Sunday, January 06, 2008

Nothing new under the sun.



A month without posting, and here we are, the days are getting longer, in the more sheltered parts, there are a few early daffodils nodding towards the solitary, stationary solar panel.


Over in the States, a new hero, Obama... promises to track down his evil nemesis...Osama, and Hilary, like Obama and George and slick Willie before her, promises change and uh, freedom.



The middle east is still in "The hands of the Americans", though it could be that their grip is loosening.
Or as the tabloids might put it..
"Oil fields turf wars in murderous turmoil."
Add in a few Kurds and Turks, Sunnis, shi-ites, dog fights and late nights, and it`s easy to see why newsreaders rehearse their lines.



The price of oil just hit $100, and the price of everything seems to be rising. Fuel, electricity, gas, foodstuffs, where ever the corporate cog is turning, it seems that the rich are ratcheting up their share of the take.

Over here, the British army remains abroad/surrounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, Gordon Brown, the Prime minister of Britain, says he is proud of them, as does his fellow Scot, Des Browne, the defense minister.
Known colloquially as "Too Broons, an` na guid banch o` wee khaki clad bairns."

The momentum is increasing to restrict the recruitment practices of the militaries, who now target teenagers whilst still at school. The schemers have been making films that show soldiers, not bandaged and broken, but skateboarding and parachute jumping.

Conveniently ommiting the numerous suicides, the limbless, the homeless, the dead and the patently mad, the films and posters target low income families whose children are financially deprived and socially immobile.

Thankfully, there are voices of reason, from the Guardian

Further afield, the item has been picked up.. Counterpunch


Are we seeing an end to the insiduous practice of war?
Are the militaries and their manipulative conjuring tricks going to be consigned to the pages of some history book, as a facet of society that was explored, then discarded as being totally destructive and useless, except to the tiny minority who garner the proceeds.

It would seem that the British appetite for aggressive warfare is being tempered by reason and civilised exposure of the true nature of recruitment and training.

Or is it that the British were a little slow in the 21st century race for oil and gas. There is an almost incessant global market demand for oil and gas, the Italians have cut to the chase, and without military invasions , they "Went straight to the organ-grinder."

The Germans too are using money and sense instead of munitions. They have teamed with the Russians, and have secured sufficient supplies to keep their nation warm, for quite a reasonable amount.


Perhaps I should be less critical of Britain, as one group of energy suppliers has gone to the next stage, whereby fosill fuels are old hat , the solar panel manufacturers are getting to think big time. Banks of panels situated in the Sahara, linked to a pan-european system.
Saharan sense.

A future without oil...

From dry tinder and flint, to constant light.




Peace.

4 comments:

billie said...

are you like us? or are we like you? hard to tell colony from mother country these days. why pay when you can steal? isn't that essentially what we attempted to do? it's ridiculous. while we fight pettily over who is responsible for polluting and killing the planet- we could simply take measures to start conserving and preserving. life without fossil fuels is a no brainer. one way or another it is going to happen. i don't think there are enough cables to reach here from the sahara- or someone in the corporatocracy would have gotten in on the ground floor :) europe is going to have to lead the way- we are fighting an uphill battle over here and it might take time. time we don't really have.

landsker said...

The British Empire set the standard for wholesale theft of resources and land.
But like the Romans before them , like the Greeks, even the Celts, they were unceremoniously booted out from almost every corner of their "empires".
History and politics aside, America has deserts, oceans and wind, and is part of a huge continent.
Like Britain in the days of empire, America seems unwilling to trust or befriend the adjoining countries, xenophobia seems to be a mainstay of empire.
By the way, even here in Europe, the idea of renewable electric power is being fiercly contested by the nuclear lobby, and the oil companies, and the coal companies, here too, it is a long fight.
Even uranium is a fossil fuel, as you say it is a no-brainer, the current use of fossil fuels is unecessary, but it makes big profits for a small circle of billionaires.

jmsjoin said...

landsker
I just added you to my favorites so I can stay up with you for now. I see you do not write often but I like what you say and betmo is here. Take care!

landsker said...

Hi Jim,
Welcome, and thanks, like Betmo, and yourself, and it seems, billions of others around the globe, I like to think that the pen is mightier than the sword.

Which is an old cliche, but as Shakespeare`s Rosencrantz in Hamlet says "... many wearing rapiers are afraid of goosequills."

Peace.