If I ruled the world!

Listened to a radio show today in which they said that we should stop calling people islamic extremists and just call them bearded nutters.  Sounds like a good idea to me.  I read in the news that a bunch of bearded nutters have demanded that the pope is sacked.  Now I'm not a catholic but I don't think that it works like that.  They came out with this wonderfully diplomatic statement:

"The Pope, and all infidels, should know that no Muslim, under any circumstances, can tolerate an insult to the Prophet [Muhammad]. If the West does not change its stance regarding Islam, it will face severe consequences," said the joint statement.  

 So not threatening in any way then.  I think that seperating the idea of what is a muslim from a bearded nutter is probably a good thing.  All the muslims that I know aren't bearded nutters though they are pretty pissed off with our great leader, as am I.

 I've seen a lot of people wondering recently why there hasn't been a big uproar in the islamic world about Darfur in which about 200,000 muslims have been slaughtered.  I had a conversation touching on it the other day and I think the answer is quite simple.  Firstly people don't know.  My friend didn't know they were muslim and he's fairly up to date on the news.  Secondly it doesn't really affect them.  Sudan has never done anything to piss off the rest of the islamic world so it's not on peoples radar.  The reason that you have such big demonstrations against the west, in the middle east, at the drop of a hat is because of history.  It's not just about Lebanon, Iraq or Palestine, or even some stupid cartoons, it's about over 100 years of abuse.  

We conquer them, then we impose unpoular dictatorships, then we take their oil, then we steal their land and put a bunch of europeans there (that's basically what happened), then we impose monetary policies that destroy their economies through the world bank, then we impose our political will through an organisation designed to give them an unequal level of power.  Thats why they are a bit pissed of!

But we did that to africa and south america and they don't blow many people up (well not often anyway).  The thing is the middle east does have something that unifies it, islam. Even though there are many bitter differences when western governments piss on them there is a more unified response, at least from the populace.  I think that scares the shit out of western governments hence the demonisation.

But why aren't there african and south american bearded nutters?  We're just as shitty to them.  Does islam make you more inclined to be violent? I think that africa and south america has got it's fair share of bearded nutters but in the middle east religion has been very skillfully manipulated by the them.  They use peoples anger and then bring religious fervour into it creating a very heady mix.  And when you bring religion into things you can say or do almost anything, after all it's gods will isn't it?  The worst thing is that people who are against the nutters can't do much because the reasons behind the anger are justified it's the methods that are wrong.

The things is though that if things get much worse then maybe it won't just be the bearded nutters.  What happens if everyone gets so pissed off with the unfairness of the world that they start to really support violent opposition.  Now that is scary, but how far away is it?  And anyway how nuts is it to fight against oppression.

I watched the Jamie Oliver's school dinners thing last night. Pretty impressive for a fat tongued mockney twat. I didn't realise that he was just a year older than me. Hope it actually makes a difference. Was quite funny to see him cutting through the political bollocks. They say they will give x pounds and then give it all away to corporate twats so that in the end only 2p or so gets to the actual kids. Hopefully, by him just not going away then they won't get away with it. I don't think they like his strategy either. Sounds very much like socialism - farmers providing to local small businesses providing schools without a hint of the management scurge siphoning of the money. Or maybe that's anarchism with it's bottom up approach. Either way the faceless tossers in the labour party must hate it.

I went to the Thames festival last night. Pretty good night. Missed the fire works sadly because we nipped of to the pub. One thing that I just don't get though is why all the live instruments such as drums and trumpets were so much louder than anything amped. Must be the sound police in action. Next year I'm sure that all the drums will require muflers if they are to be played anywhere within the city limits

Well it may as well be with our glorious pope. He gave a speech this week in germany that has many muslims up in arms. I read the speech and I can see why. You can start with the "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached" sentence which is of course what seems to have insulted many. This isn't the problem though because as people correctly correctly point out it's a quote from some long dead byzantine emporer. It's a complete red herring. No the problem is the pope's percieved differences between islam and christianity. He see's christianity as subtle, influenced by hellenistic philosophy and to use his words reasonable (as in reasoned). He see's islam as unreasoned, undebated essentially barbaric. This is utterly untrue. You could easily, in fact, turn it the other way around. Through history islam appears to have undergone much philosophical debate as to it's meaning. The catholic church on the other hand has violently suppressed debate. You might say that there are elements within islam that want an unreasoned and barbaric world where reasoned debate no longer exists in favour of simplistic absolutes but that is equally the case with christianity, just look at evangelists.

That brings me on to something I watched on telly last night, The Doomsday code with Tony Robinson. In the program he went through the worrying effect that "end timers" or believers in the apocalypse are having on american and our societies. It's scary stuff! Unfortunately I can also see the element of truth in it. The leader of the only super power believes in this shit. And he hasn't been put in a padded cell. Over here people tend to get a bit awkward about religion. And most people ignore the bollocks (fire and brimstone etc). But over in america they love it. They (the end timers not all americans) seem to get a semi every time they hear about a new tragic event because they think it's a step closer to the messiah's arrival, thats just sick. Now I know that not all americans are like this. I have met many whom I like very much, hell some of you have even got passports. But you voted these nutters into power and they are trying to forment world war III. Can't you see why most of the world hates you