Who's Design?

    Saw these photos on arrezafe and felt sick, why do we tolerate such an unequal world in the midst of unbelievable wealth. They display the fruits of corporate crime, the life that these photos depict is not here by necessity, it is here by design. Who's design?

 

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It Makes Sense, But Will It Happen?

       Short and to the point, if you believe in logic and rationalism.

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Seasons Such As These.

 

           Most people would agree that Willie Shakespeare had a way with words, and some of those words are just as relevant today as they were on the day that he wrote them. How about a few lines from "Seasons Such As These".

Poor naked wretches, wherese're you are
that hide the pelting of this pityless storm,
how shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
your looped and windowed raggedness, defend you
from seasons such as these.

           As the Cameron cabal carry out the merciless plan of the financial mafia, under the guise of "austerity", we  see poverty sink its pityless teeth ever deeper into the fabric of our way of life. Day and daily fears of poverty become reality, the spectre of homelessness a way of life. Benefit cuts, sanctions on the unemployed, workfare for no wages, zero hour contracts, dragging more and more families into he dark pit of deprivation. Food banks a necessity, loan sharks arrive in the guise of a saviour. We are in the midst of a man made season of wretchedness. Only the ordinary people can move us to that season of a bountiful spring.
              A  quote from "Freedom" November 1903, by someone who signs him/herself, "anarchist".

He who would be free
Himself must strike the blow

Here we are,111 years on, and we have still to strike that blow. 

Springburn, Left To Rot!!

 Springburn Public Halls, left to rot before being knocked down.

       Well, well, poor old Springburn and the North of Glasgow. It seems that our city fathers, at Kremlin in George Square, don't know that our fair city has a North End. In their gigantic tax funded, corporate extravaganza, The Corporatewealth Games, they stated that it was for all the city. I have just received their latest glossy Glasgow Magazine, and being a Springburn man, I had a wee look to see how it would impact on my part of the city, but it seems the city fathers don't know where Springburn is, or perhaps they think it is outside our city, hence the lack of interest.

 Springburn Park winter gardens, yep, left to rot.

      The East End has a time trial running through it to the city centre. The Southside, has a marathon running through it to the city centre. The West End has a road race running through it to the city centre. There are games venues in the East End, the Southside, and the West End, and "live zones" in the East, the city centre, the Southside and the West End. Their wee map is festoon with little symbols indicating Glasgow Landmarks, but nothing in the North side of the city. as far as this piece of corporate plunder is concerned, Springburn is a wasteland, not worth pilfering. Our call to fame in Springburn is our poverty and deprivation, we have the country's worst child poverty and the highest number of request for child care orders. Having "cleansed" the East End of peasants, perhaps they thought that the cost of doing likewise in the North was a cost too far. At least the transport should run as normal in the North of the city. You could visit Springburn every day and not even know there was such a "Greatest Show on Earth" corporate extravaganza going on in our fair soon to be bankrupted city.

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Another Case For The Coming Together Of Communities.

        Sometimes you can't help but think that the Glasgow City Council is a gang from the financial Mafia, hell-bent on destroying the lives of the people of Glasgow, all in the name of big business, of course. The people of the East End of the city have been trampled over in the glorification of a spectacle that will only benefit big business, the Commonwealth Games. In the North of our city, in an area of high deprivation and low amenities, Springburn/Sighthill, they have decided to flatten one of the very few amenities in the area, namely, the Sighthill Park Standing stones. It is supposed to be in preparation for the 2018 Youth Olympics, but even if that doesn't go through, they still want to get rid of it by handing it to developers who will build more unaffordable housing. Just what an area of high unemployment, high poverty rate, low amenities is in need of, my arse. 

       The park with its standing stones is one feature in the area worth preserving, a place for kids and families to enjoy. The area has an abundance of empty brown site space crying out for some sort of development that will benefit the people of the area, why destroy the one they have?

 
Sign the petition HERE:

       The stone circle in Sighthill Park is Britain's first stone circle built according to the alignment of the stars in several thousand years. Built, in 1979, it is one of Glasgow's treasures and can teach youngsters a lot about history and astronomy. It is something unique that the people of Sighthill can call their own.

     But Glasgow City Council is currently planning to demolish the stone circle as part of the bid for the 2018 Youth Olympics - and if this falls through, they plan to destroy the circle anyway for 'redevelopment' - which the council seems to believe can only be done by flattening what is already there instead of working with it. If they simply build a path around the circle it will be preserved.

       Plans also include destroying the wildlife habitat in the vicinity. Surely enough damage is already being done to the environment, without wrecking another part of nature? It is important to preserve what we have left, not destroy more land.

         Please sign this petition to call on Glasgow City Council to preserve the stone circle and surrounding park.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Is Revenge Sweet?

     I suppose I could call myself an old person. Through all those years I have seen the system under which we live, use and abuse friends and family. I have had relatives ravaged and destroyed by war, seen others sink into the swamp of poverty, and the system rolled on painting the illusion, that hard work will sort everything out. If that was the case I should be a very rich old guy, as my father worked hard and ceaselessly as a coal miner all his life, but we struggled all our life.

     Throughout my life, I have always taken the stand, with many others, of trying to change the system to one that benefits the ordinary people, its been a long haul and the system is still there, still using and abuse friends and family, still painting that illusion, that we will all do well if only we will work longer and harder.

     Looking globally, the signs are encouraging, more and more people in more countries are standing up and fighting, with the realisation that the system is unjust, corrupt, rotten to the core, and must be changed.

     However I have waited a long time and saw a lot of poverty and misery inflicted on innocent people, and perhaps I'm getting a wee bit bitter. I saw the image below and felt that it now seems to suit my desires more than I would have said some years ago. Is revenge sweet?

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We Are All The Little Tramps.

      We have had eras of this and that, monarchies, dictators, so called representative democracy, all the same as far as the ordinary person is concerned, a group of thieving parasites at the top, bleeding to death the majority at the bottom. Well we can bring about a new era, the era of the ordinary person, where the majority all benefit from the fruits of their combined labour, and for once in our history, free from parasites. The wee man's speech has a lot going for it, especially on the anniversary of that imperialist led blood bath of the ordinary people in 1914.

First Published on Apr 27, 2014

        In February 1914, in a time of economic turmoil and international conflict, Charlie Chaplin walked onto screens for the very first time as the beloved Little Tramp character. 100 years later, with homelessness on the rise, massive cuts to social security, and an uncaring government trying desperately to drag the country to war once more, Jack Brindelli and friends consider what the Tramp's legacy can teach us in modern times.

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Leftovers.

 A wee poem from Contra Info:

Leftovers.

Ten bread rolls
four red apples
a green apple
a banana
dozens of sandwiches
rolled in aluminum foil

We try to save
what can be saved
from this crooked world
scavenging your garbage cans
scavenging your tourist life

Do you need any towels?
Do you need any toilet paper?
we ask while diving
deep into consumers’ leftovers

My feet are killing me
but I cannot stop questioning
When the fuck will we stand up?
against you-know-who
against you-know-what

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Charity Is No Answer To Poverty.

Is it possible for a shaking can to eliminate the poverty?

POVERTY'S DEEPER THAN THE POCKET.

Day and daily the cry goes up

cans are shaken beneath your nose,

give generously, help fill their cup,

but anybody that can think, knows

our poverty is deeper than the pocket.

Poor, struggling to create a life

as privilege shuts the door,

feeling the thrust of poverty's knife

cut right to the core,

they know, poverty's deeper than the pocket.

Rich, no desire to arrest

this Tammany that purloins by stealth,

potential, opportunity, by poverty oppressed,

inequality, injustice, privilege tied to wealth

ensure, poverty's deeper than the pocket.

Prince's fund, charity shop,

gala evening for some "GOOD" cause,

smiling patronage from the top,

egos washed in loud applause

all to conceal, poverty's deeper than the pocket.

We don't want your charity

patronisingly given from plundered gold

accrued by endless barbarity

from a system where dignity is sold:

you're the reason, poverty's deeper than the pocket.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

I'm Sick.

Today's little rant-----

I'M SICK.

I'm sick of missing the theatre

when "The greatest show on earth",

arrives in town.

Sick of living through the winter

with the heating turned down.

I'm sick of seeing my kids

miss out on this and that.

Sick of living with dampness

in a run-down council flat.

I'm sick of having beans on toast

every other day.

Sick of TV shows extolling

a healthy life-style way.

I'm sick of wearing the same old jacket,

hail, rain or shine.

Sick of being told

the problem's really mine.

I'm sick of being a statistic

in some ministerial debate.

Sick of quietly letting

them decide my fate.

I'm sick of being offered work

if I accept a lower wage.

Sick of trying to control

this pent-up bubbling rage.

I'm sick-----------------

I'm not,   realy sick,

though I soon will be,

I'm just obliged to live

on benefit.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

 

Propaganda, Propaganda, Propaganda,

      A couple of things that recently got a lot of cover in that babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, one was Greece returning to the bond market, and the other, UK inflation dropping to 1.6%. These two pieces of information were meant to make us all feel a lot better, the propaganda machine was in full throttle. As for Greece entering the bond market, what this means is that the financial Mafia gambling cabal, had another casino in which to place their bets. They were prepared to loan the corrupt Greek state €3 billion at a nice healthy rate of interest of 4.75%, a mere drop in the bucket as far as Greek state debt is concerned. Does this mean that all is well in Greece and that the 27% unemployment, and 60% among the young, will suddenly evaporate? Does it mean that the trashed health service will, like magic, rise to the needs of the people? Will the abject poverty and deprivation be transformed into a land of milk and honey? Well perhaps a look at some of the figures might answer those questions. Greece's public debt in 2008, the date of the gambling casino collapse, was €263.3 billion, and the prediction for 2014 is €322 billion. The size of Greece's debt as a percentage of GDP in that 2008 bubble burst, was 112.9%, 2014's prediction is 175.9%. What Greece's re-entry to the bond market really means is that it is obvious gamblers can't stay away from the casino.

       The excited wetting of nickers among the millionaire cabal sitting in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, at the news the inflation in the UK has dropped for the sixth consecutive month to 1.6%, will not be transferred to the ordinary person on the street. According to a study by The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) mid-range household incomes between 2013 and 2014 were 6% below what they were before the gamblers crisis of 2008. Other interesting figures from the study state that between 2008 and 2013 inflation was 20%, energy prices rose by 60% and food prices by 30%. Where were incomes during this period? Did your income rise enough to cover that 60% rise in energy prices, or the 30% rise in food prices? It is all smoke and mirrors. The truth is that we as a people here in the UK are sliding down the shute to a sweatshop economy. Last year almost a million adults and children received emergency food parcels from food banks, a rise of 163% on the previous year. Irrespective of what the propaganda machine might say, more and more people are turning to food banks for survival. The Trussell trust has over 400 food banks and is opening two a week, compared to only three in 2012/13. Of course The Trussell trust is not the only organisation handing out food help to those in need, they are just the tip of the iceberg. What about those living in areas where there is no Trussell Trust, what about all those who just eat less and feed their kids less, perhaps too proud to seek help or unaware of where to get that help. The Trussell trust states that it is now expanding its services to include welfare advice and providing essentials such as washing powder, nappies and hygiene products, as more and more families are at breaking point and food is not their only problem. This is the true picture of Britain's low inflation figure

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How Much Deeper, How Much Longer?

           It is strange that the majority of people in the West seem to tolerate a system that increases wealth, but in tandem with the increase in poverty for the majority. The number of millionaires increases, millionaires become billionaires, corporate bodies see their coffers bursting at the seams, and yet more and more ordinary people slip further down the slippery slope of poverty. In recent years poverty has galloped at an ever increasing pace across Europe, which is a large slice of the so called affluent West. We have seen Greece descend to the realms of a third world country, Spain, Italy and Portugal are skidding along a few paces behind. It is not just the southern European countries that are seeing their populations being pushed back to the poverty of Victorian times. Ireland is hot on the heels of our southern neighbours, and here in the UK we have seen an explosion of food banks as people struggle to survive. Countries that somehow are not usually associated with poverty, have seen their people slide into the mire and stress of deprivation. Germany, the richest nation in Europe, and one of the richest in the world, has seen poverty spread its tentacles further afield, dragging more of its people into that state of misery and blighted future. The Netherlands, seen as an affluent part of “affluent” Europe, in 2012 saw its biggest increase in poverty since 2008, figures from the national agency Statistics Netherland, show that with a population of less than 17 million, the Netherlands has approximately 1.2 million of its people considered to be living in poverty. The Netherlands has also seen a particularly sharp increase in the number of children living in poverty, while in parallel to this there has been a rise in those affected by longterm poverty. And so it goes on, wealth spewing from this society, straight into the pockets of the already very rich. We continue to create wealth at an astonishing rate, but we continue to see poverty spread further and deeper among the general population. 

        How much longer will we accept this injustice, this blatant exploitation? How much deeper in the mire of poverty will we let ourselves be pushed? How much longer will we tolerate the future of our kids and grandkids being blighted by unnecessary and avoidable poverty? The answer is in our hands, if we want to stop the plundering of the wealth that we produce, if we want to see it spread with more justice and equality, we have to do the changing. We can't expect those rich parasites who gain immense wealth and power from the existing system, to do anything to change it for our benefit. We surely have the imagination and ability to create a society of fairness, all that seems to be lacking is the desire. 

Photos from Google.

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I Am The Crowd.

Another day, another poem.

I AM THE CROWD.

I am the crowd

I swim in the quagmire of poverty

its hooks, its barbs, tear my flesh

rupture my dreams,

I hold my breath for centuries

hoping to break through, grasp pure air.

Through the murky mire

I see bright things, shiny things sparkle

I see women in fine dresses, men in silk shirts.

I ask myself,

why do I swim in this cesspool?

I want the light and warmth of rectitude

to caress my labouring body,

seeds of my dreams to bloom

like wild flowers in a meadow.

One day, I will use my boundless strength

to haul this torn, battered being

out of the morass

onto the warm grassy bank,

when I do;

Woe betide you, women in fine dresses

woe betide you mister in your fine silk shirt

should you ever try to get in my way,

for I am the strength of the world,

I am the crowd.

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Should The Greedy Control Our Food??

    It is obvious that climate change is happening, floods, droughts, extreme storms, along with rising temperatures is no longer a prediction, it is here and now. Of course, as is always the case in this capitalist world, when things go wrong it is always the poor and the low waged that pay the highest price. The adverse conditions are creating havoc with our agriculture, which transfers into higher prices for our food. It is symbolic of the insanity of this greed driven capitalist system, that as food prices are rising across the planet, and people can't afford the food the help to grow, or serve in restaurants, governments across the world are dismantling social services.

     One problem that we don't hear much about is the drought in California. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 67% of the state of California is classified as “extreme”, a further 9% is “exceptional”, this means wells running dry, no where for cattle to graze, forcing farmers to sell off their livestock, creating a shortage of dairy produce, glut of meat and then a shortage meat. Some scientists claim that 2013/14 is the driest season for 434 years. California is the top agriculture producer in the U.S. And one of the largest in the world, producing beef, dairy produce, wine, and some of the largest fruit and vegetable crops.

      Why should we worry if California goes dry? Well America is a large, rich and powerful country, when it runs out of food, it starts to suck in more from an already suffering world, creating greater shortages and higher prices. Europe is not exempt from the effects of climate change, scientist state that in southern Europe, from southern France through Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and to the Balkans, stream and river minimum flow could fall by as much as 40% and in periods of drought that could increase to 80%. This of course would result in food shortages in this area, being exacerbated by the the mighty dollar sucking in food from this and other areas.

      It is also very obvious that if we continue to let “market forces” sort things out, a group of rich people will make a killing from the food crisis, the rich will feed very well indeed, as they usually do, and the poor will go hungry and increase in numbers. Tackling climate change is only one part of the solution, but is to little avail if we don't sort out the system of distribution of the world's food. At the present the food is there to see to our needs, the problem is who owns it, and who decides its distribution method. The “market” is no more than a euphemism for a “bunch of greedy rich bastards”, do we really want them to be in control of OUR survival? 

 

 Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Troika's Answer To Unemployment - Pay Off More Workers.

       Across southern Europe unemployment is at life sapping heights, Greece and Spain above 24%, in both these countries unemployment among the young is at the 60% level, while unemployment in Portugal is 16% and Italy 13%, Italy's government debt is estimated by the IMF, (International Mankind Fuckers) to be 130% of GDP. The Spanish people have been on the streets this weekend displaying their anger and disgust, at the policies being dictated by the so called Troika, (EC, European Commission, ECB, European Central Bank, IMF, International Mankind Fuckers), which are causing widespread misery and poverty. The organisers of the protests have called them “marches of dignity”, one of the many things that the ordinary people are denied in this exploitative system. In Greece, the social fabric of society is in a severe state of collapse. The health service is now third world, the education system has collapsed, the massive increase in poverty and deprivation has been matched by an equally massive increase in substance abuse, suicides and physical and mental health problems. So with unemployment and poverty destroying the present and future generations, in that plunder land, Greece, what is the Troika's answer? Why more unemployment of course.

         The rich parasite bastards that make up the Troika, sitting in their marble halls of power in Brussels, have decreed that Greece has not done enough to to satisfy their masters in the financial Mafia. So they have insisted on the Greek government cutting a further 11,000 public sector workers. (Who dictates how many public sector workers here in the UK are to be paid off???) This despite the Greek economy having shrank by 6.4% last year. This is 2014, six years of bailouts, austerity, massive unemployment, and both government debt and deficit are still lost somewhere in the stratosphere, and the misery and deprivation is also up there and rising. Of course the rest of Europe is not immune to the destruction spewed out by the Troika, who are merely the European managers for the global financial mafia, no country in Europe is an isolated island, look at Souther Europe and you're looking at a picture of Northern Europe's future, sweatshop Europe, the Western corporate dream. The system doesn't work for the people, it can't be modified to something resembling fairness. It is a system of exploitation, where wealth is created by the people and ends up in the bank accounts of self-interested parasites, that's what it is designed to do and it does it with a ruthless efficiency. Only when we control the wealth that we create, and control its distribution, can we hope for a system that will see to the needs of all our people. We don't need them, they do need us. 

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East Is East And West Is West!

      As a football pundit once said, "Football is a game of two halves", to me a non-football guy, I thought that was obvious, I always  miss the subtleties of the "beautiful game". However it could also be said that Glasgow is a city of two halves, the West End and the East End, and according to the Mafia in George Square, East is East and West is West, and ne'r the twain shall meet. This divide is obvious to all our senses, visit each End and the difference startles and baffles all those senses. On visiting these "ends" the first impact is visual, the West End, busy shops, cafes, bistros, pubs, restaurants and the smell of affluence, visit the East End, closed shops, derelict buildings, empty spaces, poor housing and the smell of poverty. The difference is not just apparent to our senses, it is embedded in the lives of those who live in each of these two "Ends". The life expectancy in parts of the East End are as low as 53.9 years, while a short (but expensive) bus journey across the city, and in parts of the West End, life expectancy can be as high as 82 years. 

      Now we know that it is not a genetic difference between the species that live in these two ends of our city, the root cause is that first visual appearance, affluence and poverty. Quality of life governs length of life, and in this society that is decided on affluence and poverty. We also know that poverty is not an accident, it is caused and prolonged by policies, and policies are made and carried out by people. It therefore follows that those people are directly responsible for the poverty, deprivation, short life expectancy, and the criminal plunder of the future of all those children who are born into those policy created conditions.

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