The Hindu cow - Shambo - is dead. Where are the the protests? Where are the Hindus marching on the streets of Cardiff burning the Welsh flag? Where is the Government appeasers desperately trying to hush the marchers advocating mass murder?
Oh wait, there are none.
So, we have an interesting moment appearing here. 18 months ago, a cartoonist in DENMARK published some cartoons satirising Mohammed (not unlike the thousands of cartoons that have satirised Jesus, Bhudda, Vishnu etc) and there is anarchy on the streets of London from "extremists" and "religious fundamentalists".
So, if a cartoon in Denmark caused that, why, when a key part of the faith is removed from the temple, taken away and MURDERED, are there no massive protests, no flag burnings (here or in India) and no advocation of violence or murder against the Welsh people or their Assembly?
If the Islamic faith had a similar kind of deification of an animal, and it could potenially be a public health risk, do you think such an unfortunate situation would be resolved in such a calm way?
It's intersting that there hasn't been any massive media coverage of this either. No newspaper enduced hysteria. No screaming 10 o'clock bulletins. To be fair you can't blame them. I mean, in terms of a sensational story, cartoons will get far more attention than the slaughter of a sacred icon. Right?
Or is it that without media fanned flames and fewer psychopaths in their midst, people can look at things with a bit more of a mature, 21st century view instead of one that seemed to be popular around the time of the Inquisition.
Maybe, being the worlds oldest religion still practised today (predating Christianity by around two millenia (surely that gives them the rights to any and all theories on God and soul saving then)) they've learnt to live with the rest of the world, rather than try to convert it.
Friday, 27 July 2007
Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Eat Me, Drink Me - Inspired By
It’s a wasteland…. An endless, unforgiving wasteland… I see nothing but sand and steel. Grains of dust, and chunks of reflection. Blank, blue sky and a blank of yellow desert that is nothing other than what she chose. It houses the gates of her Eternal Thorne. The most to be seen is one shrub a few miles away. This is the desert she decided upon. The desert that The Red Queen fashioned for herself. This used to be a rainforest. An endless expanse of lush greenery. It housed the oldest tree on Earth. The rarest of the species. This was the house of paradise. Now it’s nothing.
Now all I see before me is sandy desert. A nothingness of wind and dust. It hurts to know what this once was. The trees in her courtyard are painted in blood because there is no other liquid to paint their steel shells with. I stand before the Red Throne. Guilty of buying into her future.
Then our star rushed in; feeling like a child, but looking like the woman. She was no longer a soul. She was the Red Queen’s pawn. Another pawn used over the centuries. She screamed and cried. The press cried out. She invited us to a beheading. We felt like butterflies by the flame. We dashed to the site. Eager. Hopeful. A celebrity had been forecast with an attempt to kill herself. The ending had not tested well.
But no one cared.
We watch. We wait. We hope the blade will fall. We long to hear the sound of shearing flesh. It slices through the skin and scales and bone. But as her head fell… We felt our horror mirrored in the sundown of her blank stare.
We had sold our souls to The Queen. We were now her. Nothing but morbid husks of flesh. We were all the stranded and the spectators of the great coup. We bought into the future without ever living the present that led into it. We were the slaves. We are the pawns. We bought into Her fame. Bought into the fame she granted to others. And sold our own to facilitate her infinity.
We sold our souls for the spectacle… And found the lonely sound.
Now all I see before me is sandy desert. A nothingness of wind and dust. It hurts to know what this once was. The trees in her courtyard are painted in blood because there is no other liquid to paint their steel shells with. I stand before the Red Throne. Guilty of buying into her future.
Then our star rushed in; feeling like a child, but looking like the woman. She was no longer a soul. She was the Red Queen’s pawn. Another pawn used over the centuries. She screamed and cried. The press cried out. She invited us to a beheading. We felt like butterflies by the flame. We dashed to the site. Eager. Hopeful. A celebrity had been forecast with an attempt to kill herself. The ending had not tested well.
But no one cared.
We watch. We wait. We hope the blade will fall. We long to hear the sound of shearing flesh. It slices through the skin and scales and bone. But as her head fell… We felt our horror mirrored in the sundown of her blank stare.
We had sold our souls to The Queen. We were now her. Nothing but morbid husks of flesh. We were all the stranded and the spectators of the great coup. We bought into the future without ever living the present that led into it. We were the slaves. We are the pawns. We bought into Her fame. Bought into the fame she granted to others. And sold our own to facilitate her infinity.
We sold our souls for the spectacle… And found the lonely sound.
Monday, 2 July 2007
Why Terrorism Always Fails
I was originally going to video blog about this, but I can't be bothered seeing as my webcam isn't working properly.
The events of the weekend have been interesting, shocking and somewhat pleasing. Interesting to see that terrorist groups are now resorting to more desparate and amatuerish, Iraqi style car bombings to try to create... something. (Fear? Regime change? Foreign policy change? Have we had any demands?) It was shocking to see these people attempting to use such tactics, which - while far less grand in their scale and execution - are in theory much easier to pull off. It was pleasing to see that the first attempted attack was thwarted by the Metropolitan Police and that they bungled the second attempt with their own inability. And got caught, even while on fire.
To those that wish to seek war with the West and any free thinking nation or free thinking person: Let your mujahideen come and bring all the war mongering Allah you can muster. Because your barbarism, hatred and sense of inate oppression will break against the resolve of the free like water over rock.
Terrorism does not work. It fails in moreorless everything it attempts to do. The only thing it really succeeds in is creating fear, but even that is often washed aside as a more patriotic and steel willed resolve develops throughout the people who are under attack. There is not one instance in the history of human civilisation where terrorist activities alone have bought about a change in government policy (domestic or foreign), a change in the people or a change in the way a nation has been run. In every instance it has failed in its goal of trying to instigate change through the threat of violence. The times when it could be argued that it has succeeded have been times when the people of a nation have been disatisfied with their Government and its policies and have been actively seeking change.
The simple reason is that people do not like being attacked. When they are, especially when it is due to their way of life or their belief system, the only thing the attackers do is strengthen the determination of their targets in their belief that their way of life is just, their beliefs are true and their cause is noble. It does not even lead them to consider that they should change their way of life because of the threat. And thus, terrorism fails in its goal.
Apparently, we are in a war. East versus West. Islam versus Christendom. If these "warriros" want to war, then they should fight soldiers. They kill innocent people in their own land because they are an easier and more high peofile "shock" target than a soldier. Soldiers are paid to fight, civilians are not. Their get out clause to justify their actions is "You supported this war"/"You elected this regime". They conveniently ignore that many people did not support the Iraq war or the invasion of Afghanistan. They use weak rhetoric and logic to justify their cowardly acts.
But it does not matter. The United Kingdom has seen worse than this current threat. In fact, in the past thousand years, the Union has seen an invasion by the French Anglo Saxons, numerous attempted invasions from France, World War I, World War II and the IRA. The people of Great Britain have seen worse than the al-Qaeda and its cronies. They were not brow beaten by the threats of the IRA, and will not be brow beaten by the numerous foiled/bungled terror attacks by the current Middle Eastern problem.
I am no patriot. I am no nationalist. But I believe that people should be free and have the right to live however they choose, provided they harm no one else or impose their lifestyle choices on others. Britian allows this. Britain encourages this. And the people of this nation believe in this. That is why terrorism will fail.
The events of the weekend have been interesting, shocking and somewhat pleasing. Interesting to see that terrorist groups are now resorting to more desparate and amatuerish, Iraqi style car bombings to try to create... something. (Fear? Regime change? Foreign policy change? Have we had any demands?) It was shocking to see these people attempting to use such tactics, which - while far less grand in their scale and execution - are in theory much easier to pull off. It was pleasing to see that the first attempted attack was thwarted by the Metropolitan Police and that they bungled the second attempt with their own inability. And got caught, even while on fire.
To those that wish to seek war with the West and any free thinking nation or free thinking person: Let your mujahideen come and bring all the war mongering Allah you can muster. Because your barbarism, hatred and sense of inate oppression will break against the resolve of the free like water over rock.
Terrorism does not work. It fails in moreorless everything it attempts to do. The only thing it really succeeds in is creating fear, but even that is often washed aside as a more patriotic and steel willed resolve develops throughout the people who are under attack. There is not one instance in the history of human civilisation where terrorist activities alone have bought about a change in government policy (domestic or foreign), a change in the people or a change in the way a nation has been run. In every instance it has failed in its goal of trying to instigate change through the threat of violence. The times when it could be argued that it has succeeded have been times when the people of a nation have been disatisfied with their Government and its policies and have been actively seeking change.
The simple reason is that people do not like being attacked. When they are, especially when it is due to their way of life or their belief system, the only thing the attackers do is strengthen the determination of their targets in their belief that their way of life is just, their beliefs are true and their cause is noble. It does not even lead them to consider that they should change their way of life because of the threat. And thus, terrorism fails in its goal.
Apparently, we are in a war. East versus West. Islam versus Christendom. If these "warriros" want to war, then they should fight soldiers. They kill innocent people in their own land because they are an easier and more high peofile "shock" target than a soldier. Soldiers are paid to fight, civilians are not. Their get out clause to justify their actions is "You supported this war"/"You elected this regime". They conveniently ignore that many people did not support the Iraq war or the invasion of Afghanistan. They use weak rhetoric and logic to justify their cowardly acts.
But it does not matter. The United Kingdom has seen worse than this current threat. In fact, in the past thousand years, the Union has seen an invasion by the French Anglo Saxons, numerous attempted invasions from France, World War I, World War II and the IRA. The people of Great Britain have seen worse than the al-Qaeda and its cronies. They were not brow beaten by the threats of the IRA, and will not be brow beaten by the numerous foiled/bungled terror attacks by the current Middle Eastern problem.
I am no patriot. I am no nationalist. But I believe that people should be free and have the right to live however they choose, provided they harm no one else or impose their lifestyle choices on others. Britian allows this. Britain encourages this. And the people of this nation believe in this. That is why terrorism will fail.
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