Man's inhumanity to man
Lampshades made from human skin were produced in the German concentration camps. Our German neighbour's parents were forced by The Allies to view a display of Nazi attrocities which included such a table lamp lampshade. Tattoo decorated human skin was also found in a collection in one of the camps.
Not so long ago, we in the so called civilised world were not much better; tobacco pouches made from tanned human skin were used by American soldiers. This took place in the 19th Century. Usually they were made from native women's breasts. There are accounts available of such pouches being traded and being found among soldier's effects. They may also have tanned and used famous Indian warriors scrotums. It was not until later in the century that public opinion stopped such barbarity. Several major libraries have books bound in human skin; usually anatomy textbooks, one volume has a tattoo visible. AK January 2010
Poverty and Debt -at Three Thousand Percent Interest.
Prime Minister Brown, has made much of his party's success in "eliminating poverty" in 2005 he stated that he wanted to double aid and eliminate the poorest nation's debt. He has ambitious targets for reducing child poverty in the UK.
The contrast between the elite of the world banking system and the struggling poor in the UK is a gaping chasm but Gordon has been propping up this sector with money which is taken from all of the population.
We are still being encouraged to take on more debt, this includes debt at horrendous interest rates, the rates can be ridiculously high. It is the duty of the government of the day to prevent this Legalised Loan sharking from hurting the most vulnerable in our society. The very high rates, it can be argued are to cover the risk for the lender but it is only a desperate person who would accept such terms.
Such debt piled on to those who can least afford it is criminal and perplexing; how can such a nice bloke as Gordon, and a son of the manse at that, allow it to happen.
Why is it that Gordon is in thrall to the money men? that when it comes down to it he will put these people and some weird ideas about market freedoms above the people's welfare? There are multiple causes for the rising poverty levels, but indebtedness is a scourge in our societies and Gordon should be much more focussed on this problem. -- AK Jan 2010
Nuclear and Gordie's Brer
Would the UK be going nuclear hell for leather in the power generating game if Gordon Brown's brother - Andrew Brown worked in the recycling industry instead of the nuclear business.
So daft to be spending our money on a non-renewable energy source.
Money aside (and nuclear is NOT cheap) we do not get the true picture about the health hazards. We get the spin from the bought politicians and the corporate press, but more worrying is the fact that those tasked with protecting us from terrorist attacks are not allowed the true picture either. Here in the UK we have 36,000 cubic metres of highly radioactive graphite in storage, carbon life forms on this planet should be scared - very scared. Every day we have more plutonium produced in reactors around the world - several hundred kilograms of the stuff. Lots of other deadly radioactive elements are created in these reactors and no one tells us clearly what the disposal and storage plans are.
The two substances mentioned earlier; Carbon 14 has a half-life of 5600 years and Plutonium 293 a half-life of 24,000 years. Half-life does not mean that only half of the radioactivity remains, for the half that has decayed can have turned into something else, in the case of carbon, some of it could be transformed into an isotope of chlorine with a half life of 300,000 years.
My fears are not only confined to the terrorist threat; I do not believe for a minute that the steadily increasing pile of dangerous materials building up around the world will be carefully tended over the long term. AK July 2009
THE FATWA
Everyone has heard of the Iranian fatwa against WMD, right, you can't have missed it? Surely something as important must have been plastered all over the headlines!
We all read about the one against Salman Rushdie, but the newsworthyness of the Supreme Leader's 2005 edict scarcely reached the west; are we so sold on the idea that the evil Persians are feverishly building Islamic Bombs to flatten our cities that such an idea seems almost ridiculous? That the mullahs gathered in the Iranian city of Gom are actually people who espouse a morality condemning mass killing? Is this idea quite inconceivable?
Our politicians would have us believe that we are hated by the Iranians. We seem to be so sold on these ideas, that many in the west expected to see a million people cheering in the streets of Tehran when the Twin Towers came down? - The reverse was actually true, vast crowds of people expressing their sympathy thronged the streets and filled a sports stadium, considerably more than in any western city. Some Western media did briefly show Iranian sympathisers carrying candles, however there was considerably more coverage of the other kind from other parts of the Middle East.
Note: There were edicts against the development and use of WMD during the Gulf War between Iraq and Iran, however it was not until August 9th 2005 that Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei actually issued the fatwa forbidding the production, stockpiling and use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. .AK June 2009
THE GHASTLY POLITICIANS
Online petition - The Queen to Dissolve Parliament and call a General Election
The very obvious outrage of the population of Britain against their politicians is a new thing, true, they have been getting worse over the last few years, but it seems to me that the anger of the people and the willingness of the press to vilify them is a change in direction. Is this the Obama effect? are we starting to expect things like honesty and integrity from our elected leaders?
Here in the UK we have given the monarch powers to limit excessive abuses by the politicians, the Queen can at any time call a general election. The electorate can then vote in new set of politicians.
I say "LET's DO IT" we can petition Her Majesty to call for an election. Here is a link that will take you to where you can directly lobby for the shaking up of our dodgy system.
http://www.gopetition.co.uk/online/27778.html
Do your bit for Democracy, get rid of them. If that does nothing we could always come out in the streets in such numbers that they would have to call an election themselves. AK May 2009
THE SHIRAZ GRAPE
Checked with Wikipedia the other day on the Syrah grape and was mildly amused at the article. It was suggested that the magnificent Shiraz grape, so beloved of travelers to Iran and grown extensively in Australia and around the world is possibly little more than a mispronunciation of the word Syrah. It is true that the Syrah grape produces some really good red wines but even a cursory scan of the accounts of visitors to the country will bring up the mention of the legendary wines of Shiraz. Bring back Encyclopedia Britannica. Wikipedia - so easy to use so open to abuse
Whatever happened to the true Shiraz grapes, can we bring them back? Robert Byron, who visited Iran in the 1830s described drinking a red, a sweet white wine and a rose that gave a delicious warm after-effect. He sampled them when he was in the city that gave its name to the fruit, He did not mention any other region's wine. Other travellers have remarked on its qualities; Edward Granville Brown, in his work 'A year amongst the Persians' noted that although many consumed good quantities of the Shiraz wine that there was little apparent 'after effect' and that the following day the revelers would rise both fresh and lively.
- AK 6th May 2009
THE LEGACY - DESECULARIZATION
It is usual for politicians to wish to leave behind some kind of legacy; some footprints in the sands of time, as it were. George W Bush and Tony Blair are no different. I set myself to thinking about what their greatest achievements were, George Bush was behind the US's donation of several billion dollars to combat Aids and HIV in Africa, Tony fought against the 'Crescent of Evil' as he saw it.
My conclusion is regrettably a very negative one, and there are considerably fewer good deeds than ugly ones, I'm afraid.
It is not failing to halt the destruction of the planet, few politicians would have had the courage to grasp the nettle. it could have been the ruination of Iraq, dreadful as it is, but to my mind it is the desecularization of societies, particularly the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The cumulative effect of their policies have reversed progress by such a degree that I fear for our children and their descendants. We will be living with the effect of their foolishnesses and wickedness for a long time to come.- AK April 09
POLITICIANS ARE WORSE THAN BANKERS
Politicians claiming special treatment scare me - we as a people fought long and hard to establish Rule of Law, especially the equality in the eyes of the law between politicians and the ordinary people. Overcoming the politician's reluctance to hand over power took a heroic effort on the part of people such as Thomas Paine and Erskine against the then Prime Minister Pitt the Elder. Paine's book 'Rights of Man' should be compulsory reading for all politicians - and citizens, especially citizens. I thought we has seen the last of this kind of thing when Mr Blair was sent packing.
My disquiet came about when in early December 2008 the House of Commons offices of Damien Green, a Conservative minister had his offices raided. There were shennannigans on both side with leaking to the press from Mr Green being the cause of the furore and New Labour as usual attempting to use powers well over and above the ones we gave them, this time misusing the police force, however the really important point - as I saw it - was the attitudes displayed by some of the Tories, that politicians should somehow be exempt to police investigation, or that their offices were sacred because they were sited in the palace of Westminster - as the parliament building is sometimes known. No politician should be immune to investigation.
I have been waiting patiently to hear some condemnation of the attitude but so far, four months later not a squeak, the story has faded away, but the self-righteous response of the politicians and the terrifying complacency of the press and citizenry is *$+!?#~ daft and more than a little scary.
We have seen a massive transfer of public money to shore up a rotten system of deregulated banking and investment, all achieved by bribes handed out by 'lobbyists' for the financial services 'industry' to the politicians, the amount of money doled out to achieve the removal and weakening of regulatory controls of the organisations is in excess of five billion dollars ($5,000,000,000) over the last decade. The current hatred of the bankers should also be directed at the pols.
Some of our anarchist demonstrators were carrying signs suggesting that we eat the bankers, perhaps we should be less delicate and feed the politicians to the crocodiles. (just a throw-away line, honestly I didn't mean we actually should) It probably would be a wasted effort as the bankers would be unpalatable to the crocs. - AK April 09
THE KENNEL CLUB RELENTS (AGAIN)
Blame Axel if you like,winging does sometimes have an effect! The the nice people at the Kennel Club have
at long last turned their attention to the British Bulldog - or more correctly, to the modern version of the breed - Many breeders are up in arms at what they see as unwarranted interference in their cosy little club,
The practice of incestuous breeding has resulted in some of the animals suffering poor health throughout their unhappy lives, most animals are delivered through Caesarian section as the large head and skinny hips make normal birth impossible. Steve Jones, the eminent Professor of Genetics at University College London, is quoted as saying “It’s insane from the point of view of the health of the animals. In some breeds they are paying a terrible, terrible price in genetic disease.” The males are often unable to mate and so require artificial insemination.
The original breed produced handsome dogs that could jump fences and were nimble and strong enough to catch bulls for their butcher keepers, provide sport in bull baiting spectacles - and protect the family and see off poachers. Lets hope that sanity reigns and we get rid of the caricature of a noble breed and replace it with something much better. I wonder if the caricatures touted by Victorian periodicals actually had something to do with the problem; images appearing in 'Punch' were nothing like the bulldog of the day, it looks as if the imagination of a nineteenth century cartoonist has been rendered in flesh. bones and blood. Life imitating art if you like.
The dog breeders will put up a fight especially if some of the "Press" take up the reactionary breeder's cause. Robin Searle, the chairman of the British Bulldog Breed Council is threatening legal action. I am sure that there will be more on this topic in the future, battle lines are drawn and big guns are being brought in. On the side of those who want a return to the original type is the chief vet of the RSPCA and Sir Patrick Bateson, who is another leading scientist and animal expert
Perhaps a way forward is to reintroduce a strain derived from the working dogs still found in the USA, they are still used for cattle wrangling an hog catching. Klystron Jan 09.
GAZA IS ANOTHER WARSAW GHETTO?
No! - No! - No! In Warsaw the residents, prisoners actually, were every one of them destined for the gas chambers and were fighting with that knowledge in mind. The Holocaust was by far the worst of crimes. It is astonishing though, that so many people in the west do not see that there is a wickedness in the treatment of the Palestinian people and that something quite evil is taking place in that part of the middle east.
A much more appropriate comparison with the Siege of Gaza would be the Siege of Leningrad, the defenders are not quite the same kind of people, but in time and in the eyes of many, they are seen as such. No comparisons are perfect, for Gaza is also a gigantic refugee camp which Leningrad was not. This is surely not one of the intended consequences of the Israeli rulers. A military victory, yes but time will tell whether it is a political one. Hamas could emerge stronger and with more legitimacy.
Another sad comparison with Leningrad is the media coverage; we are prevented from seeing the true extent of the horrors of using modern high explosives and other weaponry in one of the most densely populated territory on earth, and what newspaper coverage there is, must resemble closely the German newspaper coverage of the time; "civilian deaths are regrettable but we must root out the problem".
We in the west all share some culpability for the Holocaust despite the fact it happened half a century ago, but should our feelings of guilt over something that happened more than half a century ago still blind us to the misery of so many innocent people? ~ Klystron Jan 09.