"It's no secret anymore that for every nine barrels of oil we consume, we are only discovering one."-The BP Statistical Review of World Energy - January 9th, 2008
The world is addicted to oil. In just 8 years, it's projected the world will be consuming nearly 50,000 gallons of oil every second.
By that time, the world won't be able to meet the projected demand... for one simple reason: We're using up oil at breakneck speed.
Governments control 80% of the world's oil, and governments go to war".
While evaluating the significance of the text above consider how nations and multi national corporations have been able to manoeuvre their way into owning huge stocks of one of the worlds greatest assets and one which is vital to all human beings – water. Unlike oil, water has no known substitutes. Increasingly conflict arises out of the need for water, especially in areas where water is in short supply such as the Middle East, Asia and sub- Saharan Africa.
Surely then it is entirely realistic to consider that it in the not too distant future another terrible war will be waged ostensibly for western style democracy but in reality as a cloak for the control of water. "Whisky is for drinking, water is for fighting over," Mark Twain
The face of war has changed. At this time we no longer fear invasion. The island mentality has probably helped us to develop a false sense of security based on experience of past war. During the Second World War the area I live in was continually bombed during the Blitz on London. For most of us war is a long way away from our hearths and homes but surely the War for oil is beginning to take effect on all our lives. Perhaps it begins with shock at the number of “our boys” coming home in body bags, some of them killed by so called "friendly fire". It gets worse when we find that “ our boys” do not have adequate equipment for the job. It gets still worse when we hear of the atrocities committed by “our boys” in the name of democratic principles. Finally the penny drops that the perpetrators of this war and the sponsors of institutional oppression are virtually untouchable and care nothing at all for “our boys”. Even people who ummed and ah’d about this in the hope that things could not be as bad as that and regard people like me as pinko pessimists have realised this system of government is ruinous.
Our enemies in the world have multiplied and the duplicity of the UK government along with that of the USA and others has resulted in a massively underestimated drain on our resources and an increased lack of security. Our collective responsibility is coming home to roost. We consume at a greater rate than the rest of the world put together and we consume huge amounts of oil. Few of us can still have any illusions regarding the imperialism around the control of oil. So much UK/US foreign policy suggests and fosters the idea that the people of who won't give up their oil and their sovereignty are less than us. They are less valuable than us and some of them are expendable. They grieve for their loved ones like us and yet we wonder why they want to bomb us . They count even less now because basically they ( terrorists ) want to behave in a way extremely different from the way we profess to. Once this is mooted it seems we can do what we like. The evidential images are every where to be seen. We flout international conventions on human rights. We murder and torture people until we get what we want. Is this not also part of the mentality of the street thug? After Ashley Cole’s most recent disgraceful tackle a well known and respected football manager asked "how can there not be a link between this kind of violence on the football field and the problems in our society?”? So what kind of link exists between Governmental violence and that in the streets and among the people? What ever this government says the violent crime figures are soaring and the culprits get younger. We are in steep decline. There is no social work though there are social workers, hospitals are filthy and no one can spell. It seems the main assertion of this government is that most of the time we can all do with out. As long as the boxes are ticked eh ? Right Gordon?
As carefully government managed, pseudo prosperity begins to fail in a fractured society a burgeoning underclass, with out leader ship and unified organisation, may turn in on itself and make victims of it’s own. The victims are already identified as immigrants, gypsies, travellers. and any one different including all minorities. Some groups are often portrayed in our free democratic press in such a way that makes them seem unworthy and less than us. Ring a bell? A domestic version of UK foreign policy? Once this is achieved it can seem normal that people live as second class citizens. Still you can hear the cry "They should think themslves lucky to be here". People who should be standing together are divided.
Perhaps we will have to wait until major recession gets us off our bums to moan and grumble a lot about some thing other than lending rates and other delusional trivia. Hopefully we will wake up in time to instigate or agitate the changes. There has to be fundamental change to the way the whole thing works and the way we interact with rest of the world including our new neighbours from Europe. With out a usable set of principled values we will be lost. We are at war with half of the world. This is not sustainable. We just can’t quite see it yet.
Much that is happening to people today was projected in writings up to sixty or more years ago. You have probably read some of it. Back then people laughed it off as science fiction. Entertaining but “ it couldn't ever happen”. Super Chip? Who would want to believe it?
Fifty years ago the symbol for the anti nuclear protest movement was born. The designer Gerald Holtom was a former World War II conscientious objector. The design was meant to symbolise a human being in despair with arms outstretched downwards. Since the “ ban the bomb” symbol came to being it has become a world symbol for peace. On Easter Monday next the fiftieth CND demo will be held at Aldermaston. http://www.cnduk.org/ We are still allowed to protest in some areas of the UK you know.
Still on the general subject of change and protest, some one recently suggested I change the back drop of this blog from black to a more cheery hue. Bollocks !
Any one for a nice, cooling glass of gourmet rated (shhhh!) London tap water ?
Peace in Tibet
copyright e d g a r b r o u g h t o n 2008
The harbour is still an evocative place for me. I always think of all the many sailors who set sail from there down the centuries. The clipper in the photo is the one on the Bandages sleeve.
The people look well and affluent. Norway is a very wealthy country and appears to have retained its individual character with out losing its connection with the rest of Europe. We flew out on the Friday evening and arrived at around 11 oclock. We settled in to our hotel rooms and stayed up quite late doing what the EBB does at such times. Later we walked down to The Garage to check things out. It was obviously a well appointed venue and the list of people having played there is quite a who’s who of contemporary stars.
You might have read about the truck crash and subsequent theft of some of my gear in the previous blog. While at the club our old friend Dennis showed me an old Marshall speaker cabinet ( pictured above on the left ) that I had lost in that crash. It had the legend Eb 1 on the back which Steve remembered painting. I must admit I felt a bit odd when next day, as we set up equipment, it was wheeled out as part of my back line. It did sound nice though. I have decided to appeal to The Garage to return it to me so we will have to wait to see what happens. Watch this space.
Dennis worked tirelessly all day dealing with every thing thrown at him by the band and local crew. The sound engineer Runne ( hope I spelt that right ) was very professional and achieved a good out front sound with out any fuss. Some of the onstage monitoring wasn’t to every ones liking but it was great for me.
My thanks to Vemund Grimstad for the three photos above taken during the show.
