Drifting Blues

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All days politicians spread the blues
Like mocking crows  throwing their taunts,
Hard times are growing, what are we going to do
On every circle of futility, are we born to lose?
Do we try keep on living, as blues mess up mind
Souls in trouble, gotta stop it, try and be kind,
Down the road we go, the moon still shines brightly
But in everyday vista ,the blues arrives nightly,
All around  it's crooked grin descends
Spreading its tentacles on the wind,
Allowing fine wines to become rotten
Voices to become lonely and forgotten,
Way down here on this animal farm
It's time to escape, and try ramble on,
Find some smiles of kindness, another riff
As birds head south, in search of warm drift,
We can find spaces, to try drive  away the shit
With time, we can turn again into rainbows.

National Read a Book Day

Today marks National Read a Book Day, designated for taking a little time out, dusting of that book you've been meaning to read for ages, and diving right in. Personally I love a good book, everyday is read a book day. but sometimes life gets to distracting, especially now that I'm addicted to the bloody internet.
Research has shown though that reading can have several health and social benefits. frequent readers tend to have lower stress levels than non-readers. (though that is not flipping true in my case). Well read people though tend to be more empathetic and aware of societal ills and differences, and reading is said to be good at improving critical thinking. (Which has assisted me, a lot because I can be an argumentative so and so.)
However harsh and dark the world can be at times, books can provide insights, at the same time freeing minds to engage with contradictory consciousness, without a predetermined end, reading books can be an incredibly enriching experiences, teaching us, moving us, taking us into worlds of the unknown and adventure, they also have the capacity to enrich us, heal us and change our lives forever.
Incidentally the Japanese word tsundoku refers to the act of piling up books without reading them. Have we not all been guilty from one time or other of buying multiple books and letting them pile up without ever getting around to reading them, I do it all the time. A way you could mark National Read a Book Day, is if you have a pile of  books that you know your not going to get around to looking at, simply give them away to your friends, or take them to your local charity shop so others can  appreciate them and have a good read too.
Reading is not just about pleasure, books have the power to touch us profoundly, to open our eyes to injustices, and sometimes even act as a catalyst for social change. If you simply have not the time today,to pick up a fine book and read, keep looking at the breathing living world all around you, and for goodness' sake keep on questioning.
Here are 10 books I'd recommend you read that have helped shape my own world;-

1. The Ragged Trousered Pilanthropist  - Robert Tressell

2. Homage to Catatonia - George Orwell

3. News from Nowhere and other writings - William Morris

4. Towards Democracy - Edward Carpenter

5. The Book of Disquiet - Fernando Pessoa

6. The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin

7.Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman

8. Mother Jones Speaks. edited by Philip Foner

9. Thus were there faces ;Selected Stories - Silvina Ocampa

10. Emma Goldman - Living my Life

After Labour accepts IHRA definition

Now that the IHRA definition is accepted, after ignoring direct appeals from Palestinan civic society to do so, caving in to pressure from the right of the party, after being amplified by smears from the right wing press, do not think for one moment the attacks now on Corbyn and Labour will stop.
The reaction of the establishment media and pro-Israel groups also shows how pointless the exercise was. "Oh he's adopted it but added a statement about free speech, which means he's really an antisemite." What a bloody merry go round, what a charade.
At the end of the day any form of racism stinks and Israel's apartheid Nation State Law is a very rotten one. Palestinian lives still matter too. The Tories and their lapdogs are not on the right side of history, the people who continue to stand against injustice are though. Sadly  a party that starts abandoning its principles, renouncing free speech, which will silence justified criticism of Israel, subsequently playing right into the hands of its enemies, that it should be attacking, is going to fail, and it is the interests of the poor and the vulnerable in our society that will be hurt the most. A party that can lead the fight for ongoing struggles for justice, freedom and equality, organising against all oppression and racism, for the many not the few, is one however that can offer again a ray of hope.

Meteors falling from the sky

Lana Del Rey's cancellation on Saturday of her performance at Israel's Meteor Festival has elicited many and varied responses with pressure now being applied on other musicians on social media to refrain from playing at the festival in Kibbutz Lehavot Habashan at the end of the week on land that is inaccessible to millions of Palestinians.
Already  up to 15 international bands  have joined her, and cancelled.their reversal marks a setback for Israel, which aims to prevent politics from infiltrating the arts.The campaign for Boycott, Divestment. Sanctions movement (BDS) urges businesses,artists and universities to sever ties with Israel. It says it is a nonviolent way to promote the Palestinian cause, signifying a meaningful contribution to the Palestinians struggle for freedom, justice and equality. There is a long history of artists  either cancelling performances in Israel or publicly joining the cultural boycott, vowing not to play music, accept awards, or attend events in the country until the colonial oppression and human rights abuses of Palestinians  in the West Bank and Gaza comes to and end and  continue to respect the Palestinians non-violent picket line.
The pressure exerted  by the BDS movement seems to be working, so a heartfelt thanks to all who have respected the boycott, their cancellation is a major blow and rejection of the Israeli governments efforts to use art and culture to whitewash and beautify its military occupation and apartheid system.
Forty years ago festival organisers, all over the world stood with South Africans struggling against apartheid, endorsing the BDS campaign against South Africa, now more than ever, we are morally obliged to stand  with the oppressed Palestinian people.

https://secure.everyaction.com/ZZpV3y6jZEy55WkfkjftmA2?ms=PACBI

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-all-the-artists-who-have-pulled-out-of-israel-s-meteor-festival-1.6436242?utm_campaign=General&utm_medium=web_push&utm_source=P

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (28/6/1712 -2/7/78) - Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.

The following powerful opening lines  are from the social contract, the brilliant political treatise  by Jean Jacques Rousseau, which the author and philosopher wrote in exile from his home, in Geneva , that went on to inspire the French Revolution.
In it he wrote  that man is naturally good, but becomes corrupted by the pernicious influence  of human society and institutions. He preached that mankind  could be improved  by returning to nature and living a natural life of peace with his neighbors and himself. Mankind must learn to break the chains that attach themselves to our lives. A beautiful idea that we should pay more than lip service to. We have to value the concepts of freedom, equality and community.Like Rousseau tree centuries ago, we in the 21st have to look for and identify the common good that will enable our society to revive democracy,solidarity and the art of living  together.

" MAN was born free, and he is everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater than they. How did this transformation come about? I do not know. How can it be made legitimate? That question I believe I can answer.
If I were to consider only force and the effects of force, I should say: 'So long as a people is constrained to obey, and obeys, it does well;  but as soon as it can shake off the yoke,  and shakes it off, it does better; for since it regains its freedom by the same right as that which removed it, a people is either justified  in taking back its freedom, or there is no justifying those who took it away.' But the social order is a sacred right which serves as a basis for all other rights. And as it is not a natural right, it must be founded on covenants. The problem is to determine what those covenants are. "

Now I'm 51

I Look back and remember
when times were innocent,
life was much sweeter
in the morning the sun would rise
and in the evening would go down.

I'd have a smoke and get very high
as the moon glided through the sky,
happy days, humming with promise
the future seemed so exciting,
life was a compass, that followed no maps.

As time past, fell in love many times
rising like the wind, could do cartwheels for hours,
felt the wealth of kindness, releasing many smiles
ties bound with magical power
I danced merrily across the land.

And when injustice started to call
I would stand with my brothers and sisters,
in the summer,the spring and the autumn
on the cold edges of winter,
hoping hard times would pass.

Now 51, still on the edge of reason
but lovers and friends have gone,
that I can no longer dance with
as tides of inequity continue to grow
with social media, I release my chorus.

Still learning to live, let go and flourish
while mind and body getting tireder,
bones steadily getting  brittler
my voice at least remains strong
one thing that is for sure, this life goes  on.

Theresa May asked if she feels guilty for not campaigning for Nelson Mandela’s freedom

Prime Minister Theresa May, as a representative of a political party that actively supported apartheid faced awkward questions on her record campaigning for Nelson Mandela's  release in the 70's and 80's on Tuesday as she visited the cell on Robben Island where the former South African president was imprisoned for decades during the apartheid era.
In an extraordinary video clip released, Theresa May, interviewed by Channel 4s Michael Crick
just before she visited Mandela's cell,she was asked directly by Crick whether as a young Tory under Margaret Thatcher, whether she agreed with Thatcher's opinion that Mandela was a terrorist.
She was also asked repeatedly what she did to campaign for Mr Mandela's freedom.
May who is in South Africa as part o a three day trade mission to the continent responded:, without actually answering the questions with "What I will be feeling when I go to Robben Island is to recognise the immense statemanship of a man who spent so many years incarcenated and when he  came out of that incarcernation had that breadth ofvision and thaat calm approach that has enabled South Africa  to be built into the country that it is today,"
Asked if she went on any protests at the time, she said : I think you know full well that I didn't go on protests.
"But what is important is the work that the United Kingdom did to ensure that it was able to give support where the support was needed.
She added ;"What is important was the support that the UK government was giving at the time. Often support behind the scenes, but in other ways too, to ensure that we saw the result that we did in relation to the ending of Apartheid."https://www.channel4.com/news/
At this point it is important to remember ,as many of us know, she did absolutely nothing to protest against apartheid, she didn't boycott South African goods, she didn't challenge Thatcher and other Tories calling Mandela a terrorist.To those of us who did protest and boycott ,who thought it was nothing less than our dutry to take part in collective action against South Africa, the sight and sound of her visiting Robben Island for a photo  opportunity was simply nauseating.
To the Tory Party Nelson Mandela was a terrorist not a freedom fighter. Lets not forget that former Tory PM David Cameron himself was a member of a group of young conservatives that produced a poster saying " Hang Nelson Mandela and all the ANC Terrorists they are butchers"

Cameron also worked in the Tory Policy Unit at Central Office and even went on an anti-sanctions act-finding mission to South Africa with a pro-apartheid lobby firm sponsored by PW Botha.. I simply forget when the whole Tory switch occurred, to accepting Mandela as a decent human being , all I remember is that Maggie Thatcher was the first British Prime Minister for quarter of a century to invite an Apartheid head of state to Britain, and that we became a country that sponsored oppressors against those who fought or freedom and civil rights.
This  in stark contrast to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, of course, who appears in the following now famous picture taken at the time,being escorted away by police with an anti-apartheid sign around his neck who principally fough consistently against the evils of apartheid South Africa and for the freedom of Nelson Mandela and his fellow comrades and freedom fighters incarcernated at the same time.

Anyway, during her visit to Robben Island , Mrs May was handed a key to open the cell of the man who went on to become South African president
She was given details about the cell as she stood inside, including what was used as a toilet.
She signed the guestbook, writing."It has been a privilege to visit in this year, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nelson Mandela.
"His legacy lives on in the hopes and dreams of young people here in South Africa andaround the world."
That I can at least agree with, and one of the most important qualities we should also remember about Nelson Mandela and his supporters in South Africa and beyond was their willingness to question the status quo when others turned a blind eye to massive human rights violations.
Theresa May ,what will be her legacy, one as a hypocrite who continues to avert her gaze to the persecution of minorities , incipient genocide and ethnic cleansing around the globe, and the current apartheid policies of Israel. We should all continue to be asking her pertinent questions, and keep holding her to account.