Neil Armstrong's Apollo Space Suit.

Including: Suit Helmet Boots Gloves Backpack and Undergarments.

Question: Why does the description of Neil Armstrong's space suit
require less technical terminology than one Bishop's T Shirt?

Aliens land in Bonnybridge : Attempt to communicate.

"Nave Rogation Quicunque vult Sacristan Dalmatic Ambo Biretta Canticle Canon Hallowmas Chasuble Surplice Te Deum Laudamus Chimere Martinmas Credence Theotokos Lammas Missal Venite Mitre Scamnum Offertory Dalmatic Prelate"

Local man said: "Sounds like English but nothing we've heard before.'People are trying to figure it out."

Professor Hawking warned: "We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet."

What I think: High Church is so detached from the daily lives and problems of ordinary people that it's painful to look at.
More like a camp pantomime than church. Not that I wouldn't enjoy a camp pantomime
but it's not church.
This kind of church is esoteric in the extreme, definitely for the initiated.
Alien to and also alienates those on the outside looking in.

Technological advance in computer cleaning.

Ever wanted to clean the inside of your monitor screen
you now can by - clicking here.

Eric Idle.

Alien Invation.

Stephen Hawking has revealed a strong belief in aliens and warned the Earth could be at risk from an invasion.
In a new documentary series, the renowned astrophysicist argued that it is 'perfectly rational' to assume intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe.
And in an extraordinary series of assertions, he said Earth might be at risk from what he imagines to be 'massive ships' which could try to colonise our planet and purge our resources.
Professor Hawking said: 'We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet.
'I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet.

'Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach.'
It would be 'too risky' to attempt to make contact with alien races, he concluded.

'If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America.

"I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet."

1. This is the plot from the film "Independence Day"

2. If aliens were capable of interstellar/intergalactic travel - Why would they ever want to pass millions of planets that are individually made of any element available on Earth.

3. This was one of the flaws in the plot of "Independence Day"

Rajan Zed.

Rajan Zed is an acclaimed Indo-American and Hindu statesman who has taken up Hindu, interfaith, religion, environment, Roma and other causes all over the world.

He was invited by the President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pottering, in December 2009 in Brussels (Belgium) for a meeting to promote interfaith dialogue and discuss Hindu issues. He read the groundbreaking first Hindu opening prayer in the United States Senate in Washington DC.

Zed is one of the panelists for “On Faith”, an interactive conversation on religion produced jointly by Newsweek and WashingtonPost.com. He has been bestowed with “World Interfaith Leader Award”,
“Nevada Religious Unity Award”, “Positive Pluralism and Unity Prize”, and other awards for interfaith dialogue.

Statement - 23/4/2010.

Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that the recent United Kingdom government publication of a 28-page booklet “Guidance on managing anti-social behaviour related to Gypsies and Travellers”- was clearly discriminatory. Had the UK published such booklets on any other ethnic group or majority community? Zed asked.　

Published by John Denham headed Department of Communities and Local Government which aims at a community "where everyone has the right to the same opportunities, freedom and respect", it is available free. Why this “special handling” of Gypsies/Travelers only, Rajan Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, questioned.　

Talking about the booklet, Department says: "These provide advice on effective use of enforcement powers that local authorities, the police and private landowners have to deal with unauthorized encampments, where Gypsies and Travellers camp on land which they do not own and with unauthorised developments, where Gypsies and Travellers own the land, but do not have planning permission to develop it as a caravan site." 　

Zed urged the European Union, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Equality and Human Rights Commission to look into it and stop unnecessary targeting of a helpless community. Racism and discrimination was already escalating against Gypsies/Travelers, it did not need any Government push, he argued.　

Rajan Zed asked The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams to also come out openly in support of this distinct and culturally ethnic community who face “apartheid” conditions in Europe. Because religion teaches us to help the helpless, Dr Rowan Williams should recognize, acknowledge and affirm that Roma/Gypsies/Travelers are also children of God invested with the God given right to be treated like all other people—as equals. Zed quoted from The Bible: “When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:36)”.　

Reflections on War

Lloyd George, Clemenceau and Wilson arrive at Versailles for negotiations.
The British War Graves Cemetery at Seraucourt Le Grand, near the River Somme.

Thoughts on the Somme.

Their youth their passion their dreams are gone
But dream of them when nights are long

Illuminated by a single flare
Catatonic in the glare

Rows of childlike ceramic faces
Ten years from learning to tie their laces

Hardly knowing right from wrong
Slaughtered like sheep along the Somme.

War.

War is the ultimate manipulation
pit a Nation against a Nation
and destroy for an idea
all that humanity holds as dear

War is hypocrisy on the march
from safe retreats Politicians watch
good family men kill good family men
and the church sanctions them

War is the Dictator's Cry
inflamed by democratic arms supply
who let the dogs of War devour
to further the aims of corporate power

War is the genocide of youth
for a lie uniformed as truth
and all the pomp and pride and bravery
have their root in human savagery.

Excavation.

Mass Graves
of young men killed
in some long forgotten war
by some long forgotten authority
for some long forgotten reason

Are these the bones
of brave young men
are these of cowards
who ran away
are these of families
caught in the vengeance
of the blood lust day

The victorious
the vanquished
they are all gone now
And somewhere
a young Mother
holds her baby to her breast
and a Father's heart swells
with grateful joy
and adoring pride.

Spiritual Connections.

Three Traveller men and Three Bedouin men.

The Forgotten Experiment.

Bobbin Mill, Pitlochry, Perthshire, Scotland.

The Advocacy Project. 1326 14th street, Washington.

Open Letter Regarding the Bobbin Mill Encampment

Dear Colleagues:

This is an open letter sent from the UK Association of Gypsy Women to the Scottish Executive and Perth & Kinross Council to express our great concern with regard to the Gypsy/Travellers encampment at Bobbin Mill Pitlochry.

Bobbin Mill was the setting for the “Tinker Experiment Programme” which has lasted for 60 years. We feel it must surely make it the longest experiment in history and begs the question: when will it come to a satisfactory conclusion as far as satisfying the Perth & Kinross Council and the Scottish Executive is concerned!

Bobbin Mill residents are living in worse conditions today in the year 2006 than they were when first put into the “Experimental” programme in 1947.

Miss Rosanna Mcphee is a board member/colleague of the UKAGW and she resides on Bobbin Mill and to our knowledge she has worked tirelessly to highlight the inhumane conditions that the residents had to endure and are still enduring.

Perth & Kinross Council will be well aware by now of the history of Bobbin Mill encampment. The very fact that it is well documented the families were used as a “Tinker Experiment” and the accommodation, if you can call it that, consisted of a 60ft x18ft wooden hut to be made into 4 dwellings. In addition the cheapest price was agreed to be used in the construction thereof.

Noted: at the time in documentation that this would be substandard housing and would not qualify to come under the building regulations of the time.

Growing families were forced out of the huts and into caravans, which the families were forced to provide themselves. Water, sanitation, electricity or indeed a road, which are fundamentally taken for granted and enjoyed by the wider Community was never deemed a necessity for the “Tinker Experiment” families of Bobbin Mill.

The families who have been used for the “Tinker Experiment” are the tenants of the local authority. We feel the local authority from that time, regardless of their name, have been negligent in their duty of care to say the very least towards the families in the “Tinker Experiment” programme.

Miss Rosanna McPhee and Mr Shamus McPhee have both received a notification of a warrant issued against them by Perth & Kinross Council for “Non payment of Council Tax”.

UKAGW would like to make a request to you, Ms Malone, as the Chief Executive to use your good offices to treat the matter of notification of warrants of non payment of council tax against Mr & Miss McPhee with the utmost urgency and have these warrants withdrawn.

We are utterly appalled that people were treated in such a disgraceful inhumane manner by their so called fellow man and are now being harassed and persecuted into paying for a service they have never received. We feel this most certainly adds insult to injury.

Mr McPhee Senior was a war hero of the Second World War serving under Lord Mountbattan in the Royal Navy. On his return his reward for serving his country , along with his family, was to be put into a “Tinker Experiment Programme” bordering on Third Reich Tactics.

The “Tinker Experiment” and the discrimination suffered is still being endured by these families in 2006. We feel, without prejudice, it is our duty to highlight and bring to world attention the treatment of Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland.

UKAGW have agreed on a fact-finding mission to Pitlochry with partners from the USA to make good a full report to be forwarded to Minister Ruth Kelly; Yvette Cooper Junior Minister, Local Government and Communities Office, UK Federation Romany Gypsies & Irish Travellers, United Nations New York, Partners in the Council of Europe, European Roma Traveller Forum Strasbourg, International Roma Women’s Network Strasbourg, Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions Geneva, European Union Monitoring Centre Vienna, Advocacy Project Washington DC USA.

This letter surprised me very much.

I'm so used to the way Travellers are treated in Scotland and have been treated in the past that it was only after reading this letter that the enormity of the injustice suffered by the families of Bobbin Mill dawned on me.
I didn't realize it, just how desensitized I was to the way Travelling people are treated in Scotland.

View from Pitlochry.

Shamus and Roseanna McPhee
Pitlochry.

Tribunal setback for Gypsy Travellers
By Colin Turbett.

Scotland’s forgotten oppressed minority – the Gypsy Traveller community, have been dealt a blow with the finding of a recent Employment tribunal in Aberdeen.

Ken McLennan, a non Traveller, who worked for the Gypsy Traveller Education and Information Project (GTEIP), was sacked last year. Ken took the GTEIP to a tribunal on the basis that he had been dismissed for activities that had upset some of the funders of the project, but which was in the interests of this ethnic minority.

The nub of his argument was that Gypsy Travellers were a recognised ethnic minority. The GTEIP, who claim to campaign for Gypsy Travellers, took the extraordinary step of arguing that as this had never been tested in a Scottish Court they had no case to answer. In other words their dismissal of Ken was legitimate because Scottish Travellers are not an ethnic minority and should enjoy no special protection, unlike their fellows in England , Wales and Ireland.

The Employment Judge, Nicol Hosie, then considered old dictionary definitions of Travellers and Gypsies and concluded that Scottish Travellers were not of Romany origin and agreed that they were not therefore an ethnic minority who should enjoy protection under anti discriminatory race relations law.

Until now everyone concerned with Scottish Gypsy Travellers, whether in the Scottish Parliament, or the Commission for Racial Equality, have argued publicly that Scottish Gypsy Travellers were of the same ethnic origin as other Travellers in the UK. All that was necessary was a test case to put this through the Scottish Legal System, and establish it once and for all. Whilst this would in itself not end centuries of prejudice it would at least make it easier to challenge modern day discrimination.

Said Gypsy Traveller activist Roseanna McPhee from Bobbin Mill site in Pitlochry:
“This has got to be challenged, and as quickly as possible. There are reasons why after 13 years on the supply list, I cannot get a job as a Gaelic teacher. I know what they are and they are based in discrimination pure and simple. I am not popular because I have spoken out, and I have suffered for it.”

Her brother Shamus, who is faced with Sheriff Officer action over an unpaid Council Tax bill is also in no doubt about the realities of the racial prejudice he faces daily: “They want thousands from me for Council Tax. This is meant to be payment for services but until now we have had none on this site – not even the basics of water and electricity.”

My personal view:

Scottish Travellers are indigenous to Scotland and are not of natural Romany origin.
But as Scottish Travellers have a shared history of nomadic culture, lifestyle and also have for centuries shared the discrimination of all Romany and nomadic people it is long past the time that they also had a share in anti-discrimination law.

'Scottish Travelling People' endure the most discrimination
and have the least recourse to law than any other ethnic group in Scotland.

This has raised some questions for me:...What is Roma?...Who are Roma?

In almost every country in the world there are people who live Romany lives.
Some of them are indigenous to their countries and some of them come from other countries. And all of them no matter what origin or nationality have a global spiritual connection. Any Traveller reading this will know what I'm talking about.
It's a feeling in the air, you know that you are connected to all people everywhere who are strangers and pilgrims in the world.
And because of this I can also say "I am Roma I am Romany"

An update to this story:

Scottish Gypsy Travellers are celebrating the recent judgement by Nicol Hosie at an Aberdeen Employment Tribunal in the case of Ken MacLennan, a non Gypsy Traveller who was dismissed last year by the Aberdeen based Gypsy Traveller Education and Information Project GTEIP).

A preliminary hearing early in 2008 ruled that Ken's submission that his activities in defending the interests of Gypsy Travellers, were protected under race relations legislation, which his employer had objected to, were not protected as Scottish Gypsy Travellers were not an ethnic minority.

The GTEIP had produced evidence to this effect at the earlier hearing, but, under pressure from the Government's Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), did not defend this position when Ken successfully won the right to the review which was held in September.

At the Employment Tribunal Review, the results of which were published to little fanfare in late October, Nicol Hosie about turned on his earlier decision thanks to a massive amount of evidence produced on Mr MacLennan's behalf, by Shamus and Roseanna McPhee, members of the Scottish Gypsy Traveller Law Reform Coalition (SGTLRC), backed up by Dr Colin Clark from Strathclyde University.

This involved historical research put together by the McPhees, brother and sister from Bobbin Mill site in Pitlochry.

Hosie commended the quality of their evidence which covered matters of shared common history, language and culture which met the criteria for separate ethnic identity established by other landmark rulings in UK Courts, but as yet unproven in the Scottish court system.

Ken MacLennan's case against dismissal will now proceed to a full hearing in the New Year.

Said Roseanna McPhee:
"This ruling marks a significant step in the right direction in our struggle to achieve full recognition and legal protection in Scotland. The earlier hearing decision was followed by an increase in harrassment of members of our community, and this judgment takes us back to where we were but with some added strength to our case. Meanwhile discrimination continues as does our fight for law reform. In Italy the persecution of the Roma people is open and enjoys legal backing under Berlusconi, but in Scotland it is hidden from view but often just as hurtful."

Members of the SGTLRC will be travelling down to Manchester later this month where a film about the plight of Scotland's Gypsy Travellers, which focuses on the McPhees, has been shortlisted for a prize at the Exposures student film festival. The film, entitled "The Forgotten Experiment", made by final year film and media students from Stirling University.

The film will be shown all week at the festival alongside other short films in a series entitled "Distant Voices, Still Lives" which looks at the plight of minorities from various parts of the world.

Ready for man-made disaster.

MP John Baron congratulates Basildon Council Team.

Yesterday, John attended the opening of Basildon Councils’ new Emergency Control Room at the Basildon Centre. The high-tech room is ready for use 24hrs a day in the event of a man-made or natural disaster occurring in the District.

John said: “Gerry Levelle and his team did a great job during the Billericay Fire incident. But it is absolutely essential that they have the latest high-tech facilities should the worse happen again. This they now have, and well done to all involved.”

Also in attendance was the Leader of the Council Cllr. Malcolm Buckley, Deputy Leader Cllr. Tony Ball, Cllr. Phil Turner, Cllr. Ann Blake, Chief Executive Bala Mahendran, and the Emergency Control Team led by Gerry Levelle.

The picture shows John Baron, Bala Mahendran and Malcolm Buckley at the Emergency Control Website.

MP John Baron's proposals regarding Traveller sites here.

I would expect the - Much stronger powers for councils against Travellers -
To be the only part of these proposals that would be implemented.

Another location problem here.

From: Mrs Nora Sheridan, Dale Farm.

To: Mr Bala Mahendran, Chief Executive, Basildon District Council,
St Martins Square, Basildon SS14 1DL. 19th June 2009.

Dear Mr Mahendran,

I have not seen you myself because I am too sick to come to meetings but I suppose you may have a grandmother like me, God bless her. I am eighty-four years old and the doctors say they can do nothing more for me. I was taken in to Basildon hospital last week but discharged myself as I want to be at home with my own family for the time I have left on this earth.

Only I'm afraid that you are going to send in the bailiffs and bulldozers and I am in the very first yard you will come to destroy. You will destroy my home and, sir, you will kill me. That is the truth.

I only have my son Dan caring for me and as Sister Cathy, from our church, will tell you he is not well himself.

I do not understand all that is going on and I have asked Grattan Puxon to write this letter for me, which he is reading over to me and I will sign with my cross. With this letter you will find my preliminary housing application form. Only I do not want to be accommodated somewhere else. I do not want to be taken away from my own people, from my son Dan and my other son Jimmy, and all the family. So my first request to you is this: will you as the chief executive of the Basildon Council leave me in peace in the yard where I am living? As I do not have long to live.

It has been explained to me that although there is an Enforcement Notice on this yard you can choose, to delay carrying out your eviction of me and my son. Will you please do that?

You may consider that this yard is itself a special case, as it has properties on three sides of it which have full planning permission. I do not know why they are allowed but this one is not. It makes no sense.

Can you please explain to me, in clear English, why your council are so keen to have me off this little bit of so-called Greenbelt land when you are allowing people to live right next to me, on properties that border this one to the west, north and east.

Why do you want this little piece of ground? Why are you going to kill me to get it cleared? That is what I ask you.

Please advice me as to whether it would help my situation if I was to make a Planning Application for this ground, which is 1 Oak Lane (East)? I only want to keep here the mobile-home, and to be able to stay on for my life-time.

Mr Puxon, of the Gypsy Council, has explained to me that your council has been preparing its Gypsy and Traveller Site DPD and this was to be ready in July.

Has the council adopted its Traveller Site DPD? If not, when is it likely to adopt it? Will you leave be alone to live with my son at 1 Oak Lane until another site is available to which I can move? I do not wish go into a house or home. I need to be with my son and with my own family close by to help me, and be a comfort to me in my last days.

If you will not do this, I ask you what is going to happen to me and Dan? My church, which is Our Lady of Good Counsel Church, in London Road, and my parish priest Father John Glynn (who will get a copy of this letter) are offering to help me when you come to evict me.

Are you going to allow me to take up his offer of shelter in the church hall? I am very weak and will need to be moved in an ambulance. I believe the Red Cross will be willing to move me, if proper notice is given and the arrangements can be made.

Will you please tell me when you are sending the bulldozers as I am in the first yard they will break up, and I will be very frightened when they come. I am afraid I will collapse.

Will you give me advance notice so that I can be moved safety to the church hall before all the eviction uproar starts? I need to know which morning you are coming with the police and all that. Will you please let me know?

I know that in the past you have issued a letter giving 28 days notice. But that does not tell me which morning you are coming so that proper arrangements can be made by the church to move me to a safe place in their hall, which has to be made ready and booked in advance for that day. Do you understand what I am worrying about here? In the past you have sent in the bailiffs without warning, breaking up peoples caravans at Hovefields Avenue. I would not be able to stand any of that.

I understand that I have the right under the Freedom of Information Act to receive from you copies of any plans the council has made or will make concerning the eviction operation and the date that operation will be carried out. I am now asking you under the Act to give me all written information on the way the eviction will be carried out and when, and also a copy of the Risk Assessment report that is made, or will be made, to cover the eviction.

I am pleased to tell you that the United Nations is helping me and I hope that you can be as good as they are. The UN Mission team, whom you met on 23 April in our church hall where I want to go for shelter if you evict me, have promised they will be there in my home to see that your bailiffs and police don't hurt or insult me.

Good bless you, Sincerely, Nora Sheridan.

Luck is Important

It doesn't matter so much as you think. Ask a question and you'll receive an answer but is it the question you should have asked and is it the answer you wanted to hear or needed to hear. Green is a good colour for most things especially Jade but not for cars green cars are not lucky and luck is important if you think it is but even if you don't think it is it's still important. The importance of something is not going to hang around waiting for you to make up your mind.
Light is very important but becomes less important when you want to go to sleep so even something that's very is not always very. light is good but it's not good all the time unless you're a CIA man sitting in an office eating a burger and it's your eight hours to monitor the cell with the 24 hour light. Dark becomes very important to the man in the cell the man who is denied the dark.
Swimming is good for you everyone should swim people who can't swim should learn how to swim. When waiting for your plane to be refuelled you should take advantage of all your Hotel facilities especially if without you your plane and passengers aren't going anywhere sitting on the tarmac at Prestwick.
We can only go forward we can't go back everyone eventually wants to go back but we can't go back. We're stuck in the present this is it. We are all the fools of our own sensibleness.
Law is good but what if law is not good what if law is bad do we remain good law abiding citizens by dutifully obeying bad law. Why did the Church of Scotland send all it's young men to advance on German machine gun positions in the first world war. Was that good. Was it all for more than a vendetta between royal cousins in England and in Germany.
Now German soldiers fight alongside British soldiers and are killed in Afghanistan.
Time changes things. We are told they were wrong and now we are right.
It is right to fight in Corporate Wars. The biggest the greatest most ruthless Business is War.
They throw us a Hero they throw him on our doorstep and they say "Here is your Hero look at your Hero." We look and we see an eighteen year old boy who couldn't get a job so he took their job just to get out of the house. He was promised a job and a life but now he is dead and the Corporate Bosses say to us "This is your Hero"
Life is short but there is no need to be small. Interviews are interesting things.
An enquirer interviewing a psychopath is of interest. Talking about their Christianity being watched by twelve hundred Christians. Applauding or hissing or oinking approval then they all run down the side of a hill and are lost in the water some of them perhaps for ever.
Dust clouds are also of interest and empty skies. Luck is important we are lucky the dust is so high. Desert dust is low. It gets in your eyes in your ears in your mouth at the last you cannot see you cannot hear and you cannot speak.

Stand by me

Coercive.

We have to stand up against coercive sterilization

The European Parliament held a meeting yesterday in honour of the International Women's Day, dedicating the event to the fight against the violence against women. In the session organized by the Committee on Gender Equality, MEP Lívia Járóka (European People's Party / Fidesz) spoke against the coercive sterilization of Roma women.

MEP Lívia Járóka called it alarming that there were no proper official data about the practice of forced sterilization, which several Roma women had been subject to throughout the EU. Although concerned Member States claim that coercive sterilization of Romani women has not occurred since 2004, when the issue was first officially recognized, several experts on human rights allege that this practice is continuing to date.

Járóka emphasized that even though several judicial verdicts had been reached in favour of the victims, adequate compensations and official apologies in most cases were still pending. She stated that the one of the primary prerequisites for stepping up against such grievous forms of violence against women was to have proper statistical data. Járóka assured her audience that as Vice Chairwomen of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, she would ensure that this issue would be at the top of the committee’s and the European Parliament’s agenda.

Press Release of MEP Lívia Járóka
17/03/2010

Dale Farm

Interview of Cliff Codona.

"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche"

As Ann Widdecome is a former Government Minister a present Member of Parliament a devout Christian and a member of the 'Conservative Christian Fellowship' I thought her views would be of interest.

"There's a distinction between the genuine Romanies and the rest'...It's the rest that the law should come down on." - Ann Widdecome.

These ideas are not new. Heinrich Himmler suggested the establishment of a remote reservation, where "pure Gypsies" could continue their nomadic lifestyle unhindered.

According to him: The aim of measures taken by the State to defend the homogeneity of the German nation must be the physical separation of Gypsydom from the German nation, the prevention of miscegenation, and finally, the regulation of the way of life of pure and part-Gypsies.

Nine representatives of the Romani community in Germany were asked to compile lists of pure-blooded Romanies to be saved from extermination. However, these lists were often ignored and some who were named on them were still sent to concentration camps.

The extermination of Romanies was started as early as 1933 while camps were being established by the Nazis to contain Romanies at Dachau, Dieselstrasse, Mahrzan and Vennhausen. The vast majority of Romanies were to suffer the same indignities as the Jews. The Society for Threatened Peoples estimates the casualties at 277,100. Martin Gilbert estimates a total of more than 220,000 of the 700,000 Romani in Europe, including 15,000 (mainly from the Soviet Union) in Mauthausen in January–May 1945. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum cites scholars that estimate the number of Sinti and Roma killed to lie between 220,000 and 500,000. Dr Sybil Milton, a historian at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Research Institute, estimated the number of Romani lives lost to be up to 1,500,000.

Most of the above is from the 'Porajmos' page in Wikipedia.

I personally find the way Ann Widdecome dismissed out of hand generations of Travelling Peoples family life and  culture as though it was some form of ignorance that could be righted if "they" got a small flat, to be brutish of her.

Evensong

Give up your Jews
Give up your Jews
Give up your Jews

And your Gypsies too

Give up your Colleagues
Give up your Neighbours
Give up your Friends

Give up them All
Give up Control
Give up your Soul

We have a Law...To make you Obey
We have a Law...To take you Away
We have a Law...To kill you Today

Law is Might...Wrong is Right
Dark is Light...Blind is Sight

No turning back at the Mississippi Turnpike

Now for Evensong.

International Roma Day April 8th

On the occasion of International Roma Day, April 8, the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) recalls that, to date, Roma remain the most deprived ethnic group of Europe. Across Europe, the fundamental rights of Roma are still being violated on a regular basis. Repetitious cases of racist violence and hate speech targeting Roma are reported frequently. Roma are also subject to discrimination in accessing employment, education, health care, and public and social services.

The ERRC is particularly alarmed about the violations of housing rights of Roma, which have intensified in the recent years in several European countries including, but not limited to the Czech Republic, Greece, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, and Turkey. The ERRC notes that violations of the housing rights of Roma do not solely take the form of lack of access to adequate housing because of poverty or exclusionist attitudes, but are frequently manifest in cases of forced evictions and systemic destruction of Romani settlements.

Adequate housing is commonly understood to include the following elements; legal security of tenure, availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure, affordability, habitability, accessibility, location, and cultural adequacy. International and European human rights standards establish firmly the right to adequate housing as a fundamental right. Widespread reports concerning abuses of the housing rights of Roma across Europe indicate pervasive discrimination. Many Roma continue to live in segregated areas lacking basic security of tenure with highly substandard conditions. Such settlements are characterised by inadequate infrastructure and limited access to public services. In most cases, it is in addition to these inadequate and degrading conditions that Roma are subjected to forced eviction, abusive police raids and destruction of their property. In nearly all cases of housing demolitions documented by the ERRC and partner organisations, the persons affected were not provided with affordable alternative accommodations, as is required by international law, and faced homelessness.

International Roma Day was officially declared in 1990 in Poland, during the fourth World Romani Congress in honour of the first major international meeting of Roma representatives, 7-12 of April, 1971 in London, UK. International Roma Day is a day to celebrate Romani culture and raise awareness of the issues facing Romani people. It is worrying to note how little progress has been achieved since 1990 in improving the living conditions of Roma. The international community must utilise this day and remember its obligations to provide and implement legal/social/political instruments, which enable Roma to free themselves from precarious situation in which they live.

On the occasion of International Roma Day, the ERRC invites all relevant parties and public authorities to create the social/political/legal climate wherein the rights and the culture of Roma are respected and celebrated at all times.

On Speyside

I've heard the auld folk tell a story
and bring to life the scene before me
how folk were wonderful' content
in a wagon or a humble tent
when life was all uncomplicated
and simple things were appreciated
With an enthusiastic glow
they unfold a time long ago
and I listen with joy and pride
of youthful days along Speyside
Near a grove in a field of green
beside a flowing purling stream
the Travelling families are gathered
their tents secured their horses tethered.

No land no house to call their own
being together they are at home
for a household is not brick and mortar
but husband wife and son and daughter
And in some Scottish highland shire
assembled at the common fire
warmed against the evening air
and happy everyone is there
the tobacco and the stories go round
and children sing with an angelic sound
Until beneath the starlit sky
they recede into a time gone by
and will not walk these roads again
but I will gladly go to them.

Herrenvolk

Herrenvolk.

From the corner of my eye
I can almost see
in a recess of my mind
something dark is watching me
Moving in shadows
but not caused by light
emanating darkness

Held at the gate
by the keeper of the keys
kept in quarantine like a disease
Endlessly pacing
the confines of it's cell
Glaring defiantly
with the venom of hell

Here is
The accuser of my soul
the robber of my peace

Here is
The hand of iron
fashioned in a cross
fashioned to deceive

Here is
The God of racial supremacy
the master of the master race
the destroyer of worlds

And from you where can I flee
to the highest mountain or the deep blue sea
I will take you there with me.

Walking from Chuch

As you get older you tend to see or have more of a handle on things as they are.
When you're younger you're full of ideals, you want to change the world.
Then one day you catch a glimpse in the mirror you don't like and realize this is the you that's just as bad as all the people you had wanted to save the world from.
Then you know you're not just the victim of all the bad stuff that goes on in the world you're also the perpetrator.
I suppose that's got something to do with the young being full of ideals and people who are a bit older receding into resignation.
Jesus said to his disciples - "you have more to learn but you cannot bear it all just now." I think that some of what they could not bear was the truth about themselves in the sight of God.
Does this mean we should do nothing - No, we should still try but to me - not to change the world but to change one heart at a time beginning with our own.
What we need to find within ourselves is not the "good" but the "Jackbooted Goose-stepping Nazi." Subdue this part of ourselves first then the good will come.

First Day.

Place of Worship.

Sitting
in the chapel
within my soul
watching
the dawning light
illuminate
prismatic crystal walls

Bursting into colour
like wild flowers
greeting the spring

Here is enshrined
God's beautiful truth

"Peace and Reconciliation"

With God
with self
with those who love
with those who hate

This righteous sun rises
with healing in it's wings

And in this morning
even life's hard knocks
take on a rationality
breaking
the outer facade
letting in the light
uncreated.

Jesus...Who?

"JESUS WHO'...WAS HE IN ABU GHRAIB?"

The Road to the Cross.

The Road to the Cross.

I look up to see
my family and friends
being roughly pushed aside
in the anguish of their cries
my own becomes intensified

I catch faces
in the crowd
blatant defiant
perversely proud

Their eyes ablaze
in a frenzied glare
fists clenched around
clumps of my hair

When purpose
becomes obscured
by chaos
secret doubts
arise to betray us

The human heart
is crushed
by not knowing why
a faithful son
should be left to die

Why expedient plans
of powerful men
conspire to accuse
convict and condemn

Why there is no man
to intercede
and their hatred
is the only
assurance to plead

Why to all the world
this day appears
to have all purpose drowned
in a Mother's tears.

The Cross.

I have walked
on the way of the Cross
where the tangible presence
of a suffocating darkness
falls around like a screen
for the broken in heart
Yet the fingers still pierce
and the distorted faces
betray the malformed
feeling and thought
The grief is so crushing
it shatters the rocks
The thunder attempts
to cry out in pain
The elements gather
in lamentation
as Creation
attends to witness the scene
And what is love
that it can sentence
The Living God to Death
and can that love
make pointing fingers
direct a soul to him
and can that love
make distorted faces
shine in glory
should they walk
on the way of the Cross.

The Neon Cross.

The Neon Cross
Blasts the darkened sky
"It's a matter of opinion"
Says the passer-by
"Some people think it's garish
and some just stand and cry
don't ask them to explain it
because they don't know why"

"I've heard that Christ appeared
for a moment yesterday
and this crowd have gathered
and refuse to go away
They are hungry and thirsty
but still stand and pray
the dispossessed
the disenfranchised
the disassociated
increase in number every day

The neon blasts
the pungent sulphur air
Someone brings some water
another bread to share
and as the people eat and drink
in a mutuality of care
I hear "Corpus Christi"
whispered in a prayer.

The Quilt.

So you've lived your best years
on the table before you
a bowl of joys and a bottle of tears
At your feet on the floor
a box of mementos
sentimental gateways into the past
A teddy bear with one eye
a watch a brooch an old wallet
photos of days away
of Parents watching children at play
taken out and looked at every blue moon
and tonight the moon is blue

It's the same for everyone
everyone has a story to tell
when life was like heaven
when they lived through hell
hearts like a patchwork quilt
torn and mended torn and mended

So do not think you are unique
or the hearts of others are made of stone
in all honesty you are not alone.

Some good news for a change.

I was reading through some Scottish news stories today. It's difficult to take in some of the appalling tragedies. I came across this story which lifted the mood.

A Hero mum spoke for the first time last night about how she saved the lives of three children and a fisherman in a sea rescue.

Dietician Jacqueline Walker, 39, who has just won a bravery award for her actions, told how all four were close to drowning when she plucked them from the icy water to safety.
She was on holiday with family at Hopeman Harbour, near Elgin, Moray, when she saw the group floundering in the 30ft deep water and struggling for breath.
A 12-year-old boy who had fallen 25 feet from the harbour wall and couldn't swim had prompted two of his pals, also aged 12, to jump in then a fisherman sitting on the harbour dived in fully clothed when he heard their cries for help.
Jacqueline, who is a triathlete, said she didn't think twice about diving in to save them and was embarrassed when her husband Drew nominated her for a Royal Humane Society Testimonial on Parchment.
She said: "I am delighted to be receiving this award and my husband and children are very proud of me.
"I didn't think it was that big a deal, I just acted on instinct and all the lifesaving training I had when I was a teenager just came flooding back to me.
"I had spent the day at the beach with my children and we all had wet suits on because we had been jumping off the harbour.
"It is fun but you have got to be careful because of the swell in the tide. I saw the children and the man in the water and they were really struggling.

"I got my friend to raise the alarm, tied a lifebuoy to my waist and dived in.

"They were about 150 feet away from the harbour and were being swept away by the tide. It was pretty choppy out there and the man was struggling to hold on to two of the boys, the other was swimming against the tide and they were all floating away and floundering.

"The key to lifesaving is making sure to raise the alarm before getting into the water and then making sure everyone stays calm.

"I front crawled out to them and told them to hold the lifebuoy and kick their feet like they were in the swimming pool and I pulled them back to the harbour."
By then the Coastguard and Sea King rescue helicopter had arrived on the scene to meet them as they swam to shore.

Last night the Royal Humane Society praised Jacqueline for her actions.

The society's secretary Dick Wilkinson said: "Mrs Walker played a key role in saving three lives."She showed tremendous courage and put herself at risk without hesitation. She thoroughly deserves this award."

The Wasteful Son.

Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them.

"Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

"When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' So he got up and went to his father.

"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
"The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son."

"But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.

"Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on.
"Your brother has come home" he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'

"The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'
"My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found."

Luke 15.

The Final Solution: 1st August 1609.

As early as 1541, the Scots King James V (grandfather of James Stuart VI / I) issued an order evicting all gypsies from Scotland. However, After the elder James died in 1542, the gypsies started returning.
After the younger James ascended to the throne of Scotland in 1567, an act was passed against ‘the idle people calling themselves Egyptians,” with regular renewals from 1592-1603. This final act, concerning the ‘Egyptians’ became law on August 1, 1609, demanding that all gypsies leave Scotland, never to return on pain of death. After August 1, 1609, any of the King’s subjects could, ‘take, apprehend, imprison and execute to death the said Egyptians, either men or women, as common, notorious and condemned thieves’. 

 Most gypsies fled Scotland. Others assimilated. In subsequent decades gypsies who were found in Scotland were forcibly emigrated to colonies in Virginia, Jamaica and Barbados.

Dear Fellow Party Member [Parteigenosse] Luther!

Enclosed I am sending you the minutes of the proceedings that took place on January 20, 1942.

Since the basic position regarding the practical execution of the final solution of the Jewish question has fortunately been established by now, and since there is a full agreement on the part of all agencies involved. I would like to ask you at the request of the Reich Marshal to make one of your specialist officials available for the necessary discussion of details in connection with the completion of the draft that shows the organizational, technical and material prerequisites bearing on the actual starting point of the projected solutions.
I want to schedule the first discussion along these lines for 10:30 a.m. on March 6, 1942 at 116 Kurfürstenstrasse, Berlin. I therefore ask you that for this purpose your specialist official contact my functionary in charge there, SS-Obersturmbannführer Eichmann.

Art

Art.

You do not form our thinking
or give light to the blind
but articulate the consciousness
of the common human mind

The metamorphic substance
of the feeling in the air
the offspring of a generation
born of splendour and despair

The Man is a greater art
than any lauded statuary
and the essence of his soul
his wealth in abject poverty

The Woman is more beautiful
than a painting or a bronze
A Child's laughter more delightful
than a great composer's songs

A painting's easily admired
a composer gains a fan
more difficult to recognise
The God within a Man.

Wealth of Art.

Manipulate and exploit
the need and labour of the poor
and thus grow rich
And use that wealth
to buy what was a poor man's work
but is now called Art
and from it try to find that which you lack
the generous feeling of a poor man's heart.

By wealth pursue
in paint or bronze or clay
the Aura Trail of what the poor
think and feel and pray
until at the end
the labour of the poor man's soul
is in the rich man's pocket
to keep for his amusement
or sell to make a profit.

Knowing Art.

She has a heavy fringe
two layers of lipstick
miss-matched clothes
and Grannie boots

She must know a lot about Art

But I've got a feeling
she'd present a dog's breakfast as art
if Cosmo said it was

She would consider a pile of bricks to be art
but the men who built her house
Too ignorant to know about art

I know where she bought her Grannie boots
they also sell Jack boots

She is in her element
She is with her clique
she knows her genre

You've got to hand it to her
she does function well
within the boundaries
of her own personal delusion.

But then again, don't we all.

Sounds of Art.

It is generally accepted
that people who listen to classical music
do not brawl on the street

These people are much too sophisticated for that
These people wouldn't get their clothes dirty
These people would say "Tut Tut"

Some of these people only sign papers
That cause the deaths of untold thousands.

Looking for Art.

"Are you, looking for Art?
Well it's not that
It's not on this or any other floor
it's at the back door
There is a pile of rags
within them is wrapped
a man attempting to sleep
and there is more art etched on his face
than there is in this whole Gallery
But are you, looking for Art?"

Time and Tide

Work Station

Work Station.

"Could you follow me"

"Yes, certainly"

"This is your work station here
I'll just go over it with you."

"These buttons on the front
you can press any of them
except this one
this one with the sticker that says
"Do Not Press"
Whatever you do under no circumstances-press this button."

"This array of switches to your left
you can flick any of these switches
it's up to you just use your own discretion.
But this switch here
the one with the red tape around it.
Do not even touch this switch
in fact avoid the switches near to it
in case you flick it by accident."

"The sliding regulators to your right
you can slide any of them
tolerance will still be automatically maintained.
But this one here the one that's bigger than the rest
this sets and locks all the others.
So - Do Not - slide this regulator
especially not on a Friday afternoon."

"Have you got that now?"

"O Yes, you can depend on me"

Conversation with a mirror

Conversation with a mirror

The King said to me
"What do you think?"
And I thought
-This day my life is in my hands
and my family are in danger
of becoming destitute-
Then I replied
"I think you are right my Lord"
And the King replied
"Of course I'm right"
But he wasn't right
and the whole episode
stank to high heaven
I could not have changed his mind
only ruined my life
the King's subjective truth
would still have become common truth
and who or what but you
could ever chide
that my subjective truth
was not right for me.

Please don't be kind to me

Inalienable Charity.

Please don't be kind to me

I can't bear it's cruelty

or pay it's price

of accepting your ideology

and applauding your humanity

Am I not a human being
alive upon the Earth
Do I not have the right
to live upon it
to walk upon it
to associate to communicate
to share in the produce of it's fields

why should any of these

be in your gift of kindness
be in your power to withhold

I have seen kindness
the kindness of those who say
"Thank you"
for tents with rotted canvas
for blankets musty with mould
for food out of date

for one bottle of water

costing one hundred barrels of oil

and one barrel of blood.

Lifeline

Lifeline

A mongrel dog on a string
his lifeline to affection
within a community
where people turn away
from his dishevelled
and ungainly appearance
from his unshaven face
and tortured expression

He is beyond the pale
of our mammon society

Without beauty
to make him desirable
Without prestige
to make him enviable
Without money
to make him wise

He is everything
our superficial world
has need of to despise.

When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD's anointed stands here before the LORD."
7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
1 Samuel 16.

The Ball Chaos Theory

The Beach

I began to focus
on blurred images
and was trying to listen
to muffled sounds
slowly I could hear water
and was standing on a Beach
looking out upon
an endless translucent sea

A young man walking on the Beach
walks over to me
smiling he says
'I am here to welcome you'

'Thank you'-I reply
'But where is this place?'

'This' he answered 'Is Eternity'
'We are standing outside linear time
and touching all time
here the past is alive
and the future is remembered
this is spiritual time
the eternal loop of consciousness'

Then he asks me
'Do you know - 'The ball chaos theory?'

'I do' I reply
'Jesus caught the ball
and the car ran him over'

'Well this place' He replied
is where the chaos ends'

'I have often wondered
and wonder now - could you tell me
'Why is there chaos?'

To this question He replied

'The Universe The Earth
and Humanity upon the Earth
are the outcome of infinite variables
you should understand
they are as they are
because it was never possible
for them to be any other way'
'And for you
Believe and also Trust in this
The hand that threw the first
still reaches out to catch the last'

At this I enquired -
'Is Jesus here that I may worship him?'

The young man replied
'He is not far from you my child'

I knelt to worship
and then I heard someone saying
'He's coming round
he's going to make it'
I opened my eyes
someone was pressing my chest
I was coughing up water
Someone else was saying
'We need to take off your shirt
open your hand
and let go of the ball.'

The ball chaos theory.

A child is playing with a ball on the pavement
their hand misses the catch
and it runs out onto the road
because the child's mind is occupied by playing
they run out after it straight in front of a car
Any Parent would choose to go after that ball
instead of their child
and any Parent would say
'How could God let this happen'
We cannot fully understand why God allows
so much that is wrong to happen in the world
or why instead of taking the wrong away
God chose in the person of Christ
to take upon himself
the uncertainty the suffering
and the grief of Humanity
When Jesus died on the cross
the ball that had run out onto the road
fell from his hand
'Jesus caught the ball
and the car ran him over'
this is the ball chaos theory.

I know this could be seen as simplistic.
But I've posted it because I believe there is
a few grains of truth in it.

The Boxer

The Boxer

1.A Boxer stands in the ring
who has learned to accept the pain
squaring up defying his opponent
to hit him again

2.Backed into a corner
devoid of all hope
being picked off at will
held up by the rope

3.A tirade of blows
rain down on his head
his opponent thinks he's finished
the crowd think he's dead

4.The fans are chanting
celebrating the win
when he turns like a panther
to connect with his chin

5.His opponent unconscious
drops on the canvas
celebrating with Dorothy
somewhere in Kansas

6. He walks to a corner
and patiently stands
until the Referee
raises his hands

7. He commiserates with his opponent
acknowledges the crowd
then steps from the ring
neither humbled nor proud

8. When asked for a comment
at the end of the bout
He replies:
'No one is finished
until counted out'

9.'When he didn't have the power
to put me away
he should have boxed
and kept me at bay'

10.'Boxing's not a sport
Boxing's not a game
it's not about inflicting
but bearing the pain.'

Iraqi Freedom and Democracy

Desert Mothers

On deleted Blog comment

From another blog :

What a teacher ought to be - Benchmarks according to the Desert Fathers.
One of my favourite definitions of the character and calling of a teacher. And an ideal worth persevering towards in daily practice and vocational accountability.

A teacher ought to be a stranger to the desire

for domination, vain-glory, and pride;

one should not be able to fool her by flattery,

nor blind her by gifts, nor conquer her by the stomach,

nor dominate her by anger; but she should be patient,

gentle, and humble, as far as possible;

she must be tested,and without partisanship,

full of concern, and a lover of souls.

Benedicta Ward, The Desert Christian.

My comment: "You forgot to add Stepford wife."

Comment deleted and email received -

> You forgot to add Stepford wife.

Jimmy, I'm not sure what your comment means or refers to. The stepford wives (actually an anti - women story) have no connection whatsoever to some of the most remarkable teachers the Christian world has ever known, including the women known as the Desert mothers. I have removed the comment as I think it is open to misunderstanding, and has no bearing on the post to which it is attached. The comment section on my blog is open because I want discussion and comment to be as free as it can be, but want users to respect the sensitivities of other users. I would be grateful if this is kept in mind for future comments.

With all good wishes

Cash n' Scarey

This world is not my home
I'm just a passin' through
my treasures are laid up
somewhere beyond the blue

The angels beckon me
from heaven's open door
and I don't feel at home
in this world anymore.

But while I'm waiting...

I'll give my support to a political party
that in domestic policy
is vocal in it's support
of family values and sexual morality.

Even though it's foreign policy
leads to people being abused,tortured and killed
I'm sure it's for the greater good
of preserving our way of life
and protecting us from a real and imminent danger.

I believe the purpose of Christ's life and teaching
was to make a new moral order in this world.
And that it is pleasing to God
for Christians to support laws
that would cause people with no Christian faith
to live more moral and upright lives.

Right wing Neoconservatives
understand that "The Family" and "Morality"
are much more important to God
than social justice.
And I'm certain they would never cynically manipulate
the cosseted middle class Christian vote.

I wrote this comment after watching American Pastors on the tv
organizing buses to take their congregations to vote for George Bush,
because of his rhetoric on family values and morality.

Prayer

Prayer

Jesus my Lord
Christ my God

I kneel and worship you

upon this Earth of bountiful green
beneath this sky of halcyon blue

and nothing I bring
and nothing I give
and nothing I need to do

from beginning to end
I rest my soul
in the wonderful gift of you