WHERE ARE OUR MODERN MARKET SQUARE HEROES?

OUR LEADERS COME IN MANY GUISES BUT FOR ME, IT IS THE MARKET SQUARE HEROES THAT MAKE THE BEST LEADERS! POST NO.28/IN (A 14 minute read) 

Hello again and back to my review of the second of my now two published pieces of work and as promised, today I shall move onto chapter twenty-five which is titled, MARKET SQUARE HEROES! I just love how those three words said together resonate with me. I have always thought along the lines of MARKET SQUARE HERO myself.

One of my favourite and most influential characters from my childhood years was Mr. Benn. And yes, I have mentioned him frequently but for those who have not read my first book or my posts reviewing that book, which was titled ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN, I will tell you some about him, MARKET SQUARE HERO as he was!!

You can take a closer look at that book on the Amazon sites; these links will take you to both of the versions: ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN Paperback and ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN e-book 

Wow!!! What a relief! Our gardener has finally switched off his mechanical tool!! And no, the hedge did not need trimming as yet!!! Which I have no doubt Mr. Benn would surely have pointed out to him but wisdom lies in the hands of the wise only as I have learnt. Plus, only the wise use their wisdom wisely; just like Mr. Benn.

Mr. Benn was just a normal citizen who was always observing and contemplating all that he observed. He was an INFJ type for sure. The scanner, scanning all the visual elements in sight to later peruse over and find the meanings of all that he had seen. The kaleidoscopic type of brain like mine, that every day is collecting all the visual and sensory pieces that it can and later dwelling upon them and trying to place them somewhere in the picture of your life!

He would go out for a stroll and view all the activity of the local community before finding his way to a costume shop in the town. He would be greeted by the shop keeper, a man wearing harem pants, babouche, embroidered waistcoat and a Féz hat upon his head. Having seen the pantomimes Aladdin and Ali Baba, I was already enamoured of the exotic Arabian beauty.

Mr. Benn would choose a costume and go into the changing room and try it on. He would then go through a door and straight into another time and place where his costume had a clear relevance. There would always be an underlying, ongoing issue in this time and place, which was leading to discord and conflict.

In each episode, Mr. Benn would find the way to work with the righteous and worthy cause but would also try to show the unrighteous, why they had been wrong. He was an ADVOCATE for peace, just as I would be. He resolved the issues of these peoples from another time and space, using his today´s knowledge and applying it to a different time and place!

On completing his task, "Ting!" As if by magic, the shopkeeper appeared. "This way please, sir!" And Mr. Benn would find himself back in the changing room, wondering of course, if he had not just dreamt all of that. But on the way home, he would FEEL something in his pocket. "YES, it had all been real and this little souvenir was the proof of it!"

Now, I was between four and six years old watching Mr. Benn but he still continues to be my first MARKET SQUARE HERO! He showed me how to see the two sides of a dispute and how to evaluate the rights and wrongs. He showed me how to use diplomacy and seek solutions that would suit all. Maybe my former PM Boris Johnson should have watched more Mr. Benn!!!!!

His childhood influences were somewhat different from mine and if you have come in at this point, this is a link to one of my earlier posts published 22nd November 2022 Post No.8/ON, in which I speak of Mr. Benn and the other characters who became my life long examples of how to be: EARLY LEARNING IS ESSENTIAL FOR A YOUNG CHILD!

Whilst I am sure that many of us would have happily lingered in childhood for eternity, that was of course, the territory of Peter Pan. No, we had to learn to be adults, did we not? We had to put aside the fairy tales and get REAL! I think that there is where one of the major differences between the INFJ type that I am and the majority of others, lays.

I have never severed ties with all of the wisdom that was embedded in fairy tales. What is crucial though, is our interpretation of those tales. Who is reading the tale and what twist are they putting on it? And that will be what my third book will be looking at; the truths behind the tales!!!

The teenage years can be tumultuous years, full of first-time, first-hand experiences of all natures. So much new learning and exploration is done and the confidence levels grow with the accompanying knowledge levels and that increasing level of experience. One of my favourite songs from my teenage years was titled, "MARKET SQUARE HEROES" and was written by the band MARILLION.

This song had been ever present in my mind as I was writing through my second manuscript and indeed all the way through my first book too. Just as in my first book, in the second book I am still exploring that important influence that music was for me in my youth! Not just any old music though, OH, NO! Music with meaning!

My chosen musical pillars were all singing of peace and unity, ending conflicts and war. We had no prejudice; we were open to all and every culture. Learning was our number one passion and the number two passion was sharing that learning with others who could see the wisdom of it!

THERE WILL BE MORE RAIN TODAY; IT IS SO BADLY NEEDED!

Bob Marley was an emblematic figure in my youth and his musical lyrics were charged with his passion for justice and racial equality. He made a great contribution personally to racial unity, if not equality. Bob Marley was a MARKET SQUARE HERO!!

My birth nation´s former PM Boris Johnson was clearly a GARDEN PARTIER!!! And in this chapter, I have a dig at this scandalous PM and his GARDEN PARTIES at No.10 Downing Street, whilst the whole nation were under tight lockdown restrictions and unable to mix families!! He made the rules himself but had no intention of adhering to them himself! What a surprise???!!!

I have designed a leadership classification scale of my own. Boris Johnson belongs to the GARDEN PARTY classification. Mr. Russia fits into the MARKET SQUARE HERO classification. But I have classified Mr. USA Biden, as a WAIVERER, he can go either way depending on the pressure applied!

What about the other major powerhouse China and President Xi Jinping? I have an indepth look at the life and work of the Chinese leader and ask myself, does he fall into the COOL HEAD or the MARKET SQUARE HERO classification? I think he is the MSH who also has a Cool Head!

Why though, with so many of our world leaders being graduates of law, are they always themselves guilty of so many breaches of law? Are they above the law or on a level with the law? I quote myself from this chapter:

This is more about what kind of errors of judgement are you responsible for. Are they easily excusable, you know, could anyone reasonably have made the same mistakes; the same errors of judgement? Well, maybe some lesser brains could be excused in many circumstances, but is that not what we try and safeguard against by electing well studied types as our decision makers?

Surely we can rely on Doctors of Law not to break the laws that they themselves know so very well? I think that we should indeed  be able to at the very least, feel sure that they will be law abiders. And there we step wrong-footedly! Within the law or above it? They know full well that they are law breaking but are counting on wealth and rank possessing, to cover them up and let them get away with it!

I think we are a long, long way from seeing all of our leaders becoming law abiders, excepting their own changes to their laws to make their own mis-doings fall into the framework of legal, however lousy were all of those actions. Mr. UK has been challenged over his law breaking but clings to leadership somehow in spite of being found oh, so, guilty of the GARDEN PARTYING charges!

Today being the 24th June 2022, when asked by a reporter "Why he would not recognize that he was the voter´s problem?" He replied, "I genuinely do not think the way forwards in British politics is to focus on the issues of personality, whether they are mine or others!" Well, is it not his personality which is the problem in truth?

Complacent, disrespectful, imperialist, dishonest, lying GARDEN PARTIER that he has ever been, he cannot see that he has any faults! These are not negative character traits to him; they are all part of the essential make-up of MAN-KIND! It is par for course for him, he will not change, he will just become sneakier and more discreet, but he will not change as HE does not deem it necessary!

Though as I have said before, a democratically elected leader is a direct reflection of the average person in that country. So as long as they are prepared to allow characters like this to sit in leadership; then so will they do! It is the people´s choice, the reason why teaching and guidance must be introduced.

We must up the average intellectual level of every nation worldwide, so that they do not make the mistake of putting these learned GARDEN PARTIERS in charge of their lives and fortunes. The thinking I imagine is that with all of those fine qualifications; they must be our intellectual superiors!

Academically speaking, that may be the case but even so, that wisdom needs applying well and some of it at least; shared around! But morally speaking, I can assure you that I and the majority of US, are by far their superiors morally speaking, are we not? WE all for the most part, abide by the law and our occasional little demeanours do not tend to have knock-on effects for the whole population! End of quote.

Ah, YES! It is the same old song, we need to be BREAKING CYCLES and that is the title of the next chapter twenty-six to be reviewed in the following post. And I am of course, looking at the institutions that need to be amongst the CYCLE BREAKERS. So please look back for that in a few days time!

September has arrived at my door in an unprecedented way as you can see from my photo taken at 12.30 pm today (03/09/2023). My temperature indoors is just 24ºC and the windows were all closed for the first time in sixteen weeks last night. There were some good, long spells of rain yesterday and there is a light on/off drizzle again today.

For us down here in Almería, this really is quite unusual but so necessary. Crops are failing, drought is on our doorstep here; the alarm bells are screaming out. We must act now!

August has been my best month to date as a blogger. I passed the 5,000 views marker, which FELT comforting to me. But my greater joy was rather the fact that all of my pages were opened and all of my posts minus one, were viewed. 

That was one of my favourite posts actually, it was a belated tribute to a wonderful Nigerian man that I meet in 2020; COVID-19 year (as I think of it!) This link will take you to that post if you are interested: REBUILDING LINKS TO MOTHER AFRICA

My humble thanks to you friends in Singapore for taking the time and interest to have a good look at my blog. I hope that by now you will be able to find your way around the blog with ease. As I have no feedback from anyone, I do not know if my blog has visual issues, or if all the tags work. Be pleased to let me know if you find anything that is not working!

I am trying hard to keep an organized blog site and make sure that all is in working order. I would love to know what your impressions of my words are, why not share some of your thoughts with me, I would be delighted to hear them! 

And of course, if you chose to become a follower, I could keep you informed about my new posts when they are published. Last but not least, the links to my new book which you can find on the Amazon sites: ON THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT Paperback and ON THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT e-book