DEAFENING SILENCE CONCERNING PALESTINE

I haven't seen anything in the mainstream media about this. As far as I know no major newspaper or tv news channel has said a word about it. How is it possible that they are ALL turning a blind eye?? Why isn't anybody asking whether there is now unanimous media censorship of any mention of Palestine? There's no elephant in the room? The room doesn't exist?

Below is a partial quote from CADFA newsletter:

Solidarity with the people of Jerusalem Terrible news during hot Ramadan of demonstrations of Israelis shouting ‘death to Arabs,’ of house takeovers of Palestinian homes and invasions of the Al Aqsa mosque, of further restrictions on people entering Jerusalem and difficulties for people in getting the military ‘permissions’ - young Palestinians demonstrating evening after evening, hundreds of arrests, demonstrations outside Jerusalem (in Abu Dis and other areas of the West Bank as well as Gaza, where Israel is now dropping bombs) – Jerusalem is boiling. Here in Britain we are not being told properly about this. We do hear about Israel’s success in vaccination (leaving out the Palestinians who are their responsibility as under their military occupation) but our leaders do not want us to talk about what Israel is doing to the Palestinians, and Boris Johnson is distancing himself and the UK from the International Criminal Court which is going to investigate. We need constantly to raise the matter of human rights for Palestinians and to combat the deep racism and colonial thinking that has allowed this terrible situation to develop.

AIDED EARS

Coming out of SpecSavers yesterday afternoon wearing my new NHS hearing aids, the paper bag which holds the case and batteries for the ear thingies bumps against my coat as I walk. The sound the crinkled paper makes is Maria Callas struck by lightning on the top of Mount Athos. People pass by talking to each other or to their phones and morsels of their words hit my ears like hailstones. I sit down at a table outside a café...you can do that now.. and chewing a soft slice of lemon cake is like jackboots tramping down an old wooden staircase. Never mind what the coffee sounds like as I swallow it.

Back home typing this, the keyboard keys are Fred Astaire tap dancing on a steel drum without rhythm or music. I talk to myself and it’s like a dentist living inside the patient's mouth.

Partial hearing loss began several years ago and I've had hearing aids before but never followed audiologists' advice to wear them daily so the brain can gradually get used to the sudden blah blah etcetera. Since I could hear fairly well I didn’t need to put up with the stuffed-ears-feeling of wearing them all the time. But now, well, you know, time passes and reality is reality. I’ve got these brand new, free, technically much improved hearing aids and I will obey advice and wear them daily. Let the sounds do whatever sounds want to do. After two weeks I can go back and have adjustments made if necessary.

At the table next to mine outside the café, a woman sat very still, her back to me, no food or drink before her. On a leash strapped to her hand was a curly yellow-white dog, its tail wagging non-stop in unbridled happiness. So happy and alert to everything around that it was contagious. Talk about mindfulness! This mutt was in the Now, absolutely totally. I asked the silent masked woman if I could take a photo of her happy dog. She said yes. The dog jumped on her lap, sitting to attention, exuding happiness.

I felt happy like the dog and walked around for a while taking photos. Camden Town today was almost back to normal.

READY FOR CLOSE-UP?

Collected my prescription close-up glasses yesterday. Here they are. The frame is a shiny sort of cobalt blue but the photo doesn't show it. I couldn't find any frames that were....what was that word?...sprankzy? I didn't like any of them and don't like this one much. I can read with them but if I look in any direction other than reading distance everything is blurred and dizzy. Are reading glasses always like this? Going back to SpecSavers tomorrow to complain and collect my NHS hearing aids. I can't get used to this "elderly" category. Nobody asked my permission to put me in it.

THE DUKE IN PARAGUAY

Yesterday my recent (almost a year already!) online Paraguayan friend, journalist José Luis De Tone posted on his Facebook page a photo of Philip, Duke of Edinburgh with eminent entourage, taken on 9th March 1962 during the Duke's four-day visit to Paraguay.

I don't remember a thing about this event though I was in Asunción then and an old news item I've just read describes the streets bedecked with UK-Paraguay flags. What I do remember clearly is that I completed my mural for the Hotel Guarani just before this time and when I saw the photo, I recognised the Hotel's distinctive structure in the background. José Luis then told me that Prince Philip (and entourage) did indeed spend four days at the Hotel Guarani. Therefore he would inevitably have walked past my mural which was on a terrace above a circular staircase overlooking the swimming pool.

That's my only connection to Philip, Duke of Edinburgh,RIP. But I like to imagine that he was standing in front of my mural when he pronounced one of his famous gaffes (in this case totally accurate) looking directly into the eyes of President/Dictator Stroessner: "It's a pleasure to be in a country that isn't ruled by its people."

OCCASIONAL EXPLOSIONS

Is it possible to have a genuinely close, honest relationship with another human being, whether family, friend, spouse, lover or colleague without occasionally exploding? By exploding I mean saying things - possibly in a loud voice or perhaps in a tight-lipped sarcastic voice, depending on your personality and upbringing - things which are harsh, hurtful, maybe true, maybe false, things which you will regret saying?

I don't think it's possible nor desirable. We are, after all, beings constructed out of zillions of unimaginably small particles dancing on something tinier than the head of a pin, bumping into each other unpredictably. So it's understandable that when in close proximity with another human, emotionally and perhaps physically, there will be friction and explosions too, now and then. More now than then.

After explosions, apologies help to cool overheated air and soothe bruised feelings but do they guarantee an explosion-free future? No. Because some humans (not all) keep an internal dossier of past explosions, with notes of what he said/she said and this dossier gets heavier as time goes by, never losing its power to spark more and more destructive explosions.

My remedy? Allow yourself and anyone you really truly care about to explode whenever necessary. Say what you want to say, let them say what they want to say. If tears are shed let them flow. Then laugh, and burn the dossier if you've been keeping one. It's vital to burn the dossier. To be free of the dossier.

REBIRTH

Happy Easter or whatever name you prefer to give to a day of renewal, rebirth, rising from ashes, whatever ashes you wish to rise from. May we all find the persistence to rise again and again and again, effortlessly, joyfully, as if it is the most natural thing to do. Like the trees in flower.

GOOD FRIDAY

Good Friday

every day

every minute

everywhere on earth

an innocent human being

a sacred soul

is being crucified

in more ways than one.

Praying is not enough

mourning is not enough

remembering is not enough.

The cry of the crucified

>must pierce your heart.

We are the crucified.

We are the crucifiers.