Racism, Inquiries, Grenfell, Historic Child Abuse, Iraq, and logic.

Race and Racism.

If we are serious about combating racism we should not be celebrating racial diversity.

Celebrating 'racial diversity' entrenches the concept of Race.

Cultural diversity is another matter. I have no problem with that at all. It improves everything about being humane.

There are no races, there are only different language/culture groups. We are all human. 

Instead, we should be concentrating our efforts at undermining the very idea of race.

Because it is merely an idea, a concept that was created to justify the enslavement of Black Skin Toned Africans.

It was also institutionalised in legislation, and re-enforced from the pulpit (Good Christians vs Heathens and Sinners, the heathens being below the sinners)  to be used to set the poor White Skin Toned European labour force against the Black Skin Toned African labour force and the Brown Skin Toned Native Peoples who refused to work for the plantation owners, all of whom outnumbered the total number of owners, their middle classes, artisan classes, clerks etc and the British Military Garrisons in the colonies.

Race it has scientific or bio-logical basis.

It is a political and economic concept.

Boil the Water, not the Kettle.

Confront the behaviour, and do not attack the person.

eg: "That is a racists thing to say." works better than "You are a racist."

Because with the former there is some chance you can initiate a conversation, the latter will be felt as a direct attack on the person.

Worried by World Events?

Are you WORRIED? Does the world look really crazy to you, right now?

Try this :

A friend of a friend was travelling in South America around 2000 ad, looking at Inca sites, doing the jungle trek and Ayahuasca trail, and was talking excitedly about the forth coming Apocalypse, like REALLY WORRIED about it.....

He was in a cafe, in a small village, drinking beer and coffee..... rabbiting on, and on... until a local came up to him, and said:

"Don't worry! It's already here. Our people have been going through the Apocalypse for more than 300 years... YOUR people brought it to us!."

True story.

He ended up getting riotously drunk with the locals and made some very good friends.... way to go, South America!

A quote from a friend, one Jason Hine, on his facebook page is pertinent.

"Perhaps an incarnation of spirituality appropriate for the modern age would be an attitude in which we learn to face the full of horror of human existence without being paralyzed by excessive fear and with a desire to minimize the perpetuation of this horror."

Venezuela and Western Media and Political Economy.

Power must always be economical with the truth, frugal even.

The reporting of Venezuela, and the harrying of leftist (humane) politicans to condemn Madura is a case in point.

Who is rioting on the streets?. The well to do middle classes. Who is murdering poor people?

Who controls commercial supply of foods? The well to do middle classes. They have food aplenty, and the cash to pay for it, and store it. Food for the poorer, native, mestizo and black population is getting more expensive...... rather it is being made more expensive. By the well to do middle classes. Who are largely of European descent.

Who is most concerned that Venezeulan Oil is 'liberated' - the US State Department, and it's cronies in the Oil Industry.

Why is this happening?

"What the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela inspired by Chavez represents to the establishment – as is the case with Jeremy Corbyn in Britain and Podemos in Spain – is the threat of a good example."

source : https://cultureandpolitics.org/2017/08/07/the-medias-depiction-of-venezuelas-president-maduro-as-a-dictator-follows-a-familiar-pattern/

Public Inquiries, a problem arises.

Listen to one panel member of the Child Abuse Inquiry 'underway' in the UK, under the auspices of The Home Office.

Looking at the fact that three people who were selected to head this Inquiry have been removed or have quit .... two were rejected by Survivor groups (who know a thing or two about public inquiries into such matters...), one resigned, and returned home, to Australia. The fourth is in place...

The Inquiry is proceeding. But there are serious issues.

In an extraordinary interview recorded 11th August, 2017, a child abuse survivor who served on the Government’s independent inquiry into historic child sexual abuse has claimed she was silenced by Theresa May’s advisors to ensure that Ms May became Prime Minister.

Source : http://evolvepolitics.com/listen-historic-child-abuse-panel-member-i-silenced-theresa-mays-advisors-ensure-became-pm/

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of Ms Sharon Evans’ startling claims about her time serving on the inquiry.

I have got a document, it’s 23 pages. When I appeared in front of the Home Affairs Select Committee – which should be where you openly and honestly answer the questions and challenges of MPs, and where it’s actually an offense not to tell the truth – they (the Home Office) provided me with a 23 page document telling me exactly what I may and may not say.

Ms Evans says that she was so alarmed by the nature of the Home Office gagging document that she went to the clerk of the Parliamentary Committee to tell him that she feared she may not be able to tell the truth because of it.

Bear in mind that a Parliamentary Committee is a privileged arena, where one has liberty to tell the truth, where lying is a criminal offence.

Sharon Evans also had an extremely depressing message for the victims of the Grenfell tragedy about what she has learned about Establishment collusion during supposedly ‘independent’ inquiries such as this:

When asked by interviewer John Nicholson about her advice to the Grenfell Inquiry panel members, Evans said:

I think from what I’ve been hearing that people are already being encouraged to come and give information informally – and this is where we started on the child abuse inquiry – but the thing is it seems like it’s exactly the same. I want to stop them going down the same road where their information is controlled and suppressed, because when there is an inquiry they can control information and decide what is released.

Hillsborough, anyone?

You can listen to Ms Evans’ extraordinary interview with talkRADIO below:

So yeah, it's all going on.... as it has been for quite some time.

The institutions of political power, and those who occupy executive positions in corporate power are allied in their determination to retain, enhance and project their alliance of interests over the best interests of the people they claim to 'serve' - you and I, and your family, community and local and national collective.... the taxpayer and his or her children.

So here's one way to look at all of this: Taxation is a shared contribution, the cash is held in trust by Government, to be utilised on our behalf, and it is not the property of The Government.

It is our cash. That implies a duty of care to spend that cash wisely, based on evidence and need, to nurture equity across our populations, be any of us rich or poor, strong or vulnerable.

That is not happening , blatantly. And anyone who dares to suggest it should happen is attacked, denigrated, undermined and dismissed.

We Pay Their Wages. (and coroprate power pays their benefits)

I think we need a cross ideology-multicultural non-sectarian party called "The We Pay Your Wages Party" and we need to be willing to engage and directly instruct Government to meet the duty of care articulated above, in order to better nurture our society and to prevent the abuses I have briefly indicated above, and the many, many others we are all well aware of.


Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Thank you for reading this blog. All we need to do is be really honest, responsive to the evidence we find,and ready to reassess when new evidence emerges. The rest is easy.

WHY we hear so few Survivors voices in the Public Domain.

There is a term for this coercive behaviour  towards children, which is typical within 'traditional education systems' : Poisonous Pedagogy:

"Poisonous pedagogy", is described by these theorists as what happens when a parent (or teacher, nurse, or other caregiver) believes that a young child's behavior demonstrates that the child is infected with the "seeds of evil", and therefore attempts to weed out the evil, either by emotional manipulation or by brute force. Simple examples include the beating of children as punishment for lying, or mothers who refuse to feed their newborn until a set time, in order to "teach him patience, which will be useful for him in later life".

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

And on top of that is a Hierachically Violent social power system, which requires pathologically dysfunctional people to maintain, defend and expand that power system. Hence the coercive education. 

It's a form of deep conditioning to ensure a constant supply of willing participants, though they do understand that it's not the perfect system, and some children escape, some breakthrough and others are utterly broken, whilst the majority just conform and internalise the values of the system.

And then there's the few that will become the one's most suited for power. With the least empathy, a thread of intentional brutality and the greatest ability to manipulate others. They are 'spotted' and groomed for power.

Distal Power has a great influence on ALL our lives, and the further removed from it one is, the greater the vulnerability. the greater the adverse affect, with little ability to protect oneself.

ALL Institutions of Power will seek to protect themselves from 'scandal' - the problem for them being the exposure of the truth, rather than the outcomes for those who have been victimised : The Vatican (Ireland, America Sexual predation of children within Catholic Institutions), The Canadian Protestant Churches,(Indian Residential Schools) The Australian State and the Australian Churches (Stealing Aboriginal Children by force and placing them in Boarding Schools).

This list must also include the people's of Iraq, Afghanistan, South America, South Africa : all the 'inquiries' that have been National Political events controlled the voices of the Survivors, filtering them so only those approved spoke in the public domain, and these Inquiries focussed on reconciliation and settlement over prosecution. They carried out massive, expensive, well advertised campaigns to say 'Sorry'. In order to protect their power. They paid out billions in civil damages. In order to protect their Power.

It is a common pattern, a constant thread through the entire historical record covering the past 5000 years in Hierarchically Violent Societies that grew through conquest. Through violence. Extreme violence.

Here's a psycho-dynamic theoretical outline of how such cultures emerge from the human story. What I wrote.

http://dwylcorneilius.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/two-poles-of-society-everything-in.html

The REAL story is the Survivors story - they were there, they have the most pertinent insights in all of this. And they are still not being heard, not being listened to, not being understood.

Be they Survivors of child abuse, war, police brutality, bullying in schools, offices etc etc etc... be they aboriginal peoples, the environment, the elderly in 'care homes', teens in 'secure care homes', people who have been sectioned...

They all know more about this than anyone one else.
Which WHY we hear so few Survivors voices...... in the public domain, in the 'News' etc etc ..

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

The Vatican, The UN Torture Committee and Reward/Sanction Methods of behaviour modification.

On Friday 9^th May, a report on the questioning of The Vatican before the United Nations Torture Committee was released into the public domain at the same time that calls from within other Christian denominations emerged, from within The Protestant Churches and Evangelical Churches, to address their known issues with reporting and prevention of pedophilia and other acts of mistreatment, cruelty and serious abuse of children occurring in all settings they were and are responsible for.

The call was to not do as the Vatican has done, and seek to attempt to manage or control the ‘crisis’ so as to protect their ‘image’ and ‘status’ which inevitably causes even more trauma for all survivors.

With regard to the torture matter, it is really crystal clear to me that every form of indoctrination to which children are subjected that comes with with sanction, punishment, chastisement and reward is a form of psychological torture.

"If you are driven by the threat of eternal torture to be a good person, you're a frightened person.

 

To instil, indoctrinate, inculcate or impose upon a small child's body, mind or psyche the feeling or sensation or thought frame associated with fear of existential punishment, as a psycho-social structure or some 'moral code', as coercive and violent as it is, is torture.”

This means that the person using such a coercive process upon a child is frightening the child and a frightened child, quite obviously,  will not see sense in the instruction and the matter will thus require coercion, to ensure compliance. All for 'the child’s own good', of course. And for the good of Society.

Of course.

This is based on a dreadful misperception of the child, which has been a foundational meme of Christian European culture and indeed Abrahamic cultures for a long, long time, (the fear of Satan/The Wild in the child that must be tamed at all costs) and it mirrors all sorts of adverse power relationships that are institutionalised into our mainstream Societal structures even to this day.

This dynamic mirrors the relationship between Power, Law, the State, and the Citizen. The power issue is the core of the problem, from the personal to the Institutional. It is because this Christian-post Christian social thought map strikes at the heart of one’s sense of self as a vulnerable child that it has so much power over the adult, especially if the adult has ‘adapted to fit in’ and is less than fully aware……  with generation after generation ‘adapting to fit in’ it is easy to see how over time those PTSD patterns become ‘normal behaviour’.

I will address this aspect a bit further down this piece.

Last week, Democracy Now reported on these issues, and there was a specific report on the Evangelical Churches in the USA which I found very interesting.

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/5/8/protestant_church_faces_new_sex_abuse

The news team interviewed Kathryn Joyce, a reported and researcher, who had some really interesting comments to make, one of which I wish to point out, whilst at the same time I recommend listening to the whole Democracy Now report on this link.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ (newsteam): We turn now to a new exposé that asks if the Protestant world is teetering on the edge of a sex-abuse scandal similar to the one that has rocked the Catholic Church. The person trying to address the problem may surprise you. As sex-abuse allegations multiply, it is Reverend Billy Graham’s grandson who is on a mission to persuade Protestant churches to come clean. Kathryn Joyce’s cover story in The American Prospect profiles Boz Tchividjian, a law professor at Liberty University, a school founded by Reverend Jerry Falwell, and former prosecutor who has worked on many sex-abuse cases. He used his experience to found an organization called GRACE: Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment.

AMY GOODMAN (newsteam): GRACE made headlines in February when the famous evangelical school, Bob Jones University, hired it to interview faculty and students about their experiences with sexual assault, then fired it before it had a chance to report the results, only to hire it back after a public outcry. Well, reporter Kathryn Joyce joins us now to discuss this major exposé, "By Grace Alone: As Sex-Abuse Allegations Multiply, Billy Graham’s Grandson is on a Mission to Persuade Protestant Churches to Come Clean." Kathryn Joyce is also the author of The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption and Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement.

and then the interview starts: 

Joyce outlines the Grace case with regard to the Bob Jones University and other details she has researched. This part is at 43 minutes on the play timer. She makes a very point about Authoritarian settings and predatory behaviour.

AMY GOODMAN: And the missionary kids?

KATHRYN JOYCE: And for the missionary kids, these were the subject of GRACE’s two first investigation, two different very large international missionary groups, where the children of the missionaries being stationed in foreign countries, known in Christian culture as MKs, missionary kids, they were enduring just kind of epidemic levels of sexual abuse in a number of different countries. GRACE’s reports focused on two in particular, on the New Tribes Mission and their boarding school in Fanda, Senegal, and also ABWE, another missionary organization, and what happened on the mission field they had in the 1980s in Bangladesh. And two different situations, but a lot of similarities, in some ways, in that these were both kind of very authoritarian atmospheres where children were expected to do what any adult kind of in their world was telling them to do, and this made them, sadly, kind of very vulnerable to abusers who came by.

AMY GOODMAN: And you’re talking about the missionary kids. What about the people in the communities they come to, for example, in Senegal or in Bangladesh? What happens to them?

KATHRYN JOYCE: I’m sure that there are stories there, as well. GRACE’s two reports in these situations focused on what happened to the children of missionaries, but I’m sure there are even more untold stories in terms of the children already living there who were, in many ways, much more vulnerable

.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: In some of your writings, you’ve dealt with the issue of patriarchy and its relationship to religious thinking. Any sense on your part whether there are structural or philosophical directions in the churches that allow this kind of stuff to be covered up?

KATHRYN JOYCE: Well, I think, absolutely. And obviously, not all very conservative Christians or all members of the self-described patriarchy movement are going to be abusive. But reading all of these reports and looking at all of this and speaking to dozens of people, it kind of does become clear—and GRACE’s assertion—that a main factor contributing to abuse and the silencing of abuse, of victims, is authoritarian structures that focus much more on rigid rule following, on hierarchies within a church or within a community, on the subordinate role of women and children. And when you have all of these things coming together alongside a culture that sees it as imperative to cover up mistakes so that you can still promote the cause of Christ, that you are being a good evangelical witness, a lot of these things conspire to make abuse not just more common, but much more invisible.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, what most surprised you, Kathryn Joyce, in your investigation?

KATHRYN JOYCE: Well, I think what surprised me the most was watching in real time this pattern happen of GRACE going and starting and doing this investigation, getting a year into it, having spoken to dozens, a hundred of people, and then having the institution back out. This had happened once before with the mission group ABWE, and then it happened again with Bob Jones. And it was very interesting to see that. And it raised this interesting question about whether or not there is a catch-22 at the heart of GRACE’s incredibly admirable mission, that they are being hired by the groups that they’re investigating. And I think that that’s a really interesting question to ponder, but I think we also have to look at their work and say that this is very well—very much needed.

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

“a main factor contributing to abuse and the silencing of abuse, of victims, is authoritarian structures that focus much more on rigid rule following, on hierarchies within a church or within a community, on the subordinate role of women and children.”

What she says speaks for itself. It also mirrors James Prescott's findings and insights from his 1975 Paper : Body Pleasure and the Origins of Violence.

Here’s a two page outline showing his findings in a .pdf form. 

Comparison of Social Behavioural Characteristics of Low and High Nurturant Societies 

It provides a peer reviewed anthropological narrative that accurately describes a variety of emergent social or cultural structures over time and distance, ranging from Egalitarian Nurturing Communities to Hierarchically Violent Controlling Communities. 

And the same pattern persists as Kathryn Joyce describes :  that within this range of cultures the predictor of violence as an emerging trait, or sustained pattern of behaviour of any given culture was always the degree of disruption to the child mother bond, and or the degree of control or inhibition imposed on emergent adolescent sexuality and the presence and enforcement of rigid gender power roles. 

These are resonant with post trauma behavioural patterns, where the trauma remains unresolved, where the pain remains, coping with internal pressure or conflict drives much behaviour. From the individual to the collective, aspects of the coping mechanism or strategies are internalised as within the range of ‘normal’ or expected behaviour. 'Boys don't cry'. 'Women are more empathetic'. 'Boys will be boys'. 'Girls seek out powerful men'.

The reality is of course that everyone caught up in trauma related social structures is to some degree affected by the situation, and most will have internalised aspects of it, it’s negative values and prejudices as part of that affect, and this makes for some confusion when boundaries are broken what ought to remain explicit.  The roles played out in that dynamic are hardly markers of optimally healthy human behaviour.

Kathryn Joyce's last point, about what can happen when Survivors groups get too close to the Institutions whose intent to remain and retain their power, and is less than honourable, is also very interesting, because there is a fairly well documented history of Institutions who are liable for harms caused offering an apparent ‘olive branch’ to survivors, where it becomes clear that the intended primary beneficiaries of that ‘olive branch’ is those proffering it. 

That there is a pattern of powerful institutions manipulating Survivors groups, individual survivors and NGOs through offering forms of ‘support’ favoured by the Hierarchy of that Institution. 

I think that Survivors groups need and deserve more support - and respect!- from the wider Society in confronting this situation, a necessary confrontation which has been in full flow in the public domain for nearly 30 years of public reporting of allegations, on matters than have been harmfully adverse for many hundreds of  thousands of children …  it’s narrative of Power and abuse matters for all of us, and how we deal with it will be part of the estate we pass on through inheritance. We intend to give this the focus, energy and commitment it demands.

Kathryn Joyce (And Democracy Now as ever) also bringing a much needed clarity and calm, a de-hyping of the story, a humanisation of the narrative, which is maturing the discourse and is therefore  incredibly valuable.

The main element I wish my readers to take up in why I wrote this piece, is to look at the Kathryn Joyce’s description of how an Authoritarian situation is that much more vulnerable because it has within it many of those compliance behaviour dynamics that suit predatory activity, where there is fear of The Hierarchy as much as there is respect. That fear permeates the entire issue. And it is all too often a fear and respect of distal power, a power one cannot touch or see or even influence, a power that holds life or death power over all.

That fear, that the power of life and death might be exercised upon The Vatican, drives the irrational behaviour of The Vatican, and for them that fear is so intense that it makes it rational in their mind-set to do what they are doing. 

That fear is the largest part of what really drives the ‘support’ The Vatican et al receive from their adherents, the Faithful. Who would want to lose that careful illusory safety net that blind faith, in any are of life, creates? Let alone walk right up to it and say “No! I will not stand for this!”

And it would be so easy to criticise those people for their compliance with the Institution, yet the Survivor in me has to go beyond that distaste and anger, and not to lose either sense, but to integrate them into a larger narrative, of my own life, and that of the Society into which I was born and into which I brought my own child, and it is for her and all her contemporaries and their children and grand children that I must address my actions.

The psychology, behaviour and outcomes of the activity of the Institutionalised Authoritarian Culture of Power and how these affect the majority of people alive to day have to be recognised, observed and understood. 

This psychology and behaviour needs to be observed where it occurs in all hierarchical behavioural structures, from the personal to the largest collectives. Transparency must exist in order to prevent such abuse occurring in the future, starting now. This is the ultimate precondition.

Transparency.

Authoritarianism breeds the fear that drives secrecy. 

Transparency removes it.

Privacy is not to be conflated with secrecy. 

Healthy boundaries are essential attributes in all living organisms. 

Transparency is not arrived at in an invasive environment of surveillance; it is a choice that permeates relationships, interactions and outcomes.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Letter : We should be grateful to Survivors who have spoken out.

A Chara,

The recent arrests of three men accused of sexual abuse of children at Carrignavar Boarding School reveals what has been studiously avoided by so many, that abuse was just as prevalent in fee paying boarding schools as it was in Industrial Schools. I know, as I attended five 'elite' fee paying Catholic boarding schools for 12 years.

Perhaps the reasons for this avoidance are two fold.

There are some who went to those schools, who were abused, though not sexually, and who to this day would claim that the experience made them the men they are today.

The second reason might be that some of these alumni of the 'better sort of boarding school' have been or are still in positions of power and prestige, and their lack of self empathy might affect their willingness to face the truth of their own experience, let alone the truth of Survivors testimony.

Perhaps it also affected and still affects their decision making in other areas, especially with regard to Governance, in that a lack of self empathy runs concurrent with a lack of empathy for others.

It is clear to all and sundry that Irish Governance has demonstrated a clear lack of empathy for the people of Ireland for a long time.

Perhaps the courage of Survivors who have spoken out, even when others have refused to accept their testimony, might be seen as part of the healing of Irish society, leading us all towards greater empathy.

We should be grateful.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Martin: Church inquiry team to report to Pope by Easter

http://www.irishexaminer.ie/breakingnews/ireland/martin-church-inquiry-team-to-report-to-pope-by-easter-501326.html

My letter in response :

A chara,

"Diarmuid Martin said the apostolic visitation appointed to help the catholic church in the wake of the clerical sex abuse crisis, has completed its work."

Again, the focus is on helping the Church, not the Survivors.... Helping the Church to do what?

'Manage the crisis'. As any Survivor will tell anyone who cares to listen, or whose heart is strong enough to feel or sense what it is like to be a Survivor of childhood sexual abuse or brutality perpetrated by Clergy in Institutions of 'care', the focus on managment of 'the crisis' wounds, and re-wounds all Survivors, because it is fundamentally dishonest and not about the Christian values of compassion, healing and nurturance, but about the non-christian values of Power and Status.

That anyone, be they clerics or Government Officials, can stand by and not act rapidly in the best interests of the Survivors, is a profound indictment of our Society.

The sad truth is that if it were not for the voices of Survivors, this would remain a secret even still.

Where are the good people of Ireland? Where are the good Christians?

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

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