Monday Nov 15, 2010

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Warning: This is a LONG post, rage and anger-filled.

My apologies for remaining cynical. Im having one of those weeks where SG just isnt doing it for me. Maybe Im just feeling a bit depressed (and once we get to the mystery meat of the week you'll see why, too), but theres also just something lacking about SG, or I feel that Im missing the point somewhat.

Maybe I've just hit the point where alternative culture just isnt that earth-shattering to me anymore, (although being in an echo-chamber like SG this probably bound to happen at some point) but considering that SG is marketing itself as a fair/free for all* website promoting alternative culture and, goddamnit, supposedly FOR stuff that the rest of the worlds mainstream is AGAINST (complete with capital letters); increasingly I find that I am being turned off from the site because of this lack of holding up when compared to its marketing.

I have to confess, I am not the most given to socialising on this site. Its not that I hate people**, per se, its just that when I say (write? type?) something, Id rather a) add something to the conversation or b) remain quiet. The same goes for the articles / threads. My particular gripe is the Lifestyle/Newswire, as has been covered in posts a long time ago.

With the amount of time currently on my hands, I have been thinking about getting back into writing and taking my fictional aspirations (double entendres, bahaha!) further, to the point of writing a couple of articles that are interesting (to me at least) about lesser known historical events or technical innovations that underpins much of what people use today but dont realise it. I mused the point a while ago, and asked for a bit of insight from one or two friends on here (thanks guys, even if I didnt go through with it then!), and I think the time is ripe for an attempt.

My hesitation, however, comes from the example of Psyche's article; Neoconservatism and the Suppression of Education in America. This is fantastic, insightful, all the good things I praised others for a long time ago in one of the other blog posts. And yet, this languished for five weeks after being submitted before Psyche said "Fuck it, I'm going to post it myself."

I think you'll agree, its got everything we want to see a lot more of (not least a lot more of Psyche, fnarr fnarr). Im getting particularly tired of the agony-aunt SG threads***. If I want to read Dear Deidre, I'll buy a copy of The Sun. So, when I eventually get around to writing these things, I imagine I'll circumvent the editorial process**** and just post them directly for good or ill.


SPOILERS! (Click to view)

*in the sense of "without preferential treatment".

**although in light of the amount that I am complaining, I note that the member name "misanthrope" is taken, but "misanthropist" isnt.

***quite apart from the manner of most of the questions, I feel, basically wanting some positive reinforcement of a solution they have already picked but lack the stones to follow through.

**** such that exists....



Now to the mystery meat.

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

As my last post showed, I am very interested in the UK political issue of tuition fees, because they are set to affect me profoundly over the next few years; and overall I'm interested in the UK political scene in general since I long for the day when, figuratively speaking, someone finally nails a politician since currently it seems its like trying to nail a stream of water to the wall. With this in mind, these few articles mark the horrible, horrible world I live in.


http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/iain-macwhirter/students-prepare-for-battle-in-a-looming-new-class-war-1.1067479
"An analysis by the Chartered Institute for Taxation indicates that most graduates will be paying this debt of for the rest of their lives, and incurring a 45% tax rate into the bargain. This is because of the way in which the debt will increase by RPI inflation plus 3% over the years that the graduates pay it back. A ...teacher, say,
starting on 21,000 and seeing his or her salary increase by 5% a year, will end up paying 64,239 over 30 years, and still have an unpaid debt of 26,406."



Because hey, increasing the tuition fees and altering the method of payment to a system where it is literally impossible to pay off over the course of your working life, is progressive and more fair than the system we currently have; along with the problems of a torpedoed credit rating at a young age.

This is quite aside from the university funding shortfall that will inevitably arise when, having reached the end of the 30 years (or however long term it is) repayment period, that 26k per person is uncollected, but some bean-counter has put it in the "debtors" column of government accounting.

As opposed to, say, a much simpler graduate tax.

Lest we forget that cuts to university funding are taking place NEXT year, but the rise to nine grand (if it passes) happen in 2014, giving a nice two year valley of death shortfall.

On top of this, in a recent trade mission to China, our illustrious Prime Minister told chinese students that they dont have to worry about raised fees if they studied in the UK because he's passing the cost onto the Home students; on the day of the protest no less.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11724431
Increasing tuition fees should mean future rises in foreign students' charges can be kept lower, UK Prime Minister David Cameron has said.

He was replying to a student at Peking University who asked about the impact of the rise on international students.

Mr Cameron said in the past fees charged to foreign students had been pushed up "as a way of keeping them down on our domestic students".

But they had "done the difficult thing" of putting up English students' fees.



To be fair, its not foreign students' fault for this (and thanks for paying more money to partially subsidise my education), but the fucking gall of the man to throw billions of pounds away, and then effectively say "I'm fucking over our students so you can continue to study here (relatively) cheaply", on the day of the protest, is fucking insulting.

Additionally on the insulting viewpoint, I am disgusted at the way that the comparisons to US university education seem to be all that is counted as good ( a big push for the american style debt). I kind of understand this given the research viewpoint; but Im livid at the lack of other comparisons.

Probably because they dont want people to realise that we have the most expensive tuition fees in the EU, I shit you not.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/nov/12/lib-dems-tuition-fees-clegg
The Liberal Democrats were drawing up plans to abandon Nick Clegg's flagship policy to scrap university tuition fees two months before the general election, secret party documents reveal.

As the Lib Dem leader faces a growing revolt after this week's violent protest against fee rises, internal documents show the party was drawing up proposals for coalition negotiations which contrasted sharply with Clegg's public pronouncements.

A month before Clegg pledged in April to scrap the "dead weight of debt", a secret team of key Lib Dems made clear that, in the event of a hung parliament, the party would not waste political capital defending its manifesto pledge to abolish university tuition fees within six years. In a document marked "confidential" and dated 16 March, the head of the secret pre-election coalition negotiating team, Danny Alexander, wrote: "On tuition fees we should seek agreement on part-time students and leave the rest. We will have clear yellow water with the other [parties] on raising the tuition fee cap, so let us not cause ourselves more headaches."

The document is likely to fuel criticism among Lib Dem backbenchers and in the National Union of Students that the party courted the university vote in the full knowledge that its pledge would have to be abandoned as the party sought to achieve a foot in government. Within a month of the secret document, Clegg recorded a YouTube video for the annual NUS conference on 13 April in which he pledged to abolish fees within six years.
....

- Gordon Brown was so keen to form a coalition with the Lib Dems that on Monday 10 May, the day before his resignation, he offered to form "a completely new sort of government" in which Clegg would run EU policy. The Lib Dems understood they would take half of the seats in cabinet.



So, they lied six months ago having said that Labour were unwilling to form a coalition (this new evidence proving otherwise) the Lib Dems campaigned on a bandwagon they were intent on leaping off at first opportunity, and washing their hands of it.

To say I want my vote back is a comedic understatement. At the same time, the repeated calls of "We're all in this together" continue to fall on deaf ears....


http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/oct/28/uk-boardroo-pay-soars
UK boardroom pay leaps 55% in a year

FTSE 100 directors saw their total earnings soar in the 12 months to June, thanks to sharp rises in bonuses and performance-related pay. The average FTSE 100 chief executive now earns 4.9m a year, or almost 200 times the average wage.

Unions reacted angrily to the report today. "Don't they know that this is meant to be austerity Britain?" said TUC general secretary Brendan Barber.

"These mega-pay rises blow away any claim that we are all in this together. While the poor and those on middle incomes lose out from cuts and pay squeezes, top directors continue to take home telephone number salaries without being overly troubled by tax," Barber added.

He called on shareholders and the government to get a tighter grip on executive pay, at a time when ordinary workers have seen their pay kept in check by the economic downturn.



There is a *hell* of a lot of anger and discontent here over the massive leap to the right this country is taking as a result of the Conservatives taking power, and a lot more over the Liberal Democrats cynically campaigning on a bunch of issues and ideological viewpoints that they have discarded at first opportunity.

I think I have mentioned before how I was looking at studying abroad to take advantage of low tuition fees, but with this government slashing money for social support and effectively declaring war on the poor and middle class while making the rich even richer, I am starting to look at other nations to emigrate to, top of the list being scandinavian countries in general, and Norway in particular.

I have maybe sixty years left on this planet, Id rather be happy in the process as opposed to watching supposedly Great British notions of fairness and helping each other out in times of crisis give way to an increasingly american "Fuck you, I got mine" attitude.



Ugh. Now that shitheap is over with, I found a fantastic guy on Youtube who is building his own spider-robot in his house far from anywhere in america:



"What's this? Hello there kind sir, did you say your name was 3/16ths? Very nice to meet--HAR HARUGHRHGAHOII "

"Exxxxxxxcellent."

Fantastic.

Thanks for sticking with it this far. Hope you're all well.
idgas:
I will return and re-read your post and give it the proper attention. I have only skimmed it but agree and most points. I didn't look at the spoiled text at all.
mentalrage:
I agree with your sentiment, the last election was a flashpoint with far higher numbers turning out than usual hence the Farce as the polling stations couldn't cope. Nick Clegg (who has gone from coming out of nowhere to being vilified by students throughout the land and those responsible for the polling stations) have essentially alienated a whole section of voters who for various reasons haven't voted before, seeing the sprawling shambles that parliament is in won't exactly endear new voters.

As regards SG I very rarely read any of the articles it's more of a social network for me having met several very good friends which I see frequently via SG.

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