One nation, under prorogation. Boris Johnson fought the Law and the Law won.
Amazing news The Supreme Court in London has agreed with the Scottish Supreme Court that Boris Johnsons controversial decision to prorogue Parliament for 5 weeks was unlawful and misled the Queen. Making the PM of the United Kingdom an actual criminal. Which could lead him to becoming the shortest serving prime minister in history.
Speaking at the Supreme Court, the court's president Lady Hale declared that " the descioin to adise her Majesty to proroque Parliament was unlawful - because it had the effect of frustrating or preventing the ability of Parliament to carry out its constitutional functions without proper justification."
Hale went on to state that, as the decision to prorogue was unlawful, Parliament has not actually in effect been proroqued and could therefore be recalled immediately. The Supreme Court's decision was unanimously agreed between all 11 judges.
Immediately. following the rulng, the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow issued a statement declaring that Parliament would be recalled as soon as possible. Naturally many have responded to this decision by calling for Boris Johnson to resign, claiming that his position as Prime Minister is now untenable.
Whilst speaking at the Labour Conference, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said:
" I will be in touch immediately to demand Parliament is recalled so we can question the Prime Ministter, demand he obey the law that has been passed by parliament. I invite Boris Johnson to consider his position."
Labour's Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry said :
"Boris Johnson should resign and Parliament out to be recalled immdiately."
The Supreme Court Juudgement is a victory for the rule of law. It is a reminder that in this country no one is above the law and that our judges should hold the powerful to account wtihout fear or favour. Whatever you think about the decision to prorogue Parliament and
whatever you think about Brexit, this is our constitutional system
working exactly as it should – the judiciary independently scrutinising
the actions of the Government.
This welcome news also serves to highlight the fact that the Queen was given an instruction to do an unlawful thing, and she did it, despite being told she has the benefit of decades of experience, she couldn't see what was obvious to everyone else, that Johnson's motives were not honest. The "I was doing what I was told' is no defence.
Yes, refusing prorogation would have been dangerous territory for
the monarchy, but that's the job. Truth is, this whole episode exposes
the monarchy as a pointless and ineffective institution.The Queen has abdicated all responsibility for her actions and that is
not a sustainable position. With the political system in disarray, and a government that has shown a willingness to go above the law, we need a general election and a democratic alternative to the
monarchy, a written constitution and an accountable and effective head
of state.
Flavio Costantini was a Italian anarchist,graphic artist and printmaker who was born in Rome on 21st September, 1926. He became a Sea Captainand
worked in the navy as second lieutenant. Then, he wouldl switch to the
merchant ship where he developed a passionate interest in literature. In particular, he was inspired by the writer Franz Kafka and would go on to illustrate his America and The process.
'I started to draw because I read the Kafka books… it was impossible to
write like Kafka, so I began to draw'. Other writers followed, but it
was the human condition as portrayed by Kafka that was to remain the
dominant influence in Costantini’s world.
Once he went ashore, in 1954, he would dedicate himself to activities that let him probe his passion for creativity. He nurtured his interest in painting and literature,and in 1959, after a trip to Spain, he mades a number of paintings about Bullfighting. He was a member of the artists' group that founded the Galleria del
Deposito in Boccadasse, Genoa. Other members were Eugenio Carmi,
Emanuele Luzzati, Carlo Vita..
The period between the early 1960s and mid 1970s coincided with a
flood tide of intense democratic hopes for large numbers of people.
Costantini had been a communist until 1962, but a month long visit to
Moscow when he was 36 caused him to reconsider his beliefs. In Moscow he saw “an
endless stream of tourist peasantry who were strangely silent, neither
sad nor happy, but were canalised in a disenchanted, unconscious
pilgrimage … The revolution had ended… In the squalid vertical squares
of New York or in the equally squalid horizontal squares of Moscow,
reaching beyond the languid reminiscences of old Europe, this was
perhaps an alternative, an isolated but insistent voice, an ancient
Utopia which, however, had nothing in common with the Fabian longings of
HG Wells. Since then, since 1963, I have tried, within the scope of my
possibilities, to publicise this uncompromising alternative.”
He reread a book he had disliked some years previously, Memoirs of a
Revolutionist by Victor Serge. Serge’s description of the heroic period
of French anarchist activism that highlighted the end of the last
century provided Costantini with a social theme that was to be his
inspiration for the next two decades. He felt, like Serge, that although
shot through with contradictions, the French anarchists were “people
who demanded, before anything else, harmony between words and deeds”.
They were very often lonely and isolated individuals, sensitive in their
own way, whose reaction to confusion and alienation was to act, to
refuse to submit.
Costantini’s work during these two decades is a documentation of this
dramatic period in mankind’s odyssey towards a free society based on
the principles of social justice described by Bakunin over a century
ago: “It is the triumph of humanity, it is the conquest and
accomplishment of the full freedom and full development, material,
intellectual and moral, of every individual, by the absolute free and
spontaneous organisation of economic and social solidarity as completely
as possible between all human beings living on the earth.”
There is irony here, too: the faces of the policemen, for example,
firing on strikers in Chicago, 1886, are those of four US presidents.
Another tempera, depicting the capture of Ravachol, has Toulouse-Lautrec
as the arresting officer.
Costantini’s haunting faces, drawn directly from contemporary
sources, provide an element of photographic realism that contrasts
starkly with the decorative backdrop. Whether it is in the faces of the
protagonists, the architectural or stylistic minutiae, there is a
lovingly researched detail, harmony and structural perfection.
The ebbing of revolutionary hopes and expectations in the mid 1970s
gave Costantini the sensation that he was witnessing the end of an era.
He came to believe that the act of revolution, as a cathartic means of
achieving the good society, was no longer possible without serious risk
of sinking into a sea of anomie. His
later work presented a pessimistic view of civilization. He created
series of paintings exploring historical themes: Anarchy, the wreck of
the Titanic, alchemy and Mozart, the French Revolution and its
victims, Yekaterinburg and the murder of Nicholas II and his family. His
last series offered a dark reading of Pinocchio, which he considered one of the three or four greatest Italian novel.
He would never abandon his love for literature, as witnessed by numerous
portraits dedicated to writers and poets. But also ilustrations produced
in volumes such as The fire horse by Vladimir Majakovskij (1969; reprinted 2006), Heart by Edmondo De Amicis (1977), The shadow line by Joseph Conrad (1989), Memories from the underground by Fëdor Dostoevskij (1997). Furthermore, portraits for national newspapers such as La Domenica del Corriere, Corrieredella Sera, La Repubblica, L’Europeo, Panorama e L’Espresso.
In 1980 Costantini began to immerse himself in a series of light-hearted portraits of the authors who had contributed most to his understanding of the world. Each is accompanied by rebus-like objects associated with the subject, or which provide an important theme in their work. Thus, Kafka is shown with his beetle; Poe with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s whiskey; Stevenson with a seagull, lifebelt and a killed figure; Conrad with a compass and a photograph of a steamer, and so on.
He died in Genova on the 20th of May 2013, after suffering from lung cancer, he had devoted his life to using his
brushes to reproduce the pure song of the revolutionaries who rejected
all compromise— and who never disappointed.. The Archive of Flavio Costantini, aims to encourage, foster, save guard and spread the
knowledge of his works and research. His works have appeared in galleries across the world, and he has been prominently featured in dozens of international art magazines, and has illustrated several books including The Art of Anarchy (1974), The Shadow Line (1989) and Letters from the Underworld (1997).
A short biography by Stuart Christie can be found here. https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/t4b9k9…
And a selection of his artworks here https://libcom.org/gallery/anarchist-art-flavio-costantini…
Today, September 20, three days before the UN Climate Summit in NYC, which will discuss their plans for aggressive action to address the current climate emergency, young
people and adults will strike all across the world to demand
transformative action be taken to address the climate crisis. This
global climate strike, represents a crucial opportunity for the movement
against climate catastrophe and for people. to demand a right to a
future.
This movement has already mobilised hundreds of thousands of students in
over 40 countries, with young people around the world participating in
incredibly militant strikes and marches, the aim of which is to force
governmental action on climate change.Students across the world are planning today to walk out of class to call attention to the issue. But everyone is invited to express solidarity and "disrupt business as usual," organizers say."Together,
we will sound the alarm and show our politicians that business as usual
is no longer an option," they say. "The climate crisis won't wait, so
neither will we."
People are finally joining the dots. We are one planet, one interconnected ecosystem, and there are no single
issues. War, social injustice and climate breakdown are
inter-connected, and so must be the response. Today’s wars are caused
increasingly by struggles for resources like water and arable
land, and they cause drought, climate breakdown and displacement.
Today’s refugees not only flee violence and political persecution ,but
also grueling poverty, the denial of basic human rights, the daily
culture of violence that is the legacy of war and injustice. A global
economic order that benefits few and impoverishes
many destroys the futures of the young and of generations to come.
Fundamentally, the problem is that Capitalism in its current guise
ranks short-term, often volatile growth over long-term stability. It’s a
beast that needs constant feeding. We exploit the earth’s limited
natural resources to produce plastic, metal, and paper. We burn fossil
fuels to generate the energy that powers our way of life. We drive other
species to the brink of extinction for food, fashion and more space. We
turn our fellow humans into commodities, their labour often valued at
less than the equivalent of £1 a day.
And worse is to come if we don’t act. Most scientists agree that we have just 12 years until warming reaches the tipping point of 1.5C.
The evidence warns us that there’s no coming back from that, leading to
rising seas, stronger storms, heat waves and yes ecological
catastrophe.The Extinction Rebellion
demonstrations and school strikes have at least created a
justifiable sense of urgency. The younger generation is showing us the
way: the onus is now on governments, businesses and society to work
together before it's far too late.
Todays school strike, which adults around the world have been asked to join,
is the largest mobilisation yet attempted by the youth climate movement
launched last year by the Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg. As such, it
is an event of international significance.
There will be strike events in at least 137
countries. Trade Unions and workers across the world are organising to
support the Global Climate Strike on 20th which will begin the week of
action. Trade Unions for Energy Democracy have collated some of the
statements and union support and action planned across the world.
The TUC has unanimously passed a motion to
support the school student Global Climate Strike and
has called on TUC affiliate unions to organise a 30 minute work day
campaign action to coincide with the school students strike, and Amnesty International has called on head
teachers worldwide to back the global protests.
On its website https://globalclimatestrike.net/ Global Climate Strike says, “This September, millions
of us will walk out of our workplaces and homes to join young climate
strikers on the streets and demand an end to the age of fossil fuels. “Our house is on fire — let’s act like it. We demand climate justice for everyone.”
.Don't let young people fight alone, we need to show the powerful that the whole world is acting with them. When your children or grandchildren ask what did you do to stop the climate crisis, say you joined the September 20 climate strike and demanded a better world. The fate of our planet is at stake. .Go out and make yourself heard.
The NHS was the supreme achievement of the post-war welfare state ,subsequently becoming one of Britain's best loved institutions, and the one most likely to keep you alive. It is currently in crisis . Yet far from being accidental, this crisis has been deliberately designed by the Tories to accelerate NHS privatisation, forcing hospitals to
compete against low-cost private companies to provide services. Since
the Conservatives took power, the percentage of the NHS budget going to
private healthcare providers has doubled – £1.5 billion of which went to
companies with direct financial links to Tory MPs. Please support John Pilger's latest film that unearths the hidden agenda:
My last film, The Coming War on China, was only
completed because of the generosity and solidarity of the hundreds of
people whose names appear in the end-credits. For me, watching those
names roll is one of the proudest moments of the film.
Initially, I
was reluctant to crowd-fund and said so in the preamble on the
crowd-funding site; I believed most people needed the money in their
pockets and it was up to me and my colleagues at Dartmouth Films to
convince likely institutions or rich donors with a conscience (yes, they
exist) to impart their loose change.
But when one of the major
funders of the film suddenly pulled out, it looked like the film and its
editing would grind to a halt.
The crowd-funders came to our
rescue: people who gave a fiver or what they could afford (and often
couldn’t afford). What struck me was the entirely gracious way people
offered to help. They weren’t giving charity, they said; they were
delighted, even honoured, to be partners in the making and success of a
film they considered important.
Today, I am again making an appeal for support – this time for a film whose urgency touches all our lives, literally.
It’s
about the NHS, the last bastion of a truly people’s institution without
which so many of us would stumble and fall and perhaps not survive.
The film is certainly a tribute to the NHS; but, above all, it’s a warning.
Under
our noses, often secretly and deceptively, our National Health Service
is being undermined and sold off: piece by precious piece to the likes
of Richard Branson and the giant American health insurance companies
that are at the root of the misery that is American healthcare.
The
privatisation of the NHS has been mostly insidious – by “stealth”, as
one of Mrs. Thatcher’s cohorts once advised. But since 2010, the
“reforms” have speeded up. It’s got to the point that if we don’t act
now, we’ll wake up one day to an unrecognizable health service that is
no longer ours.
As with my previous films, this film will be in
cinemas and on network TV, bringing a vital public message, and warning,
to a mass audience
With this urgency in mind, please support this
work – again, with whatever you can afford. Your name will appear with
special honour as the credits roll. Thank you.
John Pilger
05 September 2019
It’s not just about the money! If you can’t contribute, you can help us enormously by:
TELLING your friends, family, colleagues, neighbours and contacts about this film and share this page:
Have just managed to get hold of the latest album by the Last Poets. Formed in 1968,they are wideely heralded as the godfathers of hip hop alongside the likes of
Gil Scott-Heron. Their brand of politically charged
poetry has inspired some of the biggest names such as al music released by African American
musicians including Marvin Gaye, Funkadelic, Curtis Mayfield and Quincy Jones, and they eventually inspired hip hop giants like Dead Prez, Common,Public Enemy and Kanye West. Transcending Toxic Times features original The Last Poets
Poets members Abiodun Oyewole and Umar Bin Hassan alongside longtime
percussionist Baba Donn Babatunde and cclaimed bassist/producer Jamaaladeen
Tacuma. Other poets on the album include Ursula Rucker, Wadud Ahmad, and
Malik B (a founding member of The Roots).
50 years ago, Abiodun Oyewole was mourning the deaths of Malcolm X and
Martin Luther King among many others lost in the struggle of the time. Looking to
speak truth and challenge the thinking of both the oppressors and the
oppressed, he formed The Last
Poets. Soon after the group's inception, Oyewole met Umar Bin Hassan at
a black arts event in Ohio, and Umar made the trip to New York to join
them. Baba Donn Babatunde showed up later, adding percussion to their
poetry.They were young men living in the black ghettos of Akron, Ohio,
Detroit, Michigan, Jamaica Queens and The Bronx – all desperately
seeking a different life to that of their parents, who in their eyes
were too subdued, too damaged by racial oppression.
Inspired by the music of John Coltrane, the glamour of the
Temptations and the politics of black pride, they started performing on
street corners in Harlem where they immediately gained a following.The Last Poets got their name from revolutionary South Africn poet,
Keorapetese Kgositsile poem that states that ‘’this is the last age of
poems, and essays, guns, and rifles will take the place of poems and
essays, therefore we are the last of poems of this age.’’ Ever since,
The Last Poets, led by Jalal Mansur Nuriddin, who died last year, have lived up to
that name and line. Starting with their debut self-titled album in 1970, ‘This Is Madness’ in 1971, and
‘Chastisment’ in 1972. The latter fully introduced The Last Poets’ mix
of jazz and poetry, doing away with the minimalist percussion of earlier
albums. The Last Poets enjoyed a huge resurgence in popularity from the
early 1990s onwards, appearing alongside the Beastie Boys and A Tribe
Called Quest on the 1994 Lollapolooza tour and collaborated with Common
on the Kanye West produced track ‘The Corner’ which was nominated at the
Grammy Awards in 2006 for Best Rap Performance.
The three men have persevered through decades of personal and
political challenges, while still adhering to the higher principles of
love, respect, and kindness to all humankind , they have long been a force to reckon with, known as
conscious, enduring and politically potent poetry messengers, becomming
mouthpieces for a socially downtrodden and unheard people.The huge impact made by
The Last Poets’ words and music is still strongly felt until today.They are one of the more captivating spoken word Hip-Hop groups we’ll ever hear.
The Last Poets - When the Revolution Comes
The inauguration of Donald Trump as US President in 2016 inspired Hassan
and Oyewole to resurrect the group to create a brand new record, ‘Understand What Black Is’, that was modern
and edgy, and deeply relevant and reflective of our times. Now comesTranscending Toxic Times which according to band members, is “not
poetry set to music, nor is it music made for poets. This is a seamless
transfiguration of the groove, the words, and the essential human
elements that live between the notes and the words.” Moreover, the album
is “a broad work of human emotion: anger, scorn, frustration,
challenge, beauty, sorrow, love,"
This record blends poetry, jazz, Hip-Hop, and Soul, intertwining the groove of Black culture with The Last Poets
powerful words and cadence. The spoken word is rhythmic, melodic at times,but politically charged throughout, and as with previous efforts,
there are also socio-cultural messages that comment on the conditions
of African American lived experience, the basslines and the groove are irresistible, intoxicating and the message is
unavoidable, as they continue to press their nation for truth
and equality, The Last Poets' standpoint is as important today as it ever was, and this album could not come at better time, in the recent past
our society has witnessed many horrific events from War and Man Made
Natural Disasters to Citizen turning against Citizen it is clear things
have not changed much since 1968. The Last Poets words are as relevant
today as they were then and even more so and reflective of the times we live in now..
To highlight the new album , members the Last Poets released a single "For the Millions."
Initially published as a tribute to the Million Man March back in 1995. Oyewole's commanding voice
details the African-American experience from the Trans-Atlantic Slave
Trade to a present-day celebration of our resilience and the continuing
quest for freedom. "Even when we have nothing to say / We are the sounds
/ That put color and spice in the day," he booms over Babatunde's
percussion.
A glance at the album's tracklist reveals that 50 years after their
inception, The Last Poets remain steadfast in their mission of shining a
light on the issues of truth and equality. ‘’Rain Of Terror’’ is a truth sermon
come to life in the form of reggae and drums. Starting a poem with the
word ‘’America is a terrorist’’ and then riffing on everyone from Jack
Johnson, Trayvon Martin, the Black Panthers, and the government approved
groups that killed those individuals and groups. The title track “Toxic Times” is a politically charged poem, where
Oyewole calls attention to the current political climate in the United
States, issues of police brutality against people of color, the
consequences of climate change, and gender inequality. To these issues,
Hassan points out that we must “learn to be humane, use power and not
become vain,” and ultimately, “understand what love is…and make it a
fact!” This record is truly essential listening so thank you the Last Poets for continuing to make music that truly matters, for the mind, body and soul, challenging the listener to wake up.
The Last Poets Transcending Toxic Times tracklist:
1. We Are The Last Poets
2. For The Millions
3. A.M. Project
4. Heartbeat
5. If We Only Knew
6. Young Love
7. Black Rage
8. Soul Reflection
9. Don't Know What I'd Do
10. Personal Things
11. Love
12. JuJu JIMI
13. Rain Of Terror
14. Toxic Times
“Sabra and Shatila Massacre” (1982-83), by pioneering Iraqi artist Dia al-Azzawi
Over three bloody days from September 16 through to 18, 1982, up to 3,500 Palestinian defenceless refugees in Shatila camp and Sabra neighborhood in Beirut, Lebanon were slaughtered at the hands of Phalangist militiamen, encircled, trained and supported by Israeli occupation forces who had besieged West Beirut for 88 days before launching a full-scale occupation-day period, members of the Lebanese Christian militias, with the support of Israeli troops, killed mostly women, children and the elderly living in the camp complex. Exactly how many were actually killed remains unknown as the real number is hard to determine because bodies were buried quickly in mass graves or never found and many men were marched out of the camp and “disappeared.” Israel actually supplied the bulldozers to bury the dead and later tanks entered the camps and ran over the whole area, destroying houses and clearing any signs of crime.
Shortly before the massacres, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation was evacuated from Lebanon as a result of an agreement reached after the Israeli invasion of the country. That meant the residents of Sabra and Shatila no longer had protection, despite promises made to them by Philip Habib, an envoy for then US President Ronald Reagan, that their security would be guaranteed.
The massacre was presented as retaliation for the assassination of newly elected Lebanese president Bachir Germavel, the leader of the Lebanese Kataeb Party. It was wrongly assumed that Palestinians militants had carried out the assassination. The incident would cause outrage and condemnation across the world.Sadly the Sabra and Shatila crimes were not the first crimes against the Palestinian people and would not be the last.
Over three decades later, the massacre at the Sabra and Shatila camps is remembered as one of the most notorious chapters in modern Middle Eastern history. Today, not a single person (Israeli or Lebanese) has been charged with involvement in the crime. The amnesty law that came into affect after Lebanon’s Civil Wars ended in 1991 let many of those involved in the massacre off the hook, including those who now form one of Lebanon’s ruling political parties, the Kata’eb. The forces who led the massacre were under the direct leadership of Elie Hobeika, intelligence chief of the Lebanese Forces. .
The Kahan Commission, later set up in 1983 in response to widespread international pressure, concluded that that Israeli leaders were “indirectly responsible” for the killings and that Ariel Sharon, then the defense minister and later prime minister, bore “personal responsibility” for failing to prevent the massacre Ariel Sharon, bore personally responsible, among others, for the massacre. Elie Hobeika later became a long-serving Member of the Lebanese Parliament as well as serving in many minsterial roles. Despite the findings of the Kahan Commission, Ariel Sharon held many influential ministerial roles in the Israeli government, serving in fact as Prime Minister from 2001 to 2006. Thus were the engineers of one of the bloodiest and most appalling massacres in contemporary history rewarded.
It is quite simply one of the greatest human tragedies that we should never simply forget.
Israel continues to abuse Palestinian rights without consequence. Settler attacks on Palestinian property, lands, and persons have terrorised thousands and killed almost entire families.Palestinian complaints filed against settlers go unindicted by Israel. In fact, the Israeli military serves the settlers by allowing the attackers to simply walk away". When they do take action, Israeli soldiers are more likely to support the settlers, often allowing them to continue attacking Palestinians rather than shielding innocent civilians.
The dehumanisation of Palestinians by Israel continues and the Israeli military itself continues to commit war crimes with impunity, as evidenced by Israel's repeated attacks on the tiny besieged Gaza Strip over the past decade, which have killed thousands of innocent Palestinians with disproportionate and indiscriminate force. Today there are more than 400,000 Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon, most barred from owning property and earing decent wages. They make up part of the nearly 5 million Palestinians refugees living in the West Bank, Gaza and throughout the Middle East, descendants of the 750,000 displaced after the establishment of the Israeli State.
Israel's years of dispossession and half-century of military rule still ongoing and is supported by unconditional American military aid and diplomatic backing. International bodies like the UN Security Council have repeatedly made note of Israel's human rights violations. Injustices continue to this day through land confiscations, home demolitions, mass imprisonment, collective displacement, racist discrimination, assassination and killing.
The conscience of the world was terribly wounded on this day and we cannot, should not and will not ever forget or forgive.With sorrow and with struggle, we must remember Sabra and Shatila and pledge to continue to work for justice.The international community is obliged to remedy its moral responsibility to the victims of the massacre by working to end Israel's occupation and other abuses of Palestinian rights.For the Palestinians, the tragedy of Sabra and Shatila remains a powerful reminder of their endless cycle of displacement.
I conclude this post with the following powerful, moving poem from the pen of the late great Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/mahmoud-darwish-poet-of-resistance.html
Sabra and Shatila byMahmoud Darwish
Sabra — a sleeping girl
The men left
War slept for two short nights,
Beirut obeyed and became the capital…
A long night
Observing the dreams in Sabra,
Sabra is sleeping.
Sabra — the remains of a dead body
She bid farewell to her horsemen and time
And surrendered to sleep out of tiredness.. and the Arabs who threw her behind them.
Sabra — and what the soldiers Departing from Galilee forgot
She doesn’t buy and sell anything but her silence
To buy flowers to put on her braided hair.
Sabra — sings her lost half, between the sea and the last war:
Why do you go?
And leave your wives in the middle of a hard night?
Why do you go?
And hang your night
Over the camp and the national anthem?
Sabra — covering her naked breasts with a farewell song
Counts her palms and gets it wrong
While she can’t find the arm:
How many times will you travel?
And for how long?
And for what dream?
If you return one day
for which exile shall you return,
which exile brought you back?
Sabra — tearing open her chest:
How many times
does the flower bloom?
How many times
will the revolution travel?
Sabra — afraid of the night. Puts it on her knees
covers it with her eyes’ mascara. Cries to distract it:
They left without saying
anything about their return
Withered and tended
from the rose’s flame!
Returned without returning
to the beginning of their journey
Age is like children
running away from a kiss.
No, I do not have an exile
To say: I have a home
God, oh time ..!
Sabra — sleeps. And the fascist’s knife wakes up
Sabra calls who she calls
All of this night is for me, and night is salt
the fascist cuts her breasts — the night reduced —
he then dances around his knife and licks it. Singing an ode to a victory of the cedars,
And erases
Quietly .. Her flesh from her bones
and spreads her organs over the table
and the fascist continues dancing and laughs for the tilted eyes
and goes crazy for joy, Sabra is no longer a body:
He rides her as his instincts suggest, and his will manifests.
And steals a ring from her flesh and blood and goes back to his mirror
And be — Sea
And be — Land
And be — Clouds
And be — Blood
And be — Night
And be — Killing
And be — Saturday
and she be — Sabra.
Sabra — the intersection of two streets on a body
Sabra, the descent of a Spirit down a Stone
And Sabra — is no one
Sabra — is the identity of our time, forever.
International Democracy Day is observed on 15 September every year to
raise awareness among people about democracy. This day provides an
opportunity to review the democracy of the state in the world. The United Nations created the day to celebrate the system of
values democracy promotes, giving citizens the power to make decisions
regarding all aspects of their lives.The UN’s specific goal for
International Democracy Day is to promote government’s role in
maintaining open democracy among all member nations of the UN Charter.
From democracy’s birth in ancient Greece thousands of years ago through
trial and error up to today, most of the world’s nations choose
democracy over all other forms of government. More fundamentally, democracy is supposed to let people speak their minds and shape their own and their children’s futures.
Democracy is a theory of government where the law reflects the will of
the majority as determined by direct vote or elected representatives.
Typically, the legitimacy of a democracy begins with the adoption of a
constitution, which establishes the fundamental rules, principles,
duties, and powers of the government and some set of rights for
individuals against those of the government. The enumeration of rights
attempts to protect individuals from the whims of a democratic majority,
a concept developed as republicanism during the overthrow of
monarchism.
Across the world, though people are increasingly losing faith in the electoral system. According to the Economist
Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, less than 5% of the world’s
population lives in a ‘full democracy’. The most recent report records
the worst decline in global democracy in years, with freedom of
expression, in particular, facing new challenges from both state and
non-state actors.
What is surprising is that Australia and New Zealand are the only "full democracies" in the
entire Asia-Pacific region, while the United States is among those that
couldn't find its way into the top category.
There are also eight
countries (Algeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Timor-Leste, Ethiopia,
North Korea, Laos, Nepal and Sri Lanka) whose full titles include the
word "democratic", but the EIU says not one of these countries is
actually fully democratic.Democracy in Europe has ‘declined more than any other region,’ signalling a ‘democratic malaise,’ the Index found.
To rank the countries the EIU gives a
score out of 10 for a number of categories, such as political
participation and the functioning of government, then classifies each
country as either full democracy, flawed democracy, hybrid regime or
authoritarian.https://www.eiu.com/topic/democracy-index
Winston Churchill famously called democracy "the worst system of government, except for all the others that have been tried.' Many others argue the case that democracy is flawed , philosophically, morally, and empirically. Democracy is controlled by the few and corporate elites. For decades these interests have steered public opinion with unscrupulous methods, aided by a media controlled by them.
In the later parts of the Republic, Plato suggests that democracy is
one of the later stages in the decline of the ideal state. One which is
so bad that people ultimately cry out for a dictator to save them from
it. This idea was big for Plato, democracy would lead to tyrants.
Aristotle, for his part, listed democracy as the failed version of rule by the multitudes. “Timocracy”,
rule by the propertied class or even just a more constitutional form of
republican government was the ideal kind of rule by the many, in his
mind. He would have seen Athens as an ever-decaying city, moving away
from its original timocratic constitution as laid out by Solon.
The
idea that democracy is fundamentally flawed even had sponsors in later,
more liberal, thinkers. Voltaire, who supported all of the liberal
freedoms of speech and religion, told Catharine the Great of Russia
that, “Almost nothing great has ever been done in the world
except by the genius and firmness of a single man combating the
prejudices of the multitude”In the uncritical
history of representative democracy, it’s never mentioned that democracy
in ancient Greece meant citizens, not career politicians, taking it in
turns to debate and take decisions (as long as you were a man and not a
slave).
Democratic governments are supposed to be accountable, and officials and politicians
answerable for their decisions and actions. This is meant to reduce the
opportunity for corruption. Democracy also is meant to subject governments to the
rule of law, which means the law treats everyone, including the
government, equally. But democracy and freedom certainly do not work together, if you happen to be are starving and hunry or your human rights are being violated.
An unrestricted democracy means that the majority decides over the
minority. This leaves the minority relatively powerless, and the smaller
it is, the less power it wields. Which means that the smallest minority
of all, the individual, is effectively depending on his agreement with the
majority.
To account for this problem, mature democracies have developed a set
of checks and balances in an attempt to make sure that it doesn’t
happen; chief among these is the separation of the powers of the State.
But this actually makes a system less democratic, since it interferes
with the principle of “people’s power.” The end result being the complete alienation of many people. Essentially democracy does not create unity but only serves to foster division.
The UK is a representative democracy that very occasionally holds
referendums. Although referendums have been reserved for constitutional
issues, it is not the case that constitutional issues are always decided
by referendums. Instead they often tend to be used by governments to
put to rest major internal debates over constitutional issues. David Cameron
promised to hold a referendum on EU membership in order to silence internal debates within the Conservative
party, and we are probably about to take the huge step of leaving the EU that a majority of the population no longer want. The end result being the subversion of democracy that is Brexit, which has divided the country as never before, and which might result in the break up of the UK.
Whichever party is in government, the prime minister has the power to
appoint over 100 MPs into well-paid ministerial positions. This creates a
climate in which the vast majority of MPs do what the prime minister
wants because they want a job. Representational democracy has a special vulnerability to lobbying, in which special interest groups spend extremely well-paid people after our elected representativ to persuade, threaten, barter or bribe them into delivering legislation, government funding, or other favors for their group. Because elected officials frequently come from industries, business sectors, religions and the upper class, they thus have many vested interests beyond the will of the people when they take office.
On top of this many believe elections bring little change, that politicians are corrupt, uncaring and out of touch. Boris Johnson unelected Prime Minister is currently taking the complete piss, It should not be forgotten that only about 160,000 Conservative party members, 0.35 per cent of the 45.8m national electorate, got to vote for him. As a result we have a very angry divided nation, and our version of democracy is facing a test like none since we faced the threat of the Nazis. Never before, except perhaps 1930's Germany, has a country been so badly served by a government.
Fundamentally are so called democracy is currently not working. No single party can
claim support from more than about a third of the adult population.
One-party government is therefore a recipe for endless political
confrontation, with its own polarising dialectic. At this present time trust in Parliament is at an all time low. Only one in 10 people in the UK think the Westminster Parliament "works well and is fit for the 21st century," according to a ComRes poll published today. The poll commissioned by the Sunday Express also shows that just 14% think Parliament is "sufficiently representative of the nation's views," and just 125 feel Parliament "can be trusted to do the right thing for country"
In France, the Gilets Jaunes have been demonstrating for seven months
against a government indifferent to inequality and deaf to their voices.
In Britain, the Extinction Rebellion (XR) has already altered the way
we talk about the climate: no longer ‘change’ but an ’emergency’.
But street movements cannot govern and protest alone cannot change the
basic model of a capitalist economy governed by an allegedly
‘representative’ democracy.
This fundamental structure, how we govern and indeed our whole way of
living together, needs to change.
We need a new system where the few govern the many, the already privileged, the rich the corporate. Radical change must become the new order of the day, that would create a more harmonious society where all people are fairly treated and equally valued. We should demand this with all our might.It's time for power to be truly given to the people, and humanity to devise some new modes to overcome democracies present flaws and repairing Britains current damaged model. .
I will leave you with the following. an anonymous poem published in the Northern Star, a Chartist newspaper, in 1840.
“Hurrah for the masses,
The lawyers are asses,
Their gammon and spinach is stale!
The law is illegal,
The Commons are regal,
And the judges are going to Jail!”
