Showing posts with label Russia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Russia. Show all posts

Eurovision : "Non-political, strictly neutral, doesn't matter if you're good or brutal."

Eurovision Theme Song 2025 : 
"Non-political, strictly neutral, doesn't matter if you're good or brutal."

Right. In this line, the indeed acknowledge that some of the States being represented in the contest are indeed brutal. And that that does not matter. 

The writers outed the competition, thinking they were protecting the conception. 

We all know who they are referring to as brutal, States represented in the completion, and certain States banned from the competition. The whiff of hypocrisy is pungent. Every state engaged in warfare ought to be excluded from such a peace bringing song contest. 

War does not bring peace.

War does not bring peace, we know this : not in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Congo, Sudan, Kashmir or Palestine. The end of World War II did not bring peace to Congo, Vietnam, Korea, it did not bring peace to South Africa, Cuba, South America. War never brings peace. Peace is so much more than mere ceasefires. Peace is the dismantling of militarism, the redirection of our efforts towards healthy relationships at all levels of society, the adoption of the duty of care to avoid all known avoidable harms as the core of a healthy society.

Supporting one side in a war, arming one side or both in a war does not bring peace. Paying for those arms trades through Swiss bank accounts does not bring peace. 

I do not know who wrote the lyrics or the music. Their video does not list any credits.

If I was either, the lyricist or the music writer/arranger I would not want anyone to know I had any part in it. And I would not want a single cent of the royalties. Blood money. I am a song writer and producer. Largely unknown and unremarkable. I do know my craft, and its purpose as a folk roots musician.

Here is the song, 'Made in Switzerland', written with a Latin American beat.. (cultural appropriation?)
The majority of comments on the video are familiar to those who know the bot farm linguistic turn of phrase.

Hazel Brugger and Sandra Studer sung this song, and presented the competition.


Youtube video of the song 'Made in Switzerland'



the Lyrics:

Made in Switzerland
on television every year
in Switzerland
And now you finally understand 

that like the Swiss, Eurovision 

is unpolitical - 

strictly neutral!

Doesn't matter if you're
good or brutal!
Welcome but with decency! 
and so sparks of fire
and crazy lightning make
the staging far more frightening!


The song goes on to claim Switzerland invented Democracy and other wildly self aggrandising claims.


How frightening is the crazy bombing of Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank?


It doesn't matter, because good or brutal, Eurovision welcomes you! Here's a tiktok I made on this, juxtaposing the song and a recent Palestine Solidarity March in Cork, Ireland.


Most people alive today are decent people, not prone to violence, warfare or exploitation.


Those that are, like very much to associate those characteristics as essential innate traits of our species. This is a lie, and no matter how oft repeated it remains a lie. 


Militarism is a Pox upon Humanity. No question.


IF we were indeed all like that, then the current bullies would have been extinguished in an orgy of violence long ago, and an even more vicious bully cult would have emerged, and we'd all be quite delighted with it.


Nobody yet has shown any evolutionary adaptation to organised violence - PTSD is the evidence of this, and we see, repeatedly the majority of combat survivors suffer from PTSD.


One of the elements of psychological dominance is to ensure we remain exhausted and divided, insecure and incapable of building the kinds of solidarity that would enable the vast majority to hold the few bullies to account, impede them, restrain them and dismantle their systems and infrastructures of leverage violence.


In this hope is useless, determination is what really matters.


In the day to day life of the Palestinians, the Aboriginals, and so many other colonised peoples whose existence is their first resistance, we see what real determination is.


We have so much to learn and not much time to get on it.


@egalitarianlovesongs ‘It doesn’t matter if you’re good or brutal?’ It does. It really matters. It matters when they refuse to stand up to brutality to take a fat wage… that makes them mercenaries. This may be the most abysmal cultural appropriation ever, to take a global south riddem and abuse it to give cover for Israeli Genocide and claim their are peace makers. complicit #enabling #eurovision #cork #fyp #irishtiktok #foryoupage❤️❤️ ♬ original sound - ❤️Corneilius Crowley Musician


Lead Commercial Sponsor of Eurovision


Lead commercial sponsorship for the Eurovision is an Israeli luxury hair and beauty product manufacturer, by the name of Moroccan Oil


Moroccan Oil is made from the nut of the Argan Tree, which previously was only grown in Morocco, where for centuries it has been tended, harvested and processed by women's collectives. 


There is a mythical story which tells us that the nut was traditionally fed to goats, and the post goat nut was then processed, using a complex process, to create the Argan Oil. It is a myth, a fabrication.


One manifestation of the world’s increased interest in argan oil is the development of a kind of mythology surrounding goats climbing into argan trees to harvest the fruit.


You’ve probably seen photos of this elsewhere, and there is some truth to the matter.


Goats are fans of argan fruit—and the leaves and any other food they can find. Left to their own devices, they’ll eat whatever is on the ground. When that’s gone, they’ll happily climb into the trees to find more, bounding out onto branches that bend under their weight.


The popular myth has it that oil producers rely on the goats to “process” the fruit through their digestive tracts and that nuts collected from goat manure are easier to open.


While it’s true that gathered nuts are indeed used in production, most argan oil is produced from fruit that matures and falls from the tree on its own.


In fact, goat herders and orchard guards work hard at keeping the goats away from trees with unripened fruit to ensure they don’t consume future harvests before they’re ready.


Unfortunately, this myth has led to the practice of forcing goats into trees along major roads for the benefit of passing tourists, with the worst offenders even chaining goats to branches for days. (If you visit, steer clear.) source : Curious Story


Morocco, long proud of this unique Beauty Oil, had a ban on exporting the tree, to protect their indigenous production. An understandable precaution. 


Some years ago, in 2003 we are told, some clever Israeli's took cuttings, tress and nuts from Morocco, breaking Moroccan Law, and they created hybrids which are now grown on stolen Palestinian land, processed there and sold as Moroccan Oil. Colonial beauty. 


I made a short TikTok about this.


@egalitarianlovesongs https://innerbeautymag.com/en/2018/11/23/carmen-tal-happiness-is-a-choice/ Moroccanoil has been the Official Sponsor of Eurovision for the past 3 years, cementing both the brand's reputation as an authority in hair trends, as well as bringing a real link between fashion, music and hairdressing Mortocan Oil is an Israeli haircare brand owned by Israeli, Carmen Tal. Moroccan Oil obscures its manufacturing and origins. It poses as a moroccan brand, however its products are all manufactured in Isreal. #relatable #humanity #share ♬ original sound - Trader Barry fx

I have to admit I have long disliked the Eurovision Song Contest, on artistic grounds, as a folk musician also rooted in electronic dance music and underground arts over a 35 year 'career'. I am wholly opposed to music being used and weaponised as a political propaganda tool and a wealth extraction practice. 


Music, folk music in particular, must serve the needs of the people, must tell our stories, our trails and tribulations, our struggles, our loves, our kindnesses and our shared humanity. 


Music can and is used for many purposes: weddings, funerals, community celebrations, for joy and for grief, and importantly, folk music  has a rile to play in building humane solidarity so as to inspire and fire up the natural urge to make peace through challenging oppression, confronting the violent, dismantling their status. 


It cannot do so when harnessed to political warfaring states and their objectives.

~

'Get off your Land' (see below) is a song of mine, about the Palestinian struggle, citing the long history of Zionism as a weapon of the British Empire that replicates the Plantation of Northern Ireland by the British in the 1600s, with the same patterns emerging of a population which holds an internalised religious identity that also includes a sense of entitlement to colonised lands, an identity passed from one generation to the next, exploited by the colonial overlords, weaponising people, parents and children, with rabid justifications for extremes of violence, for centuries.  In the song I note the deployment of British Government irregular combat units, known as The Black and Tans, tasked with the oppression of civilians in reprisal for resistance to the colonial domination, from Ireland to Palestine, in 1922.


Geopolitical long term strategy.


Being Irish, and well read, I have a different understanding of this aspect of history than most British people I have met, in my 45v years of living in London, the majority of whom appear to be timidly yet proudly unwilling to admit the horrors of their own ruling class, let alone be energised to hold the English Ruling Class accountable. 


Tony Blair walks free, a very wealthy man, one who ought to be in a cell at The Hague, for his War Crimes. We have the evidence.


I wrote this song 'Get Off Your Land' in 2020, produced this version in 2021, and am appalled to see its predictions so horrendously fulfilled. I am disgusted at the British and American and German State Governments enabling of a genocide, standing as staunch duplicitous allies in the international domain, arming Israel for commercial gain. I am similarly nauseated by their deliberate fuelling of war in Ukraine. Russia's invasion is odious, illegal and amoral, that is clear. And yet the slaughter on the fields of South Eastern Ukraine is not entirely the responsibility of the Russians. World War One demonstrated the odious practice of throwing fresh troops to a well defended frontline, to murder and ben murdered in their hundreds of thousands. I fail to see the benefits to Ukrainian civil society in such wholesale slaughter. 


Here is Mitch McConnell extolling the many virtues of exacerbating the Ukraine-Russian war, in less than two minutes.

 


Mitch McConnell's honesty regards the benefits of the Ukraine War is instructive.


The Civil War that plagued the Donbas for 8 years prior was egged on by outsiders, as a means of 'weakening Russia'. Some spoke of making this 'Russia's second Afghnaistan'. Rather than de-escalate, the USUK have exacerbated that shituation, leading to today, where estimates suggest a million have murdered each other, most gruesomely, egged on by US, UK and Germany, whose arms industry dividends are bloated with tax payers cash.


So here's my song about Palestine. 'Get Off Your Lands'


All in all, the competing warring states dynamic and its patriarchy, who curate racism, misogyny, xenophobia and many other forms of bigotry in order to weaponise ordinary people against each other, is a pox upon humanity. It does matter of you are good or brutal. It matters very much.


Our children's futures are on the line.  It does matter of you're good or brutal. Genuine neutrality is a stance of non-violent resistance to violence, a direct confrontation with the bullies, with the intent to hold the bullies accountable, as part of the process of making a genuine long term peace that leads to entire populations being nurtured rather than exploited.


We must build solidarity strong enough to hold the war makers accountable, all of them, no matter which state they represent.



Kindest regards

Corneilius

Thank you for reading this blog.

"Do what you love, it is your gift to universe."

This blog, like all my other content creation work is not monetised via advertising. If you like what I present, consider sharing my content. If you can afford the price of a cup of coffee or a pint of beer/ale/cider for a few months, please donate via my Patreon account.

https://patreon.com/corneilius - donations gratefully received

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Vlad. The Invader. Putin in the ICCS? Such sorrow for the Ukrainian people, all lovely decent folk, innocent and now being victimised by bullies.

Putin in the ICCs!?

There's more room at the Inn. 'Ternational Criminal Court, Vlad.

There's no doubt on this, the Military Invasion by Russia into Ukraine is a criminal venture. It is the Crime of Aggression, the supreme War Crime. It is known as the supreme war crime, in that it generates the basis of all the subsequent criminal events associated with that act of aggression. The entire command structure prosecuting this war are war criminals. Putin is not the only one.

What must we citizens do? How do we support Russian citizens who, understanding this, wish to stop this war from within Russia and indict Mr. Putin and his colleagues? 

Russia state television employee Marina Ovsyannikova, who ran on to the set of a live broadcast shouting: ‘Stop the war. No to war’, which millions of Russians will have seen. Such incredible courage in the work place. No one in the BBC, ITV, C4, CNN, FOX NEWS, etc has ever dared to do such a thing.

But to do it in Russia? This video is the recorded statement of Marina to her fellow Russians and to the world.


Some polish workers are blockading freight routes from Poland into Belarus and Russia.

A an article circulating on line :  Polish Protest Blocks traffic into Belarus and Russia.

Polish demonstrators have blocked the path of lorries with Russian and Belarusian number plates trying to cross into Belarus, according to a report by broadcaster TVN24.

The action led to a traffic jam stretching 10km at the Koroszczyn border crossing.

Many of the protesters waved Ukrainian flags, indicating their support for that country which came under Russian attack on February 24.

Some of the attacking troops started the assault from Belarusian territory.

The truckers caught in the action protested that the war had nothing to do with them.

Meanwhile, on the way out, opposite direction, and under extreme duress, a flow of refugees:



Refugees, seeking refuge from extreme violence:  people driving away, fleeing in buses, walking on their feet, carrying whatever they had time to grab, frightened, in shock, sad, grieving, exhausted, and holding it together, with courage and grace and strength and kindness, and so much pain, such vast harm, unbelievable and real.

It's so sad, such sorrow, for any individual being put through all of this, and in this situation, today, multiplied by tens of millions. So many people, 40 million, so profoundly harmed.

Entire families, streets, villages, towns, farms in shattered, shocked, grief stricken, angered, outraged, in pain, confused, bereft, made penniless by a useless war, broken and still, even still holding it together, caring for children and elders.

War is a beast, most decent humans are beauty and they ought never meet. Ever. Better they be strangers, than acquaintances. But this culture makes frequent such associations. 

Invasion is a horrible act.

Putin, and the entire government co-operating to prosecute this war are War Criminals, no question. 

There is a chain of command, there is a bureaucracy, a wide network of individuals and agencies all doing their bit to make it work. They have names, titles, official responsibilities, areas of culpable liability-all answerable to the people they harm, and to their own, of course.

Ordinary citizens unjustly trapped by accident of birth in the line of a military advance, totally innocent, people who would never dream of causing harm to anyone, ordinary citizens…harmed by leaders, lies and a hierarchy ugly enough to do this to ordinary people.

It’s disgusting, and Mr. Putin and the Russian state must be held accountable as War Criminals, before the Ukrainians, the people they have harmed so gruesome, as they trampled over such tender communities as people ever lived, and laid waste the life of a people.

For any readers looking to learn more about the Laws prohibiting War, here's a blog piece I wrote in 2008


And a song to go with this:

To the tune of 'Sitting on the dock of the bay"

Sitting in the dock at The Hague,
Putin should be siting there in dread,
Watching the judges walk in.
Watching them walk back out again.
He sent the orders from Moscow,
That’s when he should have stopped,
His order was evil and sour,
Cruelty at pace, unlocked

Sitting in the dock at The Hague,
Putin should be siting there in shame,
Hearing the judgement clear,
Looking at his cell wall for years.

Which would be getting off *Lightly, we'd say
Getting off *Lightly, his lucky day
Getting off *Lightly, judged clear
Clearly guilty of War Crimes.

Sitting in the dock at The Hague,
They should be siting there in chains,
Hearing the judgement clear,
Looking at clean cell wall,
For their remaining years.

*To be allowed to live at all is 'getting off lightly'.

By comparison to the harm caused. 

There is no punishment that meets that criminality.

Incarceration is part of prevention. A warning that civilian populations will incarcerate any political leaders who initiate war, who commit war crimes.

People must hold warlords to account. There is no alternative resolution to this problem.




Kindest regards

Corneilius

Thank you for reading this blog.

"Do what you love, it is your gift to universe."

This blog, like all my other content creation work is not monetised via advertising. If you like what I present, consider sharing my content. If you can afford the price of a cup of coffee or a pint of beer/ale/cider for a few months, please donate via my Patreon account.

https://patreon.com/corneilius - donations gratefully received

https://www.reverbnation.com/corneilius - .mp3 songs

https://www.soundcloud.com/coreluminous - .wav Songs

https://www.corneilius.net - Archive

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Fight Club? Militarism is a pox upon the Earth.


Mairead Corrigan did more for freedom from oppression in 25 years than the IRA did in it's entire history.

Most people alive today are decent people, not prone to violence, warfare or exploitation.


Those that are, like very much to associate those characteristics as essential innate traits of our species. This is a lie, and no matter how oft repeated it remains a lie. 


Militarism is a Pox upon Humanity. No question.


IF we were indeed all like that, then the current bullies would have been extinguished in an orgy of violence long ago, and an even more vicious bully cult would have emerged, and we'd all be quite delighted with it.


Nobody yet has shown any evolutionary adaptation to organised violence - PTSD is the evidence of this, and we see, repeatedly the majority of combat survivors suffer from PTSD.


One of the elements of psychological dominance is to ensure we remain exhausted and divided, insecure and incapable of building the kinds of solidarity that would enable the vast majority to hold the few bullies to account, impede them, restrain them and dismantle their systems and infrastructures of leverage violence.


In this hope is useless, determination is what really matters.


In the day to day life of the Palestinians, the Aboriginals, and so many other colonised peoples whose existence is their first resistance, we see what real determination is.


We have so much to learn and not much time to get on it.



Taking on the Bully Cult is profoundly challenging:

it’s really scary for anyone to look and see what is there, without blinkers, on a number of levels:

- the horror (full realisation)
- the grief (loss of innocence)
- the fear (personally at risk)
- the impact of knowing means one must take action (response ability)
- loneliness (because we are so atomised culturally)
- the selfish rage (why me?)
- the despair (this is hopeless)

Russian military action in Ukraine is a war crime. Blatantly. Set aside the history, the many dynamics that lead up to this shituation.  The Act of Aggression is the supreme war crime, in that it includes all other possible crimes of war, for they are derived from that one act.


At the same time, as I sit here, in total safety, in London watching news reports of Western Media as reporters breathlessly, excitedly chatting shit, broadcasting 'live' from the scene, not from the battle field itself, but at a safe distance, viewing those reports gives me the chills. 

‘Glory to Ukraine’: Civilians take up weapons in the battle for Kyiv screams the Daily Telegraph in England

Guns handed out from the back of rubbish lorries as grassroots resistance to the war started by Russia's Vladimir Putin begins.

18,000 rifles and magazines, for a city of 2,962,180 souls.

How long will those magazines last, how many of those men and women will survive their first encounter with a professional army trained in city fighting? Who thought this a good idea?

It's not glory, it is gore.

Russian forces should not be in Ukraine, they are illegal, amoral and wrong on every level. No question. 


Reporters from a wide range of international News Services, wearing helmets and flak jackets, talking to Ukrainians, sticking microphones into their faces, asking them if they will pick up weapons and fight gives me the chills.

When the war arrives to that city, those reporters will quickly leave. When the long fight, the attrition continues, they will be long gone.

Reading that Ukrainian border guards are stopping all fighting age men from leaving, pulling them out of cars and groups fleeing west, towards Europe, as refugees and thinking what of their partners, their children, their grandparents, their freedom, their human rights? I think they have every right to flee, to not get involved in violence they did nothing to instigate, other than be born there. I am appalled. 

Ukraine and Russia both have large contingents of conscripts already. That is a most fundamental breach of Human Rights. Israel has a similar mandatory service policy. Conscription is inhumane, and a pox upon the people.

A question?

I ask myself - would this breathless reporting and questioning, this encouragement of citizens to take up arms in news reports have been happening in Afghanistan, in 2002, or in Iraq, 2003, or in Yemen, 2011, or in  Libya, 2019 or in Syria, 2012 where sovereign states were being attacked by foreign militia, foreign mechanised military and foreign air forces? Would the worlds media have been so excitedly egging those citizens on?

Imagine a BBC reporter asking an Iraqi citizen in March 2003 - "Hamed, habibi, will you and your sons be taking up weapons to defend your country?"

And what is the result of untrained citizens taking up weapons?

How much more bloodshed is caused?

Who pours money and weapons and logistics into wars to extend them?

Who profiteers?

We are going to war, pay your taxes!


Since 1900, there has only been a single year without a British operational military casualty. This is a chronology of Britain's military interventions since 1945. Know your enemy. They may be closer than you think.

Source material: http://www.britains-smallwars.com


Who loses, and what do they lose?

Nobody wins a war, people survive, mostly due to luck.

And what is life like for the survivors?

And why is militarism still a thing in the 21st Century?

And is it so amongst ordinary citizens who really ought to know better partly because war movies are carefully presented as entertaining, beguiling lies that glorify 'good' violence, that mix extreme violence with sex and love and patriotism, and manipulative emotional hook lines, but leave out the stench of death, the smells of piss, shit, puke, blood, decaying gore, gunpowder and old burned out buildings?

My first rule of 'Fight Club' is everyone in Fight Club is stupid - that's why they don't want to talk about it, honestly. They do like to brag about it, amongst themselves.

Militarism is a pox, a blight, an inhumane machine, a  gross psychopathy institutionalised. Funded by our taxes. The very origin of income tax was to fund a war.

What do we all lose, in every war?

What have we ever gained?

Russia is not Putin, and Putin is not working on his own. Neither is England Blair, and Blair was not working on his own. Neither is Assad Syria, nor was he working on his own. America is not George Bush and Dick Cheny, and they were not working on their own.

From the safety of these islands, the British Empire wrought war, harm and vengeance across this beautiful Earth in pursuit of Wealth Extraction.

Are we not sick of this?

I am. I am appalled. 

Russian warfare against Ukraine must be stopped. 

All warfare must be stopped.

Otherwise it's going to continue. 

And of course there's the ever present threat of Nuclear War. 

Ira Helfand, MD is co-President of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, recipient of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize. As co-Founder and Past President of Physicians for Social Responsibility, IPPNW’s US affiliate, he knows terrible truths about nuclear war. 

Ira uncovers the threat to human survival posed by nuclear weapons and what we can do to eliminate this threat. Dangers of nuclear war exist as an existential threat to humanity. There's circa 15,000 Nuclear Nuclear War Heads owned by nine States.






Kindest regards

Corneilius

Thank you for reading this blog.

"Do what you love, it is your gift to universe."

This blog, like all my other content creation work is not monetised via advertising. If you like what I present, consider sharing my content. If you can afford the price of a cup of coffee or a pint of beer/ale/cider for a few months, please donate via my Patreon account.

https://patreon.com/corneilius - donations gratefully received

https://www.reverbnation.com/corneilius - .mp3 songs

https://www.soundcloud.com/coreluminous - .wav Songs

https://www.corneilius.net - Archive

#folkmusic
#singersongwriter
#blogger
#music