Well Done Marcus Rashford!!

Posted on by Opher

Marcus is a person who has put a lot of time and effort into helping others. He’s used his status and position to do good things. One has to respect that!

He has shamed the Tories into taking care of children in abject poverty. To their eternal shame the Tories are presiding over a country in which a staggering four million children live in poverty. Two thirds of them live in working families who simply do not earn enough. Poor wages have become a symptom of Tory rule. For the world’s sixth richest country that is appalling.

During these hard days of Covid 19, with families being thrown out of work and life becoming harder, those food vouchers are a lifeline. The government simply did not care.

It took a footballer to bring it to everyone’s attention. Good for Marcus Rashford!! More power to him!!

While the fascist racist thugs are out on the streets with their selfish agenda, caring people like Marcus are doing their thing for a better country.

Hopefully the man hasn’t forgotten his roots and this concern is genuine. I think it is.

Well done Marcus Rashford!! There will be millions of children who will be indebted to you!! (Could you also put in a few goals in the next few weeks??)

Photography – South Africa – The other side – crowding, squalor, townships, poverty.

Posted on by Opher

Photography – South Africa – The other side – crowding, squalor, townships, poverty.

When you cross the road from the beauty and lavish housing of Stellenbosch you find the Townships where the poor blacks live – shanty towns of corrugated iron. There is huge overcrowding, poverty, violence and deprivation.

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These are the toilets for the whole Township. They empty via a pipe straight out into the ocean. Millions of gallons of raw untreated sewage forms a huge brown slick along the coast.

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These are some of the friendly denizens of the township.

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This is the white area of Stellenbosch.

The inequality and racism needs addressing!!

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

Posted on 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.

Economic facts to consider – I believe there is an election looming! Why I vote Labour.

Posted on by Opher

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I am presently reading Owen Jones fascinating book – Chavs. I was immediately taken by a few facts from the preface which I believe are relevant.

  • In 2011 living standards for the average Briton declined at the fastest rate since the 1920s.
  • In the same 2011 boardroom pay for Britain’s top one hundred companies soared by 49% (The previous year it had soared by a staggering 55%).
  • The wealth of Britain’s richest 1000 increased by 20% after leaping up by 30% the previous year.
  • The claim by Cameron and Osborn that we are ‘All in this together’ is both ludicrous and offensive.
  • The poor suffer a triple whammy of benefit, services and support cuts
  • The result is food banks, zero hours exploitation and return of childhood illnesses associated with severe poverty
  • The record of this coalition government is the worst poverty record of any government for a generation.

The mantra of austerity is has been an excuse to bring in huge swathes of Tory dogma driven ideology that favour the rich and greatly reduce public services.

It is obvious to me that if you wish to reduce debt you cut the excess bureaucracy and glitz and leave the essentials. You do not bring in great change because all change costs money.

This government, despite having no mandate, has brought in huge dogma driven change that is immensely disruptive and costly. Under the guise of improving and austerity they have cut to the bone and created demoralisation and disarray thus reducing effective opposition.

Their cuts and low pay exploitation have resulted in tax reductions so we are still borrowing at an even greater rate and the debt is not paid off.

The alternative is to trim with realistic cuts. Not bring in huge changes and to stimulate growth. Growth pays off the debt! It is not rocket science.

Who has benefitted? – the rich

who have been shafted? The poor and public services

That’s the nasty party.

And you tell me your vote does not count – they’re all as bad as each other?

I trust none of them. They are politicians. Labour has done some stupid things – but the nasty party are cynical, clinical and ruthless.

It’s the lesser of two evils for me! I believe in fairness and justice

Just think of our potential?

Posted on by Opher

MountainGorilla

If you can just imagine for one minute the potential of human beings. If we were for once able to put aside the hatred, greed, selfishness, religious and political fanaticism, racism, and arrogance and pool our mental resources to deal with the world’s problems we could solve anything.

World Population crisis.

War.

Religious conflict.

Poverty.

Third World exploitation.

Clash of political ideology.

Environmental devastation.

Energy crisis.

Limited resources.

There’s not a single thing that there isn’t a solution to. All it takes is the will, the financial resources, political will and unity.

I put my faith in the United Nations charter of Human Rights. If we do not start to think globally then we have no hope.

My greatest sorrow is for the billions of animals that we are decimating on a daily basis. We are butchering these wild animals for food, destroying their habitat, taking over their territory, eating their food, shooting them for pleasure and leaving them nowhere to go. I fear we are at a cross-roads. If we do not start to address the issues right now it will be too late for so many of them. I personally do not want to live on a world where we are responsible for mass extinction. It’s too horrible to contemplate.

Help form a positive zeitgeist. Help put it right before it is too late!

I believe we can make a difference.