Archive for category politics
The Power of Dreams…
Posted by nacnud in The system, economy, politics on May 7th, 2010
To hope against reality. To dream against facts. To pray against the cold light.
We state on the first page of http://www.realityinfo.org that “Reality exists outside your head”, and honestly, it really does. How you “view” reality does not impact physical reality in any way. Only physical interactions with physical reality can change it.
So if you’re in the UK and you “believe” in the current system of Democracy the chances are that you voted yesterday ( the 6th of May 2010 ) for a party of a particular colour; red, green, yellow, racist bstrds, blue, the choice was up to you. And you “believe” that that will make a difference to your life. It’s how you shape political reality and in turn you hope to have your voices heard and be validated by choosing your colour.
I have shown how, historically, putting a <X> in any box has made no real difference to “who’s in power” in essence. (http://www.realityinfo.org/news/?p=165 ) And how historically the choices presented to us have been very, very limited. Think of the old magician’s line: “pick a card, any card”, and you’ll get the gist.
Now, the key to understanding reality is to actually ask questions of it, and not just “believe”, as our current “Democratic” system would have you do. Let us look at Greece.
Greece
“After a dramatic parliamentary debate, Greek politicians have approved draconian austerity measures aimed at unlocking €120bn (£102bn) of emergency loans deemed crucial for the debt-stricken country to avoid insolvency.” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/06/greece-crisis-approves-austerity-measures )
The key word here is “unlocking”, and I’ve highlighted it. Ignore the fact that the measures are labelled “draconian” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Draconian ), focus on the unlocking aspect just now. If there is a lock, there is a key holder:
“The IMF and eurozone nations had demanded tough economic reforms in return for the money ahead of a looming deadline on Greece’s debt repayment.” ( Same URL as above )
So you see, no matter who is politically elected by the people of the democratic state of Greece, in their free elections, is it the money men, who have the loan to bail out the country, that have the power. If the politicians did not pass the “draconian” measures then the money men would not have released the cash. *
So the people voted X as their representatives, but their representatives have had to smash the face of the voting public in by passing draconian measures.
“Greeks woke in sombre mood today, numbed by the deaths yesterday of three employees killed when a hooded protester threw a petrol bomb into a bank branch in central Athens.” ( Same URL as above )
But you say, of course, this is Greece, it could never happen here. It was likely a once off situation, and our politicians still make a huge difference and our will is done at every turn.
Let us cast our minds back a few years to the crisis of profit in Argentina.
Argentina
“The IMF has already provided Argentina with substantial loans.
There have been repeated arguments about whether the government has been implementing all of its reform pledges, the BBC economics correspondent Andrew Walker says.
However, the executive board, made up of member countries of the IMF, appears to have been persuaded that the new programme could be made to work, he says. ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3124950.stm )
Oh look, here we have it again; the executive board members of the IMF ( the money men ) seem to have been persuaded, so they can then release the money. That is, the IMF enforce both fiscal and social policies on a country before they will “bail it out”. The democratically elected “voice of the people” was shaped and made bow to the will of the money men. Creditors have all the say, right? And that’s “natural”, at least in this system.
Another nail in the coffin for “your vote makes a difference”, if you ask me.
Bigger Picture
You can see quite clearly that it is the money men that are calling the shots here, no matter who is elected on what mandate, to serve the people, to which ever parliament.
Capitalism is a system that is driven by the need for profit. It is not looking out for workers in Greece as they face the most draconian of cuts to their living conditions in living memory:
“The plans hope to achieve budget cuts of 30bn euros over three years – with the goal of cutting Greece’s public deficit to less than 3% of GDP by 2014. It currently stands at 13.6%.
Implementing them is also a condition of Greece receiving the billions of euros in loans it needs as part of the EU-IMF rescue deal agreed this month.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10099143.stm
Who knows which country will be next to feel the icy grip of the money men? Who knows who’ll have to pay their debts back next, or face the consequences? Which PIG http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIGS_%28economics%29 will be next to the slaughter? Which next democratically elected government will be held to ransom by the money men?
Ramblings
This author is left with the feeling that most of us would rather live in a make believe world of dreams and beliefs than actually deal with the reality around us. It gets very frustrating to think that my fellow human beings perceive the only way to make a difference to their lives is to put an <X> on a piece of paper once every 5 years, despite the overwhelming body of evidence that shows that that <X> makes not a single ounce of difference at all.
Oh don’t worry, dream on, live in a make believe world, none of this will ever happen in the UK. We’re sound as a pound.
I’m Connected,
Dunk
*[ I understand that there is a counter point to this that they would have maybe had to loan cash in any case to save a default on the loans – but that’s another story and only speculation ]
Democracy Rocks!
All,
I think we should all work out which way to vote.
It is really important. I mean, almost vital to the continuation of the country as a whole.
Does anyone believe that any more?
Let us look at the concrete facts, as those tend to tell us much more than “beliefs”, in any walk of life.
1) Bush Snr moved into the White House in the “greatest democracy” on the face of the planet, the USA, back in 1981. Well, if he was not actually living there, he was vice president.
2) Bush Snr finally moved 2 mile down the road and into the White House in 1989.
3) He was usurped, by Bill Clinton in the 1992 election.
4) In turn, Clinton, was replaced by George W Bushr ( Bush Jnr ) in 2001
5) And the families basically swapped back when Hillary Clinton moved into the White House circles as Secretary Of State in 2009.
So we have had either a Bush or a Clinton with really powerful influence, if not perceived total control, over the USA for the last 29 years.
That is the “greatest democracy on the planet” in action. There are northwards of 250 Million Americans. Now, I’m no statistician, but if “democracy worked” then I’d be guessing that we’d be seeing some other names hanging around the top two or three post. Oh yeah, Obama. He must be such a departure from the normal run of things. Yeah. Dream on.
So how does this equate to the situation in the UK? Well, since 1922 we have basically had a two party state; Lab / Con. Big Con if you ask me 
Before 1922 we actually had a “Liberal” Prime Minster. Suffice to say the “choice” that has been presented to us has always been Red or Blue, and nothing in between. Green has always been a joke and the Yellow Liberals, until maybe this time, have never had a look in.
However, no matter the colour you pin your god forsaken hopes on, you have to realise that they all serve big business. No matter what their pledges are, they are bound, as we’ve seen by the bank bail out, to serve the interests of big business. Your petty concerns are almost neither here nor there. “War. Not in my name”. Aye right. “We’re off to fight.”. There’s profit to be generated and fear to be created. “Oh, don’t bail out the banks”. No, we’d be fooked if we didn’t.
According to the Tlegraph the UK Gov owned about 95 percent of the RBS banking group in Feb 2009. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/4841076/Taxpayer-will-own-95pc-of-RBS.html)
Red, Yellow or Blue, it’s all the same to you, you’ll be ignored at every turn.
If you really do want to make a difference this poling day, join with your fellow humans and organise street rallies and decide to walk away and do this whole system “pro human” and not “pro profit”.
Or, of course, put your blind “faith” in democracy and maybe, just maybe, this time it’ll work out just perfectly for you.
Over to you John:
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
Peace
Dunk
Just agree…okay…it won’t hurt that way…
“In a statement to MPs, Mr Johnson said the reason for sacking Prof Nutt was not “the work of the council but because of his failure to recognise that… his role is to advise rather than criticise”.
Oh, so if he’d said, “I advise that you’re way out of line here and totally wrong”, that would have been okay? Was it just a bad choice of words?
“Mr Johnson said Prof Nutt had “acted in a way that undermined the government rather than supporting its work”.”
How dare Mr Nutt question those in charge of paying his wages! What would have happened if those Stalanistic, Hitler like entities had asked him for a way to create a drug that would best kill member of the electorate? What if it was some other dude in the gov that thought that gas chambers were a bad idea?
If you are sitting there smug thinking that this does not affect you, I know you’re wrong. First it’s this guy, or maybe Mr Kelly was first, but first it’s this guy, and then to those that are pro human rights or pro something else that the gov can’t abide under the current capitalist system.
Where will this end people? I argue, that that is up to you.
I’m Connected.
Peace,
Original Article : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8337185.stm
G8 pledges to boost food supplies
All,
According to the BBC today (Reference1) the G8 nations have pledged a staggering 20Bn dollars ( that’s Twenty Billion ) to create “food security” in the poorest nations on the face of the planet.
According to the BBC on the 26th of Feb 2009:
“The [UK] government will inject £13bn [$21Bn] into RBS to strengthen its balance sheet on top of the £20bn[$32Bn] the government already injected into RBS last year. The bank will have access to another £6bn[$9.7Bn should it need it.” (Reference2)
So if we total the support that just the UK government gave to just one bank, RBS, then we see that the total is $63Bn ( that's Sixty Three Billion Dollars ). That's:
Just one company.
Just one bank.
Just one set of shareholders.
And they get at least sixty three billion in support!
So lets put, as a percentage of that bail out to that one bank, the pledge by all of the G8 nations to help 49 of the poorest countries achieve “food security”31.75%
Seems like a reasonable figure...but that's to go around 49 countries. So lets divide that by 49 to see what each country would get:
0.65%
And that percentage is if we just look only at the RBS figure alone and only at the UK government investment. If we cast our eye across the Atlantic to the USA then we are shown the scale of this pledge by the G8 as nothing more than a drop in the ocean and it really does show where their priorities lie.
According to the money.cnn.com (Reference3) the total capitalism bail out cost, to date, is roughly around $371 ( that's Three Hundred And Seventy One BILLION dollars ). So that makes the G8's pledge just
5.39%
of that total. Meaning that each country in the 49 poorest countries in the world would get
0.11%
of that which was given to save companies and capitalism.
Companies which have, in essence, gone bust. Under free capitalism the companies have went broke. But no, that's not allowed now, in the 21st Century, the rules have changed. Businesses must be saved, or at least, that was the thinking in the late part of 2008 and through 2009.
What cost to save humans? 0.11% of which the Americans alone have spent on saving companies!
And the pledge is just money to try and ensure food security!?!?
I don't even think that as humans we should be in a situation where members of our species rely on hand outs to survive: it is against our very being.
Is this really the year of our lord AD 2009? Did I waken up 500 years ago when famine, poverty, disease was rife? What's going on? Surely there must be a better way.
People in lesser developed countries actually keep people in “more developed countries” alive by producing a huge amount of goods for them. When was the last time you saw a tea field in the UK or a banana plantation? Or for that matter a whole string of clothing manufacturers or even car makers? And where do rich nations get their sugar and what bout runner beans and other vegetables?
The UK is a prime example of needing every other country on the face of the earth for its well being. From China and its cheap goods to the USA to buy any exports they may still make. From Kenya and its food produce to the Dominican Republic and its bananas.
Just like the notion of an “individual human”, the notion of an “individual country” is just as senseless. No country can survive on its own. No human can do that either.
Yet this system chooses to spend 0.11% of the money it chose to spend on companies on humans to just try to bring about “food security”?
And it's not just me that realises this system is pushing humans towards the brink, the Vice Executive Director of the World Food Programme said:
"$20 billion was a last-minute agreement and it was greeted with great happiness by all of us in the conference room. While we are rebuilding agriculture we need to continue supporting food assistance because the financial crisis is pushing another 103 million people into hunger this year," said Staffan de Mistura, vice executive director of the World Food Programme. “ (Reference4) [My bold italics]
I’m glad they were happy: I’m not.
Is this 2009? Is this the best way we can conceive to live, as a species? I can offer a million solutions, right now. I can think of a billion different ways. But, of course, we all have to want it.
Are you too brow beaten to know what it is that is best for you and for us?
No more of this nonsense, not in my name; never.
Peace,
Dunk
Reference1: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8143566.stm
Reference2: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7911722.stm
Reference3: http://money.cnn.com/news/storysupplement/economy/bailouttracker/
Reference4: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/g8-pledges-20bn-farm-aid-to-poor-nations-1740993.html
Notes:
1)All Pound to Dollar Conversion carried out on the 11th of July 2009 using www.xe.com
2)The 49 countries was stated on Radio Five Live on the 10th Of July 2009
The Darling of Our Collective Eye
Title:
Darling rules out radical changes in City white paper
Original Link: Guardian
All,
It saddens me to read some of the comments here. From “I’ve no idea how to fix it either” to the “hatred” of bankers and the seeming “dismay” at politicians actions. Almost every single post is tinged with the notion of helplessness and impotence.
People, the problem here is, you’re thinking INSIDE the box. That’s not going to help at this time. You have to learn to step back and think OUTSIDE the box. See the box for what it really is. You have been enslaved, by getting up at 07:30 each morning, paying your taxes and believing and supporting a system that has no regard for you, as a human. In fact, it has no regard for any human. The system you supported by your every action and thought has brought you to this place. That is undeniable.
And you expect a few nice words from the government will “solve” the issue whilst you still participate in the same old same old? The whole fabric and nature of capitalism is set up for profit; it has nothing to do with you. It can not be re-focused as to so would be to prevent it from being called capitalism.
Notice, in the very word: C a p i t a l-ism. Not H u m a n-ism
Nothing in this system is for you. Nothing your “leaders” can do can fix this system. It crashed in an organic way, and it will be what it is until the components of the system, you and I fellow reader, actually look at each other as humans and stand up for what it is to be human.
Why you continue to look for solutions to a systemic problem within the rules of the system that brought you to this place in the first instance is beyond me. The solution is obvious if you look beyond. Isn’t it time you woke up?
Get connected. Get Reality info.
Peace,
Dunk
MPs’ expenses: Tax officials to investigate capital gains evasion
Posted by nacnud in RullingClass, politics on May 10th, 2009
Original Article: Guardian – Capital Gains Tax
This one is so easy for me to write…Politicians make my job easier and easier…
“The latest revelations show it was not just a few MPs with their noses in the trough, but a culture of abuse. While their constituents are suffering from the credit crunch and many are out of work, they’ve had access to unrivalled funds.”
I call for a totally transparent government, right here, right now. In every facet from defence to health and from expenses to local government funding and EU deposits.
“
People seem to be thinking, ‘What’s the best way to use the system so I can maximise the personal financial return to myself?’”
“
Well, that is what we’re all taught. We’re just not taught the best way to go around it. We “fight each other” and “exploit laws” that best suit our situation instead of understanding that all this “under-handed” and “creative” usage of laws and lawyers and of accountants and of time is just not needed.
We have it all within us to demand a change to this farce.
They are public servants, there to server our needs and our goals; or so we’re lead to believe. Of course, under this system, that has never been the case, but right now, at this juncture in time we have the technological means to make it so.
If we all want it…
They can all carry personal tracking devices.
They can all clock in to the building and out of the building.
Their expenses claims can be searchable on line.
Their other business links could be put on line.
Their employee list can be made public.
Their bank account records can be made public.
In short, if they are public servants then they should be able to be scrutinised by the public at any level and in any detail. See how the ruling class deal with that concept.
Of course, there is no way that this system will allow that, in its current state. The whole system is based upon secrecy, from trade secrecy and industrial espionage laws, to you and I not even being allowed to discuss our wages with or colleagues.
Opacity is built into the system. Transparency is not what it’s about.
Unless YOU demand it.
Stand up and make a change.
It’s so easy to do. Just go and tell ten folks.