The mountain in winter

From dark, cthonic rock
purity of ice suspends
each earthbound drop.

Chemin suisse, février 2012
CJM

How to start a revolution

A favourite song of mine is “Papa, cuéntame otra vez,” by the Spanish singer Ismael Serrano. “Dad, tell me again,” goes the lyric, about the heady days of 1968 in Paris, when youth poured on to the streets in widespread protest against cultural tyranny and inspired others to resist the power of what Isma colourfully terms “dictadores oxidados”, rusted dictators such as Franco.

But the note of the song is pessimistic. Where are the gains now? One kind of tyranny has been replaced by another and it seems as if all the promise of that Paris spring has blown away like dust. I was in Paris myself for “le petit mai” of 1970, and it was all too plainly already a subdued echo of the original student-worker uprising two years before.

Yet we are in a long-term game here, and the truth is that we are still living in revolutionary times. Some have compared the present shaking of the branches right down to the roots of our political, economic and social inheritance, to the upheaval throughout Europe in 1848.

Of more promise is that now we see emerging a new dynamic of resistance, looking back not to the bloody clashes of the past, but promoting a radically different and nonviolent manifestation of people-power. The special interest of these new principles is that they arise from the thinking of two men who, in themselves, could hardly be seen as revolutionaries.

Gene Sharp’s From Dictatorship to Democracy and Stéphane Hessel’s Indignez-vous, between them have provided manifestos for change without violence on an international scale, and they are already producing widespread results. The focus of each is different, but their combined appeal to a universal sense of "enough is enough" has  fuelled and inspired movements and strategists around the globe.

Both have said, in different ways, that the end-game is not the destructive overthrow of regimes or rulers. Such results, like the downfall of Ben Ali in Tunisia or Mubarak in Egypt, deliver great joy to the oppressed, but leave a potentially dangerous vacuum after them which can simply fill up with more of the same under a different name.

No, the real aim of this approach is not to overthrow rulers, but to change how rulers behave. And in Hessel's view, not only blindly short-term rulers, but the entire culture of politics and big business in an unholy alliance of self-interest.

I thoroughly recommend Ruaridh Arrow's recent documentary about the work and ideas of Gene Sharp, which is inspirational. Here is a link to the trailer, but try to see the complete film, shown this week on the channel current.com.

So Ismael Serrano need not feel so disappointed now. Los indignados of the 15-M movement and of Democracia Real YA, are back on the streets in Spain, fillling the squares of dozens of cities, and if they follow Gene Sharp's advice, they will not give up.

Turning tide

Gliding landwards, tongues
of sea, cream-edged, enfold each
silent, rounded rock.

La Vega, January 2012

CJM

Sweet sadness is upon me -- again

It's that time again. The hours of daylight, unnoticeably, are getting longer, but the human feeling is of entering the worst of winter, and spring seems far away. And with all that, we are approaching the anniversary of the "saddest day of the year."

This event need not be as miserable as it sounds. It's an opportunity, as my Herald Tribune article suggests (see link above), to bask in some of the most beautiful love poetry of the creative soul from cultures all around the world.

Sadness and the human spirit are perpetual companions. Some have proposed that this nostalgic resonance that we all feel has a legendary source in the banishment from the Garden of Eden. There was a glory that we once knew, and "all our journeying", as T.S. Eliot put it, is to recover the lost paradise that was our beginning.

We find the same nostalgia for "recollection" at the heart of Romantic poetry and painting in the nineteenth century, from Wordsworth's Intimations of  Immortality - "trailing clouds of glory do we come" - to the soulful mystery of Sehnsucht and Erinnerung pervading German art. That urge to recall, with a sense of "insatiable longing" that tells us we are not complete, are the very foundation of sadness.

But letting sadness go by without being drawn into it to the exclusion of all else, will keep us going till spring. Here, too, as my article points out, the Chinese still have the last word, with their sensible proverb, "You can't stop birds of sadness flying over you, but don't let them nest in your hair."

CJM

Captureland: a novel

The images in the holiday brochure are irresistible: sun and sand of tropical beaches bordered by palms, washed by translucent seas, where lovers amble hand in hand along the edge of the water. What could be more blissful? Where do I sign up?

 When you arrive, of course, you'll find that the deserted beach has serial hotels hogging the shoreline, while busloads of star-struck lovers arrive and leave daily as the great wheels of the tourist industry churn without end.

There will be a hidden world, too, mostly unseen by the visitor, in the the surrounding towns, villages and countryside. This wider local population remains out of sight, especially in the hotel formula known as “all-inclusive” (which should really be termed “all-exclusive”), the average visitor getting only a fleeting glimpse, on arrival and departure, from the windows of the airport bus. They may take note, briefly, of townships, ghettos, shanty-towns, the ramshackle effects of poverty, dust and dirt, run-down vehicles, and neglected infrastructure.

 Maybe, too, they’ll catch sight of areas of fine villas with enclosed gardens displaying high-profile security protection. Some of this extreme contrast may remind them of the troubling and chilling depiction of Rodrigo Plá’s excellent film La Zona (Mexico, 2007), where slum and rich condominium sit side by side.

            But the bus will soon pull in past the gate-keepers and into the walled paradise of the beach hotel. During the visitor’s stay, those “other people” of the parallel world of the slums and townships will remain visible only in the form of the myriad waiters, bartenders, cleaners, cooks, laundry servants, and so on, who silently keep the great ship of leisure steaming along.

Then, after the holiday in paradise, the visitor will return home via the same rapid bus journey to the airport, none the wiser about the greater landscape of the country they have blessed with their foreign currency.

            What of the impact of such tourism on all those workers, and on their lives? What of the impact on their families and communities, back in the ghetto homes where they live, and where they return at night? What of the impact on local agriculture and resources, traditionally based on providing for local needs, and unequipped to deal with the vast daily appetites of the thousands upon thousands of invading hotel guests?

            Captureland, my novel written for young people, but equally for any inquiring person, takes a look at this other unexplored world beyond the hotel gates, with its shanty-town communities built on land seized by squatters (hence “capture land”).

In the story, based on true events, a young white boy comes to work in a Caribbean beach hotel but soon finds himself allied with a group of black friends in their daily fight for survival amidst poverty, injustice and violence. We see the parallel world now through his eyes, as he shares the joys and hardships of his breddren, born and raised in the ghetto but with an irrepressible spirit and zest for life.

I wrote most of this book on site, in the Caribbean, where after a whole lifetime of travelling without incident, I was mugged within twenty-four hours of my arrival. The telling of the story, then, has a certain edge to it – which doesn’t take away from my exploration, and admiration, of the deeper customs and values of traditional communities faced with the ruthless and insatiable demands of the modern consumer world, otherwise known as "Babylon".

The book will in due course be available through Amazon, but there is an opening 25% discount until January 31, 2012, on all orders from Lulu (see link above and order using code LULUBOOKUK305). An e-book version is also available from the same site, and eventually Kindle, etc.

CJM

           

Sea-surge

High rearing seas leap,
curl, shatter on foaming rocks
with thunderous blows.

Punta 'l Pozu, January 2012

CJM

Breakers in the bay

Sunlit, radiant white
chargers, racing to shore, toss
silver manes of spray.

Santa Marina, January 2012