Rage, Rage Against The Dying Of The LIght!

The die is cast, the cast are seen, the scene is set, so set a course!  It is to be hoped that this is not to be another Geek tragedy. Instead, "Let there be light!" and "Let light shine out of (this) darkness!"

As we are all now aware, Greece has just had a momentous election. The anti-austerity party, Syriza, has almost achieved an outright victory. The 'almost' may yet have its part to play. Let us hope not!
It's the labels, 'coalition' and 'right-wing populist,' that trouble me.

Yanis Varoufakis- tipped for Greece's next Minister of Finance- lit up the airwaves on Monday, with a short and buoyant, if slightly BBC-hostile, interview upon BBC Radio 4's 'Today Programme.' Although Yanis avoided talk of 'sides,' despite more than a little goading from Sarah Montague, it's vital that we observers keep abreast of where it is that the most positive sounds are coming from. That is to say that the major players are already aligned- bought and owned! But, much like the uncertain foot-soldiers in a flagging Medieval army, the waverers may yet chance their arms. We can but hope!


Perfect! Digital Collections, UIC...

What the Greek population has done is to reignite a flame of hope, a flame that appeared to have all but died. We must hope that there are others in Europe who might fan those flickering embers, so that they might soon engulf and devour the erected cities of the False Dawn. To clarify, that would be a dawn whereby the One Percenters bespeckle the beach, whilst the rest of us pretty much keep out of the damn way, whilst entirely footing the cocktail bill, the security bill, the hotel bill and pretty much any other bill that might happen to arise. And we'll be paying VAT, at 20%, to boot.

Yanis talked eloquently about the Euro-Zone recession, in a language that has long since been shelved in countries like the UK. He pointed out that it's not only Greece, but also the whole of the Euro-Zone that's paying back far too much, that Greece currently has 300,000 residents without access to electricity, that only 10% of the immense 240,000,000,000 Euros loan has actually reached the Greek economy, that the whole of Europe operates under a hideously low minimum-wage misconception, that welfare benefits- deemed disposable by the Euro-Zone bigwigs- are essential to life, dignity and any pretence at being a civilised society, amongst communities that are severely suffering through absolutely no fault of their own.


Andrew McCoubrey

Yanis could have chosen to contemplate the non-linear aspect of current Euro-politics. He might have alluded to a political misrepresentation that appears now to routinely accept the rule of millionaires over the minions. He might have questioned the tributes recently paid to the recently deceased despotic King Abdulla, by current World Leaders. Hell, he could have drawn attention to the blindingly obvious wealth of those actively seeking to tread the current pathways of austerity, in the light of recently highlighted research tying half of the globe's wealth and resources to a 'faceless' one percent.

What he did do was to point out, to those prepared to observe, that Europe's debt is not peculiar to nations, nor is it a debt owed by nations to nations. He talked of the 'creditors' in such a way as to imply, to those with ears to hear and accept, that the non-specific 'creditors' and the non-specific 'One Percenters,' might well transpire to be entirely one and the same. That's anyway what I chose to hear.

To oversimplify the truly immense Euro-Zone loan to Greece, of 240,000,000,000 Euros:
A staggering 216,000,000,000 Euros went directly to the 'creditors.'
Leaving 24,000,000,000 Euros for 'the nation.'
Continuing to oversimplify, because this is the only way to avoid the monetarists' numerical slight of hand that will otherwise blind one to the 'facts:'
This presents Greek One Percenters with a mouth-watering 1,911,504 Euros each! Which they probably will get and will be able to swiftly and considerably compound, care of the pseudo-recession.
Leaving the rest of the population with 2,145 Euros 'each.' Which almost all of them will never see, because the Euro-zone has decreed that it's 'their' debt commitment.

Currently Syriza is the metaphorical light at the end of the tunnel. Should significant voices in Spain, Portugal and Italy choose to embrace the light we might all once again dare to hope. British, German, French and other Governments in Europe will be doing all that they can to quickly snuff the light.

Rage, rage against the snuffing of this light!

Starlings!

The sky was clear, the light fast fading. A short stroll to the St Stephen's roundabout was in order. During my previous Starling watch (11th January) I'd arrived unarmed, the camera mistakenly left at home.


The accumulating mass.

This time (18th January) I'd hoped to make amends. So batteries fully charged, memory card uncluttered by past events, I limped along to await the gathering as four o'clock neared. Previous experience had taught me not to be overly disheartened by the somewhat meagre vanguard- twenty-or-so early birds- so, propped against a suitable wall, I set about waiting.


Tailing out far more impressively than did the recent Comet Lovejoy.

As hoped for, reinforcements duly arrived. Parties of up to two hundred or so, mostly approaching from a south-westerly direction, incrementally bolstered the living orb. The flock appeared to accelerate, in proportion to its increasing mass, yet all-the-while smaller numbers were peeling off at the extremities. I've wondered before whether a 'competing' flock of Feral Pigeons, or perhaps the rather-more-transient passing numbers of mostly Lesser Black-backed Gulls, might be acting as a partial deterrent or a distraction to some of the earlier arrivals. It certainly seems to be the case that the flock's numbers increase more rapidly once the other species have dispersed.



The Starling numbers have climbed steadily since before Christmas and, struggling to approximate, I might hazard a guess at 6,000 to 8,000 birds, but I'm happy to amend this accordingly. Yet still my pictures never quite seem capable of conveying an accurate impression of size.


Failing quite spectacularly, to capture an impression of the fanning flock.

As the blue heavens deepened in hue a far more disciplined knot roller-coasted across the sky, periodically fanning out to dapple the wider expanses, venturing further afield and later into the gloom than on my previous visits. Smaller numbers of dispersing shoppers had this time amassed at railings around the underpass, several mobile phones hoping to capture the essence of this aerial phenomenon. Perhaps the EDP or Look East will also soon be spreading the news...

Jim Froud has had a good bash at recording the flock, as of some time around the 17th January.

So made up was I that a more determined search for Mercury seemed in order. Alas, 'twas a bridge too far, Venus's diminutive cousin proving entirely less cooperative.

Je Suis Humanité

I've just received an e-mail from Nick Clegg. It asked me about my priorities for the coming year; asked me if I might undertake 'his' mental health survey.

I was curious. I clicked upon the link and ended up staring into the void, The Lib Dem's website. I've done this before I thought. And I have! But the scenario was vastly different. Vastly!

The last time I was responding to a political party who professed to care about the betrayals of previous incumbent PMs. Last time Nick was wearing some sort of shiny new armour, wielding a 'trusty' sword of 'truth and integrity.' I'm sure it was a 'trusty' model. Slice off the end and it would have had 'truth' and 'integrity' written down the middle. And that's what the Conservatives did, sliced off the end. By which point somebody had sucked out the soul. Thus, the 'vastly' was far more pertinent to my own naivety than ever it was to Nick's intentions, which were always up for sale.

This time I was far more time-commitment aware. I deleted the damn thing.

Nick is on his election trip again, labouring under the delusion that he might stand for something. Blessed with memories, we know better. And it's important to know where we all stand, in these immensely difficult times of global unrest.


National Library NZ on The...

Far more pertinent and like many people, I've been struggling to get my head around what's just happened in Paris. Like many, I've been watching the news. On Sunday I was 'virtually' in Paris, 'virtually' sharing my own particular dismay at the recent events in the capital. But I still elected not to 'virtually' link arms with the heavy-weight curios in front of the cameras.  

'Je suis Charlie,' was the heartfelt and immediate response, by many Parisian's, to the outrageous slaughter of the innocents. It moved me to tears, so powerful was this response. The murders took place on Wednesday and by Sunday 'Je suis Charlie' had swollen to embrace millions. How could it not? But, also curiously by Sunday, the sentiment had been mysteriously diluted.

Wednesday's murderers claimed to be acting to avenge the Prophet Mohammed, a man who supposedly longed to vanquish the merest concept of revenge. One wonders how thrilled The Prophet might have been, at the atrocities carried out by His Boko Haram 'followers' in Nigeria. I'm not a religious person- maybe this 'oversight' makes me a sinner- but I do have a strongly established sense of what constitutes wrongdoing. It's a huge field, absolutely vast, from the deludedly-noble exaggeration of my own given abilities (Guilty!) at any of the job interview that I might have undertaken, to the savage butchering of another innocent being, which I absolutely have not and could not.

Vastly preferring scientific rational to any of its religious 'alternatives,' which despite what some of the more 'enlightened' theologians might claim, does not sit comfortably with any religion-complete, I struggle with especially the concept of faith. I perceive, "have faith," or any of its ilk, to  be entirely the last refuge of the losing debatee.

Unarmed with any religious 'shield,' nor any political facade of 'decency,' I cannot claim to possess the solution to many of the globe's great problems, but from within my sense of wrongdoing-perspective I have readily recognised that the manner in which Sadam Hussain's militia ruled Iraq, and perhaps hoped to export such a (lack of) values, was wholly without justification. Which is rather more than the covert US value-system did, having massively supported the same regime for decades prior to a minute shift in global allegiances. Consequently, I also recognised that previous US support as corrupted. I recognised the internationally-condemned invasion and the proliferating car-bombings as wholly unjust and the US (and almost certainly Blair) endorsed renditions as more than unjust. Indefensible!

Wednesday's atrocities required no scientific nor religious analysis, the acts were quite simply inhuman. Were any 'religious' insight required it would no doubt be a relatively simple task to condemn the murders as anti-Muslim, anti-Christian, anti-Hindu, anti-Jewish, anti-Sikhist, anti-Buddhist, anti-Jainist, anti-Rastafari, anti-Taoist and anti-Secular. Thus the murderers were simply and inhumanly that, unjust murderers! Crimes against humanity!

Just as the US-backed Iraqi regime were guilty of murder, as were the US et al invading/occupying troops, as were those who piloted the 9/11 aircraft, and those who organise (yet curiously never appear to undertake) suicide bombings. As those who might interrogate the perceived perpetrators are guilty of crimes against humanity. As are countless others who might seek to impose their own 'value' system upon those who are helpless to resist.

* Even the tiniest 'proof' of the existence of any God remains scientifically absent, so instead adopting the curious premise of 'faith,' we might attempt to contemplate the existence of such an omniscient being. This phenomenon just barely-conceivably 'might' have invested us with the minds with which to do so.


National Library NZ on The...

"God creates beauty, but requires that it be kept hidden. God creates a mind capable of exquisite reasoning, yet seeks to deny this mind full access to its richest outpourings. God permits free-thinking and yet also seeks to shackle these with extreme prejudice. God creates different genders, with equal potential, and yet demands that one gender should entirely subjugate the other. This is not omniscience!

The rational to analyse the lack of evidence and consequently to not believe? This is surely infinitely superior.

The logical progression of humankind would seem to 'demand' that "Je suis Charlie" was the almost spontaneous response to such horror. Yet still we didn't all march unequivocally together, 'virtually' or otherwise.

Slipping uncertainly upon the still-warm blood, Antonis Samaras has already sought to steer Greece towards ever more xenophobic ways, in a country where some of its poorest citizens have been forced to give up their own children for adoption, because of Euroze-led policies. Andrea Merkel, the Euro-champion of the region's austerity measures, that made such things 'necessary,' is still unhappy that the US regards the Eurozone as essential surveillance territory, and yet she was recently covertly steering the 'aligned continent' towards the little-talked-about TTIP, whereby US business interests might bankrupt Europe's essential services. Cameron was there talking about freedoms of expression, whilst back home the soup kitchens and the street-sleepers continued to proliferate. Francois Hollande linked arms with his fellow World mis-managers and showed his solidarity with even, "the toothless ones." Obama stayed at home, perhaps to catch up with gathered files on his 'allies, or else to study tapes of recently extracted confessions.

Some will hide behind terrorist atrocities, whilst imposing an ever-more draconian state, accepting of rough-sleeping and malnutrition as the flip side of preferential tax-cuts or greater 'security,' but from whom?. Others might cite indiscriminate bombings against 'its own' people, before calmly detonating shards of vehicular metal into child-crowded high streets, or they might interrupt the school day with a hail of bullets, or stone the victim of a rape. All prepared to lash out at, exploit or ignore 'its own' citizens in reverence to the 'higher,' self-serving cause. Precisely what any omniscient being should crave, fictional or otherwise.

Were there bankers, were there tax evaders? Was perhaps Mark Thatcher present, Jeremy Clarkson? I'll bet Piers Morgan was there. Did Rupert Murdoch make the effort? Was the NRA represented, were there many bailiffs, any zero-hours apologists, slum landlords? Perhaps GW Bush was 'virtually' there, although I personally didn't virtually see him. All these people marching for 'freedom of expression.'

And here's the thing, see. Freedom of expression really doesn't come without a price-tag. But the price-tag doesn't and shouldn't involve the butchering of other beings. It's far more to do with the sharing of that freedom to express and act independently, otherwise it's not really anything to do with freedom. If your 'freedom to express' or act in a certain manner, regardless of your political or religious affiliations, requires a significant sacrifice on the part of others, then it has absolutely nothing to do with freedom. That sort of 'feudalism' has existed since way before the merest concept of freedom was first hatched.

Leaving us all little time to worry about Nick Clegg's political misrepresentations.  

* This post in no way wishes to imply that a 'God' does not exist, simply that if one did he or she would probably expect rather more (or less) from his or her supposed 'followers.'

Election Earaching

Is it really that time again? It's not unlike Christmas, in that the whole thing starts to gear up into full throttle far, far too soon, don't you think?

Nick Clegg is behaving not unlike some sort of demented child who's been sucked in entirely by the glitzy world of advertising. His disingenuous smile might send shivers down the spine, should one elect to watch any of the current TV news programmes, or listen to his 'happy' words. The 'bad Christmas' of four (and-a-bit) years ago is but a fading shadow in his resurgent mind, the broken promises barely registering an echo in the deeper recesses of the electorate's memory canyons. 'This Christmas' Nick is promising to be much, much better!

Let's peruse his "Christmas list' shall we?

1. He promises to 'finish' the job of cutting the deficit. Oh, and "fairly."

We should focus particularly upon the word 'fairly' here. Nick, ever the eye upon the chance of self 'betterment,' will of course abandon such pretences in the wink of an eye, should an opportunity of coalition with either the Tories or UKIP present. Cabinet post trumps naive electorate, as 'twere.

Even should Nick manage to culture a spine we have the sad and unfortunate problem that he apparently believes that the current path is largely a fair one. The undertaken policies have after all only been possible through the 'endorsement' of the Lib Dems.

2. Nick also promises to protect early years education, sixth form and college budgets.The absence of any mention of the bulk (and the rest) of the education system should be raising a few alarms here... "Cradle to college," it most certainly isn't!

This sort of harks back to the old tuition fees chestnut. Any way that we can draw up some sort of binding contract, do we think?


Thanks greatly to Nationaal Archief

3. Nick says he will, "Cut energy bills," and introduce, "A national programme to insulate homes," through, "Council tax related incentives."

One area where we can't actually blame Nick, much as we might like to. Sadly selling off any sort of national interest in energy companies, as Thatcher did, has resulted in share-holder interests trumping affordability every time. Of note though, the coalition, under the auspices of Deputy Leader Nick Clegg, has seen virtually all of 'our' already-privatised utilities sold off to foreign interests. Thus, the chances of any realistic positive government intervention become ever more distant, unless Nick is secretly planning to re-nationalise the lot! Do this, Nick, and I'll pledge you my vote!

4. He claims he will protect and guarantee state pensions, with something termed a "Triple lock." This curious little 'guarantee' proposes to raise the state pension annually, by the greater of three 'options.' These being inflation (always easily manipulated by virtue of there being two means of calculating this), average earnings, or 2.5%.

Already this 'guarantee' looks unlikely to survive beyond the 2015 election. As we know, to our costs, election 'promises' are usually nothing of the sort, even should any political party choose to adopt this one. Another coalition with the Tories will see this illusion in tatters within days I would imagine. Also of interest, average earnings have all too frequently been a malleable tool of government, as current wage 'increases' should testify. So 2.5% is it? Mmmm..! And that's before the backtracking even starts.

Deregulation in the housing market has brought about the UK building the smallest 'homes' in Western Europe. The same umbrella of (de)regulation also 'covers' the insulating of these boxes. Even should Nick be 'true' to his word, it was during the Coalition's watch that many of these Lego-style houses were erected. Shall we invite a Scandinavian team over, to share thoughts on current insulation standards in new homes? One wonders also what they might have to say about standards in rented accommodation?

5. "Protect your privacy, by updating data laws for the Internet age, with a digital bill of rights."

Good luck with that one! I'm pretty sure that I currently retain only a small part share of my 'own' soul, brought about through an unfortunate oversight regarding a missed tick box during an on-line purchase debacle.


Thanks again Nationaal Archief

6. Nick says he will, "Close down bogus colleges and tighten up on English language tests."

I'm thinking that this is going to apply solely to those colleges professing to offer language tuition to people moving to the UK, otherwise he is going to be spending much of his first term shutting down many of the free schools and academies (heavily leached upon by private interests) for which his Coalition was responsible.

Lord alone knows how many terms of a seriously committed government might be needed to repair the damage done by the satanic Gove. Under your auspices, Nick! 

7. "Fixed term parliaments!" This, in order that the political climate cannot be so easily manipulated by governments. That is to say that pre-election 'bribes' might be more difficult to organise and bring to fruition during a fixed term.

Me thinks that Nick would be more on the ball, if he drew up any form of legislation that might hold some sort of contractual weight, any sort of contractual weight! But this type of idea might completely neutralise the entirety of the Lib Dem Election Manifesto. I think it would be more than fair to recall that this anyway is exactly what we all associate Nick's Lib Dems with.

In summary, I believe that the current crises in Education and the NHS have not only been seriously exacerbated by the current coalition, but that the crises have actually been driven and stoked by this Coalition. One only has to take note of George Osborne's non-linear political thrust to recognise the apparent contradictory nature of this government's policies. The damage to education is almost beyond farce! One might be forgiven for wondering whether any UK government is any longer capable (or even 'permitted') to legislate on behalf of the real electorate.

Electorally thinking, the Lib Dems are almost an irrelevance! It's not that Nick Clegg is any worse than any of the alternatives, except to repeat that much of this damage has been wrought during his watch. I just don't like the idea of him pretending that the electorate are devoid of memory, or that he is somehow better or different to any of the alternatives.

He patiently is not!