21st Century Democracy and Ireland

Letter sent to Irish Media folowing the election in Ireland..

A Chara

The mandate of the People of Ireland is not necessarily the mandate upon which Fine Gael will form a Government.

Enda Kenny’s declaration that the ‘Irish Revolution’ is a Democratic Revolution, unlike that of the Revolutions sweeping North Africa and elsewhere, which he typified as ‘taking to the streets’ was more PR than a reflection of the Irish People’s genuine concerns for their past, their present and their futures.

Fine Gael  has not been given a majority, and their success is less a mandate, than a vote of no-confidence in Fianna Fail.

This is not successful democracy. Successful Democracy, in 21st Century terms, is when the will, intent and decisions of the people are expressed in the daily actions of Government, when the people lead the Government.

As we have seen in the past, Irish Political Leadership, be it the ruling parties or the opposition parties, has lacked the courage to hold the Irish State, The Church and Corporations such as Shell to account.

If those who form this next Irish Government do not act so as to demand that accountability, if they do not move forwards in the just and reasonable demands for Restorative Justice from Survivors of Institutional and Clerical abuse, and others who have been oppressed and neglected by successive Irish Governments, such as the people of Corrib Bay, the children who were exposed to Vaccine trials in Institutional settings, the elderly placed in privatised and ill-regulated for-profit ‘care’, tax payers coerced into paying the gambling debts of investment bankers, and many, many more, then what will be left to the Irish People except to take to the streets?

Enda Kenny’s leadership MUST be as a spokesman for the Irish people, and not as a Ruler.

Irish eyes will be watching, very closely.


Kindest regards

Corneilius Crowley

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe







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Gaddaffi : A Limerick...

Being a songwriter I have a propensity towards pithy rhymes.... here's one that I prepared earlier...
----------------------
There was a Leader called Gaddafi,
He wasn't terribly happy,
His people said go!, He said NO!,
'cos the Brits sold good guns to his Army!
 -------------
The Libyan People say Geddoffme! 
Walk Like an Egyptian!
Mubarak
Blair
Cameron
Obama
Hussein
Hitler




Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe











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On, Survivors, Helpers and Missionaries…..

There are so many causes and so many people in need, and so many people who wish to help.

And yet progress is incredibly slow. 

More than 100 years after the first public awareness campaign of the criminal and brutal abuse (a word that does not do justice to the realities – it’s more akin to torture) of children in Institutional settings, we are still struggling to come to terms with practices that are ancient and deeply embedded in the Dominant Culture. 

Oliver Twist was the second novel by English author Charles Dickens, published by Richard Bentley in 1838. The story is about an orphan Oliver Twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse. Shock and horror followed, yet fundamental change did not. 

The highly organised Aboriginal Residential School Systems that were instituted in Law by the British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand,  African, Asian,  North and South American Governments and the Churches all started at this time.

Residential Schools, where the children of colonised cultures children were forced into Institutions to be ‘trained’ or ‘assimilated’ are at least 500 years old. There are threads of these kinds of mechanisms dating back to the Roman Empire.

Children today are still forcibly removed from their families and placed in Institutional ‘care’, often on the most spurious of grounds, and are still suffering from the adverse affects of ‘helpers’, some of whom are genuine, some of whom are predators. The damage from such 'mistakes' may never be repaired.

And still the stories, that is to say the evidence of living Survivors, and the historical record, is routinely ignored, dismissed, denied, suppressed. 

Survivors are targeted, intimidated, manipulated, hospitalised in psychiatric wards and marginalised. Not least by those who are responsible for those systems of ‘care’ that have harmed so many children. Or their supporters.

There can be no statute of limitations when a child’s life is destroyed thus, for the sentence of pain, confusion, shame, fear last the entirety of the life of the adult that child becomes, and is often passed on as a silent legacy through their chidlren and their families in what is known as intergenerational trauma pattering. "The sins of the fathers.........." means more than most understand, and those who do understand what this means take opposing views; one side sees it as an essential tool of power, the other as an essential understanding to break the cycles of abuse and neglect.

All too often those who seek to help the Survivors are themselves embedded in the ideologies and beliefs of the system and unwilling to confront the realities of that system in a meaningful way. They are funded and given legitimacy by those Institutions most culpable for the abuses Survivors survived. They have internalised the system to such a degree that to confront the system means confronting their own sense of identity. And time and again, when Survivors bring this up, the Survivors are called 'trouble makers' or worse....

All too often helpers get in the way of the Survivors, and are co-opted by the Societal power flows so as to protect those Powers.

All too often, helpers become frustrated with those they seek to help – because they do not understand that the affects of abuse and neglect are life long, that they recur again and again, and all too often the helpers claim that those they seek to help are ‘their own worst enemies’.

Catholics who want to help Survivors yet refuse to confront the realities of Catholic Institutional Power are caught in a vice, trapped in a conflict of interest, and in most cases the Survivors, the children are the losers, and the loss is immense : one’s natural expectation of a life that is loving and loved, healthy and nurturing. 

Psychologists and Social Workers who limit their purview such that Society and the Establishment (Power) are not identified as the drivers of distress that they are; who sustain the myth that it is all in the mind of the person in distress and if only that person can properly ‘manage’ their mind, then all will be well and the person can re-integrate into a toxic Society, get a job and ‘have a life’ – and on whose terms?

Psychiatrists, who claim that distress and adverse behaviour is genetic, and news media that repeat this inaccurate and damaging 'theory' when it is obvious and known scientifically that this is not the case at all, and who prescribe pharmaceuticals as the means to a management system, managing the symptoms of distress that will not abate precisely because the locus of distress is ignored.

People of  Faith, who subscribe to the presence of supernatural demons causing adverse behaviour in human beings, who deem that if only those demons can be exorcised the health will return, and who therefore diminish the human agency at the heart of all abuse.

Conspiracy Theorists who claim that Reptiles, Aliens and other entities are controlling the human race in adverse ways, and in so doing absolve real human beings of real and material responsibilities, and worse stimulate unreasonable fear in many, many people.

Technocrats who posit technological solutions to the problems of Civilisation which do not include the leaving of lands as yet ‘unexploited’ to the peoples (and animals ) that dwell therein, whose cultures are now understood to be both sustainable, healthy in physiological and psychological terms, whose societies are as diverse as the habitats they have emerged from, and the return of those lands already taken, for remediation according to the wisdom of experience of those ancient, ancient cultures.

In all these cases, the helpers ‘sense of identity’ replaces their ‘sense of self’. The external is governing the internal. And thus they are unable to respond accurately, appropriately to the realities of Survivors, Aboriginal Peoples, the Environment.

Too many operate under the false assumptions of the Society they were born into, and conditioned by; too many say “If only they could be more like me, us, if only they could find a way to ‘fit in’!”

The helpers and Missionaries are NOT always helping as much as they would like to believe. 

The well-meaning MUST face the realities. They must face their own culture and confront it at every turn.
Thus they will leave the space open for those who suffer to help themselves.

Nature is a self healing process. Self healing demands that those who wish to help get out of the way. Giver space to that which needs to grow.

Both Ivan Illych and Paolo Friere have written profoundly, and with great clarity, empathy and honesty on the issue of helpers and missionaries, and their works do a far better job on this issue than I do here... 

Alice Miller too has written extensively, and with clarity on this crucial matter, of the helper, the 'enlightened witness'.

"Q.: What kind of therapist, do you feel, is adequately trained to deal with the adult who has been damaged as an early child?
 
AM:. In my opinion, only therapists who know well of the painful stories of their own childhoods can respectfully and effectively deal with the suffering of their patients. They will not preach them forgetting and forgiveness out of their own fear; they will know that ALL of their patients suffer from the effects of the denial of having been beaten, humiliated or even tortured."

 So too David Smail....

"Having spent my working lifetime in the British National Health Service, I have found that only a minority of patients enter my office feeling themselves subjectively the moral equal of their peers. In addition to the distress that brings them there, most people are apprehensively expecting to be judged. 

This, when you think about it, is an unusual state of affairs for someone consulting a professional adviser. For example, even though you expect a lawyer to be wiser than you in the ways of the law, you do not anticipate when consulting one that you will be treated as a morally inferior being, and any lawyer who treats clients as such is unlikely in the long run to prosper."

And yet, the evidence is that helpers do assume this superiority, time and time again. 

With disastrous results for those they purport to help.

I will be writing more on this. I will be presenting evidence and so will others around the world.


Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe








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Big Society? Think again.

It's an intentional scam - Cameron came across the www.powerinquiry.org back in 2006 which revealed a few key points - that voter apathy was a myth, that what actually was occurring was that more and more people saw the way the politicians sought a mandate then did the pretty much what they wanted , broke promises, had their noses in various troughs, launched wars no-one wanted, suppressed democractic dissent, bailed out bankers for their gambling debts, etc etc and thus tpublic rust in politicians had plummetted , along with live membership of policial parties, whilst involvment in social community works of all kinds increased as people started to do more for their communities at the grass roots by themselves , for themselves- which built in a growing sense of independence and strength.

It revealed in some detail that people were, in general, quite capable of making decisions on matters that affect their lives and were now desirous of a political democracy that conferred that power (the means to make the decisions on how to use taxes to support their communities on issues that directly affected their lives) onto them, away from the central, and finally, that the people had thought long and hard about how to do this (hence the 47 reccomendations of The Power Inquiry) and had come up with viable changes and methods to do this.

In other words Big Society was up and running.... and was therefore seeen as direct threat to centralised Power...

Cameron, Menzies Campbell and Ed Milliband attended the Power Inquiry Conference and made flowery overtures to the assembled people, nearly 600 strong, from all over the UK. I was there, I heard the speeches. I attended the break-out sessions. I read The Power Inquiry Report, cover to cover. I saw what could be.

Two days later, media reported the politicans as saying that the reccomendations of the Power Inquiry were 'impractical'. And that was that. End of.

Camerons Big Society is an attempt to privatise that constituency so as to undermine it. This includes ,of course, amongst other things, forcing smaller local grass roots charities to close, handing their 'services' over to larger charities whose purse strings are controlled by Corporate and Government funding, the privarisation of the NHS under the false guise of 'improving services' - using that wanton mantra of the market being the  natural driver of excellence.

He agrees with Thatcher. There is no such thing as Society - or rather, he and those he works with, dines with,  would  prefer there was no such thing as Society as a responsive, intelligent and empathic collective, but rather individuals, whose qualities, flawed or otherwise are entirely of their own making, scrambling over each other for a slice of the pie. He's trying to dismantle what has been built up at the grass roots.

Which is why this week, Cameron has gone to Egypt, with a defence sales team on tow.


"Yasmin Khan, senior campaigns officer at the charity War on Want, called for the Prime Minister's "shameful" and "ill-timed" trip to be cancelled. She said: "It is deplorable that David Cameron is seeking to exploit the crisis by promoting sales of weapons and torture equipment to the region." 

Sarah Waldron, campaigns co-ordinator at Campaign Against the Arms Trade, said: "The UK Government prioritises the interests of arms companies – it makes a mockery of claiming to have a rigorous approach to arms sales. People in the Middle East are dying in an attempt to get democracy and yet Cameron and other ministers are still selling weapons used to oppress them."

People power must be thwarted at every turn. Directly, or indirectly.

If you haven't already read the Power Inquiry, I suggest you do so at the soonest opportunity.


We need to know what is possible and what has been rejected by the politicians. 

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe











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Irish Bishops : Symbolism or Action?


This is a letter I sent out today to Irish and UK Media.
To the Editor,
Regarding the THE CATHOLIC Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin and the Cardinal Archbishop of Boston Seán O’Malley, who washed the feet of a carefully selected group Survivors of clerical child sex abuse in “an act of humble service” at Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral, this Sunday February 20th.
This is nothing less than a Roman Catholic Version of 'green-washing'; only direct action by the Church to hand over to the Public Prosecutor all abuser priests, all files relating to allegations made by Survivors, all files related to the Churches private canonical 'investigations' (redacted as required to protect the interests of Survivors, subject to their approval), all files related to various private agreements between the Church Officials and State, Health and Welfare Officials, and Police Officials, and to offer up their wealth and resources to help Survivors, and finally and importantly to let Survivors speak out, as freely as required, that and nothing else.
Action is required, not symbolism. Once the action has been complete, let the symbols of that action be created to inspire a future where the rights of the child, as enshrined in the United Nations Convention on The Rights of The Child, are, in material terms, at the very heart of our Society.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe

Here's a  video of The Silent Protest by Survivors outside the Catherdral in Dublin, after the Mass...

The Letter was published in the Irish Independent on 27th February 2011... 
















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Kevin Annet, UK speaking tour and The ITCCS

My dear friends, Happy Spring!

May the joys of the season of budding-ness flow freely for you.

This is a time of renewal.

Here's an event I feel happy to support. There will be more like this, I think.

This month February 2011, Kevin Annett, arrives in Europe to speak about his work, and to advocate for those whose voices have need of hearing.

He will be touring, with readings from his new book, screenings, meetings, lectures, radio shows and more, in Britain and in Europe for the next month.

_______________________________
 Weds 23th Feb 7.00 pm


'Canada's Genocide: One Man's Journey to Uncover the Truth’
with Rev. Kevin Annett

Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, King’s Cross,
London, N1 9DX
_______________________________

Sat 26th Feb 11.30am - 1.00pm
 Brighton Peace & Environment Centre - book signing and demo
 39-41 Surrey Street, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 3PB
_______________________________ 
Sat 26th Feb 2.00-4.00pm
 Earth and Stars (pub) - lecture
26 Windsor Street, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 1RJ
_______________________________
Fri 11th March 7.30pm
 Quaker Meeting House
21 King Street, Hereford HR49BX
_______________________________
Sat 12th March 2.30pm to 6.00pm
 Crown Hotel
 43 Lime Street, Liverpool, L1 1JQ
_______________________________
Wednes 16th March 5.30 - 8.30pm
 Bosworth Independent College
 Queen's Building
Barrack Road
Northampton
NN2 6AF
_______________________________
Fri March 18th 7.00pm-10.00pm
 SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), UCL
 Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG


Kevin learned about the Canadian Indian Residential School System whilst he was a start-up Pastor for a small community near Vancouver, Port Alberni.


He learned it from the Survivors themselves, and followed that up with a detailed review of all historical documents on the matter, and found that yes, indeed, their harrowing stories were more than common: ubiquitous.

He started to speak out about the matter, in the spirit of true remorse at what his own culture had done to another, in the spirit of empathy and compassion and found there was little support from his Church. The United Church of Canada... or from The Canadian State.

The Church, as an Institution, was deeply implicated in the materialisation of that hidden history, and the hiding of the history itself today. As was the State. This whole system of residential 'care' for the purposes of 'assimilation' of the Indian' was all legislated for, by statute, and funded by State and day to day operations were handed to Orders of Priests, Clergy and Laity,

He turned his research into a book, which he self published. It was removed from Canadian Libraries, and Colleges and is now available on-line.

This following is a document that is partly foundational, in that it lays out the philosophy, the key thinking, the cold rationalisations, the preposterous assumptions, the abject justifications for these systems of 'assimilation'. This Document originated in the USA, though it forms part of a body of work that was a world-wide process.


"Beginning in 1887, the Federal US government attempted to “Americanize” Native Americans, largely through the education of Native youth. By 1900 tens of thousands of Native Americans were studying at almost 150 boarding schools around the United States."  They were sent there under duress.

Kevin continued to work as a Pastor, and to share what he knew, to build awareness, to remove the veil, expose the lies. He met and continues to meet resistance, and sometimes extreme hostility, not least from the United Church of Canada.

For being truthful and honest.

He made a documentary about the Canadian Indian Residential School System, the reveal and expose, the stories of survivors, the documented proof of those stories.....


"documentary reveals Canada's darkest secret - the deliberate extermination of indigenous (Native American) peoples and the theft of their land under the guise of religion.

This never before told history as seen through the eyes of this former minister (Kevin Annett) who blew the whistle on his own church, after he learned of thousands of murders in its Indian Residential Schools..."

***Best International documentary - 2006 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival

***Winner: Best Director for and International Documentary - 2006 New York International Film Festival.

Kevin's work is part of a worldwide net-work of Survivors and their Advocates, who are a diverse population, spanning Nation States, creeds, cultures, all with a common story, and a common wisdom, the wisdom of experience, which by being heard, informs and heals.

It matters not which Institutions or which people are those who act in such a clearly mediated and abusive manner, what matters is that where ever it has occurred, it must be addressed, and where it is still occurring, it must end - and it cannot be said to have ended until full restorative justice, with all that that naturally entails, is actively and materially seen to be done.


I hope you have time to explore this matter, as a friend to all people .....

May the spring be auspicious, and may a new flowering of honesty and empathy prevail amidst the noise.

Kindest Regards

Corneilius

do what you love, it's your gift to universe


In June, 2010, the The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS) was established. Drawing on the work of advocates and Survivors from Canada, the USA, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Australia it will start the process of addressing these matters as a world-wide unified campaign.

The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State - http://itccs.org/about/

It's 5 basic principles are:

1. Full reparations for survivors,

2. Full disclosure of the crimes,

3. Repatriation of the dead,

4. Criminal prosecution of those responsible,

5. Preventative measures to ensure that the crimes against children end.

----------------------------

And it's coming to London, this September, 2011.


Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe


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Regarding the news media reports on Monday the 14th of February 2011 about the Church's potential collapse in Ireland.


To the editor,

Regarding the news media reports on Monday the 14th of February 2011 about the Church's potential collapse in Ireland.

If the Church had put up it's hands, had opened up and allowed those abuser priests to be brought to justice, and had offered to make Restorative Justice a material reality for all Survivors, the Church would have become a 21st Century Hero Institute.

Instead the Church denied, covered up, blamed others, engaged in crisis management and intimidated those who pursued legal course of justice, Survivors and their advocates alike, employing techniques they KNEW would re-traumatise Survivors just to knock them down, or throw them off balance.

This is a criminal act in and of it self, pouring more salt on the already unspeakable wounds inflicted on Survivors.

For this is deserves to be utterly dis-established, its wealth taken in it's entirety to provide material support for all Survivors. Not as an act of revenge, but as an act of Restorative Justice. No survivor that I know of wishes harm to anyone.

Those State Governments and Institutions that have co-operated with the Church, or denied their own involvement must also shoulder their portion of the responsibility.

Those of Faith can continue to practice their Faith at the grass roots whilst assisting in the processes that will bring true Restorative Justice if they wish for their Faithfulness to be taken seriously.

If they don't, are they in danger of denying the teachings of Jesus?

What would Jesus do?
Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe




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Reclaim Love, Egypt and Empathy


Saturday 12th February, London

We gathered, a small group of some 200 or so happy souls, to celebrate Love.

Piccadilly Circus, London, under the statue of Eros. Solar Powered Mobile Sound Systems, Solar Powered Samba Drummers, Solar Power People, colourful, decorated, laughing.

In it’s 10th year, Reclaim Love, is one woman’s vision to bring more Love into the world.

There are Reclaim Love events in many countries, all occurring on the same day, the Saturday closest to St. Valentines Day, February 14th. From one event to many events world-wide, the Reclaim Love Journey has been one of trial and error, success and growth. Thus we discover, we learn, we succeed and we thrive.

They gathered, initially some few hundred thousand, to confront Power.

Tahrir Square in Cairo, under the gaze on the Military Dictator, Mubarak. Christian, Orthodox, Jew, Atheist, Secular, old, young, men and women.

Mubarak in his 30th year of Rule. A rule enforced by violence, supported by Western Governments, that has cost many Egyptians their lives, has kept many Egyptians in Poverty, that has made some few Egyptians incredibly rich, that has taken money from tourists who gaze in awe and wonder at the pyramids, which were built by slaves, on the command of divine rulers, whose mythology today spawns countless insanities, new gods to frighten and fascinate the minds of all too easily manipulated people.

Mubarak, who has betrayed many, amongst them the long suffering people of Palestine, for a few baubles, for narcissism.

Mubarak, who sent in his Police and thugs, who shot 300 people in an attempt to break this demonstration, this confrontation of Power.

People who, under duress and the fog of water cannon, of tear gas, continued to pray, to offer prayer. Christian and Muslim protecting each other. People who refused to break.

There we saw the real Power of Love. The bridge of empathy.

And over the past few weeks we have watched as these Egyptian people of all sectors, of all creeds, of all ages have held the streets.

They have held the streets because they have looked after each other, cared for each other, even as Mubarak and the State shut down the internet, shut down mobile phone communications and land lines, even as many thousands were being arrested off-screeb, some tortured, many beaten.

Love in action.

A people cannot resist unless they are committed to looking after each other. When we look after each other, when we cover each other’s back, we are free from the worry, that draining paranoia which comes from knowing one’s back is not covered.

This is Love.

Self-Governance is the action of love, expressed by looking after each other, by covering each others backs, by protecting each other from potential attack. By tending each others wounds. When everyone is keyed to this, then all can face forward and focus on the task in hand. Together. Such is solidarity.

This is the real meaning of the Tribe – it is not a collective of ideology, or of religion, nor is it a fashion statement. It is a living  expression, the material expression of how we care for one another, how we cover each others backs.

And love cannot thrive unless there is empathy. For it is empathy that builds the bridges between faiths, between people’s whose beliefs are diverse, between generations, yet whose flesh and blood remains the same, hurts the same, loves the same.

We in the UK have a long, long way to go to be able to do our part.

Because our Governments and Corporations and Bankers have supported and continue to support the most cruel and tyrannical rulers, of all kinds, in many countries. This is our history. This is our present. That support has cost many, many people their lives. That support has resulted in many people living in poverty, in fear, in terror.

All for the purpose of protecting ‘strategic interests’.

Profit and power.

And they will continue that support.

We are the only people who can watch the backs of the Egyptian people, by confronting our Governments, Corporations and Bankers, by demanding that they cease their support for venal, cruel, authoritarian rulers, Miltary forces or installed puppet Governments who pay lip service to ‘democracy’ whilst lining their pockets and toeing the Empire’s line.

That would be an act of love. An expression of material support, and sing of genuine empathy.

Whilst the Egyptian people can take and hold the streets, whilst they can hope that the Military will act with honour and integrity, whilst they face the massive ISI and Police Institutional Power and work rid it of the corrupt, the bullies, the torturers, whilst they organise and hold elections and work towards a constitution that demolishes centralised executive Power, rest assured that those who supported Mubarak for so long will not desist from their intent to dominate, to control, and be aware that the only people who can break that support from the outside are the people’s of the USA and UK and Europe.

We have a moral duty, and an empathic obligation to act with Love.

We abandoned the Afghani people in the winter of 2001.

We abandoned the Iraqi people in the spring of 2003.

The Irish, American, Australian and Canadian peoples have all but abandoned the Survivors of Church and State Residential School Systems.

We must not repeat those mistakes. We must not abandon the people of Egypt.

We must adress these problems directly.

And this must be a step in the long journey towards an empathic society, one that justifies the description ‘decent’ and 'humane’.




Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe





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A Survivors Manifesto

An alarming number of adults in the so-called 'civilised' world have little or no empathy for themselves as infants and small children - most have no recall of those times, which is why that empathy seems rare.... and so this also explains why most parents are at a loss with babies and small infants and therefore tend to try to control them, because they have no empathy, they cannot sense the childs needs... and so controlling the baby feels safer and so they look for INSTRUCTIONS.... and are vulnerable to those who give instructions - yet the body knows and if trusted the adult can learn empathy again and recover....

As a child I was beaten, humiliated, punished, or neglected in one way or another, almost daily, and I HAD to believe that I was wrong and deserved the beating, just to maintain my psyche,  even if I did not understand WHY I was being beaten (or their reasons for it). 

I also had to believe the FAITH they hammered into me and that brought me great fear, for I feared I was sinful, nasty, ugly,

It took a long, long time to lose those beliefs about myself.... to find my true heart, my natural integrity.

I consider myself VERY lucky to have made that journey, and whilst it IS infuriating that so many of my brothers and sisters are still stuck in the beliefs and denial, my REAL anger is directed at all those who ensure that the conditioning continues; for the rest, patience and empathy.....

My story is not at all rare, and comparitively speaking, I was lucky..... the stories I read of other childrens lives make that very clear : my point here to make it clear that many, many people have been conditioned by circumstance and Society, rather than truly loved... and only those who are truly loved, not least by themselves, can resist that conditioning in meaningful ways....

I know what it is like to be conditioned and fearful.

I deeply appreciate all the love and support I have received and continue to receive...

I never urge survivors to speak out, in public, unless they themselves feel ready to do so.... just as I would never push a child to do anything. It's always be...st to wait until the child feels eady.

I do urge survivors to find someone they can confide in, to break the silence for themselves - and I do understand that finding that empathic person can be difficult even frightening.

I tell my story to encourage a deeper understanding of what it is to be a Survivor, for there are so many in this society.

Even though I detest war, and think soldeiry a fools game, I FEEL for those troops who return from active combat duty, the many thousands who can just about cope, the many thousands who don't and who 'fall through the cracks' because those around them do not understand what violent trauma does to a persons soul - the movies do not tell the truth about violence and it's effects, neither will the media -and neither wil the NHS, the Health Service nor Social Services....

So it has to be Survivors who do this, and it has to be those strong enough and in a position to do it, because ALL survivors need to be heard, we need to be held, to be allowed to cry, to scream, to vent for this is an essential part of the healing, no matter how uncomfortable it might be for others....

The wounded experience lies trapped beneath those unexpressed cries and wails, is walled in in an attempt to keep it alltogether, to 'fit in' and that keeps us permanently wounded, closed down, shuit off from the full vitality of life.

That is something that no-one deserves.

The stiff upper lip approach has it's merits in a traumatic situation, with limitations, yet beyond that it becomes a trap, a form of denial and assures that trauma patterns are repeated, in one form or another.

And then there are those who adapt to that societal trauma, whose abuse becomes thier identity, and who inflict abuse without conscience or remorse and become part of the System of Power that drives war, neglect, inequality, abuse.. who often 'succeed' and run banks, corporations and countries.... dangerous people, damaged people, charismatic people..... what of them?

Tony Blair, George Bush, Hosni Mubarak, Saddam Hussein, Myra Hindly, Ian Brady, Fred West, David Cameron, the various CEOs of Rapacious Corporations, The Pope, the Abuser Priests, Nuns, Men and Women, children even, the torturers, the bullies and beaters and killers amongst us ...... how are we to deal with these people and how are we to avoid the creation of such damaged people in the future?

How are we to deal with the Institutions that are founded in old patterns of abusive Power?

How can we build Institutions that are empathic, and responsive to the needs of us vulnerable human beings, that responds to the needs of the habitat and all that dwell therein?

For it is the case that such people are rarely born, they are the outcomes of Society and Institutional Power as it is.

These are the questions that I muse on, for my childrens sake, for their childrens sake, for yours and all.

I do not have to be perfect to engage thus. I do not have to wait until I have it all sorted out.

I certainly do not have all the answers and I am so glad that there are many good men and women working on these same problems, doing so honestly, with integrity and empathy, and with diligence, day in, day out for entire lifetimes.

I am encouraged that so much is now know and understood of the dyamics of abuse, of the biology of empathy, knowledge that is practical, that replaces belief with action that makes a difference.

What better legacy for our children could there possibly be, better than all the fine buildings, the great works of art, the exploration of space (where no-one human lives...)?

"Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed". -Herman Melville, novelist and poet (1819-1891)





Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe






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Common Law, Natural Living processes and Babies...

PERMACULTURE PICTURE HOUSE, Passing Clouds, London

I went to Passing Clouds, in Hackney, London, last week to watch : John Harris : Common Law : Cause no harm, cause no loss :

This show inspired me to consider a deeper perspective, relating common law to empathic societal practices and to natural living processes. Here follows a ramble through those thoughts.

There was also a presentation on behalf of The Peoples Supermarket, in London, a self organised supermarket, run by volunteers as a co-operative, and drawing on local food suppliers to reduce food miles, imports, waste etc etc….

Cause no harm, cause no loss.

Natural Hunting is not harm in the context of the entire living biology that we are emergent of.

Natural hunting is set within the context that all living cells, and therefore all organisms and macro entities (such as forests, plains, marshes, oceans etc) metabolise materials (eats) and creates more new materials, (new body mass) and releases those materials that are not required as nutrient (excreta, death and decomposition) such that the diversity, depth and fecundity of all life increases, year on year.

We are born, we eat, we shit, we die, life grows more abundant for all life as a result. All of us.

This is Natural Common Law.

Constantly nurturing living-ness in the habitat.

All cells do this. This is a natural constant.

It is neither enforced nor can it be resisted because it is inherent. It can be ignored, if only for a while. Ignoring Natural Law always leads to the undermining of the natural processes, and inevitably the failure or collapse of what ever community dependent upon Nature.

To cause harm or to cause loss in terms of those processes pertaining to the natural environment, culture, community, family or children of ANY species has to be understood as anything that, by way of human intervention, undermines or impairs the natural viability of that species or community, and this is, by definition, the measure most appropriate to this discussion.

And as we know, all organisms, in all known natural contexts, are embedded, connected, and integrated and therefore affects on one species will by definition impact on many other species, in a myriad of possibilities, as we are discovering in the science of bio-diversity.

The non-linearity of natural processes is becoming more and more evident. Abuse on, and you abuse all.

Thus the value of the measure must always relate to the entire habitat, and this conversely requires profound local knowledge, intimate experiential knowledge of the habitat.

A living knowledge, that is shared across communities.

Common Law exists in and of the human being, the man, the woman, the child; it is intrinsic.

Common Law is a living and lived knowledge.

How does Common Law stand in relation to actual harm or loss arising within biological communities?

The communities of traveller peoples? The communities of whales? The communities of the San people, of the Yanomami, of the Inuit, of the first nation peoples of North and South America, of Australia, Africa, Asia, Europe?

We all know the harm caused and the loss caused to all those communities.

It is offensive that we have such a task to address... and yet here it is and we must address it.

This is all about the psychology of the Dominant Society, in it’s Institutions (Instruments) of Power, in the exercise of Power (action) and even the assumption of any Power disparity, (authority).

People, as individuals and Institutions, do knowingly cause harm or loss, in grievous ways that are known, undeniable; where much of the evidence is well documented and much of the evidence is living; it is in and of living people.

People, as individuals and Institutions, also cover-up, mask and deny that harm.

There is an ever growing database of scientifically described evidence of the damage emerging as time flows. It's certainly a 'growth area' of study.

It is fortunate much of use is also being learned about how to avoid those damaging behaviours, how to break the cycles. In such manner that the cycles of abuse are stopped. So that healthy empathic relationships can then emerge, naturally. That's the point.

There's our true human nature, the child, the infant, the mother, the father and kin group, living empathically. It's inherent and intrinsic to who we are, what we are.

Our biology is perfectly 'adapted' to that in so many ways – and yet, one could say too that societal stress has become, the path-way towards addressing the full scope of the problem, (if only because the illusions and delusions of the Dominant Society, are breaking down under the stress and thus only remaining way out from there is total honesty)

This is both offensive, and a testament to the natural resilience and creativity of survivors.

And thus the diversity of voices, the telling of experience, the meaning of that resilience has to be known, sensed, it must understood as different shapes of the same pattern. Survivors must be heard as they are, they must not be made ‘media ready’.

Truth and Reconciliation cannot be subject to protecting the abusers – Restorative Justice calls for more than a public Apology, compensation dependent upon the silence of the Survivors and the indemnity of those State and other Institutions responsible for the abuses.

Lose the enforcing pattern, make different shapes.

And for me, the unifying aspect is the inherent vulnerability that comes with what we Sense, the combined message set from all our sensory capabilities, when we 'get' that being truly human community is very much about empathy as an active experiential modality. (This means that as far as we know are emergent sensory organisms who are of nature, not some unique creation of a mythical God or some Alien cross breed! ;-)

How we learn, what information we process, is through the sensory systems nature has crafted within us. Babies are conscious, and in many ways much more conscious than adults who have been conditioned into conformity.

However, here we are, and for sure, right now,  the human community needs Institutional Whistle Blowers in every aspect of the community life of human being where it is founds, enlightening us by revealing exactly where there is harm or loss caused, or cover-up of harm or loss caused, and who is culpable.

There's a meeting place for ALL humans in this; this need to tell the truth, to cease abuse, is intrinsic, it is independent of faith, culture, language, colour, height, weight, age, gender.

We must all be understood. Not the merely our difference noted. Empathy. 'Got'.  ‘Grokked’ was a 70s word. Comprehended, apprehended, understood. That's crucial for the healing and for the prevention. That’s how we will move forwards.

What so many people and the media – they really miss this! – don’t get is that the survivors are not ‘moving forwards’ in trying to facilitate restorative justice. When that happens we are at the equal level, and then, and only then will we surely move forwards, as people and as a diverse human culture.

Certainly with regard to the welfare of all children, how society dictates the 'treatment' of children has to be addressed, honestly, openly: because this is the reality, it’s toxic and it's harmful, and it causes loss, and that is qualitatively more vital to the well being of the human, and the entire living, community than perceived benefits that are paraded to mask what is being done to children, whole nations, to the habitat.

Faith

If faith is to mean ANYTHING it has to honour that benchmark of Common Law, of Natural Law : which is to cause no harm, cause no loss.

Any Faith allows harm or loss is a lie.

Those of Faith express the idea that their God made the Earth. We if that is the case, then that God also made the Natural Law, and Common Law, because these are intrinsic to all life, equally.

If that is felt and understood, then the only action is to tell the truth. That's the start of the end of the journey that human civilisation has taken for the past 15,000 years as far as current archaeology can determine.

It would appear that actually, nature works.

With regard to the harming of children, of entire indigenous nations and their children, that Institutional power dynamic has to be revealed as the human poison it is at the same time as the perpetrators are exposed, and brought to justice. As a writer, as me as a survivor, that argument has to be won.

Certainly the Institutions must fall. Change is not an option, in this regard. It's the very nature of Institution, of Empire Logic. Resistant. Rigid. Hard. Cold.

Those with Faith and Heart will have to 'step away from the structure,  to let go of it, as a public narrative, just as the survivors story is part public narrative, (those what wish the knowledge be public).......... that action, more than any other deals with the Institutional rigidity - without support, it is powerless.

It's not a matter of ethics, nor of doctrine, it's a matter of restorative justice.

It's a matter of Common Law, which prefigures all other legislation instituted by what ever authority. Common Law is clear.

Cause no harm, cause no loss : That's it.

Yes we will continue this work and link, and share and learn, and be nurtured to do this.

Even though it IS offensive that we are in this sorry state - because our Society is based upon causing harm, causing loss.

We are speaking up for ALL human beings.. me as me., you as you. I am one of ALL human beings. You are one of ALL human beings. It's all or nothing. Being honest about lived experience, the meaning of lived experience is whistle blowing on any dominant power-relationship culture where harm is caused, where loss is experienced, where natural empathy disrupted and balance is disrupted.

Unite the 'causes'. Unite the 'causes'. Unite. Common Law.

Passing Clouds is a self organised hub of information sharing, grass roots self governance, exciting music and arts projects, within a larger hub that is Hackney, with larger still hubs that extend across the Earth.



Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe


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Watching Big Fat Gypsy Weddings : propganda, assimilation?


Watching Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, I was struck by the subtext of an indigenous community struggling with a mainstream society it does not want to be part of and how their way of life is being actively undermined, and the real meaning of that experience that is masked, blanded down, dumbed down for entertainment.

Assimilation. Become part of the mainstream and have one’s culture reduced to a parody, for the benefit of the mainstream society. The history of assimilation is of course omitted. And yet, to talk about tradition with out mentioning that part of it is to fail to address the elephant in the room.

Or extirpation. The willingness, and intentionality, of government Officials using Statute Law to evict the peoples of any community. Have we not seen enough jungle documentaries to understand what this really means?

Traveller People who have made their own settlements, who had built their homes on waste land, when no land was available for them that ought to have been available under Statute Law and Human Rights Law which was designed to protect their right to their cultural ways.

What were the choices that led to this – the choice to retain one’s own culture and kin structures.

Very clearly, the traveller communities are being targeted.

To have them undergo their own forced eviction and to witness the subsequent Israeli style destruction of their homes – all this because they, as a community, want desperately to retain their extended family culture, even as their nomadic way of life is being restricted – rings bells all over the Earth.

The tone of the program, the ‘show’, whilst it dealt with the present situation, and I am repeating myself, has not really made any effort to contextualise it with the history of the traveller communities, not least their experience over many hundreds of years of active discrimination by the mainstream Society.

Catching a few families whilst the first and second generations go through the process of ‘assimilation’ will always throw up instances of ‘strange’ behaviour (strange by mainstream measure……), instances of distress, of neglect and of anger which can be used to make light of what is really happening. To suggest that, yes, perhaps the best thing is for the children to get a ‘proper’ education, have a ‘better’ life.

How arrogant. Based on entirely false assumptions.

Their ‘culture’ is portrayed in this way, as entertainment, as gossip, by focussing on the colours, just as a cheap gossip magazine might do, is to make their culture appear less valuable, less meaningful than it is, as a part of the human diversity of these lands, not least to those people themselves.

There is a dreadful world wide history of assimilation or extirpation of nomadic indigenous communities.

Is this program part of that process?

What kind of action, what kind of subtle justification is being laid in peoples minds by this program?

How ubiquitous is this subtle ‘entertain-mental chain slavery process’?



Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe




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