Patrick Stewart: Repeated Domestic Violence Against His Mother and the Legacy of Witnessing It

Filed under: Activism, Best interest of the child, Child Abuse, Children and Domestic Violence, Children who witness abuse, Children’s rights, Civil rights, Domestic Abuse, Domestic Violence, Good dudes, Hate Crimes, Human Rights, Intimate Partner Assault, Patrick Stewart, Violence against women — justice4mothers @ 1:10 pm

Another classy guy, Patrick Stewart wrote this article about the childhood filled with domestic violence against his mother.  From The Guardian (UK):

Patrick Stewart: the legacy of domestic violence

As a child, the actor regularly saw his father hit his mother. Here he describes how the horrors of his childhood remained with him in his adult life

Patrick Stewart as a baby with his mother Gladys. Photograph: Collect

My father was, in many ways, a man of discipline, organisation and charisma – a regimental sergeant major no less. One of the very last men to be evacuated from Dunkirk, his third stripe was chalked on to his uniform by an officer when no more senior NCOs were left alive. Parachuted into Crete and Italy, both times under fire, he fought at Monte Casino and was twice mentioned in dispatches. A fellow soldier once told me, “When your father marches on to the parade ground, the birds in the trees stop singing.”

In civilian life it was a different story. He was an angry, unhappy and frustrated man who was not able to control his emotions or his hands. As a child I witnessed his repeated violence against my mother, and the terror and misery he caused was such that, if I felt I could have succeeded, I would have killed him. If my mother had attempted it, I would have held him down. For those who struggle to comprehend these feelings in a child, imagine living in an environment of emotional unpredictability, danger and humiliation week after week, year after year, from the age of seven. My childish instinct was to protect my mother, but the man hurting her was my father, whom I respected, admired and feared.

From Monday morning to Friday tea time he worked as a semi-skilled labourer, and was diligent and sober. Often funny and charming, he was always rich in the personal stories of warfare and adventure that thrilled me. But come Friday night, after the pubs closed, we awaited his return with trepidation. I would be in bed but not asleep. I could never sleep until he did; while he was awake we were all at risk. Instead, I would listen for his voice, singing, as he walked home. Certain songs were reassuring: I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen; I’ll Walk Beside You . . . But army songs were not a good sign. And worst of all was silence. When I could only hear footsteps it was the signal to be super-alert.

Our house was small, and when you grow up with domestic violence in a confined space you learn to gauge, very precisely, the temperature of situations. I knew exactly when the shouting was done and a hand was about to be raised – I also knew exactly when to insert a small body between the fist and her face, a skill no child should ever have to learn. Curiously, I never felt fear for myself and he never struck me, an odd moral imposition that would not allow him to strike a child. The situation was barely tolerable: I witnessed terrible things, which I knew were wrong, but there was nowhere to go for help. Worse, there were those who condoned the abuse. I heard police or ambulancemen, standing in our house, say, “She must have provoked him,” or, “Mrs Stewart, it takes two to make a fight.” They had no idea. The truth is my mother did nothing to deserve the violence she endured. She did not provoke my father, and even if she had, violence is an unacceptable way of dealing with conflict. Violence is a choice a man makes and he alone is responsible for it.

No one came to help. No adult stepped in and took charge. I needed someone else to take over and tell me everything was going to be all right and that it wasn’t my fault. I wanted the anger to go away and, while it stayed, I felt responsible. The sense of guilt and loneliness provoked by domestic violence is tainting – and lasting. No one came, but everyone knew. Our small houses were close together. Every Monday morning I walked to school with my head down, praying that I would not encounter a neighbour or school friend who had heard the weekend’s rows. I felt ashamed.

Very occasionally one person would come to our aid – Mrs Dixon, our next-door neighbour, the only person who would stand up to my father. She would throw open the door and stand before him, bosom bursting and her mighty weaver’s forearm raised in his face. “Come on, Alf Stewart,” she would say, “have a go at me.” He never did. He calmed down and went to bed. Now I wish I could take Lizzie Dixon’s big hand in mine and thank her.

Such experiences are destructive. In my adult life I have struggled to overcome the bad lessons of my father’s behaviour, this corrosive example of male irresponsibility. But the most oppressive aspect of these experiences was the loneliness. Very recently, during a falling-out with my girlfriend, I felt again as though I were shut out and alone, not heard or understood. I was neither, but it was such a familiar isolation that it was almost a comfort and consolation.

I managed to find my own refuge in acting. The stage was a far safer place for me than anything I had to live through at home – it offered escape. I could be someone else, in another place, in another time. However, whenever the role called for anger, fury, or the expression of murderous impulses, I was always afraid of what I might unleash if I surrendered myself to those feelings. It was not until 1981, when the director Ronald Eyre asked me to play the psychotic Leontes in The Winter’s Tale, that the breakthrough came.

He quietly told me that the play would only work if I gave myself over, completely and totally, to the delusions, madness and murderousness of this man. “If you do that,” Ron said, “I will be at your side. I will be available to you 24 hours a day.” From that time forward I was never again afraid of my feelings on stage.

The truth is that domestic violence touches many of us. It is very possible that someone you know – a friend, sister, daughter or colleague – is experiencing abuse. One in four women will experience domestic violence at some point in her lifetime. And every week two women are killed by a current or former partner in England and Wales, and 10 women take their own lives as the only way they know how to escape a violent partner. You are almost certainly paying for it. Domestic violence costs around £26bn a year in medical, legal and housing costs.

This violence is not a private matter. Behind closed doors it is shielded and hidden and it only intensifies. It is protected by silence – everyone’s silence. Which is why, in 2007, I became patron of Refuge, the national domestic violence charity. Every day the organisation supports more than 1,000 women and children through its national network of refuges and services. At Refuge, women and children are given psychological support to help them overcome the trauma of abuse. A team of independent legal advocates are on hand to protect women at high risk of violence through the legal process.

Thanks to Refuge’s tireless campaigning, attitudes have changed. Police tactics have improved and most men are no longer able to get away with beating women. Yet the statistics still make for grim reading. More than two thirds of the residents in Refuge’s network of refuges are children. I cannot express how sad – and angry – it makes me to think that we still cannot ensure the safety of women and children in their own homes.

Most people find the idea of violence against women – and sometimes, though rarely, against men – abhorrent, but do nothing to challenge it. More women and children, just like my mother and me, will continue to experience domestic violence unless we all speak out against it. You can do this by supporting Refuge’s latest campaign, Four Ways To Speak Out.

Let us know what you think about how domestic violence victims are supported and protected in this country. Email women@guardian.co.uk or write to Women, The Guardian, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU

Technorati Tags: Patrick,Stewart,Domestic,Violence,Against,Mother,Legacy,Activism,Best,Child,Abuse,Children,rights,Civil,Hate,Human,Intimate,Partner,Assault,Another,article,From,Guardian,actor,father,Here,life,Gladys,Photograph,Collect,charisma,Dunkirk,stripe,officer,NCOs,Crete,times,Monte,Casino,soldier,birds,trees,civilian,terror,misery,feelings,environment,danger,humiliation,instinct,Often,warfare,adventure,trepidation,Instead,Certain,Take,Home,Again,Walk,Beside,army,footsteps,temperature,skill,imposition,situation,Worse,truth,guilt,friend,Very,person,Dixon,door,Come,Lizzie,lessons,example,male,aspect,isolation,consolation,refuge,role,fury,director,Ronald,Eyre,Leontes,Winter,Tale,daughter,colleague,lifetime,England,Wales,Behind,patron,supports,services,trauma,team,Thanks,Police,statistics,residents,Most,Four,Ways,Speak,victims,Email,Women,Kings,Place,York,London,dudes,Crimes,horrors,emotions,situations,impulses,delusions,doors,refuges,attitudes,organisation,week,songs,neighbour

Assyrian tablet depicting Phoenix rising from its own ashes

Nobody wants to be bogged down by deadlines, traffic jams, daily pressures which business imposes on our lives, but they are a reality. The gift is not to allow those pressures to impinge on our conscious-ness ALL of the time: to set aside some moment, daily, for what’s going on INSIDE, not outside in our lives. The trick to maintaining a healthy mind within a body that’s built to withstand some stresses is simple: it’s called switching off.

Everyone needs to switch off, to become unglued, to take a Holiday. That’s why Thanksgiving is such a huge celebration in the American continent: the international home of Big Bizness. This time of gratitude covers every race, creed, religious sect and subgroup: everybody celebrates. A timeout that takes us away from the increasing world pressure to ‘take care of business’. It gives us an overview of life; if only for one weekend in the year.

With a feeling of joy for what we are grateful for in our lives comes a per-spective on how our lives have turned out; from where we started. We look at the last year and give thanks: for our home, our family and our friends. Sometimes we give thanks for a lot of years: and see how our past has become our present.

They say it’s not good to dwell in the past. However there are some lessons from the past that we, with the miracle of technology, may use. They teach us to hold an overview.

Yes. Crop circles, among others, point the way.

Over the last decade we’ve been treated to a deluge of them: now more than a mere curiosity: they are perhaps showing us how to ‘be’.

Using techniques as diverse as pictograms, mathematics, animal and nature symbolism and digital ‘language’, these crop glyphs have become increasingly sophisticated and, like our own society and consciousness, their influence is expanding.

Last summer alone brought eye-witness reports from unbiased observers who believe personally and irrevocably in their ‘power’ to convert. Visitors to crop circles have experienced a ‘transformation’, feeling of ‘oneness’, a change in conscious-ness, a sensation of love for their fellow beings. These human emotions are backed up by changes and fluctuations in on-the-ground readings monitored by digital and electronic equipment used to measure the electromagnetic flow.

Even for those of us not conversant in the language of mathematics, the evidence has already brought the scientific community on board. Carl Sagan, astrophysicist and author of ‘Cosmos’, said before he died in 1996 at the age of 62: ‘Mathematics is the Rosetta Stone of the Universe’. This interpretive Rosetta Stone is evident in enough crop circles to satisfy the most skeptic mathematician.

Euclidean sacred geometry in pyramid crop circle July 2009

Optical Pyramid at Chesterton, Harbury Warwickshire July 2009

Take another form of Kornkreis symbolism: images depicting birds, insects: the dragonfly, the human butterfly, the honeybee and bumblebee; swallows: all symbolic of flying, reaching beyond ourselves into the stratosphere of consciousness, beyond our mortal coil: suggesting our need to connect with our higher selves, superconscious, looking perhaps to encourage Mankind to connect as one, as a collective conscioiusness; holy, whole.

Hummingbird crop circle of July 2009 at Milk Hill, Wiltshire

Nazca line Hummingbird, created between AD300-600 in Peruvian High Desert

Stretching for hundreds of miles through the Altiplano Peruvian high desert, the lines form geoglyphs cleared in the land surface. Made by Nazca laborers, they follow riverbeds that flow from the Andes. This high desert terrain stretches for over 1400 miles along the Pacific coast and the Pampa Colorada, or Red Plain of deep red sandstone where Nazca art was created, runs 15 miles inland and for 37 miles alongside the Andes. Nazca workers cleared the surface of stones, revealing lines of lighter clay underneath. Because of its dry climate (humidity quotient almost zero), these imprints have remained in the landscape for the last millennium and a half.

Nazca Monkey line drawing in the Peruvian Altiplano AD300-600

Because of our programming as a society, taught for millennia to believe what we see in our three-dimensional world, it has taken us all of the last hundred years even to agree with Einstein that the possibility of a fourth dimension is conceivable. Only now are we beginning to realize that the suggestion, taught for centuries by esoteric spiritual disciplines, that we are part of an even-greater Whole of seven, nay, twelve, perhaps infinite dimensional realities, may have validity: that we may indeed be sending ourselves messages to trigger our soul memory that it is time to wake up and become the spiritual beings we were intended to be.

We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For. It has a ring to it.

Yatesbury Phoenix appeared June 2009

Looking to and from the stars: are we indeed beginning to see the stellar perspective?

1. Friends Come and Go When I was in high school, I always imagined spending most of my life with the same people. Then when I realized I had to move to college, that all changed. Once again, I made some close college friends but left them all behind when I moved from the UK to South Africa. Friends will always come and go in your life; even though I’m back in the UK now, all my friends are in university around the country and not exactly in meeting distance. It can be a hard thing to accept, but many of the friends you spend time with now, might not be around in the next few years. Important Lesson: There are an abundance of amazing people out there for you to meet and build relationships with. If you don’t have many friends, don’t stress, there are literally billions of friendship possibilities.

2. You Won’t Always Get What You Want I remember one Christmas when the only thing I had asked for was some second hand turntables for DJ’ing. I didn’t ask for anything else so I was pretty sure I would get them. However, they didn’t come and I ended up having to save for 10 months on my own in order to purchase them. You won’t always get what you want in life: people are going to be late, people will let you down, items you want won’t always be available. Important Lesson: Don’t look for happiness in material possessions and if things don’t go your way, learn to accept them. Life’s too short to stay miserable.

3. Many People Will Love You, but Many Will Not Whether you are a celebrity, a charity worker or just a normal guy, there are going to be people that love you and what you do, but there’s also going to be plenty people that don’t like you. There are many possible reasons such as jealousy, similarities to them, or just not being someone’s ‘type’. Important Lesson: Not everyone is always going to like you, and that’s fine. If people want to spend time talking about you then that is their problem. You are perfect as you are. You shouldn’t need everyone to like you to have some form of self-esteem.

4. Nobody Can Transform Your Life Like You Can Wouldn’t it be lovely if we didn’t have to go up on stage, but we could just read a paragraph of a blog post and become a perfect public speaker? Or, wouldn’t it be nice if our friends could do daring things, and we would benefit from them as well? The support and help of others can only take you so far, you’re going to have to do your own thing to make big changes in your life situation. Important Lesson: Do things for yourself and learn to stand on your own two feet. People you rely on won’t be around forever, and you don’t want to have to use others as a crutch to get anywhere in life.

5. You Are Going to Fail I built more than 7 websites before I created one that actually started making me any money. I even put hundreds of hours into my own company that I actually closed down last month. Whether it is exams, projects, companies, or even the odd pub quiz, there are times when you will fail to meet your goals. As the saying goes – “Only those who are asleep make no mistakes”. Important Lesson: You can learn a lot from others, but it is your own failures that are going to teach you the most valuable lessons in life. Learn from your failures, embrace them, and use them to drive you on to success.

6. Rain Will Sometimes Cancel Play On some occasions when you have your shorts on and you’re ready for the beach, it’s going to rain. Or, when you get to that first hole and you’re ready to tee off – the clouds will open. Things aren’t always going to go how you would like them to. Important Lesson: Don’t stress about the things that you can’t control. Learn to live with things that happen. You can’t change the past, but you can change how you react to things.

7. There May Be No Tomorrow At least, not for you anyway. We never know what is around the corner, a car crash, a heart attack; heck…even the end of the world is possible. Let’s face it, although we would all like to live till we are 70 years old, that’s certainly not always the case. There will be one day that is our last. Important Lesson: Make the most of each day. Make sure the people you care about actually know it, don’t worry about little matters, just make sure you spend time doing the things you love.

8. Someone Else Will Always Have More Whether it is money, partners, friends or even blog subscribers, there will always be areas where other people have more than you. That isn’t to say you can’t become abundant in whatever you want (i.e. someone always had more money than Warren Buffett until 2008 when he was noted to be the richest man in the world). The wanting of more actually holds a very important lesson… Important Lesson: Just because someone has ‘more’, that doesn’t mean they are happy. Read the biography of any celebrity and they will tell you they enjoy their process of earning money, rather than what money can do to make them happy. In other words, focus on what you love, not what the thing you love can get you.

St. Matthew 7: 2… (Our Christ Jesus, as he was ending His “Sermon on the Mount”).

“Judge not, that ye be not judged.” “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”

Near-Future-shift…

We must abolish the Legislation of Morality. Antiquated laws of both Church and State should never stop love and the commitment of two people. Antiquated Laws—an illegal combo of Church and State?

First Amendment: Civil Rights and Civil Rights and Civil Rights and Civil Rights!

 May Respect and Understanding and Peace and Love, be with all of us…Amen

The funny thing about people is that we think we need to pick up where we left off. We tend to believe that what we did yesterday needs to be continued today and what’s done today will follow through tomorrow. The truth is…it doesn’t. We can make any choice we like. Our history doesn’t have to influence our todays and tomorrows unless we allow it. If we don’t like the direction our choices are taking us, we can choose differently and break any unwanted repetitious cycles.

We only become stuck in a habit when we choose to be stuck. Each of us has the power to change direction.

Choose up!

Sources say Busta Rhymes is having some major financial issues and is maxing out credit cards left and right.  As if being broke isn’t enough, Busta also has an alleged sex tape with a tranny floating around.  More info under the hood.

An insider says that Busta is living on his mom’s credit cards and doing any show he can get now. His credit card most recently got declined at a 5 star hotel, some months back when he was checking in.

Debt isn’t his only problem; Busta also has about 6-7 kids. A source says he doesn’t like to use condoms despite the fact that he has herpes which he doesn’t disclose up front or at all. Now, there is  a sex tape floating around with him and a well-known tranny. He is on the top.

We are here to elevate you into a new understanding
to elevate your mind and conscious awareness
so that you might receive constant guidance from source in a clear manner
we are here to lead you away from the confusion
the conditioned darkness you have wandered in
and into a new way of being a new light to illuminate all problems
to bring forth goodness and love in a vibrant manner
so that all who come into your presence will be moved and touched by your healing power
this is the calling this is the life you can lead now
and this is the love you are here to be
thankfully, you are on the path to enlightenment because you have decided by your own desire this is what you want
this is where you are headed and this is the path that we continuously guide you toward for the benefit of all concerned
know that there is nothing that can separate you from the love of source
from the love of God from the love of who you are
because it is part of you
you are an extension indeed
but even more importantly you are filled with this love
it is simply a matter of letting go of resistance and giving into this love that fills you now
know that source is always present equally throughout your body throughout your mind throughout your circumstances throughout the universe
there is no lack of source no lack of love no lack of the presence and power of God anywhere
for as you know source is all present all power all knowledge and all love
there can be no lack of source anywhere
take responsibility for any shortage of what you want in life and figure out how to let go of your resistance your blocks
your uncertainty
figure out how to allow source to move freely through you so that you can fulfil that heart’s desire

know that no good thing will be kept from you
you must undue the conditioning undue the limits
you have put upon yourself
you must cleanse your mind and allow source to fill it with possibility potential love and hope
you must allow source to show you the truth apart from the illusion and insanity of modern-day thinking
let it go and allow source to elevate your consciousness to a new way of being a new way of allowing and a new way of thinking
let source fill your mind with beauty and passion let your mind be free to dream to love to endure with grace and gratitude
that all is well in this moment
and is always so
be sure to remember that now has everything you need
now has all the beauty joy and love you desire
if you would but allow it to come through
allow now

- Morning stream of consciousness writing from John Stringer

Sign up to get these messages delivered to your email at http://snipurl.com/myrn

uma gracinha. -n

Pronto. Agora a maluca da Winehouse quer lançar uma “barbie” dela mesma. Acho que ela esqueceu que bonecas nao são fumáveis.

Ainda bem que a marca Barbie mudou o slogan “Tudo o que você sempre quis ser”,sinto que nao daria muito certo com essa aí. Anyway,já pensaram numa versão blues/soul daquela música “Barbie Girl” (sim,aquela que a Kelly Key fez uma versão horrível em portugues)? Talvez ficasse legal…

I am convinced that all of you have ever felt under pressure because of deadline. In such condition, you have very limited time to do your job, or you have so many things to do that the time you have is not adequate.

When we were students, our teachers often gave us home works. Actually there was enough time to do the home works without being in a hurry. The teachers usually gave us at least one week to do the home works. However, students are always students. We just put off doing the home works. As a result, we had to do them in the last minutes – probably 30 minutes before the class began. That was like a sheep running away from a wolf, or a thief from a policeman.

The question emerging is whether we still have such bad habits now. If the answer is yes, it means we can not learn from our experiences. It is certainly not easy to get rid of bad habits. A habit is something that we often or usually do. We are used to it. As a result, we have to make effort to change any of our habits. But don’t worry. There’s a will, there’s a way.

Now there is a question remaining. How can we do that? Actually the answer is simple: never put off what you can do today until tomorrow. Or in a shorter sentence: Do it now! Yes, that is the simple answer. Yet the problem is not its simplicity. The problem is whether we can do that in real life. Many simple things can not be implemented in real life because of weak will. So, the will is the key. The answer will remain simple if we have strong will. Do you agree with me?

Perhaps most of us do realize this thing. We realize that we should not put off something that we can do now. In fact, it’s always hard to not putting something off. We always say to ourselves: “I still have much time. So, I can relax now, and I will do it later.” Unfortunately we always say the same thing all the time until the last minutes. Finally we will say to ourselves regretfully: “Now I have only 30 minutes to do all these things. If only I had done these things yesterday. If only I had not put them off.” But regret is always in the end, not in the beginning.

Hence, each of us now has to say to himself if he has something to do: “I have to do it now. I will never put it off. I will not wait until tomorrow. Yes, now or never.”

I want to tell you an advantage you will get when you are not used to putting something off. If you have enough time to do something, you will do it better or even the best. The reason is simple: because you will do it thoroughly, with no hurry. On the other hand, you will lose your quality if you do something in a hurry.

Some of you probably say: “I want to put it off until tomorrow because now I’m in a bad mood. And I won’t make my best when I’m in this bad mood.” Bad mood? Is that a reason to put something off until tomorrow? I suggest that you should not totally agree to “bad mood theory”. Instead, I would like to say that bad mood is only something you feel because you are suffering from laziness. Hence, the best thing you should do when you feel in a bad mood is struggling to get rid of the bad mood. Force yourself to start doing what you have or should do, and I believe that the bad mood will disappear. It’s just like friction force. It’s larger when something is just starting to move. But it will decrease when something is already moving. Likewise, it’s always hard to start doing something. But once you already start, you will find that everything is easier, and you will be full of spirit to do that thing. You even want to keep doing it all the time, and will not want to end it, because you already enjoy it very much.

First 500 units at 8 a.m. P.S.T.
1. Go to http://blackfriday.roku.com starting at 11:00AM Eastern Standard Time (8:00AM Pacific Standard Time)
2. Follow the instructions and enter the code “hdxrsteal” at checkout. The code can be applied to one Roku HD-XR Player.

5th week, the pain is almost over. Just one more week and I’ll pack my bags for one last time and never have to go back to this desolate place.

Well I know saying this will cause bad juju, but, I’m really hoping I won’t get posted back to that horrid place. And all I’m asking for is a stay-out camp. Doesn’t really matter what they’re gonna make me do, i just don’t want to stay in camp.

Placing high hopes on Ayer rajah camp. Why? Stay-out plus its near the west plus its run by crests, way better compared to them fucked up bars.

Time in there was crawling by the inches but now that all I have is 1 week left in military training, things are certainly looking brighter from my point of view.

I can’t say I’ve learnt many things in there. I only consider things learnt when I know I’ll call upon those skills one day.

It’s my long weekend break now. Sitting on the bench in Changi Airport, waiting for my dearest to finish her test. Doing all this via iPhone. :] I’m so getting one after I leave tekong.

The Secret Names Of Women

are as magnets or aphrodisiacs to me.
The flush and rush
of intimacy
new found first kiss
makes my skin
electric.
I need the gentle nipple erection ecstasy
new born beneath my thumb
to decipher the vast NOW
of desire and joy.

And then comes that moment
when She relaxes and enjoys Herself.
Wholly and Holy
Goddess and Woman
Maiden and Mistress
all women and herself only.
In that moment
I know her secret name.
And sometimes
so does she.

The Near-Sighted, Albeit Democratic, Mr. Magoo

In conceptualizing the evolution of democracy, it is just as important to look to the past as to the future.  Nonetheless, most individuals tend to have a myopic view of democracy that regards this form of governance as static, rather like an image fixed on photographic paper.  The prevailing perspective is that democracy, as it exists today, is  basically what it has always been in the past.    However, when one adopts the farsighted view of history, nothing could be further from the truth.   Also, this near-sighted view fails to perceive that democracy has, and historically has had, many forms.

Ben Wilson, in reviewing Professor John Keane’s recently published book, The Life and Death of Democracy, for the Literary Review  has written about the historical myopia.

‘NEW, NEW, NEW,’ Tony Blair marvelled early in his premiership; ‘everything is new.’  He personified a willing amnesia that is so much part of our age. The temptation to dwell in the present, with its bewildering newness and illusion of liberation, outweighs an interest in history as a vital part of our political life. This is an age ruled by restricted definitions of what is relevant. The decline of history and the languishing state of our democratic institutions and liberty are not unrelated.

The myopic perspective prevents our seeing the forest, because our collective noses are plastered to one gigantic, vision-obscuring tree, viz., the rapidly changing NOW of the Information Age.  This NOW is compelling and distorting, simply because it prevents an apprehension of the NOW in a broader, more encompassing perspective that integrates the Past and the Future with the Present in something approaching the Eastern notion of the “Eternal NOW.”  To the modern individual caught up in the bombarding influx of information, the NOW is incredibly short, flashing by so quickly that it disallows a broader view of his/her personal involvement in the larger context of existence.  Our present moments, our NOWs become like a snap of the fingers played out in “real time,” as opposed to the same snap played out in exceedingly slow motion.

Toward a Farsighted, Historical View of Democracy

Wikipedia elaborates the compelling, myopic perspective that has been exacerbated by the Information Age.

At the core of Keane’s book is the author’s belief that history is a necessary key for understanding democracy in the present time. Keane’s worldwide perspective is an important corrective to the (mainly Western) idea that democracy has one and only distinctive form; one type of model that can be brought as a gift to peoples with different attitudes and histories. There is no such a thing as a singular form of democracy. Following the line of thinking that history is the only way we can make sense of what democracy means, The Life and Death of Democracy provides fresh details of the obscure origins of old institutions and ideals like government by public assembly, female enfranchisement; the secret ballot, trial by jury, and parliamentary representation.

Keane observes that even…

In the Greek world, democracy was not a single or fixed form: although the assembly was its core institution, it resembled an odyssey, in which different mental imaginings and various practical experiments were par for the course.

But, as Keane also points out, democracy did not originate in the Athenian Assembly as commonly believed.  David Aaronovitch in a review in Times Online  observes:

Departing from the convention that locates the birth of democracy in late 6th-century BC Athens, he finds evidence of citizen assemblies in the ancient Middle East, epitomised by how the men of Nippur were called upon to decide the fate of those accused of killing one Lu-Inanna; four fellow Nippurians, including the dead man’s wife, the euphoniously named Nin-dada, were sentenced to death.

Wilson goes on to point out that Keane also noted how India revived and invigorated democracy after it was on the verge of dying out in Europe following World War II. 

In doing so it defied limited theories of democracy.  It showed how democracy was not confined to white men and women; it succeeded in a vast country with a diverse society; and it riveted the loyalty of illiterate millions with scant knowledge of Western traditions…. Later in its development, Indian democracy incorporated many innovations to keep itself in good order: power-checking mechanisms such as people’s courts (lok adalats), participatory budgets, water consultation schemes and other grass-roots manifestations of civil society. It resembles the banyan tree, whose vast size is supported by many entwined trunks and roots.

But, even this grand display of the evolution of democracy from the historian’s perspective, developed over the course of nearly 1,000 pages, cannot do justice to the origins of democracy when viewed from the viewpoint of the anthropologist or the evolutionary biologist.  Doron Shultziner, Ph.D., currently a Post-doctoral Fellow and Instructor at Emory University, presented a fascinating paper to the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, September 1-4, 2005 while still a doctoral student  in the Politics & International Relations Department of Lincoln College of the University of Oxford.  The paper was entitled “Evolution and Liberal Democracy,” which reviews evidence tracing the origin of democracy  to the egalitarian structure of small hunter-gatherer groups in the Paleolithic era dating back at least 10,000 years.  Shultziner’s thesis is that “the transitions to democracy in the 20th century cannot be fully understood without reference to the evolutionary forces that shaped the human mind and human societies.”

Shultziner’s intriguing work will be discussed in the next part of this essay.

Dionne Bromfield and Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse’s protégé Dionne Broomfield,13, continues to take big steps towards what it seems is inevitable stardom.

Broomfield who is Amy Winehouse’s God Daughter has a number of high profile interviews lined up in America over the coming months to promote her new album “Introducing Dionne Broomfield“.

The album was released under the Island record label which has played host to artists such as Bob Marley and U2 and also most recently Tinchy Strider.

Dionne attends the highly acclaimed Voxbox singing school in Camden, North London will fly to the US in the summer to be under the tutelage of Seth Riggs whose students have included Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Ray Charles.

Chip Diddy Chip

British rapper Chipmunk, 18, seems to have got his life back on track after last weeks suicidal comments. The North London recording artist posted on Twitter saying: “I wanna die” and “Is suicide easy.”

The rap artist was catapulted to fame earlier this year, and has enjoyed recent success in the charts with his track Oopsy Daisy reaching number one in the UK charts.

Chipmunk is alledged to have been working 18 hours a day at times and used this week as a time for entertainment and rest.

Chipmunk spoke this week and said: “I’m on a trip back to normaility. I’m in good health and it’s all good.”

To unwind Chipmunk attended Rihanna’s London gig on Monday night in Brixton along with; Adele, Keisha Buchanan, Tinchy Stryder and Emma Bunton.

The Sony recording also attended one of the advanced screenings for the film Paranormal Activity which has now been officially released.

The ancient king and the prophet

And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him. -Daniel 2:1

Some time ago, an ancient king had a vision, and he could not tell the meaning. The only one who could interpret this dream was God, as it was from God, and it would take a man of God to explain it to the king, as this…. would reveal the future of this world. My future, your future.

19 Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. 20 Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his: 21 And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: 22 He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him. 23 I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hastnow made known unto us the king’s matter. -Daniel 2:19-23

The king finally got to understand where he was, in history. Now, its time for us, to realize where we fit.

The Vision

Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king; 28 But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these; 29 As for thee, O king, thy thoughts camef into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass. -Daniel 2:27-29

31 Thou, O king, sawesth, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. 32 This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighsi of brass, 33 His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. 34 Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out withoutj hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. 35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. 36 This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. 37 Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. 38 And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. 39 And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. 40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. 41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. 42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly brokenk. 43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave onel to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. 44 And in the daysm of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. 45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain withoutn hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. -Daniel 2:31-45

Who? When?

37 Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. 38 And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold -Daniel 2:37,38

There is out starting point.

Babylon

• head of gold
• 606-539  BC

Media Persia

• Chest of silver
• 539-331 BC
• Lead by Cyrus, in the conquering of Babylon whom you’ll find mentioned before he was even born, in the book of Isaiah.

Greece

• Thighs of brass
• 331-168 BC

Rome

• Legs of iron
• 168 BC- AD 476

Divided Rome

• Feet of a mixture of iron with clay
• AD 476- the second coming of Jesus
• 10 toes= 10 kingdoms, or nations
• iron does not mix with clay, these may try to unite again, but it will never happen

Briefly

It is interesting to notice that these nations did rise and fall in that order. Another blog will get into the details of those nations. What is also interesting to see is that…. every single one of those is now, past tense. Meaning.. whats next? Do you not get the feeling we are close to the second coming? I encourage you to read all of Daniel 2, which shows the same events of Daniel 7, in a different manner. Now, I will add that when you look at Revelation 13, you see that the mortal wound the beast had received in the vision of Daniel is healed, and that all marvel after the beast. That there is a new beast, or nation. Briefly, one beast is a combo beast of the book of Daniel, the other a new one. One beast is undeniably the same as the last one of Daniel, Rome, the other.. what nation was rising around the time frame Rome was falling? None other, than the United States of America.  This is it, no other rises after. This will be covered in another blog.

Conclusion

Returning to Daniel 2…

44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. 45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain withoutn hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. -Daniel 2:44,45

Thats how it ends. We can be sure of it, Jesus IS coming back soon to bring His people back to heaven with Him. And indeed we are, at the very tips of the toes.

___________________________

Stay tuned, more perspectives from the Bible concerning this coming soon.

Lynn Harris and Patricia Ireland. Note the EEEEVIL RED EYES of a FEMINIST.

Here is my slice of ’90s feminism. Background: I had gone to an all girls’ school in Boston, an old-fashioned place but with feminist values, values that were almost never questioned. I mean, why couldn’t girls do anything? We had no competition. (Especially not from our brother school, Bonehead Academy.)

The only overt disturbance in the feminist force I recall is when, through a long story involving dramatic lifesaving surgery by a classmate’s doctor on a friend of Gloria Steinem’s, well, guess who spoke at our graduation in 1986? When we’d discussed it, one more conservative classmate asked, lip curled, “Isn’t she a feminist?” Most of the rest of us were pretty much like, “Yeah!”

But then college was co-ed. And boys there were —who knew? — smart. They even raised their hands and talked in class. Can you imagine? They had thoughts, certain kinds of deep thoughts, that I wouldn’t have had in a hundred years. This I found intimidating. Especially when my own damn boyfriend turned out to be extra-super-smart. This I found very intimidating. When I whimpered to my mother that I wasn’t sure I was smart enough, she made me read Carol Gilligan’s In A Different Voice, about how men and women think and perform moral reasoning in contrasting — but equally valid — ways. Jackpot! All of a sudden my political feminism — which already included working for abortion rights, etc. — had a deeper grounding in my own life.

That was just the beginning of the ’90s, but it made me a bigger activist — I worked for NOW for years after I graduated (the era when we began to define terms like “date rape” and “sexual harassment”) — and a stronger person, for the rest of the decade. Though my fashion choices, it should be noted, were decidedly less powerful. (Possibly worse than the 80s, when we had an excuse.) — Lynn Harris

P.S. I still wear boots with babydoll dresses.

Sitting

Waiting

Wishing

Peace,Love&GoodVibes
SnowDove,ArmsUp

p.s. I’m looking for a thermos that has great heating capabilities rather than easy to use.

We have reported on these separately, but here they are together. Volkswagen has created thefuntheory: This site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.