356. Park Life…

…and other pandemic positives.

There are not many positive things to be said about the pandemic. Least of all in the UK where it was and is being handled so very badly but there are some.

After years of health practitioners begging the government to challenge the food lobby about unhealthy food – suddenly the obesity epidemic that has been with us for decades is a priority for Boris Johnny-cum-lately.

With our dim-blimp PM boasting about shaking hands with covid patients in March – presumably trying to channel Princess Dianna (!) in her approach to breaking taboos about AIDS – he got it – as usual - COMPLETELY WRONG but is now cautioning about preventing further outbreaks. Leading from behind.

One wonders whether the imposition of a 2 week quarantine on holiday makers returning from Spain is in fact a retaliation for them complaining about Brits on holiday there behaving like Brits on holiday – but we’ll see on that one as yet more companies teeter on the brink of collapse.

But as his mantra of build/ build/ build already sounds emptier than his marriage promises – and the urge to get people out eating in restaurants and return to buying masses of shit they don’t need with money they don’t have fails to significantly materialise – there is positive sign that some folk have taken an extremely positive lesson from covid 19.

On Friday afternoon I went for a walk through my local park. I was lucky enough to be the lead writer on a project a couple of years back linked to its renovation. It is now largely complete and on Friday it was not just full, it was bursting at the seams.

It was as full as I remember parks being in the 1960s when – on a Saturday and Sunday afternoons – rather than parents dragging kids around shopping malls training them to be mindless consumers - they would go to the park.

 

This is a snippet from my epic environmental story poem Casey & the Surfmen. This extract is from the end of part II when those who are arguing for more concrete and consumerism suggest that there is no return to a time when folk did not get their entertainment from buying huge quantities of crap they don’t need with money they don’t have and accuse the environmental campaigners of lack of reality

Surely everyone can see (they said)

We need more shops and malls

Where will the youngsters go

To meet up with their pals

Where will all the shoppers get their bags and bags of stuff

The kind of things of which you just never have enough

We need more concrete car parks and extensive motorways

Wishful thinking will not return us to those long gone dreamy days

When people walked

You’re living in the dark

If you think

Kids just want

To go

To

The

Park

 

If the only thing that has come out of the horrors of Covid in the UK is that instead of heading to retail outlets stuffed with produce made by the exploited masses of the planet - as a form of entertainment – families go, instead, to the park, I for one will say loud and clear that something good has come out of this whole mess.

 Casey & the Surfmen (paperback)

Casey & the Surfmen (audio)

Jambo! Radio Glasgow (BGOTR interview 23rd July 2020)

click the link

Jambo! Radio Interview

(NB the interview begins about 3 mins in after the mental health ad…)

355. Does The Sun Still Shine?

Startling as the mishandling of covid-19 has been in supposedly developed countries such as the UK and US, the background of climate/environmental decimation and the way that all remains – well – in the background, astounds me more. Following on from last Tuesday’s post I’ll swing back to the ‘other’ problem.  Although in fact it is not a separate problem it is part of the same problem (again, see the last post). I have no doubt that future generations, if we allow them a future, will look back at covid-19 as we look back at the flu epidemic of 1918 – a dreadful historical event that passed. Meanwhile, as the icecaps melt and polar bears precede us to extinction (see yesterday's secondary news), humanity’s clock is ticking.

At present, we are being distracted by the havoc wreaked by a swollen town river while a continent-obliterating Tsunami is inexorably rolling to shore…

 

So, this week – a poem from my dystopian novella - Zero One Zero Two

Does the Sun Still Shine

 

Does the sun still shine

Do rivers still dance

Do breezes caress the trees

Does an apple still blush on a branch somewhere

Do flowers still flirt with bees

 

Does a waterfall crash where nobody hears

Does the Okavango delta still

Wash with Africa’s tears

 

Do elephant bones lie bleached and broken

Are shorelines kissed by the sea

Are dead cities shadowed with ghosts and regret

The great whales just a memory

Is there a footprint left by me

 

Does a white moon glow where nobody sees

Could cathedral sunsets

Still bring me to my knees

 

Does the kestrel cruise with a predator’s grace

While a vole marks his shadow, beware

Are the turrets and towers toppled and gone

Are the Great Plains stripped and bare

Is there anything there

 

Does rippling heat flatten the desert dust

Where scorpions arch and cacti pose

And camels have wanderlust

 

Are mountains still dappled by giddy cloud

Is my memory only a dusty store

Pale pretty pictures of paradise

Images of things that are no more

An empty room without a door

 

Our plundering and ravaging bore malformed fruit

Are the oceans and skies forlorn

Are forests blind and mute

 

Or

 

Does the sun still shine

Do rivers still dance

Do breezes caress the trees

Does an apple still blush on a branch somewhere

Do flowers still flirt with bees

 

Does a waterfall crash where nobody hears

Does the Okavango delta still

Wash with Africa’s tears

354. Post-covid the world must ditch Slum Economics with its ‘Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’

In the post-covid era, a system where the majority strive and the planet’s ecology is ravaged for the pointless avarice of a tiny minority is no longer sustainable. It was never morally supportable.

Yes – what 21^st century economists still euphemistically call capitalism is actually all-encompassing Slum Economics.

If you’ve not read The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist – now is the time. Globally, those who work the most, in the worst conditions and for the longest hours from the youngest ages are those living in deprivation. It is they who provide eye-watering wealth for the few at the pinnacle of economic comfort. It has been that way for a very long time.

Wars and the ever popular diversion of blaming foreigners have kept the system going and kept those grinding away at the bottom of the pile, docile. Foreigners and migrants of every description have ever been an easy target but the system of blame is now so entrenched that those who are poorest often have the scorn, blame and aggression of the public aimed at them to the point of Roman colosseum type entertainment. Glance at any tabloid, listen to the non-too subtle dog whistling of populist politicians or look at TV shows such as Benefit Street .

You have to marvel at a structure that manages to have the vast majority working in poverty and insecurity for the extreme affluence and comfort of a tiny minority while blaming the very people who toil and suffer. The most recent example of this play-off in our own country is Brexit. The worst and most recent example of the manifestation in the US is the rise of Donald Trump. But it’s not new.

What we have to ask ourselves is why the arrangement that is so downside-up has been so successful for so few for so long and why the many have gone along with it so willingly.

This is a paragraph from The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist set in 1906 when the author was, himself, a low paid exploited worker.

“[he] saw that in the world a small class of people were possessed of a great abundance and superfluity of the things that are produced by work. He saw also that a very great number – in fact, the majority of the people – lived on the verge of want; and that a smaller but still very large number lived lives of semi-starvation from the cradle to the grave; while yet a smaller but still very great number actually died of hunger or, maddened by privation, killed themselves and their children in order to put a period to their misery. And strangest of all – in his opinion - he saw that the people who enjoyed abundance of the things that are made by work, were the people who did NOTHING: and that the others, who lived in want or died of hunger, were the people who worked.”

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist  was published posthumously (1914) after the author  Robert Tressell – himself a workman though born into some comfort and brought low through family misfortune - died of TB in 1911 at the age 40. This work tracks the miserable lives of men and their families exploited en-masse so that a few at the top can benefit in-extremis – from their labour.

And while the exploitation of the world’s natural resources for excessive profit and the labour of the vulnerable for the same is shameful and counter-productive in the long run – the downside-up system extends to countries too. We’ve been reminded in the last couple of days of the staggering amount of money being paid by the poorest countries on earth to the richest. Infamous never-ending interest payments on debts – often on ‘loans’ set up during oil crises when poor countries could not resource essential supplies any other way or given to corrupt regimes in full knowledge funds would never reach the needy, are still keeping poor countries poor; dependent and unable to progress and at the mercy of exploitation. Faith leaders have called again on the G20 – the coalition of the world’s wealthiest nations - to cancel that debt in the light of covid-19. We won’t hold our breath but hope it is a reminder that while we hear much about aid we seldom hear about the huge quantities of money passing from poor nations to rich every single year on the back of historic wrongs.

The pandemic we were always going to have, in light of our decimation of the world’s ecology (see previous post) and disruption of precious ecosystems, plus the anything-for-profit mentality, has changed things.

Covid-19 has presented the world with stark choices, a threat that you cannot buy your way out of and which causes economic breakdown. It presents a situation which can only be alleviated with regulation – the antithesis of what those who exploit labour and the planet want. It also sets an immediate imperative for not just national healthcare but global universal healthcare regardless of wealth.

For possibly the first time in history – the self-interest of the powerful must involve a more egalitarian model. We must behave with humanity or perish.

here are some old doodles...

353 No poetry in the park – but you can get pissed in public.

And it actually makes sense (bear with me.)

Disappointed as I was that the Leamington Poetry Festival, where I was due to perform this July, was cancelled, clearly I understood why.

As I mentioned on several comment sites over the weekend - when Cummings’ boris-bot started banging his trumpy fists and sputtering about ye olde British pub opening on Saturday 4^th July, I was initially bemused. THEN I saw that fascist farage had returned from his sojourn to his US white-supremacist buddy to partake ‘ordinary bloke’ style of some manly pints and the penny dropped. It was a while before I recognised the sound as it’s been so long since those of us in the arts have had proper income.

But stop and think about it for a nanosecond and it all fits.

We are now past the date when a Brexit trade negotiation extension could have been secured. Under cover of covid, common sense was throttled. If the pandemic did not start in China one would have to assume Cummings planned it.

We are heading to economic and credibility annihilation at a time in world history when all that stands between countries that succeed and those that will fail – is co-operation – trade, economics, science, communications, security etc. As the rest of the EU are pulling out of the covid mess, Britain is heading to all the glories of chlorinated chicken and reduced environmental protections and the decimation of rights for low-paid workers – in other words – a no deal Brexit. And that was Cumming’s plan and Farage’s aim all along. I will not entertain the ridiculous idea that Johnson had any plan at all...

So it makes absolute sense that while in my home town of Leamington, punters cannot sit in one of the wonderful open parks and listen to poetry – you can go and get publicly pissed because it was, after all, July 4^th; Independence Day. And we are about to become a miserable 3^rd rate half-state of a country on the other side of the Atlantic while we reject the continent across the channel…

Cheers.

(Friday extra) No point defeating Covid if the planet is doomed! + support an artist...

Chris Packham (I’m a fan) made the point during last year’s climate change protests that it would have been good to see black faces involved in the protests. I agree 100%. There is a particular conundrum of black people feeling part of broader issues when they often don’t feel part of broader society.

It is also massively problematic (harking to the previous post - below) when the media think the only time you allow brown faces to the fore is during racial upheaval and the only time you prominently feature black voices on the radio news is when there’s been  ‘urban’ unrest.

Where are the black commentators being regularly platformed about the economic collapse awaiting us in December? Where are the black scientists or black teachers regularly talking in prominent arenas about current issues in those fields?

It was only after I published last week’s open letter that I considered further just how hard it is for black people and people of colour to get attention for what they say if it is not specifically to do with being black. It’s a very tight pigeon hole.

So, I’m taking the opportunity of another bandcamp Friday supporting artists (like me) during this pandemic, when even those of us who made less than a modest income from our work have seen it dry up to nothing, to push this idea.

The piece I am promoting this week from bandcamp is entirely about the environment – something I’ve written about a great deal. Because – yes – if you've read my blog you know that I have opinion pieces on that – on world economics – education – poverty - equality yada yada yada.

So – if you would like to listen to this epic poem (I mean epic in the traditional sense not the modern idiom used in advertising) consider the environment AND support an artist – do follow this link and pay £3 to download 25 minutes of a lyrical modern fable. If you do it this today  Friday July 3^rd I will get ALL THREE OF THE POUNDS . If you do it after bandcamp friday I'll still get something so go to

Casey & the Surfmen (bandcamp)

Thank you

 *

To check out my books – click this link Amanda's Books

352. Dear British Black People (open letter)

Dear British Black People,

As the editorial and comment sections of our major newspapers whiten up again - the black and brown faces pushed forward for effect during the peak of UK BLM upheaval are already dropping back to the shadows – there is one singular and central lesson to be learnt and acted upon.

 

Yes – as Boris Johnson strops about statues rather than people (echoing Trump’s formal defence of confederate statues in the US while remaining silent on the blighted lives of generations of Black Americans) it is important to focus on what the toppling of statues taught us and not the already fading symbolism.

 

And what the toppling of the metal and concrete icons to slavery taught is this - black people do not have to wait for approval, from those benefiting from the status quo, to not be insulted. We do not have to petition for permission to no longer be side-lined. Black, minority and ethnic communities do not have to crawl for consent for the right not to be maligned, abused, overlooked for jobs or educational opportunities etc.

 

When the Colston statue was pulled down in Bristol my first thought was – my god – it was STILL THERE…

 

I recall the fuss over it a few years ago. Then other things pressed in, like the UK’s xenophobic self-destruct – or Brexit as it is called. The looming prospect of Britain becoming a minor US state horrifies me and then the pandemic taking as it has – its exceptional toll among the BAME community often in frontline jobs, care work and also often in poor housing.

 

The wailing about statues and not ‘pulling down history’ was hypocritical histrionics. I studied History at school, at 6th form and as part of my Ba Honours degree – though I majored in English – I was never once given a module on Slavery. So let’s bow to the sensibilities of those poor gentle folk and really make it part of history. Put the bloody statues in museums and make sure that British school children know the real detail of centuries of slavery that benefited the British elite. Tell them that a significant proportion of those currently with entrenched wealth in Britain, got that money directly or indirectly from the brutalisation of traded black human beings.

 

But that leaves – well - everything else…

It is past time to bring the ‘pulling down slave owners statues’ attitude into our daily lives in a very practical way.

 

We live in a world where the dollar matters more than duty and hard currency matters more than caring. The pound matters more than people. It is time to use that leverage.

 

Check out your bank, your law firm, your estate agent. How many BAME people do they employ and at what level compared to your local community? If the top rank is entirely white and the x% of black employees is made up of the zero hours contracted cleaner TAKE YOUR BUSINESS ELSEWHERE.

 

Ditto the newspaper you may buy. How many of their on-the-books journalists are from BAME communities? Your communities. If there are none, why are you giving them your money?

 

Look at the upper echelons of the universities in your city. Are those at the top overwhelmingly white? If so, how on earth do you think black youngsters are going to get the idea that academia is something for them?

 

What about the channels you watch on the T V or the radio shows you listen to? Do you only hear or see black people when it’s time for sport or music?

 

If you are not white, privileged, male and or living in London, why really are you subsidising one of the most gigantic, unrepresentative organisations in the UK by paying a licence fee? The BBC’s record on employing and promoting BAME people is far worse even than its treatment of women and none of its flagship programmes regularly feature black or minority ethnic voices. This is a problem the BBC has discussed – at about the level you might discuss the décor in the entrance hall – for decades but they have done nothing to make the changes that matter. Withdraw your funding unless you are some sort of philanthropist for privileged white people.

 

Are all the teachers at your school white even where you are lucky enough to have an ethnically mixed school intake?

 

In other words – out of your taxes – hard earned, hard fought for – who is getting top pay? The time for pulling down statues is gone. The media – with its short attention span for anything that doesn’t directly affect Emmas, Dominics and Jonathans – has moved on. But we can do something really significant if the energy moves on and up. This is no longer  about pulling down statues it is about pulling the rug out from under entrenched, comfortable, polite-on-the-surface British racism. The way to do it is easier than you might think.  The way to make change is by keeping your change in your pocket; by withdrawing the power of your pound and placing it where fairness is.

 

Only then will the platitudes turn into something concrete. And on those new concrete plinths we can build something far better than cold, grey statues.

Amanda Baker