Vibes And Pressure

I was shopping in the supermarket the other day and I looked over to a girl with bleach blonde hair and automatically began to imagine her life. I began making judgments about her choices and perceived circumstances. Then, as I’m consciously trying not to judge people at the moment, I stopped myself. I mean hmm who was shopping in Asda in the first place…

While I was reminding myself that we all are doing our best with the information that is available to us in the circumstances we are in and have been in, and we not all that different from each other deep down, I realised that when I make judgements about people I have to separate myself from them. They become ‘Those people’ instead of ‘Us’

Thinking about it I realised that I make judgements about people all the time and perhaps that was why I was feeling so isolated recently. Perhaps this feeling of disconnection was happening because I had had to separate myself from other people so that I could judge them without feeling guilty.

It then made me think about what happens when I judge aspects of myself. Do I separate aspects of myself from myself through making judgements about myself until there is hardly anything left of myself in myself… if that makes sense

Making judgements about each other is what separates us from each other, and I Guess I’ve been told that before in not so many words, but this time I actually understood it

And if this is the truth then it’s not surprising that most of the time the media encourages us to make judgements about other and we even use it as entertainment these days in programmes like Big Brother or X factor.

If we are going to take back the power then we have to reunite with each other and perhaps that means that we have to stop judging each other negatively, and maybe even positively?

Do you know what I mean?


iRebel

If you want to see some grade A brainwashing on terrestrial TV then make sure you turn to ITV1 at 8PM on Tuesdays…

Last Tuesday I was round my Dad’s house and we were sitting after dinner having a chat with the TV on in the background. In the middle of our conversation I was suddenly distracted by loud aggressive noises coming from the TV of a door being broken and police raiding someone house.

What I was witnessing was the weekly instalment of a programme called Cops With Cameras. I haven’t watched TV in a while, so maybe the desensitising effect of watching TV has worn off, because although I’ve seen programmes like this many times before this time I was shocked to see this kind of imagery being shown as entertainment and at prime time on a channel like ITV1.

With fresh eyes the programme struck me as absurd and sinister. Is this really what is considered entertainment these days? What happened to Cilla Black and Bruce Forthsyth? Family Fortunes is entertainment. Not policemen breaking doors in and frightening people out of their wits...

And it’s on for an hour.. every week! Come on man, how can anybody be entertained by this week in week out? (Although saying that 2.31 million people were watching last week!)

Apart from fulfilling a disturbing voyeuristic gratification it seems to me that this kind of ‘entertainment’ has another purpose. The reason why images of police raiding other people’s houses are being beamed into our brains is so that we are acutely aware of what will happen if we break the law. It seems kind of obvious. The outrageous part of it is that they have the audacity to do this under a flimsy guise of entertainment then stick it on at prime time on an established and perhaps respected channel like ITV1 - pre-watershed. And then to keep people interested they use well known media attention holding techniques (i.e. hypnotism) by having quick cuts, fast paced, shaky camera action and dramatic music, better known as Jolts that release pleasurable chemicals in the brain. (Check out the book by Dr Aric Sigman called Remote Controlled for more info about that.)

For me these programmes have taken on an even more sinister edge since I found out that anything written that is judged to be inciting any kind of illegal behaviour (excuse me but what about the freedom of speech) means that as activists the chances of police knocking down our doors could be a real possibility in the future.

I’ve written a strongly worded letter to ITV1 and I’ll let you know what they say…

Peace.


iRebel

If you have read any of my pieces you may be aware that I haven’t got the fortitude to sit down and churn out one piece in one sitting. At the rate things are going in this world right now, not finishing a piece of writing, is liable to render all your thoughts irrelevant because of the simple fact that information is being spread so quickly. When I watched the scenes on the news during the riot I had a similar feeling to what I had during 9/11 or 7/7. (Note to any new readers; I am a conspiracy theorist extraordinaire, I scare myself sometimes) I was seeing it all with my own eyes but something was not quite right. For one thing the news coverage of the “revolution” was rather strange. On the evening of Monday 8 August they were showing the same images over and over again. Okay, so there may be an issue with scarcity of footage, but I can only watch the same “mindless thug” looting or fighting with the Gestapo…..I mean the Metropolitan police force before I start to transform like the Hulk into my conspiracy theorist alter-ego. The bottom line is repeating the same image over and over again has an effect on your psyche.

If I recall the coverage there were a few types of images that were prominent. 1. Fires burning but hardly any being put out. 2. Looting with no police. 3. Youths fighting with the police (The brave ones out front, in their hoodies, whilst the police were in full riot gear) 4.The Aftermath (i.e. destruction, destruction, destruction.) It seemed by the reporting methods that there was an agenda when the riot were being reported and in many cases the riots that were reported never actually happened in the way the newscaster stated.
Nowadays when I watch the news a little method that I use which helps me to “read between the lines” is to imagine that I’m watching a film and ask myself “what is it that these actors need us to believe? (It’s fun and it works every time!)
In the case of these riots or “disorder” as the police try to term it, they want us to believe that our young people are out of control in their hoodies, and they want to kill, maim, burn, loot and pillage. From my recollection there were reports of riots and/or looting in Camden, Chalk farm, Ealing, Bayswater, Hackney, Woolwich. I even heard that they were planning to attack the mass ritual Olympic site.

The plot read like a Hollywood disaster movie. Our “leader” was away on holiday apparently the third one this year, no doubt taking a break from the incestuous relationship he was having with the police and the media. Correct me if I’m wrong but just before these riots hit, the tabloids were in phone hacking city. The right wing on the big fat political bird was taking the flak for the shit that went down when the left wing of the political bird was in power. (Please note that both wings are on the same bird, so you really have to choose the same tired old chicken when you vote) He stayed away whilst Tottenham burned, following the murder of a “gangsta” who came from the Broadwater Farm estate. Hindsight is great thing but I honestly thought that there was going to be a riot after I heard Mark Duggan had been shot. My reasoning? The amount of civil unrest and general dissatisfaction that authority faces is increasing around the world. We’ve seen, in this country the student riots against fees and the wave of uprisings in the so called Middle East. We have all seen with our eyes the power of the people and what it can and will achieve.
In days of old, our leaders would be out front charging into battle but now they are pampered and protected. When SamCam’s husband came back, he started all the tough talk, and promptly held an emergency meeting with the rather sinister name of COBRA. It’s an acronym for Cabinet Office Briefing Room A. (I wonder what goes on in Cabinet Office Briefing Room B? Not much I presume, and COBRB doesn’t quite have the same reptilian ring to it)

Now the courts are issuing draconian sentences for looters who committed crimes against property. I’m not condoning burning people’s homes, and acts of violence against small and private business, but stealing from JD sports or Carphone Warehouse? While it’s stupid and petty, it’s hardly evil. The media have demonised looters and rioters, to the extent a mother even informed on her own child.
On the evening of the day after the shooting, I drove up to the stretch of road were Mark was assassinated (Yes I said it. Before you dismiss me a conspiracy theorist extraordinaire I quote my good friend Mr Wik Pedia, An assassination is "to murder (a usually prominent person) by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons."[1][2] An additional definition is "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons." So that’s why I have decided to call it an assassination. Is revenge for the killing of a police officer political enough? Not sure? Okay, you call it what you want.

Mark came from an estate where during a riot following the death of a member of the black community a police officer was brutally murdered and no one has ever been convicted.(If that’s not a political motivation, I’m a conspiracy theorist extraordinaire) Anyway, as I was saying I attempted to drive up past Blackhorse Road and the road was blocked off. In my mind I was thinking “why have they blocked off such a large section of the road?” According to the reports that were put out following the killing, Mark was said to have fired first. To me that sounded fishy, but if that was the truth it would have been an open and shut case, and we would conclude that Mr Duggan was suicidal. I‘m not condoning police brutality, but remember we are in a country where the police killed an electrician who walked into Stockwell tube station, so firing rounds at armed police (who no doubt need little excuse to fire) is a sure fire way to get your arse well and truly killed.

When the first reports came out stating that Mark had shot at police I thought the likelihood of that to be dubious. The police allowed that version of events to be circulated, knowing that not to be the case. As the shooting happened in broad daylight, all any witnesses would have seen was the police executing a seemingly innocent man. The thing is; there was a wave of misinformation by the media, after Mark was shot. For at least 3 or 4 days all we heard was that he had shot at police, and the fact that one of the police had a bullet lodged in his radio. It turned out later that the bullet was police issue and Mark had not shot at the police.
When Jean Charles De Menezes was shot it was said that he had run away from police down into Stockwell tube station, wearing a bag with wires coming out. It later turned out that he had been followed into the underground station after he had used an oyster card to get through the barriers. (Not leaped over them as it was first reported) When the police cornered him they shot him eight or nine times in the head in front of passengers who probably though Halloween had come early. I picked up on the similarity between the murder of Mark Duggan and the murder of Jean Charles De Menezes. This similarity was way the media allowed lies about the shootings to be circulated to the public.To me, coupled with the level of dissatisfaction with authority in the world at present, shooting someone from the Black community with a connection to an estate where there was a riot following the death of someone from the Black community equates to a march/protest at the very least and another riot at the worst.

The looting was the result of the perception that the police had lost control of the situation. In my opinion the police never lost control of the situation. It was rather a case of them relinquishing control .My belief is that the looting in Tottenham and Wood Green was allowed to happen. There were military Police at the junction of White Hart Lane and Tottenham High Road at approximately 5am on the Sunday morning. We had received “Intelligence” that looting was going on in Wood Green but the authorities did nothing to prevent it. It would have taken one police car, one armoured black military police vehicle to drive down and stop the looting in Wood Green. News of this spread swiftly and the rest is history. This has now created a climate where people are being criminalised for theft of minor items or in some cases stealing no items at all, and the prisons are filled to the brim, all in time for the Olympics. A little too much orchestration if you ask me but what do I know?

The current climate is one of economic and political uncertainty. The Student riots, the upheaval in the Middle East and all the marches against the cuts are evidence of the tension. We have also seen unrest in Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal. The government would have us believe that the riots were perpetrated by materialistic young people who didn’t care about the death of Mark Duggan. I believe that there was a great deal of opportunism mixed in with a general disillusionment with the system. The fact that ‘normal’ people who had never gotten in trouble with the police before have now been caught up in the penal system is very ironic. I believe that the ‘system’ is aware that there is genuine anti-government sentiment in the air. In one dastardly chess move, we now have a climate where the police have an excuse to increase their powers and the public have almost consented to this. The papers were showing images of ‘thugs’ caught on camera and encouraging people to ‘shop a moron’ they are actively trying to create a climate where we are doing the snooping and the detective work for the police.
Those involved in the riots were acting out what many had been feeling for a long time. In my mind, they were like an aspect of (my) subconscious energy taking the law in into their own hands. It’s funny how the police are now running around picking up people and pushing them through the courts for committing the same crimes that founded America and most of the old British Empire. To dismiss the underlying irony is dangerous. The looting was in most part against property and large stores. With all the talk of cuts in spending and government debt, many people feel they are being ripped off in the UK today and that sentiment was one of the factors driving the unrest. I recall when petrol prices started rising astronomically a couple of years ago there was a blockade carried out by lorry drivers and the prices dropped, accordingly. Petrol is now over £1 a litre and we are in more testing economic times now than we were then. No blockade, no complaints just acceptance.

The other issue that these riots bought up was the issue of race. I watched as the media attempted to racialise events. The murder of the three young men in Birmingham was one of the most poignant moments for me in the media coverage of the riots. Three young men of Asian origin were tragically killed when a car was driven into them following a brick being thrown into a car window. As far as I am aware the suspects for those murders were all black, but from my understanding there are long seated tensions between the Black and Asian communities in some parts of Birmingham. The media quite rightly highlighted the dignity of the father of one of the young men who was killed and then they went on to show solidarity from different communities against the looters/stroke rioters. I saw and heard stories of Sikhs in Southall, the Turkish community in Hackney and the broom wielding community in Clapham, who were predominately although not exclusively white. There was not a media representation of the resistance from the Black community. The Black community was either perpetrator or victim. The images showed rioters of all ages all races and of both sexes. The multiculturalism that supposedly won London the Olympics was now turning on the government. Black culture was blamed, rap music, even the slang spoken on the streets, blackberrys and Facebook were also accused. The latest that I’ve heard, Ken Clarke said it was caused by, and l quote "a feral underclass" . Wow!!!!!Are you hearing the language? The mention of class is ironic because these riots were defiantly fuelled by inequality, whether real or perceived.

I see these events as symbolic of the changes in consciousness. As they say change is the only constant. The one thing we can be sure of is that the world needs more balance, and the amount of energy that it’s going to take to create lasting real change is probably directly proportional times about 100, to the amount of energy it took to create it. So let’s see if we can all be part of the change.

Peace and Love DM

I wrote a song about a month ago as we were putting the finishing touches to recordings we had done for my upcoming EP. The song's title is "Change". It was just a little vibes that turned into a bit of a tune;-). Anyway, once the song was recorded I felt a great sense of release that has only come with a very few of tunes I have written. To be a vessel of words, sound and power can sometimes be spiritually exhausting hence the sense of release I speak of. However, this song stayed with me a lot longer than I thought it would, partly due to the mood on the streets of London (and UK). As I watched the riots unfold, more and more i started to connect with these same words I had just written down. Here is a quick sample of the song.....

"Theres a new breeze i can feel a change coming in the air
the leaves are on the ground, but summers only just appeared
as I look to the sky the sun got a different kinda glare
as i look into the eyes of the youth i see no more fear......

"...Change dont come in a day
but everytime the whole world spin around we going somewhere
As the seasons change we'll find a way
But just remember change wont come in a day...."


The song will be released as part of my upcoming EP in either late September or October, as I feel it necessary to release it post Ethiopian new year. Over the past few years as I have observed and lived and written songs, one of the things I have noticed is how alienated young people feel. Yeah, yeah, I know everyone talking is about that now on all the news channels, but I ask myself why it has taken this ting to happen for elders to sit up and take notice.

I had an (friendly) argument with one of my rasta elders as to why little real efforts were being made as a unit to connect with the yout's on the wrong side of the poverty line, it's not the responsibility of the old to guide the young. We can't rely on them people in power to provide funding and youth centres when they're busy trying to fill us wit propaganda and fight or their bullshit causes. Lets take care of ourselves. Anyway let me not go in too deep, I could go on 4eva on that subject.

If you wanna hear me and my brethren ramble on more about this type of thing stay tuned to this page or more to come.

Anyway to link this reasoning back to the song.... Change takes time and effort. We just have to (truly) will it and it will manifest. Now is the time, the time is now etc.... anyway I have taken a break for a while in terms of releasing material. So now is the time for... "Change". Look out for it over the upcoming weeks and stay tuned into the website and the blogspot.

"....As the seasons change we'll find a way
But just remember change wont come in a day...."


Peace and Love

Vibes and Pressure

N

...so the events of last week has played heavily on my mind.
I sat down to write this about 6 times but each time I just stared at the computer screen and there were so many words that my fingers just could not move quick enough.

Every1 been talking about the Riots. But more and more I am starting to wonder what exactly talking achieves. Everyone talking about the looters, Every1 talking about these hooligans, everyone talking about jobless, lazy young people. Some people talking about organization amongst the gangs, some people talking about revolution, some people talking about rubber bullets and the army, hardly any1 talking about Mark Duggan, some people talking about the racsism in this country, a few more people talking about the poverty line.... anyway there's a whole heap of talking going on.

So I thought I'd just Listen!

Prior to listening I was observing!

I stood observing with my two feet planted on Tottenham High Road, yet ready to move when the "fire" got "too hot". How I came to be in Tottenham on that same night is pure coincidence, but that's another story. Even though my heart was racing and palms were sweating, what I saw that night didn't surprise me one bit. I know it sounds mad but there is no effect without cause and the yout's been crying out 4 a while, for the past ten years I been writing songs about my generation and our youngers.... as i say cause and effect.

However what did surprise me was the willingness to destroy our own shops and houses as opposed to the buildings that symbolize babylon. All I can speak of are the frontline brothers I saw at 1am, charred from fire sprayed out by the chopper, wounded from armshousing police officers. That night I saw a wild angry freedom in the eyes of "the rioters". I was there late when there were no more looters, the only ones left were the ones not there 4 free trainers.The only ones left just wanted to lick down them same police that stop and search them. The only ones left were the "angry voice of the youth" crew, not the "free trainers" crew. Black and White united through poverty aiming all their frustrations, anger, burning sticks and stones at the modern-day human symbol of western oppression - The riot police!

The second thing that surprised me was the little action taken by the police, especially to stop the looters. However, as time has continued on its constant path that surprise soon turned into "of course, I should have known....". I think we all have our different theories on the (non)action taken by the police. I'll reserve my opinion for a song maybe one day.

What sticks out the most in my head from that night in Tottenham wasn't actually the burning eyes of the rioters, but instead a burning police van. I stood there staring at this burning police van, and as I looked into the flames my reality shifted. Growing up in London in fear of the police as a yout'man I never thought I would be standing next to a burning police van. Fire does a crazy thing to the spirit, so I guess part of me understands why nuff man took to the streets over the next few days, after seeing the streets ablaze. My good friend was down Pembury estate the next day and his experience was similar in that where he was there was no looting, just people there ready fi war with the feds. Street-soldiers. No interest in tiefing out likkle trainers and TV.... shame on us. There were soldiers out there ready to bun fire on babylon, and let their voices be heard in the same language that is used against them: violence, the language of oppression used all over the world... meanwhile all some people wanna do is take some bullshit material things. Now what voice do these yout' have? Do they not need to be heard?

As long as there is oppression abroad and in your own back yard the streets will be hot, as long as the police keep killing people and getting away with it the streets will be hot, as long as you keep stopping and searching with prejudice the streets will be hot, as long as you get richer while the poor man stay suffering the streets will be hot, as long as you stay the same as you are the streets will be hot!

As for now I am still listening, refusing to cast judgement, meditating and trying to get a grip on what is to come. I wrote a song called "change" a few weeks before the riots, so it is about time I put something out for these hot streets and those observing from their houses. Look out for it over the next coming month.

Peace and Love

Vibes and pressure

N