What’s NEXT ?
This has taken me a while to get down on paper. First I thought calling it “What’s wrong with us ?” down the line, Pythagoras, a greek philosopher, who travelled extensively, and ended up forming a community in south Italy, wrote “Pronounce sweet words, act with sense” or “Drink with responsibility, eat with measure, and do exercises”, as Christ, at the sermon of the temple, “Commercialism is a sin in the temple”  or “Treat your next, as you would like him treating you” and closer to our times, Robert Kennedy, at his acceptance speech, in L.A. just before he was assassinated, about the importance of values, and sustainability. The two previous, ended up the same way, why do we kill the people who show us the way?
But I felt that’s a too negative approach.
Then, “Though Shall Not KILL !” is more to the point.
What brings me to the arab spring movement. Doesn’t matter what God we believe in, or if we don’t believe, there is no excuse for killing. And if we work on, and with our conscience, There are NO excuses ! That was written on a sticker, on the taxi in front of mine, last time I arrived to Anjuna.
That movement was an inspiration for the western youth, and some not so young, to begin the protest movement, “los indignados”. The name, taken from a 90 year old French writer, who survived Nazi camps, and wrote a pamphlet, “the right to be indignado” in 2010.
Many feel it’s the strongest protests since the spring of 68. What brings me to that time, when a lot of young people felt they were not represented by the political scene, and decided to protest, against commercialism, injustice, and the war in Vietnam, and the workers began joining them. To this day, we’re being demonised as the main reason why there are political problems now ? The conclusion of those times was that to make change possible, there was needed a very small change in the percentage of the population that was in favour, for something to happen. But, finally, nothing much really did change, and we went and got lost in the east.
To create a major change in behaviour, you need a massive majority in favour, and that is very difficult to achieve, since there are few issues that a majority of the worlds population will agree on. Following the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia that was triggered by the authorities, wanting baksheesh to allow him to sell vegetables, from his street cart, what he couldn’t afford, came the protests, that brought down the governments in Tunisia and Egypt,

but didn’t really change the establishment.                                     

Maybe one subject we could agree on, PEOPLE WANT JUSTICE, or how the brittish put it “Fair play”.
The United Nations, being the only global “authority”, and at this point in history, I think we have reached a global humanity, need a department for “the peoples voice” with some empowerment to impose their conclusions. I still like to read my newspaper, and there, in the letters to the editor, you find people writing about injustices made to them, but it’s not really the proper place. Still, depending on the editors choice, their voice gets heard, and many times the authorities take notice.
The 25th of January, is the one year anniversary of the beginning of the protests in Egypt, and it would be great if the killing of protesters would not be the only way for them to get taken serious. Syria is a disaster and a disgrace, and still they continue to go out on the streets to protest. The best way, in the end, to put pressure on the establishment is to choose how you spend your money, when it hurts their pockets, they take notice !

Apart, joebanana is doing rather well, even without my daily caretaking, today, the 17th of January 2012, we’ve reached 21926 visitors, (see counter on the bottom of the homepage) better then I expected, since there is still so much missing, the videos being the major part. What doesn’t take off, is the member part. It’s not a major problem, but to improve the information, it needs other people to participate, I only have so much time, and material. There exists an option to synchronize with facebook, but I feel we always were a community looking for alternative ways, and I can think of nothing less alternative then F-B. Still, I’m open for suggestions, and if a majority agrees, I might take that into consideration.
This year being 2012, let’s see if we get the occasion to celebrate the next anniversary, I feel it depends very much on us, the global humanity!
Boom Shankar !