I know that it is strange to say that something can be shocking if it is usual but keeping that capacity for anger at the sheer callousness of it all is very important.

The Real News (who need your donations if you can afford) have put out this interview with one of the authors of the report ‘Making a Killing From the Food Crisis’.

That someone is making a fat profit while others starve is not a new scenario but the report and the interview are definitely worth a look.

Here is the full report.

Here is GRAINs homepage.

Opinion polls can be representative if they are done correctly.

However, it is very easy to rig them in order to get whatever the hell answer you want, as this clip demonstrates perfectly…

Just a song for Friday. An excellent version of ‘Stir it up’

The next major football tournament, Euro 2008, starts next month and given that neither Scotland nor England has qualified it is a chance to talk about something a bit more rationally than it is usually discussed.

England qualified for the last tournament (World cup 2006) and Scotland didn’t. When it started and Andy Murray the Scottish tennis player said he wouldn’t be supporting England there was a massive fuss in the English tabloids - and he reportedly received hate mail about the Dunblane massacre (that is where he is from). Murray had previously been reported as walking on the court when being introduced as ‘Andy Murray from England’ whereupon he corrected the umpire and walked off again and returned when reintroduced as ‘Andy Murray from Scotland’.

Murray eventually made a joke about his statement about not supporting England but I suspect this may have something to do with where he gets some of his funding.

When it happens that England qualify and Scotland don’t, the BBC in particular tend to start publishing opinion polls saying that X% of Scots are supporting England. Where they find these people I have no idea. I challenge anyone reading this to go into a pub full of Scottish people when there is an England game on the TV (doesn’t really matter what sport) and see who people are supporting.

You will find that the vast majority, like myself, would not only not be supporting England but will be actively supporting Englands opponents, probably going as far as to sing the national anthem of the other team (in a ‘da da da da’ style obviously).

The BBC, ably assisted by the tabloids, tend to paint the people doing this as ungrateful degenerates hellbent on causing unnecessary discord.

There is an obvious response to it all, which is simply..

It’s my support and I shall apportion it however I see fit.

But here are the things they usually say…

1) We’re all British.

2) The English support Scotland when they play.

3) Scotland don’t have a hope of ever winning the entire tournament.

4) If you don’t support England it means you are a racist.

Replies…

1. Geographically yes, but culturally we are not and politically we don’t all want to be…a large percentage of Scots want out.

2. We didn’t ask them to.

3. That is not the point and it is just the sort of arrogant attitude that makes me want them to lose - badly.

4. Behave.

With regard to point 2, this is often said but I have been in pubs in England and watched England and Scotland games (though not a Scotland V England game) and what I found was extremely far from universal support for Scotland.

With regard to point 4, are Dutch racist for not supporting the Germans? Are the Belgians racist for not supporting the French? Are the Koreans racist for not supporting the Japanese? Are the Ukrainians racist for not supporting the Russians? And so on and so on and so on. Can you find many examples of countries that actively support their neighbours?

There are some interesting other little stories I heard about all of this.

There was an English-owned sports store in Inverness that was told to play the England world cup CD in the run-up to the tournament. Due to the staff receiving verbal abuse daily from customers who didn’t want to listen to it the manager stopped playing it. She was then sacked for doing this.

A journalist put on an England strip when the tournament was on and walked around town in Scotland to see what would happen to him. Aside from a few shouts of ‘english bastard’ from some people going by in cars the funny part was a 70-odd year old man shuffled by him and said the same thing!

To finish, I just want to say it is obvious what the people are thinking. If Argentina beat England you suddenly see loads of Argentina shirts around the streets, if Portugal beat them then you see Portugal everywhere. I read a fantastic thing that sales of Argentinian wine in Scotland briefly doubled when Argentina beat England.

Scotland has been greatly oppressed by England through history - does one ask a slave to support his ‘owner’?

A combination of work, a dodgy shoulder and a virus has kept me from posting this week.

Normal service should be back by Monday.

In the meantime, another Monty Python sketch you may not have seen…

Did you ever hear about the Penultimate Supper of Jesus Christ?

This one, a long time have I watched. The errors in speech be many.

“You’re working hard to put food on your family.” —Presidential candidate George W. Bush, Nashua, N.H., Jan. 27, 2000

Here the problem of the president be that confused he is. Trying he is, to say ‘put food on the table’ or ‘get food for your family’ but neither does he manage. Before said have I “do or do not, there is no try’.

Absurd it is to imagine, that pizzas on the heads of families be put.

If changed be the error in preposition from ‘on’ to ‘in’ then sense make, it still does not.

“I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully.” George W. Bush

900 years have I lived with the force as my ally but understand this, I do not.

“One year ago today, the time for excuse-making has come to an end.” —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Jan. 8, 2003

Tenses - confused they are. The ‘has’ – unnecessary it be. ‘The time for making excuses came to an end’ is what he sought to say.

This is an article Mark Steel wrote in the Independent in January but the point stands…

NOT A SHOPPING SPREE - Mark Steel

Occasionally there’s a news story that can be presented as so jolly everyone must find it heartening – Havant and Waterlooville scoring against Liverpool, kittens rescued from chimneys, that Indonesian dictator bastard dying this week, that sort of thing.

You might think the escape of hundreds of thousands of people from the siege in Gaza would come under this category. On the point of starvation, with almost no fuel, electricity or medical supplies, they’ve blown up the wall at the border and danced into Egypt, smiling and waving at the reporters. They’re such merry scenes you imagine reporters spluttering the way they did when the Americans marched into Baghdad, when they came out with stuff like “This old man behind me is so jubilant he has quite literally burst into flames with joy.”

Especially as you’d think the middle class in Britain would say: “Oh I can see what Hamas were trying to do by pulling that wall down, they’ve knocked the ghetto and the desert into one which will give them so much more light in the summer.” Maybe that will put them in huge demand, so Hamas will get calls all day from people saying: “Hello, I wonder if you could give me an estimate for knocking down a dividing wall between a living room and reception room, I hear you’re very reliable.”

But instead it’s been reported as just about acceptable, but not the sort of unruly behaviour to be approved of. Or it’s seen as frivolous, such as the report in The New York Times that reads: “Palestinians used a bulldozer to knock down a portion of the wall and continue a shopping spree.” A shopping spree? Do they think the leadership of Hamas said: “Oooh my goodness, have you seen the spring collection on display in the Sinai Desert branch of Debenhams? They’ve got the cutest little calf-length boots that were made with me in mind. If I don’t have them I’ll die – get the Semtex and the detonator.”

Or maybe there were radio adverts across the occupation with a couple of actors gasping “Where is everyone running to?” “We’re all off to the Sinai springtime sale where prices are so crazy they’re not just up the wall, they’re through the wall. So hurry hurry hurry and remember – you can afford a smash through the border.”

The Palestinian “shopping spree” has kept them from starving, freezing or otherwise dying. Because for eight months the whole place has been shut off from the outside world, deliberately. Even yesterday, an aid convoy consisting of Israelis who’d brought five tons of food was refused entry into Gaza by the Israeli authorities. Maybe they’ll claim the rice created a “security risk”. Because Palestinian terrorists could place it by the border and pour boiling water over it, making it expand into Israeli territory and covering the settlements with starch.

This approach has been described by the Israelis as “collective punishment”. So Prime Minister Olmert said: “We must show the population it cannot shed itself of responsibility for the situation.” This could lead to an unexpected development, because that sounds similar to the crazed logic of the jihadist who blows up civilians on buses and Tubes. So maybe the next twist in Middle-East politics is that the Israeli government will join al-Qa’ida.

The problem for the media is that people escaping for bread, diesel and fags are spoiling Israel’s strategy, so that can’t be celebrated, as that would appear biased. It’s as if, after Comic Relief night, the BBC had to have an evening in favour of starvation in the interests of being neutral.

And yet by every account it’s a classic feelgood story. It’s even a marvellous example of religious unity, as Hamas have followed the lesson of Moses by leading people out of danger through Egypt. One woman was reported as saying: “Now I can visit my daughter who I haven’t seen for four years.” When the Berlin Wall came down, that sort of comment signalled universal rejoicing, but this meets with disapproval from Western governments, mostly because they’ve denounced Hamas as terrorists and refused to talk to them, even when they’ve won elections.

But maybe blowing up walls to save people’s lives is the sort of thing that makes Hamas popular. Politicians here are always complaining they’re disconnected from the population, so this might be the way to engage with the voters. To start with, they could blow up the border between first and second class on inter-city trains, and as reporters gasped “behind me are the most astonishing scenes, as these poor wretched creatures, crammed against each other in corridors for so long have literally poured into the empty caverns of first class, where they can at last breathe, and see close-up for the first time the puffy headrests and peculiar posh purple lamps”, their popularity would soar.

I always loved the premise of this sketch almost more than any other Monty Python thing.

The sketch in question starts 30 seconds into the video…

At various times I have spent months in a stretch or even a year away from home. Travelling is a wonderful thing - seeing how people do things in various places is endlessly interesting, but sometimes you feel it burn.

In the course of a year it won’t happen that often but it can be almost anything that starts the feeling. Maybe added up you feel it for a couple of weeks in a year. It usually goes away but it bites hard when it bites.

Something good could happen at home and you want to be sharing the experience because you know what it means to people at home and you want to be part of it, but you can’t.

Alternatively, something bad could happen at home and you want to be there to help if you can and you feel terrible because you know you can do almost nothing from where you are.

It can be something utterly random - there could be an incident in the street  and you wish one or other person you know is there with you because you know they would have loved it or you want to hear what they would say about it.

Sometimes it really does hurt.

I remember when ‘Letter from America’ by the proclaimers came out. It is a song Irish people love as well (you can see it being sung at the wedding in the film ‘The Commitments’)  because even though it mentions only Scottish place names it is a song about emigrating, and that is something the two countries know a lot about.

I also remember how much the thing the thing was ridiculed. I can’t find video evidence for this but I seem to remember Paula Yates being apoplectic about how such a thing could be at the top end of the charts and being incredibly snidey about it.

The reason a lot of people bought the song is that they know what it is about… she obviously didn’t…lyrics below..

When you go will you send back
A letter from America?
Take a look up the railtrack
From Miami to Canada
Broke off from my work the other day
I spent the evening thinking about
All the blood that flowed away
Across the ocean to the second chance
I wonder how it got on when it reached the promised land?

When you go will you send back
A letter from America?
Take a look up the railtrack
From Miami to Canada
I’ve looked at the ocean
Tried hard to imagine
The way you felt the day you sailed
From Wester Ross to Nova Scotia
We should have held you
We should have told you
But you know our sense of timing
We always wait too long

When you go will you send back
A letter from America?
Take a look up the railtrack
From Miami to Canada
Lochaber no more
Sutherland no more
Lewis no more
Skye no more
(3x)

I wonder my blood
Will you ever return
To help us kick the life back
To a dying mutual friend
Do we not love her?
Do we not say we love her?
Do we have to roam the world
To prove how much it hurts?
When you go will you send back
A letter from America?
Take a look up the railtrack
From Miami to Canada
Bathgate no more
Linwood no more
Methil no more
Irvine no more.
(3x)
Bathgate no more
Linwood no more
Methil no more
Lochaber no more.

and another for Scotland…

Michael McGrory from west Donegal
You came to Glasgow with nothing at all
You fought the landlord then the Africa Korps
When you came to Glasgow with nothing at all

Abraham Caplan from Vilnius you came
You were heading for New York but Leith’s where you’ve stayed
You built a great business which benefits all
Since you came to this land with nothing at all

In Scotland’s story I read that they came
The Gael and the Pict, the Angle and Dane
But so did the Irishman, Jew and Ukraine
They’re all Scotland’s Story and they’re all worth the same

Joseph D’Angelo dreams of the days
When Italian kids in the Grassmarket played
burned out his shop when the boys went to war
But auld Joe’s a big man and he forgave all

In Scotland’s story I’m told that they came
The Gael and the Pict, the Angle and Dane
But where’s all the Chinese and Indian names?
They’re in my lands story and they’re all worth the same

Christina McKay, I learned of your name
How you travelled south from Delny one day
You raised a whole family in one room they say
And the X on the line stands in place of your name

So in the old story I’ll bet that I came
From Gael and Pict and Angle and Dane
And a poor migrant girl who could not write her name
It’s a common old story but it’s mine just the same

All through the story the immigrants came
The Gael and the Pict, the Angle and Dane
From Pakistan, England and from the Ukraine
We’re all Scotland’s story and we’re all worth the same
Your Scotland’s story is worth just the same

This is a repost but I think it is topical… A few days ago I posted about actors who uncritically appear in blatant propaganda pieces but don’t say anything. Another group that are involved in this sort of thing are sportsmen. I remember Michael Jordan getting asked about sweatshops in Indonesia where people were making shoes for ridiculously poor wages. Jordan himself was rumoured to be getting paid more than all the people making the shoes put together and he didn’t have a lot to say about it. He was quoted in the NYT as saying…

“I don’t know the complete situation. Why should I? I’m trying to do my job. Hopefully, Nike will do the right thing.”

Nothing much has changed since then of course. Individual factories have seen some improvements and glossy codes of ethics have been made but the sweatshop syste remains intact. Democracy Now did a good section on it yesterday… Unfortunately the team I support also have a deal with Nike, which I am none too happy about. I have not bought a single product of theirs for a long long time for 2 reasons. The first is ethics and the second is that their products are shite anyway. The question is though, are the sportsmen who get these huge marketing deals to gutless to say anything, too greedy to care, or too stupid to realise what is going on? I don’t see that there are any other options. Whatever happened to this sort of thing…

or this..

“Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars of poverty are fought to map change.”

Muhammad Ali