There’s been much happening in the World but how much of it matters?
Brexit mania has gripped the UK taking the form of stupefaction at the arrant incompetence of our elected representatives in the Mother of Parliaments. These guys couldn’t organise a walk in the park. There has to be another referendum before the greatest act of self-harm in our history reaches the point of no return. Jeremy! Come on! (He did come on but he wants to leave-opportunity lost Jeremy) Then again Jeremy is a man famous for never having changed his mind in fifty years, about anything. Mrs May the boon of political cartoonists continues to hang on in the face of the unutterable hostility of her own party wedded to her obvious unfitness for her office. It's a vulgar mess and set to continue. Yet one is forced to grudgingly admire her sheer tenacity.
More than that when the United Nations Special Representative points out the failing state in the UK leading inevitability to growing child poverty, homelessness and the need for foodbanks, drug and alcohol addictions, and the breakdown of family units under the strain, it's more than a mess...it's a disgrace! We are all accountable!
I do not feel that Michel Eyqem de Montaigne would have approved of Jeremy, or anyone else in the Mother of Parliaments right now. He would certainly have seriously disapproved of the Brexiteers.
That inability to listen with care to the opposite view seems a rare quality today. To think oneself into the other's shoes. To adapt and change with new information. As Keynes once snapped back at an interviewer- "When the facts change, I change my mind! What do you do Sir?"
We seem to be dependent on strutting tinpot narcissists like Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage and the almost hilarious representation of an office bound accountant vampire in the persona of Jacob Rees Mogg. Paid to attend the European Parliament. Paid to undermine it and stop it working. The European Research Group? What a joke. Let us move on from this grim parade.
A beautiful quote snapped by Tim Ferris from Rainer Maria Rilke:
Quote I’m pondering —
“For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation.”
— Rainer Maria Rilke
I've just finished 'Heart of Darkness' Joseph Conrad and started 'The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World' by Maya Jasanov (William Collins 2017). Also 'Fourth of July Creek' by Smith Henderson (Windmill 2015) and 'The War of Art' by Steven Pressfield (Black Irish Entertainment 2012) I'll be reviewing all of these on Amazon.co.uk-(if they do not censor my review anyway!)
I’m reading 'MONTAIGNE: How to live in Twenty Questions' by Sarah Bakewell. Marvellous stuff!
Some notable quotes:
Stubborn and ardent clinging to one's opinion is the best proof of stupidity.
If you don't know how to die, don't worry; Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately. She will do this job perfectly for you; don't bother your head about it.
Do a good job. But not too good a job.
And less happily:
I cannot reckon either with counters or with a pen; most of our coins I do not know; nor do I know the difference between one grain and another, either in the ground or in the barn, unless it is too obvious, and I can scarcely distinguish between the cabbages and lettuces in my garden.
I do not even understand the names of the chief household implements or the roughest principles of agriculture, which children know. I know still less of the mechanical arts, of trade and merchandise, of the diversity and nature of fruits, wines and foods, and of how to train a bird, or doctor a horse or dog. and since I must make my shame complete, not a month ago I was caught ignorant that leaven was used to make bread.
He was a real slacker! I love him.
I have been watching ‘Seal Team’ on NOW TV with a sort of horrified fascination. One episode was blatant anti-Muslim propaganda shamelessly masquerading as TV drama. It also points out to me how one of the hallmarks of fascism is hyper sentimentality wedded to blind cruelty. I'll be reviewing this in more detail in a future post. But it's also great! Weirdly!
A recent visit to Ottolenghi’s in London really disappointed. Inflated prices for what is basically a cafe. Whoever made the kofte should be made to wear earphones! Undercooked! Awful!
Some nice Negroni cocktails but £12.00 each?? Are you joking Mr Ottolenghi?
Urrgh! Broccoli warning!
Cafe-like interior. Let's get out of here!
The COP 24 Conference on climate change concludes. The Chairman might dance on his desk but for the rest of us, we’d better start stocking that cabin in the woods. Beachfront properties in the Maldives are probably not a good investment right now. I'll post on this important event very soon in the New Year.
I am intrigued by the use of the term ‘ejaculated’ as used by Dr Watson in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Hence this from a Blog called The Norwood Builder:
A STUDY IN WHITE: THE 5 BEST USES OF THE WORD “EJACULATE” IN SHERLOCK HOLMES.
Okay so back in the 1800s, “ejaculate” was a synonym for “exclaim”, which results in some rather unfortunate turns of phrase, especially when you add a genius detective and his overenthusiastic doctor pal into the mix. I give you:
The 5 best uses of the word “ejaculate” in Sherlock Holmes.
5. Holmes overreacts slightly to a visitor
The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had framed himself in the aperture. (SPEC)
4. Holmes underestimates his effect on Watson
“Wonderful!” I ejaculated.
“Commonplace,” said Holmes, though I thought from his expression that he was pleased at my evident surprise and admiration. (STUD)
3. Watson has an eventful night:
So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of shag which I had seen upon the previous night. (TWIS)
2. Holmes expresses himself :
I tried to draw my companion’s attention to them; but he gave a little ejaculation of impatience, and continued to stare into the street. (FINA) He glanced at it, and then, with an ejaculation of disgust, threw it on the floor.(MILV) Holmes gave an ejaculation of impatience. (GOLD) Finally, he sprang down with an ejaculation of satisfaction. (ABBE)
In the bedroom he made a rapid cast around and ended by throwing open the window, which appeared to give him some fresh cause for excitement, for he leaned out of it with loud ejaculations of interest and delight. (DEVI)
1. And the best use of the word in the whole Canon:
“My dear Holmes!” I ejaculated. (RESI)
Honourable mention goes to Percy Phelps, who managed to ejaculate three times in one page during NAVA despite being on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Hats off to you, Perce.
(Source: lady-gorthaur)
An essay occurs to me titled ‘The Epistemology of Language in the River of Time’
Dr Watson’s regular usage of the term ‘ejaculation’ is particularly marked having changed meaning significantly from a spontaneous exclamation to a male orgasm caused by the excitation of the penis to a point of ‘ejaculation’ of sperm.
It is however clinically descriptive rather than conversational. I doubt if any man would shout at the moment of excitation ‘Oh I am ejaculating!’ Yet he may well use the non-gender specific descriptive ‘coming’ as in ‘Oh I’m going to come!’ ‘Oh I’m coming!’
Likewise the female orgasm was rarely considered historically whereas now it has become an iron obligation of the male partner, though the erotic literature of India is full of practical skills manuals for inducing pleasure in the partner dating back millennia. Some of it such as 'The Perfumed Garden' translated by our very own Richard Francis Burton. (He of the giant victorian Moustaches, not the other one!) His translation of the Arabian Nights also retains its bawdy, rollicking celebration of sexual shenanigans unthinkable in a contemporary Islamic cultural work.
So language adapts to changed meaning in an almost magical way. Language flows and transforms in the River of Time.
The behaviour of the grotesque Man-child in The White House continues to baffle. Now we have the unplanned withdrawal of US troops from Syria leaving an open goal for the extremists which questions the whole enterprise of this brutal and illegal war.
And many of the Federal Governments functions are effectively shut down as Trump fails to have 5 Billion dollars agreed for his stupid Wall-yes the one Mexico was going to pay for!
How long the frantic bullying behaviour of this creature can go on for is anyone’s guess.
We stare in both disbelief and horrified fascination. It will continue until America awakens from its existential nightmare. Yet here we are at the fall of an Empire. See how they all crumble like Houses made of Cards and matchsticks.
I strongly recommend the Intercept podcast for a left leaning slant on developments in America.
The recent skin crawling hagiographic coverage of the death of George H W Bush by the BBC left a foul taste and more sense of that institution falling into dotage and uselessness. Here's something a bit more real from the Intercept's Jeremy Scahill:
George Herbert Walker Bush was an unrepentant war criminal who spent the overwhelming majority of his life making the world a worse place, a more dangerous place, and he leaves behind a global trail of tears, of bloodshed, of death and destruction. His legacy can be seen in the poverty and corruption of Central and Latin America. It can be seen in the never-ending killing fields of Iraq. It can be seen in the international criminals that he pardoned after Iran-Contra and the systematic violence of the so-called War on Drugs. This legacy can be seen in the scourge of AIDS, the presence of a sexual harasser, Clarence Thomas, on the Supreme Court who in a sick irony of history replaced Thurgood Marshall, the first black Supreme Court Justice, and a noble man. George Herbert Walker Bush came from a powerful family, was born with a silver spoon in his mouth to a father who cozied up to Nazis, who desecrated the grave of the indigenous leader Geronimo and whose businesses contributed to the imperial agenda to force the poor of the world into indentured servitude for the powerful. This is the eulogy that George Herbert Walker Bush should be receiving this week. THE PLIGHT OF THE CHINESE UYGUHRS
How can China step up to the mastery of the world in a state based on terror, state lawlessness, and mass surveillance and incarceration? There may be up to a million Turkish speaking Muslim Uyguhrs in Re-education Camps or concentration camps as they are better known. A million souls! Men, women and children! It is unthinkable. C'est Incroyable!
'Recent research reveals that the 28 detention facilities have expanded by more than 2 million square metres since the beginning of last year and detainees have been forced to sew clothes for export to a US sportswear company.' ABC News
Who is the US sportswear Company?
To be fair Badger Sport have posted the explanation below but hey...let's keep an eye on them!
Hetian Taida Apparel chairman Wu Hongbo confirmed the company has a factory inside a re-education compound, and said they provide employment to those trainees who were deemed by the Government to be "unproblematic".
I think that is known as slave labour Mr Hongbo! (lets keep an eye on Hetian Taida Apparel too!)Oh Badger Sportswear turns out to be these guys:
CCMP Capital-A Venture capital Hedge Fund. Urrgh! Let's definitely keep an eye on them! Looked at their team pictures...Yuk!
Heart of Balance sends warm Yuletide greetings to all readers of this Blog and warm wishes to you all and your loved ones for the New Year. Lets hope 2019 brings a bit more kindness, understanding and personhood into our World. Less poverty. More equality. Less violence. More love for our planet and all the creatures in it.
Meanwhile I will continue to dazzle with my bad poetry while shining a light onto the shadow World of Think Tanks/ Weird billionaires like the Koch Brothers/The hacking of Elections/ The destructive domination of Big Tech and anything else under the radar as well as the best cultural highlights I come across.
Wishing you happiness, Courage, and Peace!
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