From 13 – 15 February 1945, RAF and US Air Force planes dropped around
2,400 tons of explosives and 1,500 tons of incendiary bombs on the
German city of Dresden. The 805 British and about 500 American bombers
inflicted destruction on an unimaginable scale on the
virtually-undefended, refugee-crammed city’s old town and inner suburbs.
The hundreds of thousands of high explosive and incendiary bombs
caused a firestorm that trapped and incinerated tens of thousands of
German civilians. Some German sources put the human cost at 100,000
lives.
The air strike was designed to bring a conclusive end to the Second World War, but the humanitarian catastrophe that resulted from the attack has continued to bring up ethical questions that are debated to this day.
The bombing of Dresden is sometimes given as an example of modern
‘total war’, meaning that the normal rules of war were not followed.
Targets in total war are not only military, but civilian and the types
of weapons used are not restricted.The fact that refugees fleeing the Soviet advance from the east
caused the population to swell means that the amount of casualties from
the bombing is unknown. Estimates put the number anywhere between 25,000
up to 135,000.
During the war American author Kurt Vonnegut was held in Dresden
alongside 159 other US soldiers. The soldiers were kept in a meat locker
during the bombing, its thick walls protecting them from the fires and
blasts. The horrors Vonnegut witnessed in the aftermath of the bombings
inspired him to write the 1969 anti-war novel ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’.
The late historian American Howard Zinn, who was himself a pilot in
the Second World War, cited the bombing of Dresden, along with that of
Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Hanoi, as an example of questionable
ethics in wars which target civilian casualties with aerial bombs. Here's a poem I've written:
After Dresden
Evil falls from all sides
Spits its deadly poison,
In Dresden everyone felt
Horror unimaginable,
No one left alive could escape
As people burned in flames,
Left a mark that forever stained
Releasing years of mental turmoil,
Burning phosphorus still today falls
From, Gaza, Iraq to Syria,
Civilian casualties lost forever
Vanished under cruel clouds of ideology
Skin and bone melting and disintergrating,
Rising today as spectral ghosts.
Palestininian protest icon Ahed Tamimi , who I have written about previously, is back in a military court today today , facing 10 years in prison, an individual that for many symbolizes the Palestinians' David vs Goliath struggle against military occupation, high profile entertainers, scholars, and civil rights icons have just recently signed a just released letter in support of her and other Palestinian children imprisoned by Israel.On behalf of those who should be able to live out their childhood without the unrelenting encroachment of illegal Israeli settlements, occupation and military courts where they face 99% prosecution rates.
The signatories include prominent actors Danny Glover, Rosario Dawson, Grey's Anatomy star Jesse Williams and the Practice's LisaGay Hamilton, musicians including Vic Mensa, Talib Kweli and Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello, civil rights leaders Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza ( xo-founders of Black Lives Matter), Angela Davis, Michelle Alexander, political commenttors Marc Lamont-Hill and Angela Rye, and Seattle Seahawks defensive lineman and super bowl champion Michael Bennett.
There are also daily Teitterstorms organised by the Facebook page Free the Tamimi Women, https://www.facebook.com/FreeTamimiWomen/ which one could support. I believe we should all support those who dare to stand up to repression. Take action stand up for Ahed now.
Tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release her without delay.
Noam Chomsky , world reknowned political analyst explainsthe standard technigue of privatisation.
"That's the standard technique of privatisation, defund, make sure things don't work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital."
Currently the NHS is being given away and the cost of rail travel soars, part of a meticulously planned ideological assault on the fabric of British society under Tory rule. who want to defund, demoralise , then privatise.The end result being that the wealth of our nation is left in the hands of a few , this is not a good thing. Lets not mistake it, the government is focussed on privatising public sector entities, managing them with a view not to revive them, but to prepare a case for their privatisation. Policies designed to extract wealth from the poor and weak at the bottom and transfer it to the already fat cats at the top of the rotten heap.
Lets hope there is a return soon to days when people mattered more than profits. If this makes you angry reshare and continue to fight against it, we must take back control of all our essential services..
Before we make progress
Take some time to breathe,
Offer no explanation
Keep searching for what your looking for,
Imagination beyond caged confinement
Allow your pens to release defiance.
.
During the toughest of times , band together
With songs of immediacy and strength .
Humanity's conscience arriving in one breath
We are the future, we have always been,
Already committed, carry on assignement
Find resilience, some reallignement.
Possibilities appear, accellerate towards us
At the rivers edge, leave behind your chains,
Westward, seaward, deep and far
Follow rising tides, keep clinging on
The power we have is what we can share
Onwards we blaze, side by side.
Be creative, innovative and autonomous
Do not be controlled, afraid , do what they tell you,
The difference from yesterday, is now we have no fear
Our expectations necessary, survival depends on not getting stranded,
Somethings in the air, and there's no going back
Be an example, active force for change.
Never be limited, in ability to make earth better place
Together strong, we can rearrange,
Doors keep opening, no longer shut in face
The world is ours for the taking
Glimmers of hope, carried with purest faith
Power given back to the people.
This week marks 100 years since (some) women won the vote. Let's reflect on the victories won. but remember politics still doesn't work for everyone yet.
Today we maybe able to cast our votes, lets not forget the bravery . tenacity and passion of those who used deeds as well as words to get their messages out. Some who made the ultimate sacrifice for their cause.
Those who succeeded in bringing global attention to the suffragettes cause, triggering a fierce wave of feminist resistance and activism to the feminist cause, with their place in history guaranteed in an almost mythic way. Lets mot forget their legacy to women today, remember their strength of feeling, of the acts of these brave women who militantly committed themselves so that women could be treated as full citizens economically and politically.
But the fight to make politics work for everyone goes on. Whilst supporting the concepts of equality and freedom. I believe the Suffragette movement unfotunately helped perpetuate the myth that making an 'X' on a piece of paper can affect real change. It leaves many with the idea that they can vote and assuage themselves of guilt for not participating in any further action with the conviction that they have done all they need to do.
In 2018, democracies dominant parties still represent the few, alligned with corporations, private financiers that exploit the resources of our nation, not for us, but for the interests of the few, which they truly represent and uphold. Are we really free? Is not democracy a simple illusion. Struggles outside parliament still ruthlessly suppressed, criticized or simply ignored by the mainstream media.
Where is the democracy that sees communities being torn apart and stigmatised. The marginalised, the poor and disadvantaged singled out to pay for the shortfalls of the capitalist system, aided and abetted by nearly all the parties operating within the Parliamentary structure.
We still have a system where not all votes count. Big decisions are taken by unaccountable politicians and shady corporate interests. Together lets reflect on the sacrifices our ancestors made, the legacy of the Suffragetes lives on though in the hearts and minds of people who continue to daily practice deeds not words, who participate in direct action, constantly calling out for more radical change, lets make sure we don't have to wait another 100 years for the democracy we want.
Do you have trouble sleeping?
Are you a dissafected prole?
Do you carry on dreaming
Find some routes that do not keep you afraid?
Is your mind on fire, with unspoken thought?
On gentle breezes, can you find fantastical feeling?
Does your mind drift across oceans, react to understanding?
Do you watch silently, glancing now and then?
Can you hear the thundering noise of change in distance?
Can you make a difference, sustain your brothers and sisters?
Are you engrossed in a world of your own?
Living day by day, running free on wild emotion?
Away from the depths of solitude's thought,
Rising aloft in the sun's rays, are you caught?
Follow transient patterns, for the mind to beseech?
Find dimensions of meaning, in birth, life and death?
Listen to the crackling of breaking twigs
Birds nesting on branches of liqoirice,
Can you hear them, can you see them?
Open your eyes and gaze at our beautiful world
Carry hope, to live, to open eyes?
Think about others struggling to survive
Through poverty sickness and destruction?
If you answered yes, at least you are alive
Remember there are many like us,
Together we are not alone
Each one of us an island,
Engulfed by individual feeling
Until we blaze like meteors in the deep blue sky.
For anyone wondering why our NHS does not have enough money and can't see whu subcontracting out to private companies is bad read this from one hospital manager. This is not a joke, a sick one though maybe. But this is why Hunt and his cronies are so in favour of privatisation of our beloved NHS, driven not only ideologically but also by corruption.A simple fact is that too often NHS buters have't got a clue if they are overpayig because private firms are doig all they can do to keep their prices secret.
"Two examples of what happens with Carillion sub-contracts in Hospitals which landed on my lap this week. Firstly, in one hospital the contractor for the lighting are the onlt peope allowed to change lightbulbs.(This is not the start of a joke) The cost charged to the hospital for changing the lightbulb was £70 . Seventy pounds to change a lightbulb! The cost of a lightbulb is no more than £5 and the time it takes is abot 5 minutes so if the employee is being paid £10 an hourthen the labour charge is 80p. That means the cost of this is £5.80. What is the other £4.20 being paid for, In another example thehandwash dspensers installed on wards are already sited by a contractor. Some wards may have 70 such dispensers as infection spread infection is very important. The only people in this case allowed to replenish this handwash are the contractors, It would take less than an hour to replenish every dispenser on a ward and the handwash costs around a pound so £10 and £70 for the sanitiser £80 in total. The contractor invoices £20 for the dispenser. That is a total of £1400 . Where does the £1330 go? These are hust two clear examples for people who belive outsourcing saves money."
Is it any wonder that ore than half of NHS hospitals are now in deficit and in potential of going bust, as the government continues to starve the NHS of the reources it so desperately needs. If you wanted to find ways to bleed the NHS dry I couldn't think of more better examples than this. How is it that a private compay can flecce the NHS to this extent and still manage to sguander billions of pounds ?. I thought inefficency was a public sector failng, rght? If you can support the emergency NHS demo on Saturday 3 February. Remember too that not only in England has the NHS been cut to the bone bcause if Tory cutbacks and the inefficiency and creepng effects of prvatisation ilustrated above, funding here in Wales has been cut too. We are all n this together. People not proft.
Controversial Government Minister Esther McVey, a pampered posh girl who bummed around in her dads company before launching a less than sucessful television career, an individual disliked by many across Mersyside and the country because of her controversial stint as Minister for Disabled people, and for being a key advocate in launching the hated ' Bedroom Tax', which resulted in many vulnerable people losing their homes, has been revealed to be an advisor to the charity The Samaritans. Between 2012 and 2013, as minister for disabled people and later employment ministerMcVey was famed for defending the indefensible saying it was "right " that people were having to use food banks and claiming that benefit sanctions "teach " jobseekers to take looking for work seriously, going as far as comparing unemployed people to naughty schoolchildren being punished by a teacher, despite the death and destitition that sanctions have since caused.
This is more than mere soundbites. From giving misleading information about bedroom tax's impact on disabled people to her decision to close the Independent Living Fund, McVey appeared to relish removing disability support, with campaigners accusing her of distorting the facts in order to help make that a reality.
.https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/mcvey-uses-misleading-dla-stats-to-stoke-up-antagonism/
Even worse, she was central in helping the rightwing press stoke up suspicion towards disabled people on benefits, most platantly as David Cameron's government began to abolish disability living allowance (DLA) and replace it with personal independence payments (PIP). long has McVey made it her mission to punish the most vulnerable in our society. That PIP is now wrongly withdrawing benefits from severely ill and disabled people, with 65% of decisions overturned on appeal https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/record-numbers-disabled-people-win-11171811
makes this all the more sickening.
The people of Wirral West though wisely rejected her in 2015, when whe was Minister for Work after her government failed to act on zero hours contracts, and after making life imeasurably harder for people with disabilities, and overseeing cuts to family income that will see see child poverty grow over 400,000 over the next few years.
In fact McVey has made so many decisions which have had appalling impacts on the most vulnerable in our society there's no room to list them all here, but a good summary can be found here from the Disability News Service ; https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/backlash-over-terrible-insult-of-mcveys-dwp-appointment/ All this has made her one of the most despised of Tory MPs. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has described her as a "Stain on humanity".Petitions have been set up calling for her to be sacked.https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sack-esther-mcvey
So it is truly shocking to hear that when asked on twitter the official Samaritan's twitter account revealed McVey to be a member of its advisory board. https://twitter.com/samaritans/status/958042602292604928
The charity's website also shows her to be one of 12 members of the board
.https://www.samaritans.org/about-us/our-organisation/structure-and-governance/our-trustees/our-advisory-board
The Samaritans does some amazing work in very difficult circumstances, which have been made far worse by the decisions of the Tory government. So it truly is not surprising, that news of McVey's role for the charity has been greeted with shock and anger by many, considering her past record in dealing with vulnerable people and bringing misery to millions of benefit claimants. One twitter user commented " So vulnerable people may telephone Samaritans helpline talking about ending their life due to DWP sanctions and you have the minister/Sec of State responsible for the sanctions on your board?! It would be the ultimate irony that peoples sucidal thoughts were driven by one of the Samaritan's own advisors.
It's time the Samaritans have a rethink, because allowing McVey to act as an advisor in this way is a terrible tnsult to every sick and disabled person across the land, because her department and the government she represents are guilty of causing distress and emotional pain, because of the impact of welfare reforms that has impacted on thousands of disabled people and those of us in mental distress, If the Samaritans have any decency, and want to maintain their repuation, they should dissassociate themselves from McVey immediately.
16 year old Palestinian girl Ahed Tamimi born under occupation https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/free-ahed-al-tamimi-and-palestinian.html who has been called the Rosa Parks of Palestine, on December 19, 2017 was taken in the dead of night by Israeli soldiers. She was arrested after a video that her mother, Narimam, took went viral, showing an alteration with soldiers trying to eter their house. The incident took place on the same day that Ahed's cousin, 15 year old Mohammad Taimi, was hit in the head at close range by a rubber bullet fired by an Israeli soldier, His family told Amnesty International that he required surgery that involved the removal of part of his left skull.
Ahed is a high school student preparing for college. As a young girl , Ahed rose to headlines for her bravery to confront the Israeli soldiers who enter her village on a regular basis.The Tamimis are well known in their village of Nabih Salleh,( which is 20 kilometres from Ramallah) for their weekly nonviolent protests against Israeli occupation and apartheid. This village is also famous for women's leadership in resistance to their occupation.Since 2009, the residents, from children to the aged, have marched every Friday from the entrance of their village to a military barrier.They are protesting against attacks from settlers. from the nearby village of Halamish against the settlments continuing expansion on privately owned Palestinian land, and against the settler's take-over of the village spring. The Israeli army has countered these marches, which are often accompanied by protestors throwing stones against the highly armed fores of occupation, who carry ter gas, rubber coated steel bullets, and also live ammunition.
Now Ahed is currently facing up to 14 years in prison. Israel refuses to release Ahed pending trial."The court said that because she is so dangerous there is no possibility of bail," said her lawyer,
Gaby Lasky. Dangerous because she refused to accept the suffering and repression by the Israeli State. Court proceedings against her will begin on Janury 31, the day of her 17th birthday. Rather than celebrating with family and friends, eating cake. She will sleep that night in a cold prison cell of 1x2 metres, with no windows, comfort or proper bedding. She has been placed with Israeli adults rather than fellow Palestinians and children, specifically so that she will be all the more abused, harassed and frightened by those around her, who wish her great harm. Lets show some love for this brave girl. We cannot let the spotlight fade.
The continued visbility of her case puts pressure on the Israeli authorities to ensure a fair trial, without such visibility the chances of a fair trial are virtually nil.The military court she will be facing though is not a court of justice in the regular sense, but an organ of the occupation, in which both the judge and the prosecution will be wearing the same uniform , and are part of the same system, whereby the defense is not.
Ahed's case also sheds light on the hundreds of other Palestinian children held in Israeli detention centres in direct violation of international law.She is one of 350 children currently imprisoned by Israel. Israel remains the only country that prosecutes children in military courts. Ill-treatment of Palestinian child detainess is widespread, systematic and institionalzed throughout the Israel military detention system. Three out of four Palestinian children experience some form of physical violence following arrest. Children like Ahed do not receive fair trial guarantees, such as having an attorney present during interrogation, and are prosecuted in Israeli military courts that have a 99 percent conviction rate.
Keep up the pressure and offer some solidarity, write her a letter- Ahed Tamimi, Ha Sharon Prison, Ben Yehuda, PO Box 740 330 Israel. Join the global call to action and events taking place around the world to mark Ahed's 17th birthday on 31January while she is held behind Israeli bars. Around the world, actions and demonstrations have highlighted Ahed's courage and commitment and that of of thousands of fellow Palestinian strugglers. 26-30 January was announced as global days of action for Ahed'd freedom and people of the world to highlight Ahed's birthday in order to demand her release. Also if you have not joined over one million people asking for her freedom, please add your name to the following petitions, lend your voice against this injustice. Share and tell your friends.
" We demand the release of Ahed and all Palestinian children wrongly held in military prisons.
The international community must put an end to the detention and ill-treatment of children in these prisons. Enough is enough.
To Ahed and all the children in Israeli military jails. We stand by your side, and are holding ou in our hearts. We will not give up until you are free. You are not alone."
Yn fy nychymyg
dwi'n eistedd ar draeth Popit
brynhawn dydd Sul yn edrych ar y mor.
Dwr
Mae pob bywyd yn dibynnu arno fe
ond dyn syn ei hawlio fe iddo fe ei hunan.
Pwy syn meddu ar y glaw?
Neu'r ddaer ble mae'n cwympo? H2 0 Ynddon ni i gyd Os bydd y dwr yn diffannu beth fydd yn digwydd i'r byd ? beth fydd yn digwydd i bethau sy'n dibynnu arno fe? Ac dwi'n rhyfeddu ar sawl o ddwr diferyn o ddwr Sy mewn cawod o law. wrth grwydro fy nghartref. Pwy sy'n meddu ar y glaw? loose translation In my imagination I'm sitting on Poppit beach Sunday afternoon looking at the sea. Water all life depends on it but man claims it for themselves. Who possesses the rain? Or the earth where it lands? H2O belongs to all If water dissapears what will happen to the world? what will happen to those who depend on it? I wonder about every drop of water every shower of rain while walking home. Who claims the rain?
Mark E Smith the inimitable poet and frontman of seminal cult post punk band the Fall , has died aged 60 after an extended period of ill health. Out of all the bands that emerged from mid-70's punk rock the Fall I have always continued to follow.
He formed the Fall after seeing the Sex Pistols at their famous concert at the lesser Free Trade Hall, in June 1976, He assembled the Fall in his home town of Prestwich, citing not only raw energy of the Pistols as influences but also krautrock, art rock ,the Velvet Underground , Captain Beefheart , Smith also had a fondness for rockabilly and garage rock.
Smith would be the constant mainstay of the band for more than 40 years, that would see constant lineup changes, as his fellow band members fell by the wayside, often not voluntarily. Throughout the groups tenure, Smith performed with a total of 66 band members.He was known as someone difficult to work with, because of his notoriously confrontational attitude,cantakerous, tyrannical personality, acidic tone and deadpan black humour, which was often fueled by copious amounts of alcohol.Not one who cared a fig about commercial success, the Fall still managed to release a total of 31 studio albums and 32 live albums, each one for me has a uniqueness and charm about them.His work simply defied categorisation, combining elements of satire, social commentary and sheer cunning wordplay that continue to dazzle.
To me he truly was a legend. Smith was born in the north of Manchester, Broughton, Salford, England in 1957 to a working class family, his dad was a plumber. He passed his 11-plus and went to Stand Grammar school, but quit at 16 and took a job as a shipping clerk on Salford docks. At night , he took on a A-level class in literature and numbered Kurt Vonnegut, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, HP Lovecraft, Phillip K Dick, JG Ballard, Arthur Machen , George Orwell among his favourite authors. Indeed his band was named after Albert Camus novel ' La Chute.' He took an interest in politics, and after a spell as a Labour supporter, went even further left and joined the SWP (The Socialist Workers Party) This did not seem to stop him from sprouting from time rather conservative and illiberal views.
An outsider, and even though not commercially succesful, his band still band still managed to score high in the independent charts with such songs as 'Totally Wired' 'How I managed to write Elastic Man ' 'kicker conspiracy' and a wonderful cover of 60's classic ' There's a ghost in my house.''
The extensive range of albums released under the fall moniker , to numerous to mention, started in 1979 with ' Live at the Witch Trials' and ' Dragnet.' leading to 1982's ' Hex induction hour.' 1983's ' Perverted by language.' 1984's ' Bend Sinister' ,1988's ' I am kurious oranj' 94's ' Middle class revolt,' 99's ' The Marshall Suite.' 2006's ' Fall Heads Roll' 2008's ' Imperial Wax Solvent,' to last years ' New facts emerge.'
A central legendary figure in the Manchester music scene, he was a crucial lyricist who delivered each line with a last-call bluster punctuated with an oratorial certainty, surreal word play and the use of blistering social commentary, delivered in a deadpan style of talk-rap singing which was instantly identifiable. but much imitated , an influence on many. his bands tense, often abrasive sound would be a key inspiration to bands like Sonic Youth, Pavement, LCD Soundsystem, to my own country, Wales's very own Datblygu.
Pushing against those that described his work as ' stream of consciousness.' Smith once said "' I put a lot of hard sweat into them. I think about them. They have an inner logic to me, so I don'r really care who understands them or not." Aross lyrics he directed his ire at everything that rattled him from Nazis, British politicians, magazine editors, music critics to name a few.Like British poets across the ages , he seemed to understand from an early age that his lifes mission was to create a body of work that would outlive him.
"When I'm dead and gone." he uttered in an early song called "Psychic Dance Hall." my vibrations will live on, in vibes on vinyl through the years people will dance to my waves."
His career and that of his band would be forever associated with the DJ, the late John Peel , the Fall recorded an aming 24 radio sessions between 1978 and 2004.His first solo album ' The Post Nearly Man," appeared in 1998, and his second in 2002 ' Pander! Pander!Panzer! he also managed throughout his extensive career to find time to collaborate with many other musicians beyond the remits of the Fall.
Married three times, he first tied the knot in 1983, to Brix Sith who instantly became a band member. After their divorce he was then briefly married to Safron Prior , who had run the Fall's fan club, befoe meting Elena Poulou in 2000, who sunseguently became the Fall's keyboardist in 2002.
In 2005, BBC4 aired the documentary The Fall ; The Wonderful and Frightening World of Mark E Smith. Three years later, he published an autobiagraphy called ' Renegade; The Lives and Tales of Mark E Smith, written in collaboation with Austin Collins. Around this time I had the personal pleasure to meet him in Hay on Wye, and despite his reputation, he came across to me as a warm hearted kind, generous soul. In later years he would often perform in a wheelchair because of his ill health.
A true inspiration to me, such an iconic force, his music has been the soundtrack to my life since I first became aware of the Fall, when 13, in 1980, and though rather cliched to say this, there will never be another Mark E Smith , so sharp, clever, uncompromising . unique, a guiding light of stubborn fierce independence, and untouchably cool. Losing also Ursula Le Guin also this week , its been a hard week for me as I've lost two of my cultural heroes. R. I. P. Mark E Smith. Currently playing loudly in my home, long live the mighty Fall.
Pehaps best known for her book ' The Left Hand of Darkness' a science fiction novel published in 1969 set in the Hainish universe, Le Guin often used science fiction to transgress normalised conceptions of gender and sexuality.Not content to limit her incisive examinations of society to fiction and allegory, Le Guin spoke and wrote frequently about contemporary politics. She often described fantasy and fiction as a tool for social change, a way of imagining the world not as it but as it should be. Her criticisms in both fiction and beyond it , often focused on social inequality and the unsustainability of capitalism .
Her novel ' The Dispossessed' was a thought experiment on how an anarchist society would work. The novel begins with the journey of the physicist Shevek from the planet Anarres, which was settled by anarchists a century and a half previously, to the planet Urras, a carcature of our own world in the 1970's.
In alternating chapters, it tells the story of Shevek's life on Anarres and its discontents, leading up to his decision to leave, and his adventures on Urras and how grotesque a society based on power and profit seems in his eyes.
A truly mesmerising read, given us an idea of how a possible anarchist society could function and, more importantly, the moral foundations of such a society. Anarres is flawd and falls short of its ideas of individual freedom, mutual aid and voluntary coperation, but is still infinitely preferable to the money- hungry, power-hungry nation of Urreas.
In short my sort of Utopia. It is a society without government, laws, police, courts, corporations, money, salaries, profit, organised religion or private property. Its people speak an artificial language, a kind of benign Orwellian Newspeak, which lacks words for concepts such as 'debt or 'winner,'
Le Guin would write more than 20 novels, 100 short stories, seven essay collections and more than a dozen books of poetry. Despite many of her protaganists being men, she always considered herself a feminist, but was always confident in questioning societal conditioning and how it impacted the human perspective on gender and sexuality.
In 2010 at the age of 81 she arrived in the digital age and started a blog
It included everything from moving reflections on her cat to wry observations about coming to tems with her advancing age, " If I'm ninety and believe I'm forty five, I'm headed for a very bad time trying to get out of the bathtub."
On November 19, 2014, Le Guin was awarded the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American letters
This is one of literature's most prestigious honors, recognizing individuals who have made an exceptional impact on the United States' literary heritage. Most in science fiction would extend that to include an exceptional effect on the entire genre.
" We lIve in capitalism, its power seems inescapable - but then, so did the divine right of kings," she said. "any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings, resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words."
Ursula k.Le Guin Rest in Power you will be deeply missed, may you be reborn on Anarres. .
Here is the transcript of her talk:
Thank you Neil (Gaiman, who introduced her) , and to the givers of this beautiful award, my thanks from the heart. My family, my agent, editors, know that my being here is their doing as well as mine, and that the beautiful reward is theirs as much as mine. And I rejoice at accepting it for, and sharing it with, all the writers who were excluded from literature for so long, my fellow authors of fantasy and science fiction - writers of the imagination, who for the last 50 years watched the beautiful awards go to the so-called realists.
I think hard times are coming when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine some real grounds for hope. We will need writers who can remember freedom. Poets, visionaries, the realists of a larger reality.
Right now, I think we need writers who know the difference between the production of a market commodity and the practice of an art. Developing written material to suit sales strategies in order to maximize corporate profit and advertising revenue is not quite the same thing as responsible book publishing or authorship.[ad-lib response to audience: ] Thank you, brave applauders.
Yet I see sales departments given control over editorial. I see my own publishers in a silly panic of ignorance and greed, charging public libraries for an ebook six or seven times more than they charge customers. We just saw a profiteer try to punish a publisher for disobedience and writers threatened by corporate fatwa, and I see a lot of us - the producers who write the books, and make the books - accepting this. Letting commodity profiteers sell us like deodorant, and tell us what to publish and what to write.[ad-lib response to audience: ] Well, I love you too, darling.
Books, you know, they're not just commodities. The profit motive often is in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art - the art of words.
I have had a long career and a good one. In good company. Now here, at the end of it, I really don't want to watch American literature get sold down the river. We who live by writing and publishing want - and should demand - our fair share of the proceeds. But the name of our beautiful reward is not profit.
Hans Richter, painter, graphic artist was one of the original members of the Dada movement, he made this film in 1947, and it won the best original contribution to the progress of cinematography at the Biennale in Venice.
Richter's goal was to bring the avant -garde out of the museum and into the movie house and the end result in my opinion is utterly fantastic.It's more Surrealist than Dada and deals with the world of dreams. Joe, a young man down on his luck, as he wonders how to pay his rent, discovers he has the power to create dreams,("if you can look inside yourself, you can look inside anyone!") and sets up a business selling them to others.
The film is broken down into episodes, with collaborations from a varied cast including Man Ray, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Darius Mihaud, Alexander Calder, blues singer Josh White and notorious bisexual torch singer (and black widow suspect) Libby Holman.
The film itself turns playful, hypnotic, satirical, charming and nightmarish, but the musical backing, is simply amazing.
The film was produced by Kenneth MacPherson and Peggy Guggenheim.
They try to control us
the old enemy deep outside,
their words are dust
time to brush them away.
The first five years
are always the hardest a headline cries
rubbing salt into milky eyes.
Time to shake, the sleep away
and catch the fire by its throat,
as they feed us lies day after day
hiding our pain behind their laughter.
Sky is angry, wind comes down
launches its bullets, this should be enough,
we are not surrounded yet
we will not be trampled down,
we are still here unrestrained
this is our season too, our time of discontent.
Capitalism is not working
look at the crimes across the globe,
ideological theft for the few, not the many
yet they still make us pay for their greed,
with systematic theft and robbery out of control
don't go to them crawling back on your knees,
remember anger is our energy too
live with fierce passion, take back what's yours.
In the distance, high above
her silvery light is shed,
through the shadows of trees
gaps of branches all outspread,
golden moon keeps shining
releasing brilliant light,
far away from our artificial borders
stops the earth from spinning faster,
caressing the land with her powers
beyond the darkness of this land, never cowers,
like an old lover listens to our thoughts
faithful to the end, consumes our desires
lets honour and adore her guiding energy
a shimmering beauty touching our souls.
Never ever trust the Conservatives, they would eat us alive if they could. They are cowardly, and absolutely devoid of compassion. Used to think they were bad under Margaret Thatcher, but the latest lot seem even more ruthless and cruel.
When Theresa May first entered No 10, she promised to represent the vulnerable, and in her own words to " think not for the powerful, but you."But this has proved to be a lie as she and her fellow parasites continue to strip our country of its valuable assets, tearing peoples lives apart, this festering party delivering conscious cruelty to the downtrodden and underprivileged, delivering nastiness and unfairness to all in their paths. We cannot afford to remain apathetic to their actions or remain silent. I don't believe there is a cure to them, they simply have no moral compass, far worse than bloodsucking leeches. They are simply parasites of the worst order feeding merrily on their victims. A landmark study has linked Tory austerity to 120,000 deaths. responsible for callous economic murder https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/tory-austerity-deaths-study-report-people-die-social-care-government-policy-a8057306.html
They simply lack the capacity to care about the health of the nation, as they destroy our N H.S, they will continue to infect, suck on all the essential services and resources we depend on, . The only way we to deal with theses these parasites is to destroy them, because they will never stop until there is nothing left to feast on. We have to get rid of them, the Tories must be eradicated, as soon as possible, for the many not the few.
Libraries gave us power
Then work came and made us free
What price now for a shallow piece of dignity
We don't talk about love we only want to get drunk
And we are not allowed to spend
As we are told that this is the end
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
I wish I had a bottle
Right here in my pretty face to wear the scars
To show from where I came
We don't talk about love we only want to get drunk
And we are not allowed to spend
As we are told that this is the end
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
Originally created by the Manic Street Preachers, but personally such a beautiful version. The threat to public libraries is very real, keep defending, this blog would not have existed without them
Songwriters ;James Bradfield/ Sean Moore/ Nicholas Jones
Today I mark the occasion Simone de Beauvoirs birth. She was many things, an athiest, feminist, existentialist, philosopher, intellectual and political activist, born to Francois and George Bertrand de Beauvoir, her father encouraged her to be an avid reader from a young age. At 14, she had a crisis of faith and decided definitely that there was no God. On all accounts she was a precoucious, but intellectually gifted curious child, who would later come into conflict with her parents over their difference of beliefs. Educated at a convent school, she went on to study philosopy at the Sorbonne, seeking a life as a writer and teacher. In 1929. she took the aggregation exam in philosophy at the Ecole Normale de Sueriuiere, even though she was not a student there, and was placed second before Jean- Paul Sartre becoming the youngest philosopher teacher in France at the age of 21.She would begin a lifetime relationship with Jean Paul Sartre, though refusing to marry or set up house with him, instead oth took and even shared lovers over time, becoming famous Parisian intellectuals and part of the city's cafe culture. regularly meeting other great minds of the time.Together, she and Sartre would develop existentialism, a philosophy that takes freedom to be the highest value in a universe where God is dead and where human beings create their own values through their choices and actions, In the post war period, existentialism was the most challenging expression of radical, secular, philosophical humanism. She would teach philosophy and literature throughout the 1930's, but was dismissed during Word War 11 from her post by the Vichy government after the German army occupied Paris in 1940. Both she and Sartre would work for the French Resistance during the remainder of the war, but unable to teach, she soon launched her literary career. She went on to write many groundbreaking books that can be found today on many bookshelves across the world. She wrote her best known book The Second Sex, on the treatment of women throughout history, in 18 months at the age of 38 in 1949.It helped raise feminist consciousness but also stressed that women's liberation was liberation for men too, it was subsequently placed by the Vatican on their list of prohibited books. if that does not wet your appetite , am not sure what will. Her first philosophical essay called "Pyrrus and Cineas" 1944, asked such quetions as :" What are the criteria of ethical action? How can I distinguish ethical from unethical political projects? What are the principles of ethical relationships? Can violence ever be justified?" She would go onto write four volumes of autobiography. After the Second World War she travelled to the U.S, where she would meet and have an affair with the writer Nelson Algren, who is best known for his book ' The Man with the Golden Arm" The novel ' The Mandarins' . 1954, is based on her relationships with Algren and Sartre, and is a chronicle of the movement of post World War intellectualls from their 'mandarin' ( educated elite) status towards political engagement. It was in the 1970's that she would become an active member of the women's liberation movement in France. Her name was one of the 243 listed in a 1971 manifesto in a bid to legalise abortion in France, that featured famous women who claimed to have had a termination, before it came legal in 1974.An intellectual vigilante she used her pen as a weapon, breaking down gender stereotypes and challenged laws that prohibited women fom having control over their own bodies.Today more than ever it is vital to recognise that freedom can't be assumed. Some of the freedoms that de Beauvoir fought so hard for, have since come under threat. In 1986 her health, having sadly declined due to her heavy use of amphetimines and alcohol,, she died aged 78, and was buried next to Sartre in the Cimetiere du Montparnasse, next to Sartre. A life of many contradictions, but nevertheless a fascinating and inspiring woman whose life and work still has huge influence on many over the years. Her work stll provides us with a fascinating unique point of view, on what it it is to be human and how that still pertains to the struggle for political and spiritual unity. Ideas that still resonate with us today.Happy birthday Simone.
The concept of twin souls ( more popularly known as soulmates) is as old as civilisation itself, I was fortunate to find mine, my muse , at the time of starting this blog, back in 2009, Jane Elizabeth Husband, my dear beloved' the mighty furbster, who I am thinking of today, one year after her passing. She made my life and world so beautiful,and understood the true depths of love and kinship, that fortunately we shared together, who still shines brightly within my heart. The following poem is dedicated to her memory. She taught me a lot.
Heart and Soul
Sweet cords of memory
cancel out lines of disbelief,
move moments of regret
in the distance waves goodbye,
this gift of time, who released so much love
a voice so elegant and pure,
who filled up all the empty spaces
continues to be so dear and true,
carries on dancing in the night sky
a light that cannot darken,
no one will quite replace her
gleaming now in eternity,
flowing through every day given
giving no cause for regret,
running free deep within
never fades with slipping sun,
everytime I hear an accordian
in heart and soul, we are one.
The ten year Israeli-led blockade of Gaza , the narrow enclave that is home to nearly half of all Palestnians living under Israeli occupation, which has decimated the Gazan economy and Gaza's once strong furniture, garment and agricultural sectos have been all but destroyed after more than a decade of restrictions on exports, imports and movement. Gaza has been declared unlivable by the UN, with one of the highest unemployment rates in the world and 80 percent of people relying on humanitarian aid to survive.
This is a place where life has long been cruel, where refugees forced out of Israel by the Nabka and families who have lved in Gaza for generations have suffered under dire conditions for nearly 70 years. But in the last decade, it has become a site of stunning misery. Ten years ago this past June, Israel imposed a stringent land sea and ar blockade on Gaza which has restricted most movement to and from the strip and pushed the tiny territory to the brink of collapse. Conditions hae become so extreme that the United Nations has stated that by 2020 the Gaa Strip could become uninabitable
The crisis in Gaza is not just a humanitarian tragedy, it should be a moral outrage. This ongoing suffering must end.
The above visual was produced in collaboration with Oxfam, and builds on Visualising Palestine's extensive work to highlight the daily realities faced by Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.
View and download here ;-
A quick reminder of 2017's year of mayhem. Theresa May though remains a shambolic figure, her authority in shreds. and her lack of leadership and cohesion, and sheer incompetance is going I fear be a disaster for this country. as millions face poverty, criminally inflated rents, humiliating benefit cuts and welfare sanctions amounting to state sponsored starvation, 2018 is going to be just as painful as last year. She is the personifiation of this disunited kingdom. We need to see the back of the heartless Tories as soon as possible.
Words arrive from seas of dream
no one is illegal, no one is forgotten
with revision division abandoned
creating new traditions to handle,
we have ruined, but we can build again
taking leap forwards in faithful belief,
waiting and watching, keeping alert
creating justice and retribution,
burning free, coalescing with others
restoring paradise that no longer smothers,
beyond wars created by governments
with patience seek roads of contentment, beyond cruel apartheid walls of oppression
as the shadows play, let history books rewritten,
together we remain strong, don't give up the fight
steady and slow, darkness turned into light,
our eyes in summer,spring, autumn, winter
will glisten with rainbows and laughter,
hope returning with no ending
visions created by our human senses,
on elysian fields, no borders necessary
new gardens of eden created,
all our messages ring with love
as a brand new dawn reawakens.
blwyddyn newydd dda/ happy new year.. heddwch/peace. Cheers Ian Curtis
A Palestinian girl, Ahmed Al - Tamimi aged 16 years, from a well-known activist family who lives in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, who many Palestinians view as their hero, is currently wearing prison clothes, her only crime being is that she was born in Palestine and showed resistance to her oppressors, and called for Freedom, Peace, and ending the occupation and removing the apartheid wall. Her courage is unrivalled.
This brave girl has been participating against her oppressors ,standing up against injustices. She has been protesting the theft of land and water since 2012. She has had to endure personal sacrifice, having lost an uncle and cousin to the occupation. Her parents Nariman and Bassem Tamimi, have been arrested time and again.
A video posted on facebook last Friday shows Ahed and her mother blocking two Israeli soldiers from entering their home after occupation forces had shot her 14 year old cousin Mohammad in the face by a rubber bullet, and fired tear-gas canisters directly at their home, breaking several windows.
Two years ago a video featuring her went viral as she sought to protect her brother being taken away by a soldier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=485&v=mg1-_oIfjqc
On Tueday December 18th Ahed , was abducted from her home, during a pre-dawn raid carried out by Israeli Occupation Forces. At least 30 soldiers were involved in the raid and Ahed's arrest. During this raid, occupation forces assaulted various members of her family, including Ahed's 14 year old brother, and confiscated their cell phones and computers. Later in the day after learning that Ahed was being held at a police station near Jabaa village, her mother travelled there to be present for her daughters interrogation, only to be arrested by occupation forces on her arrival. An Israeli cour yesterday extended her detention.
Ahed is currently one of 211 Palestinian child prisoners in Israeli jails as of November 2017 http://www.addameer.org/statistics Israeli Occupation forces regularly abduct, arrest, and abuse Palestinian children and torture them while in custody.The arrest of Ahed is sadly not an isolated incident, but rather follows suit with Israel's policies and increased attacks on Palestinians since Donald Trump's symbolic assault on Palestinian sovereignty with his announcement on Jerusalem. As Palestinians continue to mobilize in light of this decision, it is imperative that the international community condemns all efforts by Israel to stifle Palestinian resistance. Israel's attempts to silence and install fear in Palestine youth , must be met with outrage, while extending full support to targeted Palestinians so they are not demoralized.
The United Nations has repeatedly called on Israel to withdraw from occupied Palestinian territory. accusing Israel of being guilty of policies and practices that constitute the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people, in violation of international law.
I stand against the imprisonment of Palestinians, especially children, believing that all occupied people have a right to resist their occupation. and therefore stand with Ahed and her family in this difficult time and salute their struggle of firm resistance against their illegal occupation
Please consider adding your name to the following petitions demanding Ahed and Palestinian children are released from Israeli prisons now. The international community must put an end to the ill-treatment of Palestinian children. Enough is enough. To Ahed and the children in Isreli jails. We stand by your side, and are holding you in our hearts. We wil not give up until you are free. You are not alone. I urge fellow people of conscience to demand freedom for Ahed and her fellow detained and jailed Palestinian children in occupation detention centers, interrogation centers and prisons. The resistance of the Palestinian people has never been quelled by arrests or repression, and it must be clear that we, around the world, continue to stand alongside the Palestinian peope as they defend Jerusalem and their entire land and people under attack. This includes standing with detained and jailed Palestinian prisoners in their struggle for themselves, their people, and their occupied homeland.
It is only a few days now untill the new year, but children are still being imprisoned in the modern age. Love and peace will never die, and the people of Palestine and the free world, salute you Ahed for the courage that you have shown.
Another surreal year, the story of my life, again not popped to record stores as much as i'd have wished, have spent some time trying to get over my partners bereavement. Getting there, though I doubt, I will ever quite fully recover from the loss. Despite this , here are some musical highlights from the last year that have managed to pick me up, in no particular order.Power to the music. I feel optimistic about 2018, I believe it truly will be one of change. See you on the other side. Kick the Tories out. 1. Mwstard - Cloc
2, Nik Turner - Life in Space
3. Steve Ignorant's Slice of life - Love and a lampost
4. Open Mike Eagle - Brick Body Kids Still Daydream
5. Benjamin Zepaniah - Revolutionary Minds
6. Lisa Knapp - Till April is dead
7. Lankum - Between the Earth and Sky
8. Penny Rimbaud -What Passing Bells : The War Poems of Wilfred Owen
