Tis The Season Again

                                Peter Kropotkin 

It's come round again, the time of year when I usually feel like some kind of traitor, because I don't enter into the spirit of things. It's not that I'm a total misery guts, I like it if it snows, but that's about it,I just don't get this time of the year. There are the usual suspects, the seasonal fakery, the waste of paper, the misery that explodes , and the annual artificial need to guzzle and consume vast amounts, whilst people commodify and profiteer from our faked jollity. Santa the manufactured symbol that resides right next to the sick heart of capitalism and consumerism, christmas at the foodbank the new order of the day. Tolerating neighbours stupid light displays and crappy Christmas carols. Reflecting on life and loss in general. The list goes on and bloody on.
We sing about peace and good will, while people caught up in war zones, and  countries are fractured by division. Our natural  impulse is to give, share and support others, feelings of solidarity and mutual aid,  these qualities find their form in the midwinter festival that in this part of the world, is now known as Christmas.Today, as the tentacles of the capitalist market reach into every part of our lives, those feelings are commodified, as we are encouraged to pay for the convenience of expressing our feelings for our fellow beings through gift giving. We fret about our purchases, are they good enough? Will the person like them?
But, as well as this, people across the world think of those who have less and donate food, clothes, toys and money.It is worth remembering that these acts of solidarity are part of our nature, that the impulse towards mutual aid is not just a once in a year anomoly, that it was a deciding factor in our evolution and is something we need to nurture, that   Peter Kropotkin wrote in Mutual Aid, is a factor of evolution. that we need in order to survive. 
 Blessed Saturnalia, roast chestnuts underneath the pagan tree, ..... oh dear oh me.... But children love it I suppose , this shindig of excess.  Their  sun will rise anyway, rudolph will leave eat all the carrots and someone will have bamdoozled the sherry.
I suppose it is is a time when many do genuinely take  some time out  to celebrate their faith, fair enough , but the original meaning seems to have got lost a long time ago now. I also reflect at this time of the year, will think of dear friends, lovers, poets gone too soon, but won't get to deep, need to retain strength, Time also to consider those less well off, those who may  be alone at this time of year, those who may not even have a place to call home, others who have lost friends, family and loved ones, those too  who have become lost to a society that simply does not care. Remember the many organisations and services providing  comfort to those that need it most, people facing homelessness and benefit disruption over the festive season. For some, this time of the year is a time of immense difficulty, fear and uncertainty, people left in isolation, feeling alone, left cold, hungry and without support, in a downward spiral. People who feel they do not belong, who are discredited and denied their status as human beings.
Whatever you do, try  take it easy out there, and  hope  you have a good time, follow your dreams, your currents, each according to your need.  Stay positive and stay human.and I wish you a happy peaceful  new year. Hard times are approaching, we ain't seen nothing yet. Conservative compassion knows no boundaries. We don't have to take what our leaders want to deliver, we can still make a difference. as foodbanks continue to grow, the Tories should confront the poverty they helped create. For now if its your kind of thing merry Christmas, nadolig llawen,  hanukkah, solstice, Yuletide, Saturnalia, Kwanzaa, Festivus, or anything else you  care to celebrate.Reach out to those that need  help, to those too weak to look after or defend themselves. not just for the holidays, but the days and years ahead, Think I've said enough. Laters...... heddwch/peace

Santa Claus says Free  Palestine

David Roviks - Christmas Song

Banksy's Scar of Bethlehem

The  British street artist  Banksy has bought a sombre Christmas spirit to a hotel he founded in the West Bank  town of Bethlehem , with a nativity scene evoking the Palestinian- Israeli conflict.
It  marks the Bristol-based artist's first foray into the public spotlight having released a mural in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, a fortnight ago highlighting homelessness.
Dubbed the “Scar of Bethlehem,”' the artwork features a traditional nativity scene,  a miniature Jesus, Mary and Joseph under a rendition of Israel's concrete West Bank barrier punctured by bullet holes, the largest of which resembles a star over the manger. Three large wrapped presents sit at the forefront of the scene, while the words 'peace' and 'love' are graffiti tagged in English and French on the concrete,
The work is installed at Banksy’s Walled-Off Hotel,  which he opened in March 2017,where all rooms overlook a concrete section of the barrier built by Israel to cut off the occupied West Bank from Israeli territory,offering "the worst view in the world."and is filled with original Banksy artwork. The hotel also contains a small museum on the history of the separation barrier.

Hotel manager Wissam Salsaa called the work a "nativity scene," saying that "Banksy has his own contribution to Christmas.""It is a great way to bring up the story of Bethlehem, the Christmas story, in a different way -- to make people think more" of how Palestinians live in Bethlehem, Salsaa says. “Banksy is trying to remind the world that people of Bethlehem, where Christmas was started, are not celebrating Christmas like the rest of the world,” he said.

 "Christmas is known for the Star of Bethlehem, that led people to the birthplace of Jesus," said hotel manager Wisam Salsa. "You see there is a scar, there is a hole on the wall that marks the wall and the life in Bethlehem how it is today."
.Israel began building the separation barrier , in parts concrete, with other stretches consisting of fencing,in 2002 during the Palestinian uprising, or intifada. Built mostly inside the West Bank, Israel says it is necessary to prevent attacks, but Palestinians label it an apartheid wall,  a symbol of their ongoing oppression, separating them from Jerusalem. The Palestinians consider the barrier illegal and call it an Israeli land grab, noting that it has engulfed large chunks of the West Bank onto the Israeli “side.”  Aside from dominating the landscape, the barrier separates Bethlehem from much of the land owned by its people, and, crucially, it also severs it from Jerusalem. The structure, has been ruled illegal by the UN's International Court of Justice.'

Traditional Bethlehem Christmas festivities will take place this week at the church built on the spot where Christians believe Jesus was born. That  is being continually squeezed by Israeli encroachment and by the imposition of the winding separation barrier through its land. As the separation barrier expands, Bethlehem’s territory shrinks and shrinks. Its continued ability to exist as a viable town reduces every year. The impact of the occupation daily bringing its heavy burden.The Church of the Nativity is famously located in Bethlehem, but pigrims vising the birthplace of Jesus will also witness one of the striking ybols of Israeli occupation - the Apartheid Wall  Peoples journeys blocked by checkpoints and thirty foot high  slabs of concrete. Nothing calm, nothing bright.
A longtime critic of the occupation, the manger scene and hotel  are far from Banksy’s only West Bank imprint. as has also created a number of works in Bethlehem and on the separation barrier itself.
In 2007, he painted a number of artworks in Bethlehem, including a young girl frisking an Israeli soldier pinned up against a wall.
In 2005, he sprayed nine stenciled images at different locations along the eight-meter-high (27-foot) separation barrier.
They included a ladder on the wall, a little girl carried away by balloons and a window opening onto a peaceful mountain landscape. Banksy also is believed to have sneaked into the Gaza Strip to draw four murals there.
One was painted on a remaining piece of a building destroyed during the 2014 war between Israel and Gaza’s ruling Hamas militant group and featured the Greek goddess Niobe cowering against the rubble of a destroyed house.
Palestinian graffiti artists, too, have made the separation wall a place of political and artistic expression.
Like elsewhere in the world, Banksy’s works in the occupied territory have become tourist attractions, in part due to him often ghosting in to create his works in the dead of night.
“Banksy is trying to be a voice for those that cannot speak,” Salsa said. "He “is creating a new model of resistance through art.”
For now I hope you have a peaceful holiday and a happy new year.



 Banksy art on Israel's highly controversial West Bank barrier in Abu Dis in 2005.
 

The Man Who Shouldn't be King (Trailer)

British politics has seen tumultuous changes over the past four years.  While the question of Brexit and who will govern for the next five years appears to have been largely settled, there remains a crisis of confidence in the political system.
The royals are no longer immune to effects of that crisis, with recent events in parliament exposing the Queen to criticism and prompting serious debate about royal powers.  And of course Prince Andrew continues to avoid proper scrutiny having plunged the monarchy into one of its most serious crises for more than 20 years.
January sees the official launch of The Man Who Shouldn't Be King.  You can watch the trailer below.
The Man Who Shouldn't  be King  is a powerful new documentary that spells out the risks of King Charles and why his failures are the failures of the monarchy. It. takes a critical look at Prince Charles, landowner, businessman, political operator and future  king.
He may turn out to be a nice old King, but I along with many others are hoping for a different future, when the people  of the land substitute him with a president as head of state. Prince Charles is another royal who keeps getting called “phony” for claiming he cared about the environment while exploiting natural resources more than the people he’s preaching to.

Former government minister and Parliament member Norman Baker recently published an expose called …And What Do You Do?: What The Royal Family Don’t Want You To Know that called into question some of Prince Charles’ biggest controversies. Baker accuses the future monarch of tax evasion, greed, private jet usage, fakery, and perhaps worst of all, of being completely oblivious to all of it because he’s so entitled.

But whether he realizes it or not, millennials are not in love with the monarchy like older generations were. A YouGov poll found that only 41 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds believe the monarchy should still exist.The British monarchy has been around so long that most people take its existence for granted. But in reality, the royal family is currently serving at the pleasure of the people. If Parliament decided to withdraw funding tomorrow, they could all fade into obscurity. Following Prince Andrew's involvement with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, many critics are coming to the natural conclusion that the institution that is the monarchy no longer has use or relevance or  a place for the royals in the modern world at all,it's a perplexing obscenity that we have them,  and in the 21st Century should simply be confined to the dustbins of history.

 The Man  Who Shouldn't be King (Trailer)

Counting The Ring Of Years (A Poem For The Winter Solstice)

Counting the ring of years
on this the shortest day
every thousand years
a bird flickers past
and announces, all is not lost
reach out for another shore
quietly and slowly dive
snow flakes embrace the moon
finding the same root as us
breathe the air as needed.
.
Look to the stars for guidance,
as the evening navigates
be at peace among friends
there are places to escape
where enemies are not welcomed
upon every false dawn
break of day and sunrise
on lands full of ever changing patterns
we cling on with strings of thought
with our deeds, reach for tomorrow.

The earth still breathing
wonder at it's sacredness
among the storm clouds brewing
the taste of future days to behold
all in the end must come true
but  our words will not fail us
life's mystery, there now
runs silently beside us
reaching out,rejuvenating
let's us sing out, keep reaching.

As the tickets of time
still clutches firmly
the embrace of solidarity
inhaled and shared
beyond cruel winds
the rising tide of hopelessness
across the earth, scattered
far from the stains of cruelty
choose now gentle rejoicing
feelings that give mind strength.

Lepa Svetozara Radić ( 19 December 1925 – February 8, 1943) - Anti- Fascist Freedom Fighter

Lepa Svetozara Radić, was born  on December 19, 1925 in the village of Gashnica near Gradishka (the modern territory of the Republika Srpska – now part of Bosnia and Herzegovina).
She graduated from elementary school in neighboring Bistrica, the first grade of the Women's Craft School, with her somewhat older sister Dara, in Bosanska Krupa - with the help of Uncle Voje, who served as a lugar for several years in Podgrmeče - while she finished the other grades in Bosanska Gradiški.
 Already as a student, she emphasized diligent work and seriousness. Already then,reading advanced literature, Lepa had a strong influence  from her uncle Vlade Radic, who was involved in the labor movement. On 10 April 1941, after the successful invasion of Yugoslavia, the Axis powers established on its former territory the puppet state Independent State of Croatia, which, in particular, consisted of Bosanska Gradiška and its surroundings.
In 1941, at the age of fifteen, she joined the Communist Party, and joined the anti-fascist partisan resistance movement. During the Kozar offensive, Lepa’s father, Svetozar, and her 15-year-old brother, Milan, were killed.  At the time of the first offensive against the Kozara insurrections in November 1941, the Ustashi arrested Lepo and all the remaining members of the Radic family for their dissident activities. However, with the help of illegal Partisan associates, after 20 days of harassment in the Ustasha prison in Gradiska, they were released.
After leaving the prison on December 23, 1941, along with her sister Dara, Lepa became a fighter of the 7th partisan company of the 2nd Krajina Detachment. Shortly thereafter, she was a nurse in the company, and then a listener of the youth course in the village of Lamovita, under Kozar, and a activist on the Prijedor field.
During the Neretva battle in February 1943, Lepa Radic was responsible for transporting the wounded to the shelter in Grmec.. During the battle against the 7th Division of the SS she was captured while organizing a rescue of some 150 women and children seeking refuge from the Axis. She attempted to protect her charges by firing at the attacking Nazi SS forces with a barrage of her remaining ammunition , transferred to Bosanska-Krupu. First, the Germans kept her in isolation and tortured her in an attempt to extract information over the course of three days . She refused to divulge any information about her comrades and was sentenced to death by hanging.
 On February 8, 1943, Lepa Radić was brought to the hastily constructed gallows in full view of the public. Moments before her hanging, Radic was offered a pardon if she revealed the names of her Partisan comrades, but she  passionately responded, “I am not a traitor of my people. Those whom you are asking about will reveal themselves when they have succeeded in wiping out all you evildoers, to the last man." with a noose around her neck she shouted: “Long live the Communist Party and the partisans! Fight, people, for your freedom, do not give up to the villains! They’ll kill me, but there are those who will take revenge for me! And with that, she was hanged.
On 11th February German soldiers reported the execution had taken place and that the "bandit" had "shown unprecedented defiance." This brave act would  eventually propel her into the history books and  consequently her legacy lives on .She died at just 17 in her fight against the Nazis, but they were never able to break her heroic and courageous spirit. Her execution was captured in a series of haunting photographs. By the decree of Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito on December 20, 1951,Lepa Radic was awarded posthumously the title of People’s Hero of Yugoslavia for her role in the resistance movement against the Axis powers—becoming the youngest recipient at the time.
 She will never grow old. Hers was the ultimate sacrifice made in the name of peace and freedom.No Pasarán!

Musical Highlights of the year:2019

 I am currently still in shock  after the  most right-wing Government in decades just slammed home a majority election win, Many  others too now, am sure shattered, feeling powerless afraid of what will come next. because we are going to be stuck with this fucking mob for the next five years now.
Despite  the daunting times we face at the present, people are  still resisting, standing up and demanding change and a better world, in huge numbers. Yes there will be daunting,  years ahead, but there will always be love and dance and song and, music that we can share between ourselves to keep strong and release beauty through the darkness..
In unsteady times, music can be a balm and also a mirror, and a lot of the best music of the year responded in one way or another, to that constant uncertainty. Anyway now is a time to pause and reflect .Here  are my musical highlights from 2019.
Seasons greetings. Power to the music and the people that make it. Times ahead going to be hard , but continue to try and support venues where our different tribes gather, am lucky to have one not  far from me The Cellar Bar, Cardigan. A truly magnificent  place, that caters for all manners of musical tastes , folk , blues, psychedelica, ska, reggae, homegrown  hybrids of immense talent, among other magical delights, Appreciate their value  In no particular order here are my musical highlights of the year ;-

1: Adwaith - Melyn

2; Lankum - The livelong day

3; The Mekons - Deserted

4;  Cate le Bon – Reward

5; Kate Tempest - The Book o Traps and Lessons

6; Tinariwen – Amadjar

7; Leonard Cohen -  Thanks For The Dance

8; The Comet is Coming – Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery

9; Gruff Rhys - Pang

10; Patrick Jones and John Robb -  Renegade Psalms

11; The Last  Poets - Transcending Toxic Times

12; The Specials - Encore

12; Sleaford mods - Eton Alive

14; Cosey Fanni Tutti - Tutti

15; Alternative TV -  Primitive Emotions

16; Kim Gordon - No Home Record

17; The Art Ensemble of Chicago - We Are On The Edge

18; Steve Ignorant's  Slice of Life - Don't Turn Away

19; The Waterboys-  Where The Action Is

20; Penguin Cafe - handfuls of night

21; Men Of Gwent - President Of Wales

22; Gwilym Bowen Rhys – Arenig
 

23. New Model Army - From Here

The Dirty War on the NHS – a film by John Pilger.

Congratulations Boris Johnson, Donald Trump is now pushing even harder for a lucrative trade deal with the UK, and we know what that means. He wants to get his hands on the NHS. That could force the NHS to pay more for life saving drugs, or sell off services to US private companies. The path to this trade deal just got a lot easier for him. A powerful government means that fewer MP''s  can scrutinise or block trade deals that put our NHS at risk. Truly alarming times.
 The United Kingdom's four separate and independent public healthcare providers (collectively the National Health Service) were established in 1948. Three core principles at the heart of the NHS are that it meets the needs of everyone, that it be free at the point of delivery, and that it be based on clinical need, not ability to pay.
The NHS was the supreme achievement of the post-war welfare state ,subsequently becoming one of Britain's best loved institutions, and the one most likely to keep you alive. It is currently in crisis . Yet far from being accidental, this crisis  has been deliberately designed by the Tories to accelerate NHS privatisation, forcing hospitals to compete against low-cost private companies to provide services. Since the Conservatives took power, the percentage of the NHS budget going to private healthcare providers has doubled.
A very important film has been recently released by renowned BAFTA and Emmy-winning filmmaker and journalist John Pilger, it is to be shown  sadly in the post election graveyard on ITV and ITV Wales  on Tuesday the 17th December at 10.45 pm. If you miss the screening on Tuesday you can catch it again for a month on ITV Player.
Do please inform other people, as it is vital as many people as possible, who value out NHS, please watch and share this film because this concerns  every single one of us.
Pilger  introducing  the The Dirty War said that he had wanted to make it for some time, even though he had already made a couple of films about the NHS. He noted that the war on the NHS had been going on a long time but was at a crucial stage now. The NHS, said Pilger, has become a major issue in the election precisely because it “represents democracy.”
But what was at stake was more than “just” the dismantling by the corporate vultures of a system that was, in principle at least, a comprehensive (from the cradle to the grave) and universal service, free at the point of use. Pilger explains in the film that “Britain’s deadly disease was class. The NHS was not given from on high but won in struggle. It exemplifies what is good in British society. NHS is a deeply democratic institution. The leaflet announcing the NHS to the British people and given to everyone said, ‘Open to all, rich and poor.’”
“But” he said, “the corporations hate the NHS. They and the politicians are carrying out a war against it. We have to fight for it. We should have done so earlier because it touches all our lives. It is the great connector between all of us.
“If the NHS goes, everything else will go.”
 Pilger makes clear that the dirty war on the NHS is aimed at giving free rein to the corporate sector, who cannot wait to get their hands on the service’s £120 billion a year funding, with author and Spinwatch campaigner Tamasin Cave  describing the NHS as a “£120 billion opportunity” for the powerful healthcare corporations. It will mean a healthcare system that will deliver profits, not treatment and care for those who need it..In it,  Pilger takes a hard swipe at the successive governments who are less-than-stealthily selling off the NHS to private firms to an unprecedented level in recent years. Some £15 billion, in NHS contracts has been given to private firms in the last five years alone ( The Guardian).
Here is the official preview of 'The Dirty War on the NHS. The film shows why the NHS was created after WW2 and how it has provided a vital safety net to generations of people that has  slowly over the years since Margaret Thatcher, the NHS has been made ready to be sold off to  an insurance based private  healthcare system.It also shows how these same run for profit systems in the USA refuse treatment  to many millions of people who are unable to afford sufficient health care insurance  to cover their personal  costs,Filmed in both countries , the film warns of the danger to the fundamental human right to medical care.
 In July 2018 it was revealed that health secretary Matt Hancock accepted donations of £32,000 from the chairman of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a think-tank that supports the privatisation of the NHS. In June 2019, US President Donald Trump insisted that the NHS should be "on the table" in any post-Brexit trade deal negotiations between the UK and the US.
In November 2019, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn announced the existence of a leaked 400+ page document detailing the UK government's secret talks with the US about including the National Health Service in a post-Brexit trade deal.
 As of December 2019, the UK government insists that the NHS does not and will never face privatisation. However, spending increases have slowed dramatically under austerity, and cuts made elsewhere, especially to social care and welfare, have put the service under increasing pressure. Additionally there is the uncertainty of post-Brexit staffing: 5.6% of the total workforce are from EU countries, including 10% of doctors and 7% of nurses.
The N H.S  is now clinging on a cliff edge because of underfunding, which threatens to push it over, combined with  continuing attempts  to make the N.H.S unworkable by making impossible demands on the system and its staff,  with the Conservatives now in  power again,  the NHS is definitely 'unsafe ' in their hands, we have to continue  to fight to save it from  the grips of the privateers, because we owe it our lives.

Here  is a link to an article in the Mirror by John Pilger

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tories-dirty-war-nhs-exposed-21036152