Kucinich, Jim Hightower and Firefighter Mitchell among others gave rousing speeches later that evening.
Watch live streaming video from theuptake at livestream.com
Enjoy
Monday, 14 March 2011
Wisconsin Rally
A huge rally took place in Madison, Wiscon after their State Governor pushed through legislation to remove many workers rights, in a move that by many is believed to be illegal.
Kucinich, Jim Hightower and Firefighter Mitchell among others gave rousing speeches later that evening.
Enjoy
Kucinich, Jim Hightower and Firefighter Mitchell among others gave rousing speeches later that evening.
Enjoy
Sunday, 6 February 2011
Thursday, 20 January 2011
Such A Shame
Understandably, the people of Tunisia now consider Mohammed Bouazizi to be the father of their revolution and hopefull the man who initiated the beginnings of a better life for them all.
Today Mohammed Bouazizi you matter. And way off into the future, you always will. Today, Mohammed Bouazizi, you are not the down-trodden, heartbroken young man. Unlike so many victims of brutal regimes around the world and through time, today Mohammed Bouazizi, you will never be forgotten by your people.
I can't help think of the waste of life. A young man, with his dreams, his ambitions, his family and a future that should have been before him. His mind wasn't allowed to be as free as it should have been because of the harsh political oppression. His future wasn't going to be the future it should have been because of the unaccountable brutality of the State. Who knows what will come of Tunisia as yet? I hope it is good.
There is an empty space in the world today. There is an empty space in a family today.
Sleep well in your mother's heart, Mohammed Bouazizi.
Today Mohammed Bouazizi you matter. And way off into the future, you always will. Today, Mohammed Bouazizi, you are not the down-trodden, heartbroken young man. Unlike so many victims of brutal regimes around the world and through time, today Mohammed Bouazizi, you will never be forgotten by your people.
I can't help think of the waste of life. A young man, with his dreams, his ambitions, his family and a future that should have been before him. His mind wasn't allowed to be as free as it should have been because of the harsh political oppression. His future wasn't going to be the future it should have been because of the unaccountable brutality of the State. Who knows what will come of Tunisia as yet? I hope it is good.
There is an empty space in the world today. There is an empty space in a family today.
Sleep well in your mother's heart, Mohammed Bouazizi.
Saturday, 15 January 2011
Everyone is Talking About Tunisia
For weeks the people of Tunisia have been protesting, culminating in the departure of their President on January 14 2011.
I spent two weeks in Tunisia resting and beginning to enjoy life after a long illness. It has beautiful beaches lined with hotels used by the Europeans in search of sunshine rather than rain. It has wild life reserves and desert. There are miles of dry dusty farm fields so different from ours, bordered by what I called 'cacti borders' rather than our industrial looking wire fences, pretty hedges or old dry stone walls. It has immense history too, an historic culture of people who will have experienced many turbulent events over many centuries. I saw the respect Tunisians place on education. There were so many students with their books coming and going from class. Everywhere I went in Tunisia there were students and education facilities; a sight just as beautiful as the desert, the farms, the ancient buildings to me. People laughed, people smiled and people were so kind. I had a wonderful time in a beautiful place populated by beautiful people.
No one ever mentioned politics or much of their personal life. Why would they? I was there on holiday, just passing though, enjoying the spring sunshine, building up my strength, enjoying the vistas and learning a little history.
To everyone in Tunisia, thank you for being you, stay safe, and use your wonderful minds to build a future for Tunisia, by Tunisians, a future of your own choosing.
Remember those you have lost. Move forward with deep thought and dignity and carefully build the future of your choosing.
The internet is now awash, not only with reports of what is happening in Tunisia, but about the role the internet and social media played in the events since December.
It's all rather silly really. The internet is being used just like the printing press was. It doesn't bring about change, it merely spreads ideas and information more quickly than books written by hand, and more quickly than word of mouth thousands of years ago.
As governments and organisations move to 'control' the internet in the coming years they will learn a hard lesson all over again. They always have to relearn.
In the 1790s people could be convicted for printing and selling the works of Thomas Paine in England. His works were tossed on the bonfire in Exeter.
Successful was it?
People will learn, people will communicate in whatever way, using whatever means available to them, whether it is on the internet, or passing secret notes around a sweatshop factory, or meeting far out of sight in huddled groups in fields, or on the side of mountains, or on the telephone, kitchens or in backrooms of cafes. Prattling on about change is a 'paper revolution' or an 'electronic one', is nothing more than commentators immersing themselves in their own obsession. Were the battles of ancient times the 'story-teller revolution'? For goodness sake!
It was not an internet revolution, it was a revolution like all others; brought about by thinking people communicating and finally physically participating. That's what humans do.
It's not about communication, it's about self-determination, about democracy, about freedom, about oppression, about the rights of humans to have the means to survive, to have dignity and to be treated as worthwhile, about the structure of their society. It is not about the foundations of a straw house, a stick house or a brick house. It is not about the tools used to build a house of straw, a house of sticks or a house of bricks. It's about what that house is made of, about what kind of house people want to live in. To label it as anything else is to hide or to mask the true nature.
It's the same struggles people all over the world have always been struggling with.
I spent two weeks in Tunisia resting and beginning to enjoy life after a long illness. It has beautiful beaches lined with hotels used by the Europeans in search of sunshine rather than rain. It has wild life reserves and desert. There are miles of dry dusty farm fields so different from ours, bordered by what I called 'cacti borders' rather than our industrial looking wire fences, pretty hedges or old dry stone walls. It has immense history too, an historic culture of people who will have experienced many turbulent events over many centuries. I saw the respect Tunisians place on education. There were so many students with their books coming and going from class. Everywhere I went in Tunisia there were students and education facilities; a sight just as beautiful as the desert, the farms, the ancient buildings to me. People laughed, people smiled and people were so kind. I had a wonderful time in a beautiful place populated by beautiful people.
No one ever mentioned politics or much of their personal life. Why would they? I was there on holiday, just passing though, enjoying the spring sunshine, building up my strength, enjoying the vistas and learning a little history.
To everyone in Tunisia, thank you for being you, stay safe, and use your wonderful minds to build a future for Tunisia, by Tunisians, a future of your own choosing.
Remember those you have lost. Move forward with deep thought and dignity and carefully build the future of your choosing.
The internet is now awash, not only with reports of what is happening in Tunisia, but about the role the internet and social media played in the events since December.
It's all rather silly really. The internet is being used just like the printing press was. It doesn't bring about change, it merely spreads ideas and information more quickly than books written by hand, and more quickly than word of mouth thousands of years ago.
As governments and organisations move to 'control' the internet in the coming years they will learn a hard lesson all over again. They always have to relearn.
In the 1790s people could be convicted for printing and selling the works of Thomas Paine in England. His works were tossed on the bonfire in Exeter.
Successful was it?
People will learn, people will communicate in whatever way, using whatever means available to them, whether it is on the internet, or passing secret notes around a sweatshop factory, or meeting far out of sight in huddled groups in fields, or on the side of mountains, or on the telephone, kitchens or in backrooms of cafes. Prattling on about change is a 'paper revolution' or an 'electronic one', is nothing more than commentators immersing themselves in their own obsession. Were the battles of ancient times the 'story-teller revolution'? For goodness sake!
It was not an internet revolution, it was a revolution like all others; brought about by thinking people communicating and finally physically participating. That's what humans do.
It's not about communication, it's about self-determination, about democracy, about freedom, about oppression, about the rights of humans to have the means to survive, to have dignity and to be treated as worthwhile, about the structure of their society. It is not about the foundations of a straw house, a stick house or a brick house. It is not about the tools used to build a house of straw, a house of sticks or a house of bricks. It's about what that house is made of, about what kind of house people want to live in. To label it as anything else is to hide or to mask the true nature.
It's the same struggles people all over the world have always been struggling with.
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