Continuing the Olympic theme, a song remembering the victims of Bhopal.
The groundswell is growing in London agaist the elitism and commercialisation of the London 2012 Olympics, dubbed in some quarters ' The rip off Olympics.' One commentator has captured the mood:
In Bhopal nearly 200 survivors of the word's biggest industrial disaster have burned effigies of Lord Coe and an Indian official in protest against Dow chemicals sponsorship of the games.
A FACE IN THE SAND - Manoj Jacob
A face in the sand
A quivering hand.
Does anybody know
Or understand?
What blew through the air,
A bloody nightmare
it twisted Bhopal
Beyond repair.
A spine inclined
A jaw you can't find,
Eyes that can't see
That death has been kind.
Legs that can't walk,
Tongues that can't breathe,
Lives frozen in rock.
Chorus:
Hey long arm of the law, slip out of pockets of gold;
Filled by the promises of riches untold.
Those pockets have loopholes, those pockets of gold;
It's time you found out our lives can't be sold.
Is justice no more?
Can money buy all,
Make the righteous fall
And look the other way?
Can the guilty walk free,
Screw the judiciary,
kill ourright to be
And call it democracy?
(Repeat chorus)
They say justice delayed
Is justice denied?
Been 25 years
But the tears haven't dried.
The fight will go on
Till justice is won,
And the face in the sand
Won't fade till we're done.
(Repeat chorus)
A face in the sand
A quivering hand.
Does anybody know
Or understand?
A spine inclined,
A jaw you can't find,
Eyes that can't see
That death has been kind
DROP DOW CHEMICALS AS PARTNERS FOR LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES
Organisers of the London Olympics 2012, boast it will be the most environmentally friendly ever. But with all the medals coming from one huge polluting hole in the ground in Utah, it could be more greenwash than green. An investigation by People & Power into alleged violation of environmental standards by a key sponsor of the London 2012 Olympics. With a little over one month to go untill the games, criticisms of the games sponsors are reaching crescendo. The concept of 'sustainability' will need to stand up to scrutiny if London is to truly achieve its vision of 'the greenest games ever.' How can this happen before any contrarian voices are drowned out by the cheers of Olympic crowds, hovever, is up to us.
The Great Olympic Greenwash (an investigation).
Related:-
Vote Rio Tinto for Greenwash Gold
Rio Tinto is the only Olympic supplier that was able to start production without having an audit in place, according to the watchdog Committe for a Sustainable London 2012. War on Want executive director John Hilary has added ' Rio Tinto's record should disqualify it from being the Olympics medals supplier. No companies should be allowed to wrap themselves in the Olympic flag if they duck their responsibilities over human rights or environmental abuse.
Some words that arrived in the library 10 minutes ago.
A feather lands softly
upon a wave caught by a fierce wind,
turns into many trees with flowing branches
beyond the warm breeze of terror..
Offers no explanation
follow's earth's ripple,
delivers hope, beyond anger
caused by dark murderous intent..
Sweet invocations
of mystery and mischief
flowing with the scent of memory,
a distant hum, a consistent drum.
Catching breath, unravelling thought
treading softly among inner sanctuary
hiding from danger, finding portions of calm
some kind of nourishment, before tomorrows storm.
The times are hard, and the land lies dark
but a hungry sap will always rise
there are old traditions that carry the truth of seasons
in tandem with the longing of present reason.
Paradise does not need to be lost
each day we make is tailor made,
Albion, Gwalia it's fragrance sweet,
calling, calling, calling.
The abhorrent noise of the Watchkeeper 'drones' or 'umnanned aerial vehicles' being flown round above Aberprt and other parts of Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire, Powys and North Pembrokeshire continues. While this constant buzzing - often for hours on end, may no be as piercing and sudden as that of low military jets in mid Wales, the purpose is just as sinister and a constant reminder of how Wales is being abused to further the cause of government sponsored 'remote killing.'
The hateful noise of these cruel machines makes anyone on the ground below wonder:
Do the parents of children playing in their gardens, on the beach or walking on the coast path know that above them, the weapons company Qinetiq is developing a machine to spy on and target victioms in Afghanistan - or wherever else our Government decides to use them?
Is the spying equipment being tried out on the people and properties in Wales?
Why were we told at the Airspace Use ' Public Consultation' that the drones would make no noise? That was patently untrue.
Over £26 million of our money has been spent on developing Parc Aberporth. Fewer than 39 people are employed there to test these offensive killing and spying machines. What a waste of money - we could invest public money in much better jobs for local people, energy efficiency measures for homes and public services.
Is this what we want for Ceredigion and Wales?
We are also told that in future these Watchkeeper drones may be armed. We are constantly reminded of how precise are drones. This means is that there is a high probability that a drone hits the target that it was aiming at. It says nothing about whether the target was the right one to begin with, even if one concedes that a government has the right to target and kill anyone it pleases - as judges jury and executioner.
Let our elected representatives in Wales think again - and think hard. There really are better, more environmentally and morally sustainable ways of investing the fruits of or precious labours on behalf of our children and grandchildren
Thanks to CND Cymru from where above article was borrowed.
Amnesty International and my local group have been campaigning for the last few years, with others, concerning the use of Parc Aberporth near Cardian as a devlopment and testing site for inmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) commonly referred to as Drones. Drones are used by Israel against innocent civilians in Gaza and their use constitutes human rights abuse. This coming Saturday 23 June Cymdeihas y Cymod, Fellowship of Reconciliation in Wales, will hold a service of repentance by the drones testing site in the farm yard of Hendre farm, Blaenannerch, SA43 2AN, at 3 0'clock. I will be there under our group banner, join us if you want.
For further details and directions please see
Furthermore Drones are immoral and intolerable and are vehicles for spying. As remote killing machines they represent a further and cruel devolution in human behaviour, escalating conflicts causing fear and resentment and contribute nothing towards any long term solution.
They kill innocent civilians indiscriminately and are dehumanising for the operator as well as target victims and those under surveillance. Operated by satellite, they escalate the use of space as a theatre of and platform for killing and war. They are big business across the world and are certain to herald the development (marketing & sale) of 'anti-UAV weapons'.
Military drone attacks are calculated by some to kill 50 civilians for every combatant killed. However, a senior administration official has said that the number of civilians killed in drone strikes in Pakistan under Mr Obama was in 'single digits'.. This is because the US military counts all military age males in a strike zone as combatants ... men, women and children can all be considered 'terrorists'unless 'there is explicit intelligence postumously proving them innocent'.
50,000 people live uner the new 500 sq mile UAV fly zone. Two drones crshed in the first months of flying out of Parc Aberporth so there are serious local concerns about safety. The Welsh Assembly has not carried out any public assessments drone flying over Wales. No infomation was made available about crashes or known accidental fatalities.
The type of drone flown at Parc Aberporth (Hermes?Watchkeeper) has been used by the Israeli military to target civiliands during its attacks on Gaza.
The European Convention on Human Rights makes public organisations responsible for not invading our privacy. Watckeeper drones carry powerful cameras and other tracking equipment for surveillance, monitoring and reconnaissence exercises. Welsh Assembly Government (Wag) has not given assurances that they will act within the law on this issue.
LIVING IN THE NO FLY ZONE - Harry Rogers
LIVING IN THE NO FLY ZONE HEAR THE SOUND OF A DRONE NEIGHBOURS MAKE A GROAN BEEN LEFT ON HIS OWN
HAPPENING MORE AND MORE LIVING ON THE FLOOR UNDERNEATH A DOOR THIS IS MODERN WAR
DON'T WANT NO UCAV BOMBING YOU AND ME DON'T WANT NO RFID TRACKING YOU AND ME DON'T WANT NO CTTV WATCHING YOU AND ME ALL WE WANT YOU SEE IS A COUNTRY THAT IS FREE
SOLDIERS HAVE ALL GONE BUT THIS WAR CARRIES ON THE CEASEFIRE IS A CON IT'S OUR ARMEGEDDON
DON'T WANT NO UCAV BOMBING YOU AND ME DON'T WANT NO RFID TRACKING YOU AND ME ALL WE WANT YOU SEE IS A COUNTRY THAT IS FREE
At this moment in time many people in the UK are enjoying the UEFA Euro 2012. But also happening is the fate of a young Palestinian fotballer named Mahmoud Sarsak, he is currently in a critical condition after 89 consecutive days of hunger strike. This follows his detention under 'administrative detebtion' procedures, where he is being held by Israel without charge and without trial. He has been detained since July 2009, when he was detained at a checkpoint as he travelled from his home in Gaza to join the national Palestinian squad for a match at Balata in the Northern West Bank. In their first home international last year, an Olympic qualifying match against Thailand, the Palestinian team was without eight key players, all of whom had been refused permission to travel from Gaza to Ramallah.
The 25 year old had once hoped to push the ranking of his national team back to a reasonable standing. If Palestinians ever deserve to be called fanatics, it is in relation to their love of soccer.Their struggle to play it, is linked with their struggle for freedom. Palestines ranking at 164th in the world is testament not to any lack of passion for the game, but to Israel's constant attempts at destroying even this pastime, and passion.
Growing up in refugee camps it is through sports like football that many Palestinian youth are enpowered.
Earlier this year, the UN determined that Israel's policies in the occupied territories amounted to a violation of the UN's convention prohibiting apartheid.
Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Director, Philip Luther on Mahmoud said
' After almost three years in detention, the Israeli authorities have had ample opportunity to charge al-Sarsak with a recognisable criminal offence and bring him to trial. They have failed to do so, and instead repeatedly affirmed his detention order on the basis of secret infomation withheld from him and his Lawyer.'
He has also been denied proper access to medical treatment repeatedly during his hunger strike. For someone on the verge of death, this amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment in violation of Israel's international obligation.
Time is not on his side and the matter gets urgent by each day, the international community has daily been speaking out, with Eric Cantona, Red Card against Racism and the FIFA President all speaking out against his continual detention.
You can support Mahmoud today by following this link, and try and help release him so that he can return to his family and friends. Asking your MP to make urgent representations to the Foreign office now.
"This new type of man. . . turns his interest away from life, persons, nature , ideas- in short from everything that is alive; he transforms all life into things, including himself and the manifestations of human faculties of reasoning, seeing, hearing, tasting, loving. Sexuality becomes a technical skill . . . feelings are flattened and sometimes substituted for by sentimentality; joy, the expression of intense aliveness, is replaced by 'fun' or excitement; and whatever love and tenderness man has directed towards machines and gadgets. The world becomes a sum of lifeless artefacts; from synthetic food to synthetic organs, the whole man becomes part of the total machinery that he controls and is simultaneously controlled by. He has no plan, no goal for life , except doing what the logic of technique determines him to do. He aspires to make robots as one of the greatest acievements of his technical mind, and some specialists assure us that the robot will hardly be distinguished from living men. This achievement will not seem so astonishing when man himself is hardly distinguishable from a robot. The world of life has become a world of 'no-life'; persons have become 'nonpersons', a world of death."
Reprinted from
' The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness'
Jonathan Cape , 1974.
Incidentally this blog is 3 years old today, so thanks to all who have dropped by, left a comment, shown encouragement and to all the other blogers who have given me inspiration, you know who you are.
Am beginning to run out of steam, but will plough on for a bit. Time to lose control.
On Friday 1 June 2012, Cymdeithias y Cymod ( the Fellowship of Reconciliation) launched a petition against army recruitment in schools at the Temple of Peace in Cardiff. The UK is currently the only country in the European union and in NATO to recruit 16 year olds to the armed forces. The petition on the National Assembly's website declares:
" We call on the National Assembly of Wales to urge the Welsh Government to legislate to stop the armed forces from going into schools in Wales to recruit children to join."
Arfon Rhys, Secretary of Cymdeithas y Cymod, said : " The UN Committe on the Rights of the Child has aked the UK to consider stopping the recruitment of children aged 16 to the armed forces and not to target children from ethnic and deprived backgrounds. This is why we will submit the petition to the Assembly on United Nations Day on 24 October. Cymdeitas y Cymod is an organisation that on the basis of our faith believes in the power of love and non-violent ways of resolving conflict in our world."
The petition is also supported by CND Cymru, the youth branch of Plaid Cymru, and a whole host of social organisations.
This morally indefensible practice should not be allowed to continue. Education is one of the Welsh Assembly's, key areas of responsibility, so here is a good reason to raise the matter of MOD recruitment programmes aimed at minors. Children should never be used and manipulated in this manner. Schools should be a place of learning and education. There is absolutely no place for militarisation in schools or in association with schools. It is immoral and unjust. In a world of conflict and exploitation, I feel children could do with more engagement with the issues of peace and social justice.
If you would like to sign the petition you can go here
A few days ago I was down in Hay-On -Wye for its annual literary festival, listening to the writer Terry Pratchett, when he was asked about the news of Ray Bradbury's death. Oh no I sighed, another one gone, a writer whose many works I knew were waiting reappraisal back home.
His most famous novel written in 1953 was Farenheit 451 which painted apicture of a dystopian future America, where books were outlawed and burned. The books title gives the temperature in which paper will burst into flame.
Ray Douglas Badbury was an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, poet and mystery writer who with the afformentioned book plus the Martian Chronicles (1950) and The Illustrated Man (1951),Something Wicked this way Comes, Ris for Rocket, The Golden Apples of the Sun ..... and many many others altered the landscape of fantasy forever.He has become known and celebrated as one of the greatest 20th Century writers of speculative fiction. Dark and chilling full of atmoshpere, once read his words will stay imprinted on your mind, his imagination, transformative and inspirational. He once said ' I'm not a science fiction writer, I've written only one book of science fiction ( farenheit 451). All the others are fantasy. Fantasies are things that can't happen, and science fiction is about things that can happen.' Well if you read his books well a lot of what he wrote about has actually happened, so who knows.
Famously distrustful of the internet, I think he would have been amused by the many tributes to him appearing across this forboding planet of ours. He was also an unrestrained idealist, who disliked totalitarianism, did not bow down to political correctness or political ideologies, but did believe in hope and unfettered imagination.
So thanks Ray,may you rest in peace .
And this is where we went, I though,
Now here, now there, upon the grass
Some forty years ago.
I had returned and walked along the streets
And saw the house where I was born
And grown and had myendless days.
The days being short now, simply I had come
To gaze and look and stare upon
The thoughts of that once endless maze of afternoons.
But most ofall I wished to find the places where I ran
As dogs do run before or after boys,
The paths put down by Indians or brothers wiseand shift
Pretending at a tribe.
I came to the ravine,
I half slid down the path
A man with greying hai but seeming supple thoughts
And saw the place was empty.
Fools: I thought. O; boys of this new year,
Why don't you know the Abyss waits you here?
Ravines are special fine and lovely green
And secretive and wandering with apes and thugs
And bandit bees that steal from flowers to give to trees
Caves echoe here and creeks for wading after loot:
A water-strider, crayfish, precious stone
Or long-lost rubber boot-
It is a natural treasure house, so why the silent place?
What's happened to our boys that they no longerrace
And stand then still to contemplate Christ's handiwork:
His clear blood bled in syrups from the lovely wounded trees?
Why only bees and blackbird winds and bending grass?
No matter. Walk. Walk, look, and sweet recall.
I came upon an oak where once when I was twelve
I had climbed up and screamed for Skip to get me down
It was a thousand miles to earth. I shut my eyes and yelled.
My brother, richly compelled to mirth, gave shouts of laughter
And scaled up to rescue me.
"What were you doing there?" he said.
I did not tell. Ratherb drip me dead,
But I was there to place a note within a squirrel nest
On which I'd written some old secret thing now long forgot.
Now in the green ravine of middle years I stood
Beneath that tree. Why, why, I thought my God,
It's not so high. Why did I shriek?
It can't be more than fifteen feet above. I'll climb it handily.
And did.
And squatted like an aging ape alone and thanking God
That no one saw this ancient man at antics.
Clutched grotesquely to the bole.
But then, ah God, what awe.
The squirrel's hole and long-lost nest were there.
I lay upon the limb a long while, thinking.
I drank in all the leaves and clouds and weathers
Going by as mindless
As the days.
What, what, what if? I thought. But no. Some forty years beyond:
The note I'd put: It's surely stolen off by now.
A boy or screech-owl's pilfered, read and tattered it.
It's scattered to the lake like pollen, chestnut leaf
Of smoke of dandelion that breaks along the wind of time...
No. No.
Discussion with Ray Bradbury concerning Farenheit 451
The anger that breaks a man into boys,
that breaks the boys down into equal birds,
and the bird, then into tiny eggs;
the anger of the poor
owns one smooth oil against two vinegars.
The anger that breaks the tree down into leaves,
and the leaf down into different-sized buds,
and the buds into infinitely fine grooves;
the anger of the poor
owns two rivers against a number of seas.
The anger that breaks the good down into doubts,
and doubt down into three matching arcs,
and the are, then, into unimaginable tombs;
the anger of the poor
owns one piece of steel against two daggers.
The anger that breaks the soul down into bodies'
the body down into different organs,
and the organ into reverberating octaves of thought;
the anger of the poor
owns one deep fire against two craters.
On Saturday June 1st 1985. The combined forces of the state gathered to attack several hundred members of a peace convoy heading to the 14th Stonehenge festival in Wiltshire. Their was carnage and mayhem as the marginalised and dispossessed were brutally targeted and beaten by a police force taking orders from the Thatcher Government the most repressive and right wing Government of the 20th Century. A horrible time, a bit like today, where people who lived on societies edges were attacked for being different. In what has become known as the Battle of the Beanfield, people were beaten and bloodied because they refused to conform or bow down to a rotten system, and had decided to try and live by their own set of alternative values. Who simply wanted to gather under the stones to celebrate their lives, sing and dance. The intensity of the violence was shocking. with women and children being forced out of their homes, and in some cases whilst still inside their homes, they were savagely ripped apart. The overall cost of this operation was a staggering £5 miillion. The media of the time played their part too, with footage of the most extreme police violence being subsequently lost, and the subsequent demonising of the traveller lifestyle. We should never forget, this bitter bit of our social history. It marked a turning point after wapping, and the miners strike in the supression of our civil liberties. A dark day for justice and freedom.Echoes can be seen in recent history, the eviction of the residents of Dale Farm.
Firstly, thanks to Republic http://www.republic.org.uk/
They have been the rallying point for many republican sympathisers up and down the country. You might not have heard them mentioned much in the mainstream printed media, or on the television, due to excessive the excessive propogandering going on at the moment. All we have is spin,spin, and more spin.
Personally in a time of extreme poverty and austerity, I think it is pretty obscene to be forking out £32 million for the farce that is the Queens anniversary celebrations. Apparently 69% support the upcoming celebrations, this is because they never get to see the other side of the coin, fed daily images of good news of this archaic family. like the Olympics people are force fed to exhaustion point, but this weekend up and down the country their will be many who will not be celebrating, and will be hosting their own celebrations.
A key focus point will be down in old London town, details of which I'm posting here.
Jubilee Protest - 3 June 2012
The Thames Pageant is the key event in the Queen's jubilee celebrations. The pageant involves 1000 boats travelling in procession down the Thames from Putney to Tower Bridge, with the Queen and other parasitic members of her family on the lead boat.
We will be staging a major protest at the Tower Bridge end of the route, where banners and placards will be displayed and speeches will be made. This is a unique opportunity to make a bold statement about our opposition to the monarchy and to promote the republican cause.
Here are the details
Date:
3rd June 2012
Time:
12 noon till 5pm, with speeches from 1:30 pm. We'll be there from mid morning, so come and join us if you want to make a full day of it or want to help out.
Venue:
On the South Bank of the Thames, near Tower Bridge and City Hall.
As I've said their will be many other protests in cities across the Country, it is not all bunting and jubilation, despite what the B.B.C and the rest of those hand in hand with the monarchy are saying. So I hope they correct the balance against the pomp and privelege and inherited wealth of the biggest benefit cheats in Britain. Visitors to my blog might get the idea that I'm against everything, this is not the case. I do think humanity still is rather strange when we still have to bow down to our so called masters, but I do believe in fairness, justice and equality and it is these themes that I try to promote .
S'sssh........ don't wake her. She's pretty vacant anyway.
Anyway here's a quote from Aneurin Bevan
"Royalty, in the propoganda apparatus that it is, has four functions; to foster the illusion of national unity; to prescribe the hierearchy of honours and titles by which representatives of the workers are subjected to the most insidious forms of corruption, to supply a fertile source of diversion, and above all, to intervene at times of acute political crisis and exert its influence in favour of the existing social order."
and here's a tune
When the sheep go marching in - The Queen Elizabeth anti Diamond Jubilee song 2012
" Let the Globe's audiences and Habima performers squirm in discomfort and wonder what will happen, let them feel for a few hours what most Palestinians experience on a daily basis."
Habima is performing at the Globe Theatre as part of the Globe to Globe festival despite protests from over 30 actors, directors and playwrights, including the founding artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe Mark Rylance, and actors Emma Thompson and David Calder, who signed an open letter in March condemning the Globe for its invitation.
Habima has a history of performing for illegal settlements in the West Bank, and Palestinians living in the West Bank are prevented from attending due to Israel's policies of ethnic and religious segregation.
Sarah Colbrne, Director of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said " We are asking people to boycott Habima in protest against their support of illegal settlements.
Being an artist does not remove your responsibility as a uman being to stand up against oppression. And Habima have been complicit in supporting that oppression by performing in theatres built on land illegally occupied by Israel, and performances which exclude Palestinians from attending.
Protest Habima at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre from 6 p.m 28/5/ - Tues May 29th
Why we say "no" to Habima at the Globe - Miriam Margolyse
Protestors holdinga banner and forcefully removed from Habima performance
So the Olympic flame trundles on through the country. Yesterday it passed through my home town, here in West Wales.It seems the country has gone mad. About 7,000 or so gathered to watch it pass, (from all accounts in a matter of minutes) quite a lot for a small town.For some people the recession does not seem to be happening, as this government slashes benefits, attacks the poor!
Sure there are tales of courage and fortitude, but overall I just don't get it. Crowds gather in excitement and delight wherever the torch appears, following the smell of spin and propoganda. It has an air of craziness about it, people whooping, people crying. Celebratng a torch that is on its way to London, where it will be used again as a symbol at the Olympics great spectacle of wealth.
I came home to my garden before the flame actually arrived ( heard the cries, of joy and hysteria) but what I saw in the town was blatant publicising for the Olympics main sponsors - Coke a Cola, B.T, Samsung and Lloyds/T.S. B Plc, McDonalds, the epitomy of junk and greedy captitalistic endeavor, their only common dominator is their thirst for profit. Corporate advertising latched on to a cavalcade of vehicles.
And coke, not really a healthy drink that I would associate with sport. As for the participation of Dow Chemicals..... the mind simply boggles, have people simply forgotten the Bhopal disaster that killed 15,000 people. And the people whoop and the people cheer.
The Olympics are going to cost an estimated £11billion - more than the Tory governments latest cut to the welfare budget. So lets celebrate our austerity.... hip hip hooray.
The relay is supposed to 'promote peace and make the world a better place' according to the International Olympic Committe President Jacques Rogge - but at such enormous cost. A true spirit of international co-operation would have seen us bailing out the Greeks, the originators of the Olympics, letting them host the games permanently and giving them our £15 billion.
And who invented the modern torch relay - the bloody Nazis.... Torches and flames had a strong link to Nazi ideology, they were used as a key part in Leni Reifenstahl's Nazi propoganda documentary Olympia.
They used the 1936 Olympics and the torch relay as a way of spreading their racist message of hate.
Today I feel this event is being used as a mass distractive action, to mask over the current problems we have in our country. I do not belittle peoples happiness, but think that it's all a bit of a con. At least some people will make something out of the games, by selling their torches on, with some perhaps being given back to charity.
In my garden it felt like I was living on another planet, as I heard the crowds roar, down the road from me. We have been experiencing some exceptionally good weather. But as the mass delusion rolls on I remain, deeply cynical. Will the flag waving, clapping and shedding a few tears of national pride continue, yes, many international groups are eagerly anticipating the event, but many people in London themselves are searching for ways to avoid the Olympics entirely, perhaps this hopeful distraction give us some kind of illusion that we can beat this austerity...... and its the Jubilee coming up soon too. No I'm not buying it, I simply don't believe the hype. But at least the Sun is shining.
' But it is in relation to individual human beings that Detachment is most necessary of all. The wise man spends his life running away. But luckily he can run away without moving a step. We are all - men and women alike - teased by the blue-bottle flies who want to lay their eggs. These are the people who have never learnt and never could learn the art of detachment. They are blue-bottle flies - as my sister Phillipa says - and they want to lay their eggs; and they can only lay their eggs in carrion. Not one of us has carried in him, carrion in her; and the buzzing blue-bottles, among our fellows, smell this afar off, and fly towards it, and would fain settle upon it and lay their eggs. Here indeed, here most of all is it necessary to excercise the very magic of Detachment, that magic that makes it possible for you to be in one place - like the man seated on the naked stone by the flowing water - and yet to be in the heart of the flaming sun and at the circumference of the divine ether. For if you fail to exercise the magic of Detachment upon the blue-bottle fly who infest your road they will really lay their eggs - the eggs of the maggots of civilisation - in your soul. And then you will believe in the justifiability of vivisection; in the sacrosanct importance of private property; in the virtue of patriotic war; in slaughter-houses, in brothels, in slavery, and in the great, noble scientific, gregarious, loving, human, undetached art of - Advertisement. Rouseau was right. It is only by detaching yourself from human civilisation that you can live a life worthy of a living soul.'
Quotation Reprinted from John Cowper Powys A Record of Achievement - Derek Langbridge The Library Association, 1966
It's Shell's AGM today and despite huge profits they've still not stumped up the money to clean up two major spills in the Niger Delta. The pollution has ruined the lives of the millions who live there. Here Omotola, an actressfrom the Niger Delta explain why Shell must own up, pay up, calling on Shell's chief executive , Peter Vosey to take resposibility for the pollution in the area. Then sign Amnesty International's petition, http://amn.st/LiosFv
' Can we go on bowing and curtseying to people who are just like ourselves? We begin to wish that the Zoo should be abolished. That the royal animals should be given the run of some wider pasturage - a royal Whipsnade. Will the British Empire survive and will Buckingham Palace look as solid in 2034 as it does now? Words are dangerous things remember. A republic might be bought into being by a poem.'
Down in Plymouth at moment for grans 100th Birthday..... her name is May, so a little poem. Am I the only one in this city at the moment, who is not overjoyed with olympic torches and stuff..... a mass delusion seems to be taking place. Have been called a killjoy 3 times this morning already. Hey ho.
Bright Clouds
Bright clouds of may Shade half the pond. Beyond, All but one bay Of emerald Tall reeds Like criss-cross bayonets Where once a bird called, Lies bright as the sun No one heeds. The light wind frets And drifts the scum Of may blosson. Till the northern callsAgain Naughts to be done By birds or men. Still the may falls.
Ah Mr Albert Camus, see him up there, he did not smoke because it was a luxury or even pleasurable he smoked because it was just part of something he did. The writer is almost as famous for his love of Gauloises as he is for his novels. For Camus, smoking was not just a mere pastime; it was an act rich in symbolic undertones. He believed it was a subtle manner of self-expression, akin to a silent proclamation of one's existence.
Drawing from his words, it seems Camus viewed smoking as a silent yet profound assertion of one's being, reminiscent of a solemn vow made to oneself amidst the enveloping silence of the night. It was as if each puff was a whispered secret, a quiet affirmation of his presence in a vast, indifferent universe. In a world that often seemed void of meaning, the act of smoking for Camus appeared to be a personal ritual, a small but significant way to ground oneself amidst existential chaos.
He even named his cat Cigarette, Absurdity as philosophy, this was his way. He describes his whole philosophy in an essay The Myth of Sisyphus http://www.vahidnab.com/sisyphus.pdf
Despite several attacks of tuberculosis with which he was first diagnosed aged 17, an illness that had little or no hope of cure at the time and living in poverty he kept on smoking. For him life itself and therefore humanity was irrational, he was labelled an existentailist but he rejected this..
Albert Camus was born on the 7th of November 1913, in extreme poverty, in Mondovi, French ruled Algeria, to an illiterate mother who was partially deaf, who lost his father in the horror that was World War 1, despite tremendous disadvantages by the age of 44 he was collecting the Nobel Prize for literature.
On all accounts he was of a sensitive nature, a seeker of maximum unity. An admirer of revolutionary syndicalism, anarchists, conscientious objectors, and all manner of rebels. Standing against totalitarianism in the form of Stalinism and fascism, and was never afraid to speak his truth.
In 1934 he joined the Communist Party, but his relationship with the party was difficult and would remain ambivialent throughout his life. In 1934 he married Simone Hie, a morphine addict and in 1938 he became a journalist, writing for an anti-colonialist newspaper after dropping out of the University of Algiers.
He moved to Paris in 1940, looking for work with the leftist press, married again, to a pianist and mathematician named Francine Faure, and had two twins Catherine and Jean in September 1945,and found himself a teaching post. In 1943 he joined Combat a clandestine resistance cell, working underground, helping with smuggling activities and acts of sabotage.
He became the editor of Combat'smagazine in 1943 where he deveoped his philosophies and strong moral convictions, and it was during this period that he published works that extended his ideas. He wrote ' This heart within me I can feel, and I judge that it exists. This world I can touch, and I likewise judge that it exists. There ends all my knowledge, and the rest is construction.'
He became associated with the French Anarchist movement, and wrote for several anarchist publications like Le Libertaire,La Revolucian Proletarienneand Solidaidad Obrera.His real concerns were for the plight of the ordinary man, not just in France or in Algeria, a search for solidarity, a humanity that does not divide.
His novels. The Ousider (1942) and his anti-fascist allegory, The Plague (1947) and The Fall (1947) to his essay on revolt, The Rebel thatserved as powerful moral and philosophical critiques ofsociety have become pivotal texts for me to reach over the years
Though people of the left accused him off drifting away, because he strongly critisized elements of communist doctrine, he remained a man of the left.In 1949 he founded The Group for International Liasons with the Revolutionary Union Movement,through which he wanted to show the world the more positive aspects of surrealism and existentialism.He labelled nihilism as the most disturbing problem of the twentieth century,
In his essay The Rebel he paints a terryfying picture of ' how metaphysical collapse often ends in total negation and the victory of nihilsm, characterised by a profound hatred, pathological destruction and incalculable death. Another theme that remained with him was his pacifism.
And whatever your opinion of the man he became obsessed with the human condition and its many forms.He accepted it's contradictions, and that's good enough for me, just because life defies logic, and is irrational, does not mean it is less valuable or means that it does not need to be defended.
Towards the end of his life, human rights in particular were what essentially preoccupied him, and when the United Nations welcomed fascist Spain as a member under Franco he resigned from his work for UNESCO. He worked with imprisoned Algerians, and it was his persistent efforts 'to illuminate the problem of the human conscience in our time' were one of the main reasons he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957,in 1957 was awarded the Nobel Prize of Literature.
On 4 January, 1960, this writer, intellectiual, and philosopher skidded of the road in an absurdist car accident.and was killed instantly, he was buried in the Loumarin, Vacluss, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, France.
At the time his philosophical writings, which continued the themes explored in his novels - the absurdity of the human condition and the necessity of rebelling against it, were not popular with critics, but his words and their power live on. Does the realization of the absurd reguire suicide? " No" Camus answered it requires revolt. " The struggle itself is enough to fill a man's heart." Long have I been an admirer of this man who was not afraid to preach justice, to reconsider his stance, to take candour and reflect, to be as honest as he thought best .After all there is no authority but yourself. This great man, this visionary of the absurdity of life, who expressed so articulately that human life is rendered ultimately meaningless by the fact of death, his themes of the alienated stranger, or outsider, the rebel in revolt, tempered by his own experience, showed to us the readers, the individuals paths where we can truly be free. He has undoubtedly become one of the most profoundly original thinkers of the modern age. For him the urge to revolt was one of the ' essential dimensions' of the human race, seen in man's continuous struggle against the conditions of his existence, through solidarity and our shared humanity. It was his persistent efforts 'to illuminate the problem of the human conscience in our time' that were one of the main reasons he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, and I for one am very grateful to have discovered his enduring words, that continue to flow with inspiration.
So thanks Albert, whose ideas I have often found represented in the world around me, peppering them and illuminating them. He was also a goalkeeper of rare promisews a talented player who was often praised for his passion and courage. He was forced to give up football at the age of 17 after contracting tuberculosis. However, he remained a fan of the sport throughout his life. .
In the end he accepted lifes contradictions, he once remarked ' life is absurd and death renders it meaningless - for the individual. But mankind and its society are larger than one person'.
Right off to light myself a cigarette.
" Thus I draw from the absurd three consequences, which are my revolt, my freedom, and my passion" -
from, Albert Camus's famous celebrated essay The Myth of Sisyphus.
Today marks the anniversary of the Nabka ( Cataclysm). In human terms, on this day in 1948, saw the mass deportation of a million Palestinians from their cities and their villages, it saw the massacre of civilians, and the razing to the ground of hundreds of Palestinian villages.
Zionist forces used a terror campaign to expel 800, 000 Palestinians from their land. Today Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza strip, as well as pro-Palestinian supporters across the globe, will mark the 'catastrophe' and the inception of the State of Israel.Toaday is the Palestinians annual day of commemoration of this displacement. The vast majority of Palestinian refugees, both those outside the 1949 armistice lines at the wars' conclusion and those internally displaced, were barred by the newly declared state of Israel from their right to return to their homes or the reclaiming of their property, and in doing so Israel violated international law.
The Palestinian Authority has declared a general strike and mass rallies and marches are planned across the Palestinian Authority and in Arab cities in Israel. But today is also a day of celebation too in Gaza, because a deal has been reached where the hunger strike of thousands of Palestinian prisoners has ended, with Israeli authorities agreeing to concessions.With inmates currently being held under administrative detention being allowed for ther sentences to be renewable on the basis of new evidence. Also prisoners being held in solitary confienement will be allowed back to normal cells. So I guess a victory of sorts.
Unfortuantely there is no peace in stolen lands.... especially when people still cry for liberation and the right to return to their lands.
The above video is a story about a house and a woman - Sarah's mother died in 1998. Sara's father died soon after the Nabka, in 1952, leaving her mother to bring up eight young children. Aged 10 in 1948, Sara was the oldest daughter, so much of the upbrimnging of her brothers fell on her. Between 1967 and 1969, two of the brothers were arrested ad imprisoned. Sara's mother used to go daily to the main interrrogation center, the Moscobiyya, to ask about them. It was during one of these visits that sge got news that the Israeli army had surrounded the home. They were given 15 minutes to remove their belonging before the house was blown up. Then comes the most remarkable part- Sara's mother pitched a makeshift 'tent' on her land , and insisted on staying with her young children. Then stone by stone, she rebuilt her home. Of course the neighbours helped, also the children after school. But essentially it was her work, so onerous that her health was permanently affected. Other tragedies befall her but she remains firm in her faith in God and in the 'watan' (homeland), an inforgettable model to her children.
Sarah Oden speaks
"I am Sarah Ahmad Odeh. In 1948 I was about ten years old, and I remember how we left Lifta. In Lifta - the Jewish gangs began to attack the villages near Jerusalem, among them Lifta. They attacked us once, then a second time, but we didn't want to leave. Our home faced the Jaffa road, and all the firing was on it. So we left our house for a lower house, a little far from the Jews, and still the shooting followed us. My motheer was frightened for my brothers. She said to my father, 'Lets take them to a village near us so we shall be a little far from, the Jews'. He said, 'No, its impossible that I should leave my village. This is my village and my land. How can we leave?' She said, 'We wont take anything with us. Just the children. We'll take them away for a week until the shooting stops' - because all my brothers, all of us were young, and we were screaming. My father used to come and go through all the shooting, and he got wounded in his legs. He crawled on his hands and feet until he reached the house. He took us to another house. And still the shooting continued, night and day. Then they started to send shells, because our village, the old one, was on the road to Jaffa, and they took the Jaffa road and one side of Deir Yassin. They began to hit us with shells. And anyone who went outside of his house, they aimed at him and shot him. At that time they hit a Lifta coffee house and many people were killed. People wer maddened by the noise... so my mother convinced my father that we should leave for a week... ny father did not allow her even to take bread..."
This story and audio copyright Al Mahrig (the Levent) to contact Al Mashrig visit their website at http://almashriq.hiof.no/ Reproduced audio March 2011 by Lifta Society, http://www.liftasociety.org.all/ pictures blong to their rightful owners. Contact if you have any questions, or concerns.
Remember 64 years after the Nabka, Palestinians still have no state and no equality. Refugee camps still exist all over the world and a majority of Palestinians live in the diaspora. Against their will, the Nabka has divided the Palestinian people between Palestine and diaspora, between Gaza and the West Bank, between those who hold a refugee identification card and who don't. Still searching for dignity. Rememberance acts as resistance to a country that still tries to bury and hide history.
Dier Yassin.... ghosts of massacre
Al Nabka - A poem - Mary Pneuman
Dier Yassin
Almond and Cactus
Clinging roots of memory-
ghosts of massacre
Ein Karen
Almonds in green velvet
swelling pomegranete buds
grow more bitter now
Havara
Dreams of motherhood
lie still born at the checkpoint,
hope of Palestine
A letter from Thaer Halahleh, on day 75 of hunger strike against his detention without charge, to his two-year-old daughter Lamar, who he has never seen.
Translated by Jalal Najjar
"My Beloved Lamar, forgive me because the occupation took me away from you, and took away from me the pleasure of witnessing my first child that I have always prayed God to see, to kiss, to be happy with. It is not your fault, this is our destiny as Palestinian people to have our lives and the lives of our children taken away from us, to be apart from each other and to have a miserable life, nothing is complete in our lives because of this unjust occupation that is lurking on every corner of our lives turning it into eeriness, a continuous pursuit and torture. Despite that I was deprived from holding you and hearing your voice, from watching you grow up and move around in the house and in your be, and that I was deprived of my role as a human and a father with my daughter your existence has given me all the power and the hope, and when I saw your picture with your mother in the sit-in-tent, you were so calm staring in wonder at people, as if you were looking for your father, looking at my pictures that are hung inside the tent asking in silence why is my father not coming back, I felt that you are with me, in my sentiment and inside my mind, as if you are part of my heartbeats, steadfast and the blood that flows in my veins, opening all door for me spreading clear skies around me, and unleashing your free childish voice after this long silence".
" Lamar my love: I know that you are not to be blamed and that you don't yet understand why your father is going through this battle of the hunger strike for the 5th day, but when you grow up you will understand that the battle of freedom is the battle of going back to you, so that I can never be taken away from you again or to be deprived of your smile or seeing you, so that the occupier will never kidnap me again from you".
" When you grow up you will understand how injustice was brought upon your father and upon thousands of Palestinians whom the occupation has put in prisons and jail cells, shattering their lives and future for no guilt but their pursuit of freedom, dignity and independence, you will know that your father did not tolerate injustice and submission, that he will never accept insult and compromise, and that he is going through a hunger strike to protest against the Jewish state that wants to turn us into humiliated slaves without any rights or patriotic dignity."
"My beloved Lamar keep your head up always and be proud of your father, and thank everyone who supported me, who supported the prisoners in their struggle, and don't be afraid god is with us always, and god never lets people who have faith and patience, we are righteous, and right will always prevail against injustice and wrong doers".
"Lamar my love: that day will come, and I will make it up to you for everything, and tell you the whole story, and your days that will follow will be more beautiful, so let your days pass now and wear your prettiest clothes, run, and then run again in the gardens of your long life, go forward and forward, nothing is behind you but the past, and this is your voice I hear all the time as a melody of freedom".
Why the Palestinians decided to start the hunger strike.
