25 July 2013

Editorial 25 July 2013



Contents: 25 July 2013
Summer Photos: Roger Morton
Wishes for a Prince: Joselyn  Duffy Morton
Art Exhibition, Chateau Tinteillac
Muyinga, Burundi: Chrissie Mougne
Importing contaminated bees to UK: Graham White
Cover caption, Bastille Day
I have taken days to do this posting, mainly because there are so many necessary summer interruptions – take another cold shower, amble over to the neighbour’s for a swim, put some clothes on and visit lovely friends for an aperitif, admit there is no food in the house and drag my bone-lazy feet to the crowded supermarket (keep my dark glasses on for all of the above) attack the weeds with gusto, eat the first lettuce, admire Roger’s 2013 batch of plum jelly; become part of the team of End Ecocide in Europe.
The latter is important and one to which I shall be devoting a lot of time and energy. One million signatures have to be gathered by 1 January 2014 in order for the European Commission to proceed in considering making ecocide a crime, whereby CEOs can be held accountable and made to go to prison for their crimes against the earth.
And for all those sceptics who say ‘there’s no point, what difference could I make’, this will prove you wrong – this is a Citizens Initiative. The European Director is Prisca Metz, who I met in London in May and who has been patiently persuading me ever since. (The international Human Rights lawyer, Polly Higgins has been a driving force in bringing this concept into the world spotlight.) If you haven’t already signed, please do get behind this excellent proposal and add your signature.
https://www.facebook.com/EndEcocideInEurope

Meanwhile enjoy the summer sunlight – we deserve it after that long miserable winter. I have been given the all-clear to begin playing table tennis again (and I will if the temperatures ever go below 30.)
Maybe ce soir, before the next whirl of social activity swarms our way.
Have fun in the sun, Joselyn Morton

Poetry




Wishes for a Prince
From my hospital bed I see
pale green tree tops
set against unruly clouds,
through the wide-open window
I imagine I smell the sea
it has been a long time since I lay
in the cold salty surf, petulant
waves buffeting me carelessly.
I miss that.

My four-year old granddaughter
wishes aloud for a prince, down a
400 year-old-well. (My good friend Jackie says
‘pourquoi pas?’) My two-year old grandson
is egging his sister on, wishing for the prince.
He too knows what he wants - a tractor, 
a real tractor - to drive.

I want them to inherit a world
where their best friends will not die of cancer
where the air is clean enough to breathe,
where life is not so complex. I know
a sister who doesn’t like her brother; a brother who likes
his mother too much. A mother who is sad for them both.
A father who died too soon.
A woman who loses her uterus, her ovaries, then
feels young again, feels like she did before she became a woman
when she felt free.
Joselyn Duffy Morton©


Summer in photos in France

From 13 July to 18 August, L’abbaye de la Couronne 16 is holding its summer exhibition. Invité d’honneur is Gereard Trignac with ‘Les murs murmurent’ Intense gravures reminiscent of ‘Game of thrones’. I rather liked the painting (above) Milen Poenaru’s Le maître but at 6,000  euros this acrylique sur toile was way beyond my personal dreams.


Sunday night was the annual feu d’artifice at our small village of Champagne. This year there was also an extraordinarily good band of drummers – so well-drilled, so enthusiastic and such a hypnotic beat, they were great.


One very hot night, our 23 year old grandson Mitch escaped from the rose bedroom and slept under the mosquito net in the garden. We found this strange cocoon of deep sleep in the bright morning sunlight.