The People's Democratic Republic of Birmingham

Another theory of mine is that anyone who is a humanist is a better person than someone who is good because their religion tells them to be.

To me a humanist is someone who acts in a decent and kind manner to other people because they acknowledge the fundamental human-ness of other people. They act in a moral way beause it is simply the right and correct thing to do to other thinking beings, because of a fundamental empathy: kind of a “we’re all in this together, so let’s just be decent and moral to each other, huh?”

Whereas it seems to me that most religious people are good to other people simply because they are told to be so… when they are good to other people at all that is.

So we have people who are moral because they recognise the fundamental humanity of other people – and people who are moral because they are forced into it. I know which ones I would rather hang out with…

The fundamental problem with.. gun ownership on a massive scale

I read a blog recently that contained some excellent points in favour of gun ownership and against gun control. It was excellently written and raised points I had never considered before: things like never count on being able to undo your actions, and the universe doesn’t care about motives: very cogent stuff.

The trouble is I live in England where we just do not have guns – and as a result we have a rate of gun related deaths about 100 times lower than in the USA. The trouble is you see that a gun is a very efficient tool for killing people. And the reason for arming a peasant militia against a numerically superior standing army just do not hold any more; listen up America – the English redcoats are no longer coming! You can stand down the local militia! – You no longer need to arm everyone capable of walking in a straight line because your agrarian economy is not yet productive enough to support a standing army!!

I have a deep and profound problem with gun ownership by the majority of the population and the blog mentioned above got me thinking…

If everyone in fact owns a gun then the people who win – and by win I mean survive to reproduce – are those people who are willing to shoot first. As I detailed above – a gun is a very efficient tool for killing people: on average if you are shot then you do not get back up and return fire like they do in the movies; the person who shoots first is the person who still has choices and options: they can finish you off or let you live.

So – do you REALLY want to live in a society that is by Darwinian selection weeding out people who will stop and think before shooting? – a society that encourages people to shoot first?!

I sure as hell don’t! – and the trouble is we do not have to imagine what such a society is like: we are living with it today, and the invasion of Iran is the giveaway sign of an entire culture willing to Just Shoot First.

I tend to think about things a lot – some would say too much. I think about people I despise – like Aryan or white supremacists – and think about the many, many different ways in which they are wrong.

Now I am not arguing here about how they are wrong in moral or ethical terms: I think that is self evident and obvious to anyone. These people are the most revolting bigots possible and I would say that to their faces. (in fact in my younger days I once literally and physically chased some fascists off the streets: it was the BNP who were standing for election in south Birmingham: and this bunch of so called master race low IQ thugs ran away from one bloke and three small Asian pensioners… So displaying their physical cowardice as well as their moral cowardice)

Anyway: I digress. The point I want to make is this: anyone who bases their theories on the so called “purity” of the white race is WRONG…

The facts are that Humanity evolved about sixty thousand years ago in East Africa: somewhere in the Rift Valley. This means of course that the first humans to walk on the face of the Earth were black.

This means that every other race is a mutation from the black race. The white race evolved a fairer skin to cope with northern latitudes and colder winters; the Asian, Arab, Polynesian and all races evolved their different characteristics to cope with the different conditions they encountered.

This means that the purest humans – the first beings it is possible to give the label of “human” to – the original from which all other races are mutations – are black! The Pure Race that these white supremacist IDIOTS talk about is black!

The irony inherent in this is just delicious!

It was a cold Saturday morning in November 1998, and I was on my way to meet Bryan Talbot at the Bluecoat Chambers in Liverpool. It is a weird thing to meet your hero, and I was filled with anticipation: what would he be like in real life? And when I say “hero” I don’t use the word lightly: I have been reading his work for years and it has always had a profound effect on me. Indeed that is one of the reasons I started this website,because in my Humble Opinion nowhere near enough people were aware of his work: I mean how can someone say that the Watchmen, or the Dark Knight Returns is the best comic of all time if they have never even heard of the Adventures of Luther Arkwright?!
I got to the venue with massive amounts of time to spare – I wasn’t going to be late for this one! I managed to blag my way in for free, and also to cadge endless free coffees off the organisers: the skills I learned at University were still there! Then the call went round: Bryan has arrived!

So, eager to fulfill my reason for being there, I hurried down to the car and lugged a HUGE suitcase of his work up to the room whilst he parked, and then….. and then he walked in….. I have never been so overwhelmed in my life! This chap is my personal hero of ALL time: no other artist / author / musician has had anywhere near as big an effect on me, and here he was, large as life!

And he was really cool! I mean here’s me a total sad fanboy who has done a fanpage on the Web and he’s talking to me like I’m an old friend: showing me the new pages he’s done for the Luther Arkwright sequel, and being a totally sound bloke. All day I helped behind the stall, taking punters cash and convincing people to buy his stuff, because it is simply the best, and all day he kept coming up to me and saying “Here’s a copy of Chester Hackenbush (or Ace Wilmslow, or Frank Fazakerley) – have you seen it? No? – well here’s a copy” I mean, all these pieces of work that I have known about for years but never actually seen, and he is casually dishing them out to me!
In the end I spent a huge wodge on goodies, including one of the fine art prints of One Bad Rat, and Bryan signed most of them with extra personalised bits. I even had the temerity to ask for a snapshot of me and him together, and the Maestro said “Sure!”

All in all it was deeply satisfying, meeting this chap who I have built up a detailed mental picture of over the years based on his work, and then being treated so well by him. Now I know Bryan checks up on this page from time to time, so I don’t want to embarrass him by gushing too much: suffice to say that it was a day I’ll always treasure, and you’ve made a fanboy VERY happy.

This blog is republished from an article I wrote for the Bryan Talbot fanpage in November 1998.

Compulsory water meters are just great for the environment… but they don’t go nearly far enough.

Grey water recycling schemes use the water from your bath or shower and sink to flush your toilet. Do you honestly what water is used to flush your bog?! Didn’tthink so…

But if I told you I could cut your water usage by 30% OVERNIGHT by using your bath and sink runoff to flush the toilet I bet you’d be interested then.

And if you added rainwater harvesting to to the mix you could add another 10 to 25% cut in water consumption.

That’s a total of 40 to 55% water reduction possible immediatley! All it would need the government to do is to make grey water use and rain water harvesting compulsory on – say – all new homes in 5 years time and all other buildings in 10 years time – and tell everyone that if they install it now (or within the next 2 yesrs) they get a 100% grant that diminishes by 10% every year after the next 2 years.

Yes there would be the usual whinging – but who could seriously have a problem on legitimate grounds? Here in the UK we are on a very small island with too many people putting a lot of stress on all of the resources. Soon the ground water in aquifers will run out and we will have no choice but to implement these measures.

(did you know that water in aquifers is called “fossil water” – on account of how long they take to fill… that should give you a clue as to the stupid short termism of relying on water from these sources… as we do in the south of England currently…)

I know that I can create an atmosphere of doom and gloom here at times, what with my ranting about the environment and how we need to do something about it right now – but there are things that are happening that give me hope for the future.

One of these is the fact that Birmingham is fast on the way to becoming the first ethnic majority city in the UK. How cool is that? This once grimy manufacturing city has thrown open the doors to everyone who wants to pay us the ultimate compliment of coming here to live! We will have the really rather cool situation of white people being in the minority – which is something every white person should experience once in a while….

I have been there myself several times. Recently I went along to the judging of the Birmingham Carnival Queen competition to take photos for the Birmingham Carnival website that I run; whilst there I was literally the only white person in the building. I did not feel threatened in the slightest: maybe because I knew that most people there knew that I ran the website and that I was a vehement anti racist. But – I was most definitely in the minority and had to observe the etiquette of a slightly different society.

When my other half lived in Oxford and I went down to see her, I would walk down the street with her and soon get struck by the fact that something was not right… there were not enough black or Asian faces around us: it made me feel uncomfortable – it was too “white bread” – there was not nearly enough intangible vibrancy or colour (in every sense of the word)

The diversity of our culture makes us stronger. Hybrid vigour applies to societies as well as to individuals. A monoculture is not just boring but dangerous: when we are all the same just one virus or meme can take hold with nothing to stop it.

One thing that winds me up more than almost anything else is when I meet other white people, who do not know my views on racism or the fact that my wife is black and my first born son is mixed race…

They can assume that just because you share a skin colour with them that you also share their views on race. Partly because of this I usually try to work into a conversation very quickly the fact that my wife is from Jamaica by heritage… or that I am profoundly and intensely proud of having, in the past, literally physically chased racists off the street.

Nothing can be more galling than for some small minded little arse to project onto you their own racist view… but the trouble is there is little way to pre-empt it unless you are as unfront in your anti-racism as me – and I know that not everyone can do that for very valid reasons.

That’s why I am going to create some t-shirts and badges in the Cafe Press shop for this site with this message on them – as a way to let people know that just because I am white don’t you DARE assume I am racist.

If you want to do something concrete and real that will genuinely help the environment – and do it here, now, today – then go and switch your electricity over to 100% renewable sources.

This is all true and really good news – and what’s more you can do it all online.

The site at www.greenenergyworks.org.uk/electric.htm will give you three options to switch to a green electricity supplier: what are you waiting for? – go do it now!!

Here is it: final and definitive proof of Poodle Blair: the UK now allows the USA to extradite citizens to the USA with no proof being necessary! All that the US needs to do is (in effect) say “ermm – we’ll have HIM – he looks a bit shifty…”

We have NO reciprocal agreement in place with the US: for us to get one of theirs over here we have to undertake the full judicial process and display PROOF.

Also – this treaty is so amazingly wonderful that the US Congress has not even seen fit to ratify it!

And the final straw that breaks the camels back is that the specific case I am so worked up about is one where the alleged crime is on that was committed in England, by English people, against an English company, under English law – and the English authorities have not seen this as a crime that they need to prosecute!

The Americans can now imprison us in their country for crimes not even committed in the USA! This is just OBSCENE and yet one more example of the English prime minister bending over, pulling his trousers down and handing Bush the lubrication.

For crying out loud England – do something about this! This man is willing to let you be extradited to the USA where you could end up in Guantanamo – for a crime that the English courts are not even willing to prosecute you for!

ANYONE OF US COULD BE NEXT!

I have used this blog as a place to rant and froth about things that matter to me: I know there are a lot of issus in the back of my mind that will be dragged forth at some point in the future to be subject to my ramblings, but it turns out my sub-conscious is really concerned about the environment and global warming.

I didn’t expect this to be honest: I always knew I was concerned about the damage we were doing to the Earth and it’s ability to support our civilization.. but I hadn’t realised I was this worried!

Still: it has been cathartic to say the least, and I want to tell people about one concrete way that you can – right here, right now – do something positive.

The idea is called freecycling: what you do is anytime you are about to throw something away – anythign at all – that someone else could possibly use – then give it to them. For free. Yes – for free: what’s the problem – you were only going to chuck it in the bin anyway! So just give it to whoever wants it.

But hold on: don’t we need a virtually free and frictionless way to mediate these exchanges? – what’s that you say? – the Internet could do it?!

Just one more thing? – don’t you get aton of freeloading idiots coming along to take advantage? – well, yes we do: but as soon as they start to take the piss we throw them out!

I have the extreme personal honour of setting up the Birmingham Freecycle Group: to date there are 2462 people who have joined: that is 2462 people who are stopping junk going into landfill.

So get over there and join the Birmingham group! – or of course the main global Freecycle homepage.