Same Old New Zzz
*
Here we go, here we go, here we go…
First half
Three people thick at the bar - we only wanted a pint after work but now we’re being forced to sup from the World Cup.
I managed to avoid last week’s game: England versus the USA. Woke up drunk and went to get the papers, nearly puked all over myself to see the gulf coast oil spill roped-in to some absurd rivalry - just another part-player in that funny old game… how lame. “Inglan is a Bitch” by LKJ immediately became my anthem of the day.
“Inglan is a bitch – there’s no escaping it.”
Why then is my heart all-a-flutter for a bunch of overgrown boys singing Rule Brit-fucking-tania?
There’s a whistle, two bangs and a multitude of whoops - a shower of confetti widens my lady’s suddenly sparkling eyes. It’s kicked off like New Year’s at the end of time and we’re swept away like everybody else in this place.
Cheap trumpets blare seemingly built just to play the theme from Dad’s Army for one day only fading away like Mayflies that never got to mate.
Dud-dud dur dur dud-dud-dud Dud-dud dur dur drrrrrrrrrr…
Mate. Saint George can’t kill the dragon if it’s already dead. He’s a pumped up Don Quixote with a worm eating his head.
It’s hard to sustain the excitement with so little happening on screen, even the commentator has devolved into pop-psychology: talking bollocks about the effect of a lost ball on the self-image of Emile Heskey.
David Beckham sits on the sidelines in a snazzy grey suit, my lady says she saw the whole team getting off the plane wearing the same – she reckons they must’ve employed some snazzy consultant who made them ditch the 80s tracksuits for a sexier look. That may be - but it’d take a bowler hat & brolly to really do it for me.
I’m starting to drift off, see a vision of our boys being led on to the pitch by Steven Gerrard swinging an incense censer and holding aloft a crucifix… Must be something to do with the virgin-white of our kit. Then finally something happens and I snap out of it!
Heskey’s been hacked and the crowd whistles like a toothless old wolf with his hackles up - oooooooohhhhhhhhhhh it’s like being back at school for a second, everyone’s behind the next push forward like we’re gathered around a fight, hungry for our mate to take revenge and get a smack in… Gotta love that mob mentality! (or not.)
Then something wonderful happens - the camera drifts like my wandering attention to the end of Algeria’s goal - some South African bird, a ruffled trampy thing like a starling crossed with a pigeon, is perched, oblivious, on the back of the net. An omen if ever I saw one: No violent punt could disturb that bird’s peculiar calm. The football becomes a leathery egg being bashed about a green but barren womb: There can be no cheering ruffian lovechild while that beautiful creature rests.
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“A Massacre Is Not A Massacre”by Ghassan HageJune 3, 2010 I don’t write poems but, in any case, poems are not poems. Long ago, I was made to understand that Palestine was not Palestine;I was also informed that Palestinians were not Palestinians;They also explained to me that ethnic cleansing was not ethnic cleansing.And when naive old me saw freedom fighters they patiently showed me that they were not freedom fighters, and that resistance was not resistance.And when, stupidly, I noticed arrogance, oppression and humiliation they benevolently enlightened me so I can see that arrogance was not arrogance, oppression was not oppression, and humiliation was not humiliation. I saw misery, racism, inhumanity and a concentration camp.But they told me that they were experts in misery, racism, inhumanity and concentration camps and I have to take their word for it: this was not misery, racism, inhumanity and a concentration camp.Over the years they’ve taught me so many things: invasion was not invasion, occupation was not occupation, colonialism was not colonialism and apartheid was not apartheid. They opened my simple mind to even more complex truths that my poor brain could not on its own compute like: “having nuclear weapons” was not “having nuclear weapons,” “not having weapons of mass destruction” was “having weapons of mass destruction.” And, democracy (in the Gaza Strip) was not democracy.Having second class citizens (in Israel) was democracy.So you’ll excuse me if I am not surprised to learn today that there were more things that I thought were evident that are not: peace activists are not peace activists, piracy is not piracy, the massacre of unarmed people is not the massacre of unarmed people. I have such a limited brain and my ignorance is unlimited.And they’re so fucking intelligent. Really.
I don’t write poems but, in any case, poems are not poems.
Long ago, I was made to understand that Palestine was not Palestine;I was also informed that Palestinians were not Palestinians;They also explained to me that ethnic cleansing was not ethnic cleansing.And when naive old me saw freedom fighters they patiently showed me that they were not freedom fighters, and that resistance was not resistance.And when, stupidly, I noticed arrogance, oppression and humiliation they benevolently enlightened me so I can see that arrogance was not arrogance, oppression was not oppression, and humiliation was not humiliation.
I saw misery, racism, inhumanity and a concentration camp.But they told me that they were experts in misery, racism, inhumanity and concentration camps and I have to take their word for it: this was not misery, racism, inhumanity and a concentration camp.Over the years they’ve taught me so many things: invasion was not invasion, occupation was not occupation, colonialism was not colonialism and apartheid was not apartheid.
They opened my simple mind to even more complex truths that my poor brain could not on its own compute like: “having nuclear weapons” was not “having nuclear weapons,” “not having weapons of mass destruction” was “having weapons of mass destruction.”
And, democracy (in the Gaza Strip) was not democracy.Having second class citizens (in Israel) was democracy.So you’ll excuse me if I am not surprised to learn today that there were more things that I thought were evident that are not: peace activists are not peace activists, piracy is not piracy, the massacre of unarmed people is not the massacre of unarmed people.
I have such a limited brain and my ignorance is unlimited.And they’re so fucking intelligent. Really.
[Ghassan Hage is professor of anthropology and social theory at the University of Melbourne]Via Pashupati’s Mridang blog)
"Mesculinity" by Psilly. 420 x 594mm. Ink, Pencil & Acrylic Paint on Paper. 2010.
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“Bird of Preyer” by Psilly, featuring long vocal sample from a spring 2010 trip to the kNew Forest – much more to come when I can be bothered. x
"EyeTea" by Psilly, 297 x 420mm, Ink on Paper... 2010.
"Emergently Musical" by psilly, Ink & Watercolour on Paper, 15 x 28cm. (2010)
“Emergent Musics” by Mark Conway Wirt is a collection of music that, like some magical audio gardener, he has grown from a series of self-organising seeds. He has taken these seeds and placed them in a mathemusical greenhouse based on drawings by the invisible hand of emergence. They are lit by the sun of his creative imagination and watered delicately with the crystal purity of his aesthetic sensibilities. They flower into marvellous rotating parasols and unfurl spiral curls around cones of sonic delight. They plink like the translucent threads of a (philip) glass piano trying to dance on a (terry riley) rainbow. They pluck at the occult parabolas of transcendent geometries with tiny ears on the tips of their fingers. They are the sound of a waterfall in a sky-blue porcelain cave; the musical tremblings of a spider’s web tickled by triangular flies that don’t fear death; a jungle breeze playing dot-to-dot with its own discrete particles…
That’s my theory anyhow – as you can probably gather – it’s best put to the test…
Download everything for free at *emergentMusics* (and while you’re at it why not investigate the intriguing *theory behind it all*.)
THANKS!
Today, in our enlightened, overpopulated democracies there are no slaves, everyone is considered a citizen of the state they’re born in (although lack of a birth certificate and of records may complicate matters) and even the most lowly paid over-exploited and intimidated immigrants are referred to as workers. Superficially this looks like a significant improvement in civilized affairs.
However, let’s look at the status of those citizens at the bottom of the food chain:
A human being born in, say, an immigrant ghetto in Paris, is given a birth certificate and a number, and thus becomes a citizen of the State of France. Setting aside the myriad of duties and obligations he or she has as a child, when this child becomes an adult citizen from a poor family, he or she is faced with a potentially devastating lack of freedom and lack of choice coupled with debts and an obligation to be good enough to find employment.
If he or she ends up in the increasingly large percentage of the unemployed part of society, he or she is facing a very real danger of becoming a homeless non-person with a lesser status than that of a slave in ancient Greece or Rome. The non-person has no way of surviving without risking prison or suffering a total humiliation and may not get any medical assistance if he or she falls ill, which is inevitable given the “housing” conditions and food quality for the poor in most large cities. The non-person faces a psychologically debilitating uncertainty about the future that no domestic slave of Greece or Rome had to suffer. The non-person does not belong, and is worth nothing, whereas slaves belonged to their masters and were worth silver and gold. Many non-persons today would gladly exchange seats with those domestic slaves of Greece and Rome. Ah, the good old times!
The possibility of being freed from citizenship and non-person status was abolished with the advent of passports, National Identity documents and international (zionist) terrorism. No mere citizens, let alone non-persons, are free. Citizens are subject to national and international law. This is supposed to be an agreeement in the interests of society, however, not a single citizen is ever asked for his/her opinion on any of the matters that affect them, let alone given a say in the agreements that become laws.
If our hypothetical citizen does manage to get a “job”, there are still no guarantees apart from slavery. It takes money (at least) to make money, and the job is guaranteed slavery, because if you have a job you need a place to live, which really means vegetate as the job drains you of most of your energy. If you have a job and a place to live you also have to pay rent/mortgage and taxes, and there is very little money left to put aside towards doing something you actually want to do. If you manage to be smart enough to get a better “job” it may give you a month off in a year but this is not a real improvement over slavery as it is only a teaser, like Paris Hilton, that serves to remind the citizens of their lack of freedom while promising them they are not slaves, or, as Deek Jackson calls them, landless peasants.
Have a nice day at work.
An extremely optimistic banner reads: "Tonight fascism dies"
A soon-to-be familar urban scene?
Using copious amounts of Israeli-supplied teargas, asphyxiating gas and other noxious chemicals declared illegal in most of western europe, was the way the Greek riot police dogs were able to stop people from entering the parliament building and burning it to the ground.
Over 100,000 Around 200,000 people demonstrated against the incoming economic rape by the plutocrats: those very same vultures that deliberately created this debt now offering to lend more in exchange for slavery.
Not only will we enslave you, but you and your descendants will also owe us , for as long as we got the guns, suckers.
Banks and government buildings were torched (again), 3 bank employees (forced to work on a day of general strike under threat of dismissal, and locked into the building as per the management’s security measures) died in a fire. The arson was unilaterally condemned by the politicians who did not seem to mention the fact that they sold the country out years ago, and that the centre of Athens is now practically under the martial law of the heavy-handed riot police – noted for being extremely polite and compassionate towards anyone that happens to attract their attention while they roam. No questions, just a good honest brutal beating. You WILL accept the will of the Masters.
My question is HOW MUCH TEARGAS HAVE THEY GOT AND WHEN ARE THE GUNS COMING OUT ?
General strike and general mayhem in Athens, markets insecure, OMG THE EURO !
In the meantime, Afghan heroin has been pouring into the streets of Athens at low, low prices, being much easier to obtain than canabis in the inner-city ghetto. Hoorray for the EU and the IMF! Put the Greeks in their place, where they belong, the Balkans!
I hope the Greeks had a super fun time hosting the Olympic Games Corporate Gang-Bang a few years ago, it must have done them a lot of good to relive those days of glory. Just like the old days, but with so much higher production values.
YOU HAVE BEEN OWNED
IN DEBT 4EVER
SUPPORT THE NEW WORROR ORDR
The crocodile tears no longer work…
This guy is a hero… I hope you watch your back, Norman!
ANJALI KAMAT: ( … ) What is this war that India is waging against some of the poorest people, people known as tribals, indigenous people, Adivasis? Who are the Maoists? What’s happening there? And how did you get there? ARUNDHATI ROY: Well, it’s been going on for a while, but basically, you know, I mean, there is a connection. If you look at Afghanistan, Waziristan, you know, the northeast states of India and this whole mineral belt that goes from West Bengal through Jharkhand through Orissa to Chhattisgarh, what’s called the Red Corridor in India, you know, it’s interesting that the entire thing is a tribal uprising. In Afghanistan, obviously, it’s taken the form of a radical Islamist uprising. And here, it’s a radical left uprising. But the attack is the same. It’s a corporate attack, you know, on these people. The resistance has taken different forms. But in India, this thing known as the Red Corridor, if you look at a map of India, the tribal people, the forests, the minerals and the Maoists are all stacked on top of each other. You know, so—and in the last five years, the governments of these various states have signed MOUs with mining corporations worth billions of dollars. ANJALI KAMAT: Memoranda of understanding. ARUNDHATI ROY: Memorandums of understanding. So as we say, it’s equally an MOU-ist corridor as it is a Maoist corridor, you know? And it was interesting that a lot of these MOUs were signed in 2005. And at that time, it was just after this Congress government had come to power, and the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, announced that the Maoists are India’s “gravest internal security threat.” And it was very odd that he should have said that then, because the Maoists had actually just been decimated in the state of Andhra Pradesh. I think they had killed something like 1,600 of them. But the minute he said this, the shares in the mining companies went up, because obviously it was a signal that the government was prepared to do something about this, and then started this assault on them, which ended up as Operation Green Hunt, which is where now tens of thousands of paramilitary troops are moving in to these tribal areas.
ANJALI KAMAT: ( … ) What is this war that India is waging against some of the poorest people, people known as tribals, indigenous people, Adivasis? Who are the Maoists? What’s happening there? And how did you get there?
ARUNDHATI ROY: Well, it’s been going on for a while, but basically, you know, I mean, there is a connection. If you look at Afghanistan, Waziristan, you know, the northeast states of India and this whole mineral belt that goes from West Bengal through Jharkhand through Orissa to Chhattisgarh, what’s called the Red Corridor in India, you know, it’s interesting that the entire thing is a tribal uprising. In Afghanistan, obviously, it’s taken the form of a radical Islamist uprising. And here, it’s a radical left uprising. But the attack is the same. It’s a corporate attack, you know, on these people. The resistance has taken different forms.
But in India, this thing known as the Red Corridor, if you look at a map of India, the tribal people, the forests, the minerals and the Maoists are all stacked on top of each other. You know, so—and in the last five years, the governments of these various states have signed MOUs with mining corporations worth billions of dollars.
ANJALI KAMAT: Memoranda of understanding.
ARUNDHATI ROY: Memorandums of understanding. So as we say, it’s equally an MOU-ist corridor as it is a Maoist corridor, you know? And it was interesting that a lot of these MOUs were signed in 2005. And at that time, it was just after this Congress government had come to power, and the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, announced that the Maoists are India’s “gravest internal security threat.” And it was very odd that he should have said that then, because the Maoists had actually just been decimated in the state of Andhra Pradesh. I think they had killed something like 1,600 of them. But the minute he said this, the shares in the mining companies went up, because obviously it was a signal that the government was prepared to do something about this, and then started this assault on them, which ended up as Operation Green Hunt, which is where now tens of thousands of paramilitary troops are moving in to these tribal areas.