Category Archives: My own

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They told us so …

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… but did we listen?

No.

I’ve found it impossible not to notice the weather this year. Here in the south of England it’s warm – humid and still, with a wind that shakes through now and then, without bringing much rain. So far.

‘Typical Wimbledon weather’ they say cheerily on the news, but it doesn’t feel like it, and I’m sure it’s not. This is not the usual English summer of occasional sunshine peeping through sheets of drizzle. Rather this feels like Meditteranean meets the tropics. And it’s been heading that way for a few years – drier and drier.

Meanwhile all around there is news of far, far worse. Horrific storms. Landslides. Unbearable heat. Wildfires. Forbes reported on July 5th, that July 4th was “… the hottest day on Earth in as many as 125,000 years …” and the days to either side of it equally record breaking. So what do we do?

Cutting back on almost everything seems the way forward for ‘developed’ nations, and demanding support from those nations the only option for those hit by the consequences of over-indulgence and lack of due regard for consequences.

Oh … and may we pray that El Niño will be kind to us.

Dolly Parton puts it well. Hope you have time to watch this video.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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The Gold Mafia – Zimbabwe

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The evidence is on the table, threading through cyberspace – the shame of Zimbabwe.

Al Jazeera has pieced together a painstaking trail that leads right into the golden core of the country’s corruption, exposing some of those who enable it, and the extent and ease of it. Even more shocking is the thought that what has been shown is probably only a fraction of the rot that exists.

The documentary of four episodes, shown on YouTube, showcases how some of Zimbabwe’s so called ‘elite’ – its politically powerful, its prophets, and its perfectly ordinary chancers – are dancing on the destitution of others. They are covered in wealth while around them the health, education and care systems for the majority of Zimbabweans are in a state of collapse, or propped up by other nations.

The Al Jazeera documentary passes no judgement. It reveals.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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The sheer and utter sadness

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How to even begin to comprehend the tragedy facing Turkey and Syria? The shock. The despair. The searching. The loss.

I drove through London today, watching the life on the streets. The pushchairs and children, the teenage lads heading home from school, the shopkeepers, the dogwalkers, the business people stepping briskly on to pedestrain crossings, the black cabs with their yellow lights glowing, the red buses advertising shows, or vegan bacon.

I saw them all in the spring sunshine, and thought of Syria and Turkey.

We are the same wherever we are in the world. We cherish our families, and belong to our communities. Yet we barely know each other.

Where we can, we head home for our evening meals. We eat. We do the washing up. Perhaps watch some television, then say our prayers. We may sleep together, or apart, but we hope for rest, and expect to see each other the next day. Life feels tangible and confident, then suddenly it is not.

Tonight I shall say my prayers, and they shall be for Turkey and for Syria.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023