Bonfire NIght

i came across this guy (www.bonfireofthebrands.blogspot.com) over the weekend. he is planning to burn every branded item he owns and set out on a life without brands. his blog documents his journey into a brandless lifestyle, which sounds harder than one might think. how for instance do you wash without branded soap?

living without brands really appeals to me. if we open our eyes in our cities we will see practically every building, every window advertising something. our culture seems to have gone mad, trying to convince people that we need stuff. and the thing is if we think rationally, we know that clark's trainers aren't really any worse than the latest offering from nike's technicians in oregon. we are just buying an image. an image which relates to another image which relates to another image. it is my belief that if we followed the advertisers, we would eventually all become victoria beckham, who herself is just the creation of the media. no wonder celebrities go crazy. take chantelle and preston from this year's big brother, a parable of our times. she was a model, paris hilton look a like who went on tv pretending to be famous. he was in a pretty much unknown band called the 'ordinary boys'who went on tv to get exposure. she fakes being a celbrity and in the process actually becomes a celebrity by virtue of being watched every day and then being beamed into our living rooms every evening. they come out and immediately do the ok, hello scene and she 'lives the dream', while he goes back to being ordinary in his band. she still looks like paris hilton but now has her own makeover show, encouraging girls to change how they look to impress the base male. if i were them i would have absolutely no idea what reality was. tv and the media have created this hyper reality which we all get sucked into and somewhere along the line the gap between the image and the original get completely lost. we are all like bruce lee, another legend who lives through the small screen, in in the hall of mirrors scene from enter the dragon.

so well done the bonfire man! i have a feeling that this is exactly the type of thing people like jeremiah, ezekiel and jesus would be if they were around in our culture today. (although this might all be an advertising trick to establish a brand so we will buy his book?...)

having said all that i don't know if i could live without an apple ibook or kikkoman soy sauce...

Where is your God?

He asked me only one question. Eyebrows furrowed over sunken eyes which ran deep into his soul, his skin was spread to thinly, like the last of scrapings butter on bread. He had an inch long deep wound to his elbow; someone had sprung him on the way home last night with a dirty panga. his makeshift bandage of old washing cloth and matooke leaves slipped and slid this way and that as he walked, revealing once scarlett blood caked and cracking and turning a putrid toprical yellow. But now he stood still, upright, unbowed. He asked me again, gently but with a gale wind force. not of resentment or anger, but with a curiousity which would have been beautiful if it were from the lips of a child. but he had lived and his life soaked his question with only dark colours.

you people you talk of freedom. you talk of hope. and you talk of god. but you are liars. where is your god here? your leaders talk of humanity together and good and evil and triumphing over darkness and terror. but here i tell you there is nothing. our world is as big as the ocean i have never seen but as small as the ground i till everyday. there is nothing for me but this red earth. and where here is your god?

does he wait until we have enough food? or enough money to build with cement and iron? or maybe until we can go swimming in pools with fanta? tell sir, where do you find him - i hear you have supermarkets and cars. do you find him there? or is it just in your cold churches and libraries? maybe you tell me i am hard headed and stubborn with bad manners. and you are right - i am hot headed sometimes. but in this life there is hope or no hope and with no hope we are just like the sugar canes growing today and spat out tomorrow. please ask yourselves can this god you preach really give you enough hope here where we are forgotten.

I love England

Thinking and planning to live in another country in a few years has made me realise how much i like living in england. And yesterday's events at the cricket only me be more fond.

Now i love cricket but only in england would the main news bulletin of the day carry a story about an inconsequential, given that england have already won the series, cricket match being stopped by pakistan refusing to come out after tea. cricket in crisis was the somewhat dramatic headline. it featured umpre daryll hair's - probably the only time in history that a person called daryll will make headline news - accusing pakistan of tampering with the ball and the pakistanis refusing to come out to play. all this was put in perspective when the second item was about the war in iraq and the possible meltdown facing the world this week when iran refuse to stop their nuclear programme.

but brilliant. what a country to care so much about a sport where you play for five days and break for tea! this got me thinking about 10 reasons why england is the best country in the world

1) boris johnson - can you imagine any other country in the world where boris might actually one day be part of a ruling cabinet?
2) fish and chips - an obvious choice but still can anything beat fish and chips sitting on the beach?
3) national parks - just big and dramatic enought without making a walk into a life and death venture
4) the queen - not the monarchy but the queen - all that is best about british reserve, duty and stiff upper lip
5) the globe theatre - shakespeare for a fiver, unbeatable on a hot summer day
6) irony - god bless ricky gervais.
7) underdogs - i love that we instinctively go for the underdog, witness franck bruno or eddie the eagle
8) green things - if you open your eyes, everything here is green and i like green
9) public libraries - not having been to many libraries elsewhere this may not be the most balanaced judgement but english libraries have a great community feel
10) ridiculous sporting optimism - a peculiarly english disease that hits every couple of years, without fail.