Forgotten Australians : A letter to Australian Senators

preamble: 

 

Survivors of Institutional Abuse are an international community.

Committed to seeing that full Justice is served, we co-operate and seek to inernationalise our efforts. We support each other across borders, oceans, moutain ranges, laguage barriers, creeds, skin colour and culture. We seek to ensure that no Survivor community is isolated. This is not an issue that pertains to any one country in isolation. 

The crimes and the perpetrators are international in scope, and so the response to their abuses  and to their cover-ups and with regard to all failings with in serving Justice, Reparation and support for recovery must likewise be International.

This is the just one of many such letters, seeking to remind those in positions of responsibility, that they are being observed, locally and internationally, that their responses to the testimony of witnesses and to the demands for Justice, demanded not only by Survviors, but also by their relatives and advocates, and by the Law itself to which all must submit, are being carefully scrutinised, documented, compared and evaluated for efficacy.

In the case of Crimes Against Humanity, the Nuremburg principles apply. Diplomatic Immunity does not exist where Crimes Against Humanity have been committed. All member States of the United Nations General Assembly, bar two - USA, Somalia, - have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of The Child and are bound under Law by this convention. Breaches of it's principles are crimes. The Institutional Abuse of Children is a Crime Against Humanity, and whilst it is not yet defined thus at the United Nations, the UNCRC binds all to it's principles.

Many hundreds of millions of Parents are deeply concerned about these issues. This is a public process, and as such it is designed to inform the wider public, the media and all other interested parties. This process is designed to gather momentum and support for the full accounting and exposure of those Institutions culpable of such abuses to the full force of the law, to the fullest force of the publics concern. It is designed to publicly evaluate the response of Governance to the issues.

THE LETTER:

TO THE HONOURABLE THE SPEAKER AND MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

I am writing to you because I am a concerned citizen of Ireland, and also a World Citizen, and a Survivor of Catholic Residential School Abuse.

I wish to draw to the attention of the all Australian Parliamentarians the following :

Having studied the matter in some detail, I understand that the Forgotten Australians Enquiry did not uphold all of its stated terns of reference. The result being, the enquiry did not get to the bottom of ALL problems and cases of child neglect, including but not limited to - clergy abuse, institutionalised neglect and agent abuse.

This is pattern that is well documented, and is sadly replicated in Ireland, Canada and many other States where Survivors have come forward to give heart rending testimony to the abuses they have suffered, often decades after the abuse occurred. This delay in coming forwards is well understood in therapeutic and clinical practice.

The shame, fear, confusion, dissociation and distress that affects Survivors make coming forwards extremely difficult, and with the generalised unwillingness of culpable Institutions, individuals and others concerned – insurance companies, faith groups, communities, Police Forces, News Media etc - to hear these testimonies, to face the full truth and meaning of these testimonies, those effects are compounded.

Accordingly victims of this abuse remain unable to access proper legal redress. Also certain departmental faults leading to abuse remain unattended. The eventual findings of the Forgotten Australians enquiry was not on all of the points of reference nor was it on all the topics based on the evidence provided

I therefore call on all Australian Parliamentarians, men and women of good heart, men and women of integrity, parents and others, that you proceed as follows:

Open an Independent and verifiable Enquiry which will allow all evidence of child neglect, institutional neglect or other agency neglect to be bought to an Enquiries attention.

If not an Enquiry, then I ask that you request that a government body with the authority to receive and investigate all evidence of child abuse and provide feedback to the Federal Government be so instructed.

I am requesting that the Australian Parliament to be made aware that many cases of child abuse/neglect have gone un-investigated because certain terms of reference of previous and existing Enquiries were not upheld.

I am requesting that all efforts be made to do this. I urge you to take a determined stand on this issue, so as to verify the public’s perception that Justice is for all, that Justice is at the heart of good Democratic Governance, that the prevention of re-traumatising of Survivors (due to any failure to fully investigate abuses) is ensured and that the prevention of further abuses is also ensured by all those whose responsibilities with regard to Governance and Justice is underwritten by taxes, by the electoral franchise and by our common trust, which is key to the conduct of any decent Society.

I look forwards to hearing from you in the very near future.

Yours sincerely... etc

Corneilius Crowley

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

Launch of Survivors Voices, Europe @ Conway Hall 26th March.

I attended the launch event for Survivors Voices Europe @ Conway Hall, London on Saturday March 26th.

http://survivorsvoice-europe.org/

“Survivors Voice Europe is the European liaison of Survivors Voice USA, the non-profit organisation founded by clergy abuse survivors Bernie McDaid & GaryBergeron. 

Survivors Voice is an international community of men and women who were abused by Catholic clergy in their childhood, and despite suffering the worst betrayal of body and trust, have found that in connecting with each other and sharing their experience, strength and hope, they can soar above their abusers and find empowerment.”

I was there, got the T-Shirt, had my photo taken by Silvia Amodio  for her “Out of the shadows” project and I met the founders, Sue Cox, Ton Leerschool, Bernie McDaid & Gary Bergeron. I also met Dr Tommaso Dell’Era from Italy, a former member of Opus Dei and a survivor..... and who is a whistle blower, who has written a book on the Opus Dei. He was travelling with Ton and Sue, and is part of Survivors Voice Europe.

Also present was the one of the organisers of the Protest The Pope Rally of last September, Marco Tranchino.

There was about 35 people in attendance, whilst hundreds of thousands were distracted by a useless protest organised by the TUC who refuse to call a general strike.

I met other Survivors, and the integrity and empathy was clear.

Those who spoke, who are Survivors, made a lot of sense to me. Their experience and commitment, courage and warmth was clear from the moment I locked eyes with each.

Sue Cox opened the event, and introduced each of the speakers. She spoke of her experience since last September’s “Protest The Pope” rally. She has been working as a counsellor for many years, and it was only last year that she came out and spoke publicly of her own abuse experience. She was surprised with the attention she has received, gladdened of the support and appalled at the BBC and UK Governments support for the Pope. Sue spoke movingly of the effects of the abuse,  that for years delivered self hatred, fear, insecurity.

Sue then introduced Ton Leerschool, who is Dutch, and who has been working with Gary and Bernie and Sue over Skype for the past two years or so. Ton is a Survivor. He is the lead European co-ordinator for Survivors Voices. Unfortunately I cannot recall of his presentation, other than to  say that I was moved by his clarity and commitment.

Sue then introduced Bernie and Gary, and presented them with some commemorative glass 'awards'. Bernie spoke, and he was clear as a bell. He described his initial experiences of coming out and how he felt betrayed by the process he went through as he took the Church to court, and especially the aftermath, as he made efforts to speak to various Church and Vatican Officials.

He even journeyed to Rome, where with Sue and others, they tried to gain an audience with Vatican Officials. For days they attempted to get an audience, and each day as they would leave the Vatican buildings, the Swiss Guards would question them to see if they had met with anyone, because 'they had a bet going on it!'.

They held vigils in Rome with Survivors who are deaf and mute, who were abused by Priests in 'special schools'. They also participated in a day of witness in which these 'voiceless' people, with out sound, told their stories. Sue had also spoken of these events, and had noted that the sign language they used was graphic and clear, and profoundly shocking, and that she was deeply moved by their bravery. Many tears were shed during those days...

Bernie said it was really clear that these people - Church Officials - did not care one whit for the Survivors, for the children and that they were, and remain utterly arrogant and committed to retaining their Power and Status. Bernie noted that he did not understand WHY so few people are capable of understanding what the systemic abuse by clergy really means, and why so few are willing to confront the Church, over the abuse and the cover-ups.

Gary followed on from Bernie, and he spoke of his own experience in telling his story, to his family and to the world. He spoke of how he had, on the face of it, the 'perfect life' - good job, plenty cash, two marriages ... and than spoke of how he took a good look one day and realised that he had lived in 23 places in 22 years, that he had in fact been running away all his life. He spoke of the struggle to bring his abusers to justice, of how after he spoke out, many more Survivors came forwards.

He also found out that his 78 year old father had also been sexually abused by a priest as a child. He spoke of his desire to see that his children are saved from a similar fate. He spoke of how it came as a shock to him, to find that the man he had seen as a rock in his life had kept that terrible secret all those years, and noted that the keeping of such secrets is very much a part of what enables the abuse culture to continue.

He spoke about his commitment to the work of confronting the Church, and all Institutions and people that sexually abuse children, not for himself, but for all the children alive today and those who are yet to come to this life.

At this point we took a break.

After the break, Tomasso spoke of his experiences at the hands of Opus Die, who recruited him at age 14. He spoke of how this had been banned by the Vatican, yet Opus Die managed to 'get around' this ban, by duplicity. Tomasso described in some detail the psychological machinations employed by Opus Dei on the young people they recruit,  the pecking order of hierarchy, the 'love bombing at the beginning, the slow and steady grooming of their recruits in ever more intense levels of abuse and control and he showed examples of the tools they use for 'mortification of the flesh'. His book is in Italian, and has yet to be translated into English and other languages. He's a brave and compassionate man, and no fool. I really took to him. We recognised in each other the 'elite' training backgrounds we shared.

Next up was Peter Thatchell, and strangely his speech was to me dry, almost perfunctory. Perhaps it was the lack of people in the room .... I know as a performer that it is sometimes the case that we become used to the energy of a crowd, so much so that when that energy is not present, we are diminished. That was not he case for any of the previous speakers. Peter Thatchell is well respected for his Human Rights work, and has been on that road for over 30 years.... His words lacked the vitality of those who speak of their own experience, and were to be disappointing. He apologised for not staying for he had to leave directly after his presentation to attend the TUC protest and speak there.... 

I almost approached him to ask that he mention this gathering at the larger, but held myself in check, as the next speaker was starting his presentation.

Keith Porteus Wood is the National Secular Society's Executive Director, and he spoke of his organisations commitment to supporting Survivors, and Survivors Voices in particular. He spoke of his own long standing actions in Europe, to request that the EU Parliament deal with the fact that the Vatican is in breach of the Convention on the Rights of The Child, on six different points, an international treaty, ratified by all member states of the United Nations General Assembly, bar USA and Somalia....

He mentioned that this is important, because these breaches are criminal offences, and for which the Pope as fiduciary head of The Vatican, The Holy See and The Catholic Church is personally liable. The same principles that applied at Nuremburg apply to the Vatican and all it’s officials with regard to Crimes against Humanity.

The last person to speak was a Solicitor who specialises in Child Abuse cases, David Greenwood. I found his presentation a little dry, and he appeared to be ill-informed about the efficacy and intent of the Redress process in Ireland, for he called for similar efforts, as part of a wider judicial effort, which elicited comments from myself and from others in attendance who had actual experience of that process, which interrupted his presentation and threw him somewhat.

We who had commented spoke to him afterwards, to help him get clear about this illusion of the ‘response; by Church and State. If he works with us, he will learn. We will see.

There was no time for any Q&A session, as the event had started late – traffic in London was dreadful that day and people were still attempting to get to the event. And as the hall had to be cleared really quickly to prepare for the next use of the hall, there was precious little time to socialise.

I spoke briefly with Sue, Gary and Bernie outside as they were loading up their car to leave, in the cold bitter wind. The connection has been made, and the work will progress. In spite of the low attendance, I am glad the seed has been planted, that I attended and that I have met these fine people.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Letter to Media concerning Patronage of Irish Schools :

http://www.independent.ie/education/latest-news/church-shocked-by-quinn-plan-for-schools-2598203.html

To the Editor

In a recent article published in the Irish Independent "Church 'shocked' by Quinn plan for schools"  about the Irish Minister For Educations setting up of a forum to examine the sponsoring and patronage of Schools in Ireland, Dr John Murray, director of pro-family organisation The Iona Institute, was quoted as follows: "While we welcome the setting up of this forum, we call on the minister to respect the autonomy of whatever number of Catholic and other denominational schools remain after this process is completed.

"This means guaranteeing the admissions policy of those schools, their employment policy, and also that they can teach whatever is compatible with their beliefs."

As a Survvior, as a parent and as a long-time advocate of the Rights of Children, I find it utterly repugnant that Religious Belief is in any way imposed upon children.

The recent deposition by German Lawyers to the International Criminal Court charging Pope Benedict with Crimes Against Humanity cited Baptism of Defenceless Children and the consequent imposition of the Doctrine of Original Sin as one of the three actions they determined as  Crimes Against Humanity.

They consider these actions as a psychological imposition upon the child. Others have called it the colonisation of the childs mind.

It is time that The Catholic Religion accepted that entrance into their Faith must be a conscious choice, not an imposition by parents or the Church. Children are not the possessions of their Parents, to do with as they will. Their souls are not the posessions of the Church, as held in days of old, when Papal Bulls mandated the actions of Colonial Power.

If the Catholic Religious are confident of their Faith, then their example, in their behaviour towards people and Society, ought to be enough to guarantee continued support and participation.

Sad to say their example thus far fails in all respects to honour the rights of the child, the rights of Survivors and the meaning and intent of the Sermon on The Mount.

Yours sincerely

Corneilius Crowley

Corneilius

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

Full Moon and Lunacy.

Someone made a comment on the beauty and largesse of last nights full moon. And the apparant increase in 'loony' behaviours......

I think the Power psychology of the Society we live in has a LOT more to do with the emergence of 'madness'  - or psychological dsuress - than any other single factor.

And, as we know, the Society and it's Institutions likes to distract us from that realisation as much as possible.

Hows' this for 'madness' :

I find the way the media are talking about the dieing, the shredding of lives, is really, really grim. It's prices of bombs, numbers of planes, maps, graphics and plans, it's fbreathless ootball reporting, ainterviews with 'players', managers and fansd; a make believe make over of ugliness and studpity that is all the more apalling by virture of the fact that it is 'showbusiness'.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Empathy is absolutely knowledge based.

I spotted some comments on Facebook,  about a Picture, from the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, of a billowing fire and smoke cloud and firefighter’s  water spouts that were taken as tusks, red eyes, in the flames etc etc that ‘looks like’ an ‘angry’  Elephant.

There had been a few previous comments all of the same tone as the ones in bold type, so I chimed in…. and was deleted from that persons list….  within 30 seconds of making the last comment, which is fine…

>That one is even frightful! There are so many problems with purity in Japan... It is a cleansing

> Yes Mother Earth is certainly doing all this...Shri Mataji did say that all the natural disasters would stop when people turned to a spiritual life and came into ballance...

look! to us they appear as natural disaster to the Earth they are part and parcel of living processes... to tie them into Spiritual beliefs (invented spiritual beliefs) and judgement is simply rude...

The Cui Bono Logic test for BELIEF ( things that one reads about yet cannot test or prove) - ASK "who benefits if I believe this?" and "Who benefits if I reject this?" and "Who benefits if I keep an open mind on this?" then assess all the possible benefits.

> I feel sorry for them, even if they are blind, they must be so scared... it really is time now for the people of the world to sit up and take notice of the truth, and stop the accelerated head on collision with our own destruction... I was told today that in Japan they are very materialistic and into the acquisition of material things, blinded to spiritual life, I wonder where in the world will be hit next? in the run up to 2012

that's about the ugliest thing I have ever read - that the 'materilaism' of the Japanese people brought this upon themselves.... it's akin to saying that I chose to be beaten, sexually assaulted and psychologically tortured in my childhood to learn a lesson, or that Rapists are in fact Teachers and Women need to learn the lessons.

Your sympathy is devoid of empathy and betrays a Hubris...

----------------------  the other person deleted me within 30 seconds!  ------------

What I find, time and time again, is that believers of all kinds can demonstrate a callousness that is quite possibly one of the 9 wonders of the World.....

We KNOW that earthquakes come in cycles.

To ascribe the Earthquake to a Judgemental God (on whose side one is) and to emote 'sympathy' for those 'poor people' who have drawn it upon themselves due to their 'materialism' is actually very ugly.

This is the same kind of thinking or psychology that can hit a child and tell the child that "This is for your own good" and rationalise or justify all kinds of violence, in a good cause.

I also realise that I 'triggered' the person who deleted me, and pretty much shoved that persons attitude into his or her face, big time...

I could have been more subtle, and tried to slowly get him or her to think about it .... but some days I am just not in the mood.

However it serves my own purpose to illustrate the dangers of belief.

The Rapture.

The dangers of believers.

Lethal Homophobia.

The link between belief and lack of empathy.

"She was aksing for it!"

The link between knowledge and empathy.

"I know how you feel!"

Empathy is absolutely knowledge based.

"I know how you feel!"

And the biology proves it is so :

http://www.parentingscience.com/empathy-and-the-brain.html

And of course the honest person who wishes to be helpful would say "I don;' know how you must feel, but can you talk about it?"

And underneath all of this is Power Relationships - the believer wants to retain Power over the situation, over the other person, rather than face their own powerlessness.

That is, simply put, selfish!

That's what makes this so, so ugly to me.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

‘No record’ of how Cork charity spent state funds : Irish Examiner, my response

http://www.examiner.ie/ireland/politics/no-record-of-how-cork-charity-spent-state-funds-136526.html

A Chara,

With regard to Right of Place, we are seeing a problematic lack of transparency similar to that of the Catholic Church Bureaucracy, past Irish Governments, and others involved in the Residential Schools horror story.

...

This is in stark contrast to the open-ness of many Survivors, who have had to deal with an unwillingness to believe them, fear and ridicule, intimidation and, not least, the adverse affects of what they endured.

Let it be said that those who deny, turn their backs on the story, or for whatever reason feel fearful of facing the truth, have not and will not suffer anything like the Survivors themselves if they face the truth.

Right of Place and others in similar positions must be made 100% transparent and be subject to adequate oversight.

Their staff must be subject to the same oversight, and also rigorously checked for their backgrounds and expertise in this area of supporting Survivors.

Failure in this is an abdication of duty of care, and will inevitably lead to the totally avoidable re-traumatising of those who need all the support and nurturance that Irish Society can generate.

Yours etc

Corneilius Crowley

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

Letter published 19th March 2011 : http://www.examiner.ie/opinion/letters/church-must-be-open-with-abuse-survivors-148683.html

My Music Promo Blurb - seeking bookings for the summer!

Corneilius sings for the Natural Child, for a Society that is empathic and non hierarchical, intelligent and nurturant.

He eats Sacred Cow burgers, and poops good poop which he composts. He calls this metabolising trauma.

He has a great voice, a loopstation, a swathe of funky licks and a dodgy sense of humour.

He loves being Corneilius, which is his chosen career.

He has been known to  play 3 hour sets and he occasionally djs.... for up to 17 hours...

Find out more about Corneilius @ http://www.reverbnation.com/corneilius and  @ http://www.dwylcorneilius.blogspot.com

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Womb World…

Womb World…

Life in the womb is one of connection, empathy, gifting, receiving, responding, learning and awareness.

The developing child within is deeply, profoundly connected to the mother. They share blood, food, oxygen. The mother excretes the child's metabolic by-products. Cells from the child and cells of the mother dance
together as a whole.

This is the first environment we all experience, and we experience ourselves as connected, part of the whole and we are aware of ourselves and of the living intelligence, the biology of the mother as parts of
a whole. We are aware too, in the womb, of the environment of the mother.

We hear the sounds. We sense the feelings of our mothers. We meet the chemicals of the environment through out mother.

And environmentalist foetus would of course be urging the mother to do everything that is natural and nurturant, and to avoid anything that is un-natural or non-nurturant.

If the Parent or Community or Society is engaged in non-nurturant behaviours, the child has no voice and no real power to suggest changes towards nurturance.

Is there a correlation in the relationship between people and Governments, Environmentalists and Corporation and the dynamics of low or non-nurturant relationships?

The Biology of Empathy





EMPATHY IS INHERENT TO THE NATUAL HUMAN BEING!

If anything we adults need to learn again the natural empathic ways - from our children - because sadly, in this society, for most, we have no recall of the detail of our early years, which translates into lack of empathy for our smallest chidlren, which damages their empathy (unwittingly) because we are fearful when we do not understand, and so we err on the side of control to cover that fear......

Excessive control or lax permissiveness (neglect) is ALWAYS a question of damaged empathy.....

And it is transferred intergenerationally because of this memory gap - for we leanr parenting by how we were parented, and if that experience is forgotten at the conscious level, it remains for it is written into our neural pathways....

Luckily the brain is plastic, and we can learn again the ways of empathy, by being WITH our children, by talking with them as real complete yet small people - we can grow together...

Behaviour is NOT genetic, it is mostly environmental. Random Mutation was adopted due to Empire Logic and Arrogance, as the model of natural change, whereas we now know and can describe change as an interaction, a response, precise and directed, to changes in the habitat, to the signals the environment sends any living organism - be they bacteria (dealig with anti-bacterial pharamceuticals.....) or larger organisms...

This a child treated with respect grows to respect him or herself, and a child treated with disdain grows to feel shame and inadequacy.... though it's not a linear process, and some children respond in doffering ways such that for some they survive harshness, and for others the subtle undermines them.... hence the need for empathy in parenting, to spot those oh so subtle differences and not so subtle differences and take them into account...

Compulsory State Education, a homogenising process, makes this all but impossible, and this deepens that lack of empathy..... Religion destroys it almost totally, for it replaces the childs sense of wonder with and imposed sense..... this is the nature of mental slavery.

This issue runs to the very heart of the State System and Society.

The future will be defined by whether or not these issues are faced up to and dealt with; punishment that is abusive will not help; incarceration of the perpetrators, the spin doctors, the official deniers is a must; full accountability, reparations and the widespread sharing of the information that can help the victims and active support for the victims is a must.

None of us can afford to turn our hearts from these facts....

http://www.birthpsychology.com/


http://www.whatbabieswant.com/

http://www.parentingscience.com/empathy-and-the-brain.html

http://www.alice-miller.com/

http://www.naturalchild.org/


http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/


http://www.holtgws.com/


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisonous_pedagogy

The Origins of Violence and Hierarchy

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

"If you don't know how to nurture, you will be afraid!"

Russel Means speaks of the Nurturant Society, in clear and concised terms..

"If you don't know how to nurture, you will be afraid!"

And when you are afraid of you will kill what you are afraid of! (or try to control.... as we see..)






Useful and pertinent links

http://www.violence.de/prescott/bulletin/article.html

http://www.violence.de/prescott/letters/Social-Behavioral_Characteristics.pdf

http://www.alicemiller.com

http://naturalchild.org/

http://www.birthpsychology.com



Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

On recent developments re: The Irish Residential Schools Abuse story

On recent developments re: The Irish Residential Schools Abuse story, Statuary Funds, Cover-ups and a few words to the incoming Irish Government

To whom it may concern.

There are many problems that we as Survivors face, problems are individual and collective.

This means that there are individual solutions and collective solutions. It's not an either/or situation.

These problems are the after effects of the abuse we suffered, which are physical and psychological trauma.

The effects of not having been able to tell others, be they family, friends or support services about our experiences. Loneliness, isolation, fear.

The effects of denial or mitigation or dismissive-ness of our community when we do speak out. Anger, fear, isolation, paranoia.

The effects of holding our wounded-ness for so long, that we develop secondary psychological problems.

The effects of being unable to hold long term relationships, jobs and careers.

The effects of not being able to trust others.

The effects of knowing that the abuse was and is being covered up, the story and history being 'managed' to protect both Church and State and other bodies who held and hold responsibility.

The effects of knowing that abuse is still common, that others are being abused, even to this day, and that the roots of the abuse are not being addressed, and in spite of evidence and plenty of very good scientific understanding (out of which healthful practices have emerged to prevent further abuse) the media and State and Church still avoid promoting these learning’s.

None of these will be resolved by money alone.

They will be resolved by providing adequate support for:

Telling the truth : open forums to tell our stories, open forums to examine who abused, who cover-ed up and why they covered up; criminal prosecutions for all abusers, and detailed inquiries into the actions of all those who covered up, for whatever reason, so that the dynamics of cover-up are understood, so that 'good' people who cover-up understand the impacts of their actions and understand that they must not cover-up.

Providing for our health : by providing best possible health care, best possible community interaction and understanding of the issues and dynamics of abuse.

Providing for our sustenance : Pensions separate from all other benefits are a useful idea.

Prevention: This is REALLY important. Apart from child protection legislation with real teeth, there needs to be a wider understanding of the dynamics of abuse, within families, and within all situations where adults have responsibility and power over children. Schools, care systems, sports training, etc etc.....

There also needs to be a wider understanding of the dynamics of intergenerational trauma patterning, which is how adverse behaviour patterns are passed from generation to generation in spite of peoples best efforts as they 'cope' with the effects (above) of abuse without proper support or understanding.

For all of this there needs to be State Funding of appropriate organisations (led by Survivors, informed by Survivors) PLUS awards to individual Survivors, not as compensation or reparation, but as offers of genuine support, to nurture Survivors for what remains of our lives.

These are my thoughts on this at this time.

Finally let me say this : we have seen how two prominent Survivors, from different perspectives, have in the very recent past, engaged in public disputes that have revealed unresolved behaviour patterns : That one of these Survivors should label and judge other Survivors in adverse ways (from a position of being one who offers 'care' ) speaks of the profound misunderstandings that still dominate the discourse, speaks of the ways in which wounded people can re-wound others, and can be manipulated or 'triggered' by those who perceicve that they have the 'most to lose' in all of this - The State and The Church.

That ANYONE sees it thus - that they have something to lose - speaks volumes of the psychology of the inadequate responses to the abuse story.

There is still so much to do in all of this.

Kindest regards

Corneilius Crowley

London

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

My Single Issue Obsession - The Facts.

Here are the facts. It's NOT all doom and gloom. Some seriously good work is being done in understandtng the dynamics of abuse relationships, the intergenerational and cyclical effects of PTSD, with an eye to prevention, (founded upon proven practice, biology and science) as many are concerned that thus far, the vast maority of abuse remains, in relative terms, a largely misunderstood by the general populace, and is still very much a hidden, denied and masked reality.

However...... truth beckons.

One out of every four people in Ireland  will have experienced a serious sexual assault or serious abuse during their childhoods.

This pattern is replicated across the entire developed world. No Child Left Behind rings hollow and echoes down through History.

Informal networks of organised, self protecting abusers exist in EVERY area concerning children – sport, drama, education, scouting, state care, psychiatry, psychology, health, religion.

Governments and Churches have created, funded and operated  well documented systems, that purported to ’care’ for children, and other vulnerable people, yet have seriously abused the majority in their care. These are called Residential School Systems. Social Services Care Homes. Juvenile Offender Prisons. Schools. Care Homes for the Elderly. Psychiatric Units. Orphanages.

The history of childhood ‘rearing’ texts is littered proffering ‘good advice’ that is on the face of it abusive. This literature is known as Poisonous Pedagogy.

Rather than empathy, manipulative techniques of control are espoused as best practice for parents, teachers, and others responsible for the care of children. Behaviour Modification techniques. Ritalin. Seroxat. The DSM.

These same organisations, Religious and Secular, launch wars, trade in arms, people and in drugs, send mercenaries to do their bidding, employ manipulative strategies against all their perceived enemies, in particular the whistle blowers, and are corrupt to the hilt.

The adverse effects of Industry on the habitat are also part of this abuse picture. To deny the ‘external costs’ of Industry to both people and the habitat is abusive.

Green-washing is an example of the manipulative means by which those who abuse the environment portray themselves as saviours. The best paid lawyers in the world are those who defend the Corporations who pollute, who bribe officials whose role is defined by a duty of care to those they purport to serve.

Foot-washing in Churches follows this same pattern.

Meaningless gestures, empty words.

Any Survivor who dares to speak the truth is a whistle blower. Bradley Manning.  Colm O’Gorman. Paddy Doyle. Noam Chomsky. Martin Luther King. Rosa Parks. David Shayler. Julian Assange. Kevin Annett. Ward Churchill. Russel Means. Howard Zinn.

All Survivors are treated as potential enemies, as a potential threat to the status quo. Why is it thus?

Not only by those who abused them, but by others in positions of responsibility and power, who feel threatened by the disclosures.

The Philadelphia Grand Jury Report. The Ryan Report. The Ferns Report. The Murphy Report. The as yet unpublished Cloyne Report.  The Forde Inquiry.

The many documentaries on the Residential School systems designed by Governments and run by clergy for Indigenous or Aboriginal Children. The Forgotten Australians. Hidden From History.

The Canary Effect. Deliver Us from Evil.

The Murphy Inquiry into Irish Swimming and similar reports into UK Sports. 

I have omitted more than I have excluded here.

This list is only the tip of the iceberg. 4 Dioceses reports exist in Ireland’s investigations into criminal child abuses in 26 Dioceses.

There are reports due from Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland, the UK. Work has started on similar investigations in Africa, South America and Asia.

The Chilcott Inquiry. The 5 Inquiries into UK Government decision making regarding Iraq and Afghanistan. These all follow the same pattern of half truths, denials and white washing.

How many scandals in various arena’s have blown up in the past 40 years where people who were abused went public and those who had official responsibility, who were often colleagues in work of the accused, refused to accept the truth of these public statements, who hid the facts of specific accusations, allegations and actual reported crimes, investigations and trials from the people and constituencies they served?

How many more will it take before the pattern now absolutely clear to anyone who reviews the data is made clear to the general public, and is tackled by those good people within Governance, Policing, Health Care, Education and Religion in areas concerned with the well-fare and care of children, in meaningful and effective manner, leading not only to the prosecution of abusers and those who covered up, but also and importantly to educational campaigns, founded on solid scientific understanding and proven practice, to prevent more abuse, to break the intergenerational cycles of abuse?

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

11 Seconds that could transform our world.

A very short video, outlining the simplest of concepts, supported by research evidence and practice.

www.alicemiller.com 

www.whatbabieswant.com

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

A Rejection of the Concepts of Victim, of Apology and of Reconciliation

A Rejection of the Concepts of Victim, of Apology and of Reconciliation

Apology is often taken as meaning remorse. But there are situations when it is a DEFENCE of an action,  as in apologia or apologist.

The etymology of the word APOLOGY is revealing : "defense, justification," from L.L. apologia, from Gk. apologia "a speech in defense," from apologeisthai "to speak in one's defense," from apologos "an account, story," from apo- "from, off" (see apo-) + logos "speech" (see lecture).

The original English sense of "self-justification" yielded a meaning "frank expression of regret for wrong done," first recorded 1590s, but it was not the main sense until 18c. The old sense tends to emerge in Latin form apologia (first attested 1784), especially since J.H. Newman's "Apologia pro Vita Sua" (1864).

Thus when the Church or State Apologises, it is adopting a position that defends it's current status. 

As eternal institutions of political power they understand their intended meaning of the words they use. They are the source of our legal language, and the Law is created in the first instance to perpetuate and  maintain their status and power, and to avoid the necessary consequences of their actions when they cause harm to people in pursuit of retaining that power.

This can be observed in with the way both have responded to the emergence of living witness evidence with regard to Residential School Systems in Canada and USA, which have existed since the 1860s, in which Aboriginal children have been incarcerated by force, brutally harmed in systemic fashion for more than a century.

Saying 'I am sorry' has no meaning unless there is material action to back it up, unless there is a clear indication that whatever transgression occurred will not occur again.

And in cases where the harm caused is beyond remediation, then accountability demands corrective measures be applied to those Institutions. Corrective measures mean open, honest accountability, reparations, and the return of what was stolen in cultural, economic and political terms.

The etymology of the word VICTIM "living creature killed and offered as a sacrifice to a deity or supernatural power," from L. victima "person or animal killed as a sacrifice." Perhaps distantly connected to O.E. wig "idol," Goth. weihs "holy," Ger. weihen "consecrate" (cf. Weihnachten "Christmas") on notion of "a consecrated animal."

Thus the ancient roots of the word suggest a meaning that makes the creation of a 'victim' within the context of a consecrated 'sacrifice', reasonable, or acceptable.

The concept of sacrifice is in itself the measure of a price worth paying (by those who make the sacrifice... not by those sacrificed,... of course).

As Madelaine Albright or Tony Blair have asserted. That neither have been roundly condemned by the majority of mainstream media, let alone the courts speaks volumes of the acceptance of the 'consecrated sacrifice' mindset that permeates Power.

To be labelled as a victim then carries this hidden meaning,  as in one who has not survived a trauma, in that the trauma extinguished the life of the person... and what must be remembered is that often the Survivor bears the scars of the trauma, indelible marks that last a life time that cannot be readily erased, even if they can, to a certain limited extent, be lived with

So let me make this very clear for all : I was not so much a VICTIM as I was VICTIMISED - a defenceless, innocent and beautiful child harmed and brutalised by priests, nuns, teachers and others who bullied me.

The person victimised is not a victim, rather she or he is a victim of - the action of another person is the driving force of the status of those who are harmed to meet the perdeived needs of the brutaliser.

The use of the word victim as a noun typically implies weakness, rather than vulnerability.

I bear the scars of the abuse inflicted upon me, and  to some degree I have been able to recover.

 The more the Society that permitted and perpetuated that abuse (mine and that of the Iraqi people, and all who suffer needlessly in wars pursued by Governments, that of the Aboriginal Children forced into Residential Schools, that of the children of the poor forced into Residential Schools) denies and obstructs Survivors calls for restorative justice, the more likely it is that others will suffer as we have, and I cannot countenance that, because I know what that suffering was like, and I would not wish it upon anyone.

Restorative Justice is what we want, not verbal apologies and settlenents......

Restorative Justice means public trials, jail sentences, files opened and Institutions that are harming children be openly, transparently remorseful and prepared to commit in toto to prevention of any further abuses - it means that Society speaks and acts to protect all the children, and does so forcefully.

To demand accountability for criminal behaviour is not abusive. It may be seen as punitive, and perhaps there's an argument for making incarceration less inhumane, yet such is the nature of causing harm - there's a consequence that MUST BE PAID BY THE CRIMINAL and that must also protect Society and in our case, all our children, from any future abuse.

Likewise, that oft used word, Re-Conciliation, comes from the Roman Empire.

It means to ‘make friendly’ again. Let’s make-up!

Reconciliation : From Latin reconciliatio (“a re-establishing, reinstatement, restoration, renewal, a reconciling, reconciliation”), from reconciliare

Consilio is to do with being at home or amongst friends.

Roman reconciliation was the practice of Rebels being brought to Rome, after their rebellion had been crushed, and the rebel leaders were made to prostrate themselves and admit of their 'treachery', to become friends again with the Emperor, and then ritually strangled,or so it is told. This act then brought the lands and the peoples the rebel leaders came from back into the Roman Empire's family. It re-established Rome's authority.

It is important to understand the power of legal terms when used by Governments and States, for within their mindsets these masked meanings loom large, as we see in the various attempts of those who have been harmed, brutalised and degraded by the actions of State and Church make any attempt to reveal the crimes, and press for Restorative Justice and the treatment meted to any who dare to do this work.

Feet are washed, Inquiries held to white wash the incidents, green-washing PR campaigns are funded and promoted, Truth and Reconciliation Commissions are set up, and in each case, their primary function in material terms is proven to be to protect the status and power of the abusers and their  old power Institutions.



Kindest regards

Corneilius

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