Overseas Development: $2 Trillion in 50 Years - Banks: $18 Trillion in 1 Year

Says it all really:

"Since the inception of aid (overseas development assistance) almost 50 years ago, donor countries have given some $2 trillion in aid. And yet over the past year, $18 trillion has been found globally to bail out banks and other financial institutions. The amount of total aid over the past 49 years represents just eleven percent of the money found for financial institutions in one year.

The UN Millennium Campaign is urgently calling on rich countries gathering at this week's high-level summit on the economic crisis to make no further excuses that they lack resources and to urgently deliver on their aid commitments."

more at: http://www.endpoverty2015.org

Afghanistan News: Not to Inform but to Recruit

There was an interesting comment in an interesting article on the MOD trying (as always) to control the story on the failing war in Afghanistan. Buried in the article was this:

The Guardian's James Meek, embedded in Helmand in 2006, says he was allowed to speak freely, and had no problems with minders. However, he was sent to a relatively quiet zone, and his requests to visit bases where soldiers were engaged in combat were refused. "I was told quite candidly that the priority was the tabloids and television because it was important for recruitment," he says.

Wow - so the reports on the front line of a war done in our name and paid for with our money, is being controlled to create a story of excitement and combat, 'because it was important for recruitment'. Nice; reminds me of the line in the Young Ones when Neil is looking for a job and the ad in the aper says; Join the Army: It's great you can have a gun if you want one.

Watching the Right

There is an interesting comment on GNN placing the recent spate of shootings in the US in the context of a far right-wing backlash over the modest gains of the centre-left with the victory of Obama.

One could only imagine the media frenzy and fear mongering had these acts been committed in the name of Allah; or had been committed by an Arab-looking person. The recent attack at Washington D.C.‘s Holocaust Memorial Museum was again committed by a Christian Nationalist. The murderer of Dr. George Tiller said via telephone interview that this was only the beginning, and that many more attacks are planned.

It was the third recent shooting involving a gunman with ties to the white nationalist/christian fundamentalist movement following last month’s slaying of abortion provider Dr. George Tiller and the shooting of three police officers in Philadelphia in April. Our corporate media hasn’t really put the recent events into perspective, and continues to ignore America’s own home grown terrorists.

It is also interesting to note that the guy who did the shooting of the holocaust museum also had links to our own far-right nut bags, the BNP.

There is also the great blog, Daily Mail Watch, that keeps a beady eye on our own right-wing hate rag. Take this choice example:

It seems simple enough, in Mail land. If you complain about people’s attitudes towards homosexuality, then you are a ‘Nazi’. A ‘Nazi’ in the Littlejohn/Gaunt mould, that is, ie someone who has views that you don’t can be called a Nazi. As the man who led to the end of Gaunt’s career in radio pointed out, though, you need to put something in front of ‘Nazi’ to be able to get away with it - the Mail has chosen ‘adoption’ this time. Because the Nazis were so fond of homosexual people, weren’t they? So fond of them they gave them nice pink triangles to wear in the concentration camps. It’s a really good analogy, Mr Mail.

Great stuff.
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Denial Watch - BNP

It is always interesting to see the mish-mash of generally right-wing, but also a few lefties, who subscribe to the ill-defined 'it's-not-really-happening/it-is-happening-a-bit/it-is-happening-but-it-is-not-a-problem' view of global warming and its inevitable cause of what must amount to either the largest global conspiracy since the arrival of the Lizard Men, or that almost every single climatologist on the planet is so slow that they can't figure out what a handful of O-level trained amateurs can.

And now they are joined in their view with the illustrious company of the fascist far-right BNP;

The party do have other policies apart from race - but they seem a bit woolly. The BNP's website describes the party as 'Britain's only true green party'. However, Mr Griffin told reporters one of his first priorities in Europe would be an urgent campaign for more nuclear power stations.

He also cast doubt on evidence that human activity has caused global warming, saying: "They say the icecaps are melting. The ice has melted on Mars and there are no 4x4s there."

Wow - that is razor-sharp logic! Hive the man an honorary PhD!!!

Not that you needed any more reasons to see the BNP as hopeless backward, deluded idiots...
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Vote Day 2009

Vowles the Green has an interesting post using Google Insight to map out the political parties as searches on google, to gauge interest. In his run of the data the Greens come out on top. However this a tough tool to use as the search terms are key. If you change his original to the more common names for the parties involved (e.g. 'british national party' to 'bnp' and conservative' to 'tory') then the picture comes out different, with a surge in interest for the BNP, which drops off in recent days to put them equal with the Greens.

We also need to note that a search for a party does not have to mirror support for a party. But still it is interesting to speculate and hat-hip to Vowles for the idea.

See the original here and my version here.

Still, I feel we need to vote today, in whatever is the best way to keep the BNP out. To quote:

Each of us has the responsibility to stop the BNP. The best way we can do that is to not only to vote ourselves but to encourage everyone we know to go out and do the same.

Every person you get to the polls to vote for any other party makes it harder for the BNP to win a seat.

Email or phone your friends now and remind them to vote today.

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