Tyrants beware!

History is never kind to those who abuse their fellow men. History is never kind to those who attempt to immortalize their achievements. History is never kind to those who blow their own trumpets.

And Nature has a way of taking over and restoring order, Her order.

I offer my one loyal reader this poem (by Shelley) that tells the story, far better than any words I could ever write, of how Hubris and Pride will always lose to Nature and be brought down:

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,

  Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown

And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

  Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear:

  ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’

  Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

  The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

                                    

There are always poems.

Some events; some memories; some recollections don’t get any easier, any less confronting with the elapse of time. They are still too fresh, too raw to be easily cast aside.

At times, such as the present, when recent past events cast a long shadow over my life, I am drawn to poets magisterial use of words to express the inexpressible. 

For reasons that I cannot explain – possibly because of its very early, childhood introduction – poetry has always stirred, within me, a deep well of emotion and intense imagery. Poets use of words are like a cry from the heart, that bring forth both pain and a salve to ease the pain.

One such poet is the Bengali polymath and Nobel prizewinner, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). From his 1913 publication, Gitanjali, a very short poem, number 87, hit me with a body blow that left me breathless and deeply moved.

87.

“In desperate hope I go and search for her in all the corners of my room;

I find her not.

My house is small and what once has gone from it can never be regained.

But infinite is thy mansion, my Lord, and seeking her I have come to thy door.

I stand under the golden canopy of thine evening sky and I lift my eager eyes to thy face.

I have come to the brink of eternity from which nothing can vanish – no hope, no happiness, no vision of a face seen through tears. 
Oh, dip my emptied life into that ocean, plunge it into the deepest fullness. Let me for once feel that lost sweet touch in the allness of the universe.”

Revenge and Injustice

NOTE: This post has jumped 6 years - it was originally posted May 14, 2011 hence the comments about bin Laden etc. Very old news. Not sure how or why this came to be "re-dated"!! 

No matter which way you look at it revenge is not a form of justice. Revenge is always personal – normally to seek retribution for some imagined wrong or perceived damage to someone’s ego (“loss of face”). Justice, to be true justice must be provided according to the law and be seen to be done – in other words justice must be a public affair. All trials and judgements must be made in public. No secret trials, no ‘kangaroo courts’, no ‘renditions’ to secret locations, no private ‘extra-judicial’ killings or assassinations.

Take the recent Osama bin Laden event in Pakistan. Whatever his crimes (and they were many), as a human being, he rightfully deserved his day in court. No matter the feelings of anger, hatred or fear and loathing engendered by his name and activities, he was entitled to a fair trial. To believe otherwise is to sink to his level, to a level of barbarism that does not sit well with any professed civilised society.

The law is based on trust and ethics. The great Confucius said some 2500 years ago, “What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others” - (the Bible says this and the Koran also expresses this guiding principle). This common sense principle is the foundation of all laws, of ethics, of compassion and of the general process of living. This is where the trust element resides – in the sure knowledge that you will be treated the same way that you would treat others. Any country that professes to abide by the law but, when convenient, flouts this principle loses all moral authority - read the USA, Sweden, Israel, China, Iran, Australia (and unfortunately many others).

When trust falters and people are unsure about how they will be treated, problems arise. Citizens will either live in fear, or will flout the law with a ‘damned if I do, damned if I don’t’ attitude. Neither bodes well for peace and prosperity in any country.

No matter how much "spin" the Americans use to dress up the killing of bin Laden; no matter how much the Swedes approve their closed trials for sexual crimes; no matter what the Chinese say about their secret trials, imprisonment and execution of people for spurious violations of their laws; no matter what the Israeli’s call their killing of Palestinians; no matter how the USA describes their treatment of prisoners in Abu Graib and Guantanamo Bay; no matter how Australian police justify their treatment of the original inhabitants of Australia, such activities cannot be justified and are wrong – plain and simply wrong.

Think of it like this – if the positions were reversed, the people imposing these penalties would not like to be treated this way, would they? Remember that violence - in any form - is the last resort of the morally bankrupt.

Magucha

Now, as the first “anniversary” (January 21, 2017) – if that is the correct word to use – of the death of my wife Maria or Magucha (by which name she was widely known) approaches I am conflicted with many, very mixed, emotions.

As her many friends would know, on an initial introduction her small stature could often divert attention from her astonishing ‘lion heart’. It was impossible to intimidate her. Once you got to know her however, size did not come into it – her intelligence and personality shone through like a beacon. Because she had survived serious illness and several near death experiences she lived for each day and, seemingly unconsciously, had taken to heart the Biblical instruction, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself” (Matthew 6:34 in the English King James Bible).

She was utterly fearless and, when it was brought to her attention, would fight unfairness or injustice with a ferocious intensity and singleness of purpose. Her most enduring and endearing qualities, however, were her kindness, her generosity of spirit and compassion. Magucha subscribed to the belief that we are wayfarers all, on the journey through life, and she was always prepared to give a helping hand to those who stumbled while on that journey. She seemed to shed a loving and kindly light and many were attracted to that “light” which gave warmth and comfort to those in need and good counsel to those in distress. Her ability to see “through” a problem and the depth of her common sense and worldly wisdom was astounding.

In a similar vein children were attracted to her apparent Alice in Wonderland ability to shrink in size to meet her young charges at their level – both physically and mentally. Her imagination had an almost childlike, innocent quality of freshness and innovation, which children found irresistible.  It was joyous to behold her love of all children but especially for her grand-children (three girls and a boy) – a love that was gladly reciprocated.

Mind you she was no saint! All this apparent “goodness” was leavened by a generous measure of human contrariness. Magucha had a streak of mule like stubbornness (once she made up her mind on anything it was very difficult for her to accept the need for change); she had a quick fire Portuguese (“Latin”) temperament and was not easily crossed; she was opinionated to a degree, with an insatiable attraction to conspiracy theories; she had an abiding and somewhat macabre interest in serious crime. But she also had a wonderfully infectious laugh and a quirky, mischievous and engaging sense of humour!

Furthermore (and I know!) she seemed to have a pathological inability to save money. If she had any she would spend it – generally on the welfare of others.

It could be said that she was “just” a woman who had a finely tuned sense of justice. But she was also someone who had overcome her own frailties and with astonishing determination, selflessness and will-power, managed to push herself to the limits of her strength and abilities to help those fellow humans in need and less fortunate than her. In this she was exceptional and should be remembered as a “worthy” human being in every sense of the word.

I believe she was an inspiration to all who knew her.

She was also my wife and best friend for, shall I say, an interesting but never boring, 36 years!

I loved her dearly and miss her intelligence, the sound of her voice, her humour, her smile and laughter, her love and emotional warmth in more ways that I can tell.

She loved life. She was 62. She was my Magucha.

Oh dear! Israel’s “moral” army – again.

It is very unfortunate that it is necessary to question, again, the Israeli Government’s assertion that it has the “most moral army in the world”.

Recently an Israeli Court has convicted Israeli Army reservist, Sgt. Elor Azaria, of manslaughter for shooting dead a severely wounded Palestinian attacker. Now, it has been reported, that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will call for him to be pardoned for this cowardly and totally unprovoked attack - by an army medic – no less.

The question that should be asked is, to be ethically and morally unbiased, what would have happened if the situation had been reversed and the (now dead) Palestinian had been accused of killing a wounded Israeli soldier (the said Sgt. Elor Azaria)?

I know the answer, and so do you.

I suggest that no quarter, no mercy would have been extended to the Palestinian. He would have been shot in retaliation – or at best, if captured alive – would have been condemned as a “terrorist” and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Israel cannot claim that history, the admittedly appalling treatment that has been meted to Jews since time immemorial, gives them licence to claim the “moral” high ground while still indulging in self pity and making excuses for blatantly racial acts such as that carried out by Sgt. Elor Azaria.

Sgt. Elor Azaria should be condemned and serve out the sentence the court decides. To do otherwise will just enflame the Palestinians and push any “peace” even further into the future.

The Israeli’s have to understand and accept the hard truth that every action has a cause – and an effect. The to me (admittedly an outsider and a non-Jew) unfair occupation of Palestinian land is the primary cause of the “unrest” between the Israelis and Palestinians. No compensation is, or has ever been offered – merely the reference to the “God given” Biblical historic “right” of Israel to the land.

This is an entirely spurious argument. Should Japan be given back to the original Ainu? Should the Iberian peninsular be returned to the Celts? And then should America be returned to the original inhabitants – the North American “Indians”? What about handing Australia back to the “first people” the Aborigines?

Come on! Get real. Everyone, yes everyone, is a descendent of an immigrant – we all came out of Africa. We all have traces of Neanderthal genes.

No one has any God given or Biblical or any “right” to any land anywhere. But it is only fair, the ethical and moral thing to do, to offer compensation or reparation for land and houses “commandeered” from Palestinians.

Hasn’t Israel been given billions of Euros as “reparation” for the properties, in Germany and other countries, confiscated by the Nazis?

What is the difference, morally and ethically, between what the Israeli’s are doing and what the Nazis did? Both actions are actions on a spectrum – the Nazis at the appalling extreme end (10) with the Israelis round about the middle (say 4 or 5 out of 10).

Both are wrong.

It just is a matter of degree. A pardon for Sgt. Elor Azaria – would be wrong. Totally, morally and ethically, wrong.

Amended Feb 21, 2017:-

Sgt. Elor Azaria was found guilty of manslaughter for shooting dead 21-year-old Abdul Fatah al-Sharif in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, last March and jailed for 18 months.

Amended Nov 21, 2017:-
The Israeli courts have rejected a plea for this man's pardon! Pardon! Thank God someone in Israel has the moral understanding to see that a wrong is still a wrong.

Azaria had told a colleague that Sharif, who had stabbed another soldier, "deserved to die".

A wife makes a home

There is no doubt about it, as far as I am concerned. After nearly a year since my wife died, I definitely agree with the old saying that a (loving) wife makes a home.

Women have the ability, that I think most men don’t have, to make a place “homely” – very difficult to define. There is a warmth, a comfort, an ability to arrange furniture, photographs on a dresser, how the cushions are arranged on a sofa, the tidiness in the kitchen, the look of a made up bed – little things – to make a place look “nice”. Certainly all different from the way that I do it on my own.

I am a reasonably tidy person but I don’t always see the incongruity of the way I do things. I mean I use one plate, one bowl, one cup, one glass, one spoon, one fork, one knife – these are kept on the drip tray after they have been washed. Why put them away in the cupboard or drawer? I’m just going to take them out again! But I do make the bed every day! I sleep on alternate sides for a week at a time - then I change the sheets. Aren't I good!!

And I do (really) close the lid of the toilet (water closet? - whatever) after use!

The house is clean (sort of). I do dust and I do use the vacuum cleaner but I am not regular in their use. I clean when it becomes obvious – not a really good practice!!

And cooking – most people’s taste buds would not have evolved enough to appreciate my cooking! Very basic - healthy with lots of vegetables and fish - but no “frills”. Not cooked with the loving care that my wife applied. I cook because I have to eat. Still, I am in good health apart from some age related problems (a few aches here and there) but I am taking no medication at all. Which is good for 76. No?

But still, without a wife (after 36 years of a close and very emotionally rewarding marriage) the house is most certainly not the same. It is a place to sleep and eat but not really a home like it was.

Oh well! Not much I can do about it is there? Life carries on regardless.

Note: I am going to add a big one - one that I, at least, didn't miss until it wasn't  there - social contacts. Women (and my wife in particular was very good at this) are good at generating and maintaining social contacts.
I am not!!