J. G. BALLARD(1930-2009)
               
I don't understand,
the multimillionare author said,
why Palestinians oppose the occupation.
They don't achieve anything by doing so,
he said, and then told
how he wanted to paddle
up the Amazon.

Once he was a young boy
in an interment camp
during wartime,
then creator of dying worlds
before he became
a dreamer of middle-class
frustrations
turning violent.

Barricades and street fights
in places like Hampstead,
highrises as a jungle for the wealthy
turned to tribalism and dog eating,
child abuse in Cannes as a relaxation
for the captains and lieutenants of big business,
car crash as a way to achieve orgasm.

Motivations for these he understood,
the mindless rebellions
of the already free and well-to-do;
but he could not understand
why an entire nation
would not be ready
to live oppressed in bantustans
for ever and ever.

So he understood violence
for the sake of boredom,
but not for the sake of freedom.
To it he saw no justification.

I wonder if the boy in Shanghai,
if still remembered,
could have shown
the old author the way
to see the world
through the eyes
of the oppressed.

07.03.2010

Based on an interview of the author I read from an English newspaper sometime before his death.