Eastern Promise... or how China rebranded the Olympics!

Dates. Dates are wonderful, they stand as reminders of events, past and future. Here are some dates to ponder:

August the 8th 2008:

China's opening ceremony for the Olympics in Beijing, heralding the begining of the most famous 'world games' with the adopted slogan "One World One Dream".

February 2003:

Government-sponsored militias known as the Janjaweed conducted a calculated campaign of slaughter, rape, starvation and displacement in Darfur. Experts estimate that roughly 200,000 people have died due to violence, starvation and disease. More than 2.5 million people have been displaced from their homes and over 200,000 have fled across the border to Chad. Many now live in refugee camps lacking adequate food, water, shelter, sanitation, and health care. For the first time in history, the United States Congress and President recognized a situation as “genocide” while the atrocities were still ongoing. Characterized by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as "Hell on Earth,” Darfur is widely considered the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.

No country has done more to support the regime in Khartoum than the People’s Republic of China. Beijing is financing, diplomatically protecting and supplying the arms for this genocide. China is the largest arms supplier to Sudan, officially selling $83 million in weapons, aircraft and spare parts to Sudan in 2005, according to Amnesty International USA. That is the latest year for which figures are available.

Read more and take action here: http://www.dreamfordarfur.org/

June 10th 1998:

FORCED ABORTION AND STERILIZATION IN CHINA: THE VIEW FROM THE INSIDE HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS AND HUMAN RIGHTS.

After 15 years of shamefully adopting a 'Population Control Program', various Chinese dissedents came forward to tell the world of the horrors being acted out in their home country. It was suggested that the Chinese government routinely imposed exorbitant fines on couples who had, ''unauthorized'' children, sometimes amounting to three or four times the average income of the average Chinese citizen. And that they destroyed their homes and confiscated their personal property when they could not pay. When a woman had an unauthorized pregnancy, she was typically brought to the family planning center and subjected to intense psychological pressure, often with the personal involvement of her boss and other people who hold power over her, until she agreed to an abortion. When this psychological pressure did not work, women were sometimes dragged physically to abortion mills and physical force was often employed against both men and women when they refused to be sterilized.

Read the full transcript of this hearing: http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/intlrel/hfa49740.000/hfa49740_0f.htm

June 4th 1989

Probably the most dramatic "awakening" event ever televised occurred in 1989, over a million Chinese colleges students from all of the country crowded into Tiananmen Square in Beijing for a peaceful demonstration. Government troops entered Tiananmen Square at night and fired at the sleeping students. In the end, several thousand were killed.

Full story here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989

Watch a real hero at work:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcvaSnmqZ40&feature=related

January 1950

The Chinese occupation of Tibet.

Since 1950, an estimated 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed by the Chinese. Records of the Tibetan Government in Exile show that between 1949 and 1979 the following deaths occurred:

• 173,221 Tibetans died after being tortured in prison.


• 156,758 Tibetans have been executed by the Chinese.


• 432,705 Tibetans were killed while fighting Chinese soldiers.


• 342,970 Tibetans have starved to death.


• 92,731 Tibetans publicly tortured to death.


• 9,002 Tibetans committed suicide.
  

Since then many thousands more have died as a direct result of persecution, imprisonment, torture and beatings!

More: http://www.rangzen.com/

October 1st 1949

Mao declared the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

At this time the Chinese adopted the Soviet Unions' forced labour codes. Introduced under the false heading of 're-education'. All 'Re-education Through Labour prisoners' are victims of a significant violation of their human rights - they have been sent to prison without trial by local party officials. Local communist parties in China have the power to send anyone in their area to prison for up to three years if they so choose purely by making an administrative decision - the sentence can subsequently be extended indefinitely. The Chinese 'Gulag' prison camps contains a greater population than that of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Manchester and Birmingham put together. The goods produced by these camps are illegally exported, compete unfairly with goods elsewhere, and help to sustain the Chinese economy.

More here: http://www.globalideasbank.org/site/bank/idea.php?ideaId=855

"One World One Dream"?

Show your contempt of this regime by boycotting the Olympics and the 'money makers' that support it. Start by visiting: http://www.buyhard.fsnet.co.uk/index.htm

"瘋狂做同樣事相似& 期待一個另外結果"

Insanity is doing the same thing in the same way & expecting a different outcome"

Old Chinese Proverb

Introduction to my latest literary offering..

TIME BELONGS TO NO MAN

"… and here", continued Professor Frenkel, "… we see the heart of this magnificent workstation". A grin wrapped itself tightly across the lower half of the professor's face, his eyebrows rose expectantly, he stepped aside to allow the unworthy audience an appreciative view and prepared to glow with pride. An extraordinary stillness crept across the room as the Professor surveyed the congregation for signs of awe inspired admiration… nothing!

From a dusty vault deep within the Professor's unconscious memory, the words of the late John J. Farley1st dislodged themselves and in a fury of neurones raced into his consciousness; “When all around you appears as a vision of aesthetic glory; bold and inspirational, it will look like shit to all others”. "And that's the double truth!” added the Professor.

The youthful spectators now radiated tedium.

"The ignorance of adolescence when faced with industrial progress and technological wonders of this magnitude seems almost condescending", the Professor thought to himself.

School visits and the horrors associated with them had always irritated the Professor and today was no exception. Lain before the eyes of class 5s/jk7 was the greatest achievement of the Twenty-first Century, The Anti-matter/Matter Energy Converter. The most powerful tool ever invented - disposer of waste, consumer of matter, creator of vigour, saviour of 'person kind' and known to the masses as… 'Bob the Omnipotent'. To the children of class 5s/jk7 it was no more than a pile of boxes, metalwork and some fuzzy light type things!

"Nescience in the face of creativity is unbelievably vulgar"; the Professor was bold enough to postulate to himself. He almost uttered the words to his assembly of immature philistines, but decided against it when he realised that they could not contend. It would have been a one-sided argument judging by their blank little expressions. The Professor thought on, "The best kind of dispute; unbalanced in my favour… hmmm! … perhaps?” His sanctity was broken by cherubic giggles. The Professor wanted to make sure that this sign of sentience did not escape him; he jumped upon it like a hound onto a hare. "Who whimpered?” he bellowed.

All eyes darted skyward, backs took on a strange curvature that was somehow supposed to look straight and the room fell silent once more. It was the sort of silence that filled the air; it danced in space with gaseous substances and created a feeling of ethereal depth. However, it was not the only thing that filled the air! There was a distinctly pungent odour moving cautiously around the nasal passages of its victims. It reminded the Professor of a rather unfortunate and ultimately nasty accident that he had as a child. It involved an old kipper; some rubbish bins and his mother's lost pearl necklace, which, by the way, was not lost before she went to Bingo with Aunt Maude!
After a brief tango with nostalgia, the Professor snapped away, "I hope", he sneered, eyebrows still tangoing, "that you are not amused by the obvious emission of methane in this room?"

The odour, ignoring the professor and already losing some of its potency, launched a legendary assault upon the nose of a small, red faced, chubby boy, (who was nicknamed 'Chubby Boy' for some peculiar reason), and achieved its goal.

Like all of nature's children the ‘Odour’ and 'Chubby Boy' shared a common bond, a compulsion to reproduce. While 'Chubby Boy' had a lifetime to achieve this objective, the odour only had a matter of seconds...

Mrs Bundleye, the school cook, had made some interesting cuisine for the pupils within the walls of 'Downsdin' Junior School; there was her infamous red cabbage and leek soufflé, served with steamed carrots and a minty sauce; the one off 'Turnip & Mango' pie and a legendary pasta bake 'a la banane'! However, none of this was evident in the flood of bile racing through 'Chubby Boy's' lips, in fact it looked suspiciously like chopped carrots in a creamy cheese sauce!

The air was full again.

An acidic asphixiator that stripped the fabric from your clothes and peeled the 'epi' from your 'dermis' now moved casually around the room. It lingered, it explored, it crept and it was there to stay!

Bunty Waghorn, who had stood perplexed by the sudden disruption within the ranks of class 5s/jk7, ventured a pristine hand skywards. The Professor, never one to shirk his responsibilities, recognised this gesture as a plea for acknowledgement.

"Yes, Bunty?” he managed to blurt out as Timmy Jenkins slid nonchalantly past on an errant slither of 'Chubby Boy's' splashdown.

"Sorry Sir", she whimpered, "I was just wondering, what made 'Chubby Boy' sick?"

Professor Frenkel had to be diplomatic with his explanation, everybody knew of Bunty's lamentable early childhood accident. While Bunty lavished in the glory of her second birthday, George, her elder brother of eight years, thought it would be nice to give her a present that she would never forget. While their parents washed dishes and spoke of grown up things, George decided to shove a whole box of matches up Bunty's nose, one by one. Leaving a spare match to strike on the box, he then proceeded to light the accumulation. The result, as George was heard to say many years later, turned out to be ''the wickedest Genie' in the history of sulphur''.
This event followed George throughout his life, and in borstals up and down the country, the cry for 'Genie George to light the way', can still be heard.....

follow

Gym'll Fix it!

Ok. I admit it. I am one of those annoying people that actually enjoys going to the Gym! Sort of!

After a veritable decade of gaseous alcohol based, chemically altered lagers and sloppy foreign imitation food stuffs of the 'take away' variety... I have a theory about the phrase 'Take Away', I think that it refers to the fact that any potential nutritional value has been 'Taken away' from said food stuff's before being fried in ten week old pig fat!!!... I recently felt the need to de-tox my tired floppy, flacid pre-cadaver.

Approaching a certain age - which is only really relevant if I actually accept the premise that 'Time' exists as a pro thermo dynamic principle and not as I sometimes like to consider; that it (time) is a huge trifle and I (me) am merely one of the many 'Hundreds & Thousands', (thats 'Sprinkles' to our trans Atlantic cousins!), tossed nonchalently across its gelatinous surface - As I said, approaching a certain age sometimes has a profound effect upon you. Youth allows you to revel in a world of awe and wonderment and each passing day is a moment closer to Nirvana - that's the philisophical concept of complete peace of mind not the American grunge band! As the skin of youth is shed from your increasingly voluminous catalogue of 'self', you begin to view life through slightly more sensible glasses... the 'rose tint' wears thin very quickly!

It has long been pondered that 'time' slows down depending on your ultimate velocity... I would like to proffer a theory that 'time' speeds up depending on your ultimate maturity! If we think of 'time' as a force similar to gravity then we can compare our ultimate demise as a physical point similar to 'Terra Firma' - that's the 'Earth' not the London based Private Equity Firm! Therefore, just as a body falling from the sky toward Earth would gain superhuman speed during its descent; Ergo, the physicality of being and experience of life is given a 'turbo' boost' as it catapults the agent (that's you and I) further toward the point of transition... or 'death' if you prefer!

That was a very long winded way of saying that I am indeed feeling 'my age'!

And so, back to my jaunty trips to the world of sweat, testosterone, latissimus dorsi, deltoids and rotary cuff muscles! The Gym... or 'Palace of Pain' as I like to refer... is a place of constant amazement. I will attempt to give you an insight into this public world of self flagellation at a later date, today I wish to regale you with a diminutive tale from the locker room.

The men's locker room is a place of immense discomfiture, awkwardness and potential humiliation. A fact so dramatically illustrated by the perfunctory movements of all but the bravest of men whilst attempting to:

(tick box as appropriate)

[] Get undressed without drawing attention to their stature, wobbly bits or increasingly miniscule manhood.

[] Get dressed without drawing attention to their stature, wobbly bits or increasingly miniscule manhood.

[] Get undressed/dressed without inadvertently looking at or touching their neighbours wobbly bits or increasingly miniscule manhood.

[] Get to your locker without slipping on errant pieces of soap, gel, NRG drink spillage, NRG bar wrappers, glossy pages from 'Men's Health' sports edition or most worryingly bodily fluids!!!

[] Get out of the locker room without drawing attention to the fact that one of your neighbours has viewed your stature, inadvertently touched your wobbly bits and most worryingly they now have an increasingly swollen manhood. "EXIT!!"

And so to my dilemma. Upon entering the 'Locker Room' you must first wave a piece of contemporary rubberised technology in front of a small digital screen to identify the location of your randomly selected locker. A simple enough process you might think, not so!! Allow me to offer you an insight into the life of I! The life of I has been characterised by ridiculous misfortune, unbelievable episodes of inconvenience and improbable bouts of fate! And today was to be just like every other!!

This morning's 'locker room' was surprisingly empty, in fact, apart from a naked Adonis buffing himself vigariously with finest Egyptian Cotton, I was the only pre workout devotee in the area. Great... My pick of lockers and plenty of space to get changed. The rubberised technological strap thingy was waved dutifully in front of the digitised screen and I waited in comfortable anticipation for my alotted space. The number soon flicked onto screen... number 110. Great... again... and so my eyes wandered across the plethora of lockers available. 98... ok... 102... getting there... 106... not far now... 110. Great!!! Right behind naked Adonis guy!!!! How does this happen???? I now have to slowly walk toward 'Buffy' and place my head and rubberised technological strap thingy in the general vicinity of his neatly coiffed derriere!!

You see what I mean... intolerable cruelty! 'Palace of Pain' indeed!!

The War on Your Doorstep!!!

The following article, written by Voices, first appeared in Nonviolent Action, October 2003

The corporate invasion of Iraq gathered pace last weekend as the US Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) issued a series of new laws concerning taxes, tariffs and foreign investment which, in the words of the

Guardian, 'effectively put [Iraq] up for sale.'

NEW LAWS

The new laws allow foreign investors to control up to 100% of Iraqi enterprises in every sector of the Iraqi economy except natural resources (where foreign direct and indirect ownership remains prohibited for the time-being) and banking. Foreign investors are now entitled to make their investments 'on terms no less favorable than those applied to an Iraqi investor' and to repatriate any profits 'without delay.'

In addition, according to the New York Times, 'the Central Bank of Iraq has been made legally and operationally independent' and 'the law permits six foreign banks to buy complete control of local banks within the next five years, after which there will be no limits on foreign banks' entry into Iraq.'

From the beginning of next year corporate taxes will be capped at 15% and a flat tariff of 5% will be placed on all imports except relief supplies.

'A RECIPE FOR A CAPITALIST IRAQ'

Reuters noted that the 'reforms . read like a recipe devised by Washington for a capitalist Iraq' (21 September). In fact, they are: the US Agency for International Development (USAID) drafted just such a blueprint prior to the invasion.

Drafted in February, the confidential 100 page document 'Moving the Iraqi economy from Recovery to Sustainable Growth' - leaked to the Wall Street Journal - spells out 'sweeping plans to remake Iraq's economy . based on free-market principles' (Wall Street Journal, May 1st 2003). These plans include the 'mass privatisation of Iraqi industry' - including Iraq's oil sector - and 'fundamental tax reform.'

'MUCH TO LOSE'

Similar 'economic restructuring' elsewhere has led to corruption, massive job losses, and gaping inequality - and is likely to do so again in Iraq.

Interestingly, just three days before the new laws were announced the Boston Globe reported that plans to 'aggressively sell and privatise many state-run Iraqi businesses' had been put on hold and that 'US officials in charge of Iraq .... fear that privatising industries would force the dismissal of thousands of people in state-run companies with bloated payrolls, exacerbating an unemployment rate estimated at 50 percent of working-age Iraqis' (Boston Globe, 18th June 2003).

According to the Globe CPA Head Paul Bremer had 'acknowledged [that] the planned privatisation of Iraq's state-run industries would be delayed because the country was too unstable to absorb the shock of swift deregulation.' Apparently his masters in Washington thought differently - or just didn't care.

THE DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT

Bremer claims to have 'worked closely with the [Iraqi] Governing Council to ensure that economic change occurs in a manner acceptable to the people of Iraq' but the 25-member 'Governing Council' is a body selected by Mr Bremer in consultation with a group of 7 Iraqis selected by Mr Bremer! They do not 'represent' the Iraqi people any more than Mr Bremer.
In fact neither the Council nor Mr Bremer has a mandate to determine what is 'acceptable to the people of Iraq.' As Greg Palast has observed 'If the Iraqi people choose to have a market-driven economy, [if] they want to sell off their oil industries, go right ahead. [But] I don't think that five guys in the US State Department should be making that decision for them.'

BOMB BEFORE YOU BUY

Back in April Naomi Klein observed that in Iraq 'a people, starved and sickened by sanctions, then pulverised by war, is going to emerge from this trauma to find that their country had been sold out from under them. They will also discover that their new-found " freedom" - for which so many of their loved ones perished - comes pre-shackled by irreversible economic decisions that were made in boardrooms while the bombs were still falling. They will then be told to vote for their new leaders, and welcomed to the wonderful world of democracy.'

This must not be allowed to happen.

The life of 'I'

I!
IB
IP
IC
IQ
IE
IQ
IT
I2
I3
I4
IO
IP
IV
IZ
I!

Y?

Angel in my Pocket

I have an Angel in my Pocket,
She keeps me safe and sane,
Sometimes when life creeps upon me,
She spreads her wings and deflects the chain.

I have an Angel in my Pocket,
She keeps me alive and well,
Sometimes when I lose sight or vision,
She leads me back to the well.

I have an Angel in my Pocket,
I love her more than 'I',
Sometimes I think she is imaginary,
but I soon remember Rye.

I have an Angel in my Pocket,
She watched me from afar,
I have an Angel in my Pocket,
My guiding light and star.

I have an Angel in my Pocket,
I really do.
The End

Pigs can fly

What a refreshing morning. Voices from the past blowing away dusty grey debris. Reminders of 'Pig Tea' and meetings of the counter culture revolutionaries under royal canopies!

Pig Tea?

"Pig get in the strainer. Pig get in the strainer. PIG get in the strainer! I must have my pig tea!"

or Pig Trap

"My shoe has caught a pig. My shoe has caught a pig. My shoe has caught a pig. I am a pig trap!"

I salute you Mr H..... Syd would be so proud. I know I am.

I love talking to Mr H and I always get a kick from talking to my old buddy, 'Brown'. Currently waiting to tell the world about his lifetime of adventure. Now that will be a good read...

I remember a story that Brown told me about him and Mr H in a flat in London, mid 60's.
It was the morning after a rather boisterous and heady night... Brown awoke to a veritable sea of naked bodies.. basically free love had prevailed and the drugs DID work! He stumbled bleary eyed toward the remnants of the kitchen for some mouth reviving H2O and realised that Mr H was missing. Brown was contemplating that his compadre had perhaps phased into non exsistence overnight when he spotted a nubile young lady spread naked in one corner of the room; Brown's eye was not drawn so much by this vision of beauty but more to the note sellotaped neatly to her head. Brown crept across the room to view the scrawl upon said note; taking care not to wake his 'human post it'. The scrawl read; "Brown. Gone to Manchester. Follow. Hawkins".

so Brown did exactly that. And so began the journey. Beat Uk. Of course.... Jack and Neal had a potential contender for their crown. More later. Follow!