2043 Libya offensive on behalf of revolutionaries

After I had retired to bed on Thursday evening 17th March 2011, having fought tiredness for a couple of hours, the Security Council of the United Nation called on an immediate ceasefire in Libya and that in order to ensure fighting should stop and that the population as able to call for the regime change, peacefully, member states, willing to do so, would impose a no fly zone and undertake such other measures, short of a providing ground troops. No country used their vetoes or voted against but five did abstain including China Russia and Germany. After some searching I found that India and Brazil also abstained and that the Lebanon, South Africa, Portugal, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Gabon. Nigeria and Columbia voting in favour. The action will therefore be effectively undertaken by Nato countries, with Italy providing important air space and France and the UK playing predominant roles with at first the United status providing logistic support.

The resolution came as the forces of Gaddafi appeared to have regained the coastal towns up to the borders with Benghazi and threatened to use air craft and tanks to regain control of the city in the event of the rebels failing to surrender and where amnesty was being offered. There were fireworks and other demonstrations of relief as news of the resolution reached the Libyan second city with its population of over one million. However this may be premature given the longevity of Gaddafi and the apparatus of power by terror and bribery he has developed over four decades with his sons and closest allies.

Earlier in the day I watched large parts of the debate on Foreign Affairs in the House of Commons which concentrated on events in North Africa and the Middle East. The point which was made time and time again is that is the failure to intervene and allow Gaddafi to regain full control of the country would reinforce the position of the other dictators in the region that they did not have to make changes to introduce democratic systems, allow freedom of expressions and other indicators of the broad democratic system of government and that they were free to ruthlessly stop the protests and persecute the activists as now appeared to be the situation in Bahrain with the intervention of troops from other countries. This is a point which concerned me greatly and I remembered situations in Hungary, in Bosnia, in Ruanda and elsewhere when the UN failed to intervene and hundreds of thousands of civilians perished.

I also appreciated the concern of those who feared that such a resolution could not be restricted to the situation in Libya and could equally be now said to be applied to Bahrain, and anywhere else should similar circumstances arise. No sooner writing this that 40 demonstrators were killed in Yemen with over 100 wounded. Later the government placed the country under a state of emergency and martial law saying that the gunman had not bee a member of the security forces. Clearly rogue states and dictatorship will learn the lessons of Al-Qaeda and of the insurgencies themselves however using guns and bombs rather than peaceful protests and the free speech. An undercurrent in the debate is the position of Israel and Palestine with severe critics of Israel’s disproportionate and intransigent approach with continuing settlement on the West bank in defiance of UN resolutions, the Labour side such as Gerald Kaufman and defenders of Israel by others on Labour and Conservative benches.

Gaddafi and his son having appeared on the media and threatened fire and brimstone if other countries intervened, threats which cannot be discounted as bluffing and bravado, the Foreign Minister said his country agreed to a ceasefire, would invite observers to establish the situation and respect the wishes of the United Nations, the spokesman also expressed disappointment at the action taken and that it was not justified. This quickly proved to be Weasel words and there was however no evidence of ceasefire in reality as the shelling of rebel held towns continued with troops advancing towards the second city.

While in France and the UK the official talk and media attempted to bring the people fully behind the action being taken there was caution in the voice oft he President of United States when he addressed the nation and it is understood within the armed forces their are reservations about the effectiveness of any action and the reality of likely support from other Arab nations and the African union. Egypt which might have been expected to have offered support has indicated the opposite.

On Saturday the French government is hoisting a meeting to be attended by the British Prime Minister, Hilary Clinton and other leaders or their representatives to review and coordinate the implementation of the action which despite several weeks of contingency planning will take time to organise the separate components into an effect command structure and to prepare air forces and naval units to conduct operations which are restricted to combatants. In Bosnia the problem is that both sides immediately disguised armour as that belonging to the Red Cross and to the UN to avoid aerial assault. The following 24 to 48 hours will be crucial as all sides prepare to engage in military action.

Meanwhile in Japan the efforts to prevent reactor meltdown appear to be failing with a rise in level of problem admitted to that equally what happened in the United States and closer to that in Russia where land some 30 miles around the site cannot be used. The lack of food, water, energy is also affecting the survivors and those evacuated although the death total is still comparative small compared to that in the far east where over 200000 people perished.


The situation in Libya was one of growing concern as the day progressed with reports of increasing yes of force against rebel held towns and an assault with the use of tanks on Benghazi. Meanwhile the heads or representative of various nations met in Paris, including the UN General Secretary and representatives of the Arab League. Moments later it was a announced that French fighter planes were over the country and later that there had been strikes on tanks and a military vehicle which are understood to have been those at Benghazi. Later it was said that the city had become quiet although thousands were said to have the city because of the attack by government forces.

This evening after a meeting of the central action committee of the government, the British Prime Minister announced that British forces had been in action and there was a similar radio message from the USA president who is on visits to South America. This was followed by a statement from the Pentagon that 112 Missiles had been launched from USA vessels and one British Submarine at 20 targets on the Western shore of Iraq covering Missile defence, radar and communications systems. This was said to be the first of a number of such strikes to achieve the non fly zone and which would then enable the campaign fighters to take out Gaddafi forces if they did not first cease fire and then move back from their locations at difference cities previously occupied by the rebel movement.

Meanwhile the journalists in Libya were invited and shown around the vast Presidential compound and to meet him among a good crowd of supporters in party mood praising the leader. This was clearly a move to use the journalists and the supports as human shields to prevent a rocket attack as happened after the bomb aboard the Lockerbie plane. Gaddafi did not make an appearance by later a stooge expressed his sadness at the unproved and illegal attack on the country by external forces. The shape of the response of the regime to make threats of retaliation upon the attackers and to lie about their true position and actions and then to present a different version to the media. Earlier I said the next 48 hours would reveal the future course of this situation.

During the evening I stayed with events rather than watch England’s defeat against Ireland in the Rugby International thus losing the opportunity for their first grand slam in eight years. I watched the leading Hezbollah cleric address a large gathering of clerics and leaders in Beirut in which he surveyed present developments in North Africa and Persian Gulf arguing that these were genuine movement of people which should be supported because they were not development promoted by the USA who had supported the regimes which had suppressed the people, arguing that Western Interests now in Libya was suspect and belated and grudging about their involvement now. It was a classic attempt to engage the people into their cause anti American and West and anti Israel to an extent that supports the concerns of the right about potential implications of recent developments. But also providing the wisdom and rightness of the approach of the British coalition supported by the Opposition.

It has been a good day despite my tiredness last night and going to bed at eight and sleeping through until past midnight, waking fully alert, drinking coffee and watching the news and then going back to bed around 2 am and fortunate then sleeping once more waking a couple of minutes before the alarm was due to set off. The swim was interrupted by hotel guests and early members so that I completed only 10 length before departing for a long sauna but afterwards despite being joined by those of varying pave and direction I completed the planned 54 lengths so that I am progressing towards catching up on the poor performance on Wednesday. I am making good but slow progress in the first chapter of my work for general publication with the chapter called the Liturgy of Joseph Grech. Some 4800 words and thirteen pages have been drafted. The first draft should be completed over the next couple of days and then will be worked until I am satisfied. I enjoyed a pork chop lunch with remains of veg from previous day, after a bacon roll and cereal breakfast and this evening a chicken and bacon prepared salad with olives and prawns added. Later I watched the Boardwalk Empire in preference to Treme,

2042 Back to work and some TV

16th March 2011 will hopefully prove to be the day that I moved from procrastination into prolonged and continuous endeavour of lasting substance. Yesterday I worked hard despite increasing tiredness as the day progressed o bring myself up todate, have used the greater part of alertness time morning to provisionally make my application for the 2012 Olympics. I found the London 2012 volume which had been commenced on the day on which responsibility for the games was transferred in Beijing and added the latest material some six sets.

I then worked hard to complete the other set work which brought up to target for the month but at only 3 sets a day when it should be 6 if I was to have reached my original target for project completion. One reason for not doing this has been the writing for immediate publication of some 2040 pieces since commencing 30th May 2006 with AOL and then moving to MySpace in 2007 when the AOL was system deleted including some 40000 photographs, and on to Blogger as a back up but then main vehicle.

Another major reason for project completion delays has been the decision to undertake single component works: celebrating the ancestral history and then the life of my mother: pursing with the health and local authority complaint systems the negligent and untimely death of my care mother through a combination individual failures and system inadequacies: the completion of a 400 page volume with 101 documents chartering the artistic and spiritual journey over the first 65 years and having printed 101 copies to be displayed in black and white boxes in groups of three 9.3.39 twenty four in total accompanied by 101 framed photos of the documentation included. And then there have been the confidential projects one which last a couple of months and the other six.

Over the past months of Winter I have wrestled between continuation of the work programme as it has developed but which has not resulted in tackling the boxes of papers of previous experience, particularly work experiences during my life, as well as projects such as travel and holidays. I have not viewed the video or listened to the audio tapes and gramophone long play and extended records and transferred the content to CD’s and DVD’s, nor have I commenced to systematically re real by library of books, pamphlets, Maps and other documents.

Perhaps the most significant I have not engaged again in trying to write the play which the readers at the Royal Court Theatre found interesting and wanted to see what more I had completed when I had not and the play was given to someone to read who did not return and with whom I lost contact and only remember her name, Anne Anna- Liza Gotesche or such like, hopefully I have it written down accurately somewhere, Nor have re written the novel has planned of that completed in 1993 and where one publisher said it was not for them but hoped it would be published, and then there is an autobiographical work designed to make money to ensure the artwork project is not just junked upon my death.

The consequence of knowing the work involved and the prospect of failure is that I retreat into the emotions and realities of contemporary experience, pleasurable and horrific. I must also tackle the weight in an effort to prolong my self aware experience and continued working. I have decided what to do next, but before making the commitment I will go an swim my 750 metres adding to the 100000 already competed on the over 125 visits since rejoining the leisure last summer.

It was a misty murky dispiriting drive for the swim and once inside the cold air and comparatively cold water further dissipated resolve and certainty. In part because of unexpected new arrival and more because the inclinational not there I swam only thirty lengths and then two spells interspersed by a moderate length sauna and quick reads of the Time and Telegraph. On the return I fritted time on game play and checking emails, needing a bacon roll and cereal to aid recovery. The news is much depressing.

Saudi Arabia has sent 500 heavy armoured troops along with others from United Arab Emirates to help quell the street protests in Bahrain including clearing the encamp in the area just outside the central city. Today Thursday 17th the UK government has advised its citizens to leave Bahrain because of the deteriorating situation. Hilary Clinton has condemned the use of violence by both sides.

In Libya despite creation of a No Fly Zone resolution drafted by the UK and France and then moved by the Arab League, confusion reigns over what it will mean in practice and if it has any prospect fo stop the crushing of the rebellion by Gaddafi forced. Late in the day in very sense the US Ambassador to the UN stated her government would support the no fly resolution but also felt that strong action was required if the deterioration in the position of the rebels was to be halted. This could mean initiating air attacks and naval bombardment with the risk of civilian casualties. Apparently a number of Arab leagues states, as yet unnamed are prepared to take responsibility for managing the a non fly resolution. I wonder if a deal has been struck to end the Gaddafi regime but accept the continuation of the regimes in countries such as Saudi Arabia and even Bahrain!

Meanwhile in Japan there is mounting confusion and information. The official number of dead, admitted the confirm dead is only in the couple of thousands maybe three, yet several coastal communities are each reporting thousands of missing believed dead, and thousands of bodies are being washed back to shore. There are isolated rescues but the total of displaced people, cold frightened, having lost everything or required to move from the threat of lethal radio activity is in the mullions. France has called for all its citizens to leave or move to the southern part of Japan and no doubt other nations will follow and the official at the nuclear plants say one things while other say differently. The number of after shocks continue and the threat of another Tsunami continues to be there.

I enjoyed a salad lunch, watched the Antiques challenge of the day and hen went back to bed and sleep for a couple of hours. After which I got to writing Howl 2011, a kind of prologue to what I hope will prove my work of substance. I will write more if an when I am satisfied with a completed prologue. I was able to write for about five hours yesterday after locating required information and then after sleeping well until around 2 am, albeit with getting’s ups, I wrote again for three hours, pleased with what is taking shape and my appropriate and state of mind. I feel it is right and not just a one off experience and that I can sustain effort altering everything else.

I enjoyed the latest episode of the Sopranos, Pax Soprana in which Tony’s obsession with his therapist takes off and in addition to having her followed he arranged for a new starter motor to be fitted to her car during the night after he overhears a telephone call about the matter in her office. He is experiencing impotency in relation to his wife and mistress and begins to have erotic dreams about the therapist, He then declares his love for her and obsession. She explains that this is normal and shows that the sessions are making progress as he begins to understand relationships with his mother, his wife and mistress. At one point he challenges the therapist back as to why she has taken him on and able to look him in the eye, something which those outside the “family” are unable to do. There is counter transference.

Under the influence of his sister/sister in law the new boss, Uncle Junior informs Tony’s Jewish friend and horse ranch owner that he must pay back taxes as under an arrangement which commenced when Tony’s father was the boss, the man was exempt. He accepts the principal of making payment but not the amount. The other captains begin to have doubts about the decision to elect Uncle Junior into the position. Tony negotiates a reduction in the amount of back taxes and then persuades Junior to divide this among the captains return his share to his friend. He brings in an under boss from one of the five New York Families.

The Captains hold a dinner to mark the elevation of Junior, attended by guests from other Families. Tony still believes it was the right decision to put Junior in charge because of the belief that they are under threat from the law and that as an old single man Junior is expendable. His instincts are correct as the FBI have infiltrated the dinner with a camera and now have an up-to-date set of the leaders of the Family including that Junior is the new boss.

Junior is revelling in his position having tailored suits and other clothing and wearing scented after shave and deodorants. The tailor discloses that his fourteen years grandson has died after taking a designed drug and thinking her could fly. Junior shows his new found power by arranging for his men to throw the pusher over a bridge to see if he can fly too. They bribe some punks watching the event to say that the pusher took his own life. One the family captains is upset at the loss of the pusher who brought in the most profit,

Tony upsets his wife by taking time out to talk business with a colleague during their wedding anniversary meal. Later his wife admits that she has been jealous of the ability fo the therapist to help Tony, something which she feels she should do, She tells him to continue after talking it over with her Catholic priest.

I must also confess to enjoying the Boardwalk Empire series more than I should, particularly this week’s episode which deals with the close involvement of crime families and syndicates and political parties. Nucky goes to Chicago for the Republican convention as he has for years to determine which candidates he should direct the New Jersey vote in terms of his best interests. He is unhappy with both front runners, especially the candidate who promised the creation of a highway between Atlantic City and New York. On arrival he finds that he has not been allocated the Presidential suite as before but reminds the hotel of the extent of his generosity in order to get his way.

He is asked by the Vice President to attend a party for another candidate Warren Harding and visits the local cat house where he finds Jimmy in operation working for the Chicago crime boss. The crime boss introduces him to a Judge with a liking for a negro girl who is brought in especially for him and who speaks highly of those behind Harding who have successfully got five men to date in to the Oval Office. He discovers that Harding as a weakness for shop girls and waitresses and that he has a young mistress with a baby son in attendance as well as his stoical wife who declares that a fortune teller has warned that her husband will be killed in office. Nucky decides to give his support to Harding as much to spite the main runners but also getting a deal for his motor highway. Part of the deal is to bring the young mistress and baby back to Atlantic city for his mistress Margaret to look after thus reinforcing his connection with the man who is first elected party leader and then President.

While he is at the convention he puts his Sheriff brother in charge of business and he sits in the office with nothing to do because all he usual visitors seeking assistance or issues with Nucky are staying away until he returns. One fo the financial collectors forgets that Nucky is absent and asks for a day off because he needs to attend hospital with the son who has polio, Nucky’s brother agrees and undertakes the collection himself including that from the Casino on the day it is hit and he takes a bullet which brings Nucky rushing back although his brother is not in danger of losing his life.

While he is away Margaret is enjoying her new status as his number one woman and is called to help out her former employer when the woman the mistress she has replaced tries to buy clothes she can no longer afford. Margaret hits the woman across the face when she refuses to stop her insults. Nucky has asked Margaret to go to his office and secure the official accounts of his criminal dealings. She is called away when tempted to examine the ledger, but later cannot resist and seeing the sums involved appears to be immediately deciding that the information will secure and improve her position.

Jimmy’s wife is making a success of her painting and through the husband of the lesbian relationships has secured the visit of a New York dealer to see her work. She spurns suggestion from her mother to take a job. She thinks she has been abandoned by her husband who has stopped sending her money. In fact he has been doing so on a regular basis but his letters and funds have been intercepted by the FBI agent. His wife is depressed over he inability to conceive a child and at first her husband refuses to consider attempting to find the funds for the required operation, but then he uses money being sent by Jimmy to his wife.

Family Relationships is also the subject of the latest episode of Blue Bloods. The basic story of Brothers is a familiar much used one in this kind of programme. The older brother is the gangsters and he not only protects the young brother ensuring he gets a good education but funds a community project when other sources of funding come to an end. The younger son of the police chief resents the approach his brother takes, refusing a rubber slapper, inherited from grandfather and the way the brother is inclined to ridicule, At the Sunday roast dinner get together where Grandpas has used crispy duck for a change the situation blows up and father explains that his eldest son is concerned that he does not want his remaining brother after the eldest was killed. Attending a church service the two reach an understanding.

The Mayor tries to persuade the Police Chief to participate in photo opportunities as he feels threatened by the ambitious District Attorney who in turn also approaches the Police Chief for support in his campaign. The daughter lawyer working in the DA’s office wants to bring down the local gangster using his brother. The gangster tells his brother he is proud of him and he must not put his situation and the project in jeopardy and if necessary testify to the Grand Jury against him. The gangster is then killed by other members of the gang and the brother agrees to assist is a ploy which leads to the gang members being captured as they attempt to assassinate the younger brother. The police chief then persuades the ambitious D A to earn public brownie points by raising the funds to keep the community project going.

I have been enjoying prepared salads from Asda instead of the selections made at Morrison’s because of a reduction first of two for £3 instead of £4 and then at half price at £1 do a salad with prawns and chicken. Yesterday for main course I enjoyed a piece of breaded fish and breaded scampi with seasoned tinned tomatoes and a few garden peas and today I enjoyed four small pieces of breaded chicken with new potatoes, whole baby carrots and the reminder of yesterday’s garden peas.

2041 Olympic fever and weekend Sport

I set aside the horrors of what is happening in Japan and Libya to devote this writing to sport and the sport of sports.
I feel a little guilty about doing this but nothing like as in the past. Is this a good or bad development?

The Summer Olympic games last came to the United Kingdom in 1948 when I was nine years of age, and only once before then in 1908. Because of the cost of staging in the games the number of countries able and willing to afford the games is limited but even so it is unlikely the games will be held again in the UK during the next half century. It is therefore an opportunity which many people will not want to miss attending in person rather than relying on television

I was nine years old in 1948 and had to be content listening to the radio and seeing brief moments in the Newsreel programmes which along with a Cartoon sandwiched between the continuous programmes of A and B films. I have little memory or knowledge of the games other than they were known as the austerity games with events held at existing sports venues and the athletes accommodated in existing accommodation and therefore missed out on the camaraderie of the Olympic Village. 4104 athletes competed of which only 380 were female from 59 nations in 136 events covering 17 sports. Of winners I do remember a housewife and mother of three children called Fanny Blanjers-Koen, more because of her memorable name than that she won four gold medals in Athletics. Harry Llewellyn on Fox Hunter came third in the team event but went on to win gold four years later at Helsinki.

Britain also had a football team managed by Matt Busby which was defeated for third place by Denmark. The events were staged at Wembley Stadium for opening and closing ceremonies, athletics, football, hockey and equestrian finals and at the Empire Pool which includes Boxing as well at the water events. Other events were held at Earls Court, Henley and Bisley and six London area football clubs including the Crystal Palace Ground at Selhurst Park. While the UK has 398 competitors ahead of France 3I3 and the USA 300 the fourth largest was Argentina with 199. China had a team of 31 and Russia did nor participate. Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia sent medium size teams larger than Australia and India

The reason for making reference to the Olympic games is that on Sunday I learned that ticket balloting commences on Tuesday with everyone having six weeks to make their application for one or more of the 8.8 million tickets. On the Andrew Marr Show the Minister of Sport mentioned that at 200 events there would be opportunity children to pay their age up to 16 years and that those over 60 would also only pay the sixteen year old rate. This altered my perspective on applying for events in the capital although it had been my attention to attend some of the football games at St James Park where I discovered there are some excellent concessions.

I downloaded the official information of all the events and decided to apply for three blocks of tickets for London with the football between two of the two hoped for London visits. Given the likely demand from within the UK, the number of seats allocated to participants and sponsors, those going to general visitors for official hospitality packages the odds of getting the lowest prices seats for major events such as the opening and closing ceremonies, the Athletics, the Swimming and the Cycling is on a par with winning the national lottery.

The football includes concessions at venues until the Male semi Finals The price of tickets for the opening ceremony on the evening of 27th July starts with a modest £20.12 and then rises to £150 before entering the stratosphere with tickets at £995, £1600 and £2012. As the chances of getting the £20.12 tickets are remote I may also apply for a concession ticket for the 2 matches played at St James Park on the 26th as the cost of the ticket covers both. On the morning of the 28th there are concessions for the opening heats of the swimming as there are for the opening rounds of the Tennis at Wimbledon including the centre court on 29th. I have only made visits to the number 1 court including one match involving Tim Henman.

Having made my initial selections I was able to log on the Tuesday and could have submitted an application form through to completion but having established that one can but tickets for others, family, friends, colleagues as long as you accompany, I need to confer although I have made a provisional selection for myself which I have saved to complete later.

I have changed the approach including some major finals including the Tennis Cycling swimming and Athletics as well as the concessionary session in the early morning. I suspect there will be no problem getting tickets for the football at St James especially for the women’s games

On Friday I watched Warrington where I was once appointed to a position which I did not take up having then been appointed to a more senior and better paid position in the North East, play Wakefield, where I lived for a few months until a house sale and house purchase were completed and where I worked for the old Yorkshire West Riding County Council for one year before the reorganisation of the Social Services came into effect in 1971. The sport was Rugby League, not an Olympic event. Warrington with two winning appearance at Wembley in the past two years look good enough to win the championship and were no match for Wakefield who are struggling. The home side lost by 22 point to six and led the Wakefield coach to praise the Warrington defence and echo the view that are genuine championship contenders. Warrington has the same number of points at the table top as Castleford and Harlequins but Castleford have a game in hand. Leeds Wigan and St Helens are all mid table but can be expected to move up as the season progresses.

The Quins are better known for their Rugby Union side and they were playing Newcastle at the same time but with an overlap. I was therefore able to keep in touch with the union game noting that Newcastle were behind but keeping in touch. I switched over to see Newcastle score a try in the last seconds to win the game having trailed 13-6 at half time. The win takes Newcastle into the Final of the LV Cup. The Quins ground is the Stoop was familiar to me since 1967, but only from the outside, as it was on the route from Teddington into London. I never attended a game though. The ground was redeveloped in 2005 and is yet to be completed.

The big shock was the defeat of England by Bangladesh. England struggled to score on 225 on a slow wicket and the four spinner attack. Bangladesh on the other hand started well against the pace attack making 52 before they lost their first wicket and 72 their second. England were 52 for three. Both side then had excellent fourth wicket partnerships with Morgan and Trott putting on 109 runs and Kayes and Shakib 82. England appeared to gain the advantage when Bangladesh slumped to 169 for 8 but Mulhmundullah was supported by Shafiul Islam who made 24 not out to take the match at the start of the 49th over. England have to beat West Indies to have a chance of reaching the knock out stage and but and even then the others results could mean they finish 5th. This would be shameful given the high hopes after winning the Ashes Test series at home and in Australia and Paul Collingwood leading the 20 20 side to World Cup Victory.

I watched only part of the Manchester United 2.0 win over Arsenal in the FA Cup over the weekend which was even more disappointing at Arsenal put out their strongest team while Manchester had to have one thought for their important European Cup game against Marseilles tonight. I also enjoyed the last part of Stokes win against West Ham in the FA Cup. This not only gives Tony Pewlis side a Wembley semi final visit but an excellent chance of reach the final as Bolton beat Birmingham in a thrilling game 3.2. Arsenal meet Manchester City in the other Semi final after they beat reading.

I watched the whole of the second half and some of the first as England beat Scotland in the Six Nations Trophy Former Newcastle and England Hero Johnny Wilkinson came on for injured floor and score an excellent penalty and try conversion to help secure the victory, after Flood had secured four penalties. Three of these were in the first half matching three from Scotland. It was fourth penalty early on in the second half that swung the momentum back to England although overall this was a scrappy game with both sides making errors. England have to win against Ireland to achieve the grand slam and such is their points advantage that should Wales beat France and England Lose, they will still finish top of the table.

I also enjoyed the last part of Stokes win against West Ham in the FA Cup. This not only gives Tony Pewlis side a Wembley semi final visit but an excellent chance of reach the final as Bolton beat Birmingham in a thrilling game 3.2. Arsenal meet Manchester City in the other Semi final after they beat reading.

2040 Grim news and films and Treme

Having re-established my routine of getting up before six, swimming and sauna, breakfasting after any shopping required, playing a million points of Luxor Mahjong and five games of chess, finishing the writing of the previous day, watching recorded programmes or some film, luncheon, relaxing and perhaps a siesta, commencing writing again, researching or specific reading project or some project work, preparing for the evening meal, working, watching some TV, sport, film or drama series, a film or some sport continuing until between 9 pm and midnight and then bed, getting up going back to bed, once twice or thrice and then repeating etc i decide that i want to change in order write something more substantial and on going and or undertake more exercise to lose weight, and thus the wrestling of competing interests continues.

The news from Japan is grim and the optimism of the authorities that they had the damage to the nuclear power plant under control has been replaced by the reality of radiation leaks and an explosion which they say has not damaged the main reactor except that the evacuation of people has been extended for 20 kilometres. The number of victims is now over 1300 with 10000 missing and 50000 troops have been deployed. The Prime Minister has promised they will rebuild the country and has accepted the offers of help from countries all over the world.

How not to deal with disaster was vividly covered in the fourth episode of Treme. It begins with Antoine, the trombonist having confirmed that his domestic insurance policy which he is paid for over three decades did not embrace flooding and required an additional premium. He asks the assistant how do you sleep at night with the reply. I drink. He is still without his trombone and accepts the suggestion of La Donna that he goes to Baton Rouge for Christmas, where her husband Larry performs the necessary dental work and Antoine has a rare visit with his sons. Creighton, John Goodman films his own You Tube video, responding to those who have questioned whether New Orleans is worth rebuilding. He is grateful to Houston and other places they have helped out and moans that in New York where they lost a couple of buildings the government poured money in where as their coast was devastated and they are left to try and pick up the pieces. He signs off with, "Fuck you, you fucking fucks." He is later recognized around town by many admirers of his rant. Davis's car is crippled by a pothole left by a utility company. A Neighbour offers to arrange a relative to transport to Goodman‘s home to give a piano lesson to the daughter who is back from the residential school. The man offers to mind his car but on return he finds it vandalised and his equipment stolen. Later at a bar he proposed to stand for public office and to have a campaign of raising money for city improvements through legalizing and taxing marijuana ("Pot for potholes)

The young Darius is fired from the job Albert found for him with his neighbour Robinette's hauling company; later, Darius visits the bar to find Albert's tribe's Mardi Gras practice and joins in playing a beer bottle. When his aunt discovers him there late that evening, she invites Albert to dinner. His son‘s, Delmond, manager convinces him to play a tour ending with a home coming in New Orleans. He reluctantly agrees

Sony, the street entertainer is persuaded by friends to go on a American road trip a la On the Road Jack Kerouac, but his first gig does not go well as he is only allowed to sit in with band in one number. He decides to return to New Orleans where he finds that the girl friend has got a gig playing with.New Orleans Jazz Vipers. He brings back the bouncer at the roadhouse who has never seen New Orleans.


Toni (Goodman’s wife) finally gets official DNA test results that prove the prisoner using the name Daymo Brooks is not Daymo, but an accused murderer named Keevon White. Off-the-record, Keevon admits to switching bracelets with Daymo after the storm, claiming that Daymo agreed to swap in exchange for Keevon's protection in jail, but says he doesn’t know where Daymo went after that. There is also lots of great music ending with teh funeral of the Mardi Gras Tribe member who was found dead under his boat.

The attempt by the UK and France to persuade other NATO countries to join in the demand for a no fly zone resulted with failure although there is a meeting fo the Arab countries to consider the same issue. Later I learn they have requested the UN to authorise a no fly zone. This is an amazing and unexpected development and indicates the seriousness of recent developments.

I enjoyed a bacon roll for breakfast and a baguette filled with prawns and pasta salad for lunch. I defrosted the bacon overnight together with breast of chicken which I will cook and make into a curry for this evening. There was no papers this morning with the pile stuck where it had been delivered and yesterdays available at the reception desk. I decided not to intervene, for once. It was pouring with rain but this eased by the time I returned home.

The computer was playing up so I watched a film called Dear John based on the book by Nicolas Sparks. The books sounds better than the film which was tailored to weekend teens and twenties weekend audience which the film trailer was designed to appeal. A special forces soldier spends his holiday on the beach. He lives with his father a recluse who finds meetings with strangers difficult. The film does explain if his mother left because of her husbands social difficulties. The boy grew up hoping his mother would return with his father unable to admit she would not be doing so. The boy has one magic memory of childhood he discovered a badly Minted coin which his father discovered was valuable, offered first $20 a second dealer explained it was worth $4000 and would rise over generations.

They commence together a an interest in coin collecting and visit the Mint. However as the boy reaches adolescence he resents that his father has become obsessed with the hobby which has taken over his life. The two have lost their only means of sharing and communicating with each other. He sees a girl on the pier with others. When she loses her purse into the water he dives in much to the chagrin of her male companion who has gone back to the entrance of the pier and into the water from the beach.

The two young people spend the rest of the available time, two weeks, together, during which they encounter a neighbour about a decade older than the girl who has an autistic son. The girl is sceptical about the relationship continuing as he has another year to serve in the forces and she is going college from High School. The two correspond and look forward to his returning home. However just beforehand 9/11 occurs and the unit collectively decide to re-enlist. He visit the family home during a 24 hours period of leave after which he has t make up his mind to re=enlist or keep his promise to the girl. At a party at her home to meet her family, he is shown admiration and respect for his role and the expectation that he will be at the forefront of action responding to what has happened to the country. The girl is torn between her feelings and wishes and recognition of however events have changed the position oft he young man. He serves in action in Afghanistan and then Iraq unable to communicate where and what he is involved with until he is advised by letter that she has found someone lese. It is the father of the autistic child. According to Wikipedia there is a fundamental difference between the nook ending and the film. In both he returns home following his father having a stroke and before the father dies the two are reconciled their previous differences. He takes the opportunity of the leave to visit his former love, but at a distance. He watches leave her home and stand looking at the moon and then hiding the moon with her thumb.

An act which he showed her after she commented that the full moon appeared to be of a different size at different times.. This act signals to him that she still thinks of him and their brief relationship. He returns to his unit. Thus the book is about the beauty and wonder of first young love and that the relationship remains fresh and a sense of regret at not having flourished but rather than remain locked in the past it is necessary to move on.

In the film he makes direct contact and only then finds she has married the neighbour who had become ill with cancer and wanted someone to care for his son. The young man sells his and his father coin collection with the exception of the special coin. He does to provide the girl and her husband with the funds to be cared for at home until his death. The two then meet up to live happy ever after. Hmmm

I also watched again Superman III in HD. This was the last film made by Christopher Reeve before his horse riding accident. Robert Vaughan is unconvincing as the ambitious bad guy who lives in a roof top penthouse complete with a mini Ski run and real all round the year snow. His girl friend is the voluptuous Pamela Stephenson before she switched careers and trained to become a clinical psychologist. It is difficult to digest that the film was made three decades ago and released in 1983. All I remembered is that this was the film where the baddies discovered that Superman’s weakness is kryptonite.

Richard Pyror plays a comical computer genius who breaks into a major computer system to re-orientate space based laser beams to create adverse weather condition in Columbia to destroy the coffee crop so American will be forced to buy coffee manufactured by Vaughan, Before this Pryor arranges for hole in the wall machines to spew out bank notes and for individuals to be mailed bank statements revealing that their accounts have increased by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Vaughan sets out to destroy Superman because he intervenes stops the weather and dries out the coffee beans. Vaughan then commissions Pryor to duplicate Kryptonite and kill Superman and in return he promises build a giant computer with its own defence system. Clark has returned to Smallville and attends the birthday party of a young divorce, Pyror brings the Kryptonite as a present. He has worked out the ingredients except for a small percentage of unknown material which he replaces. The effects is that Superman is not killed and his personality is changed so that he ceases to be a good gut helping others and looks to his own interests. Eventually he recovers after doing battle with himself in the form of Clark Kent being the good guy and Superman the bad, Clark kills the bad personality and returns invigorated and after Vaughan and his group who have left their whereabouts for him to find.

While he manages to evades rockets launched in groups and larger flying bomb type rocket he is eventually caught up in a beam as the computer is able to work weaknesses and manufacture the required energy in the form of a laser beam, However Pryor has second thought and disabled the computer. The computer 2001 style refuses to close and uses energy from the national grid to begin a life of its own. Superman works out how disable using acid and kill the computer. However he is nearly caught into the machine which has already turn Vaughan’s sister into a Cyborg. Vaughan has been using the new computer to bring all the oil tankers afloat to a spot in the North Atlantic and then closed all the oil producing fields, pipelines and filling stations so he can take control and fix the price. Superman has holed the only Tanker which ignored the directive resulting in the oil spilling. After his recovery he puts the oil back and repairs the ship. He also makes the Tower of Pisa lean again after making it straight in a moment of wickedness. Lois Lane is absent for this film on an assignment and returns to find that Superman’s childhood sweetheart from Smallville has been given a job on the Daily Planet.

I will quickly forget this film which was the least successful of the three. It cost just under $40 million and made just under $60 million

2039 The Reality of Politics and the Mafia, and Ralph Schoenman

Friday March 12th 2011 commenced well for me as I drove for my swim and sauna in the increasingly early dawn and the wind eased as the sun rose. I briefly called in to the supermarket for milk and then took the opportunity to buy some grey socks having recently had a clear out of the sock draw, six pairs for £5 was an excellent bargain, together with a pair of shoe laces and returned home for a good cooked breakfast, a glass of Pepsi and completing a writing for yesterday.

The intention had been to immediately write of two TV programmes and Ralph Schoenman but first there was England playing in Bangladesh and batting first. I was avoiding the news of the day because I anticipated that the West had decided to leave the plight of free Libyans to the wrath of the Gaddafi family. The West, the UK, France and to a lesser extent the USA had been carried away with the prospect of getting rid of the Gaddafi family, supporting the replacement regime and gaining additional influence on a country with oil reserves greater than Saudi Arabia.

Only in history perhaps 50 years hence will the papers reveal whether the threat of intervention was made in good faith and expectation or a panic measure in the hope that the combined action taken by the United Nations short of a no fly zone and threats by individual countries would emboldened the people in general, and more importantly the military, the airforce and others in aspects of the government to abandon the dictatorship, forcing the family to yield and attempt to negotiate a settlement for themselves.

What happened is that the Gaddafi family played a successful waiting game, avoiding further action its own people, inviting the journalists in and then having removed the cause for early intervention set about planning to re-establish control by using force against the limited force of the opposition. The opposition repeatedly called for a no fly zone and the West failed to deliver. Now we faced the prospect of the opposition being defeated and then systematically eliminated and the Dictatorship being re-established. What then? Just watch individual countries re-establish links China, Russia, and others in Africa and South America. Just watch revenge being planned on the UK and France, less so the USA. Never make threats without being prepared to see the situation through.

However it was not the situation in Libya which engaged my attention and changed my mood and how I spent the day, but the news of the biggest earthquake in Japan for perhaps a thousand years and sixth most powerful since records commenced over 100 years ago, followed by a Tsunami the picture of which flood the international news channels because of its severity and impact on an urban population. The picture masks the horror and hopelessness which must have overwhelmed those individuals who rushed to their families or their workplaces only to be confronted by the power of water travelling 500 miles per hour full of debris of buildings and vehicles bobbing about like toys in a bathtub.

So where was I when I had commenced the day, I had watched back to back two series about the USA Mafia. The Sopranos remains the series of substances because it reflects contemporary society without romanticism. This episode was best of the first series todate because it concentrated on the relationship between Tony and Carmela and their daughter, Meadow. Tony takes Meadow on three consecutive visits to colleges where she has gained admission interviews. Carmela is at home with a bout of flu.

On the second journey Meadow asks her father if he is in the Mafia as her friends at school claim he is. Tony’s instinctive reaction to deny emphasising that he is in the Waste Disposal business. Meadow persists and eventually Tony admits that he also has income from illegal gambling, not mentioning the prostitution, security shakedowns, contract corruption and various other money making ventures. However his admission is enough to satisfy his daughter until he suddenly takes off after a vehicle whose driver he sees at a service station. He contacts Christopher to make enquiries about the licence plate from friendly cops. Christopher protests because it is pouring with rain and he is required to make visits to an open street phone as the gang never use house phones because of the expectation that they will be monitored by the authorities.

When it is established that the man is a former colleague who gave up one of the gang who ended his days in prison Tony decides to deal with the situation himself rejecting Christopher’s offer to earn his spurs. Meadow queries why her father keeps using street phones rather than the one his motel room. Tony’s interest is spotted by the former colleague who disappeared after entering a witness protection programme. The man has a travel agency business as a from for drug trafficking. The man has the opportunity to shoot Tony as he returns to the motel with his daughter but hesitates and then arrange for an addict to kill Tony in exchange for continuing supplies. However Tony has decided to take matters into his own hands while his daughter is at an interview and strangles the man. Daughter notes some injuries to her father but he passes it off. The brief moment of honesty has passed. While waiting for his daughter at one interview Tony notices a quote from Nathaniel Hawthorne, an alumni, that no man can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which one may be true.

Meanwhile back home the Parish priest calls to see how Carmella is and joins her for some baked ziti, wine and watching the film, The Remains of the Day. When Tony’s psychiatrist phones to rearrange an appointment, Carmela who encouraged her husband to continue with his treatment realises that the therapist is a woman and not a man as previously thought. This precipitates her to unburden her feelings about the marriage, her soul and the future of her children to the priest and there is nearly romantic exchange. The Priest becomes sick from the food and wine and stays the night on the sofa. On his return Carmela discloses that the priest stayed the night and that they were on their own because their son was on a sleep over with a friend. Tony is puzzled and annoyed at the situation while Carmela retaliates with the accusation that his therapist is female. In fact Tony has a mistress who has begun to press Tony to become is official woman after learning that a friend in a similar position is to marry her lover.

The programme is successful in communicating that behind the normality and social interactions of the family, Tony is a ruthless killer as well as the family’s middle class home and lifestyle being dependent on the earnings of crime.

Domestic issues is also the subject of the Boardwalk Empire. Nicky spends time with his main mistress Margaret and her two children. At he dinner table she tells Nucky that in view of their adult intimacy he should also feel able to confide in her about anything, especially y that troubles him and he talks about his father and the way he was treated as a child. His father lives alone in squalid house and after an accident is discovered by his police chief son and taken to hospital. Nucky rather like Tony in relation to his mother insists that the man cannot live on his own and should enter a retirement community, but the brother who decides to take him in.



Nucky calls in a friend who he admires whose wife care day and night for sickly baby, contrasting their care with that of his childhood. He tells the man he will give his father’s house to him after it has been cleared and redecorated. The man is overjoyed. When told that the home is ready he offers to take Margaret and her children to see it, and when she explains why she cannot do so, he take her boy with him only to find that his brother has taken his father to see the property. The father insults Nucky who realises that the redecoration cannot remove his bad memories of the place. He takes a can of petrol from the car and sets the property ablaze. His friend who has been invited for the inspection is horrified. Nucky gives him a large wad of notes to buy something better.

In Chicago Jimmy is having trouble with his leg from the war wound and goes to veterans hospital for help. He is asked to participate in a programme of psychological testing but quickly realises it is a government device to find ways to help better prepare men for soldering. He meets a man who has been disfigured and together they decide not to participate. Jimmy takes him back to brothel which has become his home and arranges for the one of the girls to entertain his new friend.

Meanwhile Al Capone has found out where the man who disfigured Jimmy’s girlfriend eats his food. Jimmy goes to the restaurant and engages the man in conversation telling him of a German soldier he left dying on barbed wire for days. When he leaves the man is shot in the head by his new found friend who has taken a room across from the restaurant. When a young thief is caught he asks to see someone from Atlantic City and the FBI prohibition enforcer calls to learn that the boy acted as a decoy in the murders carried out by Jimmy and AL. He names Jimmy but only know the Christian name of AL.

Before leaving Atlantic City Jimmy has accused his wife of having an affair with a local photographer. In this episode we learn hat she is having affair, with wife of the photographer.

Chalky White who Nucky gave the funeral home with its fake whisky enterprise is approached by someone offering a new deal which will cut of the middle man. He rejects this thinking it is a test of loyalty by Nucky. The emissary of Lucky Luciano is a young Meyer Lansky who went on to become a major accountant for the Mafia helping to establish the National Crime Syndicate. The New York Mafia involving Luck Luciano and Arnold Rothestein agree to set up a new bootlegging business that Chalky White declined with the D‘Alessio brothers and they devise a plan to take money from Nucky’s casino and use half the $150000 to set up the new business with the other half going to Rothestein.

These two fictional series based on the reality of American crime families throughout the past century will seem to have little to do with the events in North Africa my references in the yesterday’s writing to encountering important faces from my experience of 50 years ago appearing on Al Jazeera TV in connection to the uprisings. The first was Gene Sharp a man committed to non violent action but with an intellectual understanding of the way government’s behave and the potential power of people using passive resistance and direct action.

I also mentioned the appearance of Ralph Schoenman a mysterious figure who became private secretary to Bertrand Lord Russell and who was his effective organiser of the activities of the Committee 100 which successfully developed mass civil protest in the early 1960’s replacing the Gandhian Gene Sharp influenced Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War. Ralph, an American, is only four years older than me and therefore his rise to power and influence over Lord Russell is extraordinary. I was not invited to join the Committee 100 when it was formed while I was still serving the six months in prison as a civil offender for refusing to enter the two year requirement by the government not to engage in further direct action activities. When a number of those who had initially expressed interest found out they would be required to engage in action which was likely to lead to imprisonment, they dropped out so that the Committee became short of members to plan and take responsibility for its first major action, the proposed sit down in Parliament Square. Some 4000 people were stopped in a side street where we sat down and were left for several hours before the leadership decided to go home.

Prior to the event I had been working at a left wing coffee bar in the basement of a Soho building which had housed the Left Wing book club and which then was responsible for the New Left Books which included Out of Apathy. For years I also believed that Parliamentary Socialism, the book by the father of the Miliband Brothers, Ralph, then at the London School of Economics was also a New Left Book, and while its content could be described as such, it was published separately by George and Unwin. One evening while clearing tables I noted Ralph Schoenman, who did not know me, soliciting pledges to participate in the demonstration arguing that no one needed to participate but he required the signatures in order for the project to continue according to the decisions of the organising executive of which I was member.

This focused my interest on him because it confirmed suspicions aroused at the meetings I had attended that the Committee was no more than a collection of anarchists, Marxists and idealists most of whom were not committed to the basics of non violent action and passive resistance. It was evident that Ralph took the view that the end justified whatever the means. For example he and others were behind the decision to use the Aldermaston March in 1961 and the commencement of the Direct Action March to Holy Loch where I was its chief Marshall and Scottish field organiser to arrange a secret demonstration at the USA Embassy. A demonstration which was not officially notified to the authorities in advance.

This was not a black and white situation. I had sympathy with Ralph at his frustration at the lack of any coherent programme of action. The meeting of the 100 demonstrated the impossibility of organising anything with such a diverse group of viewpoints and even the reduction of numbers to an executive committee further confirmed the difficulties of reaching agreement about anything so understandable final decisions were taken by a small circle which I believe included Michael Randle who had moved from the Direct Action Committee. My main contact was with Trevor Hatton.

However as events in Scotland were to reveal while numbers who travelled from London for the sea and land demonstrations at Holy Loch attracted International media attention many of those participating had no preparation let alone training in non violent action or had been made aware of the potential immediate and long term consequences. I left the Committee 100 and my position working for the Direct Action Committee because I thought the behaviour of Ralph and also Pat Arrowsmith in particular was irresponsible, putting the integrity of the projects and movement at risk. I wrote to Lord Russell about my concerns and received a letter from his wife saying her husband had confidence in Ralph and that my letter had upset her husband.

I must confess that from time to time I suspected that the ease at which Schoenman had moved to the UK from University and became Russell’s organiser and action man was odd and suggested some form of placement. Bernard Levin wrote at the time that he felt Schoenman as responsible for Russell becoming anti American and sympathetic towards Communist leaning groups. In 1963 Schoenman gained entry to China on behalf of Russell to attempt a solution to the conflict which had arisen with India. The consequence was a travel restriction imposed by the USA government that his passport was only valid for a return to the USA. He was subsequently involved in the Russell Tribunal which attempted to involved major USA news networks in visits to North Vietnam and Cambodia 1966-1967. He was deported from Bolivia to the USA in 1967 and from the UK back to the USA in 1968, The following year Russell repudiated his relationship and had him removed from the Board of Peace Foundation

In 1975 Ronald W Clark published his life of Bertrand Russell, and I acquired a signed copy and was delighted to find that the work included the then Private Memorandum concerning Schoenman which Russell. The memorandum is ten pages in length, an indication of the impact which Ralph had on Russell over the nine years of their association. Russell describes him as being impetuous aggressive and entirely undisciplined which might well make him a dangerous young man. Schoenman made contact with Russell by going to see him at his home in Wales. He also admits that it was sometime before he appreciated the extent to which Schoenman was incapable of imparting reliable information. His reports of people’s reactions and observations were very often excessively misleadingly incorrect. In fairness he also listed his positive qualities. However while the memo includes letters advising him of concerns about Ralph during the latter part of their association there is no mention of mine to him, written then by someone who was a Member of the Committee and had been to prison for six months. What the Memorandum reveals was Russell considerable responsibility for having given Ralph the funding and the power to globe trot the world on Russell’s behalf. And Ralph ? According to Wikipedia he formed his own Peace Foundation as the American Foundation. He became involved in Iran and was expelled by the Provisional Revolutionary Government in March 1979. He produced the Hidden History of Zionism in 1988 and Iraq and Kuwait: A History Suppressed. Since the millennium he has been working to expose the way the capitalist system “ is addicted to permanent war.” This was his theme when interviewed on Al Jazeera. The world needs to have people like Gene Sharp and Ralph doing their thing as long as neither are put in the position to control the lives of everyone else. Alas I have become wedded to the real politic.

2038 Revisiting the poet of the Beat era

I acquired my copy of Protest, sub titled -The Beat Generation and the Angry Young Men, Edited by Gene Feldman and Max Gartenberg, Panther Books three shillings and six pence, when it was first published in paperback, June 1960. I remember staying up into the early hours reciting the poem Howl to at least two young women, possibly three, with only one understanding the what its author, Allen Ginsberg was seeking to communicate. (one I met through the local Young Socialists, one on a Youth CND match from Liverpool to Hull and the other via an advertisement in the New Statesmen which read Nihilist waiting for the bomb to drop seeks......).

The Panther book alleged that the writers of Protest collectively were rebels without cause which was nonsense because there are always causes for any form of rebellion even if the perpetrator is not able to articulate or do so with objective accuracy. The second claim was that the writers were shocked by nothing which was another nonsense statement because the majority were shocked by much of what they experienced in contemporary society and throughout their upbringing and educational experiences. They were also described as defying society and convention as if this was new and amazing when artists, philosophers and political thinkers have done this throughout human history, seeking attention and recognition by someone other than their own voice which they continuously strive to make original and unique

This morning March 10th 2011, after noting that the dawn approaching 6 am and enjoying a good swim of 50 lengths and a 15 minute sauna, reading the Daily Telegraph, enjoying a bacon roll after calling in at Asda, and then having a hair cut on the way to Metro station, and a second cup of coffee of the morning at the Tyneside Film Theatre, I was the first into the Electric screen theatre at 10 to 11 for the day’s performance of the film Howl. For a few minutes I thought I might comprise the entire audience but over the next five minutes I was joined by half a dozen men of varying ages, one group of two men and a women, and two couples, one female and one male and female. I was tempted to reach for a pen and notebook and rush around asking why they wanted to see this film.

In black and white the film recreates the first reading of the poem by Ginsberg at the Six Gallery on October 7th 1955, shortly after I left school at sixteen and commenced work in central London, soon attending traditional jazz clubs in Soho and drinking pints of brown and mild. Parts of the poem are interpreted through animated sequences, and also entwined with the examination of key witnesses for the prosecution and for the defence in the 1957 obscenity trial together with the summing up and the verdict. There are also scenes of experiences in the life of Ginsberg to that point, and film ends with notes on what happened to some of the characters referenced in the work and to Ginsberg himself. I noted the Wikipedia note that the one individual who was arrested for selling published copies of the work and went to prison is not mentioned in the film.

Ginsberg explains in one interview that the work was an emotional expression of his condition at the time of writing and that it was only subsequently that he fully understood some of its significance. It was not until 1960 that I intentionally opted out of my previous “conventional” life style, although in retrospect my whole life has been unconventional. I never described myself as a beatnik although sporting a beard and wearing a brown duffle coat other might well have done so.

At one level Howl can be viewed as an explicitly coming out by someone who with the help of a psychiatric therapist worked out that he wanted to spend his days in creative writing and making love to someone who happened to be of the same physical sexuality. Then as now I thought the poem was a statement of honest reality, of openness, of being free and of being true to oneself. Ginsberg never explained his choice of title for the work although in 2008 while the film was being prepared friend Peter Orovsky his life partner, speculated that it may have derived from the Hank Williams song Howling at the Moon which he had sang one night to Ginsberg.

The work is in three parts commencing with the familiar opening line I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterically naked.....

The Wikinotes are excellent for providing information on the content references which I was not aware at the time or subsequently until now but which were confirmed by Ginsberg before his death, for example “ who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and saw Mohammedan Angels staggering on tenement roofs illuminated, was the result of Jack Kerouac telling Ginsberg about Philip Lamantia’s celestial adventure after reading the Qur’an. I mention this because today the fake right wing Senate investigation into Muslim fundamentalism in the USA begins potentially heralding another dose of American fascism against the concept of freedom to.

Another reference is to Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass which the professional witness for the prosecution at the trial suggested was the sole basis for the form of the poem and therefore it could be dismissed because it lacked its own form originality, something which in fact it has. This witness was something else and his self exposure as a moronic academic was one the joys in this film.

The rhythm of Part one is created by commencing sentences with “who” and brings me to the third reference which appeals to me is that of “ eli eli lamma lamma sabachtani Oh God why have you forsaken me. The cry of all those with a powerful faith who are then tested and making Ginsberg’s move from agnosticism to exploration of his Jewish roots before moving on to Buddhism.

“ who rose reincarnate in the ghostly clothes of jazz in the gold horn shadow of the band and blew the suffering of America’s naked mind for love into eli eli lamma lamma sabachtani saxophone cry that shivered the cities down to the last radio with absolute heart of the poem of life butchered of their own bodies good to eat a thousand years.” and which brings to an end part one.

Other lines from part one which have remained with me are

“who poverty and tatters and hollowed eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz.

“ who scribbled all night rocking and rolling over lofty incantations which in the yellow morning were stanzas of gibberish,”

In Part 2 the connecting link is Moloch representing the negative aspects of industrialization and a devilish monster.

“Moloch the incomprehensible prison! Moloch the crossbone soulless jailhouse and congress of sorrows! Moloch whose buildings are judgement? Moloch the vast stone of War! Moloch the stunned governments.”

The third section is an address to someone he met in a psychiatric institution and where the link is “I am with you in Rockland” and where my favourite line is “I’m with you in Rockland where you must feel strange.”

My version does not include his footnote expression of pantheism that everything is Holy which I like because it encompasses the concept that everything that exists whether defined as good or evil, happy unhappy is contained with the concept of God and is therefore holy and not to be rejected.

The 1957 obscenity trial was not against the creator of the work but its City Lights publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti. He was supported by the American Civil Liberties Union. The judge referred to the soul of the American constitution and the freedom to speak. He argued that the poem was written by someone using their language and that the prosecutor seemed to be wanting everyone to confirm one particular form of expression. He said the poem was of redeeming social importance and dismissed the case. The prosecution as with the publishers of Lady Chatterley’s Lover here in the UK revealed the inevitable divide which occurs within society when one group believes they possess the ultimate knowledge and enlightenment and attempt to impose on everyone else.

Allen Ginsberg born 1926 wrote the work in his late twenties and went on live longer than all his contemporaries such as Kerouac and Burroughs, dying aged 70 in 1997 and became as well known for his “ humanism and in a romantic and visionary ideal of harmony among men”, taking part in decades of non violent protest against” censorship, imperial politics, and the persecution of the powerless.”

He came to England in 1965 when I embraced social work and what I describe as my third way and together with poets from both sides of the Atlantic gave a recital which filled the Royal Albert Hall and attracted the media attention of the day with mixed feelings and viewpoints, Christopher Logue, Spike Hawkins, Ton McGragh were there with Harry Fanlight, Alexander Trocchi and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Where we parted company Ginsberg, as I did time and time again is with his failure to understand that the application of communism had created regimes as abhorrent as Fascism. I also disapproved the experimentation and sometimes addiction to drugs because it involves surrendering self control and fuelling criminal behaviour

The underlying expression of dissent against dictatorships being expressed in the Middle East of North Africa and he Arabian states has also brought forth important figures from my past experience.

Because of his work on the use of non violent people power which influenced me some fifty years ago, I was delighted to see that Gene Sharp was still alive and being interviewed on Al Jazeera about unfolding events in North Africa and the Arabian states. Gene was born in 1928 and became Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts and a Noble Prize Nominee. His work was influenced by Gandhi, Thoreau and others and he became the first writer of the use of civil resistance and non violent revolution during the last quarter of the 20th century. He was jailed for nine months after protesting the conscription of soldiers for the Korean War and in 1983 founded the Albert Einstein Institution as a body to promote the use of non violent action in conflicts worldwide. I break off from the writing to for a pamphlet of Gene I thought I had and realise that I have not sorted into order the three shelf unit of pamphlets and booklets since arrival here seven years ago.

Gene published Waging Non Violent Struggle 20th century practice and 21st Century potential in 2005 and contains information on how to plan non violent struggles so that they can become more effective. It is thought his writing had influence on some fo those who acted recently in Tunisia and Egypt.

The other figure who emerged recently, also on Al Jazeera was Ralf Schoenman, a self proclaimed Marxist revolutionary, the antithesis of the work of Sharp and whose behaviour was the reason why I resigned from the Committee 100. I will leave that part of my life to the next writing which includes the latest episodes of the Sopranos and the Boardwalk Empire.

2037 I am 72 and enjoy good food, a bottle of wine watcing 2012 and Brideshead Revisited again

I am seventy two. I find this an amazing concept. So far it has been a good day with an excellent overnight sleep and enjoyable swim and sauna session. On return home after buying treats for the rest of the day I enjoyed the first of them, a cooked breakfast of sausage, scrambled egg, bacon, beans and two hash browns.

It has been a week of birthday celebration commencing on Saturday when I enjoyed three sausages and two eggs with chips for lunch before the 3D showing of Carmen in the evening. On Sunday I enjoyed an excellent three course meal commencing with a coarse pate, toast with salad followed by two large pieces of chicken breast on a bed of crisp vegetables and finishing with a slice of melt in the mouth chocolate cake, chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream accompanied by a glass of Merlot and a Pepsi cola followed by coffee and late sandwiches and a birthday cake sponge filled with a rich whipped cream with strawberry pieces.

On Monday after Toast and coffee for breakfast, lunch comprised gammon, eggs garden peas and chips followed by apple crumble and custard and Americano coffee and in the evening a two egg omelette with chopped olives followed by grapefruit segments and coffee.

Yesterday after a cereal breakfast, I enjoyed an aromatic Thai chicken and lemongrass soup, a piece of white fish in a dill sauce with five pieces of scampi and some crisp vegetables, with a prawns from shell salad in the evening followed by a plain banana and several cups of filter coffee the day while I wrote solidly.

I was greatly impressed by Barcelona’s win against Arsenal and agree they are undoubtedly the world’s best club side at the present time. This does not mean they cannot be beaten but I would have been surprised if they had not won more convincingly against the Arsenal even if Van Perses had not been sent off for his second bookable offence. He claimed the only reason he had played on was because he had not heard the whistle of the referee because of the noise from the 95000 crowd, My comment to that is hmmmmm and to Mr Wenger who has already seen his team lose to Birmingham in the League Cup and where it is six years since gaining any kind of trophy I also say hmmmm but also your unsportsmanlike behaviour is becoming unacceptable as well as boring. Your team was just not good enough, it is good but not good enough.

On return from the swim and sauna today I enjoyed the breakfast while catching up on last night’s episode of Blue Bloods which featured the subject of teenage drug taking, Three young men die and one girl survives a lethal drug taking at a party where it is subsequently found there was a lethal addition. First on the scene and life saver of the girl is the rookie cop member of the Blue Blood family and it is the Police Commissioner who goes to see the Bishop to twist the arm of the Catholic School head to gain voluntary access to any school locker where the sniffer dog indicates an illegal substance within. He finds the school seller of the killer drug and who buys the drugs to see on via the Internet and where the trail leads to a bicycle shop with a drug manufacturing laboratory at its rear. Analysis of his drugs confirms his statement that his success was due to providing good merchandise. When the recovered schoolgirl report an attempt hit and run, the police work out that this was not a bad trip drug but a successful attempt to kill one of the young men and his girl friend. After pursuing one red herring lead the culprit is the female Vice Principle of the School, whose speciality is chemistry and who had an illegal sexual affair with the young man in question who she privately tutored and who wished to punish him and the girl when he rejected her someone of his own age. Underpinning this story line was a mini debate about whether drug should be made legal like alcohol and then controlled, that parents do not know what they teenage children are doing, and the need for the Catholic Church to be more open about the problems it as with some of its clergy and in its educational and other social facilities. There was nothing original about the episode but will have served a useful purpose.

I chose my lunch with care, French Pain rather than baguette cut into two portions and filled with a French made salami Le Justin Bridou 200g which I thick sliced and then both in their entirety accompanied by two and a half large glasses of an Italian Spumante, medium dry, and drinking the rest with a pork shop an a salad mixture from Morrison’s which included Feta cheese, black olives, bacon, ham pieces, spaghetti, pasta twirls cheese flakes, onion pieces, a great feast, finished with strawberries.

Later I watched an edition of master chef in which amateur cooks seek to become professionals through a series of challenges and competitive experiences. The food is always extraordinary with emphasis on flavours, textures and presentation. And of the kind where a three course meal with selected wine will cost £100 per head. I had been watching Spurs at home to A C Milan where they held out to win the tie with their away goal. What occurred to me is he cost to fans who travel on a regular basis as well as having the occupation and family lifestyle to enable such a commitment.

I also watched two and three quarter films. The first was 2012 again. Another end of world experience which despite all the spectacular destruction and losses of life in their billions several hundred thousand human being survive representing about 50 nations, heads of state and their governments, security services, selected individuals who can contribute to the redevelopment of the human race plus those willing to purchase the continuation plus those able to contribute one billion euros a time. There was a time when I would have seen myself in the role of the President of the USA electing to stay with his people, trying to comfort as disaster upon disaster struck where as now it would be good to be like the ancient Tibetan man who was able to join the survival party through one of his sons.

The reason for the natural destruction of planet earth is that the rays of the sun, in this instance called neutrinos instead of providing warmth are also heating up the earth‘s core in microwave effect so that new volcanic activity on an unprecedented scale will occur, the planet will become unstable which substantial seismic activity shifting the continental masses as well as the North and South Poles coupled with devastating earthquakes and Tsunamis covering continental masses. When this is discovered the major nations unite in secret to devise a way of surviving which is not immediately disclosed to the audience, and then as a spacecraft, a solution which has been used in previous science fiction from the 1950’s. In this instance we then discover that giant ships with reinforced sides have been created, called Arks, with at one point helicopters transferring animals two by two.

The fundamental questions raised are who should be saved and when should everyone been told the truth? Do you tell someone they have an incurable disease and when? Who gets what in life and why. Age old questions retold in the latest most spectacular fashion. Of course the best way is to tell their story through the eyes of a small group of individuals especially children and the aged, pets and people we can identify with.

In this film we concentrate on two sets of individuals functioning at very different levels in society. Jackson Curtis(john Cusack) is a divorced science fiction writer with one published credit which only sold a few hundred copies and who earns his keep working as a limousine driver for a Russian oligarch with two sons and dumb blonde type mistress and pet dog as well as chief bodyguard. They are all to play leading roles later. He borrows the car to take his two children on a camping break leaving his former wife and her lover free for the weekend.

He takes them to his favourite spot in Yellowstone National Park only to find the area fenced off and the lake dried to a pond. He is collected by the military(Close encounters of the third Kind style) brought to the attention of Dr Adrian Helminsky the chief USA geological scientist whose Scientist friend in India is part of another team who forecasts what is likely to happen and the exponential speed of the changes and their consequences. Adrian has taken the information direct to the President’s Chief of Staff and now works direct to him and the President advising what is happening. The Yellowstone Park is over the St Andreas fault and become a hot spot, likely to be become a volcanic explosion of nuclear proportions and trigger everything else that happens.

By good fortune he is one of the few people who has read Jackson’s book, given to him by his father to read because it foresaw how nations would deal with the situation, in this instance the space craft solution. When off the camp site the family encounter a conspiracy fanatic with a radio internet site and online newsletter who is currently predicting what is happening and who shows Curtis his media cutting where a number of leading figures ranging from art experts to scientists have died. The art expert dies in the same spot and same way as Princess Diana.

Jackson and the two children are recalled home after their mother and lover are in a supermarket when a fault opens up separating them on each side of the divide along an aisle. Jackson after depositing the children is also recalled to take the Russian family to the airport and their private jet and as the nasty children depart one calls out that they will live while he will be among those who do not. Realising that what he has learnt adds up to a major catastrophe he hires a private plane and then rushes to the home of his ex wife and family and orders them to get in the car immediately with him. They think he has gone crazy as the Governor of California is telling everyone on TV the crisis is over and they are not to worry at the same point as the land all around the family home begins to break up. There is then the first of several fantastic journeys in which the family amazingly escape the spectacular horrors around them. When they get to the plane the pilot has been killed but fortunately the ex wife’s new partner had had a few flying lessons and is able to get the plane away with great skill and good fortune.

They go to Yellowstone Park where the conspiracy guru has a map showing where the ships, assumed to be space ships are located. When they arrive Jackson finds the guru is broadcasting from the top of a nearby peak and takes the camper van broadcasting and research centre to him and back with one of the children in another hair raising travel, and then finds the map before the plane takes off and this time the volcanic eruption is of nuclear proportions. The problem they now find is that the centre for the ships is in China Tibet and they need a larger plane. They make their way to the airport when they find the plane of the Russian oligarch stranded but he finds their is a cargo jet full of Russian cars attending a trade exhibition. The chief security man and partner of the ex wife somehow manage to get the plane off the ground as everything is destroyed around them. Their aim is to refuel in Hawaii but the state is now a mass of molten rock so they continue knowing they will only get to somewhere in the South China sea. However when they arrive in the area they find that the land mass has already shifted and the plane comes down close to the departure site. They are picked up by Chinese Military helicopters They take the oligarch and his children who has he correct boarding pass but leave his mistress together with the Jackson family. The Russian bodyguard has given up his life in getting the plane down on the ice. Fortunately the family encounter a worker at the site, his Buddhist brother and their parents.

It is now time to return to the macro scene. The Black President of the United States is portrayed as a kindly man who wife has died from cancer and whose daughter has been part of an organisation collecting the great artefacts from around the world, including the Mona Liza so they can be stored in safety from terrorists with replicas almost as good as the originals. When she hears of the death of the art expert in the Parisian road tunnel her father explains that she is to become one of a handful of individuals to know the truth about what is happening.

This raises the issue of the relatives of those involved who have tickets for the great escape. The father of geologist is a recovering alcoholic jazz musician on an cruise liner with a friend who has not had contact with his son who has married an Asian woman. The son is able to say goodbye to his father who has a drink and his friend is able to contact and speak to his grand daughter before disaster strikes and he is unable to speak to his son and daughter in law. The mother of the chief of staff has decided to stay home with her friends. The President decides to stay with his people as does the Italian head of state who stand with his family at the Vatican. Eventually an aircraft carrier swept in by a Tsunami flattens the White House, the Vatican is destroyed and the cruise liner is flipped over in an instant.

Earlier in the film we are privy to the evacuation of communities in Tibet and the enforced Labour of young men including the brother of the Buddhist monk who is separated from his aging parents. The reason for the disruption is the creation a new major dam project where the world leaders have arranged for the Arks to be built. My impression was that each would hold 400000 but the Wikipedia notes state that the overall total is 400000. Because the speeding up of the process not all the Arks are completed so that there are only four to take the final selection of survivors and one of the four is damaged leaving thousands stranded at the base.

In the film there is crisis upon crisis as the family make their way on an Ark which is also that with the geology scientist and the daughter of the USA President. The Russian Oligarch dies but manages to save his sons. The partner of the ex wife also dies. The husband nearly does not make it but manages to free the hydraulic system which enables the Ark to become water tight and use its engines and avoid being crushed against the remains of Mount Everest. The film ends as the three Arks stay afloat while the dramatic changes to surface of the earth planet take place. They find that what was South Africa becomes the place where they can begin a new society. They are able to open the hatches to breathe the air again naturally. There is hope for the individual we have come to know. The sci fi writer and his family, the scientist and the President’s daughter who reads the copy of the sci fi novel which the scientist has brought with him, never expecting to have seen the author and his children again.

There is also a different ending in the DVD version where the Ark is shipwrecked on a Island and before this the geologist who has advised the government finds that his father has survived on the cruise ship where he was a musician.

The film asks the question how do set about deciding who is saved and who is not? World leaders, religious leaders, bankers and business giants, medics and scientists, sportsmen, artists, entertainers and the media, together with their families? What of those who built the Arks and their families? What of the balance between old and young, the physically able and the disabled? Do you include convicts and drug addicts? Do you include the military and airforce instrumental in getting the chosen to the Arks and what abut the makers, the builders the cleaners, the cooks and bottle washers? Surely this is something all government will have decided long ago in their What/If scenario‘s?

In November of last year I spent a week rereading Brideshead Revisited and watching DVD’s of the original Television series after going to see the two hour film version. In several pieces I attempted to describe each of the three works and to the extent to which the film and the TV communicated the original novel by Evelyn Waugh. On Saturday while was I returning from the Carmen in 3D experience I recorded a showing of the film using my Sky Box and today seemed appropriate to view again the magic of life at Oxford University and my one short visit to Venice.

The film provides an overview of the story, dipping in and out, providing only glimpses of life as an undergraduate with no intent or ambitions for the academic life which I disapproved yet found fascinating. The story is that of Charles Ryder who lives with his father in a comfortable upper middle class house close to Paddington station. His father is of independent means with his own limited circle of friends while Charles appears to have acquired no circle from childhood and boarding school and cannot wait for any opportunity to escape from distant and meaningless communication with his father.

At Oxford his serious cousin warns against his allocation of a room in college in the front quadrangle on the ground floor and this is quickly borne out when Lord Sebastian Flyte is sick into his room from beyond a window having been out drinking with his aristocratic chums from Eton and a camp South American with a slight speech impediment who appears to have been the object of Sebastian’s attentions until he resolves to make amends to Charles by inviting him to an arranged luncheon in his college rooms and taking him up. The film is more blatant about the nature of the love which develops between Sebastian and Charles, something which is picked upon by those closest to Sebastian, particularly his devout Catholic and controlling mother, Lady Marchmain played in the film by the always excellent Emma Thompson.

She quickly sees Charles, for what he is, an ambitious social climber who falls in love first with the family country house and then the eldest daughter, Julia, whereas Sebastian torn between his love of life and Charles and the controlling Catholicism of his mother wants to keep Charles to himself and away from his family. Sebastian insists they drive immediately back to Oxford on the first visit Charles makes to Brideshead where he is introduced to Nanny and also the family chapel when he learns that Julia and her mother are also returning.

Having established a relationship over their first year, Charles is something at a loss when he returns home for the long summer vacation and jumps at the opportunity to visit and stay at Brideshead on receipt of a telegram from Sebastian saying he has been in an accident which proves to be only a damaged bone in his foot playing croquet. Julia is sent to collect Charles from the railway station before going off again on her social outings her mother has arranged after being presented at Court bur where suitor are carefully selected among Catholic families of devotion and wealth.

To understand Brideshead the book and the original TV series it is necessary to understand the perspective of the Marchmain’s aristocratic Catholicism, the gradations of class and the sexual norms and taboos of the era in which the book was written, between the two World Wars. Lady Marchmain’s puritanical religion has driven her life loving husband into the arms of a worldly Italian and the mist hedonistic of Italian cities, along with Rio and New Orleans, then Berlin as well as Paris. He is played by Michael Gambon whose performance is on a par with that of Olivier in the TV series.

Lady Marchmain initially sees Charles as a responsible young man devoted to her son, so she encourages the relationship recommending that he accompanies him and her eldest daughter when they want to accept the invitation from their father to holiday with him in Venice. She does this despite the insistence of Charles that he is an atheist and not an agnostic. In Venice two things happen, he learns from a conversation with Marchmain’s mistress of the difference between British Catholicism which was then alleviating and uncompromising while the Italians live as they wish and then confess their sins periodically, do the required penance and continue as before. He also wants Julia and mistakes a moment of passion during carnival as the start of an ongoing relationship leading to marriage. On return Lady Marchmain attempts to cut Charles from the lives of her children. This includes young Cordelia who is fascinated by the atheism of Charles and hopes to convert him. She is destined for a nunnery although the eldest son and heir is beyond influence, aware of his responsibilities, social position, need to maintain the estate which includes a London House. His faith is true and unshakeable. So as to reinforce the separation Lady Marchmain announces the engagement of Julia to an American of property, who converts to Catholicism while Sebastian embarrasses the party by expressing his grief at the betrayal of his love for Charles by Charles’s ambitions for his sister.

Charles is disappointed that Sebastian does not take up with him again when they return to Oxford, especially on finding that his friend is escaping more into alcohol to escape the attentions of a Catholic minder appointed by his mother.

After the separation Sebastian heads for Morocco no doubt via Gibraltar where he lives as a subject to a dominant, and Charles is sent by terminally ill Lady Marchmain to find her son and bring him home. Unfortunately he is also terminally ill and mother and son are not reconciled.

Charles becomes successful as a painter and is courted and then marries by the sister of one Sebastian’s aristocratic Eton and Oxford chums. He then travels alone to South America to live and paint for two years and his wife joins him on board the Atlantic crossing back from New York. She takes to her bed with sea sickness while Charles encounters Julia, who is estranged from her husband who has taken up control and residence at Brideshead having bailed out the financially struggling elder brother. The two become lovers and live together although this is a problem for the Catholicism of Julia, reinforced when they go to Brideshead to see her husband and seek his agreement for a divorce. He agrees for the price of two of Charles’s paintings, something which shocks Julia but more significantly is the attitude of her elder brother, who announces he is to marry a widow with children, someone who will not be able to accept Julia because of her adultery.

Her father returns to the family home when he becomes seriously ill and on his death bed, the lifelong disbeliever, regains his faith and accepts the last rites of his church. This has a profound affect on Julia who decides that she cannot marry or continue to live with Charles.

The films opens with Charles an Officer in the British Army in World War 2 awaiting to go to France as part of the D Day offensive. His regiment is stationed at Brideshead with the House the headquarters, and he visits the chapel where he was taken on his first visit and after the first meal with the family, Lady Marchmain insisting. Charles learns that the elder brother was killed in the Blitz and that Julia is alive and an army reservist. In the chapel he lights a candle after dipping his hands in Holy Water and anointing himself. He leaves the candle alight when he leaves after first moving to extinguish.

I was not surprised that the film failed to excite critics or the box office. After all it depicts a lifestyle which only has appeal to those decreasing few within British society who are aristocratic or are socially ambitious and having something to offer. He film is no more than a pictorial aide memoiré to the book and the TV series, although the photography is brilliant, the mood creating effective and the acting of high class. The film will lack appeal to the average weekend audience and will displease those who know the originals, but who cares, not I?

All three, the book, the TV series and the film remain important to me for several reasons. The relationship which I once had with a young woman from a wealthy and socially connected Jewess, whose mother counselled against a serious relationship with me. She was not the first to wisely do so. Secondly my own wrestles with Catholicism and relationship with my mother. But most of all because of my experience of being a student and then living and working In Oxford and Oxfordshire which commenced 50 years ago last autumn and that one brief visit to Venice as experiences of London life at all levels of society. It was a great day.