flashback
(From The Heelers Diaries a decade ago.)
Friday 4th June 1999: Bernard has resigned from his job in England. Aunty Teresa still receiving visitors which is a hopeful sign. We all need hope. Aunty R---- in hospital for tests. Met Byrno for lunch. Not great. Discussed Kosovo. He was in favour of the Yanks bombing Yugoslavia into submission. I curtailed the conversation before it got too heated. The Serbs have agreed to withdraw from Kosovo. Clinton and Blair are crowing like cockerels. Bombing continues until the Serbs have left. With Nato protecting the world, all we now have to worry about is who shall protect the world from Nato.
Tuesday 8th June 1999: Aunty R---- has a tumour in her lung. We visited her tonight. Unk Johann visited Aunty Teresa, He said she was at least able to talk to him. I covered an Athy District Court session for the Leinster Leader. A young defendant approached me afterwards.
"Can I talk to you?" he said.
"No," I answered hurrying away.
He called after me something about keeping his case out of the paper. I didn't know what case he meant exactly and I wanted it to stay that way. Back home I discovered he'd managed to extract the reporters notebook from my coat pocket. So his case stays out of the paper after all. Well done by the defendant.
My spirit is weak enough. Nameless regrets. Yearnings.
Wednesday 9th June 1999: A bit more at peace. Met Melissa in Athy tonight. She kissed me. Every life has its surprises. Nato seems to be on the brink of conquest in the Balkans. Television full of how Nato is winning PEACE. But conquest is what this is. A war to distract attention from Bill Clinton's mickey. The fearful thing is that the champagne liberals of the West think they can bomb a country for three months, and that peace can then miraculously follow at a whim. They thought to bomb the Yugoslavs into accepting an imposed solution to their country's internecine violence. And now Clinton, and Blair, and Schroder, and the French, (and all the other idiots who comprise the nineteen member states of Nato) think that because they stop firing their missiles, there will be peace. Blood will have blood.
Friday 11th June 1999: Nato troops massing on the border of Kosovo province. The Russians raced them and were first into the country, taking up positions around Pristina. Word came that the Americans were "flabbergasted." Then word came that the Russian troops had acted without orders from their government, and would be immediately withdrawn. Strange balletic idiocy. Ominous enough. Clinton, Blair, and their supporters fought this war because they wanted to. But will they be able to control the situation as easily as they think? The situation is changing by the hour. Momentarily it looked as though Nato and the Russians would be facing each other on occupied territory, with all the unimaginable risks such a standoff could entail. Clinton and Blair are gambling with world war.
Monday 14th June 1999: Walked by the river this evening with Jess. She spotted an otter in the water and stood stock still wagging her tail to let me know. The otter slid effortlessly through the water not ten yards from us. Sometimes he would disappear beneath the surface, and I could follow his progress from the trail of bubbles. Then he would reappear making loud munching noises with his mouth. He dallied around close to us for about five minutes, before losing my eye near the opposite bank. Hadn't felt so privileged by existence since the morning I glanced out my bedroom window at dawn just as a Reynard came trotting through the hedge across the field.
(Update November 2008: Clearly I wasn't in favour of every war! My opinion of Bill Clinton never improved. Nor did I ever think the Muslim Kosovars were entitled to secede from Serbia. I did stop referring to Yugoslavs when I meant Serbs. My opinion of Tony Blair got better. I thought Mr Blair redeemed himself by making the tough call to fight Al Qaeda alongside the Americans when many in his party and his country wanted to chicken out. Among the Western Europeans, primarily Britain, Italy, Poland, and briefly Spain, chose to stand strong in the Al Qaeda fight. Most of the rest of us have opted to live in denial.)
Friday 4th June 1999: Bernard has resigned from his job in England. Aunty Teresa still receiving visitors which is a hopeful sign. We all need hope. Aunty R---- in hospital for tests. Met Byrno for lunch. Not great. Discussed Kosovo. He was in favour of the Yanks bombing Yugoslavia into submission. I curtailed the conversation before it got too heated. The Serbs have agreed to withdraw from Kosovo. Clinton and Blair are crowing like cockerels. Bombing continues until the Serbs have left. With Nato protecting the world, all we now have to worry about is who shall protect the world from Nato.
Tuesday 8th June 1999: Aunty R---- has a tumour in her lung. We visited her tonight. Unk Johann visited Aunty Teresa, He said she was at least able to talk to him. I covered an Athy District Court session for the Leinster Leader. A young defendant approached me afterwards.
"Can I talk to you?" he said.
"No," I answered hurrying away.
He called after me something about keeping his case out of the paper. I didn't know what case he meant exactly and I wanted it to stay that way. Back home I discovered he'd managed to extract the reporters notebook from my coat pocket. So his case stays out of the paper after all. Well done by the defendant.
My spirit is weak enough. Nameless regrets. Yearnings.
Wednesday 9th June 1999: A bit more at peace. Met Melissa in Athy tonight. She kissed me. Every life has its surprises. Nato seems to be on the brink of conquest in the Balkans. Television full of how Nato is winning PEACE. But conquest is what this is. A war to distract attention from Bill Clinton's mickey. The fearful thing is that the champagne liberals of the West think they can bomb a country for three months, and that peace can then miraculously follow at a whim. They thought to bomb the Yugoslavs into accepting an imposed solution to their country's internecine violence. And now Clinton, and Blair, and Schroder, and the French, (and all the other idiots who comprise the nineteen member states of Nato) think that because they stop firing their missiles, there will be peace. Blood will have blood.
Friday 11th June 1999: Nato troops massing on the border of Kosovo province. The Russians raced them and were first into the country, taking up positions around Pristina. Word came that the Americans were "flabbergasted." Then word came that the Russian troops had acted without orders from their government, and would be immediately withdrawn. Strange balletic idiocy. Ominous enough. Clinton, Blair, and their supporters fought this war because they wanted to. But will they be able to control the situation as easily as they think? The situation is changing by the hour. Momentarily it looked as though Nato and the Russians would be facing each other on occupied territory, with all the unimaginable risks such a standoff could entail. Clinton and Blair are gambling with world war.
Monday 14th June 1999: Walked by the river this evening with Jess. She spotted an otter in the water and stood stock still wagging her tail to let me know. The otter slid effortlessly through the water not ten yards from us. Sometimes he would disappear beneath the surface, and I could follow his progress from the trail of bubbles. Then he would reappear making loud munching noises with his mouth. He dallied around close to us for about five minutes, before losing my eye near the opposite bank. Hadn't felt so privileged by existence since the morning I glanced out my bedroom window at dawn just as a Reynard came trotting through the hedge across the field.
(Update November 2008: Clearly I wasn't in favour of every war! My opinion of Bill Clinton never improved. Nor did I ever think the Muslim Kosovars were entitled to secede from Serbia. I did stop referring to Yugoslavs when I meant Serbs. My opinion of Tony Blair got better. I thought Mr Blair redeemed himself by making the tough call to fight Al Qaeda alongside the Americans when many in his party and his country wanted to chicken out. Among the Western Europeans, primarily Britain, Italy, Poland, and briefly Spain, chose to stand strong in the Al Qaeda fight. Most of the rest of us have opted to live in denial.)
posted by heelers | 10:14 AM
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