Birds of a Feather

I wanted to dismiss the The Royal Wedding as more mindless fluff meant to distract us from Japan and the Middle East. But this shindig may be about much more than Kate’s shoes or dress. The guest list itself is telling. The ambassador of Zimbabwe is coming. That’s right, Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. Also Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa of Bahrain, whose regime has killed dozens of peaceful anti-government protestors, had been invited but had to respectfully decline. Saudi Arabia's Prince Mohamed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz will be there, as well as representatives of North Korea and Iran. Missing from the list are the unpopular but nevertheless democratically elected past PMs Gordon Brown and Tony Blair.

Should we wonder that an elitist, anti-democratic institution such as the monarchy would choose to hobnob with similar anti-democratic elements? Don’t forget your armband, Harry.

The City BY C. P. CAVAFY

You said: “I’ll go to another country, go to another shore,

find another city better than this one.

Whatever I try to do is fated to turn out wrong

and my heart lies buried like something dead.

How long can I let my mind moulder in this place?

Wherever I turn, wherever I look,

I see the black ruins of my life, here,

where I’ve spent so many years, wasted them, destroyed them totally.”

You won’t find a new country, won’t find another shore.

This city will always pursue you.

You’ll walk the same streets, grow old

in the same neighborhoods, turn gray in these same houses.

You’ll always end up in this city. Don’t hope for things elsewhere:

there’s no ship for you, there’s no road.

Now that you’ve wasted your life here, in this small corner,

you’ve destroyed it everywhere in the world.

Dire Straits and Huck Finn - Find the Link!

OK, so they've got rid of the N-word in Huckleberry Finn, (a book that has won awards from black organizations for its principled stand against racism (although Twain missed the boat badly on aboriginal rights)). Now they've got rid of the F-word (and I don't mean fuck) in the Dire Straits 1985 hit Money for Nothin', a song that satirizes working class attitudes to musicians. Note the word “satirizes”. Based on ONE complaint to a St. John’s radio station, where apparently it’s been played for the first time. No way can this song be construed as homophobic, anymore that the use of the N-word in Huck Finn was racist. Just the opposite, if you listen. And think.