What profession do you admire most and why?

Civil servants are the face, hands and feet of government. They put themselves at our disposal before they see us. Who would not admire such devotion? Uninformed agitators, ungrateful manipulators and pork-barrelers.

Ignorant people call them names and some may deserve it, but civil servants serve us even on the holidays. Civil servants do their work regardless of who forms the government, regardless of what we look like, regardless of how uninformed we are, and they are happiest when we leave with a smile they caused.

If you were going to open up a shop, what would you sell?

On sale:

Guaranteed one-way trips to the landfill.

• alliances between religion and politics
• religious republics
• thinly disguised plots to break
• cheer-evoking slogans that will in a court of law end in contempt and conviction

Today’s Special: free excoriation of bishops, imams, rabbis, philosophers and gurus who abuse their own books and insult the common decency.

What do you listen to while you work?

I like to alternate between sounds in the foreground and background sounds. Running water is just lovely, but ocean waves breaking are superb. The laughing sounds of people at play reminds me that life is still very good and valuable. I listen to recorded music for my work as a keyboard player, both intently to learn musical progressions and peripherally to catch the soul of a song. I wish there were lions roaring in the dark, and do not wish to forget frogs croaking all night long.

What’s your go-to comfort food?

It used to be a secret. Now the intelligence agencies and legislators of our times are going to eat like princes. Rice cooked in milk until it is soft and melts in the mouth, spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and coconut, may look like rice pudding until you add cocoa. Light or dark brown, sweetened with sugar and/or raisins, this edible is also a favorite of some of my closest friends. I make this for me, and paradise would be having it made “like mommy used to make it”. Bring your 5 hour version of rice porridge.

List 10 things you know to be absolutely certain.

• lies
• truth
• denial
• lightning
• thunder
• rain
  
• poverty
• wealth
• compassion
• exploitation

Are you seeking security or adventure?

Give me collective security any day

Mercenaries and the pampered class would like to be known as adventurers but one would think that after two deadly wars and dozens of deadly conflicts that humanity would have found a formula for security.  Not the case.  Most people are plotting their next investment in capital projects.

The mercenary and merchant complex

Every single bloc of nations prefers to pour billions of dollars into lucrative ventures than to secure a foundation for societies to cooperate and thrive.  Is it because people think that there must always be us and them in every aspect of life?  If collective security was a priority among the well armed nations Russia would not be levelling Ukrainian towns and villages today, sixteen months after Russia declared its special military operation.

National choices

I seek to become free having to hear from MxGA mercenaries.  Any nation that once was great deserves a place at the bottom of the barrel and a throne at the landfill.  Great again? What a total load of manure!  Did Greece or Rome or Babylon or Persia ever rise again?  Who is going to Jerusalem to be awed by the wisdom of any of Israel’s sages or political stars?  Not a soul.  Most adventures end up with somebody being cheated, oppressed, discriminated against, and exploited.  It is not walls that give people security, but arms outstretched with assistance and cooperation.