A lil bita poetry

November 27th, 2006 § 0 comments § permalink

I evade my personal responsibility for the things I choose to do. I blame the government, the oil companies, George Bush, the economy, the wealthy and anybody else I can think of for the destruction that my lifestyle causes.

I put my comfort, my convienence and my conformity ahead of the lives and livlihoods of thousands of future generations, and I try not to think too much about my daily contribution to the destruction of the world that was left to me by thousands of past generations. I put myself far, far ahead of my ancestors and decendents and take from them for the most trivial of reasons.

I ignore the real human pain, suffering and death that my behaviour causes. I turn the page, switch the channel, and change the topic of conversation. I pretend that the science isn’t definitive yet, or that there’s no point in changing before others do, and I convince myself that ‘scientists’ will come up with a technological solution that will make my lifestyle and me OK.

I avoid, I deny, I justify and rationalise, I pretend, I project, I squirm and sqeeze and do whatever I can to maintain my concept of myself as a good person while still doing what I do. I evade my moral responsibility a day at a time in the hope that reality will somehow be different tomorrow morning.

I steal from those who live far away from me, and who I do not know because I see their pain as cartoon pain, and not fully real. I casally destroy what future generations will depend upon to live because they have yet to be born and it is only me, and my time and my normalcy that is important.

I am like those who, sixty years ago, did their jobs and lived their normal lives and didn’t ask questions about where their jewish neighbours had gone. I am like those who participated in slavery and other atrocities, except that the effects of my crimes will outlast all those others.

And it is OK, because today I am normal, and busy, and have other things on my mind and, if what I do is really so bad so many people wouldn’t be doing the same, would they?

But when, in the hours before I die, I think back upon my life and what it has meant, I must do one thing. I must hope and hope and pray and pray that there is nothing beyond life and beyong time and beyond myself, that there is no blance, no karma, no morality and no justice.

Because if there is, and I do what I do, knowing what I know….

Well, lets not think about that.

First comment, by Rashers101, on a George Monbiot piece in Guardian Unlimited here.

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Opposition rallies in Venezuela

November 26th, 2006 § 0 comments § permalink

The opposition candidate in Venezuela’s presidential elections has held a huge rally in the capital, Caracas, a week before the vote.

Several hundred thousand turned out to show support for Social Democrat Manuel Rosales, currently governor of oil-rich state of Zulia.

However President Hugo Chavez is widely predicted to be heading for victory and a third term in office.
[…]
He (Rosales) said that people wanted “modernity” and not what he called the “Cubanization of Venezuela” under the left-wing President Chavez.

Mr Rosales said that the president’s policies were creating “a new rich and more poor people… an elite that runs everything”.
Link

So, the Venezualean people want to return to high levels of illiteracy, crap health care, and the states assets sold of to foreign companies then?

Truce in Israel/Palestine

November 26th, 2006 § 0 comments § permalink

Since 6 am this morning there has been a truce between Israel and the Palestinians.
Lets hope the violations by Hamas and Islamic Jihad are mistakes or errors of judgement that do not continue.
Lets also hope that the Israelis do not try to goad the Palestinians into breaking it too.

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The rise and decline of the neo-cons

November 24th, 2006 § 0 comments § permalink

Gotta make some time to read this:

The rise and decline of the neo-cons

Comments

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Go, Claire, Go!

November 24th, 2006 § 0 comments § permalink

Nice one Claire.

Corporate Watch – We eat Camelot for breakfast!

Listen here

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Israeli Foreign Minister demands annulment of Palestinian refugees’ right to return

November 23rd, 2006 § 0 comments § permalink

The Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, has urged the world community, especially countries hosting Palestinian refugees, to annul those refugees’ internationally-recognized right of return to their homeland (what is now Israel).

Livni, who was speaking in a lecture last night at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said that the road map plan for peace in the Middle East did not mention those refugees’ right of return.
Link

It’s not going to happen. The Palestinians aren’t going to just disappear. They will fight on.

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Murder in the Middle East

November 22nd, 2006 § 0 comments § permalink


Pierre Gemayel, the Lebanese industry minister and critic of Syrian involvement in their affairs was assassinated yesterday.

Obsolete has done an excellent job of pointing out the hypocrisy of Blairs statement, here, much better that I could ever put together.

The murder of Pierre Gemayel, Lebanese industry minister and a leading critic of Syria’s role in the country, as well as being the son of the former president, is a shocking crime that has rightly been condemned by all sides, including by Syria.

What a sharp contrast it makes though with the reactions of both Tony Blair and Margaret Beckett to the events this summer, when Israel launched air strikes across Lebanon in response to the Hizbullah abduction of two Israeli soldiers, which resulted in the deaths of over 1,000 Lebanese civilians, the destruction of 74 bridges and 94 roads and an environmental disaster after the bombing of Jiyeh power station, which leaked 20,000 to 30,000 tonnes of oil into the Med. The UN has put just the initial clean-up bill at $64 million.

It took 12 days for Tony Blair to even so much as say that he wanted the killing to stop. Before then, Beckett, when asked whether she thought Israel’s response was disproportionate, said that she “didn’t think it was helpful into that.” Only when it became apparent that Israel was not achieving its objectives, and that the whole international community apart from the United States, the UK and Israel wanted an immediate unconditional ceasefire, was a UN resolution finally passed, on August the 11th, nearly exactly a month after the beginning of the conflict.

Blair said:

We condemn this murder utterly. It is completely without any justification at all. We need to do everything we can, particularly at this moment, to protect democracy in Lebanon and the premiership of Prime Minister Siniora.

How strange that it’s only now that he wants to protect democracy and Siniora. The destruction of a large swath of southern Lebanon has been the catalyst for the current turmoil which Lebanon is experiencing. While Siniora appeared on TV screens daily, pleading for an end to the violence, questioning whether “an Israeli teardrop was worth more than a drop of Lebanese blood”, Blair and Beckett refused to stand up for Lebanese democracy.

Labels: Lebanon

The Long Way Round

November 22nd, 2006 § 0 comments § permalink

Watched The Long Way Round the other day.

Absolutley fantastic. Inspirational stuff.
This clip is Charley and Ewan, including the support crew trying to get across a river on the Road of Bones with the help of two big trucks.

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Murdoch cancels OJ Simpson plans

November 20th, 2006 § 0 comments § permalink

more from here.

Testing the water with the first story, then.

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Woman loses fight to wear cross

November 20th, 2006 § 0 comments § permalink

A British Airways (BA) employee has lost her fight to openly wear a cross necklace at work at Heathrow.

Nadia Eweida, 55, of Twickenham, London, has been on unpaid leave since her bosses said she could not visibly wear her cross at the check-in counter.

She found out she had lost her appeal against the decision by BA when she met with the airline bosses on Monday

She doesn’t look like a religious zealot, does she. She had my sympathy, because after all it is only a small cross, and as she says, people of other faiths can wear religious stuff, like headscarves (although there is debate as to whether the scarves and suchlike are religious or cultural).
But then…

Ms Eweida added: “I am fairly disappointed but I’m looking forward to the next stage because the cross is important and the truth will be revealed

Eh? The truth will be revealed? What truth? The truth about what? Surely you mean the judgement will be reversed? But that’s not really a truth is it Nadia? More of a, well, judgement.

And then the er, truth, is erm, revealed…

“It is important to wear it to express my faith so that other people will know that Jesus loves them.”

So it’s for our benefit you’re wearing a cross and going through court case. So we will know that Jesus loves us.

I don’t need saving, He’s your god, not mine.

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