The eyes have it (Part 2)

"For those with eyes who choose to see, this nation is afraid of thee."

Brother B 'Counting Backwards To Zero'

There's a famous anecdote on social policy which goes as follows:

NERO was Emperor and the mob had been rioting uncontrolled in the streets of Rome for two weeks. The economy of the world's greatest empire was disintegrating.

The cost of maintaining Rome’s War Machine in addition to the heavy subsidies that had to be paid to the many nations dependent on Rome for support meant that the impoverished government had neither the funds nor the power to stop the riots.

In this tense situation, the Head of Shipping rushed by chariot to talk to the First Tribune.

"The merchant fleet is in Egypt awaiting loading,” he announced. “The ships can be loaded either with food for the starving people or with the special sand used in the Gladiator Stadiums. Which do you want?"

"Are you crazy?" screamed the Tribune. "Things here are out of control. The emperor's mental, the army's about to mutiny and the people are dying of hunger. For the gods' sake, get the sand! We have to get their minds off their troubles!"

Ignoring Western crimes and unconscionable iniquities is a staple of the corporate Western media. Its job is to keep us distracted and fearful enough to avoid asking awkward questions - anyone remember the tanks around Heathrow Airport?

Last summer in a Facebook conversation with a friend I posed a question, swiftly followed by an adroit observation: "Damn! What's with these Somali fishermen pirates? They're a bit intense." Further digging revealed that these fishermen police the waters of Somalia protecting the coastline from poaching (Western vessels steal an estimated GB£300 million in seafood annually from the region) and the dumping of nuclear and other toxic waste. These violations are, and have consistently been, routinely ignored by both the UN and maritime authorities. Thus, with the unswerving support of the population, the fishermen have taken matters into their own hands - a kind of Aqua Robin Hood and his Watery Men. So next time Bob and Lynne Everyman from Marple, holidaying in their luxury Bowrider Motor Yacht just off Puntland, Somalia get kidnapped and their captors demand a ransom of GB£1 million, you now know the reason why, because if you read the mainstream press you wouldn't.

During a night raid on December 27 last year, US-led troops dragged a group of 10 Afghan children from their beds and shot them dead. Afghan government officials said that eight of the dead were schoolchildren, and that a number of them had been handcuffed before being killed. UK news media obsessed with telling us about Jordan 'n Pete, Judy Finnegan's alleged drink problem, Wayne Bridge and John Terry, Ashley Cole, Gordon Brown's bullying and Tiger Woods' porn star texts reverted to type and managed to avoid mentioning it at all.

Assadullah Wafa, a former governor of Helmand province, led the investigation:

“I spoke to the local headmaster. It’s impossible they were al-Qaeda. They were children, they were civilians, they were innocent. I condemn this attack.”

The Western myth or ideology is that, whilst there may well be “mistakes”, the aims of the government are benevolent. But children are a legitimate target: the inhuman spawn of the enemy which hates us for our freedoms. Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, some lives are worth more than others. How else to explain the military's indiscriminate use of depleted uranium? The word "depleted" is of course pure PR spin. It makes it sound like the 'nuclear' aspect of the weaponry is insignificant. It isn’t though. It’s Uranium. U. R. A. N. I. U. M. We're conducting Nuclear War. Some facts:

Depleted uranium (DU) weaponry meets the definition of weapons of mass destruction in two out of three categories under U.S. Federal Code Title 50 Chapter 40 Section 2302.

Since 1991, the U.S. has released the radioactive atomicity equivalent of at least 400,000 Nagasaki bombs into the global atmosphere. The global atmosphere is permanently contaminated, with radioactive pollution having a half-life of 2.5 billion years.

DU on the battlefield has three effects on living systems: it is a heavy metal "chemical" poison, a "radioactive" poison and has a "particulate" effect due to the very tiny size of the particles that are 0.1 microns and smaller.

In some studies of soldiers who had normal babies before military manoeuvres in Iraq, 67 percent of their post-war babies are born with severe birth defects – missing brains, eyes, organs, legs and arms, and blood diseases.

In southern Iraq, scientists are reporting five times higher levels of gamma radiation in the air, which increases the radioactive body burden daily of inhabitants.

Two weeks ago, whilst we all cried for Becks and his missing this Summer's World Cup, a night raid carried out by US troops led to the deaths of two pregnant women, a teenage girl and two local officials. This is an atrocity which Nato tried to cover up and has gone unreported in the western media.

General elections in Britain are a time for us to talk in reverential tones about democracy and the importance of genuflecting before the altar that is the ballot box. The media will endeavour to persuade us to vote whilst insisting on us taking the views of the two main political parties seriously, heaping scorn on those who point out the futility of trying to choose between different cheeks of the same unwiped arse. The media will spew endlessly that this, like all other elections which have come before, is the fulcrum point at which we decide the fate of the nation, but in fact it merely highlights that the media are the ulcerated sphincter.

My eye's much better, thanks.