Thursday 20 August 2009

Hope Care

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Indeed I'm wading into this rather late (forgive me, for it's a busy life on this island Britain) but here is the truth as I see it;

Health care, hope care, here is the new age of the United States of capitalism. Had an accident? Not your fault? Not covered by an insurance policy? Father got cancer but a clause in his policy states he cant get treatment? Welcome to the American health care system. That's number 37th in the World Health Organisations ranking of medical care systems.
How about Britain? Under funded and beleaguered but still punching its way to 18th place on the same WHO list.

The Soccer Mom stuck in her 2 cents claiming a nationalised health system would be 'Evil'.
Brilliant.
That's another golden quote from a dyed in the wool Christian American. So lets pick that one up.
If Jesus was alive today, if he was the head of policy for whether a nation has a health care system that has limitless care for anyone , a system that is paid for according to a percentage of your wage, even if you have no job to speak of (don't forget the unemployed, homeless etc are entitled to it as well.
OR
a system that is exclusive to those who can pay for it. A system that ends care where the money ends.

Of course there's allot of talk of the cost of a nationalised system for the United States, that it would bankrupt an already faltering economy. Consider this though, the UK spends 8.4% of its GDP on its socialised system. The USA spends 15% on what amounts to smoke and mirrors, a non-entity, the falsehood that is Medicare.
Please, if you have a better argument, Republican Party of America, please do present it. please do at least though, present the truth.

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Tuesday 11 August 2009

The Lost Anarchist

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On the micro scale, The Lost has come blinking and bewildered into the sunlight. I find him selling the Big Issue. He looks annoyed to have been shuffled down a course, dragged into this system that is society. He looks annoyed that ASBO's and court orders were threatened. I'm positive for him. I'm positive for myself. Not only have the local authorities done something pro-active, perhaps The Lost will recover. Perhaps they have sent him down the right course.
"This is really good" I say
" I s'pose it's a step up" sez he.
Of course, all of this raises interesting questions of the systematization of society.
It should be said at this point that I am no anarchist. Indeed, to what end does an anarchist protest?
History, the animal kingdoms, archeology and of course a great weight of human experience shows us, teaches us that once we are stripped of our comforts we quickly become animalists, favouring survival of the fittest. The nature of business, consumerism, in fact all things manifested on this planet are a microcosm of natural selection. We compete. It is our nature. To strip away society is to strip away our civilisation.
In the wild, in the tribal reality that is civilisation stripped we are free to live or die.
In society we are free to live.

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Monday 10 August 2009

The Choice

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Get up, fire the computer up, boil the kettle and toast some bread. Feel guilty about where the fuel for those appliances (beamed down thousands of miles of electrical cable) has come from.
Read the news, shout at the screen , laugh at the Sun, gurn at the Mail. I sip my tea and crunch my toast.
Where has my tea come from? Who picked it? How much were they paid? Do they know how to read? What about the fuel spent bringing it to me? What wells have given me this? Did Iraq or Nigeria or even Iran supply me with this cup of tea today? Do I sip from the cup of Exxon's pre Iraq-war dossier? Do I drink from the cup of the ruling class who stand in golden castles surrounded by the seething, crawling masses who have nothing. Perhaps I drink in the riots, the torture, the violence, the oppression of those who order in Iran. But what of the alternative? What of fair pay, fair play capitalism?
What of walking into a supermarket and knowing the provenance of all you buy. What of market forces driving out all the bullshit I sleep-walk into on a daily basis. What of not feeling guilty about filling or even charging my car?
What of socialist capitalism?
What of knowing?

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Friday 24 July 2009

Sit Up And Beg

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"They said they've got two people willing to testify that I've been begging."
The Lost tells me about the trouble he gets from the local police force. It struck me, made me angry.
The Lost has been given his chances. The system has processed, marked and rejected him. The housing foundation threw him out for fighting. Sure, maybe he should have kept his fists to himself, but this is a man who spends his days alone in a crowd. To suddenly find yourself sharing space with others who are equally socially cold, or worse have set up there clique's must have been difficult. I might have thrown the odd fist about.
So now he finds himself on the streets. No hope to speak of, just the kindness, or the want to appear kind of strangers. No doubt he'll find himself in front of the local magistrates where they will see no option but to impose a fine. How will he pay for that? What if they ask for community service? To work for free? Would it do him any good? I plan to sit in on his case if/when it happens.
This is just one of the problems I mull over on a daily basis...

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Tuesday 21 July 2009

Line Busy

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Redirecting..................
574...azd.........
Sending out search.....
RMP responding........
*42 is not available this standard Earth week.....
*42 is not available this standard earth week.....
(message looped)
(admiralty code break)
543-256-****-*********-***
.......
Profile attached....
Redirecting.
DS43 responding....
Level 5 security clearance required....
Break in transmission^()--
Attempting to reconnect.....
Failed.

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Wednesday 8 July 2009

Torture

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Ah, the world of business. With spiraling R and D costs and the huge risks involved in market investment the car industry is learning to outsource. Awarding contracts to specialists is, of course, not a new idea. The Saxons' arrived in Britain as part of an outsourcing idea in the chambers of King Vortigern... or possibly Rome.
The superpowers of the Twentieth century outsourced the war of ideals to the developing world in South America and Asia whilst feeding the fires with guns and ordnance, propaganda and promises.
It was to no great surprise that this weeks news held tidings that MI5/6 etc had outsourced torture to the Pakistani security services.
So;
On the one hand we condemn torture in Iran/Rwanda/Zimbabwe/China etc, etc and on the other we (by proxy) torture our own citizens for doing things that they have been inspired to do by the heavy handed foreign policies that include torture.
All things are cyclical.

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Friday 3 July 2009

MyFace

Facebook.
Part of the egalitarian dream, part of all the puff I've been making out of the Internet recently.
Today though...
Today I found one of my friends had joined a "Cheltenham needs an Asda" group.
Hang on, what?
1,000,000 people against the BNP. Jolly good.
Joe Bloggs missing somewhere - can you help? Great. But "Cheltenham needs an Asda". What kind of corporate balls is this? Fortunately Facebook supplies a "report group" button for offensive data being published on there site. Unfortunately the drop down menu supplied (racist, pornographic, etc..) didn't include 'this offends my existence'.
The solitary comment on the message board read; "I love Asda".
F*ck.