Pictures of war. Green cards. Freedom of speech everywhere.

 Not long ago I wrote about Pablo Picasso’s Guernica. Today I read about another artist who depicted scenes from the Spanish Civil War, José Luis Rey Vila, who went by name of Sim, a name chosen in tribute to his friend the philosopher Simone Weil. There’s an exhibition of his work in Barcelona’s Museu Nacional d’art de Catalunya from May to December. 

He was born in Cádiz and studied art in Gibraltar. His experience as a navy gunner in Spain’s Rif war in Morocco persuaded him to become a pacifist. He moved to Barcelona where he began work as a graphic artist. Then in July 1936 Franco staged his military coup from north Africa and the Spanish Civil War started. And as fighting began in the streets of Barcelona he began to make pictures of the conflict.

The anarchist CNT-FAI (Confederación Nacional del Trabajo/Federación Anarquista Ibérica) propaganda office published his work in a book called Estampas de la Revolución Española 19 Julio de 1936. The next year, the government of Catalonia published 12 Escenas de Guerra. Some of his work made it to Canada, the USA, even China.

In 1937 he went to France where he helped with the Spanish pavilion at the Paris International Exhibition, where Picasso”s Guernica was displayed. He never returned to Spain but continued making images of chaos, such as the Nazi invasion of Paris and much later the upheavals in that city in the Events of May 1968. He died in Paris in 1983.

Here are some of his illustrations of the Spanish Civil War.

There was a time, not too long ago when we hoped that conflicts like the Spanish Civil War and repressive regimes like Franco’s were a thing of the past. Not so! And more and more it seems that our much vaunted free speech is becoming a thing of the past. Arwa Mahdawi, a British-Palestinian, the Guardian US correspondent writes that applying for a green card may be difficult for those who have openly criticised the US government or Israel’s actions in Palestine. “One example cited by the New York Times of speech that could cause problems with obtaining a green card, for example, is a social media post that says: “Stop Israeli Terror in Palestine” and shows the Israeli flag crossed out. Participating in pro-Palestinian protests would also count against you.”

Arwa Mahdawi also tells of actions against immigrants (there’s ICE again - and immigration officers are known as Homeland Defenders! ) such as Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk, on a US student visa, who made headlines last year when she was snatched off the streets of by masked immigration officers and detained for the “crime” of co-writing a pro-Palestinian op-ed in a student newspaper. 

Brian Hauss, deputy director at the American Civil Liberties Union told Arwa Mahdawi in a statement:

“The Supreme Court has recognized for 80 years that noncitizens residing in this country have First Amendment rights, including the right not to be discriminated against for your beliefs. While the administration currently seeks to penalize flag desecration or speech about Israel-Palestine, there is no telling what political opinions it will try to censor in the future. We should all be concerned about the government’s abuse of the immigration system to suppress dissent.”

Just in case you think it’s not happening here, reflect on the Palestine Action court cases, the proposal to ban pro-Palestine demonstrations and the furore caused by Zack Polanski daring to criticise police action. 

Here, by the way, is a link to the article by Arwa Mahdawi.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

The return of the puddles! Some thoughts on the benefits of being older. Foreigners. And Banksy.

It took a couple of weeks of dry and sometimes sunny, sometimes even hot weather for the bridle paths to dry out. It took one night of rain for a fair few of the puddles to return, not quite to their former muddy glory, but definitely making a comeback. I went to sleep last night to the sound of rain on the roof, quite a soothing sound, and this morning I ran in drizzle. The sun has tried to come out but it’s not been very successful so far.

Occasionally, when lunching with old friends, I reflect on how fortunate we are to be able to enjoy our old age - trying hard not to become the kind of old folk who begin their conversations by swapping lists of their various ailments, aches and pains, medications and so on. According to this article a comfortable retirement may become a thing of the past. Not that it is all that comfortable for quite a lot of people my age: people whose employment didn’t have a decent pension scheme, or women who were persuaded at some point that it was a good idea to pay only half the National Insurance payment. I just checked that last online, in case I had misremembered. Until 1977 it was possible for married women to pay a reduced rate. Some who opted to do so may have continued to pay what they called the “small stamp”, even after the scheme ended. As a consequence they may be in receipt of a reduced state pension. 

Here’s an extract from the article I linked to above: 

“Retirement in Britain has a surprisingly short history, underpinned by dramatic improvements in older people’s quality of life over the past 50 years. Large public and private bureaucracies first started to enrol long-serving employees into pension schemes from the mid-19th century. In 1909, Britain was the first country to pioneer an old age pension, funded by the state and targeting the poorest, who could claim it from the age of 70. But it was only after the second world war that a period of leisured old age become an ordinary expectation for most British workers.”

Presumably before there were pensions old people had to depend on the kindness of their family or ended up, like an old couple described by Laurie Lee in Cider with Rosie, in the grimness of the workhouse. It is interesting that when the old age pension was first introduced it could be claimed at the age of 70. Things improved. I was able to receive mine at the age 60, feeling rather guilty as I was still in full-time employment. Similarly, I received my first free bus pass at 60. Now, however, the qualifying age for both the state pension and the free bus pass has been gradually increasing.

Here’s a comment on attitudes towards foreigners/ refugees/asylum seekers, a response to something Mr Farage said:

And here’s a picture of a Banksy statue, with annotations. I wasn’t aware he did statues. And how did he manage to erect it overnight?

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Meeting old friends. Thinking about justice and equality and modern society. And Maypoles,

 Yesterday I went out to lunch with some old friends and former colleagues. We sat outside a pizza place on King Street in Manchester and talked about anything and everything for hours, quite literally for hours!  We’ve been meeting every few months for at least a couple of years now, probably more. Yesterday one of our number brought along an even older friend and former colleague, someone I’d not seen for years and years. Such a nice gesture to organise a reunion.

This older friend and former colleague has been volunteering for a long time now with an asylum seekers support group. Among other things she provides tuition in basic English or on how to improve your basic English. And on Tuesday she is going to a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace, where she could well meet the king! She was amused/perplexed/mildly annoyed when the official ticket arrived inviting Mr ….. ….. andMrs ….. ….. to the palace. As she was the one invited and her husband purely her significant other, why does protocol put his name above hers?

Her asylum seekers support group has premises in her town centre. When they started up years ago they had a board outside the door, saying who they were inviting those in need to drop in. Now they no longer set the board up for fear of repercussions. There have been threats of violence. A sign of the times we live in!

Phil and I have been been watching on Netflix ‘The Man in the High Castle’, a series based on a story by Philip K Dick: the story of a world in which Germany and Japan win the second world war. The United States is now divided into two section: the German Reich and the Japanese Empire. There is a resistance movement but in general in both sections people live in fear of offending the ruling regime. Reprisals are violent in both regimes.

And suddenly we are moving towards a similar situation in this country. A clearly mentally ill man stabbed three people in London, two Jews and a Moslem. The news headlines only reported the attack on the two Jews and the incident was treated as terrorism and antisemitism. When the leader of the Green Party, Zack Polanski, criticised police treatment of the man arrested for the attack - tasered and immobilised on the ground he was kicked by the police - he was himself criticised for those comments. Our prime minister said the Zack Polanski was not fit to be the leader of one of our political parties (!). Eventually Zack Polanski was persuaded to apologise for his comments (!).

The fact remains that we permit our police to use brutal treatment on a man already immobilised, then we are as guilty of wrongful violence as the perpetrator. We bring ourselves down to his level!

Then there’s the matter of the senior KC representing one of the Palestine Action activists in the Filton trial who now finds himself accused of contempt of course because his defence of his client mentioned things like genocide in Gaza. Here is a link to Craig Murray’s blogpost 

Are even barristers to be told what they can and cannot say in defence of clients? Are they going to have be afraid of losing their professional status for defending certain causes?

It seems that we too live in an alternative reality!

Another Green Party MP coming in for criticism and abuse is Hannah Spencer, plumber turned MP. She objected to the drinking culture in the Houses of Parliament, pointing out that in most other fields of work it is not accepted that you drink on the job. What a storm of criticism came her way! Here is a little of what columnist John Crace has to say in her defence: 

“My sympathies are entirely with Spencer. Though you might call me a puritan as well, having not taken drugs or drunk alcohol for over 39 years. But serving as an MP is a privilege and a responsibility. They are representatives of our democracy. Almost everyone else doesn’t get to drink at work, so surely MPs can also do without.”

He goes on:

“Though it seems that some journalists can’t. When the gunman tried to kill the president at the White House correspondents dinner last weekend, most people ducked under the table and left when told by secret service agents. But not all. Several hacks were seen grabbing bottles of wine. Altogether 179 bottles went missing. At $76 (£56) a pop.”

Still on legal matters, but in a possibly less serious vein - depending on your attitude to dogs - I read that Luca Salvetti, mayormof the Italian city of Livorno has decreed that dog owners should carry water bottles and sprayers to clean up their dogs’ urine. It seems that residents complained about the smell of dog urine, particularly in parks and children’s play areas. Failure to clean up the pee could result in a fine of €500.

Funnily enough, on our recent trip to Gran Canaria I repeatedly saw dog owners pausing to spray the bit of pavement where their dog had peed. I was impressed. A step further than putting your pooches’ poop in a plastic bag and hopefully taking it home to a bin rather than hanging it in a tree. Hurrah!

And finally, here are a couple of photos of maypoles:

May Day, Bridson Street, Weaste, Salford.  Photo

“We come to greet you here today,

And we hope you will not turn us away,

For we dance and sing in a merry ring,

On this Maypole Day.”

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

May Day .

 Tomorrow is the 1st of May, May Day. We don’t celebrate May Day in this country. Instead we have a bank holiday on the first Monday in May - much tidier!

According to tradition, Celtic tradition, we should begin celebrating May Day this evening: After celebrations on May Eve (April 30th), women would go out in the woods to collect May, other flowering plants. They would wash their faces in May Dew preferable from the leaves of Hawthorn. If not from beneath an oak tree, or from a new-made grave. The dew was said to improve their complexion. It was also used for medical conditions such as gout and weak eyes. Thinking of one’s lover on May Day might bring marriage within the year.”

It all gets mixed up with Midsummer’s Night and the Feast of St John (24th of June), when bonfires are lit on Spanish beaches and crazy people leapmlver thme to find out the imitial of the person they will marry. I was once advised to collect certain wild flowers on St John’s eve, stand them in water and then use the water to wash my face at dawn. This too was supposed to  be good for the complexion. I declined to wash my face with flower water! I survived as did my complexion.

Apparently the celebrations begin on May Eve because the Celtic calendar starts the day at Dusk. This seems strange to us who, perversely, ‘start’ our day at Midnight just after everyone has gone to bed! The other choice, and maybe the most logical is Dawn. But Dawn and Dusk are difficult to fix. Midnight was chosen by Julius Caesar when he created the Julian Calendar. Midnight has the virtue of being a fixed metric, being half way between Dawn and Dusk. From the Celtic point of view, the day ends when the Sun goes down over the western horizon. So the end of the old day, is the beginning of the new day. Makes sense?

Then ln May Day morning people danced round the maypole, erected a few day previously and repainted and decked with ribbons and garlands made mainly from hawthorn, usually having been stored all year in the church. 

If they managed to make garlands of hawthorn blossom the  they were doing well in my opinion as the hawthorn blossom (may blossom) doesn’t come out here until late May. Some in the church took against it and banned the maypole as it smacked of idolatry. Shocking!

Now, here’s a link to an article about British-Jamaican DJ, artist and educator, Linett Kamala, who adapted maypole dancing to more modern music.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

On the content of speeches!

 So Charles Windsor has made a great speech to Congress on the United States. Apparently it went down well, thanking them for inviting him to address them on this “semi-quincentennial year of the Declaration of Independence”. Hmm - semi-quincentennial? Who writes these speeches? Someone who likes long words, obviously! What’s wrong with two hundred and fiftieth?

Anyway, the jokes were appreciated and the “special relationship!” was shored up once again.

Then there was a fancy dinner at the White House, where the king presented the president with the bell from the British submarine HMS Trump, which was launched in 1944 during the second world war.

There you go.

Here’s picture of different kinds of tits.

And here’s a comment on deporting immigrants.

And here is a reminder from Norman Finkelstein that stuff in Gaza is till going on. The news has gone fairly quiet but it’s still happening. We mustn’t forget.

None of this was mentioned in the King’s speech. Altogether too overtly political!  So it goes!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Actions that influence the weather. Malign effect of influencers on children’s cosmetics use. And shoplifting.

 On Saturday the next door neighbours got their barbecue equipment out and had their first barbecue of the year. I’m not a great fan of barbecues myself, perhaps because I’m not a great meat eater, but I do enjoy eating outdoors on a fine warm evening. Actually, by the time everything was properly set up and the meat was cooked the temperature was already dropping to its evening level. But in the afternoon and very early evening it was very pleasant to it out in the garden. 

Through Saturday, Sunday and yesterday I gradually reduced my running gear, first shedding my winter extra-layer hoody, then going down to a short sleeved running top and finally substituting my running trousers with running shorts. This was a good move with early morning temperatures of 14° and more. 

So, possibly as a consequence of all this summer-style organising, today the cloud has moved back in with a vengeance and the early morning temperature was 7°. My bare legs felt then difference. The sun is forecast to return later today!

 I have come across another new word: cosmeticorexia. Apparently it is an obsession with having a flawless skin. Children, principally girls, as young as 7 or 8 are buying beauty products, applying collagen boosting serums and retinol creams for their nonexistent wrinkles. And some of the yummy-mummies are encouraging it: party bags are stuffed with face masks and fluffy headbands, instead of glitter and gummy bears. Younger and younger girls are afraid to be seen without make-up. Dermatologists are treating children for skin disorders resulting from using exfoliants and other such products on their very young skin.  And experts are suggesting that cosmeticorexia “may represent a clinically relevant mental disorder”. They suggest it requires further understanding, tracking, research and potentially treatment.

Presumably this is another consequence of the presence of social media and influencers in so many aspects of modern life. Another bit of innocence is lost along the way. Our own nine-year-old granddaughter is, we hope, not so extreme as some of these youngsters but for a long time now she has carefully chosen which outfits she will wear, often planning in advance for special occasions. And she is quick to assess and congratulate people on how they look, on the clothes they wear and so on. 

It is a strange place the modern world.

Here’s another oddity: 

“Traces of illicit drugs in wastewater in England show spikes in usage during bank holiday weekends, heatwaves and sports events, while the Eurovision song contest ranks as one of the most drug-fuelled nights of the year.”

We have a bank holiday weekend coming up. And the sunshine is forecast to return. Maybe the drug-users will be out and about. 

I find it strange that the Eurovision Song Contest is mentioned in that context. I knew it had become a popular event in the gay community. Now I have an image of masses of people getting high as they watch the performance of often really mediocre songs! 

You can guess that I am not a fan of Eurovision!

Then there is shoplifting (which has been a crime in England since 1799), a rather antisocial activity that pushes up the prices of goods for us ordinary shoppers.recently someone lost his job for tackling shoplifters in a Waitrose store. And here is a link to an article about people who are pretty much professional shop lifters, having honed the art of selecting items to steal and resell, strolling calmly round stores not rushing in and out. Rushing in and out arouses suspicion; browsing looks normal, even if you are quietly secreting stuff away inside your coat, especially if it’s a respectable-looking coat!

And here’s an article about shoplifting by a group that calls itself “Take Back Power”. They collect goods i supermarkets, pack them in boxes labelled something like “these are going to people who need them” and if they can get them past security and out of the store they distribute the contents to food banks. Some of their number have been arrested at ‘training events’, arrested for lotting to carry out a crime ! While their methods of helping the needy are dubious, so too is their being raided and arrested before they have committed the crime. 

Such is modern society!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!