Love Train
People all over the world, join in...
usefully imaginative since 1984
Dean Whitbread is a writer from London, UK.
In December 2009 Dean had an Egyptian adventure and wrote the short story "One Way Journey".
Alfie McKenzie, 14 Year Old Voter
via guardian.co.uk
A 14-year-old committing a crime is not uncommon – but few do it by voting, as Alfie McKenzie did. Writing on guardian.co.uk, the Lancashire teen tells why he chose to flout the law to become the first 14-year-old to vote in an election, and why he's enjoying his Warholian 15 minutes of fame.
McKenzie, a fresh-faced teenager who refers to David Cameron as "Dave" and calls himself a "socialist democrat", describes "a specific look of disappointment" from fellow teens when he talked politics and then his brazen effort to con polling staff, who fell hook, line and sinker for his makeshift disguise.
He writes: "I dressed as much like a Tory as I could manage: a trenchcoat, reading glasses, sharp shoes. I gave it my slightly eccentric aristocrat's walk and my best self-righteous Conservative accent, walked into St Hilda's polling station, went straight to the table and was directed to the slip which I was to cross."
After being mistakenly put on the electoral register, McKenzie had decided to vote Liberal Democrat. But somewhat strangely for someone who broke the law, he believes in fair play. "The country clearly wanted change. As an illegal voter I had no right to go against that," he says.
Fortunately for McKenzie, whose crime was discovered after he confided in a teacher who "didn't see the funny side", the police are not planning to prosecute him.
Instead of a "fast road to becoming a convict", he now fancies a future in politics.
"I would be delighted if some of Clegg's party or Brown's party would get in touch with me," he says.
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The Main Object of a Revolution
"The main object of a revolution is the liberation of man... not the interpretation and application of some transcendental ideology." - Jean Genet.
I took this photo in September 2007:
Two and a half years of financial crisis later... the UK election produces a "hung" parliament.
I read this measured, optimistic article by the media-friendly ex-Conservative minister Michael Portillo, whom I disliked in government, but have grown to enjoy on television. He speaks a lot of sense.
Then I read the comments... my personal favourite being the following:
It looks like we are going to have a Tory government now.I am going to love it, really love it!It won't be more than six months before you Tory voting twats are squealing because you have lost your jobs and your homes.You must be complete masochists. Your decision to vote Tory will have one consequence:You will endure extreme financial pain on behalf of those a million times wealthier than yourselves.It's absolutely unbelievable.Lib Dem supporters will be even more incredulous as their decision props up the finances of bankers, professional footballers and pop stars.Labour is the party of the people.The deficit could have been written off instantly.The combined wealth of the richest 1000 Brits is three times the value of the deficit.In voting Tory and Lib Dem you have said it is wrong to reduce the wealth of these people from multi billionaires to billionares.You total SUCKERS!This election results will simply be nice little field trip for the public school boys.You total fools!
Yes, people are fools, all of us. Some of us all the time, all of us some of the time. Some people even think time is linear.
I could waste a lot of time with politics. I don't like it, in general, though I understand it is necessary. It brings out irrational smugness and preening tribalism in people, and leads to death and disaster, which whilst it is a great series of screenprints by Warhol, is not the kind of way I wish to spend the remaining 39% of my life.
This is where I want to be.
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Election Haiku #13: 7th May 2010
Voters queued for hours
At church halls, primary schools
Parliament was hung
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Fatenah
I saw this very moving film yesterday at the London Palestine Film Festival. Directed by Ahmad Habash, a Palestinian who has lived in Gaza, I found it remarkable not just because of the accurate portrayal of the conditions in Gaza, but also because of the sensitive way the issue of breast cancer is shown.
If you like it, please blog it and repost it yourselves to spread the word.
Synopsis: Fatenah is a 27 year old woman living in the Gaza Strip. Her life is similar to the lives of many other women in Gaza. Her life changes the day she discovers she has breast cancer.
This animation, the first produced in Palestine, shows with great accuracy the scenarios of Gaza city. The 27 minutes long story is a breath-taking journey into Fatenah's daily struggles. It uncovers the human drama of her fight to survive.
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Election Haiku #9: 1st May 2010
David Cameron
Will eat our children's futures
If we vote for him...
"I think it's worth taking you through what a Conservative government will look like: a Conservative government would cast the country adrift from the world. You'll see no reform of our clapped out political system; you'll see a continued haemorraghing of public trust. You'll see a sense of north-south divide; class divide and growing inequality. And it will be a country very disillusioned, with leaders who only have a culture of entitlement but very little sense of mission."
(Guardian, April 30th)
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