Terra-ise

Terra at Occupy LSX

"Hip hop isn't dead, it's just moved to the UK" was a comment I read recently on YouTube about a music video by Logic. The song, "For My People" is a great example of the movement going largely unnoticed by the majority of the nation. It is a hard hitting fusion of expressions on the way the world is currently.

Another evolutionary music artist in this scene is Terra 'Graveman' Slim, someone I have had the pleasure of knowing for sometime and someone who makes music that comes straight from the heart. Never afraid to say things how he sees them Terra has made an album called "Evil is the root of all money". Please take some earth time to check out his YouTube site and support an artist making music from the heart and not the usual manufactured pop by government consent.

Music Class Heroes

I have long been asking where the good anti war music artists have gone? Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon and various others are betrayed by a generation that today only talk about getting to the weekend and getting drunk down and dirty.

In my younger days I remember telling my grandfather how I would move with the musical times, thinking back I was never really part of the times that I lied in. My music diet consisted of genius such as Hendrix, Dylan, the Zep, Bowie, Louis Armstrong, Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley, Michael Jackson (and guilty pleasures like Diana Ross and Tina Turner) mixed with a a dash of modern elements such as Guns & Roses, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Chili Peppers and Blur. Still, these modern elements did not really serve to protest greatly against the system as they might have. They all shared one common factor, air time on the radio, today the chances of getting airtime for anyone challenging the system is extremely limited.

Have you heard of Bliss N Eso, Michael Franti, Flobots or Lowkey? If you are reading this then maybe.

I think there is a better chance of Jesus returning than hearing any of these artists on mainstream radio, save Michael Franti, who I suspect may have sold out or succumb to the brand Obama lies back in 2008. To get music today that has any meaning, with a greater selection of words than "I got the moves like Jagger", you have to trawl the Internet and find people that dare to buck the trend or party line. Shows like X-Factor have flooded the market with karaoke singers and people too afraid to buck the trend or go against the will of Simon Cowell. Then came Plan B.

In the Independent today music artist Plan B features as his new song 'Ill Manors' does the rounds with a project he hopes will be just the beginning of a plan to challenge the mindsets of people following the London riots last year. This song is receiving lofty comparisons to the late and great Marvin Gaye's "what's going on" and referring to "ill manors" as "the first great mainstream protest song in years" in a blog by Dorian Lynskey. The Independent writer Tim Walker claims that effective protest songs are rare, they are not, he is just looking in the wrong places for them.

To RBE or Not to RBE

At the weekend the local newspaper reported a story on how Vauxhall had won the chance to venture into the future and design a state of the art electric police car. The piece was written by Sophie Scott of the Luton on Sunday. The car itself could be put into action by a police force in as little as 3 years it is claimed.

High tech policing of the future is described by Chief Inspector Mick Trosh of the Association of Police Officers Intelligent Transport Systems with the car able to access the Police National Database whilst mobile and potentially revolutionise policing. It all sounds a bit Knight Rider but without the looks of KITT, however I feel this is all the more reminiscent of the police state that is being ever increased and one for the documentary Suspect Nation by Henry Porter. Police are dealing with symptoms and not the root cause of criminality, the environment.

The main feature in all of this is the fact that the car is electric and the savings to made by police forces if this is rolled out as a concept. The bad news is that this car still relies on fossil fuels and, as the majority of us know, electricity is not a power source of its own accord; it is a by-product. Not only is it running on electricity but it is made from fossil fuel (namely oil) seven barrels of oil per tyre, not to mention the plastic dashboard, seats, steering wheel and Gucci gadgets. Everything in and of the car is made from oil.
In a world where our resources are finite it amazes me that we continue to build these machines with a limited shelf life using old technology whilst the corporations market it as a leap forward in innovation.

It is not and anyone with even a passing interest in history will know this is a deception. Electric cars have been around for over 100 years.

The appearance of the petrol powered automobile killed off the electric car (which held the land speed record at one time) as it was faster and cheaper to purchase. This has robbed us of over 100 years of innovation as the oil companies secured the market for automobiles and their construction. Where would we be today if the electric car had been allowed to be properly developed  for the benefit of humans? Who knows but to get a sense of perception consider the mobile phone.
In 25 short years we have gone from the car phone (because you needed a car to carry the weight of the battery) with a yuppie in a limousine or Porsche 911 and the top down listening to Duran Duran, to a youth in a tracksuit with his hood up listening JLS on his iPhone 4S. Well maybe not the JLS bit but you see the point.

This is why a Resource Based Economy (RBE) is becoming a necessity, it will enable us to make better use of our resources, ensuring that things are built to the best technical specs and with the greatest durability available to us at that time, thus reducing the waste that currently as a society we are drowning in. We must break out of this cyclical consumption cycle not for ourselves but for our future generations.

It is interesting to see the emergency services moving in this direction (the fire service I am sure will get it all wrong) but it is not enough, a total overhaul of our current system is required. If we keep just modifying it a bit here and there then it will continue to be wasteful and ineffective, just not quite as wasteful or ineffective. This slow process of tweaking things could take decades, something we do not have, and is unacceptable when we have the technology to make revolutionary change now.
People will, and do, say the RBE cannot work. The defeatist, 'can't do' attitude is one all who advocate an RBE I am sure have encountered, but do not be deterred or lose faith. To say it cannot be done because something like this has never been done before is the reason why it can and will work.

Remember that mans reach exceeds his grasp. Keep calm and RBE on

Z Day-2012

A year is a long time and a lot can happen.

Since Z Day 2011 there has been the 'will they won't they' of the Greek debt default debacle, Arab Spring uprisings, Bin Laden was found and killed (allegedly) London had seen a million people march through its streets (with several hundred then camping on them) and a riot reminiscent of the 1980's, a tsunami in Japan resulting in a nuclear episode and of course the fall out between The Zeitgeist Movements founder, Peter Joseph and The Venus Projects Jacque Fresco. 

The rift between the two movements has I hope healed some what, but I feel it has gone some way to setting back the good work done up to that point. 

Z Day 2012's main event was this year held in Vancouver, Canada (which was a bit further than my fraudster bank manager would allow me to go) so it was business as usual in London at Euston as people descended from across the country for their latest dose of 'what next?'

There were some exceptional talks, notably that of Cassie Earle and Myles Dyer, plus an interesting documentary called 'Economics of Happiness' which highlighted the problems caused by a society driven by globalisation and continuous growth on a finite planet in a quiet Tibetan town that I am sure many the world over would be able to empathise with.

Cassie Earle's speech was on a subject I feel very deeply about, namely education and the importance of critical thinking and critical education. 

What is it to be a critical thinker?

Critical thinking, I believe, is the ability to take in information, move around it and be able to take it from another perspective then question what you have been told. This is something that is becoming less and less prevalent in society today as the majority of the public blindly accepts what they are told at face value. Kony 2012 anyone?

In Cassie's speech she pointed the finger at what she called 'critical education', the need for open dialectic  conversations that challenge the status-quo. A process where we ensure all voices are heard on a subject, where ideology is not imposed. 

Wouldn't this be a grand world to live in?

Another important point was one of formal education as it stands. Today society believes in something we call 'officially sanctioned knowledge'...i.e if you read it in a text book and have the correlating diploma or degree then of course you must be right and better than the next human.
As Cassie put it "is the shelf stacker in a multinational corporation that builds computers in their spare time more or less capable or qualified than the graduate from a top university?"

Of course it is difficult to say but it could be assumed that the person that spends every spare minute of their own time working building things because they love to do it may well be better qualified than someone with a piece of paper that has set them back £15,000. If you disagree with this view point try looking up Dan Pink - Drive- on YouTube.

Everyone is an intellectual, our problem is remembering or believing this fact. 

Our minds are capable of assimilating vast amounts of knowledge yet generally we choose to waste it. As a society we must regain our sense of curiosity before it is too late, we damage our children by quashing their natural curiosity about the world for a quiet life when they ask 'why'? We should encourage each other to question everything. Question what I am writing, what the media tells you, what your employers and teachers may tell you and remember formal or sanctioned knowledge is not the only knowledge.

Myles Dyer spoke about his exciting new project Universal Solutions Project, which has the potential to aid activists in their quest to educate and inform the masses on a scale not necessarily achievable up until now.

I have always said, and people at work will confirm this, that people do not care about something until it directly affects them (fire service pensions being one example) but unfortunately it is usually too late by this point and usually people fail to see how interconnected these problems are.

What Myles is hoping to create and achieve will get right to the heart of this problem and potentially blow it wide open for us, giving us the tools to help people connect the dots that others seem to do so effortlessly. 

Myles' speech was an exciting moment in the day for me as I got a sense of frustration from some, myself included, that there are still a lot of people waiting for someone else to do the work. Last year at Z Day two important messages were made; firstly there is no point in saving the world if you are not having fun and secondly that if you were there you were an activist and had a duty to get involved in spreading the message and attending chapter meetings etc. 

I do feel the second part, as I have mentioned earlier, has been affected in part by the fall out between TZM and TVP but this should have made no real difference as the problems we all face remain unchanged, if not more pressing as the system teeters on the brink of collapse.

We must not wait for a leader, we have to get up and do it for ourselves. As Jiddu Krishnamurti once said "You, have to be a light for yourself". We must be willing get our own hands dirty.

Since Z Day 2011 I have doubled my efforts and commitments to learning, educating and achieving the goal of a better world. Following this years event I hope I can again double those efforts and productions, like a kind of Moore's Law, or not.

What will you do?

Evictus

The unbiased coverage of BBC media never fails to amaze me. After 4 months the City of London Corporation have finally managed to get their wish and evict the occupiers from the steps of St Paul's Cathedral, only for them to move around the corner to Finsbury Park. The BBC would lead you to believe that every man, woman and their dog was pleased to see the back of them. Admittedly in recent weeks due to my travels I have not been there, but my experiences before hand were not one of people wishing them away. There were always as many people interested in learning at the Tent University, where people made speeches in their free time, or people giving food to the mess area.

But not according to our tax paid Beeb.

They must have looked for every human possible on the Tuesday morning that would give them the sound bites they required; from "yes that looks much better" to "about time, it's a disgrace, an absolute disgrace what they have been allowed to do". The last one must have been a bankers mistress.

I find it a disgrace that I have to sit and listen to people talk about 'What Katie Did Next'.

Having done some talking to people that were there it appears that when the police arrived the people asked for notice as none had been served. The police refused and then all of a sudden came back with a 15minute warning. Of course this led to the rally cry for people to support the Occupy camp.
It was relatively peaceful and as usual the occupy camp conducted themselves with integrity, but whilst this was happening the police were conducting a covert operation to evict the school of ideas.

The school of ideas had no eviction notice served on them.

Whilst the people from the school of ideas helped the St Paul's protesters the police waded in and evicted those left and binned their personal items. Then the area was bull dozed. I have been told of stories how passports and other personal items were lost during this siege.

Does anyone remember when the police raided the banks and dragged the bankers down the stairs to a kangaroo court for fraud?

#BeatMe

Two young rising stars, apparently in love, and then it all goes horribly wrong for them both.

Welcome to the circus that is Chris Brown and Rihanna.

I am sure plenty of words have been spilt over the two former love birds (and it has) in the last 3 years since Brown was charged and found guilty of assault on Rihanna but the one thing that cannot, or should not, be ignored by anyone is the message (or lack of) that these two ego driven maniacs, their fans, the media and the music industry continue to undermine... violence or abuse towards women.

Is this love, that I'm feeling?

Brown has made the headlines frequently in recent weeks following his performances at the Grammy awards 2012. The only question that should be asked is 'what was a convicted woman beater doing performing at a prestigious awards ceremony such as this?'
I guess it may be difficult to come down too hard on the Grammy organisers for scheduling him when the courts saw fit to only sentence him with 180hrs community service as punishment for his assault. 180 earth hours.

It is refreshing to know that you can thrash the woman you supposedly love and still pick up a six figure pay packet at the end of the day but I am pretty sure if his woman beating shoe was on my foot then I would be facing some jail time and lose my job in the process.

After the ceremony the world of twitter was awash with tweets from both camps, but more worrying were the tweets from the Brown bandwagon with gems such as;

 "@BeatMeSenseless I'd let Chris Brown beat me up anytime ;) #womanbeater" or;

 "@Muffin5685 Chris Brown u can punch me in the face any time u want!!!! #facialsweats"
These were two of the best that I could find that could be printed in a family edition, of course there have been those who have dared to speak out against the issue, notably actor Seth Rogan who had this to say;
"You say a few hateful things (about the gay community), they don't let you within a few hundred yards of the Oscars," adding, "You can literally beat the shit out of a nominee and they'll ask you to perform twice at the Grammys.”  Rogan is hitting the nail on the head and more power to him for doing so. 


It would appear that beating women in the music industry or Hollywood is fair game but mention sexuality or Jews and you can effectively kiss your career goodbye. Just ask Mel Gibson.


This sickness in our society is not restricted to State side, it has in the past, reared its ugly head on UK shores too. Cast your minds back to the late 90's and you may recall a certain footballer and weather girl that famously hit the front page of every tabloid and magazine stand from John O'Groats to Land's End. Stan Collymore and Ulrika Johnson. 
Whilst Collymore fell off the planet for a few years only to re-emerge as a footie pundit, ironically criticising players and pundits every week on their tactics and ethics, Johnson wound her way into the bed of former England Manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson. 


The failure here is on all parties involving the Brown/Rihanna fiasco of the people that really matter; their young fans, our children. These young girls and boys see these adults conducting themselves in such ways and go on to think it is O.K. to beat each other to a bloody pulp because nothing happens? At worst you will get 180 earth hours, a pat on the back and a Grammy in your back pocket to go with the adulation of millions of young girls the world over. 
What kind of message are we sending them? What future are we creating for them?


It is never O.K. for a man to hit a woman, nor is it O.K. for a woman to hit a man. 


This is the message that we should be reinforcing to our young, especially at a time when our governments are busy watering down our human rights and tearing up women's rights. As I have written about numerous times now, domestic violence in the UK is not a violation of a woman's human rights, unless it occurs during a period of peace time, according to Theresa May. 
You may want to take a look around you if you are a woman reading this because we have not been at peace since World War II ended.


Ultimately we are all products of our environment and if our environments are going to be that of tolerating the physical abuse towards women and then glorifying it by rewarding the perpetrators with tea and medals then what hope for our young?

#BeatMe

In the past few days I have seen an increasing number of Rihanna t-shirts showing up for sale on clothing racks around the country. Someone in her position should be using the platform to do more and tell young girls, or any woman for that matter, that they do not have to be a victim of violence and that they do have a choice. As a result of this silence I have since decided to hijack these shirts and rebrand them. The above picture, #BeatMe, was taken from a shirt I purchased in Topshop of all places and has a Chris Brown signature on the side. 


Maybe someone will stop and ask me what it is about, maybe they won't, either way the message is simple; no one should have to suffer at the hands of another.






http://thisorthat.com/blog/the-fall-of-celebrity-will-chris-brown-ever-learn
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/13/chris-brown-can-beat-me-tweets_n_1273605.html#s692327&title=Vinci_Jacopelle

The Kon-is On. Kony 2012

Pic by Lewis

I wonder how many people woke up this morning and had never heard of Joseph Kony? Well 12 hours is a long time in the world of the social media and a video about Joseph Kony made by the charity Invisible Children has gone viral. As usual, the public have swallowed it up.

Kony 2012 is a short documentary made by Jason Russell, featuring his son and the people of Uganda. He takes us through the plight of children at the hands of Kony and shows images of child soldiers, sex trafficking and mutilation. It is quite horrific. I have sat and watched the tweets and Facebook posts come rolling in all day as the 'sheeple' have all of a sudden realised that men, women and children are being brutalised in Africa, I wonder how many of them posted their tweets etc whilst sporting a chunky conflict diamond on their paws.

Where do they think these stones come from, the Cotswold's?

The Kony 2012 campaign video is a propaganda piece that has done its job superbly. It claims Joseph Kony is invisible and aims to expose him, using what they call 'the knowns' such as Angelina Jolie or Bono. George Clooney in an interview went as far as to request that dictators causing such atrocities should be made as famous as him. Once they have secured this they move on to the policy makers in congress.
So any and every other media whore willing to share the charities word, about securing Kony and trialing him, has been tweeting or re-posting and even as I type this my phone is still bleating... meaning the posts are still going.

Angelina hates Kony, but does she know why?

I am confused as to how or why people are surprised that these atrocities go on, not just in Africa I might add, but in many countries, including the sex trafficking and grooming of young girls in the UK. Nothing about that video was new in terms of news.

The 'sheeple' have found the latest bandwagon for them to climb aboard.

For 30 earth minutes they have managed to sit and have the fairy tale woven around them and encourage them to back and support the campaign. What people have not thought about however is how this will be achieved? Invisible Children is advocating military intervention. People are supporting a group that is advocating military intervention, are we expecting our soldiers to go in and shoot a child square between the eyes? The majority of Kony's personal bodyguards are children.

The video highlights the efforts made by the team to raise the issues with the American government, who at first decree that there is no way they would intervene in a conflict that had no baring on American security interests. Eventually Congress changed its tune. Allegedly due to the power of the people and the movement. They receive a letter from Barack Obama stating the U.S intention to send out 100 'specialists' to aid the training of the Ugandans.

Anything backed by Obama, with his record, must be questioned thoroughly.

Joseph Kony, is number one on the International Criminal Courts worst criminal list. Kony, indicted July 8th 2005, keeps good company including Muammar Gaddafi and his son Saif al Islam Gaddafi, who were both indicted June 27th 2011. Two questions spring to mind;

"Why has it taken the world seven earth years to care about Kony enough to do something and a few weeks to indict and hang Gaddafi out to dry?" and;

"How did we go from two people ranked 24th and 25th on the list, without stopping at a single murderer or dictator along the way, to Kony?"

If anyone can answer this for me please feel free to message me.

Invisible Children also supports the Ugandan Military which have a chequered reputation at best with claims of rape and looting.

As I mentioned earlier, one of the things that is particularly hard to take is the awareness I personally have tried to make to people about Liberia and the situation there.
Nobody seemed to notice, nobody seemed to care.
Children addicted to heroin barely older than my nephews, women raped by U.N soldiers, former warlords who fought naked and cut out the hearts of children and bathed in their blood, warlords who at the drop of a hat claim they could take back power with in a few hours if they wanted.

I was lucky to get maybe two people to share the video, The Vice Guide to Liberia or my blog Liberian Girl.

It pains me to say this but Obama and co do not care about black African-American babies in their own country, let alone black babies in Africa.

Uganda either has resource based benefit or a strategic benefit to America (probably both) for their policy to have changed. The American government, and Americans in general, want to start by arresting their own war criminals first, such as Henry Kissinger, George Bush Jnr, Dick Cheyney and even Barack Obama himself. Let us also not forget the UK's very own Tony Blair who should top any wanted list for acts of terrorism and genocide. People like this and the W.H.O and I.M.F have been raping Africa for decades and what have we done about this? Bought a bracelet and soothed some guilt. This is an Afri-Con.

Factually Kony is not in Uganda anymore either, not for 5 years or so.

In two days the video and the movement has gone viral but, like Live Aid, the peoples attention will only last until the advert break, where they will then be told what crap to buy and consume or until CSI starts. The video, nor the charity make any real effort to educate people on the matter at hand and instead resort to drum beating, feel good, prepackaged activism. Humans love a fashion trend or a fad and this is just another one in a long line of fads to make fair trade, coffee drinking ladies that lunch, feel better about their conflict diamond rings.

It is called manufactured consent, ask more questions.


"The first thing about manipulation and control is to first understand how it is done, then you can see it coming" Liberaté 2012




With thanks to Lewis, Dean, Justice and Anthony for keeping it together.