Author: Martyn

Reykjavík City Library

One of my highlights of last year was to be given a tour around
the Reykjavík City Library, which is housed in a converted
warehouse in the city centre.

The  same building also houses the Reykjavík Photo Museum,
and Reykjavik Municipal Archives.

Just how the library was founded and grew is an interesting history in itself.

Opened in 1919 it was in part funded by the sale of fishing vessels
owned by the City to France in 1917.

Right from the start the  library lent out cases of books to ships.

A Cultural Centre.

What I really like about the library is that it is used both cultural
and information centre.

During the summer the library hosts literary walking tours
around the centre of  Reykjavík.

While the ‘Let’s read the papers!’ provides guidance for those who
want to read the Icelandic news papers and understand what’s
going on in Iceland.

There is also a small cinema area within the library.  At the time
of my visit it was screening early German films.

The library works with Artóteki,
which  rents and sells arts works of art  by Icelandic artists.

Library Matters.

Here is a summary of just how the library operates.

– In all there are 85 library staff in city, with 35 of them based in
the main library.

– All accessioning and book preparation work is done in house.

– The library uses a Danish version of the Dewey Classification
system.

– The library works in co-operation with other libraries within Iceland.

– It is member of Nordic Camps – The Network of Nordic Public Libraries.

&

– There is a very good stock of both Manga and none Icelandic
books which are available for loan.

Interestingly enough the highest number of  immigrants in
Iceland come from Poland.

If your ever in Reykjavík,  then you should make sure to pop in to
the library.

I should also like to thank Einar Ólafsson for showing me around
the library.

Don’t Tell Me As I’m Immune To This.

Switch off or take no notice.

That’s my attitude to most advertising,
and here is the reason why.

Most advertisements make a presumption about both ones
lifestyle,
and  those social values which do not apply to me.

I also know just which lines tend to show that I’m about to be
conned out of my money.

So – Here is a check-list of those words  or expression which will
never work on me: –

– Mortgage.

– Credit card(s).

– Take away food menu(s).

– Cable Television.

– Mobile phone.

– Retirement & funeral plans.

– Loan offers.

– Celebs.

– ‘ As seen on TV ’.

– Branded goods.

– Christmas.

– Sports sponsorship.

– Corporate sponsorship.

– The Olympics and all that goes with it.

– The internal combustion engine.

– Offers for two.

– Anything which says ‘family friendly’.

– Upgrade(s).

– New  or Exciting.

&

– Special offer.

Now I could write something about those words and expressions
which might work on me,
but I just don’t want to deal with yet more spam or junk mail.

No thank you very much.

The Last Rotten Borough – Part Two

Despite all of the various occupy protests of late.

I’m still waiting for someone to mount a serious campaign to curb the power(s) of those who run the City of London Corporation.

Here is a quote which says a lot about just why I hate the City of
London Corporation.

‘ Today, voting rights for the City of London’s municipal
authority are granted to its 32,000 businesses in addition to
residents which now number fewer than 12,000. ’

If you really want to see how this works out in practice,
then take a look at the City of London website.

What also gets me is the way in which people may obtain the
Freedom of the City.

Just how one may mount a serious campaign to challenge the
power(s) of the City of London Corporation is still open to
debate,
but challenged it must be.

A True Cockney

I was born ‘in the City of London in the City of London’,
or to be more exact
St Bartholomew’s (known as Barts) Hospital.

This means that I am a true Cockney as I was born within the sound
of Bow Bells.

Though it’s a long time since Barts has had a maternity unit,
and so there must be fewer & fewer cockneys.

My birth certificate reads:  ‘ Born in the City of London in the City of London’.

Thus I am a part of the last forgotten indigenous minority.

If I were able to afford to move back to the City of London,
then I would effectively be disenfranchised by the city vote.

That is why challenging the power(s) of the City of London
Corporation is very much one of my major concerns.

Deep Cover & Police Lies – Betrayers Anonymous.

I’ve the kind of brain which tends not to remember numbers,
but just once in a while a figure will stick with me.

Way back in 1970 there were 1 million people listed on Special
Branch files.

How large are these files now ?

I have no way of knowing.

In 1968 the Special Demonstration Squad was established by the
Special Branch to
“provide intelligence about protests and demonstrations .”

This unit included a group of full-time undercover police officers,
or
Agent Provocateurs.

We now know a lot about many of these undercover cops who
were active from 1984 onwards.

What we don’t know is just how many of there undercover cops
were in place during the late 1960s , the 1970s, and early 1980s.

Betrayers Anonymous.

I have been politically active since 1968,
and thus I must of meet some of these individuals.

Who might they of been?

I just don’t know.

With time it is going to become harder and harder to identify any
of the earlier undercover members of the Special Demonstration
Squad.

I can now only wonder just whom they might of been.

Just whom did I  ( and others ) trust,
only to feed lies,
while we were also spied upon ?

It leave me with a very nasty feeling that I and others have been
used.

If there is going to be any internal police or public enquiry in to
the covert activities of the Special Demonstration Squad,
then it should go back to 1968,
&
the results must be made public.

We all have the right to know.

Deep Cover & Police Lies – Bob.

Saturday was a very strange day for me,
as exposing an undercover cop to a conference of 300 people is
not exactly something which one does every day of the week.

Yesterday the following news story was flashed upon the front
page of the Guardian newspaper: –

Progressive academic Bob Lambert is former police spy.

Since then the story has been picked up by the rest of the media.

For example:
in the Daily Telegraph & Daily Mail,
which are two rags which I would not normally read.

In many ways what might now happen to Bob could be
considered a personal tragedy.

It should never be forgotten that he told lies,
spied upon my friends & comrades,
and directed other undercover police to do the same.

I was betrayed by Bob.

We were all betrayed by Bob.

Yet what Bob did was sanctioned at the very highest level of the
state.

I could write a lot more about Bob & the whole issue of the police
undercover work,
but there are a lot of journalists who are now about to do the same.

Thus I’ll not return to this subject until there really something new
to reveal.

On Record keeping & Getting Older.

Some times I thinks about people that I once knew.

It’s just like keeping a  scrapbook that’s full of obituaries,
or having a notebook full of information about missing people.

You may have them in your possession,
but fewer & fewer people you know will of meet the individuals
who are listed in them.

During this year this observation has really come home to me.

First of all I got a confirmation about someone I used to know
having died a few years back.

Then over the last month or so I have been trying to contact
someone who I last saw over a quarter of a century go.

I still can not trace her,
& I’ve tryed ever route which I know.

Over the 60 years that I have been alive we’ve moved on from
Paper & Card records, to Microfilm & Micrcofiche, and then to
electronic dates bases.

Yet just as we have moved on from mainframe to PC to laptop to
netbook, w e have & are constantly changing the software which
holds these records.

I just wish that some of the people who work on computer
software would keep in mind the old saying:-
If it ain’t bust then don’t fix it.

Yet with all of these moves of records have come losses of
information,
& the increasing presumption that ‘it’s all on the computer.’

Not so.

What makes it really difficult in tracing people is that they
might have common names,
or be know just by their nickname(s),
or changed their surname,
and now be living on the side of the world.

While the phone book, and  other directories, give just an initial
& surname on the basis that you will already know just where
they live.

Ever wondered just why the police are always so keen to know
peoples date of birth?

If more directories included this piece of information then it
would be so much easier to trace ones old friends.

In the meanwhile I’m left looking for other peoples scrapbook
which will supplement my own.

All At Play.

I’ve just spent 12 days in Denmark, and while in the country
managed to pay a visit to a toy shop.

What I do like about Danish Toy shops is that they have a large
number of model tractors and other pieces of farm equipment
for children to play with.

That I was really pleased to note upon this visit was a Lego
version of the Road Rail vehicle.

As you may recall:
The Road Rail Vehicle was developed by the Lucas Aerospace
shop stewards as part of an arms conversion project.

For more info on this See:
New Scientist – 20th November  1975.

What I also found of note upon my toyshop visit was a model
chainsaw.

It might be just the thing in the countryside,
but I wonder just what any inner city kid would think about it?

A Few Words Upon A Current Concern

To state that Nukiller Power is the solution to climate change
equates to the ecological equivalent of Holocaust Denial.

Just look at the facts.

The mining, transportation, and processing of uranium cause a
lot of climate change damage,
and that says nothing about the effects of radiation.

As I keep saying: –

The only long term solution to these problems comes with
Solar and wind power.

So Called Ecologists.

There is an old saying which likens ‘Fighting for Peace’ to that
of screwing for virginity.

There are co-called ecologists who claim that the problem of
climate change can only be solved by the use of nukiller
power.

They would seem to of forgotten that mining of Uranium,
and every thing else about nukiller power produces Climate
changing damage.

This says nothing of the other long term ecological mess
which nukes produce.

We can stop climate change
– by cutting our energy use,
– by building wind farms,
– by better insulation of our homes,
&
– reverse things by growing more trees.

What we can not do is work out how to safely store the
radioactive sludge which result from the use of nukiller
power,
or
guarantee to safeguard this very toxic waste into the coming
millenniums.

So when the likes of George Monbiot states that Nukes are the
answer to Climate change,
then all I can do is sing the words to that popular old song:
‘and the band played believe it if you can’.