Of monkeys, mice and men. By Martin J Deane

In her A Call for Peace, Michelle D Clark covers much ground as to why we do awful things to each other. The key is, to quote her, that We are all guilty. We are. We are all guilty - we make enemies. We create them out of people who think differently to us, or eat rice, or act in different ways. We are human; some people annoy us, some wind us up, others have different ideas, or see the world completely otherwise.

We label them as different, odd, weird, dangerous - we seek security in people like ourselves. We form our own groups, even parties to champion those differences.

But how real are those differences? We share something beyond price, we 6 billion of us on this fragile planet - our simple humanity. All the DNA across the world, all the differences between people account for 0.1%. Between any two people, anywhere from here to Cathay, only 1 part in a 1000 is different. That is our bio-similarity.

And it doesn't stop there. Despite the privileged position humanity has, other forms of life share the vast majority of our DNA, from monkeys to mice to pigs. But we misuse our privilege. We don't make peace, we make war. In Britain, the world's biggest arms trader bar one, we don't build bridges, so much as blow them up. Kosovo poisoned, Afghanistan destroyed, and Iraq, an illegal, immoral, unjustifiable war on a defenceless and impoverished people, conducted by two of the most heavily armed states in history.

And if it's not hate it's fear! Many enemies are manufactured for us, by people who want to control us out of fear. People who want to use us, to fight, to kill, to slag off, to hate. To be led through our noses by the powerful. Are we so brain dead that we cannot cope with a different viewpoint? A different culture? Look at the mixture in Britain's history. The Romans invaded in 43AD and stayed till 410AD! After 400 years you could argue people have settled in well! The Saxons, the Jutes, the Vikings invaded York in 793AD giving us Jorvik today. The French (Normans) in 1066. In Hull we recently saw 5,500 votes for the BNP. Luckily none of these racist haters got in. tho' they did in Bradford. Why did Kosovars come to Hull? Because we bombed their country to smithereens! Why are 1000 Iraqis in Hull (population over 250,000 before anyone thinks we're swamped!)?

Because we destroyed there country in 1991. We killed swathes by sanctions and bombing, and have now we've wrecked their country again. We have no choice now. Humanity has to think, grow, change. We cannot continue killing each other, we cannot continue killing the planet and the 10 million species we share it with.

We have a fascinating and beautiful planet and its peoples, and its pandas. Our joint care, committed concern and shared compassion are the way forward. Thank You Michelle.

Opinions - A Call for Peace By Michelle Dee Clark
	Martin Luther King had a dream. His dream was crushed by jack booted, hooded ignorance. There has always been wrong in this world. From the trials in Scottsboro* Alabama in the 1930's to more recent events in Jasper Texas in 1998**. We are all guilty. When you talk of Kosovans and Iraqi's you focus on what the media want you to then project that onto everyone, be it ethnic minorities or anyone Read more...

Opinions - The War By Carolyn
	Since the war in Iraq has been reported about, I made a silent agreement with myself that whatever thoughts about the war I have I will not write about or permanently express in any way. I think this is because of some type of anger that I haven't felt Read more...

Opinions - Will graduate plumbers be up to the job? By Jane Foster
	The recent programme Posh Plumbers on BBC1 highlighted the growing number of middle class graduates and professionals turning to plumbing for a living. With a national shortage of 32,000 plumbers, and salaries to match those of a decent job in the capital, the profession is changing. Read more...

Opinions - Come On You Hull! By Laura Baldwin
	So our latest award to sit alongside our much treasured worst city to live in the UK award' is that of the fattest city in the UK. Yep, not content with telling us that we live in the most crap city in the UK but apparently we're also a bunch of big lard arses as well. Charming. It seems that no-one has anything good to say these days about the historic city of Hull. Read more...

Opinions - Blame By Darren Sant
	I didn't say you were to blame, I said I'm blaming you. I am getting heartily sick of the blame culture we live in these days. Something goes wrong in the hospital, we sue. The dentist pulls out the wrong tooth, we sue. Admittedly we are not as bad as Americans yet, thank god, but Read more...

Articles - Death On Camera By Nicholas Boldock
	I have just watched Death On Camera, the BBC documentary about Christopher Alder, who died in police custody in Hull in 1998. If you missed the programme and don't already know the case, here are the facts: Christopher Alder was in Waterfront Nightclub on the night of April 1st, 1998. There was an altercation inside the club Read more...

Articles - Made In Hull - Part One - Arundel Street Days By Maurice Fairfield

	My story begins in Arundel Street and wanders away to the shallow end of Holderness Road next door to the tram sheds and opposite the old Astoria Cinema, which was at that time the New Astoria Cinema. Then to Hedon for a time, then back to Arundel a couple of years before the outbreak of the war. Read more...

Articles - Digging Up The Past By Cilla

	Months ago we published an series of articles written by a man who was witness to the events in The Cod Wars. His name is John Boldock and his story is an honest account of what life was like for him as a young man in what were dangerous and terrifying times. After the story had been published on the site Read more...