Caravan23

Music, swimming, booze and food

2008-10-08T23:12:00.002+01:00

After seeing this beautiful sunset yesterday, today we played music near home in Coín, in our freinds´hotel, El Palomar. Played celtic tunes, jammed and had a thoroughly enjoyable time! The swimming pool was soo cold, but great after you warmed up.

el chorro gorge

2008-10-07T20:15:00.003+01:00

Had an amazing time at the lakes and skimmed stones and saw a beautifull sunset el chorro and ardarles lakes . Nice!

WATCH THIS THEN CHECK OUT THE REST ON YOU TUBE REALY CLEAR! SPREAD AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

2008-08-27T12:55:00.000+01:00

Oh dear it seems we are all MAD!! yEAH RIGHT!

2008-08-27T12:29:00.000+01:00

A film about a mans journey through anarchist utopias existing today

2008-08-20T14:53:00.000+01:00

No Borders Protest Cardiff -Today!

2008-08-20T10:08:00.000+01:00

Lunch time today (Wednesday), No Borders South Wales will be having one of
their regular pickets of the UK Border Agency offices at 31-33 Newport Road,
Cardiff.

These are the offices where people made the decision to deport Ama Sumani
to her death, who tried to deport Kemi and Taiwo and their baby, who has
put Jean Pierre in detention, who refused Babi Badalov the right to
remain, where the snatch squads leave from, where local asylum seekers
have to sign and are treated like criminals.

Starts at 12 noon and only lasts an hour. More details:
http://noborderswales.wordpress.com/2008/08/17/protest-this-wednesday/

Citizens Initiative and Referendum I&R

2008-08-20T10:03:00.002+01:00

I&R is the campaign for direct democracy in Britain, it is independent of political parties but states that it can help people wishing to attain a plebiscite (referendum). It is certainly worth investigating the website let me know what you think.

search for terrorstorm on youtube1

2008-08-18T10:43:00.000+01:00

Watch This!

2008-08-18T10:16:00.001+01:00

Taking Liberties - Film

Italy - frightening facism?

2008-08-17T15:50:00.003+01:00

Following on from the Guardian article about the terrible torture and beatings of the activists in Genoa in 2001, i thought i would also comment on the fingerprinting of the Roma in Italy and the public ignoring the deaths of two Roma children on a popular Naples beach last month. These two things show us that fascism is alive and growing and we need to be ever vigilant and show them that we will not allow this.

This year i have heard concerns voiced in many different groups that many activists might not want to go to the 09 ANTI G8 protests, but i am not to worried as most people i have spoken to have stated that the repressive behaviour by police in Genoa only makes people more determined not to be frightened off by the fascist bully boys.

According to the Wombles:

"The mobilisation to Italy will have to find a way of dealing with the memories of the days and nights in Genoa. It is to be expected that a number of activists will not partcipate in the G8 protests in Italy because of their experiences with Italian police and the Carabinieri (or because of what they heard about them from friends).

Many are traumatised since then; perhaps one could even generalise this for the movements of the "summer of resistance" in Gothenburg and Genoa 2001. With such traumatisation, however, police repression would have reached one of its goal: the prevention of protest.

One of the possible strategies for overcoming the trauma is to remember and re-tell the story. A mobilisation against militarised European external and internal politics could link the role of the paramilitary Carabinieri in Genoa with their current integration into the "European Security Architecture" (Frontex, EGF).

It is quite likely that by 2009 not all the main trials of the G8 summit protests in Genoa will be concluded. Prosecuted activists are in the process of appealing. Supposedly, the publicity work for these trials will be integrated in the mobilisation for 2009."

We need to go to the G8 and look after each other and show them that they can beat us they can torture us but they can never stop us loving each other protecting each other and shouting that we will not live by their fascist laws and we will not ever give in.

Legoland - Lego Activists banner drop on miniture kingsnorth powerstation.

2008-08-15T12:26:00.001+01:00

watch to end police brutallity

2008-08-13T11:31:00.000+01:00

Climate Camp

2008-08-13T11:08:00.001+01:00

check it out!

How right he was!

2008-08-06T15:33:00.002+01:00

I was just thinking these thoughts this when i saw this quote from Hunter S. Thomson i wish i had the courage to speak so openly about my life as he did maybe one day i will.

"We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear—fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer."

—"Extreme Behavior in Aspen," February 3, 2003 Hunter S. Thompson

Climate Camp

2008-08-01T14:43:00.002+01:00

Climate camp site revealed: please help set up the camp

Activists take site for the Camp for Climate Action and reveal location

100 people entered and secured an uncultivated field at Deansgate Ridge at 3.00pm today, only 1 km from Kingsnorth Power Station. They erected and climbed tripods to prevent police from moving them and have erected a marquee alongside a banner which reads ‘No New Coal’.

Although the climate camp activists have been upfront and open about most aspects of their plans, the location of the camp had not been revealed until today in order to prevent E.ON and the police from attempting to stop it from happening. The uncultivated field is on a road that runs
between Hoo St Werburgh and High Halstow. The Camp for Climate Action intends to return the field in two weeks in as good, if not better, condition than it was found.

Around 20 sheep were in the field when it was occupied. They have been rounded up and are being taken care of with food and water.

The camp, which is due to officially start on Sunday, 3 August, is expected to attract thousands of people coming from all over the UK. The week long camp hosts hundreds of workshops on sustainable living and the politics of climate change. The camp will culminate on Saturday 9 August
in a mass direct action to shut down Kingsnorth power station on protest over E.ON’s plans to build the first new coal-fired power station in the UK for 33 years.

“We want to warmly invite people from the local community to come down and see for themselves what the camp is all about,” said Terry Graves, who has already pitched his tent up in the field.

“E.ON and the government believe that you can have endless fossil-fuelled economic growth in a world of finite resources,” said Christina Greensford, who helped to secure the camp. “People from all over the UK are here to create a democratic, low-carbon society in which our long term
future on this planet is prioritised over the short term profit margins of the fossil fuel industry.”

“We have a future to protect, and today, in setting up the climate camp, we’ve drawn a line in the sand at Kingsnorth.” said Hannah Abbots. “We will not allow companies like E.ON drag us over the edge of climate
catastrophe.”

Press can contact Conor O’Brian at 07530 306267 who is on site and arrange interviews, either over the phone or on the perimeter of the site.

Press can also contact the media team, who are not currently on site, at 07772 861 099

A press advisory will be shortly issued giving information as to when the first media tours of the camp will take place.

Anarchism by an amazing san francisco based anarchist thinker

2008-07-22T16:25:00.001+01:00

Check this guy out (especially you Sel). mr1001nights

Brilliant Canal Dwelling Anarchist

2008-07-22T16:21:00.001+01:00

check him out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa10Upe0u04

Facist Police in Genoa 2001 beat up innocent protesters

2008-07-18T12:24:00.002+01:00

This guardian article is brilliant! WARNING! it will upset you! (and hopefully make you angry)
click title of this post to link to Guardian website with pictures.

Nick Davies G2 Thursday July 17th 2008

The bloody battle of Genoa

"It was just before midnight when the first police officer hit Mark Covell, swiping his truncheon down on his left shoulder. Covell did his best to yell out in Italian that he was a journalist but, within seconds, he was surrounded by riot-squad officers thrashing him with their sticks. For a while, he managed to stay on his feet but then a baton blow to the knee sent him crashing to the pavement.

Lying on his face in the dark, bruised and scared, he was aware of police all around him, massing to attack the Diaz Pertini school building where 93 young demonstrators were bedding down on the floor for the night. Covell's best hope was that they would break through the chain around the front gates without paying him any more attention. If that happened, he could get up and limp across the street to the safety of the Indymedia centre, where he had spent the past three days filing reports on the G8 summit and on its violent policing.

It was at that moment that a police officer sauntered over to him and kicked him in the chest with such force that the entire lefthand side of his rib cage caved in, breaking half-a-dozen ribs whose splintered ends then shredded the membrane of his left lung. Covell, who is 5ft 8in and weighs less than eight stone, was lifted off the pavement and sent flying into the street. He heard the policeman laugh. The thought formed in Covell's mind: "I'm not going to make it."

The riot squad were still struggling with the gate, so a group of officers occupied the time by strolling over to use Covell as a football. This bout of kicking broke his left hand and damaged his spine. From somewhere behind him, Covell heard an officer shout that this was enough - "Basta! Basta!" - and he felt his body being dragged back on to the pavement.

Now, an armoured police van broke through the school gates and 150 police officers, most wearing crash helmets and carrying truncheons and shields, poured into the defenceless building. Two officers stopped to deal with Covell: one cracked him round the head with his baton; the other kicked him several times in the mouth, knocking out a dozen teeth. Covell passed out.

There are several good reasons why we should not forget what happened to Covell, then aged 33, that night in Genoa. The first is that he was only the beginning. By midnight on July 21 2001, those police officers were swarming through all four floors of the Diaz Pertini building, dispensing their special kind of discipline to its occupants, reducing the makeshift dormitories to what one officer later described as "a Mexican butcher's shop". They and their colleagues then illegally incarcerated their victims in a detention centre, which became a place of dark terror.

The second is that, seven years later, Covell and his fellow victims are still waiting for justice. On Monday, 15 police, prison guards and prison medics finally were convicted for their part in the violence - although it emerged yesterday that none of them would actually serve prison terms. In Italy, defendants don't go to jail until they have exhausted the appeals process; and in this case, the convictions and sentences will be wiped out by a statute of limitations next year. Meanwhile, the politicians who were responsible for the police, prison guards and prison medics have never had to explain themselves. Fundamental questions about why this happened remain unanswered - and they hint at the third and most important reason for remembering Genoa. This is not simply the story of law officers running riot, but of something uglier and more worrying beneath the surface.

The fact that this story can be told at all is testament to seven years of hard work, led by a dedicated and courageous public prosecutor, Emilio Zucca. Helped by Covell as well as his own staff, Zucca has gathered hundreds of witness statements and analysed 5,000 hours of video as well as thousands of photographs. Pieced together, they tell an irrefutable tale, which began to unfold as Covell lay bleeding on the ground.

The police poured into the Diaz Pertini school. Some of them were shouting "Black Bloc! We're going to kill you," but if they genuinely believed they were confronting the notorious Black Bloc of anarchists who had caused violent mayhem in parts of the city during demonstrations earlier in the day, they were mistaken. The school had been provided by the Genoa city council as a base for demonstrators who had nothing to do with the anarchists: they had even posted guards to make sure that none of them came in.

One of the first to see the riot squad bursting in was Michael Gieser, a 35-year-old Belgian economist, who subsequently described how he had just changed into his pyjamas and was queuing for the bathroom with his toothbrush in his hand when the raid began. Gieser believes in the power of dialogue and, at first, he walked towards them saying, "We need to talk." He saw the padded jackets, the riot clubs, the helmets and the bandanas concealing the policemen's faces, changed his mind and ran up the stairs to escape.

Others were slower. They were still in their sleeping bags. A group of 10 Spanish friends in the middle of the hall woke up to find themselves being battered with truncheons. They raised their hands in surrender. More officers piled in to beat their heads, cutting and bruising and breaking limbs, including the arm of a 65-year-old woman. At the side of the room, several young people were sitting at computers, sending emails home. One of them was Melanie Jonasch, a 28-year-old archaeology student from Berlin, who had volunteered to help out in the building and had not even been on a demonstration.

She still cannot remember what happened. But numerous other witnesses have described how officers set upon her, beating her head so hard with their sticks that she rapidly lost consciousness. When she fell to the ground, officers circled her, beating and kicking her limp body, banging her head against a near-by cupboard, leaving her finally in a pool of blood. Katherina Ottoway, who saw this happen, recalled: "She was trembling all over. Her eyes were open but upturned. I thought she was dying, that she could not survive this."

None of those who stayed on the ground floor escaped injury. As Zucca later put it in his prosecution report: "In the space of a few minutes, all the occupants on the ground floor had been reduced to complete helplessness, the groans of the wounded mingling with the sound of calls for an ambulance." In their fear, some victims lost control of their bowels. Then the officers of the law moved up the stairs. In the first-floor corridor they found a small group, including Gieser, still clutching his toothbrush: "Someone suggested lying down, to show there was no resistance. So I did. The police arrived and began beating us, one by one. I protected my head with my hands. I thought, 'I must survive.' People were shouting, 'Please stop.' I said the same thing ... It made me think of a pork butchery. We were being treated like animals, like pigs."

Officers broke down doors to the rooms leading off the corridors. In one, they found Dan McQuillan and Norman Blair, who had flown in from Stansted to show their support for, as McQuillan put it, "a free and equal society with people living in harmony with each other". The two Englishmen and their friend from New Zealand, Sam Buchanan, had heard the police attack on the ground floor and had tried to hide their bags and themselves under some tables in the corner of the dark room. A dozen officers broke in, caught them in a spotlight and, even as McQuillan stood up with his hands raised saying, "Take it easy, take it easy," they battered them into submission, inflicting numerous cuts and bruises and breaking McQuillan's wrist. Norman Blair recalled: "I could feel the venom and hatred from them."

Gieser was out in the corridor: "The scene around me was covered in blood, everywhere. A policeman shouted 'Basta!'. This word was like a window of hope. I understood it meant 'enough'. And yet they didn't stop. They continued with pleasure. In the end, they did stop, but it was like taking a toy away from a child, against their will."

By now, there were police officers on all four floors of the building, kicking and battering. Several victims describe a sort of system to the violence, with each officer beating each person he came across, then moving on to the next victim while his colleague moved up to continue beating the first. It seemed important that everybody must be hurt. Nicola Doherty, 26, a care worker from London, later described how her partner, Richard Moth, lay across her to protect her: "I could just hear blow after blow on his body. The police were also leaning over Rich so they could hit the parts of my body which were exposed." She tried to cover her head with her arm: they broke her wrist.

In one corridor, they ordered a group of young men and women to kneel, the easier to batter them around the head and shoulders. This was where Daniel Albrecht, a 21-year-old cello student from Berlin, had his head beaten so badly that he needed surgery to stop bleeding in his brain. Around the building, officers flipped their batons around, gripping the far end and using the right-angled handle as a hammer.

And in among this relentless violence, there were moments when the police preferred humiliation: the officer who stood spread-legged in front of a kneeling and injured woman, grabbed his groin and thrust it into her face before turning to do the same to Daniel Albrecht kneeling beside her; the officer who paused amid the beatings and took a knife to cut off hair from his victims, including Nicola Doherty; the constant shouting of insults; the officer who asked a group if they were OK and who reacted to the one who said "No" by handing out an extra beating.

A few escaped, at least for a while. Karl Boro made it up on to the roof but then made the mistake of coming back into the building, where he was treated to heavy bruising to his arms and legs, a fractured skull, and bleeding in his chest cavity. Jaraslaw Engel, from Poland, managed to use builders' scaffolding to get out of the school, but he was caught in the street by some police drivers who smashed him over the head, laid him on the ground and stood over him smoking while his blood ran out across the Tarmac.

Two of the last to be caught were a pair of German students, Lena Zuhlke, 24, and her partner Niels Martensen. They had hidden in a cleaners' cupboard on the top floor. They heard the police approaching, drumming their batons against the walls of the stairs. The cupboard door came open, Martensen was dragged out and beaten by a dozen officers standing in a semicircle around him. Zuhlke ran across the corridor and hid in the loo. Police officers saw her and followed her and dragged her out by her dreadlocks.

In the corridor, they set about her like dogs on a rabbit. She was beaten around the head then kicked from all sides on the floor, where she felt her rib cage collapsing. She was hauled up against the wall where one officer kneed her in the groin while others carried on lashing her with their batons. She slid down the wall and they hit her more on the ground: "They seemed to be enjoying themselves and, when I cried out in pain, it seemed to give them even more pleasure."

Police officers found a fire extinguisher and squirted its foam into Martensen's wounds. His partner was dragged by her hair and tossed down the stairs head-first. Eventually, they dragged Zuhlke into the ground-floor hall, where they had gathered dozens of prisoners from all over the building in a mess of blood and excrement. They threw her on top of two other people. They were not moving, and Zuhlke drowsily asked them if they were alive. They did not reply, and she lay there on her back, unable to move her right arm, unable to stop her left arm and her legs twitching, blood seeping out of her head wounds. A group of police officers walked by, and each one lifted the bandana which concealed his identity, leaned down and spat on her face.

Why would law officers behave with such contempt for the law? The simple answer may be the one which was soon being chanted outside the school building by sympathetic demonstrators who chose a word which they knew the police would understand: "Bastardi! Bastardi!" But something else was happening here - something that emerged more clearly over the next few days.

Covell and dozens of other victims of the raid were taken to the San Martino hospital, where police officers walked up and down the corridors, slapping their clubs into the palms of their hands, ordering the injured not to move around or look out of the window, keeping handcuffs on many of them and then, often with injuries still untended, shipping them across the city to join scores of others, from the Diaz school and from the street demonstrations, detained at the detention centre in the city's Bolzaneto district.

The signs of something uglier here were apparent first in superficial ways. Some officers had traditional fascist songs as ringtones on their mobile phones and talked enthusiastically about Mussolini and Pinochet. Repeatedly, they ordered prisoners to say "Viva il duce." Sometimes, they used threats to force them to sing fascist songs: "Un, due, tre. Viva Pinochet!"

The 222 people who were held at Bolzaneto were treated to a regime later described by public prosecutors as torture. On arrival, they were marked with felt-tip crosses on each cheek, and many were forced to walk between two parallel lines of officers who kicked and beat them. Most were herded into large cells, holding up to 30 people. Here, they were forced to stand for long periods, facing the wall with their hands up high and their legs spread. Those who failed to hold the position were shouted at, slapped and beaten. Mohammed Tabach has an artificial leg and, unable to hold the stress position, collapsed and was rewarded with two bursts of pepper spray in his face and, later, a particularly savage beating. Norman Blair later recalled standing like this and a guard asking him "Who is your government?" "The person before me had answered 'Polizei', so I said the same. I was afraid of being beaten."

Stefan Bauer dared to answer back: when a German-speaking guard asked where he was from, he said he was from the European Union and he had the right to go where he wanted. He was hauled out, beaten, given a face full of pepper spray, stripped naked and put under a cold shower. His clothes were taken away and he was returned to the freezing cell wearing only a flimsy hospital gown.

Shivering on the cold marble floors of the cells, the detainees were given few or no blankets, kept awake by guards, given little or no food and denied their statutory right to make phone calls and see a lawyer. They could hear crying and screaming from other cells.

Men and women with dreadlocks had their hair roughly cut off to the scalp. Marco Bistacchia was taken to an office, stripped naked, made to get down on all fours and told to bark like a dog and to shout "Viva la polizia Italiana!" He was sobbing too much to obey. An unnamed officer told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that he had seen brother officers urinating on prisoners and beating them for refusing to sing Faccetta Nera, a Mussolini-era fascist song.

Ester Percivati, a young Turkish woman, recalled guards calling her a whore as she was marched to the toilet, where a woman officer forced her head down into the bowl and a male jeered "Nice arse! Would you like a truncheon up it?" Several women reported threats of rape, anal and vaginal.

Even the infirmary was dangerous. Richard Moth, covered in cuts and bruises after lying on top of his partner, was given stitches in his head and legs without anaesthetic - "an extremely painful and disturbing experience. I had to be held down." Prison medical staff were among those convicted of abuse on Monday.

All agree that this was not an attempt to get the detainees to talk, simply an exercise in creating fear. And it worked. In statements, prisoners later described their feeling of helplessness, of being cut off from the rest of the world in a place where there was no law and no rules. Indeed, the police forced their captives to sign statements, waiving all their legal rights. One man, David Larroquelle, testified that he refused and had three of his ribs broken. Percivati also refused and her face was slammed into the office wall, breaking her glasses and making her nose bleed.

The outside world was treated to some severely distorted accounts of all this. Lying in San Martino hospital the day after his beating, Covell came round to find his shoulder being shaken by a woman who, he understood, was from the British embassy. It was only when the man with her started taking photographs that he realised she was a reporter, from the Daily Mail. Its front page the next day ran an entirely false report describing him as having helped mastermind the riots. (Four long years later, the Mail eventually apologised and paid Covell damages for invasion of privacy.)

While his citizens were being beaten and tormented in illegal detention, spokesmen for the then prime minister, Tony Blair, declared: "The Italian police had a difficult job to do. The prime minister believes that they did that job."

The Italian police themselves fed the media with a rich diet of falsehood. Even as the bloody bodies were being carried out of the Diaz Pertini building on stretchers, police were telling reporters that the ambulances lined up in the street were nothing to do with the raid, and/or that the very obviously fresh injuries were old, and that the building had been full of violent extremists who had attacked officers.

The next day, senior officers held a press conference at which they announced that everybody in the building would be charged with aggressive resistance to arrest and conspiracy to cause destruction. In the event, the Italian courts dismissed every single attempted charge against every single person. That included Covell. Police attempts to charge him with a string of very serious offences were described by the public prosecutor, Enrico Zucca, as "grotesque".

At the same press conference, police displayed an array of what they described as weaponry. This included crowbars, hammers and nails which they themselves had taken from a builder's store next to the school; aluminium rucksack frames, which they presented as offensive weapons; 17 cameras; 13 pairs of swimming goggles; 10 pen-knives; and a bottle of sun-tan lotion. They also displayed two Molotov cocktails which, Zucca later concluded, had been found by police earlier in the day in another part of the city and planted in the Diaz Pertini building as the raid ended.

This public dishonesty was part of a wider effort to cover up what had happened. On the night of the raid, a force of 59 police entered the building opposite the Diaz Pertini, where Covell and others had been running their Indymedia centre and where, crucially, a group of lawyers had been based, gathering evidence about police attacks on the earlier demonstrations. Officers went into the lawyers' room, threatened the occupants, smashed their computers and seized hard drives. They also removed anything containing photographs or video tape.

With the courts refusing to charge the detainees, the police secured an order to deport all of them from the country, banning them from returning for five years. Thus, the witnesses were removed from the scene. Like the attempted charges, all the deportation orders were subsequently dismissed as illegal by the courts.

Zucca then fought his way through years of denial and obfuscation. In his formal report, he recorded that all the senior officers involved were denying playing any part: "Not a single official has confessed to holding a substantial command role in any aspects of the operation." One senior officer who was videoed at the scene explained that he was off duty and had just turned up to make sure his men were not being injured. Police statements were themselves changeable and contradictory, and were overwhelmingly contradicted by the evidence of victims and numerous videos: "Not a single one of the 150 officers reportedly present has provided precise information regarding an individual episode."

Without Zucca, without the robust stance of the Italian courts, without Covell's intensive work assembling video records of the Diaz raid, the police might well have evaded responsibility and secured false charges and prison sentences against scores of their victims. Apart from the Bolzaneto trial which finished on Monday, 28 other officers, some very senior, are on trial for their part in the Diaz raid. And yet, justice has been compromised.

No Italian politician has been brought to book, in spite of the strong suggestion that the police acted as though somebody had promised them impunity. One minister visited Bolzaneto while the detainees were being mistreated and apparently saw nothing or, at least, saw nothing he thought he should stop. Another, Gianfranco Fini, former national secretary of the neo-fascist MSI party and the then deputy prime minister, was - according to media reports at the time - in police headquarters. He has never been required to explain what orders he gave.

Most of the several hundred law officers involved in Diaz and Bolzaneto have escaped without any discipline or criminal charge. None has been suspended; some have been promoted. None of the officers who were tried over Bolzaneto has been charged with torture - Italian law does not recognise the offence. Some senior officers who were originally going to be charged over the Diaz raid escaped trial because Zucca was simply unable to prove that a chain of command existed. Even now, the trial of the 28 officers who have been charged is in jeopardy because the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, is pushing through legislation to delay all trials dealing with events that occurred before June 2002. Nobody has been charged with the violence inflicted on Covell. And as one of the victims' lawyers, Massimo Pastore, put it: "Nobody wants to listen to what this story has to say."

That is about fascism. There are plenty of rumours that the police and carabinieri and prison staff belonged to fascist groups, but no evidence to support that. Pastore argues that that misses the bigger point: "It is not just a matter of a few drunken fascists. This is mass behaviour by the police. No one said 'No.' This is a culture of fascism." At its heart, this involved what Zucca described in his report as "a situation in which every rule of law appears to have been suspended."

Fifty-two days after the attack on the Diaz school, 19 men used planes full of passengers as flying bombs and shifted the bedrock of assumptions on which western democracies had based their business. Since then, politicians who would never describe themselves as fascists have allowed the mass tapping of telephones and monitoring of emails, detention without trial, systematic torture, the calibrated drowning of detainees, unlimited house arrest and the targeted killing of suspects, while the procedure of extradition has been replaced by "extraordinary rendition". This isn't fascism with jack-booted dictators with foam on their lips. It's the pragmatism of nicely turned-out politicians. But the result looks very similar. Genoa tells us that when the state feels threatened, the rule of law can be suspended. Anywhere."

A Good Reminder x

2008-07-16T15:49:00.002+01:00

Ha Ha!

2008-07-11T15:42:00.002+01:00

The Real Do-it-Yourself

2008-07-11T11:37:00.004+01:00

Recently i have been reading a book called HIGH-RISE By JG BALLARD where the inhabitants of a luxury high rise block of flats started violent clan wars due to a breakdown in the functioning of the buildings systems. Instead of working together to fix the systems they live in squalor not even blaming the buildings managers but blaming those from lower or upper floors.

Which reminds me of real life:

"In existing States a fresh law is looked upon as a remedy for evil. Instead of themselves altering what is bad, people begin by demanding a law to alter it." -Peter Kropotkin, From "Law and Authority"

p.53

"In effect, the high-rise had already divided itself into the three classical social groups, its lower, middle and upper classes. The 10th-floor shopping mall formed a clear boundary between the lower nine floors, with their 'proletariat' of film technicians, air-hostesses and the like, and the middle section of the high-rise, which extended from the 10th floor to the swimming-pool and restaurant deck on the 35th. This central two-thirds of the apartment building formed its middle class, made up of self-centered but basically docile members of the professions - the doctors and lawyers, accountants and tax specialists who worked, not for themselves, but for medical institutes and large corporations. Puritan and self-disciplined, they had all the cohesion of those eager to settle for second best.

Above them, on the top five floors of the high-rise, was its upper class, the discreet oligarchy of minor tycoons and entrepreneurs, television actresses and careerist academics, with their high-speed elevators and Superior services, their carpeted staircases. It was they who set the pace of the building. It was their complaints which were acted on first, and it was they that subtly dominated life within the high-rise, deciding when the children could use the swimming-pools and roof garden, the menus in the restaurant and the high charges that kept out almost everyone but themselves. Above all, it was their subtle patronage that kept the middle ranks in line, this constantly dangling carrot of friendship and approval."

The people in the building become more and more violent and crazed

p.58

"Their real opponent was not the hierarchy of residents in the heights far above them, but the image of the building in their own minds, the multiplying layers of concrete that anchored them to the floor."

p.76

"Royal had noticed that the manager's office was no longer besieged by indignant residents. Even his own top-floor neighbours, who in the early days had been only too quick to complain about everything, now never criticized the building. In the absence of the manager - still lying in a state of mental collapse in his ground-floor apartment - his dwindling staff of two (the wives of a dubbing-mixer on the 2nd floor and a first violinist on the 3rd) sat stoically at their desks in the entrance lobby, oblivious of the deterioration going on apace over their heads."

well i think its an interesting book anyway

why didn't the people fix it up themselves why don't we fix it up ourselves???

What anarchism is by Scott Hughes

2008-07-11T11:32:00.001+01:00

I like Scott's deffinition and although it by no means explains what anarchism is fully, it does go about adressing the commonly held misbeliefs about anarchism.

"Anarchism is the belief in no government. Anarchist's do NOT support or like violence or coercion. In fact, bydefinition, anarchists are diametrically opposed to offensive violence and coercion. To an anarchist, at least, the words 'governance' and 'government' refer to offensive coercion and institutions thereof. Anarchists are adamantly opposed to the use of force, coercion, or violence against innocent people. Anarchists oppose any use of offensive violence, offensive coercion, offensive force, etc. Accordingly, by definition, anarchists strongly oppose rape, murder, assault, theft and the like.

Like most people, most anarchists have no problem with solely defensive uses of force/coercion. Most people do not consider self-defensive uses of force to be governmental. Malcolm X said, "I don't call it violence when it's self-defense; I call it intelligence." However, most anarchists reject the 'collateral damage' excuse, which terrorists and war-mongers use to claim that the harming of innocent people and civilians can fall under 'defense'.

Anarchists want smaller government, and ideally no government. Henry David Thoreau put it best when he said:

"I heartily accept the motto, 'That government is best which governs least'; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe--'That government is best which governs not at all'; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which the will have."

Anarchists oppose theft, and thus anarchists oppose taxation. Anarchists oppose kidnapping, thus anarchists oppose the jailing of people for "victimless crimes", such as drug use, prostitution, gun-ownership, or flag-burning. Anarchists oppose murder, and thus anarchists oppose war (insofar as innocent people, a.k.a. civilians, are killed)."

Back from Workhouse where work i did!

2008-07-10T13:45:00.003+01:00

Workhouse was a lovely festival, dancing to The Don Bradmans, and Kaplick and Kilnaboy was most excellent x That was a good litter picking crew i worked with!

Now I'm back i have mostly been making vast quantities of skipped fruit wine nettle and bramble wine and ginger wine and other wines too random and odd to mention. Interestingly it was mostly made in a bath over an open fire so it should be good!!

Also i have been getting in touch with people Ive lost touch with in the vain hope that
i might salvage the scraps of life not spoilt by my reckless not keeping in touch behaviour.

The Manx national plant is Bollan Bane or mugwort and it grows all round my caravan i even wore some on Tynwald day! Now i want to know what to use it for so I'm going to do some research.

I'm also going to go to coed hills and get my mate Joe to teach me how to make and use a pole lathe.

Also this weekend i may try to delve into my subconscious and get into some dodgy hippy stuff!

I'm very happy because i played the bouzouki loads at workhouse towards the end and people didn't think i was shit even Dr Dave Damage who is a percussionist liked it, so my timing must be getting better. So also i plan to practice that a lot and if the weather is nice we shall have Ladies Dance Club, which men can also attend we just like the name, which is basically us teaching each other all the samba, folk and show dancing we know so we have fun and get some exercise, i cannot wait, if the rain will hold off for a few moments.

Good quotes that i feel the same way as:

2008-07-02T15:14:00.004+01:00

Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.
~ John Maynard Keynes

The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.
~ George Orwell

The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he is on.
~ Joseph Heller

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
~ Voltaire

I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.
~ Susan B. Anthony

I'm ineffably tired of pro-war ideologues moaning about how the anti-war folk are just 'complaining' without 'offering solutions' to global dilemmas. Peace doesn't need a freekin moral, ethical, economical, or political qualification; war does. Peace doesn't ravage, plunder, rape, or kill; war does. Peace does not need justification, war does.

~ <|OnAir|>

It makes no difference as to the name of the God, since love is the real God of all in the world.
~ Apache

The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he is on.
~ Joseph Heller

Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear, kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor, with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it.

~ General Douglas MacArthur

Everyone likes to say Hitler did this and Hitler did that. But the truth is Hitler did very little. He was a world class asshole, but the evil actually done, from the death camps to World War Two, was all done by citizens who were afraid to question if what they were told by their government was the truth or not, and who because they did not want to admit to themselves that they were afraid to question the government, refused to see the truth behind the Reichstag Fire, refused to see the invasion by Poland was a staged fake, and followed Hitler into national disaster.

~ Michael Rivero

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
~ P. J. O'Rourke

Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way; stop participating in it.
~ Noam Chomsky

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius, and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.
~ Albert Einstein

Civil disobedience, that’s not our problem. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem.
~ Howard Zinn

A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but can’t afford an air force.
~ William Blum

Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.
~ Oscar Wilde

When you philosophically oppose an entire power elite, you cannot help but sound like a conspiracy theorist. Social power is by nature a conspiracy.
~ Tom N

Because I do it with one small ship, I am called a terrorist (pirate?). You do it with a whole fleet and are called an emperor.
~ St. Augustine

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.
~ Henry David Thoreau

The biggest detractors of communism and socialism always seem to want to embrace the worst excesses of both.
~
Stopping terrorism is simple. Just quit screwing around with other people's countries and the terrorists will go home. But the government of the United States wants to go on screwing around with other people's countries, refuses to stop, indeed views it as Manifest Destiny for the United States Government to persist in screwing around with other people's countries, and views the inconvenience, increased tax burden, loss of civil liberties, and even deaths among the American people as just another cost of doing business.
~ Michael Rivero

No one rules if no one obeys.
~

The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it.
~ Woodrow Wilson

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

We always obeyed the law. Isn't that what you do in America? Even if you don't agree with a law personally, you still obey it. Otherwise life would be chaos.
~ Gertrude Scholtz-Klink, explaining Nazi policy

How long would authority ... exist, if not for the willingness of the mass to become soldiers, policemen, jailers, and hangmen.
~ Emma Goldman

To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it.
~ Confucius

All our lauded technological progress, our very civilization, is like the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal.
~ Albert Einstein

In the 1980s capitalism triumphed over communism. In the 1990s it triumphed over democracy.
~ David Korten

The corporation is a true Frankenstein's monster, an artificial person run amok, responsible only to its own soulless self.
~ William Dugger

When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? It is because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.
~ J. Krishnamurthi

If it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them; but the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

My final point about alcohol, about drugs, about pornography; what business is it of yours what I do, read, buy, see, fuck or take into my body as long as I don't harm another human being whilst on this planet? And for those of you having a little moral dilemma on how to answer this, I'll answer for you. None of your fucking business! Take that to the bank, cash it and take it on a vacation outta my fucking life.
~ Bill Hicks

The wise man will love; all others will desire.
~ Afranius

Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.

At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.
~ Ernesto 'Che' Guevara

Do not do an immoral thing for moral reasons.
~ Thomas Hardy (but dont let that stop you breaking the law if you feel its the right thing to do and self defence is not immoral in my opinion- Jinny)

There must be more to life than having everything.
~ Maurice Sendak

Comedy Childhood Comandments

2008-07-02T11:08:00.002+01:00

This is sooo... funny!!

"Laws Concerning Food and Drink
Household Principles
Lamentations of the Father

by Ian Frazier

Of the beasts of the field, and of the fishes of the sea, and of all foods that are acceptable in my sight you may eat, but not in the living room. Of the hoofed animals, broiled or ground into burgers, you may eat, but not in the living room. Of the cloven-hoofed animal, plain or with cheese, you may eat, but not in the living room. Of the cereal grains, of the corn and of the wheat and of the oats, and of all the cereals that are of bright color and unknown provenance you may eat, but not in the living room. Of the quiescently frozen dessert and of all frozen after-meal treats you may eat, but absolutely not in the living room. Of the juices and other beverages, yes, even of those in sippy-cups, you may drink, but not in the living room, neither may you carry such therein. Indeed, when you reach the place where the living room carpet begins, of any food or beverage there you may not eat, neither may you drink.

But if you are sick, and are lying down and watching something, then may you eat in the living room.

Laws When at Table

And if you are seated in your high chair, or in a chair such as a greater person might use, keep your legs and feet below you as they were. Neither raise up your knees, nor place your feet upon the table, for that is an abomination to me. Yes, even when you have an interesting bandage to show, your feet upon the table are an abomination, and worthy of rebuke. Drink your milk as it is given you, neither use on it any utensils, nor fork, nor knife, nor spoon, for that is not what they are for; if you will dip your blocks in the milk, and lick it off, you will be sent away. When you have drunk, let the empty cup then remain upon the table, and do not bite it upon its edge and by your teeth hold it to your face in order to make noises in it sounding like a duck; for you will be sent away.

When you chew your food, keep your mouth closed until you have swallowed, and do not open it to show your brother or your sister what is within; I say to you, do not so, even if your brother or your sister has done the same to you. Eat your food only; do not eat that which is not food; neither seize the table between your jaws, nor use the raiment of the table to wipe your lips. I say again to you, do not touch it, but leave it as it is. And though your stick of carrot does indeed resemble a marker, draw not with it upon the table, even in pretend, for we do not do that, that is why. And though the pieces of broccoli are very like small trees, do not stand them upright to make a forest, because we do not do that, that is why. Sit just as I have told you, and do not lean to one side or the other, nor slide down until you are nearly slid away. Heed me; for if you sit like that, your hair will go into the syrup. And now behold, even as I have said, it has come to pass.

Laws Pertaining to Dessert

For we judge between the plate that is unclean and the plate that is clean, saying first, if the plate is clean, then you shall have dessert. But of the unclean plate, the laws are these: If you have eaten most of your meat, and two bites of your peas with each bite consisting of not less than three peas each, or in total six peas, eaten where I can see, and you have also eaten enough of your potatoes to fill two forks, both forkfuls eaten where I can see, then you shall have dessert. But if you eat a lesser number of peas, and yet you eat the potatoes, still you shall not have dessert; and if you eat the peas, yet leave the potatoes uneaten, you shall not have dessert, no, not even a small portion thereof. And if you try to deceive by moving the potatoes or peas around with a fork, that it may appear you have eaten what you have not, you will fall into iniquity. And I will know, and you shall have no dessert.

On Screaming

Do not scream; for it is as if you scream all the time. If you are given a plate on which two foods you do not wish to touch each other are touching each other, your voice rises up even to the ceiling, while you point to the offense with the finger of your right hand; but I say to you, scream not, only remonstrate gently with the server, that the server may correct the fault. Likewise if you receive a portion of fish from which every piece of herbal seasoning has not been scraped off, and the herbal seasoning is loathsome to you, and steeped in vileness, again I say, refrain from screaming. Though the vileness overwhelm you, and cause you a faint unto death, make not that sound from within your throat, neither cover your face, nor press your fingers to your nose. For even now I have made the fish as it should be; behold, I eat of it myself, yet do not die.

Concerning Face and Hands

Cast your countenance upward to the light, and lift your eyes to the hills, that I may more easily wash you off. For the stains are upon you; even to the very back of your head, there is rice hereon. And in the breast pocket of your garment, and upon the tie of your shoe, rice and other fragments are distributed in a manner wonderful to see. Only hold yourself still; hold still, I say. Give each finger in its turn for my examination thereof, and also each thumb. Lo, how iniquitous they appear. What I do is as it must be; and you shall not go hence until I have done.

Various Other Laws, Statutes, and Ordinances

Bite not, lest you be cast into quiet time. Neither drink of your own bath water, nor of bath water of any kind; nor rub your feet on bread, even if it be in the package; nor rub yourself against cars, nor against any building; nor eat sand.

Leave the cat alone, for what has the cat done, that you should so afflict it with tape? And hum not that humming in your nose as I read, nor stand between the light and the book. Indeed, you will drive me to madness. Nor forget what I said about the tape.

Complaints and Lamentations

O my children, you are disobedient. For when I tell you what you must do, you argue and dispute hotly even to the littlest detail; and when I do not accede, you cry out, and hit and kick. Yes, and even sometimes do you spit, and shout “stupid-head” and other blasphemies, and hit and kick the wall and the molding thereof when you are sent to the corner. And though the law teaches that no one shall be sent to the corner for more minutes than he has years of age, yet I would leave you there all day, so mighty am I in anger. But upon being sent to the corner you ask straightaway, ”Can I come out?” and I reply, “No, you may not come out.” And again you ask, and again I give the same reply. But when you ask again a third time, then you may come out.

Hear me, O my children, for the bills they kill me. I pay and pay again, even to the twelfth time in a year, and yet again they mount higher than before. For our health, that we may be covered, I give six hundred and twenty talents twelve times in a year; but even this covers not the fifteen hundred deductible for each member of the family within a calendar year. And yet for ordinary visits we still are not covered, nor for many medicines, nor for the teeth within our mouths. Guess not at what rage is in my mind, for surely you cannot know.

For I will come to you at the first of the month and at the fifteenth of the month with the bills and a great whining and moan. And when the month of taxes comes, I will decry the wrong and unfairness of it, and mourn with wine and ashtrays, and rend my receipts. And you shall remember that I am that I am: before, after, and until you are twenty-one. Hear me then, and avoid me in my wrath, O children of me."

My lovely friend Sel came to visit us at site!

2008-07-02T10:21:00.003+01:00

STAYED UP TOO LATE TALKING ABOUT POLITICS! SEE HER BLOG IN ACTIVIST LINKS, WE DECIDED TO CLARIFY OUR PRESENT VIEWS ON POLITICS AND EVERYTHING IN OUR RESPECTIVE BLOGS.... SHE WILL TRY TO EXPLAIN HER SOCIALISM AND I WILL TRY TO EXPLAIN MY ANARCHISM OR WHATEVER!! AND WE RECON WE MIGHT COME UP WITH SIMILAR VIEWS JUST USING DIFFERENT LANGUAGE AND MAYBE SOME OTHER DIFFERENCES WE WILL SEE HOW FUN!! nerds!!! blogging nerds!! blogging politiocs nerds!!

Carsten Höller - Rhinoceros, 2005

2008-07-01T10:47:00.001+01:00

Ahh what a cool sculpture yellow rhino baby!

Amazing Replica of Old 1873 Monocycle!

2008-07-01T09:58:00.003+01:00

Wow! I would like one of these!

"Basically though, a French design from 1873 recreated with as many improvements as can be thought of......Monowheels must be up there in the top five Steampunk methods of transport."

Climate Camp 2008

2008-06-30T13:57:00.002+01:00

Be there and be prepared!!!!! A week or so of Fun, Fucking the System and Feeling good about it .....Yay!!!!!!

Urgent Help Kemi Ayinde!

2008-06-30T12:39:00.003+01:00

Please Help Kemi Ayinde, who is being deported tommorrow. She is ill and pregnant and has a 1 year old son, ring email or fax British Airways and ask to register complaint to British Airways who can dissallow her flight if she is ill, then ask if you can talk to pre-travel and they will get the case reference number, which is 6749851, do it now before its too late!! Also contact the home office on 08706067766

how to get away with reading at work best thing ever!!!!!

2008-06-26T15:02:00.002+01:00

Found this amazing programme that lets you read novels and it looks like a windows desktop and powerpoint presentation check it out :http://www.readatwork.com/

A children's story!!!! hopefully a good message not finished justa first go!!

2008-06-26T12:47:00.006+01:00

Once upon a time, in a land not very far from here, lived a little girl. The little girls name was Jinny, she had dark hair, dark eyes and pale freckly skin. Her parents brought her up to always think for herself and to question things if she felt they were unfair or wrong. There were two things Jinny liked doing best in the world. One was reading books and the other was climbing trees. So all throughout her growing up Jinny kept reading and reading and reading and she spent a lot of time in the tops of trees spending time in nature. There was another very important factor in Jinny's life and that was that the land she was growing up in, the one that is not very far from here, was changing. She kept noticing roads being widened and built, houses being built, but the new houses were not like the houses she was used to. They were row upon row of ugly white soulless boxes spreading as far as the eye could see. By the time Jinny had started to grow up, she had noticed that these houses weren't made very well, were too expensive for hardly anyone to afford, and didn't even have chimneys or fireplaces. "How ever are the people who buy these houses going to keep warm if gas or electricity are not available? thought Jinny. Whenever the roads were widened she noticed it didn't improve the huge traffic jams, it just meant that inevitably loads of lovely mature climbing trees were being chopped down. Jinny started to worry, "Who is really benefiting from the roads being widened and these houses being built? It Is not the people or the land but it must be someone. For a while Jinny asked people about this and was told by most, "oh its those foreigners that keep coming here, its all their fault". But Jinny could see that this attitude was not true only the fashionable thing to say and wondered who's fault it really was and what was the motivation. "Who is benefiting?" she wondered, so as she was wont to do she read, and she read, and she read, and became even more worried about the problems in her land, especially about climate change. She knew that people had been talking about the problems for years and realised that they were being ignored because it was in the interest £$ of certain groups or organisations that they be ignored. A lot of large organisations were getting rich quick by using the earth's resources and it wasn't just happening where Jinny lived but that it was happening all over the world. Then Jinny noticed that when she got a job in the supermarket she got paid a very small amount of money; that she had to work hours that were inconvenient, and that if she worked for a whole hour she could only afford to buy a coffee and a sandwich with the money she had earned. Now she wondered how it was that an hour of her precious life could only be worth the same as a coffee and a sandwich. Now Jinny was not a particularly greedy girl and knew that her life was easy compared to the lives that most people in the world were having to live, and that she was privileged just to have food and water and shelter but she also realised that the same organisations who were profiting from the destruction of the environment and not paying people much for their work while creaming off vast profits were the same people who were exploiting women and children in other countries, mining diamonds, destroying the rainforests, polluting rivers and generally doing whatever they liked as long as it made them PROFIT! Now Jinny was and always had been very interested in history and she knew from the history books, the way that so called civilization had developed, that there had always been inequalities, and that even though people felt they were free in modern western society, essentially they were still enslaved in maybe a worse way than ever, because they were slaves who believed they were free. They were living within a huge lie. Jinny got to thinking there must be a better way to organise society, or at least her own life, so that she would not be living within a huge lie and making profits for others who do no work, just destroy the world. And she had a think and thought "What is it I really need to live in life and be happy and free?" .. "Well I need:

food
shelter
warmth
company
an opportunity to be in the outdoors
freedom of movement
to be allowed artistic expression

"So if i can sing, dance, and play music, then ill be happy. So how can I provide those things for myself, what do I need? Well to get food without money I need to grow it, so I need access to land. To get shelter without money, I need wood, so I need access to the woods, the wood can also be used to make heat, so I can have a fire and cook and keep warm and sing and dance round it. Maybe others will want to live that way too and then I will have company and it will make all the jobs easier. " She looked at her list and realised that she needed to have access to some LAND. TO BE CONTINUED ....

Rainy Solstice at Avebury!!

2008-06-24T10:14:00.005+01:00

Well I'm still glad i went but the weather was terrible,After meeting up with the wicked ladies of the western English traveller community and getting a lift from bath, when i first arrived i could tell where my Kenty friends were by the noise of Dave's sticks and the fact that their drumming actually had a rhythm. After BBC scaremongering about a 10 mile towing away zone we could actually park near. My girly Friends left early and i ended up being kidnapped back to Kent back to the lovely woods again. It was cool though very relaxing. Went to a place called Coldrum stones on Monday a very nice chilled out place which was dug up in Victorian times by archaeologists and used to be a long barrow but now has just exposed stones, Rob Wilson from the druid network wrote this:

"At the foot of the steep slope of the chalky North Downs, lies a place that holds the stories of the Neolithic Ancestors of the Medway valley. Kent is not known for its prehistoric megaliths, yet here deep in this valley where the weald expands beyond to the horizon; sits one of the best preserved long barrows in the south east. It’s a place of immense peace and tranquillity; even the sceptical and insensitive of people never fail to be touched by its presence of serenity. William Borlas in 1754 wrote in his, Antiquities of Cornwall, that Coldrum’s name was believed to have been derived from the Cornish word 'Galdrum', meaning a 'Place of enchantment', whether this is true or pure romanticism, it is a place of enchantment! The Greenwood Grove has developed a sound relationship with the current owners, the National Trust; to the extent where we have become extra eyes and ears for the protection of the site and liaising with the Trust on its use by local pagans. Indeed many other local pagan groups and individuals do the same.

On these pages you can find out about the archaeology and spirit present of this rare gem in Kent’s spiritual crown."

it really is a lovely place the wind was shaking the barley in the next field and it looked like the sea.

LOVELY HAUNTED WOODS KENT

2008-06-18T15:33:00.000+01:00

Stayed in : "The Screaming Woods

Below Pluckley is a sizeable area of woodland officially named Dering Wood but also known as Smarden Woods. Another portion of the same wood is popularly called 'Fright Wood.' Both are part of the ancient Andredsweald: that stretch of woodland that once ran along almost the entire south east of England. These woods are a haven for wild animals - not least of all foxes and it is the sound of a vixen's scream that has caused many ghost hunters to rename it the Screaming Woods.

Fright Wood is a derivative of Frith - an old English word meaning land that is of poor agricultural quality. There were farmers in the area with the name of Frith in the 1580's, and with Frith Farm nearby it is almost certain that the popularist name of Fright Wood is yet another attempt to give Pluckley yet more status as ghost central for England."

We had Kaplick playing fabulous music and the camping was lovelly the only downside was the mozzies which made me grow an extra ass cheek on each thigh!! The lovelly meg and joy had hitched to kent and a good time was had by all. Many thanks to Uncle,lloyd, Kaplick: Mark, Dan, Carl and Dave Damage and especially the lovelly Kat and Ben xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Yay sunny day!!

2008-06-10T13:33:00.000+01:00

oh Dear the thinkgs i get up to.....

small world Triban festy crew

antics apologies for davs head tattoo its meant to say Kent!!

Right some more interesting stuff and funny photos!!

2008-06-06T14:55:00.001+01:00

Well this bed trap could come in quite handy ive been thinking!!

this is a picture of the lovelly katies birthday party in which we all look drunk and sunburnt except rhi who has hidden behind the roses.

Argghhhhhhhhhhh me heartys at last a picture of the real telescope and the beauteous inside of the Triban tent.

Triban are an excellent collective not for profit solar powered venue and cafe, which i am proud to be a quite crap and usually drunken part.

Telescope on that!!!!

I saw this picture and just liked it ..... but then i am a little bit odd. cool prosthetic hand though!!

This is obviously the solution to my don't want to learn to drive a car need to live in a shed/ caravan issues.

and a bloody good advert too!!

small world lovelly kent no sunrise festy and now recovering

2008-06-05T10:38:00.000+01:00

met some Kent lovelies who were very nice indeed went to hope festy and am now having the MAN flu - need some looking after so I'm going to look after myself for a change.

Familiar Fairies, Galleons and my Lovelly weekend!!

2008-05-20T11:53:00.000+01:00

Familiar Fairies

Amazing Pirate Picture!!

Well i had a lovely weekend, watching KILNABOY play in the forest of dean and going to the beach and the Plough and Harrow pub at Monknash and i must say the company was excellent. It has been nice, we have had lots of visitors to our site recently and it has felt much more alive. Plus Simon making nettle and dandelion wine and birch sap wine is an added bonus.

Bad weather but the plants will like it!!

2008-05-15T12:02:00.000+01:00

Im a bit dissapointed by the weather changing but hopefully it will get better for next weekend when its my birthday and im going to small world festival.
Here are some nice pictures i found.

I wonder if its photoshop or a carving??

Big old tree!!!!

Amazing castle!!

Fractal Art

Street Art Que Guai!!

2008-05-15T11:36:00.000+01:00

Wow the cans festival how cool!!

Stencil art is easy to do as well. Here Matte Resist explains how to make stencils:

"Come up with a design, but remember that you cannot have "islands" such as the middle of an "O" or "R." You can use straight lines to connect the islands, or you can disguise it a little by making what appear to be slight flaws. (See the c and o in the mind control stencil right:)

Transfer your design to a piece of cardboard or transparency. One free resource is recycled cardboard. You can draw your design straight onto the cardboard or transparency. Also thinner cardboard can be cut down to 8.5" x 11" and run through a photocopier. Try to keep the design towards the middle of the cardboard.

Using an incredibly sharp Knife or other blade cut out the design. (DISCLAIMER -don't try this at home kids, do it in the park or your mates house but get an adult to help you. ha ha) A dull knife will end up ripping the cardboard and cause a lot of problems.

Spray-Paint works best with cardboard stencils. Just place the stencil over whatever you want it on and spray a coat of paint. For Transparency stencils use acrylic paint, dabbed with a sponge or brush. Use little paint to stop it running.

To preserve your stencil, dab any excess paint off before it dries. With transparency stencils you can rinse them in water. "

Now get to work try doing different layers in different colours!! remember you can do it on clothes, stuff, walls anywhere it will be seen! Use stencils to get your voice heard!! Tell it how it is and make it funny!!

Amazing book Autopsies !! Art!!!!!!!

2008-05-15T11:19:00.000+01:00

On a lighter note i came across these amazing sculptures that have been carved from books, by Brian Dettmer

Catacomb, skull tattoo ideas look away if you are scared of skulls / mummys

2008-05-15T09:42:00.001+01:00

A bit morbid i know but ive been thinking of getting a tatoo and im interested in a catacomb/ skull type design in black and white or maybe skull and parchment coloured or maybe blue with a manx three legs triskle but that might be another one. Anyway i wont be getting a tatto till im completely happy with the design and im just starting to think so im in no rush. Here are some ideas from the catacombs of Palermo, Rome and Paris. I have dreamt about catacombs quite freequently throughout my life.

spooky!!!!!

LOOK AT THIS ITS SCARY!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-05-14T15:33:00.002+01:00

http://www.securesiteuk.co.uk/traveller_removal.html

Keep my Friend Babi safe!!!!!

2008-05-14T14:50:00.000+01:00

This is my friend Babi, we met at the PAD social centre in Cardiff, he has the most funny stories and is a brilliant guy not to mention artist. Please help to:

Keep Babi safe in Cardiff

Babakhan Badalov, (Babi) is an openly gay, internationally renowned radical artist and poet from Azerbaijan. His art and poetry have been explicitly critical of the government and prominent members of present/past regimes. These factors have led Babi to become a target of repression and persecution over many years.

Because of his sexuality and the radical nature of his creative activities, he has endured government-led suppression together with physical and mental abuse from other sectors of society. All this has taken place in a Muslim country, where homosexuality remains an extremely taboo subject. This led one of Babi’s brothers to threaten to kill him because of the shame which he has brought on the family.

As a result of beatings and bullying over the years Babi has only eight teeth remaining and suffers from a number of mental health problems

Since arriving in Cardiff in December 2006, Babi has engaged fully with various parts of the local community and has made many friends in his new home. He is still producing poetry, is writing a book about his art/gay life experiences and is also working on a film addressing the rise of Muslim fundamentalism. This latter work, as well as many other aspects of his art, would of course be impossible in his country of origin.

For the first time in his life, Babi felt happy and safe in Cardiff. He felt able to openly express himself artistically, politically and with regard to his sexuality, without associated feelings of fear, shame and imminent repression.

Babi’s claim for asylum has recently been dismissed by the home office. If he is forced to return to Azerbaijan he faces an uncertain and unhappy future. He will undoubtedly face severe persecution, from the state, community and family.

What you can do to help Babi stay

Use this model letter: babi-badalov-model-campaign-letter to copy/amend or write your own letter to the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, asking her to allow Babi to stay safe in Cardiff.

Hand-written letters can be more effective, if you have the time. Remember to quote the Home Office ref. number: B1234623

Send to:

Rt Hon Jacqui Smith MP
Secretary of State for the Home Department
3rd Floor Peel Buildings
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

-Fax: 020 8760 3132 (00 44 20 8760 3132 if you are faxing from outside UK)
-E-mail: jacqui.smith@homeoffice.gov.uk

Please send any copies of letters/faxes to:

Friends of Babi Badalov
c/o Refugee Voice Wales
389 Newport Road
Cardiff
CF24 1TP

Telescope

2008-05-14T11:17:00.001+01:00

Two of my friends, Joe and Simon found a beautiful brass telescope in a skip and thought it looked piratey so gave it to me!! it is now my most prized possession, think I'm totally addicted to brass! It looks a bit like these pictures not quite as shiny like the leather one but not as dented as the just brass one. I'm so happy!!!

Fancy Dress!

2008-05-14T11:12:00.000+01:00

This beautifull picture reminded me that i am still on the hunt for an amazing outfit for parties and festivals ... the theme is to be victorian, whore, burlesque, pirate, so i will be searching for the perfect stuff to dress up in and making it so its the best outfit in the world. AH HA HA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH HA ...

Making stuff and doing things.

2008-05-13T10:22:00.000+01:00

This is my local anarchist newsletter, i love this cartoon i think it sums up the point about anarchism brilliantly. So that last post was a bit deep so i though that it would be good to learn how to do something, so here is an excerpt from the brilliant "Making stuff and doing things" By Kyle Brano adapted from numerour zines, anarchist, autonomous, feminist and punk/band zines etc.

So "How to Set Up a Sewing Machine" is the one i chose, i have been meaning to learn how to do this for some time and maybe by repaeting it here something will stick!! Lets hope so! a sewing machine can be a real handy item - you can alter and repair thrift store finds, quickly peg pants, make your own clothes, quilts, bags, pillows, toys hats and tons more. Its fairly easy to get a hols of a cheap second hand singer check out classifieds, flea markets or local bulletin boards. Plus, once you put the word out, you can never tell who may be getting rid of a machine. I got a 1960's singer from my boss's wife. One tip would be to stay clear of the newer computer chip run machines, stick to the simpler manual ones. Serious repairs are cheaper. Here's how to get the bobbin all set up. To fill a bobbin is simple

Make sure the needle is at its highest position (turn the hand wheel towards you)
Either open up the throat plate (flat metal plate under needle) or the metal door on the side of the machine under the throat plate.
Reach in and pull the latch on the bobbin case out to pull the whole thing out. The bobbin should just fall out of the bobbin case once you tip it.
While winding the bobbin you need to stop the motion of the needle. Hold the hand wheel and turn the smaller wheeel towardds you. It will seem like you just loosened something. Now when you push on the foot pedal - the needle just stays in one place.
Put the empty bobbin on the spindle and move the bobbin winder level to the right (it moves the spindle to the right also)
Put a spool of thread on the spool pin. Wrap the thread around the bobbin winder tension bracket and wrap it around the middle of the empty bobbin.

Start the machine up with the floor pedal and if everythings right it should start filling up the bobbin with thread from the spool. If not recheck everthing.
When the bobbin is full, cut the thread, move the bobbin winder lever back, take the bobbin off the spindle and re-tighten the smaller wheel on the hand wheel.
Put the bobbin back in the bobbin case.
Thread the Machine :

Raise the needle to the highest position again.
Put the spool of tread on the spool pin (if you just filled a bobbin it should already be in place)
Then lead the end of the thread thru the thread guide, needle thread tension regulator, take up lever, down the needle. Always from left to right through the eye.
To gather up the bobbin thread, turn the hand wheel slowly towards yourself, while holding onto the end of the thread, keepturning untill the needle passes in and back out of the throatplate. When it comes back out it should have the bobbin thread hooped in with the top thread. Pull on the top thread to lift it entirely out of the throatplate. Take both threads and pull tillabout 3 " inches are from the pressure foot. Lay them to the right side. And the machine is finally set to go.

2008-05-13T09:47:00.000+01:00

Well i just wrote a really long post about how its quite breezy and hot today, how my arguing friends reminded me that i don't want to be in a relationship where there is constant arguing, and so forth but my computer crashed and lost it all so it must have been rubbish! but what i was ranting about was that we must be able to invent our own types of relationships with our own rules if we are going to be happy and healthy and have any chance of changing society. I know about JEALOUSY but I'm not suggesting promiscuity or open relationships just that sometimes there may be scope for a certain type of relationship where we become close but try never disrespect the other person or whatever type of relationship floats your boat. Why are we still conducting relationships as if we are each others property?? We all know property is theft!! It is possible to value something highly, tend it and nurture it be tended and nurtured by it and still not own it or have a right to make demands or ultimatums. I think its important to keep a sense of the separateness and reverence of your lovers, if you don't respect and revere them why are you having a relationship with them anyway???? oh well, this is what i will be striving for, probably for the rest of my life but ill have fun trying!!!!

2008-05-12T12:12:00.001+01:00

This has to be one of my favourate pictures of all time!!

OOH LOVELLY aRT!!!

2008-05-12T12:02:00.001+01:00

Monge how lovelly!

Yay! the joys of spring, sunny, sunny sunny!!!

2008-05-12T10:21:00.000+01:00

Well what a nice weekend, Friday Night was dancing to 'the bastards gypsy misfit music and actually going home to bed early, Sataurday was spent sitting in the sun and drinking cider, while reading an amazing book called "Jitterbug Perfume" by Tom Robbins - read it it rocks. Sunday was the beach with doggies Mr Sweep (left) and Mrs Blossom and watching indiana jones outside while eating tortilla wraps with Rhi and Will, a quiet one but a nice one. I am now hideously sunburnt.

First time blogger oooh!

2008-05-10T00:24:00.000+01:00

Thought i would give this blogging thing a go for a few reasons. I hardly do any writing anymore and i used to enjoy it. It is a way to let my family in far flung places know what ive been up to. my life is not exactly run of the mill even though its not extrordinary and lastly to ensure my life is not lost within my very fuzzy memory. well got to go out to see a band called Fucknuckle and the Bastards now in Cardiff so ill trot off bye xx

Caravan23

Music, swimming, booze and food

el chorro gorge

WATCH THIS THEN CHECK OUT THE REST ON YOU TUBE REALY CLEAR! SPREAD AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

Oh dear it seems we are all MAD!! yEAH RIGHT!

A film about a mans journey through anarchist utopias existing today

No Borders Protest Cardiff -Today!

Citizens Initiative and Referendum I&R

search for terrorstorm on youtube1

Watch This!

Italy - frightening facism?

Legoland - Lego Activists banner drop on miniture kingsnorth powerstation.

watch to end police brutallity

Climate Camp

How right he was!

Climate Camp

Climate camp site revealed: please help set up the camp

Anarchism by an amazing san francisco based anarchist thinker

Brilliant Canal Dwelling Anarchist

Facist Police in Genoa 2001 beat up innocent protesters

The bloody battle of Genoa

A Good Reminder x

Ha Ha!

The Real Do-it-Yourself

What anarchism is by Scott Hughes

Back from Workhouse where work i did!

Good quotes that i feel the same way as:

Comedy Childhood Comandments

This is sooo... funny!!

"Laws Concerning Food and Drink Household Principles Lamentations of the Father

by Ian Frazier

Laws When at Table

Laws Pertaining to Dessert

On Screaming

Concerning Face and Hands

Various Other Laws, Statutes, and Ordinances

Complaints and Lamentations

My lovely friend Sel came to visit us at site!

Carsten Höller - Rhinoceros, 2005

Amazing Replica of Old 1873 Monocycle!

Climate Camp 2008

Urgent Help Kemi Ayinde!

how to get away with reading at work best thing ever!!!!!

A children's story!!!! hopefully a good message not finished justa first go!!

Rainy Solstice at Avebury!!

LOVELY HAUNTED WOODS KENT

Yay sunny day!!

Right some more interesting stuff and funny photos!!

small world lovelly kent no sunrise festy and now recovering

Familiar Fairies, Galleons and my Lovelly weekend!!

Bad weather but the plants will like it!!

Street Art Que Guai!!

Amazing book Autopsies !! Art!!!!!!!

Catacomb, skull tattoo ideas look away if you are scared of skulls / mummys

LOOK AT THIS ITS SCARY!!!!!!!!!!!

Keep my Friend Babi safe!!!!!

This is my friend Babi, we met at the PAD social centre in Cardiff, he has the most funny stories and is a brilliant guy not to mention artist. Please help to:

Keep Babi safe in Cardiff

What you can do to help Babi stay

Telescope

Fancy Dress!

Making stuff and doing things.

OOH LOVELLY aRT!!!

Yay! the joys of spring, sunny, sunny sunny!!!

First time blogger oooh!

"Laws Concerning Food and Drink
Household Principles
Lamentations of the Father