WHAAAAATT????? A moment in a life.

Posted on by Opher

WHAAAAATT?????

Sipping a beer in the tropical heat of Sri Lanka,

                Hanging on a bus.

Racing a powerful motorbike, weaving through the traffic of Brazil.

                Peering over the rim of a volcano.

Riding elephants in Thailand and India, camels in Morocco and Petra,

                Stroking a komodo dragon.

Sampling a rich red wine in South Africa;

                Walking through jungles, along game trails, around peninsulas

                                In the Amazon, Africa and Australia.

Squatting on a huge bleached whale bone,

                Sharing a jay in Kilburn,

                                Laughing, talking, sharing, listening.

Bopping at a Beefheart gig, rapt at Harper,

                In awe at Hendrix and Cream, loving Floyd.

A room full of books,

Rooms full of music,

Collections galore.

                Driving nonstop to Portugal and France in a VW camper,

Driving around the States.

                Driving  around Europe in an old Bedford van.

Many friends been gone and still here.

                Much love.

Family all around.

 Much love.

Staring in awe on the rim of Grand Canyon,

                Looking down at Machu Picchu,

At Borobudur and Amkor Wat.

                Crossing roads in Saigon, walking through the traffic.

Visiting temples, mosques, cathedrals and mosques and marvelling at the ornamentation and architecture while lamenting the doctrine.

Arguing, teaching, learning, reading, writing, loving.

                Eating, drinking, absorbing, glowing.

Squeezing through the narrow souks of Marrakesh,

                Staring at the Taj Mahal, at redwoods, Mesa Verde and Death Valley.

Cuddling, kissing, caressing, embracing. Together.

Working, relaxing, thinking, feeling.

A house. A car. Books and poems. CDs and albums. Loud music. Soft sounds.

                Drifting down the Zambesi in a small boat with hippos and elephants.

                                Canoeing along the amazon catching piranhas and caymen.

Powering along the bayous to find an alligator’s nest.

                Hiking up Crater Lake.

                Watching Condors in Peru, huge saltwater crocodiles in Cairns, golden eagles on Mull.

Sharing with family.

                Sharing with friends.

                                Sharing with strangers.

Caring, striving, helping and full of joy.

In the midst of plenty,

                Lapping up experience,

                                Playing, relaxing, travelling.

Rounding the horn with twenty foot swells.

                Building a raft on the river with my mates.

                                Sport and games.

Hunting lizards, snakes and frogs.

                Collecting caterpillars.

                                                Gigs, galleries, museums and wonder.

Lost in art, in history and culture.

                Lost in a story, a film, a drama.

                                Enraptured by a play.

Meals. Babies. Sex and love. Laughter and the glow of together.

                Sated yearnings. Replete and alive.

The sadness’s compensated by the memories.

Sunrises and sunsets,

                Golden light on green hills,

                                Warmth and freedom.

The click of a stylus,

                The embrace of a familiar song.

Counting the luck.

                Aware of the privilege.

Basking in the journey.

                Luck has played a merry game.

                                Aware that all I’ve ever had is this one moment.

Now, all I can do is ask                              WWWWHHHHAAAAAAAATTTT???????

Opher – 31.1.2024

Reflections on a life.

Recapturing odd moments.

So much more.

Packing in the experience.

Fitting life and family around work.

Reliving the memories.

Living in the moment.

More to come.

WWWWWHHHHHAAAAATTTTT????

Justice

Posted on by Opher

Justice

I’ve been studying justice.

It’s been hard.

I could not find too much of it.

I looked in the courts

But it wasn’t to be found –

Only the tiniest bit.

I searched the battlefields.

There was none.

All lost in the fog of true grit.

I hunted for it on the streets,

Searched high and low

Justice had taken a hit.

It seems we don’t value justice

We have no wish to be fair.

We’re happy to tolerate poverty

And injustice everywhere.

Justice is just for the rich.

They make sure they get their share.

Opher – 11.4.2021

The courts do not dispense justice. They undergo procedure according to the law. It very much depends on how good a barrister you can afford. The courts protect the state. They require scapegoats as deterrents.

Violence in war, by tyrants, by gangs, by the authorities, overrides all justice.

We live in a world of our own design. We have created massive inequality, exploitation and poverty.

These things have not come about by chance. They were designed.

The powerful choose injustice, unfairness and selfishness. They think they deserve it.

Partygate – the way the propaganda works.

Posted on by Opher
The Tory Party decided that Boris Johnson, despite everything, was still the best chance they had of hanging on to power. Power is all that matters. Power means status and wealth. It’s highly addictive. They launch ‘Operation Save The Big Dog’.

The media were deployed to tell the cretins what to think.

The law-breaking and lies of Partygate were played down. It was a trivial bit of birthday cake – there are far bigger issues with Ukraine and the Cost of Living.

The police were pressured to muddy the waters by investigating Starmer. This was built up to appear as if Starmer’s beer and curry at a working by-election meeting were the same as a series of planned parties with quizzes, party hats, booze in shopping trolleys and bring a bottle in Johnson’s house and back garden.

The police were pressured not to prosecute Johnson.

There was a secret meeting with Sue Gray to tailor the report.

The fact that Johnson had repeatedly lied about parties he had attended to the public and in the House was glossed over. It was just a bit of birthday cake. Starmer had done the same. He’d said sorry. Move on.

Lying to the House was downplayed as trivia.

They tried to big-up Johnson’s wonderful Ukraine contribution – lots of photo ops.

They hid from scrutiny as much as possible.

The Press kept up a stream of anti-Starmer, pro-Johnson propaganda.

The heat died down. Johnson is still there.

Meanwhile, they are stifling all opposition and removing all scrutiny – taking over the BBC and Channel 4, banning protest and pouring out propaganda through the Daily Express, The Daily Mail, the Telegraph, Sun and Times.

They want a world without scrutiny or accountability so that the population can be controlled and manipulated.

The media will run scare stories about the opposition. The failures and corruption of the Tories will be glossed over.

People will forget the law-breaking, nepotism, huge handouts to their chums, illegal donors, Russian connections, second salaries, Partygate, Lies, Brexit failure, Covid corruption, cash for secret meetings, cash for peerages, tens of thousands dead, tax rises, broken promises, Care lies, VAT hikes, benefit cuts, food banks, homelessness, cost of living crisis ………………………..

The Tories will be blameless.

Johnson, the most corrupt, sleazy, lying, incompetent Prime Minister we have ever had will tighten his grip.

It is becoming a lot like Russia.

Labour surges ahead as Tory Lies and Corruption undermine democracy.

Posted on by Opher

The council elections loom on Nov 5th (sure to be fireworks) as the government drags democracy and honour into the gutter. Trust has evaporated in all except the most ardently brainwashed.

Despite Starmer’s lack of charisma and the way he has hauled the party into the middle of the road to become watered-down Tories, Labour is now 6 points clear.

I receive the news with mixed emotions. Just about anything, short of the Ku Klux Klan, is an improvement on what must go down as the most inept, corrupt and dishonest government we have ever had. Even Starmer feels like a ray of hope.

Poetry – Privilege

Posted on by Opher

Privilege

Privilege brings licence,

Existing by different laws.

Privilege buys freedom

To behave in any manner.

Privilege produces arrogance –

Two worlds in one.

Privilege attracts sycophants,

As if they deserve it.

Privilege sets people apart

And smacks of superiority.

Privilege is an obnoxious

Distortion of reality.

Privilege is simply wrong.

Opher – 20.11.2019

There is a world of privilege where certain people use their money and power to live by different rules. There are people who feel they are intrinsically better than others. There are people who really believe they can do what they want regardless of who they hurt and what damage they cause. They can either buy their way out or use their clout to intimidate.

This world of privilege creates two different worlds.

It needs to stop.

David Cameron – A Blue Plaque – He sold his country for personal gain! The Tory way!!

Posted on by Opher

The incompetent twat allowed the ERG extremists to take over his party, allowed the country to be divided and broken by Brexit and then buggered off leaving us with an incompetent clown in charge and everything in a mess.

I’m not sure he deserves a blue plaque, let alone his multimillion income. I’d lock him in the Tower for life!!

Barbados – A Plantation

Posted on by Opher

Barbados had its history as a Caribbean tropical farm. Slaves were used for the production of sugar, bananas and other crops. A lot of people made a lot of money.

Walking around a plantation with its mansion was salutary. There were lots of thoughts.

Was it any different to the Stately Homes back in England.

Here they exploited slaves. In England they exploited the poor. In practice there was little difference. The same callous people lived like lords. The same poor people gave their labour for very little.

Poetry – The British Empire

Posted on by Opher

The British Empire

From the shores of this small island,

Reaching out with armies to embrace the whole world,

From the Falklands, through the USA, Canada, the Caribbean,

Africa, India, China, Indonesia, and the Philippines

to Australia and New Zealand,

Great Britain ruled.

The greatest Empire the world has ever seen.

The tentacles of that empire

Probed, exploited, subjugated and menaced.

Its power was extent.

It sent forth its mighty navy.

It invaded, deposed and laid claim.

It deployed its superiority and arrogance

Through its technology and attitude.

A sense of privilege and worth,

It conquered,

Divided and ruled.

With armies of bureaucrats it controlled.

It plundered the world

Bringing back the spoils

To build its stately homes,

To finance its servants and lavish lifestyle,

With fashion, banquets and balls.

To finance its great armies

And maintain its domination.

Yet little, if any, of this vast plunder

Was wasted on the populace of Great Britain.

The public were sentenced to poverty,

Gruelling labour in field and factory,

A life of penury with great penalty

And heartless application

Should they rebel,

Or question their position.

For we were the cannon fodder,

Worthless, expendable,

Without a vote,

No power and no hope.

Brainwashed in schools

To worship mighty God,

King and country

And wave our union jacks on Empire day.

The Empire was a product of the elite,

For the benefit of the elite.

While we, the people, were exploited

As heartlessly as any slaves.

The British Empire

Swaddled the world in pink.

It should have been red –

Red with the blood

The blood of ordinary folk,

Of battlefields,

Of the whipped slaves in the sugar plantations!

Or at least blue with aristocratic blood,

The blue blood of arrogant rulers,

Of those who populated the Public Schools

And assumed superiority.

But it was pink.

The delicate feminine colour

Of charm and romance.

A disguise

For a sinister vehicle of oppression,

Within and without.

All Empires crumble.

But the same privileged elite

Maintain their position,

Deploy their power

And still reign supreme.

Opher – 29.12.2020

Thus it is everywhere to this day. Just because the Empires are less obvious does not mean they do not exist or are not as ruthless. Privilege maintains privilege. Equality is a myth

Poetry – Playing by the same rules

Posted on by Opher

Playing by the same rules

 

Playing by the same rules

That’s meritocracy.

No prejudice, no privilege,

Just equality.

 

Selecting the person who does it best

Produces a better outcome.

While using nepotism, racism and sexism,

Is just plain dumb.

 

Yet our country is run on class and privilege

Through an establishment elite.

They decide who rises to power.

They promise, lie and cheat.

 

It’s so hard to change the rules,

To create a fairer state.

Those who control the news and media

Are the ones who decide our fate.

 

Opher – 20.7.2020