Obama in Cuba and the Chevy.

This is not political at all so don't let me frighten you away but there is a map above and, as you can see, it's of Cuba. If you look down the south east corner you will see the dreaded and disgusting Guantanamo Bay. That was left to the USA under some kind of treaty around 1903. Cuba feels that the USA are there illegally – and why wouldn't they?

As you will know it has been used as a detention centre since the Iraq invasion and none of the people there have been tried or convicted of anything so I suppose it could be called a concentration camp.

Barack Obama has tried to close the camp since he became president but keeps running in to objections from Congress; they just won't let him close the place. The objections have to do with where they would put the current inhabitants: would they send them home to their own countries or put them into prisons in America.

Obama is now on the island of Cuba and you will know it is the first visit of a serving president for eighty odd years.

The thing is I've always wanted to go to Cuba – I mean look at it:

Now that the Americans have an embassy there and have lifted a lot of the restrictions I don't think Cuba will look like this for very long. I just love those cars and if you even try to compare them to the cars being built today there is no comparison.

I used to drive a Chevy Nova when I lived in Los Angeles; it was a 1973 and was a sedan (saloon) and was like a tank. I also drove a Dodge Dart, which belonged to someone I knew and my pal had a 1963. Here they are – or should I say here are the models (not mine or my pals who would call his 'Betsy').

Some of the other cars on the island can be seen in these pictures:

But look at the island in the other pictures; who wouldn't want to go there?

If you have ever seen The Godfather II – one of the best films ever made – you will, more or less, know the history of Cuba. The Mafia ran the place and the President, Batista, was in their pocket. The island was inundated with the mob with their casinos and Fidel Castro and the rebels were sick of it so they did something about it.

Castro was the hero of Cuba and America told the Americans that he was a heathen and a communist and a threat to America. He went to America after his revolution and they turned him (Cuba) away so he went to the Soviet Union. The people in Cuba worship him – he got rid of the crooks. What he did then is not good as he put opponents in prison and nobody can condone that but the refugees who went to America wanted and want the island to return to its former state. The Mafia??

I would still like to go there; we were forbidden when we lived there when it wasn't that far away; I think USA citizens are fined something like $800 if they visit there.

I hope Obama enjoys his time there but his time as president is running out and gawd knows what the future holds for the place.

There is a lot of Obama publicity at the moment; on Saturday he was heavily featured in The Guardian magazine on Saturday and there is a documentary series on BBC2 Inside Obama's White House.

It's a wonder he achieved what he did; when Nancy Pelosi (the speaker of the house when Obama was elected) asked the Republicans what they would help them with to get through she was told 'we ain't helping you at all.'

moral dilemma

Montgomery Clift

Do you know I was thinking, on this day that the wonderful George Martin died, that there are other things bigger than the law and religion and that's just being good, using moral judgement, be your own man or woman and follow your own rules.

There is an item in the news at the moment about a certain cell phone in America that the FBI would like the mighty Apple Corporation to open to see if there are any clues on there to see if the people that terrorised San Bernardino had contacted others and conspired with others; Apple said it was against their rules of confidentiality to reveal how to unlock the phone.

Now what do I think about that?

I don't really want the FBI coming to me and looking at my call records even though I have nothing to hide. But why did this go public in any case?

Why didn't the FBI and Apple conspire together in one of the many conspiracies they are reputed to be doing all the time? From planning the attack on 9-11 to Hurricane Katrina!

There was a very good movie called I Confess which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starred everybody's favourite actor Montgomery Clift; Monty (above) played a priest and a man confessed to a murder during confession but because he was a priest he (the priest) had to follow his moral code of confidentiality and keep it to himself.

It's a moral dilemma and that kind of dilemma should be restricted to fiction.

Another thing – and this will come together, I hope – Jimmy Savile was a very religious man. He was so religious that he thought if he confessed his terrible sins he would go to heaven in spite of them.

But think of it if Jimmy Savile's priest knew about the terrible things he did with children of both sexes wouldn't it be his duty (the priest's) to put a stop to it by letting someone know – like the cops. That's a moral dilemma and I hate to even think about how many children he rapes could have been saved with a word from Savile's priest.

It's pronounced Savell, by the way, for my American friends who have probably never heard of the worm.

It doesn't matter whether you believe in God or not those children could have been spared the knowledge of that vile man's body.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-2-sides-of-eddie-ramone/x/1434435#/

CROWD FUND EDDIE RAMONE

The 2 Sides of Eddie Ramone

I have decided to devote my post today to my crowdfunding campaign with regards to my play The 2 Sides of Eddie Ramone.

Here I am in Pinner, Greater London; 13 miles from the centre of the city; I have started the campaign and after two days I notice that most of my hits have come from the USA with 163, then comes the UK with 47, Germany with 10 and then loads of countries adding up to 282 with 97 referrals. So if you have referred thanks.

I could do with some contributions now – just think if all those people had donated £10 there would £2820 in the kitty now.

But there isn't – not yet anyway. But here's hoping.

Now then: you've heard of the Coen Brothers; they're the fellas who make those great movies like The Big Lebowski and Fargo.

They raised the finance on their first film, Blood Simple by asking all the dentists in their home town of Minneapolis for money. The dentists obliged as they had plenty and, because there were so many of them, they didn't feel the pinch.

Crowd funding is like that for people who don't know any dentists.

If you look (as I mentioned in my last post) in Wikipedia Crowdfunding is described as the practice of funding a project or venture by raising monetary contributions from a large number of people and it goes on to say that it's been going since 1999 and In 2013, the crowdfunding industry raised over $5.1 billion worldwide.

So that's it!

I only know one dentist and she works at Guy's Hospital so I'm trying Crowdfunding to fund my play which opens in an off west end theatre in July.

As mentioned this is going to everybody in my address book so I apologise to the utility companies for any confusion!!

Have a look at the proposal for my crowd funding campaign:

here - http://tinyurl.com/jxj6b8e

Click on that if you would like to participate or just to take a look and let me know what you think.

The Crowd funding company I am using for this is Indiegogo – I only used the tiny URL so make things simple.

I'm hoping it's amusing and will give you a laugh and a break from the toils, tribulations, troubles and strife of life.

I have participated in other people's campaigns – not always getting the perk I asked for by the way – and they have usually been successful.

My play – The 2 Sides of Eddie Ramone started off as a one man show and has developed into a full length play for two people – a 2 hander!

Once again http://tinyurl.com/jxj6b8e is where you go.

Good wishes