Please note that this website uses cookies necessary for the functioning of our website, cookies that optimize the performance, to provide social media features and to analyse website traffic.
"And I think, in the end, that is the best definition of journalism I have heard; to challenge authority - all authority - especially so when governments and politicians take us to war, when they have decided that they will kill and others will die."
~ Robert Fisk
David's Current Maxim: 'No mother and child should be in the least harmed anywhere in our still beautiful world.'
Palestine - the hinge of our humanity? The Middle East in Flames
3-08-06 Totnes Civic Hall
Why am I here and not making something good in my workshop?
1. Taught to be truthful, a lesson which obviously passed over most of the political class. Being truthful also means speaking out.
2. I cannot stand seeing underdogs kicked around
3. As an orthopaedic and trauma surgeon all my efforts, and those of the good people with me, were devoted to healing tissue and in relieving pain – not in blasting bodies apart.
4. The bombing of the Afghan people by B52s from 32,000ft in the Autumn of 2001 galvanised me; I have not rested since.
5. My central motivation is the love of the child. We have two happy grand-daughters, Isabel and Nel. I look into their beautiful eyes and see the two billion other children on our planet. They are all equally precious; not one should be harmed.
This letter is written and signed by Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter,
Jose Saramago, Noam Chomsky and John Berger,
it has been forwarded to major newspapers.
The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began
when Israeli forces
abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An
incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press.
The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner -
and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the
Israelis - there are
approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails
.
On the story we almost never hear about—the Palestinian
one—and an anniversary few of us have ever considered
By Sandy Tolan
07/11/06 "Mother Jones" -- --
Under the pretext of forcing the release of a single soldier "kidnapped
by terrorists" (or, if you prefer, "captured by the resistance"),
Israel has done the following: seized members of a democratically
elected government; bombed its interior ministry, the prime minister's
offices, and a school; threatened another sovereign state (Syria) with
a menacing overflight; dropped leaflets from the air, warning of harm
to the civilian population if it does not "follow all orders of the
IDF" (Israel Defense Forces); loosed nocturnal "sound bombs" under
orders from the Israeli prime minister to "make sure no one sleeps at
night in Gaza"; fired missiles into residential areas, killing
children; and demolished a power station that was the sole generator of
electricity and running water for hundreds of thousands of Gazans.
By the age of 58 a country – like a man – should have achieved a
certain maturity. After nearly six decades of existence we know, for
good and ill, who we are and how we appear to others, warts and all.
And though we still harbour occasional illusions about ourselves, we
know they are, for the most part, just illusions. In short, we are
adults.
But the state of Israel, which has just turned 58, remains
curiously immature. The country’s social transformations – and its many
economic achievements – have not brought the political wisdom that
usually accompanies age. Seen from outside, Israel still comports
itself like an adolescent: confident of its uniqueness; certain that no
one “understands”; quick to take offence, and to give it. Like many
adolescents, Israel is convinced – and aggressively asserts – that it
can do as it wishes; that its actions carry no consequences; that it is
immortal.
My Lord Haskins:
'Looks a bit dodgy to me!' (He
should know)
The citizens:
'Bribery is bribery. There is no other name'
And we do not forget - for instance - that Dr Chaitanya Patel OBE BM
FRCP (?formerly/presently of Westminster Health Care Ltd) was advising
Messrs Blair, Milburn, Reid, Hewitt etc on 'reform'** of the National
Health whilst his loan to the rose perfumed party of government lay in
a special account which Lord Levy might know about (Michael Crick -
Newsnight 16-03-06). That he had a direct financial interest in the
expansion of private hospitals had no bearing of course on the advice
he gave. The irony of the firm's title is no longer lost.
**Reform - in Blairese: dismemberment,
evisceration (as at the University Hospital of Stoke on Trent)
"Truth has to be repeated constantly, because Error also is being preached all the time, and not just by a few, but by the multitude. In the Press and Encyclopaedias, in Schools and Universities, everywhere Error holds sway, feeling happy and comfortable in the knowledge of having Majority on its side."
Goethe
A Quotation From: The NHS Dismantled
In his report to the Conservative Party’s Economic Reconstruction Group in 1977, Nicholas Ridley wrote that:
"...denationalisation should not be attempted by frontal attack but by preparation for return to the private sector by stealth. We should first pass legislation to destroy the public sector monopolies. We might also need to take power to sell assets. Secondly, we should fragment the industries as far as possible and set up the units as separate profit centres."