An overview of opinions and observations for the month.
Thursday, 31 December 2015
Friday, 18 December 2015
Monday, 30 November 2015
Saturday, 31 October 2015
Wednesday, 30 September 2015
Monday, 21 September 2015
Travel: Budapest, Hungary
Hungarian Parliament Building
Szechenyi Chain Bridge
Shoes on the Danube
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Margaret Island
Szimpla Kert Ruin Pubs
Millenniumi emlekmu
Varosligeti Mujegpalya es Csónakázótó
Kunsthalle
Szechenyi Thermal Bath
Dohany Street Synagogue
Clark Picnic
Matthias Church
Castle District
Szent Istvan szobra
Fisherman's Bastion
Porta di Vienna
Hospital in the Rock
Wednesday, 9 September 2015
Immigration
For fuck sake, I guess it's time for me to wade in on this clusterfuck.
First of all I'd like to extend my sincerest sympathies to all the refugees affected by all this drama developing in Syria. I will never begrudge them for trying to better their lives by hauling ass out of a war torn country where their lives are threatened daily; I'm quietly confident that is a shared opinion by all, regardless of where we sit on the subject of mass global migration. We are empathetic to their plight. We are heartbroken for the children. We are sympathetic to the cause.
However, I refuse to be emotionally manipulated by media propaganda. By now most of us have seen the pictures and heard the story about the small 3 year old Syrian boy who washed up on a Turkish beach after his parents decided to venture into rough seas in the middle of the night; this is where I have a problem, as this is where media controlled emotional manipulation begins. Instead of being outraged about the "refugee crisis" and lack of humanitarian assistance, consider this; the family were fleeing from Turkey. Turkey. A place where you can still book a holiday to relax in a 4 star hotel.
To elaborate and counter the imminent "dehumanising refugees" argument, let's continue by comparing the two widely differing demographic profiles:
Refugee; Someone who has been forced to abandon their home, possessions and even family/friends because they are at risk/a victim of persecution, torture and human rights violations in their native country. Refugees often flee their country with no prior planning, undertaking hazardous journeys and facing significant risks in a desperate effort to save their lives by securing protection and refuge elsewhere.
Migrant; Someone who chooses to leave their current country to secure a better standard of living elsewhere. Migrants have the opportunity to familiarise themselves with their destination country, gain an understanding of employment prospects and available benefits. Migrants can arrange comfortable travel arrangements, pack up their belongings leisurely, and leave their country safe in the knowledge they can easily return if things don't go to plan.
And this is the sticking point my friends.
The pivotal argument surrounding the decision of whether the UK should be accommodating all the Syrians currently travelling the breadth of Europe to land on our doorstep hinges on assigning them to the appropriate demographic. We should assist with any Syrian refugee, undoubtedly; if they are in danger, let them in and offer them refuge. As for Syrian migrants? Fuck no. And here is why: beside 6 other countries in the EU, it is the UK who has the highest population density, with Germany right behind us breathing down our necks. This means there are 42 other perfectly safe countries in the EU with more space to accommodate the Syrian migrants. But the migrants don't want to go anywhere else do they... no, they don't want to stay in any of the other 42 safe countries - they want to come to the UK. And the irony is, to get here, they are travelling through... surprise, surprise... loads of the other safe EU countries... where they could stay... if they chose to.
It's the equivalent of risking your life trying to break into a 5-star hotel, when you have the option to stay safely in a 3-star hotel.
It's not that I am heartless, I am however, a realist. Britain is already in dire straits. The bedroom tax was implemented to force utilisation of all available housing space because we are overpopulated already, with £17 billion a year going on housing benefits. There are over a million people annually relying on food banks because they cannot afford to survive on the breadline. The NHS has been stripped to skeleton staff and had it's funding slashed, and is now being sold off to private firms at the expense of the nations health. The education system is struggling to accommodate children with the already limited availability in primary schools. The retirement age has been raised because we cannot afford to provide state pensions from as early as we once could as the total annual figure is now £74 billion. We have zero hour employment contracts, we have a minimum wage that is maligned with living costs, we recently had 300% inflation on tuition fee costs for University students.
Despite all our own internal problems, we have still managed to support Syria by allocating £900 million in aid since 2012. Yet the UK are being publicly vilified and made out to be some horrendous, heartless monsters because we won't accept the burden on behalf of the other 49 EU countries? Get fucked.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/455330/DFID_Syria_Crisis_Response_Summary__2015.08.20_.pdf
I can tell you with unwavering certainty that the answer to improving the state of our economy does not include needlessly accommodating 250,000 Syrian migrants who could quite safely settle in any of the other 42 EU countries with a lower population density than us.
We have as much right to deny them access, as they have to demand it.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/syria-the-latest-updates-on-uk-aid#history
If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it with your friends on social networks using the buttons below, and please leave a comment with your thoughts;
I love hearing from my subscribers!
First of all I'd like to extend my sincerest sympathies to all the refugees affected by all this drama developing in Syria. I will never begrudge them for trying to better their lives by hauling ass out of a war torn country where their lives are threatened daily; I'm quietly confident that is a shared opinion by all, regardless of where we sit on the subject of mass global migration. We are empathetic to their plight. We are heartbroken for the children. We are sympathetic to the cause.
However, I refuse to be emotionally manipulated by media propaganda. By now most of us have seen the pictures and heard the story about the small 3 year old Syrian boy who washed up on a Turkish beach after his parents decided to venture into rough seas in the middle of the night; this is where I have a problem, as this is where media controlled emotional manipulation begins. Instead of being outraged about the "refugee crisis" and lack of humanitarian assistance, consider this; the family were fleeing from Turkey. Turkey. A place where you can still book a holiday to relax in a 4 star hotel.
To elaborate and counter the imminent "dehumanising refugees" argument, let's continue by comparing the two widely differing demographic profiles:
Refugee; Someone who has been forced to abandon their home, possessions and even family/friends because they are at risk/a victim of persecution, torture and human rights violations in their native country. Refugees often flee their country with no prior planning, undertaking hazardous journeys and facing significant risks in a desperate effort to save their lives by securing protection and refuge elsewhere.
Migrant; Someone who chooses to leave their current country to secure a better standard of living elsewhere. Migrants have the opportunity to familiarise themselves with their destination country, gain an understanding of employment prospects and available benefits. Migrants can arrange comfortable travel arrangements, pack up their belongings leisurely, and leave their country safe in the knowledge they can easily return if things don't go to plan.
And this is the sticking point my friends.
The pivotal argument surrounding the decision of whether the UK should be accommodating all the Syrians currently travelling the breadth of Europe to land on our doorstep hinges on assigning them to the appropriate demographic. We should assist with any Syrian refugee, undoubtedly; if they are in danger, let them in and offer them refuge. As for Syrian migrants? Fuck no. And here is why: beside 6 other countries in the EU, it is the UK who has the highest population density, with Germany right behind us breathing down our necks. This means there are 42 other perfectly safe countries in the EU with more space to accommodate the Syrian migrants. But the migrants don't want to go anywhere else do they... no, they don't want to stay in any of the other 42 safe countries - they want to come to the UK. And the irony is, to get here, they are travelling through... surprise, surprise... loads of the other safe EU countries... where they could stay... if they chose to.
It's the equivalent of risking your life trying to break into a 5-star hotel, when you have the option to stay safely in a 3-star hotel.
It's not that I am heartless, I am however, a realist. Britain is already in dire straits. The bedroom tax was implemented to force utilisation of all available housing space because we are overpopulated already, with £17 billion a year going on housing benefits. There are over a million people annually relying on food banks because they cannot afford to survive on the breadline. The NHS has been stripped to skeleton staff and had it's funding slashed, and is now being sold off to private firms at the expense of the nations health. The education system is struggling to accommodate children with the already limited availability in primary schools. The retirement age has been raised because we cannot afford to provide state pensions from as early as we once could as the total annual figure is now £74 billion. We have zero hour employment contracts, we have a minimum wage that is maligned with living costs, we recently had 300% inflation on tuition fee costs for University students.
Despite all our own internal problems, we have still managed to support Syria by allocating £900 million in aid since 2012. Yet the UK are being publicly vilified and made out to be some horrendous, heartless monsters because we won't accept the burden on behalf of the other 49 EU countries? Get fucked.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/455330/DFID_Syria_Crisis_Response_Summary__2015.08.20_.pdf
I can tell you with unwavering certainty that the answer to improving the state of our economy does not include needlessly accommodating 250,000 Syrian migrants who could quite safely settle in any of the other 42 EU countries with a lower population density than us.
We have as much right to deny them access, as they have to demand it.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/syria-the-latest-updates-on-uk-aid#history
If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it with your friends on social networks using the buttons below, and please leave a comment with your thoughts;
I love hearing from my subscribers!
Monday, 31 August 2015
Friday, 31 July 2015
Tuesday, 30 June 2015
Sunday, 31 May 2015
Thursday, 30 April 2015
Tuesday, 31 March 2015
Monday, 16 March 2015
Comic Relief
The biggest comedy is the part where all the generous British public who naively donate fail to realise how organised "charity" works. Any charity organisation encounters overheads; but you would expect the administration costs are kept to a minimum to allow for maximum donation to the cause. Nope. Comic Relief's Chief Executive Kevin Cahill is on like £120k a year, the cheeky cunt!
Then you've got fucking celebrities, for example John Bishop this year, chastising us and guilting us into feeling responsible for the entire burden of Africa poverty? Fuck that! Some shit about the £2.50 you spend on a coffee could be better spent on a mosquito net for an African child? Sorry John, I couldn't quite hear you over the deafening sound of hypocrisy... or in other words, the fact you've stacked up £6.3 million profit in the last couple of years and could buy African's 2.5 million mosquito nets if you were that bothered!?
How about instead of emotionally blackmailing the working class into feeling responsible, you turn to these overpaid, greedy, selfish pricks for funding? The 25 richest people on the Forbes list have a collective net worth of over $1,000,000,000 (that's a fucking TRILLION). Instead of begging us lot who are on like £15,000 a year before taxes, you ask those rich fucks for the cash? Surely that's fairer? Comic Relief has only raised £1 billion since it was introduced in 1988, Bill Gates has $78 billion to himself!
And furthermore, "charities" such as Comic Relief then invest all the money donated into fucking stocks and gamble it against an ever fluctuating market - they even invested in tobacco and arms companies in the past - you know, this honourable charity fighting for "humanity"?! They earn profits from the market to line their pockets, and then pay the original donated money to the cause two years later! It's all documented if you bother to educate yourselves instead of following the trend like sheep to make yourselves feel better!
Seriously! Fuck this "charity" bullshit off! Lining the pockets of top level executives by exploiting the British public with emotional blackmail, and manipulating and guilting them into donating for causes that the "charity" clearly don't give a flying shit about themselves! If they cared so much, they wouldn't accept £120k salaries and bullshit like that! They'd insist the cash goes to the cause ASAP!
Fuck organised charity! Bunch of profit driven, manipulative cunts!
If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it with your friends on social networks using the buttons below, and please leave a comment with your thoughts;
I love hearing from my subscribers!
Then you've got fucking celebrities, for example John Bishop this year, chastising us and guilting us into feeling responsible for the entire burden of Africa poverty? Fuck that! Some shit about the £2.50 you spend on a coffee could be better spent on a mosquito net for an African child? Sorry John, I couldn't quite hear you over the deafening sound of hypocrisy... or in other words, the fact you've stacked up £6.3 million profit in the last couple of years and could buy African's 2.5 million mosquito nets if you were that bothered!?
How about instead of emotionally blackmailing the working class into feeling responsible, you turn to these overpaid, greedy, selfish pricks for funding? The 25 richest people on the Forbes list have a collective net worth of over $1,000,000,000 (that's a fucking TRILLION). Instead of begging us lot who are on like £15,000 a year before taxes, you ask those rich fucks for the cash? Surely that's fairer? Comic Relief has only raised £1 billion since it was introduced in 1988, Bill Gates has $78 billion to himself!
And furthermore, "charities" such as Comic Relief then invest all the money donated into fucking stocks and gamble it against an ever fluctuating market - they even invested in tobacco and arms companies in the past - you know, this honourable charity fighting for "humanity"?! They earn profits from the market to line their pockets, and then pay the original donated money to the cause two years later! It's all documented if you bother to educate yourselves instead of following the trend like sheep to make yourselves feel better!
Seriously! Fuck this "charity" bullshit off! Lining the pockets of top level executives by exploiting the British public with emotional blackmail, and manipulating and guilting them into donating for causes that the "charity" clearly don't give a flying shit about themselves! If they cared so much, they wouldn't accept £120k salaries and bullshit like that! They'd insist the cash goes to the cause ASAP!
Fuck organised charity! Bunch of profit driven, manipulative cunts!
If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it with your friends on social networks using the buttons below, and please leave a comment with your thoughts;
I love hearing from my subscribers!
Sunday, 15 March 2015
NHS Privatisation
It's education time again folks, this time regarding the recent £780 million privatisation contracts for NHS care (that probably went under your radar over the last few days since the media is controlled by the Government). This is more important than Jeremy Clarkson punching a producer for not having his meal ready.
The Government has forced £20 billion of cuts on the health service during this parliament. Thousands of staff have been axed; NHS walk-in centres, A&Es and maternity units have been shut or downgraded; waiting times have increased to see a GP, have vital tests or undergo operations. You must have noticed the degradation of our health service in recent years?
Now as a solution the Government have agreed to outsource care from the NHS to 11 private firms who will be paid up to £780 million between them over the next four years. These private firms will be carrying out heart and joint operations, performing scans, x-rays and other diagnostic tests on patients, and sometimes from mobile units rather than hospital facilities.
The danger with privatisation is this; companies only exist to make profit - that is what they do, so the care provided by these 11 contractors will play second fiddle to the money they earn - and ironically 3 of the 11 companies contracted in lieu of NHS care already have heavy criticism for past indiscretions.
Care UK
Operate care homes for the elderly, two of which have had new admissions banned by the Care Quality Commission (NHS regulator) after falling below standard in 4 out of 5 categories. The ban on new admissions is still in force.
CQC Report
Circle
Provide imaging services such as scans and x-rays, plus work in operating theatres. Provide sub standard services and are heavily profit driven; the CEO Steve Melton pockets a £300k salary with £48k in pension and benefits. Just two months ago Circle withdrew from an existing NHS contract because it was no longer financially viable; later the same day it surfaced that the Care Quality Commission had rated the care and safety provided by Circle as inadequate and had recommended special measures be introduced if the contract remained in force.(If you check the Accountable person cited in the report, it is Circle CEO Hisham Abdel-Rahman).
CQC Report
Vanguard
Provide surgery and is currently facing legal action over eye operations they carried out last year which include routine cataract patients suffering burns and loss of iris pigment, and even some reporting metallic fragments being left inside their eyes. An 84 year old patient allegedly has gone blind from a poorly performed routine operation. The hospital terminated their contract after just four days. CEO Ian Gillespie is one of five company directors paid a combined £807,000 in 2013.
Guardian Article
So this is a testament to the choices of our Government; they slash funding for the NHS, force the population to endure a substandard service, and then sell privatised contracts to shady profit driven companies who will provide poor service, cut corners in pursuit of profit, make mistakes and malpractice, then walk away.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it with your friends on social networks using the buttons below, and please leave a comment with your thoughts;
I love hearing from my subscribers!
The Government has forced £20 billion of cuts on the health service during this parliament. Thousands of staff have been axed; NHS walk-in centres, A&Es and maternity units have been shut or downgraded; waiting times have increased to see a GP, have vital tests or undergo operations. You must have noticed the degradation of our health service in recent years?
The NHS in England has been told to find £20bn of cuts by 2015. The government is portraying the cuts as efficiency savings that would be reinvested in patient care. But this is a myth; the treasury took back £1bn of the £1.4bn saved by the NHS in the past year.
Now as a solution the Government have agreed to outsource care from the NHS to 11 private firms who will be paid up to £780 million between them over the next four years. These private firms will be carrying out heart and joint operations, performing scans, x-rays and other diagnostic tests on patients, and sometimes from mobile units rather than hospital facilities.
The danger with privatisation is this; companies only exist to make profit - that is what they do, so the care provided by these 11 contractors will play second fiddle to the money they earn - and ironically 3 of the 11 companies contracted in lieu of NHS care already have heavy criticism for past indiscretions.
Care UK
Operate care homes for the elderly, two of which have had new admissions banned by the Care Quality Commission (NHS regulator) after falling below standard in 4 out of 5 categories. The ban on new admissions is still in force.
CQC Report
Circle
Provide imaging services such as scans and x-rays, plus work in operating theatres. Provide sub standard services and are heavily profit driven; the CEO Steve Melton pockets a £300k salary with £48k in pension and benefits. Just two months ago Circle withdrew from an existing NHS contract because it was no longer financially viable; later the same day it surfaced that the Care Quality Commission had rated the care and safety provided by Circle as inadequate and had recommended special measures be introduced if the contract remained in force.(If you check the Accountable person cited in the report, it is Circle CEO Hisham Abdel-Rahman).
CQC Report
Vanguard
Provide surgery and is currently facing legal action over eye operations they carried out last year which include routine cataract patients suffering burns and loss of iris pigment, and even some reporting metallic fragments being left inside their eyes. An 84 year old patient allegedly has gone blind from a poorly performed routine operation. The hospital terminated their contract after just four days. CEO Ian Gillespie is one of five company directors paid a combined £807,000 in 2013.
Guardian Article
So this is a testament to the choices of our Government; they slash funding for the NHS, force the population to endure a substandard service, and then sell privatised contracts to shady profit driven companies who will provide poor service, cut corners in pursuit of profit, make mistakes and malpractice, then walk away.
"I love the place I live, but I hate the people in charge." - Immortal Technique
If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it with your friends on social networks using the buttons below, and please leave a comment with your thoughts;
I love hearing from my subscribers!
Saturday, 28 February 2015
Origins of ISIS
Syria is entrenched in Civil War between President Bashar al-Assad's 'Shabiha' (Syrian militia/army), and the rebel forces of Al-Qaeda and the Free Syrian Army. In case you aren't aware, Bashar al-Assad is the bad guy and we want him overthrown.
In 2013 a General for the Free Syrian Army spoke out publicly stating that if international forces did not assist with weapons, then the rebels attempting to overthrow the President would fail within a month.
The USA, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey and Israel began funding and organising for weapons to end up in the hands of the Free Syrian Army, and also providing combat training for the rebel forces.
The Free Syrian Army then gave and sold CIA funded weaponry including anti-tank guns and ammunition to ISIS, and also sent special forces combat trained rebels to join their cause. ISIS crossed back into Iraq and began seizing much of the North of the country, along with large amounts of US military equipment (humvees, tanks, weaponry) that had been left behind from the previous US occupation.
As a result, ISIS grew in numbers, power, and wealth, and became a huge terrorist threat. Indirectly, the USA trained and equipped them. Perhaps it's time to stop getting involved eh, America?
If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it with your friends on social networks using the buttons below, and please leave a comment with your thoughts;
I love hearing from my subscribers!
In 2013 a General for the Free Syrian Army spoke out publicly stating that if international forces did not assist with weapons, then the rebels attempting to overthrow the President would fail within a month.
The USA, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey and Israel began funding and organising for weapons to end up in the hands of the Free Syrian Army, and also providing combat training for the rebel forces.
The Free Syrian Army then gave and sold CIA funded weaponry including anti-tank guns and ammunition to ISIS, and also sent special forces combat trained rebels to join their cause. ISIS crossed back into Iraq and began seizing much of the North of the country, along with large amounts of US military equipment (humvees, tanks, weaponry) that had been left behind from the previous US occupation.
As a result, ISIS grew in numbers, power, and wealth, and became a huge terrorist threat. Indirectly, the USA trained and equipped them. Perhaps it's time to stop getting involved eh, America?
If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it with your friends on social networks using the buttons below, and please leave a comment with your thoughts;
I love hearing from my subscribers!
Saturday, 31 January 2015
Wednesday, 14 January 2015
Short Story: Arrival
The altitude was steady, blurs of clouds and blue hues haze passed the window as she gazed down at the welcoming greenery of England. It had been a long flight, but she was restless, her mind racing and playing out a thousand different scenarios all at once. The background noise, simply static in her ears. She covered her mouth as she yawned, her eyelids heavy but her mind resisting the temptation. She was physically exhausted, her whole body ached from the long time she'd spent in that seat. But she was nearly there, almost home.
He adjusted in his seat, his hands fidgeting, impatiently yearning for the next hour to pass quickly. The train rumbled along steadily, the urban sprawl unfolding before him through the streaked glass. He was lost in thought, distracted by the sweet promises of her fast approaching embrace. Mouth dry, he swallowed, reaching for a drink to quench his nervous throat. The other passengers were naught but silhouettes, faceless and meaningless. Only one face could he see, vividly painted behind his eyelids. He closed his eyes, a comforting smile finding his face at the thought of her.
The descent had begun, the plane slowly bowing as it circled the airport. She shifted in her seat to gain a better view of the buildings, the runway inviting her. Her heartrate increased, the sound of blood in her ears, thump... thump... thump. Endorphins were flooding her system, awakening every inch of her senses, heightened and instinctively aware. Was he already here? Was he truly really that close? This was happening. Shit, she thought. Do I look okay? She ran her hand through her hair, straightening up her outfit, conscious of her appearance. Those butterflies had arrived so suddenly, swirling beautifully and chaotically inside her tummy.
He watched as the plane touched down, his heart jumping into his throat at the very same moment. His breath caught in his lungs, overinflating until he released a lengthy audible breath, attempting to steady his nerves and compose himself. This was it. She was actually here. Fuck, she was actually here! The prospect of seeing her before him was both overwhelming and terrifying. What if I'm not who she expects me to be? What if we don't click? What if she doesn't like my clothes, my hair? A million more what if's raced through his mind, as he paced back and forward on restless legs.
She walked through the boarding tunnel, her hand luggage trailing behind her. She could feel her legs already buckling, already nervous at the mere thought of the upcoming meeting. Her clothes felt tight, a warm flush on her skin, prickling as she felt flustered and overcome with a mixture of emotions.
He pushed forward through the crowd, nervously yet excited. It had been a long 11 months of waiting, impossible to recollect the amount of times this very scene had played out in his mind. A sea of people emerged into the arrivals lounge, a disarray of colours, and shapes and sizes. Blonde hair, brown eyes, a green jacket, a red suitcase, an Asian male, a Chinese female, a...
Their eyes met. The room fell silent, the people fading into irrelevancy. Blood rushed deafeningly through their ears, smiles emerging simultaneously on both of their faces. In a matter of seconds they were stood inches apart, his cologne and her perfume infusing together. Their eyes stayed locked, refusing to look away, to lose this perfect moment. His arms reached around her shoulders, hers found their home around his waist. His chest was just the right height for her head to rest against, where she could hear his heart racing. He kissed the top of her head softly, his hand on the back of her head, fingers in her hair, holding her against him like he never wanted to let go.
She was home, and he was complete.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)