Re: U.S. Attorney-General Jeff Sessions - and progressively-louder and more vehement calls/ demands - chiefly from Trump do-or-die partisans - for his sooner or later replacement.
Though it's with some sense of discomfort/unease I venture to say anything in defence of someone whose background was in the confederate-saturated and saluting, Civil Rights' Era-resistant American South - and who thus 'cut his [political] teeth' in staunchly backing the racist backlash to Martin Luther King et al's and the United States Government and society's radical strides towards desegregation and equal civil rights for blacks in the 1960s -
Those (including the so-called 'Christian Right') backing Sessions' removal from his constitutionally significant position in the U S Government - for, among numerous other 'transgressions' (including calling his Head Honcho a moron), 'recusing' himself from testifying in defence of (or, indeed, against - though this is rarely considered) his Boss in the ongoing electoral collusion deliberations - in favour of someone much more dutifully subservient to Donald Trump, know not what they are about, nor what they are thus, however inadvertently, giving subtle but very real encouragement to...
"Good God, he's not supposed to think for himself...he's (though we daren't say it) meant to be/act like an obedient lapdog to his presidential overlord" I.e. doing nothing whatsoever - in any capacity - to unsettle (much less derail) Trump's increasingly tenuous hold upon the levers of (American political) power. He's there to basically 'do as he's told' - no ifs, buts or maybes (even countenanced).
'Scuse me, folks. Last I heard, that's (i.e. real independence of attitude and approach) the very job description of an Attorney-General. Or am I missing something somewhere?
Somehow I doubt it. No, it's just el usual situation of 'what's good for the goose' is not - is never, in fact - 'good [enough] for the gander'. I.e. whether in New Zealand (and its Attorney-General) - presently (one-time neighbour) David Parker; formerly Chris(topher) Finlayson, I believe - or the U S of A (the only two places I've heard of such a 'political' figure - though doubtless Oz and other Western nations and Western-style democracies have such as well).
If they're (I mean he's or she's) agin' my opponent, it's a-okay...but "hands off" my political allies - that's a real 'no-go' area. Yes, political partisanship at its most basic and very worst.
Same principle for former F.B.I. Director James Comey, incidentally, who, in managing to 'stick it to' and thus - soundly and ever so effectively - brass off (in no uncertain terms) both then Democratic Party Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton and now reigning 'Republican' President DJ Trump...
has actually - as *JRR Tolkien's Samwise Gamgee used to put it - proven his quality. Indeed!
*Or perhaps it was Peter Jackson et al's re-interpretation thereof, but whichever...
Thursday, September 13, 2018
C'mon, Mr [President] Trump - Tell Us Another One
Re: The American President's disaster 'response' in Puerto Rico...vis-a-vis his deep concern re the impending Hurricane Florence.
If a natural disaster in which F.E.M.A. (America's Federal Emergency Management Authority) so evidently dropped the ball as it did - 'ably' assisted (i.e. echoed) by a 'commander-in-chief' whose crowning contribution was personally chucking out stuff (was it bananas?) to crowding Puerto Ricans - was a success...I'd love to see what failure would look like!
As we're all now well aware, the number of fatalities have now been reckoned as over 3,000 - as opposed to the 60-odd long maintained...-and thus and so commentators on all sides of the political divide have accepted and have no dispute with (this latter figure).
A '"great, stupendous success story" (or words, and certainly sentiment, to that effect), Mr President?
Who d'ya really think you're kidding, I mean, really? Or do you take everyone else for sheer suckers?
Shades of George W's own (and FEMA's) 'disaster dealing' in New Orleans' Hurricane Katrina in 2005, or what?!?!?
P.S. All hats off to those media worldwide who're now giving priority coverage to the even more terrifying and fatality-ridden Typhoon presently afflicting western Pacific rim nations...which of course doesn't diminish one iota even the awful carnage now being wreaked upon America's mid-eastern seaboard by Hurricane Florence. But everything in relative perspective for a change.
If a natural disaster in which F.E.M.A. (America's Federal Emergency Management Authority) so evidently dropped the ball as it did - 'ably' assisted (i.e. echoed) by a 'commander-in-chief' whose crowning contribution was personally chucking out stuff (was it bananas?) to crowding Puerto Ricans - was a success...I'd love to see what failure would look like!
As we're all now well aware, the number of fatalities have now been reckoned as over 3,000 - as opposed to the 60-odd long maintained...-and thus and so commentators on all sides of the political divide have accepted and have no dispute with (this latter figure).
A '"great, stupendous success story" (or words, and certainly sentiment, to that effect), Mr President?
Who d'ya really think you're kidding, I mean, really? Or do you take everyone else for sheer suckers?
Shades of George W's own (and FEMA's) 'disaster dealing' in New Orleans' Hurricane Katrina in 2005, or what?!?!?
P.S. All hats off to those media worldwide who're now giving priority coverage to the even more terrifying and fatality-ridden Typhoon presently afflicting western Pacific rim nations...which of course doesn't diminish one iota even the awful carnage now being wreaked upon America's mid-eastern seaboard by Hurricane Florence. But everything in relative perspective for a change.
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
A Flawed But Fully Human Former Hero - My Tribute to John McCain
Though much written by way of obituary - including arguably (parts of) this belatedly posted (though scribbled immediately post-death) poem of sorts - must seem trite and/or otherwise contrived, I'll post it still...
*Here lies a man...
...who tried
Paratrooper? - airforce pilot:
-kidnapped - imprisoned -
tortured...
...for years
Finally freed:
a 'war hero'!
But McCain didn't stop there,
he continued...
on...and on...and on...
Eventually achieving political success.
Congressman - senator -
and for the state of Arizona, no less...
Finally, following in the esteemed footsteps
of his Arizonan senatorial predecessor,
the late, great Barry Goldwater...
...himself the Republican Presidential Nominee
in 2008...
Apparently he 'swore like a trooper'
(according to a tome upon the man
I espied awhile ago
among the 'best new books'
at my local public library)...
...but that doesn't necessarily
detract more than a couple of iota
from the essential quality of the man
Not a war hero?
-I'm sure Mr McCain
would've - indeed, has -
had the last laugh...
...on that particular score
...except that dying
of an inoperable brain tumour
is hardly a laughing matter...
An independent voice...
even against his own, beloved,
Republican Party...
...and especially
President Donald J Trump
A contrarian to the core...
to the bitter end...
of both his political career
and life (as it so transpired)
No man's debtor...
or mere people-pleaser
And a better person, perhaps,
than the man
who soundly defeated him
at the polls in 2008
No, not possessing
infallible judgment...
that's the papal prerogative
alone, isn't it?
-and that was evidenced,
nowhere more clearly,
than in that selfsame year...
...wherein he selected
Alaskan Governor,
Sarah Palin...
...as his presidential 'stand-in'...
a judgment, admittedly,
he himself lived to regret
So rest in peace...yes,
like Yours Truly,
he did get in the last word!
But One Above, Beyond,
Transcending
This Fragile
earthly Orb...
will soon enough
have the very last word...
...on each of our lives...
And all that really matters
then
will be that
we too were found faithful
to our calling
*Acknowledgment to Rod McKuen's memorable song 'There Goes A Man Who Tried' in his memorable record 'Alone'.
*Here lies a man...
...who tried
Paratrooper? - airforce pilot:
-kidnapped - imprisoned -
tortured...
...for years
Finally freed:
a 'war hero'!
But McCain didn't stop there,
he continued...
on...and on...and on...
Eventually achieving political success.
Congressman - senator -
and for the state of Arizona, no less...
Finally, following in the esteemed footsteps
of his Arizonan senatorial predecessor,
the late, great Barry Goldwater...
...himself the Republican Presidential Nominee
in 2008...
Apparently he 'swore like a trooper'
(according to a tome upon the man
I espied awhile ago
among the 'best new books'
at my local public library)...
...but that doesn't necessarily
detract more than a couple of iota
from the essential quality of the man
Not a war hero?
-I'm sure Mr McCain
would've - indeed, has -
had the last laugh...
...on that particular score
...except that dying
of an inoperable brain tumour
is hardly a laughing matter...
An independent voice...
even against his own, beloved,
Republican Party...
...and especially
President Donald J Trump
A contrarian to the core...
to the bitter end...
of both his political career
and life (as it so transpired)
No man's debtor...
or mere people-pleaser
And a better person, perhaps,
than the man
who soundly defeated him
at the polls in 2008
No, not possessing
infallible judgment...
that's the papal prerogative
alone, isn't it?
-and that was evidenced,
nowhere more clearly,
than in that selfsame year...
...wherein he selected
Alaskan Governor,
Sarah Palin...
...as his presidential 'stand-in'...
a judgment, admittedly,
he himself lived to regret
So rest in peace...yes,
like Yours Truly,
he did get in the last word!
But One Above, Beyond,
Transcending
This Fragile
earthly Orb...
will soon enough
have the very last word...
...on each of our lives...
And all that really matters
then
will be that
we too were found faithful
to our calling
*Acknowledgment to Rod McKuen's memorable song 'There Goes A Man Who Tried' in his memorable record 'Alone'.
Sunday, September 9, 2018
So Give the Dude (Big Fella) a Break - I mean, really!
It's best, 'they say', to get the awful/nasty stuff over first - the much-hallowed benefits of delayed gratification, or something along those lines - so I'm doing that/taking my own oft-self-tendered advice...
And so this'll be somewhat different from - including hopefully much shorter than - my usual offering - for any number of reasons. And not the actual tribute to the memory of John McCain, as originally intended; though in fact written well before, that'll come separately, and a little later...
But c'est la vie, and, perhaps even more pertinently, it'll combine a variety of intended blogposts into one [smorgasbord]. But I suppose such is the prerogative of the blogger. So without further ado...
Any regular reader of my blogs - especially this one, but no, actually, either of 'em - would hardly need reminding that I am far from the world's biggest admirer of the fella presently inhabiting the *White House in ye Awfully Disunited E-States of America... . That being said/on the record...
However rude and uncouth and downright ornery, perverse, cantankerous and downright narcissistic one might - quite legitimately - consider President Donald J Trump to be - yes, let's give the man his due (with knobs on and all the rest) - surely even he is entitled to this one thing: to be and act himself...vis-a-vis whoever he's happened to - be it ever so vociferously, rancorously and even vituperatively - disagree with in times past...for whatever reason...
Surely each one of us, including 'the Donald', is permitted that small privilege at least? And yes, I well realize, people are, even if ever so unconsciously, only too aware of the age-old maxim - which the media has now seized on with absolute glee and delight (and, let's be honest, supercilious schadenfreude, no less), that one ought not to speak ill of the dead.
Really? Surely there are innumerable exceptions to that rule...especially over our generation's lifetime, anyway... But has - did - DJT actually speak ill of John McCain, or did he rather simply choose not to speak at all about him (in the immediate aftermath of his death)? Surely the latter.
And so I will herein maintain in this respect and regard at least, the man has done 'nothin' wrong'!
One can hardly - how could one? - forget being expected (as a sibling never fails to remind me, in excusing the all-too-apparent failings of the up-and-coming generation (of ingrates, quite frankly)) for example, as a tender youth, to invariably hug folk - relatives, to be sure - whom one often found highly disagreeable (and certainly oftentimes relatively unlovable!)...whilst wishing one was somewhere else entirely (on the particular occasion in question)...
And despite being duly indoctrinated - even if implicitly, without a specific word to the effect actually being spoken as such - as one entered youth and early adulthood, as to the 'gaucheness' of speaking one's (true) mind - on all manner of occasions - wasn't it always as a veritable breath of fresh air whenever one would come/stumble upon/across an un-brainwashed/non-community-commandeered kid who would simply tell it as it is (I mean, was)...without any of the airbrushed, doctored up palava, ******fulsome flattery and frankly disingenuity...
In other words, much like Willy Wonka with his bunch (*******fivesome, or rather tensome) of Golden Ticket child winners and their recalcitrant, contrarian, difficult to please and placate - but admittedly also duly browbeaten - parents along for the ride...
Whether it was the chubby checker German boy who disappeared into the chocolate drink (i.e. river) and his irate, implacable mother (and father?), the bossy-boots, straight-speakin' Veruka and her overly dutiful factory manager dad, or the western Mum with her cowboy-lovin', shoot-from-the-(literal)-hip pipsqueak (son) who met his own untimely, karmic fate as he was 'beamed down' into his beloved space-age TV set...-perhaps I've missed one of 'em along the way?...they generally (i.e.parents and children alike) shared this highly undervalued & underrated character quality...
And so the no less open and forthright Willy Wonka himself was on perhaps his biggest roll of the entire film - excepting the bit before the end where he also upbraided Charlie and his uncle for themselves violating the strict, fine-print outlined, terms of the chocolate factory visit - when he, following the equally memorable and delightful (and, moreover, cutting to the very bone) song of the ompah-lompahs, understatedly echoed the decision of the scales which had just decided the fate of Veruka and her now-at-wit's-end dad: yes, they were both real bad eggs.
So is United States President Trump a real bad egg? I'm sure most of the world would doubtless add a big 'Amen!' to such a verdict...even in his relatively short time thus far in the Oval Office. But surely not for simply sharing his (hopefully honest) condolences with Senator McCain's surviving family while sparing us the disingenuous piffle of pretending he himself esteemed the man...
*What unplannable irony the other day, when hearing coverage of one of the seemingly innumerable and interminable Senate/Congressional hearings in Washington D.C. - whether about the proposed new member of the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Brett **Kavanaugh, or the various ongoing committee meetings to establish whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and the 2016 American Presidential outcome - that one particular (dissenting Democratic Senator, I believe) had that for his very surname - i.e. Whitehouse.
Though was there not once a staunch anti-pornography campaigner by the selfsame name? Or I am getting all confused between the likes of ***Davina someone-or-other and the ****one-time leftwing powerhouse of the British Labo[u]r Party, *****Mary Whitehouse? Whatever...
**The (u-less) surname also of a special friend of mine, Rachel, who, completely out of the blue, suddenly departed this earthly life back in March 2013...as well as that of a former Catholic priest who read a poem or suchlike at my beloved - very non-Catholic (just for the record) - beloved Grandma 'Billie''s cremation service 21-some years ago now...
****No, that's Barbara Castle, I believe... - and now, as either 'the big Ronnie' (the long-since deceased R Barker) or 'the little Ronnie' (the much more recently departed R Corbett) put it, ....would'ya credit it, that sentence was so long I've since forgotten...?
*****/***Actually, as I've just now discovered (like Justice Kavanaugh's properly spelt name), via ye good 'ole Wikipaedia pages thereabouts, and as succinctly as I can put it: Mary Whitehouse was a [conservative] English social activist; and Davina Whitehouse an English-born NZ actress. So my much-critiqued (by myself!) memory is not really all that bad after all...specifics notwithstanding!
******The real meaning of this oft-used and much-abused term. I.e. not 'very much of' or 'lavish as', as one frequently hears it employed as, but, as my trusty Chambers Concise Dictionary renders it: 'cloying or causing surfeit; nauseous; offensive; rank; disgustingly fawning'. As in obsequious to the nth degree, to put it in plain English.
*******Or rather foursome (eightsome) thereabouts, as Charlie and his uncle were glaring - or rather glorious - exceptions to that rule...in the wonderful first edition of that film, anyway...
And so this'll be somewhat different from - including hopefully much shorter than - my usual offering - for any number of reasons. And not the actual tribute to the memory of John McCain, as originally intended; though in fact written well before, that'll come separately, and a little later...
But c'est la vie, and, perhaps even more pertinently, it'll combine a variety of intended blogposts into one [smorgasbord]. But I suppose such is the prerogative of the blogger. So without further ado...
Any regular reader of my blogs - especially this one, but no, actually, either of 'em - would hardly need reminding that I am far from the world's biggest admirer of the fella presently inhabiting the *White House in ye Awfully Disunited E-States of America... . That being said/on the record...
However rude and uncouth and downright ornery, perverse, cantankerous and downright narcissistic one might - quite legitimately - consider President Donald J Trump to be - yes, let's give the man his due (with knobs on and all the rest) - surely even he is entitled to this one thing: to be and act himself...vis-a-vis whoever he's happened to - be it ever so vociferously, rancorously and even vituperatively - disagree with in times past...for whatever reason...
Surely each one of us, including 'the Donald', is permitted that small privilege at least? And yes, I well realize, people are, even if ever so unconsciously, only too aware of the age-old maxim - which the media has now seized on with absolute glee and delight (and, let's be honest, supercilious schadenfreude, no less), that one ought not to speak ill of the dead.
Really? Surely there are innumerable exceptions to that rule...especially over our generation's lifetime, anyway... But has - did - DJT actually speak ill of John McCain, or did he rather simply choose not to speak at all about him (in the immediate aftermath of his death)? Surely the latter.
And so I will herein maintain in this respect and regard at least, the man has done 'nothin' wrong'!
One can hardly - how could one? - forget being expected (as a sibling never fails to remind me, in excusing the all-too-apparent failings of the up-and-coming generation (of ingrates, quite frankly)) for example, as a tender youth, to invariably hug folk - relatives, to be sure - whom one often found highly disagreeable (and certainly oftentimes relatively unlovable!)...whilst wishing one was somewhere else entirely (on the particular occasion in question)...
And despite being duly indoctrinated - even if implicitly, without a specific word to the effect actually being spoken as such - as one entered youth and early adulthood, as to the 'gaucheness' of speaking one's (true) mind - on all manner of occasions - wasn't it always as a veritable breath of fresh air whenever one would come/stumble upon/across an un-brainwashed/non-community-commandeered kid who would simply tell it as it is (I mean, was)...without any of the airbrushed, doctored up palava, ******fulsome flattery and frankly disingenuity...
In other words, much like Willy Wonka with his bunch (*******fivesome, or rather tensome) of Golden Ticket child winners and their recalcitrant, contrarian, difficult to please and placate - but admittedly also duly browbeaten - parents along for the ride...
Whether it was the chubby checker German boy who disappeared into the chocolate drink (i.e. river) and his irate, implacable mother (and father?), the bossy-boots, straight-speakin' Veruka and her overly dutiful factory manager dad, or the western Mum with her cowboy-lovin', shoot-from-the-(literal)-hip pipsqueak (son) who met his own untimely, karmic fate as he was 'beamed down' into his beloved space-age TV set...-perhaps I've missed one of 'em along the way?...they generally (i.e.parents and children alike) shared this highly undervalued & underrated character quality...
And so the no less open and forthright Willy Wonka himself was on perhaps his biggest roll of the entire film - excepting the bit before the end where he also upbraided Charlie and his uncle for themselves violating the strict, fine-print outlined, terms of the chocolate factory visit - when he, following the equally memorable and delightful (and, moreover, cutting to the very bone) song of the ompah-lompahs, understatedly echoed the decision of the scales which had just decided the fate of Veruka and her now-at-wit's-end dad: yes, they were both real bad eggs.
So is United States President Trump a real bad egg? I'm sure most of the world would doubtless add a big 'Amen!' to such a verdict...even in his relatively short time thus far in the Oval Office. But surely not for simply sharing his (hopefully honest) condolences with Senator McCain's surviving family while sparing us the disingenuous piffle of pretending he himself esteemed the man...
*What unplannable irony the other day, when hearing coverage of one of the seemingly innumerable and interminable Senate/Congressional hearings in Washington D.C. - whether about the proposed new member of the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Brett **Kavanaugh, or the various ongoing committee meetings to establish whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and the 2016 American Presidential outcome - that one particular (dissenting Democratic Senator, I believe) had that for his very surname - i.e. Whitehouse.
Though was there not once a staunch anti-pornography campaigner by the selfsame name? Or I am getting all confused between the likes of ***Davina someone-or-other and the ****one-time leftwing powerhouse of the British Labo[u]r Party, *****Mary Whitehouse? Whatever...
**The (u-less) surname also of a special friend of mine, Rachel, who, completely out of the blue, suddenly departed this earthly life back in March 2013...as well as that of a former Catholic priest who read a poem or suchlike at my beloved - very non-Catholic (just for the record) - beloved Grandma 'Billie''s cremation service 21-some years ago now...
****No, that's Barbara Castle, I believe... - and now, as either 'the big Ronnie' (the long-since deceased R Barker) or 'the little Ronnie' (the much more recently departed R Corbett) put it, ....would'ya credit it, that sentence was so long I've since forgotten...?
*****/***Actually, as I've just now discovered (like Justice Kavanaugh's properly spelt name), via ye good 'ole Wikipaedia pages thereabouts, and as succinctly as I can put it: Mary Whitehouse was a [conservative] English social activist; and Davina Whitehouse an English-born NZ actress. So my much-critiqued (by myself!) memory is not really all that bad after all...specifics notwithstanding!
******The real meaning of this oft-used and much-abused term. I.e. not 'very much of' or 'lavish as', as one frequently hears it employed as, but, as my trusty Chambers Concise Dictionary renders it: 'cloying or causing surfeit; nauseous; offensive; rank; disgustingly fawning'. As in obsequious to the nth degree, to put it in plain English.
*******Or rather foursome (eightsome) thereabouts, as Charlie and his uncle were glaring - or rather glorious - exceptions to that rule...in the wonderful first edition of that film, anyway...
Sunday, September 2, 2018
So Much Constantly Going Down - Throughout this Net-Bridged World of ours - How can one possibly even begin to do it a Modicum of Justice?
Yes, I admit I'm defeated before I even begin, the task before me is a sheer impossibility...and moreover I'm so way behind time in dealing with so many of these 'matters of interest' that I'm baffled myself in getting to grips with, let alone onto 'paper' thereabouts... . Yet begin I must, and so...
...let me do so as best I can (in the short time available to me this Sunday eve)...
Hopefully more in-depth 'pieces' will come from my generously-gifted laptop keypad in days to come...but for now, let me 'say', as succinctly as I know how (ever a *sore trial for Yours Truly) that I intend dealing with and to the following 'topics' in the not too distant...
*The death overnight (or so) of the renowned British scholar/historian David Yallop.
*The recent historic and protest-plagued papal visit to the once Roman Catholic bastion of Ireland.
*Related 'controversy' that has dogged and bedevilled the Vatican and RCC over recent times.
*The death of John McCain and the non-reaction/response of a certain well-known world figure.
...and a myriad of other interesting bits 'n bobs I believe will interest many of my bloggership...
*And how appropriately, I just stumbled upon a new word that brilliantly epitomizes my lifelong predicament thereabouts: logorrrhoea - Excessive flow of words esp. in mental illness (according to my ever trusty, beloved Granny's-gifted, Concise Oxford Dictionary). A 'statement' vis-a-vis myself that is patently true in more ways than the proverbial, I must hasten to add...
...let me do so as best I can (in the short time available to me this Sunday eve)...
Hopefully more in-depth 'pieces' will come from my generously-gifted laptop keypad in days to come...but for now, let me 'say', as succinctly as I know how (ever a *sore trial for Yours Truly) that I intend dealing with and to the following 'topics' in the not too distant...
*The death overnight (or so) of the renowned British scholar/historian David Yallop.
*The recent historic and protest-plagued papal visit to the once Roman Catholic bastion of Ireland.
*Related 'controversy' that has dogged and bedevilled the Vatican and RCC over recent times.
*The death of John McCain and the non-reaction/response of a certain well-known world figure.
...and a myriad of other interesting bits 'n bobs I believe will interest many of my bloggership...
*And how appropriately, I just stumbled upon a new word that brilliantly epitomizes my lifelong predicament thereabouts: logorrrhoea - Excessive flow of words esp. in mental illness (according to my ever trusty, beloved Granny's-gifted, Concise Oxford Dictionary). A 'statement' vis-a-vis myself that is patently true in more ways than the proverbial, I must hasten to add...
Friday, August 31, 2018
A Date That Ever Holds Significance - & Not Just for the British Monarchy (Bless Their Hearts)
Yes, August the 31st is a date forever seared into the hearts and minds and souls of people worldwide - especially Westerners; as the unforgettable day upon which 'we all' learnt to our 'shock & horror' that the 'peoples' princess', Princess Diana (Spencer), had departed this earthly life in a nasty road chase through/'accident' in a tunnel in Paris. And I wrote extensively (just for your info, if you're at all interested) vis-a-vis that dramatic moment now etched in our collective memories/consciousness on the 20th anniversary thereof last year...(on either this or my other blogsite, which, just for your recollection, is http://nuffsaid:consideryourself-frombothsidesnow.blogspot.co.nz/ (or .com/).
No, I never miss a chance to *plug my blogsites, do I, but be that as it well may... . On this occasion I simply wish, and quite succinctly, to pay brief (but for me meaningful) tribute to a New Zealand totara who likewise finished his earthly sojourn upon this selfsame date back in 1974, some 44 years ago this evening... . As the song which the September Bulldog Band played at the TV Studio One awards that very night so memorably declared:
the man of Big Labour [was] our big Norm...our great National treasure [was] our big Norm...
the man of Social Credit [was] our big Norm...the man of our Values [was] our big Norm
Yes, Norman Eric Kirk strode the stage of NZ Inc - and the South Pacific (if not our world) - as few other politicians ever have. Probably why he - like **so many of the good and great do - died so young...and deeply mourned. But the reason I mention him (probably one third and final time) this holy, Sabbath eve - a time I rarely make blogposts (for that very reason) - is that he, alongside his immediate predecessor, John ('Jack') Marshall (of the National Party), were arguably the last truly Christian leaders - in deed as well as (articulate, or otherwise) word - Aotearoa-New Zealand
has, and will likely ever again, see...
Moreover - and as a natural (if obvious) consequence of the foregoing - he/they held the ground against the sort of social and theological liberalism that has since taken over the traditional Left and more importantly, taken Western societies down a virtual road of no return as ye 'ole motto 'anything goes' has now become the present-day watchword of our culture and looks set to readily and in the not too distant become our collective epitaph!
*Not that I ever make one lousy cent even off of them all or any of 'em, ya understand...
**Though I don't include ye average dissolute, over-sexed, drugged out, rock 'n rollin' popstar amidst that number...though perhaps a few came to their senses before they finally passed out and off this mortal coil...
No, I never miss a chance to *plug my blogsites, do I, but be that as it well may... . On this occasion I simply wish, and quite succinctly, to pay brief (but for me meaningful) tribute to a New Zealand totara who likewise finished his earthly sojourn upon this selfsame date back in 1974, some 44 years ago this evening... . As the song which the September Bulldog Band played at the TV Studio One awards that very night so memorably declared:
the man of Big Labour [was] our big Norm...our great National treasure [was] our big Norm...
the man of Social Credit [was] our big Norm...the man of our Values [was] our big Norm
Yes, Norman Eric Kirk strode the stage of NZ Inc - and the South Pacific (if not our world) - as few other politicians ever have. Probably why he - like **so many of the good and great do - died so young...and deeply mourned. But the reason I mention him (probably one third and final time) this holy, Sabbath eve - a time I rarely make blogposts (for that very reason) - is that he, alongside his immediate predecessor, John ('Jack') Marshall (of the National Party), were arguably the last truly Christian leaders - in deed as well as (articulate, or otherwise) word - Aotearoa-New Zealand
has, and will likely ever again, see...
Moreover - and as a natural (if obvious) consequence of the foregoing - he/they held the ground against the sort of social and theological liberalism that has since taken over the traditional Left and more importantly, taken Western societies down a virtual road of no return as ye 'ole motto 'anything goes' has now become the present-day watchword of our culture and looks set to readily and in the not too distant become our collective epitaph!
*Not that I ever make one lousy cent even off of them all or any of 'em, ya understand...
**Though I don't include ye average dissolute, over-sexed, drugged out, rock 'n rollin' popstar amidst that number...though perhaps a few came to their senses before they finally passed out and off this mortal coil...
Friday, August 24, 2018
Zimbabwe Post-Election 2018: Part 6: So What Else Remains to be Said?
Probably not a heckuva lot, having now covered recent political events/developments there pretty well backwards and forwards and all over the place...and then some. But since I promised...
"Any claim [lodged, of election-rigging/taking the election by fraud] we will cooperate with...if [such is] taken to the Electoral Commission or Supreme Court...because we know we have not engaged in any vote-rigging".
Such high-minded 'stuff' was broadcast over the BBC World News at 6 a.m. on August the 18th. And the speaker (of such an idealistic-sounding commitment to democratic principles and values such as we might consider the norm in - at least pre-2000 - general elections throughout the Western world)? No, you guessed wrong - I mean, right (on)!
Of course it wasn't Zimbabwean President-Elect Emmerson Mnangagwa...no, not by a country mile. Rather it was the - provisionally - newly-elected Pakistani Prime Minister, former longserving high-profile cricket captain *Imran Khan, the long-term candidate for high office there who was just then s/elected as P.M. by all (the various, both major and minor) parties - and **individual players presumably - in the Pakistani Parliament.
So far, so good - Khan at least is maintaining 'admirable' lip-service to the ***age-old democratic ethos.
*As per my other, recent, extensively-footnoted (?#5) blogpost on Zimbabwe (and lotsa interesting, quite unrelated matters) - and especially as a lay theologian of longstanding - I've been intrigued for literally years, even decades, as to the likelihood of Imran Khan (and in a pre-celebrity-cum-political leader era, to boot) possibly being one of the political leaders foretold in the Good Book as wielding significant influence in the Earth's last days...if not - and from my biblical studies he definitely is not - the actual, long-foretold Antichrist.
**Do they have the odd independent there as well? Who'd know - our (kiwi) media hardly ever reports on Pakistani politics, so why should anyone here even know, said media - sadly, probably rightfully - assuming no-one in God's Own even so much as cares?
***Birthed as is well-known - ****I mean, should be - in ancient city-state Greece, though fewer still arguably realize how very few Athenians then were in fact eligible for such electoral participation, let alone the right to 'sit' in their ancient political decision-making assemblies.
****Put it down to this history-deficient generation (or two) who've arisen in the shallow excuse for 'education' and 'lifelong learning' that is modern New Zealand - and doubtless also our cultural counterparts throughout the Western world. Yes, shallow, soul-skimming superficiality is the order of the day in our 'so sophisticated' modern era...and she looks set to be downhill from here on in, folks!
Continued (Now) Much More Succinctly...
...Two days on, and - appropriately enough no doubt - following the completely unsurprising decision of the Zimbabwean Supreme Court to toss out the electoral challenge by the Opposition MDC and its leader Nelson Chamira to Zimbabwe's recently-conducted election. Well, 'surprise, surprise!' What an unexpected development - not!
So what can decent Zimbabweans now do? Precious little, although perhaps that depends upon one's perspective upon life...because 'hope and pray(er)' over the centuries and even millennia have been said capable of moving mountains. And by none other than the Master Himself. Though 'faith and patience' are usually 'an even better bet' - but unfortunately there is no biblical sanction for even supposing that the long-fraught nation-state of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe will ever return to democratic norms in this old, fast-self-destructing, world of ours...
But if said result was really, truly legitimate and completely above-board, why then did the then Government (of Emmerson Mnangagwa) immediately *thereafter ransack the Central Headquarters of the Movement for Democratic Change in Harare - if not to seize MDC proof of the real results (as was then claimed by MDC spokespeople) - and then, days later, pester/harass/arrest up to 19 MDC parliamentarians...and then...barely a week or so later, this time apparently successfully seize the evidence of the true balloting that the MDC had up to that point successfully secreted away into safekeeping at some unknown destination. Ballots which point blank proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Nelson Chamira had actually been elected President of Zimbabwe.
But even **Robert Mugabe and his would-(have)-be(en) successor Grace Mugabe no longer support Mnangagwa - to be sure, doubtless for rather petty personal motives - but that nevertheless ought to give outsiders pause for thought and reflection. Though perhaps - having wielded essentially tyrannical power over Zimbabweans for almost four decades - they themselves have long since become quite oblivious to threats and almost believe themselves invincible at this point in time and unlikely to ever be dealt to (in a deadly fashion).
Yet oddly enough long-serving President Mugabe now appears rather innocuous in comparison with his successor, who - let's be in absolutely no doubt, whatsoever - was ever and always the henchman at Mugabe's right side - loyal to a fault (and well beyond). Someone who not only did Mugabe's 'dirty work' on his behalf, but arguably way exceeded his brief (see: Matabeleland - as I've briefly referred to in various of my five (immediately) previous blogposts), to the point of ultimately carrying out his own personal agenda/vendetta against Joshua Nkomo's forces and supporters...whilst currying favour with and gaining the undying allegiance of Zimbabwe's all-critical armed forces in the process...
*After the first official declaration of electoral results (for President and Parliament, that is).
**Or does he - as his very latest statement seems to indicate - actually support Mnangagwa? Who'd really know, it's such a moving feast, folks; and, as I say, his latest comments make it sound like he indeed does.
Or more likely still - how's this for a nifty conspiracy theory, folks? - it's all been an extremely clever ruse from the very beginning: to (cunningly) gauge the actual level of public support throughout Zimbabwe for the departure of Mugabe while his essential hand remained in place; or rather his right-hand man seamlessly maintained Mugabe's tight as grip upon the country's levers whilst appearing to all outsiders as effecting a non-violent coup d'etat and essentially ousting Mugabe from political office.
A brilliant political stratagem, and one of which the infamous Machiavelli himself would've been exceedingly proud. Yes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Essentially just an adjustment in the deck chairs upon - the personnel manning - the (erstwhile) good ship Zimbabwe, while it progressively sinks beneath the waves and thus vanishes from the collective global consciousness. Just as its current leadership might well wish.
Final Afterthoughts:
There's one essential factor in any declaration that said election be declared null and void. Obviously, that proof be provided as to the actual results on the ground throughout Zimbabwe. But since these, having been secreted/squirrelled away by MDC officials soon after the election - thankfully, prior to the Movement for Democratic Change's central (Harare) headquarters being raided (immediately after the official election result declaration) - were unfortunately then confiscated by state police/military personnel (wherever they had been deposited) a few days later, let's be clear: said Supreme Court investigation was a pure - unmitigated - farce...from start to finish.
So the unprecedented delay in (presidential - but doubtless also parliamentary) election-counting, or rather the declaration thereof; the state-sponsored intimidation of opposition politicians (and devoted supporters) following the broadcast of official results - nay, (psychological and physical) bullying and heavying of, and moreover unlawful arrest, detention and imprisonment, however temporary, thereof; the significant discrepancies in tallies (especially in previously ZANU-PF-supporting rural areas) from previous elections (and reasonable guesstimates thereof); and the masterly way in which Emmerson Mnangagwa has - publicly, officially - made all the right noises in the election aftermath to the MDC and its leader, Nelson Chamira...to me, and doubtless most impartial, disinterested observers, really say it all...
And hey, you'd hardly raid the places where the irrefutable physical proof of election-rigging was held, and moreover confiscate the same, if your intentions were wholly honourable and you had nothing whatsoever to hide...would you...really? And then make damn sure that said proofs never again saw the light of day, much less were presented to the very body, i.e. the Zimbabwean Supreme Court, 'interested' in adjudicating said election and determining the legitimacy or otherwise thereof?
Hey, they're hugely rhetorical questions, as must be obvious - and anyhow, the watching world media essentially couldn't give a damn. No, they've gladly, eagerly bought - consumed, and assimilated - the essential deceit and falsehoods cunningly being disseminated by 'President' Mnangagwa...who's certainly learnt a thing or two off political spin-doctors (and fakenews meisters) throughout the known world... .
But then he's himself sat at the very feet of a master thereof - for three-and-a-half or even four-some decades now - hasn't he...so you'd imagine he'd pick up a trick or several in that time...wouldn't you? Yes indeed he did - and moreover was Robert Mugabe's chief henchman in enforcing his agenda and rule - which thing he indisputably perfected into an art form. And then some.
However like the Western media you maybe really don't care less about it, anyway - though if you've been reading this series of blogposts, I suspect you do care...but like me (and the Zimbabwean opposition) you realize just how futile the quest for truth and justice and democracy really is in that unfortunate land. Yes, it appears the Zimbabwean croc will be rockin' along for some considerable time to come yet...feasting upon his vulnerable prey...whom the apathetic watching world has apparently thrown to him and his many co-predators circling beneath Zimbabwe's turbulent political waters...
"Any claim [lodged, of election-rigging/taking the election by fraud] we will cooperate with...if [such is] taken to the Electoral Commission or Supreme Court...because we know we have not engaged in any vote-rigging".
Such high-minded 'stuff' was broadcast over the BBC World News at 6 a.m. on August the 18th. And the speaker (of such an idealistic-sounding commitment to democratic principles and values such as we might consider the norm in - at least pre-2000 - general elections throughout the Western world)? No, you guessed wrong - I mean, right (on)!
Of course it wasn't Zimbabwean President-Elect Emmerson Mnangagwa...no, not by a country mile. Rather it was the - provisionally - newly-elected Pakistani Prime Minister, former longserving high-profile cricket captain *Imran Khan, the long-term candidate for high office there who was just then s/elected as P.M. by all (the various, both major and minor) parties - and **individual players presumably - in the Pakistani Parliament.
So far, so good - Khan at least is maintaining 'admirable' lip-service to the ***age-old democratic ethos.
*As per my other, recent, extensively-footnoted (?#5) blogpost on Zimbabwe (and lotsa interesting, quite unrelated matters) - and especially as a lay theologian of longstanding - I've been intrigued for literally years, even decades, as to the likelihood of Imran Khan (and in a pre-celebrity-cum-political leader era, to boot) possibly being one of the political leaders foretold in the Good Book as wielding significant influence in the Earth's last days...if not - and from my biblical studies he definitely is not - the actual, long-foretold Antichrist.
**Do they have the odd independent there as well? Who'd know - our (kiwi) media hardly ever reports on Pakistani politics, so why should anyone here even know, said media - sadly, probably rightfully - assuming no-one in God's Own even so much as cares?
***Birthed as is well-known - ****I mean, should be - in ancient city-state Greece, though fewer still arguably realize how very few Athenians then were in fact eligible for such electoral participation, let alone the right to 'sit' in their ancient political decision-making assemblies.
****Put it down to this history-deficient generation (or two) who've arisen in the shallow excuse for 'education' and 'lifelong learning' that is modern New Zealand - and doubtless also our cultural counterparts throughout the Western world. Yes, shallow, soul-skimming superficiality is the order of the day in our 'so sophisticated' modern era...and she looks set to be downhill from here on in, folks!
Continued (Now) Much More Succinctly...
...Two days on, and - appropriately enough no doubt - following the completely unsurprising decision of the Zimbabwean Supreme Court to toss out the electoral challenge by the Opposition MDC and its leader Nelson Chamira to Zimbabwe's recently-conducted election. Well, 'surprise, surprise!' What an unexpected development - not!
So what can decent Zimbabweans now do? Precious little, although perhaps that depends upon one's perspective upon life...because 'hope and pray(er)' over the centuries and even millennia have been said capable of moving mountains. And by none other than the Master Himself. Though 'faith and patience' are usually 'an even better bet' - but unfortunately there is no biblical sanction for even supposing that the long-fraught nation-state of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe will ever return to democratic norms in this old, fast-self-destructing, world of ours...
But if said result was really, truly legitimate and completely above-board, why then did the then Government (of Emmerson Mnangagwa) immediately *thereafter ransack the Central Headquarters of the Movement for Democratic Change in Harare - if not to seize MDC proof of the real results (as was then claimed by MDC spokespeople) - and then, days later, pester/harass/arrest up to 19 MDC parliamentarians...and then...barely a week or so later, this time apparently successfully seize the evidence of the true balloting that the MDC had up to that point successfully secreted away into safekeeping at some unknown destination. Ballots which point blank proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Nelson Chamira had actually been elected President of Zimbabwe.
But even **Robert Mugabe and his would-(have)-be(en) successor Grace Mugabe no longer support Mnangagwa - to be sure, doubtless for rather petty personal motives - but that nevertheless ought to give outsiders pause for thought and reflection. Though perhaps - having wielded essentially tyrannical power over Zimbabweans for almost four decades - they themselves have long since become quite oblivious to threats and almost believe themselves invincible at this point in time and unlikely to ever be dealt to (in a deadly fashion).
Yet oddly enough long-serving President Mugabe now appears rather innocuous in comparison with his successor, who - let's be in absolutely no doubt, whatsoever - was ever and always the henchman at Mugabe's right side - loyal to a fault (and well beyond). Someone who not only did Mugabe's 'dirty work' on his behalf, but arguably way exceeded his brief (see: Matabeleland - as I've briefly referred to in various of my five (immediately) previous blogposts), to the point of ultimately carrying out his own personal agenda/vendetta against Joshua Nkomo's forces and supporters...whilst currying favour with and gaining the undying allegiance of Zimbabwe's all-critical armed forces in the process...
*After the first official declaration of electoral results (for President and Parliament, that is).
**Or does he - as his very latest statement seems to indicate - actually support Mnangagwa? Who'd really know, it's such a moving feast, folks; and, as I say, his latest comments make it sound like he indeed does.
Or more likely still - how's this for a nifty conspiracy theory, folks? - it's all been an extremely clever ruse from the very beginning: to (cunningly) gauge the actual level of public support throughout Zimbabwe for the departure of Mugabe while his essential hand remained in place; or rather his right-hand man seamlessly maintained Mugabe's tight as grip upon the country's levers whilst appearing to all outsiders as effecting a non-violent coup d'etat and essentially ousting Mugabe from political office.
A brilliant political stratagem, and one of which the infamous Machiavelli himself would've been exceedingly proud. Yes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Essentially just an adjustment in the deck chairs upon - the personnel manning - the (erstwhile) good ship Zimbabwe, while it progressively sinks beneath the waves and thus vanishes from the collective global consciousness. Just as its current leadership might well wish.
Final Afterthoughts:
There's one essential factor in any declaration that said election be declared null and void. Obviously, that proof be provided as to the actual results on the ground throughout Zimbabwe. But since these, having been secreted/squirrelled away by MDC officials soon after the election - thankfully, prior to the Movement for Democratic Change's central (Harare) headquarters being raided (immediately after the official election result declaration) - were unfortunately then confiscated by state police/military personnel (wherever they had been deposited) a few days later, let's be clear: said Supreme Court investigation was a pure - unmitigated - farce...from start to finish.
So the unprecedented delay in (presidential - but doubtless also parliamentary) election-counting, or rather the declaration thereof; the state-sponsored intimidation of opposition politicians (and devoted supporters) following the broadcast of official results - nay, (psychological and physical) bullying and heavying of, and moreover unlawful arrest, detention and imprisonment, however temporary, thereof; the significant discrepancies in tallies (especially in previously ZANU-PF-supporting rural areas) from previous elections (and reasonable guesstimates thereof); and the masterly way in which Emmerson Mnangagwa has - publicly, officially - made all the right noises in the election aftermath to the MDC and its leader, Nelson Chamira...to me, and doubtless most impartial, disinterested observers, really say it all...
And hey, you'd hardly raid the places where the irrefutable physical proof of election-rigging was held, and moreover confiscate the same, if your intentions were wholly honourable and you had nothing whatsoever to hide...would you...really? And then make damn sure that said proofs never again saw the light of day, much less were presented to the very body, i.e. the Zimbabwean Supreme Court, 'interested' in adjudicating said election and determining the legitimacy or otherwise thereof?
Hey, they're hugely rhetorical questions, as must be obvious - and anyhow, the watching world media essentially couldn't give a damn. No, they've gladly, eagerly bought - consumed, and assimilated - the essential deceit and falsehoods cunningly being disseminated by 'President' Mnangagwa...who's certainly learnt a thing or two off political spin-doctors (and fakenews meisters) throughout the known world... .
But then he's himself sat at the very feet of a master thereof - for three-and-a-half or even four-some decades now - hasn't he...so you'd imagine he'd pick up a trick or several in that time...wouldn't you? Yes indeed he did - and moreover was Robert Mugabe's chief henchman in enforcing his agenda and rule - which thing he indisputably perfected into an art form. And then some.
However like the Western media you maybe really don't care less about it, anyway - though if you've been reading this series of blogposts, I suspect you do care...but like me (and the Zimbabwean opposition) you realize just how futile the quest for truth and justice and democracy really is in that unfortunate land. Yes, it appears the Zimbabwean croc will be rockin' along for some considerable time to come yet...feasting upon his vulnerable prey...whom the apathetic watching world has apparently thrown to him and his many co-predators circling beneath Zimbabwe's turbulent political waters...
Sunday, August 12, 2018
If you believe Zimbabwe under 'the Crocodile' has now miraculously been transformed into a democracy, quite frankly, you'll believe anything
We've again been informed of recent days that the Zimbabwean Opposition Movement for Democratic Change is set - nothing intervening in the meantime - to present its case before the nation's Supreme Court over the next couple of weeks; thus - potentially - delaying/deferring the official inauguration of Zimbabwe's presumptive President-Elect Emmerson Mnangagwa by that time. And so - presuming nothing further happens to prevent that - this appeal (or rather court challenge - to the recent elections) with its corroborating evidence will be duly presented and considered during that period. So far, so good.
But who's to think - why should anyone conclude - that this will all go forward in a proper, legal, above-the-board fashion, without hindrance or active resistance from a top-heavy, iron-fisted state? As I suggested in my title, if you really honestly believe that things will happen thus, you're simply deceiving yourself - bigtime - if not being self-deluded to begin with. Seriously folks!
And so, having thus laid my own cards, so to speak, on the table to begin with, I simply ask your further indulgence as we continue in a careful, thoughtful consideration of what's actually really 'up' in present-day Zimbabwe. If you're ready to go beyond shallow media soundbites and superficial analysis, then I invite you to join me once more as we delve again into the state of democracy in Zimbabwe today; I sincerely hope you won't be disappointed.
In this, part five (and my final, part six) of my mini-series upon the recent elections and status of democracy in the one-time nation of Rhodesia, I'll succinctly enumerate and briefly elaborate upon the basic reasons and various evidences for the claim (I'm obviously supporting via these posts) that Zimbabwe is still - indeed arguably perhaps more than ever - in the grip of an iron-fisted state and its self-appointed head. Which state of affairs - for all with eyes to see or ears to hear - looks set to abate no time soon, or in the foreseeable. But first let's look at some of the counter-evidence that's been in the news...
Sure, we all want to believe the best of any situation, especially some of the incredibly fraught geo-political conflicts and dilemmas of our increasingly complex and problematic day and age. And to think the best of any individual is surely in the DNA of every human being created in the image of its Maker...for those 'simple-minded folk' who still hold to such old-fashioned concepts of life, that is. Yes, I'm one of those - I'm simply playing 'devils' advocate' for those unfamiliar with such irony.
And so why shouldn't we just believe Presumptive-President-Elect Mnangagwa when he - let's give him all due credit, it seems a veritable class act (he's presently performing) - in so many, subtle as well as overt ways, seems to be indicating he is a defanged one-time oppressor, whose default position is now as harmless as ye proverbial domesticated cat? Someone who 'really, truly' (as Dick van Dyke, I think, expresses things in the musical Mary Poppins - or is it rather Willy Wonka himself, pontificating upon his latest scrump-diddly-icious chocolate confectionary, in my all-time favourite - Gene Wilder version - kids' movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? - no matter) has changed his ways?
Why indeed not believe him (that is)? It seems a good and pertinent question. Until one stops a mo(ment) or two and considers how we usually respond to someone in his position, someone who once was unabashedly the tool, nay in his case the very instigator, of political violence (and on such a sickening scale that it earned him the nickname 'the Crocodile').
Yes indeed. For the sort of stuff generally sheeted home to the new Zimbabwean President was nothing less than the wholesale massacring of the supporters - plus no doubt innocent family and friends, and merely townspeople of - the one-time Opposition leader, Joshua Nkomo, 'whose' Matabeleland was given the going over in no uncertain terms by the forces of then President-Elect Robert Mugabe; under one Emmerson Mnangagwa, no less.
So yes, normally someone from such a problematic background first has to prove themselves a truly changed individual before we'll just accept their claims - though truth be told, in places like the Hague they're more often - on the *odd chance they ever get to see and try them - sentenced to life imprisonment 'for crimes against humanity' (and then not seen again in public the rest of their days).
But dealing with 'the real world' as we're confronted with it in places such as Zimbabwe, that sort of scenario is a rare thing indeed, and so we need to be content with 'justice' as it is possible in the circumstances. In the meantime, anyhow. And so, yes, we see someone - President Mnangagwa - who's certainly making all the proper 'noises' to at least appear to be doing and trying to do the right thing by everyone concerned/involved (in Zimbabwe), including international observers specially on duty there at present.
'Things' such as declaring that Opposition leader Nelson Chamira "had an important part to play in a [regenerated] future Zimbabwe" (and its democracy); undoubtedly being directly behind the calling off of the riot police upon MDC leader Chamira's immediate post-election result declaration press conference (before things got totally out of hand); blaming Grace Mugabe (et al) rather than the MDC for an - apparent - assassination attempt upon Mnangagwa's life at an election rally awhile ago; and for talking in a mild and conciliatory fashion as he declared the election ballots to be in his favour...among other things...
To be continued (part 6): So What of Such Apparent 'good faith' moves upon the part of Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa? Why Not just take him - the new Mnangagwa - at Face Value?
*Because as anyone with any knowledge of late 20th-Century history well knows, dictators and tyrants like Uganda's Idi Amin and Haiti's 'Doc Duvalier' - among many others - have an unsettling habit of whisking themselves away into dark and secluded corners of the globe where they're often able to carry on in lavish luxury undetected and 'unmolested' pretty well to the end of their (threescore-some allotted) days... .
But who's to think - why should anyone conclude - that this will all go forward in a proper, legal, above-the-board fashion, without hindrance or active resistance from a top-heavy, iron-fisted state? As I suggested in my title, if you really honestly believe that things will happen thus, you're simply deceiving yourself - bigtime - if not being self-deluded to begin with. Seriously folks!
And so, having thus laid my own cards, so to speak, on the table to begin with, I simply ask your further indulgence as we continue in a careful, thoughtful consideration of what's actually really 'up' in present-day Zimbabwe. If you're ready to go beyond shallow media soundbites and superficial analysis, then I invite you to join me once more as we delve again into the state of democracy in Zimbabwe today; I sincerely hope you won't be disappointed.
In this, part five (and my final, part six) of my mini-series upon the recent elections and status of democracy in the one-time nation of Rhodesia, I'll succinctly enumerate and briefly elaborate upon the basic reasons and various evidences for the claim (I'm obviously supporting via these posts) that Zimbabwe is still - indeed arguably perhaps more than ever - in the grip of an iron-fisted state and its self-appointed head. Which state of affairs - for all with eyes to see or ears to hear - looks set to abate no time soon, or in the foreseeable. But first let's look at some of the counter-evidence that's been in the news...
Sure, we all want to believe the best of any situation, especially some of the incredibly fraught geo-political conflicts and dilemmas of our increasingly complex and problematic day and age. And to think the best of any individual is surely in the DNA of every human being created in the image of its Maker...for those 'simple-minded folk' who still hold to such old-fashioned concepts of life, that is. Yes, I'm one of those - I'm simply playing 'devils' advocate' for those unfamiliar with such irony.
And so why shouldn't we just believe Presumptive-President-Elect Mnangagwa when he - let's give him all due credit, it seems a veritable class act (he's presently performing) - in so many, subtle as well as overt ways, seems to be indicating he is a defanged one-time oppressor, whose default position is now as harmless as ye proverbial domesticated cat? Someone who 'really, truly' (as Dick van Dyke, I think, expresses things in the musical Mary Poppins - or is it rather Willy Wonka himself, pontificating upon his latest scrump-diddly-icious chocolate confectionary, in my all-time favourite - Gene Wilder version - kids' movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? - no matter) has changed his ways?
Why indeed not believe him (that is)? It seems a good and pertinent question. Until one stops a mo(ment) or two and considers how we usually respond to someone in his position, someone who once was unabashedly the tool, nay in his case the very instigator, of political violence (and on such a sickening scale that it earned him the nickname 'the Crocodile').
Yes indeed. For the sort of stuff generally sheeted home to the new Zimbabwean President was nothing less than the wholesale massacring of the supporters - plus no doubt innocent family and friends, and merely townspeople of - the one-time Opposition leader, Joshua Nkomo, 'whose' Matabeleland was given the going over in no uncertain terms by the forces of then President-Elect Robert Mugabe; under one Emmerson Mnangagwa, no less.
So yes, normally someone from such a problematic background first has to prove themselves a truly changed individual before we'll just accept their claims - though truth be told, in places like the Hague they're more often - on the *odd chance they ever get to see and try them - sentenced to life imprisonment 'for crimes against humanity' (and then not seen again in public the rest of their days).
But dealing with 'the real world' as we're confronted with it in places such as Zimbabwe, that sort of scenario is a rare thing indeed, and so we need to be content with 'justice' as it is possible in the circumstances. In the meantime, anyhow. And so, yes, we see someone - President Mnangagwa - who's certainly making all the proper 'noises' to at least appear to be doing and trying to do the right thing by everyone concerned/involved (in Zimbabwe), including international observers specially on duty there at present.
'Things' such as declaring that Opposition leader Nelson Chamira "had an important part to play in a [regenerated] future Zimbabwe" (and its democracy); undoubtedly being directly behind the calling off of the riot police upon MDC leader Chamira's immediate post-election result declaration press conference (before things got totally out of hand); blaming Grace Mugabe (et al) rather than the MDC for an - apparent - assassination attempt upon Mnangagwa's life at an election rally awhile ago; and for talking in a mild and conciliatory fashion as he declared the election ballots to be in his favour...among other things...
To be continued (part 6): So What of Such Apparent 'good faith' moves upon the part of Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa? Why Not just take him - the new Mnangagwa - at Face Value?
*Because as anyone with any knowledge of late 20th-Century history well knows, dictators and tyrants like Uganda's Idi Amin and Haiti's 'Doc Duvalier' - among many others - have an unsettling habit of whisking themselves away into dark and secluded corners of the globe where they're often able to carry on in lavish luxury undetected and 'unmolested' pretty well to the end of their (threescore-some allotted) days... .
Friday, August 10, 2018
Sure, A Crocodile Will Cry Crocodile Tears - So What Else is New? Part Two: The Evidence Pretty Well All Points One Way - and it ain't pretty, folks!
So, as I asked a few days ago, why has *the media started to collectively turn the other way and
seemingly abandon Zimbabwe to the crocs in their midst, the reptilian monsters now arguably circling in for the kill - of both democracy and those still adhering to and upholding it in that land? Why indeed?
Well, essentially they've chosen to accept, to embrace - readily, without much question or investigation, apparently - the verdict of 'ZEC'(I think it's known as): the independent international election monitors deployed to and stationed throughout the nation who reported back to the onlooking, awaiting world as soon as the final presidential tally was in. Which, I'm sure you'd agree, certainly seems a reasonable enough thing to have done.
Yes, I'll readily grant (the soundness of such thinking) - on an initial and essentially superficial basis, anyhow. And so, why do I happen to believe there's something fishy afloat, when such folk - eminently qualified for their task as they doubtless are - apparently are convinced that a proper election of Emmerson Mnangagwa has taken place?
Well, folks, the signs from Election Day itself, and post-election - and indeed from well before - are in fact quite contrary to that perspective, as a **New Zealand observer, phoning in to Katherine Ryan's RNZ National Nine to Noon Show post-election and before the final result was declared, evidenced in so many ways.
But for now - yes, I'm having to take another break in my narrative, time being against me - let me suggest that the behaviour of Zimbabwean security personnel - riot police in particular, but also military men - towards the opposition MDC Movement and a number of its MPs post-election (and in view of the party's and its leader's well-known and oft-declared claim that they possessed conclusive evidence that said election results did not in fact tally with the well-documented evidence possessed by the MDC and its own, on-the-ground, polling station observers and scrutineers) essentially says it all - all that's needed saying anyway...
*In New Zealand, anyhow - I am unable to speak for other jurisdictions; except to add, the great dearth of coverage from the likes of the BBC post-election suggests that this longstanding 'bastion of truth and impartiality and [old-fashioned] objective journalism' is in the same camp, and set to abandon its well-deserved reputation of bringing truth to power and privilege - wherever that might be.
**The former M.P. for (my sister's electorate of) ***Christchurch Central, Tim Barnett.
***Curiously, today (now August 12th), I noticed that an old TIME Mag (December 5th, 1994) includes former Chch M.P. Lianne Dalziel (these days, the Mayor of Christchurch) as among those listed in 'The Global 100: TIME's roster of young leaders for the new millennium'. Long-serving M.P. and later three-term P.M., and eventually credible United Nations' Secretary-General candidate, ****Helen Clark, however, is conspicuously absent from said inventory.
But not so one politician in particular, only too well-known upon our present-day global scene: believe it or not - yes, it's quite incredible, even moreover rather depressing - no, *****no-one (like 'the [Zimbabwean] Croc') thankfully enough, but a far more significant figure on the world scene, the Syrian leader, despot and war criminal ******Bashar(sic) Al-Assad!
TIME, citing him at *******29 as 'President-in-Waiting', also includes the following eye-opening info re this politician: [he] was a retiring young man who displayed no taste for politics until fate intervened...[being] in Britain...when his elder brother was killed in a car crash...In Damascus, hopes are that the would-be ophthalmologist will bring new vision to bear if he takes over the reins of a country that will play a pivotal role in any lasting Middle East peace.
What more need one add - especially in commentary thereupon?!?!? What indeed!
****Once dubbed a possible future leader of a one-world government, interestingly enough, alongside her parliamentary (and later deputy P.M.) contemporary, the (recently-deceased) Jim Anderton.
*****A whopping 20 of these 100 future leaders are listed in the AFRICA/MIDEAST section.
******Intriguingly enough - and worthy of giving one and all due cause for pause - both (arguably this, the younger, rather than the father and former Syrian President) (Al-)Assad and current, long-serving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (who, though many will long since have forgotten, also served as P.M. briefly in the late nineties) are singled out for citation in the eminently intriguing The Bible Code and the Bible Code 2: The Countdown by ******Michael Drosnin. That is, in the context of very last days' events in the ever-conflict-ridden Middle East.
*******'Scarily' enough, apparently almost exactly the same age as Yours Truly. No - thankfully - further 'computations' now on my part establish him as - at a guesstimate - a year younger; well and truly living up to his (my sister's current - and my own teenage - (occultic) Chinese Astrological obsession's) animal's reputation as a snake. And assuredly of the most venomous, if subtle and beguiling - yet notwithstanding viciously deadly - variety! Sadly, further computations indicate Al-Assad might've been about to turn 30 that very December (like myself), in which case he's a Chinese 'character' of even far greater significance/potential notoriety (or positive significance):a dragon!
********Interestingly enough, Drosnin's Jewish himself, if of the secular, cultural variety (and - at least formerly - based in New York City as a journalist). And just as interestingly, perhaps, not only is a fellow (Israeli) Jew - the brilliant mathematician, Dr Eliyahu Rips - cited often in said books (as someone who helped establish the validity of the sequencing patterns characteristic of the hidden computer codes), but PM Netanyahu's own dad, who evidently implicitly believed in these 'codes'.
seemingly abandon Zimbabwe to the crocs in their midst, the reptilian monsters now arguably circling in for the kill - of both democracy and those still adhering to and upholding it in that land? Why indeed?
Well, essentially they've chosen to accept, to embrace - readily, without much question or investigation, apparently - the verdict of 'ZEC'(I think it's known as): the independent international election monitors deployed to and stationed throughout the nation who reported back to the onlooking, awaiting world as soon as the final presidential tally was in. Which, I'm sure you'd agree, certainly seems a reasonable enough thing to have done.
Yes, I'll readily grant (the soundness of such thinking) - on an initial and essentially superficial basis, anyhow. And so, why do I happen to believe there's something fishy afloat, when such folk - eminently qualified for their task as they doubtless are - apparently are convinced that a proper election of Emmerson Mnangagwa has taken place?
Well, folks, the signs from Election Day itself, and post-election - and indeed from well before - are in fact quite contrary to that perspective, as a **New Zealand observer, phoning in to Katherine Ryan's RNZ National Nine to Noon Show post-election and before the final result was declared, evidenced in so many ways.
But for now - yes, I'm having to take another break in my narrative, time being against me - let me suggest that the behaviour of Zimbabwean security personnel - riot police in particular, but also military men - towards the opposition MDC Movement and a number of its MPs post-election (and in view of the party's and its leader's well-known and oft-declared claim that they possessed conclusive evidence that said election results did not in fact tally with the well-documented evidence possessed by the MDC and its own, on-the-ground, polling station observers and scrutineers) essentially says it all - all that's needed saying anyway...
*In New Zealand, anyhow - I am unable to speak for other jurisdictions; except to add, the great dearth of coverage from the likes of the BBC post-election suggests that this longstanding 'bastion of truth and impartiality and [old-fashioned] objective journalism' is in the same camp, and set to abandon its well-deserved reputation of bringing truth to power and privilege - wherever that might be.
**The former M.P. for (my sister's electorate of) ***Christchurch Central, Tim Barnett.
***Curiously, today (now August 12th), I noticed that an old TIME Mag (December 5th, 1994) includes former Chch M.P. Lianne Dalziel (these days, the Mayor of Christchurch) as among those listed in 'The Global 100: TIME's roster of young leaders for the new millennium'. Long-serving M.P. and later three-term P.M., and eventually credible United Nations' Secretary-General candidate, ****Helen Clark, however, is conspicuously absent from said inventory.
But not so one politician in particular, only too well-known upon our present-day global scene: believe it or not - yes, it's quite incredible, even moreover rather depressing - no, *****no-one (like 'the [Zimbabwean] Croc') thankfully enough, but a far more significant figure on the world scene, the Syrian leader, despot and war criminal ******Bashar(sic) Al-Assad!
TIME, citing him at *******29 as 'President-in-Waiting', also includes the following eye-opening info re this politician: [he] was a retiring young man who displayed no taste for politics until fate intervened...[being] in Britain...when his elder brother was killed in a car crash...In Damascus, hopes are that the would-be ophthalmologist will bring new vision to bear if he takes over the reins of a country that will play a pivotal role in any lasting Middle East peace.
What more need one add - especially in commentary thereupon?!?!? What indeed!
****Once dubbed a possible future leader of a one-world government, interestingly enough, alongside her parliamentary (and later deputy P.M.) contemporary, the (recently-deceased) Jim Anderton.
*****A whopping 20 of these 100 future leaders are listed in the AFRICA/MIDEAST section.
******Intriguingly enough - and worthy of giving one and all due cause for pause - both (arguably this, the younger, rather than the father and former Syrian President) (Al-)Assad and current, long-serving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (who, though many will long since have forgotten, also served as P.M. briefly in the late nineties) are singled out for citation in the eminently intriguing The Bible Code and the Bible Code 2: The Countdown by ******Michael Drosnin. That is, in the context of very last days' events in the ever-conflict-ridden Middle East.
*******'Scarily' enough, apparently almost exactly the same age as Yours Truly. No - thankfully - further 'computations' now on my part establish him as - at a guesstimate - a year younger; well and truly living up to his (my sister's current - and my own teenage - (occultic) Chinese Astrological obsession's) animal's reputation as a snake. And assuredly of the most venomous, if subtle and beguiling - yet notwithstanding viciously deadly - variety! Sadly, further computations indicate Al-Assad might've been about to turn 30 that very December (like myself), in which case he's a Chinese 'character' of even far greater significance/potential notoriety (or positive significance):a dragon!
********Interestingly enough, Drosnin's Jewish himself, if of the secular, cultural variety (and - at least formerly - based in New York City as a journalist). And just as interestingly, perhaps, not only is a fellow (Israeli) Jew - the brilliant mathematician, Dr Eliyahu Rips - cited often in said books (as someone who helped establish the validity of the sequencing patterns characteristic of the hidden computer codes), but PM Netanyahu's own dad, who evidently implicitly believed in these 'codes'.
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Sure, A Crocodile Will Cry Crocodile Tears - So What Else Is New? Or, Why is the Western World letting the new, chameleonlike, Zimbabwean wolf in sheep's clothing pull his (well-fabricated) wool over their collective eyes?
In this third part of my series upon Zimbabwe and its recent election results, let me first say, however weak and impotent it may well sound, that I feel - deeply - for the folk there, as the world, or at least the Western component thereof - though methinks they're not alone - turn their gaze away and simply look the other way, considering the whole subject too difficult by half, and thus assign it to the too hard basket, if only by default. Or, alternatively, everyone - everywhere (to the extent that they're even interested or are able to take an active interest thereunto) - are holding onto sheer hope, wistfully hoping against hope that something, anything, is about to start going well in this oft-troubled land.
But unfortunately such pollyanne-rish wishful thinking will get no-one anywhere, least of all the people of Zimbabwe. For as we all know, gullibility or naivete is believing - despite all sane, credible evidence to the contrary - precisely what you already or always wanted to believe anyway. Otherwise known as putting your head firmly and irrevocably in the sand. Which of course never solved anything.
And thus and so last November an older Christian friend probably thought I'd been duly hoodwinked when, remarking upon the sudden elevation of former Mugabe strongman (and military massacre-overseer) Emmerson Mnangagwa, to Zimbabwe's Presidency, I mentioned he'd been cited as having had some religious conversion experience or the like in recent times - whether according to him or those around him. The aforementioned 'mighty man of God', who I'll simply call Lanwoo, completely pooh-poohed such a (naive) notion, and anyhow I myself well understood the utter implausibility thereof, but in view of the (numerically) large accessions to my own particular brand of evangelicalism in Zimbabwe - especially post- the return there of a good friend (I'll also simply call Lorhar) three decades back - I dared to hope, 'all things being possible' (with God), that things might've been somewhat different these days. Yes, eminently more hopeful.
So how've things changed since, how've things transpired, 'progressed', under Mnangagwa's nascent leadership? It's really quite hard - for me, at this distance, and without a whole lot of reporting even c/o the BBC, ever since - to say very much or at all conclusively. But stay tuned as I return shortly, focusing in - for our purposes in these opinion pieces - on the recently-concluded elections there. For they - sadly enough - seem to really 'say it all', and yes, as you can well guess, the picture ain't pretty!
But unfortunately such pollyanne-rish wishful thinking will get no-one anywhere, least of all the people of Zimbabwe. For as we all know, gullibility or naivete is believing - despite all sane, credible evidence to the contrary - precisely what you already or always wanted to believe anyway. Otherwise known as putting your head firmly and irrevocably in the sand. Which of course never solved anything.
And thus and so last November an older Christian friend probably thought I'd been duly hoodwinked when, remarking upon the sudden elevation of former Mugabe strongman (and military massacre-overseer) Emmerson Mnangagwa, to Zimbabwe's Presidency, I mentioned he'd been cited as having had some religious conversion experience or the like in recent times - whether according to him or those around him. The aforementioned 'mighty man of God', who I'll simply call Lanwoo, completely pooh-poohed such a (naive) notion, and anyhow I myself well understood the utter implausibility thereof, but in view of the (numerically) large accessions to my own particular brand of evangelicalism in Zimbabwe - especially post- the return there of a good friend (I'll also simply call Lorhar) three decades back - I dared to hope, 'all things being possible' (with God), that things might've been somewhat different these days. Yes, eminently more hopeful.
So how've things changed since, how've things transpired, 'progressed', under Mnangagwa's nascent leadership? It's really quite hard - for me, at this distance, and without a whole lot of reporting even c/o the BBC, ever since - to say very much or at all conclusively. But stay tuned as I return shortly, focusing in - for our purposes in these opinion pieces - on the recently-concluded elections there. For they - sadly enough - seem to really 'say it all', and yes, as you can well guess, the picture ain't pretty!
Monday, August 6, 2018
A Media Self-Condemned by its Silence, Complicit by its Complacent and Cowardly Connivance
We've reached a sad day in Westerndom in so many ways...but surely 'our' media has just attained a new, *invidious low: in now effectively abandoning one of its longstanding, most loyal and devoted Commonwealth friends and relatives - to wit, the longsuffering and neglected nation of Zimbabwe.
In surrendering the people of Zimbabwe to the alligators presently moving in for the kill in the turbulent political waters swirling beneath their feet, even the much-vaunted BBC itself has forsaken Zimbabweans like so many over-heated cakes, abandoning them into the proverbial too-hard-basket. Yes, the **one-time justly-celebrated British Broadcasting Corporation has - its many praiseworthy internationally-broadcast radio programmes notwithstanding, and these are well worthy of the highest commendation (on a regular basis) - now not only 'dropped the ball' upon our erstwhile central southern African allies and compatriots, they've done so when they need our aid and help more than ever before.
Which I will make reference to in my imminent Part Three (to be published shortly). But sadly, they are far from alone in so doing, seemingly being joined - at least in these Antipodean 'nether regions' - by our broadcast media as well. What a despicable thing to do, abandon one's close friend when they're at an all-time low, putting the collective boot in when they're already well and truly down.
*Among its various meanings, according to my trusty Chambers Concise Dictionary, is this - entirely unexpected, but wholly accurate - one: offensively discriminating (italics all mine). And doesn't that just so aptly sum 'em up! Yes, I mean the mainstream media...and no, for all their faults - which may (in certain instances) be many - and varied - the likes of Sir Robert Muldoon, the Right Honourable Winston Peters, and even 'the Donald' (i.e. U.S. President Donald J Trump) himself are right on the ball in one major respect at least: their unanimous suspicion of and even at times downright contempt for the so-called 'journalists' and media outlets which style themselves so successfully as the brave bastions of truth and the upholders of the highest Western values and democratic principles. For once again they have failed abysmally - abjectly - in their self-appointed task (of bringing truth to power - and all the rest). Hey, on this one they're not even on the scoreboard.
**However over recent weeks and months and years the blatant inconsistencies and even hypocrisies of this one-time bastion of Westerndom's core Judaeo-Christian values has gone completely awol: missing in action - and without any forwarding address. More's the pity. Whether we're talking about their aiding and abetting the U.K. police in their unjust hit jobs upon the likes of Cliff Richards, Ken Roache and the like - while scurrying for well-needed cover as their own miserable 'non-treatment' of the serial paedophile Jimmy Saville was gradually, progressively exposed into public view, the BBC 'dealing with this' by their own brand of serial rationalization, duck-shoving and pleading of extenuating circumstances.
Or referring to their citing Aotearoa-New Zealand's new 'bright young thing', the Green Party's articulate female (Iranian) refugee M.P. Gohriz Ghahraman, as some sort of expert upon our neighbour Australia's admittedly appalling treatment of refugees, especially one-time New Zealanders, at, for example, their now infamous Manus Island (and Christmas Island) Detention Centre; when all the while this selfsame 'spokesperson on human rights' had been extensively exposed post- our last General Election (almost a year ago now) as a one-time apologist, nay, public spokesperson and defense attorney for, instigators of genocide in both 1990s' Serbia/Kosovo/ Croatia/Bosnia-Herzogovina etc as well as 1993-1994 Rwanda!
And time eludes us here to more than briefly cite their abject inconsistency, even hypocrisy, in giving almost a ***running commentary upon the intention of various 'Englishmen' (and no doubt women) to effect a rarely-invoked citizens' arrest of Pope Benedict the 16th upon his arrival in the U.K. for a papal tour back in 2009 or so, when, almost the very moment he set foot upon British soil they were pretty well feting him from veritable pillar to post, and couldn't get enough of him; virtually slobbering their newfound affection all over him as he rode in the papal motorcade (was it in the Popemobile? - I'm not sure) and then sat in state as it were alongside then British Prime Minister David Cameron in a makeshift sort of canopy (virtually transplanted holus-bolus from a Victorian-era garden show), while they - alongside their adoring fellow citizenry - oohed and aahed and fawned and scraped, bowed and curtsied before Benedict as he gloried in the unexpected adoration and adulation. ***Here including both branches (radio and television) of the BBC's broadcasting arm.
The very same one-time German Cardinal Josef Ratzinger who'd not only served in the Hitler Youth, and later in the Vatican's modern-day (theologically-oriented) 'Inquisition' (for trying and excommunicating heretics from the Roman Catholic Church), but who'd effectively done nothing about dealing with and to the then-rampant sexual abuse occurring c/o the RCC's priests and prelates and cardinals worldwide, and was thus going to be treated to - or rather, served with - an old-fashioned citizens' arrest upon setting foot in England.
Necessary Disclaimer (with the benefit of overnight reflection):
Perhaps I'm being a little too severe (and broad-brushed in my 'strokes' here), and should've been a bit less critical of the BBC - not so much vis-a-vis #1, however, nor with my overall point re Zimbabwe.
Nevertheless, in case #3 (re Pope Benedict's papal visit to Great Britain), they're guilty as charged, for rapidly, and quite inexplicably - unless it can be argued that they, like 'everyone else' at the time, were simply swept up into the overall feel-good emotionalism of the special occasion - moving from an heretofore impartial commentary (even arguably somewhat anti-papal line - reflecting societal-wide feeling then almost palpable) the one moment, to a rather over-the-top, utterly uncritical commentary the very next...as per the (subsequent) rest of their reportage...not even mentioning the former 'threat' (of a citizens' arrest), as if it was now altogether nonexistent,; or, still worse, as if it were now an irrelevance - beneath one's legitimate notice...as, like with the Royal Family, we were now all (expected to be) collectively besotted with them all - their each and every move - even 'rightfully so'...that any previous quibbles or concerns - however well-justified at the time - simply no longer mattered or made any real difference anyhow...
In case #2, for, apparently, simply not bothering to investigate Ghahraman's background (story) better - especially the well-canvassed controversy (within Aotearoa-New Zealand) that played out in our media late last year (especially in November). Again, as with #3, we all now simply couldn't get enough of GG. So, any past 'indiscretions' - however damning and utterly devastating to anyone else's career in the circumstances - simply no longer mattered...all was again forgiven, and any, however once quite legitimate concerns were to be simply relegated to the realms, the backblocks of sheer, utter irrelevancy.
As per Zimbabwe, I've still essentially the same concerns, with all the naivete and gullibility this of course suggests/highlights...though, to give them their proper and rightful due, the BBC's overall radio coverage of Zimbabwe - at least up until their fateful election 'result' announced last Friday New Zealand time - was quite exemplary, as far as it went...even putting other (NZ-wide media, anyway) way into the background. (At least they then covered extensively the more than legitimate concerns raised by opposition spokespeople and protesters in the country.)
In surrendering the people of Zimbabwe to the alligators presently moving in for the kill in the turbulent political waters swirling beneath their feet, even the much-vaunted BBC itself has forsaken Zimbabweans like so many over-heated cakes, abandoning them into the proverbial too-hard-basket. Yes, the **one-time justly-celebrated British Broadcasting Corporation has - its many praiseworthy internationally-broadcast radio programmes notwithstanding, and these are well worthy of the highest commendation (on a regular basis) - now not only 'dropped the ball' upon our erstwhile central southern African allies and compatriots, they've done so when they need our aid and help more than ever before.
Which I will make reference to in my imminent Part Three (to be published shortly). But sadly, they are far from alone in so doing, seemingly being joined - at least in these Antipodean 'nether regions' - by our broadcast media as well. What a despicable thing to do, abandon one's close friend when they're at an all-time low, putting the collective boot in when they're already well and truly down.
*Among its various meanings, according to my trusty Chambers Concise Dictionary, is this - entirely unexpected, but wholly accurate - one: offensively discriminating (italics all mine). And doesn't that just so aptly sum 'em up! Yes, I mean the mainstream media...and no, for all their faults - which may (in certain instances) be many - and varied - the likes of Sir Robert Muldoon, the Right Honourable Winston Peters, and even 'the Donald' (i.e. U.S. President Donald J Trump) himself are right on the ball in one major respect at least: their unanimous suspicion of and even at times downright contempt for the so-called 'journalists' and media outlets which style themselves so successfully as the brave bastions of truth and the upholders of the highest Western values and democratic principles. For once again they have failed abysmally - abjectly - in their self-appointed task (of bringing truth to power - and all the rest). Hey, on this one they're not even on the scoreboard.
**However over recent weeks and months and years the blatant inconsistencies and even hypocrisies of this one-time bastion of Westerndom's core Judaeo-Christian values has gone completely awol: missing in action - and without any forwarding address. More's the pity. Whether we're talking about their aiding and abetting the U.K. police in their unjust hit jobs upon the likes of Cliff Richards, Ken Roache and the like - while scurrying for well-needed cover as their own miserable 'non-treatment' of the serial paedophile Jimmy Saville was gradually, progressively exposed into public view, the BBC 'dealing with this' by their own brand of serial rationalization, duck-shoving and pleading of extenuating circumstances.
Or referring to their citing Aotearoa-New Zealand's new 'bright young thing', the Green Party's articulate female (Iranian) refugee M.P. Gohriz Ghahraman, as some sort of expert upon our neighbour Australia's admittedly appalling treatment of refugees, especially one-time New Zealanders, at, for example, their now infamous Manus Island (and Christmas Island) Detention Centre; when all the while this selfsame 'spokesperson on human rights' had been extensively exposed post- our last General Election (almost a year ago now) as a one-time apologist, nay, public spokesperson and defense attorney for, instigators of genocide in both 1990s' Serbia/Kosovo/ Croatia/Bosnia-Herzogovina etc as well as 1993-1994 Rwanda!
And time eludes us here to more than briefly cite their abject inconsistency, even hypocrisy, in giving almost a ***running commentary upon the intention of various 'Englishmen' (and no doubt women) to effect a rarely-invoked citizens' arrest of Pope Benedict the 16th upon his arrival in the U.K. for a papal tour back in 2009 or so, when, almost the very moment he set foot upon British soil they were pretty well feting him from veritable pillar to post, and couldn't get enough of him; virtually slobbering their newfound affection all over him as he rode in the papal motorcade (was it in the Popemobile? - I'm not sure) and then sat in state as it were alongside then British Prime Minister David Cameron in a makeshift sort of canopy (virtually transplanted holus-bolus from a Victorian-era garden show), while they - alongside their adoring fellow citizenry - oohed and aahed and fawned and scraped, bowed and curtsied before Benedict as he gloried in the unexpected adoration and adulation. ***Here including both branches (radio and television) of the BBC's broadcasting arm.
The very same one-time German Cardinal Josef Ratzinger who'd not only served in the Hitler Youth, and later in the Vatican's modern-day (theologically-oriented) 'Inquisition' (for trying and excommunicating heretics from the Roman Catholic Church), but who'd effectively done nothing about dealing with and to the then-rampant sexual abuse occurring c/o the RCC's priests and prelates and cardinals worldwide, and was thus going to be treated to - or rather, served with - an old-fashioned citizens' arrest upon setting foot in England.
Necessary Disclaimer (with the benefit of overnight reflection):
Perhaps I'm being a little too severe (and broad-brushed in my 'strokes' here), and should've been a bit less critical of the BBC - not so much vis-a-vis #1, however, nor with my overall point re Zimbabwe.
Nevertheless, in case #3 (re Pope Benedict's papal visit to Great Britain), they're guilty as charged, for rapidly, and quite inexplicably - unless it can be argued that they, like 'everyone else' at the time, were simply swept up into the overall feel-good emotionalism of the special occasion - moving from an heretofore impartial commentary (even arguably somewhat anti-papal line - reflecting societal-wide feeling then almost palpable) the one moment, to a rather over-the-top, utterly uncritical commentary the very next...as per the (subsequent) rest of their reportage...not even mentioning the former 'threat' (of a citizens' arrest), as if it was now altogether nonexistent,; or, still worse, as if it were now an irrelevance - beneath one's legitimate notice...as, like with the Royal Family, we were now all (expected to be) collectively besotted with them all - their each and every move - even 'rightfully so'...that any previous quibbles or concerns - however well-justified at the time - simply no longer mattered or made any real difference anyhow...
In case #2, for, apparently, simply not bothering to investigate Ghahraman's background (story) better - especially the well-canvassed controversy (within Aotearoa-New Zealand) that played out in our media late last year (especially in November). Again, as with #3, we all now simply couldn't get enough of GG. So, any past 'indiscretions' - however damning and utterly devastating to anyone else's career in the circumstances - simply no longer mattered...all was again forgiven, and any, however once quite legitimate concerns were to be simply relegated to the realms, the backblocks of sheer, utter irrelevancy.
As per Zimbabwe, I've still essentially the same concerns, with all the naivete and gullibility this of course suggests/highlights...though, to give them their proper and rightful due, the BBC's overall radio coverage of Zimbabwe - at least up until their fateful election 'result' announced last Friday New Zealand time - was quite exemplary, as far as it went...even putting other (NZ-wide media, anyway) way into the background. (At least they then covered extensively the more than legitimate concerns raised by opposition spokespeople and protesters in the country.)
Friday, August 3, 2018
The Crocodile Rocks Along: The More Things Change (in Zimbabwe - & South Africa), The More Things Stay the Same
Over recent months 'great changes' have come to the two once-segregationist, former British colonies of southern Africa, Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and South Africa. Or, as New Zealand's infamous tui billboard would put it, 'Yeah, right!' And just so any half-awake punter might have predicted/known...
Yes, the Republic of South Africa changed its leadership a little while ago now. No matter - as per its northern 'cousin', Zimbabwe, such 'changes', as cosmetic in appearance as in actual nature, just went to show - yet again - the truth of ye 'ole adage: the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Moreover in both nations the land appropriations/expropriations evidently carry on apace, or at least are not only being maintained, but their terms are being widened...as white South African farmers now likewise feel the full brunt of long pent-up resentment and bitterness over the land subjugation of the two countries' landless plebs. This particular brand of utu has certainly been a long time in gestation/building, and no doubt to those concerned feels only all too justified and excusable.
But onto South Africa's highly fraught situation another time, suffice to say that many, both there and overseas, are not at all in some partisan bunker with their blinkers on, or deceived thereabouts; for example the much-respected African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and New Zealand's own (one-time *C.A.R.E. head) Springboks' Tour protest organizer, the much-pilloried but thoughtful and insightful John Minto: both understandably long disillusioned with the actual on-the-ground results of the justly much-celebrated end of Apartheid - as they, like the rest of us, see that wonderful socio-political 'transformation' turned into barefaced betrayal.
No, the realities of political **nepotism/corruption, abject failure to share the largesse and spoils of victory with the poverty-stricken multitudes, and unprecedented, out-of-control crime and violence pretty well ever since the [much-trumpeted] changes there really say it all, don't they?; 'changes' which have proven as shallow and superficial as a lanced boil.
And of course its cultural cousin and neighbour, Zimbabwe, has shared a similar fate - minus the awful violence (among the people-at-large, anyhow) it must be conceded. But is even that advantage/'superiority' soon to be submerged in a perfectly understandable reaction and *****kickback to Zimbabwe's just-concluded elections (just as we've indeed seen in its immediate aftermath)?
Yes, longtime, valiant Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai met his earthly demise only months ago - doubtless 'assisted', even if not directly precipitated and contributed to, by his previous 'incident' at the hands of Government-sanctioned security thugs. Nobly surviving throughout a period of years and decades when such 'ad hoc' state brutality was regularly meted out if on a sporadic basis and in an uncoordinated fashion, yet now appears highly likely to return 'with a vengeance'.
A situation all the more tragic when one considers how Rhodesia/Zimbabwe - post-independence, that is - has, unlike so many of, indeed arguably the great majority of, its African fellow states, managed to admirably maintain a popular resistance - to Mugabe's rule in particular - without recourse to armed uprising or rebellion. Till now, anyhow. But with the re-accession to power of ******'the Crocodile' that admirable restraint looks set to become - hopelessly - unstuck.
Yes, the long-running era of el tinpot dictators and petty despots (in the central south of Africa) seems destined to continue, indeed to carry on pretty well where it left off...under the various predecessors. Yet (as just alluded to) up to now the people of Zimbabwe have surely been a shining example of patient endurance and perseverance in the face of ongoing, unrelenting, top-down political, military and economic oppression and servitude - whatever the outward semblance and even realities of democracy in the land might well have been at times.
This is a 'matter' of some interest to me, as - see my own blogpost half a year to a year ago or so '(So) Who's to Say Who Should Stay?' - unlike so many talkback hosts who apparently seem to, rather glibly and simplistically, assume that ye average citizen in such scenarios should 'simply rise up and overthrow the bastards' (who cares if they themselves lose their lives in the process?) - I for one fully accept that discretion is indeed invariably 'the better part of valour' (in such situations especially, quite obviously).
For, as I say in that opinion piece, which of us (kiwis, for example) would choose to stay and fight to the death (as it were) if, say, and admittedly however hypothetically, there were a civil war brought on by Maori separatists rising up to overthrow the established order (of things). Yes, who indeed?
*Citizens Association for Racial Equality; cf NZ's other, compatriot-in-protest, once well-known H.A.R.T. [Halt All Racist Tours] outfit, also famously led at one time by Trevor Richards.
**Though, let's be quite unhypocritical here - in pointing the finger at these two nations; for assuredly the world's three largest, globally dominant and militarily and geo-politically preeminent super-powers are hardly exempt from ***such charges and accusations these days.
***Though, as with Zimbabwe, neither China nor Russia seem plagued with the violence seemingly endemic to the ****continent of North America in our era; and at least China has - whatever its many other, serious failures and shortcomings (and far worse) - made sterling efforts over recent years and decades to raise the living standards of vast swathes of its ever-burgeoning masses. And who really knows about the comparable situation in Russia?
****Excepting the civilized nation of Canada, that is.
*****Of the decidedly non-pecuniary variety, that is!
******So nicknamed, evidently, for his notorious role in the dreadful, post-independence massacres in Matabeleland, where large numbers of the - clearly un-obsequious - supporters of Joshua Nkomo's own political movement were evidently rounded up and summarily, conclusively dealt with and to.
Yes, the Republic of South Africa changed its leadership a little while ago now. No matter - as per its northern 'cousin', Zimbabwe, such 'changes', as cosmetic in appearance as in actual nature, just went to show - yet again - the truth of ye 'ole adage: the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Moreover in both nations the land appropriations/expropriations evidently carry on apace, or at least are not only being maintained, but their terms are being widened...as white South African farmers now likewise feel the full brunt of long pent-up resentment and bitterness over the land subjugation of the two countries' landless plebs. This particular brand of utu has certainly been a long time in gestation/building, and no doubt to those concerned feels only all too justified and excusable.
But onto South Africa's highly fraught situation another time, suffice to say that many, both there and overseas, are not at all in some partisan bunker with their blinkers on, or deceived thereabouts; for example the much-respected African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and New Zealand's own (one-time *C.A.R.E. head) Springboks' Tour protest organizer, the much-pilloried but thoughtful and insightful John Minto: both understandably long disillusioned with the actual on-the-ground results of the justly much-celebrated end of Apartheid - as they, like the rest of us, see that wonderful socio-political 'transformation' turned into barefaced betrayal.
No, the realities of political **nepotism/corruption, abject failure to share the largesse and spoils of victory with the poverty-stricken multitudes, and unprecedented, out-of-control crime and violence pretty well ever since the [much-trumpeted] changes there really say it all, don't they?; 'changes' which have proven as shallow and superficial as a lanced boil.
And of course its cultural cousin and neighbour, Zimbabwe, has shared a similar fate - minus the awful violence (among the people-at-large, anyhow) it must be conceded. But is even that advantage/'superiority' soon to be submerged in a perfectly understandable reaction and *****kickback to Zimbabwe's just-concluded elections (just as we've indeed seen in its immediate aftermath)?
Yes, longtime, valiant Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai met his earthly demise only months ago - doubtless 'assisted', even if not directly precipitated and contributed to, by his previous 'incident' at the hands of Government-sanctioned security thugs. Nobly surviving throughout a period of years and decades when such 'ad hoc' state brutality was regularly meted out if on a sporadic basis and in an uncoordinated fashion, yet now appears highly likely to return 'with a vengeance'.
A situation all the more tragic when one considers how Rhodesia/Zimbabwe - post-independence, that is - has, unlike so many of, indeed arguably the great majority of, its African fellow states, managed to admirably maintain a popular resistance - to Mugabe's rule in particular - without recourse to armed uprising or rebellion. Till now, anyhow. But with the re-accession to power of ******'the Crocodile' that admirable restraint looks set to become - hopelessly - unstuck.
Yes, the long-running era of el tinpot dictators and petty despots (in the central south of Africa) seems destined to continue, indeed to carry on pretty well where it left off...under the various predecessors. Yet (as just alluded to) up to now the people of Zimbabwe have surely been a shining example of patient endurance and perseverance in the face of ongoing, unrelenting, top-down political, military and economic oppression and servitude - whatever the outward semblance and even realities of democracy in the land might well have been at times.
This is a 'matter' of some interest to me, as - see my own blogpost half a year to a year ago or so '(So) Who's to Say Who Should Stay?' - unlike so many talkback hosts who apparently seem to, rather glibly and simplistically, assume that ye average citizen in such scenarios should 'simply rise up and overthrow the bastards' (who cares if they themselves lose their lives in the process?) - I for one fully accept that discretion is indeed invariably 'the better part of valour' (in such situations especially, quite obviously).
For, as I say in that opinion piece, which of us (kiwis, for example) would choose to stay and fight to the death (as it were) if, say, and admittedly however hypothetically, there were a civil war brought on by Maori separatists rising up to overthrow the established order (of things). Yes, who indeed?
*Citizens Association for Racial Equality; cf NZ's other, compatriot-in-protest, once well-known H.A.R.T. [Halt All Racist Tours] outfit, also famously led at one time by Trevor Richards.
**Though, let's be quite unhypocritical here - in pointing the finger at these two nations; for assuredly the world's three largest, globally dominant and militarily and geo-politically preeminent super-powers are hardly exempt from ***such charges and accusations these days.
***Though, as with Zimbabwe, neither China nor Russia seem plagued with the violence seemingly endemic to the ****continent of North America in our era; and at least China has - whatever its many other, serious failures and shortcomings (and far worse) - made sterling efforts over recent years and decades to raise the living standards of vast swathes of its ever-burgeoning masses. And who really knows about the comparable situation in Russia?
****Excepting the civilized nation of Canada, that is.
*****Of the decidedly non-pecuniary variety, that is!
******So nicknamed, evidently, for his notorious role in the dreadful, post-independence massacres in Matabeleland, where large numbers of the - clearly un-obsequious - supporters of Joshua Nkomo's own political movement were evidently rounded up and summarily, conclusively dealt with and to.
Your Collective Silence Is Quite Deafening: So Why the Abject lack of coverage of/concern over/condemnation of the Electoral (Integrity!) Amendment Bill?
...Which has just passed its second reading in the New Zealand Parliament - despite the valiant efforts of such long-term, underrated MPs as Dr Nick Smith and the Honourable Gerry Brownlee ...and the completely cringeworthy, wishy-washy, mealy-mouthed, hypocrisy-plus support of the once proud and principled Green Party of Aotearoa.
Professions Underrated All...
Just a word in defence/praise of some of the (Western World's, in particular) most highly underrated... but supposedly not undervalued, occupations - especially in light of/with reference to two wholly unrelated events: to wit, Aotearoa-New Zealand's present epidemic of strike action/stopwork meetings by all and sundry...and America's own 'epidemic' - of fires/'firenadoes'. As I say, there ain't a lot in common between the two, that's for sure... . Nevertheless -
Let's hear it - loud and clear, and in neon lights - for *all our self-sacrificing firefighters, nurses and, yes, even our ever-overlooked cleaners and street-sweepers...who together succeed in managing to keep the plague, the pestilence, death and destruction from our collective door...
...yet, at least here in 'God's Own', get scarcely a look-in - a mutter, a murmur nor a [whatever] (in Winston's esteemed words)...and are generally begrudged the little (materially-speaking) they do happen to accrue...
though handsomely earn and deserve...
*In 9 cases out of ten, anyhow, or 99% of instances (for, yes, there're always, inevitably, individual exceptions to each and every single last rule one could care to make/create/establish, I'll freely admit).
Let's hear it - loud and clear, and in neon lights - for *all our self-sacrificing firefighters, nurses and, yes, even our ever-overlooked cleaners and street-sweepers...who together succeed in managing to keep the plague, the pestilence, death and destruction from our collective door...
...yet, at least here in 'God's Own', get scarcely a look-in - a mutter, a murmur nor a [whatever] (in Winston's esteemed words)...and are generally begrudged the little (materially-speaking) they do happen to accrue...
though handsomely earn and deserve...
*In 9 cases out of ten, anyhow, or 99% of instances (for, yes, there're always, inevitably, individual exceptions to each and every single last rule one could care to make/create/establish, I'll freely admit).
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Postscript (Defining Issues of our Times): So What's Up, Folk? No, I mean, really?
That's about all I can 'say', peoples, having just now (over half an hour ago) - a week on - re-connected with my main (i.e. this) blogsite. After clicking onto 'Comments', and then the subsection, 'Comments - Awaiting Moderation', guess what appeared - to my 'nonplussed expectation' (if you get my contradiction-in-terms)?
Yep, ya guessed it (if, doubtless, not the precise words therein): There are no pending comments.
That about says it all, doesn't it? Indeed!
Nuff said!
Yep, ya guessed it (if, doubtless, not the precise words therein): There are no pending comments.
That about says it all, doesn't it? Indeed!
Nuff said!
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Be[ing] [Quite] Sure, Your [my] Sins Will Find You [me] Out: Vis-a-vis well-known Christian singer-songwriter Cliff Richards...At long last the chickens are all well and truly coming home to roost: for his foes and enemies, that is...
Having written profusely about this many months (or moons) ago now, I intend only to make a few - to me - pertinent comments thereupon.
First, through simply inexplicable and extraordinary personal circumstances of recent months, there's a big part of (little) me that can actually completely relate to Mr (or is it these days, Sir?) Richards' predicament - conceding however that my own respective 'matter' is as a gnat to his camel, a molehill to his mountain. And hence there's various 'stuff' that I've since 'accumulated' (chiefly through media and reading) that strongly 'relates' and which, given the time, I'll someday - hopefully sooner than later - share (with y'all).
Two, and three, I believe both the BBC and the British Police (Scotland Yard) have used CR - and various, high-profile 'others' - to indulge in a great big face-saving exercise, something that says a heckuva lot more about them than it does or ever could about Cliff Richards. More later upon this too.
Fourth, that these days - especially if you're a 'fundamentalist', Bible-believing Christian, you're '*easy pickings - and are pretty well 'guilty till proven innocent'. But since 'where there's (even just a teeny-weeny bit of) smoke (in the air), there's (inevitably a great big) fire' ragin' underneath...well, you go figure...and no, it ain't a pretty picture, folks, but yes, it's entirely predictable, that's for sure...
*My original title for this piece, incidentally.
First, through simply inexplicable and extraordinary personal circumstances of recent months, there's a big part of (little) me that can actually completely relate to Mr (or is it these days, Sir?) Richards' predicament - conceding however that my own respective 'matter' is as a gnat to his camel, a molehill to his mountain. And hence there's various 'stuff' that I've since 'accumulated' (chiefly through media and reading) that strongly 'relates' and which, given the time, I'll someday - hopefully sooner than later - share (with y'all).
Two, and three, I believe both the BBC and the British Police (Scotland Yard) have used CR - and various, high-profile 'others' - to indulge in a great big face-saving exercise, something that says a heckuva lot more about them than it does or ever could about Cliff Richards. More later upon this too.
Fourth, that these days - especially if you're a 'fundamentalist', Bible-believing Christian, you're '*easy pickings - and are pretty well 'guilty till proven innocent'. But since 'where there's (even just a teeny-weeny bit of) smoke (in the air), there's (inevitably a great big) fire' ragin' underneath...well, you go figure...and no, it ain't a pretty picture, folks, but yes, it's entirely predictable, that's for sure...
*My original title for this piece, incidentally.
...Though that's not denying - for even one instant - the very large 'grain of truth' in JFK's famous declaration: "Better Dead than Red"; I'd simply qualify that in this way: it's ultimately far, far better to die - if such is required - than to compromise upon eternal values (of right and wrong)...Yes, every single time!
Addendum (to my Independence Day, 2018, blogpost): to (attempt to) cover for my extreme tardiness and negligence in following this up as and when promised
Due to serious time considerations tonight, may I briefly say here: it is possible, indeed extremely so, to simultaneously consider a certain major world figure presently lumbering across the international landscape (like the animal/'beast of burden' his political party has ever been closely associated with) as among the most, nay, the most (technically and emotionally) unintelligent and incompetent to lead his particular nation - let alone any even minor nation elsewhere across the globe - in its or world history...
whilst declaring/asserting/supporting the obvious superiority of diplomacy over nuclear confrontation...the right of sovereign nations worldwide to protect and defend their legal borders...and the sanctity of the (world-renowned) American Constitution, to wit, its careful delineation of the 'separate powers' of executive, legislature and judiciary, and thus the right of any and every President to appoint people of his (or her) own, considered choosing to the U S Supreme Court.
Hey, folks, I dunno about you, but far as I'm concerned, it's far preferable to deal with certain global thugs and criminals in a half-decent, respectful fashion and maintain the life of the human species than, on the other hand, to have a person, however eminently qualified by lifetime experience and generally admirable personal attributes who's effectively a hawk on all matters of foreign policy and collectively be - as homo sapiens - six feet (and all the rest) way under...el permanente!
whilst declaring/asserting/supporting the obvious superiority of diplomacy over nuclear confrontation...the right of sovereign nations worldwide to protect and defend their legal borders...and the sanctity of the (world-renowned) American Constitution, to wit, its careful delineation of the 'separate powers' of executive, legislature and judiciary, and thus the right of any and every President to appoint people of his (or her) own, considered choosing to the U S Supreme Court.
Hey, folks, I dunno about you, but far as I'm concerned, it's far preferable to deal with certain global thugs and criminals in a half-decent, respectful fashion and maintain the life of the human species than, on the other hand, to have a person, however eminently qualified by lifetime experience and generally admirable personal attributes who's effectively a hawk on all matters of foreign policy and collectively be - as homo sapiens - six feet (and all the rest) way under...el permanente!
The Defining Issue/s of Our Day: Part Three: Reviewing All the Options/Possibilities, Adding Thereto, then Beginning an up-close Investigation/Consideration
As per usual I've since realized I've well and truly bitten off way more than I can possibly chew, regurgitate, let alone spit out this time...but having begun said process, let me now continue on - however tentatively, or rather, initially...
And yes, I am still awaiting your feedback - especially those of you who regularly read my posts: again, all you need to do is go to the bottom of each blogpost and click upon that little tab 'Post a Comment'.
So how about it, folks, if you do indeed really care about this blogsite? It's not like I'm asking some kind of financial contribution, after all, though that'd be perfectly legitimate if I did do so.
In fact, from my need for an early shuteye tonight following a far too late one last night...I'm gonna temporarily suspend proceedings...in mid-stream (as I occasionally do), awaiting with eager, patient anticipation what I consider my rightful due - having provided this free service for such a long time (I believe a good six years all up, pretty well (last or next month)) - that 'rightful due' being the very least I should surely be able to expect...i.e. your own carefully-considered, thoughtful response/s and interaction - if for no other reason than simply to re-assure me that I'm not simply 'whistlin' dixie', so to speak, into thin air, or rather the cybersphere...
So please - pretty please - respond...and sooner rather than later, y'hear...
To Be Continued...pending sufficient (on-line) viewer response
Important Postscript: Having earlier reviewed those 24 'defining issues of our day', I'm aware of a number of things. Firstly, they're way from comprehensive, though at the same time I'd wager they're a pretty good start. Secondly, I'd possibly re-define and/or clarify a number of them - given heaps more time - as well as add such additional two categories as *Extinction of Species (Flora & Fauna) Worldwide, especially the bees; and *Tampering with our DNA: Cloning - Genetic Modification/ Engineering - Mind Control.
Modifying and adjusting some of the original 24, I might naturally merge/morph a few of them (where sensible to do so), and/or split a couple into multiple sub-categories where necessary. It's no doubt also salutary here to point out that over the past six years I've already dealt - in depth - with a number of said categories, in particular (#3:) terrorism, (#6:) 'when in Rome', (#7:) Pushback against the Establishment/s...aka Brexit & Trump; alongside a little vis-a-vis (#11:) GLBT 'rights', as with (#13:) Political Correctness, and (#16:) The Intolerance of the Super-tolerant. Plus perhaps I've touched just once in a while upon some of the other 18, but not substantially far as I'm aware, anyhow...
And yes, I am still awaiting your feedback - especially those of you who regularly read my posts: again, all you need to do is go to the bottom of each blogpost and click upon that little tab 'Post a Comment'.
So how about it, folks, if you do indeed really care about this blogsite? It's not like I'm asking some kind of financial contribution, after all, though that'd be perfectly legitimate if I did do so.
In fact, from my need for an early shuteye tonight following a far too late one last night...I'm gonna temporarily suspend proceedings...in mid-stream (as I occasionally do), awaiting with eager, patient anticipation what I consider my rightful due - having provided this free service for such a long time (I believe a good six years all up, pretty well (last or next month)) - that 'rightful due' being the very least I should surely be able to expect...i.e. your own carefully-considered, thoughtful response/s and interaction - if for no other reason than simply to re-assure me that I'm not simply 'whistlin' dixie', so to speak, into thin air, or rather the cybersphere...
So please - pretty please - respond...and sooner rather than later, y'hear...
To Be Continued...pending sufficient (on-line) viewer response
Important Postscript: Having earlier reviewed those 24 'defining issues of our day', I'm aware of a number of things. Firstly, they're way from comprehensive, though at the same time I'd wager they're a pretty good start. Secondly, I'd possibly re-define and/or clarify a number of them - given heaps more time - as well as add such additional two categories as *Extinction of Species (Flora & Fauna) Worldwide, especially the bees; and *Tampering with our DNA: Cloning - Genetic Modification/ Engineering - Mind Control.
Modifying and adjusting some of the original 24, I might naturally merge/morph a few of them (where sensible to do so), and/or split a couple into multiple sub-categories where necessary. It's no doubt also salutary here to point out that over the past six years I've already dealt - in depth - with a number of said categories, in particular (#3:) terrorism, (#6:) 'when in Rome', (#7:) Pushback against the Establishment/s...aka Brexit & Trump; alongside a little vis-a-vis (#11:) GLBT 'rights', as with (#13:) Political Correctness, and (#16:) The Intolerance of the Super-tolerant. Plus perhaps I've touched just once in a while upon some of the other 18, but not substantially far as I'm aware, anyhow...
Monday, July 23, 2018
One Punter's View of What Constitute the Defining Issues Of Our Times: Up to two dozen 'Major Deals' - upon which Western Civilization, and with it our Present-day World overall, will arguably stand or fall
Somewhat sooner than usual, I'm returning to yesterday's topic/query: i.e. what actually constitute the real 'defining issue/s' of our time - when all the palava and political posturing and grandstanding are over? Of course, as I suggested, that's entirely something 'in the eyes' of the particular beholder. So, since my view/s are as valid, presumably, as the next fellow's or gal's...here's what a little/lot of brainstorming overnight/today has turned up...
Comprising 'stuff'/matters from some well-known and regularly canvassed issues of a highly concrete nature and 'definability' through rhetorical questions of a fairly contentious character and over onto some philosophically-oriented dichotomies pertaining to fundamental, diametrically-polar opposite world views, I believe I've cottoned onto at least a few of the more momentous and critical issues of our day.
But hey, perhaps I'm way off base - in your own esteemed view - and even 'off my rocker', and so, I look forward to some feedback - for a change! - by your taking the time and effort to 'push' (and thus activate) that little 'Comments' 'button'/feature (at the bottom of each and every blogpost, last I recall).
In quite-extremely general terms - for today's purposes (and so's I maintain my daily shuteye regime as best I can) - these are (apart from the first two/three items) not in hierarchical order, though I've nevertheless tended to juxtapose 'like with like' and similar-ish categories in succession:
*The nuclear question
*Climate Change/Global Warming
*Modern-day Terrorism
*Migration/Refugees/National Borders
*Multiculturalism in the West
*The Entitlement Syndrome: When in Rome, Do Whatever takes Your Fancy
*Pushback Against Elites aka British Brexit and The USA's Donald J Trump
*Black Lives Matter: Pushback (in America) Against Systemic Injustice
*The Me Too Movement: Backlash Against High-Profile Abuse(rs)
*Modern-day Western Feminism
*GLBT 'Rights'
*Identity Politics
*Political Correctness
*Virtue Signalling
*Watch(ing) Your Ps & Qs: Making a man an offender for a word
*Ideological Double-Standards: The Intolerance of the Super-Tolerant
*1984 Revisited: All Views/Religions are Equal, But Some are more Equal/Acceptable than Others
*It's Only 'democracy' if I get my way, or it's my way or the highway
*Your News is Fake News, Mine is the Real Quid
*Redefining Reality ('Evil is Good, and Good is Evil' - if I say so, understood?): Whoever has Control of the Mainstream Media, Rules - Okay?
*Euthanasia, Abortion, Capital Punishment & War: How Sacred is Life Really?
*Technology Run Riot: How Humanity Is Being Taken Over By Machines
*The Triumph of Science and Technology Over Faith & Spirituality
*'Health and Safety' Gone Berserk: Legislating for Every Conceivable Contingency
Tomorrow (in Part Three) I'll be much more 'elucidatory' and explain in much greater detail precisely what these 'defining issues' are...i.e. how I broadly see them (and their various essential component parts). At least I'll start along said process, and also - separately - survey 'Primary Exhibit #1' (a high-profile celebrity for whom I have immense sympathy/empathy...and whom the U.K. Media's 'shining jewel' and its Law Enforcement Agencies Have Treated Shamefully over recent years).
Comprising 'stuff'/matters from some well-known and regularly canvassed issues of a highly concrete nature and 'definability' through rhetorical questions of a fairly contentious character and over onto some philosophically-oriented dichotomies pertaining to fundamental, diametrically-polar opposite world views, I believe I've cottoned onto at least a few of the more momentous and critical issues of our day.
But hey, perhaps I'm way off base - in your own esteemed view - and even 'off my rocker', and so, I look forward to some feedback - for a change! - by your taking the time and effort to 'push' (and thus activate) that little 'Comments' 'button'/feature (at the bottom of each and every blogpost, last I recall).
In quite-extremely general terms - for today's purposes (and so's I maintain my daily shuteye regime as best I can) - these are (apart from the first two/three items) not in hierarchical order, though I've nevertheless tended to juxtapose 'like with like' and similar-ish categories in succession:
*The nuclear question
*Climate Change/Global Warming
*Modern-day Terrorism
*Migration/Refugees/National Borders
*Multiculturalism in the West
*The Entitlement Syndrome: When in Rome, Do Whatever takes Your Fancy
*Pushback Against Elites aka British Brexit and The USA's Donald J Trump
*Black Lives Matter: Pushback (in America) Against Systemic Injustice
*The Me Too Movement: Backlash Against High-Profile Abuse(rs)
*Modern-day Western Feminism
*GLBT 'Rights'
*Identity Politics
*Political Correctness
*Virtue Signalling
*Watch(ing) Your Ps & Qs: Making a man an offender for a word
*Ideological Double-Standards: The Intolerance of the Super-Tolerant
*1984 Revisited: All Views/Religions are Equal, But Some are more Equal/Acceptable than Others
*It's Only 'democracy' if I get my way, or it's my way or the highway
*Your News is Fake News, Mine is the Real Quid
*Redefining Reality ('Evil is Good, and Good is Evil' - if I say so, understood?): Whoever has Control of the Mainstream Media, Rules - Okay?
*Euthanasia, Abortion, Capital Punishment & War: How Sacred is Life Really?
*Technology Run Riot: How Humanity Is Being Taken Over By Machines
*The Triumph of Science and Technology Over Faith & Spirituality
*'Health and Safety' Gone Berserk: Legislating for Every Conceivable Contingency
Tomorrow (in Part Three) I'll be much more 'elucidatory' and explain in much greater detail precisely what these 'defining issues' are...i.e. how I broadly see them (and their various essential component parts). At least I'll start along said process, and also - separately - survey 'Primary Exhibit #1' (a high-profile celebrity for whom I have immense sympathy/empathy...and whom the U.K. Media's 'shining jewel' and its Law Enforcement Agencies Have Treated Shamefully over recent years).
Sunday, July 22, 2018
So What Would You Say Really Constitutes the oft-cited 'Defining Issue of Our Times'?
Naturally enough there are innumerable answers and responses possible to such a question...pretty much as many as the number of individuals queried, I'd imagine...however many people that might include. My own 'excuse' for now raising such a query is manyfold: firstly, and primarily, I've just finished listening in to a BBC-hosted 'Heart and Soul' discussion introduced in such terms, on RNZ National's regular Sunday afternoon 'Spiritual outlook' radio show; secondly, my own bad conscience at having metaphorically 'taken forever' in getting back to a long-promised (and hopefully much-anticipated) rundown of a number of just such matters (in an uncharacteristically short blogpost timed to coincide with America's annual Independence Day commemorations).
So what are my own conclusions thereupon, and moreover how do these compare (and contrast) with others' own thoughts? Who the heck would know, or even care?- no, really. Still, that's never stopped folk like myself expostulating to one and all, like el usual all-knowing talkback radio hosts (and other self-opinionated pundits, commentators and prognosticators, whether so-called 'experts' or just ye average Joe or Jane Bloggs in the street or on the web). Has it... .
Yet once again, I'm gonna leave y'all - temporarily - in suspense...while you yourselves reflect upon the same, mentally chewing and mulling the matter over along your own well-worn mental pathways...
See ya soon!
So what are my own conclusions thereupon, and moreover how do these compare (and contrast) with others' own thoughts? Who the heck would know, or even care?- no, really. Still, that's never stopped folk like myself expostulating to one and all, like el usual all-knowing talkback radio hosts (and other self-opinionated pundits, commentators and prognosticators, whether so-called 'experts' or just ye average Joe or Jane Bloggs in the street or on the web). Has it... .
Yet once again, I'm gonna leave y'all - temporarily - in suspense...while you yourselves reflect upon the same, mentally chewing and mulling the matter over along your own well-worn mental pathways...
See ya soon!
Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Despite Constant (Morning Report) Media Attempts to Bait/Trip him up, the Acting Prime Minister Continues to Acquit himself Admirably
Yes, four weeks into and two-thirds of the way through his six-week stand-in for Jacinda Ardern, the Deputy P.M., the Right Honourable Winston Peters, seems to be managing his spell at the top with notable aplomb. Avoiding 'scaring the horses' as some would put it, while maintaining the requisite degree of gravitas, conscious dignity and self-possession such a position necessarily demands. "Good one, Winnie!" as my Stepmum might've put it in days gone by - when she and my Dad were fast followers of the one-time 'Member for Hunua'.
Refusing to opportunistically 'dis' and discredit, much less criticize and condemn and publicly bully, New Zealand's longsuffering nursing work force either before or after their recent, extremely rare - though reasonably publicly-supported - strike action, Peters nevertheless made the reasonable enough point that there's ultimately only so much money in the governmental kitty - for all the various 'comers'; other employee 'collectives' meanwhile desiring and seeking their own share of the perceived governmental largesse and so themselves also already publicly chafing at the bit.
Though myself a lifelong pacifist, and bearing in mind RNZ National Panelist, the comedian and talkback host Gary McCormack's remarking the other day upon the sheer lunacy of anyone in God's Own seriously believing that our Government's planned purchasing of a few major ships for our navy, however many millions involved, could possibly deter any major potential aggressor such as China, much less send shivers down their spine or scare them ....-less, if they ever did decide to attack/invade our little South Pacific idyll, I'll say this much for Winston and Co: though shunting a few billion dollars in that sort of direction is undoubtedly a terrific waste of Governmental monies at any time, it's nevertheless quite understandable in one major respect.
That is, until and unless Aotearoa-New Zealand adopts either a purely pacifist approach to its defence - or, preferably (or rather, at least much more realistically 'in the real world' wherein we all presently live) a Swiss-style of 'positive' self-defence (predicated entirely upon self-defence, that is, than ever engaging in any other types of wars), we ought to surely either (thus) quit the semblance of mere pretence or 'adequately' fund and resource our nation's defence capabilities.
And anyhow - as already alluded to - there are other forthcoming desires and demands from seemingly every last man and woman and their dog, cat and guinea-pig for their own respective shares in taxpayer monies and desire to 'share the booty' and reap the dividend of their own long wait for adequate recompense thereabout. Noting, as P.M. Peters himself well put matters, people only line up at a bus-stop when they know a bus is due; but on the other hand, a bus can't possibly - at its first 'pickup', anyhow - take more than it's fitted out to carry at that time.
Otherwise, whether it's going in to bat upon an individual kiwi's behalf before the intransigent Aussie authorities (presently giving the el usual runaround to New Zealanders' rights to fair and reasonable treatment by said authorities), cautiously refraining from putting his foot in his mouth and needlessly slagging off foreign leaders whom we might need at a later date, or standing up to the Chinese Dragon - whom veteran activist and digital privacy campaigner (upon the extreme left-wing weekday American broadcaster Democracy Now) Glenn Greenwald even believes may be behind some of the intelligence espionage currently being universally sheeted home to the Russian authorities alone - I'd say Mr Peters has things pretty well spot on (in his assessments thereabouts and determinations thereupon). Far as any individual politician does these days.
I reckon on a scorecard a 7.5-8 out of 10 is thus due Prime Minister Peters et al, the only real docking of points being his and fellow NZ First Minister Tracey Martin's refusal to reconsider the ill-advised and problematic decision to - effectively - close down (by withholding needing funding) the Stand Children's Service Roxburgh Children's Village. At least pending any suitable replacement and the proper roll-out of the proposed new model of caring for kids in their own homes instead - however legitimate that new 'trajectory' for PTSD children may well ultimately prove to be.
Refusing to opportunistically 'dis' and discredit, much less criticize and condemn and publicly bully, New Zealand's longsuffering nursing work force either before or after their recent, extremely rare - though reasonably publicly-supported - strike action, Peters nevertheless made the reasonable enough point that there's ultimately only so much money in the governmental kitty - for all the various 'comers'; other employee 'collectives' meanwhile desiring and seeking their own share of the perceived governmental largesse and so themselves also already publicly chafing at the bit.
Though myself a lifelong pacifist, and bearing in mind RNZ National Panelist, the comedian and talkback host Gary McCormack's remarking the other day upon the sheer lunacy of anyone in God's Own seriously believing that our Government's planned purchasing of a few major ships for our navy, however many millions involved, could possibly deter any major potential aggressor such as China, much less send shivers down their spine or scare them ....-less, if they ever did decide to attack/invade our little South Pacific idyll, I'll say this much for Winston and Co: though shunting a few billion dollars in that sort of direction is undoubtedly a terrific waste of Governmental monies at any time, it's nevertheless quite understandable in one major respect.
That is, until and unless Aotearoa-New Zealand adopts either a purely pacifist approach to its defence - or, preferably (or rather, at least much more realistically 'in the real world' wherein we all presently live) a Swiss-style of 'positive' self-defence (predicated entirely upon self-defence, that is, than ever engaging in any other types of wars), we ought to surely either (thus) quit the semblance of mere pretence or 'adequately' fund and resource our nation's defence capabilities.
And anyhow - as already alluded to - there are other forthcoming desires and demands from seemingly every last man and woman and their dog, cat and guinea-pig for their own respective shares in taxpayer monies and desire to 'share the booty' and reap the dividend of their own long wait for adequate recompense thereabout. Noting, as P.M. Peters himself well put matters, people only line up at a bus-stop when they know a bus is due; but on the other hand, a bus can't possibly - at its first 'pickup', anyhow - take more than it's fitted out to carry at that time.
Otherwise, whether it's going in to bat upon an individual kiwi's behalf before the intransigent Aussie authorities (presently giving the el usual runaround to New Zealanders' rights to fair and reasonable treatment by said authorities), cautiously refraining from putting his foot in his mouth and needlessly slagging off foreign leaders whom we might need at a later date, or standing up to the Chinese Dragon - whom veteran activist and digital privacy campaigner (upon the extreme left-wing weekday American broadcaster Democracy Now) Glenn Greenwald even believes may be behind some of the intelligence espionage currently being universally sheeted home to the Russian authorities alone - I'd say Mr Peters has things pretty well spot on (in his assessments thereabouts and determinations thereupon). Far as any individual politician does these days.
I reckon on a scorecard a 7.5-8 out of 10 is thus due Prime Minister Peters et al, the only real docking of points being his and fellow NZ First Minister Tracey Martin's refusal to reconsider the ill-advised and problematic decision to - effectively - close down (by withholding needing funding) the Stand Children's Service Roxburgh Children's Village. At least pending any suitable replacement and the proper roll-out of the proposed new model of caring for kids in their own homes instead - however legitimate that new 'trajectory' for PTSD children may well ultimately prove to be.
Friday, July 13, 2018
Whatever his innumerable faults, failings, foibles... exasperating idiosyncrasies, iconoclasms and outright idiocies...and unmentionable sins and outrages and even criminalities...
...yet one has to give it to 'the Donald' (that is, the 45th, I believe, leader of the 'Free World', i.e. President Donald J Trump): he certainly has a way with words. And never pulls his punches.
So I simply couldn't resist cracking up, couldn't contain myself earlier today - and especially around an hour ago - as I listened in to RNZ National (Radio's) weekday 'World Watch' programme.
Capping a week which (at least one member of) the UK newsprint media has headlined 'Mayhem'...it was a sheer 'beauty to behold' DJT unable to resist putting his not inconsiderable boot (figuratively-speaking, you understand) into his host, British Prime Minister T(h)eresa May, effectively damning her with faint praise, thereby revealing his poorly-kept secret of preferring Boris Brexit Johnson. A piece of inimitable political theatre worthy of a genius playwright, I'm sure...
Addendum: Overnight Afterthoughts & Necessary Explication
Having said all of that, I happen to like T(h)eresa May as a political personage, however 'ineffective' her (and her Government's) Brexit policies are presently progressing - or aren't (depending on one's perspective: whether that of a '*hard brexiter or an implacable 'remainer'.) And though I happen to agree with the current American President as to his initial arrival comments vis-a-vis the United Kingdom's Brexit negotiations et al - and moreover, regarding the 'usefulness' of Boris Johnson's stepping up to the plate of the prime ministership, and his undoubted qualifications thereabouts - his incredibly **ill-judged, ill-timed, unwanted and uncalled-for intervention in Johnson's behalf will doubtless thereby prove to be the very deathknell, the nail in the coffin, of Boris' chances therein.
No, 'the Donald', ***blundering his buffoon-laden way about the scene - as unprecedented protests utilize a blimp-sized balloon to 'get through' to him, el typical blunderbuss schoolyard bully as he is, in the only way such folk ever understand, i.e. unbridled, humiliating as ridicule and mockery - has single-handedly put paid to - blown out of the water (into the political stratosphere and well beyond) for good and for time and memorial - any (admittedly fast-disappearing) lingering hopes Mr Johnson might have happened to still be clinging to (vis-a-vis one day acceding to the United Kingdom's most senior formal leadership position).
For once - or at least in a very long time (possibly a decade-and-a-half) - much-disgraced and regularly-maligned and ridiculed former P. M. Tony Blair must be licking his chops vis-a-vis Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party's unenviable dilemma (concerning Brexit in particular). For 'with friends like these' - i.e. a certain 'leader of the free world' currently visiting the country - quite frankly 'who needs enemies?' Who indeed!
No, Mr Blair, as a strident and highly vocal and unreconstructed supporter of the 'bremain' campaign (both before and after the June 23rd referendum - back in 2016, I believe), hardly surprising in that he was often touted as a future leader of the European Parliament (and consequently also possible one day head of the rapidly-approaching, ****long forecast United States of Europe - though I'd pick the (understandably popular and deeply-respected - but N.B.: first Jesuit pope ever) Pope Frances instead), comes to mind at this time for an odd-sounding reason, I'm sure you'll agree. But let me explain...
I simply believe, if his unspoken thoughts were revealed (for one and all to see/read our loud) - in the fashion that rapidly-progressing AI would make us think is soon to be possible - they would for once be reflective and representative of his fellow countrymen and women-at-large, and would read pretty much...
"Come back, (President) George (W): all is forgiven. Yes, we all greatly mis-underestimated you!"
Meanwhile This Comedy of Errors and Unprogrammable Entertainment Enters Another Day
Having already 'stuffed up' big-time, and arguably way beyond the reasonable limits of repair or amends, much less rationalization, justification or the pleading of extenuating circumstances... President *****Donald J Trump began today ******attempting the impossible - and concluded by effectively giving the metaphorical fingers to Great Britain's longstanding Monarch (in a three-way dis-salute (as it were)).
Though the British Prime Minister has herself come out of proceedings not looking altogether untarnished either, the general sentiment (concerning Trump's initial *******'slamdunk' slapdown of May after disembarking at Heathrow Airport) across the UK apparently being, whilst many, perhaps even most, simply felt extremely sorry for her (shameful mistreatment by him), others understandably felt that she ought to have shown some backbone and stood up to him, as arguably any leader worth their salt surely would have.
Moreover, though Johnson's at times ascendant political star has doubtless now been hobbled for good, it's equally hard to see how May's fellow Conservatives won't - on the other hand - see her seemingly grovelling before President Trump as unforgivable and cringeworthy weakness...and consequently seek to be rid of them both (i.e. May and Johnson) lickety-split...
*And yes, I'd doubtless fall into this category if a British citizen.
**That is, assuming Trump ever has a reflective moment to begin with...- obviously a highly contentious idea in itself...
***Even tonight (NZ-time) engaging in three notable 'faux pas' towards her Royal Highness herself!
****See especially 'the Apocalypse' (of John the Revelator), also known as 'the Book of Revelation', the final book in the 66- (or ********70-) book Holy Bible. In particular Rev. 17: 1-18.
*****Long since having given his equally famous namesake, the inimitable Donald Duck himself, an entirely new lease on life...making DD look an epitome of class and taste in comparison and contrast!
******And for once the understandably extremely tired-looking P.M. May looked, while listening to and responding in countenance to Trump's latest verbal theatrics, not only as if she could see right through him, but even as if she no longer regards him as remotely credible...as hard as she sought - for purely inter-geo-political reasons, surely - to continue to just 'look the other way'; rather than treat him as the imbecile that she (alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and pretty well every other last international head-of-state - barring North Korea's Kim Jong Un and Russia's Vladimir Putin - and countless multitudes around the world, whether 'lefties', conservatives, 'right-wingers', liberals, 'religious' or irreligious, and/or the politically uninitiated and uninterested) doubtless regards him as...
*******Entirely my own carefully-chosen terminology.
********Depending on whether one includes the 150-odd 'Psalms' as one book or five.
So I simply couldn't resist cracking up, couldn't contain myself earlier today - and especially around an hour ago - as I listened in to RNZ National (Radio's) weekday 'World Watch' programme.
Capping a week which (at least one member of) the UK newsprint media has headlined 'Mayhem'...it was a sheer 'beauty to behold' DJT unable to resist putting his not inconsiderable boot (figuratively-speaking, you understand) into his host, British Prime Minister T(h)eresa May, effectively damning her with faint praise, thereby revealing his poorly-kept secret of preferring Boris Brexit Johnson. A piece of inimitable political theatre worthy of a genius playwright, I'm sure...
Addendum: Overnight Afterthoughts & Necessary Explication
Having said all of that, I happen to like T(h)eresa May as a political personage, however 'ineffective' her (and her Government's) Brexit policies are presently progressing - or aren't (depending on one's perspective: whether that of a '*hard brexiter or an implacable 'remainer'.) And though I happen to agree with the current American President as to his initial arrival comments vis-a-vis the United Kingdom's Brexit negotiations et al - and moreover, regarding the 'usefulness' of Boris Johnson's stepping up to the plate of the prime ministership, and his undoubted qualifications thereabouts - his incredibly **ill-judged, ill-timed, unwanted and uncalled-for intervention in Johnson's behalf will doubtless thereby prove to be the very deathknell, the nail in the coffin, of Boris' chances therein.
No, 'the Donald', ***blundering his buffoon-laden way about the scene - as unprecedented protests utilize a blimp-sized balloon to 'get through' to him, el typical blunderbuss schoolyard bully as he is, in the only way such folk ever understand, i.e. unbridled, humiliating as ridicule and mockery - has single-handedly put paid to - blown out of the water (into the political stratosphere and well beyond) for good and for time and memorial - any (admittedly fast-disappearing) lingering hopes Mr Johnson might have happened to still be clinging to (vis-a-vis one day acceding to the United Kingdom's most senior formal leadership position).
For once - or at least in a very long time (possibly a decade-and-a-half) - much-disgraced and regularly-maligned and ridiculed former P. M. Tony Blair must be licking his chops vis-a-vis Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party's unenviable dilemma (concerning Brexit in particular). For 'with friends like these' - i.e. a certain 'leader of the free world' currently visiting the country - quite frankly 'who needs enemies?' Who indeed!
No, Mr Blair, as a strident and highly vocal and unreconstructed supporter of the 'bremain' campaign (both before and after the June 23rd referendum - back in 2016, I believe), hardly surprising in that he was often touted as a future leader of the European Parliament (and consequently also possible one day head of the rapidly-approaching, ****long forecast United States of Europe - though I'd pick the (understandably popular and deeply-respected - but N.B.: first Jesuit pope ever) Pope Frances instead), comes to mind at this time for an odd-sounding reason, I'm sure you'll agree. But let me explain...
I simply believe, if his unspoken thoughts were revealed (for one and all to see/read our loud) - in the fashion that rapidly-progressing AI would make us think is soon to be possible - they would for once be reflective and representative of his fellow countrymen and women-at-large, and would read pretty much...
"Come back, (President) George (W): all is forgiven. Yes, we all greatly mis-underestimated you!"
Meanwhile This Comedy of Errors and Unprogrammable Entertainment Enters Another Day
Having already 'stuffed up' big-time, and arguably way beyond the reasonable limits of repair or amends, much less rationalization, justification or the pleading of extenuating circumstances... President *****Donald J Trump began today ******attempting the impossible - and concluded by effectively giving the metaphorical fingers to Great Britain's longstanding Monarch (in a three-way dis-salute (as it were)).
Though the British Prime Minister has herself come out of proceedings not looking altogether untarnished either, the general sentiment (concerning Trump's initial *******'slamdunk' slapdown of May after disembarking at Heathrow Airport) across the UK apparently being, whilst many, perhaps even most, simply felt extremely sorry for her (shameful mistreatment by him), others understandably felt that she ought to have shown some backbone and stood up to him, as arguably any leader worth their salt surely would have.
Moreover, though Johnson's at times ascendant political star has doubtless now been hobbled for good, it's equally hard to see how May's fellow Conservatives won't - on the other hand - see her seemingly grovelling before President Trump as unforgivable and cringeworthy weakness...and consequently seek to be rid of them both (i.e. May and Johnson) lickety-split...
*And yes, I'd doubtless fall into this category if a British citizen.
**That is, assuming Trump ever has a reflective moment to begin with...- obviously a highly contentious idea in itself...
***Even tonight (NZ-time) engaging in three notable 'faux pas' towards her Royal Highness herself!
****See especially 'the Apocalypse' (of John the Revelator), also known as 'the Book of Revelation', the final book in the 66- (or ********70-) book Holy Bible. In particular Rev. 17: 1-18.
*****Long since having given his equally famous namesake, the inimitable Donald Duck himself, an entirely new lease on life...making DD look an epitome of class and taste in comparison and contrast!
******And for once the understandably extremely tired-looking P.M. May looked, while listening to and responding in countenance to Trump's latest verbal theatrics, not only as if she could see right through him, but even as if she no longer regards him as remotely credible...as hard as she sought - for purely inter-geo-political reasons, surely - to continue to just 'look the other way'; rather than treat him as the imbecile that she (alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and pretty well every other last international head-of-state - barring North Korea's Kim Jong Un and Russia's Vladimir Putin - and countless multitudes around the world, whether 'lefties', conservatives, 'right-wingers', liberals, 'religious' or irreligious, and/or the politically uninitiated and uninterested) doubtless regards him as...
*******Entirely my own carefully-chosen terminology.
********Depending on whether one includes the 150-odd 'Psalms' as one book or five.
Sunday, July 8, 2018
Butt Out, Aunty Helen: In Case you hadn't noticed, your Empress-ship of God's Own has long since Elapsed...
In response to the recently-running feud between long-serving former Prime Minister Helen Clark and the self-educated innovator extraordinaire Ray, or rather Sir, Ray Avery, in the memorable, inimitable *words of actor Clark Gable to the character Scarlett O'Hara in the interminable Gone with the Wind: "(quite) frankly, dear(ies), I don't give a damn." But that's hardly the point.
This morning (and Saturday, since Newshub Nation regularly is shown both days) New Zealanders were greeted to and with a rare spectacle indeed: for one thing, if of passing note only, the normally inquisitorial Lisa Owen becoming unusually relaxed (and even positively **beaming) as the interview went on; for another, and much more importantly, we saw a new version of the old truism of how 'power' and then 'absolute power' can ****'corrupt' one; in this case, despite the loss thereof, in other words the feeling that one has such status pretty well for a lifetime...and thus feels able to 'throw one's weight around' for the rest of one's days.
Suffice to say that Sir Ray Avery - while meticulously careful not to slag Helen Clark off in any way or fashion, and neither abusing her personally much less criticizing her considerable legacy in any way - nevertheless revealed just that (aforementioned point): i.e. that Ms Clark felt she had the perfect (as in God-given) right (as it were) to up the ante by going public (and semi-ballistic) - in Avery's own words, 'go[ing] to the top of the parapet'. Choosing that manner of response as opposed to simply making a regular written submission like everyone else - that is, privately like any other citizen, without any public fanfare or palava, much less evident sense of personal entitlement (sort of as the 'elder stateswoman of NZ Inc', or Ex-Senior Public Citizen #1).
No, that isn't - arguably wasn't ever - Helen Clark's personal style. No way, Jose. Indeed I am involuntarily reminded of an old pal...with whom a parting of the ways has long since occurred...who, like me a political junkie (and worse), once told me how he - long a big fan of Ms Clark, that much was patently obvious, loath as he was to admit as much ever since her deposing from power - reacted with near incredulity to an item that once appeared on the front page of the ODT (he always called the Odious Daily Slime). Although sadly my memory's a little challenged on this front now, Clark'd essentially given herself such tremendous airs and graces that her self-conceit and arrogance and pride evidently knew neither normal bound nor reasonable limit.
While everything about Sir Ray simply oozed endless integrity and sincerity and decency, and, yes, humility...when any of the aforementioned (traits ascribed to Ms Clark) would've been 'fair enough' for him to entertain - except that the truly great have no need, much less care for such shameless self-promotion. No indeed.
Before signing off, and after essentially affirming - in response to host Lisa Owen - that if a particular project doesn't have a social conscience, yes, it *****doesn't tick his boxes (and therefore doesn't excite him to get involved and throw his considerable support behind it) - whereas ones 'that support the sick, and the halt, and the lame' do - Avery declared:
The only way I can [now, ******post-his, was it twelve years all up, of childhood 'brutalization'?] justify my [spared] life/existence is to make an animal that is fearless...and to do something extraordinary.
Sir Ray, take a well-earned bow, you've proven your own quality...especially on this public occasion. You've not only shown true resilience, you've proven the possibility of redeeming a past that had every likelihood of going the way so many others in such a situation invariably have...and moreover, could only have been expected to end up. But moreover for doing so with due panache and grace.
*In my paraphrased version, thereof, anyway!
**Avery even had Owen - oftentimes, as the riveting interview progressed, and while achieving the rare distinction of beating her at her own 'art' of rapid-fire, arguably spitfire-style 'hold no prisoners' speech - breaking out in unconscious, unrestrainable joy and ***smiles.
***Something Yours Truly should admittedly be cautious about emphasizing, seeing as I was mercilessly ribbed as a kid by family for not smiling (sufficiently, or at all) for our never-ending family photo pics; and even once - in my final (or penultimate) year at high school - similarly by a popular English teacher... or rather he embarrassed me in front of the entire class because I did so for the very first time apparently!
****No, not technically, but certainly in spirit.
*****Again, entirely my own words.
******As he discussed with Lisa Owen earlier in the interview, of his life growing up as an orphan/in an orphanage in (the then) Great Britain.
This morning (and Saturday, since Newshub Nation regularly is shown both days) New Zealanders were greeted to and with a rare spectacle indeed: for one thing, if of passing note only, the normally inquisitorial Lisa Owen becoming unusually relaxed (and even positively **beaming) as the interview went on; for another, and much more importantly, we saw a new version of the old truism of how 'power' and then 'absolute power' can ****'corrupt' one; in this case, despite the loss thereof, in other words the feeling that one has such status pretty well for a lifetime...and thus feels able to 'throw one's weight around' for the rest of one's days.
Suffice to say that Sir Ray Avery - while meticulously careful not to slag Helen Clark off in any way or fashion, and neither abusing her personally much less criticizing her considerable legacy in any way - nevertheless revealed just that (aforementioned point): i.e. that Ms Clark felt she had the perfect (as in God-given) right (as it were) to up the ante by going public (and semi-ballistic) - in Avery's own words, 'go[ing] to the top of the parapet'. Choosing that manner of response as opposed to simply making a regular written submission like everyone else - that is, privately like any other citizen, without any public fanfare or palava, much less evident sense of personal entitlement (sort of as the 'elder stateswoman of NZ Inc', or Ex-Senior Public Citizen #1).
No, that isn't - arguably wasn't ever - Helen Clark's personal style. No way, Jose. Indeed I am involuntarily reminded of an old pal...with whom a parting of the ways has long since occurred...who, like me a political junkie (and worse), once told me how he - long a big fan of Ms Clark, that much was patently obvious, loath as he was to admit as much ever since her deposing from power - reacted with near incredulity to an item that once appeared on the front page of the ODT (he always called the Odious Daily Slime). Although sadly my memory's a little challenged on this front now, Clark'd essentially given herself such tremendous airs and graces that her self-conceit and arrogance and pride evidently knew neither normal bound nor reasonable limit.
While everything about Sir Ray simply oozed endless integrity and sincerity and decency, and, yes, humility...when any of the aforementioned (traits ascribed to Ms Clark) would've been 'fair enough' for him to entertain - except that the truly great have no need, much less care for such shameless self-promotion. No indeed.
Before signing off, and after essentially affirming - in response to host Lisa Owen - that if a particular project doesn't have a social conscience, yes, it *****doesn't tick his boxes (and therefore doesn't excite him to get involved and throw his considerable support behind it) - whereas ones 'that support the sick, and the halt, and the lame' do - Avery declared:
The only way I can [now, ******post-his, was it twelve years all up, of childhood 'brutalization'?] justify my [spared] life/existence is to make an animal that is fearless...and to do something extraordinary.
Sir Ray, take a well-earned bow, you've proven your own quality...especially on this public occasion. You've not only shown true resilience, you've proven the possibility of redeeming a past that had every likelihood of going the way so many others in such a situation invariably have...and moreover, could only have been expected to end up. But moreover for doing so with due panache and grace.
*In my paraphrased version, thereof, anyway!
**Avery even had Owen - oftentimes, as the riveting interview progressed, and while achieving the rare distinction of beating her at her own 'art' of rapid-fire, arguably spitfire-style 'hold no prisoners' speech - breaking out in unconscious, unrestrainable joy and ***smiles.
***Something Yours Truly should admittedly be cautious about emphasizing, seeing as I was mercilessly ribbed as a kid by family for not smiling (sufficiently, or at all) for our never-ending family photo pics; and even once - in my final (or penultimate) year at high school - similarly by a popular English teacher... or rather he embarrassed me in front of the entire class because I did so for the very first time apparently!
****No, not technically, but certainly in spirit.
*****Again, entirely my own words.
******As he discussed with Lisa Owen earlier in the interview, of his life growing up as an orphan/in an orphanage in (the then) Great Britain.
Wednesday, July 4, 2018
Once to Every Man and Nation...Comes the Moment to Decide: As Independence Day Rolls Around Once Again, America - just like the post-Brexit United Kingdom - Stands at a Decisive Crossroads in its temporal and eternal Destiny: Everything Depends Upon the Outcome.
Part One: General introductory comments
Yes, *after sufficient shut-eye...I'll reveal all...pertaining to: President D J Trump (vis-a-vis North Korea, border refugees/illegal immigrants, the U S Supreme Court et al); the response of many Americans (to him and his presidency, aka mass protests and related activities of recent weeks); and one/two rather significant Supreme Court (would-be) decisions/judgments of late/the near future.
And as I intimated in no uncertain terms just a few short weeks ago, 'the Left' does not have all the best music, or in more understandable parlance, they are not necessarily the paragons of unassailable virtue the media (acolytes and influencers of) oftentimes paint them. No, not by a country mile... .
But that the United States of America is thus approaching a very real crisis, and arguably the greatest of its relatively brief existence, is without doubt, and rapidly hastening like a meteorite towards them. No kidding whatsoever - and make no mistake about it... .
Yes, our contemporary world is rapidly hurtling headlong toward, and into, the long-foretold 'crisis of the ages', about which 'the good book' has more to say than about almost anything else... .
And, sadly for the great, the vast majority, both there and globally, it'll take 'em totally by surprise... and moreover, completely unprepared...
*In days to come; sorry, folks, this'll be a few days later than first intended, but trust me, worth the wait.
Yes, *after sufficient shut-eye...I'll reveal all...pertaining to: President D J Trump (vis-a-vis North Korea, border refugees/illegal immigrants, the U S Supreme Court et al); the response of many Americans (to him and his presidency, aka mass protests and related activities of recent weeks); and one/two rather significant Supreme Court (would-be) decisions/judgments of late/the near future.
And as I intimated in no uncertain terms just a few short weeks ago, 'the Left' does not have all the best music, or in more understandable parlance, they are not necessarily the paragons of unassailable virtue the media (acolytes and influencers of) oftentimes paint them. No, not by a country mile... .
But that the United States of America is thus approaching a very real crisis, and arguably the greatest of its relatively brief existence, is without doubt, and rapidly hastening like a meteorite towards them. No kidding whatsoever - and make no mistake about it... .
Yes, our contemporary world is rapidly hurtling headlong toward, and into, the long-foretold 'crisis of the ages', about which 'the good book' has more to say than about almost anything else... .
And, sadly for the great, the vast majority, both there and globally, it'll take 'em totally by surprise... and moreover, completely unprepared...
*In days to come; sorry, folks, this'll be a few days later than first intended, but trust me, worth the wait.
Yes, Mr Peters is showing his quality as (Acting) Prime Minister...
Whether it's in his general statesmanlike approach to the media scrum - however much derided or held in contempt by some members of this exclusive fraternity (especially its broadcasting arm, and -surprise, surprise - TV3 in particular, apparently).
Whether it's in his simple unwillingness to 'pull finger' and resort to typical Muldoonesque-style bullying tactics of spitting the dummy by railing against imminent strikes by nurses (especially) and inciting popular antipathy towards them, on the contrary insisting that they do indeed have some legitimate grievances, which moreover were completely ignored by the last crowd (of politicians).
Or whether it's in his refreshing preparedness to stand up to the Aussies, or more accurately their current Government, which, following in the train of previous ones admittedly, caved in to populist dogma and prejudices against migrants and refugees one and all; at least defending a kiwi youth thereabouts.
Keep it up, Winston...we're right behind ya!
Whether it's in his simple unwillingness to 'pull finger' and resort to typical Muldoonesque-style bullying tactics of spitting the dummy by railing against imminent strikes by nurses (especially) and inciting popular antipathy towards them, on the contrary insisting that they do indeed have some legitimate grievances, which moreover were completely ignored by the last crowd (of politicians).
Or whether it's in his refreshing preparedness to stand up to the Aussies, or more accurately their current Government, which, following in the train of previous ones admittedly, caved in to populist dogma and prejudices against migrants and refugees one and all; at least defending a kiwi youth thereabouts.
Keep it up, Winston...we're right behind ya!
Yes, Let the Self-Obsessed, Self-Opinionated Media Elites...Just Occasionally give a little credit - Where(ver) Credit is Surely Due
Remaining - for just a millisecond, or several, longer - upon matters NZ Inc and political, how refreshing to see NZ First keeping a manifesto commitment (and/or implicit past election promise/undertaking), to wit the '3 Strikes and You're Out' legislation (passed early on during the last National Government's three-term tenure in office). Yes, good on ya's, folk, for standing up - if, like Custer, at the proverbial last minute - and being counted on the need and (deep, heartfelt) desire of ordinary, everyday (read: non-elitist) kiwis to retain said (Act NZ-sponsored) serious offenders' and offences' law indefinitely, at least for the forseeable... . Yes, you've shown your quality, sirs and ladies.
Admittedly, I've learnt over recent weeks how it was initially, originally, Winston's own pet project/proposal way back in the 1990s - though I've intuitively known such law has ever been part and parcel of NZ First's 'get tough' approach on crime (conforming so closely to their basic, long-term philosophy and principles). Granted, they were outside Parliament at the decisive time said law was put on the order paper and progressed through all its parliamentary stages at the outset of the Key Government, but let's just say it was passed into law with the moral (if not actual parliamentary) support of NZ First, being so much part and parcel of their basic approach to law and order as to be indistinguishable from much of their basic policy.
And of course, NZ First writhes in its sleep, no doubt, at any legislation progressed by its political arch-rivals, Act NZ, Winston Peters holding an inveterate antipathy to the party's essentially pro-neo liberal, Rogernomics' and Ruthanasian ideology - but at least he's been consistent therein for the past thirty some years, unlike some of his past Labour Party contemporaries. So all credit to him and his colleagues for - belatedly, if eventually - coming out publicly and declaring they were unable to support such a rollback of popular, Key Government legislation; thus putting on the record that NZ First's support cannot simply be taken for granted by the new Government, and especially its justice-reforming/crusading former leader, Justice Minister Andrew Little.
But credit too to Mr Little for seeing fit to launch a deep, wide-ranging review of how to deal with NZers' penchant for 'locking up and throwing away the key', as PM Peters put it during Parliament's Question Time the other week. Just continuing with things as the last Government had left them was not an option, was no acceptable solution to NZ Justice in the long-term. That is, simply building more and more prisons and locking up more and more lower-level offenders in *some mad scheme to follow in the steps of incarceration-mad America is no answer, as New Zealand's ever-burgeoning prison population makes increasingly only too apparent.
And it will not do, either, for the newfangled National Party and its justice spokespeople - Judith Collins and Mark Mitchell in particular - and even its deputy, Paula Bennett, in this particular instance - to seek to turn even Mr Little's well-intentioned goal of dealing to NZ's exploding imprisonment rate into an essential falsehood by appealing to entrenched and understandable popular fears; somehow - and quite erroneously - suggesting he (or more correctly his Government) intends releasing dangerous crims willy-nilly back into the community with neither proper plan nor procedure to reintegrate them successfully.
But I don't deny National perhaps does have some credibility in suggesting this new Government - or rather its Labour party rump (and especially its Green party component) - is indeed **congenitally soft on crime, such congenital wishy-washiness no doubt arising from the fact that so few politicians seem to ever have had any even indirect association with serious crimes and'/or criminals let alone the victims thereof; much less any direct personal experience thereof. Which was undoubtedly how the 'ole line about liberals being conservatives who haven't yet been mugged originally came about.
As one who experienced ***just such while on a three-year sojourn in the U S of A 25-some years ago, I can assure readers that it wakes one up to reality and can indeed have a quite a sobering effect upon any previously highly academic political theorizing. Indeed, can it what.
*/**My characterization (or paraphrases) of their respective thoughts as expressed in speeches, I grant; with some elaboration into my own characteristic thoughts and expressions.
***Admittedly, if such is possible, without the physical component of such (i.e. mugging). Though that undoubtedly sounds like an utter contradiction-in-terms, let's just say that I was ****accosted in a very physical (if un-'violent') fashion, which - all things being equal - could've well seen me forthwith assigned six feet under, I kid you not. Yes, entirely sufficient to quickly *****'............ the mind'.
****'To approach and address', according to my trusty Chambers Concise Dictionary, and 'to greet and approach, often offensively', in the words of my Heinemann New Zealand Dictionary. So you indeed 'learn something new every day', as they say, as this fellow did far worse, he grabbed me and held me firm by throwing his arms across my waist and gripping me firmly in his powerful 'embrace'. Before proceeding to lead me into an open alleyway and demanding I spill all my worldly monies out of my pockets or I'd be in some pretty deep doggy doo-doo, not to put too fine a point upon it.
*****Sorry, the appropriate term temporarily escapes my recollection.
Admittedly, I've learnt over recent weeks how it was initially, originally, Winston's own pet project/proposal way back in the 1990s - though I've intuitively known such law has ever been part and parcel of NZ First's 'get tough' approach on crime (conforming so closely to their basic, long-term philosophy and principles). Granted, they were outside Parliament at the decisive time said law was put on the order paper and progressed through all its parliamentary stages at the outset of the Key Government, but let's just say it was passed into law with the moral (if not actual parliamentary) support of NZ First, being so much part and parcel of their basic approach to law and order as to be indistinguishable from much of their basic policy.
And of course, NZ First writhes in its sleep, no doubt, at any legislation progressed by its political arch-rivals, Act NZ, Winston Peters holding an inveterate antipathy to the party's essentially pro-neo liberal, Rogernomics' and Ruthanasian ideology - but at least he's been consistent therein for the past thirty some years, unlike some of his past Labour Party contemporaries. So all credit to him and his colleagues for - belatedly, if eventually - coming out publicly and declaring they were unable to support such a rollback of popular, Key Government legislation; thus putting on the record that NZ First's support cannot simply be taken for granted by the new Government, and especially its justice-reforming/crusading former leader, Justice Minister Andrew Little.
But credit too to Mr Little for seeing fit to launch a deep, wide-ranging review of how to deal with NZers' penchant for 'locking up and throwing away the key', as PM Peters put it during Parliament's Question Time the other week. Just continuing with things as the last Government had left them was not an option, was no acceptable solution to NZ Justice in the long-term. That is, simply building more and more prisons and locking up more and more lower-level offenders in *some mad scheme to follow in the steps of incarceration-mad America is no answer, as New Zealand's ever-burgeoning prison population makes increasingly only too apparent.
And it will not do, either, for the newfangled National Party and its justice spokespeople - Judith Collins and Mark Mitchell in particular - and even its deputy, Paula Bennett, in this particular instance - to seek to turn even Mr Little's well-intentioned goal of dealing to NZ's exploding imprisonment rate into an essential falsehood by appealing to entrenched and understandable popular fears; somehow - and quite erroneously - suggesting he (or more correctly his Government) intends releasing dangerous crims willy-nilly back into the community with neither proper plan nor procedure to reintegrate them successfully.
But I don't deny National perhaps does have some credibility in suggesting this new Government - or rather its Labour party rump (and especially its Green party component) - is indeed **congenitally soft on crime, such congenital wishy-washiness no doubt arising from the fact that so few politicians seem to ever have had any even indirect association with serious crimes and'/or criminals let alone the victims thereof; much less any direct personal experience thereof. Which was undoubtedly how the 'ole line about liberals being conservatives who haven't yet been mugged originally came about.
As one who experienced ***just such while on a three-year sojourn in the U S of A 25-some years ago, I can assure readers that it wakes one up to reality and can indeed have a quite a sobering effect upon any previously highly academic political theorizing. Indeed, can it what.
*/**My characterization (or paraphrases) of their respective thoughts as expressed in speeches, I grant; with some elaboration into my own characteristic thoughts and expressions.
***Admittedly, if such is possible, without the physical component of such (i.e. mugging). Though that undoubtedly sounds like an utter contradiction-in-terms, let's just say that I was ****accosted in a very physical (if un-'violent') fashion, which - all things being equal - could've well seen me forthwith assigned six feet under, I kid you not. Yes, entirely sufficient to quickly *****'............ the mind'.
****'To approach and address', according to my trusty Chambers Concise Dictionary, and 'to greet and approach, often offensively', in the words of my Heinemann New Zealand Dictionary. So you indeed 'learn something new every day', as they say, as this fellow did far worse, he grabbed me and held me firm by throwing his arms across my waist and gripping me firmly in his powerful 'embrace'. Before proceeding to lead me into an open alleyway and demanding I spill all my worldly monies out of my pockets or I'd be in some pretty deep doggy doo-doo, not to put too fine a point upon it.
*****Sorry, the appropriate term temporarily escapes my recollection.
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