I don't want to play that game!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What would I wait in a three-mile queue for?

     This is one of the emptiest parlour games ever invented, because the answer is ‘absolutely nothing’!  OK, you can re-work things and say that if it was a matter of life and death, or that there were untold riches at the end of the wait for the taking, but for anything else?  No, I can think of nothing.  At least nothing real and achievable!

     And yet, thousands, tens – no, hundreds of thousands of my fellow countrymen, with a sprinkling of foreigners, are joining the queue to file past the coffin of a ninety-six-year-old woman.  A woman with no real accomplishments to her name, apart from her longevity and an ability for small talk honed to perfection over decades of vacuous ‘service’.

      

 

 

 

 

 

On the other hand, I do understand that some people feel a real sense of personal loss and that by queueing and paying their respects they are honouring a debt owed to a lady who devoted herself to her people,  I also understand that people feel that this moment is an historic one and that they are able to link themselves to a unique, unrepeatable moment in our national experience by actually being there.  A feeling of linking oneself to something almost immeasurably greater.

     You can tell that I am going through the motions and trying to think myself into the position of someone who makes the decision to queue for perhaps thirty hours for a distanced moment with the coffined corpse of a dead Queen.  And I’m failing miserably.

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

      In the same way I fail to understand the people who voted for Trump or continue to ‘believe’ the lie of the lost election; or the people who voted for Johnson and continued to vote for him long after it was obvious that he was singularly unsuited for any sort of public service.

     I can understand people voting for self-aggrandisement and voting for the party that seems to offer the best protection for their interests, no matter how unfair it might be.  I remember I once had a lapel badge that had “VOTE TORY” in the centre, and it drew quizzical glances because I was not known for my Conservative sympathies!  It was only when those surprised people drew a little closer and saw the writing around the central ‘message’ that things became clearer: “Young and stupid?  Old and selfish?”  A gross simplification I know, but it does point to lack of education and selfishness at least playing some part in the way that the great questions of our time have been ‘resolved’!

 

 

 

      

 

 

 

 

     

    Brexit is the perfect example of how the same badge could be used and the word “Brexit” substituted for “Tory”!

     But that is not the whole explanation.  Decent people voted for Brexit and are still (in spite of the evidence to the contrary) backing it.  I have heard defenders of “the greatest act of self-harm in our history” passionately asserting that it has worked and that things are better.  And this is not simply the idiocy of, for example, the Brexit Blinded MP for Dover blaming the French for taking us at our word and treating us like a ‘third’ country after we withdrew to become a ‘third’ country – it is more a sort of wilful determination to make the best of what is having a ‘few teething problems’ but, as usual, we will pull through: cue, Churchill speeches, rousing music and many references to the Second World War and the Blitz!

     I suppose, when you come down to it, all forms of policy and government are precarious balancing acts, which only work because of the faith and belief of the people who are watching and want the act to work.

     Johnson has been the single most destructive person in recent times to threaten the whole edifice of the Way Things Are Done by ignoring the “Good Chaps” system of administration, where leeway is given on the assumption that people will do the right thing, rather than having to act on a strict system of rules, laws, and regulations to limit behaviour.  The problem is, when you have a buffoon and narcissist as leader then all those “unwritten” (but powerful) rules do not exist if they get in his way, and then the whole flummery edifice comes tumbling down.  And even with him gone the so-called Tory Party de nos jours seems to have deserted any ethical basis for their action and is blithely following the wrecking strategy of the former (disgraced) prime minister and using their elected majority to rewrite or ignore any troubling laws that might get in their way – and they are supported by?  Well, hardly a majority of the country because they were not elected by a majority after the farce of the First Past The Post system, we have to regulated democracy into a basic two-party state – but I am wandering and digressing and allowing my despair about the present situation in my country to pull my writing into too many directions!

     What I do feel is that this (new prime minister, new monarch) could be a tipping point, where the tinsel of ceremony which covers the way that we are governed, begins to be seen as the superficial window dressing that it is and, as hunger and deprivation begin to hurt swathes of the population this winter, the people or The People begin to demand that the government governs for them and not just for the elites.

 

 

 

 

 

     What a fond socialist (see?  I don’t even have the optimism to start it with a capital letter) dream that is!

LOCKDOWN CASTELLDEFELS - DAY 27 – Holy Saturday in Holy Week, 11th APRIL

We are waiting to hear what the traffic flow is like.  Spain and the UK have both emphasised that no one (except of course for Conservative Ministers) should travel during the Easter weekend.  We should all stay at home.  So far a large number of fines have been imposed on those who attempted to make the journey to second homes or to the beach.  The story of a group of people form the UK attempting to go on holiday to France via private jet both shocks and also doesn’t surprise: the rich assuming that rules are only for the poor.  Again.

     As I keep saying, I do realise that I am in a fortunate position being in a spacious home with access to a communal pool for my solitary walk – though today there was an entire family of parents and little girl in the tennis court next to our pool: on parent walking while the other played with the kid.  We even said, ¡Hola! to each other.  At a safe distance.  Such is community: you best show community spirit by shunning it!

The number of deaths reported in the UK continues to horrify and I have little faith in the ability of the government to organize themselves with sufficient efficacy to limit the growth in the numbers.  The distribution of masks and other PPE seems limited and the testing is little short of scandalous.

     In Catalonia we are entitled to a free mask, allegedly waiting for us in our local pharmacy, with the option to buy another mask.  Toni will have to find out if this is true by calling in to the pharmacy when he gets fresh bread.  It will at least be a small step in the right direction in coming to terms with the reality of the virus.

     Some firms in Spain are asking their workers to come back to work after the Easter Bank Holiday.  This is essential for the recovery of the economy, but I do not see how this can be done with any real degree of safety without adequate testing in place.  Some workplaces are simply not conducive to social separation and, with the best will in the world, people forget to be paranoid all the time and allow recently learned essential behaviour to slip.  Wearing a facemask is unpleasant and wearing it with glasses is clumsy and therefore all too likely to be pushed down or up rather than used constantly.

     You can sense, even in isolation, that people have a natural wish to ‘return to normality’ but if that totally understandable wish is allowed too soon, the end results will be deadly.  And, why should we expect or even want previous ‘normality’? 

     This virus and its progress and particularly the way that it has been dealt with by the politicians would seem to me to indicate in a blazingly obvious way that things must not be the same after this crisis.  The measures, financial, social and political that have been brought into play to cope with the crisis illustrate as clearly as possible the inadequacy of the previous financial, social and political measures.  Why should we return to proven, failed ways of life?

     You think of measures like guaranteeing a working wage; of housing the homeless; of supporting the NHS; of protecting people with disabilities – all the things that our austerity government previously said were unaffordable: now funded.  Failing railways renationalized; small businesses supported – no Socialist idea rejected!  If it can be done now, it could have been done then.  If it can be done now, it can go on being done.  If we pay money to keep airlines alive, then we own them.  We have already had the obscenity of Tesco receiving a governmental emergency handout and then paying a dividend to their shareowners.  How long do we go on encouraging with our money (and though I live in Catalonia I pay British taxes too) those who boost the inequalities in our society, giving ever more money to those who already have?  It seems to me that the message of one of the badges that I used to wear god knows how many years ago of “Eat the rich!” is more relevant now than it was then!  And what a condemnation of our political ‘progress’ that is.

     We cannot allow the billionaires and the big companies to pretend that they have nothing to do with the situation in which we find ourselves, not obviously in the making of the virus (though in my more paranoid conspiracy theory moments, I have my doubts!) but in the way that the government was equipped to deal with it.  Private Enterprise does not, essentially, care for us.  It is driven by profit and not by concern.  In times of crisis, it fails and allows government to ride to the rescue, and then, when things are better, it goes back to doing what it does best: exploit!

There is cloud cover, but intermittent sunshine – I’m not sure what this encourages on a population that really wants to get out and about.  Perhaps if it was blazing sunshine it would be more of a temptation, this neither one thing nor the other encourages people to go back indoors and watch something else on Netflix.  Probably.

Well, back to my daily poem.  I have an idea, its now just the working it up to be something that I can call a draft.  Check out what I have already written this Holy Week on smrnewpoems.blogspot.com

    

LOCKDOWN CASTELLDEFELS - DAY 21 – Palm Sunday 5th APRIL

Where do you start with ‘irony’ in the sort of build up to Easter that we are having this virus-infected year?

     Our next door neighbours are showing their piety on Palm Sunday by defying restrictions and working flat out in constructing and installing the new kitchen in the house that is either going to be their new home or is going to fetch them a pretty penny when it is sold.  Or perhaps both.  What there isn’t, is respect for the day religiously, politically or healthily!

     The churches have been closed.  The KKK-like religious processions have been cancelled in Spain.  The pope spoke in a wet and empty St Peter’s Square.  In all the coverage of the pandemic, I have heard little from religious leaders, and little to nothing of God.  Even Trump’s fanatic fundamentalist base has not vaunted god above science.  Just as Capitalism turns to Socialism in times of crisis, for government to do what Capitalism cannot or rather, will not do, so Religion turns to Science to cure what it cannot.

     To be fair, most of mainstream religion sees no conflict between religious belief and trust in science.  Nowadays.  Those battles, since the time of Galileo, have been fought and lost; and what Churches now rely on faith rather than Insurance Policies to keep their institutions ‘safe’?

     It is, of course, easy to spin the Holy Week Story to fit the narrative of the virus; metaphor is a willing façade.  Today, in the Christian calendar is a day of triumph when Christ rode into Jerusalem in glory – though riding on an ass: tempered triumph - and that triumph soon to be translated into abject defeat which in turn transmogrifies into the ultimate triumph of the empty tomb.

     Pandemics do concentrate the mind.  A highly technological society brought low - so much for civilization and medical expertise!  All our bright and glittering technology unable to stop the virus from killing tens of thousands and infecting, god knows how many.  Our society has been literally brought to a standstill: achievement brought low, but resurrection is a vital concept and all of us sequestered in our homes and looking forward to, no, expecting a triumph of medical science to deliver the vaccine that will release us all and allow a continuation of the old way of life, our own social resurrection.

     The Holy Week story is one in which you can find triumph, deception, hypocrisy, populism, testing, faith, hope, death, defeat, disloyalty, fear, despair, community, faction, belief, confidence, loss and fulfillment – and those words only scratch at the surface of the complexity of the narrative so it is hardly surprising that it fits the present situation.

     At the end of this pandemic, will churches be filled with people giving thanks for deliverance, or shunned by people who didn’t give god a thought during the crisis?  I will wait to see.

Castelldefels has just been on the afternoon television news informing us that the Red Cross has been going to closed schools’ kitchens and ‘liberating’ the food which can be used to feed those in need rather than staying in the fridges and eventually becoming unusable.  This seems like a self-evidently good idea and I wonder in how many other places this is being put into operation.  There must also be restaurants and the like that are never going to be able to use their food supplies in time?  Something to think about, especially as governments like the one in the UK is already distributing food parcels to those who need them, surely there must be systems already in place to take advantage of any extra supplies?

Today is the start of my annual Holy Week Poem Writing Stint.  And yes, I do know that Palm Sunday is not the official start of Holy Week, but I make the rules here.

     I am well aware that this choice of poetry-writing period is an odd one for an avowed atheist to take as a key time for production, but it has become something of a tradition and I look forward to it each year – just to see what I produce!  As I have said elsewhere, "I read myself in writing"!

     I aim to get the idea for a poem each day, and then to write it up to the level of a rough draft.  Each day, until Easter Sunday, I will try and get the draft downloaded to my poetry blog at smrnewpoems.blogspot.com.  I must emphasise that my ‘daily’ work will only be a draft and I reserve the right to work on the poem after Holy Week to get it to a more polished state.

     I welcome your company on this annual journey.  The best way to follow my poems is probably ‘the morning after’ when there should be something to see from the previous day!