Oh, My Secret Heart

The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them — words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller, but for want of an understanding ear.

~ Stephen King ~

Getting it Wrong

At the risk of adding insult to injury I give you this link to a clip showing Mike and Ruby getting a sprint start wrong.

Follow this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXMHoquqsfc.

I am not sure how much was them getting it wrong and how much was the start technology doing the wrong thing at the wrong time.

It takes some serious composure to cope with this stuff at international level.

Reflections on a Strike

The public servants strike that has been going on for the last weeks brings to mind some thoughts regarding strikes and what I believe were the original intentions of strikes as against what seems to have become the intention and manifestation of strikes in South Africa.

To a certain extent this post will be a living work as I formulate and extend my thinking as I have time to review and add to what I write here.

To a large extent the concept of strikes presupposes some kind of a free labour market. In other words workers are not compelled to work and employers are not compelled to employ.

It also does not require that employers employ workers to generate profit from the labour that is performed but does require that the relationship between employers and workers has some kind of financial viability. Deviating to one side of that financial viability is exploitation and to the other side is charity.

My understanding of the original intention of strikes was for workers to withhold their labour in order to demonstrate to their employer the value of that labour. This implies that the workers have a belief in the value that they deliver to their employer that is either not recognised or acknowledged by their employer.

When workers do not deliver enough value to their employer the withdrawal of that labour is not as significant as the workers would like and so their cause is undermined.

There should be no coercion to force others to withhold their labour. In other words no intimidation.

More to come ...

The Usefulness of Poetry

As for the usefulness of poetry, its uses are many. It is the deification of reality. It should make our days holy to us. The poet should speak to all men, for a moment, of that other life of theirs that they have smothered and forgotten.

~ Edith Sitwell ~

How sad it is that we do indeed forget or lose touch with vital aspects of who and what we are unless we consciously strive to retain that contact. And how fortunate we are that there are people who are inspired to create works that, if we allow them, prompt us to explore those hidden or lost areas of ourselves.

Hear Hear

To prevent government from becoming corrupt and tyrannous, its organization and methods should be as simple as possible, its functions be restricted to those necessary to the common welfare, and in all its parts it should be kept as close to the people and as directly within their control as may be.

~ Henry George ~