tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86867316306913510152024-03-13T04:34:13.355+00:00Poor But PositiveSarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.comBlogger70125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-21479698312725676732011-10-23T23:34:00.001+01:002011-11-01T00:42:23.745+00:00The Church and the Occupation: my day at St. Pauls<div style="text-align: justify;">
I suppose we shouldn't be surprised to find the Church telling a fib or two, and stretching a story beyond credulity. After all, its happened before.</div>
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Unable to believe what The Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's Cathedral are saying about risks to health and safety caused by the Occupation, and the "absolute necessity" therefore of preventing people from going to worship, or just to enjoy the marvelous inner spaces of the building, I went down to see for myself.<br />
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(Throwing deadlines to the winds I might say. As a freelance scribbler, my pockets are not so deep that I can afford to cut off income at a stroke - unlike some that the occupiers could poke with a very short stick. But hey, this is an important moment!).<br />
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What I found is this:</div>
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There is NO PROBLEM with access to the church. That is a canard. I could see no risk to health and safety. I could not see any indication that the Cathedral has been disturbed in any material sense, although clearly it is rattled by the progressive forces on its very doorstep.</div>
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I could see no reason why several bus-loads of school children could not visit the Cathedral with perfect ease, nor scores of weddings be held in its vast chambers. There may be legal or regulatory requirements, but these are usually subject to interpretation, and it really looks as though only ecclesiastical perversity is preventing worship inside the cathedral today. <br />
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A very bad move for them.</div>
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It is the Dean and Chapter themselves (plus of course whoever is exerting pressure on them, if such there be) who are preventing access.<br />
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It is they (and whoever may be pressuring them ...) who have closed the enormous doors ...</div>
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... and locked the gates.<br />
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The demonstration is disciplined, still quite small and very focused and principled, although at the moment I would say the issues have more to do with process than substance. There is much of clarification and guidance.<br />
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It is also, contrary to slanderous rumour, very neat, orderly and clean.<br />
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with a cheerful little library.<br />
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But substance there is, albeit emergent.<br />
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I also liked the diversity.<br />
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But what I liked most was the serious, thoughtful, purposeful atmosphere. From the Tent University...<br />
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which was packed to the gills. ...<br />
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to the discussions everywhere .....<br />
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to the reading of discourses<br />
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to the political posters, which demonstrate a rather consistent and, I was pleased to note, distinctly anti-imperialist, position .....<br />
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It seems that the Cathedral management has lost its head, overplayed its hand and shot itself in the foot: the occupyers are calling its bluff. </div>
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They have asked the Cathedral in an <a href="http://occupylsx.org/?p=337">open letter</a> to specify exactly which risks to health and safety are of concern, so that they can be addressed. Its a good job we are not holding our breath on this one, as more than 24 hours have passed, and there has been no response.</div>
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Apparently the Cathedral is basing its actions, once again, on an ill-defined mystery.<br />
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And I can't resist this little LoL. We are everywhere.</div>
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<br />Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-695735304038749672011-10-21T08:57:00.001+01:002011-10-21T15:09:25.212+01:00Zucotti Park: The Police and the Occupation<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This is the text of an e-mail message from a friend of a friend, giving his thoughts on the Occupy Wall Street demonstration in Zucotti Park, near Ground Zero in New York City, and especially the role of the police. He </span></span>was one of the first
responders after 9-11 and worked there for several months. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">He compares the behaviour of the people and the behaviour of the police in Zucotti Park now and after 9-11, and as you might expect the police come up pretty short, but in ways that you may not expect. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I found what he wrote both moving and politcally important. I hope he will write more.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emilyrides/6213251344/">Big Brother is Watching You. Portable Police Watchtower at Zucotti Park</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Downloaded from Flickr. Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emilyrides/sets/72157627821228088/">EmilyRides</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Here is what he said: </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Zucotti Park Ten Years Later. </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">I went down to Zuccotti Park a few times.
To donate some time and money. A few friends asked me my thoughts. Here they are - in case you care to read/share.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">I went to Zuccotti Park
to see, for myself, what's going on and if what the City says about these folks
is true. I must confess that I had a predisposition to support the “Occupiers”.
Given that I've been saying (for a few years now) that something like this had
to happen. But those that know me will tell you that I am also honest enough to
admit to my faults and mistakes or those of anyone else that I may support.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">What I saw was nothing like the squalor,
filth and chaos that the City has painted. I saw thousands of people (mostly
young) working together and in harmony. Being respectful of everyone and of
their surroundings. Making the best of the situation and what they had to deal
with. You have to keep in mind that the Administration of this city and the
corporations, are doing nothing to help these folks. In fact they (the Administration and corporations) are doing everything they can to hinder and
cause confrontation with these people. Take, for instance, the $4.6 million that
Chase “donated” to the Police a few weeks ago. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">Mr. Bloomberg speaks of lost tourism
revenues caused by this “Occupation”. A lie. The tourist are flocking to see
what these folks are doing and to hear what they have to say. The local
businesses are making a killing on it as well. So much so, that I watched as
hand truck after hand truck (God forbid the police should allow a real delivery
truck to come in – more on that later) of goods (food, cleaning materials, etc)
were being walked into the park. Donations from the “Local Businesses”. The
very same people who Bloomberg claims to be loosing business and complaining
about this “Occupation”.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">Speaking of donations – I saw dozens of
tourists who walked into the park (I guess it wasn't dirty enough to scare them
off). Many asking to donate money to the cause. One woman said: “I'm here on
vacation and have to leave in the morning but I would like to contribute” as
she handed a one hundred dollar bill to another woman who was serving food. Now
here is an interesting interaction. Not knowing each other, the tourist had no
sense of distrust for the woman serving the food and in return the woman
serving the food, promptly walked over and put the money in a donation basket
on the other end of the park. Again - more on this later.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">The other claim made by His Eminence is
that this is costing the city millions in police OT. Well – who asked for all
of those cops to be standing around doing nothing but instigating trouble? I
didn't. Neither did any one else that I know. And what exactly are the police
doing there? What are they doing for me and the other 8 million people who live
in this City? The people who pay their salaries. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">This is what I saw them doing:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">Hundred's of expensive vehicles lined all
around, with even more Cops standing around the park. Constantly moving
barricades closer to the crowd, in a never ending attempt to instigate a riot.
Yelling at tourist and anyone else walking in the street to “Keep moving”.
Laughing and making derogatory remarks about those in the park. One tourist
asked an officer “what's going on?”. He answered: “Stay away from them, there
just a bunch of idiots looking to make trouble”. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">We are all hard-working tax-paying
citizens of this city, and none of us asked for those cops to be sent there. To
stand around doing nothing more that collect lots of money (OT) and instigate
trouble with tourists and people who are exercising their constitutional
rights. I could think of many more useful things to have our police doing. In
fact, and to show the hypocrisy in what is being said, it is the police presence
that is hurting business and tourism. The Police are herding people like cattle
and pushing them along. Telling them to “keep moving”, when that's not what
they want to do.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">After spending a few hours “in the thick
of it” I began to remember the last time I was there and surrounded by an army
of police.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">I was a first responder. I was there on
the night of 9-11 and for a few months after. What I saw on the first few
nights after 9-11 was very similar
to what I experienced inside Zuccotti Park now. Being in the middle of many
different people. People of every age and from all walks of life. All working
together for the good of all. Trying to help each other. To be there for each
other, and to support each other.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">Then I took a walk around the outside of
the park and was reminded of what I saw there 10 years ago. Not on the first
few nights, but after the first week. The
dichotomy of what Zuccotti park and all of Ground Zero
was on the first few nights (When we were all one. Working for the same cause)
to what it became as time went by, is very much the same as what I saw at the
park now.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">On the first few nights after the towers collapsed no one cared about anyone else's political belief's. What uniforms
were worn or titles where held. Zuccotti Park was a place full of people who
had come to help. To work together. Cops, Firemen, Construction workers, Women,
Men, Young and Old. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">I remember standing at the edge of the
park. I was trying to catch my breath and absorb the hell that I was looking
at, when I heard a soft angelic voice ask: “do you want a kiss?” I turned
around and there was this young girl (She couldn't have been more than 25)
standing there with a box of chocolate Kiss's. I laughed and took one. Then she
walked away. I often wonder what happened to that girl. Is she OK or is she
just another of the many forgotten and unappreciated people who went down there
to help. To bring about something good from all the bad.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">The people in Zuccotti park, today, are
very much like that girl and others like her.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">I've mentioned (a few times) “The first
few nights”. The reason I say this is because the dichotomy of what I saw on
the first few nights and what I saw after the first week is very much like what
I am seeing now when I walk from inside the park to just outside of it.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">After the initial “we are one” feeling
that overwhelmed us all on 9-11, things started to change. And in fast order.
Especially from people at the top and their protectors - the Police. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">Zuccotti Park was a perfect example. It
was initially used (or should I say “occupied”) by everyone who was there for
the good of all. It later became “Controlled” by the police. Any deliveries or
“donations for ALL the responders” had to be given to the police. Who would
take what they wanted and then choose who to give the rest too. I remember a
truck full of Carhart work cloths that was donated. The Police took them all.
They gave them to their own first and then the Firemen. When my partner (at the
time) asked for a pair of Cover All's, he was told to “get lost...you're not a
hero”, even though he (like me) had been crawling through that hell for much
longer than many of the “hero's”. I won't mention them all (for now) but there
were many more similar incidents. What I will say, something that really hit home when I
walked through the park the other day, is this. A short time after 9-11 the
Police had taken control of Zucotti park, and despite all the money and
allotments that were lavished on them, it was turned into a cesspool of waste
and abuse. Nothing like the organized resourcefulness that I see today. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">It's all indicative of a certain mind set.
The have's and the have nots. The entitled and everyone else. Those, now,
surrounding Zuccotti park and those inside of it. It's all very much the same
and ironic.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">It's kind of ironic because this
“Occupation” is about the have-nots asking for more from the have's. The have-nots are surrounded by Cops, sent there to protect the haves. The Cops want us
to believe that they are hero's and just working class people. Just like the
rest of us. The reality is that they are much more like those they protect.
They “have” job security. They “have” very exorbitant pensions (that are huge
contributing factors in our finacial condition). They “have” health care and
lots of the things that those in the park don't have. And the best part of it
all – The police, like the HAVE'S, have it all at the expense of the have nots.
In an odd way and in this “upside down” world, it all makes total sense. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">There is so much more to happen and be
told, but for now I want to end this with what was told to me by two police
officers, 10 years apart. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">A few weeks after 9-11, I asked a
police officer (who was standing around) what she was doing there, her response
was exactly the same as the response that I got from an officer that I spoke to
the other day. They both said: “I'm just doing what I'm told and padding my
pension”. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">How true and indicative of the difference
between those in the park and those outside of it. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">We'd all be better off if only the ones
outside the park would realize that they are as disposable as the ones inside,
to the ones who pull the strings.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mXrMbkxj04E/TqEei2XVj7I/AAAAAAAAAq0/xbUBC6R_QVk/s1600/Zucotti+Park.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mXrMbkxj04E/TqEei2XVj7I/AAAAAAAAAq0/xbUBC6R_QVk/s400/Zucotti+Park.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emilyrides/6212733327/in/photostream/"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"> Media Centre Zucotti Park</span></span></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Downloaded from Flickr. Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emilyrides/sets/72157627821228088/">EmilyRides</a></span></div>Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-6264722328881785842011-05-02T09:01:00.000+01:002011-05-02T09:01:43.029+01:00Sunshine and Shade in the Weald of Kent.A lovely walk today with <a href="http://poorbutpositive.blogspot.com/2010/10/dog-jed.html">the Dog Jed</a>, in the rolling Weald of Kent, with its twelve feet of topsoil.<br />
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<div class="zemanta-pixie"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W1Kl6OWDJUk/Tb5djOghRPI/AAAAAAAAApU/H7bfC872Dk8/s1600/IMG_2340.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W1Kl6OWDJUk/Tb5djOghRPI/AAAAAAAAApU/H7bfC872Dk8/s640/IMG_2340.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Across the fields</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iGEW6LZMvOE/Tb5e2h7HWAI/AAAAAAAAApc/OwowU5lmXMU/s1600/IMG_2325.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iGEW6LZMvOE/Tb5e2h7HWAI/AAAAAAAAApc/OwowU5lmXMU/s640/IMG_2325.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And into the woods ....</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PkmYf6IW8Oc/Tb5fN0lvJyI/AAAAAAAAApg/dFmSW5BfQgI/s1600/IMG_2294.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PkmYf6IW8Oc/Tb5fN0lvJyI/AAAAAAAAApg/dFmSW5BfQgI/s640/IMG_2294.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F7hUirauX84/Tb5fvZzDlFI/AAAAAAAAApk/gU0w9jQBX_8/s1600/IMG_2306.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F7hUirauX84/Tb5fvZzDlFI/AAAAAAAAApk/gU0w9jQBX_8/s640/IMG_2306.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Jed is far, far ahead</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HrQu1Qouk6U/Tb5gjoGsLqI/AAAAAAAAApo/rEUQ0b8PMGU/s1600/IMG_2308.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HrQu1Qouk6U/Tb5gjoGsLqI/AAAAAAAAApo/rEUQ0b8PMGU/s640/IMG_2308.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But there is plenty to catch the eye</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nuGaOMDPhmA/Tb5hO3NHCtI/AAAAAAAAAps/Y0fAaP08oms/s1600/IMG_2310.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nuGaOMDPhmA/Tb5hO3NHCtI/AAAAAAAAAps/Y0fAaP08oms/s640/IMG_2310.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6AokLzSBWT4/Tb5hR1CzCDI/AAAAAAAAApw/i00LLczP85c/s1600/IMG_2313.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6AokLzSBWT4/Tb5hR1CzCDI/AAAAAAAAApw/i00LLczP85c/s640/IMG_2313.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cy4yyUzFogM/Tb5iogfzItI/AAAAAAAAAp0/nZnHelV5oBM/s1600/IMG_2317.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cy4yyUzFogM/Tb5iogfzItI/AAAAAAAAAp0/nZnHelV5oBM/s640/IMG_2317.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><br />
<br />
The red, white and blue, original form.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XWm5nLmOPs8/Tb5irY2npqI/AAAAAAAAAp4/7i8NHHfJVKc/s1600/IMG_2338.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XWm5nLmOPs8/Tb5irY2npqI/AAAAAAAAAp4/7i8NHHfJVKc/s640/IMG_2338.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And so, back to the garden gate ...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ffbm9ZvkZNk/Tb5d9Aq-FKI/AAAAAAAAApY/55IxQJlnISo/s1600/IMG_2339.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ffbm9ZvkZNk/Tb5d9Aq-FKI/AAAAAAAAApY/55IxQJlnISo/s640/IMG_2339.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">What could be better? Not much.</div><img alt="" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif" /></div>Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-74747892660379196602011-04-24T21:04:00.001+01:002011-04-25T09:45:00.036+01:00The Bluebells this year are lovelier, by far, than I have ever seen them.<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t_cHq4Nq8NI/TbR3LG6knYI/AAAAAAAAAn4/5Pye8Z9QdgE/s1600/IMG_2272.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t_cHq4Nq8NI/TbR3LG6knYI/AAAAAAAAAn4/5Pye8Z9QdgE/s400/IMG_2272.JPG" width="300" /></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">When Spring comes around again, one of its greatest pleasures in <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_England" rel="wikipedia" title="Southern England">southern England</a> is to go and see the bluebells that carpet the woodlands with a hazy blue.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">They are prolific in hazel woods, which in turn are prolific around here, and usually have been coppiced for centuries, providing a perfect bluebell environment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Coppicing is an ancient method of woodland management that involves cutting the trees back almost to the ground every few years, so that they re-grow with thin straight branches. This gives a nearly everlasting supply of wood for building, fencing and tool-making.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Another advantage of coppicing is that it ensures the light canopy and dappled sunlight that bluebells prefer, so they become really well established: sometimes the colonies have been growing for hundreds of years, and cover many acres.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And I have never seen them lovelier than they were today on the Downs of West Sussex.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Take a look:</div><br />
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See what I mean?<br />
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And here are the Downs, that I love so much, probably because I was born among them.<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">A Down is a rounded, chalky, and largely treeless hill in southern England, with the same Old English root as "dune", as in sand dune.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I wrote about my favourite Down, and my Dad, here: <i><a href="http://poorbutpositive.blogspot.com/2010/04/little-piece-of-magic.html">A Magic Summer Evening Long Ago</a></i>.<br />
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More on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Bluebell">Bluebells</a>, which, as you might expect, are under threat from invasive species.</div><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><img alt="" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=209602a5-9cf9-4b18-ab9d-c3ff6995701d" style="border: none; float: right;" /></div>Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-7363953886498369162011-03-30T21:33:00.020+01:002011-04-10T16:25:30.642+01:00Remix: The Dialectic of Altered Books.<div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Brian Dettmar's intricate and skillful sculptures explore the meaning of knowledge and our relationship with it. He insists on the obligation to challenge orthodoxy, and the right of the individual to do so. This makes me very happy.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">Dettmer: <i>Perpetuity to Rymer</i></div><div style="text-align: center;">(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Rymer">Thomas Rymer (1643-1713) English Historiographer Royal</a>)</div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">Dettmer's work is completely different to that of German sculptor Johannes Pfeiffer, which I wrote about recently (<a href="http://poorbutpositive.blogspot.com/2011/03/weighing-words-pesare-les-parole.html"><i>Weighing Words: Sculpture With Book</i>s)</a>. Pfeiffer also articulates books as repositories of knowledge, and in his case the purpose is to critique censorship and rigidities of thinking. </div></div><br />
I liked the small exhibition that I saw in Turin. It conveyed, in a horribly static way, the deadness of thought control. There is something deeply creepy about books entombed in concrete.<br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The Bible</i> by Johannes Pfeiffer</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Dettmer, by contrast, focuses on the other side of the intellectual coin: the dynamic potential of ideas; the opening up of thought; the importance of re-interpretation and re-integration; the development of knowledge through interaction with the material world; the evolution of meaning.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Take a look at this famous, lovely, brain-like creature: or is it a magical helmet of knowledge? or a nifty mohican of dreams? Anyway, it is made of a full set of encyclopedias (encycoplediae?).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">The New World of Books</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> All downloaded from </span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/briandettmer/3301507146/in/photostream/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Brian Dettmer's photostream</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> on Flikr, under creative commons licence</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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How incredible is that? Entrancing even?<br />
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Dettmer works by sealing the book or books with some kind of resin, and carefully cutting away one layer at a time, revealing images and text that are already there, putting them in new relationship to each other. He never inserts, or moves the book's contents. What emerges is a new, or alternative, set of meanings, of knowledge.<br />
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Here is his Flickr <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/briandettmer/show/with/5218298572/">slideshow</a>, which is just astonishing.<br />
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And below is a video of Brian himself, setting out his ideas, and how he sees his work in relation to modern media. He seems quite young to have achieved so much - each of his dozens (scores? hundreds?) of works must take ages to complete. <br />
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Perhaps he now has a studio of assistants, like the Dutch and Florentine humanists.<br />
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But he is a modern-day humanist. As he says himself, his work is remix.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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<img alt="" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=c151152e-f4a2-4d6f-adc0-3ad02b215a8f" style="border: none; float: right;" /></div>Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-16719345288790786742011-03-27T14:52:00.000+01:002011-03-27T14:52:27.648+01:00Wedding FlowersThere was a wedding at St. Andrew's, Farnham on Saturday, and these were left behind, for the rest of us to enjoy.<br />
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You might also like <a href="http://poorbutpositive.blogspot.com/2010/08/churchyard-in-surrey.html">A Churchyard in Surrey</a>.Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-16529644314920602712011-03-25T16:03:00.006+00:002011-03-30T08:40:31.350+01:00Weighing Words: sculpture with books<div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Spotted on the tables and windows of Unicredit's Leadership Learning Centre in <a class="zem_slink" href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=45.0666666667,7.7&spn=1.0,1.0&q=45.0666666667,7.7%20(Turin)&t=h" rel="geolocation" title="Turin">Turin</a> this week, some interesting work by German sculpture Johannes Pfeiffer.<br />
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Not sure I really understand, but interesting nevertheless; I liked it.<br />
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Most of the books seemed to be about philosophy, the arts and religion, so perhaps that is where the meaning lies.......</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-x-Zgf4EvKuM/TYy8ifpgYII/AAAAAAAAAmk/3i0vgasmOlM/s1600/IMG_2158.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-x-Zgf4EvKuM/TYy8ifpgYII/AAAAAAAAAmk/3i0vgasmOlM/s400/IMG_2158.JPG" width="300" /></a></div><i><br />
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<i>These works were recently shown at Pfeiffer's exhibition "Pesare les Parole", at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turin">Turin</a> City Multimedia Library (Biblioteca Archimede <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=45.1333333333,7.76666666667&spn=1.0,1.0&q=45.1333333333,7.76666666667%20(Settimo%20Torinese)&t=h">Settimo Torinese</a>).</i> <br />
<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><img alt="" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=e3d3df36-7e0c-4049-a918-4a7a1f2f8921" style="border: none; float: right;" /></div>Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-77503560080759970482011-03-20T10:37:00.000+00:002011-03-20T10:37:55.701+00:00Bruce Springteen - No SurrenderNever beaten. Still relevant.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We busted out of class had to get away from those fools</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school<br />
Tonight I hear the neighborhood drummer sound<br />
I can feel my heart begin to pound<br />
You say you're tired and you just want to close your eyes and follow your dreams down<br />
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We made a promise we swore we'd always remember<br />
No retreat no surrender<br />
Like soldiers in the winter's night with a vow to defend<br />
No retreat no surrender<br />
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Now young faces grow sad and old and hearts of fire grow cold<br />
We swore blood brothers against the wind<br />
I'm ready to grow young again<br />
And hear your sister's voice calling us home across the open yards<br />
Well maybe we could cut someplace of our own<br />
With these drums and these guitars<br />
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Blood brothers in the stormy night with a vow to defend<br />
No retreat no surrender<br />
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Now on the street tonight the lights grow dim<br />
The walls of my room are closing in<br />
There's a war outside still raging<br />
you say it ain't ours anymore to win<br />
I want to sleep beneath peaceful skies in my lover's bed<br />
with a wide open country in my eyes<br />
and these romantic dreams in my head</span> <br />
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<span style="font-family: helvetica, arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;">With thanks to</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;">John J. Kelly of</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><a href="http://thishardland2010.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/the-greatest-live-act-in-rock-and-roll-history/">This Hard Land 2010</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;">for reminding me.</span></span>Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-15609637695935342202011-02-22T23:13:00.099+00:002011-03-28T14:02:10.190+01:00Libya, the Security Council and our Responsibility.<div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Following today's mild remarks from the UN Security Council on Libya, after more than a week of slaughter there, I am reminded of this photo, which I took by chance a couple of weeks ago.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It shows the UN Secretariat Building, hidden to the left of the picture, reflected pinkishly at sunset in the Trump Tower, the dark building on the right.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now, I don't believe there is any direct connection between Trump himself and either Libya or the UN, and as far as I know he does not deal in arms. But the webs of relationship between government, cruel exploitation and fabulous wealth have been so sharply clarified by the current uprisings, that it seems at least moderately symbolic, especially perhaps as that thin white building in the centre is the newly renovated US mission to the UN (and when I say renovated I mean, of course, "renovated").<br />
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The photo suggests perhaps the smoke and mirrors that obscure these shadowy relationships of neo-imperialism.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CCaHcJNRW9U/TWQxh2QuTDI/AAAAAAAAAlg/2VGvoXOU_ec/s1600/IMG_1749.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CCaHcJNRW9U/TWQxh2QuTDI/AAAAAAAAAlg/2VGvoXOU_ec/s400/IMG_1749.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The reality, we have to remind ourselves, is far harsher than this somewhat dreamy crepuscular snap implies. <br />
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A particularly disgusting element of the current moment is the complicity of western governments in the poverty, terror and desperation of North Africa, the Middle East and the Gulf. The hypocrisy of the mumblings coming out of Washington, and the more robust denunciations emerging from Downing Street (even while blatantly dealing in arms and other acoutrements of repression) is hardly out of character, but gobsmacking nevertheless. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Our government, and the business people they represent, are equally culpable with those they now denounce, who up till now have been doing the wet work for them.<br />
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Why on earth would they break the pattern and act against their own interest on the Security Council? And their best interest is that Gaddafi should stay for the time being, provided he does not become a total embarrassment. That is why they have been stalling, in the hope that perchance he might weather this storm. And Plan B, if the Libyan people force them to ditch him, will be to shepherd as far as possible the installation of a new puppet: more liberal, more democratic, more credible, but a puppet nevertheless, if they can.......<br />
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The point is not that they should now "do something" about Libya - its way too late for that. We didn't stop them when they were setting it all up (which is our culpability), and now we have all been overtaken by the people of Libya and the whole region.<br />
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Our job, our historical responsibility, is to limit the options of our respective governments to perpetuate this kind of oppression, in the present and for the future, and we have a huge opportunity right now. <br />
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The contradictions, the corruptions, the lies are so clear. The best thing we in UK can do in support of the people in the Arab world in overthrowing their governments, and to advance the struggle for greater equality world wide and within our own countries, is to clarify the puppetry and linkages among all the actions that oppress and weaken us collectively - attacks on unions in the US, austerity in Europe and dictators supported by the west, to name but three, organize in our groups, and get out in the streets in vast collaborative numbers to stop them.</div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And, as they appear to have forgotten, a copy of Picasso's Guernica hangs, or used to hang, outside the Security Council Chamber.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The ambassadors and delegates used to walk past it each time they entered and left the chamber. Often it has been the backdrop to press conferences, and indeed the United States insisted that it be covered while they were bombing Iraq. I believe it was then moved a bit down the corridor, out of camera range.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
I don't know what has happened to this remarkable, and always timely, image now that the Secretariat itself is under renovation (and no doubt a little "renovation"), and its various chambers are in temporary accommodation next door. <br />
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I wonder if the Ambassadors had it in mind as they juggled popular pressure and international law with their own national self-interest and the urgent pressure from regional tyrants to hold the line, as they prepared their expression of grave concern and deep regret about the excesses, but not the rule, of Gaddafi.<br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Just for the record, the current members of the Security Council are, in addition to the five permanent members (China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States), Bosnia Herzegovina, Brazil, Colombia, Gabon, Germany, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Portugal, South Africa.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://magsw-magsnews.blogspot.com/2011/02/cant-un-do-something.html">MagNews</a> has a great post that gives all their human rights records. Prepare to be re-gobsmacked. <a href="http://twitter.com/MagsNews">@magsnews</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">And check out <a href="http://twitter.com/itsmotherswork">@itsmotherswork</a>'s post on the links between all of our struggles: <a href="http://Just for the record, the current members of the Security Council are, in addition to the five permanent members (China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States), Bosnia Herzegovina, Brazil, Colombia, Gabon, Germany, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Portugal, South Africa. MagNews gives all their human rights records. Prepare to be re-gobsmacked.">Solidarity, multiculturalism and public service values.</a></div><br />
And <a href="http://leninology.blogspot.com/2011/02/regime-in-mortal-freefall.html">A regime in mortal freefall</a> over at Lenin's Tomb, has more on the crocodile tears of western governments. And Simon Jenkins: <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/22/britain-push-democracy-weapons-cameron?INTCMP=SRCH">Britain Can Push Democracy or Weapons - not both</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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And photoshopped or not, I like this pic. It is by <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #192b46; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150401525335621&set=a.10150401525210621.630980.700645620&theater">Muhammad Saladin Nusair</a>, and has been placed in <a href="http://motherjones.tumblr.com/post/3376168879/egypt-supports-wisconsin-workers-one-world-one">Mother Jones</a> and <a href="http://leninology.blogspot.com/">Lenin's Tomb</a>, among many, many others, I am sure.</span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/Vladimir_Putin_at_the_Millennium_Summit_6-8_September_2000-23.jpg/75px-Vladimir_Putin_at_the_Millennium_Summit_6-8_September_2000-23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><img alt="" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=de6cf886-61a9-4c67-a469-35a75f47533a" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; float: right; text-align: left;" /></div>Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-42027352536479406452011-02-14T17:05:00.008+00:002011-03-20T10:45:07.297+00:00Better than Red Roses<div style="text-align: justify;">This is the first winter in which I have lived in this very nice house with its lovely, very green <a href="http://poorbutpositive.blogspot.com/2010/08/my-garden-is-extremely-green.html">garden</a>, upon which I have written before. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today, mild and pleasant, I walked with kitchen scraps to the compost heap, and saw all around, sprung up over the past few rainy days, hundreds, literally hundreds, of bulbs. They have been planted around the pear trees, under the hedges and all along the base of the lovely old brick walls that surround the whole. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">They don't look very spectacular at present, being just green spikes in the bare earth, but they will.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
And these snowdrops already look pretty spectacular, in their way, under the beech hedge. And there is the promise of celandines, hyacinth, daffodils and, best of all, bluebells.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Way better than red roses on Valentine's Day, way better. (Which is just as well ...... )<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WerBEYQ0UOQ/TVleco3W6oI/AAAAAAAAAlM/1KzPzqVG474/s1600/IMG_1937.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WerBEYQ0UOQ/TVleco3W6oI/AAAAAAAAAlM/1KzPzqVG474/s640/IMG_1937.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-6153863807476887212011-01-31T22:52:00.018+00:002011-03-17T18:19:08.855+00:00The Interior Space of Trees<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The trees of Newport Beach, California - their graceful shapes, and the lovely <a href="http://creativitybeat.com/art-projects/a-tree-drawing-%E2%80%93-the-y-tree/">negative spaces</a> contained within their bare branches and high-domed canopies - are spectacular, no doubt about it. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TUcYbkMg0ZI/AAAAAAAAAig/ZUEOXs7mmAs/s1600/IMG_1810.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TUcYbkMg0ZI/AAAAAAAAAig/ZUEOXs7mmAs/s640/IMG_1810.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Newport Beach is an upscale but (it has to be said) physically charmless town in a gorgeous position adjoining beach, harbour and bay in southern California. Apart from many lovely maritime views, it has little of beauty to offer, being mostly encased in concrete. But along its highways and side-streets, scattered across its vast acres of mall and parking lot, are many large and stunning trees.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">I know that they are not native species, which are to be preferred ecologically of course, but they are beautiful, so I hope that they are not too rapacious, and make their due contribution to diversity by sustaining colonies of birds and insects, as they should.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TUcckBlE6PI/AAAAAAAAAi8/pv67tJNW0Vo/s1600/IMG_1838.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TUcckBlE6PI/AAAAAAAAAi8/pv67tJNW0Vo/s640/IMG_1838.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><br />
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The trunks are also interesting<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TUcnm66wETI/AAAAAAAAAjk/zkgX6Q51rNs/s1600/IMG_1854.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TUcnm66wETI/AAAAAAAAAjk/zkgX6Q51rNs/s640/IMG_1854.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TUsP9GSd9tI/AAAAAAAAAkk/pV2axunh9Bk/s1600/IMG_1906.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TUsP9GSd9tI/AAAAAAAAAkk/pV2axunh9Bk/s640/IMG_1906.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TUsSr4RLF0I/AAAAAAAAAks/1wnCV1C5zpA/s1600/IMG_1833.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TUsSr4RLF0I/AAAAAAAAAks/1wnCV1C5zpA/s640/IMG_1833.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><br />
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And quite often the roots are too:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TUcnFbF1hPI/AAAAAAAAAjM/DPYZRzsO05U/s1600/IMG_1820.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TUcnFbF1hPI/AAAAAAAAAjM/DPYZRzsO05U/s640/IMG_1820.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TUc3AX86jsI/AAAAAAAAAjw/S3DtBhW8ai4/s1600/IMG_1863.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TUc3AX86jsI/AAAAAAAAAjw/S3DtBhW8ai4/s640/IMG_1863.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><br />
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But when it comes to the interior space of trees, this is my favourite:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TUc8wejXYeI/AAAAAAAAAkI/mfwftC_-Ev4/s1600/IMG_0676.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TUc8wejXYeI/AAAAAAAAAkI/mfwftC_-Ev4/s640/IMG_0676.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><br />
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And for those of you uncertain of your geography, Newport Beach is right here, in Orange County (right hand map), which is in southern California (as shown on the left),<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">Below that is an ariel view of the town (in the distance). In the foreground is part of Corona Del Mar, famed as the former residence of the great John Wayne. The pic shows clearly how built-up the whole area is (with the exception of a few bluffs), and the the trees with which its residential areas are so luxuriantly planted.</div><br />
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<div class="zemanta-img separator zemanta-action-dragged" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Orange_County_California_Incorporated_and_Unincorporated_areas_Newport_Beach_Highlighted.svg" style="display: block; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="This map shows the incorporated and unincorpor..." height="300" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/81/Orange_County_California_Incorporated_and_Unincorporated_areas_Newport_Beach_Highlighted.svg/300px-Orange_County_California_Incorporated_and_Unincorporated_areas_Newport_Beach_Highlighted.svg.png" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-size: 0.8em;" width="400" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Orange_County_California_Incorporated_and_Unincorporated_areas_Newport_Beach_Highlighted.svg">Wikipedia</a></span></div><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b3/Newport_Beach_09_photo_2.jpg/75px-Newport_Beach_09_photo_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br />
<div class="zemanta-img separator zemanta-action-dragged" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NewportBeachCA_photo_D_Ramey_Logan.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Newport Beach California on a crisp spring mor..." height="265" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bf/NewportBeachCA_photo_D_Ramey_Logan.JPG/300px-NewportBeachCA_photo_D_Ramey_Logan.JPG" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="400" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NewportBeachCA_photo_D_Ramey_Logan.JPG">Wikipedi</a></span></div><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><br />
<br />
You may enjoy another short photo essay: <a href="http://poorbutpositive.blogspot.com/2010/07/trees-of-orange-county.html">The Trees of Orange County</a>, and perhaps even <a href="http://poorbutpositive.blogspot.com/2010/06/five-things-i-like-about-newport-beach.html">Five Things I Like about Newport Beach (and three things not so much)</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<img alt="" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=81f394b5-fc95-45d4-9051-31ae53b1610a" style="border: none; float: right;" /></div>Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-50243663416130102612011-01-30T20:58:00.000+00:002011-01-30T20:58:56.611+00:00How to Interpret Hilary ClintonLovely! Couldn't say it better!<br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="youtube-player" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rBuMuzhvYeA" title="YouTube video player" type="text/html" width="640"></iframe>Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-18796845176177868172011-01-15T22:02:00.023+00:002011-06-12T13:22:41.812+01:00My Two Cats: Babes and Sophie.<div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
It is almost two years since my vagabond status forced me to find a new home for my two cats.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Which I did, and a very nice home it is too. I speak to their new owner from time to time, just to catch up. In fact we have become friends, which is nice.</div><br />
*sighs*<br />
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Babes and Sophie.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TTIX90WScuI/AAAAAAAAAho/TCVKkAr-l_U/s1600/IMG_2355.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TTIX90WScuI/AAAAAAAAAho/TCVKkAr-l_U/s400/IMG_2355.JPG" width="300" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TTLwj6y5k5I/AAAAAAAAAh0/_QQPNMjKLEo/s1600/IMG_0009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TTLwj6y5k5I/AAAAAAAAAh0/_QQPNMjKLEo/s400/IMG_0009.JPG" width="300" /></a></div><br />
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Still haven't got over it !<br />
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*sighs*<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">Babes is the daughter, the darker of the two. Her father was a big old ferral Tom who we never knew was living underneath our porch, until one day .......</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">She was born in my sweater drawer, and has hardly ever been separated from her mother since. We could never even think of a real name for her, except as the child of her mother.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sophie, on the other hand, was an orphan, born in a Newark, NJ. dumpster and abandoned almost immediately.<br />
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Here she is on the day we brought her home.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eGtxbwVq3FI/TfSuCfjBj0I/AAAAAAAAAqg/a3lwv-rT_1M/s1600/Sophie+first+day+downstairs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eGtxbwVq3FI/TfSuCfjBj0I/AAAAAAAAAqg/a3lwv-rT_1M/s320/Sophie+first+day+downstairs.jpg" width="251" /></a></div><br />
<br />
She grew up to be a teenage Mum, but we supported her through that. <br />
<br />
Hard knocks, but she got through it.<br />
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</div><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TTL0buxRrDI/AAAAAAAAAh4/aU6HpCFxDG0/s1600/IMG_0007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TTL0buxRrDI/AAAAAAAAAh4/aU6HpCFxDG0/s400/IMG_0007.JPG" width="300" /></a></div><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">You know, I promised myself a while back that I would not become one of those people who are always talking about her cats.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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*sighs*<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TVBvZmOUMJI/AAAAAAAAAlI/Jw15h-F0CtY/s1600/Sophie%253Aher+kittens+XXXXXXI.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TVBvZmOUMJI/AAAAAAAAAlI/Jw15h-F0CtY/s320/Sophie%253Aher+kittens+XXXXXXI.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br />
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<img alt="" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=1a88894c-b197-4d82-9910-882fcf64add0" style="border: none; float: right;" /></div>Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-65966467283480977782011-01-05T03:19:00.012+00:002011-01-28T06:23:47.498+00:00Six of the Best, and a few more for funNot all of my favourite posts feature in the Most Visited section on the right (although several do - you could check that out too)<br />
<br />
So here are six more that I really like, and a few more for fun.<br />
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<b>Politica</b>l (in the broadest sense)<br />
<br />
<a href="http://poorbutpositive.blogspot.com/2010/02/rip-alexander-mcqueen.html">Alexander McQueen: Why I, A Feminist, Will Miss Him</a><br />
Did his critique of the the fashion industry have a feminist tinge? It certainly looks like it, but hard to be certain.....<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TSRwqw2DPSI/AAAAAAAAAhc/09VEhStZKUI/s1600/3391063703_ce136f7a83.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TSRwqw2DPSI/AAAAAAAAAhc/09VEhStZKUI/s400/3391063703_ce136f7a83.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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<a href="http://poorbutpositive.blogspot.com/2010/09/moment-of-silence-before-i-start-this.html">A Poem for 9/11 by Emmanuel Ortiz</a><br />
Read with care. The rage is incandescent (and righteous).<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
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<a href="http://poorbutpositive.blogspot.com/2009/12/m-ilan-cathedral-matteobertelli.html">Bringing Berlusconi Low</a><br />
Wrong pecker, Sr Tartaglia, but thanks anyway!<br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>Personal</b><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<a href="http://poorbutpositive.blogspot.com/2010/04/little-piece-of-magic.html">A Magic Summer Evening Long Ago</a> and <a href="http://poorbutpositive.blogspot.com/2010/05/moment-of-truth.html">A Moment of Truth</a> (which go together)<br />
Father and Daughter. Sometimes thirty seconds can last a lifetime<br />
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<a href="http://poorbutpositive.blogspot.com/2010/06/five-things-i-like-about-newport-beach.html">Five Things I Like about Newport Beach (and three things not so much)</a><br />
Life in the OC is really something else<br />
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<br />
<div class="zemanta-img separator zemanta-action-dragged" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Newport_Beach_09_photo_DRL.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Newport Beach California, from 2200 feet as de..." height="265" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/Newport_Beach_09_photo_DRL.jpg/300px-Newport_Beach_09_photo_DRL.jpg" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-size: 0.8em;" width="400" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">Newport Beach from the Air Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Newport_Beach_09_photo_DRL.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span></div><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/Newport_Beach_09_photo_DRL.jpg/75px-Newport_Beach_09_photo_DRL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br />
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<a href="http://poorbutpositive.blogspot.com/2010/07/how-i-met-rihanna-and-other-brushes.html">It's True! I met Rihanna..</a>..<br />
It really is true, and the laugh's on me.<br />
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<b>Fun</b><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<a href="http://poorbutpositive.blogspot.com/2010/07/trees-of-orange-county.html">The Trees of Orange Count</a>y<br />
Short photo essay<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TSPb7-tAqjI/AAAAAAAAAhQ/9Py7ez9OniY/s1600/IMG_0676.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TSPb7-tAqjI/AAAAAAAAAhQ/9Py7ez9OniY/s400/IMG_0676.JPG" width="300" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<a href="http://poorbutpositive.blogspot.com/2010/08/jim-jarmusch-nothing-is-original-steal.html">Jim Jarmusch: Nothing is Original, Steal from Anywhere.</a><br />
Lovely quote by a lovely guy.<br />
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<a href="http://poorbutpositive.blogspot.com/2010/08/my-garden-is-extremely-green.html">My Garden is Extremely Green (literally)</a> <br />
Another photo essay.<br />
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<br />
<b>And the Funnest of all</b><br />
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<a href="http://poorbutpositive.blogspot.com/2010/09/needy-blogger.html">The Needy Blogger.</a><br />
And which among us doesn't need links?<br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><img alt="" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=6d4b768e-7889-4636-8f0c-d7fa96985eef" style="border: none; float: right;" /></div>Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-48967102902377970132010-12-24T08:42:00.022+00:002011-01-18T14:20:54.233+00:00End-year Round Up<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><br />
This year I got much clearer on the corruption and incompetence of our various leaderships. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">All the information coming to me via Twitter, some great Tweeps out there, and several super blogs have helped me get a lot clearer this year, and here they are, fyi.<br />
<br />
But first of all, a couple of websites have also been really useful, data-wise:<br />
<ul><li>"The Spirit Level" is an excellent explanation of why social democracy, at a minimum, and re-distributive fiscal policies are pre-conditions for a semi-decent, non-barbarous society. The related website of <a href="http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/">The Equality Trust</a> has all the data, and the principal critiques of the analysis. </li>
<li> <a href="http://falseeconomy.org.uk/">False Economy</a> also has lots of data on how and why the decision to cut rather than increase public spending will protect the wealth of a lot of already rich people, and provide massive new sources of income to others through privatisation, but not solve the underlying tensions. It also has a great little video.</li>
</ul>And very importantly for me personally, a friend shared a terrific paper on social democracy, by the late, much admired Tony Judt: <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/dec/17/what-is-living-and-what-is-dead-in-social-democrac/">What is Living and What is Dead about Social Democracy</a>. This really clarified for me what we are fighting for right now, and the limitations of that fight.<br />
<br />
<div class="zemanta-img separator zemanta-action-dragged" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Democracia_Social.png" style="display: block; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Social Democracy (Mexico)" height="400" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9b/Democracia_Social.png" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-size: 0.8em;" width="257" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">Image via <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Democracia_Social.png">Wikipedia</a></span></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of course, this could/should be about way more than social democracy, but we've got to defend that first off.<br />
<br />
But back to blogs ....<br />
<br />
The brilliant and very funny <a href="http://madammiaow.blogspot.com/2010/12/madam-miaow-commended-in-round-up.html">Madam Miaow</a> has done a good brief round-up of some of the greats of the leftist blogosphere, including <a href="http://harpymarx.wordpress.com/">HarpyMarx</a>, <a href="http://libsoc.blogspot.com/">Gauche</a>, <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/laurie-penny">Laurie Penny</a> at the New Statesman, not to mention herself of course. And she includes fellow Orwell Prize short-listee <a href="http://Jack of Kent">Jack of Kent</a>, who's so lovely and interesting we wish he was a lefty. Madam M also mentions Dolphinarium, but she is just way too into the catholic hierarchy for me.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition, I keep going back to these ones :-</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li>One of yer actual (former) bankers gives an inside view on what's going on via <a href="http://www.leftbanker.net/">Leftbanker</a></li>
</ul><ul><li>Also, there are some very useful progressive tax blogs, which have all the counter-arguments. I will get the links to these. And who'da thunk that tax issues could actually be interesting?</li>
</ul><ul><li><a href="http://notjusttheminutiae.tumblr.com/">Not Just the Minutiae</a> has loads of interesting articles, videos and other bits of leftist this and that, always illuminating</li>
</ul><ul><li>And for sheer solid up to the minute analysis, <a href="http://www.newleftproject.org/">New Left Project</a>, <a href="http://leninology.blogspot.com/">Lenin's Tomb</a>, <a href="http://www.michaelmeacher.info/weblog/">Michael Meacher</a> and <a href="http://www.counterfire.org/">Counterfire</a> are all great.</li>
</ul><ul><li><a href="http://toomuchtosayformyself.com/">Too Much To Say For Myself</a> has a solid feminist perspective, often tackling issues others are not.</li>
</ul><ul><li>And currently for stuff on Wikileaks, but a whole lot of other things too, you can't do better than <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/index.html">Glenn Greenwald</a> over there at Salon.com</li>
</ul><ul><li>Oh, and don't forget to check out the truly great Amy Goodman at <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/">Democracy Now</a> VERY regularly (wish we had something like this in UK) </li>
</ul></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And, finally, I really liked Socialist Unity's B<a href="http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=7389">logging at the Crossroads</a>. It gives a solid overview of the status of left blogging and social media organizing just now. Very interesting, with lots of links in case, like me, you missed stuff.<br />
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I could go on and on of course .......<br />
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</div><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><br />
</div>Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-89040123364524879822010-12-17T00:19:00.067+00:002011-01-27T16:34:48.888+00:00What Jody Did Right: or talking points we could all use<div style="text-align: justify;">The spin-doctor and the activist: analysis shows just what Ben Brown did, and just what Jody did to get all his points across successfully, even so.<br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br />
</span></i><br />
On Monday 13 December blogger and activist Jody McIntyre was interviewed by Ben Brown, anchorman of the BBC's 24-Hour News.<br />
<br />
The topic was the assault on Jody by a policeman, in which he was pulled out of his wheechair and dragged across the street while peacefully demonstrating against increases in student fees on 9th December, a short video of which incident was shown at the outset.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<div style="margin: 0px;">Across the country hundreds of thousands of us watched the interview goggle-eyed, jaws dropping to the floor as we observed the clearest possible articulation of government spin: demonise the demonstrators and avoid discussion of provokative police action (spelling intended).<br />
<br />
It was a dismal example of the interviewer's art, and a master class on how to handle negative and manipulative questioning.</div><br />
Review of the video, and the <a href="http://troubleinchina.livejournal.com/604369.html" linkindex="259">transcript</a>, reveals that Jody stayed right on message throughout the interview, despite the slurs that characterised it. And so did Ben, but then that's his job.<br />
<br />
Jody's four messages could be summarised as follows - they are very good: <br />
<ul><li>This is not an isolated incident</li>
<li>The real issue is government policy (specific details according to the topic of the demo)</li>
<li>The police strategy is to provoke violence by demonstrators (with examples)</li>
<li>The media (in this case the BBC) is supporting this strategy (with examples)</li>
</ul><br />
Here is the video in case you havn't seen it already. <br />
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<b>Here's what Ben Brown did:</b><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">The nominal topic of the interview was the evident police assault on Jody (apparently perpetrated by Officer KF936 of Newington Green manor): the hook in the story was Jody's allegation that this may have been done deliberately in order to provoke violent response among the protestors, particularly so in view of his disablement.</span></b></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">This was political dynamite on Jody's part, I think you'll agree, which required exploration.</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">This was the story, and this is what Ben Brown (a professional journalist, after all) should have tested. Instead, nighmarishly, in Kafka-esque style, Brown calmly and repeatedly insinuated that in some way Jody himself had violent intent, and this legitimated the assault. </span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Perhaps it was his wheelchair, Brown implied, possibly "rolling towards the police", perhaps simply Jody's being there, his revolutionary beliefs, his writings in his blog. By various flimsy hints Brown suggested that Jody merited the assault, that the officer had behaved appropriately. No wonder several of the comments described the interview as "shameful".</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">It was a very weak line of questioning to adopt as Brown manifestly had nothing to go on, so why, one wonders, would a self-respecting journalist do it? Why did he relentlessly pursue this failing line of questioning as if his job depended on it? </span></b></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
He too was right on message. And as a spin doctor, it has to be said, Ben Brown is very good indeed, very neutral-seeming. And with a lesser man than Jody it might have worked.<br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Of the thirteen questions put to Jody:</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Three (23%) could have been a basis for exploring the context, as is the journalistic obligation. However, Brown interrupted Jody’s response to two of these questions (see below), and failed to pursue the contextual issues further.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">One question (repeated four times) addressed whether or not Jody had submitted a formal complaint (this was driven by the police press release to that effect), as if Jody's concerns about brutality were thereby rendered frivolous.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Six sought to smear Jody by associating him in various ways with violence.</span></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Thus more than three quarters of Brown's questions explicitly articulated, and appeared to be consciously grounded in, what is evidently the government spin on the demos. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Brown interrupted Jody four times, and these too are instructive. Each interruption occurred when Jody was introducing his very coherent analysis of police tactics at the demonstration. These interruptions came quite systematically, after Jody had successfully got two complete political statements past Brown.</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">The interrupted points were nevertheless clear, and perhaps constitute Jody's thesis. These are what I distilled into the "talking points" above. They were: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">his experience is not an isolated incident but part of a pattern of unprovoked police violence at demonstrations, which is grossly under-reported;</span></span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">the real issue is not the violence but the political issues underlying all these demonstrations, namely the government policy towards the cuts;</span></span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">the police picked on him precisely because he is disabled, and this would be more likely to inflame the protesters (as it did); and</span></span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">there are parallels between the BBC’s marginalization of discussion of the issues underlying the demontrations with its marginalization of progressive discussion in other fora, such as Palestine in discussion of Middle East Politics.</span></span></li>
</ul></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">The last point was clearly confirmed by the John Pilger documentary </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">The War You Don't See</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">, which by fortunate coincidence was aired the following night, making similar points on official concealment of policy (in Pilger's case, warmongering), supported by government spin (which one would expect) and biased reporting (which is unprofessional, at a minimum). </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">You can see this important film </span><a href="http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=198443" linkindex="260"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">here</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> until about 14 January 2011. In his most recent blog post (</span><a href="http://jodymcintyre.wordpress.com/2010/12/16/week-77-the-media%E2%80%99s-war/" linkindex="261"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">The Media's War</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">) Jody McIntyre contrasts Pilger's principled career as a war correspondent with Ben Brown's war reporting experience as an uncritical hack embedded with the British Army in Iraq. The latter may also be examined in </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Ben Brown's Book: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sandstealers-Ben-Brown/dp/0007280149" linkindex="262"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Sandstealers: War is One Hell of a Story</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">But there is more than just the wrongness of the interviewing to consider, there is the necessity of responding politically, as Jody demonstrated.</span><br />
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<b>Here's what Jody did:</b><br />
<ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">He was prepared</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">He knew exactly what he wanted to say (the talking points)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">He said them, regardless of what he was asked</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">He knew what the main talking point was (it was a deliberate attack, part of police strategy)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">He knew that Ben Brown was likely to blame him for the assault he had experienced, and was ready with responses to this line.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">He responded to Brown's assertion of violent intent on his part, but did not allow this to deviate him from his message that it was the police who were violent in his case, and more generally.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">He slapped down the interviewer early on ("I am surprised that you have just tried to ...), asserting himself, forcing Brown to become more extreme and ridiculous.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">He stayed calm (no matter what)</span></li>
</ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Then of course there were the indefinables - his "presence" on the screen, his charisma, his evident courage and integrity. All critical to the message.</span></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">But there are also two elephants in this room, which we really need to think about more explicitly than we are at the moment.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>What really is the BBC's role?<br />
</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">This situation is clarifying the BBC's multi-layered role in the dissemination of the government perspective. Jody's interview is only a particularly egregious example of a widely observable, and hardening, bias towards the presentation of information that tends to support the ConDem plans for the cuts (that is, to inflate public anxiety about the deficit and divert it into acceptance of a long-desired but not financially necessary re-structuring and partial dismantling of the Welfare State, leading inescapably to greater inequality). The demonstrations that we have seen so far, and which will continue, are consistently in defense of the Welfare State and to maximise equality in all social indicators</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">This bias is expressed in two ways, it seems to me. First in failure to explore equivalently the several alternative approaches to the deficit and the position of those who support these alternatives. Secondly, this bias is expressed in demonising those who legitimately criticise and peacefully demonstrate. This interview is a perfect example of both of these, most obviously in the attempt to demonise Jody, and flip responsibility for the incident to him, and away from the police officer. For many, this long term and currently intensifying role of the BBC as state propagandist has been masked or tolerated because of the quality of the programming. However, such self-deception is becoming less and less tenable.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Part of the mix must be Murdoch and SkyCorp, and there seems to be some kind of Faustian pact to sustain the BBC's broadcasting pre-eminence only at the cost of a closer adherence to Murdochian priorities. I keep thinking of the BBC Director-General walking into No. 10 on the very first day of the LibDem government, only the second appointment in the Prime Minister's diary, even as the first, Rupert Murdoch, slipped un-noticed out of the back door. And Coulson's presence in the Prime Minister's office must mean that the pact, if such there be, can be closely enforced. </span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">(Update: on 18th December we had the astonishing situation of Director General Thompson</span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/17/mark-thompson-bbc-fox-news?CMP=twt_gu" linkindex="263"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> advocating a greater role for Fox News</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> in UK broadcasting (owned of course by Murdoch), because the BBC and other should not have "a monopoly"of the airwaves. This on the very day that the </span><a href="http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/17/study-some-viewers-were-misinformed-by-tv-news/" linkindex="264"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">New York Times</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> was reporting that, in the US at least, news tends to disseminate disinformation, the more news people watch the more disinformed they are, and that viewers of Fox News are the most disinformed of all.)</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">There is question as to whether such a pact, if it exists, makes a substantive difference to the BBC content. I would say that it is more a matter of degree that actual difference. The objective relationship with the state is there, and no doubt there are struggles over it within the BBC (and if so we can hope for leaks in due course). But there does seem to have been a rightward movement in BBC news and comment in particular, whether derived from normal government pressure or an intensified form of it will require research. At the very least one would think that ConDem pressure is greatly enhanced and focused by spinmeister Coulson in the Prime Minister's office, and reduces the elbow-room of those within the BBC who might otherwise choose to include a wider range of material.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
</span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Are the BBC journalists briefed on the governments spin strategy? Are they provided with the messages, as CNN journalists were by the Israeli government during the 2006 invasion of the West Bank? (Democracy Now has a recording of this somewhere). This is normal practice on a range of issues, and there is no reason to believe that it is not taking place with regard to the anti-cuts campaigns. I hope that a future leak or leaks will prove it.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">I hope also that media monitors are tracking the BBC's apparently intensifying role in advancing the government's line on the cuts, perhaps in the semi-quantitative manner that I have attempted here, and look forward very much to hearing what they have to say.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
<b> What really is the police role?</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Are undercover police at work among the demonstrators, as one would expect and was admitted by the Met in November 2009 after the G20 demonstrations (</span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/nov/24/g20-undercover-police-broadhurst" linkindex="265"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Guardian)</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">. More seriously, are any of the violent individuals seen so prominently on television in fact infiltrated thugs? Agents provocateurs? There is no evidence of this so far, and I have seen no discussion of it, but it is a question that must at least be asked, and I am staying tuned. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Furthermore, we need to know who it was who assaulted Jody (and more than one officer seems to have been involved), what group or groups within the police force, covert or otherwise, they belong to, and what training they have received.</span><br />
<ul></ul><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">But all in all, it has to be said, this radical, principled, tough and savvy young man, Jody McIntyre, 20 years old, has shown us all how to handle media bias. </span></div><div class="zemanta-related"><h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em; margin: 1em 0px 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">He knocked the conventional and compromised Ben Brown, and all he represents, into the long grass. </span></h6><h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em; margin: 1em 0px 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">In a word, I would say, he nailed Ben Brown, and exposed the BBC.</span></h6><h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em; margin: 1em 0px 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Now we have to follow up, and nail the whole cuts agenda. </span></h6><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i>In case you were not following this at the time, here is what happened after the interview.</i> </span><br />
<h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em; margin: 1em 0px 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><div style="margin: 0px;">Within a couple of hours of the broadcast, an unofficial video of the interview it was posted on the web (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXNJ3MZ-AUo" linkindex="266">YouTube</a>), forcing the BBC to follow suite on its own website shortly afterwards. Four days later the YouTube versions had been viewed over half a million times, and apparently on 16 December it was the most watched video on YouTube, worldwide.</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px;">Immediately after the interview Twitter went wild, and within an hour or so Jody was trending in the UK, and complaints about Ben Brown’s approach poured into the BBC website. In fact, Jody trended to No.1 that night, right after the promoted rubbish.</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px;">Next day a distinctly lame defense of the interview by the BBC News Controller, Kevin Bakhurst, was placed on the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2010/12/interview_with_jody_mcintyre.html" linkindex="267">BBC blog</a>, and rapidly accumulated over 2000 comments, with major delays in posting. One commentator "an insider" apparently, indicated that over 5000 had been received.</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px;">I eyeballed the complete set of comments when they had reached about 1,500: they were overwhelmingly critical of Ben Brown and of Keven Bakhurst's poor handling of the response. There were very few, perhaps ten, comments in support, arguing mainly that Ben Brown was legitimately acting as "Devil's Advocate" (for example by ex Lib-Dem MP Dr. Evan Harris).</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px;">It is not devil's advocacy when you are a witness to the demonstration (as was Ben Brown), when you must have seen (as a thinking person) what a politically complex event it was, and that the overwhelming, huge majority of demonstrators were angry, yes, but not violent, and yet you choose to pursue one simple line of questioning which happens to reflect the government's spinning of the topic as a matter of demonstrator violence, even though this theme has clearly nothing to do with the interviewee in front of you. That is not devil's advocacy: that is bias.</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px;">There were other angles that could have been taken, which could have led to a stellar interview exploring the issues, but they were never on the agenda, it seems.</div><div><br />
</div></span></h6><h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em; margin: 1em 0px 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><b></b></span><div style="display: inline ! important;"><div style="display: inline ! important;"><div style="display: inline ! important; text-align: justify;"><div class="zemanta-related" style="display: inline ! important;"><h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="display: inline ! important; font-size: 1em; margin: 1em 0px 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><b>For the record, a selection from the scores of related articles</b></span></h6></div></div></div></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><b></b></span></h6><h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em; margin: 1em 0px 0px; text-align: justify;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">F</span></u><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">irst of all, a post-Brown interview with Jody McIntyre that </span>does<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> explore the issues. </span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11681.shtml" linkindex="268">Electronic Intefada</a></span></h6><ul class="zemanta-article-ul"><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://jamesmartincharlton.blogspot.com/2010/12/bbc-and-jody-mcintyre.html" linkindex="269">The BBC and Jody McIntyre</a> (James Martin Charlton - within 1 hour of the broadcast)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2010/12/15/bbc-news-controller-defends-interview-with-wheelchair-bound-protester/" linkindex="270">BBC News controller defends interview with wheelchair-bound protester</a> (blogs.journalism.co.uk)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2010/12/interview_with_jody_mcintyre.html" linkindex="271">Interview with Jody McIntyre</a> (bbc.co.uk)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://r.zemanta.com/?u=http%3A//www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/dec/15/jody-mcintyre-protester-dragged-from-wheelchair&a=30630529&rid=8dda0e26-39a0-4aa6-9ef3-b138c251057f&e=0236d1e9feacc5754857746463c9bdc3" linkindex="272">You: Interview: The wheelchair protester</a> (guardian.co.uk)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/laurie-penny/2010/12/real-disabled-jody-mcintyre" linkindex="273">How the Disabled are Dehumanised</a> (Penny Laurie at the New Statesman)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2010/12/14/when-we-cant-believe-our-own-eyes-balance-objectivity-or-transparency/" linkindex="274">When we can't believe our own eyes: Balance, objectivity, or transparency?</a> (onlinejournalismblog.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://liberalconspiracy.org/2010/12/14/how-jody-mcintyre-was-humiliated-first-by-the-police-and-then-the-bbc/" linkindex="275">How the police and then the BBC tried to humiliate Jody McIntyre</a> (liberalconspiracy.org)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/12/disabled-protester-jody-mcintyre-should-be-applauded-not-criticised/" linkindex="276">Disabled protester Jody McIntyre should be applauded, not criticised</a> (leftfootforward.org)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/johnmcternan1/100068334/if-you-thought-the-students-were-trouble-wait-for-the-disability-movement/" linkindex="277">If you thought the students were trouble, wait for the disability movement</a> (blogs.telegraph.co.uk)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/were-you-rolling-towards-the-police/" linkindex="278">"Were you rolling towards the police?"</a> (cedarlounge.wordpress.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/mark-steel/mark-steel-a-clear-case-of-attack-by-wheelchair-2160454.html" linkindex="279">Mark Steel: A clear case of attack by wheelchair</a> (independent.co.uk)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://leninology.blogspot.com/" linkindex="280">Shameless </a> (Lenin's Tomb)</li>
</ul></div></div></div></b></span>Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-3292100408907923862010-11-27T17:00:00.002+00:002010-11-27T17:03:10.623+00:00Some Beautiful Thoughts on Getting Old.<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TPE3kHfy4sI/AAAAAAAAAhI/KMpg2-aM1Lw/s1600/2258973326_03c0145f15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TPE3kHfy4sI/AAAAAAAAAhI/KMpg2-aM1Lw/s320/2258973326_03c0145f15.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">BUGGER</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">I've forgotten what they were......</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div></div>Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-19048987884729745952010-11-23T09:30:00.030+00:002010-11-29T10:15:43.288+00:00Some thoughts on thought Itself, in poem and painting<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Times-Roman; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The older I get the more I find myself lost in thought, and very pleasant it is too. So it was a joy to find my feelings about it so well described in two different media, separated by 2000 years: a poem by D.H Lawrence, and a fresco by an unknown artist in Pompeii.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I love this poem; both thought-provoking, and straight out provoking. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><b>Thought: by D.H. Lawrence</b></i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Thought, I love thought.</i></span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>But not the jiggling and twisting of already existent ideas</i></span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>I despise that self-important game.</i></span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i><br />
</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Thought is the welling up of unknown life into consciousness,</i></span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Thought is the testing of statements on the touchstone of the conscience,</i></span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Thought is gazing on to the face of life, and reading what can be read,</i></span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Thought is pondering over experience, and coming to a conclusion.</i></span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Thought is not a trick, or an exercise, or a set of dodges,</i></span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Thought is a man in his wholeness, wholly attending.</i></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt;"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">See what I mean? Hopelessly flawed! Banal and arrogant in the opening, betraying the very self-importance that he disavows, followed by soaring and beautiful descriptions of inner experience in the middle, and an ending which I (not a man) find highly affronting, and at the same time totally descriptive of exactly what happens to a person lost in thought. Most provoking. But I love it even so.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I also love, perhaps even more, the way in which this ancient artist has captured exactly the same moment of full engagement, of gazing into the middle distance, but without a touch of self-importance.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><br />
</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="zemanta-img separator zemanta-action-dragged" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Herkulaneischer_Meister_002.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="c. 50" height="400" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e4/Herkulaneischer_Meister_002.jpg/300px-Herkulaneischer_Meister_002.jpg" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="400" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">Sapho (?). Pompei. </span></div><div style="line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><div style="line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In fact, I'm finding this really a haunting picture, of the moments, perhaps long moments, before writing.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">__________________ </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You may also enjoy T<a href="http://poorbutpositive.blogspot.com/2010/01/kafka-by-rue-meurt-d-streetart-paris.html">he Gift</a>. It, too, includes a quote about the inner person, and if I remember rightly was also dogged by inappropriate use of the masculine pronoun. Although there I did <b><i>not</i></b> resist the temptation to excise it.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div></div><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><img alt="" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=1598c989-831f-4854-a3a2-4964ad9576c2" style="border: none; float: right;" /></div>Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-90204776561991163302010-10-29T10:54:00.015+01:002010-11-30T15:44:34.614+00:00The Dog Jed<div style="text-align: justify;">Dog-lovers among you will know that the Lurcher is a breed of exceptional charm and sweetness. Not only very fast, but very calm and easy-going.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And of his peers, Jed must be as far out on the well-adjusted end of the personality spectrum as it is possible to get.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although more of a cat-person myself, Jed is one of my all-time favourite characters, and I am totally happy to be his companion for a few weeks while his owners are elsewhere.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here he is, brindled, smooth-haired and calm, and, it has to be said, distinctly micro-cephalic, resting quietly behind the sofa.</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMlcaWeXx1I/AAAAAAAAAf8/8xOwhcXFGtA/s1600/IMG_1579.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMlcaWeXx1I/AAAAAAAAAf8/8xOwhcXFGtA/s400/IMG_1579.JPG" width="300" /></a></div><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">The reason for his lovely nature is said to be that the life he leads corresponds almost exactly with that for which he was bred, and the Lurcher is a runner.<br />
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Caught here in a rare moment of stillness as he waits to go through the kissing-gate, you can see that Jed is not so much small-headed as big-bodied, with strong, muscular legs and shoulders, and above all a huge chest to accommodate the pump and bellows needed to keep his muscles supplied with everything they need, often at very short notice.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMqkj0s5M9I/AAAAAAAAAg4/ivrNhXGmFXk/s1600/IMG_1645.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMqkj0s5M9I/AAAAAAAAAg4/ivrNhXGmFXk/s400/IMG_1645.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Derived from the Greyhound, dog of the aristocracy and forbidden to the poor (thus did the rich seek to appropriate to themselves the free goods of the forest), the Lurcher was bread essentially for poaching, mainly by Travellers. <i>Lur</i> means "thief" in Romany, and I like to think that they used the term ironically.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Be that as it may, Jed loves nothing more than chasing hare and rabbit, squirrel and deer over open ground. He is delighted by all the scents of woodland, but is in his element where he can run completely free.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">He walks and runs daily over the rolling open fields of the Weald of Kent, which is scattered with copse and woodland full of the creatures he is hard-wired to pursue. These not infrequently venture into the open, and he, being a sight-hound, can see them from a very great distance. I'm glad to say, despite his speed, they usually make it back to cover well before he reaches them. <br />
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Nevertheless, he has so much fun causing mayhem in the rodentine and ruminant communities around that he never seems disappointed. Perhaps he is just suffused with endorphins. Perhaps he knows instinctively, as part of his inner balance, that its the journey, not the destination, that counts in life.<br />
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I have tried to take photos of him doing what he loves best, but either I or my camera just aren't up to it: this is what I got.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMqTwrt0m4I/AAAAAAAAAgg/4sws1q0RP6Y/s1600/IMG_1626.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMqTwrt0m4I/AAAAAAAAAgg/4sws1q0RP6Y/s320/IMG_1626.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMqT6s3tf4I/AAAAAAAAAgo/8pps3yYYEVY/s1600/IMG_1634.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMqT6s3tf4I/AAAAAAAAAgo/8pps3yYYEVY/s320/IMG_1634.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMqUIwiHczI/AAAAAAAAAgs/TtnK8x_bO8A/s1600/IMG_1636.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMqUIwiHczI/AAAAAAAAAgs/TtnK8x_bO8A/s320/IMG_1636.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMqUO2amKTI/AAAAAAAAAgw/Ax1h-S8UdVI/s1600/IMG_1640.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMqUO2amKTI/AAAAAAAAAgw/Ax1h-S8UdVI/s320/IMG_1640.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMqUTZ_sAkI/AAAAAAAAAg0/HsQLf14-XFU/s1600/IMG_1643.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMqUTZ_sAkI/AAAAAAAAAg0/HsQLf14-XFU/s320/IMG_1643.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Oh well ......<br />
<br />
Pity about the jump especially. Like most hunting dogs, he can clear a five-bar gate like a cricket.<br />
<br />
In many ways Jed lives in a doggie time-warp, rarely seeing roads and traffic, rarely in places he does not know, and almost always close to his owner, whether striding field and hedgerow or sitting not far apart while one works, the other dreams.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">When not outdoors he is generally in his much-loved basket, where with blanket and a chewy toy or two he seems to achieve a zen-like state of contentment:-</div><br />
.... through quiet contemplation,<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMlzWDM68MI/AAAAAAAAAgI/F1AGBKUls-s/s1600/IMG_1605.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMlzWDM68MI/AAAAAAAAAgI/F1AGBKUls-s/s400/IMG_1605.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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... a little side snoozing ..<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMlz-jf5CKI/AAAAAAAAAgM/2i7ZWUp0ePQ/s1600/IMG_1594.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMlz-jf5CKI/AAAAAAAAAgM/2i7ZWUp0ePQ/s400/IMG_1594.JPG" width="300" /></a></div><br />
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...some front snoozing ...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMqSS8lymTI/AAAAAAAAAgc/Yn9ZSWmGdF8/s1600/IMG_1615.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMqSS8lymTI/AAAAAAAAAgc/Yn9ZSWmGdF8/s400/IMG_1615.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<br />
sometimes a bit of back snoozing for a change (he really is asleep here),<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMl2qQJ35TI/AAAAAAAAAgU/_XNmc4Q2_DE/s1600/IMG_1592.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMl2qQJ35TI/AAAAAAAAAgU/_XNmc4Q2_DE/s400/IMG_1592.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<br />
and Yoga<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMlyJKAK6dI/AAAAAAAAAgE/RSx-IqGpBrU/s1600/IMG_1609.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMlyJKAK6dI/AAAAAAAAAgE/RSx-IqGpBrU/s400/IMG_1609.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Thus does this gentle and disarming creature spend his pleasant days.<br />
<br />
And among the best of his several gifts to me is that of a sufficient amount of exercise. <br />
<br />
I have been for many weeks curtailing my daily walks due to joint pain. But, forced by his need to expend energy, I have been walking at least two hours daily, sometimes more, and the pain apparently is no more, within a very few days.<br />
<br />
This is a very welcome change.</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">So I will continue to re-learn from Jed the joy of walking, although I doubt you'll see me, cricket-like, clear fence or gate in a single bound.<br />
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But stay tuned. You never know. Life is full of surprises.</div><br />
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMqnNcYLrnI/AAAAAAAAAg8/8sWtJ9FZEHg/s1600/IMG_1604.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TMqnNcYLrnI/AAAAAAAAAg8/8sWtJ9FZEHg/s400/IMG_1604.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<img alt="" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=d8613031-e7f1-4116-a7fe-4d6c4f6c0ef3" style="border: none; float: right;" /></div>Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-47018966826151232732010-10-02T00:54:00.127+01:002010-10-04T09:45:22.207+01:00Hitch and Fry the VaticanStephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens, I salute you!<br />
<br />
The BBC World Service's Intelligence Squared Debate: <i>The Catholic Church is a Force for Good in the World</i> took place almost a year ago - in November 2009. <br />
<br />
Its protagonists were:<br />
<i>For the motion </i>- Archbishop John Onaiyekan of Abuja, former Conservative MP Anne Widdicom; seriously outgunned by, a<i>gainst the motion</i> - commentators Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry<br />
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<br />
<div class="zemanta-img separator zemanta-action-dragged" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fry-Hitchens-IQ2-Catholic.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens oppose th..." height="169" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Fry-Hitchens-IQ2-Catholic.jpg" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="300" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fry-Hitchens-IQ2-Catholic.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span></div><br />
Hitch and Fry comprehensively, systematically and courageously express my own scepticism in general, and disgust at the Vatican, its hierarchy and its flying monkeys in particular.<br />
<br />
Although neither new nor timely, and already available in all the usual places, I am posting their remarks because I agree totally with them on this. <br />
<br />
The older I get the more anti-clerecist (sp?) I become<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is really good to see the mysticism and obscurantism, not to mention the moral and legal criminality, of this dangerous and extremely worldly structure (regardless of whether its spiritual teachings are true or not) so directly and comprehensively hollowed out by rationality. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Good that it was broadcast world-wide by the Beeb. I hope that it gets many repeats.</div><br />
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<div class="zemanta-related"><h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em; margin: 1em 0 0 0;"><br />
</h6><h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em; margin: 1em 0 0 0;">Y<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">ou can find the whole debate and question and answer period on Youtube.</span></h6><h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em; margin: 1em 0 0 0;"><br />
</h6></div><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"></div>Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-73035876026597333432010-09-15T09:33:00.012+01:002010-10-03T09:39:08.922+01:00Stand By Me<div style="text-align: justify;">This is a shout-out and great big thank you to Andrew and Jilly, Fran and Peter, Stephanie and John. Thanks for standing by! Love you all.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And for the rest of us, its another opportunity to listen to this wonderful arrangement of a wonderful song.</div><br />
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<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Us-TVg40ExM?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Us-TVg40ExM?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-12284405898818150282010-09-14T17:32:00.006+01:002010-10-03T09:38:35.817+01:00A Stroke of Insight, and the Whole Free PersonThis video is really interesting and moving on right-brain/left brain interaction, consciousness, creativity and the whole free person.<br />
<br />
The balance between our impulse to control, and our ability to appreciate the marvelous current moment.<br />
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I especially like the descriptions of what it feels like when your right brain really kicks in!<br />
<br />
Well known, and quite important.<br />
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Ron Howard wants to make a movie of it, with Jodie Foster. I wish he wouldn'tSarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-20810491148001064132010-09-12T09:00:00.005+01:002010-10-17T15:32:31.479+01:00A Poem for 9/11 by Emmanuel Ortiz<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><i>In response to my last posting, of Ani DiFranco's 9/11 poem "Self Evident", I received the following from a friend in India, which is a far more comprehensive and damming indictment. </i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;"><i>I am very grateful that she took the trouble to send it to me.</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><i>I feel chastened that I did not know about this poem, here where I sit "somewhere within the pillars of power", but am very, very glad to put it here.</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><b>A Moment of Silence Before I Start this Poem, by <a href="http://www.louderarts.com/poets/eortiz/">Emmanuel Ortiz</a></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><i>Originally published in </i><a href="http://mostlywater.org/"><i>Mostly Water</i></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">Before I begin this poem, I’d like to ask you to join me in a moment of silence in honor of those who died in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11th, 2001.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">I would also like to ask you to offer up a moment of silence for all of those who have been harassed, imprisoned, disappeared, tortured, raped, or killed in retaliation for those strikes, for the victims in Afghanistan, Iraq, in the U.S., and throughout the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">And if I could just add one more thing…<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">A full day of silence… for the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have died at the hands of U.S.-backed Israeli forces over decades of occupation.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">Six months of silence… for the million and-a-half Iraqi people, mostly children, who have died of malnourishment or starvation as a result of a 12-year U.S. embargo against the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">…And now, the drums of war beat again.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">Before I begin this poem, two months of silence… for the Blacks under Apartheid in South Africa, where “homeland security” made them aliens in their own country<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">Nine months of silence… for the dead in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where death rained down and peeled back every layer of concrete, steel, earth and skin, and the survivors went on as if alive.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">A year of silence… for the millions of dead in Viet Nam —a people, not a war—for those who know a thing or two about the scent of burning fuel, their relatives bones buried in it, their babies born of it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">Two months of silence… for the decades of dead in Colombia, whose names, like the corpses they once represented, have piled up and slipped off our tongues.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">Before I begin this poem,<br />
Seven days of silence… for El Salvador<br />
A day of silence… for Nicaragua<br />
Five days of silence… for the Guatemaltecos<br />
None of whom ever knew a moment of peace in their living years.<br />
45 seconds of silence… for the 45 dead at Acteal, Chiapas…<br />
1,933 miles of silence… for every desperate body<br />
That burns in the desert sun<br />
Drowned in swollen rivers at the pearly gates to the Empire’s underbelly,<br />
A gaping wound sutured shut by razor wire and corrugated steel.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">25 years of silence… for the millions of Africans who found their graves far deeper in the ocean than any building could poke into the sky.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><br />
For those who were strung and swung from the heights of sycamore trees<br />
In the south… the north… the east… the west…<br />
There will be no dna testing or dental records to identify their remains.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">100 years of silence… for the hundreds of millions of indigenous people<br />
From this half of right here,<br />
Whose land and lives were stolen,<br />
In postcard-perfect plots like Pine Ridge, Wounded Knee, Sand Creek, Fallen Timbers, or the Trail of Tears<br />
Names now reduced to innocuous magnetic poetry on the refrigerator of our consciousness…<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">From somewhere within the pillars of power<br />
You open your mouths to invoke a moment of our silence<br />
And we are all left speechless,<br />
Our tongues snatched from our mouths,<br />
Our eyes stapled shut.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">A moment of silence,<br />
And the poets are laid to rest,<br />
The drums disintegrate into dust.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">Before I begin this poem,<br />
You want a moment of silence…<br />
<br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">You mourn now as if the world will never be the same<br />
And the rest of us hope to hell it won’t be.<br />
Not like it always has been.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">…Because this is not a 9-1-1 poem<br />
This is a 9/10 poem,<br />
It is a 9/9 poem,<br />
A 9/8 poem,<br />
A 9/7 poem…<br />
This is a 1492 poem.<br />
This is a poem about what causes poems like this to be written.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">And if this is a 9/11 poem, then<br />
This is a September 11th 1973 poem for Chile.<br />
This is a September 12th 1977 poem for Steven Biko in South Africa.<br />
This is a September 13th 1971 poem for the brothers at Attica Prison, New York.<br />
This is a September 14th 1992 poem for the people of Somalia.<br />
<br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">This is a poem for every date that falls to the ground amidst the ashes of amnesia.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">This is a poem for the 110 stories that were never told,<br />
The 110 stories that history uprooted from its textbooks<br />
The 110 stories that that cnn, bbc, The New York Times, and Newsweek ignored.<br />
<br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">This is a poem for interrupting this program.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">This is not a peace poem,<br />
Not a poem for forgiveness.<br />
This is a justice poem,<br />
A poem for never forgetting.<br />
This is a poem to remind us<br />
That all that glitters<br />
Might just be broken glass.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">And still you want a moment of silence for the dead?<br />
<br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">We could give you lifetimes of empty:<br />
The unmarked graves,<br />
The lost languages,<br />
The uprooted trees and histories,<br />
The dead stares on the faces of nameless children…<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">Before I start this poem we could be silent forever<br />
Or just long enough to hunger,<br />
For the dust to bury us<br />
And you would still ask us<br />
For more of our silence.<br />
<br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">So if you want a moment of silence<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">Then stop the oil pumps<br />
Turn off the engines, the televisions<br />
Sink the cruise ships<br />
Crash the stock markets<br />
Unplug the marquee lights<br />
Delete the e-mails and instant messages<br />
Derail the trains, ground the planes.<br />
If you want a moment of silence, put a brick through the window<br />
of Taco Bell<br />
And pay the workers for wages lost.<br />
<br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">Tear down the liquor stores,<br />
The townhouses, the White Houses, the jailhouses, the Penthouses<br />
and the Playboys.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">If you want a moment of silence,<br />
Then take it<br />
On Super Bowl Sunday,<br />
The Fourth of July,<br />
During Dayton’s 13 hour sale,<br />
The next time your white guilt fills the room where my beautiful brown people have gathered.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">You want a moment of silence<br />
Then take it<br />
Now,<br />
Before this poem begins.<br />
Here, in the echo of my voice,<br />
In the pause between goosesteps of the second hand,<br />
In the space between bodies in embrace,<br />
<br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">Here is your silence.<br />
Take it.<br />
Take it all.<br />
But don’t cut in line.<br />
Let your silence begin at the beginning of crime.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">And we,<br />
Tonight,<br />
We will keep right on singing<br />
For our dead.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><br />
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<div class="gmail_quote"><div><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: large;"></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: large;"></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: large;"></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: large;"></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: large;"></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: large;"><div style="background-color: #e0ded4;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Emmanuel Ortiz is a third-generation Chicano/Puerto Rican/Irish-American community organizer and spoken word poet. He is the author of a chapbook of poems, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Word Is a Machete</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> (self-published, 2003), and coeditor of </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Under What Bandera?: Anti-War Ofrendas from Minnesota y Califas</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> (Calaca Press, 2004). He is a founding member of Palabristas: Latin@ Word Slingers, a collective of Latin@ poets in Minnesota. Emmanuel has lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Oakland, California; and the Arizona/Mexico border. He currently lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the “buckle of the Bible Belt,” with his two dogs, Nogi and Cuca. In his spare time, he enjoys guacamole, soccer, and naps.</span></div></span></span></span></span></div></div><br />
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<br />
<div>in the dark times</div><div>Will there also be singing?</div><div>Yes, there will also be singing</div><div>about the dark times. </div><div><br />
</div><div>- Bertolt Brecht</div><div><br />
</div>Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-46003333253353674162010-09-11T09:01:00.015+01:002011-01-28T06:10:08.169+00:00A Poem for 9/11. by Ani DiFranco<object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IJcOWQ1rym8?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IJcOWQ1rym8?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
Even more angry, and even more righteous, is "A Moment of Silence Before I Read this Poem" by activist Emmanuel Ortiz. Check it out, if you havn't already. <br />
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"<a href="http://poorbutpositive.blogspot.com/2010/09/moment-of-silence-before-i-start-this.html">A Moment of Silence Before I Read this Poem</a>"</div>Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8686731630691351015.post-65220001197842273482010-09-06T10:20:00.017+01:002010-09-09T13:58:00.977+01:00A Journey to the Crime Section.<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Tony Blair: war criminal, carpetbagger and pariah.<br />
<br />
Spend a few subversive minutes in any bookshop moving his tiresome memoire to the crime section, where it belongs. <br />
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</div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Better yet: to the criminology or criminal psychology sections as well, if they have them.<br />
<br />
</div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">You'll feel quite a lot better, and be joining a growing movement.<br />
<br />
</div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">I like the collage effect of this group of linked titles in Waterstones, Piccadilly. Unfortunately a book called "Mass Murder" was not in stock.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TISUv-l787I/AAAAAAAAAeg/sYqnkaXl4Ww/s1600/IMG_1252.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TISUv-l787I/AAAAAAAAAeg/sYqnkaXl4Ww/s400/IMG_1252.JPG" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Further mischief, this time more hastily executed</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TIeiSUqYYnI/AAAAAAAAAew/pBrDSWNMJsI/s1600/IMG_1289.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TIeiSUqYYnI/AAAAAAAAAew/pBrDSWNMJsI/s400/IMG_1289.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TIejG4LqszI/AAAAAAAAAe0/H7wJwG0olXk/s1600/IMG_1290.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TIejG4LqszI/AAAAAAAAAe0/H7wJwG0olXk/s400/IMG_1290.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TIejjpVyfsI/AAAAAAAAAe4/vA4g22WJMCc/s1600/IMG_1286.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ld2iyZ1EY_I/TIejjpVyfsI/AAAAAAAAAe4/vA4g22WJMCc/s400/IMG_1286.JPG" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">So, the smirking little rat chickened out of the 8th. September book signing at Waterstones in Piccadilly AND his "secret" drinkies with a few "friends" at the Tate Modern, because of the threat of more demonstrations. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Kudos to the demonstrators in Dublin for drawing a line in the sand.</div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
Shame on the Tate, prostituting itself yet again (remember the BP party?) <br />
<br />
It's good that he's been intimidated by these demonstrations, but I would love to have seen him hit by a shoe. Particularly fitting.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=150746811621277">Facebook Page</a>: Subversively Move Blair's Book Into the Crime Section</div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kate-OSullivan-is-a-legend/115823865139455?ref=ts%20kate%20o%20sullovan">Facebook Page</a>: Kate O'Sullivan is a Legend (citizen arrest in Dublin)<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.arrestblair.org/">Citizen's Arrest: </a> Find out how to conduct a citizen's arrest of Blair, and claim your prize<br />
<br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Let him know we don't want him at any price.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And this is a lovely poem. Well done Julia Brosnan.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gD6JuwOh9ww?fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gD6JuwOh9ww?fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object> <br />
<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><img alt="" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=34532241-dccf-40bb-aa7f-d6ccc45dab90" style="border: none; float: right;" /></div>Sarah Louisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07171313931700896999noreply@blogger.com0