Another Saturday comes around. My Spanish sister says it’s still sweltering in the south of Spain but we have 8° or maybe 9°. Not exactly freezing but a bit chilly. Windy enough, however, for washing to get pretty dry hanging in the garden. So far, no extremes of weather here.
Marina Hyde has been writing about the people who think the government (well, the Democrats) controls the weather. She writes:
“Yes they can control the weather,” explained the Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (on X, of course). “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.” One customary reaction to Marjorie is to remark that it’s as if she’s on another planet. I so wish she was. The problem is that she and her fellow settlers are here, walking among all the agency officials and disaster experts and emergency workers who have to deal with reality as it presents itself – and not reality as whatever rubbish advances your cause that day.”
It makes me wonder two things: what do they teach them in science lessons at schools in America and how does someone who believes we can control the weather get to be a congresswoman?
In some parts of the news we’ve all been concentrating on Lebanon. After all, they’re being threatened with the Gaza treatment.
Once again it’s the fate of children that strikes home. UNICEF on X says this:
“Children in Lebanon are living in fear.
UNICEF is providing children who are displaced with essential needs, including mental health support.
What they really need is a ceasefire.”
Meanwhile Gaza is still starving:
“No food has entered northern Gaza since 1 October, says UN
The United Nations food agency said on Saturday that no food aid had entered northern Gaza since 1 October, reports the Associated Press (AP).
The World Food Programme (WFP) said that the primary border crossing into the war-ravaged area had been closed for about two weeks, warning that Israel’s ongoing ground operation has a disastrous impact on food security for thousands of Palestinian families there.”
And the West Bank is still being battered and bullied. And the world lets it happen. Here’s another bit of Michael Rosen’s King and his tutor:
'It's marvellous that we have many noble and distinguished visitors, is it not, tutor?' said the King to his tutor.
'It is, sir,' said the tutor, 'and we do our best to train them.'
'Do you?' said the King, 'I had no idea. What do you train them to do?'
'The first and most important thing is 'How to look away',' said the tutor.
'That sounds interesting,' said the King, 'how do you do that?'
'Well sir,' said the tutor, 'we take them into a field, and explode things.'
'Do you?' said the King, 'how does that train them?'
'What happens,' said the tutor, 'is that many of them look in the direction of where the explosion happened.'
'And so they should,' said the King.
'And so they shouldn't,' said the tutor.
'But we want our visitors and their scribes to be alert, don't we?' said the King.
'No sir,' said the tutor, 'we don't. Looking in the direction of explosions is precisely the kind of thing we don't want.'
'What do we want?' said the King.
'We want them to ignore the explosions,' said the tutor.
'And how do you do that?' said the King.
'We train the visitors in how to look away,' said the tutor, 'so when one of the explosions happen, we are standing on the other side of the field, waving.'
'And then?' said the King.
'They look at us, instead of looking in the direction of where the explosions happened,' said the tutor.
'How ingenious,' said the King, 'but..but where does that get us?'
'People end up not asking questions about the explosions,' said the tutor.
'And that's good, is it?' said the King.
'That's very good,' said the tutor.
'I'll take your word for it,' said the King.
'I thought you would,' said the tutor.
And some more:
'Is it possible for people to not exist?' said the King to his tutor.
'Yes, of course,' said the King's tutor.
'But then, if they are people, they do exist, don't they?' said the King.
'Ah well, they may exist as persons,' said the tutor, 'but do they exist as a people?'
'I'm getting muddled, here,' said the King, 'I mean if, let's say, a few thousand persons, see things in similar ways, and see themselves in similar ways, aren't they a people?'
'Not if we don't want to call them a people?' said the tutor.
'It's down to us, is it?' said the King.
'Of course it is,' said the tutor, 'we can't leave it to the people themselves.'
'Hang on, tutor,' said the King, 'you've just call them "the people".'
'Yes,' said the tutor, 'I called them "the people", but I didn't call them "a people".'
'I really don't see the difference,' said the King.
'Then I really must help you understand,' said the tutor. 'If we sit here talking of a bunch of people as "a people", the next thing we know is that they would start claiming things to do with their people's land, or their people's right to be here.'
'Is that bad?' said the King.
'Of course it is,' said the tutor, 'we want the land for us.'
'So what can we do about these people saying that they are "a people"?'
'We keep repeating that they are not "a people", we say that they never were "a people" and that there never was anywhere where they were "a people",' said the tutor.
'Will that work?' said the King.
'It helps,' said the tutor.
'Helps what?' said the King.
'Mostly it helps in times of war,' said the tutor.
'Why's that?' said the King.
'Because, sir,' said the tutor, 'it will prove that we're not fighting a country. We're just fighting a random sent of persons, just like any country has to do when it's dealing with criminals.'
'And we can do that, simply by saying that these people are not "a people"?' said the King.
'All I can say again,' said the tutor, 'is that it helps.'
'But do you believe it?' said the King.
'What's that got to do with it?' said the tutor, 'the important thing is that we say it, not whether we believe it.'
'Oh yes, of course,'said the King.
'Excellent,' said the tutor.”
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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