Not just an entirely reasonable request, but also the new song from Joshua Michael Tillman, t/a Father John Misty. A nice slow number which makes it onto here.
Arguably not my usual thing, but how can one pass by such a poignant song with such a powerful message? (A message also echoed in the video).
Enjoy it. Think about it. Learn from it.
Please don’t die.
Too much to do, too little time to blog, so here’s some stuff I enjoyed to keep you going.
From some science: on the weird, hugely interesting and currently unexplained early spring peak in suicides in the Western world:
…people usually commit suicide because personal, social-system and environmental factors combine to push them to a new place of energized despair.
In this view, spring somehow adds weight to an already unbearable load. But how?
One traditional candidate, favored by both Dr. Jamison and Dr. Kaslow, is the “broken promise effect” — the sometimes crushing disappointment that spring fails to bring the relief the sufferer has hoped for.
To science meeting religion: and the push to erricate polio in Pakistan, which is up against strong – and deadly – opposition from local religious leaders:
On Sunday 16 June, gunmen on motorbikes shot dead two polio workers carrying out a vaccination drive in Peshawar, a crowded city in Pakistan’s north-west. One of the men who died was a schoolteacher, the other a paramedic. Both left behind grieving families. Their deaths bring the total tally of polio workers assassinated in Pakistan up to nearly 20 since last December.
To religion: as a paralysed child gets an answer to his prayers.
Said Angela Schlosser, a day nurse who witnessed the Divine Manifestation: “An incredible, booming voice said to Timmy, ‘I am the Lord thy God, who created the rivers and the mountains, the heavens and the earth, the sun and the moon and the stars. Before Me sits My beloved child, whose faith is that of the mustard seed from which grows mighty and powerful things. My child, Timmy Yu, I say unto you thus: I have heard your prayers, and now I shall answer them. No, you cannot get out of your wheelchair. Not ever.'”
That last link via @grant_mcdermott in response to my tweet about the lack of any response to the tens of millions of prayers being said for Nelson Mandela at the moment.
I settled down to watch the ding-dong battle between Arsenal and Manchester United last night, only to have my wish for an exciting game ruined in the first 12 minutes by some dodgy defending, some dodgy refereeing and some dodgy goalkeeping, all of which left Arsenal needing to score 4 times to win the tie and left the game as good as dead.
I was irritated. But at least it wasn’t my team that lost. Heavily.
It was Suleiman Alphonso Omondi’s team though and he could apparently take no more, as Sport24 reports:
Nairobi – An Arsenal fan in football-mad Kenya hung himself following his team’s 4-1 aggregate drubbing by arch-rivals Manchester United in the Champions League semi-final, police said on Wednesday.
Suleiman Alphonso Omondi, a 29-year-old Kenyan living in the capital Nairobi’s Embakasi neighbourhood, hung himself in his Arsenal shirt late Tuesday after the match, police said.“We were watching the match at Bamba 70 pub, and when Arsenal was defeated, Suleiman just walked out in protest and he was crying,” Calvin Otieno, one of his friends, said.
“We didn’t know he was going to hang himself until Wednesday morning when we received the reports and came here to find his body at the balcony,” Otieno said outside the deceased’s home.
Tragic tale – and one which, if nothing else, demonstrates Suleiman’s passonate support for his team.
But having reported the story, which staff reporter looked through the files for an appropriate photo to use and came up with this?
Arsenal players training
Was there really no other shot available? Cesc Fabregas in full flight? An upset or angry Arsenal fan at the Emirates, maybe? Perhaps a pic of the scoreboard or one of the Bamba70 pub? Even one of ugly Ronaldo. Ugh.
In fact, anything that doesn’t feature an apparently slumped black man being dragged away, really.
Is it just me or was the choice of this particular photograph mildly inappropriate?
EDIT: Sky News gets the story and uses Arsenal badge as graphic. Better.