Sunday 12 October 2008

Our good friend Peter Jones sent me the above pic of 38 Kipling Avenue - Warwick where Steve and I grew up. We lived there until we came south in 68 or there abouts.
Peter took most of the early black n white pics of the band until we made the move to London. We re met up with Pete ( Tufty) a couple of years ago when touring in the west country. He has recently been to Warwick to visit his Mum and took the photo then. The photo arrived by email with a comment about global warming in Warwick as evidenced by the palm tree in the front garden. I can’t help wondering what my parents would have made of that not to mention the many weird and wonderful changes that have taken place since they passed. We live in times of the greatest change and all at a increasingly rapid rate.
According to a panel advising the UK Government on climate change the UK should cut it’s gas emissions by at least80% by 2050. Hmmm !

The head of the international monetary fund has said “The world is facing financial meltdown". The scramble to fix what should never have been allowed to happen in the first place is going through the gears. It is clear that we are all subject to the greedy machinations of the International money mafia and there is nothing we can do to avoid it no matter how hard we work to be secure. We are made slaves to a failing system. We will do as we are bidden because we have no option and we will prop up the financial institutions that threaten us all with our own cash. We all know greedy speculation is chief culprit in this crisis.
Good people who have lived and worked exactly as they were bidden by the rules of our society ( I have not ) are ruined or reduced by the very people they trusted. Their pensions have never been under so much pressure and their savings have, in the most extreme cases, completely disappeared. It was naïve to think that any banks were acting in any one’s interest other than their own but we have kept our heads down because life in our neck of the woods was quite comfortable. Is it time to look for some thing better elsewhere? A better more honest way of doing business. Perhaps we should look at institutions such as The Co – Operative society where there still appears to be some kind of socialistic ethic behind the purpose of their business. Some time ago I was very interested by reports that younger people looking for work in the city of London’s financial sector were querying prospective employers connections with ethical / unethical companies / organisations. I commend this trend and suggest we should all take a good long look before we leap in all our transactions and scrutinise the people we would work with or for especially with those who you entrust with your hard earned cash.

Thanks for all the interesting emails you send me. It is very interesting to read about events in our collective past that, some times, I can hardly remember at all. It helps to fit the pieces together over time. It is fascinating how different members of the band remember slightly different bits of the story and how collectively we arrive at some semblance of what actually happened. So keep writing your reminiscences, stories and news of the now.


peace




copyright e d g a r b r o u g h t o n 2008

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gardeners (I'm no expert, just a recent convert to growing my own veg)have been aware of climate change for some years without the need for scientific data.
We can now grow tropical veg in our own gardens that we couldn't even buy in the shops when I was a kid.

Ethical banking for me, started way back in the early 70's when Barclays admitted heavy investment in South Africa, helping to prop up apartheid - I wouldn't even buy a Jaffa in those days so Barclays had to be told, in no uncertain terms that I was switching my overdraft elseswhere ! I'm not sure thay were too upset and I can't claim it directly led to the downfall of the system but it made me feel better.
A pension advisor once asked me if I wanted my money to be invested ethically or whether I wanted to REALLY make money. I took my small fund elsewhere on that occasion too.
The problem is, we are all slaves to the system, we can't escape it, we can only play our small part in trying to resist. The financial meltdown, as always, will hurt the poor the most even though it's the fault of the greedy rich.
Our taxes have been lent to the banks so the banks can lend them back to us at a profit. It's a brilliant scheme, one which sounds like an internet scam which we would all consign to our junk/spam tray without a second thought.
We can only hope that once the system is stable again, there will be a gradual, contolled move towards a society no longer based on greed. I can but hope.

shoreham_steve

Anonymous said...

Its about time to fight back but I fear they have left us little options for meaningful retaliation.
Its gonna get much worse before it gets better and you will notice we will be much worse off in real terms after stabilisation, if it comes at all.
Jed

Anonymous said...

the banks screw up and we pay. Imagine what people would have said pre Blairs ignominious reign if New labour had mentioned nationalisation of the banks. By the way the track Superchip is a masterpiece and I read in an interview with Edgar that it all came at once in one writing session Edgar says he didn't change a word from the original stream of consciousness. Just typed it out and read it over the music. Bloody brilliant.
peace
Dazza

Anonymous said...

Nice to see you back Rob. what a crap summer. be strong Xmas is coming lol. we travelled from Stoke and saw you in leeds. very moving at times and also very funny. rockin'

Lol and Sue

Anonymous said...

Remember a solo song called helicopter Edgar?
Great band - great to see you still a round. Any UK gigs up coming?
Jo jo
x