The Egret: a poem

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The Egret

A snow-white egret passes our cottage
By the Gumbo Limbo and the Traveller trees.
With its ballet dancer’s step and mobile neck
It reminds me of something……
Ah, yes! Alice playing croquet in Wonderland,
Striking the hedgehog with the flamingo’s head.
Like Alice’s flamingo the egret’s head moves
Restlessly back and forth,
In counterpoint to the watchful head.
Oblivious to us she seeks her prey.
Is she used to human presence,
Or does hunger cast thoughts of danger from her mind?

Down the sandy path she walks,
Inspecting the oleander and hibiscus,
Investigating the philodendrons for tropical bugs,
And the wart fern and monkey grass for ants and beetles,
All the time silent and alert.

Then suddenly she pauses on one leg,
Simply hovering there,
Stock still. A moment of suspense,
She has seen something move in the ixora plants.
She darts forward, a white flash .
……………………

Lazy and replete from its own early dinner
The gecko doesn’t seem to struggle.
It is lost in disbelief. What happened?
With a snap of the bright yellow beak the gecko’s gone,
Another short-lived actor in life’s cruel drama.
Unconcerned, the egret moves on
To peer beneath the Ti plants.

March 2012

Brexit (yawn!) part 1

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After nine months of pandemic punishment, could talk of conflict between former EU allies be less helpful? Yet, days before the deadline for a deal on the terms of the EU/UK divorce, Boris Johnson threatened to deploy warships against French fishing boats in the English channel.

The gunboat diplomacy is pantomime more than poker. In fact, real obstacles to a free trade deal, including a system to prevent unfair competition if the UK diverges from minimum standards on such things as workers rights or environmental rules, are close to resolution. Ursula von der Leyen said today that ‘there is now a path to agreement’ and hinted that the process could go into extra time.

Johnson will ultimately do what he thinks serves his own career and indications are he will compromise – as long as he can sell it as a UK victory. (The Guardian 18 Dec 2020)

Will the ecosystem collapse?

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Ecosystem collapse a risk in one fifth of the world’s countries

The spread of intensive farming threatens to jeopardize the world’s chances of meeting the term of the Paris agreement on the climate crisis.

Nitrous oxide is given off by the overuse of artificial fertilizers, and by organic sources such as animal manure, and has a heating effect 300 times that of carbon dioxide. Levels of nitrous oxide in the atmosphere are 20% higher than in pre-industrial times, with most of the increase coming from farming. Emissions of nitrous oxide are growing at a rate of 1.4% a year, outstripping the forecasts of the intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and, left unrestricted, would put the world on track to exceed the 2% warming limit set in 2015, according to a paper published in the journal Nature. Guardian Weekly. 16 Oct 2020)

Obscene wealth keeps rolling in

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It was a Rand Corporation study showing that, between 1975 and 2018, the equivalent of $2.5 trillion (no, not “billion”!) was transferred annually from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%. (In those years, even the 2% to 9%-ers essentially twiddled their financial thumbs.) Such a transfer of wealth, close to $50 trillion, should stagger the imagination.

And yet, unbelievably enough, in this Covid-19 year of ours, America’s billionaires have simply continued to add to their treasure trove in an overwhelming fashion as significant parts of that 90% went down hard.

According to the Institute for Policy Studies, between March and September, in the midst of a devastating pandemic, the net worth of America’s 643 richest people rose from $2.95 trillion to $3.8 trillion. It’s since topped $4 trillion and a new study suggests that those billionaires could make out $3,000 stimulus checks to everyone in this country and not have a cent less than they had when the pandemic began. And yet, at this moment, with millions of Americans out of work, Congress can barely imagine offering them, at best, the most minimal kind of helping hand, though its generosity when it comes to the Pentagon budget is beyond compare. (Tomgram, 13 Dec 2020)

No comment needed from me!

Lockdown “raves” in Europe

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Hours after England’s new lockdown measures were announced last Saturday, 700 people crammed into a warehouse outside Bristol for an illegal Halloween rave. Police were called to the event in Yate, Gloucestershire, at 10.30pm, but according to a spokesman, crowds refused to disperse, and several officers sustained minor injuries when party-goers, denied entry to the warehouse, started throwing lit spray cans and bottles. The alleged organiser, a man in his 30s, was among eight people arrested. In Wigan, seven police vehicles had their tyres slashed while officers were trying to shut down an illegal music event attended by around 300 people; in Glasgow, 64 people were issued with Fixed Penalty Notices for attending an illegal Halloween party. Officers said no physical distancing was taking place.

Last weekend, protests against the measures turned violent in Madrid, Barcelona and other cities. Italy has also seen violent protests over the past week in cities including Turin, Bologna, Florence, Rome and Naples. Although it has not been as hard hit by the second wave as Spain, cases are now rising rapidly. In response, the government has introduced a nationwide overnight curfew, and a new three-tier system of restrictions and partial lockdowns. (The Week 7 Dec 2020)

My comment: It is one thing to hold an illegal secret meeting while covid restrictions, for good reason, are in force. It is quite another to indulge in violence. “Spoiled young people” is my immediate (maybe intolerant) reaction. Grow up and think of others whose health you are recklessly endangering.