Never in my 56 years have I witnessed such utter destruction by the forces of nature. Night after night I watched dumbfounded and awe struck by events as they unfolded in the American Gulf States. I could not believe my eyes as thousands of people in the United States were left stranded without food and water for days on end by their government and local authorities, supposedly the most advanced and powerful on Earth.
It was like watching a poor and incompetent third world government in action. In all truth I was appalled by the sheer ineptitude and unnecessary suffering caused by the unfathomable inability of the authorities to organise themselves properly and swiftly, to deal with the needs of people in the immediate aftermath of Katrina's devastation.
I could not believe that U.S. authorities found it beyond their means to airlift water and food to those who were trapped or organise the recovery of bodies that lay visible to the world for a week or longer in parallel with search and rescue operations.
Will we ever look at the U.S. in the same awe struck light again? Whatever the reaction, there are serious questions that tens of thousands of people will want answers to, before Katrina's deadly consequences are laid to rest in the annals of history. Frankly I can't think any of them will be convincing.
Poetry: http://www.spearman.blogspot.com
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
UN Reform - A sick Joke
So the UN has agreed on some steps to counter terrorism but has been unable to agree a definition of terrorism. How pathetic is that?
Until the UN Charter is modified allowing the expulsion of any and all countries that operate outside the rules of international law, the UN will never be anything more than a corrupt, ideologically bankcrupt and incompetent talking shop.
Starvation in Niger, genocide in the Sudan, murderous dictatorship in Zimbabwe, atrocities in the Congo and never ending poverty in Africa continue unabated despite the hollow rhetoric emanating from the corridors of power in the UN and elsewhere. It's a blight on humanity and a disgrace for which those with the power to act shall forever be condemned by the harsh gaze of history.
Poetry: http://www.spearman.blogspot.com
Until the UN Charter is modified allowing the expulsion of any and all countries that operate outside the rules of international law, the UN will never be anything more than a corrupt, ideologically bankcrupt and incompetent talking shop.
Starvation in Niger, genocide in the Sudan, murderous dictatorship in Zimbabwe, atrocities in the Congo and never ending poverty in Africa continue unabated despite the hollow rhetoric emanating from the corridors of power in the UN and elsewhere. It's a blight on humanity and a disgrace for which those with the power to act shall forever be condemned by the harsh gaze of history.
Poetry: http://www.spearman.blogspot.com
Monday, August 01, 2005
Should Fear of Terrorist Reprisals Dictate Policy?
In many of the debates on television on terrorism, it is often argued that we bought it upon ourselves by invading Iraq (twice). The first invasion was in 1991 in response to Saddam Hussein's unprovoked attack on Kuwait. Of course terrorism has been around a lot longer than that but for the sake of this argument, let us accept that the invasion of Iraq is the cause for the present upsurge in terrorism. Does this change anything?
Do those who use this argument, advocate that we (the international community) should turn a blind eye to crimes against humanity in other parts of the world for fear that the fanatics might turn their attention on us? What does that say about us? Is it alright for the Saddam Hussein's and other rogue states to commit criminal acts of savagery against their own and other innocent populations while we who lie safe in our beds, turn a blind eye? Are ordinary and innocent Iraqis, Rwandans or Zimbabweans somehow different from us? Are their lives less valuable than ours? Are they not also a part of humanity? Would we not want the international community to help us if we were victims of terror perpetrated by our own government?
A century or two ago, we might have been totally unaware of events on the other side of the globe and therefore unable to respond but in a globalised, so called civilised world with instant communication, there are no excuses for turning a blind eye to the suffering of our fellow human beings. Somebody has to take the lead and bring an end to these atrocities. It should be the U.N. but as has been shown time and again this is a morally corrupt organisation which has failed on countless occasions in it's humane duty to go to the aid of those facing genocide, torture, murder and rape.
However, somebody must summon the courage in a civilised world to intervene for all our sakes. If some of the member states within the U. N. are so apathetic and inhumane, as to ignore the horrendus plight of millions of oppressed peoples, then applaud those that show the moral courage to stand up and be counted. The rest, and we and they know who they are, are beneath contempt.
href="http://www.spearman.blogspot.com">
Do those who use this argument, advocate that we (the international community) should turn a blind eye to crimes against humanity in other parts of the world for fear that the fanatics might turn their attention on us? What does that say about us? Is it alright for the Saddam Hussein's and other rogue states to commit criminal acts of savagery against their own and other innocent populations while we who lie safe in our beds, turn a blind eye? Are ordinary and innocent Iraqis, Rwandans or Zimbabweans somehow different from us? Are their lives less valuable than ours? Are they not also a part of humanity? Would we not want the international community to help us if we were victims of terror perpetrated by our own government?
A century or two ago, we might have been totally unaware of events on the other side of the globe and therefore unable to respond but in a globalised, so called civilised world with instant communication, there are no excuses for turning a blind eye to the suffering of our fellow human beings. Somebody has to take the lead and bring an end to these atrocities. It should be the U.N. but as has been shown time and again this is a morally corrupt organisation which has failed on countless occasions in it's humane duty to go to the aid of those facing genocide, torture, murder and rape.
However, somebody must summon the courage in a civilised world to intervene for all our sakes. If some of the member states within the U. N. are so apathetic and inhumane, as to ignore the horrendus plight of millions of oppressed peoples, then applaud those that show the moral courage to stand up and be counted. The rest, and we and they know who they are, are beneath contempt.
href="http://www.spearman.blogspot.com">
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Terrorism
The question that those who are sympathetic to terrorist actions must ask themselves is do they want to be governed by people who think nothing of indiscriminately killing and maiming innocent people irrespective of age, sex, race or religion, or do they want leaders who respect human rights and are prepared to be democratically accountable to their electorate for their actions? Put another way, do they want more Saddam Husseins, Idi Amins, Robert Mugabes, Stalins or Hitlers, or do they want more Nelson Mandelas? If the answer is yes, then they must denounce terrorism and adopt democracy. If the answer is no, then their is simply no hope for humanity.
Poetry: http://www.spearman.blogspot.com
Poetry: http://www.spearman.blogspot.com
Hotel Rwanda
To understand the evil and terror of genocide, I recommend you see the film "Hotel Rwanda". We cannot call ourselves civilised while we sit by and allow such wretched and savage bloodletting by anyone to happen anywhere on this planet of ours. We must all stand up and be counted.
That the West stood by and watched as one million people were savagely slaughtered in one of the most gruesome acts of wanton bloodletting in history is a shameful reflection on those that committed these acts and the whole of humanity. Those political leaders that had the power and the means to act but instead turned a blind eye to this horror, will forever be condemned by history.
This film should be shown in every secondary school in the world as it has much to teach all of us about the insidious nature of hatred and prejudice. We are all a part of a single human family and the sooner we understand this, the better it will be for all of us.
Poetry: http://www.spearman.blogspot.com
That the West stood by and watched as one million people were savagely slaughtered in one of the most gruesome acts of wanton bloodletting in history is a shameful reflection on those that committed these acts and the whole of humanity. Those political leaders that had the power and the means to act but instead turned a blind eye to this horror, will forever be condemned by history.
This film should be shown in every secondary school in the world as it has much to teach all of us about the insidious nature of hatred and prejudice. We are all a part of a single human family and the sooner we understand this, the better it will be for all of us.
Poetry: http://www.spearman.blogspot.com
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Dumber and dumber
The deliberate and misguided manner in which politics, education and the media are being dumbed down by the numbskulls that control these institutions, is creating a society of dimwits who know who David Beckham is but have not got a clue who Admiral Nelson was. They know the names of the "Big Brother" contestants on television but have barely heard of Winston Churchill!
A dumb nation is doomed to rot at the bottom of the pile. A nation without mathmeticians, scientists, engineers, poets and painters is nation on the road to oblivion. A nation without morals and a sense of respect for its fellow beings or its heritage is like a storm tossed ship that has no idea where it is headed or indeed what fate awaits it.
It's time to sound the alarm and come to our senses or sink into the abyss of chaos that is slowly but surely enveloping us. Where has all the common sense gone?
Poetry: http://www.spearman.blogspot.com
A dumb nation is doomed to rot at the bottom of the pile. A nation without mathmeticians, scientists, engineers, poets and painters is nation on the road to oblivion. A nation without morals and a sense of respect for its fellow beings or its heritage is like a storm tossed ship that has no idea where it is headed or indeed what fate awaits it.
It's time to sound the alarm and come to our senses or sink into the abyss of chaos that is slowly but surely enveloping us. Where has all the common sense gone?
Poetry: http://www.spearman.blogspot.com
Nefarious consequences of spin
If politicians are serious about wanting to tackle voter empathy, they must first come to terms with the nefarious consequences of the spin merchants. Nobody knows who is or is not telling the truth anymore or what to believe. We therefore trust no one and have no confidence in anything we hear or read. Consequently the public reaction to politicians and much of the media is one of a plague on all their houses.
This is the abysmal state to which politicians and the media have reduced our faith in our elected representatives and the political system in general and it brings them nothing but shame and condemnation. A harsh truth is better by far than a deceptive half truth. When will they learn?
Let us hope they do so before it is too late to undue the web of deceit they have spun or everything will come tumbling down like a pack of cards around our ears with dreadful consequences.
Poetry: http://www.spearman.blogspot.com
This is the abysmal state to which politicians and the media have reduced our faith in our elected representatives and the political system in general and it brings them nothing but shame and condemnation. A harsh truth is better by far than a deceptive half truth. When will they learn?
Let us hope they do so before it is too late to undue the web of deceit they have spun or everything will come tumbling down like a pack of cards around our ears with dreadful consequences.
Poetry: http://www.spearman.blogspot.com
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Blair calls for EU Reform
Mr. Blair today reiterated his call for EU reform when addressing the EU Parliament. His speech appears to have fallen on fertile ground amongst many Europeans. However, it is amazing to me that nobody has pointed out the fact that for years now, Mr. Blair has been telling us all how good Europe is for Britain and our economy.
Now he is telling us that Europe is in a mess and urgently needs reforming! Come on Mr. Blair, who are you kidding? You cannot have it both ways. The French, Dutch and others are seiously dissillusioned by the so called "European project" as underlined in their referenda on the proposed EU Constitution. Mr Blair, it seems has only just found out how deep the "merde" really is! How can anyone take anything he says seriously?
Backed into a corner by Mr Chiraq on the matter of Britain's rebate, Mr. Blair has seen an opportunity to embarrass his French tormentor, hoping that no one will pick up the contradiction in his former stance on Europe. Well, I have a message for him. We've rumbled you Mr. Blair and some of us have seen through you for years. Your elbow is attached to your arm by the way.
Poetry: http://www.spearman.blogspot.com
Now he is telling us that Europe is in a mess and urgently needs reforming! Come on Mr. Blair, who are you kidding? You cannot have it both ways. The French, Dutch and others are seiously dissillusioned by the so called "European project" as underlined in their referenda on the proposed EU Constitution. Mr Blair, it seems has only just found out how deep the "merde" really is! How can anyone take anything he says seriously?
Backed into a corner by Mr Chiraq on the matter of Britain's rebate, Mr. Blair has seen an opportunity to embarrass his French tormentor, hoping that no one will pick up the contradiction in his former stance on Europe. Well, I have a message for him. We've rumbled you Mr. Blair and some of us have seen through you for years. Your elbow is attached to your arm by the way.
Poetry: http://www.spearman.blogspot.com
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Merci Monsieur Chiraq
It's not often the British or at least a sizeable chunk of them have reason to thank French politicians but the "non" vote against the proposed so called European Constitution is one of them. So thank you Mr. Chiraq for running such a scaremongering and negative campaign. Thanks also to the socialist anglophobes who hate the Anglosaxon penchant for liberal global trade principles. You have succeeded in killing off the nightmare of a centrally controlled, anti-democratic socialist superstate without any help from us and we are grateful for that at least.
We would have voted against it too but for an entirely different reason. We simply want to retain our sovereignty. We wanted to remain a country and not a county of Europe. Thanks to your "no" vote you may also remain a country. You will continue to be governed by a democratically elected French citizens rather than unelected eurocrats, whose only interest is the feathering of their own nests and ever larger expense accounts.
Who would have predicted this result five years ago? Irony lives on and so does European democracy, however quirky it may be. That is all to the good and one in the eye for the "elitist" bureaucrats, who would love nothing better than to run the show for their own benefit. Thanks to your hatred for all things Anglosaxon, we have got our way. Salut mes amis!
Poetry: http://www.spearman.blogspot.com
We would have voted against it too but for an entirely different reason. We simply want to retain our sovereignty. We wanted to remain a country and not a county of Europe. Thanks to your "no" vote you may also remain a country. You will continue to be governed by a democratically elected French citizens rather than unelected eurocrats, whose only interest is the feathering of their own nests and ever larger expense accounts.
Who would have predicted this result five years ago? Irony lives on and so does European democracy, however quirky it may be. That is all to the good and one in the eye for the "elitist" bureaucrats, who would love nothing better than to run the show for their own benefit. Thanks to your hatred for all things Anglosaxon, we have got our way. Salut mes amis!
Poetry: http://www.spearman.blogspot.com
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Where is our sovreignty now?
How the faceless European politicians in Brussels are trying to drag the U.K. down to their level! Where is our sovreignty now?
STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - The European Parliament voted on Wednesday to scrap Britain's fiercely guarded opt-out from the EU's 48-hour maximum work week, reopening a long-running ideological battle with London.
The European Union legislature voted by 378 to 262 with 15 abstentions to abolish after three years a provision under which governments can allow firms to ignore the limit.
Britain, which regards flexible labour laws as vital for economic efficiency, voiced dismay but said the vote was only a stage in a complex legislative process and the proposals would now go back to the executive European Commission for revision.
"We are very disappointed that they have taken this decision," Employment Minister Gerry Sutcliffe told BBC radio. "I think that the European employment ministers ... will accept our position."
A coalition of Socialist, Greens and Christian Democratic lawmakers voted to tighten the rules on working time in the name of health and safety, endorsing a report by Spanish Socialist Alejandro Cercas that said the opt-out had led to major abuses.
Members of the Labour party in the EU assembly defied Tony Blair to vote with the abolitionists despite intensive phone lobbying by cabinet ministers.
"The force of the argument was such that every one of the Labour MEPs ... pledged to vote with the Socialist group on this," Labour MEP Stephen Hughes told Reuters.
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats said the revolt in Strasbourg showed Blair was losing his grip on his own party, which was re-elected last week with a slashed majority.
The Trades Union Congress says around 3.75 million people in Britain work more than 48 hours a week, among them junior hospital doctors in the National Health Service, truck drivers, workers on North Sea oil rigs, and many managers.
QUALIFIED MAJORITY
Member governments must approve a final version of the legislation by qualified majority in the EU Council, and Britain will need to put together a blocking minority of several countries if it is to preserve its opt-out.
"It will only be agreed if parliament, the member states and the Commission can agree on the same version," a British spokeswoman in Brussels said.
Commission spokeswoman Katharina von Schnurbein said the EU executive did not agree with parliament's bid to scrap the opt-out 36 months after a new law comes into force, and would maintain its proposal to allow individuals to opt voluntarily to work longer where there was no collective agreement.
London hopes for support from new ex-communist east European member states who oppose stricter labour laws.
Right-wing Polish MEP Konrad Szymanski said in a statement: "Today's vote is a black day for the European enterpreneurship. In its shape approved today, the directive would become one of the most economically harmful elements of the European law.
"They have decided to impose the worst legacy of the French and German economies on those countries which do not want that, such as Poland, Britain and Ireland."
The Confederation of British Industry, an employers' group, said abolition could cost millions of jobs and urged the government to stand firm.
"There is no place for handcuffs in a competitive economy -- as long as employees work in safe conditions and have freedom of choice they should also have the freedom to work, " CBI director-general Digby Jones said in a statement.
"Reports of widescale UK employer abuse of the opt-out are grossly exaggerated ... How can Europe possibly hope to compete with the likes of China and India in the 21st century global economy?" he said.
In another headache for governments, parliament voted that all on-call time should be counted as working time, endorsing a 2003 EU court judgement which said that even if doctors were asleep when on-call, it still counted.
The European Commission had proposed that doctors could no longer count time spent on call in hospital as working time if they were not actually deployed, an effort to ease the burden on governments and the health sector.
The assembly did give some leeway, suggesting that inactive parts of on-call time could be calculated differently to comply with the 48 hours maximum working week.
Poetry: http://www.spearman.blogspot.com
STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - The European Parliament voted on Wednesday to scrap Britain's fiercely guarded opt-out from the EU's 48-hour maximum work week, reopening a long-running ideological battle with London.
The European Union legislature voted by 378 to 262 with 15 abstentions to abolish after three years a provision under which governments can allow firms to ignore the limit.
Britain, which regards flexible labour laws as vital for economic efficiency, voiced dismay but said the vote was only a stage in a complex legislative process and the proposals would now go back to the executive European Commission for revision.
"We are very disappointed that they have taken this decision," Employment Minister Gerry Sutcliffe told BBC radio. "I think that the European employment ministers ... will accept our position."
A coalition of Socialist, Greens and Christian Democratic lawmakers voted to tighten the rules on working time in the name of health and safety, endorsing a report by Spanish Socialist Alejandro Cercas that said the opt-out had led to major abuses.
Members of the Labour party in the EU assembly defied Tony Blair to vote with the abolitionists despite intensive phone lobbying by cabinet ministers.
"The force of the argument was such that every one of the Labour MEPs ... pledged to vote with the Socialist group on this," Labour MEP Stephen Hughes told Reuters.
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats said the revolt in Strasbourg showed Blair was losing his grip on his own party, which was re-elected last week with a slashed majority.
The Trades Union Congress says around 3.75 million people in Britain work more than 48 hours a week, among them junior hospital doctors in the National Health Service, truck drivers, workers on North Sea oil rigs, and many managers.
QUALIFIED MAJORITY
Member governments must approve a final version of the legislation by qualified majority in the EU Council, and Britain will need to put together a blocking minority of several countries if it is to preserve its opt-out.
"It will only be agreed if parliament, the member states and the Commission can agree on the same version," a British spokeswoman in Brussels said.
Commission spokeswoman Katharina von Schnurbein said the EU executive did not agree with parliament's bid to scrap the opt-out 36 months after a new law comes into force, and would maintain its proposal to allow individuals to opt voluntarily to work longer where there was no collective agreement.
London hopes for support from new ex-communist east European member states who oppose stricter labour laws.
Right-wing Polish MEP Konrad Szymanski said in a statement: "Today's vote is a black day for the European enterpreneurship. In its shape approved today, the directive would become one of the most economically harmful elements of the European law.
"They have decided to impose the worst legacy of the French and German economies on those countries which do not want that, such as Poland, Britain and Ireland."
The Confederation of British Industry, an employers' group, said abolition could cost millions of jobs and urged the government to stand firm.
"There is no place for handcuffs in a competitive economy -- as long as employees work in safe conditions and have freedom of choice they should also have the freedom to work, " CBI director-general Digby Jones said in a statement.
"Reports of widescale UK employer abuse of the opt-out are grossly exaggerated ... How can Europe possibly hope to compete with the likes of China and India in the 21st century global economy?" he said.
In another headache for governments, parliament voted that all on-call time should be counted as working time, endorsing a 2003 EU court judgement which said that even if doctors were asleep when on-call, it still counted.
The European Commission had proposed that doctors could no longer count time spent on call in hospital as working time if they were not actually deployed, an effort to ease the burden on governments and the health sector.
The assembly did give some leeway, suggesting that inactive parts of on-call time could be calculated differently to comply with the 48 hours maximum working week.
Poetry: http://www.spearman.blogspot.com
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