Quo Vadis…?

This week,  African-American clergyman and civil rights activist, Martin Luther King  – assassinated in April, 1968 -would have seen his famous dream become reality. For the inequality of the black races was  symbolically obliterated by the accession of one Barack Obama to the Presidential throne of The United States of America…

Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, is black…

And, as I watched him take the oath of accession I couldn’t help wondering if this is the man who is, finally, going to be able to change the world for the better… 

Judging by the presence of coloured people from all over The United States - and from other parts of the world - at the accession, it surely signifies that something of dramatic nature is likely to be afoot whilst America is in the hands of this particular President. 

I have no doubt that Obama’s accession is the result of the votes of , not only those white folk who support him, but of millions of black people who, before, had never seen the point of voting in the presidential elections…

Certainly,  Barack Obama’s speech, after his acceptance of the Presidency, boded ill for the greed of America’s financial institutions…

 And if that brings about similar repercussions in the rest of the finacial world, then all to the good, for we  little people could surely do with a break from the ruinous impact imposed upon us by, for instance,  million pound  (dollar) bonuses and million pound (dollar) handshakes for failed Big Business top executives.

And that’s not to mention the greed of those big banks whose executives thought there was a mint to be made out of buying up the debts of borrowers who had no chance of ever paying back what they owed…

Then there’s Guantanamo – that putrifying sore on the reputation of  The United States of America.  Obama has  decided to rid the US of the stigma brought about by the presence of this prison camp –  sited on a Cuban bay and occupied in perpetuity as a result of a Cuban-American treaty in 1903. 

 Here, detainees who are suspected of assisting the Taliban of Afghanistan are incarcerated, and it is here where detainees have been undergoing questionable methods of interrogation, such as the use of the infamous “waterboarding”.

The new President appears to have a full programme of action, and the programme appears to be already under way. The financial crisis that has made millions of the world’s workers jobless is number one priority. There are pay freezes for top White House staff in the offing; gifts from lobbyists are banned; Middle-East leaders have been contacted and envoys will be appointed to the region.

In a recent post I complained about the lack of “Great Men” in the World of Politics.  It seems to me that America’s President’s Obama’s intention is to start correcting all the sufferings that the lack of this world’s “great men” has brought about.  

 I wish him all good fortune in his political, philosophical, and his undoubted philanthropic intentions.

Certainly, with the accession of this remarkable new US President, Barack Obama, I – along with Martin Luther King - can “have a dream”.   And I can can afford to ask myself:

 ”Quo Vadis…?”

Poor Harry…!

Three years ago Prince Harry made a video of some of his mates in the officer training group to which they belonged. They were all lounging around in battledress resting and awaiting orders for the next bit of action that was on the cards for them, I suppose.

Harry was making occasional comments as he trained the camera over and around his colleagues.   As he pointed the camera at one particular mate , he said: “And this is our Paki friend….”

Oh, dear. The News Of The World newspaper managed to get possession of the video recently and ran a story that has been picked up by the rest of the media.  The story has evolved  – as a result of the opportunists’ usual grabbing at every chance of a moan about something or other – into one that has become a so “insulting” reference to the “Paki”…

What a hulabaloo!

You’d think the whole Moslem fraternity – immigrant and British-born alike – had been thrown to the British National Party and savaged unmercifully.

Most normal people think as I do: that the News Of The World can only be held in utter contempt for even deciding to run such a flaccid story – and I speak as a man who worked on newspapers for most of his life.

The standards – and I don’t mean just newspaper standards – of this country are becoming so ridiculously “nannified” that I despair of the rest of the world ever regaining the respect it once had of the “British” logo…

What, in Heavan’s name, did Prince Harry do to “insult” anyone?  The “Paki” concerned was a mate, much like the mates I served with in the Royal Marines sixty-odd years ago. You should have heard some of the names we called each other in those days! And I strongly suspect that the very same name-calling goes on in barrack rooms these days…

In God’s name, what has happened to the dramatic front-page stories we used to look forward to? All our news editors seem to be able to do these days is sort out some caterwauling musical personality who has been kissing some other caterwauling musical personality’s live-in partner behind some bushes somewhere – and front-page the “story”.

Lord help us if this is all that is expected of “Great” Britain these days!

But, I forget. It’s royalty who has committed the “offence” and it mustn’t be allowed to pass unnoted by the great British media.

Some media…

It seems to me that the journalistic  ”talent” huddled within the newsrooms of some newspapers these days leaves much – as the saying goes - to be desired.

Isn’t it a fact that most editors have spotted the significance of mobile ‘phones that have photographic facilities…?

 Aren’t they now calling upon the public to “send in their stories”?  What a cost-cutter.  All that is needed now is some mediocre sub-editor to trim the story sent in by a member of the public and – presto! – a story, and cheap at the price…   And  it cuts down the payroll, doesn’t it?  Who needs trained journalists, now.  We have a great British public out there carrying mobile ‘phones…

Anyway, how did the News Of The World manage to get hold of Harry’s private video?

Now, there’s a front-page story, for you.  I’m sure Prince Harry wouldn’t calmly walk into the paper’s offices and obligingly hand over  a ready-made “front-page” story.  What’s the story behind that little speculation…?

2009 And All That…

Here we go again, then.  Another old year bites the dust and we turn our eyes towards the eternally sought Happy and Peaceful New Year which, thanks to our world’s magnificent politicians, never seems to materialize…

Where, Oh where have all the “great” men gone?  Names that used to ring out across the politics of the world seem to have become the missing link in political evolution, and time after time we hear reference to political personalities that do not seem to have registered very graphically in in our conciousness.  In fact, half the time, we don’t know who they are…!

Churchill, Eden, Atlee, Bevan, Bevin, Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Eisenhower, Dulles, Kitchener and so many others were names that rang out like bells across the political scene of not so long ago;  names that went along with the deeds with which the names were so greatly associated. 

Margaret Thatcher?  All I remember of  Margaret Thatcher’s period in office are : the re-privatisation of the utilities – Electricity, Gas, Water, British Rail and their consequent rises in prices.  (In the cases of Gas and Privatised Rail, price rises have now become extortionate…! Under a government of ‘New Labour’, too…!)

 I remember, too, The Miners’ Strike and Flying Pickets and the brutal control of same by baton-wielding police; I remember the start of the Falklands War and the order to ‘Sink The Belgrano’ even though the Argentinian vessel was outside the two hundred mile exclusion zone…

I remember, too, when we had a 15% interest rate, and when Margaret Thatcher’s monetary policies forced us to withdraw from the currency exchange rate…

Some say that ’she dragged us kicking and screaming into the Twentieth Century’.  If that means privatisation and unemployment and turning boardroom personnel into millionaires, whilst pay rises on the shop floor should be limited to only 3% or thereabouts, I guess they were dead right.  She did…

‘Nuff said…

Nowadays, our politicians seem to have degenerated into personalities that seem to have no impact on the public conciousness any more.  In fact, they don’t seem to have much effect within their own political gamesmanship areas.

Take our own Tony Blair – one of the most popular British prime ministers of modern times.  He  retired from the British scene to give some of  his talents, amongst other things, to the formation of a Middle East Peace Plan. 

Some Peace Plan…    To celebrate the onset of the New Year, Israel is now blasting hell out of the Gaza Strip militants. Why?  Well, I believe those Gaza militants have been busy aiming their home-made missiles into Israeli townships for years. 

 Well done, Tony…

And what’s to be said about the power-mad, Zimbabwean dictator, Mugabe, so proudly revered by other black dictatorships as the instigator of  colonial freedom, and who, as a result, must be allowed to smother the inhabitants of  his innocent nation with his imbecilic ravings and the economic consequences of his need to retain personal power…

And What! Ho! The United Nations  – that great, massive talk-shop that looks on at the turbulence in the world that surrounds its great edifice in New York?  It seems helpless as a “United Nations” to do the things for which it’s inauguration was intended – create peace and plenty on a desperate planet where both are so badly needed.  Their Security Council Emergency Meetings usually issue something like: ‘Agreement was not reached.  Further discussions will be taking place’….

Forgive me if I sound a little cynical.  At eighty years of age I have - I think – a right to be, having seen what’s gone before.  Nevertheless, I return to a more positive note to repeat my hope of a couple of days ago.  The hope that, somehow, someone, somewhere may be able to wave a magic wand and bring enlightenment to what could be a wonderful world to live in…

Happy New Year.

And may I add my sincere thanks to the WordPress team for making available to us such an efficient and attractive blogging medium.  My Best Wishes to You All…