So the summer's nearly done.

It has been a good summer for the Gingineers (the Smallworld sound crew) who, in time honoured fashion, have been fiddling while the world burns.
The oppressed multitudes of the Middle East and North Africa are struggling - and many of them are dying, right now - to throw off the disgusting, blood-soaked tyrants who have been stealing the very bread from their mouths for decades.

There is a popular western perception (mostly created and perpetuated by the sensation-seeking press and news media) of the Moslem countries as populated by hysterical, religious fanatics who will declare fatwah at the drop of a hat. Pretty much whenever we see them on television they are screaming and gesticulating, burning flags and suggesting horrid fates for infidels.

But they have stoically endured generations of social injustice - and now that they have finally decided that enough is enough, the Arab Spring uprising has mostly been dignified and inspiring. The violence has been initiated by the vicious dogs who are are in power and will cling to it by any means - including the mass murder of their own citizens. Effectively unarmed and peaceful multitudes have been taking power from the despots, opposing guns and thuggery with sheer bravery and dogged persistence.

Whereas here in the UK we have been indulging in criminality and violence.

For many young people there is now no valid moral authority in this country - the churches are seen as refuges for child molesters (and I doubt that it's only the western churches that are infected with that particular evil); the politicians who make our laws are on the fiddle; the police collude with and are bribed by the criminal press; the Pheonix Four, the Maxwell's and many other business-class thieves live handsomely on their ill-gotten gains etc. etc. Unless you are an adherent of one of the more proscriptive religions (still a tiny minority) it's down to parental influence (on a bolshie adolescent? - ha ha) and peer pressure, which can be hard enough to resist even when there is a moral framework.

Unless society talks to these people in terms they understand and offers them real opportunities to succeed, in their terms, then riots and looting are bound to happen. The alternative to offering a fairer deal to the poor - or an acceptable moral framework - is to oppress them, of course. The government is choosing oppression, and it frightens me. I believe that opting for the black and white/no excuse for criminality response opens the door to justifying further movement towards a police state (actually a governing minority/press/police coalition) compared to which I prefer anarchy.

I think that it's time to dig out those old Bangles records (what a band!) and Walk Like an Egyptian.

Gingineers Beatitudes:

Blessed are the Sandwich Makers;
For they shall do 45 minutes work painting signs and then eat copiously for the rest of the festival.

Blessed are the bench squatters;
For they shall make a spliff and a few fatuous comments, or plug in a recording device, and be in the way for hours.

Blessed are the phone  chargers;
For they shall assume that infinite charge is available, leave their phone plugged in for far too long, leave the charger when they pick up their phone and then  get pissed off if it is not instantly to hand a day or so later.

Blessed are the drug-dealers;
For they they shall poison the crew with their filth and make obscene amounts of money doing it.

Blessed are the djembe drummers and egg-shakers in the audience;
For they have no sense of rhythm, or the awareness to  realise that they are smearing their ego over someone else's performance.

Blessed are the pirates;
For they are two years behind the fashion and still think that they are the dog's bollocks.

Blessed are the space cadets;
For they shall get totally fucked on their night off and therefore miss their shift the next day.

Blessed are the munters;
For they shall advise the sound engineer to turn up the bass, even though they have lost touch with reality, their sense of balance, and  hearing.

Blessed are the hitch-hikers, for they shall make the journey uncomfortable for everyone and yea  shall they look blank when a contribution for fuel is mentioned.

Blessed are the singer-songwriters;
For they shall tell people who are older, cleverer and happier than them to 'release your fear and be free'.

Blessed are the performance junkies;
For they shall scurry around, wild-eyed, hassling incessantly for slots on every stage, convinced that the world is ready to heap riches upon them if only they can get in front of big enough audiences. But yea, they are talentless, tiresome wankers and in fact the world wishes to Christ they would fuck off.

Blessed are the codifiers;
For they shall write beatitudes while cackling maniacally, even when there is work to be done.

Off to Headcorn for the Summer Gathering now, then it'll be autumn and shorter days before you know it...

Cynical love to all my readers, and thanks to Jeremy and Ade for spurring me on to do this Diary. More to come, promise.

Deadbeat