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.