70 years since the Nabka the Palestinians right to existence still ongoing.

The Great March of Return in the Gaza Strip has served to remind the world of the Palestinian people and their ongoing struggle. Since March 30, Palestinians in Gaza have engaged in peaceful grassroots protests at the Israel military fence that daily imprisons them, calling for an end to the dire conditions that they are forced to live with, as well as for the right of return to the land which they were expelled 70 years ago, what Palestinians call the Nabka or catastrophe, and an end to the suffocating 11 year siege on the Gaza Strip. The protesters have literally been placing their bodies on line with the risk of being shot by Israel snipers. After the US embassies incendiary move to Jerusalem and  the incredibly insensitive recognition by Donald Trump as Israel's capital,  the world has witnessed up to 59 unarmed protesters being massacred in cold blood. with over 3,000 injured  in an abhorrent violation of international law and human rights, with many injured reporting wounds to the head and chest.That must be met with condemnation and protests of solidarity.
In human terms in comparison 1948, saw the mass deportation of a million Palestinians from their cities and their villages,  it saw the massacre of civilians, and the razing to the ground of hundreds of Palestinian villages.Zionist forces used a terror campaign to expel 800, 000 Palestinians from their land. Today Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza strip, as well as pro-Palestinian supporters across the globe, will mark the 'catastrophe' and the inception of the State of Israel. Today is the Palestinians annual day of commemoration of this displacement. The vast majority of Palestinian refugees, both those outside the 1949 armistice lines at the wars' conclusion and those internally displaced, were barred by the newly declared state of Israel from  their right to return to their homes or the reclaiming of their property, and in doing so Israel violated international law which they continue to do with impunty..
Sadly to this day, there is no peace in this stolen land, especially when people are forced to cry for liberation and the right to return to their lands.Remember Palestinians in Gaza have only four hours of electricity and 97% of water is unfit for human consumption. And currently hospitals already crippled by shortages of supplies, are unable to cope with the daily influx of the wounded and dying.,
To make this tragedy more unbearable, just 60 miles away from Gaza, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, David Friedman and other US officials have been celebrating the opening of the US embassy, a move that cements US complicity in Israel's occupation and its seperate unequal apartheid policies and simply tells Israel that they have carte blanche to continue the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.
As Palestinians bury their dead and tens of thousands continue to march in processions across the s to mark the 70th anniversary of the Nabka, I will end with this statement released by  the Palestinian Human Rights Organisation recently which called for the international community to act and end the "ongoing Nabka."
"For the Palestinian people, 70 years of Nabka means seven decades of subjugation by Israel, characerised by segregation, apartheid and colonial policies and practices.It also attets to the chronic inaction and failure of the international community to fulfill its obligations and responsibilities under international law, to a lack o accountability and protection, and to the continued support of a shallow and biased peace process incapable of bringing about peace and justice." it read.
The rights group claimed more than eight million of 12.7 million Palestinians are displaced worldwide and accused Israel of colluding with the US stop humanitariam aid programmes providing support to Palestinian refugees,"
In these incredibly dark times we should all continue to condemn Israel's use of excessive lethal force. All people should have the right to march peacefully for their rights. As the protests continue lets remember and commemorate too the Palestinians 70 years of displacement, marching for their lives, their freedom , their homes and their human rights, who continue to resist the Israel Government's continued efforts to erase their collective  memories of suffering, who despite Israel's blockade of the West Bank and open prison we know as Gaza, do not stop their dream for their right to return and or having Jerusalem as their capital.
Their catastrophe ongoing, their will though unbroken, lets stand with them  in solidarity, until they are given back the dignity and respect  they deserve as human beings.

NHS: You were warned

A shocking bill proposed by a right wing M.P  that would see increased charging is listed to be debated in Parliament.
MP Christopher Chope wants to increase charges throughout the NHS and will use the debate in the House of Commons to persuade his fellow Conservatives to include it in their next manifesto.
Currently NHS charges are restricted to only a few areas such as dentistry, eye tests and prescribed medicines. Chope's bill would open the floodgates to charging for a host of other services which would include GP appointments and some hospital procedures.It has no chance of being passed without Government support but could be debated in the main chamber if there is time in an attempt to spark a national debate on the issue.
The National Health Service (Co-funding and CoPayment Bill) https://services.parliament.uk/bills/2017-19/nationalhealthservicecofundingandcopayment.html
 would make provision for co-funding and for the extension of co-payment for NHS services in England.
Meanwhile hospitals are increasingly understaffed and ill-resourced and unable to respond to the urgent need of patients - even those of emergency patients. It is not the fault of the staff , it is the fault of the Tories, who have driven the N.H.S to breaking point. Waiting times are up, and it is getting increasingly  difficult to see  your G.P  when you want,  combined with ambulance services  being put  under enormous pressure. 
The N.H.S is in crisis because it is continually being undermined by this government through covert privatisation  that carries on the wreckage and destruction that Margaret Thatcher started. The N.H.S is on a cliff edge because of underfunding which threatens to push it over,  with continuing attempts to make the N.H.S unworkable by making impossible demands on the system and its staff.
So we have to continue  to fight to save it from  the grips of the privateers, because we owe it our lives. We can not afford to sit back while it is being chipped further away and falling increasingly into the hands of those who seek to make profit out of our healthcare.
The Torys  keep pledging that the N.H.S is safe in its hands but at least we can now see this  for the lie that is. Don't say you were not warned.
Contact your MP here https://www.writetothem.com/

Bertolt Brecht ( 10/2/1898 - 14/8/56) - The worst illiterate is the political illiterate.

  Cheers Bertolt Brecht, ( the late brilliant German poet and playwright) as long as we excuse ourselves from politics,  our countries will continue to be run by rogues. Those in power will continue to fill their pockets at the detriment of the people. 
If good people continue to avoid politics, the bad will continue to leave their mark, any chance of a better world is lost. The world does not need political illiterates it needs you to make a difference. Is it not our collective responsibility to stay engaged with matters arising. Have not we as human beings, evolved to the extent  that we cannot fail to notice certain things are undesirable and need to be opposed. This does not mean that we have to follow systems of political authority, we can remain outside and question the status quo, with a careful and deliberate observation of events. 
The way to change society is not to be folded into systems of control, but to counterbalance and neutralize , we can do this by the way we live our lives. There's nothing apathetic about that.
Because of toxic conditions, people are finally waking up, refusing to be political illiterates any more, refusing  formative culture and its attendant cultural apparatus that create a form of manufactured consent. Political illiteracy kills the imagination, our questioning spirit, the need to question and revolt, our informed judgement and critical capability. This simply allows those in power to remain unaccountable, enabling them to continue to cause damage to our society. 
Meanwhile the British public has allowed right-wing press barons like Rupert Murdoch to frame the political debate to such an extent that the actual meanings of basic political words and phrases have become lost, basic political words and phrases like ' socialist' and left wing' have been divorced from their actual meanings. 
This also  allows the Tories  to carry on regardless, creating so much damage to our society, releasing their brand of conscious cruelty, currently stripping our assets,  privatising our NHS  piece by piece, and with their policy of universal credit simply designed to blame the poor for their own poverty. This what they do as they give tax cuts to their friends the rich, this is their morality, a form of  sickness, which allows people because of political illiteracy to accept their lot , and lose sense that they are being exploited and robbed blind on a daily basis.
We cannot afford to close our eyes and drift to sleep, we have to learn to fight, continue to shout out, engage ourselves  beyond apathy and indifference, for a brighter future, in which justice and equity belong to everyone, for the many not the few.

Henry Vincent (10/5/1818 - 29/12- 1878) - Radical Chartist

Today marks the birth of radical Chartist Henry Vincent .Vincent, was the eldest son of Thomas Vincent , a goldsmith, who was born on 10th May 1813 at 145 High Holborn, London. When the family business failed in 1821, the Vincents moved to Hull. Henry received little schooling, though he was an avid reader. In 1828, he was apprenticed to a printer. During this apprenticeship, his early interest in radical politics, taking note of the agitation and revolution taking place in France, and influenced by the work of Thomas Paine, which would lead him into activism with his election as vice-president of a local Paineite discussion group and as a member of the Hull Political Union. Upon the completion of his apprenticeship in 1833, Vincent’s uncle helped him obtain a position at Spottiswoode’s, the king’s printers, in London.

In 1836, Vincent became involved with a dispute at Spottiswoode’s and left the firm with about sixty other employees. About this time his mother inherited an independent income, which freed Vincent of family responsibilities (his father had died in 1829, leaving a widow and six children). Vincent started getting more heavily involved in radical circles and in 1836 joined the London Working Men’s Association.
He became a very successful lecturer and travelled extensively promoting the People’s Charter.The Charter demanded the reform of parliament, At this time very few people were qualified  to vote, around one in twenty of the population of England and Wales, voting was done in public and votes were often bought, Chartists demanded votes for all men over the age of 21 ( some wanted votes for women, but it was felt that this would make the movement a laughing stock) and annual elections to ensure that MP's were instantly answerable to their constituents. They also wanted the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies redrawn so that each seat would have an equal population. To allow anyone, whatever their background to become an MP, they demanded the end of the law which said that an MP has a large amount of land and MP's were to be paid. Secret voting was asked for to ensure that people could bot be victimised for their favoured candidate, and to prevent votes being bought.
In December 1838, Vincent contributed to the Chartist cause through the founding of a weekly newspaper, The Western Vindicator based in Bath.'Chartism was the result of increasing class consciousness in the working class, as this extract from a leaflet issued by the South Wales Chartists in 1839 shows: 'The wealth producer is made the slave to the possessors of wealth that he has laboured to create; power is transferred from labour to capital and the producer sinks into a mere instrument to be used as needed, and thrown aside as soon as a more efficient one is presented.'
Chartism is often dismissed as only being about reform of the polling system, but it was much, much more. Workers thought that when the Charter was law their lives would be transformed for the better. They believed that 'children would no longer labour... men and women would only work for six hours a day... the distinctions between rich and poor would be swept away.' After the government turned down the mass petition for the Charter, leaders like John Frost and Henry Vincent called for 'physical force' to obtain the Charter, amounting to political revolution. Parliament’s refusal to listen to their concerns led to increased working class anger. erupting and  South Wales  would become the storm centre of this discontent.
Vincent was sent to Wales by the London Chartists as a ‘paid missionary’, to spread support for the People’s Charter and during the spring of 1839 he addressed mass meetings across Monmouthshire. His lecturing and writing activities were brought to an abrupt halt  though after his arrest in May, 1839.The warrant from the Newport magistrates charged him with having participated in ‘a riotous assemblage’ held in that town on 19th April 1839. He was taken to Bow Street, charged, and committed to Monmouth gaol to stand trial at the ensuing assizes. So great was the rage felt outside the court that the mayor was obliged to read the Riot Act. His trial took place on 2nd August 1839 before Sir Edward Hall Alderson, baron of the exchequer. Sergeant Thomas Noon Talfourd conducted the case for the crown, and John Arthur Roebuck that for the defence. Roebuck showed clearly from the admissions of the chief witnesses for the prosecution that Vincent had told the people to disperse quietly and to keep the peace. The full text of what Vincent wrote, and his own account of what he said that day in Newport, can be found in an article from the Western Vindicator now published on the vision of Britain website.
Vincent, neverthless was found guilty and sentenced to twelve  months’ imprisonment. He applied for the use of books and writing materials but was refused all but religious books. On 9th August 1839, Lord Brougham brought Vincent’s case to the attention of the House of Lords. Vincent,though only found guilty of a misdemeanour on one count only, was treated as a felon. The intense feeling in South Wales at the time about Vincent’s treatment in prison  would help glavanise the Chartist cause  which would  result  in the rising that would follow in Newport..
 On the morning of 4th November 1839, large crowds, estimated variously at from eight thousand to twenty thousand, marched towards Newport,intending to rescue Vincent from prison and seize the town. They believed that his  release would signal a large-scale insurrection throughout the country. However they came into collision with the military and when John Frost and the marchers arrived in Newport they discovered that the authorities had made more arrests and were holding several Chartists in the Westgate Hotel. The Chartists marched to the hotel and began chanting "surrender our prisoners". Twenty-eight soldiers had been placed inside the Westgate Hotel and when the order was given they began firing into the crowd, ending in a bloodbath with 30 dead.

 Afterwards approximately 200 Chartists were arrested for their involvement in the march. The three principal leaders, John Frost, Zephaniah Williams, and William Jones, were found guilty of high treason and sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered. Although their sentences were later reduced to transportation for life following a national outcry, they were the last people to be sentenced to this punishment in England and Wales. Courageous men who were all prepared to fight for the cause of  Chartism and the that of  of the working class.https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/remembering-chartist-leaders-found.html
In March 1840, Vincent was tried a second time at Monmouth for ‘having conspired together with John Frost to subvert the constituted authorities, and alter by force the constitution of the country’. A second count charged the men with having uttered seditious language. Again Sergeant Talfourd conducted the prosecution. Vincent having been dissatisfied with Roebuck’s conduct of the defence at his first trial, now decided to defend himself. He did so with such skill and persuasion that the Monmouthshire jury, while finding both prisoners guilty, recommended clemency for him. He was sentenced to twelve months’ imprisonment. Talfourd was so impressed by Vincent’s defence that he indicated his regrets at having undertaken the case for the prosecution and became involved in the efforts to obtain better conditions for Vincent.
After his release Vincent married Lucy Chappell, daughter of John Cleave, at the register office, St Luke’s, Chelsea, on 27th February 1841. They settled in Bath, where Vincent resumed lecturing and publishing The Vindicator until it ceased publication in 1842, and continued to spread the Chartist cause throughout the country, while joining the National Charter Association..In July 1841, he stood as a radical candidate for Banbury in the first of what was to be a long list of unsuccessful attempts to gain a parliamentary seat.
His ideas became more moderate, concentrating  ore on moral reform than of class conflict, though his ultimate political aim of universal suffrage did not waver, He joined groups linked  with the Temperance movement and teetotal political societies, which condemned the social evils of drink. Because of his now more moderate approach , previous close allies of his in the Chartist movement disagreed with him over his watering down of the physical force message of Chartism and  the distraction of the Temperance message. In 1842, Vincent helped set yp the Complete Suffrage Union  that had similar aims to the Chartist movement and though still a member of the National Charter Association, he was no longer the envied spirited orator of old, and some of his old friendships and bonds were now broken, some Chartists, broke ranks with him, because they did not support his allegiance tothe Complete Suffrage union, some heckled him and branded him a traitor.
Despite these setbacks Vincent continued to hold and develop his progressive views and was invited to speak on long tours of America in 1866, 1867 and again in 1875 and 1876.His wider travels would stimulate  his interests in world politics and working conditions.He became stoutly anti-war, seeing war as a means of domestic oppression orchestrated by oppressive governments.In 1848, he lectured for the Peace Society Anti-slavery too became  his focus at this stage and he lectured on a number of social and historical questions.  In these later years  he also spoke out in favour of popular education, free trade, and religious tolerance. Vincent’s own religious sympathies were with the Society of Friends, though he was never formally received into membership. In addition to his public lectures, Vincent frequently conducted services on Sundays in free church chapels as a lay preacher.
Vincent died on 29 December 1878 and is buried at Abney Park Cemetary in Stoke Newington..
By 1918, most of the Chartist demands had been met, and women over the age of 30 were also entitled to vote. Ten years later all women over the age of 21 could vote.But the Chartists had wanted all their demands at once, this after all is what had made them Chartists in the first place, and the important demand for annual elections still has not been gained. Only a reduction in the term of parliament from seven years to five was passed.But Chartists and men like Henry Vincent helped spread socialism and the events in Newport are now rightly celebrated each year as a symbolic step towards winning some democratic rights, leaving us with a tremendous legacy that serves to inspire and educate all those who wish to change the world.

Accordion Player ( Poem dedicated to Jane Elizabeth Husband 9/5/60 -8/1/17)

When there’s someone, one someone, who makes your days brighter, makes your joys greater, makes your heart lighter…Someone, one someone, you want to share with, do everything with, go everywhere. Someone, one someone you want to live for…You have something called love.”

- Kahlil Gibran

Today would have been my beloved's birthday, she would have turned 58years young, nevertheless her spirit and magic I still feel on every sunrise,  in the early morn, after the moon has set , arriving every dawn, neither west, east, south or north, her petals following no borders,her footsteps still following rhythmic beats of the world, dancing freely, I still see her holding out her hands, in these days of confusion her words still clear, I tell myself she is free, where skies gleam and trees sway ,a drifting peaceful beauty.I offer to sweet Jane this poem.


Accordian Player

With delicacy her hands played
tunes of light and magic,
gently squeezed through her fingers
made dreary days get filled with light,
deeply concentrating,she would release a smile
intricate notes casting joy, melodious accord,
bouncing bellows, jigs and reels
bringing the lungs of her instrument to life,
weaving music, stitched in time
dissipating sadness, releasing endearment,
my mind's eye will always honour
a once familiar sound and sight so loved,
I carry her memory deep in heart
Rays of  warmth will never depart,
I miss her greatly but  am out of tears
this vision soars now forever over summer skies.

Bluebell Dream

Under the  glowing sun
my garden is quilted
by memories of angels
who  drifted far away,
but underneath a painted sky
bluebells  dance,and earth vibrates
releasing her shouldering power
growing stronger as afternoon passes
shaking the waking steam of thought
chaos bubbles into order.
Embracing the magic of summer
arms outstretched, inner peace is released,
in reflective moments of tranquility
surrender to natures beauty,
enchantment bringing happiness
I light a jazz cigarette, feel at ease,
in calmness, forget the worries of the world
in this peaceful space, nourishment sipped.

Religion is the opium of the people - Karl Marx (5/5/1818 - 14/4/1883)

"Die Religion ist das Opium des Vokes"
"Dir Religion ist das Opium des Vokes"
"Dir Religion ist das Opiun des Volkes"


Happy birthday Karl Marx, shame about  the millions, who died in your name, however lets allow  some of your thoughts, to grow,  beyond sectarianism, you who believed that religion was the opium of the people, meaning that it was imposed upon the ordinary person in order to control him. Who personally believed in no such thing as God or Gods. Born into a middle class jewish family  came to believe  that religion was basically used to suppress people, with a complete negation of reasoning.
Who wanted a society based on reality, on truths, a society where the individual took responsibility and did not leave everything to a belief system or a supreme being.
Personally speaking, it feels like in a lot of cases religion can make you a puppet, I believe in science, but sometimes when feeling irrational the supernatural, I do though carry a  political faith.
And a drug that can keep people happy in the short term, has the potential of appeal, any numbness of pleasure in this world, that gives immediate pleasure, that is a quick fix, a short cut to immediate pleasure, can it all be roundly condemned? Consequences can be quick, but  in the long term consciences can deaden. Some say the internet and facefuck does this every day. Hey ho. One day soon we might have a chance to overthrow the capitalist system too, before it's to late. Power to the people, create your own illusion.  Do it yourself.

The  following is an extract from Karl Marx's  introduction to the critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, first published in 1844.

" For Germany, the criticism of religion  has been completed, and the critisism of religion is the prequisite of all critisism.
The profane existence of error is compromised as soon as its heavenly oratio pro aris et focis (" speech for the altars and hearths," i.e, for God and country)  has been refuted. Man, who has found only the reflection of hiimself in the fantastic reality of heaven, where he sought a superman, will no longer feel disposed to find the mere appearance of himself, the non-man, where he seeks and must seek his true reality.
The foundation of irreligious criticism is : Man makes religion , religion dos not make man. Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is  the world of man - state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because thet are an inverted world. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d'honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. It is the fantastic realization of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. The struggle against religion is therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma  is religion.
Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.
The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their conditions is to call on them to  give up a conditon that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore,  in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears  of which religion is the halo.
Criticism has plucjed the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower. The criticism of religion disillisions man, so that he will think, act, and fashion his reality like a man who has discarded his illusions and regained his senses, so that he will move around himself as his own true Sun. Religion is only the illusory Sun which revolves around man as long as he does not revolve around himself.
It is therefore, the task of history, once the other-world of truth has vanished, to establish the  truth of this world. It is the immediate task of philosophy, which is in the service of history, to unmask self-estrangement in its unholy forms once the holy form of human self-estrangement has been unmasked. Thus the critisism of Heaven tirns into the criticism of Earth, the criticism of religion into the criticism of law, and the criticism of theology into the criticism of politics."

FOR FULL TRANSCRIPT FOLLOW LINK BELOW

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm

They teach us (After Tory Britain)

They teach us  to be subservient and respectful
To obey their rules, which they change whenever they choose,
Treat us with hatred and derision, humiliation and disrespect
Destroying communities, continuing to insult and neglect.

They teach us about pain and desperation,
Tell us everything's alright when it isn't,
Turning a blind eye for their own means
That we've been conditioned not to notice.

They teach us, about broken promises, desolation
Ghost like towns, where hope and love has gone,
Levels of greed everywhere, forces of negation
As we stumble and fall, all they offer is rejection.

They teach us, about abandonment and disillusion
Hatred and division seeping daily through our lives,
Barbarism and racism swallowing up hearts and mind
Time to depart this darkness, these tides that bind.

They teach us, how to question, rippling waves bursting through
With different rays of possibility,for the many not the few,
Springing back with resilience,bringing a  splash of hope
In  our country sinking in the mire, with faith we can delope.

Above poem can also be found here :-https://iamnotasilentpoet.wordpress.com/2018/05/03/they-teach-us-after-tory-britain-by-dave-rendle/
                                                   

May 2, 1945 - Khaldei Anan'evich Yevgeny's iconic photograph off Red Army Soldier Soviet soldier raising flag over the Reichstag, in Berlin.

The above image of the hoisting of the Red Flag over the Reichstag 2 May 1945, has come to represent the total victory of Soviet Russia however the  red flag was actually first raised on the Reichstag on April 30 as the Red Army and the Nazis were still fighting for control of the building . Erected in 1894, the Reichstag's architecture was magnificent for it's time. The building contributed much to German history and was considered by the Red Army the symbol of their enemy, and the heart of Nazi Germany
On May 2, two days after Hitler had killed himself and the same day that General Helmuth Weidling, the last remaining commander of the Nazi forces defending the German capital, ordered ' the immediate cessation of resistance, and thus surrendering the city to the Red Army, Yevgeny Khalder a 28 year old -photojournalist and Red Army naval officer (1917 -1997) was ready to record the symbolic image of Germany's capitulation after days of intnense fighting.
The above photograph was actually staged for propaganda  purposes, but nonetheless became an iconic symbol of the Soviet Union's triumphant  victory over Nazi Germany.Next to Joe Rosenthal's photo of raising the flag on Iwo Jima, Khaldei's photo, is perhaps the most famous of Worf War 11, But unlike Rosenthal's his was both staged and doctored. Noting the publicity the Iwo Jima photos had recieved , Soviet officials, ordered Khaldei to fly from Moscow to Berlin in order to take a similar photo that would symbolise the Soviet  victory over Germany. Khaldei carried with  him a large flag, sewn from three tablecloths for this very purpose, by his uncle. When Khaldei arrived in Berlin  he had considered a number of settings for the photo, including the Brabdenburg Gate and Temelhof Airport but he decided on the Reichstag, even though Soviet soldiers had already succeeded in raising a flag over the building. He met a young comrade in the burnt out parlament building and persuaded him to pose on the roof with the flag, Two other Red Army soldiers joined them to recreate the scene above..
Before the photo's first publication in Ogoniok, a Russian magazine, Khaldei realised that one of the three Soviet soldiers on the roof was wearing two watches, one on each wrist, a clear sign of looting which did not fit into the heroic image of the Red army. He scratched the second watch from the negative. Dark billowing clouds of smoke were added also to a later version of the photograph for more dramatic effect.

                     Another picture of the same scene

German magazine Der Spiegel wrote, "Khaldei saw himself as a propagandist for a just cause, the war against Hitler and the German invaders of his homeland," When asked about the manipulation, Khaldei responded, " It is a good photograph and historically significant. Next question please."
In the years before his death  in October 1997, he liked to say: "I forgive the Germans, but I cannot forget."His father and three of his four sisters were murdered by the Germans.
As a war photographer from Red Square to the Bhudapst Ghetto, to Yalta and the Nuremberg trials Khaldei chronicled many of the world's most important events with an artist's eye and a journalist's timing. However after the war Khaldei became the victim of anti-Semitism in Stalin's totalitarian dictatorship and struggled to remain employed., but somehow he continued to photograph, now working as a freelance photographer for Soviet newspapers and focused on capturing the scenes of everyday life, In 1959, he got a job again at the newspaper Pravda where he worked until he was forced to retire in 1970. His wartime photographs were  later collected in a 93 page book ( Ot Murmanska do Berlina / From Murmansk to Berlin)  published in 1984. 

Tam Lyn (Retold) - Benjamin Zephaniah ; featuring Eliza Carthy

Happy May Day/ Beltane. As humanity  continues to move  in a very funny direction, here is a message of hope and positivity, a retelling of the traditional folk tale Tam Lyn, by the poet Benjamin Zephaniah who cleverly rewrote the tale for a project called the Imagined Village, with a superb backing of electro-reggae from Transglobal Underground, plus a a haunting accompanying melody from Eliza Carthy. All in all,a pretty good way to start the month. Solidarity and  love.

Tam Lyn (retold)

Don't be scared
It was the first of May
A righteous holiday
This was when the workers they
Celebrate fertility

It was the first of May
She stepped into the club
Lookin' for the holy herb
And a magical dub

A virgin full of  rhythm
Her passion shining bright
Her future in her hand
And she was holding it tight

So she found that holy herb
It was sweet Carribean
She burned that holy herb
In an organic chillum

And she moves to the bass
She retold to creation
They was time and space
For this heavenly maiden

It was the first of May
A righteous holiday
It was when the workers day
Celebrate fertility

It was the first of May
A righteous holiday
It was when the workers day
Celebrate fertility

He was a mover and a shaker
Who was prone to temptation
He stepped up in the angel
And made his objection

Saying "Woman was not made
to partake this herb"
He cursed and she was humble
And she called him absurd

Then she took him to a place
That was not very far
They connected at the waist
In the back of her car

Her innocence was gone
In just under an hour
He was forced to hang on
While she flashed her girl power

It was the first of May
A righteous holiday
It was when the workers day
Celebrate fertility

It was the first of May
A righteous holiday
It was when the workers day
Celebrate fertility

Love is impatient
It ignores tradition and convention
It is not bound by human constructs
Jurisprudence and the laws of men

Love reaches out and holds open-hearted
It demands attention
It is in a world of its own
Yet it connects worlds that will forever
Be set apart

Well I have a sweet hope of glory in my soul
Have a sweet hope of glory in my soul

Well I have a sweet hope of glory in my soul
Have a sweet hope of glory in my soul
Oh I know I have and I feel I have
A sweet hope of glory in my soul

Make love not war
This is how we do it
Make love not war
This is how we go
Make love not war
This is how we do it
Make love not war
This is how we flow
Make love not war

Our man had moved on
Said he was wild
Then our lady found
She was heavy with child


When she told her father
He said go seek him out
She found him six months later
Down town hangin' about

He said who's the daddy
She said you are the one
He said I am an alien
And quite soon I'll be gone

'Cos the land immigration
Want to get rid of me
There's no peace in my nation
I'm a war refugee

There's no peace in my nation
I'm a war refugee
There are people in uniform
Out to get me
There's no peace in my nation
There's nowhere I can hide
If you really do love me
Will you stay by my side?

I can groove on the dance floor
But my baby's quite clear
I don't know all the answers
But I'm trying to relate

Since I've been in exiled
I just don't know my fate
And a best-selling tabloid
Always reeling with hate

There's no peace in my nation
I'm a war refugee
I'm surrounded by war
But there's war inside me


"There's no peace in my nation
and I'm feeling downhearted
When the Beastie Boys get me
I'm told I'll be deported

S"So I need you to hold me tight
For tomorrow in court
And I need you fill yourself
with positive forces

 'Cos I wanna be wich' yu
And I wanna live
So I need you to give me
All the love you can give"

So the next day in court
She held him really tightly
Just fifteen minutes before
He went in the dock

So the next day in court
She held him really tightly
Just fifteen minutes before
He went in the dock

And her positive thoughts
Made her touch the almighty
And our brother shivered
From his toes to his locks

He turned into a victim
He turned into a loser
He turned into a pimp
And a real mister mean

But she kept holding on
And when those demon were gone
He turned into himself
Just a cool human being.

And the judge said you can go now
The judge set our man free
He was free to be
Indefinitely

And the judge said you can go now
And our joyous refugee
Just said "Thank you, judge,
and now I plan to raise a family"

So he became a citizen
Our angel became a wife
And they had what modern folks would call
A pretty happy life

They met on the dance floor
On the first of May
And the baby that they had
Grew up to be a club DJ

It was the first of May
A righteous holiday
(Well I have a sweet hope of glory in my soul)
It was the first of May
A righteous holiday
This was when the workers they
Celebrate fertility

(Well I have a sweet hope of glory in my soul)
It was the first of May
A righteous holiday
This was when the workers they
Celebrate fertility
(For I know I have and I feel I have
a sweet hope of glory in my soul
Well I have a sweet hope of glory in my soul
Well I have a sweet hope of glory in my soul
For I know I have and I feel I have
a sweet hope of glory in my soul)


 (Well I have a sweet hope of glory in my soul)
Make love not war
This is how we do it
(Well I have a sweet hope of glory in my soul)
Make love not war
this is how we go
(Well I know I have and I feel I have
A sweet hope of glory in my soul)
Make love not war
This is how we do it
Make love, not war,
This is how we go
Make love, not war
This is how we do it
Make love not war,
this is how we flow.