The Video the BBC doesn’t want you to see…

And when the BBC won’t let you, you force them to (this is utterly classic Tony Benn!)

the drumbeat

We seem to be moving ever faster towards a war with Iran, a war which was perhaps planned several months or years ago by the most hawkish and un-human of our species. Blair, in his new role as middle-east peace envoy (!), has been pushing the case for war with vigour:

“Out there in the Middle East, we’ve seen… the ideology driving this extremism and terror is not exhausted. On the contrary it believes it can and will exhaust us first. … This ideology now has a state, Iran, that is prepared to back and finance terror in the pursuit of destabilising countries whose people wish to live in peace.”

I suppose we should have learnt by now not to be disgusted by such statements of malice by western powers, but this, taken along side the resignation of Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator and several hawkish comments by US figures it can only mean that there are people out there trying their damnedest to bring another war to the region. Unless we speak out with increasing vigour from now this war will be a certainty. Indeed, much like in Iraq, even our speaking out probably won’t be enough. Yet another sad episode in human history… and perhaps all we can do is bear witness to its absurdities.

Even talk of war is harmful even if war were not to happen: it is putting back the human rights movements within Iran as people are forced to choose between a government they may disagree with and a war of aggression on their nation. For most, the choice will be an obvious one and reform will be forgotten about for many years. An actual war would, of course, put reform back even further. As the nobel peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi said recently, “Democracy is not merchandise to be exported to another country.Democracy cannot be brought to a nation with cluster bombs’

A quote from the famous 13th Century Persian poet Rumi:

With love bitter things seem sweet
With love bits of copper are made gold
With love pains are as healing herbs
With love thorns become roses
With love vinegar becomes sweet wine
With love the scaffold becomes a bed
With love mishap seems good fortune
With love a prison seems a rose garden
Without love a garden is a desolate place
With love burning fire is pleasing light
With love the devil becomes an angel
With love hard stones melt like butter
Without love soft wax hardens like iron
With love poison turns into honey
With love lions are harmless as mice
With love wrath turns into mercy
With love the dead rises to life
With love the king becomes a slave
(from Masnavi, Jalaluddin Rumi)

A couple of links worth reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Mossadegh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._support_for_Iraq_during_the_Iran-Iraq_war

DSEi

Two police officers at every platform of the DLR today. Lots of military figures from far away places (e.g., Canada) and lots of salespeople for weapons of mass (or minor) destruction. If only the police would spend as much effort looking after me and my family and friends. If only they would spend the time and effort looking after the people in the local area (Tower Hamlets, the borough has some of the highest crime rates in London). Perhaps they could spend the money on helping victims of domestic violence: Tower Hamlets has the second highest rate of domestic violence in London. The could even spend the time policing our roads to prevent car accidents.

Instead, as an insult to Londoners, Canary Wharf is aided by the police to host an ‘arms fair’ (what a euphemism). This island of wealth in one of the country’s poorest areas is a disgrace in itself: the land it is on is privately owned rather than looked after by the state: the owners can ask you to leave for no reason. Minutes away are 1960’s council estates and under-funded schools as well as roads which a council seems unable to keep clean. To fete military ‘top brass’ here so that they can buy more weapons for illegal wars in the middle east is truly wrong.

I am proud that the Mayor and our two London Green Party assembly members have spoken out against this travesty. Sometimes to Green Party feels like a small voice of sanity in a sea of (at worst)psychopathy and (at best) apathy.

Disaffected with Labour? Join the Green Party today.

Went to the ‘Troops Out Now/Anti-Trident Replacement’ demo yesterday. Had a good turnout with estimates ranging from 60,000 (from the StWC) to 10,000 (the police). It was a good chance to see all the stalls from various groups, man our Green Party stall and hand out some leaflets. I think we have several new members from it. I engaged in several interesting discussions with people who were interested about our party and wanted to know more about our policies and how we operate.

The ‘Leaving Labour’ leaflets were incredibly popular and we had very few. People are attracted to the Green Party not only because of our consistently anti-war stance but also for all our other policies: anti-globalization, pro-rights (be they human or animal), pro-’trade unions’, pro-’public sector’. Importantly, we are the only party that makes the vital link between global warming and capitalism and then moves further to show how we need to make the change in how society operates. That change will help to reduce climate change and help to improve other aspects of people’s lives. We take a holistic view of society: rather than trying to apply plasters to the cuts we look at the underlying causes for them.

Encouraging people to think about the Green vision is vital for us: we will only make progress by informing people of our views. Once people know our policies and the reasons behind them, they tend to find them very attractive.

I should link here to an article by Mary Riddell against Trident. Worth a gander and a few thoughts.

Protest against Occupation

Almost four years after the start of the illegal war in Iraq, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in Washington on Saturday to press for the removal of US troops from Iraq. I remind readers that this is a war that has been estimated in a study (blogged about here) to have caused 655,000 deaths. A war that was fought for oil: not to help people, but to help big business.

It is amazing and disgusting that a war that leaders claimed to be for human rights has increased the amount of torture occurring. However bad Saddam was, it seems that the occupation forces have caused much worse. It is time now, time to go.

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As a side note, a new group has been started in Bristol (part of the Alliance Against Urban 4×4s) to highlight the problems of 4×4s in the City. It is absolutely ridiculous to drive a 4×4 in a city.  Well done to them for getting some media coverage so early on! Not only is it environmentally daft, it is also incredibly antisocial: to be in such a large vehicle, shielded from any kind of human interaction. I am convinced that regulation should be put in place to ban 4×4s from urban areas unless there is a valid reason for them being used (I can think of very few in such areas!).

Malachi Ritscher: A tragic protest

Malachi Ritscher took the desperate and tragic step of burning himself alive in Chicago during the morning rush hour to protest against the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. This has been completely ignored by mainstream media. Here is his suicide note, I will not comment about it, I am simply posting it here (from Another Green World):

“My actions should be self-explanatory, and since in our self-obsessed culture words seldom match the deed, writing a mission statement would seem questionable. So judge me by my actions. Maybe some will be scared enough to wake from their walking dream state – am I therefore a martyr or terrorist? I would prefer to be thought of as a ’spiritual warrior’. Our so-called leaders are the real terrorists in the world today, responsible for more deaths than Osama bin Laden.

I have had a wonderful life, both full and full of wonder. I have experienced love and the joy and heartache of raising a child. I have jumped out of an airplane, and escaped a burning building. I have spent the night in jail, and dropped acid during the sixties. I have been privileged to have met many supremely talented musicians and writers, most of whom were extremely generous and gracious. Even during the hard times, I felt charmed. Even the difficult lessons have been like blessed gifts. When I hear about our young men and women who are sent off to war in the name of God and Country, and who give up their lives for no rational cause at all, my heart is crushed. What has happened to my country? we have become worse than the imagined enemy – killing civilians and calling it ‘collateral damage’, torturing and trampling human rights inside and outside our own borders, violating our own Constitution whenever it seems convenient, lying and stealing right and left, more concerned with sports on television and ring-tones on cell-phones than the future of the world…. half the population is taking medication because they cannot face the daily stress of living in the richest nation in the world.

I too love God and Country, and feel called upon to serve. I can only hope my sacrifice is worth more than those brave lives thrown away when we attacked an Arab nation under the deception of ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’. Our interference completely destroyed that country, and destabilized the entire region. Everyone who pays taxes has blood on their hands.

I have had one previous opportunity to serve my country in a meaningful way – at 8:05 one morning in 2002 I passed Donald Rumsfeld on Delaware Avenue and I was acutely aware that slashing his throat would spare the lives of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people. I had a knife clenched in my hand, and there were no bodyguards visible; to my deep shame I hesitated, and the moment was past.

The violent turmoil initiated by the United States military invasion of Iraq will beget future centuries of slaughter, if the human race lasts that long. First we spit on the United Nations, then we expect them to clean up our mess. Our elected representatives are supposed to find diplomatic and benevolent solutions to these situations. Anyone can lash out and retaliate, that is not leadership or vision. Where is the wisdom and honor of the people we delegate our trust to?

To the rest of the world we are cowards – demanding Iraq to disarm, and after they comply, we attack with remote-control high-tech video-game weapons. And then lie about our reasons for invading. We the people bear complete responsibility for all that will follow, and it won’t be pretty.

It is strange that most if not all of this destruction is instigated by people who claim to believe in God, or Allah. Many sane people turn away from religion, faced with the insanity of the ‘true believers’. There is a lot of confusion: many people think that God is like Santa Claus, rewarding good little girls with presents and punishing bad little boys with lumps of coal; actually God functions more like the Easter Bunny, hiding surprises in plain sight. God does not choose the Lottery numbers, God does not make the weather, God does not endorse military actions by the self-righteous, God does not sit on a cloud listening to your prayers for prosperity. God does not smite anybody. If God watches the sparrow fall, you notice that it continues to drop, even to its death. Face the truth folks, God doesn’t care, that’s not what God is or does. If the human race drives itself to extinction, God will be there for another couple million years, ‘watching’ as a new species rises and falls to replace us. It is time to let go of primitive and magical beliefs, and enter the age of personal responsibility. Not telling others what is right for them, but making our own choices, and accepting consequences.

“Who would Jesus bomb?” This question is primarily addressing a Christian audience, but the same issues face the Muslims and the Jews: God’s message is tolerance and love, not self-righteousness and hatred. Please consider “Thou shalt not kill” and “As ye sow, so shall ye reap”. Not a lot of ambiguity there.

What is God? God is the force of life – the spark of creation. We each carry it within us, we share it with each other. Whether we are conscious of the life-force is a choice we make, every minute of every day. If you choose to ignore it, nothing will happen – you are just ‘less conscious’. Maybe you are less happy (maybe not). Maybe you grow able to tap into the universal force, and increase the creativity in the universe. Love is anti-entropy. Please notice that ‘conscious’ and ‘conscience’ are related concepts.

Why God – what is the value? Whether committee consensus of a benevolent power that works through humans, or giant fungus under Oregon, the value of opening up to the concept of God is in coming to the realization that we are not alone, establishing a connection to the universe, the experience of finding completion. As individuals we may exist alone, but we are all alone together as a people. Faith is the answer to fear. Fear opposes love. To manipulate through fear is a betrayal of trust.

What does God want? No big mystery – simply that we try to help each other. We decide to make God-like decisions, rescuing falling sparrows, or putting the poor things out of their misery. Tolerance, giving, acceptance, forgiveness.

If this sounds a lot like pop psychology, that is my exact goal. Never underestimate the value of a pep-talk and a pat on the ass. That is basically all we give to our brave soldiers heading over to Iraq, and more than they receive when they return. I want to state these ideas in their simplest form, reducing all complexity, because each of us has to find our own answers anyway. Start from here…

I am amazed how many people think they know me, even people who I have never talked with. Many people will think that I should not be able to choose the time and manner of my own death. My position is that I only get one death, I want it to be a good one. Wouldn’t it be better to stand for something or make a statement, rather than a fiery collision with some drunk driver? Are not smokers choosing death by lung cancer? Where is the dignity there? Are not the people the people who disregard the environment killing themselves and future generations? Here is the statement I want to make: if I am required to pay for your barbaric war, I choose not to live in your world. I refuse to finance the mass murder of innocent civilians, who did nothing to threaten our country. I will not participate in your charade – my conscience will not allow me to be a part of your crusade. There might be some who say “it’s a coward’s way out” – that opinion is so idiotic that it requires no response. From my point of view, I am opening a new door.

What is one more life thrown away in this sad and useless national tragedy? If one death can atone for anything, in any small way, to say to the world: I apologize for what we have done to you, I am ashamed for the mayhem and turmoil caused by my country. I was alive when John F. Kennedy instilled hope into a generation, and I was a sorry witness to the final crushing of hope by Dick Cheney’s puppet, himself a pawn of the real rulers, the financial plunderers and looters who profit from every calamity; following the template of Reagan’s idiocracy.

The upcoming elections are not a solution – our two party system is a failure of democracy. Our government has lost its way since our founders tried to build a structure which allowed people to practice their own beliefs, as far as it did not negatively affect others. In this regard, the separation of church and state needs to be reviewed. This is a large part of the way that the world has gone wrong, the endless defining and dividing of things, micro-sub-categorization, sectarianism. The direction we need is a process of unification, integrating all people into a world body, respecting each individual. Business and industry have more power than ever before, and individuals have less. Clearly, the function of government is to protect the individual, from hardship and disease, from zealots, from the exploitation, from monopoly, even from itself. Our leaders are not wise persons with integrity and vision – they are actors reading from teleprompters, whose highest goal is to stir up the mob. Our country slaughters Arabs, abandons New Orleaneans, and ignores the dieing environment. Our economy is a house of cards, as hollow and fragile as our reputation around the world. We as a nation face the abyss of our own design.

A coalition system which includes a Green Party would be an obvious better approach than our winner-take-all system. Direct electronic debate and balloting would be an improvement over our non-representative congress. Consider that the French people actually have a voice, because they are willing to riot when the government doesn’t listen to them.

“Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government… ” – Abraham Lincoln

With regard to those few who crossed my path carrying the extreme and unnecessary weight of animosity: they seemed by their efforts to be punishing themselves. As they acted out the misery of their lives it is now difficult to feel anything other than pity for them.

Without fear I go now to God – your future is what you will choose today.”

Obituary written by himself found here.

Protest and other things…

Interesting protest today. Very diverse, which was pleasing. I got to speak to a great range of people from across the political spectrum. Afterwards, I went for a wander and a bite to eat with a bunch of Young Greens. Was nice to get to meet even more interesting people! Lots of people have blogged on the march including Derek Wall, Jim Jay, and Peter Sanderson.

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Today, the BBC did a great propaganda piece on life as a royal marine. I have never seen such blatant propaganda on the BBC and frankly was very disappointed. I honestly thought more than this… It showed all the ”good” bits of being a marine and glamorized all the bad bits to the extent where it was not journalism at all, just a propaganda piece. It was almost half an hour long too! I wish I could find information about it on the net, but I can’t. There will be follow-up programmes too apparently – the military couldn’t have paid for better publicity than this! I think it is time I wrote a letter of protest to the relevant watchdog! (Update 5/11/06: Found an article on BBC News about the ’series’)
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On a completely non-related matter, on the way home from the protest I had the most crazy experience on the train.

Two men boarded the carriage I was sitting in and sat right next to me (American Man and British Man, for the purposes of the following commentary). The ensuing conversation was an eye-opener! Truly it was!

AmericanMan began by saying how he needed a ”broad” who appreciated him. He then began a rant about how awful and unfair it is that ”broads these days don’t give blow jobs” (completely seriously and frankly). He said he needed ”fat broads” so that he could get blow jobs from them more easily but that stupid, ignorant people think that he is disgusting for liking fat girls. [At this stage, I realized that I had a picked up a comedy comic from the protest and dug it out so that I could sit and laugh without causing too much of a scene!] BritishMan’s response was that ”it shouldn’t be an issue for other people that you like fat broads – you need what you need”. Similar conversation went on for about 15 minutes until the oafs finally left the train and I burst out laughing at the absurdity of the idea that people still exist with such views and feel that they can have a serious and frank discussion on such terms without even a hint of shame!

They spoke as if the new civil rights battle should be for a man’s right to get a blow job from girls on-demand. ”These days” – as if in the past, ”broads” lined up to give men sexual favors! I think most people didn’t have any problem with him liking fat girls: their problem, like mine, was the reasoning he used for liking fat girls (nothing to do with notions of love but to do with notions of sexual expedience!) Deary me, it is at times like this when I feel like I live on a different planet from some people!!!

studentmedic

Hustings and Iraq

Hoorah! I am home early today. A rare event, but most of the staff are busy doing clinical governance work…

The hustings for male principal speaker of the Green Party was excellent last night. The three candidates all fantastic strengths and any of them could lead a political party effectively. Some members of the meetings asked some very thoughtful and insightful questions of the candidates which really highlighted strengths (and weaknesses) of all three. Derek still out-does the other two. His academic background and his ability to convey his thoughts to an audience are both excellent strengths.

As with any meeting, the trek down to the pub afterwards was the best bit. Had a number of enlightening and enjoyable conversations on anything from Green Party constitution through to the global impact of Russia! Hopefully I will be able to go to more meetings in the near future. It was a shame I didn’t get to speak with Derek a little more, I have a few little bones to pick with him :p…

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I can’t blog today without including my thoughts on Iraq. The Lancet has published a paper on the number of excess deaths that have occured in Iraq since the invasion. It estimates that the number of deaths lies in between 392,979 and 942,636. Yes, that means that there could have been almost a million excess deaths in Iraq due to the invasion, after just 3 years. The most likely value is about 654,000 . Of those deaths, between 401,369 and 793,663 were violent (the most likely value being about 601,000).

That is a phenomenal, disgusting number. It makes me sick to the bottom of my stomach. It hurts.

The Newsnight website says: “601,000 violent deaths since the invasion. The problem is the body count says that “only” 50,000 died.”

That shows a shameful misunderstanding or misrepresentation of what the body-count is counting. The body count is a measure of how many deaths have been reported in the media. The body count’s own website states: “We are not a news organization ourselves and like everyone else can only base our information on what has been reported so far. What we are attempting to provide is a credible compilation of civilian deaths that have been reported by recognized sources. Our maximum therefore refers to reported deaths – which can only be a sample of true deaths unless one assumes that every civilian death has been reported. It is likely that many if not most civilian casualties will go unreported by the media. That is the sad nature of war.”

The paper itself has been published early online and so it is available to access for free to everyone for the time being. They might, however, become ”premium content” soon. Slight snag is that you have to register with the website if you want to access the full text. It does only take a few minutes though, if you are interested to see the methods they used for yourself.

The paper is accessible here: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673606694919/fulltext

And the comment from the journal’s editor: http://download.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/0140-6736/PIIS0140673606694920.pdf

They claimed war would remove WMD, there were none. They claimed war would give Iraqis human rights, we knew all along that war helps none. They claimed… But we knew it was all about oil and greed and maintaining the capitalist, consumerist creed.

studentmedic