Israeli Apartheid Week 2022

 Israeli Apartheid Week,(IAW) is an international week of action that has taken place for the last 16 years in over 200 universities and cities around the world. It aims to raise public awareness about Israel’s racial discrimination against all parts of the Palestinian people, which amounts to the crime of apartheid under international law. This week allows us to amplify Palestinian voices, build The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement campaigns works to end international support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law and allow us to show our solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for justice.

In 2022, the theme of Israeli Apartheid Week is ‘Art Against Apartheid’: aiming to highlight the role of culture and art in the Palestinian struggle against oppression. Israeli Apartheid Week also using the  theme of United Against Racism, links up the Palestinian anti-apartheid struggle with all those fighting racism, oppression and discrimination across the globefrom Palestine to Black Lives Matter.

Here in Britain, Israeli Apartheid Week is a chance for university campaigns to raise awareness about their work, launch new campaigns, and link with other organisations to fight to kick #ApartheidOffCampus.

 IAW provides an opportunity to network and strengthen the links between the Palestinian liberation struggle and other struggles against racism, oppression, and discrimination. In 2022, as in every year since 2005, we will once again join our voices to denounce apartheid and celebrate Palestinians diversity. This year, we plan to shed light on the role of culture, and art in particular, in decolonizing our minds in our collective struggles against cultural appropriation and oppression. From March to April, communities around the globe will come together to organize inspiring actions and events to show that now, more than ever, we are #UnitedAgainstRacism.

Calling the Israeli regime as one of apartheid is not rhetoric, nor is it an exaggeration or a propaganda tool. This is the reality in modern day Palestine, where the Israeli regime  through laws, practices and most aspects of life and the policies instituted by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people meets the UN definition of Apartheid. This apartheid regime is not only imposed on the people in Palestine, but also on millions of Palestinian refugees denied their right to return to their homes and lands..Under Israeli law, and in practice, Jewish Israelis and Palestinians are treated differently in almost every aspect of life including freedom of movement, family, housing, education, employment and other basic human rights. Dozens of Israeli laws and policies institutionalise this prevailing system of racial discrimination and domination.

The occupation Wall is also another element of the wider system of severe restrictions on the freedom of movement imposed by the Israeli authorities on Palestinian residents of the West Bank. There are over 600 closure obstacles blocking Palestinian movement within the West Bank. In addition, the system of roads is segregated: travel on hundreds of kilometres in the West Bank is restricted or prohibited outright for Palestinians, whereby Israelis are able to travel about freely. About one third of the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, is completely prohibited to Palestinians without a special permit issued by the Israeli military.

These severe restrictions violate not only the right to freedom of movement,they also effectively prevent Palestinian residents from exercising a wide range of fundamental human rights because of their identity, including their right to work, to health, to education and to an adequate standard of living. Farmers are stopped from assessing their fields and thus from exercising their right to sustain their livelihood. Many Palestinians are also prevented from seeking work outside their locality. Children are prevented from accessing schools and students face restrictions in choosing their university of choice. Patients are prevented from assessing hospitals, blocking them from exercising their right to the highest sustainable standard of health.  Israel has in effect created a system of seperation in the West Bank which fits the textbook definition of apartheid. Segregation is also carried out by implementing separate legal regimes for Jewish Israelis and Palestinians living in the same area. For example, Jewish Israeli settlers living in the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are governed by Israeli civil law, while Palestinians also living in the occupied West Bank are governed by Israeli military law.

As awareness across the world of all of this continues to increase  campaigns to boycott, divest and sanction this regime provide a very effective and natural response. The world witnessed a similar response transpire and bare fruit in the case of South Africa, and there are very good reasons to believe that it will do the same in the case of Palestine. 

 In 1966 the United Nations called for an International Day of remembrance for the 69 Africans who were killed and the 189 injured by the Apartheid Police in Sharpeville, South Africa. The Police opened fire on a peaceful demonstration against the apartheid "pass laws" on March 21 1960.

 The Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), a splinter group of the African National Congress (ANC) created in 1959, organized a countrywide demonstration for March 21, 1960, for the abolition of South Africa’s pass laws. Participants were instructed to surrender their passes and invite arrest. Some 20,000 Blacks gathered near a police station at Sharpeville, located about 30 miles south of Johannesburg. The police opened fire on them with submachine guns without warning.

 Following the dismantling of apartheid, South African President Nelson Mandela chose Sharpeville as the site at which, on December 10, 1996, he signed into law the country’s new constitution.  Since then, the Apartheid System in South Africa has been dismantled but Apartheid in Israel has only been 

 only been strengthened. In 2018 Israel officially declared itself an Apartheid State with the passage of the Jewish Nation State Law which removed Arabic as an official language and designated ‘Jewish Settlement’ as a national goal.

 What happened at Sharpeville, horrific though it was, pales into comparison with the thousands of Palestinians who have been murdered for the crime of being Palestinian. In 2018 Israeli troops shot thousands of Palestinians deliberately disabling peaceful protestors at the Gaza fence and killing hundreds in the process.

 The IAW observes that “the recognition of Israel as an apartheid state is becoming increasingly mainstream”. There are visible signs of exceptional support for the cultural and academic boycott of Israel. IAW makes the pertinent conclusion: “Apartheid Israel is realizing that its South Africa moment is nearing”.

In the past year three major human rights organisations have declared that Israel is an Apartheid State. The first was B’Tselem which, on January 12 2021, declared that:  The Israeli regime enacts in all the territory it controls… an apartheid regime. One organizing principle lies at the base of a wide array of Israeli regime enacts in all the territory it controls… an apartheid regime. One organizing principle lies at the base of a wide array of Israeli policies: advancing and perpetuating the supremacy of one group – Jews – over another – Palestinians. https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid

 The next human rights organisation to describe Israel as an apartheid state was Human Rights Watch in April 2021. It declared that:  For the past 54 years, Israeli authorities have facilitated the transfer of Jewish Israelis to the OPT and granted them a superior status under the law as compared to Palestinians living in the same territory when it comes to civil rights, access to land, and freedom to move, build, and confer residency rights to close relatives.

  HRW described Israeli Apartheid as a crime against humanity ‘which stands among the most odious crimes  in international law.’ https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution

The third organisation to describe Israel was Amnesty International this January. In a damning report calling for Israeli authorities to be held accountable for committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians, which includes Palestinians living in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), as well as displaced refugees in other countries.It described Israeli apartheid as ‘a cruel system of domination and a crime against humanity.’ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/02/israels-apartheid-against-palestinians-a-cruel-system-of-domination-and-a-crime-against-humanity/ 

While Israel has been accused of perpetrating apartheid before, this is the first time an international organisation at the level of Amnesty International has gone as far as accusing the state of Israel of perpetrating apartheid against Palestinians as a whole.

"Our report reveals the true extent of Israel's apartheid regime," said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International's Secretary General.

"Whether they live in Gaza, East Jerusalem, Hebron, or Israel itself, Palestinians are treated as an inferior racial group and systematically deprived of their rights.

"We found All of the above leads to a growing acceptance that Israel is an Apartheid state, or that its policies are Apartheid policies. This strengthens calls to expose such behaviour as well as demands to impose appropriate measures that deal with Israel as an Apartheid state, one that should be boycotted and censured until it ends its racist Apartheid policies.d that Israel’s cruel policies of segregation, dispossession and exclusion across all territories under its control clearly amount to apartheid.

"The international community has an obligation to act," Ms Callamard said.

"There is no possible justification for a system built around the institutionalised and prolonged racist oppression of millions of people.

"Apartheid has no place in our world, and states which choose to make allowances for Israel will find themselves on the wrong side of history.

"Governments who continue to supply Israel with arms and shield it from accountability at the UN are supporting a system of apartheid, undermining the international legal order, and exacerbating the suffering of the Palestinian people.

"The international community must face up to the reality of Israel's apartheid, and pursue the many avenues to justice which remain shamefully unexplored."

 All of the above leads to a growing acceptance that Israel is an Apartheid state, or that its policies are Apartheid policies. This strengthens calls to expose such behaviour as well as demands to impose appropriate measures that deal with Israel as an Apartheid state, that continues to deprive millions of Palestinians, refugees included  of their basic rights, and ,as long as Israel maintains its apartheid regime, we must refuse to artwash its brurl oppression against Palestinians, and  should be boycotted and censured until it ends its racist Apartheid policies.

The dates provided for the Israeli Apartheid Week 2022 are: Europe and North America 21 – 28 March; Africa from 21 March – 4 April; Asia-Pacific 28 March – 4 April; Latin America and Arab World (incl. Palestine) 11 – 18 April.

 A Global Rally Against Israeli Apartheid will take place on March 26th in which arenas of our collective resistance to Israeli apartheid and all forms of racism and oppression. From dance, to music, to poetry, the rally will highlight the critical role that culture and art play in decolonizing our minds against cultural appropriation and oppression and highlighting culture as a weapon of resistance.

 Some of these artists, speakers and creatives include: Saana Moussa, Rana Nazal. Radiodervish, Kayda Aziz, Badiaa Bourezi, Estrefania Vega, El Funoun, Palestinian Dabke Troupe and more!

You can register for the event here :https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_NkZjN90PRMG4l20jHj6fsQ

 “One has to keep telling the Palestinian story in as many ways as possible, as insistently as possible, and in as compelling a way as possible, to keep attention to it, because there is always the fear that it might just disappear.” ( Edward Said, 2003)

https://bdsmovement.net/iaw 

Together With Refugees

 

Horrified by the last few weeks events? Feeling helpless ? 

Here are some things you can do to show your support for victims of war and terror.  In this particular time of crisis in Europe it is more important than ever that we draw together to support each other and help those in need. In spite of the public outcry that the UK should be doing more to help refugees, our government is continuing with plans to introduce the new Nationality and Borders Bill, which is expected to pass into law later this month. that, according to most of the organisations involved with refugees and asylum seekers, will actually make reaching sanctuary in our country more difficult and more dangerous.

The Nationality and Borders Bill is not for the protection of society, but is a potential threat to the helpless refugees who travel through the jaws of death to reach Britain, a place that they believe to grant them safety. Despite the Ukraine crisis, the Bill is  being brought forward.

The plans outlined in the bill will have grave consequences for people fleeing conflict, and that they are unlikely to stop people attempting to reach safety, but will instead punish and criminalise  the most vulnerable.This bill will see people fleeing war and persecution, like those fleeing Ukraine right now, criminalised, detained and deported. We need to say it loud and say it clear “Refugees are welcome here” 

Today is Anti-Racism day  there are Stand Up to Racism national demos  taking place which will have a strong focus on the Anti-Refugee Bill. and on Sunday 20 March Cardiff STAR and Stand Up to Racism have organised a  rally will be meeting at City Hall at 12 and marching to a rally  the Senedd from 2:30pm.

‘Together With Refugees’ www.togetherwithrefugees.org.uk - an umbrella organisation uniting many of the different support groups - is calling for us to highlight the need and the response to people fleeing for their lives, and  for a better approach to supporting refugees in the UK no matter how they came here and ensuring people can live in dignity while they wait for a decision on their asylum application. 

March 21st is the official start of Spring, a time of rebirth and hope for the coming year.

So, at 4pm my local Amnesty and refugee support groups will be on the beach at Poppit Sands near St Dogmaels and, Cardigan, West Wales, where local sand artist Rachel will create one of her wonderful designs, featuring the orange heart symbol of Together with Refugees. Come and watch, or take part . Wear orange ! Fly a kite ! Wave a flag ! Build a sandcastle ! Bring a picnic! And take a few minutes to stand together as a community sending our thoughts and prayers to those who do not have the luxury to enjoy all these things. Rachel will create a space within the heart for musicians, silence and contemplation. Stay for as little or as long as you wish..Hopefully  you can join us, you will be most welcomed.Together we can spread a message of hope and solidarity.

Remembering the Tolpuddle Martyrs

 

On March 18th 1834, six farm labourers in Tolpuddle, Dorset England  were found guilty of taking an illegal oath and  attempting to form  a union, the friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers in a backdrop of  harsh working conditions. As they were barred from church halls or other indoor spaces, they sheltered under the spreading branches of the now world famous  sycamore tree in the heart of Tolpuddle,  to sign their oath. Under this tree in 1834,  exploited by their employers – paid just 9 shillings a week and living in dreadful poverty – they formed one of the first trades union in Britain to bargain for better pay and working conditions under the leadership of George Loveless. This tree is still growing strong and has become a symbolic birthplace of the Trade Unions movement. and a place of pilgrimage for trade unionists and socialists.

The life of an agricultural labourer in early nineteenth century Britain was a hard one. The Enclosure Acts, decreasing wages, rising unemployment, mechanisation and the poor harvests of 1828 and 1829 had led to widespread poverty and growing discontent amongst rural labourers.

 Loveless demonstrated the class politics than ran through those early struggles of the British labour movement. “Labour is the poor man’s property,” he said, “from which all protection is withheld. Has not the working man as much right to preserve and protect his labour as the rich man has his capital?” The fledgling union led by Loveless and his five comrades set out their demands to the local establishment: they would not accept any pay offer less than 10 shillings a week.

The landowners at this time, led by local squire James Frampton and supported by the government, were desperate to put a stop to the union and with  the bloody French Revolution and the wrecking of the Swing Rebellion https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-captain-swing-riots.html fresh in the minds of the British establishment, landowners were determined to stamp out any further outbreaks of dissent.

The Tolpuddle Six, George Loveless, James Loveless, Thomas Stanfield, John Stanfield, Joseph Brine and James Hammett  were arrested, sent to nearby Dorchester for Trial, and charged under the 1797 Mutiny Act. On the 19th  March they were convicted of administering secret oaths, however the real reason was because they had formed a trade union. To the likes of James Frampton, trade unionism was the thin end of a very dangerous wedge, but forming a union had not been illegal since 1824, when the Combination Acts had been repealed.The only option available to Squire Frampton was to invoke a law that actually applied to sailors in the Royal Navy and was designed to prevent mutinies. This made illegal the taking of secret oaths, which it was maintained had been done by the Tolpuddle unionists when recruiting new members. They were sentenced to the maximum penalty, seven years  penal labour and transported to Botany Bay,Australia as common criminals simply because they had made a stand against the poor treatment they received from their employees.

In sentencing the men the Judge Baron John Williams stated that their punishment was necessary for the ‘security of the country’ and would also serve as ‘an example and a warning’

.Lord Melbourne ensured the sentence was swiftly carried out.The Combination Acts may have been repealed but the ruling elite wanted to send a clear message and deter any would-be trade unionists. The six farm workers from Tolpuddle had been made an example of.and from their smoke-filled, stinking cell below the Crown Court in Dorchester, five of the convicted men were taken in chains to the prison hulks.

George Loveless later referred to the proceedings as having ‘a shameful disregard of justice’. James Frampton and his son Henry were both on the Grand Jury. The Foreman was Lord Melbourne’s brother-in-law William Ponsonby, wealthy landowner and the Whig MP for Dorset.

One of the chief witnesses called to give testimony in the trial was John Lock. Lock was the son of James Frampton’s head gardener at Moreton Hall and one of Frampton’s informers.

The Radical MP Thomas Wakley alleged in Parliament that the witnesses had been placed in gaol before the trial to ensure they appeared and gave the ‘required evidence’. Wakley also maintained that the men of the Petty Jury had been deliberately selected as those mostly likely to return a guilty verdict, which they duly did after little deliberation.

George Loveless wrote a short statement for the court ‘My lord, if we had violated any law it was not done intentionally… We were uniting together to save ourselves, our wives and families from starvation.’

Transportation to Australia was brutal. Few ever returned from such a sentence as the harsh voyage and rigours of slavery took their toll. Hulks were condemned ships. There were usually three decks, each containing between 500 and 600 prisoners, issued with coarse convict clothing and fettered with heavy irons riveted to their legs. Disease was rampant. Epidemics of cholera, dysentery and smallpox swept through the packed masses, resulting in a tragic number of deaths on these voyages in such fetid ships.

The harshness and injustice of their treatment caused massive public outcry which led to enormous support for them with people across the country  rallying together and campaigning for their release.

On the 24 March 1834, 10,000 people attended a meeting held by Robert Owen’s Grand National Consolidated Trades Union.

Then on the 21 April up to 100,000 people assembled at Copenhagen Fields, near King’s Cross. Led by Robert Owen the demonstrators marched through London to Kennington Common.

They brought with them a petition of over 200,000 signatures calling for the Tolpuddle Martyr’s to be pardoned, but the Home Secretary Lord Melbourne refused to accept it due to a large number of people present.

The London Central Dorchester Committee was formed to campaign for the release of the six men and to raise funds for their families.

Questions were asked in Parliament. The first of several petitions calling for the men to be pardoned was presented to the House on the 26 March. The Radical MP Thomas Wakley and William Cobbett MP for Oldham were vociferous campaigners for the men’s release.

In June 1835 the new Home Secretary Lord John Russell proposed to give the men conditional pardons, but this was rejected. In the face of continued pressure, the Government finally granted a full pardon on the 14 March 1836.George Loveless arrived back from Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) in June 1837. Thomas and John Standfield, James Loveless and James Brine returned from Australia in March 1838 and James Hammett in August 1839, with all of the free men returning home as heroes.Their victory became a symbol to a working-class movement of the power of combination, not only in the matter of wages but in the achievement of democratic power through a charter of political rights.

However, they did not return to their old lives, although James Hammett spent most of the rest of his life in Tolpuddle, working as a builder’s labourer. He had always been the outsider of the group and it is possible that he had not actually been at the meeting witnessed by Edward Legg but had accepted arrest to protect his brother John, whose wife was about to give birth.

The other five continued to be active in the workers’ movement, including during the early years of Chartism, which campaigned for parliamentary reform. They all wrote about their experiences in Australia, particularly George Loveless who had a gift for eloquent writing as well as speaking.

The London Dorchester Committee, which had been formed to campaign for the Martyrs’ pardon and return, raised funds that allowed the men to take leases on farms in Essex, which they used as the base for their continuing political activity. While in Essex, James Brine married Thomas Standfield’s daughter, thus uniting the five men as an extended family. The Committee had also done what they could to support the families of the Martyrs during the latters’ time in Australia.

However, the opposition of local landowners in Essex persuaded the men to take another long journey, this time in somewhat greater comfort. All the families emigrated to Canada at various times during the 1840s, settling in Ontario and, except for James Loveless, buying farms of their own. The Lovelesses were active in Methodism in the Siloam area. More children were born, and they lived contented lives, all five Martyrs reaching old age. The last to die was James Brine in 1902, at the age of 90.

It would appear that, once in Canada, they sought to leave their old lives behind them, even to the extent that their Canada-born children were told nothing about the events of the 1830s.However, England had no intention of forgetting the Martyrs, who became symbols of the working-class movement.

Whilst in prison, George Loveless wrote a short poem: 

 

From field, from wave,
From plough, from anvil and, from Loom;
We come, our country’s rights to save,
And speak a tyrant faction’s doom:
We raise the watch-word liberty;
We will, we will, we will be free!; 

 

These words have inspired generations of people to fight injustice and oppression. The Tolpuddle martyrs story is about how ordinary working  people combined together to defend their lives.They  are commemorated every year at the Tolpuddle Martyrs festival every July, I have been planning to make a pilgrimage for years. Here is a link http://www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk/ 

The idea of solidarity as a basic human right is now an international demand. The act of solidarity works. We need dissent and action in this land, now more than ever, to help shape and build into a better fairer place for all.

The Martyrs tree

“The Knotted Gun” by Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd

 

 The original sculpture of "The Knotted Gun" also known as “Non Violence” was created by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd, a friend of John Lennon. Reuterswärd created this piece of art after Lennon was fatally shot in the archway of the Dakota, his residence in New York City on December 8, 1980,.

The perpetrator Mark Chapman a  huge fan of Lennons used a ;38  gun to shoot the music icon four times..

Only six hiours before he died, Lennon had met Lennon who signd a copy of the album Double Fantasy for him.

Lennon was pronouved dead when he arrived at the Roosevelt hospital. He was 40,

Chapman pleeaded guilry to his crime and was sentenced to life in prison,

Mark Chapman, who is said to be deepy religious, was a huge Beatles fan who greatly admired John Lennon. However his idolisatiin turned sour, irked by a famous Lennon  quip, about the Beatles being "more popular than Jesus" claiming it was blasphemy. Having recently has a religious convrsion prior to his deision to kill the musician, religion and belief was the motive behind the murder,

Chapman is reported to have planned to kill Lennon, three months before he carried out his crime.He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Recently, during his 2020 parole hearing Chpman said he kiled Lennon for "self glory" He called his act "despicable" and  said he deserved the death penalty. He also told the parole board at his correctional facility in New Yorj that he was "sorry"

As the news that Lennon  had been  senselessly gunned down in cold blood, rolled out across the world, there was a worldwide outpouring of grief that ensued on an unprecedented scale, that continues to inspire grief and anger to this day,. 

Lennon  is remmbered for his vision of peace and at the time of his death  was one of the most public advocates for peace and non-violence. In many of his songs his lyrics focussed on the vision of a world without violence. 

 

“Imagine all the people

Livin' life in peace

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one "

Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd was deeply moved  by the murder of his  friend and, both as a tribute to John Lennon and as a protest against  other outbursts of unnecessary violence, he produced his most iconic work as he wanted to honor the singer’s vision of a peaceful world, 

“My first sketches in three dimensions were rather rough and simple, but the important thing was that the idea of the knotted barrel was with me from the very start,” he said.

It is a sculpture in bronze, symbolizing a Colt Python 357 Magnum revolver, which pipe points upwards. The gun is cocked, but the knot makes it clear that it will not shoot.In a direct and uncompromisingly manner he managed to turn an object, traditionally used for attack, into a symbol with a universal and clear message of non-violence and peace, and not coincidentally, transformed a symbol of aggreive male sexuality into one of impotence.

Initially, "Non-Violence" was installed at the Strawberry Fields memorial in Central Park, across the street from the home that Lennon shared with Yoko Ono. In 1988, it was acquired and donated by the government of Luxembourg to the United Nations headquarters in New York, outside which it now stands.

According to Kofi Annan, who was the 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations at the time : 

 " The Non-Violence Symbol has not only endowed the United Nations with a cherished work of art; it has enriched the consciousness of humanity with a powerful symbol. It is a symbol that encapsulates, in a few simple curves, the greatest prayer of man: that which asks not for victory, but for peace"

.

Inside the U.N. building is a mosaic representing all the nations of the Earth, accompanied by Jesus’ words, “Do unto others what you would have others do unto you.” For many seasoned peace campaigners, this prayer was partly answered when the Arms Trade Treaty became international law on 24 December 2014,

Any state that is a party  to the treaty must obey strict rules on international arms transfers. The Treaty was designed to stop deadly weapons from getting into the hands of people who will use them to commit human rights violations, including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.The treaty seeks to regulate the international trade in conventional arms, from small arms to tanks, combat aircraft, and warships. It aims to foster peace and security by putting a stop to the destabilizing flow of arms to conflict regions.

More than 100 countries have joined the Treaty, and there are over 30 more who have signed the treaty which is the first step towards becoming a party to the ATT.

The Treaty can help save lives, but only if it is properly implemented, and if states are held accountable when they breach it.

Yet every year corporate actors still supply large volumes of military equipment to some of the most violent and unstable parts of the world. This equipment is often used unlawfully in the context of armed conflicts and in political unrest marred by serious human rights violations.

The ATT treaty help at least a bit in addressing and halting the uncontrolled flow of arms and ammunition that fuels wars, prolongs conflict, atrocities and human rights abuses. The devastating humanitarian consequences of war fueled in part by the irresponsible export of arms, underline just how urgently this treaty is needed.

Sadly the global arms trading is still on the rise and continues to fuel human rights abuses. This is because some of the largest arms exporters like Russia and the USA have not ratified the treaty. And even countries that have ratified the treaty fail to comply with it, and transfer weapons and munitions to places where they risk being used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law, including possible war crimes.

Civilians typically bear the brunt of modern conflict. Weapons such as artillery, mortars, guided bombs and missiles destroy hospitals, homes, markets and transport systems, pushing survivors into poverty. People’s lives are destroyed. This is the cost of an unregulated arms trade industry.Irresponsible arms trading affects those living inside and outside areas of armed conflict and political instability.

Gun violence remains a daily tragedy that impacts people around the world, the vast majority of whom are not living in conflict zones. the statistics are frightening. Globally twelve billion bullets are produced every year. That is almost enough to kill everyone in the world twice.There are more than 875 million firearms in the world, 75 per cent of them in the hands of civilians. Guns outnumber passenger vehicles by 253 million, or 29 per cent. Each year about eight million new small arms, plus 10 to 15 billion rounds of ammunition are manufactured, enough bullets to shoot every person in the world not once, but twice Every day, thousands of people are killed, injured and forced to flee their homes because of gun violence and armed conflict.

Since 1993, the ever so powerful Knotted Gun sculpture has been the symbol of the non profit Non-Violence Project (NVPF), which was founded by two Swedes :Rold Skolebrand and Jan Helleman. Friends since childhood, they caw the unacceptable increase in violence around the world and decided to do something inspiring and constructive to reach the hearts of the next generation. 

They embarked on a journey that took them deep into the roots of violent behaviour, A journey  that made them realise that education is the only tool that works. The projects mission is to inspire, motivate, and engage young people in understanding how to solve conflicts without resorting to violence.

It holds violence prevention and nonviolence education programs for schools and sports clubs around the world.

Its logo is Reuterswärd's sculpture, It has educated eight million students, teachers, and sports coaches with programs covering three main subjects: conflict management, self-esteem building, and nonviolence.

Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and Yoko Ono are, among others, ambassadors of the Non-Violence Project.

Reuterswärd wrote later that humor was the finest instrument to bring people together. While making his peace symbol, he thought of adding a touch of humor to make his “weapon” symbolically ridiculous and completely out of orderl

Until his death from pneumonia, age 81, in May 2016, he was one of Sweden's most famous artists, as well as a respected author. He studied with Fernand Léger in Paris 1951 and was a professor of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm between 1965 and 1969. In 1986 he was awarded the Prince Eugen Medal for painting, 

Since his iconic bronze sculpture exhibited in front of the United Nations, it has been adopted by various causes around the world.and replicas have been placed in more than 30 strategic locations around the world: Here  a list of a number of them.

• Unites States (Original) – New York City – Headquarters of the United Nations
• Luxembourg – Kirchberg – Parc Central
• China – Beijing -Chaoyang Park
• Germany- Berlin – at the parc of the federal chancellery. It was unveiled in 2005 by chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who received it from Reuterswärd in recognition of his Iraq policy.
• France – Caen Mémorial de Caen, a world war II museum. Unveiled in 2005.
• Switzerland – Lausanne – Olympic Museum
• Mexico – Mexico City – Mexipuerto Shopping Mall and 683 Calle Ferrocarril de Cuernavaca Polanco
• India – Chennai – Perambur, ICF
• Georgia – Rukhi – Senaki, Leselidze Highway
• Lebanon – Beirut – Seafront
• Northern Ireland – Belfast Girdwood Community Hub 
• in Liverpool/UK, in Cavern Walks shopping centre, next door to the original site of the famous Cavern Club in Mathew Street where the Beatles played in their early days together. It was unveiled in 2000 by Dr Michael Nobel, then head of the Nobel family society and chairman of the Non-Violence Foundation
•  Cape Town/South Africa -at the entrance to the Victoria and Alfred waterfront. It was unveiled in 1999 when the government announced its stringent new gun control legislation.
• In Stockholm/Sweden (1995 – unveiled by HRH Princess Victoria of Sweden in the middle of Sergelgatan
•  In Göteborg/Sweden (1997 – Kungsportsavenyn & Engelbrektsgatan

In this day and age when things turn  so quickly into violence, as we are witnesing conflicts currently causing chaos and destruction across the world, the message Reuterswärd's  sculpture is bearing is more important and poignant than ever.

To quote Mahatma Ghandi : 

 " Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man. Destruction is not the law of the humans. Man lives freely by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him. Every murder or other injury, no matter for what cause, committed or inflicted on another is a crime against humanity." 

Three years ago yesterday, firty-one people were killed by a single gunman during Friday prayers in Christchurch, New Zealand. And every day for these past weeks our attention has turned to the ongoing killing in Ukraine, as Russia seems intent on destroying a people unwilling to be subjugated.

The suffering in Ukraine and other places like Gaza and Yemen is immense.

Our attention must remain in all thse places, and on all those subject to the threat and violence of others. Even in thse dark hours we can win this struggle, indeed we must. Let us pray for all those who are touched by gun violence, hearts broken by loss and for all the lives cut short. Allow peace to flood our minds and hope that all the violence in the world can be left behind.

Anti-War Hypocrisy

My word of the day is "Hypocrisy" Anti war sentiment is  currently being splashed all over the mainstream media here in the UK, Daily the news bombards us with images of innocent people who have been bombed, shot at  displaced and lost loved ones, We are officially urged to sympathise with these people, John Lennon's song "Give peace a chance" was played at the international rugby match at Twickenham at the weekend.

The terrifying images of death and destruction inflicted on Ukraine by the Russians brutal, criminal  and irresponsible invasion have rightly aroused widespread horror, and accompanying sympathy and solidarity with the Ukrainian people. This sentiment is encouraged by Western media and politicians.

Yet when  Russia bombed Chechnya and Syria, the Western media looked the other way. In Syria, victims of Assad’s chemical weapons attacks were initially worthy of our sympathy. But once Syria’s revolution had developed into a civil war, involving parties over which Washington had little control, the Obama administration was happy to reach an agreement with Putin: he could bomb Aleppo indiscriminately while the US focused its efforts on destroying ISIS.

Both Russia and the US had a shared interest in keeping Assad in power, even when his regime’s repression cost 350,000 lives and created millions of refugees. While Obama may have had a different strategy for achieving this objective, he shared Putin’s contempt for Syria’s democratic opposition.

Similarly, when Hilary Clinton  needed to justify the extension and escalation of Washington’s two-decade long occupation of Afghanistan, Afghan women and girls became sympathetic victims needing rescuing from the Taliban. Once US troops evacuated Kabul last October, Afghan women had served their purpose—they have been erased from our TV screens, while their country lies in ruins.. 

Lets also compare and contrast to the US/ UK- led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which was justified by lies about non existent weapons of mass destruction, which broke international laws. No mention of the thousands of  innocent casualties, No news coverage of bereaved parents and orphaned children, Criticism of our involvement barely tolerated and treated by some as tantamount to treason. Anti-war songs banned from the radio. Recently Tony Blair, one of the main architects of this atrocity, was awarded for his criminal efforts with a knighthood. I am reminded too that 73% of the world dictators are supported by the United States, Britain sells arms to rogue state Saudi Arabia, which have been used to kill children in Yemen. Yesterday the Saudi regime executed 81 men , in its largest mass execution in history, yet Boris Johnson is about to visit the country to beg for more oil. If our government rally cared about human rights, it would end it's cosy relationship with the Saudis, But I guess it's ok for them to have double standards.

 A strong  argument could also  be made that the crisis in the Ukraine could have been avoided if NATO had been willing to rule out membership for Ukraine, granting the nation  a neutral statussimilar to Finland and Austria during the Cold War, At the same time , Putin's rewriting of history and his insistence that Ukraine  is inherently part of Russia , along with his decision to launch a full scale invasion  is indicative that he would have done so regardless, and far from keeping the peace Nato throughout it's existence is a threat to it, agressive in manner and in action  and is a continued threat to all our safety..

And if  the West is so opposed to bombing schools, clinics and peoples homes why is it that Palestine Action activists are currently on bail for trying to stop Elbit Systems making killer drones for use in  Gaza and Yemen? And surely seperating the people who die under falling bombs into Ukrainians, Dombassions, Kurds, Afghanis, Palestinians, Alvis, Yazidis, Christians, Shias or Sunnis etc etc and taking a stance accordingly is the height of immorality, Are not all these lives equal ?

The people of countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, and those fleeing wars, instability and poverty in North Africa and elsewhere are dehumanised and presented as unworthy of our sympathy by the mainstream media.Their victimhood must, at all costs, be concealed—lest it bring into question the capacity of the US and its allies to dominate and control (often with the most brutal and naked military force) those parts of the world.I will also point out that the state of Israel has been occupying and killing innocent children and women for years with impunity and the world's media turns a blind eye at best, and at worst acts as a mouthpiece for Israeli government propaganda,

Russia breaks International Humanitarian Law, commits war crimes and we all go mad - quite rightly. Israel has been doing the same every single day since June 1967 and we just shrug our shoulders and occasionally slap their wrists.

We impose sanctions - quite rightly - on Russia but we do not impose any on Israel. Worse - legislation is currently going through Parliament which will make it illegal to practise Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel

I am proudly anti-war and have been since my teenage years, I just don't understand  .how anybody can be flexible on what is essentially a moral issue. 

The victims of war deserve our solidarity and support, whoever they are, and wherever they happen to be. The Ukrainians who are bravely fighting against Russian invasion deserve it. But so too do the Palestinians, Afghans, Syrians, Iraqis etc. We should not be fooled by the hypocritical statements of out political leaders. They'd happily increase the mayhem by sending British men and women to fight and possibly die,if it was not for the threat of a nuclear war which would devastate the whole of Europe.

At least representatives if Uktaine and Russia have met today, with an agenda about a way to restore peace. Let's all continue to fight wars, not war, for a world of peace.

Jack Kerouac's Centennial

As chaos reigns throughout the world I am reminded that if literary hero,: the beat writer Jack Kerouac   famous for the way he smashed literary conventions was.alive today, he would be celebrating his 100th birthday. This past Thursday, San Francisco’s City Lights, also a publisher of eight Kerouac books, celebrated this occasion with a packed online event. Other events in significant places in Kerouac’s life, like Lowell, Massachusetts—where he was born—are also planned in the coming days.

It's difficult to say much more  about Jack that I haven't said over the past 13 years of this blog's existence but as I owe Kerouac a lot of debt, an individual who has been a huge influence on me so  have rehashed some of my previous thoughts on him with some extra flourishes in a celebration of his truly remarkable life.. 

Like his character Sal Paradise in On the Road, Jack Kerouac was restless to discover himself in postwar America. His stream-of-consciousness writing style flowed like jazz, encompassing but not always embracing the Beat generation of the 1950s. A writer of spontaneous prose, lover of jazz, idealizer of México and adopter of Zen—Kerouac is a fixture in the United States’ counterculture mythos.

Thematically, his work covers topics such as his Catholic spirituality, jazz, promiscuity, Buddhism, drugs, poverty, and travel. He became an underground celebrity and, with other beats, a progenitor of the hippie movement, although he remained antagonistic toward some of its politically radical elements.

The shaman of the Beat Generation arrived today as  Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac to a  French-Canadian family in the factory town of  Lowell, Massachusettsus USA. Variously called the Beat Generations apostle, poet, hero, laureate, saint?  Through his own life story he created  a work of fiction .Soared so high, that in the end unfortunately found his own human skin, then found himself out of his depth in bottled delusion, where the burning ship had become his own.
Kerouac learned to speak French at home before he learned English at school. Reportedly he did not learn English until he was six years old . His father Leo Kerouac owned his own print shop, Spotlight Print, in downtown Lowell, and his mother Gabrielle Kerouac, known to her children as Memere, was a homemaker. Kerouac later described the family’s home life: “My father comes home from his printing shop and undoes his tie and removes his1920s vest, and sits himself down at hamburger and boiled potatoes and bread and butter, and with the kiddies and the good wife.”
Jack Kerouac endured a childhood tragedy in the summer of 1926, when his beloved older brother Gerard died of rheumatic fever at the age of 9. Drowning in grief, the Kerouac family embraced their Catholic faith more deeply. Kerouac’s writing is full of vivid memories of attending church as a child: “From the open door of the church warm and golden light swarmed out on the snow. The sound of the organ and singing could be heard.”
 Jack would earn a football scholarship to Columbia University, and planned to work in insurance after finishing school, according to the Beat Museum,http://www.kerouac.com/ which goes into detail about Kerouac’s rise to literary and cultural stardom.

Before going to Columbia University  first, he had to attend a year of preparatory school at the Horace Mann School for Boys in the Bronx. So, at the age of 17, Kerouac packed his bags and moved to New York City, where he was immediately awed by the limitless new experiences of big city life. Of the many wonderful new things Kerouac discovered in New York, and perhaps the most influential on his life was jazz. He described the feeling of walking past a jazz club in Harlem: "Outside, in the street, the sudden music which comes from the nitespot fills you with yearning for some intangible joy—and you feel that it can only be found within the smoky confines of the place." It was also during his year at Horace Mann that Kerouac first began writing seriously. He worked as a reporter for the Horace Mann Record and published short stories in the school's literary magazine, the Horace Mann Quarterly.

He broke his leg in one of his first games and was relegated to the sidelines for the rest of the season. Although his leg had healed, Kerouac's coach refused to let him play the next year, and Kerouac impulsively quit the team and dropped out of college. He spent the next year working odd jobs and trying to figure out what to make of his life. He spent a few months pumping gas in Hartford, Connecticut. Then he hopped a bus to Washington, D.C., and worked on a construction crew building the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. 

In 1942 he left Columbia to join the Merchant Marines completing only one voyage to Greenland before quitting. A few months later, his ship was sunk by the Germans, with many of his shipmates lost. In 1943 he joined the Navy, but lasted less than two weeks before being discharged on psychiatric grounds. He was described as 'restless, apathetic, seclusive', and the shrinks described his 'auditory hallucinations, ideas of reference and suicide, and a rambling grandiose philosophical manner'.

After this he then fell in with New York’s literary crowd.

Jack Kerouac wanted to catalog his entire life in autobiographical novels similar to Marcel Proust’s Rememberance of Things Pass.. Kerouac once said ‘I intend to collect all my work and reinsert my pantheon of uniform names, leave the long shelf full of books there, and die happy”  Kerouac began working toward this goal with The Town and the City. In the novel, Kerouac writes about his family’s struggles with finances and the differences between his life in the town and the city. Allen Ginsberg hailed the book as a masterpiece and with the help of Kerouac’s former professor at Columbia University Mark Van Doren, the book was published in 1950 by Harcourt Brace. Shortly after Kerouac started working on The Town and the City he met Neal Cassady in 1946 and around this time,took several cross-country road trips with him that would later inspire his seminal work, “On the Road.” 

Kerouac produced“On the Road” in just a few weeks, but the novel itself was a long time in the making. In 1947, Kerouac began collecting material for a new novel. In 1948, he described it in his journal: “Two guys hitch-hiking to California in search of something they don’t really find, and losing themselves on the road, and coming all the way back hopeful of something else.” Notes and ideas for the novel filled hundreds of pages of journals, letters, and notebooks. In a letter to a friend, he wrote: “These ideas and plans obsess me so much that I can’t conceal them […] they overflow out of me, even in bars with perfect strangers.” Throughout those years of writing Kerouac continued to take cross-country trips with Neal Cassady, and recorded their adventures and conversations.

In late March of 1951, his friend John Clellon Holmes had just finished a novel about the Beats, and he showed Kerouac the manuscript. Kerouac was angry, feeling that Holmes had stolen his subject matter. Kerouac’s wife convinced her husband that instead of stewing about it, he should go ahead and get his own novel written. He began writing on April 2nd and finished on the 22nd. He wrote to Cassady: “Story deals with you and me and the road […] Plot, if any, is devoted to your development from young jailkid of early days to later (present) W.C. Fields saintliness … step by step in all I saw. […] I’ve telled all the road now. Went fast because the road is fast … wrote whole thing on strip of paper 120 foot long (tracing paper that belonged to Cannastra) — just rolled it through typewriter and in fact no paragraphs … rolled it out on floor and it looks like a road.” 

In 1957, “On the Road” was published by Viking, who had previously turned it down. Viking editors insisted that Kerouac change the names of real people so they couldn’t be sued for libel, so Neal Cassady became Dean Moriarty.and catapulted Kerouac to fame as a leading light of the Beat movement The book, like the roads he traveled, embodied Kerouac's marathon urge to create, having been typed on a continuous roll of taped-together paper measuring 120 feet in length so he did not have to stop typing to change paper.  Then, fueled on a cocktail of mind altering substances he unloaded the book in a marathon writing session.

Kerouac considered himself a Catholic writer. "I'm not a beatnik," he once said. "I'm a Catholic." Biographer Douglas Brinkley said On the Road has been misinterpreted as story of a couple of friends in search of kicks. But, for Kerouac, it was a search for God. Every page of his diary had a prayer or a crucifix or an appeal to God to be forgiven.

But bevertheless itt was Kerouac who coined the term “Beat Generation” and the  word“Beat” derived from “beat up” meaning old, used, poor, as in “a beat up old tramp”. In his life, he had been part of a culture and people, who burned like meteors. Jack Kerouac was the Beat Generations very own mythologiser, he and his band of brothers helped  redeem a bit of America's soul. His legacy, like that of the Beat Culture, still alive, still relevant, still taking root.

Kerouac alongside his friends, Gregory Corso,https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2009/11/gregory-corso-wayward-geniusan.html William Burroughs,https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2014/02/destroy-all-rational-thought.html Allen Ginsberg,https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2017/10/7th-october-1955-allen-ginsbergs-first.html Lawrence Ferllinghetti,https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2021/02/lawrence-ferlinghetti-poet-publisher.html Gary Snyder etc, paved a way for a whole host of dreamers searching for risk, some form of adventure. Colouring our worlds with their crazy visions, their minds in revolt, searching for future's possibilities. Hand in hand with rebellion, against the conventions of the times. 

In the six years that passed between the composition and publication of On the Road, Kerouac traveled extensively, experimented with Buddhism and wrote many novels that went unpublished at the time. His next published novel, The Dharma Bums (1958), described Kerouac's clumsy steps toward spiritual enlightenment on a mountain climb with his  friend, Zen poet Gary Snyder,https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2021/05/happy-birthday-gary-snyder-poet.html. Dharma was followed that same year by the novel The Subterraneans, and in 1959, Kerouac published three novels: Dr. Sax, Mexico City Blues and Maggie Cassidy.

Kerouac's most famous later novels include Book of Dreams (1961), Big Sur (1962), Visions of Gerard (1963) and Vanity of Duluoz (1968). Kerouac also wrote poetry in his later years, composing mostly long-form free verse as well as his own version of the Japanese haiku form. Additionally, Kerouac released several albums of spoken word poetry during his lifetime.
Jack Kerouac in his eighteen books  and many others under Jack's influence were to me important epiphanies on my own path of self discovery. He taught me about "Spontaneous prose." - writing without revising....... He called this " a spontaneous bop prosody."  which is a bit like a jazz musician taking an improvised solo, and he took it as far as he could go, with  no editing and no pause of breath. Sometimes what is left, has no meaning, a void, but often their is a glimmer, that spells hope, that can become endless, can run off the page, infinite but still accessible.
On my bookshelf at home Kerouacs influence groans on my bookcases, his own works, sharing spaces with others , that were touched by his inspiration. There is something about his tragic, magic life that still resonates, hums, there will always be new connections, outhouses where seeds will forever drift. New poets will emerge, to experience, among the whole wide world, words will dance, impulsively between time, forever and forever. Enthusiasm will be shared, thoughts will be exchanged, and for some the personal will always be political.Passion will ignite.
Jack had a wild  spirit,  but such a dazzling voice, who through his writing  revealed him as a believer in humanity, a dreamer, a doer and an explorer of metaphysical depth. He was however also a recluse, socially awkward, and despite maintaining a prolific pace of publishing and writing, Kerouac was never able to cope with the fame he achieved after On the Road, and his life soon devolved into a blur of drunkenness and drug addiction  that would ultimately destroy him .

After Kerouac’s breakdown on Big Sur in 1960, he returned home to be with his mother in Northport New York.  Kerouac attempted to improve his physical health and continue to work. After Big Sur was released in 1962, which is a chronicle of the time when he escaped to Big Sur, running from the world, and lost in a sea of depression and alcoholism, while trying to cope with  the pressures of celebrity.The novel earned critical success for its realistic accounts of sickness and madness where he rather poignantly reflects on the deterioration alcohol has caused. With the release of the novel, Kerouac began to move up and down the east coast. Kerouac still lived with his mother Gabrielle and together they relocated from New York to Florida in 1960 and from Florida to Lowell, Massachusetts in October 1962. (Gifford, Lee. Jack’s Book pg. 295)
In the late fifties or early sixties, Kerouac switched from wine  to whiskey,  and was also drinking rum at this point, but whiskey was to remain his drink of choice (and that of his mother) for the rest of his life. In Tristessa he had said that he was drinking “Juarez Bourbon whiskey” and that he mixed it with Canadian Dry, while most biographers and friends have recounted his fondness for Johnny Walker Red. During a trip to France, Kerouac began drinking Cognac, and once told Philip Whalen that “Cognac [is] the only drink in the world, with soda and ice, that won’t actually kill you.”
While a preeminent chronicler of America, Kerouac also spent a significant amount of time in Mexico, where he developed a taste for tequila and his signature drink, the margarita.Kerouac’s margarita is far from the saccharine slushie many would associate it with today. The drink is essentially a derivative of the Sidecar, substitute the cognac for tequila, the lemon juice for lime, keep the triple sec and you have it. Shake well, straining into a cocktail glass.After a few of these you’ll feel as free as Kerouac's  prose.

Kerouac was aware of his alcoholism and his experiences which made up the text of Big Sur explain how the man was not coping with his problem.  In the following passage, Kerouac explains alcoholism. “Any drinker knows how the process works: the first day you get drunk is okay, the morning after means a big head…you can kill with a few drinks and a meal, but if you pass up the meal and go on to another night’s drunk, and wake up to keep the toot going, and continue on to the fourth day, there’ll come one day when the drinks wont take effect because you’re chemically overloaded and you’ll have to sleep it off but can’t sleep any more because it was alcohol itself that made you sleep those last five nights, so delirium sets in-Sleeplessness, sweat, trembling, a groaning feeling of weakness where your arms are numb and useless, nightmares (nightmares of death).” (Kerouac, Big Sur pgs 74-75).

  Big Sur was the last novel that would make up the Legend of Duluoz collection although the author would continue to write about his youth in future works.
In Big Sur Kerouac concludes the novel with a detailed account of his nervous breakdown. “Masks explode before my eyes when I close them, when I look at the moon it waves, moves, when I look at my hands and feet they creep-Everything is moving, the porch is moving like ooze and mud, the chair trembles under me” (Kerouac Big Sur Pg 200).
In the following  paranoiac passage, Kerouac explains a premonition of his death.: "But angels are laughing and having a big barn dance in the rocks of the sea…Suddenly as clear as anything I ever saw in my life, I see the Cross…it stays a long time, my heart goes out to it, my whole body fades away to it.(Kerouac Big Sur Pgs.204-205)

Throughout his troubled  life Kerouac made an effort to learn about other cultures, but the projections and language he uses are nevertheless within a white framework. He like a lot of beat writers mistranslated ideas, symbols and words to suit their own needs, creating a parallel literary reality. Artist Medinltz says that Kerouac helped “Perpetuate negative and, at the same time, romanticized racist stereotypes.” There are many scholarly papers that fortunately, have been written about this. that you  can search for and read online and elsewhere.

He married Edie Parker in 1944, but their marriage ended in divorce after only a few months. In 1950, Kerouac married Joan Haverty, who gave birth to his only daughter, Jan Kerouac, but this second marriage also ended in divorce after less than a year. Kerouac married Stella Sampas, who was also from Lowell, in 1966.

 Though Kerouac was married, his wife describes his isolation after marriage.  “It was bad for Jack, living in Florida. He had no real friends. In Lowell, Jack was…as isolated as he had been in Florida. Though she (Kerouac’s Mother) was fairly incapacitated by her stroke he was still operating under the stern eye of Memere.”
With Kerouac’s mother sick, the author attempted to continue his writing.  Between March and May of 1967, Kerouac wrote a reworking of the period of his life he covered in The Town and the City called the Vanity of Duloz . In February of 1968, Kerouac was told by his friend Luanne Henderson that Neal Cassady had died in Mexico City.  Henderson spoke of Kerouac’s reaction after hearing of Cassady’s death “Afterward, Jack liked to pretend he didn’t really think Neal was dead, even telling interviewers from The Paris Review that Neal would show up again someday and surprise everyone.”
After resettling in Florida by 1968, Kerouac settled with his wife and together they tried to take care of the author’s ailing mother. Jack wrote very little during his final year and would rarely leave the house. Stuck in a sad exile,this  mystical breath had grown tired, what was once beautiful  had begun to  drift towards bitterness.

Jack was not immortal, although for me his words are, and he left this planet on October 21 1969, at only 47 years of age, related to alcoholism from an abdominal hemorrhage.  

After his death he left us with a  rather complicated legacy but  nevertheless Kerouac’s influence on literature and culture is still felt  very  strongly today. Artists including Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Patti Smith, Tom Waits, The Grateful Dead, and The Doors all credit Kerouac as a significant influence on their music and lifestyles. This is especially so with members of the band The Doors, Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek who quote Jack Kerouac and his novel On the Road as one of the band’s greatest influences, and .writers like  Ken Kesey, Haruki Murakami, Richard Brautigan, Hunter S. Thompson, Lester Bangs, and Tom Robbins have all pointed to Kerouac as a defining influence on their writing too,

 Kerouac’s iconic status shows no signs of letting up. All his books are still in print and his masterpiece On the Road  remains a defining work of the post war Beat and Counterculture generation, it appears on virtually every list of the 100 greatest American novels. Kerouac's words, spoken through the narrator Sal Paradise, continue to inspire today's youth with the power and clarity with which they inspired the youth of his own time

There are two types of people in this world; those that ‘get’ Kerouac, and those that do not. I am in the first category, of course, so  happy birthday Jack, your impact continues to be felt , your satori breath released , and your legacy today is stronger today than ever ... om  switchin on.... tomorrow's dawns chorus echoes,anesthesising the sky.... sentences littered with wild perception, language as  a spell that  leaves us forever hooked. In human existence our contradictions will abound, freeze framed, on the road to nowhere. Kicks joy darkness.blessed be you in golden eternity., and as Jack said "Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you're already in heaven  now." 

 A passage from On the Road, though written about others, may describe him best: "I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes Awww!"

Happy 100th  Birthday, Jack.Kerouac.

 

 How to meditate- Jack Kerouac

-lights out-
fall, hands a-clasped, into instantaneous
ecstasy like a shot of heroin or morphine,
the gland inside of my brain discharging
the good glad fluid (Holy Fluid) as
i hap-down and hold all my body parts
down to a deadstop trance-Healing
all my sicknesses-erasing all-not
even the shred of a ‘I-hope-you’ or a
Loony Balloon left in it, but the mind
blank, serene, thoughtless. When a thought
comes a-springing from afar with its held-
forth figure of image, you spoof it out,
you spuff it off, you fake it, and
it fades, and thought never comes-and
with joy you realize for the first time
‘thinking’s just like not thinking-
So I don’t have to think
any
more’

Woman - Jack Kerouac

      A woman is beautiful
       but
          you have to swing
          and swing and swing
          and swing like
          a hankerchief in the
                                       wind

149th Chorus - Jack Kerouac

I keep falling  in love
with my mother
I dont want to hurt her
=Of all people to hurt

Every time I see her
she's grown older
But her uniform always
amazes me
For its Dutch simplicity
And the Doll she is.
The doll-like way
she stands
Bowlegged in my dreams,
Waiting to serve me

And I am only an Apache
Smoking Hashi
In old Cabashy
By the Lamp

2111th Chorus - Jack Kerouac

The wheel of the quivering meat
conception
Turns in the Void expelling human beings,
Pigs, turtles, frogs, insects, nits,
Mice, Lice, Lizards, rats, roan
Racing horses, poxy bucolic pig tics,
Horrible unnameable lice of vultures
Murderous attacking dog-armies
Of Africa, Rhinos roaming in the jungle
Vast boars and huge gigantic bull
Elephants, rams, eagles, condors,
Pones and Porcupines and Pills-
All the endless conception of living
beings
Gnashing everywhere in Consciousness
Throughout the ten directions of space
Occupying all the quarters in and out,
From supermicroscopic no-bug
To huge Galaxy Lightyear Bowell
Illuminating the sky of one mind


And then they got him - Jack Kerouac

The Oil of the Olive
Bittersweet taffies
Bittersweet cabbage
Cabbage soup made right
A hunk a grass
In a big barrel
Stunk but Good

163rd Chorus - Jack Kerouac

Left the Tombs to go
  and look at the
  Millions of cut glass-
-a guy clocking them,
as you look you swallow,
you get so fat
you can't leave the building
-stand straight,
don't tip over, breathe
in such a way yr fatness
deflates, go back to
               the Tombs,
ride the elevator-
             he tips over again'
gazes on the Lights,
eats them, is clocked,
    gets so fat
    he can leave elevator,
has to stand straight
and breathe out the fat -
-hurry back to the Tombs

242nd Chorus - Jack Kerouac

The sound in your mind
   is the first sound
      that you could sing

If you were singing
   at a cash register
       with nothing on yr mind-

But when that grim reper
   comes to lay you
       look out my lady

He will steal all you got
   while you dingle with the dangle
   and having robbed you

Vanish
     Which will be your best reward,
     T'were better to get rid o
     John O'Twill, then sit a mortying
     In this Half Eternity with nobody
    To save the old man being hanged
    In my closet for nothing
    And everybody watches
    When the act is done-

Stop the murder and the suicide!
   All's well!
      I am the Guard

Jack Kerouac: I'm Sick of Myself...I'm Not a Courageous Man

 A rare interview of Jack Kerouac in French (with english subtitles) for a Canadian television channel in which he explains how he came up with the name that described the literary movement of his generation... the Beat Generation. Kerouac also talks about the differences with the beat generation and the Bohemians and when asked about himself, he admits being sick of himself, although he does think of himself as a great writer...

Jack Kerouac on the Steve Allen show  1959

 

 Jack Kerouac Reads On the Road

This 28-minute recitation was apparently recorded on an acetate disc in the 1950s but thought lost for decades. It re-surfaced during the late 1990s. Enjoy.

You may also like this playlist "Music in On The Road." https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJ...

Tibetan Uprising Day 2022

 

Each year on March 10th, Tibetans and allies around the world commemorate Tibetan Uprising Day and remember the courageous Tibetans who took a stand against Chinese imperialism. It is a symbol in Tibetan history, marking the day in 1959 when tens of thousands of Tibetans  rose up in protest against China’s occupation of Tibet. This revolt was preceded by several deliberate acts of the Chinese which deprived the Tibetans of freedom to follow their religious practices, customs and traditions.The all-enveloping subjugation, discrimination and harassment resulted in pent up frustrations amongst the peaceful Tibetans which burst out in the form of an unprecedented uprising.

 63 years after the first uprising, Tibet’s culture is in peril with more than 800,000 Tibetan children separated from their families and at risk of losing their connection to their native culture. The destruction of Buddhist monuments and the crackdown in Drakgo has been likened to the Cultural Revolution. Dozens of Tibetans who have spread news about this tragedy have been arrested. 

The vast landlocked Tibet is a region in Central Asia inhabited mainly by the Tibetan people. For thousands of years Tibet was a self-governing, independent entity with its’ own language, script, costumes, traditions & religion. Being an independent Buddhist nation in the Himalayas, Tibet had little contact with the rest of the world. It existed as a rich cultural storehouse of the Mahayana and Vajrayana teachings of Buddhism.Religion is a unifying theme among the Tibetans, as is their language, literature, art, and world view developed by living at high altitudes, under harsh environments.

After  Chinas newly established communist government  took over Tibet in 1949- 50, in an invasion of unprovoked aggression, a treaty was imposed on the Tibetan  government acknowledging  sovereignty over Tibet  but recognising the Tibetan governments autonomy with respect to Tibets internal affairs. But as the Chinese consolidated their control, they repeatedly violated the treaty, nut since it was signed under duress anyway  the agreement was already in  violation of international law. In open resistance and with simmering resentment growing it led to the first major popular uprising against ChinsesE rule. 

On 10 March - in Lhasa in 1959, the Dalai Lama was supposed to attend a dance troupe performance, but he was told he could not bring his bodyguards.Fearing his abduction to Beijing soon thousands of Tibetans surrounded the Norbulinka summer palace of their spiritual leader, in order to protect him from being taken away by the Chinese army. From Tibet then aged 23 he reached the safety of India having escaped on foot disguised as a soldier in a gruelling 15- day journey over the Himalayan mountains, traveling by night and hiding by day. where he has maintained a government-in-exile in the foothills of the Himalayas ever since.

On March 12, 1959, two days after the National Uprising Day, thousands of women gathered on the ground called Dri-bu-Yul-Khai Thang in front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa. This demonstration marks Tibetan Women’s Uprising Day. March 12th was the catalyst that sparked the Tibetan Women’s Movement for independence.

Tibetan rebels launched an attack on March 19, but Chinese troops captured the city on March 25.The uprising was vastly outnumbered and met with extreme force, and brutal suppression, some 87,000 Tibetans were killed, and some 100,000 fled as refugees.resulting in the beginning of increasingly harsh  Chinese rule over Tibet.Members of the Dalai Lama's bodyguard  remanng in Llasha were disarmed and publicly executed  or arrested, and monasateries and temples around the city were looted or destroyed.

The Chinese government dissolved the Tibetan  government headed by the Dalai Lama on March 28, 1959, and the Panchen Lama assumed control of the Tibetan government on April , 1959. The Malayan government condemned the Chinese governments use of military force against the Tibetans on March 20, 1959, and Prime Minister Nehru of India expressed support for the Tibetan rebels on March 30, 1959. 

Prior to its invasion, Tibet had a theocratic government of which the Dalai Lama was the supreme religious and temporal head. The Chinese media routinely try to illustrate a narrative of oppression  being commonplace in Tibet  before their invasion and painting the Dalai Lama  as a terrorist and dangerous seperatist to justify their occupation, stating they freed the pEople of Tibet from "misery" and " slavery" under a feudal serfdom controlled by the Dalai Lama and his followers to try and distract us from the human rights abuses that China committed.Though it was no Shangri-La like paradise not only are their contradictions in this false narrative of serfdom and oppression that China likes to portray, most scholars have soundly rejected it and are moving away from this idea. 

Tibetans since the invasion were treated as second-class citizens in their own country. They are routinely kicked out of their homes and sent to townships so the government can ‘develop’ occupied spaces '. Over 6,000 monasteries have been destroyed and those that have survived are not being used by monks, but ironically, are used as spiritual attractions for – mostly Chinese – tourists while they tighten Tibetans’ religious freedom. Areas that were once spiritual spots and pure nature are used as nuclear waste sites. Worst of all, Tibetans do not have freedom of speech, religion or movement. Many passports have been recalled and the borders are closed, trapping Tibetans in the country as their culture and land diminishes.Chines replaced Tibetan as the official language, Despite official pronouncements, there has been no practical change in this policy. Secondary school children are taught all classes in Chinese. Athough English is a requirement for most university courses, Tibetan school children cannot learn English unless they forfeit study of their own language. In addition the Dalai Lama says 1.2 million people  have been  killed under Chinese rule, though China disputes this. 

 

The international community has since reacted with shock to the events that have ocurred in Tibet. The question of Tibet was raised at the U.N General Assembly between 199 and 1967. Three resolutions have been passed by the General Assembly condemning China's violations of human rights in Tibet and callIng upon China to respect their right including their right to self determination. 

The following website https://tibetuprising.org/  is a useful one to view a timeline of Tibetan resistance over the decades. Large scale protests across Tibet took place in the 1980s and in 2008, as Beijing prepared to host the Olympic Games. China's  response left 227 dead, over 1,000 injured and 6,810 in prison.  Some have since been released.  Some are still behind bars.  Some didn’t live to tell the tale. A few not only survived until release but then evaded surveillance and managed to escape into exile.

At least 155 Tibetans, young and old, monks and nuns, have self immolated since 2009 calling for the freedom of Tibet and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama..With no end in sight to the Chinese occupation of their motherland, the Tibetans have been forced to choose the path of self-immolations as an individual form of non-violent protest to highlight their plight and sufferings. The gravity of the present day situation can be understood from the recent action of  Tsewang Norbu, a 25 year old popular Tibetan singer attempted self immolation on February 25 in front of the Potala Palace in Llasha and was subsequently reported dead,  taking the number who have self immolated to 158.

Usually, protesters on this day end up in detention. Some known as potential protesters are also arrested in advance as a cautionary measure, simply meaning that innocents are imprisoned in absence of any crime. In some cases, Tibetan protesters in Tibet have been also shot on spot. Even Tibetans residing abroad are routinely locked up in some countries before March 10, on the pretext of avoiding disturbances between the host countries and Chinese Government.  Yes, March 10 is the most restricted day in Tibet. Several thousand of Chinese security force are usually sent throughout Tibet Autonomous Region. To cope with this, young and educated Tibetans have adopted new strategies to combat Beijing’s policies, always using non-violence. They of course use social media, a toll that reveal itself to be effective and efficient in waking up consciences in the world at large

Recent evidence shows that there has been a significant increase of Tibetan political  prisoners since the protests, and torture has become more widespread than ever. In 2015, Tibet Watch put the testimony of seven torture survivors in front of the UN. Voices that China tried to silence now told tales of barbaric cruelty and incredible bravery.  They told of the unbreakable spirit of Tibetan resistance. Please see the following link for more details www.tibetwatch.org/blood-on-the-snows 

At the moment the citizens  of Tibet do not have anything that resembles any form of basic human rights. Children and adults can dissapear at any time. To practice their religion means they will face prison, torture and death. The people are prevented from displaying their banned flag, or in joining mass protests, but Tibetans still assert their desire for freedom in the face of severe repression. 

Today this struggle  is being carried forward by a generation of Tibetans whose parents and even grandparents do not remember a life free of Chinese rule. Tibetans’ spiritual leader has pleaded with the Chinese government to make Tibet truly autonomous so people can have freedom of speech, religion, and movement. The Tibetan people should be allowed to retain their right to protest and allow their struggle and dscontentment with China and its illegal occupation and continued mistreatment of Tibetans to be recognised.Even though the plight of the Tibetans does not seem to garner the media attention it once recieved todays anniversary still marks  years of oppression and exploitation.The fact remains that China still occupies Tibet in much  the same way that Western empires of the nineteenth and twentieth century occcupied large parts of Africa and Asia. Chinas claims to have ' liberated 'Tibet rings hollow,and the continuing Tibetan resistance represents a legitimate important call for self-determination. 

 Despite being stripped of virtually all freedoms of their identity, Tibetans have continued to preserve their rich and diverse culture and traditions. The struggle is still not over yet. Tibetans are still fighting for basic human rights, such as the freedom to practice their religion, follow their own religious leaders, learn their own language in schools, being able to openly speak Tibetan, and live freely in their own country. 

On this annual day of resistance and hope for the Tibetan people, I pay tribute to the extraordinary courage of Tibetans resisting in Tibet, and all Tibetans, past and present who have courageously resisted China’s violent colonial rule I  urge citizens around the world to join me in calling for an end to China’s occupation of Tibet, stand in solidarity with the Tibetan people, to show them that they are not alone and that the world is responding to their calls for freedom . Call our governments to action to challenge China's repression in Tibet and to unite in action to help resolve the Tibet crisis, and hold Xi Jinping and the Chinese government accountable for it extreme and violent policies against the Tibetan people, and .commit to securing the promise of human rights and religious freedom for the people of Tibet and support their ongoing  struggle.