Sunday, June 26, 2011

Currently working on....

B'H

It has been over a month since I posted on my blog. Shows how frantically busy I have been. The politics surrounding LION FM seem to be settling down. Shoshanna and I have had three successful shows. We have had my old teacher to speak about the Festival of Shavuot and then we had Gemma Wines speak about Autism and that was a very good and very informative show. This week we visit the Shomron to hear from Lea Goldshmit who is part of a four generations of a family living at Itamar a town of approximately five thousand there. We have many shows planned and hope to gain a regular following of people.
I have to rejoin the VWC and to get my entry in for the E.J. Brady competition and Glimmer. I have two stories on the back burner and need to edit and to refine and write more.
There are also many things to do with my son's learning that I need to continue with if he is to make improvements on a constant basis. I am quite sure now that his hearing loss from the age of 8 months to two years had more to do with his learning difficulties than any real intellectual impairment which I do not believe that he has.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

The dance

He dances, spinning and jumping as

Sparks fizz from the fire

Singeing points of light

Fly up into the dark woollen knit sky.

He moves crisply

In time with the group

Ever watchful to be like them

He wants to be absorbed by them

But unique, just like the rest

He somersaults and stands on his hands

Momentarily saying, ‘Look at me!

I am here too!’ He is happy to be

One with the group.

Rav Shimeon bar Yochai watches smiling

To see these young Jews

Move and dance as one

Am Israel Chai

In hope that the dance

Will be mirrored in other ways

Throughout the day and the year

To come, we need to move as one.

Falling leaves

It is the time of autumn falls again


Dappled leaves change


Greens yellowing to fiery flames


Dancing on branches


Whipped by winds and rain


They flood the gutters and foot paths.


Children run and kick up the piles


In delirious joy, they fall and roll


Together in the leaves, scarves flying


So securely, they are attached


To life, binding together the good times


With little thought or careful planning


While others age


Their memories wither and die


Like leaves falling from trees


Yet unlike the trees,


Their minds will not blossom anew


In the spring turgid with green buds


Sprouting those broad flat leaves,


But remain starkly branched limbs


Breaking off pieces continually


Stretched and pleading for mercy


Against a bleached blue sky


When words shrink and shrivel to nothingness


For some, becoming aged is to die


A thousand deaths in one life.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Jeremy Rapke QC and former DPP resigns and it has all the signs of mobbing Bully Behaviour

B'H
It appears that QC Jeremy Rapke's only real crime was to hold the judiciary to account on their treatment of victims of crime, to call for more adequate sentencing for drug offences and for child abuse crimes as well as rape. I googled him and came across an unspeakably offensive site that attacks his personal life and casts dispersions on his conduct in a most vile way. He has made some serious enemies. You can be sure,, from this aspect I would say that he was doing the right thing and upset a few of the criminals.
The fact that Robert Richter QC who defends some of the worst types for a price, is critcal of Rapke is more than an indication he probably was fulfilling his role as DPP in an honest way. Much more so than Richter, who I would hazard a guess, is a sort of legal prostitute. The only difference between him and one of the streetwalkers in Fitzroy Street, St. Kilda is that he operates from a luxury office paid for with drug money and sells his intellectual expertise helping lawbreakers stay out of prison.  She unfortunately pays for her drugs by selling her body and will end up either over dosing in some gutter or in prison or homeless. They have the same criminal mentality and the same morals.
I also wonder at the Chief Justice Warren rebuking a prosecutor who is best serving the interests of the victims of crime rather than the criminals. I mean, be damned, how dare the man have the audacity to think that the law is for the public interests and not for those that flaunt and break the law where ever possible and use violence, both physical and psychological, to achieve their aims? Whose interests does Chief Justice Marilyn Warren represent? it does not appear to be that of fair justice and the public.
Just from what I have read, it seems like Rapke is a victim himself of mobbing 'bully behaviour. If you can't beat them, you destroy them using criminal means and slander them. The very fact that he had to resign when he obviously wanted to achieve so much that was in the best interests of the public justice system, seems a daunting indictment on the whole system currently in place. If you wanted an honest system and an ethical one, you would think that they would keep him on.
http://www.news.com.au/jeremy-rapke-fights-for-victims/story-e6frf7kx-1225936490990

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Hamesh Orot

Hamesh Orot


Five lights on a hill

Flicker, extinguished here

They flare up in a different sphere

Bright in the night

Light in the deep darkness

They burn eternal flames,

G-dly sparks carried within.

Amalek, rises to break our will

Our land, we do not forsake

Despite those you kill.



Hamesh, five souls departed

But their lights remain

In this worldly home

And the next one

Despite the blood that stains

The floors of the home

Which was their family abode.

The light it grows strong

Because it knows where it belongs.

Five lights on a hill

Burn, beacons to the world beyond

Of humanity destroyed by brutal beings

Who have no excuse to give,

For their deed but to proclaim

Their lust to kill is greater than

Natural compassion for a sleeping babe,

Rudely awakened in her parents’ blood,

She wails and a monster with a knife turns back

Pitilessly to slit her throat

Ending a three month sojourn.

She is a small blue and white sack

Among four others

Cut down without mercy

By Evil Angels bent on destroying

The peace of Shabbat.

Master of the Universe,

Where were the Good Angels?

Were they late in coming?

Because there were many to save that night

Even as an Arab woman is delivered

Of a live baby girl

By the same medics

Who took three month old Hadas z’l

Shroud wrapped from a home on a hill

Light as a toy

But a heavier burden none should have to bear

Who tried to save young Elad

When two evil angels walked to destroy

Hamesh, the number of books in Torah

Five lights on a hill

Will burn bright

Remembered

Because you cannot break our will

Despite those you may kill

G-D the ultimate Judge, decides

Who is worthy and

Who breaks the peace that others build.

Pink Thongs in Darwin

Pink thongs in Darwin


People sit on the side walks

Talking

Litter blown against shop fronts

Like leaves in autumn

Coloured brilliant hues

Of women and children, barbeque

Fires roasting fat steak meat

But no lean hunters - they gone long ago

And in their place, men with bellies

Swollen hard with white man tucker

Suck on metal cans

Their forlorn faces marked

By the alcohol trace lines

Etched deep in their soul

Cutting it off from their land.



Families cluster

Sheltering as

Wet season rains down

Skies open wide

Birds flitter through trees

Leaves hang down

Water runs from the guttering

People curl inside

Against the weather

Piled in corners.

A man in kaki, he comes

Carrying a pile of pink thongs

In cellophane packets

Which he hands out.

A trade like Indian glass beads

Sold for a song, a drink, some sugar bag

And loose billy tea.

It stinks see

The land these people owned

It belonged to them

It healed them

It kept them clean and clear.

Now down we dragged them

Broke them men

Took them women

Took them children

See

But we give them pink thongs,

Plastic and cheap,

Some cheap, shitty hip hop songs,

Beer, white food to kill them

Take them art

Take them apart

But no put back together

Cause we too smart.

We just creep

Around them

Like cockroaches waiting for them carcasses

To lick clean.



Ilana Leeds

Saturday, April 23, 2011

A Pesach Breakfast

A Pesach Breakfast recipe




It is so difficult to broaden menu choices when we are restricted over the Pesach holiday. But you can do it and this is a tasty easy-to-prepare breakfast for the family. You can add cheeses if you like or leave it parve. We peel all our vegetables and fruit over Pesach because of the prohibition against using Chometz and the fact that much farm produce is sprayed with all manner of insecticides and other.

Ingredients

One brown onion (finely diced)

Two large zucchinis (peeled and diced finely)

Two large firm tomatoes(peeled and fine diced)

A dob of oil or margarine (kosher Le Pesach)

A sprig of continential flat leaf parsley (washed and inspected).

Cumin

Paprika

Salt

Method

Heat the oil or margarine and add the oil and fry until it starts to caramelise

Add the zucchinis and cook a few minutes before adding the tomatoes and washed parsley. Cover and simmer on a low heat for about six to eight minutes or until soft and tender. Stir frequently.

Add the spices and salt and cover for another minute after adding and stirring well.



This is a great accompaniment for an omelette or sweet potato cakes or a hash brown of grated and fried mashed sweet potato. You can use fresh cream cheese / sour cream as a dressing if you want to have a milk meal.