As it’s almost four years and three months to the very day since the 7/7 London bombings, I thought this was as good a time as any to look back into the internet archive and see what I was thinking and blogging about then.
I guess what’s got me thinking about this is the recent events in Pittsburgh with the G20 protests, the ongoing War of Terror (sic) and spending far too much time on YouTube, Twitter and identi.ca while I’ve been off work this last week. I’ve quite enjoyed myself, though and thanks to all the people especially on identi.ca who are so friendly, funny, helpful, weird and welcoming to a social networking newbie like me.
I’m not sure I agree with everything I’ve written, below, but I’m not sure about much that’s been written about these events, least of all the official reports. A piss poor conclusion, too. But this was my initial impression in the first days and weeks after the attacks.
Saturday, July 09, 2005
Daily Terror Continues for Poor as World Leaders Fail to Act
Live8 Press Release 1 June 2005 (Word Document):
HERE’S THE POINT… The aim of it all is to make poverty history.
“Today, like every other day, 50,000 people will die unnecessarily,” says Richard Curtis, the writer and co-founder of Comic Relief, which is part of the Make Poverty History Campaign.
“If 50,000 people died in London on Monday, in Rome on Tuesday, Berlin on Wednesday, in New York on Thursday and in Paris on Friday, the G8 leaders in Gleneagles would find the money and the solution to the problem as they walked from the front door to the reception desk.”
Ms Dynamite, backstage at Hyde Park:[yes, I know, it's The Sun!]
People ask me why I wanted to be here and my answer to that question is how could I not be here?
“50,000 people every single day are dying of poverty. I would bet my life that if 50,000 died here in the western world something would be done by this evening to make sure that didn’t happen tomorrow. That bothers me.
“At the end of the day, we as a nation have robbed, killed, stolen and tortured the third world for centuries. If there is a debt to be paid, surely we are the ones that owe it.”
It’s kind of ironic, isn’t it? 50,000 people die every day because of extreme poverty. Meanwhile, world leaders are being lobbied to act to put a stop to this incredible daily atrocity as they meet for the G8 summit.
Thursday’s bomb attacks in London, unquestionably horrific, were a neat “distraction” – actually the greatest loss of life since WW2 in London as a result of bombing – and one for which emergency services have been practising. Then, while everyone, understandably, is on a media-fuelled (or should that read government propaganda?) paranoia-trip about the “War on Terror“, quietly the politicians hope we forget about the economic infanticide they stand by and allow to happen because they are more concerned about power and oil and their own black gold [original article deleted: this one says pretty much the same thing]. So much so, that it looks like they are already planning how to keep developing nations in their place and who will be next on the list to feel the imposition of Western “stabilising” forces….
Anyone remember Jo Moore? Not that I’m in any way attempting an apology for these acts, but you have to view it in some sort of perspective.
Now, what is more important?
*laces entire post with heavy dose of cynicism*
I posted the above yesterday morning in a forum elsewhere, minus a few edits I made just now. Juli [my wife] was in Russell Square on Tuesday and was supposed to be in Oxford Circus on Thursday morning. I had just a few sickening minutes before I knew she was safe. It’s nothing compared to what some are enduring, still. We’ve had 24/7 coverage of the London Bomb Attacks for two days, now. Around 50 dead, I believe. 100,000 people dead from extreme poverty around the world in that time. What have the G8 done? G8 SUMMIT: Africa Is Offered a Little – At a Price – not much, it seems. The usual round of hollow promises, veiled threats and hypocrisy. They won’t make poverty history [original link deleted, but what's changed?]. Chair of the Global Call To Action Against Poverty, Dr Kumi Naidoo, responded [original link broken. Same story here]:
Currently 50,000 people die unnecessarily each day. If the leaders actually implement today’s announcement in an urgent manner, we estimate that by 2010 this will fall to around 37,000.
The promise to deliver by 2010 is like waiting five years before responding to the tsunami.
At least some people are hoping to make a few bucks out of the whole thing. Ever feel like you’ve been swindled?
It’s scary, really. In any other walk of like the G8 would simply not be allowed to exist in its current form. I mean, exactly what equal opportunities policies are they following in their recruitment and selection procedures? Why do we let these people into power? Look around you. Are they representative of the world we live in?
About the environment [original link broken, same story here]:
The G8 leaders recognized that “climate change is a serious and long-term challenge that has the potential to affect every part of the planet.”
They pledged to “act with resolve and urgency” to tackle the problem.
But they set no yardsticks or clear goals.
What? We pay them to come up with these insights? We allow them to manage our world and they set themselves no targets? How are we or they supposed to know if they are making any progress? Oh, silly me, then they might be accountable!
Friday, July 15, 2005
The Chains Of Freedom
After Coordinated Bombs, London Is Stunned, Bloodied and Stoic – New York Times (you have to subscibe to read it, but it’s worth the time it takes, if you like news and great pictures)
Yes, isn’t the British stiff upper lip wonderful? Especially now that Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness – two “ex-IRA murderers” – are invited for tea with the Prime Minister. And they accepted the invite on the condition that they are allowed to keep their guns. How thoughtful of us. So, how long before Blair is having tea with our latest friendly neighbourhood terrorists? Oh, wait…. the US has been there and done that [original link deleted] already! [here's a picture, instead:]
Like it or not, though, a political process is likely to be the only non-violent means of progress towards a peaceful resolution.
Some other well-known terrorists were handsomely rewarded for their efforts recently. Tony Blair apparently described it as a “contrast with the politics of terror“. Presumably, by that he means that if we don’t give them any money then they continue to starve, die of unaffordable-yet-medically-treatable diseases, or they bomb us until we *cough*surrender*cough* to their demands for power sharing.
Meanwhile, our much loved freedom and democracy are to be further enhanced by routine compulsory surveillance of all our private emails if new proposals to “prevent terror” get the go ahead. Now, excuse me for being so bloody cynical about this, but isn’t it pretty simple to secure email with encryption?