WHO IS THIS GUY CALLED ARIEL?

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Saturday, November 11, 2006

WAR AND REMEMBRANCE. 1939/45 A VETERANS' DAY HOMAGE TO AMERICA'S G.I.s

No slight to the Russian war effort is intended in this piece, which is solely a Veterans’ Day homage to those Americans who fought and died in Europe in World War Two. I firmly believe that had Britain been knocked out of the war at an early stage, Russia would have beaten the Axis powers single-handed, and as it was, the enormous efforts of the other Allied powers were diminished by the colossal scale of Russia’s war. 26,000,000 of her citizens perished in this, Russia’s “ Great Patriotic War... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, November 10, 2006

WAR AND REMEMBRANCE. 1939/45. " A CRIME WITHOUT A NAME. "

This is another long post, which, for obvious reasons, I didn’t want to split into parts, but you have my permission to copy/print, or whatever; as long it remains clear that it’s my work. In June 1944, Churchill addressed the House of Commons on the Nazis’ attempted annihilation of European Jewry. In his speech, he said “ … we are in the presence of a crime without a name …” This crime is of course what we now refer to as genocide. This story is based on actual events, which occurred in a... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, November 9, 2006

WAR AND REMEMBRANCE. 1936/39 BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER. SON AGAINST FATHER

This is a very long post, over 2,300 words, and if you don’t want to plough through it, and miss all those other riveting posts in here, then feel free to copy it and read it later. I think you’ll find it well worth the effort! You’re also welcome to pass it on, as long as it is properly accredited to me. I think you’ll see why I didn’t want to split it into several parts. The Power of Love The relief platoon trudged along the communications trench, and the order for the men to “ stand down” was... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

WAR AND REMEMBRANCE. FAMINE WAR AND DEATH. NOW, IN OUR TIME

“ The poor are always with you.” Thus sayeth the Good Book, and it as true now as ever it was in Biblical and mediaeval times. Indeed, for simple demographic reasons, there are infinitely more of these pitiful wretches than ever before, and with our sophisticated modern media, we are more aware of their plight than at any time in history. But, to our shame we are not. That is to say that we are bombarded by so many sound bites, and images flickering in a shadow show upon our TV screens, that the... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, November 7, 2006

WAR AND REMEMBRANCE. MOURNING IN SPAIN 2004

These folk, my simple, ordinary Spanish friends and neighbours have taken us to their hearts, and we are as members of a huge, loving extended family. They are my hosts and my family, in this land that I love so much that the land of my birth is now a strange bourn at the other end of the Universe; an alien place, inimical to what Spain has made me. For I am not as I was when first we came; I have blossomed in this place; here which I soon sensed was where I was meant to be. Oh the anger! Oh the... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, November 6, 2006

WAR AND REMEMBRANCE. THE MEAT-GRINDER OF 1914/18

In the first year of World War One ( 1914 ) occurred The Christmas Truce, when British and German troops came out of the opposing trench lines, and fraternised in no-man’s-land, even playing impromptu games of football. This was by no means an uncommon phenomenon in warfare, for there exist numerous recorded examples of comradeship between enemies lasting for far longer than a single day. In The Peninsula War, the American Civil War and many other conflicts, opposing troops occasionally shared... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, November 4, 2006

WAR AND REMEMBRANCE. THESE TOO WE MOURN AS IF THEY WERE OUR OWN

Poems: Suicide Bombers | Who Loves Me Enough | Silent Worship | Endless Night | Carpe Diem | Rejection's Land | Autumn Woods | Midnight Hunt | The Cat | Ariadne ( There.will.be.more up. there. when.Dave.gets.his act.together..One.simply.cannot.get.good.staff.these.days! ) Not all wars are declared, nor have clearly identifiable combatants, but are “ clean ” wars, regulated by at least a modicum of civilized conduct, and in which one knows who one is fighting. Guerrilla warfare has a long and... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, November 3, 2006

WAR AND REMEMBRANCE. ARIEL'S STUFF

In this short series of stories, poems and other pieces on the subject of war and remembrance, I intend to post stories in a rough chronological order, beginning with The First World War, then on to the Spanish Civil War and ending in The Second World War. Poetry will be in random order. I repeat that these are almost all reposts, but this time they will be put into the context that was lacking first posting. I was maybe a bit late in coming to the conclusion that it’s often a bit unsatisfactory... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, November 2, 2006

A SHORT SEASON OF REMEMBRANCE OF YOUR, AND OUR FALLEN

President Bush deserves censure for many aspects of his domestic and foreign policies, but to heap opprobrium upon his head for stating that in time the present Iraq war will become a mere comma in history is downright silly. Such strictures can only emanate from those who have their own political axe to grind, or those with little or no grasp of history: for which, read almost everybody alive today. To judge by history to date, the man is absolutely right. A stupid thing to write? Okay, if you... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, November 1, 2006

A TEENY CHALLENGE: SPOT THE ALLUSIONS IN THIS POST. Without surfin' the net

You would not, of course cut corners by Googling, would you? Atalayas* If a round tower could stand four square, then that is how they would stand: the atalayas, those mysterious watchtowers which line the coast of Andalucia. Brooding on their rocky crags, they gaze with blank and empty eyes across the burnished sea to Africa: Africa, shy and demure behind a gauzy yashmak of noonday haze, or brazen in the Autumn dawn, flaunting her peaks in the wine-clear air: peaks capped with a glistening... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

YER WANNA BUY A HOUSE IN SPAIN?? REMEMBER ... CAVEAT EMPTOR!!!

When she first came to Spain ( well I mean when she came to actually live here, ‘cos she’d been at Cordoba University some years before that ) our daughter worked for a Spanish estate agent; which affords an enthralling insight into the surrealistic world of Spanish property inheritance customs. These work very well – sometimes – and typically, on padre Isidro ’s demise, Maria shall inherit the first floor back bedroom, Juan the other bedroom; the ground floor to be divided between Isabel and... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, October 30, 2006

GO SCHLEPPIN' AROUND SPAIN AT THIS TIME OF YEAR, AND ... WHO KNOWS?

Bit of a long, seasonal repost this time, but I hope you'll read and enjoy it folks. The car breasted a long slope, and Mark pulled into a slightly wider section of the road. High in an achingly blue sky the dark soot flakes of honey buzzards and eagles soared, while closer at hand the razor sharp sickles of the golondrinas reaped the sky for its harvest of insects: their twittering like the voices children at play in some infinitely distant place. Here it was, the twenty-sixth of October, and... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

A TINY VIGNETTE OF THAT KALEIDOSCOPIC LAND : SPAIN A prelude to a story

On our first holiday in Spain, we spent a week on the Cabo de Gata in Almería: that vast and sprawling, dusty musty crusty, arid semi-desert moonscape of a land, that lies shrivelled and sun-seared as if it were the surface of a dying planet. It was here, in their heyday, back in the 1970s ( wasn’t it? ) that those spaghetti westerns were made. It was here that an ancient resurrected Lee van Cleef, who had died the Hollywood death when I was a lad, ( in the McCarthy witch hunts of the 1940s? )... Sign in to see full entry.

A FOOTNOTE TO LAST NIGHT'S POST ( DUNNO WHY I FORGOT IT!!!)

A little footnote to my last post: ( or should it be a headnote? ) What I forgot to mention, ( Lord knows why! ) is a bit about my second eldest brother, Danny. He had joined the Royal Navy as a boy in 1936, retiring after 48 years; as one of the longest-serving sailors since Nelson’s day he was awarded the M.B.E. ( medal of the British Empire. ) That was in the days when Britain still had an empire. What I didn’t know until the late 1970s, when Danny mentioned it in passing, as if it were some... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

MORE ARIEL'S STUFF

When I was ten years old, I hadn’t seen my eldest brother Jimmy since he went off to war in 1939, and in 1941 he was killed when his ship was bombed off Crete. Pa kept the telegram with its awful news from Ma for a week, and I just don’t want to imagine how he must have felt; how he broke it her after that endless agonising week. I wasn’t even at home at that time, for my two sisters and I had been evacuated to Mansfield, in the Midlands. My eldest sister, Theresa broke the news to Tilly ( my... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

A FASCINATING LITTLE CHALLENGE FROM A LOCAL MAGAZINE More Ariel's stuff

I take a little break from my poetry series to offer you this interesting challenge that I was recently given by a local magazine: write a defence of bullfighting, subsequent to an article condemning it. Now, I loathe the very idea of subjecting any animal; especially such a magnificent creature as a bull to pain, degradation and death. In a way, I suppose it’s the bull being such a powerful dangerous creature that makes it so unbearably pitiful in its exhaustion and bewilderment, such that if I... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

THIS BLOGGER WANTS TO KNOW WHY THERE ARE SO MANY CBs IN HERE

I’m a bit of a big ole kid really, ‘cos first thing I do in the morning is put the kettle on for tea, then slip into my cramped shambles of an office, log on to Blogit; and wait. Guess you all know that sensation of waiting for Blogit to open: how many clicks did I get last night; how many supportive comments? ‘cos Spanish time is about 9 hours later than Blogit time, nearly all my clicks come during our night. Here I am, posting love stories that make the love affair of Romeo and Juliet look... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

ANOTHER PROD TO OUR NOT-SO-TENDER WESTERN CONSCIENCES. Ariel's stuff

Poems: Suicide Bombers | Who Loves Me Enough | Silent Worship | Endless Night | Carpe Diem | Rejection's Land | Autumn Woods | Midnight Hunt | The Cat | Ariadne ( There.will.be.more up. there. when.Dave.gets.his act.together..One.simply.cannot.get.good.staff.these.days! ) I have always had mixed feelings about this poem. In fact, really, I think it’s a bit of an amateurish mess, but as I wrote to another blogger yesterday in a comment, I’m an amateur poet anyway. Still, that’s no excuse for... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

HAVE A LITTLE DRAUGHT OF ARIEL'S SPANISH WINE, MY DEARS! (I've got plenty )

I have a far more powerful sense of history here in Spain than ever I did in England, and this has opened up a whole new field of exploration for me, for I have had numerous articles on various aspects of Spanish history, and contemporary life, published here. My five-part series on the Spanish Inquisition, and the three-part one on the Spanish Civil War were quite major projects, involving considerable research. It was not only the sense of history referred to above, but anger and sadness at... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

ARIEL'S STUFF

Poems: Suicide Bombers | Who Loves Me Enough | Silent Worship | Endless Night | Carpe Diem | Rejection's Land | Autumn Woods | Midnight Hunt | The Cat | Ariadne “ Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast ” ( not “ beast ”, as is so often misquoted. ), and indeed music has the ability to play upon the human mind and heart, and their emotions, like some musical instrument. Few can resist the foot-tapping cadences of, say, “ Prussian Glory ”, Georg Philip Haendel’s “ Water Music” and “ Royal... Sign in to see full entry.

About this Blog

Fiction, poetry, articles and a whole lot of other Ariel's stuff ; musings and ponderings ; they're all here, and i hope you'll find something here that you like. But I have a deeper purpose in mind. See, reading the papers and watching TV, it's so easy to think that the whole world's motivated by racial and religious hatreds of various kinds. Well most of us aren't, are we? We ordinary people are moved by love and compassion for our fellow humans ; and respect and tolerance for their differences. It's true that all that it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing, so we who are motivated by love have a duty speak out against the evils of the world ; not to be ashamed of our histories, nor embarrassed about being and saying clearly what we are and what we believe. If we don't learn to love each other, we'll perish. Although I am an atheist, my guiding principle is, and always has been, Christ's adjuration to " Love thy neighbour as thyself"

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