Monday, 3 September 2012

EPISODE 70: THE SCREWED


Welcome to my blog, where it is still raining. There was a moment yesterday when the sun shone. Once upon a time I’d take out a stool, place it by the front door and bask in the sunshine with a cup of tea and a smoke. Now if I do that, I’m on view. Amazingly the neighbour has found even more green life to burn and last night we woke up unable to breathe because so much woodsmoke had made its way into the house.

So it goes.

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Today I’m going to copy out of another book, partly because I am short of time but mostly because I keep meaning to give/lend the book to someone else but don’t because of this bit.
The book is ‘The Uncomfortable Dead’ by Subcommandante Marcos and Paco Ignacio Taibo.

So he was explaining that there’s two agendas, the agenda of the powerful and the agenda of the screwed. So for them it’s the agenda of the powerful that’s the most important, cause they want to get more powerful and richer. On the other hand, the agenda of the screwed is what is more important to for us, which is the fight for liberation. And then Alakazam explained that the powerful – that is, the rich and the bad government leaders – are trying to convince everyone that their agenda, the agenda of the powerful, is the only good one for everyone, even for the screwed. So they are constantly telling us about the concerns of the powerful and convincing us it is all important and it is what we have to be concerned about. So you see, they have us looking one way while they’re stealing everything and selling the country down the river, and our natural resources, like our water, oil, electric power, and even our people. And when we finally see what’s going on, then it’ll be too late, cause there won’t be anything left when we get through looking the other way. And the worse thing is not that we’re looking off where there’s nothing to see, no sir, the worst thing is that they get us to think that their concerns, the concerns of the rich, are our concerns, and we take them like our own. So then, according to modern politics, Alakazam says, Democracy is for the majority, the screwed, to be all concerned over the well-being of the minority, the powerful. And the other thing is for all of us who are screwed to look the other way while they steal our lands, our jobs, our memories, our dignity. And on top of it all, the powerful want us to applaud them and give them our votes.
And that’s when Alakazam said how there’s black magic, which is the one you do with demons, and there’s white magic, which is the one Alakazam and other magicians do, and then there’s dirty magic, which is the one politicians do.
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My favourite poem, not that I read much, is by the Nicaraguan poetess Michele Najlis. I have it in Spanish and English. Because I can’t do the  Spanish accents on the puter, here is the English translation.

WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE SUN

We are the children of the sun are we,
Who write in the shadows of the evening,
Who walk in the dark of the night
Who arise in the light of the dawn,
Who go barefoot in the womb of the world,
Who sow the field,
Who grow the daily bread,
Who know the language of the wind,
Who are learning to fly on a bird’s wing.

We are the people whose blood is of lagoons,
Whose bodies simmer with volcanoes,
Who see the rain fall on parched land
And on tired faces.

We are those who live the intensity of a look,
who plough the furrows of the old
who bring the bones to bloom,
who consecrate bread in our own flesh,
who break chains and discover the way.


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6.30 in the morning, a quiet english autumn morning.
Autumn!
The tor is covered by mist.
I am lucky. At this moment I have nothing to worry about and am at peace. I wonder  how many people across this world are waking up to tranquillity. A privilege. And if my blog is a little short, who cares?

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