Atos: They simply don't care

A National  Protest Against Benefit Cuts is taking place throughout the week, with noisy protests expected up and down the country. Whether we see any reports of these events we will see.
Many protests are expected to take place both announced and unnanounced outside the offices and testing centres operated by Atos Origin.
Atos Origin have recently been granted, and have starrted a £300 million contract by the Con-dem Government to carry out 'work capability assessments' on all people currently on Incapacity Benefit.
It has been claimed that assessments will be used to test what people can do rather than what they can't. I feel the real purpose will be to strip vulnerable people from their benefits to pay for the bankers greed.
The testing system has already led to people with terminal illnesses and severe medical conditions being declared fit for work and having benefits cut. Our G.Ps are simply ignored in favour of decisions made by Atos's own accessors. I know of people with severe illnesses whose benefits have been stopped, pending an appeal, and many others who are scared witless.
Where  conditions have been stabilising over years and their have been intermittent periods of survival,  Atos is currently undertaking a process that robs people of their  dignity and have in many cases , made people more anxious than ever before. A lot of the examinations I have heard about seem to be based on simple trickery,the examinator  does not hold open the door for you or seek to help you in any way and simply ignores any signs of invisible illnesses, the internal unseen forces that cannot be detected by mere physical tests.
 It has been said in other parts that it is simply an excercise in robbing people of any dignity that remains. To date  however about 50% of appeals have been successful ,this proves that the means of testing cannot possibly be correct, yet this does not stop the worry or the fear. A lot of innocent people are clearly , but not plainly for the rest of the country to see, being treated unfairly.
Their have also been plans for the scrapping of Disability Living Allowance , and soon perhaps will be extended to everyone on some form of disability or health related benefit.

Meanwhile David Cameron is seen daily on the television and in the newspapers looking jolly and upbeat, ignoring the misery that he has inflicted on a few. A millionaire with no sense of what it it is to face invisible fears, and apprehensions, in a lot of cases, this is daily living, and the living is definitely not easy. He pays no heed  to people whoes experiences of life are mostly heart rendering. He parades his standards for all to see, and his friends the bankers, and those with corporate power idly get rewarded, as he divides the country into us and them. Poverty pimps is to nice a word.
Next after stealing peoples lifes , Cameron will turn to slice and carve up the N.H.S and other essential services.
It is always the same, I suppose , the rich get richer and those below the radar, are beaten down. The mainstream press collude with this and blame people on benefits, neighbours are turned against one another, the blame game spreads, whilst the real parasites grow stronger and stronger.
I confess I have personal bias,  personal experience, guess you know which side of the fence I'm on. Anyway this is not about me.
This is about the experiences of many other people up and down the country, who are being blamed for capitalisms worst excesses, who deserve respect and certainly some dignity.
Finally , when the legendary underground Edinburgh poet  Paul Reekie killed himself on June 10th, two letters were found on his table at the time - one informing him  his Incapacity Benefit  had been stopped, and the other that his Housing Benefit had been stopped.
I will let you judge for yourself. Atos abrilliant acronym by the way, simply don't care.
Show solidarity.
Fight the cuts.

 For more information see

  http://benefitclaimantsfightback.wordpress.com/

WE

ARE

NOT

WORTHLESS

WE

ARE FIGHTING

BACK

Hsu Ts'eshu ( chinaman, circa C16th) - Proper moments for drinking Tea.

When one's heart and hands are idle
Tired after reading poetry.
When ones thoughts are disturbed.
Listening to songs and ditties.
When a song is completed.
Shut up at one's home on a holiday.
Playing the ch'in and looking over paintings.
Rngaged in conversation deep at night.
Before a bright window and a clean desk.
With charming friends and slender concubines.
Returning from a visit with friends.
When the day is clear and the breeze is mild.
On a day of light showers.
In a painted boat near a small wooden bridge.
In a forest with tall baboons.
In a pavillion overloooking lotus flowers on a summer day.
Having lighted incense in a small studio.
After a feast is over and the guests are gone.
When children are at school.
In a quiet secluded temple.
Near famous springs and quaint rocks.

Terence McKenna (16/11/46 - 3/4/00) - On societies refusal to allow us to be idle.

" I  think the reason we don't organise society in that way can be summed up in the aphorism, ' idle hands are the devil's tool. In other words, institutions fear idle populations because an idler is a thinker and thinkers are not a welcome addition to most social situations. Thinkers become malcontents, that's almost a substitute word for idle, ' malcontent'. Essentially, we are all kept very busy... under no cicumstances are you to quietl inspect the contents of your own mind. Freud called introspection ' morbid' - unhealthy, introverted, anti-social, possibly neurotic, potentially pathological."

as transcribed to Tom Hodgkinson 1993.

as I've said before all life is work, in states of freedom we are released from the illusions of slavery.
Alternatively what was it that the great socialist William Morris say.

" A man at work, making something which he feels will exist because he is working at it and wills it, is excercising the energies of his mind and soul as well as his body. Memory and imagination help him as he works."

Ah, the dualities of life, for some a struggle every day. Some of us refuse to obey or conform, we can look at a meadow of beauty for hours without moving. For some however this could be hard work. But everyone of us twined together in our fragility, lifes rich differences, the shared humanity of us all.
It is our ideologies that actually divide,the  reality is the toiler or the idle share  exactly the same breath.
All of us skirting around the playgrounds of chance, perhaps.
Anyway,I for one in deep thought at moment, wondering how the dickens the tories have not been decimated, but that  is another tale, one I'd rather forget. The thought of them, makes me very tired.

"I didn't go to work today, I don't think I'll go tomorrow. Lets take control of our lives and live for pleasure not pain."

BUT WATCH OUT ATOS ARE ABOUT.

The Experiment - Broomtoad Coldsnap

a petri dish,
aireal view of Buckingham palace
the crowds, the host,
the virus, them.
ah again the experiment

Here's the Historical - moment.
The kiss -
the host is behaving, responding,
perfectly, roaring in priapic extasy.
( a spectral light swooning) ?

in majestic serenity
the transaction is completed
Heavy velvet curtains
billow a little, in a soiled wind
from the stained streets.

the fairy tale - told
was a success!
crosseyed subjects
moved gently away by police
wearing white gloves.

mandrake. twitches
incantation
a Tea leaf reading

Undecided. But don't call me apathetic.

Whose right, whose wrong, does voting make any difference?
Not much difference between any of them anymore, but the tories no, no, and no again....  the liberals have broken to many promises and colluded just for power's sake.
Do we want the same bloody system adinfinitum? I certainly don't.
Remember all the major paries would have cut, the tories I suppose  are finishing what New Labour started. The tories though a bloody lot worse, ideological driven, an enemy to progress, just wan't to go back in time, back to the 1920s.  Incapacity Benefit and Disability Living Allowance claimants were already in New Labours sites. Plaid around here am afraid have let us down with their proposed badger cull, cosied up to Labour.
The Greens, retain integrity though and have a ear for social justice , a radical edge, that has unfotunately been diluted by the rest of them.
Certain parties on the left stand once again , against one another, not united yet.

Perhaps you will choose freedom and vote for none, on the AV vote this could though be the last chance to any electoral change for years, and a yes vote would give the tories a good beating.
 However, stay safe on the streets when you find yourself in battle,  the freedom to demonstrate,at the moment, getting perilous, the police have decided they too can be political, with pre-emptive arrests recently, people are being presumed guilty before actually doing anything.
Yes this is democracy.
Will voting tomorrow change this?

Times are getting grimmer .....  but resistance is not futile

Do not most of us, lose all the time. Consensus government, as a friend said and numerical majorities do not a democracy make.
We will see, but don't call me fucking apathetic.
The least we can do is get angry.
The Welsh Assembly Elections are takin place tomorrow ,in case you wondered what I was blathering on about, and up in Scotland, and local elections up and down the country.

Oh and here's a quote from Emma Goldman

" The State is the altar of political freedom, and, like the religious altar, it is maintained for human sacrifice." 

Fuck Bin Laden R.I.P Ira Cohen (3/2/35 - 25/4/11)

So Osama Bin Laden. Dead or alive.  Has he not already been killed once, back in 2001.No chance of him inconveniently turning up alive. I don't know whether to believe this story.even less believable than the London Met. But if he really is dead why has NATO decided to retain 140,000 troops in Afghanistan. Perhaps they  know that a global terrorist network is looking for a new manager.
It's still indiscriminate hypocricy though. Many thousands more are killed and silenced by cluster bombs and bullets, buried under warped truth. History repeats itself like a curse. Do we seek  to stoke the flames of reactionary forces and division.Terrorists kill, Governments kill, what is the difference? Civilisation, oh look at us,  aren't we clever, still playing the old blame game, finding bullshit redemption.Undercover of the night, bodies lost at sea. Evil bogeyman killed, people rejoice and the killing carries on regardless.
Anyway here's a quote

" I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not recognise in the death of one. Not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. "

- Martin Luther King

Anyway,
I'm not going to surrender to hate,  I believe in a future one day soon where love will overtake. Another word is ours for the taking.
Even sadder news with the death of Mr Ira Cohen, freed from the fetters of hope. A poet and universal visionary , filmaker, bookmaker, friend to many,disciple of eclectism, shaman of insight, R.I.P.
and the dust so fine
these are suggestions
wave on wave
reach out
each ring
will be upon the wind
some of us forever invisible
carried on honeyed breeze
far in to oceanic jungle
staring out
as mountains erupt
volcanic storms
sway forever, forever , forever

Link to wiki entry on Ira Cohen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Cohen

 Ira Cohen in conversation.

Song to Nothing -Ira Cohen

And surely we will die without memory
coming to cold in the shadow of space
& if it isn't too late
for the star to love you
spraying the sky with whispers
attuned to galaxies hungry for flame
And if the togue of night sings
of Albino winos
till the morning light shafts
the doorway
then surely we will die tonight
faceless at the White Gate
sharing the smoke
with ancient shapes in future garb
and you stand somewhere there
on the other side
feeding on the painof dreamlessness
Where from the misty morning of
white shadows
& the unresisting need to destroy?

Samuel, Samuel, I beg it may be forgiven
that they may be driven
out of the black into the white
Only let the dazzle remain
for gamblers to surprise
the stragecic diamond, the throne
of compressed bone
in the unshored dark
where only light can forgive
& your mind is singed
Embers of echoes in the vastness
disguise the yearning to burn blind eyes
in arrogant displays of feeling?
Running wild these beasts will feast
on the newborn kind
for surely we will die tonight
unless we learn to ignore
what the others live for
on the other side of morning
& the skin of Nothing left by the same summer
masks the faceless wanderer

O let it happen
this wierd to discover
the shape of Beauty in everything extreme

for surely we will die tonight
whether we will or whether we
dream
O Samuel, forgive the dreamer
forgive the dream
The Song of Nothing is your lullabye.

Songs for the People - Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (24/9/1825 - 22/2/11)

Let me make the songs for the people,
Songs for the old and young;
Songs to stir like a battle-cry
Wherever they are sung.

Not for the clashing of sabres,
For carnage nor for strife;
But songs to thrill the hearts of men
With more abundant life.

Let me make songs for the weary,
Amid life's fever and fret,
Till hearts shall relax their tension,
And cakeworm brows forget.

Let me sing for little children,
Before the footsteps stray,
Sweet anthems of love and duty,
To float o'er life's highway.

I would sing for the poor and aged,
When shadows dim their sight;
Of the bright and restful mansions,
Where there shall be no night.

Our world, so worn and weary
Needs  music, pure and strong,
To hush the jangle and discords
Of sorrow, pain, and wrong.

Music to soothe all its sorow,
Till war and crime shall cease;
And the hearts of men grow tender
Girdle the world with peace.

HAPPY MAY DAY/ BELTANE

The government wants to move this day, to celebrate St George in April, or the battle of Trafalgar in October....... is this  because it's  the people day with all it's madness's and idiosyncracies. A time to remember rebellion, independent spirit, dissent. Clarion calling down through the centuries. Humankind's common unity. The celebrations and traditions of ordinary people.
Cameron does not like ordinary people,  does not respect them, then you'd expect that from a tory wouldn't you.
May your day be full of wonder, mischief and merriment...........
heddwch/peace

Pantomine's Pageantry - Not for me folks.

O.K perhaps we sometimes need a bit of magic to lift us up, in dark days, but does a fancy dress show of exteme extravegance and wealth, really do the trick. Have you not been amazed by the disgraceful fawning by the majority of the British media, every day ad infinitum,  it really is very difficult to ignore ,and makes me reach out for a  sick back everytime .Do they really have the popularity  that is accorded to them. Its really difficult to find any balance at the moment. What with the daily bombardment.
Hey I like it when people find love, love is wonderful, the world needs it, it's there for everyone, but the cost of this wedding is going to be about £20 million, and this anti democratic family are paying how much? Um  £100,000, that might seem a lot, but when you think that the Queen alone gets about £40million  a year, it really is loose change .In a time of recession, are there not other  things this government should be spending ourr money on, er, hospitals, schools , welfare for the poor amongst other things.
This wedding a mere distraction perhaps while this government of ours carry out the most destructive policies in living memory.
The Royal families kingdom is based purely on ancient and lets face it pretty rotten foundations, for me they are an overpaid and pretty phenomenally wealthy, and incredibly outdated obscenity.
Hey if they want to get married let it be, a simple registry affair, meet a few mates down the pub before hand , buy a round..., and no roads will be blocked, traffic paralysed, offensive slogans chanted and banners brandished.



But no whoopee they've given us a national holiday, but a lot of us ,the silent minority as the media are sarcastically calling us,are in mood for celebrating, and if I never see Nicholas Whitchurch ever again I will be extremely grateful, the B.B.C an organisation that I have long admired keep telling me stuff like William's just one of the lads and that Kate's a commoner, well if thats the case I really am on planet Zog. Kate  will now enters a world where she never does a proper days work again in her life and still get paid. Unbelieavable, as people on benefits are being called scroungers, and getting much needed support scrapped, here we our dishing out more money to a family who simply do not deserve it.
If the royal wedding never ended and the guests never left, how many dictatorships would achieve regime change? There seem to be that many despots attending. Perhaps  it should be made mandatory that the Church doors are blocked after the ceremony and let no one out.
Don't want to put a dampener on this fancy parade but I hear it might rain. As you are probably aware by now I for one will not be dancing , even though it's also international dance day, and save the frog day,  incidentally.The world apparently will be watching this circus. I simply don't believe it, and the hype is so disproportionate. If we do not see any dissent it's because the powers that be have simply censored it, in this twisted version  of reality.
I think I'll turn the T.V ,switch of the internet, its goin to be non-stop , a stuff of  nightmares. Anyway I will try my best to simply ignore it. Hope I've convinced some to do the same.
Have a nice day.

Viva Republic. Spread real love.........

http://www.republic.org.uk/

Time's Exhaust

'

picture by Rod Scneider

Weekend gone, sat in garden
in distant city, people distracted 
misplaced priorities, in search of profit,
consumerism running riot, everything out of control
safety and caution bypassed to save some pennies,
a broken  process caught up in its own denial.
watch as corruption simply grows and grows
meanwhile at home, sun out, minding it's own business
neighbour shouted across the wall,
"lovely weather, mate, especially if your not working"
" Yeah " I sighed, turned my trowel in rich earth,
turning wilderness into something
deeper still, tearing down walls,
finding immediacy, even when lost
embracing rocks and stones, nurturing moss,
underneath a thousand currents
rested in  the shadows of  infinite,
where future's nourishment
knows another notion,
in former days of work slavery
obstacles galore fed on emptiness,
digging now for survival
belief in nature's power is definite,
Every word , a seed of tomorrow's breath
time exhausts,  air is full of living dust,
the careless  delay of language
echoes across the centuries,
when all the clocks stop
we will see history that we will all remember,
reality traded for paradise
beyond the ruination of now.