Author: R J Adams

So Jesse Helms is dead. The media is pouring forth its usual pious platitudes and intimating I should weep for this man and respect his views, even though they’re in total contradiction to my own, just because he’s kicked the bucket, shuffled off this mortal coil, gone to that great home for bigots in the sky.

Helms was entitled to his personal views, but his standing as a public servant did not license him to use his political platform, not just to air them, but to abuse his position by promoting narrow-minded, bigoted, pseudo-religious ideals designed to hold this country, and the world, back from advancing its humanitarian ideals.

Helms’s contribution to US politics was to scupper international treaties. He was responsible for blocking the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the Kyoto Protocal on global warming, and he opposed the use of US troops in Bosnia. He was against the Salt II arms reduction pact and the Panama Canal Treaty.

He was the worst kind of bigot; a man who persuaded others to his own self-opinionated viewpoint by virtue of his political position.

Jesse Helms may have tried to buy his way into Heaven by campaigning for the passage of a debt relief bill through Congress, but it was not enough to make up for the untold harm his political career has done to America and the world.

Jesse Helms doesn’t deserve to rot in Hell, though if I were of Helm’s mentality, I’d probably believe he should.

Filed under: Dead end

Whatever happened to bars of soap? You know, those solid blocks that sat happily on one’s washbasin and could be lathered up with hot water and a swift rub between the hands?

All we seem to get today are plastic containers with a silly nozzle on top that squirt liquid gunge all over the worktop when you don’t want it, and when you do they just emit a noise reminiscent of a wet fart, and eject a few bubbles.

That’s the only way you know when they’re empty. At least with a decent bar of soap you have advance knowledge of when it needs replacing.

I’ve seen bars of soap on sale in Wal-Mart but nobody buys them. Why? Because there’s nowhere to put them anymore. Once, washbasins were constructed with nice soap-bar sized indentations next to the taps. It was quite an art-form, after washing the hands, to gently eject the soap so it slipped between the fingers, hit the top of the basin and slithered casually into its alloted place. Try that today and it would shoot straight off the washbasin and down the side of the toilet. By the time you got it back it would resemble a Scotsman’s sporran and no amount of immersion in hot water could shift the twenty-thousand short and curlies stubbornly adhering to its surface.

It’s just as bad in Britain. On the recent vacation we stayed at a couple of hotels. They have bars of soap, but they’re minute. No sooner is it out the wrapper than you’ve lost it. Usually in the shower. You grasp the bar in your hand, begin the body-lathering process, and next moment it’s gone – down into the bowels of the tub. And you can never find it because British hotel soap is generally a pale beige color, and for some strange reason hotel tubs are always exactly the same hue.

You peer down through the steam, feel blindly around with the toes, but the darned thing seems to have escaped down the plughole. Only it hasn’t. It’s lurking, waiting to pounce just at the moment you step forward to reach for the towel. Suddenly it’s right there, under your heel, and you’re doing the Skater’s Waltz down the tub until your foot hits the steep, slopey bit at the end and there’s nothing in the universe that can stop you going arse over tit into the bottom.

Back from vacation, we found another bathroom problem.

What is it with American toilets? The US must be the only country in the world that flushes with a flapper. Every other civilized nation uses a sophisticated siphon system to empty the cistern and propel the water into the toilet.

Well, apart from the French, who just use a hole in the ground.

American plumbing wisdom devised a rubber flapper to block up the orifice that lets the water out. Flushing is achieved with a bit of rusty chain that yanks the flapper out of the hole.

This, from the world’s greatest Superpower!

On arriving home I flushed the toilet to discover most of the water pouring out the bottom of the cistern and onto the floor. Apparently, there’s a rubber seal between it and the toilet.

(All this rubber in American toilets must surely indicate some sort of national fetish.)

Removing the cistern was a joy. The bolts were all rusted and liberal applications of penetrating gunk failed to budge them. In desperation, the ‘Mechanic Mike Super Shifter thousand pound torque wrench’ was called for. Wedged, head bent between the toilet and shower, I needed to maneuver just an inch nearer, whereupon my right knee squeezed onto the aerosol of penetrating gunk, firing a high pressure jet of oily gunge right between the eyes.

Blinded, I staggered back, concussed my head on the toilet, groped for the washbasin and found the hot water tap. Reaching forwards, my hands felt for the soap dispenser.

I pressed the plunger, and was rewarded with a wet fart and a few bubbles.

Filed under: Bathroom woes

Today sees the end of a four year term as UN Commissioner for Human Rights for Louise Arbour.^[1] She stated, as far back as March, that she would not seek a second term.

It’s doubtful her retirement will be noticed, or remarked upon, by the world in general. That will be a pity for she has attempted some remarkable work against overwhelming odds. Indeed, those who note her leaving will likely be the governments of nations who have battled with her over their own human rights records. The Israeli Knesset will undoubtedly breathe a sigh of relief, given the criticism she leveled at Israel for its human rights violations against the Palestinians, a criticism that also brought her a severe backlash from the US government – unsurprisingly. (NOTE: see the latest Israeli atrocity HERE).

Unsurprisingly, because Louise Arbour noted the the deterioration of human rights under George W Bush’s administration; the erosion of freedoms in the USA; torture and cruelty in Iraq; the malignancy of ‘secret prisons’, captivity without trial, and the horrors of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center.^[2]

Louise Arbour admitted she had a thankless job. The rest of the world always looked to the one great superpower for guidance, and has watched over the last six years as it metamorphosed into a monster. Once recognized as a force for peace and stability, by its more recent example America has opened the floodgates of inhumanity to every petty tyrant enjoying a standard of luxury earned by the sweat and suffering of ordinary people.

George W Bush would have us believe our enemy is terrorism. In fact, the true enemies of humanity everywhere are those who manipulate and scheme to further impoverish working people, in order to increase their own already substantial wealth and power.

With the further encroachment of global warming and its attendant disastrous consequences on the human race, the present policies of world governments, cleverly designed to suck wealth up from the lower and middle classes to the upper echelons of corporate society, will create a backlash that may well see the war on terror downgraded to a minor skirmish by comparison.

Despite the lies of politicians, the rights of ordinary people have been severely curtailed over the last decade. In many parts of the world, the greed of a relative few has determined the suffering and poverty of many. One irrefutable example is the artificial inflation of oil prices. Another is the commandeering of food-producing land for so-called ‘biofuel’ production, using the blatantly false excuse of a ‘greener fuel’ as justification for the inevitable starvation of millions throughout the third world, so a few can reap untold riches in profit.

Do these corporate tycoons seriously believe millions are going to conveniently lie down and die without protest?

Their doctrine is a simple one: make a fortune by pushing up the price of food and energy until a third of the world can’t afford to live. When large enough numbers finally die, there’ll then be enough food to go round and the price will eventually fall back. By that time the tycoons will have filled their coffers.

Except, there’s one other factor to take into account.

By doing nothing for twenty years to avert global warming, we’ve reached beyond the point of no return – the Earth has passed its tipping point.^[3] It’s too late to reverse the process. Are politicians and corporate bosses so stupid as not to realize this? I doubt it. More likely they’re pushing everything into reaping the biggest financial harvest possible before civilization begins to disintegrate, so they and theirs can ride out the bad times in relative comfort while the rest of humanity collapses in a meltdown of wars, slaughter, and mayhem that will likely make Mad Max look like a 21st century Mother Theresa.

In times of trouble the human species has consistently looked to its leaders for assistance and solutions. When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans the whole world witnessed a policy by the American government that could be labeled ethnic-cleansing, one that dispersed throughout America most of the poor, black, population of a city now being rebuilt for the benefit of a much wealthier populace.

Is it unrealistic to consider what happened in New Orleans the model for a far greater catastrophe? Some may consider it is. Many will find the very idea unacceptable; after all, how can the human race with all its great technologies, ever succumb to a descent into chaos?

Few, though, could argue that we are firmly on that road. How many can honestly say, after witnessing the fiasco of New Orleans, that despite all the strong words and fancy speeches of the politicians, there was ever a hint of genuine concern evident from those who hold the reins of power in America, for the poor, mainly black, population devastated by the flooding of the Lower Ninth Ward and similar areas?

Civilization is presently facing probably its greatest challenge in human history. Our leaders and politicians are doing nothing to help us face that challenge. Instead, they seem hell-bent on leaping into the lifeboats and leaving the rest of us stranded on a sinking ship.

Most people seem to be hoping it may all just go away; gas and food prices will return to normality and some superhero US scientist will develop a sure-fire way to reverse Earth’s climate change in the nick of time. Were we all taking part in some mammoth Hollywood production, that would likely happen. Sadly, this is reality. If you doubt reality won’t surprise us with a happy ending, just ask any ex-resident of the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans. Not too many are living ‘happily ever after’.

Louise Arbour has relinquished her role as the UN’s Commissioner for Human Rights. She knew she couldn’t win, that she was on a hiding to nothing. They wanted her as a puppet, and she wasn’t prepared to bow to their whims.

It will take probably twelve months to fill the position, but it doesn’t matter. The next commissioner will be conveniently shackled, even more so than was Louise Arbour.

^{* “Who Will Save Us Now” by Straylight Run}

^{[1] “Canadian Arbour leaves UN rights chief role”, CBC, June 30th 2008}

^{[2] ” Annan Defends U.N. Official Who Chided U.S.” NYT, December 9th 2005}

^{[3] “….Emissions already beyond ‘worst-case’ scenario” Int. Herald Tribune, Oct 9th 2007}

Filed under: Worst case scenario?