28 Feb 2015

Is your money really there?

The government allows profit-seeking private banks to create our money supply as debt. Ninety-seven per cent of all money first enters the economy as debt, when the banks loan it into circulation. The money system now has most of us trapped in debt. Worse still, we need growth in order to find the money to pay the interest we owe the banks. But we cannot have infinite growth on a finite planet. Thus, our money system is directly contributing to the destruction of the eco-systems on which we depend.

26 Feb 2015

Charlie Hebdo and Serb Radio

On 23 April 1999 NATO bombed the Radio Television of Serbia headquarters in what was one of the largest incidents of civilian deaths, and certainly the largest in Belgrade, of the Kosovo war. Sixteen RTS civilian technicians and workers were killed and sixteen were wounded.

Noam Chomsky views the NATO bombing as an act of terrorism. Comparing it with the attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris on Wednesday 7 January 2015, he criticises the hypocrisy shown by media and politicians in the West, which in general viewed the 1999 bombing as legitimate, noting that, "There were no demonstrations or cries of outrage, no chants of 'We are RTS'”

See also Noam Chomsky (2015) "The Charlie Hebdo Attack and Hypocrisy" on YouTube

23 Feb 2015

poetry corner

Come to the edge, Life said.
They said: We are afraid.
Come to the Edge Life said
They came. It pushed them...
And they flew.
(Christopher Logue, 1961.)

12 Feb 2015

Save Cymbeline Crossing

From Colchester Gazette Wednesday 21 January 2015: A PEDESTRIAN crossing on one of Colchester’s most congested roads looks set to be scrapped. Essex County Council wants to remove the crossing in Cymbeline Way, near the Colne Bank roundabout and the junction with Westway, claiming it aggravates congestion.

5 Feb 2015

The irony of the University of Essex challenging convention since 1964

Pictured below is the panel - all-white, all-male, almost all middle-aged and almost all in suits, shirts and ties - at the University of Essex political discussion event “Coalition: Devil's pact or dream match? The General Election - what now?” on Wednesday evening, 4 February 2015.

The backdrop was a photo of a young black woman in ethnic dress under the banner slogan, “Challenging convention since 1964” – the year the University was founded.