Boston Military Lock-down.

      The Boston bombing was a very serious affair and must have been frightening for those runners and spectators near the scene. However, what was also frightening to see, was how tenuous is the citizen's hold on the right to freedom of movement. In one swift movement an entire city was shut down, businesses closed, Amtrak and Boston public transport to New York shut down, and people warned to stay inside and lock their doors. The city was swarming with what looked like the cast of Star Wars. A million people willingly locked down, why, because a teenager was on the run. Obama, of course said all the right things to make the citizens of Boston compliant, he praised them for being resolute, brave and not cowed, when in fact they were all sitting at home behind locked doors, leaving the streets to the state's muscle. It would seem that when push comes to shove, even that slim semblance of Madame Democracy, can so very easily be locked down. The scenes beamed across the world were a perfect portrayal of a warrior nation moving into overkill, a perfect example of how to lock-down a city when desired. The manhunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was a massive exercise in over reaction, creating a state of siege on the city of Boston, imposed by a military state. In spite of this, it was not the professional state muscle men that found the teenager, it was one of Boston's citizens.

       I can't remember who said it but this was a perfect example, “What's the difference between the state and a terrorist? The terrorist is the one with the small bomb.” Killing innocent people is always unacceptable, but let's not forget, the state is the biggest killer of innocent people on the planet.

ann arky's home.

Profit From People's Misfortunes.

      There is one thing that most people in the UK are sure of, is that at no time did they vote for the privatisation of The National Health Service. Yet we are well on the way to having a privatised health system in this country. Bit by devious bit, the market is being slotted in to all aspects of the NHS. One sector of the health service that has seen a dramatic rise in health service for profit, is the ambulance service. This service is an integral and necessary part of the NHS, but to the corporate world it is just another money spinner. The recent rise in the use of private ambulance companies within the NHS is quite staggering, it is big money. During the year 2010/11 in Yorkshire the NHS spent approximately £500,000, on private ambulance services, for the year 2012/13 that had risen to £1.8m. an increase of £1.3m. London showed an even more dramatic increase in NHS money going into the coffers of the corporate ambulance business, growing from approximately £400,000 in 2010/11, to £4.2m. in 2012/13. Other areas are seeing the same sort of increases, that's a lot of NHS money being creamed off for a bunch of well-heeled shareholders, and at the same time jeopardising a core service at the NHS. Of course as we all know that when it comes to the corporate world, profit comes first, safety and standards come somewhere down the line. There has already been complaints about lives being put at risk by this creeping privatisation, and the body set up to check those standards is not quite doing its bit, "Last year the Care Quality Commission (CQC) released figures revealing that of the 245 private ambulance companies that it has registered, only 54 have been inspected."

       Of course we mustn't forget that £5 billion, "money from ill health", giant BUPA and the five private-sector hospital operators – General Healthcare Group, Nuffield Health Hospitals, Ramsay Health Care UK, Spire Healthcare and HCA, running alongside the NHS bleeding its resource for the benefit of those well-heeled shareholders. Is this what you voted for, is this what you want? No matter who you vote for, this is what your going to get, after all it was Labour that introduced the private ambulance service to the NHS, The millionaire ConDems are just oiling the wheels.

ann arky's home.

The High And Mighty.

   You could say that today's poem follows on from the previous post.

The High And Mighty.

Politicians, high priests of the holy church 

of greed,

yours are the crimes from which the many

bleed.

See, vice and corruption make their

stand,

and with brutal tyranny, walk hand

in hand:

your arrogant minds, lost in ambition's

cloud,

oblivious to the suffering of the humble

crowd.

When poverty's knife makes our people

bleed,

your cancerous power is all you ever

feed,

holding high some ego-inflating avaricious

plan

that divides, soon pits man against

man.

Now anguish and war mark your mad

career,

covering our world in the brume of

fear,

then shedding youth's blood by cruel

deceit,

with spurious pomp, lay the guilt at

another's feet.

As we fall heir to a plundered

land,

you tyrannts walk in manner

grand,

what must we do to make you 

yield,

to see our children play in a bloodless

field?

Smash and crush your dark nefarious

power,

allowing love and peace to freely

flower. 

ann arky's home.

There Are No Natural Catastrophes.

      We all know that there is something wrong with the way we live, the difference is in how do we fix it. Day by day it becomes more obvious that time is running out, when do we act.

This from Tabula Rosa:

There are no natural catastrophes.

    Thousands and thousands dead or missing, millions evacuated. So far. Entire cities swept away. As if it weren’t an earthquake that struck Japan, but a nuclear bomb. As if it weren’t a tsunami that laid waste to houses, but a war. In fact, this is so. It’s just that the enemies who struck so hard are not the earth and the sea.
These are not at all tools of revenge for a nature that we are accustomed to view as hostile. The war that has been going on now for centuries is not on between humanity and the natural environment, as many would like to make us believe so as to ensure our discipline. We are our own enemy. We are the war. Humanity is the war. Nature is only its main battlefield.
     We have caused floods by transforming the atmospheric climate with our industrial activities. We have broken down riverbanks by cementing their beds and deforesting their shores. We have made bridges collapse by building them with scrap material so we could win contracts. We have swept away entire villages by building houses in areas at risk. We have contaminated the planet by building nuclear power plants. We have bred jackals by aiming for profit in every circumstance. We have neglected taking precautionary measures against such events, concerned only with opening new shopping malls, new railroad and subway lines, new stadiums. We have allowed all this to happen and repeat itself by delegating to others the decisions that concern our lives.
     And now, after we have devastated the world in order to move faster, to eat faster, to work faster, to live faster, we still dare to complain when we discover that we also die faster? There are no natural catastrophes, there are only social catastrophes. If we don’t want to go on being victims of unforeseen earthquakes, unusual floods, unknown viruses and so much else, the only thing left for us to do is to act against the real enemy: our way of life, our values, our habits, our culture, our indifference.
     It isn’t against nature that we need to urgently declare war, but against this society and all its institutions. If we are not capable of inventing another existence and of fighting to realize it, we must prepare to die in what others have arranged and imposed. And to die in silence, as we have live.

ann arky's home.

The Wreckers.

      I think it was Bertrand Russell who said,  "The one thing I regret is my politeness, it stifled my honesty." not verbatim, but near enough. People's politeness often makes them refrain from voicing the truth about those well mannered, nodding donkey's who create so many problems in society. With this in mind, here is today's poem.

The Wreckers.

The well mannered, who

with proper legislation,

legitimise insanety,

through the proper legal channels,

justify injustice,

with the proper religious devotion,

ethnic cleanse,

with the proper academic praise,

magnify the trivia,

with the proper pomp and ceremony,

glorify the mediocre,

with the proper charitable phrase,

ignore the poverty,

are the wreckers, who

with the proper cultured dignity,

create, havoc in their wake.

ann arky's home.

The World's Bully.

      The Boston Bombing focuses the mind on what kind of society is America. There is justified horror at this event, but there seems to be a total unawareness of the fact that in countries across the world, this is a regular occurrence and in lots of cases, a direct result of American action.  In the "Land of the Free" it seems to be one killing after another, and it is not a new phenomenon, it goes back a long way. Individuals indulging in mass shootings are more or less a fairly regular occurrence. America, as a state, is undoubtedly the most violent nation on the planet, it is responsible for millions of deaths across the globe. It devastated the whole of South America for generations, you could say that Cuba probably got off lightly as it was not bombed into oblivion.  A state that perpetrates such  continuous violence, on such a wide scale and manages to sell this to its population as the best response, must expect to see that same attitude permeate through the whole of society. This is not denying that there are millions of Americans vehemently opposed the this war-tuned state, but sadly there are millions more who worship that state and see what it does, as always, the only and best response to problems. So why shouldn't they sort out their problems in a similar manner?

This from Straphanger's guide to the Galaxy: 

      "------This isn't to justify any of this violence. But in a nation that routinely uses violence to settle disputes, is it any wonder that citizens and non-citizens choose that same route? When our President doesn't like what's going on in North Korea he doesn't reach out to discuss the issue, he flies nuclear capable bombers over the peninsula.----"

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.

Strange Success.

 

     Sad poems, happy poems, thoughtful poems and down right depressing poems, there's room for them all, for that is the territory of the human mind.

Strange Success.

Strangest success story

since life's incubation,

built slowly

generation after generation,

driven by greed

by force, determination,

culminating

in vicious exploitation.

Putting the weak

to the sword

soon the strong

learn to hoard,

the thief

his bloody plunder stored

by the looted

now is adored.

Finally achieving

the pinnacle of the plan,

reconstruction

of the ape called man,

on co-operation

a total ban,

the era of competition

now began.

Concern, unity,

synergy, all gone

has the crazy ape

crossed the Rubicon,

 his brightest hour

already shone,

crawling from the slime

blindly to oblivion?

ann arky's home.

                                                                                                                                     

Let The Turkish State Hear Your Voice.

    Good news and bad news from Labour Start:

      A few weeks ago I wrote to ask for your support for more than 100 public sector trade unionists who were arrested in Turkey. Your response was magnificent: more than 11,000 of you sent off messages of protest. Today I have some good news and bad news.

      The good news is that 72 members of the public sector union  were released from jail last week, some after nearly ten months of detention. The bad news is that the charges were not dropped and they all need to appear in court again in July.

      Another 15 union leaders, all of them women, are due to appear in court today.

      We've been asked by the international trade union movement to ramp up the campaign, to flood the inbox of Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan with thousands of new messages.

If you have not supported this campaign, please go here today and send off your message:

http://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=1742

     If you have already done so, please share this message with friends, family, co-workers and your fellow union members.

     If every one of you who has supported this campaign recruits just one new person to our cause, it will be the largest campaign LabourStart has ever done -- and I am sure that our voices will be heard in Ankara.

Thank you.

Eric Lee

ann arky's home.

Trafalgar Square Thatcher Party.

    I know, another Thatcher thingy, but the establishment is throwing so much of it at us, we have to throw something back. So here are some voices from the anti-Thatcher party in Trafalgar Square, brought to you via Circled A radio. Some opinions that you didn't hear on that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media.

The Party Voices:

ann arky's home.

So, Is This The Bottom Line?

      I don't write in the vernacular, but admire those who can. Away, way, way back in the good ol' days of the 1980's I did have a stab at trying to write a poem in that wonderful rich Glasgow vernacular. So poem for the day is that effort from the Thatcher era, Though it was written all those years ago, it kind of shows that nothing has really changed. They're still screwing us stupid, and we are still struggling to survive and they're still scapegoating the poor, unemployed, disabled and vulnerable.

Where's the Bottom Line?

Aw fuck me,   the giro's done,

the bloody heatin's aff, nae milk, nae breed

two totties an'an egg,

is this the bottom line?

Three years unemployed

his crushed ma self-esteem.

Yi' see,

am th'wrang age, or I've got th' wrang skills,

well,   that's the usual theme.

So,    I've threw in the towel

a don't even try,

wi' younger men than we

stawnin' in the queue,

am oot,    sine die.

Wi nae money in yir pocket

there's nuthin' yi can dae

except stawn it the windi'

watchin the weans it play.

Noo the wife's buggard aff,

says she's hid enough.

Says am never oot o'bed

a never try a leg. Bit,

wi a job an' a good wife

a wis jist like a young pup.

Then some bastard shut the factory,

noo ma life's aw fuck'd-up.

Right noo, a need a jar ur two

tae kill ma screami' heid,

there's nuthin' left tae pawn

so wit is it, beg ur thieve,

is this the bottom line?

Meanwhile,  the cabinet all agree,

dependency culture is rife,

something must be done

to stamp out this lazy life,

now,    this is the bottom line.

ann arky's home.

That Elusive Growth Thingy.

      Austerity isn't working for that elusive "growth", across the globe the "experts" keep cutting the expectations of economic growth. So what's their answer? More "structural reforms", in other words, more of the failed austerity. The policies that are devastating the living standards across the world, according to those "experts" have to be re-doubled. Corporate growth means more than the wellbeing of people, screw a generation or two, as long as our failed and unjust economic system survives. Wage increases in the UK for the last year were running at an average of 0.8%, while inflation is steady at 2.8%, in real terms, that's a massive wage cut. Wage cuts are only part of the question, thousands of working people are paid so low that they have to rely on benefits of one kind or another, and with benefit cuts coming into play, poverty's cruel hand is grabbing the coattails of more and more individuals and families.

       Falling wages, slashed benefit cuts and rising unemployment, all, so we are told, necessary, for what? Necessary for the survival of an economic system that will never see to the needs of the ordinary people. Necessary for the survival of a system that pampers parasites. The world is not short of resources, we have enough to see to the needs of all on this planet. Warehouses are full of food and other necessities of live. We don't, not because we don't know how to go about it, nor is it because we don't want to see to the needs of all. No, its because the rich and wealth, through their political puppets, forbid such actions to take place without there being a profit in it for them. In the corporate world, life is cheap, but commodities are expensive.

From A World To Win:

 "--------Summarising the latest set of global data, leading economics professor Eswar Prasad says: “The global economic recovery remains stuck below takeoff speed, unable to achieve liftoff and facing the risk of stalling.”          

        Prasad’s warning that “politicians around the world continue to avoid tough structural reforms, instead relying on central banks to continue propping up growth”, implies a redoubling of the assault on living standards that has produced 60% unemployment among young people in Greece and Spain."

Read the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.

 

Symbolism In Your Face.

      I know I said that the last post on Thatcher would be my last word on the subject, but I couldn't help myself on this one. I sat down with a cup of tea and switched on the tele at the 1 O'clock News, and there it was, "The funeral", (I should have known). The pomp and ceremony, the pageantry, the spectacle, a true picture of how the rich and powerful mark the passing of one of their great warriors.  A display meant to humble those she was sent out to destroy, a marker for you to know your place. You, the ordinary people don't belong here, this is the domain of the ruling class. This whole affair with all its fancy dress and sparkling uniforms, is a victory parade as the parasitic elite feel confident enough to shove their symbolism in your face. A show of power for those who hold power and for the passing of one who worshiped and fought for that power. There was nothing there that said, humility, nothing that said, ordinary people of the UK, it was a military display, with the trinkets of the ruling elite stage managed and hung out to impress.

        When will this grotesque type of display, which is nothing more than a bullhorn advertising the power of the rich, and those who hold that power dear, be swept into the dustbin of history.

        I promise that this is my last word on Thatcher and Thatcherism, honest.

ann arky's home.

While Moany An Een is Mistin Up.

      I know it's supposed to be a poem-a-day throughout April, and there already has been one, but I just received this from a comrade and due to the solemnity of this day, I thought that this one should be read.

New poem by Rab Wilson 

The Lanely Daith o Maggie Thatcher

The day they’re mindin her wi hauf-mast flags,
Neist week they’ll spend ten million oan her kistin,
Whiles Tony Blair, wi grief his een are mistin,
Nae dout he’ll bray wi aa the ither windbags,
Wha’ll gaither in the House tae sing her praise;
They’ll deftly whitewaash ower Pinochet,
Mandela’s refusal tae jine her fir some tea....
But frien ah’ve mind o ither lang-gane days,
New Cumnock here in Ayrshire aince wis bien,
Wi pits an factories pourin wages in,
Nou evriwhaur ye luik the place is duin,
Her ‘legacy’ tae us? a thing obscene!
Her room’s redd-up an trig nou at the Ritz –
Mercat forces wull see she isnae missed.

ann arky's home.

Robb Johnson.

Robb Johnson Friday 26th April
Partick Folk Club, St Peter's Hall, 66 Chancellor Street, Partick, Glasgow G11 5PS (map)  bring own booze. No bar. Doors 7.45. 8pm start. £8, Concession £6 - includes free home-made soup.

http://www.robbjohnson.co.uk/mp3/index.html

Guitar - Sololibertarian socialist

"his songs are incisive and clever and witty and you can sing them on your way to work." Boff, Chumbawamba

He has played pubs, clubs, pavements, pickets & benefits, arts centres & festivals, local radio, BBC Radio 3 & 4, Belgian Radio 1, Nicaraguan TV & Channel 4, the Albert Hole in Bristol &, as part of Roy Bailey’s 1998 concert, the Albert Hall in London. In February 2006 Robb appeared at the Barbican as part of the prestigious BBC “Folk Britannia” series, where “for the encore, Robb Johnson leads all the artists (and the audience) in the World War I song (‘Hanging On The Old Barbed Wire’)” (BBC Folk Britannia website) in a concert that was screened later that month on BBC4. Earlier this year Robb was the featured guest on Andy Kershaw’s Radio 3 programme. Robb also plays extensively in Belgium, Holland & Germany, & he has toured Britain supporting Chumbawamba, & the US with David Rovics (who is playng Saturday, May 25th Glad Cafe 1006A Pollokshaws Rd Glasgow, G41 2HG).

ann arky's home.

If Not Now, When? If Not Us, Who?

       With the conditions of the ordinary people deteriorating at an ever increasing pace, as state after state force through legislation to protect and enhance the wealth and power of the rich, anger simmers. However simmering anger never brings change against repression, and debate with tyranny is futile. Our anger must be a measure of the injustice, and have a direction. Anger without a direction is like a blind archer behind the bow. We know the who and why of our suffering, we mustn't be the blind archers.
    And so to today's poem.

Now.

No time to theorise the market economy

no time to mark out the nations boundary

injustice is now,

no time to measure the moon with a measuring tape

no time to catalogue the deeds of the great

injustice is now.

No time to worship purloined power

no time to kneel at the ivory tower

hunger is now,

no time to let illusions swamp the mind

no time to be lead like a host of blind

hunger is now.

It's time to cast your silence to the ground

it's time to use actions your ager found

freedom can be now,

it's time to hold fast to your heart's dictate

it's time to rise in anger against the state

freedom can be now.

   

ann arky's home.

Respect!!

        I hope this is the last thing I write or say about Thatcher and the Thatcher era, as it is now being called. The usual mouths from the parasite class are calling for respect for, and during the funeral of this individual. What respect are they showing by this multi million pound, in your face, show of worship, for someone who was the leading figure in the crushing of thousands of ordinary working class families? What respect is this theatrical pomp showing for those families? Respect surely is double sided, to earn respect, you must show respect. She showed no respect for the ordinary people of this country, and therefore should receive none from those ordinary people. This expensive extravagance is an attempt at re-writing history, attempting to put sainthood on what was a class warrior of the right, a crusader for the rich, a preacher of selfish greed. Though she was not the architect of those right-wing policies, she was a willing and brutal general for their implementation. She pushed through the ideology of her masters with a callous disregard for all those ordinary people who would be affected. Success of that ideology mattered more than the suffering of those being devastated by that ideology.

      Sadly the funeral of this enemy of working class culture, will not see the end of those same policies that she so religiously pursued. The same savage ant-working class policies are in the safe hands of the present millionaire cabal that sit today in The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. As for expecting “Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition” to do anything to remove these policies of repression, you only have to listen to the leader of that opposition, Ed Miliband, spewing his mince on the matter of Thatcher, to realise that it won't happen:

“I send my deep condolences to Lady Thatcher’s family, in particular Mark and Carol Thatcher. She will be remembered as a unique figure. She reshaped the politics of a whole generation. She was Britain’s first woman prime minister. She moved the centre ground of British politics and was a huge figure on the world stage. The Labour Party disagreed with much of what she did and she will always remain a controversial figure. But we can disagree and also greatly respect her political achievements and her personal strength. She also defined the politics of the 1980s. David Cameron, Nick Clegg and I all grew up in a politics shaped by Lady Thatcher. We took different paths but with her as the crucial figure of that era. She coped with her final, difficult years with dignity and courage. Critics and supporters will remember her in her prime.”

      There are some who have spoken of Thatcher in a more honest working class manner and therefore should be quoted when ever her name is mentioned This quote from Ken Loach approaches a more accurate assessment:

"Margaret Thatcher was the most divisive and destructive Prime Minister of modern times. Mass unemployment, factory closures, communities destroyed – this is her legacy. She was a fighter and her enemy was the British working class. Her victories were aided by the politically corrupt leaders of the Labour Party and of many trades unions. It is because of policies begun by her that we are in this mess today. Other prime ministers have followed her path, notably [Labour's] Tony Blair. She was the organ grinder, he was the monkey. Remember she called Mandela a terrorist and took tea with the torturer and murderer Pinochet. How should we honour her? Let’s privatise her funeral. Put it out to competitive tender and accept the cheapest bid. It’s what she would have wanted."

     Miner David Douglas's speech at Trafalgar Square on why miners are celebrating Thatcher's demise.

ann arky's home.

Buried Treasure.

       Sombre, proud, reflective, critical, joyous, hopeful, poems of every shade, out there to be savoured.

Buried Treasure.

Rich,  man I'm rich,

this life, this treasure chest of mine,

crammed full.

Those moments of ecstasy with forgotten names,

burning loves that broke the rules,

quiet meetings that burst into flames,

short lived loves

sealed with bitter vows.

Passions that sparkled and flashed

bring warmth,    even now.

Ruby red anguish that shaped my heart

diamond friendships this world can't part,

a son that changed this world to gold

adding pride to my treasure chest,

a daughter brought radiance beyond compare,

of precious gems,    they gave the best.

These jewels, these precious stones

this bounty beyond belief,

all mine,

outshines a prince's throne.

ann arky's home.

Agricultural Wages Board.

     A wee bit late, but an appeal from Labour Start:

Tomorrow (Tuesday), MPs have a vote on the Government’s plan to abolish the Agricultural Wages Board.

 

The AWB is the body that sets legal minimum rates of pay and conditions for 150,000 agricultural workers in England and Wales, and is used as a benchmark for thousands more.

 

Last month, in the House of Lords, the Government pushed through amendments that will completely scrap the AWB – and on Tuesday, our MPs get the final say on it.

 

The Agricultural Wages Board has existed since the First World War to end rural poverty, and to provide protection for workers who live in precarious communities, where pay is low and the cost of living often high.

 

Scrapping the AWB will make pay and conditions worse for these workers, and create a race to the bottom in the industry – with farmers undercutting wages, as supermarkets pile on the pressure to cut production costs.

 

Together, let’s send our MPs a message that we want them to vote no to rural poverty, and no to scrapping the AWB.

Support the IUF and Unite campaigns --

• Click here to send a message to David Cameron.

• Click here to send a message to your MP.

Thank you.



Eric Lee

ann arky's home.

The Seasons.

    April, poem a day month, on day 15, the mood changes.

The Seasons.

When you look, it's plain to see,

spring has cross these mountains,

-------many years before;

kissed their slopes, with shoots of hope,

promised so much more.

Then sweeping in, in a blaze of life,

summer saw the promises bloom,

-------many years before;

bathed the dreams, in bounteous streams,

birds began to soar.

So with stealth, and deceptive charm,

autumn cooled the gurgling streams,

--------many years before;

slowed their pace, to one of grace,

quietly closed a door.

Now, with vulgar haste, and callous force,

winter assaults those mighty peaks,

--------of many years before;

as gathering clouds, spread their shroud,

memories start to pour.

ann arky's home.

May The 1% Prevail!!

          I have never been happy with the 99% - 1% cry of the occupy movement, I don't think it is that clean a break. The vast majority of the 99% don't really want the 99% to take control of everything, they just want a better say in the running of the stinking system in an attempt to make it "fairer", to guarantee a little cake on the table instead of the perpetual stale bread. Inside that 99% however, there is another 1%, perhaps a little more than that, who have higher hopes and dreams than a benevolent capitalism. They don't see taking over the institutions of a rotten system as any answer at all, to them society has to be refashioned, reshaped to fit the dreams of the just. They will have no truck with the pomp and ceremony of past power and will bury tradition that binds us to inequality. Their tomorrow has no grand plan, it is a continuous metamorphosis that perpetually shapes itself to all our needs. Ask them what their tomorrow will look like and they will reply, "I don't know, it all depends on who walks with me." The important thing is that it is all those involved in our society, that determine the shape of our society with justice and freedom at its heart.

Said in another way: 

"------We know what the real causes of the suffering we endure: the sect of power, the cult of money, but also the obedience that they demand and obtain. These causes are perpetuated in the daily lives of human beings by the actions, gestures, relationships that interweave within a society in which we feel that we are strangers everywhere. And these causes – that have to be refused, deserted, demolished – have found shelter in your movement. We have never felt at home in 99% of our modern life, spent lining up to beg for crumbs, and yet you insist on defending 99% of the problem. We will take our possibilities elsewhere. Through the hopes, dreams and actions that have earned your condemnation. You, you still continue you passage through the ocean of universal indignation. You raise your sails passing the ropes to bureaucrats and police. You share space and air with the scum who have made life on this planet so unlivable. You head straight towards a new tomorrow with the hold still full of yesterday’s shit. We won’t climb onto your ship, in case we would never get off of it. We will stay on our rafts which you so despise, because they are so small and light.
But watch out. A vessel that travels with our enemies on board is an opportunity to fine to miss. Do you laugh? Do you have no fear of us because we don’t have the strength board you? You’ve misunderstood us. We don’t want your gold, we don’t at all want to conquer you, We want to make you sink with all your death cargo. To succeed at this, there is no need for a majestic fleet, one fire-ship is enough. Small and light."

Read the full article from Tabula Rasa HERE:

ann arky's home.

Labour, Making The Cuts Nicer.

       We all know that the ConDems coalition of millionaires, is hell-bent on slashing benefits of the most vulnerable in society, social spending to them is an anathema, Sadly a high proportion of people see the next election as a possible end to this onslaught by voting Labour, (sorry "New Labour") They somehow have formed the mistaken opinion  that the Miliband gang will change this cruel market drive approach to health and welfare. Sadly they will be find that should the well-heeled Miliband mob get their grubby hands on the reins of power, nothing will change. This particular bunch of hypocrites are traveling around preaching how they will continue with all the trimmings of of Osborne's master plan, but make it fair!! How do you take away support from vulnerable people fairly? how do you cut the benefits of those living on or near the poverty line fairly? Thatcher, Cameron, Miliband, it doesn't make any difference, it is not the smile or the personality that matters, it is the system. Only when we start to dismantle, this greed driven system of capitalism, will we see the vulnerable being cared for as their needs dictate and the pain of poverty being removed.

ann arky's home.

We The Poets.

      April 14th. and 14 poems, some old ones, some new ones, some my own, some from the heart of others. I have always felt that the poem has a special power, it lives in that strange land, half way between the conversation and the song. A powerful tool in the search for that better world.

We The Poets.

We the poets

must rise to hold the mirror,

not at romantic moon

dressing trees in silver web

but, at sadness in a child's eyes

helpless face festooned with flies,

the listless look of hunger.

We the writers

must rise to hold the mirror,

not at hopes of superstars

pandering to an ego of selfish greed

but, at misery of the world's maimed

duty done by smart bombs, computer aimed,

peoples crushed by pityless power.

We the artists

must rise to hold the mirror,

not of views from penthouse windows

of meadows green and lush

but, at peoples broken by starvation,

at war, its brother deprivation,

capitalism's bastard twins.

If across the planet as a whole

we don't stand up and play our role,

poet:  heart of compassion,

writer;  voice of consience,

artist;  eyes of justice,

we've cheated tomorrow's generation,

hurried the planet to extinction.

ann arky's home.

No Family Insult Intended.

       As the man said, "If the Thatcher family feel insulted, it is nothing to the insult, pain, anger and humiliation felt my the families she destroyed."

ann arky's home.