Tag Archives: Hypocrisy

How out of touch is Obama and did he incite hate?

Although I have a lot of respect for the former President of the USA, I do feel he has lost touch with reality somewhat.

I was very annoyed after Barack Obama’s speech at the Cop 26 in Glasgow. As a man with influence he has to measure his words, because they can be taken out of context and lead to dire consequences. Also he should not assume things, there is a saying ‘When you assume you make an ass out of u and me.

In a world where people do no longer listen to or read full stories, it is dangerous when you use words which evoke emotions. Because nowadays people are only interested in headlines and sound bites.

I will not post the whole speech but I will have a link of the transcript at the bottom of the blog. Here are the things he said which annoyed me and what I believe can be seen as inciting hatred.

“So to all the young people out there, as well as those of you who consider yourselves young at heart, I want you to stay angry. I want you to stay frustrated, but channel that anger, harness that frustration, keep pushing harder and harder, for more and more because that’s what’s required to meet this challenge. Gird yourself for a marathon, not a sprint, for solving a problem this big, this complex and this important has never happened all at once. Since we’re in the Emerald Isles here, let me quote the bard, William Shakespeare, “What wound,” he writes, “did ever heal but by degrees.”

Prior to that he said “Folks in my generation have not done enough to deal with a potentially cataclysmic problem that you now stand in here.”

I know, but I sincerely hope I am wrong, there will be people who will see this as a call of channeling that anger towards what Obama calls ‘folks from his generation’ I happen to be a member of that generation.

Obama did not consider the fact there is a militant element to these climate activists. Their is a highly potential chance that they see this as a call and a blessing to take violent action to those who Obama claims to be responsible, or at least has created that narrative.

Then there are many ‘folks of his generation’ who have done more for the environment than the current eco warriors have done or will ever do. They are the people who didn’t have to be chauffeured every where , they took the bus, bicycle or walked. They didn’t fly everywhere either, they had to save for months and months to perhaps go on a flight once every few years. We did not use plastic bottles but glass and would return them for recycling.

Every time when I pass by a site where these ‘new generation of eco warriors’ protested about the climate crisis, I am astounded by the rubbish they leave behind. Folks of Obama’s generation were taught to pick up after themselves. We did not have or want all the newest gadgets or wanted to replace them every few months.

We did not leave a TV on all day, we did not leave on a light for longer then needed. Even now we only put on a heating when it is absolutely necessary. The list is endless but I hope you get what I mean

So when Obama is talking about folks of his generation who is he talking about? The same Obama who flew to Glasgow where he could have done an on line speech. Mr. Obama also seems to forget that he was the most powerful men on earth for 8 years, and aside from signing a few agreements he did very little about climate change.

When you tell one group to be angry and put the blame on another group, you open up a Pandora box ,aside from that it is a form of fascism. I am not a fan of Trump, far from it, I hate everything the man stands for, but if he would have said those same words there would be a global outrage.

One last thing, I recently saw a documentary about Cobalt mining in the Congo. It was truly awful, deformed babies being born, young men dying, deforestation, depleting minerals all so we can drive electric cars to safe the planet. I never saw any of these eco warriors in Congo.

This is your chance Ms. Thunberg, Mr. Obama, Mr. Gore have a balanced approach and go to the Congo and other places where Cobalt mining is happening just so that we can ‘safe’ the planet. Go there rather then go to luxurious resorts where they have Climate conferences.

https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/barack-obama-cop26-climate-speech-transcript

1920 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak

For the last few years we have heard a lot about climate change, and only a fool would deny climate change.

However climate change is nothing new. We only started collecting global climate data since 1880, but our planet has been around for about 4.5 billion years. There have been a great number of climate changes during that time.

28 March 1920 was a Palm Sunday, as it is today. The Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1920 was an outbreak of at least 37 tornadoes, 31 of which were significant, across the Midwest and Deep South states on March 28, 1920. The tornadoes resulted in fatalities of at least 153 but some reports put that figure at at least 380. There were also at least 1,215 injured.

The majority of the fatalities occurred in Georgia (201+), Indiana (56), and Ohio (55), while the other states had lesser totals.

Severe thunderstorms developed in Missouri during the early morning hours. The storms moved rapidly to the northeast towards Chicago, Illinois. The first tornado injured five people southeast of Springfield, Missouri in the pre-dawn hours in Douglas County. This first twister was a precursor of things to come, as the morning went on and the atmosphere began to destabilize, due to the abundance of sunshine that preceded the cold front in the dry slot area, which covered the lower Great Lakes region, extending southward well past the Ohio River Valley.

Newspaper accounts and weather records documented over 38 storms of major significance; therefor , the number of actual tornadoes is probably much higher, especially when the U.S. Weather Bureau (National Weather Service) prior to 1916 did not conduct any aerial/damage surveys, nor was there any education or awareness campaign for the public to properly report them.

Throughout the years we have heard many predictions on how many years we have left before the damage becomes irreversible, These prediction actually go back for decades.

Here is what I fear though , there are many good willing crusaders who are active in trying to safe the planet. Greta Thunberg , for example, but they don’t always back their activism up with science, It is often driven by emotions and not actual facts. There is a danger when we give people like a teenage girl a platform to pursue an agenda, which is sometimes dictated by others.

It is also dangerous when when we have billionaires, like Gunhild Stordalen, flying scientists all over the world in order to proof a point, not realizing that by doing so they actual lose the point and give more fuel to conspiracy theorists.

Science should be backed up by scientific facts and not by emotional driven opinions, although it may be well meant it can and will cause more harm then good.

We have to look for better alternatives then fossil fuel, but this also needs to be backed up by solid scientific data. However why we still use oil to heat our homes and move our transport is beyond me. There should have been an alternative for this a long time ago and not even for the benefit for the climate. Oil is an economic commodity and has often been used as a political weapon.

sources

http://retronewser.com/2020/03/28/380-americans-killed-in-palm-sunday-tornado-outbreak/

https://www.wfft.com/content/news/100th-Anniversary-of-the-Destructive-Palm-Sunday-Tornado-Outbreak-569181181.html

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2007-03-26-0703260190-story.html

https://www.weather.gov/iwx/19200328_tornado_outbreak

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle interview -the actual facts.

I usually don’t do celebrity blogs but I felt I had to do one because I think making such a big issue about the interview while we are in the middle of a pandemic, where millions of people have dies and who knows how many more will die is disgusting. No only that but it will make the divide of those who are privileged and those who struggle bigger and will give fuel to the expansion of both far right and far left extremism.

No one should be denied the right to voice their grievances . However it is a different story when these grievances are within a family, and especially direct family.

The wider audience should be spared that, it should stay within the family. I don’t mean when there is any physical abuse or sexual abuse, then of course everyone should know about it.

However this was not the case with Meghan and Harry. The worse accusation there was racism, but it was an allegation based on hear say . Meghan told Oprah that Harry was asked by another member of the family what colour skin the baby was going to be. What I find bizarre about that, Harry wasn’t there when this allegation was made. He joined the interview later. So why not wait to talk about that until Harry was there? What we have now is hear say. Even Meghan’s own father has his doubts.

The other ‘bad’ thing was that Harry’s dad ,Prince Charles, had not spoken to him in a while, or would not answer his calls. You would nearly say that Harry is a teenage boy who needs his Father’s guidance all the time. But he isn’t his a 35 year army veteran, who served in Afghanistan. Dear Harry my dad didn’t talk to me form age 9 to 27 ad I didn’t even make such a big deal about is as you did.

Coming back about the whole issue of racism. Things are often said within families which may sound horrible to an outsider but really is just banter within the confined environment of the family. I have said horrible things about my family in the past and sometimes still do. However if Harry really wants to make an issue about that, he seems to have forgotten this incident at a party in 2005.

Four years later in 2009 he used a racist term against a Pakistani soldier.

Meghan made a big deal about her children not having a security detail assigned to them, paid for by the tax payers , well guess what there are billions of children across the world who don’t.

Also Meghan and Harry decided to leave the confines pf the royal family and move to Canada and then Los Angeles. Waiving all royal titles and responsibilities, knowing that this would result in not having a security detail assigned to them anymore. So what is the point she was actually making?

Meghan and Harry have a combined net worth of about 50 millions US dollar, also they have secured a deal with Netflix worth 100 million US dollar. I think they are well placed to afford paying for security themselves.

then it takes us to one of the reasons why they left Britain, it was the scrutiny of the media. Harry also compared the situation to hat of his mother. He has often said in the past that the press and mainly the paparazzi killed his mother Diana. There is no doubt that Diana was hounded by the paparazzi but she was killed because of the fact that her driver was speeding into a tunnel and he was also drunk.

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna16120237

As you can see the above article about the report that tests proved Diana’s driver was drunk, is from NBC the same broadcaster who broadcasted the interview, so if Harry doesn’t believe those reports why would he sign up to do an interview with Oprah on NBC? The word that comes to mind is hypocrisy

The whole issue about escaping the media is non sensical, Meghan is an actress, media is what she does . Not even mentioning the times they were photographed for a fee by the likes of Hello magazine and others.

Meghan also said that the actual wedding was more or less only done as a media event. They actually got married a few days earlier with only them two and the bishop . This of course can not be true because it could not have just been the 3 of them, it would also have legally required witnesses. So this kind of makes me doubt the validity of that claim and in fact all the claims she made during that interview.

I actually should not call it an interview what it really was, was a rant of 2 very privileged people talking to a billionaire media mogul.

I always respected Oprah Winfrey but lately I have been questioning her integrity. During this interview she didn’t ask any probing questions, it was really just a matter of agreeing to what Harry and Meghan said without exploring the validity of their claims.

A few months ago I saw Oprah interviewing a group of wealthy African Americans about white privilege. As I said I always respected Oprah and was also impressed by her integrity but I feel she has lost some of that.

One last point on the Harry and Meghan interview. That point is the timing of it. Aside from the fact that we are in the middle of a pandemic, and by the way I didn’t see any of them wearing a mask, where so may have died and other will be suffering for years to come. Talking about the issues you have with your family in front of a global audience shows very little respect and compassion for anyone but yourself, On top if that, Harry’s 99 year old grand father is in hospital recovering from a heart operation , far as I understand, given the fact he is 99 means there is a high chance he may not recover, Then there is Harry complaining that his own father doesn’t call him, I don’t know but could that have something to do that Prince Charles is worried about his own father?

When music and politics collide.

Vienna Philharmonic

Music is one of my biggest passions, it has helped mte through many tragedies in my life and it still plays a very important part in my life.

Something that worries me is when music is used for political reasons or when musicians make political statements. They are of course entitled to have political views but they have to remember that they are on a platform, where they can reach many of their fans. They have to be very careful in relation to what political ideology they subscribe. Mostly they mean well and want to use the influence they have to get a message across, but it can backfire on them and it may actually damage their careers. They could even be accused of hypocrisy . I remember a few years ago a well known rock star decided not to have a concert in a city in the US because they could not provide all facilities requested by the LGBT community. However this same rock star had no difficulties touring in countries where gay men were executed for having sexual relations with other men.

Throughout history there have been cases where politics were used to influence music and vice versa with devastating effect.

On 23 March 1938, the violinist Viktor Robitsek received a notification from the management of the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra, telling him he was fired. viktorThis was not because he was a bad violinist, in fact he was one of the best in Austria, he was fired for being Jewish. He had served 35 years with the Orchestra devoting his life to his art and the orchestra.

He had Joined the Vienna Court Opera Orchestra and Vienna Philharmonic on November 11, 1902. On Mar 23, 1938 he was told that his services were no longer required. Discarded as a disposable piece of material.

Robitsek was Deported on October 28, 1941 together with his wife, Elsa Robitsek), from Vienna to Litzmannstadt, where he was murdered on June 1942.

On March 12,1938 11 days before Robitsek was sacked from the orchestra er Hitler’s troops  had  marched in to Austria and were  met with no resistance, The Anschluss was welcomed by most Austrians.

anschluss

Many already had become members of the Nazi party, among them a few dozen musicians of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Viktor Rubinek was not the only Jewish musician to be fired, most of the  Jewish musicians were sacked from the orchestra.

A total of seven members of the Philharmonic were killed,

Murdered after Deportation:

1. Moriz Glattauer (Violin I)
2. Viktor Robitsek (Violin II)
3. Max Starkmann (Violin I, Viola)
4. Julius Stwertka (Concertmaster, Violin I)
5. Armin Tyroler (Oboe II)

Philharmonic Members who died in Vienna:
6. Anton Weiss (Violin I, section leader)
7. Paul Fischer (Violin I)

In 1938, thirteen active musicians were expelled from the Association of the Vienna
Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. Three additional retired members of the Philharmonic also fell victim to the Holocaust.

The violinist Moriz Glattauer was deported together with his wife, Anna, to Theresienstadt on July 14, 1942. He died there on February 2, 1943. His wife Anna Glattauer was transferred to Auschwitz on May 15, 1944 although it is not entirely clear how she died, she more then llikely was killed in the Gas chambers.

None of the fellow musicians did anything to safe their colleagues, some whom they had performed with for decades,instead they signed up to the Nazi political ideology. They had allowed their music to collide with politics, Not only had this evil infiltrated this evil their lives it alsi tainted their art forever.

 

The Vienna Philharmonic orchestra is just one example but there were many other orchestras and musical institutions across the world  who treated their Jewish colleagues in a similar way

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Sources

https://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at/orchestra/history/national-socialism

The Guardian