Economic War - UK versus France

 

Once again the French, or should I say, the Froggies, are at it again with threats issuing from the French Government to block UK exports to their country. However, the British Government has vowed to retaliate if France carries out a threat to block British fishermen from its ports over the post-Brexit fishing row. This 'dispute' has been dragging on for serval months now. Yesterday a British Government spokesman said the French ultimatum to disrupt trade and block energy supplies would be hit with “an appropriate and calibrated response.”

 Anything else to add, Froggies? Yes! Paris warned that from Nov 2nd it would be ready to "block British fishermen from its ports and that its customs officials could implement a 'go slow' approach at its borders for incoming shipments from the UK". Some idiot standing in for Emmanuel Macron said the country will “not let Britain wipe its feet on the Brexit deal.” He also mentioned that sanctions could be announced on Thursday which is, as I write, today.

Once again the French Government warned of a so-called 'secondary range of measures' that could restrict energy supplies to Jersey, that would increase the energy price, and would implement even harsher customs controls on cross-Channel trade.

I'll quote what a British government spokesman said yesterday: “France’s threats are disappointing and disproportionate, and not what we would expect from a close ally and partner. The measures being threatened do not appear to be compatible with the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) and wider international law, and, if carried through, will be met with an appropriate and calibrated response. We will be relaying our concerns to the EU Commission and French government."

You know what? For as far back as I care to remember - maybe it's got something to do with the six nations yearly rugby tournament when we play the Froggies either at Murrayfield in Edinburgh or at the Stade de France in Paris - that I so wanted us to beat the French. Don't ask me why but I did. I can go back to 1963 when the then French leader, Charles De Gaulle, blocked Britain's application to join what was then the EEC. There were other tensions over the years but when Britain left the EU in January last year (2020 Brexit) the French absolutely hated it - why? Because, I believe, that when we were part of the EU, the French deemed that they had a handle on British politics and economics. It's a lengthy story and shall leave it that for the meantime.

I would end this blog by saying that in recent weeks, a number of EU countries believe the French leader is using the row over fishing to attempt to secure more domestic support ahead of next April’s presidential elections. All I can say is that I wish the French vote out this arsehole, Macron, and maybe the UK and French nations will once again come together for diplomatic and economic prosperity!

As for Macron, Bon débarras aux mauvaises ordures (good riddance to bad rubbish)!

The Internet, Social Media and Social Disorder

 

The title of this blog is certainly paradoxical. If it wasn't for the Internet I would not be writing this today for people online to read. On the one hand, I just appreciate that the Internet has completely changed the way we humans go about our business and develop our careers and social life. On the other hand, it has provided, what would I call them, the cyber trolls, the Web fiends, in other words, those social dumbbells who love nothing more than to create havoc, expressing hate, racism and anger. This can be in so many spheres: sports competitions, love affairs (and beyond), education grievances, political and international politics, entertainment, all those so-called stars and celebrities - the list goes on, but . . .

The Internet as we know it goes back a long way. I still remember back in the day, years ago, when we wrote our letters on paper and posted them at the local post office/mailbox. When we wanted to talk to someone, we phoned them on a landline. We could send our messages via telegrams. Television and radio were our sources of entertainment. And yes, there were men’s magazines: Esquire, Penthouse, Playboy, etc. So how did we get from these 'old-fashioned' ways of life to the present?

Back in the 80s, the Internet was already established and personal computers were being sold worldwide. I bought my first PC in 1984, an Apple Macintosh. For me, as a writer, it was the greatest invention ever. And so we moved on and the World Wide Web (WWW) was moving fast, across the planet, there were e-mails and Usenet, from gophers o the WWW, search engines became the norm by the 90s, file sharing, hosting services and of course mobile phones were the norm - still are. It’s how all these developments were the causes of so many tragedies and social upheavals especially during the mid-noughties right through to this day. Much of this in recent years has been by the use of the following (in no particular order):

·         Facebook

·         YouTube

·         Instagram

·         TikTok

·         Whatsapp

·         Snapchat

·         Pinterest

·         Twitter

·         LinkedIn

 

It doesn’t matter whichever one of these you use, it will bring positive as well as negative responses. I could go on to Instagram and state how much I loved Boris Johnson as our Prime Minister. And I can tell you, within minutes, there’d be countless numbers of spiteful and hateful remarks. In other words, say one thing on any of the above social media and you’re sure to get the opposite/extremist response. But it’s when anger, hatred and greed get involved that things can lead to humiliation and even death. These days we call it cyberbullying which includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else. It can include sharing personal or private information about somebody - anybody causing embarrassment or humiliation. And much of this 20th-century mindset is a characteristic of the millennial/snowflake generation, those born between 1981 - 1994.

 

I'll end this blog by telling the awful story of SR (name withheld). This was a lovely 15-year-old girl who just loved helping others. She had dreams of joining the fire service and was passionate about drawing and spending time outside with her dogs. SR had overcome challenges before; her mum, a drug addict, abandoned her when she was little but in her final year of life, it was cyberbullying from her peers that would ultimately end in death. It was said that kids started making fun of her red hair and braces. And this went on for months. The bullying continued on social media and in school but it was the taunting on Facebook, Instagram, and other messaging platforms, where classmates would tell her to kill herself. Her parents contacted Instagram headquarters but they didn't do anything about it. Her mother eventually smashed her phone and broke it in half. Seemingly her phone and social media ruled her life and in June of this particular year the bullying had already taken its toll - SR hanged herself.

 

Is there any way out of this 20th-century Internet social media dilemma? I hate to say but I think not. Yes, the invention and subsequent expansion have many positive aspects but away in the background there is the dark, murky underworld which seems uncontrollable and I think can only get worse.

Chinese Whistleblower Exposes Horrific Treatment of Uighurs in Internment Camps

 

Yesterday I watched a Sky news item covering the treatment of Uighurs in the so-called internment camps in the Xinjiang region of northwest China. I first learned about the round-up of these Muslims back in 2019 and, as usual, the Chinese denied all reports of what could only be considered as human rights abuses. I saw hundreds of these innocent Moslem Uighurs - all men - kneeling on the ground, blindfolded, with hands cuffed behind their backs. The first time I saw this I just couldn't get my head around it. What was going on in China?

As I mentioned in a previous blog, China probably has conducted more demonic crimes against humanity than any country on the planet as I described in a previous blog about their bloodcurdling treatment of Tibetans during its invasion of that country back in the 50s. What is it with China and religion? Well, let's face it China, and by that I mean the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), just wants to stop ALL free religious belief systems and they have decided that Islam is an unwelcome example and should be extinguished. Because if you believe in a religious system whether it be Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, etc, then you are a target for mind control, separation and, with the Uighurs, detention in what I can only describe as Nazi-like concentration camps.

So, getting back to the Sky report, this revolved around a Chinese ex-policeman's description of the treatment of Uighurs in these detention camps. And I must warn you the following are quite terrifying accounts by the man who went by the false name of Jiang who now lives in secret in Europe. In what appears to be the first eyewitness testimony by a Chinese official, the former policeman (later a detective) spoke wearing a face mask about the extreme abuse used to extract ‘confessions’ from around 2 million Uighurs rounded up by the Chinese State. This was all about obtaining confessions from the imprisoned Uighurs about their Islamic beliefs and accusations about street protests and them being so-called enemies of the State.

Of course, this is all bullshit. Jiang described how new detainees were beaten during their first interrogation to obtain a confession which, back in 2016, included men, women and children as young as 14. He said he and his colleagues would "kick them, beat them [until they're] bruised and swollen" and "until they dropped to the floor crying". He went on, "If you want people to confess, you use the electric baton with two sharp tips on top. We would tie two electrical wires on the tips and set the wires on their genitals while the person is tied up."

From what I gather, torture in police detention centres stopped only when the suspects ‘confessed’ at which time they were transported to one of hundreds of internment camps referred to as ‘vocational training’ centres by Beijing. No, Beijing, these were fucking concentration camps! Jiang declared, "Those rounded up were accused of terror offences." But Jiang believes 'none' of the hundreds of people he arrested had committed a crime. He said compassionately, "They are ordinary people."

He said one "very common measure" of torture and dehumanisation was for guards to order prisoners to rape and abuse the new male inmates, Jiang said. One detainee, Abduweli Ayup, a 48-year-old Uighur scholar from Xinjiang, said when police picked him up at the Uyghur kindergarten he had hoped to teach young children their native language. The cops then drove him to his nearby house, which he said was surrounded by police carrying rifles. On his first night in a police detention centre in the city of Kashgar, Ayup says he was gang-raped by more than a dozen Chinese inmates, who had been directed to do this by "three or four" prison guards who also witnessed the assault. He said, "The prison guards asked me to take off my underwear," before telling him to bend over. He said, "Don't do this, I cried. Please don't do this." Rape, the most horrific of crimes, pure and simple! He said he passed out during the attack and woke up the next day surrounded by his own vomit and urine.

So, this is a true and disturbing report of Chinese hellish atrocities towards a group of their own countrymen who are suffering human rights abuse. One reporter said it was genocide! I shall leave you to make up your own minds.