Fashion And Face Recognition.

      Surveillance is becoming an ever more important and intrusive state tool Today we are surrounded by CCTV, roaming vehicles with cameras continually snapping away at everybody and everything. On top of this we have the various arms of the state and large commercial corporations gleaning personal details form or social habits. Your are profiled for state and commercial purposes, whether you like it or not. The latest venture is face recognition. The following article may be of some use when you think of posting that photo on you favourite social network, or when you next venture in to town. 

 This is from Rotenotes:

      Adam Harvey is a Brooklyn-based artist whose work addresses the impact of surveillance technologies.

      Next year the Janus program, an initiative run by the director of national intelligence, will begin to collect photographs of people’s faces from social media websites and public video feeds. Machines will then use powerful algorithms to pair those photos with existing biometric profiles.

     The Janus program isn’t alone: Facial-recognition technology is quickly becoming a mainstay of commercial and government surveillance systems. While it can provide benefits in automation and security, it is also a threat to privacy. Sophisticated algorithms can already extract information about your gender, age and even mood from a single image, and then link those physical attributes to commercial or government databases.

This powerful surveillance technology is cheap, ubiquitous and unregulated.

      My project, CV Dazzle, explores how fashion can be used as camouflage from face-detection technology, the first step in automated face recognition. The name is derived from a type of World War I naval camouflage called Dazzle, which used cubist-inspired designs to break apart the visual continuity of a battleship and conceal its orientation and size. Likewise, CV Dazzle uses avant-garde hairstyling and makeup designs to break apart the continuity of a face. Since facial-recognition algorithms rely on the identification and spatial relationship of key facial features, like symmetry and tonal contours, one can block detection by creating an “anti-face.”

See helpful diagrams to help fool face recognition technology: 

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

The Zapatista Continuing Struggle.

      On January 1st 2014 the Zapatista movement in Mexico celebrated the 20th anniversary of the taking of Chiapas. This Circled "A" Radio show talks and discusses some of that history and the current struggles of the Zapatista's.

Listen HERE:

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Creating The Next Generation Of Racist Thugs.

      The daily life of Palestinians. This is absolutely brutish, vicious and terrorising behaviour, what makes it even worse is that they bring their kids along to take part, and in so doing, these thugs perpetuate their hatred and racist bigotry, creating the next generation of religious terrorists. This goes on across the occupied territories on a daily basis, and the world looks the other way, Why?

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

The Prince Of Darkness Laughed.

       2014 has hardly taken its first faltering steps and those arrogant  dinosaurs of empire are out with their megaphones spouting that WW1, was a glorious victor for democracy, a noble cause, a just war for freedom. They want to mark the centenary of the start of that event, that soaked Europe's soil in the blood of ordinary people, as a glorious part of our history. History is to be re-written, what was a greed driven squabble between the aristocratic owners of empires, that sucked in and slaughtered the best of Europe's youth, is to be lauded as something of which we the ordinary people should be proud. The massive misery, suffering and deaths of that unnecessary, avoidable carnage, is set to be used as a bandwagon, by the millionaire flag waving parasites. It will be abused and misrepresented, in an attempt to portray that crap slogan “We're all in this together”. It will be used as a pompous platform of grandeur and splendour, to take our eyes of the poverty stricken state of our present society.

       We must continue to shout the truth about that disastrous ego driven aristocratic grab for power and territories, we owe it to all those who died under those pitiful, miserable, avoidable conditions. We cannot allow their unjust slaughter to be used by a bunch of well-heeled hypocrites, to further their own political ideology. At every turn we must counter their lies with truth. There was no aim for democracy in their plans, there was no defence of freedom on their agenda, it was a thrust for power, and land grabbing, on a grand scale, and as usual in their plans, we the ordinary people were to pay the price.

The following is an extract from an excellent article in the Guardian:

       This is all preposterous nonsense. Unlike the second world war, the bloodbath of 1914-18 was not a just war. It was a savage industrial slaughter perpetrated by a gang of predatory imperial powers, locked in a deadly struggle to capture and carve up territories, markets and resources.
      Germany was the rising industrial power and colonial Johnny-come-lately of the time, seeking its place in the sun from the British and French empires. The war erupted directly from the fight for imperial dominance in the Balkans, as Austria-Hungary and Russia scrapped for the pickings from the crumbling Ottoman empire. All the ruling elites of Europe, tied together in a deathly quadrille of unstable alliances, shared the blame for the murderous barbarism they oversaw. The idea that Britain and its allies were defending liberal democracy, let alone international law or the rights of small nations, is simply absurd.

Read the full article HERE:

At the Cenotaph.

I saw the Prince of Darkness, with his Staff,

Standing bare-headed by the Cenotaph:

Unostentatious and respectful, there

He stood, and offered up the following prayer,

'Make them forget, O Lord, what this Memorial

Means; their discredited ideas revive;

Breed new belief that War is purgatorial

Proof of the pride and power of being alive;

Men's biologic urge to readjust

The Map of Europe, Lord of Hosts, increase;

Lift up their hearts in large destructive lust;

And crown their heads with blind vindictive Peace,'

The Prince of Darknes to the Cenotaph

Bowed. As he walked away I heard him laugh.

Siegfried Sassoon.

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

Helicopters Do Drop Out Of The Sky!!

       Another helicopter crash, this time in England. I have no doubt that they are a very useful tool, but I think we have to accept that these things do drop out of the sky at regular intervals. We have had several disastrous helicopter accidents around the oil rigs in the North Sea, and we have had two police helicopters crash in Glasgow, the most recent, the dreadful crash onto the roof of the Clutha pub. When the inquire for that horrific accident comes up, I think the point should be made that they do fall from the sky, and for that reason they should not be used on a routine basis over dense urban environments. They should be banned from routine surveillance, and only be brought in, in an emergency. As for surveillance, our city is well covered with CCTV, police patrol cars, uniform and plain clothes police. Surveillance may be considered intrusive, and rightly so, but it doesn't kill people, low flying helicopter surveillance over cities can kill, and is a danger to the public.

      I believe that the public in Glasgow have a right to demand no more routine helicopter surveillance fights over our city. The carnage in the Clutha tragedy was horrendous, but try to visualise the greater number of casualties if it had come down in some other area, say a block of flats, or a primary school. It is unacceptable to run that unnecessary risk, knowing that they do drop out of the sky from time to time. 

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

Top Of The Stinking Pile, GAP.

       Earlier I posted about having an award for worst corporation on the planet. Well it seems that there is, and you can vote to help to pin that award on the lapel of that large greed driven, inhumane corporation, GAP.

This from The Sum Of Us:

It’s been eight months since the worst factory collapse in world’s history killed more than 1,100 workers. More than 125 global apparel brands have taken responsibility for the safety of the workers who make their clothes. But a few key corporations led by Gap are still standing in the way of real reform.

Gap, one of the top purchasers of Bangladeshi-made clothes, refused to sign a binding agreement to ensure that its factories are safe. Instead, it is actively undermining serious reform by promoting a non-binding corporate-controlled program that’s completely unaccountable to workers, and helping to convince other companies to do the same.

Gap has put publicity and profits ahead of workers’ lives -- and now we have an opportunity to hold it accountable.

We’ve successfully nominated Gap for the Public Eye Awards, which Greenpeace and the Berne Declaration bestow on the world’s least ethical corporation each year. If Gap “wins” it’ll be a huge blow to its PR campaign and a reminder that the sham isn’t fooling anyone. But to make it happen, we need your vote. To vote, just click the link, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click the "vote for this case" button.

Click here to vote for Gap the worst corporation of 2013.

When Gap, Walmart, and their allies walked away from the Accord, we knew more workers would die as a consequence. And like clockwork, another deadly fire ripped through a factory that supplied Gap in October. It was the latest reminder that we can't trust corporations with people's safety, which is why the independent inspections and legally-binding commitments to safety improvements that the Accord creates are so important.

The inspections mandated by the Accord are underway, overseen by globally-recognized fire safety experts. The garment industry isn’t going to be changed overnight, but real reform is happening. Meanwhile, our allies on the ground in Bangladesh have told us that the Gap-led Alliance is as bad as we predicted. It hasn’t hired any independent building inspectors and it isn't listening to workers -- it’s just using the same old company-controlled auditing systems that have been failing to enforce basic safety standards for years.

We can’t let this stand. If we enough of us vote, the Public Eye Awards will shame Gap in the middle of the the World Economic Forum in front of the world’s business press. This is our best chance in months to hold Gap accountable for its betrayal of Bangladeshi workers, and all it takes is a click.

Can we count on you? Click here to vote Gap the world’s most irresponsible corporation.

Thanks for all you do,
Rob and the team at SumOfUs

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

WW1, Aristocratic Greed, Not Patriotism.

      As 2014 starts to write its story, we have artists, in this case con-artists, the Cameron Gang of millionaire parasites, attempting to paint it as the year of patriotism. They will endeavour to drown us in patriotic bullshit, using the horrible slaughter of the disastrous and unnecessary World War 1, attempting to paint it as a wonderful achievement. This horrendous human folly will be re-branded as part of a glorious past. A blood bath brought about by the wealthy, greedy, power hungry, aristocrats squabbling over lines in their empires. This disagreement between the parasites resulted in 37 million, military and civilian casualties. There were over 16 million deaths, and more than 20 million wounded. Disease claimed more than 2 million and another 6 million went missing presumed dead. For what?

 
 Photo from Google.

      We should not allow the pampered, millionaire Oxbridge parasites to use this horrendous event as a smoke screen to conceal the effect of their vicious policies. It would be demeaning to those who died in that pointless blood bath. All of those who died were our people, the ordinary people, and they died because of other people's egos, stupidity and greed.

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

"The Anti-Humanity" Award.

        If there was an award, perhaps we could call it "The Anti-Humanity" award, for the most destructive section of capitalism, it would be a very difficult to come to a decision as to where that award should go.    

    We have the various mining industries, including fracking, ripping apart ecosystems and poisoning the environment. We have the garment industry, cheap labour and appalling conditions in sweatshops across the world. We have the nuclear industry with its Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, to mention a few. Then there is the financial Mafia, plundering countries and devastating living standards of millions. Let's not forget the multinational forestry companies, ripping the heart out of indigenous communities in country after country. The contestants are all so devastatingly destructive to human life that it is difficult to imagine how we let it get this bad.

      This extract is from Earth First and highlights just one area where the forestry industry is destroying the environment and killing people, but the people are fighting back.

 Forestry Companies: The Ugliest Face of Capitalism in Wallmapu

      The forestry companies represent the worst aspect that Capitalism has shown to Mapuche community members in Wallmapu. Their extreme extractive activities have only generated disaster for communities, including toxic fumes, the dissapearance of rivers, brooks and streams, as well as the extinction of the natural flora and fauna of the area which serve as food and medicine for the Mapuche People. These are the main effects, among others, of the industry financed by the Chilean State through Law 701.

       Moreover, the enormous extensions of land currently held by the Forestry companies lie on stolen land from Mapuche communities. These corporate properties are directly related to the territorial plunder of the Mapuche People.

Read the full article HERE:

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It's Our Towns And Cities, It's our Lives.

       What should people do when they realise the system is corrupt? Should they just knuckle down and take what they get, shout for nicer politicians, or say stuff this, and get organised and do something about it? What if you have had generations of corruption, generations of waiting for change, generations of changing the politicians, and the system still stinks?

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

Why Pay Workers? It Cuts Into Profits.

     Pick your country and you'll find some corporate body ripping off the people some where, some how. Of course the Third World usually comes in for the most blatant and vicious attacks, but it is how the corporate world works. We can campaign to limit the worst of this abuse, and we must always show solidarity with those at the sharp end of this brutal corruption. However, if we are looking for justice and equality, then we must get rid of capitalism itself. There is no such thing as compassionate capitalism.

This is an appeal for solidarity from TheSumOfUs:

    Giant clothing brand Hanes has been caught stealing from some of the poorest workers in the world, and we've got less than a week to stop it.

    Haiti has become an apparel-producing powerhouse as global clothing brands like Hanes move factories there to take advantage of some of the lowest wages in the Western Hemisphere.  But workers aren't benefiting from the boom -- a new report from our friends at the Worker Rights Consortium has revealed that every single export garment factory in Haiti has been paying workers less than the minimum wage. And as a result, three quarters of Haitian garment workers don’t make enough to afford three full meals a day.

    At the end of this week, Russell and Gildan, two of Hanes’s top competitors, are meeting with labor rights advocates and representatives from Haitian unions to make plans to pay workers what they're owed. But Hanes has refused to join them. That means we need to speak out now and let Hanes know that consumers will hold it accountable if it tries to ignore the workers making its clothes.

    Tell Hanes to stop stealing from the poor: End wage theft at your Haitian suppliers.

     This isn't the first time Hanes has been in the public eye for trying to keep Haitian workers in poverty. Two years ago, WikiLeaks revealed that the company furiously lobbied the U.S. State Department to stop the Caribbean nation from raising its minimum wage to just $5 a day. Even after the garment industry got special carve-outs from the minimum wage, Hanes and its suppliers continued to mercilessly exploit its Haitian workforce.

Factories use all sort of dirty tricks to swindle workers out of their wages: forcing workers to work off the clock, refusing to pay overtime, and requiring workers to reach totally unrealistic production quotas to get their full wages. On average, Haitian garment workers make more than 30% less than what they’re legally owed. Apparel companies are flagrantly breaking the law, but the combination of the garment industry's political clout and its importance to the country's economy means that the Haitian government doesn’t have the appetite to hold them accountable.

      Hanes could help more than 3,000 workers get millions of dollars in money that its suppliers stole from them  -- it's the top buyer at several factories, and has huge influence in the industry. But instead, the company is claiming it didn't technically break the law as its workers struggle to survive. We need to let Hanes know that consumers won't tolerate any more excuses.

Tell Hanes to stop wage theft and make sure Haitian workers get back the money that was stolen from them.

Thank you,
Rob, Kaytee, and the team at SumOfUs.org

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

The Non-Political Party System.

         Since the formation of the European Union, the possibility of democracy through the party political system is now even more remote than ever. The EU functions at a level beyond the legitimacy of the local party system, and imposes legislation on the national governments, creating a power more remote and disconnected from the people than ever before. National governments are now simply bureaucratic organisations that implement policies of that greater bureaucratic institution, the EU. This in turn creates an even greater disconnect between the political class and the people. 

 

     The various parties have lost any real difference, they are merely bureaucratic bodies vying with each for the power to manage the national bureaucratic institution, within the terms laid down by the EU. Our so called democracy. based on the party political system, is not about the party asking the people what they want, but more a matter of telling the people what they will get. Hardly democracy. The party political system is depoliticised at the national level, we might be able to protest against, and influence, the building of a motorway going through a public park, but the fundamental shape of our society is governed by that higher bureaucratic institution, the EU. Which in turn moves in the direction dictated by the “economy” and the needs of the transnational corporations. This disconnect between the people and the political parties creates ever more disillusionment and scepticism among the ordinary people.

          Hopefully this will be fertile ground for the desire to control our own lives and to determine the shape of our society. Perhaps our anger, disenchantment, scepticism, disillusionment and frustration at a system that doesn't engage with us, yet controls our lives to our detriment, will engender the birth of true democracy. Whatever, it will have to be outside the present system of political parties and freed from the strangle hold of the “economy” and its beneficiaries and drivers, the transnational corporations.

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

They Demanded Change.

     Across the planet, an army of anarchists, as individuals and as groups, are organising and acting, with the one aim in mind, to end this brutal, vicious, system of authority and exploitation, to bring an end to this cycle of inequality and injustice. They are aware that we live in a system of unfair exchange, where we the ordinary people exchange sweat for poverty, while those parasites with their hands on the levers of power grow fat on our labour. Though they may not all display the label “anarchist”, this army is growing as more and more people see through the smoke and mirrors woven by the propagandists of the system. It also easier to see the true face of the system, as it's dominance, giving it a false sense security, allows it to dispense with the niceties, and display it's full destructive nature, and run roughshod over our lives.

      Its rampant dominance is also it weakness, as it alienates more and more of the people it depends on for its survival. Its blood supply is cheap subservient labour and consumers, and its open ferocious drive for profit, is alienating ever more of that blood supply.

      This corporate capitalist system functions across all borders and for its defence, draws together the combined force of states across the globe. It will utilise the various arms of any and all states, to crush resistance to its pursuit of profit. More and more of those who resist this brutal exploitation, and struggle for change, are ending up incarcerated in prisons across the world. We should not forget them. They are our people, they are from all quarters of the planet, they called for justice and equality, and the state tries to crush them, to silence them.

From, Act For Freedom Now:

 

Spain- Monica Caballero transferred to another prison

Translated by act for freedom now/B.pd

      On December 21 2013 comrade Monica Caballero was once again transferred to another prison, this time from the prison of Estremera to that of Brieva (Ávila).  Anarchist comrades Monica Caballero and Francisco Solar were arrested on November 13 2013 and accused of being part of the Comando Insurrecional Mateo Morral and of placing a home-made explosive device in the Cathedral of Zaragoza.  Both comrades had been acquitted in the ‘Bombas’ case. Monica and Francisco are being held in the FIES regime.

 Always in revolt, solidarity and love to Monica and Francisco!

Spain – A letter from comrades Monica and Francisco

      Once again we are here between walls of concrete and bars, surveillance cameras and jailers. Once again we are here with our heads held high and proud to be what we are. Proud to be part of the hurricane that is trying to erase all forms of power, which has once again taken off its mask and is showing its real face in all its brutality and weakness as well. In this case, the collaboration between the Chilean state and the Spanish one which led to our arrest shows how the states can organize themselves in order to face what they perceive as a threat; but the attention the men of power give to us also reflects their fragility. Their incoherent speeches on security are a mantle that conceals their fear that any fortuity can unleash widespread chaos. Their blows and gags just strengthen and sharpen our ideas and lives dedicated to continuous conflict. Our stand: not a minute of silence but a life in the struggle.

      We send a hug to all expressions of solidarity, drives that weaken the prison bars. We intend solidarity as the constant realization of our anarchist ideas in all their forms so as the enemy understands that nothing is over and everything continues in prison and in the streets. Above all, the huge solidarity expressed by the comrades who have used their bodies as weapons and carried out a hunger strike.

      We salute those who continue to weave complicities, those who venture into the unknown, those who are motivated by incertitude, those who are obstinate for anarchy. All our respect and love go to them. We sadly learned of Sebastien’s death, but at the same time his life consistent with his ideals fills us with joy: a real warrior. We are on the side of the comrades who mourn our fallen comrades, bur from here we send them a lot of strength and a ‘see you soon’.

Monica Caballero

Francisco Solar

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

That Was 2013.

      I have no doubt that 2013 will mean so many different things to so many different people. But it is always good to look back and celebrate the victories and to learn from the temporary defeats. I say temporary, because that is all it it is, we will be victories eventually.

A look back at last year from Circled A Radio.

    A review/countdown of 2013. We take a look at the 10 great demo's and actions of the year including Thatcher's death party at Trafalgar Sq, Anti Fracking camp and No More Page 3 campaign.

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

The £500,000 Poverty Level!!

     Every passing day confirms the fact that, in this country, we live in two different worlds. While you and I are doing so well living in houses with an extra bedroom, we have to have an extra tax, we enjoy the pleasure of workfare placements without salary, we are doing too well on disability benefits, that the government is obliged to cut them, we are wallowing in zero hours contract on the minimum wage. Those poor mid-ranking bankers are struggling on £500,000 annual salary.

An extract from E Financial Careers: 

“People here are already carrying a lot more debt than they used to,” said a senior manager at one European investment bank in London – again speaking off the record. “A member of my team has a £750k mortgage on his house, which is a huge burden for him. A lot of other mid-ranking people here can’t afford to live in Zone 1 and are having to move out to Zones 3 or 4 – which is difficult when you’re a VP-level banker working very long hours.”

     Doesn't your heart bleed for these people? How on earth can they afford a Ferrari or Porche, their whole lifestyle is being jeopordise, if the don't get that big fat bonus and a substantial salary increase. Some of them have probably abandoned they idea of a yacht for next summer.

 I'm finding things very tough at the moment

    This is the obscene inequality that this system is built on, a society where those parasites in the millionaire class ooze sympathy for those who can't get by on £500,000 a year. While stating that those, that produce every article that the parasites posses and every service they enjoy, will have to make sacrifices and tighten their belts.

      I don't see that rationale and discussion will sort out this inequality, I can't see that group who feel that it is difficult to get by on £500,000 a year, and their millionaire bosses, sitting down to sort out the real inequalities in this society. There will have to be another method, and that will have to come from those of us living well below the level of the parasites' £500,000 poverty line salary.

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

Robbed By A Rich Gang.

       Most people are carrying on as if everything will be fine, SOON, it is just a matter of tightening our belts a little. Closing their eyes to the fact that they are being deliberately robbed by a very rich gang. A gang that has no intention of easing off, in their pursuit of plunder. You cannot expect a robber to stop robbing you, because he thinks you might be suffering because of him. That babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, weaves the illusion that it just those lazy, feckless, unemployed layabouts that are being hit, even although you know yourself, that your own situation is getting worse. But it's the crisis, you mutter, what crisis? The only crisis is the fact that a lot of members of the financial Mafia, lost lots of money, greedily pursuing their gambling addiction. Having lost, they now put the squeeze on you and I to make up that loss.

     We have to be stripped of all those social structures that we won over decades of long bitter struggles, in many cases, paid for in blood, prison, and death. All our public assets have to be sold at bargain basement prices, to their wealth corporate friends.

      Surely we can't accept being driven back to beyond the deprivation of the Victorian era. Surely you don't believe that those puppets and obedient servants of the financial Mafia, the government, will reverse this trend, some time SOON? Whatever standard of living you enjoyed just a few years ago was never gifted to you, your forefathers had to fight tooth and nail to get to that position. Do you think this time will be different, do you think our lords and masters, the financial mafia, will start to raise your living standards just out of compassion!!

      Accept that this is class war, and at the moment they are winning, and are not likely to just surrender their bounty. They will bleed you to death in the pursuit of profit to their shareholders. We produce every penny worth of wealth on this planet, it all belongs to us, we could share it fairly among our own people, but only if we win the class war. Without us they are nothing, yet they hold sway over our lives, to our detriment and their benefit. They need us, we don't need them.

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

No Way To Spend Your Nights.

      It has been a lousy, cold, wet and windy winter so far, and though we are one of the richest countries in the world, we still have people sleeping rough in our towns and cities. There are two methods local authorities assess the number of rough sleepers in their area. One is by a count, the other is to estimate, most local authorities estimate, rather than count, so it is obvious that the figures can't be 100% accurate.

 

Photo from Google.

      What we can be sure of is that there are far to many people having to face the winter on the streets of our country. The 2012 autumn figures for England, gathered by these methods was 2,309, an increase of 6% on the previous year, which was a massive increase 23% on 2010 figures. London, that city where the streets are "paved in gold", has the highest number of rough sleepers in the country, and there, like the rest of the country the figure is climbing. The figure for London Autumn 2012 was 24% of the total rough sleepers in England, 557.

      Scotland is no different, according to figures from the report, Operation of The Homeless Persons legislation in Scotland, we have 1,737 people sleeping rough. The Glasgow Winter Night Shelter has been running through the winter months since 2010, It was the severe winter of 2010 that prompted some of the leading charities and voluntary organisations to set up the shelter. During that vicious winter it provided accommodation on approximately 2,000 occasion.

Edinburgh is the Scottish city with most rough sleepers, last year's figure was 363, while Dundee had 97.

       In a country, that as a norm, suffers dreadful winters, with long dark nights, and weather from bitterly cold to extremely wet and cold, sleeping rough just shouldn't happen, no matter the circumstances that brought the individual to that position. Sufficient facilities should be in place and well publicised to make sure nobody faces the winter trying to find shelter. Just another aspect of a system that has bankers and accounts shaping our society.

How to get help on the streets 

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

Wisdom, Madness And Folly.

      I received this from my friend Bob at Citystrolls, and thought it worthy of re-posting. Here it is in full:

        Best time of the year for me is not that mad Christmas thing, or the witless drinking the bells have become. It's those few days after New Year, just before folk go back to work. After the pressure has ebbed and there seems to be a bit of calmness in the air. You will recognise it when it happens. People just seem to wander about, go for a walk in the park, unrushed. Its a great wee part of human space and for thinking ahead and of communion and camaraderie. Don't waste it, it only happens once a year. The following always reminds me of it. All the best for 2014. There's going to be plenty to think about :) B.

R. D. Laing from ‘Wisdom, Madness and Folly’

      Can a psychiatric institution exist for ‘really’ psychotic people where there is communication within solidarity, community and communion, instead of the It-district, the no-man’s-land between staff and patients? This rift or rent in solidarity may be healed in a professional therapeutic relationship. A ‘relationship’, professional or otherwise, which does not heal this rent can hardly be called therapeutic since it seems to me that what is professionally called a ‘therapeutic relationship’ cannot exist without a primary human camaraderie being present and manifest. If it is not there to start with, therapy will have been successful if it is there before it ends. There can be no solidarity if a basic, primary, fellow human feeling of being together has been lost or is absent. It is not easy to retain this feeling when you press the button. Very seldom, when I pressed the button, could I feel I was doing for this chap in terrible mental agony what I hoped he would do for me if I had his mind and brains and he had mine. 

     This issue of solidarity and camaraderie between me as a doctor and those patients did not arise for me, it did not occur to me until I was in the British Army, a psychiatrist and a lieutenant, sitting in padded cells in my own ward with completely psychotic patients, doomed to deep insulin and electric shocks in the middle of the night. For the first time it dawned on me that it was almost impossible for a patient to be a pal or for a patient to have a snowball’s chance in hell of finding a comrade in me. It would be a mistake to suppose that ‘mental’ institutions are It-districts. There may be a lot of camaraderie between staff and staff, and patients and patients. But there tends to be an It-district between staff and patients. Why this should be so may not be immediately apparent. But when one looks into it one sees that it can hardly be otherwise, under the circumstances. 

      All communication occurs on the basis either of strife, camaraderie or confusion. There can be communication without communion. This is the norm. There is very little communion in many human transactions. The greatest danger facing us, the human species, is ourselves. We are not at peace with one another. We are at strife, not in communion.
      The New Year is the biggest celebration in Scotland. It is marked by prolonged carousing on the part of the alcoholic fraternity, but many teetotallers celebrate the spirit of the New Year contentedly sober. There is no ‘religion’ about it. There is a special spirit abroad – ‘Auld Lang Syne’, ‘A man’s a man for a’ that.’ In Gartnavel, in the so-called ‘back wards’, I have seen catatonic patients who hardly make a move, or utter a word, or seem to notice or care about anyone or anything around them year in and year out, smile, laugh, shake hands, wish someone ‘A guid New Year’ and even dance…and then by the afternoon or evening or next morning revert to their listless apathy. The change, however fleeting, in some of the most chronically withdrawn, ‘backward’ patients is amazing. If any drug had this effect, for a few hours, even minutes, it would be world famous, and would deserve to be celebrated as much as the Scottish New Year. The intoxicant here however is not a drug, not even alcoholic spirits, but the celebration of a spirit of fellowship. 

       There are interfaces in the socio-economic-political structure of our society where communion is impossible or almost impossible. We are ranged on opposite sides. We are enemies, we are against each other before we meet. We are so far apart as not to recognise the other even as a human being or, if we do, only as one to be abolished immediately. This rift or rent occurs between master and slave, the wealthy and the poor, on the basis of such differences as class, race, sex, age.
        It crops up also across the sane-mad line. It occurred to me that it might be a relevant factor in some of the misery and disorder of certain psychotic processes; even sometimes, possibly, a salient factor in aetiology, care, treatment, recovery or deterioration. This rift or rent is healed through a relationship with anybody, but it has to be somebody. Any ‘relationship’ through which this fracture heals is ‘therapeutic’, whether it is what is called, professionally, a ‘therapeutic relationship’ or not. The loss of a sense of human solidarity and camaraderie and communion affects people in different ways. Some people never seem to miss it. Others can’t get on without it. It was not easy to retain this feeling when I pressed the button to give someone an electric shock if I could not feel I was doing to him what I hoped he would do for me if I had his brains and he mine. I gave up ‘pressing the button’.

From:
Workers City “The Real Glasgow Stands Up”
Edited By Farquar McLay Clydeside Press

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Colonial Butcher Kitchener.

       Well friends and comrades,  it's a new year, will it be a new year's resolution, or will it be a new year's revolution? Will there be the great awakening, will there be that revolution of consciousness when we see the world differently? Will we follow our imagination, and grasp our dreams? Will we realise that power we have through solidarity, and shape the world to all our needs? After generations of being exploited, will we finally stand up and screw the bastards, once and for all. All the best.

           This image, one from those brutal days of empire, must be the biggest insult of the last century, to the ordinary people. Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, ADC, PC.

was a famed butcher of the colonies, in the peak days of Empire. As colonial administrator, he was responsible for many ruthless campaigns to keep the colonies under the yoke of the British Crown. He was also the imperialists recruiting sergeant for that swamp of death, that is referred to as The First World War. Why would the people of this country and those of the former British colonies wish to see this man honoured? Why should we feel any affinity to this butcher?

     We are in for a year of patriotic pish being poured over us, in an attempt to turn the stupidity and the pointless carnage of that blood bath of 1914/18 into a glorious event. An avoidable event, when parasitic imperialists decided to settle their greedy squabbling by shedding the blood of millions of ordinary people. People who had nothing to gain from the slaughter, People who left poverty to enter that hell on earth, and, if the did come back, they returned to even greater poverty and hardship, while their imperial lords and masters wallowed  in glory and wealth.

    There was nothing in the "Great War" for the ordinary people except endless, pointless killing and suffering. Rather than follow the flag waving triumphalism of that pampered parasitic class of imperialist dinosaurs, who would willingly send another generation into the "valley of death", for their own gain, we should be getting very angry. We the people bore the brunt of all the bloodshed, death and misery, while they, the ruling parasites gained all the spoils.

    The First World War, like most wars, was a public display of our lords and masters' greedy squabbling, to further their own wealth and power. It should be remembered as such, and the finger should be pointed at those responsible for all that death and suffering. 

Patriotism

No, I shall not die for the fluttering flag,

if truth be known, ’tis nothing but a multi-coloured rag

held aloft by some foolish hand

inciting worker and peasant to kill

on some green and wooded hill,

peasant and worker from some other land.

Nor shall I shed blood for the fluttering rag

that brings out fools to stand and brag

of brutal deeds painted grand,

deeds where rustic and craftsman lie so still

killed by my brothers' misguided hand.

No allegiance have I for the Nation

this man made autocratic creation

that divides my brothers in a world so small,

binds us to a country's cause, right or wrong,

bids us follow its drum, sing its song,

then sheds our blood in some border brawl.

No, I'll be no slave to flag or nation,

have no ear for power oration,

though its iron heel is on my breast,

my back feels its leather thong,

at patriotism's barracoon, I'll be no guest.

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Easy Learning.

     I came across this little booklet many, many years ago. So far back I can't remember where I got it, but found it recently at the back of a shelf. It is a spoof on a well known series of children's books, so I thought I would share it with you. POLICE.  

PDF and other downloads.

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The Carnage Of The Drone.

       I first came across this article in that strange world of Facebook and felt that it had to have as much publicity as possible. I have posted several pieces on "drones" and how they are becoming the weapon of choice, and how politicians and that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, tell us how clinical and accurate they are, but we are never given any details of the carnage they cause. This extract is from an article in The Guardian, by one who has seen it all, and lays it bare.

An Elbit Systems Hermes 450 drone. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

      Whenever I read comments by politicians defending the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Predator and Reaper program – aka drones – I wish I could ask them some questions. I'd start with: "How many women and children have you seen incinerated by a Hellfire missile?" And: "How many men have you seen crawl across a field, trying to make it to the nearest compound for help while bleeding out from severed legs?" Or even more pointedly: "How many soldiers have you seen die on the side of a road in Afghanistan because our ever-so-accurate UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicle] were unable to detect an IED [improvised explosive device] that awaited their convoy?"
     Few of these politicians who so brazenly proclaim the benefits of drones have a real clue of what actually goes on. I, on the other hand, have seen these awful sights first hand.

Read the full article HERE: 

       Politicians make the decisions on war, politicians never experience war first hand. Politicians are responsible for the carnage of war but never pull the trigger. They view the wars dressed in fine suits and discuss it over a glass of fine wine, justifying their own stupidity and greed. They are among the small group that gain from the carnage of war, we the people never gain, but we pay the price.

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