R.I.P Terry Pratchett (28/4/48 - 12/3/15) - My favourite theologian R.I.P

Sad to hear that one of our countries   most lucid thinkers has passed away. Sir Terry Pratchett. Loved by both children and adults alike, he was the author of over 70 wonderful books, that overflew with life, humor, adventure and memorable characters.
I was fortunate to  see him a few years back at Hay-On-Wye, his beautiful presence loomed large.
A humanist of the first order, who was the  patron of the British humanist Association, who spoke  of the possibilities of science and reason with  joy and intelligence. After the onselt of Alzheimers was diagnosed he carried on with great optimism and bravery. Spending the last period of his tremendous life helping to raise awareness  of dementia and the desperate  need for more reearch, at the same he continued to work towards a fairer society. He apparently died peacefully in his sleep.  Sir Terry Pratchett R.I.P.

" Don't think of it as  dying, said Death, just think of it as leaving early to avoid the rush."

" No one is actually dead until the ripples in the world die away."

" The pen is mightier than the sword, if the  sword  is very sharp."

" It is often said that before you die your life  passes before your eyes. It is in fact true, it's called living."

- Terry Pratchett

At the end of the day real magic never dies.

Happy Birthday Jack Kerouac ( 12/3/22 -21/10/69)

As Jack Kerouac once said " I spent my entire youth writing slowly with revision and endless  reshaping speculation and  deleting   and got  so I was writing one sentence a day, the sentence had no feeling, Goddam it, feeling is what I like in art, not craftiness and  the hiding of freedom."
Long has Jack Kerouac permeated my world, he has taught me a lot. This Beat icon, poet, writer and creator of spontaneous  Bop prosity. He has helped shape me into  the idealist I have become today. The eternal beatnik would have turned 93 today, his spirit lives today in my head and the road travels on and on. 
His words like a gateway drug, that helped me search for horizons, ways to be free, leading me to discover the works of his friends, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Gary Snyder, Herbert Huncke etc etc . He was flawed but deep, far from perfect, " Nothing  behind me,  everything ahead of  me,  as is ever so on the road "- Jack Kerouac; on the road . Thank you Jack, "The only people for me are  the mad ones, the ones  who are made to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirious of everything at the same time, the ones who  never yawn  or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous Roman Candles exploding like spiders across the stars, and in the middle you see the blue center - light pop and everything goes ahh..." - JK


Jack Kerouac - Jazz and prose

Jack Kerouac- American Hiaku-

Old Angel Moonlight (Friday afternoon in the universe)

Jack Kerouac reads from "On the Road"

After Banksy: the parlour guide to Gaza

In response  to graffiti artist Banksy's Make this the year you discover a New destination Gaza tourist video,  a video from the Guardian, that shows what real life is like there  and their dreams beyond the border. Here lies the world's biggest open air prison. The people daily occupied, no one allowed to enter or too leave. People forced to live among ruins, and devastated squalid condititions. Surrounded by apartheid walls, their plight daily insufferable, but despite the destruction all around, the Palestinian peoples resistance and resiliance  remains strong. Come and share with the youth of Gaza as they invite us to come and share their lives ( what's left of them)  their food ( if your ok  with a lean diet) and their culture and subculture ( things that an't be destroyed)  so  come run with them, better still stand with them, show them your solidarity. Boycott Israel.  

The Karl Marx Mastercard

Just found out recently that in Eastern Germany in a town once called Karl Marx Staad, a bank called Spakasse Chemnitz ran an online poll letting customers vote for image to put on their credit cards. They chose Karl Marx. There was  an old joke  in Russia that everything that we were told about by communism was a lie, but nowadays everything  they tell us about capitalism is true. I wonder what the annual rate for the Karl Marx mastercard would be. Everything you have. It confims  old Karl Marx's own adage that the capitalists would sell  the  very rope that would be used to hang himself.

Credit is  the new Opiate of the masses.

When you seize the means of production from the bourgeoisie, use the Karl Marx mastercard.

From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. For everything else here's the Karl Marx mastercard.

The only  card for internationale travel.

A spectre is haunting Europe - the spectre of cash bank and low low interest rates.

 Das Kapital £10, Red Flag £30  prices risings as we rise up against our oppressors.

All property is purchasable. Take the dialectic out of your materialism with a Karl Marx mastercard.

Have your proletariat revolution now,  pay  for it later.

Yes humor could be  the death of me, but not as dangerous as capitalism, that out of control  will  carry on chaining us down, and unregulated  is already killing millions. With the global economy in protracted  crisis , and workers around the world, burdened by joblessness,  debt and stagnant income.
Yes Capitalism and the system that props it up like back when Karl Marx wrote his original words, is still inherently unjust and self desctructive, impoverishing the masses as the worlds wealth is concentrated in the hands of a greedy few. Time to through the cards that they use to curtail us away, and occupy the banks.
Anyway here's an old poem of mine

Money can't buy our love

http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/what-money-can-buy.html

To the sisters ( solidarity forever)

Solidarity means, that together, we must stand,  fighting hand in hand for a more dignified world. Remember on International Women's Day just  the act of  writing or speaking in public for some is a political act. We should all be aware of these conditions, bearing witness, denouncing injustice and patriarchy that can be reasons for division.
Today we remember all those women who have stood up and fought back, for their rights, for equality, for justice, for dignity, for freedom. We remember your strength and remember too that  we are all much stronger in struggle when we are united.
As I write it should be noted that there is still too much gender inequality, discrimination and injustice globally. We must continue to carry  the voices of all who are silenced.

Happy International Womens Day

Solidarity with women of Selma, Ferguson, Kobane, Mexico, Afganistan, Gaza, women of the world, to my sisters nearer home and to all the comrades  who are still fiercely opting to break every chain
solidarity forever.

Heddwch/Peace.

Janet Dube - atom ( a poem to mark International Womens Day)

Tomorrow marks International Womens Day, I have chosen to mark the occasion with this  from the poet Janet Dube  from her  collection Lifeline which was published by Gomer in 2000.
Janet Dube was  born in Fulham, London and now lives in Carmarthenshire, West Wales. She studied at St David's University College , Lampeter, and has worked as a teacher and playworker. She was active in feminism and the anti-war movement.

I am the atom
tiny, invisible, powerless,

Yet from my body
came the word, for I
am the seed  of all that is;

for I was  in the beginning
and without me was not
anything  made that was made;

and I am the sand,
yet more than the sand;

and  I am the stars,
yet more than the stars;

and I am the hungry;
yet more than the hungry;

and  I am the rich,
yet more than  the rich;

and I the healing water
and I the cleansing earth

and I the seed of all that is
am divided against myself;

tiny, invisible powerless
I am divided,
and I am you.

It's the sign of the times. its the time of our lives.

We've got food banks
swastika armbands,
hate in abundance
governments, leaving us angry.

It's  the sign of the times,
it's  the time  of our lives.

We've got corporations causing  unecessary death
carving up the world with austerity and stealth,
as days drift by, rivers of sadness grow
souls get deep, but still manage to flow.

It's the sign of the times,
it's the time of our lives.

We've got polticians demonising the poor
masters of destruction, seeking war,
who cry blue murder if a person hungry
gets caught,shoplifting as a means of survival.

It's the sign of  the times,
it's the time of our lives.

we've got famine in the third world
dirty water and contamination hurled,
refugees being criminalised,
simply for trying to flee for their lives.

It's the sign of the times,
it's the time of our lives.

We've got apartheid walls, we've got wars of attrition
we've got people being daily denied,
cleared from their lands, words and memories stolen
no opportunity to grow, hope daily scattered.

It's the sign of the times
it's the time of our lives.

As big brother gets bigger, participation is left small
with seeds of destruction, a life of suffering and exploitation,
the world at tipping point, on a downward spiral,
we have to reach out find some means of survival.

It's the sign of the times,
it's the time of our lives.

And we've got smart phones and social media
viruses that arrive daily with hidden intent,
webs of confusion, threads of division
branches ragged,  but still enough to cling too,

It's the sign of the times,
it's the time of our lives.

tomorrow delivers a special offer
admission price is free
dreamers will come  overthrow the world,
take the pain away,and try and start again,.

Because it's the time of our lives,
it's the time of our lives.