Rosie came home.

Indeed, with Wales being such a little land, and Tenby being just a few moments from home, I managed to be there, as Rosie hobbled into the town square.
There were hundreds of folk there, and barely a dry eye amongst us.




The picture shows Rosie with her mother, and here`s a link (CLICK) to a video of her "speech" to the crowd.


I have to say, that what she says is somehow extremely poignant, and straight from her heart.


If you have children, whether boy or girl or both , invite them to watch this video, and tell them the tale, of a little girl who ran around the world, with just hope, faith, and charitable intent.


(Here`s -click- how the Times relates the events.)

A Russian viewpoint.

Meanwhile the Russians are not going to back down. (Click here or on title for source.)

""Despite the apparent strength, the NATO naval group in the Black Sea is not battle-worthy,"
Admiral Eduard Baltin said.


"If necessary, a single missile salvo from the Moskva missile cruiser and two or three missile boats would be enough to annihilate the entire group."

"Within 20 minutes the waters would be clear," he said, stressing that despite major reductions, the Black Sea Fleet still has a formidable missile arsenal.

However, Baltin said the chances of a military confrontation between NATO and Russia in the Black Sea are negligible.

"We will not strike first, and they do not look like people with suicidal tendencies," he said.

***********************************************************************************



One thing is certain though, in the long run, the Russians have got their own oil to supply their war machine, whereas NATO does not.
Much the same as it was at the outbreak of WW1, and WW2.

Here`s a few words from New Zealand..... From Lenora Foerstel,... Just a short page or so, but a big picture.


Same old shit, only this time the Anglo-saxon "allies" might end up as loosers.
Peace.

German intelligence.

Here we are, safely snuggled up in our Anglo-centric blankets. The results and rules of "fractional reserve lending" are not completely clear to all, though I`m sure the phrase will be pored over by students in the future.
The economic situation in Europe, particularly Britain is about to grow teeth and bite a few folks right where it hurts, self included, though I`ve just remembered a long-ago fondness for working in Spain.

"Buenos dias, Come es Usted... hay trabajo aqui?"

However I look at life, it seems more and more like the English-speaking world is living a lie, stuck in some crusade for an unknown cause, wherein all the bad guys have brown skins and/or speak in other languages.



Germany is certainly the "powerhouse" of Europe, their wealth and manufacturing has been at the heart of european unification, I`ve been there once or twice, but now with arthritis and worn-out bones, Spain certainly looks more inviting.
Funny thing, life.. a few decades back, Germany and Spain, indeed most of Europe was the stage of bloody and violent war, now any European can work, live and travel freely, there are still old hostilities simmering beneath the surface.



Here`s (CLICK), what a German writer thinks of the current Georgia-Russia conflagration. I have to say that I`m just amazed at the points made... Is the writer coming from "The left or the right?", or is it just teutonic wisdom.?


By the way, it`s now highly improbable that there are any Germans who are not aware of the links between the U.S. and Hitler`s rise to power, the cat is not only out of the bag on that one, it`s lean, hungry and ready to hunt.



The parent website also offered up this little gem. (CLICK here or on title for link.

This time, the Anglo-American and Saudi financial cabal behind London's Lisbon Treaty scheme for globalization, is playing for keeps. (Representative Barney Frank is not the actual source of a threat of general thermonuclear war.) Either Russia backs down, or globalization is dead. The presently onrushing general breakdown-crisis of the present world monetary-financial system, leaves no other options available to the Anglo-American-Saudi financier partners. If Russia survives as a sovereign nation, the presently onrushing general financial collapse means that "globalization" is doomed. This time, London is not gambling; it sees the crushing of Russia now as its only way of maintaining imperial hegemony over the world at large. Without Russia's capitulation, the United Kingdom becomes the little nations of England, Wales, and Scotland (which is not a bad option for the inhabitants of that Isle, if you think about that in a civilized way).


Ah well,
"A que hora sale el tren..hay asiento?"

One senses that the people of Scotland and Wales might want to press ahead, with speed, any plans for independence.

Paul Robeson, a little more.

Paul Robeson (April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) rose from being the son of a slave, to become an actor, an opera singer and a campaigner for the equality between all races.
He was much loved here in Wales, visited often during his life, until the American government forbade him to travel , due to the links he had begun to create with trade unionists and other political thinkers.
Unsuprisingly, his visits to Moscow, and the singing of Russian songs wasn`t going in his favour with the right-wing ideologists that controlled the american government of that time.
In the thirties, during the civil war in Spain, he went there to encourage the americans who fought on the side of the anti-Franco brigades.


Paul Robeson and his links with the coal miners of Wales.

C,click below to an article, and also an excellent blog, that socialist thinkers may find to be of interest:


Socialist Unity... The Blog.

Soviet/ USSR Anthem in English [by Paul Robeson]

Interesting little video, anyone else remember Paul Robeson?

Here it comes.

That`s a cartoonist view, courtesy of Carlos Latuff.

Great cartoonist, imho.

Games of chess, and political brinkmanship normally end in a win, a loss, or a draw.

Here from the "Times Online", is an unusually incisive view of the "bigger game" (Click ~~~.)

Could there be a possibility that the Times senses a need to "raise a cap to the winner."

One senses that the american pawns have fallen, the knights and castles have been surrounded or captured, bishops rendered worthless..

The game is over for the "Imperial court of usurious capitalism", and that given the ideologicgal standpoint of the Russian leadership, perhaps for once in the chequered history of the apes on this planet, food, shelter and education are about to become somewhat more important than profit, religion and warfare.

Regretfully, the team behind Bush are quite capable of destroying the board and pieces in a violent tantrum.

So they might yet spark off another conflagration, with Iran being the likely target... and probably the last move they will ever make. Putin still has most of his pieces intact, as does his second and neighbour, Mr Hu. The option and range of counter moves, are in their favour..
Peace.

New links.

Just added two links, Global research, which is a fairly accurate and unbiased viewpoint on world occurences, and a good source for informative articles on the major events of commerce and politics.

Currently publishing an excellent analysis of the Georgian conflict., by Michel Chossudovsky. I`d prefer listening to Ray Charles singing "Georgia on my mind", but then you can`t always get what you want.

Secondly, "Some political pundits", is a list of British blogs whose writers are interested in the politics of this little wind-swept island in the rain.

Thought for the moment, If leftist globalism, with Russia at the helm, is defined as:

"Populist ideologocial policies backed by military force....

Then subsequently, in some perverse yet rational mixture of algebraic semantics, with a squaring of common sense... One might thus describe the opposing right wing version as:

"Military force without ideological or populist backing..."


Ah well, there we are.

Tears, with Django Reinhardt & Stephan Grapelli.

No need to worry if you don`t see a picture, it`s just a tune, a haunting melody that invokes the parts, that other tunes just don`t seem to reach.


Django Reinhardt was a Belgian Gypsy, famous for his two fingered style of playing. He lost the use of the other two, the night his caravan caught fire, Click to read more

Makes you wonder, we complain about all sorts of shit. But to be a guitar player, and loose two fingers, and still go on to make the music that he did, is a humbling lesson.




Stefan Grapelli was born in France, in 1908, with his parents being Italian. Life was no fun for him, his mother died when he was four, and he grew up in an orphanage, taking his violin to busk on the streets from the age of twelve, he was soon playing professionally, and went on to meet Reinhardt and together they formed the
Quintette du hot club de France, which doesn`t exactly roll off the tongue, but there you are...



Bless `em both.

A Celt by any other name.

So many people erroneously believe that the Celts are a people native to Ireland and mainland Britain.
Which is quite untrue, the Celts came from central Europe, and began to arrive in Britain in the pre-christian millenium.
The yellow portion of the map shows the extent and homeland of the Celts, 600 years "before christ", and the light green shows their expansion over the next 300 years, after which began the rise of the Romans, and the "fall of the Celts".

As can be seen, the Celts were principally Germanic, just like the Saxons, who invaded Britain after the Romans had left, which is another tale for another time.

They were certainly neither monotheistic, nor monogamous, nor particularly peaceful.

Here`s how Wikipedia relates the tale of the Celtish folk.

In battle, as warriors...

"They cut off the heads of enemies slain in battle and attach them to the necks of their horses. The blood-stained spoils they hand over to their attendants and striking up a paean and singing a song of victory; and they nail up these first fruits upon their houses, just as do those who lay low wild animals in certain kinds of hunting. They embalm in cedar oil the heads of the most distinguished enemies, and preserve them carefully in a chest, and display them with pride to strangers, saying that for this head one of their ancestors, or his father, or the man himself, refused the offer of a large sum of money. They say that some of them boast that they refused the weight of the head in gold".

Their sexual mores...

The remark is reported to have been made by the wife of Argentocoxus, a Caledonian, to Julia Augusta. When the empress was jesting with her, after the treaty, about the free intercourse of her sex with men in Britain, she replied:
"We fulfill the demands of nature in a much better way than do you Roman women; for we consort openly with the best men, whereas you let yourselves be debauched in secret by the vilest."
Such was the retort of the British woman.

Their laws, which incidentally saw women as equal to , and even as better than men.


Under Brehon Law, which was written down in early Medieval Ireland after conversion to Christianity, a woman had the right to divorce her husband and gain his property if he was unable to perform his maritial duties due to impotence, obesity, homosexual inclination or preference for other women...

Naturally, when the Romans came with their militaristic empire of patriarchal mono-theism, the Celtic lifestyle retreated to the peripheries of the mind.
However, it must be said that the "old ways" are certainly making a welcome return.
Monogamous lifestyles, and unquestioning monotheism are no longer seen as the prevailing factors in our social structure.
I suppose in olden days one would thank the Gods, today, an inward smile must suffice.