Rumsfeld surely has one of the more substantial honour guards into the afterlife with tens of thousands of Iraqis, Afghans and Pakistanis killed because of him. As Afghanistan teeters on the brink of America’s latest abandonment it’s hard not to remember that this man’s hands are covered with blood. I saw something on Twitter some […]
Grief receding
I wonder if others are relieved when the intensity of grief fades? I find it sad in itself, this receding of grief. There were years when 15 June was almost unbearable, once I even left work early because I couldn’t bear the date. This year was not like that, the least like that. Even the […]
Chief mourners
Every bereavement has a chief mourner, I think, for whom the others give their own grief second place, and who becomes the symbol of having lost for those outside an inner circle. The one whose grief overwhelms all others like a wave. Is it simply the one whose grief is most visible? I think that’s […]
Fire and fury
The situation in Palestine is hard to look away from. So ugly, and so clear what the major source of ugliness is. Funny how some outrage or other occupies me these days, intensely, and then disappears as though it’s too tiring to sustain. When there is so much horror and injustice, it takes someone with […]
One year ago
Almost exactly a year ago, I was walking along Sun Moon Lake, where all the nine frogs were visible and the level of the water was very low. Since then, no typhoons have hit Taiwan and replenished its water, the country is in severe drought, and today the lake is crackled and bare. Strange to […]
The wrong war
To nobody’s surprise, Labour has lost the Hartlepool by election to the Tories. I see plenty of recriminations between the Corbynite and the Starmer wings of the party, and the usual recriminations and disbelief that working class voters vote against their interests, but it feels like fighting the wrong war. It seems to me that […]
Good neighbours
The (hopefully) final blast of winter is here, cold, grey and wet. Hopefully just till tomorrow and then the forecast says temperatures should climb and the sun should emerge. The relative has rallied a little. He has been conscious throughout, and it must be terrifying to be in that high oxygen room surrounded by PPE. […]
A little prejudiced, perhaps
Was taken aback this morning at this facsimile of Life magazine from the 1940s. Not surprised, but a little shocked.
End of Buddhism
I read an interesting article today, an academic history about the fading away of Buddhism in South Asia. It was a bit of a surprise to me, as it was about how the claims that Buddhism was eradicated by the coming of Islam – whether by outright temple destruction or simply by conversion from an […]
End of an age
An elderly relative of the GF died last night, the last of her generation. So they are all gone now, the ones who grew up on pre-war country estates in an imperial age. She was one of those who flourished in the war, going from those country estates and palace receptions to intelligence work wartime […]