Wood’s World

Why should you join the army? There are a number of reasons people have for joining the military; patriotism, fun, adventure, money, a career, a secure future. Are these good reasons? Do they out way the costs?

Patriotism

My particular pet hate is patriotism. You want to join the military because you are loyal to your country, your government.

If you were born in an opposing country, or you moved to that country when you were very young, you would feel the exact same way about that country and you would be fighting against the people who would probably be your mates if you happened to be born closer or live closer to them.

You’ve been conditioned to beleive that your country are the ‘goodies’ and the opposing ones are the ‘baddies’, Whether that is the case or not. The government might tell you that the supposedly threatening countries have nuclear weapons, they might tell you they had something to do with an attack on your country. If you are in the military, it doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, you have to do what they tell you to do. You might help kill thousands of people, then find out later that the country in question didn’t have any weapons of mass destruction and didn’t have anything to do with an attack on your country, the reason you were actually there is very different. Patriotism? I think not.

Patriotism doesn’t have to be a bad thing. If you are truly patriotic and it means a lot to you, instead of joining an institution that deals in killing and is all to often used as a tool for economic expansion covered up by lies about an immediate threat on your homes and way of life. Join the fire brigade, become a doctor, a nurse or a paramedic, become a scientist to progress technology. That way you will be contributing much more to your society, your country and the people around you. You will be helping people, saving lives and increasing standards of living without having to hurt people in the process. Most importantly, you won’t be killing people for potentially false reasons.

It looks fun on the Ads

I admit it, it looks great. Running around playing war games, building bridges, climbing mountains, devising tactics.

But the “adventure” they profess in the adverts is merely code for war, the “discipline” code for violence. The military trains you to kill, to be a drone, a cog in the machine. Recruiters and advertisements unsurprisingly avoid addressing the dehumanizing process undertaken to achieve this. They conveniently forget the psychological costs of killing, or the horrors of war. The ads lie because the product is mentally harmful, and lethal to you and/or others.

When the careers adviser came to my high school, I was around 15 or 16, I told him my interests and my best subjects etc. He ‘listened’ and his conclusion was that I should join the R.A.F. Of course, I didn’t give the idea a moments consideration. Later I realised that he had suggested that half of my class should join the R.A.F. I’ve often wondered why that guy was telling us all to join the R.A.F. Was it just a cop out to make his job easier, or was he trying to recruit us? Either way I didn’t like it.

Read what the recruiter never told you about joining the military.

Money, Career, Training. A Good Base For Your Future.

“The reason to have a military is to be prepared to fight and win wars…it’s not a jobs program.” - Dick Cheney former U.S Secretary of Defence.

25% of the homeless population in America are veterans. There are 18 suicides every day by America veterans, who have post-traumatic stress disorder.

Why does this happen? Many recruits become institutionalised. If you have come out of school and joined the army at a young age, you don’t know anything except the military. When you eventually leave, or are discharged you may find it difficult to adapt back to civilian life.

In an article about ex-paratrooper Stuart Griffiths from the guardian online, he states.

“There is always a problem with them [veterans] accepting society, or society accepting them,” he says.

Many ex-forces personnel came from difficult family backgrounds, were institutionalised in the services and ill-prepared for civilian life.

Add to this what Stuart calls the “real problem with alcohol abuse”, and the unloading, in civilian life, of the the psychological traumas stored up during time in the forces - and the outlook is bleak.

Of course, this doesn’t happen to everyone. But you have to consider whether the military is the best place go for a career and a secure, happy future. It’s not. There are many alternatives which also offer on the job training, are geared towards offering a service or helping others, which allow you to keep your civil rights and don’t involve killing people.

Coca-Cola is the most popular soft drink in the world. A lot of people are not aware of the dealings of the Coca-Cola corporation and how they managed to achieve this, others argue that they like the taste of coke, therefore they will drink it regardless. I’m not one of those people. I admit that I quite like the taste of coke, but I don’t want to drink it all time and thus become accustomed to the sugar or caffeine content resulting in me craving it, along with far stronger reasoning as listed below. I did once try sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose .

In addition to the health issues there are quite a few ethical issues surrounding Coca-Cola. You have to consider that every time you purchase a product you are effectively giving them your vote. Allowing them to grow larger and spread their product, manufacturing methods, advertising, values and ethics further, so it is important to be aware of what you are supporting. Anyway, onto the 5 reasons not to purchase Coca-Cola.

1: Health

As I touched on previously - Very high sugar content, high calorie content, high caffeine content. All of which can lead to dependencies which can result in your mood fluctuating, your teeth decaying, fat build up and the development of conditions such as diabetes.

2: Unethical Policies

Despite the known health risks associated with drinking coca-cola excessively. In the 90’s the Coca-Cola corporation introduced a policy, where by it would pay schools in the U.S. to sell Coca-Cola from vending machines placed in corridors and various other places around the school. This was a ploy to get children hooked on their addictive product, so that by the time they graduated they would be loyal Coca-Cola drinkers, and more importantly long term paying customers. Particularly vulnerable were under-funded, struggling state schools who could hardly afford to turn these deals down. Thus the children of America were reeled into the arms of the Coca-Cola corporation, adding to the already existing problems of obesity and diabetes.

3: Affiliation With The Nazis

Coca-Cola, a U.S company, were fighting on both sides during the second world war, in an attempt to increase profit and expand the brand. Before the second world war broke out, Max Keith, Coca-Cola’s German representative, was sponsoring Nazi events. Coca-Cola, became the most popular drink in Germany during the late 1930’s / early 1940’s. When the Nazis occupied surrounding countries such as Italy , France , Holland , Luxembourg , Belgium and Norway. Keith traveled with Nazi troops and subsequently organised for Coca-cola factories to be set up using expropriated (confiscated) drinks factories in said countries. There are many allegations that Coca-Cola used forced labor in these factories during this time.

Source

4: ‘Cocacolonisation’

Cocacolonisation is a word created to describe the spread of the Coca-Cola corporation in third world countries. There is a case in India of Coca-Cola tapping so much water from local water supplies which local residents depended upon, that they have run dry. In the same area the Coca-Cola bottling plant sold off waste products as fertilizer to local farmers, this has been found to contain unsafe levels of toxins.

“What is particularly disturbing is that the contamination has spread to the water supply - with levels of lead in a nearby wells at levels well above those set by the World Health Organisation.” - David Santillo, University of Exeter senior scientist.

5: Suspect Behavior

“SINALTRAINAL (the Colombian food and drinks workers union) has accused Coca Cola of working in cahoots with paramilitary death squads to remove union activists and hence the union organisation from its plants in Columbia.” This following a number of assassinations of union members and leaders who were working for or had worked for Coca-Cola.

Major Brands Owned by The Coca-Cola Corporation:

• Coca-Cola and all variations – Coke Zero, Diet Coke, Cherry Coke etc.
• Capri Sun
• Fanta
• Five Alive - Fruit Juice
• Kia Ora - Cordial
• Oasis
• Powerade – Energy drink
• Relentless – Energy Drink
• Schweppes (under licence)
• Sprite

Interesting Information:

Taken from an article by Mohammed Mesbahi:

“Coca Cola’s appalling human rights record, combined with its high boycott vulnerability ratio make it the ideal target for a boycott. This is why Max Keiser has decided to launch a hedge fund, which will be used to buy Coca Cola shares. They will then sell the shares for less than they bought them for, which will bring down their value on the international stock market. They are relying on the continuing boycott of Coca Cola products to bring the share price down still further. They will then buy the shares at a lower price than they sold them for and sell them again for even less. All profits from this venture will be donated to the victims of Coca Cola in countries such as India and Colombia. Max Keiser says that for every 1,000 new boycotters, they will increase the size of the hedge fund by £5000. “

The fundamental problem with the powers a police officer has, is that the position attracts two very different types of applicant. The first being a person who genuinely wants to do good and utilise that power by (arguably) helping society. The second being a person who wants to have power over the general public to feel strong and to have the ability to commit what would be crimes for any non police or non military civilian.

I’ll start out by recounting two separate experiences I’ve had with the police that have inspired this article.

1: I was attending a climate change protest in London in 2006, this consisted of a march around the streets of London, culminating in a series of speeches made by various campaigners outside the American Embassy. Some time during the procession past the houses of parliament, a policeman, overseeing the march from the side of the road, inexplicably picked out a young woman from the crowd in front of me (18-21 years old approx) and grabbed her quite forcibly, dragging her to the side of the road and though a small opening of a police barrier. The young woman had merely been marching peacefully along with the protest. As a result of this incident several other members of the crowd (mostly male) went across to remonstrate with the policeman, an argument and a bit of commotion ensued. This could have easily lead to violence, thankfully this time it didn’t.

I know from reading elsewhere and talking to other friends, that this isn’t a one off incident. This really highlighted to me that the picture often portrayed by the media, of unprovoked harassment or attacks from protesters or the public in general is often false or missing important details. The policeman had quite obviously picked out a young female from the crowd, aggressively, for no other reason than to stir a reaction from the surrounding protesters. These protesters had every right to be annoyed. However, I saw it for what it was, the young girl didn’t seem to be in any real danger of getting badly injured provided that the crowed did not react, causing violence to break out. So I did not remonstrate with the policeman. Provided that the victim isn’t in any imediate danger, this is the advice I would give to anyone viewing a similar incident. However had it been a friend or a family member I don’t think I would have been able to stop myself – this is how violence between police and protesters often breaks out.

2: I had got tickets to go and see England vs. Ukraine, a football world cup qualifier at Wembley Stadium. I was travelling to the stadium with three other friends via the London underground. Not long before this Boris Johnson (mayor of London) had decided to ban drinking alcohol on the tube or in a tube station.

A friend and I both had a can of beer to drink whilst walking to the ground from the station. We were waiting, beer in hand, at the exit to the station for our two other friends to catch up, when a police officer approached us. Without saying a word he made an attempt to snatch the beer can from my hand, as he grabbed the can he realised my can was unopened, discovering this he then moved on to my friend who had just that minute opened his beer. He took the can, stating “you can’t drink in the station”. We began to protest, being as we were arguably standing outside the station. But the police officer, quite abrupt to the point of being rude, was having non of it. As far as he was concerned he didn’t want us to have that beer, so we weren’t going to have it. An onlooking police officer had viewed the incident and made his approach. When he arrived on the scene he had a short word with the beer stealing police office along the lines of “What are you doing? They are clearly exiting the station” a brief exchange of words between the two and our beer can was returned.

This is an example of the two types of people that become police officers which I mentioned in the first paragraph of this article.

My two experiences were very mild incidents compared to many and they annoyed and frustrated me. I can only imagine the anger caused if something like the incidents in the following videos were to happen to me, a friend or a family member.

I’ll leave you witth a link to a site documenting 30 cases of extreme police brutality.