TONY ON GANGS, GREEN & MORE

Including ABC Wednesday, Heads or Tails and Totally Optional Prompts.
Have you had a go yet?

GURU TONY – On gangs and things

The Metropolitan Police have advised that gangs are getting younger and more violent, committing horrendous crimes over the most trivial of sleights. This doesn’t surprise me at all.

To understand, we must go to a previous crimewave.

This occurred in the 18th century, and is famous for characters such as Dick Turpin. However, again, minor trivialities led to horrendous crimes.
When analysing the period, it came as capitalism was first flowering, and religion was in the first phase of decline. Hence, the idea of ‘wants’ increased as ‘obligation’ declined. And it is clear that we are in a similar phase today.

So the problem has nothing to do with crime.

It is to do with how the individual sees himself within society. Of course, this doesn’t mean that everyone succumbs to these social pressures, but it suggests a minority will do so.
So what is the answer? The 18th century crimewave came to end due to zero tolerance (the creation of the Bow Street Runners), a new moral imperative (the new Methodism went onto the streets) and a new view of society (industrialisation).
We need to repeat, in modern form, this three-pronged attack.
Next post, Thursday. Hope to see you then.

© Anthony North, December 2008

NOTE: This site now has 8 sub-domains within the blog. You can find them at top of site, just under blog name. Why not take a look?
My Columnists

GREEN SCENE

Save the Planet – or you’ll be sorry!!

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‘X’ IS FOR … XENOPHOBIA

Oh dear, he’s very different to you,
another race, so very true;
Does he live similar to us,
ride to work on a bus?
Does he have a family, a home?
What about morals? Does he atone?

Why are you so suspicious of him?
Could it become hatred with a whim?
Or is it that he’s unexplained,
and what we don’t know, we disdain;
Perhaps this message can stop the pain,
most of the world’s people are the same

They live and breath, work and play,
have thoughts like you every day;
Only their culture is alien to you,
different stories to get through;
They feel and cry and laugh and fear,
when people who are different come too near

What is the answer to this shame,
to fight our xenophobic blame?
Some people say a melting pot,
trying to make us what we’re not;
We need diversity so we can thrive,
then mix and learn, into friendships dive

(c) Anthony North, December 2008

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WATCHING CLOSELY – Fiction

I watch them. I watch them all the time. I watch them closely – intently. We can learn so much from them.
A pair approach – male and female. The male is a definite alpha male, protective of his mate. As becomes obvious as another male approaches. Will it end in a confrontation?
Tension builds. They stare at each other. The female seems uncomfortable – makes strange guttural sounds. But eventually the alpha male wins the day and the other departs.
Others approach, go their way. It is a strange society and pecking order I observe. Sometimes a social hierarchy can be seen, whilst at others, there seems no society at all – only chaos. Or is it that I just don’t understand their ways, no matter how long I watch them.
I suspect this may well be the case. After all, I notice how carefree and self-assured they can appear. Which is totally at odds with their need to keep me locked up in this zoo, watching.

© Anthony North, December 2008

ECO-CINQUAIN

Planet
our habitat
nurtures everything good
balance, symbiosis, and us
vandals

Big wind
warming air flow
battered climate rising
faces contorted, nothing done
just talk

Fossil
just a dead life
extracted, fill her up
useless usefulness bringing on
dead life

Cuddly
animal life
made human, sentiment
we love them, we need them, then we
kill them

(c) Anthony North, December 2008

TONY ON OLYMPICS, TT #19 & MORE

Including Thursday Thirteen, Three Word Wednesday and Totally Optional Prompts.
Have you had a go yet?

Welcome to my Wednesday Magazine post.
So the Olympics are over, and Team GB arrived back in a gold-tipped plane. With 19 Golds, it was their best performance in a hundred years, ranked fourth, behind the big players.

Of course, we always had the ability.

What we didn’t have was the money for the proper training facilities. And this is what has changed. Through the UK National lottery, our athletes have finally received the funding they deserved.
Mindst you, as Britain takes the Olympic flag, the IOC president has challenged London to match the technical elements of the Beijing games. No chance! We just managed to stop the esteemed major, Boris Johnson, from dropping the flag!

I’m worried about policing again.

When you’re convicted of a crime, your fingerprints go onto police records. This is fair enough. But what about DNA details? Yes, okay. No problem with that, either. But figures released last week showed that 600,000 people are now on the UK DNA database who have never committed a crime – and it’s growing fast.
The Labour government loves this. They openly admit they want everyone on the database, and if a forced ID card gets through, it will become a reality. And if it does so, another big element of freedom will have been taken away.
There is a dual process going on nowadays – western governments who have an almost pathological need to control us, and technology that is allowing it to happen. We think of totalitarianism in terms of the jackboot and the dictator. Today, this is an error. I’ve used the term, ‘jack slipper’, before. It denotes a new form of subtle totalitarianism. And it isn’t something to worry about in the future. It’s here!
Mext Magazine post, Friday. See you then.

© Anthony North, August 2008

TT #19 – WISDOM

For a change I thought I’d try the idea of the thirteen line poem.
Should be fun.

Wisdom is a crafty thing, it cons you that it’s there,
when really those who think they’re wise, you should always beware,
Wisdom isn’t facts or knowledge, like many people think,
it’s placing them in a system of thought every time you blink;
Wisdom isn’t knowing this and that, or winning in a quiz,
it’s knowing what you don’t, not getting in a tiz,
the wisest in the land take knowledge as a plea,
to admit it when they don’t know – look it up in a dictionary;
But wisdom has another life, the route where it comes along,
and it isn’t something learnt in books, or art, or song;
It’s understanding life is full of experience, taboo and rule,
and the wisest person that you know broke them all!
‘Cos he began as a damned fool!

(c) Anthony North, August 2008

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SECRET OF THE TOMBS – Horror Fiction

Professor Arnold sat back in his chair, satisfied. He looked about him – took in the full scope of so many years of research. But now, following a last desperate rush, he had completed it.
‘A shame it will never be published,’ said Carthew, his assistant.
‘We’ll see,’ Arnold replied, knowing he was possibly right.
It had been many decades since the problem came to light. It had begun soon after the Tutenkhamun find. The authorities rubbished the curse, blaming it on a lapse of sanity. But the simple fact was, something had happened when the seal to the tomb was broken.
Some in the know believed it really was the soul of some ancient Egyptian, who had traveled through the millennia in wait, like some avenging angel. But when another untampered tomb was discovered, secrecy of the modern kind descended upon the operation.
Cameras filmed the breaking of the seal, caught the archaeologists mouthing the curse, and then there was the strange aroma, a myriad of flashing lights, the touch of the strange plaster work – the texture. And soon after, one of the archaeologists began to be taken over by some force …
Well, what were thought to be the victim’s of a curse were victims of murder. This became clear – if something from antiquity taking over the mind like that can be thought of as murder ….
Arnold remembered seeing the reports of the change in demeanour of this millennia-old assassin, taking over the mind of an old friend of his, and those eyes …
Of course, he’d have nothing to do with the supernatural theory. Immersing himself in the supernatural Egyptian culture, he began to realize what may be going on. Word magic was the beginning of the solution, for as people mouthed the curse, they created the sound of the words. Then the aroma (smell), flashing lights (sight) and texture of masonry (touch).
It was a sudden disorientating assault on all the senses, as he managed to recreate with Carthew. And that, he realized, was a form of hypnosis. And eventually he even worked out the message delivered subliminally by the act of breaking the seal.
‘We know what happens, now,’ he said to Carthew. ‘We can protect ourselves. We can now go into the dozens of tombs secretly found since then.’
But no protection for Carthew on that first successful experiment.
‘A shame it will never be published,’ he had said. If only Arnold had looked up. Seen the eyes. He might have stood a chance …

© Anthony North, August 2008

ONE WAY

One Way!! One way? You must be mad,
I can think of nothing so sad,
only one way to do a thing,
just one song for all to sing,
just one picture to behold,
just one way to be so bold,
just one story to relate,
that’s a life I’d really hate;
One way is a one way street,
straight to a mirror image to greet,
for it holds a message very plain,
there’s nothing more boring than being the same

(c) Anthony North, August 2008

TONY ON LAW AND EMOTION

Welcome to my latest current affairs post. You’ll find at least four a week at Beyond the Blog. Click here for my fiction, poetry and essays.

The UK government is playing games with criminal justice again. At present some 100 people a year escape a life sentence for murder by the refusal of juries to convict them. These are women who have killed an abusive partner.

As such, the government wants to change the crime.

If they successfully claim they were wronged by the ‘words and conduct’ of the victim, then it should be manslaughter. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have nothing but contempt for this kind of partner, and I can totally understand why the sufferer kills.
This said, we demean life by treating its end so casually in law. These women HAVE murdered, and MUST be seen to be classed as murderers in law. From there, I think the answer is automatic leniency in punishment – perhaps even to the point of a suspended life sentence, so in effect, they walk free. But, for whatever reason, murder IS murder, and must remain so.

This move is part of a larger problem.

Throughout western society emotion is becoming increasingly more important. In the news we often see the victims of tragedy. In court, the feelings of the victim increasingly come into play.
This is a dangerous precedent. The success of law is its ability to be unemotional. Laws must be made in a rational way, and enacted without emotion. If this is not so, then legislation and criminality is answerable only to public opinion.
In many ways, the media have driven this new need for emotional expression. When we see an injustice, it is natural to be emotional about it. But the upshot of such emotionally charged lawmaking is that laws become bad, and respect for the law declines.

© Anthony North, August 2008

SUE’S DEFENCE

This is the story of a girl called Sue,
her husband beat her – what could she do?
She’d be in fear most of her life,
cursing the day she became his wife;
Nightmares existed wherever she turned,
sometimes he’d be meaner, and she got burned;
One day Sue decided she’d had enough,
so she stuck him with a knife
Tough!

(c) Anthony North, August 2008

TONY ON THEFT, HEALTH & MORE

Including Sunday Scribblings, Rockin’ Chair Writers, Matinee Muse and Friday 5.
Have you had a go yet?

Welcome to my Friday Magazine post.
A report has advised that the decline in theft in the UK could be a temporary situation. And I think this could apply throughout the west. Basically, theft has declined because people have had more wealth.

Now, I do not accept that poverty and crime are linked.

At least, not in a stereotypical way. The vast majority of poor people are just as law abiding as the rest. But the reality is, a minority of people will steal to raise their wealth.
The upshot of such thinking is that, now we are in an economic downturn, a minority of people could well return to theft. And the moral of the story is this: wealth does not moralise. Rather, it simply takes away the need for the urge.

Doctors in the UK have been told off.

They have been told to reduce the numbers of prescriptions they issue, particularly with antibiotics. The idea is to save the health service millions of pounds a year. And I couldn’t agree more.
Taking a tablet seems to have become a placebo effect all its own. Only by swallowing the pill do we feel we can be made better. Yet I suspect this attitude has been manufactured by the pharmaceutical industry with the same gusto as the pills they pop.
This legalized form of drug abuse is not only unnecessary in so many instances, but the overuse of antibiotics – not only in medicine, but also in healthcare of animals – seems to advance evolution in the viral world, causing a constant battle between illness and the power of pharmaceuticals to beat new strains.
Guess who profits most from that!
Next Magazine post Monday. Have a great weekend.

© Anthony North, July 2008

THE IMPORTANCE OF BOOKS

Sit me down, give me a book,
let it take me to an intellectual nook,
set the plot, characters aplenty,
dialogue, end, never sedentary;
A mind to exercise, that’s the key,
the thoughts that pass from author to me,
at once entertaining, but much, much, more,
reading a book is education galore!
Nothing delights me more than this,
reading offfers such unimaginable bliss;
Shame that they’re becoming increasingly rare,
without them, minds just lose their flair

(c) Anthony North, July 2008

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THE APPEARANCE OF THINGS – Fiction

A good action movie needed its shadowy villain. The director knew that. And he also knew the best ideas were taken from the every day things he observed.
His mind’s eye drifted back to that very morning. He was exciteable. It was the last day of filming, and it always had an effect on him. Indeed, he was lucky to have got to this stage. Powers high up in the movie business did not want this film made. And okay, there was editing, marketing, and much more yet to do, but he felt good it would be a success.
But all these thoughts had affected him that morning. And he was becoming increasingly paranoid as he saw the car following him, and later, the shadow.
He sat there, thinking what to do, ideas flashing through his mind …

The shadowy figure in the car knew he had a job to do. And as the car he was following pulled up outside the parking lot, he acted quickly but stealthily. His target had to be stopped. This he knew. And he was being paid big money to do it.
The target was walking, now. There were people around, a youngster playing by the road, a couple talking outside the laundry, and as the target walked passed the trellis at the side of the gate, he knew it was time to act …

The Director saw it all before him. The shadowy figure, the appearance of normality, but knowing this was defective. Intention showed on the man’s face as he walked from behind the trellis, smiled and raised the gun.
A moment’s silence and then the two shots rang out.
The director’s eyes bulged. Everyone around him waited, silenced by the scene. Until finally, he said: ‘Cut! Okay, that’s a wrap.’

The Director felt good as he left the party after the end of filming. He had had the idea for the sudden appearance of the gunman when he saw a shadowy figure behind the trellis by the gate that morning. And as he passed through the gate once more, he had just a second to notice it again before the gunman appeared. And as the gun fired, he liked the irony that he’d just filmed his own death.

© Anthony North, July 2008

TONY ON CRIME, EQUALITY & MORE

Including Rockin’ Chair Writers, Inspire Me Thursday, Fiction Friday and Friday 5.
Have you had a go yet?

Welcome to my Friday Magazine post.
A Sunday Times poll in the UK has suggested the public would support a youth curfew to combat youth crime. It seems that modern political attitudes have now rubbed off on the public, and it is wrong.

We all want youth crime to stop.

But is it right to punish every youth because of the few? Sadly, this is too often happening today. If a minority do something wrong, the answer is to stop everyone doing it.
This is a terrible corruption of legislation and responsibility. In effect, it take away the onus of the bad to change, and authority to combat the actual problem. Blaming everyone is an easy way out. And now the public is beginning to go this way, more freedoms will be lost.

Maternity rights damage promotion for women.

So says the boss of the British Equalities and Human Right Commission. Think about this. A person who is for equality says that measures to guarantee equality actually destroy it.
Full marks for this courageous stand, for it is absolutely true. No boss is going to promote women without thinking about the possibility of them getting pregnant, and taking months off, for which the boss has to continue to pay them and keep the job open.
It is a classic case of legislators making laws that only work on paper. In the real world, a business will protect itself. Of course, I’m not saying that equality should not be had – simply that it is not always as easy as law makers foolishly believe.
Next Magazine post Monday. See you then, and have a great weekend.

© Anthony North, July 2008

PERFECT DAYS

Perfect days, happy days,
days we wrap in a haze,
of memories that we never forget,
days without a single regret

There’s been many such days through my life,
like the day I took a wife,
or when adventure couldn’t weigh me down,
and off I went to London Town,
or when that new born cry is heard,
a week of such days I’ve incurred,
or when the civilian seemed a bore,
so into the forces in search of more,
or when my writing was read en masse,
I felt I belonged in a different class

Perfect days, we remember them well,
but what is it on which we dwell?
Life itself we rearrange,
‘cos on days like this,
we change

(c) Anthony North, July 2008

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POLKA DOT DARK – Fiction

It was the last time I was going to let them clobber me. Here I was, laid in the hay, derisive messages scrawled all over the wall beside me. Well enough of these bullies! I’d heard of the power, and now, as the dark descended, it was time to see if it would work.
I’d been apprenticed to a magician in my adolescence, when we think we know of the power of the mind, and the strength of our own character. But as that ‘thing’ appeared, I had let out a loud wail, never to touch magic again, no matter how much he would encourage me.
But now, it was time once more. I needed the power. I needed …
I knelt down, a stick in my hand – a makeshift wand. I remembered the incantations, and as I closed my eyes, they flowed freely.
I knew when the time would be close – when I was close to reaching the centre – the god-head, deep down in all our minds. The dark would be punctuated by a myriad of bright polka dot-like shapes. Eidetic imagery, I think they call it, and in a way I both feared and yearned for it to appear.
And appear it did, filling my vision, my mind, my universe, and I existed in the dark, for in the dark you found LIGHT!!!!
It exploded before me, and a single dot changed shape and soon, towering over me, was …
Myself.
I was filled with the magic now, and now it was time to approach the bullies once more.
I found them. I stood before them. I dared them.
And they scurried off, never to return, for now I was whole. I had search my inner depths and found the secret. Found confidence!

© Anthony North, July 2008

TONY ON CRIME, STRIPE & MORE

Including Manic Monday and ReadWritePoem.
Have you had a go yet?

Welcome to my Monday Magazine post.
I actually agree with a senior police officer, who has said that Brit gang culture and violence cannot be solved by policing alone. This is so true, and I think an answer can be found by looking at the 18th century crimewave that so damaged Britain.

The times were quite specific.

It occurred at a time when religion was in decline and capitalism was first becoming the central ethic of society. In other words, social movements were very similar to today. So if the cause is similar, could the solution be found here, too?
The crimewave ended following a three-pronged attack – targeted zero-tolerance policing, mass re-moralising from outside government (Methodism, etc), and a total transformation of society through new institutions and ideas.
Of course, the last two would have to be very different to those in the 18th century, but it gives a clue how fundamental the problem is, and where answers could lie. I suggest they lie in a resurgence of ideas on community, and a move away from globalization.

An interesting question has been posed to me.

I get into quite a few deep debates on my Sunday and Tuesday essay posts, mainly because I tend to take a ‘middle ground’ stance on most things.
Does this make me a good moderator, or do I simply like a good argument? Well, there must be a certain amount of Ego in any writer, but my main concern tends to be this: I think any extreme stance is always counter-productive.
Which leads to another problem. You could say I’m fanatical about this middle ground, which makes me extreme, too. Which is, of course, a contradiction. And I think this explains me perfectly.
All of life leads to contradiction in the end. So best, I think, to cancel out these contradictions as much as we can. And the best way to do this is to take a more moderate stance. So yes, I may well like a good argument, but only in terms of my ideas. In all other things, I prefer a quiet life.
Tomorrow’s essay looks to what, exactly, the ‘individual’ is. Next Magazine post, Wednesday.

© Anthony North, July 2008

TO THE LIGHT

The light I crave, I need it so,
within it, we can really glow,
The light is what we all desire,
from ignorance, fear, we can retire;
To find the light is to make your mark,
to begin, enshroud yourself in dark,
concentrate on nothing at all,
’til alien thoughts seem to install;
Now you’re approaching a different place,
interwoven in ethereal lace,
connections come from you, to where?
realities, truths, end of despair;
You are now the Starchild, the ultimate glowing,
light is complete, you have total knowing,
but grasp it, you will simply not do,
its a truth only glimpsed,
too magnificent,
for me or you

(a) Anthony North, July 2008

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STRIPES – Fiction

I hated him. I can tell you that without any doubt whatsoever. I hated him, and I hated those stripes that allowed him to do it.
‘Come on, move it!!’ he’d scream as we were pushed beyond the pain barrier. ‘Get off the grass!!’ he’d shout as he ran up to us, fuming – and then 50 press-ups. Come on, man, we’d only walked on the grass!
Then there’d be ‘left, left, left’ for hour upon monotonous hour. And then the taunting in the dormitory. ‘You ain’t got no mother. Not now. You ain’t human. You’re a machine. MY machine.’
Maybe that was it. Strip down the character and build something new – as if he was Dr Frankenstein or something. Or maybe Dracula, sucking all life from us before returning to his coffin.
I hated him. Oh, yes, I hated him. I responded to his commands – any commands – like an automaton, but – damn him.
Of course, I was young – didn’t understand. But I learnt on the day I grew up, in the mountains.
‘DOWN!!!’
How do I explain it? In my mind’s eye, I saw it all. I stared at the bullet as it whizzed towards me. At one point, I even thought it had my name on it – and I remember thinking, no. And as it approached, the sound of it, lancing through the air, as if a Banshee warning of impending doom. And as it was about to smack my flesh, the movement of my head, and the feeling of heat as it whizzed past, harmlessly.
I was Superman that day, dodging bullets. Yet, in reality, I just dived for cover – instinctively – as trained.
Well, I’ve got the stripes now. And I’m gonna make real sure the grunts hate me. ‘Cos they’re gonna live!!!!

© Anthony North, July 2008

TONY ON WARMING, WITNESS, PRIDE …

Including Manic Monday and Writers’ Island.
Have you had a go yet?

Welcome to my Monday Magazine post.
The British government has announced an investment of £100 billion in thousands of new wind farms in order to meet its greenhouse gases reduction targets. Of course, the actual investment will be by the consumer (and they won’t be as pretty as the picture).

Electricity is to rise 13% and gas 37% to pay for it.

And this is on top of the already expected increases due to the price of oil. So there you have it. Government doesn’t pay, and Big Biz doesn’t pay. It’s all down to the little consumer, handing over the money for failure of these organizations to invest properly.
Sometimes I think I may be paranoid when I say the ‘authorities’ are purposely making green issues awkward for us so we’ll forget the idea. But consistently they show this to be the case. No wonder recent polls have a majority saying man isn’t responsible for global warming.

A Law Lords ruling has placed the justice system in the UK in a panic.

For a while now, witnesses have been allowed to give evidence anonymously in court. Well, it seems the judges have had enough. They reversed a case involving such witnesses.
Many prisoners could now be freed. The government is thinking of emergency legislation. Yet this is the inevitable outcome of forgetting the basics of a fair legal system – that an accused has a right to face his accuser.
Of course, many will say it’s better to make sure we lock up the right people. Well, maybe true – if we CAN be sure. But for many centuries this principle seems to have worked. So what’s gone wrong now?
Once upon a time there used to be people called detectives. They solved crimes. Now, unless they have forensics, CCTV images or informers, they seem to be lost. Too many changes in law are down to police requests for the changes. It seems to me they ought to get on with doing their job properly instead of moaning.
Next Magazine post Wednesday. See you then.

© Anthony North, June 2008

PRIDE

I’m proud of me, I must admit,
my life, my ways, a total fit;
I’m proud of you, my love so dear,
going through life without any fear;
I’m proud of my kids, their way of life,
rising above all trouble and strife;
I’m proud of my work, everything I do,
trying my best, honest and true;
I’m proud of my culture, what it means,
giving meaning, direction, plentiful memes;
I’m proud of my country, what it does,
always busy, providing that buzz;
But pride can come before a fall,
we can often stand too damned tall,
so the greatest pride must always be,
in moderation, understanding, of all and thee

(c) Anthony North, June 2008

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AN AVENGING TALE – Fiction

Ricky’s Story

I think I loved Julie all my life. Looking back, even as kids in school I was always pulling her hair or some other stupidity like that. But it wasn’t until much later that my expressions became more.
Of course, I never realized, at the time, that my mate Wayne’s expressions were similar. I was naïve like that. But what did it matter, anyway? Well, eventually it did. I was old enough to know better – Julie was old enough to know better; even though, as I discovered, see also had a soft spot for Wayne.
But it was me she loved! It was! Until …
A moment of weakness. That’s all it was, she told me. But that was no good for me. She’d been with someone else – and my best mate.
I suppose it’s hard to decide who I hated more, at that time. But my actions were very clear. I took a baseball bat to Wayne’s head.
He recovered. I never killed him or anything. But it was prison for me – and through my actions, it was Julie for Wayne.
Of course, by the time I was released, I’d come to terms with it all – knew I’d lost her, forever. But did Wayne have to taunt me so? What kind of revenge was he after? Or maybe he just wanted me back in prison.
Well, the night they found me with a blooded baseball bat next to an unconscious Wayne once more …

Wayne’s Story

I don’t think I ever saw Ricky as a friend. He was always better than me at everything. He even looked better than me, and I felt I was nothing more than his one man audience – the person to bounce his superiority off – make him feel good. And when he finally won Julie, it was more than I could bear.
Of course, revenge eventually came. And the look on his face when he realized I had spent the night with her. I honestly don’t think he could even imagine I could do a thing like that to him.
The fool. The total fool – and I had had my revenge. For the first time.
I recovered from his beating, and Julie was so incensed with Ricky that she wouldn’t even visit him in prison. She was mine, and no one would take her away from me. Yet, if only she could have looked at me as she had looked at Ricky – shown affection as she had to Ricky. I began to realize I had only half of her.
I suppose that’s why I wanted revenge once more when Ricky came out of prison – why I taunted him so much. And when I woke up in hospital a second time, the pain never bothered me once. After all, he was back where he belonged …

Julie’s Story

Boys will be boys, I suppose. But unfortunately, girls will also be girls. I suppose, as a kid, I liked both Ricky and Wayne equally. After all, there was no understanding of love in those far off days. But as I grew to maturity, I knew Ricky was for me. Oh, I knew Wayne was hurting, but I had to follow my heart.
So why did I sleep with Wayne? Why do we ever do such disastrous things? I suppose in a way I felt pity for him. At least, that’s what I kid myself. But once Ricky had done that to Wayne, I felt there was no going back. He was not the man I thought he was and I hated him.
Of course, I was never fulfilled with Wayne. How could I be after Ricky? And apart from anything else, he was so eaten up inside with jealousy, even once I was his. And when Ricky was released – I told Wayne to stop it – stop the taunts – but would he listen to me?
I began to question everything. I suppose I even began to fall in love with Ricky all over again. And as I did so, I got more and more annoyed with myself. Which, of course, was transferred to Wayne.
Well, I’m finished with Wayne, now, and visiting Ricky regularly in prison. And when he’s out again, that’s it – marriage, kids, the lot. And I’ll always know he’ll love me. He proved that when he took the blooded baseball bat from me, plastered his fingerprints all over it, and told me to run.

© Anthony North, June 2008

TONY ON GREEN, YOBS & MORE

Including Sunday Scribblings and Writers’ Island.
Have you had a go yet?

Welcome to my Friday Magazine post.
It is being reported that Britain is set to fail its own renewable energy targets. I’m not surprised by this. It was always inevitable, mainly because it was nothing but pure spin. This was due to the fact that the UK did meet CO2 reduction targets early on.

This was, however, a con.

Oh yes, the targets WERE met. But this was thanks to Maggie Thatcher, and her destruction of the UK coal industry in the 1980s. Obviously, with coal gone, our power stations would be cleaner.
This is a typical story in the way western governments and Big Biz manipulate the green agenda. Show what they are doing in any way they can, but actually plotting AGAINST green behind the scenes. If they really did pursue a green agenda, they’d be putting themselves out of business.

The United Nations has condemned Britain, again.

This time it is for the punitive youth justice system which vilifies teenagers as yobs. And for once, I’m in agreement with the UN. Yes, Britain has many teenagers totally out of control, but the reality remains that most are perfectly well adjusted kids who do not deserve the tag.
Those who do should have the full weight of the law thrown against them, but the reality is they only get cautions and anti social behaviour orders, which many class as an award that increases street cred.
And meanwhile, the remainder – the law abiding ones – are legislated against as if they are as bad as the bad ones. Typical, of course, of a government that treats everyone equally, regardless of behaviour. And with such an amoral message being sent out, how long before they really ARE as bad as the minority?
…
Just a quick note: My links until now have been on Eye On the World, but now that I don’t use it much, I’ve decided to move my most regular reads to the Blogroll, left, along with my main sub-domains. Why not take a look? I’ll be adding to it in due course.
Have a great weekend. Next Magazine post on Monday.

© Anthony North, June 2008

HAPPY ENDINGS

Happy endings, we love them so,
in a story we love to go,
from beginning to end in a frenzied haste,
providing the villain, he is displaced;
And hero and heroine, they come together,
after adventure, adversity, endeavour;
The writer’s job is thus to define,
the threads of life that do entwine,
people and circumstance, good or bad,
as long as we get that cruel cad;
But wait a mo, is this really so?
Must the bad guy always receive the blow?
Of course he must – it’s the way to end,
or belief we would have to suspend,
in the moral truth of good beating bad,
but isn’t this simply revenge?
So sad

(c) Anthony North, June 2008

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MOMENT OF TRUTH – A Cass Nova Detective Thriller

It had been one of those cases. And DC Sandy Powell had been vital to me solving it. ‘Well I think it’s either Bob Mortimer or Chris Jones, guv,’ she had said.
It had begun with the discovery of the body of Roxy Sullivan. Shot through the heart, the killer had covered his tracks well. No DNA. Nothing. Looking into her past, she was a prostitute with form for blackmailing her clients, which just wasn’t nice.
We uncovered some dozen regular clients, and looking into their lives, it was obvious that Mortimer and Jones were both suitable candidates for blackmail, so they were our prime suspects. But how to prove one way or the other?
Enter, Molly Beavis. Of course, that wasn’t her real name. But as she said to Mortimer when she met him: ‘I’m not telling you my real name, ‘cos you’ll come after me. But I just want you to know, I know. You killed Roxy. I was her friend and she told me everything …’
That night I staked out Molly’s flat – she hadn’t done a very good job of covering her tracks. I didn’t have to wait long for the car to pull up, and Mortimer to get out. He looked up, saw Molly moving about through the window. He went in.
I burst into the flat just after the gun shot. The body was laid on the floor, half visible, half behind a curtain. Mortimer was about to fire at me, too, but changed his mind when it was clear I would take a shot first. He dropped the gun as two uniforms rushed in and took him away.
I went and knelt beside her still body – shook my head. ‘Okay, Sandy, theatricals over,’ I said.
Sandy kicked away the manikin Mortimer had shot and smiled. Our use of coercion may well have been questionable, but as she had given her ‘Molly’ speech to both suspects, we kind of knew we’d get our man.

© Anthony North, June 2008

TONY ON BLAIR, YOB & HOW TO BE OVER

Including Manic Monday. Have you had a go yet?

Welcome to my daily Diary post.
Ex-Brit Prime Minister Tony Blair says he wants to devote his life to promoting understanding between religions. I can think of no more noble a cause. But as soon as someone like Blair goes this way, I cringe.

I recall him in the mid-1990s.

He spoke of a new Third Way in politics, moving away from traditional party values. I was thinking the same way myself. It should have been a marvelous idea. But he then used it to capture the centre ground for purposes of holding onto power alone.
A good idea was totally perverted to increase power amongst a new elite. That is how people like Blair work. They offer something ‘reasonable’ and then turn it into a new method towards totalitarianism. Religions should now be in fear of this man.

Reoffending among British youth is still a problem.

An internal government report has shown that it has not changed since 1997, despite measures to fight it. Well, of course it won’t. And that’s because the problem is not understood by government.
Measures have been taken in terms of ‘crime’ alone. Whereas the centre of the problem is not found in what a delinquent does, but what he feels within his mind. And I’m not talking about the idea that it is ‘all society’s fault’.
Over the last 30 years, respect for family, tradition and morality have been in decline. Whether right or wrong, one vital aspect of such traditions was that behaviour had to be moderated in order to gain acceptance. Take this away, and the result can be nothing but anarchy.
Don’t forget to call tomorrow.

© Anthony North, June 2008

I’M OVER IT

I’m over it, I love her no more,
she is nothing but a whore;
I’m over it, I’ve no longer an itch,
for her companionship – what a bitch!
I’m over it, no longer a nag,
to be constantly with her – the slag!
I’m over it, I no longer bite,
whenever she’s close
Yeah, right!

(c) Anthony North, June 2008

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HOW TO BE OVER

Things happen in life. Some are for the good, others for the bad. But regardless of this, once it is over, we say stupid things like ‘I’m over it’ or ‘it’s over.’ But can we ever be over anything?
I don’t think we can. Life, you see, is a process of one thing after another. Experience is ongoing, with one thing leading to another in a never ending process of living. The next thing is directly related to the last, as it was our response to the last that led to the next.
Hence, how can you really be over anything if the experience you had played a part in what happened next?
We seem to have created an idea of the world as a compartmentalized reality, where everything is separate. But this is not the case. Things are actually intermingled, and what ever experience you have had will percolate through the rest of your life.
Maybe if we understood this more, we’d actually be able to move on quicker. For instead of trying to shake a bad experience off, we’d be more attuned to accepting it, and taking it with us into the next experience we have.

© Anthony North, June 2008

THE POLICING PROBLEM

Including a poem for ReadWritePoem. Have you had a go yet?

Welcome to my daily Diary post. After writing about ‘play’ yesterday for Manic Monday, I remembered something I forgot to mention there. Have you noticed how, over the years, play has moved away from a communal activity to the individual?
Once was the time when play was about a group, and involved physical activity. More and more it is now becoming one verses computer, AND a cerebral activity. I wonder how much this reflects an increasingly lonely and unfit childhood today.

Talking about our youth, an interesting fact about the Brit variety.

A survey of British teens tells us that they carry knives today purely for self-defence. They need to, as they have no faith in politicians or the police to protect them. I can understand the fear, if not the resultant arming of themselves.
Consider chief cop, Sir Ian Blair. Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, some media sources are saying his contract will not be renewed in 2010. He came in for much criticism concerning his action following the 2004 terrorist attacks on London.

I’m glad he’s going.

This is because he represents the worst element of what is happening to the ‘free’ west at the moment. For he is part of a police hierarchy that thinks they have the right to make political statements in the media AND uphold certain sentiments within society.
In effect, during his tenure, the police have become increasingly politicized, fanatically upholding minority rights to the point of infringing the freedoms of others. Now, I’m not saying minority rights are not vital – they are. But it is a problem of degrees, and who is doing the enforcing.
I have no doubts that Sir Ian Blair is a good individual with an honest desire to change things. But when a police force becomes politicized, we should be fearful. It is always wrong, for whatever reason. And good intentions pave the road to Hell, you know.
Best, I think, for them to shut up and get on with what they’re supposed to be doing – catching villains. And then, maybe our teens will put their knives away.
Don’t forget to call tomorrow.

© Anthony North, May 2008

AS SAFE AS HOUSES

As safe as houses, we always say,
as if this will always, for us display,
a feeling of safety, everything’s alright,
not expecting life to bite;
But just how safe is this house of yours?
Hurricanes and earthquakes taking more than your doors;
Prices booming, hardly affording your tea,
before you the fear of negative equity;
So maybe, today, the simile is wrong,
everything so easily going for a song;
or maybe it’s right, and it’s all a joke,
trouble, always, it does invoke,
as we fail, forever, to put up our guard,
in life’s unpredictable,
and dismal
house of cards

(c) Anthony North, May 2008