"Don't Criti-size what you don't Un-der-stand - For the Times they Are A-Cha-a-nging"
These are words from a 1960's protest song. We now have our say on the internet.
People listened to the protest songs and they were heard on the TV and the Radio.
The internet politics of my generation is being ignored by the mass media.
UKDirectory placed this site at the Number One Political Site listing which you can see @ http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://ukdirectory.co.uk : Select : Mar 06, 2000
This is news. Really New news. Wall to Wall coverage of pain is old. We've seen it all before, time and time again.
The current UK Directory has been temporarily offline since I was silenced through lack of coverage, a lack of democratic coverage. They are waiting for this Phoenix to rise again.
I am trying. My University room is sarcophagus sized with a caged building with a pyramid roof right in front of the window, blocking most of the little light the little window will allow in. I am charged virtually the same for this as 2nd and 3rd year students, who are also in halls for rooms twice the size with twice the light.
They do not allow candles in the rooms but they do allow smoking. I am amazed at how many so called intelligent and self-disciplined people smoke, clearly they do not have the self-control to cope with university life. A smoker is not desirable in the workplace. Smoking is a fire and health hazard for others. I often have to smell cigarette smoke, like an invasion in my room. I also am kept up late at night with louder and louder music and people increasingly out of control logarithmically peaking between 1 and 1:30 at night. Are these people here to study, or are they marking their territory with terrible sonic invasions. I don't often hear music from my on culture here, whilst it is lovely to hear new sounds, I really wish my culture was respected too.
It is a lawless place. I had a jacket stolen from my room, from clearly privileged people and I was told that students sometimes did this "as a joke", theft is a serious criminal offence. I tried to get a better room, one with internet access, so I could update this site, they said that was not possible, even if rooms were available "'cause otherwise everyone would want one". There are those in rooms with internet access who do not use this facility. So this attitude is completely illogical. There is more than one place or set of people employed in this task, universities are bureaucracies which everyone allows and has had to accept. It is hellishly old-fashioned. You have to queue for a long time to have access to the computers in the library.
There is a kind of racism present. As someone who is what I'd describe as "Brown English" I am at the bottom off the heap. Always expected to serve the selfish others, always requested to remain voiceless. When I said to one professor that I felt responsible to update my site and go back in, he patronizingly said that "You should get on with your work" Excuse me, This Is my Work. Reading other people's books is Not Work. If you don't apply what you know what is the point in the knowledge. Also I thought tat Universities were places where debate was encouraged. Clearly Not.
University course structure is also poorly structured. Lectures are raced through with chasmic gaps of time in between them, when you think I could be at home. You cannot interrupt a lecture, so really a Video would suffice, it might be more entertaining. A Universal chat room could be used to ask questions. We are often shown Videos in Seminar sessions, which are brilliant, when we are supposed to be discussing. So if you had videos suggested to view for lectures, and came together for a compact week's worth of seminar sessions, one module at a time, this would be a far more profitable use of all the resources. If you did have live lectures anyone should be able to attend. You cannot afford to be exclusive when you rely on taxpayers for funds, businesses go for anyone, for survival, its the way of the real world. Obviously if you have always been self-funded you can choose. There are no educational institutions like this in this country. Those that think they have been were funded via the fees of those employed and paid for by the government i.e. the taxpayer.
One professor who was taught at the LSE says that only students from certain institutions including his have any chance of any real work in the field, and we are not at one of those institutions. If some degree places are more equal than others even though they acquire the same standard in a person this is a public school system in effect. This sort of inequity should not be allowed to be funded by the taxpayer and this inequality of status must stop. All degrees should be freely Universal and not institutionally accredited. Even the attitudes within the atmosphere surrounding a University favours the adolescent boy, all others have their confidence bashed and dashed.This unreasonable bullying must stop now. It must also stop with companies who recruit college graduates, they must see the silliness of it and shake their heads to see the real world as it really is, not some drunk drug crazed weirdity that displays a distinct lack of awareness of others, which is extremely thick.
Equally inequity created by grants in the past as opposed to loans now should be balanced into justice. All those who, like the Prime Minister, have been given a grant which paid a salary for studying in effect, and also as a result of positive interest gave them bonuses with regard to property price differential. It is his generation which after all their advantages, used their advantageous position to raise the property prices through the roof, so the same relative salary received by subsequent workers was worth less in real estate terms. Now we receive loans, which is our money, we have to pay back, we are paying for our accommodation, we should be given more respect. Also as a mature student, I have paid in, in taxation which has taken away funds I needed to subsidize the already richer than myself. Mature students should receive, and retrospectively to be fair, grants relative to previous work done, this information can be found from forms RD25 + 26. I know, I have worked for the Employment Service. And all those, including the Prime Minister who have received without Prior giving should be compelled to pay into the system: the grant money, their property price differential, and all relevant relative positive interest. Universities are after all short of funds, and we should all practice what we preach, really. I have never heard any news regarding the Premier even offering to fund even his own alma mater, or any others. Alumni should be requested for funds and their contributions publicized. This may in turn encourage universities to support the more selfless sorts, and assist in regaining their intellectual independence. Perhaps prospective dowry forms should be filled in by students, with contractual implications, and support respective of that. This would be particularly useful coming from International Students who are less likely to have any prospect of paying in via UK tax to the system's support.
At the moment because the University is a free-for-all anything goes place this means that the bullies survive who subsequently become those that are the fat-cats and slightly dodge so-called leaders, consequently those at the top are not the best the fittest, and the rest of us suffer as a result.
There is another aspect of boys public schoolism which you can freely see, if you Q-ueue for a bit. Go to the House of Commons and see what I call 'Vicky the Penguins' they are those who tell you where to sit in the Public Galleries. I have never in my visits here seen a woman doing this job. I call them what I do because they look like Victorians and Penguins in their adolescent Eton school Uniform. When I visited when John Major was in charge, they wore standard 'grown-up' suits and you could sit where you liked, now you are selected, if you are one of their favourites you get to sit in the front, now no longer possible for most of the public, otherwise you sit in the back and are bullied if you very slightly move, or attempt to go into a vacant seat with a better view.
I have to say I feel a lack of trust here. There are too many Watchmen watching me and none watching over me at all.
They are far too domineering and dominant. Everyone has rights including women. We all have the right to feel free. Your brain completely freezes over in captivity.
They say "This is as good as it gets". This is not true. Things can always get better ... if the right people are allowed to have their say. I know of a better way. And now it is time for it.
I've been through alot these past 18 months. September 11th was held 'in my honour' because of something I wrote and because of all the flypasts I receive. The foot and mouth crisis was a mega Abramic sacrifice after some farmers wouldn't let me into the fields they presume they own, in reality they are owned by God alone, to see the hosts of wheat so fine, so the blood of the lamb was sacrificed. There were events on the less easy side prior to 9/11 and many after. I thought that if I froze my political activity after September all nasty things would stop. Bali was held in my honour, as was the Dawn journalistic killed to assuage me. I felt pain throughout though I now know it won't stop until I am in a position to make this world a happier, more faithfully based place. I found it hard to obtain real proper food after the Bali bombing, and had to gear myself up to get out of my room which was fast becoming a prison to me. I did have the thought of making false bombs (made of marzipan, oil, wire, and perhaps something that clicked, with a stone) with the words "ALL YOU HAVE TO FEAR IS FEAR ITSELF" on them, to draw people out of their self-imposed terrorism. I wanted whilst my load was so heavy, to lighten others and to make people smile and laugh, not half. It was the stiff upper lip and positive resolve that won us the last war. This is in reality the only way. It was however nice to be seen through my journey on the tube twice by three policeman, that security sustained me. It would be a great priviledge to see some more of that. I do as a different person feel vulnerable at times. Although I live now near to Heathrow I miss the personal flypasts.
My next task is to try to go mobile in terms of internet access so no-one can silence me. I intend to continue to use the location of London to get involved. This is difficult. I visited the BBC News Centre and was told it does not matter how small or how magnanimous your story was, you have to make an appointment. I e-mailed a presenter for one. I had visited at the weekend as I knew from viewing it was all quiet on the newsfront then. The presenter knew I was coming. I still didn't get through. My e-mail didn't bear fruit either. Licence fee payers are paying for TV not pen-pushers telling you to push off. I love the presenters but I wonder whether they have any choice or freedoms' journalistically, or whether they are permitted, I doubt it, to speak the way they feel. It is strange that these same people they seemingly overinsulated are also war zone reporters, this does not add up. The good people are prisoners and the bad are always on the news. There are tonnes of Professors Sighting-The-Blindingly-Obvious. Really my generation isn't apathetic, it is the stories that get covered that are pathetic. All we are saying is give our piece a chance.
I gave up a lot to get to a place where I could obtain opportunity to sort out what I could. I now understand what it is like to be a pop star on tour. I want to rise up again. This has felt like death to me, giving everything up, understanding how I will be treated by the world when I'm gone. This is humiliating, humbling, helpful, healthy and I now aim up high for heaven. I want to fly free as a bird, through that pyramid, up to Osiris, now known as Orion and then flow my love down like a ray of light rain shower of love.