Whilst the rockets fly over Donetsk, the Spooks at GCHQ continue to run their hands through our dirty digital laundry, despite their activities being declared illegal. A doctor’s reputation, sullied because he assisted a Somali woman give birth for the first time, a process rendered dangerous by her prior, female genital mutilation in her native Somalia, in trying to repair her post-natal damage, the doctor is tried and then acquitted by the legislation designed to protect British women from this cultural practice. The fact that this is the first time the law has been used is perhaps some testimony less of Britain’s role in the fight against FGM, but rather the country’s reticence to even consider the vagina and its environs. One assumes there would be a more robust protest if a group of religiously motivated women were insisting on the mutilation of boys by removing the glans of the penis and then stitching up the wound with thorns. African women do not seem to encourage quite such commitments, despite the hot air vented on their behalf.
Maybe the Greeks stand alone against the international banks, but their people have declared they are prepared to stand against the forces of austerity, that keep the rich wealthier at the expense of the poor, whose additional productivity is rewarded with increases in costs of living, and erosions of their social contract. In the early modern and the medieval period, the wealthy had a symbiotic relationship with the poor, and supported and sheltered them in times of scarcity. Mass market capitalism has freed the rich from this sense of community, and instead of being part of our world, we are simply cattle to feed their monstrous appetites. So long as the members of the super rich remain in their exclusive isolated communities, pausing only occasionally to inflict war, increase prices, degrade protective social legislation, and maximising labour inequalities.
George Orwell’s Winston Smith was told of a vision of the future was of a boot kicking the face of a man into submission. Hitler, Mao and Stalin’s disastrous experiments with totalitarian regimes have taught us the simple truth that force is an insufficient means for global domination. World domination has been achieved rather by a more sinister set of principles, using the carrot, and our endemic greed to hoard and consume the vegetable.
To quote General Valery Gerasimov, “In the 21st century we have seen a tendency toward blurring the lines between the states of war and peace. Wars are no longer declared and, having begun, proceed according to an unfamiliar template.” This state of uncertainty applies to every aspect of modern society. We are motivated by greed and fear. We are continually informed about the success, achievements and wonderful aspects of the lives of the privileged, whilst we are asked to endure increased costs, demands for unpaid labour, and the erosion of our welfare protections. If we protest, we are warned that we are not team players, and cautioned that there are hundreds of people who would like our job. Our mass media distracts and anaesthetises us. We are hobbled by our fears, misled by our leaders, and are prey to our own naked self interest and greed.
Female genital mutilation will still continue, until the resources of the world stop wasting money on war, and maintaining the gross appetites of the super rich, instead of basic infrastructural investment in basic health care, education and political education of all world citizens. I am not interested in shallow nationalisms, or corporate interests. I am less inclined to the parochial, and more to the international. World government is a simple reality that could be achieved almost over night, at the level of science and technology we have already achieved. The internet could be a library rather than a masturbation peepshow. All the people of the world could flourish grow strong, without the need of selfish rich men selling guns to encourage fear.
Let's live in a world that eliminates poverty, ignorance and violence. That is something worth fighting for, and the only people we would need to fight are the super-rich, who constitute less than 1% of the total world population. To me, the mark of a civilised society is the degree by which cultural diversity can successfully co-habit within the same meta-cultural context. Everyone is born equal, everyone should have the same opportunity to find their place in the world. I don’t yet live in this world, but I believe it is a world worth fighting for, and I invite you to join me. That’s how we do something about FGM!
Maybe the Greeks stand alone against the international banks, but their people have declared they are prepared to stand against the forces of austerity, that keep the rich wealthier at the expense of the poor, whose additional productivity is rewarded with increases in costs of living, and erosions of their social contract. In the early modern and the medieval period, the wealthy had a symbiotic relationship with the poor, and supported and sheltered them in times of scarcity. Mass market capitalism has freed the rich from this sense of community, and instead of being part of our world, we are simply cattle to feed their monstrous appetites. So long as the members of the super rich remain in their exclusive isolated communities, pausing only occasionally to inflict war, increase prices, degrade protective social legislation, and maximising labour inequalities.
George Orwell’s Winston Smith was told of a vision of the future was of a boot kicking the face of a man into submission. Hitler, Mao and Stalin’s disastrous experiments with totalitarian regimes have taught us the simple truth that force is an insufficient means for global domination. World domination has been achieved rather by a more sinister set of principles, using the carrot, and our endemic greed to hoard and consume the vegetable.
To quote General Valery Gerasimov, “In the 21st century we have seen a tendency toward blurring the lines between the states of war and peace. Wars are no longer declared and, having begun, proceed according to an unfamiliar template.” This state of uncertainty applies to every aspect of modern society. We are motivated by greed and fear. We are continually informed about the success, achievements and wonderful aspects of the lives of the privileged, whilst we are asked to endure increased costs, demands for unpaid labour, and the erosion of our welfare protections. If we protest, we are warned that we are not team players, and cautioned that there are hundreds of people who would like our job. Our mass media distracts and anaesthetises us. We are hobbled by our fears, misled by our leaders, and are prey to our own naked self interest and greed.
Female genital mutilation will still continue, until the resources of the world stop wasting money on war, and maintaining the gross appetites of the super rich, instead of basic infrastructural investment in basic health care, education and political education of all world citizens. I am not interested in shallow nationalisms, or corporate interests. I am less inclined to the parochial, and more to the international. World government is a simple reality that could be achieved almost over night, at the level of science and technology we have already achieved. The internet could be a library rather than a masturbation peepshow. All the people of the world could flourish grow strong, without the need of selfish rich men selling guns to encourage fear.
Let's live in a world that eliminates poverty, ignorance and violence. That is something worth fighting for, and the only people we would need to fight are the super-rich, who constitute less than 1% of the total world population. To me, the mark of a civilised society is the degree by which cultural diversity can successfully co-habit within the same meta-cultural context. Everyone is born equal, everyone should have the same opportunity to find their place in the world. I don’t yet live in this world, but I believe it is a world worth fighting for, and I invite you to join me. That’s how we do something about FGM!
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