Heaven

Sutlry heat vibrates everything in sight. The sea, an eternity away on a pale blue horizon gently whispers in the background.

There's nobody around as I walk from the hot sand onto the even hotter broken concrete toward the white stone building shimmering in the distance.

As I approach I see it is a cafe, shut, locked shut but I can see through the black windows the dark empty seats and unemployed ketchup bottles.

Why is this closed? Surely they would be open in a hot season like this. Along the path, there's an ice-cream shop. Also shut. No sign of life anywhere, only my shadow.

I can see the Kit Kats on the shelf and cheap joke toys hanging on a white plastic frame in faded cardboard packaging. Does anybody ever buy these toys? Not here, there's nobody here but me, the scorching sand and the sea.

The sky gently became a darker shade of blue as I sat on a step outside the little trinket shop and watched a yellow ball fall behind the horizon. As the last sliver of the blood red vanished, the sky darkened in a convulsion of silent violence. For a moment, the sea was all that existed. As distant as ever, the sea was what kept my mind from exploding in a confused bliss.

Then, directly opposite where the red sun set, a yellow sun dawned and the shimmering heat immediately returned to the sand and everything around me.

I decided to run to the sea. I don't know where I got the strength but I ran and ran toward the pale blue line. I ran without losing a breath for what could have been an hour and yet the sea seemed as far away as ever. I feared that I would be taken by this heat so I took heart at the sight of what looked like a little beach shop, on the landward horizon.

That is how I found myself here, where the sultry heat vibrates everything in sight. The sea, an eternity away on the pale blue horizon gently whispers in the background.......

For The Future Generations

One of the people behind the new multimillion dollar Large Hadron Collider said that he felt he was contributing something special and significant to humanity. On an internet forum, I mentioned that he should try saying that to someone on a run down housing estate who doesn’t know where their kids’ next meal is coming from. I was soundly corrected and put in my place by someone who pointed out that the Large Hadron Collider is going to improve things for future generations.

Future generations.

This is the unquestioned excuse for everything. If you can say that you’re doing something for future generations, you can get away with anything.

We preserve old buildings for future generations to be able to visit all the old barns of the world. We want to save fossil fuel for future generations to keep warm. We want to keep rare and endangered species for future generations to look at them and say Look at that!

We’re making people suffer today on behalf of the people who might be born, one day, we don’t because they don’t exist yet.

How do you like the idea that you might die of cancer which could be treated but because the government needs to put millions of pounds into watching replays of the Big Bang or go looking for worms in Mars, you’re going to have to die. Hey, if those future generations have to choose between you and a close look at the rings around Uranus, guess who’s not going to hospital?
Of course, it’s a price worth paying if you’re rich because you won’t need to change your lifestyle and anything you buy, you can probably get on some sort of sponsorship anyway, but if you’re poor, living hand-to-mouth and you don’t know if you can even afford to go to work next week, you got to look at it like this; it’s a price worth paying and you’ve got to look at the big picture.

Who are these future generations anyway? How do we know the future generations won't be generations of idiots? The past isn't exactly a good form! The better things are, the more people take, exploit and abuse so what's going to happen to suddenly transform humans into the responsible, caring and honest species we seem to romantically imagine the future generations to be?

No. What's happening is that today's poor are paying the price for tomorrow's rich.

There will always be economic classes because the economy requires that there are people who are poor and who don't have stuff so that those who do have stuff can have stuff that's valuable.

In fact, the only person who stands to gain from all the for future generations lark is the last human that will ever live. If that person has a crap life, then it's all a waste of time.

If you become the last human alive, rest assured, it's all for you. We're all thinking of you. You're the one we're keeping all this for, so get your ass down the museums, National Trust houses, colleges, museums and listed buildings and, if you get time, call into a graveyard to say thanks.

Jesus The Jew

There's a dopcumentary on TV tonight in the UK trying to persuade me of the offending a challenging truth that Jesus was a Jew.

Of course He was! I really am confused by this. Why has so much time been devoted to explain the obvious? Jesus was a Jew, He knew the Torah and obeyed it. He followed every Jewish law. He was a Jew in every sense of the word. He didn't improve on Judaism, He didn't abolish the law, he didn't come to wipe out Jewish ancestry.

As far as I'm concerned, when Jews become Christians (these are known as Messianic Jews), I don't see that they've stopped being Jewish.

Why is this supposed to shock me?

I'd have a bigger problem if someone tried to argue that Jesus was a Gentile!

I have a massive, enormous and humongous problem with those who blame the Jews for Christ being Crucified. If you care enough to know who killed Jesus, then you need to know that the responsibility rests on you, whoever you are and whatever your ethnicity.

What Are They Fighting For?

The awkward question that nobody seems to be asking regarding the trouble in Gaza this; What are they fighting for?

Let's take a look.

Hamas

• Target
  Israeli civilians
  
• Response to innocent deaths
  Delight
  
• Long term goals
  Destroy Israel
  
• Action taken to protect own civilians
  None. No effort made to move anybody from any kind of military 'base'. Some might say deliberate placing of missile launchers among civilians is standarn military practice

Israel

• Target
  Hamas military
  
• Response to innocent deaths
  Regret
  
• Long term goals
  Establish a viable Palestinian state
  
• Action taken to protect own civilians
  Air raid shelters, alerts and ensuring civilians are kept apart from military establishments.

Why doesn't Hamas target Israel's military bases?

Israel is fighting to survive. Hamas is fighting to destroy Israel.