The Morning
After
Yes, of
course the sky has not yet fallen in, though that’s partly because chaos in the
financial markets doesn’t have immediate visible effects, but I cannot help but
be sad. Today we have an exhibition opening in the Crypt of St.Mary Mags,
“Magic of Light”, which is organised by Tomek, a Polish artist. On Sunday I am
going to a party given by Germ, Helen’s old supervisor, who is a Dutch
academic. It is no surprise that London
voted heavily to remain in the EU, because here we actually see the value that
our European brothers and sisters bring to our lives. Most particularly we also
reject the poisonous politics of division that are signified by this result.
It’s no surprise that Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen think it’s a great result
because they recognise what it says. Mr Farage may insist that his voters are
“decent people” and of course most of his voters are, but he cannot escape the
fact that the people with really despicable views will also have voted for him,
and he has given plenty of signs that he understands and welcomes them.
The
Revolution
Round here
we still have some revolutionary Socialists, and I know some who have proudly
voted to leave the EU, which they regard as a bourgeois conspiracy. They are
delighted at the fall of David Cameron, as they relish the prospect of his
being replaced by a more nakedly right-wing figure whose tyrannical rule will
motivate the workers to rise and overthrow the bourgeois regime. But this is
fantasy. The Referendum result demonstrates that the workers are much more
ready to form mobs to hound out
foreigners than they are to turn on the bosses. Watch the hedge-funders and
currency speculators (Nigel?) getting rich as the markets boil over, and see
whether the workers mobilise. My revolutionary friends think it will be
absolutely fine for Prime Minister Johnson to scapegoat immigrants, and repeal
workers’ rights and employment protection because that will hasten the uprising
of the proletariat, and as Lenin said you had to break a few eggs, but actually
the revolution isn’t just around the corner, and real people will suffer. The
poorest and weakest are always the victims, and so it will prove, comrades.
R.I.P. Amjad
Sabri
And just in
case you thought things couldn’t get worse, look at the news from Pakistan. Amjad
Sabri, a musician, has been murdered by the Taliban in Karachi. He was part of the world famous
Sabri Brothers ensemble (the “Brothers” were his father and uncle) who perform
qawwali, the Muslim devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The Sabris are hereditary musicians, descended from Tansen, the court musician of the Mughal Emperor Akbar back in
the sixteenth century, and while they perform on secular stages (I saw them at
the South Bank once) their art is entirely based on the worship of God. Listen to
a Sabri Brothers CD and appreciate the devotion. Amjad had broadened the
repertoire to engage with new audiences (a bit like Youssou N’Dour has done,
and just as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan did) but the core of their repertoire was
still the traditional qawwali sung at Sufi shrines every Thursday night for
hundreds of years, which are love songs to God. Helen spent time in Karachi two years ago and
reported how lawless it is, but there is still something profoundly shocking
about the murder of a singer of devotional music.
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