Thoughts on Apple’s Human Cost.

The recent articles on Apple’s human cost of their products had me put off by my gadgets for a while. It’s forced me to realise how far removed our lifestyles are from the harshness underlying its creation and maintenance… and how quickly we can realise the harshness and put it aside.

But let’s be realistic, as a few of my friends have made me realise, most of our modern comforts ahve these costs attached. We’ve seen it all through the late 90′s and the last decade.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you should read Naomi Klein’s "No Logo".  Occupy Wall Street did not spawn from nothing. There are deep frustrations here and we need to be aware that our lifestyles and comforts have costs above and beyond the money in our pockets.

I’m not saying we should give up all the things which make our lives easier, but my solution to this is that we need to be more aware, and even more important, ACT to make some change.  We should be taking a stand against Apple and making forcing them to make changes which would help the people who make their products.

I echo the sentiments of David Chen on this issue…

They don’t [make better working conditions], because no one cares. They don’t because the voices of their shareholders are louder than the voices of their consumers (who are voting with their dollars and buying products left and right).

But our comforts are too important to us and we’re not willing to fork out more cash so that other people might live just a little bit better.  If the iPhone suddenly jumped by a 100 bucks, we’d opt for Samsung smartphones… and what would any self-respecting capitalistic corporation do? Lower prices to compete, and the cycle starts again.  It will take a very revolutionary change across entire industries to see the change which will result in better treatment for those in the countries which hold our comfortable lifestyles on their shoulders.

How can the idea’s behind Occupy Wall Street not make any sense to you now? The current state of capitalism is rotten, something needs to change.

Tags: Apple, Human cost, Capitalism, Lifestyles, modern life

The US Policy Around the Unfolding Arab Spring

This is a summary of a talk given by Professor William Quandt, on the 8th December 2011 at the London School of Economics.  It gives some great insight into what went through the minds of US policy makers as well as the reasoning behind some of their choices.

Introduction

• If the Arab Spring had happened during the Bush reign, no doubt they would have welcomed it and even taken credit for it… at least until it started showing its Islamist dimensions.
• Obama from early on (2002) when he was a state senator in Illinois had gone out on a limb and opposed the Iraq war.
• Obama during his campaign for presidency talked about engaging with Iran and Syria and putting the Israeli and Palestinian Peace Process on top of the agenda.
• Democracy promotion was not put on the agenda by Obama as much as you would expect from someone trying to put America in a light which is diametrically opposed to its current excesses.
• The election of Netenyahu as president of Israel was bad news for Obama’s hope of reviving the Peace Process.
• When Iran went to the polls, Americans naively hoped things would change, and if it had, it would have been easier for Obama to engage with Iran but the elections were controversial and once Ahmedinejad was back in power the prospect of any early Iran relations was put on the backburner.

Tunisia and the Beginning of the Arab Spring

• All this was overshadowed by the revolution in Tunisia in Dec 2010
• Ben Ali is gone and shortly things move to Egypt with Mubarak being ousted and then ofcourse Muammar Gaddafi in Libya
• Other uprisings are harder to predict : Syria, Bahrain (put down by considerable force) and many smaller uprisings and calls for reform in places like Morocco, Jordan and Algeria
• American foreign policy makers are not very swift at understanding great radical change in the region… they are used to stability and weren’t prepared to take proper action on these events.
• Obama needed a more cohesive and skilled team around the president in order to deal with these new circumstances.
• Public discussion on almost all matters of public policy amounts more or less to partisan bickering and intense competition.  The coming elections are obviously related to this atmosphere.
• How has the Obama administration coped with the Arab Spring challenge? Not Very Well…
• The Wikileak cables showed that as early as 2009 and 2010, the US ambassador in Tunisia said that Tunisia should no longer be considered an ally to the US.  There was widespread corruption and a lot of opposition to Ben Ali’s dictatorship – the cables became public in December 2010 just before Bouazizi’s self-immolation.
• So American policy makers were surprised at the way events unfolded but no shocked by them.
• More interesting to me is that Rached Ghannouchi made the obligatory tour of thinktanks and media outlets in America as well as the pro-Israeli Washington institute for Middle-East Policy to prove his moderation. He also praised the Obama Administration for the good policy toward Tunisia and Political Islam.
• I agree with the judgment that America now sees that Tunisia is on its way to a very promising, democratic outcome.
• This wasn’t a difficult test for the US, the stakes were not high, there weren’t very large strategic interests there and no large vested interest in the Ben Ali regime. So America came out on the right side of that one.

Egypt

• Egypt is a tougher case for the US and Obama and his team was not that sure-footed.
• Mubarak had been a solid US ally, he co-operated on Gulf security, Kept the peace with Israel (very important for Americans) and provided a lot of support to the US on the War on Terror.
• The relationship between Pentagon and Egyptian Military was particularly strong.
• Bush 43 pushed for reform to democracy but the minute the Muslim Brotherhood showed strength in the 2005 elections, the US backed away from “democractic reform”
• Obama went to Cairo in 2009 and gave a major speech. Contained criticism of Mubarak regime, but Mubarak wasn’t there nor mentioned in the speech. But there was no indication of a drastic change in the relationship of the US with Egypt.
• But the US was still aware of some sort of change in the air. Mubarak was aging, rumours of his son succeeding him was rife and the rumoured “upre Mubarak”  (said in French – Uprising against Mubarak) – I’ve been going to Cairo every year for the last 20 years and these rumours were always there. What was surprising was how this change had come on January 25^th in Tahrir Square.
• But after Tunisia, this wasn’t surprising.  The two movements had a lot of similarities.
• Because the revolution was peaceful and focused on a clear national demand – “Yarhal Mubarak” meant that Americans could watch this and feel good about it. It was a good revolution.
• And for the first time you found Americans Glued to AlJazeera English, even those that didn’t have it demanded it and the cable providers obliged.
• Americans were then all talking about getting a “soft transition” – meaning we wanted power to fall into the hands of people we knew… like Omar Sulaiman. Who Mubarak just named as Vice president.
• And as well the army should not shoot at protestors so that they can play a role in the “soft transition” – as I said we had a great relationship with the Egyptian Military.
• During the 18 days of the revolution and the succeeding months, the US was largely reactive lagging behind the constantly changing reality on the ground with the key channel of communication being between the Pentagon and SCAF
• On the diplomatic side the Sec. of State and the White House believed that “Mubarakism” without Mubarak was the preferred option… Omar Sulaiman was also the preferred candidate by Israel.
• The thought by the US that the protestors on the ground might accept this option shows how out of touch they really were with Egyptian Public opinion.
• By early February, Sec. Clinton sent Frank Wisner to Egypt to deliver a message to Mubarak and to the Army. He was to tell Mubarak to step down and say his son will not succeed him and to tell the SCAF not to harm the protestors… Since he was there without any further instructions, an idea was discussed in the US that in order to bring about the reforms to guarantee democracy, Mubarak would need to stay his full term so that elections could be held according to the “law”.
• I thought this was a bit crazy… to be in the midst of a revolution and be terribly punctilious about a constitution that was about to be suspended. None the less, this idea caught on and Wisner got caught up in it.  Hilary Clinton then picked this up and said it publicly in Europe.
• This again showed how out of touch the US was with popular sentiment.
• The crowds in Tahrir asked to depose both Mubarak and Omar Sulaiman. Obama then came out in support of the people in Tahrir and the Us Admin then said this to SCAF.
• The New Egypt – the “Facebook-iyeen” – would it be different or resemble the old Egypt with the military still in charge and the Muslim Brotherhood playing an outside role.  But even so, with the Muslim Brotherhood, there are some issues would stand against the US especially regarding Israel and the Palestinians.
• Even though “democracy promotion” seems like a great ideal for the US, for those in power in the new Egypt, especially those not getting the benefit of the US funds ( SCAF and Muslim Brotherhood), Democracy Promotion simply means more foreign interference and was rebuffed.
• The new American Ambassador was declared persona non-grata for offering funds to Egyptian pro-democracy groups without the permission of those in power.

 

Libya

• Before the US could digest Egypt… they had to confront other revolutions in Libya, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain. They realized each would have to be dealt with very differently, there is no one size fits all.
• Gadaffi had diplomatic relations with the US. Condoleeza Rice had even visited him and he had an odd fascination with her.
• Obama had decided to depart with the way Bush43 had dealt with Iraq and “lead from behind” by making a “no fly zone” and leaving the rest to NATO – France and UK and providing Drones and Spies.
• Libyan rebels who would not have won on their own were able to overcome large armies.
• After the event , some thinkers in the US said we should have stayed out given that the new government might be Islamist.  Overall there was little concern over what might come next.

Syria

• More complex and strategic was the issue of Syria – the US was dealing with the Assads (Father and Son) for 4 decades.
• Obama admin found it impossible to maintain a policy of engagement with the regime in Syria, and no appetite for military intervention… the Libyan model didn’t seem relevant for the facts on the ground in Syria.
• Hilary Clinton has met with the Syrian opposition, giving rhetorical support but no formal recognition.
• Syria’s crisis comes as US troops makes final departure from Iraq… and few, if any, had asked for those troops to move to Syria for deployment.  It seems the US has few ideas and little influence when it comes to Syria.
• Yemen: Most Americans would have a hard time finding it on a map or understanding anything about its culture and history.
• So after the resistance against Ali Abdullah Saleh showed began and showed resilience in the spring of 2011  it got less attention in the US Media. Even after Tawakkul Karman won the Nobel Peace Prize for her role in the protests, it still remained a mystery for most Americans.
• Some pentagon planners wanted to have drone attacks against this latest remnant of the terrorist franchise.
• US did lend support to the Saudi and GCC effort to persuade Saleh to give up power, but for most in the US, Yemen was confusing and distant and best left alone to GCC and others without getting too involved.

 

Bahrain

• Bahrain: here the values and interest of the US came into a direct clash and Interests won out. Even neocon enthusiasts were worried that Iran were involved in the largely Shia uprisings and once Saudi Arabia decided to act; the US was not about to second guess its moves.
• Only late in 2011, once the Basyouni report came out with clear condemnation of the leadership did the US come out with calls for reform.

Current US approach to the Region

• Obama and team cautious and pragmatic.. .balancing values and interests and wanting very much to avoid another Iraq.
• Their caution makes them seem to be lagging behind, reactive rather than strategic.
• Few in the administration have any real insight into the region. – Just listen to any republican debate (there are surprisingly many nowadays) or watch Fox news, if you have the stomach for it.
• New shift to a less interventionist style of foreign policy, it costs less than dreams of imperion and Costs matters in the US economic climate. It provides spare capacity to deal with contingencies and accepts the reality that the US is not very good at asserting itself as a global Hegemon, or trying to nation build or trying to export democracy.
• But it would be a mistake to read US isolationism into this. We’re too involved and engaged with the world and too big to be passive observers.
• While US influence is limited, it’s not negligible.

His Proposals for US Foreign Policy

• What I would like to see, if Obama is re-elected, is a serious re-thinking of the foreign Policy along the following lines…
  • Bring in new Advisors who know something about the region
  • Get serious about supporting the new democracies in smart ways – Education, Economic Aid, Investment, Technology. We can make a difference with this and we’re pretty good at it.
  • Work closely with Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt, Morroco and others who seem to be interested in real reform and democracy.
  • Don’t give up on the Israeli-Palestinian Peace issue, even though its pretty dismal currently and certainly don’t give Israel a blank cheque on issues concerning Iran or on building of settlements in the Occupied territories
  • If there is a new leadership in Syria, we should look at an Israeli-Syrian peace agreement, all the ingredients are there and have been for some time, this would not be difficult
  • Cool off on the hysterical discussion about Iran, lean on Israeli’s not to pre-empt. Look for alternatives on the Iranian side. Patience is not much of a policy but the alternatives regarding Iran are all worse.
  • We should understand that the Arab Spring will continue over many years and many different configurations and we should try and help where possible but we can’t control the process.
  • The great thing about the Arab spring was that it was made in the Arab world and not imported from anywhere… firmly indigenous.
  • We should remain largely on the sidelines as they work through their issues.
  • One of the great things to see is the pride in the ordinary Arab people as they stand up for themselves.  They will let us know when and how and whether we can be helpful as they try to undo the legacy of decades of stagnation.

Rage Against the Machine’s Recommended Reading List

This is Rage Against the Machine’s recommended reading list from the Album cover of “Evil Empire”.

1. “International Terrorism and the CIA” – Mumia Abu-Jamal
2. “Live From Death Row” – Mumia Abu-Jamal
3. “Joe Hill” – Gibbs M. Smith
4. “The Mau Mau War in Perspective” – Frank Furedi
5. “The Aesthetic Dimension” – Herbert Marcuse
6. “The Fire Last Time: 1968 and After ” – Chris Harman
7. “The Media Monopoly” – Ben H. Bagdikian
8. “50 Ways To Fight Censorship” – Dave Marsh
9. “Hegemony and Revolution: A study of Antonio Gramsci’s Political & Cultural Theory” – Walter L. Adamson
10. “The Mismeasure of Man” – Stephen Gould, Che Guevera
11. “A New Society: Reflections for Today’s World” – David Deutschmann, Editor
12. “The Marx-Engels Reader (2nd ed.)” – Robert C. Tucker, Editor
13. “What Uncle Sam Really Wants” – Noam Chomsky
14. “Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation” – Jonathan Kozol
15. “Marxism and the New Imperialism” – Alex Callinicos, John Rees, Chris Harman, Mike Haynes
16. “Rules for Radicals” – Saul D. Alinsky
17. “A People’s History of the United States” – Howard Zinn
18. “The Lorax” – Dr. Seuss
19. “East Los Angeles, history of a barrio” – Richard Romo
20. “Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II” – William Blum
21. “Race for Justice: Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Fight Against The Death Penalty” – Leonard Weinglass
22. “Guerilla Warfare” – Che Guevera
23. “Zapata of Mexico” – Peter E. Newell
24. “Malcolm X Speaks – Selected Speeches and statements” – George Breitman
25. “Marxism and the Press: Oppression of Women, Toward a Unitary Theory” – Lise Vogel
26. “Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Central America” – Walter LaFeber
27. “The Chomsky Reader” – James Peck, Editor
28. “Chicano Politics: Reality and Promise 1940-1990″ – Juan Gomez Quinones
29. “The Wretched of the Earth” – Franz Fanon
30. “What is Communist Anarchism?” – Alexander Berkman
31. “Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson” – George Jackson
32. “Fidel and religion: Conversations With Frei Betto” – Frei Betto
33. “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave” – Frederick Douglass
34. “Democracy is in the Streets” – James Miller
35. “Capital, Volume One” – Karl Marx
36. “The Black Panthers Speak” – Philip S. Foner, Editor
37. “Keeping The Rabble in line Interviews with David Barsamian” – Noam Chomsky
38. “Walden” and “Civil Disobedience” – Henry David Thoreau
39. “Darkness at Noon” – Arthur Koester
40. “The Culture of Narcissism: American Life of Diminishing Expectations” – Christopher Lasch
41. “Play it as it lays” – Joan Didion
42. “The State and Revolution” – V.I. Lenin
43. “Soul on Ice” – Eldridge Cleaver
44. “Kwame Nkrumah: The Conarky Years, His Life and Letters” – Compiled by June Milne
45. “Revolutionary Suicide” – Huey P. Newton
46. “The Anarchist Cookbook” – William Powell
47. “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media” – Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky
48. “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” – James Joyce
49. “Another country” – James Baldwin
50. “The Grapes of Wrath” – John Steinbeck
51. “The Armies of the Night” – Norman Mailer
52. “Invisible Man” – Ralph Ellison
53. “Rebellion from the Roots: Indian uprising in Chiapas” – John Ross
54. “First World Ha! Ha! Ha! – The Zapatista challenge” – Elaine Katzenberger, Editor
55. “The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge” – Carlos Castaneda
56. “Tropic of Cancer” – Henry Miller
57. “Johnny Got His Gun” – Dalton Trumbo
58. “Essays in existentialism” – Jean-Paul Sartre
59. “How Real is Real? Confusion, disinformation, communication” – Paul Watzlawick
60. “Ghost of a Chance” – William S.Burroughs
61. “Popism :The Warhol Sixties” – Andy Warhol & Pat Hackett
62. “Chicana falsa and other stories of death, identity, and Oxnard” – Michele M. Serros
63. “Promisory Notes: Women in the Transition to socialism” – Sonia Kruks, Ranya Rapp, Marilyn B. Young, Editors
64. “Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the making of a gay world” – George Chauncey
65. “This bridge called my back: Writings by radical women of color” – Cherrie Monzaga, Gloria Anzaluda, Editors
66. “Women of Color Subliminal Seduction” – Wilson Bryan Key, Editor
67. “Power at Play: Sports and the Problem of Masculinity” – Michael A. Messner
68. “Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women” – Susan Faludi
69. “90 Years of Ford” – George H. Dammann
70. “Illustrated History of Ford” – George H. Damman
71. “The Challenge of Local Feminisms: Women Movements in Global Perspective” – Amrita Basu
72. “Miles, the Autobiography” – Miles Davis
73. “The Sixties Papers: Documents of a Rebellious Decade” – Judith Clavir Albert and Stewart Edward Albert
74. “The Graphic Work” – M. C. Escher
75. “Bob Marley Spirit Dancer” – Bruce W. Talamon
76. “Dali: The Paintings ” – Benedikt Taschen, Robert Taschen, Giles Neret
77. “For Whom The Bell Tolls” – Ernest Hemingway
78. “Eros And Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud” – Herbert Marcuse
79. “Cheer Up Book for a Proud American” – Dan Valentine
80. “The Way Things Aren’t” – Steve Rendall, Jim Naureckas, Jeff Cohen
81. “War and an Irish Town” – Eamonn McCann
82. “Moving the Center: The Struggle for Cultural Freedoms” – Ngugi Wa Thiong’o
83. “Interview With Chairman Gonzalo” – El Diario Newspaper
84. “The Dust Rose Like Smoke: The Subjugation of the Zulu and the Sioux” – James O. Gump
85. “The Last Mau Mau Field Marshalls” – David Njagi
86. “God Dies By The Nile” – Naval El Saadawi
87. “You Can’t Win” – Jack Black
88. “Year 501: The Conquest Continues” – Noam Chomsky
89. “Beyond Good and Evil” – Friedrich Nietzche
90. “Deterring Democracy” – Noam Chomsky
91. “Mau Mau Detainee” – Josiah Mwangi Kariuki
92. “In the Spirit of Crazy Horse” – Peter Mathiessen
93. “Marx’s Kapital for Beginners” – David Smith & Phil Evans
94. “How the Other Half Lives” – Jacob A. Riis
95. “The Weatherman” – Steve Thayer
96. “U.S.A.” – John Dos Passos
97. “The Naked and the Dead” – Norman Mailer
98. “My Antonia” – Willa Cather
99. “The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State” – Friedrich Engels
100. “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” – Joan Didion
101. “The Gypsy’s Curse” – Harry Crews
102. “Basta! Land and the Zapatista – Rebellion in Chiapas” – George A. Collier
103. “The State of Native America: Genocide, Colonization, Resistance” – Annette James, Editor
104. “SNCC The New Abolitionists” – Howard Zinn

Not on the Cover but on the Recommended Reading List…

1. “Always a Rebel: Ricardo Flores, Magon and the Mexican Revolution” – Ward S. Albro
2. “Go Tell It On a Mountain” – James Baldwin
3. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” – Harriet Beecher Stowe
4. “Black Boy” – James Baldwin
5. “Animal Farm” – George Orwell
6. “Steal This Book” – Abbie Hoffman
7. “The Quiet American” – Graham Greene
8. “Odes To Opposites” – Pablo Neruda
9. “Giovanni’s Room” – James Baldwin
10. “The Confessions of Nat Turner” – William Styron
11. “O Pioneers” – Willa Cather
12. “The Souls of Black Folk” – W.E.B. DuBois
13. “Rights of Man” – Thomas Paine
14. “The Bluest Eye” – Toni Morrison
15. “Salvador” – Joan Didion
16. “Savage Inequalities” – Jonathan Kozol
17. “Between Hell and Reason” – Albert Camus
18. “Women, Race, and Class” – Angela Y. Davis
19. “Song of Solomon” – Toni Morrison
20. “American Slavery, American Freedom” – Edmund S. Morgan
21. “America’s Reconstruction” – Eric Foner & Olivia Mahoney
22. “Parting the Waters” – Taylor Branch
23. “Native Son” – Richard Wright
24. “Dispatches” – Michael Herr
25. “Ideas & Opinions” – Albert Einstein
26. “Censored: The News that Didn’t Make the Newspapers and Why” – Carl Jensen
27. “The Emperor Wears No Clothes” – Jack Herer

Original List from Everything 2. But I wanted to replicate it for my own sake. I love RATM.

The Philosophy of Sunsets

Sunsets everywhere are beautiful. Just the colours in all their natural beauty and the way they meld together like a symphony of colour in the sky. The natural world serving as a teacher of how colour should be used, how they should be mixed… and at the same time, making you feel so much with something as simple… as a sunset.

They are beautiful no matter where you see them and the billions of variations, what amazes me most is how they make you feel. After a long day, you can look at a sunset and see in all that immensity, the intense beauty which tells you “No matter what happened today, everything is going to be okay… I’m going to come back again tomorrow in similar fashion. Life goes on and Life is beautiful.”

You can see it in your imagination right now, can’t you? The Bright Orange which creates the pinks above melding with greys and blues, and the purplish blue beneath it like a bruise on the horizon. What I like most is at that moment when the sun disappears but the stratus clouds linger right overheard and capture all the pink against the last blue of the dying day and slowly the orange and pink disappear with the blues moving from light to intense dark blue to black. I love that.

Thoughts on My 30th Birthday…

Will we ever know how to really relate to our age? I think my confusion/apprehension (Can’t find the right word) comes from the mass media and movies where we’re blasted with age-defying creams, worried faces over “getting old” and the constant battle between “act your age” and “you’re only as young as you feel.”

Anyway, I’ve been on this planet for 30 years and I’m wondering what I have to show for it. What value have I added to this planet and to my fellow human beings? Have I uplifted anyone’s life? have I contributed to building something which will benefit people today, let alone future generations?

Bottom line: I don’t feel I’ve done enough, and I need to do more.

So my question to myself is this… what can I do to add more value? Where can I get involved and utilise my skills to make this world, or at least my world (i.e. my sphere of influence) a better place?

My answer is to constantly focus on making myself a better person – learning more, doing more to help wherever I see other’s need help but in a pro-active way, not a reactive way. Talking to people more… I’ve realised most of all people just want to be heard, so I should hear them out.

Whatever happens next, I hope I’m successful in this.

My Rant on the Purpose of Life.

I don’t know why they can’t see it. You know, the fact that this life is so temporary. They make it their “everything” and it isn’t. They’re killing for it on TV, all over the place… for gold and wealth and land. None of it’s their’s to begin with, they don’t really own it, they don’t own anything because when they die they can’t even take their own bodies with them. Ownership is an illusion.

I’m wondering if these people have ever stopped to think “What’s the point of my life?” Because it can’t be to screw people out of their savings or cause wars so that my people can drive SUV’s. I just can’t see how they could have got their priorities so messed up. And to make matters worse, they sincerely believe that they will not be held accountable for their actions. I believe they will be. It can’t be any other way, I believe EVERYONE will be held to account for the good and the bad they do in this life… otherwise there just can’t be any point.

Just to live, because we got here by some fluke of nature and evolved from amoeba’s and there’s no real purpose to life except to live “as best we can” and then die and turn to dust and that’s that. What a crock of shit. Who decides what’s the best way to live then? I can do whatever I want… rape, kill, thieve…. Because there is no consequence if that’s the philosophy to live by. No wonder they find it okay to steal people’s livelihoods, destroy nations and sit there with straight faces or wipe it away with little laughs of “oh, my I’ve made a booboo, haven’t I … ha ha ha”.

There is a flaw in the basic philosophy which is making the society the way it is.

Your “Health and Safety” Craze… is because of your fear of death.
Your Financial Crisis is because you fear the loss of your wealth.
And be sure…both will come true, you will die and you will lose your wealth because that is the way life works and people are tried in different ways. Wake up. These things are there in order to wake us up and live our lives better. You’ve used them to create your own hell on earth, and the one to come is waiting for those who squander the trust of others.

Recognise.

Million Star Motel.

I came across this song on one of my feeds and its my new favourite song. Firstly, two of my favourite rappers feature, Lupe Fiasco and Black Thought.  It’s from Nikki Jean’s new album called “Pennies in a Jar”.  The lyrics make the entire song, a story of a girl, broke, but marvelling in the world around her and feeling really, really rich… in a million star motel.  The beat is very upght the midnight sky, but you can’t buy a mibeat and makes you feel good too…

“God Bless non-believers, they teach the dreamers how to fly, love and hate fuel the fire in their eyes,  the suits and the schemers, can’t see beyond what they can sell, diamonds shine in the midnight sky… but you can’t buy a million star motel…”

You’ll be a Man, My Son!

on an other binge of inspiration… This is one of my favourite poems, although by not one of my favourite poets. Either way we need to create value for ourselves using whatever tools, means, media, content possible. this one does it for me in some sense. There are many more sources, but this is one which is part of my ‘rejuvenation’ arsenal. Hope it inspires you too.

“If” by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!