Baruch HaShem.

Morning has broken, like a new morning. Songbirds are singing, like the new dawn.
A lovely even haunting refrain celebrating a new day and rebirth calling on aur optimism for life and the opportunity it offers.  Each individual settles into his pattern for the day, his agenda, that hopefully isn't completely driven by someone else's need, reviewed and checked against the clock. Time to go.
Yet for some, this slavish outside world of activity is alien. Their world exists within the head, and concerns thoughts and reflections, prayers and advice, a world where "form" is absolute where perception is everything to the society they live in.
I have been reading a novel set in and about Jewish observance and of Jewish family life in Golders Green. It is a fascinating read, a book full of Hebrew phrases that link the community in a discourse that seems strange and out of date with our own individualistic society and "its" lack of "form" as we continually seek to reinvent our selves in new clothes.

As I read  I was continually seeking out the meaning of these Jewish words, trying to find out their context within Jewish life. As I said it was a fascinating and insightful look into the the ultra orthodox world.  Men, rocking back and forward as they recited passages from the Torah, their hair falling in ringlets from beneath the ever present hat. The white shirt,the black suite, long coat all part of their inter-recognition,  signalling a segregation from the surrounding "goy". The mysticism of the "sheitel" to prevent other males from seeing your wife's hair. The ritual "mikveh" and the "niddah" which signifies the death of fertility and the acceptance that a women's role was, first and foremost procreation. If nature ruled that out, abstinence was a duty.  The fact that unmarried women are not allowed to touch a man (shomer nageah), even a hand shake is forbidden is amazing in our anything goes society. The whole arrangement of boy meets girl is a quagmire of arrangement, The "shadhan", the matchmaker who knows the matches, who belongs in the premier league and who doesn't. The introduction of two young people who don't know each other but are expected to make a choice based wholly on pedigree and certainly, no touching !!! The bazarre segregation of men and women not only in the congregation within the synagogue but in a general social gathering where the males dance together whilst at the other side of a partition called a "mechitzah" the women dance and congregate out of sight. Has veh Sholem
Yes its a rum old world this ultra orthodox Jewish quasi apartheid fraternity and makes one mindful of the pogroms  brought down on the head of Jews, stretching back to time immemorial.
Baruch HaShem.
               

People loosing trust

 I have been very remiss in not commenting about South Africa particularly its politics. 

After the election in 1994 a carefully constructed constitution which set down the checks and balances that society needs was put in place.
In this country we muddle along on a set of values called the Magna Carta in which the Kings relationship with his Barons was written down. Over the centuries through civil wars and confrontation, the rules were modified but never properly codified in a Constitution and the result is ad hock with laws which were promulgated hundreds of years ago at a time when society was very different.
South Africa's judicial backbone was the inherent strength in the countries transition to one person one vote.
Of course Politics is also about powerful men who find any impediment to their rule a blockage which has to be removed and so they attempt to amend the laws, except that a Constitution requires a majority to pass the amendment.

Jacob Zuma has used the legal mechanism of "injunction" to delay his appearance in court to answer charges of corruption prior to his election. The delaying tactic continues to this day but it would seem that information which has been denied an opportunity to be judged in court is slowly leaking out into the media. Whether, in the hot house of so many instances of corruption which are the daily diet of South African politics, if these revelations will bring Zuma to book is questionable. 

The cast, many include names I remember,  and many who have risen to prominence, post Apartheid.    Leonard McCarthy (Scorpions boss) George Baloyi(Prosecutor), Billy Downer (Prosecutor), Hofmeyr, Breitenbach, Wim Trengove the list goes on.     

E tolls to come after the election (what's new). 

SA troops fighting in the Congo (not Rhodesia). Big Business riding rough shod over the citizens of Mokopane. Local chiefs siphoning off the compensation paid for the destruction mining exploration brings.

The return of Staggie, the feared and powerful Cape gang boss who it is suggested organised the hit on Chantelle Knight in the Cape Flatlands. She had been instrumental in putting him behind bars.

70% "Happy News" on the SABC and the buying up of independent outlets in the Media, by government proxies such as Sekunjalo. 
The Chinese have also bought a large stake in the Independent Media Group. Why ? 

The society is a pawn in the game, a game played out across the world but in the fragile environment of post apartheid South Africa, with people still trying to adjust to new roles and new relationships, if the structure of government and leadership is compromised then people loose trust in all aspects of the life they lead.    

The grit in the oyster

What to do when there's nothing to do. Do you create "to do's"  even if normally you wouldn't do so ? You do get my drift don't you.
You know my predilection to creating an "effort free zone" where, doing something comes out of "the left field " as they say in baseball. 


Some people would crave a deserted beach, to chill out and recharge the batteries. Others would love a wild party to cram as many people and as many possibilities into a nights entertainment. The opportunity to catch a flight, land in a foreign speaking community, moving one out of ones comfort zone, heightening the thrill and unpredictability.



Perhaps another sort of thrill, launching off the top of a mountain in harness to a sky divers parachute. 
Offering to run with the bulls or spending a week trekking some hideously hot, insect ridden gorge. Each a possibility on the to do list - but why ? 



Its all a question of resolving the ticking clock, a clock which only becomes evident when the time at ones disposal becomes an issue and you gain the freedom to spend it as you wish. 
Time is now so valuable that we can become obsessed with it and, like the books you still would like to read. Each action has a reflective tag attached to it, since one is clearly not immortal. "What was it all for", comes to mind and given the chance would one do it any differently. 
Did the "mistakes" you made, make or break you, or were they the grit that formed in the oyster to create the pearl ?            

Death and despondency all around.

Tragedy is all around us if we stare through the lens of the international camera. 


 The sight of refugees on the borders of Syria, hauling the few belongings they have managed to throw into a bag, dragging them for miles through a hot hostile environment, heading for who knows where and who knows what. Women and children make up the bulk of the dispossessed they walk and walk for mile on end, their homes behind, probably never to return. The determination to keep going and to keep their flock together, to provide some sort of guidance, some sort of protection, to instil some sort of hope in the mind of the severely confused children. Survival is a massive drive but if opportunities are limited and food scarce then the contest between families for the scraps of what is available is another problem for these nuggety individuals. 


In contrast is the passivity of the starving people we see in places like Somali. Their children are already marked for death through malnutrition and it is the same malnutrition that has reduced the women, who have little  or no hope for their families to give up hope themselves. 




We can't possibly imagine what it is like to live in these hellish conditions, we can't imagine the trauma of trying to protect our children or survive ourselves with so much death and despondency all around.         

We are in for a bumpy ride

When men wish to go to war their rhetoric works its self up to some of the finest or in others the most infamous, Churchillian or the bombast of Hitler. The case is made based on our ideals, our values,  our morals, for our credibility. The issues are bound up in words that imply a wider implication if we act or a potentially unforeseen destruction of the values we applaud, if we vote for inaction.
The game, it is often a game, of politics is played out by powerful men behind who sit, very powerful lobbies.
These men meet and stand around in groups, sometimes laughing at a private joke, shaking hands, hugging political rivals who normally they hold in deep repulsion, carrying on in way that suggests a farce, not a meeting of minds.
The mighty American military machine is pawing the ground. The search for words which have been crafted to wring the call to patriotism from the men and women of the nation, mixed in with this "bully pulpit" call to all nations of the strength of America, of the resolve of America, of an almost messianic mission to teach us all what is good, what is bad.  Unlike our modern repulsion to laying hands on anyone, always falling back on the authorities to handle all situations for us. But what happens when the Authorities seek vengeance when they want to use force to make their opponents yield and submit, what is our moral position when innocent lives will be lost in the next days and weeks. As the groundswell of hostility rises in the Middle East and other potentially dangerous nations rise to oppose what they will inevitably see as foreign interference, will the cost of lives lost through the gassing of people in Syria been seen in hindsight to have been an over reach.
Kerry the Vice President came across as less than satisfactory in his verbal grasp of the implication of what he proposes and one casts ones mind back to the Vice President Cheney in the Bush years and the mess that the invasion of Iraq brought. Kerry was flanked by the senior military man and both were far from clear about the limits that would be imposed or if mission creep was totally out of the question. We are in for a bumpy ride             

The English Pub

The English Pub is an institution. Its a convivial meeting place for all kinds of people to come together and enjoy each others company. The richness is in the wide spectrum of people from many varied backgrounds, each bringing their own perspective and therefore enriching the conversation and the points of view that come up. It is a composite of the Englishman and his make up. The fact that a pint or two loosens any inhibition to talk is a plus.  The words tumble out and the enthusiasm for emphasising long held views or descriptions of ones experience make the pub a valuable and enjoyable experience.
Of course there are pubs and pubs. The age group and the general maturity of the people drinking in the pub make the visit enjoyable but of course only enjoyable for those looking for this type of companionship. There are pubs that cater for the young, for the sporting, for the perpetually inebriate, so you take your pick. Mine is a small country pub in the village of Allen's Green. It sells "real ale", straight fom the barrel, a prize winning Camra pub that makes a speciality of using small private brewery's rather than the large bulk sale units. Each beer has its own unique taste and strength, the beer tasting events which are held regularly are taken very seriously by the Anoraks. Its a lovely English anachronism this beer evaluation ritual and the low level seriousness that surrounds it.
Today's conversation started with the owner of an immaculate V12 EType that was parked outside, his car and how he came to buy it. Steam trains, golf, setting up the speaker system in Trafalgar Square yesterday for a protest rally and a conversation about keeping donkeys and the telepathic ability of dogs to signal to his wife that he was in the neighbourhood on his way to the pub after working in London !! Trivia yes but its the trivia that makes us laugh and helps the world go around.            

Moving into First Class

I have only had the opportunity to fly first when flying on business and someone else was paying. Having to pay for the pleasure ones self its a different thing. Being a lad from Yorkshire I have to question paying another £6000 for a trip of 24/25 hrs,  I think perhaps I would need more than a special plate of food from the stewardess.?
It is, if nothing else, an example of the extremes in our actual life style where a section of society would pay virtually anything to feel exclusive. In any human being, the ego is pampered as one feels the eyes of the crowd turn towards one as you arrive at the arrival desk of First Class.
The term its self says it all. You are "first", an example for others to follow and achieve. First, in it being affordable to you. First in the queue, ushered through formalities, to become first on board. And so it goes on. Brimming with self confidence, you look around and see the other Firsts, the other achievers and you begin to wonder what they do to have also achieved this high honour, this acknowledgement, this club. I think that's so and so from what's it called.    Champaign sir ? 

Y