Go Fly Your Kite

Readers of this blog may have noticed the reduction of political posts for the last few weeks. There are a few reasons for this and I will briefly share them with you.

1. School has started and being back in the classroom has taken much of my energy and time.
2. What time and energy is left over I have book marked for my daughter.
3. The intensity of the Israeli War against Lebanon has left me exhausted and mentally drained.


So when I saw these photos the other day, I thought it fitting to mix politics and art and share some of the hopeful spirit I am trying to foster before I get back in the ring. I have a feeling I will need this reserve of energy as Iran moves into the spotlight of the world’s attention. This work coming from Beirut just reminded me that the human animal is creative and kind. We are meant to be beautiful and inspirational. No matter how much the warmongers destroy, the human spirit will always create and strive to better our collective consciousness. I found these images very powerful. I hope you do too.

Dahyeh, August 25, 2006. one of the most bombed out areas in Beirut. I was asked by local people to paint something happy, to reflect the spirit of the community. Consider that at the time of writing, there are still whole streets of indiscriminate wreckage. Shops, apartment blocks, houses:- rubble. The dust is thicker than a London fog and the machines have barely started to scratch the surface - under which there are still sure to be some of the dead. If I wasn't invited to do this then I wouldn't have. Before starting I banged up a piece of explanatory text on the wall, for which thanks go to Ghassan for the translation into Arabic. It reads: "When Ramallah, in Palestine, is put under curfew by the Israeli Army, nobody goes outside for days. The streets look completely deserted. But from a tall building, if you look out over the city, you can sometimes see hundreds of many-coloured kites, flown from the roof-terraces by the children of Ramallah. The children you can see here are flying kites to celebrate the spirit of the people of Dahyeh. Some kites you can see are flying away. These are for the children who are no longer here; they are no longer held down to the Earth".









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