Hiatus

Married life and life in general has changed for me, I feel there are other more important things to do than passionately blogging at this moment in time, like get a real job! (a 'real' job according to the rules of capitalism). So I have upped sticks to Tumblr http://makepeaceordie.tumblr.com/ still not updating everyday but it's much quicker and easier to reblog powerful images than write political rants most of the time.

Peace, love and politics

BoJo and the Three Cs

"I can hardly condemn UKIP as a bunch of boss-eyed, foam-flecked Euro hysterics, when I have been sometimes not far short of boss-eyed, foam-flecked hysteria myself."

I went along to the People's Question Time this week in Hammersmith Town Hall, mostly to see what Boris Johnson had to say for himself. I genuinely went with an open mind. I am not one to stick up for toffs but I do not begrudge someone because they have had a privileged upbringing. In fact, in a way it is good that we have so many upper class mummy's boys in government because unlike other countries, specifically in the developing world, they did not vie for a government post in order to get rich because obviously they are already stinking rich.

Bo Jo started with quoting dubious statistics about crime falling 25% and crime on transport falling 33%; oh clearly Boris if those figures are true there must be a direct correlation between an astounding fall in crime to your mayoralty! The first question that was posed to Boris was 'Would you feel safe walking in any street of London?' The non-Londoner replied 'yes' to which there was a burst of laughter amongst the audience.

My blood began boiling the more and more as I thought about all the robberies that occur in East Acton alone every day. A place which is mostly populated with pensioners. The lovely guys who took my phone http://musingsfromaneet.blogspot.com/2012/02/where-for-art-thou-i-phone.html (amongst the hundreds of women they have probably robbed,) took a woman's handbag outside the station and when she would not let go, smacked her around the face with their moped helmet. Pregnant women have had their phones alongside clumps of hair ripped out of their heads outside Hammersmith Hospital. The 60+ owner of my local laundrette got robbed on Du Cane Road whilst fetching something from her car. Boys as young as 12 tried to snatch the handbag of my friend's mum; a 4'11" Chinese lady. A gaggle of teens including a girl not too subtly asked my dad for 'the time'. Some years ago my mum was pushed to the floor and her bag taken, which had her late mother's diamond earrings in them. Basically there is almost no resident of East Acton that I know that has not been robbed in the area where they have grown up. Lest I forget that the police did not even turn up when I called them because understandably a Monday afternoon is way too busy a time for them to attend to a woman newly robbed, I thought these were third world problems...

If robberies occur in this tiny area every single day, you would think that there would be police ready to catch the thieves, and if not for the pure reasoning of catching everyday muggers and protecting the people who pay their wages, some inevitably must have links to bigger criminals they wish to catch. But no, what they actually do is a put a minuscule sign on the lamp post outside East Acton station (ironically I took a picture of the sign a week before my phone was snatched.) saying something like 'Beware of muggers' with a picture of a boy on a bike with a Scream mask on. Why not put a scarecrow there? A teddy? A banana maybe? They would all have been equally effective at deterring these criminals who have been cowering in their high tops since Boris Johnson became mayor.

Other gems Bo Jo dropped were 'Ken Livingstone spent thousands of pounds going to see FIDEL CASTRO (said slowly for effect)' and scoffed. When the election campaign was going on I agreed that too much money was wasted in Whitehall but Bo Jo has managed to spend MORE than Ken Livingstone. He attacked Ken's intentions to get subsidised 'but not even that subsidised' oil from Venezuela 'one of the poorest countries in Latin America'. Yes I'm sure your heart bleeds for the developing countries whose oil this country plunders, especially when the subsidy is only so-so.

A woman who was a business owner in Shepherds Bush, alongside other business owners asked Bo Jo to stop its 'redevelopment' aka letting investors run amok so Shepherds Bush can look like a generic piece of city crap. His response was 'I can't talk about it as the councillors are here'. The three 'C' words cahoots, capitalism and corruption springs to mind. After being given some more chances to speak on this issue, he did not and many people walked out. His reaction was unconcerned at best.

The blonde haired buffoon perfectly demonstrated not only that class doesn't mean you have class by scoffing and interrupting everyone he disagreed with, he did that politician pretend slick thing and answered questions with vague statements instead of his actual policies. 'Of course I don't agree with corporations not paying their taxes...' Yeah Boris keeps it real, describing his £250,000 he is paid by the Telegraph annually as 'chicken feed'. London please...

The Axis of Evil Hypocrisy

'Oh my God I have no friends. I'm like America the man'

American Dad

America, and other Western countries, within the last decade alone, have militarily intervened or bombed the shit out of or let drones attack the following countries; Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya and more by proxy. The famous justification for devastating Iraq was that 'God told me (George Bush) to do it'. The next stop on the sold out war tour of Muslim countries is Iran. I really don't know what I will do if this happens. How many more wars can we tolerate? How many more millions can suffer for the agendas of a few?

In a society where everything must be portrayed as a fantastical fairytale or it is simply irrelevant, the Americans are the good guys no matter how violent they are and Iran are the villains or 'not rational actors'. Newt Gingrich even said if it takes a pre-emptive strike to prevent another holocaust then so be it. Who exactly is threatening another holocaust????

Ahmedinibob has never threatened a holocaust and contrary to popular media mantra has also not denied the holocaust. If the mass media bothered to translate and communicate effectively it would have transpired that what he said was that the West rams 'free speech' down everyone's throat, using it as a tool to demean other countries yet is is illegal to deny the holocaust in certain countries and at the very least, any discussion that the holocaust didn't happen and/or is exaggerated is somehow off limits. The West committing hypocrisy? Never! Iran has merely committed the crime of intervening in the affairs of its neighbours, and the US, although they like capitalism, they do not like competition.


When someone says the word 'terrorist' what comes into your mind? Is it a Middle Eastern man with a beard? Because the biggest terrorists I see are white men in suits, talking of war as if they are talking about taking a walk in the park.  Prior to invading Iraq, the US were desperately trying to get as many countries on side as possible, lest we forget there were many who were involved in the invasion and occupation of Mesopotamia; Britain, Australia, Spain to name a few. One of the few European countries that refused to corroborate was famously France. Why? Not because France is 'Switzerland' but because Jacques Chirac had been a soldier, he had actually experienced what it was really like to step over dead and injured bodies in a war zone. One would think that it is probably easier to sign papers to send others to their death than going on the front line yourself.

Is it purely coincidental that the US have pulled out of Iraq and trying to get out of Afghanistan? Are they gearing up for a war on one axis of evil?

Just like the Hollywood movies we are bombarded with, these threats and ridiculous reasoning for war are myths based on the fantasy in someone's head. Just like the picture that is globally depicted as Jesus, which was created by an Italian painter centuries after Jesus' death, looking suspiciously like an Italian. Pure fantasy. I understand that Thatcher and Reagan implemented capitalism in order for the West to thrive but now capitalism controls the politicians. I knew AIPAC was rich and powerful but I didn't know they had enough money to buy the souls of the ones that lead us.

Conforming by any other name

“The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It’s people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages”

I watched Make Bradford British today, and sometimes what betters the controversial programme itself is reading what people have to say about it on Twitter. Some funny but expected things said by the programme's participants was Average Joe working class white guy saying 'and the (Pakistani) women look all funny because they wear high-jabs or whatever they're called'. Aaaah Joe that's high-liarious. The middle class ex-policeman joking that on his force days he used to say to his partner 'let's go Paki-bashing' and then to reiterate his point that racism is SOOO funny he then immediately called another participant a 'black bastard'. There was also the emotional revelation from the mixed heritage pub landlady that her saying 'Paki' was the equivalent of her getting called a 'nigger' and her mother a 'coon lover'. No shit Sherlock.

Anyway it is obvious that many people hate religion, (the programme really focussing on Muslims in Bradford) judging by the ever lasting popularity of google searching atheism and finding me. In regards to the programme one tweeter wrote 'Praying 5 times a day FUCKING WHY?!'
I retorted 'What kind of question is that? Why do people smoke 20 times a day, why do people drink every week, why do people watch TV every day?' as it seemed bizarre to me as to why someone would have a problem with how many times someone prayed.

This person, like many others, thought that praying to a deity we don't even know exists was a waste of time (fair enough but we all waste time) and moreover didn't like the idea of someone feeling obligated to do something because of religion and fear. It's a strange argument because as much as we all like to think we are free, we are NOT. We do things, consciously or unconsciously, either because everybody else does it, (or our particular society or family) or because of fear. Following fashion is self-explanatory. And there is nobody out there that can really tell me they never ever ever did something or did not do something purely because of the fear of the consequences, whether that comes from God or the law or hurting someone or whatever. It would be nice if everyone was a nice person and did not commit horrid crimes just because they are a good person but wake up this is not the case! People think religion is a strain and it is just a tool to make people conform but are you not conforming yourself by obeying laws made by men in suits?

People complain A LOT about immigrants not assimilating or integrating but what does that really mean? Changing your identity to be as alike to British people as possible? Conforming into nothingness? Say our life conforms to expectancies and we die as old folk on our death beds. When we're there do you think that devout Muslim Rashid will regret his life spent praying? When Tom, Dick and Harry are on their death beds do you think they will regret their life of conformity, of partying, of watching tv, of buying things they don't need, of worshipping nobody but themselves? Mull it over and think about what you want to flash before your eyes before you die, whenever that may be...

Syria - my children would be ashamed

'Do you love your creator? Love your fellow-beings first.'

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)

Being fairly ignorant about history, it took the film Hotel Rwanda for me to pay any attention to the Rwandan genocide. This was about five years ago and I could scarcely believe that not only were up to 1 million people murdered in the space of three months but that this actually happened in 1993. How could something so horrific on that scale happen in my lifetime? What the hell was the world doing??

I would have been six or seven, I felt ashamed that my parents' generation could let children and innocent people get slaughtered in this way. The slaughter wasn't even perpetrated by armies with tanks and planes and drones, only knives and machetes. Just like I was ashamed at the generation that preceded me, I fear that my children will feel the same way about Syria. People in their suits with fancy titles sit behind their desks and often appear for a few minutes on the news 'denouncing' Syria and 'imposing sanctions', doing so until the cows come home and yet these kinds of words are meaningless. Israel some years ago bombed one of Syria's alleged nuclear plants and they did not retaliate, it hardly made a peep on the news. Are you really telling me that almost all the countries in the world cannot stop the massacre of mothers, fathers, grandfathers, and children in this relatively small country?

OK so Russia and China are blocking resolutions, they have their own interests and I suspect that they also have the good sense to see the danger of yet another military intervention in a Muslim country. In Libya, Britain, US, France and Nato exceeded their UN mandate, which was for the protection of civilians, and specifically sided with the opposition and targeted Gaddafi's strongholds in order to overthrow him. And then had the nerve to (pretend to) baulk when a Libyan assassinated Gaddafi! It is obvious to the world that Libya was 'easy', it is rich, has a lot of the black stuff, is mostly desert and a relatively small population. No-one believes for a second that the countries that presided over the campaign give two shits about Arab civilians, they're the last people they care about! Clearly there are so many governments that cannot be trusted, worse than bodies such as the UN who comprise of so many and talk a lot, yet are unable to protect children being maimed. You wouldn't have kids if you couldn't protect them, so what is the point of having a 'United Nations' if they can't protect its people?

Apostasy in Islam - Hamza Kashgari

"Saudi women won't go to hell because it's impossible to go there twice"

Another day, another story about how idiotic Muslims/Islam are/is... Yes Muslims and Islam are attacked unfairly and uncategorically on a daily basis by the media but this story is a travesty that is rightly attributed. Well not to Islam as such but the absurdity of the Saudi regime.

Quick recap of 23-year-old Kashgari's ordeal: On the Prophet Muhammad's (pbuh) birthday, Kashgari tweeted three things,

• On your birthday, I will say that I have loved the rebel in you, that you've always been a source of inspiration to me, and that I do not like the halos of divinity around you. I shall not pray for you.
• On your birthday, I find you wherever I turn. I will say that I have loved aspects of you, hated others, and could not understand many more.
• On your birthday, I shall not bow to you. I shall not kiss your hand. Rather, I shall shake it as equals do, and smile at you as you smile at me. I shall speak to you as a friend, no more.

Following this, there were 30,000 tweets regarding his tweets and a Facebook page set up calling for his execution, outweighing the numbers calling for his exoneration. He apologised and deleted his twitter. He attempted to claim political asylum in New Zealand, though stopped in Malaysia first, where he was promptly deported back to the Saudi authorities through Interpol. Apparently Saudi are to charge him with blasphemy, however many are worried or in fact excited that he will be actually charged with apostasy, having already being found 'guilty' of it by Saudi religious authorities.

Let's get something straight, yes, this country is the country in which the holy cities of Mecca and Medina are but by no means does this 'Kingdom of Saudi Arabia' represent Islam. This fact alone gives them undue regard from many Muslims around the world and more worryingly, from all Western powers. Saudi Arabia was created by Britain less than a century ago and still remains a western puppet that amongst other things, advocates bombing Iran. The royal douches practice and impose Wahaabiism, an extremely conservative form of Islam.

To surmise, allow me to quote Sir Colin Crowe, a British ambassador in 1963,
'dominated by a sect of Islam of a farouche and intolerant Puritanism, but ruled by a royal family whose extravagance and dissipation are only rivalled by its numbers. It has no modern code of laws and its criminal justice system is of mediaeval barbarity. There is not even a pretence of democratic institutions... corruption is widespread. The country sits on top of some of the richest oil resources in the world and enjoys a vast unearned income which has dissipated in pleasure, palaces and Cadillacs.'

Nothing much has changed then.

The Qur'an and Hadiths do not speak about blasphemy, it was one of those man-made things implemented into the Sharia after the Prophet (pbuh) had long gone. Any time there is a story that is Islam-related online you can expect an ignorant barrage of comments because every man and his dog has an opinion on Islam, but remember there is no requirement or recommendation for this 'crime' in Islam and the only authority; the Qur'an. There are countless stories about the Prophet being berated and having things literally thrown at him in the street and he never retaliated. Some Muslims say they revere him so much yet they are loathe to follow his actual actions and act like intolerant buffoons instead. There is even a video of a sheik weeping and unable to perform his sermon because he is so distraught at the talk of allowing Kashgari to live. Where's his tears for the Saudis (royals) who go off to Bahrain at the weekend to drink alcohol, or something much less trivial than drinking alcohol, you know things like children being maimed and killed in other Muslim countries. Nothing is said publicly about the atrocities perpetrated by certain regimes but God forbid a 23-year-old man makes barely offensive tweets!

Where for art thou I Phone

'The only sin is stealing'

It's been over two weeks now since my I Phone was mercilessly ripped from my hand by your everyday bike-riding, hoody-wearing thieves. I still have not received a replacement from my insurance but that's a different matter that should be filed under 'First World Problems'.

I am often on a high horse about a lot of things, one being my notorious lack of dependency on your everyday vices e.g. smoking, drinking, gambling. Many times in my life I've had to explain why I don't do these kinds of things, 'What, you don't take ANY drugs? Not even weed?' my former boss asked. Or 'You must do SOMETHING?' staring at me with the face that should be reserved for actual circus freaks. I just laugh it off, yes I am THAT boring unfortunately/fortunately. Yet the old adage that 'you shouldn't speak to soon' rings true for me and my beloved crutch; my I Phone. It hasn't escaped my attention that no other devices require the brand name to also be mentioned i.e. You wouldn't call a phone other than an I Phone by its name, ever remember saying 'pass my Sony/Nokia/Blackberry'? No but you would say 'pass my I Phone'. Their obvious triumph in marketing has always made me want to not covet this brand like the rest of the world seems to. Oh how I would cuss my husband for always telling me about a new spangled app that I didn't care about and for always playing on it even on the loo. My contract was due for renewal so I relented and gave in to the gargantuan marketing force that is Apple. I soon came to rely on this tiny white block, accumulating hundreds of amazing and sentimental photos and videos, inputting important dates in the calendar, putting all my reference numbers and banking details in the notes. Not to mention emails on the go, Twitter and Whats App, my social life lines for a recluse like myself. Of course I didn't back these things up, I'm not a 'backing up' sort of lass, still not becoming the full technophile that I never wanted to be.

Not for one minute during this did I feel sorry for myself, this incident is just a tiny insignificant moment even relative to my tiny insignificant life. There's a billion horrific things that happen every day. Of course I was mildly angry when it happened, I was angry that I didn't look around me before I whipped out my phone to text even though I had a feeling that that very thing would happen, I was angry that I would even have to be aware of some thievery occurring two minutes from my house at 1 o'clock on a Monday afternoon, I was angry I didn't back up my beloved files, I was angry that the woman next to me wouldn't call the police, I was angry that when I called the police they didn't turn up, but most of all I was angry when I found out who they were and that they lived right around the corner from me.

Due to various hood connections, it wasn't difficult to find the two culprits because within half an hour of taking my phone, they were bragging that they had got 2 I Phones just that afternoon. Well I guess if I pocketed a grand in one Monday afternoon I'd feel pretty chuffed too. I found out their names and addresses, this being hearsay the police wouldn't have been able to do anything about it, so I have this information and yet am unable to obtain justice. In spite of my spurious connections, I am not the vengeful nor violent type. Yet this time I am quite consumed with the idea of wreaking some kind of moral retribution on them. It's not what they did, it's the principal guys!

Due to my own investigative work I also know they've both been in and out of prison, one just recently came out. Also that that very same day they did some robberies outside a nearby primary school, mums with I Phones yes please! They returned only two days later and when one mum had the audacity to chase after one of them and demand her phone back she was duly punched in the face and her jaw was broken.

So not only do these guys get to put their feet up and count the money from their ill-gotten gains, but something tells me they are laughing at the stupid law-abiding citizens who actually worked to buy these things that takes them seconds to take for themselves. My question is, is this what a free country is? Is that how life is supposed to be???

At Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, the rich used to sit at the seats at the top, being the hygiene freaks in the wrong sense of the word, instead of using the toilet like today's 'civilised' ??? society, they would just soil themselves and their waste used to drip to the bottom; right on top of where the common people used to sit. The same can be said of the moral fabric of the top, inevitably it drips to the bottom.

The fact that I know who the culprits are makes me feel as if it is fate, how many people can say that they know who robbed them? Until I figure out what to do, I'll have to stew in this sense of injustice, however small...

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