amiT flicker thoughts: Arabic, not just another language

amiT flicker thoughts: Arabic, not just another language: The following is quite naturally a very personal point of view from an angle that relates to little things that count. To be understood b...

The MEAT Feast

Eid-elAdha or as it is now referred to in slang terms : Eid el-Lah’ma:

THE MEAT FEAST

She slapped a large thick flat piece of red meat onto her marble worktop with her well rounded forearm; extension as it were in semblance of colour and volume. In her other hand she held a long sharp knife and with a glance in my direction she muttered angrily and audibly about how annually she had to cut it all up to give to those less fortunate.

I stood some distance away in the dark hallway and saw the sweat creep onto her brow, sensing her anguish and frustration escalate as my silence mounted.

Recoiling at the physicality of it all I could not help but be in awe at how so dutiful an act, selfless in principle, could inspire her to feel such pure resentment. Was the purity of the selflessness infectious or was it the other way round? How adulterated was each?

Idle onlooker as I felt myself to be, with the question gathering its own beads of perplexities I slunk further into the shadows of the dark hallway from where I could just about manage to escape into the light of day.  

How do we learn?

People are worried about the safety of statues everywhere since the Colston* one was hurled into the harbour, now retrieved. 

People had asked for its respectful removal for years however no one bothered to listen. There was talk of amending the plaque with a few added words, a half-hearted gesture at best and one that fell disappointingly flat.

Walking by a slave trader put on a pedestal and venerated every day must be agonising for anyone who feels the effects of racist views personally and indeed for anyone at all aware of them whether or not directly affected. 

WHY ARE PEOPLE SO AFRAID OF MORE STATUES BEING TORN DOWN? 

Is it only because of the anarchic behaviour or is there a deeper fear? 

I hear you, you say it’s history ... in which case surely we should add a few more, political, social and cultural figures, of those who in their time were influential and cheered ... we could name a few but I hear you say that would be in bad taste.

And I hear you;  you say it teaches people history ... so let’s think about the way in which that history is being taught. How people are learning about history whilst on a walk to work or back home, learning while more and more anger and outrage build up because no one has really learned anything, anything at all.

~ Anger and outrage not only due to the acceptance but to the veneration of people throughout history that have abused or been void of essential human values in order to achieve their ambition. 

Do we need a statue that stands as a tribute and sign of respect to teach us about history? Do books and all present media not suffice? 

For that is what a statue is: a tribute, a sign of respect not just for what a person has said or done but for what he/she stands for. 

And I hear you, there is good and there is bad.

But what does it tell us when charitable works benefiting  some are only at the expense of the lives of those regarded as nothing more than a sub-race?

WHAT DOES IT TELL US when it turns out that a venerated figure, one after another, after another and another held racist and/or fascist views... ?

That’s where the fear lies: In exactly what it tells us.

Please listen to this poem: It is as wonderfully insightfully visual as it is profound. All would do well to view the world from its angle if only for the sake of change: 

https://youtu.be/b3DKfaK50AU

* “Since the late twentieth century Edward Colston (1636- 1721) has been a controversial figure in Bristol's history, because of his membership of the governing body of the Royal African Company, which made its profits from trading in enslaved Africans.” Wikepedia. 

What it doesn’t say is that many of these slaves for one reason or another were thrown overboard and never reached shore. So though his charitable works may indeed have benefited some, it was at the expense of human lives ... #BLACK LIVES MATTER 

On the blink ~ Brexit and the rest

So all free movement has come to a halt. Petty little Brexit assuming it would be independent and in control, rather it’s a miniscule and even pathetic drop in the ocean when the world is seen from above.

Whatever our differences and there are many no doubt, be it among the same people or that between different cultures, we are nevertheless one world, with countries separated only topographically and by imaginary borders to be caved into or to try and overcome.

With airlines cancelling flights here there and everywhere we stare disconnection in the face and our global predicaments are clearly seen as shared. We become dysfunctional through our pretentious platforms of sovereignty. We all walk on shared soil, we all breathe shared air, we all have an innate desire to be part of a family, a community, and with that, part of humanity.

There is no comfort in being cut off. There is no reassurance that being cut off is within our control. There is no respect for our humanity when the world we wish to live in turns into a jungle of every man for himself.
In short there is no refuge from whatever we are meant to endure.
There are only lessons of acceptance and forbearance to our existence.

Barnacle Brexit

If we manage to blot out the smug faces we see daily in power spouting venomous twaddle at us, such as the pernicious Priti Patel or the daft Liz Truss or punchable Michael Gove, Nigel Farage and Mark Francois to name but a few, we might just manage to survive. 

Those in power hold Brexit to be a ‘purgatorial tonic’, purely motivated by sovereignty, ambitious independence and self-sufficiency. In reality, it is no more than a hideous parody of ‘The Good Life’. 

The more of Brexit we see unfold, the more it resembles a barnacle that typically thrives in erosive settings of mind-blowing arrogance, small-mindedness, xenophobia and if not downright racism then plain bigotry with a capital B. A bitter pill for the whole of the UK and its neighbours. The pill is divided unequally and those who can spit it out are seen as luckier than those who have no option but to swallow. 

Thank goodness there are many little people who remain mindful of our globally shared humanity. This presence of good people, with or without power to address and change what has happened in the last few years, remains without a doubt where any solace lies.