eagle on a beach

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Freedom is a word with a lot of baggage in America. Think about free speech! The land of the free. The free market. Kris Kristofferson, who died this week, famously sang – “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” Americans are inundated with this term and have been since the inception of their country. What is freedom? According to the Oxford Dictionary:

1. The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants. “we do have some freedom of choice” Similar: right to entitlement to privilege prerogative due

2. the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved. “the shark thrashed its way to freedom”Continue Reading

Big Ears Had To Bow Out From Noddy: The Woke Conspiracy.

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‘If you don’t know, vote No!’ This tag line from the recent Voice referendum captures succinctly the political stratagem of the conservative right. Turning ignorance and indifference into celebrated public virtues in a bid to capture the vote of the dominant white cohort. The sustained attack on all things ‘woke’ is part and parcel of this 21C campaign. Identifying examples of woke in workplaces and public life have been vote winners for socially conservative candidates and parties. I remember it began with things like the apparent banning of racially offensive terminology from children’s books. Niggers and gollywogs were the first to get the chop. White folk were upset about the removal and amendments of characters and aspects from much loved stories from their childhoods. Big Ears had to bow out from Noddy: The woke conspiracy. Roald Dahl stories were full of inappropriate and politically incorrect characters and terminology. There was this air of ‘how dare they!’ The majority white view was – can’t these people take a joke. Of course, this is the problem in a nutshell, because unless you are in the shoes of those being racially slurred you have no idea what it feels like.Continue Reading

#UNGA President Donald J. Trump

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America is the great democratic experiment. Although, this is getting on for some 250 years now. This nation is in the grip of the politics of grievance. Partisan politics in America is more about hating the other side than particularly loving the side you are voting for. Americans have been encouraged to focus their attention upon their grievances via decades of negative campaigning and attack ads. Demonizing ‘the other’ is the favoured political pastime in the 21C. Identity politics and social values are the main game these days. Economic issues are now seen through this ideological filter.Continue Reading

Poverty (Armut), (1919) by Aloys

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I have been reading a detailed account of the slavery of Indigenous Indians in the Americas from the 15C onwards. They call it the ‘other slavery’ because most of us are more aware of the enslavement of Africans. The slave states in the southern states of the USA have been the focus of many books and movies. What happened to the native Indians, apart from their extermination via massacres, warfare, and disease, is less well known. The Spanish Empire was the first and most heavily involved colonial European power in the Americas and the Caribbean.Continue Reading

love metal connection chrome

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Imagine that your parent’s or grandparent’s house was invaded by bad men and their wealth and property was stolen. In addition, they were forced to work for these marauders, as were their children, without pay. Some time later on, you find yourself walking down the street and come across that house. It has been done up with lots of improvements and manicured gardens. Ask yourself how you would feel about the situation and the owners of the property now. These are the circumstances many Black people find themselves in. The progeny of gross injustices committed not so long ago in the bigger scheme of things. The profits of slavery and the recompense owed is something we need to talk about.Continue Reading