Beware The Cop In Your Pocket.

       This is a re-hash of something I wrote about some time ago, but think it is worth repeating. It is impossible to deny that as far as the state is concerned, we are living in glass bowl. We are monitored every where we go, with CCTV, facial recognition and cameras in every pub, shop, bus, train, shopping mall, library, etc. and so it goes on. However their is another tool in the state's  widespread surveillance, that little gadget most of us carry everywhere, the mobile phone.  

       You’re heading out the door, ooops, better not forget my phone, perhaps it should be, ooops, better not take my phone!! One thing that we should always be aware of, you’re never alone with a phone. The phone is a conduit into the nitty-gritty of your personal life, an archive of your life. In it are all those personal texts, emails, photos, contacts, personal details etc. As you walk about your business that simple little gadget in your bag/pocket monitors your movements, and can pinpoint you down to the metre. On the pretext of being able to send you all your emails and texts, the phone company keeps a very accurate record of all your whereabouts at all times, you are continually monitored. Your phone contains transcripts of years of private conversations, data on all your friends associates and partners, your phone is your personal “black-box” and can be used against you in a court of law. Your phone is a cop in your pocket.
       Let’s not forget “Stingray”, a devise that the powers that be, can set up anywhere, in a vehicle, in any street, in a public park,  and it imitates a genuine phone mast, all the phones in the area are tricked to sending all their transmissions to this phoney mast, the information from the phones is scooped up, sorted, stored then with in minutes, the original signal is sent to the nearest genuine mast to continue its journey, and you are unaware that anything has happened. “Stingray”, can swoop up thousands of mobile phone data in minutes in one fell swoop, just by a vehicle sitting quietly in a street.
      Heading out, oops must remember to take the cop from my pocket and leave the creep in a drawer. Where ever you go, what ever you do, never forget the cop in your pocket.

 Hi, I'm your friendly cop.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Just Text Death.

        It says a lot about our present economic system when you look around the world and find that countries with the richest natural resources have some of the poorest people on our earth. The Middle East is a wash with oil, which transfers into unbelievable wealth, but you can't say its people are all very rich. This pattern is repeated across the planet, another example is the Democratic Republic of Congo. A vast country, the second largest in Africa, the 11th largest in the world. As well as having coal, oil and diamonds, it is also the richest source of cobalt in the world. That rather dull looking material produces unimaginable wealth for the corporate world, but little for the people of the that country. In fact it is the opposite, this immeasurable wealth is probably the main cause of the suffering of the people.
       Because of the economic system that prevails today, blood will be shed to get control of that wealth. Sadly that blood is shed for the end product of things like mobile phones and laptops, and these are products that the vast majority of the people who produce that raw material will never see. 

        If it was just dreadful working conditions and poor pay, that would be bad enough, but we are talking about millions dying and millions more suffering unimaginable violence. Since its bitter struggle to be free from the Western colonialists, the country has been blighted by violence, and at the root of that, is the fact that it is very rich in raw materials like cobalt. 

      The Second Congo War, sometimes referred to as the “African World War”, as it involved around twenty armed groups and nine other African countries started in 1998. No doubt all eager to get a slice of that wealth. Although “Peace Accords” were signed in 2003, fighting continued in the east of the country through 2007. In this region the prevalence of all manner of sexual violence and rape is often described as the worst in the world. Since 1998 this conflict has claimed the lives of more than 5.4 million people. Though this was a brutal conflict, more than 90% were not killed in combat, they died from such things as malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea, and malnutrition, brought about by the usual companions of war, displaced populations ending up living in unsanitary, over crowed conditions, combined with lack of shelter, clean water, food and medical care. What is even more tragic, 47% of those deaths were children under five.
     The country also has great agricultural potential but this is being stifled by this conflict, which still continues. It is the struggle to control those vast mineral resources that drives this most brutal and savage conflict. Is your mobile phone worth it?

      

       Surely we have the imagination and the ability to device a economic system whereby natural resources do not equate with misery, poverty, deprivation and bloodshed for the many, and unbelievable opulence for the few.