Scottish Independence; Why is this my fight? (529)

 Che Guevara was not Cuban. This is my shorthand answer when English friends ask in a bemused fashion, a woman of Caribbean descent, born in the shire counties of England, without a drop of Scottish blood, is so passionate about Scottish Independence.

I could also add that, in fact, there may be Scottish ancestry somewhere. With a name like Crawford lurking on the peripheries of my family – the most likely explanation is a Scottish slave owner somewhere in the past. We’ll leave that one.

I could go on to say that, even more so as a mixed-race person born into a comfortable working-class household in the early 1960s, I was aware in an abstract way that I was not only different from almost everyone around me at school and everyone in my immediate neighbourhood but also not entirely ‘in’ with the black immigrants of my maternal family when we were in Birmingham. A sense of ‘other’ leads, I suspect, to lack of ties to contemporary groups. The up-side is that I never felt the pull of peer pressure as quite simply I felt I was never part of the group. Hence no peers to be pressured by.

And on I could go, waffling into the long grass.

The truth I suspect is closer to the first short explanation on which I will expand.

Sometimes you have fight in you. Sometimes you have an innate sense of injustice. Where it comes from, I cannot say other than I’ve always had it. I do not come from a political family but on leaving home to study in Newcastle I was pretty soon engulfed in a political battle that could not have been further from my roots if it had involved invaders from Mars; The 1984/5 Miners’ Strike. A battle ostensibly of white working-class men in an industry I had no experience of and little knowledge of. But I campaigned, I marched, I took the student buses to London and experienced first-hand the grim, untethered aggression of angry ‘encounters’ involving a police force that knew it had carte-blanche to horse charge and use batons whether against miners or students.

Thatcher’s collective punishment beating of the working class marked a dark and dangerous turning point which began to unravel the post-war gains for ordinary people. These significant gains were born of the horrors of the Second World War and an acknowledgment that you could not send ordinary people, en masse, to die on the battle fields, leave widows to bring up children and continue to treat vast swathes of the populous as 3^rd class.

But it felt like my battle. Why? I could not have explained at the time but it led in the end to me joining the Labour Party – which is ironic as then leader Neil Kinnock arguably did little to support the miners. Perhaps secretly hoping that Thatcher would clip the union’s wings and curb some of the power of the very movement that was the genesis of the party he led.

In reality there followed an avalanche of societal destruction which may not have been obvious as such at the time (it was obvious to some ref: Making it Public by Dexter Whitfield. Pluto Press 1983) but which – looking back – was a wholesale restructuring of social orders, bringing us to a present day where everything that was in private hands before that war – and much that was not – is back in the hands of the wealthy – with this one caveat. The state now subsidises these private entities and much of that money ends up off-shore in private hands – very often foreign hands despite the Right Wingers being the loudest to bleat about patriotism.

Later – though still young as a city councillor (at 23) I was one of a couple of lone voices to argue against what we called The Poll Tax and was carpeted by then Council leader Jeremy Beecham and his creepy side kick Tony Flynn. I made a nuisance of myself complaining about the abuse of councillor’s expenses. This was back in the day when – despite the fact that councils actually ran services directly rather than simply deciding which of their mates to award contracts to – there was no stipend so those who thought they were entitled used to ‘play the expenses system’ and Jeremy Beecham was able to behave like a feudal lord handing out favours to the obedient in the form of chair positions of prominent committees.

I won’t go on about that sad episode – suffice to say – I couldn’t stomach it and after being elected a second term, I resigned before its conclusion when I realised ‘dealing with’ bullying and abuse was pointless – achieving nothing. I let my membership run until the illegal invasion of Iraq then resigned that too and swore off party politics.

THEN I moved to Scotland.

What I discover was people with a strange accent speaking my language. I found folk who – on the whole did not look like me but with whom I felt a connection.

I discovered a political ideology that was what I’d firstly assumed and then hoped The Labour Party was about.

I discovered a social structure – albeit imperfect and horribly restricted by devilish devolution – that actually still cared about human beings in a humane way.

It was a revelation.

And – what is even more astonishing is that – while I did – many years later – get over my disgust at party politics and join the SNP – I have found that the touchstone of my drive, my desire for justice, my need for fairness, accountability and the dignity of people is served better in the grass roots Independence movement – The Yes groups that are dotted over Scotland, sparked by the 2014 referendum.

Why is this so odd? Well – in many ways the Yes groups seem to me to be more ‘culturally’ Scottish than the SNP. So – as someone who’s not a fan of haggis or bagpipes (though, who doesn’t like a guy in a kilt?) I at first did not understand this affinity.

In fact, I’ve been on street stalls where other English born people have wandered over for a chat and when we’ve laid out what we do they respond – ‘oh, I’m English, it’s nothing to do with me’. To which the collective response – in our group is – and in every group should be – if you live in Scotland, it’s your business.

Why?

Sometimes you have the fight in you. You have the burning need for justice. And what I re-discovered having discovered it once in the Miners’ Strike as a student – it doesn’t have to be your fight. It only needs to be a parallel.

I cannot fight the injustice of my ancestors. There is no land to reclaim, there is no route back to those roots. But the fight is in me and I see a similar fight here and I want in. I want in really badly.

I want to see freedom, dignity and independence and the right to self-governance for those who live in Scotland now as if it is my freedom and my wrong.

It helps for purposes of clarity that Westminster – whether under Labour or Conservative - has continued blindly and cruelly in the colonial mindset and shows no empathy for the ordinary people of this land. It helps that they have shown a callousness that is unequivocal whether it be to the tens of thousands of Middle Eastern civilians they condemned to body bags and unmarked graves in Iraq and subsequently Gaza. It helps rub out any distinction on this side now they have abandoned poor children, the homeless, the elderly, women and young people. Is there anyone the incumbents of Westminster have not abandoned in the pursuit of power?

It is sad that large swathes of the populous have swallowed the lies that economic woes and decline are the fault of the poor, the destitute and the migrant. Have they squandered the wealth of land and industry? No. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In a post-Brexit society where bigotry has been legitimised and the last and current Westminster administrations have failed to move public focus away from migrant-blaming in order to protect the failures of the historic ruling classes and their increasing, stand subsidised fortunes, it behoves the more enlightened Scottish government and the grass-roots independence movement to shift the dial.

We must openly acknowledge the historic contributions of generations of migrants have made to Scotland.

We must loudly celebrate the energy, hard work, and vitality of those who have chosen to make this their home.

In the interests of a strong, united, successful future independent Scotland we must be unequivocal about its welcome to those who come here to raise families, contribute to the nation of Scotland.

We must not only continue to reject the harmful, corrosive, poisonous scapegoating of the vulnerable – whether on a domestic level or those fleeing countries devastated by Westminster’s continuing colonial mindset but to make sure that – as the situation is now, clearly vacant – Scotland welcomes ‘the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free’. Because migrants have always nourished the worn soil of tired nations from the Irish road builders and potato pickers to Romanian nurses, Polish plumbers and African care workers and it is – as we all know – the avaricious few at the top of the pile who suck society dry.

That truth has been turned on its head and we need to openly and publicly and loudly set the record straight.

Not only is that the right thing to do it opens the door to welcoming in a whole army of friends and new allies to the Independence movement who are still ambiguous as to whether it has anything to do with them.

The battle is upon us.

Yes, lethargy and the disconnect of a populous that is weary and disengaged is against us.

A complicit predominantly right-wing media is against us.

The monied interests that rely on tax subsidies to shore up their profits are against us.

The narrative that our failing infrastructure and crumbling services are the fault of desperate people in boats and the feckless on benefits is as unwavering as it is untrue.

The cowardice of those who gain power and then do not wish to rock the boat they float in is against us.

But we must fight anyhow.

And, whatever their colour or creed, I’ll stand next to anyone who will stand next to me.

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Thanks for reading.

As always do check out my audio stuff on Bandcamp and My BOOKS 

Also - if you have kids - I've opened up the poetry for children (rather rough) vids that I put on youtube for my grandkids - so enjoy these too Fruit Salad Person

The last one is a bit bonkers but remember I put them up for my grandkids...

Trump Derangement Syndrome v Farage Fixation Syndrome… (528)

 What is the significant difference between the US’s racist orange menace with the broken brain who is breaking America and the UK’s racist frog-faced charlatan who broke Britain?

Trump became politically popular after endless media promotion then wrecked America. Farage wrecked Britain while endlessly promoted by the mainstream media and then made real political gains…

(in the context or recent local election results in England…)

I’ve written before about Labour’s Starmer being in counter-productive appeasement mode re Trump’s America. However, there is something disturbing going on in UK domestic politics re our own bargain basement used-care-salesman, chief gurning racist, discontent-manipulator and man using politics to enrich himself – Nigel Farage.

It's long been identified that the remaining rump of the Tory party – Cameron’s infamous ‘swivel-eyed-loons’ - are desperate to colonise F’s Reform UK voters. They are realising too late that even a leader as off her trolley as Kemi Badenoch cannot out out-loon Nige.

But Labour is also attempting ‘muscular and heard-hearted’ to appeal to the aggrieved, sprinkled with anti-migrant political pepper.

It’s never worked, it never will work and it will alienate the increasing number who see Starmer’s Labour as Tory-lite at best or those - like me – who remember Blair’s Iraq invasion and have a horrible sense re Gaza, that Labour's penchant for instigating or being involved in situations that put 10’s of thousands of brown civilians in body bags is just too uncomfortable.

In the US, MAGA label anyone who dislikes Trump’s autocratic chaos as having Trump Derangement Syndrome. One state in Texas is trying to have TDS officially added to a list of mental illnesses!

Now Trump is planning a Kim Jong Un-style military birthday parade for himself costing $billions – I ask again – when will enough be enough for Starmer?

The Tories have had it for a while. Now Starmer’s Labour seem to be suffering Farage Fixation Syndrome.

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And, as in indication that we never learn the lessons of history – even the very recent lessons – here is another old doodle from that strange fateful year 2016…

Brexit broke Britain ~

As always do check out My BOOKS. 

And – as I’m not on any social media and reading is very out of fashion – I am having a little celebration re my wee bloggy passing 300k 

EARTH DAY 2025

So, its Earth Day today.

Not that you'd notice for all the attention being paid to the catastrophic state of the planet.

But - as my contribution I'm going to push two of my written pieces at you.

I've listed them before but here goes - 

ZERO ONE ZERO TWO (US)

ZERO ONE ZERO TWO (UK)

and, if you don't like reading - 

Casey & the Surfmen

NB Bandcamp is a really good site for supporting artists like me so please consider paying the very modest fee to download. Thank you.

From Oliver Twist to Oliver Subsist… (527)

Labour’s recent budget is cruelly Dickensian in an age of billionaires. We may even see our first trillionaire very soon. And these two things, as has been underlined on this blog many times, are directly connected.

Few socio-economic observers with at least one foot in reality would disagree that the real way out of poverty and decline is for wages to rise, the wealthy to be efficiently taxed and for work to really pay. Real wages for really decent jobs mean more tax revenue after all. Our current system has the state subsidising wealthy companies through supplementing ever poor wage values.

Many fiscal observers on both sides of The Pond and in successful EU countries say as much so it’s not complicated, it’s not a secret.

What Starmer and his Chancellor Rachel Reeves are doing with their recent slashing of benefits to the most vulnerable, is blowing up the bridge that gets many of the most financially exposed, over the croc-infested raging waters of life. And they are doing it before putting the necessary new measures in place that might lead to an economy where ordinary people can actually thrive or at least live decently in our late-stage capitalist society of ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’.

Starmer & Reeves are implementing survival of the financially fittest. It’s a sod the poor, disregard the disabled, fail the elderly, abandon children living in poverty and disgusting housing conditions attitude.

Instead of society sheltering the needy, the super-rich ‘shelter’ their wealth offshore. Their £millions are, after 40 years of the wreckage of privatisation, often from the proceeds of the garage sale of our infrastructure. They are no different, therefore to the oligarchs of post-soviet Russia.

But if Labour are going full Oliver Twist, why not just re-introduce Work Houses?

Literal and figurative Dickensian attitudes and callousness are emanating from Labour. Starmer is Mr. Bumble dishing out cold gruel to ungrateful wretches who dared to hope for 'more' from the party of Kier Hardie. The first Kier being a Scottish Trade Unionist, true working-class hero and founder of The Labour Party. See The Herald  .

Again, there’s talk of future house building to ease the shortage. No hard assurances that this government will ensure it is affordable housing. No mention of the fact that many young folks are hobnailed not just by prices but the life-crippling student debts they owe. Student loans were introduced by the last Labour administration and thankfully still kept at bay here in Scotland. But for how long?

Many of the things the Scottish government has managed to protect; free prescriptions, free elderly care, publicly owned water infrastructure - are under threat as the level playing field between Westminster and Holyrood fails to materialise. Holyrood is left in the invidious position where anything that goes wrong is blamed on them but without independence, they do not have the free reign to act like other successful small independent nations.

It is no coincidence that Finland has been voted the happiest country for the 8th year in a row with experts citing, among other things, a “strong welfare system”. But others in the top ranks include, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden.

Small self-governing nations clearly work. While Scotland is treated like a colonial enclave that should shut up and put up despite differing from England in so many ways and on so many big political issues – some listed above but also, Scotland rejected Brexit, Scotland called for a ceasefire in Gaza when it might have made a difference to Palestinians and hostages.

And up here in Scotland we have the absolutely useless Labour puppet Anas Sarwar, like the hopeless undertaker Mr Sowerberry in Oliver's story. Though Scottish Labour call themselves that, they are anything but. They are an uninspiring side-show to Westminster with no sense of Scotland or its people.

The latest Labour let-down for ordinary folk is just one more reason why Scotland needs to be able to work for the people who live here, free of the chains of Westminster colonial think.

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Thanks for reading. And, as always, do check out my other writing -

My BOOKS

WHAT IS WRONG WITH US? (526)

We know what is wrong with Trump et al.

But what is wrong with us? What the hell is wrong with US?

As one of the ‘observers from a distant planet’ (it seems…) I was told during the EU referendum that – referring to those who voted for Brexit – though it didn’t have that handle then – I was being disingenuous. A little condescending. Unfair. Everyone has a right to their opinion.

To which I can only wonder – but do they though?

Why is the opinion of someone who spends their time brain addled with reality TV or febrile celebrity bollocks or other complete mind-numbing social media gobbledygook and who then puts that opinion into play at the ballot box, as valid as people who’ve been paying attention?

And now that its all gone to very completely absolutely predictable shite, can I please at least be pissed off about it?

May I – as I did in a recently published letter - now refer to them as not so much turkeys voting for Christmas but turkeys who voted for a permanent parking space at the abattoir and daily stuffing?

And it is that x1000 re Trump and America. Both having burst upon us like a giant plague of boils in 2016. And here's an old doodle from that dark year...

They/we’ve known what Trump is, ever since he descended the gold elevator with mannequin Melania. And if the glitzy descent wasn’t a metaphor/warning/visual premonition, I don’t know what was.

The appalling Zelenskyy ambush in The Oval Office was just the most recent horror show in a tired, long-running franchise that has us anxious and weary in equal measure.

Rape wasn’t enough. 32 felony convictions weren’t enough. Migrant infants put in cages, separated from their parents – some, to this day, not reunited – not enough. The constant grifting; from MAGA bibles made in China to cheap gold hi-tops, to the eve-of-inauguration meme crypto scam. Just what was it about this man that Americans thought was going to turn out well for them?

Ditto – here – Farage and Johnson. We knew who they were. Con-men. Mad egoists. Chancers and most of all racist.

And yes, in all cases, the legacy media has given them a massive leg up. Why, ratings? Because they thought it was entertaining? Who knows. What we do know is that all these men were allowed to get away with behaviour that would have been career-ending for almost any other politician. Even in these days where our expectations are so low.

I know racism dressed up as jingoism never loses its attraction for a lot of people. Add to that now – the very obvious draw of aggressive misogyny. But, are so very many millions of voters really willing to go for all that knowing that pretty much every other aspect of their lives will be ruined?

Yes.

Clearly.

Is it that we’ve just given up?

Overwhelmed by the things we’ve relied on all our lives that no longer work – here in the UK that includes, public transport, all infrastructure, affordability of anything, education – at all levels. Care for the vulnerable yada yada yada.

And what of the soft right and liberal Left?

Well, Biden along with previously Rishi Sunak (remember him?) and subsequently Sir Keir Starmer, were happy to facilitate Netanyahu’s Gaza slaughter devastation. Starmer – as leader of the Labour Party - refused to get rid of the 2-child benefit cap leaving many vulnerable youngsters in poverty and appalling living conditions, while simultaneously refusing to cap bankers’ bonuses (remember bankers – they brought the economy down in 2008 and most of us are still paying for that one way or another).

Biden lost the plot and started to think that his presidency and his family were more important than America. Then – having left the VP in an absolutely impossible position – trying to fight an election in a few weeks that her opponent never stopped fighting since he left the White House so very reluctantly last time – claimed if he’d still been doddering around - he’d have won.

Is the whole world suffering from delusions?

I glance around my immediate world at the vape-addled youngsters all talking in TV reality show soundbites while the hedgerows and motorways are an open dump. Paths are a minefield of dog shit and everywhere, unhealthy, miserable-looking people are staggering along clutching ‘energy’ drinks and throw-away food (at least that is what they tend to do with it – plus the packaging) and yes – faces are never more than 4 seconds away from being zoned into their smartphones and whatever is going on there. Shopping for tat. Gambling. Videos of shite. Etc

I think the clue may be in our clothes. If you glance around, just see how many folks you can spot wearing entirely black or at least something black.

Are we all pre-mourning as the world slips away?

And when was the last time you heard any mention of the thing that is actually gong to wipe out us humans – the climate crisis?

So – yes – any engaged person can see what is so very wrong with Trump, J. D. Vance, Putin, Orban, Milei etc, (apart from they all have terrible hair) but we put them there. All these idiots, walking disasters were elected.

So

WHAT IS WRONG WITH US?

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Thanks for reading. I’m no longer going weekly on this as having to tune in in a forensic way to what is happening in the world too regularly will drive anyone under the duvet.

Do check out my other writing – novels, children’s poetry and stories about the environment. Cheers.

My BOOKS (avail in all good online book stores)

The Profit Beast. (525)

The Profit Beast is humanity’s nemesis, the ‘end times’ foe we should all lift our heads and take a good look at. Nothing at all that we need so desperately to deal with; the approaching climate crisis tipping point, ill-health, destitution, abuse, exploitation, environmental damage – none of these things can or will be dealt with because doing so would enrage the Profit Beast.

The Profit Beast is vast, invulnerable and on his final course, Truth.

The Profit Beast, fed by out-of-control consumerism and co-conspirator advertising, are now such a perfect symbiotic mechanism that we stand little chance of outrunning this man-made monster.

Is this just scare-mongering about a grim dystopia? Pause for a moment and look up from amnesia-inducing smartphone or mind-numbing TV and take a quick glance at real reality.

Two commonplace UK cases of catastrophic consumerism and profit before people-ism - are the obesity epidemic, fuelled by the sugar saturated processed food industry and more recently the insidious youth Vaping trend.

According to The Lancet – global obesity levels tripled between 1975 and 2019. Obesity related deaths in the US are around 30,000 annually and 3,000 in the UK. According to the UK government’s Department of Health and Social Care, obesity costs the NHS £6.5 billion annually and is the second biggest cause of preventable cancer. Private profit, public cost – which we’ll come to later.

Still, one of the main culprits – sugary drinks - are not blanket banned in schools. Over and above that, as an additive to the most surprising foods, often those we regard as savoury, quantities of sugar have gone up exponentially in the last 4 decades. In the US, sugar consumption increased 30% between 1977 and 2010.

And of course, there is profit to be made in both causing and then treating the harm when it inevitably occurs. But more of that later too.

Sugar is a marketing preference for the processed food industry. It helps get people hooked on their products and it’s a very cheap bulk additive. The fact that it decimates body and dental health and kills does not matter.

A more recent phenomenon, one that has taken off in the UK like a nuclear-powered rocket, is Vaping. The sheer number of youngsters vaping on my local buses is a depressing sight.

The delivery system for the latest nicotine addiction is not biodegradable and is also an ignition hazard. Ah progress…

The youngest child I’ve seen vaping appeared to be about 9.

But the new vape shops selling the death dummies on my local high-street, look like sweetie shops.

The CDC (Centre for Disease Control) lists one of the known e-cigarette harms as detriment to adolescent brain development. E-cigarette ‘juice’ usually contains nicotine which is addictive. Vapes often also contain carcinogenic chemicals. Plus -

·      Heavy metals such as nickel, tin, and lead in many flavours

·      Tiny particles that can be inhaled deep into the lungs

·      Volatile organic compounds

·      Flavourings such as diacetyl, a chemical linked to a serious lung disease.

But mostly, scientists agree we just don’t yet know the full range of harms though my local vape shop happily displays a neon sign claiming vaping is 95% safer than smoking. How they know what the scientists don’t is anyone’s guess

E-cigarettes attained a fast pass because they were supposed to encourage traditional cigarette smokers to stop. Most young people addicted to vaping have never smoked cigarettes.

Meanwhile we all have to go on being swamped by those huge clouds of exhaled, warm toilet-cleaner-scented lung farts.

The Fentanyl crisis in North America is the much more extreme end of death4profit with opioid deaths outstripping gun deaths in the most gunny place in the world. I hesitate to say that it’s as bad as it could get because where late-stage capitalism and out of control consumerism are concerned, there’s no extreme that is too extreme.

The price to society is not in truncated lives, ill-health and misery alone. It is a huge hit to public services. On the other side, a secretive few, siphon off profits Midas would have blushed at.

The public sector clears up the private sector’s mess. Private profit – state clear-up. Private wealth – public cost; medical services, police, charities, social services etc. All paid for - not by the wealthy who hide their obscene wealth and avoid the taxes that would fund the very services they over-burden with their greed.

In the US in the case brought by Oklahoma City after years of opioid carnage – one lawyer estimated the opioid epidemic – started by the prescription medications for a quick fix for pain in a society addicted to quick fixes - accounted for 80 percent of city crime. Yet another cost to the many for the gargantuan profits of a tiny few. In Oklahoma’s case the ‘few’ making eye-watering profits out of the deaths of young athletes, workers with back pain, teachers, nurses etc, were Perdue Pharma who assured people that their killer drug Oxycontin was safe – while in possession of proof it was not.

And while advertising is the inducement mechanism, The Profit Beast also protects itself pouring large fortunes into lobbying.

Statista reckoned that in 2022 the US food industry spent $7.5 billion on advertising processed food. Perdue used false figures when advertising OxyContin as a miracle drug and spent $800m+ lobbying to block warnings that it was unsafe. And the Sackler family who own Perdue and knowingly promoted the killer opioids, became so rich from their product of mass destruction, they featured on Forbes rich list. Now they’ve taken their murderous product to countries even more poorly regulated than the US.

Of course, if profit can be made out of causing the problem, it can also be made offering solutions.  Big Pharma gave the world Oxycontin. It also now provides a drug to keep users alive if they OD – so they can carry on using. No one gives addicts their lives back. The food industry gifts us global obesity but then, especially in the ‘developed’ world, profits massively off the diet industry. We now have ‘miracle’ drugs to reverse the obesity The Profit Beast gifted us. Side-note – as early as 2023 the hysteria surrounding the new wonder anti-obesity drug Ozempic was apparently triggering eating disorders. We won’t continue down the hell hole on that one.

Try this one. The drug alcohol (no one who uses it calls it that obviously) has been consumed by humans for most of civilisation but, as with other consumables, it changed with industrialised production. It now accounts for around 3m deaths globally and wretchedness, ill health and disease for countless more.

 The Institute of Alcohol Studies in London – in reporting how alcohol is marketed to children and young people - stated in 2023 that UK primary school children develop early alcohol brand loyalty and were more able to id alcohol brands than ice-cream or biscuits.

There is no low too low.

Heineken used prostitutes to help get brand foothold in Africa. Just to put things in perspective, global sales of the alcohol market are $1,300 BILLION. Meanwhile the WHO have identified 200 illnesses caused or made worse by alcohol…

Global human catastrophe and crises are no dampener to PB. During Covid, here in the UK, the pandemic was seen by the Conservative government (under Boris Johnson) and their rich pals – fast tracked to government contracts – as just another chance to get richer with £millions of public monies spent on contracts for medical equipment that either did not work or did not materialise. During WWII we’d have called that behaviour profiteering and members of that same party then believed profiteering should be punishable by firing squad.

Even the perverse profits related to butchering women’s bodies not for health but for money, has gone stratospheric. The plastic surgery industry, which used to be the preserve (literally) of the rich and famous and ‘fading Hollywood stars’ is now on any street here in the form of trout-lipped young women with orange skin, fillers and Botox that looks both ugly and painful. One currently popular procedure, the infamous Brazilian Butt Lift or BBL has a rate of 1 death per 4,000 procedures. It’s just another example of wealthy (predominantly men) profiting from deaths of, mainly young, insecure women. Often in private clinics like those that came under scrutiny after a cluster of horrific deaths in Miami Florida, where surgeons were performing up to 8 procedures per day with public hospitals – or morgues - picking up the pieces. The Profit Beast chewed up the whole principle of ‘first do no harm’.

And not only does the public sector pick up the pieces – which is a huge financial benefit for the private sector that rarely pay for their mistakes or corporate criminal conduct - the wealthy and powerful never seem to shoulder any responsibility or repercussions which simply drives the behaviour. Are they all sociopaths?

This question occurred to me recently when Tony Blair (yes – the UK war criminal) was yet again being platformed by the London media earlier this month, complaining that the UK benefits budget was over-burdened by those claiming sickness assistance. And there are issues with how sickness assistance is administered in the UK however, if you or I had been responsible for an illegal invasion on the far side of the world leading to innumerable civilian deaths, decimated an entire country, de-stabilised the region, harmed military personnel and birthed ISIS – we’d keep a more modest profile. Not call-me-Tony.

Furthermore, Blair is the man who turned UK universities into Ponzi schemes, introducing US-style tuition fees that have left millions of young folks in life-limiting debt and stress while he has never known a day’s want in his life.

As F. Scott Fitzgerald said of the rich “they are different from me and you”. The problem is they run everything from that position of unknowing and uncaring. What they are aware of is that repercussions will not touch them so they experiment and gamble with our lives.

Sometimes you may not even intend to consume a product. It’s forced on you or your family without knowledge or consent. But you still pay. For example, the ‘forever’ chemicals produced by companies like 3M (subject of the film Dark Waters staring Mark Ruffalo).

3M were found to have polluted huge swathes of Minesota over decades, increasing rare cancers among children. And – yes – like Perdue – the company knew their product was dangerous.

The dumping of both chemicals and plastics is a global problem especially in poor countries or those with poor regulations e.g. the horrific chemical pesticide leak from the US company Union Carbide in Bhopal India in 1984 which killed nearly 4,000 immediately and poisoned the lives of thousands more in the following years. Of course – because it was in India and not the US, victims and their families stood little chance of being properly compensated. Low-grade safety concerns are integral to a consumer industry where profit is everything and consequences are for mugs.

OR

You could just casually hand money over to the chronically wealthy in exchange for anxiety and debt. No need to lug STUFF home from the shops or get it delivered or spend years knowingly or passively consuming poison. We call this gambling and that too is epidemic (post 513 Gargantuan Gambling Gremlin).

But if you thought gambling was the bottom, the ultimate way for con artists to fleece the gullible – the 21st century gave us a new low. Crypto. And if we needed a more perfectly timed example – there was Trump fleecing his own supporters with what is technically called a meme coin or ‘shit’ coin, on the eve of his inauguration, flanked by his pet billionaire oligarchs.

Natural disasters kill people indiscriminately, but out-of-control profit motive is killing us and rotting our world and poisoning our children with no curbs on its euthanising enthusiasm.

There is no area you could now point to, it has not corrupted and corroded. Cheap deadly housing like Grenfell here in the UK. Mass housing built for quick profit on flood areas or known earthquake fault lines. Housing crises – again I’ll use the example here in the UK; after good quality council housing was sold off by Thatcher it was never re-invested. The post-war dividend of good healthcare, affordable decent housing and decent state education was sold down the river (the river flowing with effluent thanks to privatisation of water companies) for the profit of the few whose response is to hide their ill-gotten wealth in off-shore accounts.

At the more immediately violent end - war.

Industrialists benefitted in WWII from the sale of armaments just as arms companies have been raking it in from the genocide in Gaza and the slaughter and devastation in Ukraine. But wars make countries and ordinary people poorer in all ways. The few have profits; the many have incalculable loss and deep lasting scars.

True, The Profit Beast is no recent manifestation, its dehumanising effect has haunted us for centuries. The Atlantic Slave Trade is a grim and iconic example which besmirches human history with infamy and shame as possibly the contemporary world’s most heinous, long lived ‘civilisation-sanctioned’ act of profit-before-people. As a side issue – for anyone who thinks black slavery ever fully ended in the Southern US states - do read up on The Restitution Centres of Mississippi!

Go walk the famine roads of Ireland – built in the late 1840s, belated public works meant to provide literal starvation wages. The horrific trauma of The Great Famine in Ireland is often, rightly, put at the feet of an uncaring English government that had a racist and merciless view of the Irish and treated Ireland as a colony, useful for its land and resources – its people barely regarded as human. What is often missed is that Irish Catholic mid-level farmers – who saw the devastation of their fellows all around them – continued to sell good quality food abroad that could have stayed in Ireland, because they got a higher price.

During The Highland Clearances here in Scotland (1750 – 1860) around 150,000 highlanders were turned out of their crofts. Homes were burnt, communities destroyed and possessions smashed, food spoiled and even milk poured out so they could not return. Sheep were deemed more profitable than people.

The Profit Beast devours the soul.

Interestingly, though not surprisingly, when the system collapses under weight of greed as it did in the banking crisis of 2008, caused by the bankers, it was the banks that were bailed out to save the economy not the people at the bottom, crushed under personal debt they had no control over. The Profit Beast never pays. It devours then spews out our remains.

The problem we have today is that The Profit Beast becomes bigger, more ravenous and faster moving the more it’s fed and – like much else – it has gone Global. There is no corner it cannot/does not reach.

However - and it is a huge however – if what you conclude here – as I do – is that the poverty, misery, suffering, instability, chaos and destruction is all unnecessary - that is the very point. These are all – and always have been – problems engineered by greed. Specifically, it is created by a tiny handful of men who think they should have all the power and all the resources and more money than anyone could ever know what to do with. They are the moving parts of The Profit Beast. Why we’ve let them have it, is the massive question only psychologists and possibly historians will be able to answer. If, that is, humanity has much history left to make…

In the very most basic terms - if three people grab 97% of an available cake – the other 97 have to survive on 3%. It is that simple. It’s always been that simple. There have been very few times in human history when, if we had equality, we could not adequately feed, clothe, care for and house the vast majority if we had the will to do so.

Argentina is a good microcosm. A hugely wealth country just 100 years ago – it was plundered by its wealthy elite. Now ordinary people cannot afford the basics; inflation is out of control and many have returned to medieval bartering to get the essentials of life. And – of course – they have elected a right-wing nutter Javier Milie who wants to punish the poor more because that is what you do when it’s the rich who’ve run off with everything…

Spectacularly, here in the UK, we continue with that most idiotic remnant of long-gone empire - The Royal Family. £millions of public monies go every year to one of the wealthiest families and certainly the biggest landowners and hoarders of ill-gotten gains, making King Charles the greatest ‘benefits queen’ of all time. This is a man who had a public temper tantrum because a pen didn’t work…

Brexit. While xenophobia and racism were used to get the result, obeisance to The Profit Beast was the driver. The deregulation that leaving the EU delivered was the jewel in the crown for the wealthy, in a country already brought low by 45 years of privatisation and lack of investment in public infrastructure and institutions. Shame on many of the big unions and their blokey bosses for supporting it.

In America, The Profit Beast is on his last course – no longer hiding as it drools and dribbles. Trump is just a manifestation/personification of this phenomena.

Yes, its basic greed but it’s much more. The Profit Beast is willing to cannibalise our fellow human beings just for a fast buck down to the last man woman and child.

And we know. We’ve known for all time.

There is no major religion, creed or philosophy that does not site greed as a danger/evil to humanity. “Money is the root of all evil” is a mantra anyone could recite. I guarantee that for most people in our secular world – asked to list The Seven Deadly Sins - the one they are least likely to miss out is Greed.

But we don’t need deep religion or high philosophy, we can look to the shallow glitzy end of town.

In the quadrilogy Aliens (yup, no. 3 with its panto penal colony isn’t great) we’re repeatedly shown, it is not the horrific aliens that threaten all humanity. It’s the avaricious corporations and the grasping individuals who make them up.

In the fourth film, Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, is spliced and cloned for profit and dramatically dehumanised before our eyes in 8 manifestations kept in a science facility in what I think is the most gruesome scene in any of the four films.

But, in the second film, in case we don’t get it, Ripley confronts Burke – the rapacious company guy who is prepared to sacrifice everyone and everything for gain – she says

“I don’t know which species is worse, you don’t see them fucking each other over for a goddam percentage…”

We know. We’ve always known. 

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Zero One Zero Two - In this dystopian novella which combines poetry prose, I dally with the delusion of hoping off to another planet when we’ve destroyed this one.

Casey & the Surfmen – In this environmental poem in the epic tradition (audio) I've examine people power. Why do we use it so seldom?

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Reminder (re some recent 2nd hand enquiries) I am not on ANY social media - no smartphone either yada yada - apart from this little blog I only exist in the 'real' world. I think there is a contact avail via the Casey and the Surfmen bandcamp site...

Thank you so much for reading. Normally I post weekly but as this piece is more substantive than usual, and like a lot of folk I am entirely overwhelmed by the current state of the world I’ll leave this to brew for a while. See you in March.