Awoken again with mind ablaze
Tangential thoughts flooding my brain
Lost in times deep seated memories
Scrapped Poetry snippets strewn across the floor
Proscrastination fuels my aversion to tidying up
Time now to walk through sunshine
Reflections of wonder, surfacing embrace
Within the minds eye
Opportunities present themselves
Lessons to be taught again
Time to go for papers, rizlas
Follow some straight lines
Allow the darkness to recede
Find some glimmer to share
Reflections of inner hunger
In the garden look for serenity
Beyond the fractures, the deep blue hue
States of karmic energy
Awakening again
Fractal dreams igniting
Passions thirst liberating
Springs eternal kiss releasing
Guiding obsessions emanating
Forever lost in fierce permanence.
"I'll be blunt with you Roy, you talk about cancer - I feel very
strongly about people whose entire life depends on the working class
movement, your father was a miner, he was in jail during the General
Strike, you got into parliament as a Labour member, every office you
held was because of The Labour Party, Cabinet Minister appointed by a
Labour Prime Minister, and then you left the party
.
Now THAT'S a cancerous growth. People who betray those who gave them
power are the real threat, and I must say that bluntly those who stay
true to those that put them in power - these are the ones I admire."
Tony Benn speaking to the traitor Roy Jenkins, who, along with Shirley
Williams, Bill Rogers & David Owen formed the so called 'gang of 4'
who cemented Margaret Thatcher's rule in the 80s.
As Tory Austerity continues to tear our lives apart, the new so called called Independent Group betrays all who voted for them, if they were really committed to helping the lives of millions in Britain they would not be fuelling the Torys fragile grip of power.
If they actually had the guts and did the decent thing they should all face by-elections immediately, I truly believe they would be absolutely crushed. At the moment they are just a bunch of elite opportunists, who have absolutely no mandate.The SDP though actually had some policies, but like yesterday the Independent Groups are the same sneering traitors who are never forgiven by
history.
Spanish Surrealist Luis Bunuel was widely regarded as an innovator of avant-garde filmmaking. In his pioneering efforts date from the late 1920s, he cited Marxism as the political motivation behind his respective works.
He is considered to be the father of cinematic Surrealism and one of the most original directors in the history of the film medium.In 1928 after returning from shadowing and working for the renowned French director Jean Epstein in Paris, Buñuel used his newly acquired filmmaking techniques to collaborate with Salvador Dali on Un Chien Andalou A “surrealist weapon,” the movie was made to shock the Spanish bourgeois and criticize the avant-garde.
Surrealism rose out of Dada, an artistic movement which believed, in part, that an excess of cold rationality brought about the carnage of The Great War, later known as World War I. This conflagration destroyed a generation of Europe and threw the old world into the new in a blood-drenched tide. The stated aim of Surrealism was to undermine the scientific, rational precision which was taking over every facet of life, using the Freudian conceptions of the mind and specifically the unconscious to, "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality."
Up until this point, in the early 20th century, the common view was that civilization was on an unstoppable onward and upward curve towards perfection, perfection aided by science. The Surrealists, led by André Breton, rejected traditional meaning in favor of an art dominated by the unconscious, the new and little understood part of consciousness which operated underneath daily consciousness, working via symbols and apparent randomness.
Andre Breton defined surrealism as: "Pure psychic automatism through which it is intended to express, either orally or in writing, or in any other way, the actual way thought works." And Un Chien Andalou, which means An Andalusian Dog, the name of a breed of dog from the Andalusian region of Spain, certainly follows a dream logic. Decades later, the film would also inspire "Debaser," a very sad song by American alternative rock band The Pixies.
Connecting himself to the Surrealist movement, Buñuel later said of "It was an aggressive morality based on rejection of all
existing values. We had other criteria: we exalted passion,
mystification, black humour, the insult and the call of the abyss."
Of their famous first film, Buñuel later recalled: "Our [Dali and Buñuel] one and only rule was very simple: no idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted. We had to open all doors to the irrational and keep only those images that surprised us, without trying to explain why." As filmmaking is a labor intensive, industrial process, this was, to say the least, a risky proposition. Interestingly, the film was a huge hit with the French bourgeoisie, playing for eight months in Paris and making stars out of the two. Naturally, this led to Buñuel's disgust:
What can I do about the people who adore all that is new, even when it goes against their deepest convictions, or about the insincere, corrupt press, and the inane herd that saw beauty or poetry in something which was basically no more than a desperate impassioned call for murder?
The images are startling and manage to haunt long after the few 'scenes' of the film are done, and this is a low-budget, silent, short film more than 3/4 of a century old (so there's no excuse for you not to get out there and put your vision on the screen!). In fact, one could argue that Un Chien is the first low-budget indie film, since by 1928/9 there was most definitely a production and distribution system in place, and Buñuel and Dalí were working completely outside of said system, self-financed, and so low-budget that Buñuel had to edit the film in his kitchen without the benefit of any equipment save his (unsliced) eyeball and, ironically enough, razor blades and tape. It has also been argued that the film was an inspiration for the symbolic, associative editing and imagery in music videos -- many commercial directors saw the film in school, which for years was one of the few places that had a print to screen.
The turbulent years of the 1930s were of profound importance in his life. He joined the Surrealist movement in 1929 but by 1932 had renounced it and embraced Communism.He continued to develop his surreal movie-making style, travelling between Hollywood and Spain until Civil war broke out in 1936. During the war he worked for the Republican government and created a war documentary titled, España Leal en Armas (1937).
In 1946 Buñuel moved to Mexico, where many other intellectuals had fled with the outbreak of war in Spain. He would stay there for the rest of his life, becoming a citizen and directing over 20 films by 1964. All of his films were very critical of the systems and powers that be, and one of his favourite targets was the Catholic Church. But he always mitigated his fierce critique with great talent, a very peculiar sense of humor, and with the the heavy influence of one of the mot releant artistic movements of the Twentieth century;surrealism. His films 1961's Viridiana and 1962’s The Exterminating Angel
Buñuel developed a new style that was surrealist in both form and
content. Employing the language of classical Hollywood cinema, both
films skewer the status quo with taboo imagery and disturbing scenarios
involving sexual mania, religious hypocrisy, and social savagery.
Buñuel continued to attack church and state through film, and by the 1980s he created his autobiography, My Last Sigh. Buñuel died in Mexico City on July 29, 1983, a decorated and celebrated filmmaker.
Luis Bunuel - A Statement 1.In none of the traditional arts is there such a wide gap between possibilities and facts as in the cinema.Motion pictures act directly upon the spectator; they offer him concrete persons and things;they isolate him, through silence and darkness, from the usual psychological atmosphere. Because of all this , the cinema is capable of stirring the spectator as perhaps no other art. But as no other art, it is also capable of stupefying him. Unfortunately, the great majority of todays films seem to have exactly that purpose; they glory in an intellectual and moral vacuum, movies seem to prosper.
2. Mystery is a basic element of all works of art. It is generally lacking on the screen. Writers, directors, and producers take good care in avoiding anything that may upset us. They keep the marvellous window on the liberating world of poetry shut.They prefer stories which seem to continue our ordinary lives, which repeat for the umpteenth time the same drama, which help us forget the hard hours of our daily work. And all this, of course, carefully watched over by traditional morals , government and international censorship, religion, good taste, white humour and other flat dicteria of reality.
3. The screen is a dangerous and wonderful instrument, if a free spirit uses it. It is the superior way of expressing the world of dreams, emotions and instinct. The cinema seems to have been invented for the expression of the subconscious, so profoundly is it rooted in poetry. Nevertheless, it almost never pursues these ends.
4. We rarely see good cinema in the mammoth productions, or in the works that have recieved the praise of critics and audience. The particular story, the private drama of an individual cannot interest -I believe - anyone worthy of living in our time. If a man in the audience shares the joys and sorrows of a character on the screen, it should be because the character reflects the joys and sorrows of al l society and so the personal feelings of that man in the audience. Unemployment, insecurity, the fear of war, social injustice, etc., affect all men of our time , and thus, they also affect the individual spectator. But when the screen tells me that Mr X is not happy at home and finds amusement with a girlfriend whom he finally abandons to reunite himself with his faithful wife, I Find it all very moral and edifying, but it leaves me completetly indifferent.
5. Octavia Paz has said :" But that a man in chains should shut his eyes, the world would explode." And I coould say : But that the white eyelid of the screen reflect its proper light, the Universe would go up in flames. But for the moment we can sleep in peace : the light of the cinema is conveniently dosified and shackled.
The above originally puplished in "FILM CULTURE ", no 21, Summer 1960, pp. 41-2. Still relevant methinks
Happy International Mother Language Day.
The day was proclaimed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 1999. International Mother Language Day aims to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used around the world.The day is also observed to promote linguistic and cultural diversity, multilingualism and bring awareness to languages on the path to extinction.
The date represents the day in 1952 when students demonstrating for
recognition of their language, Bangla, as one of the two national
languages of the then Pakistan, were shot and killed by police.
International Mother Language Day
provides a grand exposure for the recognition, protection, and spread of
lesser-used and threatened languages to reassert themselves in their
struggle for language rights, to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and
multilingualism.
This year’s theme is “Indigenous languages matter for development, peace building and reconciliation”.Languages, with their complex implications for identity,
communication, social integration, education and development are of
strategic importance for people.Languages are the most powerful instruments of
preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage. All
moves to promote the dissemination of mother tongues will serve not only
to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but also
to develop fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions
throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on understanding,
tolerance and dialogue.
But linguistic diversity is increasingly threatened as more and more
languages disappear. One language disappears on average every two
weeks, taking with it an entire cultural and intellectual heritage.According to the United Nations, 43 percent of the estimated 6,000 world
languages are “endangered.” Thousands of local languages used as the daily means of expression are
absent from education systems, the media, publishing and the public
domain in general because of state policies.
We learn better in our mother tongue when it is taught in school
But this is not the case of all minority languages. 476 million of
world’s illiterate people speak minority languages and live in countries
where children are mostly not taught in their mother language
Tashi Wangchuck's Tibetan Language advocacy was peaceful,
non-political and conducted through official channels. He was
neverthcless arrested by the Chineses authorities and sentenced to five
years in prison. https://freetibet.org/news-media/na/china-bars-lawyer-jailed-tibetan-activist-visiting
In Turkey, because of repressive assimilationist policies, many
Kurds have suffered language loss. The so-called democratization process
has proven to be elusive, cosmetic, inconsequential and peripheral. It
is not surprising that despite all the misleading rhetoric on language
reform in Turkey, Kurdish has not been given its denied status, and the
demand for the basic right to education in the mother tongue is still
controversial and rejected.
In Iran, draconian restrictions are being used against using
the language in official institutional and educational settings.
Government directives issued periodically reinforce a repressive policy
that has turned schoolyards into a battlefield where administrative
personnel and teachers have been requisitioned to watch over and
eavesdrop on Kurdish students to ensure that no one speaks “the local
dialect.”
Similarly, Kurdish ethnic and linguistic identity in Syria has
been denied and brutally repressed. To this day, Kurds are treated as
outsiders and foreigners. These entrenched state language ideologies, in
short, have made a stateless nation subjected to harsh measures of
linguicide and ethnocide.
These exclusionary and discriminatory practices have
detrimental social and educational implications for Kurdish children who
find it more difficult to thrive endemically.
When a language disappears, it takes with it an entire cultural and intellectual heritage so does the world’s rich tapestry of cultural diversity..As we celebrate the 70 th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights remember it enshrines the right to freedom of opinion and expression and promotes the preservation and
protection of all languages used by peoples of the world. Not
only does the recognition of the value of one’s mother tongue help
develop a sense of pride in it, it can help promote an attitude of mind
towards other cultures and tongues, as being due a reciprocal respect.
International Mother Language Day is also a good opportunity to remind
ourselves that children of migrants and Indigenous people have an
international right to speak, grow up with, and celebrate their own
heritage languages, wherever they reside. Languages enriches society,
economic mobility and at end of the day is what makes us human.
On #MotherLanguageDay, let’s stand together to make sure that #IndigenousLanguages are preserved! https://on.unesco.org/2Brk2wU
Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain would have marked his birthday today, In the brief, less-than-three-year window between Nevermind’s release
in the fall of 1991 and the Nirvana frontman’s suicide on April 5, 1994, at the age of 27
there was no one more influential in rock music than Kurt Cobain, whose impact on the world is still
being felt.
Kurt Donald Cobain was born on February 20, 1967, in the small logging town of Aberdeen, Washington. His parents divorced when he was seven years old. He later said that the divorce had a profound effect on his life, while his mother noted that his personality changed dramatically with Cobain becoming defiant and withdrawn, but as a child was artistic and had an ear for music. During his sophomore year in High school, Cobain began living with is mother in Aberdeen..
He began playing in bands in Olympia, Washington after dropping out of high school in 1985. Cobain was very influential in creating what became known as grunge music, Grunge musicians pushed back against music they saw as commercial and shallow.
Kurt created the Seattle band Nirvana, with his friend Kris Novoselic in 1987, At the height of the bands immense fame, Kurt's intense lyrics, unique voice and incredible stage charisma cemented his place as the voice of a generation.His hits as the band's lead singer and writer include Smells Like Teen Spirit,Lithium and Come As You Are, still sound as fresh to me as to when I first heard them, lyrics of raw intensity and feeling that focused on themes of existentialism, loneliness, and yes depression that led to him becoming one of the most influential musicians in the history of alternative rock. He changed music in a big way in a very short period of time, leaving an astonishing legacy and music that has inspired many.He was also an activist , who used his voice to speak out against racism, misogyny, sexism and supporting many social justices causes..
Unfortunately he battled substance abuse problems all his life and the way that US drug laws worked, the stigma attachd failed him, pushing him into treatment that simply did not work , the same forces that fsil other todayd , this combined with his difficulty to deal with his fame, and his deep depression i fuelled his self detonation.
On April 8, 1994 Kurt was found dead in his home in Seattle , with fresh injection marks in both arms and a fatal wound to his head from the 20-gauge shotgun found between his knees'.He was only 27 and left behind a suicide note , his wife Courtney Love and his daughter Francis Bean Cobain.
His death shocked the music world and left countless fans devastated. Despite the tragic circumstancesof his life his songs have actually helped me get me through many times of darkness and managed at same time to actually lift me up, so am grateful for that at least, and he remains a very talented and beautiful human..
But lets be clear there is nothing glamorous about depression or mental illness, it can effect anyone, rich or poor, like Kurt you just have to be human, the important thing is to keep talking, battling, surviving, try and be defiant and keep raging against the world, but remember too that the road to Nirvana is often very hard to find...
"If any of you in anyway hate homosexuals, people of color, or women, please do this one favor for us don't come to our shows and don't buy our records." - Kurt Cobain
Happy Birthday Kurt
Lithium
I'm so happy because today
I've found my friends
They're in my head
I'm so ugly, but that's okay, 'cause so are you
We've broken our mirrors
Sunday morning is everyday for all I care
And I'm not scared
Light my candles in a daze
'Cause I've found god
Hey, hey, hey
I'm so lonely but that's okay I shaved my head
And I'm not sad
And just maybe I'm to blame for all I've heard
But I'm not sure
I'm so excited, I can't wait to meet you there
But I don't care
I'm so horny but that's okay
My will is good
Hey, hey, hey
I like it, I'm not gonna crack
I miss you, I'm not gonna crack
I love you, I'm not gonna crack
I killed you, I'm not gonna crack
I like it, I'm not gonna crack
I miss you, I'm not gonna crack
I love you, I'm not gonna crack
I killed you, I'm not gonna crack
On February 15th British billionaire entrepreneur and fat cat owner of the Virgin media Group Sir Richard Branson announced plans for a “Venezuela Aid Live” concert to
be held on February 22 in the Colombian border city of Cucuta and also
to be live-streamed on the Internet, to ostensibly raise money for
“humanitarian aid” for Venezuelans. But far from being apolitical, in
Branson’s own words, the concert is taking aim at what he calls the
“Maduro regime” and was apparently organised at the suggestion of the
self-appointed “president” Juan Guaidó himself and opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, coinciding with them calling for a so-called
“humanitarian corridor” to open across the border on February 23, one
month after their failed coup attempt.
What Branson has effectively annonced is a cynical propaganda spectacle on the Colombia-Venezuela border this Friday in the form of a concert for regime change. The vulgarity of the entire event should be highly disturbing to anyone
who supports international law. The goal of Guaidó is to overthrow a
legally recognised government and as such, staging a concert such as this is
nothing short of a geopolitical provocation disguised as a joyous
charity event.
Major relief organizations – the United Nations, the International
Committee of the Red Cross, and the Catholic aid group Caritas – have so
far been reluctant to cooperate with the so-called “humanitarian” food
and supply efforts of both US AID and the Lima Group, warning against
using food as a political pawn.The politicisation of aid is among the most disingenuous things that one
could do. UN spokesman Stephen
Dujarric told reporters last week, referring to the crisis in Venezuela,
that humanitarian action must be independent of political or military
objectives.
Sir Branson’s concert is just his own egoistic PR campaign, many have mocked the call to donate from a man who is worth billions, saying that if he really cared at all about the plight of the Venezuelan people he
could easily pony-up the $100 million himself from petty cash, and pointing out that he could help the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela by using his power and
influence to get the USA to lift sanctions, which have inflicted so much
pain on the country making people suffer while they continue to plan interventions.
Even Venezuelan economists who oppose Maduro acknowledge it is SANCTIONS that ruin the Venezuelan economy. freely admitting that it’s the sanctions that have crippled their economy. Trump's Economic Sanctions have cost Venezuela about $6bn since August 2017. https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14073: For these – and so many other reasons, any coordination with the US government in respect of ‘humanitarian aid’ to Venezuela is at bestdeeply misguided.
Thinking about it where's the Live Aid style event for the people of Gaza or Yemen. There is a growing movement to ignore the live-streamed event on the
Internet, refusing to participate in Sir Richard Branson’s (and Juan Guaido’s
and Leopoldo Lopez’s ) PR stunt.
Barely missing a beat on Monday the government of Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro has responded by announcing
that it will hold its own huge concert to rival one being organised by
Branson's on Saturday and Sunday on Venezuela’s side of the border, Rodriguez did not announce the artists who are expected to perform, saying only that the concert would be massive.“People from all over the world want to take part in this message of
love, solidarity and denunciation against the aggression that they’re
trying against the Venezuelan people,” Rodriguez said.
The government of Venezauela routinely complains of US interference.Maduro has opposed aid being sent in saying its a trick , blasting it as a ploy to topple
the government, instead demanding that Washington lift the economic
sanctions imposed on Caracas that could .leading to a
military invasion that will be used to enslave the people of Venezuela.
Stepping up the
standoff, Rodriguez also promised to deliver 20,000 boxes of
government-subsidized food to the poor in the Colombian border city of
Cucuta, where tons of aid from the United States is now sitting
earmarked for struggling Venezuelans.
Maduro
is vowing not to let the U.S. aid enter Venezuela, and he announced on
state television Monday evening that his government would import 300
tons of aid from Russia that he said will arrive soon. He said Venezuela
paid for the Russian goods and isn’t a country of beggars, lashing out
at President Donald Trump for thinking he can force in unwanted
assistance.
“They want to enslave us,” Maduro said. “That’s the truth.”
Demonstrations have been planned around the world on February 23 to couter this war propoganda blitz against Venezuela.
U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton has already admitted what
U.S. intervention is really about: “It will make a big difference to the
United States economically if we could have American oil companies
invest in and produce the oil capabilities in Venezuela.” Just like Iraq, this is another U.S, intervention for oil.
Over 200 organizations and thousands of individuals from across the world have endorsed the call for actions on February 23. Read the call and add your name or organization as an endorser at NoWarOnVenezuela.org
The long-standing Labour MP Paul Flynn has died aged 84,his local association has announced The association said on Twitter: “It’s with great sadness that we let you know that our MP, Paul Flynn, has died today.the party has announced. “Paul is a hero to many of us in the Newport Labour family and we mourn
for his family’s loss. We would ask that the privacy of Paul’s family is
respected at this difficult time.”
Mr Flynn was
born in Cardiff and educated at St Illtyd's College and University
College, Cardiff, becoming a chemist in the steel industry until 1983. A fluent
Welsh speaker, he was a member of the Newport Borough
Council (1972–81) and Gwent County Council (1974–82). He was
elected to the House of Commons for Newport West at
the 1987 general election, and remained its MP ever since, being
re-elected at the 2015 general election.
Paul Flynn joined
the front bench under Neil Kinnock in 1988 when he became a
spokesman on health and social security and for social
security in 1989. He resigned from the front bench in 1990. He has been a
member of the Transport Select Committee (1990-97), the Welsh
Affairs Select Committee (1997-98), the Environmental Audit Select
Committee (2003-05), and the Public Administration Select Committee
since 2005. He had been Chairman of the Broadcasting Council for Wales, and
member of the South Wales Docks Board and the Council of University College, Cardiff.
He had long been considered an outspoken maverick and fearless campaigner on a wide-range of issues,Mr Flynn's was not a career of high office but instead of long-fought
causes including benefits, animal welfare, devolution, and was a long-standing opponent of nuclear power in the United Kingdom and in particular the new Hinckley Point C nuclear power station across the Bristol Channel from his constituency. He
was on the left of the party, he was also a fierce critic of the
so-called "war on terror" and a consistent opponent of the Iraq war and Western military interventionism, one of his interventions in recent years was to reeatedly read in parliament as an anti-war intervention the names of each new soldier who had falen in Afghanistan to focus MPs minds that their lies meant people died. He was also a principled republican who in 1996 tabled a bill to abolish the monarchy via a referendum. The MP, who suffered from
rheumatoid arthritis, was also noted as a strong and loud advocate of
legalising cannabis and drug reform, once saying "Cannabis is the oldest medicine in the world. It has been trialled and tested by tens of millions of people over 5,000 years. If there were any problems with natural cannabis that would have been apparent a long time ago. " In 2017 he called for users to come to Parliament to break the law.
He also defended labour leader Jeremy Corbyn during the 2016 coup attempt and in spite of health issues, served in two shadow
ministerial posts – Shadow Welsh Secretary and Shadow Leader of the
House – to fill gaps left by those resigning to try to force Jeremy
Corbyn’s resignation.
The Labour leader, said Flynn would be “greatly missed”. He tweeted:
“I’m very sad at the passing of my good friend Paul Flynn. He had such
love for Newport, knowledge of radical South Wales history and a dry
wit..“He was an independent thinker who was a credit to the Labour Party. He will be greatly missed."
First Minister of Wales and Welsh Labour leader Mark Drakeford described Mr Flynn as a “giant of the Welsh Labour movement”.He added: “Today’s news will be a source of great sadness to all those who knew him.“He was one of the most effective communicators of his generation –
inside the House of Commons and outside. But it was Paul’s willingness
to speak up for causes beyond the political mainstream which marked him
out as a politician of real courage and integrity.” The Welsh secretary, Alun Cairns, tweeted: “Very sorry to hear of Paul Flynn’s passing. My thoughts & prayers are with his family. “He was an exceptional constituency MP & it was a privilege to
work with him taking the Wales Bill through Parliament when he was
Shadow SoS for Wales. We always had a warm & friendly relationship”.
Mr Flynn
announced in October that he intended to stand down as an MP due to
health reasons, telling the Press Association he would “wait for a
convenient time to go” and had “loved every minute” of his time in
Westminster.He said at the time: “It’s been a great, wonderful, rich experience. I lasted 31 years.”
On all accounts a kind principled man, who stood by his principles, who did not betray them like the new self indulgent Blair appreciation party, he was worth a million of them. He fought for the soul of the Labour Party against the Blairites as documented in his book 'Dragons led by Poodles '.He was well respected across the political divide with his wonderful turn of phrase, witty comments and incisive mind, an example rarely seen who will be missed. Whatever you think of his politics, his passing is sad news. He is survived by his wife Samantha and his two children.
