Loving the rituals

Loving the rituals that keep men close,
Nature created means for friends apart:

pen,paper,ink, the alphabet,
signs for the distant and disconsolate heart.

Palladas (4th century AD)
translated by Tony Harrison
from 'Poems from the Underground'

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'Closer' is not a movie I'd recommend you to see. Starring Julia Roberts,Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen, this Golden Globe winning movie is frankly, a bit of a bore. I didn't really enjoy the dark, brooding plot, the hinted at violence within the characters, the messed up lives..... I guess my expectations of a JR movie possibly set me up for a fall. I associate JR films with 'fun' because that's what her characters usually are. This one was no fun at all.

My view entirely. If you happen to see it and like it, do let me know.

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So, where is Saddam Hussein?

Iraqis have voted in a historic election. The world watched as car and human bombs tried to dissuade the voters from moving out. A British chopper crashed killing possibly 15 troops. But in all this madness, everybody's forgotten about Saddam. I mean, does anybody know where on earth he is? In the US, in Iraq? The Americans have succesfully diverted everybody's attention from his capture and ongoing interrogation to other issues. Never mind that they haven't found any WMD's yet. In the meantime, the planet looks on and chooses to believe the American version of world events. And they are looking towards Iran now.

I'm sure each new Administration in the US has to come up with a country to attack/invade, oops, sorry, I'll rephrase that to ....... has to come up with a country to 'rescue from fanatic religious forces and to reinstate democracy and win freedom for the people' . That's the only reason why every few years a new country takes it's turn on the dart board. Perhaps the Oval Office has a world map at which they throw darts and say, voila! this year lets go to India (but they have proven nuclear capability, so we'd better throw again..) Half of Africa languishes under civil war and unbelievable hunger and poverty. Yet, the US chooses to ignore this loss of live and adopts a watch-and-wait-policy. Just because they would not benefit from going in. It's interesting to watch how they choose their battles, literally. Dubya continues to talk like a eight year old suddenly let loose out of his father's shadow. His inauguration speech was pathetic - the expression on his face, the smirk in his eyes - one doesn't know whether to laugh at him or feel pity for the idiots who voted for him. They've got what's coming to them, I guess.

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Ok, enough about madmen. Time for breakfast. And some serious work.

Happy Monday, you all.