The Exile.

I like reading about war. 

You learn things. 

It's not a medal, but what is twenty years between training and heckling'? 

Give 'em another one!

They deserve it!

Transcript

The AFP is back in style.

Woah

I got it

I want it

Fiji wants it.

And a few troops headed North.

Because you need to concentrate on the South or thereʼs more desert there for us to avoid?

Cammoʼs everywhere.

You can report but only what we want.

It is sort of like Autotune.

Has the thrill of mechanised merchants to it.

Stay quiet.

Only we can push the boundaries.

MUSIC

While Ukrainian children live abroad in foreign homes and the war continues its grunt.

Does this bog Russia down in the West?

History is quick.

The Manchurian assistance is quickly forgotten.

What a child.

MUSIC

There has been commentary of how Ukrainia might be a lesson to China.

Of how difficult it might be.

And yet, the tanks do not reveal the cyber battles, the space domain or the intelligence imbroglio.

Ditto under the oceans.

Are we protecting satellites, hiding force or controlling information highways?

No need for the latter.

Everyone falls in line, watching the to and fro, saying nothing.

Itʼs hardly Baldwin.

MUSIC

Itʼs nice to read a book on war.

Itʼs nice to read about the use of incendiaries.

That not the enemy but ‘weʼ we used them.

We, moving as fast and as ugly as can be, used what we could to win a war.

I like reading about war. You learn things.

Because when you read about war, you read what happened in the Philippines.

Imagine that idiot surrendering and leaving so many to their fate.

They moved back into their comfort while he thought about how to take it again.

Oh just brilliant.

It illuminates the current sitch at hand. Theyʼd be delighted.

South Korea has come on board. I hope they donʼt leave any poisoned material. Because that would be bad.

MUSIC

Iʼm still wondering what happened in 2010.

As historyʼs note taker, when we learn what happened in 2010, near an island, while war games were taking place, will we know?

No, we will not know. Ditto Kursk.

Men left at the bottom of the ocean and no-one to tell me the plot.

Meanwhile, Britain is back in the game, young faces at the ready and I do not know them.

So very young.

I feel responsible. 

MUSIC

There is not a samurai code in Chinaʼs lot.

What weaves through it, what keeps us between honour, dignity, disgrace and intelligent resignation?

When to surrender, when to prevail, when to leave someone weaker.

The codes of war surely radically different to nation serving politicians.

And yet here we are.

MUSIC

How many empires are built on the pride loss of others?

Will they include that in the pride logo that insouciance wears?

Not countering the myths while secretly applauding Bogie for his Rick.

How many of you are Rick, truthfully? Not so many.

You protect those that are part of your lore and discard those that do not fit the tale.

Tell me, what is your view of countries not in the Western sphere?

Did you, with purpose, not let my Serbian sister into the

country?

And how will that look when all is said and done?

There will be no Louis Theroux tale for that.

It is, as if the Slavs never existed.

They did.

MUSIC

Surely the Jewish diaspora - who left Russia and helped create a nation - understand the life of the exile.

The life of those that have a language that others fear or simply view as not quite ours.

I will hold my Slavic language on my tongue and fondly be an outer.

Languages bringing crisp definition to belonging.

It defies all other trespasses.

MUSIC

They throw stones while training other people to be great.

What a disgrace. 

MUSIC

They enjoy putting you in difficult situations. Where you might get sick.

They enjoy watching you get sick from what they engineer because if they didnʼt it wouldnʼt happen.

They enjoy pulling you down as low as you can go and beating about their professionalism.

They do not give you what you need to be the best.

It is time to legally expose the discrimination they claim doesnʼt exist.

MUSIC

Here we are.

Quietly enmeshed.

Me, secretly in awe yet always careful.

It is a strange relationship this one.

It is the relationship we always have to the nation.

Caught between our true selves, what we believe and that presented.

I cannot hide in the grey. It leaves me depleted

My alive can only be alongside creation

There are a few like that currently without homes. 

The Exile.

MUSIC