Liberté
Slava Ukraini
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If my friends knew they would call me a fool for believing in the power of women. I may be a fool - but you know what they say: fool me once, They are the real idiots.
So 2023 was supposed to be the year of getting dangerous. Most risky thing that happend all year was that I didn't do a proper back-up and lost a lot of drafts and research notes. Google forcing readers to sign in to confirm their age before reading my blog has also proven rather dangerous. Viewer numbers have gone down. Not blogging to reach a huge audience but once I realized that Google made it difficult even for those who wanted to read my blog, I was disappointed. And of course there was that lightbulb moment where I realized the similarities between George Orwell's famous book Animal Farm and a minority group within "our community." And it's not just real findoms.
Quite a few stories that need a proper ending. Yes, there's a point in me sharing my dirty, little, inner deejay secrets. Legal ownership of the OWK has changed. From what I can tell, it now, for the first time ever, includes a woman. Once I rebuild my archive I'll get back to you on that.
Last year I ordered two books on the life of Her Royal Highness, Spy Princess, Noor Inayat Khan. Haven't read them yet, but I will. Today, exactly 110 years ago, She was born in Moscow on January 01, 1914. Her Royal Highness was betrayed, then captured and after a long ordeal executed at Dachau concentration camp on 13 September 1944 (aged 30)
Now let's fast forward to 2024. The weather forecast for Ukraine today: bombs, barbarians from the East and frostbite. Sadly the outlook is pretty much the same for the rest of the winter. Imagine you being a modern Noor Inayat Khan. You follow the teachings of Ghandi and believe in peaceful resistance, what do you do?
The answer doesn't matter. Any man can rattle a long list of female heroins from the top of his head. Don't believe me? Try it. Wake him up in the middle of the night and ask. Obviously Her Royal Highness Noor Inayat Khan is one of mine. Do the right thing sounds so stupid. Despite that it takes infinite guts, especially when you are scared. And for good reason. Remember the gruesome tree-tier torture system the Nazi's practised on spies? Sadly it didn't kill Her at the start. Despite that The Girl Who Believed In Non-Violent Resistance still managed to shout 'liberté" just moments before death finally had the decency to free Her from the long and unimaginable gruesome horrors the Nazi occupiers put Her through.
Remember what I wrote at the beginning of 2023? "Let's get dangerous." A catch phrase stolen from a Disney character named Darkwing Duck. If only life where that easy. The war in Ukraine has been raging for almost two years and we in the West are getting 'tired' of it. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is wrong, period. Restoring Russia to it's former glory? Start with banning corruption. Other than that, the Ukranian capital of Kyiv is older than Moscow. Not that it matters. Ukraine belongs to the Ukranians. Their fight should be our fight, but hey, we are getting tired. Even if you don't care about Ukraine, remember Putin won't stop there. OK, you still don't care about doing what's right. Think about your children. Poland, for instance, is part of NATO. The defence alliance's credo is that an attack on one of us, is an attack on all of us. Count your blessings. For some time now - by accident of course - Russian jets and missiles have travelled through NATO airspace. We all know what comes next.
Despite Her fears - and She was incredibly frightened - Her Royal Highness went on Her mission in occupied France. Betrayed and captured, She suffered beyond belief. Despite it all, She never lost Her conviction, such was Her inner strength. Now that's my kind of woman. And no, it's not for everyone but there are so many women in Ukraine fighting for their country who have made the exactly same choice. They face disbelief because they are women, often in the form of harassment or assignments that don't make proper use of their skills. But there is more, so much more. Almost enough to make you forget they have to wear ill-fitting uniforms. Keep in mind: they are fighting and we are not. Also remember, they are acutely aware of just how much risk they are taking - and that's before you consider the fact that being a prisoner of war is much worse for women than it is for men. And that's far from the only risk these women take.
And what do we do? Endless discussions on whether or not if we send .16 of a weapon or better perhaps just .15 of it. After all, we don't want to antagonize Putin and Russia. My love is real, I want my femdom to be real too but sometimes I wonder: am I the only one in the West living in the real world? Apart from the women and men in Ukraine that is of course.
Liberté [The last words of Her Royal Highness, Spy Princess Noor Inayat Khan before she was shot from behind, executed at Dachau concentration camp on 13 September 1944 (aged 30).
"Glory to Ukraine!" [Slava Ukraini is a Ukrainian national salute, known as a symbol of Ukrainian sovereignty and resistance to foreign aggression. It is the battle cry of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It is often accompanied by the response "Glory to the heroes!"]
Last year was an extremely busy year and I didn't blog as much as I wanted. Let's hope this year is gonna be better but no promises. Guess what's ahead of me is another year of living dangerously, the not so spicey version. For now, let's wait and see.
Stevie Wonder - Pastime Paradise
The song that comes to mind is Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise. The music is from the movie Dangerous Minds. It is based on the autobiography My Posse Don't Do Homework by retired U.S. Marine LouAnne Johnson, who in 1989 took up a teaching position in California, a racially segregated and economically deprived city where most of her students were African-American and Latino teenagersy. In the movie Michelle Pfeiffer plays LouAnne Johnson. Yes I'm rather fond of Michelle Pfeiffer and not just because she is catwoman.
Anyway, Gangsta's Paradise is almost a one on one copy of Pastime Paradise. Stevie Wonder would only agree to the use of his song if it didn't feature profanity. Like any proper domme blessed with serious personal gravity knows, profanity is a weak mind trying to express itself forcefully. Amen to that. Mr. Wonder's lyrics deal with racism and everything that comes with it. Such strong lyrics, profanity would only diminish that. But if you look at the opening chorus, it's impossible not to see a deluded Vladimir Putin before your eyes.
They've been spending most their lives
Living in a pastime paradise
They've been spending most their lives
Living in a pastime paradise
They've been wasting most of their time
Glorifying days long gone behind
They've been wasting most their days
In remembrance of ignorance oldest praise
The true genius of Stevie Wonder shines in the final chorus where he swaps "in" with "for".
They've been spending most their lives
Living in a pastime paradise
They've been spending most their lives
Living in a pastime paradise
They've been spending most their lives
Living in a future paradise
They've been spending most their lives
Living in a future paradise
We've been spending too much of our lives
Living in a pastime paradise
Let's start living our lives
Living for the future paradise
Praise to our lives
Living for the future paradise
Shame to anyone's life
Living in a pastime paradise
And that's what the women and men of Ukraine are fighting for. Their future but also ours, especially here in Western Europe. Don't you forget.
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Stevie Wonder - Pastime Paradise [click to listen] |
Notes
[1] My two books on the life of Her Royal Highness, Spy Princess Noor Inayat Khan, have been sitting on my coffee table - very conspicuous - for many months now but not a single comment by any of my visitors. And I get lots of them. No, not comments, I just said that.
[2] Never stops to suprise me. Enemy invader who is truly evil. Ultimate fight for survival. Still you refuse to take advantage of some 50 percent of your defence capabilities. Why? Because the next Einstein, Nzinga Mbandi, Napoleon, Caesar or Her Royal Highness, the Unbreakbable Spy Princess Noor Inayat Khan might be a woman? The best way for the good people to be victorious is stop saying the good guys deserve to win. Ukraine did not choose to get invaded, just like the women of Ukraine did not choose to be treated like secondhand soldiers. But leaving your country vulnerable to enemy attack simply because you refuse to take into account the skills of half the population is just as much a war crime in my book anything Putin can come up with.
[3] Yep, it's still there, the tiny Tardis on my desk with just enough room for two women. One is obviously Her Royal Highness, the Unbreakable Spy Princess Noor Inayat Khan, Whose love of the colour blue got Her caught. The other one is her, yes her, you know whom I'm talking about. One plus one makes a Tardis for two.
[4] Am I the only one worried about the fate of the Iranian sisters Samin & Behin Bolouri?
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