Liar Liar at Number One – Captain Ska voices the opinion of millions!!
Journey Pt. 16 How Long Halong? Halong Bay – Vietnam – Photos.
We slipped out of Hong Kong late at night, slid between the dark hills and out to sea. 
The next day we were entering the Hainan Straits heading for Vietnam. The Hainan Straits had been built up as an event. I was eager to see this interesting spectacle. However the Chinese had plans to thwart our intent. The Chinese had sanctioned our passage with certain stipulations – under no circumstances were any photographs to be taken on deck! The threat was delivered with great intensity leaving one with the thought that if any of us were to be foolish enough to sneak a snap of anything of interest a missile would surely blow the ship to smithereens. Searching the skies for signs of Chinese surveillance satellites or drones I determined to take a few shots anyway. You only have to tell me not to do something and it is immediately the one thing I’m determined to do. I had not previously had the slightest interest in Chinese defences in the region, in fact I had not realised that it was a delicate area of military tension, but found myself intrigued. I don’t know what all the fuss was about. As it happened the day was hazy and never a sight of land did we see, not a single missile site, tank or airfield, no secret ray guns or experimental laser weaponry, not even a barren island with a sentry box. All my surreptitious plans were thwarted. I have a few shots of distance fog though, should anyone be interested. Some straits those were – we might as well have been in the middle of the ocean.
But what was that Chinese threat all about? Surely a few tourist snaps from a passing ship miles out to sea were not going to show anything a satellite or spy-plane camera wouldn’t reveal in a lot more detail?
The next morning I was up on deck shortly after 5 a.m. I know – madness. But we were coming in to Halong Bay. I wanted to observe the way our doughty Captain manoeuvred our craft through the narrow passages between the large array of conical rocks.
My first surprise was that there were lots of boats out there all lit up with hundreds of lanterns. Some of them were big. They were fishing for squid. It created quite a picture with the tumults of rock illuminated by Disneyland boats.
Our Captain swerved and scudded around the rocks like a ragged rascal. I could imagine him there all alone on the bridge, a bottle of rum in one hand, gaily spinning the wheel first one way and then the other, singing at the top of his voice, as he guided us to harbour.
Halong Bay was misty in the night but cleared up in the day. The sun even broke through and we were able to see it in all its majesty. The surreal conical dolomite rocks stuck up out of the water all around like some aquatic willow pattern scene (and I used to think those Chinese designs were fanciful and imaginative). It reminded me of Guilin after a flood. Very majestic and peculiar.
This was one of the places I had really wanted to visit and now we were here. We’d had to choose between getting in amongst the rocks or nipping off to Hanoi. We decided to explore the rocks. Hanoi was a mere city; Halong Bay was a wonder.
We were tendered ashore on our lifeboats. Then we negotiated with the locals who ripped us off handsomely for a trip out among the towering rocks. They merely drove us to a shipping port and put us on a small boat which probably cost half of what we paid them.
First stop was one of the great rock edifices which was hollow and contained a massive cave full of stalagmites and stalactites. I’m not a great one for caves but these were really impressive, among the best I’ve seen, with sheets and curtains of coloured rocks – wonderful to behold. Huge galleries of rippling glazed rock in surreal spectacle.
Then back to the boat and sailing and weaving through the strange rock formations (along with a mass of other boats). They were stunning, as stunning as I had imagined and impossible to capture in photographs. We were lucky to get to see them as the previous two days it had been heavily overcast and raining. Needless to say I took a few photos. Those rocks are enormous and had been sculpted by wind and water erosion into great conical shapes that seem utterly unique and extremely picturesque.
I can see why it is a UNESCO heritage site. It is quite amazing.
We’re now at sea heading off down Vietnam. I’m just finishing this before heading off for lunch – a curry, a pint and a read up on deck. It’s a bit hazy but 26 degrees – quite pleasant.
Next stop tomorrow – Day 32 – Chan May and Hue (only 40 days to go!).
Then, this afternoon, we get our heads together for a Tete a Tete offensive to decide what to do in Saigon! Always good to plan ahead!
I just voted Labour but I am totally disenfranchised!!!
I have just returned from voting. I put my vote in for Labour, Corbyn and a fairer Britain.
I voted for more equality, more funding for schools, the NHS and Social Care. I voted against the continuing cuts and austerity for the poor and public servants. I voted for more taxation on the super-rich and multinationals. I believe they should contribute more. I voted against the theft from pensioners, the disabled, poor and public servants to give tax breaks to the super-rich. I voted against Fox hunting, Grammar Schools, Religious Schools and Free Schools. I voted for a softer Brexit without tariffs. I voted for a caring Labour Party and against an uncaring Nasty Party. I voted for the many and not the few.
I voted for a Labour manifesto that is the best manifesto I have ever seen.
I ignored the Tory lies that have been present in all the media, painting Corbyn as an incompetent extremist. He isn’t.
I voted against the establishment who are running this unjust, unfair society. I voted for a change to something better.
But my vote counts for nothing. I am disenfranchised.
The area I live in is staunch Tory. It would take a monumental reawakening for it to change. My vote, no matter how well thought through, how passionately felt, is completely wasted.
This election is fought in the marginals. The vast majority of people, in both staunch Labour and staunch Tory areas, have no reason to vote. Their votes are wasted.
The election is actually affected by a small minority of people in certain marginal seats. The rest of us make no difference what so ever.
That cannot be right!
In a democratic system every vote should count.
WE NEED A SYSTEM OF PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION SO THAT EVERY VOTE COUNTS!!!
I’ll Tell You What I Want – What I really Realy Want!!
- I want an education system that works for everyone, that is properly funded, with excellent motivated staff, good support and without all the distracting, expensive gimmicks of Free Schools (with unqualified Staff), Religious schools (separation and indoctrination), Grammar Schools (for the few at the expense of the many) and Academies (Political instruments for undermining Local Authorities).
- I want an NHS that is properly funded, without nurses needing food banks, without doctors working long hours, without creeping privatisation and with motivated staff.
- I want a police force that is well funded and puts police in the community to get a handle on terrorism and crime.
- I want counter-terrorism well funded and working with the EU to solve the terrible scourge of ISIS and religious fundamentalism.
- I want a Social Care system that cares for the elderly and disabled and doesn’t rob them of their savings.
- I want a more equal society where globalisation and automation doesn’t create paupers out of the many and billionaires out of the few. I want a progressive taxation system that addresses that balance so that the rich contribute more.
- I want public servants paid fairly for the hard work they do and not have their pensions slashed so that billionaires and multinationals and bankers and ex-chancellors can keep more of their ill-earned loot.
- I want a fairer society that works for everyone!!!
All those things, in one of the world’s richest countries, are perfectly affordable.
Under the Tories we have had austerity for the majority while the rich have become inordinately richer. But then, that is what the Tory Party was founded for. That is what it always does. It robs the poor to give to the rich!!!
VOTE LABOUR!!! VOTE CORBYN!!! VOTE FOR FAIRNESS AND JUSTICE!!!
Is Theresa May being held hostage!!
The extreme right wing of the Tory Party have kidnapped May and locked her away!!
What we have is a puppet. David Davies pulls the strings and Liam Fox does the voice.
Poor Mrs May, who voted remain, is made to spout the most vile right-wing rhetoric. The caring, tolerant lady is being made to sound heartless and callous. She is stealing money from pensioners, school kids, nurses, policemen, firefighters, teachers, the disabled and the poor to give to the rich.
That can’t be May can it?
Where is Rees-Mogg? Gove, Letwin, Jeremy Hunt,  and Douglas Smith? They are probably holding her captive while they do their terrible deed. Even Boris has been too frightened to speak.
What a terrible bunch of extremists! They are trying to screw the country.
If you look carefully you can see the strings!
Corbyn Magic – Labour Tide coming in like a Tsunami! Tories down to 3% lead – A hung Parliament!
But Labour have advanced from -24% to -3%. The gap narrows daily. If it continues at this rate they’ll have a majority of a hundred MPs by polling day!
People have seen through the Tory lies.
They think May is running scared and she’s weak.
They think Corbyn will deliver a better Brexit.
They are fed up with cuts, austerity and greed.
They are fed up with the poor being screwed to give to the rich.
They don’t care about the hysterical lies of the media.
They like Labour policies and want to see a fairer Britain.
This time it is not Blair the watered down Tory; it is proper Labour fairness and justice.
Have faith in democracy!!
A Tory majority spells doom for the NHS, Schools and Social Care for the elderly and disabled.
Get out there and VOTE!!!! Save the country from this Tory tyranny!! Bring in a Labour victory!!
Time for change!! Time for something different!! TIME FOR LABOUR!!!!
All the major leaders have responded to Trump’s disastrous pulling out of the Paris agreement – Except May!
A whole series of world leaders have condemned Trump’s irresponsible action. They have signed a letter regretting his short-sighted policy. The only one who has refused to sign is Theresa May!
Frightened she might lose someone to hold hands with?
I believe it clearly demonstrates her attitude to the environment. She’s happy to trash the planet as long as she can make a buck or two to plug the giant hole that Brexit will leave.
Opher Goodwin – A writer on writing
A writer on writing – How I write
How I write
I do not have a standard way of writing. Usually I write from an inspiration. Sometimes I plan meticulously. Often I write a stream of consciousness.
- Torture – was thoroughly researched. I spent ages checking out the Quran, quotes, factions, terrorism and torture. A lot of that was not pleasant reading. I mapped out each chapter and wrote it slowly.
- Anthropocene Apocalypse – was written in sections. It was a series of my personal observations and thoughts that stemmed from my life and travels around the world and personal witnessing of the destruction of the natural habitat around the world.
- Sorting the Future – came from a dream. I was on board the Marco Polo and had a weird dream about aliens who came to Earth on a mission to save nature and intelligence, equipped with rejuvenating machine and advanced technology. It was a bit of wishful thinking. I wrote the first draft in five days in one long stream of consciousness. It just flowed. The rewrites took a lot longer but I tried to keep the light touch and flow and think I have been successful
- Ebola in the Garden of Eden – was mapped out very carefully with the plot sorted. I had the outline written out but did not write it for about twenty years. When I did it came out as one of my best Sci-Fi novels
- In Search of Captain Beefheart – was a memoir of my life with Rock Music. It charts my love of Rock from my first singles, albums and gigs through to now. It straddles the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties. I did not want it to be a boring chronological run through but I had this idea of a quest that brought it to life. It is my most popular book.
- A Passion For Education – this was another memoir. I wanted to put my philosophy of education down in black and white but I did not want it to be a boring academic book. I had the idea of explaining why I believed in the various aspects of my reasoning through anecdotes and experiences that brought it to life. It tells the inside story of Headship. I have had many people not in education tell me how interesting they found it. That was good. I wrote it in sections. It was easy to do. The content provided the structure. I had to marry the anecdotes and stories to the theory.
- Danny’s Story – is a story about a house I lived in in the early seventies. It was full of characters and incidents. I sat on it for forty years. I could not think how to write it in an interesting way. Then I read John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat and it inspired me. I saw a way of doing it. I fictionalised myself and the characters so that they were removed from it. It flowed out ion one great stream of consciousness that worked for me. I am now going through and knocking the raw, rough descriptions and sentences into better shape.
As you can see – I tend to suddenly get an inspiration and that is it – I’m off. I write hard and fast until it is complete. I then hone. Sometimes I plan and map. Sometimes I research. But often it comes pouring out of my head in one long splurge. All I have to do is get an insight into how to structure it. It’s like pouring cement. When I get going my mind churns. I find myself waking in the night to head off to the computer to write another section that has materialised in my sleep. I have been known to write through the night for twenty four hours without a break.
I have written 57 books.
Here’s a few of them:
These are my six books of poetry. They are available as paperback or on Kindle from Amazon – all for under £5 for a paperback. You could buy the whole lot for just £27.62!!
They are not conventional poetry books. They are like you find on my blog with a page of explanatory prose followed by the poem. The prose is as important as the poem to me.
Codas, Cadence and Clues – £4.97
Stanzas and Stances – £5.59
Poems and Peons – £4.33
Rhymes and Reasons – £3.98
Prose, Cons and Poetry – £4.60
Vice and Verse – £4.15
Science Fiction books:
Ebola in the Garden of Eden – paperback £6.95 Kindle £2.56 (or free on unlimited)
Green – paperback £9.98 Kindle £2.56 (or free on unlimited)
Rock Music books
In Search of Captain Beefheart – paperback £6.91 Kindle £1.99 (or free on unlimited)
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Other selected books and novels:
Anecdotes-Weird-Science-Writing-Ramblings – a book of anecdotes mainly from the sixties and other writing.
More Anecdotes – following the immense popularity of the first volume I produced a second
Goofin’ with the cosmic freaks – a kind of On the Road for the sixties
The book of Ginny – a novel
In Britain :
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1461306850&sr=1-2-ent
In America:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=opher+goodwin
In all other countries around the world check out your regional Amazon site and Opher Goodwin books.
Theresa May – Robin Hood in Reverse!!! Sing along!!
To the tune of Robin Hood:
Theresa May, Theresa May
Striding through the land
Theresa May, Theresa May
With her hideous band
She robs from the poor to give to the rich
What a bitch
What a bitch.
What a bitch
She called up her advisors
To dine at number ten
They vowed to help to fool us all
They created all the trouble
On the English country scene,
Drank and laughed and had a ball
Theresa May, Theresa May
Striding through the land
Theresa May, Theresa May
With her hideous band
She robs from the poor to give to the rich
What a bitch
What a bitch.
What a bitch
Billy Bragg – It Says Here – Lyrics about the media – Can we have democracy if the information we are fed is false?
Billy Bragg – It Says Here – Lyrics about the media – Can we have democracy if the information we are fed is false?
In order for people to be able to make decisions on important issues and electable candidates it is necessary to have access to unbiased information. Failing that it is important to have information from different sides of the argument with a clear knowledge of what the bias is.
Unfortunately this is far from the case. All our information in the media is biased towards the establishment. Information on the web comes from a number of dubious sources for a variety of reasons.
Our newspapers are owned by exceedingly rich individuals and feed us with a pile of lies, exaggerations and rubbish. They would prefer that we do not think about issues at all and concentrate on celebrity nonsense, fashion, trivia, Royals and sex. What they do put out is strongly biased to feed us the story they want us to believe.
The BBC has a reputation for being objective. This is simply not true. After seeing the scandalous way the Orgreave situation was reported on BBC news, with an editorial decision to reverse the order of the film to completely alter the narrative and blame the miners, one can clearly see the establishment bias revealed. BBC news cannot be trusted. This is increasingly true following the loading of the BBC board with Tory people. Politics has no place in the reporting of news.
Brexit clearly demonstrated this. Lies and exaggerations were the prevailing diet and went completely unchallenged.
Can you have democracy without unbiased news? I think not.
If the electorate are consistently fed political propaganda without balance they are being indoctrinated. That is not democracy.
Is Jeremy Corbyn really a left-wing nutter who is unelectable? Or do his policies make complete sense?
The brilliant Billy Bragg summed it up:-
Billy Bragg – It Says Here
It says here that the unions will never learn
It says here that the economy is on the upturn
And it says here we should be proud
That we are free
And our free press reflects our democracyThose braying voices on the right of the House
Are echoed down the Street of Shame
Where politics mix with bingo and tits
In a strictly money and numbers game
It says here that the economy is on the upturn
And it says here we should be proud
That we are free
And our free press reflects our democracyThose braying voices on the right of the House
Are echoed down the Street of Shame
Where politics mix with bingo and tits
In a strictly money and numbers game
Where they offer you a feature
On stockings and suspenders
Next to a call for stiffer penalties for sex offenders
It says here that this year’s prince is born
It says here do you ever wish
That you were better informed
And it says here that we can only stop the rot
With a large dose of Law and Order
And a touch of the short sharp shock
If this does not reflect your view you should understand
That those who own the papers also own this land
And they’d rather you believe
In Coronation Street capers
In the war of circulation, it sells newspapers
Could it be an infringement
Of the freedom of the press
To print pictures of women in states of undress
When you wake up to the fact
That your paper is Tory
Just remember, there are two sides to every story