Pete Ashton’s Blog

You might have noticed that BugPowder has been down since Monday. Not sure exactly why - could be they didn’t register the payment, could be a glitch. Whatever, if you sent me an email on from Mnday to Wednesday, the chances are I didn’t get it, so please send it again.

Perfect bloomin’ timing after handing out the URL to loads of people over the weekend…

Cool Bruce Lee SWF movie found by my mate Dave!

[Weirdness]
Closed stations in the Paris subway system. With photos. (via nutlog)

More notes from the spam wars…

Having got the same piece of spam four times in one day I figured I’d try the “unsubscribe” link, which leads to this page…

Please do not waste your time entering anything other than your
email address. This form will not be read by any human, the
use of profanity or expressions will not have any function or purpose.

Unlike the spam.

Of course, it then leads to a “page not found”…

Doors I touched today

This project helped me realize that I don’t really look at the knobs and handles I grasp. I am conscious of my overall goal (e.g., go outside, get a t-shirt, take a shower) but it is clear that I don’t pay much conscious or focussed attention to the details. I believe that I normally look or think past the activity as I am engaging in it.

In a move that is characteristically sweet yet sensible and useful, chum Helen has decided that we (that is to say Brett, herself and I) need a deadline, so September 1st is Show And Tell Day. By that date we each have to produce something, then present it and talk about it. She’s even thinking of hiring a “space” for the evening. I’m going to write a book. I’ve got three months. I suspect everyone else is welcome to join us!

SchNEWS has got it’s sensible and useful head on this week (interestingly a more frequent occurence than in the past):

Healthcare on the NHS is currently free, unlike Social Services, which are means tested. For example, in England at the moment, old or disabled people using council run day centres and residential homes have to pay and are means tested. In “integrating” NHS and Social Services, the government is paving the way for charges to be levelled for healthcare. The government has also made charging easier, by guidelines that limit NHS care to six weeks after a hospital stay or acute illness. People who’ve had a stroke, have Alzheimer’s disease or multiple sclerosis could find they are paying for services newly classified as “personal care”.

As far as I can see there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the NHS in this country. All it needs is decent funding. I would happily pay more taxes for a functioning, free for all health service. But it seems no-one wants to take my money.

Explaination required, because it might go on a while. I’m taking a break from the site for a bit for various reasons but mainly to get a bit of perspective. The main page can still be updated by the other contributors but my personal blog will stay quiet. Hold tight! Back soon!

I’ve been trying to write a letter to my MP about Monday but after three re-writes and an attempt to edit a blog post into a letter I’ve given up. It’s really hard trying to compress this huge mass of thoughts and feelings into a concise letter which stands a chance of being read. I will try again tomorrow though. Having bought the Daily Mail today I feel it’s my duty as a Homo Sapien.

It’s late so I’ll try and keep this brief.

I left work at 4.00 and came home to check on the news feeds from various sources (BBC, Guardian, Standard and Indymedia) while keeping Radio 4 on. I was pleasantly surprised. A lot of fairly positive reporting, not only on the daytime stuff (which passed without much violent incident) but also on the corralling of protestors at Oxford Circus post 4.00pm. Most interesting was that those who had been branded “rioters” yesterday were now called “demonstrators”. It felt like something had changed. (Comics reference: I felt rather like Adrian Veidt at the end of Watchmen.) The ideas were becoming mainstream and being taken seriously by the media and reporters were questioning whether squeezing a thousand people into a small space with battons might not be a good idea, especially as the “violent minority” could quite easily garner support for their actions and spark a fracas. Hell, back me in a corner with a big stick and I’ll come out fighting regardless of the reasons either way…

I went to the pub (with workmates to commiserate the closing of our shop. The irony of our closing because of financial greed taking precedence over people’s livelihoods was not lost on me…) with a spring in my step, although the late edition of the Standard did worry me somewhat.

So I get home half an hour ago and check the news. The wonderfully impartial minute by minute account on the Guardian’s site has ended and points to this this pile of reactionary crap that wouldn’t be out of place in the Daily Mail.

Rioters went on the rampage tonight as London’s May Day protest finally escalated into violence.

Note the finally. Says it all really. I don’t hold much stead with opinion poles, but one that’s been quoted again and again today said that something like 70% of people think transnational corporations put profit before people and have too much power over governments. If you believe this, please don’t let the fuckers get away with this shit. Remember who pays the piper.

This is what it’s all about, in case you had any doubts…

Well, we shall see what happens tomorrow, although I would caution you to take what you read with a pinch of salt. The cameras will be looking for photo opportunities. The smallest piece of violence will be blown out of all proportion and I suspect there’ll have been more crime in your local town centre on Sunday night than in London on May day lunch time.

Apparently Nike Town is staying closed all day. That’s some kind of victory. One thing that has caught my notice is the number of pro-anti-capitalism articles in the press over the last few days, implying there’s a backlash not just against the violent tossers but against the month long scare campaign which has a friend of mine going to work in jeans to avoid being targeted by anarchists.

I picked up the Evening Standard just to see what kind of bullshit they were pushing and yes, the first three pages were classic media bollocks, but then on the comment pages there’s this piece of remarkable clarity from one Noreena Hertz…

If I were to take a stab at describing the defining characteristics that are shared by those who tomorrow will gather in Mayfair to build cardboard hotels, the peaceniks at Victoria Embankment gardens, the bike riders who’ll travel from Marylebone to King’s Cross, the people who will protest against the World Bank, I would say this: that we are witnessing the emergence of a movement that seeks to counter the globalisation of greed with a globalisation of concern. Rather than an “anti” movement, we are witnessing the emergence of a movement that is decidedly “pro” - pro-justice, pro-democracy and pro-equity. It chooses to act outside traditional political channels because its members feel that mainstream politicians will not even admit that a problem exists.

When good old Red Ken Livingstone condemns the protestors because they haven’t told the police what route they’ll be taking for their “march” he misses the point. I went on an NUS march in 1995 and saw it for what it was - a total farce that would achieve nothing. I went on Reclaim The Streets in Birmingham in 1998 and felt I might be involved in something that could make a difference.

I’m getting really fucking pissed off that the ideologies I have great sympathies for are being demonised and denigrated by those who exist to maintain the status quo. One person wrote some anti-war graffiti on the Cenotaph last year. What’s that got to do with a sense of unease about the encroachment of global capitalism….

Ah, time for bed.