November 24th – Doing some background research for
my writing… Well, what a day…and what a time to listen to politicians
justifying themselves and their behaviour.
Was anyone else made sick to their stomach at the time when
listening to Norman Tebbit on Radio 4 a year ago today, or was that just
miserable-old reactionary me? Here was a being whose considered opinion on the
plight of the jobless (jobless because his government, under the brutal reign
of Thatcher, was destroying the manufacturing base of this country and hiving
it off to their friends) was for them to;
Get on their bikes and
find work.
Then he has the temerity to tell the interviewer (who had the
audacity to question his and his government’s role in the shoring up of
apartheid) that he;
Got very annoyed at
people who judged the past by the present without fully understanding the time
that the political decisions were made in. Oh, really, Mr. Tebbit? You see, I’m just a simple
peasant and you’ve got so much intelligence. I didn’t realise that there was a
time when it was considered OK to beat someone to a bloody pulp with iron rods,
string them doubled over on a pole and shove chilli pods up their arse in order
to get them to admit they wanted a fairer world; so silly of me. That it was OK
for a colonial power to keep a whole nation under control by beatings, murder,
torture and rationing (blacks only) as well as deny them safety from
oppression, a fair law policy and the vote; so silly of me. That it would serve
the best interests of the population to deny them access to services, places
and options for betterment because the
white-folk saw it as their right but not the black mans’; so silly of me.
Thank you so much for pointing that out; just think of the fool I could have
made of myself if I’d spoken of these things in public. WAC.
I did a gig at the Albert Hall, ‘85’ I think, and amongst the
covers we sprinkled in the set was, for me, a Queen pseudo-classic. On this day in 1991Freddie Mercury died and
much has been made of his musical legacy, most of it deserved, although I have
to say I considered his liaison with Monsterrat Caballe was ill-advised. Never
mind, we’re all allowed the odd mistake, to get things wrong, even Nelson
Mandela who, you may have noticed also died today. He once said;
I am not a saint,
unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.
Think you’ll find, Mr. Mandela that most folk would consider
you a more deserving saint than, let’s say Saint
Aaron of Aleth or Saint Opportuna.
Not that I’m against either of those two worthy individuals but…well, read up
on ’em if you want but I think you can take my word that Mr. Mandela is
probably the more deserving.
Anyway, back at the Albert Hall, we (Missing Link) did a cover of, Is
This the World We Created a track that pleases and annoys me in equal
measure. Thing is the lyrics (see below) are very much in tune with the
majority of my tenet of beliefs but the delivery is what lets it down but the
way Mr. Mercury sings it (not to mention the syrupy guitar accompaniment by
Brian May, as beautiful as it is. If it was me announcing these hideous crimes
on humanity, I’d want my words to be accompanied by a buzz-saw and the merry
sound of gelignite going off. Instead it comes out as plea, a begging request
for tolerance; which, forgive my French, really fucks us up. Those in power
rely on this sentimentality, this mawkishness if you will and our readiness for
tears which weakens what should be our demands that they either join in the
forces of intellectual understanding as to the meaning of right and wrong or
they fuck off out of it. It deflects us from the need to kick down their
fuckin’ doors grab them by the throat and shake them ’til their teeth rattle
for their stupidity, their greed and their callous disregard for society…for
want of a better set of words, their willingness to listen to saliva-soaked
Tebbit-isms and be so stupid as to think;
Yup, that’s the way to
go.
So today we lost Freddie Mercury and Nelson Mandela, both of
whom had a way with words and so I give you three sets of them from three
different sources…take your pick.
Freddie Mercury: From his song, Is This the World We Created: -
You know that every day
a helpless child is born,
Who needs some loving
care inside a happy home,
Somewhere a wealthy man
is sitting on his throne,
Waiting for life to go
by.
Margaret Thatcher: From her speech on Nelson Mandela: -
…that grubby little
terrorist…
Nelson Mandela: From his speech at his trial in 1962: -
I was made, by the law, a
criminal, not because of what I had done, but because of what I stood for,
because of what I thought, because of my conscience.
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