The Tolpuddle Martyrs – Pride in the fight for social justice.

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Opher

Tolpuddle Martyrs

In 19th century Britain it was illegal to organise in order to gain better working conditions and pay. In the 1830s the industrial revolution had created a surplus of workers which had resulted to wages being lowered to starvation level.
In Tolpuddle, a small village in Dorset, a group of farm labourers formed a collective to argue for fair pay. They refused to work for the reduced rates.
Six of them were arrested and charged with organising. They were sentenced to seven years deportation to Australia.
There was a public outcry, a petition signed by 800,000 and a march on London.
It was the first successful protest.
The sentences were commuted. All but one (with a previous criminal record) were released.

It is right to remember that our rights and freedoms come at a price. Our unions had to be fought for. The establishment gives neither wealth nor power freely and just as readily takes it back given a chance.

Donald Trump’s refusal to back Third World contraception programmes yet another travesty!!

Posted on July 11, 2017July 11, 2017 by Opher

The orange ape has dealt yet another blow to the environment and mankind. He really is an imbecile who does not care about nature, poverty, the third world or human misery. He seems intent on his narrow arrogant path.

Pulling out of the Paris agreement was the act of a lunatic. It means that the USA, instead of setting an example, is leading the world in polluting and irresponsible destruction of nature. He doesn’t give a hoot about climate warming or the effects of his pollution on nature. Like all climate warming deniers and deniers of the damage we are doing to nature, he simply ascribes it to ‘fake news’.

In the Third World women are suffering the life drudgery of multiple births. Not only is this bad for their health and economic situation, it is terrible for the environment. The world population is soaring, the environment is being trashed, poverty is destroying lives. Millions of babies live in filth and neglect. The situation is dire and is fuelling war and mass migration. Women have no control over their fertility.

Instead of dealing with poverty, migration and war at its source, by enabling these women to seize control of their fertility and reduce the size of their families, Trump is gleefully walking away from the problem and consigning millions to lives of misery and more pollution and environmental destruction.

The man makes me want to puke.

The intelligent thing to do with Brexit.

Posted on July 10, 2017 by Opher

I am someone who thinks that Brexit is the biggest own goal this country has ever made in its history. That it will severely damage our economy and world standing and isolate and reduce us as a nation. I also believe that the inward looking mentality will be detrimental to the psychology of the nation.

However, there are many unknowns in this process. I may be wrong. Perhaps there will not be tariffs? Perhaps the number of firms and banks fleeing the country will not be as many as predicted? Perhaps we can negotiate good deals with the world and our economy won’t be destroyed? Perhaps cooperation on the environment, terrorism, science, education, human rights and the rest will not be badly impaired. Instead of an emotional or ideological stance it seems to me that it is logical to apply intelligence to the decision making as things becomes apparent.

As Brexit progresses it becomes increasingly clear that it is an extremely complex process and a very expensive process.

Nobody was able to tell what the cost and problems connected with Brexit were going to be at the beginning. They certainly were not flagged up in the referendum campaign. As we go along these are becoming clearer. We’ll see if it is worth it.

There will be an exit cost – as we meet the commitments we are signed up to. I have read the figure of £100 Billion. I do not know how accurate that is.
There will likely be tariffs imposed on goods exchanged with the EU.
The car industry export/import arrangements will need clarifying
Banking and commerce agreements will need negotiating
Managing the Euro happens in London – will it remain?
There is, and will be, the effect on the pound.
There are environmental agreements and legislation to be agreed (pollution, air quality, conservation projects etc.)
There are human rights issues to be agreed.
Employment issues to be sorted.
Scientific research and cooperation issues and agreements to be made
Space and aviation cooperation and issues to be sorted
Travel arrangements and visas between us and the EU need negotiating
Right of entry, work permits and residence need to be set up
Police cooperation against crime needs sorting
Intelligence cooperation against terrorism needs agreeing
Armed forces cooperation for mutual protection needs sorting
Rights of EU citizens in the UK need addressing
Rights of British citizens in the EU need addressing
The open border in Ireland
There are fishing agreements to be sorted and quotas to be arranged
There are student access arrangements to be made – both ways
There are trading arrangement and agreements to be negotiated with the rest of the world.
Farming subsidies
Inner city subsidies
Other subsidies now coming from the EU for projects and development.

All this is just the start of it. Enough to keep an army of lawyers and civil servants in business for many years.

At some point the costs of all this will become clear. At some point the extent of cooperation/isolation will become clear. At some point it will be clear if we are going to make up the trade loss with the EU by deals with the world. At some point the situation regarding treaties and cooperation with become apparent.

At that point we will be in a position to make an informed judgement of the costs and benefits of leaving the EU.

At that point I hope that the government will come to its senses. They need to evaluate the cost and ask if it is in the country’s interest to continue.

If the cost is not too great and the benefits look good – then we proceed.

If the cost is too high and the benefits look dubious – then we pull out.

Ideology and emotion shouldn’t get in the way.

I would also hope that at this point the government gives the population a vote on the deal.

I hope I am wrong but I see us careering full tilt at the rocks. Brexit is already a nightmare and we’re not anywhere near it yet. It has cost us a lot of money. The worst is yet to come.

Intelligence – not dogma, emotion or lies.

Theresa May Clings like a Limpet.

Posted on July 10, 2017 by Opher

Theresa May clings to the edge of the precipice like a desperate limpet. Behind her the storms are raging as the hard right, under the dastardly Davis, Fox and Rees-Mogg, plot to prise her fingers loose and toss her into the abyss. Gove struts around like a gleeful golem and the knives are being sharpened. On the moderate wing they are also sharpening their talons as they begin to wake up and enter the fray. They want an end to austerity and the future of the country put before dogma, they want an end to the public sector pay cuts and the economy put first in Brexit talks. Some even want the government to fall. The battle has begun and the pounding breakers will undoubtedly dislodge May. The fight will be bloody.

Meanwhile the country waits as the Tory party shapes up to tear itself apart. In the land of sanity, where power isn’t the only currency, everyone watches with horror as the country lurches into chaos and a floundering future. As the full impact of Brexit becomes clearer by the day and the massive cost of extricating ourselves from the treaties and collaborations becomes transparent, we are being cast against the rocks by power-mad politicians who put themselves and their party first.

There is money for the DUP bung but not for the nurses, teachers and other heroes. There is always money to prop up the dogma and lust for power. If it comes to tax cuts for the rich or the corporations they simply rob the poor, disabled and public servants. They disgust me.

What a farce. I hope that buffoon Boris, whose lies, got us into this mess and is already costing us dear, is ashamed. He jettisoned his own principles, reversed his position, knifed his colleagues, and put his own lust for power before the good of his country and the party.

Brexit is a disaster. It will prove the costliest mistake in the long history of Britain and hasten our demise as a world power and major economy. It has sold our children into an uncertain future. All for vain glory and a harking back to Dunkirk (another disaster) and a time that never was.

I just wish that Jeremy Corbyn, who will shortly be Prime Minister, will come to his senses and put a halt to the madness. Brexit is a mistake. It needs stopping. The cost, in so many ways, financial and an array of others, is far far too high.

Stamp out this evil trade in ivory that has decimated the elephant and rhino populations.

Posted on July 9, 2017 by Opher

Shut down ivory island

Rewan Al-Haddad – Avaaz

The biggest ivory market in the world could pass an ivory ban — let’s make it happen.

Hong Kong has more ivory items for sale than anywhere in the world — it’s fueling a poaching crisis the could drive elephants extinct in a decade! But the government is very close to officially banning this awful trade, let’s put the pressure on — and shut down ivory island!

SIGN NOW

Dear friends,

The biggest ivory bust in history just happened in Hong Kong. It’s heartbreaking — likely over 2000 elephants were slaughtered for that one shipment, only to end up as little trinkets on people’s coffee tables!

Hong Kong is like ivory island — the industry is booming there which means as long as it’s legal, more and more beautiful elephants will be slaughtered. At this rate, they could be extinct in 10 years!

The government is very close to officially banning this awful trade, but are now stalling because industry lobbyists are fighting back hard. If we build a massive global push for the ban now, we can drown out the lobbyists’ baseless arguments and save thousand more elephants from slaughter.

When a million join, Avaaz will plaster Hong Kong with ads and deliver our call straight to Parliament!

Tell Hong Kong officials: the world wants them to ban ivory for good!

China’s already passed a ban on ivory, which is a huge step forward to protect elephants. But since it’s still legal in Hong Kong, citizens just hop over and buy their knick-knacks from there instead. Mainlanders make up 90% of Hong Kong’s bustling ivory market!

So if we want to really save elephants from extinction, we have to get Hong Kong to crackdown on the market. And we really can do this — there’s already genuine political will to pass the ban, now we need a crazy huge outcry to show officials that the entire world is calling on them to ban ivory.

There was a time when 25 million elephants roamed around Africa. Now an elephant dies every 15 minutes! It’s outrageous and tragic all at once. But right now we have one of the best chances to help protect elephants for generations to come. Add your name and tell everyone:

Tell Hong Kong officials: the world wants them to ban ivory for good!

Our planet’s precious biodiversity is in crisis, and we’re in a fight against time. If we don’t stand up for the elephants again and again, they won’t last another generation. It’s up to us, let’s not let these beautiful creatures down.

With hope,
Rewan, Danny, Nataliya, Luca and the entire Avaaz team

More information:

Hong Kong launches bill to ban domestic ivory trade (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/26/hong-kong-launches-bill-ban-domestic-ivory-trader

An African ranger’s message to Hong Kong’s ivory traders: Stop this now, “preferably today” (Quartz)
https://qz.com/999635/african-ranger-erick-mararvs-message-hong-kongs-ivory-trade-stop-now/

Ivory buyers will ‘wipe out elephants in 10 years’ says wildlife expert, pointing blame at Chinese traders (South China Morning Post)
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/2097336/wildlife-crime-expert-appeals-hong-kong-government

Elephants on the path to extinction (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/12/elephants-on-the-path-to-extinction-the-facts

Animal Rights – Plant Rights – Human Rights

Posted on July 8, 2017 by Opher

Animal Rights – Plant Rights – Human Rights

Around 3 billion years ago a wondrous thing happened. The Earth had been cooling for a couple of billion years and conditions conspired to create something incredible. The first simple life-form was produced.

The chances of that happening are so slight that it is possible that out of all the planets circling the 400 billion stars in our own galaxy this is the only instance where life has spontaneously formed. It could be that we are the only life in any of the two trillion galaxies that we know of.

Life is something special.

From that one single cell of life the whole spectrum of life on this planet has evolved – from the simplest to the most complex.

What we have all around us comes from that first cell. We are all its children.

No plant or animal is more evolved than any other. We have all been around for exactly the same time.

Only humans would apply a value system to life. We try to create a hierarchy of importance.

We place plants at the bottom of the scale, then bacteria, then we work our way up through worms, slugs, insects to fish, then through amphibian, reptiles and birds to mammals – through mammals to monkeys then apes and finally us – human beings – the crown of creation. Some people don’t even accept that we are animals and related to everything else. Somehow we were uniquely created by a deity. We are not part of this at all.

Except this is nonsense. Nothing is more important than anything else. We humans are just animals. We have merely organised living things according to their similarity to ourselves. In a biological sense plants are the highest form of life. Their cellular complexities is hundreds of times more complex than that of any human cell. We place a premium on intelligence. Consciousness and intelligence are merely survival characteristics evolved by organisms – nothing more.

I don’t mean to belittle the wonder of consciousness and intelligence – they are phenomenal. I merely point out that they are one of many equally fabulous wonders that life possesses. They are no more special.

Likewise we cannot know the level of consciousness of other creatures or even plants. We can only surmise.

Personally I believe we will soon discover that plants have a consciousness that is quite as good as ours. We will see.

The argument that I am making is that life is too fabulous to treat with the disdain that we have been treating it. We should be worshipping all of it for the wonder it is and protecting it with all our might.

I am a big advocate of human rights – but I am a bigger advocate of the rights of the rest of the spectrum of life. I think it is foolish to make distinction.

The message I would send is – protect nature, protect the plants and animals around us, conserve the wilderness and diversity. They all have as much importance and rights as we do.

This is what I have to say about the destruction we are doing to nature and a way forward.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anthropocene-Apocalypse-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1502427079/ref=la_B00MSHUX6Y_1_13?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478174075&sr=1-13

Burton Agnes Jazz and Blues Festival 2017 – Kaz Hawkins

Posted on July 5, 2017 by Opher

Straight out of the Belfast delta complete with bowler hats the larger than life Kaz Hawkins stormed the festival with her powerful vocals and extravagant personality. With her great flouncy dress and headscarf she added a degree of bounce, flair and bravado that took the whole scene ten notches higher.

If there was a prize for personality of the festival Kaz would win it hands down. She was visually and aurally dynamite!! What a performance. I don’t know about Etta James and Janis Joplin but when Kaz sings ‘I Just Want To Make Love to You’ you know you’d be in for a night!

This was good stompin’ bluesy R&B!!

Burton Agnes Jazz and Blues Festival 2017 – Claire Martin and Ray Gelato

Posted on July 5, 2017 by Opher

Well I love ice-cream – gelatos are creamy and smooth – but not as smooth as Ray!!

After the power of the New York Brass Band we were into the ultrasmooth, silky tones of Claire and Ray and their standards. From raw to sophistication.

Burton Agnes Jazz and Blues Festival 2017 – New York Brass Band

Posted on July 5, 2017 by Opher

Well if the people won’t come to the music then take the music to the people. That is what the New York Brass Band did. After a short blast on stage they proceeded to wend their way through the crowd honking, blasting and wailing. Massed brass, weaving in and out was pretty inspiring. They got the crowd going for sure. With their bright tartan trews and exuberant style they swung with funky style.

Oh – and they weren’t from New York and they played New Orleans style. That’s an enigma.