There were jubilant scenes in Saudi on Sunday as it became the last country in the world to allow women drivers. On Woman’s Hour this morning, the presenter was talking by telephone to a Saudi woman speaking from Jeddah.
They spoke a little about the celebrations still in full swing across the nation. Then the presenter pointed out that a number of women campaigners for change had been arrested in May of this year, and are currently still in custody.Any comments on that? But the line suddenly went dead.
Was it a family member, afraid of the woman landing them in a heap of trouble, or was it the authorities, monitoring the call with a finger on the disconnect button, ready to cut the line should any potentially embarrassing topic arise?
There have been some tentative steps towards emerging from the Middle Ages in KSA, but they are small and teeetering steps. The Saudi royal family, ostensibly in charge but in reality in thrall to the fundamentalist Wahabi clerics who really call the shots, desperately seek approval from “The West” (if indeed there is such a concept anymore in Trump’s world) to keep the billions rolling in. They shouldn’t worry too much though. Donald Trump is a big fan, as he appears to be of totalitarian states elsewhere, such as North Korea, and the UK does very well selling it arms to say nothing of our need for its oil. So don’t expect any high level protests about those imprisoned women any time soon. And as for that Saudi woman on the radio this morning, I hope she’s OK...
Tuesday, 26 June 2018
Monday, 25 June 2018
I’m a smoker, me
I smoked my first cigarette at 15, 52 years ago. By the age of 18 I was on 10 a day. Then after I started getting paid, the figure rose inexorably to 20. As the years passed I realised fags were not becoming more expensive over time - they were actually, adjusting for inflation, becoming cheaper. Right up to the 90s this was the case until the government started slapping punitive taxes on them.
In the 70s I visited America and noticed people were only smoking the first half of their fags (don’t call them that over there, by the way), and later when I heard that the lower death rates of lung cancer deaths over there were partly ascribable to this habit, I adopted it myself.
Like many young people of my era, I felt it looked ‘cool’ to smoke, and soon noticed girls who indulged might be more likely to put out. “If they smoke, they poke”. Before long of course I was addicted to nicotine, cool or not. Nicotine is said to be more addictive than heroin; certainly success rates for giving up those respective habits support this thesis. Adverts for cigarettes were necessary only to keep addicts ‘on-brand’ and not to defect to a rival.
Last year, when I was facing the grim possibility of serving life in prison for crimes I did not commit, my levels went up to over 200 a week. This is understandable. I have long felt that smoking a fag makes you 4% happier, and I found myself trying to be 4% happier at least 3 times an hour. Now that terrible threat has been lifted my rate has fallen to 13 a day - a level I have not managed for nearly 40 years.
Naturally I couldn’t resist watching a Timewatch docu last night about the subject and learned a few things I didn’t know, such as the fact that in early 20th century America the manufacturers noticed they were missing out on half the adult market, because it was not deemed ladylike for women to smoke, especially in the street. A clever advertising exec launched a campaign which suggested that for a woman to smoke was a demonstration of liberation and individuality. Within 10 years girls were puffing away as much as the guys.
I hope to give it up one day, as, despite all attempts by the manufacturers to convince us otherwise, they shorten life- and now I have a good reason to prolong my own...
In the 70s I visited America and noticed people were only smoking the first half of their fags (don’t call them that over there, by the way), and later when I heard that the lower death rates of lung cancer deaths over there were partly ascribable to this habit, I adopted it myself.
Like many young people of my era, I felt it looked ‘cool’ to smoke, and soon noticed girls who indulged might be more likely to put out. “If they smoke, they poke”. Before long of course I was addicted to nicotine, cool or not. Nicotine is said to be more addictive than heroin; certainly success rates for giving up those respective habits support this thesis. Adverts for cigarettes were necessary only to keep addicts ‘on-brand’ and not to defect to a rival.
Last year, when I was facing the grim possibility of serving life in prison for crimes I did not commit, my levels went up to over 200 a week. This is understandable. I have long felt that smoking a fag makes you 4% happier, and I found myself trying to be 4% happier at least 3 times an hour. Now that terrible threat has been lifted my rate has fallen to 13 a day - a level I have not managed for nearly 40 years.
Naturally I couldn’t resist watching a Timewatch docu last night about the subject and learned a few things I didn’t know, such as the fact that in early 20th century America the manufacturers noticed they were missing out on half the adult market, because it was not deemed ladylike for women to smoke, especially in the street. A clever advertising exec launched a campaign which suggested that for a woman to smoke was a demonstration of liberation and individuality. Within 10 years girls were puffing away as much as the guys.
I hope to give it up one day, as, despite all attempts by the manufacturers to convince us otherwise, they shorten life- and now I have a good reason to prolong my own...
Friday, 15 June 2018
Immigrants: life is tough
Immigrants have been taking some stick lately, and it isn’t a pretty sight. Earlier this week the new, near fascist Italian interior minister told a boatload of immigrants from Africa to fuck off somewhere else. In America, a new policy of separating “illegal” immigrants from their children has been in force for a while, and hundreds of the former are in detention, while their children, well, we’re not sure what’s happened to them. We do know Trump and his supporters, of whom there continue to be millions, don’t care. And here at home, May’s “hostile environment for immigrants” policy has backfired with disastrous consequences for the NHS. Suddenly the government realised they were keeping out hundreds of doctors and nurses badly needed to keep the whole thing afloat. They seem to have forgotten that the NHS has relied on immigrants for over 50 years.
How could it all have gone so terribly wrong? you might ask. The only answer as I see it is: they’re idiots. And we’re idiots for letting them get away with it. Take Brexit, for example. As Frankie Boyle put it so neatly, Brexit is Christmas for racists. People voted Leave in their millions, adopting the fantasy that before long all those nasty foreigners with their strange appearance, funny languages and sponging off the state would be packed off home, leaving us indigenous Brits to enjoy the green and pleasant land that is our birthright. They didn’t realise they were falling into the trap of an ultra-right wing cabal intent on turning us into an offshore tax haven and allowing capitalism to really let rip. They didn’t realise our great country is going to be a lot less prosperous as a result, and that thousands will be put out of work. This is beginning to happen already. And baby, it’s gonna get a whole lot worse. But at least we’ll have got rid of the immigrants, right? Wrong. Turns out actually we can’t do without them...
How could it all have gone so terribly wrong? you might ask. The only answer as I see it is: they’re idiots. And we’re idiots for letting them get away with it. Take Brexit, for example. As Frankie Boyle put it so neatly, Brexit is Christmas for racists. People voted Leave in their millions, adopting the fantasy that before long all those nasty foreigners with their strange appearance, funny languages and sponging off the state would be packed off home, leaving us indigenous Brits to enjoy the green and pleasant land that is our birthright. They didn’t realise they were falling into the trap of an ultra-right wing cabal intent on turning us into an offshore tax haven and allowing capitalism to really let rip. They didn’t realise our great country is going to be a lot less prosperous as a result, and that thousands will be put out of work. This is beginning to happen already. And baby, it’s gonna get a whole lot worse. But at least we’ll have got rid of the immigrants, right? Wrong. Turns out actually we can’t do without them...
Monday, 11 June 2018
Trump meets Kim: WTF?
One of the oddest summit meetings in years is taking place tomorrow, if you hadn’t heard. But I ask myself, what do the parties hope to gain?
Jaw, jaw is better than war, war said Churchill, and it’s hard to argue with that. But here’s something else that can prevent war: nuclear weapons. John Pilger once said that the best way for a small country to avoid being dominated by America was to obtain nukes, and it seems to have worked with NK. Of course the US has been trying to strangle it with sanctions, though China has been using the back door to keep its neighbour alive.
So. America would like NK to lose its nukes, while the latter would like the US to lift its sanctions. Of course NK isn’t going to relinquish its nukes, for the reasons given above. And sanctions are the only weapons the US has. Seems like there’s not a lot of wiggle-room. So what’s really going on?
It’s the base, stupid. With a slew of tricky domestic issues to manage, Trump badly wants a distraction from the corrupt regime he has created. He was addressing his base when he basically told the rest of the western world to go fuck itself at the recent G7 summit. And it is his base he is addressing when he goes to Singapore and announces a breakthrough in negotiations, whatever actually happens behind closed doors. And that base will eat it up as they seem to eat up everything he says.
I fear a real breakthrough. Right now the GOP is facing real trouble in America’s mid-term elections in November. They could even lose their majority in both houses. But if Trump can claim a diplomatic victory in Singapore, it could swing support back to him and his party. And that would be bad, very bad, for America and indeed the rest of the world.
Jaw, jaw is better than war, war said Churchill, and it’s hard to argue with that. But here’s something else that can prevent war: nuclear weapons. John Pilger once said that the best way for a small country to avoid being dominated by America was to obtain nukes, and it seems to have worked with NK. Of course the US has been trying to strangle it with sanctions, though China has been using the back door to keep its neighbour alive.
So. America would like NK to lose its nukes, while the latter would like the US to lift its sanctions. Of course NK isn’t going to relinquish its nukes, for the reasons given above. And sanctions are the only weapons the US has. Seems like there’s not a lot of wiggle-room. So what’s really going on?
It’s the base, stupid. With a slew of tricky domestic issues to manage, Trump badly wants a distraction from the corrupt regime he has created. He was addressing his base when he basically told the rest of the western world to go fuck itself at the recent G7 summit. And it is his base he is addressing when he goes to Singapore and announces a breakthrough in negotiations, whatever actually happens behind closed doors. And that base will eat it up as they seem to eat up everything he says.
I fear a real breakthrough. Right now the GOP is facing real trouble in America’s mid-term elections in November. They could even lose their majority in both houses. But if Trump can claim a diplomatic victory in Singapore, it could swing support back to him and his party. And that would be bad, very bad, for America and indeed the rest of the world.
Friday, 1 June 2018
How do I hate thee Mr Trump? Let me count the ways
I had my misgivings about America’s president from the outset. Right from his inauguration, when he slammed CNN for saying the crowds at that event weren’t as big as they were for Obama. “Fake News!” He called it, and dubbed CNN the “Fake News” channel from then on. That bothered me.
Then he brought in big tax reforms, which favoured only the rich and super-rich, like himself. Later there was a KKK rally in Charlottesville, which brought out furious protests from opponents of that white supremacist gang. He said there were “good people on both sides” That amazed me, because here was an American president apparently giving support and succour to a racist organisation.
He appointed Scott Pruitt to head the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), because Scott had a record of supporting big business every time they opposed the restrictions placed on them by that organisation. Since his appointment, decisions in favour of business and against the environment have been the order of the day. Science has flown out of the door because it would seem profit trumps (geddit?) science every time. Like climate change, for example- a Chinese hoax, according to Trump.
Trump doesn’t really believe in tradition, even if it’s a good one like “bring me your hungry masses, yearning to be free”. He’s been busy throwing out anyone who doesn’t fit the WASP profile, such as thousands of “illegals” from El Salvadore, many of whom have stable jobs in the US and have lived there for over 20 years. Suddenly they find themselves dumped back in their “home country”, broke, vulnerable to some of the worst gang violence anywhere in the world. Does Trump care about that? I don’t think so. No, what he cares about is his “base”.
Who are these people, his “base”, the people who voted for him in their millions and who he would like to vote for him and his fellow-travellers again? Let’s look at a typical Trump supporter: he’s white, lower end of the income scale and not very bright. He hasn’t noticed the tax reforms are not benefiting him; probably has never even thought about it. He likes guns, probably owns several. He sees immigrants as parasites, thinks the KKK may have a point, and doesn’t trust foreigners generally, so he’s fine with the trade war Trump has just started. I should perhaps say Trump has supporters across the social spectrum. I saw a black, female doctor on the TV the other day who agreed with Trump about absolutely everything.
I’ve disliked presidents before. I didn’t think a lot of Dubya, thought even Obama missed many opportunities to improve the world, especially in the Middle East. Reagan was an idiot, and don’t even get me started on what I thought of Nixon. But with Trump we have the worst, the most dangerous president the US has ever had. And it’s going to get worse.
Then he brought in big tax reforms, which favoured only the rich and super-rich, like himself. Later there was a KKK rally in Charlottesville, which brought out furious protests from opponents of that white supremacist gang. He said there were “good people on both sides” That amazed me, because here was an American president apparently giving support and succour to a racist organisation.
He appointed Scott Pruitt to head the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), because Scott had a record of supporting big business every time they opposed the restrictions placed on them by that organisation. Since his appointment, decisions in favour of business and against the environment have been the order of the day. Science has flown out of the door because it would seem profit trumps (geddit?) science every time. Like climate change, for example- a Chinese hoax, according to Trump.
Trump doesn’t really believe in tradition, even if it’s a good one like “bring me your hungry masses, yearning to be free”. He’s been busy throwing out anyone who doesn’t fit the WASP profile, such as thousands of “illegals” from El Salvadore, many of whom have stable jobs in the US and have lived there for over 20 years. Suddenly they find themselves dumped back in their “home country”, broke, vulnerable to some of the worst gang violence anywhere in the world. Does Trump care about that? I don’t think so. No, what he cares about is his “base”.
Who are these people, his “base”, the people who voted for him in their millions and who he would like to vote for him and his fellow-travellers again? Let’s look at a typical Trump supporter: he’s white, lower end of the income scale and not very bright. He hasn’t noticed the tax reforms are not benefiting him; probably has never even thought about it. He likes guns, probably owns several. He sees immigrants as parasites, thinks the KKK may have a point, and doesn’t trust foreigners generally, so he’s fine with the trade war Trump has just started. I should perhaps say Trump has supporters across the social spectrum. I saw a black, female doctor on the TV the other day who agreed with Trump about absolutely everything.
I’ve disliked presidents before. I didn’t think a lot of Dubya, thought even Obama missed many opportunities to improve the world, especially in the Middle East. Reagan was an idiot, and don’t even get me started on what I thought of Nixon. But with Trump we have the worst, the most dangerous president the US has ever had. And it’s going to get worse.
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