Showing posts with label Armageddon. Show all posts

Tuesday, 12 June 2012

USA PROTESTS BRITISH TORTURE OF MARIAN PRICE BRITISH OCCUPIED IRELAND

No Dissent Will be Tolerated"

The Torture of Marian Price

by SANDY BOYER

Marian Price has been imprisoned in Northern Ireland for more than a year on the basis of secret evidence neither she nor her lawyers have been allowed to see. She is effectively interned without a trial, sentence, or release date. Unless the courts intervene, she will only be released by order of a British Cabinet Minister, Owen Paterson, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Overruling the Courts

Twice she has been arrested and brought before a non-jury Diplock Court. Twice a judge ordered her released on bail.

Each time Owen Paterson overruled the judge and ordered her back to prison. He said that he was revoking her license (parole in American terms) because he had “confidential information” against her. This “information” could only have come from MI5.

In May 2011, she was charged with “encouraging support for an illegal organization” after she held up a piece of paper from which a masked man read a statement. Northern Ireland must be one of the very few places where holding up a piece of paper can constitute a crime.

On May 11, 2012, almost exactly a year after these charges were filed, they were dismissed because the British government hadn’t produced any evidence. But Marian Price remains in prison.

In July 2011she was charged with “providing property for the purposes of terrorism”. She was accused of giving a cell phone to someone who participated in the killing of two British soldiers. She had been questioned about this and released 18 months before being charged. Her solicitor, Peter Corrigan, told the BBC that there was no new evidence against her.

Once again she was released on bail, and, again, Owen Paterson said he was revoking her license and ordered her back to prison.

The Vanishing Pardon

But Marian Price and her legal team insist that she was never actually on license. They say that after being convicted of IRA bombings in Britain, she received a full royal pardon (the “Royal Prerogative of Mercy”) when she was freed in 1980 after she appeared to be on the brink of death from severe anorexia nervosa.

The British Government now says the pardon “cannot be located” – that it has been lost or shredded and that no copy exists. Peter Corrigan told a public meeting in Belfast that this is the only time in the entire history of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy that a pardon has gone missing. The veteran Irish human rights campaigner Mgr. Raymond Murray said that “You can draw your own conclusions.”

There is good reason to be concerned about Marian Price’s health and well being. She was unable to appear in court on May11th, even by video link. Prison doctors have said that she should either be in a hospital or home with her family.

She was held in solitary confinement for more than a year. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has called for a ban solitary confinement of more than 15 days.

Marian Price’s Health

Marian Price’s health was permanently damaged when she was force fed over 400 times while on hunger strike in a British prison. She described the force feeding in an interview with the Dublin magazine The Village. “Four male prison officers tie you into the chair so tightly with sheets you can’t struggle. You clench your teeth to try to keep your mouth closed but they push a metal spring device around your jaw to prise it open. They force a wooden clamp with a hole in the middle into your mouth. Then, they insert a big rubber tube down that. They hold your head back. You can’t speak or move. You’re frightened you’ll choke to death.”

Marian Price’s husband, Jerry McGlinchey, said in an interview with “Radio Free Eireann” on WBAI, the New York Pacifica station, that he is “very, very worried” about her health. He says she never recovered from the force feeding which caused tuberculosis that had to be treated as recently as 2010. The anorexia has returned and she suffers from such severe arthritis that she can’t even open her hand.

McGlinchey believes that her health will get steadily worse as long as she is in prison. He said that “My fear is that Marian will slip into a deep depression that it would take her years to come out of. I believe that is what the government intends.”

Her prison conditions have contributed to the decline in Marian Price’s health. Male prison guards shine a flashlight in her eyes throughout the night. Protestant prisoners in nearby cells sing anti-Catholic songs at the top of their lungs all night long, making it impossible for her to sleep.

Support for Marian Price

Very few people agree with Marian Price’s politics. She is a “dissident” Irish republican who believes in the necessity of an armed struggle to end British rule. Nevertheless the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the two major nationalist parties in Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein and the Social Democratic and Labor Party, have all called for her release.

But what is at stake is more than Marian Price or her politics. The Irish civil rights leader Bernadette Devlin McAliskey has said that her treatmenrt, “Is a clear signal to everybody who is not “on board” and who is not of the same mind as the government: that no dissent will be tolerated. No dissent will be tolerated and you challenge the status quo at your peril.”

Sandy Boyer is the co-host of “Radio Free Eireann” broadcast Saturdays at 1pm on WBAI, 99.5 FM or wbai.org. He has helped to mobilize support for political prisoners in Ireland and the US.

Monday, 11 June 2012

TOP PROVO QUITS WITH McGUINNESS SET TO RESIGN AS GFA FALLS

Sinn Fein is set to split into two political parties with republican Sinn Fein in the ascendancy. Martin McGuinnes is to lead a party to be known as British Sinn Fein splitting with New Sinn Fein headed by Gerry Adams, while traditional republicans remain with Republican Sinn Fein.( see video). Differences on a McGuinness policy of bringing Ireland back into the British Commonwealth, along with his secret support for internment without trial by his continued presence in the British parliament. While he did call for the release of Interned prisoners, his record of duplicity on matters such as insisting on Derry to be British and calling it Londonderry, has enraged Nationlists across the North. He has also been linked with a major sex scandal known as the 'Hotel Stormont Orgy.' There are continuous accusations of him being a longtime informer for the British, responsible for the murders of thousands of Irish people.

When Internment without trial was introduced in British Occupied Ireland 40 years ago, the SDLP took a principled stand and resigned from Stormont, "the sectarian parliament for a sectarian people," as boasted by Unionist leaders. The British then flew leading Provos who were interned in Long Kesh concentration camp, to talks in London which came up with an agreement that was eventually called the Good Friday Agreement. Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness who led those talks, were vetoed by their republican leadership. The British then mentored them into the ascendancy withIN the republican movement.

Britain once again broke the terms of the peace agreement and is again interning political activists who oppose the British Occupation in Ireland whether the support armed struggle or oppose it. One of those interned is Marian Price who has been tortured now in solitary confinement for more than year. The British refuse to allow UN monitors into the prison to independently research exactly what is happening. Marian Price now a mature woman with considerable years of political activity on behalf of Sinn Fein is in both physical and psychological daily agony but the British agents who have infiltrated Sinn Fein have abandoned her.

When Britain introduced internment 40 years ago their techniques of subjection to noise, deprivation of sleep, and deprivation of food and drink were investigated by the European Court of Human Rights. In a trial "Ireland v. the United Kingdom" the European Court ruled that techniques amounted to a practice of inhuman and degrading treatment.

In response to the public and Parliamentary disquiet on 16 November 1971, the British Government commissioned a committee of inquiry chaired by Lord Parker, the Lord Chief Justice of England to look into the legal and moral aspects of the use of "Sensory Deprivation."

In response to the public and Parliamentary disquiet on 16 November 1971, the Government commissioned a committee of inquiry chaired by Lord Parker, the Lord Chief Justice of England to look into the legal and moral aspects of the use of the five techniques.

The "Parker Report"was published on 2 March 1972, and found the techniques of "Sensory Deprivation" to be illegal under domestic law:

10. Domestic Law ...(c) We have received both written and oral representations from many legal bodies and individual lawyers from both England and Northern Ireland. There has been no dissent from the view that the procedures are illegal alike by the law of England and the law of Northern Ireland. ... (d) This being so, no Army Directive and no Minister could lawfully or validly have authorized the use of the procedures. Only Parliament can alter the law. The procedures were and are illegal.
On the same day the Prime Minister Edward Heath stated in the House of Commons:

The Government, having reviewed the whole matter with great care and with reference to any future operations, have decided that the techniques...The statement that I have made covers all future circumstances.
"As foreshadowed in the Prime Minister's statement, directives expressly prohibiting the use of the techniques, whether singly or in combination, were then issued to the security forces by the Government."[3] These are still in force and the use of such methods by UK security forces would not be condoned by the Government.

A United Nations expert on torture has already called on Britain and all countries to ban the solitary confinement of prisoners except in very exceptional circumstances and for as short a time as possible, with an absolute prohibition in the case of juveniles and people with mental disabilities.

“Segregation, isolation, separation, cellular, lockdown, Supermax, the hole, Secure Housing Unit… whatever the name, solitary confinement should be banned by States as a punishment or extortion technique,” UN Special Rapporteur on torture Juan E. Méndez told the General Assembly’s third committee, which deals with social, humanitarian and cultural affairs, saying the practice could amount to torture.Segregation, isolation, separation, cellular, lockdown, Supermax, the hole, Secure Housing Unit… whatever the name, solitary confinement should be banned by States as a punishment or extortion technique

“Solitary confinement is a harsh measure which is contrary to rehabilitation, the aim of the penitentiary system,” he stressed in presenting his first interim report on the practice, calling it global in nature and subject to widespread abuse.

Indefinite and prolonged solitary confinement in excess of 15 days should also be subject to an absolute prohibition, he added, citing scientific studies that have established that some lasting mental damage is caused after a few days of social isolation.

“Considering the severe mental pain or suffering solitary confinement may cause, it can amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment when used as a punishment, during pre-trial detention, indefinitely or for a prolonged period, for persons with mental disabilities or juveniles,” he warned.

The practice should be used only in very exceptional circumstances and for as short a time as possible, he stressed. “In the exceptional circumstances in which its use is legitimate, procedural safeguards must be followed. I urge States to apply a set of guiding principles when using solitary confinement,” he said.

He warned of an increased risk of torture in these cases because of the absence of witnesses and said some detainees have been held in solitary confinement facilities for years, without any charge and without trial, as well as in secret detention centres.

“Social isolation is one of the harmful elements of solitary confinement and its main objective. It reduces meaningful social contact to an absolute minimum,” Mr. Méndez told the committee, noting that a significant number of individuals will experience serious health problems regardless of specific conditions of time, place, and pre-existing personal factors.

Marian Price has now been interned for more than a year of solitary confinement, was force fed by the British for 6 months as political prisoner of conscience. The Queen ordered her release many years ago with an unconditional pardon witnessed by the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland which the British now say they have lost or shredded, without conducting any investigation. Two judges have already ordered her release based on the same evidence as and unelected Englishman overuling everyone in Ireland, including the judiciary and his Queen on the matter. It is generally accepted that his motives are bigoted and personal as he is a close ally of certain sectarian unionists he in the process of co-opting into his British Tory party along with most of the horsey set of fox hunters in the orange state.

Below are several articles detailing the resignation of another leading Sinn Fein member, coupled with many calls for Martin McGuinness to resign because of his Olympic collaboration for British Occupation in Ireland

Councillor Anita Cavlan

Comhairleoir Anita níCabhláin
Independent – Bushvale

Oifigí pháirtí Sinn Féin
11 Páirc Fassagh
Dún Lathaí
Co. Aontroma
BT44 9AL
Telephone: (028) 2765 7198
Elected to Council - 2005
Voluntary Advice Centre worker - Women’s Aid
Representative to Tribunals
Serves on: North East Partnership Interreg IVA Joint Committee, North East PEACEIII Joint Committee, North East PEACE III Partnership, Ballymoney Borough Fuel Poverty Steering Group, National Association of Councillors, Northern Ireland Local Government Association (NILGA), District Policing Partnership, North East Rural Development Partnership LAG.
Committee Membership 2011/12: Consultation Committee, Corporate & Central Services Committee, Development Committee, Health & Environmental Services Committee, Leisure & Amenities Committee, Audit Committee.

“Sinn Féin in my opinion has been slowly sedated…”
Pete Baker, Thu 24 May 2012, 2:49pm 24

In light of Mick’s post, and now Brian’s follow-up, it’s worth noting an Irish News report today of Ballymoney Councillor Anita Cavlan’s resignation from Sinn Féin ”over concerns it is failing prisoners”. From the Irish News report

The Ballymoney councillor said she believed Sinn Féin had “lost direction” and “should be doing more to represent the prisoners”.

“Sinn Féin in my opinion has been slowly sedated and now has been rendered unconscious by the intoxication of an illusionary power to govern,” she said.

According to the report the councillor intends to remain as an independent member of Ballymoney District Council.

“It is not that I support dissident activity. I would hate it to go back to the way it was. There were a lot of lives lost in all sections of the community.”

“There are those still amongst us who will insist that continued military action is the only way to achieve a united Irish republic.

“I disagree with them but I will not torture and abuse them if they are imprisoned.”

She said Sinn Féin’s calls for the urgent release of dissident republican Marian Price have been “weak”.

It’s what happens when “the guerillas” become “the people in power”…

But, as I noted in the comment zone earlier, other parties are free to ask questions.

Tags: Anita Cavlan, Ballymoney District Council, dissent, Government, Human Rights, Ireland, Media, NI Executive, Northern Ireland, Parties, Policing, prisoners, Society, Terrorism, UK
Topic: Government, Politics, Society and Culture
Region: Ireland, Northern Ireland, UK

Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2012 9:40 am Post subject: Cllr Anita Cavlan resigns from Provos
Cllr Anita Cavlan resigns from Provos

by Shan Van Vocht

Ballymoney Councillor Anita Cavlan resigned from Sinn Féin last month. An article in the May 24 Belfast-based Irish News quoted her as saying her resignation arose “over concerns it is failing prisoners” and the failure of the party leadership to address those concerns. She felt Sinn Féin “should be doing more to represent the prisoners” and that Sinn Féin’s calls for the urgent release of Marian Price have been “weak”.

More broadly, she expressed criticism of the way in which Sinn Fein has been incorporated into the British political structures in the six counties and the effect this has had on what SF used to (and some members claim still does) stand for. The party, she said, had “lost direction” and this is what happens, when “the guerrillas (become) the people in power”.

According to Cllr Cavlan, “Sinn Féin in my opinion has been slowly sedated and now has been rendered unconscious by the intoxication of an illusionary power to govern.”

I think it might be added that, while a significant number of veterans have departed the Provos, many have accustomed themselves to being sedated by the Provo leadership. This is one of the problems that arise not only in a military-led movement like the Provos but quite widely on the left whether we’re dealing with Stalinists, Maoists, Trotskyists or whoever – often a lot of people chose to be primarily loyal to a particular oorganisation or set of leaders rather thanj being loyal to first principles. One result is that it’s quite easy for leaderships to sell out; the other result is that a section of revolutionaries become enablers of the sell out and sacrifice their own principles for shabby people peddling shabby politics.

So, hopefully, others will do what Anita Cavlan has done and stop acting as enablers for New Sinn Fein and its collaborationist leadership cabal.

In relation to anti-GFA armed activity, she told the paper, “It is not that I support dissident activity. I would hate it to go back to the way it was. There were a lot of lives lost in all sections of the community. There are those still amongst us who will insist that continued military action is the only way to achieve a united Irish republic. I disagree with them but I will not torture and abuse them if they are imprisoned.”

Cllr Cavlan told the Irish News that she will now be an independent member of Ballymoney District Council. Independent socialist-republicans sitting on local councils are a good thing, but what is desperately needed is some moves to bring the various socilaist-republican groups and unaffiliated individuals together and develop the kind of party that is needed to take the whole struggle for national liberation and socialism forward.

(The parts of this item which deal directly with the resignatioon and quote Cllr Cavlan are mainly taken from snippets on Slugger O’Toole, as you can’t view Irish News articles on-line without being a paying subscriber.)

Cllr Anita Cavlan resigns from Sinn Fein
JUN 9
Posted by Admin
by Shan Van Vocht

Ballymoney Councillor Anita Cavlan resigned from Sinn Féin last month. An article in the May 24 Belfast-based Irish News quoted her as saying her resignation arose “over concerns it is failing prisoners” and the failure of the party leadership to address those concerns. She felt Sinn Féin “should be doing more to represent the prisoners” and that Sinn Féin’s calls for the urgent release of Marian Price have been “weak”.

More broadly, she expressed criticism of the way in which Sinn Fein has been incorporated into the British political structures in the six counties and the effect this has had on what SF used to (and some members claim still does) stand for. The party, she said, had “lost direction” and this is what happens, when “the guerrillas (become) the people in power”.

According to Cllr Cavlan, “Sinn Féin in my opinion has been slowly sedated and now has been rendered unconscious by the intoxication of an illusionary power to govern.”

I think it might be added that, while a significant number of veterans have departed the Provos, many have accustomed themselves to being sedated by the Provo leadership. This is one of the problems that arise not only in a military-led movement like the Provos but quite widely on the left whether we’re dealing with Stalinists, Maoists, Trotskyists or whoever – often a lot of people choose to be primarily loyal to a particular organisation or set of leaders rather than being loyal to first principles. One result is that it’s quite easy for leaderships to sell out; the other result is that a section of revolutionaries become enablers of the sell out and sacrifice their own principles for shabby people peddling shabby politics.

So, hopefully, others will do what Anita Cavlan has done and stop acting as enablers for New Sinn Fein and its collaborationist leadership cabal.

In relation to anti-GFA armed activity, she told the paper, “It is not that I support dissident activity. I would hate it to go back to the way it was. There were a lot of lives lost in all sections of the community. There are those still amongst us who will insist that continued military action is the only way to achieve a united Irish republic. I disagree with them but I will not torture and abuse them if they are imprisoned.”

Cllr Cavlan told the Irish News that she will now be an independent member of Ballymoney District Council. Independent socialist-republicans sitting on local councils are a good thing, but what is desperately needed is some initiative to bring the various socialist-republican groups and unaffiliated individuals together and develop the kind of party that is needed to take the whole struggle for national liberation and socialism forward.

Sinn Fein calls on Cavlan to vacate seat
11 June 2012 in an príomhbhóthar | Tags: Anita Cavlan, Ballymoney, Sinn Féin
Ballymoney Times
10 June 2012
**Via Newshound

SINN Fein has called on a Ballymoney councillor to vacate her seat after she walked away from the party.

Veteran councillor Anita Cavlan resigned last month over concerns it is failing republican prisoners.

She said she believed Sinn Fein had “lost direction” and “should be doing more to represent the prisoners”.

“Sinn Fein in my opinion has been slowly sedated and now has been rendered unconscious by the intoxication of an illusionary power to govern,” said the 62-year-old.

Ms Cavlan said the decision had left her “heartbroken” but she felt she had been left no option but to walk away from Sinn Fein and become an Independent member of Ballymoney Borough Council.

“It is not that I support dissident activity,” she said.

“I would hate it to go back to the way it was. There were a lot of lives lost in all sections of the community.

“There are those still amongst us who will insist that continued military action is the only way to achieve a united Irish republic.

“I disagree with them but I will not torture and abuse them if they are imprisoned.”

Ms Cavlan also dismissed Sinn Fein’s calls for the urgent release of dissident republican Marian Price as “weak”.

In a statement released on Friday Sinn Fein called for Ms Cavlan to vacate her Ballymoney seat.

“We are disappointed at the decision of Ms Cavlan to resign from Sinn Fein,” it said.

“We are particularly surprised at her criticisms of our approach to resolving the ongoing situation in Maghaberry Prison.

“Sinn Fein has visited the prison and met with the protesting prisoners and prison officials on many occasions. We have made and continue to make representations for an immediate end to strip searching and controlled movement within the prison.

“Anyone who was at the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis last weekend left in no doubt what our position is and what the party is doing to resolve the situation in the prisons.

“In common with all other party representatives when elected as a Sinn Fein councillor Ms Cavlan signed a pledge to give up the seat in the event of resigning from the party. Anita Cavlan should honour this pledge and stand down from Ballymoney Council and allow a Sinn Fein co-option in line with the wishes expressed by the electorate in the Bushvale electoral ward last year.”

Anita Cavlan Resigns from Sinn Féin: They are Failing the Prisoners
Seachranaidhe ― Posted 18 days ago
Seachranaidhe1 ― Sinn Féin Councillor Anita Cavlan has resigned due to concerns that the party is failing the prisoners. “Lost direction…should do more…slowly sedated…rendered unconscious…intoxication of an illusionary power…she received no acknowledgement about concerns raised…Sinn Féin calls have been weak” These are the words of a now former Sinn Féin Councillor

2012 Olympics, Armageddon, Big Ben, British Occupied Ireland, Internment, John Bullscutter, london 2012, London Olympics Games, Olympic, Olympic Games, Olympics, Olympics 2012

Thursday, 7 June 2012

John Bullscutter Olympics London 2012

Ding, dong, it`s Phock O`Clock! Pop Big Ben into the vibe. Screw and slide the chunky erection ring ring to the base of Big Ben's penis with stimulation facing forward. Press the timing device to start the vibrator and press again and again and again ! Ah go on ! faster and faster!. Ding-dong-dedero-ding-ding-dong- ...! Use Big Benny with or without a condom. Sit on his face and tell him that you love him ! New Hong Kong replaceable batteries last for up to two hours. Shag 3 speeds with a powerful vibe Strong erection band with replaceable Hong Kong batteries Vibrates for two hours, waterproof for the Thames with perfect Big Ben timing. Tick, tock, tick...

One rule of thumb with phucking and fighting is, crazy can overcome skill and phucking numbers, because, while a trained fighter may enjoy fighting another trained fighter, no one but no one really wants to wrestle with a crazy phucker. Crazy phuckers fighting and phucking don't know when they are winning or when they are bet. Crazy don't know when to give up and stop fighting or phucking. If you can't pull off crazy, for example, when you're in a Keizer love fest in a room with with six bi-women, stupid may be a decent substitute for crazy.

So what about this Keiser phucker in the video above, sounds real to me or is he just another crazy phucker, I don't know but I would mind meeting that co-host, intelligent, sexy Stacy. She reminds me of Panjit. I remember it was back in July 1998. It was my first day in Phuket and I was sipping jasmine-tea on a veranda, as I stared at the early morning mist on the hill across from the hotel.

Just in front of me some tourists were getting off their bus and one had an Asian face. I took a good look, dialled and waited for her mobile phone to ring. She reached for her mobile in her bag and answered my call. ”I’m here at Hotel Bangtao, where are you?” Her voice in English was the same as what I heard from her mobile.”Not very far, look to your right,” I answered. She turned to where I was sitting and waved her hand.

”Welcome to Phuket ! I’m your tour guide,” Panjit gave her hand. “You’re much younger than I expected,” said Panjit in a very friendly way. I was expecting some kind of old age man,” she joked with a lingering look.
We had coffee in the restaurant. Later we rode a motorbike, I rented to enjoy a ceremony on the the sand at Layan beach. When we split, she told me later, she would return to the hotel in the morning. I looked at Panjit’s eyes and at her cute facial features and her fresh lips.

”Are all Thai female tour guides as cute as you are?” I said.

”Are all Irish males as straight forward as you are?” said Panjit with a welcome eye movement.

Immediately we were attracted to each other, with love bits growing once we realized we were both unattached. Next day was a bustling day among foreign tourists in Phuket Town and local markets. The local monks looked busy, caring for people who came before them with their offerings. Smoke from their burning aromathic incense was scenting a fresh evening sea breeze. Later we walked the bridge from Phuket island to the mainland. Once upon a time..,” PanjiT started, ”there was a young couple, a husband and wife whom their parents did not approve their marriage, because the husband was poor and as result were ostracized, which made their life together impossible. Panjit……,” I pushed her face close to mine as I had pulled her closer from the cool night air. I put my finger on Panjit's lips.

”Ssh! Don't tell me now, I want to listen to the whole story later from you”

Panjit was upset.

”You know what makes you wonderful tonight?” I asked

”What?”

”The complete moon on your sweet Thai smile.” Panjit smiled but it was interrupted as my lips landed on hers spontaneously. She did not resist. The pale light of the moon and the breeze made us intimately attached to each other.

The horizons of the east, are a collection of fascinating colours at dawn for me. Panjit leaned against me as we both stared at a Phuket sunrise, with the wide spread of sand and sea, behind us. Later we climbed on our bike, as we made our way from Phuket Town towards Patong. As we climbed a very steep hill on our approach, we both noticed, there was considerable soil movement and landslides.I dropped a few gears and kicked in some juice to try take us away from the landslide on the hill.

Next thing I knew was that local people and monks stood together trying to prevent me from sliding down over 300 meters to recover Panjit's body. ”Panjit!” I shouted in panic but she was still rolling down fast. Tourists standing at the top of the road could see her poor body bump over and over against the steep and rocky hillside. As I tried to make my way down for Panjit, I was firmly held by other worried tourists. It was too dangerous as I burst into tears, I broke the crowd and found my way down. ”Panjit!” I shouted hysterically.

The accident attracted a lot of attention. Some people searched for Panjit in a safe way. I was eventually asked to stay and wait at the foot of the hill. I was desperate and I just couldn't believe Panjit had disappeared like that. After the crowds were scattered and gone for what seemed hours, there was no news as I was left alone at the foot of the hill, devastated. ”Hey are you looking for me?” I was shocked and surprised by a voice from behind me. I turned around. Panjit was there on top of a mount of clay and stones. I stared in disbelief!.

”Panjit!” I hugged her in sheer relief. ”Are you alright? How can you be here without serious injury?." I examined her body, she had no serious injury besides a few scratches on her arm face but she had a strange aura about her which I thought was the result of shock from the fall. The motor bike was write off at the foot of the hill. ”I was fell down, banging along the rough surface down. Fortunately l landed safely over her there, and I made my way safely down to you.” said Panjit oblivious to the lethal nature of the fall.

”People are looking for you everywhere, trying to rescue you,” I said.

”They may have taken the wrong way,” said Panjit ”Why don’t we just get back to the hotel? I need treatment for scratches and to clean up, let's get a tuk tuk.”

When we got off the tuk tuk at the hotel, I had to help Panjit, as she could not walk properly.

”Let's get a doctor. We should go straight to a hospital,” I urged.

”I’m ok just a little shocked, help me wash up,” said Panjit.

I took off all Panjit’s clothes at her request in my hotel room, not a bruise, cut or any wound, which seemed a miracle to me. I could not stop and wonder how fortunate Panjit was and how she could have ended up with a broken neck with severe cuts. I showered her gently with warm water and towel dried her. I could not but admire her perfect beauty without clothes on her skin. She ws stunning, I could not take my eyes off her.

”Now make it fair,” said Panjit. ”You stand in front of me with nothing on.”

I did not refuse. I slowly removed everything I was wearing. Panjit held me tightly in her arms and led me my bed. We melted into each other with Panjit on top, in a gentle, slow, rhythm of love. A lusty day and night of lovemaking belonged entirely with us in a world of our own. Just before we slept, I asked her to finish her story of Phuket's bridge to theThai mainland. She told me that the newly married Thai young lovers, bound their hands together with cord and jumped from the bridge into the ocean far below, so that they would never be parted.

I opened my eyes in the morning. I reached for my watch, it was twelve noon. Panjit was not beside me. I pushed the cover away and tried to find Panjit in the hotel suite. She was not there. I got dressed and looked around. Panjit was not there, I asked the reception and asked everyone if they had seen Panjit. Eventually I was told that she had checked-out an hour ago and took a bus to the airport. I settled the bills and as I did so, staff handed me a piece of paper, saying “I am very sorry”. It was from Panjit.

I was frozen in disbelief ! Why did she leave? I got a taxi to the airport checking all terminals and ticket records but I could find no trace of Panjit. I could find no news whatsoever of Panjit. Later I got an e-mail from Panjit. “I am sorry, my darling. I did not run away from you, I had to go, I will call you as soon as I can.” I did not hear another thing from Panjit. The waiting was unbearable and devastating and I could not eat. I wanted to die Then I got another message from Panjit asking me to come and see her in Bangkok.

”Welcome to Bangkok, Sir ! You come to Bangkok at a perfect time. We will be celebrating Songkran tomorrow,” said the driver from the airport to the hotel address Panjit had given me ! I knew Songkran was a festival of spiritual cleansing by Thai Buddhists, who believe people purify each other, splashing water and getting themselves drenched. Panjit was standing in the foyer waiting for me with a subdued smile but with an expression that could not hide her desperate longing. I gave her a very intimate hug. “ I miss you!. Chan kitteung khun! Fuck you bitch, you left me standing there frozen in time” I said in tears!.

“I am so, so, sorry.” Panjit held me so tight.

That night I was both ecstatic and in agony, as Panjit did not give a hint of physical warmth in bed. She fell asleep, after a detached kiss. I was waiting naked all night beside Panjit, expecting the gentle, lusty love making, we had already known. It did not happen and when morning came Songkran started. The joyful, noisy and wet Songkran outside on the street, made Panjit smile just a little. People splashed water on each other no matter who they were.

”Are you ready to get soaking wet?” asked Panjit. ”I will be out in a moment” I agreed but noticed that Panjit got more and more pale, which momentarily explained why Panjit had no passion for lovemaking the night before.

”I must tell you, this Songkran will be very, very frightening for me.” said Panjit.

”Why is that? Is'n’t everybody happy?” I said.

”Not this one,” whispered Panjit, squeezing my hand with a sad face.

Just then some people with buckets full of water splashed Panjit and I with water. I yelled as the cold water hit me. People happily soaked us more and more. I was very wet and I was shocked when I turned to Panjit. Not one drop of water touched Panjit’s clothes or skin. ”How is it you are dry?” I asked Panjit but she never answered me. She just smiled at me as her face quickly changed from pale, to a stunning aura or halo effect. Her face got brighter and brighter, I was mesmerized as the splashing water, now made her wet but the water seemed to just pass through her and the more she got splashed, the brighter and more invisible she became.

”Panjit?” I cried as I tried to touch her bright image.

”Now it’s time for me to go, my love. I died instantly at the foot of that hill, from the fall that day. They found my body but my spirit has always been with you, because I am always loving you and I will always miss you from the moment we met” she said in a very gentle, soft voice.

”Please get a bucket of water and splash me, it will make my leaving perfect.” said Panjit. Initially i refused to believe what she just said. Then with a broken heart and tears rolling down my face, I took a bucket of water and gave Panjit a splash as she wished for. I could see Panjit smile with the splash as she faded away until she became completely invisible.

I collapsed crying on the side of the street when eventually I was helped up. ”What is the matter with you, Sir? I watched you talking to yourself and splash water into empty space. Be happy in Songkran. Thai people believe this, when we splash to each other and help purify each other”

Since that time I have always been with detached love !

Wednesday, 6 June 2012

DIRTY BIG BEN OLYMPIC BOMB LONDON 2012

There is considerable confusion in central London after Big Ben, the big daddy of all grandfather clocks stopped ticking for the last time when his timing device was stolen, for use in a dirty bomb, set to go off for the Olympic of London 2012.Big Ben has been ticking and tocking since 1834, but has now been dismantled, and as a result is now completely unreliable, according to Boris Phecker the Lord Mayor of the Greater London Council. A spokesperson for the GLC said; Big Ben was taken out of action at 7 p.m. and his timing device installed in a dirty bomb due to go off at the Olympics in London.

Several Londoners were visibly shaken and upset, when told sad news. One Cockney at Bow Bells said I set my watch to Big Ben," he said, "and I give the missus a right seeing to, as Ben bongs, I bong. I don't know how I will do her properly now without his help. I have tried viagra but nothing else works. One Irishman has offered his services but I'm not sure as he has been dickying around a good bit in the South China Sea, but I will be forced to try his services. "

A new timing device made in Hong Kong has been snubbed by a few Alf Garnetts from the east end. After more than 150 years, Big Ben's silence is causing considerable grief among Londoners. It is also causing much anxiety, as it has been predicted that a great misfortune and catastrophe will befall London, when Ben stops bonging. The famous bell having chimed for the last time, never be heard again and being used as a timer in a dirty bomb for the Olympics, has disgusted many Londoners..

The four faces will be converted into neon signs for McDonalds after the Olympics, to be transformed into one of their leading hamburger sites. It will help with our global recession"said a McDonald's spin doctor. "You guys and the clock, will be and important part of our worldwide campaign, to tighten belts into a leaner, meaner bugger after the Olympics and banking crisis. Big Benny revenue will be huge and will go some way towards paying for Olympic advertising", she said.

Five terrorists penetrated Benny from the roof. The five abseiled up the south clock face of Big Benny at midday, camouflaged as Irish builders all wearing green uniforms. They then transferred the timing device to a massively large dirty bomb onto a waiting boat on the the Thames. Big Benny's bell sound will be replaced by alternating versions of Rockall on the hour, every second hour, all over London, including the houses of parliament, both palaces Buckingham and MI6 on the Thames. Eventually just one of the Rockall versions will be used to replace Big Benny, with Boris Phecker already campaigning against the Irish version.

Tuesday, 5 June 2012

OLYMPIC ARMAGEDDON LONDON 2012

Sunday, 27 May 2012

Olympics London 2012 : UCK THE YMPICS FREE PRICE

The Celts originated from an area around the Caspian Sea and came to the west at much the same time as similar migration into India . The Celts and the Hindus shared a common ancestry in a race known as the Battle-Axe People, whose mark was a stone battle-axe, whose home was in southern Russia with the language of the Celts coming from the same source as Sanskrit, the classical language of the Hindus. The Celtic language is called Indo-European and in it figures that correspond with the Indian deities whose likenesses between the brahmins, the priest-astrologers of India, and the druids, the priest-astronomers of Europe is striking. Celtic gods are depicted seated in a similar meditation posture to the Hindu deities. T

The peoples drifted apart. The Hindus intermarried with older Indian races and developed a dark skin while the Celts went to colder Europe and became fair with reddish hair and piercing blue eyes. Plato thought them highly intelligent, although much given to drinking. They divided society into three groups. The druids, were learned priests, shamans and judges; the military aristocracy, who were the power-holders and the heroes; and the free men were farmers and owned cattle.Diodorus Siculus wrote that the Celtic women were not only like their men in great stature who were exceptionally tall and well-built but that they were also equal in courage. Women were honoured in Celtic society and lived in an equal way with men.

A strict legal code ensured that women could inherit property, and name and title were taken from the mother rather than the father. They could marry whom they pleased and could claim damages if molested. They took their place in battle beside the men. There were two major waves of Celtic immigration and by 700-500 BC they had emerged as one of the most important peoples of Europe. By 387 BC they had conquered Rome it fell, according to the Roman historian Livy, because of the terror inspired by the 'magic' war-cry of the Celts, who went into battle naked and by 279 BC Delphi had fallen too, although both it and Rome were retaken later. France known as Gaul was entirely Celtic

Its a day of rest, so I will keep it brief. Still here in Aden and its a day of rest, so I will keep it brief the gateway to the east. Besides Burma which we have covered, the British of course occupied India, officially now known as the Republic of India a country in South Asia, the seventh-largest country in the world, with the second largest population of 1.2 billion people. Four of the world's major religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhis originated there. Sneakily brought under the British East India Company, starting in the early 18th century then rules directly by the British from mid-19th century it became an independent in 1947, after a non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi and inspired by Ireland adopting the colours of the Irish-tricolour to celebrate that fact.

I felt utterly alone in India after my friend abandoned our trip east many years ago but I had never envisaged being there on my own. I pressed on hoping that destiny would reveal itself? India becamea blur of brown faces, blue elephants and pink monkeys. Crowds gathered quickly whenever I stopped moving. There was always a crowd staring at me when somebody would usually ask, “Where are you coming from?, Why did you come to India, Are you looking for enlightenment? Questions similar to the ones I asking myself.

Everywhere I went, in railway stations, in parks, in restaurants I attracted attention by being just there. I considered finding an ashram to take me in to quiet place where I could find the meaning of life? I got dysentery, was robbed, I had had no passport and no money when I arrived at an ashram up in the Himalayas. One can see him being shown into a simple white-walled room…a mat, a bed-sheet and a jug of water. He likes it. I really liked to get away from the realities of India. The evening were cool with a breeze usually wafting down from the Himalayas through the Ganges Gorge with the gentle chanting of other ashrams. I was able to turn off my mind, relax and drift into meditation?

I almost forgot about myself for a while. Whatever the joy of it, it didn’t last long. One morning the ashram in charge of accommodation told me the time had come to leave. “Where will you go?” I asked. He smiled. “No, not me its time for you to leave.” “Have achieved enlightenment?” “No, no, no, we need your bungalow. We have a group coming.” So started walking back along dusty roads to the towns at the foot of the Himalayas. Farmers were watering, weeding and minding their crops. The road itself was quiet except for numerous cows and women going to market. Suddenly it descended upon me a blinding light, or a vision of the future in with hundreds of of airborne hippies with fans on their backs and flowers in their hair with a psychedelic version of John Lennon with a North of Ireland accent singing and playing his guitar, with repeated instructions to make love not war.

Almost everyone was busy trying to follow his instructions making one big orgy in flight. I saw Gerry Adams was among them he had very long hair and he was banging away at someone from Derry who also had long hair. Most of the fenians and loyalist who were banging each other were stoned on high grade hash garlanded with marigolds, sunflowers and orange lilies. Behind all of this on the road was a large bus labeled ‘Monarchy’ The queen was also participating and she was getting the full treatment from Lord Muck of Londonderry. Paisley was also there mounted by a nun,along with Maggie Thatcher sitting on his face in a sandwich. I realized quickly it was a vision from the future or instant nirvana. Some kind of parallel universe thing, I may write a book about it sometime, if i ever get my head together. I have to add that the nun had great thighs and she was going hell for leather sitting on Paisley's shaft, as she screamed in ecstasy riding him. Thatcher was more subdued, while at the same time sititting on his face but she was merciless grinding him down in sadistic spasms as he gasped for air.

2012Olympics OlympicLondon, Armageddon, British Occupied Ireland, Galway Whooker, Ghengis Fokner II, london 2012, London Olympics, Nuked, Olympic, Olympic Games, Olympics, Olympics London

Saturday, 26 May 2012

Olympic London 2012 SUCKS !

I am English born and bred and moved to London about 18 months ago. I hate it. It’s noisy, dirty, expensive, uncaring and certainly not meritocratic.

What’s more, I hate every single one of my stupid countrymen who tries to convince me it’s the best place on earth. I don’t know where this myth comes from but they all think I’m dead lucky to be living here.

Every time I suggest the place could be better it’s like I’ve told them I’ve slept with their mother.

Can’t wait to get out. Trying to find a way to move to New York.

Ally

Lived in London my whole life and it is my goal in life to emigrate to Oz or the States, i simply cannot stand living in this smelly, crime ridden, overpopulated SHIT HOLE and on top of it all, it’s one of the most expensive cities on earth! The fucking cheek!!

Liam, London -

i thought it was just me. Live there for one year as an 18 year old at The London College of Fashion. Lived in New Cross and went to school in Hackney. I am from Ireland where everyone is warm and talkative and welcoming. In London, I plunged into depression. I hated every single second of that year.

lollylady -

London is an amazing city, unless you’re interested in the evolution of humanity! I can’t stand this place. I’m glad I’m not alone. I moved here 5 years ago (my father is English) and I feel like I’ve been swallowed up by an overcrowded, overpriced, overstressed, outdated, and uninspiring black hole!! I’ve lived in Washington DC, Toronto, Chicago, New York, Kyoto and Hiroshima and visited even more, but London is frankly the most disappointing place to live. I’ve stepped back in time. The streets are dirty, the culture is arrogant, tolerance is low, public transport is a NIGHTMARE, the politics are juvenile and highly aristocratic, basic services like phone/gas/tv/banks/post office are never straight forward to set up and will always leave you feeling victimized. The bar and club scene is sooo disappointing. Difficult to make friends unless you want to look/talk/act like everyone else. And very difficult to find places that don’t play top 40 music crap. I’m leaving to settle back in Toronto this year. I can’t wait! Thank you for letting me rant. Peace to all.

Benjamin

Like almost everyone says …i thought i was the only one that felt that way. I moved from NYC to London a year ago and I swear every time i get to JFK i wanna cry with joy and when i come in to Heathrow i spend a week getting over depression. The weather sucks ass i don’t think ur ever quite prepared for just how bad it is…why do i have to wear a coat in JUNE …..ahhhhh but its worth it because if it’s actually hot in june/july u have to contend with ac-less trains. WTF that should be a health violation!! 100 ppl in one train car 80+ degrees and no AC puh-lese. And the people are soo soo …words defy me…lets just say it’s not what i expected and i now deeply detest the “average” english accent and i swear if one more person tells me its to-MAH-to not to-MAY-to i’ll scream, i don’t say anything when u mispronounce “vitamins” and “Pantene”. Cant wait to get out of this grimy ass place….. ugggg and the shopping here uuuggghhh horrible..customer service WORSE!!!! i hate this place.

allie

I totally agree. London is a horrific place of epic proportions. The north of the UK is just so much better in callibre. Of course you’re going to get your crap places up there but NOTHING can be as bad as London. It is a fucking shithole. I do love my country, but London should be scrapped. It should be taken down and green fields allowed to grow. It is a wasteland that hasn’t been emptied for about 200 years.

puzzlehead

hank you THANK you! what an amazing blog.. cant agree with you anymore.

london is vile, clostrophobic.. no1 speaks a word of english…. they look at you in hotels/shops/ whatever like your scum of the earth… the streets are littered with tramps… and a tenner wont get you more than a bus/tube ride a newspaper and a packet of crisps!

its pathetic

screw london

eli

The pain of living in this country is destroying me mentally. It is so cathartic to read and relate to someone’s very accurate observations. London is SICK.

I have lived here all my life and I am trying to escape it as quickly as is possible because there is no life to live here. It’s not a city for ‘living in’, for obvious reasons. It’s a city to make money and then RUN AWAY FROM!!! The very vast majority of my friends have emigrated or have plans to emigrate.

I have a few aussie friends here who are making money and then plan to immediately return home. One friend actually spent a week crying when she was back in London from a visit home, sighting how unfriendly everyone is here.

We want to escape the dangerously high levels of pollution, the consistently horrendous weather, the despicable, angry, desperate people who habit the city who get become ferociously aggressive at rush hour, the filthy, ludicrously over-priced, filthy public transport services, the shocking lack of customer service, the overpriced everything, the small houses, small ‘super’markets, narrow roads, shit cars, population explosion, impossibly high levels of crime…. I could go on for days (literally) describing the crap this country offers.

THANK YOU for writing this. We all appreciate it greatly!

Lisa

(a) arsewipes that say they want to live in a shithole area (generally greater London) because it ‘has character’. Might be true, if by character you mean filthy bucket of crap with dodgy people milling about a closed decrepit tube station at all hours of the night.
(b) mold and mildew infested flats with paper thin walls as some arsehole of a landlord has split a small terrace house into 8 flats charging 200 quid per room per week, extra if you want a luxury like window blinds – at least you get a free soap opera when the Asian family upstairs decides to have their bi-weekly domestic dispute. Never watching Bend it like Beckham again.
(c) black, nasty things that you have to pick out of your nose every evening after coming home from work breathing in that disgusting foul odour than seems to emanate from random points throughout the street
(d) an almost endless supply of scammers and small time conmen – ever tried buying a car from a second hand dealer in London? Trust me – been there, done that, took about a year off my life when they sold me a car WITHOUT THE WHEELS fastened on!
(e) limescale – i can’t believe this shit exists in the water here
(f) the useless roads and non-existent parking – the A406 story brought a smile to my face. Even the poor SatNavs get totally confused and give up when faced with those stupid roadabouts or huge intersections with five or six exits….with the street name uselessly painted on the road about 10 feet before the turn off and the white paint almost invisible due to wear and tear.
(g) and finally, the just plain horribleness of nearly every street. The same endless rows of Victorian housing without any endearing feature between one and the other.

I could go on..and on…the list would never end.

Mike

I am a fat English knacker who cannot be trusted, a snake, a rat, a man who pretends to be something that he is not. I preach trust and honesty whilst practising treachery.
I love London

Neil Grigg

I think the vast swathe of people agree that London is a shite-hole of the highest order…the only people who contest this point are either:
a)rich
b) limited in experience
c)not of sound mind (i.e Mental!).

Sure, it’s nice to go there for a holiday, see all the famous sites, and maybe even extend your stay to a few months. But living there a whole year and 4 months(2007/8 as a Postgrad at UCL) – is a completely different kettle of fish.

Admittedly i lived in the shite hole they call Plaistow, but when I arrived in London from Melbourne Australia, I thought there must have been some mistake…surely this wasn’t the London I’ve seen on TV? Samuel Johnson’s London? The london of the Queensguards and Wimbledon Championship etc etc?

There were sinister characters prowling the streets. There were gunshots and police sirens at night. There were rats in the streets and “hoodies” on every corner. And the Tube always reminded me of the nightmarish visions evoked in “Jacobs Ladder” with the twisted angry faces of the hell-bound passengers.

Someone above claims that it’s worse living in Australia…get real!!!

It was the underlying sense of distrust and dis-ease that got to me the most. I got racially abused about 6 or 7 times (I’m white) whilst living in London. The place is horribly divided along class / race and religious lines – see for example the recent racist murder of an elderly Muslim gentleman. After 6 years in Melbourne, the degree of aggression, distrust and hostility in London just blew my mind. Sharing a flat with a Senegalese and a Pole…now that was interesting. The Senegalese was an angry man..here illegally and the Pole…he was off his rocker. I used to be a patriotic Englishman but i thank God/Allah/Buddha every day that I managed to get an Australian passport whilst I was there – it’s my ticket out of that cess pit they call London.

jonno

2012Olympics OlympicLondon, Armageddon, British Occupied Ireland, Galway Whooker, Ghengis Fokner II, London 2012, London Olympics, Nuked, Olympic, Olympic Games, Olympics, Olympics London

Friday, 25 May 2012

Olympics London 2012 : British Empire of Opium Death Dealer Games

In 1421, China's Ming dynasty Yongle Emperor ordered his fleet to convey an imperial edict with hats and robes on the king of Aden. The envoys boarded three treasure ships and left Sumatra to the port of Aden. As we shall see later there was good reason for the gifts, Aden at that time, along with the Suez canal later, being in many respects the naval port and gateway to facilitate east west trade which was critical to Chinese interests.

The Opium Wars, also known as Anglo-Chinese Wars, started with the First Opium War from 1839 to 1842 which were the result of disputes over trade between China in the Qing Dynasty and the British Empire. The Chinese Canton System in 1756 restricted trade to one port, so that they could monitor British trade, resulted in the British East India Company as result of the huge demand for tea in the west, facing an imbalance in favour of China, which the British redressed, with the cultivation of the Chinese population to opium addiction, in return for trading Chinese tea. Similar to Ireland today, after what they call the peace process, where British intelligence agencies, control the distribution of hard drugs from their military in Afghanistan poppy fields, to their agents and paramilitary groups, in every part of Ireland, to control the Irish population with murderous consequence.

The British merchants brought opium from the British East India Company's factories in Patna and Benares in British Occupied India to China, where they sold it to Chinese smugglers, who then distributed the drug in defiance of Chinese laws. The Chinese realizing the drain on their silver currency and the growing numbers of addicts, resulted in the Emperor demanding action. Some officials advocated legalizing the trade in order to tax it but were defeated by those who advocated arresting opium dealers and demanding the British turn over their stocks, initially refusing but eventually the merchants surrendered their opium to be destroyed. The British government then sent military forces from India, which plundered the Chinese coast, in order to dictate the terms of a settlement. The Treaty of Nanking allowed further opium trade, ceded territory, including Hong Kong, fixed Chinese taxes at low rates, granting privileges to foreigners not offered to Chinese overseas. Disputes by British merchants in Chinese ports led to the Second Opium War later.

With British Occupied India and its poppy fields under Britain's control and the strong mass appeal and addictive nature, opium was an effective solution to the British trade imbalance problem and the British simply had an insatiable greed. Within the Chinese mandarinate there continued an ongoing debate over legalising the opium trade. The Emperor a teenager who spent most of his time in bed with his concubines, many of them opium users themselves.

The story of the mid-Ming dynasty, where opium was a gift by vassal states, then used as an aphrodisiac in court. Eventually Chinese people from different classes and regions began using it for recreational purposes in a complex culture of opium. The transformation overtime led to its spread across all sections of society, embraced by rich and poor as a culture in its own right. The alternative perspective on life in China during this time is still for political reasons confined to scholars of history, anthropology, sociology, political science, economics, East Asian studies.

Around this time, the British were selling roughly 1,400 tons per year to China. In 1839, the Chinese Emperor Lin, published a letter addressed to Queen Victoria, questioning the morals of the British government. This was just before the British executed a holocaust of ethnic cleansing in Ireland, which cleared Ireland of 6 million people many of whom died of starvation. Citing a strict prohibition of the trade within Great Britain itself, Lin questioned how they could then profit from the highly addictive hard drug in China. He wrote: "Your Majesty has not before been this officially notified, and you may plead ignorance of the severity of our laws, but I now give my assurance that we mean to cut this harmful drug forever." The British government and merchant's response to Lin was to send a large British Indian army to enforce their drug dealing.

British military superiority, based on new technology along with warships, raped Chinese coastal towns, with ships supporting gun platforms with very heavy guns. British troops were armed with modern muskets and cannons which fired more rapidly and with greater accuracy than Chinese firearms and artillery. The British took Canton, sailed up the Yangtze, took the Chinese tax barges, a huge blow to the Chinese Empire, as it slashed the income of their imperial court in Beijing. The Treaty of Nanking forced the Chinese to pay taxes to Britain, opening four ports and ceding Hong Kong to Queen Victoria. The Qing empire recognized Britain as an equal to China and gave British extraterritorial privileges in ports.

Opium is a story which historians have failed to set in its proper social and cultural context neither taking account of the extent of its consumption in the history of modern China. Preferring to dwell on the opium trade, opium wars, imperialism and the politics of control, which is very relevant in places as far away as contemporary Ireland. The political history of opium, like its wars are only part of the story. The questions are at the point of which opium transformed from medicine into luxury use and why it was so popular and widespread when people learned of its recreational value. Understanding modern China is not possible, without understanding who smoked opium, when and why. The fact is the Chinese embraced smoking and using opium.

The social life of ‘Mr. Opium’ from birth as a recreational item to his old age as a social icon, is a perspective on the circulation of commodities and the things that are exchanged with their meanings inscribed on their forms, uses and trajectories. In the analysis of these trajectories we can interpret the human transaction and calculations that enliven China, for example. The social signiﬁcance of Opium smoking was inscribed in its vanguard consumers, who were the literati, the ofﬁcials with the pipes packed with precious stones and symbolic designs. Chinese people from different classes, regions and times, endowed many meanings to opium from luxury to necessity.

Many of those who wrote about opium, used sources prohibitionist in nature, the products of political revisionism. It is the same problem of writers about drinking and other popular cultures. Information on the lives of the common people or Ireland for example usually comes from the outsider or from those regarded as a 'socially superior perspective'. Opinions of elite observers, have shaped historical generations, as opposed to that seen through the eyes of popular cultures on say public drinking, resulting in expressions of a degraded perspective, on the lower classes, and the pub or bar a symbol of misery and debauchery.

The perception of opium suffered the same fate. Historians using prohibitionist sources, provided by governments of the day perpetuating the prejudiced official line in condemnation of opium. Scholars and officials have cautioned about the prejudice of official histories. Sources of a historian are threefold; official history, family history and unofficial history. Older generations of Chinese warned about the problem of Chinese history being written by bureaucrats for bureaucrats, explain why official history has a solemn ethical function, the duty of expressing praise and blame as in the instance of say modern Irish revisionist history. Below is an excerpt from an alternative.

"The ‘genealogical method of anthropological inquiry’ is revolutionary, as Kopytoff has pointed out. His example is slavery. Slavery began with capture; an individual was dehumanised, commoditised and later rehumanised when he/she was reinserted into the host group. Dehumanisation begins the biography of a slave; it also marks ‘the diversion of commodities from preordained paths’. Opium was likewise diverted; from a herbal medicine it moved to become a luxury item. Diversion is ‘frequently a function of irregular desires and novel demands’. This could not have been more evident with opium in 1483, when a medicinal herb became ‘the art of alchemists, sex and court ladies’.2 This diversion shaped the history of opium and indeed of China for five hundred years to come. ‘A more theoretically aware biographical model’, Kopytoff stressed, should be ‘based on a reasonable number of life histories’. This book is the life history of opium as an aphrodisiac from the mid-Ming, as an expensive yanghuo or ‘foreign stuff’ and hobby among the scholar–official elite in the eighteenth century, and as a popular culture in the late Qing–Republican era and beyond. These histories tell us who smoked opium, when and why; they also help us to stitch together a much more complete picture of the Ming–Qing–Republican economy, and of its culture and society, and enable us to see both change and continuity in the culture of opium consumption.

This book examines opium from a cultural perspective because, as Daniel Roche has emphasised, ‘Any object, even the most ordinary, embodies ingenuity, choices, a culture. A body of knowledge and a surplus of meanings are attached to all objects.’3 Roche’s example is clothing. ‘Clothing speaks of many things at once, either in itself or through some detail. It has a function of communication because it is through clothing that everyone’s relation to the community passes.’4 The same can be said of other forms of consumption, including opium smoking. Roche emphasised that one should pay attention to the whole as well as to the parts; the signs that indicate minorities, the colours that can characterise social functions and membership of different groups, the cut, the material, the types of jewellery. For this, reference the smoking sets and accessories that accompanied opium smoking. Roche also advanced much more: ‘the history of consumption must include analysis of demand, and therefore of the structuring of needs, the classification of consumers, the circuits of distribution and the spatial organisation of supply’.5 To understand needs, we must understand ‘the texture of our ordinary life’, that is, ‘the real weight of everyday life’, or the ‘history of what seems to have no history: material life and biological behaviour, history of food, history of the consumption of food’.6 For the Chinese, opium smoking, like tea drinking, was material life and biological behaviour, a history of food and a culture of consumption.

Pierre Bourdieu is significant here. His influential La Distinction: critique sociale du jugement studied ‘the science of taste and cultural consumption’.7 Bourdieu applied this science to the consumption of the arts and music; I shall extend it to that of opium. Bourdieu saw taste as ‘markers of class’ and consumption as ‘predisposed, consciously and deliberately or not, to fulfil a social function of legitimating social differences’. This was true with opium as its vanguard consumers, the literati and officials, enjoyed opium long before the ‘ordinary’ people heard about it. It was they who made opium smoking cultured and a status symbol; they who marked themselves apart from those below them, legitimating their social differences. Bourdieu analysed the consumption of pictorial and musical works. ‘A work of art has meaning and interest only for someone who possesses the cultural competence, that is, the code, into which it is encoded.’8 An opium pipe carved with an epic poem and served by a highly literate courtesan was limited to and had meaning for those who could appreciate the poetry and exchange-coded language. Bourdieu had ‘one foot in structural Marxism and the other in cultural studies’.9 The case of opium supports this approach. Opium was an aristocratic luxury item during the Ming dynasty. It became a necessity during the late nineteenth century. The story of opium is the story of taste and distinction; it is also the story of politics and class formation.

One of the most influential works on consumption is Jean Baudrillard’s La Soci´et´e de consommation: ses mythes, ses structures. For Baudrillard, consumption is ‘a language’.10 Breaking away from a standard productivist orientation, the post-modern social theorist believed that consumption was ‘both a morality and a communication system, a structure of exchange’.11 This was certainly true of opium smoking, where offering the smoke to friends, colleagues and guests involved a fundamental Chinese socio-cultural value in the late Qing–early Republican era. Regardless of whether one sanctioned opium or not, one must offer the smoke in order to be ‘ti mian’ (polite or fashionable), thus a Chinese ‘morality’, ‘communication system’ and ‘structure of exchange’ was created. Many sought to catch up with the Joneses; consumption became conspicuous. Consumption itself is subject to individual manipulation; it is also ‘subject to social control and political redefinition’.12 Parallels can be drawn to alcohol in general and vodka in particular. Opium is a perfect example of the political redefinition of consumption. When the rich smoked it, it was cultured and a status symbol; when the poor began to inhale, opium smoking became degrading and ultimately criminal. The lower classes made the consequences of smoking visible and social; the literati and officials had the power to reinterpret consumption. Consumption has never been a simple economic matter.

Mary Douglas proposed ‘a distinctive anthropological perspective’ in Constructive Drinking.13 Anthropologists brought ‘their own professional point of view to bear interestingly upon the same materials studied by specialists on alcohol abuse’. They argued that medical and sociological research exaggerated the problems. As Dwight Heath pointed out, ‘Even practitioners of the so-called “hard sciences” acknowledge that social and cultural factors must be taken into account, together with physiological and psychological factors, when one attempts to understand the interaction of alcohol and human behaviour.’14 I extend this distinctive anthropological perspective to opium because drinking and smoking are the obvious analogies. ‘Drinking is essentially a social act, performed in a recognized social context’; so it was with opium smoking.15 Many authors have studied the social context of consumption. David Christian’s Living Water argued that vodka played a crucial role in Russian society on the eve of the Revolution. Thomas Brennan illustrated the ‘positive uses of drinking’ in prerevolutionary Paris. And David Hardiman exposed the different political agendas injected into drinking in colonial India. Brennan’s work is important because it challenged the heavily used accounts of the intermediaries, ‘the three robes’ – the clergy, the nobility and the liberal professions – their condemnation of taverns and consequently their influence on the study of popular culture.16 Here, I will challenge the heavily used accounts of ‘the Chinese robes’.

Deborah Lupton has furthered our understanding of the history of food and the culture of consumption. ‘Food and eating habits and preferences are not simply matters of “fuelling” ourselves’, she writes.17 This was true of opium, since smoking did not fill one’s stomach. ‘Food is inextricably interlinked with group membership as well as kinship’, Lupton continues, and again, opium is a good example where friends and family gathered to share leisure through smoking. Food is ‘the ultimate “consumable” commodity’; so was opium.18 George Ritzer has identified ‘McDonaldization’, a process whereby corporations cater to the ‘lowest common denominator’ of mass consumer culture.19 The same happened with opium in the late Qing, when smoking catered for the lowest Chinese common denominator – coolie labourers and peasants. Peter Atkins and Ian Bowler have summarised recent trends in food studies. Where functionalists emphasise ‘the utilitarian nature of food’, structuralists focus on the ‘broader and deeper causes and meanings of food habits’ and on how ‘taste is culturally shaped and socially controlled’.20 Opium smoking was utilitarian in nature, but it was also socio-culturally conditioned. Structural functionalists such as Mary Douglas draw upon elements of both approaches. Douglas has deciphered the grammar of the meal, a structured social event. I will decode the syntax of opium smoking by ‘mov[ing] away from a reliance upon the production-oriented explanations of society, which [have] for so long dominated materialism, towards a framework that can accommodate considerations of consumption and lifestyle’.21 This is pertinent to the study of opium as a commodity and smoking as history of food and culture of consumption."

This culture is of course quite similar to the Concubinage culture, where a concubine generally a woman is in a marriage like relationship with whom she cannot get married for other reasons. Often only men of high economic or social status have concubines, because it can be expensive. Historical rulers maintained concubines, sometimes thousands, as well as several wives. Normally concubinage was voluntary by the woman or her family's by arrangement, providing a measure of economic security for both parties. In ancient China, concubinage was similar but inferior, to marriage. The children were recognized as legal offspring but their inheritance were inferior to children of marriage often receiving a smaller inheritance. Often concubines bore heirs, when a wife was unable to produce sons.Western laws do not acknowledge the legal status of concubines or recognize only monogamous marriages as legal, leaving the woman a mistress without protection. Romans did not class same-sex relationships as homosexual and a concubinus was a young male slave chosen by his master as a sexual partner.

Chinese Emperors sometimes kept thousands of concubines and in ancient China, successful men often supported several concubines and their families. Concubines on a few occasions were buried alive with their master to keep him company in the afterlife. Concubines sometimes achieved much power and influence. In the 'Four Great Classical Novels of China' there is the story of 'The Dream of the Red Chamber' believed to be a semi-autobiographical account of author Cao Xueqin's own family life where three generations of the Jia family are supported by the favorite concubine of the Emperor. Imperial concubines kept in the Forbidden City, were always guarded by castrated eunuchs, to make sure they could not be impregnated by anyone, other than the Emperor. Dowager Empress Cixi who liked her opium, was perhaps the most successful concubine in China’s history. Cixi gave birth to the only surviving son, who became the Emperor Tongzhi. She eventually became de facto ruler of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in China for 47 years after her son's death.

In the Mao era, the whiff of an affair could get someone fired from their job, demoted or sent to self-criticism sessions and even jail. In the Cultural Revolution, extramarital affairs were condemned, labeled as Male-Female-Relationship Lifestyle. One of the most popular videos on the Internet was a clip from an Olympics promotion event, rebrand the CCTV sports channel as the “Olympics Channel.” In the video, the wife of a popular anchor crashes the event, grabs the microphone and accuses the anchor of sleeping with another woman. Polygamy is still around among upper class members of some minorities. Polyandry exists among Tibetans, Naxi and Pumi minorities. Modern marriage procedure have led to a rise in bigamy. In the old days wealthy Chinese men, married three or four women at the same time. The wives sharing different duties and responsibilities, raising the children.The first wife usually had the right to order secondary wives around and her children given precedence.

In consumerist China today sex, corruption and money are often intertwined in people's consciousness. Money scandals have a sexual element with Chinese expression saying: "Where there is corruption, there’s sex. And where there’s sex, there’s corruption. A wife dumped for a mistress says, ”Mistresses are always lurking in shadows of corruption cases. If you don’t have money, you can’t hold on to your mistress.” In Shenzhen there are "concubine villages," where thousands of young women live in luxury apartments, paid by their lovers, close enough to the border that the men can take off early from work, visit their lovers and be backhome in time for dinner with their wives.

Zhang Yu Fen a wife dumped by her husband for a mistress organized a “guerilla squad for attacking mistresses” made up of dumped wives.“Unless mistresses are completely wiped out, we won’t be able to achieve a harmonious society and will only be left with the menace” mistresses present, Zhang says, “We, the socially vulnerable, have to get together to eradicate the existence of mistresses. Our organization’s aim is to punish these husbands and claim the assets we are entitled to.” The local media call them the “mistress killers,”because they have assaulted some mistresses.

There are many credible stories in Ireland of asylums being places for specially trained concubines. The asylums it is believed, trained young Irish girls in speciality skills, while sometimes later selling them off to rich men in England. There are such stories going way back to one of the beheaded wives of the King of England a certain Ann Boylan from east Galway whose name was changed to Ann Boleyn to hide her true identity. In the Victorian asylums built by the English in Ireland, girls were sold into Victorian slavery to be intensely trained as sexual slaves in some instances, with a specialty skill for purposes as a uniquely talented concubine. They probably still exist, perhaps more consenting now, trained in erotic and creative arts, often with some religious element involved. There are also many stories in Ireland of young nuns being individually trained by mentors to later satisfy some reverend Mother, parish Priest or Bishops in orgies conducted in the convents scattered around Ireland.

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