Reparation

It's back in the news:  how might reparation be made to the descendants of the slaves brought to America from Africa by European powers generations ago?

The analogy is raised with 'reparation' offered to Jews unjustly and cruelly treated by Nazi regimes.  However this example must present a much simpler task.  The people affected after WWII are clear and obvious.  The dilution of time is not so great.  The complexity of the injustice and the time period more straightforward to understand and define.

It is my view that reparation is necessary for a number of reasons.
1) I think it is important to mark the crime with a punishment.  The abusers are no longer individual people, but systems, and societies.
2) Charity is not enough.  Charity speaks of love and generosity, but it is also as if the bugler, in his/her benevolence, shares the spoilt of the crime with their victim.  'Charity' is positioned in a (sometimes 'unconscious)' position of power and control over their subjects.  This is a 'conservative' model of social control where power is retained by the victor.
3) Inequalities cross generations.  The insecurities imposed on a subjugated section of society last for generations, as witnessed by nearly all the ethnic statistics in America, and further a field.  Black Americas are poorer, have worse health, occupy more prison places, and achieve less in society.  They are also unfairly penalised by financial systems, paying more for insurance and credit.
4) Disadvantaged groups are politically nearly always minorities.  If they are not (as with women) they are a political minority .

This is also witnessed in the UK, but the statistics are not as stark, and the slap in the face is less severe.

Arguments against reparation are:-
1) How do we identify eligibility?  What if I only have one relative who was a slave, where as others will have many?  What about people who do not know their genealogy?
2) It has been shown that the culture of slavery was pervasive throughout society, and may white family, English Scottish, Welsh and Irish, were effectively slaves.  Should they be included in reparations?

For me the solution is political.  The key political actions that can be used as reparation are:-
1) Ensuring the education system is the same for all in society.  This means offering the same belief that all young people can be 'leaders' if this is their destiny.  This is a rationale for the abolition of private education.  As discussed with the guy who changed my gas meter, a Muslim who grew up next to Christchurch Spittlefields, even the Tories have a good range of powerful Muslims in their midst.
2) Political Radicalism.  What I mean by this is to create lasting shifts in power through universal changes in law and culture in favour of oppressed groups.  In the democratic system minorities will always be subject the will of the majority.  The only way to ameliorate this is to ensure that 'rights' are clear and defended.  This has been seen in counties like New Zealand/Aoterroa. Here laws about child protection and family law are designed to protect Maori culture and actually require the white majority to follow these practices too.  This however seems to be motivated by the problem faced by white controlled governments from disproportionate numbers of Maori children coming into state care.
3) A balance between Integration, and Self-Identification.  This is very tricky to achieve.  It's similar to the difference between the positions exposed Martin Luther King jr. and Malcolm X.  MLK, sort equality for all ethnicities in America, all being treated the same.  Malcolm X saw that this would not be possible, and sort equality though segregation and separate identity.  The state of Israel stands symbolically as the only country in the world where people of the Jewish faith are in a majority.  Thus the world can be molded to fit this communities needs.  Few other faiths can know what this feels like.  Similarly the advent of 'free schools' in the UK has allowed minority faiths to lead schools where their faith is the majority faith, and again the culture of the school can reflect this.  The challenge here is how can society define itself as 'integrated'?  It does this through shared interactions.  In most cities this is reflected in policies such as 'no ghettos' in public housing policy (though the rich can choose to live in ghettos.)  Shared community events, youth services (such as scouts/guides) 'Open' cultural experiences and shared local politics offer important contributions.  I actually do not believe in 'faith schools', and would choose for all children to mix together from all back grounds.  The greater the mixing, the less a culture can dominant.

Ultimately the issue of reparation is less to do with money, and more to do with values, attitudes and beliefs.  The money follows.   The biggest source of inequality in society continues to be inheritance.  The 'white world' continues to prosper from the 'fat of empire' and the advantage it continues to provide to people like me who work in the welfare state.

What's in a name?

Jesus - English name given to the first child of Mary.  (New Testament Gospels.)

"At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow."

But also.....

Other Languages & CulturesYeshua(Ancient Aramaic) 
Essa, Isa, Issa, Yushua(Arabic) Josu(Basque)
Iesous(Biblical Greek) 
Yehoshua, Yeshua(Biblical Hebrew)
Iesus, Iosue(Biblical Latin) 
Jozua(Dutch) Joshua(English) 
Josué(French) Xesús(Galician) 
Iokua(Hawaiian)
Yehoshua(Hebrew)Józsua(Hungarian) 
Giosuè(Italian) Josué(Portuguese) 
Jesús, Josué, Chucho, Chus, Chuy(Spanish) 
İsa(Turkish)  

Journey Down the River Don.

Fitting into 'Interesting, though not beautiful.

My walk began on the Lady's Bridge in centre of Sheffield.  I read that when the bridge was widened, the foundations of Sheffield castle were uncovered.

My route travels along the River Don towards Rotherham.  Sometimes the walk way is suspended over the water.

I'm interested that this new building abuts a tumble down old building.  There will be a legal story to go with this I am sure.

 The slogan on this bridge reads "Imagine waking tomorrow and there is no music."  At first I read it as "Imagine walking tomorrow..." and I thought of Elizabeth.

 I enjoyed the comic scene of all these multicoloured cranes staring at me as I walked on by.

A place of Sand Martins and other urban wildlife

 Here are the weirs on the Five Weirs Walk

The view is naturally framed 

The Anatolian Education and Cultural Centre.  

And some curiosities I saw along the way.

Tudor Sheffield with Park Hill Flats in the background

Liz tells us the story of Park Hill Flat.  These once derelict flats were done up.  The graffiti that says '...Will you marry me?' was made into a feature and picked out in lights.  (Sadly they were never married.)  The flats went on to be runner up in the 2013 Stirling Prize.

I discovered that the symbol for Sheffield is a hand full of arrows.  At the end of the canal into Sheffield is the Sheaf Quay.  It's where the river Sheaf meets the River Dom.  I imagined that It's called 'sheaf of arrows' because in the 14th century Sheffield was a hunting estate.  A bunch of arrows was a useful commodity.  Today it is seen all over the city and on the university crest.

Sheffield Univeristy

Will change your life for ever....

Park Hill from the other side.

I was the only taker to visit the Nation Emergency
Services Museum, and our hotel was right next door.

The ruins of Sheffield
(Actually is Burbage Rocks- The Peaks)

Quasimodo - Victor Hugo

The name Quasimodo came from the Latin text of the traditional Introit for this day, which begins"Quasi modo geniti infantes..." from 1 Peter 2:2,^[1] roughly translated as "As newborn babes [desire the rational milk without guile]...".^{[1Pt 2:2]} Literally, quasi modo means "as if in [this] manner".  

Nortre-Dame de Paris is back in the spotlight and is one of the oldest cathedrals in Western Europe. Quasimodo is the name given to 'Low Sunday' (in the Anglican calendar),  also Octave Sunday, or Thomas Sunday (Eastern Church).  This was the day a wretched abandoned baby was taken into the cathedral as an act of charity.  

Hugo was despairing about the state of Parisian gothic architecture, neglected and abandoned following the revolution and decline in the church. The cathedral had been turned into the 'Temple of Reason'.  Much as before, a collection was taken, but the people put in even less in the bag as it went round than they did when it was church.

It is argued that 'Quasimodo' saved Notre Dame from complete collapse. 

On page 607 of the ASB, Easter1 Sunday (year one) service ends with the Postcommunion sentence
 "Like new-born babes, you should thirst milk, on which your spirit can grow to strength. Alleluia!" 1Peter2:2

Quasi (similar to) modo (the manner). 

LeICEster- Not boring

Not beautiful, but not boring.  Which would you prefer?

Before my Uni course started I got a job with a tool hire company and drove  flat backed lorry around Leicester in a bright red 'Unirents' nylon suit. 

On one job I delivered a set of tower scaffold poles to a decorator.  I discovered that he had only the use of one arm, so I helped him erect the tower.  This was trickier than I thought and I found myself swaying dramatically from the roof story. 

One day I delivered a diesel generator to a farming Country Fair.  The field was bustling with burly farmers setting up marques.  I loosened the rope attaching the generator to the bed of my lorry.  Immediately the weigh of the thing overpowered me and it slowly rolled off the back of the lorry and thumped onto it's side.  A group of farm labourers gather around this sight, intrigued to see what I would do.  I knew they were not on my side.  I pulled hard on a strap and amazingly the generator righted itself.  Then I turned the key to see if the engine still worked.  There was a loud bang, and a billow of black smoke, and the thing started up.  I was in the cab of the lorry and off in no time.  I never went back to collect it.

Having got to know a number of Iranian refugees, I was delight to be invited to their first Nuruz party.  Most were living in the International Hotel, a condemned building in the centre of Leicester.  For the celebration they had persuaded the hotel owner to allow they to use their allocation of food money to make and prepare their own Iranian celebration meal.  Then in the basement of the hotel they held a party, and many other Iranian's and Kurds joined them.  The music was largely home grown, with lots of dancing in two distinct areas, male and female.  At one point, we all sat down and Hamid, an 50 something man, sang folk songs.  These were intensely powerful, and I noticed the men I was sitting with were crying.  I asked someone I was with, who happened to be a computer science lecturer at DMU, what was so upsetting.  He said through his sobs, "It reminds me of my mother."

Regularly, sights in Leicester prove that you don't have to travel far to see the world.  Down one alley-way I see boys in rows, at small desks, learning the Koran by heart.  Then in the car park of a youth centre in New Parks, a group of people in white robes, looking like extras straight out of Oberammergau.  Are they preparing to leave to go on pilgrimage to Mecca?

Our Indonesian friends gave us a dish of Tempe and noodles when we visited them.  Tempe is a special fermented Indonesian tofu.  Where did they buy the Tempe?  Across the road of course in 'Yours' supermarket.

Catch 22

It's like the Triangular Lodge in Rushton which has so many manifestations of the Trinity that experts think they haven't spotted them all yet.

This is a story compromised by paradox.  To be a story it needs to flow.  It can't flow because it's about paradox.  Without the paradox it wouldn't be a story.

The catch is, "To fight in a war, you have to be mad. But if you're mad, then you are exempt from fighting. If you are not mad, you have to fight."

But what about Luciana's rebutle to Yossarian's advances? "I can't  marry you because you would have to be mad to want to marry a prostitute."

And...
"It is safer to be in hospital where fewer people die.  People who are perfectly well and dying in their droves outside in grotesque ways ."

Orr is annoying Yossarian again by holding two horse chestnuts in his two cheeks.  Yossarian makes him take them out.  Orr says "Will you let me put them back in my mouth if I tell you why that hoare was hitting me over the head with her stiletto healed shoe?"  Yossarian, intrigued, agrees. Orr puts the chestnuts back in his mouth and  explains the reason, but Yossarian can make nothing out because Orr has two chestnuts in his mouth.

A conversation between Yossarian, our cowardly hero, and his lieutenant's wife, whilst in a hotel bed together.

Lieutenant Scheisskopf ’s wife had turned ashen in disbelief and was ogling him with alarm. 'You’ d better not talk that way about Him, honey,’ she warned him reprovingly in a low and hostile voice. 'He might punish you.’  'Isn’t He punishing me enough?’ Yossarian snorted resentfully. 'You know, we mustn’t let Him get away with it. Oh, no, we certainly mustn’t let Him get away scot free for all the sorrow He’s caused us. Someday I’m going to make Him pay. I know when. On the Judgment Day. Yes, That’s the day I’ll be close enough to reach out and grab that little yokel by His neck and -’  'Stop it ! Stop it !’ Lieutenant Scheisskopf ’s wife screamed suddenly, and began beating him ineffectually about the head with both fists. 'Stop it!’ Yossarian ducked behind his arm for protection while she slammed away at him in feminine fury for a few seconds, and then he caught her determinedly by the wrists and forced her gently back down on the bed. 'What the hell are you getting so upset about?’ he asked her bewilderedly in a tone of contrite amusement.  'I thought you didn’t believe in God.’ 'I don’t,’ she sobbed, bursting violently into tears. 'But the God I don’t believe in is a good God, a just God, a merciful God. He’s not the mean and stupid God you make Him out to be.’ Yossarian laughed and turned her arms loose. 'Let’s have a little more religious freedom between us,’ he proposed obligingly. 'You don’t believe in the God you want to, and I won’t believe in the God I want to. Is that a deal?'  That was the most illogical Thanksgiving he could ever remember spending, and his thoughts returned wishfully to his halcyon fourteen-day quarantine in the hospital the year before; but even that idyll had ended on a tragic note; he was still in good health when the quarantine period was over, and they told him again that he had to get out and go to war.

Triangular Lodge Rushton-
with thanks to aerialengland.co.uk

Quantocks

Preparing for our 20 mile walk

We saw more horses than people  

Ian and Andrew - over the hedge

And Ellie and Julie 

The Temple of Harmony- being used for a naming ceremony 

Gargoyles at Broomfield

Beautifully carved pew ends

Old tree at Fyne Court

Roborough Fort

Last stretch over Will's Neck