Wind, Sea And Hills.

 Whitehills.

     Last Monday, April the 7th. ann arky and partner, took off with the bike and headed for the north eastern corner of Scotland. We stayed in a small village called Gardenstown, near Banff. It is a small area at the bottom of an extremely steep hill and the houses are all crammed together with virtually no space between them, and right on the rocks at the shore facing the North Sea. Your heart bleeds when you think of the life of hardship the residents of the late 19th. early 20th century, must have had to endure just to survive in such a harsh and cramped environment. Herring fishing was their life's blood. Now, most of the cottages are holiday homes, one of which we rented. There is no mobile phone signal and no wi-fi. In the kitchen of the cottage there was instructions telling you that there was no phone signal, but if you walk towards Grovie, past the harbour and the steps down to the beach, there is a phone signal. I had a vision of walking there and seeing this "thing" on the beach with a label, "phone signal". Or perhaps at certain times of the day the village population of holiday makers, congregate at that point and stand in groups with their mobile phones stuck to their ear chatting to the outside world.

McDuff.

      I also believe it is the windiest and hilliest spot on the planet, making it very hard work for ann arky's legs when on the bike. Perhaps I should have recognised the signs, lots of very large wind turbines, always turning at a fair pace. 

McDuff.

      In saying that, it is a very beautiful area and we will be back, though perhaps not to Gardenstown, beautiful as it was, I didn't like the feeling of being trapped, unable to get out of the village without a car. I didn't tackle the hill on the bike.

Near Whitehills.

      I regret not having been able to post a poem a day for the whole month of April, but here we are with today's rendering.

JUST IMAGINE!

If only we could find the imagination

to see this world as one rich colourful nation,

not a collection of camps, insular and small

always eager to mount a border brawl

sending forth an army of fruit growers

to shed the blood of some seed sowers,

holding high a coloured rag

proclaim, "the blood we shed is for this flag",

believing this justifies the countless dead

across nature's beaty spread.

Can't we learn from yesterday's errors

borders breed false fears and foolish terrors;

each flag waving hand sows the seeds

of tomorrow's pointless brutal deeds.

If only we could find the imagination

to see this world as one rich colourful nation,

all free to walk our chosen path

free from fear of the strangers wrath.

A brother rich or poor we can accept,

a different coloured skin is cause to reject,

smile at a brown eyed sister with reddish hair

yet mock one who walks a jungle path, with bosom bare.

Shower with praise and welcome embrace

anyone from our spurious race,

greet with snarl and angry glare

those strange people from over there;

then using our culture as some kind of shield

guarantee our future in isolation sealed.

if only we could find the imagination

to see this world as one rich colourful nation.

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

Good Heavevs----!!

Good heavens---!!

HEAVEN.

The heaven I seek holds no guarded gate

nor boasts no throne on high

has no host on bended knee

no king to call us nigh.

Death shall not be our road of entry

no trumpet blast to show the way,

has no frontier guards for man nor beast

nor some far off judgement day.

The heaven I seek is here and now,

where symbols of power crumble like sand;

standing upright all men shall brothers be,

no one priveleged with high command.

Vibrant life shall be our only passport,

the glorious morning sun our only sign,

with true love of man and beast,

we can have heaven in our time.

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

What Do You Do with 500 Tons Of Chemical Weapons?

        Quite recently there was a helluva hullaballoo about Syria's chemical weapons, the self righteous West, demanded the immediate destruction of these weapons, in spite of the fact that America has enough to destroy all life on the planet. This was to show the West being tough with Syria, and also hoping that Syria wouldn't comply, and then we could go in and bomb the shit out of the country.  Of course when Syria complied, the West was left with what to do with all that chemical shit. It is now all off the radar, that babbling brook of bullshit, the media, no longer considers these chemical weapons news. Well what do you with 500 tons of chemical weapons? Well you turn it it sludge and then dump it in the Mediterranean Sea, problem solved. Of course Cyprus and Greece are too too chuffed by this plan, well how would we in the UK feel if it was to be dumped in the Irish Sea? This is the usual short term view that permeates this type of system we live under, all brash gungho, two guns blazing, with no thought of tomorrow.

      This from Xpressed on the Syrian chemical weapons and their destruction:

 

A threat for fishermen

         The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the United States declare that 500 tons of Syrian precursor substances should be dealt with at sea within a couple of weeks, while the final destruction of the American chemical weapons will not be completed before 2023. On land, the US hopes to destroy 3,100 tons within 10 years. At sea they are convinced that they can process 500 tons within four weeks.

      For the time being, a low degree Ro-Ro, the Arc Futura, with a total of 38 deficiencies since 2000 at European ports, is manoeuvring somewhere in the Mediterranean loaded with an unknown amount of chemical weapons. Only when all the facilities of this particular ship are emptied and all the guns are loaded in Arc Futura and another Ro-Ro specialising in car transportation, the US floating factory will take action. In the planning no refuge port has been foreseen, in case there is a major complication during the hydrolysis process on the Cape Ray.

Read the full article HERE:

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Who Cares?

A little food for thought.

WHO CARES?

In a world of

movers and shakers and moonbeam rakers

pimps and dealers and real cool free wheelers

slick fork-tongued entrepreneurs

movin' with glitzy glamorous whores

all with an angle, all with a line,

all goin' t'score real big time.

Who cares about

the heavy hearted mother the anguished young brother

the kid on dope searchin' for hope

the Clydesdie father with the asbestos lung

dumped on life's ladder's lowest rung

the damaged big sister conned by a twister

all trying to live in a system with no give.

Where is

the society the community the neighbouring deed

the thought the act for the other's need

the carers the sharers the giving hand

the dream of all our children's promised land

the open world free from hate

where exploitation is an impossible fate?

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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.

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

 

The New Imperialist Mercenaries.

         In the past Africa helped the empires of Britain, France, Germany, Belgium etc. to enrich their coffers and swell the bank accounts of captains of industry. Of course this help wasn't given willingly, it was extracted at the point of a gun and under the most brutal hand of occupation. For many decades the peoples of Africa fought continuous savage battles to throw off the yoke of brutal colonialism. In most cases the imperialist troops left, but not before the men of empire had set up a series of corrupt puppet governments, to enable the rich resources of that continent to be continued to be plundered for the enrichment of the West. Today the imperialists of the West continue their rape and plunder of the African peoples, though this time round it is not with the gun and brutal occupation. The new troops are mercenaries in the shape of Western corporations, backed up and financed by the various Western governments, the UK a willing partner. To the big corporations Africa has no people, only resources and the Western governments support whole heartedly that philosophy. Your tax money goes to support the new imperialists as they ride roughshod over the peoples of Africa, plundering, polluting and empoverishing that vast continent to bolster the wealth and power of the Western corporations. Africa has untold wealth and resources, they are being extracted in vast unimaginable quantities, but its people are among the poorest on the planet. The enormous wealth from those resources in the the vast majority of cases, end up in the pockets of Western corporations. It is simply government backed, supported and sponsored plunder.

From The World Development Movement.

Published on Apr 3, 2014

Find out more: www.wdm.org.uk/food
      Executives from companies including Monsanto and Unilever visit the UK government to thank ministers for their support in carving up the African continent for their profits.
     This spoof video highlights how the UK government is channelling millions of pounds worth of aid into helping multinational corporations get their hands on African resources and markets.
     Some of the world's biggest multinational food corporations see Africa as the final frontier for expanding their markets. This is kicking off what African groups are calling a "new corporate scramble for Africa"

Find out more: www.wdm.org/food

This is a spoof stunt by the World Development Movement

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Capitalist Success Doesn't Look At Poverty.

     In capitalist Europe, Germany is seen as the shining example of capitalist success. It is meant to be what the rest of Europe should try to aspire to, prosperity for all. Of course like all the tales of capitalist success, as far as the ordinary people are concerned it is all an illusion. The German Joint Welfare Association report on poverty for 2013 shows a very definite pattern of increasing poverty for Germany as a whole. It also states that from 2006 to 2012 the growth of poverty was steady going from 14% to 15.2%. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), approximately 10% of German children live in families whose income is below the poverty line. A UNICEF study finds that 8.6% of children in Germany have long term experiences of poverty that seriously affect their entire future. It also finds that more than 1 million adolescents have spent more than one third of their childhood and youth living in poverty. 

       Officially, homelessness doesn't exist in Germany, there are no official figures held by the state. So we have to rely on estimates made by independent groups that offer social assistance to such people. One institution that offers assistance to homeless, Bundesarbeitgemeinschhaft Wohnungslosenhilfe (BAG) states that their figures suggest that there are approximately 591,000 homeless in Germany, however if you add the homeless immigrants, the total looks more like 860,000, roughly the same size as the population of one of Germany's largest cities, Cologne. This figure breaks down as, approximately one third are women, almost the same number are young people and children, men making up 39%. BAG also estimates that approximately another million are under threat of homelessness, or living in sub-standard housing. It also estimates that some homeless with families can get some temporary accommodation with friends and relatives, but approximately 35,000 single people face living on the streets. A further figure from BAG states that in the winter of 1996/97, a staggering 27 people froze to death on the streets of Germany, one of the worst figures among the world's most prosperous nations.

      That is the irony, one of the most prosperous nations on the planet and poverty, homelessness and freezing to death on the streets is accepted. It is the economist apologists for the capitalist system that can only see one side of the equation and spout German as a success story. Germany is growing rapidly in wealth, according to Manager Magazin, October issue, the assets of the richest 100 have increased during the last twelve months by 5.2% to a staggering €336.6 billion and there are 135 billionaires living in Germany and according to a recent study by Credit Suisse, there are approximately 1.7 million, “dollar millionaires” living in Germany.

       In this insane capitalist world, success means rich getting richer, and the rest can go to hell in handcart.

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

A To Z Of Religions.

Today's poem takes a wee look at religion.

He used a condom.

A to Z of Religions

Acclaim Arrogant Absolutes.

Bellow Bygone Beliefs.

Casuist Cackling Cabal.

Deadly Divine Dogma.

Embellish Earlier Errors.

Form Fearful Fundamentalists.

Gaily Gabble Gehenna.

Hype Holy Hate.

Ignorantly Idolise Illusion.

Justify Judgmental Jargon.

Knowingly Kindle Kulturkampf.

Lambaste Liberal Learning.

Machiavellian Mind Moulding.

Narrate Nescient Nostrum.

Obligatory Obnoxious Obfuscation.

Peremptory Pestiferous Panjandrum.

Quickly Quell Querists.

Redundant Reactionary Rants.

Suppress Scholastic Scepticism.

Totally Trammel Tolerance.

Ululate Useless Utterances.

Vaticinate Vicious Vengeance.

Wailing Wearisome Waffle.

Extol Excessive Exaltation.

Y? Y? Y?

Zany Zealous Zealots.

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Prophet Or Dreamer?

Continuing poem a day month, today's rendering.

PROPHET OR DREAMER?

Am I a dreamer?

Ever dazzled by unrisen dawns,

always hearing the song of liberty

though freedom's flag is torn.

I walk towards a world

no borders, kings or slaves;

history claims the warrior's hand

peace the crown of bays.

I see the hungry feasting

midst the brotherhood of man;

all the children singing

the fear of famine gone.

I find the common man

hold his brother dear

create a world of social justice,

Elysian fields their sphere.

Freedom's flag is torn,

quiet is liberty's song,

unrisen suns still to dawn;

prophet,   or dreamer born?

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

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

Glasgow Games Monitor.

Info from Glasgow Games Monitor 2014:

Hi all,

     Our next group meeting is on Monday 7rd April, 7-8.45pm, Unite the Union offices, John Smith House, 145/165 West Regent Street, Glasgow G2 4RZ. All welcome. 

Meeting Dates:

http://gamesmonitor2014.org/meetings/Contact: gamesmonitor2014@googlemail.com 

     Also, giving advance notice that we aim to follow up on the recently blocked HOUSING CRISIS meeting on Tuesday 22nd April. We have not yet confirmed the venue but will let you know when we have. We will also be doing a public walk/'territorial inquiry' on Saturday 29th April. 

    More details to follow soon, please add to your diaries and let others know.  Cheers,http://gamesmonitor2014.org/

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

Great Design!

       April, poem a day month, banish the politicians from the stage, let the bards speak for the people.

GREAT DESIGN?

Sad truths but little addressed

slow rises potential by poverty depressed

gracious living and good health

cruelly linked to personal wealth

self-esteem with youth's sweet flower

steeped in poverty soon turns sour

hopes and dreams in life's rich game

to the poor are distant, broken, lame,

masses trapped in living decay,

homeless, hungry, growing day by day,

midst wealth, so much human dereliction

makes a travesty of your god's benediction,

see minister, mullah, rabbi, priest,

indulging in some royal feast

kissing the hand that wears the crown

twittering with ladies in flowing gowns

then with sanctimonious solemn face

tell the poor, "accept your place"

preaching poverty as some great design

from a being all powerful and benign!

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Future Suspended.

     Over half an hour long, but well worth seeing through to the end, an explanation of what is going on in Greece, but could, and probably will, come to the rest of Europe. Spain is well down that road already, can the rest of us be far behind?

Future Suspended:

    How does a global financial crisis permeate the spaces of the everyday in a city? Our final 35' documentary film traces the multiple transformations of crisis-ridden Athenian public space and those who traverse it.
     Future Suspended is divided in three sections. “Privatised” explores the legacy of mass privatisation projects that preceded the 2004 Olympics, placing them in the context of present day privatisation schemes. “Devalued” gazes at the ever-shrinking spaces of migrants in the city and the devaluation of their lives that comes as a result. “Militarised” shows how, in face of the crisis, this devaluation turns into a generalised condition.
   Through its cinematic traversal of today's Athens, "Future Suspended" traces the rise of the authoritarian-financial complex and how this shrinks public space in the city, fuelling social despair and anger in return.
     Future Suspended is part of the research project at crisis-scape.net. The research team consists of Christos Filippidis, Antonis Vradis, Dimitris Dalakoglou, Ross Domoney and Jaya Klara Brekke. All music for Future Suspended was composed by Giorgos Triantafyllou.
    This film is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND licence. Details here:

creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.en_GB

Future Suspended (english) from Ross Domoney on Vimeo.

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. 

Visi8t ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk