Politicians were said to have shed tears earlier this week when Big Ben was silenced. Where were the crying politicians for the working class dead of Grenfell Tower? Where was the outrage at ordinary people's reliance on food banks, child poverty, the NHS crisis or the increasing number of homeless people on streets.
MPs gathered to bow their heads as the world-famous clock tower rang out for the last time, last Monday because the 157-year old clock tower is undergoing vital repairs and the bell will be taken out of service – apart from Remembrance Sunday and New Year’s Eve – until 2021 to protect the hearing of workers. Theresa May was one who joined in this shallow chorus of dismay, declaring ' it can't be right ' that Big Ben be kept silent for so long. As Members of Parliament get upset about a big clock stopping chiming for a few years, I would like to have reminded them that in the real world, we are facing .times of uncertainty, inequality, division and suffering. But certain politicians are so clearly out of touch and isolated from the reality of other people's lives. Hope it's not only me but the sight of politicians mourning for a clock while so many lives are being destroyed , looked not only stupid but trivial too. It's not even as if the clock is going to be torn down, it's chimes of freedom will eventually return, just think that there are much bigger issues politicians should be concerning themselves with such as food banks, the GP crisis, a referendum imposed by morons and harsh cuts, all these issues of far greater importance. I am shocked, but not really that surprised that MPs demonstrably give more of a fuck about an old clock than they do about actual human beings.
There are times
When the world is unwilling
The fuel we seek
Remains diminished
We fall and rise
Hatch a plan or two
It begins to rain
We find excuses
Wait until after dark
For quiet moments
That let go of yesterday.
Seek out new songs
Old rhetoric tossed aside
Create laws out of dust
Staying alert, beyond command
Release acts of disobedience
Strategies of renewal
Fruits of endless toil
Storing ideas, to work their hidden will
Beyond conditioned chains of time
Weather the storms,
With clouds made of tomorrow
In 1843 the whole of west Wales was gripped in the civil disturbances known as the ‘Rebecca Riots’. Aimed mainly at the unfair tolls that were charged for the use of the turnpike roads, the rioters disguised with blackened faces and attired in women’s clothes would attack and destroy the offending tollgates and their attached gatehouses. This uprising of an oppressed peasantry against the burden of the tollgates has become part of the folk tradition of West Wales.
Farmers were the hardest hit as they used the roads to transport lime to their farms to improve the soil. In 1839, a new gate was erected at Efailwen to catch farmers who were evading the tolls. It was the last straw. Already there were too many toll gates; the market town of Carmarthen was like a fortress with twelve gates around it. The Efailwen gate was destroyed by a large crowd and when it was re-erected, a public meeting was announced 'for the purpose of considering the necessity of a toll-gate at Efailwen.' It concluded that there was no need and the gate was destroyed again.
The name 'Rebecca' was that of the mythical leader. 'She' had helpers like 'Charlotte', Nelly and 'Miss Cromwell' and followers (daughters). The name came from the Bible which Welsh chapels goers had learned to read in the previous couple of generations: 'And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, by thou the mother of thousands of millions and let thy seed possess the gate of those that hate them' (Genesis 24 Verse 60). The toll gates were seen as the property of the gentry ('those that hate them') as they were often the trustees of the turnpikes. The gates became a symbol of many different discontents about the land and the church (which was also seen as the church of the gentry). The rioters wore women's clothes and blackened their faces, for disguise, but also perhaps to suggest the idea that women were entitled to act to defend their families. Normally respectable people may have felt that in disguise they were symbolising their community rather then breaking the law as an individual.
Pat Molloy, an author of a book on the riots, said that Rebecca was a champion waiting to be called upon. To the country people there was a higher law than man's but when man's law intruded into their world it was obeyed, provided that it accorded with their notion o natural justice. When it jailed or oppressed them they looked for justice, and when man's law refused them justice, or set too high a price on it, they knew instinctively where to turn. Then they looked to their Bibles for a sign, without which, right would not be on their side nor success attend their endeavours. They found it, and they blessed Rebecca.
By the end of the summer 'The Rebecca Riots', which had ravaged these parts, was drawing to an end. The violent and clandestine attacks on the tollgates were being replaced by peaceful and open air meetings calling for political action. Perhaps 'the greatest of all these meetings' was held on the slopes of Mynydd Sylen near Llanelli, where it is claimed that no less than three thousand people were in attendance. Farmers came from all over the south east of the area and colliers sacrificed day's pay to attend.
On the 25th of August 1843 some of the most important and influential people addressed the meeting including the 'Rebecca' leader, Hugh Williams and the Llanelli landowner and magistrate William Chambers Junior JP. The Times reporter, Thomas Campbell Foster and the lithographer, William James Linton of the London Illustrated news reported on the event.The meeting was one of many organised to peacefully address the tollgates. As a result of the meeting a lengthy petition to Queen Victoria was drawn up calling for an end to the injustices.Here is a complete copy of resolutions passed at the meeting: http://ow.ly/jblu30kLbCv
Subsequently, attacks by Rebecca continued, but with far less frequency. The main reasons being that the authorities had started to take notice and had begun to address some of the rioters grievances by looking into the problems here in West Wales. As a result they now moved away from violent tactics to holding mass meetings, like this one mentioned. Other factors included the metering out of harsh punishments,as rioters were caught and sentenced to transportation, what with the arrival of troops, and the increasing use of informants with the offer of financial rewards or the capture of the rioters leaders, to crush the rebellion,helped play a part too in the change of direction to a more moderate approach.
One of the last of Rebecca’s attacks in Llanelli came on Saturday 30th September 1843, when she removed the Tyrfran Tollgate on the road to Felinfoel and dropped it down the shaft of a nearby coal pit. Social conditions began to change over the decade. Improvements in the laws controlling turnpikes came to pass in 1844, and the coming of the railway eased many of the transport problems in west Wales. People could move more easily to find work and this helped reduce pressure in rural areas for jobs. The ending of the Corn Laws in 1846, and attempts in 1847 to make the Poor Law less cruel, also helped.
The name 'Rebecca' though lived on. Over the years the Rebecca Riots have become part of the cultural identity of the Welsh, fuelling the idea of the werin/folk fighting for their rights, standing against tyranny and oppression.
In the 1860s and 70s local people protesting against the sale of fishing rights to outside interests in mid-Wales used the name again in their protests, as did farmers in the past fifteen years or so protesting about policies in agriculture. When the local community bought to right to levy tolls at a surviving toll in Porthmadog in the 1990s, they named it Rebecca and gave the money raised to local charities
Sadly though, the summit of Mynydd Sylen is an unloved one, with ugly masts, tatty barbed wire fences and rubbish at the nearest parking spot, rather disheartening considering its historical significance
In a report published today, the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) a notoriously right wing pro-Tory thinktank and lobbying group based in the United Kingdom, named after Adam Smith, a Scottish moral philosopher and classical economist, proved how little conservatives truly understand about the real-world problems faced by young people in Britain today. In it's report, dubbed the ‘Millennial Manifesto‘, they suggest that in order to win back votes from young people who voted for Jeremy Corbyn in June, the Tories should make flights to Ibiza cheaper by scrapping Air Passenger Duty for under 30s, and that they should also legalise drugs such as ecstasy and cocaine. You really couldn't make it up, opportunist to say the least. In the Manifesto, it states: “If these recreational drugs were legalised, young people would be brought back into the framework of society, instead of feeling it is out to oppress them and spoil their pleasures. “It would enable quality controls to be established so that young people could be assured that what they were taking was what they expected it to be, instead of being adulterated, perhaps with toxins, or supplied in unregulated massive overdoses.” Other perceived policy wins for those trying to engage with young people and take on Jeremy Corbyn include cutting National Insurance for the under 25s from 12% to 8%, replacing student loans with a graduate tax and a 50% council tax discount for young people. Sam Bowman, Executive Director of the Adam Smith Institute, said: “It isn’t easy being young in Britain.Reading through certain sections of the report, it’s easy to see why young people feel a huge disconnect between themselves and those in the media and political establishment. Especially when they write about young people like they are a different species from another planet: "Many young people take recreational drugs. Occasionally some of them smoke a cannabis spliff with friends. Many of them pop an ecstasy tablet to help them enjoy late night dancing at a club. Some of them try amphetamines or snort a line of cocaine. Consumption of any of these drugs is currently against the law. Indeed, two of them, ecstasy and cocaine, are class A drugs with severe penalties attached to their use." "Young people seem to want to do the things that for decades have been part of young people’s way of life, with the added possibilities and opportunities that modern technology and new developments make possible. Most of them want to socialize with friends, both in person and on social media, to enjoy music and travel, perhaps to work abroad for a spell. Some want to engage with friends in recreational pursuits such as sporting activities. Many enjoy attending concerts, or simply hanging out with their peers over a few drinks." The report then goes on to slam the Tories for ignoring ‘the concerns of young voters’, as well as both: "neglecting their wellbeing directly and taking positions that are badly out of touch in areas like animal welfare and openness to immigration." If the Tories are actually looking to produce policies that will really resonate with young people, rather than listening to organisations like the Adam Smith Institute, why don’t they actually try listening to the views of actual young people. The document provides very few truly beneficial solutions to many of the huge problems faced by youngsters today, such as lack of affordable housing, low wages, lack of job security, and a huge rise in the cost of education. And for many young people, the impact of austerity means that “partying in Ibiza” is not a top priority. A report by The Prince’s Trust found that 'young people’s happiness and wellbeing are at their lowest levels since the study was first commissioned in 2009.' It is safe to say that the “Millenial Manifesto” has taken a bit of a battering on social media. Scores of people have tweeted about the suggestions for winning over young people ,labelling the ideas as “clueless” - with a series of hilarious memes mocking the ideas involved. Emma Burnell wrote: “Wow the Adam Smith Institute are clueless. How addled do you have to be to think the key problem young people face is taxes on airfares?” Allan Faulds tweeted: “Gotta love the Adam Smith Institute. How old and/or posh do you have to be to think “cut the Ibiza Tax!” is going to win over youth vote?”Labour MP told Huffington Post UK http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/adam-smith-institute-tory-youth-vote-ibiza-tax-on-flights_uk_599deb9ae4b0821444c08cc8that the plan was a "laughable failure to understand what young people actually care about." Smith said: "Having spoken to hundreds of young people over this summer I can say that of all their demands from government, from the crisis in mental services to huge personal debts from study, no one has raised Air Passenger Duty with me."
16 years on from the beginning of the War on Terror. British taxpayers' money is continuing to fund bombing and killing in the Middle East. Over a million have died in Iraq alone. Many thousands have died or have been maimed in other countries that Britain has intervened in, War is still raging in Asghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Millions have had to flee their homes. Meanwhile, while spending our money on foreign wars, the British establishment is continuing with its programme of crippling cuts to public services.
The British government has also admitted that it is providing technical and other assistance to the Saudi government in its hideous bombing campaign in Yemen, which has killed thousands of people including thousands of civilians. Moreover it has sold more than £3 billion worth of arms to the Saudi dictatorship , in contravention of international law since the bombardment began.
But the tide is now beginning to turn, as anti-war politics are gaining increasing power and influence in British political life .Jeremy Corbyn is right to warn Theresa May's government not to 'obediently applaud ' Washington's planned escalation of the war in Afghanistan. A war that has failed with such devastating human cost, that hs only served to increase the terrorist threat.
Let's reject the idea that war is either admirable or good. Let's reverse the militarization of so many dimensions of our society. Arms Fairs are crucial to the smooth-running of the arms trade. They promote weapons sales by giving arms dealers the chance to meet and greet military delegations, government officials, other arms companies and a host of individual visitors.
Unsurprisingly, the guest lists for arms fairs frequently include regimes who abuse human rights, and countries actively involved in armed conflicts. Say no to companies that profit from human misery.
Join the week of action to Stop the Arms Fair at London’s Docklands, 4th-11th September, 2017. https://www.stopthearmsfair.org.uk/join-in/
Here are some words from the musician and activist Brian Eno :-
'Fear is a great paralyser. A frightened population is easy to govern. In a climate of fear, people are willing to allow their rights and freedoms to be limited. They’re willing to follow orders and penalise resisters. They’re willing to fall for easy, quick and ill-conceived military ‘solutions’. They’re willing to serve as defenders of the state without asking why that state needs defending, or from what.
So it’s fear that keeps the hamster-wheel turning; but it’s hope that... will get us out of the cage.
Stopping war means building a society based not on relentless consumption and profiteering but instead on sustainability and conservation and sharing. It means making a world that is worth saving for everybody, so that the idea of war - of destroying all that - becomes unthinkable, ridiculous.' -
Have decided to start posting a little more music related posts here from time to time.
Max Romeo is a roots reggae legend. Max Romeo was born Max Smith in 1944, the eldest of nine children. He acquired the nickname "Romeo" from the father of a would-be girlfriend.
Born in St. D'Acre, Jamaica, he left home at the age of 14 and worked on a sugar plantation outside Clarendon,, before winning a local talent competition when he was 18. This prompted a move to the capital, Kingston, in order to embark on a musical career.
Max’s storied career took off when he signed a contract with Bunny Lee, one of the biggest producers of his time in Jamaica in the 60s.
In the early 1970s he began carving out an identity as a "militant singer"-- singing about "what's happening for the people to hear... the prices too high, things are too hard and what have you."
His second album, Let the Power Fall, from 1971 included a number of politically charged songs, most advocating the democratic socialist People's Nationalist Party (PNP), which chose his song "Let the Power Fall" as their theme song for the 1972 Jamaican n General election.
Romeo's connection with the PNP became less direct over the course of the 1970s, but his music remained politically militant, if increasingly voiced in a Rastafarian idiom: in songs like anti-clerical "The Reverend" and on "concept albums like "Revelation Time," from 1975 recorded at Lee"Scratch"Perry's legendary Black Ark Studio. Romeo noted that "Revelation Time" was "really a revolutionary album. It came from 1972, when we had a revolutionary movement, with Mr Michael Manley trying to change society from capitalism to socialism. At the time I was socialist-minded - because it’s the only form of poor people government, socialism."
In 1976, Romeo released War ina Babyon an album perceived as his best work. The politically and religiously themed album included the popular single " I chased the Devil" , which would become one of his most known songs, which was later sampled by those great dance terrorists the Prodigy and by countless others..
Throughout his long career Max Romeo has proved that he is one of Jamaica’s most enduring stars.To this day he still delivers spectacular live performances, I was most fortunate to catch him in Brixton a few years back.
Here he sings some words of wisdom. His voice is really mesmerising do yourself a favour and listen, listen, listen. Max Romeo - Socialism is Love
You're asking, "What is Socialism, and what it really means?"
It's equal rights for every man, regardless of his strength
So don't let no one fool you, (Joshua said)
Listen as I tell you, (Joshua said)
No man are better than none, Socialism is love between man and man
Socialism is
love for your brothers
Socialism is
linking hearts and heads,
Would you believe me?
Poverty and hunger what we are fighting
Socialism is
Sharing with your sisters
Socialism is
People pulling together,
Would you believe me?
Love and togetherness, that's what it means
Mr Big trembling in his shoes saying he's got a lot to lose,
Don't want to hear about suffering at all
(Joshua said)
One man have too many,
While too many have too little,
Socialism don't stand for that, don't stand for that at all
Socialism is
love for your brothers,
Socialism is
linking hearts and head,
Poverty and hunger is what we are fighting
Socialism is
Sharing with your sisters
Socialism is
people pulling together
Won't you believe me?
Love and togetherness, that's what it means
Socialism is
love for your brothers
Socialism is
linking hearts and hands
Poverty and hunger is what we are fighting
Socialism is sharing with your sisters
Do you believe me?
People pulling together
Ooooh
Love and togetherness, that's what it means Socialism is
love for your brothers
Socialism is
linking hearts and hands
Poverty and hunger is what we are fighting
Socialism is
Sharing with your sisters
Socialism is people pulling together
Ooooh
World Humanitarian Day is a time to recognize those who face danger and adversity in order to help others. The day was designated by the General Assembly to coincide with the anniversary of the 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, which killed 22 UN staff.
The day serves as a way to raise public awareness of the incredible work that aid workers do. Likewise, it also encouraged those involved in the humanitarian system to fight for increased safety and security for aid workers. The event is given a different focus each year to ensure that all humanitarian causes are recognised.
Every day humanitarian aid workers help millions of people around the world, regardless of who they are and where they are. World Humanitarian Day is a global celebration of people helping people.
The UN Secretary-General held the first-ever global humanitarian summit of this scale in Istanbul in May 2016. The goal of this summit was to find new ways to tackle humanitarian needs in our fast-changing world. This three-year initiative is being managed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The summit set a new agenda for global humanitarian action. It focuses on humanitarian effectiveness, reducing vulnerability and managing risk, transformation through innovation, and serving the needs of people in conflict. Full details of the summit can be found here.
Around the world, conflict is exacting a massive toll on people’s lives. Trapped in wars that are not of their making, millions of civilians are forced to hide or run for their lives. Children are taken out of school, families are displaced from their homes, and communities are torn apart, while the world is not doing enough to stop their suffering. At the same time, health and aid workers , who risk their lives to care for people affected by violence, are increasingly being targeted.
This year’s message is even more encompassing - urging the global leaders to ensure that all civilians (including the aid workers) caught in the reality of war and armed conflict are not targets of military action.
For WHD 2017, humanitarian partners are coming together to reaffirm that civilians caught in conflict are #NotATarget.
Civilians are too often affected by conflict and violence, they are driven from their homes, struggle to find sufficient and nutritious food, suffer from sexual harassment, injuries or death. Today, the United Nations (UN) is calling on global leaders to take action to protect civilians. The UN has launched a petition urging the world's politicians to ensure all parties to conflict respect and protect civilians. Please sign it.
The UN has also reported multiple times throughout 2017 that civilians had been caught up in airstrikes in warzones such as Syria. With a death toll in the thousands and millions more trapped in dangerous situations, the UN is keen to ensure that innocent people aren’t harmed by political issues.
“Millions of people are trapped in wars that aren’t of their own making,” the World Humanitarian Day website reads. “We demand world leaders do everything in their power to protect the millions of civilians caught in armed conflicts.”
These demands include a promise not to launch attacks which will cause civilian harm, whether through direct injury or damage to infrastructure and services that will severely impact on quality of life.
As every year, this day also commemorates those who dedicate their lives to serve others. Humanitarian workers often operate in life-threatening environments, facing lootings, kidnapping, hostage situations, and in most extreme situations ,executions. This reduces the safety of aid workers, making it difficult, if not impossible, to provide life-saving assistance, deliver necessary relief items and care to those in desperate need.
The UN reminds us that in the past 20 years, over 4,000 aid workers have been subjects to attack and in 2016 alone, 91 humanitarians were killed while serving others, mostly in South Sudan, Afghanistan, Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Somalia. It is an imperative that all parties to conflict should respect humanitarian law, protecting the civilians but also the humanitarian workers, regardless of race, colour, sex, language, religion, or other status.
Around the world, dedicated people work every day to help people survive crisis, find hope for the future and build better lives for themselves and their families. When disasters strike or conflict erupts, they are there to provide immediate relief , and they stay long after to help communities recover and rebuild.
This World Humanitarian Day, we come together in solidarity with the millions of people caught in armed conflict.
UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, works to protect and assist those fleeing war and persecution. Since 1950, they have helped tens of millions of people find safety and rebuild their lives. With your support, they can restore hope for many more.
I'd become disappointed
All my hopes were dashed;
I didn't get what I expected
All my dreams were smashed,
I became, thwarted, frustrated
Foiled, depleted and defeated.
Did not make my mind taste too good
Could not find a reason, why it should,
Drunk from bottles in search of oblivion
To drown my sorrows, travel deep inside,
Left me moaning, cursing my fate
At the bottom, feeling second rate.
Chain smoking, swallowed poison
Underfed my battered senses,
Abandoned pride, logic's reasons
Drifted through the passing seasons,
Could find no escape, from this deep fog
whimpered and moaned like a beaten dog.
All my energy seemed to have been spent
Felt rejected every fucking place I went,
Veins found comfort in flowing alcohol
The abyss became my lonely port of call,
This sweet addiction with it's power to destroy
Started to drown my thirst for social justice.
Not that easy though, to simply walk away Her grip is strong as attempts to lead you astray.
Hard to leave an increasing dependency
Like an old lover,that heart has been given to, But ultimately leaves you running on empty
Releasing blurred visions, forces surrender.
But enlightenment and liberation go hand in hand
Slowly I've been trying to find a different land,
Still searching, got many more miles to go
Trying hard to resist, counter the flow,
Have not given up, and the battle will be long
It's getting easier though, to find a sober song.
This is a Visualising Palestine graphic which identifies how the (still living) Palestinians in Gaza have been unable to get any redress through Israel’s military court system, despite the massive damage done to them – over 2100 killed – and their environment by the IDF.
Over the past seven years, Visualizing Palestine has harnessed visual storytelling to bring public attention to the daily injustices facing Palestinians, using public information about life in Israel and Palestine to expose the damaging effects of the occupation, .with topics ranging from ceasefire violations and military aid to the uprooting of Palestinian olive trees and the segregation of travel, the demolition of homes, Administrative Detention, to mothers forced to give birth at military checkpoints. creating data-driven tools to advance a factual, rights-based narrative of the Palestinian-Israeli issue.
Its researchers, designers, technologists, and communications specialists work in partnership with civil society actors to amplify their impact and promote social justice and equality and human rights. It is here that the facts become memorable, relevant and authentic stories.
Visualising Palestine is the first portfolio of Visualizing Impact, a non-profit organisation that innovates at the intersection of technology, design and data science. Each image takes 6-8 weeks to finalize, from conception to promotion. Workshops, brainstorming and open exchanges turn the production into a social venture, an approach that extends beyond the organization. The infographics are then published under a Creative Commons license to facilitate their use as advocacy tools. Aa a result they have been published in Huffington Post, The Guardian, the Irish Times, Al-Jazeera, Open Democracy and other media outlets, as journalistic resources to inform, change perceptions, correct the narrative about Palestine, and push individuals to take action. It allows people to have a clearer perspective into an immensely complex issue.
There is a vast amount of information on the daily lives of Palestinians, their living conditions, experiences and circumstances on the ground , but it largely remains outside the mainstream media. Without being presented in a form that can easily be understood, remembered and shared, these details are not heard internationally. What is needed is a way to see the every day experiences of people living in this region, a means of bringing the facts to life.
The extent to which the Palestinian issue brings forward divisive and polarizing emotions is well recognized. That is why Visualizing Palestine’s dedication to verifiable facts and sources is all the more important. They have not had anyone bring forward facts that invalidate any of the statements made in their infographics. An invaluable resource, helping to inform people, change perspectives , bringing statistics to life for the whole world to see. It is much needed and needs all the support they can get.
For more information, or to see more of the infographics, visit the websites of Visualizing Palestine and Visualizing Impact. or their twitter https://twitter.com/visualizingpal and fsacebook page https://www.facebook.com/visualizingpalestine/
