Qui Jin (8/11/1875 -15/7/07 ) - China's Revolutionary Poet.

Qui Jin was a radical Chinese women's rights leader and revolutionary. Born in Xiamen. Fujian Province. She was one of the first women of China who attempted to educate and mobilise and emancipate Chinese Women. She loudly said no to womens degradation, advocating for their rights in open defiance of the imperial empire. She refused to be silenced or subjegated by the power of patriarchal rule. She stood up against foot binding , it is easy to forget that  for a long time, this barbaric practice had been acceptable behaviour, she also oppossed other repressive orders. Spending time in Japan where she developed some of her ideas.
She helped found and write,a radical women's magazine called the 'Chinese Womens Journal' based in Shanghai. One of the first women who attempted to educate, mobilise and emancipate Chinese Women. Encouraging other women to resist oppression.
Standing against womens degradation, her cause was one of emancipation and freedom. She also became a martial arts expert , wouldn't you want to defend yourself, and together she joined forces with other revolutionaries to try to overthrow the corrupt Manchu Government and make war against authority. However she was betrayed and on July 12th 1907 she was arrested. Subsequently though she refused to admit any involvement or implicate and betray anyone else. 
She was beheaded on the 15th July 1907, she was only 32,  but had  become one of Chinas first revolutionary martyrs and is remembered to today for the sacrifice she made for her people.
The dynasty that she revolted against fell in 1912, with the declaration of a republic. Her legacy lives on, since after all, she introduced the idea of womens independance to China,  and beyond her actions, her memory lives on in her words.
Below  I share with you some of her poems. Full of a beguiling tranquility and mythological  elements, but it is she who has become legend. That today we must recall.

On Request for a Poem

Do not tell me women
are not the stuff of heroes,
I alone rode over the East Sea's
winds for ten thousand leagues.
My poetic thoughts ever expand,
like a sail between ocean and heaven.
I dreamed of your three islands,
all gems, all dazzling with moonlight.
I grieve to think of the bronze camels,
guardians of China, lost in thorns.
Ashamed, I have done nothing
not one victory to my name.
I simply make my war horse sweat.

Grieving over my native land
hurts my heart. So tell me:
how can I spend these days here?
A guest enjoying your spring winds?

Crimson Flooding into the River

just a short stay at the Capital
But it is already the mid autumn festival
Chrysanthemums infect the landscape
Fall is making its mark
The internal isolation has become unbearable here
All eight years of it make me long for my home
It is the bitter guile of them forcing us women into femininity
We cannot win!
Despite our ability, men hold the highest rank
But while our hearts are pure, those of men are rank
My insides are afire in anger at such an outrage
How could vile men claim to know who I am?
Heroism is borne out of this kind of torment
To think that so putrid a society can provide no camaraderie
Brings me to tears!

Untitled

Riding a white dragon up to the sky,
Striding deep in the moutain on a fierce tiger.

I am born in a roaring storm with a violent dancing spirit
I shall be holy on the earth.

How could I ever be satisfied with settling down!
Without witnessing Commander Xiang win his great battles,
Or hearing Liu Xiu rumbling war drums

They were only twenty years old but could make their contries floursh.
Don't blame them for bloodshed but admire them for bravery.

Shame and failure!
I am already twenty-seven

Yet have no glory to my name
I only worry for my country and do not know how to expel these invaders.

I am glad my great ambitions will not rot and waste away,
Not when I hear the roar of war drums.

Deep inside I am outraged
I cannot get help from my own people

I feel so helpless, so weak.
It is for that reason alone that I am going
to Japan: to rally up aid to look for assistance.

Here is a link to a trailer to a film about her :-

Autumn Gem

Wiki entry below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qiu_Jin

NEWTOWN NEUROTICS - KICK OUT THE TORIES

THE TORIES ARE EVIL, AS SIMPLE AS THAT.......
SAME  AS THEY EVER WERE.

This is Real Democracy - Kutiman

WORK THIS OUT

Children's Art from Palestine--Censored!

R.S. Thomas (29/03/13 - 25/09/00) - Welsh History.

                                             image above courtesy of Mr Howard Barlow   
                                             http://howardbarlow.com 
                                             http://howardbarlow.photoselter.com/gallery/Writers/G0000yFg97xtMWk/                              

We were a people taut for war; the hills
Were no harder, the thin grass
Clothed them more warmly than the coarse
Shirts our small bones.
We fought, and were always in retreat,
Like snow thawing upon the slopes
Of Mynydd Mawr; and yet the stranger
Never found our ultimate stand
In the thick woods, declaring verse
To the sharp prompting  of the harp.

Our king died. or they were slain
By the old treachery at the ford.
Our bards perished, driven from the halls
Of nobles by the thorn and bramble.

We were a people bred on legends,
Warming our hands at the red past.
The great were ashamed of our loose rags
Clinging stubbornly to the proud tree
Of blood and birth, our lean bellies
And mud houses were a proof
Of our ineptitude for life.

We were a people wasting ourselves
In fruitless battles for our masters,
In lands to which we had no claim.
With men for whom we felt no hatred.

We were a people, and are so yet.
When we have finished quarelling for crumbs
Under the table, or gnawing the bones
Of a dead culture, we will arise,
Armed, but not in the old way.

John Pilger - Palestine Is Still The Issue (2002)

Still relevent, don't really do heroes, but John Pilger comes close,
according to some disputed stories Palestine was a desert that Israel made bloom, land without a people for a people without a land....
lies and distortions have  often been made in some peoples conflicted view .
It aint necessary so.


" FACTS DO NOT  CEASE TO EXIST BECAUSE THEY ARE IGNORED"
- Aldous Huxley.

For me , Palestine still matters.

Statement by the PSC on Palestine independence and the UN

 

The Palestinian Solidarity Campaign is firmly based on the principle of self-determination of the Palestinian people - including Palestinians living inside Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and the Palestinian diaspora - those refugees who live outside historic Palestine. The PSC supports the right of Palestinians to independence, freedom and a state of their own and their right to campaign for these rights. PSC supports the rights of the Palestinians to determine their own future, and supports the implementation of the reconciliation agreement between Palestinian parties.

The full  implementation of international law, including the end of Israel's illegal occupation, and the right of return of Palestinian refugees, are essential for a just solution.

The United Nations, since 1974, has recognised the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of all the Palestinian people, in their struggle to achieve their rights.

PSC supports actions in the UN that re-inforce these legal principles, and which uphold the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.

The PSC calls on the British and EU Governments to act positively to assist the Palestinians in achieving their legitimate aim of creating an independant state.

The PSC will campaign and lobby in support of these principles in the discussions leading up to any debate in the UN on the question of Palestinaian independance, and calls on all its members, supporters and affiliated organisations to do so.

MORE INFO HERE.

www.palestinecampaign.org/

In personal capacity teifidancer is a member and supporter of the PSC  and supports the above statement wishes the Palestinian good luck today in their endeavor for U.N state recognition.
It never fails me that the enormous injustices and sufferings experienced by the people of  Palestine does not dominate the moral and political imagination of the world. With this bid the world is watching. Many nations are supporting the bid, the only vocal countries against are predictably the U.S.A and Israel.
I really hope the bid succeeds, recognising the 1967 borders and East Jerusalem as the captal just a start, their is so much more room for negotiation.
The recognition of group identity is a basic  and universal need, such recognition will establish a foundation for future relationships built on understanding and mutual respect. Becomming the 194th U.N member state  would become another fork on their long  route to freedom, justice and dignity. It certainly has been a long way coming.
Let us also remember that since the events of the Arab Spring, Israel has shown  no capacity to act in support of its real interests in the region, look at their failed relationships with Turkey and Egypt. A seperation wall has already been built already to be found in violation of international law, that already isolates Gaza from their brothers and sisters.
It will be  a victory to common sense if the U.N  finally recognises Palestine.
Oh and lets not forget the teifidancer maxim, in an ideal world, no borders would be necessary.

In The land of the free, they have a word for Justice, I call it Bullshit.

Yesterday Troy Davis  was killed by lethal injection  by the American Georgia State, for allegedly  ( with so many shadows of doubt ) killing an off-duty Georgian policeman - a crime he and many many others insist he never committed. Just before this state execution Troy Davis lifted his head and declared one last time ' I am innocent' to the family of the victim he categorically said ' I did not personally kill your son, father, brother'  he asked them  to ' look deeper into this case, so that you really can finally see the truth. I ask my family and friends to continue to fight this fight'.
For 22 years he has continually expressed his innocence. Across the world people have rallied and united to try and avert his death. Hundreds of thousands of people have signed petitions on his behalf.... we are now left feeling numb, but we will not be silenced. There is no justice in this senseless killing, most people who have looked a bit into the case know there was too much doubt to execute him. An eye for an eye some people say, but generally this does not achieve zilch, murders in the U.S.A still occur evey day, state sponsored execution does not act as a deterrant. It is legalised  murder under a different name. Many other innocent people are still scheduled to be legally murdered, it simply does not make sense.
At least his death has raised questions, the gaze of the World is now on America, looking on it with shame. Killing in the name of justice does not stop other people killing, does not valididate, just become a spectacle of obscenity and hate. I believe the death penalty  anywhere fails humanity, it is cruel, barbaric, fact. An act of barbarity that should not be tolerated.
Some people say signing petitions, raising your voices, achieves nothing, because the people in charge do not listen, I disagree, because whatever the outcomes , people still have the power to change things, to do nothing,  would be a shame, would be a waste, humanities breath can be validated  if we work together, standing together, that is my hope.
Today I AM TROY DAVIS, NO NOT REALLY BECAUSE TODAY I AM FREE.
I am not as strong.........
Other Nations that have held executions in 2011 are Bangladesh, China, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, U.A.E ,  the good old U.S of A. What century are we living, one shared side by side with objectionable humanity.
Meanwhile 139 others have been wrongfully convicted in the U.S.A. . This should not continue. This is not justice, this is bullshit.

More info on death penalty.

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/

Troy Davis the fight goes on,
response from Amnesty International
below

http://pthblog.amnesty.org.uk/troydavisthefightgoeson/

Wood Green Madrigal.

Anonymous
asks for spare change
Enemy: power
closes ranks
keeps secrets locked
Jesus laptop in hand
shares his thoughts under false name.
Poets get lost in poundshop
local mujahadin sell their wears
in top shop.
Down the street
boarded up windows
offer glimpse  of youths impulsiveness
the games kids play when pushed.
Strange things often happen
when we're simply not looking.
Got the late train back
into the station
looking now for a
souvenir shop
that sells freedom
where the electricity
costs nothing.
On the pavements outside
all that glitters is illusion
plastic smiles and forgotten prayers
hope rains down from passing windows.
Moralty is firm,
 lets us sit still  for a moment
Underneath the cracks of division
melt away and dissapear
dreams buried deep underneath
battered streets
laminate and reappear.
The purpose of all journeys
is one of discovery
please don't turn out the lights.