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.

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 Weds 23th Feb 7.00 pm

http://www.housmans.com/events.php

'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

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Sat 26th Feb 11.30am - 1.00pm

http://www.bpec.org/

 Brighton Peace & Environment Centre - book signing and demo

 39-41 Surrey Street, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 3PB

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Sat 26th Feb 2.00-4.00pm

 Earth and Stars (pub) - lecture

26 Windsor Street, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 1RJ

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Fri 11th March 7.30pm

 Quaker Meeting House

21 King Street, Hereford HR49BX

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Sat 12th March 2.30pm to 6.00pm

 Crown Hotel

 43 Lime Street, Liverpool, L1 1JQ

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Wednes 16th March 5.30 - 8.30pm

 Bosworth Independent College

 Queen's Building

Barrack Road

Northampton

NN2 6AF

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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.

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

He learned it from the Survivors themselves, and followed that up with a detailed review of all historical documents on the matter, and found that yes, indeed, their harrowing stories were more than common: ubiquitous.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

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4929/ 

"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.....

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6637396204037343133# - UNREPENTANT

"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.

http://www.restorativejustice.org/

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

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

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

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?

http://www.restorativejustice.org/

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)

http://www.alicemiller.com

http://www.birthpsychology.com

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

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

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

Watching Big Fat Gypsy Weddings : propganda, assimilation?

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/my-big-fat-gypsy-wedding

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

Self Healing Tips : we can all develope our own according to our needs

I discovered this by myself one day, by noticing that there was nothing happening in the room I was in to drive the feelings and emotions I was experiencing, and it came to me that these must be old, past feelings.... feelings that little Corneilius had been unable to resolve (I had learned that my chidlren could resolve their own feelings if allowed to by calm active listening and empathic parenting.)

So I started to talk to little Corneilius...........

I started like this : "Little Corneilius, it's big Corneilius here and I am an adult, and I love you and I can take care of you and hold you safe. Can you talk to me about the first time y...ou felt this way?"

And then I let insights come, and I used art and writing and sound to express what came up, and recorded thses, and over time I noticed that the feelings and emotions became less intense, and that I started to grow through those ares I had stopped growing as a child....

I found that this could work too for areas where I couldn't feel - I would ask littel Corneilius to talk about the first time he had to silence or suppress his feelings and why.....

I did this regularily for about three years and do it now from time to time as I feel the need....

What this taught me was that it's possible to evolve our own self-healing tools, from our own insights into ourselves.

I also learned that little Corneilius would not come out until he felt it was safe to do so, and that it never worked to push little Corneiliu, that when he was ready was when he was ready and he was usually spot on.

I know from experience that it's always inappropriate to push the child, and it's most often for the adults needs rather than the childs needs that such pushy behaviour emerges. One of the things that made me push was Societies admonitions and shoulds. These are all external drivers of behaviour, and external motivation is always less efficient than intrinsic self-motivation.

Thios is what I call natural wisdom.





Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Are we a grown-up, responsible people .......... Letter to Irish Media.

Are we a grown-up, responsible people capable of managing ourselves with integrity and intelligence?” is the key.

(this piece was written as a response to some of the more divisive, angry and potentially abusive postings on the net with regard to the current situation in Ireland. I beleive it appplies across the Earth...)

If we are, then we don’t leave it to others – WE get involved, at the local level, and we reject the concept of being ruled, of Governance being in POWER.

We take our responsibilities towards OUR Society seriously.

We find ways to discuss, to... share information, we find ways to avoid squabbling and acting out our anger, wats to utilise that anger so it’s energy is directed towards creativity, we find time to create understanding, empathy and common ground that includes diversity, that finds ways to integrate the diverse as a pool of information and insight towards the goal of managing our country together.

Some might say it’s a lot to ask for. Well it’s not going to be easy, that’s for sure, Not as easy as voting, and sitting back, doing bugger all and handing over taxes as payment for services – we cannot afford to be mere consumers of political ideologies, of our favourite and most liked personal prejudices….

We need to mature.

We need to start and we need to be courageous enough to do this, knowing that while we don’t have all the answers, we can find them, test them and move forwards as a Society.

I am saying that we have to be aware of how our own anger and our vulnerability can be used against us; how we can be triggered by the abusers, who KNOW our vulnerabilities well.. and do exploit them - look at the Redress Board and how they took an adversarial approach to witnesses - that adversarial approach was designed to exploit known vulnerabilities of Survivors, to create hesitation in their statements and thus to sow doubt about their testimony.

Look at how unresolved anger is triggered by propaganda. These processes are known and understood by Power and used to great and unfortunately lethal effect - eg: Afghanistan and Iraq and anti-muslim propganda, or anti-imigrant propganda.

Forgiveness, if it is to occur, can only be on the basis of true remorse on the part of the perpetrators, with reparations and restorative justice actualised, in material terms, and can only be offered by those who suffered as individuals, and is more importantly to be seen as a way of enabling Survivors release themselves from the pain, shame, confusion and anger they feel.

A shorter version of this was also sent out to Irish Media, and was published in the Irish Independent on February 1st 2011.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Ireland, the World : Litany of Abuse, Litany of Shame : more to come

Ireland, the World : Litany of Abuse, Litany of Shame  

Here are links to on-line copies of the reports thus far from investigations of Institutional Abuse in Residential Schools, clergy abuse in parish's in Ireland.

• Communique At Beginning Of Apostolic Visitation To Ireland
• Vatican Response (12/12/2009)
• Dublin Report - Part 1 (Beginning)
• Dublin Report - Part 1
• Dublin Report - Part 2
• Dublin Report - Appendices
• The Ryan Report (In Totality)
• The Ryan Report - Executive Summary
• Ferns Report (in Totality)
• Ferns Report - Executive Summary
• The Murphy Report Part 1
• The Murphy Report Part 2
• The Murphy Report Chapter 19 Father 'Jovito'

There are  26 dioceses in Ireland, and reports for three have been completed, with two having been released to the public domain. A third has been completed, but has yet to be released. 

   

This is the tip of the iceberg, not just in Irish terms, but also in worldwide terms.. these patterns of abuses have occurred in Canada, United States of America, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Australia where there are ongoing investigations, and in many, many other countries, in particular those lands colonised by the European powers during the last 400 years.

Strategy

These abuses also include the world-wide 'assimilation' processes of the 19th and 20th Centuries in Colonised lands, aimed at undermining the traditional cultures of the colonised, whereby Native Aboriginal children were taken by force under the juridstiction of Law and placed in Residential Schools, to be educated in the ways of the Colonist.  
 
There is clear evidence, well documented, of legislated processes whereby Aboriginal Children were taken from their families and forced into residential schools, evidence from the USA, Canada, Australia and many, many other places... 

What those children, so many, went through!

Here's a propaganda film from the 1950s in Canda concerning these Residential Schools 


Here's one of the foundational documents outlining the philosophy behind these programs.

What I am describing here amounts to a world wide, and long-term, intergenerational pattern of systemic Institutionalised abuse, with clear political and economic aims, and, subsequently as the facts have been revealed, a world wide pattern of cover-up - an a cover-up that is tactical, mediated, strategic; that reveals a clear intent, and worse a clear understanding of the vulnerabilities of Survivors, vulnerabilities which are exploited to protect the Institutions and individuals involved in abuse, neglect or denial.   

What trauma did those children suffer? What of their families and communities? Why? What of  the Poor, those people who have little, whom nobody wants to be,and  yet so many are, so many?

Tactics

This exploitation of Survivors known vulnerabilities can often re-traumatise, and that in and of itself is a criminal act, in that the exploitation is intentional, mediated, known, understood in terms of it's potential effects. 

There are many cases where questioning by defendants adversarial legal teams and investigators is directed not at the issue, but at the person, in what are attempts to trigger the claimant.  

One example that occurs all too frequently is that survivors of pedophile priests are asked, during cross examination, whether or not the priest in question was circumcised! 

In most cases, this is difficult to determine in an erect penis, especially if the survivor is young, and considering that usually such an assault involves huge amounts of stress..... (a common response in situations like this is for the victim to shut of awareness, to look away, anything to not have to face the full impact of the situation.)

This of course is understood by the defendant legal team, and thus the questioning of this sort is a tactic to try to 'punch holes' in the witness testimony. Any hesitation on the wintesses part could then be used to undermine the reliability of the witness, in the court.

At the very least this is cruelty. It re-traumatises the Surivor. As this video shows clearly. 

It is certainly an utterly repugnant practice, though common in criminal and civil actions in courts all over the world. It is called 'destroying the witness'. 

This pattern of exploitation of claimants vulnerabilities is similar in nature to the approach and methods of errant Corporations and Banks. They use their resources to tie people up in courts, in order to drive the claimants towards 'out of court' settlements which usually demand secrecy or silence on the matter therefater, which block further civillitigation, and criminal prosecution and which the defendant can use to to deny the original charges.

There are examples of this kind of exploitative behaviour from Social Services as well. 

Alternatives

And it doesn't have to be this way. Empathy is not an airy-fairy hippy dippy concept. It certianly can and should be integrated into any process of restorative justice, and can be taught to those involved the the administration of restorative justice (which is the prime responsibility of The State, and should be the primary concern of The Vatican). And it certainly ought to be the bed-rock of ALL social services training. And school-teaching for that matter. Certainly the Police could also benefit from it.

There is NO excuse for the apparant lack of empathy on the part of State or Vatican in this matter. They certainly cannot claim that they are unaware of these dynamics as the professionals and researchers who have helped develope the understandings concerning empathy and restorative justice have communicated, in very clear terms, with the Vatican and most, if not all Justice and Health System Ministeries around the Earth.

Something inspiring to listen to :

Here's a revelatory radio show, from Why Radio at Radio Times : "As the worldwide call for accountability grows louder, we talk about what state and federal governments can do to protect children against sexual abuse by clergy. Our guests are law professor Marci Hamilton and Sister Maureen  Paul Turlish, an educator and victims advocate".

The discussion is amazingly clear, compassionate and honest. Utterly unflinching. Highly reccomended.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Andrew Brown's Blog in The Guardian - Facing the truth.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/17/pope-benedict-cardinal-bernard-law

"A leader who wished to end the crisis would sack Cardinal Bernard Law "

Andrew Browns Blog 

THE GUARDIAN - March 17 2010 - St. Patricks Day (irony of ironies)

One ought to read this 'opinion' piece very carefully - it is a protective of The Vatican, , it is a clever piece of propaganda, and all the more nasty for that.

"What has driven a great deal of the outrage is the perception that the church placed itself above the secular law. Well it does.AS A GLOBAL INSTITUTION IT MUST. Otherwise it has no more moral worth than Google or News International, or any other multinational which will do business wherever it is profitable. And – especially under the Polish pope John Paul II who fought so hard against communism – the church's moral worth was validated by its utter refusal to bend to the standards of the society around it."

The author Andrew Brown, also implies that the 'scandals emerged' during the 70s and 80s and are over - he ignores the fact that the Residential Schools System worldwide (both Church and State) operates still, has operated for over 100 years, and that in that time, many millions of children have been profoundly harmed, by a culture of abuse thathas been described as endemic.

The Vatican leadership has long been aware of pedophile rings operating within the Church - the recent Ryan Report (2009) and more recently the Murphy Report in Ireland merely serves as one reminder of this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_to_Inquire_into_Child_Abuse - The Ryan Report

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy_Report - The Murphy Report

The same pattern is repeated across the world. The Last Indian Residential School in Canada was closed in 1996. These were run by Catholic and Protestant Churches, in conjunction with the State.

http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org - Hidden From History : The Canadian Holocaust

The Canadian Social Services have taken over the role of 'assimilation' - Aboriginal Children are 50 times more likely to be fostered than white european children in Canada, and that figure has risen as the Residential Schools were shut down.

http://www.demeterpress.org/untilourhearts.html

Until Our Hearts are on The Ground -

Aboriginal Mothering, Oppression, Resistance and Rebirth

Edited by D. Memee Lavell-Harvard and Jeannette Corbiere Lavell

White fosterers are paid three times the rate that Aboriginal mothers are paid in State support.

This pattern is seen in all countries where Church and State operated Residential School Systems.

Assimilitation by other means. Social services as a tool of social engineering and 'resource exploitation'. The reason for the forced assimilation is that the lands from which these Aboriginal peoples emerge are rich in 'explotable resources' deemed neccessary for the Economy. 

Uranium, Coal, Oil, Timber, Gold. To access the lands the Aboriginal peoples have to be co-opted or removed.

In Ireland, Australia, the USA and elsewhere, those populations whose children were formerly sent to Residential Schools are now more likley to experience forced removal of children, who are placed in State 'care' or are fostered. The poor, the distressed, the damaged, the Aboriginal.

Andrew Brown is either unaware of these facts, and their implications, in which case his article is lazy; or he is ignoring the facts, in which case he is being ignorant.

And both of these, given the serious nature of the matter, are harmful.

There are many other like Brown, public apologists for what is criminal activity.

They must  be confronted at every turn.

Empathy demands that one NEVER uses another as a means to an end.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

Letter Published Examiner Ireland 24 January 2011

Here's a pdf file of letter published in The Examiner, and Irish Daily Broadsheet, based in Cork, Ireland.

The text is as follows :

THE residential school system story and all that goes with it is a far greater crime than the IMF story.

It is a crime in which the Irish State and the Vatican are equal partners. No party in Ireland at present can say it has dealt with this issue decently, honourably. What is it that stops the Irish people from defending the survivors, from demanding that those who protect the Vatican, who indemnify the Vatican and themselves from civil and criminal liability, be brought to account?

One thing I have noticed is the absolute silence on abuses within the elite fee-paying boarding schools which occurred — I know I was there. I am a survivor.

Ireland and its people need group therapy and fast. Without looking at the psychology, the intergenerational patterns of abuse and their effects, without understanding how the abused are forced to 'adapt'  to a situation where abuse is constant, no future Irish government will do any better.

"The ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable.

Atrocities, however, refuse to be buried. Equally as powerful as the desire to deny atrocities is the conviction that denial does not work. Folk wisdom is filled with ghosts who refuse to rest in their graves until their stories are told."

Remember what Judith Herman wrote: “Remembering and telling the truth about terrible events are prerequisites both for the restoration of the social order and for the healing of individual victims.”

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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

David Smail on Depression in 1989

Here's an insightful video, of David Smail, speaking of depression and the woundedness of those who have suffered from circumstances not of their own making.







I urge everyone to view this, to listen carefully to the fullness of what David says. His words are dense with meaning, with empathy and understanding.

Note especially that he says the most sensitive are often the most perceptive. The wounded see Society for what it really is. They are more wounded because of that perceptual ability.

This piece of video was made in 1989, during the height of the Thacherite years... and it has special resoance for these times of 'austerity' for the distressed and wounded, and bonuses for the wealthy....

This video outlines what Alice Miller has shown to be the dynmaics of abuse that are most common, that underpin much of the Dominant Cultures realities, the things that do harm, the kinds of adults those who have not faced their childhood woundings who later inflict those same woundings on others.







This is not to excuse those who cause serious harm, but to understand the dynamics of intergenerational abuse patterns.

Tony Blair can only get away with what he has done, David Cameron is getting away with what he is doing, because so many of us are wounded, blocked and in denial about the nature of our Society.


We must face these truths in order to change the patterns.

Remember what Judith Herman wrote:

"The ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable.

Atrocities, however, refuse to be buried. Equally as powerful as the desire to deny atrocities is the conviction that denial does not work. Folk wisdom is filled with ghosts who refuse to rest in their graves until their stories are told.

Remembering and telling the truth about terrible events are prerequisites both for the restoration of the social order and for the healing of individual victims.”

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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