I am delighted that a new canpaign has started today against the state enforced child slavery in the uzbek cotton industry, especially as this campaign originates in Germany, where a significant portion of society appears to have finally woken up to the reality of the German government’s appalling complicity in the Nazi style regime and atrocities of Karimov.
However in the UK it remains the case that since the coalition government came to power, there has not been one single government statement on the human rights atrocities in Uzbekistan or – even more damning of our sham democracy – one single statement or question from New Labour.
The Stephen Sizer thread is a quite a way back now but I have copied there a speech by Mr Michael Connarty a Scottish MP who defends the Rev Sizer in a speech on 23rd January. He upholds free speech and defines anti semitism. Good for him.
@ Villager, 1.54am (and Clark, John Goss, Nevermind, anyone else who’s interested…)
“The letter provides a great template for a wide signature campaign within the UK. Is anything similar afoot?”
I don’t know. Let’s start something here, yes?
When I have some time over the weekend I’ll have a little think about what best to do with it – maybe do a copy taking out all the bits directly addressing the Taoiseach and replace those with a blank, then send it to Justice4Assange to put up on their “Action” page… I can do that.
Perhaps anyone here who’s interested in getting involved could post a list of “persons of influence” they personally think would make good recipients, then maybe Mary might be kind enough to help us dig out their email/snail mail addresses (I’d have a go at that too)?
Any other ideas?
“Any other ideas?”
Perhaps firstly send it to serious Assange critics to see if they can poke any holes in it, before sending it out on masse; that way you can pre-empt some of the superficial knee-jerk negative responses.
Thanks for the excellent report from the vigil and sorry for being not well and economically hampered at present, Arbed, would have loved to meet you. There is always another time.
The lack of real response and show from the Oxford Union makes me think whether some dark forces are behind their apparent objections. If so called educated and informed students in one of the best universities in the country, refuse to read up the case and come up with excuses of @copyright on murderous video’s, then that is giving Oxford University no credit.
Has Oxford Union been given incentive’s to act as they did? Is this the sort cowardly lack of candid conduct that is encouraged by its lecturers and professors? Or did they not get involved at all and left it all to the MI’s? very much a possibility.
Thanks for the news that the Bank of England will repatriate some 44.138tns of German gold back to the Vaterland, Cryptonym,, it will make for more real accounting and clear heads. off course it will also ring a bell with other countries who have gold stored in the NY Fed, London or Paris, all involved in this recall.
Thanks Phil W. for making it so clear to us that this concerted attack here is not normal, it has changed the tone this morning to a schmooze mode which will soon change again.
As for Jimmy Saville lost soul grooming of Margaret Thatcher at Christmas, his Royal connections and the commonalities that connect many high flyers and politicians, many of them still alive, in places such as Haute la Garenne and St Saviours, it looks like they did not share his nefarious and nightly duties, sic, at the Leeds hospital infirmary.
My granny once said ‘before you wipe the nose of others, be aware of your own dripping conk’
OK this is off-topic, but several people here are interested in the ‘powers that be’ and how they achieve things – often by using methods that remain opaque to most of the population – so I hope nobody minds.
The question is: who do we reckon is wielding the ‘Votes at 16‘ lobby?
In bullshit speak, ‘freedom’, ‘choice’ and ’empowerment’ mean following the leader, being stupid, and throwing money away on ephemeral rubbish, especially so as to get into big-time debt…
… so the following possibilities come to mind
* moneylenders?
How they’d love to get 16-yos and 17-yos into debt, as they’ve managed to do in such a big way with 18-yos! ‘Payday loan’ 4000%-per-year loansharks Wonga may be a spearhead here.
* Virgin?
Not exactly unconnected with moneylenders – what in the UK is? – this youth-facing company offers financial services to many charities, including the British Youth Council (*).
* Facebook?
I think it’s almost impossible that this CIA-established company isn’t involved somewhere in this. They will benefit so much, that even if they weren’t involved in the first place, and you were running an outfit that owned a big chunk of the campaign, you’d want Facebook to stump up some of the costs, wouldn’t you? And they’d have to, or lose out. But more than likely, this surveillance-culture company that has commercialised, spectacularised and muckened, for many young people, the notions of friendship and ‘liking’ – and has played a very important role in idiotisation – must have been involved from early on in the campaign, don’t people think?
I’d be interested in any information that connects the big commercial players in the youth market to this.
Note
====
(*) The British Youth Council, set up as an anti-leftwing cultural front by the UK Foreign Office many decades ago, is the current chair of Votes at 16. Unfortunately, they turned themselves into a charity in the early 1960s and are exempt from the FOIA.
“WikiLeaks movie ‘anti-Iran propaganda'”
Remarkably straightforward account of Speilberg’s latest piece of propaganda, reported in The Australian:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/film/julian-assange-says-wikileaks-movie-anti-iran-propaganda/story-e6frg8pf-1226560555359
“A subsequent scene in Cairo showed an Iranian nuclear scientist talking with a CIA agent.
The scientist says Iran is testing the explosive in the next six months.
But Assange said in actual fact, the US’s own intelligence agencies had confirmed Iran didn’t have a nuclear weapons program.”
“It’s a lie upon a lie – a great big-budget thing that’s going to be pushed out in November.”
“Assange was addressing the Oxford Union’s annual Sam Adams Awards, which recognises courageous whistleblowers. He is a previous winner.”
The subbies must have been at their stubbies to let this one through.
Habby complains:
“Phil has assembled a veritable new Book of Habbakuk. A ggod effort, but marred by a certain selectivity, shall we say”
I’m pretty sure the intention was to select those pieces of yours in which you let that carefully contrived yet rather thin mask slip sideways revealing the tortured soul within.
Clearly he did a very good job.
Well done Phil!
I live halfway up an ordinary suburban street with mostly semi-detached houses, not close to any road junctions. In the daytime, there are loads of parking places in the street. For some reason, I keep getting different vans with livery saying “M J Quinn – Integrated Services Ltd – Working in partnership with Openreach BT” parked in front of my house. Every time, they’ve kept the engine on, and someone’s been sitting in the front, writing. Admittedly it’s cold.
Anyone else had anything like this?
MJQ claim a fleet of 1000. They say their contract with BT Openreach required them “to quickly mobilise” a “workforce of 100 engineers”. Funny I’ve had 4 different vans carrying the above livery outside of my house within a fortnight.
Good news from Africa:
“Isabel dos Santos, the eldest daughter of Angola’s president, has become Africa’s first female billionaire, US financial magazine Forbes has said.
“The 40 year old’s shares in several Portuguese firms, including a TV cable company, and an Angolan bank put her on the billionaires’ list, Forbes said.”
The US, Forbes et al worship the wealthy regardless of how that wealth in achieved.
Angola has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world and one of the world’s lowest life expectancies.
The country is rich in diamonds, gold and oil but most of the population have to live on about £1.25 a day.
From allafrica.com 17/10/2012:
“Angola: Malnutrition Escalating, Doctors Desperate to Save Lives”
“The scenes are shocking as Dr. Vivian Luiz make rounds at the Municipality hospital in Caala in Huambo province, 700km south of Luanda. Scenes of wasted children are not [nice] to watch.”
The G8 leaders however do not go hungry as the following menu from the 2008 G8 Summit in Japan where the main topic was world food shortages, shows:
First course:
Amuse-bouche
Corn stuffed with caviar
Smoked Salmon and Sea Urchin “Pain Surprise style”
Hot Onion Tart
Winter Lily Bulb and Summer Savory
Second course:
Folding Fan Modeled Tray decorated with Bamboo Grasses for Tanabata Festival
Kelp-flavoured cold Kyoto Beef shabu-shabu, asparagus dressed with sesame cream
Diced fatty flesh of Tuna Fish, Avocado and Jellied Soy Sauce, and Japanese Herb “Shiso”
Boiled clam, tomato, Japanese Herb “shiso” in jellied clear soup of clam
Water Shield and Pink Conger dressed with Vinegary Soy Sauce
Boiled Prawn and Jellied Tosazu-Vinegar
Grilled Eel rolled around Burdock strip
Sweet Potato
Fried and Seasoned Goby with Soy Sauce and Sugar
Third course:
Hairy Crab “Kegani” Bisque Style Soup
Fourth course:
Salt-Grilled Bighand Thornyhead with Vinegary Water Pepper Sauce
Fifth course:
Poele of Milk Fed lamb from “Shiranuka” flavoured with aromatic herbs and mustard and roasted Lamb with “cepes” and Black Truffle with emulsion sauce of Lamb’s stock and pine seed oil
Sixth course:
Our special selection Cheese, lavender honey and caramelized nuts
Seventh course:
G8 Fantasy dessert
Eighth course:
Coffee served with Candied Fruits and Vegetables
Wines:
Le Reve Grand Cru Brut/La Seule Gloire Champagne
ISOJIMAN Junmai Daiginjo Nakadori (Sake)/Isojiman Shuzo Shizuoka
Corton Charlemagne 2005/Louis Latour Bourgogne
Ridge California Monte Bello 1997
This man has got life, what’s left of it for him, in perspective. Full of love and spirit, and humour. Wilko Johnson/Dr Feelgood.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21191938
Doug Scorgie She sounds like Gulnara! Screwing assets out of Portugal. http://www.news.com.au/business/meet-isabel-dos-santos-africas-first-woman-billionaire/story-e6frfm1i-1226560592774
Any connection to the grubby and blood stained hands of Blair? He is as attracted to other rich people as a tsetse fly is to cattle.
Imagine what is going down the throats in Davos. I note that ZBC have a contingent there as they did for the American elections and then last week’s inauguration. The travel and subsistence claims must be massive. How much is a hotel room in Davos at the moment for instance?
Re Habbabuk
Yes I forgot that other common shill tactic of trying to befriend & gather support by engaging with one or two regular Posters; but note that the engagement is totally superficial as witness the trouble poor Glenn has gone in the Civilised Countries debate, with at least two long posts full of good points requiring responses, and then there’s Habbabkuk feeble response of a couple of short stalling statements with promises of more to come, which of course never materialise, as he/she doesn’t really want to really debate this as it of course distracts from the real troll mission.
Further to the point I note that Habbabuk claims “an impatience with intellectual dishonesty and cowardice”, which is a projection neatly display in this little exchange which followed yet another round of Habbabuk’s constant advocating for attacking Syria, and a previous expressed desire that Assad to be “given the Gaddafi treatment”.
:
Habbabkuk; “Still nothing to say on torture by the Assad regime (father and son)?”
Macky; “Yes, unfortunately Evil exists in this world; and it manifests itself in a myriad of ways, such as advocating death & destruction on a whole Country, or expressing a desire to see somebody tortured to death”
Habbabkuk; “So Macky sees Evil – note the capital letter, it’s impressive – in the Syrian opposition (“..advocating death and destruction on a whole Country..”) and in poor little Habbabkuk, but not, apparently, in the Assad dictators (father and son).
So that’s Macky well exposed”
Note the deliberate mis-equating of the advocacy of death & destruction not with his own obvious advocating, but onto the Syrian opposition, and note the apparent blatant & imbecilic lie that I didn’t acknowledge the use of torture by the Assad regime despite my “Yes, unfortunately Evil exists in this world;” in direct reply to his question. A deliberate misrepresentation followed by a direct answer apparently going over his/hers head; it would take a enormous amount of honest stupidity for one of these to occur, but only a deliberate fake stupidity for both, and of course, lapses into fake stupidity is a classic troll tactic. Also note the be deliberate attempts to start an argument with the attempted provocation of “So that’s Macky well exposed”, yet another classic troll characteristic.
It’s quite something that Habbabuk complains about “intellectual dishonesty and cowardice” after that damning performance, one of many, but when you remember that he/she has also been pulled up several times by Jon (the Mod) for sock-puppetting, well that really is chutzpah.
@ English Knight, sorry but I want neither your “respect” or indeed anything to do with you; you are either another Zionist agent provocateur troll, or you are the real thing, a disgusting racist & raving anti-Semite with your talk of “goyim”, “muzzies” & “whiff of gas”.
On reading further into the zero hedge link provided by Crytonym this morning, this sub link seems to talk of the more important facts, which are that the Fed and BoE conspired to give Germany substandard gold, despite being warned by the refiners of this metal.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-11-09/exclusive-bank-england-fed-no-indication-should-course-be-given-bundesbank
It’ll all come out in a wash and it will make other
countries also want to repatriate their gold reserves.
Great lavish menu that, Dougie, it had me slobberin’, a point well made.
@ Mary. My heart jolted when I read your Dr. Feelgood link, cause I refused chemo in 2001, but my cancer was not terminal, caught just in time before spreading, well, that’s what the doctor said, touch wood.
I so wish that he can fulfil his last ambition to the full.
Cameron and Osborne are not shrinking but the economy is. The IMF are having a go at them and asking for a Plan B!
http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2013/01/25/uk-economy-shrinking-again-as-triple-dip-spectre-looms
A triple dip sounds like an ice cream.
The patently transparent Cleggover attempts to disassociate himself from the collapse by saying that the cuts at the beginning were too severe.
Mmm – “triple dip” – mint, coconut and lemon?
This is the 471,003,489th example of the coining of a buzzphrase to hinder people from thinking. To be repeated by everyone who wants to think they keep up with stuff, but doesn’t want to keep up with stuff very much, because that would mean looking out of their window.
Edward Bernays in his great work ‘Propaganda’ talks about stockphrases.
I hate the media so much!
Buzzphrase ‘thought’ is just so hard to get people to break down. “So you believe in conspiracy theory then?“
‘Carry on up the Niger’ indeed. Robert Fisk’s makes the valid point of our inherent racism and forked tongue’s when it comes to ‘collateral damage’
well said Robert laser write it on to the HoC.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/algeria-mali-and-why-this-week-has-looked-like-an-obscene-remake-of-earlier-western-interventions-8457828.html
Village; “ but have a strong intuition that these men preferred to target white girls as a matter of personal preference”
If this “intuition” has anything to do with immersing yourself in Krishnamurtic teaching, then I’m inclined to give it a miss, but perhaps it’s just old fashion latent prejudice venting itself to the surface.
Village; “Why such ‘unease’ anyway. I think their intimidation of their victim was disgusting.”
First feeling of unease was you using “khaffar trash.”, only racists Muslims & racist Islamophobes tend to use such expressions; If you want to refer to Muslim racists, using the standard demonising language of Islamophobes is not a good idea. Second feeling of unease is that you went to the trouble to provide a somewhat rare clip that show young idiotic Muslims behaving badly in the context adding support to a racist post from Habbabkuk; for your trouble even Habbabkuk was not impressed, but only because of “ a total absence of physical violence and even the verbal violence seems rather non-threatening”
(Apologises to other Posters for interrupting with these last few comments, but these things really needed to be addressed.)
Official statistics are all lies. There’s probably been no growth in production, or very little, in the UK since the beginning of the 1980s.
Meanwhile, the banks and betting shops seem to be doing well. They share the most visible spots on British high streets between them, in different proportions according to what town you’re in. Normally the main corner sites are occupied by banks, though.
What journalist shall I ‘follow’ if I want to read about that? 🙂
Er…
I keep thinking of Ireland, where the gangsters stopped their conflict because there was so much money to be made, for everyone but the lower orders, out of the massive rise of debt, also known as a ‘housing boom’. (A well-known example of this is Sean Quinn.)
Houses were knocked down and people got massive loans to ‘buy’ new ones that continued to rise and rise in price, keeping up their interest payments by working in jobs the vast majority of which were dependent on, you guessed it, the continuing expansion of the bubble. Then, oh dear.
I’ll have to go back and read Bob Beckman’s ‘Downwave’.
What I’m wondering is whether the whole of the Keynesian epoch is fileable under the same header. Wasn’t meant to last. Regarding China, we hear about a middle class numbering 200 million or whatever, all going to B&Q, etc. etc., but the reality is that there won’t be any Keynesianism for the vast majority of people in China, who are very low-paid and won’t be getting any productivity-dependent wage increases any time soon.
Meanwhile in the UK, where the only-slightly-secret ideology of ruling class circles remains a rabid Malthusianism…not too hard to guess what’s coming…
Have just had Sky News on. They had an ex CIA operative on to add to the hype on the Bigelow film Zero Dark Thirty. It is being given credibility by the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee who seem to think that the producers were given too much inside info by the CIA etc and are investigating. In other words, it is the TRUTH. How gullible do they think we are?
I am also appalled by their reporter Alex Crawford who was filmed sitting in an armoured vehicle belonging to the French military on their way to another slaughter zone in Mali and giving it large as the saying goes. She was in Libya too and in Syria more recently. She is obviously excited by war and killing which is strange in a mother of four children. She must see many dead bodies of children in her travels. Unsurprisingly, she has been given an OBE for services to broadcast journalism, ie doing the masters’ bidding.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Crawford
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Crawford
Macky at 25 Jan, 1:03 pm: I find that a convincing analysis of Habbabkuk’s contributions, and I agree with you about English Knight.
Fred, you’ve been more civil lately, but you’ll need to show a constructive attitude for some time before I abandon one of my theories about you, which is that you’re part of a “Good Cop / Bad Cop” routine with Habbabkuk. Even if you’re not, those comments of yours which are abusive and/or aggressive effectively serve as a distraction from, and provide cover for, the real problem.
Mary, just a little note of support for you; I continue to appreciate your comments and your links, and it seems clear to me that Habbabkuk has been targetting you for some time.
Cryptonym, yes, I’m still here, though I definitely have “got the hump”, though not with you. I’d really appreciate private communication with you so that we can get some matters straightened out between us. My contact details are available from the link on my name by my avatar; please use the shorter address.
All: please be very careful about how you respond to Habbabkuk, who seems to be a master at turning any aggression, even retaliatory, to his/her own advantage. Rather like the corporate / political system itself, come to think of it. Each time one of us rises to bait, we make our own ripple on the surface. If we resist rising, it will soon become obvious exactly who it is that is distributing the bait.
Habbabkuk, if I have formed a wrong impression of you, I apologise. However, it is perfectly possible to oppose arguments without trying to discredit the persons who made them. If you consistently stick to that, you might gain my approval.
Memories of times spent in Oxford? The Bullingdon boys, Boris, Dave and Gideon, gather in Davos. They didn’t wreck the joint this time though.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_zsT6t6L_M0/UQJX814smvI/AAAAAAAAIV4/z1HbTQkA39o/s1600/Davos.png
‘As is normal, David Cameron was told the GDP figures yesterday a full 24 hours before you ad I. He knew our economy had shrank by 0.3% and is now staring a triple dip recession in the face. But that did not stop him enjoying as Bullingdon get together at the Altepost in Davos last night. He really does not care about the misfortune and hardship of ordinary people. Last night, @BenStewart999 who was in Davos photographed George Osborne, David Cameron and Boris Johnson enjoying a slap up meal in full knowledge our economy stands on the brink of a triple dip recession and losing our triple A rating.
Ben reported that the Eton trio were in great form at the £22 a pizza restaurant but that the average meal was £45.’
From The Green Benches blog. I don’t think you would much of a slap up meal in Davos for £45 at the moment
PS Petrol has gone up in price today due to the drop in the value of sterling.
Clark
I think I made myself clear. Anyone wants to discuss the issues with me I am more than happy to be civil. Anyone wants to start making it personal I’ll flame them to Hell and back.
That’s all you need to know about me.
Fred “You pretended to be offended by the word “prick” to try and drum up support against me to further your Nationalist agenda.”
You’ve lost it. I’ve never pretended to be offended by the word ‘prick’, you are mistaking me for someone else. Indeed I have never made a single comment on your language, till last night, when I suggested that one in subject area, you might have justification for it.
Try to recognise when somone is supporting you. Wish I hadn’t. Conversation is closed.
@ Clark : I hesitate to take up yet more space, but I do think that your post of 14h40 is worth responding to because (1) it seems thoughtful/civil/balanced, and (2) it nevertheless contains some misapprehensions which I’d like to rectify if possible. I’ll do it para by para for ease of reading.
Para 1 : I don’t think that was an analysis, actually. An analysis would take the totality of my posts and evaluate them not only per se but also in their context, while also taking into account your best guess as to motivation. What Macky has done is to take a small selection of posts and present them to a large extent out of context, the intention being to prove…well, I’m not sure what: that I’m rude, disruptive, a racist, a Zionist….take your pick.
Para 2 : I’m certainly not a double act (neither consciously nor unconsciously as far as I know) with Fred and in fact feel quite insulted that you should couple our names. I have no idea who Fred is, I don’t really care who he is, and in any event I tend to look at the content of people’s posts rather than at who’s doing the posting. To devote time to the latter would be mere idle speculation.
Para 3 : targetting Mary. Firstly, in line with what I said above, I chastise, weher necessary, people for the content of their posts, not because they’re called Mary or whatever. The word “targetting” implies frequency; well, here you have to consider two factors (1) Mary does do a lot of posting and some of her posts contain elements I object to, and (2) if you look carefully (cf. the point I was making under Para 1 above)yo will see that I comment on a very small number of Mary’s posts. BTW, see my next post for an example of what I feel impelled to comment on – it’s not Mary, but it’s Mary-like.
Para 5 : if, by putting people on their guard as far as how they respond to me is concerned, you get people to realise that they need to “post better” (ie, better arguments better presented, elimination of the dafter conspiracy theories, better balance, etc) then you wil have performed a service which I could only welcome. On the personal level, you just seem to be saying that I’m a rather intelligent and good debater….is that a bad thing? Anyway, I guess you wouldn’t expect me to disagree…:)
Para 6 : well, I think you have formed the wrong impression, but I guess you’d expect me to say that. All I can suggest is that you ponder the above points and see whether you feel any need to revise your judgement.
Is this the right room for an argument?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFKtI6gn9Y
Good article on an article about George Orwell over at the spruced up medialens
http://medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/alerts-2013/715-eyes-like-blank-discs-the-guardian-s-steven-poole-on-george-orwell-s-politics-and-the-english-language.html
Is this the right room for an argument?!
Haabaaboring: “yes it is”
Rest of room: “NO IT ISN’T”
As promised in my last post, here’s an example of the sort of clever-silly post to which I feel like responding from time to time.
“Doug Scorgie” posts at 12h15 as follows :
“Good news from Africa:
Isabel dos Santos, the eldest daughter of Angola’s president, has become Africa’s first female billionaire, US financial magazine Forbes has said.”
THat was an interesting bit of info which was worth sharing. To my simple mind, it perhaps says a lot about Isabel dos Santos, her President father and good governance in Angola (or even in most of Africa).
But instead of building on that info in the above direction(s), what use does “Doug” make of it? Why, he goes straight on to say
“The US, Forbes et al worship the wealthy regardless of how that wealth was achieved”.
Apart from the mental laziness of the “et al” expression (who does “Doug”” actually have in mind?), what is the connection between the US, Forbes and the mysterious “others” and the fact that good governance in Angola is probably non-existent? One simply gets the feeling of being in the presence of a simplistic, deviationary knee-jerk, throw-away line, and I for one feel thaat this blog deserves rather better.
Voilà !
Nevermind, my impression is that all of the gold that went from the BoE to Bundesbank in 2000 was 100% perfect in every respect. The impure gold was sent from New York, via the BoE in 1968 and the BoE off its own bat tested it and found impurities, reporting this back to the the Federal Reserve, but not immediately to the Bundesbank, to whom it was then forwarded, and the Fed later made good the difference. Indications are that this may have came from coin melts in the US in the 1930s and would contain impurities as necessary for improved hardness and so on. Newer bars have surfaced with rods of tungsten through them, you might have seen the pictures, leading to Germany now wishing to re-patriate its overseas holdings for a very thorough audit and re-melt, modern technology making total assurance possible.
Thanks for your kind words Clark. I have great respect for you and appreciate what you said. Could you find out how Craig is. Hope he is OK as it’s been a while. Just hope he has not been keeping up here.
PS I am thinking of getting one of these.
http://www.ambientedirect.com/en/alessi/dr-skud-fly-swatter_pid_8_3160.html