A kiss in a shadow
Trying to catch the wind
The person who tied the bell must untie it

Gunboats on the Pearl River
Treasures loaded onto their wagons
Silver was drained from our veins

Torches in the Summer Palace
Countless lives lost under the lie of "Fair Trade"
Today, those same powers that pushed opium
Now threaten with trade wars and blockades

We're going to live together very happily
So face up to the rational voices
The shackles you cast will clasp your own wrists


After Presidents Xi Jinping, Donald Trump and Ministry of Commerce spokesman, He Yadong (April 23, 2025)

Diplomacy, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Diplomacy by BB Seaton
• English diplomacy by Mighty Sparrow
• Diplomacy by Lucky Clover
• A different kind of diplomacy by Michael McEvoy

Bonus beats: Learn Chinese by Jin




See previously: A Very Beautiful Thing and Facilitate

File under: humour, satire, language, politics, power, culture, observation, perception, USA, China, history, Great Game, Observers are worried, poetry, toli

Writing log: April 24, 2025

I took it as an omen perhaps, or a propitious sign
When the then-fiancée defended her PhD dissertation
The setting where scholars had their meeting of minds
The culmination of her Harvard education was in Room 419
Others remarked wryly about the uncanny juxtaposition
Real estate agents would say: location, location, location

Nine months later, marital bliss
The Wife's first academic trip
Butterflies, a case of separation anxiety
For this newly minted professor of African history
Put your game face on, it's about dollars and sense
Modernity too, this was the Science in Africa conference
Auspicious, and a touch surprising, but then what can you do?
It turned out that the proceedings were held in Edinburgh zoo

Location is Everything, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Proper Education by Mikey Dread
• Side by Side by Dianne Reeves
• Africa by Toto
• Sound Education by I Roy
• At the Zoo by Simon and Garfunkel
• Location is Everything by Daniel G. Harmann

File under: humour, culture, observation, perception, juxtaposition, poetry, toli

Writing log. August 29, 2022

It wasn't easy, but this was the government lawyer's brief:
The word facilitate. A novel argument about its meaning
Where it applied and, indeed, how and to whom
And whether it was of solely domestic applicability

And if it seemed obvious to the Court that there was a plain meaning
His own job was to fully explain the proper, legal interpretation
For he evinced great concern for the separation of powers and its extent
And a justifiable worry for an unseemly constitutional precedent

That the judiciary in the shape of the present court
Was arrogating for itself the realm of executive power was self-evident
Overreaching and inserting itself where it should not
Infringing wholesale on the prerogative of the president

These were strange days of ever more outrageous claims
Stretching past the outer bounds of plausibility and shame
When norms were being shattered daily, and rules broken with impunity
Regulations glossed and discarded willy-nilly, testing the very limits of propriety

The government lawyer advanced his preferred reading
That his clients were in full compliance with the court's ruling
For their actions, after all, made it exceedingly clear
They would "remove any domestic obstacles
That would otherwise impede the alien's ability to return here"

But it turned out that further discretion was for the weak
And so the government attorney stuck to his emphatic brief
He concluded, the most powerful government in the world couldn't do a thing
As a matter of law, and in practice, the word facilitate didn't mean anything

Facilitate, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Can't do nuttin' for ya man by Public Enemy
• Easier said than done by Angie Stone
• Time's a wastin by Erykah Badu
• Ain't that easy by D'Angelo
• Gettin in the way by Jill Scott
• Obey by Dwele
• Not up to me by Frida Farrell
• Obstruction by Gabo Rio
• It don't mean a thing by Omar

Bonus beats: Objection overruled by Gregory Isaacs and My prerogative by Bobby Brown


After: Trump administration says it is not required to help wrongly deported man return to US

...

I seem to be departing from my normal practice of delayed publishing. I suppose the above will not be as topical if it were to be published as initially scheduled in 2036. Let me know if I should continue preempting the vault. I am somewhat tickled that the previous piece, entitled Expulsion Orders, written three years ago, mined somewhat similar terrain

File under: language, law, humour, satire, rogues, politics, USA, huhudious, culture, observation, perception, hatchet job, Observers are worried, poetry, toli

Writing log: April 16, 2025

For some, this was the second go-round, a reprise of the upheaval
The scenes at the ports, palpable despair, teeming, almost primeval
When the land borders briefly opened, a brave few chose that route
A long, dangerous journey with opportunist predators to boot

You would think there would be sympathy for these returning wretched
Yet the provisional government called them "recalcitrant and hollow-headed"
You see, earlier on, most had simply voted with their feet
Foregoing chaos, they'd packed their bags and left the country

Now, exiled souls twice removed, this was their homecoming
Leaving in a hurry, running away with just what they could carry
Tough love from the authorities on both ends, no tears for aliens
And extra scrutiny at the border, "non-Ghanaians are not welcome"

Ghana must go is how the trauma is recorded in folk memory
The damage was done and, worse, it was all so unnecessary
But such is the fraught and bitter legacy of the expulsion orders
As goes the proverb, try not to die when you are surrounded by vultures

Anybody could have told the authorities in Lagos that is is impossible to evacuate 700,000 (their own estimated figure) under their own imposed stringent conditions, within the period of one week that they opened the land borders

— Talking Drums May 1985

Expulsion Orders, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify)

• Exodus by Bob Marley & the Wailers
• We trying to stay alive by Wyclef Jean
• Refugee Rolling by Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars
• The Exodus has Begun by Prince & the New Power Generation
• Get out of Town by Ella Fitzgerald
• Refugees by Gerard Musgrave
• Go Home by Gerry Mulligan & Ben Webster
• Pitche Mi by Youssou Ndour & Super Etoile de Dakar
  stately and mournful from the excellent contemporaneous album, Immigrés

Bonus beats: Shame on me by Alexander O'Neal



See previously Bags and Stamps

File under: Ghana, Nigeria, culture, immigration, displacement, exile, memory, Africa, history, politics, dictator, coup, loss, observation, perception, refugee, Things Fall Apart, Ghana must go, poetry, toli

Writing log: August 17, 2022

Nose to the grindstone
The mortar of regret
The days stretch, unending
Shackles untethered,
Healing foregone
A sameness, repetition
The blues grinder in effect

Late at night, exhaustion
Barely able to catch a breath
Restless spirit, searching
The feeling of being alone
Hopeless cause,
Unbearable odds
Still, the truth is our sanctuary

Blues Grinder, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Blues Grinder by Ronny Jordan
• Chains and Things by B.B. King
• Grinder Man Blues by Memphis Slim
• Confirmed Truth by George Freeman
• Hey Lordy Mama by Abbey Lincoln
• In the Wee Wee Hours by Junior Wells
• Blues Grinder (live) by Ronny Jordan
  I once had the pleasure of seeing Ronny Jordan live at the Jazz Cafe in Camden Town. It was exhilirating as expected; he is sadly missed.

A few remakes to round off the blues grinder. Keep your head down, your time will come.

File under: culture, observation, perception, displacement, poetry, toli

Writing log. August 16, 2022

Some day people will realize
That Tariffs, for the United States of America,
Are a very beautiful thing!

What's going to happen to the markets, I can't tell you,
But our country is much stronger.
Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something

Hang tough, it won't be easy,
But the end result will be historic

They are coming to the table.
They want to talk but there's no talk
Unless they pay us a lot of money on a yearly basis.

Our past "leaders" are to blame
For allowing this, and so much else, to happen to our Country.
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!


A sonnet after Donald Trump

Puff, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note. Self regard is everything. (spotify version)

• He's Misstra Know-It-All by Stevie Wonder
• Talking Loud and Saying Nothing by James Brown
• Legend in his own Mind by Gil Scott-Heron

File under: hatchet job, language, humour, satire, rogues, absurd, economics, politics, USA, huhudious, culture, observation, perception, Observers are worried, poetry, toli

Writing log: March 24, 2025