Village Views

As the World Burns

2009-12-19T14:50:00.003+02:00

In Copenhagen, the so-called leaders of the World (193 countries were represented) have shown once more the simple truth in an old song. I've been unable to find out who wrote this, but it has been performed by Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, Vaya Con Dios and others. The refrain in question is

Your mind is on vacation and your mouth is working overtime

It's very fitting for the non-binding agreement two weeks of mouthing and mincing words have led to.

Image Source unknown

No Comment

2009-12-04T21:58:00.006+02:00

Voltaire (1694–1778) was quite thorough in his treatment of the Catholic church, and yet these priests are still with us today, blessing things indiscriminately and fondling altar-boys, because the average churchgoer never had any use for Voltaire.

This quote is © Copyright 2007, by Dmitry Orlov, and can be found here.
For some entertainingly intelligent reading, concerning many things, see Dmitry's blog: Club Orlov

The Real Enemy !?

2009-12-04T10:16:00.008+02:00

"In searching for a common enemy against whom we can unite, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like, would fit the bill. In their totality and their interactions these phenomena do constitute a common threat which must be confronted by everyone together. But in designating these dangers as the enemy, we fall into the trap, which we have already warned readers about, namely mistaking symptoms for causes. All these dangers are caused by human intervention in natural processes, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then is humanity itself."

Quote on page 75 of The First Global Revolution, A Report by the Council of the Club of Rome. September 1991. An online version of the book is here.

The text below indicates what the book is about – and please do remember that it was written almost 20 years ago!! As far as I can see … nobody learned from it and none of the problems it described have been solved.

In the 1970s, the Club of Rome launched the book The Limits to Growth. Essential reading for all those concerned about the future of the planet, the book was translated into 37 languages. Now, President Emeritus Alexander King and Secretary General Bertrand Schneider review global problems 20 years on, offering both a warning and an approach to a possible solution to world problems. Topics covered by this book include the need for the world to convert from a military to a civil economy, the recognition of the disastrous short-term effects of exploitation by First World countries of Third World poverty and need, and the containment of global warming: the need to reduce global emissions of carbon dioxide, to encourage reforestation, to conserve traditional forms of energy and develop alternatives.

Yet the authors of the statement The real enemy then is humanity itself have also fallen into a trap, just like they warned their readers not to do. By designating all of humanity as the enemy (of the planet and life as we know it), they have failed to point out that the real enemy is not every single individual - herding sheep or planting rice - but those among humanity who are motivated by a perverted greed and the obscene belief that the planet, the Earth, is theirs to control and to manipulate. The real enemy - if truth be told - are the multinational corporations and conglomerates who relentlessly follow the Bible in it's assertion that the planet is something we own - rather than be part of. Says the Old Testament in Genesis: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.

Well, the Earth is full and subdued, fish and birds are disappearing due to dominion, an every living thing that moves upon the earth is in dire danger to die of the poisons that fed the greed of the the people who run Bayer, Baxter, Monsanto, Shell ... to name but a few.

And although the Bible continues (Genesis) by saying: God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good - it doesn't look that good once one opens one's eyes to the full extent; they way they were meant to be used.

Photograph: Copyright © CCRCC

Today is just so ... Yesterday

2009-11-23T02:28:00.012+02:00

Even if you should not know the name Intel, chances are great that your computer (if it's a Windows PC) does run on a central processor chip made by the company of that name.

They have a logo saying that Today is So Yesterday, and - given that - they are looking at tomorrow: the brilliant future that's completely different not only from yesterday but also from today ... which is yesterday, anyway!

And it seems they have great plans for you ... implanting a chip in your brain so you can e.mail and twitter right from the source. No need for mouse or keyboard, no more remote control for your TV-DVD-HD Info-tainment Center - you'll do it all as if by telepathy.

What they don't say, of course, is that a chip in your brain also brings us to the ultimate stage of the Big Brother 1984 Orwellian Nightmare ... Dig It?

Is your cat chipped? Your dog? Just for safety and security, so you can find them if they get lost?
Well, you're next!

Can't believe that? Read this article on Computer World.
Short Summary: io9 - We Come from the Future

DNA Shows Neanderthals and Humans Did Mate and Mingle

2009-11-22T16:50:00.010+02:00

For ages, humans and their scientists have denied that Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens have interbred - yet my own intuition always kept signalling: They Did!

Said intuition based itself mainly on the fact that looking around myself while traveling six times around the world, I kept seeing people and faces that looked very Neanderthal - myself included. Even more funny, I was born just a few kilometers away from the geographical Neanderthal, and I went there - in my youth - quite often to visit the Neanderthal Museum.

And now, with the latest research by Professor Svante Paabo, it looks like that the white-skinned and red-haired Neanderthals did welcome their counterparts who arrived from Africa. It was a mistake, of course, because the meeting resulted - apart from sex - in the extinction of Homo neanderthalensis; except for the mixed breed of kids resulting from the unions.

Detailed info in Times OnLine article (October 25, 2009)
Image Source: Chattahbox - no further credits available.

Zen in the Art of Make-Up

2009-11-21T21:38:00.004+02:00

Found a beautiful video at The Guardian, which shows and talks about the incredible artwork by make-up artist Alex Box.

The two images you see here have been taken from that video. They are - naturally - copyright of the artist and/or photographer, but I want to show them here so you have an expectation of what you'll see - if you share my enthusiasm.
Alex Box, at least as far as make-up goes (I don't know anything about her than what's in the video), is clearly someone who thinks outside the box - and that quality is something I surely do appreciate.

It's certainly not the type of make-up I see people use in the village I live in, but I'd sure appreciate to see faces like these in reality.

Related Book: Alex Box - The Make Up Artist
Photography: Copyright © Rankin

Yoni - What Does it Mean? On Google and Bling?

2009-11-21T21:05:00.015+02:00

First of all, Yoni is a term borrowed from India's ancient language, Sanskrit or devanagari ("divine language"). It can be translated by several English concepts ("origin", "source", "womb", "female genitals") and is the most respectful word available for naming what our modern languages refer to as vulva, pussy or cunt; or other equivalents.

The term Yoni heralds from a culture and religion in which women have long been regarded and honored as the embodiment of divine female energy - the goddess known as Shakti - and where the female genitals are seen as a sacred symbol of the Great Goddess.

Because Tantrics and others worship the Divine in the form of a Goddess, the term yoni has also acquired other, more cosmic meanings, becoming a symbol of the Universal Womb, the Matrix of Generation and Source of All.

Second, and most unfortunate for a) people interested in the Yoni and b) many male Israeli's, Yoni is the short version for men named Jonatan. It's a grievance to them, and it's a grievance to all of those who'd like the term YONI in a search on Google or Bling to only bring up information about the Sanskrit YONI.

Well, here's a kind of temporary solution. Search for yoni woman, yoni massage, yoni portraits, yoni art or yoni sanskrit - and you'll find way more relevant pages than by searching for yoni alone.

Image: Copyright © Christina Camphausen. For more about her work, check out this blog.

The Art of Discrimination

2009-11-18T19:08:00.015+02:00

Nowadays, the term discrimination is most often seen as something wrong, negative, chauvinist ... you name it. It's a pity that this has happened, because discrimination is - in fact - one of the most important forms of thinking and intuiting. To be able to discriminate is not only important in perceiving the world more or less correctly, it is actually needed for our very survival.

One is, for example, well advised to discriminate between eating food that is nutritious and healthy - and stuff that poses as food while it actually consists of garbage, plastic and poisons. One also does well to discriminate between vampire-like people who zap one's energy by being both selfish and stupid, and others who aid one's development, honestly share opinions and insights, offer respect and friendship; perhaps even agape of some kind.

However, intelligent discrimination does need nurturing, training, education ... it is almost as difficult as it is for the young girl in this photograph to climb those stairs in the equatorial heat; carrying water to her home in the village on top.

With the following quote, I like to provide an example of how difficult discrimination can be, but also how important for our perception of what is called reality.

Try to make up your mind whether or not the following resembles fiction rather than reality, is misguided conspiracy fantasy or honest assessment of a situation by a daring mind.

"(He) had had too many dealings with the idiots on Capitol Hill to feel anything but contempt for them. Those whose arteries weren't already sufficiently hardened to cut off oxygen to their brains were so venal they never managed to get their snouts out the river of graft that year after year granted them certain return to their privileged sinecures."

And let me remind you that it says Capitol Hill only because the author of this is an American - if another name suits you better, please do exchange it when thinking about this.

Photograph: Village on Nias (Indonesia). Copyright © CCRCC
Quote: Eric Lustbader. Black Blade. London, 1997 (page 613)

Health Care versus Health Scare

2009-11-16T23:43:00.009+02:00

There's no need - for a European - to talk about the possibly emerging US health care system - it is something most more or less civilized nations have - and have had for quite a while.
I also know that it would be - given the state of the world we live in - most difficult to change the mind-set of profit driven insurance companies and the medical establishment at large with a bit of Chinese wisdom.

However, I like everyone of my readers to know and consider the following.

In ancient China, way before the idea of communism ever existed, they had an admirably smart system one can only envy! I think it is the best health care system ever conceived. You'd pay your personal physician (GP in modern terms) a certain fee every month as long as you were healthy, as long as she or he kept you advised as to how to stay that way.
However, the very moment you'd fall ill, contract some disease, feel pain here or there ... any payment of yours would be suspended - until, that is, you were well again.
There's nothing or little to praise about modern China ... but the ancients often did have a specifically wise way to look at things.

In our present system, a GP would possibly send his flu carrying kids to school - because contaminating others could perhaps be good for business. The equivalent Chinese GP - a long time ago - would certainly keep them at home ... because it could easily be bad for business.

Street advert in Hongkong, 1981 Copyright © CCRCC

High Speed Penetration

2009-11-16T23:04:00.009+02:00

Such is the penetration of internet services in Europe that even this small village on Crete - counting just 400 inhabitants and from which I view the world - has high speed broadband access to the World Wild Web.

In the background, Mt. Malaxa, to the right (invisible) a bay and a port - and further on an airport - to the left (invisible) the White Mountains (Greek: Lefka Ori).

Photograph: Copyright © CCRCC [click on image to enlarge]

Intimate Part - Delicate Art

2009-11-16T20:16:00.018+02:00

Judging by this image, it seems that the world-wide Atheist Club and their ingenious ad-campaign have inspired others to get on the bus as well.

After all, being on a Big City Bus assures a rather large audience, and it may - perhaps - create quite a Buzz.

However, in this case the message seems to be for a rather different club, because the word Yoni is mainly known to people who speak ancient Sanskrit, apart from a few hundred thousand others who have read books about Her, books about the Goddess, books about Gyn-Ecology.

Now if you're not one of this club, perhaps the image at left will say more than the proverbial thousand words. It is just as the title of this item announced ... Yoni Portraits is a book showing - in gorgeous colors - women's most intimate part in the form of delicate art. And the artist who created these intimate portraits (of 49 daring women) is a woman as well. She is Dutch and her name is Christina Camphausen.

So the advert on the bus is about a book featuring her art ... and to find out more about it you can best move your hand for a fraction so that the mouse can click on this link which goes to the website where you can find out all about the artist and her book ... not to mention order it - if you like what you see and read.

Click on the image for a large version.

Copyright © Christina Camphausen - All Rights Reserved. Used here with permission.

Green Energy - What Does It Mean? GREEN?

2009-11-14T21:54:00.017+02:00

Some smart people have found a smart way to harvest energy. And they belief that this harvest is green, though it comes from driving cars. This raises the following questions:
Can Green Energy be harvested from a White Boy? From Black, Yellow or Red people? From Semitic or Anti-Semitic ones? Buddhist, Muslim, or Christian ones? Wicca Witches, Madonna Qabbalists? Taliban Toyota's? Berlusconi Bicycles?

Do cars have to be green to create green energy?
Well, when it comes to harvesting energy, it seems that all racial, cultural, political, religious and other perceived distinctions - for example colour - are not at all important; just the way it should be in the perfect world we do not live in ... have not succeeded to achieve/create.

But with oil having been shown recently to be beyond PEAK already, any such thinking-outside-the-box idea may be valuable.

Naturally, it would probably all work even better if the cars creating this green energy would perhaps even drive using green energy in the first place.
Here's an article explaining the concept, including a video with a soundtrack for the deaf.
I can't help it ... you'll probably have to turn your sound down.

---
Image: Copyright unknown but retrieved from TreeHugger.com

This is the World We Live In ...

2009-11-12T00:32:00.014+02:00

I've always known that this our species, Homo sapiens, is a dangerous one. In fact, there's a sign out there in space (when you approach this Solar System) that actually reads: Planet Earth - Attention! Species is Armed and Dangerous!
I've also suspected for quite some time that ours is a species that falsely regards itself as the pinnacle of evolution, although many members are not actually fit to vote, to have children, to understand the most basic principles of right and wrong, the difference between knowing and believing.

If I had the time, I could present daily proof of these allegations, but time - here on Earth in the 7th or 8th millennium of patriarchy - is too valuable a commodity.

Once in a while, however, I read something along these lines that I really need to share with others (sharing is good, I've heard, for both parties involved: You and Me).
The BBC article Hi-tech Holy Water Calms Flu Fear is one such item, and I really don't mean to smear the BBC - they are just reporting on the Cosmic Madhouse we're living in.
---
Image thanks to the incredible artist/designer David Dees

Fear Mongering: The H1N1 (Mexican Swine Flu) Debate

2009-11-10T23:30:00.014+02:00

There are increasing vocal outrage and concerns from doctors speaking out about the dangers of the H1N1 vaccine. Important research highlights the fact that autism rates double in children as vaccines poison an entire generation and historical data shows that vaccines are not what saved us from previous pandemics.

The dangers of the over-hyped vaccine are becoming more and more widespread. In Washington a RedSkins cheerleader has been crippled for life after being vaccinated. In Sweden, one of the earliest countries to roll out a vaccination program, the further deaths linked to swine flu vaccine bring the total to 4. If those deaths aren't sufficient warning against vaccination, Swedish nurses are reporting side effects and sickness from the vaccine. Incompetent medical staff are further adding to the fears over safety by 'over' dosing children with the H1N1 vaccine.

In short, in the last 300 days more than twice as many people have died from encephalitis than have died form swine flu and more than three times as many have died from dengue fever than from swine flu. So why haven't we heard about the encephalitis or dengue fever pandemics??

What is becoming increasingly clear is that the billions of deaths predicted and propagandized by the media, the WHO and major Western governments are vastly over-exaggerated, yet the worldwide induced panic and fear mongering continues with a vengeance.
--- --- ---
Text and image from Connecting the Dots
--- --- ---
See also this interview with retired Chief Medical Officer of Finland and this news story from Poland. And then there's this recent film on YouTube.
The very best site to visit in order to keep up with all developments around the mild virus and the dangerous vaccines is The Flu Case !!

Fruits and vegetables from China? No thanks!

2009-11-10T18:42:00.013+02:00

Fuji apples, small tomatoes, broccoletti and strawberries saturated with various poisons and grown under acid rain are on our tables. Food products “Made in China” are now invading us.

Entire plantations of products are cultivated on terrain contaminated by DDT and irrigated with water from basins poisoned by toxic industrial waste and by the water from urban sewage disposals. The plants are treated on a regular basis with phosphate-based pesticides and nitrogen fertilizers, which are both highly carcinogenic, rather than risk any imperfections in the harvest.

Lead, mercury and other poisonous substances go directly form the plants to the stomach. They are then deposited in our internal organs, causing permanent damage.

Together with the Chinese apples and vegetables, they are selling us cancer.

--- Text and Image from UnMade in China

Equally interesting is this: the website which posts this text - and other critical information about China - is often attacked (electronically) and made unreachable. Do you wonder by who? I don't.

--- A note to people on Crete
Beware! The most perfectly big and clean looking cloves of garlic in shops here on the island often are - check the labels where you can - from China!

Is the Large Hadron Collider Un-Natural?

2009-11-07T08:02:00.016+02:00

The world's most complex machine ever built, the powerful particle accelerator buried under French and Swiss soil has failed yet again.

Considering that the LHC has been built in order to detect a so-called god particle, it will be interesting to see whether or not it stands up to the principle laid out by Richard Buckminster Fuller:

Whatever nature permits is natural.
If nature does not permit it, it cannot and does not occur.

Is this perhaps the reason why the 6 billion dollar machine doesn't work!? Is it synchronicity that (this time) it was a bird, dropping a piece of bread that disturbed the super-conducting magnetic mandala?

Scientifically speaking, the unknown sub-atomic particle one is searching for is known as the Higgs boson, named after British physicist Peter Higgs - himself a staunch atheist and not at all happy with the more popular name.

Backround Info: Popular Science
Image: National Geographic
Richard Buckminster Fuller. Synergetics: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking (1975; item 1056.02)

UPDATE: The Beast is Working Again (21/11/2009)

Indiginous Energy ... in You and Me

2009-11-05T15:33:00.005+02:00

The image at left is a design of mine for the film Modern Tribalism.
Alas, not every design one makes is being used, and low-fi filmworks
has used something else. Still, I do recommend the film.

Here's a bit of text spoken in the film:

There is indiginous energy in the modern person; an energy that has been sitting there for so long that it's really getting tired of being forgotten and left alone like that ...

And here's the official synopsis:
Journey into America's primitive soul in this "graphic, unflinching and startlingly touching" (L.A. Weekly) documentary about the resurgence of humanity's oldest and most intense rituals. From garden-variety tattooing, to frenzied effigy-burning festivals, to the disturbing extremes of body-piercing, Modern Tribalism explores the cultural context surrounding this underground movement.

And there's a trailer available right here.

Aung San Suu Kyi

2009-11-03T15:34:00.006+02:00

The cover of her biography
PERFECT HOSTAGE
by Justin Wintle (2008)

In Memoriam George Orwell :: 1984 = 2009

2009-11-02T23:43:00.003+02:00

The Quandary of the 21st Century

2009-11-02T23:32:00.015+02:00

The reading that made me write this is concerned with two things: Climate Change and the possible necessity to reduce the breeding of livestock, which means that most of us should turn into vegetarians - unless you already are one.

However, becoming a vegetarian is not what I refer to as quandary, nor do I use quandary in order to imply that climate change presents such a situation. A quandary is nothing more than a difficult and unpleasant predicament, whereas human-made climate change is outright dangerous and possibly disastrous.

Perhaps it is best to read the few lines of text that got me into this philosophical mood:

A 2006 United Nations (UN) report revealed that the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars, trucks, trains, planes and ships in the world combined. The report attributed 18 per cent of annual worldwide greenhouse-gas emissions to cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens and other farmed animals, but new research from the Worldwatch Institute indicates that the figure actually could be much higher. According to Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, co-authors of “Livestock and Climate Change”, raising animals for food produces 51 per cent of all greenhouse-gas emissions.
[quote from Eagle Eye, a blog that is part of the English newspaper The Independent]

Photograph © CCRCC

It all sounds straightforward, doesn't it? A UN report, authors who publish data based on research by the Worldwatch Institute.

Now what I perceive as the quandary, is the fact that these days, we can't anymore believe anyone. It's a general disease that came with the information-explosion and the media-society, with corporations often employing scientists as PR manufacturers.

These days, it is possible that the driving force behind such a report are the industries running on selling oil and making cars. Feeling that they look bad - in environmental terms - they would be interested in telling us that eating meat is worse than driving cars.

On the other hand, the people behind the cited reports could be extremist PETA vegetarians who want to turn meat-eaters into outcasts, similar to what is happening to tobacco-smokers.

Now how can we decide if the data are true or a full blown lie, whether or not spin-doctors have twisted it - and who paid the spin doctors? Each of us would need an army of scientists, desk-clerks and secretaries to find out what's true and what not ... and we can't afford that.

Then again, governments do have such armies of aides, and we actually pay for them, yet to no avail. Watching the carousel of wrong decisions that's known as government ... these Ladies and Gentlemen seem to suffer from the very same quandary as you and I: How to detect a True Lie?

Goddesses of All Four Directions

2009-11-02T17:53:00.010+02:00

Look what I found ... it's beautiful, even though this small image doesn't do justice to the detail of the original.
But go to the Goddess Timeline website and see a better version of this image, plus 3 others. Together, these 4 charts provide us with a well done visual timeline that shows many of the important and known Goddesses.
Seriously, I don't know the artist who made this, Constance Tippett, and I've no reason to promote her work ... but for the beauty of the idea and its execution.

Naturally, no one could prepare a chart with all the female deities that have been worshipped at one time or another by this or that culture ...
Even male Gods the world over number in the thousands, yet the number of Goddesses is even larger.
After all, the Goddess (and matriarchy) was there in the beginning, the Gods (and patriarchy) are a much later invention.

The Situation in Afghanistan

2009-11-02T13:40:00.017+02:00

There is a superb article by Chris Hedges at Truth Dig.
It's bad news, yes, but it's good that this type of news is being published. It tells that the figures in Afghan government are exact clones of the Taliban - it's just that they have a different name: Democratically Elected Leaders (aided by the Western Empire). However, their atrocities and disregard for others - especially women - equals the Taliban in many ways.

And then there's this disturbing article at Slate, in which Christopher Hitchens clearly demonstrates that the West - specifically the United Nations - is in fact complicit to more or less all that's happening there!

I'm so glad to have been in that country when it still was quiet and beautiful - in 1974 - way before the Russians even. The majestic Buddha statues were still standing then, no Taliban was in sight, there were no mines to tread on. I rent a horse and went into the mountains, found surreal landscapes with a terrace of 7 lakes, and friendly people who told me that eating a piece of opium would help my stomach problems.
Photograph Copyright © CCRCC

WOMAN by Neneh Cherry

2009-11-01T17:23:00.002+02:00

Neneh Cherry: Woman (1996)

W.O.M.A.N. by Gina Cloud

2009-11-01T13:16:00.004+02:00

As the subtitle promises, Gina Cloud's W.O.M.A.N. presents the reader with a redefinition of what each and every Woman could be: a Wild, Open, Magical, Authentically-empowered Nectar being - if only women themselves, and the society they live in, would let and encourage them to be thus self-fulfilled.

The book is a remarkable manifesto, written by a sparkling personality with a passionate voice; a mixture of daring vision, personal experience and a sharp, critical eye for the many facets of our society that seem to conspire to keep woman confined to a very limited set of stereotypes.

The author shows how, if WOMAN would redefine herself according to this new vision, she would rather be dancing wildly than be a 'good girl', would love and nurture her own self as well as others, could liberate herself from the various straightjackets that have been imposed not only by patriarchy but also by feminism, by the medical profession as well as the mainstream media, by church, state, neighbors, mothers, fathers and - worst of all - by the very men who profess to love Her.

This book is a perfect gift ... for yourself and others. Read it once, read it twice, and then leave it someplace where it will be found by husbands, lovers, sons or daughters. W.O.M.A.N. is mainly written for women, of course, but there's much in it all genders should know ...

Look for the book on Amazon

Megalithic Temple of the Yoni

2009-11-01T12:46:00.002+02:00

In a paper entitled Stonehenge: a view from medicine (Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, February 2003), Professor Anthony M. Perks has launched the theory that the megaliths have been build in order to represent the Yoni (female genitalia).

Viewed from above, Perks suggests, the inner bluestone circle is equivalent to the labia minora, and the giant outer sarsen circle to the labia majora. Last not least, the altar stone represents the clitoris … and so on.

As was to be expected, the theory has been criticized and made ridiculous in many newspaper articles and on many blogs. What most people do not realize - because hardly anyone reads the original paper - is that Mr. Perks himself has admitted that it’s just a theory; and one that can never be tested, never be proven right or wrong.

Naturally, everyone is free to see it this way or not, but the idea very well fits into the framework of many ancient religious beliefs in which an Earth Mother and other Goddesses had a central role.

One doesn’t have to believe it … but it certainly is good food for thought.

The original article from JRSM can be read in this PDF

Powerful and Beautiful

2009-10-31T17:07:00.003+02:00

Sinéad O'Connor: Troy

Let's hope you read German ...

2009-10-31T16:33:00.013+02:00

... so I can recommend this new and amazing book
Swiss author Doris Wolf has all the details about how the patriarchy replaced the matriarchy ... not only in Egypt but more or less everywhere.

Here's my translation of the title: The Fight against Wisdom and Might of Egypts Primary, Matriarchal Culture - A Criminal History

The book can be ordered from this website: Dewe Verlag

Think about it ...

2009-10-31T15:02:00.008+02:00

Young girl in meditation
on the remains of an ancient temple for a Greek Goddess

Location: Aptera, Chania, Crete, Greece
Photograph: Copyright @ 2007, CCRCC

The Color of Language:A Scientist ‘Claims’, a Politician Knows Better

2009-10-31T13:23:00.005+02:00

Please read the three following headlines with attention to detail:

Professor David Nutt, the Government's chief drug adviser, was sacked today after claiming ecstasy and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol . . .

The Independent, Oct. 30, 2009

Professor asked to resign after he renews criticism of decision to toughen law on cannabis . . .

The Guardian, Oct. 30, 2009

The UK's chief drug adviser Professor David Nutt is sacked after criticising government policies on cannabis.

BBC, Oct. 30, 2009

That’s the Color of Language ... and that’s exactly the stuff I like – it’s so much better than cross-word puzzles, and it even has some sort of connection with reality. Naturally, you only notice it if and when you read all of them in short succession, or if you’re an especially attentive reader, or if you’re a wordsmith yourself.

I have no beef with any of these news-outlets . . . . I’m not exactly sure who is left or right or in the dreadful middle - I just read them, watch them. I’m not English, but I prefer (slightly) European news to CNN or the Huffington Post; just as I prefer Harpers to The Daily Beast and U2 to You2b.

If you really read the three articles (links below), you’ll find the words “claims” or “claiming” in all of them at some point, but it should be clear the truly independent Independent comes across as the least independent of all.

Anyway, after digesting the story (as far as I can know it), I like the BBC version best, although the Guardian sounds better … and it’s also is more essentially English. In the Netherlands (where I lived most of my life), a Dutch paper would perhaps have written “Prominent Scientist Sacked for Critical View of Government Policies”, and a German tabloid could have screamed “Government Finally Sacks Nutty Pro-Drug Professor.”

That’s what I mean with the Color of Language – and that’s how media and politicians usually try to manipulate the minds of their readers, viewers, and constituents. Unfortunately, they often succeed, distorting reality by manipulating language - the oldest trick in the world.

In fact, “He Who Sacked” should be obliged to bow (Japanese style) do to “Him Who Was Sacked.” He, Home Secretary Alan Johnson, should bend at his waist and beg Professor David Nutt for forgiveness. Because, as everyone knows – even without being a scientist – nicotine (cigarettes, cigars, pipes, snuff) is far more difficult to give up than dope (Cannabis, Marihuana, Skunk, THC). Apart form that, most Baby-Boomers will know that a single helping of LSD may have you encounter the Goddess of Love, whereas the equivalent litre of Gin Tonic or Vodka-Cola will have you wake up with the feeling “WHAT TE FU*K.”

Going back to science, this subjective feeling of the experienced user is fully vindicated by Professor Nutt. He may have his name work against him, but his research only confirms what many of us know from first-hand experience.

According to the scientist, gathering what can be gleaned from the three articles linked below, the Harm-Index of popular drugs looks like this:

1. Cocaine

2. Heroin

3. Barbiturates

4. Methadone

5. Alcohol

6-8 not mentioned (probably morphine, opium)

9. Nicotine

10. THC (Cannabis, Marihuana)

11. LSD

12. XTC (Ecstasy)

At present, however, the classification of drugs does not at all reflect the harm they represent, and is as follows (in the UK), though marijuana has recently moved from C to B … which is part of why this row between politicians and scientific advisors is unfolding.

Class A (most harmful)

Heroin, morphine, methadone, cocaine, opium, XTC, LSD

Class B (harmful though less potent than A)

codeine, amphetamines and barbiturates

Class C (low risk)

marijuana (now upgraded to B), tranquilizers, less potent stimulants and mild analgesics

Numbers 5 and 9, you will notice, are not at all classed as drugs. By not speaking of alcohol as a drug, the use of language can again be seen as misleading.. It isn’t hard to guess that there’s a fiscal reason to keeping the sale of alcohol and tobacco legally going – since the tax revenue coming from these addictions is badly needed – not even to mention the profits by the companies selling these substances. When someone speaks about “drug policy”, these two are never even discussed.

And if the Chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs says that smoking cannabis creates only a relatively small risk of psychotic illness, and that taking ecstasy is no more dangerous than riding a horse, he knows what he’s talking about. After all, it’s not as if he’s an Afghan drug-lord or the brother of Keith Richards … he’s the previously respected and carefully chosen chairman of the council.

Last not least, it comes as no surprise when Prof. Nutt states in his BBC interview, that the ‘row’ between scientists and politicians began the moment that England got saddled with the great man who knows all and everything: Gordon Brown.

Sources:
The Independent
The Guardian
BBC

TV interview with Prof. Nutt is here:

Video Interview