i wrote this a week or so ago with the intention of performing it at Glastonbury Assembly Rooms yesterday night, where we had a great Winter Solstice Community Gathering. i didn't though: i hadn't taken the trouble to learn it - and i think reading on stage is really naff. anyway, it's to the meter of The Night Before Christmas. i hope you enjoy it
==============
Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
just one creature was stirring - he was clicking a mouse
the flatscreen was glowing, for political geeks
found the holes in the cover and out sprang Wikileaks
but this christmas was bleak, Dad had just lost his job
over joining the union, and not shutting his gob
and his sister the student, protesting the cuts
got beaten with truncheons, no if and no buts...
so no presents this year, not festive and jolly
some dickhead had stolen their tree and the holly
and mistletoe, well, he'd tried it for weeks
but the girls at his school just don't go for geeks
but this won't be a tale of intrigue and scandal
or the crown of a holy tree lopped by a vandal
whose currency was an exchange of pure ire
aimed perhaps at an ex-mayor whose arse is on fire
and it won't be about all the crap you can buy
while the soap on the telly brings a tear to your eye
or the turkey you stuffed and are eating for dinner
or some bloke in a dress telling you you're a sinner
our geeky friend loaded his weapon of choice
a laptop computer that gave him a voice
not a riot, he thought there's a cleverer way
and it's just like a game...and i like to play
so he got on a chatroom and with a few clicks
he found out how to pull off some pretty neat tricks
bombarded some websites with masses of data
so for everything else there's...bye! see you later
his low orbit ion cannon blasted like hell
the targets he aimed at wobbled and fell
but he wasn't alone. there was a knock at the door
who could it be? and at half past four?
a man and a woman was what he saw there
the woman was pregnant, the man had white hair
no sleigh and no reindeer, no stocking and orange
but the king of the geeks - it was Julian Assange!
he said 'hello mate, i know how this looks
but the motel is full and they think i'm a crook
so now we're reduced to asking a stranger
cos no way is my kid being born in a manger!
but Julian! he cried, you're arrested for rape!
he replied, with some things, i'm an ignorant ape
i fell for her charms, but i should have known better
cos one leak i don't like is a broken french letter
look on the bright side, he said, it's a mess
but for once in my life, i've got an address!
and people now know i'm a red-blooded male
and i'm discovering all of the leaks in that jail!
so he opened the door and invited them in
i don't care, he thought, if they say it's a sin
he's my hero, he thought, and he might have his faults
but no way should the bastards have dragged him to court!
he gave them his bed and made them some tea
and they talked about what it might mean to be free
of the burden of debt and the misery caused
by the bankers who dictate our government's laws
and the mess we're all in, when it's amply apparent
that things only get better when it's all transparent!
stuff the lies and deception and disinformation
and the horrors committed 'neath the flag of this nation
where the good people try to be good to each other
while some others cash in and would sell their own mother
if it suited them. and they talked until late
when suddenly Julian said 'hey, this is great
but i've work to do. i'm not one for slacking
let me borrow your laptop, and i'll do me some hacking
so Julian sat up and put things in order
while the Three Wise Men got detained at the border
no baby was born, no need for a doctor
no star in the sky, just a black helicopter...
when our geeky friend woke the next day, they were gone
did he dream it all up? no, he couldn't have done
the note on the desk was real, and the chair
had a sweaty bum-print, and a lot of white hair...
and later that day, well what a surprise!
a courier van full of parcels arrived
full of presents and food, and a christmas tree too
it was clear that someone had sent it, but who?
so he looked at the note that he'd brushed to the floor
it said 'thankyou mate' and, what was more
'merry Christmas to your dad and your sis and your mother
but mostly to you, for helping a brother'
'the gifts are all paid for, so don't lose any sleep
i hope they're the right ones, and nothing was cheap
my bank account's frozen, so i couldn't pay
but those tax-dodgers Vodaphone sent some my way. hey hey!'
so merry Solstice and Christmas and Hannukah too
we're just here for the love and the peace and it's true
that while we may be in a small spot of bother
there's nothing that can stop us being good to each other
Wednesday 22 December 2010
Thursday 25 November 2010
the story of an 'abandoned' police van
you might have followed the media coverage of the students demonstrating all over the country yesterday:
here's one of the images that was widely used: as you can see, it looks like a bunch of masked hoodlums out for a bit of 'bovver'. however, i think things are not what they seem. it may be that some young people smashed up a police vehicle: but why was it left there? where are the other vans? why was it left unattended right in the path of a demo?
ever been fishing? i think this van was left as 'bait', in the same way that, during the G20 business last year, about the only shopfront not boarded up on the demo route was - guess what? a branch of RBS, who were profligate gamblers of the worst sort, before they were bailed out with squillions of our quids. smashing up banks and police vans makes for good pictures in the Daily Mail and the rest of the 'yellow press'
anyway, here's another pic of the same van:
in the Guardian, this was originally captioned something like "Protesters try to stop a ploice van from moving", since changed to the more accurate "Students in London try to stop a police van from being attacked". the young people in this picture probably know what any sensible activist knows: that violence tends to alienate the very people you've got common ground with. that's why the road protestors in the mid-90s were almost never violent: they stood their ground, often with a struggle, but didn't use violence in the process. eventually, even the right-wing the press couldn't keep printing crap about them - the lies didn't work, and the protestors gained widespread sympathy, including in arch-Tory organs like the Telegraph and, believe it or not, Country Life.
anyway, here's the picture that really caught my eye (and not just for the obvious reasons):
five pretty young women pose for the camera with their fashion accessories in perfect order. what was the demo to them? did it turn into their chance for catwalk fame? they're not exactly dressed for a demo on what was a chilly day - and i wonder if they've brought their make-up with them?
is this what demos have become? has Big Brother come out of the house and done a mind-meld with his namesake, who lives among the securocrats?
i'm wondering whether to be happy or depressed about this last image. are they showing that they're empowered and making their own decisions, including looking good on a demo? or have they swallowed the oxymoronic 'celebrity culture' blue pill and intent on getting noticed? is the demo just another photo-op? i'm still wondering
well, at least they took the trouble to turn up instead of staying at home with a copy of Elle. and hats off to all the young people who got off their arses - i'm pleased to see that they're not the bunch of depoliticised, feckless, drunken twits parts of the media will have us think they are
here's one of the images that was widely used: as you can see, it looks like a bunch of masked hoodlums out for a bit of 'bovver'. however, i think things are not what they seem. it may be that some young people smashed up a police vehicle: but why was it left there? where are the other vans? why was it left unattended right in the path of a demo?ever been fishing? i think this van was left as 'bait', in the same way that, during the G20 business last year, about the only shopfront not boarded up on the demo route was - guess what? a branch of RBS, who were profligate gamblers of the worst sort, before they were bailed out with squillions of our quids. smashing up banks and police vans makes for good pictures in the Daily Mail and the rest of the 'yellow press'
anyway, here's another pic of the same van:
in the Guardian, this was originally captioned something like "Protesters try to stop a ploice van from moving", since changed to the more accurate "Students in London try to stop a police van from being attacked". the young people in this picture probably know what any sensible activist knows: that violence tends to alienate the very people you've got common ground with. that's why the road protestors in the mid-90s were almost never violent: they stood their ground, often with a struggle, but didn't use violence in the process. eventually, even the right-wing the press couldn't keep printing crap about them - the lies didn't work, and the protestors gained widespread sympathy, including in arch-Tory organs like the Telegraph and, believe it or not, Country Life.anyway, here's the picture that really caught my eye (and not just for the obvious reasons):
five pretty young women pose for the camera with their fashion accessories in perfect order. what was the demo to them? did it turn into their chance for catwalk fame? they're not exactly dressed for a demo on what was a chilly day - and i wonder if they've brought their make-up with them?is this what demos have become? has Big Brother come out of the house and done a mind-meld with his namesake, who lives among the securocrats?
i'm wondering whether to be happy or depressed about this last image. are they showing that they're empowered and making their own decisions, including looking good on a demo? or have they swallowed the oxymoronic 'celebrity culture' blue pill and intent on getting noticed? is the demo just another photo-op? i'm still wondering
well, at least they took the trouble to turn up instead of staying at home with a copy of Elle. and hats off to all the young people who got off their arses - i'm pleased to see that they're not the bunch of depoliticised, feckless, drunken twits parts of the media will have us think they are
Wednesday 24 November 2010
FIT officer loses his hat
Student Demonstration Time:
i respect these kids: they've really got their shit together, as you can hear from the chants
i respect these kids: they've really got their shit together, as you can hear from the chants
Thursday 18 November 2010
Captain SKA - Liar Liar
Captain Ska says:
Dark days have arrived in Britain. The coalition government and their toxic flotilla of cuts are ruthlessly hacking away jobs, damaging vulnerable lives and chipping away at the very fabric of our society. We cannot afford to stand by and let this country sail towards a future of inequality.
Fear Not! Captain SKA and his ship have arrived to fight this coalition, but more crew members are urgently required, there is strength in numbers.Pass this video on to other potential shipmates.
and now for the amazing Henry Rollins on a similar subject:
Dark days have arrived in Britain. The coalition government and their toxic flotilla of cuts are ruthlessly hacking away jobs, damaging vulnerable lives and chipping away at the very fabric of our society. We cannot afford to stand by and let this country sail towards a future of inequality.
Fear Not! Captain SKA and his ship have arrived to fight this coalition, but more crew members are urgently required, there is strength in numbers.Pass this video on to other potential shipmates.
and now for the amazing Henry Rollins on a similar subject:
Fitwatch is up and running again
Fitwatch - www.fitwatch.org.uk - is now up and running again, hopefully somewhere where the Met can't feel their collar.
just a reminder: Forward Intelligence Teams collect information on activists who have not necessarily committed any crime - they're just activists, like the ones who put their lives on the line to achieve, amongst other things, the right to vote and equal rights for women.
They're part of ACPO, the Association of Chief Police Officers, which is a private company (mostly funded directly by the Home Office, so it's in essence a government body) and as such exempt from Freedom of Information act requests. hard to believe, but true. if that sounds like something from a police state, well...?
just a reminder: Forward Intelligence Teams collect information on activists who have not necessarily committed any crime - they're just activists, like the ones who put their lives on the line to achieve, amongst other things, the right to vote and equal rights for women.
They're part of ACPO, the Association of Chief Police Officers, which is a private company (mostly funded directly by the Home Office, so it's in essence a government body) and as such exempt from Freedom of Information act requests. hard to believe, but true. if that sounds like something from a police state, well...?
Tuesday 16 November 2010
Fitwatch closed, but here's their last post
The Metropolitan Police have closed Fitwatch:
Here's their last post:
=======
Resisting the Forward Intelligence Teams – the cops who harass protesters
Fitwatch website has been suspended for “attempting to pervert the course of justice” after host were contacted by the Met. Pass On PLEASE This is all we know at this time.. If you saved know any one who saved any content please please get in touch..
The Blog was suspended on request of Acting Detective Inspector Will Hodgeson from CO11 as part of Op Malone.
The cops always give fucking stupid names to their operations to find rioters so in the tradition of OPERATION CARNABY to find the poll tax rioters the hunt for the Millbank rioters is named OPERATION MALONE. Private Eye had it right in the 80s when they named the police operation that led to the Brixton riots OPERATION WOGSMASHER.
More information and new web address to follow soon.
Fitwatch – e-mail: info@fitwatch.org
http://webcache.googleusercontent.co…client=mozilla
After last weeks events at Millbank during the student demonstrations fitwatch.com published some advice for those worried they had appeared in the press and may face arrest. The piece called Beating police repression after the student occupation can be read on this blog http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com and now, thanks to the bungling Met a growing number of sites across the internet.
The piece has been removed and the fitwatch site closed down on request of Acting Detective Inspector Will Hodgeson from http://twitter.com/#!/CO11MetPolice. Early reports suggest that this was happened due to a request from the police to the site’s host complaining the site by be involved in perverting the cause of justice. This is a worrying development. Whilst we will doubtless know more tomorrow, as yet it does not seem a Court Order had been issued which means the filth are now bullying internet hosting companies into removing material which upsets them. The Police say they requested #fitwatch domain hosts – JustHost.com you mean intimidated them to take it down.
The good news is that the offending piece can be found at:
http://dirt.thevacuumcleaner.co.uk/2010/11/beating-police-repression-after-student.html
http://norfolknonaligned.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/beating-police-repression-after-the-student-occupation/
http://bryanspygar.blogspot.com/2010/11/beating-police-repression-after-student.html
http://truth-reason-liberty.blogspot.com/2010/11/police-take-fitwatch-down-as-they-go-on.html
http://barnsdale.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/fitwatch-suspended-time-for-solidarity-make-sure-the-students-are-well-advised
http://ianbone.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/sussex-university-occupied/
The remarkable and brilliant student action at Millbank has produced some predictable frothing at the mouth from the establishment and right wing press. Cameron has called for the ‘full weight of the law’ to fall on those who had caused tens of thousands of pounds of damage to the expensive decor at Tory party HQ. Responsibility is being placed on ‘a violent faction’, after the march was ‘infiltrated’ by anarchists.
There are an encouraging number of intiatives to show solidarity with the arrested students – something that is vital if they are to avoid the sort of punitive ‘deterrent’ sentences handed out to the Gaza demonstrators. A legal support group has been established and the National Campaign against Cuts and Fees has started a support campaign. Goldsmiths lecturers union has publicly commended the students for a ‘magnificent demonstration’ .
This is all much needed, as the establishment is clearly on the march with this one. The Torygraph has published an irresponsible and frenzied ‘shop-a-student’ piece and the Met are clearly under pressure to produce ‘results’ after what they have admitted was a policing ‘embarrassment’.
51 people have been arrested so far, and the police have claimed they took the details of a further 250 people in the kettle using powers under the Police Reform Act. There may be more arrests to come.
Students who are worried should consider taking the following actions:
If you have been arrested, or had your details taken – contact the legal support campaign. As a group you can support each other, and mount a coherent campaign.
If you fear you may be arrested as a result of identification by CCTV, FIT or press photography;
DONT panic. Press photos are not necessarily conclusive evidence, and just because the police have a photo of you doesn’t mean they know who you are.
DONT hand yourself in. The police often use the psychological pressure of knowing they have your picture to persuade you to ‘come forward’. Unless you have a very pressing reason to do otherwise, let them come and find you, if they know who you are.
DO get rid of your clothes. There is no chance of suggesting the bloke in the video is not you if the clothes he is wearing have been found in your wardrobe. Get rid of ALL clothes you were wearing at the demo, including YOUR SHOES, your bag, and any distinctive jewellery you were wearing at the time. Yes, this is difficult, especially if it is your only warm coat or decent pair of boots. But it will be harder still if finding these clothes in your flat gets you convicted of violent disorder.
DONT assume that because you can identify yourself in a video, a judge will be able to as well. ‘That isn’t me’ has got many a person off before now.
DO keep away from other demos for a while. The police will be on the look-out at other demos, especially student ones, for people they have put on their ‘wanted’ list. Keep a low profile.
DO think about changing your appearance. Perhaps now is a good time for a make-over. Get a haircut and colour, grow a beard, wear glasses. It isn’t a guarantee, but may help throw them off the scent.
DO keep your house clean. Get rid of spray cans, demo related stuff, and dodgy texts / photos on your phone. Don’t make life easy for them by having drugs, weapons or anything illegal in the house.
DO get the name and number of a good lawyer you can call if things go badly. The support group has the names of recommended lawyers on their site. Take a bit of time to read up on your rights in custody, especially the benefits of not commenting in interview.
DO be careful who you speak about this to. Admit your involvement in criminal damage / disorder ONLY to people you really trust.
DO try and control the nerves and panic. Waiting for a knock on the door is stressful in the extreme, but you need to find a way to get on with business as normal.
Otherwise you’ll be serving the sentence before you are even arrested.
The role of the police is not to “keep the peace,” or even to “uphold the law.” It is to ensure that the balance of power is maintained and that dissent remains containable and controllable. If our goal is to resist the attacks upon our class, rather than simply appear to do so, then we must also resist police repression and show solidarity with all who suffer it.
As well as UK indymedia, Bristol indymedia and Scotland indymedia as well as being linked to on facebook pages, republished in forums etc.
And of course google.
All in just two hours, please join in, republish and show the Met the internet will not be censored. Add links to anywhere else you’ve spotted it in the comments below.
Fitwatch have said they ain’t going fucking anywhere and will be back online soon, in the meantime you can catch them on facebook
this post can also be found here:
The article that apparently disturbed the cops so much can now be found on the following sites…
projectsheffield.wordpress.com
dirt.thevacuumcleaner.co.uk
norfolknonaligned.wordpress.com
bryanspygar.blogspot.com
truth-reason-liberty.blogspot.com
barnsdale.wordpress.com
johhnyvoid.wordpress.com
policestate.co.uk
libcom.org
permanentrevolution.net
urban75.net
bristle.wordpress.com
cambridgeanarchists.wordpress.com
edinburghanarchists.noflag.org.uk
isle-of-avalon.co.uk
blog.voyou.org
thanks to http://fitwatch.tiltingatwindmills.org.uk/2010/11/16/more-on-the-fitwatch-website-closure/
Here's their last post:
=======
Resisting the Forward Intelligence Teams – the cops who harass protesters
Fitwatch website has been suspended for “attempting to pervert the course of justice” after host were contacted by the Met. Pass On PLEASE This is all we know at this time.. If you saved know any one who saved any content please please get in touch..
The Blog was suspended on request of Acting Detective Inspector Will Hodgeson from CO11 as part of Op Malone.
The cops always give fucking stupid names to their operations to find rioters so in the tradition of OPERATION CARNABY to find the poll tax rioters the hunt for the Millbank rioters is named OPERATION MALONE. Private Eye had it right in the 80s when they named the police operation that led to the Brixton riots OPERATION WOGSMASHER.
More information and new web address to follow soon.
Fitwatch – e-mail: info@fitwatch.org
http://webcache.googleusercontent.co…client=mozilla
After last weeks events at Millbank during the student demonstrations fitwatch.com published some advice for those worried they had appeared in the press and may face arrest. The piece called Beating police repression after the student occupation can be read on this blog http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com and now, thanks to the bungling Met a growing number of sites across the internet.
The piece has been removed and the fitwatch site closed down on request of Acting Detective Inspector Will Hodgeson from http://twitter.com/#!/CO11MetPolice. Early reports suggest that this was happened due to a request from the police to the site’s host complaining the site by be involved in perverting the cause of justice. This is a worrying development. Whilst we will doubtless know more tomorrow, as yet it does not seem a Court Order had been issued which means the filth are now bullying internet hosting companies into removing material which upsets them. The Police say they requested #fitwatch domain hosts – JustHost.com you mean intimidated them to take it down.
The good news is that the offending piece can be found at:
http://dirt.thevacuumcleaner.co.uk/2010/11/beating-police-repression-after-student.html
http://norfolknonaligned.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/beating-police-repression-after-the-student-occupation/
http://bryanspygar.blogspot.com/2010/11/beating-police-repression-after-student.html
http://truth-reason-liberty.blogspot.com/2010/11/police-take-fitwatch-down-as-they-go-on.html
http://barnsdale.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/fitwatch-suspended-time-for-solidarity-make-sure-the-students-are-well-advised
http://ianbone.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/sussex-university-occupied/
The remarkable and brilliant student action at Millbank has produced some predictable frothing at the mouth from the establishment and right wing press. Cameron has called for the ‘full weight of the law’ to fall on those who had caused tens of thousands of pounds of damage to the expensive decor at Tory party HQ. Responsibility is being placed on ‘a violent faction’, after the march was ‘infiltrated’ by anarchists.
There are an encouraging number of intiatives to show solidarity with the arrested students – something that is vital if they are to avoid the sort of punitive ‘deterrent’ sentences handed out to the Gaza demonstrators. A legal support group has been established and the National Campaign against Cuts and Fees has started a support campaign. Goldsmiths lecturers union has publicly commended the students for a ‘magnificent demonstration’ .
This is all much needed, as the establishment is clearly on the march with this one. The Torygraph has published an irresponsible and frenzied ‘shop-a-student’ piece and the Met are clearly under pressure to produce ‘results’ after what they have admitted was a policing ‘embarrassment’.
51 people have been arrested so far, and the police have claimed they took the details of a further 250 people in the kettle using powers under the Police Reform Act. There may be more arrests to come.
Students who are worried should consider taking the following actions:
If you have been arrested, or had your details taken – contact the legal support campaign. As a group you can support each other, and mount a coherent campaign.
If you fear you may be arrested as a result of identification by CCTV, FIT or press photography;
DONT panic. Press photos are not necessarily conclusive evidence, and just because the police have a photo of you doesn’t mean they know who you are.
DONT hand yourself in. The police often use the psychological pressure of knowing they have your picture to persuade you to ‘come forward’. Unless you have a very pressing reason to do otherwise, let them come and find you, if they know who you are.
DO get rid of your clothes. There is no chance of suggesting the bloke in the video is not you if the clothes he is wearing have been found in your wardrobe. Get rid of ALL clothes you were wearing at the demo, including YOUR SHOES, your bag, and any distinctive jewellery you were wearing at the time. Yes, this is difficult, especially if it is your only warm coat or decent pair of boots. But it will be harder still if finding these clothes in your flat gets you convicted of violent disorder.
DONT assume that because you can identify yourself in a video, a judge will be able to as well. ‘That isn’t me’ has got many a person off before now.
DO keep away from other demos for a while. The police will be on the look-out at other demos, especially student ones, for people they have put on their ‘wanted’ list. Keep a low profile.
DO think about changing your appearance. Perhaps now is a good time for a make-over. Get a haircut and colour, grow a beard, wear glasses. It isn’t a guarantee, but may help throw them off the scent.
DO keep your house clean. Get rid of spray cans, demo related stuff, and dodgy texts / photos on your phone. Don’t make life easy for them by having drugs, weapons or anything illegal in the house.
DO get the name and number of a good lawyer you can call if things go badly. The support group has the names of recommended lawyers on their site. Take a bit of time to read up on your rights in custody, especially the benefits of not commenting in interview.
DO be careful who you speak about this to. Admit your involvement in criminal damage / disorder ONLY to people you really trust.
DO try and control the nerves and panic. Waiting for a knock on the door is stressful in the extreme, but you need to find a way to get on with business as normal.
Otherwise you’ll be serving the sentence before you are even arrested.
The role of the police is not to “keep the peace,” or even to “uphold the law.” It is to ensure that the balance of power is maintained and that dissent remains containable and controllable. If our goal is to resist the attacks upon our class, rather than simply appear to do so, then we must also resist police repression and show solidarity with all who suffer it.
As well as UK indymedia, Bristol indymedia and Scotland indymedia as well as being linked to on facebook pages, republished in forums etc.
And of course google.
All in just two hours, please join in, republish and show the Met the internet will not be censored. Add links to anywhere else you’ve spotted it in the comments below.
Fitwatch have said they ain’t going fucking anywhere and will be back online soon, in the meantime you can catch them on facebook
this post can also be found here:
The article that apparently disturbed the cops so much can now be found on the following sites…
projectsheffield.wordpress.com
dirt.thevacuumcleaner.co.uk
norfolknonaligned.wordpress.com
bryanspygar.blogspot.com
truth-reason-liberty.blogspot.com
barnsdale.wordpress.com
johhnyvoid.wordpress.com
policestate.co.uk
libcom.org
permanentrevolution.net
urban75.net
bristle.wordpress.com
cambridgeanarchists.wordpress.com
edinburghanarchists.noflag.org.uk
isle-of-avalon.co.uk
blog.voyou.org
thanks to http://fitwatch.tiltingatwindmills.org.uk/2010/11/16/more-on-the-fitwatch-website-closure/
Sunday 26 September 2010
so what is there to write about?
hello dear reader (i'm assuming there's one, at least)
i'm presently doing some research about some strange goings-on related to property and planning permissions. these are local issues, but at least one of them is "a local issue of national importance".
this sort of thing won't endear me to our local district councillors as they've been making some rather odd decisions, which i hope to shine a light on
i'll do my best to write clearly, but i'm learning as i go along, so please bear with me and correct any errors, if you see them
there'll be the odd rant too :)
i've also dropped the unnecessary use of capital letters...sorry if you don't like it
i'm presently doing some research about some strange goings-on related to property and planning permissions. these are local issues, but at least one of them is "a local issue of national importance".
this sort of thing won't endear me to our local district councillors as they've been making some rather odd decisions, which i hope to shine a light on
i'll do my best to write clearly, but i'm learning as i go along, so please bear with me and correct any errors, if you see them
there'll be the odd rant too :)
i've also dropped the unnecessary use of capital letters...sorry if you don't like it
Tuesday 17 August 2010
i've had a nice rest, so now i'm starting again
i discovered Facebook a while back, and have spent a while being quite active there to see what it's like and how it works. more on that later...
i can really recommend this book, available in full online here: A People's History of America. it's pretty good stuff, if you like that sort of thing (which i do)
i can really recommend this book, available in full online here: A People's History of America. it's pretty good stuff, if you like that sort of thing (which i do)
Tuesday 2 March 2010
Sunday 31 January 2010
Who gives a toss? I do!
As you might have guessed from the last post, I'm doing a bit of thinking about why I'm writing this blog, which began by accident in January 2009. This is how it started:
I joined the process described below about a week after it had begun, so my knowledge of the very first part is sketchy. What would be really great is if the fine people who got it going approached me so I could interview them and fill the gaps. I think it's important we get a better picture of how the (absolutely amazing) Red Brick Building campaign started. You guys were really, really great.
The South West Regional Development Agency tried a grubby little trick in order to demolish a building on the Morlands site - The Red Brick Building - which had been, firmly but indirectly, promised to the community. A few days before Christmas 2008, they put a fence around it. The Central Somerset Gazette ran an innocuous-sounding story - which I read - about SWRDA's plans. It was to come down on the 8th of January.
The timing seemed a bit off to me. It's a way of wriggling out of a promise to a community. It's done during a holiday period because there are large numbers of people who either have dysfunctional families driving them half mad, successful consumer-types busy as fuck with all the crap they're gonna buy, and happy families really only wanting one thing: to be together. Everyone - rich, poor, happy, miserable, from wherever, I mean everyone! - knows deep within themselves how important our families are. Who really wants to lose the time to be with them, because of a broken promise made by someone you don't know?
The only people who use a trick like that are politicians or apparatchiks whose sense of honour is about equal to that of a pickpocket.
[Aside: Yes, happy families do exist - Glastonbury is blessed with a large number where their happiness is obvious, because everything about them is just so naturally and easily beautiful. They're really great to have around.]
I've seen this sort of thing done before, in Copenhagen. A 12-acre area of high-quality disused factory buildings was levelled in 3 days while everyone was on summer holiday. The mayor called an extraordinary meeting, rammed the plan through in Thursday afternoon, the bulldozers moved in Monday and that was that. Those buildings were really damn good buildings and the project to restore and develop them would have totally revitalised that part of town. Everyone I knew was gutted. By the way: the cleanup took 6 months, but it only took them 3 days to smash them up.
The 'trigger' for me to get involved was when I learned that the SWRDA employee responsible was on holiday until - surprise! - the 8th of January. Sneaky buggers - that was no coincidence. But we saved The Red Brick Building! That name must really irritate some of the Nasty Party round here. (I almost wrote 'lol' at the end of that sentence, lol)
What SWRDA didn't know was that a group of fine young people had formed a relationship with it. About a dozen students from Strode College, and a few others, all about 15 to maybe 19 years old, had been using the space to get together for more than a year. They hadn't done much to it but they had tidied up and made a really good space, albeit cold and draughty in winter. That was because the roofs leaked and most of the windows were broken.
They squatted it in protest and I went to visit them. I was homeless, sleeping in a tent in a barn at the time, but I did have an office (which I shared with 'dynamic duo' Linda Hull and Caroline Lewis, both of Somerset Community Food) from which I did a bit of web design, pc maintenance, and programming. I didn't tell anyone I was homeless until the protest was over: I didn't want anyone to think I was just looking for a place to sleep, and I never stayed there overnight. I'm actually very good at being homeless. It's a real skill and teaches you a lot about yourself and the people around you. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone but for me it was tremendously cleansing.
From my office, I began to blog about the protest at the address makemorelandsbetter.blogspot.com. I did my best to help the protestors and ask questions of the politicians and others. I know for a fact that they were reading what I wrote, and it makes me very happy to have played a small part in helping our community. It's been a privilege.
After a while, I moved the blog to this address. When the protest was successful and the flow of news dried up, it became a personal project. You can read it all again here.
This, however, is the beginning of a very different story, one with a vision. It's a very personal story and all the facts are true. Some of it's about me, because it contains my thoughts and a bit of not altogether non-cathartic personal history. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't write and publish it.
I was born in 1959 as the youngest of seven children. My father had his 60th birthday four days after I was born, and my mother was about 42 or so. My father wasn't a good provider and my elder siblings, the eldest 17 years older than myself, grew up in post-war austerity in a poor area of south-east London which had seen a fair bit of bombing during the war because of a large army garrison and a munitions factory nearby.
My father wasn't very supportive of my mother. He saw women as possessions. He saw boys as competitors. In many ways he was an intelligent man who'd lived through hard times and didn't do that well. One thing that stands out to me now is that he had no friends, and no social life whatsoever, outside the 4-bedroomed ground floor pressure cooker of a flat all 9 of us lived in when I was born.
I bet you're thinking of the Monty Pythons 'Four Yorkshiremen' sketch right now...but it wasn't like that. My early life wasn't really all that bad on a material level. We weren't rich but we didn't go hungry, I was kept clean, I went to school every day, I certainly didn't have nervous adults stopping me from climbing trees and taking risks and I had friends.
Emotionally, it was a different picture. I don't remember any events involving my mother, so this is patchy. She'd had a rough time. One of the reasons she moved in with my father was stark and simple: survival. She was in her 20s in the early years of WWII and was married to a man who was away from home in the military. When he came back, she had a young baby, and simple arithmetic convinced him he wasn't the father. He shunned her and in those times, to be a single woman with a child, for whatever reason, was to be despised and excluded.
She met my father, who was 20 years older, in the NAAFI at Blackheath where he was in the Home Guard on some sort of anti-aircraft duty. He took her in, but refused to let her bring her child with her. What kind of a man does that?
The reason I'm telling you this is to explain the stress my mother had to live with, and how it must have snapped what was undoubtedly a fragile, loving mind. I am now sure, in my own feelings and sense-memories, that she loved us as best she could, and on a good day, could be a lot of fun. She hurt many of her other children - my brothers and sisters. That's what very wounded people often do. She must have suffered terribly. She had stolen and been to prison for it, more than once, I believe.
She left the family 8 days before my first birthday and I have never seen her, not even in a photograph, since then. The pain, anger and fear of a small, frightened, unloved child has been at the core of my existence for 49 years, until recently. That sort of thing doesn't exactly make you a successful human being and the way I have dealt with the numerous challenges that have come my way has often cemented my false self-image and made me, and others, suffer.
The pain has now gone and my heart has opened. I've been trying for years to get over the top of that sad old hill and now I'm on the other side. For the first time in almost 50 years, I am happy, and able to give and receive love without feeling that old pain. Most of the time, I gave none and received none, because it hurt too much. That's gone, it's past, I can finally bring love to that memory and start healing.
There are many wonderful, loving people in this town, and I have received so much help from their caring attention. However, one in particular stands out, head and shoulders above the rest, and it is her love, inspiration and sheer beauty that has inspired me and healed me. I don't want to start analysing how she does what she does, but she's very easy to love. She has opened my heart to love and that is the greatest gift of all. I love her without reserve or limitation and her ability to wake and inspire the 'loving me' has enabled me to drop my own barriers to healing, which, unhealed, would have most certainly led me to destroy what promises to be a beautiful relationship. But, as she wisely says, 'it's still like an egg with a soft shell' so no more about that. Thank you - you know who you are - so much for being you. I love you.
No matter what happens, I will always feel her in my heart. 49 years is a long time.
Towards a Spiritual Politics
It has long been clear to me that, beyond a certain point, material goods do not make us happy. I believe that most people instinctively know this to be true. And yet we are living in a society where the vast majority of us are driven to acquire more, better, cheaper, and faster. Better is OK and cheaper is too - maybe - but the 'more' bit has reached a point where it's causing us all sorts of problems. Worst of all is the individualistic urge to acquire which has been shaped and exploited very cleverly to the point where most of us have chosen debt as a form of voluntary slavery.
Having said that, not all debt is bad. If I have the skill to fix a bicycle and take pleasure in the doing, and I can borrow my way to a workshop, I have gained employment and an income, my family's material needs are met, the community has reliable, cheap and healthy transport, and I am happier. The debt was a burden but wealth - economic and social, for the community and the individual - has been created. Paying the debt back releases those funds into the community again where they can be of benefit. If I need to learn a skill, a debt can also be self-cancelling, but more about that later.
We have four basic needs. These are, in order of priority, survival, security, independence and a fourth which some might call self-actualisation. It's no accident that some things are crop up in all societies and cultures at all times, and everywhere. One of them is music. The other is what we we might call Spirituality. I'm writing this with a capital S so you know I'm not using it as a general term and will expand upon that subject later.
Once our material needs are met, in such was that we can count on them being met in the future, and the cost does not involve any form of slavery or 'voluntary coercion,' it is my firm belief that our finest purpose as human beings is to live a spiritual life. I don't mean in a monastery or even involving organised religion, but as something we can both study and express as part of our everyday lives.
I will attempt to describe how we can realise this.
To Be Continued
I joined the process described below about a week after it had begun, so my knowledge of the very first part is sketchy. What would be really great is if the fine people who got it going approached me so I could interview them and fill the gaps. I think it's important we get a better picture of how the (absolutely amazing) Red Brick Building campaign started. You guys were really, really great.
The South West Regional Development Agency tried a grubby little trick in order to demolish a building on the Morlands site - The Red Brick Building - which had been, firmly but indirectly, promised to the community. A few days before Christmas 2008, they put a fence around it. The Central Somerset Gazette ran an innocuous-sounding story - which I read - about SWRDA's plans. It was to come down on the 8th of January.
The timing seemed a bit off to me. It's a way of wriggling out of a promise to a community. It's done during a holiday period because there are large numbers of people who either have dysfunctional families driving them half mad, successful consumer-types busy as fuck with all the crap they're gonna buy, and happy families really only wanting one thing: to be together. Everyone - rich, poor, happy, miserable, from wherever, I mean everyone! - knows deep within themselves how important our families are. Who really wants to lose the time to be with them, because of a broken promise made by someone you don't know?
The only people who use a trick like that are politicians or apparatchiks whose sense of honour is about equal to that of a pickpocket.
[Aside: Yes, happy families do exist - Glastonbury is blessed with a large number where their happiness is obvious, because everything about them is just so naturally and easily beautiful. They're really great to have around.]
I've seen this sort of thing done before, in Copenhagen. A 12-acre area of high-quality disused factory buildings was levelled in 3 days while everyone was on summer holiday. The mayor called an extraordinary meeting, rammed the plan through in Thursday afternoon, the bulldozers moved in Monday and that was that. Those buildings were really damn good buildings and the project to restore and develop them would have totally revitalised that part of town. Everyone I knew was gutted. By the way: the cleanup took 6 months, but it only took them 3 days to smash them up.
The 'trigger' for me to get involved was when I learned that the SWRDA employee responsible was on holiday until - surprise! - the 8th of January. Sneaky buggers - that was no coincidence. But we saved The Red Brick Building! That name must really irritate some of the Nasty Party round here. (I almost wrote 'lol' at the end of that sentence, lol)
What SWRDA didn't know was that a group of fine young people had formed a relationship with it. About a dozen students from Strode College, and a few others, all about 15 to maybe 19 years old, had been using the space to get together for more than a year. They hadn't done much to it but they had tidied up and made a really good space, albeit cold and draughty in winter. That was because the roofs leaked and most of the windows were broken.
They squatted it in protest and I went to visit them. I was homeless, sleeping in a tent in a barn at the time, but I did have an office (which I shared with 'dynamic duo' Linda Hull and Caroline Lewis, both of Somerset Community Food) from which I did a bit of web design, pc maintenance, and programming. I didn't tell anyone I was homeless until the protest was over: I didn't want anyone to think I was just looking for a place to sleep, and I never stayed there overnight. I'm actually very good at being homeless. It's a real skill and teaches you a lot about yourself and the people around you. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone but for me it was tremendously cleansing.
From my office, I began to blog about the protest at the address makemorelandsbetter.blogspot.com. I did my best to help the protestors and ask questions of the politicians and others. I know for a fact that they were reading what I wrote, and it makes me very happy to have played a small part in helping our community. It's been a privilege.
After a while, I moved the blog to this address. When the protest was successful and the flow of news dried up, it became a personal project. You can read it all again here.
This, however, is the beginning of a very different story, one with a vision. It's a very personal story and all the facts are true. Some of it's about me, because it contains my thoughts and a bit of not altogether non-cathartic personal history. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't write and publish it.
I was born in 1959 as the youngest of seven children. My father had his 60th birthday four days after I was born, and my mother was about 42 or so. My father wasn't a good provider and my elder siblings, the eldest 17 years older than myself, grew up in post-war austerity in a poor area of south-east London which had seen a fair bit of bombing during the war because of a large army garrison and a munitions factory nearby.
My father wasn't very supportive of my mother. He saw women as possessions. He saw boys as competitors. In many ways he was an intelligent man who'd lived through hard times and didn't do that well. One thing that stands out to me now is that he had no friends, and no social life whatsoever, outside the 4-bedroomed ground floor pressure cooker of a flat all 9 of us lived in when I was born.
I bet you're thinking of the Monty Pythons 'Four Yorkshiremen' sketch right now...but it wasn't like that. My early life wasn't really all that bad on a material level. We weren't rich but we didn't go hungry, I was kept clean, I went to school every day, I certainly didn't have nervous adults stopping me from climbing trees and taking risks and I had friends.
Emotionally, it was a different picture. I don't remember any events involving my mother, so this is patchy. She'd had a rough time. One of the reasons she moved in with my father was stark and simple: survival. She was in her 20s in the early years of WWII and was married to a man who was away from home in the military. When he came back, she had a young baby, and simple arithmetic convinced him he wasn't the father. He shunned her and in those times, to be a single woman with a child, for whatever reason, was to be despised and excluded.
She met my father, who was 20 years older, in the NAAFI at Blackheath where he was in the Home Guard on some sort of anti-aircraft duty. He took her in, but refused to let her bring her child with her. What kind of a man does that?
The reason I'm telling you this is to explain the stress my mother had to live with, and how it must have snapped what was undoubtedly a fragile, loving mind. I am now sure, in my own feelings and sense-memories, that she loved us as best she could, and on a good day, could be a lot of fun. She hurt many of her other children - my brothers and sisters. That's what very wounded people often do. She must have suffered terribly. She had stolen and been to prison for it, more than once, I believe.
She left the family 8 days before my first birthday and I have never seen her, not even in a photograph, since then. The pain, anger and fear of a small, frightened, unloved child has been at the core of my existence for 49 years, until recently. That sort of thing doesn't exactly make you a successful human being and the way I have dealt with the numerous challenges that have come my way has often cemented my false self-image and made me, and others, suffer.
The pain has now gone and my heart has opened. I've been trying for years to get over the top of that sad old hill and now I'm on the other side. For the first time in almost 50 years, I am happy, and able to give and receive love without feeling that old pain. Most of the time, I gave none and received none, because it hurt too much. That's gone, it's past, I can finally bring love to that memory and start healing.
There are many wonderful, loving people in this town, and I have received so much help from their caring attention. However, one in particular stands out, head and shoulders above the rest, and it is her love, inspiration and sheer beauty that has inspired me and healed me. I don't want to start analysing how she does what she does, but she's very easy to love. She has opened my heart to love and that is the greatest gift of all. I love her without reserve or limitation and her ability to wake and inspire the 'loving me' has enabled me to drop my own barriers to healing, which, unhealed, would have most certainly led me to destroy what promises to be a beautiful relationship. But, as she wisely says, 'it's still like an egg with a soft shell' so no more about that. Thank you - you know who you are - so much for being you. I love you.
No matter what happens, I will always feel her in my heart. 49 years is a long time.
Towards a Spiritual Politics
It has long been clear to me that, beyond a certain point, material goods do not make us happy. I believe that most people instinctively know this to be true. And yet we are living in a society where the vast majority of us are driven to acquire more, better, cheaper, and faster. Better is OK and cheaper is too - maybe - but the 'more' bit has reached a point where it's causing us all sorts of problems. Worst of all is the individualistic urge to acquire which has been shaped and exploited very cleverly to the point where most of us have chosen debt as a form of voluntary slavery.
Having said that, not all debt is bad. If I have the skill to fix a bicycle and take pleasure in the doing, and I can borrow my way to a workshop, I have gained employment and an income, my family's material needs are met, the community has reliable, cheap and healthy transport, and I am happier. The debt was a burden but wealth - economic and social, for the community and the individual - has been created. Paying the debt back releases those funds into the community again where they can be of benefit. If I need to learn a skill, a debt can also be self-cancelling, but more about that later.
We have four basic needs. These are, in order of priority, survival, security, independence and a fourth which some might call self-actualisation. It's no accident that some things are crop up in all societies and cultures at all times, and everywhere. One of them is music. The other is what we we might call Spirituality. I'm writing this with a capital S so you know I'm not using it as a general term and will expand upon that subject later.
Once our material needs are met, in such was that we can count on them being met in the future, and the cost does not involve any form of slavery or 'voluntary coercion,' it is my firm belief that our finest purpose as human beings is to live a spiritual life. I don't mean in a monastery or even involving organised religion, but as something we can both study and express as part of our everyday lives.
I will attempt to describe how we can realise this.
To Be Continued
Monday 25 January 2010
So who gives a toss?
I'm going to kill this blog. Who gives a toss about anything these days? They're all munching burgers and tv dinners in front of 42" plasma screens that feed them crap that turns their brains to mush. Fuck it
Monday 18 January 2010
Saturday 16 January 2010
What a silly comment
Someone left a comment - in Chinese - which consisted of a load of links. Google Translate said:
Erotic adult sex stories erotic sex erotic self-timer patch area erotic videos erotic sex orgasm erotic videos download erotic videos download erotic videos share erotic theater district erotic video erotic video clips erotic video of the Kingdom CD-ROM video erotica erotic video-sharing networks to download erotic video erotic video erotic Center Studios to the erotic harem erotic network adult erotic sex erotic erotic massage erotic list erotic send Xiao-game situation Color of the most erotic home videos forum erotic sharp appreciation of erotic literature and martial arts studios erotic download erotic download erotic games erotic star erotic incest stories erotic Mayday exchange zone erotic erotic erotic friends who love his wife Color comic erotic comic free erotic Japanese
I wonder what he was up to? :)
Erotic adult sex stories erotic sex erotic self-timer patch area erotic videos erotic sex orgasm erotic videos download erotic videos download erotic videos share erotic theater district erotic video erotic video clips erotic video of the Kingdom CD-ROM video erotica erotic video-sharing networks to download erotic video erotic video erotic Center Studios to the erotic harem erotic network adult erotic sex erotic erotic massage erotic list erotic send Xiao-game situation Color of the most erotic home videos forum erotic sharp appreciation of erotic literature and martial arts studios erotic download erotic download erotic games erotic star erotic incest stories erotic Mayday exchange zone erotic erotic erotic friends who love his wife Color comic erotic comic free erotic Japanese
I wonder what he was up to? :)
The Trap - Adam Curtis documentary series
I've been a fan of Adam Curtis for a few years now. I believe he's the best - or the only? - documentary filmmaker we've got in these times.
I'd like to recommend this series to you: The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom
Part 1: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-142285137762134414
Part 2: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-142285137762134414
Part 3: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7581348588228662817
It's not always easy going but it's worth it.
I'd like to recommend this series to you: The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom
Part 1: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-142285137762134414
Part 2: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-142285137762134414
Part 3: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7581348588228662817
It's not always easy going but it's worth it.
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