Duncan McCann

Quotes for the Week

slinkyone — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 13:39:32 +0000

‘The Human mind treats a new idea the way the body treats a strange protein – it rejects it’ by Peter Medawar

‘Thinking is more interesting than knowing’ by Goethe

‘Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited, while Imagination circles the world’ by Albert Einstein

Confessions of an Economic Hitman (EHM) by John Perkins

slinkyone — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 12:58:26 +0000

If ever a scary book was written this is the one. You know how you always suspected that there the economic system that we lived in was not what had been intended and that it could work so much better. Well in this very revealing book John Perkins describes his time as an EHM and how the system is skewed to benefit the few and never the many. Basically an EHM is someone who convinces countries to enter into huge national infrastructure projects which they cannot afford. A group of consultants produce reports which seem to show that the projects will encourage huge economic growth for a poor country and benefit everyone. However the loans, usually made by the US or associate, are so big and the positive consequences so minor, that the country is usually left unable to meet the debt repayments. This is not a problem, but rather the intention, because now the country is at the mercy of the US and they can be leveraged for natural resources, UN votes and a whole host of other illegitimate reasons.

This system of global economic power was developed and refined during the 50’s and 60’s and has affected most countries around the world. Some notable examples that he personally worked on were Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ecuador and Panama. The author describes how the US tries to assert its influence over other countries in an attempt to establish a global empire. It starts with the EHM who try to force the country into a virtual slavery to US interests. Should this fail then the ‘jackals’ are sent it. These are people who will strategically assassinate, foster discontent and generally try to undermine foreign governments, regardless of their democratic credentials and attitudes to human rights. Some notable examples of where the jackals have been sent in are Panama and
Ecuador both of which lost progressive leaders to plane ‘accidents’. Should the jackals also fail then the last resort is the army. He cites 2 very current examples of this as Iraq and
Afghanistan.

All of this is done to further the commercial interests of the US and its huge armaments, construction and engineering companies and the rich elite that govern the country. Companies like Halliburton, Bechtel, Lockhead Martin all benefit from the system as well as obscure consultancy companies like MAIN, which the author worked for. The executives of these companies flitter between commercial and governmental work further obscuring the line between business and politics and in whose interests’ actions are taken. The overwhelming impression that you are left with at the end of the book is that the world is being plundered at an incredible rate for the benefit of a tiny minority or the super wealthy. Also however he forces you to look at your own life and think about the impacts of your decisions and actions on the world and that even tacit support for the status quo does not exclude you from responsibility. Despite the authors very murky start and all the ill that he has caused upon the world he at least is out there to make a difference now and expose the truth for what it is as well as campaign for things to be different. He set up a Ecological energy company in the early 90’s when it was not so fashionable, and now champions the causes of indigenous people around the world.

Read it, weep and then do something about it

Trance Parties

slinkyone — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 09:43:13 +0000

As the winter draws in the Indoor party scene is really kicking off. After months of parties being few and far between there are now quality events happening every weekend. Here is my choice of the best coming up in the next month

Friday 20th October – Echosystem at SE ONE
This should be an excellent night of mainly progressive trance with a bit of psy for good measure. They are bringing over an excellent Israeli act called Ace Ventura who are about to release their debut album on Iboga records along with veteran Zen Mechanics doing a dj set which will probably cross the line between the 2 genres. They will be backed up by DiscoStu, Hamish and Hazza in the mainroom. There will of course also be a chillout room populated with quality djs

Saturday 21st October – Atlantis at The Colloseum
12 hours of partying here with 2 rooms of trance one focusing on the progressive side and one of the more full on psychedelic side. In the full on room there will be 3 live acts with Silent Sphere the main highlight. The progressive room will be headlined by the Domo records crew of Assaf and Buju who always spin fantastic tunes. They will be supported by a whole host other djs from the London underground scene

Friday 27th October – Twisted Records 10th Birthday at The Renaissance Room
A quick mention because it has a great lineup of fullon, classic goa trance and downbeat. The highlights for me will be Green Nuns of he Revolution and Slinky Wizard who will be reuniting specially for the evening. Also the downbeat rooms will be showcasing some of the best production around

Friday 3rd November – Ear Peaks & Frollic at The Renaissance Rooms
What a fantastic night this will be. Human Traffic live, Mapusa Mapusa and Symphonix playing dj sets, representing Plusquam Records, and the ever present dj Nadi and Assaff, of Domo Records, spinning there will not be one minute of mediocre music on this night. Human Traffic is Mapusa Mapusa (Auricular, Fusi & Johnson) and dj Golkonda (Symphonix) who have not released much stuff but their pedigree is undeniable. Their dj sets promise to be a showcase of the best music in the progressive scene. Not to be missed (but do not forget to go to the Climate Change march on Saturday  )

Saturday 11th November – Digital Tribe at The Coronet
Another excellent night with all 3 genres of the trance scene represented. In the progressive room there will be Perfect Stranger playing live from the Iboga Records crew. He has just released a great album and will no doubt play a storming live act and sj set. Accompanying him will be James Monroe, of Flying Rhino fame, and Hamish. In the main fullon room there will also be some great tunes with Cosmosis, Rinkadink and Frequalizer all playing live along with all the Alchemy records top djs. With Seb Taylor (Shakta) and Nova amongst others in the chillout area it will be a great night out.

Friday 16th December – Dream Temple at Jack’s Club
I just cannot wait for December to come around quick enough. The dream temple are going to bring 2 of the progressive scenes best acts. Reefer Decree are one of my all time favourite acts and Oliver always manages to produce the phatest beats along with the most magnificent atmospherics. He truly is a king of scene. Along with him is relative new boy Liquid Soul who has just released his first album already reviewed. The more I listen to the album the better it gets and I cannot wait to here him live. Along with them are the excellent DJ Nadi (Domo) and Hamish along with Bedouin. A night not to be missed I guarantee.

An Inconvenient Truth

slinkyone — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 09:42:05 +0000

‘It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it.’ This was said by Upton Sinclair and possibly one of reasons why the concept of climate crisis has not sunk into the human psyche. There are a lot of things that we hear and think that we understand without ever really being able to comprehend what we are understanding. Examples of this are the fact that a particles can be in 2 places at the same time, that space is expanding at the speed of light, that there are billions of galaxies etc.. Climate crisis is another and because of its apocalyptic potential end state people’s minds are not able to properly deal with the information and even though they may know the facts and even see the consequences they will fail to see their part in what can be seen as nature’s cycle (although not by any serious scientists or commentators)

The film sets out very clearly the evidence with Al Gore achieving a charismatic charm that he always lacked when he was a politician. It is as if he leaving politics has freed him to be himself. It is expertly put together and the switching between shots of the changing world climate and Al Gore presenting was brilliantly done. The content was also very good. Having seen Fahrenheit 911 which dumbed down to its American audience (or maybe just Michael Moore’s level) here he does not mince his words or patronize his audience. He starts be confirming that all the evidence suggests that we are causing the huge rise in CO2 in our atmosphere and that this is not part of a natural cycle but something that the world has not seen in the last 650000 years, not even close as it turns out. He also shows that fluctuations in CO2 are closely linked with huge shifts in the temperature of the earth, inducing both ice age and drought on most of the world.

The film highlights the potential consequences of inaction namely the melting of the ice in the Artic but more dangerously the Antarctic and Greenland because the are land ice masses. This could lead to a big rise in sea levels and possibly also more worryingly it could stop the gulf stream which ironically could cause an ice age in Northern Europe. Thankfully he ends with some ideas on what WE can do to make a difference such as conserving electricity, consuming with a conscience, and reducing air miles. He believes that if we all make small adjustments now that we will be spared the worst effects of climate change but also continue to enjoy our current lifestyles.

Indoor Skydiving

slinkyone — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 09:39:27 +0000

Over the weekend I got the chance to try this new sport which seems almost an anachronism for the term skydiving invokes jumping from a plane in open spaces and could not possibly be indoors. However thanks to new technology it is now possible to replicate the experience of freefall perfectly while never leaving the ground by more than 2/3 metres. I have been skydiving for almost 4 years now and have completed over 35 jumps in that time, which is pretty pitiful, and have been dying to try this since I first heard about it. And let me assure that this will not disappoint. The principle is that 2 huge fans push air around to track and they can adjust the speed of the air to simulate various conditions. The technology was developed for aerodynamics testing. The air is thrown round at anything from 130 mph to 180mph and you merely jump into its stream.

For those who have never leapt from a plane it will be a magical experience of flying or hovering for the first time and it like no other. My lovely girlfriend who was with me thoroughly enjoyed it and by the end of 2 minutes was able to fly unassisted and make turns which was an amazing sight. Our instructor told me that I would be able to go without his assistance and see how I did. When you enter the tunnel it is just like being a super hero. You kind of dive into the tunnel and go from standing it flying. It is surreal. For me the most interesting thing is that it added a whole new dimension to freefalling because you now had 3 dimensions in which to move in. Up until now in skydiving I have only jumped alone and so since you have nothing to fix against you can never get the sensation of moving up. In the tunnel however the freedom of movement is total. I quickly became stable and was able to explore he possibilities. After just 5 minutes I was able to fly happily at will around the tunnel. Fantastic.

I cannot recommend this enough. An experience that everyone should try

Quote

slinkyone — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 14:24:15 +0000

I was watching a great documentary on Quantum Physics and how its findings could be internalized to give you a completely new outlook on the world and reality. It is called ‘What the bleep do we know?’ and I think that probably the most interesting comment that came from it was

‘If history teaches us anything it is that most of what we know and take for granted is false’

Think about it ?!?!?!

17 Facts that should change the world

slinkyone — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 14:11:53 +0000

Every Cow in the European Union is subsidized by $2.5. That is more than 75% of what Africans have to live on
More than 12000 women are killed every year in
Russia as a result of Domestic violence
Landmines kill or maim at least one person every hour
Tiger Woods earns $148 every second
People in industrialized countries eat between 6 and 7 kilograms of additives every year
Cars kill 2 people every minute
There are 67000 people employed in the lobbying industry in
Washington – 125 for each elected member of congress
More than 150 countries use torture
A third of the world’s population is at war
More people die each year committing suicide than from all the world’s armed conflict
Ten languages die out every year
Every week, an average of 88 children are expelled from American schools for bringing a gun to class
America spends $10 billion on pornography every year – the same amount it spends on foreign aid
There are 27 million slaves in the world
The average Briton is caught on camera up to 300 times a day
120000 women and girls are trafficked into
Western Europe every year
The
US owes the UN more than $1 billion in unpaid dues

All of these pacts were got from the book ’50 facts that should change the world’ by Jessica Williams.

The Revolution will not be Televised

slinkyone — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 18:24:35 +0000

Yesterday I was privileged to see the film ‘The Revolution will not be televised’ which is about the attempted coup that took place in Venezuela in 2002. The title, which is taken from the infamous Gill Scott Heron track, is ironic as this is one of the first coups to actually be caught on video in such detail. It was shot by a group of Irish cameramen who were going to follow President Hugo Chavez around for a year. They had already been filming Chavez for 7 months when the coup happened and were inside the Presidential Palace when the military took over and when the Presidential Guard loyal to Chavez mounted a counter coup after seeing almost 1000000 people surround the palace in protest. The footage is remarkable and the context of the situation is expertly positioned given the complexity of the situation.

Hugo Chavez is supposedly a very controversial figure and many world leaders in the west decry his government as a dictatorship and one of the most evil regimes in the world. The facts could not be further from the truth it seems. He has won 10 free and fair elections which is more than any serving head of state in any democracy. He is overwhelmingly supported by the poor who represent the majority of the population of Venezuela. He has ensured that much more of the vast oil wealth of the country is channeled to the poor, and not just to the rich elite. He has promoted literacy and health care for the poorest of his citizens. He is controversial for trying to implement a model of democracy that is not based of market liberalism but rather on real redistribution of wealth and equality, and of course for antagonizing the US and other ‘democracies’. Last week at the UN Chavez described Bush as the devil and said that he could still smell the sulphur and the media subsequently leapt onto this ignoring all the other topics that he raised from eradication of poverty, to media influence in politics, American imperialism and most interestingly of all a recommendation to read Noam Chomsky’s book Hegemony or Survival. The book jumped on the Amazon best seller list from 160000th to 1st in a matter of days.

The film illustrates vividly the power of the media to influence events opinions and selectively disseminate and distort information. Under Hugo Chavez the media was very free but due to the television channels all belonging to the elite within the country, whose selfish interests were not going to be served by Chavez conspired during the coup to support and mobilize the opposition. The government was only able to air the truth through its own Channel 8 which was also seized briefly by the military. The film also makes clear that the opposition is being firmly supported and funded by the US so that it can secure a friendly government to ensure the oil supply. All in all it is an amazing experience to watch this film and I strongly recommend seeing this anyway that you can.

For more information you can also visit the Venezuela Information Centre.

Critical Mass – London

slinkyone — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 12:39:41 +0000

On Friday I went on Critical Mass which is a monthly bicycle protest through London. The last Friday of each month cyclist from all over London gather in front of the National Theatre to set off on a journey through the streets of central London. The route is completely spontaneous and the person at the front of the protest decides where to take the group. The police took the organization to court to try to ban the ride because normally in order to protest you need to provide a route, but they lost and have been a little soar because of it over the summer. Yesterday however all the police were very professional and did not infringe on the enjoyment or show the agressivity that has been reported in the past months. There was a good turnout especially given the weather did not look good and the mass was indeed great as we set off. I met the protest at Blackfriars bridge and quickly met up with good friends. We then headed over the Thames and started to weave through the very centre of town. The principle of the protest is to reclaim the streets for bicycles for 2 hours a month. I am a regular cyclist and normally going about the City is a stressful business and a lot of concentration is required if you are to stay alive. During Critical Mass however because of the number within the group we are able to dictate the pace and in effect take over the streets. The Police now help by blocking streets and calming drivers especially taxi drivers who can get very irate. We meandered through to Trafalgar square and on to Piccadilly Circus. This is where the first of 3 stops would take place. This involved everyone stopping in the middle of the road and completely blocking all roads while chanting and lifting up bikes over our heads (for those with the strength or a light bike). We then went on to Oxford Circus and Marble Arch for 2 more junction closures. The reception from pedestrians and bus drivers in particular is great and it is an experience that is truly empowering. The long meandering snake continued up to Paddington and slithered down the A40. When it turned off we left to get a few drinks into us. All is all one of the best city cycle rides around. Get out and try it.

National Climate March – November 4th

slinkyone — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 12:23:20 +0000

Rally at US embassy 12 Noon

This will be part of A Day of International Climate Protest the Saturday before the Nairobi Climate Talks with demonstrations demanding urgent action on climate all round the world. There are now more than 40 countries where plans are being made: http://www.globalclimatecampaign.org/

Speakers at the
US embassy Rally so far: George Monbiot, Colin Challen MP, Caroline Lucas MEP, Norman Baker MP, Zac Goldsmith.

The Programme includes and Protest Bike ride starting at 10am from Lincoln’s Inn Fields followed by the main rally at the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square at 12 and the I-Count Mass Gathering in Trafalgar Square at 2pm

More info as it becomes available : http://www.campaigncc.org/