Author: Martyn

Which is the worst?

– To go on the game ( i.e. sell ones body for sex ),
or work in Muckdonalds?

– To sell Wacky Baccy ( Hash ),
or work in a slaughterhouse?

– Join the military, or spend the rest of ones life on the
dole?

There is no need to gain a income from any of the above:
Just as there is No Need To Kill, Slaughter, or Sell the
carcasses of animals.

We all have choices.

The only problem is that if one choices to exercise a
conscientious objection at work, then one could suffer as
a result of the various economic sanctions which exist
within society. Continue reading Which is the worst?

Preamble to a manifesto for Library & Information Workers

Here is my reaction to the abolition of the 10% tax rate in Britain, & what it will do for many Library Workers.

******

Preamble to a manifesto for Library & Information
workers.

We the landless urban poor.

We who help all.

We whose skills and labour enriches all.

High skilled
&
Low Payed.

We who help others to achieve a better life.

We who help to educate all.

We who help all of society to work better,
play harder,
and
achieve both healthier & happier lives.

We fiscally impoverished Library & information workers.

All we ask for is a living wage,
&
just enough so that we no longer have to live in poverty,
or
are forced to live in slums.

We the landless Urban poor.

High skilled.

Low payed.

Library & Information workers.

A Few Fun Publication Ideas.

I’ve always been the kind of person which has come up with
a lot of bright ideas, but have never been able to develop
more than a small proportion of them all.

Here are two of the ideas which I have dreamed up over the
years in regards to periodical titles.

– The Authoritarian Anarchist:
The Paper with the Correct Ideological Line.

– Criminal Elements:
The paper which reports the news upon just which Judges
& police officers have been convicted for various criminal
activities during the proceeding week.

Neither of these works do I ever expect to reach print
production, and maybe a good thing too.

During the early 1980s I was part of the editorial
collective of
‘Fly on the Wall:
Richmond and Twickenhams other scurrilous rag’.

In the early 1990s I also made my own small contribution
to ‘The Crouch Ender’.

The ‘Crouch Ender’ covered the Crouch End area of North
London, and was one of the funniest periodicals which I
have ever read or been involved with.

One of these days I should write something more about the
history of the ‘Crouch Ender’, but maybe that’s just
another one of my bright ideas which may never get in to
print.

Who Knows ?

Trouble Ahead.

Here is a short list of those everyday sayings & signs
which should always make you think that there is trouble
ahead.

– ‘There is a good service’ on the ( whatever it is )
underground or train line.

– Cloths which are just marked s m or L, & with no other
indication of what kind of real world size they may in fact
be.

– ‘This product is child friendly.’

&

– Any kind of promise made by a politician that ‘things can
only get better’.

Just a phone call to S.A.House.

During the era of Apartheid there used to be regular
demonstrations outside of the South African embassy –
South Africa House.

If my old friend & comrade Gwyn could not make any of
these demonstrations, then she would phone up the
embassy, and ask to talk with the military attache.

Once connected on the phone she would apologise for not
being able to attend the demonstration which was going on
outside of the building at the time.

On many occasions all she would ever hear would be a
grunt, or something muttered, & then the phone being
slammed done.

A fine example of a diplomate at work, & an inspiration to us
all.

A nice little story from Norway during World War Two.

During the Nazi occupation of Norway there was a Nonviolent boycott of all official sports events.

So when the Occupying powers organised games events in Oslo, all the viewing stands were empty.

Just look at any photos of these events, & you will see just how effective these boycotts became.

I mention this as my contribution as to what might be done about the Olympic games in China later on this year.

Two Films which should encourage people to walk.

Charlton Heston died a week back.

I would never describe him as a great actor, but he did
appear in one really remarkable film:
Soylent Green. ( 1973 ).

Soylent Green is a film set within a future that has suffered
an ecological disaster. Food is sort, and there are other major
pollution problems.

Yesterday I watched a 2006 film :
Flood.

Flood is loosely based upon a Richard Doyle book.
It is about a surge tide which coincides with a spring tide.
The Thames barrier is raised, but it does not work,
& Cockney Land ( London ) suffers a major flood.

This is a timely film while sea levels rise as the result of
global warming.

I notice that April 24th is ‘Walk to Work Day’.

Lets hope it works, & that a lot of people start to think about
the health & environmental benefits this will give.

We really do need more people to think about how saving
the environment is their personal responsibility.

Looking for the news.

Paris. New York. Amsterdam. Copenhagen. Rome. Berlin.

Each country has songs which celebrate its capital city.

Each national newspaper focuses upon its national news.

That is not to say that some national newspapers with a
good global just can’t be found. It’s just that most of them
are very expensive to purchase, & one needs to read a lot
of them in order to achieve a very comprehensive & well
balanced world view.

Continue reading Looking for the news.

On Death & Dying. On war & Peace.

As one gets older the more one thinks about death & dying.

This is not because one becomes more maudlin, but results
from knowing or having known more people who are now
dead.

Over the last few years I have had to focus more of my
thinking upon the issue of how we might remember our
dead, how to write obituaries, & what is in my will.

All of which I view in terms of how we celebrate live,
while I have rewritten my will in terms of helping those
whom may live on after I’m gone.

Continue reading On Death & Dying. On war & Peace.