Wednesday 26 June 2013

Snowden

the back of a race number 


The Snowden affair.

A man allegedly commits a crime against his homeland, in this case the USA. He goes on the run. He intends to seek political asylum. He turns up in China (Hong Kong). Then he vanishes.

The transit area of an airport in Moscow is where he next appears. Perhaps he hopes the Russians will approach him with some kind of offer.

They, as far as we know, do not.

He has flown there directly from China (Hong Kong) and he is said to be on his way to Ecuador, Cuba, Iceland or some other final destination.

The Russian president is asked to comment.

Snowden has arrived in Russia unexpectedly. He has not crossed the state border. He has no visa. He is in the airport transit area. Russia has no extradition treaty with the USA.

The president explains the intricacies of the situation.

"The sooner he decides on his final destination and goes there the better it will be for him and for us," says the president. 

Then he adds, explaining his non-interest: "It would be like shearing a pig. A lot of squealing and not much fleece." 

The president wishes to maintain what he calls an "international business relationship" with the USA and the international community unlike certain bellicose voices in the US who constantly engage with the world at a less intelligent level.

Since the advent of the internet I have taken it as par for the course that we are all being spied on all of the time. I don't need a fugitive to tell me the obvious.

There's nothing to be done about it. We live in the world of Big Brother. It's fait accompli.

One day electronic chips will be in everything, even our shoes.

When I cross the finish line in a mountain race a chip on my race bib records my time and position. When I use my phone the phone company records my location. I take it to be so with passports, computers, plastic cards, gps devices, expensive cars, valuable machinery and much more. In fact the list is probably almost endless.

I suspect my TV company can tell you which channels I watch. And which programmes.

The supermarket knows what I eat.

We, who live in towns and cities or travel from place to place by whatever means have our image and location captured hundreds of times a day.

Every time we go to the hole in the wall our photo is taken.

It's the same when we go to the public library, the theatre, the football stadium. There's no escaping it, short of becoming a hermit or recluse.

In years to come we will doubtless put the computer chips in all the babies at birth. We already do it with our dogs.

"So it goes," the author of the firebombing of Dresden novel Slaughterhouse Five often points out. Kurt Vonnegut means that things are the way they are whether we like it or not.

Whatever is invented will be used. And whatever has not been invented will be invented.

My barber Gordon, may he rest in peace, was an insightful man and could predict when our local football team would have to piss against the wind.

I never saw him shave a pig.

The consequences for mankind are unimaginable.


Tuesday 25 June 2013

The cat lover

The cat lover (1920-2013)

Her whole life 
was her cats 
and she loved 
them all endlessly 

the bad tempered 
blind cat
 of the wardrobe
as much 

as the cat 
with the hump 
on its back
and the cat with three legs.

She loved
each cat as much
as the others -
and each one

as much as
the cats that slept
on her bed
till the end

of their lives 
'neath the cat
with gold eyes
on the wall.

*

Before the preacher 
had sprinkled the water
and the boy with the incense 
had wafted

all those cats 
in their heaven 
had already welcomed her 
home. 

-


Wednesday 19 June 2013

The Energy Drink Drinkers



smarty and snappy 

snap open their cans

which they drain 

and then crush 

with bare hands

these drop to the street

with a clatter 

where they'll stay 

a few days 

doesn't matter a damn 

for doubtless a man 

with a brush 

and a pan

will happen to hobble along 

and possibly pick them things up 




Monday 17 June 2013

George Herbert on Love




Love

Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
 Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
 From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning 
 If I lack'd anything.

'A guest,' I answered, 'worthy to be here':

 Love said, 'You shall be he.'
'I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear, 
 I cannot look on Thee.'
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
 'Who made the eyes but I?'

'Truth, Lord: but I have marr'd them: let my shame

 Go where it doth deserve.'
'And know you not,' says Love, "Who bore the blame?'
 'My dear, then I will serve.'
'You must sit down,' says Love, 'and taste my meat.'
 So I did sit and eat. 


George Herbert
 (1593-1633)

Wednesday 12 June 2013

Pen Cakes





simple ingredients 

words and 

spaces 



all mixed together 

and cooked

over fire


tossed

this way 
and that 




left on a window 

to cool 



and serve 



cold 







Tuesday 11 June 2013

summer haiku 2013




flower of wild rose

 and incandescent insect 

  highlight on the green


Monday 10 June 2013

The Crystal Horizon




As far as anyone knows Rheinhold Messner was the first man to climb Mount Everest solo and without an artificial supply of oxygen. I say as far as anyone knows because it is not inconceivable that a Tibetan monk or some other person may have ascended the great white mountain in the dim and distant past in search of the wisdom of the gods. It is unlikely but it cannot be ruled out.

In one anecdote in his book The Crystal Horizon (The Crowood Press ISBN 978 1 86126 176 2) ) the Italian mountaineer describes for the reader the Tibetan story of how the world was created. I paraphrase some of it here:

In the beginning there was a void, a dark emptiness. Then a soft wind arose. It grew stronger and stronger. Then came lightning. And clouds. And then rain. And after the rain there were oceans.

And then there was land and a great mountain.

The gods who lived on the earth needed no light for each carried his own light within him. But after some time the gods became like people, and dependent upon the sun, moon and stars.

The earth was full of riches. And for each person there grew one fruit each day.

One day someone found two fruits on his tree and ate them both. The next day he had no fruit. And because he had no fruit he stole the fruit from his neighbour's tree.

The neighbour, seeing this and now having no nourishment, stole the fruit from another neighbour's tree.

And so it went on.

Before long each person was stealing the fruit of another.

And so work was created. Everyone planting and growing extra fruit in case some of his fruit was stolen.

Through their squabbling over the fruit the people, who had once been like gods, had changed their way of thinking.

One day a man tore his genitalia from his body.

He became like a woman.

And before long the earth was full of men and women  . . .  squabbling and stealing from each other.




Most of us do not have the ability, the fitness or even the inclination to attempt to climb Chomolungma (Mount Everest). Nevertheless with a book like The Crystal Horizon we can allow the author to open windows in our minds; windows to new horizons.




Friday 7 June 2013

Blue Danube or Yellow River?

Bavaria: The Yellow Danube drowns Deggendorf

from today's Die Presse:

". . . Bavaria . . . Two dams breached . . .  Low lying areas evacuated . . . People flee onto their roofs. Rescued with helicopters . . . north of Györ in Hungary water level rising . . . main wave will reach Budapest on Monday . . . army mobilized . . ."

One thing about water is that we can see it coming and get out of the way. When it has passed we can go back. This is not the case with radiation. At Fukushima the radiation in the form of noble gases was 3 times higher than at Chernobyl and the radiation in the form of cesium was the same as Chernobyl. When you have 45 minutes to spare it will pay you to go HERE and learn the truth about the continuing apocalypse.



Thursday 6 June 2013

haikrule





from the flooding fields

deer look through the chainlink fence

to the autobahn 



Many have drowned. In the last "flood of the century" (2002) it was officially 80% hereabouts. The affected are mainly young. This year's crop. It was proposed to close the motorway for a day and let all cross to safety. This was rejected in the interests of the priority of the safety of humans. Economics was not mentioned in the TV news report. They have large dark eyes. Pleading . . . almost. But not quite. It seems.




haikzoo 2



blowpipe pokes through fence

on river island zoo

trailer tailgate up



________

The zoo animals, as I have witnessed on TV, are being blowpiped with tranquilizer darts so that they can be transported to safety from a zoo on an island in the middle of the Danube. It's like a bizarre scene from an Amazon film. The "flood of the century" is on the way.

The previous "flood of the century" was in 2002. There was an almost "flood of the century" in 2005.

An interesting aside to all this is this:

A long time ago the mighty Danube flowed not into the Black Sea as it does today but into the Adriatic Sea. Rivers, can and do change their course in the passage of time. Will the Danube do so again? And if so when?

With every town and village erecting higher flood barriers in what used to be flood plains and gorges ever more water is being channelled downriver with every "flood of the century". Where and how will it all end?

There will certainly be an account to pay. We should learn to work with the forces of nature. We should know when to yield. We should learn to be more wary.


News from afar is that another waste tank at Fukushima Daiichi is currently leaking radioactive water . This kind of thing barely merits a mention these days.

Smile and stay happy and you won't receive any radiation related sickness say politicos and paymasters.

Around the world there are hundreds of nuclear power stations, many well beyond their designed life span.

The next major earthquake, tsunami, volcanic eruption, typhoon, snowstorm, hurricane, flood, tornado, or jellyfish armada is only a matter of time away.

And nobody knows what to do.




Wednesday 5 June 2013

haikzoo



an ape in a tree

and no sign of a rainbow

a penguin floats by



_________

Yes folks, another "flood of the century" is upon us; the highest waters for more than 500 years in one town on the Danube.

The last "flood of the century" hereabouts was in 2002.

As man battles to control the forces of nature by erecting ever higher dams or dykes and lately portable steel and concrete slot-in walls to protect his flood plain properties there are occasional news reports of animals being rescued from a zoo.

Some animals, we must assume, will have perished (not reported), and some will have made their bids for freedom. No news yet on the penguins.