What
strange goings-on happen in the mind when one is asleep? You wake up and know
you have been dreaming but unless the dream is exceptional or very vivid you
don’t remember no matter now hard you try to recall it. On the other hand if
the brain is trying to tell you something very important and you need to wake
up quickly it will produce the most bizarre dream imaginable. For example the
other night I dreamt I was in a small room. There was a single bed and an old
lady lying in it. As I stood there she looked at me and said. “The river has
farted. Rivers don’t do that very often.” I made a dash for the adjourning
bathroom and immediately was wide awake with a burning throat that showed in my
sleep I had suffered an oesophageal reflux, something that hasn’t happened for
years, more years than I can remember as I have never had one in Crete and that
is going on for eighteen years. During the time I suffered a hiatus hernia,
something else I haven’t suffered from all these years, I nearly choked to death
in my sleep more than once and I always made sure I ate early in the evening so
that the food had time to settle somewhat before I went to sleep. The burning
sensation caused by the acid in a reflux can be truly distressing but fortunately
this one was minor. Still it took a good six or seven minutes to clear before I
could go back to sleep again. I still like to eat early in the evening so I
have no idea what could have brought this on.
“The river
has farted. Rivers don’t do that very often.” What a truly weird thing to say.
Sounds like a haiku except it is already one syllable too many.
Golden Dawn
– there’s a misnomer if ever there was one. Dark Dawn would be more appropriate
or, even better, Dark Twilight. For those not up to scratch with the situation
in Greece, thanks to the recession history is almost being replayed with the
founding of a right-wing fascist party named Golden Dawn who, although they
have garnered eighteen seats in parliament are, with their black uniforms,
flags and almost swastika insignia nothing more than street thugs claiming to
be the people’s friend. The Greek people that is, no one else, hence their
parliamentary gains. They have tried to make a show of distributing food to
those in need but only Greeks. However the mayor of Athens Britain
and France
The latest outrage by Golden Dawn was the murder of a left-wing singer. It has created a backlash throughout the country (I should think even with those who voted for them) and, at last, the government appears
to have woken up to the threat
The case files of 32 incidents involving Golden Dawn members
are to be investigated using legislation designed to combat criminal gangs, the
public order minister announced on Thursday.
In a letter to Supreme Court the chief prosecutor requested
that 13 cases from Athens
and 19 from other parts of the country be investigated as the continuous acts
of a criminal organisation under article 187 of the penal code.
The first case dates from 6 June 2012 and involves an attack
by 25 Golden Dawn members on a man in Veria and the last concerns the murder of
Pavlos Fyssas in Athens
in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Among the cases is a September 2012 incident when a Golden
Dawn gang, led by two MPs, attacked non-Greek street traders at a local
festival.
Reporters were told that as the constitution does not allow
for the banning of political parties, "everyone will now be taken before
the courts and this will reverse the activities of this particular party".
Each chapter in the Rattigan biography is headed with a
quotation. I was particularly taken by, “The young have aspirations that never
come to pass, the old have reminiscences of what never happened.” Saki.
How true, how true.
.
1 comment:
Greece's bureaucrats make up half the population, consume more than half the country's income and contribute zilch. But they are the one's protesting and striking. Let them strike; they administer only themselves. You'd all be better off without them.
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