Category Archives: Uncategorized

The document which proves the UK government is censoring on-line criticism

1984 – a little later than predicted but today’s Tories are definitely better than everyone else and want to keep it that way.

Pride's Purge

(not satire – it’s the UK today!)

UPDATE – Good news. Perhaps as a result of all the negative publicity, Twitter has decided to reinstate the @UKJCP account. A failure for the DWP and a triumph for satire and freedom of speech.

After a FOI request, a DWP official has released a copy of the official complaint it made to Twitter which resulted in closing down a parody account on Twitter of the Department for Work and Pensions.

In the remarkable document, an official at the Department (Jon Woodcock, Brand Manager at Department for Work and Pensions) openly gives the reason for wanting to close down the account as “deliberate and malicious intent to devalue and criticise the work of Jobcentre Plus ….. UK government, elected politicians and the heads of large private sector organisations”.

Here’s the relevant section of the document, in which Mr Woodcock explains why the…

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Instagramming A Suicide Bomber

A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

#Instabomb.

I’ve been wondering if our media salivates like Pavlov’s dog when they get wind of yet another explosion takes place in this country. Their coverage sure always sounds like a kid who was given a new shiny toy on Christmas morning: relentless, excited, carefree, all over the place and – more importantly – chaotic.

I, for one, live in lala land. As a consequence, I’m becoming more or less ignorant as to what’s taking place around me politically. I’d like to think of it as a blessing in disguise. It feels good not to know sometimes. What’s constant throughout my enforced ignorance, however, is people always telling me about the horrors they’ve been seeing on television as if the explosions we all have to withstand were not enough: we are also being forced to get desensitized to the charred remains of human beings.

Social media has done wonders to…

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Morgan Stanley to pay $1.25-billion settlement for bad mortgages | News | DW.DE | 05.02.2014

US banking giant Morgan Stanley has agreed in principle to pay a $1.25-billion settlement for its involvement in the housing market bust. The bank allegedly misled investors about mortgage-backed securities.

via Morgan Stanley to pay $1.25-billion settlement for bad mortgages | News | DW.DE | 05.02.2014. Today’s $200 pass go card to stay out of jail after killing the livelihoods of millions of people?

Awaken Me #poetry #photography

penned in moon dust

a new year 035

I lay here

cold and solitary

life passes by

I too inert to cry

*

Free once

to laugh and sing

 formed of sinew and bone

I now a mindless stone

*

“Where do you go?”

I call as they pass

you eddy and whirr

I dream to  momentarily stir

*

no use

I never can drift

with a meaningless sigh

once again I close my eyes

*

This poem is symbolic of my blogging state today. I am frozen and for some unknown reason can’t change a post I needed to reschedule. So I, like the stone, watch the words go by and I have little control.

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Building Community in Cleveland: A Story of Weaving Gifts

Emergence

“What you see depends on what you are looking for.”                                                                                         – Jan Thrope, Inner Visions of Cleveland 

In my last post, I talked about extending the right kind of invitation as part of building community – and the importance of asking about people’s gifts and assets, rather than focusing solely on their needs and problems.  I shared the story of Adele from Indiana.  Through conversations that invited Adele to talk about her gifts, combined with intentional acts of connecting Adele to others in the community, Adele’s cooking skills were activated in ways that not only benefited her own quality of life, but the broader community as well.  I ended my post by talking about the inherent power of stories like Adele’s to create a new narrative for community based on hospitality, gifts, and connectedness, and so I issued an invitation for others to also share their experiences.

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Egyptian Aak. Week 5 ( Jan27-Feb 2)

Nervana

Main Headlines

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

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Carmel’s Settlers Interpretation of the Jewish “New Year of the Trees day”

The Villages Group: Cooperation in Israel-Palestine

Had the Jewish settlers of Carmel held their Tu Bishvat (the Jewish “New Year of the Trees day”) tree-planting ceremony on January 16, within the borders of their settlement, Carmel, it would have been taken as a fait accompli by whoever has become accustomed to the fact that Carmel inhabits the lands of others. But their “New Year of the Trees” plantings took place on a range that the sheep of the Umm al-Kheir’s Palestinian shepherds pass on their way out to graze, for many years. The planting on this range was no coincidence, it was meant as a declaration – “This is ours, and so is that”.

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday (17, 18, and 19 of January, respectively) the shepherds came through as is their custom, and the army stationed on the range did not stop them. On Monday, January 20, an incident took place when Umm al-Kheir shepherds…

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