Charity begins here

Took my daughters friends to her school carols last night.
I had to do two trips.
One for my family and the other for the four of them.
I didn't mind the running round coz it's Christmas and i know they have had a rough trot.
These girls are from war torn Sudan and are all extremely tall and quite clever.
Surviving in a war zone will do that I guess.
They've only been here for 4 years or so and are getting awards for their English.
Their father was murdered, I can't get the real story and don't really feel like prying but I know he was shot, perhaps defending the church or perhaps walking to the shop to get the milk.
So I am really proud that M has befriended them.
It must be strange to stick out in this milky white, homogenised neighbourhood.
So this morning I was a little perturbed to find the glorious city of Tamworth has rejected five refugee families from Sudan.
Seems they don't want these poor, traumatised black people drinking their water and bringing diseases.
They dont want another Cronulla riot in their town.
Merry Christmas Tamworth.
I can see you have really taken Jesus's message to heart.
The parable about the good Samaritan, remember that one.
To be fair they reckon they have had some trouble with the last bunch of Sudanese they took in.
People from different cultures in war zones can be tricky to settle down I guess.
If I'd been shot at and seen members of my family murdered or starved I 'd be tricky to settle down too.
Tamworth where is your heart?
Where is that famous country kindness?
Coz I reckon Jesus is ashamed of your mean spirited, ugly actions so close to his birthday.
Hell you don't even deserve an invite to the party.

Blogging is the new punk rock

Well isn't it?
First a little musical history ( or is it mythology) lesson.
By the mid seventies rock had become a bloated beast, at least there was a lot of progresive rock bands with arcane names like Matching Mole and a florrid and complicated aesthetic.
The rock no longer spoke for the people or so the story goes.
I guess if you were growing up on a grey council estate, unemployed then Genesis and Emerson , Lake and Palmer and top of the pops didn't really speak to you.
Along came the Ramones from Usa and Sex Pistols from England to revitalise the whole tired music scene.
It was like early Elvis, simple music full of energy and an Up Yours ATTITUDE.
But most importantly it said" Hey you can do this too".
It was a back to basics approach that screamed DIY.
Do it yourself.
And they did.
People like Blondie, The Pretenders and Talking Heads all sprung out of this scene.
Later punk came to mean something else again and god knows what it means now.
Just another marketing niche.
Anyway what attracts me to blogging is this same attitude.
You can speak your mind.
You can do it yourself.
You can say up yours to the cowering and bland main stream media.
And cover what you feel is important.
What speaks to you.
Of course just like punk or any other musical movement you have to search through a lot of swine to find the real pearls.
Go on Piggies get out there!