A lighter look at the news

 

After last week's deep and heavy (for me) post, I thought I'd keep it light this week...well, light-ish.

I thought I'd write about the three Bs. Actually two of them are double Bs and one's an M. 

I'll start with the M - Boris Johnson. If you recall (I flatter myself) my blog last week was about the England Football Team taking the knee. At the time, our PM refused to censure those who booed whilst they did so. Some people might say that not condemning such behaviour implied complicity.

In the aftermath of the distressing and disgusting racial slurs and violence that followed England's defeat at the Euro 2021 finals, Boris Johnson decided to tweet against the racist behaviour of those fans. 

Racism can be viewed as a huge gaping wound and like most gaping wounds, it needs protective covering to prevent infection. No one was asking the PM to kneel alongside the England team (heaven forbid) but calling for the spectators to show respect and for the booing to stop, may have at least provided a flimsy bandage. Instead, he belatedly shows up, waving a teensy plaster.

Amidst the revolting behaviour, there were heartening moments. One of them was the quick covering up of the graffiti on Marcus Rashford's mural, with flags, posters, words of praise and messages of appreciation.

In the meanwhile, the other two (double) Bs, Branson and Bezos were revving up their rockets. Branson managed to beat Bezos in this space race. His Virgin rocket took him to the edge of space and lasted all of 59 minutes, with just a few minutes of weightlessness.

Branson's Virgin Galactic Rocket

Bezos' rocket is yet to take off. Well done Branson. At least England won something on Sunday. 

When he was up there, Branson had this special message, 'To all you kids down there, I was once a child with a dream, looking up to the stars.'

To which, the parents of the kids down here may well reply, 'To all you billionaires up there and down here, please give our children a better chance of realising their dreams...start paying taxes.'

Bezos is set to fly on 20th July. I am not sure if his rocket will take him further than Branson's rocket. 

I do have a concern though. I hope Bezos doesn't stick his head out of his rocket while in space - we mere mortals on Planet Earth might well think we're looking up at two moons.

Bezos' Blue Origin New Shepard Rocket

Before I finish, if you haven't guessed it, the 'M' stands for millionaire and the 'B's for billionaires but if you thought otherwise, I wouldn't blame you.

Until next time, try and keep it as light as if you were floating in space.

Taking the knee

The Euros have come and gone but amidst the heartache (if you're an England fan) I look for the positives. And the one positive I found through the whole tournament, was the kneeling of the England players before the start of every match.

Unfortunately, it appears not everyone shares my opinion. I was surprised to see on fb that there was quite a negative reaction to this gesture. 

Curious to find out why anyone would have a problem with all players in the England team uniting to reinforce racial awareness through a fairly harmless gesture, I encountered comments such as, 'All lives matter', and 'Kneeling is only for church' and 'Enough is enough'. Unsurprisingly, most of these comments were not from people of colour.

If you are one of them, please let me recount something that may help you understand why that simple, united gesture, means so much to some of us.

Just two days ago, I walked into a shop and looked for a particular item. Not seeing it on the shelves, I approached the till and greeted the person behind the till (no reciprocal response) and asked him if they had the item I was looking for. All I got was a pointed finger in the direction he had seen me coming from. 

As I took a step away, another couple came up to the till and were greeted with a 'Hi, good morning, how may I help you.'

Because I am undaunted by this type of behaviour, I picked out my second choice of item and proceeded to chat with the man. He really wasn't a terrible person, it's just in his DNA to unconsciously  respond in a more positive way to some people than to others.

At this point, I would like to point out that this isn't the first time this has happened and sadly, it won't be the last.

So, if you are a person of a privileged race, perhaps it may be wise to refrain from commenting on players kneeling for racial equality because, even in this day and age,  although all lives certainly matter, some appear to matter more than others.

Just saying...