Putting things in perspective.

Today I woke up at about 6.00 am and went to the loo, confident that I had another couple of hours sleep ahead of me before my alarm rang at 8.00. Of course I didn’t get bank into proper deep sleep, but rather into an extended doze. When my alarm rang I could have slept on and on - isn”t it always that way? - but I wanted to phone the doctor’s surgery to make an appointment. Before 8.00 nobody answers but when you ring at 8.00 there is already a queue of people waiting to be dealt with. But I was organised: phone on speaker, book to read while waiting and diary at the ready for when I finally go through. Since I last did this they have eliminated the cool, clinical voice which used to announce, “Thank you for your patience. You are currently number … in the queue!” Perhaps someone advised them that it was depressing and that cheerful music on and on and on was better. 

Anyway, some 45 minutes later I managed to speak to an actual person. Success! It was still raining hard so I abandoned the idea of going for a run. Had it still been 8.00, I might have considered running in the rain but I had listened to the rain for long enough to find the prospect off-putting. Maybe it will clear up later, although the forecast is not good.

 

All my problems, if they even count as problems, face into insignificance compared with the wider world. Scanning the newspapers I’ve been finding articles about conflicts or ongoing situations that have been almost forgotten about as our sympathies and concerns have all gone to Gaza. Even Ukraine has slipped into the background to some extent. So here’s a link to an article about the ongoing conflict in Sudan. And here’s another link, this time to a film made by Jennifer Lawrence and Malala Yousafzai about the abuse of women in Afghanistan. 

I have been trying to relocate something I saw about the national dress of women in countries where now we tend to think that women are just totally hidden by the burka. I’ve not found it but the beauty and striking colour of those outfits was amazing. 

A friend sent me some stuff about a couple of writers and warnings/advice they gave about how Israel should avoid making mistakes. 

In 1977, a year before he killed himself, the Austrian writer Jean Améry came across press reports of the systematic torture of Arab prisoners in Israeli prisons. Having been tortured by the Gestapo and sent to Auschwitz, he knew what he was talking about and wrote, ‘I urgently call on all Jews who want to be human beings to join me in the radical condemnation of systematic torture. Where barbarism begins, even existential commitments must end.’ Similarly Primo Levy, another Auschwitz survivor, warned, in the 1990s I think, ‘Israel is rapidly falling into total isolation ... We must choke off the impulses towards emotional solidarity with Israel to reason coldly on the mistakes of Israel’s current ruling class. Get rid of that ruling class.’ And he argued that ‘the centre of gravity of the Jewish world must turn back, must move out of Israel and back into the diaspora.’

Their words seem to have been ignored. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!