Richard [K] Morgan's News and Views

24 Comments:

I freely confess that until you mentioned this, I was completely unaware of the Diego Garcia affair. What happened was quite frankly reprehensible, and no words can adequately describe the scale of the injustice.

Suffice to say, the more I learn of my country and its history, the less the proud I am to be British.

What I found most telling recently was an observation of the demonstrations that had occurred over the past year (you can see City Hall and Town Hall where I work), where we had witnessed Fuel Tax Demonstrations, Guantanamo Bay protests, Iraq War Protests, etc. But the largest protest was when the local football team was promoted in the Premier League.

By  Pete, at 01 December 2008 22:04  

I'm sorry to say I'm with Pete that I did not know about this.

Politicians and honesty, decencey, humanity just don't seem to be words that go together.

And look how the little shits squeal when plod is sent round to their house and office.

By  Swainson, at 01 December 2008 23:08  

Diego Garcia is at the heart of the U.S. intelligence-gathering operation, and as such, is unlikely to ever be relinquished, regardless of what transpires in the courts. Mutual defense treaties and the like give broad leeway for the powers that be to be cuntfaces about the whole affair, and rest assured, they will continue to be cuntfaces about it.

The book Chatter: Dispatches from the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping details a lot of that intelligence-gathering operation and the circumstances that led to its construction. The facility on Diego Garcia has siblings in Alice Springs, Australia, as well as in central Britain and the eastern United States. It's a lot to do with the ideal position to communicate with satellites in orbit around the earth, both or own and those of "unfriendly" nations, permission granted or not. Hah.

It's a roundly despicable act that started all of this, but I severely doubt there will ever be a just resolution.

By  Tony B, at 02 December 2008 01:04  

This is difficult to put how I feel into words, but I don't feel so much rage as just helplessness that there is no hope for these people. It's all a sham--I'm sure there was never any hope these people would regain their homeland.

As an American I also feel shame that once again, we have caused a whole race of people such pain. What is disgusting is how we Americans are taught how righteous and good we are--incidents such as this are not taught in U.S. schools. This should be a wake-up call, but unfortunately not many people will even know about this incident, or care.

Is there nothing at all we can do? (I'm still looking at John Pilger's site--he has so much information).

Linda

By  Anonymous, at 02 December 2008 15:38  

Once again confirming my entire view of politics which can be best summed up as:

"Don't vote, it just encourages them" (*)

Nobody gets to the top of politics without a desire to order the world to their whim. Regardless of whether they know fuck all about anything. Here is another shining beacon of the world being ordered according to whim and damn anyone who stands in their way.

Cheers,
Tim

(*) BTW I spoil my ballot and top of my wish list would be a "None of the above" box. I'm not voter apathy I just don't believe any of them represents my views or interests.

By  Anonymous, at 02 December 2008 20:39  

You can watch the whole story on YouTube: "Stealing A Nation by John Pilger".

Some of the statements (excuses) by British and U.S. authorities, especially parts 4, 5 and 6, are disgusting.

By  Anonymous, at 03 December 2008 07:10  

If I may make what I consider a humorous comment. How do you think Takeshi Kovacs would respond, if HE could do the "knocking" at their doors? I think he would be..... less kind than you might. Just my funny little personal thought, after I read your blog.

By  theMothership, at 03 December 2008 16:46  

Good to know we can find here news that are not easily released and are often hidden as much as they can, worldwide. Not to mention a country like mine-Italy, ruled by you know who.

By  Francesco Troccoli, at 05 December 2008 09:55  

Well, I just posted a similarly angry (but somewhat shorter) comment on Miliband's foreign office blog - be interesting to see if it makes it through the moderator.

If you've got comments of your own to add, you can find the venal little fuck here

By  Richard Morgan, at 05 December 2008 18:06  

Well Richard,

Either you've used a pseudonym or Miliband's office is closed for the weekend and the moderator hasn't cleared your comment, OR, you've been a little too honest for them.

Perhaps Miliband should be made to live with the Chagossians for a few days to develop some human compassion.

By  Anonymous, at 06 December 2008 17:47  

I also tried to leave a comment. Let's wait for next week and see if they get published.

By  Francesco Troccoli, at 06 December 2008 19:04  

Richard,

This is a quote from Miliband's site under "About Me":


"Politics should be about dialogue and debate, and new technology makes this more possible than ever. But the gap between politicians and the public seems to be growing.

This is why in my last ministerial job I began writing a blog. I found it a great way to engage with people: to explain my work and my thinking in a more personal and less formal way than the usual Ministerial speeches; and to hear directly what people thought of what I was doing.

As Foreign Secretary I want to keep blogging. But it will need to be a conversation with people across the world, as well as with the people of Britain.

At the heart of this is the idea that diplomats need to reach out beyond governments to talk to people – at home and around the world. I want to explain to you the decisions we are making and what we are trying to achieve. And I want to hear from you what you think about what we're doing, what we could do better, and how we can solve problems which affect us all, such as conflict, climate change and poverty.

Having learnt some lessons from my previous blogs, I am also keen to try a couple of new approaches. First of all, my blog will be joined by blogs from different members of my FCO team around the world. This will show more of the enormous range of interesting, and challenging, work we do and why we do it.

I am also keen to make this blog a real dialogue. I can't, of course, respond to every single comment we receive. But we will try to keep abreast of your comments and ideas, and respond to them.

What conversation?? Not only did he not publish your comments, but doesn't seem to be too keen on having a real dialogue with anyone.

Linda

By  Anonymous, at 07 December 2008 19:39  

Hi Linda

No big surprise really - after all, he's foreign secretary for a government that's done its very best to roll back some of the most basic human rights on the British law books, a government that's lied consistently to its own people about its reasons for going to war and about - to name but one other thing we know of - illegal CIA rendition flights through British airspace. Even if he wasn't a piece of shit going in, the post would demand he became one.

In all fairness, though, I have to say that both my posts went over the 1,000 word limit, and so were referred to the moderator. Additionally, the first broke pretty much every rule in the - not very clearly posted - terms and conditions; it was vitriolic with fury, made personal attacks and liberal use of some of my favourite words.

But the second didn't - it was icily polite, so there I'm afraid we have to fall back on my first paragraph for explanation. He's a venal little shit with his nose up the Pentagon's arse - nuff said.

By  Richard Morgan, at 07 December 2008 22:06  

More FYI on the VLF (or VLS if you prefer) - according to a fascinating site called theyworkforyou.com, which monitors British MPs behaviour, Miliband voted strongly in favour of the Iraq war, and then voted strongly against there being any investigation into said war (which for me pretty much amounts to a public admission of guilt). He also voted strongly in favour of Labour's anti-terrorism laws. All this before he actually took on the post of FS. So the arguments for the job itself having turned him into the piece of shit he is are starting to look decidedly iffy......

Oh yeah - finally got a comment posted; my third attempt. It lacks the poetry of the other two but does at least make the point......

Now we sit back and wait for an answer - and polar bears skating on the lakes of Hell.

By  Richard Morgan, at 08 December 2008 11:50  

Richard,

Sometimes short and straight to the point is better. (although did I detect a certain tension and gritting of teeth in your short comment?)

And the way things are going, polar bears may be skating on the lakes of hell sooner than you think.

Seriously though, there seems to be no reason the Chagossians couldn't at least go back to some of the outer islands. Why the British feel they've given them enough compensation is beyond belief. Of course, moving them back would take money and commitment, and the Chagossians can offer nothing in return.

Linda

By  Anonymous, at 08 December 2008 17:04  

From one reason of rage to another: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/dec/12/de-menezes-family-criticise-inquest would have this silence on the story in the last three years happened the same way if he was a UK citizen?

By  Francesco Troccoli, at 12 December 2008 20:14  

Scarily, Francesco, it probably would.

I mean, sure, family of a British citizen would maybe have had more opportunity and means to bring pressure to bear, but I think the attitude of the police and government would have been much the same - lie, lie, lie, and when you finally run out of lies, shrug.

Since 9/11, there has been a sea-change in the way the state conducts itself. Not that there haven't been antecedents - cf the activity of armed forces and police against Irish Nationalist protest and terrorism in the seventies, and the deployment of the police in the 1984 miners' strike - but since the two towers came down, we've been heading steadily back to those good old days of unlawful and unaccountable force, and more and more (the canary in the gold mine) you see the government locking horns with the British legal system. I'm afraid the prognosis, for foreigners and citizens alike, is not good.

By  Richard Morgan, at 13 December 2008 11:46  

It's the same in the States, of course, but I suppose that goes without saying. I'm still young and stupid, and as I find myself closer and closer to a career in either law, federal law enforcement or some combination thereof, I'm really getting an opportunity to grasp the scope of the gap between What I Think I Should Be Doing and What I'll Likely Actually Be Doing. Well. It'll make for interesting memoirs, no?

On a totally unrelated note, I recently loaned the Takeshi Kovacs books to a friend of mine, who's in training to be a Marine officer. He loved the first book, then decided that he actually hated Takeshi for killing the Carrera's Wedge guys at the end of Broken Angels because they used to be his command. Up until that point I don't think I'd realized how deep the first-blush pack-loyalty mentality ran. I find myself wondering if it's a male thing, a military thing, or some combination of both. I think you were really onto something with the wolf gene splice.

By  DJ, at 15 December 2008 00:33  

Yeah, your friend isn't the only one who took Kovacs' meltdown in Broken Angels badly - I've seen quite a few comments along the same lines. Like you say, that pack loyalty thing is pretty primal, and to offend against it is for a lot of guys (especially guys, I think) the ultimate crime. To be honest, it would be hard for a close combat unit to work any other way; you've got to have something pretty powerful to weld a group of potentially fractious and competitive males together enough that they're prepared to give their lives for each other.

And that in turn, of course, is how you get your common or garden wartime atrocities - rape, pillage, torture, summary execution, all that good shit. Any vacillation or decency individual soldiers might suffer in the face of that kind of thing is going to tend to get sublimated in the group loyalty - so even if you don't actively participate, you'll certainly clam up and stonewall any attempt to bring those who did to justice. Symbolically, that's exactly the hell that Carrera's Wedge are trapped in at the end, and in some senses, you can see Kovacs as some kind of dark angel liberator, back from the dead and the other side of the gate to set them free from the unending cyclical horrors of the war.

Of course, Carrera and the Wedge might justifiably not see it that way! To be honest, I don't blame anyone for reacting badly to that sequence - the way I wrote it, it was very much intended to be an ultimate betrayal, and with it the ultimate demonstration of how unsafe Kovacs is. At that point, it no longer matters if it's his own flesh he's mutilating or his former comrades he's slaughtering - the demon is out and there is nothing to be done. The fearsome Wedge finally meet their match in a raw destructive force that has even less moral agenda than they do. In a sense, for that insane spell, Kovacs becomes the spirit of war incarnate (maybe with a sardonic helping hand from Semetaire), and that spirit eats them alive.

For me, a lot of Broken Angels was built around a conscious attempt to disillusion all the people who read Altered Carbon and thought Kovacs was a lovely fella. No, he's really, really not.

By  Richard Morgan, at 16 December 2008 12:04  

And also Woken Furies proves this beyond any reasonable doubt. Anything and anyone he gets in touch with dies, but his regreat is limited. By the way, I know you said (in the interview you released to me) this is the latest chapter, but come on, there's still so much to explain... you cannot leave us without full exploring what Silvie Oshima will do with Martian artifatcs and so on. :-) Joking, but... but.

By  Francesco Troccoli, at 16 December 2008 13:14  

Maybe it's a guy, wolf-pack thing -I'm a female, but I do have a "thing" about loyalty to a friend. Loyalty's very important to me, but not the wolf-pack variety. Besides, I thought Carrera's Wedge betrayed him. His feelings were for his new comrades.

I like Kovacs precisely because he isn't a "lovely fella". However, he does have some redeeming qualities. The end of Woken Furies is quite moving.

Linda

By  Anonymous, at 17 December 2008 16:43  

Interesting comment on a U.S. Navy website to those stationed at Diego Garcia:

The British make every effort to maintain the ecological integrity of Diego Garcia. As a result, all life forms--other than swimming fish--are protected by British law. Violators may be taken before the British court and can be heavily fined.

from msc.navy.mil

By  Anonymous, at 23 December 2008 22:16  

The rage one innocent question an interview can unleash. I would have had more fun with you than that.

I sent you an interview request, and you failed to respond.

I admit, I was the sort of arrogant student that would confront my history professor and accuse him and the book about falsfiying the reasons of World War I, World War II. But I didn't do it in class. I did it on live air. Grin.

Perhaps you heard about my reputation and that is why you failed to even respond.

I don't know. I was somewhat taken aback by the lack of response. We have similar goals, similiar senses of humor. One of my soon to be copyrighted phrases is "Irony is being delightfully mean when someone least expects it, and, in reciprocal, amazingly kind when someone least expects it."

But anyway, I've rambled enough...maybe it was my credentials...writing poetry worthy of canonization and women who wage a war on the shakleing of the human mind probably ask you for interviews all the time...

ps Do you even own a dog.Because I sincerely doubt it. You don't strike me as a pet friendly kind of guy. Personally, I prefer birds. THey're less needy.

By  JH, at 12 April 2009 01:16  

I would like to interview you sometime via computer, perhaps a month from now, about such things as I have discussed above. ( Real causes of World War I and II plus potential of World War III.) Are you game? Or are you avoiding disgruntled students? HAHA.

Anony MS

JH

By  JH, at 13 April 2009 23:27  

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