I spent today at the University College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at Bunso and the nearby Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana. Those who have read my memoir The Catholic Orangemen of Togo and other Conflicts I Have Known will know that rural development in Africa has been the abiding passion of my working life. The good news is that for the first time a paperback edition of The Catholic Orangemen should be out in a week or so.
The abiding impression of today was the extent of local awareness of environmental issues and the need to maintain a fragile but wonderful ecology. This faces enormous challenges. I was intellectually aware of the extent of illegal gold mining in Ghana but unprepared for the evidence of its scale. Rivers that provide the drinking water for millions have been transformed into dead sewers of brown sludge. Having known them as live rivers, I was really shaken.
Ghana is looking to develop its bauxite industry and finally bring its aluminium smelters to life. This will impact the precise area I was visiting and I know from Jamaica that the environmental impact of bauxite mining is hideous. It is perhaps the most destructive of all extractive industries. It is a horrid irony that the bauxite scheme should impact the exact area where local traditional leadership (the Okyenhene) has pioneered environmentalism.
I feel conflicted. Our standard of living in the developed world has been based on the destruction of the forests which we conveniently forget once covered our lands. We wish to keep what remains of wild Africa as untouched as possible, because we know that otherwise it impacts us. But we are not prepared to expend serious resources into raising the standard of living of those who would be denied the immediate material benefits of industrial mining. My instincts are all to oppose the bauxite extraction on environmental grounds. But I am not so intellectually dishonest as to pretend that, with all the pollution and illnesses and destruction, the industry would not bring important wealth and employment. It would. I do not feel morally able to lecture poor communities on why they should remain undeveloped when they are excited by rare hope. I suspect many of you will think I am wrong.
On a more positive note, I was inspired by the commitment of the faculty of the University College, their research interests and their ability to deliver a first class curriculum to the students with minimal resources. It struck me how a major improvement could be made to their efforts by the injection of comparatively modest sums into laboratory equipment, for example. I shall be working on this and in the longer term on developing possible academic collaborations.
I loved the new canopy walk at Bunso built to promote eco-tourism.
It has five of these bridges, all of which are high, and one very high indeed as it crosses a valley. It is a great deal more adventurous than the one at Kakum. And yes, I did cross them all.
I am often very critical of the FCO, so it would be churlish of me not to note that Jon Benjamin leaves Accra this summer after an extremely effective and principled tenure as High Commissioner, including playing an effective and helpful role behind the scenes in the third peaceful transfer of power between political parties since Ghana became a real democracy in 2000. The more so since, most unusually, the UK was acting against the desires of the USA, and I suspect Jon was pivotal in that.
Why have Manafort and Stone started flapping their gums..?
Cuz they want Flynn s deal..lol
https://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/i-think-michael-flynn-has-already-cut-a-deal-with-the-fbi-against-donald-trump/2052/
Ben
Divide and rule websites hoping to wind up the easily wound-up Trump, might be good entertainment, but night also be nutrition-less as fast food. I suspect Trump has put himself into 4 x 4 lower gear range, or even reverse.
So long as the wheels are moving in either direction and traction happening, you can’t say he’s digging himself into the mire.
I don’t know what you’re saying but it sounds real good
This seems ancient. But very topical and from November of last year.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-02/former-british-ambassador-claims-source-podesta-leaks-comes-within-washington
And I predict it will become topical again. In part because of the US investigations. In part because Assange has asserted similarly. In another part because Craig claimed to have received the files personally, physically in the woods outside DC, if I remember correctly. In a further part because Assange has neither confirmed or denied Craig’s involvement. And in yet another part because if Craig did receive them, and declared so, it is not clear whether that was with Assange’s prior agreement or whether it was a spontaneous assertion by Craig. It could also have been a white lie as a decoy. In still another part, Hannity has taken a liking to Julian and has the bit between his teeth. So, in summary, watch this space. And as Trump said who really knows all the machinations that go on behind the scenes.
Also, Craig has been conspicuously silent about Assange; maybe I’m reading too much into it, or maybe there is insight. I wonder if he’s still in Assange’s good books. As you well know, nothing is forever. And thanks Ben for turning the page.
Assange is going to be buggered next year when Rafael Correa stands down next year,
What’s happening next year?
Correa has already stood down. The first round of the election for a new president took place in February, the second will take place on 2nd April.
Precisely. I wonder if Whatchamacallit has been buggered on his rug recently, that he would wish it for Assange?
No, Craig doesn’t assert that he received the files in woods on the University grounds. We don’t know what that meeting was about, although it’s safe to assume it was related to the leak. Craig notes that Wikileaks received the leaks apart from his intervention. It’s easier to find incomplete or slightly incorrect info on this than the whole available story. Craig himself gives dribs and drabs and I might also do that, considering who we the people are up against here. Check out Robert Parry’s account for the most detail. See “A Spy Coup In America?” – http://bit.ly/2n3hds1
It’s happening much sooner than many expect
http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/03/25/tony-shaffer-donald-trump-wiretapping-case-worse-watergate-not-russian
More light on the US election by Assange. I have to say every time I read a fresh interview with Assange, I learn something completely new. Here, it has become, save for a sane few, Scotland, Scotland, Scotland and for some of the senile hangers-on (not so subtly supported by Craig’s moderators): Palestine, Palestine, Palestine.
https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/julian-assange-%E2%80%98i-won-trump-election%E2%80%99
“DNC emails outlined the agenda: “We don’t want to marginalise the more extreme candidates, but make them more ‘Pied Piper’ candidates who represent the mainstream of the Republican Party. Pied Piper candidates include, but aren’t limited to Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, Ben Carson. We need to be elevating the Pied Piper candidates … and tell the press to take them seriously.”
Afterthoughts from Assange on the US election, are cerebral. For example, he didn’t expect Trump to win, but attributes the win to Clinton’s over reliance on identity politics.
Clinton’s campaign propelled the “white class acknowledging their whiteness and class existence for the first time in decades. She labelled the other candidates ‘deplorable’. But Clinton was the candidate who lost to Trump — one of the worst candidates in history.”
(I would disagree with him on the latter comment, but maybe he’s quoted out of context.)
Militia fighters in the central Democratic Republic of Congo reportedly decapitated 40 police officers in the deadliest attack on authorities since an insurrection began in the region in August.
R.T.
Those who wish Africa to remain a liveable place for ‘all’ its inhabitants, should be doing all they can to sound the alarm on the invasion of Africa by imperial powers, foremost among them, the US. By the way, The military is oblivious to its environmental degradations. Nick Turse, David Vine, Yves Engler are sources of information that Africa lovers might appreciate. ‘If’ Ghana, or any African nation, is truly democratic (which I doubt, because so many of those ‘leaders’ are aiding and abetting the new colonization wave happening), then perhaps Craig’s prescription of balance – not not developing but doing so responsibly – can be embraced with some enthusiasm.
I was going to give some links, but the pipes for Nick Turse and for TomDispatch have been squeezed so bad that I can’t reach the websites, although all else that I click on brings returns just fine. The times are dark.
Arby, truth and justice will prevail.
We’ve allowed a bunch of homicidal maniacs to completely take over in the West.
These homicidal maniacs will be held to account, including all their agents, trolls and other assorted scum.
Don’t despair.
You might be surprised at what happens during 2017.
Robbie, chill and listen to something fresh for a change. No broken record this and get your rocks off this Saturday night. Get your executioner’s mask off, kick back and stop being so intense or you’ll burst a valve.
ANIMALS AS LEADERS – Physical Education (Official Music Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jpOBd949O4
PS Where’s Opmoc?
So it’s book clubs and ‘weekend records’, anything to distract from what’s actually being said.
Totally pathetic.
But cause I like music I’ll whack in this one. I actually knew this guy back in the day, in south London. There’s a story behind this song that I can’t possibly go into here. I’ll just say that his entire band walked out on him, and this was his angry repost…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpJ0cyXbMbI
But we can’t have anything real, can we.
“You might be surprised at what happens during 2017.”
We’re already one quarter of the way through 2017 and all the politicians have done so far is talk a lot, which is not very surprising at all.
It is the case that the US sees itself as the global hegemonic power and that it deploys its military on a global basis in pursuit of this vision.
However there is another way of doing things – the Chinese way for example. China is far and away the largest trade partner with Africa as a whole having in excess of $160 billion in trade deals.
There are rumors (pretty strong rumors) that the Chinese incentivize African poachers for things like Rhino horn – they then co-opt Vietnamese diplomats to assist in the illegal export of these “goods” back to China. Here is a Chinese person expressing his views on Congolese people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLOvdgXSy_Q
Some may wonder why there is so much devotion to uncovering racism or exploitation on the part of western people/organizations and yet substantially no energy is expended on understanding the Chinese role in modern day Africa
Because, Loony, you are dealing with West-haters.
As I have been pointing out for a long time on here.
Hackabobby
“West-haters”
Everyone decent person hates political lying. That’s not the same as hating the people who have the misfortune to be governed by these immoral, despicable, self-serving trouble-makers called politicians. Gamma minus. Which means in plain English when you’re talking to us, not sucking up to your political masters, put your false teeth back in .
West haters? Incompetents more like!
https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201703251051935003-london-attack-terrible-seeds/
Chinese role in Africa? On the whole the elephant itself is the elephant in the room.
Bevs
“May is not the only one bereft of ideas: this blog has been infested by racists for whom every ‘terrorist’ attack is a holiday-a festival to be celebrated.”
____________________
You lie (as so often).
It is you and your friends on here who welcome terrorist attacks because they enable you to claim – every time – that it’s all really the fault of the West.
In a way, it’s a big an encouragement of terrorism as denying that the reality of terrorism. and terrorist attacks.
The Edinburgh march in support of the European Union was expected to rally tens of thousands.
In the event it managed to produce just 1,500.
Yes, unfortunately, as so often happens, the march was hijacked by extremists.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C7xc1SDXQAAQ_Yy.jpg
Looks like the SNP tried to make it all about them.
Anon1,
Perhaps people wanted to avoid this:
http://talkradio.co.uk/news/neo-nazis-holding-white-pride-march-edinburgh-and-anti-fascists-vow-stop-it-17032411806
With good reason:
https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/776310/arrests-white-pride-march-edinburgh/
Or, as the BBC images show, maybe we were just appreciating the first t-shirt day of the year:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-39394945
If people like wearing T shirts then the weather will be better in Athens.
I wonder why pro-EU supporters do not take their message there. They could help the Greeks celebrate the meltdown in public health
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/01/patients-dying-greece-public-health-meltdown
But no…better to stay at home and hide from reality all the while diverting yourselves with all of 40 people who exhibit mental health problems.
C.mon c’mon ignore 40 lunatics and join the celebrations of the widespread descent into poverty of Greek society
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/greece-poverty-bailout-debt-depression-photographs-images-athens-economy-food-life-a7593356.html
Oh sorry, silly me Greeks are the wrong kind of people – no humanitarian concern for them. Maybe they should all be deported to South Africa where the wrong kind of people can all die together.
The Government that the Greeks themselves voted for still thinks that this is better than things would be if they left the EU.http://www.europeanmovement.ie/just-the-facts-greek-parliamentary-election/
The government that the British voted for thought it was a good idea to invade Iraq and lay waste an entire country. The leader of that government still contends that destroying an entire country was the right thing to do.
Do you have a point? Or is your main interest to diminish the suffering of the Greek people and raise a straw man argument so that those responsible for this carnage can be given the opportunity to hide behind your hastily erected straw man.
Just realised i have never contributed anything to the evening/weekend music club, so here is my first offering.
Vivaldi: the Four Seasons (can’t remember which one):
https://youtu.be/q53JeDN9oM8
I will see your Vivaldi and raise you one talented young lady from Essex.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sra7f14DSA
Tune!
Coming up on 30th March. Author evening.
‘From Beirut to Jerusalem’
Join us for an author evening with Dr Ang Swee Chai where she’ll be discussing her book From Beirut to Jerusalem originally published in 1989
WHERE: IHRC Bookshop, 202 Preston Road, Wembley HA9 8PA
WHEN: Thursday, 30 March from 6.45pm
Or Watch Live on http://www.ihrc.tv and Facebook.
Dr Ang Swee Chai grew up supporting Israel. Arabs, she was told, were terrorists. But in 1982 the British media broadcast the relentless bombing of Beirut by Israeli planes. Shocked, her view of Israel began to change. It was then that she heard of an international appeal for an orthopaedic surgeon to treat war victims in Beirut. The petite woman – she is just under 1.5 metres – resigned her job in London, bade her husband farewell and set out on a journey to civil war Beirut.
From Beirut to Jerusalem is the true story of one woman’s journey to make the world notice the plight of the Palestinian people.
“I still have with me my picture of destitute Palestinian children of Shatila camp standing amid the ruin and rubble. They survived the massacre but lost their parents and homes. We thought all was lost. But they raised their hands making the victory sign and said to me: “We are not afraid, let Israel come”. I have returned many times to the camp but never been able to find those children again. They must have perished since. But they live forever in my heart. Whenever the situation becomes unbearable, I revisit this picture for strength” – Ang Swee Chai
Her biography follows on this link.
http://www.ihrc.org.uk/events/11850-author-evening-from-beirut-to-jerusalem-with-dr-ang-swee-chai
You might want to reply to the comment addressed to you by “Loony” yesterday at 14:48.
Here it is again if you missed it:
@Sharp Ears – You want to sharpen up a bit. It is not only Palestinians that are being mistreated.
Here is an entertaining little story of a 64 year old man being thrown alive into a crocodile pit
http://newobserveronline.com/sa-farmer-thrown-alive-crocodile-pit/
Or how about a middle aged lady having her eyes gouged out
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4219230/South-African-mother-naked-EYES-gouged-out.html
Maybe you are feeling a bit cold and think that being blow torched to death may warm you up.
http://www.itv.com/news/2017-02-24/british-woman-tortured-with-blowtorch-and-killed-in-south-africa/
There are no demonstrations or protests for these people. No international outcry, no collections, no aid, no empathy, no saccharine blog posts, and absolutely no sanctuary. What it is, what it is, when we elevate the lives of some above those of others.
These kind of things are manifestly of no interest at all to those concerned with human rights – I guess they are the wrong kind of humans. Or maybe every human is the wrong kind of human if they do not advance a particular agenda.
Consider that since 2000 something less than 6,500 Palestinians have been killed. This of course is a tragedy and Israel should be held to account for its actions. Indeed there are many groups and organizations that are dedicated to highlighting Israeli actions and policy that leads to this outcome.
Since 1994 over 400,000 South Africans have been murdered, of these about 100,000 have been white. This means that 300,000 murder victims have been black. No one cares, and there is no outrage.
Why could this be? What could account for the acute interest in Palestinians and the manifest lack of interest in South Africans?
Here is a theory: Some people are quite content that white South Africans are being killed – they view it as a kind of payback for the evils of apartheid. So content are they with this situation that the murders of 300,000 black people is viewed as acceptable collateral damage and not worthy of comment.
Naturally anyone that holds such views have highly questionable morals. More importantly they are terminally stupid. They claim to cry tears of blood for the plight of the Palestinians but never ever recognize that Israel has no intention of repeating the experiences of South Africa. Ignoring South Africa serves only to strengthen the resolve of Israel. Thus ignoring South Africa is exactly analogous to supporting Israel.
Such people really don’t care for anyone – not South Africans of any color and not for Palestinians. Palestinians are merely a useful proxy for out of control and unconstrained egos – masquerading as concern for the oppressed. .
I’m beginning to like what you write on certain subjects, Loony. Keep it up.
Only if you misunderstand what he is saying, Habbs:
“Thus ignoring South Africa is exactly analogous to supporting Israel”.
Let me get this right, Anon1. You are saying it’s OK for Israel to treat the people of the lands it is occupying worse even than South African apartheid, because after all it’s not as bad as being thrown into a crocodile pit, or having one’s eyes gouged out, or being tortured with a blowtorch?
If this is not what you are saying, then I’m looking forward to your own book tour highlighting the dreadful things you’ve noticed going on in Africa.
Only you have said that Israel treats the people of the land that it occupies worse even than South African apartheid. The question is why did you say this? Is this true? Do you have any evidence?
Since the end of apartheid some 400,000 people have been murdered. In this same time period (which encompasses various Israeli military assaults against both Palestinians and Hezbollah) far fewer people (Israeli’s and Palestinians combined) have lost their lives to violence.
Apartheid South Africa is most commonly viewed as the closest approximation to the situation prevailing in Israel. Is there any reason to suppose that if Israel compromised with the Palestinians in a similar manner to the settlement reached in South Africa that violence would not similarly spike higher? If there is such a reason then what is it?
Why is it that substantially no-one is interested in the staggering levels of violence in South Africa? The very western liberals that were so vocal in highlighting the evils of apartheid are now totally silent. Well not totally silent – half hearted attempts are made to smear as racist anyone who raises this inconvenient fact. They are half hearted because the politically correct soon run into a problem that many more black people are being murdered than white people. So for “non racists” it is becomes imperative to ignore the murder of 300,000 black people. Well done – you should all be so proud!
If the situation is not analogous and Israel has no reason to fear a repetition of the post apartheid situation in South Africa then why doesn’t someone make that argument? why doesn’t someone explain why 400,000 deaths (increasing at a rate of 50 per day) is of no interest to them whatsoever.
In fact why don’t you explain all of these things – surely it would be a better use of your time than some mindless politically correct sniping. But don’t worry I am not holding my breath for it is impossible to explain these things without recognizing your own culpability in agitating for things that you do not understand and whose ultimate outcome you are disinterested in provided always you are afforded to opportunity to assuage your own ego with feelings of moral superiority .
Have the SA government committed these murders or do they condone them? There is the difference, I suspect.
Do you think that the President of South Africa singing a song entitled “Kill the Boer” may have any impact on the way people think or act?
Apparently English football fans in Germany were singing something called “10 German Bombers” I am told that this is intended to be offensive toward Germans. Do you think that it would be more or less offensive in Theresa May had appeared center stage to lead the singing of this song?
What do you think would be the reaction if Donald Trump appeared with the Confederate Flag leading a singalong of Dixie?
Looney,
I would have said that your rant ranking relative to each other the suffering of diverse groups of people in order to throw into doubt the compassion felt for groups somewhat lower down on your scale, could itself only really be explained as affording you the ‘opportunity to assuage your own ego with feelings of moral superiority’.
@Dave – I appreciate that making up or inventing what others have said cane be comforting. However sticking with reality for a moment:
Nothing that I have written ranks suffering relative to diverse groups of people. To contend otherwise is either an error or a lie.
All I have done is ask why the suffering of some is of such acute interest to the “compassionate” and yet comparable suffering of others is of no interest to the “compassionate”
I note that you do not attempt to answer that question – but can find the time to misrepresent my words. I wonder why that might be?
Loony,
‘…and yet comparable suffering of others is of no interest to the “compassionate”’
Now you are putting words into my mouth. I did not say that such suffering was of no interest to me. I am arguing that one group’s suffering should not be used as a reason in itself to disregard another group’s comparable suffering.
What’s the context of the president singing? Was he announcing a new government policy? Was he singing at a white man’s funeral? Need more detail. Links please.
And I haven’t contributed to the book-club on here so my first offering. I’d say that this is a better read:
Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle is a 2009 book by Dan Senor and Saul Singer about the economy of Israel.[1] It examines how Israel, a 60-year-old nation with a population of 7.1 million, was able to reach such economic growth that “at the start of 2009, some 63 Israeli companies were listed on the NASDAQ, more than those of any other foreign country.”[2]
In 2010, Start-up Nation was ranked fifth on the business bestseller list of The New York Times.[3] It also reached The Wall Street Journal bestseller list.
Book overview
The Council on Foreign Relations states in its publisher’s blurb for the book that Start-up Nation addresses the question: “How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million people, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, with no natural resources—produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the United Kingdom?”[5] The Economist notes that Israel now has more high-tech start-ups and a larger venture capital industry per capita than any other country in the world. The success of Israel’s high-tech sector over the past two decades has attracted recent attention from business journalists and The Economist describes Start-up Nation as the most notable of a “growing pile” of books on the subject.[6]
In their attempt to explain Israel’s success in this area, Senor and Singer discard “the argument from ethnic or religious exceptionalism, dismissing ‘unitary Jewishness’ or even individual talent as major reasons for Israel’s high-tech success” and analyze two major factors that, in the authors’ opinion, contribute most to Israel’s economic growth. Those factors are mandatory military service and immigration.[5]
The authors argue that a major factor for Israel’s economic growth can be found in the culture of the Israel Defense Forces, in which service is mandatory for most young Israelis. The authors believe that IDF service provides potential entrepreneurs with the opportunities to develop a wide array of skills and contacts. They also believe that IDF service provides experience exerting responsibility in a relatively un-hierarchical environment where creativity and intelligence are highly valued.[7] IDF soldiers “have minimal guidance from the top, and are expected to improvise, even if this means breaking some rules. If you’re a junior officer, you call your higher-ups by their first names, and if you see them doing something wrong, you say so.”[2] Neither ranks nor ages matter much “when taxi drivers can command millionaires and 23-year-olds can train their uncles,” and “Israeli forces regularly vote to oust their unit leaders.”[8]
The book also dwells at length on immigration and its role in Israel’s economic growth: “Immigrants are not averse to start from scratch. They are by definition risk-takers. A nation of immigrants is a nation of entrepreneurs. From survivors of the Holocaust to Soviet refuseniks through the Ethiopian Jews, the State of Israel never ceased to be a land of immigration: 9 out of 10 Jewish Israelis today are immigrants or descendants of immigrants the first or second generation. This specific demographic, causing fragmentation of community that still continues in the country, is nevertheless a great incentive to try their luck, to take risks because immigrants have nothing to lose.”[9]
Additional factors cited by the authors include a sense of dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs, a culture where individuals frequently tinker with technology, and government policies friendly to start-ups.[7]
Using stories and anecdotes, the book provides examples of Israel’s technological and medical achievements, among them “the Israeli innovations that made possible Google Suggest, the list of suggestions that appear instantly in menu form as you type a search request, the capsule endoscopy, a miniature camera embedded in a pill so that 18 photos per second can be wirelessly and painlessly transmitted from gastrointestinal tracts.”[10]
While the book describes Israel’s many successes in technological innovation, it also attempts to address, in the words of one reviewer, why Israel still lacks its own Nokia, Samsung, or IBM. According to the book’s authors, this is partly because Israeli startups tend to be bought up by large foreign companies and partly because Israeli business has thus far failed to develop the kind of mature management culture needed to run such companies.[11]
Senor and Singer interviewed over 100 people to write the book, among them leading Israeli venture investors including key players in Google, Intel, and Cisco; and historians, U.S. military leaders, and Israeli heads of state.[12] Their conclusion is that “while Israel has much to learn from the world, the world has much to learn from Israel.”[13]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Start-up_Nation
yawn
RobG, that was yawn to alcopop , not yawn to you. Can you believe the mods actually deleted my comment: yawn?
Actually it has more to do with Ghana than anything you have posted. Perhaps not directly about Ghana, but in the sense that Ghana is a democracy and there is an interesting question. I have about democracy and development.
Those who don’t accept that Israel is any kind of democracy can switch off at this point. But for those that do, what are the advantages that Israel has derived from being a democracy? The fact that Israel has no oil has clearly forced it to develop a properly functioning economy, something many Arab countries have avoided. That has sustained democracy, because tax payers demand a say – if the money comes out of a hole in the ground autocracy is easier. But did democracy help it happen? Good for Ghana if it did.
If you don’t understand how the government trolls work (all on tax payer’s money) you are perhaps suffering from attention deficit.
Good comment Why-be. You have inspired me to recommend the book to all our Scots friends whether or not they aspire for independence they stand to gain in being that much more innovative. Rather than Craig’s solution of only flooding the country with low-cost labour.
Hi Sharp Ears
Re John Goss… He is in fine fettle… and I hope you are Too
Ps..I know Not why Mr J.G is Quiet heraboots
Cheers Brian. Thanks for that.
Quality post.
Carswell is counting his chickens. May has absolutely no intention of delivering hard Brexit. She is tarting in a glossy black bikini with her finger in her mouth over a car of the future when we the public are going to be driving a slightly modified shape of the Ford Escort with a 20 year old engine design. All of the existing EU legislation is going to be served cold as Brexit legislation, including a carbon copy of the free-trade deal.
This shameless politicking by the Conservative party is only taking place because they think we the public are too dumb to understand their double-think. Remember the Dudley councillor who organised an EDL rally so that he could be seen by the public demanding a stop being put to it. “Oh that’s perfectly normal and acceptable political behaviour these days. ”
What absolute arseholes the political classes are these days, fawned on and licked by woodlouse trolls like Kempe, Anon1 Alcopop and des Res. Listen to the fraudsters of political Islam reciting Allahu Akbar for the BBC when the USUKIS bombs destroy a building. Why not just say USUKIS is Great, gimme more dollars and I’ll say it again.
For anyone interested in what’s really happening in France, I spoke with my elderly neighbour this evening, who’s now in his 80s and is a farmer (in this very rural region). We talked about the forthcoming French presidential election, which will be a history-changing event in Europe. My farmer neighbour supports Macron (who’s labelled as a centrist by the media). When I mentioned Marine Le Pen my neighbour actually spat on the ground (first time I’ve ever seen him do that). When I said that I support Jean Luc Mélenchon my neighbour put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it. We both had tears in our eyes as we talked about the history of France.
This is reality, and not all the total propaganda garbage that the presstitutes and trolls pump out.
Mélanchon c’est l’histoire – Macron c’est le futur
I’m only relating what’s going on in my own little part of France, which is a caveat I always say.
The saddest thing is that there is a revolution going on in France, but none of you are aware of it because you live in police states. There is no free media. All information is tightly controlled.
I give up trying to explain to people the totalitarian laws these vermin have passed.
So your prophecies of doom for all but rob is coming via the French?
I thought the vast majority were Vichy collaborators.
I’ve never figured out what planet you’re on.
I’ll leave readers to decide what planet I’m on.
You are here….https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_9_from_Outer_Space
Rob
Search for with a French vpn just for you
🙂
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lKuc3faQAEs
Rob
https://www.privateinternetaccess.com
Cost 13 quid a year has an app and a desk top version you can select what country you want to appear to be in and you can access whatever you like,
What you mean is it was two old men chewing the fat on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Wow! How exciting! It could only happen in France of course; old men all over the rest of the world don’t ever do the exact same thing. Well at least, when they do, they don’t rush off to blog about it as if it was something unusual.
This one is for Philip Hammond, as he struggles to get a handle on the UK’s debt, spiralling out of control…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG79y6koKuM
So, let’s summarise here: another bullshit false flag event (which they are now backtracking on).
The usual media hysteria.
Which most people see through as total bullshit.
The usual clues that point towards a false flag.
Uncle Sam has recently put 1000 ground troops in Syria (totally against all international law, but hey, the Yanks are ‘exceptional’)
It’s odds-on that the British poodles will also vote next week for ‘boots on the ground’.
Do you see how this works?
Yes, but it’s 3-D chess and you’re playin Checkers. Can’t you see you are under-manned and suckling the hind-teat of power?
Please stop whatever you are doing.
It’s been suggested that the Trump ‘agenda’ should be placed in stasis, until the petri dish discloses bacterium found in the Russkie Treason Allegations make a viral connection to many culpable parties.
I happen to wholeheartedly agree.
My fervent prayer is that a Reichstag Fire is not concocted for similar response. Are we really smarter than we were in 1934?
I certainly hope so, but little evidence to that.
Do you understand what the Reichstag Fire means?
It means you have a viable, historically documented false-flag you have failed to see.
What else don’t you see?
Craig’s posts are more often than not against the psychos and loons.
I get really, really bored with the psychos and loons.
Perhaps you should do, too?
I noticed he finally admitted to feeling conflict, so to help all those feeling conflicted, this is “The United States of Cognitive Dissonance”:
http://www.greanvillepost.com/2017/03/23/the-united-states-of-cognitive-dissonance/
Ok, so I try to give you some idea of what’s really happening in France at the moment.
But instead a bunch of psychos and loons are allowed to post.
C’mon, get real.
“C’mon, get real.”
Coming from someone who toggles between denial, fantasy, maudlin, and the issuing of death threats to all and sundry – that’s advice that is a little bit hard to take from you, RobG.
No offence. Just sayin’ …
The Frankenstein won’t dare assassinate Mélenchon, because Mélenchon has a huge movement behind him.
It’s quite funny to watch how the vermin are squirming..
RobG
I visited La Dordogne in 1968 and the local farmers were saying they would shoot De Gaulle if he turned up in their villages. Hollande is to De Gaulle what Idefix is to Obelix. I hope Melenchon finds some magic potion.
The nearest thing to ‘evidence’ that Russians of any kind were involved in the Presidential election was supplied by Crowdstrike, notoriously Atlanticist and Russophobic with connections to the ukrainian neo-nazis.
And their report, thin and insubstantial as it was, suffers from the fact that the DNC-whose criminal behaviour was revealed in the emails released by wiikileaks, refused to allow the FBI access to their computer system. Having got the answer that they had paid for from Crowdstrike, they refused to allow the Police to check for themselves. What can that possibly mean?
As to this nonsense from Habbabkuk:
“It is you (Bev) and your friends on here who welcome terrorist attacks because they enable you to claim – every time – that it’s all really the fault of the West.”
The first question is, if the governments which established the wahhabi militias, armed, paid and trained them and employed them successively in, among other places, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kossovo, Syria, Libya and Yemen are not at fault in the rash of terrorist attacks, which appear to have been carried out by agents of Al Qaeda and ISIS, then who is?
As to the silly references to “the west” only an idiot would regard the actions of imperialist governments as reflecting the desires or decisions of the people of the US or the UK. Ralph Miliband’s able and concise explanation of the nature of the relationship between the state and the masses in the UK was once standard reading: either Habba has read nothing or he is so committed to apologising for the genocidalists whom he admires that he pretends not to know ‘what every schoolboy knows.”
According to his own test he is an apologist for global terror.
” either Habba has read nothing or he is so committed to apologising for the genocidalists ”
Whatever the trolls have read, like water being poured into the cavity of their pink/green shock-hair skulls, has run out of the pin-hole at the bottom.
What’s your response should Trump attempt a Reichstag Fire false flag to consolidate power?
Would you have a response is a better question.
Ben
Funny enough the Reichstag fire was not a false flag. The documents upon which that tale was largely built have long been outed as communist forgeries.
I recently came across a fascinating example of propaganda creating widespread intrigue and outlandish belief from 1832 England. The Book of Murder were pamphlets purporting to contain the establishment plan to kill the babies of the poor, but in reality were fake news spread by Chartist opponents of the poor laws.
Very well , phil. Bad example.
The concern remains…
Plus ca change, eh? Looks like a Daily Express article on US pro-lifers (or antimotherers), no?
The “Oberfohren Memorandum” about the Reichstag Fire may have been exposed long ago as a forgery and the Communists’ Brown Book based on it as fraudulent, but other documents more recently discovered since the fall of Communism on which historians like Benjamin Hett, Wilfried Kugel, and Alexander Bahar have based their view that the Nazis were primarily responsible and van der Lubbe’s role tangential have certainly not been exposed as forgeries. An expert like Ian Kershaw now accepts Hett’s view. Even Richard Evans’s unfavorable review of Hett’s book does not claim that the documents are forged.
A very recent summary of the current state of the argument by a journalist is here: Smithsonian Magazine: The True Story of the Reichstag Fire and the Nazi Rise to Power.
Lysias
Ta. Following your link and searching I gleen that Hett mainly argues the fire simply could not have been set by one person. However, I can’t find his reasoning for this. Do you know a link where his evidence is presented?
Hett’s evidence is presented in his booki Burning the Reichstag. A lot of it is discussed on his home page. Reichstag Fire Debate.
Wolfram Pyta’s review of the revised German translation of Hett’s book for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Handelte die SA auf eigene Faust? [Did the SA do the Reichstag Fire on its own?] does find fault with some fundamental aspects of Hett’s thesis, but he has to admit that recent research like Hett’s makes it virtually impossible to believe that van der Lubbe acted alone (“Was die erste These [Hett’s assertion that it is impossible for van der Lubbe to have acted alone] anbelangt, so wird man mit allem Vorbehalt (Historiker sind auf dem Gebiet der Brandtechnik wenig bewandert und müssen sich hier auf externe Expertise verlassen) sich dennoch des Eindrucks nicht erwehren, dass die akribische Rekonstruktion des Tathergangs die Alleintäterthese massiv erschüttert..’
I had seen his homepage. In that long article, mostly attacking opposing views, I saw conclusions but no concrete evidence. Hett seems to have shown that the arrest lists were pre-prepared. He also cites contemporaneous reports that the fire could not have been started by one person. And that experts agree it would be “difficult to impossible”. In themselves and without the privilege of reading the book this remains compelling but inconclusive.I guess the case is only presented in his book. Have you read it?
I have emailed Simkins (who wrote the article I originally read) to see if he has anything to say about Hett’s book.
Yes, I have read Hett’s book, and also books by Kugel and Bahar. They all convince me that van der Lubbe was no more capable of setting the Reichstag Fire alone than Lee Harvey Oswald was capable of firing all the shots fired in Dallas. The case that the Nazis were responsible is not quite as airtight, but I consider it considerably more likely than not.
Even Harry Ferguson, a former MI6 officer, thinks that Masood should have been under surveillance, and that he went to the trouble of slipping it for some still unexplained reason by going to Brighton to spend the night in a hotel and renting the vehicle from there.
Hope you loons get your heads out of your asses, and start talking sensibly about serious matters.
I read with great interest, that a Nato general claimed that Russia is behind the supplying, and supporting of the Taliban.
Oh how the wheels of history turn, it only seems like yesterday, that the head of the serpent and Nato the US, were supplying and supporting the Mujahideen, which some claim were the predecessors of the Taliban.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39383726
Between hacking the USA, French, German, and the Netherlands presidential elections, one wonders where Russia finds the time to do anything else.
Still the Western propaganda machine, never skips a beat.
“I read with great interest,”
I usually read such things with a yawn and a shrug of the shoulders; what is it exactly that you find so interesting in the output from liars, cheats and thieves? Are you warped?
So Masood, is a “home grown” terrorist, no reason then for the bungling Brexiteers to deny free movement. Masood is from Kent, co-incidently so is Farage and both are 52 years of age, but there the similarities end.
One can never justify terrorism in any shape or form. However one does wonder how other countries see Britain, it’s more than likely they see us, not as we perceive ourself to be.
Any educated person living in the Middle East, reading the history of Britain in that region or Africa for that matter, in say the 20th century. Would probably not see British achievements, in a favourable light, indeed many people of these Isles, probably realise that as well.
Fast forward to the 21st century, and events in those regions has become even more polarised, some would say due to Western intervention, would they be wrong? I wonder
“One can never justify terrorism in any shape or form.”
Spoken like one of the perpetually self-righteous! What would you know about it? Has anybody ever threatened your immediate family? What do you know what you would do given the right circumstances arising?
And did that make people more or less inclined to vote for it?
I guess, it annoyed some people, possibly tipping a few more to vote for Brexit.
Mainly I suspect, most voters saw through the lies and bullshit from politicians and the BBC.
The public has voted for Brexit.
%) gets triggered on Wednesday, that is the point on no return.
WEDNESDAY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_50_of_the_Treaty_on_European_Union
Article 50
after Wednesday, little tim farron can cease his bleating, the die will have been cast.
This rather interesting, Scotland and NI could remain in the EU interim.
I wouldn’t normally link to Murray Footes rag, but fair play to him this time.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/scotland-could-remain-europe-until-10099754
I agree with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, when he says that, counter-terrorism strategy is “often counter-productive” and casts “suspicion” over the whole Muslim community in the Britain.
One can understand the feelings of victimisation that Muslim’s must feel in this country. The media do not help matters either, often using suggestive and incitive language, which effectively tries to tar all Muslim’s with the same brush.
RoS if you watch a video of George Galloway and a British ex- Ambassador to Syria
the ex explains that it is only Sunni who are doing the terror, not Shia, they are mostly prompted and paid for by Saudi Arabia.
Michael.
I watched that particular interview yesterday on Sputnik, the gentleman you refer to is ex-FCO Peter Ford. Who in my opinion comes across, as knowledgable and believable in my opinion.
On the previous page of this stream, I posted quite a lengthy comment on the Sunni, Shia conflict, citing Mr Ford’s invaluable knowledge.
Some might think that I****l ordered Hillary Clinton, to order Cyprus to capture the Monchegorsk,
some might think that the eXplosion was deliberate, maybe to bring the minds of the Cypriots to understand their place in the I*****i scheme of (Methane) dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Monchegorsk_(1983)
For such an amazing construction, ingenuity, strength and capability, it seems perplexing that the Monchegorsk,
should be sold for scrap after only 26 years of service.
BIG OIL on the march again
Trump administration approves Keystone XL pipeline
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39381324
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recused himself from the matter because of his previous role as chief executive of ExxonMobil.
This is mainly about America putting distance from the usual suspects in The Middle East – like Saudi Arabia
but not like I****l
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_Energy
On 19 October 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin and I*****i Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to allow major concessions for Gazprom to develop the Leviathan reserves.
Ho, ho, ho.
Is that what is meant by the phrase Geopolitics?
Ho, ho, ho
The Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War began in September 2015
Actually Michael, I watched that on RT last night too, but poor RoS lives in the molly coddle world of the SNP, care from childhood to grave mentality, where he actually knows nothing about nothing.
I read Corbyn wants to extend the Prevent policy so its non-discriminatory. That seems fair, but the correct, albeit difficult, response is to abolish the Prevent policy, because its not intended to Prevent, unless M15 agree, but to propagandize the phoney “war on terror” narrative.
A timely reminder that the worst terrorist attacks in recent memory include Libya where the imperialist governments, cheered on by every pseudo democrat and NATO socialist in Europe-including the SWP that used to be- killed tens of thousands and has now succeeded in lowering working class living standards from the highest on the continent to that statistical cohort-Yemen , Somalia, Afghanistan etc etc…- comprised of nations in which the “west” has implemented its R2P policy.
https://off-guardian.org/2017/03/26/us-has-panic-attack-after-libyan-puppets-lose-control-of-oil-ports/
We recall the political battle between Geert Widers and Mark Rutte, for the very soul of the Netherlands. Thankfully on that occasion Rutte prevailed and the Netherlands, at least for the near future, will be open and inclusive.
Not far from the Netherlands, another battle of political wills, played out through the publics conscience is taking place in France.
The front runners, seem to be poles apart, Marine Le Pen, stands for French identity, Emmanuel Macron for global trade and free movement.
It appears to be too close to call who will prevail in France, the home of the spiritual, liberte, egalite and fratenite.
One would hope that Macron, would win, and France could hold on to its open and inclusive society.
So a committee dominated by pro-Beijing elites has elected Carrie Lam (Beijing’s preferred candidate) as the new leader of Hong Kong.
Protesters claimed the election was all but rigged, in favour of the Beijing candidate.
It wasn’t that long ago that major street protests took place in Hong Kong, over Beijing’s interference. Several prominent writers were also kidnapped and taken to mainland China, for criticising Xi Jinping, and other influential government members.
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/world/hong-kong-leader-carrie-lam-1.4041612
This election could help pave the way for more civil unrest from those who see Beijing as interfering with democracy. It’s a opportunity for the Great Satan, to nuture unrest in the region.
Protesters claimed the election was all but rigged, in favour of the Beijing candidate.
Some in Scotland might claim that the election was all but rigged, in favour of the SNP candidate, so why are you fretting your head about Hong Kong? Looking for yet more windmills to tilt at?
https://theintellectualist.co/spokesman-michael-flynn-wont-confirm-deny-flynn-turned-states-witness/
The canary is singing..
Police Scotland announced last year that it would be increasing its number of firearms officers by around a third in response to
THE TERROR
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-39397720
It came after the police federation warned that Scotland was “woefully under-equipped, under-resourced and under-prepared” for a major terror attack.
This will be talked about by Police Scotland on the actual day The S. N. P. are going to nod through Indyref2
Well Police Scotland may want to arm, many more officers but they are in debt to the Scottish tune of £200,000,000
already, so where will all the extra money come from?
Surely an independent Scotland will be such a wonderland and so loved by everyone that nobody would ever dream of trying to blow it up.
This is a powerful testament, from a boxer, who was at Westminster, when it happened.
http://news.sky.com/story/westminster-attack-british-boxer-frazer-clarke-filmed-crazed-man-10814466
The super-heavyweight Commonwealth bronze boxing medallist… got his mobile out and filmed it. Be a lot more powerful testament if he’d maybe shouted something at least to try and get the guy to stop.
Its fight or flight or get your mobile out and film it these days…