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Category: our world

2025: Fingers crossed . . .

Here’s a name you probably won’t know: Peter Zeihan.

His speciality is analyzing the meeting-point(s) between geopolitics (the “where”) and demography (the “who”). In his four books (details below) he extrapolates from that nexus not only the “what,” but also the “when” and the “why.”

The books meticulously slice-and-dice the world in all sorts of ways, e.g. by country, by sector, by product, by process.

Quite impossible to compress all this into one short post.

But here’s the core of the Zeihan thesis:

After World War II, there remained two hegemonic superpowers—the (apparently) implacably-opposed United States and the Soviet Union/Russia.

The 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement, building on the achievements of the 1941 Atlantic Charter, saw many nations signing up to what amounted to a security- and financial Pax Americana.

The upshot of these agreements was that the War once won (the Bretton Woods talks started a scarce month after the Allied D-Day invasion of Europe), the USA pledged that signee nations would be able to, in Zeihan’s words, “go anywhere, anytime, interface with anyone, in any economic manner, participate in any supply chain and access any material input—all without needing a military escort.”

The USA felt able to stand by this guarantee because it had vast reserves of capital, and the only remaining navy capable of global reach.

So . . .

  • Pirates? No problem—the US navy will shut them down for you;
  • Soviets trying to penetrate your government? No problem—the USA will vote you more reconstruction funds (the “Marshall Plan”);
  • Money issues? No problem—your currency can be converted into American dollars, which are backed by all that gold in Fort Knox;
  • Energy issues? No problem—the USA guarantee of shipping safety will ensure you can import coal/oil/gas from anywhere in the world to fuel your industries;
  • Food issues? No problem—ditto the above for the fertilizer you need to feed your expanding populations;
  • Nowhere to sell the stuff your industries produce? No problem—the US market (well, pretty much any market) will be open to your exports.

We call the resulting process “globalization,” and for many nations it made the years from 1945 onwards a golden time of economic expansion and social development.

However, with the 1989 failure of the Soviet empire, the USA no longer had a superstate enemy.

And so began a long course of American withdrawal from its previous global commitments: No more guaranteeing of safe shipping lanes, no more unfettered(ish) access to the US market, no more strings-free(ish) aid to governments.

The Bretton Woods system had meanwhile formally ended in 1976, and thereafter all industrialised nations began using floating (“fiat”) currencies—not backed by gold.


World trade—in everything from pineapples to Porsches to particle accelerators—depends on myriad suppliers in myriad countries being able to do their bit and then ship either an intermediate product to somewhere else for continued processing, or a finished product for end-use (the “global supply chain”).

Why is modern shipping so important?

In a word: cost. Shipping enjoys huge cost savings over land transport. According to Zeihan’s reckoning, “the practical ratio of road to water transport inflates to anywhere from 40:1 in populated flatlands to in excess of 70:1 in sparsely populated highlands.”

And again: “Combined with bigger, slower ships, containerization has reduced the total cost of transporting goods to less than 1 percent of said goods’ overall cost. Before industrialization, the figure was typically more than three-quarters. Pre-deepwater [sailing], the figure was often north of 99 percent.”

But now, the withdrawal of the US guarantees of shipping safety and market access makes it virtually certain that the shipping part (i.e. the majority) of the global supply chain will sooner or later be disrupted—by piracy, if by nothing else.

This could take the form we’re already seeing, of small boats attacking large ships; but also—as things unravel—by state-licensed privateers, and eventually even by states themselves, in places where shipping lane pinch-points are susceptible to a “pay-up-or-else” protection racket.

Much of this is graphically (in both senses) illustrated in the map at the top of this post.

The result? Shortages. Of pretty much everything . . .

Thus far the Zeihan hypothesis.

But there’s worse to come . . .


Zeihan also deep-dives into the demographics of pretty much every country of note. And the picture he paints is far from rosy.

See, every nation has its own particular percentage mix of babes (no, not that kind), young, middle-aged and old. Each of these sectors brings something different to the economic table: babes are the adults of the future; young adults work, spend and reproduce; older adults work, accumulate capital to invest, often pay plenty tax; while retirees cost in pensions and health.

Zeihan reckons that with the combination of the vast post-war baby-boom generation now or soon heading into retirement, and with birth-rates having plummeted worldwide, demographic disaster is barrelling head-on towards any number of countries.

Reading the demographic charts, he concludes the greatest immediate threat is to China, with its combination of incredibly fast industrialization and a ruinously low birth-rate.

However, according to him, Russia, Japan, Germany, Italy, South Korea, Ukraine, Canada, Malaysia, Taiwan, Romania, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Austria are also at risk sooner rather than later. As he puts it, “All will see their worker cadres pass into mass retirement in the 2020s. None have sufficient young people to even pretend to regenerate their populations.”

In the 2030s and 2040s, Brazil, Spain, Thailand, Poland, Australia, Cuba, Greece, Portugal, Hungary, and Switzerland will all face the same problem.

And so on . . .

Country (France) with a healthy demographic profile. Not too many older inhabitants costing in pensions and health; plenty of young and older wage earners contributing to the nation’s coffers; and plenty of youngsters to fill their shoes in due course.

Country (Japan) with an (extremely) unhealthy demographic profile. Many older inhabitants costing in pensions and health; so-so numbers of young and older wage earners contributing to the nation’s coffers; but dangerously few (and declining numbers of) youngsters to fill their shoes in due course. Charts of this type are known as “demographic pyramids.

And here’s the demographic pyramid for China. Compare the enormous x-axis numbers with those of the previous two charts, and draw your own conclusions . . .

Zeihan notes that precious few countries have managed a high degree of development while simultaneously avoiding a collapse in birth rates. “It is . . . a painfully short list: the United States, France, Argentina, Sweden, and New Zealand. And . . . that’s it.”

So far demography . . .


Then we come to food.

Almost all the food grown worldwide is dependent on inputs of fertilizer. The various types of fertilizer (nitrogen, potash, phosphate) all come from a limited number of countries, many of which Zeihan believes are about to implode because of their demographics, never mind any supply-chain interruptions.

This won’t impact those food-secure nations with sufficient in-country supplies of fuel, finance and fertilizer. Problem is, says Zeihan, “France, the United States, and Canada are the only countries on the planet that check all the boxes.”

Other countries—he lists New Zealand, Sweden, Argentina, Australia, Türkiye, Nigeria, India, Uruguay, Paraguay, Thailand, Viet Nam, Myanmar, Italy, and Spain—might equally pull through, but only if they can find local partners to remedy their shortfalls.

Otherwise, any country that relies heavily on food and/or fertilizer imports to feed its people is going to be seriously impacted by any interruptions in the global supply chain.

Lack of fertilizer lack of food FAMINE.

Food (in)security worldwide. Hatched green means a net exporter of food; green means food-secure; yellow means under a quarter of its food is imported; orange over half of its food is imported; red means over three-quarters of its food is imported. Trouble coming  . . .

All in all, it’s a distressing and sobering picture: According to Zeihan, the post-war world we’ve come to think of as stable and permanent is actually no such thing, is in fact about to fall apart.

Soon.


Any rays of hope?

Well, first of all, Zeihan may be wrong. After all he’s an American, so it’s possible his analysis (particularly with reference to China) is biased. However, all told I find his analyses reasoned, thorough and comprehensive, which for me at least renders them compelling.

Second, it is thought by many that a small group of very powerful people with a plan (see “Couldn’t happen here . . .“) has been keeping from us technologies that would negate much of the foregoing, specifically in the areas of free (“zero-point”) energy, medical cures and food production. The release of any or all of these technologies would dramatically alter the equation . . .

Third, none of above necessarily entails the doom of mankind. If Peter Zeihan is right, it just means that the world we’ve become used to is about to change, albeit catastrophically and involving much death. But out of that change—as always—will emerge new geopolitical realities. And—who knows?—maybe mankind will be stronger and more united because of it.

So, all things considered, fingers indeed crossed for 2025 . . .


This post barely scratches the surface of Zeihan’s minutely detailed analyses. For more (oh, so much more), see his four books (all links external and open in new window/tab):

[Image at top shows major Eastern Hemisphere trade routes, and attendant supply chain risks. Hi-res version of this and all other maps and charts available on Peter Zeihan’s website here]

P.S. Best wishes to all for a Happy—and above all, a drama-free—New Year.

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Couldn’t happen here . . .

Let’s (just for the sake of argument, you understand) posit a small group of very powerful people with a plan.

By owning the banks, they become insanely rich. Boom and bust are triggered at will―each time impoverishing the many, enriching the few.

Ownership of the mass media ensures control of all messaging, the populace simultaneously distracted and desensitised with vapid and/or violent content.

They go on record (in stone!) as wanting to dramatically reduce the number of people on Earth. To do this they’ll employ many methods―some old, some new.

Dissent in any form is not tolerated.

What they really like is populations that are ignorant and/or indifferent―basically, asleep.

Any issue that distracts or divides is useful to them―left/right, black/white, pro-whatever/anti-whatever―if it gets people at each others’ throats or looking the wrong way, it all works in their favour.

For their greatest fear is humanity united.

They suborn politicians, world leaders, captains of business―anyone with influence―whisking them off to remote islands or secluded forest hideaways, and introducing them to (often trafficked, sometimes mind-controlled) apparently willing under-age girls and boys. Liaisons are photographed, and voilà―“now we own you.”

Wars too, big and small alike, can be initiated at will, further dividing populations and keeping them in a state of fear. Also very profitable―if you finance and/or arm both sides.

And the plan?

  • depopulation through poisoning, food shortages, and war?
  • a “New World Order” brought into being by total financial collapse, leading to a cashless society with mandatory digital IDs, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), a social credit system, and unrestricted surveillance of a cowed and servile population?
  • a transhumanist future?

All of the above?

Still, couldn’t happen here though, right?

  • no banks conjuring money out of thin air and then charging interest on it;
  • no constant fear-mongering in the media;
  • no alternately violent and vapid tv and films;
  • no increasing polarisation between faction and faction;
  • no population poisoning by “safe and effective” vaccines (see separate post);
  • no removal from social and other media of opinions contrary to the party line;
  • no cancelling of those who dare to express same;
  • no attack on the use of cash;
  • no curtailment of (hard-won) freedoms of speech, assembly, movement;
  • no Jeffrey Epstein, no Bohemian Grove;
  • no trafficking of children for sex and worse (see separate post);
  • no multi-decade CIA “MKUltra” mind-control program;
  • no surveillance or control potential in “smart” devices;
  • no overtly sinister symbolism all around us (see separate post);
  • no hard-sell of nanotechnology, simulated reality, artificial intelligence, etc., to make us “more than human”;
  • no “novus ordo seclorum” (“New Order of the Ages”) on the U.S. dollar bill;
  • the Georgia Guidestone inscriptions never existed (see separate post);
  • and as for apparently pointless wars? C’mon man . . .

“If you give me the power to issue and manage the currency of a nation, I could care less about who writes the laws.”

―attributed to Mayer Amschel Rothschild

“Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control continents; who controls money can control the world.”

―attributed to Henry Kissinger

“If my sons did not want war, there would be none.”

―attributed to Gutle Schnappe Rothschild


So. How are we doing?

Plenty of clues in the foregoing to spur and direct your own research.

“Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land, they own and control the corporations that’ve long since been bought and paid for, the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls; they got the judges in their back pocket, and they own all the big media companies so they control just about all of the news and the information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else. But I’ll tell you what they don’t want. They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them.”

―George Carlin

I think we’re property. I should say we belong to something:

That once upon a time, this earth was No-man’s Land, that other worlds explored and colonized here, and fought among themselves for possession, but that now it’s owned by something:

That something owns this earth―all others warned off.

―Charles Fort, ‘The Book of the Damned’ (1919)

“The sleeper must awaken”

―Frank Herbert, ‘Dune’

Over to you . . .


[ Image at top shows the creepy “Cremation of Care” ceremony staged at the beginning of each yearly gathering of movers and shakers at Bohemian Grove, California. The climax of the ritual is a mock (some dispute this) human sacrifice before a giant owl idol. ]

P.S. Chances are it’ll all turn out ok in the end. But the more who are awakened, the greater those chances will be.

P.P.S. Bless you all . . .

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We’ve been warned (again)

The Universe has rules.

Those who seek to enslave us must tell us what they’re doing.

If we don’t object, this is taken as our free-will acceptance of their actions.

That’s why things designed for mass public consumption—rock concerts, international games ceremonies, movies, music videos, half-time shows at major sporting events etc.—often feature symbolism which shouts out loud to those who know.

Take, for example, the opening ceremony at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in England’s Birmingham.

The apparently innocent imaging here plays on Birmingham’s bull connection—the city’s centre has for centuries been known as the ‘Bull Ring’, and today’s huge shopping complex is the ‘Bullring Centre.’

So the Birmingham Commonwealth Games opening ceremony duly featured a massive, fiery bull, complete with smoke-snorting nostrils. Around which all manner of dance and other antics unfolded.

Here’s a screen-capture of part of the ceremony:

Ok.

Back then to the Christian Bible, in which the Israelites find that their “Lord” condemns in the strongest possible terms practices associated with the (Canaanite?) bull-god Moloch.

Practices which include the obscenity of child sacrifice:

“Don’t sacrifice your children in the fires of your altars . . . “ (Deuteronomy 18:10)

” . . . and they have built altars for Baal in order to burn their children in the fire as sacrifices.” (Jeremiah 19:5)

“Even today you offer the same gifts and defile yourselves with the same idols by sacrificing your children to them in the fire.” (Ezekiel 20:31)

Here’s an illustration of one such sacrifice to the god Moloch, taken from the 1897 book Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us, by Charles Foster.

So some pretty heavy-handed symbolism in Birmingham, no? Humans bowed down as if in worship before a giant bull that’s surrounded by the fire of flaming torches . . .

All just coincidence? Nah, don’t think so. And not so much a ceremony as . . . a rite.

If we allow these sorts of things to go unremarked and unchallenged, those who would enslave us can point to them and say in their defence: “but look, we told them what we were doing, and they didn’t say nay.”

Well, there’s plenty of other overt symbolism out there. Symbolism we miss or ignore at our peril.

Once sensitised, you realise these symbols are all around us.

Look for e.g. the single all-seeing eye inside a triangle (and celebrities photographed with just one eye showing), specific hand-signs, pyramids and obelisks, fiery torches, sun-disks (particularly those rayed or winged), pentagrams inverted, crosses ditto, checkerboard floors, the ourobouros (a snake swallowing its own tail), owls (strange but true), and more, more, more.

Well there’s a coincidence. For you to figure out what it might all mean . . .

But as always, don’t take my word for it—dig for yourself, ponder for yourself, make up your own mind . . .

Here’s one or two places to start you off:

Oh, and see also my posts ‘Shame on us‘ and ‘Patches‘ on this site.

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Do ye still doubt?—2: ETs among us

[ First posted here December 2021, bumped July 2022 to keep it top ]

The date is 9 May 2001. The place is the National Press Club, Washington, D.C.

Dr. Stephen Greer, founder of the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI) and the Disclosure Project, is hosting a press conference.

The world’s media are present—journalists have pads and recorders poised ready, TV and film cameras crowd the back of the room.

One by one, the speakers—21 of them in all—take the podium. These are serious people; no wide-eyed conspiracists they.

Some are from the military, some from the intelligence fraternity, others are government contractors, air-traffic personnel, NASA staffers.

Many were entrusted with clearances at the top-secret level or above.

These are not practised public speakers—some are visibly nervous. But as they in turn relate their stories, a corpus of evidence builds that becomes impossible to gainsay, impossible to ignore.

Some tell of radar-confirmed encounters with extraterrestrial craft that remain stationary then suddenly accelerate to unheard-of speeds, performing impossibly high-G manoeuvres.

Others speak of UFO activity around nuclear missile bases, and the missiles being deactivated.

Others again testify to off-planet UFO encounters by U.S. and Russian astronauts.

There is testimony too about extraterrestrial vehicle crashes on Earth and the recovery of craft and bodies, even the retrieval of live alien beings (see also ‘Patches‘ on this site).

Many of the speakers reference written, audio and video documentary evidence to back up their testimony.

In every single case, participants were ordered to keep details secret from the public.

But each one of these speakers—now mostly retired and so in some cases freed from the secrecy oaths of office—each one solemnly affirms they are ready to testify under oath, wherever and whenever (see also ‘Unacknowledged‘ on this site).

One speaker admits his naïve expectation that because details of what he’d experienced were so astonishing, they’d for sure appear on the evening news.

Of course they didn’t.

But just as revealingly, the exposures from this press conference—which should have swept the world and alerted humanity to a truth often hinted at but officially denied—also quickly got buried, despite the world’s media being there to capture every word.

The powers that conspire to hide the truth from us are evidently still potent . . .

You can view the full press conference (it’s quite long) at www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0fEU_s8m18


Dr. Greer speaks of a further 400+ testimonies, many of which can be accessed on the ‘Sirius Disclosure’ site at siriusdisclosure.com/evidence/, (see also ‘Unacknowledged’ on this site).

Do yourself a favour: take a look and decide for yourself . . .


One brave soul who did not appear at the press conference was the late Master Sergeant Robert Dean.

One of the earliest of the military whistleblowers, Dean’s calm and assured recollections are particularly convincing. Here’s a clip from a while back:

Honestly, do ye still doubt?

More on this site:

More elsewhere:

  • Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind: Contact Has Begun‘: Film released in 2020. Part I details the reality of humanity’s extraterrestrial contacts, and the tireless efforts of governments, the military, Hollywood and the media to paint them as hostile. Part II covers the latest scientific research into consciousness, and the relationship between mind and matter. The link is to the full movie on YouTube, although it’s also to be had on Amazon Prime and elsewhere. More on the ‘Sirius Disclosure‘ site.

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The Georgia Guidestones

[ Originally posted on Facebook 10 July 2020; additions dated ]

Five nearly 20-foot-tall granite slabs, topped à la Stonehenge by a capstone, were erected in the USA’s Elbert County, Georgia in 1980. They were the work of a self-professed ‘small group of loyal Americans.’

These dealt with the Elberton Granite Finishing Company via an intermediary who used an alias; they paid the EGFC’s intentionally grossly inflated quote without demur; they provided exhaustive specifications and a scale model; and they insisted on remaining anonymous.

Chiselled into the stones are a set of ten guidelines or principles, in eight languages: Arabic, English, Hebrew, Hindi, Russian, Spanish, Swahili and Traditional Chinese.

An additional tablet gives more information about the Guidestones, with texts in Babylonian (cuneiform), Classical Greek, Sanskrit and Ancient Egyptian (hieroglyphs).

Some of the principles are anodyne enough, e.g. #5: “Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts“; or #9: “Prize truth—beauty—love—seeking harmony with the infinite.”

And who could possibly take issue with Principle #7: “Avoid petty laws and useless officials.”

However, it’s Principle #1: “Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.” and Principle #2: “Guide reproduction wiselyimproving fitness and diversity,” that seem to argue a rather less benevolent agenda.

Or, as Wikipedia puts it in typically mealy-mouthed terms: “The anonymity of the guidestones’ authors and their apparent advocacy of population control, eugenics, and internationalism have made them a target for controversy and conspiracy theory.”

I should effing cocoa . . .

So someone (in fact several someones) laid out bonkers money to avow formally—in stone—their wish to “maintain humanity under 500 million.”

Well, I guess Covid’s a start.

However, given that our population currently exceeds 7 billion, the stated worldwide Covid death toll of somewhere over 500,000 to date [in July 2020] isn’t even making a dent (worldwide annual births: around 140 million)—plus it’s mostly taking out the old and infirm, who are generally past reproductive age.

If you’re really serious about reducing Earth’s population, you’ve got to start killing off the baby-makers of the future, and—אֱלֹהִים [Elohim] forbid—the babies too . . .

Conclusion: More, and (oh dear) worse to come?


[ 11 July 2021 addition ]

There are reports of tenders appearing in the UK for “temporary body storage.” Here’s one such, published yesterday (10 June 2021) on the gov.uk website by Westminster City Council. The initial time-frame is four years . . .

A Reuters “fact-check” (here) opined: “While the tender is real, it is not linked to the vaccine or the current pandemic. Westminster Council told Reuters it replaces a similar contract that is due to expire.

Hmm. Unfortunate timing though . . .


[ 17 September 2021 addition ]

A UK funeral director speaks about his experiences over the last couple of years.

He also makes some chilling predictions about our near future.

And yes, it does seem there may indeed be more—and (oh dear, oh dear) worse—yet to come . . .


[ 7 July 2022 addition ]

Interesting. The Georgia Guidestones are no more. The BBC reports that an explosion yesterday reduced one of the pillars to rubble, and the whole thing has now been “demolished for safety reasons.”

So what do you reckon? An outraged citizen (or group of citizens) who found certain of the Guidestones’ messages just too much? Or someone (or group of someones) higher up who felt too much was being given away?

One clue might be that CCTV footage showed a car leaving the scene around the time of the first explosion. Watch to see if anyone is found and prosecuted. If so it’ll be a private citizen; if not, well . . .

And then of course we have the almost instant destruction and removal of evidence from what was plainly a crime scene (remind you of anything 9/11-ish?).

So will the Guidestones (or something like them) be rebuilt? Or is this just a rare victory in the battle against those who would enslave us?

As always, you decide . . .

P.S. For those of a cynical or skeptical disposition, maybe ponder this: the initial explosion took place at precisely 3:33 a.m. . . .

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Shame on us . . .

[ Originally posted on Facebook 21 July 2020; addition below,14 April 2021 ]

The battle between those who would shackle us and those who would free us is now out in the open, and is building towards its climax.

For now, it might seem that the former have the upper hand.

However, the latter have an ace up their sleeve—Disclosure.

Humanity will soon learn much about what has until now been hidden (see my January 1 post ‘Gosh-golly-goddam‘ for more on this).

Alas, some of what we’ll learn will shock and horrify.

In particular, detail upon detail will emerge of what we have allowed by our negligence to happen to many among the millions of children who disappear each year.

Forced labour is about the best these can hope for (this is well documented in the reports of the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of State, the International Labour Organization, Human Rights Watch et al.);

Others are sold into sexual slavery (Epstein/Maxwell is just the tip of a massive iceberg here);

But you should know that many meet with the ultimate horror—torture and ritual sacrifice, to satisfy the cravings of elites and others around the world and the appetites of their off-world controllers.

These inhuman crimes will be revealed in graphic and incontrovertible detail.

Humanity needs to prepare itself for these revelations. People will feel almost unbearable guilt at their previous indifference and inaction. The psychological shock will send some mad.

The danger is that the low-vibration, destructive energies of fear, horror and despair will flood the planet.

So what can we do to soften the blow?

Well, already the knowledge of what is to come will help. Girded with Light, we can keep at bay some of the more negative energies.

But in the end, we must free ourselves from our purely Earthbound mindset.

We must come to understand that we are eternal creatures of the Universe.

We are on a planet that is in Transition. Those who can maintain the higher-level vibrations of Love and Light will have the chance alike to Ascend.

Also, know we are not alone in this.

Many of our brothers and sisters from the higher dimensions (call them Angels if you prefer) are with us on this journey of transition.

Some of these have incarnated on Earth, in order to bypass the Universe’s non-interference rules and take an even more active role.

And as always, our call compels their answer . . .


[ Added 14 April 2021 ]

It’s begun.

Polish film director Patryk Vega has released a documentary ‘Eyes of the Devil,’ which lays bare the industry of babies sold for their organs or to child brothels in Germany.

The film begins with Patryk explaining that he was tipped off about a pregnant woman in Poland who was trying to sell her baby. A child trafficking agent was brokering a deal for her that would bring in a large sum of money if she carried her baby to term and allowed him to sign the birth certificate as the father, so that the baby would not be reported as “missing.”

The documentary films Vega’s conversations with the mother selling her baby, the agent handler and the child trafficker. The voices and faces are altered, but these conversations reveal for the first time how these businesses operate.

Be warned: you will see, hear and learn things in this documentary that will shock and horrify. Before watching, make sure you are centred and calm. The video contains graphic material about raping and killing babies and young children. Be advised . . .

[Edit 9 February 2022]

Well, initially I chose not to embed the video, and just put a link to it. But maybe my warning was just too off-putting. It needs to be seen . . . So here it is: “The Eyes of the Devil” . . .

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Hitch

The best of the friends I’ve been privileged to count as close (his name was Ed, see here) beguiled us all with his fierce intellect, immoderate wit, and a truly liberating command of the scatological.

Which makes it all the more surprising that I never came across Christopher Hitchens (“Hitch”) during his lifetime—a shortfall which I rue to this day.

Here was a man who lived by argument and debate. A voracious reader—who seemed never to forget a single thing he’d read—he travelled the world’s trouble-spots and interviewed the world’s change-makers, bringing a critical and independent (his words) mind to challenge all forms of settled belief with an almost otherworldly fluency and coherence.

He was also a prolific writer and broadcaster.

Just a few book titles will give you some idea: “No One Left to Lie To” (his indictment of Bill Clinton); “The Missionary Position” (ditto Mother Teresa—“. . . was not a friend of the poor . . . was a friend of poverty. . . . said that suffering was a gift from God . . . spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women . . . ”); “God Is Not Great” (subtitle “How Religion Poisons Everything”); “The Trial of Henry Kissinger”, and so on.

But Hitchens was not just a polemicist. He also authored biographies of men he admired (George Orwell, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine), and left us with essay collections on any number of topics. Plus a splendid memoir (“Hitch-22”—as good a place to start on his writings as any).

British-born, he moved to the USA in his early thirties, finally becoming a US citizen in 2007.

He died of cancer in 2011.

Seek him out, I urge you. For even if you disagree with his views, his manner of putting them across always delights, not to mention the wit and learning-lightly-worn.

You’ll find plenty of videos of him in full flight on YouTube. I’ve chosen one of the very last of these: an interview by Britain’s Jeremy Paxman shortly before Hitchens’ death.

Paxman was a famously abrasive interviewer (he once said his default mindset when interviewing politicians was “why is this lying bastard lying to me?”). But here he becomes almost (gasp!) deferential, as these two fine intellects range over career, beliefs, illness, and impending death.

Would that Christopher Hitchens were still alive today—his breadth of knowledge, his clear and incisive thinking, and the tangential slash* of his wisdom would be welcome—nay, essential—correctives to the madness that is our current world . . .

[ * So wish I’d coined this, but in fact I lifted it—if memory serves, from Frank Herbert’s “Dune.” q.v. ]

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Eyes open, folks . . .

So.

On March 23, a huge container ship became lodged sideways across the Suez Canal, the word “Evergreen” emblazoned for all to see.

Bad luck, you might think.

The shipping company offered the explanation that the (nearly-quarter-million-ton) ship—which is the length of four football pitches—was “suspected of being hit by a sudden strong wind.”

But curiouser and curiouser: photos then emerged of a truck that had blocked the Changchun-Shenzhen Expressway in China just a few days previously.

It was at exactly the same angle, and—gasp!—also had the word “Evergreen” boldly emblazoned on its side for all to see.

Well, it’s all just a coincidence. Surely it must all be just a coincidence . . .

For those of a conspiratorial bent, note that “Evergreen”  is apparently the U.S. Secret Service codename for Hillary Clinton.

Other things to ponder:

  • Satellites falling from the sky (see here and here)

  • A semiconductor shortage strangling the automotive industry (world #1 and #3 players NXP Semiconductors and Infineon Technologies fell prey to the recent—unprecedented—ice-storms in Texas, while #2 player Renesas Electronics in Japan reported on March 19 that its plant has been ravaged by fire.)

  • [ Added 3 April ] Trio of lights over Montreal airport on 31 March. Ours? Theirs? Whose? Why? See below . . .

Things are hotting up.

So, eyes open, folks . . .

P.S. [ 11 April ] Oh, and you might want to keep an eye out for further unexpected early-age deaths. A causal pattern developing perhaps?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b82wR4_OlXM
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The Thick of It

Dysfunctional government is rather in the news these days—whether it’s a U.S. president who hires and fires almost weekly; the same president who won’t concede an (apparently) unquestionable election result; a UK prime minister who even his own party accuses of dithering and incompetence; not to mention all the politicians around the world whose corruption and blatant self-interest are impossible to ignore.

There’ve been plenty of TV series that have portrayed or satirized this—think of West Wing in the States, Yes Minister in the UK, and House of Cards on both sides of the Pond.

But none of these, nor any of the many political movies, have come as close to the bone as Armando Iannucci’s The Thick of It.

Here we have a series that portrays the byzantine machinations of politics brutally and (I’m pretty sure) honestly. As Wikipedia‘s typically po-faced article says, “It highlights the struggles and conflicts between politicians, party spin doctors, advisers, civil servants and the media.”

Hard to know where to start here. Maybe with the stellar performance of Peter Capaldi as director of communications and spin-meister of his party. Or is it the ever-sharp writing, or the wonderful ensemble-playing of the cast . . .

A team of writers produced consistently edgy scripts, and when I tell you that there was a dedicated “swearing consultant” whose task was to add even more colourful language, you’ll get an idea of just how rich the dialogue is.

The series featured no incidental music, no laughter track. All shot hand-held. Plus Capaldi is on record as saying that “Fundamentally 80% of the final cut is the script that we started with.” In other words, some 20% of the dialogue is improvised, which only adds to the sense of realism.

The four series of The Thick of It ran from 2005 to 2012, and never flagged. It was hugely successful, spawning spin-offs on both sides of the Atlantic (the movie In the Loop, a U.S. remake, and the HBO series Veep).

It’s also a series that repays repeated watching, each time discovering new nuances of performance, new appreciation of the quick-fire dialogue and the scabrously inventive invective.

I love it . . .

The Thick of It was at one time on Netflix, also on BBC’s iPlayer, but I’ve also seen it on the UK’s ITVx and various other streaming services. I promise you it’s worth looking out. More about it on Wikipedia.

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Unacknowledged

[First posted on Facebook 1 May 2020]

Feel the need for a bigger picture view?

If you have Netflix, take a look at Dr Steven Greer’s ‘Unacknowledged.’

Multiple military, corporate and intelligence insider whistleblower testimonies affirm historical and continuing extraterrestrial contact with humanity. They also tell why the secrecy surrounding these contacts has been so ruthlessly enforced.

A picture emerges of the profound existential crisis and choice now facing humanity: on the one hand, endless war, global climate and environmental catastrophe; on the other, disclosure of hitherto-hidden technologies that would instantly create a world of peace, abundance and a sustainable interstellar civilization for thousands of years yet to come.

It’s long past time to open our eyes, open our minds . . .

Unacknowledged also available on Vimeo, SiriusDisclosure, Amazon UK, amazon.com.

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