Why I’ve Stopped Arguing About Climate Change September 29, 2013

I do not argue climate change anymore. I stopped a couple of years ago – it is wasted energy on people who are not interested in true sustainable development.   It just does not make an ounce of sense to continue burning stored carbon to advance the species that is human kind. We expose ourselves to many vulnerabilities and compromise the security of future generations. Whether that is because of dwindling supplies or the effects of the burning is not the question – they are both relevant and they are both destructive.

The time for arguing is over. The time for action was 40 + years ago but we have useless governance controlled by the energy corporations and a massive mess to show for it.

I have 5 wonderful children from junior infants all the way to third year in college.  For the most part, from the moment our children are born we are teaching them how precious they are. Perhaps not always with words, but actions speak louder anyway. As they grow up they learn about the world around them, at home, in school, at Granny’s, Grandad’s, scouts, everywhere.

They get the facts in school. From early on they learn about conserving resources. They learn about how our energy use has changed the climate. How the industrial revolution has impacted on the world in many ways both positively and negatively. They are taught about nature, about its role in their development, human development, about the fact that we are completely dependent upon the environment that supports us and all life on the planet. The older they get the more informed they become. The primary school curriculum offers a good introduction and explanation of climate change. The second level Civic, Social and Political Education, CSPE, curriculum goes into greater detail and explores some of the obstacles to progress in combating climate change – the politics and economic blocks. Second level geography delves deeper into climate change and resource depletion gradually pointing the finger squarely at human activity as the greatest contributing factor. Much like the IPCC report published today.

They are taught that burning fossil fuels is damaging the planet’s atmosphere. That we need to reduce greenhouse gases. That many of our natural resources have dwindling supplies. That we are polluting our air, seas and land – their air, seas and land. That species are dying at an alarming rate. That the earth’s temperature is rising – something paracetamol won’t cure.

What are they learning? How to look after earth. That we need to cut carbon in order for the planet to heal itself. That emitting green house gases is wrong. That the actions of the past century have caused this accelerated climate change. That we have caused it.

What are they really learning? That even though we know it’s wrong we continue to do it. That we are not capable of cleaning up our own mess. That we do not take responsibility for our own actions. They learn that we are passing the buck – big time.

We expect that by teaching them the theory of earth stewardship the cycle of neglect will stop and they will somehow fix things? Our actions are speaking much louder than our words.  Hopefully people will sit up and listen to the IPCC report published this week and consider the consequences of their actions, or more importantly, inactions.

Theresa     29th September 2013

The Periphery As Testing Ground for Social Destruction September 25, 2013

The “Untouchables”, the internal Greek police investigating the Greek police have raided 3 police stations in Athens, and further raids are planned in other cities. High ranking police officers have resigned, others are suspended and many are “under investigation”. Investigations resulting from analysis of the mobile phone records of Giorgos Poupakias have exposed a strict chain of command within Golden Dawn, involving MPs. These investigations confirm allegations made previously, but left unproven after police inaction.

On the face of it, it would seem that they are getting tough on Golden Dawn, after the killing of Pavlos Fyssas. Don’t be fooled.  The murder of Pavlos was engineered, to create the “right” conditions for a government -lead coup  A contradiction in kind, but then, it is Greece. The main purpose of all this is not to curb Golden Dawn, the main purpose is to firmly establish the corrupt international political and financial elite as the “saviours” of not just a country, but a world in free-fall (Created by those same “saviours”).

At the behest of their powerful international puppet-masters, the corrupt corporate and political elite of the place I call home have once again managed to create violent chaos, with the inherent promise of the “responsible centre”(PASOK and ND) being the only possible answer to the problem and the only ones that can provide the solution. The solution is being put forward as the only way to prevent the complete polarization of the people of Greece between far left and far right. The bad boys are ΣΥΡΙΖΑ and Golden Dawn.

ΣΥΡΙΖΑ is the natural opposite of capitalist policies. Golden Dawn is the result of capitalist policies. The capitalist policies are the root of this deliberate polarization.  The very “raison d’etre” for Golden Dawn was created by 30 years of PASOK and ND mismanagement, nothing else. They served their purpose well, and have now become surplus to requirements. In military jargon, the government “actions” resulting in the loss of Golden Dawn is nothing short of Golden Dawn’s death from “friendly fire”.

The bottom line is, we all better vote correct next time around, or else…

The vote will be soon. Samaras will try and prevent it from happening before January, because that is when he takes over the EU Presidency, in Europe. And Samaras wants that on his CV. He has worked hard and manipulated a lot to get this far, he’s not going to let that slip if he can help it. And Europe won’t let him.

Next time around, it is almost certainly going to be PM Tsipras in Greece. Can you imagine the bad Alex calling the shots in Europe? Merkel & Friends would be beside themselves, not to mention their puppet masters. All those years of false promises, careful manipulation, corruption, bribery (sorry lobbying) etc., and then to end up with somebody like Tsipras at the helm? Unthinkable!

The fascism Greece, and Europe, should be afraid of, really afraid of, is not the fascism of Golden Dawn, BNP, Front National, etc. The real danger comes from Government Fascism throughout Europe, in the shape of the hijacked EU. The real danger is the fascism of International Finance. Greek government has quietly used Golden Dawn to deflect public attention from the real issues by focussing the attention of the public on false issues like “the immigrants” and forcing the attention of ΣΥΡΙΖΑ away from government onto the threat of rising fascism. By doing so, they created the time and leeway they needed to put the EU dictated fascist policies in place, under the watchful eye of the EU bullyboys and enforcers known as the Troika. Golden Dawn has now served its purpose. When they were busy killing and maiming immigrants, neither Greek nor EU government cared.

After all, government was instrumental in spreading the myth that the immigrant was solely to blame for the problems of the Greek people, and the people of Europe in general. The odd dead immigrant here and there was acceptable because it was simply a natural consequence of being the scape goat. No better way to stop this out of control insanity called Golden Dawn than by blaming them for the murder of a Greek. A left-wing Greek at that, it just helps to deflect the left wing attention away from capitalism, which is the real fascism at work. The PASOK-ND machine has fine-tuned Sinclair’s statement that Fascism equals Capitalism + Murder. The revised version of the axiom now reads Capitalism = Fascism +  The  Politically Correct Murder.

The murder of Pavlos, rightfully or wrongfully blamed on Golden Dawn, was the wrong murder, and has reduced the Golden Dawn vote down to half, virtually over-night.  Keeping the pressure up, with high profile acts like raids on police stations (Which will establish the links, whether they actually exist or not) or the sacking of dispensable high ranking officers will reduce that vote further, and come next election they will most likely not have enough votes to enter parliament. There will almost certainly be laws in place to prevent Golden Dawn from re-entering the parliament, just to make sure. This can be done because Golden Dawn is a government engineered entity.  Their compatriots in nationalistic idiocy, Independent Greeks, are at this stage a non-entity. So is DIMAR. KKE is holding its own at 5 % or so, which makes for democracy demanded, but largely anecdotal opposition. This leaves ΣΥΡΙΖΑ to deal with.

Banning ΣΥΡΙΖΑ by law would be counter-productive because it is a naturally existing opposite. Attempting such a ban would also give the game away. Here, different measures are needed. When the time is right, the “hoodies” and “anarchists” will appear on the streets of Athens again, maybe burn down a bankrupt bank or two and kill some employees for good effect. This strategy of tension has been well rehearsed and fine-tuned.

Over the last 30 years, the PASOK-ND machine has mastered the politics oftension down to its smallest detail. They have learned to apply J.P Faye’s “Horseshoe Theory” and are doing so with great effect, masking the violent nature of the ultimate fascist policies they are enforcing on behalf of the real masters, International Finance. The whole operation is being directed by the Troika, who are once again visiting Greece to “evaluate” the progress of “The Program”.

A similar, although less violent (so far) tactic is being followed in France with the targeting of Marine LePen by the forces of “Law and Order”. Yes, she should indeed be targeted, as should all the other forms Fascism. Fascism is nothing short of the modern day version of the Greek myth of the Lernaean Hydra.  Golden Dawn, Front National, BNP, but also the notoriously fascist DIAS (motorized police in Greece), the organized football hooligan gangs in the UK,  are just some of the many heads of the Hydra.

Simply chopping off those heads only ensures two more grow back, as the myth tells us. In order to permanently stop this monster from rising up out of its hell-hole nest and growing more heads, the nest must be destroyed and the hole must be plugged. This is done through education and investment in people rather than investment in profit, for the sole purpose of more profit. Until that becomes government and EU policy, nothing will change and things will get worse, far worse. Altering the way in which one manipulates a situation does not remove the manipulation. It simply adjusts its effectiveness and in itself serves as a very effective way of masking the true reasons for the manipulation itself.

The stick behind the door, or the elephant in the room if you like, is the military. The Greek military have made it perfectly clear that they will not tolerate “political interference”, like what is happening with the police force right now. IOW, as long as the elite stays loyal to the army, the elite will be left play government, line their pockets, fleece the people, and remain their corrupt selves. Should things get that bad that the elite turn on the army, or lose the next elections, a military “intervention”, Egypt style, is not unthinkable.  A little known, or little published, fact is that NATO have quietly been closing all their bases in the Mediterranean, and are moving them all to Greece. On Crete alone this has increased US military personnel with a good few highly trained “units”.

While the people on the island struggle to heat their homes, schools and offices, the military build a stock pile of millions of gallons of fuel for “emergency purposes”. All this has a lot more to do with Greece than it has to do with Syria, Egypt, Iran,Israel and all the other reasons quoted. Greece is not just a testing ground for the less palatable neo-liberal tactics, it is a vital component in the “Endlösung”, the creation of the economic wasteland necessary to protect the neo-liberal heartland of the experiment called EU, and to provide the source of cheap labour that will allow this experiment to compete with existing cheap labour markets like
China and India. For that is the ultimate intention.

The EU’s industrial superiority has been severely eroded by the cheap labour economies of China and India. Economies that, by the way, have been seriously criticised by the EU for using the very low-wage, purely profit driven policies the EU itself is now enforcing on the periphery of Europe. If Europe wants to hang on to its industrial base and stop China and India from taking over, it needs to compete on their terms, with cheap energy and cheap labour. Greece will supply both, willingly or otherwise…

The EU periphery is the test lab for the powers who have hijacked the EU and are turning it into a vehicle of neo-liberal economics and consequent social destruction. Each country in that periphery is a test tube in which a different experiment is conducted. Greece test reactions to high levelsof unemployment and loss of national identity, Ireland hands over energy resources to Shell and test reactions to loss of energy authonomy, etc. Each country has its own “speciality”, all have different levels of poverty inflicted on them and the reactions are being studied. The EU even publishes the statistics of these studies in the form of unemployment figures, poverty levels, housing details, etc.

The people of the peripheral countries are the guinea pigs for different policy scenarios.  Tsipras has stated as much in Greece, but also on his visits to Spain, France, Germany, etc.    He has very recently warned the German workers that they too are very much in danger of being sacrificed to please the God of Profit.   That is why he is the “most dangerous politician” and will be stopped, at any cost. The current happenings in Greece are part of that cost…

Ephilant   25.9.2013

Here is the CEO of AIB not knowing how much the Irish State is paying bank bondholders this year September 4, 2013

  Dr. FIVE 4 September 2013

Watch and discuss this weeks Oireachtas hearings into the Banks and Finance at Politicalworld.org

Where Fatima Mansions Used to Stand: Food Sovereignty in Dublin September 3, 2013

Down Rialto way on Friday last I noticed the changes where Fatima Mansions used to stand. Changes for the better. While taking some photos outside the community garden a friendly enquiry was called out:
-Do you like the garden?
–I do, it’s great!
-come on in and have a look around.
I did not have to be asked twice and when inside I was amazed at how productive the small vegetable garden is.
Everything is organically grown, no herbicides no pesticides and defiantly no genetically engineered stuff.   Monsanto  was mentioned but I feel sure a fan club is not about to be set up any time soon.   Mary who showed me around and is most definitely a political gardener, Eoin who invited me in and Jamey who was skilfully busy with a secateurs subscribe to the “Food Sovereignty” movement and philosophy.

All people have the right to decide what they eat and to ensure that food in their community is healthy and accessible for everyone. This is the basic principle behind food sovereignty. If you want to support domestic food security through the production of healthy food at a fair price, and you believe that family farmers and fishers should have the first right to local and regional markets, then food sovereignty is for you.

Food sovereignty is essential because our current food and farm system is broken. Small farmers in the US and globally cannot earn a fair price for what they raise, despite their high productivity. Meanwhile, more than 1.2 billion people around the world go hungry every day. As corporate-controlled agriculture spreads across the globe, the social and environmental costs weigh heavily on our communities. Driven by big corporations, the agricultural system no longer values healthy, delicious food, productive and sustainable rural communities or people’s right to make decisions about their communities and their farms.

Above is from here:    http://www.grassrootsonline.org/publications/fact-sheets-reports/food-sovereignty-explained-simple-language-new-booklet

The ideas of Food Sovereignty are not without their critics. The alternative “Green Revolution” way of increasing productivity by industrial farming is said by some to be necessary to feed the Earths growing population, however looking at how productive this Food Sovereignty managed community garden is it is hard to see how productivity could be a problem.

This path is rubble from the old Fatima Mansions.

Food Sovereignty maintains the problems of hunger are due to lack of purchasing power, production solely for the profit of multinational companies, ludicrously long supply chains and more.

They are also members of Seed Savers and grow many rare vegetables. The delicious kale along with some seeds which Mary generously gave me to try is of the “uncle John” variety which was saved in West Cork.

Food Sovereignty deserves to be better known, and what better place to spread the word than here.
You know, even the fish in the small fish pond seemed more full of life than the average pond fish.

Eamo 3 September 2013