Mental Health Awareness Week 2020

This week marks Mental Health Awareness Week (18-20 May 2020). MHAW, first started in 2020 and is hosted by the Mental Health Foundation annually,  Over the years it has become incredibly successful in raising awareness of the scale of mental illness amongst the population and removing the stigma  about talking about mental health and aims to support communities, families and individuals in driving change towards a mentally healthy society for all.

The event  raises awareness of particular issues by focusing on a different theme each year.

From depression, to anxiety, to eating disorders, one in four of us will experience a mental health problem each year. Many of us increasingly experiencing daily life as a battle. Emotionally, our heads are only just above water. Mental illness scares us and shames us. Those who suffer are often, like me, ashamed to speak of it. Those who are lucky enough to be free of mental illness are terrified of it. When it comes to mental illness, we still don't quite get how it all works. Our treatments, while sometimes effective, often are not. And the symptoms, involving a fundamental breakdown of our perceived reality, are existentially terrifying. There is something almost random about physical illness, in how it comes upon us , a physical illness can strike anyone – and that is almost comforting. Were mental illness to fall into that same category, then it too could strike any of us, without warning. And that is terrifying.
But more than simple fear, mental illness brings out a judgmental streak that would be unthinkably grotesque when applied to physical illness. Imagine telling someone with a broken leg to "snap out of it." Imagine that a death by cancer was accompanied by the same smug head shaking that so often greets death by suicide. Mental illness is so qualitatively different that we feel it permissible to be judgmental. We might even go so far as to blame the sufferer. Because of the  stigma involved  it often leaves us much sicker.
Mental ill health is a real and important thing in the exact same way as physical illness, trauma and inherited conditions. It is however to say that in a better organised world our lives would be less pressured into brokeness, despair and ill health. Our minds, like our limbs, break under stress. Our lives within the capitalist system are harmed by the system, often we medicate not to make ourselves well, but very often we medicate in order to continue to function in a broken society, and capitalist system where our only immediate  value is in how they exploit us. It should be noted  that many  people believe that our Governments policies are actually fuelling the current  mental health crisis. Budget cuts to mental health services combined with no genuine support are driving  many people to the edge. As a result many young people and adults are left isolated facing long waiting lists for mental health therapies and diagnostic assessments.
This is a MHAW with a difference , with many of us worried about coronavirus and how it will affect us and those we love, with experts saying the months spent under lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic could have a ‘devastating’ and long-lasting impact on our mental health. According to organisers Mental Health Foundation: ‘We think it could be the most important week we’ve hosted, not least because our own research shows that protecting our mental health is going to be central to us coping with and recovering from the coronavirus pandemic – with the psychological and social impacts likely to outlast the physical symptoms of the virus. ‘
The Covid-19 pandemic is the prime environment for anxiety  to rear its head, and it is no surprise that rates of depression, and anxiety have increased significantly. The crisis has turned up the volume on mental heaalth issues for so many people.The theme of Mental Health Awareness Week 2020 was intially set to be sleep. However, the focus of the event was changed by the Mental Health Foundation to kindness in response to the coronavirus pandemic on 9 April, with the organisation saying it would return to its original theme at a later time.

Mark Rowland, Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation, wrote on the event's website: "We have chosen kindness because of its singular ability to unlock our shared humanity. Kindness strengthens relationships, develops community and deepens solidarity.

"It is a cornerstone of our individual and collective mental health. Wisdom from every culture across history recognises that kindness is something that all human beings need to experience and practise to be fully alive."

One thing that we have seen all over the world is that kindness is prevailing in uncertain times. We have learnt that amid the fear, there is also community, support and hope. The added benefit of helping others is that it is good for our own mental health and wellbeing. It can help reduce stress and improve your emotional wellbeing.
Beyond ourselves, the Mental Health Foundation's report reveals how inequality is rising in our society and its harmful effects on our health.Life expectancy is falling for the poorest for the first time in 100 years. As child poverty rises, children and young people in the poorest parts of our country are two to three times more likely to experience poor mental health than those in the richest.
After the 2008 credit crunch, it was the most vulnerable in our communities who experienced the severest consequences of austerity, with devastating effects on their mental and physical health. This not the hallmark of a kind society.We must not make the same mistakes after this pandemic.
Poor mental health is very much part of everyone’s life. If it’s not ourselves directly affected then then it’s our friends, our family, or our work colleagues who suffer. So in this Mental Health Awareness week it feels important to say that we have a problem with mental health, and it’s serious.  Meanwhile, Mental Health UK recommends (among other things) starting each day of the week by sending an inspirational quote to someone to start their day. These are tough times, if your struggling with your mental health, remember you are not alone, reach out to loved ones for support. In the meantime also try be kind to one another, share our vulnerabilities, our struggles,  keep strong, take care and keep safe, the world is still full of hope, and what better way of  spreading fairness and making kindness matters, than after the current crisis ends, to continue to rage against injustice and a time that we must build a better society, a new system that gives us a healthy context in which individuals might thrive and our mental health can flourish, in a society where we are free from economic and social fear, and we can develop into our own best selves. Remember no act of kindness is ever wasted, solidarity and mutual aid are acts of kindness too, long may they give us strength. ,

"Be patient and tough, some day this pain, will be useful to you " - Ovid

 ' Not until we are lost, do we begin to understand ourselves .; - Henry David Thoreau 

Help the Palestinian Dabke Band to Survive and Grow !

 
Dabke (Arabic: دبكة‎ also spelled as Dabka or Debka) is a modern Levantine Arab folk circle dance of possible Canaanite or Phoenician origin.. When first created, the Dabke dance was practiced by people of the villages and towns of Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, and some Quasi-Bedouin tribes that were in nearby territories.
It has been reported that people in these regions built houses with tree branches and mud. Anytime the weather would change, the mud would crack and community or family members would come and patch it up by forming a line and joining hands, stomping the mud into place. In colder months, they would sing to stay warm. As roof building technology developed, this tradition was passed  as a work and dance song through generations as a reminder of the importance of family, community, and tradition. Dabke signifies aspirations, struggles, and history of the Palestinian people, making it one of the most important cultural forms of art in their culture. 
The dabke is a participatory dance in which people form a line that can be expanded as new dancers join the moving chorus. The movements of the line are led by a lawith, a dancer who leads and initiates changes in the line formation, and who is followed by a chorus. The dance involves movements up and down in space, and includes rhythmic stomping, clapping, and changes of pace. There are breaks created by individual dancers performing solos and the group response to them.
The dance has been celebrated for years and in recent times has more closely been tied to the Palestinian identity, especially within the context of social, political, and national aspirations.
It was performed at  the Great March of Return protests in Gaza, which were launched on March 30, 2018 to peacefully demand the right for Palestinian people to return to their homes in what is now Israel.Some of the dancers wore Keffiyeh scarves, inspired by the late Palestinian resistance leader Yasser Arafat, to protect themselves from tear gas shelling. The dabke, which was traditionally performed at joyous occasions like weddings and celebrations, has now become a symbol of Palestinian resistance .

 Dabke is just one way in which Palestinians have protested human rights violations while celebrating their equality and dignity. To use this dance as a form of not only protest through artistic expression is really significant in regards to fighting for what you believe in. The point of the dance is to tell a story. A certain narrative that will solidify Palestinian identity and experiences. A simple message of locking arms together, stomping to the ground, and singing or chanting in unison, can send a tsunami of feeling and empathy towards a certain cause. Although the purpose of dabke originated from just repairing the roof of a neighbor’s house, it has revolutionized into a symbol of love, life, solidarity, cooperation, steadfastness, and determination. It is a form of art through which Palestinians express joy and gratitude to each other, and also to their land. and struggle. It is a dance that tells the story of a striving but persistent and united community. 
 The Asayil Watan Band for Palestinian Hertage and the Palestinian dabke from Gaza , are a team of competent, motivated & committed people of all ages and genders , eager to deliver the Palestinian narrative. Their  aim is to unify two million Palestinian ; to reach out to the outside world and raise awareness about the Palestinian Cause — their cause, their struggles, pain, past, futures, and indeed their triumphs in the face of adversity.Here is a link to a video of them performing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=143&v=f25RPbaNy1Y&feature=emb_logo 

All members of this organisation are vehemently opposed to all forms of prejudice and racism and any form of discrimination on the basis of ability, gender persuasion, religion, race or skin colour.For members of the dance group, their art is also a form of resistance. It is a way for them to share stories and express their frustrations and emotions about the occupation in creative and non-violent ways.
Please consider helping them continue to talk about the Palestinian issue by preserving the Palestinian Dabke and spreading Palestinian heritage after their team headquarters were bombed by the occupation in Palestine. You can  take a look at their story and what is their goal now via the link below, it certainly inspires me.Stand up for Palestine culture. Cheers, solidarity.

https://gogetfunding.com/help-the-palestinian-dabke-band-to-survive-and-grow/

Marking the 72th Anniversary of the Nabka ( Day of Catastrophe)

Today, across the world, Palestinians will be marking Nakba Day, ( the Arabic word for catastrophe or cataclysm ) commemorating the events of 1948 that saw over 750,000 Palestinians forced to flee from their homes, and over 450 Palestinian towns and villages wiped off the map in which Zionist forces used a terror campaign to expel Palestinians from their land. The Nakba was a deliberate and systematic crime of ethnic cleansing,to make room for a racially supremacist settler-colony.
The date was chosen to follow immediately after the Gregorian calendar date of Israeli Independence Day – 14 May 1948 – although, since Israel uses the Hebrew calendar to mark time, the days rarely align. The two anniversaries might be observed weeks apart or coincide on the same day, as they did in 2005. This year Israeli Independence Day occurred on 28 April.
Nakba Day commemorations typically take the form of rallies and speeches in cities around Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, with Palestinian marchers commonly brandishing placards, flags and house keys, the latter symbols of the homes and still-deserted villages their families have not been allowed to return to, mourning their dispossession, expulsion and replacement, which continues unabated. Many still cling to the keys of their homes which they long to return to.
The rupture of 1948 and the ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the Nakba are central to both the Palestinian society of today and Palestinian social history and collective identity. Remember 72 years after the Nabka, Palestinians still have no state and no equality. Refugee camps still exist all over the world and a majority of Palestinians live in the diaspora. Against their will, the Nabka has divided the Palestinian people between Palestine and diaspora, between  Gaza and the West Bank, between those who hold a refugee identification card and who don't. 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. The Palestininian diaspora has since become the largest in the world.The injustice continues.
 Every Palestinian family is impacted by those events. Every Palestinian lives with the reality of the continuing Nakba, the unresolved injustice that leaves refugees trapped in an ongoing exile, that sees Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem living under siege and military occupation, and Palestinian citizens within the state of Israel treated as second class, subject to a barrage of discriminatory laws and policies. The catastrophes of the Nakba continue through ongoing land theft and expulsion. Israel’s regime of military occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid is more vicious than ever in grabbing as much  ancestral land as possible. We are also just weeks away from the likely threat of annexation, which would mean even more deeply entrenched apartheid, more home and village demolitions, and the further loss of Palestinian land, livelihoods, and connections.
We must refuse  to be a part of this plan and put pressure on governments, diplomats, and NGOs to use their power to stop annexation, we must also help build a stronger global movement.The message to the Palestinian people today and every day is this: “we have seen the injustice you suffer and you do not stand alone.”  
This year  amid the coronavirus pandemic, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has officially authorised digital activities to observe the anniversary, with many planning to join virtual reality tours and Zoom video chats.As  as part of the Week of Palestinian Struggle, various organizations and campaigns have urged Palestinians and supporters of Palestine to join a twitter storm today and use the hashtags #KeyToJustice and #NakbaDay, in order to focus on Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their original homes and lands throughout historic Palestine.
Tonight at 7pm UK time  their is  also a global rally  with an an amazing line up of speakers and performers where we will reaffirm our commitment to spread solidarity and to campaign for justice. If you have not registered then please do so. 
Don't worry though - you can still join  by watching the livestream on facebook if you are unable to get into the zoom rally room. The rally will be livestreamed on the facebook pages of all organising partners: Palestine Solidarity Campaign UK / Jewish Voice For Peace / BDS Movement / South African BDS Coalition
With the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people  still under unprecedented attack, we  must make our collective voice louder in calling for freedom, justice and equality for our Palestinian brothers and sisters.As they fight to halt annexation their struggle continues, with hope and meaningful solidarity  we must  continue to insist on the Palestinian peoples right to freedom, justice, equality and dignity and right to return. From the rivers to the sea one day they will be free.

The Death of James Connolly (5 June 1868 – 12 May 1916)

 

James Connolly was an Irish republican and socialist leader. He was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World  and founder of the Irish Socialist Republican Party. For a man so linked to Irish history, Connolly was actually  born in  the Cowgate Area of Edinburgh, Scotland. The area he lived in was  nicknamed ' Little Ireland' and was one of the city's slum areas. He subsequently spoke with a Scottish accent throughout his life. His parents  were originally from County Monaghan and their life in Edinburgh was hard. He left school for working life at the age of 11, but became one of  the leading revolutionary theorists of his day.
James Connolly joined the British Military at age 14 to escape his extreme poverty. Seven years later at the age of 21, Connolly left military life and eventually settled in Dublin in 1896. In 1903 Connolly emigrated to the United States, living for a brief period in Troy New York with a relative, and worked for an insurance firm as a salesman. But by 1905 he left Troy to persue his ideals of organizing a militant working class movement and soon joined the newly formed IWW ( Industrial Workers of the World ) as a member and full-time organizer.
Connolly came back  to Ireland at the invitation of a small socialist group. Here he soon made his mark as a talented organiser, speaker and writer. It was James Connolly above all who was responsible for the alignment between working class organisations and the goal of irish independence.Connolly wrote brilliantly on the necessity of socialism to the cause of Irish independence, as well as all manners of topics relevant to the world socialist movement. He believed it was the working class who could shake the foundations of the British empire, for the benefit of all the oppressed of the world.
James Connoly addressed meetings in north Wales, after which the celebrated Welsh socialist and local  Independent Labour Party leader Silyn Roberts recalled :
"Gyda Larkib ym 1911 y cyfarum ag ef ac y dysfgais ei edmygud a'i garu. Un o drysorau gwerthfawrocaf fy llufrgell yw copi o'i gyfrol Labour in Irish history, a roddwyd i mi ganddo a Larkin i gofio am eu hymweliad a Chymru".
 "I met him with Larkin in 1911, and learnt to admire him and love him. One of the greatest treasures in my library is a copu of his volume Labour in Irish history, which he and Larkin gabe me as a momento of their visit to Wales", With James Larkin, he was centrally involved in  the Dublin lock-out of 1913, that paralyzed commerce and transport for many weeks. During the general strike Connolly organized the Irish Citizen Army amongst striking workers, in a self defense response to wide spread beatings of striking workers by the Irish police and British military. The Irish Citizen Army became the nucleus of the Dublin Division of the Army of the Republic during the 1916 Easter Rebellion against British rule of Ireland.
With the outbreak of war, Connolly became increasingly committed to formenting an insurrection against British rule in Ireland; he had gradually changed from labour organiser and agitator into military commandant and theorist. In mid-January 1916 he reached agreement with the Irish Republican Brotherhood Military Council to co-operate in an insurrection the following Easter. He joined the Council, and on the day before the Rising its members appointed him vice-president of the Irish Republic and Commandant-General, Dublin Division, Irish Army.
Connolly proved himself to be the most effective and inspirational of the rebel leaders during the insurrection. On Easter Monday, 24th April, he led the Headquarters Battalion from Liberty Hall to the General Post Office and commanded military operations there throughout the week – supervising the construction of defences, determining and adjusting strategy, summoning reinforcements and deciding on the disposition of his forces. That only nine volunteers in the post office garrison died during the fighting is testimony to his talents. He himself took constant risks with his own safety but even after being severely wounded on 27th April, he remained, as Patrick Pearse said, "still the guiding brain of our resistance".
At noon on Saturday 29th April Connolly supported the majority view of the leaders that they should surrender as he 'could not bear to see his brave boys burnt to death'. His expectation was that the Risin's organisers would  be shot and the rest set free. Under military escort, Connolly was carried to the Red Cross Hospital at Dublin Castle where hours later he signed Pearse's surrender order on behalf f the Irish Citizen Army. He was court-martialled there, propped up in his bed, on 9th May. At  his trial he read the following brief hand -written statement which said :
 “Believing that the British Government has no right in Ireland, never had any right in Ireland, and never can have any right in Ireland, the presence, in any one generation of Irishmen, of even a respectable minority, ready to die to affirm that truth, makes the Government forever a usurpation and a crime against human progress. I personally thank God that I have lived to see the day when thousands of Irishmen and boys, and hundreds of women and girls, were ready to affirm that truth, and to attest to it with their lives if need be.”
As spring was turning to summer, a city still coming to terms with the death and destruction of the Easter Rising was being forced to accept yet more blood-letting. Despite his severe wounds, on 12 May 1916 he was transported by military ambulance to Kilmainham Gaol, carried to a prison courtyard on a stretcher, tied to a chair and executed by the British military by firing squad to the outrage of many people in Ireland and across the world. It certainly significantly contributed to the mood of bitterness in Ireland. His body (along with those of the other rebels) was put in a mass grave without a coffin. The executions of the rebels deeply angered the majority of the Irish population, most of whom had shown no support during the rebellion. It was Connolly's execution, however, that caused the most controversy. Historians have pointed to the manner of execution of Connolly and similar rebels, along with their actions, as being factors that caused public awareness of their desires and goals and gathered support for the movements that they had died fighting for. It was the death of their leaders, and particularly of Connolly, that sparked the flame of Irish republicanism across this island, launched a mass rebellion, and ultimately led to the creation of an Irish republic. Of all the executions carried out during the 1916 Easter Rising, none raised as much public anger then or since as the execution of James Connolly
Though considered by many historians to be an " Irish Nationalist ", Connolly did not believe in ignoring class divisions in the name of nationalism. That Ireland could not be free until the working class of Ireland was free.
In the aftermath of his death Kerry journalist Liam MacGabhann penned The Poem of James Connolly in 1933. MacGabhann, who was born on Valentia Island in 1908, wrote the stirring piece from the view of a soldier in the firing party ordered to shoot Connolly.
In 1916 a Welsh regiment on its way to the Western Front was diverted to Ireland as backup for troops trying to crush the rebellion in Dublin. MacGabhann heard a story about a young soldier, a son of a Welsh miner, who was part of that regiment and was included in the firing squad for Connollys execution and felt utter guilt and shame because of it.
In the aftermath of the ghastly deed this unnamed Welsh solider  tracked down Connolly’s widow and children to ask for their forgiveness. as she later recalled, he told Lily:
" I am a miner. My father was a miner, and my grandfather was a miner -they were both very busy in the tade union. How can I go back home? They would know about James Connolly even if I didn't. I haven't been  home onleave. I can't go home. I'd let something slip, and they'd know I'd killed James Connolly.Oh,why was I chosen tokill a man like that?"
Lily replied : James Connolly has already forgiven you. He realised yu were being forced, he realised you were only a working class boy".
MacGabhann took this anonymous Welsh soldier as the voice for his poem who reflects on his participation in the execution of Connolly with heavy regret.
 
The Poem of James Connolly -  Liam MacGabhann 

The man was all shot through that came today
 Into the barrack square;
 A soldier I – I am not proud to say
 We killed him there;
 They brought him from the prison hospital;
 To see him in that chair
 I thought his smile would far more quickly call
 A man to prayer.
 Maybe we cannot understand this thing
 That makes these rebels die;
 And yet all things love freedom – and the Spring
 Clear in the sky;
 I think I would not do this deed again
 For all that I hold by;
 Gaze down my rifle at his breast – but then
 A soldier I.
 They say that he was kindly – different too,
 Apart from all the rest;
 A lover of the poor; and all shot through,
 His wounds ill drest,
 He came before us, faced us like a man,
 He knew a deeper pain
 Than blows or bullets – ere the world began;
 Died he in vain?
 Ready – present; And he just smiling – God!
 I felt my rifle shake
 His wounds were opened out and round that chair
 Was one red lake;
 I swear his lips said ‘Fire!’ when all was still
 Before my rifle spat
 That cursed lead – and I was picked to kill
 A man like that!

Today, James Connolly is regarded as one of Ireland's greatest heroes. He was a revolutionary socialist and militant unionist who dedicated his life not just to the cause of Irish liberation, but also to international socialism. He inspired not only the republican and socialist tradition in Ireland but anti-colonial & anti-imperialist movements around the world. In the history of the international working class movement we should remember James Connolly as a hero and martyr who acted on his beliefs.
Today, a statue of James Connolly stands in pride of place at the centre of Dublin. A brass engraving of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic also sits at pride of place in the window of the General Post Office headquarters, where Connolly made his stand for the liberty of his nation and the working class during four fateful days in April 1916. .
I will end with  this final quote from him :-
"A revolution will only be achieved when the ordinary people of the world, us, the working class, get up off our knees and take back what is rightfully ours."

 Andy Irvine - Where is our James Connolly

Word of the day - Palpable

Palpable is a word often used to describe things that usually can't be handled, such as emotions or sensations. You probably wont see palpable being used to describe,  say an egg or a doorknob or a motorcycle. Palpable is usually reserved for situations in which something becomes invisible becomes so intense that it feels as though it has substance or weight. When the towers came down, the sense of sadness, it was palpable. Loneliness, longing and loss can be palpable too, and currently because of the coronavirus we are facing it has created a real  atmosphere of palpable fear and worry that is currently being felt globally. 
We feel that the world has changed , and it has. The loss of normalcy, the fear of economic toll, the loss of connection.This is hitting us all and we are all grieving. Collectively, we are simply  not used to this kind of collective grief in the air. Personally I feel a palpable rage at this present time.

Palpable 

adj:- capable of being perceived,
especially capable of being handled or touched or felt.

( of a feeling or atmosphere) so intense as to seem almost tangible.

" a barely palpable dust"

"felt sudden anger in a palpable wave."

" the air was warm and close - palpable as cotton"

"a palpable lie"

" Popular opinions, on subjects not palpable to sense, are often true , but seldom or never the whole truth " - John Stuart Mill

I personally have a palpable distrust for politicians, who  often release words of palpable nonsense. Take our Prime minister Boris Johnson for instance  who  publicly thanked Britain’s beloved National Health Service for successfully treating him for Covid-19 over a seven-day period in early April. “It’s hard to find words to express my debt,” the prime minister said, naming several nurses, and thanking two in particular for standing by his bedside for 48 hours when “things could’ve gone either way.”
Johnson’s speech, which he might have hoped would be lauded for its graciousness, served instead as a reminder that the NHS is a success despite him. When the first cases of Covid-19 in the U.K. were confirmed in late January, Johnson’s Conservative Party government claimed that it was prepared for any eventuality.
That turns out to have been a lie. The government’s failure to provide sufficient protective gear, which has so far contributed to the deaths of at least 114 health care workers in Britain, was  preventable. Moreover, two separate investigations have now revealed high-level attempts to cover it up.
Recently the  BBC’s Panorama showed that the British government’s pandemic stockpile lacked key equipment, such as gowns, visors, swabs, and body bags. The government was of course aware of this deficit and yet, even after the pandemic hit the country’s shores, U.K. leaders refused multiple opportunities to bulk-buy PPE. When the lack of supplies became obvious to the public, the government tried to hide the problem by inflating PPE numbers, counting one pair of gloves as two items of PPE.
Another investigation, by the Sunday Times, a decidedly right-leaning newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch that has previously swooned over Johnson, calling him a “rockstar,” showed just how casually the prime minister confronted the pandemic. Johnson had skipped five high-level emergency meetings to discuss the virus, the newspaper reported. He insisted, in a manner reminiscent of U.S. President Donald Trump, that briefing reports be as short as possible. He went on holiday to a country estate, refused to work weekends, and attended a fundraising ball.
After his thank-you speech, Johnson retired to Chequers, the lavish 16^th century, 1,500-acre manor house used by British prime ministers, where he was photographed strolling the grounds with his pregnant fiancée and their Jack Russell terrier. The world was in the grip of an unprecedented crisis, but the U.K. was without a leader.
Johnson’s NHS caregivers, meanwhile, returned to work immediately, and every day, reports stream in of front-line health workers like them who are forced to combat the highly contagious virus in clinical waste bags and plastic aprons. They were asking schools to donate science goggles. They were adapting snorkels as respirator masks. When UNISON, the U.K.’s largest public services union, opened a PPE alert hotline, it was flooded with calls from health care workers who talked about having to buy their own equipment.
Of the health care providers who have died so far, one, Abdul Mabud Chowdhury, a consultant urologist in London, had written a Facebook post appealing to Johnson to protect him and his co-workers. “I hope we are by default entitled to get this minimal support,” he wrote on March 18, five days before he was hospitalized. Johnson is responsible for his death, and for the death of every other health care worker in the country.
 Johnson also after recovering from Covid-19 and the birth of his son said  he "bitterly" regrets the Covid-19 crisis in care homes and expressed frustration about problems supplying personal protective equipment. He will  be making a statement on the route out of lockdown at 7pm conveniently following from the 75th anniversary of VE day. But quick fixes and crowd pleasing politics will not save us in an emergency. We should not forget that the Tories have been in government for ten years prior to the pandemic and had  consistently run down the NHS and the Public Health Service. They were willing to contemplate millions of deaths in order to achieve 'herd immunity' and their focus was more on Brexit than any wish to save lives.
The late great Aneurin Bevan once said that he could not get the hate for the Tories out of his heart and that he thought that they were lower than vermin, I am quite clear now as to why he held that view. The Tories initially opposed the establishment of the NHS and every time they have been in power  have sought to undermine it, in their recent current response to our needs they have given massive contracts to the likes of SERCO to provide public health services, a company renowned for failing at all other services provided to the public sector.
There is a palpable sense that people are increasingly hungry for new political approaches. We now have at least the time to pause and reflect upon the palpable sense of urgency in changing some fundamentals about our society. This crisis is a wake up call to us all. The virus has no respect for borders, and demonstrates fundamentally, that we live in an interconnected world, that we need nations to work together in times of crisis, and above all we need serious, sensible politicians of good intent at the helm. 
There will certainly be a palpable sense of relief when this crisis is over, hopefully united by a common purpose, newer approaches and new behaviors and  a  renewed sense of community that will hopefully not see us going back to our old ways, and when we eventually come out of this catastrophe , people must remember the shocking behaviour of Boris Johnson. As we eventually reconnect let us all  continue to feel the palpable waves of love,

Fear the Reaper

The days are getting longer now
For Mr death this means more business,
He respects no borders, or governmental orders
Religious faith or political affiliation,
Brings a dark plague on all our houses
Daily stalks, until  he makes that final call,
By the light of a barking dog
Never gets thrown off course,
The exterminating angel
Sits at the end of our beds,
Diligently slips through praying fingers
Cancels out all dreams and hopes,
Mercilessly zapping both the young and old
The meek and the mild, the quiet and bold,
The fierce ones, the angry and defiant
Free or in isolation, abandoned or in confinement,
No one goes gently, there are no happy endings
Will catch you, trap you and take you away,
The truth is, there's no escaping his power
One day we will take the fragile flight into light,
Nothing though is ever lost or completely erased
Haunting the world,we leave memories and shadows,
The world is like a raging sea, and we are all drowning
Seeds of grief always flowering, fertilising the earth.

http://pendemic.ie/fear-the-reaper-a-poem-by-dave-rendle/

Anniversary of Kent State University Massacre

On this day May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of unarmed anti-war protestors at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four students and wounding nine others peacefully protesting against  President Richard Nixon's bombing of  Cambodia as  part of the Vietnam War.
On April 30, 1970, President Richard Nixon gave a nationalised, televised address and said “attacks are being launched this week to clean out major sanctuaries on the Cambodian-Vietnam border.” The announcement came 10 days after Nixon announced the withdrawal of 150,000 troops from Vietnam, and controversially, the president made his decision without notifying his Secretary of State William Rogers or Defense Secretary Melvin Laird. .

The decision sparked unrest at college campuses nationally,  including Kent State, which had a small, militant chapter of Students for a Democratic Society.In Kent, there was a violent confrontation between protestors and local  police  on Friday, May 1. Bonfires were built downtown, bottles were thrown at police cars, and rocks were thrown through glass windows.
The mayor of Kent  Leroy Satrom "heard rumors of a radical plot, declared a state of emergency, and telephoned the governor in Columbus for assistance." Bars were closed, and those in the street were tear-gassed by riot police. On May 2, the mayor made the decision to call in the National Guard to help keep the peace after hearing about threats to local businesses and rumors of radical protestors trying to destroy the city. That evening, there was a large demonstration happening on campus, and the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) building was set on fire. Another demonstration on campus occurred on May 3, where tear gas was fired. As part of the protest, they buried a copy of the Constitution, a symbol of their outrage that Congress had never formally declared war on Vietnam or Cambodia.
 Though resentful of the heavy handedness used by law enforcement the night before, many Kent students assist with the downtowb cleanup. Some view Kent Mayor Leroy Satrom’s declaration of a state of emergency  exaggerated. With no way to dispel circulating rumours about radicals intent on destroying the town, all students are forced to obey a  day long curfew though plans are in motion for a second student protest that evening. With Nuxon calling them "Bums", the students show the world they deserve respect and cannot be silenced.

The new presence of 1,000 National Guard soldiers on campus is an unwelcome attempt at intimidation, as is Ohio Governor James A. Rhodes’s  inflammatary speech in which he declared that the protesters were "worse than the brown shirts and the communist element and also the night riders and the vigilantes .. the worst type of people that we harbor in America. I think that we're up against the strongest, well-trained, militant, revolutionary group that has ever assembled in America." The authorities purposely lumped  all student protestors together with radicals.

On Monday, May 4, 1970 feeling like Kent State had become a war zone, some 2,000 antagonized students gather to protest both the National Guard and Vietnam War, as well as Nixon’s Cambodia invasion. But with the guard in control of the campus, the university announced the rally was prohibited. The students gathered anyway, facing off across a hilly green against a phalanx of guard soldiers.
Initially peaceful, the rally quickly turns  violent and then deadly shortly after noon, when protestors, hit with tear gas, are set upon by 77 Guards marching at them with fixed bayonets. Twenty-eight of the Guards suddenly, with no warning, open fire into the crowd of innocent, unarmed students protesting against an  immoral, unjust  war. unleashing 60-70 rounds in 13 horrific seconds, leaving  4 students dead, and wounding  9 others . One individual  Dean Kahler, was shot in the back and left permanently paralyzed from the waist down. in what came to be known as the Kent State Massacre.

The victims were  Jeffrey Miller and Sandra Scheuer, both 20, and Allison Krause and William Schroeder, both 19.

John Paul Filo's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo below  of the incident is considered one of the historically most significant images of the era. It hauntingly shows Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling over the body of one of the victims, Jeffrey Miller.

.
The students shot on May 4, all white, became martyrs; most people have forgotten that less than two weeks later, Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green, two students in Missisippi  were killed by police officers in the wake of a false rumor about the death of a civil rights leader. And while Kent State stands out as an exception , National Guardsmen killing white college students ,  over the years, state authorities have killed far more African-American protesters than whites.

The Scranton Commission  in October 1970 found that “The indiscriminate firing of rifles into a crowd of students and the deaths that followed were unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable,"and that  the shootings at Kent State were unjustified,  and excessive as there had been no order to fire and the danger the Guardsmen faced did not call for lethal force. It was welcomed at the time but would not bring back the lives of the four murdered students , nor were these facts enough to convict the  Guardsmen. For the supporters of those murdered, this acquittal stifled justice.
The killings shocked the nation and  the incident had a great impact on the political atmosphere both in the U.S. and internationally, becomng a benchmark in American history, radicalizing the opposition to the military engagement in the Vietnam conflict. Following the event, about 8 million students took part in a national student  strike, closing down hundreds of universities and schools across the  United States. and within five days a protest of 100,000 in Washington DC which saw significant rioting forcing Nixon to flee the city to Camp David.  Nixon's speechwriter later said that "The mobs were smashing windows, slashing tires, dragging parked cars into intersections, even throwing bedsprings off overpasses into the traffic down below. This was the quote, student protest. That's not student protest, that’s civil war."  Back in Kent the state prosecuted 24 students and one member of staff although charges were eventually dropped.

The various protests drew to an end as President Richard Nixon, who served from 1969-1974, began to withdraw U.S. soldiers from North and South Vietnam. With the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1973, which basically ended U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, the protests drew to a formal close. Still, the Kent State Shootings continue to reverberate through U.S. society and culture.The anniversary of the shootings, is  a time to reflect on the willingness of the state to use force to crush dissent..The tragedy inspired Neil Young to write the  following epic social commentary "Ohio" for his band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

World Press Freedom Day 2020

 

Today World Press Freedom Day  provides an opportunity for people around the world to celebrate the fundamental human right to freedom of expression.  Every day, journalists around the world face the threat of intimidation, censorship, imprisonment and violence, including torture, for their efforts to report on human rights violations.
The press acts as a medium of communication between the government and the people. The free press has a huge responsibility of reporting the truth and shaping people's opinions. Hence to mark the importance of the press, World Press Freedom Day is celebrated every year.
World Press Freedom Day popularly known as World Press Day is one of the calendar events planned, organised and promoted by the United Nations, observed annually on May 3.
The day is celebrated to raise awareness regarding the importance of freedom of the press. The day is reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics.

"A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad." - Albert Camus

May 3 the World Press Freedom Day is a day of support for media and the reporters right to hold the powerful to account, It is also a day of remembrance for those journalists who lost their lives in the pursuit of a story. As per UNESCO, on May 3, national and local celebrations for World Press Freedom Day will take place around the world, which includes online debates and workshops.
As we all know that the entire world is going through COVID-19 pandemic, this year the theme of world press freedom day 2020 is Journalism without Fear or Favour. The UN Secretary-General António Guterres, in a statement, gave a message to the entire world, saying-

"As the [COVID-19] pandemic spreads, it has also given rise to a second pandemic of misinformation, from harmful health advice to wild conspiracy theories. The press provides the antidote: verified, scientific, fact-based news and analysis". -UN Secretary-General António Guterres

World Press Freedom Day was first proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in December 1993, following the recommendation of UNESCO's General Conference. Since then, 3 May, is celebrated as World Press Freedom Day.
World Press Freedom Day acts as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom. That the importance of a free press in a functioning and safe society and serves to commemorate the journalists who have lost their lives in support of free press. In a time when media coverage is prone to fear-mongering and sensationalism, taking the time to appreciate and seek out journalism with integrity has never been more important. Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right  as stated in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Apart from the theme of world press freedom day in 2020 Journalism without Fear or Favour, there are also certain sub-themes this year which include.

1. Safety of Women and Men Journalists and Media Workers

2.Independent and Professional Journalism free from Political and Commercial Influence

3. Gender Equality in All Aspect of the Media

The day May 3 also marks the anniversary of Windhoek Declaration.A statement of press freedom principles put together by African journalists in 1991 to promote an independent and pluralistic African press.
 Media Worldwide is facing crises on multiple fronts, exacerbated by the COVID19 pandemic. Reporters without Borders released its 2020 World Press Freedom Index on April 21st, noting that the Coronavirus is being used by authoritarian governments to implement “shock doctrine” measures that would be impossible in normal times.
The index shows a “clear correlation between suppression of media freedom in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, and a country’s ranking in the Index.” Of the 180 countries and territories in the index, Iran (ranked at 173) censored their Coronavirus outbreaks extensively. Iraq, at 162, punished Reuters for an article that questioned official pandemic figures, and Hungary (ranked at 89) has just passed a coercive Coronavirus Law.
The long-term risks of suppressing press freedoms have been exposed by the pandemic. As the death toll mounts amidst an economic crisis of unprecedented proportions, promoting transparent reporting is a global necessity. Yet, several countries stand accused of acting too late in warning the world about the timing and extent of the threat.
The World Press Freedom Index illustrates the oppression of journalists from North to South and a pandemic in its own right seems to have fomented.

There are currently 231 journalists imprisoned around the world, and since the start of the year, at least 10 have been murdered because of their activities as journalists.Iin Myanmar, Voice of Myanmar’s editor was arrested recently and charged with terrorism for interviewing a representative of the Arakan Army, a rebel group fighting for regional autonomy.
Even the president of the world’s most powerful democracy has described the press as “the enemy of the people.”
Ultimately, the freedom of the press can only be guaranteed by a coordinated global effort, public awareness and a focus on the long-term advantages of a more critical world.
 In the midst of the rising pandemic of misinformation - may today remind us of how vital press freedom is in ensuring that people have access to verified, fact-based, and unbiased info, both on or offline.

Also to mark World Press Freedom Day , the One Free Press coalition that  stands up for journalists under attack for pursuing the truth worldwide. 

 https://www.onefreepresscoalition.com/ 

has called for the immediate release of all imprisoned journalists amid increasing threats to press freedom worldwide during the coronavirus pandemic.

Each month, the coalition, which comprises prominent news organisations and publishers, brings to the public's attention the 10 "most urgent" cases of journalists whose freedoms are being suppressed or whose cases are seeking justice.

Throughout the years, the campaign has highlighted the plight of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist who was killed inside the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul in 2018, as well as Mahmoud Hussein, an Al Jazeera journalist who has been held without any formal charges in Egypt since December 2016.
At least half of the journalists on the latest list published on May 1 are currently behind bars and at heightened risk of exposure to the coronavirus.
Here is a link to the full list https://www.onefreepresscoalition.com/list

Finally on this occasion, I would once again like to draw attention to the case of Julian Assange, a journalist persecuted for doing his job, who has become a symbol of the right to information in the eyes of a growing international public opinion.
In April 2019, shortly after his arrest at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, the United States, seeking his extradition, announced 18 charges against him, including 17 related to espionage for which he would face up to 170 years in prison.
Attacking a journalist by equating his work with espionage is a real threat to press freedom. For if Assange is extradited, he will be convicted and with him the right of investigative journalists to publish freely.
Julian Assange’s health is currently very weakened as a result of the  deleterious effects of prolonged psychological torture on him: cognitive and neurological deficiencies, altered thought processes, permanent anxiety, agitation, lack of concentration and coordination, insomnia, accompanied by feelings of total arbitrariness, loss of control and powerlessness, despair with an acute risk of suicide.
However, on Monday 27 April 2020, supported by the prosecution because of the current health situation, the lawyers defending Julian Assange finally obtained from the Westminster Magistrates Court an adjournment of the second part of his previously announced extradition trial for 18 May. The parties will meet again on 4 May to agree on a new date, either in July or November.
This postponement is good news for the preparation of the defense, but it should not, however, be allowed to prolong Julian Assange’s imprisonment any further, since he has not committed or been prosecuted for any crime, if it had to be reminded again, and is therefore imprisoned in London only pending these proceedings, his life being more than ever at risk in the high-security prison of Belmarsh, which is hit by the covid-19 epidemic.This situation further stimulates the determination to have him released immediately.
On this World Press Freedom Day, lets express our  support for Julian Assange and join the call for his immediate release, because.one of the hallmarks of repression anywhere is a sustained attack on journalism.

 "Freedom of the Press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose." - George Orwell.

Remembering Afro Beat Legend Tony Oladipo Allen (12 August 1940 – 30 April 2020)

 

Remembering  pioneering Nigerian drumming legend  and composer Tony Oladipo Allen who has died in Paris, aged 79.The news was first broken by Sahara Reporters, though a cause of death is not yet publicly known. Early reports, since confirmed by his manager, Eric Trosset, said that Allen died suddenly in Paris on Thursday (April 30).
“We don’t know the exact cause of death,” Trosset said, adding that it was not linked to the coronavirus. “He was in great shape, it was quite sudden. I spoke to him at 1pm then two hours later he was sick and taken to Pompidou hospital, where he died.”
Born in Lagos in 1940, he taught himself how to play the drums at 18-years-old and learned his technique by listening to American jazz drummers Art Blakely and Max Roach. He developed his own unique style  and in the early 1960s he became a regular on the Lagos club circuit which was dominated by the West African highlife sound.

It was during this period he first met Fela Ransome Kuti, https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2017/10/fela-kuti-15-october-1938-2-august-1997_16.html who was developing a highlife band called the Koola Lobitos. By 1968/69 that band had evolved into Fela’s groundbreaking Afrika 70, led by Allen on drums with Lekan Animashaun on baritone saxophone and Tunde Williams on trumpet.

Fela and the Afrika 70 had developed a new sound called “Afrobeat” with strong jazz roots, African highlife based on the signature syncopated funk drumming Allen perfected over arguably Fela’s most prolific artistic period.Allen’s distinctive drumming sound can be heard on hits like “Colonial Mentality”, “Zombie” and “Gentleman” among others.

 Allen was able to play four different beats with each of his limbs, and his distinctive drum pattern is what made his music so unique. His work came to define the rhythmic foundations of Afrobeat as musical director of Africa '70, the band of Fela Kuti. Fela once said that "without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat." This statement has never been in doubt

But while this period was artistically fulfilling for both Fela and Allen, it was also one of much turmoil and upheaval as the increasingly political lyrics of many of these songs meant Fela and the band become a target of the military government of the day. Police raids at the band’s Lagos nightclub, The Shrine, became a regular, disruptive feature even as their hits grew in popularity.

Regarded as one of the greatest drummers of all time, Allen was able to play four different beats with each of his limbs, and his distinctive drum pattern is what made his music so unique. His work came to define the rhythmic foundations of Afrobeat as musical director of Africa '70, the band of Fela Kuti.  Allen in a blazing run would  go on to record 30 albums with Fela through the 1970s, while also leading his own records such as 1975's Jealousy, 1977's Progress and 1979's No Accommodation For ,that  revolutionized African music in the 1970s—and the music of other continents for decades to come.

Allen taught himself how to play the drums at 18-years-old and learned his technique by listening to American jazz drummers Art Blakely and Max Roach. Allen was able to play four different beats with each of his limbs, and his distinctive drum pattern is what makes his music so unique. Defined as a combination of West African musical style with American funk and jazz influences, Allen pioneered the Afrobeat genre. Additionally, many fellow musicians have paid their respects for Allen, as he was a significant influence on their music. Brian Eno described Allen as “perhaps the greatest drummer who has ever lived.” calling him “one of the great musicians of the 20th, ,and the 21st, actually.”
This trailblazing musician, also experimented with other musical styles, bringing his innovative flair to several projects in the latter half of his career. He was an artist who boasted unique versatility. He developed a hybrid sound known as "afrofunk" in his early post-Fela years, and later dabbled in electronica and dub. He went on to produce rock-inflected tracks with the likes of Damon Albarn and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Most recently, he collaborated with the late South African jazz legend Hugh Masekala on their joint album Rejoice. An album that captured Allen’s unusual integration of rhythms across the history of the African Diaspora—from pre-industrial villages to post-industrial studios, from Lagos dancehalls to New York jazz clubs.

No matter how far beyond Afrobeat he explored, Allen managed to put his one-of-a-kind musical stamp on every record he blessed with his drums.The artist's musical contribution is far-reaching. Allen's career spanned over six decades, throughout which he continued to deliver innovative productions, ensuring that his music will live well into the future. Following Fela Kuti's death in 1997, Tony Allen began to delve more and more into other genres of music, collaborating with groups and musicians of diverse musical influence. He had begun to delve into dub, electronica, and more, however his reputation as an Afrobeat pioneer still preceded him. A longtime fan of Afrobeat, in 2006 singer Damon Albarn enlisted Allen for his supergroup, The Good, the Bad & the Queen, also featuring Clash's Paul Simonon on the bass guitar. Together, the newly formed band released their self-titled debut album in 2007 and another in 2018. Allen's contribution added to the band's, polyrhythmic appeal, proving that Allen, even in his later years, was never scared to experiment.

 In 2008, Tony Allen, Damon Albarn and Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers came together to form yet another supergroup, named Rocket Juice and the Moon. They began working on their first project in the same year, however due to various other projects by the band members recording was repeatedly delayed. They ended up dropping their self-titled debut album in 2012, 18 tracks with Damon on guitar, keys, and vocals, Allen on drums, Flea on bass, and a host of guest musicians including Erykah Badu, Thundercat, Ghanaian rapper M.anifest, and Ghanaian rapper M3nsa. It's a mighty fine stew indeed.

In 2017, Allen released the EP A Tribute to Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. He paid homage to the groundbreaking American jazz drummer, who he named as one of his earliest musical influences. He delivered a more classic jazz performance in the style of his hero on the track "Moanin'—further highlighting his undeniable range.

 
At the time of writing, the cause of death is unknown. While tributes have been pouring in, Gorillaz have released ‘How Far?’ which came in collaboration with Allen and Skepta. “The track was written and recorded with Skepta in London just before lockdown and is being shared immediately as a tribute to the spirit of a great man, Tony Allen,” Gorillaz said in a statement.

Rest in peace Tony Allen , whose influence  will continue be  felt around the world, on every continent and in nearly every genre of popular music. Even in normal circumstances finding time to mourn can be difficult; and as we ride out this sombre melancholy we’re collectively in with COVID-19, moments of brevity and joy are more important than ever. Tony Allen’s music was joy packaged up and conveyed to us through his drumming. It’s warming to know that until the end, Allen was heavily invested in championing the next generation: “I never get satisfied and I’m still learning from others. The musical world is very spiritual, and I don’t think there’s an end to it. As musicians, it’s our mission to keep going.”

The Beginning of Bop - Jack Kerouac (March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969),

Jack Kerouac, wrote articles for the American magazine Escapade from  1959 until 1967. Commencing with the essay The Beginning of Bop in the April edition. Kerouac was inspired by and promoted jazz in his writing. He breathed jazz in prose and poetry. Allen Ginsberg called his writing  “spontaneous bop prosody.” The Beats wanted to take the attitudes and lifestyles of jazz greats, like John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker and Lester Young, and enshrine the ways of these “secret heroes” into a unique style of poetry and prose. This use of music became integral to the Beats, especially in the work of the two most recognized figures within the Beat Generation, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. For them jazz became the musical accompaniment to and embodiment of their lifestyle during the late 1940's and early 1950's; it  created a feeling in the Beats of a new reality, one that they strove to recreate in their writings.
Beginning with Kerouac's career-making second novel, On the Road, jazz became a vital element in his fictional milieu but, more important, the essential influence on his writing. Called upon to explain the sources of his dynamic prose style, Kerouac wrote an essay titled "Essentials of Spontaneous Prose," which made explicit his links to the jazz musicians he had been exposed to since his arrival in New York. He likened his creative process to "blowing (as per jazz musician) on the subject of image," and equated his use of "the vigorous dash separating rhetorical breathing" to a "jazz musician drawing breath between outblown phrases." His new mantra: "Tap from yourself the song of yourself, blow!—now!—your way is your only way." Kerouac's principles of spontaneous prose and its explicit links to the improvisatory ethos of jazz became the foundation of Beat Generation literary theory.
Both Kerouac and Ginsberg spent time in New York during the post-war 1940's, when the bop revolution was at its peak; to them bop signified a complete departure from the popular, commercialized music of the 1930's. Bop, with its emphasis on extended improvisation that its small-band format allowed, and largely owing to the virtuoso soloists at the time such as Parker and Gillespie, represented individuality, spontaneity, and emotional intensity that was "pure" in a way the commercial music of the 1930's and 1940's was not.
As Ann Charters wrote in Kerouac: A Biography he “identified more with musical geniuses like Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Gerry Mulligan and Thelonious Monk than he did with any established literary scene . . . Bop was to Kerouac a new art form that had broken through to eloquence. His own method of spontaneous composition was meant to do the same thing with words that he heard bop musicians doing with their instruments. When Miles Davis played, Kerouac heard his trumpet sounding long sentences like Marcel Proust.”
 The Beginning of Bop, is rated by many as very good writing, up with his best. it certainly reveals his astounding knowledge of the musical genre.In his essay Kerouac argues that the irreverence and ironic detachment of these pioneering African American musicians—their recognition of "the goof of life," as he put it—made them "not only misplaced in a white nation but mis-noticed for who they were."
Kerouac also once wrote , "It's not the words that count but the rush of what is said" He wrote with a language that picks at a reader's subconscious and resonates in bursts of images on the imagination. I feel Jazz does this to me too, in these unsettling times the spontaneous voice of Kerouac and the  pulsating rhythms of Jazz both bring much comfort, so here I present to you words that combine both, I hope that you enjoy.

The Beginning of Bop - Jack Kerouac 

     BOP BEGAN WITH JAZZ but one afternoon somewhere on a sidewalk maybe 1939, 1940 Dizzy Gillespie or Charlie Parker or Thelonious Monk was walking down past a men’s clothing store on 42nd street or south main in L.A. when from a loudspeaker they heard a wild and possible mistake in jazz that could have only been heard inside their own imaginary head, and that is a new art.Bop.The name derives from an accident, America was named after an Italian explorer not after an Indian king. Lionel Hampton had made a record called "Hey Ba Ba Re Bop" and everybody yelled it and it was when Lionel would jump in the audience and would wail the saxophone with sweat clasp jumping fools in the aisles while the drummer vastly booming and belaboring on the stage as the whole theater rocked. Sung by Helen Humes it was a popular record and sold many copies around 1945 or ‘46. First everyone looked around and then it happened- bop happened. The Bird flew in- minds went in- on the streets thousands of new type hep cats in red shirts and some goatees and strange queer looking cowboys from the west with boots and belts  and the girls began to disappear from the street-you no longer saw as in the 30’s the wrangler walking with his doll in the honkey tonk, now he was alone, rrebop, bop, came into being because the girls were leaving the guys and going off to be middle class models ,Dizzy or Charlie or Thelonious was walking down the street, heard a noise, a sound – half LesterYoung, half raw rainy fog, that has that chest shivering excitement of shack, or track, or empty lot; a sudden vast tiger head on the wood fence rainy no school Saturday morning dump yards – “Hey” and rushed off dancing.

    On the piano that night Thelonious introduced a wooden off key note to everybody’s warm up notes. Minton’s playhouse, evening starts, jam hours later, 10 pm, colored bar and hotel next door. One or two white visitors: some from Columbia, some from Nowhere-some from ships- some from Army Navy Airforce Marines- some from Europe-The  strange note makes the trumpeter of the band
lift an eyebrow. Dizzy is surprised for the first time that day. He puts the trumpet to lips and blows a wet blur-
  “Hee hee hah” laughs Charlie Parker, bending down to slap his ankle. He puts his alto to his mouth and says “Didn’t I tell you?”- with jazz of notes. . .Talking eloquent like great poets of foreign languages singing in foreign countries with lyres by seas and no one understands because the language isn’t alive in the land yet-.Bop is the language from America’s inevitable Africa. Going sounded like gong. Africa is the name of the flew in kick beat off to one side, the sudden squeak uninhibited that screams
muffled at any moment from dizzy Gillespie’s trumpet - do anything you want - drawing the tune  aside along another improvisation. .. . 

. . . . ..bridge with a reach out tear of claws,  why be subtle and false?

The band of 10 pm Minton’s swings into action. Bird Parker who is only 18 years old has a crew cut of Africa looks impossible has perfect eyes and composures of the king when suddenly you stop and look at him in the subway and you can’t believe that bop is here to stay- that it is real. And that negroes in America are just like us. We must look at them understanding the exact racial counterpart of what the man is- andfigure it with histories and lost kings of immemorial tribes and jungle and Fellaheen town and otherwise of the sad mutts sleeping on old porches and big eating bird woods. When just 90 years ago, old roost come running calling “Ma” through the fence, he had just deserted the confederate army and was running home for pone-- and flies on watermelon porches and educated judges in horn rimmed glasses reading the Amsterdam news.

       The  band realized the goof of life that had made them be not only be misplaced in the white nation but misnoticed for what they really were. And the goof they felt stirring and springing in their bellies suddenly Dizzy spats his lips tight drawn together and drives a high screeching fantastic clear note that has everybody in the joint look up - Bird, lips hanging dull to hear is turning slowly in a circle waiting for Dizz to swim through the tune in a tone complicated wave of his own grim like factories and atonal at any minute and the logic of the man, the sock in his belly is sweet
the rock zonga monga bang-In white creamed afternoons of blue, Bird had leaned back dreamily in eternity as Dizzy outlined to him the importance of becoming Mohammedans in order to give a solid basis of race to their ceremony.“Make that rug swing mother. When you say race, bow your head and close your eyes. And give them a religion no Uncle Tom Baptist. Make them wear as of skull caps of respectable minarets in actual New York picking hashi dates from their teeth- Give them new names with zonga sounds- Make it weird-
      Thelonious, he was so weird. He wandered the twilight streets of Harlem in winter with no hat on his hair, sweating, blowing fog- In his head he heard it all ringing. Often he heard whole choruses by Lester.There was a strange English kid hanging around Minton’s who would stumble along the sidewalk hearing Lester in his head too - hours of hundreds of developing choruses in regular beat all day so in the subway none could crash against inalterable choruses and implacable bars- he erected in minds foundation jazz.

     The tune they were playing was All the Things You Are. . .they slowed it down and dragged behind it a half tempo dinosaur proportions- changed the placing of the note in the middle of the harmony to an outer more precarious position where also, its sense of not belonging was enhanced by the general atonality produced with everyone exteriorizing the tunes harmony, the clonk of the millennial piano like anvils in Petrograd.-“Blow” said Dizz and Charlie Parker came in for a solo with a squeaky innocent cry. Monk punched, anguished, nub fingers crawling at the keyboard to tear up foundations and guts of jazz from the big masterbox to make Charlie Parker hear his cry and sigh- ,to jar the orchestra into vibrations- He stared down wild eyed at his keys like a matador at the bull’s head. Groan. Drunken figures shaded in the weaving background, tottering-the boys didn’t care. On cold corners, they stood three backs to one another facing all the winds, bent- lips don’t care - miserable, cold, and broke- waiting like witchdoctors- saying “Everything belongs to me because I am poor.”Like twelfth century monks high in winter belfries of the Gothic organ they wild eyed were listening to their own wild sound which was heralding in a new age of music that would eventually require symphonies, schools, centuries of technique, declines and falls of master ripe styles- the Dixieland of Louie Armstrong 16 and new Orleans and the big pop’s forest Jim in the white shirt wailing at a big scarred bass in raunchy nongry New Orleans on South Rampart Street famous for parades and old Perdido Street- horses steaming turds near breweries and saloons,-soon enough it would leap and fill the gay Twenties like champagne in a glass, pop!- And crawl up to the Thirties  with tired Rudy Vallees lamenting with Louie who had laughed in the Twenties Transoceanic Jazz, sick and tired early Ethel Mermans, and old beat bed springs creaking in that stormy weather blues when people would lay in bed all day and moaned and had it good- The world of the United States was tired of being poor and low and gloomy in a line. Swing erupted as the depression began to crack,it was the year marijuana was made illegal, 1937. Young teenagers took to the first restraint, the second, the third, some still wondered in hobo trains (lost boys of the Thirties numbered in the hundreds of thousands, Salvation Armies put up full houses every night and some were ten years old)- teenagers alienated from their parents who had suddenly returned to work and for good to get rid of that damn old mud of the river- and tear the vine off the porch- and paint the porch white- cut the trees down - castrate the hedges- burn the leaves- build a wire fence- get up an antennae-,

listen- the alienated teenager in the 20th century finally ripe, gone wild, modern to be rich
and prosperous, no more just around the corner- became the hep cat, the jitterbug and smoked the new law weed.World War 11 gave everybody two pats of butter in the morning on a service tray, including your sister. Up from tired degrading swing, wondering what had happened between 1937 and 1945 and because the army had worked it, canned it, played it to the boys in north Africa, enraged it in the piccadilly bars and the Andrew Sisters put the corn in the can- swing with its heroes died- and Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonious Monk who were hustled through the chow lines-came back remembering old goofs- and tried it again- Zop! Dizzy screamed,Charlie squealed,

Monk crashed, the drummer kicked ,dropped a bomb- the bass question mark plunked- and off they whaled on Salt Peanuts jumping like mad monkeys in the grey new air. “Hey Porkpie, Porkpie, Hey Porkpie!
      "Skidilibree-la-bee you,-oo.-e bop she bam, ske too ria- Parasakiliaoolza - menooorriastibatiolyait-oon ya koo." They came to their own they jumped they had jazz and took it in their hands and saw its histories, vicissitudes, and developments and turned it to their weighty use and heavily carried it clanking like posts across the enormity of a new world philosophy and a new strange and crazy grace came over them , fell from the air free, they saw pity in the old heaven, hell in their hearts,Billy Holiday had rocks in her heart, Lester droopy pork pie had hung his horn and blew bop lazy ideas inside jazz that everybody was dreaming. (Miles Davis leaning against the piano fingering his trumpet with his cigarette hand working making raw iron sound like wood speaking in long sentences like Marcel Proust) -“Hey Jim," and the stud come swinging down the street and says he’s real bent and he is down and he has a twisted face, he works, he wails, he bops, he bangs, this man  who was sent stoned and stabbed is now down, bent and stretched- out-he is home at last, his music is here to stay, his  history has washed over us, his imperialistic kingdoms are coming.

ESCAPADE . APRIL 1959, VOL 111, # 9

As a companion piece here is Kerouac's ' History of Bop'