h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was sitting listening to Radio four this morning when Bob and Ro went out at around eight thirty. I sat at the dining table with my chin cupped in my hands, elbows on the table.

Yesterday in parliament droned on. Thought for the day next and the theme the holocaust memorial day. I woke, with a start when some music filtered into my sleeping brain. It was , I thought, a Jewish chanting but no, it was in fact a programme about music in Islam. The singer was an Immam. My wrists ached, my elbows too. The time was a quarter to ten. I must have been asleep like that for at least half an hour or more.


I stretched and flexed my fingers. Now, a programme about the holocaust again. This time it was Jewish incantation. Slowly clearing my head and making some tea and honey, I joined in prayer with jewish rabbi and christian priest as words for the fallen and the survivers of that terrible scar on history were read.


Let us not forget also, the human lives lost in other conflicts and genocides throughout the world and pray for an end to the senseless slaughter of man on man while out planet struggles in the worst genocide of all. Self destruction by it's children through selfish, unthinking deeds which are slowly choking the light of the sun and bringing about catastrophic events which will lead us to our untimely demise by our own folly.


And now.....the shipping forecast.

When we're gone, 'our planet' won't miss us, any more than a dog misses fleas. Conflict seems like a natural state for humans to be in. We're all a little selfish, we're all a little unthinking, we're all a little insignificant in the great scheme of things. Best to get on with your own little chunk of it all and not think too hard about the rest of it.

(Ha! Wish I could follow my own advice...)

“First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.”

Martin Niemoller

There is hope for us yet...or there is no point hoping.

The Jewish people were labelled as not being human, as were Communists and Gypsies and the disabled. They were starved, beaten, gassed and shot. Often by ordinary people in Poland, not just by 'dehumanised' German soldiers.

Where were the lessons we had learnt when we did not intervene in the ethnic cleansing of the former Yugoslavia? Men were put in camps to starve and young women were systematically raped. We watched pictures of fathers walking miles carrying their starving children, but were told that our soldiers could not help because we had to respect another country's borders.

Then suddenly it was 'right' to invade Iraq - to ignore their borders. The small children pulled from the ruin of demolished buildings have as much right to live as our children. And the West's precious tradition of Human Rights was ignored with the treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.

Where are the lessons in humanity when the State of Israel denies the existance of Palistine? Palestinian people are denied civil liberties and separated from their land. We cannot blame Jewish people for what is happening in Israel. But politicians in Israel have turned their back on the rights of man. How can peace be created across the World until Israel and Palestine recognise the existance of each other as separate Nation States.

Everything is seen as Black and White - the West versus Islam. Nothing is more destructive than this. The labels used are different than the ones from 60 years ago. The humanity of the people under the labels is forgotten.

Can only suggest you check out my poem 'Arms Fair'.
The Wesy keeps the developed world poor and destabalised and makes a tidy profit from arms and debt repayment and then they wonder why were hated?
Genocide has many people culpable check out the refusal of George Bush to recognise the Turkish Genocides in Armenia - Why? Because he needs Turkey in NATO.
THE WORLD WILL DROWN IN IT'S OWN SHIT ONE DAY...

"It was therefore just a matter of time before someone came up with doublespeak. Doublespeak may be considered, in Orwell's lexicography, as the B vocabulary of Newspeak, words "deliberately constructed for political purposes: words, that is to say, which not only had in every case a political implication, but were intended to impose a desirable mental attitude upon the person using them."

Whereas in the early days of the practice it was considered wrong to construct words to disguise meaning, this is now an accepted and established practice. There is a thriving industry in constructing words without explicit meaning but with particular connotations for new products or companies.

William Lutz, a professor at Rutgers University, has written several books about doublespeak and is the former editor of the Doublespeak Quarterly Review (http://www.chiprowe.com/magrev/doublespeak.html), which examines ways that jargon has polluted the public mindspace with phrases designed to obscure the meaning of plain English.

[edit]Examples
aerial ordnance (military): bombs and missiles.
agenda: as in the Liberal Agenda or the Homosexual Agenda; used to discredit laws or programs sought after by the left by adding the feel of conspiracy and ill will to the venture.
ally: vassal state; colony.
asset (CIA term): foreign spy
associate: a low-level employee. Being "associated" sounds more dignified than being "employed" (or "used"), but also connotes being more loosely affiliated, i.e. having less job security.
asymmetric warfare: suicide bombing attacks, local violent unrest, almost anything that one does not wish to call war or terrorism. Military scientists define asymmetry in warfare as circumstances in which one side continues to fight regardless the disproportionate military capacity of an opponent.
axis of evil: countries to be attacked; Bush administration hitlist (currently includes Iran, North Korea, and possibly now Syria - threatening moves against Cuba and Venezuela also made by this regime).
balanced scientists: biased scientists.
bill of rights: a list of promises consisting of many glittering generalities but few enforceable specifics.
biosolids: sewage.
blowback: the threat of American-made weapons being turned against American troops. [1] (http://www.boston.com/globe/specialreports/1996/feb/arms/armdead.htm)
boomerang effect: see blowback.
capital punishment: death penalty, state execution.
casualty: person killed or maimed in warfare.
classified: secret "
from
http://www.sourcewatch.org/wiki.phtml?title=Doublespeak
So, it is still important that we speak truth to power. Again and again and again. world drowning in it's own shit even so.

A very interesting and thought provoking set of posts. Each one giving a perspective on what is an unanswerable and insurmountable problem at the level of the - for want of a better phrase - man in the street. Mass protest, riots, civil unrest would only invoke more restrictions and oppression. It would also make much worse the lot of those already suffering. Is there an answer? I don't honestly think there is. We are on a downhill slide to eventual oblivion! What a sobering thought!


Robb

The human race might be drowning in its own shit, but rest assured, when the last one of us chokes a final breath, the planet will hold a party, tidy up the next day with a monumental hangover and get itself ready for the next bunch of fast living, oblivion obsessed bings to push it's way to the front of the evolutionary queueoverrun its surface and kill itself off, all in the blink of a cosmic eye.

Remember folks, the human race <> the world, despite what the song says.

Despite worries...I DO think there is hope for humanity. Every now and then something happens that gives hope...such as the dismantling of the Berlin wall and the coming of true democracy in South Africa with little blood shed.

When the invasion of Afganistan happened my son's multicultural school in Shepherds Bush was like a haven of understanding and respect for different cultures. All down to the leadership of the headmaster. So maybe a different prime minister or president can make a difference.

"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss" - Won't be fooled again. The Who.
Cosmicly speaking - everything IS A BLINK OF THE EYE.

We must be the grit that got blown in by the cosmic wind.