Home - Warsan Shire ( b;1/8/88)

The following powerful poem which brings home the stark reality of the horrifying decisions refugee parents must make, is from the Kenyan-born Somali poet Warsan Shire who emigrated to the United Kingdom at the age of one. She became London’s  first ever Young Poet Laureate, and became a voice for its marginalised people. Her verse forms the backbone of  queen of pop Beyoncé’s  recent album Lemonade.. 
I hope that  2017 will be a year of justice, a year of change, and that humanity keeps giving a warm welcome to all people depicted in the following poem. Let us not forget the many millions displaced, either as refugees, asylum seekers, migrants or internally displaced persons whose  daily existence is one of struggle. Remember no one chooses the country they are born in to and no one deserves to be persecuted because of it, especially if the country they happen to be born into has been torn apart and become unsafe to live in  because of war that is funded by our own governments.
As another year turns and the refugee crisis and this human tragedy continues unabated, let's keep commemorating the strength, courage and resilience of millions of refugees the world over.

Home

no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well

your neighbors running faster than you
breath bloody in their throats
the boy you went to school with
who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory
is holding a gun bigger than his body
you only leave home
when home won’t let you stay

no one leaves home unless home chases you
fire under feet
hot blood in your belly
it’s not something you ever thought of doing
until the blade burnt threats into
your neck
and even then you carried the anthem under
your breath
only tearing up your passport in an airport toilets
sobbing as each mouthful of paper
made it clear that you wouldn’t be going back

you have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land
no one burns their palms
under trains
beneath carriages
no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck
feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled
means something more than journey.
no one crawls under fences
no one wants to be beaten
pitied

no one chooses refugee camps
or strip searches where your
body is left aching
or prison,
because prison is safer
than a city of fire
and one prison guard
in the night
is better than a truckload
of men who look like your father
no one could take it
no one could stomach it
no one skin would be tough enough

the
go home blacks
refugees
dirty immigrants
asylum seekers
sucking our country dry
niggers with their hands out
they smell strange
savage
messed up their country and now they want
to mess ours up
how do the words
the dirty looks
roll off your backs
maybe because the blow is softer
than a limb torn off

or the words are more tender
than fourteen men between
your legs
or the insults are easier
to swallow
than rubble
than bone
than your child body
in pieces.
i want to go home,
but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home told you
to quicken your legs
leave your clothes behind
crawl through the desert
wade through the oceans
drown
save
be hunger
beg
forget pride
your survival is more important

no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying-
leave,
run away from me now
i dont know what i’ve become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. " - Albert Einstein (14/3/1879 -18/4/55)

"A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
- Albert Einstein

As 2016 draws to a close  I feel sadness at the passing of people I didn't know but who made my life brighter. And sadness too for people I didn't know whose awful and undeserved deaths made me question what world we're living in. No human should be bombed or drowned seeking safety.
Ultimately we are all an intrinsic part of this universe. We are all interconnected, and even though each of us separate individuals.We should appreciate the slender threads that hold us together.Through compassion we can share the ultimate and most meaningful embodiment of our emotional maturity. If we stop feeling for strangers we lose the energy to make the world better.
People were created to be loved. Things were created to be used. The reason the world is in chaos, is things are being loved and people are being used.
Happy New Year/flwyddyn newydd da

Cassetteboy remix the news: 2016 review special

Mashup artist Cassetteboy presents his take on one of the biggest news stories of the year, shining a humorous light on Brexit. The video lampoons a host of Conservative MPs – David Cameron, Boris Johnson, George Osborne, Michael Gove, Theresa May as well as Ukip’s Nigel Farage – all of whom played a major role in the EU referendum.

Careless Whispers

( For George, for anyone
an evening doodle. )


We pause, slip and flounder

worry about paradoxical situations

some  of us even  consider turning back

but it's far too late now

eternity's drunken power

keeps on  returning

to sanctify thirsty lips

liberate the throat

circle the pulse of reason

allow careless whispers to ripple

fill the earth with love 

until outstretched fingers

reach their limit

stumble into another  light

stretch out among the stars 

on dance floors of time

where the music never dies.

A Subliminal Christmas Tree

Dear Governments of the world... Your doing a shit fucking job and you should all be disbanded immediately. We are all fed  up of cleaning up your shit and in no other work place should incompetence be rewarded like you reward yourself. Now fuck off.

An injury to one is an injury to all.

Solidarity Greetings, happy holidays.

If we want it

Philosophy Football's 2016 Christmas message.

 

Eek A Mouse - Christmas A Come

Eek A Mouse - Christmas A Come - 12" / Greensleeves Most Wanted - 1981 / 2008 - Produced by: Linval Thompson - Backed by: Roots Radics - Mixed by: Scientist - At: Channel One (Kingston, JA)

The Tories simply have no shame. Hypocrite Theresa May has delivered a Christmas message calling for unity in the UK as the country prepares for Brexit. Invoking her upbringing in a vicarage, the Prime Minister also paid tribute to those with family who are working away from home over the festive period.https://www.facebook.com/notes/theresa-may/wherever-you-are-this-christmas-i-wish-you-joy-and-peace-in-this-season-of-celeb/1548015965215171
Yet the way this government currently treats working people is disgusting, and as for the poor, sick, disabled and unemployed, it's inhuman.Their chosen path of conscious cruelty needs to be stopped.I wish May and all Tory MPs the Christmas they deserve and the same care and compassion they have shown to the homeless, disabled and those living in poverty..
Meanwhile if you find yourself struggling over Christmas you can pick up the phone and speak to people who really care. Ring 116 123. It's free and open 24 hours a day. Alternatively email: jo@samaritans.org.
Wishing each and everyone of you who celebrate, a Merry Christmas/Nadolig Llawen, and a season of good will.  Heddwch/peace.

Make Apartheid history

Palestinians should have the same rights and freedoms as anyone else. But right now they don’t.I believe no one should have their rights denied or be treated differently because of their ethnicity or religion. But this is happening to the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli government right now.
Currently tens of thousands of Palestinian workers are forced to seek a living by working in Israel due to crippling unemployment in the West Bank, as the growth of an independent Palestinian economy has been stifled under the ongoing Israeli military occupation, according to rights groups.http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=774222
Israel’s flouting of international law, continued military occupation of Palestine, and systematic discrimination against Palestinians is unacceptable; I believe there can be a peaceful and just end to the decades of occupation and oppression, one that respects the rights and dignity of Palestinians and Israelis. But until this happens, we have a responsibility to stand up for Palestinian rights.Israel has carried out an unprecedented number of demolitions of Palestinian homes and structures in the West Bank this year, leaving entire families facing a cold and uncertain winter. In Gaza the blockade continues to stifle livelihoods and 60,000 remain homeless, still awaiting the reconstruction of homes destroyed in the 2014 attacks.Palestinians also continue to suffer the consequences of Syria’s civil war. Bombs, torture, the besieging of Yarmouk, and perilous migration routes to Europe have claimed over 3,400 Palestinian lives. The tens of thousands who have settled in Lebanon now share the same poverty and exclusion as the country’s existing Palestinian refugee population.Plus Israel  continued the ethnic cleansing of whole Palestinian communities in Jerusalem, the Naqab (Negev) and the Jordan Valley and continued its indiscriminate killing of Palestinians.No surprise then, that international support for the BDS movement is growing in parallel. Students and academics are creating Israeli-apartheid free zones on campuses; and the recent Hewlett Packard Boycott Week of Action saw over 125 actions targeted HP across the globe.
For more information about the success of the BDS movement in 2016, read this brilliant impact round-up https://bdsmovement.net/news/2016-bds-impact-round-up
It’s time to Make Apartheid History once and for all. And to dismantle the walls that maintain it
https://makeapartheidhistory.org/…/apartheid-wall-animation/'

Make Apartheid History
 

O Little town of Bethlehem

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and restless sleep, a missile glideth by
And over dark streets soundeth the mortar's deadly roar
While children weep in shallow sleep for friends who are no more 

How silently, how silently their hope has gone away
No laughter rings; no choir sings in shepherds' fields this day
The angels in the heavens are hushed in sad lament
Back in exile - the Holy Child - finds Herod won't relent

O Holy Child of Bethlehem, descend on us we pray
Your love bring down on David's town, drive fear and hate away
Awake the ire of nations, let justice be restored
Rebuild the peace in silent streets where once your love was born

 

Musical highlights of the year: 2016

Another surreal year, not popped to local record  shops as much as I've wanted too, due to partner and fathers illness, nevertheless, here are a few musical highlights  that have managed to pick me up throughout the last year. In no particular order.

1; Leonard Cohen  - You Want it darker

2;Radiohead - Moon shaped pool

3;Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree

4; David Bowie - Blackstar

5; Shirley Collins - lodestar

6;Cate le bon - Crab Day

7; Afro Celt Sound System  - The  Source

8;Yorkstone -Thorne - Khan- Everything Sacred

9; P J Harvey - Hope 6 Demolition Project

10;Rory McLeod and the Familiar Strangers - The Glee and the Spark

Renewal

( Happy Winter Solstice, seasons greetings.
heddwch/peace)

Tonight we surrender to silence
celebrate the joy and  essence of life,
the radical act of giving
fabrics of truth released,
fragile beauty lingering
revealing the depths of reason,
cushioning and protecting
in simple acts of believing. 

Mother nature we thank
for giving touch and eyes to see,
the wonder of every sound magnified
the safety of companionship,
as the breeze gently touches cheek
and shadows play hide and seek,
wide eyes cruising with intent
passing tideless waves of time, 
in touch with the flames
allows fingers to burn.

From sky above and adjoining stream
mystic rovers journey on,
touch the world with smiles
beyond despair and hours forlorn,
pour forth spirits of peace,sparks of reality
pass rivers, lakes and mountains,
offer gifts of  rejuvenation
carried on rainbow wings.

United in the ritual of believing
across the clouds we ride,
in the morning to rise again
reconstruct roots, supplement need, 
clasping hands in devotion
woven like tapestry a New Year sings,
love continues to be born
repetitive but so necessary,
contains all the infinite wonder we need
allows the touch of magic to haunt eternity.
.

So Long Lionel Blue ( 6/2/30 - 19/12/16)

So sad to hear hat Lionel Blue has passed away aged 86. He made people more open and less fearful of their sexuality. Taught us to ignore the haters, Lionel Blue, was the UK’s first openly gay rabbi who appeared on BBC Radio 4 for 30 years during the Today show’s Thought for the Day segment, died yesterday morning.
Lionel Blue was born in London's East End on 6 January 1930, the son of a master tailor of Russian descent.He was evacuated to a variety of places during the war and later went to grammar school in north London and then to Balliol College, Oxford, where he gained a degree in history.He abandoned an early interest in theology for communism after hearing horrific stories from fellow Jews who had fled Hitler's persecution.While at university, the realisation that he was homosexual drove him to a nervous breakdown, during which he tried to take his own life. He became attached to the idea of becoming an Anglican monk but rediscovered his own faith at a service in 1950.After much agonising , he decided to become a rabbi, promptinge his mother to remark hat she had spent all her time trying to ge him out of the ghetto and he was now jumping back in.
 Rabbi Lionel Blue was different, he was  not a proselytiser for his own religion, or even for religion in general, he talked about his doubts and failures with warmth, humanity and gentle, self-deprecating humour. He said, more than once, that his only aim when he broadcast, was to make life more bearable for people getting out of bed on a Monday morning and facing the everyday worries and problems of life, am glad that he for me managed to achieve this aim.Thank you Lionel Blue for sharing his humour, honesty and wisdom and his simple gentle home-spun faith who at last   managed to take the pompousness out of religious broadcasting.
The London synagoge Beit Klal Yisrael announced Blue’s death on Facebook yesterday:

 "It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Rabbi Lionel Blue OBE, who died in the early hours of this morning.

Lionel was a wonderful & inspirational man, who spoke with such wisdom and humour and whose words reached out far beyond the Jewish Community.He was a friend and mentor to many and his courage in coming out as gay in the 1970s paved the way for many other Jews, including many Rabbis.

As part of Rainbow Jews he was interviewed about his life, the interview and a transcript can be found at: http://www.rainbowjews.com/rabbi-lionel-blue-a-pioneer-and-legend/

We will not see his like again. May his memory be for a blessing."