If David Cameron thinks he's doing God's work you have to wonder what he worships? That's if he worships any religious figure at all, I think he would get along with Mammon, though, the very personification of greed. Personally think David Cameron has been deluded for a long time now. I do know another thing, that in the wake of Maria Miller's resignation, there's a whole load of people out there, hoping and praying that David Cameron does the same. 'The Bible tells us to bear one another's burdens" he said yesterday, but his weight on the world is surely to much for us to take, this country of ours shares many faiths and traditions, one thing that is definitely not making this country stronger is David Cameron's Tory Government. He certainly has not listened to the passages from a certain book about giving to the poor, god's apparent deep concern for the poor and social justice. So to put it quite simply.
Keep hearing a lot of bad news today, but I am rminded today that the inevitable Paul Robeson was born today. Not only was he an exeptional athlete, cultural scholar, and actor and singer, he was also a man dedicated to the causes of freedom and social justice, as a political activist he was hounded and persecuted in the U.S for his opinions. His name and historical contribution are still silenced in most textbooks in the U.S.A , where he was was caught up in the midst of the McCarthy witchhunts.
Yet all around the world, especially here in Wales, his voice still carries much resonance, gives us some hope.
His first contact with Wales came in 1928, when he was performing in 'Showboat' in the West End. Whilst in his hotel he was attracted by the sound of singing from outside. The singing was coming from unemployed miners who had marched to London to draw attention to the hardship and suffering endured by thousands of mining families in South Wales. He went outside to meet them, listened to their plight, recognised a shared suffering, and a mutual bond was born. He was to visit Wales many times, between 1928 and 1939, performing at Neath, Swansea and Cardiff. In 1940 he starred in the film Proud Valley, set in South Wales, that captured the harsh realities of Welsh coal miners' lives.
Most famously in 1938, he sang and addressed a massed audience in the Pavillion, Mountain Ash, at the International Brigade Memorial Service, organised to commemorate the 33 Welshmen who had been killed in the Spanish Civil War.
He addressed the audience thus :-
' I am here because I know these brave fellows fought not only for me but for the freedom of the people of the whole world. I feel it is my duty to be here.'
Long may he remain an inspiration. His name remembered as one synonomous with equal rights, the search for justice, peace and solidarity,the unquavering thirst for freedom.
Paul Robeson - Land of My Fathers.
Paul Robeson sings for the workers at Sydney Opera House.
It was the jolting vibrations
that shook our senses,
direction-less,
nonetheless directed by fellow humans.
Our eyes darted from mysterious fears
of losing one another.
"There's been an explosion. Don't come this way!",
torn by our outspoken wish to huddle together,
as if madness could be scattered
among the fragile shells of ourselves.
as if we could
dream the unknown away.
To this day she remains one of the most controversial and divisive figures to emerge from British politics.
I still remain a proud member of the Thatcher hating society, this so called Iron Lady was responsible for plunging the countinto a pit of unemplyment, riots and despair, selling off anything of worth. Took us off to war, shortly after waging her own with the so called 'enemy within', a lifelong friend of fascist despot, General Pinochet, etc etc. Her policies made life a misery for millions.
She sought to suffocate all that was around her, rather than give life. An enemy of the people.
Ding Dong, one year on the witch is dead but her dark legacy still lingers though, time that we buried that also....
Yesterday across Rwanda, thousands gathered in stadiums, shurches and Community centres to take part in Kwibuka - the flame of Rememberance.
20 years ago marked the start of 100 of the darkest days in human history. 1 million people were killed in the Rwandan Genocide. We should not forget.
Yet there are thousands of lives on the line right now b- lives that are being extinguished because of bigotry, prejudice, hatred and cruelty. lives that are being lost with the full awareness - and complicity - of government officials.
In this moment in time in Burma, thousands of Rohingya Muslims are being persecuted, languishing in camps where many thousands are being forced to live. Then there are the thousands of Palestinians, stranded in Yarmouk Refugee camp in Syria.
We should not forget the damage done to our own morality by choosing to ignore genocide, wherever it is taking place.
Here are some words from Bobby Kennedy, as addressed to a group of young people from Soweta, South Africa.
" It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
We are not poor. We are just without riches,
we who have no will, no world:
marked with the marks of the latest anxiety,
disfigure, stripped of leaves.
Around us swirls the dust of the cities,
the garbage clings to us.
We are shunned as if contaminated,
thrown away like broken pots, like bones,
the last year's calender.
And yet if our Earth needed to
she could weave us together like roses
and make of us a garland
For each being is cleaner than washed stones
and endlessy yours, and like an animal
who knows already in its first blind moments
its need for one thing only-
to let ourselves be poor like that - as we truly are
Photo: Child and her mother, FSA Rehabilitation Clients, 1939 by Dorothea Lange
