Fear and mistrust those brown people, but be smart about it – because we’re civilised – and hide it behind your opinion. Sadly, the truth is that this is neither Christian nor civilised.
House of Cards Couldn’t be More Subversive
Patriotism, loyalty, and obedience have always been more useful to tyrants than love and respect, and – as we have come to see – Frank Underwood, like all presidents, real and imagined, knows their value.
I have a Confession to Make
This anxiety is something in which we are all made complicit; the products we buy, the food we eat, the modes of living we cannot readily escape are all delivered to us by a global system that robs others of dignity, rights, and even life.
Another Hollywood Whitewash
As ever, Twitter was all lights, camera, action from the start. Very quickly the tag #OscarsSoWhite morphed to encapsulate the wider frame of American society with the harder hitting tag #BlackOscarsMatter, echoing the entire drama playing out on the streets and highlighted by the Black Lives Matter movement.
No Room at the Inn this Christmas
Well it’s that time again. It’s the day before the day before Christmas Eve and every diaspora is on the move, like Mary and Joseph of old, back to the homeland. I’ll spend the day packing and doing a bit of hectic last minute shopping and gift deliveries (and pet deliveries) before setting off across the sea to Scotland.
Saying Farewell to Teresa’s Gardens of a Hallowe’en Night
Last night, possibly the last Hallowe’en in the life of Teresa’s Gardens flats, everyone came out to enjoy the community bonfire and fireworks. Kyle, Marley, Anthony, and the rest were so chuffed to discover they had built the biggest bonfire in the city.
Getting Back from the Official Future
It was the eighties. We loved the place and we feared the time. At school we were fed a diet of free milk and warnings of when the Russians attacked. At nine years old I had already seen images of what their bombs would do to us.
Night-time of Beautiful Words on Words Smith
As Ireland turns once more out of summer and into autumn the nights are creeping forward, and so tonight it is only fitting that my pick of the week should be on the theme of night.
Random Public Journal 