December the month that was unblogged

Sorry for not updating my blog but in December I ended up having only 4 days off including today, & the time was spent getting ready for the festive period. But what a month it was with Nelson Mandela dying, aeroplane disasters, storm winds, Russia taking note that the world is watching them & India taking a backwards step in gay rights.
So taking each one in turn Nelson Mandela from which ever perspective you saw him became an emblem of hope & equality for many, OK he did have his freedom fighter days & sidled up to some communist factions, though on reflection can you blame him on either actions, as in his own country that was the only way he could get noticed & it was the communists who offered him support when the more democratic countries were trying to get him hanged. But it is what he did in his time in prison & saw to the equal rites of his people when he was elected we should focus on, the world misses you Madiba.
Russia freed Pussy Riot & the Greenpeace protesters as the world turns its attention to the country even more with Socchi 2014 drawing ever near, but it is not just the people who want freedom & equal rites that are noticing Russia as religious extremists are using the world's attention their advantage too. Hopefully Russia will look to seeing about sorting it's backwards slide in human rites & in turn perhaps India will have a change of heart too. OK that is possibly delusionally optimistic, the reality probably wont be thus.
So to the disasters, my thoughts go out to the families who have lost loved ones in the storms & plane crashes of recent times. My thoughts also go out to those who spent a miserable festive period without power & hope that you managed to get some sense of enjoyment through the festive period somehow, whether it was spending time with family that may not have seen otherwise or they celebrated Christmas on another one of the 12 days instead.
In the next couple of days I hope to put my musings of the festive period up, as well as other things that have crossed my mind too. Enjoy the remaining 6 days of Christmas & have a happy new year

Gun Violence

It is with great sadness that another case of gun usage on another human being occurred & the fact that it is high profile is equally as bad, the world would be a much better place without them. My thoughts go out to the family of Reeva Steenkamp. I can't emphasise enough how much I don't agree with gun ownership for those whose jobs do not require a need for one, defence is not a reason as the gun the person owns can be turned against you by a skilled attacker. Thankfully with Barack Obama calling for tighter restrictions on gun laws in America it could make his country a lot safer if only the republicans could see that instead of thinking more guns are the answer to the gun problem where Joe Normal turns psycho & goes on a killing spree. If we could remove all guns from the world it would be a much better place. It is a sad case where a tool becomes a weapon & then make it an even deadlier weapon over time, but many weapon starts out this way as a sword was originally an agricultural tool. Guns do not make you look cool they just make you look like a scared psychopath who couldn't defend themselves in any other way. Although tighter gun laws are a step in the right direction, we need a more rigid system across the world to help stop the statistics of gun crime increasing. Perhaps a Battle Royale situation for anyone caught with a gun who does not need one for their job & the winner gets to live in a cell for the rest of his life may work & it will solve the over population of the planet crisis at the same time.*

Please do not take the last comment seriously.

Religious Backlashes

Religious extremism hasn't half been busy recently, mainly to fatally or the stuff that hit the news has been. I have not seen the video in question that has caused such controversy, but most people who I know who have seen it have all agreed that the video is poor, that it is some racist Islamaphobic idiot trying to cause more upset. Unfortunately religious extremists of 'Islam' have risen to the bait & started killing people who had nothing to do with the idiot's video (I have put Islam in inverted commas as it is written nowhere in the Koran that you should go around murdering people). I can't think of anyone who thinks that the guy who created the video was right & nobody I know thinks that the fall out from the video was justified either. People in Libya agree too forcing the militias out who carried out the attacks on the American Embassy, the people of Libya Muslim or otherwise condoned what had happened. Muslims are not the only ones who have to put up with the extremism of people of their faith, though the way the news is reported by some right wing news papers you thought it would be, but others do it too. There are people been killed for being witches by Christians in the world which apart from a few notable cases go unreported. There have been those who have burnt copies of the Koran too. But there are extremists in most faiths so don't think I'm anti any particular one it is just that these examples are the ones that stick in people's minds more. So if you want to know how most people feel about these religious conflicts going on ignore the papers, many times you'll see faiths helping each other in the community rather than being at war with each other if you just take your mind away from the extreme few. Think about the innocent Muslims who are being tarred with the same brush as the deranged few etc, & you will come through a better person than those who believe the media hype.

The World has not gone away just because the Olympics is here

I am guilty of referring to the Olympics a lot, but I have not let the rest of the world go unnoticed, there are still problems in the Middle East, Gore Vidal died, South Sudan & Sudan have come to a trade agreement, the north of India had a major power outage. A millionaire gets found murdered in London. Has the Olympics provided a much needed screen to develop peace or is it clouding us from what is actually important in the world. Are we just getting carried away just so we can have just a couple of weeks thinking that all is well in the world? Is it helpful? One thing for sure this time this year is a stark contrast to the riots of last year & yet the country is still in an economic turmoil. Perhaps the unification of this country behind one thing has done us good at a very tough & turbulent time. But please everyone do not take your eyes off the ball as far as the rest of the world is concerned.

The Olympics so far

With the opening ceremony not embarrassing us, well mostly, the chronological order of history was out a fair bit & a random volunteer leading out India, what can we say? Well good things & bad, as of time of writing this Team GB have not got a gold medal (though hopefully this is about to change, but not holding my breath). One amazing thing is that every team this year has a female competitor, it has surprised me that it took this long but hey, there is also women's boxing for the first time too, so yay for women's rights. The amount of openly LGBT competitors is down though, so not quite so good, but that is probably more to do with the qualifying times/scores of the individuals & the ability for some of the athletes to be out. We're doing OK as a nation on medals but not fantastically. But as an event for Great Britain well it doesn't seem to be working out too well financially. the British tourists are staying away from Olympic areas as they are expecting the traffic to be a nightmare & most hotels have put up their rates 10 fold so putting them out of price reach for somebody wanting to take in a show in London for the weekend or go to the beach at Weymouth. Stratford-upon-Avon however has had a boost to there economy because people want to see Shakespeare's stomping ground. A fair few of the sponsors of the Olympics had been tax dodging until protesters tightened their grip on them & looking at the Olympic sponsors, why don't we go all out in unhealthiness & have KV the official pork scratchings of the Olympics & Mr Kipling & Ginsters can have a go too. Then there is the empty seats, although they do seem to be seeing to that already. Will the Olympics boost our economy the answer seems to be no at the moment, with the irony that now London's attractions are so quiet now that it would be the perfect time to visit them. So far though I have been enjoying them, predominantly because I have been selective what I have been watching. But what happened to the quintessentially British sports of tossing the caber, gig racing, cheese rolling, pub skittles & street football? We were even good at tug-o-war back in the earlier days when it was an Olympic sport, why did we not see those we could have stood a chance of getting a gold in those, OK with the exception of gig racing & tug-o-war they are not international but we could have seen something interesting. Anyway off to check the medals board.

Congratulations Aung San Suu Kyi, May Your Vision be Long Lived

Although Burma is not yet at the point it needs to be, it seems to be heading in the right direction. Aung San Suu Kyi has stuck to her guns (metaphorically speaking as she is against the high military involvement of the running of the country) & fought for what was right at great cost to her emotionally & even under house arrest she never gave up hope of a peaceful democracy emerging someday. She has fought long & hard for the rights of the Burmese people sacrificing her own freedom for what she believed. She seems to be bringing about change through none violence & urging others to follow her precedent, she was gracious in victory in the polls & urged other parties not to be disheartened by her victory as they may get victory the next time round. she still has many challenges ahead like all the other people of Burma do, but things seem to be heading in the right direction & we hope that they continue to do so. The military maybe the biggest obstacle to face but hopefully they will see her way in the end. I'm hoping that this will not be the last of what she is inspiring & my congratulations are not premature. She is an amazing woman & many of us could take a leaf from her book, including me at times. Congratulations, all the best, Pagan Chaplain