There are tons of propaganda movies telling us how bad we are and how good the Earth is. I like them all! They are proof of mankind’s stupidity, and pretty much proof that it’s way too late (this is probaly where I disagree with all those movies…). Anyway, HOME by Yann Arthus-Bertrand is one of the better ones when it comes to pure and straight information. It’s available for free on YouTube and the website home-2009.com. It’s a scary movie – for real.
Since 1950, the world’s population has almost tripled, and since 1950, we have more fundamentally altered our island – the Earth – than in all of our 200,000 year history. Nigeria is the biggest oil exporter in Africa, and yet 70% of the population lives under the poverty line. The wealth is there, but the country’s inhabitants don’t have access to it. The same is true all over the globe. Half the world’s poor live in resource-rich countries. In 50 years the gap between rich and poor has grown wider than ever. Today half the world’s wealth is in the hands of the richest two (2!) percent of the population. This is the cause of population movements whose scale we have yet to fully realize. The city of Lagos had a population of 700,000 in 1960. That will rise to 16 million by 2025. Deep down we all know this shit. And you still have hope? …I am the misanthrope.
The man of a thousand and one blogs, Magnus “Reflektor” Tannergren, asked me to participate in one of his latest thousand and one projects: Remix – a virtual mixtape powered by Spotify. I listen to a lot of music at night, so I decided to share one of those nighttime playlists entitled Night on Earth. It’s just a couple of mellow tunes that slows down my mind. Direct link here.
In case you haven’t got access to Spotify, here’s the playlist:
The DoorsRiders on the Storm
Iron MaidenRemember Tomorrow
Mogwai feat. Roky EricksonDevil Rides
Krister LinderEternal Life
Esbjörn Svensson TrioTuesday Wonderland (Live in Hamburg)
FleshquartetNsms
Cypress HillHits from the Bong
The Jimi Hendrix ExperienceAll along the Watchtower
One must choose between God and Man, and all “radicals” and “progressives”, from the mildest liberal to the most extreme anarchist, have in effect chosen Man.
Eric Arthur Blair, British writer, better known as George Orwell, died at age 46. He was one of the best when it comes to explaining the brutal consequences we face when turning away from the truth. If you still haven’t read Nineteen Eighty-Four – published in 1949 – now is the time.
WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
>Sunday is a good day for blasphemy, because that’s when the Lord of Lies, Christ, hateful master, is asleep… One of the most blasphemic scholars out there is without a doubt Norman Finkelstein. Of course, he is one of my heroes (check his webpage here). I admire him for his rational and logical thinking, his straight-forward approach, courage and honesty regarding the Holocaust industry, and his amazing accuracy when it comes to dissecting his opponents arguments. For he has many, many opponents. Israel imposed a 10-year ban on him, just to pick an example.
One of the most important books of present time has got to be The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering. In part because of its content, obviously, but also because the controversy following its release (the Israel lobby in full effect). Here’s an interview with the man. The host is a dick, almost ruining the interview ranting about irrelevant crap, but these clips are well worth watching anyway.
And to make things even more blasphemous, here’s Finkelstein honouring the Hezbollah.
In his other book, Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History, he talks about the Israel-Palestine conflict. He claims the controversy surrounding the conflict is due to people wanting to divert attention from, and sow confusion about, the documentary record. The mainstream version, put forth by Israeli officials and written about in scholarly literature, was that Palestinians left during the 1948 war after Arab leaders, primarily via radio broadcasts, ordered them to clear the field for invading Arab armies. However, this was proven false in the late 1980’s (also see the post The New Historians). Today most of the scholars agree that the Palestinians suffered an ethnic cleansing in 1948, although there are ongoing debates every day about whether or not this ethnic cleansing was systematically planned (the Holocaust Part 2…). In the book he also shows how U.S. Media tend to attach greater credibility to information from representatives of the Israeli state than from Human Rights Watch, an independent nongovernmental organization. Israel’s real human rights record is virtually nonexistent… Why do media block out reality? You digest that for a second. See also the posts about media here, here, here and here.
Finkelstein also talks about how Israel plays The Holocaust and New Anti-Semitism cards to sow confusion about the real historical record and to discredit criticism of Israeli policy. Each new Arab/Muslim leader threatening Israel is Hitler reincarnate, and the threat is routinely compared to The Holocaust… At the same time the Holocaust industry intones that The Holocaust was unique and any comparison between it and other crimes is a form if Holocaust denial… Whenever Israel comes under international pressure to resolve its conflict with the Palestinians in a diplomatic way, there will for sure be an extensive campaign saying that the world is facing a new anti-Semitism. The perpetrators are turned into the victims, putting the spotlight on the suffering Jews today, rather than on the suffering Palestinians… It should be obvious that if the hostility to Jews has increased it has everything to do with Israel’s ruthless policies, and the best remedy would be for Israel to end the occupation. The racist Zionist Apartheid regime must be abolished.
Griftegård Solemn, Sacred, Severe – 9/10 Ván (Sound Pollution)
Allvarsmättat? Jo, tack. Sakralt? Så in i helvete. Kännbart? Minst sagt. Tyngden är ofattbar. Atmosfären så närvarande. Och allting har en stabil grund att stå på: allvaret i sökandet efter meningen med tillvaron. Man slipper det ytliga poserandet, det larviga som aldrig betyder något. På så sätt blir Griftegårds doom genuin på ett sätt som är få förunnat. Och Thomas Erikssons röst svävar över allting annat och fullkomligt krossar konkurrensen. Om du inte förnekar hårdrockens rötter lär du även kunna ta till dig de partier som på detta verk kan uppfattas som smöriga och pretentiösa. Hos mig går de rakt in i hjärtat, och det känns skönt att även kunna finna några smörklickar bland all aska som jag vanligtvis kryddar mina musikaliska rätter med. Den som har svårt för religiösa tongångar – de tar sina mest extrema uttryck i psalmen Noah’s Hand – kanske inte faller pladask. Inte heller de som förväntar sig rockiga midtempolåtar. Inser man däremot det sakralas betydelse för den långsamt stundande undergången lär man hitta rätt direkt. Doom metal blir knappast bättre än så här. Sacred, Solemn, Severe är en milstolpe. [Interview in the print edition of the magazine]
Många band gör musik som ska låta på ett visst sätt. Switch Opens musik låter på sitt sätt, och det höjer dem över mängden. Trummisen dyrkar The Police. Ena gitarristen har Van Halen som husgudar, medan den andre tillbringar huvuddelen av dagen inne i sitt huvud tillsammans med Hawkwind. Sångaren och basisten, Jesper Skarin, hyllar Megadeth och spelar trummor med technosnubben i The Field. Ni hör ju själva. Detta är helt jävla sjukt! I stället för musik: förvirring? Nej, inte alls. Efter att tidigare ha hetat Fingerspitzengefühl och släppt två rejält spretiga men svinbra album har bandet äntligen hittat hem. Det schizofrena uttrycket har kokats ned till vad de gör bäst: de vänder ut och in på tyngden. Ändå är detta deras mest varierade album. Det händer saker hela tiden. Udda trumkomp, fantastiska sånginsatser, psykedeliska gitarrsjok och basfetma som berör både fysiskt och psykiskt – dessa fyra hjältar torde kunna rädda världen! Produktionen är både taggigt trasig och mjuk som ett duntäcke. Bergsmassiv och genomskinlig. Man fattar inte riktigt hur det har gått till, men de har som sagt hittat hem. Årets tripp? Fuglesangs fjuttiga rymdresa är en spottloska i havet. [Interview in the print edition of the magazine]
