July | 2024 | Not Just a Granny

Archive for July, 2024

Stop killing insects

Posted in around the UK, gratitude, Health, lifestyle, other peoples blog, tagged buttercups, chemicals to kill insects, chemicals to kill weeds, clover, dandelions, destruction of natural world, destruction of nature, in the garden, insecticide, insects, pristine lawns, save our bees, save our birds, wildlife on July 24, 2024| 1 Comment »

Copied and pasted from a wildlife expert on another page.

Hello everyone, I was on a zoom with a local wildlife expert yesterday and found what she said so alarming that I asked her to put some words together so I could post them. Here they are, please share widely;
‘The thing that’s happening this year is unlike other years. Everything is in deep trouble. The cold wet, April, May and dry but cold June has meant that birds that would normally be done with both and first and second broods have had to start all over again as their babies in some cases starved as insects didn’t hatch or caterpillars (vital food for most baby birds) got washed off the vegetation.
Normally it is okay to cut hedges in mid/late July and to cut meadows in higher level stewardship agreements at a similar time.
Last week I watched a spotted flycatcher feeding new fledged babies. Today I saw a yellowhammer that was clearly feeding nestlings. I keep seeing many species of birds defending nests and carrying food for young (some fledged, some not). As for bats, everyone I speak to who is aware of bats is not seeing them. It is a catastrophe. Insect numbers have fallen off a cliff this year. We need to respond by protecting as much cover and quiet space as possible. All birds need to sit quiet and have plenty of cover through August when they are moulting – which is why this is the silent month. They need as little disturbance as possible’.

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The corruption of the West

Posted in around the UK, news from around the world, other peoples blog, tagged ethnic cleansing, free Palestine, genocide, Hannibal Directive, Israeli bulldozers, the war on Gaza, Zionists on July 10, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Talk of humanitarianism was there to obscure a deeper, more savage truth: might still makes right. And no one is stronger than the US and those it favours.

Via @Jonathan_K_Cook on X

Sir Keir Starmer’s own political trajectory suggests an uncomfortable truth about international power politics. The closer western leaders move to power, the more pressure they feel to do Washington’s bidding – and that invariably means casting aside principle.

Devotion to Israel – and a willingness to abandon the Palestinians to the death camp Gaza has become – has been one of the major conditions of entry into the West’s power club.

During the election campaign, Starmer passed that test with flying colours. Which is why he – unlike his predecessor – received an easy ride from the British establishment, including its public relations arm, the corporate media.

Ultra-rich donors, including those with close ties to Israel, have been lining up to throw money at Starmer’s Labour party, at the same time as membership numbers have plummeted.

The reality is that we live in a world where the powerful pay lip service to human rights and international law, a world where they profess to aid the weak even as they assist in their slaughter.

Oppression flourishes, obscured by their empty promises and endless dithering.

For three decades, the West has advertised its benevolence and humanitarianism. It has launched invasions and waged wars supposedly to protect the weak and vulnerable – from Kosovo to Ukraine, from Afghanistan and Iraq to Libya. Democracy and women’s rights have supposedly been the West’s watchwords.

But in truth, as Gaza demonstrates only too clearly, those claims were a tissue of lies. It was always about treating the world as a giant chessboard, and one where Washington’s right to achieve “full-spectrum dominance” was the driving principle, not protection of the weak.

Talk of humanitarianism was there to obscure a deeper, more savage truth: might still makes right. And no one is stronger than the US and those it favours.

The Palestinians, unlike Israel, have no weight in the international system. They are denied an army, and have no warplanes. They are denied control over their borders and their airspace. They have no real economy or currency – they are entirely reliant on the goodwill of Israeli financial institutions. They have no freedom to move from their slivers of territory, their ghettoes, unless Israel first agrees.

They cannot even stop Israel from bulldozing their homes, or arresting their children in the middle of the night.

No one on the international stage, least of all governments in Washington and London, really needs to take account of Palestinian interests.

Abusing Palestinians comes at minimal political cost. Protecting them would offer few tangible political gains. Which is precisely why their abuse continues day after day, month after month, year after year, decade after decade.

We live in a world of deceit, hypocrisy and bad faith. Britain’s new prime minister has shown he is already an arch-exponent of those dark political arts. Listen not to what he says, but watch closely what he actually does.

More from my latest article Starmer learnt the price of power was support for genocide here: middleeasteye.net/opinion/uk-ele…

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