yesterday when"out and about",i nipped into the local rspca mayhew charity shop,where i picked up a couple of second hand books.it strikes me that in some ways the books available are a better selection than was available in our local library before the local LABOUR led council shut it down-although that is NO argument for closure.
more importantly for me,is the pleasure of the element of serendipity when visiting charity or better yet,second hand bookshops.
one of the titles i picked up was Mark Bakers"Nam".A lot of books contain a blurb that might be useful,as a guide to the contents.this one contained some sentences that i found very touching indeed:
"the war billed....as a john wayne shoot 'em up test of manhood turns out to be a warped version of "peter pan".vietnam was a brutal neverneverland outside time an space,where little boys didn't have to grow up.they just grew old before their time."
"even now(1987/1992)something is missing from the history of vietnam........no one has bothered to talk to the men and women who went to vietnam and fought the war....."
it goes on to ask a string of key questions which ends with"how can they now live with the scars?"
i would add a concern for what happenned to the peoples of vietnam and the wider south east asian region?the consequences for ALL are still playing themselves out.....so why are we continueing to conduct such further and even more terrible,imperialist wars?
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