To be filed under: things you would never believe were real if it weren’t for Sir David Attenborough assuring you they were.
New Pieces…
…up at my Substack. One about the G7 summit and one about the late Martin Amis.
We Had Something Right During the Pandemic…
…and that is, never leave your home. When I read stories like this, that is all I can think. Never leave your home. Have as little to do with other humans as you possibly can, as interacting with others seems to almost always be a problem these days (and seems to always be filmed). The woman at the centre of this madness has been proven to have been justified in what she was trying to do and to have been innocent of the accusations against her, and while I am not a fan of lawsuits, I hope she sues her cowardly employer and wins bigly. Good piece on this phenomenon in general and the deep bigotry and misogyny behind it.
Awash in Deaths
Quite a few losses for the world of late, and two, in particular, for Canada: Tarek Fatah and Gordon Lightfoot. The interesting thing about Lightfoot, given how celebrated he is by the left in this country, is that if you read the lyrics to Canadian Railroad Trilogy, you can see it is a song celebrating pioneers, celebrating the building up of the country by European immigration. Quite interesting – people don’t pay attention, otherwise he’d be getting posthumous cancellation. Glad he isn’t. Also gone, Harry Belafonte and Dame Edna/Barry Humphries, both exceptional talents. I went through a real Dame Edna phase when I was living in Japan, for some reason. Not sure of the correlation, or if there ever was one. For what it’s worth, my fave Lightfoot song is not among the well-known. Enjoy.
This. Poem.
I so love it – I meant to post it on my birthday but forgot. It’s by Maura Dooley.
What Every Woman Should Carry
My mother gave me the prayer to Saint Theresa.
I added a used tube ticket, Kleenex,
several Polo mints (furry), a tampon, pesetas,
a florin. Not wishing to be presumptuous,
not trusting you either, a pack of 3.
I have a pen. There is space for my guardian
angel, she has to fold her wings. Passport.
A key. Anguish, at what I said/didn’t say
when once you needed/didn’t need me. Anadin.
A credit card. His face the last time,
my impatience, my useless youth.
That empty sack, my heart. A box of matches.
VE Day
Today is the 78th anniversary of the unconditional surrender of Germany, effectively ending the European theatre of war in World War II. My uncle, like so many young men, did not live to see victory.
The Coronation
Ukraine
I always say that I need to know where people stand on two issues to know everything I need to about them. Issue one is Israel – do they support its right to exist as the Jewish state? – and issue two is Ukraine – do they understand that the Ukrainians are in the right to keep fighting, to not want to give up an inch of territory? Which brings me to this remarkable, eye-opening article about Ukraine. What it describes is not something you will read or hear much about in the Western media (and I don’t just mean conservative media, although they are the worst offenders), sadly: it shows us a Ukraine that is inventive in the face of Russia’s aggression, it shows us Ukrainians recycling weaponry and rebuilding cities. It shows us a visionary Ukraine – innovative and clever. There are insights throughout the piece on what will happen if Ukraine wins and what might happen if – God forbid – they lose.
Canada is useless – we can’t/won’t meet our NATO responsibilities and we have next to nothing to offer Ukraine. We are in no position to criticize the United States on this matter, but I do wonder why the US is refusing to give Ukraine any F16s, and why they are so slow on sending the Abrams tanks they promised. I sometimes think maybe we’ve reached a point in history where we prefer murky endings to wars, no clear victor, attrition, stalemates. Are we afraid of what a change in geopolitics it would represent if Russia lost? Do we just like to reflect and ponder too much?
Two New Posts…
…on my Substack.
Robert Badinter
To keep my French up, I watch French news programs and recently, I saw an interview with Robert Badinter. Badinter is a serious person, a heavyweight. He is in his 90s and absolutely on the ball. He was France’s Minister of Justice in the ’80s and oversaw the end of death penalty there. His father was murdered in Sobibor. I could not find the whole interview but here is part of it – he is talking about Ukraine, about Europe, about war, about Putin and his war crimes. He also touches on the French protests about retirement age. There are no subtitles, so only for French speakers.