Angry Rant #40: Someone's all shaken up...

I had a conversation with someone close to me a few days ago that really got me thinking. It was about the recent earthquake in Christchurch which happened a couple of days ago, in fact it was two small 4.5 and 5 magnitude quakes. The conversation was pretty minimal, but the words that were used by that person were these ones "...something's happening."

Read it again. Something's happening.

OH SHIT!

Actually, what happened was an earthquake in a part of the world that always has earthquakes. Continental and Oceanic plates caress each other until one has had enough and punches the other brutally in the face. This is what happened when the big one hit Christchurch in February and it happened with the Japanese Quake and Tsunami, with Haiti, with Chile or anywhere else on this planet where people live in these hot zones, and someone now thinks we're all going to die because the extreme natural disasters keep on occurring.

Just in this month of June alone, there has been 53 recorded earthquakes with a magnitude of 3 and up. That's 14 single earthquakes just this week and 954 earthquakes since the start of this year.

Years gone by, it has been exactly the same.

So, "something's happening" is it? Is it? What is it?

The sky...

Under out feet isn't solid mass - currents of molten rock continually move and spin causing the relatively thin tectonic plates to shift and volcanoes to unleash their rage - that's what happened with Mt Vesuvius and with Krakatoa and they went crazy hundreds of fucking years ago and killed everyone.

So what's changed significantly enough for someone to say that "something's happening"? Two things:

1. Population growth
2. A mainstream media that feeds off fear.
3. Christian Extremists/2012 bullshit

Now of course, the end of the world hasn't just been predicted by these two groups, but every other religious group on this planet that is hellbent on seeing it be destroyed.  When I talk about mainstream media, I'm sure that if there was a camera crew and some wanker that looked like Peter Overton present when Mt Vesuvius blew it's face off, no doubt that they would use it to spread fear and anxiety and churn out "End of the World" nonsense faster than you can say 'money'.

I also couldn't help but notice the slight religious connotation that the "...something's happening" line had. So are you trying to say that God is behind it? Is he going to punish us for all our sins? I guess it's tough to argue with someone who believes that Noah built an ark and recused two of every animal...

Ha! Two of every animal....

Don't believe the lies and spin.
JM

Angry Rant #39: Shock, Horror.

Top news story of the week - "Dedicated Soldier, Husband and Father, dies fighting for his mates in a country that he shouldn't be in fighting for a cause that I don't even think he knows about after being told that if he doesn't, we'll be left screwed when we get invaded by North Korea."

Royally Screwed.

It's a different view, I'll give you that much, but it's not a view that's ever discussed. Wayne Swan even came out in the statement to the media and said "we're staying", in reference to the death of another soldier - but they died because they were told to go and fight. The Government are the ones who promote joining the army as something that is noble and patriotic when really it's just giving people a license to kill anything wearing a Turban so that the big older brother, *cough* THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA *cough* will keep us on their good side.

As terrible as war is, death is something that naturally comes with it. You can't have a war without someone dying - it's illogical - unless it's a flame war. Those are brutally non-lethal and rob you of your dignity.

Why do I get the sense that people feel surprised by the death of another soldier? The toll for US troops who have died exceeds our number of 29 by a little over 1200. If anything, the Australian troops are lucky there haven't been more. I usually hear this response though - "they're on a peace keeping mission" a.k.a the nice way to say we're killing people, but because we're better equipped with our enemy, we shouldn't expect our soldiers to die.

Peace keeping mission eh?

Peace Keeping - now with added Machine Guns!

If you're a soldier, in a war where thousands of people are being killed, and bullets flying around everywhere and IEDs at every intersection, someone will, unfortunately, eventually bite the bullet.

If Australian soldiers are still there in following months and our awful full of shit Prime Minister is seen "crying because of it" sit back and think that the solider died because YOU sent them there and YOU used manipulative recruitment tactics to make said solider join and fight for your mysterious cause.

More lies, more spin... *sigh*

JM

Angry Rant #23: It can only go up from here!

So apparently all throughout the Middle-East shit is happening - but we're talking about here is the good sort of shit. The kind where the people rise up against the powers that be and stand up for what they believe in. Now since Gaddaffi bombed his own people in Tripoli, western societies have pulled their heads out of the sand and all of the sudden things look serious - not because of the fact that the Libyan Leader is killing people in his own country, but because oil prices will rise (this is a bad thing for any country that runs on fossil fuels *cough* the US *cough*).

"Wait, what's going on?"

What happens in Libya is going to be a little snap shot of what could happen if another uprising occurs in Saudi Arabia - a single disturbance there could destabilize western economies faster than you can say "Fuck. I need petrol!". This comes down to one thing and one thing only - fear. And not you're regular "I'm scared of anyone wearing a burqa" fear, but the fear of not being able to support an economy. But here's a thought - what happens if things do get bad in Saudi Arabia (i.e. the people stand up against their totalitarian governments and religiously motivated dictators?)

This might be getting a bit too symbolic...

It almost seems to me as if that these supposed "world powers" are actually supporting these regimes because they inactively maintain the status-quo. I keep seeing the same contradiction over and over again - up front we support what the people in the Middle-East are doing but the heads of our countries won't do anything because they are aware of the consequences that it will have on the petrol/gas economy.

Enough said.

Now you'd think that something as important as this would make headlines everynight - but you know why it isn't? We are being forced into a false sense of security - fossil fuels are non-renewable. One day we will eventually run out, but no - we are too busy getting mouth fulls of some idiotic footy player punching some other idiot and some  girl who sucks CEOs off for money then rats them out!!

Jack doesn't like rats either.

Honestly, where the hell is the journalism industry headed? Why do world super powers only care about their own arse? Why was Hayden Christensen chosen to play anakin in the Star Wars prequels??

"I can't act - you know it, I know it..and even my cat does, but fuck me, I love the money!"

Take it as you will.

Don't believe the Lies and Spin

Angry Rant #22: We want Democracy?

I've been following the uprising in the Arab world closely - some of stories behind the militant leaders that are in charge are eerily disturbing. It almost makes me wonder why the people haven't revolted sooner...or why world "super" powers like the U.S. haven't jumped in to save the day like they always do (there's no oil - Egypt is run on tourism!)

Cynical to the MAX!

But I have been seeing a recurring theme - one that is not so much wrong, but spoken without much thought. Now I have to preface this by saying that I am all for Democracy - when it does work the way it should, that is, run by the people, it works in fair manner. But after the recent barrage of Wikileaks, my idea of Democracy is somewhat diminished.

So when I see a screaming protester in Libya shouting that they want Democracy, written on a sign in plain English, I can't help but think to myself what form of Democracy do the want? Do they want a their own version of Democracy or are they looking to just copy a Western version..

Oh ok, makes sense.

When we hear stories about the International Monetary Fund and the reasoning behind why it lends money to poorer countries, I can't help but wonder if their idea of "democracy" is somewhat misplaced. Now of course, ANYTHING is better than the current situation, and we should be lucky to not have militant leaders who call in fighter jets to bomb protesters, but after hearing some of the stories that have been revealed by the whole Wikileaks saga, it makes me really wonder as to whether or not Democracy could actually work in the Middle-East. And what about UN intervention? What about the ability of one of the five world "super powers" (So the U.S, U.K,  France, Russia, China) being able to veto anything they like (or anything that's not in the best interests for them)

For Example - If a decision was put forward by say...a new Democratic Party in Libya to the UN that involved say...oil...

Libya - Know for the largest oil reserves in Africa and this. 

...and they were to make some trade deal with Western countries because the Democratic Government would most certainly be Western based, the IMF (who'll most likely lend the new Government money) and the UN could essentially force the new Government to sell that oil to our Favourite Five for half the cost, but in return provide "support", just so some fat cat in Washington can fill this puppy up -

$$$$$$$$$$$

What's been going on in these countries of the past few decades has been wrong. It's been disturbing, it's damn right disgusting to think that no western country would ever intervene and give the people in these countries where they know that murdering those who revolt is just an every day practice, is sickening. Do they not find a "leader" who hires mercenaries to kill the people in his country wrong? Or does no one at all care about what goes on in Africa?

But hey, maybe these people will it get right.

Don't believe the Lies and Spin.