Adam Curtis’s documentary ‘Bitter Lake’ (BBC iPlayer) charts recent Middle East history. It’s 2 hours+ so here’s a synopsis. After the WW2 America wanted oil and the backward fledgling state of Saudi Arabia wanted to protect their brutal Wasabi fundamentalist version of Islam. Roosevelt and the Saudi ruler cut a deal on Bitter Lake, oil for protection and petro technology. The US supplied plant and the latest armaments. Earlier in Afghanistan they built dams to help modernise the country. Afghan groups revolted against ‘western influence’ and turned to Marxism. The Russians armed the revolt but their attempts to introduce Communism failed and left the Afghans to fight amongst themselves. In Saudi the ruler didn’t like America’s support for Israel in their war with Egypt and hiked the price of oil five fold which led to an economic crisis in western economies in the 70’s. They then flooded the west with their ‘petro dollar’ profits that gave far greater destabilising power to the banking system. Iran and Iraq fought over their Islamic differences and when Saddam Hussein invaded Saudi Arabia the Saudis were incapable of using the US armaments so America went in to overthrow him and protect their oil ally. Osama Bin Laden, a member of a wealthy Saudi oil family, rebelled against them believing the west was damaging Wasabi Islamic beliefs and began attacking the west directly with Al Quida. Meanwhile in Afghanistan the American built dams had raised the water table creating perfect conditions for poppy growing which the warring factions used for income by exporting cocaine to the west. Every attempt to democratise Iraq and Afghanistan was unsuccessful. As Sonny and Shia wars percolated through many Middle East countries Wasabi Moslems in Saudi Arabia saw an opportunity to expand there brand of Islam. Wasabi Muslims see both Sonny and Shia Muslims as infidels no better than Christians and Jews and as Saudi law requires all their people to give a percentage of their income to ‘good causes’ they funded Wasabi fighters in neighbouring countries. Their fight to form a fundamentalist (Wasabi) Islamic state became ISIS, funded by Saudi’s who are in turn protected by America. The documentary devotes a whole minute of an American soldier stroking a bird, which moves from his gun to his finger, a beautiful moment of connection, human and animal, one with another. It seems to me the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge is not referring to our knowledge of physics and technology etc but what we ‘know’ as beliefs, beliefs that separate Jews from Christians, Sonnies from Shia. Beliefs that we fight for, condemn for and brutalise each other for. In that moment the soldier did no know that ‘knowledge’, he was being as the bird was being. This is our path back to unknowing, to refusing the fruit. 

Squirrels Rule.

Is there some Darwinian root to wealth acquisition? I mean I’ve been watching our cats and though they jealously guard what they want at that moment anything else is anybodies. I guess squirrels store nuts on the basis it gives them something to do in spring, but mostly nature is Marxist, “each according to his needs”, except they eat each other. So the acquisition of wealth on the scale practiced at the moment is wholly unnatural. It’s the equivalent of a single squirrel stashing away all the nuts south of Birmingham. It couldn’t realistically collect them all itself or eat them, but it has them. So the processes of acquisition have strayed horrendously from the path of wants and needs. Also this squirrel sees no abnormality in keeping what he has and wanting more. He wants it, needs it, and he deserves it. He sees no correlation between what he has and what others are going without. In nature with its checks and balances this couldn’t happen. If cats and squirrels have this all figured out one’s only conclusion is that humanity has a lot of catching up to do. We’re not the staring lead in this earthen Shakespearian production we’re the inglorious clod chorus incapable of following the plot. We’ve eaten the apple of our own knowledge and left the garden stage. It’s a bitter pill to swallow that we’ve been wrong all along, that our name in lights was just a figment of our own imagination when we’re being rudely woken in the dumpster behind the theatre. “How can this be?” we cry. A big boomy voice says, “You’ve fucked up”. It’s the director from that place way up high at the back of the theatre. But we’re trying so hard. “Exactly.” Surely he can’t be blaming us for trying. “This is an ensemble piece people, there’s no room for individuals with an inferiority complex grabbing centre stage all the time.” Inferiority complex? He’s gone mad. How can we the singular most superior species of actor have an inferiority complex? “Think about it.” Well that’s no answer. We is severely disgruntled at this point. “Take Act 2. When the squirrels are doing their big number about how much they love nuts, what made you think it was a good idea to drown them out with ‘But they don’t have no mo-ney’?” Well that’s just a fact isn’t it. “And?” Will you stop doing that. “What?” Stop making us think uncomfortable thoughts, it’s very confusing. “And when all the animals were singing Circle of Life you elbowed your way to the front shouting, ‘but we know the management.’ What was that supposed to mean?” It means we have a special relationship with him. In fact we’re thinking of rewriting the whole show and since you ask getting a new director. “Really?” Yes. Do you know the O2 Apollo on Mars? “Never been there, only do Earth.” Well there you see. If we can’t get our way here we’ll just go somewhere else, it’s that simple. “OK they’ve had their say, throw them back in the dumpster.”

Zero Hours Con.

The commercial world was rocked yesterday be the High Court’s judgement in the case of Cyril Squirrel v McDonlidons. Judge Harley Higson found Mr Squirrel’s zero hours contract, and by inference all zero hours contracts, to be illegal. He stated that, “In English law a contract must not disadvantage one party in favour of the other. A zero hours contract puts an obligation on Mr Squirrel to be available for work during periods defined by McDonlidons. At McDonlidons discretion Mr Squirrel may not be required and would not be paid. During these periods of unpaid availability there is clearly commercial value conferred on McDonlidons but with no recompense to Mr Squirrel, and further this imbalance is not compensated for during Mr Squirrel’s paid employment. As such we deem the part of the contract requiring Mr Squirrel’s unpaid availability to be illegal. We find that as this illegal contract has been in operation for some time McDonlidon will be required to pay Me Squirrel the sum of £2,500 as fair recompense for his unpaid availability.” The judgement will send shock waves through the many employers using this type of contract. Len McLusty from Unite was “over the moon” saying, ”Finally the courts have found what we knew all along.” Even a spokesman for the CBI said zero hours contracts had been undermining the cooperative relationship between employer and employee and said, “ Now our members won’t be forced to use them in order to be competitive.” After the trial Mr Squirrel said he was thankful that the payout could be used to pay his rent arrears and buy a winter coat.

Baroness Shocks Social Services.

Diddly diddly dum.

Happy Beavers.

Being named Happy Beaver myself when the opportunity to assist the local Beaver Scouts came up I volunteered. Twelve seven-year-old boys, an hour and half a week. Last night I gave my first solo presentation on the Solar System towards some badge or other. Taking a seven-year-old’s perspective on the Solar System is illuminating. For instance seeing the sun so big in the sky I never really thought of it as a star like the millions of little twinkly ones, but of course it is; it’s OUR star and that made me feel good. And I’d never really considered that on my birthday on the Earth’s journey through all the squillion acres of space the Earth is in the exact same position, like on every birthday! That’s amazing. Then as we constructed the solar system out of seven-year-olds, James the Sun, Otto as Mercury (too hot), Mars (no air), Saturn (just gas) and so on it made me realise just how amazing and ‘just right’ the earth is, just like baby bears porridge. So a line of beavers emerged each holding a ball the size of their planet radiating out from James holding an orange and each holding a piece of rope signifying the gravitational pull of the sun. And they were off running round James happy as Larry. Each had a ball, each was unique; they all love running about and all organised by a piece of rope into some semblance of order. About as close to the solar system in human form as you can get. When I stopped them all they wanted to do was go round again. So chaos averted I relaxed and went home for tea with Mothermouse. I’m definitely learning there’s an art to controlling cubs and beavers. Maybe they learnt something, I don’t know, but I know I did. 

The Christian who Sold me a Bike.

The Today program interviewed Muslims in I think it was High Wycombe. They decried the violence but with some anger supported the motives of the Paris assassins. Charlie Hebdo, the satirical magazine, should not have made fun of their prophet Mohammed. One man said he loved Mohammed more than his wife and family. That saddened me deeply. It somehow reminded me of calling on a man to buy a bike years ago. He was a committed Christian and welcomed me in that style, but when his son came in he dismissed him thoughtlessly. There seems to be a moment when, like that man in High Wycombe, some believers begin to love their prophet more than the God he was trying his best to tell them about, it being far easier to follow some earthly cause than surrender to a more heavenly spirit. From that moment there is great anger in the first for the second because the second reminds them of their own failure. Charlie Hebdo reminded those extremist assassins that its irreverence is a joy they cannot take pleasure in, that its spirit holds a freedom they cannot experience, and that its love holds a forgiveness that cannot absolve them. It’s pitiable the punishment they have chosen for themselves. Yet it’s a very human contagion to respond in like manner as the beliefs in one invoke the beliefs in another. I would remind the man from High Wycombe he is not a follower of Mohammed but of the God that Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed tried their earthly best to illuminate. I would say the same to the Christian who sold me a bike. 

Blocked Drains.

It’s become quite the thing to post wis-tweets on Facebook. Here’s the latest, well not now, it was posted hours ago, in a long line of ‘wisdom in a tweet’ posts. “Respect youself enough to walk away from ANYTHING that no longer serves you, grows you, or makes you HAPPY.” Is it me or does everyone immediately think of blocked drains? No? I mean a blocked drain no longer serves me, grows me or makes me happy so it’s a great candidate for walking away from. But necessity requires me to dig out the hairy I-don’t-like-to-think-about-what’s-in-it slime with my fingers to remove it. The trouble with wis-tweets is they’re so sucsinct they’re open to a million misunderstandings like mine. This one’s particularly spurious. Linguistically it couples ‘respect yourself’, a worthy thing, via the weighted adverb ‘enough’ to walking away from ANYTHING that basically your ego dislikes. It dislikes not being served, not growing and not being made happy. Of course it probably holds a different truth for those with little ego. Anyway for me the purpose of this pithy statement is to flatter my ego. It gives me cartblanch permission to reject anything or anyone I don’t like. I feel good, like I've almost learnt something or at least had it confirmed, until it comes to blocked drains. I’m deeply suspicious of wis-tweets and such like for this reason. In fact I’ve gained rather more wisdom from blocked drains and other messy and/or painful experiences than from reading wis-tweets that make me feel good about myself. 

Islamisation.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Islam is a failed religion. Failed because any religion is an attempt to bring people into a higher state of consciousness where differences are accepted in the spirit of love and oppression is rejected as the purveyor of fear. It has failed because the Koran can be interpreted to condone both love and oppression. As a result Islamic states and the different Islamic factions they contain are, as well as sharing love, shedding much blood. As a result many are fleeing to the comparative safety of largely Christian Europe. So the question is now at home, what are they exporting, love or fear? Are they bringing gifts or Islamisation? And even closer, do we ourselves respond in fear or charity? During an anti Islamisation march organised by right wing anti Muslims the dean of Cologne Cathedral turned off the floodlights saying “It is a challenge: to consider who you are marching alongside.” We must not conflate anti-Muslim with Islamisation. Mohamed was both a re-interpretor of the Abrahamic profits and a military general and the Koran contains both these aspects, to be a Muslim and to overthrow non-believers, to love and to Islamise. The dean was right, we must choose, do we reject oppression and/or can we accept them as just different in the spirit of love? Christian or no this is an indication of a higher state of consciousness. But life will remain a messy business. Then again it’s that messy business that will propel us higher if we let it.