spooky ooky
spooky ooky, originally uploaded by alister.Have a guid Halloween you bunch of guisers.
:: | 10:12 am |Save This Page | |
| (0) comments
:: Thursday, October 27, 2005 ::
Bird Flu Gets Own Logo
It's serious! The bird flu scare has got so bad it now has its own logo! Corporate identity is very important for a global pandemic.
(say what? That's the UK Presidency of the EU logo? Bad taste man.)
τ
:: | 9:29 pm |
:: Wednesday, October 26, 2005 ::
Da Da Da man says Ta Ta
Edinburgh City Council's deputy provost Steve Cardownie has left the Labour Party for the Scottish Nationalists, becoming the SNP's only councillor in Edinburgh. Surprise, surprise he comes under attack in today's Evening News. The cartoon was pretty funny though...Alex Salmond receiving an expenses claim for Cardownie's new kilt.
This move is a bigger shock than Burley leaving Hearts, and no doubt there is more going on in the background than a simple rediscovery of his social democratic/patriotic roots on the part of councillor Cardownie.
τ
:: | 3:31 pm |
:: Monday, October 24, 2005 ::
The Observer | Sport | Football: A rivalry with roots in kings and coal
Fascinating article in the Observer on the footballing rivalry between the 'toon army' Geordies of Newcastle United and the Mackems of Sunderland. There was big trouble following yesterday's game between the two, once again.
In our own local rivalry stakes, the hibees will be celebrating the jambos loss of George Burley, just as Hearts were having their best season ever. All thanks to the interference of Vladimir the Impaler. He may now be joined by another member of the undead.
The less said about the Pars season so far, the better.
The Observer | Sport | Football: A rivalry with roots in kings and coal: "The Celtic-Rangers rivalry has been written about extensively, and needs no elaboration. Other than to say that if football can act as a metaphor for international and jingoistic warfare, then the Old Firm is the most articulate. But the Tyne-Wear derby wins in its secular and concise regional conflict.
It does, after all, predate football by 226 years. It is a conflict that has divided two cities, 12 miles apart, for more than three centuries.
In the epoch before the 1600s, King Charles I had consistently awarded the East of England Coal Trade Rights (try to contain your excitement) to Newcastle's traders, which rendered the Wearside coal merchants redundant. People died because of it. Coal and ships were Sunderland's raison d'etre.
But when, in 1642, the English Civil War started, and Newcastle, with good reason, supported the Crown, Sunderland, because of the trading inequalities, sided with Cromwell's Parliamentarians, and the division began.
It became a conflict between Sunderland's socialist republicanism, against Newcastle's loyalist self-interest. A purposeful enmity if ever there was one. Unlike rivalries between other clubs, the differences between Newcastle and Sunderland date back to fighting based on the necessity to live and feed one's children, and benefit one's city.
The political differences between the two culminated with the battle of Boldon Hill. A loyalist army from Newcastle and County Durham gathered to fight an anti-monarchist Sunderland and Scottish army at a field equidistant between the two towns.
The joint Scottish and Sunderland army won - and Newcastle was colonised by the Scottish. It was subsequently used as a Republican military base for the rest of war."
:: | 10:31 am |
:: Thursday, October 20, 2005 ::
I am a terrorist
I am a terrorist, originally uploaded by burks_berlin.Rosa Luxemburg, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin. From burks_berlin at Flickr.
:: | 11:50 am |
:: Tuesday, October 18, 2005 ::
Autumn Leaves
Autumn Leaves, originally uploaded by alister.
:: | 8:58 pm |
:: Monday, October 17, 2005 ::
Personal Struggle
Personal Struggle is the blog of a young Edinburgh mother dealing with her child's illness. She has set up the blog to help other parents dealing with Retinoblastoma and to discuss issues relating to the health service. Best wishes to Holly, Ella and her family.
τ
:: | 10:20 am |
:: Friday, October 14, 2005 ::
Achtung Chatteris
There was a drive-by shouting once.
:: | 2:45 pm |
:: Tuesday, October 11, 2005 ::
God Must Be Crazy
With the true enormity of the earthquake in Pakistan becoming clear, I post below a contribution from a Pakistani socialist. The Labour Party Pakistan are setting up refugee camps and have appealed for aid.
MOUNTAIN TSUNAMI EXPOSES PAKISTAN’S NEW ORLEANS
FAROOQ SULEHRIA
It took few minutes and in these few minutes tragedy’ ridden land of Kashmir embraced yet another tragedy on the morning of October 8. An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter scale hit the occupied state of Jammu Kashmir at 8.45am on Saturday and neighbouring Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and China. At the time of filing this report, the quake toll is put at 40, 000 counting. Another 50 thousand are reported injured while millions have been rendered helpless.
While media have been concentrating on Islamabad, particularly collapsed Margalla Towers, the journalists have yet to reach the worst hit region: Pakistani Occupied Kashmir (POK). Muzaffarabad, POK capital, has been reduced to rubble. Both roads leading to Muzaffarabad have been closed owing to land sliding. Reaching Bagh, another calamity hit district, is not easy even under normal circumstances owing to bad road links, is out-of-access at the moment. Nisar Shah, chairperson of Labour Party Pakistan, hails from Bagh. Himself living in port city of Karachi, Nisar has his family living in a Bagh village. He managed to reach Bagh adventurously This is what he reports from Bagh: ‘In Bagh, almost ninety percent of the houses are no more. Many bodies are unattended. There are no relief efforts seen by any government agencies even after 48 hours of the most disastrous earth quack in the history of Pakistan. I have seen girl’s colleges where it is estimated that over 200 students’ bodies are still in rubble. There is no electricity in the whole area. People are outside their houses and are in very bad situation. There are several hotels in Bagh where their guests are still under the collapsed buildings. There are dead bodies every where and bad smell is coming out. Many bodies unburied.
No medical facilities. People are very much depressed. The where about of many are not known’.
There is no aid reaching so for till this morning. Government can not be seen any where. It is a total disaster. It is the worst I have ever seen.
I personally have lost many relatives including my first cousins and husband of my sister’.
Even when people in Pakistan are generously donating to relief efforts, it is not certain if relief will reach in time, if at all. It is because access to 500 villages wiped from the face of earth is not possible without helicopters. While telephone system gone dysfunctional in Kashmir and roads blocked, Pakistani Occupied Kashmir is virtually cut off from rest of the world. Many would be wondering why authorities are insisting only on helicopters. Why not planes? Simply because POK has no airport despite a million Kashmiris, out of its 3.5 million population, live abroad. This utter lack of infrastructure has enhanced the enormity of the catastrophe that shook POK on the morning of October 8.
This criminal neglect of POK does not owe to economic deprivation. It has been a policy followed by the Pakistani ruling class to keep Kashmir undeveloped. Keeping Kashmir poor is as systematic as poverty for Black Americans is woven into the texture of US capitalism.
True, the government of Pakistan could not evacuate the people of Kashmir since earthquakes hit unlike hurricanes. But certain similarities between Kashmir and New Orleans are striking. While black population of New Orleans was given damn for decades on racial basis, quake victims in Kashmir have been victims of Pakistan’s colonial policies inflicted upon Kashmir. Human rights and development perhaps go hand in hand. Grave contempt for human rights in Kashmir, particularly in Gilgat Baltistan, a region cleverly detached from Kashmir by Pakistan in case Kashmir goes independent, is evident by the grave neglect of infra structure in Kashmir.
Another suitable comparison is Aceh ‘province’ of Indonesia. Having lost over 20 thousand in a liberation war against Indonesia, Aceh was the biggest target for tsunami. Kashmir, in its Indian occupied part, lost 80, 000 lives in a liberation war that began 1988. Now ‘Mountain tsunami’ flattens capital of its Pakistani occupied part besides 500 villages. A tragedy beyond description.
Meantime, fundamentalist leaders and right wing columnists are busy hurling nauseating statements, describing the earthquake as a punishment for sinful folks and advising to seek God’s forgiveness. While MMA (alliance of major fundamentalist parties, ruling NWFP province) leadership has pinpointed the unIslamic way of Pakistanis and media obscenity, widely read right wing columnist Hamid Mir (Daily Jang, Oct 10) makes fun of those ‘secular fundamentalists’ who refuse to attribute natural catastrophes to God’s wrath. Only few days ago BBC reported that God asked Bush to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. God must be crazy!
(ends)
Farooq Sulehria
τ
:: | 8:46 am |
:: Sunday, October 09, 2005 ::
The Perfumed Garden
In this week of John Peel remembrance, music fans might want to check out The Perfumed Garden. This site is making available some hard (or impossible) to get Peel sessions. The sessions range from the 70's right up to the 21st century and feature the usual reggae, punk, psychedelia and indie. Scottish listeners are well served with the likes of perspective fave Camera Obscura, multiple bloggers faves The Fire Engines and Ballboy (*cough* did I mention that I once played in a band who supported them *cough*).
Personal faves have been the Department S session and some Wedding Present stuff.
:: | 2:02 pm |
:: Thursday, October 06, 2005 ::
penguin
liked the weird flying effect I got on this.
:: | 3:38 pm |
:: Tuesday, October 04, 2005 ::
Ghetto Remix - Akon, Miles Solay, Koba, Featuring Bob Avakian
Anyone for Maoist hip-hop? Here y'go.
Featuring minor personality cult US RCP Maoist leader Bob Avakian.
Is it any good? Well, not bad. Hardly Kanye West but I've heard much worse.
:: | 3:46 pm |
Bleep Bleep
On this day in 1957, the USSR put the first object into space, beating nazi war criminal Von Braun's efforts in the US.
Go sputnik!
:: | 2:28 pm |
