Why did the Iraq War worry so many?

Many years ago now, it seems, the world wrangled with itself about a mooted war in Iraq. Washington and London set out to convince their Electorates that a War with now former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein wasn't only necessary it was also inevitable. After about a year of this and the many Radio Talk Shows and much Media Speculation I eventually wrote this Article as my definitive comment on it all. It formed the basis for quite a lot of Media Coverage on the Subject and proved quite influential. Rather than have it stored in some Archive never to be read or seen again I thought I would post it here so you can see and decide for yourselves whether the now ended Conflict was right or wrong. All I know is that after the last Soldiers withdrew a Couple of years ago the Region has descended into Violence and Chaos, and areas of it are now completely ungovernable, or are in the hands of the Islamic Caliphate ISIS. Even the Pentagon - who only in quite recent years - are admitting the fallacies of a War that ended 40 years ago (Vietnam) - are now starting to think the war in Iraq was a mistake. An unprecedented stance in an increasingly uncertain World.

THE IRAQ WAR

In January 1991 I was watching “The Villain” on BBC 1, when all of a sudden Richard Burton disappeared, and the Beeb went over to  “Special report” mode. Martyn Lewis announced that operation “Desert Storm” had been launched - taking us over to Dahran air base and Brian Barron, engulfed in a wave of jet fighter sounds and air raid sirens. The sirens, Brian explained, screamed because Saddam had launched Scud missiles, and it was believed that they were heading for his location. A lot of  Martyn - Brian, Brian - Martyn tooing and froing unfolded on the screen, as we were given that sense of immediacy only broadcast media can create in times of crisis. Brian’s journalistic mastery conveying the real sense of history he was witnessing, The pictures of Tornado aircraft taking off into the darkness, the sirens still wailing in the background, then suddenly NOTHING!!!. Whiteout, a snowstorm picture with a white noise soundtrack where a BBC news veteran had, moments earlier, filled my portable! I remember the overwhelming sense of shock, the pulse quickening, and mind racing with ”what's happened?” questions, the sudden contrast as Martyn Lewis, surrounded by soundproofed studio silence, gamely held the broadcast together, finding himself on an electrical frontline where the chilling abruptness of war suddenly became very very real!

This was our introduction to a whole new way of fighting a war, when the technology being employed in the air and on the ground in Iraq, would be matched by  the advances in media coverage techniques that became a part of all our lives in the weeks to follow. Peter Arnett of CNN - a news organisation only regularly watched by the - then - minority of people with cable or satellite TV suddenly appearing on every terrestrial box in the land! A prototype News 24 service, put together by circumstance as the BBC opened its newsroom to the events happening in a desert 1000's of miles away! The jargon that would find its way into the lexicon of every day parlance, and the expert academics becoming the new celebrities of the moment! I remember the eerie cogniscience of seeing a Broadcast in the darkness - and later watching a squadron of Stratofortresses vapour trailing the dawn skies on their way back to Gloucestershire after a “Carpet bombing” mission. These were all momentous events in a seismic chapter of time when the world was in flux! To understand what I mean look at the 'then' world order...............

Political geography had just changed as the impossible became possible and the Warsaw pact gaffed and lumbered its way into extinction. Every street in eastern Europe had been filled with  jubilant crowds of newly liberated people, who'd seen their communist rulers fall one by one as an intelligent, enlightened man in the Kremlin left them to their own devices. The Berlin wall - that dividing line of world ideologies that so scarred the psyche of cold war Europe - had been reduced to souvenirs on mantelpieces around the world, and the Iron curtain had been drawn back to let in the light of freedom. Europe had been made whole for the first time since the out break of the second world war, and we all basked in a new spirit of optimism.   U2 provided the soundtrack  with “Achtung baby” - freed Trabants guesting at their live shows.

At the turn of the year we were still riding the wave, and Saddam was going to get squashed by the biggest international military build up since D day, about to crash onto him like a mighty Tsunami.   To add a paradoxical twist that somehow compounds the certainty of the moment, Massive Attack - whose rule book trashing ”Blue lines” album appeared the year before - dropped the ”Attack” suffix to the name as an act of protest for the duration.  Everything seemed to be balanced  in a way we could all readily understand.                                                        This was a very tumultuous period indeed..... .......................................and a very long time ago!!!


Back then we weren't having any of Saddam’s claims that Kuwait belonged to Iraq, a contention dating back to when Baghdad was first granted sovereignty. The protestations that the tiny Emirates over-production of oil was forcing down the price of Iraqi petroleum , and that a lot of it was being drawn from a source that was partially theirs anyway! He'd overstepped the mark, ignored UN security council resolutions to quit Kuwait, and something was going to be done about it!

This wasn't the first time the west had taken military action with the country over oil as - long before Mr Hussein assumed the presidency and stepped into the annals of international notoriety - Britain dispatched forces to Iraq to prevent the USSR getting too close to the Baghdad government - and therefore the precious resource the area seems to float on! To call the region volatile is an understatement, as Baghdad and Tehran’s bickering over the disputed Shatt al Arab waterway blew up into a full scale war, (ignited by an Iranian Kurd problem spilling over into Iraq at the turn of the 80s), resulting in an 8 year conflict that cost an estimated 1 million lives. Ironically, at that time Kuwait was Saddam’s ally - probably because they saw the arabic Ba'athist dictator as more favorable than the theocratic Persian Mullahs in Iran, and the simple geographic buffer presented by Iraq that afforded them protection from the Ayatollah! Looking further back, David Leans epic film portrayed how captain T E Lawrence (of Arabia) assisted the fledgling Iraqi nation in its guerrilla war against Turkish hegemony in the early 20th century, and up until the 1950s Baghdad was a member of what was then known as the “Sterling Bond” linking their currency to ours................The twists and turns of Arabic destiny is steeped in blood, oil, violence, and betrayal going back centuries, and Mr Bush Jr is about to become another player in the game of middle eastern politics.

The Persian gulf war of the early 90s was a relatively straight forward affair, a recognisably 'legitimate' international response to an intolerable violation of one countries territorial sovereignty by another, and one that was easily sold to electorates and politicians the world over. A global sentiment that had echoes in the similar international reaction to the atrocities of 9/11, when the world really did sing in unison about how justice must be done to those responsible. The mighty tidal waves that carried the respective coalitions into those wars has diminished to not much more than a ripple, upon which George Bush Jr rides a surf board of technicalities, and an up hill political struggle shared by our own Prime minister. Theoretically, we could (and some say should) have finished off the job in 1991, using the vast array of military materiel in the area at the time. But the war was based on the premise that we were liberating one country from another, and therefore the campaign had reached its conclusion the moment the last Iraqi soldier crossed the border back into his own country. I remember how, when that had happened, George Bush Sr rallied the Shia marsh Arabs in southern Iraq to rise up against the government, and how they were brutally put down by the remnants of Saddam’s army, rendered prostrate before any conventional force but still more than a match for a lightly armed group of largely poor civilians (They actually got more practical support at the time from Iran than any western source!)

At that time the cold war had just ended and the seed that would later grow into Al Qa,eda had its roots in the Moujahadin rebellion that drove the Soviets out of Afghanistan the previous decade. How many of us can remember those 80's dispatches of  smiling Afghans surrounding captured or knocked out Russian tanks - portrayed as heroes in the struggle against soviet oppression? That same man in the Kremlin had long realized the folly of the USSR adventure in his southern neighbour, and to prevent the hemorrhaging of more lives and money his country could afford, he withdrew, leaving Afghanistan to continue her own destiny. The problem is that while Moscow attempted to subjugate Kabul with sheer military might, the west - through its proxys - supported the rebels, and when the Red army left the country to her own devices so did we! By definition Bin Laden’s men were allied - though tenuously - to us, so when the gulf war was under way those that would later become the worlds most wanted terrorist organisation would technically have been on the same side. But they were left behind, in a country brought to its knees by war, a land with no clearly defined structure in which to function, a place where hatred could (and did) fester, a place ripe for the propaganda of the merchants of  violence! Osamas Saudi family had huge financial interests in both construction and oil, so any multinational military force that would indirectly safeguard the interests of the Saudi petrodollar was also unwittingly protecting the huge financial resource that later helped fund those responsible for some of the most notorious acts of terrorism committed in the 1990s.

There's an expression that sums up the region quite eloquently, and so it should as it was coined by an Arab any way........”Your enemy's enemy is not necessarily your friend!” Right now we're in the process of courting favour with the Saudis for permission to use their airbases in the same way as we did 11 years ago, but this isn't 11 years ago, and we aren't going in to release a small country from Saddam’s iron grasp. Saudi Arabia isn't a democracy, and one wonders what the ordinary people of the region are going to think as they see this campaign unfolding on their TV screens via Al Jazeera. Something between 100,000 and 200,000 civilian lives were lost in a war that was about driving an occupying force out of another country, so what will the cost in civilian lives be when trying to drive the same army from their own?  Saudi money was the principal lifeline for Al Qa'eda, and the events of 9/11 proved that there is a completely undeterred network of terrorists capable of executing the biggest blow to American domesticity since the Japanese raid on Pearl harbour. Put all these factors together can we guarantee that the Saudi government will be able to hold on to power, when the Saudi people (and others in the region) begin to see the body count mount up? What measures would they have to begin to apply should civil unrest begin to hit the streets, and how would any response look in the eyes of the rest of the Moslem world? Would we not be giving every Islamic terror group on earth the best recruiting sergeant they ever wanted, rendering them capable of waging their particular brand of warfare at home and abroad?...........................................................And what about the Iraqis themselves?

Iraq is a country that owes its very existence to insurrection, a proud people that has fought off the advances of many foreign powers for 100s of years, and the current regime has enjoyed absolute rule for over 20. Even if we drove Saddam from every sphere of local, regional, and national government - installing the desired regime and bolstering it with military and financial support, where would the Ba'athists go if they weren't all killed or captured, and who's to say that they wouldn't form a guerrilla army of their own and wreak havoc both in and outside the country? The new world order has changed dramatically over the last 10 years, and the developing world has demonstrated both on 9/11, and at the recent earth summit, that they aren't scared of us anymore, and the old subserviences that the 19th and 20th centuries were made of are beginning to evaporate. Our government has tried to establish a link between Saddam and Bin Laden in its attempt to justify the campaign. The irony is that any links at all could be reinforced totally by this war as remnants of both Al Qaeda and the Ba'athists find common cause in their hatred and contempt for the west, and the US and Britain particularly!  We could be in danger of galvanizing the very entity that the post 9/11 war on terrorism was supposed to deal with, as any perceived western threat  extremists in the region (and beyond) have been pointing out to anyone who would listen begins to take on the characteristics of a promise.........................are we not playing into their hands?

There is the instantly obvious paradox that any link between Bin Laden and Saddam is theoretical compared to the fact that he has one with the very country the majority of the new coalition is going to be based.

Lurking in the background is the question of Iran, and how do they fit in with this scenario? During the gulf conflict, the old “Enemies enemy ......” adage became very appropriate, as upon the declaration of war they proclaimed their neutrality. A neutrality that meant 100 Iraqi pilots fled to Iran rather than fight western aircraft or stay at home. Here you had a country who - only 2 years earlier - were negotiating their way out of a bloody war with Iraq that had cost them 100's of thousands of lives and severe damage to civilian and industrial infrastructure. It proves that even the most bitter enmities in the region can be over ridden in the face of an outside military power - and, rather than side with us, Rafsanjanis government opted to become the Switzerland of the region by staying out of it. They have progressed since the days of Khomeini, with moves towards moderation and renewing diplomatic links with the west, and I wonder whether putting them in the same category as Iraq with the so called “Axis of evil” might threaten to turn the clock back. A danger that could become all too real when they begin seeing the hostilities raging on the other side of the border! ..........................................................It would force the obvious question “Who's next?”

Ostensibly, the reason we are going to war against Saddam is because of his refusal to comply with the UN resolutions surrounding his weapons of mass destruction, and a desire in the White house for a “Regime change” . Whether he possesses them or not is less important than the fact that if he did have them, would he use them? He certainly did against Kurdish villages, and during the war with Iran in the 80s, and if he still had any left would he use them on Allied troops in any conflict? If this war was interpreted in Baghdad as some kind of end game then the chances of a biological or chemical attack on coalition forces (maybe even Kuwait, Turkey or Saudi Arabia) escalate drastically! During the gulf war Saddam knew that the forces pitted against him were there to liberate Kuwait, not topple him from power. This time he'll be all too aware of what the ultimate objective will be, and as he lost about a third of his conventional forces in 1991 will he resort to other weapons at his disposal?*  Couple that with the scorched earth policy he used at that time - setting fire to Kuwaiti oil wells, and releasing millions of gallons of crude oil into the gulf - the potential consequences on both human life and the environment are unthinkable! Even if  a new regime was installed in Baghdad, how much security would be needed to protect the oil production mechanism from terrorist attacks by a group of people who feel they have nothing to lose?

*He has also shown a willingness to use innocent people as hostages, as was demonstrated in 1990/91 with the so called “Human shield” strategy - using foreign civilian nationals as bargaining chips in a kind of blackmail to the coalition forces!

If the proposed campaign had too much of a unilaterally Anglo-american bias any new regime would be closer to Britain and America in a very direct sense than any other state in the region, with a  political pipe line into Washington and London, which raises the inevitable question about the consequences on oil production and prices. How are the other gulf states going to respond to the prospect that Iraqi oil could enjoy favoured status in the west against their own product as a 'be good' incentive to the new government? Would the Iraqi oil industry be denationalized anyway, opening it up to foreign private ownership, and therefore removing control of the country's biggest resource from Baghdad? (Provoking potential criticism that we would be undermining Iraq's sovereignty and position as a self determined Nation State by the back door for financial motives, thus exacerbating an already precarious political situation, and therefore compromising our own standing in the middle east as a force for justice!) Saudi Arabia, who have had to be chivvied   more than most regarding the planned campaign, could find itself in a far less powerful position in the region than the one it has enjoyed for decades, so what would the consequences be on their internal stability should their monarchistic government begin to show signs of weakness? One expert on Saudi affairs described the country as a house of cards which could very easily collapse should too much pressure befall it, and Bin Laden enjoys a lot of support on the ground there. Could we really run the risk of lighting the touch paper of a firework with his name on in an oil rich country like that? A very frightening thought indeed!

Much has been made about the UN in the political haggling over the proposals, but up until September last year the USA had arrears of around $2.3billion in its subscription to the organisation. (This would be enough to run it for an entire year!) Since then they've paid a substantial amount towards this, but it's still claimed to be an estimated 1$billion shortfall on the amount owed. It's sad that it wasn't until 9/11, when their vulnerability to attack was revealed, they decided to make moves towards clearing the debt. A cynic could argue that they decided to make amends to restore UN confidence in Washington should the White house need them for any plans they might have in their foreign policy! Or that, because of the attrocity committed last year they finally realize the true worth of the organisation as the main hope towards world peace! If they, and other western powers, got up to date with their subscriptions the UN would be in a much stronger position to be a bit more forceful with its peace keeping role, and maintaining international law over 'rogue' regimes like Saddam Hussein, bolstering the weapons inspection teams etc. (Maybe even installing and reinforcing a substantial UN mission in Iraq that would work so closely with Baghdad, Saddam would have very little choice but to comply! After all, if he thinks letting the UN back in would prevent the war and stop him from being “Smart bombed” out of office - therefore saving face with the Arab League - it could also be a step towards fostering some kind of legitimate indigenously developed opposition in a country that has never really known any, and set Iraq on a course that could ultimately, and more importantly, free itself from his ruler-ship from the inside. This would give any new government an unshakable mandate to exist, both in the eyes of the Iraqi people, and to the outside world. It would also present us with the opportunity to bring Saddam to justice for war crimes and human rights violations! The danger of using force in the way that we did then is that he could very well go into hiding, running the country from an undisclosed location the minute the first coalition plane takes off!!!) “Desert storm” cost an estimated $53billiion, at 1991 prices, so how much this operation would cost in today's money is incalculable. Money spent in a war with a very uncertain conclusion, and one that could set the whole region ablaze in conflict for years. Wouldn't it be more sensible for us to invest that sort of money in organisations like the UN, with their commitments to peace keeping, human rights, the environment, and work to improve the quality of life for peoples where ever they are?

I'm not sure whether they've thought this through very well at all, and I think Tony Blair is in danger of losing sight of the necessary objectivity in dealing with Mr Bush. At a time like this it is crucial to be constructively critical of any grand foreign policy making on either side of the Atlantic,.To his credit, Mr Blair has been very effective in securing some restraint in Washington , and he has shown a willingness to be open to serious questions raised in Parliament. The global wave of sympathy for the west after 9/11 has been severely compromised over the whole Iraq debacle, and we are in danger of isolating ourselves from the international community. National opinion is against a unilateral war in Iraq, and the whole argument has distracted attention from the proposals to rehabilitate Afghanistan. Are we in danger of spreading ourselves too thinly as a result of this? Former President Bill Clinton believes so, saying we should concentrate our efforts in Afghanistan. He could be right. We need to disarm the causes of terrorism, before people become terrorists, (let alone rogue states) and the opportunity to do this in Kabul is one we should capitalize on as much as possible!

Yes, I am worried about the proposed war on Iraq, not out of any appeasement or defense of the Baghdad government, (far from it) but out of the potential consequences for the world where I live, and the one my family will have to grow up in. A world that I believe is in a situation potentially more dangerous than it might have been during the Cuban Missile crisis! The potential fault line dividing the 2 sides is rooted in something far older, and etched far more profoundly in the souls of those involved than a comparatively transient political ideology that has only been around for about 150 years . The old cold war policy of Mutually Assured Destruction (”M.A.D”) is alive and well, but the potential for insanity runs much deeper, and is a lot more volatile

..........Oh, and what would make for an ominous piece of broadcasting? - Watching BBC1 as they show a well known film starring Peter O'Toole!!!


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John Arthur Wynne - an unsung Philanthropist!

John Arthur Wynne

"He called for Legislation to enable ‘all to read the entire word of God’, for which Petitions would be presented ‘from all parts’ of Ireland ‘if the influence of the Catholic Hierarchy could be withdrawn for a few months’"

This is from The History of Parliament online - a direct quote, not an adaptation, and while it might sound like something from a Cecil B Demille Epic - in reality and seen in purely secular terms it establishes the philanthropic Credentials of a largely unheard of - but very influential historical Figure!

So who was - and who were - John Arthur and the Wynnes of Hazelwood and Lietrim - Co Sligo, Ireland? A family who trace their origins to a 12th Century Chieftain of Wales who came from Lake Bala - and are related to those of Gwydir? Why was he so influential, but why haven't many People heard of him?

Maybe some of that is answered by the Level of Reactionarism in the Catholic Hierarchy against his campaign to promote literacy. That he had to keep them in check for a few months to be able to enact this Policy suggests that anyone - regardless of Benevolence - was somehow tarred with the same Brush as those not so philanthropic in the interests of a very Black and White depiction of the British presence in Ireland. The Foundation for his work was established by his Father - Owen - an MP in the Gratton Parliament who voted against the controversial Act of Union 1880, everyone from the most ardent Fenianist to Poet Laureat Seamus Heaney has criticized. These things never get mentioned in the Plethora of Stereotypes but even they must concede - Can there be any more substantial force for liberation than helping those Irish People Irish Nationalism always claims to represent than ensuring they can read, not only the scriptures but everything - including the Rent Book and all those other every day things? It's a Paradox isn't it - that Catholics resisted exactly this! There is an unfortunate History of what happened to others who did similarly liberating things - William Tyndale for example..

Owen Wynne

Documentaries about Irish Immigrants to the Americas might have those Letters to and from Ireland and the Americas, but how did they learn to read and write them?

This might seem trivial to People today but even now how easy would it be to scam someone who couldn't even read what was stamped on a Coin or Banknote?.

For example; Someone says how he thought he gave someone else 20p. He's asked whether it was - or might have been 50p? He says he doesn't know - but he gave the Coin with the Corners on it. They might give someone a £10 - only to be told it was only £5 - so they give them another.

In the 1840's when the worst Landlords wanted to evict a Tenant. The latter could show the former the Rent Book with last weeks Rent written recorded and even signed by the Landlord. That Landlord - with a Justice of the Peace in his Pocket - says I haven't signed or recorded anything in 6 Months. It's the beleaguered Tenants word against the Landlords.

Writing Letters meant you could communicate with Friends or Relatives in Dublin, Belfast - even abroad - like you couldn't before. To realize the significance of this just consider how Email has helped Peoples lives. Being able to write from or to People from the remotest regions of Ireland had the same effect as sending an Email to New Zealand might now.

So it wasn't just being able to read the Bible Wynne was trying to encourage, the ramifications of his Campaign are apparent to anyone. When he says how the Catholic Hierarchy had to be kept in check just long enough to enact this he doesn't just mean a few recalcitrant Priests or a Bishop or two, he means a Structure that goes as far as Rome, in a Europe dominated by Catholicism.

After People had done what others couldn't (or wouldn't) do, teach the Populace how to read Goidelic the Reactionaries condemned not just the Practice but also the Language. Admittedly it was hoped that those now literate Goidelic speakers might become Protestant, but even if they didn't they still had a Skill they were denied before. Teachers recruited from the literate Catholic Community to do this were pragmatic - despite the Conflict in Theology, seeing it as a Job with regular Wages open to them and similarly denied before. So, despite having Blood as Milesian as any Priest they - and those who learnt - were condemned as "Sassanach". (the derisory term Jacobites had for the English).

The Catholic stance on all this is skewed because it forgets how People define their Irishness. How literate Celtic Christian, or Culdean Clerics arrived in Ireland and began collecting the Stories about the Tuatha de Danaan, Firbolg and Partholonians and wrote them down. Had they not done this - or not had the necessary skills - the Stories about Nuada, Cuchulain, Maeve, Ferdia etc would have been long forgotten. Had that Catholic attitude prevailed would Goidelic be spoken at all now?

So, who's doing more to promote and protect Irish Culture - those who wanted to ensure People could at least read and write it - or those who would rather keep them in Ignorance and Superstition for Centuries?

I don't know how much Martin Scorsese knows about our History but has the maker of "Gangs of New York" asked why some of those People arrived pitiful, and who couldn't even read their own Language - let alone Amerenglish? That that Reactionaryism in the Catholic Hierarchy meant that even by the 1840s some People were still illiterate when they got there!

So, not only was Wynne helping to free Irish People from the darkness of a deliberately promoted ignorance - which might have got him burnt at the Stake only a couple of Centuries earlier - he was also one of the Architects of Emancipation. (The Slavery Abolition Act 1833).

The Act of 1833 and its conclusion in 1838

This was when he presented Petitions to Parliament lobbying for the Abolition of Slavery.

Did the 13th Amendment cost Abraham Lincoln his life?  After all - when it was passed a few disgruntled former Confederate Plantation Owners must have been miffed - just how much opposition would People like Wynne have had 35 years before? When you watch the Film "Lincoln" you see how difficult it was to get the Legislation through a comparatively small Congress - what must it have been like in a Parliament that was then even bigger than it is today - with those Irish MPs there too? Abe Lincoln was a President - those Abolitionists were just MP's and a few Landed Gentry wanting to end something even Royalty were involved with. That needed resolve and not the sort of Courage you drink.

That opposition wouldn't have just come from the Slave Seaports like Bristol and Liverpool. How many associated Industries would have been affected? The Cotton and Textile Mills of Greater Manchester and the North West, the Tobacco Trade in Bristol, those involved in Sugar, Molasses and others catering to the Empires sweet Tooth. There's a superb Documentary by a descendant of a Slave who came from Liverpool - a modest Fishing Village before the Trade started - and he shows you those Street Signs synonymous with the Trade - including Penny Lane! Huge industrial lobbying power buying Votes.

But even after years of a War that had brought America to her Knees there were still those Representatives who wouldn't vote for the 13th Amendment, which suggests just how recalcitrant the Resistance to Emancipation was - even after we'd set the Precedent.

How would 1833 influenced America?

Britain wasn't like it is now and 200 years ago ran most of the known World in its vast Empire - from Canada to Australia and New Zealand. So how long would it have been after the ending of Slavery in most of the Empire before its effects would encourage and boost the Emancipation Movement in the US? The Fact that Tobacco and Cotton was produced by Slaves before the Continental War of the 1700s would resonate with some a Century later.

Fast forward to the 1840's and you have this......

The Irish Famine

It's almost become a Cliche but many People know about the Famine in Ireland that killed something like 1000,000, caused by the Potato Blight. Equally cliched is the impression we're given that all the Landlords in Ireland were Robber Barons - plundering and exploiting their Tenants, exporting other Foodstuffs - and taking advantage of their Plight to clear Land for other uses. This is a hugely inaccurate and very misleading Representation of Fact as not all of them were - and some were even helpful.

John Arthur Wynne was one off the helpful ones.

He reduced the Rents, improved the Infrastructure by building a Canal to Sligo - and even paid for Peoples passage to Canada, all of which helped on more than one Level.

What was different to his approach and many others was how those he helped weren't plundered of their Savings by Owners of the so called "Coffin Ships" to a very uncertain future - and they arrived in Canada with some Money. There were very many who didn't, whose Plight was wretched in the extreme.

By improving the Infrastructure not only could People travel to the nearest large Town to ply their Trade (Blacksmith, Wheelwright, Carpenter, Stone Mason, etc) they could also take the Produce of their Wife/Daughters Cottage Industries with them to sell. After all, who are they going to trade or sell to if their only Customers are as broke and starving as they are - trapped in a tiny Village or Hamlet?

That while you were in Sligo Town Ships are bringing in Foodstuffs that you could also access/buy with the Money you have just made. Imported Produce, Sea Food from the Trawlers etc - so you aren't totally reliant on the stricken Potato Crop..

Plus you have less Rent to pay because he reduced it. He also proposed an inquiry into Irish Tenure!

The Tragedy is that he lost his Wife - Lady Anne Wandesforde Butler - while she was involved in Anti-Poverty work during all this.

John Arthur Wynne with his Wife

So, occasionally there are People who are quite awesome - some of whom you don't hear very much about - John Arthur Wynne was one of them......

Hazelwood House

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The real Middle Earth????

How many People have read the "Lord of the Rings", or "The Hobbit" - and many other works by Tolkien and asked why they are so powerful as Stories they almost seem like History? That you read them and it feels like these things, and these People, happened at some time, very many years ago?

Why does Tolkien seem to invoke something that the similarly epic C S Lewis doesn't?

Tolkien might have answered that question himself when he said that "to make a Story believable it has to have some basis in reality!"

But what "Facts" has he based his vast Stories on? Where do all these things happen, these People come from, the Land itself?

What is interesting about Tolkien is how his Books - starting with "The Silmarillion" and ending with the Appendices of "Return of the King" - is how they are almost a study in the formation of Britain as much as they might be that of Middle Earth. That to read those you also do the ancient History of our own Land, and his Authority as an Academic - the Philology of Languages - how Words travel - the emergence of Quenya, Sindarin, Khuzdul and Westron - apply to our own Peoples as they do his.

Although CS Lewis also drew on "Facts" many of his applied to other People, other Cultures, which is why his "Narnia" Stories don't have a similar - almost archetypal - significance that Tolkien's work might. It seems apparent that to obtain his "Facts" Tolkien used his Knowledge as a Philologist as a template to construct his Characters and their Abodes and Adventures.

Paul Dunbavins Book "Picts and ancient Britons" attempts a similar Journey when he explains who the mysterious Picts were and where they came from. That by using place names and some Words found inscribed in what is now Scotland he also traces the origin of those Characters the World grew to love after "The Hobbit" was published in 1934.

So where did all this start?

To do this any Atlas with a decent map of northern Europe showing Scandinavia and Britain, along with the Atlantic Coast of Canada would help, and so - surprisingly would one of California. (All will be explained) While so might the Atlas's of Middle Earth by either Karen Wynn Fonstat or Brian Sibley. Those Maps of the First Age. Oh, and a Copy of "The Silmarillion".

Second Age Map showing the inland Sea of Helcar to the far East, Numenor before its destruction and note the small Island just to the east of Valinor....... read on!

So we begin....

Paradoxically, for someone who claimed not to be influenced by Celtic Mythology - which he described as "Unreasonable" and who had an apparent dislike of Goidelic (Gaelic) one of the biggest Clues is found in the name of his Creator - Eru. This sounds very similar to the Deity who gave her name to Ireland - Eriu or Eire, while referring to the Map of the First Age you'll notice how Valinor, the Realm of the Valar - corresponds with the Emerald Isle. But then considering his interest in Norse Mythology and the Viking Settlement of Ireland perhaps it isn't as surprising. Maybe to somehow legitimize the Norse presence in Ireland - or explain it - he fuses the Mythology of a Culture he was passionate about with one far more ancient to that of the indigenous.

We are given the Tolkien Creation Myth which I won't go into here, except the mentioning of the Two Trees (Telperion and Laurelin - more of that later) but ultimately we are told how the People start to appear. The Firstborn - the Elves  - far to the East, on the eastern Shores of the inland Sea of Helcar - in a place called Cuiviennen. They begin to travel west, and while there are some who settle Areas of Arda (the Earth) collectively called the Moriquendi (Elves of darkness) from whom the Sindar descended - the Caliquendi continued and eventually reached Aman (Valinor). These two groups are thus those that have not seen the light of the Trees, and those who have.

This is where Geography and Philology fuse to reveal the Migration of People as they correspond with these Characters.

Tolkien created 2 Languages for his Elves, Quenya and Sindarin. Quenya, he based on Finnish, Sindarin predominantly on Welsh. So, his Sindar who are from the Moriquendi who settled Arda and never went to Valinor could also be a People who spoke proto-Welsh (Brythonic) who lived in Briton for 1000s of years. All Moriquendi were Teleri Elves but there were some who did make that Journey. Like some Britons who did go to Ireland. These are called the Cruthin People by the Gaels - People who it is thought were related to others in Briton.

So what is Quenya and who spoke it?

As I mentioned Quenya is derived from Finnish, part of the Finno-Ugric group of Languages spoken in Finland, Estonia and Hungary (Magar being the latter). This is where the 2 Maps (Arda - Tolkien) and Scandinavia and the Baltic (Atlas) start to help. If looked at in terms of ancient History the Proto-Finns and Balts (called the Aesti) came from that region and somewhere which straddles the Russo-Finnish border called the Veiner Karelia. It's believed that they traveled west and even reached as far as Ireland. They settled for a while, offered their Services as Warriors to an Irish King, married 7 widowed Princesses and then went to what is now Scotland. This is where the 7 Pictish Kingdoms came from. Paul Dunbavin explains how Pictish might not be a 'Celtic' Language at all - and is in fact derived from that of those Finnic People who arrived in Scotland via Ireland. Quenya is spoken by the High Elves - those who did get to Valinor, while the Sindar who didn't gradually adopted Sindarin.

Rather like those Elves People gradually adopted Brythonic - or merged their and that Language. What's interesting about Goidelic is how it might be a Celtic Language - but it is quite different to Welsh and Breton. That it might be a Hybrid of what the Milesians brought with them and what the Natives spoke. So, maybe something similar happened in Briton - while everyday Parlance was gradually conducted in its native Language. The Noldor returned to an Arda where other Elves had already settled for Centuries and the same process happened.

So, in this context, who were the Picts? It is widely thought the name Pict derives from the Word Picti - or Painted People, referring to their liberal use of Body Art. The "Wodes" of Gerry Bruckheimers Film "King Arthur" so named for the Blue dye they adorned themselves with before going into battle. But there's another supposition about their name. According to Mr Dunbavin the Norse word for Pict was "Peti" - a somewhat derisive reference to a People not as large as they were. Thus, the 7 Picish Kingdoms become the 7 Dwarf Lords, even the 7 Dwarves of Snow White fame....... but is it that simple?

As those Proto-Finns traveled west there must have been a collision with - or merging of - them and the Germanic Norse of Scandinavia.. Like the Vikings they are described as a seafaring People whose Journeys could have started 1000s of years ago, but who influenced who here? New Age Departments in Bookshops sell Runes, strangely carved Letters or Symbols on small Stones - called the Futhark. A Norse form of Shamanism and Divination, but while the Vikings might have a certain Chauvenism about those "peti" the Dwarven Cirth developed by Tolkien as a written form of Khuzdul (Dwarvish) looks very similar. Does he suggest a mingling of the Cultures - Proto-Finnic and Proto-Norse?

SO WHO CAME FIRST - THE DWARF OR THE ELF..........OR EVEN THE PICT?

That's an interesting question, because as there seemed to be a merger between Dwarves and Elves via their Script vis a vis the Futhark Runes and Norse Mythology and Symbols, here we rediscover "The Hobbit" and the Dwarf Leader Thorin Oakenshield. Maybe his name is derived from that of a Pictish King called Tharain, so too was Thrain. But then here's something else that seems to suggest they might be merged. It was reported by the Romans that Pictish Warriors carried a Snack - rather like a Bean - that could sustain them all day. this is rather like Lembas - the Waybread the Elves prepare - which "One small bite is enough to fill the Stomach of a grown Man".

This is the proverbial Password that opens the Gate of rather more than Moria!

"The Silmarillion" is named after the cause of the eventual downfall or Curse of the Noldor and the many Battles that took place in the First Age between the Children of Illuvater (of Eru) and those of the arch antagonist Morgoth. Feanor crafts his Silmarils - Jewels wrought from the Light of the Trees. In real Life - and to this day - Baltic Amber is famed the world over as it graces Rings, Pendants, Necklaces and all other Trinkets. Amber is derived from the Sap (or Light) of Trees and has hardened into a Stonelike Substance - which is then worked into Gemstones for Jewelry. This suggests a Craft that travelled with those Finnic Balts which would have appeared anywhere they might have lived - including Ireland and Briton. Thus Feanor represents this when he makes his Jewels.

How do these appear in Briton and our History you might ask? The answer to that is found in the Dal Raitian People who settled western Scotland and some of the western Isles - the Sil Conaire - or Seeds (descendants) of Connary Mor. A Tribe from what is now Ulster they were renowned Craftspeople - making particularly beautiful Jewelry. Thus Tolkien derived his syllable "Sil" from the Word Sil - or Seed.. It is from this Line came subsequent Kings of Ireland and the Celtic Kings of Scotland including David lst and Alexander lllrd. (More of this in a moment).

How about those Trees and who or what is influencing things here?

Norse Mythology has its Yggdrassil - a giant Ash Tree. But maybe this has a Seed that came from elsewhere - somewhere more ancient? The Kalavela is the Finnish Mythology equivalent of the Norse Edda and any other Mythology subscribed to. Here we find a deity called Rauni, who is described sometimes as a Thunder God, a Woman consort to Ukko - but also a Rowan Tree. Considering a Rowan Tree is a Mountain Ash there is an obvious connection with the huge Tree of the Norse, while Geography suggests a concurrence or even a merge. Also, Viking Prowess as Sailors is legendary, but did this also come from somewhere else?

So you have a People east of the Baltic, whose journey west would have meant travelling down - or across - the Norway/Sweden Peninsular - whose Culture, Customs and Crafts traveled with them. Who met and merged with proto-Germanic Norse, and who eventually got here via Ireland. Tolkien has his Elves traveling west, crossing or traversing a Sea to the East, crossing a Land, sailing to another further west - then coming back East.

ALQALONDE, THE CURSE OF THE NOLDOR AND CONAIRE MOR.

When the Host of Feanor pursue Morgoth to retrieve the Silmarils they reach the Seaport of Alqualonde and after being refused the Ships of the Falmari a Battle ensues. Many Elves are killed and Feanors Host sieze the Ships - sailing east to Arda. For this they are cursed by the Valar. To become King of Ireland Conaire Mor kills Nuadu Necht. According to some Nuadu - or Nuada - is one of the Tuatha De Danaan - a semi-mythological People who ruled Ireland before the Milesians. Others say that he lived about 27BC-14AD, but the name Nuadu/Nuada is evocative of something very significant in the context of this.

Nuada is regarded as the first King of the Tuatha, but the name is very similar to the Finno-Baltic/Estonian words for Druid or Shaman. The Niduari, Noita, Noid - and the Lappish Noiada - all allude to something that could connect these People to semi-Mythic Ireland, so if Conaire Mor killed anyone called Nuada or Nuadu he would have been severely rebuked and cused by Druids and anyone involved in Shamanism. This also suggests substance to the Idea that a People peopled Ireland who might be distantly related to the Picts..It is reinforced by how Olwe - leader of the Falmari - had a Brother called Elwe Thingol - who refused Feanors Friendship and to give Assistance upon the latters arrival in Arda. Like he killed someone significant to both Realms, Conaire did Ireland and Briton.

Elwe Thingol was Leader of the Teleri and the King of the Eldar - of those who remained in Arda after the rest had gone and settled in Valinor. His Daughter Luthien married Beren (an Edain) and it is from this union we get to Aragorn and Arwen at the end of the Third Age. After (Elwe) Thingol is killed Beren retrieves the Treasures of his house - including the Ring of Barahir - the one we see Aragorn wear in those Films, thus this confers Sovereignty on whoever rightfully owns it. It is also from the union between Beren and Luthien we eventually get to the half-Elven Brothers Elrond and Elros - the latter becoming first King of Numenor after he chooses Mortality.

THE CREATION....................AND DESTRUCTION OF NUMENOR

This is where your Atlas proves useful - both of them.

Readers of "The Silmarillion" will know that after the Great Battle - the end of the First Age - the Edain were rewarded with the Island of Numenor for their part in the defeat of Morgoth..Numenor lay in the Sea to the west of Arda and for the duration of the Second Age flourished until Ar Pharazon - whose Line had gradually been corrputed by Sauron - defied the ban of the Valar who wreaked destruction on the Island and its inhabitants. Ynnis Mannaw - or the Isle of Mann is an Island to the west of Briton - which - according to Irish Myth was created by the eponymous Mananan Mac Llyr. He is associated with the Tuatha De Danaan - but also thought to be the first King of Mann. So the combination of Allegory and of semi-Mythological History explains how the Kingdom - and thus its Sovereignty - came into being.

Also, while being these things Mananan Mac Llyr was also a Sea deity - and while he might see his Kingship usurped - the very reason he 'created' it, in Tolkien Terms he destroyed Numenor by inundation. The Island was drowned.

Admittedly, it is of Norse origin but the name of the Manx Parliament is the Tynwald - Luthien Tinuviel anyone?

All was not lost after Numenors destruction and Elendil, with his sons Anarion and Isildur, abandon it just before and sail to Middle Earth. when the Isle of Mann was captured and inundated by the Vikings Elidir ap Sande (similar name to both Elendil and Elros) abandoned Mann and arrived in Gwynedd north west Wales. It is from this Gwraid and Merfyn Frych descend - and thus quite a few notable Welsh and Brithonic Nobles.. Elendil and his sons establish Gondor and Arnor. The latter gradually fractures and becomes Arthedain, Cardolan and Rhudaur, but its Capital is at Annuminas on Lake Evendim. Rather like Lake Bala - while Arthedain could be Gwynedd.

THE DUNEDAIN

The clue here is when Denethor llnd curses Aragorn. "I will not bow down to this Ranger of the North - last of a ragged House long bereft of Lordship and Dignity". According to The History Files a King of the ancient Kingdom of Rheged ruled about 450-490AD called Gwrast Lledlwm (the Ragged). It is from him that notables like Urien Rheged, Owain and Elffin, and someone called Elydir Llandanwyn came. That via the convoluted route of Brithonic Lineage these People are connected with Elidir - formerly of Mann - is also true.

Meanwhile, in Scotland.

To the south east of what is now Scotland lies the region of Lothian. This resonates with Lothlorien - home of Celeborn and Galadriel, but there were Elves in Lorien before they arrived. They were part of those Moriquendi I mentioned earlier, but when the Elven Royals arrived - Galadriel being one of the Noldor who came with Feanor - they tuned it into the Realm it became famous for in the "Lord of the Rings".- its Citadel being Caras Galadhon - or City of the Trees, reminiscent of that 'Light of the Trees' Feanor worked with in the First Age. If the Host of Feanor are those Sil Conaire - those Dal Raitians - who arrived in Scotand from Ireland, David lst was known as the King who turned Dun Edain - the original name for Edinburgh - into the City we know today. Coincidence? Maybe not!

Also, there's an Area of Lorien called the Naith - or Gore - so named because it's the Junction of the Rivers Anduin and Celebrant and forms a Spear point. The Cross of St Naith contained a fragment of the true Cross brought to Wales by Hywel Dda, He is descended from People who went to Wales in the 4th Century to defend what became Gwynedd - and they were led by Cunedda a Celto-Pict Warrior who was from that region of Scotland. It is from him most of the Welsh Nobles - and particularly those of Gwynedd ('Arthedain') descend.

The connections continue........

Remember the Battle of Amon Hen - where the Fellowship is sundered and Boromir is killed?

In that far off region of the North - formerly Peopled by the Votadini - is those Peoples orignal Capital - Traprain Law. as well as Amon Hen (Hill of the Eye) was also Amon Llaw - Hill of the Ear, and these formed look out posts for the Dunedain during the height of Gondor. Just to give it an added aura of something once powerful - but seemingly spent, and equally ancient is the name they had for that region of northern England and the Scottish Lowlands - Yr Hen Ogledd.

A rather ethereal View of Traprain Law

What adds credibility to the Idea that the Dunedain are somehow derived from Britons who spoke Welsh is the name for Minas Tireth. Minas appears as a Hybrid of Mynnedd - Mountain or Hill, and Dinas - Town or City. After all, what is Minas Tireth if it isn't a City carved out of a Mountain?

Still in Wales Snowdonia is described in Welsh as the Land of Eagles - the Eryri. This not only alludes to both Thorondor and Gwahir (Tolkiens Eagles) it also does both Owain Gwynedd (Eagle of Eagles), and a name Aragorn used while fighting incognito for Ecthellion - Denethors Father - Thorongil. "Eaglestar". To this day Cearnarfon has its Eagles Flag. If we trace back to Cunedda's Homeland according to the Ordinance Survey Map of Roman Britain - on the south Bank of the Forth River is somewhere called Camelon

Also, while one of Elendil's Sons was called Anarion - there was a Bard/Poet called Aneurin who wrote "Y Gododdin" - an account of the Votadini's Battle at Catraeth. Their Capital was Traprain Law in modern day East Lothian, while the Argonath - giant Statues of both Isildur and Anarion, are at the entrance to the Lake where Amon Hen and Amon Law are located.

THE KINSTRIFE AND MAELGWYN GWYNEDD.

One of the low points in Gondors History was that of the Kinstrife - a bloody Civil War that threatened the very existence of Middle Earth. Castamir felt that Eldacar - and his Progeny - weren't of pure enough Dunedain Blood to rule and went to war about it. Something similar happned with the Sons of Maelgwyn Gwynedd - one of whom, Elidir of Strathclyde, who felt that any iligitimate Child of Maelgwyn shouldn't inherit and he did the same. To make things worse Maelgwyn had had Issue from Liaisons with non-Britons - Domlech his Daughter being a Pict. Subsequently, Elidir had his War, but was defeated by an Alliance of Britons, Picts and Dal Ratians - rather like Eldacars with the Men of Rhovanion, from whom his Wife came. The Moral here being that had Castamir prevailed the Alliance with other Peoples would be jeopardized and Middle Earth weakened against any Threat from Sauron, thus Briton would be similarly compromised as Alliances formed with others in her defence would also be.

THE ARRIVAL OF THE ROHIRRIM.

How they appear - obtain Rohan, and ally themselves with the Men of Gondor is rather like the Saxons who arrived at the invitation of Vortigern - to fight for the Britons. They were given Thanet to settle - like Cirion gives Eorls Eotheod Calenhardhon - which becomes Rohan, There were also Alliances formed by Alfred with Britons from Wales as he fought to defend Wessex. History tells us that relations between Briton and Saxon weren't always quite as amicable, but Tolkien seems to draw on examples when they were and it was mutually benificial.

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE RING AND THE START OF THE 4TH AGE.

How many People are familiar with the Grail Legend? How the quest led to Galahads death, and its retrieval by Gawain and Peredur? How does this relate to the final destruction of the One Ring? you might ask. But maybe this can be explained in the contrast between the Hobbits and even other Protagonists. Galahad we are told was the result of a union between Lancelot and Elaine of Astolat, but Lancelot was the result of a union between a mortal Man and the Lady of the Lake, while Gawain and Peredur are altogether more earthy - both of mortal Parents. Frodo makes his Journey helped throughout by the similarly earthy Sam Gamgee, but who would never have made it without. At the Grey Havens we see the Departure of some, but not others. That those some had fulfilled their Part in a Tale that begins with the killing of the Two Trees in Valinor by Melkor, continues with the emergance of his Servant Sauron, and ends at Orodruin - Mount Doom. Gandalf and the other Istari were sent to help the People in their continuing War, Galadriel - a Noldor - was cursed after Alqalonde - but also had her part to play and thus readmitted - while Frodo suffers from the Wound given him by the Wraith at Weathertop.  Those that were left behind were meant to be in the Fellowship - but had further business. Galahad saw the Grail, and thus his destiny was fulfilled and he expired, the Ring found Bilbo and thus Frodos destiny was laid. The other Knights continued like Sam Gamgee does. The One Ring is destroyed - and thus Narya, Nenya and Vilya - the other 3 Rings - lose their potency.

That the final Journey from the Havens is symbolic of Death is explained in a moment.

As the 4th Age starts other Peoples time gradually ends too. The Elves all eventually leave - so do the Dwarves and Hobbits - the Dominion of Men begins. So it's like these too also had their Part in the Conflict that started with Melkor and ended with Sauron - and they also depart. This is rather like the arrival of the Milesians in Ireland - who gradually replace the semi-Mythic Tuatha who have played theirs in the formation of the Land - and Eire becomes what we know today. Maybe the Hobbits gradually became similar to the Leprechauns of Ireland, once powerful beings whose time has elapsed and thus lived underground as the Little People!


INTO THE WEST..........TOL ERESSEA AND AVALLONE.

And so - as Gandalf says - we have reached the end of our Fellowship, but what happens once that Ship disappears to Annie Lennox's Song?

This is where those Atlas Maps suddenly get very big. "What do you see on the Horizon" the Lady asks - but the destination could be close - or 1000s of Miles away. If we looked into the West from the Coast of Harlech in Wales (the name for the Grey Havens being Harlond) we might see Bardsey Island. If we sailed from Ireland* we might end up in Newfoundland, and believe it or not - if we did from California we might Santa Catalina. What all of these have in common is something evocative of a famous Story in our Legendum - Avalon.

* In Irish Myth this corresponds with the Journey to Tir Na Nog - the Land of eternal Youth

Bardsey Island

Bardsey Island - where something like 20,000 Saints are buried - has occasionally been described as Affalach - the Welsh word for Apples and maybe a Root for the name Avalon, a Crop it was famous for and a very ancient Tree grows there still reminiscent of the White Tree of Gondor. It has also been suggested - and I find it quite believable - that it was to there Arthur sailed after the battle of Camlan, while others say it was Merlins final resting place. Newfoundland has its Avalon - a Peninsular originally settled by Edward Wynn, while Santa Catalina a few miles off the Coast of Califonia has its Township of Avalon too. Because of this even when Galadriel, Celeborn, Gandalf, Frodo, Eowyn, Aragorn and Arwen become plain old Cate, Marton, Ian, Elijah, Miranda, Viggo and Liv they are still affected by this as Hollywood sees that particular Avalon when they look "Into the West".Tolkien says how the keen eyed can see the gleaming Spire of Avallone - the Citadel on Tol Eressea - the Undying Lands - like you could the Lighthouse on Bardsey.- while it was said that the mortally wounded Arthur made his last Journey by Boat to Avalon.

So, this brings us to the start of the 4th Age and what it was that helped bring us to it. Arthur had his Sword - Excalibur or Caliburn, Tolkien had his - a Sword forged by the Dwarves, reforged by the Elves and wielded only by someone who had to right to use it..


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Real to Reel - from 1655 to Jerry Bruckheimer

Flint, Michigan......................

Since "Roger and me" Micheal Moore has continually chronicled the decline of Flint. He did this with some of his "TV Nation" series and almost every chance is seized with "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "Bowling for Columbine". In the "Fahrenheit......" Documentary he tells us that Flint provides a huge, per-capita proportion of Soldiers for the Army. How it isn't difficult when life in the Army is probably better than it is at home. It's 2004 and everyone goes gooey at "Return of the King" - then he shows you streets of Houses - detached, huge Gardens, but boarded up and empty. Not exactly Middle Earth according to Mr Jackson huh! That even though Flint provides those Troops it is still left out and left behind. A potent message to anyone who expects things from People, but there is a deficit in their and your lives.

How many of those Flint Soldiers try and stay in the Army as long as they can because life is better? Better pay, some guarantees of living conditions - the means to support a Family. This applies to anyone who finds things always seem to be better somewhere else than they might be here. As long ago as 1987 I wasn't hugely enthused about coming home after a Course in Scotland, it's the same when I might have stayed with Friends, certainly was at the end of our Campaign in Wales (which started in Flintshire) - and even though I have Reservations about an itinerant Fund raising job in 2005 I was gutted when it ended and I was having to come back here. Flint could be a Town, it could be someone - anywhere, but there is something wrong with either if the same applies.

The name Flint continues something that also involved someone called Gore, so the Micheal Moore agenda seems to be about confronting what afflicts one parabling another!

Meanwhile, I was presented with a JFK scenario today Kennedy's analysis of Vietnam was that it was "their War, they can win it or lose it", but he was reluctant to get involved. After all, as the final analysis given by Robert McNamara concedes in "Fog of War" - it was a War of Independence, one the Vietnamese had fought for a Millennium - so why did America get lumped in with China and France as their colonial Enemies? That Ho Chi Minh was a Nationalist who happened to be a Communist, whose War could have been fought as a Liberal or Conservative. First and foremost he was a Vietnamese, and the Conflict had nothing to do with the supposed Communist Domino theory.

That, to use a Bruckheimer analogy, anyone expecting some of us to fight yet another Campaign is rather like Honourious asking those Wodes to defend his Villa against the imminent Saxon onslaught. It was bad enough Germanus attaching yet another Caveat to Arthur's Men's Freedom before the end of their Military Service, while both they and the Wodes see those Wagons filled with Loot heading for Ravenna neither will enjoy. The Men - who fought for 15 years to ensure it in Honourious's possession, the Wodes from whom it came. Maybe Honourious ought to have treated them better huh! A potent comment to anyone who has expected same from People who have had to see them depart with the Loot so to speak, or stash it in their 'Villas'. Hmm, how many times has that happened? I also think that Bors throwing those Papers back at Germanus was as much an expression of Bruckheimers Jewishness in the context of something else, in a Film where he gets a certain Film-maker to direct a Movie about Camelot.

Flint...............Middle Earth!

This is where Flint, Wales, Micheal Moore's continuing portrayal of Flint, Michigan's Plight, and something else are linked.

In 1968, something happened in Bristol, England and Cardiff Wales. It was the establishment of a TV Company that derived its Name from its Founder - Lord Ormsby-Gore of Harlech, but it doesn't end (or begin) there. Years earlier, his Father - William Ormsby-Gore, as Colonial Secretary - had his Meetings with David Ben Gurion about the prospective establishment of a Jewish Homeland to complete the Balfour Declaration of 1917. This - as People know - eventually happened in 1948. William Ormsby-Gore wasn't just a Politician, he was also Chairman of Midland Bank - PLC, now known as HSBC. His equivalent today is also a man called Flint - Douglas Flint! The question here, in the context of "Roger and me's" Tale of the General Motors CEO closing everything and departing Flint with the Proceeds, Honorious trying to do the same,  an anti-poverty campaign that started in Flintshire, Wales, and someone who was doing it - how many People have done something similar in this that Flint - Michigan - becomes an appropriate analogy?

Thus, this - erm - 'Middle Earth' isn't quite as twee as "Lord of the rings" might suggest!

Jerry Bruckheimer gives Antoine Fuqua the chance to make a Film about Camelot, Ormsby-Gore gives 'Marc Anthony' and 'Cleopatra' that to make TV Programs. This was when Lord Harlech appoints Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor on the Board of Directors of HTV.

While Honorious tries to do what Roger Smith did - take the Money and run, Germanus gives those Knights those Papers - which Bors throws back at him. In 1982 Robert de Niro appeared as David 'Noodles' Aaronson in Sergio Leones "Once upon a time in America". Here we see him, Cockeye, Max and Patsy accrue rather a lot of Money in their myriad Activities. They keep this in a Railway Station Locker and it is meant to be split between them. There's a Scene where he goes to it - only to find that the Proceeds from all that work have become nothing but Newspapers. He looks both perplexed and disappointed - then goes off into a 30 Year exile in Buffalo. Considering the main Characters in the Film are Jewish the disappointment at finding the 'Paperwork' is quite understandable in the context of the above. All that - for this??????

Heck, he even saved Fat Moe's Life that time!

It continues...............

While Peter Jackson made and showed his Films they were made by a Subsidiary of Warner Brothers - New Line Cinema. When Warner - or WEA - was incorporated in 1928 it was so with a Loan from Harry Warner's Financier called - wait for it - Motley Flint. In this Process they needed a distribution Network - which they acquired by purchasing the Vitagraph Film Company, based in - wait for it again - Nassau Street, - New York. So, it seems there's a 'Pirate' Origin in this Story - linked with the Carribean Island that became synonymous with the Trade in the late 17th-early18th Centuries.and immortalised in the TV series "Black Sails".

The show is set 20 years before a much loved and very famous Story - "Treasure Island".but Fact or Fiction, Pirates came from somewhere.

That Somewhere was 1654 when Ships led by Commonwealth General at Sea - William Penn senior sailed for the Caribbean to capture Hispaniola from the Spanish. When it was realized that the Island was too heavily defended to defeat they opted for Jamaica, which they captured in 1655. Port Royal became its Capital and Jamaica became a Haven for Pirates and Privateers - the latter operating as 'legit' Pirates - raiding Ships of any enemy Country - licensed with a Letter of Mark from the British Government. One of these was Henry - later Sir Henry - Morgan - who left Wales as an indentured Man serving in William Penns Navy.

History gives us an Irony because of this........

William Penn was a Contemporary and professional Associate of another General at Sea - the Father of the modern Navy - Admiral Robert Blake. After Pirates had abandoned Jamaica - where their Trade had been made illegal they made for New Providence - whose Capital is Nassau. People visiting it now - with its expensive Hotels and Tourism - might find it hard to believe but it was once home to all sorts of Sea borne Vagabonds - one of whom was Edward Teach. Teach, or Thatch - and even Drummond - left Bristol, England, making for there and worked for Benjamin Hornigold for a while before becoming - erm - freelance - so to speak. He then became the notorious Pirate everyone knew and feared. (he even had a real life Israel Hands in his Crew - suggesting Robert Stephenson's Book isn't entirely fictional). In 1718 he was tracked down off the Coast of North Carolina by Royal Navy Lieutenant - Robert Maynard - and the famous Battle ensued that ended the Career - and Life - of one of History's most notorious Pirates.

The Irony here being that both had the same Origins - 1655, while either suggest something coming from somewhere!

Meanwhile, in "Pirates of the Caribbean" "Where did you get that" someone asks in a Film. But there's more to the 'that' than a Gold Pendant, while it's a Question that could also be asked of a few other People. Governor Swann is only Governor of Port Royal Jamaica because someone captured the Island and made it a British Colony. In Shipwreck Cove - an ominous name considering a Film made in 1980 featuring someone else called Blake ("The Fog"), and a remake in 2005, we see the Brethren Court and that Book of Pirate Law - kept by Captain Teague (Kieth Richards), so while Jack could ask Elizabeth about that Pendant someone could ask him - or those Pirates - where they got that Book from! How did Shipwreck Cove be so named, and Morgan might just have been Henry No-Bloke - who fought and maybe died as a Soldier in whichever Uncles army he joined during one of the English Civil Wars had it not been for those Generals at Sea!

"Pirates, yes they rob I" Bob Marley sang in his "Redemption Song" and while Flint, Michigan starts to resemble Trenchtown, Jamaica - a Documentary about Reggae and Rastafarianism features a couple of Rastas showing the Film Maker the Venues synonymous with Marley and the Music. One of which - in a chronic state of dereliction - was called The Ambassador, and one of the Guides scathingly says how it has become a dumping ground for every-ones Rubbish - the Throwaways - everything else going elsewhere. Combine this with those Recruits from Flint, Michigan - whose City starts to resemble the Kingstown District, the contrast to those of whom they fight for, and there’s also an element of chronic expendability here too. There are 2 Songs with a similar Sentiment - one by Marley, the other the Hughes Corporation, both asking you not to "Rock the Boat"- ("cause I don't want my Boat to be rocking"). I was reminded of this when we see the Pirates in Davy Jones Locker - and they do just that. Both the Pearl and the Crew trapped in the Locker, either rather more substantial than a bunch of Newspapers. The thing is I subscribe to the Bob Marley Song in this context rather than the Hughes Corporation - while those Rasta's and the Documentary Film Maker probably would too! Otherwise, wouldn't we just have a continuation of the same Problem?

So, via "Treasure Island", "Black Sails" - even the incorporation of Warner Brothers and New Line Cinema, that was how we got from 1655 to Jerry Bruckheimer. The first filmed Pirate was Douglas Fairbanks ("The Black Pirate") - who ended his Career by being stabbed in the back in "The Iron Mask". Someone could ask Jack Sparrow - or even Hector Barbossa - where they got the Black Pearl?

Click or paste into your Browser from here to watch "The Black Pirate" - legendary 1926 Movie...............

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWY4_6emHz8

Or even here to see "The Iron Mask"!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZPnFlR1MYc




Get all yer Booty here - from Commonwealth and Caribbean Collectibles to Jack Sparrows Autograph Keep to the Code and share the Booty by clicking below to Facebook, Twitter etc......


Meanwhile, here's some Food for thought - and might explain what an Area came in for some severe Criticism from Film People for a while - and still should of course.....

This is the Scene from the "At Worlds End" - and this Lad is the same Age I was when I arrived somewhere where even the Notion of Habeus Corpus doesn't even exist..... Oh, and I couldn't even vote in 1992.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNRjt4rCymM

To any "Firemen with an Hourglass" I am currently in the process of reclaiming this Flag of my Fathers. It's the first ever recorded use of the Skull and Crossbones - the Flag of a Pirate called Emanuel Wynne from 1700 ......

Lights, Camera...........................Action!

This is where the Orchestra plays the Intro to the Theme Music - then in it comes, the Epic Soundtrack that sets the Scene. The opening Credits appear..................................and it begins! To watch 1000s of superb Movies online........... Click Here! Or maybe you'd like to make a Film. As something akin to why People went to and established Hollywood as the Movie Capital of the World is happening today - the reason why we now have Companies established by those People - William Fuchs (20th Century Fox), Marcus Loew, Samuel Goldwyn and Louis B Meyer (MGM), Adolph Zukor (Paramount), or Carl Laemmie (Universal Studios) - People are making Films like they might 100 years ago. So if you think you could be the next Allan Dwan or Lois Weber click here and start Film Making. Click Here!

"CUT - THAT'S A TAKE!!!!" CLICK ON THE LINKS TO THE RIGHT TO READ EVEN MORE COOL STUFF........................ FROM TOLKIEN TO PIRATES, BREXIT TO BINARY TRADING, THE IRAQ WAR AND IT'S AFTERMATH, AND SOME COOL THINGS YOU COULD DO TO HELP THE ENVIRONMENT. MEANWHILE, WE'LL VIEW THE RUSHES AND PREPARE FOR SCENE 2, ACT 1.............. "FROM REAL TO REEL - 1655 TO JERRY BRUCKHEIMER"

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