the massebate

I have had a short break but have returned to a cold wet late Winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
philosophically I suppose we have to experience the lows to appreciate the highs.
It adds the vague feeling of depression that nothing has changed while I have been away.
Politicians still seem to believe I and the rest of the electorate have mug, or something far more insulting, tattooed across our foreheads, the Worlds despots continue to prosper and only if they have control of something like oil does the West give a damn.

A book that I selected at random from my library for vacation reading is called " Juntas' of the World Unite " and has a section on each of the Worlds nations suffering under the guidence of a variety of lunatics. The Chapter on Ethiopia, predicts that if the World does not come to rescue of the people of Ethiopia it will be the site of the Worlds first mega famine.
The book was written in 1973.
The list of countries joining the starvation club in 2006 gets longer and longer, with Zimbabwe likely to be the leader in this ghastly race.
Oh Africa, what has become of you. It looks as though the post colonial era will be shorter than the colonial one. Once again Africa will be an empty land to be re- colonised by the contempory equivalents of the Europeans who originally turned it from bush to productive agriculture, when a combination of starvation and AIDs clears the land of the current populations.
Some of us will recall the words of Peter Gabriels, Biko, about the South African Steve Biko.
" The outside World is Black and White, but only one colour dead"

I would accept and probably agree that the USA is the biggest, and probably the most bigoted, perpetrator of terrorism, I do not believe it is intentional. The Brits have, I was going to say living proof but the victims are all dead, of this in their own back yard; Northern Ireland, where thousands died in a terrorist war funded by the American people, in some perverse pursuit of a history, hey I'm Irish American and my grasp of history is very very weak so lets fund the killing of a Brit.
Having watched as friends were killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA)funded by the USA, am I alone in believing that the action that led to the destruction of the WTC was a form of divine retribution.

If it wasn't so obscene the fact that the USA that spends trillions on its military games machine was attacked for the price of a few plane tickets would be funny.

What i do not believe is that this is a conscious act of evil, The US is such an inward looking society in which a form of collective madness has been allowed to develope. How on earth did they get to believe that a social model based on both financial and moral bankruptcy, seasoned with an extra dose of incredible selfishness, should be a model adopted by the rest of the World.
It fails utterly to understand that its structure is just not sustainable in the long term. Even Bush recognises that its economy is just a drug addict addicted to oil.
Perhaps this explains why it acts in the same way as a street mugger desperate to buy their next heroin fix.
Its cold turkey or invade IRAQ, not really a contest is it, as it would take a very brave administration to tell the Americans that they have to start living within their means.
Might however do the rest of us a favour as it would bring under control the greatest polluter in the World.

massdebate

Well here we go again, this time its off to Afghanistan. Another futile gesture on the part of a discredited Prime Minister Blair to deflect criticism away from his failed regime.
Just as a side issue he has stopped the proles from smoking in public, naughty little Brits how dare you enjoy yourselves. Apparently, as part of his International presence he is going to Bankok, well he's banned everything else.

Back to Afghanistan, its funny how when the Taliban had control the opium/ heroin production was stopped. The West, well the USA and the UK removed the Taliban and, guess what 90% of the Uk's heroin now comes from... wait for it... Afghanistan.

massdebate

I am old enough to remember the last time that Britain thought it had the right to impose regime change.
Once upon a time there was a multi racial multi cultural prosperous nation in Southern Africa called Rhodesia.
The pompous Wilson Labour Government decided, although I niether knew not understood the local culture, that it must have a Western style Government imposed on it, sadly the arrival of margaret Thatcher in 1979 was too late to stop the feeding of the Rhodesians to the dogs of political dogma.
The result, 25 years later, is that beacon of democracy and social justice called Zimbabwe.

Perhaps the current neocon tendencies of the USA and its poodle Blair would like to consider that the only recent Government to deal effectively with counter insurgency was Rhodesia, but then its the winners that write the history books.
massdebate

It appears that no self respecting grumpy old man is complete without a blog.

so here I am.

first grump is that the preview has censored the blog name what started out as massdebate, a debate of the subjects of the day by the masses has been changed into massebate !!!!
is that a large scale discussion of e trading is it e as in extasy or e as in electronic. does anyone actually care apart from me.