The Big March against bullying

A new initiative to draw attention to bullying and in particular that of lesbian and gay youngsters is sadly very timely. In the last week I think there have been three suicides recorded here in the United States where we are on holiday. The most recent followed a university student being filmed and outed by his room mate and another student.

I watched a chat show this morning on which Whoopi Goldberg took a prominent part (I am a great fan of her) and was saddened that the underlying homophobia was over looked in favour of lessons on ethics and awareness of the immediacy of today's information technology. Of course those involved didn't want the outcome they have caused and received... I do not dispute that, but cannot help feeling that the environment in which these young people were being "educated" carries a large share of the blame - as do their families. A life has been lost for no good reason at all and there is a danger in forgetting that it was a gay man who has died needlessly on account of his sexuality. This is as barbaric as the appalling crime in the Islamic world against women who have been raped and been brave enough to report it.

There will be sympathy expressed for all the families involved: I hope those directly involved reflect every day of their lives on the enormity of the deed they have done.

Gay bashing and bullying isn't a cyber crime - when it leads to this sort of event it is murder and should be treated as such.

Amazing advances in technology

I am constantly amazed by the technology I keep stumbling across: today it is a programme for my iPod that enables me to scribble this blog from my sun lounger beside a pool in Palm Springs. No pen or paper, no wired computer: just my iPod and finger.

As a hack blogger I am sure this post will need serious editing at some point but .... the freedom of this little computer and a wifi connection are staggering attainments in my mind.

I have attached a photograph from Kyoto to link with my earlier tweet today about Basho, one of Japan's greatest poets and whose writings I am enjoying on this holiday!
"Disturbing the stillness
of an ancient pond
a frog jumps into the water:
Deep resonance."

So there: some more blogged thoughts on this and that as I scribble and sketch my day through!

Rhodesian Pioneers Day

Exactly 120 years ago to today, Cecil Rhodes's pioneer column reached what was to become Fort Salisbury (Harare). My grandfather, Alfred James Maclaurin, was a member of that amazing group of people who left the comparitive safety and comfort of the Cape to explore and settle in the unknown.

History has not been kind to their memory. Written off as murderers and opportunists intent on self enrichment, they were a vital part in the wider influence and colonial achievments of Britain. Without them I would not be sitting, working and enjoying a massively superior standard of living to theirs. 

The pioneers didn't just settle and acquire benefits for themselves: they changed the lives and fortunes of the people that they encountered. Some will argue that it was an unwelcome and unwanted invasion - but throughout the course of world history that has always been the case. Their vision was driven by a desire for greater wealth (mankind never changes), their quest was brave and the risks, enormous.

With invasion and adventure, domination and influence, has also come improvement and advantage. The invading force needs to consolidate its position, and that can only be done with the co-operation of the host. The  military interventions in Afganistan and Iraq have  both highlighted the need for "civil" as opposed to "military" solutions to lead the way to eventual peaceful resolution. Christianity and Islam cannot take hold over a people without converts.

And so it was that the Rhodesian pioneers settled, brought new medicines, a different education, a new religion and eventually a new political system. Wild veld, or bush, was turned into rich agricultural farm land and the rich minerals mined.

Today - I salute, and remember, the positive sides of that incredible risk and spirit of adventure. I honour the memory of my grandparents and my parents who continued - to my advantage - that determination and drive to improve our world, the World. I don't deny that there were costs to the people who saw their world being turned upside down as a consequence - but the wider good cannot be disputed.

A recent discussion I heard asked the question - at what point does "dirty" money become "clean". At what point do we decide that the individual's actions are no longer based solely on self-interest but community benefit, that pocketted cash becomes the acceptable coinage of share markets? The British South Africa Company's 'charter' may have been fraudulently acquired, but after the initial embarrassment, Britain took full advantage.

No one could ever have predicted the events of a hundred years later when Robert Mugabe decided to use Rhodes' pioneers as the justification for using ethnic Zimbabweans to kill each other and destroy their ability to live, let alone prosper, in the 21st century.

All within one hundred and twenty years that wonderful African landscape that was populated by hunter/gatherers, developed into a British colony, then grew into an industrialised nation exporting minerals and agricultural goods around the world, has returned into one of civil strife and, sadly one that exports people desperate for their own survival and protection from their neighbours, rather than wealth.

What will it look like in 120 years?

9/11 - A response

Today's date has gone down in our recent history as one that marked a turning point for the world. Acts of terror that had been fed on an uncaring attitude and lack of compassion, have been followed by even greater numbers of dead, more terror around the whole world and higher levels of political and religious extremism.

Karen Armstrong has written in the Huffington Post today:

9/11 and Compassion: We Need It Now More Than Ever

"The anniversary of 9/11 reminds us why we need the Charter for Compassion. It should be an annual summons to compassionate action. The need is especially apparent this year. In the United States, we have witnessed an upsurge of anti-Muslim feeling that violates the core values of that nation. The controversy surrounding the community centre near Ground Zero, planned by our dear friends Imam Feisal Rauf and Daisy Khan (who were among the earliest supporters and partners of the Charter) has inspired rhetoric that shames us all. And now we have the prospect of the Quran burning proposed by a Christian pastor, who seems to have forgotten that Jesus taught his followers to love those they regard as enemies, to respond to evil with good, and to turn the other cheek when attacked, and who died forgiving his executioners.

If we want to preserve our humanity, we must make the compassionate voice of religion and morality a vibrant and dynamic force in our polarised world. We can no longer afford the barbarism of hatred, contempt and disgust. At the same time as we are so perilously divided, we are drawn together electronically, economically and politically more closely than ever before. A Quran burning, whenever it is held (it appears to have been delayed for questionable reasons by the pastor behind it), would endanger American troops in Afghanistan and send shock waves of distress throughout the Muslim world. In an age when, increasingly, small groups will have powers of destruction that were previously the preserve only of the nation-state, respect and compassion are now crucial for our very survival. We have to learn to make a place for the other in our minds and hearts; any ideology that inspires hatred, exclusion and division is failing the test of our time. Hatred breeds more hatred, violence more violence. It is time to break this vicious cycle.

courtesy of bbcimages

In response to the prospect of a Quran burning, some people planned readings of the sacred Quran. Others are organizing interfaith gatherings on September 11. Each person who has affirmed the Charter, each one of our partners and associates, will know how best to respond in his or her own community. It is an opportunity to protest against the hatred that is damaging us all; to sit and do nothing is not an option. Instead of looking at one another with hostility, let us look at the suffering that we are seeing in so many parts of the world -- not least in Pakistan, where millions of people have been victims of the flooding. On September 11, let us all try to find something practical to do that can, in however small a way, bring help and relief to all those in pain, even -- and perhaps especially -- those we may regard as enemies. We are all neighbours in the global village and must learn to live together in harmony, compassion and mutual respect.

Imam Feisal Rauf is a Sufi. Over the centuries, Sufis, the mystics of Islam, have developed an outstanding appreciation of other faith traditions. It is quite common for a Sufi poet to cry in ecstasy that he is no longer a Muslim, a Christian or a Jew and that he is at home equally in a synagogue, mosque, temple or church, because once you have glimpsed the immensity of the divine, these limited, human distinctions fall away into insignificance. We need that spirit today -- perhaps especially near Ground Zero. Here I would like to add some words of the great thirteenth-century Sufi philosopher Muid ad-Din ibn al-Arabi, which I have found personally inspiring:

Do not attach yourself in an exclusive manner to any one creed, so that you disbelieve all the rest: if you do this, you will miss much good; nay, you will fail to realize the real truth of the matter. God, the omnipresent and omnipotent, is not limited by any one creed, for He says, "Wheresoever ye turn, there is the face of Allah" (Quran 2.109). Everyone praises what he believes; his god is his own creature, and in praising it he praises himself. Consequently he blames the beliefs of others, which he would not do if he were just but his dislike is based on ignorance.

It is time to combat the ignorance that inspires hatred and fear. We have seen the harm religious chauvinism can do; now let us bear witness to the power of compassion."

Former Roman Catholic nun; Author, 'Through the Narrow Gate'

Posted: September 10, 2010 08:24 PM

Today of all days, we need to stop awhile, and take stock, lest we pass yet another golden opportunity to stop the carnage.

As useless as - a banana tree in Japan?

One of Japan's greatest poets was a man called Matsuo Basho (1650-1722). He is credited by many with lifting haiku into "the realm of perfect poetry".

Basho was born Matsuo Kinsaku but later known as 'Toshichiro', and occasionally, 'Chuemon'. In 1664, his first two poems, hokku, were published under the pen name 'Sobo'.

In 1666, he moved from the city of Ueno to Kyoto's Kinpukuji Temple, and there studied Japanese and Chinese classics, as well as calligraphy. He returned home briefly in 1671, but the following year moved to Edo (Tokyo). It as there that he met the poet, Soin, a metaphorical poet whose influence on Japanese poetry was then at its peak and, subsequent effect on Matsuo so great, that he changed his pen name again: this time to Tosei. His poetry changed dramatically as well to a much freer, more metaphor filled style and this is illustrated by a poem written on a home visit from Edo:

                                        My souvenir from Edo

                                        Is the refreshingly cold wind

                                        Of Mount Fuji

                                        I brought home on my fan.

In 1680, one of his admirers built him a small house in Fukagawa, in a relatively isolated spot near the Sumida river. Another of his fans presented him with the roots of a Basho tree (a type of banana) and this was planted beside the house which he then called "Banana Hut".

                     The leaves of the Basho tree are large enough to cover a harp. When they are wind-broken, they remind me of the injured tail of a phoenix, and when they are torn, they remind me of a green fan ripped by the wind. The tree does not bear flowers, but unlike other flowers, there is nothing gay about them. The big trunk of the tree is untouched by the axe, for it is utterly useless as building wood. I love the tree, however, for its very uselessness ... I sit underneath it, and enjoy the wind and rain that blow against it.

Yet again, the much admired and talented Matsuo Kinsaku changed his name: this time to Basho (Banana tree) and with that, went on to change Japanese poetry and the art of haiku for ever. 

                                                   Breaking the silence
                                                   Of an ancient pond,
                                                   A frog jumped into the water -
                                                   A deep resonance.

Greatness can lie in the most mundane of things.  Even the seemingly, most utterly useless of objects (a tropical fruit tree in Japan) can contain great Art; and from Nature, great minds draw their inspiration. Thus it is that in William Blake's "world in a grain of sand," Basho's banana trees can be found growing.

(For more: read Penguin Classics: NOBUYUKI YUASA's introduction to "The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travels" by Matsuo Basho).