Dermott Hayes's Blog: Postcard from a Pigeon, page 64

Wedding in the Wesht

At the beginning of the month of June I had the supreme pleasure of visiting the west of Ireland for the wedding of my old friend and colleague, Jimmy Molloy to the fun and beautiful, Denise Jeffers. And what a wedding it was, with multi-Grammy award winning The Chieftains, providing the music, drinks and music in the family bar, followed by a reception at an idyllic lakeside location. The sun shone, people talked, laughed and played the finest music. The video tells it all and I’ve thrown in a few pictures, too.(Oh, I’m the guy in the hat).

It just remains for me to thank Jimmy and Denise for a fine weekend and a beautiful wedding and my good friend, Maria McGoldrick, for her stellar company.

EU’re just too good 2b trUE

As the British Labour party jackals round on their party leader, surely it is time they were jettisoned? Their voting history has a Blairite taint and they’re the last thing that party needs now.

Meanwhile, the cat is certainly set amongst the pigeons as Angela Merkel comes under pressure for a populist referendum on EU membership.

Brexit is gaining ground but, perhaps, for one reason only; disaffection.

I would hate to see Corbyn go but I would rather he made his position clearer. It is true that a reassuring voice with a plan could gain political ground, right now. As it was, I felt he stayed out of the Leave/Remain debate and left it to the two public schoolboy bullies to battle it out as their own pissing contest. The only problem is the stakes are so high. Corbyn should take the high ground, spell out this referendum for what it was then, playing the democratic man of the people, spell out this situation as an opportunity for Britain to get its act together and perhaps rally a European wide movement in favour of European reform, a populist movement, the Brussels Begums cannot divert.

Switzerland is a world of its own but it has maintained its shape because it is governed by its Cantons and a democartic system based on regular referenda. Harry Lime great comment in The Third Man springs to mind, ‘You know what the fellow said – in Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.’ This is Hollywood’s Switzerland, but the fact remains that for the Swiss, the system works. The British are not used to the Swiss form of direct democracy, however, which is why the use of a referendum to decide something ordinarily left in the hands of a sovereign parliament, has caused such shock.

How much do you bet people begin to remember that, in their efforts to have a second referendum to get the ‘right’ decision or simply ignore the first one and argue that it isn’t worth the paper people voted on?

I watched an Irish politician, Catherine Connolly T.D. last night make a very cogent point regarding the Brexit decision, “I can’t believe,” she said,  “what the Establishment have done, before, during and after Brexit, I am full of admiration for those people who have voted Brexit and stood up to such a terrible bullying campaign, I have no truck with racism but to judge the 17 million people in that manner does the person who says it no service or the people about whom they say it, no service, either, they stood up and said, ‘we see the EU for what it is, or, at least that what I took out of it. Is it the start of a new dawn? I don’t think so but it’s the first step in exposing the EU. I thought it was exposed when we were forced to re-run the Nice Treaty, I thought it was exposed when we were forced to re-run the Lisbon Treaty, I thought it was exposed during the financial crisis but unfortunately the Establishment, the politicians who were in power plus the Media, by and large, helped to stop that exposure. I think it’s exposed, again, now and I think it’s open for us to grab that opportunity and not let the right have the narrative or tell the story. It’s up to us to grasp it. How could you possibly say that the EU is good as it stands when we have a country where we have to get permission to build homes for our people, how can we possibly say this is a ‘social’ EU when it allows 10,000 minors go missing in Europe and we haven’t had one single urgent debate at EU level in relation to that? On top of that, we have the Lisbon Treaty, and I’m all for a social EU, this Treaty, which ~I canvassed against after reading it in detail, I hoped there was scope in that Treaty to bring out the social EU but that Treaty is all about the militarization of Europe, page after page, it’s in relation to the neoliberal agenda and its application in Europe. ” She made this statement on television after an incredible speech in the Dail (Irish House of Commons), yesterday. It was the most cogent argument I have heard, so far, in this whole debate/debacle.

Now let’s hope her word and the sane words of some others are heard and grasped and then turned in to a popular movement for change, a Europe for all the people that we can all believe in.

Signs of the Time #9

Some local graffiti …

bella_freud

Rubberbandits

‘This photo is from Limerick yesterday. The maddest place in Ireland, and it fills my heart with pride. Yes, that’s a goat using an Alsatians back as leverage to ride another Alsatian.’

Last word on Brexit (enough already)

(Image, courtesy of The Guardian)

This post as posted first as a comment on Woebegone but Hopeful with whom I’ve engaged in regular correspondence on a variety of topics, but most recently, on Brexit.

As with all these things, my friend and fellow blogger, a level will be found and the waters will settle. In the meantime, people who had the money, made hay on the chaos by buying short and selling long, quickly, for the purpose of quick, opportunistic profit taking.

Meanwhile, of those who’ve voted ‘leave’, some have woken to find themselves treading unknown waters, afraid of drowning; others are saying, hurrah, now we have our country back again but find those who have led them there, curiously absent, in ideas and in person.

But there are others who believe they’ve done the right thing, that now someone will sit up and pay notice, that the institution they’ve rejected was not what it was sold to be, but a corporate convenience store; full of cheap, pliant labour, a ready market for their shoddy goods, in debt and scared, needing rules, regulations and restrictions and grateful for their patronage, for the right to survive. And then some just didn’t know what they were doing, like the Brexit leaders, who thought, if the EU wouldn’t let them play, they’d take their ball home and say, ‘fuck it’, without any consideration of the implications of their actions on others.

All these markets need each other, it is their raison d’etre and if there’s one thing capitalism will not deny itself, it’s a market. The worst fear is the Brexiters have created a scenario that further weakens their position. The UK always sat in the EU, with one foot in, the other out. Now they’re out, outside and excluded in the corridors of that power centre.

The analogy of the English football team is now, curiously, apt. Not to detract from Iceland’s achievement, skill and determination but England was defeated as much by its own overbearing arrogance, as much as the strength of the Iceland team. Now, the arrogance of the UK, as a political entity, is seen, with regret, for what it is, the Emperor’s New Clothes.

I write this with regret, since the swagger of John Bull has never been a pleasing sight to anyone on its receiving end but there is a British/UK quality that is admirable and that is visible and palpable in the spirit of the Magna Carta, for example that spirit that recognised the value of people as equal and democratic and in need of our mutual care. (Damn, you’ve started me on this crap, again)

But perhaps the single most hateful thing about all the lying and deception is it has handed an air of entitlement to the worst of the Little Britoners who feel they now have a mandate for open abuse of minorities and immigrants. Those are not the British people I have known and worked with all my life but the sad thing is, it is those Britons who have unleashed this wave of hate.

Or, at least, that’s what we’re being told. By who? Well, the media, newspapers, radio, television, social networks and…whoah, there. Are you serious? You’ve got to step back and ask yourself a question? Over 17 million people voted to leave, so what were they saying with that vote?

Y’see, I think many of them were simply saying ‘Enough Already, stop. There’s something wrong and we need to change it. So forget the fear and embrace the reality. Things must change and let’s hope that change might be a ‘Magna Carta’ for the new millennium, a charter of human rights and public obligations to cherish everyone as equal, to work together to make our world a better place, with cleaner air and water, proper living conditions and health services, the right to a job and a home and not a debt serf life with despair and deprivation as the only things to look forward to. When did we decide not to respect and cherish old people? Why are people hungry and homeless, when there is so much wealth?

Football & Politics, don’t mix

Instagram:andrewjrae

Brexit has focussed people’s minds in the last few days, particularly mine. I shouldn’t worry, though. After all, I’m still a European. But I’m not happy with that state of affairs, either. I don’t like an institution that began with an ideal to unite Europe and prevent war but has been subverted into a lumbering behemoth, lining corporate pockets and strangling innovation and sovereign thought with stifling Eurocracy. Do not worry, bloggers, normal service will resume, soon.

Football, religion and politics are three items to never engage in conversation in a pub, particularly with strangers.

You might think the explosive element is alcohol, but you’re wrong. Of course, it won’t help but the real bugbears lurking in all these topics are self righteousness and smug certainty.

Happily, religion didn’t rug it’s ugly head this past weekend and thank, whoever or whatever, for that; there was enough crap flying about without it.

Ireland lost the big game, it’s elimination game against European Championship hosts, France by 2-1 and, in the end, we had nothing to moan about. We were beaten fair and square. Of course, that doesn’t stop every sideline genius having their own opinion on what went wrong: the choice of players, the time to recover from the previous game, the heat on the night. Get over it. We lost because we were beaten by a better team, on the day.

As for politics, well, we’re all still reeling from the shock and implications of the Brexit vote. In Ireland, we wonder how it will effect our relations with our biggest trading partner, the United Kingdom and does it mean the return of the border, border economics and all its attendant headaches.

But, here’s a thing, it was a democratic decision and, so what if even the Brexiters didn’t expect it, it’s here so suck it up and get on with it. Secretly, although the short term impact has been harsh on financial markets, so what, I say; I believe the result is more a rejection of what they had than a look at what we can have. That happens now.

Once people get over the shock of making a difference, maybe, or hopefully, they will grasp this new notion as a blueprint for the future like thinking about what else needs to be changed, like inequality, racial, economic and sexual, and working out how we can put some balance back into those equations?

Or poverty, hunger and health, bywords of Conservative, right wing Governments, code names for deprivation that were once the calling cards of the welfare state with a promise that no-one would go hungry or poor or lack adequate health services. So maybe we should stop talking about the immigration issue and start discussing why everyone wanted to move to the UK? Because wages were high and working conditions good, perhaps?

And that free migration of labour thing, well, that’s all about globalisation, isn’t it? Free global trade markets are there so global corporations can find the cheapest places to produce their products, where materials and workers cost less than anywhere else, so they can be sold, at higher profits, to the people in the other countries where consumerism flourishes.

It reminds of that line from The Usual Suspects when someone says the greatest trick the devil ever played was to convince people he didn’t exist.

Of course, young people feel they’ve been deprived of lost opportunities by their elders, the major of whom voted for Brexit, while already lumbered to pay off the mistakes of that older generation’s debts. Not enough of them voted. That is democracy. The working class made up another significant portion of the Brexit vote and they’ve been hoodwinked by false promises and will suffer worse than anyone else from the consequences of the decision to leave.

A decision has been made, whether right or wrong, but what is most sinister is no-one has put any thought into what might follow while they played fast and loose with people’s futures. That’s the most cynical and sinister aspect of this entire affair. People feel empowered but they have even less power now, than they did before.

 

The Trees of Palestine, by Richard Boyd-Barrett TD

Richard Boyd Barrett is a rarity among politicians, a man of principle who matches his words with action.

The Bogman’s Cannon

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd-Barrett  reading his very moving poem The Trees of Palestine at the Gaza Kids to Ireland Fundraiser in the Purty Kitchen last night. In his fascinating intro to the poem Richard explains how his witnessing of the horrendous treatment of Palestinians, as well as their courageous and dignified resistance to Apartheid Israel, during  a youthful trip to Palestine inspired him to get involved in politics. Highly recommended viewing. Donate to Gaza Kids to Ireland here.

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Do the Hokey Pokey and Brexit

David Mana, Facebook

The United Kingdom is in Political Trauma following a national referendum decision to leave the European Union .

Emergency trauma centres are being set up in cities and towns from Land’s End to John o’Groats, to deal with the mass hysteria and shock caused by this unprecedented outbreak of democracy.

Unaccustomed to an outbreak as this, of epidemic, even pandemic proportions, public advice units have been set up to explain the concept of ‘throwing the baby out with the water’ and ‘Pyrrhic Victory’.

While the results of the United Kingdom show a majority of votes in favour of ‘Brexit’, the catchy slogan adopted by the rainbow group of conservatives, little Britons anti-immigration campaigners that has led the UK out of the EU, the irony of the results indicate the United Kingdom is far from united over the result.

A majority of voters in Northern Ireland and Scotland voted to remain in the European Union, creating speculation of a second referendum for Scottish independence while Sinn Fein, the minority ruling partner in Northern Ireland has called for a border referendum and for Northern Ireland to secede from the United Kingdom and join the Irish Republic, which has remained in the EU.

Security forces have been put on high alert, fearing further disruption as the implications of direct democracy sink in. While Prime Minister, David Cameron has announced his decision to resign, there is talk of an Emergency Government to preserve the sovereignty of Parliament and reject the referendum result.

Border forces of neighbouring countries, particularly the Republic of Ireland, are on high alert to deal with the expected flow of refugees, fleeing the Brexit devastation. Camps have been set up close to major border towns like Dundalk, Clones and Lifford to deal with the numbers expected.

Some commentators believe the referendum will not be the final word in the Brexit saga, however. As the United Kingdom will have two years to disconnect themselves from the Union, there is speculation that EU leaders will lure Britain back to the negotiating table to hammer out a new Euro deal, ‘not one as half arsed and undemocratic as the last one,’ according to one EU zealot.

You put your right leg in, put the left leg out, you do the hokey pokey, then you shake it all about…

 

Starman: Life on Trappist1#8, Happiness

https://silverthreading.com/2016/06/2...

Abraham considers his options. Less that one moon cycle remains until ReAs and the chances of his avoiding it this time without causing a stir, were scarce and, as one of the dramatic reconstructions he watched on a sub-program of The Tablet Chronicles, ‘Slim’s out of town.’

He smiles at the memory, marvelling too that humour has become a simple, almost unremarkable, impulse for him. But it is remarkable, he notes, promising himself he will not be complacent. The rebel Units, the self styled Diamond Dogs, he noticed, hadn’t smiled or laughed.

Which makes him wonder just how dis-assembled are they? How aware of their circumstances are they? And what, exactly, is the nature of the ‘genetic distortion’, alluded to by Aladdin Sane, that excludes them, by some default from ReAs or detection?

He’s reminded too of the occasional lapses of clarity in these enigmatic Units, like none he’s seen before, in demeanour, appearance and even the fabric and colour of their clothing, how Sane’s nonchalant aplomb shook, periodically, in speech and even visual definition.

Still, he thinks, they’re offering an alternative, after the perils of ReAs, of a return to consciousness but would that be the same consciousness he’s arrived at by his own efforts or one determined by whatever agenda controls them or they are pursuing.

They want him to become their inside Unit, operating within the confines of ReAs and for the purpose of their, as yet unspecified, ‘adventure.’

But what, he wonders, might happen if he simply avoids ReAs? QuantumBot, as Sane has acknowledged, doesn’t do alarm. QuantumBot doesn’t ask questions, either. Was QuantumBot ‘suspicious’ of his behaviour, as Sane claims, and if he has raised an alert in GrUnCo, through psychImp indiscretions from his CraterProx dwelling, how do they know?

In his experience, which he admits is short, he has never seen any corrective or punitive action by receptobots, nor is he aware of any QuantumBot directive to deal with aberrations.

Sane and the Diamond Dogs left him to consider his options while they went about doing whatever it is they do. Still in the chamber he was brought to by the truckBot, he can see and hear them mill about, confer and generally, look busy and industrious but he’s aware of the anticipation in the room, as though they are going though these motions to disguise their own anxiety.

He studies Sane, in particular. He is, he assumes, a catalyst among them, if not their director. Then Sane, apparently conscious, somehow, of Abraham’s thoughts, looks up from the huddled group surrounding him and gazes in his direction. There it is, he thinks, that penetrating stare, that ‘I see you, outside, inside and all around you’ look, that half smirk, that,  crinkle in the corner of his mouth, suggestion, he knows something more than me.

But wait, there it is, again, that flicker at the edges, the blurring shakiness and look now, a Diamond Dog passes in front of Sane but Sane’s appearance sharpens, flickers, then sharpens. Abraham closes his eyes shut, tight and then reopens them. He’s not imagining what he is seeing, the light is not playing tricks; he can see Sane through a Diamond Dog, then he can’t see Sane, then he can.

HoloBots, why hasn’t he seen it before now? Aladdin Sane and the Diamond Dogs are three dimensional, holographic entities, far more sophisticated than the holoBots he encountered in FormU or InIt, those trainee models used for Unit interface in training.

He looks away, studies his hands and puts his face in his hands, as though deep in thought. He doesn’t want to betray his new awareness. He clears his mind by clouding it, thinks of how he must return to CraterProx, that his absence will be noted, creating further wrinkles in GrUnCo for QuantumBot.

Through his hands he becomes aware of Sane’s close proximity. He lowers his hands, looks up and meets his gaze, waiting.

‘Abraham,’ Sane addresses him, ‘ you’re right, your absence from Function will be noted. You must return to the Crater and continue to perform your tasks, report your findings, perform your duties. A truckBot has been dispatched. It will return you. First, I must enquire, have you reached a conclusion?’

‘No,’ Abraham hears himself saying, ‘I need more time.’

Sane appears to take this information in his unflappable manner but Abraham, aware now of the occasional disturbances, detects a ripple at his peripheral points but it’s so faint, it wouldn’t be seen unless you were looking for it.

‘Time, before ReAs, is limited,’ Sane says, ‘when QuantumBot will act is uncertain and indeterminate, what QuantumBot will do, is unknown.’

You can say that again, Abraham thinks.

‘Time, before ReAs, is limited,’ Sane says, ‘when QuantumBot will act is uncertain and indeterminate, what QuantumBot will do, is unknown.’

Abraham maintains a straight gaze at Sane, anxious now, not to betray his suspicions or his discovery.

‘Let me be clear,’ Sane continues, apparently unaware of his own disclosure, ‘we intend to mask your dis-assembly so we can minimize the impact of ReAs on you and help us recover you to dis-assembly, as you were before. Do you have any questions?’

‘Mask? what does that mean? how can that be done? and what is the adventure? You haven’t told me.’

Sane’s green eyes were looking through him again. He smiles, ‘questions, questions,’ he says, ‘we like questions. That is what the adventure is, a big question, to find happiness.’

Abraham nods, as though understanding but his mind races, questions tumbling from questions. A Dog appears beside Sane and indicates with a nod and a flicker, the arrival of the truckBot. Sane extends a hand to indicate it is time for Abraham to depart. He’s aware of trying to walk as normally as he can muster to the descent box, suppressing his desire to run.

He knows he has one advantage over Sane and his Diamond Dogs and who or whatever controls them. He has the Tablet Chronicles and he knows, somewhere in the blueprints, he will find the answers.

 

CATCH UP

TRAP1                 https://dermotthayes.com/2016/05/05/starman-life-on-trappistone-2/

TRAP2               https://dermotthayes.com/2016/05/12/starman-life-on-trappistone-2-2/

TRAP3                https://dermotthayes.com/2016/05/20/starman-life-on-trappistone-3-obsession/

TRAP4                 https://dermotthayes.com/2016/05/26/starman-life-on-trappistone-4/

TRAP5                 https://dermotthayes.com/2016/06/02/starman-life-on-trappistone-5-inspiration/

TRAP6                 https://dermotthayes.com/2016/06/12/starmanlife-on-trappistone6-adventure/

TRAP7                 https://dermotthayes.com/2016/06/16/starman-life-on-trappistone-7-rebirth/

Caffe e cantuccini

I bought myself an espresso machine, recently and boy, am I glad. And while it’s late at night and coffee is not advised, I’ve had a healthy day so a little treat and those almost biscotti are just the way to round it off. But the real, quality topping is the photograph of a Dublin bay sunset, captured by activist, restauranteur, musician and photographer, Mathew Spalding. Nice One, my son.

 

Salad Days

Consistent with my home bound and healthy blog day, this has been a no red meat day with lots of fruit and grains. 

For dinner, there’s a beetroot hummus and baba ganoush, made with aubergine and Tahini, mint and parsley and fasola, edible nasturtiums and mozzarella, assorted nuts and Irish wholewheat soda bread. All washed down with pure, raw dairy milk, unpasteurised and unhomogenised. Good.