Although the human mind can make billions of connections it appears from research that for the most part, our emotional responses are laid down by the time we are three and many of our attitudes are completed by the time we are ten. Attitudes that are very difficult to break down if we come to…
The NHS
It is a curious fact, that no one ever really discusses, with the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom that their philosophy, as espoused succinctly in Monetarism under Margaret Thatcher, and repeated by successive ministers, requires people to pay for the services they receive and if they do not have the money, to go without….
Remembrance
The finest way to remember the fallen of any and all conflicts is to work to make sure no more people die in wars. It isn’t always an easy thing to do and often no matter how hard you work, it doesn’t always work. Although the modern world has finally rid itself of kings and…
Marianne Baum
Marianne Baum: Written between 1939-1946 The Baum GRUPPE Act, do something, we told ourselves and each other. And so we did— our small group infiltrated factories, organized slave laborers, wrote pamphlets, dropped them on buses, slipped out at night with buckets of paint, brushes, left our mark. So little, but we had to do something….
No Respect for Ideas
Having had several ideas stolen from me without so much as a thank you when I was a younger writer I have been very careful about sending books, plays and ‘ideas’ out to anyone. And when I read what happened to other people’s ideas my experiences are mild. There are many people who suggest registering…
The Fire of Ice
Many years ago I was watching Richard Burton as a middle aged man talking about a new poem he had found by Robert Frost – one of only two poems of much worth he ever wrote in my opinion – which started ‘Some say the world will end in fire…’ and I remember as a…
Atheism and Divinity
I have listened for many years to debates between religious people and agnostics and/or atheists and heard many trying with earnest goodwill to persuade each of the merits of their own case. Some points may be considered absurdist (like defending exact phrases in the religious texts against experience) and some antagonistic (like labelling all religious…
Security on the Internet
I was told by some trained system operators when I began to surf the Internet that whatever you do, nothing is private on the net. Basically if someone wants to find you and knows how then they will be able to track you even if you make it difficult for them. However though this may…
The Art of Visiting
Am happy to report my friends have returned from Mumbai ans that all-in-all they had a lovely couple of weeks holiday. One of the highlights was going to a village in Matheran, an out of the way stop-over in the hills which has no roads and no electricity. It is probably something of a dream…
John Clare
All Nature has a Feeling All nature has a feeling: woods, fields, brooks Are life eternal: and in silence they Speak happiness beyond the reach of books; There’s nothing mortal in them; their decay Is the green life of change; to pass away And come again in blooms revivified. Its birth was heaven, eternal it…