First the gladiators fought to the death to amuse the Roman crowds!

Then the lions and bears were brought into the Colosseum to dispatch a new group of dissenters who wanted change!

Friends, we who contribute to this blog and others like it are dissenters. We do not agree with the way the world is being run. We want change, radical change, change that wrests power from the Oligarchs and Plutocrats and Corporations and right-wing, fascist Politicians.

We want a fairer world, one where equality is the norm, where the law treats everyone equally, where the resources of the planet are shared equally, where no nation dominates and the affairs of the world run on cooperation rather than competition and military power.

However, this radical thinking is not welcomed by the Masters of the Universe who run the world for their own benefit!

In a way, we are like those who introduced a new way of thinking into Ancient Rome. Although our thinking is not based upon the myths of religion, we, like them, are condemning those who run the world and we seek to change the rules which the Masters of the Universe have laid down to advantage themselves and their elitist ilk.

If we are to learn from history, does this not suggest that we are in danger of being treated similarly to the Christians in Ancient Rome? You laugh of course, but keep in mind public executions have been carried out in some Muslim countries in the last ten years and large crowds gather to watch them.

And what about the people across the world who gather each weekend to watch violent sporting contests like ice hockey and American football. And if there is a punch up, they go crazy. And when the blood flows, they scream and yell just like those who sat in amphitheaters like the Colosseum two thousand years ago.

Human nature is unchanged!

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One of a prominent billionaire’s mansions with 58 bedrooms and 33 bathrooms!

Many billionaires have one or two of these as well which they might use once or twice a year!

This child doesn’t even have a toy boat or a future!

The world is filled with shanty towns just like this, ones filled with violence and despair!

Friends, we live in a world of stark contrasts. Billionaires and multi-millionaires live obscenely extravagant lifestyles that we, who belong to the working and middles classes, can only imagine.

While they indulge themselves and fly around the world in their own jets, billions of people live in poverty, a situation they can’t get out of.

Such inequality is unnecessary. If Governments wanted to, they could take from the rich and give to the poor using taxation (which most billionaires pay little of when they should be paying 90+ cents in the dollar). Of course the rich would squeal like stuck pigs and would immediately join together to try to get rid of such a Government and the billionaire media proprietors would help them.

The world is set up to advantage the rich, no doubt about it. Equality for all is forgotten as are the impoverished and the starving.

Ironically, we are starting to see poverty and starvation and homelessness even in wealthy first world countries now, even in places like America. The GFC is still in progress

But are Governments moving to address this? No way! The wages and conditions and pensions of the lower classes are being cut while the billionaires get richer.

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Friends, as our world stumbles towards nuclear Armageddon, I find it curious that the normal human coping mechanisms aren’t being activated.

Humans, when faced with danger, usually fight if they have to or they run away from the source of the threat. So why aren’t people fighting against the actions of imperial nations that are pulling the world towards a nuclear war? Why aren’t people who live in warmongering nations protesting and rebelling?

For example, in Australia, a survey has just claimed that more than 55% of the population is happy to have more American military bases on our soil. Are they crazy? Do they want to be pulled into a war between America and China and/or India?

Friends, we live at a time in history when nuclear war is just around the corner. America is already showing interest in the Pacific region and wants to expand its control of the region. This puts it in conflict with China which, rightfully, doesn’t want America further sticking its nose into a region which it sees itself being an important part of.

Can you blame China? Look at the American reaction when Russia was going to put its missiles on Cuba! Besides, America already has military bases in Japan and the Philippines and has military influence in Taiwan so why does it need more? Well, the answer to that is clear: it wants major control of the world, it and its sycophantic European allies. Control to America means complete military and economic domination and to that end it already has the world’s biggest army.

So, given the imminent threat of nuclear war, why aren’t the normal coping with danger mechanisms of fight or flight being triggered?

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The nuclear whirlwind which is approaching will make this tornado look like a gentle breeze!

Friends, I have the feeling that we humans, after 10,000 years of evolution, are about  to reap the destructive whirlwind of our erratic evolution.

We are crazy bipeds that have a quirky technological ability. It combines with our strong tendency towards violence, greed and depravity. Together they have brought our world to the edge of extinction.

The whole world, currently, is at war. Some of them are unannounced. Various empires struggle with each other either to survive or to dominate. All of them seek to gain absolute economic and strategic advantage over their neighbors.

The world is filled with frightening weapons and psychopathic leaders who have itchy trigger fingers. These leaders want to control the world and they will kill billions to achieve their megalomanic aims.

We have had a succession of such people over the last 100 years: Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc. Now we have Cameron, Sarkozy, Obama, Netanyahu, Gaddafi, etc, all of whom are tarred with the same brush despite their benign appearances.

The rise of India and China is imminent. Russia is getting back on its feet again. These three nations pose a threat to the NATO/U.S. alliance which is trying to rearrange the Middle East to suit its colonial/capitalist ambitions and its desire to control the world oil supplies and trade.

Islam is flexing its muscles which is creating a clash of religions, one which has been going on for thousands of years. Believers of any stripe kill without a second thought despite the edicts of  ‘Love one another!’

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Friends, Reuters carries this story today and I know it will gladden your heart.

Yes, it seems that there are now more millionaires in Asia than in Europe and it may well be that Asia might soon overtake America in the ‘Most Millionaires’ sweepstakes. Yes, India and China are on the move despite the GFC.

Now you may wonder what is a millionaire. It seem that all you have to do is to have one  million dollars to invest and that can’t include the family mansion. Of course, the super-rich, who must have 30 million dollars to invest, did even better than their regular-rich peers last year. Their ranks grew by 10 percent to 103,000, while their combined wealth rose 11.5 percent to roughly $15 trillion.

More than half of the world’s millionaires are still found in the United States, Japan and Germany, which is amazing considering that the latter two were beaten into insignificance by America in WW2 and have been under a form of American domination every since. Something smells a bit here but who could say what.

Look, I know you will break out the $5 champagne and drink to those who have achieved the highest accomplishment known to mankind: being rich. Yes, while we, the little producers and consumers, have struggled all our lives just to survive, a handful of people have made it big, real big. And, lest you feel peeved, we’ve been the lucky ones. Many spend their short lives starving and living in abject poverty.

What is the secret to being very rich you may ask?

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Getting together to make music!

Building a house for the new neighbor.

Pastoral beauty and harmony!

What if, when you woke up this morning, you found the world a different place.

What if, overnight, all the armies in the world had gone along with all the weapons and nukes. What if, when you got out of bed, all the humans in the world had changed, had lost their infinite greed and their love of violence, their cruelty, their meanness to others, their conceit.

What if each human was filled with love, love for the planet, love for others. What if each human wanted to be part of a world where self was unimportant and maintaining peace and harmony was everything.

What if all the corporations had disappeared and in their place were millions of small enterprises which were run by people who were honest, who paid their taxes, who were content with a modest profit, who were generous to their employees, who saw them as friends rather than money-making units?

What if all the politicians had been replaced by people who desperately wanted to serve their community and nation, who cared little or nothing for themselves, who put service to the voters ahead of everything?

What if all the cities had disappeared and in their place were small towns, places where community was valued, where everyone knew everyone, where people fell over themselves to help others, where people grew their own crops and built houses for newcomers, where small farms grew most of the produce and animals were well treated and kept on open spaces where they could graze contentedly.

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These men defeated the world’s biggest army.

Friends, it has been revealed that the nation that has the biggest and most powerful army in the world has been in secret negotiations with the Taliban, a group of people hitherto called terrorists. It seems that although might is always right, when it comes down to the reality of the human world, might does not always prevail.

Yes, folks, the military might of America has been humbled by groups of armed warlords who don’t have a regular army, air force or navy, who don’t have drones and satellites that can see the moles on your face and don’t have contractors and the CIA.

The fact is that America cannot beat the warlords and is looking for a way to get out of Afghanistan. It is following in the same path that the Russians did, having learned nothing from them or Vietnam.

Gates, that man of war, has said, “U.S. commanders are hailing success in pushing the Taliban out of key parts of southern Afghanistan, but violence has surged and the insurgency has become even more fierce along Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan.” If you read between the lines, this is America’s admission that it is getting its butt kicked and wants out!

According to Reuters today, the Obama administration, which is reassessing its role in Afghanistan after a raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, believes the Afghan war cannot be concluded without a political settlement, as distasteful as it may be to negotiate with a group it has been battling for years.

You can also read into that that Obama is looking to the Presidential election and is aware of the fact that 60% of Americans think Afghanistan is a lost cause and want their sons and fathers and aunties home.

So, what has the ten years of war achieved? My evaluation of the situation is that nothing has been achieved and, as soon as the troops withdraw, Afghanistan will return to being the primitive, savage country it has always been.

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The sound and fury!

These people are enjoying their moment in the sun!

Friends, I’m sure you are familiar with the quote featured in the title. It was said by Macbeth and the full quote is:

“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more; it is a tale tole by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing!”

This quote should be put on the desk of every predator in the world. It should be sewn onto every flag. It should be hung on huge banners in every Parliament. It should be shown on every military uniform. It should be the center piece of every boardroom. It should be in large letters at the entrance of every mansion and at the masthead of every luxury motor yacht. It should also be hung on the wall of every home and be displayed in every nursery and school room.

If it were, I wonder what the impact on humans would be. I suspect it would be profound. Why, you ask? Because it spells out the reality of our short, meaningless lives. Because it puts us in our place, shows us our complete insignificance in the scheme of things.

Our world is full of sound and fury. Everywhere there are wars. Everywhere greedy humans are amassing fortunes that they can never spend. Everywhere nations are arming themselves, preparing to fight in wars that have no winners. Everywhere, people are trying to become Presidents and Prime Ministers or heads of the World Bank or the IMF or multi-national corporations or financial institutions or Deans in universities or bank managers…

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Aren’t they so lovable?

This woman wasn’t so lucky!

This man has just been stoned to death by his own kind.

Friends, I saw an interview with Jane Goodall recently, the person who spent much of her life cohabiting with chimpanzees. During the course of the discussion, Jane made the comment contained in the title. It was an illuminating comment, one that throws a lot of light onto the plight of the world.

I’m sure you recall the recent headline about the woman who had her face torn off by a chimpanzee. Recently, she had a full face transplant and it replaced the horror that her face was (see above). Such an incident shows that chimps are not to be trifled with, that, like humans, they can be vicious. Jane may have been very lucky to have worked with them for so long without major incident.

Yes, humans too have a dark side. If the circumstances are right, the brutality and evil that is within each one of us in varying quantities will appear. We see evidence of it each night on the television. Look at some of the war footage, the mass graves, the dismembering or enemies, the tortured bodies of children, the rapes, the child pornography, the incest…

I could fill a book just listing the horrors that some humans engage in because of their ‘dark side’.

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Three of the war lovers!

Friends, Gates has just given the NATO nations a serve.

He told the members that some of them were letting the team down. He said that they weren’t spending enough on armaments and resultantly they didn’t have the capability to step up to the plate and attack nations like Libya when America gave the orders.

He praised Britain, France, Italy, etc, for their actions in Libya but chastised the nations that weren’t spending enough on defense, who had let their armies shrink, had allowed their military capabilities to diminish to the stage where they couldn’t join in the bombing of Libya. Shock, horror!

His message was clear. Each NATO country has to imitate America. It has to spend zillions on armaments to be ready when America fired the starter’s gun on another war and any nation that wasn’t ready was letting the American-led capitalist team down, was a slacker, was unworthy, was an object of contempt.

Fancy there being nations that aren’t driven by an insatiable need to be armed to the teeth, he implied. Fancy there being nations that don’t have much of their industry engaged in the manufacture of armaments. Fancy there being nations that don’t have huge standing armies, who don’t have flotillas of warships patrolling all the oceans of the world, who don’t have their warplanes over-flying the world, who don’t have stockpiles of nukes and bombs and inter-continental ballistic missiles ready to be fired at a moment’s notice and nuclear powered submarines hiding under the seas.

What’s wrong with these nations, Gates implied? Don’t they have any backbone? Don’t they see that being ready for war was the main raison de etre for any nation?

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