No Money for Education!

Posted on by Opher

The USA remains one of the worst educated countries – unless you are rich and can afford one of the top schools. The general population is ignorant of science and maths and has a low literacy rate. Ranked 31st in the world way behind the UK and other European countries.

Despite being the world’s top economy there is no money for education because the Billionaires take a huge proportion (increased their wealth by 60% while ordinary people struggle) and a huge chunk goes on WAR!!

Since the war began on February 28, U.S. forces have launched more than 7,800 airstrikes targeting Iran’s navy, missile stockpiles and defence infrastructure

Missile TypeApprox. CostSource
ICBM (Sentinel program)$141 billion (program cost)
Standard Missile‑2 (SM‑2)~$2 million each
Cruise missilesBetween $1.8 million and $2 million,
S‑500 system$2.5 billion

So next time you see those missiles going off in Iran – each one is a school!

Build Them Up

Posted on by Opher

Build Them Up

Build them up

                Knock them down

Village, city

                House and town

Human beings

                Primitive apes

Psychotic minds

                No escapes

Huge expense

                Complete waste

Madness reigns

                Dangers faced

Shells fired

                Bombs dropped

Bullets fly

                Insults swapped

Lies spoken

                Power struggle

Lives lost

                Families broken

Build them up

                Knock them down

Village, city

                House and town

Opher 22.2.2022

There is a major flaw in human nature. We are forever at war. We always think it’s the easy solution. We have to assert ourselves violently.

We elect belligerent leaders.

We like inflicting pain.

We think violence is alright.

Periodically we destroy each other and ourselves.

Just think what a world we could build if all the money spent on this endless war machine was spent on education and eradicating poverty. Just think.

This is madness.

There is no excuse.

This is really madness.

We build things up and we destroy them.

We terrify each other and traumatise generations.

There can be no excuse.

It is madness.

The Incredible cost of war!!

Posted on by Opher

I was just trawling through the web trying to see what the losses and costs of the Ukraine war were.

Staggering!!

 ‘According to a Nato official who spoke to NBC on condition of anonymity, up to 40,000 Russian troops were either killed, injured, had been captured or had disappeared. Between 7,000 and 15,000 are thought to have been killed, the officials said as he shared Nato’s latest intelligence assessment on the war in Ukraine.’

Losses of equipment:

TypeNumber destroyedUnit costTotal cost
Tanks647$3.7 million$2384 million
Planes77$30 million$2310 million
Artillery systems330$14.5 million$4785 million
Helicopters50£17 million£850 million
     $10,349 million

That’s without the cost of the missiles, shells, drones, bullets, fuel, trucks, bowsers and other equipment.

Just think what a difference that sort of money could have made?

The Iraq war cost the USA $1.922 trillion.

The Afghan war cost the USA $5.8 trillion.

No wonder so many of us are poor!!

We are utterly mad!! Instead of building a better world we are destroying it!!

Poetry – Reality is Death

Posted on by Opher

Reality is Death

Stability is the illusion.

Reality is transience.

Mud and blood

Banishing all innocence.

On the battlefields

                The innocent are sacrificed.

In games of power

                Nothing less will suffice.

Brick and mortar made of dirt,

                Built to the sky with sweat.

Missiles and bombs

                Pulverise with threats.

A world run by madness;

                The chaos of war,

Leaves one wondering

                What civilisation is for?

Opher – 27.3.2022

We have been the lucky generation – living our days in peace and stability. It felt as if the world was safe; that we were getting better. How easily that security was undone.

We are never secure.

The world is a dangerous place. We are the most dangerous element of all.

History is littered with our madness, lust for power and greed.

So much is destroyed in an endless cycle of violence.

We build our cities up. We knock them down and rebuild.

What a waste.

So much money that could have been used to create, to improve, to make lives better, to make the world better. Instead we go through this endless cycle of barbarity!

Poetry – An Endless Poem

Posted on by Opher

An Endless Poem

Endless seas

To sail to infinity and over the edge

To dump our garbage and swill

With ease.

Endless skies

To carry the sighs of our smoke

And the winds would carry off ours woes

And cries.

Endless trees

Forests like oceans of waving pleas

To chop and clear and burn

As we please.

Endless water

For our industrial waste to sully

The crystal clear gully with sour taste

And never falter

Endless meat

To tease and tame, butcher and kill

To have our fill and leave to rot

Not eat.

Endless room

To spread into and conquer.

Wilderness and forest both incur

The gloom.

Endless life

To squander, waste and fill

With party kisses, frivolity without taste

And strife.

But now it is our numbers that are endless

Our technology that reduces space and time

We have machines to commit any crime

Endless has an end that is far less.

Opher 19.1.2015

An Endless Poem

Everywhere I look there are people, slums, dirt, garbage and beauty. Such a short while ago the planet was so huge, the great oceans a voyage of years and the endless jungles impenetrable. The waters were pure and life in such teeming abundance that we took it all for granted. Beauty was extant.

Beauty is there but it is on the run. Where it is preserved it is tidied up and served up to be consumed and devoured by the hordes. Nowhere is inaccessible. We are a sphere of tourist attraction.

And still the numbers grow, the human tide sweeps through the beautiful and leaves a wake of plastic and concrete, garbage and shit.

Every time I hear of a new vaccine or scientific invention that will save countless lives I sigh. The one thing we do not need is more people. Perhaps the plague would be preferable?

I do not like feeling that. On the personal level I can appreciate the agony of sickness and death, particularly for our children. I am filled with compassion. I would sacrifice anything for mine. But I fear we are sacrificing the world and it is too high a price.

There are too many of us.

What was once endless is now palpably limited. Yet we continue to plunder, destroy, slaughter and pollute as if it was infinite.

In my short life I have witnessed destruction of the environment on an industrial scale. The common animals become rare or extinct and the wilderness is tamed.

The world has changed from an infinite universe to a tiny ball in space.

Still our numbers grow, nature is destroyed and we carry on mindlessly.