The London Olympics are already achieving the number one aim of the politicians who brought them here, which is making our politicians feel very important indeed.
The media is quite frenetic in its efforts to make us all believe we should be terrifically proud of the fact we are hosting the Olympics, as though there were something unique in this achievement. If we can’t competently do something that Greece, Spain and China have done in recent years, that would be remarkable. Of course the Games will be on the whole well delivered, sufficient for the media and politicians to declare it an ecstatic success. Some of the sporting moments will be sublime, as ever.
But did it have to be in London? We won’t know the total cost of the Games for months, but it will cost the taxpayer at least £9 billion and I suspect a lot more. I also suspect the GDP figures will, in the event, show that the massive net fall in visitor numbers has hurt the already shrinking economy further.
But to take the most optimistic figure, holding the Olympics in London has cost every person in the country an average of £150 per head in extra taxes. That is £600 for a family of four. Actually it is in the end going to be well over £2,000, as of course the money has been borrowed on the never never, and taxpayers are going to be paying it off their whole lives, along with the sum ten times higher they are already paying direct into the pockets of the bankers through their taxes.
The very rich, of course, don’t pay much tax, so they are not worried.
But to take just the figure of £600 extra taxes for a family of four, the lowest possible amount, and not including the interest. Is having the Olympics here really worth paying out £600 for? If Tony Blair had approached the head of the family and said “We are going to have the Olympics in London, but it’s going to cost you £600, would the answer have been from most ordinary people: “Yes, great idea, this is that important to us”?
People are not disconcerted because they don’t see that they have to pay. There is no special Olympics tax, and they pay their taxes in a variety of ways, and individuals are not the sole source of taxation. But this is nonetheless real money taken from the people in pursuit of the hubris of politicians.
I love sport. I hate the corruption of the International Olympic Committee, Fifa and the rest; I hate the vicious corporatism and militarisation of our capital and absurd elitism of the transport lanes; the sport itself I love. But with the economy contracting, and the NHS being farmed out for profit, is it really worth £600 for a family – and many families are really struggling in a heartbreaking way – is it worth the money to have the Olympics here rather than in Paris?
Of course it isn’t. I think many of us will feel an extra pleasure watching the Opening ceremony because it is British. Patriotic pride will surge. It is not wrong to enjoy the spectacle tonight on TV. The corporate well connected and ruling classes will enjoy it in the stadium.
But after you have watched it on TV, ask yourself this question. How much more did you enjoy it than enjoy watching the Beijing ceremony, and was that margin of extra enjoyment something that everybody in the room would have paid out £150 for?
Because they just did.
Nuid:
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Obama is obviously hinting at the banning of all automatic weapons (AK47’s etc) – which conveniently came after the media skewed Aurora shooting. If you have some spare time look at the inconsistencies in the witness accounts and the narrative the media tried to sell, including stirring up the whole gun issue once more(Apostate has pretty much covered this in his above posts
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Obama has a reputation as being the president of a thousand incremental cuts – not everyone has been deceived by his smooth talking – have you seen what the NDAA act is about? Not good
Good advice Passerby – thank-you.
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Doug Scorgie,
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Assad is no fan of mine. The aftermath of the Iraq invasion which included the complete lack of relief, guidance and comfort to the innocent by the attackers, the continued presence of terrorist and the false claims of corporate interest and greed in Iraq, has lead me to oppose with earnest and resolve the preemption doctrine and the immoral crusades of the UKUSIS entity.
“The alternative interpretation is that you feel offended as being characterised as a dictionary user, and needed to point this out.”
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Don’t be ridiculous. I had characterised myself, sarcastically, as a dictionary/thesaurus user.
When you wrote “I keep forgetting about people whose lips move when they read, and take everything literally, too”, it was directly after you’d said you had been writing here partly-tongue in cheek. So who were you referring to? Tech? Someone else? It was hardly the world at large and couldn’t be taken that way in a month of Sundays.
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“My point: some people are as thick as pigshit, and take things literally that aren’t meant literally.”
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Yes, I gathered, and you said it straight after you came back, after the big immigration rumpus here. So who, again, were you referring to? Leave Powell out of it, and address what was going on HERE.
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And could you deal with this please? Clark accused Tech of not arguing in good faith. I’m asking if arguing with “a portion of your tongue … in your cheek”, is arguing “in good faith”. Because it’s not how I would characterise it.
Re-the Bigger Picture
Reading up on psy-ops and false flags is bit too much like the real world to have mass appeal.
The escapism of the lone-gunman fable plays far better with the masses.
Since the corporate media are mute on the military- intelligence background of most “lone assassins” the masses are under the delusion that MK-Ultra is a hooligan outfit associated with MK-Dons FC!
The research-averse liberal left can also be depended upon to show a knee-jerk reaction. They will denounce the Islamophobic Far Right as those responsible.
These guys think Gladio grows in the garden!
LONG SUSTAINED EAR PIERCING WHISTLE
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Now then, now then, now then, now then, then now!
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Everyone remember, no more prosecutorial, finger wagging and using what was said by whom and how it was written, in evidence. That is fishwifery and not debate. The notion is to add value and add to the body of knowledge for the benefit of those punters who frequent this board, so they can learn form the transcending lines of thought.
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Use of tautologies and acrimony is by no means the way forward. Hence as the guy used to say on the advert: “Megan Control Yourself!”
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And once again, in relation to this particular thread, how, precisely, did a discussion on the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic games and the presence of the Olympic Games themselves in Britain (mainly in London) lend itself to repeatedly iterated worries about immigration and (broadly) national identity? I think the answer is obvious – that the Games themselves (lots of foreigners, the multi-ethnic GB Team/winnders, etc.) and specifically Danny Boyle’s Opening Ceremony, have challenged certain preconceived notions of ‘Britishness’ and of the narrative histories of Britain. That is a good thing because it facilitates an opportunity for lucid analysis of processes relating to extant power in this country and of the psychodynamics of the various mythologies that reinforce the power, and perceived power, of self-identified dominant groupings.
Chris:
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“Obama is obviously hinting at the banning of all automatic weapons (AK47′s etc)”
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Obama hints at many things. He doesn’t necessarily do them. And if he attempted to deal (seriously) with gun control in the USA, he’s have the biggest fight of his career on his hands. And not only with Republicans.
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” – which conveniently came after the media skewed Aurora shooting.”
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The media skewed it how?
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“If you have some spare time look at the inconsistencies in the witness accounts and the narrative the media tried to sell, including stirring up the whole gun issue once more (Apostate has pretty much covered this in his above posts.)”
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I fear that what Apostate says comes from the likes of Prison Planet. Last time I looked, they were ramping up the whole “inconsistencies” thing, which can easily be exlained by different people reporting different aspects of an event to 911.
But I’ll have a look at the Aurora witness accounts as you suggest.
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By the way, ‘New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg bemoaned Monday what he called a “deafening silence” on gun control from the two presidential candidates after a pair of high-profile shootings in Colorado and Wisconsin killed a combined 18 people.’
http://www.topix.com/news/violent-crime/2012/08/bloomberg-pans-deafening-silence-on-guns
Mark Golding,
We all must thank souls, the like of yourself whom for the benefit of the truth and justice, are intent on documenting the events in an attempt to keep a track of the actual events, in real time for the future generations to learn to distinguish the myths from the actualities.
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The cynical postulate that holds: “History repeats itself”. This is based on the foreknowledge that “history” will be mainly preoccupied with the recantation of the officially propagated line of narratives that in eefect cover up the truth, and render the future generation ignorant of the facts and actualities that in turn helps these to make the same mistakes over and again.
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We human beings learn from our experiences and if these experiences are based on group think, cognitive dissonance and skewed data, then the outcome will be similar to the past outcomes, and similar mistakes will be repeated over and again. Hence the boast: “History repeats itself”. This is because the bastards know they only have the means to keep a record of “events”, and no one else will be doing so.
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Keep up the good work Mark.
Yes, I gathered, and you said it straight after you came back, after the big immigration rumpus here. So who, again, were you referring to? Leave Powell out of it, and address what was going on HERE.
Technicolor, principally. Tell me you hadn’t worked that out? But I’m beginning to include you in that category.
Powell was much misunderstood. Yah.
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And could you deal with this please? Clark accused Tech of not arguing in good faith. I’m asking if arguing with “a portion of your tongue … in your cheek”, is arguing “in good faith”. Because it’s not how I would characterise it.
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I gathered that. So much depends on interpretation, wouldn’t you say? You may reach your own conclusions from my previous activity here. Was I being intentionally contentious? I wonder. You decide.
“and specifically Danny Boyle’s Opening Ceremony”
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In what way did Danny Boyle’s narrative “challenge certain preconceived notions of ‘Britishness’”?
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I’ve perhaps missed something, I’ll admit. I was watching more for the economic narrative, which itself was refreshingly presented.
“Technicolor, principally. Tell me you hadn’t worked that out?”
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Of course I had. It was straight ad hominem. Which Clark purports to moderate/delete. But he didn’t.
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“But I’m beginning to include you in that category.”
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Naturally you would. Tech and I both ask direct questions of you, Komodo, and you hate that. Your preferred method is to waffle expansively while sneering at those who disagree with you.
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“Was I being intentionally contentious?”
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Anyone who inserts a *shitstirring smiley” is being contentious. And your ‘partly-tongue in cheek’ remark gave it away – again – the minute you came back. If you find it personally entertaining to aggravate those who are passionate about certain issues, rather than debating in a sincere fashion, I suggest you take your nasty shitstirring somewhere else.
But that’s just my view.
Still, we’re all agreed that travelling halfway round the planet and imposing OUR values on THEM is a 100% Bad Thing. Let’s hold on to that, eh?
http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474981520130
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Sikh Shooter Wade Page Was an Army Psy-Ops Specialist
August 06, 2012 11:35 AM EDT
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Wade Michael Page, the gunman who slaughtered six people at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, is a former psychological warfare expert assigned to bases in North Carolina and Texas.
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Now, Page’s Army psy-ops background may mean nothing, or it could hold vital clues about what drove this man to massacre these poor people. But, the public should withhold judgement about this incident until all the facts are in.
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The 40-year-old Wisconsin man may have merely been some deranged individual who forgot to take his meds. What he did was despicable, but no one yet knows what his motives were.
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It’s obvious the media are formulating the “angry white male” narrative to explain the shooting. Already, the press is comparing Page to Timothy McVeigh, another former Army soldier. Page’s Army stint was from 1992 through most of 1998, and he served at Fort Bliss in Texas, and Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
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While authorities are treating the shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin as “domestic terrorism,” no one has any clue what the gunman’s motives really were. On the other hand, Maj. Nadal Hassan shouted “Allahu Akbar” while killing 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, yet the military has refused to classify that cowardly act as “terrorism.”
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Page opened fire at the Sikh facility in suburban Milwaukee Sunday morning, according to authorities. When police officers arrived, they discovered four people dead inside, and two others on the grounds.
Nationalism should carry a government health warning or is that Ol impics should carry a government health warning?
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Team GB Olympic superfan dies while watching cycling
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Note the comments:
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what a sad day for the olympics and a tragedy for his family and freinds i hope he gets some sort of recognition !
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Scott
They should acknowledge him somehow
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My condolences to the bereaved family but to get recognition for dying in the Velodrome is a recognition a bit too far, won’t you all agree? Wot gives?
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/08/07/254956/turkey-enters-kurdish-region-in-syria/
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Convoy of Turkish military forces briefly enters Syrian town of Jarablos
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Turkish military forces have briefly crossed the border with a Kurdish region in Syria with the backing of armored vehicles and helicopters.
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More than 100 Turkish troops armed with thermal rockets and sophisticated weaponry on Tuesday entered the town of Cerablos in the Kurdish region of Kobani.
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The contingent of Turkish soldiers reportedly left for their bases after an hour.
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Meanwhile, Turkish media are reporting that about 40 Turkish troops have been detained inside Syria.
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A spokesman for the Kurdish militias in the border towns of Kobani and Efrin accused the Turkish forces of supplying arms and ammunition to insurgents fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/08/07/254967/iraq-to-review-turkey-ties-over-fm-visit/
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Iraq to review Turkey ties over Davutoglu’s Kirkuk visit
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The Iraqi governmnet says it will review relations with Turkey after Ankara’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited the disputed northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk without informing Baghdad.
To quote Technicolour:
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“Among all this talk of ‘immigration’ and figures, I am aware that we are talking about real people, with real lives, who are here, and often impoverished, discriminated against and attacked because of the very attitudes displayed on this board.”
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Suhayl has provided at least one very good example, when he spoke about, “My downstairs (Pakistani Christian) neighbour had his shoulder fracture-dislocated by racist thugs last year as he closed-up his shop.”
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Seeya
Nearly forgot the benighted masses have also been indoctrinated to believe that any version of events that contradicts the official account is “conspiracy theory” .
Thus the idea of integrating witness testimony into any meaningful construction of events comes merely as an afterthought!
Reckon any of those witnesses will be summoned to testify in court?
Not if the judge has got anything to do with it. He may not even have to impanel a jury:
http://sgtreport.com/2012/07/can-you-say-cover-up-judge-seals-batman-shooting-case/
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/08/06/uk-turkey-iraq-pipeline-idUKBRE8750RK20120806
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Pipeline blast stops Iraq oil flow to Turkey
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(Reuters) – An explosion overnight on a pipeline carrying about a quarter of Iraqi crude exports from oilfields near the city of Kirkuk has knocked out flows and repairs are expected to take up to 10 days, Turkish Energy Ministry officials said on Monday.
http://www.globaltvedmonton.com/world/officials+frustrated+neo-nazi+ex-army+man+was+shooter+in+sikh+temple+attack+that+killed+6/6442692238/story.html
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Across several states, fragments of Page’s life emerged Monday in public records and interviews.
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He joined the military in Milwaukee in 1992 and was a repairman for the Hawk missile system before switching jobs to become an Army psychological operations specialist in a battalion at Fort Bragg, N.C.
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Hmm , the blog software keeps eating my posts on a certain subject but seems happy with everything else. Curious army background of the Wisconsin shooter.
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[Mod/Jon: two items from you have now been released. The software has a mind of its own!]
“Anyone who inserts a *shitstirring smiley” is being contentious. And your ‘partly-tongue in cheek’ remark gave it away – again – the minute you came back. If you find it personally entertaining to aggravate those who are passionate about certain issues, rather than debating in a sincere fashion, I suggest you take your nasty shitstirring somewhere else.”
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So you HAD worked it out, and had no need to ask your direct question.
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Entertaining, maybe. More to the point, I am intrigued by the reaction of some to any attempt to raise the issue of mass immigration in any but the most favourable light. Here’s a direct question:
Social housing is dead in the water, and the NHS is beyond full stretch. Unemployment is (despite the massaged figures) at record levels. Why are we importing workers?
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My answer (there are others) is; globalisation. Employers like to minimise labour costs, and they can do so most efficiently by sourcing transnationally. You appear to accept this uncritically.
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Subsidiary question: who’s selling diversity with most enthusiasm? What group of vested interests thinks diversity is a good idea?
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This goes far beyond simplistic insinuations of racism.
I suggest you take your nasty shitstirring somewhere else.
Could do, if I was obsessive about being agreed with. But no, sorry.
Passerby: “Everyone remember, no more prosecutorial, finger wagging and using what was said by whom and how it was written, in evidence. That is fishwifery and not debate.”
If you’ll excuse me for saying so (sweet, smiley icon) that is absolute nonsense. What was said by whom, and how is both evidence and the essence of debate. Or do you see debate as “making stuff up”?
“The notion is to add value and add to the body of knowledge for the benefit of those punters who frequent this board, so they can learn form the transcending lines of thought.”
Knowledge is one thing. The transcending line of thought is another. I will not leave casual readers of this blog under the impression that this country has been overwhelmed by horrendous numbers of foreigners and that it behoves all reasonable inhabitants to debate what should be done about these ‘immigrants’. This ‘transcending line of thought’ is
a) hysterical
b) factually incorrect
c) a significant part of a far right wing agenda (cf the Golden Dawn) which results in the most inhumane and inhuman of policies.
I am very surprised that many good burghers on this board are allowing such views to stand, unchallenged and unexamined. I fully appreciate that many people might feel uncomfortable at the thought of being ‘overwhelmed’ by anything. I fully appreciate that people are both fond and proud of what they see as a national identity, and therefore have a defensive urge to protect it. This does not, no matter how some people may try and force someone like me into saying so, make them racists, necessarily. Racism is a spectrum.
Where I draw my own line (and it is not one drawn for me by the ‘Left’ or by any ideology) is the refusal to examine the reality and facts. Emotions are one thing but allowing one’s emotions to be twisted to the point where one is incapable of realising that people have always attempted to demonise incomers, for example, is another. “Rivers of blood!” “The sky’s fallen in!”.
No-one on this board has managed to come up with any factual consequences of this hysteria, apart from the hysteria itself. Komodo, having ignored the facts about space, financial and cultural gains, empty housing etc, referred to a trial of some sex offenders who happened to be from a different religion. Any balanced view, as he must be aware, would have to acknowledge the countless, equally distressing examples of child abuse rings perpetrated by people who were nominally white and not from other countries. But this does not fit the hysteria. That is not ‘good faith’.
I am sorry that, in between attempting to counter some positively rotten nonsense about ‘aborigines’ and the people of Tottenham from different posters, that I did not have enough energy to take up Clark’s heartfelt take on this (in his earlier posts). I had this discussion, without broken bones or spoken curses, with a relative last night. They ended up agreeing that they did not know where their feelings of panic came from. They could not point to any facts or examples. They were rather relieved to realise this. It is, in fact, a relief to realise that one does not have to be sucked down this far right cess pit.
No-one here is a politician. No-one here is having to demand anything of the politicians: at least, concentrating on ‘immigrants’ is only going to result in one kind of demand. Do people here realise this?
If you want more jobs, and more decent jobs, I suggest you demand more investment in green infrastructure (which creates more jobs than the current model) and the economics of Stieglitz, rather than the economics of vicious elitism. If you want more housing, I suggest you demand more housing, and the use of the million or so empty houses here. If you want more space, I suggest you reclaim the unused land which scars and wastes this country.
In Blackburn, as Nevermind says, people were cold-bloodedly placed into ghettos for political advantage. In London, the GLC policy was deliberately to mix people up. This legacy is a gift, as Londoners know, and an example. Multiculturalism, or ‘multiculti’, if you will, it simply, at bottom, means ‘many cultures’. It is a fact. There are many cultures. They can enrich and learn from each other. To think otherwise is both poverty of imagination and experience, and I am sorry for people who have not had the chance to realise this.
I think this post is pretty pointless, as far as it goes. I think many people here will continue to feel that there is nothing wrong with ‘debating immigration’, while the far right rub their feelers together in the background, as though this debate did anything useful at all. I think many people here are pretty happy with where they are, no matter how much they animadvert against their lot in life, and try and find someone to blame for it. But one has to try.
Anon,
Don’t be so paranoid, at least not on this blog. The owner could have been pretty comfortably off without rocking the boat, that he did so badly and ended up without his cushy job. It is an insult to him who has have given up on everything material to set up a blog and start censoring anyone’s comments. Your comments are probably caught up in the Spam filter give it time for these to be released.
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The electrons are still giggling away in my last comment as I come across this shining example of disinformation;
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Donkey bomb ‘kills Afghan police chief’
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h8Gc9WA_EnXM93gcEwVfdXEGwARA?docId=CNG.b3580f0fe3f349dc2a0b273dddf00d20.691
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Afghan government forces are fighting a bloody war against a decade-long, Taliban-led insurgency with the help of around 130,000 international troops stationed in Afghanistan.
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Completely misrepresenting the Fact that Taliban were actually the government of Afghanistan and were singled out to be attacked after the (cue the deep sinister voice over) “ATTACK ON NEW YORK” (contrived as in pearl harbor), and kicked out of Kabul only to be replaced a bunch of UNOCAL employees appointed to be in charge of the place, that is after elections of course, among a population whom cannot read or write due to the wars that have plagued that benighted country.
Passerby,
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Yes I know fine my comments are caught in the spam filter. Never had that before and I’m amused at what seems to be the key-word it doesn’t like. I know it has nothing to do with Craig.
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Anyway try googling Fort Bragg connections with the shooter. Probably just a apooky coincidence his old job but curious anyway.
technicolour,
Spare me your condescension and assumptions.
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So far the only arguments I have read have been with respect to “racism”, “racism”, “anti semtism”, “anti semistim”.
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Those whom have read my comments in the past would have also read my scathing attacks on the matter of course and real racism concerning the Muslim population in this country. There is not a day going by without some kind of an attack on Muslims that is so accepted and tolerated in the “new normal”. Hatred and bigotry is akin to a forest fire, that would take hold in a very short time and will not relent unless tackled comprehensibly. Go read the comments section; youtube, liveleak, Express, Sun, ……..
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Until such a time that I see a uniform anti racism campaign that reviles any kind of racism and not necessarily is looking after the interest of one particular group, ie: blacks and Jews, the protest somehow rings hollow.
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Hatred and emotions are the dragons that Chinese always caution on riding them. Once hatred takes hold then there are no holds barred. Therefore, to engage in some kind of a dialectic is a futile and fruitless effort.
“Probably just a apooky coincidence”
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Could have sworn I typed “spooky”. I think I’ll go and lie down 🙂
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Craig, we need you back.
Komodo “This goes far beyond simplistic insinuations of racism.”. Indeed. How about a straightforward observation: your ‘shitstirring’ and contentiousness are directed at a topic about which it behoves any thinking human to be a) sensitive and b) in possession of facts. ‘Imported workers’ and immigrants are the people who are, as I, Suhayl and others have pointed out, are already victimised and attacked on a daily basis. Your response to this is a brief cry of ‘sorry about that’ and a segue onto the sad, unrepresentative and extremely inflammatory (as it has been presented in the media) case of Rochdale. Oh, and Enoch Powell. Whose ‘rivers of blood’, or even their analogy, did not materialise, though it is not for the want of boot boys trying.
Which all makes you – what, exactly? You will say that you are simply ‘interested’ in whether one can have a ‘reasonable’ discussion about a far right wing agenda. I am interested to note that you do not seem at all interested in facts or ideas which counter this far right agenda. Instead you still seem to be trying to give reasons for it.
Passerby: Look at “Hope not hate”. Their campaign in Barking was exactly what you want.
” In London, the GLC policy was deliberately to mix people up.”
is what Technicolour wrote.
But this is the reality, for some, in 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/oct/04/alarm-over-racial-segregation-london-schools
And this from a social commentator on the Telegraph using the same old clap trapping terms.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100047117/britains-ethnic-ghettos-mean-liberals-can-wave-goodbye-to-their-dream-of-scandinavian-social-democracy/
Multiculturalism is a wide and abused term, but alos has become reality in metropolitan areas, whatever the GLC tried to achieve, there is Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Golders Green, all ghettos by design, some preceding the high flying ideals of the GLC.