THE MESOPOTAMIAN MARSHES ...A CALL IN THE WILD

The project underway to reclaim the Mesopotamian Marshes in southern Iraq must be among the most important expressions of human optimism in history. These glorious wetlands destroyed by Saddam in the craziness of the 90s spurred on by the war on his own people and Iran are certainly deserving of our attention and care. They are an essential refuge for birds, fish, amphibians and people. They are a precious world resource. in time these wetlands will be among the greatest natural attractions for ecotourism in existence, a treasure for all of us and an incentive for stability among the Iraqis who are due for a break.

I implore you to join Nature Iraq

http://www.natureiraq.org/site/en/node/26

WHY CANADA IS NOWHERE...

I grew up looking down this road. Literally. When I found out where it went. I was disappointed. So I turned around and went back to where I came from. But I couldn't stay.

Call it cabin fever, I call it the unmitigating boredom of rocks, trees and grass that never change. The tyranny of seasons that come and go with mind numbing predictability. Of the same birds that turn up every year and sing the same songs. It is the oppressive influence of the landscape that sculpts the Canadian character. Pedantic, predictable, purist.

The city at the end of this road was not much better than nowheresville I came from. It was the same only with more Canadians. I did not find what I was looking for until I left Canada for good. It took me a few attempts but I finally made it. Now I revel in the complex metropolis that is Europe.

Fly you fat ducks. There are people out there and people who are worth knowing.

Gray Dourman

www.magichelix.com

THE ELEGANCE OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCE

I recently treated a friend very badly, very badly indeed. I did not intend the insult. It was an unconcious action to provocation and I immediately regretted it. She no longer speaks to me.

It was not until this happened that I understood how negative the relationship had become. How many times we trawled the same old grievances, the same old stories, told the same old jokes, found the same old faults. We had become so inflexible in our dealings with each other, so ritualistic in our manners, so conscious of our debts to each other that the relationship had become a millstone, a hinderance to even a peaceful life, let alone a progressive one. I did not realise this at the time. It was not until the space and distance had been created that I saw that far from regret, my overriding emotion should have been relief.

Old friends can be a comfort. They can anchor us to normality and can point out changes in ourselves that we cannot see in the mirror or less familiar friends would understand or even feel entitled to point out. But old friends tend not to change with us or like us to change at all and prefer to keep us as they understand us so that they can predict our behaviour and manage us accordingly.

It is tough and confusing to loose old friends. Familiarity is comforting. But there is a freedom in moving on and an exilaration in those first few hours of open road ahead. A buzz worth the price.

Gray Dourman
www.magichelix.com

Up William and Kate's royal arseholes...

Royal crap...tourists come and get it...let's pretend that the royals are really cool...let's buy a mug with the picture of a mug embellished on it...so that stupid, deluded sycophants can pretend they are touching history...which is mostly made up....kick the queen out of all her castles and let her collect housing benefit like are the rest of the state dependents...there's no shame in it...the state is an industry...citizens are its customers...the Monarchy is no different.

Gray Dourman

http://www.magichelix.com/

LOOKING INTO THE WILD BLUE...

I cannot think of anything more beautiful than the colour of the sky. I will tell you why. It is where you go when you die.

http://www.magichelix.com

CHINA:on our knees for new TVs...

The posture, tone and statements made of David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, in China over the past week demonstrate in no uncertain terms how low we must now bow to the God of consumerism. Volume. More TVs, more songs, more clothes, more cars, more...more...more...and to get more lets us enslave and trample the rights of millions. Let us relegate them to urban prisons, teach them to work endless hours for miserable remuneration, blight their lives with hopes that their children with live better lives than they. Let us sacrifice the principals that our fathers and mothers and their fathers and mothers fought for, died for, suffered for, so that we can buy yet another piece of plastic, another cashmere jumper, another fake Fender guitar. Come on lets do it. Better yet, lets take a crap job at subsistance wages so that those who are lucky enough to control sufficient capital now can take care of their children, send them to expensive independent schools where they can meet expensive friends whose families control capital and recommend that we bow to the totalitarians and keep our mouths shut so that we can buy just one more television to watch us bow and zip our lips one more time.

ONE AUTUMN DAY...

ONE AUTUMN DAY

Waking up in the morning, stiff and groggy. Stayed up late in Europe watching football in America. The sun and blue, blue sky leak through my blinds. The everyday chores of an everyday life begin. More computers are installed. More screens. More programs.

I remember the woods. The silent woods of my youth. Where nothing happened. Where dew dripped from the branch above my head, slowly, like chinese water torture.

Outside my window a pneumatic drill breaks up the pavement. The city is living, breathing and growing. Faster than the forest. And the clouds contain the data that runs our lives.

http://www.magichelix.com/