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I am flying …….. long haul ……… in that kind of dream world of memory and loss ……….. the constant low level white noise rumble of the aircraft ………… the vagueness of direction and of time ……. the artificially forced purpose and specific mission …… combined with complete vagueness of present merged into a remembered past …. the way it always seems to be for me these days on long haul flights.

Bruce Sprinsteen is playing in my ears from Delta’s selection of albums ………. : “Waitin for when The last shall be first and the first shall be last ….In a cardboard box ‘neath the underpass ” ……….. “waiting here in the campfire light” ………… ” for the ghost of Tom Joad” ………… “Tom said” ………. “Where ever a hungry newborn baby cries …… Where there’s a fight ‘gainst the blood and hatred in the air” …………… “Look for me Mom I’ll be there “………. ” Where there’s somebody fightin for a place to stand ” ………. ” Or a decent job or a helpin’ hand” ……. “Where ever somebody’s struggling to free ” ………… “Look in their eyes Mom you’ll see me” …….

The homeless folks “in the campfire light ‘neath the underpass” …….. something I have seen only yesterday in Honolulu …… in my thoughts this merges with the first time I ever heard mention of the name of Tom Joad.

When I was 17 my girlfriend at the time told me I should read …….. ‘Grapes of Wrath’ by John Steinbeck…….. the story of Tom Joad ……. it was her favorite novel of the ones that she was studying for ‘A level’ English ………. I was at the time a big supporter of ‘The Peoples March for Jobs’ and other anti-poverty and social justice campaigns ……. I was involved in anti-fascist and anti-rascist street organisations ………… I would try and persaude my girlfriend of the importance of action against all sorts issues of injustice …… she seemed to think any of this kind of injustice was all inevitable and inexorable …….. I guess her interest in Tom Joad was really that of a literary observer ………… but she understood I should be interested because I was an activist motivated by the same causes ……… Back then our home city of Birmingham UK had mass unemployment as did other traditional manufacturing cities of Britain under the national government led by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher ………… I found it amazing that my girlfriend was not more motivated by the plight of our fellow youth falling into poverty in our city …….. and the conditions of the unemployed generally in the Midlands ……. and places beyond ………

I guess it was inevitable our relationship was not to be …………. probably good news for both of us …….. especially her ……… that we broke up ……… :-/ 🙂 🙂 🙂 ……..

My involvement in all that street protest and campaigning in the end fused with my interest in photography and a desire to travel, a desire to actually be there as a witness to history in person, ……… All that made me into a photojournalist.

I heard as I was driving to the international airport at Honolulu this morning that it is “World Refugee Day” …….. Refugees fleeing violence, war, and affliction constitute perhaps the most pressing issues of justice of our day …….. combine them with economic migration of people fleeing poverty and economic injustice ….. these migrations of people, their stories define in a river of humanity the conflict, economics, identity and politics of our world.

In recent weeks and over the years I have spent much time with people fleeing poverty and violence and a combination of both ………

I am not so different now to the person I was back then at 17 …….. when I first heard about Tom Joad ………… I am still not unlike him interested in social justice ………… specifically jobs for the unemployed, access to education and health care for all, some kind of reasonable equity in the distribution of wealth ……….. and the fight against fascism, totalitarianism and fundamentalism ………….. solidarity with those fleeing injustice and persecution ……….. the search for justice and decency in society ………….. and yet still …………. I have never read ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ …………

Cheers Jez XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

www.jezblog.com