Don’t jump off the roof Dad.
You’ll make a hole in the yard (…)
Popular song
Trump’s behaviour may resemble that of a spoilt toddler, as many people have pointed out, but it is coherent and consistent.… (Read more...)
Toddler on the roof
The Bernie Sanders’ answer
Beyond the roaring of those trying to boot Bernie Sanders off the political pitch, including fellow Democrats and much of the media, his grass-roots approach, which combines both intense social media presence, bringing a real discourse rather than summary, raging tweets, with intensive direct contact with voters rather than slogan-filled, mass-media shows, might well be the answer to Trump.… (Read more...)
Brexit – a power-word full of consequences
On this nth ‘crunch’ day for the so-called ‘Brexit’, some thoughts about an empty but powerful word with heavy consequences.
One word, many meanings
Brexit. The word has become anathema to many people. They are heartily sick of it. And justifiably so. Politicians and pundits unceasingly wave it around like a magic wand, or a trunk full of treasures, the very thing everyone needs, a saving grace, or a can of worms, a red cloth to a bull, a door open to certain disaster.… (Read more...)
Captives of a flat, mono-coloured world
Why on earth do some people believe the blatant lies of Boris Johnson or Donald Trump? That question has had me perplexed. Now I may have stumbled on the answer. To get to that I need to make a detour via Jeanne d’Arc and Greta Thunberg. As I often do, I am bringing together two (hopefully) unrelated images to create a new understanding.… (Read more...)
Say no to elimination
Elimination is the keyword that runs through many of the atrocious tales that assail us from around the world. Elimination is a solution to no problem. The wish to eliminate others as the source of our problems is based on a wildly false premise, that those people are to blame for our predicament and that by getting rid of them we rid ourselves of the threat we perceive in them.… (Read more...)
Stop the warmongering
Bombs are never an answer to problems. No more than guns are. Repeatedly resorting to weapons as a solution to complex, conflictual situations is not a sign of strength or intelligence. On the contrary. It is an admission of weakness, of inability, of failure, of lack of imagination, even of insanity.… (Read more...)
Who cares? We do!
While people drool over the sex scandals of the US president, more pressing and life-threatening issues go unattended.
Over a million people march the streets, most of them children and young people, listening to the inspiring speeches of student victims in a protest against guns and gun violence in the US.… (Read more...)
Tribute: young people show the way
The horror and the hope
“We were always taught from a very early age to be the change we wish to see in the world…”
Elijah Abraham, student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school
No student should have to cover themselves with a dead student to survive. But I was that student.… (Read more...)