Tuesday 20 December 2011

Fellow Creatures at Christmas: a Ranter's Yuletide Fable: there is something about Christmas. We set it aside. It has a resonance, a quality, that imbues it with special meaning. We dress up for it. We eat a special meal. We associate it with profound things, like “peace on earth” and “good will to all men”. It has emotional power, spiritual significance. It has its roots deep in history. From the Christmas dinner table, indeed, we send out messages of hope and reconciliation throughout the world.

Sunday 27 November 2011

Manufacturing Consent for an Attack upon Iran

Manufacturing Consent for an Attack upon Iran: It’s at this point that I’d like to remind you of the dodgy dossier - information gleaned from a disaffected taxi driver, and cut and pasted from the internet - which made up the bulk of evidence in the run-up to the war on Iraq.

This is what Herman and Chomsky are referring to when they talk of “the manufacture of consent”. This kind of information doesn’t have to be true, it merely has to be repeated often enough and loud enough for people to start to believe that it is true.

Tuesday 22 November 2011

Manufacturing Consent for an Attack upon Iran: The phrase “the manufacture of consent” was originally used by Walter Lipmann in his 1922 book Public Opinion. In fact the term “public opinion” when used by Lipmann is a euphemism for propaganda, since the book is about the control and manipulation of public opinion, not about attempting to follow it.

Sunday 6 November 2011

In the Temple of the Heart: Amanae Receiving Workshop, Brussels, June 3rd - 5th 2011

In the Temple of the Heart: Amanae Receiving Workshop, Brussels, June 3rd - 5th 2011: I could feel the breath like an arrow piercing my sternum and entering my heart. It was like a column of light going directly to my heart. I was brimming with light. All around me in the room I could hear the sounds of other people whose hearts were opening. There was like a shiver of ecstasy passing around the room.

Monday 31 October 2011

Semi-Skimmed Democracy: Tony Blair, responding to questions about leaked reports that he had had to refrain George Bush from bombarding the al-Jazeera TV station, said, “but honestly, I mean, conspiracy theories...”

Yes, we know what he means.

He means that using the phrase “conspiracy theory” in a disparaging tone suggests that it can be ignored.

Thursday 27 October 2011

Tam Lin, Halloween and the Ritual of Transformation

Tam Lin, Halloween and the Ritual of Transformation: Then would I never tire, Janet,
In Elfish land to dwell,
But aye, at every seven years,
They pay the tithe to hell;
And I am so fat and fair of flesh,
I fear 'twill be mysell.

Friday 21 October 2011

The Market has a Name. It is Goldman Sachs

The Market has a Name. It is Goldman Sachs: The human race is in debt to itself for more money than there actually is in existence. Even if we all tightened all of our belts and starved ourselves to death to pay off the debt, we still couldn’t succeed. There just isn’t enough money to do it.

Monday 17 October 2011

The War on Drugs Means More Drugs

The War on Drugs Means More Drugs: After the St. Paul's riots in Bristol in the 1980s - which was sparked by a raid on the Black and White cafe, a well-known place for scoring ganja at the time - heroin suddenly started appearing on the streets of the district. There had never been heroin there before. Why was that?

Sunday 16 October 2011

Releasing Your Pain: How Amanae Works

Releasing Your Pain: How Amanae Works: "I feel so much love flowing around in me, I'm buzzing! There is also a stillness, a deep sense of calm that is the cause of the flowing and the buzzing.
It matters little to me which area released what; I'm just glad it did. It felt right and good (effective)."
Jessica, Yoga Teacher, UK

Wednesday 28 September 2011

Jerusalem Postponed: homelessness, the House of Saud and history inverted

Jerusalem Postponed: homelessness, the House of Saud and history inverted: So how did it happen that a revolutionary anthem, written by a republican, in honour of a republican, has somehow transmuted itself into a patriotic hymn to be sung at Royal Weddings?

Stranger things have happened I suppose. But not many.

The Opposite of Love

The Opposite of Love: The opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is indifference.

Rupert Murdoch, Media Bias and the Phone Hacking Scandal

Rupert Murdoch, Media Bias and the Phone Hacking Scandal: Prior to 1964 the Sun was called the Daily Herald. It was a trade union paper. In the 1930s it was the most widely read daily newspaper in the world. It was fiercely left wing. As a consequence it struggled to get advertising revenue. Over the years its cover price began to rise relative to the right wing press. Slowly its readership dwindled and in 1964 it was renamed the Sun. In 1969 Rupert Murdoch bought it, profoundly shifting its editorial policy in the process.

Thus Britain’s most left-wing paper became its most right-wing paper overnight.

Malta: A journey back to the days when Britannia ruled the waves

Malta: A journey back to the days when Britannia ruled the waves: The way the Maltese tell the story, they were so pleased with the departure of the French that they decided to have a drink to celebrate. They invited the British in to join them. It was a very long drink. It lasted the better part of 200 years.

The Empire of Things. On The Social Psychology of Looting

The Empire of Things. On The Social Psychology of Looting: We’ve had over 30 years of rampant individualism, of consumerism, of me-ism and the devil take the hindmost; 30 years of mortgaging our future to pay for our present consumption; 30 years of selling off our birthright for a mess of consumerist pottage; 30 years of corruption and greed, of the worship of Things. It is an Empire of Things.

Rubber soul: The Bard of Ely's Rubber Ducky Song

Rubber soul: The Bard of Ely's Rubber Ducky Song: I played that song so much that one day I had to kill the rubber ducky. One night at the Chapter Bar in Cardiff, I rearranged some of the song lyrics to include the death of the duck, and with some help I stabbed and stamped it into its shoe-box coffin. We even had a guy dressed up as an Undertaker. Of course, that wasn't the end of the bloody duck. I got calls to do the re-incarnation of the duck. I did it a couple of times, I'm sorry to say.

Ham and Chris in the Mountains of Harghita, Romania.

Ham and Chris in the Mountains of Harghita, Romania.: The hillside meadows around me are terraced, showing evidence of large-scale human activity some time in the past, and are festooned with flowers. I counted maybe twenty different species in the space of only a few more yards. And one day I saw this spectacular iridescent blue flower that then flapped its wings and flew away. It was a butterfly. And beyond that, rustling quietly in the breathless light, lies the forest, hushed and dark like a cathedral, the all-pervading presence that encircles our lives.

Useless Idiots: cuts, war crimes and quantitative easing

Useless Idiots: cuts, war crimes and quantitative easing: While the banks are busy looting the world in what is effectively a financial protection racket, forcing the sell-off of public assets at rock bottom prices, the defence of those assets becomes a priority for all concerned citizens.
Lawyers and Bankers: These lawyers are very wealthy, but they are not the wealthiest people in the world. The wealthiest people in the world - without exception - are bankers.

Bankers control the economy. Lawyers administer it for them.

So that was my thought: we’ve become a nation ruled by lawyers on behalf of bankers.

Saturday 5 March 2011

Stop the Closures!

Stop the Closures!: "As readers will have heard by now, Herne Bay and Whitstable Royal Mail delivery offices are due to close some time in 2012.

This gives us plenty of time as communities to organise against the decision."

Saturday 5 February 2011

Woman in the Sky: a novel set in the free party and rave scene of the 90s

Woman in the Sky: a novel set in the free party and rave scene of the 90s: "Woman in the Sky is a novel set against the backdrop of the free party and rave scene of the nineties.

It is written in the first person, in the present tense, and has an urgency and a vitality that makes it hard to put down."

Wednesday 2 February 2011

Tenerife by Bus

Tenerife by Bus: "Tenerife is a very popular holiday destination in the Canary Islands. Tourists flock to its resorts in the south of the island where they enjoy its beaches, bars and all-year sunshine. But, staying put in Los Cristianos and Playa de Las Am�ricas, so many of them miss out on the magic of the rest of the island. The answer is to jump on a Tenerife bus."

Sunday 9 January 2011

A Dancing Frog on Twelfth Night

A Dancing Frog on Twelfth Night: "I always remember how strange Twelfth Night seemed as a child, that last faint spurt of Christmas after you’d gone back to school, when you got to eat the chocolate decorations from the Christmas tree. It just seemed odd because Christmas was long-gone, and yet the decorations lingered on, like a unwelcome straggler at a party, well into the New Year."