BLACK SABBATH at the GLASGOW HYDRO

This was the first time ive seen Sabbath , almost saw them twice before, first time was cancelled hours before the start due to ice when Glasgows best medium size venue was Ingliston and second time the barrowlands in 1990 when the vocalist developed laryngitis two days before the gig.

Ive always been a Tony Iommi fan first and foremost , really liked the post-Ozzy Albums featuring Ronnie James Dio , Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules.

Was really surprised and impressed by how lucid,sharp and professional Ozzy Osbourne was , so unlike his fuddy-duddy persona on TV fluff.

My favourite song performed this night was "Snowblind"


The show shifted gear seamlessly from songs written nearly 45 years ago to ones penned only this year , a classic from the old days was "Black Sabbath"


A big rabble-rouser among back to back rock anthems was "Children Of The Grave"


Things finished with the style expected by the Kings of Rock and original Heavy Metal with "Paranoid" ( give it 60secs to get started).

WATERBOYS at the BARROWLANDS

Waterboys were live at The Barrowlands for the 25th Anniversary release of the Fishermans Blues Album tour.There performance at the Royal Concert Hall did not get great plaudits from veterans of many tours by the band, a big surprise for me as i saw then at the same venue a year before and they were absolutely breathtaking.But normal service was restored with a sensational concert with a tight , taut band performance just right and fitting for the venue.The continued popularity of the band was shown by the diverse locations of the people around me , a lady from Amsterdam , a couple from San Francisco and another from The Shetlands , all come to see their favourite band perform at the Barrowlands.

The show started of with some sedate paced numbers of which "How Long Will I Love You" was my favourite


And then the paced picked up when the band eventually warmed-up into full rock jamming mode  , as this review from The Scotsman Newspaper records " as the concert progressed, willowy mystic Mike Scott and right-hand minstrels Steve Wickham, the stunning fiddle player who acts like a lead guitarist, and multi-instrumentalist Anthony Thistlethwaite showed off their powerhouse credentials on We Will Not Be Lovers and jam band proclivities on their cover of Van Morrison’s Sweet Thing."


As one person pointed out " Mike made a remark part way through "that's us properly warmed up now", and I think what they were trying to do needed them to play themselves into the groove. I noticed a few times in the later part of the set Mike, Steve and Anto exchanging grins. Some of the interplay between Mike and Anto was just brilliant."

Here is a brilliantly crafted raucous version of "We Will Not Be Lovers"


There was also a compelling , captivating version of Van Morrisons "Sweet Thing"

13TH CENTURY SYRIAN CERAMIC BOWL at the BURRELL COLLECTION

According to this informative article "In 1169, the potter's quarters in Fustat, Egypt were burned, and it is believed that the guild of lustreware potters fled to in Syria. The first lustres made in the Syrian town of Raqqa resemble the decorative style of Fatimid Egypt, but the clay was much improved now, a fine white-bodied clay.
The Raqqa potteries were quite prolific and produced a wide variety of wares including white-slips, chocolate-brown lustres, underglaze painted wares, turquoise wares, as well as Lakabi wares and Tel Minis wares previously thought to have been made elsewhere. Lustres were only a small part of the Raqqa repertoire. Unlike earlier lustres, the Raqqa examples were not restricted to court use. Many of their lustred forms were bowls, pitchers, ewers, albarelos and large jars. The lustre designs were often combined with cobalt blue underglaze decoration"
 The other chemical process was the "chocolate brown lustre made of copper and silver, the brown resulting from a richer copper admixture than any other lustre form. This pot combines a blue cobalt paint which was fired at the same time as the glaze and the ceramic, a stonepaste ware. Lustre and cobalt blue decorations appear combined in Syria and in Iran from late 12th to the beginning of the 13th centuries onwards. Syrian Raqqa ceramics were produced during a very short period (about 30-40 years), but they are particularly beautiful because the artist had a secure hand while painting and a particularly free style, that gives movement and originality to the designs. These ceramics are not of particularly high technological quality, but the artistic value of the paintings is very high. Raqqa ceramics are quite "abstract", and very much of modern taste"

The Burrell Collection has jugs and ceramic dishes made from this Raqqa period in which the "secularised" forms were so universally valued that the designs of these ceramics appear in many places in Europe from Greece and Italy in the South to parts of Scandinavia which were very much part of the trade routes of the Silk Road and Norman networks interlinking overland and well as maritime trading.

Raqqa not only had the advantage of being a key stop on the trading routes and a major pilgrimage ( to Mecca) transit point but it also boasted a very high and premium source of locally accessible materials for the making of quality ceramics which functioned as important preservative containers as well as decorative pieces affordable for the mercantile classes.Raqqa was an important link between the regional capitals of Aleppo , Mosul and Baghdad in a period where power and borders of local rulers were in a state of constant flux.Raqqa itself served as a capital for the descendants of Saladin for about a decade.The period in which the ceramics of Raqqa were most in vogue was also one in which there were 3 crusades ( the 5th,6th and 7th) , in this period there was a lot of shift of skilled craftsmen to the safer confines of places such as Raqqa.

The local clay in the area is a robust greyish/white type the artisans could work effectively , it lended itself to alkaline glazes which added lustre and sheen to the end products.All Raqqa ceramics are archaeological finds dug up from the earth , this means that pieces of a quality finish are rare to find as the design chemicals are not restorable once they react and oxidise.

The calligraphy and designs are mainly devoted to baring properity to the household of the owners.Raqqa of this period had a prosperous history of being the chief city of the community of Saladin , reasonbly distant from areas that may be vunerable to the instabilities of the crusades and its nearness to Mosul and being sufficiently far from Baghdad to have its own sphere of regional influence and identity more central of the multi-regional centres of the period especially Damascus;Aleppo;Jerusalem and Egypt and the North-South trade routes from Yemen-Mecca-Medina and the upper Syrian heartlands and ports.

The area was a very cosmopolitan mix ( like Syria today) of Arabs,Byzantines , Turkic ( from Turkmenistan) and the Seljuks ( who went onto todays Turkey) , this mix gave a vibrancy and dynamic to the city and its products , which became very popular in many sacred structures in Christian Europe.

Then disaster struck , the Mongols arrived , Raqqa fell in 1259 , was burnt to the ground in 1265.

The city did not recover until the 20th century , and today it faces trials and tribulation from which we can only hope it can recover again from unspeakable hardships and oppression and grace us with its artistry and wares in the 21st century and beyond.

ANTIGONE at the COTTIERS THEATRE

Its best to let Director and Set Designer introduce this production himself:

"The story is simple enough.The action takes place from dawn until dusk,following the Kings first day in office of the newly-appointed Creon.
Since King Oedipus death , a civil war has resulted in the death of both of his Sons - Polynices and Eteocles.Creon decrees the body of Polynices, now considered a traitor, must be denied proper burial.This act of defying the "Unwritten Law" that protects the rights of the dead fuels Antigones desire to honour the body of her sibling in an act of civil disobedience.As creon is torn and ruined by his decision to defy a devine law , Antigone pays for her defiance.
The play explanation of personal,political and religious tensions is as potent today as it was 2500 years ago.In fact , the paralells with events and issues in the Islamic World will be obvious to anyone who reads the news.In 2013, Sophocles tragedy speaks of the problems facing rulers emerging in todays Middle East.Will their rule be based on the same religiously motivated political regimes that function as totalitarian states , or will future leaders be able to negotiate these conflicts?
Undoublly , the way forward requires great discernment and wisdom if further tragedies are to be avoided , and this play offers politicians and activists a salutary reminder of the need for prudence,compassion and forgiveness.
I first directed antigone as a yound student back in the 1970s.As a younf punk with anarchist leanings i was intensely moved by Antigones heroism.I even defended her actions in a seminar when a middle-aged drama lecturer- no doubt playing devils advocate - dismissed her as "just a self-obsessed girl with a martyr complex".
Then i became a middle-aged drama teacher...!

Perhaps it was inevitable but i find myself now defending King Creons point of view- a fundamenatally good man stuck between a rock and a hard place!
Both antagonist and protagonist equally adament theyre operating according to the highest aims , principles and sense of justice.Both right:and both wrong...!

Let us continue to hope that again, and long last , the mighty blows of fate will teach us wisdom.

Enjoy the show.

Mark Coleman"

Slightly concerned about his staging to be based around "will their rule be based on the same religiously motivated political regimes that function as totalitarian states." because the major problem in the Islamic world is the totalitarianism of secularists ruling with elites who import their ideas wholesale from the dying embers of exported failed revolutions.Mubarak,Saddam,Assad,Gadaffi,Saleh and King Abdullah are maybe a lot of things from tyrannical to secular but one thing they are not is religious.The only religious forces in their territories are those of democrats and grassroots.From Western backed coups in Algeria , to occupation suppression in Palestine to the tacit support of military oligarchs in Egypt the religious democrats who won open elections hands down have been sidelined by tyrannical secularists posing as liberal stormtroopers even though it is always the privileges of the western educated elites that persevere in favour of the policies of poverty alleviation of the disenfranchised democrats which are crushed by live ammunition.

But these concerns were amply dispelled by the touching and delicate handling of not only Mark Colmans direction but also his apt and sparse Set Design which makes the words and universal warnings that have made Sophocles words so relevant for nearly three millennia centre stage as they should be.

The script follows Robert Eagles translation which does not make the error of "changing" the words attributed to the classical playwright to "iron out" some of the contradictions of the stance of Antigone and Creon which enriches the dilemmas and moral mazes of sincere people trying to navigate a sincere course for the benefit of the many as their responsibilities determine.

HAWKWIND LIVE at the ABC GLASGOW

When i first heard "Masters Of The Universe" on the Tommy Vance Show many years ago it was one of the most amazing , profound things i ever heard.It proved to my senses that music is the King of Arts and can really take your Spirit higher on to levels that no other artform can.

Ive seen Hawkwind two times before , they werent that good.First was at the Glasgow Apollo and the second time at the Barrowlands.They have had too many personnel changes to have a settled coherent line-up and consistency.At the Apollo the music was wayward and the Barrowlands had going through the motions quasi-sessions musicians which were embarrassing , cringeworthy and a parody of themselves.

The line-up last year was also said to be universally ranked as a shameful episode in a band whose music is so appreciated by lovers of heavy bass melodies and a unique language of guitar playing that so fires the imagination.

But this concert was the best ive seen them and even veterans of watching the band for over forty-one years were fulsome in their praise for what ranked as the best ever performances they had seen.They were fantastic , this current line-up really believe in the music and even the dancers blend in unobtrusively to enhance rather than distract from the music.

Big highlights of this journey included "Kings Of Speed".


Magnu


This review of a concert earlier in the tour gives a good impression of how the audience felt.

"I have seen the band twice previously, at a storming gig at Keele University back in the late 1980’s, and a couple of years ago at Guilfest where they were not so impressive. Happy to report to tonight quite possibly the best gig yet I have seen by them.

Led by Dave Brock, the line-up includes the returning Dead Fred (Hawkwind band members past & present have great stage names it has to be said) on keyboards/violin/vocals who was last in the band back in the mid-80’s and Tim Blake on theremin is quite hypnotising to watch. The only other time I have seen this instrument used live is by John Otway."

Other standout songs were Hashish ( or words to that effect).


And a stunning version of Utopia

BURRELL COLLECTION MASTERS OF IMPRESSIONISM EXHIBITION

This exhibition contains 33 painting in the same space for the first time since the Museum opened 30 years ago , 20 of them are on display to the public for the very first time.Like the Health Service and Education , Glasgows Museums are still free for the public to come examination genuine art "treasures" in the classic sense of the word.



The Impressionist Movement was far more revolutionary than any casual observer would realise.France had gone through almost a century of extreme change and turmoil from the Revolution of 1789 to the time of  classical and far from egalitarian colonial empire Emperor Napoleon III with Napoleon and his Grande adventures in between with foreign invasions from the British and Continent to Boot.This caused great social upheaval with swings from revolution to imperialist expansion.But the Poor always remained poor and outcasts , held in contempt always and feared sometimes by the elites who never seemed to fail to be at the crest of all these developments.

Finally with the restoration of "republican" monarchy and colonial expansionist ambitions came a sustained period when the arts were made subservient to the glories and visions of the State.The order , quite literally, was to create imperial illusions , grand military prowess themes , banquets , celebration of past glories , marches and show the grandeur of unassailable symbols of Imperial Power.

Another part of this process was to initiate the re-designing of Paris for the very practical purpose of clearing the populous narrow streets in  quarters into wide avenues and boulevards which were far more difficult to barricade and make into urban fortresses like previous period of resistance like 1848.The motivation for the pleasant vistas we enjoy in Paris today owe less to the pursuit of aesthetic beauty than they do to fear of the poorer sections of society rising up in effective protest.

To underline this state take over of Art for Its Sake the state maintained  The Academie des Beaux-Arts ( an institutions created after the defeat of Napoleon by the occupying Allied Powers) to be the commissioner , censor and arbiter of national taste.The Academie under Napoleon III had a very Imperial and Conservative agenda for Art that enhanced the visions of Policy and the Prestige of the Emperor.With Royal Patronage is effectively had a license to encourage or silence Artists with an agenda favouring Historical or Allegorical paintings and portraits of Nobility and State Heroes.Landscapes , Still Lifes and depictions of Ordinary people or anything that revealed anything of the artists personality or point of view were taboo.Even brushstrokes that could be determined by the eye of the onlooker were discouraged.

The State held an annual show of the "best" works selected by the officially appointed jury of the Academie called the Salon De Paris which determined which artists would enjoy State patronage and to be rejected from this event would in effect amount to loss of licence to show any works in Public in France or its State institutions or the wider public without attracting censure from the apparatus of The State.In those days there were no Independent Art Galleries.

Just outside the exhibition proper is a painting which tells a story about the artistic climate before Impressionism came on the scene , it is called "Charity of a Beggar at Ornans" by Gustave Courbet the painting is named after the locale in which he was born and depicts subject matter that would have been an anathema to the establishment on many levels , firstly we have the main subject being a beggar ( in France at the time there were many destitue People , some from the Military campaigns of the Napoleons) who is given a personality and seen to be Human , a person, who is giving the very kindness and charity that the state completely failed to give those that were maimed and pauperised by its home and foreign policies.The other is that the charity is being given to a Gypsy child , a community then as now which is seen as the unacceptable other , a figure to be shunned rather than embraced.And with the Mother and the Cur completes the set of the disenfranchised in a land were there is no welfare and the have-nots are quite literally painted out of the picture.

Gustaves works were mainly shunned by the establishment but his efforts to show them independently attracted a lot of attention and ultimately inspired a School of Realist painting in France which led to the Impressionist mode of expression.His famous declaration of independence was "I am fifty years old and I have always lived in freedom; let me end my life free; when I am dead let this be said of me: 'He belonged to no school, to no church, to no institution, to no academy, least of all to any régime except the régime of liberty.".

This excellent article by The Glasgow Herald captures the mood of the exhibition and highlights what will be the most memorable painting in the exhibition by the little known , highly talented Henri Le Sidaner , whose painting give an atmospheric subtlety those can only be appreciated when seen with the naked eye.

" The relatively unknown Henri le Sidaner, who was influenced by Monet but became more interested in the atmospheric melancholy of twilight, remains an enigma. He showed an exhibition in Glasgow in 1903 and it was advertised in the local newspapers, but there is no catalogue. The curator has been in touch with the artist's grandson but so far it appears no copy of the catalogue exists. There are three Le Sidaners in the Burrell Collection, purchased in 1917 and 1919, that will be on show."

The image below barely captures its eerie majesty

Another of his works is a painting called "Snow" which captures a haze of a cold winters evening when looking through the the prism of coldness into the differing lenses of reflecting snowfall.

"Polly Smith has carefully removed the yellowed, century-old natural resin varnish used by Le Sidaner on his Snow, 1901 – the material used by artists and restorers at the time. Once removed, it is replaced by synthetic resin varnishes which age slowly and well.

"It's very exciting to see this painting in its original form for the first time since it was unveiled 1901," she says. "I feel we're revitalising and enhancing the artist's work. The passage of time can be good for a painting, but removing the obscuring part of it also informs us of the intention of artist."

The painting below gives an example of his brushstrokes evoking a three-dimensional light with the personality of the moment being captured for eternity , which was a key motif of the Impressionist painters.

The official period of Impressionism is only from 1870-1880 when the advent of paints in tubes meant that Artists could travel on the other new invention of the age , Trains , to places in the countryside or the coast.Tube paints could not mix so colours were juxtaposed to give impression.Black was never used , they showed shadow and shade in complimentary colours such as blues or browns.The works of Fantin Latour in the collection are Chrysanthemums which have an almost 3-D effect when seen upclose such as the example below.

 Though to us today the paintings may appear benign and cute but no more , they were at the time very radical and revolutionary with everything about them being anti-establishment from the subject matter,themes,brush strokes , landscapes and bright use of colours , a very proletarian symbolism.Everything that was a no-go for the Academie and Salon judges and arbiters of official imperial taste.

Impressionists set up their own exhibitions , they held 8 in all , when some 4,000 painting were rejected by the Salon , in 1873 Napoleon III decreed the rejected painting could be exhibited , most people went to mock or demean them but some appreciated their artistry , no doubt susceptible to their social and political undercurrents and broader based themes of life as opposed to celebration of pomp.

Ironically it was another major defeat for a Napoleon that brought Impressionism into the Mainstream.This time they were allowed , with the newer Allied impositions after the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 changed the Artistic landscape , gone were the days the establishment favoured the Glories,Heroes,Nobles and Imperial expansions of France and in came the subtle subjects of landscape , colour, portraits of non-threatening ordinary People and Still Lifes which Impressionists had been painting underground for a while.The subtleties both the Allied Government which would not patronise any overt show of France regaining past power and the cultural shift from establishment domination to the shift towards the piecemeal radicalisation and under the radar revolutionary expression.

LORD DAVID STEEL on THE REFORM OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS POST INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM

I have an abiding and enduring respect for David Steel , something that is very hard to feel for a  politician these days.This is simply for the fact he is a former President and now Patron of the Charity Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) Some very sad persons try and equate the honourable work of this charity to supporting and receiving support from anti-semites , a very sad aspect of pro-Zionist today. .What this website does not mention is that a simple look at the list of supporters and patrons of this laudable Humanitarian medical organisation reads as a Model line-up of the sincerest , humane , unimpeachable and upstanding members anyone could fit into a single list for character and integrity.The tarnishing of this Charity and its Members says more about the accusers than the goodness and integrity of the accused.A classic case of projection if ever there was one.It is sad that defenders of Zionism have stooped so low that things have come to this pathetic smearing , saying all that needs be said of their doctrine and methods of operating.It seems Zionism is an outdated , expansionist ideology that has no place in the 21st Century.

So much for bad rubbish , this was a lecture about the role of The House of Lords after the Independence vote in autumn 2014 if , as Steel believes , the NO camp win.

Firstly Steel commented on the deteriorating standards and developments in Parliament citing the advent of TV coverage and the pantomime nature of PMQs which at one time was an opportunity for backbench MPs to personally question the PM on behalf of their constituents , not the Punch and Judy boxing match we have today with the party leaders taking up most of the time which ought to be given over to close questioning from backbench MPs on matters of local or national accountability and concern.

"Lord Steel, the former Liberal leader, has launched a despairing attack on the prevalence of spin doctors in politics, noting that he is given "daily outpourings of tweets to circulate" and bombarded by email with "lines to take" on current issues.
The senior Liberal Democrat, echoing the private views of other senior figures across parties, said a daily "laundry list" sent out by the party headquarters contributes to the "diminution of individual expression or even thought in politics" as politicians are expected to repeat a positive central message over and over again."

Criticising the change from Politics being a forum for accountability of power to a weekly entertainment for the media he stated.

"The increasing role of spin doctors is to be deplored," he said.
"They hand out questions for MPs to ask, and they daily bombard party activists by email with 'lines to take'. Even I as a humble member of the upper house receive daily doses of laundry lists of the alleged achievements of the Lib Dems in the coalition government, and a selection of press coverage – all favourable of course – nothing critical such as the universally hostile editorial coverage of the last peerage list.
"The latest addition to these daily outpourings are suggested tweets to circulate. Fortunately I am not a tweeter, so I swiftly delete all these unread."
"Little wonder that the paid-up membership of political parties is in decline," he added.

Thereafter Steel set out his proposals to make the two Chambers more representative , democratic and accountable to the electorate.Especially encouraging more members to be put forward from the Regions to what is a very Londoncentric House of Lords , an important branch for post-legislation scrutiny which needs to be less appointed and more elected thus shifting from patronage to accountability.You can see the whole of the lecture in this link.

"When I talk of a “federal flavour” I am thinking of the comparison with the Bundesrat, the upper house in the Federal Republic of Germany and I am reminded of what their then foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher once said to me about the post-war constitution foisted on them largely by the allies led by the British:

You gave us three things successfully to underpin our new democracy after our disaster – decentralized government, proportional representation, and co-determination in industry, and you were so generous you British that you took none of them for yourselves!"

In the Q&A session Steel said the main issue for the Scottish and UK Parliament powers was Taxation , you cannot have one elected chamber beholden to another elected chamber for its supply of tax revenue , but surely that is as good a case for a "Yes" vote for the Independence Referendum
as one can make , especially as Steel himself admits the Scottish NHS is run better than its English counterpart and we in Scotland still have free higher education and free prescriptions for medicines for the elderly which is a ultimate sign of true civilisation and the acute fight towards poverty alleviation which England abandoned long ago.

THE LIFE AND WORK OF MARY SLESSOR

A lecture about a Missionary was always going to be an intriguing prospect for an audience during Black History Month with Nigerians as well as locals who are more than a little versed in the dynamics and intricacies of the topic than the average member of the public.Today , the Missionary project is accepted as something subject to re-evaluation as Heather Sharkey states "Historians still debate the nature of their impact and question their relation to the system of European colonialism in the continent.".

As Steven Bevan writes Ambiguity is the word best describing the individuals and organisations concerned.

"On the one hand, Dr Bevans acknowledges the past errors of missionaries being

in the role of serving colonialism, and on the other hand, the future risk associated with

transnational corporations and globalization. He writes, “The modern missionary era was

in many ways the ‘religious arm’ of

colonialism, whether Portuguese and Spanish

colonialism in the sixteenth Century, or British, French, German, Belgian or American

colonialism in the nineteenth. This was not all bad — oftentimes missionaries were

heroic defenders of the rights of indigenous peoples...We find ourselves today, however,

in another equally ambiguous context...the phenomenon of globalization poses a threat

that is in many ways much more dangerous than the old colonial order. Particularly, in

the economic realm, global corporations are ruthless in their search for profits and

expansion, and while many are benefiting, the poor of the world are becoming poorer

and more desperate.

It therefore becomes a matter of opinion , "ambiguous" opinion , whether Mary Slessor was a heroic defender of the rights of indigenous Peoples as many would convincingly argue she was and provide ample evidence to back their reasoning  or a servant in the role of colonialism , part of an ideological and cultural wing allied to the political and military and amply support that view of her mission with as much convincing evidence.

This STV Documentary entitled "One More River" gives a Humanitarian account of her work , though with major credits going to The Presbyterian Church of Nigeria and HRH The King of Calaber  it does give it a gushing hagiography feel with the omissions speaking as loudly as the content of the story.



And , once again , in favour of the story of a robust and brave heroine who deserves our admiration we have one of the few dedicated scholars Heather Sharkey giving a view on the positive aspects and enhancements of the role of Woman Missionaries  "According to Sharkey, some observers believe that the missionaries did great good in Africa, providing crucial social services such as education and health care that would have otherwise not been available to the Africans. Sharkey said that, in societies that were traditionally male-dominated, female missionaries provided women in Africa with health care knowledge and basic education".

In the Lecture below Heather Sharkey gives a detailed historical and cultural perspective to the Presbyterian Missionary project in Africa , though it concerns mainly Egypt it does give an overview of the whole Continental approach by the very Slave owning congregations of the US which Frederick Douglass railed against in the "send the money back" campaigns when the newly established Scottish Free Church was sending fund-raising delegations to the US to set up their newly established Scottish mission which would in the future send Mary Slessor to Africa some 25 years later.As we have seen Fredericks main complaint against the US churches was  "Dr. Chalmers, the eloquent Scotch divine, having been appealed to by the members of the Free Church of Scotland, on the subject of receiving contributions from churches in the slave states of America, to say whether religious fellowship could consistently be extended to slaveholders churches, the Doctor repudiates the spirit that would narrow the sphere of Christian union, and says, that the refusal of such fellowship would be 'most unjustifiable.'"



Discussion of the Scottish connection comes at the 6min40sec mark , the lecture deals with the emphasis on education ,but also reflects on the disconcerting generally accepted views that indigenous Christians were backward which were rife at the time thus creating a paternalistic culture beholden to the view that a white presence had to be maintained , hence why charges of cultural colonialism being wedded to commercial and political exploitation with the ever-present beyond the horizon military back-up any indigenous resistance are given , pardon the pun , ample ammunition to ctitics of the project.

Another example of the too cosy relationship with the Missionaries and Colonial power is to be found on some worrying generalisations found in this article.

 "At last arrangements were made which would free Mary Slessor to go farther inland, to the sorrow of all the Okoyong. She set her sights on the Aro, a tribe which was the terror of Calabar. She had met several of their chiefs when they visited Ekenge. Deep in their territory was a famous shrine which attracted many pilgrims from other tribes. Few returned home: the Aro took their offerings, killed them or sold them into slavery. The shrine's fame ensured a steady supply of victims until the British authorities determined on a military expedition to pacify the country and end the murders.
          Just then, Mary had planned to visit the Aro. By a mischance which she saw as a providence, she missed the launch; when she hailed the next, on the following day, she found the British commander on board. He treated her with great respect and when they landed at the Aro's principal town, she bareheaded in her shapeless dress and he in his immaculate uniform and sun helmet, he was most impressed that her Aro friends crowded round to greet her.
          It was the Aro who gave her the title by which she became known throughout the West Coast of Africa: Eka kpukpro Owo, 'Mother of All The Peoples'. As the British built roads and opened the country, little Mary Slessor, with her laughter and her prayers and her hot temper, had more influence than any government officer. Once she spent an entire furlough, with the reluctant permission of her home committee, in travelling deeper inland on her own responsibility, teaching and using her medicine chest, and opening the way for the less adventurous to follow."

And so we have the military and missionaries going of on campaigns together to dark lands that have to be rescued from themselves.Establishing a concept of Pax Britannica being a vital evolutionary progressive step with , in this case, the missionary taking the lead role in the advance and the business of Governing the Natives.

There is also a confusion , deliberate or otherwise, about just how trepidatious and hostile Mary Slessors journey to the interior actually was.It seems the mission was undertaken as a response to the local tribal chief embracing Christianity and was a court to court invitation from one tribal chieftain to another whose court she was operating in.The journey would have been part of a chieftain entourage ensuring protection and also enjoying the full patronage of the authority of the tribal court of the recipient chief.She could have stayed within the Royal Household of the local overlord if she chose , even staying away on her own would still have involved all the local subject people being answerable to his authority if any harm came to her.

Her care for the educational and medical welfare for the Woman and Children in her charge is beyond doubt , there are several living examples today of the offspring of forefathers she personally intervened to save from a cruel end due to local practices , to that end no one can doubt a massive debt owed to her selfless compassion and endeavour.Though the practice of Twins being abandoned or put to death may not have been as widespread or endemic as has been suggested , whatever the case the concern and efforts by Mary Slessor as to its eradication are to be fully commended.

This should not , however, be allowed to be a justification for an argument based on the civilising savages doctrine, as has been during her day  and , tather sadly, the present time for the domination of foreign lands on the pretext of teaching them Humane ways of operating.A usual occurrence in a transaction that involves cultural domination , interence in local affairs and regional resources and minerals somehow finding their way into our possession for a trifling price which leaves the territory the poorer in the long run.

More ambiguous is Mary Slessor being appointed as the first Woman Magistrate when colonial expansion increased with the protectorate status of the region , the Crown conveniently taking over the "comey subsidy" collection from the local tribal chieftains.It is odd that the Colonial Powers had no problem giving a Missionary a role of authority , and that a Missionary had no problem taking up the role thus giving the Colonial project a "humanitarian" flavour to replace an initial commercial exploitation thus passing from a commercial "trade"into a civilising mission as soon as the financial benefits diminished , allowing colonialism to get a new makeover and longevity to continue the process of domination in a subtler softpower outreach, but with always the threat of over the horizon military enforcement backup being available if the locals resisted either commercial or missionary control.

But today,  a crassly unambiguous lapse with threatens to tarnish the reutation and image of the memory of Mary Slessor we have , at best, the very lax judgement of The Mary Slessor Foundation.
If you go by the notion one judges the character of someone by the company they keep then the list of supporters given in the foundations website should give any right-minded person serious grounds for concern.Among them we have 3 Oil companies including Shell whose track-record in Nigeria is nothing short of the most appalling abuse of Human Rights and deliberate encouragement of rampant violence against environmental grassroots campaigners as it is possible to imagine.They include charges of arming tribes to fight one another and being party to the process that ended in the execution of leading Human rights campaigner Ken saro-Wiwa

"In the 1990s tensions arose between the native Ogoni people of the Niger Delta and Shell. The concerns of the locals were that very little of the money earned from oil on their land was getting to the people who live there, and the environmental damages caused by the recurring sabotage of pipelines operated by Shell.^[3] In 1993 the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) organized large protests against Shell and the government, often occupying the company production facilities. Shell withdrew its operations from the Ogoni areas. The Nigerian government raided their villages and arrested some of the protest leaders. Some of these arrested protesters, Ken Saro-Wiwa being the most prominent, were later executed, against widespread international opposition from the Commonwealth of Nations and human rights organisations.^[4]
Shell maintained that it asked the Nigerian government for clemency towards those found guilty but that its request was refused. A 2001 Greenpeace report claimed that "two witnesses that accused them later admitted that Shell and the military had bribed them with promises of money and jobs at Shell. Shell admitted having given money to the Nigerian military...".^[5] Shell denied these accusations and claimed that MOSOP was an extortionary movement that advocated violence and secession.^[6]
In December 2003, Shell Nigeria acknowledged that the conflict in the Niger Delta makes it difficult to operate safely and with integrity and that "we sometimes feed conflict by the way we award contracts, gain access to land, and deal with community representatives",^[7] and that it intends to improve on its practices.^[8] In 2009, Shell offered to settle the Ken Saro-Wiwa case with US$15.5 million while denying any wrongdoings and calling the settlement a humanitarian gesture. According to the New York Times and the journalist Michael D. Goldhaber the settlement came days before the start of a trial in New York that was expected to reveal extensive details of Shell's and MOSOP's activities in the Niger Delta.^[6][9]"

And according to this article Shell 

"Secret internal documents from Shell show that in the immediate aftermath of the execution of the Nigerian activist and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, the oil company adopted a PR strategy of cosying up to BBC editors and singling out non-government organisations it hoped to ''sway''."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/revealed-shells-pr-tricks-in-nigeria-20101112-17r8a.html#ixzz2jUj3bRNp

If the Mary Slessor Foundation do not want to tarnish her memory for good , and allow those who question her too cosy for comfort relationship to colonialism to be proved right then the Mary Slessor Foundation must reconsider fundamentally those they keep company with , especially if some of those listed as supporters amount to the financial colonisers of the World Today.

PETER GABRIEL at the HYDRO GLASGOW

This was my debut at the Hydro , and also the 25th Anniversary tour by Peter Gabriel of the So Album with his original band still intact, sad thing was i was at the original tour at the SECC a quarter of a century ago.

The Hydro is a space-age venue , with the vapours of newness oozing out of every synthetic polished surface , the steely aromas of what a new Star Trex Spaceship would smell like and everywhere the crisp fresh sight of shiny metal and artifical alloys of all hues except natural.

The venue has the look and feeling of a Close Encounters Of The Third Kind craft having just landed on a grassy knoll.Should make for a spectacular light show on St.Patricks night , a night not formally celebrated in the City because all the orange bastards that would complain , citing traditions.

The concert was divided into 3 sections , the first was an acoustic set featuring brilliantly catchy tunes like this favourite called "Come Talk To Me"




The second was old hits and some arena-shaking electronic soundbashers , including a great version of "Solsbury Hill"



Then we had the full top-to-bottom performance of the So Album , starting with the earth-shattering "Red Rain".The so-called quieter songs "Dont Give Up" and "Mercy Street" came so alive when done on stage , giving great balance a rightfully accepted classic album.Here is a version of my favourite "In Your Eyes"


The encore contained the Human Rights Champions Anthem "Biko" , which reminded me that Peter Gabriel on the initial So Tour was promoting Amnesty International , in the days when you physically wrote 4 letters a year to the victim and oppressor concerned.it was heartwarming to see Peter still dedicated to Human Rights and Amnesty after all these years.

MARTIN LUTHER KING , JR SPEECH - i have a dream and its enduring legacy and relevance to Britain

This year is the 50th Anniversary of the famous speech by Martin Luther King Jr. at the US seat of power in Washington D.C. Though we now know this March as "The Freedom March" , we would do well to recall that the real title of the demonstration was the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom". 

This is a very important distinction to recall as one of the main focus of the March was to force the US Government itself to provide jobs to "coloured" in the internal Government Sector.

The speech ( which lasts about 20 minutes) became famous because it was captured in the beginnings of the national Television age.If you analyse the speech it starts of on an economic agenda leading onto the mention of "bad checks" at about the 4min 20sec mark , and from the 5min20sec it becomes a very radical attack against the half-way house agenda argument against gradualism ( the belief that slow piecemeal progress , controlled by Whites ruling the country) , a very robust notice that the time for no-compromise on the immediate right of equality had reached a critical mass on no return.Continuing with this uncompromising theme is a warning if action by legislatures is not taken we hear at 6min40sec the warning....rude awakening if nation returns to business as usual.And the theme gets hotter by 9min20sec by citing the grave injustices met by coloured on a day to day basis..unaddressed the situation will never be satisfied ...police brutality continues.... a negro in Mississippi cant vote , a negro in new york has nothing to vote for".

This was the script of the speech until Martin Luther was prompted by Mahalia Jackson to "Tell them about the Dream" , this is when Martin Luther departed from the scripted theme was to make the most remembered part of the speech which has become one of the most legendary oration ever made.

Scholars contend the speech at that time would have gone down as the "Bad Check Speech" , with an economic theme based on the poverty of inequality , what happened next is what made the speech one of the most famous of the last century.

The speech can be seen in the video below:


The "I have a Dream" segment divides the speech into two distinct portions , the first (scripted) is an unequivocal call to action , the second part ( actually a peroration added to the scripted main address ) has an aspirational feel which has been picked up by the right in recent years and those cultural ( but queasy about affirmative action or major changes to zoning planning laws that cement , to pardon the pun, inbuilt poverty among the blacks even today) lip-servers who want to "show" support without taking the responsibility of doing the lawmaking graft to gravitate to this portion of the speech whilst forgetting the hard-hitting message of the initial two-thirds.This is why it was no irony in Ronald Reagan signing Martin Luther King Day
as a National Holiday after a four year campaign even though he was very Anti-Luther King at the time of the speech and beyond.

One of the successes of the March for freedom and Jobs was that no Politicians spoke at the podium in 1963 , it was a genuine civil grassroots movement occasion  recognising Politicians , as a class, are to be lobbied and pressured to act and deliver , not persons to be cheaply given Just Cause platforms which they can use for expedient short term political capital.

The upshot of the March was to set in train the momentum that led to lasting , real Civil Rights , Non-Discrimination and Equality Legislation in Congress.Clearing legal , if not for many decades social obstacles to Kings demands.

To this we can also add the sad spectacle of President Obama commemorating the 50th Anniversary whilst in the same week proposing the bombing of Syria and justifying the Drone attacks in Pakistan , something one would feel would not attract much committed support from King himself.

The March had a chequered History in that it was initially opposed by President Kennedy , a little later Kennedy supported the March and even enlisted Trade Unions and Church Groups to ensure success , but this had the effect of diluting Demands and stifling the hard edged demands for Jobs and opportunities.Instead creating a vacuous sloganed showcase for the same Kennedy who was planning coups and wars as far afield as Brazil , Cuba and Vietnam"As a result, some civil rights activists felt it presented an inaccurate, sanitized pageant of racial harmony".

There seems to be a somewhat misplaced narrative Myth that there were two paths to the civil rights movement , the effective peaceful one of MLK and the ineffective violent one of Malcolm X.In fact , there was a co-joined symbiosis as Kings message only carried weight in that it gave Americans the choice of yielding to legislative peaceful change before hundreds of thousands of Black Americans who were about to serve in Vietnam , getting training in the army and proficiency in use of arms finally took more militant means to redress rights in the late 60's , a time when the Johnson Administration finally took steps more motivated by potential conflict than benevolence to enforce laws passed in the mid-60's.

The effects and legact of MLK was to convince victims that economic "war" does make a difference to the fight for equality.Therefore in the UK , and the wider world the MLK of the Montgomery Bus Boycott 
Is a more valuable role model to remember than the "peaceful dreamer".

In the UK we had our own "Montgomery" in 1963 when members of the West Indian community were being denied jobs on the ground of race in Bristol. 

"Four young West Indian men, Roy Hackett, Owen Henry, Audley Evans and Prince Brown, formed an action group, later to be called the West Indian Development Council, as they were unhappy with the lack of progress in fighting discrimination by the West Indian Association. Owen Henry had met Paul Stephenson whose father was from West Africa and who had been to college. The group decided that the articulate Stephenson would be their spokesman.^[6] Stephenson set up a test case to prove the colour bar existed by arranging an interview with the bus company for a young warehouseman and Boys' Brigade officer, Guy Bailey. When Stephenson then told the company that Bailey was West Indian, the interview was cancelled.^[7] Inspired by the refusal of Rosa Parks to give up her seat on a bus in Alabama and the ensuing Montgomery Bus Boycott, the activists decided on a bus boycott in Bristol.^[8]
Their action was announced at a press conference on 29 April. The following day they claimed that none of the city's West Indians were using the buses and that many white people supported them.^[9] In an editorial the Bristol Evening Post pointed out that the TGWU opposed apartheid in South Africa and asked what trade union leaders were doing to counteract racism in their own ranks.^[10] When reporters questioned the bus company about the boycott, the general manager, Ian Patey, said

"The advent of coloured crews would mean a gradual falling off of white staff. It is true that London Transport employ a large coloured staff. They even have recruiting offices in Jamaica and they subsidise the fares to Britain of their new coloured employees. As a result of this, the amount of white labour dwindles steadily on the London Underground. You won't get a white man in London to admit it, but which of them will join a service where they may find themselves working under a coloured foreman? ... I understand that in London, coloured men have become arrogant and rude, after they have been employed for some months."^[11][12]"

It was supported by the then MP for the area Tony Benn and ultimately led to the Race Relations Act , the organisers credited and were inspired by MLK and the Montgomery Boycott Campaign.

Tony Benn pictured with one of the committee members of the Bristol Omnibus Company Boycott campaign.

MACBETH at the TRON GLASGOW

In this timely version director Rachel O'Riordan states "For me the play has something of the thriller about it.It is fast paced and actions and consequences rush into each other at breath-taking pace.It is this sense of history in a world out of balance which makes for an exciting audience experience..reflecting Shakespeares own times , the union and scotlands identity is under question again."
Two vital changes from the normal stagings are , like Shakespeares time , the witches are played by males , an effect that internalises ( hence secularising) the thinking of actioned strategy of the protagonist rather than him being led by fates on a path from which he cannot shrink even if he wanted too, it is no irony that the actors playing the three witches also turn out to double up as Macbeths three principle advisers.The other is the youngness of the the wife ( again taking away from the "traditional" stagings which suggest she is the one who leads an unwilling partner on a path of no return.Both this "innovations" are as the original audience in Shakespeares time would have saw and understood the dynamics of the action.
This way of returning to the future gives added weight to real metaphors and essence of the play as theatregoers of the time would have "understood" the story which is not about Scotland but rather as near as Elizabethan theatre goes come to raging against The founders of the Tudor persecution and what they though of the Lady Macbeth in their midst.This is brought into sharper relief with Tom Paulins assertion Shakespeare had sympathy , if not was, for the Catholics.

This review from the Scotsman , the reviewer does miss the point that Lady Macbeth is a young bride with only limited influence in a production which looks to make Policy and not Individuals master and destroyer of Fate.

"Yet for all these fascinating hints and possibilities, this Macbeth never quite seems to gain a persuasive sense of direction. Crerar somehow ends up delivering Lady Macbeth’s mighty poetry with the vocal tone and body-language of an exasperated girlfriend in an office comedy."

Mark Brown , on the other hand, is far more astute and mature in his review in the Telegraph

"The youth of Lady Macbeth is crucial here – as O’Riordan points out, she would, in medieval Scotland, have been a young teenager when she married. Playing to her tender years, as Leila Crerar does beautifully, transforms the drama in an extraordinary way."

LIFE AND TRAVELS OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS IN SCOTLAND (Glasgow Black History Month)

Frederick Douglass was a passionate and highly articulate advocator of anti-Slavery who toured Britain for 2 years including many stops in Scotland.Though there are very few markers of his time , as opposed to the many landmarks and street names to The Slave Merchants , research has showed that he was recieved very warmly by grassroots Scottish organisations and public , including sell-out fundraisers attracting over 1200 to places as far awide as Paisley and Dundee.He also made appearances in Glasgow , packing large venues such as the City Halls.

Douglass achieved Fame on both sides of the Atlantic after the publication of his Book in 1845 , selling out the first run in just a few months and ultimately tens of thousands in the years prior to the American Civil War.

The video below details scholarly accounts into his Book and the Impact it had in his day and beyond.



One of the major themes of Douglass visits to Scotland was to lobby against the newly set-up Free Church of Scotland 
The new Church set about gaining new sources of funds including a major campaign to raise money in the US , mostly from Slavery supporting congregations in the Deep South , Douglass campaigned vigourously using the slogan "send the money back" as this speech in Dundee records:

"Dr. Chalmers, the eloquent Scotch divine, having been appealed to by the members of the Free Church of Scotland, on the subject of receiving contributions from churches in the slave states of America, to say whether religious fellowship could consistently be extended to slaveholding churches, the Doctor repudiates the spirit that would narrow the sphere of Christian union, and says, that the refusal of such fellowship would be 'most unjustifiable.'"

Fellowship with slaveholders! (continued Mr. D.)— refuse fellowship with man-stealers, woman-whippers, cradle-robbers, and plunderers!—to refuse Christian fellowship with such would be "most unjustifiable." (Applause.) Did they think Dr. Chalmers would ever have said this, if, like him, he had had four sisters and one brother in bondage? (Cheers, and cries of "No.") Would this paper have eulogised George Thompson or William Lloyd Garrison, or any other eminent abolitionist? (No, no!) Well, the slaves run away—the bloodhound has not been able to follow their tracks, and the paper which eulogises Dr. Chalmers thus advertises the fugitives

In the video below James Earl Jones reads an extract from a Douglass speech capturing the charisma , passion,content and power of delivery which captivated so much of the audience of the time.

 

This excellent piece from the Blackpresence website tells more details of the impact of Douglass Tours. 
The article also informs of some objections to Douglass within the abolitionist camp like the following quote:

"Clearly, Frederick Douglass had a strong influence on British society, but this did not mean he was universally admired. His exposure of the Free Church and the Evangelical Alliance was criticised in numerous quarters, and several newspapers objected to his conduct, claiming he was “anti-religious” for attacking the Free Church. Furthermore, Douglass was not popular with all British abolitionists. Richard D. Webb, a supporter of the American Antislavery Society praised Douglass’s oratory skills but attacked his character repeatedly during his stay in Britain. And several abolitionists in the Society vilified Douglass’s decision to accept the purchase of his freedom, which was arranged by a family in Newcastle. This was seen as recognition that man could be bought and sold as property. But this purchase ensured the safety of Douglass and his family, and surely, argued Douglass, this ‘transaction’ proved to the world the hypocrisy of the United States – how could a country declare its foundations in liberty when the government legally supported the purchase of men and women?"

The US made documentary below tells about the role of Douglass prior and during the American Civil War , including harrowing recollections of the young Frederick watching his Aunt being cruelly whipped by her slavemaster.

SUN , SEA, SAND AND SCOTLAND: Our role in Empire,Slavery and Caribbean

During Glasgows Black History Month there is a growing trend to accept, repent and atone for Scotlands role in the Triangular Slave Trade , a role that is not officially recognised by the Glasgow Council or Scotlands Government.
The Official narrative is that Scotland was the first victim of English expansionism and imperialism , but more studies and dedicated searches of surviving archives at home and abroad are beginning to tell a story in which Scotland provided the Intellectual brainpower, skilled administrators, banking mechanisms, middle-managers , legal clerks , missionaries and accountants and political policies which elevated the British Empire from a large though ad-hoc international trading entity like the Spanish in the mid-millennium to the first effective International Global dominating World Industrial scale Empire influencing and directing nearly every asset of inter-continental trade.
At the time of the Union in the early 18th century Scotland has 4 established Universities churning out International Class Scholars in fields secular and divinity at a time when England ( 10 times the population of Scotland) had only 2 Universities which only had divinity departments with no real specialisations in the fields of trade,banking and macro-management which Scotlands Universities boasted,  having curricula from the very modern advanced techniques from Germanic lands where the aftermath of the 30 Years War had created the fore-runners of the modern state civil services and advanced bureaucracies and macro-management.
The video below examines The  Slavery and Emancipation in the Caribbean with special perspective of Scottish involvement.



You can see the whole series of lectures examining many aspects of the trade in this link series.

A major reason for the Scottish denial of the role in the Slave trade is that there has not been any national educational curriculum which deals with the countrys links to the Caribbean , a circumstance highlighted when the Great Homecoming festivities invited the diaspora from North America but failed to send any invitations to the considerable numbers of Scots descent from Jamaica or the other islands which had many Scottish immigrants as well as a sizable creole population.

One other factor is the negligible amount of Afro-Caribbean community in Glasgow to articulate demands for their forefathers experience to be commemorated and remembered with due dignity , something which was a major drive in Bristol and Liverpool creating Museums , Exhibitions and permanent markers of recognition.

Slowly more and more academics and researchers are beginning to bring to light Scotlands unrecognised involvement in the Slavery trade.Hopefully Glasgow will join Liverpool and Bristol following the lead of Hull which was one of the first places to accept the responsibilities and start the long process of atonement.

VICTOR JARA 40TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT at ST. ANDREWS in the square GLASGOW

Organised by the Alistair Hulett Memorial Trust this concert was on the 40th Anniversary of the brutal , callous , execution of the legendary Chilean Folk Singer and Activist for the poor,needy , deprived and disenfranchised in what is still today one of the most shamefully unequal societies in our day.A shining beacon of neoliberalism whose privatised education system using vouchers is one admired by our own Education Secretary Michael Gove , a system that has been attracting many massive demonstration on the streets of Chiles cities , especially Santiago. 

Unfortunately the rump of the Communist Party has joined the grouping under former leader Bachelet which is expected to win the Presidential elections later this year , a leader of the socialist block which signed up to the constitution which enshrined the Chicago school economics , which meant even though the socialists controlled the country for 20 years the economic policy remained the same , a very privatisation friendly mode including far reaching reforms in Education which were cemented under the last Bachelet Government which introduced reforms which pushed forward the neoliberal model to such an extent that present incumbent described Education as a "consumer" item , which gives rise the the extrapolation that those who can pay the most get the best "product".To their very great credit the candidates of the Access-For-All Education demonstrations have refused to back any of the choices. instead putting up their own.

As the BBC report above states the Education policies , closely followed by the UK deprive the poorer students from getting the best available resources prior to further education and then are prevented to go to University by costs that are unaffordable by low income households , thus perpetuating the cycle of poor getting poorer, this in a country that is regarded as one of the richest in the region:

"They say middle-class students have access to some of the best schooling in the region, while the poor have to be content with under-funded state schools. The country has no free universities.
The campaign for educational reform is the biggest protest movement Chile has seen since the return to democracy in 1990."

The night raised funds for the the Trust and also Justice For Victor Jara Campaign , a timely cause as lawyers acting on behalf of the survivors have opened legal proceedings in the US to bring to Justice one of the eight alleged killers who has been living in Florida for many years.
According to the above article from The Telegraph Newspaper.

"Mrs Jara was allowed to take his corpse from the morgue as long as she buried him without ceremony. His body was exhumed in 2009 on a judge's orders to establish his identity and cause of death. When he was reburied, thousands turned out for the funeral that he was denied after his death.
Mrs Jara moved back to London with her two daughters a month after the coup, after British diplomats urged her to leave for her own safety. She spent the next 10 years travelling the world to highlight what had happened in Chile, before moving back to Santiago in 1983.
There she established the Victor Jara Foundation to keep her husband's memory and artistic legacy alive and fought relentlessly to gain justice for him in death. She is closer than ever to achieving that mission."

Joan Jara set up The Victor Jara Foundation to publicise and highlight the shocking circumstances of her husband and also to give voice to the relatives of several thousands who disappeared and still have not been accounted for to their families , denying the right to bury their loved ones with dignity.

The other defendants  have not yet been brought to trail in Chile , though the painfully slow wheels of justice may slowly be moving in the right direction.

The performers themselves were a varied and brilliant combination of old veterans who fight Pinochet back in 73 and energetic younger crop who have received and propounded the message that you always back the disempowered  grassroots against the degradations and oppressive abuses of dictators.

Penny Stone rounded of the rainbow journey of neoliberalism with enchanting songs linking the murder of Victor to the plight of the Palestinians from the same people who , still today, laud Pinochet and follow many of his Chicago school based policies.

The evening was rounded of by the seven decade veteran activist and folksinging chronicle Peggy Seeger.

There was also a compilation CD especially made for the event containing contributions from the performers and also the legendary Christy Moore.

Costing £5 the proceeds went jointly to the Alistair Hulett Memorial and Victor Jara Fund.

DUNSINANE at the THEATRE ROYAL GLASGOW

At the time of the Iraq war in 2003 David Greig has gone through a spell of watching several productions of Macbeth , being both fascinated at the universal themes of power and what happens when a tyrant is overthrown at the request of a cabal that promises peace,stability and an easy ride from a grateful population who will greet the foreign intervention force with flowers and scented garlands.Basically he was wondering what happened next? , after Macbeth has been killed.Not in a way to create a sequel to Shakespeare , but to examine and try to understand how an invading foreign occupying army "invited" by a few dissidents and emigres could foster stability in a hostile society with age old established ways of managing continuity and conflict in a complex mixture of familial , clan and tribal constantly changing bonds , shifting allegiances in which any external interference could set off a whole series of clashes and altering of cohesive balances which embroil evermore resources both from within and without , only adding fuel to the burning , contagious furnace.



In this interview for The Oxford Times David Greig gives more insight to his thought processes at the time he was mulling over the ideas of writing the play.

“After seeing MacBeth in Dundee I realised I knew most of the places mentioned like Burnham Wood and Dunsinane, and that Shakespeare had never been there. So that great Scottish play was written by someone who wasn’t Scottish and hadn’t been to Scotland, yet he reduced the great King Macbeth. Now we know a lot more about him and have realised he was a good king, that interested me into writing a response.
“Plus the Iraq War had just started, which was very much a story of overthrowing a tyrant without preparing for the aftermath and the three things came together very simply. If you’d said it was a follow-up to MacBeth I’d have said ‘what, don’t be ridiculous’ but I realised too late what I’d done and it was terrifying and I nearly had a panic attack. All I could think was ‘what the hell do you think you’re doing’?”

The plot follows an English soldiers perspective , a bemused , exposed and as he loses his friends to attrition and exposure to inhospitable elements an increasing confused , baffled observer of his leaders , Siward flailing attempts to  impose and set-up a stable regime.

Unlike Shakespeares depiction Macbeth lasted 15-20 years on the throne , at a time when some kings only lasted a few months , a King who would have a fairly large and loyal base that would not accept his overthrow by aid of a massive foreign force , which would have been capable of and willing to fight a long drawn out resistance war against an enemy whose very presence was a major obstacle to peace.
Greig began the play clearly wanting to talk about the present conflicts ,  to bring to bear peoples knowledge of Afghanistan to help understand 10th century scotland and conversely understand the futility of imposing a political solution with military force over a population that becomes more hostile and entrenched the more force is used by the unwelcome occupier , in this case an English army trying to subdue tribal Scotland by occupation and its parallels  with regime change ,  the question is it possible to impose peace on some other persons behalf ( humanitarian intervention, peacekeepers) is always at the forefront of the audience watching the tension and drama on the stage , is it possible in trying to "make" peace you increase the chances of war and conflict in one that becoming increasingly rhetorical when applied to Afghanistan.

The action brilliantly counterpoints between the elite leaders and the generally bemused soldiers , many of them who would have been about the same age as those we are sending to Afghanistan today.Boys fighting far from home a war he doesnt understand and where the enemy re-defined the terms of the war , simply by being there , constantly being invaded , in being as well as physically , by a ponderous aggressive enemy .

In this video the playwright explains the processes involved in the genesis and evolution of the play from idea to performance.



In the video below the actors discuss their roles during rehearsals , showing a very perceptive knowledge of the metaphors behind the staging.

 

The play also examines  how Siward was told that the mission was would be easy , a tyrant would be deposed and the populace will rejoice and shower the invaders with flowers , it turns out not to be easy , the more they try to control it the more destabilised it becomes.A process that still plays out as certain forces try to get major powers to intervene decisively in conflicts across the Globe.



This review from The Guardian gives a good overview of the work , though the one comment seems to miss the point when complaining the play does not have a strong finish as the whole point is that the scheme peters out as a tragic miscalculated bloody whimper.

"The more the English try to get to grips with this alien land – its awkward geography, its hostile climate, its complex clans and affiliations – the more clumsy their efforts to tame it look. The greater their level of misunderstanding, the more an audience in Scotland finds itself empathising with the occupied nations of the Middle East."

NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND at the CITIZENS THEATRE GLASGOW

Citizens Dostoyevsky mini-fest is completed with a superbly executed and highly thoughtful , stimulating performance of Notes From The Underground.

The staging captures the universal angst with unobtrusive , yet highly visualising use of modern social-media technology.A well judged balancing act which seasons the discourse of the character with added relevance to many who are approaching the times in their career and lives when they can also render a testimonial of how their existence shaped out.

As the Citizens Theatre blurb states "To coincide with our production of Crime and Punishment Debbie Hannan directs this play based on a novella by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

A bitter and misanthropic man sits in the dark nest he has created for himself, scrawling his paranoid, confused memoirs. Torn between his derision for the ‘ant hill’ of humankind and his searing contempt for himself, his isolation leads to his retreat Underground.
He scrapes at the ugliest parts of his ego until an encounter with a real life ant throws everything into disarray…"

This review from The Scotsman captures the mood:

"In a bold stroke, Debbie Hannan’s powerful production exposes the contemporary quality of Dostoevsky’s obsession with self-examination and self-presentation by making Samuel Keefe’s Underground Man an obsessive user of social media. His older self appears on screen meditating on his need to retell the story, his younger self records interactions with others on smartphone and tablet."

Two of my friends , one who had not read the novella , and another who had when in his early twenties were both captivated , one promising to search out and read the Book and the other , dryly , commenting as he approaches the age of the character he found himself nodding with wholehearted agreement the bitter,angry rant from beginning to end , something i have been doing for many years.

The staging ends with my favourite line from the book "Can a thinking man ever Respect himself", my two companions had less of that than when they started , which i think is a good sign that the play , and the Book , has done the job.