John Moody

John Moody was born in 1868.  He went into Finance.  His company went bankrupt in 1907.  He founded a new company which eventually became Moody's Bond Rating Service. For some obscure reason, this service was one of only two agencies given the responsibility to forecast the  capacity of countries, yes - countries, to pay off their national debts.

In 1929, Moody's Bond Rating Service reporting on the U.S.A.: “prosperity which has characterized this country with only moderate setbacks since 1923 is likely to continue without great variation well into the future”.  In October that same very year, there was the Wall Street Crash and the beginning of the Great Depression.

So there we have it.  A company founded by an individual who got it all wrong and went bankrupt.  And a company which got it all wrong.

So what happens then?  This same independent company still has the job of reporting on countries.  The grading system is very very sophisticated: like AAA, BBB, CCC - that sort of thing. On the basis of that, taxes are raised, hospital beds are emptied, pensions are pared, jobs are lost.

Memory Loss

1988

Iran Air Flight 655

300 killed

66 children


"The US government has never admitted responsibility or apologised for the tragedy.

Some believe the Lockerbie bombing, carried out six months later in December 1988, was masterminded by Iranians in revenge for the Airbus tragedy, although a Libyan man was convicted and jailed in 2001.

In February 1996 the US agreed to pay Iran $61.8 million in compensation for the 248 Iranians killed, plus the cost of the aircraft and legal expenses.

It had already paid a further $40 million to the other countries whose nationals were killed".*


Now, you were saying, MISTER FBI?

* from the BBC

Get well soon...

Interesting article here.
Well, it caught my eye.
I enjoyed exploring
the use of words
especially "slash".

As there is Society
does it have a memory?
Are we heading for a
token Peace Hour
in the Notional Curriculum?

And has anyone out there
met Ferdinand the Bull?

machoangelo

my son
started school
a little boy
short pants

two days
later at home
he asked

Oliver
why is it
when I'm
walking along the top corridor and another boy is walking toward me
and there
is no one
else about

he
just bumps
into me

no reason
bump
why is that?

what could I say?
there is
NO reason

macho angels will bump
into each other
anywhere
even on top of a pin

Hope For Zimbabwe

Did Mbeki
suggest
the opposition in Zimbabwe
should shower after voting?
At last
there's soap
for Zimbabwe.

Prayer in the Care Home

How are you, John?
Did you enjoy
your bread 'n marmalade?

Now, let me see you
take your tablets:

tamazapam to help you sleep;
senna to open the bowels;
paracetamol for the pain.
Amen

pants

Hold his legs with my right
I grabbed his black underpants
with my left. Gave a determined
pull - sound of a seam giving.
His neck seemed all awkward,
so I propped his head on a jumper.
His left leg looked like an
elephant's, grey and dried,
a bloody hole filled with
sticking bits of toilet roll.
Got the pad off, threw it on
the floor by the low gas fire.
A careless wipe with a damp
tea towel. Maneuver white pad
over the heavy black skin, dead
weight, grey bloody sore mess.
Didn't bother with the underpants
just pulled on any pair of
pants and never mind the torn
flies. Trainers. Sit up. Warm
jacket. Up you get. But not
a hope down four flights of
stairsandthenthefrontsteps.
So I gave up and called for
an ambulance. Two of them
carried him downstairs strapped
in a stretcher-chair. "You'd
never have managed him" -
said he might lose his leg
with that neglected ulcer.
I - no - I don't care as a rule
- though lots of others care.

flat out

Fresh from her bike ride,
grey-haired, she stretched
her black leather gloves.
She dealt with each finger
in turn then blew in them
- little balloons of hands.
Smoothed them flat. Put
them in her desk drawer.
A few years later she was
dead - heart failure, they
said. And sure wasn't she
a gentle soul. When you
think of all the children
who went through her hands.

gloves and underpants

he
said the hard part is
making yourself vulnerable

she
said you can't say that
sort of thing

i
wrote about the gloves

today's hero

Mark Haddon
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time
and
he is pretty good on god.

Egg

It is true,
is it not?
An ant
can 'do' moral philosophy.

19

12 or so, I think I would have been.
My older brother gave me a book:
St.Dominic - This Is Your Life, or
a title of that sort.
It wasn't a big red book. It was slim,
dignified, grey, new, smelled nice.
I only had the odd book back then,
rarely new, never slim.
St. Dominic died when he was nineteen.
The details escape me, but I remember
the number and couldn't see beyond it.

Tomorrow I will have beaten Dominic,
and my self-forecast by forty years.
Another no-no for religion then, not
that another no is needed by now.

The serious question though is why
Belief, Superstition, whatever you may
are stronger than cast-iron galvanized Fact.
Not all the time, of course, but in
kitchens, bedrooms, gardens, building-sites,
factories, and assorted such places.

Put another log on that fire, George.
Enough feckin' facts for tonight.
Who's got a song or a story, for Chris' sake,
get that dog away from the door.

Just asking...

Is it ever of any value
to say, "I told you so?"

Iraq, John Wain in

We just stay put.
Keep them on their toes.
They'll start to split.
Quiet there!
Settle down, this'll be a long night....

Puppy Love

I’d like to write
in small clear words
like the Pet Shop Boys.

What I wrote
would not be as
popular.

And it would not be heard,
either,
like the Pet Shop Boys.

Nothing so popular
as cute puppies in a window.

Rape'n'Death in Darfur
gets boring after the
first few rhymes.

Permanent Pen On Vinyl

Bhundu Boys – I can listen
on CD via
laptop or player
earphones, speakers, surround sound,
Ipod,
Ipaq,
Walkman,
Grundig,
down the street,
at the kitchen table,
on the cream leather sofa,
the two-piece African chair,
in bed,
in the garden,
in the sun.

Those hands, smiles,
voices are dead;
so young,
so early
so long.

[Rise Kagonga is still in Scotland,
but don’t let life get in the way
of love of money.]

note

Did someone say
Art, Religion and Science
make up an important
- triangle?
Philosophy is a much
nicer word then Religion
- well, I think so.

two hundred years

slavery
a slide show
boom boom pictures up there

greeks
gladiators
galleys

road to timbuktu
woman with grinding stone
blacksmith craftsman sits on the sand
relative calm before the maelstrom

gold coast stone cannoned fort
fort fort christiansborg elmina
fresh captives neck and foot
chained branded neck rings
leg irons masks collars spurs

oil painting handsome
liverpool ship under sail
loading diagram spoon fashion
slaves on wildfire deck
girl hanging from foot
sick thrown overboard
to avoid import tax
arise sir john hawkins

posters slave stores
auctions inspecting the goods
separating families

plantations big houses
wooden shacks
cotton gins 'n sugar
rum punches whipped
scarred back five generations
solemn faced posed photograph
distilled fermented pulped
held out to dry smokey fire

black nursemaid white children
college servant with broom
starched maid amuses starched girl
mulatto clothing styles separate
male female brazil havana peru

tubman ferry house fugitive slaves
run away jack advert
underground railway map
site 1 site 2 slave picture
bundled belongings on back

abolition opposition
commemorative plaque
coin mug medal lincolned
freed slave couple
emancipated workworn hands

bill passed houses built
dynasties founded honours
allocated bristol liverpool
britain united states

more modern photos sex
people traffic new enslaved
child sex abused carpets
bricks footballs trainers
shirts fair trade markets
new bonded labour
profit money
honours for sale
legacy dead in the water

grumpy old men

they don't want to listen
to grumpy old men
asking irritating questions.

they want to hear
something sweet
with a turn of the hips
'n a bit of a - wow!

ok we can't
turn back the clock
but we can still
remember to smile...

be quiet

nothing wrong
with silence -
being still

you can
be silent
and still
be there