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World of the News

~ For the universal in today's top stories

Author Archives: Andrew Calcutt

#158 Rhymes With Latitude

July 23, 2017

There are five degrees between them (Mosul, Iraq, is North of Cocoa, Florida), but down by the waterside the lush, green vegetation looks the same in both locations.

In Mosul there is plenty of Attitude: families who’ve taken refuge on the East side of the city, crossing the pontoon bridge over the River Tigris, returning to the bomb-ravaged West, determined to salvage something from their former existence.

And who could blame them if the TV or cooker they struggle back with, came from the remains of their neighbours’ home, ’stead of what’s left of their own?

On the side of the city that remains habitable, increased demand for accommodation means that landlords are doubling the rent. Beyond the boundaries, another tent city springs up – ready for refugees-in-their-own-country.

Here in the cradle of civilisation, there are children who’ve clearly seen too much and others who seem unmarked. Was it just the accident of where they happened to be, or that some families had more to fall back on, or whether the struggle to survive each day provides sufficient urgency, or if they are young enough to see themselves in the future/a future for themselves – which?

In Cocoa there is excessive Lassitude: five youths hanging out in the long grass, smoking……and filming a drowning man.

There it goes again, the little black blob of his head, up above the flat-calm surface and then down below with a spluttering cry.

Snickering and name-calling, as if the drowning man (Jamel Dunn, 31, disabled, heavily tattooed) is losing face instead of his life.

Here in the crocodile of civilisation, did you feel like gods laughing at the puny struggle of a mere mortal? And if that’s how you felt, why use the phone your filming on to dial 9-1-1?

‘Never in my life would I ever have thought we would need a law to make this happen,’ the Mayor of Cocoa said. Of course he’s correct. read more

#157 Notes on the Flippin’ Philippines

July 19, 2017

Flicking from general election to martial law – not much more than changing a light bulb.
Sold to the United States a century ago, when Spain needed the cash.
Americanised, yet every inch the Far East.
A long line of disaffections: each generation must have its own (communist, nationalist, Islamist).
The militant group now showing allegiance to IS started out as a ‘family militia’.
Who told Islamists to look like icons of Jesus – or even take his name?
The President’s in shirtsleeves, doing the business: unusual business where there’s no counting the cost; his USP is order at any price.
Waves of civilisation crashing over these islands: Hindu-Buddhist, Islamic, Catholic. Talking about women, the head of state still speaks barbarian.
Successive breakaways and the different headgear of their respective leaders; from the outset on the lookout for the best deal with central government.
Always ready to rain – except when already raining?
Lining up to get away, thousands waiting patiently between the fire fight and the Army road block.
Normal life….to be resumed….further disruption included.

#156 Given, Then Taken Away

July 3, 2017

All the gold a couple could wish for
Wrapped in a handy-sized bundle, gratefully received
This summer’s day: 4 August 2016
See how it was: his mother’s pale face suffused with joy
Father (proud father) cradling the reason for completing his daily round:
Te Deum – O God, We Praise You. Not needing to get high
To get through the tedium of it, as posties have been known to do.

Odour of ordinary infused with news of his rare condition
Each moment now incensed with unusual significance
The known unknowns – how much does he see in us, how long have we got?
Holding his parents as tightly as they hold him.

They wound trees to obtain the bittersweet resin known as myrrh,
As the parents of 10-month-old Charlie Gard have been wounded
By successive court judgements going against them.
Myrrh that’s made for healing and also for embalming –
How poignant the discrepancy now all their appeals have failed.

So tender is every sight of him, each instant
Looking back to the future that might have been
Each instance looking forward to no future at all
In quickening preview of a sickening end of time.

2.

Poking out from a distraught dad’s top pocket
His boy’s cuddly monkey toy, tight-lipped grin in permanent upswing.
That monkey-face is polar (bear) opposite to the father’s fixed-down mouth-frown.

Boy can’t cuddle toy ’cos he just can’t move
A calm exterior may mask pain he feels but lacks the capacity to show
Such is the brain damage he’s suffered, we’ll never rightly know.

So here comes the judge; baroness, no less.
Mind sharp as a scalpel, she’s cutting in to the contradiction:
Medical advice versus parental instinct to prolong life at all costs.

Operation over, the hearing comes to an end.
The boy is to die – ‘dignified’; the parents may never recover.
But when the state intervenes for the sake of the child,
Humanity recuperates from natural calamity –
Or so it is claimed. read more

#155 Reporting Grenfell: even Jon Snow needs something new, the old ways won’t do

June 27, 2017

‘You come here when people die, why?’ ‘Even then, they’re not really here’.

Grenfell somewheres are confronting a troupe of professional anywheres
Of these, the son of the manse maintains such decorum as he can muster
Naïve in the matter of socks and ties, but not daft enough to expect ‘more tea, vicar?’

Wiser still – or cynical, the locals have seen our sort before:
Reporting that doesn’t come, then drops in, drives by
Shoots and chews up its reportees, leaves them for brushing aside.

Alongside ‘deportees’ and ‘detainees’,
How many have we fetched and fixed in stories that we nailed?
So let no one be surprised, if reporters are arraigned with officials to be jailed
When they tell us we’re not wanted: no dogs, no ministers, no journalists.

#154 Responding To Grenfell Requires More Than One Register

June 25, 2017

Dust and ashes in a vertical no man’s land
Block-jacked upwards in contempt for ‘streets in the sky’

No more the chequered lights of a Broadway Boogie Woogie
Silver slivers in the early hours made way for the grey of the First World War
Meantime the furious orange that gives its name to burnt

First the flames engulf the tower, then the tower is all-consuming
‘Grenfell changes everything,’ says the fresh-faced council leader.
Wheeling his way to a blow-up bed in the sports hall nearby
The boy with cerebral palsy reports the council is speaking air

Across the city scant resources scattered in panicked disarray
Tenants decanted, doormats banned, perspective binned for the day

Grenfell comes loping greedily, echoes of Beowulf, towering above
But Grenfell has no mind nor movement, unless we make it so
We may choose the allegorical, if that’s how best to recount
(And of the dead and injured, not only the amount)
But we must have clear-headed and categorical
When that’s what it takes to remake.

#153 Darren Who?

June 22, 2017

Hunched with hands forward for the handcuffs,
There’s a moment when, from a certain angle,
Richard Burton comes to mind: dark hair, bright eyes, brooding.

But this one’s not even Welsh
Only that his on-off missus cooks in a Cardiff caff.
No claim on the Celtic flame, then; simply a standard-bearer for failure.

Missed the Muslim march he’d muttered about mowing down –
(You mightn’t know but it’s happened more than once on Merseyside,
Years ago, when Orange was the sash some fathers wore)
Making do with worshippers milling round after midnight

And when you spilled them, had they reached their state of grace –
That sense of being other than their everyday?
Did you see it in their faces, Jealous Guy? Unlucky Man,
If just a taste of this had come to you some other way…..

My guess is yours didn’t come at all
You never arrived, even after all that panting down the motorway
In the van you may have hired for somewhere to kip; alone again, naturally.

‘Did my bit’ – come off it. And ‘kill me’ just cracks me up.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Martyr Manqué – this time as farce.
Call this a terrorist? Dial ‘F’ for Failure
And you’ll have the full measure of White Van Darren, the man-less-than.

#153 A Modest Proposal

June 17, 2017

A Modest Proposal

For Reducing the Burden Borne by the State

In the Provision of Social Housing

By Johnny Quick

It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this Town to see the streets crowded with a great Mob of people benefiting from state subsidised housing as a consequence of their low income. How absurd that their low level of achievement should be so rewarded!

Since it is not agreed by all Parties that this Entitlement shall be cut back, for the sake of strong and stable government I hereby offer a modest proposal to reduce the burden borne by the state, as follows.

Each week a different social housing project is to be put to the torch. When checks have been carried out to ensure that all residents are indeed low-wage earners, the building(s) shall be set on fire at a time when the inhabitants are asleep in their beds.

While there are bound to be a few Escapees, it is reasonable to assume that the ensuing Conflagration will cause most residents to Pass On; and their passing will be the cause of Double Savings to the Public Purse – first, benefit payments will be reduced in line with the reduced number of Tenants whose rent is subsidised; secondly, the medium term will see a Reduction in state-subsidised Funerals, since the buildings selected for incineration will also serve as Pop-Up Crematoria.

A different building will be selected for incineration as part of the national lottery each week. All Social Housing Projects in the UK will be allocated an ID number, and the ID of the chosen residence will correspond to the bonus ball number as revealed every Saturday evening during the national lottery Broadcast.

Selection by lottery will guarantee Diversity; incorporating the selection process within a nationwide Broadcast will position it as part of the Shared National Experience. read more

#152 Talking About Terrorism, Speaking of Khuram Butt

June 10, 2017

Shall we speak of the soft mouth, fine hair and eyes that don’t disclose?
Of the veiled wife and two children, known as ‘Abs’ and failing to qualify for TfL,
You for London – who’s having a laugh?
Of men only barbecues, bonding at the gym, and following the Arsenal.
Did you tear up when they won the Cup, or was it Sweet FA?
Hadn’t yet hired the van
Payment fails on the seven tonne truck
perhaps too far down the line by then.
Why mention that earlier life of fraud, fried chicken shops and no outlet for a free spirit,
Supposing that was you? What is there to speak of but your dumb savagery?
Eight minutes of inhumanity that drains your growing up of all significance.

But even butchers’ knives are sharpened on something beyond their ken
Pink ceramic 12 inch, home-made strap to wrap it on your wrist
What whetted yours, I wonder. To be heartless you must have lost heart – how?
The question’s not out of sympathy – too late for you and too early
The city’s wounds still raw, you’ll be lucky to receive a decent burial
The point is there are others who might flip the lid as you did
Unless we show we know them, better than they know themselves.

#151 Saturday Night, London Bridge

June 6, 2017

Knives drawn and mad keen to cut it out,
They came looking for the heart of Saturday night.
Hands held in the gloaming,
That small-town movie where we are the small-time stars – slashed.
Smashing the dash of melancholy,
When the moment’s liquid in the mirror behind the bar.
This was a one-way mission: gun the motor; kill the self-loving, self-loathing self-doubt.

How many had to die, you numbskulls, to affirm your existence for the eight minutes before death by cop?

Drive-in, stroll-on Saturdays may never be the same
We can only make them better.
Don’t say we owe it to the dead,
Or we’ll have let our freedom become burdensome
Do it for ourselves,
For who we are without the daily grind to make us dumb
Our mission is this: fix what’s under the hood, discover what we’re like unfettered

And if sometimes an unknown voice which has to be the ghost of that Saturday night….
It’s OK – she’s on our side.

#150 Paterson’s Performance

June 2, 2017

‘Amputate his hand without anaesthetic’
Baying for the blood of this God-like medic
‘Rogue’ surgeon’s powers of knife and death….
If his head were severed, no intake of breath

Kathy Griffin turns the plastic head around,
So the lens won’t catch the white patch not covered in fake blood.
Hers is a comic performance for the camera, drawing on the tragedy
Wrought by ISIS executioners, also performing for the camera-eye.

Down the decades, was Ian Paterson method-acting as the galloping doctor?
As gourmand of the chest area, slicing & dicing where Trump only copped a feel.

Here a breast to be removed – unnecessarily, as it turns out. To another patient,
We can save your cleavage if we operate only here – insufficiently, as it turns out.
(God save us from men playing God, except when we need them to be infallible.)

Meanwhile a Muslim surgeon treating victims of the Manchester bombing, cannot comprehend the make-up of Salman Abedi:

‘I don’t understand how someone who professes the same faith could have such a discordant view of life.’

But how many of us are truly harmonious? Paterson points to discord even in a surgeon’s performance, ending in terrible strife.

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