Thursday, May 17, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
shadow self-portait ... anyone might think it was the mayor of london creeping ...
"The Trap"
The first night that the monster lurched
Out of the forest on all fours
He saw its shadow in his dream
Circle the house, as though it searched
For one it loved or hated. Claws
On gravel and a rabbit's scream
ripped the fabric of his dream.
Waking between dark and dawn
And sodden sheets. His reason quelled
The shadow and the nightmare sound.
The second night it crossed the lawn
A brute voice in the darkness yelled.
He struggled up, woke raving, found
His wallflowers trampled to the ground.
When rook wings beckoned the shadows back
He took his rifle down, and stood
All night against the leaded glass.
The moon ticked round. He saw the black
Elm-skeletons in the doomsday wood.
The sailing and the failing stars
And red coals dropping between bars.
The third night such a putrid breath
Fouled, flared his nostrils, that he turned,
Turned, but could not lift, his head.
A coverlet as thick as death
Oppressed him: he crawled out: discerned
Across the door his watchdog, dead.
"Build a trap," the neighbours said.
All that day he built his trap
With metal jaws and a spring as thick
As the neck of a man. One touch
Triggered the hanging teeth: jump, snap,
And lightning guillotined the stick
Thrust in its throat. With gun and torch
He set his engine in the porch.
The fourth night in their beds appalled
His neighbors heard the hunting roar
Mount, mount to an exultant shriek.
At daybreak timidly they called
His name, climbed through the splintered door
And found him sprawling in the wreck,
Naked...with a severed neck.
~ Jon Stallworthy
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Saturday, May 12, 2012
the blessèd tom denny at malvern priory ... i haven't been there yet, these pics from flickr are by Aidan McRae Thomson
there is an article about tom denny with an interview by ann wroe, the author of that wonderful book about orpheus ...
http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/arts/ann-wroe/alive-and-glowing
Thursday, May 10, 2012
tom denny
i think i might spend a little of next week's holiday tracking down some of tom denny's windows
http://www.moreintelligentlife.co.uk/content/arts/ann-wroe/alive-and-glowing?page=0%2C0
http://www.moreintelligentlife.co.uk/content/arts/ann-wroe/alive-and-glowing?page=0%2C0
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Monday, May 7, 2012
dear diary ...
i haven't bothered to get my hair cut for ages so i'm beginning to look like a mad professor
and i desperately need an emergency make-over
maybe i could apply for an improvement grant from the national lottery foundation
heaven knows they owe me !
Sunday, May 6, 2012
if there is a god, and so when i get to heaven, then i shall walk straight up and demand to know why he never gave me hair like jean gabin or jean marais ?
leave 'em out ... ida lupino and michelle morgan have nothing to do with the argument
Saturday, May 5, 2012
curt note for the ponty word-police ... now get up on those tables and dance 'til you drop !
ref:
"... words are like a certain person ... can't say what they mean, don't mean what they say ... "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blBDWv1y7_g
Friday, May 4, 2012
Thursday, May 3, 2012
apropos de nuffinque ... here is remedios varo's last painting
i speculate ( because i don't know ) whether this painting conceals multiple layers of ambiguity ... but the question of concealment doesn't matter to much because, even when not intended, the ambiguities are still suggested
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
a quote from a confidential consultation ...
before being prescribed a daily dose of aspirin and statins for obvious reasons ...
"i eat all the right kinds of food ... its just that i supplement them with all the wrong kinds !"
Sunday, April 29, 2012
she isn't eccentric, she's just a mountain person ...
...who calls herself my friend,
and begins a letter but can't be hurried to finish it,
or even post it ...
and then she starts another !
and eventually, after months of vexatious anticipation ...
the two arrive in the same post.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
in the online version of the spanish newspaper El Pais, we see that spanish doctors who treat illegal immigrants are facing awful ethical dilemmas
"First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me."
and there was no one left to speak out for me."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came%E2%80%A6
i'm sorry what follows is so badly translated but I'm sure you'll get the general outline of the picture ....
http://sociedad.elpais.com/sociedad/2012/04/26/actualidad/1335468837_751700.html
SANITARY ADJUSTMENT
"I treat people who are uninsured"
The
clinics appeal to their code of ethics to defend illegal immigrant care
The industry
complains that it can not be vigilant system
IIl treat people who are uninsured." Josep Basra, president of the Spanish Society of
Family and Community Medicine (Semfyc), it is clear. Always
from a personal point of view, the decree that prevents serve illegal
immigrants is not in our ethics. "If I have a person before me, I do
not care whether foreign or not, I have to meet them." he says. A vision
shared by the president of theMedical Association (WTO), Juan Jose
Rodriguez Sendin: "Just as I can not be compelled to perform euthanasia, so they can
not force us to not to treat a patient."
The approach of Rodriguez Sendin and Basra is the same for most concerned health
professionals that appeal to their code of ethics to defend
treatment of illegal immigrants from Sept. 1 who are not entitled to a health
insurance card, as the Royal Decree of settings published this
week by the Government.
"A patient is a patient black, white or mediopensionista, and we can not abandon them deontologically. It's crazy. We are not policemen or inspectors, if they ask me to support them as a doctor then I have to, another thing is you can not use the best technologies that I prefer - and then we'll see the administrative side, "says the president of the Spanish doctors. And this idea that they are going to have to act as policemen of the system to avoid suspected fraud or simply enforcing a rule bother them greatly. Some say they do not agree. Go for it, say, the insubordinates through some kind of conscientious objection, but in reverse.
"A patient is a patient black, white or mediopensionista, and we can not abandon them deontologically. It's crazy. We are not policemen or inspectors, if they ask me to support them as a doctor then I have to, another thing is you can not use the best technologies that I prefer - and then we'll see the administrative side, "says the president of the Spanish doctors. And this idea that they are going to have to act as policemen of the system to avoid suspected fraud or simply enforcing a rule bother them greatly. Some say they do not agree. Go for it, say, the insubordinates through some kind of conscientious objection, but in reverse.
The Coordinadora Anti-Privatisation of Public Health in
Madrid has been the one that has lit the fuse. "We
call on the ethics of any and all public health professionals for full
attention to this population [over 150,000], belonging largely to disadvantaged
groups. At the same time, we claim the right to conscientious objection on
the part of all professionals to the effective implementation of Royal Decree,
an immoral law, unjust, and dangerous in terms of public health, "say.
Semfyc, society presiding Basra, more than 20,000 professionals,"expresses its opposition to the
ministerial decision to limit access to health care to immigrants "without
papers". Also, like "warn of health risks" of leaving
"without access to a continuum of care, and to restrict their attention
through emergencies can generate higher spending and hamper disease
control."
Maximo Gonzalez Jurado, President of the General Nursing Council, believes that
professional ethical principles collide with the action taken by the ministry
of Ana Mato. "The legal parentage of the patient is not our problem
when it is a person who has a health problem. It is clear that we
can not deny these children. Especially if we have no guarantee that those
people who have been our patients can receive the care they need by other means", he says. "We do not begin to analyze the problem of illegal
immigration, and who also is a medical tourist," he says. "But
if these people are in Spain and need health care, as professionals we must
give it. It is another thing is to have filters before reaching us," he says.
Jury Gonzalez does not dispute that the health system need measures to
ensure sustainability, but criticizes the Government's health reform has been
produced without the opinion of the professionals who have to implement it. Although
he believes that on that point they will not. "No doctor or nurse will
stop giving a person the assistance they need. We have no obligation to
ask the person the insurance card, "he says.
"Patients are not just a history. There is a person. As professionals, they know we've had a relationship with them, "criticizes Pilar
Navarro, secretary of the Health Sector Public
Services Federation of UGT, which also argues that
"professionally" they can not leave their patients unattended."This
situation must be resolved because it is unfair humanely, if people can
not reach us first, denying them assistance".
A similar idea is repeated from the College of Physicians of Madrid."From the
ethical point of view no physician can fail to respond to any patient in
need," said a spokesman.
Altisent Roger, a professor of bioethics at the medical school of Zaragoza, explains that from the standpoint ofMedical Ethics Code the situation is not simple. "It's not black and white.We are facing a variety of situations and very hard. We have served all who pass through the door without putting ourselves in the position of demanding proof of status", he says. The expert explained that the Code of Ethics, Article 6, states that "the doctor will never abandon a patient in need of care", and also speaks of the doctor to stop treating a patient, ensure the continuity in attendance. "These are points that are not designed for this, but that could be applied," he says. Doctors who do take the path of disobedience: ask to be excused from a legal obligation and not be punished.
To Altisent, that last track is an interesting path to explore. "This
should be done to alleviate dramatic situations," he says. And at
this point criticizes the government places health professionals in a very
uncomfortable situation. "Perhaps the national health system itself
will have to arbitrate for intermediate situations, not their doctors who are in a
very delicate situation deontologically" he says. So much so that the
Medical College will address the issue in assembly. "They are not
scenarios for us, and they must be analyzed," says its president Juan Jose
Rodriguez Sendin.
The nurse Angel Navarro, a spokesman for the coordinator to promote
insubordination, says that his is a "call to the whole system." "We
have only launched the idea. We cannot develop a legal system", he says. For
Navarro, which proposes to deny care to patients they have known and yreated for years
is "inhumane, unjust, it is against our conscience and our code of
ethics."
Miguel, a family doctor in Madrid who gives a false name, is sympathetic to the idea of the objection. "In 25 years I have seen enough immigrant population, and I have had very painful cases. People who have fled armed conflict, their family have been killed." "Many, after all, are in highly sensitive situations of mental health. How will I treat someone with schizophrenia, depression? If it is difficult for anyone who takes pills for them in this situation will be even more, "he says. So Michael's proposal seems "reasonable." "It's in our code of ethics." "What we are being asked to do is repugnant to morality." "I work for the patient, and I will maximize flexibility in the criteria of what is an emergency. Or are we going to become police for the immigration control system? ".
The doctor suggests difficulty at a practical level. "One
thing is early diagnosis and other treatment," he says, with the idea that
once served, there are issues, like getting the drug, yes they can get very
difficult. But he believes that, ultimately, the Government's proposal
will be like "holding back the tide." "The system already
has holes. At primary level there are emergencies, and they either put a
policeman at the door, or admit anyone who comes saying he has something urgent
to be addressed. "The bad thing for him is that in the end, care will
be worse. "It will be desperate to know that a person needs treatment
and it cannot be provided."
Friday, April 27, 2012
3BT
A lady who is very much in the bloom of health whatever her age, and as colourful as the central figure in Renoir’s Harem, and as dynamic as one of those giantesses who run ecstatically along the beach in Picasso’s backdrop for Diaghilev's Ballet Russes, stands in the sunlit atrium at our local shopping mall rolling her eyes heavenwards like a Mexican saint whilst absent-mindedly polishing her intelligent mobile phone on her chest, as if she were a sorceress and was expecting to conjure up some happy mischief from it in an imminent twitter from the gods.
The
afternoon sunlight warms the soggy bluebells after the recent storms and
deluges and they put out clouds of scent, so much perfume that several varieties of happy bumble bees can be seen at a
glance, some with pollen sacs already brimming.
After an
exhausting day, a generous colleague offers me a chilled fizzy drink in a can
and I pop it in to my “man bag” before starting the homeward journey. After a bus ride & a train ride & a
supermarket trudge & and another bus ride, I pause on a comfy wooden bench to
drink from it in the sun and I see across the street a ruddy face-drinker who
has ventured outside the Green Man for a desperate drag on a cigarette, and so
I congratulate myself rarther too smugly because my refreshment is clearly so
much cheaper than his.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
prosaic .... illustrating my want of imagination
for many years i was troubled by the following uncertainty ... whenever i heard tom jones singing delilah on the radio i was stuck with this notion ... that no woman from pontypridd would have a name as exotic as delilah, and therefore it seemed more probable that delilah would have been living in newport or cardiff
http://thesaurus.com/browse/prosaic
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
if you love maps ... integrated flight maps ... this week's eye-popping air chart of the USA
http://vfrmap.com/
an integrated chart overlaid on a high quality topographical map enables you to navigate US air space
you can flip to high level or low level
sometimes a bit clunky but hardly surprising as the data structure must be enormous
yet another symptom of accelerated regression ...
just after i was changing up in to top gear i realized i was ...
a) sucking my thumb
b) wiggling my toes
a) sucking my thumb
b) wiggling my toes
Monday, April 23, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
doctor william price ... i was led back to him via lucy's blog, "being of sound mind"
from the doorstep of 4 raymond terrace in treforest, a certain small boy could look across the coal black river taff to the green hills above pontypridd and wonder about the man named doctor price who had once lived behind or within those turreted houses, near the top as it seemed then, though not so very high up i realize now, and probably less conspicuous nowadays since the trees have grown
a digression ... i had learned to whistle very loudly and when there was a moment of quiet and not too much wind, it was possible to hear five echoes on my grandparents' doorstep ... but there were complaints of course
it had been explained to me that doctor price had been an advocate of cremation as an alternative to burial, but no one mentioned druidism to me, or chartism, or the rebecca riots
he was also the surgeon for the chain works lower down the hillside, which was still there during my childhood
i wish i'd known all this then
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Price_(physician)
http://www.campaignseries.co.uk/homes/homes_for_sale/in/Pontypridd,%20Wales/from/100000/to/300000/low-to-high/All/with/0/bedrooms/list/1410296/
don't try this one at home ...
myself slumped motionless over the computer with headphones whilst following the soccer all afternoon
herself noisily engaging with eternal backlog of necessary domestic chores
now raise your voice, but don't turn your head, and repeat after me ...
"i know you're only making work noises so i'll think you're busy !"
Saturday, April 21, 2012
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