You might know the empire as ‘The Commonwealth,’ of course, but Britain (The City of London) actually consolidated its power and grew its parasitic empire exponentially after WWII, when they ostensibly ‘gave freedom to the countries’ under their boot. The bloody dictatorships that followed in many of these colonies were all organized and paid for by The City and are still being run from there, though not as successfully as before [Image Can Not Be Found] . The Cold War was a cynical charade for the benefit of the Pajama People but China eventually did an end run around the old Babylonian fart blossoms in London, after all.
After China took control of The City’s assets (Carol and I believe it happened formally in October, 2004) the empire sort of lost its cohesiveness [Image Can Not Be Found]
Well, I suppose ‘cohesive’ is a matter of definition and the cartoonist who drew this in Australia presents an alternative definition. Thanks, James in Western Australia, for sending it to me!
The Best Analysis of CHOGM
At the risk of being overshadowed by the Qantas thingy, I thought I would just pass the following work of art on to you…
You might be vaguely aware that the “Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting” (CHOGM) is currently underway in Perth ( Australia ). This is being hosted by the Australian Government and attended by a veritable army of media people and assorted groups of attention-seeking hangers-on.
I wouldn’t have been particularly interested in any of this except that when I turned on the TV News last night I was appalled to witness the CHOGM “Opening Ceremony”. It looked like a cross between the opening for the Olympic Games and the Rocky Horror Show.
One at a time, each of the CHOGM Heads of Government made a majestic entry to the gaudily decorated auditorium, accompanied by orchestral music and a grandiloquent introduction by the announcer. Then the Australian Prime Minister (No – not Bob Brown – I mean the other PM) gave a pompous speech uttering the usual unctuous platitudes – as if delivering the Sermon on the Mount to her faithful proletariat. I couldn’t stand this pretentious theatrical any longer so I threw a shoe at the TV screen, turned it off, and went to bed.
I thought no more about it until this afternoon when the attached “hot-off-the-press” cartoon arrived by email showing Larry Pickering’s brilliant perspective of CHOGM. There is no doubt that Pickering has an uncanny ability to read the psyche of Australians – in just one picture he has summed up the whole CHOGM charade – whereas it has taken me a 1,000 words.
