Today, the television that mounts the ceiling at work playing Sky News all day long stirred me more than usual and made me want to write something. Across the bottom of the screen, the permanent Sky headline, 'BREAKING NEWS', ever present, reporting stories which they showed yesterday, and the day before that, and last week, and last month. 'Michael Jackson's murder trial - BREAKING NEWS!' 'Dale Farm Eviction - BREAKING NEWS!' 'Siege of Sirte - BREAKING NEWS!' Anything that the controllers at Sky decide to repeat all day every day: 'BREAKING NEWS!' For once, maybe they actually had some.
Reports started coming through that Colonel Gaddafi had been captured and injured outside his home town of Sirte, by the men that the elusive entity known as 'NATO' has been arming, training and supporting, dubbed in the usual acronym fashion, the NTC, or 'National Transitional Council', but the men on the television don't look like any kind of council representatives to me. Sky showed extended live footage of soldiers gathered round the camera, pushing for the front spot, occasionally firing their (presumably US/UK taxpayer funded) weapons off into the air, showing peace signs, chanting and singing. In the background was the bruised and battered city of Sirte, with not a single Libyan woman or child in sight.
"VICTORY! VICTORY!" they shout, "VICTORY!" The non-NTC people of Libya are nowhere to be seen. They are irrelevant to Sky News.
"VICTORY!" Sky gratuitously shows the NTC firing anti-aircraft weapons and rockets (presumably US/UK taxpayer funded) off towards unseen targets. The non-NTC people of Libya are nowhere to be seen.
"VICTORY!" Sky shows the victorious NTC soldiers, mostly without uniform, firing their (presumably US/UK taxpayer funded) weapons into the air while they maintain their dance for the cameras.
"VICTORY!" The non-NTC people of Libya are nowhere to be seen. The victims of this war are nowhere to be seen. The hospitals are nowhere to be seen. The corpses are nowhere to be seen. The African prisoners, tortured by NATO propaganda, are nowhere to be seen.
"VICTORY!"
The news is updated to say that Gaddafi is actually dead. The celebrations increase, but they feel animated, not quite right. Sky shows a shaky video of a bloodied face, reminiscent of Gaddafi's, being pulled about in front of the camera, for all the world to see. A dead man, a bloodied corpse, loved by many, hated by many, a man with family, being thrown about on live television, in front of the entire world. I am reminded of 'Karma Police'..."this is what you'll get, when you mess with us."
The NTC soldiers fight for their place in the camera's eye, but the people of Libya are nowhere to be seen. Their homes are behind the soldiers, smashed, bullet-ridden, looted. The houses still stand, but their occupants are gone;the familes are gone. Where? Sky does not care. Its cameras do not deviate from the soldiers, who dance in the eye of Sky like marionettes. Marionettes with guns and live ammunition. Marionettes with rockets and missiles. "VICTORY!"
I did not feel the animated victory portrayed by Sky. I felt sad.
My early impressions of Gaddafi were formed by my memories of stories of the 'Lockerbie bombing' and the occasional related news story. An old girlfriend met him once many years ago after winning a beauty competition, and I remember thinking, 'why would you want to meet that guy?' When the western media began their tirade of propaganda against him I got caught up in it initially, but then I started to see leaks in the news stories, such as the Russians denying that he had bombed his people like BBC-Sky told us. They said they had seen no evidence on satellite footage, which they had been monitoring.
I decided to a bit of research on Libya and Gaddafi, and quickly found out about the hugely successful housing and educational programs that the BBC-Sky don't tell us. I found out about his desert irrigation and farming projects. I found out that Libya HAD-had the highest living standards in Africa thanks to him - no longer perhaps. I found out that Gaddafi had supported revolutionaries in their battle against oppressive US-led regimes across Africa. I also found out that he had been trying to convince the African and Arab nations to refuse US dollars for their oil and only accept gold. Wow...dangerous position to take.
VICTORY! GADDAFI IS DEAD! VICTORY! HIS BLOODIED FACE PLASTERED ACROSS THE NEWS; BREAKING NEWS! VICTORY! BLOOD AND DEATH FOR ALL TO SEE! VICTORY!
...where are the people of Libya? Where are the families? Where are the children? Where are the Gaddafi supporters? Are they all bad? Will we see all their bloodied faces on Sky News? Will we see them being beaten and tortured by the new, heavily armed owners of their country? Will the country with the highest living standards in Africa ever see free education and healthcare again? Or will the women be raped at gunpoint by the armed mercenaries our government armed and financed in this war, while we plunder the natural resources and keep the bullet-supply coming.
VICTORY! BLOOD AND DEATH AND VICTORY!
This is 'The Eighteenth Blog Of Trig', signing off.
2011-10-09
The Sixteenth Blog Of Trig - Dragons
I have a business idea I'm thinking of taking to the 'Dragon's Den'. I'm going to start up a business which looks after people's money. Me and my colleagues are going to pay ourselves the highest wages in the world, give ourselves enormous bonuses, and invest this money in shares of big companies whose bosses will also pay themselves the highest wages in the world.
When the money dries up I will borrow more from those who can afford to lend it to me and pretend that I am actually selling something called a 'bond', which is a pretty looking IOU note. I will sell lots of these IOU notes to cover my wages and bonuses and the 'losses' I make when the investments don't cover all the outgoings. I will buy and sell these 'bonds of debt' with other people in my business and charge extra for the privilege. I will pay people massive wages to hide these debts until they are like an elephant hiding in a single bed.
When my debt (your debt) gets to the point of bankruptcy I will speak to the 'government' and tell them that if they don't give me billions of pounds, RIGHT NOW, that the elderly won't be able to withdraw their pensions, businesses won't be able to pay their employees, and the entire country will collapse into chaos. Of course my money isn't held in my bank. It's in offshore tax-free havens safe from the disaster in my business, so my money (your money) is fine.
The government doesn't want to just print up money because they don't like inflation, which is the value of money going down, so they borrow it. Like me, they pretend that they are selling something, a 'bond'; an IOU note. They sell these bonds with minimum investment amounts, like £50,000, £100,000, £500,000, so I'm afraid this counts you out. But me and my wealthy friends can afford that with a month's wages. The government takes all this money that me and my friends lend them and then gives it back to me so I can continue paying myself enormous wages and bonuses, and give your grandparents the meagre pension they worked their entire life for.
Now the government owes a shitload of money, and they can only just about afford the interest on the debts they have, so they sell off your public services to private investors (me) to help them cover it all.
Now I own the services you rely on to live, I own the bank that holds all your money, I own the bonds that your government 'sold' me so that they could bail me out. I have multi-million pound mansions, private jets and yachts, pilots and captains, bodyguards and butlers, chauffeurs and champagne and cocaine, and absolutely no blame.
I now take a percentage profit from every single service you rely on, the services your parents and grandparents and ancestors worked and fought for, and for all this, you are indebted to me.
Your country is mine and your debt is to me and you will all continue to work for me until this debt is paid off, which will never happen.
So, what do you think of my business idea?
This is 'The Sixteenth Blog Of Trig', signing off.
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