the probable consequences of the climate changes will be significant and blind to geopolitical boundaries.”

I swear, short of New York turning into an icy Narnia, Conservatives are never going to listen to the facts, sticking instead to the very very few “experts” and Sean Hannity, and the rest of those who refute the evidence. It appears to be Conservatives and those with big oil agendas who refute the claims of the large amount of respected Scientists, sort of like tobacco companies refuting the idea in decades past, that smoking is linked to lung cancer. I am far more weary and lacking in trust of big oil and big business making it’s case against global climate change. Me, i’m going to put my trust in the experts assessments. I do not have a great deal of evidence to the contrary, which hasn’t been disputed by global warming experts, and so the evidence is so great, and the research so vast in favour of man made global climate change, and knowing as little as I do on the subject, I’m going to go with the experts on this one.

We all need somebody

It is relatively easy to see someone struggling, and to say “we all have problems, deal with it“, to dismiss them as lazy. And yet, we all need somebody. Whether we find it difficult to express ourselves with words, or whether we just need a hug and to be told everything will be all right, or whether we need someone to turn to for emotional support, or whether we carry a knife on the street because we’re afraid of the night, or whether we have built up anger, or whether we just don’t have the detailed and incessant aspirations that those destined for success and great wealth seem to have. We appear to ignore those less fortunate, and to spew Western economic theory at them, as if it were binding to all mankind, when it isn’t. We are all different.

It is easy to view humanity as a great money making machine, spirituality is replaced by materialism, the passion of want, striking down the abundance of Community, to pursue our own individualistic goals regardless of the negative affect it may have on somebody somewhere. We work in jobs we hate, we judge people on the expense of their living , we look down at those who are trapped in a meticulous cycle of nothingness. And yet, in reality even those who deal drugs, are the same as all of us. Stuck in grip of Materialism, we are all looking to satisfy our own “wants” regardless of who it hurts. For the majority of us though, we are not directly involved in the exploitation of others, or the degrading of others, we simply wear the Primark clothes, we are not involved in the process, and so we just turn our heads and pretend it’s all happening in the distance, far from us.

It is assumed that the fetish for profit, is simply a force of human nature. But i’m inclined to believe otherwise. I think avarice and self importance and the proponents of this damaging way of thinking, are simply stuck in four walls of the society they we’re born into. We are taught to believe that we’re in life specifically for ourselves, that we’re self promoting monstrous beings, motivated by self interest, whose mind is geared toward the accumulation of as much material wealth as we can possibly get our hands on. If someone appears to be fighting against the flawed notion of individualism, they are merely attacked as being hippy, out of touch, socialist, they want to enslave you, they want to take away your property and give it to the lazy. It’s right winged hysteria at it’s worst. Hedonism is intrinsically woven together with the pursuit of individual wealth rather than the pursuit of the greater good for all. The Right have crafted a society which suits them, in which people must either conform or be labelled Communist, bleeding heart, or hippy. If we start to question why we are plainly dissatisfied with life, society tells us it’s because we don’t have enough materially. Perhaps a new bed will help, perhaps a new TV, perhaps a new car. And yet, when the happiness derived from “more” finally subsides, we’re back to feeling dissatisfied and disillusioned, shouldn’t we be questioning whether society’s notions of extreme wealth linked to happiness and righteousness, are perhaps misplaced?

Shouldn’t the very essence of “want” come after the entire species has the essential elements of “need” fulfilled? Why is liberty considered the right to extreme profit, whilst those who literally die of hunger are collateral; considered a necessary evil for the advancement of “want“? Why isn’t the fulfillment of essential “need” the building blocks of Liberty, the first post that cannot be past until all are equal. The cultivation of an individual’s “wants” should never infringe on the basics “needs” of anyone. The advancement of the culture of “want” is based primarily on playing games with the human characteristics of insecurity and inadequacy. Peace and compassion are not compatible with the World view that human nature is based solely and inherently on self importance and greed. When the World isn’t at war, it cannot be called Peace, whilst millions of people are left to die because the rest of us have an extreme abundance of “need” that we aren’t prepared to share, because sharing would lead to Communist sympathies?

I am inclined to believe that Humanity is not the personification of certain principles, based on greed. The prevailing message through history, whilst each culture has tried to prevent itself from imploding by insisting it is the height of human nature, is compassion.

Scientist Stephan Gould once said:
“History is made by warfare, lust for power, hatred, and xenophobia (with some other, more admirable motives thrown in here and there). We therefore assume that these obviously human traits define our essential nature. How often have we been told that ‘man’ is, by nature, aggressive and selfishly acquisitive?“
And he is correct. This is what we’re told. And yet, it just doesn’t add up. Would society be a detrimental mess, if we were to insist the contrary, that human nature is compassionate and cooperative? It would of course threaten great wealth, but why is that a problem? It is a problem only for those who have acquired great wealth, and who have succumb to the notion that we’re all ruthless monsters. If society truly were about the individual rather than the community, if a helping hand once in a while, a shoulder to lean on, a push in the right direction, were indeed detrimental, then the pillars of society would crumble. Whilst Humanity has the natural tendency to be horribly greedy and uncaring, it also has the overwhelmingly magnificent ability to be compassionate and genial. So why are we focusing on merely one aspect, the killer aspect? We have been conditioned to believe that cooperation, is simply illogical. We perpetuate the myth that human nature is greedy and that any attempt to block that greed, to promote cooperation, is a shot through the heart of our individual Liberties. And yet, we humans have the unique ability to sympathise, to support, and to empathise. We are all genetically connected, and so we are all part of one big family. We are not at odds with each other, adversaries in the great race for profit. We’re family.

I would argue that whilst greed and intense self reliance certainly pushes some to a position of unrivalled power (and thus gives them the power to push their way of thinking onto us all), you cannot force an entire populace to think the same way. When you try to ingrain into the minds of the compassionate, a sense of “me me me” you are the part of the problem, rather than the solution. You are the reason that it is cheaper to make a pill that works to give a middle aged white businessman an erection, than it is to make a pill to treat an African child with AIDs. We are not all greedy, the levels of difference between the extreme of pure selfishness to the extreme of pure altruism is so great from person to person, it is unfair to suggest that humanity on the whole is inherently greedy, whilst punishing and demonising those who do not possess the greedy gene. Charity merely exists in the World of the greedy; why can’t greed exist in the World of the Charity?
Greed is not human nature. Greed is merely a weapon in the search for power and acknowledgement. What if material greed were replaced, and power and acknowledgement were earned through the help given to those who cannot adequately help themselves? Is that some evil Communist notion? If it is, I’d be proud to wear the Communist label.

Human nature is not a choice. You cannot chose to have a specific nature, it just is. And so, if for example, a lady chooses to dedicate her live to helping others; resenting greed, rejecting the notion of incessant “want“; she is not rejecting human nature as such, she is merely acting on a personal trait of compassion and coexistence that is not based on “me me me“. We’d all say that lady is incredibly admirable. Yet, if tomorrow, we were all told by her, that society would now be based around that very same ideal of cooperation and compassion, we’d call her a Socialist. Evil. Trampling on our Rights. Rights that by the way, we invented, to act within the society…. that we created. Those economic rights are not universal and binding, enacted by nature. They are rights enacted by the wealthy few to protect themselves. I’m willing to believe there is more good in the World, more cooperation and compassion, than there is greed and selfishness. Greed is a choice, as is selflessness and cooperation. Neither, is human nature. Satisfying unnecessary “wants” becomes deleterious to satisfying the very necessary “needs” of those less fortunate.

Herman Kumara, head of the National Fisheries Solidarity Movement in a fishing town hit by the tsunami in Sri Lanka wrote “The funds received for the benefit of the victims are directed to the benefit of the privileged few, not to the real victims……… We see this as a plan of action amidst the tsunami crisis to hand over the sea and the coast to foreign corporations and tourism, with military assistance from the US Marines“. To the majority of us, capitalisation on a disaster area seems so horribly immoral, to even suggest it is a trait of human nature, is an insult. It is therefore comforting to know that thousands of charities like Paddle4relief and Unitingtheworld are doing the real work, getting the help to the people who need it, and not thinking about profit to be made in the future.

Greed led to the economic crises we face today. Banks did not care about the obscene debts they were encouraging us all to live on. Greed led to the U.S supporting General Pinochet when it suited them, regardless of his disrespect for human life. Greed has lead to street gangs at war over turf and wealth. Greed has led to illegal wars. Greed has led to the biggest scandal in my estimation the World has ever known – extreme yet unnecessary poverty. Greed led to the MPs expense scandal currently gripping the UK. Greed is so incredibly puerile and useless, it has not had the effect promised to us by successive Governments over the past twenty five years. It has merely created a generation who know no different, and so presume that it’s the only way through life. I reject wholeheartedly that particular notion.

We lose our spiritual connection to those around us, we lose our compassion for each other, we become a line on a map, or a skin colour, or a race, rather than an entire species who certainly need each other regardless of how much money we may have. We lose our philosophical ideas, our freedom to think above and beyond the realm of profit, because our only philosophy now is based solely on greed, and if you disagree, you’re an out of date Socialist with mental issues. We are led to believe that those who are not successful home owners are just lazy, and so don’t deserve our help. We are led to believe that the World is one big resource to be exploited by those who can afford it, regardless of the out come.

In the land of the “free”, The United States would not be the powerhouse it is today if it had relied solely on rugged individualism from it’s conception. The Preemption Act of 1841 and the Homestead Act of 1862 gave away much of the land brought by the California, Texas, Louisianna and Alaska purchases, which is the cornerstone of American success. Community was established when the Government took over lands that were filled with duelling and crime. Historian John Mack Farragher described the American frontiers as “a community experience…“. Big government in the USA then went on, extending social security to ten million more workers during President Eisenhower’s term. It spread to farmers, teachers and dentists among others. Under Eisenhower, the government financed the National highways system. Before that, under Truman, the government passed the G.I Bill of Rights, to provide aid to War veterans for homes and college. It benefited 8 million returning Soldiers, who now went to college and had their mortgages guaranteed; and America benefited economically over the next sixty five years. Anti-polio vaccines, National Institutes of Health and it’s Research and Development, National Defence Education Act, the Internet with it’s origins in the Defence Department, Medicare, integrated school system, Civil rights, and food Administration.
The point being that the strength of a Nation is not solely based on individualism, but on collective responsibility, cooperation, and sympathy. Where the markets fail to provide security and a sense of love and respect, the collectively elected Government, should step in. If it means they raise the highest rate on tax, by a little over 3%, to cope with the unbelievably disastrous equality gap, then all I have to say to the rich few is, tough.

How things change.

We consider those who become homeless to be lazy and primitive, rather than real people with real flaws that need an incredible amount of help to put right. Our hearts become stone and we see everyone else as mechanical money making stepping stones, to reach a goal of “more“. And yet, through it all, regardless of how ruthless we are, how greedy we are, the myth of individualism is so much so that we could not make it through life alone; and so in that sense, we are all that homeless man, we all need somebody.

The heroine of Warsaw

Every so often, I come across a remarkable story of indefinable proportions, that has me questioning just how useless I am personally, and how tangled I am in my own life, in my own selfish need for the next commodity to hit the shelves, that I forget just how incredible stories of courage and human kindness actually are.

We as a rule, tend to publically canonise those who have achieved nothing spectacular or worthy of the level of praise and admiration they seem to command. They haven’t enriched our lives. They simply offer something to read about, gossip about, and quite ridiculously, look up to.

Celebrities become commodities for the public to chew up and spit out one year, and idolise the next, depending on the sort of attention the Great British Media chose to lavish onto them. A few months ago, it was Jade Goody. To me, the Princess Diana-esque way her death was handled, even before she died, stretches to the very essence of consumerism and the negativity it embodies at it’s most fundamental level. Those worthy of praise and admiration largely go unnoticed and unpublicised, the noise of their names goes unheard, drowned out by the noise of the split between Peter and Jordan, or who Charlotte Church was seen with this week.

We tend to overuse the word “hero”. We celebrate footballers as heroes, actors as heroes, musicians as heroes, and so we ultimately forget as generation after generation passes down their own interpretation of “hero”, what the word actually means.

During an era of unimaginable horror and destruction, in which the lives of six million were exterminated, including 1.5 million children, there exists enduring stories that no matter how unknown they are today, will pass through time as stories of ultimate courage, sacrifice, compassion and indefinable love.

Yesterday, marked a year since the death of the remarkable Irena Sendler, a social worker from Warsaw. Irena was born in 1910, and lived in Warsaw, Poland when the Nazis invaded in 1939. Irena worked was in charged of so-called “Canteens” set up to help the homeless and orphaned children, to provide food and shelter, clothing and medicine.

The Nazis set up the Warsaw Ghetto, cramped 50,000+ Jews together in horribly confined spaces without enough food or shelter to go around. Irena set up a false name, and was allowed access to the Ghetto, claiming she was a nurse, in control of epidemic handling. Whilst there, she secretly smuggled in food, medicine, money, clothes, and other necessities. She however, could not prevent over 2000 people a month dying from disease and starvation. She then found out that the children would soon be on their way to Treblinka death camp, and so she decided that enough was enough.

Irena set about smuggling children out of the Ghettos. She tasked herself with persuading Jewish mothers to part with their children, which she later said was the most difficult thing she’s ever had to do, noting “In my dreams ,I still hear the cries when they left their parents” and then to persuade Polish families on the outside, to look after the children, on fear of being caught and executed by the Nazis. She dedicated her war days to this task. She issued children with false documents, in order to smuggle them out in an Ambulance. Some were even take out in body bags, some in suit cases, some in sacks of potatoes and other foods, as Irena convinced the Nazi guards that they had died. She arranged for all 2,500 children that she had saved, to be issued with false identities as Christians, and re-homed. She kept the true identities of the children, written in code, on a piece of paper, buried in a jar in her neighbour’s back yard in the hope that the Nazis would be defeated one day, and that she could locate all the children and let them know of their true identities.

In 1943, the Nazis discovered what she had been doing. They arrested her and tortured her, in order to get the names of all the children who had escaped, and all the families who were protecting them. They broke her legs, and her feet, and they crippled her for life. She refused to give up any names. They then sentenced her to death. Luckily, her friends who had helped her in Warsaw, bribed a Gestapo member, and Irena escaped, at the very last minute before execution.

After the war, she set about meeting all the 2,500 children she had rescued and spending decades trying to find records of any remaining family members they may have, in order to reunite them with their children, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews who had survived the holocaust.

Irena Sendler, who died on May 12th 2008, is quite possibly one of the most couragous and brilliant women of the twentieth century, she not only saved 2,500 children from almost certain horrific deaths, she is responsible for the generations of offspring those 2,500 have produced. The grandchildren and great grandchildren of those 2,500 children are now walking the streets, playing in the fields, and becoming the teachers, the scientists, the doctors of tomorrow. Irena Sendler gave them that opportunity, when otherwise, all would have been lost before the 1950s. She never claimed any sort of recognition, and lived a humble existence in a small place, throughout the rest of her life. A remarkable woman, who led a life suited to true heroes and heroines of history. Despite her name being relatively unknown, her legacy, her courage, and her incredible compassion for 2,500 people and the families they created, is far superior to any amount of press. Perhaps in a World where selfishness is encouraged, a woman who acted in the most selfless way imaginable, and claimed no publicity or admiration, has the power to turn more heads, and influence more people to act in the interests of others, than if it were an every day occurrence. Nevertheless, the story of Irena Sendler, when I first read about her in 2008, months before she died, certainly impacted on my view of the World, of the power of compassion, and of humanity, and that can only be a good thing.

“Every child saved with my help is the justification of my existence on this Earth, and not a title to glory”.
- Irena Sendler

Israel, Palestine and the Religious problem

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” – Blaise Pascal

I’ve purposely reserved judgement on the entire Gaza problem that has dwarfed the region in war over the past few months, simply because I do not know enough about it.

All I hear is “Israel did this to us!!!!” and then “Hamas have done this to us!!!!!” Both sides have legitimate greviances. It isn’t as if one side of the argument is right and the other is wrong. It just isn’t that simple. The debate goes back generations. And rather disgustingly, involves religion. How many people need to die before the ignorant start to turn their backs on their destructive and evil religious beliefs based on disastrous levels of intolerance.

Jews are seen as just Jewish. Muslims are seen as just Muslims. They are not observing each other as people, as having lives, emotions, ambitions, a sense of humour, a sense of love, a friendly side, a sensitive side, these people view each other as either Muslim or Jewish. This, is so indescribably wrong in the modern World.

My thoughts echo those of my fellow left wingers, across the planet. Palestinians deserve there own settlement equal in rights to that of Israel. Do I think a two state solution would solve the issues? No, of course not. Israel has systematically attempted to displace all Muslim life from it’s borders since it’s creation and similarly, the Palestinians have no desire for peace with Israel.

I refuse to succumb to Palestinian influenced blogs doing the rounds on WordPress, that speak of a rather disturbing and an increasing hatred toward Israel. Some, such as Maqtanim who says on his rather bias and simplistic over view of the conflict “I always spoke against Hitler. I could not support what he did with the Jews. I hated him… until this January!” I do not know what kind of intelligent human being can connect the horrendous suffering of the people in Nazi occupied nations during the 1930s and 1940s to the war in the middle East today. It makes very little sense to me, other than the very loose link with religion and Judaism. The innocent lives lost during the Second World War have absolutely nothing to do with the Israeli Government and it’s disproportionate use of force in Gaza.

The people who lost their lives to the Nazi regime of the 1930s and 1940s have deeper links to the people who have lost their lives during this conflict today, both the lives of the Israelis and the Palestinians who have died, than they do to any religious sect of the past.

“Religion to me has always been the wound, not the bandage.” – Dennis Potter

One of the comments on Maqtanim’s blog states “i really don’t find it wrong…what Hamas did…” It is obnoxious and ignorant comments like this, that penetrate the hearts of generations of Israelis and Palestinians who blindly follow the cause of their leaders without stopping to think of the devestation left in it’s wake.
Hamas sending rockets into Israel during a ceasefire is not Israels fault. Nor is it the fault of the innocent people killed during those rocket attacks. Nor will it dismantle the state of Israel, it simply makes matters worse. It works only to provoke Israel into a war that Hamas could not possibly win, but will unite the blindly acquiscing Gazans to it’s rather dubious cause of, and I quote from Hamas’ Charter “”Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” Israel exists. Innocent lives are growing every day. Hamas and the Muslim people cannot change that. And killing people in order to raise it’s profile, is not the answer.

Now forgive me for my niavity, but if Canada suddenly declared it wanted to “obliterate” America, sending rockets across the border, America has a right to blockade Canada’s ports and America has the right to fight back, and to do whatever it can to protect it’s citizens against a Fundamentalist evil that wishes to “Obliterate” it. The Muslim leadership of Gaza in the shape of Hamas is hypocritical, and represents the oppressive, fundamentalist and destructive wing of Islam. The same Muslims who marched on London in protest of the Iraq War with signs reading “Europe; your 9/11 is coming” and “behead those who insult Mohammad“. These people give Islam a bad name. Hamas represents these people.
Hamas’ Charter also states “There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.” These people are designed for war. The Palestinians seems to assume that they have a right to kill whoever they want to kill, to threaten whoever they want to threaten purely because they’re Muslim, and Israel should just let it happen. Until the Palestinian people, and the completely disgusting fundamentalist Muslims understand that they are not a higher form of human than any one else, and that their elected officials are provoking war, this conflict will never be resolved. The comment on Maqtanim’s blog, goes to show the level of blind obediance shown to Hamas.

“You’re basically killing each other to see who’s got the better imaginary friend.” – Richard Jeni

This is not to say that Israel has acted respectfully and with dignity. Up until this war, Israel had my full support. At the present time, Israel is responsible for the slaughter of 1500 people, many including children. That is not war, that is genocide. The Israeli government should be held responsible. They have acted with malice and harnessed their entire military might with the prime objective of shameful murder. Some, like myself would say they have gone too far. Others, and I can see where they are coming from, may say that with the continued threat from the parasites of Hamas threatening security every second, who seemingly expect no retaliation for their rocket attacks, Israel is well within it’s right to say “enough is enough, this cannot continue.“

I differ somewhat with my fellow left wingers, as many seem to be in complete support of the Palestinians, I on the other hand feel somewhat uneasy by the goals and aspirations of Hamas, and therefore the goals and aspirations of the millions of people who voted for Hamas…..
Hamas member “cleric Yunis Al Astal” stated in 2008 that Rome would soon become….”an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread though Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, even Eastern Europe.” If an Islamic group were to launch rocket attacks against Rome whilst systematically call for it’s immediate turn to Islam, and Rome struck back, like Israel is well within it’s right to do now, can I assume that people such as Maqtanim would refer to Rome as murderers too? Or will he finally admit that the Palestinians are not all together free of blame?
The problem within Islam lies with groups like Hamas and it’s supporters. It leads groups within Countries like Britain to preach hatred toward Islam on the whole, as if every Muslim on the planet is some great evil, which is wrong. Similarly, when such a large portion of the muslim population of Gaza vote for a terrorist government whose mission includes the destruction of Israel, they do not do themselves any favours.

There is no easy conclusion, the Palestinian people properly and accordingly elected a terrorist government hellbent on war and destruction, who now take the “woe is me” route when their devious little plan didn’t work out too well. However, the Palestinian lives that have been lost were innocent, many children, slaughtered for political reasons. One government disliking another government has lead to a genocide perputrated by the Israeli government, and this is entirely wrong. It doesn’t matter what religion one is, it doesn’t matter what Country you are born or who your allegiance is too, systematic slaughter of innocent lives, is wrong. They have gone too far. All I can possibly say on the matter is that neither side is innocent, boh sides have committed evils, and so both sides cannot be held too far from the overall blame. Nor can Religion be far from the blame.

As usual, religion, or more specifically; the blindly faithful, in their attempts to please their oppressive God’s, stand to create an ‘us versus them’ mentality, whether it be pro-life vs pro-choice; Homosexuality vs the anti-homosexuality brigade; the role of women as nothing but sub servant to man vs the role of women as free and equal; Palestine vs Israel. All of this is based on nothing more than personal feelings of intolerance; based on the past; based on something they cannot prove but use quite disturbingly to justify their own appalling prejudices and grandiose ambitions. This in turn leads to violence, hatred, ignorance, a feeling of supremacy in comparison to those of other faiths, and ultimately to death and war. I firmly believe that Religion and those who refuse to question some of the more extreme perversions hidden deep within their respective doctrines have nothing to offer the World other than a barrier to peace and justice, hope and progression. This is the real issue facing the middle East and the World in general. Defeat Religion, defeat intolerance.

“One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion.” - Arthur C Clarke

Che: The Hero

“Che was the most complete human being of our age.”
Jean-Paul Sartre

Every generation needs a hero. Every generation needs that one person who stands out above the rest as a symbol of resistance. Someone, that the little man can relate to. Every generation needs someone so different, so willing to fight for the people who cannot fight alone for themselves, the forgotton people, the used and abused people, the exploited people. We all need someone to show us that we’ve all become a little too obsessed with the disturbingly life-consuming chase for individual wealth, that we’re forgetting our duty to humanity as a whole. Especially to those less fortunate. There is nothing any one can tell me, to convince me that allowing people to die every day of extreme hunger, whilst others across the World buy their third or fourth house, a yaht, and a new holiday home in Cyprus, can be justified in any way whatsoever.

It’s strangely satisfying to know that such a man, such a great man, is hated by the majority of Conservatives, Capitalists, and American Imperialists. It’s a two finger salute that generation after generation will read The Motorcycle Diaries, and wear the iconic Che tshirts, with their red Che posters, as a reminder that people are more important than money, whilst no one will ever wear a tshirt with Margaret Thatcher’s face, or Ronald Regan’s face, i’d be surprised if anyone names their child “George” again, after the past eight years. Whenever American Imperialists insist on describing someone other than every Republican currently running their country as “communist” or “insurgent” my instant reaction is “ah so what they mean is, people who don’t want to become just another American state”.

There are many right winged blogs that shout “terrorist” at the very mention of Che Guevara, and yet they have very little problem with the abuses of America, of Britain, of all Western nations, who continue to manipulate the word “freedom” in the most grotesque, and evil of ways. Che was no terrorist.
“Here’s a list of people he had killed!!!” – Let’s set up a list of those killed by American imperialism over the past fifty years shall we? Che killed, because he had to, if he didn’t kill, he’d have been killed, That’s what war does. None of those killed, were innocent. That’s a fact. And yet, more innocent people have died as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan than non-innocents. Who’s the terrorist now?

He taught me to think — he taught me the most beautiful thing which is to be human.
“Urbano”, former Cuban rebel fighter

The same people who cannot help but critise every thing Che Guevara stood for, or his methods, his fight, are the people who bitterly claim Obama to be an evil anti-christ and Socialist. These people are boring now. We’ve heard their shit for twenty five years. Their free market masturbation, that has lead to the World financial crises perhaps ever. We’re bored of it.

“Che’s life is an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom. We will always honor his memory.”
Nelson Mandela

“He killed people! He’s nothing but a terrorist!!” – He killed those who would have killed him given the chance. We don’t live in that World. We can never know what it’s like to live in a country under a corrupt government that happens to be supported by the Americans, who systematically execute anyone who disagrees with them. We don’t know what it’s like to live in a World where you should just give in to Capitalism, whilst you watch people dying of starvation all around you…. whilst the ignorant Capitalist Conservatives hail your nation as “free”. In a World where you kill or be killed, Che was no terrorist, he was a freedom fighter, a doctor, a teacher, a poet, a writer, a revolutionary. And let’s face it, he could never kill as many innocent people as Britain and America has since 2003 (over 600,000 now I believe). If the Right Wing are happy to ignore their politicians horribly destroying lives across the World, purely for profit, then they cannot complain when the Left Wing start to react with violence against their opressors.

The CIA throughout Latin America during the 1940s and 1950s financed corrupt regimes like those of Pinochet, or Batista, or Videla setting up “death squads” to kill off any resistance. Anyone who stands up against such a dangerous machine, anyone who fights that machine, fighting fire with fire, willing to endure the struggle, is a true hero.

It usually works like this…

America and Britain support a corrupt Capitalist government. Purely for money making opportunities.

That corrupt government (for example Cuban under Batista, or Chile under Pinochet) causes untold suffering and poverty.

The left wing is all but wiped out.

Someone from the oppressed nation steps forward and says “enough is enough” and fights back, sticking up for the less fortunate.

America refer to that person as a terrorist.

America go to war somewhere….. kill thousands….. anyone who fights back, is a terrorist.

If you say “woah woah woah, this isn’t right!!!” you’re “unamerican” or maybe you’re a terrorist too!!!

Mark Falcoft in his book on Che, had this to say…
“What has made Guevara a cultural icon is not his example for poor countries, but his capacity to provoke empathy among the spoiled youth of the affluent West.”
I think this sums up the legend of Che Guevara perfectly. You look at Che, you find out what he stood for, and you’re introduced to a world where the rich man will do the most evil of things to increase his wealth whilst the poor man lingers on the edge of the mountain, supported by no man, and you cannot help but feel deep empathy. You start to think , Thank the heavens for good men, men who wont just roll over and be fucked by American imperialism. Thank the heavens for people like Che Guevara.

The people I like

Every single person I meet, I judge within the first ten minutes of meeting. When I first meet a person, I do not care for their history, or how they live. I have very specific preferences when it comes to “friends” or “relationships”.

Firstly, I have a deep desire to be around people who have indelibly bubbly personalities, who always smile, giggle at times when a giggle isn’t even necessary, bouncy happy people. Loquacious people who believe in every word they say with a passion. People whose very presence makes me smile, even if they’re asleep. Playful people. Childish immature people. People who you cannot help but smile when you think about. People who have “blonde” moments, that make me say “aww”.

Along with the ability to make me smile at any time of day, I cannot surround myself with those who do not have a friendly, sympathetic and compassionate view of humanity. Those who bang on about how much money they make, and how much of a “scum” the man living on the street is, are people who I want nothing to do with. I like people to understand the plight of others, and sympathise. People who see that the World is not simply full of people desperate for profit and that there are those who get left behind, who should be treated not with a apathetic “get a fucking job” attitude, but as human beings, not a broken cog in a money making machine.

I’m drawn to people who have the desire to be different. Who aren’t angry at the World, but who see the World as a playground. Who want to experience the excitement before their time is up. Who do not get hung up on things that do not matter: profit. These people are like a star that I feel obliged to follow, because it’s how I want to be, but do not have the balls to treat life how it should be treated. The fast living people who want to see and experience everything, who want to sleep in their cars and the next day drive to a new place, make a new group of friends, and never stop the chase for an oddly chaotic inner serenity.

Anybody who uses the word “Paki” to describe anyone with a slightly darker skin complexion, and then complains that “it’s political correctness gone mad” when they’re rightfully called ignorant little racists, should be shot. I like people to be accepting, tolerant, and understanding. Who see both sides of the argument, who don’t think Britain is some sort of victim. I like intelligence.

The people for Jamie.

The British Culture War

The bandwagon at the moment seems to be, quite arrogantly and horribly misinformed, a version of…….
“Britishness doesn’t exist any more! It’s been destroyed by the immigrants and New Labour!”
About a year ago, I probably would have agreed, but i’ve got older, smarter, and above all, less cretinous.

Nationalism:
I wonder if all of those who claim our ‘culture’ is dying could name, without searching on google, a great British Artist? A great British musician from the classical era? A great British commander from the War days? The date that India gained independence from the British Empire? The last ten Prime Ministers? The last four Monarchs? A great British war poet? The date that England became Church of England? A great battle in WWII that finally pushed the Germans back? I doubt it. Because “culture” in Britain no longer means any of that, “Culture” means getting pissed every Friday night.

Britishness to me:
To me, now, Britishness is changing every day. Which is a great thing. It moves with the times. We don’t allow religion to mix with our Politics. Belief isn’t “If you’re not Christian, you’re not welcome” in our Country. Although, this gives rise to a new hypocritical sense of Nationalism that is becoming an increasingly dangerous thing.
What you may find Britishness inside, I may see it differently, and so Britishness can never be a static, universal truth. I like it like that.

Places like Iran, stick to outdated religious principles. Unwilling to change with the times. The great thing about Britain is that the majority of us (I accept some remain ignorant) are happy to move with the times, to accept the different cultures that have contributed such a valuable amount to our society, and our economy.
We aren’t the culture of top hats and “how do you do”.
We aren’t the tea drinking nation.
We aren’t any other stereotypical view of Britain. We’re a huge cultural mixture. Who (regardless of how the media like to hype the situation) understanding of others beliefs and we’re willing to talk, relate to and befriend people regardless of their beliefs and opinions.
We’re White, we’re Black, we’re Asian, we’re straight, we’re gay, we’re men, we’re women and it has absolutely no affect on our every day life.
Britishness is not static, it isn’t like a religious belief that cannot be changed. Britishness updates every single second. It’s a constantly working mechanism that, if embraced, can cope with all the pressures of multiculturalist England today.

It would appear that the top hat wearing, tea drinking, small corner shop family run business owning,”cheery-o chap” speaking British ways have long since died. It isn’t because of immigration and it has very little, if nothing to do with New Labour. It has to do with the changing nature of humanity.
- You and I both don’t wear tradition British Clothing, because American jeans like Levi, and hoodies sporting “Greenday” logos are the fashion now.
- I don’t want to wear a top hat and say “Good day to you madam”.

New Labour didn’t open the gates. Conservative Open Market policies did that. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that when a rich prosperous country opens it’s gates to foreign investment, people are going to start to move country. If you want a wide variety of choice with regard to the products you buy, expect large numbers of immigrants offering that choice. You can’t have it both ways. PLEASE try and understand this, for the sake of intelligent thought.

The small family run tradition British businesses, the grocers, the small video rental shops, struggle to exist in a place where Tesco and John Lewis rule the waves. You can blame big business for this.

For the people who insist that “Britishness doesn’t exist”, I’d like to know what drastic changes have occured in your every day life, that have made you a little less British and a little more Polish, or Pakistani, or Indian? And then, go back into your ignorant minds and count all the aspects of your life that are actually American influenced.

And then of course, there are those who insist that England has gone “PC mad”.

Political Correctness:
Certain phrases that have found their way into our language in order to appear more “understanding”, for example if I were to suggest that because i’m losing my hair, in order to reduce the risk of offending me, instead of saying i’m balding, i’d prefer you used the term follicle regression, would indeed, take the piss.
If half the dirty old men in on the planet decided that they hate that term, and prefer the term “gender enthusiastic geriatric”, we’d laugh at them, because it’s ridiculous.

To me, that’s what political correctness is. Taking something that wasn’t offensive in the first place, and claiming it was TOO offensive.
Mankind, suddenly becomes Human Kind.
Housewife suddenly becomes homemaker.

When you use the term “paki” to describe anyone who happens to have an Asian complexion, you aren’t exercising a form of anti-policial correctness, you’re exercising ignorance, cuntishness, and above all, you’re starting to prove the case for the rest of the World hating us.
When you try to justify such ignorance as “well, it’s just like calling me a brit!!”, you have delved beyond the realms of ignorance, and infact, deserve to be shot.

When you use any kind of intended abuse, to personally attack someone, you cannot hide behind “omg, this country is so fucking politically correct!!” or “I’m just being honest!!” in a lame attempt to justify your ridiculous point of view…….. You cannot defend yourself.

When one Muslim woman complains that a British Flag offends her. That is one Muslim woman. It isn’t Islam on the whole. It’s like saying Ian Huntley is a white British man, so therefore all white British men must be paedophile child killers. If you then accuse all Muslims of being anti-British, then those same Muslims have a right to come up to you and express the view, through the media, across the World, that all British Women like to kill children and bury them on the Moors, because Myra Hindley did. I very much doubt you’d be banging on about their right to be politically incorrect then, you’d be disgusted.

People seem to think that “free speech” entitles you to be a cunt, and then not have to deal with the consequences. Free speech means you can say what you want, but you must deal with the problems inevitably faced by your ignorance. Don’t back away from it. And don’t hide behind a horrible cliche like “politically correct”. Freedom of Speech has consequences. You do indeed have the freedom to say whatever you want to say, there is nothing stopping you. But have to guts to deal with the subsequent problems you have caused.

Political Correctness hasn’t got “out of hand”, it isn’t worse than it’s ever been. Ignorance is on the rise. This new breed of arrogant Nationalism is on the rise. Too many people think they can be as offensive as they like and they’ll somehow gain support and not have to explain themselves deeper, not have to give it any intelligent thought, if they just use “I hate political correctness!” to justify their own unjustifiable prejudices. I don’t know if it’s a post-Empire thing, but it seems a high number of Brits have decided that Britain is the God of all Countries.

There is an odd thing happening. The British public seem to be paying an unusual amount of time to the Media, and so jumping on the bandwagon portrayed at the time.
The Sun – “Gordon Brown is wonderful”
The public – “YEAH! GO GORDON!!!”
The Sun – “Actually he’s a bit shit”
The public – “Yeah BOOO GORDON!”
It takes away any individual thought. I would like to see more people forming their own opinions, understanding that the media is controlled, they are private enterprises, and so, full of bias. I would like people to, instead of jumping to an illogical conclusion, research both sides of an argument and then come to a well rounded, well thought out opinion. It may agree with your initial jumped-to conclusion, it may change your mind completely, like the whole “Britishness” debate has for me. But it’s the only credible way you will answer a deep question such as the one surrounding the British Culture War.

It is people who think in this regressive, nazi-esque way, who destroy the country, no one else.

Making a hell out of heaven

I appear to had forgotten just how unreasonable a vindaloo is a few hours after you’ve eaten it.
It’s like an incredibly attractive female, who, after you’ve “enjoyed” her, tells you she’s got herpes.
It sits there, staring at me, begging to be eaten, and so owing to my great incapability for saying no, I eat it. Savouring every last beautifully cheap and greasy mouthful (the curry, not the attractive female), I’m too deep into the heavenly taste, that I don’t think about the consequences of these actions. I go to bed satisfied.
A few hours later, and I wake up feeling like someone is about to blowtorch my arse.

I’ve wondered recently, what heaven is. What it’s like. Who it pleases. Who decides what universal perfection and happiness is. I mean, I understand that Heaven is the perfected perfection. It’s also very Conservative, in that it doesn’t like change or social progression. God spits at the Gays! Like an angry redneck scared that the sanctity of his second marriage to his second cousin may be undermined if we let the “fags” marry. It’s also very undemocratic, what with one guy ruling the entire place, very heavy handedly I might add, Bush will be invading heaven before January, I assure you.

If, as Christians tend to suggest, no homosexual person, or no person who questions Christianity, or no person who hasn’t accepted Jesus as “their lord and saviour” exists in heaven, then I do not want to go to Heaven. If the Christian heaven, void of anyone who happens to have a different view of life exists, then it’s indeed a very good advert for going to Hell. Hell seems much more diverse and accepting.
A Christian at Speakers Corner, Hyde Park, once told me that unless you accept Jesus into your life, you are destined for hell. I asked him, “what would happen to an Aid Worker in the Sudan, who dedicates his life to helping others, all his money goes into helping orphaned children live a better life, but is Atheist, and Gay?” The Christian, told me that man would go to hell for being a non believer. Yet this Christian stood in front of me, aimlessly condemning good people to hell, will be going straight to heaven? This same Christian, who will act morally, purely to appease his God and maybe get on the path to Heaven, whereas that Gay Atheist aid worker, acts morally, because he wants to do good, he has no one to impress, no God to appease, he does the right thing, for the sake of humanity, is going to hell? I think that’s a brilliant advert for hell right there.

Surely Heaven is different for everyone? My idea of the perfect eternal World will be entirely different to that, for example, of a White Supremacist. Their idea of heaven, may very well be void of all black or Asian people. Whereas, my idea of heaven would include every ethnic grouping, every coloured skin, every sexual orientation, every Nationality, every class, and every walk of life on the planet, living in a place without a whisp of fear or bigotry.
The idea of the perfect World for a Priest, may not include sexual salacious bliss, or may only include sexual salacious bliss for couples who had married in the material World. This, is my idea of hell.

Everyone is different.

A Vegetarian may find that his or her idea of Heaven, is never having to find another restaurant that actually caters to Vegetarians in a respectful maner. A table full of beautiful Vegetarian dishes. Whereas, my only edible wish for Heaven, all I ask of God, if he truly is merciful, would be a Vindaloo that doesn’t set my arse on fire.