GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA: FOR WHO THE BELL TOLLS NEXT.

Just five people shy of Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting incident that claimed 26 lives, the Uvalde Texas Robb elementary school mass shooting at 21 victims, now ranks among the highest grossing gun carnage in America. It is sad that such frequent blood spilling has tragically become part of our culture as a society. May the souls of the killed now rest.

25th AMENDMENT: ITS NOW ALL CRICKET.

Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi once questioned former President Donald John Trump's fitness to remain in office due to what she claimed was his declining mental capacity. Does anyone know what Madam Speaker presently thinks about the incontrovertible case which America is now saddled with? Just curious!

WHO WILL REBUILD UKRAINE?

The West should convert frozen Russian assets, both state's and oligarchs' owned, into a full seizure and set them aside for the future rebuilding of Ukraine. Like the Marshal Plan, call it the Putin Plan.

A HERO IS BORN.

I am staying put. I will not run away and abandon my people. The fight is here in Ukraine. What I need are weapons and ammunitions, not a ride out of town like former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani - President Volodymyr Zelensky.

IT IS WHAT IT IS.

"There is too much hate in America because there is too much anger in America." - Trevor Noah.

WORD!

A life without challenges is not a life lived at all. A life lived is a life that has problems, confronts problems, solves problems and then learns from problems. - Tunde Fashola.

NOW, YOU KNOW.

When fishing for love, bait with your heart and not your brain, because you cannot rationalize love. - Mark Twain.

JUST THE FACT.

In our country, you can shoot and kill a nigger, but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings - Dave Chappelle

DO YOU?.

“What you believe in can only be defined by what you’re willing to risk for it." - Stuart Scheller.

HEDGE YOUR CRISIS.

Never get in bed with a woman whose problems are worse than yours. - Chicago PD.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

'The best way to keep peace is to be ready to destroy evil. If you Pearl Harbor me, I Nagasaki you.' - Ted Nugent.

OUR SHARED HUMANITY.

Empathy is at the heart of who we are as human beings. - Cardinal Matthew Kukah.

WORDS ON MARBLE.

"Birth is agony. Life is hard. Death is cruel." - Japanese pithy.

REPENT OR PERISH - POPE.

Homosexuality is a sin. It is not ordained by God, therefore same sex marriage cannot be blessed by the church - Pope Francis.

CANCEL CULTURE IS CORROSIVE.


FOR SAKE OF COUNTRY.


MAGA LIVES ON: NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER!

TWITTER IS BORING WITHOUT HIS TWEETS. #RestorePresidentTrump'sTwitterHandle.


WORD.

"If you cannot speak the truth when it matters, then nothing else you says matters.” - Tucker Carlson.

#MeToo MOVEMENT: A BAD NEWS GONE CRAZY.

"To all the women who testified, we may have different truth, but I have a great remorse for all of you. I have great remorse for all of the men and women going through this crisis right now in our country. You know, the movement started basically with me, and I think what happened, you know, I was the first example, and now there are thousands of men who are being accused and a regeneration of things that I think none of us understood. I’m not going to say these aren’t great people. I had wonderful times with these people. I’m just genuinely confused. Men are confused about this issue. We are going through this #MeToo movement crisis right now in this country." - Harvey Weinstein.


RON DELLUMS: UNAPOLOGETICALLY RADICAL.

"If it’s radical to oppose the insanity and cruelty of the Vietnam War, if it’s radical to oppose racism and sexism and all other forms of oppression, if it’s radical to want to alleviate poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, and other forms of human misery, then I’m proud to be called a radical.” - Ron Vernie Dellums.


WHAT REALLY MATTERS IN LIFE - STEVE JOBS

“I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is an epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. Non-stop pursuing of wealth will only turn a person into a twisted being, just like me. God gave us the senses to let us feel the love in everyone’s heart, not the illusions brought about by wealth. Memories precipitated by love is the only true riches which will follow you, accompany you, giving you strength and light to go on. The most expensive bed in the world is the sick bed. You can employ someone to drive the car for you, make money for you but you cannot have someone to bear sickness for you. Material things lost can be found. But there is one thing that can never be found when it is lost – Life. Treasure Love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends. Treat yourself well. Cherish others.” - SJ

EVIL CANNOT BE TRULY DESTROYED.

"The threat of evil is ever present. We can contain it as long as we stay vigilant, but it can never truly be destroyed. - Lorraine Warren (Annabelle, the movie)


ONLY THE POOR WISH THEY HAD STUFF?

“I’m not that interested in material things. As long as I find a good bed that I can sleep in, that’s enough.” - Nicolas Berggruem, the homeless billionaire.

Friday, August 12, 2011

CAMERON'S PLANNED BAN OF SOCIAL MEDIA, ANTI-FREEDOM OF SPEECH?

Icheoku says it is very easy for anyone to remain an angel when no one ruffles his/her feathers. So also is it very easy to pontificate about freedoms and liberties for all when these rights have not been deployed in a way that is threatening and/or inimical to your own very existence. The British government of Prime Minister David Cameron has proved with its latest plan to ban or restrict the use of social media that these professed rights and freedoms are rather ephemeral and subjective to the whims of those who govern? The thought alone suffices and Icheoku does not need to see it implemented to conclude that there is a dictatorship in all of us, especially our supposed leaders if not for a vigilant society that resist such absolute maximums and are on constant lookout for such.


That the supposedly bastion of freedom and democracy, the United Kingdom, is toying with the idea of banning social media including Tweeter, Facebook, My Space etc because they were used to organize people during the latest London riots, is a very serious matter indeed and a cause for concern among every freedom-loving peoples of the world. It is equally quite interesting to see the often-shifting nature of human-beings, depending on whose ox is gored and who is at the receiving end, as the same David Cameron, not too long ago, praised the same social media when they successfully brought down some Middle Eastern and Arab governments as the new-age weapon of choice for organizing societal revolutions? But now that the same revolution is trying to spread to Her Majesty's kingdom with the help of these social media, David Cameron will not have any of that; instead he is planning to ban these purveyors and keep the British people in the dark and away from organizing themselves rather than tackle the underlying factor which triggered the disturbances and fix what is broken within the British society.


Imagine the ever sanctimonious Brits and a Prime Minister Cameron who is now considering banning or rather curtailing peoples right to assemble, communicate and interact? Listen to the Prime Minister, "We are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services ..........." and Icheoku wonders whether these rights and freedoms are suddenly now subjective and dependent on what is convenient to the government of Prime Minister David Cameron rather than inalienable fundamental rights, not subject to anyone or any government's whims and caprices? Icheoku says were the former the case, then Iranian, Libyan, Syrian as well as the deposed Egyptian and Tunisian governments would have had reasonable grounds not to allow the assemblage and communications amongst their own citizens to disturb and in some cases dislocate their governments? Icheoku maintains that freedom should not be flexibly made dependent on the government's comfort level but at all times exercised fully without any let or hindrance; and therefore condemns the planned ban of social media in Britain because it is being used to organize uncomfortable riots? Banning the British people from communicating through social media is undemocratic infringement on their rights and freedom of speech as well as assembly and expression. 


The British government and its security apparatchik should find other less restrictive ways to checkmate the abuse of these social media by the few, other than completely banning their use just because some supposed trouble-makers might deploy them wrongly to cause havoc? But first, they should endeavor to solve the fundamental root-cause of these disturbances -  the ever widening social and economic inequalities that are the bedrock of these upheavals. Instead of looking at or addressing the symptoms which manifest as riots, the government should attack the disease of festering inequalities that is eating deep into the fabric of the British society. Put in another more simplistic way, one cannot just decide to ban cars just because some people used cars to go on robbery or kill some people. The proper thing or best approach possible is to simply isolate the particular case and deal with it as an individual case but never to punish the whole people collectively for the misdeeds of a few. Icheoku once again, reiterates that neither British Prime Minister David Cameron or any other leader in the Western world or the entire world for that matter should be allowed to turn himself into a dictator, censoring what people can say or do including their right of association or assembly. The planned ban of Tweeter, Facebook, MySpace and other social media is wrong for being over-broad, anti-freedom and undemocratic; therefore the decision or plan must not see the daylight in the interest of what Britain represents to the world - a bastion of freedom!

1 comment:

  1. UK's Cameron: will mend "broken society" after riots
    By Keith Weir

    LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday his government would mend Britain's "broken society" to prevent a repeat of the country's worst riots in decades.
    More than 2,800 people have been arrested since a protest over the fatal shooting of a suspect by police prompted rioting and looting in the poor north London area of Tottenham, which spread across the capital and sparked violence in other English cities.
    Cameron, who returned from holiday in Italy last week at the height of the unrest, is seeking to tap into widespread public anger over the protests, which occurred 15 months after he took office at the head of a cost-cutting coalition.
    "This has been a wake-up call for our country. Social problems that have been festering for decades have exploded in our face," Cameron, leader of the center-right Conservatives, will say in a speech on Monday.
    "Now, just as people wanted criminals robustly confronted on our street, so they want to see these problems taken on and defeated. Our security fightback must be matched by a social fightback," he will say, according to advance extracts of his speech.
    The stakes are high for Cameron. Any repeat of last week's lawlessness, in which shops were smashed up and set on fire and five people were killed, will sap public confidence in his government.
    However, analysts say Cameron, a slick former public relations executive, could benefit politically if he provides the tough law and order response some voters are seeking.
    Cameron has responded to the crisis by taking a hardline stance and his speech on Monday will refer to the dangers of indiscipline in schools and family breakdown, succour to traditional Conservatives who feel their young leader is too liberal on social issues.
    NO EXTRA CASH
    Cameron, 44, and his center-left Liberal Democrat coalition partners will review their programme over the coming weeks, looking at issues like welfare and addiction to ensure that stronger communities can be built.
    But the prime minister has ruled out easing spending cuts which some left-wing critics say are fuelling tensions in Britain's cities, where the gap between rich and poor is gaping.
    Cameron believes that jittery financial markets will take fright at the first sign of backtacking on plans to erase by 2015 a budget deficit that peaked at over 10 percent of national output.
    "Yes, we have had an economic crisis to deal with, clearing up the terrible mess we inherited, and we are not out of those woods yet - not by a long way," Cameron will say on Monday.
    "But...the reason I am in politics is to build a bigger, stronger society," he said.
    Opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband said the government had to help young people who felt they would face tougher lives than their parents or grandparents.
    "Are issues like education and skills, youth services, youth unemployment important for diverting people away from gangs, criminality, the wrong path? Yes. They matter," Miliband will say in a speech he will deliver on Monday at the state school where he was educated in north London.
    Miliband said a lack of morality was not confined to a "feral underclass" but had also been displayed by greedy bankers, legislators who fiddled their expenses and newspaper reporters who hacked telephones for stories.
    "When we talk about the sick behavior of those without power, let's also talk about the sick behavior of those with it," he said, according to advance extracts from his speech.

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