What My Roving-Eye Saw of Cuba. By Uncle Monty at New York City.

What My Roving-Eye Saw of Cuba.

By Uncle Monty at New York City.

Photos of Cuba By Alex Albion.

Part 2 of 2.

***

Cuba was a kaleidoscope of colours for my roving-eye

that saw me shoot over 1,000 photos at mostly Havana,

of western Cuba at Pinar del Rio, and the beach area of

Fabrica during my 10-day visit to the Cuban Archipelago.

***

Needless to say, I have already sold the rights to many of my

Cuban images that I shot under my photographic name of

Alex Albion. Whatever, I still have many photos left to share

with my loyal blog readership. So here I present a very small

selection of about 20 photos that has tried to avoid the usual

“tourist” spots and snapshots for images primarily of the

day-to-day life of the ordinary Cuban people that I saw

thru my roving-eye and camera lens.

***
I have given a brief description of each image here with-

out any lengthy story of what my roving-eye saw of Cuba.

Read instead part 1 of 2 for a more detailed story of my

stay under the communist tyranny and ignominy of Raúl

and Fidel Castro. Here then are simply some of my

images that best convey, I think, the constrast and

character of the ordinary people and of the every

day scenes that I openingly recorded

at first hand and right upfront.
***

1

Cuban School Kidz at Havana Public Ceremony.

***

2
Downtown Havana.
***
3
Local Neighbourhood Swimming Hole.
***
4
Baseball Pastime.
***
5
Statues Galore With Yet Another One Here.
***
6
A Blissful Cathedral Wedding.
***
7
Homeless Cuban w/The Big Issue.
***
8
The 1st Archbishop of Cuba.
***
9
At "El Sinagoga Adath Israel."

***
10
Pay Phones Widely-Used w/Few Cellphones.
***
11
City Nun Doing Her Helpful Rounds.
***
12
Interior View of Cuban Government Building.
***
13
Castro Party H.Q. at Pinar del Rio.
***
14
Classic Scene of Old American Chevy.
***
15
Burying Their Dead at Necropólis de Colon.
***
16
Inside A Cuban Primary School.
***
17
Princess Diana Isn't Dead in Cuba!!

***
18
At Fabrica, Cuba.
***
19
My First Picture Shot of Havana.

***

20
The Caption Photo at top of page is of a

young artist called Jorge Luz with his bright

painting of Ernesto "Che" Guevara that Jorge

had just hours earlier finished at his local art

school project. He wanted only 25 Pesos

(approx. £18.00) for his large canvas.
***
Uncle Monty With Cuba National Boxing Team.

_ * _
Faithfully, Uncle Monty.

+Whitsuntide, 2009.

_ * _

Cuba revolution commander Juan Almeida dies at 82.

(Who I happened to see and photograph while at Havana!)

By Jeff Franks

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE58B0P920090912

Latest Update: Sept. 12th, 2oo9.

::

:: US/Cuba Update 6/5/09 ::

Ex-U.S. State official, wife face Cuba spy charges.

By Andy Sullivan.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5546CA20090605

_*_

:: Further Update 6/12/09 ::
Top UK headteacher held over £500,000 Cuba trip expenses.

By Mark Blunden and Robert Mendick.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23706339-details/Top+headteacher+held+over+500,000+Cuba+trip+expenses/article.do

-*-

{Click on any image to Enlarge}

.

Castro's Crumbling Cuba. By Uncle Monty at New York City.

Castro's Crumbling Cuba.

By Uncle Monty at New York City.

Photos of Cuba By Alex Albion.

Part 1 of 2.

~~~

Driving from José Marti International Airport

to Cuba's capital of central Havana was akin to

witnessing at first hand a Third World country

under the communist tyranny of the Castro

Brothers - Raúl, its current president and

Fidel its former president of Cuba.

~~~

The scenery looked quite primitive in the late

evening drive with awful roads, sub-standard

dwellings, shabby knots of Afro-Cubans

lanquishing on the dirt sidewalks, piles of

garbage visible at the packed neighbour-

hoods, and crumbling infrastructure

rudely invading the senses.

~~~

Any romantic view of Cuba was soon dead!
Marking this year the 50th Anniversary of

the Fidel Ruz Castro Communist Régime of

1959, the revolutionary rhetoric and the

reality of life in Cuba for the masses is

stark and contradictory to say the least.

At the street level, the Castro party ap-

paratus controls and grinds the lives of

the people from demands of monthly taxes

collected from door to door to the military

and police presence everywhere to the

enforced silence of dissent that sees the

prisons of Cuba full of political prisoners.

No wonder so many Cubans seek free-

dom elsewhere by fleeing to America

by whatever means they can.

~~~

The Cuban-American opposition to

all things called "Castro" is so valid now to

me after visiting Cuba and seeing with my

own eyes an undernourished society that

is so oppressed and absolutely unfree.

~~~
Street Woman at Cuba's Havana.

~~~
At Havana itself, I saw nobody reading the

free daily newspapers because there are none

to buy or to read, save for such national propa-

ganda news sheets - like El Granma - that aren't

worth the paper they're printed on. Cellphone

users are few and far between on the crowded

streets of the Cuban capital of 2½ million people

with internet access so limited to expensive tourist

hotels at about £3.50 per hour use. Tourist money

helps feed the Castro Tyranny. And, when it comes

time to leave the tourist must then pay 25CUC or

almost 20 quid in cash for so-called "Airport Tax"

that helps the communistic coffers of those still

in power after 50 years of iron rule. My plane

alone carried 400 air passengers. So figure that

at almost 20 quid per head and count the total

of free money rolling in for Cuba's political

elite and Castro's own crude thugs and old re-

volutionary henchmen. It's about £8.000 per

plane load. At say 5 plane loads per day, that's

£40.000 in free money each day. In the mean-

time, the Cuban masses grow poorer and more

blighted and more oppressed every day

under old Castro's crumbling Cuba.

~~~

And if America's Obama decides to lift the

U.S. embargo against Cuba, then it must be

tied to open demands that all political prisoners

under Castro be unconditionally-released and

without any further harm against them by his

vile and ever-present Cuban secret police.

:: And, This Just In ::

"U.S., Cuba agree to resume migration talks."

By John Whitesides.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE54U0WO20090531

~~~

If, by the way, you want a bellyful of Ernesto "Che"

Guevara (1928-1967) then Cuba is the place to visit

with him plastered on the street walls of many Cuban

cities. In fact, there seems to be more of "Che" than

Castro himself on the walls, despite "Che" being

second only to his revolutionary comrade and

brother-in-arms Fidel Castro. Guevara has

romanticizing disciples the world over even

though he was a ruthless and avowed orthodox

Marxist of Argentine birth who was finally

killed off in Bolivia while trying to lead

a peasant uprising there.
~~~
Here's another example of Castro's Crumbling Cuba.

While most Cubans are very friendly, there were elements who despise tourists and went out of their way to scream at you with their anti-Gringo and/or anti-Anglo obscenities! On the far back streets of Hanava, I was about to take a picture of a cluster of half-a-dozen young male Afro-Cubans sitting down playing dominoes outside together on the open street of Calle Sol, when one of them suddenly came at me with loud screams of obscenities in my face and telling me "to go back to the country" I was from and that foreigners like me had no welcome in Cuba. His face was a rage of full hate and his mates just egged him onto being even more hostile and anti-Anglo. Else where, another young, tall, and angry Afro-Cuban male tried to snatch my camera from me and told me he didn't want any photos taken of the graffiti-scrawled sign that said "Viva Fidel." On the other extreme, over-friendly non-Afro male hustlers abound with their broken English trying to entice you to buy Havana cigars or to give them money for something or other or to take a taxi ride. I was accosted twice by underage Afro-Cuban females for purposes of street prostitution! I just kept on walking until I got rid of them. Another thing to beware of is when given change at street stores that will foist old Cuban money on you knowing you're not then aware of the difference between the old and new money called "Cuban Convertible Pesos." The old money is now worthless and I got stuck with perhaps some 18 old pesoes in my change from just one store. I soon learned to be alert to such trickery and refused change that wasn't the new currency that came about only just last year in all of Cuba. I also sensed that many Cubans have simply a love/hate view of Europeans and Americans, but if they gain money from you then they will tolerate you no matter what. As for Havana waitresses, they are poorly trained if trained at all. They're sloppy and forgetful when called upon to serve their customers. At one restaurant, Contessa Maria and I was left for over 30 minutes while the waitress decided she'd take a personal break right in the middle of serving our lunch!! She seemed lost when she returned, too, with no apology. Maria was then furious and she promptly walked out and refused to pay a dime for the lunch we never actually got to take a bite of. There was consternation and pleas from the manager begging us to finish our now cold and useless lunch. He also bowed and scraped to Maria, but to no avail. Too late, buddy!!

But what really took the biscuit for me was when I walked across some grass that was forbidden to be used at one of the national monuments. Before I knew what, I had three military guyz, two armed policemen, and a young plainclothes cop surrounding me and demanding me to identify myself. When the plaincothes cop saw the copy of The Big Issue I had taken with me to Cuba, he quickly grabbed it from me but couldn't understand a word of English. I think at first he might have thought it was counter-revolutionary material against the Castro Régime!! Such is strictly forbidden and if found with such you can count on being detained in one of Castro's many secret prisons for here on out for the offense against public order. They finally, after 20 minutes, threw their hands up in the air when they couldn't understand a word I was saying and trying to also tell them I saw no sign that prohibited where I had simply walked to cross the road. I was not afraid of them and I was getting pretty angry with them for such an authoritarian overkill over little or nothing ... What that experience taught me was that inside Cuba it is almost equally as bad as inside North Korea and inside China (of which I have both visited) for the state control over every aspect of a person's public activity that is deemed the enforced order of the day. The eyes and ears of Raúl and Fidel Castro are every where. Although, Britain today isn't far behind them with her 7 million ubiquitous surveillance cameras in a society that is otherwise called "free" while Cuba cannot pretend to be.

Typical Cuban Junior H.S. Brainwashed for starters!
~~~ Wall poster of Castro with his pal Hugo Chavez.
~~~ When by accident I attended the public event marking Gustavo Ameijeiras' 51th anniversary death at downtown Havana, it was there that I first saw Comandante Juan Almeida (shown above), who is one of Fidel Castro's right hand men. He looked half-dead to me and he looked scruffy in his unpressed military outfit and seemed also abit lame did the comandante with many school kids shipped in for the occasion where they seemed to do their mechanical salutes and boring lip service to their régime masters. Juan Almeida was the nearest I got (or ever will) to Fidel himself while in Cuba for some 10 days. The comandante's own son - Juan Juan - was arrested for trying to illegally leave the country by Castro's own secret police!! http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/1069051.html

~~~

I must say, the longer I stayed the less I liked the

Cuban society I saw. I measure a country by my

desire to perhaps live there by a scale of 1 to 10.

The highest is 1 to the lowest that is 10. For me,

I'd give Cuba only about an 8 and that's it!!!
~~~

Havana or Habana Radio is state controlled.

~~~
"Che" at Cuba's Pinar del Rio some 100 miles

from Havana, that is pronounced "Abana." ~~~
In part 2, I'll have more photos of Cuba and more comments, etc.
For now read this: Miami judge awards $1.2 billion in suit against Cuba.
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE54S69B20090529

Right now, I'm here at New York City with Maria at her luxurious Manhattan home before I then head next back to home base. I want to thank very much Maria, yet once again, for her kind hospitality at The Big Apple and for her generosity while at Havana by her underwriting of my complete 12.000-mile round trip. Bless you, my dear as always!!!

Truly, Uncle Monty. +Eve of Whitsuntide, 2oo9.

{Simply Click on any image to Enlarge}

<><><>

Cuba's Own Rubik's Cube. By Uncle Monty at Cuba's Old Havana.

Cuba’s Own Rubik's Cube.
By Uncle Monty

At Cuba's Old Havana.

:-:

For an Anglo or gringo like me, staying for

awhile here inside Hispanic Cuba is something

like trying to figure out the rubik's cube. No mat-

ter how you twist and turn the multi-coloured

rubik's cube, Cuba still confounds the likes and

minds of most Anglos and gringos. And, it leaves

us, more often than not, red in the face.

:-:
The colourful Cubans themselves delight and chuckle in

confounding us, but without any malice or any deliberate

harm on their friendly part. For me, standing now at

Cuba’s Old Havana filfills one of my great travel dreams

to finally come here and to try to figure out all that is

behind Cuba’s Own Rubik's Cube. I’m so glad I did.
:-:

Old Cuban Jew at Havana Synagogue with

his WII Nazi-issued ID card for Jews Only.

:-:

Big America is just 90 miles away that has boycott Cuba

forever and a day or for close to 50 years now. It’s time

to do away with that and bring Cuba out of isolation and

embargo for all the free world to finally see.

:-:
But first also be aware here at Old Havana of “hustlers,

rogue taxi drivers, and other bad people who may offer

you cheaper accommodation services, transporation or

money exchange. This happens frequently and the ser-

vices they offer are not legitimate or are of very poor

quality. We, at Havana Stay, strongly discourage any

sort of deals with these (illegal) solicitors to aviod a

dangerous risk to you,” says Isabel Lopez at pre-

warning Maria and I. That also helps us to solve abit

of Cuba’s Own Rubik's Cube, right? Sí. Muy bueno! ...
:-:
The Flag of Cuba.

Many Cuban Americans mellowing to new Cuba policy.

By Pascal Fletcher.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE54I4FX20090519

:-:
Before leaving for Old Havana, I went to the Cuban

Embassy at London’s Grape Street to get my tourist

visa. While there, I saw three or four highly-polished

black Cuban diplomatic cars parked outside with

important ambassadorial members arriving like

English knighted lords with their groomed chauffeurs.
Inside the small consul section, the atomsphere was

family-like with an informality that was quite homely

and relaxed with some of their fellow Cuban com-

patriots visiting with their new-born babies to say

"hola" or "hello" to their consular staff friends.

:-:

It took just minutes to obtain my 30-day Tourist

Visa card at only 15 quid! Not only was it the quick-

est visa I have ever been issued with, but by far

the cheapest. At the Chinese and Iranian Embassies

in London, when I went to Bejing and Tehran, I had

to pay, for example, over 60 quid for each visa

and wait in line for hours, too. Not so, how-

ever, at Fidel’s! Ah, Muy bueno, again!!
:-:
And before I forget, don’t bring “credit or debit

cards and traveller’s checks issued in any country

by American banks or their branches for they are

not accepted in Cuba and, therefore, are useless. If

you bring US dollars, unlike all other currencies,

you’ll be charged a 10% tax on top of the exchange

rate," states Isabel Lopez. No doubt this will change

if and when the Obama Administration finally lifts

America's long-standing embargo against Cuba that

prevents and deprives all Americans of free travel to

Havana. Cuban Americans, however, can now freely

travel to their homeland of Cuba due to Obama

recently freeing them to do so, but all other Am-

ericans are still left in travel limbo for now.

:-:

It is also here at Cuba that houses America's huge blot

in the shape and form of its world notorious Gitmo

or Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp that smacks

of Nazi character more than anything else with

its concertina fortress and gun towers to "protect"

Americans and their Washington government from

those who hate or would attack the United States

for whatever reasons their "terrorist" hearts and

minds might forever desire. The fallout of America's

9/11 will live on and on until the Gitmo dies its own

death at its world shame that it now represents.
:-:

Two Gringos: Ah, Kiss And Make-Up! :-:
From Old Havana, Maria and I will then travel
stateside to vibrant Miami and then onto The Big

Apple at New York City to stay there at Maria's

luxury-owned Upper Manhattan Duplex - which

would cost about $450 or £210 per day, if she

rented - until I fly back to home base. I've held

permanent US residency, or the so-called "Green

Card," for the past 38 years. So I think I know

America very well. But for Cuba,

I obviously do not!

:-:
:: FACTBOX ::
Some key facts about Cuban society.
http://www.reuters.com/article/globalNews/idUSTRE4BR1LP20081228
:-:
So for me, Cuba's Own Rubik's Cube I hope to

fathom out abit from now on. Then perhaps, I can
figure out who and what she really is. The Cuban
combinations are truly rubik to me although after my

10-day here, I hope to be alot wiser than I am now.

Perhaps, too, I may, ironically, find myself to be more

the Rubik's Cube than Cuba will ever be!!! We'll see!!
.
Adiós, Uncle Monty
at Old Havana, Cuba.
+The Ascension, 2oo9.
:-:
::: While in Cuba and America, I shall take a needed
break from my little blog, unless something major

happens that requires me to return to my blog faster

than before I know what. So again, adiós amigos!! :::

:: Rubik's Cube ::

{ Click on any Image For Full Size View }

:-:

My Writing Speaks For Myself. By Sam Woodlock.

My Writing Speaks For Myself.
By Sam Woodlock.
Edited By Uncle Monty.
Graphics + Photos

By Alex Albion.
-
:: Drawing Conclusions ::

-
The best part of my day is when I close my
living room curtains. I have been housed for a few

years now, but the novelty of pulling the curtains
and shutting out the world has never really worn off.
-
When I was sleeping rough, I used to wander around
in the early evening killing time. I used to look through

windows and see people watching TV, eating meals,
enjoying family life – a whole world I was no longer

part of. It made me remember a time before I was

homeless, when, I, too, took for granted that I would

always have a TV to watch, the luxury of a made-up

bed, the bedroom lit by the soft glow
of a bedside lamp.
-
I used to walk the streets, watching people draw the

curtains, people who were oblivious to a whole world

of other people making cardboard beds on freezing

cold pavements. I didn’t blame them, because be-

fore I became homeless it was not something I
had ever thought about either.
-

But now that I am housed, every time I pull my

curtains, I am reminded of those left outside, the

ones who were not as lucky as me. What I have

experienced has taught me that homelessness

is just the other side of my front door.
-
So maybe tonight, when you are drawing your

curtains after dinner, you could offer up a little

prayer for the ones sleeping out tonight.

It’s something I always do.
Sam Woodlock ©2008.

-
:: Freedom ::
-
You do not need to tell me
To go away
That my presence
Is no longer required
Because I have already gone
Not phyiscally, I’m still here
But like a hot air balloon
My spirit soars free
Like the clouds drifting
So you do not need to tell me
I can go away
I can no longer hear you
Sam Woodlock ©2009
.

Sam's Hubby Tom ...

:: The Ladder of Life ::
-
(I) am now housed, but spent around 18
months sleeping rough with my husband

(Tom). Recently, I was thinking about all

the help we have received and our long

journey from a doorway in Holborn to

the nice council flat we have now.
-
What struck me was that each move we

made was a step up in the world, albeit

in an unconventional way.
-
We started off sleeping in a doorway in Holborn,
with no blankets. Our feet stuck out of the coat

we covered ourselves with, and on the two nights

it rained we got soaked. After a week, we man-

aged to get a duvet and blankets ... The next

few nights in the doorway felt like a hotel!
-
A few days later, some other people told us about

Charing Cross subway. Now that was heaven –
we were warm and dry.
-
A few weeks after that, we were all moved on
from Charing Cross. We then found ourselves
sleeping in a toilet at a railway station. This

was a definite move up – now we had

ensuite accommodation!
-
A few days later, we were discovered by station

staff, but were left speechless by their kindness.

They allowed us to stay in a disused storeroom,

and we were there for six months. A home of our

own, we had a heater, a sink, and somewhere to

leave our things. We could only sleep there
between 1am and 5.30am so that day staff

wouldn’t find out – but it was bliss.
-
Our next move was to a caravan, and here we

even had a TV. Then (TBI) found us a bedsit

and we thought things couldn’t get any better,

but then we moved (finally) into our lovely flat.
-
It’s funny, but looking back, I wouldn’t want to

live in any of those places now, but at the time

each move was like a gift from the gods.

.
(Edited By Uncle Monty)
Sam Woodlock © 2009
.
Sam Woodlock

Mother of one Sam Woodlock is a Big Issue

distributor at London’s famed Covent Garden.

She has been with The Big Issue for 12 years.

Her writing herein first appeared in various

weekly editions of The Big Issue. Such then

are selectively reprinted here online by
permission of the author herself.
...

"From Nasty Scotsman To Nice Jews."

By Uncle Monty.

Photos By Alex Albion.

.
It was a case of the rally catching up with me and

not me catching up with the rally! I may, if I have

any spare time before my upcoming holiday, add

a few more photos about the Free Palestine and

anti-Israel rally that converged Saturday after-

noon at Trafalgar Square from their march via

London's Kingsway, Aldwych, and the Strand.

Photo: Orthodox Jews At Free Palestine Rally.

.

www.inminds.co.uk/palestine-rally-1-17may03.html

...
Ready For Royal Ascot

At Stephen Jones' Hatshop.
...
Ralph & Company. Both Are Pals of Mine!
...

Then in London earlier this year for the England

vs. Scotland Rugby Final, I asked the Scotsmen

(shown below) if they would pose with a copy of The

Big Issue and I was disgusted that the one Scotsman

of the three sneered, "F*** The Big Issue." I told him

he didn't need to be so nasty and then he told me to

"F*** Off," too!! He wasn't drunk, he was just mean

even though he appeared to be so friendly on the

surface as shown in the photo of the 3 kilted Scots.

.

"F*** The Big Issue," Said

The Curt and Kilted Scotsman.

.

So talking of The Big Issue, I also saw its own

staffer Paul Joseph at my pitch on Saturday morn-

ing, where upon he had arrived back from Norway’s

Bergen at where he had spoken on the panel about

street paper distribution at the 2oo9 Conference

of The International Network of Street Papers

(INSP). Along with Paul, was the Big Issue honcho

John Bird himself and TBI Publisher Lisa Woodman.

.
Last year, I attended its 2008 conference at Scotland's

Glasgow. Then TBI's international business rep John

Duffy also attended, but not so at Bergen this year

just like me. I have invited Paul to write some-

thing about the conference should he like to do so.

He said he'd not written anything so far about it.

He also said he'd not taken any photos of the event.

Pity! Always carry a camera with you for you never

know what is around the corner of life that becomes

history the very second after you have photographed

whoever and whatever it is ... I don't know if UK's

TBI won an award at the 2oo9 INSP event, but

Canada's super street paper "Megaphone" at Van-

couver won big time twice at Bergen this year.

Congrats!! www.megaphonemagazine.com/
...

With regards, Uncle Monty.

+Monday Before The Ascension, 2oo9.

..

Following up on my earlier story last year of

the 16 white Spurs football fans that were hunted

down like wanted terrorists by our own Brit police

for their anti-Sol Campbell verbal and racial loud-

mouthing at the football stands that went against

the pushy demands of our leftist political and racial

mindset in today's mindless "Broken New Britain,"

the final court verdict last week bordered more on

political retribution by the liberal magistrate than

so-called impartial civic justice. Hence:

"Pair guilty of abusing Sol Campbell."
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23692914-details/Pair+guilty+of+abusing+Sol+Campbell/article.do

..

Vatican urged to expel African genocide suspect who is priest.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25496748-26040,00.html

..

{ Remember To Click On Any Image To Enlarge }

..

Two Homeless Guyz - Fergal & Anthony. By Max Pemberton, M.D.

Two Homeless Guyz -

Fergal & Anthony.

By Max Pemberton, M.D.

Edited By Uncle Monty.

Photos & Caption Graphic

By Alex Albion.
.

As a (medical) doctor, I have become accustomed to making

judgements based on evidence. On a rudimentary level, much of

(today's) medicine appears to operate on the premise that what

is observed in one individual can be extrapolated and applied

wholesale. But the more I see and hear in the course of my job,

the more I realise that this does not always do the patient

justice. The exciting thing about working with people is their

ability constantly to surprise, so that even in the bleakest

of human terrains there is hope.

.
When I (first) met them, Fergal and Anthony had been living on

the streets, sleeping in a disused shed on an allotment, for more

than a year. Fergal had been homeless for longer. He used to be

a waiter but had begun drinking heavily after his mother died.

He was fired from the restaurant where he worked, and was

eventually evicted from his flat. He started going to local parks

during the day to drink until, one day, sitting with a group of

fellow alcoholics and worrying about where he was going to

sleep that night, someone offered him something to smoke.

He smoked it and for the next half an hour nothing seemed

to matter. It was heroin. After a few weeks of smoking it

everyday he was addicted. He had also started injecting it.
.

Since working in an outreach project for homeless people, I

have met many drug addicts and many have started inject-

ing heroin this way. They begin by smoking it, then as the

addiction takes hold, and they need more to achieve the same

effect, they progress to injecting. It was certainly easier and

cheaper for Fergal to get wasted on heroin than alcohol.

But the success rate for getting people in treatment off

heroin is about five per cent a year. That's pretty poor.
There are numerous factors that make people more likely to

succeed: good family support networks, stable accommodation,

using only one substance, motivation and drive. Fergal and

Anthony didn't tick any of these boxes.

.
In fact, both he (Fergal) and Anthony were injecting two

packets heroin a day, and occasionally using crack. Neither

of them had been in treatment for their addiction before,

and both of them seemed rather indifferent to the idea.

They had only come to see me because they had been

arrested for possession of heroin. "The courts said we had

to come, so we did," said Fergal, shrugging his shoulders.

I sighed.

.
But something about their story did make them stand out.

Fergal had met Anthony a year ago, while sitting on a park

bench, and they struck up a friendship. Life on the streets is

harsh and brutal. There is no honour among thieves, or drug

addicts, and allegiances that are formed on the streets are

fragile and transient, only existing as long as they serve

the interest of the individual. But Fergal and Anthony

were different; they were like brothers.
.

They were inseparable, looking after and protecting each

other, sharing their food and money. They funded their

addiction by stealing things, mainly copper wiring but also

tools and sheet-metal from building sites, and selling it to

scrap merchants. Despite operating outside of the law,

they had their own strict moral code of conduct, which in-

volved no burglary from people's homes, no mugging and

no begging. They reasoned that stealing from businesses

was all right because they were wasteful, and

they had insurance anyway.

.
While I couldn't condone this, in an environment where the

only currency given any importance is drugs, it was heart-

ening to see two people place value on their friendship.
But this didn't take away from the fact that they had not

attended under their own volition, and to date, no one who

had come to the clinic under a court order had returned for

a follow-up appointment. Instead, they vanished back into

the seedy underworld of life as a drug addict. I knew that

they would never return, all the evidence pointed towards it.

I signed the form, prescribed them both the starting dose

of methadone and they left.

.

Then, to my great surprise, Fergal and Anthony did return.

While many of the patients I had thought would be able to kick

the habit relapsed, they stuck with it. In fact, a year on, they

are now no longer dependent on drugs, and both have jobs.

However uncertain the world may seem at times, one of the

things you learn in medicine is that people really do have the

capacity to change. Because of this there is always hope.

...

British Dr. Max Pemberton writes a regular column for

The Daily Telegraph called "Finger On The Pulse," to which

this story of his about Fergal and Anthony is taken.

...

Just A Few Comments and

Photos of This Week’s People.
By Uncle Monty.

-=-

A Gentleman's Gentleman: Cheviot's Paul
Martin-Davis. He's an assets consultant of the

first order. Paul has been very kind and generous

to me. We usually see each other at my Big Issue

pitch at London's Long Acre. The gentleman is

always immaculately dressed with impeccable

good English manners and becoming taste.

-=-
If there was ever a local scumbag, then

the Westminister Council's Traffic Warden
shown below is No. 1 among the many such

scumbags that helps Westminster rake in

£55 million (yep: over $110 million U.S.

dollars) annually by their profit-based

traffic enforcement Gestapo of which

the London scumbags belong ...

-=-"No chickenshit, please," hollered Dan
to girlfriend Kes as they freely acted out
for my cameras outside "The George."
-=- Cathy is the first European Union candidate I have met. She is The Christian Party's EU
candidate for SW England. With their red double decker bus parked on Old Kent Road near Tesco's, Cathy and her friends campaigned happily to the many shoppers coming and going on the street. Their primary goal, of course, is to get elected at the June 4th, 2oo9, EU Election. Another goal of their's is to stop the British National Party (BNP) from winning a EU seat instead of The Christian Party. If that's all they're doing to get elected by being anti-BNP, then that shouldn't be their only platform and only qualification to get elected. It's easy to knock the BNP since it costs nothing and is popular among British mainline political parties and left-wing demagogues to condemn with engendered indignation. Let the voters themselves decide if they do or do not want such parties as The Christian Party, or BNP, or The Independence Party or aka UKIP, to play some role in today's British political life. I don't want a candidate telling me who and what I should vote for. I make up my own mind, not those who have a vested interest in knocking whoever and/or whatever it is they don't like in the hope it will get them elected. I want to know what they believe, not what they don't believe ...

-=-

Murphy's construction worker Craig, 21, (shown above) is a new mates of mine that I have gotten to know since he and his work mates have been diligently working on replacing those old Victorian waterpipes near my Big Issue pitch and all over central London. Craig's big boss just died last week at near 100 years of age called John Murphy, who first came to London in the 1930's from his poor native Irish town of Kerry. A Requiem Mass is set at The Brompton Oratory for Monday and old John Murphy's body will then arrive later by his own private jet back to Ireland for his solemn family burial.

He started out hitchhiking to England as poor Irish lad did John Murphy to then anti-Irish Britain, but ended up as a multi-millionaire several times over. He employed the Irish homeless and destitute of the "Irish Navvy Era" in the UK. He not only prospered himself, but also his fellow Irish. Today, 70 years later, John Murphy Civil Engineering Company still hires more Irish than any other nationality. He was a very private man and spoke little about himself or his life. And, Craig is also a classic young Irishman who does himself, John Murphy, and Old Eirean mighty proud ...
-=-

They were in the news at The Big Issue when
they came unexpectedly and bought 10 copies of
current issue from me. Before buying the 10, they
checked to be sure that they were indeed featured
inside the BI. They surely was on pages 8 and 9.

So I made a small profit of 8 quid from the two

young NU Magazine women shown above.
=-=
At The BBC Bush House.

-=-
That's all for now. Hope you liked the
images and my brief comments ... Along
with Max Pemberton's piece on Fergal &
Anthony. It's a positive story for a change
about the homeless, instead of the usual
negative stuff one reads all too often about
the people who happen to be on the streets
of the world's meanest streets from
Almighty America to Zymotic Zimbabwe.
.
G' day, Uncle Monty.
+Rogation Day, 2oo9.
...
{Click on any image to enlarge)
.

U.S.-IRAQ: Massacre Puts War

Trauma Under the Spotlight.

By Aaron Glantz.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46803

...