PATIENCE AGRABI (b.1965) - WHO'S WHO?

1.Beloved: Toni Harrison or Toni Morrison?
2. Famous Irish poet: Yeats or Keats?
3. Puppy Love: Donny Osmond or Ozzy Osbourne?
4. Blockbuster: Sweet  or the Beat?
5. Psycho : Anthony Perkins or Anthony Hopkins?
6. Passive resistance: Mahatma Gandhi or Muhammed Ali?
7. Playschool : Fenella Fielding or Floella Benjamin?
8. Space Shit : Chris Offili or Salvador Dali?
9. Some Llike it Hot : Marlon Brando or Marilyn Monroe?
10. She's Gotta have it : Mike Leigh or Spike Lee?
11. Pop art: Andy Warhol or Adam Chodzko?
12. Water Lilies : Monet or Manet?
13. Scary Spice: Mel B or Mel C?
14.Bohemian Rhapsody : Cream or Queen?
15. Split britches: PJ Harvey or PJ Proby?
16. Rowan Atkinson: Mr Benn or Mr Bean?
17. The Flea : Thom Gunn or John Donne?
18. Frankenstein : Mary Kenney or Mary Shelley?
19. Del Boy : James Mason or David Jason?
20. School Days : Nick Berry or Chuck Berry?
21. Rock dinosaur: Cliff Richard or Keith Richards?
22: Zorba the Greek : Anthony Quinn or Anthony Quayle?
23. Misunderstanding : Genesis or Oasis?
24.He's a Rebel : The Crystals or Crystal Gayle?
25. Rebel of the Underground: Tupak Shakur or Kula Shaker?
26. The Artist : CK Williams or William Carlos Williams? .
27. Other Lovers : Jackie Kay or Kathy Acker?
28. Prime Suspect : Helen Mirren or Karen Millen?
29. GBH: Robert Lindsay or Albert Finney?
30. Best of my Love : The Beatles or The Eagles?
31. Myra : Marcus Garvey or Marcus Harvey?
32. Composer: Engelbert Humperdinck or Engels?
33. To Celia : Ben Johnson or Dr Johnson?
34. How Deep is your Love? The Three Degrees or the Bee Gees?
35. Death Wish: Charles Bronson or Charles Manson?
36. Bring the Noize : Public Image or Public Enemy?
37. Call up the Groups : The Barron Knights or Barry White?
38. Red Light Spells Danger? Phil Oakley or Billy Ocean?
39. It's in his Kiss?: Cher or Shere Hite?
40. Poet Laureate : Andrew Marr or Andrew Motion?

FROM
TRANSFORMATRIX by Patience Agbabi
Payback Press 2000

TRUE POLITICS IS INCAPABLE OF REPETITION .

The old territories are shut off
tears are authentic, all politics is fiction.
Time and Space died yesterday
true politics is incapable of repetition
true politics is incapable of repetition
life and breath, effectively co-exist
true politics is incapable of repetition.
Total additions made, to clear space
the difference between nations
absence of logic, knowledge stolen
once recoveredusually reeling
the size and shape of an egg
can be divided by syncopated rythym
noises at dawn, will bring freedom.
" we are unidentified."
No value judgements here
" beyond the shadow of the night."
Madness makes storytellers of us all
when some prisoners escape
they head straight home.
Where will it end?this grinning circle
at the time this addition was made
true politics is incapable of repetition.
There are statements on the origins of nationality
that surreal enough often employ
elements for further discussion.
The State still has powers of Stalinist proportion
some things exploited for unique possibillity
the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.
True politics is incapable of repetition
true politics is incapable of repetition.

63 Years of Nakba / Day of the Catastrophe.

In  human terms, 1948 saw the mass deportation of a million Palestinians from their cities and villages, massacres of civilians, and the razing to the ground of hundreds of Palestinian villages.
Today some of us remember this.They still belong to this land, they were there for hundreds and thousands of years despite what some today are trying to change. They still remain, in their hearts and spirits, still holding and caring for the keys of their houses for the people who left, who managed to escape their occupiers crimes. Time drifts, but for many memory is never erased, still belonging to lands of ancestors, where hearts and minds can never leave.

Today, meanwhile almost 9,000 Palestinians are being held in Israel, in violation of International humanitarian law. In hundreds of cases, Israel forbids adult relatives to visit, so it is left to children under 16 to maintain the family contact.

Intifada means Revolution.
But Revolution does not mean violence.
Revolution means change.
A Jasmine Revolution is coming to Palestine
as it did in Tunisia and Egypt.
This Palestinian Revolution is near.
It is inevitable under oppression.

Lets not forget
in the meantime
free Palestine.

Atos: They simply don't care

A National  Protest Against Benefit Cuts is taking place throughout the week, with noisy protests expected up and down the country. Whether we see any reports of these events we will see.
Many protests are expected to take place both announced and unnanounced outside the offices and testing centres operated by Atos Origin.
Atos Origin have recently been granted, and have starrted a £300 million contract by the Con-dem Government to carry out 'work capability assessments' on all people currently on Incapacity Benefit.
It has been claimed that assessments will be used to test what people can do rather than what they can't. I feel the real purpose will be to strip vulnerable people from their benefits to pay for the bankers greed.
The testing system has already led to people with terminal illnesses and severe medical conditions being declared fit for work and having benefits cut. Our G.Ps are simply ignored in favour of decisions made by Atos's own accessors. I know of people with severe illnesses whose benefits have been stopped, pending an appeal, and many others who are scared witless.
Where  conditions have been stabilising over years and their have been intermittent periods of survival,  Atos is currently undertaking a process that robs people of their  dignity and have in many cases , made people more anxious than ever before. A lot of the examinations I have heard about seem to be based on simple trickery,the examinator  does not hold open the door for you or seek to help you in any way and simply ignores any signs of invisible illnesses, the internal unseen forces that cannot be detected by mere physical tests.
 It has been said in other parts that it is simply an excercise in robbing people of any dignity that remains. To date  however about 50% of appeals have been successful ,this proves that the means of testing cannot possibly be correct, yet this does not stop the worry or the fear. A lot of innocent people are clearly , but not plainly for the rest of the country to see, being treated unfairly.
Their have also been plans for the scrapping of Disability Living Allowance , and soon perhaps will be extended to everyone on some form of disability or health related benefit.

Meanwhile David Cameron is seen daily on the television and in the newspapers looking jolly and upbeat, ignoring the misery that he has inflicted on a few. A millionaire with no sense of what it it is to face invisible fears, and apprehensions, in a lot of cases, this is daily living, and the living is definitely not easy. He pays no heed  to people whoes experiences of life are mostly heart rendering. He parades his standards for all to see, and his friends the bankers, and those with corporate power idly get rewarded, as he divides the country into us and them. Poverty pimps is to nice a word.
Next after stealing peoples lifes , Cameron will turn to slice and carve up the N.H.S and other essential services.
It is always the same, I suppose , the rich get richer and those below the radar, are beaten down. The mainstream press collude with this and blame people on benefits, neighbours are turned against one another, the blame game spreads, whilst the real parasites grow stronger and stronger.
I confess I have personal bias,  personal experience, guess you know which side of the fence I'm on. Anyway this is not about me.
This is about the experiences of many other people up and down the country, who are being blamed for capitalisms worst excesses, who deserve respect and certainly some dignity.
Finally , when the legendary underground Edinburgh poet  Paul Reekie killed himself on June 10th, two letters were found on his table at the time - one informing him  his Incapacity Benefit  had been stopped, and the other that his Housing Benefit had been stopped.
I will let you judge for yourself. Atos abrilliant acronym by the way, simply don't care.
Show solidarity.
Fight the cuts.

 For more information see

  http://benefitclaimantsfightback.wordpress.com/

WE

ARE

NOT

WORTHLESS

WE

ARE FIGHTING

BACK

Hsu Ts'eshu ( chinaman, circa C16th) - Proper moments for drinking Tea.

When one's heart and hands are idle
Tired after reading poetry.
When ones thoughts are disturbed.
Listening to songs and ditties.
When a song is completed.
Shut up at one's home on a holiday.
Playing the ch'in and looking over paintings.
Rngaged in conversation deep at night.
Before a bright window and a clean desk.
With charming friends and slender concubines.
Returning from a visit with friends.
When the day is clear and the breeze is mild.
On a day of light showers.
In a painted boat near a small wooden bridge.
In a forest with tall baboons.
In a pavillion overloooking lotus flowers on a summer day.
Having lighted incense in a small studio.
After a feast is over and the guests are gone.
When children are at school.
In a quiet secluded temple.
Near famous springs and quaint rocks.

Terence McKenna (16/11/46 - 3/4/00) - On societies refusal to allow us to be idle.

" I  think the reason we don't organise society in that way can be summed up in the aphorism, ' idle hands are the devil's tool. In other words, institutions fear idle populations because an idler is a thinker and thinkers are not a welcome addition to most social situations. Thinkers become malcontents, that's almost a substitute word for idle, ' malcontent'. Essentially, we are all kept very busy... under no cicumstances are you to quietl inspect the contents of your own mind. Freud called introspection ' morbid' - unhealthy, introverted, anti-social, possibly neurotic, potentially pathological."

as transcribed to Tom Hodgkinson 1993.

as I've said before all life is work, in states of freedom we are released from the illusions of slavery.
Alternatively what was it that the great socialist William Morris say.

" A man at work, making something which he feels will exist because he is working at it and wills it, is excercising the energies of his mind and soul as well as his body. Memory and imagination help him as he works."

Ah, the dualities of life, for some a struggle every day. Some of us refuse to obey or conform, we can look at a meadow of beauty for hours without moving. For some however this could be hard work. But everyone of us twined together in our fragility, lifes rich differences, the shared humanity of us all.
It is our ideologies that actually divide,the  reality is the toiler or the idle share  exactly the same breath.
All of us skirting around the playgrounds of chance, perhaps.
Anyway,I for one in deep thought at moment, wondering how the dickens the tories have not been decimated, but that  is another tale, one I'd rather forget. The thought of them, makes me very tired.

"I didn't go to work today, I don't think I'll go tomorrow. Lets take control of our lives and live for pleasure not pain."

BUT WATCH OUT ATOS ARE ABOUT.

The Experiment - Broomtoad Coldsnap

a petri dish,
aireal view of Buckingham palace
the crowds, the host,
the virus, them.
ah again the experiment

Here's the Historical - moment.
The kiss -
the host is behaving, responding,
perfectly, roaring in priapic extasy.
( a spectral light swooning) ?

in majestic serenity
the transaction is completed
Heavy velvet curtains
billow a little, in a soiled wind
from the stained streets.

the fairy tale - told
was a success!
crosseyed subjects
moved gently away by police
wearing white gloves.

mandrake. twitches
incantation
a Tea leaf reading

Undecided. But don't call me apathetic.

Whose right, whose wrong, does voting make any difference?
Not much difference between any of them anymore, but the tories no, no, and no again....  the liberals have broken to many promises and colluded just for power's sake.
Do we want the same bloody system adinfinitum? I certainly don't.
Remember all the major paries would have cut, the tories I suppose  are finishing what New Labour started. The tories though a bloody lot worse, ideological driven, an enemy to progress, just wan't to go back in time, back to the 1920s.  Incapacity Benefit and Disability Living Allowance claimants were already in New Labours sites. Plaid around here am afraid have let us down with their proposed badger cull, cosied up to Labour.
The Greens, retain integrity though and have a ear for social justice , a radical edge, that has unfotunately been diluted by the rest of them.
Certain parties on the left stand once again , against one another, not united yet.

Perhaps you will choose freedom and vote for none, on the AV vote this could though be the last chance to any electoral change for years, and a yes vote would give the tories a good beating.
 However, stay safe on the streets when you find yourself in battle,  the freedom to demonstrate,at the moment, getting perilous, the police have decided they too can be political, with pre-emptive arrests recently, people are being presumed guilty before actually doing anything.
Yes this is democracy.
Will voting tomorrow change this?

Times are getting grimmer .....  but resistance is not futile

Do not most of us, lose all the time. Consensus government, as a friend said and numerical majorities do not a democracy make.
We will see, but don't call me fucking apathetic.
The least we can do is get angry.
The Welsh Assembly Elections are takin place tomorrow ,in case you wondered what I was blathering on about, and up in Scotland, and local elections up and down the country.

Oh and here's a quote from Emma Goldman

" The State is the altar of political freedom, and, like the religious altar, it is maintained for human sacrifice." 

Fuck Bin Laden R.I.P Ira Cohen (3/2/35 - 25/4/11)

So Osama Bin Laden. Dead or alive.  Has he not already been killed once, back in 2001.No chance of him inconveniently turning up alive. I don't know whether to believe this story.even less believable than the London Met. But if he really is dead why has NATO decided to retain 140,000 troops in Afghanistan. Perhaps they  know that a global terrorist network is looking for a new manager.
It's still indiscriminate hypocricy though. Many thousands more are killed and silenced by cluster bombs and bullets, buried under warped truth. History repeats itself like a curse. Do we seek  to stoke the flames of reactionary forces and division.Terrorists kill, Governments kill, what is the difference? Civilisation, oh look at us,  aren't we clever, still playing the old blame game, finding bullshit redemption.Undercover of the night, bodies lost at sea. Evil bogeyman killed, people rejoice and the killing carries on regardless.
Anyway here's a quote

" I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not recognise in the death of one. Not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. "

- Martin Luther King

Anyway,
I'm not going to surrender to hate,  I believe in a future one day soon where love will overtake. Another word is ours for the taking.
Even sadder news with the death of Mr Ira Cohen, freed from the fetters of hope. A poet and universal visionary , filmaker, bookmaker, friend to many,disciple of eclectism, shaman of insight, R.I.P.
and the dust so fine
these are suggestions
wave on wave
reach out
each ring
will be upon the wind
some of us forever invisible
carried on honeyed breeze
far in to oceanic jungle
staring out
as mountains erupt
volcanic storms
sway forever, forever , forever

Link to wiki entry on Ira Cohen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Cohen

 Ira Cohen in conversation.

Song to Nothing -Ira Cohen

And surely we will die without memory
coming to cold in the shadow of space
& if it isn't too late
for the star to love you
spraying the sky with whispers
attuned to galaxies hungry for flame
And if the togue of night sings
of Albino winos
till the morning light shafts
the doorway
then surely we will die tonight
faceless at the White Gate
sharing the smoke
with ancient shapes in future garb
and you stand somewhere there
on the other side
feeding on the painof dreamlessness
Where from the misty morning of
white shadows
& the unresisting need to destroy?

Samuel, Samuel, I beg it may be forgiven
that they may be driven
out of the black into the white
Only let the dazzle remain
for gamblers to surprise
the stragecic diamond, the throne
of compressed bone
in the unshored dark
where only light can forgive
& your mind is singed
Embers of echoes in the vastness
disguise the yearning to burn blind eyes
in arrogant displays of feeling?
Running wild these beasts will feast
on the newborn kind
for surely we will die tonight
unless we learn to ignore
what the others live for
on the other side of morning
& the skin of Nothing left by the same summer
masks the faceless wanderer

O let it happen
this wierd to discover
the shape of Beauty in everything extreme

for surely we will die tonight
whether we will or whether we
dream
O Samuel, forgive the dreamer
forgive the dream
The Song of Nothing is your lullabye.