Music | The Riots: A Grime Perspective

<strong>Music</strong> | The Riots: A Grime Perspective

Plan B - ill Manors

Straight from da Tomb. AKA Lenin's Tomb

A joint statement from the Conservative Party and the conservative press posted by lenin

The government and the right-wing media would like it to be known that they are very disappointed with the lack of scruple, principle and resolve on the part of the capitalist class. In these difficult, austere times, it was incumbent on them to make very public, proud, ostentatious use of freebie labour, and to show class-wide unity in the offensive: not wilt under the slightest pressure from the Socialist Guardian BBC Bloody Trotskyspart General Strike Workers Party.

The aforementioned parties have therefore decreed the following:

1) it is a disgrace that a tiny party with no seats in parliament can make us look likely bloody idiots;

2) of course, we don't look like idiots - they look like idiots, we look great, and we're winning (winning, winning, winning!);

3) businesses have to stiffen their spines and stop pretending that they're embarrassed to be seen in public with us... yeah, well, does our face look bovvered?;

4) you turn if you want to, Greggs, Tesco and the rest, but we're not for turning, unless you want us to. Do you want us to? Do you want some free money? We'll give you free money. Look, have Iain Duncan Smith's house, he doesn't need it, he sleeps in the fucking crypt.;

5) it's not true that we're very unpopular. The SWP is very unpopular. We have written it in our columns, and said so on the television, and now everyone knows just how unpopular the SWP is.;

6) the SWP is a tiny party, completely irrelevant, things would be perfectly okay if everyone would stop talking about the SWP.;

7) the SWP has eaten our hamster.


Nicked from Leninology.blogspot.com with Thanks : )

In The End

And In the End, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

Goodbye for the time being, I'll be back when I'm back : ) Love y'all

Egyptians set up new obelisk

The new Obelisk has all the names of the martyrs from the revolution engraved on it. Long live the people, Victory to the revolution ... May god bless all the martyrs and may they rest in peace.

"Icons" by Mark Fuller at the Nucleus Gallery, Chatham

Mark Fuller's exhibition of his work at Chatham’s Nucleus Art Centre Gallery, the show was on until the 22^nd December 2011. However, to call it an exhibition is an understatement, in the traditional sense of the word. It was more than an exhibition although still that, it was an experience, a chance to step into a world of make believe, to leave behind the mundane and be filled with and moved by sheer joy and fantasy.

The exhibition called “Icons”, had the initial appearance of the work of Andy Warhol and his Icons. Mark Fuller’s ‘Icons’ are slick, compelling, up to date and of this generation. I would be so bold as to say that it is even better than Warhol as the experimental stuff that arguably rendered meaning superfluous in Warhol, such as the famous Campbell’s soup for example has not been included or anything like that, and so Mark Fullers Icons are refined, they take you away from reality for a while, you can escape into the lives of people who look good, and have a purpose, or maybe not so much a purpose, but they are resolute, purposeful and driven people, how wonderful it is to escape and feel what it is to be them for a while, feel what they mean to you, and remember too what they have meant to you in the past .

Mark is a full time civil servant by trade, he has one grown up daughter who studied art at college and his partner is expecting a baby in March. His spectacular work (all from this year) is done from a makeshift studio in his home. He is from and currently lives in Medway.

This evocative exhibition begins with icons of fast cars like Ferraris, and porches, there are also camper vans; how good it must feel to drive a fast car and escape life in a camper van …

Then you come to the most powerful iconic image of our generation, that of Vincent and Jules from the film Pulp Fiction, they each carry a piece, they are uncompromising in their stance and the impression is that no-one messes with them. It s so evocative; isn’t that how we would all like to be in real life? To escape from who we are, with our inadequacies and idiosyncrasies, its so good to imagine ourselves to be just like them for a while, even for a split second!

It really is a thrilling image; it sets the tone for what is to come, Michael Caine, James Bond and others that really “kick ass”. The exhibition tells half the story, it’s told in a masterfully slick way; the icons are all black and white, bold and sharp. Bright colours are added to background and/or to props, they set and frame the icons. We then are the subject of the other half of the story, how the icons affect us and allow us to escape, we are moved and can shake up the world, just as they (the icons) do and have done. I guess for me one of the highlights was Jimi Hendrix, he is so cool and seeing him revered and encapsulated as an Icon is a glorious experience!

Of course, all the fast cars, guns and ammo really mean nothing without a woman or a girl around, and there you see them, great iconic feminine beauties; Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe. Classy and gorgeous, their presence rounds off the exhibition and makes it complete. Complete in the excitement of a man’s world, exciting and now gentle too.

Well done to Mark Fuller on an exemplary exhibition, I wish him all the best and hope that he will go far.

A mental health service user's perspective on the 'Recovery Model'

I would certainly not describe myself as 'recovered', although that is a term and a concept developed by service users as a far back as 1995. It was introduced as a concept to challenge those who would set us apart from others, denigrate us in society. It was an attempt we made to be better understood and accepted.

The response to the concept of 'recovery' has been mixed. It is now adopted as the new model in mental health, no reference or credibility has been given to the service users like myself who initiated the whole concept through giving talks on mental illness around the country, taking questions and answers and so on. Framing mental illness as an understandable phenomenon to everyone. Some of my first thoughts and writings on the subject are in documents archived by the National Perception Forum.

That reality and history has been obscured and, under the recovery model, we are treated as if we are stupid and have to be pushed and cajoled into work as part of our 'recovery'. It doesn't seem to occur to those administering 'recovery' that we do actually live in the community now, so many of us know where and how to find jobs. Many of us have already tried with varying degrees of success to work, we do not need to be pushed around.

The ultimate aim in the 'recovery model' is to discharge us from mental health services and the mental health remit altogether, the 'logic' being that we have 'recovered'. That is dubious and lacks understanding of mental illness, emotional distress and the ensuing disability.

After a true breakdown, we do not ever really recover, as I have not. It still remains that I would dearly like to have a close relationshiop with another person, but that ( which many people may take for granted) is a near impossibility for me. I cannot watch TV as it either bores me to distraction, or I have uncontrollable fits of crying. Emotionally, I cannot cope with being around children. I cannot go out easily therefore I stay in on my own. I cannot go out at night, and have a poor understanding of money. I have auditory, visual and tactile hallucinations, panic attacks, night terrors, panic attacks at night and I self harm, the scars are there for all to see. Then there are permanent physical health problems from the long term use of psychotropic drugs including mood stabilisers, problems such as diabetes, oedema, weight gain, muscle stiffness which leads to a sedentary lifestyle and exacerbates problems.

The 'Recovery Model' now adopted is highly patronising, it assumes we know nothing and that there is nothing wrong with us, therefore there is no duty of care, but we do still have to take medication.

What I would like to know, now that I have expressed a little of what it is like from a service users perspective, is how do the staff feel about constantly making us do their work for them? I will give an example ( although there are plenty of examples like this), it will hopefully make it clear; groups are set up in the community to help mental patients, like a 'walk and talk' group, or a 'walking group', we are then told that we will then (after a period of time) have to run it ourselves. It is because it is an 'aid' to our 'recovery', and we should not get dependant on services. Is it such a terrrible sin to depend on others? ( and are we very bad children if we let this happen?). According to the recovery model, it should not be, we should not be dependent on anyone for anything. Are we not human then? Surely as human beings it is acknowledged that we are social beings and not solitary, does this not apply to menatally ill people too? How come we as mental health service users should have nothing, no support, no day centre, no care ... only medication? Told to do voluntary work? This is not 'recovery', it is more like 'exploitation'.

Treatment and care has come full circle to what was there before, but now, there is actually much less support.

This is known as 'Ego Documentation', here is my up to date version.

Throughout my life, I have felt on the one hand a great love for the world, for people and animals, but also a deep concern. An example of this is how I feared nuclear holocaust in the 1980's; to the extent that I was inconsolable for a long time, my sister managed to talk me round, eventually, when I finally opened up to her and said what was wrong.

Around this time too, I made a decision that I would probably not bring any children of my own into the world as I felt that life was already hard for me and would be getting worse, I did not want them to suffer as I did. I was also feeling that I had no choice but to become active in politics in order to stop the attacks on our livelihoods, ( this was around the time of the Miner's strike; Margaret Thatcher's heyday). It was a fear I had ( maybe irrational, maybe not), that if I became a target because of my views, I did not want to have children who might be used by others as a way of getting to me, forcing me to cease political activism.

As I got more deeply involved in politics, I became bent on being part of destroying the existing system ( capitalism) and that was it. I was singular in this aim, I did realise that it might be a little over the top, but I rationalised this by thinking and believing it was my role in life, that I was a bit like Kali ( the dark destroyer from Hinduism) or that I would emanate her. Such single mindedness may have also been compensation too. An escape and outlet for the unhappy and failed close relationships I experienced that seemed to feature in my life.

Another element was that I felt responsible for many people's spiritual or emotional deaths. On tackling other peoples political beliefs, I would strip them of their own belief systems, attempting to bring forth an understanding of the world as a class system. Any defence of the system was met with contempt and derision from me, I made it clear that a position of defending the system was unacceptable to me. I was highly destructive in many respects.

There were so many issues, political and philosophical that I was unfamiliar with and may not have fully appreciated or understood, but I always did my best to understand theoretical concepts and historical events. I was though, developing a vicious tongue and a heavy burden, in the sense that I felt like all the world's problems were on my shoulder.

So this was me; unhappiness and failed/ failing relationships, anger at the injustice in the world ( which was enhanced by being a political activist, by being more and more exposed to examples of cases of injustice), a combination of emotions that ran so deep within me and it could not go on, so I flipped out and had a nervous breakdown, or, a spiritual death.

This experience made me extremely flat ( zombie like even) and it did feel like I was in Hell. I still had a sense of humour and a sense of love for others and for humanity. Although it was hard to hang on to those things at times, I did manage it and I survived (to tell the tale).