Donkeyshott & Xuitlacoche

For teenagers, GCSE, BTEC, A-level and International Baccalaureate results are days away and fate stands by, snickering, with a sharp pair of scissors in its hands. Later on this summer after they get their results, these teenagers may have cause for reflection. They might even consider turning to literature for consolation or counsel. But what books should they read? Of course they could always plump for Great Expectations, The Bell Jar, The Catcher in the Rye or A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Some fiction hits the sweet spot of every generation. But isn't most coming of age fiction friable? Doesn't its relevance fade? Obama may be the first mixed-race US president, but how many teenagers will read James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain? My generation flipped through novels without the help of colour-coded guidance from publishers and bookstores. Even so, we quickly found our way. The 70s zeitgeist spoke through a megaphone. We read Catch-22 and Slaughterhou...

Quien Pompo , Chico Che Ando Buscando un Cabron La Negra Tomasa, Caifanes Nada Personal , Manzanero El Aventurero , Pedro Fernandez La Zenaida, Armando Hernadez

Following on from my conversation with my friend and fellow blogger @Wordy. I'd like to pose the question: Are we handicapped by our inability to believe in truth, handicapped by herd instinct, peer pressure and the media? Why is so difficult to believe in some phenomena for which there is evidence. Some people don't even believe AIDs exists but label it an overall deterioration of the immune system. Sez @Wordy, possibly proving my point. Climate change? Pollution and noxious emissions of various sorts are clearly playing a large part, but I don't know that anyone is in a position to say with absolute certainty what proportion of the change is man-made rather than cyclical (i.e., naturally occurring). But then Wordy goes on to say we have to do something about climate change, no matter what. It would seem that many of us have weak belief muscles. Few believed that house prices would fall and that there would be a financial crisis, but they did and it did. Not enough people...

Haji, a thin, bearded watchman in his 80s, rests. His bed is carefully placed within the solid shadow cast by broad glossy green leaves - between a tree trunk and a high wall. People who want to drive in or out of the compound toot their horn in front of the gates and then they must wait. Haji lies still. Is he alive? ... . Yes. Thank God. He stirs; from the shadows one leg swings out, another follows. Haji gets off his bed and shuffles towards the doors. Reaching the doors, his arms shaking, he extracts a key out from between the folds of his robe. Comically, he tries to fumble the key into the lock - scrapes metal. He doesn't allows anyone to help him. If you are in a desperate hurry, then too bad. You do as my mother did: Wait. Bite your lip. Grit your teeth. Stamp your feet. Give the wheel a thump. Say: "Jesus! Now I am really going to be late." Haji finds the lock, turns it open, swings each panel of the palace gate open. Call out: "Thank you Haji" and be ...

Nicky was an extraordinarily gifted 17 year old. She had thick dark hair, femme fatal looks and the long and dexterous fingers of a Carpenter and she really couldn't care less. She played the piano well, was good at maths, loved her family and her jet black cocker spaniel and took "Vivian Leigh in Gone with the Wind" to be her role model. I think it was the fact that she couldn't really care less that made her so very attractive, but when I got too intense, she would call out desperately: "I'm just a Coca Cola girl." We were born on the same day in November three years apart. She was born in Cape Town and I was born in Johannesburg. Out of the blue she said to me one day: "Something interesting happened to me when I was younger" "What?" "Well I was sleeping and I woke up and at the door I saw the figure of a woman in white." "A ghost?" "No. It was the Virgin Mary." "How did you know it was the Vi...

Gary Mckinnon's hacks confirm the findings of "Disclosure" A colleague pointed me in this direction. Listen to the following statements from pilots, astronauts, high level engineers, high ranking military officers and scientists from all around the world - most of whom came forward as Disclosure witnesses, about two years ago. The evidence for Identified Flying Object (IFO) activity seems very strong. And if these beings aren't friendly we are toast. Extraterrestrial technology seems to be way beyond ours. One reliable witness saw a huge craft emerge from the water and travel upwards at an estimated speed of 7000 miles per hour. After reading about the disclosure project, I put the case to a class of 16 postgraduate students. We had a mock trial. We put UFOs / IFOs on trial. One practicing lawyer acted for the defence and another for the prosecution. We had one expert witness: currently a lieutenant in the army. Two people out of the 17 in the class had actual...

EVER RETHINKING THE LORD'S PRAYER Thinking as best I may of all humans who have in all time dwelt upon our planet Thinking swiftly of all those I have known family, friends, unfriendlies, antisocials, successful and unsuccessful,exalted and tortured And thinking of planet earth as I have come to know it by direct experiencings, and 36 encirclings, thousands of continental criss-crossings, and millions of local to and fro-ings And thinking of our planets bigness to meat almost negligible magnitude our planet of only one small star in our galaxy of 100 billion stars which is only one of the now-known billion such galaxies And trying to think omni-inclusively on behalf of all histories earthian humans I say in my thoughtsever reminding myself as I progress in thinking that I am speaking only on behalf of all individuals present and pastand to come I say Our God Who art in we even even we who know most intimately of our own weaknesses, failures, faults and outright sins our selfishness...