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.
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
A Bit Odd...
We have our Ministers busy off trying to sell trade. Obama too.
What strikes me as odd, is they will be busy telling their voters that they are doing so on behalf of their populations. I look around the world and see the destruction successive governments have inflicted on people around the world. The US and the UK have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan. And that means they have destroyed the lives of the people there, either by killing them or destroying their normal lives.
If they can do that to others, then doesn't it make you wonder what they could do to their own people. The methods would be different, of course. My thoughts are this: callous people are callous people. Full stop. I don't think their callousness is restricted depending on where borders lie. It's just a matter of what they think they can get away with without being stopped, really. Just a thought.
What strikes me as odd, is they will be busy telling their voters that they are doing so on behalf of their populations. I look around the world and see the destruction successive governments have inflicted on people around the world. The US and the UK have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan. And that means they have destroyed the lives of the people there, either by killing them or destroying their normal lives.
If they can do that to others, then doesn't it make you wonder what they could do to their own people. The methods would be different, of course. My thoughts are this: callous people are callous people. Full stop. I don't think their callousness is restricted depending on where borders lie. It's just a matter of what they think they can get away with without being stopped, really. Just a thought.
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
I Shouldn't Smirk
I can't help it. I'm smirking.
Dave Cameron et al wanting to represent people, giving democracy back to local communites etc.
How many Girl Guides leaders, local kids football club organisers, fete organisers, Smaritan volunteers etc has he taken on his latest mission overseas?
Or is he being a bit like Obama, and being met by multinational company bosses, mostly from his own country?
Oh, it's trade is it? Right. Where is the soft Loch Ness Monster toy, a photo of Edinburgh Castle and a bit of Blackpool rock? And don't forget the music, the designer clothes...... suppose the airline lost the luggage......
Dave Cameron et al wanting to represent people, giving democracy back to local communites etc.
How many Girl Guides leaders, local kids football club organisers, fete organisers, Smaritan volunteers etc has he taken on his latest mission overseas?
Or is he being a bit like Obama, and being met by multinational company bosses, mostly from his own country?
Oh, it's trade is it? Right. Where is the soft Loch Ness Monster toy, a photo of Edinburgh Castle and a bit of Blackpool rock? And don't forget the music, the designer clothes...... suppose the airline lost the luggage......
Monday, 1 November 2010
Poison Media
The world is beautiful, sometimes contaminated by humans with nothing more than hate to pimp via the media. As the media runs riot in the US, we have the press in Uganda printing the names of homosexuals at a time when some vicious people, pretending to be religious, are demanding the death penalty for homosexuality.
I'm all for freedom of speech. But surely there are limits? The Uganda press participating in this disgusting, dangerous activity bring shame, not to East Africa, but to the press.
For those of you not so great with geography, Uganda borders Rwanda. For those of you who have not kept up with history, Rwanda suffered genocide in the 1990s. 800 000 people murdered in a short few months. For those of you who don't pay attention, the US press, well is the US press. Currently, there is the election campaign targetting immigrants, the tabloid journalism that fails to inform the citizens about what really goes on while their country wages war. The list is almost endless.
The press were an active instrument in that orchestra.
The press in both America and Uganda are a threat to reason, possibly a threat to people.
Hate speech such be illegal in my view. But do not forget, the press relies on money. The most efficient way to stop hate speech is to refuse to purchase the peddlers of division, the bullies and to refuse to join in their dangerous delusions.
Have we forgotten the words 'Never Again' so soon, again? Or do we not understand their important meaning?
I'm all for freedom of speech. But surely there are limits? The Uganda press participating in this disgusting, dangerous activity bring shame, not to East Africa, but to the press.
For those of you not so great with geography, Uganda borders Rwanda. For those of you who have not kept up with history, Rwanda suffered genocide in the 1990s. 800 000 people murdered in a short few months. For those of you who don't pay attention, the US press, well is the US press. Currently, there is the election campaign targetting immigrants, the tabloid journalism that fails to inform the citizens about what really goes on while their country wages war. The list is almost endless.
The press were an active instrument in that orchestra.
The press in both America and Uganda are a threat to reason, possibly a threat to people.
Hate speech such be illegal in my view. But do not forget, the press relies on money. The most efficient way to stop hate speech is to refuse to purchase the peddlers of division, the bullies and to refuse to join in their dangerous delusions.
Have we forgotten the words 'Never Again' so soon, again? Or do we not understand their important meaning?
Saturday, 30 October 2010
US Public Housing
Well, what do you know! Reagan, like Thatcher thought selling off public housing was a good idea (shrinking that 'huge' state, going back to the days of those slums). Seems it failed and even Jack Kemp couldn't get it to work.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kemp
Jack Kemp seems to have been a bit of guy - listen to this early show on Democracy Now!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kemp
Jack Kemp seems to have been a bit of guy - listen to this early show on Democracy Now!
Thursday, 28 October 2010
Lord Turnbull v George Osborne 'Brink'?
Watch the video here
UMUNNA: Do you think it’s accurate to describe the UK as being on the brink of bankruptcy?
TURNBULL: No I don’t. But I think it was essential, for a slightly different reason, to have a deficit reduction programme.
UMUNNA: Do you think it’s accurate to describe the UK as being on the brink of bankruptcy?
TURNBULL: No I don’t. But I think it was essential, for a slightly different reason, to have a deficit reduction programme.
Ideology for the Rich
While the public suffer the cuts, and Nick Clegg feels 'challenged' over the cuts, I wonder if he'll blush at this story from the Guardian over those Swiss Bank Accounts?
And they weren't too impressed by Prof Philo's idea of taxing the rich to pay the debt?
Yip ideology, representation of the businesses by the businesses.
And they weren't too impressed by Prof Philo's idea of taxing the rich to pay the debt?
Yip ideology, representation of the businesses by the businesses.
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
Not my kind of music but.....
This isn't my kind of music at all, but I can't help liking it.
And I still think Julian Assange and everyone involved in wikileaks should be awarded the next Nobel Peace Prize.
And I still think Julian Assange and everyone involved in wikileaks should be awarded the next Nobel Peace Prize.
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
Mr Murdoch
We had Blair making friends with the global media magnate. Will the ConDems go further? Before you decide to let the BBC shrink down into the depths of a black hole to nowhere, maybe you might want to take a look at this broadcast from Democracy Now! show from 2007
Countdown and wikileaks warlogs
The whole thing is simply horrible. Always has been. Always will be.
A lot of people need to be in jail.
MSNBC isn't a channel I particularly like, but this is a good interview with the investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill who does know what he's talking about.
A lot of people need to be in jail.
MSNBC isn't a channel I particularly like, but this is a good interview with the investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill who does know what he's talking about.
Some Brass Neck!
Wikileaks have done it again. Thankfully.
Some people, who knows how many, have the guts to provide the documents, and another group have the guts to make it all available.
The mess in Iraq is no surprise. Anyone aware of the histories of the UK and the US, the real histories, won't be surprised at all at the stories, the destroyed lives revealed by the data. Robert Fisk at the Independent, among many have outlined some of the horrors, the utter failure of our warmongering leaders to follow international laws, to abide by the Geneva Conventions. Just one example:
How can a lawyer even think such a thing? Is that a fact of law? Is it because a helicopter is metal rather than human? So that would imply that people could not surrender, waving their white flags, as a tank approached, does it?
Perhaps there is some complexity of law that distinguishes between a lump of metal on the ground and a lump of metal in the air. Perhaps the lawyer didn't think that perhaps the men were surrendering to the occupants of the lump of metal, rather than the lump of inert metal. Was it truly beyond their legal wits, beyond their understanding?
Military lawyers have a record of not grasping the legal importance of life, of not understanding life is of primary importance.
It may well have been money. Well, bullets are cheaper than having to land an aircraft, organise transport, food, shelter etc for those men hoping to safely surrender. How much is an Iraqi life worth? Is it worth the same as ours? You would think so, though the US and the UK have a track record of making such calculations. Lawyers have had a problem with that too.
I'm no lawyer so I can't argue one way or the other. But I am a human. And I know the difference between right and wrong - in this world. Medieval right from wrong thinking has no place in the minds of modern thinking. It isn't difficult. If I smash your window I could be guilty of criminal damage. But what if I smash that window in order to rescue you from your burning home? If I smash your window and then surrender to a police officer sitting in his car, is that OK? Or impossible? Do I really have to wait until he is out of his car? Can't I really hold my hands up in the air as the police helicopter hovers above and have that count as surrendering to the police for smashing a window?
It sounds silly and we'd all assume that every lawyer would be laughed at if he tried to argue that in court.
But it isn't silly. These people, these lawyers cause untold misery and despair.
Take a look at this passage:
Money matters when it comes to choosing life or death, for military powers, at least. How much did it matter in Iraq? Billions were being splashed around and still are, so perhaps money wasn't so important as to be considered in this instance. $2 500 for an innocent mother killed with her husband in a car, a car taking their children home, $2 500 for a car. Simply Shocking.
How much for an American life? How much for a British life?
It's all part of saving people from tyranny. Is it? So easy to shoot those surrendering now, yet so difficult to take out a media broadcast, a broadcast of hate and death.
Different centuries, different countries, different populations and different resources. Sadly, legal ability, understanding seem to have improved at all.
Huge military powers have no respect for human life. They just hide that idea as best they can, threatening journalists and whistleblowers who reveal the nasty, little secret. We aren't supposed to know. Hiding the details of these brutal deaths tells us the authorities know it is wrong. Well, if they'd been saving lives we would hear all about it. Over and over and over again, the politicians would be proudly, smiling, handing out medals and cheering.
You don't hide things you are proud of.
Some people, who knows how many, have the guts to provide the documents, and another group have the guts to make it all available.
The mess in Iraq is no surprise. Anyone aware of the histories of the UK and the US, the real histories, won't be surprised at all at the stories, the destroyed lives revealed by the data. Robert Fisk at the Independent, among many have outlined some of the horrors, the utter failure of our warmongering leaders to follow international laws, to abide by the Geneva Conventions. Just one example:
The shooting of men trying to surrender - In February 2007, an Apache helicopter killed two Iraqis, suspected of firing mortars, as they tried to surrender. A military lawyer is quoted as saying: "They cannot surrender to aircraft and are still valid targets."Frightening. Terrifying.
How can a lawyer even think such a thing? Is that a fact of law? Is it because a helicopter is metal rather than human? So that would imply that people could not surrender, waving their white flags, as a tank approached, does it?
Perhaps there is some complexity of law that distinguishes between a lump of metal on the ground and a lump of metal in the air. Perhaps the lawyer didn't think that perhaps the men were surrendering to the occupants of the lump of metal, rather than the lump of inert metal. Was it truly beyond their legal wits, beyond their understanding?
Military lawyers have a record of not grasping the legal importance of life, of not understanding life is of primary importance.
It may well have been money. Well, bullets are cheaper than having to land an aircraft, organise transport, food, shelter etc for those men hoping to safely surrender. How much is an Iraqi life worth? Is it worth the same as ours? You would think so, though the US and the UK have a track record of making such calculations. Lawyers have had a problem with that too.
I'm no lawyer so I can't argue one way or the other. But I am a human. And I know the difference between right and wrong - in this world. Medieval right from wrong thinking has no place in the minds of modern thinking. It isn't difficult. If I smash your window I could be guilty of criminal damage. But what if I smash that window in order to rescue you from your burning home? If I smash your window and then surrender to a police officer sitting in his car, is that OK? Or impossible? Do I really have to wait until he is out of his car? Can't I really hold my hands up in the air as the police helicopter hovers above and have that count as surrendering to the police for smashing a window?
It sounds silly and we'd all assume that every lawyer would be laughed at if he tried to argue that in court.
But it isn't silly. These people, these lawyers cause untold misery and despair.
Take a look at this passage:
The United States and the United Kingdom committed other acts of sabotage on deployment to Rwanda. For instance, I had long been arguing with New York that RTLM had to be shut down, as it was a direct instrument in promoting genocide. The UN did not have the means to stop the broadcasts, either through jamming, a direct air strike on the transmitter, or covert operations, but it made a formal request of the United States, which had the means to try all three. The issue was studied by the Pentagon, which in due course recommended against conducting the operation because of the cost - $8,500 an hour for a jamming aircraft over the country - and the legal dilemma. Bandwidth within a nation is owned by the nation, and jamming a national radio station would violate international convention on national sovereignty. The Pentagon judged that the lives of the estimated 8,000-10,000 Rwandans being killed each day in the genocide was not worth the cost of the fuel or the violation of Rwandan airwaves, The death toll, which was estimated at 200,000 by the end of April, reached 500,000 by the end of May and 800,000 by the last day of June. (Dallaire, Lt Gen Roméo., Shake Hands With The Devil. The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda., 2004, page 375.)So you can't block hate broadcasts because of international law, but you can ignore international law, invade a country that hasn't attacked you (or threatened to) and shoot anyone who wants to surrender if they surrender to military in a metal flying box! It would be funny if this was a lecture theatre, the uuniversity law faculty. But it isn't. This is serious, a matter of life and death. There is nothing more serious than life.
Money matters when it comes to choosing life or death, for military powers, at least. How much did it matter in Iraq? Billions were being splashed around and still are, so perhaps money wasn't so important as to be considered in this instance. $2 500 for an innocent mother killed with her husband in a car, a car taking their children home, $2 500 for a car. Simply Shocking.
How much for an American life? How much for a British life?
It's all part of saving people from tyranny. Is it? So easy to shoot those surrendering now, yet so difficult to take out a media broadcast, a broadcast of hate and death.
Different centuries, different countries, different populations and different resources. Sadly, legal ability, understanding seem to have improved at all.
Huge military powers have no respect for human life. They just hide that idea as best they can, threatening journalists and whistleblowers who reveal the nasty, little secret. We aren't supposed to know. Hiding the details of these brutal deaths tells us the authorities know it is wrong. Well, if they'd been saving lives we would hear all about it. Over and over and over again, the politicians would be proudly, smiling, handing out medals and cheering.
You don't hide things you are proud of.
Sunday, 24 October 2010
Bill Moyers on Democracy Now!
Anyone who cares about the world and how we manage ourselves would do well to think about what Bill Moyers says here on Democracy Now about war, politics and advertising.
Prediction
I predict the cuts to both the military and the police will lead to a new growth industry in the UK.
Private security and spying companies. All bothering peace lovers, council house tenants who don't like Boy George etc.
Hardly original, but then when was the last time a mainstream British politician showed much sign of originality? We only ever copy the Americans. It's our love of international, clever people and the belief by political classes that Brits (except themselves of course) are thick!
I'm not being original here, just keeping an eye on world media.
Private security and spying companies. All bothering peace lovers, council house tenants who don't like Boy George etc.
Hardly original, but then when was the last time a mainstream British politician showed much sign of originality? We only ever copy the Americans. It's our love of international, clever people and the belief by political classes that Brits (except themselves of course) are thick!
I'm not being original here, just keeping an eye on world media.
Even worse, the 'privatise everything' mantra that is so popular in Washington has expanded into the military and intelligence-gathering - producing a booming new industry, as documented by investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill, among others.http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2010/10/20101012111034580809.html
Nick!
We can all assume it's been a busy weekend over in the US as the latest wikileaks revelations are on view. The leaks document grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions.
Wiki details the Conventions in easily readable non-legalese form:
Nick Clegg, reported on France 24 says:
Mr Clegg, the rule of law applies to everyone It is for the whole world to tell them exactly how to do that. In a court, an International Court.
All nations must insist on it. Indeed, the US had a partner in this atrocity, the UK, and we too must comply. If that means UK officials and UK military are put on trial, then so be it.
The law applies to everyone, to every nation, irrespective of riches in money or firepower.
Wiki details the Conventions in easily readable non-legalese form:
Grave breaches
Not all violations of the treaty are treated equally. The most serious crimes are termed grave breaches, and provide a legal definition of a war crime. Grave breaches of the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions include the following acts if committed against a person protected by the convention:
- willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments
- willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health
- compelling one to serve in the forces of a hostile power
- willfully depriving one of the right to a fair trial
Also considered grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention are the following:
- taking of hostages
- extensive destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly
- unlawful deportation, transfer, or confinement.[11]
Nations who are party to these treaties must enact and enforce legislation penalizing any of these crimes.[12] Nations are also obligated to search for persons alleged to commit these crimes, or ordered them to be committed, and to bring them to trial regardless of their nationality and regardless of the place where the crimes took place.
The principle of universal jurisdiction also applies to the enforcement of grave breaches. Toward this end, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia were established by the United Nations to prosecute alleged violations.
Nick Clegg, reported on France 24 says:
"I'm assuming the US administration will want to provide its own answer. It's not for us to tell them how to do that.
http://www.france24.com/en/20101024-us-under-pressure-over-wikileaks-allegations
Mr Clegg, the rule of law applies to everyone It is for the whole world to tell them exactly how to do that. In a court, an International Court.
All nations must insist on it. Indeed, the US had a partner in this atrocity, the UK, and we too must comply. If that means UK officials and UK military are put on trial, then so be it.
The law applies to everyone, to every nation, irrespective of riches in money or firepower.
Saturday, 23 October 2010
Tree Huggers Needed!
All those who say we don't have the Tea Party running Britain could maybe have a bit of a problem...
Tree Huggers Beware! It takes heroes to save the planet and our trees, keepers of the natural processes for capturing carbon. It isn't safe to sit in trees, so those who do are brave people.
http://www.democracynow.org/2000/5/24/10th_anniversary_of_the_bombing_of
Legislation governing the treatment of "ancient forests" is to be changed giving firms the right to cut down trees. http://bit.ly/chkdN8
Tree Huggers Beware! It takes heroes to save the planet and our trees, keepers of the natural processes for capturing carbon. It isn't safe to sit in trees, so those who do are brave people.
http://www.democracynow.org/2000/5/24/10th_anniversary_of_the_bombing_of
Legislation governing the treatment of "ancient forests" is to be changed giving firms the right to cut down trees. http://bit.ly/chkdN8
Wikileaks and the warlogs
People will now question why the Americans have been so cruel in Iraq. I worry that people will assume it is because Americans simply do not respect the rights of Arabs.
Take a look at US behaviour in Latin America over the decades.
Take a look at the number of unemployed people in the US. Why?
Take a look at the number of people living on the streets in America. How are they treated? How did they get there?
Take a look at the number of US citizens being imprisoned in America. America apparently has the largest prison population in the world. Why?
Take a look at healthcare provision in the US. How many poor people (ie not working for the global corporations as executives, either in their head offices or in the government) have good healthcare?
Take a look at US military behaviour in Haiti in response to the election of people like Aristide, or the human tragedy of earthquakes.
What involvement did the US have in Did the US officials work to save the global environment in Copenhagen?
Did the US officials work hard to ensure water is a human right or just access to water (meaning you have to have money)?
What did the US do to help prevent the unfolding of the horrific genocide in Rwanda?
This isn't about Arabs or muslims.
This is about greed. This is about unchecked power.
This is about having no respect for human rights, across the board.
This is about big business and profits. This is about big a democratic deficit, where governments act on behalf of and in the interests of business, not on behalf of and in the interests of citizens.
The US does not stand alone.
When will we have leaks of UK British documents relating to Iraq?
And when will we, each citizen on earth, have access to the documents, the evidence that will tell us all just how nasty our governments really are.
Take a look at US behaviour in Latin America over the decades.
Take a look at the number of unemployed people in the US. Why?
Take a look at the number of people living on the streets in America. How are they treated? How did they get there?
Take a look at the number of US citizens being imprisoned in America. America apparently has the largest prison population in the world. Why?
Take a look at healthcare provision in the US. How many poor people (ie not working for the global corporations as executives, either in their head offices or in the government) have good healthcare?
Take a look at US military behaviour in Haiti in response to the election of people like Aristide, or the human tragedy of earthquakes.
What involvement did the US have in Did the US officials work to save the global environment in Copenhagen?
Did the US officials work hard to ensure water is a human right or just access to water (meaning you have to have money)?
What did the US do to help prevent the unfolding of the horrific genocide in Rwanda?
This isn't about Arabs or muslims.
This is about greed. This is about unchecked power.
This is about having no respect for human rights, across the board.
This is about big business and profits. This is about big a democratic deficit, where governments act on behalf of and in the interests of business, not on behalf of and in the interests of citizens.
The US does not stand alone.
When will we have leaks of UK British documents relating to Iraq?
And when will we, each citizen on earth, have access to the documents, the evidence that will tell us all just how nasty our governments really are.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
