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Socialism: the Rediscovery of Democracy
As the democratic election process in the United States of America draws to an initial close – it is almost finished but for the shouting, the court cases, and the official recognition of the election’s correctness – there is still one word, one concept left hanging in the air which has been a spectre over every election campaign since at least the Second World War: Socialism. The Republican groups have touted the idea of Socialism as being the great bugbear of the western world, and especially the United States, whereby everything will be taken away from the people, and they will have no democracy left over. It has been thrown…
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Current Affairs: Housing Rights of Workers
There are moves afoot to change things in the housing rental sector across Europe and especially in Berlin, Germany. There are moves afoot to block the changes suggested for housing rental properties in Berlin, Germany. What is especially interesting about these two actions is that they are political, and partially from the same political parties. The main political party elected to govern the City of Berlin, Die Linke, has been forced into building a coalition with two other political parties, the Sozialdemokratische Partie Deutschlands (SPD) and Bündnis 90 / die Grünen, in order to gain a parliamentary majority. Whether a working coalition will come to be remains to be seen,…
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Feminism: The Hardliners Fighting Themselves
It’s hard to believe but, even with the rapid advancement of time, knowledge and understanding we are going backwards. Admittedly not all of us, not the entire civilised or uncivilised world, but a few. And it is these few who seem capable of grabbing the headlines which, as we know from the way the press works, should not be that much of a surprise. What is a surprise, though, is that despite the opening up of western society to more equality and fairness, despite the work of feminism and feminists – as much as ordinary people who would not wish to be categorised as such – many women are supporting…
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Billionaires: That Old Taxes Bugbear
There are, we are told, only two things certain in life: death and taxes. In truth there are one or two other things we could add, and the old saying about death and taxes can easily be changed with many other words, but this is the most relevant one here, and the idea people are most likely to quote. It did not originate with Benjamin Franklin, but can be followed back to 1716 and the actor Christopher Bullock, and, as with many things from Franklin’s pen, has been used out of context for so many other matters, it has completely lost all that he had originally referenced it to: the…
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Cybercrime: Defrosting and the Internet of Things
It was only a matter of time before someone, somewhere, contemplating their abilities for cybercrime, found the link between the Internet of Things, the linking of household and other machines to the internet, and a way to control or impede. There have been countless examples of people, across all branches and forms of social media, asking why their toaster, their washing machine, their refrigerator needs to be connected to the internet, why it needs to be available for software updates. A toaster is designed to toast bread, it has various levels of burning, a timer for the appropriate moment, and a mechanism to shoot the completed article out. A washing…
