Information..disinformation..
"A top US official has described the suicides of three detainees at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a "good PR move to draw attention".
Colleen Graffy told the BBC the deaths were part of a strategy and "a tactic to further the jihadi cause", but taking their own lives was unnecessary." This, from the London Times, today's edition.
"Muslims have protested outside Scotland Yard against the tactics used by police in an anti-terror raid in east London.
Brothers Abul Koyair, 20, and Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, who was shot in the shoulder, were released without charge a week after the raid in "Forest Gate". This from the same paper.
One could read any of the Sunday papers from any part of the country, and would get basically the same message. And what might that message be?
One, that the US is treating the Guantanamo deaths as 'stunts', and two, that the Forest Gate raid and arrests were necissary, but misguided.
We are slipping more and more, faster and faster, into a situation wherein those in charge, those we have elected, supposedly, can do whatever they like in the name of the 'war against terrorism'.
There have been those in this country, who have been killed, such as Tom Kelly.. those who have been charged with spurious breaches of the law and imprisoned amidst great publicity, only to be released, quietly, a month later, their credibility and careers ruined, their finances left in tatters.
This is not uncommon.
Eventually, even the most determined couch-potato, the most desensitised of our citizenry, must ask 'why?', and then follow with 'who?'.
The President of oil giant BP seems assured enough to make a public statement to the effect that oil will begin flowing in greater quantities soon. So, we can put our concerns about looking for alternate fuel supplies on the back-burner for a while..
We are, all of us, living in what amounts to a fantasy, and the unfortunate truth is, most individuals within this Game enjoy their anonymity, their unconcern.
We will never learn. History has never been that popular a subject in high schools, nor has geography.
We cannot expect a change either, unless there is an end to the bread and circus offerings, be they centered about one's television, or one's Mullah.
Let's continue a bit.
Chad is accusing it's neighbour the Sudan of 'exporting war', of sending it's armed troops into another sovereign territory to deal with specific targets. This is a powder keg,, one which could easily blow into a full confrontation, putting the issue of Darfour out of peoples minds for a while.
Kim Jong Il.. now there's a leader we can all have a chuckle at, having watched Matt Stone and Trey Parker's caricature in Team America.. and indeed The little that is known about Kim Jong-il, North Korea's leader, conjures up a caricature of a diminutive playboy, a comic picture at odds with his brutal regime.
Diplomats and escaped dissidents talk of a vain, paranoid, cognac-guzzling hypochondriac.
He is said to wear platform shoes and favour a bouffant hairstyle in order to appear taller than his 5 feet 3 inches.
But analysts are undecided whether his eccentricities mask the cunning mind of a master manipulator or betray an irrational madman. Mr Kim may well encourage the myth-making surrounding him precisely in order to keep the Western world guessing. North Korea has little to bargain with, and ignorance breeds fear.
Ignorance, there's the key.
It is to be expected that the man on the street will be content with the illusion his or her vote means something in determining their country's foreign, domestic, and economic policies. The sooner we open our collective eyes, the sooner we can demand change.
One must pray to all gods, greater and lesser, and to whatever collective conciousness yet remains, that this illumination is soon in coming.