Childhood under seige

This animation was made in response to the crises in Gaza. These drawings are original  pictures by Palestinian children from the area which depict both  the brutalities experienced in the 2008 war  and their hopes and dreams for the future.
During the most recent conflict one child died  every hour in Gaza and every child there, aged  6 and over has already  experienced 3 or  more wars.
Despite the ceasefire, the Israeli-imposed blockade  remains and  will ensure that children growing up in Gaza with continue to live  through extreme hardship.
The focus of this piece is to grow, spread and strengthen awareness of the Palestinian struggle for freedom so that there can be a positive and just future.

Animation by Plastic Horse
Sound Design by Giacomo Trivelli
Written and produced by Katie Clark

There are over 800,000 children living in Gaza, they make up more than half of the population. They  remain a source  of  optimism and much courage, the world should not forget them as they are forced to  live out their lives  in the ruins of a concentration camp. Their rights to education curtailed with closures and curfews of schools and classes, leading to insecurity and dermoralisation combined  with home demolishments, arbitrary arrests, checkpoints, and the wall, daily they are witnewss to injustices and oppression.Today it is these children  who are still paying the highest  price of this conflict.
Yet despite all this these children remain a source of optimism, hope and much courage.  My dream is that  they all  grow up and find their much deserved freedom.

Lessons

Lesson 1 :- Resist

Lesson 2 :- Rebuild

Lesson 3 :- Boycott

Lesson 4 :- Resist

Lesson 5 :- We build life

The B.B.C is like an advertising agency that makes us believe in distortion

According to the BBC,  the economy is growing, there are more jobs than ever and the banks are our friends, and they keep telling us  about some rich  individuals who are expecting a baby, that their mum is a bit cross, seemingly furious because opinion polls seem to suggest that the vote for Scotland's  independence is getting close,  hardly any coincidence.
Last week hardly a muster of the daily protests against Nato in South Wales, and nothing on the enormous protests that took place in defence of the NHS. Do they tell us that Corporal Clegg is a plonker, that his puppeteer Cameron seems intent on taking us back to the 1980's, to many of us his daily onslaughts as bad as is hero Thatcher. The BBC seems to waffle, waffle, waffle, then add some bollocks,  then waffle some more. Don't get me started on their pathetic reportage on the siege of Gaza, an illegal occupation that is still happening now. their reportage one-sided, another contortion in entirety.
There is  something rotten going on here. There hiding all the real news from us, we have become their stooges, they want us to stop questioning,  they just want to hypnotise us with banality and lies. The effect of their  manipulations, is that it produces distortions that are not characteristic on the fibres of truth in which we live and breathe.
So lets start ignoring them, I already have,  we have the internet, books and many other sources of  alternative media and information, so use  them. Time to switch the brainwashers off.
Rant over here's a bit of music.

The Weary Blues - Artie Matthews (1915)

Dream Strategies

 Poem written after attending Anti-Nato Peace Camp
 in Newport, South Wales 30/8/14 - 5/09/14
 where I joined  groups of individuals,
 gathered to say no to austerity, yes to welfare, no to warfare.

I used to be asleep
Forever I would dream,
Last week got lost in live stream
At a camp that awoke
Rushing and gurgling
With defiant necessity,
As art of communication
Was relearnt, again and again
Beyond consensus
In syncopated time,
A dedicated lifeforce
Beyond copyright
Every voice released
A beautiful gentle sigh,
No gods, no masters
The earth listened
As we sent out love letters
From our hearts,
And the sun shined
Whispered thanks.

Subcomandante Marcos - In our dreams we have seen another world

Marcos spokesperson and 'anti-leader' of the Zapatistas, has become an icon of the global anti-capitalist struggle - a 'postmodern Che Guevara,' as one journalist put it. He's refused to disclose his identity though the Mexican government says he is Rafael Sebatian Guillier Vicente, formerly a professor in Mexico City. He has written more than  two hundred essays and stories and published more than twenty books. His words have always bought me comfort and have been a source of much inspiration. Another world is not only possible it is inevitable.

'In our dreams we have seen another world, an honest world, a world decidedly more fair than the one in which we  now live. We saw that in this world there was no need for armies, peace, justice and liberty were so common that no one talked about  them as far-off concepts but as things were named in this world. And in this world there was reason and goodwill in the government, and the leaders were clear-thinking people; they ruled by obeying. This world was not a dream from the past, it was  not something that came to us from our ancestors. It came from ahead, from the next step we were going to take. And so we started to move forward to attain  the dream, make  it come down and sit at our tables, light our homes, grow in our cornfields, fill the hearts of our children, wipe our sweat, heal our history.And it was for all.  This is what we want. Nothing  more, nothing less. Now we follow our path toward our true heart to ask it what we must do. We will return to our mountains to speak in our own tonque and in our own time. Thank you to the brothers and sisters who looked after us all these days. May your footsteps  follow  our path.

1994


;;

Noam Chomsky (2014) "The Future of Humanity"

Reloaded

' If someone was watching this from Mars, they'd think this species was insane.'

Some aphorisms from the diaries of Mark Twain on my 47th birthday

                                                       Mark Twain

' The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much : if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little.
Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of ourselves and how  little.
Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.
There are several  good protections against temptations, but the surest  is cowardice.
Of all God's creatures, there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.

(um I've been cat sitting in Wood Green in North London.)

NATO comes to Wales to plan War : Join others from across the country to say no.

Next week, heads of governments from more than than 60 countries  will descend on Newports Celtic Manor Park for NATO's latest gathering.
I will be heading down too, on Saturday  to join a week long peace camp protesting against its plans. At the moment the two cities of Cardiff and Newport are in lock down to try to prevent  people opposing NATO's presence and dubious agenda, at a cost of millions  in this age of austerity.
A national demonstration will be held tomorrow Saturday 30th August http://bit.ly/1qhhA07

It is hoped that thousands of people  from Wales and across the country will  embark  on a series of protests across the two cities, and attend an alternative counter summit that will be taking place. I have packed my  tent to join others at this Peace Camp http://bit.ly/1libFb4
Hopefully NATO will receive  a clear message of defiance to their plans, saying no to a summit that takes place only weeks after the centenary of World War 1, which forever serves as a reminder of the bloodshed and horror that empire,militarism, nationalism, and yes organisations like NATO help to perpetuate.
It is heartwarming to learn that a  non religious/non partisan vigil for peace  in support of  the opposition to the NATO summit, will be taking place in my hometown of Aberteifi/Cardigan, West Wales from 11 a.m to 1.pm on the Guildhall steps.
An alternative message of peace must be delivered.

http:www.nonatonewport.org

https://www.facebook.com/events/478707445588453

Dear Darling

We can cite the tens of thousands of working families relying on foodbanks, the sick and disabled people commiting suicide because of benefit cuts, the rising numbers of children in poverty.
Britain on its  way to being the most unequal country in the world according to Oxfam, pensioners being payed the lowest pensions in Europe while the income gap rockets between working people and a super wealthy elite, who use their power and influence to maintain the status quo.
Alex Salmond smashed you to bits the other night, seeing you as an opponent  who sides with the tories, that would push us all further into poverty.
Your message appalling  for someone who is supposed to  be  in opposition to the Conservatives and their cronies. Darling, your message simply appalling. xx

Time to end todays modern slave trade.

For over 400 years  more than 15 million, men, women and children were the victims of the tragic transatlantic slave trade, one of the deadliest chapters in  human history.It is a sad fact  that there are more people in slavery today  than during the entire period of the International Slave Trade.
The United Nations defines slavery as " when someone is coerced against their will into making money for someone else.            
According to the International Labour Organisation, almost 21 million people are enslaved into forced  labour worldwide generating an estimated $150 billion in illegal profits each day, forced  into labour in the global economy.
They are exploited  by private individuals or enterprises,with economic self interest and moral convictions cast aside, many of todays' capitalist corporations, still turn a blind eye, still profiting from peoples misery and exploitation. Sadly too  4.5 million are victims of forced sexual exploitation.It is such an unfortunate fact that modern day slavery helps too, to fuel corruption and organised crime. Over 130 goods from more than 70 countries are still produced  by forced labour.
Despite being  remembered on the International Day for the Rememberance of the Slave Trade on August 23 every year, when  on this day  in 1791 the slaves of Saint Dominique (now known as Haiti) began an uprising. though courageous, it did not bring  down the slave trade, .
We must today provide safe harbours, make sure that victims forced  into illegal activities are not prosecuted
and that that are provided  with shelter,treated with respect and dignity  and the means  to escape their oppression, and given the means and assistance available to try and help them rebuild their lives.
We should continue  to be asking large companies to take action to ensure that as consumers we are contributing to the end of modern day slavery instead of propping it up.
Let us remember too as NATO meets next week in Newport, South Wales, UK, that its core member states play central roles, and are complicit in many of the causes of conflict that lead to slavery and trafficking.We should not forget that NATO is nothing more  than a war machine, whose entire raison d'etre, is to start wars ,and fuel the voracious appetite of the arms industry, acting belligerently like modern day slave masters, who only show contempt for their slaves.
It is time this distortion is stopped now. End the suffering and exploitation of people across the globe.

A couple of useful links:-

http://www.stopthetraffik.org/

http://walkfree.org/

Carnival Escapology

                                Image of  Notting Hill Carnival.
                                ( Where I returned from earlier, me old mate ken sent me)

Sometimes the weight of the world
feels like an inflatable balloon, filled,
                                      with tears,
leaving a permanent scar,
like a tatooists signature.

But cordial jet streams, pass upstream too
heaving with notations, admission price zero,
turning down streets, flowing with rum
the afternoon thunders along, with the pulse
                                              of adventure.

We join a carnival, follow sweet, perfumed air
a procession of celebration, high on hope,
dancing to the throb of bass and drum
voices laugh and sing, together we dance
as strong community spirit, is shared.

We drift, deeper and deeper
get lost in mists of perambulation,
to find  the source within to rekindle
                                        and save,
to store in our hearts, waves of spirit
that we hope, may never be erased,
from the rivers to the sea
in synchronisation we are free.