Saturday, February 22, 2025
Friday, February 21, 2025
Thursday, February 20, 2025
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Monday, February 17, 2025
Sunday, February 16, 2025
Saturday, February 15, 2025
Friday, February 14, 2025
Thursday, February 13, 2025
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Monday, February 10, 2025
Sunday, February 9, 2025
Saturday, February 8, 2025
Friday, February 7, 2025
Thursday, February 6, 2025
Tuesday, February 4, 2025
Monday, February 3, 2025
Sunday, February 2, 2025
Saturday, February 1, 2025
Friday, January 31, 2025
Thursday, January 30, 2025
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Monday, January 27, 2025
Sunday, January 26, 2025
Saturday, January 25, 2025
Thursday, January 23, 2025
𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁
Standing next to my old friend I
sense that his soldiers have retreated.
And mine? They're resting their guns
on their shoulders
talking quietly. I'm hungry, one
says.
Cheeseburger, says another,
and they all decide to go and find
some dinner.
But the next day, negotiating the
too-narrow aisles of
The Healthy and Harmony Food Store --
when I say, Excuse me,
to the woman and her cart of organic
chicken and green grapes
she pulls the cart not quite far back
enough for me to pass,
and a small mob in me begins picking
up the fruit to throw.
So many kingdoms,
and in each kingdom, so many people:
the disinherited son, the corrupt counselor,
the courtesan, the fool.
And so many gods -- arguing among
themselves,
over toast, through the lunch salad
and on into the long hours of the
spring afternoon -- I'm the god,
No I'm the god. No, I'm the god.
I can hardly hear myself over their
muttering.
How can I discipline my army? They're
exhausted and want more money.
How can I disarm when my enemy seems
so intent?
- Marie Howe –
(The Kingdom of Ordinary Time)
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Mathematics
I have envied those
who make something
useful, sturdy—
a chair, a pair of boots.
Even a soup,
rich with potatoes and cream.
Or those who fix, perhaps,
a leaking window:
strip out the old cracked putty,
lay down cleanly the line of the new.
You could learn,
the mirror tells me, late at night,
but lacks conviction.
One reflected eyebrow quivers a little.
I look at this
borrowed apartment—
everywhere I question it,
the wallpaper’s pattern matches.
Yesterday a woman
showed me
a building shaped
like the overturned hull of a ship,
its roof trusses, under the plaster,
lashed with soaked rawhide,
the columns’ marble
painted to seem like wood.
Though possibly it was the other way around?
I look at my unhandy hand,
innocent,
shaped as the hands of others are shaped.
Even the pen it holds is a mystery, really.
Rawhide, it
writes,
and chair, and marble.
Eyebrow.
Later the woman asked me—
I recognized her then,
my sister, my own young self—
Does
a poem enlarge the world,
or
only our idea of the world?
How do you take one from the other,
I lied, or did not lie,
in answer.
~ Jane Hirshfield
𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀
“Parents rarely let go of
their children, so children let go of them.
They move on. They move away.
The moments that used to define them are covered by
moments of their own accomplishments.
It is not until much later, that
children understand;
their stories and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories
of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones,
beneath the water of their lives.”
― Paulo
Coelho
Monday, January 20, 2025
Sunday, January 19, 2025
Saturday, January 18, 2025
Friday, January 17, 2025
Thursday, January 16, 2025
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Monday, January 13, 2025
Sunday, January 12, 2025
Saturday, January 11, 2025
Friday, January 10, 2025
Thursday, January 9, 2025
Wednesday, January 8, 2025
Ad showing
Islamic preacher burning dollars banned in blow for Khan’s TfL
Advertisement approved by transport body risked ‘serious offence’, regulator rules
Adverts showing an Islamic preacher burning US dollar and euro banknotes have been banned from tubes and buses, overruling a decision by Sadiq Khan’s Transport for London (TfL) to allow them.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) on
Tuesday said it had banned six posters for online Halal investment company
Wahed Invest after concluding that they could have “caused serious offence”.
The ASA pointed out that the Wahed Invest adverts
showed the words “the United States of America” in flames and that the TfL
service is “regularly used by tourists”.
It said: “Due to the vast number of people who used
TfL services and because London was a tourist hotspot, people from the United
States or eurozone countries would have seen the ads.
“We considered some viewers, particularly people
from the United States or eurozone countries, would have viewed their nation’s
currency as being culturally significant and a symbol of their national
identity.”
Several of the adverts feature images of Ismail ibn
Musa Menk, a Muslim preacher and motivational speaker, known as Mufti Menk,
surrounded by flaming US dollar notes.
The ban comes despite TfL’s prior approval of the
adverts and its insistence during the ASA investigation that they did not break
any rules. TfL, which is chaired by the Mayor of London, said it believed the
ads complied with its advertising policies.
The decision to approve the adverts contrasts with the network’s strict stance on posters that breach its junk food rules. Ed Gamble, a comedian, last year had to swap a picture of a hot dog for a cucumber in adverts for his stand-up tour. TfL also banned an advert for an artisan cheese shop in 2023 after deciding that the dairy product was too unhealthy.
Susan Hall, a Conservative member of the London Assembly and former mayoral candidate, told GB News last year: “The Wahed advert on TfL services begs a lot of questions about the Mayor’s policing of advertising.”
The adverts were seen on London tubes and buses in September and October last year, during which time the ASA received 75 complaints about the posters. TfL paused the campaigns pending the outcome of the ASA’s investigation.
Wahed Invest said the burning banknotes were meant
to signify that when inflation grew faster than the rates of savings rates,
money was effectively “going up in flames”.
The finance company argued that popular phrases
such as “money to burn” and “burning a hole in my pocket” were often used in
relation to cash. It told the ASA that while it acknowledged that currencies
were a symbol of national identity, burning of banknotes were often seen in
films and TV programmes.
However the ASA said the “burning of banknotes
would have caused serious offence to some viewers”.
One poster showed a man holding an open briefcase
filled with US dollar and euro banknotes on fire, while another included the
same briefcase image with a large heading stating “withdraw from exploitation”.
The advertising regulator said the ads must not
appear again in this format.
A TfL spokesman said all adverts were reviewed
against its policy “as well as the Committees of Advertising Practice (Cap)
Code before being approved to run on the network” and added: “We will apply the
findings when considering any future campaigns.”
A Wahed spokesman said the organisation understands
“that visuals like those included in our campaign can elicit strong reactions”
and appreciates the ASA’s feedback on the use of international currency.
He added: “Our imagery sought to visually and
metaphorically highlight the impact inflation has on savings. Many of our
clients elect to not receive interest income on their savings due to religious
prohibitions on interest and yet still feel the effects of inflation, thus
‘burning’ their purchasing power.
“While our intention was to spark thought and
awareness, we recognise the importance of ensuring that messaging resonates
positively with the diverse audiences that may consume them.”
https://telegraph.co.uk/gift/5118579b3c8f746d
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