By Nick Moss
Jamal Khashoggi believed that / women today should have the same rights as men/ that/ ordinary people in the Arab world should/ through a free press/ be able to address the structural problems their societies face/ but the main structural problem/ is that their societies are ruled by hypocrite nepo gangsters / like MBS/ occulting corruption / with minor celeb boxing matches/ between Love Island stars and You Tube wankers/ and Beyonce working a melismatic grift for an invite-only audience at the Palm Jumeirah/ 2 October 2018/ Khashoggi was lured into/ the Saudi consulate/ in Istanbul/ strangled/and dismembered with a bone saw
“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”
Adnan al-Bursh/ at 50/ head of orthopaedics at al-Shifa hospital/ father to six children/husband/ surgeon/healer/ made the staff room at al-Shifa a home/once the genocide began/ then to the Indonesian Hospital/when the IDF forced him out of al-Shifa/ bombed at the Indonesian/ bloodied but / determined that / he should benefit his patients according to his greatest ability and judgment/and that/ he would do no harm or injustice to them (1) / until harm and injustice /came to him/ December 2023/ detained by the IDF /while working at Al-Awda hospital/ confirmed dead/ at Ofer Prison/ 19 April 2024/ having been seen by witnesses/ injured/ naked from the waist down/ unable to stand
“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”
French spoken with American accents /and Brooks Brothers shirts getting heavy with sweat/ sipping water/ in the shadows/ of the Bangr-Weoogo park/ Ouagadougou/October 15 1987/ when Thomas Sankara was shot in the back/the same accents heard/ in bars /in Leopoldville and Elizabethville/ January 17 1961/ wishing Patrice Lumumba would/ fall into a river full of crocodiles/ before his/ murder/ burial/exhumation/ reburial/ hacksaw dismemberment/dissolution in acid/ both killed/ years apart /for holding that/ without dignity/ there is no liberty/ without justice /there is no dignity/ and without independence/ there are no /free men
“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”
In 1973/ a group of student sculptors/ rent a basement flat/ at Calle Claudio Coello 104/ Madrid/ and over five months/dig a tunnel/beneath the street/ which they pack with/ 80kg of/ GOMA-2 / nitroglycol-based explosive / which /on 20 December 1973/ is detonated by an ETA commando unit/ group of student sculptors/ sending Franco’s Prime Minister/the fascist Admiral/ General/ Luis Carrero Blanco/ 66ft/ into the air/ our old mole/ who knows so well/ how to work underground/ suddenly re- appears / Egypt 25 January 2011/ National Police Day/ thousands protest against police brutality/ 846 killed/ in response 90 police stations burn/ Tahrir Square/ a million on the streets and the cops withdrawn/ in Suez 4000 on the street/ and a general strike/ after 2 weeks and 3 days/ Hosni Mubarak/ 30 years a dictator/ falls/ torn down/ like Edward Colston’s statue/ and though/ what follows is defeat/ from defeats/ we learn/ from passivity/and surrender/nothing comes
With organisation/ a grasp of the terrain/ a will that’s equal to/ that drive to counter-revolution/ / which says that/ this is always/ and will always be/ (the ideological teargas of the times)/ other things/ also/sometimes/happen…..
NOTES
i. The Hippocratic oath
ii. Patrice Lumumba, letter to his wife, Pauline Opango, from Thysville Prison
