I want it all...

As I write these words the beast from the east has rendered Norfolk’s weather somewhat more akin to Siberia’s. In the past few days the temperature here has been down to -10 at times and never breached zero. Costas coffee house is a warm haven but a struggle to get to. I managed to unexpectedly assume a horizontal position en route when I slipped on some ice cunningly disguised beneath a layer of pleasantly fluffy snow.
It feels good after four months of global gallivanting to get back to my local cafe again. Costas themselves had rather annoyingly cancelled all their newspapers save the Sun (not sure that particular publication falls under the category of newspaper) before I left, but after receiving a large volume of complaints and becoming aware that people were also voting with their feet, I happily discovered that the Telegraph, the “I” and the Daily Mail have all been reinstated. Happy days...
I read in the ‘I’ that Jeremy Corbyn has just given a speech wherein he reversed his position of four decades of steadfast opposition to the EU to embrace the notion of joining ‘a’ customs union. As ever, the speech in reality is so general as to be meaningless as far as anything practical is concerned, but it does denote the taking up of a position so antithetical to any position he has taken before that one wonders how such blatant hypocrisy can be countenanced even by his most gullible supporters (and there are quite a few of those!). It seems that the reasoning is that although it represents a 180 degree volte face it does have the one benefit of allowing the possibility of the government losing a vote on the customs union in Parliament. In short, it is as blatant a piece of political cynicism as one could imagine. The possibility of power, of an election being called and Jeremy winning it, means that as far as he is concerned it is fine to adopt a position that all his political life he has been firmly opposed to. Power corrupts, and the desire for power can corrupt completely.

In China, Xi Jingping it seems has decided that a mere 10 years in power may not be sufficient for him. After the disaster of the Mao years when the geriatric leader continued to control China long after he was capable of making sensible decisions. This occurred mainly due to a managed ‘cult of personality’ when his thoughts were made into a kind of gospel in the form of a little red book. His words were incritically read by millions of gullible young red guards (and, interestingly, by John McDonnell....Labour’s shadow chancellor). Mao's final ten years in particular, a period known as the cultural revolution, were so damaging that the very social fabric of China was undermined with many people murdered for even the slightest perceived criticism. Xi Jinping has likewise benefitted the Chinese nation with a volume of his ‘thoughts’ to be incorporated into Communist Party Doctrine and disseminated amongst the general public. Now, apparently, Xi feels that ten years of power may not be enough for him and wishes to remove the legal obstacle of a maximum of two five year terms that the Party put in place at the end of Mao’s reign. Power corrupts, and the desire for power can corrupt absolutely.

Nicolas Maduro, Socialist leader in Venezuela, has called elections to further extend both his riegn and the extent of his powers. After having problems winning the normal elections, despite some blatant rigging, he decided to restrict the influence of the elected National Assembly and instead create a new constituent body only part of which was to be elected. This effectively meant that even if he clearly lost an election he would remain in power thanks to the built in majority from the non-elected parts of the assembly. Neat, eh!? Recently, members of the constituent body voted to put leasers of the opposition on trial for treason.  Power corrupts, and the desire for power can corrupt absolutely.

Another article tells of us of the activities of the leader of North Korea and his father,

Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un. Apparently worried that their own people might one day rise up against them, they illegally secured Brazillian passports and obtained visas from whatever embassies they could in Pyongyang in order to have a chance to make good their escapes if it proved necessary. This seems to be a common theme in communist countries, the leaders often live in fear of their populace and hence seek to control them by whatever means neccessary. Hence the CPC in China always being so concerned about ‘social stability’, basically code for the slightest sign of opposition to their rule.

It is a common trait of such folk on the left to seek control. It is often not just power that they want but absolute power, unchallenged and unlimited. With this comes the notion of ensuring that any contrary voice is controlled or silenced. It has been interesting to hear Corbyn’s responses lately when he talks about the press. He has been stung numerous times now by attacks in the press, mainly due to his connection with some very dubious characters in the past, spies, terrorists, antisemites, religious extremists, etc. The compromising nature of much of this information is somewhat inconvenient to a would be prime minister so the revelations have been a source of some irritation to poor Jeremy. His subsequent unspecified threat of “change is coming” sounded somewhat chilling. Asked to give details he would merely say that media bosses were “right to be worried” about the possibility of a Labour government. The threat was couched in language as chilling as the Beast from the East...
In China, the reaction on social media sites such as Wiebo to the notion of removing the two term limit on Xi Jinping was not particularly positive. As ever though with such left wing hierarchies, the authorities didn’t interpret this as a signal that perhaps they should reconsider but merely a sign that such criticism should be blocked, banned, rooted out or circumvented by all means available. Pooh bear, the oft used characterture for Xi Jinping found himself banned once again along with phrases such as ‘two terms’ or ‘extended rule’. Mysteriously, even the letter ‘N’ got banned for several hours!?

Maduro’s reaction in Venezuela to criticism is much of a muchness for a socialist/communist system. The group Human Rights Watch reports “the accumulation of power in the executive branch and the erosion of human rights guarantees have enabled the government to intimidate, censor, and prosecute its critics" and went on to say that that broadcasters may well be censored if they criticize the government.”
Socialism is often sold as the politics of compassion whereas, in reality (as the history shows) nothing could be further from the truth. What it craves is control and power, preferably of the unlimited variety. The common factor in all these cases is that not only do such people as Jeremy Corbyn, Xi Jinping, Nicolas Maduro or Kim Jung Un crave power but that they crave unlimited power. Not for them the unwarranted restrictions of terms, constitutions, elections or even press criticism, that is for wooly liberals and their like. They want it all...and they want it now.
Back in Costas I am finishing off my americano and girding my loins for the trudge back across the common. Hopefully this time I can at least remain vertical for the whole journey. Despite it being incredibly cold in the past few days, the snow lends this part of the World an intense beauty that is really quite unique in its own way. I have missed the place...

Purification...

"Death is the solution to all problems - no man, no problem."
Joseph Stalin

Today I find myself enjoying the somewhat noisy pleasures of the Bon Cafe in Phnom Penh. The cafe itself is rather pleasant; the staff friendly; the Americano and home-made soda good; the building, French Colonial, interesting. The noise comes from more sources than I care to name, a hodge-podge of kids, drills, motorbikes and aircraft taking off at the nearby airport. Still, despite all this, I admit to being rather fond of the place. It has an old-world charm that was sadly lacking from the Cafe Amazon chain I visited earlier today.
Two days in Cambodia and the abiding impression so far is of a failing economy with little or no infrastructure to speak of. The intention is to fly down to Siem Reap next Saturday where, hopefully, the influx of tourist money will have created a more comfortable lifestyle for the locals. One cannot help but wonder if this country has ever recovered from the Communist revolution of the Khmer Rouge in 1975. As with most Communist revolutions, it led to repression, economic failure and genocide, perhaps it has the distinction though of achieving these in somewhat less time than its rivals for the prize.

Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, managed to oversee the elimination of some 200,000 people whilst a million more starved due to his economic policies. Reports say that he particularly held a strong dislike for ‘intellectuals’ (again a common problem for Communist systems it seems, could it be that the intelligensia of a country are that big a threat to those in charge of such states?). Weirdly,  Pol Pot even went so far as advocating the killing of people who wore glasses at one stage, this on the rather feeble grounds that it proved they must have read too many books!
Once he established the ‘Democratic Republic of Kampuchea’ Pol Pot decided that history needed to start again and declared year zero before ‘purifying’ society. What this meant in practice is getting rid of anyone he even vaguely disapproved of. This was rather a long list: anyone following a religion, city dwellers, foreigners, the aforementioned ‘intellectuals’, etc.
(Odd how Communist despots seem so fond of  including such words as ‘Democratic’ and ‘Republic’ into the names of their country, usually when democratic is one thing they are not and some after effectively assuming King-like hereditary powers, such as the Kim family in North Korea)

All businesses were closed, schools and universities shut down, the mail and the phone system halted, health care stopped and any foreign economic or medical assistance prohibited. One can imagine the chaos that immediately ensued. Phnom Penh in particular suffered when the entire population was forced to leave for labour camps where they were to be ‘re-educated’ (The Communists do seem to have a particularly chilling knack when it comes to creation of euphemisms, do they not? Purifying and re-education are impressive for their creativity yet chilling for their reality).
Much to China’s ongoing shame in these matters, they were one of the few countries to offer support to Pol Pot. This continued even after they were well aware of what was going on on the ground.
Personally, seeing the state of the streets around me, I cannot help but wonder if this country has ever really recovered from those terrible times four decades ago. As the Soviets and the Communists in China discovered, if you eliminate the talented, the intelligent and the qualified from common affairs you eliminate much of what keeps a country civilised. In all three cases mass starvation and economic chaos followed.
On the positive side (!), one has to admit that a certain degree of the cherished ‘equality’ (another euphemism!) was achieved. The people were equally starving, equally suffering, equally terrified. I think I prefer a little old-fashioned inequality myself.

Friends ask me why, over the last few years, I have made a journey from being broadly left-wing in outlook to being virulently against such system. In a word: travel. Go and see these systems first hand, or at least the results of them. Read up on the realities of the atrocities, the brutality, the smothering of the individuals within these ill-begotten places but, most of all, visit them if you can. Any notion of the righteousness of Communist or left-wing dogma in general will soon be left far behind as the bitter reality is revealed in all its naked horror.
Back in the cafe I find myself alone as the light starts to fade. Sometimes the writing of these things takes a while as one searches for inspiration. Sometimes they write themselves. This has been one of the latter. The boy who served me originally smiles down patiently at me. The people here seem quite remarkably freindly, despite the horrors of their recent past and the suffering of today. One cannot help but like them.