Joe Strummer

Late 1979 London punkers The Clash released their album “London Calling” and frontman Joe Strummer sang the lead-song.

“London calling to the faraway towns.
Now that war is declared-and battle come down.
London calling to the underworld.
Come out of the cupboard, all you boys and girls.”

Not that most of the rioters in UK’s capital know much – if anything – about The Clash. And what a riot it turned out to be! A world metropolis gone mad. Anarchy in the UK. Another punk anthem from the 70s.

London’s burning. Literally. Well parts of it. And Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Birmingham, Wolverhampton,….

Crazy. Mad. Insane. Lunatic. Over the edge. Unacceptable. No (real) reasons why.

Yes, the first fire was started in north London’s suburb of Tottenham after cops killed a resident (suspected gang member?). All the reasons behind that tragic incident are still not clear, but we know now that the dead 29-year-old man did not fire his gun. He was for sure in possession of a weapon but no bullet left that gun that night.

Dead man. Angry community. Mob mentality. Flames of anger.

So far understandable. To a degree.

But what followed was just pure pillage. Shopping-riots somebody called. And that was spot on. No politics. No social agenda. Just mobs of very young thugs going on a stealing rampage. And their prime targets? Sports wear stores, upmarket fashion retailers, cell phone shops and electronic stores. Nights of riots for a new cellphone and TV plasma screen. That’s what it is all about!

Human behavior can drop very low.

Shops set alight without thinking about the flats (and its inhabitants) above it. A middle class, family, furniture store that has been around for ages torched to the ground. The store survived both world wars and a couple of economic hard times, but not the mad rioters. Nuts. Three men who were protecting their little carwash shop run over by a speeding car, which fled the murder scene. Nuts.

Rebels without a cause and rebels without a brain. Rising up against banks’ outrageous payments to their bosses amidst economic recession is a reason to fight. Rising up back in the 70s and 80s against apartheid South Africa was a real cause. Fighting for your environmental rights in the oil-polluted delta of Nigeria is a worthwhile cause. Rebelling against the destruction of the amazon forest in Brazil is worth the fight. Expressing anger over small sentences for child rapists is totally fine.

But this nonsense across the UK is just a bunch of losers stealing goods to feel more trendy. What the hell has happened that some feel unhappy and ‘rejected’ if they don’t wear the latest Nike footwear, have the newest cellphone, the up-to-date game console and the same eye-wear as that football/soccer player on the billboard? That’s very low self respect and very low general feeling about what life is really about. Sad but true.

Find a job. Paint your house. Help in a soup kitchen for the homeless. Clean up the neighborhood park. Study for a higher degree. But don’t be a f*cking faceless thug. Mob mentality of the weak. What’s the point? Really, what is the point? No future? Certainly not with such behavior and mentality. We are all angry at how politics and economics are going worldwide. And with the environmental disasters. And with the wars and the famines. And with the rapists and the scammers. And with the increasing prices of goods. But tell us one thing, what the f*ck are you achieving now? Zero. Nothing. Less than anything. Anger and rebellion is good because being complacent is numb, but going on a destructive journey and destroy what middle class workers have built up for years is just beyond acceptance. It’s flippin’ bonkers!

Spotted that a 31 year old teacher has pleaded guilty to being part of the looting of a music / sound store in London. A teacher!!! So she destroyed her own future for an ipod or a new set of trendy headphones? How stupid is that? And for a teacher?!? Self-destructive numbf*ck! Blame who you wanna blame, but first of all look in the mirror!!!

And another looter in police cells is an 11-year-old kid. 11-Year-old! Speaking of bad examples in your community. Speaking of seeing your young life only through the eyes of trendy consumerism. Sad, sad, sad.

Human behavior can be the price of an Apple.

And where are the parents of these kids? What do they have to say when the kid comes home late and with a new Ipod in his heand and new tracksuit trousers? Do the parent(s) care? Are they awake? Aware? Not drunk or doped up? Too busy shagging the 16 year old neighbour’s daughter? Or just hardly home because doing double shifts to survive as single parent?

Something’s just gone wrong. Well probably a multiple set of conditions, expectations, fake representations…. It’s mainly which way to turn when you hit a T-junction.

Human behaviour can be a off-track.

Meanwhile, as London is burning, Syria’s onslaught of its own people is just going on like flipping burgers at McDonalds. Still amazing how people with (near-) absolute power looses all sense of values and reality. They become un-humanized. Power is really a brain disease. It transforms humans into something extraterrestial. And there is no normal turning back for dictators. Once they are in their unique but sickening headspace then can never by their own willing or abilities come back to senses. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mugabe, the junta in Burma, Mubarak, the Iranian nuke freak, Gadaffi, Fidel, Pinochet, the Chinese communist party topleadership, the lunatic in North Korea, bunch of other African let’s-hold-on-to-power-forever nutters,…. They’re not all in the same league, but they are all dillusional, powerhungry, should-be-in-a-mental-hospital politicians. Willing to kill their own folks to keep the key to the palace. Willing to exterminate all dissident views. Lost in their own labyrinth of insanity. Power is a deadly disease. And against such disease you can only rebel with brute force. May the force be with the freedom fighters in Libya and Syria!

Human behavior easily slides into mad behavior.

And there you have it. An enormous jawbone found in Kazakhstan adds weight to the idea that giant birds existed at the same time as the dinosaurs. A flying T-Rex! Are you reading this Hollywood?

Throw out. “Life’s a journey” is the brandnew album by New Zealand’s punkers The Rabble. Fine collection of in your face songs with a clear Rancid-touch of punk with reaggea touches here and there. Great production. Nice to discover good music from far nations on thee dge of the planet. Don’t like the hairstyle, but like the musical expression.

C -Ya

collateral – August 2011 is just burning onwards