Viva La Quinta Brigada

As man born to a mixed Celtic ancestry I've always had a soft spot for folk music of all stripes especially Irish though I do think Riverdance is of the devil. And I've always enjoyed every version of La Quinta Brigada I've heard but this one for me is the definitive version.

Further information on the Spanish Civil War can be found at The International Brigade Memorial Trust I also recommend George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia.

Up the Republic!

Hello everyone, August looks to be a quiet month for me blog wise as deadlines are creeping up and I've been packing up my things to prepare for another move for my final year (hopefully)of study. However while I was packing up my DVDs I stumbled across an old copy of a game I used to spend hours on at a time when it first came out. And since it is one of only a handful of video games to deal with politics in a more substantial and intelligent then "there are Nazi's over there go make them dead!" or the more recent there are "Rusky Commies over there go make them dead!".

Republic the Revolution the game is set in a fictional Soviet Breakaway Republic called Novistrana which for some reason always reminded me a little of Moldova where they speak a Simesque gibberish language. In the aftermath of Soviet collapse a Karasov former spy master in the KGB has rising to power in the chaos and turns the nation into a quagmire of corruption and brutality with a crumbling economy.

The players task is to build a political party first in you home town and lead a mass uprising against Karasov in the capitol and become its new leader. How you do that is up to you and the political skills you acquire, you can do the mundane canvassing and petition signing or you can hire hitmen and seize rival faction supporters businesses. The political tools in this game are quite varied and the trick to success is to find which one will work best in the current conditions.

Unfortunately the game is severely lacking when it comes to ideology. You really don't have one, you can choose your party name and a logo from out of 4 options all of which are generic and vague. This I feel is quite a shame as they missed an opportunity for a scenario where you had to weigh up your principals and your most effective yet unscrupulous tactics, but well it was the first game of an independent developer so I guess you have to take what you can get.

For those who are curious about the East and the turbulent politics of the post Soviet Republics such give this game a look especially as it is now going for under a fiver.

The Time Machine

“I could hear their murmuring laughter as they came towards me. Very calmly I tried to strike a match. I had only to fix on the levers and depart then like a ghost. But I had overlooked one little thing. The matches were of that abominable kind hat light only on the box”

Good afternoon dear all. I first read the Time Machine a while ago and watched the 1960's film even further back in time but strangely enough something about writing up yesterdays post got me thinking about it again and given that its just 90 or so pages long decided to reread it.

It didn't take to long for me to remember what I found so familiar, it was the relationship between the Eloi and the Morlocks and how its essentially the same relationship we humans currently have with cattle only in the year 802,701*.

Interesting anyway since I've started and there are definitely a few people out there on the old global spider web that haven't had the pleasure of reading it so why not fill out some time by giving my thoughts on it and the film since a kind off enjoyed it as well even if there were a number of differences which I felt weakened it.

The Time Machine perhaps unsurprisingly given its exactly what it says on the tin title and the fact that it was first published in 1895 is the first story to actually involve using science and a nuts and bolts machine to well travel through time. There were a few older tales about time travel but they involved either visions and hallucinations or in the cases of myths and legends the Gods and magic. The science is obviously since its a readable fictitious narrative about time travel being written by a social commentator and writer in the late 19th century is a bit wonky for example if it stays in the same spot in space and only travels through time then wouldn't the traveller (none of the Victorian characters including the traveller get names)die in space as the Earth rotated around the sun?

Anyway the plot is that the traveller wishes to journey far into the future to view what great achievements man will have made and to see what Utopia would actually look like and briefly speculates on it including a society that brace yourselves has developed a practical program of Communism "To discover a society" said I "erected on a strictly Communist basis".

Unfortunately he over shoots somewhat and ends up smack bang in the year 802,701. This is perhaps the biggest break the film makes with the book as it has the traveller jumping around a Cold War style time thats quickly hotting up first before getting to the far distant date. This change also lays the foundations for much of the other alterations (the rest being the usual Hollywood games) that occur when the Traveller gets to the 802000s.

In the book he finds that man which has already achieved its Utopia millennia ago has had to face no hardships of any kind, politically, socially, militarily and bacterial. And as such evolved to the point of permanent infantile state both mentally and physically. This new race is called the Eloi, there about four feet tall have a very limited language rarely exceeding three syllables and no equivalent of grammar and have so short attention spans that when the traveller finally learns there language and begins asking them simple questions they quickly get bored and play with the flowers, "O brave new world that has such people in it" hey? Anyway his time machine soon turns up missing and he knows these cabbage patch kids couldn't have done it for quite a few reasons so he is stuck there for a few weeks. Whilst there he hypothises that due to the Utilitarian nature of the Elois clothing and shoes and there communal lifestyles -they are always in groups and all sleep together in big decaying ruins- that society had already achieved its Communist paradise a while back he then finds out he was completely wrong when he meets mankind's over bastard child the Morlocks.

The Morlocks are the slightly bigger and more intelligent Albino Cave dwelling versions of the Eloi and live deep underground in a vast series of caverns filled with the previous societies old machinery, this global workshop is connected with the surface by a series of deep ventilation shafts which the traveller initially mistook for High Ground Wells (geddit?). This causes the traveller to change his hypotheses as it now seems much more likely that the opposite of Communism appears to have happened and the continued entrenchment of the class system has now resulted in genetic and physiological divides as well as socio economic since Labour was force to toil underground while the Aristocracy enjoyed the surface.

This arrangement while no doubt enjoyable by the future Capitalist seems to finally bit them hard as since everything was literally provided for them out of site there descendants the Eloi have become completely useless and at the mercy of the Morlocks, who lacking any food supplies down below have turned to exploiting the one large source of potential meat left the Eloi. Effectively exploiting and treating like cattle the very people who centuries earlier exploited and treated them like pack mules. So quite an interesting take on Marx's concept of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

In the film however the Eloi and the Morlocks are the descendants of those Cold War states shown earlier, and both maintain human intelligence in fact the Eloi are still human and are all twenty year olds and white though the Eloi have no education and are still pretty empty headed. And the Morlocks are Green evil cave men who do everything they do with a very strong case of senseless malice. Guess which side was supposed to be which in that Cold War future.

Whereas in the Novel the Morlocks aren't actually evil, they kill the and eat the Eloi becasue they have no choice its either that or starve they've evolved to be meat eaters and the only consistent source of meat left are the Eloi hell when there not eat them they actually take good care of the Eloi, there clothes and shoes I mentioned earlier? made by the Morlocks in fact the Morlocks treat the Eloi much better then we humans do to the animals we kill for eating especially when compared to battery farms.

Also another minor gripe in the film they make the Eloi female Weena a buxom young lass and love interest for the traveller. You know the usual crap Hollywood forced on every film at the time. In the novel shes like an Eloi he saves from drowning and whom bounds with him in a relationship similar to an uncle and young niece given that shes four foot tall not very energetic and not to bright. Strangely though they did keep the docile lack of intelligence of the character in the film.

I would go on but really the story is only 90 pages long and theres nothing left but the ending to talk about and while I feel its fine talking about discussing and analysing a novels themes and events as it helps a person make up there mind whether or not they're interested in it blabbing about the climax kind of ruins the whole thing.

* Yes the book does explicitly state that this is the comparison but I did already draw that conclusion before that point.

A beefeaters opposition to cattle battery farms

Good morning all, well its a new month on this blog and I think all twelve of you who've stuck around for the duration will know what that means, thats right a 38 degrees post but this ones a very special plug/rant as its about a campaign that is taking place rather close to home.

Its about opposing the implementation of battery farms for cows in Lincolnshire which is the county in which I live (well technically the North East of it)and is an area that I care very much about. oh and if you don't live in the area then that isn't an excuse to give this one a miss, as we all know ideas and policies travel and the more accepted they become the harder they are to fight when they encroach on your back patio.

First off I think I should qualify this by stating that I am not a Vegetarian or an dietary eco-warrior, and may views on animal "exploitation" for want of a better term are this as long as the actions taken are for the benefit of the human race and don't involve the extinction of the animal in question or create a new type of disease or some sort of weaponisation then go ahead.

And its those views that are the main reason I'm against these plans. The new "mega barns" reduce the quality of the meat and milk due to severe exercise dietary and environmental factors keeping the cattle penned in and sickly. It therefore not only doesn't benefit man in fact it actually does the opposite and becomes to mans detriment with the inferior meat and milk and now that I think about their skin wouldn't tan well either so the leather would be of poor quality too.

They also cause an environmental detriment to local yellow bellies*, as the large warehouse style barns will not only spoil the view somewhat, more so then those Wind turbines which I personally think are kind of nice; they'll also increase the amount of waste and carbon gases (tee hee) that will get out into the atmosphere aiding climate change and creating horrendous smells which I can't see will do the tourist board any favours. And for once I'm not making a scatological reference for the sake of humour here either, anyone whose been to Lincolnshire the Agriculture heartland of the Nation on a warm day on field fertilising day will know what I'm talking about here.

And lastly theres the local economy aspect, anyone whose caught a recent episode of Country file or its ITV knock off I mean commercial equivalent Country wise will know that Britains agricultural sector is already up to its neck in the cow manure (this scatological reference is for humour) with council looking to sell off there farms for big profits usually for land development for some kind of mega mart. And this policy if implemented will only further there woes, its essentially the equivalent of open big supermarkets who have enough capital behind them to undercut all there smaller competitors much like the Tesco and Asda have done to the corner shops and local bakers in many of are communities.

* People who live in Lincolnshire,

The Far Right Internet and Death threats

Are politics on the internet. Youtube personality Richard (the Dick) Coughlan has had a somewhat mixed reaction to his BNP exposures last week, the video below is from a self confessed BNP supporter and comrade of Combat 18 and is definitely in the "not a fan" column of Coughlan's BNP series and decided to leave the ranks of the silent majority and use his democratic rights to register his discontent.

He does this by threatening to go on down to Faversham with a crew of boys to beat the shit out of him. Truly Democracy in action.


Now this is the internet and that death threat was clearly all bluster, and it is true that every political movement has those oddballs and quacks among there ranks to ensure embarrassment for all. But in the case of the BNP this kind of behaviour is nothing exceptional and is in danger of becoming quite mundane.

Australia to hold snap elections

It seems Australia's about to have a fresh election in August after Current PM Julia Gillard (pictured) ousted predecessor Kevin Rudd.

I must confess I'm a bit out of touch with the political intrigues of the Prison Continent, which is a bit embarrassing given A the Labour (or Labor) party is in power and B I have a quite large number of relatives living over there.


Still I was able to find this artists impression of how the power struggle occurred, enjoy.

The Face of British terrorism

The UK has been blighted by a long history of political violence (terrorism) and sadly as the 21st century has shown that heritage to still be quite popular with certain groups in our society. We all know about 7/7 and the news happily drives to down town Belfast every time a dissident Irish Republican or Unionist drunkard get fed up with not being allowed to get a gang together to take out there frustrations on the nearest "proddy" or "papist" like in the good old days of the troubles, and starts lashing out to wreck the peace process.

But theres one group that kind of gets overlooked its the good old home grown white power survivalist groups of terrorists. The BNP has a rather chequered history with groups and individuals who are shall we say a couple of bourbons short of full biscuit tin.

The one who takes the cake of course is the case of Robert Cottage and Davis Jackson, a summary of there arrests can be seen below.



Another special mention goes to Terrence Gavan a nail bomb maker.

Acts like these tend to be ignored by the main stream media, the case in the video above received only a brief mention in the Newsbriefs section in the Sunday Times. Reasons for this differ wildly but the most logical seems to be that White nationalist terrorism doesn't really fit into the atmosphere of fear that the war on terror phenomena has cultivated, in that the main enemy in this narrative are the "Islamic, and the middle eastern" so editors and the like probably don't think that these stories would get as much attention as they would if Robert and Terrence were called Ahkmed and Ali.