Non Sequitur

The Sri Lankan military has said today that it has stopped using aircraft / heavy weapons against the "Safe Zone". One naturally infers from this statement that they had been using aircraft / heavy weapons against the "Safe Zone", something that they have been denying doing so for the last two weeks. Everything the Tamils have been claiming is turning out to be true.

The contempt and arrogance shown by the Sri Lankan government / military shows the impotence of the "International Community". But in the past few days there have been signs that the "International Community" is waking up to the duplicity of the Sri Lankans. But it will come too late for the 50,000 civilians trapped in the "Safe Zone". The bloodbath that so many had predicted is now just a matter of when rather than if.

Much Ado About Nothing

On 8th April 12 men were arrested over a suspected bomb plot.

We were told that there had been a serious threat life. The arrests were hailed as triumph by politicians. The police were commended for their work.

Two weeks later all 12 men have been released without any charge. This would be shocking had it never happened before. But unfortunately it had, many times.

Every so often the police carry out these dramatic arrests, in full public view, in order to strike fear into the population and to to justify the draconian powers they have been given. After a while all those arrested are released quietly.

By the way, was it a coincidence that the men were released on the day that every one's eyes were on the Budget?

Out of the Frying Pan

As the 25 year-old Sri Lankan civil ware enters its death throws the Western media have finally started reporting the plight of the Tamil civilians.

Today's exodus from the so called 'Safe Zone" is just the latest ordeal faced by these wretched people.

Before that they were trapped in the the "Safe Zone'", a tiny strip of land between between the sea and the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) controlled area, as the SLA unleashed a continuous barrage of shells on them. The civilians were literally trapped between the devil and the deep blue sea. Thousands died as result.

Before that they has been forced to flee from their makeshift homes in the Vanni to the east coast as the SLA attacked and captured the areas controlled by the Tamil Tigers.

And before that, back in 1995, they were forced to flee from their homes in the Jaffna peninsula to the Vanni as the SLA attacked and captured Jaffna.

No one can even begin to imagine the horrors they have been through. Being continuously forced to flee, leaving their homes, possessions, and often, their families behind. The physical scars may heal but the psychological scars will stay with them forever.

What now awaits those who have fled the "Safe Zone"? Will they be allowed to return to their homes and families? No. They will be herded into large concentration camps in the Vanni from which they can't leave and which outside agencies/media can't visit. A case of "out of the frying pan and into the fire". Over the coming months these people somehow "disappear" from the face of the earth.

The "international community" has urged restraint from the Sri Lankans but has not enforced this. The Sri Lankans have successfully defied the "international community''. This is a telling sign for all other peoples trying to achieve freedom. If the "international community'' cannot control a small developing country like Sri Lanka, what hope do the Palestinians, Tibetans etc have?

At the beginning of the 21st century, human civilisation has produced numerous treaties, conventions, declarations etc which lay down on paper the rights and freedoms of every human being. But when it comes to actions (not words) needed to protect oppressed people, such as the Tamils, humanity is at best indifferent, at worst culpable.

The power of the Jews

Here's an example of the power wielded by the Jews.

Who else can make the ambassadors of at least 30 countries walk out on cue?

Thank Heavens for Small Mercies

According to the Association of Chief Police Officers we should all be grateful for the way the police handled the G20 protests in London. In any other country the police would have used rubber bullets and water canons.

We should be grateful that one person was murdered by the police. We should be grateful that dozens were assaulted by the police. And we should be grateful that thousands were illegally detained in massive open air police cells.

Police State

On 1st April the Met Police murder Ian Tomlinson.

On 2nd April a Met Police thug assaults a woman at a memorial for Ian Tomlinson. The thug had clearly planned do some hippy bashing that day - he had covered the identification numbers on his shoulders.

These are just two of the acts of police brutality meted out to the G20 protesters in London. They were fortunately caught on camera. Now just imagine how many weren't. The pathetic reaction of the "Independent" Police Complaints Commission to the Met's actions shows how incompetent they are.

Don't expect anything to come from the IPCC's investigations. Don't expect the review by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Police to achieve anything - Denis O'Connor, Her Majesty's Inspector of Police, is a former Assistant Commissioner of the Met Police! (You couldn't make it up). And don't expect any of the police officers responsible for the brutality to be punished. They never are.

This kind of police heavy handedness isn't restricted to the Met.

• On 13th April Nottinghamshire Police arrested 114 people on suspicion that may commit a crime by disrupting an E.on power station. All 114 people were released without any charge.
• Last August Kent Police employed every underhand tactic possible to disrupt the protests at another E.on power station. Why are the British police so keen to protect foreign owned energy companies from British protesters?
• Hundreds of thousands have been stopped and questioned using anti-terrorism laws. Only a handful of these have led to terrorist convictions.

The police being above the law isn't a recent phenomena. Today is the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster when 96 football fans were killed due to the actions of South Yorkshire Police. Twenty years on, not one police officer has been brought to justice.

It is now clear that the police see ALL protest as a nuisance. A nuisance that must be eradicated using every legal and illegal means possible. Britain is a police state. But don't blame the police for that. Blame the elected politicians who give the police draconian powers. And blame the "system" that is supposed to defend our rights and police the police.

April Fools

What a bunch of fools we have as our leaders. Their corruption and incompetence have resulted in the worst recession for 80 years. But their solution to the problems is to help the people who caused the problems.

They have spent hundreds of billions of dollars in helping the financial institutions whose recklessness with other people's money caused the problems in the first place. Yet, at the same time they refuse to help the retailers and manufacturers who trade in the real world and are having difficulties because the banks don't trust each other anymore.

They have reduced interest rates, helping individuals who been borrowing well beyond their means. But this has decimated the income of individuals who were sensible and saved some of their income during the good times.

Our leaders' promises that there will be no more booms and bust were just a big fat lie. The actions taken by governments will produce a boom which will inevitably lead to a bust.

We are doomed to make the mistakes over and over again unless we have wholesale rethink about our economic values.

There has been a lot a talk recently about getting rid of hedge funds and other "imaginary" financial instruments. But what about reducing our dependence on the false prophets of the stock market and property market?

The stock market has been the heart of capitalism for the last 200 years but what do share prices really mean? A single rogue trader can decimate a company's share prices irrespective of the financial position of the company. Our pensions and investments are tied up in these houses of cards.

In recent years the property market has become a crucial part of the economy, particularly in the Anglo-Saxon world. People are using their homes to increase their wealth rather than working to increase their wealth. They are moving homes not because they need to move home but because they want to "cash in" the increase in price of their homes. They fail to realise that if they sell their highly priced current home, the home they move into will also be highly priced and so they aren't any better off.

Finally we have to realise that the idea wealth can be created is just a myth. The conservation of energy law states that energy can't be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another. Similarly, wealth, and money for that matter, can't be created (or destroyed). It can only change hands. So if someone has become wealthier it is at someone else's expense. People don't become wealthy by "working hard". They become wealthy by overcharging their customers, underpaying their employees and arm-twisting their suppliers.