My Mum died at the start of this month from a combination of
Clostridium difficile and cancer. Although she entered hospital some 3
months before because of the cancer, it was Clostridium difficile the
"scourge of the health service" that was listed as the primary cause of
her death.
You shouldn't die of something you contracted in a hospital. And its
recognised as an "infectious diarrhea occurring in hospitalized
patients in developed countries."
So much for "the best health system in the world" - Much is changing in our world, not all of it for the better.
Sorry that's all I have for right now. It's not much I know. Still I wanted to say hello again...
I was getting 100,000 hits a month here a little while back. Apparently
that's quite a lot, especially for a little site like mine. I have no
idea what it is now.
Thanks for showing up, if you did. :)
I'll be back soon, maybe... Sorry I can't be more definite folks, the tide of time and circumstance being what it is.
"God Bless each and every one of you" - and that's a quote. ;-)
Please update your bookmarks. I haven't decided what I plan to do with this category yet. I'm sure I'll think of something!
BTW, if you're looking for great mic set-ups to record on the fly with, I couldn't point you in a better direction than Giant Squid Audio Labs. Low prices, great service and top quality components. Check it out, I did and couldn't I be happier with what I recieved! ;)
After tommorow, I will be posting all future audioblogs on 'Distant Fox' only. It makes more sense to keep the feed seperate. Please update your subscription to the new RSS feed if you are subscribed here.
I know I have a tendency to speak out loudly and vociferously where the political arena is concerned. I have a big mouth in that respect. It's always caused me trouble, sometimes more than I could handle. I never wanted to be "that guy" but I can't help it, because I think this stuff is genuinely important.
Every day it seems, I see, hear, or read something that makes me wonder where on earth we are heading as a (supposedly) free society. I'm genuinely afraid for the future. I don't want to be, but honestly I really am. I wish I could believe in some optimistic vision of our collective future, but some days I really don't.
I'm afraid... Sincerely and deeply afraid.
Afraid that not enough voices are speaking out to really make a difference and that there is an agenda in action that the majority of us barely seem to notice, let alone understand. Afraid that repressive policies and practices are being rammed through our societies at such a pace, that not only do we struggle to comprehend them, but they leave us all reeling in their wake.
Sometimes I'm afraid to even speak out, for fear of being ridiculed or marginalised. I hear people expressing opinions that seem to me to be based on very little active research. Instead those opinions sound like they have been inculcated and carefully crafted by others. Most people seem to think that history and society evolve by accident rather than design, I believe the research and facts show otherwise.
I wonder if ordinary people have the strength, courage, or conviction, to oppose (or even understand) the actions of their governments. Even when those actions are deeply immoral and generally understood as such, it seems people feel powerless to resist them.
Thus it is that an American President can assume absolute power by fraudulent means, or that our nation can be dragged into a terrible despairing conflict by dishonest methods, fabricated evidence and blatant deceit, yet there appears to be little we the people can do about it.
My own study of history, tells me that so much of what occurs is deliberate not accidental. That there are powers we rarely see, controlling the movement and development of our societies, but which always manage to remain carefully hidden and shielded from casual scrutiny.
Watching endless successful attacks on our basic freedoms, leads me to question my own place in a culture so unwilling to defend the weak, the marginal or the victims. For if we will not defend our weaker brothers and sisters when the attack dogs are unleashed upon them, how can we expect to be defended when our own time comes to face the bully?
Do we value difference, tolerance, justice? Do we truly? Do we defend the rights of others as we would wish our own to be so defended? Indeed do we even value freedom anymore? Or is it only a freedom that we don't have to do anything to defend that we care about? The freedom to consume what we want when we want it, or to ignore the cries of agony from those that we allow to be victimized in our name, for a cause we supposedly espouse, yet do not truly support or believe in.
Are we willing to give our lives for anything these days? We willingly give ourselves to a million empty distractions. Yet it seems to me, that more and more, there is little we are willing to do to defend anything substantial. Little we are willing to sacrifice and the more unwilling we become to risk anything of ourselves, or to defend the principles we say we believe in, the more frightened I become that those very freedoms will be sacrificed on the altar of our apathy, indolence and ignorance.
I was looking at this journal section last week and was surprised to see that I hadn't posted anything in it since July 15th.
I could rationalize this by saying that my life has been somewhat
uneventful since midsummer, although a more a likely and probably more
truthful explanation, would be that it has been of kind and a colour
that I had no wish to describe in lurid detail.
Living in Huddersfield, with little money, few opportunities, no chance
to travel outside of a very narrow daily orbit, with a non existent
social-life, has certainly NOT been the stuff of high adventure!
The physicality of much of my existence here, has consisted of visits
to the local-shop, walks with Dexter, and occasional trips down-town.
Once there, my task has been to view the list of non-vacancies at the
town jobcentre, spend a paltry sum of money on some small
insignificant item, visit the local library, and catch the return-bus
home.
Fortunately, the tide is turning. I find myself in a more determined
mood of late, and am completely resolved to shift this spirit of
lethargy and defeatism. Thus it is that I have poured myself into
finding work, creating a new site (citizenscoop) and shifting the mood
of defeatism that has gripped a large part of my year.
I've secured some temporary employment, thus (partially) staving off a
very Dickensian Christmas, am busy organizing the citizen-journalism
panel for podcastconuk in November, and my wife and I are both actively
planning our escape route back to city life in Manchester in the early
months of the new-year.
I've learned a great deal from my three years in Huddersfield. Lessons
I believe will prove valuable throughout the rest of my life. I've seen
my own small world in a different context and been forced to re-examine
certain aspects of my reality. I bear no malice towards this town, or
towards my time here.
All of this will serve me well, but, it's time to move forwards.
Staying here much longer would be too much like standing still, and I
hate inactivity! Life is for living, and after a period of reflection
I'm determined to make sure that both Bethany and I live ours.
Late night audioblog. Vox chats about the local elections in the UK,
and offers up some ideas for citizen based conversational networks
using the medium of podcasting.
So much has changed on this blog over the last 16 months, and so many
things have happened on the web. Its difficult to imagine how I felt
the first time I posted, because at the time, I was sure nobody was
listening! Now I know that's no longer the case. :)
This site has become so much more than I ever imagined. Both in terms
of the relationships and contacts I have made with my fellow (digital)
citizens, and also in the way I feel about what it is that I try my
best to do here.
Blogging is fantastically liberating at times. As well as being the most
all consuming pain in the arse! It can cripple your outdoor-social
skills, and turn you and your body into a cathode-ray collecting zone.
Yet strangely, the ability to share information, and to link backwards
and forwards in real-time, to the ideas, conversations, thoughts, and
feelings of others, creates a compelling sense of connectedness with
the world. Even if that world sometimes seems only pixels deep.
Someone told me yesterday, that they hated computers, because they were
driving us all away from real physical asscociation and community, and
into our own isolated little boxes. Personally, I don't feel that
way, although I can sympathise with his sense of disconnectedness. My
interactions with technology, and with the communities of people using
it have been mostly positive, and have considerably broadened both my
outlook, and my relationships with others.
My involvement with Podcasting has certainly led to some
enjoyable and exciting real-life encounters, both with other people who
share my enthusiasm for this medium, and with all the folks I've gone
out to talk to and interview.
Where this blog will be 16 months from now I really can't say. But
hopefully it will continue to improve and to grow, both as a place for me
to express my creative energies in, and as a useful node in the ever
growing chain of connectedness that binds the web together. I'm proud
of the work I've done here, and I'm looking forward to doing more. The
future is bright you know, but only if we choose to be brighter
ourselves.. :)
Have you ever been through one of those times in your life when nothing
you did seemed to work out? When you felt as if merely existing was
becoming a difficult act, and getting through the day a major
achievement? If you answered yes to the following, then you probably
have some sense or understanding of how I'm feeling at the moment. Not
that my response is to give up in despair, simply that I am finding
being in this world more problematic than I have for a while.
Much of the anxiety I am feeling has its roots in societal rather than
personal causes. I have become increasingly aware over the last decade
that the world is in large measure controlled by cliques of dark little
men, who make decisions that affect the fates of millions, primarily in
private, and with little consultation or consideration for the rest of
us. Not only that, but in their quest to bring about what they believe
is the new world we should all live in, it seems they are willing to
lie, cheat, steal, and even kill, if it will aid them in the process of
unfolding their extremely unfriendly agenda. Whilst this may all sound
terribly conspiratorial to those of you who dismiss such things, I
believe that any serious research into such matters would reveal that
it is not. The fact that many people do not wish to investigate such
things, and rationalize the evidence to create comfortable explanations
they can live with, does not make this fact any less true. The
conclusions I have reached, are not based on a desire to believe in bad
things, but simply on a consistent encounter with evidence that
supports the view that these are the real truths we spend so much of
our lives hiding from.
As a result of these conclusions, and because of some personal
difficulties that have aided that sense of weariness, I have at times
this past month considered giving up podcasting and blogging entirely.
I feel tired out with it all, and marginalized in the way that people
who speak out about unpleasant things often are. I'm not trying to make
a virtue out of some misplaced sense of martyrdom here. I recognize
that in many respects my western lifestyle still has some privileges
not enjoyed in certain parts of the globe. Nonetheless the sense of
emotional fatigue I feel, is taking it's toll. How exactly I will
resolve it I haven't decided yet. I might take a proper break from the
whole thing for a while, or I may find that I can snap out of it with a
little detachment and a few days of relaxation. Whatever the solution,
this blog will no doubt be undergoing some changes in the short term.
Vox explains his low key activity, makes some personal remarks, and
says thank you. The music may be somewhat inaudible, as it was
literally on an ipod playing in the background.
I put this together over the course of a week using a friends digital
stills camera, that just happens to shoot a little video on the side.
:) The most dificult thing, apart from watching iMovie 5.0 crash a lot
and waiting for things to save and encode, was figuring out the best
way to get it onto the web! It's a 12.7 Mb file, so please be a little patient with it whilst it is loading!
The bible of consumerism is beating at your door,
It’s hard to keep it out, if you're powerless or poor.
Even if you want to, it's the only thing you know,
Shopping at the temple, where the faithful used to go.
Buying shiny presents that sparkle like the grail,
It’s a free market baby, everything's for sale.
That includes your principles, so leave them at the door,
Here the rich get everything, and forget about the poor.
In the plastic palaces of consumer greed,
Packages of pleasure, on which your soul can feed,
Marketed illusions, they saturate your senses,
Rooms of private property, with cameras, guards, and fences.
A hungry man is not allowed to eat until he pays
If you don't have the money, then you'd best be on your way.
Sorry if your belly is crying fit to burst,
But it's the last one last, and the first one first.
The magic of the marketplace, Coke and Mickey Mouse,
Is nothing but a fantasy a Holly-wooden house,
A dream so big, it sells the world, for slavery and shame,
Everything is packaged here, and branded with a name.
These surgeons of the human soul who target in on you
They know the last four digits of your bank account
Better than you do.
The bible of consumerism, hear the word I preach,
For most of us it will remain forever out of reach.
Consumer heaven we can buy and sell,
And everything else can go to hell.
Money is an idol and greed the path that pays,
The market is our oracle, showing us the way,
Celebrities are prophets pointing to the Promised Land,
Where what we wear, and how we care is carefully programmed.
The cradle of democracy, it can only hold so many,
If we're to have it all, then sorry, but you can't have any!
