It's your world

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article354271.ece

I posted a few days ago saying "What do ya do when you look out at the state of the world" and then talked about the destruction of our global environment.

It is our world, the world of your children and their children.

Protest has returned again. The earlier riots in France were the precessor of the recent student protests about a change in the employment law in France which was there to "help" the economy but at the same time putting young people at a disadvantage.

I don't believe that violent protest helps but going back to when I was younger France always had a reputation for radical protest. Possibly because of the influence of its history around the revolution. I don't believe that violence influences in a good way though. I think it takes away from the seriousness of protest and can lead to the protest being remembered for its violence rather that its message and gives the powers that be reason to ignore it sometimes. They will just focus on the violence making it look as if the people involved were there for violence rather than to make a political point.

As far as I can see the planet is in serious trouble because it's now entering a stage where one event caused by global warming is affecting other systems and causing a sort of roll on effect. It needs a lot of talking about. We've been told that emissions will be sorted out in thirty or so years. There's no way, looking at what is begining to happen that this makes sense. You can hope that something will happen that no one knows about or can predict that will stabilize it, but that doesn't look as if it's on the cards.

People need to get involved and talk and do projects and learn about what is happening. What else is there to do.

Understand not just about global climate change, but also the difficulty when looking at the relationship between different countries and commerce and other types of global stability too.

It's our world.

donotdeletethisblog

http://donotdeletethisblog.blogspot.com

Protest

At the moment you have to type your own links in as Blogger is still in the process of being got back up again.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south-asia/4848614.stm

Afghans protest against convert

Detailing how there was a protest by about 700 people who were protesting about the possible release of the guy who had converted to Christianity.

I actually thought that 700 was quite a small number. This is a country who still has the memory of the Taliban, where no protests were possible against the State if you wanted to live. I was reasonably cheered that only 700 hardliners bothered to protest. There was an underground spirit of rebellion during the time of the Taliban where women ran underground study groups as they were denied an education by the Taliban.

The good news for this man is now

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4851666.stm

Shows that world protest can have an effect. I hope he gets asylum.

continued

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4847342.stm

Afghanistan

Well, talking about the guy who converted to Christianity and is now in the news because he has been threatened with the death penalty unless he reconverts to Islam.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4841334.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4841812.stm

I wonder how anyone can look at another human being and even think something like this. Don't they feel someone's humanity.

I know that Afghanistan is really in a state rather like the UK was a few hundred years ago and could easily revert to given the right conditions. I remember talking to someone about this and he said that the veneer of the present civilization is very thin. And, I tend to agree, but we do have information and knowledge that just isn't there for a lot of tribal people in Afghanistan at the moment.

Even with our knowledge there are plenty of people who would like specific religious beliefs to rule over anything else. Ofcourse they are their religious beliefs. Generally other people's aren't given much credence because the religion says it is the only truth.

Shrugs.

But, what ever you might believe if you're religious, how can you look someone in the face and see their humanity and even think of condemning them to death for a religious belief.

I do suspect that not a few Afghans don't believe that the guy should die but are too scared to say anything. Well, a mixture of indoctrination and fear.

What d'ya do when you look out there and see the state of the world.

What do you do when you look out there and see the state of the world. The poverty, the violence, the environment, the new illnesses here and expected. What do you do.

Talk about it, write about it.

What difference does it make.

Sit here watching as the environment is more or less disappearing down a wormhole of destruction. Piece by piece it disintergrates more and more, setting up a chain where one event will establish new effects which will wind it all down further and futher.

And, the answer to this, we're told, is that things are in preparation for industry and the causes of this environmental change, and that it'll all come into fruitition in thirty or forty years time. As the environment degrades and turns in on itself infront of us, setting a spiral of events into a chain which will alter the whole system, and not for the better.

And that's just one thing.

Links

Edited so that they work

My blogs

I have four blogs now

There's this one

http://aplaceinthyme.blogspot.com/

And

http://driftingthroughspace.blogspot.com/


And

http://lemuuresblog.blogspot.com/


And, another one, I set up while blogger was down and am going to leave up, though am not using at the moment. Just like it.

http://nighttime.blogsource.com/

I might add

That you can actually get very thin rubbish bags that are almost see through. They generally come in different colours, and some, unfortunately, are rather scented.

And, also, as there are 60 million people in this country or so I think that every environmental gesture goes some way doesn't it.

The Environment and carrier bags

An article from the BBC's news site.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4836766.stm


I try to use as few carrier bags as I can just as a part of getting on with not contributing too much to the environmental problems that are going on at the moment. I use them as rubbish bags as well, though at the moment I'm using bigger bags to get rid of some things here. I can buy recycled/biodegradeable ones for that, but I also realise that I can afford them so I'm not putting myself over as doing anything special here.

I choose what I buy and do. Not a saint environmentally but I try to be aware. And manage this in some things.

But the real reason for bringing this up over and over again for the past year or so is the realization that it's a global problem that needs global solutions and just keep saying this.

The pole ice isn't reforming as it should again this year which is another sign that things are getting more difficult. This isn't just a problem of ice not reforming, it's actually a process that will take away more of the planets own protection devices.

Political blog

This is going back to being more of a political blog so I'm removing personal posts now.

Lemuure's new blog

Because there is trouble posting on blogger Lemuure has moved to another blogging site until the problem here is sorted out.

The address for the new blog is:

http://rainbowrider.blogsource.com/

Edited

Just edited last post at the end to make it make more sense. What was there is what happens when you edit without reading back to make sure you didn't delete more than you meant to.

I seem to be rather bad at deleting these days. Delete whole blogs that I want there, and also delete when editing so that what I've written makes no sense at all.

Yay me.

or

Y e.

or something.

Difficult

It's difficult to keep this blog up while the others are down because I can't separate the posts into category by blog. I've changed the name of my new blog on the other site to Marooned from Rainbow Rider, a name which was inspired by the fluffy pink cloud, and I now have a blog pattern of dancers rather than bunnies!!!!

I'm only going to be at Blogsource while Blogger's down cause I lose the backup of what I've already written if I stay there.

And that's without deleting my own blogs!!!!!!

Blogger, wonderful as this system is, over at LJ you have a whole month to decide whether you actually meant that you wanted to delete your blog or if it was just one of THOSE moments which you regret as soon as your brain clicks back in too.

But, I am finding it difficult posting here at the moment because of the way I'd organised my other blogs on this site.

Still, I can now post at Blogsource too and at that new little diary site.

Back to these sites

Have to admit while I've been ill for the last couple of months and having to sort other things out as well while getting through it that I hadn't been clicking on the charity free click sites.

Well am back now on these sites. It's only a few minutes of my time and it obviously helps.

Care2 for the home page

http://care2.com/

And here to click to donate

http://rainforest.care2.com/

Just work along the titles: Rainforests, Seals, Oceans etc. On the Rainforest one you just choose where you'd like to donate to, Marine Wetlands, American Prairie, or Rainforest and click. Same with the other pages, you just click to donate.

Seals is a new category since I was last here.


Then over at the other site, The Hunger Site which has different pages to click on too

http://www.thehungersite.com/

I guess I'll feel better when I've got moving sorted out.

That's it really at the moment isn't it. It'll be good just to have got things sorted out. I've got work to think about, but haven't even got to really work out what I'll be doing yet. I'm too isolated here. And the rest.

I've also had to realise that I can't work and be invisible, but I have come to realise over the last couple of months that it's ok here. Thanks people. You know who you are. Cheers.

So, I'll soon be in London. Soon be off to Amsterdam for a little while, be down in Cornwall. And I'm off to Glastonbury. But I think that might have to wait until the autumn. But I don't know. Maybe I'll go there first.

Feeling a bit better.

Actually started the day feeling really rough, seemed my foot was giving me extra trouble again. Still, I was going out and I went out and as the day went on I got to feeling better and better, though I'm still far from well. I just didn't feel so down in my self either which has been a problem these last few weeks on and off.

Loss of confidence in some ways I guess too.

I guess this morning got off to a reasonable start in some ways, apart from the feeling ill that is, when I went into the bathroom, looked in the mirror and found that I'd got a small piece of kitchen towel stuck to the end of my nose. God knows how long it'd been there for or how it got there.

Went out, really didn't know if I should, but I thought about it and decided I'd stayed in while running a temperature and that now I could go. I think I was pleased too that the weather was a lot better, no really cold wind. Normally I don't mind the cold but I think over the last cold spell it'd got to me a bit because I was feeling ill.

Anyway by the time I came back here I was feeling a lot better, not well by any means, but feeling as if I had more energy, and I could feel my mind starting to become a lot more attentive again or something and reacting better to what was going on around me. Something like that anyway, it's a bit hard to describe. Don't know when I started feeling so tired but I could feel it lifting a bit this evening as I came back.

Could hypnosis help relieve pain

A programme to listen to on Radio Netherlands

(in English)

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/features/science/060320rf

testing

testing

Hope this one is still working!!

A certain lemuure has just started a temporary diary over at diaryland. Not the diary site I was using before with the smilies. Guess what, that one was down today as well. Well, it wouldn't let you sign in any new diaries.


Diaryland, while appearing more basic, does give you the chance to have a purple blog, so

http://eruumel.diaryland.com/060318_97.html


Not that there's much to read there at the moment.

Sense of humour bypass

This is possible!!!!!!!!!

It's been suggested

That I just keep one blog now because I will be working on different things and that this should be the blog.

But, I think I can keep them going and still work. Though, strangely, the other two aren't functional this morning. I think people worry that I'll run out of ideas if I keep too much on line and then try to sit here and work too. I think, at the moment, there's enough to keep me busy for now everywhere.

When I'm well the ideas just keep flowing, it's when I'm feeling ill that things dry up a bit.

Today I'll be practicing drawing the figures I need for one thing.

I'm more used to doing portrait type pictures of people.

Yikes

Blogging

This post is a kind of reaction to something I read in the press a couple of days ago. Funnily enough there were articles on the same subject in two different papers. One I read, one I didn't. The first one was saying that bloggers could be anyone, and that they could be a front for anyone, any organization, and use the blog to manipulate opinion anonymously. You can be anyone on a blog I guess, except to the people who know you.

The article also contrasted the established media and blogging. While bloggers, if they're not under someone's control, have freedom to write what they want, established media professionals have to write within the boundries set by their organizations. It does tend to mean that they write within a certain political slant. If it's a paper the paper will often say who they're supporting politically, others won't, but the political slant of the paper is apparent anyway. Though I do think in the UK at the moment it's quite hard to support one party down the line.

I thought the article was too short and tended to demonise bloggers rather than extending what had been written to a larger overview. The bloggers I read aren't in the pay of any controlling body!!!!

I started blogging because of racism I found in places where I expected there to be an informed and balanced outlook, this just wasn't happening with a lot of the people. The only other really political blogger I read and vaguely know over the net has been blogging about racism in the context of her work. Both of us are totally independent. I didn't expect to be still blogging I guess. My blog was really there just to work out what was happening.

I know find part of my chosen life style is being pulled apart too in the same context. Not that I'm surprized this time, but I guess I did expect a more open minded view even so. Part of me is surprized I suppose.

But still it just leaves me happier to be me.

I don't support anything where women are 2nd class citizens and in a context where control is the issue, usually through religious means, I am fully aware that this will happen. But this lifestyle can also be a lifestyle of choice combined with independence and freedom to a great extent. And it's not hidden or going behind anyone's back.

I dunno.

I didn't read the other article but it seemed, judging by the leader on the front page, to have a favourable opinion of bloggers in general.

But as I didn't read it, the paper's here somewhere so I suppose I will leaf through, I can't give any idea as to the content, just the leader on the front page.

OK

I've started a new blog but it's not up on the server yet. Guess it must be like when the posts don't publish ... this time it's the whole blog that hasn't made it.

I'll try and be open but it's really something that isn't easy for me. That's a problem right now. I just find it really, really difficult.

Deleted blog

I've only one blog here now which hopefully will just be a news blog. I'll start a diary up for personal news in a few days over at the diary site where there's smilies as well but the address will be private.

An old article

Found this on the BBC site today. It's about early warning signs of Alzheimers disease.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4807056.stm


Just reminded me of something I read in a copy of Disability Now that I was thumbing through in the library a few years back. The article suggested that curcumin (turmeric) might help stop Alzheimers from developing by preventing the problematic platelets from clumping together and sticking to the brain.

http://www.advance-health.com/curcumin.html

I think you just need to have a couple of curries a week.

The joy of being vegan

Ended up reading the article in The Independent on line.

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/food_and_drink/reviews/article351374.ece

Bit slow loading here at the moment, think it might have something to do with the ads or that Active X download info which my system is blocking at the moment.

are everywhere with an estimated 600,000 to a million vegans here. Or, is that vegetarians. The article is loading slowly and I can't be bothered to go and get the paper. Well, it is quarter past two in the morning. Just up to have a glass of water. Fell asleep early in the evening.

I've been a vegan for about 15/20 years, can't remember quite how long, and was a vegetarian for a few years before that. Had been a vegetarian when a teenager, stopped, went back to it, then became a vegan.

I think the front page leader said something about veganism keeping you thin. Well, it depends what you eat I guess. You can be a vegan and eat a load of crap just as you can if you're not vegan.

But, as for the joy of being vegan. I'm a happy vegan. I know that there are problems. What you can buy when you go into supermarkets is obviously rather limited, but to be honest I don't care at all really. Now, I've started "cooking" again I think as long as there's tins of tomatoes and jars of curry sauces (vegan) I'll be ok. Well, add tins of chick peas etc to that and things are fine.

My cooking used to be more or less throwing things into a saucepan. Came in handy when Graham and some other people moved next to me and at times of crisis I could just throw tins of tomatoes, soup and Beanfeast into a saucepan together. I'm learning to cook the same way again. If it's not spinnach, because it cooks quickly, I can cook other veg, drain it, and then add other things to the saucepan. Other things ofcourse being tins of tomatoes etc.

When I became a vegan there probably weren't that many of us around here. That was somewhere between 1985 and 1990 I guess. I knew a few of them which is what eventually helped me decide to change from a vegetarian to a vegan. No one I knew thought it was strange regardless of what they ate. Guess they were used to me being a vegetarian and I had been thinking about becoming a vegan for quite a while before I did.

What I did do wrong was change over too quickly for my body to adapt. I ate quite a lot of dairy produce before and just stopped one day and I guess the sudden change affected me more than I'd thought it would. Don't know if it was the change in hormone levels from giving up all that yogurt but I had a couple of rather uncomfortable months afterwards, things were fine after that though.

Iraq

Woke up this morning and eventually I started thinking of Iraq. For the past few weeks or so I've kind of not been thinking about Middle Eastern life or getting into depth in some subjects that would normally interest me.

It's been ill, still am, but I guess things are improving.

I went back to the invasion, this one generally, with a nod in the direction of the previous short lived one too. I was wondering how things would, or rather could, have turned out if the information that had been gathered about the situation in Iraq, by military personal during the previous invasion, had been used as suggested to plan for the present invasion.

There was information and advice on the fierce divisions within Iraq itself, along with suggested military tactics including a much greater military strength, that was generally ignored. The forces went in as if they believed that they were going to be welcomed by jubilant Iraqis who would forget anything apart from their relief that Saddam had gone.

To an extent some Iraqis had tried this approach before only to be abandoned to the hands of Saddam's executioners when the forces withdrew leaving Saddam in power. Unsurprizingly there was no rush to support the troops this time, the last lesson was learnt the hard way and had not been forgotten. And, unlike the leaders who sent the invading force into Iraq, the Iraqi people themselves had no lack of understanding what a small military presence was going to result in for the country. at least, in the short term. There was a feeling of disbelief amongst a lot of people when the number of troops sent to unseat Saddam was realised. Because that is all they were perceived to be able to do, there certainly weren't enough to have any chance of stabilizing a period of time to try and win a peace that would be won without more bloodshed and severe unrest.

I think twice the number was the number mooted as being able to at least present some chance of stability though I have to admit I've actually forgotten for sure, but I think it was twice the amount.

The security forces in the country had been under Saddam's control. The factions in the country had been made more entrenched by Saddam's actions. It was not a good situation to go into without substantial back up. And, there was unrest centred around the US in other countries that could also lead to more opposing action.

It was not a good situation at all.

I was just thinking whether there was a way around some of the problems that are there today if the relevant information had been acted on. It would have given more of a sense of security for people. And it's even possible that some people might have felt more of a unity with the people who had got rid of Saddam if they'd felt more secure about other factors as well. If it had looked as if the forces were there to protect and give the people freedom to settle again instead of going into further bloodshed.

I just don't know. But I do know there was very little chance the way the operation was carried out.