The Politics of State ... no ... the State of Politics
Let me get one thing absolutely straight at the outset, I belong to no political party and the views I express here are my own, no-one else's.
If any group or individual agrees with me in part or overall, they do so out of their own reasoning and logic. I am not trying to influence anyone in any way whatsoever, merely stating my personally held opinions and I do not expect agreement from any direction, left, right or centre.
Of course, I would love to hear from you in my guestbook on this lens but not only if you agree, I am interested in hearing the views of others on the current political situation, wherever you are in the World.
Political discussion and debate can be extremely productive, unfortunately the same cannot always be said of politicians and I believe this to be a universal truth. Nomatter what country you live in I am certain you could identify politicians in your own or neighbouring countries' governmental systems who do not work for the good of their people, yet who often mistakenly believe they are 'doing the right thing'.
What follows here is hardly a comprehensive list, it is a starting point and only a starting point.
One voice alone has little chance of being heard but I believe I am not only one voice, I am perhaps the voice of Grandmothers from all corners of the World because I am not remarkable, I am not different, I am an ordinary Scottish Grandmother who looks at the World through the lens of my experience.
Citizens of the World
We are all citizens of the World. Globalization is a reality, not some notion of things to come, and I realise that it is frequently used in the same meaning as some kind of curse on mankind, it depends on the context in which it is used.In terms of businesses who ship their jobs abroad to avoid environmental constraints on their operations in their home countries, globalization is most definitely a dirty word. To them it matters not one bit that the pollution their industries create will poison the land and the people in a poor country on the other side of the planet, nor does it matter to them that small children are often 'employed' for pennies to do work which harms their long term health. In these respects 'globalization' is a very dirty word indeed.
But globalization has not only taken place in manufacturing industries, it is taking place right here, right now as you read my words.
I am writing in the Highlands of Scotland, where are you as you read?
This also is globalization, the ordinary people of the planet communicating ideas and exchanging views, and we can take the word and make it ours.
I firmly believe that wherever you are in the World, the one thing that we all have in common is a desire for a better tomorrow, an improvement in the status quo for our children and grandchildren, a hope of a future with at least a little promise for betterment in our lives.
For some the mountain is high and as long as their struggle continues we are all made poorer by it.
What those pollution exporters and employers of children refuse to acknowledge is that this is one very small planet and whatever affects the life of a child in some squalid shanty town, burning off the toxic elements in a computer to recycle the salvagable parts, affects us all. Perhaps not immediately but the effect is cumulative, not only the effect of the pollution created by these circumventions of regulation but also the effect of the injustice suffered by people whose only choice is succumb to the pressure or see your children starve.
This is WRONG.
If we ever hope to change this World into somewhere that is fair to all its citizens then a stop must be put to exploitation, regardless of what country it is taking place in.
You and I can do something about this by refusing to purchase the goods made by these responsibility avoiding companies but this is unlikely to solve the problems we all face and that is where the politics comes into the equation.
Ah, Politics
Injustice is all too often caused by politics, we have recently seen a prime example of this in action but I don't really want to pick out any single instance as manipulation of facts and the creation of a crisis are well known tactics in the run up to an election, this is nothing new.Sadly, what is new is the extent of the harm which is being caused by such dishonest tactics.
Far too many politicians think of us only as pawns in their game, our 'little' lives don't matter to them for one minute, They think of us a 'the herd', you may have seen this word used in terms of vaccinations for children, the officials talk about 'maintaining herd immunity'. A very high percentage of children have to be vaccinated in order to achieve this 'herd immunity', regardless of whether a particular child is unsuitable for that vaccination and so, instead of a level of children who may or may not die or be left with long term consequences from, for example, measles we now have a level of vaccine damaged children which is supposedly 'acceptable' in relation to maintaining herd immunity.
Well, not if it's your child. And did they warn you the vaccine could cause a problem? And will they admit that some vaccines have been very damaging?
Is it even sensible to carry on in this way? Do we not find that diseases will change, become more virulent, alter their structure. Fundamentally, a virus is simply another organism trying to survive. Perhaps there are some of these organisms we should be tolerating rather than attempting to eradicate, perhaps we actually need some of these viruses in order to be stronger.
But I digress, politicians are not doctors and, in view of some of the decisions taken by politicians, based on government scientists' advice, shouldn't we be questioning far more?
What about the decision that in order to obtain a more lean beef product, cows could be fed sheep offal, leading to the apparent transfer of a disease affecting sheep, scrapie, to cows, causing bovine spongiform encephalitis, which in turn became New Variant CJD in humans? Was that wise? Was that well thought out? Aren't cattle vegetarian? But they decided feeding sheep offal to a vegetarian animal would be a good idea ... is it any wonder the disease jumped the species barrier?
But we are just a herd in their eyes.
Politics are killing us, politics are keeping us apart as people, regardless of our ethnicity or nationality, politics get in the way.
I don't think of myself as British. I am Scottish, with some French ancestry but I am a citizen of the World.
The sovereignty of the people.
In Scotland this is something we know about. Sovereignty in Scotland belongs to the people and has done for centuries, regardless of the fact that our country has been under English rule for far too long. And, in truth, that is how it should be the World over, sovereignty is something which belongs to the people of the country, the people are not the property of a government.We elect politicians to represent our interests, to do our bidding, to work for our common good. But once elected they lie to us ... well, they were lying before as well in most cases.
Where should I begin with the lies they tell? Where should I begin with the help that high profile business are given. Where should I begin with the vested self-interests which manipulate 'facts' in order to keep the herd following where they lead us - into financial crisis, into war, into ruin. You don't have to look as far as Zimbabwe or Gaza for examples, you'll find them much closer to home. Look at your government as I look at the UK government and you begin to see that there is far too much corruption in every government.
Believe me when I say that the only ones to benefit from wars and other crises caused by government policies are those whose business is war, or whatever the crisis is about. Just as in any crime scene, the police will ask first 'who benefits from this crime' when assessing who may be a suspect, we should look at every proposal or decision of a government and ask 'who benefits'.
You are an intelligent, thinking being, you don't need me to draw a picture here. Wars have been initiated because one political party or one 'leader' wants to hold on to power, no-matter what the consequences for the 'herd'. Their power is of paramount importance.
Governments and us?
One thing you can guarantee is that most of us will be left holding the 'less desirable' end of the stick. No-matter what situation our governments get us into while doing favours for their "friends", we, the 'herd', will always come off worst, we are disposable.In the UK we have seen a raft of anti-terrorism laws brought in without much thought to the potential consequences. We were told that these laws would not be used in anything other than anti-terrorist operations but they have already been used in other instances, such as the MP's office which was raided using anti-terrorism laws by police investigating leaks of information which certainly were not breaching national security but which were a tad embarassing for the government.
So, anti-terrorism laws can be used against those suspected of causing embarassment to the government ... hmmmm ... and, of course, the real intention is to prevent 'the herd' from knowing those embarassing truths.
That's just the UK government, what about your government?
Governments do not treat the people as intelligent thinking beings, they manipulate the truth and expect us to swallow everything they tell us, using laws which were intended to assist in the fight against terrorism to silence those who would have us know the truth. But we are not expected to notice that we have become a virtual police state in the United Kingdom, more surveillance cameras per head of population than any other country in the World ... does it make us any safer ... of course not.
Don't get me wrong, we need a degree of government to look after a certain amount of organisation. Water supplies and transport links need to be organised on a national level ... but, of course, the UK government has sold off the utility companies, these vital matters are now organised by profit conscious businessmen and so we are paying a forune for our electricity, which almost doubled in price when the barrel cost of oil rose but which has singulary failed to compensate us now that the barrel price has dropped way down.
So, our government has privatised the railways, the utility companies, everything we depend on and, indeed, is vital not only to our daily wellbeing but also to every business, small and large (although if your business is big enough you stand a chance of getting a government bailout), they're privatising almost everything we expect them to be responsible for.
And doing what, exactly?
So, what about us?
Leaving politics aside, there is no reason why you and I shouldn't get on perfectly well together as, basically, we want the same things. I recognise that we may not all agree on the answers to the problems that each of us ... in 'the herd' ... faces daily, wherever we live. And I recognise that many have more basic problems to overcome than I do. I, at least, can wake in the morning, take a few steps and turn a tap to get water, I can flick a switch and heat that water to make a nice cup of coffee.For so very many people this simple thing would be a luxury.
I know what it is to live close to nature by choice. When I was younger I lived in a situation where I had to walk almost a mile to fill butts with water which I then carried home for my daily use. If I wanted to do a wash, I had to heat a massive pan on a fire outdoors, I often cooked on that fire as well, although I did have the option of gas for cooking most of the time. But that was a picnic compared to the situations in which some people find themselves, forced to flee with nothing, sleeping fitfully in fear for their lives.
Not everyone may want to wake up in the morning and flick a switch to boil some water but shouldn't we all be able to live as we would choose?
Are we not all entitled to live in peace so that we can work towards a better future, for ourselves personally and for our children?
Don't we all know that we are stronger and achieve more together than we do in isolation?
We are not all the same and that is the beauty of our kind, we are diverse in culture and experience and therefore have a diversity of solutions to the problems which we all face together. Working together we are a strong force and we can make changes.
We must make our governments understand that they are there to serve us, it is not we who serve them. We must demand that goverments recognise that when people from anywhere in the World can communicate instantly, can share their truth with the entire planet online, there is no use in their lying and censoring or distorting what their own citizens get to know about on their TV stations when we can turn to a newsfeed online which will show us reality as it happens.
We must make it clear to governments that we are not a 'herd' to be moved this way and that, we are individuals, each as important as the next, each of us an integral part of the human race and they, government employees etc, are NOT some superior race of beings more deserving than us.
We, the people, are free to make our own decisions and cannot be bound by decisions made by governments whch would have detrimental outcomes on our lives.
No man is intrinsically 'better' or 'worse' than his neighbour, no man has any greater 'value' than another, we are all equally important and have our own contribution to make. The child who dies under a bomb tomorrow may be the originator of a cure for a deadly disease ... if the bomb does not fall.
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by 0ctavias0fferings
The picture I've uploaded is about 20 years out of date as the little darling you see there is all grown up now.
I'm a grandmother. I live in the H...
