RKS Literature: The Salvation Army and Stench of Charity in England (George Orwell)

“Since then I have slept in a number of Salvation Army shelters, and found that, though the different houses vary a little, this semi-military discipline is the same in all of them. They are certainly cheap, but they are too like workhouses for my taste. In some of them there is even a compulsory religious service once or twice a week, which the lodgers must attend or leave the house. The fact is that the Salvation Army are so in the habit of thinking themselves a charitable body that they cannot even run a lodging-house without making it stink of charity.”

George Orwell, “Down and Out in Paris and London”, 1933.

RKS Japanese Literature: Japanese Pecker Nationalism Falls Flat! (Akiyuki Nosaka)

“What the hell are you doing? You’re numbah one, aren’t you? Come on. Show the American. That huge thing is the pride of Japan. Knock him out with it! Scare the shit out of him!

It was a matter of pecker nationalism: his thing had to stand, or it would mean dishonour to the race. Toshio almost wanted to take the man’s place, his own thing was now taut and ready. Noticing this, he glanced at Higgins’ crotch, but nothing was happening there.

‘Yosi-chan, what’s wrong’ the agent cried out, unable to contain himself after nearly half an hour’s struggle.

Lying on his back, too exhausted even to sit up, the man answered hoarsely, ‘I’m sorry, this has never happened before. I don’t know what to say.”

Akiyuki Nosaka, “American Hijiki”

RKS Japanese Literature: American Soldiers Nothing Like the Spindly British General Percival Who Surrendered Singapore (Akiyuki Nosaka)

“Maybe General Percival was an exception, because the soldiers I was looking at had arms like roof beams and hips like millstones, and underneath trousers that glowed with a sheen our civilian uniforms never had, you could see their powerful buttocks. I had been granted beginner’ s status in the Martial Arts Society and I knew how to trip up the biggest lugs in school, but I could never do a thing to these American soldiers. What a magnificent build they had. No wonder Japan lost the war. Why were we fighting these giants to begin with?”

Akiyuki Nosaka, “American Hijiki”

RKS Japanese Literature: Japanese Flocking Like Pigeons for Sticks of Gum Thrown by American Soldiers (Akiyuki Nosaka)

“A couple of hundred yards east down the wall of people, a cry arose that could have been a cheer or a scream. I looked over to see two American soldiers who stood a head-no, a head and shoulders-above the crowd that surrounded them. As I was about to step into to the road to see what was happening, three big men came up before I knew it and standing six feet from me, their mouths working constantly, started opening packs of gum and throwing the sticks in our direction, They were so offhand about it, we were all too startled to move. The soldiers started gesturing us to pick up the gum, and I suspect the first one to take a stick did so less out of a willingness to accept charity than a fear of being punished if he refused. This was a man in a crepe undershirt and knee-length drawers, brown shoes and garters to hold up his socks, who timidly stretched out his hand and showed not the least pleasure of having received a stick of chewing gum. The rest were like pigeons flocking for beans.”

Akiyuki Nosaka, “American Hijiki”

RKS CANADIAN SWISS FILM: “NESTING”: Beyond Psychological Terms

We all have heard the terms Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Post Partum Depression (PPD) and understand the physiological and psychological repercussions of these mental disorders. But view “Nesting” and you go beyond the nasty headlines reflecting the effects of these mental disorders and you may start to feel what these disorders are like by witnessing the pain and suffering of Pénélope (Rose-Marie Perrault) recently experiencing the drowning of her sister Charlotte and giving birth to her preemie boy Lou.

The downward spiral starts the film and swirls quickly southbound to near murderous conclusions. What is Pénélope’s reality and her hallucinatory existence is increasingly apparent as the movie progresses and it is both disturbing and frightening. How could it evolve to such dire and threatening levels. It is possibly equally disturbing is that Pénélope, her weed smoking/skateboarder/struggling musician boyfriend Gaspard (Simon Landry-Desy), her parents and physician fail to understand Pénélope’s suffering until the last moment.

It might be some viewers interpret the film as “classic horror” with ominous music and apparitions, but the horror is not intended to be theatrical horror but rather actual horror and it certainly accomplishes delivering that.

If you have raised an infant you must understand the physical and mental strain in doing so punctuated by joy and pride but imagine that task without the intermittent breaks of joy and pride?

Watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLS6NqYLA_E

Directed by Chloé Cinq-Mars.

Limited USA theatrical release on 26May2026 followed by 29May2026 VOD release.

RKS CANADIAN SWISS FILM Rating 71/100.

RKS Poetry Anthology (All We Get Are The Coffee Grinds):A WORLD LEADER DONE REAL GOOD IN SCHOOL BUT AS TO MATHEMATICS AIN’T SO GOOD INDEED!

A WORLD LEADER DONE REAL GOOD IN SCHOOL BUT AS TO MATHEMATICS AIN’T SO GOOD INDEED!

Wizard in the business world

(despite a bankruptcy or two)

Exquisite diplomat

(friends galore)

World class golfer

(a few discrete kicks of the ball)

Kentucky Fried Chicken Gold Card Member

(wolfed down behind the shrubs on The Lawn)

This my children is why you must do so well in school

And your photo will be on our passports!

Grand pouba of the PARDONS

Big Game Hunter of his enemies

But I have noticed that despite “How good I done in school”

Mathematics “Ain’t so good.”

Numerical sequencing an issue

Canada the 51st state

Greenland the 51st state

Venezuela the 51st state?

Mathematics ain’t so good indeed

Robert K. Stephen

RKS Japanese Literature: Americans Not White Devils! (Akiyuki Nosaka)

“All at once, without an order or a shout of any kind the column came to a halt and the soldiers, who until then had looked like a part of the machinery with their uniforms the same colour as the trucks, spang out-almost as if they had been shot out-holding rifles. Once on the ground, they leaned casually against the vehicles, looking at us, their cheeks as red as devils’. ‘Who says they’re white? They’re red devils!’ said one frightened boy of my age as if my thoughts had been my own.”

Akiyuki Nosaka, “American Hijiki”

RKS Poetry Anthology (All We Get Are The Coffee Grinds): JONI MITCHELL GOT IT ALL WRONG ABOUT THE PARKING LOT

JONI MITCHELL GOT IT ALL WRONG ABOUT THE PARKING LOT

Forty years of travelling down to Toronto’s Kensington Market

Beautifully located City of Toronto Green P parking lot

Right behind Carlos Spice Market and the Portuguese quasi department store

A thirty second walk through a rather dirty lane then into the heart of the market!

Well

Carlos is gone; name remains but owned by a Sri Lankan

Portuguese store closed

Where did the Green P parking lot go?

Condo development!

No “they paved paradise and put a parking lot up”

But

“They destroyed my parking lot paradise and put what is marketed as Paradise Condo’s up!”

Robert K. Stephen

RKS Literature: Never to Return to Filth Pit “Good Beds for Single Men” (George Orwell)

“In the morning I was woken by a dim impression of some large brown thing coming towards me. I opened my eyes and saw that it was one of the sailor’s feet, sticking out of bed close to my face. It was dark brown, quite dark brown like an Indian’s with dirt. The walls were leprous, and the sheets three weeks from the wash, were almost raw umber colour. I got up, dressed and went downstairs. In the cellar were a row of basins and two slippery roller towels. I had a piece of soap in my pocket, and I was going to wash, when I noticed that every basin was streaked with grime-solid, sticky filth as black as boot-blacking. I went out unwashed. Altogether the lodging house had not come up to its description of cheap and clean.”

George Orwell, “Down and Out in Paris and London”, 1933.

RKS Literature: Back in London Still Impoverished Staying at “Good Beds for Single Men” (George Orwell)

“Several noises recurred throughout the night. About once an hour the man on my left-a sailor, I think-woke up, swore vilely and lighted a cigarette, Another man, a victim of bladder disease, got up and noisily used his chamber-pot half a dozen times during the night. The man in the corner had a coughing fit once in every twenty minutes, so regularly that one came to listen for it as one listens when a dog is baying at the moon. It was an unspeakably repellant sound; a foul bubbling and retching, as though the man’s bowels were being churned up within him. Once when he struck a match I saw that he was a very old man with a grey sunken face like that of a corpse, and he was wearing his trousers wrapped around his head as a nightcap, a thing which for some reason disgusted me very much.”

George Orwell, “Down and Out in Paris and London”, 1933.