Fix you

Time keeps pounding away and it is almost 2008 before I’ve even caught up with the fact it is 2007! I am starting on Paediatrics now which I look forward to, although it strikes me as a lot of hard work!

Several blows very recently for what I see as progressive left-green politics, both locally and internationally, including:

1) The pro-leader side won the leadership debate in the Green Party meaning that as of Autumn 2008 we will be holding elections for a Leader and Deputy in the place of principle speakers. Thanks to Tim Turner and all of the Green Empowerment team for working so hard. Unfortunately, in the end, we couldn’t convince the rest of the party. I don’t think this will bring any benefit to the party, I think that any votes we win will be useless. This is an important step in the path to selling out, I can just hope that no more steps in that direction will be taken.

2) More importantly internationally, Chavez lost the referendum for his constitutional reforms. Chavistas have probably done more for eco-socialism than any other group in the world and should be strongly supported against American imperialism. Under Chavez, Venezuela has become a country of people who, for the first time, feel empowered. The vote was not lost due to the anti-chavez side getting more votes than last time. It was lost because people who had supported for Chavez didn’t vote in this election. I am sure questions are being asked about what has gone wrong and I sincerely hope that good remedy can be found. I would hate to see the benefits of the Bolivarian revolution to be lost.

3) The London Green Party’s selection ballot for MEPs has put the top 4 as: Jean Lambert, Ute Michel, Shahrar Ali and Joseph Healy. I was hoping that Dr Healy would do much better since he embodies much of what the Green Party should, in my view, be: radical, left-wing, anti-’bullshit’, pro- rights (from womens right through to LGBT rights, abortion rights and ideological rights) and strongly anti-fascist. He would make a great MEP and speaks several European languages as well as being educated in history.

I can’t say I am too happy overall. However, we must keep fighting for change. If we do not, we may as well give up completely. I for one, won’t stop the fight: wherever it may take me. The climate change march on Saturday (photos below!) was good and gave me the opportunity to meet the Romanian Green Party’s secretary-general, Silviu Dumitru, who gave me hope that there are great progressives in some of our sister parties around Europe too.

A good account of the march is here: http://greenmansoccasional.blogspot.com/

studentmedic

Lectures…

Well, while I recover from the weekend I have had a great lecture on Ethics and Law today by my favorite lecturer here at uni.

Lectures are often mind numbingly boring but this one was truly enjoyable. A great analysis was given of power and conflicts of interest as well as a good discussion on the ethics of selling organs. Just a couple of quotes which I thought were worthwhile:

“because men care not, in that subject, what be truth, as a thing that crosses no man’s ambition, profit, or lust. For I doubt not, but if it had been a thing contrary to any man’s right of dominion, or to the interest of men that have dominion, that the three angles of a triangle should be equal to two angles of a square, that doctrine should have been, if not disputed, yet by the burning of all books of geometry suppressed, as far as he whom it concerned was able. ” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan Chapter XI

“All people have the right to sleep under the bridge but for some reason, only poor people take advantage of this”  Mark Twain

Anyway, enough rambling! Except to look forward to the climate change demo on Saturday and hope I can make it to an LSESU Environment and Ethics Week meeting tomorrow…

studentmedic

Jaleh Esfahani

Sad to hear that one of the greatest Iranian poets of her generation and a fighter for human rights and particularly women’s causes, Jaleh Esfahani, has passed away. Those who had the opportunity to know her and speak with her about her rich and interesting life are very privileged. I include here, the English translation of one her poems:

A better world

If you ask me what life is,
seek ceaselessly,
wish for a better world,
I would say.
Today more than ever,
I am conscious,
awoke, full of thought,
asleep but wide awake.
I treasure time,
I love the earth.

I get such a delight
at the brightness of the day,
as if this is my first day
and also the last.
My delight greets me,
and mingles with the pain of
farewell.
Between the two,
there is a mysterious harmony.

In this alluring commotion,
I am restless,
like spring birds,
My heart aches when at home.
My heart aches from useless thoughts,
and parroted words,
and daily news,
when they talk of hot deals and
cold wars,
and not the secret of the blossoming of
people’s powers.

I seek an expanse,
wide as the universe,
and a world which,
does not require
killing and sacrificing.

1974

LEADER!

May we bow down in reverence to the new (to soon be found) leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. Congratulations to the Yes side, I hope they now have what they want.

So much for the politics of emancipation. This may bring us electoral success (though I doubt it) , but at what cost? ‘Nuff said.