There are a few things we never hear in the debate on Israel which bug me. The first is that the UNHCR was set up to help the Arab refugees after the War and as part of its remit a UN fact finder went out to decide upon reparations deciding that Arab and Jewish loses…
Victims
I called a farmer here a few years ago when I found on my walks a dead cow in his field. I thought in my innocence he would drive out and want to know what killed it. I later saw he had dug out a large hole and buried it where it lay. When I…
Republicanism in America
When Robert Lee sat down to sign the peace accord after the Civil War he, according to those who were there, referred to the North as the United States, showing that even in defeat he thought of America as two separate countries. It was a painful expression of a political view point still warmly held…
To My Future Readers
I lived – air on tongue, light on hair, skin sea Touched, fingers horse maned, tired eyes soft-pillowed A last loving, wall builder drinking tea In a garden rich with roses, willowed. My dirt hands wrote and dug, planted in ink Seeded commas and sentences, infant Words grown from experiences, thought-linked, Stained in the grain…
India Aside
Mumbai has always been the bustling, legal and financial centre of India even when I was last there in 1977 as a teenager. It has changed. Not that there is less bustle, but the whole enterprise here is one of huge modernity, mixed with the same sights that have haunted visitors for centuries. The high…
Flight Plans
All this online book ins with airports is fun because it gives you the impression you are in charge of your own destiny. Where will you sit, what will you eat, choose the time to suit your itinerary. And when you have done all that look – you can rent a car, a hotel and…
The Walls We Dare To Cross
The brilliant and original George Orwell was disenchanted with his own class in English society and thought that the working classes embodied the values he wanted to live amongst. He was disenchanted to find they did not. In fact the values he espoused are not to be found anywhere in a strata of society –…
Vesuvius
Many years ago when I was a child my aunt went to Italy and came back from visiting Vesuvius the volcano (which was and may still be giving off smoke) and in her memorabilia she had a piece of natural glass. It is a misshapen, chunky, slightly pale pink in places, hard lump of glass…
Mummy How Did God Make Me?
God made you out of a puff of air – Somewhere from heaven near to earth – Mingled you with all my dreams Bound with tears left from my youth – Caressed you with truth’s own breath – Washed and pure, wisely blessed – From millions of silver seeds, Purple gems, strange yet lovely fruits…
Positive Misunderstanding
I do have an understanding of the calmly, unpretentious religious people of the world and rather like this joke. The Jews of Rome were going to be expelled and they asked the Pope to allow them to stay and after some deliberation with his Cardinals he agreed to let them stay if they could defeat…