My radio review of this excellent category-busting film before its special preview in Bristol, October 2009:
Monday, 5 October 2009
Saturday, 3 October 2009
Shopping for CCTV
All Britain's city centres, main streets and public spaces are now full of CCTV cameras, which we are told are to cut crime, but increasing evidence shows that they are ineffective in halting crime and even when they do pick up criminal activity the police 'see no ships' unless it is at best, convenient. All this spying has only one practical use, which is as a tool of an authoritarian, perhaps totalitarian, state.
In London you can now be harassed, assaulted or arrested by the police just for taking photos in the street. A trio of brave but determinedly peaceful activist-pranksters tried going a little further, by turning their own cameras on the watchers. Guess what...
In London you can now be harassed, assaulted or arrested by the police just for taking photos in the street. A trio of brave but determinedly peaceful activist-pranksters tried going a little further, by turning their own cameras on the watchers. Guess what...
Friday, 2 October 2009
CCTV does not work: new evidence
A local story that illustrates that CCTV is not a silver bullet that fixes everything. Some of the comments are interesting too.
CCTV not enough to protect Bristol family - Thisisbristol 1/10/09 http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/CCTV-protect-Bristol-family/article-1383410-detail/article.html
"A Bristol mother of two thought she had finally stopped the man she believes is terrorising her family, when he was caught on CCTV Bristol vandalising her husband's car.So she was stunned when the police told her that despite paying hundreds of pounds for the security system, there wasn't have enough evidence to charge him."
In this case, police claimed that CCTV evidence was not enough and that old-fashioned witnesses were required. Of course if it is in the interests of the police and/or their paymasters (government/local councils or 'businessmen') then CCTV recordings will miraculously be awarded credibility otherwise denied them.
Some officers, if it suits, will even go so far as to say that if there was only human witness and no CCTV, then all bets are off.
On the other hand, as I happily told a police acquaintance, I once witnessed one near miraculous example of the technology and The Force together doing a good job; I had joined the long-established Bristol anti-war vigil (above) for five minutes one afternoon when a couple of really determined troublemakers jumped up on the kerb, and I could tell they hadn't just come to talk about the weather. But they were followed, practically instantaneously, by two coppers who quietly saw them off. Our uniformed saviours popped up from nowhere and vanished again just as smoothly.
I have to qualify this, though: on 22nd April 2011 the Vigil again came under attack while I attended; this time a sustained visit, leaving your correspondent reclining in the bushes and his Gaza placard ripped up, but this time the cavalry did not speed to the rescue. All the Queen's horses and all the Queen's men missed out because one monitor watcher was off having a cup of tea. ( The police have since told me that the cameras were doing their job but pointing somewhere else). So the jury remains out on this one.
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Israeli army fires at journalist - on camera
There was a time when the Zionist regime and its army took public relations seriously; but that time is long gone. With the US and UK governments prepared to support Israel all the way, while maintaining the charade of 'peace negotiations', the Zionists even shoot journalists as they are talking to camera. They know there will be no repercussions. Our governments cannot be accused of being merely supine; in the short term they will enjoy huge profits from the occupation and the arms industry's advances in killing technology, based on its experiments in Gaza and the West Bank, and the long term advantage of having a Palestine completely emptied of Palestinians but umbilically linked to Washington and Downing Street, as an empire base in the Middle East, are incalculable.
Islam: A potted history of civilization
Hasina Khan, a friend of mine here in Bristol, has published this short history of civilization and its roots in the 'East', just in time for the end of Ramadan. Well worth a look for its summing-up of a very long and complex saga. Another poke in the eye for the white supremacists is the invasion of Greece by King Akhenaten, an African (and father-in-law of Tutankhamun) who introduced the concept of the City to Europe.
Monday, 21 September 2009
I Am Israel
A six-and-a-half minute documentary about Palestine's slow engorgement by the guns and concrete of Zionism, told dispassionately. All the more horrifying for its quiet telling.
Monday, 7 September 2009
Broon: I wanna be your dog
25th August:
Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu met on Tuesday afternoon with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Netanyahu had to be ushered into Downing Street via the back door, as the front entrance was the scene of a pro-Palestine rally.
The rally, attended by hundreds of people, began about 30 minutes before Netanyahu's arrival at Number 10, causing both the cops and Israeli ‘security officers’ present some concern.
Brown met Netanyahu and Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor at the door, and all three were rushed in by their respective 'security' goons.
At some point, several demonstrators tried breaching the barrier, but were stopped by the police. Demonstrators shouted slogans including "Free Palestine", “We are all Palestinians” and "Netanyahu's a war criminal," and carried signs reading "Judea and Samaria are Palestinian territory," "Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine," and "Let the Palestinians live."
“We shouted our rage into Downing Street for as long as we were able, but shaming a visiting war criminal is not to be tolerated by our democratic leaders.
So overwhelming numbers of police were drafted in, belts bedecked with tasers, and they finally succeeded in bulldozing the whole protest onto the distant side of the very wide Whitehall road, for the greater comfort of their war criminal guest.
Truth and morals bulldozed out of sight, not unlike the bulldozing tactics used in Israel against Palestinian homes, except that for the Palestinians it is fatal, and final.
And they used the Serious Organised Crime Police Act as a pretext for pushing the protestors away from their war criminal friend – serious organised crime, how very ironic.” - 'Bristolian'
The two held a joint press conference after their meeting, in which Brown said the UK was and is a loyal friend to Israel and that it supports the Israeli-Palestinian ‘peace process’.
Nevertheless, Brown stressed that that the demand to halt 'settlement' construction will not be retracted, as the 'settlements' are what impedes the [unworkable] two-state solution.
Jerusalem, responded Netanyahu, "Is not a settlement. It is the sovereign capital of the State of Israel. We have been building in Jerusalem for 3,000 years."
Brown added that he supported Netanyahu's ‘plan’ to assist in the “rehabilitation of the Palestinian economy “and called on the international community to support a “financial peace”.
The use of phrases such as these must be no more than old-fashioned cant.
Turning their attention to the so-called Iranian 'threat', Brown said that as far as the UK is concerned, such a threat "has no place in a civilized world." London, he added, shares Jerusalem's concern regarding Tehran's nuclear development programme and urged Israel to accept US President Barack Obama's offer to launch a dialogue on the matter.
Netanyahu (of course) agreed, saying that "London, like other European capitals, must speak against the Iranian nuclear programme."
Netanyahu was expected to meet US special Middle East envoy George Mitchell in London on Wednesday, probably to ask the US administration to pressure Saudi Arabia into making several goodwill gestures towards Israel, before agreeing to the American demand to halt 'settlement' construction.
While Netanyahu believes that some progress was made by his emissaries to Washington last week, added the source, he also believes that no significant breakthrough which warrants such a categorical demand was achieved. Speaking to reporters, he criticized the Palestinian Authority "for doing nothing but set preconditions for peace and hardening their stance during the Fatah Congress."
Netanyahu did not comment on Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's statements regarding the establishing of a Palestinian state within two years.
Following reports of a possible peace summit with Obama and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in September, Netanyahu stressed that nothing has been finalized as yet, adding that Jerusalem was appreciative of Washington's efforts to achieve ‘normalization’ overtures from the Arab world towards Israel.
As for Syria, Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the Israeli-Syrian peace process has stalled because of Damascus' support of Hamas, Iran and Hezbollah, adding that "Syria's actions do not indicate that it wants peace. It has taken no steps to curb the terror (sic) organizations."
The prime minister also said that he spoke to Brown about the legal threat posed to IDF officers in British courts: "I told him that it simply did not coincide with common sense. We're fighting the same terrorists and we're exercising our right to self defence. No one accuses the British Army of anything and no one should accuse the IDF or its officers," he said.
According to Netanyahu, Brown said he would look into a legislative change in the matter; in other words, this means finding a way of putting the regime's lackeys above the law. The British premier, never one to pose as a Man of The People despite his buffoonery on YouTube (http://hanleyexpress.blogspot.com/2009/06/gordon-brown-joins-u-tube-generation.html), also voiced his objections to the academic and consumer bans against Israel in the UK. In short, Gordon Brown managed a convincing imitation of a poodle.
Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu met on Tuesday afternoon with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Netanyahu had to be ushered into Downing Street via the back door, as the front entrance was the scene of a pro-Palestine rally.
The rally, attended by hundreds of people, began about 30 minutes before Netanyahu's arrival at Number 10, causing both the cops and Israeli ‘security officers’ present some concern.
Brown met Netanyahu and Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor at the door, and all three were rushed in by their respective 'security' goons.
At some point, several demonstrators tried breaching the barrier, but were stopped by the police. Demonstrators shouted slogans including "Free Palestine", “We are all Palestinians” and "Netanyahu's a war criminal," and carried signs reading "Judea and Samaria are Palestinian territory," "Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine," and "Let the Palestinians live."
“We shouted our rage into Downing Street for as long as we were able, but shaming a visiting war criminal is not to be tolerated by our democratic leaders.
So overwhelming numbers of police were drafted in, belts bedecked with tasers, and they finally succeeded in bulldozing the whole protest onto the distant side of the very wide Whitehall road, for the greater comfort of their war criminal guest.
Truth and morals bulldozed out of sight, not unlike the bulldozing tactics used in Israel against Palestinian homes, except that for the Palestinians it is fatal, and final.
And they used the Serious Organised Crime Police Act as a pretext for pushing the protestors away from their war criminal friend – serious organised crime, how very ironic.” - 'Bristolian'
The two held a joint press conference after their meeting, in which Brown said the UK was and is a loyal friend to Israel and that it supports the Israeli-Palestinian ‘peace process’.
Nevertheless, Brown stressed that that the demand to halt 'settlement' construction will not be retracted, as the 'settlements' are what impedes the [unworkable] two-state solution.
Jerusalem, responded Netanyahu, "Is not a settlement. It is the sovereign capital of the State of Israel. We have been building in Jerusalem for 3,000 years."
Brown added that he supported Netanyahu's ‘plan’ to assist in the “rehabilitation of the Palestinian economy “and called on the international community to support a “financial peace”.
The use of phrases such as these must be no more than old-fashioned cant.
Turning their attention to the so-called Iranian 'threat', Brown said that as far as the UK is concerned, such a threat "has no place in a civilized world." London, he added, shares Jerusalem's concern regarding Tehran's nuclear development programme and urged Israel to accept US President Barack Obama's offer to launch a dialogue on the matter.
Netanyahu (of course) agreed, saying that "London, like other European capitals, must speak against the Iranian nuclear programme."
Netanyahu was expected to meet US special Middle East envoy George Mitchell in London on Wednesday, probably to ask the US administration to pressure Saudi Arabia into making several goodwill gestures towards Israel, before agreeing to the American demand to halt 'settlement' construction.
While Netanyahu believes that some progress was made by his emissaries to Washington last week, added the source, he also believes that no significant breakthrough which warrants such a categorical demand was achieved. Speaking to reporters, he criticized the Palestinian Authority "for doing nothing but set preconditions for peace and hardening their stance during the Fatah Congress."
Netanyahu did not comment on Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's statements regarding the establishing of a Palestinian state within two years.
Following reports of a possible peace summit with Obama and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in September, Netanyahu stressed that nothing has been finalized as yet, adding that Jerusalem was appreciative of Washington's efforts to achieve ‘normalization’ overtures from the Arab world towards Israel.
As for Syria, Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the Israeli-Syrian peace process has stalled because of Damascus' support of Hamas, Iran and Hezbollah, adding that "Syria's actions do not indicate that it wants peace. It has taken no steps to curb the terror (sic) organizations."
The prime minister also said that he spoke to Brown about the legal threat posed to IDF officers in British courts: "I told him that it simply did not coincide with common sense. We're fighting the same terrorists and we're exercising our right to self defence. No one accuses the British Army of anything and no one should accuse the IDF or its officers," he said.
According to Netanyahu, Brown said he would look into a legislative change in the matter; in other words, this means finding a way of putting the regime's lackeys above the law. The British premier, never one to pose as a Man of The People despite his buffoonery on YouTube (http://hanleyexpress.blogspot.com/2009/06/gordon-brown-joins-u-tube-generation.html), also voiced his objections to the academic and consumer bans against Israel in the UK. In short, Gordon Brown managed a convincing imitation of a poodle.
Update 2 October 2009: Protest as war criminal Ehud Barak is welcomed to Labour's party conference. Film at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2R86Z7wM40
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