Understanding words.

 Sometimes words can blow you away. 

I’ve been out to lunch with an old friend today. We’ve not seen each other for a while. We used to meet on sunny days for a walk along the canal towpaths around here but in the lats couple of years we’ve not managed it and so we’ve met for pizza in Manchester. Today, while we waited for our pizzas to arrive, she quietly and calmly told me she has recently developed a very aggressive form of cancer. She may have only months, or maybe only weeks to live. In the meanwhile she has been turning up outside her MP’s office with a group of friends to protest agains the Gaza situation. Now she says she’s quite glad she’s not going to be around to see the world dissolve into war!

Like so many of my generation, she has seen the optimism of our youth, when we thought the world could only get better, fade away.

Here’s something from the writer Ursula L Guin:

“Socrates said, ‘The misuse of language induces evil in the soul.’ He wasn't talking about grammar. To misuse language is to use it the way politicians and advertisers do, for profit, without taking responsibility for what the words mean. Language used as a means to get power or make money goes wrong: it lies. Language used as an end in itself, to sing a poem or tell a story, goes right, goes towards the truth.

A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.”

Words are important. We need people who recognise their true worth. And there are a lot of weasel words around, spoken by weasel wordsmiths.

The US has been negotiating a minerals deal with the Ukraine, setting up a joint investment between the two countries, and recognising the  “significant financial and material support” Washington has given Kyiv. What it doesn’t clarify is whether profits from future investments will be used to “pay back” the US for previous military aid made under the Biden administration. Donald Trump says Ukraine “owes” the US at least $300bn. Volodymyr Zelenskyy says weapons deliveries were a Congress-approved grant, not a loan, and therefore do not need to be paid back. It all depends on how you understand the words spoken at the time. 

Russia is now reported to have broken a ceasefire it hasn’t actually agreed to.

Someone called Assal Rad posted on social media

“Hamas: We will release all hostages to end the war

Media: Hamas rejects cease fire

     BBC 

Hamas has formally rejected Israel’s latest ceasefire offer, saying it is prepared to immediately negotiate a deal that would see the release of all remaining hostages in return for an end to the war and the release ofPalestinian prisoners.”

There’s a lot of contradiction around.

Here’s something by Michael Rosen on understanding what is said: 

Because we are stupid

we do not realise

that when the Israeli government

says

on the one hand 

there is enough food for the people of Gaza

and on the other

that the reason why they're not letting food

into Gaza

is in order to put pressure on Hamas

that both of these two things

cannot be true

at the same time.

We don't realise this

because we are stupid.

It would also seem

as if the mass media

are stupid

because they keep telling us

these two things

as if they can both be true

at the same time.

But because we are stupid

we haven't seen the mass media

doing this.

And he also said this: 

 

“I like it that the White House (US govt) has disapproved of Hamas's rejection of Israel-US's 'peace' plan on the grounds that Hamas wanted to retain weapons. Quite right. After all, everyone in the White House and in the US govt is against the right of people to hold arms. Oh  hang on, I've got something wrong there...”

That’s all. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!