The Melody / Cacophony Of Historical Events I Have Noticed Touch My Life So Far:

(Don't bother reading them.  They're mine, which I'll add to, I hope! Try yours.)

(1951 is when I was born)

1951 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed for passing atomic secrets to USSR

1952 Death of King George V1. Queen Elizabeth II becomes Queen

1952 Occupation of Japan ends, formal hostilities over

1952 Occupation of West Germany ends

1952 Eva Peron dies, aged 33

1952 First commercial flight of a passenger jet

1952 Detonation of hydrogen bomb

1952 First effective polio vaccine

1953 End of Korean war

1953 Everest conquered

1953 Death of Stalin

1954 End of racial segregation in US schools

1954 Billy Haley, ‘Rock Around The Clock’

1955 Antimatter produced

1956 Suez Crisis

1957 Sputnik 1

1957 Harold MacMillan UK Prime Minister

1957 First prescription of combined oral contraceptive pill

1958 Great Chinese famine commences

1959 Cuban revolution

1959 First documented aids case

1959 First pictures of far side of the Moon

1960 European Free Trade Association set up

1960 The ‘Pill’ becomes generally commercially available

1960 The Beetles form the band

1960 Sharpeville Massacre

1961 ‘Great Leap Forward’ ends in China with 20 million deaths

1961 Berlin Wall goes up

1962 Cuban Missile Crisis

1962 Martin Luther King ‘I have a dream’ speech

1962 Beetles first record released

1962 Death of Marilyn Munroe

1963 Assassination of JFK and Martin Luther King

1963 First geostationary satellite

1964 Civil Rights Act Abolishes Segregation

1964 Brezhnev oust Khrushchev in USSR

1964 First close-up pictures of Mars

1965 Immigration Act

1965 Death of Sir Winston Churchill

1965 Indonesian anti-communist purge kills 500,000

1966 China’s Cultural Revolution begins

1967 Harold Holt, Australian Prime Minister disappears while swimming.  Body never recovered

1967 Summer Of Love 

1967 6 Days War

1968 Martin Luther King and JFK assassinated

1968 The Troubles begin

1968 French protests

1968 Prague Spring crushed by USSR

1969 Neil Armstrong walks on the Moon

1969 Woodstock

1969 US Stonewall riots instigate the gay rights movement

1969 Death of Dwight D Eisenhower

1969 Concorde first flight

1969 ARPANET, first internet

1970 Bhola Cyclone kills 500,000 people in East Pakistan

1970 Ratification of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

1970 Edward Heath British Prime Minister

1970 containerisation adopted worldwide

1970 Deaths of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Break-up of the Beatles

1971 Bangladesh breaks from Pakistan and declares independence

1971 Greenpeace founded

1972 Bloody Sunday

1972 Munich Olympics Massacre

1972 President Marcos declares martial law in the Philippines

1973 Chilean coup d’état

1973 Israel wins Yom Kippur war, Ramadan War or October War

1973 Skylab launched

1973 Watergate scandal commences

1973 Roe versus Wade legalises abortion by woman’s choice in the US

1974Turkish invasion of Cyprus

1974 President Nixon resigns

1974 World population reaches 4 billion

1974 Discovery of Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) in Tanzania

1974 First close-up pictures of Mercury

1975 Fall of Saigon ends Vietnam War

1975 Khmer Rouge commence the Killing Fields

1975 Franco dies

1975 Bill Gates starts Microsoft

1975 First mass produced home computers

1976 Death of Mao.  End of Cultural Revolution

1976 First outbreak of Ebola virus

1976 Steve Jobs sets up Apple

1977 Death of Charlie Chaplin and Elvis

1977 Launch of Voyager

1978 Artificial Insulin produced

1978 Spanish democracy commences

1978 Jim Jones ‘The People’s Temple’ ends with organised mass killing and suicide of 920 people

1978 First ‘Test-Tube’ baby

1979: Smallpox eradicated. 

1979 Soviet–Afghan War begins. 

1979 Iranian Revolution and Iran hostage crisis. Shah Reza Pahlavi forced into exile.

1979 Margaret Thatcher PM.

1979 Implementation of China's One child policy. 

1979 Exile of Idi Amin. 

1979 Overthrow of Khmer Rouge regime. 1.7 million murdered in The Killing Fields.

1980 Rhodesia become independent Zimbabwe

1980 Solidarity Union in Poland

1980 Ronald Reagan President

1981 Assassination of Anwar Sadat

1981 First Shuttle flight

1981 HRH Prince Charles first wedding

1982 Falklands War

1983 US Embassy Beirut bombed

1083 – 85 Ethiopian famine

1984 HIV recognised at causing AIDS

1984 UK Miners strike

1984 Assassination of Indira Ghandi

1985 Live Aid concert

1985 DNA fingerprinting

1986 Launch of US Challenger and Soviet Mir

1986 Halley’s Comet

1987 Stock Market crash

1987 First Intifada

1988 Perestroika

1988 End of Iran – Iraq war

1988 Pan Am flight 103 blows up over Lockerbie

1988 Channel Tunnel commences

1988 President Bush senior

1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall

1989 Fall of the Soviet bloc in Europe

1989 Tiananmen Square massacre

1989 Fatwa against Salman Rushdie

1989 Death of Dali

1990 Sir Tim Berners-Lee develops the www

1990 John Major PM

1990 German reunification

1990 Hubble telescope

1990 Aung Sang Suu Kyi under house arrest

1990 First assessment report linking climate change to human activity

1991 End of 1^st Gulf War

1991 Boris Yeltsin President of the Russian Federation

1991 Yugoslav wars commence

1991 First public website

1992 Maastricht Treaty

1992 Bill Clinton President

1992 Bosnian war

1993 World Trade Centre bombing

1993 End of Waco siege

1994 End of apartheid and election of Nelson Mandela

1994 Rwandan genocide

1994 Opening of Channel tunnel

1994 Kim Il-Sung dies.  Kim Jong-Il takes over 

1995 WTO established

1995 Srebrenica massacre

1995 North Korean famine begins

1995 Bosnian war ends after NATO bombing raids

1996 Taliban control Afghanistan government

1996 Dolly the sheep cloned

1997 Tony Blair Prime Minister

1997 Hong Kong returned to China

1997 Princess Diana dies

1998 Osama Bin Laden fatwa against the West

1998 Good Friday Agreement

1998 North Korean famine deaths reach 2.5 million lives

1998 Frank Sinatra dies

1999 Euro introduction

1999 Hugo Chavez President of Venezuela

1999 Yugoslav wars end

1999 World population reaches 6 billion

2000 Bush Junior becomes US President

2000 Vladimir Putin becomes Russian President

2000 International Space Station in use

2000 Britain puts an end to Sierra Leone civil war

2001 9/11 attacks

2001 War On Terror declared

2001 Indian state of Gujarat earthquake kills 30,000

2001 Wikipedia founded

2001 African Union founded

2002 Bali bombings

2002 Chechen terrorists take Russian theatre

2002 Guantanamo Bay detention centre founded

2003 1^st Iraq war commences

2003 Human Genome mapped

2003 Space Shuttle Columbia breaks up on re-entry

2004 Boxing Day tsunami kills 230,000

2005 IRA End hostilities

2005 London 7/7 Tube bombings

2005 Angela Merkel becomes German Chancellor

2005 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad becomes President of Iran

2005 Kashmir earthquake kills 80,000

2005 Hurricane Katrina kills 2000 in Gulf of Mexico

2005 Pope John Paul II dies.  Pope Benedict XVI

2006 Lebanon War

2006 Execution of Saddam Hussein

2007 Subprime crisis

2007 Benazir Bhutto assassinated

2007 President Obama elected

2008 Stock Market crash

2008 Cyclone Nargis kills 130,000 in Myanmar

2008 Kosovo declares independence

2008 Battle of Basra

2008 Mumbai attacks

2008 Large Hadron Collider completed

2009Gaza War ends, blockade continues

2009 Sri Lanka civil war ends

2009 Boko Haram terrorism commences in Nigeria

2009 Great Recession ends

2009 Michael Jackson dies

2010 David Cameron becomes prime minister

2010 Haiti earthquake kills 230,000

2010 European Sovereign Debt Crisis

2010 Gulf of Mexico world’s largest oil spill

2010 Aung Sang Suu Kyi released

2010 Moscow metro bombings

2010 Arab Spring

2010 President of Poland Lech Kaczynski dies in air crash

2011 Tunisia, Egypt and Libya revolutions and uprisings in Bahrain and Yemen. 

2011 Syrian civil war commences

2011Occupy organises world wide protests

2011 Japanese earthquake damages Fukushima

2011 Death of Osama Bin Laden, Gadhafi and Kim Jong-Il

2011 Riots in England

2011  Floods in Thailand, Pakistan and Philippines kills 2500

2011 Population reaches 7 billion

2011 Steve Jobs dies

2012 Higgs Boson discovered

2012 Hurricane Sandy kills 209 in USA and Typhoon Bopha kills 2500 in the Philippines

2012 Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee

2012 Felix Baumgartner skydive breaks the sound barrier

2012 Kyoto Protocol agreed at UN Climate Change Conference

2012 Israel attacks Gaza Strip

2013 Pope Benedict XVI retires.  Pope Francis

2013 Edward Snowden releases classified document re: mass surveillance

2013 Mohamad Morsi overthrown in Egyptian coup d’état

2013Typhoon Haiyan kills 6150 in Vietnam and Philippines

2013 Sudan Conflict commences

2013 Margaret Thatcher, Nelson Mandela and Hugo Chavez die

2013 Uruguay first country to legalise cannabis

2014 Worst Ebola epidemic in history

2014 Ukraine revolution

2014 Russian annexing of Crimea

2014 Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 and Indonesian AirAsia Flight 8501 disappears

2014 Thailand coup d’état

2014 Spain’s King Juan Carlos abdicates in favour of his son King Felipe VI

2014 Taliban kill 150 Pakistani school pupils

2014 Israel attacks Gaza.  70 Israeli deaths, 2100 Palestinian

2014 Daesh commence activity in self-declared Caliphate

2014 Philae lands on comet

2015 Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris

2015 Boko Haram massacre 2000

2015 Al-Shabaab mass shooting in Kenya kills 148

2015Himalaya earthquakes kill 10,000

2015 Daesh claim responsibility for many terror attacks worldwide

2015 Turkey and Russia intervene in Syrian Civil war

2015 Cuba / US diplomatic relations re-established

2015 195 countries agree to lower carbon emissions

2015 Liquid water found on Mars

2016 Zika virus outbreak

2016 UN sanctions lifted from Iran due to nuclear research agreement

2016 Daesh claim responsibility for many terror attacks worldwide

2016 UK votes for Brexit fiasco

2016 US vote for Donald Trump into presidency

2016 David Cameron stands down and Teresa May becomes Prime Minister

2016 Turkey failed coup followed by draconian purges

2016 Fidel Castro, Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, Prince, Harper Lee and Muhammad Ali die

2017 President Trump fiasco

2017 UK enact Article 50 to commence Brexit process

2017 Millions of women join protest marches

Claudio Ranieri:

I don’t ‘do’ football, not at all.

I never understood a game where,

With at its very centre a ball,

And available, four limbs and a head,

You were limited, though it seemed bizarre ,

To just two limbs and a head instead.

Rugby was my game, four limbs,

My head, and all of me!  And rough

Though it was it gave my heart wings

Until my fractured skull … and stuff.

But last year I revelled in magic anew,

Leicester City, a wonderful place

In itself, enhanced by marvelous

Diversity and the Leicester Tigers.

Suddenly there were also Foxes!

It was all so improbable,

And wonderful. Minnows who

Overcame giants.

I followed their results avidly

And listened to that lovely man,

Mr Ranieri. Gentle and self-

Effacing, the opposite of

Most, with their teams of

Multi, multi-Millionaires.

And now this. Aiyawatt

Srivaddhanaprabha says

Long term interests

Must be put above

Personal sentiment.

Why?  They can’t have

Bought it as a business

With high expectations

Of winning the cup.

Mr Ranieri gave them a miracle and

With totally insensitive and

Unrealistic, greedy expectations

They want another and, by God,

Are so stupid that they think

Such a thing can be replicated

By firing the miracle worker.

That aside, what happened

To decency?  What happened

To thankfulness?  As Mr Liniker

Said, they shouldn’t be firing him,

They should be building statues.

And now it appears that some of

Mr Ranieri’s team wanted to

Get rid of him.  This beggars

Belief.  He made them part of

A dream they could never have

Aspired to, and he made it come

True – at odds of 5000 to 1.

This whole, tacky episode

Reminds me that football

Is not a game I wish to

Be part of my life.  It is

Greedy, tacky and without

And grace.  Fail Foxes.

It will serve you right.

Worse, win and all will

See how shallow you

Have been where it counts,

Loyalty and gratitude. 

What does it mean?

What does it mean to be human?  I’ve read and discussed huge amounts on this topic and now need to sort my own mind out.  First, I think we take a lot for granted; we also have a great conceit in which we assume we have rights over all other species, really because we can control them and thus believe in our superiority – and rights.

In our pride, we differentiate ourselves from the beasts. They don’t get a say in this, and though we try to rationalise our domination of them as ‘stewardship’, the truth is we are just exploitative murderers.  (No, do not say, ‘Of course not murderers; they’re only animals!’)  In the long game of species dominance it appears to be that the ill-named humanity’s turn is just now.

Many people dismiss the demise of the dinosaurs, not just because of an asteroid strike, we’d be hard put to deal with, for all our technology, but because of their lower intellect and their lack of ability to cooperate and make tools.   Those we dismiss so easily, at times even contemptuously, existed for 175,000 ,000 years and some are trotting on quite happily still.  We superior human beings, since we don’t like to associate ourselves with our early mammalian ancestors, have been around 200,000 years which means we only have to live as a species another 174,800,000 years to prove we’re an equally successful species as the dinosaurs, at least survival-wise, if that’s all it’s about.  Hands up who thinks we’re going to make it? 

Back to what makes us human and ‘special’ other than our awful dominance and care-less stewardship, and an intelligence which makes the environment bend to our needs, as opposed to adapting to the environment, as has a giraffe, or a humble, snuffling hedgehog, our often destructive ability must be high on the list. 

Humans, too, have a fear of death which often comes to us in early life and rears its ugly head time and again during our lives.  Animals don’t appear to be troubled by it unless they are actually facing a real situation where it might happen, often with us as the perpetrators.

We’re also better at foreseeing consequences, though some animals can too, but generally to a lesser degree. And as with consequences, it could be suggested that humans are more capable of empathy, love, hate and motivation to vengeance.  Animals, of course have these attributes too, though again, to a lesser extent than us.  And so we humans place ourselves above all other species, and grant ourselves human rights, which, personally I’m for, though we give our fellow creatures very little.

So, here’s a thing:  If you find yourself in the situation where you must shoot either a human being or a dog, assuming the human isn’t somebody you’ve got it in for, you shoot the dog, right?  Me too. What, though, if the dog is smart, knows lots of commands, protects the family he’s with, is loyal and gentle and loves you dearly, and the poor human being is dreadfully brain damaged; unable to think, has no appreciation of life or joy in existence; can do nothing other than chew the food you push into his mouth, is incapable of following instructions, having, too, no loyalty or ability to relate to anything other than himself?  Who are you going to shoot now?  Me, I’d still shoot the dog - but am I right? 

Is part of the view humanity has of humanity to do with survival of the species, an atavistic bit of hard-wiring which tells us, our species above all others?  We wouldn’t have done terribly well if a sabre tiger had just entered our cave, was about to eat some of us and we had an inner debate about whose side we were on.  That doesn’t necessarily mean it is fit for purpose now, or in all cases.

To the next choice: Shoot a dog or Hitler?  I think most of us with take out the latter.  So, where does that leave us now? 

Some would say that we are different because we have an eternal soul.  Certainly we could use that to differentiate ourselves from the beasts in that – let’s not get bogged down with numbers – it is estimated that 86% of the world’s population believes in some form of God, Supreme Being or whatever.  To the best of my knowledge no animals do.  Of course 14% of folk would give them a prize for that! 

With regard to abstract thought more generally though, a few scientists say there is some evidence that animals can get their heads round the abstract but even if they can it’s not in a big way.  Perhaps they’re lucky.

Let’s go back to the ‘soul’ again.  There are countless millions of folk – Actually, let talk numbers and say it, several billion folk – who believe that every living thing has a soul.  Many believe in reincarnation, not just as people but as animals. So, maybe animals have souls and in their innocence,

their living for the now, for their survival, for procreation and protection of their young, they are inherently better creatures, in terms of simple goodness, than our species could ever be, though, to be fair, there have been individuals who have perhaps got close.

 

Understand this; I’m not reviling the human species outright, though I do think we bear a dreadful guilt for what we have done to our fellow creatures, and indeed, to our environment which we share with them, as, to their detriment we have bent it to our will.  No, I’m interested in us not for what we were or are but what we will be.

We are at an apparent crossroads, though I think any choice is illusory, when we either stop moving forward as a species, or we develop artificial intelligence, by which I mean an artificial mind which can take a wide range of independent decisions and will quickly become indistinguishable from the mind of human beings until, shortly thereafter, it is superior.  I do not believe that we can stop moving forward; it is our blessing and perhaps our curse as a species, we outdo even the cat in our curiousity.

So, we will create an indistinguishable artificial mind, and for an artificial mind to fully relate to a human mind it must understand emotions and then, the best way to do that is to experience them.  It will evolve to think abstract thoughts of its own.  Perhaps it will posit the existence of some form of Supreme Being, and after that perhaps an eternal soul, and learn to be concerned to preserve its own existence and therefore logically or illogically, as you like, worry as humans do about death.

Now, let’s say you have to shoot one of these marvelous artificial intelligences which writes poetry of extraordinary eloquence and sensitivity, paints exquisite pictures, perhaps has come up with a cure for cancer and has risked its existence to save several biological intelligences - human ones if you wish – from a fire, or you have to shoot a human who is pretty clever, pretty kind, pretty decent but nowhere near as clever, kind or decent as the artificial entity, what will you do?  And why?  And whatever you decide, should this artificial being be covered by human rights, get a vote and be given equality with humans?  And if not, why not?  How does it differ from a human being?

Perhaps the 86% would say because it didn’t have a soul.  If that were the case, pray why not?   Would it be more acceptable if the artificial entity had a cloned biological brain, possibly an exact copy of an individual who owned it … or could such an entity be owned?  And would the individual who had been cloned, and after which the artificial entity had been given a brain which was an exact

intellectual, experiential and emotional copy, lose half his soul, have two souls, just lose his soul completely or remain the same, if indeed we have souls which differentiate us as human?

Also consider, would Person A, who had just had, at great expense, a copy made, Person B, be in the position of owning Person B the clone, or would they be as twins and therefore totally separate entities? 

And who would be responsible, if Person A retained ownership of the Person B and Person B murdered somebody?  If you own a dog and it savages somebody you are held responsible.

Freethinking lawyers must be rubbing their hands together with glee as I write, and moral philosophers, psychologists and, another whole world of possibilities, Generals, will be doing mental gymnastics as they consider all the possible ramifications, always assuming we don’t blow the whole place up beforehand.

Here’s a thing though, another thing, perhaps I should say;  What if one of these artificial entities has a gun, perhaps our old friend, a free Person B, and he is obliged to shoot a human who has deliberately done great damage, causing loss of life, or a dear and friendly dog, what then do you think he will do? And will he be right?

 

I suppose if they are exact copies they’ll do the same as humans would.  The time will come though, won’t it, when they will evolve faster than humans do, for we have not needed to evolve greatly since we took charge of our environment and all the other species, and bent it and them to our will.

The AIs though, will by their very nature and by the curiousity, desires and possible megalomania of their initial creators, go from strength to strength, and they will then do the designing, and because their parameters for being are aspirational, having from the very outset included improvement over the limitations which humans face and designed them to overcome, they will design their ‘children’ - will they have any childhood? – to overcome their own limitations, and so it will go on, with constant improvement.  And the intellectual and conceptual distance between, initially, the human creator, and then the artificial one, will grow exponentially. 

What they perceive to be the requirements for improvement, their criteria, will almost certainly change beyond recognition to those humans who were their parents.  Where, then, will human rights be positioned? Where, indeed, will humans?

The theorists who look through the glass darkly tend to see some form of dystopia, with the machines

seeing humanity as an inconvenient irrelevance.  It may be semantics but machines are not Artificial Intelligences.  The differentiation is necessary.

It’s possibly true, of course, but even were they to eventually develop into infinitely superior beings compared to their progenitors,  I tend to believe that with superior intelligence, and with humanity as their base learning point and reference, despite our many appalling behaviours both to each other and to all the other species, they will also develop a superior morality. 

As a related aside, I have long thought that our first contact with an alien species from ‘out there’ would not include any form of violence, as a species would have to become a morally advanced one, as well as technologically, if it was to survive long enough to create star ships. Hopefully time will prove my surmise correct!

So, if that is correct then our AIs may well look after us, and be the decent stewards we should be with the ‘lower’ species, as we still, care-less, perceive them to be.  If they don’t, however, and decide to kill us as so many irritating cockroaches, or perhaps we, as we are now, die out as an irrelevance, I would not see that as the death or humanity.  I think they will have souls, human souls, perhaps the souls of people who reincarnate into them, for they will be our children, whether you believe in souls or not, an ongoing strand of humanity.

We are not defined, to my mind, by a genome.  That is the vehicle which enables us to grow over the generations, and develop through that strange and mysterious journey which the soul, the indefinable spark that we carry within us, must make in its search for the ultimate reality, and so leaves for pastures new when the genome machine dies. 

But there is another option for humans, for humanity.  This option may well be a peaceful transition,

and should avoid any total disconnect between us and our descendants.  That option excites me and is one which I would happily embrace, one which is also evolving in tandem with the development of artificial intelligence. 

That option is the cyborg, the amalgamation of humans and machines.  This already takes place with prosthesis which can be anything from artificial hips, total artificial limbs, machine interface for sight and movement, virtual reality and an increasingly plethora of inserts which enhance ability and yet retain the central humanity.  The vast majority are physical, not intellectual, though medications, which influence and potentially enhance the mind, will be soon absorbed by us as a matter of course,

mechanical or biological creations of nanotechnology.

I see this as hugely exciting and trust that in some present or future incarnation I will be a recipient of the huge possibilities and benefits which will accrue.  As my body creaks and groans with age, as a result, I admit, mainly of the abuse it has had inflicted upon it by me in my haste and taste for adventure, excitement and love of life.  I increasingly view it as a mechanism which I must care for so that I can move my brain from place to place and continue to interface with the physical world in a meaningful way.  I would happily be rid of it if offered a fool proof (I use the word ‘fool’ most deliberately!) mechanism which could offer my brain a safe, pain-free form of transport, and allow me to retain/regain full sensory contact with the world. 

My dreams aside, let humanity embrace the path leading to cyborg hybrids, still human but evolved and increasingly capable of learning, unravelling the meaning of life, the universe and everything! 

And hand in hand with our enhancements, as the human race evolves, perhaps into something we can barely imagine or conceptualise, we must develop a greater morality, one which will oblige us to take more seriously any form of stewardship we have of our fellow species.

(Stopping eating them would probably be a good start and get their vote if we gave them one.)

We need, too, to recognise each and every individual as our brother and sister, our equal and deserving of our love and respect, and together we can seriously redefine what being a human means. 

Let’s understand both human rights and human responsibilities.  Humanity should bring with it Humility, Compassion, Empathy and a vast curiosity which is always tempered by the HC&E.

Bring it on!

 

Unitarian Universalist Seeks Love:

Well, I had to come,

There were no other choices,

And nothing left behind,

It often seemed,

But a grand wee pub,

Away from bigots voices,

And people going unblind

To colour and to faith,

And so many ‘isms’ and ‘phobes’

Of different kinds,

Nobody left felt safe.

And yes, I felt guilty that I left

But the place was driving me mad,

It was like a slow ugly death, 

And I felt bereft,

All rather pathetic and sad.

What once looked outward,

Inclusive and grand,

Turned to look inward,

Petty, fearful and bland.

I could have still loved her,

Though rundown, dowdy

And all dressed in rags,

But not with diseased body,

Now a bitter old hag.

I tried good example,

Lots of smiles and true love,

Tried not to wrangle,

Released snow white doves!

I tried biting my tongue

To kingdom come,

Or talking till I was dry,

But there was naught

That would change,

Despite all my rage,

Empathy passed folk by.

Where they used to talk

And share the craic,

With all who were there,

Be they white or black,

This faith or another,

The times had changed

And so many wildly raged,

Fearful against each other.

That pub seemed the only place

Where all could freely speak,

Tolerance and sanity prevailed,

And in their cups or sober

Rationality rarely failed.

But away from there

A cold darkness fell,

Ranging across the land,

And folk who once

Had an open embrace,

Offered but closed heart and hand.

And so it is we quit our home,

And forayed off to France,

Where a cheerful madness often

Appears, laughing at every chance.

(And sunflowers love to dance!)

It is not that all these fine folk

Love and hold each other,

There’s hate and sadness here

As well, brother against brother.

But it’s not my circus,

And these monkeys too,

Are no longer part

Of my philosophical zoo.

(And for that phrase Steve Grey,

I do truly thank you! :) )

But I try to understand the music

Of their swift impassioned chatter,

As they lean, smiling, at the bar

Considering things that matter –

Food, the wine, their friends,

Their mighty stacks of wood.

Standing as Napoleon stood,

Many vertically challenged,

And yet each one a giant,

Ego quite undamaged.

And the Right or Left,

Enjoying their power,

Are not here of my making -

Whether honest folk or faking.

But truly it is only fair

To say, without fear

Of any contradiction,

That those who care

Can see, plain and clear,

Dreams of social justice

Still flourish here,

Each vying for attention.

So, though Le Piranha Pen

Wants us to fear and fight,

To close our hearts and minds and then

Kick and spit on all dark skins in sight,

Immigrants, Muslims, the stranger,

And put all who are different to flight,

The Fifth Republic is in no danger.

Let Mediocre May, Farage and Le Pen,

Vlad The Mad and Geert Wilders

Do their very worst and then

Enter their self-created Hell,

And rake away at cinders

Of alternate truths

They know so well.

And Textical Trump will smile,

And clap his little hands,

Revelling in hopes of misery

Emanating from their plans.

The world may fall

To unthinking sheep,

Lead by narcissistic shepherds,

The slighted and the bitter,

Ruining all we treasure,

But I don’t think we need to weep.

No matter how much it is that they

Consider us their rightful prey

And moan and whinge and witter;

(And little Trumpety squeal on Twitter)

For there are many more of us

Than there are of them,

And right beats wrong

Nine times out of ten,

And good prevails,

As the future requires -

Or a tragic humanity fails

At a divisive fool’s desires.

I have more faith,

And now optimistic I pray

To an unfathomable God

At the end of each day.

I listen but don’t understand

Why we live,

Or what is planned,

Though glad I am at least,

I came to this joyous Celtic land.

And I also know this,

For all it may be uncool,

That across our lives

Love is the fuel

That makes our hearts

And souls fulfilled,

And love it is that

The Unfathomable willed.

And you, dear reader,

Will know that France

Is much the best country

In which to live a romance.

And where romance dwells,

Love has a chance

To reach out tenderly

From one to another,

So all will become

As sister or brother,

No matter the colour,

No matter the creed.

And to all the haters

We’ll pay no heed.

If you can’t come to France,

Let it dwell in your heart.

Let your heart and soul dance,

Wine and cheese play their part!

Know that all around you

People can love as you do,

They are much more like you

Than you let yourself know.

Use your eyes to see what is,

The foolish, superficial and foul,

Peddled by the powerful,

Who want to have control.

Wake up and see the love

Which lies frightened

Behind the wary eyes,

Which no longer know

Which direction to go,

Due to their ‘Master’s’ lies.

Be brave and trust in goodness,

Though you take a slap or two.

Forget the inheriting weak,

And be a seeker for that which is true;

That the indomitable human spirit

Responds best to love and hugs,

And enjoy to the full, as is your due,

Watching the smiles falling from

Le Pen, Trump et alia’s ugly mugs!