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Page last updated 14/03/05
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The death of Maurice Gibb
A Few Lines on the Passing of John Paul 2nd

Africa

Now amongst other things there were elections in Zimbabwe, which was quite recent.I have to say that I am appalled at some of the stories that have been going around.

Anyone who paid any attention to foreign policy development since the mid seventies will have witnessed the story of the transition to power of Black Majority rule in the ex colonies of Rhodesia and South Africa. I wasn't so long ago that Ian Smith was saying. "I will never submit to Black Majority rule in Rhodesia, never in a thousand years," remember that? The thing that stuck in my mind back then, as it must have done in the minds of many of the post war generation well fed on ethical 'sub routines' was how one sided the conflict was with well trained white armies who couldn't keep law and order winning any pitched battle with indigenous paramilitary or regular troops virtually at a rate of a hundred to one and the general stark horror of it all.

What I find especially sad about this post colonial chapter of British history is the fact that Robert Mugabe wasn't some ugly dimwit peasant whom one might have expected to turn to thuggery and murder though of course One understands of course that it is fairly difficult to administer a nation state without doing so at all; what I find especially distressing about his fall from grace is that he was a Paris educated classical Marxist with a very real command of knowledge and Education, that I have personally witnessed him manifesting these very real inabilities and committing a lexicon of abominations is certainly upsetting insofar as he was precisely the sort of character that the moderate and perhaps basically decent if rather self satisfied first world electorates were looking to by the arrival of the 1980's in their hopes for peace abroad in the post colonial power vacuum and the necessary stability with which these nations ought to 'develop' politically, economically and socially.

There have been mutterings recently about Patrice Lumumba who was the first independent ruler of the Congo: an intelligent and genuinely popular young man he made the mistake of seeking to ally himself with the eastern block and as a result the US engineered his assassination which the Belgians actually carried out: he was replaced by the Thug Mobuto Sese Seko whose reputation even by African standards is quite shocking.

US

On the US elections of 2000
George Bush is in no position to lecture anyone on the subject of democracy: maybe down in Texas electoral oneupmanship to the point of actually cheating might be widely accepted or viewed as inevitable but in Europe any similar practice would be likely to result in immediate serious criminal prosecution, at least as far as I know. Arguably the most serious long term factor associated with the fact of the US president having engaged in an aggressive and hostile foreign policy with little more mandate than the support of right wing Judges is the kind of message that this sends out to places like Zimbabwe. If we cannot expect the worlds leading democracies to have their electoral systems above board what on earth do people think is going to happen in South America, Africa or Asia with it's large populations of poorly paid Kalashnikov wielding characters who perceive only that might makes right and there is no justice in the World.

The Moon Landings Were Faked?    (24/02/05)

Certain documentaries on the subject illustraate with startling clarity the extent to which we are dependant on, easily manipulated by, and completely helpless before the machinery of mass media, and this has obviously been noted by many in that some documentaries which apparently demonstrate that the Moon Landings of 1969 were faked out in Arizona somewhere have been revised for more recent showing. For those fed up with the enigma of official denials of apparently incontrovertible evidence it so happens to be the case that a Japanese probe is expected to verify if the equipment supposedly abandoned there can actually be found within another two years but the point in respect of publicity is that it is very much easier to make a convincing sounding story out of almost anything insofar as it seems a fairly credible hypothesis without some explanation of how, shadow, light and gravity behave on camera.

UK

A report which was published in one of the major British dailies on April 10th 2002 highlighted the dangerous hypocrisy of characters like Tony Blair and the impossibility of disguising the moral bankruptcy of the so called 'democracy' that so many first world voters have so much illusory confidence in. The Cabinet Office is using more than £400,000 worth of Sapele from Central and West Africa for doors and windows and was raided by Greenpeace in uncovering a chain of supply that led directly from some of the World's most notorious international logging companies operating in Africa’s last ancient forests, all with records of unsustainable, destructive and illegal logging: the so called Labour Government for all it's ethical posturing is fuelling the destruction of the habitat of the Great Apes and many other species.

Russia

I have to express my sorrow at the news of the appalling tragedy at Beslan recently: whilst it is doubtless the case that the relatives of the deceased need no reminding of the particularly ghastly event of the deaths of so many innocents, it seems inevitably worth noting that it might be possible to report such matters somewhat more responsibly than the usual frenetic media circus allows for.

Polar Bears getting hermaphrodite in greenland (toxic waste) !

Related Documents

On the deaths of Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother

The Death of Maurice Gibb
It was very sad to hear of the sad death of this fine entertainer: not many knew just how influential the Bee Gees were. In the last four decades they were as high as third or fourth biggest music seller in the world. In a world full of creeping fascism dressed up as 'democracy' we could all too easily miss the kind of alternative role models typified by this prolific musical genius: my sincere commiserations to the bereaved family and the world of music which have lost a striking and creative personality.

A Few Lines on the Passing of John Paul 2nd

If there's one thing that stands out about this man of whom it is perhaps difficult to argue against the title Great, it is very strikingly that in an age of unparallelled uncertainty and lack of faith in One's fellow man he is perhaps the only establishmentarian role model in an hundred years not to have massively disappointed the general public in terms of personal moral standards. In considering the general relevance of such a fact in political and psychological terms as the perhaps irreligeous majority might evaluate such a career, I found myself almost amused in thinking about the kind of norms and values that were applied to political and social Leaders of a hundred years since. Austere Conservative individuals such as Kaiser William 2nd who played the public role of the aristocratic national leader whilst indulging in sex romps out of the public eye that would be likely to get even a 21st century media celebrity carpeted, and pondering the eternal question: are all public figures are really hypocrites? In coming up with the answer, well probably: I was rather surprised to hear commentators in his last days describe the Pontiff as a conservative but of course it's a very difficult question to evaluate not least in view of the rapid pace of progress and change nowadays. I had rather expected to hear gossip on the late Vicar of Christ's performace centred on WW2 and it's aftermath insofar as the Church under his Leadership had increasingly routinely to fulfil many political and diplomatic tasks as the world continues to struggle for order and stability whilst seeking to grasp the striking consequences of the arrival of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

He regained much respect for the Catholic Church worldwide during his 28 years at the helm though many will doubtless feel that many serious social issues have not been addressed..................

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