“If nuclear weapons are GOOD, why shouldn’t every country in the world have them? If nuclear weapons are BAD why do these countries have them – USA, the UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, Russia and Israel.”
It is possible to give up nuclear weapons – South Africa did it.
DID YOU KNOW that there are more than 23 thousand nuclear weapons in the world today.
DID YOU KNOW THERE are more than 23 thousand nuclear weapons in the world today
K is for Kicking and Kissing -
not necessarily literally. So, for instance,let’s verbally kick the things we disapprove of. We should make our opinions known and make them count by joining with other people to change what needs changing, always remembering that the world doesn’t have to be this way
Let’s KICK capitalism with all its injustices and let’s KISS what we approve of – a better way of doing things, which benefits everybody, not just the rich and powerful in this world. Let’s celebrate the Occupy protestors, for example, who dare to dream of a better world, and try to bring it about.
both from Bertolt Brecht, the playwright, and particularly worth thinking about at a time when some people seem to be driving us towards attacking Iran, intervening in Syria, and other aggressive actions:
” … in wartime the big profits are not made by little people … war is a continuation of business by other means, makes human virtues fatal even to their possessors.”
” …war teaches people nothing.”
Jobs first – in fact, that’s it. Jobs should be the first thing any society provides for the people in it. Jobs/employment/the means to earn a living. No society can call itself civilized when millions of people don’t have jobs. And we need to share the jobs around – too many people work long hours, work overtime, get stressed. And at the same time, too many people aren’t working at all. We need everyone to work say 20-25 hours a week and then have time for family, volunteering, community activities, and so on. We need to think differently about how work gets done, what work is valued most, what work is the priority for society as a whole. We need to take power away from those who make us work too hard and too long, pay us too little, sack us when it suits them, outsource our work to other countries where workers are cheaper to hire.
J is also for joy.
Alice Walker wrote in ‘Possessing the secret of joy’ that the secret of joy is resistance.
So be joyful – resist the bosses, resist the financial speculators, resist the undemocratic politicians and rulers across the world, resist the corruption and immoral values of capitalist societies, resist religious despots, resist weapons producers and warmongers, resist environmental despoilers … resist all those who limit our freedom and human potential.
‘Imagination is more important than knowledge’ said Einstein.
We have to imagine a better world before we can achieve it. We need to imagine ways of reforming or replacing capitalism as it is, in the interests of the majority of people in the world.
We need to imagine ways of living, caring for each other – everyone – as fellow human beings. And we need to imagine how to live on this beautiful, vulnerable planet without destroying life – human, animal, plant life. We have to imagine different futures for ourselves and our descendants.
Wouldn’t that be the best new year resolution for everyone to make? – using our imaginations to make the world a better place for everyone’s future life on earth.
David Cameron said he wanted to rebalance the economy and there’s been talk of creating jobs and encouraging manufacturing. Yet now he’s gone to Brussels breathing fire to protect the City of London and those financial types who got us into this economic mess. It doesn’t make sense economically.
Britain used to be the workshop of the world, famous for the industrial revolution. It’s time we went back to making stuff again, just like the most successful economies in the world.
And providing services which people actually need – like health care, education, social care, rather than just moving money around to make more money to move more around, etc. etc. – and getting paid obscene amounts for doing so.
It’s time to tax financial transactions (the Tobin or Robin Hood tax), end tax havens and the tax avoidance and tax evasion which are so common. We could make a start by providing jobs for tax inspectors who’ve been made redundant by the government – how daft was that! And lets have more financial regulation to stop the mis-selling and exploitation we’ve had too much of – like selling personal pensions, mortgage payment protection, care plan policies to people who didn’t know what they were buying or didn’t need it.
health, hope and happiness
Health care is basic to everyone in all societies and a health care system based on profit cannot work. Once the profit motive is involved, nobody can be sure that the health advice and care they are offered is for their own good and not just for someone else’s financial gain.
People also need hope – hope for the future, for their own health and wellbeing and for their children’s progress in the world – their education and ability to earn a living. Health, education and employment are basic human rights and a society which does not provide them for ALL citizens cannot be considered civilized.
Health and hope are component parts of happiness and we all need help at times to enable us to be happy.
Globalisation means more and more poor people around the world from among the 99%, are forced to move to earn a living. They make often dangerous journeys from one country to another, from one continent to another. And often when they arrive in a new country they face prejudice and exploitation. And all because of the GREED of the 1%. The world doesn’t have to be this way. It’s time to fight back against the 1% and their friends in politics and the media.
Globalisation has not been good news for the 99% in the world who don’t have the money and power. Globalisation has meant money moving around the world to benefit the very rich and increase their power over democratically-elected governments and people who don’t have the money and power. The 1% buy up the resources of poor and rich countries alike. They speculate(gamble) and then tell the rest of us we must put up with austerity, cuts to services we depend on, etc.etc. It’s time for change – the world doesn’t have to be this way.
It’s time to demonstrate, occupy, resist with all our might.
Everyone is in favour of Freedom – right?
But there are different types of freedom: there is freedom to and freedom from.
Freedom TO is about the freedom to buy and sell goods and services; to participate in markets, including the labour market. Freedom to is the type of freedom that people who believe in so-called free markets like to promote. They suggest that we all can participate in markets, make decisions for ourselves. They tend to emphasise choice, as if choice is a totally good thing and is availablle to all of us, wherever we live, whatever money we have, and so on. And whether we want choice or not – do we really want to choose which hospital we go into for the treatment we need – don’t we just need the treatment quickly and effectively?
Do we really need a choice of thirty different shampoos when we just want clean hair?
Then there is freedom FROM: this is the freedom from poverty, hunger, homelessness, disease. To be free of these we need access to jobs, education, housing, health care and above all, a steady income, including at times of hardship, when we can’t work for whatever reason. A civilized, caring society, would make sure that we ALL had this freedom. We can’t rely on markets to provide the necessities of life for everyone – we need government policies to do that.