Eastern Beacon

All change for North Africa

2011-03-04T17:52:00.000-08:00

So we've seen a succession of protests and grass-roots political upheavals recently and one can't help but wonder of this in anyway connected to the diminishing power of the USA. Even as I type that it feels weird to write. I am from a generation that grew up under the shadow of American dominance. I just about remember the twilight days of the USSR but every day since we have been reminded how America valiantly crushed it and how good and noble triumphed. We've been fed a diet of MTV culture and rosy sitcoms where nobody seems to worry about money or work and where everyone basks in the American dream. Amongst this plethora of subtle and not so subtle propaganda has been an element of self-flagellation X-files springs prominently to mind, a show made in the USA and exported globally in which an FBI agent repeatedly stumbles upon insidious underhanded and general "evilness" by dark and mysterious forces within the upper echelons of the US government. Then we have these thoughts confirmed as, at the very Zenith of the US projection of global power, we hear of dark deeds by unknown actors working for the US military in jails such as Abu Ghraib or the "secret prisons" which were to be the vacation destination for some retched soul undergoing extraordinary extradition. All this lead to a very healthy fear of the USA as a towering and unshakeable force in the world.

So to see the USA now slipping into its own internal economic abyss, and at the same time retracting its tentacles from every corner of the globe, to see it start to look, well, vulnerable! is as shocking as if one morning my cat spoke to me whilst I fed her her morning breakfast. What we are witnessing here is the decline of an empire. It was the first of its kind, an empire not where it simply "occupied" as much geographical land space as possible, but where it sought to control through treaties, economics and intelligence networks. It did a sterling job for a long time but it's that latter, the intelligence networks that are poignant here with regard to the North African states. As it’s these networks around the globe that allowed the US to keep potential rivals down, whether it be supporting despot rulers of supplying arms to warring factions, the US government knew how to manipulate. I say "knew", well, they must have missed something somewhere along the line as China's meteoric rise seems to have caught them unawares. I wonder what designs this new Asian leviathan has for these malleable states such as Libya, Egypt and the such like?....

2010-10-19T04:44:00.000-07:00

RE. http://rt.com/Politics/2010-10-18/russia-belarus-relations-union.html

The article in the above link refers to the agreement to form a trading group between Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and others to follow. I am intrigued by these developments, if solely from an academic perspective. We have ASEAN, CarriCom, the EU and others already. So what is this one going to be called? Does it have a name yet? The emergence of these trans-national intergovernmental and supranational associations is fascinating to watch. Their organic growth through a series of treaties. It's entirely natural that the Eurasian one should closely resemble the former Soviet Union. You can't just disregard history and a common cultural heritage. There’s one thing I’m sure though; provided integration proceeds at a swift and steady pace as well as in a careful and considered way, Given Russia's economic might and the sheer size of the combined areas involved it will be a regional power guaranteed a key role on world stage in the years to come.

Generational warfare.

2010-10-15T12:57:00.000-07:00

There has been a huge amount of stuff written and produced on this subject and I am certainly not here to claim original credit for this concept. But I would like to rally support for generation X and to some extent Y. To quickly recap on various aspects of this issue that have been covered so far, Firstly and most importantly The shear weight of things that have gone in the baby boomer's favour has been considerable. Born into Social democracy all the political hard work had been done for them. By the mid 1960's the formation of a political united Europe that started with the European coal and steal community was well underway. Demand for good and services was sky high, thus resulting in jobs galore. Favourable company pensions for abundant too. now we can see the controversy over the final salary pensions. Which are such an alien concept to young people. Now that they are old, as yes they are actually OLD. We see desperate attempts to stay young. Holding on to jobs to the detriment of the next generation and spending small fortunes on cosmetics and other beauty product. I the UK they have neglected social housing for many years resulting in a chronic housing shortage while they all jet off to Spain to spend their children's inheritance. I should stop now the point is not to list the problems as I suspect you all know them. I merely ask people who identify with this to comment below.

Там было огромное количество материала, написал и выпустил по этому вопросу, и я, конечно, не здесь, чтобы требовать оригинал кредит на эту концепцию. Но я хотел бы заручиться поддержкой для поколения X и в некоторой степени Y. Чтобы быстро резюме по различным аспектам этого вопроса, которые были покрыты так далеко, во-первых, и самое главное сдвига вес вещей, которые пошли в пользу бэби-бумеров имеет было значительным. Родился в Социал-демократия все политические напряженной работы было сделано для них. К середине 1960-х годов формирования политической объединенной Европы, который начался с Европейского объединения угля и украсть сообщество полным ходом. Спрос на товары и услуги был высоко в небо, в результате чего в изобилии рабочих мест. Благоприятные пенсий компании обильные тоже. Теперь мы видим спор окончательного пенсии зарплаты. Какие такие чужеродные концепции для молодых людей. Теперь, когда они стары, как да они на самом деле OLD. Мы видим отчаянные попытки, чтобы оставаться молодой. Холдинг на работу в ущерб следующего поколения и расходов малого состояния на косметику и другие продукты красоты. Я Великобритании, они пренебрегли социального жилья на протяжении многих лет в результате хронической нехватки жилья в то время как все они струи с в Испанию, чтобы провести наследования своих детей. Я должен остановиться сейчас речь идет не перечислить проблемы, как я подозреваю, вы все их знаете. Я только прошу людей, которые отождествляют себя с этим на комментарий ниже.

STOP! LOOK! LISTEN and THINK!

2010-10-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

I sincerely hope that Spain and the other countries mentioned in this article (http://www.fuengirolascout.net/driving-in-spain/comment-page-1/#comment-2875) , stay the way they are. I am english and have live and driven in many of the EU member states and I dread any time I have to go to the UK and drive. As a motorist I feel utterly powerless. It is a fact that you have less rights as one. Unlike others using a public highway, the motorist can be stopped by the police without reason, searched and failing to answer questions is a crime in itself.

Untill very recently Britain's roads were under the grip of the safety lobby. People that prioritise reducing you or your child's risk of premature death down to zero at all costs. If this involves bringing the economy down to it's knees due to traffic crawling along at 20mph or premeturely writing off vehicles due to speed bumps every 3 meters, then so be it. If this involves setting britain up as a police state with a bleak future, speed carmera on every corner, fine. Oh but, "The Children! The Children!". whatever. People die on roads. Get over it.

The coalition announced an end to the war on the motorist. Is this new hope or a new set of false promises? we'll see...

Gulag Europe.

2010-10-04T06:25:00.000-07:00

Human nature fascinates me. It is within human nature a desire to control but it is equally with our nature to seek freedom. At what point do we say to much control is detrimental to our society.

This is a much discussed issue both within EU member states and at an EU level. As the saying goes, "Don't judge a man on what he says, judge him on what he does!" so lets look at the reality on the ground is for every day EU citizens. And its grim.

In many countries you are required to register at you local council. So they know where you live. You are required to pay income tax so they know where you work and how much you get. If you have a business, you are required to fill in government questionaires. So they know what you up to. It seem seems that the only area of life they don't know in detail is your bedroom activities and even then from various sources of information available to them (such as your intenet searches) they can have a good guess.

Add into this the fact that Europe has the most number of civilian survailance cameras per capita and the new security bill which has been passed through the EU Parliament, another example of the shocking disregard for your privicy, liberty and freedom. A bill which allows the US to access informatition about convicted and arrested EU citizens, even if their sentences are concidered "spent". I it all starts to add up to a pretty poor state of affairs.

History tells us that when peoples liberties are suppressed, hard enough and long enough, like a compressed spring that ihas been released, eventually the situation will dramatically redressed.

2010-05-22T12:25:00.000-07:00

And the weak shall inherit the earth.

2010-02-20T07:17:00.000-08:00

I don't have children, my wife and I are very happy with that, with no intention for the future. The world is a bit shit(the part created by humans) to be honest and we really don't want t contribute to it. I'm not harming anyone, I'm not on tv telling people to sew up their baby popping fannies. no. so what the hell is this blokes problem. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/669847.stm

LEAVE ME ALONE!

Failed generation

2009-05-23T02:52:00.000-07:00

Came across this the other day, if your under the age of 35 you should read it....

http://emach.wordpress.com/2007/05/11/the-baby-boomers-failed/#comment-541

the man talks alot of sense!

While the cat sleeps, the mice shall play.

2009-05-17T09:20:00.000-07:00

Am I the only one NOT to be surprised by this latest MPs' Expenses bussiness? I mean when they toted it up on the BBC News, it came to roughly £134k. My reaction was shock, not of how much it was but of how little it was. This is a pittence it really is. The second and more horrifying shock was to watch the reaction of the British public both in the audience of the Question Time and in the interviews on the streets from a widespread of channels such as the BBC or Skynews. I mean, they were genuinely shocked at this happening. I am enraged and yet dispair at the same time. The dumming down of the peoples of the west has reached new levels. Maybe if they watched a little less Pop Idol and a few more newsfeeds, they would have a slight clue as to what is going on in the wider world around them. WAKE UP PEOPLE! This is called politics it effects everyone. including you! these people have been stealing your money for years. They are not to blame, they are only doing what we all would do if we could get away with it. They are doing exactly what you, the public, have allowed them toi get away with. The problem stems from the lethergy of the voters, not from the MP's. These people have not just been stealling your money they have been stealing you rights too and in UK those rights were skant to start off with (less than 2 percent of brits surveyed in 2004 new the difference between a "citizen" and a "subject". As the old saying goes: "The price of freedom is enternal vidulance!"

A return to planet earth.

2009-05-02T12:02:00.000-07:00

Forget all the rhetoric burbled by the usual motley crew of western leading politicians regarding the recession, lets look at us here in the real world for moment. I've been thinking alot this week about how the recession his actually affecting us. One interesting twist came up when I decided that I needed to down size my car recently. One of the things that I realised whilst reviewing my money situation was that in order to actually purchase my smaller, older, slower car, I would have to sell the one I've got now. I sat back in my stair and for a moment was completely perplexed by this and it dawned on me that I had never actually had to do this before. I mean don't get me wrong, I'm far from loaded. It's not as if every time I'm bored with the colour 0f my new Bentley I march into my local dealer and demand a red on instead. For the last ten years or so, basically ever since I started driving, I've bought cars at the very limit of what I had available so me at the time. Very often this was around 500 to 1500USD. Except when I bought my last car. Last time in the height of the credit frenzy, I decided for the first time (running counter to everything I believe in), to buy a Suzuki 4x4 on finance from my local dealer. This will be the first and last time this ever happens. Though I have to admit after years and years of frosting up the glass staring into the showrooms, looking at all the toys on display, knowing I would never be able to afford them, it did give me a strange sense of power as the sales person handed me a posh cup wafting with the scent of fine Columbian coffee and I slid back into the comfy leather chair all purposely designed to induce a pseudo sense of omnipotence. It's was intoxicating. It really was, even though I knew fine well the money I was spending wasn't even mine and I'd be paying it back till the end of my days. I savoured the moment, every last drop of it.

So now I've found a little Renault 1 litre that should get me about in a much more modest fashion. Problem is, that instead of just saving for a week or two to buy it and then sticking the other one in the paper or in a prominent place by the road with a sign in the window, I now find myself in a "chain of sales". Just like when buying a house. I can't buy the Renault until a chap that wants to buy my Suzuki sells his to a young student who's getting back to him when HIS buyer pays for the car he's trying to sell...and so on and so forth all the way down the line. The lady I'm buying the Renault off is also waiting for me to buy so she can get her hands on the car she's been after too. To make matters worse so far in the neverending chain, we've have two back-outs and one change of car. It's becoming farcical, it really is. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that we were all in a giant loop or something. Though, amidst all the complaining there is a flip side to this, after dozens of phone calls to bother the buyer and the seller I've got to know them quite well and the really quite nice people. turns out we have friends in common. We've exchange ideas and I've learnt useful things. Things I probably would never have know otherwise. Like did you know you can make a digital photo frame like the one in the shops out of an old broken laptop? no? neither did I! This would never have happened the old way. Encounters were always awkward things involving alot of mistrust on both side. Very cold and business like. It's a brave new world we find ourselves in and I for one am excited at the possibilities.

To the edge of the abiss.

2009-04-28T03:23:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I started typing up the following blog........

"Is it not ironic that a country that has spent years pointing the finger east and screaming in hysteria "BOOoogie MAN! at Russia and surrounding countries is now infact slipping into the very same fascist, totalitiarean, pseudo democratic state as it once, and still to some extent, feared. I doubt Banksy, who I hear, travels quite alot around the world, could/would have quite some much fun in Russia as he clearly enjoys in the UK."

But yesterday I hear announced by Harriet Harman that "..the government currently has no plans to collect all emails in the UK" this is clearly a U-turn from 12 months ago. Could this be britain pulling back from the edge? or is the EU steering from behind the scenes? or is this yet just more spin? ...........we'll wait and see!....

The new budget

2009-04-23T03:59:00.000-07:00

50% super-rich tax. This signifies a lurch back the to left and a rallying cry to the party faithfull. Brown's move attempts to draw a line in the sand over the issue of the wealth gap (which btw has INCREASED since Labour came into power, not decreased). He's attempting to retain as many voters as possible by emphasising what Labour originally stood for and to divert attention away from the utter failings of this current government. "No more muddling around in the confusing middle ground, we're thoroughbred lefties now".

As I read some of the comments posted to some popular bloggers, I notice again and again arguments against the 50% tax, based in the extremely misguided idea that we live in an absolute meritocracy...one such comment reads: I only earn around 20k per annum, but i think it's an unfair tax system we have, just because the better educated have high paying jobs they are being taxed at 50%. They should be rewarded for their hard work and not penalised. They have studied and worked hard to be where they are and should be in a position to reap the rewards of their hard work. Instead they will be paying a higher tax to support the country's unemployed.
If we really did live in a pure meritocracy how could any right minded person have a problem with rewarding people for their hard work. But we don't. People living off the hard work of others is rife in society. Just look at landlords or stockbrokers, hardly back-breaking work, is it? And yet we're supposed to believe these people deserve every penny. Dream on!

The worst thing is though, that Brown has only done this now, at the fag end of a labour government. Even then, only because it suits him out of self-preservation not out of a sense of duty to the working classes. This is a political trap. The Tories have stated they want 45% for the super-rich and that they promised not to cut taxes but by putting it up to 50%, the Tories will be forced to cut taxes. This budget should be of no surprise to anyone. The goverment has lavishly spent more and more money year on years, arrogantly assuming that there would be growth next year. And now they find themselves out of money so they are looking around in desperation to put the squeeze on anyone they think might have some and if they can score political points at the same time all the better.

"desperate to get pregnant"...................

2009-04-15T05:23:00.000-07:00

I sit here in the car, having just listened to an interview between Hanna Murry(DJ) and a lady peddling a book on still births on REM FM or as they are known now "TRE FM". This lady held no hesitation in informing the listeners of the miriad of delights that were to be had from the miracle of birth. Why, in this world of abundent infomation, regarding the damage overpopulation is having on the earth, do we have people who not only still hold these views but are allowed to get in front of a microphone at a radio station.

In dec. 2007 the CIA in issued a report to the then Commander-in-chief that Climate change will in the next few years pose a very real threat to America's national security. With the recent change in administration it is almost certain that this information has been taken on board at the White house. With a change of leadership in the UK and therefore, hopefully a subsequent change in approach to the environment, there emerges the very real possiblility that a rolling snowball effect will gain momentum. If we accept as a point of logic, that nature, be it: fields, forests, lakes or whatever, is a critical part of sustaining life in one's own country, then logic follows that someone threating that is theatening your country. Ergo: person broadcasting pro-propulation propaganda equals threat to the nation.

An introduction.....

2009-04-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

Well..this is may first blog ...ever! ...still learning! No-one's reading at this point but maybe in the future hopefully I've gained a little momentum and some people and come back reading through the old postings.

Here's a quick break down of what you might be reading from me in the future:
My blogs are aimed at shedding new light on things happening in and around Eastern Europe and Central Aisa. Top of my list are issues relating to environment, housing and land rights, Untruths from biased media outlets & animal rights.

Primarily aimed at the West, I welcome comments from all corners of the globe.