Some lights just go out; others flicker – but only for a while

Smiles, then laughter, a certainty. Reflecting, reminiscing – alone or with loved ones – and we discover the richness that other lives add to our own, and how much who we are is shaped by such experiences.

Then one day, not death, but dementia knocks.A light starts to flicker, then does so between long pauses, then goes out. And it is traumatic enough when a parent (or older relative) is afflicted. From The Guardian, which has presented a commendable series, a son reflects on his father, Buona notte Papa: the long goodbye to a parent with dementia

‘Somehow along the way, he and Mum (mostly Mum) raised four healthy boys in a remote country town.

‘But now, three years from that first diagnosis, all this is lost to him.

‘He struggles to remember our names. Once loquacious, he is reduced to a muddle between English and Italian. He has no road sense, is usually unaware of his surroundings, and requires constant supervision.’

Some of Mark Brandi’s recounting is very familiar, and does strike that emotional chord with some resonance.

And the thing about it. For the younger set, that trauma turns to nagging anxiety when the disease strikes one of the previously ‘immortal’ group of ‘wastrels’, and that one is even younger.

Which is why, all along the way, so many of us continue that quaint habit of engaging, of socialising, of staying in touch. At a distance, or even closer, no better advice than this classic bit. If as they say, ‘Vita brevis est’, then ‘amor aeternus est’?

El Salvador and its fight to life

But for the grace of, what, luck? Place of birth and station in life. Just imagine being transplanted to El Salvador, and as a peasant or indigenous who depends on water, from streams and rivers, for drinking, cooking, washing and other basic needs of life. And El Salvador is a very poor country, of which the World Bank is aware, since it collects and disseminates data on the country, and provides loans and technical assistance.

Social media, and uniting indigenous nations

The times, they do change. With the corporate media then in totally unchallenged dominance, the voiceless were just that, and an awkward irritant best left ignored. However, with the advent of social media, nations and their peoples that have long existed, but studiously ignored, now have their voices heard. With the corporate media, the plunder of resources – with assorted intimidating murders of community or tribal leaders – would be rationalised as deterring ‘terrorists’ (or evil Communists in another era) from depriving their disadvantaged people of the benefits of ‘civilisation’. The times have changed, as ‘legacy’ media are increasingly being treated with the opprobrium deserved, well-deserved.

Saint Domingue ou Haïti – L’enfer?

Haiti, a cursed country? Une nation des damnés? Les damnés de la Terre? It surely seems so. But, its people, truly ‘resilient’?

As if liberating itself from France (to which it was compelled to pay ‘reparations’ until 1947 for its victory and freedom from slavery) were not costly enough, it would be victim to the forces of nature, hurricanes and earthquakes – and recently the United Nations (and its Nepalese soldiers), not to mention home-grown remarkably corrupt despots, courtesy its northern neighbour, who would do their ‘fair bit’ of pillaging, repression and murder. Haiti is a country with a poverty rate of some 60% and with its one percent as rich as the poorest 45% of the population.

09Oct67 – ‘Che’

Today, 09Oct, marks 49 years that Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara was murdered in Bolivia. As is known, the illustrious ‘Che’ had embarked on a mission to promote the liberation of the masses of people oppressed by corrupt, cupidinous governments imposed by oligarchs or outside powers.  With, The Legacy of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, TeleSUR pays homage to one of the giants of the 20th century, with his light still shining brightly into the 21st – significantly different from  those corporate media-created ‘leaders’,  ‘heroes’, college-degreed mediocrities of insignificant accomplishment and, most assuredly, destined to rather prompt despatch to historical oblivion.