Some folks live like this…

and some folk live like this! Does it seem fair to you?

Friends, while contributing to ICH this morning, the thought occurred to me that, in a world where more than a billion people are starving, being rich, I mean really rich, is perhaps a crime against humanity.

While you read this, across the world there are children crying, their stomachs bloated, their limbs skeletal, their eyes sunken. They live in mud huts or in the open. Their parents have a few cooking utensils, some torn clothing, a few beads. They have no chance of getting out of the grinding poverty which surrounds them.

Of course, even in affluent countries like America and in Europe, there are people who are hungry, who live in derelict accommodation or under bridges, who have no health care, no education, no way to escape the poverty trap either. Even among the middle class in affluent countries, there are many people who are now struggling to pay their mortgages, to afford their kid’s education, etc.

Elsewhere in the world, a very small minority of people are living in luxury, in castles, in mansions, in lavish apartments and penthouses that occupy a whole floor. Inside them are million dollar artworks, antiques, gold taps, expensive drapes, marble floors, huge kitchens, the best appliances. They have a fleet of cars, some which which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. They own immense motor yachts which they use a few weeks a year. They have cooks and butlers and gardeners…the list goes on and on!

Surely for a few to have so much and for so many to have so little is wrong. In fact, it could be seen as an obscenity.

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Perhaps the redwoods should be America’s symbol, not the eagle!

Friends, though sometimes it may be hard to believe, there is peace in America. The beautiful photograph shows some magnificent Californian redwoods growing peacefully. These trees can live up to 2,200 years, they are the tallest trees on earth (up to 115 metres) and, at their base, they can reach 8 metres in diameter.

While these trees have been growing, Christ and Mohammad and Buddha have come and gone, the Greek and Roman Empires have vanished along with many others, and many tribes of Red Indians lived in America more or less coexisting.

Then, around 400 years ago, the whiteman arrived in America in large numbers! Whatever peace there was quickly disappeared. What followed was mass genocide of the Indians, the killing of all the bison, a war against England, a Civil War, industrialization, the Wild West, the building up of the world’s biggest military, WW2 and the dropping of atomic bombs. You know all the rest!

While death and destruction have been widespread both in America, and because of it, across the world, these majestic trees, which harm no one and do not engage in violence, grow quietly, serenely in their solitude. Their limbs are raised to the sky, thankful for the seasons, sunshine, rain and fog. Their longevity, when chainsaws are kept away from them, contrasts strongly with our laughable 70 or so years.

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Friends, Obama is close to making a decision on ‘Finishing The Job’ in Afghanistan. It sounds harmless but the photographs show what ‘Finishing The Job’ really means.

He may send up to 40,000 more troops to the impoverished, backward country. He has 68,000 there already and, since the invasion, nearly 1,000 have died and 4,000 have been wounded so far. This means that even more destruction and death and mutilation can be wreaked by the world’s biggest and most powerful army on Afghani citizens and more Americans will die.

The reason for American interest in Afghanistan is unclear. Some say it’s to gain access to oil and gas from resource rich areas in the south of what was Russia. It can’t be to protect America because of the huge distance between the two countries and the fact that the feared ‘terrists’ don’t have armies, navies or air forces.

Obama promised change. He said nothing about ‘Finishing The Job’ started by Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld.

It seems that Obama is a liar! And yet another warmonger!

P.S. When will he, in partnership with Israel, nuke Iran, I wonder?

P.P.S. It might be his Xmas present to the world!

Friends, an article posted on Reuters yesterday caught my attention. It concerned the sale at auction of a single sequined glove once owned by Michael Jackson. It featured it seems when he first did his Moon Dance routine, an important event which I can’t recall.

The glove sold for $350,000 which ended up at $420,000 with commissions. This did not include taxes which may have brought it up to say $500,000. So one glove belonging to a person of…well, dubious character, a rather tormented individual who seemed to be at odds with himself while some of his sexual preferences seemed…well, rather depraved, has a monetary value of half a million dollars.

What does this say about our society, our world? Well the first thing it says is that there are people in the world who have large amounts of money, so much money in fact that they can spend a cool half million buying one glove.

Now, I don’t know about you but I’m not one of these people. I get along financially but live a fairly austere life and drive a 1994 automobile. I would have to think carefully about spending $50 on Michael Jackson’s glove but would probably pass on it because Michael Jackson is definitely not one of my heroes and to have one of his gloves in my house would not be high on my list of priorities.

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Friends, recently, humans discovered that water in ice form, exists on the moon. This immediately led to talk about setting up a human outpost on the moon.

I would like to put forward a view about this. It is based upon human’s performance on Mother Earth over ten thousand years. It runs along the lines of: given that humans have largely stuffed up their earthly home, they have no right to impose their destructive presence on the moon or any other space object!

What do I mean, you ask? Well, let’s take global warming, one of our current major catastrophes. It seems we’ve made our own planet largely uninhabitable.  While there are great arguments going on between the coal miners, the petroleum manufacturers, the automobile makers on one side and the scientists on the other over global warming, it is an argument that the fossil fuel  and the car industry are largely winning. There is talk about capping global carbon emissions but that’s about all. It’s only talk. When I last looked, large 4WDs are still being advertised on television and wide-screen televisions almost as large as tennis courts are still being sold.

But that’s not all. We’ve also managed to poison much of our air, the soil and the water as well.  Yes folks, over the last fifty years we’ve managed to push all manner of chemicals into our environment with little or no idea of the damage they cause to humans or other animals. But not only chemicals! We’ve introduced genetically engineered crops as well with little or no idea of their long-term effects and Monsanto even has patents that control much of what is sown and grown.

Then there is the global economic crisis which has rattled the cage of capitalism.

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Friends, for many years I have watched the progress of America with growing alarm. The country I see now is very different to that which I admired as a younger man. It has moved from a country which much of the world looked up to to one that much of the world now despises and hates.

The change in America has been slow and subtle. One reason for that is the messages it sends out are often contradictory. One minute it is talking about freedom, human rights and democracy. The next minute it is invading and occupying resource-rich nations who stand little chance against its military might. Torture and rendition are also regularly used.

Having crushed its prey, we have a situation like Afghanistan where a crook is its President and chaos prevails. Iraq is little better. It seems that Iran in next on its hit list with Pakistan soon to follow.

To my mind the pigs from Animal Farm have assumed human form and gained control of America.

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Friends, there is a nation in the world which, on occasion, dresses itself in sheep’s clothing. This fools a lot of people but not all.

While dressed as this harmless, non-aggressive creature, it pretends that it is peace loving, that it stands for democracy and human rights, that it is there to help the underdog, that it deplores violence, that it believes in international law, justice, equality.

When it removes its disguise, what is revealed is a wolf which, as everyone knows, is a killer, one without conscience, one without morality, one that cares only for its own survival and will do whatever it takes to maintain or improve it.

This killer nation, at the drop of a hat, will engage in invasions and wars (but not against strong countries which could fight back). It regularly uses its army (the biggest by far on the planet) to attack countries which have resources which it wants using pretexts such as ‘This Country Has WMDs,’ or ‘This country might get a nuclear weapon.’

Using massive firepower, it will kill civilians in these countries regardless of whether they are men, women or children. It doesn’t even keep a tally of the civilians it kills. Once into a country, it establishes bases then never leaves. Resultantly, it has military bases all over the world.

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Friends, you would be familiar with this face. It is that of Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist and a member of the U.S. Armed Forces located at Fort Hood in Texas.

His job, even though he was a Muslim, was to counsel psychologically damaged American troops returning from active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan and prepare them to serve even more terms.

A couple of weeks ago he went to a building at the base and, without warning, used two handguns to kill 13 people who were either preparing others or were being prepared to be returned to the war zones.

Now, looking at the photograph, the Major does not really look like a serial killer. He has a rather kind face in fact, one that would befit a psychiatrist who has to listen to the pain of soldiers who have killed, whether directly or indirectly, all manner of Iraqi and Afghani Muslims (which obviously include men, women and children). He must’ve carried a heavy weight on his shoulders.

Unfortunately, bombs, missiles and shells don’t discriminate and they will blow to pieces anyone or anything they encounter whether a fierce terrorist or a child eating breakfast, etc. You may recall that scores of people including children were killed in Afghanistan a year or so ago when a wedding party was accidentally bombed. That was just one incident.

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Friends, we live in a world where the ugliness of war has been made par for the course.

Of course, there are countries in the world to which war is anathema so, leaving the sick, habitual warmongering nations aside, which country in the world is the most peaceful?

I have chosen three potential winners: Norway, Greece and Noumea or French Caledonia. I have been to all three and appreciate all of them not only for their natural beauty but their choice to accept peace rather than to join the lowlife of the world who see war as a way of life as well as a  ‘blood on the hands’ moneymaking activity.

Which one of these countries would you like to live in? Or do you have another country in mind that might qualify?

Norway.

Greece.

Noumea.

P.S. And, as a matter of interest, which country would you say was the least peaceful?

This photograph shows what war really means.

“It’s not about marching bands and flags and heroes.

It’s not about laying wreaths on memorials and a minute of silence.

It’s about the burned and shattered bodies of innocents like these.

It’s about the endless crying of mothers and fathers.

It’s about legalized murder, brutality, destruction and greed.

War is disgusting, dehumanizing and entirely unnecessary.

It indicts us all, turns us into savages!

All warmongers are evil, especially the ones

who claim their continual, unjustified wars are to bring peace.

May they be damned forever.”