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Wall

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There's an old saying, 'Good fences make good neighbours' which basically means take care of what is on your side of the fence and recognise where the physical and psychological boundaries or borders lie between you and your neighbours.  

There is a place called Wall in the film Stardust which is in my DVD collection and which I like to watch on a fairly regular basis.  It's a nice movie, ideal for a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. I might even watch it this week as I've a few days holidays to take.  So, sometimes 'wall' can be a good thing and borders too, especially when they are filled with flowers.  Even fences, when they are well built, the US is built on the ideal of the 'white picket fence' in the neighbourhood.

Trump is still looking to build his wall between the US and Mexico and threatening to shut the government down again if he doesn't get the funding from Congress.  I for one,am quite happy for Donald to build his wall...but with one condition.  He keeps the US military on their side of it and I mean all their military.  

Now that they have decided to pull out of the INF nuclear proliferation treaty, there is a real possibility of the US deploying their nuclear bombs in Europe as a defence against 'threats' from Russia.

Every time I hear about the US and their nukes, I go back about 3 years ago, to the morning I was listening to Radio 4 and there was a general on talking about the plan to go to war with Russia within 3 years because they had these new limited nuclear bombs which they wanted to try out.  I have mentioned this before on the blog.  John Humphries was interviewing him and basically said, 'that's insane!'.  But the election of Trump threw a bit of a spanner in the works, Hilary was supposed to get in which is why Obama had started to build up the anti-Russian rhetoric towards the end of his tenure in anticipation of the coming conflict.  

Unfortunately, it seems that Trump has now been leveraged by or sold his soul to the Halliburton's and the other corporate hawks (assuming, of course, that he had one to begin with!.) From here on in, there will be more and more anti-Putin and anti-Russian propaganda in the mainstream media.  Don't believe a word of if although, tensions have certainly increased now that Russia has decided to withdraw too. 

Those who make war, don't fight them.  They profit by them at the expense and with the blood of ordinary, usually poor and/or working class. For everyone's sake, don't let your children or your neighbours children be sacrificed for corporate profits!


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Weddin

Art training & aid

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Edited by Aideen Devine, Monday, 23 Apr 2018, 09:17

I had a lovely weekend in Gormanston, Co Meath at an artist's training day.  It was through Children in Crossfire and we are hoping to have a 2 day residential later in the year, to do more work and maybe get some projects started.  I met some great people and it was like the UN, we had people from Colombia, Mexico, Ghana, Moldova and Zambia to name but a few.  

There were some great conversations about activism through art, and aid programmes, and the seeds of some ideas have certainly fallen on fertile ground.  I had fallen out of the acting loop for a few years but I'm inspired now to get back to some serious writing and acting and maybe get a play written.  I've the bones of several but need to start getting some flesh on them!  

Many of the other artists told stories about things they had been involved in and are going to send on some links for opportunities to work abroad and possible funding.  I'm seriously re-thinking my future at the moment, I've several job interviews this week but honestly, I really don't want to go back to working in an office although I'm probably going to have to for a while or at least until I decide what to do or get the opportunity to try something else!

One of the things that came up in a conversation is how Western 'aid' can end up causing more problems than it solves.  One of the women told me how the Mexican fishing industry was destroyed by Greenpeace.  When the Mexican fishermen caught tuna, sometimes dolphins got caught up in their nets so Greenpeace came out with a campaign against the nets they used and the fishing and canning industry that existed along Mexico's coast was effectively destroyed, allowing US companies a free run to takeover.  

One of the guys from Africa also questioned African aid and why despite money being received for many years, nothing had changed and the basic problems remained.  We were also given a booklet outlining the UN's sustainable development goals or SDG's which they launched in 2015.  There are 17 of them covering work, inequality, poverty and the environment and while it's important to have a target to aim for, they are based on the West's idea of how people should live and are industrial and capitalist in outlook. Not everyone wants to live like that, I live under this system and I don't like it or want to live that way and where does that leave tribal societies like the Masai?  Now, I'm all for a fair day's pay, for a fair days work but how does trying to create sustainable development and clean energy, work alongside economic growth or the idea of 'sustainable industrialisation'?  

They certainly have some admirable ideas, wanting to end poverty and hunger, and providing quality education for all.  But, as I was reading through them, I thought, these things are all achievable and could be done tomorrow but the same problem prevents it happening, banking and corporate greed with the elite creaming everything for themselves.  So, until the corporations are brought under control, and war for profit is ended, then these problems will persist and will never be resolved. 

Government, the world over, really needs to grow a pair and start taking on the military/industrial/corporate complex and the mega-rich.  Money should either be re-distributed or gotten rid of altogether, corporations should be abolished or at least, limited in their size and a very tight hold kept on their activities.  Because without some real action from government, the poverty, inequality and war will continue and all the aid programmes will do, no matter how well-intentioned, is like sticking a plaster on a cancer patient.

 


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