Kirkie Main Street.

         I have been doing my best to keep out of the way of our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, and their popcorn and bubble gum crap they call politics. So I have been out on the bike a few times recently, but only short runs round the Campsie area, but not bothering to stop for the odd photo. I think I have covered that area enough. Yesterday again round the Campsie area, but this time went via Lenzie and Kirkintilloch. I wanted to see the new pedestrianised main street in "Kirkie", the last time I visited that wee toon, the main street, called Cowgate, was in upheaval. It is now completed, and in spite of my mate Roger, a Kikrie local, saying it was a disaster, I found it a great improvement. The pavements are much wider, no place to park on the main road, lots of marked pedestrian crossings where the cars have to give way, plus nice big 20mph signs. I cycled through with hardly a vehicle in sight. That's how the town centre should be, safe for people to wander around at leisure. Sorry Roger, the new design wins. Of course no matter how they re-model the main street of any town, the success or otherwise will depend on the money to spare in the public's pocket, and as that shrinks, I afraid the new Cowgate will not get much wear and tear, from shuffling shoe traffic.

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

Bicycle Wins.

 

        Away from the hypocrisy, lies, deceit, farce, illusions and downright insanity  of the party political scene, This from Not Buying Anything, is obviously created by a man after my own heart. Like the writer, I learnt to drive before the legal age, I could drive before I left school, thanks to my ol' man.

        I read once that a bicycle is the most efficient form of transportation in the known universe. I am sure it is not far from the truth. I have always thought that bicycles were magic machines.
Riding a bicycle can be up to 5 times more efficient than walking, and can produce the equivalent of about 950 miles per gallon. Number crunchers carefully calculate such things with wonderful equations such as:

P = gmVg(K1+s) + K2VaVg
and
E = 1/2mv2 + 1/4mv2 = 3/4mv2

Oooo, it's science. Here is some more:

One hundred calories can power a cyclist for three miles,
but would only power a car 280 feet (85 meters)

         I have always been impressed with sensible cycling peoples in India, China, and many European countries. As a kid I saw photographs of large Indian and Chinese cities teeming with bicycles, while private vehicles were as rare as persistent killing smog events.
In recent years China has been making the shift from being a 'bicycle kingdom' to one dominated by cars. How sad it is to see former cycling nations make the shift from a sustainable source of transportation to one completely unsustainable.

  Member of Environment's Angels bicycle gang

        I started out on unsustainable transportation quite early. I bought my first car before I was old enough to drive it legally. The day I got my driver's licence I ceased to walk or cycle if I could drive instead.
That was a big mistake because I came to miss the freedom, enjoyment, and simplicity of walking and biking. But I was destined to return to my beloved cycling eventually.
Part of the problem has been that the auto industry has us sucked right in to the whole car mystique. We feel like we can't live without them, that we are somehow incomplete without hauling our two tons of glass, metal, and rubber around with us everywhere we go.
However, increasingly aware recent generations are not as enthusiastic about car ownership, and the sales of cars is projected to fall in some markets in the future.

        I am also increasingly unenthusiastic about driving. While we still own a vehicle, we only drive it about 3000 km a year, well below the average of 20,000 km.
I find driving less enjoyable than I used to, and instead of being a 'freedom machine' it is beginning to feel more like an anchor.

 Bicycle cargo carrier from Denmark hauls up to 100kg of freight

        For shorter trips (below about 20 kms return), I usually ride my bicycle. It keeps me fit, saves money, and is more sustainable. And it is fun.
        Based on the principles of energy efficiency and sustainability, there is no contest. No car can deliver 950 miles per gallon. Nor will you burn much fat while driving.
The bicycle wins.

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

UK, Defender Of --What??

       The UK establishment always spout how they are the defenders of freedom and human rights, but words are cheap, and actions always speak louder than words. So I suppose we should look at how the UK interacts with other countries, who it chooses as its friends, and who it chooses as its enemies. One of our dear friends and staunch allies is that citadel to medieval barbarism, Saudi Arabia. A country that still carries out pubic be-headings, public floggings, and stoning to death, where women are denied all accepted 21st. century rights, the right to drive, to go into mixed company unaccompanied, where if she is raped and reports it, she will in all probability, be charged with having sex outside marriage, and is likely to have a public flogging. At the head of this barbaric blot on the face of humanity, is a cabal of unbelievably rich religious fundamentalist fanatics, blind to compassion and anything resembling human rights, but an eye for making money and gathering power around themselves.  So the UK in its defence of human rights sells this cesspool of religious extremists, billions of pounds worth of military hardware, sends in special military advisers to assist them in retaining and expanding their power. I think you have to admit, it kind of blots the UK's human rights mantra.

       Now let's look at one of the UK's enemies, one that the UK played a major part in destroying, Libya. I am not, and never have been, a cheer leader for Gaddafi, but he did carry out a program of social benefits that would shock must people who read about them. Libya was a country of free health care, free electricity,  and interest free loans. Mothers received the equivalent of $5,000 for every child born, on getting married each couple were give the equivalent of $ 50,000 to find a home. Naturally, the UK as one of the world's defenders of human rights and of freedom, saw this abomination, and in a welling up of good will to all men, had to step in and destroy such a misuse of wealth. Now that Libya is a land of tribal feuds, blood letting, religious extremism, and dire poverty, the UK pumps up its chest with pride and points to Libya as a success story.

     As I keep saying, don't listen to their words, look at their actions.
Photos courtesy of arrezafe. 

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

  

Let's Roar.

 

      The farce of pretend change, the general election, is over, but the people still want real change, and it will come, but from outside that edifice to corporate capitalism and British imperialism, The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. Those who want real change to this unjust, unequal, exploitative society, have to be that change, it will never come through delegating that desire for change to a bunch of overpaid, over privileged, political ballerinas.

 

A post election message from Libcom:

       Whatever the result of the general election, we need to be building a movement capable of creating a better world.

Whether it's to wrest reforms from a minority Labour government, or defend ourselves against the onslaught of an increased majority for Theresa May, politics happens in our everyday lives through the wage relationship at work and the state outside it. Organising in our workplaces and communities is essential to building a movement that can transform society, regardless of the electoral cycle.
There are groups already doing that in the UK, right now. Local solidarity groups, national campaigns, radical media and archival projects, anarcho-syndicalist and revolutionary unions all exist and welcome new members and volunteers.
We list some of these below, pick one and figure out how to join or support them.

     Libcom's list HERE so why not, if you haven't already, seek out a local group and become part of that change. Libcom's list is not the definitive list, I'm sure that if you look and ask around you'll find one you feel you can slot into, and change that whisper to a roar.

Let's Roar.

The problem's to big

The perpetrators unknown

you can't beat the system

all on your own.

So it's easy to withdraw

find your own little cage

turn a blind eye to the suffering

stifle your rage,

but the greed goes on

the poverty's still there,

you can't just leave it

for your children to bear.

Others feel as you do

eager to put things right

but lock in isolation

it's a hopeless fight,

so don't sit in silence

behind a closed door,

your voice can help raise

a whisper to a roar. 

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

A Ploy To Get You Off The Street.

        The latest show from the UK's Theatre of Lies, The General Election, has come to an end, the curtain has come down, the media frenzy abates, now back to the usual world of poverty, exploitation, homelessness, food banks, lousy wages and wars. All that time and energy, all those long TV shows and heated squabbling, in a few weeks will be dead history, and capitalist juggernaut will go merrily on its way, of ruthless exploitation, and its brutal rape and plunder of our planet, but it did give our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, a lot of bubble gum and popcorn to spew out over us.

       The capitalist system with the backing of the state has the incredible ability to morph and change, but retaining its basic structure. All those radical groups, people’s assemblies, etc. who start to form a political party, and/or enter into dialogue with the existing system to extract improvements, at best, do no more than readjust bits of the system here and there, but leave the raw structure of the capitalist system intact, much to the pleasure of the ruling elite. At the moment the system is in a critical state of turmoil and unrest, more and more of the people across the world are showing their anger at the inequality and injustice of the system, and the power mongers are looking around for any method that will hopefully return them to some sort of control. If this means new political parties, calling for more democracy, being given legitimacy, and in doing so restoring the public’s faith in “representative democracy”, then so be it.
       Probably the best known of these “people’s” movements in Europe, are Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain. Both came together as a manifestation of the people’s anger at the establishment and its brutal policies of exploitation, corruption and austerity. Both consisted of a mixed bunch of radical left, anarchists and ordinary people, who wanted real change. Both looked like they might challenge the system. However, both formed political parties, walked through the portal of parliament, and took their seats in the marble halls of power, both became part of the system, bolstering up the capitalist elite’s desire to get the people off the streets and bring them back to the acceptance of “representative democracy”, Accepting the parliamentary road they had taken the anger, and will of the people for real change, and channelled it into lobbyists within the system to ask for a few more more crumbs and crusts from the capitalist booty. 

        To take your protests and people’s assemblies down the parliamentary road you are cementing the status quo, you may gain a few more links in your chains, allowing you to walk a little further, but you will remain shackled to the capitalist beast of exploitation, poverty, homelessness and wars.
       Your freedom lies outside parliament, on the streets, in your communities and in your work places, organising horizontally to take control of these areas, short circuiting, by-passing, circumventing and stifling, the so called “will of parliament”. Building real horizontal democracy based on the needs of all our people, sustainability, co-operation as opposed to competition, and mutual aid, only then will you see the cancer that is capitalism wither and die, only then will the people control their own lives. 

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

June 8th. A Win For Capitalism.

       I find it infuriating, though I have grown to expect it, how our political ballerinas jump on transient figures as if they were tablets of stone. The Teresa May, “strong and stable” cabal, have been spouting about how, under their “strong and stable” spell on the bridge of this sinking ship, the UK is the fastest growing economy in the developed world. They continue with this mantra even although the latest figures puts the UK at the bottom, equal to Italy. The latest figures put Canada at the top, followed by Germany, then Japan, next comes France and near the bottom that mighty capitalist juggernaut the US, then UK and Italy equal, languishing at the bottom. But what does the truth matter, this is the season of spewing bigger lies, the Theatre of Illusions is in full swing, with its latest production, “The General Election”. This farce ends on the 8th. of June, but its consequences will be felt for years to come. Will it be on with the full frontal attack on the social fabric of our society, or will it be a rearrangement of some of the crumbs and crusts from the table of opulence being distributed among the so deserving poor. Which ever Messiah takes their place on the throne of UK money machine, the capitalist exploitation will continue, we the ordinary people will continue to produce all the wealth in the country, and will continue to struggle and fight for decent life, while all that wealth we produce, finds its way into the coffers of the already obscenely wealthy and over privileged exclusive club of our lords and masters. June the 8th. may change the label on the package, but it is still the same old box of lousy tricks. I for one will not be excited nor disappointed at the result, I will predict that result now, here on this wee blog, it will be a win for capitalism.

 

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

Drowning In A Sea Of Propaganda.

        As the UK theatre of lies, our so called "general election", trundles on, trying to get you to support one illusion or the other, we should take note that we swim in a sea of propaganda. The party machines and the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, weave the smoke and mirrors of fake news, lies, propaganda, speculation and supposition, with truth lying somewhere in the sludge well below the surface. We live in a world created and manipulated by propaganda, spewed out by powerful factions and big business with vested interests against the interests of the ordinary people. Any idea of democracy in  a society where the truth is absent is an illusion, those who produce the propaganda do so to keep that illusion alive. Question everything, accept that the interests of the corporate world and the power mongers, and that of the ordinary people are diametrically opposed, incompatible, propaganda is there to make you believe the opposite.

      My friend and comrade Bob at City Strolls, explains in more detail how the insidious fog of propaganda shapes our world.

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

Who Knew What!!!

          States throughout the centuries have always worked with spies, double agents and undesirables, all in the name of power and foreign policy strategy. So we should accept that this still goes on, in their secret little chambers, under the label of "national security". So what did our government know of those twist minds responsible for the brutal carnage of ordinary people in Manchester and London? What dirty dealings with these psychopaths were they involved in to achieve their aims of power and control in the Middle East? If they had knowledge of these people and their twisted ideology, why was no action taken, was this to achieve their aims in foreign policy, it could hardly have been for the safety of the people.

      As usual John Pilger speaks out fearlessly and sincerely on matters which our elected political ballerinas close their eyes and ears. Thanks Loam for the link.

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Ignore Their Poisonous Patriotism.

        I think everybody agrees that the world we live in has changed dramatically over the last ten years or so. What seemed stable now looks unstable, systems that were said, would bring peace and prosperity to everybody, are now showing their inherent flaws, and divisions are widening. The populace are aware of the glaring inequality that has rapidly widened, with the rich and powerful becoming richer and more powerful, while they the ordinary people slide further down the slippery slope to poverty and deprivation. The power mongers are worried that this awareness will lead to them losing control, and they are snarling at each other with greater viciousness and ferocity, smouldering wars are warming up, barriers are rising between the rich and powerful factions. Nationalism is their chosen weapon to rally the population to support them against the "evil and dangerous" other, to help them gain control and protect their own little empire. The system of globalisation is breaking down, and like a wounded beast, that is when it is at its most dangerous. The lines of old empires are being redrawn, the battle lines are being laid down, and the blood of our children will be expected to defend them, as of empires before. We must never again allow our children's blood to be the cement of their greed driven system of exploitation for wealth and power.

       We must see this world without borders, one world, one people, as the economic system that has dominated our lives starts to unravel, it must be seen as an opportunity to refocus, rethink the direction we want the new world to take. We must refuse to fall for their divisive strategies, ignore their nationalism and poisonous patriotism. Unity between all people is the only rational answer to our problems, we have nothing to gain by hating our neighbours. As the system of economic greed and and insanity crumbles, let's do what we can to hasten its final destruction by co-operation, unity and solidarity between all the ordinary people of this tiny planet.

      Wherever you look the “patriot” card is being played more often. Whether it is in the brash version of Trump’s “America First”, or the authoritarian menace of Erdogan and Putin, the game is essentially the same. The aim is to divert attention from the real crisis onto the “other”, the foreigner. The politics of prejudice have always been part of the capitalist game but now the situation is more desperate. Finding a scapegoat is a lot easier than solving the real economic problem.

Read the full article HERE:

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And The Lord Said---!

      As those who know me will be well aware, I am not a God fan, I have no time for those supposedly grown ups, who have an invisible friend in the sky, who they talk to, and they say talks back to them. However, I think this particular "Lord" hit it on the head away back in 1906.

[The Lord says:] The time will come when the poor man will say that he has nothing to eat and work will be shut down . . . That is going to cause the  poor man to go to these places and break in to get food. This will cause the rich man to come out with his gun to make war with the labouring man. . . . blood will be in the streets like an outpouring rain from heaven.

A prophecy from the 1906 ‘Azusa Street Awakening

https://www.academia.edu/12300651/Planet_of_Slums Mike Davis

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Truth, Buried In A Sea Of Speculation And Bias.

        I'm no apologist for Assad, nor an applauder for Putin and his military machine, but when it comes to situations like Syria, it is right that we try to find the truth. Syria is a country where millions of its citizens have been displaced, tens of thousands have been killed and maimed, most of its major cities have been turned to rubble, there are thousands of children being born homeless, or being born as refugees, but our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, spews out second hand, unverified western propaganda, while the truth lies buried in a sea of speculation and bias. There are other voices in this imperialist blood bath that is Syria, we have a duty to hear them. 

These Videos from Arrezafe:

      The Western military went into Afghanistan in 2001, since then a trail of death and destruction has moved across a vast swath of that part of the world, here we are in 2017, we are still in there with our military might, and the death and destruction continues at an accelerated rate. Let's not forget, that the vast majority of those displaced, deaths and injuries are of ordinary people from that region. We are talking about bus drivers, plumbers, teachers, shop assistants, doctors, elderly and children. Everybody must ask, why are they paying this price? 

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Liar Liar, All Of Them.

      As the date for casting your vote in the UK National Competition of Liars, which goes by the nickname of General Election, draws closer, certain sound bites float endlessly through the air. In the UK every body knows who you are talking about if you say, "Strong and stable government", "Strong leadership"  "Brexit means Brexit", "No deal is better than a bad deal". Of course sound bites are just labels that people stick on themselves, in an attempt to convince you that they are something other than what they really are. We can take it that, author of these sound bites, chief Tory liar, waffling May, is nothing like the sound bites she uses.

      So as a tribute to her true qualities here is a little video. Though in all honesty, it could equally apply to every Prime Minister we have ever had in this green and pleasant land.

Published on May 25, 2017

       NHS crisis, education crisis, u turns ... you can't trust Theresa May. Let's get this into the top 40. Download now and force the BBC to play it on our airwaves. All proceeds from downloads of the track between 26th May and 8th June 2017 will be split between food banks around the UK and The People's Assembly Against Austerity. Download from the following links: (Please note we previously released a version of Liar Liar in 2010 so don't download the wrong one! Correct track is called 'Liar Liar GE2017')
ITunes: https://tinyurl.com/y86lhwwb

Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B071HTSVQH
Bandcamp: https://captainska.bandcamp.com/track...
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/23DVzn...
More links will be added as they become live.
press enquiries to captska@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/CaptainSKAUK/
https://www.Twitter.com/CaptainSKA
https://www.Captainska.com
http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/

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

It Never Rains In Fintry!!

        Today was another beautiful day, after a couple of dull windy and wet days, how our weather fluctuates, from the beautiful to the lousy, several times a week. So the bike and I headed for Killearn, and then on to Fintry, and back to the Killearn tearoom for some sustenance. The tearoom in Fintry's main street, died many years ago. In my distant past, at times I would "escape" to the tranquillity of Fintry. Oddly ever time I went, it never rained and was beautiful weather. So I had in my mind this thought, that it never rains in Fintry. However speaking to a local he pointed out that I was obviously deluded. I suppose he should know.

      Fintry is a quiet little village that lies over the Campsie Fells from Lennoxtown. It has won lots of prizes for its floral displays along its street, but I didn't see much of a display today. Perhaps they are bored with all the accolades. One thing that is different about Fintry, the village is involved on a community basis in a wind farm, from which the village benefits.

     It is also a village where you have to have a bike or some other form of transport, as there is no public transport service to the village. Though I think looking at some of the property, it will be cars as the main mode of travel, rather than bikes, pity, such a beautiful cycling area.

At Fintry Cross.

      Lots of lovely routes to take from here.

Looking along Fintry main street towards Killearn.

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The Corporate Juggernaut And Genocide.

       The horror, death and destruction that is Syria, is difficult to grasp, the scale of the deaths, maiming and total decimation of the country's infrastructure is Armageddon, here and now. No matter how you look at it, the greatest destruction and deaths on the planet are perpetrated by the so called "developed countries". This is how they attempt to dominate the world, state violence by their military might, taking sides and creating fields of blood and slaughter to determine who controls certain swaths of the planet, and the resources there in. Of course the various states don't always use their military killing machines, sometimes it is their corporate bed partners that do the damage with the backing and support of the state.
       I don't think you'll find our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, reporting this case of genocide, being carried out by a corporate juggernaut with the backing of a state that weaves the usual duplicity, and creates the necessary legislation to make it all "legal".
      In Columbia the Wayuu people have for countless generations relied on the Rancheria river, it is their main source of life, their only drinking water in the area for the people, animals and irrigation of the land. Now by duplicity, smoke and mirror illusion, it has gone, mainly to feed a large mining corporation. The Wayuu people are dying a slow death, while the corporate mining juggernaut gets richer and richer. The festering marriage of capitalism and the state at work.  When it comes to profit, people are expendable.

 A father and son observe the remnants of the Rancheria river on Wayuú land / The Cercado dam and reservoir

      Colombia’s largest indigenous group, the Wayuú, have been left for dead after the Colombian government diverted the Rancheria river to South America’s largest coal mine in 2011.
      Five years ago, Colombia’s government completed the construction of the Cercado dam, a project they claimed would improve the lives of all in the arid Guajira region by supplying 9 towns with a second source of drinking water, employing 1,000 workers and providing irrigation for 18,500 hectares of farmland. However, the dam’s impact on the lives of Colombia’s largest indigenous ethnic group, the Wayuú people, was ignored entirely. The river was the only source of drinking water available near the Wayuú and its disappearance from the landscape has had dire consequences. Now, the Wayuú must walk over three hours to water wells filled with dangerous bacteria and salt, making health complications and diarrhea the new normal.
        The area is entirely devoid of clinics and hospitals. Without the river, the Wayuú can no longer cultivate their land, leaving them not only thirsty, but hungry as well. Since the dam was completed in 2011, over 4,700 children, most of them under the age of five, have died from thirst or other complications associated with a lack of clean drinking water. Of course, these are only the documented deaths. The Wayuú, whose population now hovers around 100,000, say that more than 14,000 have died.
       Did the Colombian government live up to its lofty promises of offering water to new communities and farms? It turns out the largest beneficiary of the Cercado dam is a giant coal mine, known as Cerrejón, that uses more than 17 million liters of water a day while the Wayuú lives off of less than 0.7 liters a day per person, though their water is often too salty to drink. Cerrejón, whose logo reads “responsible mining,” is South America’s largest pit coal mine and produces an estimated 32 million tons of coal annually.
      Though originally founded by ExxonMobil, the mine is now jointly owned by a consortium of some of the largest mining companies in the world – AngloAmerican, BHP Billiton, and Xstrata. The Wayuú and their leaders have worked tirelessly to try to confront these mining behemoths who have stolen their water and threatened them with extinction. However, the mining companies often work with right-wing paramilitary groups, who are responsible for the deaths of thousands, in order to get what they want. The Colombian government is also uninterested in improving life for the Wayuú as its mining ministers are notoriously corrupt. Just this March, Colombia’s mining minister resigned amid a corruption probe.

Continue reading HERE:

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NHS Fire Sale.

        Just so that you know what this bunch of corporate shitbags and weasels are up to with their vacuous phrases and empty sound bites.

 

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