Thank you London for helping the Dispossessed

via thisislondon.co.uk

I am very happy for the people involved if their lives have improved because of a campaign run by a newspaper. My question is why there are so many people, with many of them actually working, in poverty in a city like London. Should not they be allowed opportunities and a living wage instead of charity money from their fellow Londoners?

Sponsor The Tax Ads

via secure.38degrees.org.uk

Let's privatise everything because it doesn't work

via flickr.com

If anyone had any doubt, the snow in the past few weeks has shown us what a mess our privatised railway companies are. BAA has not done particularly well too and it turns out that Gatwick is now part of another company and not always in good terms with Heathrow (and of course it makes sense to have two major airports not really talking to each other during a crisis).

We were promised better train services and more choice as consumers. What we ended up with is the most expensive and worst train service in Europe. When times are good they keep all profit when times are bad they still ask for more money form the government because you know essential services etc. It is a win-win situation for them. They want to play Monopoly but they want to have Park Lane and Mayfair before they start.
And because we like to give more opportunities to fat cats and tax avoiders so much, we need to do the same to the NHS. Break it all up, give it all away, ensure that several dodgy companies make lot of money out of it.

Positive thinking or it is all your fault

This is brilliant I meant to buy the book, I admit I cannot stand bland positive thinking.

A sense of despair, yes

Liberals and despair, again | Michael Tomasky | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk: "But whatever the reason, we are where we are. I did not expect to see this much hatred, this depth of conviction that the president of the United States is an enemy of his own country, this intensity of bigotry directed at American Muslims, this degree of belief in obvious and poisonous lies."

This is scary, very scary. The amount of comments I read that I full with hatred by people that seem to believe the most  outrageous things is scary. At least twice I read comments that said something that neither Milibands should be leaders of the Labour party as they are the sons of an illegal immigrant. That their father was a young man escaping the Nazi nightmare seems not to be important anymore. It was an illegal immigrant. I read someone the other day that said that Eastern Europe has to get rid of the Roma people to progress. The Roma people are its rotten core according to this comment, no one participating  in the discussion said anything against this. I fail to see how a bunch of dispossessed and excluded people can be both at the margins and right in  the core at the same time. The climate might be bad in the US but I don't see a much better picture  in Europe.

Interesting little video

I am not going to go into a "it is all Nick's fault rant", but the metamorphosis is incredible. Maybe I should just laugh.

The Beast File: Catholic Church Sex Scandals

via youtube.com

All about cats and wheelie bins

 I don't know what her problem is but at least it proves that not all anti-social behaviour is caused by hooded teenagers and the middle aged can be thugs too. At least  from the cat's point of view.  But I think that the problem has to be dealt by the RSPCA and eventually by her doctor and  by the police. It should not be dealt by the YouTube or Facebook mob. As much as I dislike cruelty to any animal, large and small, I also don't like a society where, for every provocation, the hysteric crowd turns up shouting abuse, describing the type of torture and suffering they would like to inflict, demanding the death penalty or other forms of revenge when knowing only some of the facts. Nasty stuff.
Woman dumped cat in bin as a 'joke' - Home News, UK - The Independent

'Get out of Lib-Con pact before it is too late'

via guardian.co.uk

"Nick Clegg was warned to get out of his pact with the Conservatives before it was too late as his partnership with David Cameron was compared to the troubled marriage of Cheryl and Ashley Cole."
I don't find many reasons to support this coalition and I agree that the Lib Dems have lost credibility but what other options did Nick Clegg actually have?
Support a coalition with Labour which would have had most of the media against ? The "Coalition of the losers" would have been unpopular, it would have lasted a short time and would have eventually given a clear majority to the Tories at the following election. And the LibDems would have lost credibility.
Not supporting the Tories well it would have proven that there cannot be a role for a third party and no point of any electoral reform etc. And he would have been blamed for letting the country down during a crisis, putting party interests before the country's etc. And the LibDems would have lost credibility.

Can the Coalition succeed?

Can the Coalition succeed? A response to David Marquand

I can take all this on board but I still do not think that the coalition will succeed and it is not doing anything that revolutionary, I don't see many big ideas just a lot of populism and scapegoating.  I don't think that anything like the Big Society can work when at the same time people are encouraged to grass on their neighbours if suspected of benefits fraud. I also don't think that a Prime Minister who calls part of the population "scroungers" can then advocate for an all inclusive society. I read comments around the internet and many people do not seem to be able to distinguish between a fraudster and a terminally ill person, as many shout that they do not want to pay tax for people who fall ill without being able to provide for themselves (as if that could be called a career choice). If this climate is the consequence of three months of coalition (Labour was not much better with  the ESA/ATOS fiasco and its eagerness to please the readers of the Daily Mail) I do worry a lot as it is not the type of society I want to be living in, with people thinking only what do I get? before doing anything and full of double standards. I am not even going to mention tax evasion and tax avoidance (I know the latter is legal but if we are so much in debt and all together in this, at least  some loopholes could be closed).
I do agree that we need to review the way we live,  the type of extreme capitalism we have had for the past decades has not worked, compensating low wages and high housing costs  with easy credit for everyone has not worked, an economy based on constant growth is not sustainable forever and we will soon have more problems finding raw resources. But I don't see this coalition (and Labour for all that matters) doing anything to address these problems which will come back to haunt us in the future.  The only thing is that if they keep repeating often enough how revolutionary and progressive this coalition is people might start to believe  it's true.

And now we need absolute monarchy

This  video comes from the rather good Pharyngula, I have to say the guy has a point, if I  allowed to vote only  people who agree with me, my life would be a lot easier.  I would like to know who were these Catholic  absolute monarchs who loved their people so much. I must have missed them.
Update: the video attracted to much criticism and was removed so I  change the video.

I don't intend to give up blogging

After a few weeks of silence I am back. I will try to concentrate my daily rant on this blog rather than just writing on forums and commenting on newspapers. I will continue to that do at the risk of becoming a clicktivist but I like to have my own home too. Therefore I moved from Posterous to here for a long list of reasons (nothing to do with the fact that Posterous was down most of last week). I will still use Posterous to post images as it is easier (one thing I don't like about Blogger is the lack of a decent bookmarklet).

The Treasury is assuming that growth in the private sector will create 2.5m jobs

via guardian.co.uk

"The Treasury is assuming that growth in the private sector will create 2.5m jobs in the next five years to compensate for the spending squeeze." Assuming?
Ok, I would like to know how and also what type of jobs. Sorry, but not all jobs are equal. As I've been employed in private companies working for the public sector, I know I'm stuffed. I am not fussy but I cannot replace a job that allows me to support a family with a job paid at the minimum wage (which will probably  be taken away soon or later once unemployment is really high, with the excuse that it costs jobs). And they seem very keen on slowly taking away all top-up benefits for working people on a low wage. It's hard to be positive.

RSA Animate - Crises of Capitalism

via youtube.com

London housing crisis: Osborne's export effect

Bob Blackman, the new Conservative MP for Harrow East and former leader of Brent Council, raised his side's tone a bit during yesterday's World At One discussion. Though stressing the resentment some in work feel towards jobless claimants, he also spoke about the massive bureaucracy housing benefit generates and acknowledged the stark disincentive the threat of its withdrawal represents to people taking employment: "If they get a job, that benefit is withdrawn straight away. It's a huge mountain [to climb] before anyone gets a job that justifies doing that." That's the madness of the London poverty trap.

via guardian.co.uk

Wow a Tory MP who seems to understand at least part of the problem. In London it could take months before people see their housing benefits money and can then pay their landlords (that's one of the reasons why private landlords don't always want people on benefits). If you do even  a few days of badly paid temporary work you would lose your entitlement to your benefits and would have to start a new claim when you are out of work again. People don't accept temporary work as they will have to spend hours reclaiming everything from scratch and might run out of money for basic needs and have problems with their landlords before they see their benefits again. If benefits were more flexible more people would try temporary work (which might lead to permanent work and who knows) and less people would work cash in hand (the so called benefits fraudsters). People try to make the best of the system they have and the benefits system is seriously flawed. I remember hearing these complaints nearly twenty years ago when I was working in pubs. And not much has changed since.

The 10 Most Hateful Quotes About the Poor and Unemployed | Poverty in America | Change.org

7. "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans [after Hurricane Katrina]. We couldn't do it, but God did." — Former Rep. Richard H. Baker (R-Louisiana)

via uspoverty.change.org

I've been collecting comments against the unemployed, the sick and the immigrants because I find it very worrying that this scapegoating of the most vulnerable is on the increase in the UK. Yes, I know that there are lazy unemployed people, others who fake sickness and dodgy immigrants but I don't know the percentage and this hatred seem to be directed at everyone without making any exceptions. This is the US version (I guess that some of the people making these comments would call themselves Christians too).

BBC News - Where could spending axe fall?

via news.bbc.co.uk

I might be getting more stupid with older age but one minute I read that the public debt is worse than thought, the next minute is in better shape than thought. The amount keeps changing too, sometimes we are not too bad compared to the rest of Europe other times I read that we are the country with the worst deficit in Europe. I even read once that the public debt was 3 trillions and that we were all doomed. I also read that the money was spent by Labour in unnecessary public projects and then I read than 1 trillion of it was spent to bail out banks. Can someone explain this to me please?

BBC News - Duncan Smith considers incentives to relocate jobless

via news.bbc.co.uk

I think it's a brilliant idea, everyone should leave their houses, communities, friends and families to come to London where there are lots of low paid dead end jobs. There is hardly any social housing left but there are plenty of expensive and unregulated bad housing and dodgy landlords keen on getting richer. Now that there will be a cap on immigration we don't want them to run out of tenants.

FAQ about the Oil Spill

I think that many questions are still unanswered, I have the feeling it will take years before the full extent of the damage on the environment and human health can be fully assessed.

Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com

See more at www.nytimes.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/aN0p0L

via Amplify.com

Dispatches - How the Banks Won

via youtube.com

Large oil spills are old news in the Niger Delta

The oil-polluted waters of Bodo Creek in Nigeria. Photo: Jane Hahn/The New York Times

BIG oil spills are no longer news in the Niger Delta, where the wealth underground is out of all proportion with the poverty on the surface. This once-verdant area has endured the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every year for 50 years by some estimates. The oil pours out nearly every week, and some swamps are lifeless.

via theage.com.au

This needs to be shared and reshared as it has not been widely reported before. BP is one of numerous bad guys, unfortunately.

This is my first proper rant taken from Google Buzz

M Farber - Buzz - Public - Muted

Rant of the day #1
In this lovely austerity climate I read numerous comments around the net (and I don't read the Daily Mail) by British people who more or less say that unemployment benefits should be scrapped or substituted with meal vouchers as people who claim are just lazy scroungers as there are plenty of jobs around etc. They often add that they don't want to pay tax to support scroungers and people should be able to look after themselves etc.
I have never claimed unemployment benefits in all my life but I find it sad that people can be so angry with the unemployed and are repeating slogans without knowing or thinking. I think that a lot of people's anger is directed to the wrong targets and I find it very very worrying especially with the government we have now.
a) Unemployment has more or less doubled in the past few years therefore there are people who used to be employed and new graduates now claiming unemployment benefits, not just your stereotypical scroungers.
b) With £63 a week people have to feed themselves, pay for bills and look for work. Internet access is a must these days not a luxury. Cost of trasport to and from job interviews. And unless someone wants to go to an interview looking like Robinson Crusoe there is the cost of looking after themselves
c) I don't want to pay tax to support wars, Royal families and many other things but that's life.
d) Jobs around are mainly manual and unskilled or require a lot of experience. I know a couple of IT professionals who are very good at their jobs. They are also absent minded, accident prone and with poor people skills. If I had a restaurant or a pub I would never employ them. Employers tend to choose the best person for the job especially when they have many candidates to choose from.
e) I am a law abiding citizen, I always pay tax and even my TV licence :) but if I had no money to put food on the table for my family I will have to find a way. And I think most people would do the same, is this the kind of climate these people really want?
End of the rant of the day # 1Delete

2 people publicly reshared this - Chris Brown and Maitani *

4 people liked this - Denis Labelle, Gwen Sutton, Maitani * and thomas morffew

M Farber - I have a very low tolerance level for this kind of things at the moment. It's starting to get to me maybe I should spend time playing video games or something.EditJun 15DeleteUndo deleteReport spamNot spam

thomas morffew - +1Jun 15DeleteUndo deleteReport spamNot spam

M Farber - I think I need to start a blog of rants after a pause lasting a few years. Blogger? Wordpress? Posterous?EditJun 15DeleteUndo deleteReport spamNot spam

thomas morffew - PosterousJun 15DeleteUndo deleteReport spamNot spam

Gwen Sutton - very well said!Jun 15DeleteUndo deleteReport spamNot spam

M Farber - Still pondering. Posterous has the advantage of integrating well with almost anything.EditJun 15DeleteUndo deleteReport spamNot spam

Maitani * - Thank you for saying this, Matteo. Here in Germany, we hear and read more and more similarly annoying comments, and I won't take it any more. I am so glad that there are some decent people such as you who speak out against this "Zeitgeist".Jun 15DeleteUndo deleteReport spamNot spam

M Farber - I know Maitani I find it disturbing. There are a couple of discussions these days about sending unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors back to Afghanistan. Regardless of political views the questions to ask would be whether it is safe for them to go back and what it is the best solution for them. Many comments say things like it is not our problem, I don't pay tax for things like that, they will steal our jobs etc. Nothing good has ever come out of fear and selfishness and I don't like this Zeitgeist at all.EditJun 15

via google.com

<link rel="me" type="text/html" href="http://www.google.com/profiles/matteo.far"/>