Author: Liam Mcdonald

Part of our existence here is the inevitability that there is an end to it. My mother recently passed away, 88 years of age, 79 healthy vibrant ones and 9 confined to a wheelchair, dependent on her family and the state. The feeling of loss and grief felt by those who loved her was almost unbearable, especially for my dad, after spending 63 loving years together. Such is the nature of life.

During this sad time my heart went out to all those Palestinian people who had lost so many loved ones in that terrible carnage that is Gaza. So much loss and grief for so many young lives.

Israel, what are you doing? 1,000 + eyes for 13 eyes. You have might on your side but not right. After the granting of the state of Israel in 1948 by the united nations, on land that was occupied by the fathers and mothers of the Palestinians that you so ruthlessly destroy now, you were faced with the prospect of some troubled waters to negotiate, surrounded on all sides by potential enemies. By your subsequent actions and unreasonable behaviour you have created a more hostile environment for yourselves and your children. Hamas has only existed since 1988, the extreme ideology of wanting to wipe Israel off the map, fueled by the extreme ideology that has guided the Jewish state, annexing more lands and caring little for the native Palestinian and wiping out the more moderate and conciliatory voices within its own community. You replaced Rabin with Sharon. It is time for reason to come to the fore, a 2 state solution is there. Time for the killing to stop, “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”.

Only 40 years ago one of the best of human beings spoke those historic words and this week we have witnessed a truly historic moment in our time when the first man with black skin enters the white house in the USA, the seat of the most powerful man in the world. The dream is becoming a reality.  How many believed in Martin Luther Kings dream? How much history stood in its way? We have overcome and we are on the way. This is the beginning. Hope lives. We congratulate Barack Obama and the American people for electing him. After 8 years of the inane puppet Bush, acting for the vested interests of the few, we now have an intelligent human being in the office, who has the potential to stand above the vested interests and act for the common good, not just in the USA but across the world. Some work done, a lot more to do. We have a dream.

Quite a lot has happened since I last wrote, the bust is far bigger than even the most realistic forecasters predicted, but bang on from my point of view, {see Nov 2007, Creation}.

We are where we are was a mantra trotted out by some of the insiders and movers of this mega bust, paper over the cracks, move on and rebuild on the same quicksand that is causing this ever extreme cycle.

We could say that the dream of the free market capitalist economy, as initiated by the politics of the Thatcher/Reagan era, has turned into a complete nightmare. But even going back to then and blaming that ideology for the current state of our economics is missing the point.

One thing is clear from the situation that is being played out in front of us is the global nature of our economics and how everything is connected, the shin bone is connected to the knee bone etc. The Dow goes down followed by the Nikei and the Fste, individual markets are part of the one big market, and this market has an energy, a collective consciousness, that dictates because so much faith has been invested into it.  Great intelligence and understanding of the systems, allied to unfettered greed are close to the root causes of the collapse. This is manifest in fear, lack of trust and confidence which is coursing through the veins like a rampant virus in the bloodstream of the body. Banks do not even trust each other anymore and why would they as they are very aware of the lack of liquidity in their institutions. still they are paying themselves vast amounts in dividends and bonuses. Theft. There is an old saying, ” As you sow so shall you reap”.

And the good old Usa is the prime shaker in this saga. We became aware of this “sub prime” lending in their system and how this has impacted right across the globe. Whats all that about? Let me tell you a story.

200 years ago in that great land a people with a long history and an understanding of where they were, roamed across the plains. They were free and lived without the ideology of property and ownership of the land. The Great Spirit provided for all their needs. Then along came the whiteman, with his guns, his whiskey, his “Christianity” and his great need to possess the land. it did not take too many broken treaties for the newly arrived settlers to carve up the natives land among themselves. Huge properties became smaller holdings, small towns, big cities, real estate and sub prime mortgages. after every step, huge profits were being made, all on land stolen from the original occupiers. ” As you sow so shall you reap” The whiteman was recently arrived from Europe, English, Irish, Scots, Germans, every nationality, represented. The economy of each country is being severely undermined, all triggered by toxic debt in the lending on land in the Usa. Funny?

We are where we are.

What an inglorious mess we are creating, what an ignorant view of creation.

Economics is a heartless science.

The heart and soul is in the creation itself and we are part of it.

Rock on!

MugaBE a human being

MugaBE a slave

MugaBE a freedom fighter

MugaBE a liberator

MugaBE a hero

MugaBE a president by the will of the people

MugaBE a despot

MugaBE a tyrant

MugaBE a thug

MugaBE surrounded by thugs

ZimbabWE enslaved

MugaBE deposed by the will of the people

ZimbabWE free.

By unquestionable necessity this universe is an image of something.

Mentioned in the Olympic Charter are great principles; respect for universal ethics, harmonious development of man and peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity, sport is at the service of humanity and thereby promotes peace. All very laudable aspirations, not unlike the charter of human rights, and the charter of Humanbeings.

 We hear calls for politics not to be interfering with sport but this line cannot be upheld. The whole Olympic movement has been overtaken with vast commercial interests, never more so than this year in Bejing, with huge sponsorship coming from the major wetern capitalist corporations, itching to make inroads into China’s vast population of consumers and China’s new direction towards embracing some of those capitalist ideologies. And China itself, at present a one party autocratic government trying to keep its people super nationalistic, patriotic and proud of their party and country. They are looking to make their mark politically, commercially and sporting at their Olympic games.

The last thing China needs or wants is the eye of the world, the republic of conscience, looking at Tibet and questioning its human rights record.

This is exactly the right time. Those of us who care about fundamental human rights, in this the 50th anniversary year of the charter, should make as much noise and create as many waves as we can to highlight the injustices being perpetrated, not just in China but in Daifur, Zimbabwe and anywhere else human beings are being denied freedom.

First article of the Declaration drafted in 1948,

” All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood”

Around this time, very shortly after the cataclysmic world wars, the seeds were being sown for some long lasting troubles which are bearing rotten fruit today, the settlement in Palestine, and the Chinese invasion of Tibet.

More anon.