Remembering John Rety (8/12/30 - 3/2/10) - Anarchist, Poet and Artist

Today I remember  writer, editor, artist, publisher, chessplayer, anarchist and pacifist John Rety.
Born Reti Janos to a Jewish family in Budapest in 1940, his political views were shaped by his childhood experiences. His grandmother escaped a pogram in Serbia by swimming across a river with her children strapped to her back, while following the outbreak of war, John's family knew life as Jewish people was going to be extremely difficult.As a child partisan  in the second-world war he saw his grandmother shot in front of him
An anarchist  from a young  age he was sub-editor of one of its  leading journals Freedom between 1963 -1968. A rich and colourful  life, after arriving in London in the 1950's  he became a painter, and started to produce  still-lifes and landscapes, something which he subsequently  gave up in 1977, after sadly  his studio was broken  into and all his painting  stolen. Luckily for the world he would take up  poetry.
John met his partner Susan Johns in 1958. Together they moved into Robert Street, Regent's Park and scraped a living by  putting on a ja night at a Soho baseent bar, then ran a second hand furniture store in Camden High Street.
On all accounts  he was a gentle human being, of huge intellect, with depth and power with unwavering political passion, with  undoubtable charm and humour, dedicating his life to the causes of  peace,  he was active against the Vietnam War, a member of the radical anti nuclear group the Committe of 100, a supporter of squatters rights, libertarian education,  and the myriad forms of freedom and social justice.When the land rights group The Land is Ours  occupied a derelict plot owned by Guiness in 198. and turned it into an experiment in sustainable and cooperative living, John described the South London site as "anarchy in action",saying that as a partiipant, he had " now seen anarchy in practice and, so far, it works." (Freedom, 18 May, 1996)
 He was respected by all who came across him. He was also an accomplished chess player and  passionate listener of music.He was to become well known in the  literary world for his contributions to poetry, founding in 1982, the Torriano Meeting House
 https://torrianomeetinghouse.wordpress.com/  in Kentish Town, North London which became known for its performances, exhibitions and political activities, which is also where   he founded  the Hearing Eye Press http://hearingeye.org/  a wonderful publishing house that he ran with  his partner Susan  1987 which continues to  this day.
He had a non-sectarian approach to life, avoiding walls and was to become poetry editor of the Morning Star, where  he published a different  poet every week, releasing the superb poetry collection Well Versed in 2008 with a foreward  by the late Tony Benn.
His own poetry has been a source of tremendous  comfort and joy since I first encountered them, spontaneous free verse of much inspiration, richly evocative, and imaginative.
He died of a heart attack on the third of February 2010,aged 79, his legacy a rich and strong one, still touching and resonating with peoples lives.


" There  is no other movement  in the country or anywhere  in the world, which operates as does the anarchist, openly,  spontaneously and altruistically. We do not resign to superstition, bigotry, chauvinism of any kind. We are not afraid of power,  neither master nor slave."

- John Rety, 28.1/95


I conclude with 3 poems from his pen that I particularly enjoy.


Art and the Man

The  man in the garden was numbering
the leaves
the tree was  just  a tree
The man was just a man
The numbering took ages
That was in the Summer
Every  leaf was numbered
in the Autumn the man
Gathered the fallen  leaves.

The man was in the garden pinning  back
the leaves
the tree was no longer just a tree
The man was no longer just a man
He was an Artist and his work of art was
the tree.


Tenant

Oh yes,  we can ignore  the shouting
whether behind closed doors
or out  in the open fields.
We can choose our friends
And ignore the problems of
the dirty, the unwashed, the ignorant
And avoid if we can the aggressive
Close our eyes to the beggars of the town,
Oh yes,  we can ignore the shouting
We can ignore our own pleading,
our own anxieties.
We are not as bad, not as ugly
Not so stupid as that raving
That undescribably filthy
Oh yes we can hear what is decent
We can hear the nice noises, the acceptable ones
We can hear the adding machine, the police siren,
The everso friendly voices on the screen
On the pulpit, on the rostrum and on the telephone
the quick cheery tune that escorts us across the
     street.
They are sanctioned these voices
Therefore they are good.
Oh yes, we can ignore the shouting
Our lease  is duly signed
And our job is secure
Here is your key, now get on with it,
Noon day and night
Secure it tight
Leave on the light
Let them think your hovel is occupied
While you are on a flight
to some exotic sight
Oh yes, we can ignore the shouting
And we can hardly remember
The shouting, the misery, the  desperation
All that is of the past
The utter, utter degradation,
Now is our turn, my turn,  my key's turn.

Freedom

                  for Philip on his seventieth birthday

Where is that land
Show me that land
Don't say it  never existed
Petofi, Makhno and Durutti-
did they all die in vain?
Are we just  dreamers ansd
Abstract thinkers
Don't we know more than that?
What I don't know, you might know
Somebody, somewhere  on the wide ocean
Up a high mountain
Where beauty conquers terror
Might still know where
Behind the  screen of clouds
-Don't tell me it's only in my mind-
Is that land, the land of the free,
Don't say it never existed.


Further Reading:-

Songs of Anarchy and other Poems; Box 2 1989

Notebook in Hand: New and Selcted Poems 2012

Through the Anarchist  Press; a Column in Freedom; 1996
Beautifully illustrated by his daughter Emily Johns

Angela Davis - A Message

 Angela Davis is known internationally for her ongoing  resistance to all forms of oppression, supporting the movements of social justice in the.  U.S and abroad.Her messages from the past still hold much power and relevance,  especially in relation to events that have happened in our recent past

excerpt from the black power mixtape

"I mean that's  why when someone asks me about violence.... I just  find it incredible. Because what it means is that the person asking that question has no idea what people have gone through...  what black  people have experienced in this country since  the time the first black person was kidnapped from the shores of Africa."

"Something is wrong.... Maybe the real criminals in this society are not the people who populate the prisons... but those who have stolen the wealth of the world from the people... and everytime a Black child dies ....we should indict them for murder because they're  the ones  who killed that black child." 

" No potential victim of the fascist  terror should be  without the knowledge that the greatest  menace to racism and fascism is unity!"


-Angela Davis


AND FROM NEW YORK TO GREECE TO PALESTINE


WE REVOLT BECAUSE WE CAN'T BREATHE

A Picture speaks a thousand words.

Pictures speak a 1,000 words, but as I write more than 180 Palestinian children have been  kidnapped by Israeli occupation forces in the past 45 days. While international  law states that child imprisonment should be used as a last resort, the Israeli  occupation forces view it as a matter of routine. Recently  draconian laws have  been used with greater frequency against children, including Administrative Detention orders which allow for detention without published evidence.
Under  military orders in force  in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, any Palestinian over the ageof 16 is considered an adult, while  inside Israel  the age of an adult is 18. Moreover,  a Palestinian child over 14 years are tried as adults in an Israeli military court, and are put into prisons with adults. These are direct violations of international law.
When children are arrested they are usually taken to  adult military detention centres and interrogation centres. There are no specialist juvenille facilities, courts or personnel  within the Israeli system apart from Telmond prison. Children held in Israels prisons are beaten, tortured, placed in solitary  confinement, and made to stand in cages outside in the cold. This is a systematic, institutionalised and  co-ordinated attempt  by Israels Government and Army to make their presence felt, as humiliation daily continues, taking the occupation  to an extreme and absurd level, that  will undoubtedly have a significant impact on their future  development as individuals. It is obvious to me that some people in this world have no shame at all. These are  more reasons why I keep  on posting about issues that I feel should concern the world. This is not how a normal state acts, and by refusing to sanction this rogue state for its abuses,Western governments themselves become complicit  in these crimes against children. 

Big Brother is watching you.

One way or another, the Home office and Theresa May wants police surveillance off everyones web and mobile records and the banning of unpleasant opinions. The anti-terrorism and security bill will oblige internet service  providers (ISPs) to retain information linking IP ( Internet Protocol) addresses to individual uses. It will  result in the police getting more   powers to force internet firms to hand over details linked to IP addresses in order  to help identify criminal suspects online.
The fact is that the fear of terrorism and extremist activities, now  makes everyone of us a suspect. Way before the internet we  have lived with fear and suspicion it is  part of our human nature, but with the internet age  it seems it  is now time  for all of us to be treated  like children, who cannot be trusted to act  responsibly based on what we here. Facebook  itself has also started behaving like a worried nanny, it seems you cannot hang bout there under  an identity that your friends know or trust, it seems that if we do not comply , we will be silenced, and turfed out.
Extremity is a state  of mind, that cannot be erased or killed, however hard people try, it can however be pushed further underground where its danger can still be spread. Voices silenced  will only foster more division, paranoia under the orders of what I personally see as a dangerous out of control extremist organisation the Conservative Party.If this does not bother you, then carry on, you might be  comfortable that 'Big Brother' is watching you, but I ask you who is watching Big Brother. Could someone tell the government and the opposition, because they don't seem to have been kicking up much of a fuss, that the George Orwell's book 1984 was a warning not an instruction manual.
" Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human liberty. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves" - William  Pitt the Younger.

Keep on Dancing - Gabrielle Roth (4/2/41 -22/10/12)

" We dance to reclaim our brilliant ability to dissapear in something bigger, something safe, a space without a critic or a judge or an analyst. The beat is a love that never dissapoints, and  like all loves it demands 100% surrender. It has power to seduce moves  we could only dream. It grabs us by the belly, turns  us inside  out and leaves us abruptly begging for more.
The beat is bad, wicked, sick, whatever the word is now.
Dance to fall in love with the spirit in all things."

This coked up P*****k should be sacked.

Well we would if we turned up in this state. Who knows he might not be under the influence, he could just be a swivel eyed loon., like most of the hypocritical, corrupt elite  that none voted for, that surround him. At the end of the day, whatever he does in private is  up to him, but when he is busy tearing our country apart  and the faces of suffering  are being caught up in  a near end cycle  of misery, due to him and his friends. This mans actions should be accounted for and forever questioned, people  take drugs everyday but do not come up with policies as bad as his, whatever he's on, he's still an arse.In light of the Governments failing drug policy, George Osborne's bizzare appearance at Prime Ministers Question time,  begs the question what planet are some of these M.Ps on, its certainly not ours. Personally think the whole ruddy cabinet should be sacked.

William S. Burroughs - A Thanksgiving Prayer

Uncle Bill...it's time for a Thanksgiving Prayer again. His message  still continues to spin with vitriolic  spin,  delivered to America, still as relevant as ever, still a dark elegy for our times, 28 years after William Burroughs first delivered it. Here he thanks America  for its violence, racism, oppression and homophobia. A nation that still  today cannot seem to mind its  own business. Thank goodness that there are still those outside, that seek to make this world a  place better.

Unbelieavable!: Tony Blair wins Save the Children's Global legacy award 2014.

Tony Blair, the man who was hugely responsible  for killing, injuring and displacing, thousands  of Iraqi  children ( among his many crimes)  has been recognised for his humanitarian work by the worlds  foremost childrens charity, Save the Children.
How could this organisation make such a monstrous error, but their chief executive is known to be a Blair underling. This so called Middle East Peace Envoy, has already been named 'Philanthropist of the year'!! by GQ magazine, while lining his greedy pockets, a friend  and someone who has been  criticised for a range of shadey dealings with autocrats and dictators.
This is a man  known throughout Iraq and Afghanistan  for the trauma that he has caused. To offer him such an accolade and reward is sickening. Tony Blair  because of his support for the 2003 invasion    is guilty of infanticide, the subsequent perhaps one and a half million deaths in a country  where half the population were children.
This man should not  be lauded, should not be applauded, for he has offered the world no apology, he should be shamed, many would like to see his arrest for being what he  represents, nothing but a war criminal, the causer of so much pain and division.
Many of  the charities  own staff have since complained  that the presentation of this award   has discredited  and misappropriated and betrayed  Save the Childrens founding principles and values.It is worth noting that Save the children  recently appointed Samantha Cameron, wife of Dave, as their 'Ambassador for Syria, and their  chief executive Justin Forsyth was special envoy to Blair for three years, perhaps it's just a case of us not actually being in it all together.
I am truly outraged that Save the Children, is being seen as contributors to the impunity, whitewashing and rehabilitation of this hollow man. An organisation that represents and serves the interests of children should not be complicit  in whitewashing the innocents  killed.I can see no justification in this reward, his reputation for many remains rotten to the core.
Please join me is supporting this campaign to get this reward removed from a warmongerer and profiteer of death who has long poisoned the well of public trust.






http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-save-the-children-charity-from-giving-tony-blair-their-annual-global-legacy-award

"Don't tell the people to calm down! Tell the cops/military to stand down!"

The anger and outrage in Ferguson, Missouri and in solidarity protests around the "U.S" are not just about Michael Brown. This is a long, bloody  history of political violence, against typically, people of color, and/or oppressed classes in general. To speak of the real history here, is to talk about, first of all, a nation that founded itself on indigeneous genocide, stolen land and broken treaties. It is to talk about a militarised police state that got its hands as bands of mercenaries hired to track down runaway slaves (literally called the "slave patrol") or hired thugs brought in  to bash the heads of striking workers. Not much has changed in these years - for many, if not most, indigeneous and people of color.
"Black Reality and White Denial" are going strong in America, the home of the KKK.
White supremacy is a system  of power that is active today as any time in this culture's history. While activists must do everything they can do to dismantle  personal and institutional racism'

Solidarity with the people of Ferguson.

Read these guidelines for how people with privilege can ally and show solidarity with people of color on the frontlines of resistance to racism.

http://www.deepgreenresistance.org/en/what-we-do/deep-green-resistance-white-ally-guidelines

We Stand With Shaker: Official Campaign Video

In 2002 Shaker was taken, blindfolded and shackled to Guantanamo Bay, to Guantanamo Bay, and is now the only British resident there. Here's the official campaign video  for the Stand with Shaker, calling for the immediate release of Guantanamo#  of Shaker Aamer the last British resident still held.

Features 'A song for Shaker Aamer ' written by Andy Worthington and performed by his band the Four feathers. His continual incarcernation is a scandal and an embarrassment. The failure of the British Government to challenge this illegal incarcentation is shameful and damaging. Shaker is suffering from  post-traumatic stress disorder after over 12 years of torture. It is time to bring him home.

Video by Billy Dudley. Please share widely.

Make films not war

Vittoria Arrigoni  was an Italian born reporter and pro-Palestinian activist who lived and reported in Gaza until his death in 2011. The film Stay Human records intellectuals, authors, activists as they read Arrigoni's account of Israel's Operation Cast Lead in 2008-2009, which left 1,200 civilians dead.
Arrgoni fulfilled one of the most important  duties of a bystander in a time of war: he bore witness. The readers who bring his words to life in this unique 'reading movie' include Hwaida Arraf, Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein and Mairead Maguire.

Watch the trailer and the whole film here :-

https://stayhuman.tv/

Paddy Hill and the Birmingham Six

Today, marks 40 years since the Birmingham pub bombings and the wrongful arrest of the Birmingham six.
40 years later Paddy Hill is still seeking justice of the 21 who lost their lives, the 182 injured and the families of all those affected. We remember the death of innocents, but also  the death of justice, where people are gaoled,  not because they are guilty, but because the police needed a conviction, . Victims left dehumanised, spending their lives, seeking some form of justice.

NHS final Faith

Good  film from  the People's NHS. We must save the NHS from the corporations  and the vultures in power . As Private health  firms are on course  to win more  than £9bn of NHS contracts to look after patients as a result of  the coalitions ramping  up of competition  in the health service.Private contractors ares damaging our beloved NHS  and simply wasting money, as they cherry pick the most profitable treatments.We urgently need to protect the NHS's services, we must  keep faith, in only 3 years the Tory's and their friends have given us cuts, queues and chaos, only ramping up I guess what New Labour began, lest we forget. If it carries  down on this road to privatisation, it will cease to exist as we know it.The NHS cannot be sold. It belongs to us all.
We have no time to waste this is an emergency.

Joe Hill (7/10/1879 -19/11/15) - An Injury to one is an injury to all.

Today I offer a poem in rememberance of Joe Hill, on the anniversary of the murder by the state of this itinerant worker, labour activist, revolutionary union martyr and singer songwriter of the Industrial Workers of the world, who gave rise to the labour motto ' An injury to one is an injury to all.'
Born Joel Haggland  in Sweden, he came to  the U.S.A  on 1902. Active in the Labour movement  throughout his live,  in January 1914, he was arrested in Salt Lake City and accused of murder. He died proclaiming  his innocence. From his conviction  to his death he became an icon for workers everywhere,  and his subsequent  execution sent echoes around the world. For many his spirit and his legacy  lives on.
This is a short account of his later framing and execution: https://libcom.org/history/1915-the-murder-of-joe-hill.

Two earlier posts of mine can be found here :-

http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/happy-birthday-joe-hill-7101879-191115.html
http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/joe-hill-7191879-191115-joe-hills-last.html

Still Dreaming of Joe Hill

Through the dusty ages
the earth creaks and moans,
dark shadows try to break people bones
the air is still , thick with mire,
daily each border, delivers human shame
parasites still create walls of oppression,
build bloodstained monuments that can't thwart hope
because the mighty human spirit carries resilience,
within us all, lay rivers of resistance.

Standing together we are strong
in our palms, another world glows,
with unity's strength 
we set people free,
no tyrant's grip 
can ever stop us,
we serve the weak and defenceless
protecting with dignity and defiance.

Today we remember
when Joe Hill was shot down,
his enduring dream survives 
gives us strength,
shoulder to shoulder 
solidarity lives,
an injury to one
is an injury to all.

Revealed : How the Coalition has helped rich by hitting the poor.

In a  landmark study of the coalition's tax and welfare policies  6 months before a general election,  it has been revealed how money has been transferred   from the poorest to the better off,  apparently refuting the chancellor of exchequer's claims that the country has been 'all in it together.'
According to  independent research published today, and seen by the Observer Newspaper George Osborne has been engaged in a significant transfer  of income from the least well off half of the population to the more affluent in the past four years. Those  with the lowest incomes have  been hit hardest.
In an intervention that will  come as a major blow to the government's  claim to have shared out the burden of austerity equally, the report by economists at  the London School of Economics and the institute for Social and Economic Research at the  University of Essex, finding that :-

1. Sweeping changes to benefits and income tax  have had the effect of switching income from the  poorer half of households  to most of the richer half, with the poorest 5% in  in the country in terms of income loosing nearly 3% of what they would  have earned if Britain's tax and welfare system of May 2010 had been retained.

2. With the exception of the top 5% who lost 1% of their potential  income. It is the better half of the country that has gained financially from the changes, with an increase of between 1.2% and 2% in their disposable income.

3. The top 1% in terms of income have also been small net gainers from the changes bought in by David Cameron's government since May 2010, which includes a cut in the top rate of income tax.

4. Two-earner households, and those with elderly family members, were the most favourably treated, as a result  of direct tax changes and state pensions respectively.

5. Lone-parent families have done worse, losing much   more through cuts in benefits  and tax credits and higher council tax than they ever gained through higher income tax allowances. Families with children in general. and largefamilies in particular, also did much worse than the average.

6. A quarter of  the lowest paid 10% have shouldered a particularly heavy burden, losing more than 5%  of what would have  been their income without the coalitions's reforms.

For more on this see here:-


http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/nov/15/coalition-helped-rich-hitting-poor-george-osborne


and more here


http://www.welfareweekly.com/
Not that any of the above surprises too much, this is what the tories and their friends do, look after the rich, lie to the people, persecute the sick, diabled and vulnerable. Surely they are not fit to represent the people of this country. It is is time to destroy this nasty coalition.

Henry Miller (26/12/1891 - 7/6/1980) - Utopian Speculations.

An American writer I admire, Henry Miller, is known for breaking existing  literary forms, who sought to reestablish the freedom to live  without  the constraints and  restraints of civilization.
His works often reflected   hos own personal experiences, measured with  a humanism that often shocked and outraged. Writing about all phases of his life, everything that happened  to him struck  him as being of equal and monumental importance.His total  surrender  to life without meaning has resonated with me for a while,  and despite succumbing  to what some people have referred to as 'existential despair' he never  completely  surrendered reason. He has become one of the worlds forbidden writers, forbidden because he dared to speak from his dark passionate heart, of some place beyond ideology , where the shadows of the soul  know no time.The perception of Henry Miller as a writer and literary outlaw remains today.
The following paragraph was quoted in  Normal O. Brown's Life against death and he comments on  Millers's text as follows:' Utopian speculations such as these of Henry Miller must come back into fashion. They are a way of affirming faith in the possibility of solving problems that seem at the moment insoluable. Today even the survival of humanity is a utopian hope.'
Here's to Henry Miller spiritual Anarchist.

' The cultural era is past. The new civilization, which my take centuries or a few thousand years to usher in,  will not be another civilization - it will be the open stretch of realization which all the past civilizations have pointed to. The city, which was the birth place of  civilization, such as we know it to be, will exist no more. There will be nuclei of course, but they will be mobile and fluid. The peoples of the earth  will no longer be sent off from one another within states but will flow freely over the surface of the earth and intermingle. There will be no fixed constellations of human aggregates. Governments will give way to management, using the  word in a broad sense. The politician  will become as superannuated as the dodo bird. The machine will never be dominated, as some imagine; it will be scrapped, eventually, but not before men have understood  the nature of the mystery which binds them to  their creation. The worship,  investigation and subjugation of the machine  will give  way to the larger one of power - and of possession. Man will be forced to realize that power must be kept open, fluid and free. His aim will be not to possess power but to radiate it.'

Africa Stop Ebola

There's already a song about Ebola by high profile Francophone West African musicians. Why doesn't Mr Bob Geldof simply promote this song? Or even acknowledge  its existence? 'Africa stop Ebola' features a number of international  stars :- Tiken Jah Faloky, Amadou and Marian, Salif Keita, Ounu Sangare, Kandina Kora, Mory Kante, Sia Tolno, Barbara Kana and rappers Didire Awadi and Markus and Mokoke, so why another rehash of the grotesque ' Do they know its Christmas'. We should remember that this crisis is part of a long colonial disengagement, Geldof just compliant in  glossing neo-liberal policies  towards the continent with a humanitarian/ anti poverty sheen of respectivitety, gathering together in my humble opinion a worthless pile of toss,  which ignores the richness of Africa's own musical voice that is already out there.
The Ebola crisis is tragic and devastating, a crisis for humanity,the fight against it, is a fight well  worth supporting but we should not ignore or erase the efforts of those that come fromAfrica  while making it appear that western actions  are what saved the poor diseased Africans once again. We should not either forget  that the aid industry that has emerged from efforts like Band Aid, have themselves  fuelled human rights abuses, and corruption across the African continent and missed the Ebola crisis in its entirety. Ebola is a pestilance but we  must carry on treating  sufferers and  the people from country's effected with dignity and respect.

Please share and support the above project , all profits of which go to Medecins Sans Frontiers/Doctors without borders

http://www.msf.org.uk/ 

" We will kill you. We will break your bones.".

Torture is an everyday reality in Tibet yet survivor accounts are rare, used by China as a weapon against political dissent, since the Chinese forcefully took over Tibet in 1959.Harsh treatment is common at the prisons where diissidents are held, with prisoners routinely subjected to torture,  beatings, and forms  of abuse.

Ex-political prisoners are closely monitored by Chinese authorities, their families often under threat if they speak out and escape into exile  overseas is increasingly difficult. When Tibetans  do share information they are risking everything.

Hear from  torture testimonies read  by the actors Dominic West, Alan Rickman, Juliet Stevenson and David Threlfall. 
As many as 133 Tibetans have also set themselves ablaze in self-immolation protests calling for Tibetan freedom, opposing Beijing's rule and calling  for the return  of their exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. As others have also resisted their actions represent the wishes and  aspirations of  countless Tibetans living under  repressive Chinese rule.
You can also read about recent incidents and learn how you can join the campaign to stop torture in Tibet.
Please  share the testimonies widely,  lets show the Chinese that the world is watching, and continue to help global Tibetan groups who campaign to secure the release of courageous individuals who symbolise the enduring resistance  of Tibetans inside Tibet.

Free Tibet.

http://freetibet.org/

Berlin Wall vs Palestine Wall

Of  course a real comparison  would be measured  by   how the soviets regularly pulverised West Berlin from the air and occasionally  launch massively destructive ground attacks  destroying Berlins  basic infrastructure, and preventing all flights landing, and refusing to talk to whatever government the population elected.  And refusing to allow most goods into the city.
It is a good thing  that Israel  is the only democracy in the region, means anything other than the best equipped army running the show.
Remember too,  that the Berlin wall was 96 miles long,  while the Palestinian wall is significantly larger stretching out over 400 miles.
Anyway  yesterday Palestinian youth  destroyed a hole in Israels security wall  with the Palestinian territories as a symbolic gesture  to mark 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Like the Berlin Wall previously  it snakes through Palestinian land, isolating people from their land, extended family and friends, and one day soon, this oppressive apartheid wall  will one day fall. too Despite all obstacles the Palestinian peoples determination  to be free remains as strong as ever. Their thirst  for freedom grows, the walls that surround them, do not protect, but cruelly divide, they don't prevent a peoples existence, but only serve to incite resistance.


    

Lest we forget

90% of victims of war are civilians , lest we forget to move forward from  bloodshed and work for peace. If as much money was put into this objective as  there is  nto killing  and its misery it would benefit the whole world.
Those who benefit the most financially are those  with investments in the war machine and land/resource grabbing. Today I feel  reinforces the ideal of patriotism and militarism,  in stark contrast to the original ' Armistice day' when the   nations of the world  hoped to be united in peace. The horrors and misery of World War 1   still need remembering,   but not in a way that reinforces an ugly military agenda. Today politicians stand praying for peace while preparing for war...their hypocrisy abounds. The grisly facts  and horrors of war in all our histories is worth more  than  all the false red poppy illusions that are being seen today. Sadly  the red poppy today has been hijacked  by arms companies, look how last week Lockheed Martin, the World's biggest arms company sponsored the Poppy Rocks Ball., and Thales joined Boris Johnson in a Big Red poppy Billboard at Westminster.  
Today I remember all those sadly lost, in two World Wars but also those that everyday risk their lives  to build peace and prevent conflict, and time  turn to one another as friends, united in our goals  working together, so that the future potential of conflict could be resolved to the extent  that all the current spending on arms and the war machine was no longer necessary.

Israels protective edge operation.

When we talk of Israels protective edge operation in Gaza, we  should not forget over 2130 humans bombed to death, the over 500 children  or the 89 families  exterminated. We speak of the living, and this is their life. Tens of thousands  of refugees  will be finding shelter from the cold, wind and the rain,in bombed United Nations schools and the remains of  their destroyed homes.
And Gaza remains beseiged, the biggest ghetto in the world awaiting the next round of oppression, knowing that  any form of resistance will be labelled terrorist.
Boycott Israel.

Remember, remember!

'Behind every mask  there is more than just flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea..and ideas are bulletproof.'

-Alan Moore -'V for vendetta'

Solidarity with all those marching tonight, may you ignite the world with passion. Gorgeous moon tonight also, don't forget to look up as it lights the way. Together we can all dismantle the masters house

Moan

Still can't upload  photos or video in libraries, but that is the least of our problems. At the moment in time we have a corrupt authoritarian government thrashing everything decent about this country, flogging of our public services, cutting our beloved welfare state- all of which we have paid for, killing 1000's through their cruel draconian policies, founded on social Darwinism and eugenics by stealth, and what are the nation and media babbling on about? How much Millibland  gave a woman who was begging, and how he looked while doing it, the same as he usually does. Tories, labour, the bloody liberals, where  is the difference. There whole damn country seems to be heading back to the workhouse times. A man immoral bunch that make me ashamed and angry to say the least
Tens of thousands  of desperate jobseekers will be forced to cancel Christmas too, due to benefit sanctions, job centres develop a scrooge like mentality at this time of the year, about 59,000 job seekers were sanctioned  in December 2013.
Gradually all are support and sustenance is being kicked away. Bah.

Prisoner of Palestine - by Seize the Day

A powerful song from the band Seize the Day about the conflict in Palestine. No images just words.

Seize the Day are a great  forward thinking bold green anarchist band.


Still having problems with libraries computers please bare with me.

October 30th UK.Drugs debate..

On October 30th, 2014 the UK Parliament  will host a debate on the country's drug policy. To ensure your MP represents you at the debate and works to support evidence-based drug laws in the country. visit here:-



http://www.talingdrugs.org/parliamentary-drugs-debate

Blog Stuck in rut


Blog unable to upload photos or videos at moment in time, I hope it's temporary, any suggestions please?Also missing a dear  friend, but that's another story. Meanwhile between 13 and 26th October a joint police Operation called 'mos maiorum'  takes place  in nearly all European countries to  identify, imprison  and finally  deport illegallised  migrants. Thousands of  people will be subject to so called ' racial profiles ' and will be harassed and criminalised  upon those criteria.
The following site tries to document the actions that are part of 'mos maiorum'  and to make these effects visible to everyone.
Please contribute  to document public police checkpoints  or identify  checks throughout the European union.


http://map.nadir.org/ushahidi

The Battle of the Tarpaulin - Police Brutality

Hundreds of police officers attack Occupy Democracy participants because they don't want them  to sit on tarpaulins. This was after Occupy Democracy broke  away from  the TUC march on  Saturday and headed to Parliament Square for an open Assembly,  wardens had asked protestors to leave under an old by law, then sent the police in, and  then their was a total overreaction, on behalf of the police and a standoff lasted till yesterday. What was witnessed was a scene that  had reminiscences of Hong Kong, less freedom seen in Parliament Square. The protestors sound system was confiscated and   tents and sleeping bags were not allowed into the camp. The massive overpolicing and  attempshut down this democratic forum is truly shocking and outrageous. The protestors plan to occupy  the square for the next week.  Viva  freedom.

George Orwell on the police ;-

" I have  no love for  the idealized 'worker' as he appears in the bourgeois mind, but when I see an actual flesh and blood worker in conflict with his natural enemy, the policeman, I do not  have to ak myself which side I'm on."

Freudian Slip

Freudian slip:-

Tory welfare minister Lord Freud apparently thinks disabled people  should be paid less than the minimum wage. And where is the opposition to these  remarks, Millibland just keeps on shuffling and smiling,  he needs to wake up...  did he read any of his dads books for gods' sake... somewhere he must have some guts.
Lord Freud the same heartless individual who said ' The poor should take more risks as they have the least to lose.' Lord Fraud every time he opens his gob,  a shallowness  emerges  that says much about his character and  very much about the nasty party  that he represents. People holding these views should not be in government, they are  reckless and damaging, but their they are pontificating about realities that they know nothing about. He has no previous experience of the welfare system  Baron Fraud, but who asked him first to provide a review of these services, Mr Tony Bliar under New Labour. You couldn't make these things up. My mind boggles. Oh blundering Mr  Fraud has since apologised, but  he's done that before as well, over previous  gaffes of his  own making, time he got another job, same applies to the rest of his cohorts in government who are equally complicit in their appalling attitudes to the poor and disabled.

The truth of Charlie Chaplin's 1940's anti war message for all humanity rings down the ages.

Charlie Chaplin's inspirational final speech  in  "The Great Dictator "

On 15 October 1940 Charlie Chaplin's first talkie The Great Dictator debuted in New York (while the US was still formally at peace with Nazi Germany)

The physical resemblance between the Tramp and another famous man with a little black mustache was not lost on Chaplin. In his first all-talking picture, he plays both a Jewish barber and his double, Adenoid Hynkel, the absolute ruler of Tomainia. As Hynkel and his henchmen Herring and Garbitsch engineer the persecution of Jews and the invasion of neighboring Osterlich, the amnesiac barber may be the only person innocent enough to stop them. Throughout the anti-fascist film Chaplin powerfully exploits the deflating power of parody, while in the finale he abandons both character and comedy to deliver one of the most inspirational speeches in recorded history with an impassioned plea to the audience for human tolerance, encouraging us in opposing all forms of oppression,Many years later, the  world still needs to stand still and listen and stand against the forces of fascism.An earlier tribute  of mine to this great man can be found here :- 

http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/charlie-chaplin-b1641889-251277-citizen.html https://

Here is the full transcript.

I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible- jewish, Gentile, black men, white…

We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each others’ happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men’s souls; has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind.

We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery ,we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in man; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all.

Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.

To those who can hear me, I say “Do not despair.”

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Soldiers! Don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you; who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder!

Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men—machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have a love of humanity in your hearts! You don’t hate!

Only the unloved hate; the unloved and the unnatural.

Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty!

In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it’s written “the kingdom of God is within man”, not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy, let us use that power.

Let us all unite.

Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill their promise. They never will!

Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people!

Now let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To do away with greed, with hate and intolerance!

Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.

Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

Wonderful news: British MP's vote to recognise Palestine as a state.

Ok I would be the first to admit that I don't always like what emerges out of the  house of commons, but  as a result  of tireless campaigning, yesterday finally  resulted  in the historic occasion  which resulted in the UK Parliament  voting to recognise the state of Palestine. This follows the Swedish Parliaments decision to do the same. Wonderful news. It  saw as many as 274 voting for the motion to 12 against in a momentous  event that  gave  me much joy, when usually the only thing that emerges from these dusty corners are dark shadows.
Surely it is a big thanks to all  who for years  have marched, demonstrated  for the rights of the Palestinian people and is  also a sign of times in the fact   that British Parliament seems to have noticed and reflected  what  it's people really feel  in the wake  of  Israels recent onlslaught in Gaza, that left over 2,000 Palestinians dead,  and that people are now wide awake to its continuing illegal military occupation and recognise that Israel is losing the battle for public opinion and is part of a growing international trend that demands justice for the Palestinians. The time is  now right for the Palestinians to have the state that it deserves.
This symbolic  vote will mean absolutely nothing if further action is not taken, to bring the  Palestinians dream of statehood into reality. International pressure must continue to be mounted  until oppression is ended and the maxim  from the 'rivers to the sea' is finally achieved.

Steal this poem - Claire Faucet

This poem is copyleft.
You're free to distribute it and diffuse it,
re-write it and abuse it,
and use it.
For your own ends,
and with your own ending.

This is an open source poem
entering the public domain.
Here's the source  code,
add a little salt and pepper if you  like,
share it out amongst your friends.

Because I didn't write  this poem
I moulded it,
picked the lines out of a skip as I was walking on over here
took used up fragments of leftover ideas,
and put them to use.

Think about it -
I can't tell you anything new.
In all these millennia of human existence
there certainly can only be a few ideas to be thought through.
So we treat them like rare commodities?
Plunder artistic reserves for new ideas buried deep beneath the permafrost,
suffocate them with patent protection
and junk the rest?
Or  do we re-use them and recycle them?
Pile our public spaces high with shared ideas beyond anyone's imagining.

So I steal a verse  here and a line there
a riff there and a rhyme there
pass it on around the circle,
roll it up
add a joke
here have a toke
does it get you high?

This poem  is indebted to Gil Scott Heron. Abbie Hoffman, Jim Thomas
   and Sarah Jones
This poem is indebted to all the words I've read and the voices I've known
This poem is a community  of intellect, your and mine
This poem  is ripped off line after line after line

Because intellectual property is theft
and piracy is our only defence against the thought police.
The revolution
will be plagiarised!
The revolution will not happen if ideas are corporatised
So steal this poem
and use it
For your own ends
and with your own ending.

This poem is copyleft
all rights are reserved

Claire Faucet is a performance poet, activist and researcher for Corporate Watch.
Her poetry can be found online at http://www.re-clairethestreets.blogspot.com
and her political writing at http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk

The above poem reprinted  from:-
This poem is sponsored  by : Poems  in the face of corporate power
2007

Apple : Irony alert

Apple one of the the major  success stories of the dot-com era  is often accused of treating its own workers poorly and is no stranger to controvery.
According to recent Pocket Gamer  report  Apple has pulled 'Sweatshop' a satirical  game designed  to raise awareness about the inequities of forced labour, from its APP store, because it was 'uncomfortable selling a game based  around the running of a sweatshop. Though it apparently  has no such qualms  about selling a sweat shop produced phone. The technology giant whose own Foxconn facility  is routinely plaqued by suicides, riots and human rights allegations, has cited  clothing factory managers as routinely 'blocking fire escapes,' 'employing child labour' as reasons why the game was unsuitable for sale, according to Simon Parkin, head of games at liitlecloud, which created the game to highlight the human cost of fashion.
There is nothing ethical about apple, remember that they pay contract workers so little in China that they have been committing suicide, while their founder Jeff Bezos sits on a personal fortune of 427 billion, and Apple itself recently announced a $13.5 billion profit for the first quarter of 2014, while its warehouse workers suffer low pay and unfair working conditions, combined with a long term practice of using underpaid student labour and underpaying its  own share of British corporate tax. Long too,  has it had a history of allegations concerning human rights and labour rights abuses and lets not forget . Where things have improved recently for Apple is within its  public relations department, but scratch under the surface it is still very sensitive to any outside criticism. Apple's reputation still not squeaky clean, their thirst for maximum profit still seems to be their major concern and is still  in many peoples eyes a less than honest company. Apple also happens to be one of the most aggressive  patent lawsuit filers in the world, that  agressively pursues litigation  and excessive  claims  against its competitors. In effect a bully.Apples' dismal record on human rights has long been questioned and is probably worse than we know about such is this companies insistence on secrecy, besides treating  humanity with disrespect, Apple documents  show that suppliers  to the company also disrespect the environment, their suppliers routinely  discharging  toxic waste into our communities,  without regard to the  effect the  waste has  on  residents, wildlife or the planet, its commitment to ethical values  continues to be very dubious.  Scratch under the surface, Apple not as  nice and shiny as they try to make out.

R.I.P 'Louakanikos' The Greek Riot Dog

'Loukanikos'  a ginger mongrel internationally known as the 'Riot Dog' has sadly passed away at the age of 10, His name translates into English as 'sausage'. This valiant much loved stray dogs health was adversely affected by  police asphyxiating  gas and from being kicked on numerous occasions by the police. Forcing him to retire from active protest 2 years ago. More than just a dog, he was a protector and a beloved comrade facing down riot Police daily as demonstrators took to the streets  of Greece against the police murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, a 15 year old Greek student  who was gunned down in cold blood in the center of Athens, and later against austerity measures, he was usually  to be found at the thick of all the action in front of the crowds, charging and yelping alongside protestors when they confronted  police on the streets of Athens.So legendary was this noble creature that he had a bar named after him in Madrid, and. In 2011 Time magazine listed  Loukanikos as one of its personalities of the year.
He was on the couch sleeping when suddenly his heart stopped. A leftist newspaper Avgi, says the dog  has been buried in the shade  of a tree in the city centre. This  courageous four legged revolutionary who led many a fight for justice will bark no more.
Rest in Power.

Louakinikos in action

Once a time in Athens - The Legend of the Riot Dog

David Rovics - Riot Dog

7 facts about Workfare.

" There is little evidence that workfare increases the likelihood  of finding work.... workfare is least effective  in getting people into jobs   in weak labour markets where unemployment is high." This week their is a week of action against it, workfare profits the rich by providing free labour, whilst hurting the poor by taking away  welfare rights if people refuse to work. The government is misleadingly calling it now 'Help to work' but it is business as usual, it is draconian, exploitative, unjust and wrong, many charities are now refusing to have anything to do with it because :-.

1. There is no evidence that workfare schemes lead to employment.

2. You're  five times more likely to be sanctioned than get a job on a government work programme.

3. Workfare  is undermining voluntary and  charitable values.

4.Forced Labour is illegal.

5. Workfare is not just for the long-term unemployed.

6.Courts have repeatedly ruled  against workfare schemes.

7. Workfare is heading for collapse but we need  to  push for it.

Facts reblogged from here, where you will find more information.:-

http://realfare.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/7-facts-you-need-to-know-about-workfare/

Empty promises and broken 'pledges' lead folk to one conclusion:-

and its too late for Cable and Clegg to start sounding off now, they have backed the Tories throughout, we all know now what their party stands for, everything the Tories have done has been done with liberal democrat support. Milliband as for him apparently shifting his party to the left, come on, same as Blair,who created a version of the social democrats mark 2, under the guise of New Labour, where is their pulse, where is their opposition, their anger, their fiery direction.As for the Tories, unreformed unapologetic Thatcherites and UKIP more of the same. I feel political scepticism is more than justified, most people I encounter feel alienated from the lot  of them, and do not understand the need to rush out to vote for them. Its not that people are disengaged with politics as a whole, I think  people just feel let down by the so called democratic systems and norms that does nothing for them in return.Regarding most careesrist politicians as fraudsters and liars, a self serving elite, who carry on  wining and dining, fostering division, with empty gestures, carving and making scapegoats out of sections of the community, as austerity grippens,  is it any wonder  that people increasingly feel abandoned, and left with not much hope, pessimistic and more than a little dissillusioned. Many people feel nauseated with the lot of them and simply cannot be bothereed with their message.
To change this country for the better, me thinks, the only hope for us, is to start thinking outside of the box, but  people are still demonstrating, occupying, resisting with direct action, it is not a question of people simply apathetic, people are wide awake, change is happening NOW. Anger,does not reflect disengagement, and as we see, people are able to express their political dissatisfactions in so many different ways in our modern world. But the status quo carries on regardless, carries on not listening, as no confidence in their empty hollow words  continues to grow.
But out of their fading  embers, hopefully a fairer, system can be built, personally for me one that proactively is used to combat oppression, exploitation and repression, surely another world is not impossible.

How the ISIS theatre of murder was born - Heathcote Williams

David Cameron says he is 'standing firm  and will not be cowed" by ISIS brutality. Poet Heathcotte Williams  responds.

Montage and narration by Alex Cox.

Overgrow the system... Give thanks to the Mother

Tuira Kayapo is an indigeneous Elder Mama warrior  who showed the world  what happens  when Women   take  charge of their power. She walked  into the 1989 Altamira Gathering in Brazil  against the destruction  of Dams in the Zingu, in her war paint, naked and carrying a large machete. She then walked up to the President of Brazil's Light holding Company Petrobras  and running the blade of her  machette  three times over his cheeks, proclaimed his act  on her people and on the entire Amazon as an act of war. She then stated in Kayopa :-
" You are a liar - We do not need electricity. Electricity is not going to  give us our food. We need our rivers to flow freely, our future depends on it. We need  our jungles for hunting and gathering. We do not need your dam."
Everyone stood in absolute  awe  at her audacity, especially the President of Petrobras who looked quite afraid .. yet what I see in her is a true example of WHAT Mamas are capable of in their full  Power...
We have ALL become tired of this mess the world is in... It is time to reclaim our truth. Don't play with our good hearts and intentions. I am grateful  for women like  Chief Kayapo, who was bold enough  to say no to colonialist exploitation. Bravely demanding respect, to allow her and her people  to live as they want and choose, expressing the feelings of her entire nation.

Fly Kites not Drones : Poppit Sands, nr St Dogmaels, Cardigan, West Wales.

 

 

Over  the past couple of months we have witnessed drone strikes in at least seven countries -  Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Palestine, Yemen, Egypt and Iraq and Syria probably on the list soon. Devastatingly killing innocents it is now is clear  that  our political leaders  are  using  these
lethal forces  rather than look for diplomatic  or political situations.
Join me tomorrow, kites not drones at Poppit Sands near St Dogmaels, Cardigan, West Wales, in a symbolic, 'Stop the drones' demonstration supported by Drone Network Cymru/Wales and CND Cymru/Wales. We need to build a world where children can   play and fly  their kites safely, instead of spending their lives in fear.
Please  take a look at the following link:-

Child victims of drone warfare.

-http://childvictimsofwar.org.uk/get-informed/drone-warfare/

Moazzam Begg - Wronged Man is free again

Moazzam Begg a native born British citizen, family man  of  Pakistani  descent, spent three years incarcenated  in  the most notorious detention centre created, Guantanamo Bay without being charged with any crime.
Arrested  in Pakistan in 2002  he was transferred  to Bangram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, where he suffered torture and witnessed U.S interrogators  beat an  innocents taxi driver to death, he would spend the   next three years in   very tortuous uncomfortable conditions.
Throughout this time, Begg , now 45 was repeatedly, deprived of legal rights, but after public outcry  was returned to Britain in 2005. Despite the indignation and suffering  he encountered, he did not lose his humility or dignity.
He went on to become a prominent human rights activist, writing  books, advocating on behalf of other prisoners of conscience, whilst campaigning against the so called war on terror, and working with survivors of abuse and mistreatment across the globe.
But constantly  he was harassed and intimidated,  marked out  because he was probably seen as one of Britains most prominent muslims. Well known  to muslims and non-muslims alike as  a representative of justice, truth and human rights in the face  of oppression , and injustice.
Last December  at Heathrow his passport was confiscated, and told it was not in the public interest to retain it, then later   he was arrested  for having allegedly travelled to Syria  to assist Syrian rebels in terrorist activities, but had not visited this land since December 2012 and this was to assist in humanitarian relief and support.It seems that he may have become a victim of the government again, because of his continuing  outspoken criticism  of the British governments conduct   during the War on terror. The arrest  of one of the Wests most prominent  Muslim critics certainly raised alarms with many.  Using dubious charges against dissidents  has  been a hallmark  post 9/11. Though these tactics are routinely condemned, they still  continue to be implemented,  showing us the crude  corrosive measures our governments use, which ultimately undermine the foundations of western freedoms.
After 4 months in Belmarsh, Londons Central Criminal Court acquitted him yesterday of all charges, prosecutors saying "  there is no longer a realistic prospect of conviction in this case.'"
"The more this continues, the more it's going to alienate people." Begg  said about his case. Campaigners are  now concerned that the governments new hardened line as spelled  out at their recent party conference  will result in  greater harassment and victimisation.
So  it comes that an innocent man, has been freed  for the second time in his life. Lets hope his voice can now be used again to speak out against injustice and to contribute to  our understanding of each other , and that the world knows now what was  always crystal clear -that this is an innocent man.
I am overjoyed by his release but outraged by the imprisonment itself.
Gareth Peirce Beggs solicitor said : "Moazzam Begg is a good and brave man. He is a rare individual who will talk to  everyone and listen to everyone, even to those he profoundly  disagrees. He has spent the near decade since he was released from the  the torture of Bagram and Guantanamo in attempting to wake the world up  to injustice  and to comprhehend its causes and effects. His intelligent  voice of reason and  intelligence is desperately  needed now. We are relieved he is free again."
Long may it be so.

Here is a link to CagePrisoners the human rights group founded by Moazzam Begg

http://www.cageuk.org/

Cassetteboy - Cameron's Conference Rap

Applause please for Cassette Boy , with another fantastic satirical mashup.
Cassette Boy has made him speak the truth for once. Seriously though Dave thanks for legalising parody videos.

poets for change - Cellar bards - watch out theirs a teifidancer about

Here's  the cellar bards and friends reading out their  poems on the theme of change in Cardigan West Wales UK at 4pm Saturday September 27th 2014 on the Quay on the banks of the Teifi. Oh and a rare  look at teifidancer  out in the wild.