R.I.P Terry Pratchett (28/4/48 - 12/3/15) - My favourite theologian R.I.P

Sad to hear that one of our countries   most lucid thinkers has passed away. Sir Terry Pratchett. Loved by both children and adults alike, he was the author of over 70 wonderful books, that overflew with life, humor, adventure and memorable characters.
I was fortunate to  see him a few years back at Hay-On-Wye, his beautiful presence loomed large.
A humanist of the first order, who was the  patron of the British humanist Association, who spoke  of the possibilities of science and reason with  joy and intelligence. After the onselt of Alzheimers was diagnosed he carried on with great optimism and bravery. Spending the last period of his tremendous life helping to raise awareness  of dementia and the desperate  need for more reearch, at the same he continued to work towards a fairer society. He apparently died peacefully in his sleep.  Sir Terry Pratchett R.I.P.

" Don't think of it as  dying, said Death, just think of it as leaving early to avoid the rush."

" No one is actually dead until the ripples in the world die away."

" The pen is mightier than the sword, if the  sword  is very sharp."

" It is often said that before you die your life  passes before your eyes. It is in fact true, it's called living."

- Terry Pratchett

At the end of the day real magic never dies.

Happy Birthday Jack Kerouac ( 12/3/22 -21/10/69)

As Jack Kerouac once said " I spent my entire youth writing slowly with revision and endless  reshaping speculation and  deleting   and got  so I was writing one sentence a day, the sentence had no feeling, Goddam it, feeling is what I like in art, not craftiness and  the hiding of freedom."
Long has Jack Kerouac permeated my world, he has taught me a lot. This Beat icon, poet, writer and creator of spontaneous  Bop prosity. He has helped shape me into  the idealist I have become today. The eternal beatnik would have turned 93 today, his spirit lives today in my head and the road travels on and on. 
His words like a gateway drug, that helped me search for horizons, ways to be free, leading me to discover the works of his friends, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Gary Snyder, Herbert Huncke etc etc . He was flawed but deep, far from perfect, " Nothing  behind me,  everything ahead of  me,  as is ever so on the road "- Jack Kerouac; on the road . Thank you Jack, "The only people for me are  the mad ones, the ones  who are made to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirious of everything at the same time, the ones who  never yawn  or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous Roman Candles exploding like spiders across the stars, and in the middle you see the blue center - light pop and everything goes ahh..." - JK


Jack Kerouac - Jazz and prose

Jack Kerouac- American Hiaku-

Old Angel Moonlight (Friday afternoon in the universe)

Jack Kerouac reads from "On the Road"

After Banksy: the parlour guide to Gaza

In response  to graffiti artist Banksy's Make this the year you discover a New destination Gaza tourist video,  a video from the Guardian, that shows what real life is like there  and their dreams beyond the border. Here lies the world's biggest open air prison. The people daily occupied, no one allowed to enter or too leave. People forced to live among ruins, and devastated squalid condititions. Surrounded by apartheid walls, their plight daily insufferable, but despite the destruction all around, the Palestinian peoples resistance and resiliance  remains strong. Come and share with the youth of Gaza as they invite us to come and share their lives ( what's left of them)  their food ( if your ok  with a lean diet) and their culture and subculture ( things that an't be destroyed)  so  come run with them, better still stand with them, show them your solidarity. Boycott Israel.  

The Karl Marx Mastercard

Just found out recently that in Eastern Germany in a town once called Karl Marx Staad, a bank called Spakasse Chemnitz ran an online poll letting customers vote for image to put on their credit cards. They chose Karl Marx. There was  an old joke  in Russia that everything that we were told about by communism was a lie, but nowadays everything  they tell us about capitalism is true. I wonder what the annual rate for the Karl Marx mastercard would be. Everything you have. It confims  old Karl Marx's own adage that the capitalists would sell  the  very rope that would be used to hang himself.

Credit is  the new Opiate of the masses.

When you seize the means of production from the bourgeoisie, use the Karl Marx mastercard.

From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. For everything else here's the Karl Marx mastercard.

The only  card for internationale travel.

A spectre is haunting Europe - the spectre of cash bank and low low interest rates.

 Das Kapital £10, Red Flag £30  prices risings as we rise up against our oppressors.

All property is purchasable. Take the dialectic out of your materialism with a Karl Marx mastercard.

Have your proletariat revolution now,  pay  for it later.

Yes humor could be  the death of me, but not as dangerous as capitalism, that out of control  will  carry on chaining us down, and unregulated  is already killing millions. With the global economy in protracted  crisis , and workers around the world, burdened by joblessness,  debt and stagnant income.
Yes Capitalism and the system that props it up like back when Karl Marx wrote his original words, is still inherently unjust and self desctructive, impoverishing the masses as the worlds wealth is concentrated in the hands of a greedy few. Time to through the cards that they use to curtail us away, and occupy the banks.
Anyway here's an old poem of mine

Money can't buy our love

http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/what-money-can-buy.html

To the sisters ( solidarity forever)

Solidarity means, that together, we must stand,  fighting hand in hand for a more dignified world. Remember on International Women's Day just  the act of  writing or speaking in public for some is a political act. We should all be aware of these conditions, bearing witness, denouncing injustice and patriarchy that can be reasons for division.
Today we remember all those women who have stood up and fought back, for their rights, for equality, for justice, for dignity, for freedom. We remember your strength and remember too that  we are all much stronger in struggle when we are united.
As I write it should be noted that there is still too much gender inequality, discrimination and injustice globally. We must continue to carry  the voices of all who are silenced.

Happy International Womens Day

Solidarity with women of Selma, Ferguson, Kobane, Mexico, Afganistan, Gaza, women of the world, to my sisters nearer home and to all the comrades  who are still fiercely opting to break every chain
solidarity forever.

Heddwch/Peace.

Janet Dube - atom ( a poem to mark International Womens Day)

Tomorrow marks International Womens Day, I have chosen to mark the occasion with this  from the poet Janet Dube  from her  collection Lifeline which was published by Gomer in 2000.
Janet Dube was  born in Fulham, London and now lives in Carmarthenshire, West Wales. She studied at St David's University College , Lampeter, and has worked as a teacher and playworker. She was active in feminism and the anti-war movement.

I am the atom
tiny, invisible, powerless,

Yet from my body
came the word, for I
am the seed  of all that is;

for I was  in the beginning
and without me was not
anything  made that was made;

and I am the sand,
yet more than the sand;

and  I am the stars,
yet more than the stars;

and I am the hungry;
yet more than the hungry;

and  I am the rich,
yet more than  the rich;

and I the healing water
and I the cleansing earth

and I the seed of all that is
am divided against myself;

tiny, invisible powerless
I am divided,
and I am you.

It's the sign of the times. its the time of our lives.

We've got food banks
swastika armbands,
hate in abundance
governments, leaving us angry.

It's  the sign of the times,
it's  the time  of our lives.

We've got corporations causing  unecessary death
carving up the world with austerity and stealth,
as days drift by, rivers of sadness grow
souls get deep, but still manage to flow.

It's the sign of the times,
it's the time of our lives.

We've got polticians demonising the poor
masters of destruction, seeking war,
who cry blue murder if a person hungry
gets caught,shoplifting as a means of survival.

It's the sign of  the times,
it's the time of our lives.

we've got famine in the third world
dirty water and contamination hurled,
refugees being criminalised,
simply for trying to flee for their lives.

It's the sign of the times,
it's the time of our lives.

We've got apartheid walls, we've got wars of attrition
we've got people being daily denied,
cleared from their lands, words and memories stolen
no opportunity to grow, hope daily scattered.

It's the sign of the times
it's the time of our lives.

As big brother gets bigger, participation is left small
with seeds of destruction, a life of suffering and exploitation,
the world at tipping point, on a downward spiral,
we have to reach out find some means of survival.

It's the sign of the times,
it's the time of our lives.

And we've got smart phones and social media
viruses that arrive daily with hidden intent,
webs of confusion, threads of division
branches ragged,  but still enough to cling too,

It's the sign of the times,
it's the time of our lives.

tomorrow delivers a special offer
admission price is free
dreamers will come  overthrow the world,
take the pain away,and try and start again,.

Because it's the time of our lives,
it's the time of our lives.

Diversity & Inclusion – Love Has No Labels ( a message of hope for our times)

At the end of the day are we not all born equal,  we are all meant to love  one another, not judge. The truth is, love conquers all, we should not be so quick to pass judgement,  on people based  on the color of their skin, their age or their physical abilities. The above video, which I think is marvellous is part of  the Love  has no labels campaign which challenges us to open  our eyes to our bias and  prejudice and  work to stop it in ourselves, our friends, our families, and our colleagues and captures the heart of this beautiful message.
I am not perfect, far from it, but I am still learning to try, and love makes our world spin, it makes us strong too. Love is a human experience that can be shared  for all, it sees no borders either, we should allow these feelings to be shared and grow, love after all  passes over all the many perceived boundaries that we  encounter.
It gives me great hope that as I speak this  video is now being shared by many  people across the world,  a virus, that is necessary in today's troubling times. We desperately need to embrace diversity and help end bias, and keep spreading the word.

Find out more about this wonderful campaign here:-

http://lovehasnolabels.com/

30th Anniversary of Miners Strike marked by benefit compilation

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the return to work of the striking miners of 1984/85 who had remained  out in protest against the  closure of the pits. A benefit compilation has been released  featuring  a stellar cast of  some of the most influential  left wing British musicians of the past 30 years. Superb!
The album produced in association with Philosophy football  features artists like Billy Bragg, Sleaford Mods, New Model Army, Chumbawumba, TV Smith, Attilla the Stockbroker and many more singing songs of resistance and protest, passionate, angry  traditional and modern.


The Orgreave Truth and Justice cd, is available for £9.99 with all profits going to  the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign.
You can order this essential collection  by visiting the following  link.
It is only £9.99 with all profits  going to the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign.


http://www.philosophyfootball.com/view_item.php?pid=1200

The Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign includes ex miners, Trade Unionists, and activists  and others who are determined to get justice for miners who were  victims  of police and cover ups at Orgreave in June 1984.
Orgreave  was a massive injustice, where hundreds of police  under the orders of Margaret Thatcher carrying riot shields, targeted unarmed miners with truncheons, inflicting serious injury. Miners were kicked  and punched  in a savage attack of police brutality.
We should never forget the miners bitter heroic struggle, nor the fact that not one single  police officer has been disciplined, let alone prosecuted, serving as a reminder of one of the biggest miscarriages of the 1980's. We remember too how Thatcher unleashed a class war destroing peoples ways of live, that paved the way of the political climate and mess we have today.
Today many are still waiting for justice. Seeking it for all miners victimised by the police at Orgreave. We remember too how the power of the state is still used against its people.


Here is  a link to the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign


http://otjc.org.uk/

No to Maximus / WCA

In work - out of work  -  these lot have it covered. Their one aim  to take  away your entitlements and leave you penniless.


Currently a controversial American company  is taking over the contract  to assess the fitness of benefit claimants to work,  having replaced the French firm Atos, who quit the contract last March. They will be used by the government again to help cut  benefits of sick and disabled people, who have already been disproportionately targeted. Two million people have had their benefits sanctioned since 2013, this is the Governments true agenda, hand in hand with companies like Maximus are hitting the poor the hardest.
The Work Capability assessment has proved  to be a very expensive disaster in both financial and human terms.  A growing  number of suicides have been directly  linked to this stressful procedure, whilst medical  staff and claimants themselves  have warned  of the desperate consequences  for those  left with no money at all by the system.
People who  cannot work, for various reasons  should be supported, it is unnecessary to pay millions and millions of pounds to  private companies like Atos and Maximus. Are our own G.Ps not to be trusted.
Today disabled activist groups  and supporters will across  the country vigorously  protest against  these heartless work  tests.
It should also be noted  that Maximus  are also involved in helping to privatise the N.H.S, running the  fit for work occupational  health service  designed to bully and harass.
I personally am in a support group, my crime, I periodically suffer from depression and anxiety but it looks like Maximus has been given a green light to  diminish  people  like me.
Maximus like Atos  before them alongside the Work Capability Assessments must be stopped in their tracks, they are  profiteers of the sick and vulnerable and because of them combined with Tory policies people are suffering. People before profit should be the maxim.
Maximus another ruthless company doing the governments dirty work.


Here are details of the call out by DPAC ; Disabled People against cuts


Please support them, after they have finished with us they will start on the rest.


http://dpac.uk.net/2015/01/disabled-claimants-welcome-to-maximus-march-2nd-everywhere/