Just a few pics from my Melbourne trip – no gig pics yet – will try and get a hold of some in a few days.
Graph that colours the streets of Melbourne —–
Tram on Smith Street ——
Lunch and African beer at The Horn in Collingwood ——
Inside The Horn
….more pics to come
“The president-elect based his campaign on the achievements of the current administration, which included a reduction of the poverty rate to 20 percent from a record high of 32 percent in 2004, and a decline in extreme poverty from four to 1.5 percent of the population.
In addition, as Mujica and his running-mate Danilo Astori – Vázquez’s former economy minister – pointed out during the campaign, economic growth ranged between 12 and seven percent a year until last year, before the global economic crisis hit, and unemployment fell from 21 percent in 2002 – during the financial collapse in neighbouring Argentina and Uruguay – to just eight percent today.
Another major accomplishment was the Plan Ceibal, which made Uruguay the first country in the world to provide a laptop, with internet connection, to every primary schoolchild in the public education system – a programme that will now be expanded to secondary school.
In addition, the government carried out a major tax reform aimed at redistributing income by increasing the burden on the middle and upper income sectors.” Article here
After playing my first gig in ages, spending time with good people, in a great city, seeing Bob Adamson… then to get a call from my parents this morning with this great bit of news – What a way to top off a fantastic weekend!
Un abrazo Uruguay!!!
Into The Club – Channel X
Ticket – Channel X
A friend showed me this pic from his job here in Melbourne – are we really becoming this stupid?
“From whatever angle you approach it, the present offers no way out. This is not the least of its virtues. From those who seek hope above all, it tears away every firm ground. Those who claim to have solutions are contradicted almost immediately. Everyone agrees that things can only get worse. “The future has no future” is the wisdom of an age that, for all its appearance of perfect normalcy, has reached the level of consciousness of the first punks.
The sphere of political representation has come to a close. From left to right, it’s the same nothingness striking the pose of an emperor or a savior, the same sales assistants adjusting their discourse according to the findings of the latest surveys. Those who still vote seem to have no other intention than to desecrate the ballot box by voting as a pure act of protest. We’re beginning to suspect that it’s only against voting itself that people continue to vote. Nothing we’re being shown is adequate to the situation, not by far. In its very silence, the populace seems infinitely more mature than all these puppets bickering amongst themselves about how to govern it. The ramblings of any Belleville chibani contain more wisdom than all the declarations of our so-called leaders. The lid on the social kettle is shut triple-tight, and the pressure inside continues to build. From out of Argentina, the specter of Que Se Vayan Todos is beginning to seriously haunt the ruling class.” Continue reading article here
The Coming Insurrection is a must grab book which is a call to arms against Capitalism – you can download a free PDF booklet here.
But, easily, the best piece of advertising for this timely book came from the kings of ‘double speak’ FOX news (Rupert Murdochs/U.S. Admin mouthpiece) rightwing nutjob ex Christian radio jock Glenn Beck.
Who wouldn’t want to buy a book that calls for the downfall of people like Glenn Beck and FOX news?
But, for a more well thought out critical analyses of this must read book – read this post by Chris Spannos.
I personally agree with both Spannos and a large section of The Coming Insurrection. Though I call for peaceful means – the truth is that Capitalism does not ‘play nice’ and is by it’s very nature, extremely violent – and not as a form of self defence, but violence is within the very structure of it’s nature. And to not resist even via any means is the equivalent of passively letting someone violently rape you.
Of course, peaceful movements are the ideal form of resistance, but if those means don’t work… then one must defend themselves. And no one at all would logically disagree with that.
Although I still think that there is a game that is played – and it is purely played in the eyes of the media and public opinion. And, the best way to stop violence, both from the sadistic Capitalist and from those resisting Capitalistic violence is through an aggressive show of unified peaceful movements.
But, let’s not forget, that when the Christian Capitalist invaded the somewhat secular Iraq (turning it into what is now evidently a hardcore fundamentalist Islamic country) – we, and by we, I mean sane people, did protest ‘en masse’. And that didn’t stop them from beginning to wipe out an estimated 1.5 million Iraqis.
I’m throwing up a new short AudioMechanics mix – this is a edited version – trimmed down to a mere 50 min mix to make it easier to download. Essentially I just cut off the first 30 min and added an intro.
It’s a bouncing ball of Tech goodness!
Enjoy!!
(UPDATE – apparently the link is a little problematic – you may have to try a few times before file becomes available)
“The United States is massively building up its potential for nuclear and non-nuclear strikes in Latin America and the Caribbean by acquiring unprecedented freedom of action in seven new military, naval and air bases in Colombia. The development – and the reaction of Latin American leaders to it – is further exacerbating America’s already fractured relationship with much of the continent.”
The current U.S. administration, which is a violent right wing capitalistic administration, are looking to continue their war against the peace movements of the world. And the reason is more obvious than the nose on your face. The greedy U.S. economy lives on the blood of humanity and feeds off it like a vicious vampire.
We all know this now – thanks to Bush who made the more cunning manipulators like Obama and Clinton even more obvious so that even severely stupid people won’t buy the bullshit story that we are sold buy the corporate controlled media.
Just to make my point further on how intensely the media lies to us – watch TV or Print news and see if you can find the above story anywhere. You’d think that a threat of war against several countries would be newsworthy right?
So, if you are one of these people who believed that Obama was a soldier of change… well, ok, who am I kidding – you probably can’t read anyway and are more concerned that the sun is about to hit us.
Latin America will only survive if it unites peacefully against U.S. corporate sadistic aggression.
