Category: Current Affairs

Nothing A-musing

In the past 5 years the price of almost everything has doubled yet life has not got twice better.  I am talking about everyday things such as food, petrol and travel tickets.  Meanwhile my wages haven’t increased for 6 years.  If I was an alien I would look at these signs and interpret them as evidence that this world isn’t working.

It’s not just the cost of living, it’s also the way we live too.  In many arab nations there have been uprisings in the name of freedom and democracy whilst in the UK there were riots because we have freedom and democracy.  All over the planet people are pissed off because if anything it just keeps getting worse.

Yesterday saw the tenth anniversary of 9/11.  Ten years on there are still suicide bombers and jihad fighters in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Many Western countries still feel at risk to the threat of terrorism. It is yet another example of how trouble never disappears, it just changes location.

The world has stopped evolving.  Our races cultural output is restricted to twilight and Harry Fucking Potter.  Our environmental contribution is the sum total of fuck all.  All over the planet governments are spending money which they don’t have in a desperate attempt to maintain the illusion that everything is just fine.  But it’s not.  If anything it just keeps getting worse.

The Rules Of Making Up Rules

Are there any?  Should there be some order in trying to put the world in order?  Are there some can’t do’s and must do’s when inventing a system of guidance?  I am pretty sure I can think of one.

If I declare myself King and demand that all monkeys start speaking to humans in English will it happen?  Given them monkeys are independent beings who aren’t capable of vocalising their thoughts, it’s rather unlikely.  To be able to put things in order you need power.  So perhaps if I invaded England, dissolved parliament and declared myself Emperor on national television and gave the same order would it work?  No.  What you need in conjunction with power, is control or perhaps the tools of control.  So what if took the same steps to become emperor, ordered the British army to invade the zoo’s and order the monkeys at gunpoint to speak English?  It still won’t work will it.  So what on earth is the rule of making up rules?

I am talking about the death of Baha Mousa and many others.  I have absolutely no intention on delving deep into these cases.  Last night I was watching a report on BBC about the circumstances surround this tragic case and was absolutely gob smacked by an American ambassador who claimed that the overwhelming cause was the failure of the soldiers in question to follow the rules of war.  The first thing I want to say is that the death of Baha Mousa and the numerous acts of torture and murder which have been committed around the world in the name of war are wrong.  The second thing I want to say is rules of war?  Rules of fucking war?  What is wrong with you bureaucrats?

We routinely send the mostly heroic young men and women of our nations to places where strangers try to kill them.  When they arrive there we insufficiently arm them, often medicate them with amphetamines and blithely grasp in the darkness hoping that if we hang around long enough the baddies will stop.  In the midst of these stress we try to subjugate them with often bizarre and banal rules which in many cases cause innocent people to lose their lives.  Whether it be the U.N troops who were refused permission to engage without being fired upon in Rwanda or Srebrenica, the cost is the same.  You cannot apply rules which require active participation from both sides of an armed conflict.  Mainly, it’s due to the fact that they are in conflict.  They are not going to stop and say ‘look here, you just broke rule number 42, you just poked me the eye you rapscallion’.  It is not boxing.

The problem is not a question of breaching someones human rights or any Geneva convention.  It is the fact that recent wars have been fought with 24/7 media coverage in a shameless effort to garner public support against an action which was unequivocally wrong in its beginning.  Due to the close proximity of the PR machine to all aspects of modern conflicts governments are desperate to avoid being attached to any act which demonstrates the brutal reality of war.  It’s as if the aristocratic officers of the first world war have been promoted one step higher and are now in government.

The basic rule which underscores the terms of war is its overwhelming objective.  The complete destruction of the opposition.  Another term synonymous with war is collateral damage.  War causes thousands of people to die.  Every time.   The longer it goes on.  The more people die.  The higher percentage of innocent people die.  It’s not rocket science.  It’s a fact.  If any statesmen was really serious about stopping the murders of innocent people in conflict zones they would only need to do one thing and one thing only.  STOP FUCKING WARS!   It does not matter how much smoke you try to screen it with.  People still have their own noses.  And they are very familiar with the smell of bullshit.

It seems to me that the rules of making up rules are quite simple.  Rule number 1.  Don’t be fucking ridiculous!  Rule number 2.  See number 1.

A Question Of Ethics

Imagine you are eight years old.  Your parents tell you that you have to clean up your bedroom.  It’s not that you don’t want to exactly, it’s just that you don’t have the manpower, the tools or the skills to do the job.  So you ask your friend who lives down the street to come and help you.  After all, he is a little richer, goes to a better school, has a bigger room and greater experience of domestic chores.  Before he arrives, another of his friends arrives.  A boy you don’t really know, nor like much by reputation.  Before you can say a word he is cleaning, and scrubbing and polishing.  Finally your friend from down the street arrives to help.  You take him to one side and tell them that his friend is making you feel quite uncomfortable.  You are worried that his friend isn’t very popular in your neighbourhood.  You tell him that the longer his friend stays with you, even though he might be well intended in trying to clean up, the more chance of your neighbours becoming angry, and your parents becoming angry and that the problem may escalate.  Your friend from down the street manages to persuade the boy to leave.  He goes quietly.  You see him to the door and as you go back to your room you see him in the street.  He is just standing there watching from afar.  When you return to your friend you find your friend from down the street cleaning like crazy.  He is throwing some things away which you want to keep but you know that in return for his help you have to accept that there is going to be collateral damage.  It may have felt like months, but actually hours go by and slowly you realise that the end is in sight.  You are now certain that you can finish this on your own.  You turn to your friend, you tell him ‘thank you very much for your help.  I will always appreciate what you have done.’.  He doesn’t move.  You gesture with a nod to try to show him what you mean.  He doesn’t move.  Your friend from down the street Anders Fogh Rasmussen just ignores you as if you don’t exist, and continues with the cleaning.

Reclaiming The Streets

By now anyone and everyone has heard about the bouts of civic disorder which have struck all over England in recent times.  There has been a rash of commentaries on all forms of social media ranging from messages of support to messages declaring the rioters as the rotten dregs of our society.  What has been lacking in all of these critiques is basic impartiality.  What used to be one of the cornerstones of good journalism is now often replaced with fiery rhetoric.  Despite all the media’s claims of a broken divided society what are they doing to help mend it?  Rather than trying to bridge gaps they are trying to widen the cracks even further.  And that doesn’t help anyone.

The spark which fueled the flames was the death of an alleged drug dealer in Tottenham.  The initial protest was an example of people exercising their democratic rights.  For whatever reasons the protest turned violent and the rest they say is history.  The most important fact to remember is that at the beginning it was not a crime  wave.  It was not droves of young gangs on a robbery rampage.  It was a perfectly legal protest which somehow went wrong.

Over the course of a few days the trouble spread to Ponders End, Hackney,Enfield, Croydon and many other areas of London.  It also spread to Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Leeds.  The likelihood that Mark Duggan was held in such high esteem in so many of these cities is massively unlikely.  It is more likely that the initial protests were either hijacked or acted as an inspiration to youths up and down the country.  I have a hard time believing that there was a Faganesque character running up and down the country ordering his new aged Oliver Twists to go and steal him twenty-six new pairs of hush puppies from Top Man.  In all honesty it sounds absolutely preposterous.  Fucking ridiculous even.

If there wasn’t a conductor.  If these riots weren’t hijacked.  Then what could be the cause?  The first thing to consider is whether there are any common denominators between these people.  If you look at the news footage it looks as if every rioter was a teenager.  However how easy is it to identify someones age when they are wearing a cap, with a hoodie and a scarf covering the bottom half of their faces.  Do only young people wear sports clothes?  Of course not.  The rioters are of mixed age, of mixed races, of mixed intelligence.   They are a sample of us.  They are representative of our society.  They are what we have created.

The common factors between these places are absolutely clear.  They all contain exceptionally more neighborhood’s where prospects are bleak.  Where there isn’t an abundance of work but there is a high rate of crime.  Most people in this areas will never have the opportunity to go to university.  Many of their parents living in a credit hole in a mere effort to survive.  Many of them will end up in prison.  Or dead.  And all the while they never see the significance of their choices.  We are one of the only nations in the world where unemployed people stroll around with iPhones and Nike trainers.  We give precedence to helping people from other nations before our own.  We sponsor people to have babies and not work when our island is overcrowded as it is.  We have a generation who have grown up knowing that they do not need to work to gain.  And this is where our society fails.

Our country has failed several generations and we are now witnessing its legacy.  The scenes we are witnessing should serve as a wake up call.  I am not supporting the rioters.  Nor am I trying to make excuses.  The destruction caused by these mindless groups is an absolute abomination.  All I am trying to do is highlight the fact that our liberalism is our downfall.  When the flames go out and only the ashes remain, be mindful of the fact that the ashes will always remain as a reminder of what once was.

Phone Hacking – How To Become A Boring Egomaniac

Last Sunday saw the closure of the News Of The World.  After 168 years the newspaper finally shut it’s doors for good after becoming caught up in a scandal which has rocked journalism to it’s very core and created a band of boring twittering arrogant celebrities who have been jostling by all forms of social media for the moral high ground.

Six years ago the News Of The World employed a number of journalists who were complicit in hacking peoples voicemail pins and listening to their messages.  In some cases they were also hacking emails.  The moral tidal wave which eventually destroyed the News Of The World was due to the fact that they had hacked the mobile phone of a young girl who had been murdered.  Undoubtably morally reprehensible behaviour, to even those who have somewhat flexible morals.

Every second another celebrity crawled out of the woodwork to share their disgust over the NOTW scandal.  Each comment more useless than the last.  The end result being that the media steamroller crushed the remnants of the NOTW.  The witchhunt crushed around 200 jobs.  The number of arrests stand at less than 10 percent of those employed at the newspaper.  Not a single member of those employed at the NOTW at the time of its closing has been arrested.  Each of the arrests pertain to ex-staff members who worked at the NOTW six years ago as do each of the allegations.

To be a successful newspaper you must respond and adapt to the wants of your readers.  As long as I can remember the Sunday newspapers were filled with investigative stories.  And pictures of famous women on holiday minus their bikini tops.  There is a reason that a newspaper lasts 168 years and that is that it responded and adapted to the demands of the time.  To some degree the media of our nation represents the people of our nation, otherwise it would never have been so popular.  Why so many people are in denial about this I don’t know?

We live in a time when our government uses the very same practices as the NOTW.  The key difference being that they justify such actions as vital to National Security.  Every day phones are being tapped and hacked.  Emails too.  Private conversations are being recorded.  To feign outrage, and deem such actions as immoral whilst staying silent about around 97% of the governments of the world doing the exact same thing is ridiculous.

In the coming weeks the Sun will move to a 7 day week and attempt to fill the void left by the departure of the NOTW.  The Government will demand inquiries very quietly from the corners of their mouth.  People will forget.  The PR machine will win.  And life will continue in the same pattern as once was.  This is inarguable, like gravity and bread always landing butter side down when you drop it.  What kind of victory will it be then?

The celebrity campaign has cost 200 people their livelihoods.  So far not a single one of those people have been proven to be guilty of a single crime.  Yet many still laud it as a worthy achievement.  A 168 year old newspaper has been crushed into non existence.  In the coming weeks another will emerge to take it’s place.  Targeting the exact same demographic, selling the very same stories of tits and sleaze.  Yet many still champion themselves as slayers of the dragon.  Newspapers may well be subject to tighter restrictions and less freedoms, whilst the governments which sit in judgment continues to hack and tap the phones of their citizens.  What kind of victory is that? A rather hollow one.