Have You Heard about The Garinagu People?

...Lest we forget.

I wanted to share this video as it illustrates, very clearly to me, that in spite of our differences - whether they be religious, racial, gender, height, weight, abilities - there are people who are just getting on with their lives as best they can. People who appear to have little materially, yet our warped values are shamed into admiring those who don't have to try to enjoy their lives - no hamsters on a wheel running on empty with the latest 'must have handbag'.

This video records beautiful elements of the Garinagu communities of coastal Central America.
You may not be familiar with their culture or music but their attempts to elevate their people to believe in themselves and their value is admirable.
Sadly Andy Palacio died last year but his legacy lives on.
Please share your thoughts.

P.S. Have fun in 2010!

Was That It...???: Copenhagen COP15

Have they finished? They packed up and went home with their tails between their legs. Or so it seemed.
The media couldn't decide if it was a success or a failure and it was funny to see the headlines lurching from one to other - even within the same publication/newscast.

No doubt they will regroup and work on another strategy to scare the people into parting with their cash.
Presenting one agreement as open to discussion and then having a 'secret document' under the table is nothing new and to be expected. 'It is only fair if YOU get shafted!'

At least it makes for interesting copy and they get free advertising. Can't wait to see what happens next!

'Please Help the World...'

From the opening ceremony of the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 (COP15) in Copenhagen.

Glossy-Hollywood-Big Budget Propaganda. I wonder if you see the desperation of the messengers?

People Power

So there we have it. The murky world of man-made global warming-carbon credits-save the world slogans, sound bites and great marketing is unravelling and, at last, there may just be a glimpse, a dawning, that the Emperor has clothes, yes, but ones placed there by people with a big agenda.

It is interesting that my previous post on this matter garnered much comment, more criticism than praise, but some people dislike reality and smother themselves in the soft squidgy-ness of fantasy. Not so I.

We were being played and we did not recognise that the train some of us jumped on was actually a gravy train which we had no ownership of, no control over and our destination was solely in the direction of us being fleeced big time for big bucks ad infinitum.

The number of NGO’s with their noses in the trough is astounding. Groups who are receiving money to promote and assist in the cover up, whose current and future funding depends on how effective they are in getting the message out to the masses – you and me.

But hold on a minute: Some people woke up!! Some smelt the coffee and thought ‘Bollocks! This is too big a con for me to stay silent. This is too big a con for me to quietly go about my business.’ Voila! We have information which appears to show a monumental con has occurred. How this information was released into the public domain is not a concern of mine - some members of our species decided that the lies had to be exposed.

It is called People Power. No, not as in communism, socialism or any other –ism but one where we start to think for ourselves and refuse to remain clueless and powerless to what is happening around us.

The internet has played a pivotal role in uncovering the cover ups and from now on we should be mindful and aware of attacks on our rights to communicate freely and ultimately expose crimes against humanity (as this Great Con should be viewed).

In our own way we can leave a legacy for the future generations: that we thought for ourselves and refused to be sheeple.

What do you think?

Global Warming Cartoon

Does it Bug You Too...?

At the risk of being a complete pedant (a title which I have not earned) have you noticed how many people are using the word ‘loose’ instead of ‘lose’?

Each time I see it I cringe. Why has ‘loose’ become the new ‘lose’? Does it bug you too?

The Qualifications of a Shaman

This time of the year seems to be an opportune time for people who profess to be experts or 'special proponents' of supernaturalism to crawl out of the woodwork and make more money. People want to know what the next year will bring. Will they find a new love? or will their current relationship improve or their finances or career take a turn for the better. Who else to seek advice from but someone who appears to have special powers and insight? A shaman, priest/ess, obeah wo/man, psychic, faith healer - whatever they choose to call themselves. They fall into the same category.

Leslie A White, a cultural anthropologist wrote a fascinating book: 'The Evolution of Culture - The Development of Civilisation to the Fall of Rome' (1959), (sadly out of print), where he explains the cultural purpose of these people. Here is an excerpt:

"...Let us turn first to the qualifications of a shaman.

 Traffic with the supernatural world is by its very nature mysterious. Extraordinary abilities are therefore required or are at least an asset. Epileptic fits, trances, hallucination, and hysteria are mysterious experiences, and hence eminently suited to communication with the supernatural world. Dreams during trances are interpereted as visits to the land of the spirits; fits and hysteria are states produced when a spirit seizes and possess the body the shaman. This conception is preserved in our word "epilepsy" (Gr. epi, upon; lambano, seize). Hence neurotic, abnormal, and unstable individuals are better qualified for the profession of shamanism than are normal and stable persons. As Tylor long ago observed: '...In all quarters of the world the oracle-priests and diviners by familiar spirits seem really diseased in body and mind...'  More recently, Lowie has commented upon the abnormal character of the shaman: 'From Africa and Oceania, from Siberia and Tierra del Fuego we thus have evidence that shamans are either abnormal or at least temporarily capable of passing into abnormal mental states.' The advantage of abnormality in trafficking with the supernatural world is further indicated by the widespread use of drugs, liquor, fasting, self-torture, and solitude to produce temporary pathologic states as a means lor a condition of supernatural experience. Thus we see that some individuals are better qualified to become shamans than others."

Quote of the Week: Adolf Hitler

"I have followed [the Church] in giving our party program the character of unalterable finality, like the Creed. The Church has never allowed the Creed to be interfered with. It is fifteen hundred years since it was formulated, but every suggestion for its amendment, every logical criticism, or attack on it, has been rejected. The Church has realized that anything and everything can be built up on a document of that sort, no matter how contradictory or irreconcilable with it.

The faithful will swallow it whole, so long as logical reasoning is never allowed to be brought to bear on it."

                                        - Adolf Hitler, from Rauschning, The Voice of Destruction, pp. 239-40

Is the Universe Fine Tuned for Life?

Although I write about religion and atheism and so on - sometimes I am bored by the idea of people believing in the supernatural. There's not much I can do nor want to do to change minds.

My previous post caused a bit of a stir as I stated my views about the hysteria surrounding climate change, but I chanced upon this video which I would like you to watch and let us all know what you think.

Carl Sagan - 'Pale Blue Dot'

 If ever we need to put things into perspective...

Panic, Panic: Global Warning

Image via Wikipedia

Am I the only one who views the hysteria about 'climate change' as nothing more than a cynical way for people in power to make money whilst scaring us either to death or to spend some money?
I don't buy it and I couldn't care less about the whole issue.
Humans think there is something special about us, don't we? 'We were created in God's image'....blah,blah,blah. The fact is Earth has been through tremendous climatic changes for millions of years and no doubt will continue to do so long after we cease to inhabit this planet. I am not worried about this overpopulated planet and I don't think you should be either - at least not to the extent that we are going to panic about the future. Who cares if in 20 years time sea levels are going to rise? Big deal.

Harsh, maybe, but I am not going to rush around buying carbon credits (what a classic con!) or switch to solar panels (tried that for 2 years and hated it, plus you need a bank of batteries which themselves are not 'eco-friendly') - so Al Gore won prizes for 'An Inconvenient Truth' which should be taken with a pound of salt - this man (and his ilk) makes money from scaring us into making choices which fatten the wallets of himself and his cronies.
Yes, our focus should be on creating new alternative sources of energy which are easy for people to use but until that time I will continue in the way I always have. This means I don't fear death and therefore whatever happens happens. It's called 'shit happens'.

You don't have to agree with me, but you could let me know what you think!

Leap of Faith

Child Abuse - (5)

Quote of The Week: - 'Do Not Pass by My Epitaph, Traveller'

From an ancient Roman tombstone:

"Do not pass by my epitaph, traveller.
But having stopped, listen and learn, then go your way.
There is no boat in Hades, no ferryman Charon,
no caretaker Aiakos, no dog Cerberus.
All we who are dead below
have become bones and ashes, but nothing else.
I have spoken to you honestly, go on, traveler,
lest even while dead I seem loquacious to you."

Texas execution looms after jury consult Bible - Amnesty USA

If you want to know how some humans are completely unintelligent then read the story below.
Bear in mind the jurors are alleged to have consulted a book of fiction to determine the man's fate.
A book of fiction!
Please let me know what you think:

"A Texas man who faces execution after jurors at his trial consulted the Bible when deliberating his fate should have his death sentence commuted, Amnesty International said on Friday.

Khristian Oliver, 32, is set to be killed on 5 November after jurors used Biblical passages supporting the death penalty to help them decide whether he should live or die.

Amnesty International is calling on the Texas authorities to commute Khristian Oliver's death sentence. The organization considers that the jurors' use of the Bible during their sentencing deliberations raises serious questions about their impartiality.

A US federal appeals court acknowledged last year that the jurors' use of the Bible amounted to an "external influence" prohibited under the US Constitution, but nonetheless upheld the death sentence.

Khristian Oliver was sentenced to death in 1999 for a murder committed during a burglary. According to accomplice testimony at the trial, 20-year-old Oliver shot the victim before striking him on the head with a rifle butt.

After the trial, evidence emerged that jurors had consulted the Bible during their sentencing deliberations. At a hearing in June 1999, four of the jurors recalled that several Bibles had been present and highlighted passages had been passed around.

One juror had read aloud from the Bible to a group of fellow jurors, including the passage, "And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death".

The judge ruled that the jury had not acted improperly and this was upheld by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

In 2002, a Danish journalist interviewed a fifth juror. The latter said that "about 80 per cent" of the jurors had "brought scripture into the deliberation", and that the jurors had consulted the Bible "long before we ever reached a verdict".

He told the journalist he believed "the Bible is truth from page 1 to the last page", and that if civil law and biblical law were in conflict, the latter should prevail. He said that if he had been told he could not consult the Bible, "I would have left the courtroom". He described himself as a death penalty supporter, saying life imprisonment was a "burden" on the taxpayer.

In 2008, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that the jurors had "crossed an important line" by consulting specific passages in the Bible that described the very facts at issue in the case. This amounted to an "external influence" on the jury prohibited under the US Constitution.

However, it concluded that under the "highly deferential standard" by which federal courts should review state court decisions, Oliver had failed to prove that he had been prejudiced by this unconstitutional juror conduct. In April 2009, the US Supreme Court refused to take the case, despite being urged to take it by nearly 50 former US federal and state prosecutors."

Amnesty USA.org

Black Hair Documentary

Black women spend an unbelieveable amount of money on our hair and this documentary (thank you for bringing it to my attention Mama Asid), although focused on black hair and the African-American community, could be about Jamaica, England, Nigeria, Kenya or anywhere else. The principle point is that black women spend a lot of money on our hair and don't seem to care who has control of an industry making billions each week. Made me think.

A Little Girl called me a 'Nigger' Today...

As I walked past a house a young child, probably 7 or 8 years old, white with blonde ringlets, jumped around near the front gate and then stopped. And looked at me with a fierce expression. I half smiled and as I walked past her I heard her say, 'Nigger!'
It stopped me in my tracks as I thought of how much poison had probably been poured into this child for her to see me, a black woman, as nothing more than 'a nigger'.
In that split second my mind raced around for me to decide on some proper response, be that to walk away and say nothing as this child is a product of her environment; or say something to the child, but what exactly? Was it offensive to me and if so why? What could I say to the child that would be age appropriate?
What did I do? I walked back to the gate and said, 'I'm sorry but I heard that.' She said, 'Heard what?' and then it hit me that I was doing the wrong thing, talking to the child about it was not correct. It didn't feel right.
I almost called out to the shadowy adult who could be seen through the multi-coloured strips hanging at the open front door. Then I walked away. As I walked on she shouted, 'I never called you that word!' She knew and I knew and I felt sad. 

Is there a 'right thing to do' in this situation?

Neil Young - 'Harvest Moon'

I was introduced to this song and I love it. It is simple and beautiful.What do you think?

Looking at the Bible in Detail...

Since I am focusing on the Bible for the moment I thought you might be interested in looking at the actual meaning on some of the teachings of the 'Holy Book'.
I am strongly of the opinion that not many Christians have actually read the book. By reading I mean sat and studied it with the same amount of scrutiny as you would any historical account on any other subject. SO why do so many people believe it?
It is a laughable collection of ignorance and horror, in the main. To think people are being murdered, raped, tortured, disenfranchised, enslaved, abused, mis-educated, starved, are self-harming, being ignored, discriminated against all based on the written words of a book!
We need sites like The Skeptics Annotated Bible. I recommend it, especially if you are someone who has been indoctrinated to believe the inerrancy of the Bible. Please let me know what you think.

Quote from the Bible (1) - How to Treat a Slave

"When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property."
~ Exodus 21:20-21