This week we have seen the tragic loss of 400 peoples lives , dying in an attempt to reach Italy from Libya, after boat capsized. The boat was carrying about 500 people in total, according to some of the 150 survivors who were rescued. Italian coastguards intercepted 42 boats on April 12 and 13, carrying 6,500 people attempting to make the crossing to Europe.
Human beings seeking a new way of life, many driven by desperation, fleeing persecution, violence, the torture, or the threat of, fleeing from regions where human rights abuses are rife, inncents simply seeking a future. As many as 700 people have now been lost at sea this year alone. Human beings with dreams and fears in pursuit of some happiness.
Europes response has been shameful, inadequate, inhumane, and quite simply pathetic.We are after all talking about what is an injustice.
The European Union and its member states, under the guise of its Fortress Europe policies has been complicit in these tragedies to occur, again and again, leading to innocent people needlesly and shamefully dying on Europe's doorstep. A result of inhuman policies still in place today that deny access to the asylum system for refugees.
These deaths are not isolated incidents but the direct consequence of tightening our immigration policies and controls. In the face of civil war, conflict, global politics and social unrest, Europes response has been at the end of the day disgusting, with the use of practices and policies that turn a blind eye to the root causes of migration.
I do not feel we will find answers in building the walls of fortress Europe higher, what is needed is the provision of more safe and legal channels for people to access protection. For human beings to be treated with respect and dignity. The decision to close doors and build fences, means that men, women and children are forced to risk their lives and take a desperate journey across the sea. The boats will not simply stop. Ignoring the situation, will not make it go away. This is Fortress Europes daily shame.
McDonalds has come under fire after metal 'anti-homeless spikes' were installed outside one of its Leeds branches. Simply inhumane and shows a complete disregard for homeless people who struggle every day.
Homelessness is one of the worst injustices within our society, having a place to live should be a right not a privilege. These spikes show a complete disregard and lack of respect for homeless people.
McDonalds claim they were there to tackle anti-social behaviour, not target the homeless, saying they welcome all customers through their doors.
Well they have since been hit by a 70,000 strong petition still growing. By the way I would not reccommened you eating their food, it is definitely not good for your health. As disgusting to taste too, like their actions.
Sadly another truthsayer has gone, Eduardo Galeona, poet laureatte of the anti-globalisation movement, a Uruguayan writer, poet, anti-capitalist, radical author and journalist of much depth. A committed socialist, whose historical works condemned European and US colonialist exploitation of Latin America over 5 centuries, which made him a revered figure among leftists. He died aged 74 after a battle with lung cancer.
Weaving tapestries of society obscured by historians, his books ( he was a productive writer of over 30 books) presented alternative histories that gave equal weight to the suffering of the downtrodden, as to the grand achievements of better known historical figures.
Born in 1940, he turned his writing , and indeed his life, into a powerful manifesto against injustice and exploitation. As he himself put it, Galeano wrote for “the hungry, the sleepless, the rebels, the wretched of this earth.”
Nowhere is this commitment more clear than in his masterpiece, “Open Veins of Latin America.” Ever since it was published in 1971, the book has never stopped selling — and has indeed been immortalized as a Latin American monument.
Even today, it’s a required text in many social science courses around the world, including in universities. Written furiously in just 12 weeks, while military dictatorships took control of Brazil, Chile and Argentina ,“Open Veins in Latin America” denounces the systemic exploitation Latin America has historically been subject to.
In a style that was at the same time polemical irascible and accessible, Galeano exposed the hidden brutalities of colonialism and corporate globalization,– as well as the unsung beauties of the humble, the vernacular, the quotidian across Latin America.
“No computer could count the crimes that the pop culture business commits each day against the human rainbow and the human right to identity. But its devastating progress is mind-boggling. Time is emptied of history, and space no longer acknowledges the astonishing diversity of its parts. Through the mass media the owners of the world inform us all of our obligation to look at ourselves in a single mirror. "
“Whoever doesn’t have, isn’t. He who has no car or doesn’t wear designer shoes or imported perfume is only pretending to exist. Importer economy, impostor culture: we are all obliged to take the consumer’s cruise across the swirling waters of the market. Most of the passengers are swept overboard, but thanks to foreign debt the fares of those who make it are billed to us all. Loans allow the consuming minority to load themselves up with useless new things, and before everyone’s eyes the media transform into genuine needs the artificial demands the North of the world ceaselessly invents and successfully projects onto the South.”
Galeano was one of earliest writers to popularize an understanding of the structural relation between great affluence and accumulation in some parts of the globe and amongst a small stratum of society within every country, and the suffering and deprivation suffered in the vast “backyard” of this narrow but tremendous privilege: “
To turn infamies into feats, the memory of the North is divorced from the memory of the South, accumulation is detached from despoliation, opulence has nothing to do with plunder. Broken memory leads us to believe that wealth is innocent of poverty.”
He was forced to flee from Uruguay to neighboring Argentina in 1973, after he was briefly imprisoned by the recently installed military dictatorship, which banned his book Open Veins. He was blacklisted by death squads in Argentina following a military coup and tried to kill him but he fled to Spain.and survived.
Persecuted for his journalistic provocations, Galeano spoke truth to power and inspired readers to stand up to the fascist terror and militarism that had gripped so many Latin American countries for decades. An indefatigable risk-taker and provocateur, Galeano served as editor of important journals like Crisis, which he had co-founded and which focused much of its substantial intellectual energy on critiquing abuses of power in Uruguay and elsewhere in Latin America.
"We have a memory cut in pieces" he once told Democracy Now. "And I write trying to recover our real memory, the memory of humankind, what I call the human rainbow, which is much more colourful and beautiful than the other one, the other rainbow. But the human rainbow has been mutilated by machismo, racism, militarism, and a lot of other isms,who have been terribly killing our greatness, our possible greatness, our possible beauty."
The following is one of his fine poems. R.I.P
The right to dream of a better world ( El derecha a sonar)
The right to dream is a poem written and read by Eduardo Galeona.
In 1948, and again in 1976, the United Nations proclaimed long lists of human rights, but most of the worlds people still enjoy only the rights to see, hear and remain silent.
Suppose we excercise the never proclaimed right to dream? Lets set our sights above the abominations of today, to divine another possible world
I follow the start of the rising tide, sit and wait for shifting frontiers, to reset empty agenda, to seek change, as people decide for whom to vote, if they take part in the process at all. The politicians' luck is running out, on a point of flickering departure, hopefully smiles will be seen again, on every turn of the corner, if hollow policies, can be exposed, we can all be left to our own devices. We have learnt how to stand still, how to run, how to leap, though we are closely watched, we have strength in numbers, to change the status quo, but beware of paths of complacency, the jackals are outside the door, waiting patiently still to devour us all.
On Saturday 11th April 1981, Brixton was set ablaze as hundreds of local youth fought with the Metropolitan Police. The country was in recession, unemployment amongst African Caribbean members of the community was high, and the quality of housing was poor. In the week preceding the Brixton Riots, Operation Swamp 81, saw over 1,000 people ( mainly from the young black community) being stopped and searched adding to the increased frustration of the local people. Tensions were high. What happened next was to become one of the most significant outbreaks of civil disorder in 20th Century London. Police continued operating their hated 'sus' laws, where in order to stop someone, police only needed suspicion. At the time the police were exempt from the Race Relations Act, and many people targeted were from the ethnic community, which led to accusations of racial prejudice. After arrests were made tensions rose again, igniting violence which spread across the streets. The streets of Brixton became a battle zone. After police arrived in full riot gear, people started gathering to throw makeshift petrol bombs and set light to police cars. By the time hostilities had ended, over 360 ppeople had been injured, 28 premises burned and another 177 damaged and looted. The police arrested 82 people. After the riots a police enquiry was held under Lord Scarman that held that policing in a civil society can only succeed with the consent of the community. But 4 years later the Police shot Mrs Cherry Grove, , causing again disturbances in the area. There have been many many miscarriages of justice since. 34 years later there are many lessons to be learned. Police racism continues, as does unemployment and poverty. Capitalist society still suffers from a sickness that breeds ,the big criminals of the land get rich and fat, get rewarded for their crimes (ie the bankers) whilst the poorer members of our communities are stigmatised, getting poorer, punished because of the greedy. Sadly conditions in Brixton are not vastly better than over 30 years ago. Unrest can easily be fermented, when conditions on the streets are ignored. Riots that have happened since, like those seen in Brixton do not happen without a reason.
Guns of Brixton -the Clash, with collage of Brixton riots.
I happen to think that Nigel Farage is a twit of the first order. Many of his supporters though idolise him, on social media they don't seem to like any criticism, let alone any satire, despite a whole host of mishaps and blunders. I have had people trying to have a 'pop' when I have tried to spoil their gilded view.
They claim that UKIP is a libertarian party, all I see is xenophopbia, authoritarianism and the whiff of racism. But his supporters, carry on gleefuly, dancing to his chorus, carry on being misinformed , claiming media bias, and misrepresentation, but their policies are dangerous and blinkered that seek out to divide communities,demonising people , whilst creating stigma too.With their chief political philosophy being that immigrants are to blame for everything. This Is why I will personally keep taking the piss, as above Nigel Farage gets Dr Seussed. We must keep challenging their brand of intolerance, keep on questioning their point of view.
When people excuse, dismiss or are silent, about racism and hatred they contribute to the acceptance of a more racist society. We should not forget the strong connection that exists between UKIP and extreme far right fascists.
Oh Nige was said to be a bit tired a couple of days ago, after he bonded with Joey Essex, over their secret love of fish, after boarding a boat in Grimbsy.
At the end of the day, the picture below captures my feeling entirely. after hanging around with Joey he was caught standing behind the most appropriate sign. Ah a picture can help paint a thousand words.
For all the gushing plaudits and tributes dedicated to Margaret Thatcher, upon her death, she still remains an extremely divisive figure. This is because many people are still living with the dire consequences of her actions. As election time approaches, her breath and twisted ideology still lingers among all the mainstream parties.
Many of us are still unable to forgive her for the devastation she wrought to our communities, the damage she caused to our industries, our whole way of life. She fought against the miners, not giving a hoot, or an inch of compromise, then put her sights on our welfare state, whilst leaving an entire generation to be thrown on the scrapheap.
Her whole twisted ideology was to try and tear up the post 1945 consensus and privatise our public services, sell of our nationalised industries, whilst smashing up Trade Union rights, embarking on a systematic path of of destruction. Carving up the land, shifting the balance of social economic wealth between the rich and poor, very much detrimental to the latter.
Being kind, she was just a sower of destruction, not an ounce of compassion within her, a creator of mass unemployment too, a fosterer of division with her cruel policies. A liar too, about Hillsborough, who also bombed retreating ships.
While she shafted all and sundry she still managed to be friends with right wing dictators like Pinochet and P.W Botha. I can never forgive her.
She is still hated and always will be, despite her pulse stopping, her awful legacy lives on, in the toxicity that is Tony Blair who called her after her death, " a unique and towering figure" then their is the rotten tory party, still here today preaching the same stinking doctrine. The scars and pain she caused remain.
The witch might be dead, but the stench of Thatcherism still unfortunately, fills the air it is time I think, that we bury her awful legacy, once and for all,
The above film, old that it may be,still relevent, though looks at mans relationship, with the natural world, addresses us with issues that remain today, as urgent today, as they have always been.
At the end of the day, all are horizons can look much clearer, everything is true, everything is happening.
Patriarchy too, continues its' desire to conquer,and destroy, but out of of control, enslaves hungry thirst and thought. Everythings wrong, everythings right.
Don't let the world hold you down. keep releasing thought, seeds of survival, at the end of the day , don't just sit there, look for answers, solutions, when everything seems so wrong, keep on looking, keep searching for some possibility.
Michael Sowa, Eater Bunny, 1996
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Ah Easter seems to come round quicker each year, that's a sign I guess. This morning I crawled out of bed, but so far, even though the day is buzzing, no sign of any easter bunny yet, but whats that towering above?
I guess this weekend, will be for some, a time to wind down, take some time of work, or business as usual, or eat, consume, eat consume, for many a time of celebration, David Cameron has been busy writing us his own Easter message, where he sets about his belief in the importance of Christianity absolutely clear, saying "It's the principle around which the Easter celebration is built. Easter is about remembering the importance of change, responsibility, and doing the right thing for the good of the children. And today, that message maters more than ever." http://www.premierchristianity.com/Topics/Society/Politics/David-Cameron-S-Easter-Message-to-Christians
Actions speak louder than words I guess, hey I'm no christian, but I don't think it is right for him to preach to us about values, when up to now what he represents seems to be devoid of it in any shape and flavour. He does not seem to mention social justice, or even mention the resurrection, which for some marks one of the greatest acts of disobedience in history, since once you've been executed by the state, your supposed to stay dead. So for many its about resistance and renewal, a powerful revolutionary faith, M'mmm don't worry am not about to have an announcement of a new direction in faith, I still follow no particular religious bent, well the flow of nature, and the power of words, but believe it is more than time now for the people of the world to rise too. It will be a case of the risen people not the risen lord.
Sadly though too, across this weekend, across the world, assault, torture, genocide and a range of other depravities will be committed in the name of a so called God.
So since its resurrection time, lets try to carrry on, with selfishness and passion, with a glint of rebellion in our eyes, and tomorrow hopefully paves a way for revolutionary, insurectionary acts, against the conformity and consensus that has been created.Anyway Happy Easter all, depending on who you are and what you believe in, remember that Easter has pagan roots too, named originally in honour of Eostore, the teutonic dawn goddess. Also known as the spring goddess of fertility. In ancient times our lands fertility was the key to its survival, heddwch/peace. We ll keep walking our different paths.Keep on keeping on. Find the joy that makes you, you.
Ah the public library will at least reopen on Tuesday.
Watch Victoria Prosser an audience member who spoke out during the leaders debate last night - fantastic, she allows me to keep faith - well said. If I voted she would get my vote. Speaking the truth is easy , shame politicians do not seem able to do it most of the time.
