Here in Ghana people are stunned by the announcement that a bond of £3,000 will have to be submitted by visa applicants to the UK, redeemable on return.
It is unpleasant for a nation to be singled out as comprised of particularly untrustworthy individuals against whom special measures are needed. Theresa May appears quite deliberately to be singling out countries whose citizens are normally black or brown – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ghana and Nigeria. They are all citizens with extremely close ties to the UK. For example, all of those countries supplied large numbers of men to British armed forces in two World Wars; with little resulting gratitude.
The true level of Britain’s regard for the Commonwealth is disclosed in all its arrogance; citizenship of the Commonwealth countries with the longest link to the UK will become a positive disadvantage in visa application. Israeli settlers living in Occupied Palestine on the West Bank, incidentally, will still be allowed to enter the UK without any visa at all, despite membership of neither Commonwealth nor EU. Paradoxical, isn’t it?
The measure shows the arrogant British disdain for these countries – of which India pre-eminently but also Ghana are fast growing and important trading partners. Undoubtedly Ghana will retaliate with measures which hurt British businesses; many of my good friends are senior Ghanaian politicians, and they are all furious. The rhetoric the British employ about transformation from colonial status to a modern partnership of equals is exposed for the tissue of lies it has always been. This is a straightforward racist measure, aimed at securing the racist vote to the Tories.
Not does it make any sense. If you are intending to enter the UK under false pretences, and have the intent illegally to settle and start a new life there, then £3,000 is scarcely a deterrent given the substantial economic gains you intend to make over the long period you intend to stay. It will rather seem a good investment; people will find the money. The people it will deter are those who never intended to overstay. The extra cash upfront, to the businessman for a business trip, for the student coming to study, for the tourist will drive them to go elsewhere, to the UK’s net loss.
More cruelly it will deter decent middle class people from coming to see grandchildren in the holidays, from going to the niece’s wedding, from going to graduation. Those things will become the prerogative of the wealthy, those with plenty of cash to spare.
This does nothing to deter illegal immigration. It merely demonstrates populist racism, demonstrates contempt for some of the UK’s best-disposed friends, and demonstrates that the government thinks the right to travel is only for the rich. It is contemptible.
@ Habbabkuk
Does anyone know? Has there ever been an example in the history of the world of a king, prince, emperor, mogul, caliph or similar potentate renouncing his wealth and titles on the grounds that he was no different from anyone else and didn’t deserve the special treatment?
OK The Buddha. Any others?
“I agree. Trowbridge doesn’t talk like that.”
KoWN, No, he doesn’t.
Jon has got rid of those posts, thankfully.
President of Uruguay:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/05/world/americas/after-years-in-solitary-an-austere-life-as-uruguays-president.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Villager: I’m thinking about it 🙂 I do rather care about what happens to this blog.
Something for the weekend:
Are we all full of hot air, rationalising our lack of action by looking overseas and lecturing the like minded?
I understand Craig’s experience and interests are international but maybe that is why we are here. But perhaps the international aspect divorces us from the drive to take action.
I believe it given that the most effective way we can help the palestinians, the syrians, the sudanese et al is to change our country. Bring down the murderous establishment here who rain death around the globe. The establishment who despises us.
Sooner or later observing crimes becomes voyeurism nomatter how much you cry foul. We complain that the majority of people are puppets of propaganda. Not us. We see through it. But what to do? Do I hope these puppets will stumble here, read my comment and experience epihany? Cause that ain’t gonna happen. We argue with trolls and preach to the converted. It make us feel better and deflates our outrage.
I do wonder, if the likes of us are not prepared to discuss actions and act, then who?
So, what do you think of Left Unity? I am no particular fan of Loach but considering the labour party is lost, is this the only game in town?
http://leftunity.org/groups/
The Venezuelan right-wing only accepts democracy if they win:
“As part of ongoing attempts to prevent President Nicolas Maduro from consolidating his leadership in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, right-wing forces at home and abroad have reissued false claims that he was born in neighboring Colombia.”
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/9771
You have to laugh really.
@Phil. 1 09pm
Good point.
Chanllenging outworn narratives is vital too though.
Don’t both our individual and collective actions arise out of our interpretations of reality?
“Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread like viruses do.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tipping_Point
Plenty of food for thought here.
Once the old narratives become objects of widespread scorn, no amount of orders from the top will hold the tide. Witness the implosion of the old Soviet Union. I’ve heard an old russian say he thought the cassette tape was a crucial new technology in the dismantling of the old memes. Look what we have to paly with now.
Once a critical mass of people see the Emperors New Clothes it becomes impossible to impose the old fairy tales. Until that time the old order persists.
We’ve all got families and friends. So do members of the uniformed protectors of the elites.
Oliver Stone’s documentary “South of the Border” shows how, in Venezuela home grown democracy germinated and took root only after lower ranks in the army realised their allegiance to their families and nation came before allegiance to generals.
The brilliant Irish documentary “Inside the Coup” focuses on the detail of the 2002 coup, and how spontaneous public mobilisation coupled with another army mutiny turned it around.
It’s already happening among parts of our human family, so let’s take heart and persevere.
Liberté, égalité, fraternité,…..time for tea!
Not sure how many are aware of this site, which contains a wealth of info, interviews etc, exploring what’s going on in the world today:
http://www.corbettreport.com/
It’s really quite good at explaining geopolitics and economics in simple terms, and their whole archive is online.
This interview for example explains Syria and currency wars without the “designed to confuse” complexity that we see elsewhere:
http://www.corbettreport.com/interview-673-the-geneva-business-insider-with-david-l-smith/
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-snowden-20130629,0,7711506.story
“”It is outrageous to try to delegitimize a state for receiving a petition for asylum,” Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said in a speech in Ecuador.
Correa contended that the news media at first welcomed Snowden’s leaks about secret U.S. programs to collect phone logs and Internet emails but later suggested the actions were treasonous.
“What a joke!” the president said in a tweet. The media, he said, are “making everyone forget the terrible things that he denounced in front of the American people and the entire world.”
Correa added that, for the asylum request to be processed and approved, Snowden first must find his way to the Ecuadorean Embassy in Moscow or to Ecuador. “We don’t know it’ll be resolved,” he said.”
Ecuadoreans are split on whether to give Snowden asylum.
@ KingofWelshNoir – Your quote “It’s also true, is it not, that those born to positions of tremendous privilege and wealth are mandated by their own egos to believe that they are innately different”
Thanks for your comment. That’s true, and their egos will be fed by a stream of yes-men and courtiers. Any who contradict them will soon be out of the circle. The most extreme example of this need to feed their ego is a belief in arrant nonsense like the “divine right of kings”. Most of the inherited super-rich don’t go this far, but they still believe they are special.
However I would disagree when you say “in order to be able face themselves in the mirror each morning?” Not for one moment do the super-rich ever feel a need to justify their wealth. They seldom associate with people who would contradict that view. They will find a way to justify almost anything they want to do. And if it’s illegal, MI5/MI6 will ensure that it remains confidential. There are few who have the honesty of Andrew Carnegie in this matter, but a lot who, as my wife puts it, are “ignorant and arrogant”.
Just been watching BA’s live talk in Soweto on BBC24. All the questions from the audience were soft, until a young man asked a question on US foreign policy.
Unfortunately, the coverage then stopped.
Probably just a coincidence.
Just a word of thanks to Craig. No ads. No pop-ups. It’s really annoying to visit sites who are rife with merchandise or services to hawk. A tip o’ the hat to you old boy.
Kibo Noh 29 Jun, 2013 – 2:28 pm
“Don’t both our individual and collective actions arise out of our interpretations of reality?”
Yes but I do worry that we become a group talking to each other but never leaving the room.
Thanks for Big Brother’s take in the LAT, BF, very instructive. Domestic US propaganda consistently tries to twist Snowden’s case into a bilateral foreign policy issue. The US government needs foreign devils and enemies within. But Snowden’s case has started the wheels of an international process that the US is desperate to derail.
Russia has consistently maintained that action wrt Snowden should be under the purview of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. This opens the door for Snowden to get laissez-passer under the 1951 refugee convention, and Snowden’s got a good case as a person in fear of persecution and torture for his opinions. Non-refoulement protects Snowden from being returned to a state known to torture rights defenders, e.g Bradley Manning. Espionage charges are classic persecution tactics used by police states fighting for impunity.
As a rights defender (acting to promote freedom-of-information and privacy rights of the ICCPR and UDHR,) Snowden is in the remit of the special rapporteur on rights defenders, and subject to corresponding protective initiatives of the EU, the OAS, and international NGOs, incl.:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/SRHRDefenders/Pages/CommentarytotheDeclarationonHumanRightsDefenders.aspx
http://www.ohchr.org/en/Issues/SRHRDefenders/Pages/SRHRDefendersIndex.aspx
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Defenders/CommentarytoDeclarationondefendersJuly2011.pdf
The established principle is, a state cannot prosecute a person for defending human rights. Viewing Snowden as a rights defender short-circuits all the HERO! TRAITOR! HERO!! TRAITOR!! nonsense. The point is not Snowden’s virtues or US interests, but the importance of defending the human rights of privacy and freedom of information.
Herbie 29 Jun, 2013 – 3:12 pm
http://www.corbettreport.com/
Yes, I’m a fan of James Corbett too. For those who have FreeSat or Sky TV, you can enjoy the novelty of watching truth coming out of your telly by watching the Corbett Report on Channel 191, or +1 hour later on channel 193. Paradigmshift TV rents air time on that channel and regularly puts out good stuff. They change their schedule often so it’s best to check times on their website here …
http://paradigmshift.tv/pstv/default/about
… but, for example, tonight it’s on at 7.00pm followed at 8.00pm by UK Column News (not everyone’s cup of tea but they keep a beady eye on Common Purpose’s shenanigans, and the Media Trust, and other dark subjects) followed by Deek Jackson on FKN Newz.
@ Doug Scorgie (13h58)
“As part of ongoing attempts to prevent President Nicolas Maduro from consolidating his leadership in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, right-wing forces at home and abroad have reissued false claims that he was born in neighboring Colombia.”
_______________
Absolutely terrible, dastardly and heinous! These dark, satanic forces must be stopped. What next – will they try to assassinate him with a feather duster?
Venceremos!
Herbie 29 Jun, 2013 – 3:12 pm
“This interview for example explains [Syria and] currency wars”
Interesting stuff. Buy the effing dip. If you’ve got the cash that is.
Such doomsday mearchants who predict the demise of fiat currencies are very convincing but their predictions seem to not come true. There’s no propaganda like financial propaganda. Perhaps the ineviatable collapse will happen tomorrow.
Cog; My scribbling doesn’t rise to the level of your suggestions.
I don’t know why there isn’t more talk of UN involvement. Section 10 approaches the derogations of such policy and I wonder. Do they mean ’emergency’ in the sense of Syria or NK?
Using sanctions against the US for failing to meet the International standards agreed upon., (US signed on amirite) looks like just the ticket. Veto, for sure, but the international scene is right up Obama’s ass and he would take the heat with some anxiety.
Good show.
waving off the gnat…….http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/27/ecuador-us-trade-pact-edward-snowden
“The waiving of preferential trade rights followed threats from members of the US congress to drop the ATPA in July, when it is due for renewal, unless Ecuador toed the line on Snowden.
“Ecuador does not accept pressure or threats from anyone, nor does it trade with principles or submit them to mercantile interests, however important those may be,” said Fernando Alvarado, the communications secretary.
“Ecuador gives up, unilaterally and irrevocably, the said customs benefits.”
The announcement will enhance President Correa’s reputation as a bold leader unafraid to defy the US, just like the late Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez.”
I think the Guardian deserves some credit for sticking to the story.
The interviewee from Herbie’s Corbett video discusses the possibility of cyprus like bail-ins throughout the world. He says the banks are going to steal your money during a coming bank holiday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7DWr20KiB0&list=UUdWfm3zOoZUrf5X4TLd4CPA&index=8
And it appears the laws to do this are being enacted right now. Of course in the world of financial propaganda it is presented as a good thing for tax payers (no more bail outs).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jun/27/eu-agrees-banks-bail-in-deal
“Such doomsday merchants who predict the demise of fiat currencies are very convincing but their predictions seem to not come true.”
Fiat currencies are always demising. The point is that they’re a very poor store of value because bankers insist on continually devaluing them, to their own profit.
The current currency wars, after the bubbles and pops, will be a speeded up version of this process laying waste the wealth of anyone who has it stored in fiat currency.
Despite the small passing presence of Icke and Alex Jones, this is quite good too:
http://financearmageddon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/the-fall-of-dollar-death-of-fiat.html
This site contains some excellent free documentaries, exploring why things happen the way they do:
http://metanoia-films.org/films/
“This report outlines 35 cases where Ministerial claims using statistics on the subject of Work and Benefits have fallen short of the standards expected of Government Ministers.
We believe that this demonstrates a consistent pattern of abuse of official statistics by Ministers of the present Government to paint a false picture of benefit claimants in the UK in support of policies which are aimed at cost cutting to the detriment of jobless, sick and disabled people.
Within this document, each case is presented, and fully referenced to source material throughout.”
http://de.scribd.com/doc/149776210/DPAC-Report-on-DWP-Abuse-of-Statistics-Final-22-June-2013
This is the video of beheadings that I posted yesterday with some commentary. Nothing about it in the corporate media. It is obviously not worthy of mention and is a completely normal happening in their minds. I could not watch it through but I am told that the headless bodies are shown still moving and then the heads are finally displayed on poles. Women and children were witness to it.
http://rt.com/news/syria-beheadings-video-assad-401/
I am sending it to my MP, who is a Conservative, with a plea to Cameron not to supply further arms or weaponry to the rebels.
There is just one show of sanity in the HoC from John Baron who, with a group of fellow MPs, is requesting a debate and will attempt to remove Cameron’s power to take any further action in the long recess which Cameron has reserved.
John Baron’s recent activity in the HoC. http://www.theyworkforyou.com/search/?pid=10715&pop=1
Written Answers — Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs: Syria (24 June 2013)
John Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what definition his Department uses for an extremist when allocating military and non-military aid in Syria.
Written Answers — Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs: Syria (24 June 2013)
John Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what estimate he has made of the total number of (a) people and (b) people described by his Department as extremists fighting in Syria against government forces.
Oral Answers to Questions — Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Geneva Conference on Syria (18 June 2013)
John Baron: What his policy is on the possible inclusion of Iran as a participant in the forthcoming Geneva conference on Syria.
Oral Answers to Questions — Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Geneva Conference on Syria (18 June 2013)
John Baron: Politicians should leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of a diplomatic solution. Does the Foreign Secretary therefore understand widespread concern that we are not giving diplomacy the best chance if Iran, a key player in the region, is excluded? Will he do what he can to encourage its inclusion?
Doug Scorgie. 1.58pm Radonski Caprile is a bad loser.
Venceremos. Long live Maduro, Correa and any other South American democratically elected leader who stands up to the evil Empire.
Obama was speaking in Soweto and regaling the rather unresponsive youngsters with a reminder of Mandela’s 27 year long imprisonment. He told them to face the sun and to keep their feet going forward. What tripe. More of his empty rhetoric.
He did not mention his prisoners in Guantanamo or Bradley Manning or the current pursuit or Edward Snowden or the over 300 extra judicial killings by Hellfire missiles from drones that have occurred under his watch.
Weekend Edition June 28-30, 2013
Power Over People
Treason
by ROB URIE
U.S. military adventures have historically combined imperial ambition—the acquisition of territory and colonies, limiting the reach of competing empires and ‘acquiring’ economic resources—‘natural’ resources, existing economic infrastructure and labor, under advantageous terms. The U.S. orchestrated coup in Honduras was for United Fruit, in Chile for ITT, Kennecott and Anaconda Copper and the CIA’s ‘war of attrition’ against Nicaragua in the 1980s to undo the nationalization of Coca Cola facilities. The botched war on and occupation of Iraq was a continuation of imperial designs on Middle Eastern oil by the U.S. and Britain dating from the early twentieth century. All of these and many, many more conflated the economic interests of particular U.S. ‘based’ corporations with the ‘national interest.’
/..
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/06/28/treason/
Corroboration from the Vatican.
VATICAN CITY (Catholic Online) – The Vatican is confirming the death by beheading of Franciscan Father, Francois Murad, who was martyred by Syrian jihadists on June 23.
Below is the news release from the Vatican, via news.va.
On Sunday, June 23 the Syrian priest François Murad was killed in Gassanieh, in northern Syria, in the convent of the Custody of the Holy Land where he had taken refuge. This is confirmed by a statement of the Custos of the Holy Land sent to Fides Agency. The circumstances of the death are not fully understood. According to local sources, the monastery where Fr. Murad was staying was attacked by militants linked to the jihadi group Jabhat al-Nusra.
/..
http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=51537
‘But thank God, I’m not a shrink.’
I am a paid troll, but thank God, I’m not a shrink.
Phil 4 28pm
“I do worry that we become a group talking to each other but never leaving the room.”
Point taken.
I still think the conversation is worth having even if we were all stuck in a room.
Craig’s blog is like an effectively open source, attention grabbing info bazaar.
Here any info or narrative can be examined , tested to destruction, (witness the Macky/Habba exchange earlier) and taken aboard or left on the shelf.
Craig’s postings deserve to, and do, attract a good number of thinking, sentient people because what he’s writing fits with the state of the world as they experience it.
Crowds are drifting away from the corporate media to read stuff life that. Mandated narratives creak with the strain.
That can only be good. The more people are informed about what is so, the greater society’s chance to course correct with myriad individual and group actions on all the different stages life has rolled out for us.
Then there’s the blog’s Comments Section, populated with a shiftng and wondrous ecology of entities, some with interesting info or observations to add to the pot, others with weird and wonderful patterns of behaviour to guide us towards or away from issues whose narratives they judge worthy of discussion or not. You couldn’t make some of what goes on in here up, could you?
I’m sure there’s plenty of leakage into conversations out in society.
……..
Finally some graffiti I saw in a European capital not so long ago:
“THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SOCIETY. Margaret Thatcher 1979
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THATCHER. 2013”
Another paradigm in bits.
Yes, the times they sure are a changing!
@ Jon (Moderator)
I’m astounded, Jon, that you should have deleted my post of earlier on because in it I was attempting, in the stye of a frequent and most respected fellow-commenter on this blog, to give out some very valuable, relevant and not very-well- known information about a couple of public personalities.
“I am a paid troll, but thank God, I’m not a shrink.”
Guano, you can be very irritating. In the first place, you don’t actually know for sure who is a troll and who isn’t. You can only assume. And to announce that they are also “paid”, is just another unfounded assumption.
@ Ben 4 ; 54 pm
Here’s another Beautiful Slap down of the Hypocrites on Eucador’s Stance Re Snowden
Sublime indeed
“DON’T COME LECTURING US ABOUT LIBERTY. YOU NEED A REALITY CHECK. Don’t act like a spoiled rude child. Here you will only find dignity and sovereignty. Here we haven’t invaded anyone. Here we don’t torture like in Guantanamo. Here we don’t have drones killing alleged terrorist without any due trial, killing also the women and children of those supposed terrorists. So don’t come lecturing us about life, law, dignity, or liberty. You don’t have the moral right to do so.”
—
Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador, on the US Government.