Asian Dub Foundation - Fortress Europe

In the news today, Hungarian police tear gas refugees while Nazis try to attack and burn down asylum centres in Germany. The above song ' Fortress Europe' may have been written in 2001, it was a rediction of the future. Amazingly prophetic. That future has now arrived. This is a 21st Century exodus. This generation has no nation. No borders, only true connection. Keep banging on the walls of Fortress Europe.

Problematic friends?

It has been pointed out to me by a few people that Jeremy Corbyn seems to have problematic friendships. But his challenge to austerity still seems to be winning  the hearts and minds of the people.
The right wing press bang on about him being photographed with Gerry Adams, and with people from Hamas and Hezbullah, but this  what you have to do sometimes to try and find peaceful compromises.I really wish that people in his own party would have the guts to attack the Tory's with as much enthusiasm as they do on Jeremy.It is David Cameron and his ilk who are more than dodgy. The people of this country need to be rescued from them not from Jeremy's hope filled policies. The Tory's know that their austerity cuts are actually killing people.
Jeremy's motives  I believe to be  honest and genuine and pales compared to some of the politicians pictured above, who have used their positions and influence to cosy up to despots, tyrants, bullies, in order to increase their bank accounts/wealth or to sell weapons.
At the end of the day, the more people that line up to attack Jeremy's person and policies, the stronger it is, he becomes.
John Pilger summed up my thoughts recently -

' Ordinary people are so frustrated all over the world, that their views are not reflected by their politicians. Suddenly up comes a man who, first of all, is completely incorruptible. He's decent, he doesn't abuse people, he doesn't play games, he doesn't want to go to war with countries, he doesn't want to bomb countries,he doesn't want to see people impoverished and he doesn't want to see extremely rich interest make of with billions of pounds... he's cheered people up and given them a sense that maybe change is possible. '

Where has our humanity gone?

I was watching a Channel 4 report from the Macedonian border yesterday. Scenes of chaos as people try to  passing their children and their babies forward, to get them to safety. Families seperated, children left in tears. Treated inhumanely as riot police beat them with batons.
These people have managed to escape Assad's barrel bombs, the horror of Isis, and wrongly believe people will show them some humanity. How shameful it is that Fortress Europe cannot offer them  a safe haven. We have funded and armed their oppressors, and now some people are pissed off, because they want to escape and live. Let us not forget that more than 220,000 Syrians have been killed since the start of the war in their country. Plus 7.6 million displaced, roaming from town to town, looking for safety. But still have this incredible will to survive. Today I thank my lucky stars that I can  go and visit a dear friend and soul mate, and feel safe in her company.
Where has our humanity gone? Wherever it lies, I think it has failed. Does it not have a duty in helping vulnerable people, play our part in helping them finding homes and allow them to rebuild their lives. We must protect those fleeing conflict and persecution.

Do we even really care?  - Tjeerd Rowlands

Time traveller

( following poem, written  after daily visits from Cardigan to Glangwili hospital, Carmarthen, to visit partner. Now nearly into fourth week )

Time traveller

I awake in a jumble of tiredness,
the hands of the clock, don't seem to be working,
the flowers in the vase,though, are still looking thirsty,
time is getting blurred, everything now, runs in slow motion.

tick tock, tick tock.

I have lost sense  of borders, never recognised them anyway!
I slip slowly into the world, watch the planets far away circling,
a million light years away, keep on searching,keep on talking,
forseeing the future, looking back upon the past.

tick tock, tick tock.

On long journeys, in the company of friends,
hours allow us to reveal ourselves, exactly as we are,
as we travel along the same lines, carried in the right direction,
to take some reflection and thought, back and forth.

tick tock, tick tock.

Everyday we ride on the flip side of existence,
I feel neither safe nor threatened,it is just a question of time,
on familiar routes,that take me away from here,
ask questions, pause for moments.

tick tock, tick tock.

As the afternoon crawls, and the evening calls,
visiting time over, one last kiss,
two hearts beating say goodbye,
feel the throb of the moment,
precious as the day that rolls on by.

tick tock, tick tock.

When we get lost, we often get found,
between the cement of here and now,
memories sigh, but there is no going back to yesterday,
we can only keep on moving, towards tomorrow,
everything changes, outside dawn is breaking.

tick tock, tick tock.

Let us be grateful for the people who make us happy - Marcel Proust (10/7/1871 - 18/11-22)

                                     image by Klint.

"Let us be grateful to the people that make us happy:

They are the gardeners who make our souls blossom. "


For Jane, who makes so many other souls blossom, and  all her friends , that continue to be.

heddwch/peace.

This is not journalism, this is trash!

What an absolute ridiculous headline. This is not news!  Who cares whether he used to eat cold beans. The tabloid press are really trying to scrape the barrel, clutching at straws they are, trying so hard to get some dirt on our Jeremy, but nowt a dicky bird. Watch out for Tony Blair too, as he comes out of his cocoon, looking for  Jeremy's weapons of mass destruction.
Give me an honest politician who happens to be committed to the causes he loves and happens to like cats and cold  baked beans anyday, the Daily Mail can simply **** off.

Anyway the late great Tony Benn sums up my feelings on old Jeremy.

"In politics there are weathercocks and signposts. Weathercocks will spin in whatever direction the wind of public opinion may blow them, no matter what principle they compromise.
Then  there are signposts -signposts that  stand true and tall, and principled.
They point in a direction, and they say ' this is the way to a better society, and it is my job to convince you why.'

The Daily Mail and the establishment  irked by someone who presents alernative policies that loudly and clearly oppose austerity and doomed Tory policies, so  Jeremy, carry on regardless, onwards and forwards. 

Peterloo massacre remembered

The Peterloo massacre is the term given to an attack by Yeomanry cavalry on a pro-parliamentary reform demonstration which had  converged on  St Peters Field  in Manchester on 16th August 1819, since renamed St Peters Square. Where over 60,000 peaceful pro-democracy and anti- poverty protestors had gathered, amid a time of growing poverty  and unemployment, mainly caused by the Corn Laws that artificially inflated bread prices at a time when only 2% could vote. According to contemporary accounts  those that assembled carried themselves  with dignity and discipline, the majority dressed in their sunday best.
The key speaker was a famed orator by the name of Henry Hunt, the platform consisted of a simple cart, and the space was filled with banners - Reform, universal suffrage, equal representation, and love. Many of the banners poles were topped with red  cap of liberty- a powerful symbol at the time.
Local magistrates panicked at the  sheer size of the crowd and read out the riot act, and ordered in the military to arrest the speaker. The cavalry hussars charged and attacked the meeting, riding their horses into the crowd. The end result left at least 15 dead and up to 700 seriously injured. It is not known how many of the injured died later  from wounds inflicted by sabre wielding cavalry. The massacre was named Peterloo in an ironic comparison to the Battle of Waterloo which had taken place 4 years earlier
It would  lead to  the suppression of public expression of opinion, debate, gathering and dissent, which unleashed a wave of public anger and protests, which eventually was to lead to the Great Reform Act of 1832, which led  to limited suffrage, and todays still limited parliamentary democracy. It also gave rise to the Chartist movement, and the strength of the Trade Union movement.
We should never forget on whose shoulders  we stand. It also was marked shortly after by Percy Bysshe Shelley's powerful 91 verse epic The Masque of Anarchy.
A reminder  today that such rights that we have today were hard one, but are  slowly being taken away by this current vicious Tory Government. All roads lead to Manchester where the Tory's will be having their winter conference in October, we must continue to display our defiance. 

" Shake your chains to earth like dew,
 ye are many -they are few " - Percy Bysshe Shelley

Link to Masque of Anarchy

http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/PShelley/anarchy.html

Never give up hope ( for the children of Gaza and Palestine)

(despite my partner currently being very ill in hospital I can  never give up hope)

The two pictures included here are of Children playing on the beach in Gaza and on the streets of Palestine.
There are close  to 800,000 children currently living in Gaza, they make up more than half the population. 
Despite  the heartbreak they have suffered, it is amazing that these children can still find time to play, smile  and flash peace signs despite of the terror and hatred that no child should ever have to face. They and the people of Gaza, continue  to give us hope and will be forever remembered for their courage and resilience theyhave shown the world in the most trying of times.
Increasingly isolated by a blockade that prevents  anyone rebuilding their homes and their lives.
They remind me, that we should never give up hope.

Hope and Play is an organisation that helps to provide the children in occupied Palestinian territories and refugee camps the chance to  play, live and learn.
You will find a link here:- http://www.hopeandplay.org/

We need to talk about Jeremy

Today  is the last chance to vote  for Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party,  a person that I believe to  be one  of the  most honest people to have emerged  in Britains  frontline politics. A hard working, conscientious  M.P, veteran trade unionist and anti-war activist, a figure  of the real proper left.
A strong voice in opposing Tory austerity, the 2003 Iraq war,  freedom for the Palestinian people,  supporting my views of hope, strongly supporting the causes of the environment, peace and social justice.
constantly standing against the senseless wastes of human life  that have  plagued this country. Genuinely saying it how it is.
It is only £3  to sign up as a supporter, or free if you are  a unison or unite member.  We should not believe  the media's relentless attacks on Jeremy,  they are not watching out for us, Jeremy is a threat to the elite and needs all the support he can get.
On the other hand I have long believed the Labour Party to be dead,  so will not be rushing to rejoin, I left  in the 1980's as they were expelling friends and comrades from it's  ranks, and  turning into  New Labour, under the treacherous direction of the likes of Tony Blair, and that spineless traitor Neil Kinnock.
If Jeremy changes the Labour Party's direction, turns it into a fighting party again, defending the poor, the weak and vulnerable that will be good.  If  he enables  us to keep challenging the status quo, then all will not be lost, if he  allows us  to keep saying no to austerity , by spreading good words of solidarity and hope, that fuel our rightful anger, then  possibly all will not be lost. Hopefully Jeremy will allow us to  restore some faith,  in our minds and hearts.
We must start building alternatives, build a strong social movement , that changes society into a force of good and change, instead of one that is cruel and divided.
Good luck Jeremy Corbyn.  

Gaza Art: Remembering 400 dead children

Palestinian artist Majdal Nateel, painted the following images to commemorate 400 of the  children who died in Gaza last summer - but she is not even permitted  to leave Gaza to see them currently on display in London's King Cross, after they were bought  back by the journalist Jon Snow last month.
Powerful stuff drawn  on cement bag fragments, used to to deliver limited supplies  of cement to families whose homes were bombed. Imaging the dreams and aspirations of the children who died. Ongoing restrictions of cement and other materials means that many children who survived the conflict are still without homes.l I hope the people  of the UK will get to see these pictures and understand the terrible suffering that Israel has inflicted on  innocent  children.
The artist Majdal Nateel is 29. the mother of two young daughters, and lives in Gaza city. This exhibition gives her a rare chance to showcase her work outside Gaza. Respect to Jon Snow for bringing them over.