Green

For the Green Party in Colchester, 10th birthday bash, held at the Waiting Room. I was invited to perform (what a privilege), and decided to write something especially for the occasion. In a desperate attempt to be original I called it this!

Green

Green is the colour of my son's wellington boots

that he lets me wear for wet dog walks

around the village green.

Green

is all around us

England: still the land of pleasant green

with its little villages

and football pitches

cheese and onion crisp packets

and leaf strewn ditches.

Though fast becoming wrapped

in a cloak of lifeless grey

the woodland sacrificed

for the motorway.

Green was the colour of my Dad's estate car

he would drive us to the swimming pool in it

and himself to the pub

(and back again)

and once on holiday to the Isle of Wight.

But we all know that a car

even a green coloured one

is not very green.

Green is the colour of Spring

those little shoots that appear,

heralding the start of

another year.

The sea is sometimes green

a pea is green

it's also the colour

of mint ice cream which

even on a rainy day

eases the cares of life away.

I always ate my greens

especially on a Sunday.

They're good for you Mum would say

and she was right.

But now we all eat too much brown

and white.

Mum sleeps with the green now

she has for some time now,

green is the blanket

for her long goodnight.

And that's all right.

That's all right.

Carry On Biting

So lets have a think about this. Not for too long because really no thought is needed. Imagine biting someone at work and still having a job afterwards.
No?
Bit too far to stretch the imagination isn't it. For most of us the thought would be ridiculous. Apparently though there are exceptions to this rule. The good old world of professional premiershit (notice my deliberate misspelling there) football being one.

If your name is Luis Suarez the message is, from the top down, go ahead and behave however you like. We will fine and ban you from a few games but carry on regardless. His team will keep him on and the police won't prosecute. He is to be offered 'anger management classes' though.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Ha ha ha ha ha.
Can you tell how cynical I am about that. Bit like offering the Yorkshire ripper classes in how to handle his issues towards women.

So green light to carry on. Carry on biting. They could make that into a film. Mike Tyson could play him (can you see what I did there?).

What's truly disgraceful is that his team management have basically said he is too valuable to lose. Meaning of course that as premiershit (oops I did it again) football is all about money now and there are no professional standards, they simply can't afford to lose him. So morals, sport, sportsmanship, basic good decent human conduct count for nothing anymore. Not where sport and money are concerned. Much the same as big business everywhere then.

Suarez has 'apologised' to Ivanovic, the Chelsea defender he very kindly introduced to his teeth, and asked the Football Association to donate his fine to the Hillsborough Family Support Group. What's the word I am looking for?
Yet he has also previously been fined for racial abuse, and already had one ban for biting another player whilst at Ajax (I thought that was a scouring powder?) I see a pattern emerging here.

Mark Lawrenson, Football Analyst said...

"What Luis Suarez did has absolutely no place in football and he is going to get - and deserves - an extremely lengthy ban.

"You cannot bite people anywhere, let alone on a football field. It is the type of thing you do when you are a baby. He's a world-class player but he gives you world-class trouble."

I agree with most of what mark Lawrenson says apart from one fundamental thing. He (Suarez) does not deserve a lengthy ban at all. What he deserves is to be sacked and banned from playing again. Ever. And prosecuted for this criminal offence. Maybe he could, as part of his sentence, be made to do something useful for once, like helping out at a soup kitchen or sweeping the streets.
Perhaps he could visit offenders in prison who have been sentenced for assault or racial abuse and try to explain to them the differing standards in society and why he has no criminal record and enjoys a luxury lifestyle, whilst they are spending their time at her Majesty's pleasure.
Maybe he could, eventually, get a normal job (if there are any left) somewhere and then, during an 'angry' moment, bite a co worker and see how much 'support' he gets from his management.

But he won't. And he won't be either punished or disciplined in any meaningful way either. He will go on playing and setting the most appalling example, assisted by the management of his team, his fellow players, the football association and the police...

Same old eh, same old....