Thursday 28 June 2018

Refugees from what?

Nobody flees from home, country, family and friends without good reason, so why are there so many refugees? Part of the reason lies in things that the West did or failed to do in the past. There would not be so many refugees from the Middle East if the US and UK had not invaded Iraq in 2003, setting in train Sunni-Shia wars, ISIS, the revolt in Syria... And there would not be so many from Africa if the West had continued its 1960s policies of support for family planning, rural clinics and the health of mothers and infants. Yet it still goes on; the sale of offensive Western and Russian arms fuels several wars, and Trump has reduced funding for various humanitarian programmes. The refugees of the future are already being prepared.

Sunday 24 June 2018

The Mapuche

The Mapuche people occupied most of Patagonia until they were subdued by Argentina and Chile in the 1860s and 70s in a savage ethnic cleansing, which left thousands of Mapuche skulls and skeletons in museums. Their land was taken from them and given or sold to European settlers. A huge area belongs, for example to Benetton (of United Colours). Their agriculture was destroyed to make room for ranching, and their forests have been intensively logged and partly destroyed. Remember this when you buy Argentinian beef! Their resistance continues, and small groups have attempted to farm limited areas. The Argentinian and Chilean governments, continue to suppress them, claiming that they are 'terrorists'. More innocent victims of the West's 'War on Terror'! Information from an excellent programme by Al-Jazeera.

Friday 22 June 2018

Live not on evil!

My son Christopher told me a very clever palindrome: 'Live dirt up a side-track carted is a putrid evil'. This beats the longest I knew: 'Able was I ere I saw Elba' (put into the mouth of Napoleon in exile). However 'live' and 'evil' gave me the idea for a short and punchy one: 'Live not on evil!' I think this would have made a better motto for Google than 'Don't be evil'.

A 'People's Vote'

I shall not march on Saturday for a 'people's vote', which would be a referendum by another name. I am against referendums on principle, and for once I agreed with Maggie Thatcher when she quoted Clement Attlee, calling them a device of dictators and demagogues'. Mrs Mayhem will call a referendum only if she feels sure she can win it. Admittedly she got it wrong over the 2017 election, but we can't count on that. If she is clever she will frame the question so that she can live with either answer - and she will rig the electorate as Cameron did in 2016. Any outcome other than abandoning 'Brexit' will be a defeat in my eyes. I'm afraid a 'people's vote' will be wangled to look like an endorsement of 'Brexit'. If you march for a 'people's vote' beware of getting what you wish for.

Thursday 21 June 2018

Ignoramuses

Definition of an ignoramus: person who thinks the plural of ignoramus is 'ignorami'. Ignoramus is not a Latin masculine singular but a 1st person plural verb meaning 'we do not know', from ignorare. And while we are about it, the plural of octopus is not octopi but octopodes; -us is not a Latin singular ending but comes from from Greek pous 'a foot'. Fake Latin plurals are an embarrassing attempt to be learned. Even genuine examples like musea, errata seem rather pompous. It is not an erratum to say museums and octopuses.

Friday 15 June 2018

Promises

Mrs Mayhem is promising a 'Brexit bonus' of £4 billion a year for the NHS, so does this vindicate Boris Johnson's promise on the Big Red Bus? No!!! He promised £350 million a week, which would be £18.2 billion a year. And Mrs Mayhem's figure is partly out of taxes, which have nothing to do with the EU. More lies! They are getting desperate.

Tuesday 12 June 2018

Trump's Nobel?!

Nobel Peace Prize for Trump??!! They must be joking. He is still threatening war on Iran. But what is stopping him from having a summit meeting with President Rouhani, a more affable man that Kim? Is it because Netanyahu has told him not to? Or is it because Iran doesn't have nuclear weapons to bargain with? A united Korea would have a population of 77 million, making it the 20th most populous country in the world, ahead of the UK, France and Italy. At present South Korea with 51.2 million is 27th and the North with 25.6 million is 52nd.

Sunday 10 June 2018

The True Slogan

Virgil wrote 'Amor vincit omnia' - 'Love conquers everything' - but our governments seem to think that should read 'Armor vincit omnia' - 'Arms conquer everything'. Peace talks in Korea beware!

Thursday 7 June 2018

Obliteration

The governments of Israel, Turkey and Burma refuse to recognise the rights or even the existence of, respectively, the Palestinian, Kurdish and Rohingya peoples, and these are by no means the only examples. Is there no limit to the human capacity to obliterate inconvenient peoples? This is the backside of nationalism, which for all its popularity is an oppressive ideology. As long as human rights are defined by the 'United Nations', there seems to be no escape. We need concepts based not on nationality but on citizenship, not on nation-states but on jurisdictions, not on the right of nations to self-determination but on the right of people to live unmolested according to their culture in the country of their birth.

Monday 4 June 2018

Self-inflicted!

Another right-wing nationalist party is on the rise in Slovenia. The cause again seems to be fear of migrants. But why do so many people migrate? It is not natural for large numbers to be ready to leave their family, friends and country - perhaps never again see their familiar faces and places. They set off because life has become unbearable for them, without jobs or hope of education. And why are their countries destitute? Well, the world economy does not work for them; their resources are exported, their labour is exploited, and aid from rich countries is inadequate or comes with strings attached. In many cases war is involved, whether by direct aggression as in Iraq or through arms sales to corrupt governments. Rich countries bear a heavy share of the blame because they have disproportionate power and influence; the damage is self-inflicted, but it threatens to get worse because right-wing nationalist governments will do even less to help poorer countries,

Saturday 2 June 2018

Protecting ISIS.

America is protecting the last stronghold of ISIS/al-Qaeda in Syria, by threatening to intervene against any attempt by the Syrian government to take control of the area. If this sounds crazy, look at it from the Jerusalem point of view. Syria and Iran are the two last countries to hold out against Zionism; Sunni extremists are th e sworn enemies of both, therefore they must be protected. QED!

Down with the Dollar! Oops!

The obvious solution to the huge US trade deficit is to devalue the dollar. That would also be in accordance with the prevailing free market dogma. However, nobody dares let that happen because everybody holds American debt, which is how the US controls so much of the world and pays for its armaments and its wars. Since 1945 the global economy has been based on the dollar, which in effect means American debt. To unwind such a lop-sided system there would have to be an almighty world-wide crisis. Perhaps that is exactly what Trump will bring about.

Trade War

How exciting! A new world trade war - the first since the 1930s, and remember what a thrill that was! But last time the Great Dictator rose out of the trade war; this time he has given rise to it. Take a bow D Trump! Meanwhile, since the ceremony to recognise Jerusalem as capital of the USA, Netanyahu has exceeded himself: the heaviest bombardment of Gaze since 2014, thousands more houses approved for the occupied West Bank... But at least in Japan imports of Golan Heights wine are in trouble.