sparrow chat

There’s little that incenses me anymore about the world situation. What we do to the planet, and ourselves as a species, was once sufficiently ire-inducing as to provoke angry responses on Sparrow Chat’s pages, that left little doubt as to the opinion of this writer for his fellow human beings.

Or, at least, a certain percentage of them.

I’m not sure if it’s simply life’s orbital swing passing three score years that tempers the emotion, but I’ve discovered of late that no longer can I become angry and frustrated when the news media gushes forth with horrific tales of war and strife, poverty and famine, gross political greed, or even oil companies finally proving beyond any reasonable shadow of doubt they have the capability to destroy our environment with no outside assistance whatever.

Maybe it’s the knowledge, finally realized, that apart from some cataclysmic event like a nuclear holocaust, or on a more personal level, a fatal assault by a Sparrow Chat reader holding a grudge (and possibly an AK47), there’s nothing much that can happen on the world stage at my time of life likely to have a major personal impact.

I already appreciate that this is something of a selfish reaction, so there’s little point you all screaming out, “But, what about the rest of us?”

Frankly, my dears – and to anyone under sixty this may well sound original – I don’t give a damn.

Which raises the question, I suppose, of what is to become of Sparrow Chat. After all, for some seven years this blog has been my personal venting machine – my very own Eyjafjallajokull. Now that the desire to blow my top at every news summary has subsided to little more than a cocked eyebrow and an additional glass of Château de Chasselas, is this literary fumarole about to expire?

I hope not. With life’s long road to retirement almost run there are certainly going to be changes, not least a move within twelve months to Michigan’s Upper Peninsular and a more rural lifestyle, with a quaint old farmhouse and forty acres to play around on.

I won’t stop writing. I may even find myself doing more, though whether Sparrow Chat will figure heavily in that only time will decree.

On thing is absolutely certain: oil spills, American imperialism, and any other madnesses that don’t directly impinge on my bit of Michigan wilderness, will not be on the agenda.

On the other hand, in this life is anything truly certain?

Filed under: It’s their world now

Posting has been almost non-existent of late due to other priorities. During our recent trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsular we entered into negotiations to purchase a retirement property. The resultant paperwork – to-ing and fro-ing of emails – has occupied much of my time, coupled with a need to smarten up our present house before returning to the school bus in late August, so the property can be offered for sale in the spring of 2011.

There are two matters recently in the news that did stimulate my brain cells sufficient for me to make a mental note to post at the first opportunity.

It took thirty-eight years for the truth of a brutal massacre on Irish soil to finally be made public, and the conclusions of the report into the events of Bloody Sunday went virtually unnoticed in America.

On the 30th January 1972 British soldiers callously shot dead thirteen civil rights marchers, and wounded fourteen others, in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland. The Saville report concludes that none of the marchers were armed, none were ‘posing a threat of causing death or serious injury’ and ‘no-one threw or threatened to throw a nail or petrol bomb at soldiers on Bloody Sunday’.^[1]

It took Lord Saville of Newdigate and two other judges twelve years to compile what is now known as the “Saville Report”.

Back in 1972, it took Lord Widgery, then the Lord Chief Justice, just eleven days to complete his report into the massacre. It concluded that the British army had behaved absolutely correctly on that day:

When the vehicles and soldiers of Support Company appeared in Rossville Street they came under fire. Arrests were made; but in a very short time the arrest operation took second place and the soldiers turned to engage their assailants. There is no reason to suppose that the soldiers would have opened fire if they had not been fired upon first.”^[2]

“There is no reason to suppose that the soldiers would have opened fire if they had not been fired upon first.”

That comment by Widgery typifies the thinking of the time; a viewpoint still very much in evidence today whenever politicians, high-ranking military officers, or the national media comment on our armed forces.

In a response to the Saville Report, made to the British Parliament by its Prime Minister last week, David Cameron said of the British army:

I never want to call into question the behaviour of our soldiers and our army, who I believe to be the finest in the world.”

In the United States, to describe this nation’s military as ‘the finest in the world’ is obligatory for any politician or Pentagon official questioned on its behavior. Of course, the same rule applies in virtually every nation on Earth?

The truth is somewhat different.

The Saville Report has taken thirty-eight years to reveal that truth. Yet, it’s not a new truth. It’s just one we refuse to recognize. Even now, Saville will be brushed under the carpet, in a few months forgotten by all but a handful of relatives still grieving for the loved ones brutally gunned down by trigger-happy soldiers itching to shoot at anything that moved.

Check back through history and the pattern emerges relentlessly. From the Battle of Zhuolu (about 2500BC) to the US/UK invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan in 2001/2003, every single war and battle has been the excuse for a degeneration into barbarism and the blood letting of innocents.

After WW2, much was made of the atrocities committed by the Japanese and Germans. The media, and Hollywood, had a host of field days. No-one reported on the war crimes of the Russian, American, and British militaries, who between them wreaked a terrible revenge on the innocent civilian populations of the Axis nations.

It took just one book – “After The Reich” by Giles MacDonogh^[3] – a brutal history of the Allied occupation, to catalogue the crimes of we civilized nations with our ‘finest militaries in the world’.

Remember the names ‘Mai Lai’, ‘Fallujah’, ‘Abu Ghraib’? Most, at least on this side of the Atlantic, would rather conveniently forget.

Even more easily forgotten, in this age of technological marvels, is the innate fallibility of the human race. The ongoing oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico once more highlights our inability to cope when nature decides to take over and teach us a lesson.

One reaction common among commentators has been to suggest that somewhere on this planet there is someone with the ability to stop the flow of oil gushing from the now infamous Deepwater Horizon oil well a mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico. It just isn’t so. BP would pay a fortune to anyone able to do so. The plain fact is that we don’t have the technology to stop it.

This is hard for so many people to accept. In an age where we’re threatened with all manner of international hazards – not least nuclear war and global climate change – human security means accepting our scientists and technological experts can invent an answer to all problems as they arise.

The truth is, they can’t.

We’ve invented all sorts of crazy notions why BP hasn’t fixed its problem. In the last week I’ve read that it was actually blown up by North Korea as an act of war, and conversely, it’s deliberately being left to leak so the oil will contaminate Mexico and allow the CIA to infiltrate that country to assassinate drug barons.

When all else fails, we turn to our gods for help, as our ancestors have done for 20,000 years. It never worked for them, but it is a last resort. It won’t work for the State of Louisiana either, but it didn’t stop them from declaring last Sunday a “Statewide Day of Prayer”:

Thus far the efforts made by mortals to try to solve the crisis have been to no avail. It is clearly time for a miracle for us.” ~ Senator Robert Adley, Republican, Louisiana.

It’s too late for any ‘miracle’. The damage is done. Deepwater Horizon has been spewing its toxic mess into the Gulf for weeks simply because no-one and nothing can stop it. Until a relief well is completed, and the pressure relieved, it will not be capped.

The similarity between the Saville Report on Bloody Sunday and the BP Gulf oil rig disaster may not be immediately obvious, but they are connected by the simple link of human fallibility.

Soldiers, no matter what their race or creed, will become barbarians if the opportunity arises and they are too long in a war zone. It’s what happens. History proves it over and over again. Unfortunately, that very repetitiveness also proves our eternal denial of it happening.

It’s not just soldiers. Faced with the loss of livelihoods on a massive scale, the people of the Gulf coast are now baying for blood. In particular, that of BP CEO Tony Haywood, who had the nerve to go sailing back in Britain before the oil leak was fixed. To stressed American minds, aggravated by the head-hunting US media, Haywood should have been in the water fixing the problem himself before daring to take a day or two off.

When faced with dire tribulation we first seek someone else to blame, then allow our imaginations to run riot, rather than admit we are capable of being defeated.

Our greatest fallibility is our refusal to accept we are not gods.

^{[1] “Bloody Sunday: the Saville report as it happened” Guardian, June 15th 2010}

^{[2] The Widgery Report April 18th 1972}

^{[3] “After The Reich” “World Association of International Studies” February 16th 2007}

Filed under: Only human

The Obama administration has told BP that it has until Sunday night to come up with better plans to contain the leak in the Gulf oil spill……^[1]

“Now look here, Mister BP, you’ve got till Sunday night, and if you don’t come up with a better plan I’ll……I’ll……well, darnnit you just better……that’s all!”

^{[1] “Obama’s Gulf oil spill ultimatum: Clock is ticking, what can BP do?” Christian Science Monitor, June 13th 2010}

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

The nation that makes so much of championing the right to free speech has killed it, stone dead.

American hypocrisy is alive and well and living in its media and in its White House.

Filed under: The true power behind the throne

Posting will be light for a while as we’re on vacation in Marquette, on Michigan’s wonderful Upper Peninsular.

While here, we’re busy viewing properties and hoping to find somewhere suitable to purchase for our retirement in twelve months time.

Meanwhile, here’s a postcard. (Click image to enlarge)

Filed under: Vacation time

Viktor Yanukovich spent much of his early life in prison for robbery and assault. As late as 2005 he was implicated in fraud. Now, he is president of Ukraine.

Recently, he and Russian president Medvedev attended a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

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Perhaps the unknown soldiers didn’t take too kindly to him.

Filed under: Just blown away

Modern technology is being driven by Capitalism. Some may consider that a good thing. After all, it brings us new drugs to combat diseases, more fuel-efficient motor vehicles, better ways to communicate over long distances.

That’s why, three months ago, I purchased the latest cordless telephone system from Panasonic.

DECT 6.0 technology is supposed to be more efficient. It operates at frequencies less likely to clash with other applications, like wireless routers and microwave ovens. Unfortunately, unlike analogue cordless phones, the base station constantly emits pulses of microwave radiation at full power, whether the handset’s in use, or not.

It was round about then I started to develop background headaches. Nothing too drastic. Just a sense my head was full of wet cement. It came and went. Sometimes the ache covered my whole cranium. At other times it was specific to forehead, neck, or behind an eye.

I’ve never been susceptible to headaches, and given the time of year and a slight tendency towards nasal discharge, the whole issue was put down to seasonal allergies.

The new phones worked well, but there’d always been a slight voice delay – about a half second, or so – ever since the Adams’ household converted to a VoiP setup two years ago. One got used to it, though it was rather disappointing to find the new DECT 6.0 technology didn’t cure the problem. Still, the phone looked good, parked on its smart silver base station, on one corner of my desk in the den.

The headaches got worse over time. Not drastically so, but I started waking through the night with one, and it was still there in the morning and persisted all day. Eventually, my wife began muttering the ‘doctor’ word. It was then I began researching on the internet.

Now, let me say straight away, I’ve always considered people who complain of ill effects from power lines, TV’s, and almost all other electrical appliances on the planet, to be a bit nutty. Not mental, you understand, but certainly on a par with those who claim insemination by aliens.

Despite some degree of evidence suggesting phone radiation is possibly disruptive, if not downright dangerous, there’s an equal amount suggesting it isn’t. In fact, certain researchers have intimated it may actually be beneficial by preventing brain tumors. These studies are a little suspicious, however, given that they were funded by the phone companies.

There’s an interesting article on DECT 6.0 baby monitors by a UK group called Powerwatch, which seems to suggest that babies suffer sleep disruption and distress when this type of monitor is in the room:

Over the past five years we, with the help of parents, have measured a variety of baby monitors and the DECT pulsing ones seem to be far more disruptive of the infant’s sleep and state of contentment (causing restlessness, irritability and crying). Wired ones and the plug-in ones (that use the electricity wiring to communicate between units) do not seem to cause the same problems. The older type of analogue ones, that are still available from a number of brands, seem OK if kept at least one metre from the cot / bed. We have had various reports by parents that their babies did not sleep well and cried a lot when they used DECT monitors but were ok when no baby monitor was used. When they then tried a cheaper analogue monitor, the infant then slept as well as they did with no monitor.^[1]

A paper published in the Journal of the Australasian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine in 2006, by Don Maisch, a Tasmanian consultant well known in this field, also suggests ill effects from such DECT 6.0 devices:

A major difference between the older cordless phone and the DECT cordless phones is that the DECT phone’s base station continuously emits pulsing microwave radiation at full power as long as the base station/charger is plugged into the 240 VAC wall socket. This means that the base station, usually placed on a bedside table, or on a work desk, is broadcasting a 2.4. or 5.8GHz transmission (in Australia) regardless of whether the handset is charging in the base station cradle or being used 300 meters away…..

…..Soon after DECT phones were first introduced in Europe, mainly for use in office buildings, concerns were raised over possible health effects. One of the largest white collar trade unions in Europe, the Swedish Union of Clerical and Technical Employees in Industry, issued advice to its members to take steps to minimize their exposure to DECT because the system always operated at maximum power and there was insufficient research on possible long-term health effects…..

……The German Federal Radiation Protection Agency (Bundesamt fur Strahlenschutz – BfS) has expressed concerns over DECT phone use. They stated in a January 2006 press release that a DECT cordless phone is often the strongest single source of microwave radiation in a private home. To prevent possible health risks the Agency recommended minimizing personal radiation exposure (if a DECT phone is used) by placing the base station in a place where you do not spend much time, for example a hall. For the workplace the Agency specifically advised to avoid placing DECT phones on work desks and called upon manufacturers to redesign the phones to include a feature of power output control, so that the power output during a call would be adapted to the distance of the handset from its base station. This would allow phone use only to the level of power necessary to keep the communication going and power would be down while on standby and connected to the base station/charger……

……of course the industry manufacturing DECT technology say that there is no conclusive evidence that DECT technology is harmful. This is true, especially considering that the technology is being developed and marketed well before any relevant research on possible long-term health effects……^[2]

Last week, the local Social Security office was being fitted with the latest digital phone system. A friend of mine, who works there, got chatting with the guy in charge of the installation. He was quite adamant the latest scientific reports clearly prove the dangers of cell and cordless digital technology. he told my friend there were even instances of people who’d developed cancer in the thigh from regularly clipping a cellphone on their belt.

Of course, it’s all hearsay. The truth is that technology has advanced far quicker than the ability of researchers to test its long-term effects. This is true for most aspects – drugs, food, even – in some cases – entertainment.

Mark Sisson sums it up well in his interesting blog, “Mark’s Daily Apple”:

I’ll still recommend that people keep the cell phone usage to a minimum, but not to necessarily avoid brain cancer. Perhaps a better reason is that too often cell phones become prisons preventing us from truly engaging with the world. Time is ever moving, and technology is only going to progress – it may soon become a rare and precious moment that we’re able to dwell silently on our thoughts without wireless signal or electromagnetic field or peripheral cell phone chatter intruding.^[3]

Still, we all need a phone these days, so last week I connected the VoiP network to our old household phone wiring, dragged the ancient analogue corded phones out of their dusty box in the attic, and set one in every room. They work a treat.

The DECT 6.0 cordless phones have gone. So has the half-a-second voice delay; I can now talk to my father in Britain as though he were standing in the room next to me.

And that’s not all that’s gone: believe it or not, so has my headache.

^{[1] Digital Cordless Baby Monitors Powerwatch.org.uk}

^{[2] “Medical warnings needed on DECT cordless phone use” Don Maisch, August 2nd 2006 (NOTE: the pdf version of Maisch’s article was down when this was published. An html version has been substituted.)}

^{[3] “Cell Phone Health Hazard?” Mark’s Daily Apple.}

Filed under: Hot topic

Glenn Beck has a one man comedy show that tours the country, but there was no more spectacular comedy than the one performed recently at the biggest Madrassa on planet Earth – the inaptly named, ‘Liberty University’.

Glenn Beck was presented with an honorary doctorate in something religious, while hundreds of young, heavily-brainwashed, students and their parents looked on and cheered voraciously.

Beck’s greatest asset is his acting ability, particularly a talent to summon crocodile tears at a moment’s notice. In his opening remarks, Beck admitted he only ever attended college for one semester, then dropped out, blaming – through great displays of choked-back emotion – lack of cash, as the excuse.

In fact, Beck is an alcoholic and ex-drug addict, who by his own admission only kicked both habits a year before he was shoe-horned into Yale in 1996 by an influential friend, Senator Joseph Lieberman. The brevity of Beck’s foray into academia may have had more to do with his Attention Deficit Disorder, than any lack of hard cash.^[1]

Like most recovering alcoholics, Beck searched around for some spiritual hook to cling to, and was eventually drawn into the Church of Latter Day Saints. It’s surely a measure of the quality of his belief system that he could attach himself so readily to a church founded by Joseph Smith, a man who claimed to have been given gold tablets by an angel, and a pair of divining stones to translate them, but later gave them back so there was no evidence and no witnesses to this divine occurrence.

Despite a slender attachment to orthodox Christianity, Beck’s Mormon beliefs have not prevented him from amassing a fortune, much of it in gold. In keeping with all the great Christian evangelists of this nation he’s been quick to conveniently forget the saga of the camel and the needle’s eye.^[2]

Taking money from other people, while talking nonsense and spreading malicious lies, is one career that, in America, is almost guaranteed to invoke the god of financial success. Whether that god is the same one who sent his son to Earth to die for Beck’s sins, is open to debate almost anywhere except Liberty University.

Consequently, it no great surprise to find Glenn Beck on the rostrum this week. Liberty’s founder, the now dead – and likely gone to Hell – Jerry Falwell, said after the 9/11 attacks:

I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say, ‘You helped this happen.’ “^[3]

As a mentor for the vitriolic ejaculation of malicious crap, Glenn Beck could have none finer.

^{[1] Wikipedia, Glenn Beck}

^{[2] “In Pictures: How Glenn Beck Makes His Money” Forbes Magazine, April 26, 2010}

^{[3] “Rev. Jerry Falwell, leader of Moral Majority, dies at 73″ Boston Globe, May 16, 2007}

Filed under: Snake-oil salesman