“The intellectuals cast a veil over the dictatorial character of bourgeois democracy not least by presenting democracy as the absolute opposite of fascism, not as just another natural phase of it where the bourgeois dictatorship is revealed in a more open form.”
– Bertolt Brecht
Lockdown Armageddon * And do those feet in present times Walk upon Wales’s mountains green, And does our holy man of God Appear on Wales’s daily TV screen. It is a vision so divine That shines upon our clouded hills, As Armageddon brings decline With no more money to pay our bills. Bring me my pen of burning gold, Bring me a heart that’s still on fire: I have no fear, won’t be controlled, Here in my Chariot of Desire … I will not cease from mental fight, I’ll keep on writing day and night, Till I have freed our Principality From FM’s Lockdown Mentality! * with apologies to the incomparable William Blake – I think he would approve today.
FROM OVER 2 YEARS AGO! The bleak vision for the future of Wales laid bare in public report https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/bleak-vision-future-wales-laid-15054023? utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar
CLOSING PART OF MY LETTER TO THE WELSH EDUCATION DIRECTORATE ... I come back to my fundamental point … You can change strategy and plan an alternative approach to tackling this serious pandemic. One that does not treat the public as automatons. One that is creative. One that will consider the holistic needs of our children, young people, parents and grand-parents in the coming months: health and fitness initiatives, youth programmes, Christmas and New Year events – we have streets aplenty, playing fields, rural fields, beaches, nature trails etc. But it’s not just about the ‘messaging’ or ‘optics.’ It’s about the substance behind. Our government’s public persona is mind-numbingly boring. Predictable Unimaginative. Day after day after day, briefing after briefing after briefing … and it’s beginning to rub off on the public. The creative industries should be at the heart of your strategy. Without doubt they would help banish the dark lockdown mentality blues. It’s like the opening graphics of ITV Wales evening news. The general ITV intro is innovative but the Welsh ‘bit’ is stale, boring, same old pictures, same old music, evening after evening after evening. It’s a pity, because the news team itself is great. Let’s hope we can say the same about the ‘Team-in-the-Bay’ in six-month’s time. Yours sincerely Geraint ap 14/10/20 Dear Geraint ap Iorwerth Thank you for your follow-up email and clarification of your queries. We are very grateful to you for sharing your comments and taking the time to outline your concerns to the Welsh Government. I would like to assure you that I have shared your letters with our health colleagues and with our communications colleagues for them to consider as part of their ongoing work. Within Education, we are working closely with all our key partners to ensure our schools and settings are secure so that children can safely attend school. We are proud of the way schools have responded and we have seen some highly creative ways schools have supported their increase in operations at the end of the summer term and their full return to school in September. Finally, I would like to clarify that in response to your remarks in relation to the reporting by the BBC, the Welsh Government have no affiliation with the BBC and we therefore have no say or control over the tone of their reporting. Yours sincerely Claire Smith 14 October 2020 Dear Claire A brief response, this time round. Your directorate has not responded to my fundamental point, namely, the whole bleak lockdown mentality approach, which is already impacting our children in many serious ways, not to mention their parents and grandparents. Anyway … As for remarks relating to BBC reporting … I have no idea what you are referring to! I ended my letter by comparing our government’s Covid19 public persona to ITV Wales’ evening news opening ‘graphics.’ Nowhere did I ask you to ‘control’ anyone’s reporting! Yours sincerely, A slightly baffled Geraint ap Iorwerth
The barbarians around us tear apart our best powers, before they can be cultivated and only the firm, deep insight into this fate can save us, and prevent us at least from perishing in an unworthy manner. We have to seek what is excellent, and hold to it as well as we can, to strengthen and heal ourselves in the feeling of it and thereby to gain the strength to recognize what is raw, skewed and misshapen not only in pain but as that which it is, in its character and specific lack. Holderlin in a letter to his half-brother Karl Gok 4 June 1799
THE LETTER OPENS WITH THESE WORDS - You will find that now the more human organizations, spirits, which appeared to have most definitively formed nature to humanity, are now everywhere unhappier, precisely because they exist more rarely than in other times and places.
The translation of Ovid’s opening words in my last post was by Rolfe Humphries in 1955. I also like Mandelbaum’s from 1993. As is often the case – especially with the poet Rilke – I often weave together different translations into my favourite version. I particularly like the ‘breathe your breathe’ bit. And his opening words? Excellent. In this case, M’s version is far superior, so I won’t be doing any weaving!
My soul would sing of metamorphoses. But since, o gods, you were the source of these bodies becoming other bodies, breathe your breath into my book of changes: may the song I sing be seamless as its way weaves from the world’s beginning to our day.
Goddess metamorphoses ... sing and sing, breathe and breathe ... continue to animate and transform my script, my Screenplay PLUS.
I KNEW THAT SOMETHING WAS AFOOT … THAT THE GODDESSES WERE GOING TO HAVE THEIR OWN WAY WITH ME … THAT ‘MY’ FUGITIVE STAG WAS GOING TO LEAD ME TO PLACES I WOULD NEVER HAVE IMAGINED …
AND THEN THE UNEXPECTED METAMORPHOSES. I BECAME THE FUGITIVE STAG. THIS MORNING, FOR THE FIRST TIME, I FIND MYSELF EHCHOING THE WORDS OF OVID, VIS A VIS THE TALE OF THE FUGITIVE STAG, HIS OPENING WORDS:
"My intention is to tell of bodies changed
To different forms; the gods, who made the changes,
Will help me - or I hope so - with a poem
That runs from the world's beginning to our own days"
NEEDLESS TO SAY, I ADD 'THE GODDESSES' 'WHO MADE THE CHANGES" ... AND MAY THEY CONTINUE TO HELP ME WITH MY FILM ...
Mr Trump was seriously thinking of a 'Superman' stunt as he left Bethesda the other day. It made me turn to Ovid - not Covid! - and one of his tales: 'The death of Narcissus - In his grief, he ripped the upper border of his clothing and beat his naked chest with hands as white as marble. As he struck, his chest turned rosy red, just like apples, in which some parts are usually red and some are white, or just as unripe grapes in various bunches commonly possess a purple colour. Once he saw his form in the water, he could not endure it a moment longer, but, as yellow wax drips in a tiny flame, as morning frost dissolves in the warm sun, so Narcissus melts away—gradually consumed by hidden fire. And now his face has no more colour … he lacks vitality and strength, those things which, only recently, gave such delight — He cried: “Farewell.” And Echo called: “Farewell!”
“He’s so classic that I’m archiving video clips of him to use in workshops because there’s no better example of his characteristics,” said clinical psychologist George Simon, who conducts lectures and seminars on manipulative behavior. “Otherwise, I would have had to hire actors and write vignettes. He’s like a dream come true.”
The urgent compelling question is the psychological state of Mr T's supporters. They are unable or unwilling to make a connection between the challenges faced by any president and the knowledge and behavior of Donald Trump. In a democracy, that is disastrous.”
OKTOBERFEST: BEER AND BLOOD - A GERMAN MINI-SERIES. "In 1900 Munich, ambitious brewer Curt Prank uses brutal tactics on his quest to build a beer hall that will dominate the city's lucrative Oktoberfest." — Official Netflix synopsis.
ADDED BONUS FOR ANNAP, TO HEAR GERMAN SPOKEN.
Based on the supposedly true story behind Oktoberfest, Beer & Blood brings high-quality production, sex, violence, secrets, and brews to this brutal origin tale. Equal parts crime drama and family thriller – Curt Prank (Misel Maticevic) plays a brewer whose daughter, Clara (Mercedes Muller, late of Netflix’s own Freud), falls for the heir of a rival business – make for a heady concoction. With this year being what it is, the show will inevitably be the closest you can get to the actual Oktoberfest, and early-October release makes great marketing sense after a run on German television.
We also enjoyed INHERITANCE – Lily Collins, again (more about her later) and Simon Pegg impressed, since I am not a fan of his comedies.
Simon Pegg's wife thought he looked ILL with ripped torso after 19lb weight loss!
Dear Geraint ap Iorwerth Thank you for your email to the Minister for Education, Kirsty Williams MS, and for sharing your thoughts with us. I have been asked to reply. As I am sure you will appreciate, Covid-19 is a new virus; we are learning and adapting our strategy for managing this quickly evolving situation constantly, based on our improving scientific and technical knowledge. We have passed your thoughts about messaging on to our communication colleagues for consideration. We fully appreciate that people in Wales and across the world will be seeking conclusive and definitive evidence in relation to what to do next. Given the unprecedented nature of this pandemic, and the virus at the heart of it, we unfortunately do not have the luxury of absolute certainty about the evidence required to make our decisions. We have, however, throughout the pandemic made decisions based on the very latest scientific and technical advice available, which in itself requires an assessment of the balance of evidence. Please be assured that the health and well-being of the people of Wales, young and old, has always been, and will continue to be at the heart of our decision making. Yours sincerely Claire Smith Education directorate Welsh Government 9 October 2020 Dear Claire Thanks for your reply. All of us know that Covid19 is a new virus. I appreciate that governments the world over are learning as they ‘go along.’ Making mistakes in some areas and having successes in others. That was not the point of my letter. You mention the’ science’ and the ‘technology’ - the medical aspects of the crisis. The scientific decisions you constantly make, based on the scientific model (there are many) that you have decided to follow. Ultimately, it is a gamble. A gamble based on statistics etc. That was not the point of my letter. As for the ‘luxury of absolute certainty.’ Totally agree, there are no ‘absolutes.’ That was not the point of my letter. Naturally, you and your colleagues want the best for the people of Wales. That was not the point of my letter. Maybe my fundamental point will be answered when one of your colleagues gets back to me on ‘messaging.’ I hope so. Whether you call it persuasion or propaganda, your strategy appears to be failing in terms of keeping the majority of the public on board. People who have willingly supported your guidelines. What’s more it appears that the core of this UK wide strategy is going to extend for another six months, at least. And maybe even beyond. A year of LOCKDOWN! That is my point. People may not want, or get, absolute certainty, but they want and deserve ‘some sort’ of a long-term plan. Dare I even say ‘vision’ for the future. That is my point. Your current strategy, in both practical and propaganda terms, is not working. Here in the SE corner of Wales, for example, which is basically a conurbation of 1.5 million people, people are not only confused with all the ‘variations’ but also amused. As for ‘Health and well-being’? Then improve the standards of care in hospitals and care-homes, for they lie at the heart of a good pandemic strategy. If it is to be LOCKDOWN – in whatever form – for the foreseeable future, then be upfront about it. Let people know. Let them plan ahead. Stringing the public along week after week, briefing after briefing, is doing serious damage to their mental, emotional and spiritual health. Or, and I come back to my fundamental point … You can change strategy and plan an alternative approach to tackling this serious pandemic. One that does not treat the public as automatons. One that is creative. One that will consider the holistic needs of our children, young people, parents and grand-parents in the coming months: health and fitness initiatives, youth programmes, Christmas and New Year events – we have streets aplenty, playing fields, rural fields, beaches, nature trails etc. But it’s not just about the ‘messaging’ or ‘optics.’ It’s about the substance behind. Our government’s public persona is mind-numbingly boring. Predictable Unimaginative. Day after day after day, briefing after briefing after briefing … and it’s beginning to rub off on the public. The creative industries should be at the heart of your strategy. Without doubt they would help banish the dark lockdown mentality blues. It’s like the opening graphics of ITV Wales evening news. The general ITV intro is innovative but the Welsh ‘bit’ is stale, boring, same old pictures, same old music, evening after evening after evening. It’s a pity, because the news team itself is great. Let’s hope we can say the same about the ‘Team-in-the-Bay’ in six-month’s time. Yours sincerely Geraint ap
The Fugitive Stag 