Wednesday 29 July 2009

UK politics - your chance to vote for a change - right now

Hi,

I've signed a letter to Gordon Brown asking for a referendum at the next election on the way we elect our politicians. As a supporter of the Vote for a Change campaign I believe there's been too much talk and not enough action on bringing about the reform at Westminster we need to clean up our politics. Here's where you can sign up too;


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It's time for a referendum on the electoral system

Voters should be directly involved in shaping the process of selecting their MPs.

We call on the shamed politicians of the UK to hold a referendum on the electoral system no later than the next general election - June 3rd 2010.

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The site says;

'Reports in today's (26.07.2009) Observer suggest the government is prepared to meet our call for a referendum at the next General Election.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jul/26/referendum-constitutional-reform-labour-elections

It is good news that the government appears to have conceded the principle of referendum on voting reform. It provides some evidence that the current crop are actually capable of change.

But Brown has not moved nearly far enough. Yes, this crisis of accountability requires a change in the fundamentals of politics - and that begins at the ballot box. But a choice between the status quo and system decided on by the government displays much of the same 'Westminster Villager' thinking that got us into this mess.

No employer would let job applicants rule on recruitment, employment and retention - the decision over votes must be given to the British people.

Now is the time for us all to make the final push. We need your help, and you can start today by telling your friends to sign up.

http://voteforachange.co.uk/invite


The wisest decision Brown could make is to take the choice of system out of the hands of politicians. The public have a right to rule on the type of politics they want to see at Westminster, not to be told what they want by its current inhabitants.

MPs are right to worry about the collapse of trust in politics. But rebuilding it requires them to trust the voters.'

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Go HERE to see the Vote for a Change site

Friday 24 July 2009

Women as the voice of conscience in and for Iran

There can’t be a happy ending to our story, if only the human rights of certain segments of society are considered

soheila_vahdati02Editor’s Note:  Dr. Vahdati is an Iranian-American human rights activist and freelance writer who has published extensively on the effects of the death penalty, women’s rights and gender issues in Iranian journals.  Dr. Vahdati published the following article in the online Persian journal Iran-Emrooz, addressed to Mrs. Fakhri Mohtashamipour, wife of Seyyed Mostafa Tajzadeh, who served as the Political Vice Minister of the Ministry of the Interior of Iran in the government of President Mohammad Khatami.  Tajzadeh was arrested in June 2009, amidst the Iranian election protests.

Click on link to read the article

Posted via web from sunwalking's posterous

Wednesday 22 July 2009

What do Bigfoot believers, ‘Intelligent Design’ cheats, and ‘Panaphonic’ and ‘Somy’ electrical gear fraudsters have in common?

big-foot-steveSeeing is believing – this shows incontrovertible proof that bigfoots exist!

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. What do Bigfoot believers, ‘Intelligent Design’ cheats, and ‘Panaphonic’ and ‘Somy’ electrical gear  fraudsters have in common?

– my response to Brendan Cook’s article ‘Bears in the Woods’

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Brendan Cook has written an extraordinarily well-crafted piece entitled - The Bears in the Woods. It clinically exposes various kinds of fraud and fraudulent thinking.

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This post of mine is by way of an appreciative response, and an attempt to show what underlies the kinds of fraud about which Brendan so eloquently writes.

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The subjects of The Bears in the Wood are a roll call of evils buzzing around in our world – deception, self-deception, sowing confusion, superstition, fundamentalism, forms of truth-telling masquerading as their opposite number……

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These, and a whole fist-full of others, are the symptoms – but what is the disease?

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The disease is the inability, or unwillingness, to understand the different forms of truth-telling.  Ken Wilber has described the three ways of truth, and their telling, in two or three of his books.  He called them the ‘I’ ‘WE’ and ‘IT’ voices, three means by which we investigate reality and express ourselves.

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There’s nothing strange about I, WE and IT they are our forms of expression that correspond to the three major academic groupings the Arts, The Sciences and The Humanities.

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If you are a Scientist you are concerned, primarily, with IT-truth i.e. the kind of truth-telling about objective reality, using the methodologies of science.

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If you are an Arts-person you are primarily concerned with I-truth – the subjective truth that says ‘this is how it looks and feels to me, where I am, being me’.

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If you are a Humanities person you are, primarily, concerned, primarily with moral truth – as action in the world.

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Of course each form of truth-telling makes use of the other two – we are after all a single individuation of the human spirit!

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Interestingly spiritual-mystical experience is inevitably an ‘I’ form of truth-telling – it can be no other, and the mystical is the core of religion and religiosity.  However the study of religion and the action of religion falls under the moral truth of the Humanities.

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Religion is harmful, useless even, not only if it is the cause of conflict but also if it fails to lead to right action, in the world, in service of others.

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I have published 21 posts (of varying length and quality!) on our three I, WE and IT ways of being, expressing, and doing,  i.e.  HERE

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The reasons that people are deceived, or self-deceive, are of course, a different subject.  They might include the need for a security blanket, the need for certainty, the need to be right, the need to be on a side that looks like the winning group, the desire to be of the chosen people etc.

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Of course there are also plenty of snake-oil salesmen willing to start a religious group through which  they can manipulate and exploit those with such needs as I’ve listed above.  Fundamentalism is as Karen Armstrong says ‘the lust for certainty’.  Intelligent design is an unwillingness to focus on the real benefit of religion as an inspiring story and focus instead on mind-bending, mind-destroying literalism.

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Karen Armstrong is one of two writers who brilliantly expose the nonsense of misappropriating the methods and claims of one form of truth-telling in trying to operate in another.  (Terry Eagleton is the other).  Key to this understanding is the restitution of Mythos (heart-knowing, intuition) as the partner to Logos (reason, head-knowing).  For more on this see my posts, (of variable length and quality!) - HERE

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There is I believe a positive correlation between the historic subjugation of women and the sustained attempt to eliminate the voice of Mythos. Although the in-validation of Mythos is not strictly a gender issue, more the invalidation of the feminine, heart-knowing ,voice.    (Mythos unlike Logos isn’t in the WORD 2007 dictionary – it slipped away like women in history)

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Armstrong again writes at length about the restitution of Mythos, to counter-balance Logos, in her latest book HERE

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Two of the key phrases in The Bears in the Woods are;

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1) ‘and his standard of proof changes‘ – (the Bigfoot believer, Intelligent Designer believer etc) -  this of course points up the need to have moral integrity and the ability to understand the positives and negatives of the three major forms of truth-telling.  Above all it points up the hypocrisy of relying on a set of criteria only when it suits pre-judice.

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2) ‘he’s doing for personal fulfillment‘ (the Bigfoot believer) – this is a clear example of what happens when we are demanding one set of truth by misapplying and distorting one set of truth-telling rules.  The individual, the big-foot believer should be doing art about fantasy creatures instead of trying to justify the unjustifiable via unwarranted ‘scientific’ assertions.  This of course is ‘scientism’.

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Is ‘religionism’ a co-equivalent term for scientism? – to describe the mis-application of its form of truth-telling?  There is dire need for such a term.

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Another excellent cultural critic Terry Eagleton has also recently published a book highly relevant to this discussion.  There is a review of both Armstrong’s book and the Eagleton book –  HERE

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What do Bigfoot believers, ‘Intelligent Design’ cheats, and ‘Panaphonic’ and ‘Somy’ electrical gear fraudsters have in common? – ultimately an aversion to truth and integrity and honesty.  What is the antidote?

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Education is the answer, but between the cynical exploitation of children and youth, as in the deification of wretched specimens like Michael Jackson, and the equally cynical exploitation of the parents by snake-oil religionists it takes special souls to escape the morass!

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Understanding the difference between I truth, IT truth and WE truth can help some.  Others are just on the make, or simply feel snug in their fundamentally-wrapped-up world.

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Why see shades of grey when black and white thinking gives so much more self-satisfaction?

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Monday 20 July 2009

Jimmy Carter still has the courage to stand up for gender equality

  • Jimmy Carter
  • July 15, 2009
Illustration: Dyson

Illustration: Dyson

Women and girls have been discriminated against for too long in a twisted interpretation of the word of God.

I HAVE been a practising Christian all my life and a deacon and Bible teacher for many years. My faith is a source of strength and comfort to me, as religious beliefs are to hundreds of millions of people around the world. So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when the convention's leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be "subservient" to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.

Click on link to read the 'age' article.

My admiration for the man has soared.

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Sunday 19 July 2009

What exactly are religion and spirituality and what are they for?

signpost

QUESTION: “What exactly is religion, how’s it distinct from spirituality and what’s it for?”

1 “What is religion?” - Religion is organised spirituality –

a) self-organized, integrated, focused consciousness (+ or -) in the case of the individual,

b) group-organized in the case of sects etc.

2 “What is spirituality?” - Spirituality is that which isn’t physical.  Includes the intellect!

3 “Again what is spirituality?” - Spirituality is feeling (heart) – preferably supported by reason, and right action.

Dawkins = ultimate narrow view

Karen Armstrong & Terry Eagleton = broad view

4 “Again what is spirituality?” - Spirituality is encounter and experience in how we relate to the unknown and unknowable – to Ultimate reality + reflection.

Subsequent to encounter spirituality becomes the eyes with which we see, the ears with which we hear

Belief, objectively true or false, is the meaning and motivation we derive from encounter, and allied experiences + reflection + study.  This provides our worldview.

5 “What is mysticism?” – Mysticism (the real stuff c.f. self-delusion or mental illness) = the heart of spirituality, and (the means to) true religion –

”Mystical experience…..does not seem to me to be anything other than first-hand religious experience as such. This is, however, the core of religion…..…the explanatory function of religion is secondary and derivative.” (Hick)

6 “What is the worldview that each of us has?” - Our worldview is how we ‘read’ the world. Our worldview includes that of which are conscious, plus that which derives from enculturation & socialization.

7 “How is our worldview formed?” - Enculturation, socialization, beliefs and world-view determines our identity – and therefore our actions.  (E.g. –  Taliban – no school for girls, blow-up priceless Buddhist sculptures!)

8 “What is the process of true religion and spirituality?” – Becoming more fully conscious of Oneness, and its implications, and acting accordingly, is our purpose.  (This is also a definition of faith ‘Consious knowledge + right action’.

9  So religion =

a) PERSONALLY – encounter experiences, inc. of Ultimate Reality, and reflectively what we make of them

b) SOCIALLY – any agreed set of relationships, teachings and customs held in common with any religious group of which one has membership, to which we subscribe.

10 Rituals, prayer, meditation & other practice = remembrance + short-cuts to possible encounter experiences (but thoughts of the washing or shopping may get in the way).

11 Progress in spirituality is measured by regularly bringing oneself to account – in relation to the standards of your spirituality, world-view and religious group/s (if any).

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Etymological issues:

The English word “religion” is derived from the Middle English “religioun” which came from the Old French “religion.” It may have been originally derived from the Latin word “religo” which means “good faith,” “ritual,” and other similar meanings. Or it may have come from the Latin “religãre” which means “to tie fast.”

Start doing your own research:

One good starting point is provided by the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance.  See HERE

The definitions I like best from this source are;

George Hegel: “the knowledge possessed by the finite mind of its nature as absolute mind.”

Paul Tillich: “Religious is the state of being grasped by an ultimate concern”

Others are;

The Religious Tolerance group tell us that David Carpenter has collected and published a list of definitions of religion, including:

1 Anthony Wallace: “a set of rituals, rationalized by myth, which mobilizes supernatural powers for the purpose of achieving or preventing transformations of state in man or nature.”

2 Hall, Pilgrim, and Cavanagh: “Religion is the varied, symbolic expression of, and appropriate response to that which people deliberately affirm as being of unrestricted value for them.”

3 Karl Marx: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”

Don Swenson defines religion in terms of the sacred: “Religion is the individual and social experience of the sacred that is manifested in mythologies, ritual, ethos, and integrated into a collective or organization.”

4 Paul Connelly also defines religion in terms of the sacred and the spiritual: “Religion originates in an attempt to represent and order beliefs, feelings, imaginings and actions that arise in response to direct experience of  the sacred and the spiritual. As this attempt expands in its formulation and elaboration, it becomes a process that creates meaning for itself on a sustaining basis, in terms of both its originating experiences and its own continuing responses.”

5 He defines sacred as: “The sacred is a mysterious manifestation of power and presence that is experienced as both primordial & transformative, inspiring awe & rapt attention. This is usually an event that represents a break or discontinuity from the ordinary, forcing a re-establishment or recalibration of perspective on the part of the experiencer, but it may also be something seemingly ordinary, repeated exposure to which gradually produces a perception of mysteriously cumulative significance out of proportion to the significance originally invested in it.”

He further defines the spiritual as: “The spiritual is a perception of the commonality of mindfulness in the world that shifts the boundaries between self and other, producing a sense of the union of purposes of self and other in confronting the existential questions of life, and providing a mediation of the challenge-response interaction between self and other, one and many, that underlies existential questions.”

CONCLUSION to QUESTION: “What exactly is religion, how’s it distinct from spirituality and whats’ it for?”

“What exactly is religion,”

Religion personally = a) encounter experiences, inc. of Ultimate Reality, and what we make of them.

Religion socially/organizationally =  any agreed set of relationships, teachings and customs held in common with any religious group of which one has membership, and to which we subscribe.  The ‘to which we subscribe bit’ because many Catholics don’t agree with e.g. no-contraception and I once found that 40% of a class in a RC school believed in reincarnation!

“how’s it distinct from spirituality and”

Religion is a) ways to institutionalize organized spirituality and b) ways for maximising the chances for more religious experiences, and for hearing good reflection on such experiences.  Moral behaviour and service action should follow!  Spirituality is a natural and almost omnipresent part of being human like philosophising, creating, loving or breathing.  Spirituality does necessarily need religion but, at best, can greatly benefit from it.

“whats’ it for?”

Religion, and responsible spirituality, are means to help us become more fully, positively and integratedly human in order to be of service to others.  In doing this we develop higher-order qualities and virtues.  It is not unreasonable to suppose that the absolute form of such qualities and virtues are the names and attributes of God, and that in acquiring them to an above average degree is worthy of the appellation ‘truly religious, truly spiritual’.

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To read the full article by the Religious Tolerance group go HERE

Reference:

Hick, John, (1981) Mystical Experience as Cognition in Understanding Mysticism, ed. Richard Woods, London: The Athlone Press – p423

My final question – “Why are there so many religious intolerance groups?”

Dr Roger Prentice – main site = www.pre.me.uk

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START FREEDOM! - STOP PEOPLE TRAFFIC - STOP MODERN DAY SLAVERY

Are you ready to START FREEDOM?  
 

These young people are taking part in START FREEDOM

Image: still from the START FREEDOM film.

WATCH THIS
SIGN UP YOUR SCHOOL
SIGN UP YOUR YOUTH PROJECT

1) Sign up & be part of START FREEDOM to STOP THE TRAFFIK www.startfreedom.org

2) Forward this e-mail to any students, teachers or youth leaders that you know.

3) To find out how you can get this into your local sc

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Saturday 18 July 2009

Perennial Philosophy course - request for help with course materials

Perennial Philosophy course – request for help with course materials

Perennial_Philosophy_cover

I have to prepare a course on ‘Perennial Philosophy’.  Perennial Philosophy is a not very suitable name for the spiritual/mystical core said to be the same in all of the great world faiths.

I have some material but would be grateful if anyone has other sources to point me to or positive suggestions for a new approach.

Thanks

Roger

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Dawkins the ‘fundamentalist’ takes a left and a right to the chin!

Good and EvilLiving in this post-modernist time one of the problems is knowing who the bad guys are.  I’m sure fundamentalism is a bad thing – because it bears bad fruit.

For me Terry Eagleton is the best writer about the human aberration known as fundamentalism.  (SEE Chap 7 of After Theory)

His new book is Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate

Karen Armstrong is the best popular presenter of the historic perspective of religions and their fundamentalisms. (SEE The Battle for God)

Her new book is The Case For God

Saying that science has made religion redundant is rather like saying that thanks to the electric toaster we can forget about Chekhov, says Terry Eagleton in this gloriously rumbustious counter-blast to Dawkinsite atheism. Eagleton, who is perhaps Britain’s most venerable cultural critic, is not a Christian, though he was in the 1960s. But he continues, unfashionably, to be a Marxist, and his critique of the New Atheists is rooted in the historical materialism of revolutionary socialism, but with a thread of poetry woven through it.
In Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate, his starting point, perhaps paradoxically – and paradoxes sparkle throughout this coruscatingly brilliant polemic – is that Dawkins, along with fellow atheist Christopher Hitchens (or Ditchkins, as he mischievously conflates the pair) purport to be advocates of science and reason. And yet they are disgracefully cavalier with both.
Eagleton is not anti-science or reason. He merely points out that science has produced Hiroshima as well as penicillin. And liberal rationalism, in addition to its many undoubted triumphs, has provided the intellectual underpinning for exploitative capitalism and the wanton destruction of the environment on an unprecedented scale. Indeed Eagleton is stronger on reason than Ditchkins, for he thinks carefully about what his opponents say whereas Dawkins & Co prefer knockabout rhetoric to serious engagement with mainstream religious thought.
This is, then, a demolition job which is both logically devastating and a magnificently whirling philippic. Ditchkins, he says, makes the error of conflating reason and rationality. Yet much of what seems reasonable in real life turns out not to be true. And much that is true, like quantum physics, seems rationally impossible.
For all that, the book levels a broadside at faith too. The history of religion is “a squalid tale of bigotry, superstition, wishful thinking, and oppressive ideology.” Just as communism has misunderstood Marx, he argues, so the Church has betrayed Christ by backing an establishment of warmongering politicians, corrupt bankers and exploitative capitalists for centuries. The Jesus of the gospels, he insists, was as radical a revolutionary who took the side of “the scum of the earth”. The love he offered was as transformative as true socialism. It is easy to see why a lot of people will not be happy with this book. Much of what it says is too true.
Karen Armstrong is radical in a different way in The Case For God which is subtitled What Religion Really Means. What it does not mean, she agrees with Eagleton, is the fundamentalism cited as normative by Ditchkins. Armstrong surveys the intellectual history of religion in a way that is more comprehensive and measured but much less fun. What it shows is that the modern way of thinking about God, as a big bloke with superhuman powers, is a comparatively modern invention. Until 300 years ago almost no-one thought that, and nor do many religious believers today.
Religion, she argues, is traditionally not something that people believe, but something they do – using liturgy, ritual, prayer, meditation and spiritual exercises to discover an awareness of the transcendental inside themselves. It is not rooted in what the Greeks called logos (reason) but mythos (stories which may not be factual but which carry some universal truth about how humans behave). It is not something to be comprehended but something beyond the limits of language which is to be absorbed intuitively like music.
After the Enlightenment, when science and reason became the dominant lens through which we viewed the world, this truth was downgraded. God became a being who stood outside the world to create it, rather than the apotheosis of all that is good in it. This crude reduction suited both fundamentalists and dogmatic atheists alike; atheism in any period always seeks to define the God it doesn’t believe in. The subtlety of theologians like Aquinas, who happily posited the possibility that the world had no origin at all, is forgotten. The intuition of the pre-modern era for spiritual imagination and meditative humility has now calcified into scientific literalism.
So we see a number of revealing shifts in meaning. “I believe” has become scientised to mean “I assert these propositions to be empirically correct.” What it originally meant was “I pledge my heart and my loyalty”. Jesus was asking for commitment not credulity. Similarly the word dogma now means a ruling laid down by authority. But originally it meant a teaching that cannot be expressed verbally but which is intuited through the liturgy.
Fundamentalists, of both the bible-bashing and the Dawkinsite variety, are very anxious to make clear assertions about the God they believe in or reject. By contrast this older apophatic tradition was much keener to assert what cannot be said about God than what can. Ditchkins thinks rationality can bring him to a place of absolute certainty; the old tradition, dating back to Socrates, used reason to arrive in a place where we realise we really know nothing at all. Eagleton makes the same point. Reason operates in a social and cultural context. Modern atheists have their myths and unexamined assumptions too, like the idea that humanity is riding an upward-bound escalator of progress. So wedded is Dawkins to this that he once described the Holocaust as “a temporary setback”. The old Marxist is scathing. “If ever there was a pious myth and a piece of credulous superstition, it is the liberal-rationalist belief that, a few hiccups apart, we are all steadily en route towards a finer world.”
Terry Eagleton’s is a more realistic and darker vision which he characterises as “tragic humanism”. But it holds out the possibility of revolutionary transformation.
Ditchkins’ liberal rationalism, by contrast, is defeatist and has endorsed a cruel and irrational capitalism in which the poor get poorer, the rich richer and the planet overheats. Religion might not have the answers but it asks the better questions.
Richard Dawkins: The God Delusion
The Oxford academic, Richard Dawkins, came to prominence as an ardent atheist, expounding on his gene-centred theory of evolution in his book, The Selfish Gene. His most recent work, The God Delusion, published in 2006, argues that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that faith qualifies as a delusion or false belief. The book has been a runaway success; selling more than 1.5 million copies by November 2007 and translated into 31 languages.

Both are well-reviewed HERE by Paul Vallely

Both according to Vallely make room for God, or at least being human in a non-narrow-materialist way.

Here are a couple of tasters from Vallely’s review.  Firstly about Eagleton;

In Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate, his starting point, perhaps paradoxically – and paradoxes sparkle throughout this coruscatingly brilliant polemic – is that Dawkins, along with fellow atheist Christopher Hitchens (or Ditchkins, as he mischievously conflates the pair) purport to be advocates of science and reason. And yet they are disgracefully cavalier with both.

Eagleton is not anti-science or reason. He merely points out that science has produced Hiroshima as well as penicillin. And liberal rationalism, in addition to its many undoubted triumphs, has provided the intellectual underpinning for exploitative capitalism and the wanton destruction of the environment on an unprecedented scale. Indeed Eagleton is stronger on reason than Ditchkins, for he thinks carefully about what his opponents say whereas Dawkins & Co prefer knockabout rhetoric to serious engagement with mainstream religious thought.

This is, then, a demolition job which is both logically devastating and a magnificently whirling philippic.

and about Armstrong,

Religion, she argues, is traditionally not something that people believe, but something they do – using liturgy, ritual, prayer, meditation and spiritual exercises to discover an awareness of the transcendental inside themselves. It is not rooted in what the Greeks called logos (reason) but mythos (stories which may not be factual but which carry some universal truth about how humans behave). It is not something to be comprehended but something beyond the limits of language which is to be absorbed intuitively like music.

After the Enlightenment, when science and reason became the dominant lens through which we viewed the world, this truth was downgraded. God became a being who stood outside the world to create it, rather than the apotheosis of all that is good in it. This crude reduction suited both fundamentalists and dogmatic atheists alike; atheism in any period always seeks to define the God it doesn’t believe in. The subtlety of theologians like Aquinas, who happily posited the possibility that the world had no origin at all, is forgotten. The intuition of the pre-modern era for spiritual imagination and meditative humility has now calcified into scientific literalism.

So we see a number of revealing shifts in meaning. “I believe” has become scientised to mean “I assert these propositions to be empirically correct.” What it originally meant was “I pledge my heart and my loyalty”. Jesus was asking for commitment not credulity. Similarly the word dogma now means a ruling laid down by authority. But originally it meant a teaching that cannot be expressed verbally but which is intuited through the liturgy.

I really hope that Armstrong and Eagleton consider working in co-operation – they are both great truth-tellers.

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To read the article to which this post refers go HERE

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Friday 17 July 2009

How alienated do you feel?

How alienated do you feel?

How alienated do you feel?435px-Alien

Empowerment, a new vision and orientation, deepened meaning, finding new community, healthy self-regard, social interaction – these would seem to be the answers to alienation, if we invert or reverse the 6 aspects in the analysis by the sociologist Seeman.

The importance of this seems to be vital to many of our challenges such as combatting extramism, knife-crime, mental health and so on.

The sociologist Seeman analyzed alienation into six aspects that still have meaning:

1.  Powerlessness: “Nothing I do makes a difference.”  “You can’t fight city hall.”

2.  Normlessness: “Being ‘good’ just won’t cut it anymore.”  “Nice guys finish last.”

3.  Meaninglessness: “I can’t make sense of it all anymore.”  “What’s it all about?”

4.  Cultural estrangement: “My culture’s values aren’t mine.”  “What is ’success,’ anyway?”

5.  Self-estrangement: “My work doesn’t mean much to me.”  “What I learn in school isn’t relevant.”

6.  Social isolation: “I’m alone.”  “I don’t fit in.”  “No one visits me anymore.”

Give yourself a score out of ten – if there is room for improvement make a plan and get going!

SOURCE – Dr C George Boeree’s excellent site on personality theories HERE

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Wednesday 15 July 2009

Wendi explains Baha'i Human Rights

The unity of the human race, as envisaged by Bahá’u'lláh, implies the establishment of a world commonwealth in which all nations, races, creeds and classes are closely and permanently united, and in which the autonomy of its state members and the personal freedom and initiative of the individuals that compose them are definitely and completely safeguarded. Bahai writings

Today, 11 July, is Baha’i Rights day, when bloggers and tweeters offer a thought on the rights of  Baha’is. Organised by the Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights http://www.bahairights.org/, it is an opportunity to communicate some of the human rights abuses that the Baha’i suffer in many parts of the world.

I expect quite a few people will do this, so I thought I might take a different approach.  `Abdu’l-Baha says that `the moderate freedom which guarantees the welfare of the world of mankind and maintains and preserves the universal relationships, is found in its fullest power and extension in the teachings of Baha’u'llah’. So what does the Baha’i Faith say about human rights and what freedoms does it guarantee?

Click on link to read the article

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Tuesday 14 July 2009

Advancing unity in Cyprus

Advancing unity in Cyprus

Lib Dem peer Lord Watson of Richmond writes about ending the community divide in Cyprus, ahead of his Lords question on Tuesday.

It was a recent visit to Cyprus that has prompted me to put down a parliamentary question for July 14, on the unity of Cyprus.

I was in Cyprus to launch the 51st international branch of the English-Speaking Union and was struck by the surprising degree of dialogue and co-operation between the two communities and their shared desire for a solution despite all the difficulties. A solution is essential, in my view, if Turkey is to join the European Union.

During my visit, I crossed the so-called 'green line' from the Greek Nicosia to the Turkish occupied area and it is surely inconceivable that such a border be allowed between two EU states. Although the no-man’s land at the border lacks the former grimness of Potsdamer Platz in a divided Berlin, it is nevertheless bleak and sad.

The EU Enlargement Commissioner, Olli Rehn, has said on record that Cyprus is “likely to prove a catalyst for Turkey’s progress towards the European Union”. That is certainly my own view.

Click on link to read full article.

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Monday 13 July 2009

U.S. panel demands release of Baha'is facing trial in Iran

(CNN) -- Seven Baha'i prisoners face a death-penalty trial Saturday in Iran amid calls for their release from a U.S. panel on religious freedom.

A U.S. panel on religious freedom has demanded the immediate release of the imprisoned Bahai's.

A U.S. panel on religious freedom has demanded the immediate release of the imprisoned Bahai's.

Responding to a letter from Roxana Saberi, the Iranian-American journalist who spent four months in an Iranian jail earlier this year, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) demanded the seven prisoners be freed rather than stand trial on charges of espionage and religious violations. If convicted, they could face execution.

"In addition to the hundreds of Iranians who have been detained in the context of Iran's disputed presidential poll, many other 'security detainees' arrested long before the June election remain behind bars," Saberi said in her letter requesting U.S. government intervention in the Baha'i case.

"These Iranians and the authorities who have detained them need to know that the Iranian people's human rights are a matter of international concern," she said.

Saberi, who was tried, convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison on espionage charges, spent time in a cell at Tehran's Evin prison with two of the Baha'i prisoners. Saberi was released in May.

Leonard Leo, chairman of USCIRF, said the crackdown on protests after Iran's June 12 presidential elections "have exposed the world to the cold realities about how the Iranian government regularly deals with dissent or views that are a perceived threat to the theocratic regime."

"The charges against these imprisoned Baha'is are baseless and a pretext for the persecution and harassment of a disfavored religious minority," Leo said. "They should be released immediately."

The seven Baha'is have been held for more than a year without formal charges or access to their attorneys, said Diane Ala'i, representative to the United Nations for the Baha'i International Community.

She said the seven are being legally represented by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi and human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani. But according to the human rights group Amnesty International, Soltani was arrested in Iran on June 16 and his whereabouts are unknown.

Click on link to read FULL STORY

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Vote For A Change UK's Channel

Much more on their site - click on link

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Friday 10 July 2009

What's the 'Family and Parenting Institute'? - here's their manifesto

Making families matter

Families matter, and what the Government does matters to families

Nine steps to make Britain Family Friendly

  1. A national overarching family policy to ensure that families are at the centre of policy development on health, education, childcare, work, the law, tax and benefits, housing, transport, community safety, neighbourhood renewal, culture and media. A policy that welcomes diversity, and supports the full range of family relationships, including families often excluded from support services:
  • Black and minority ethnic families
  • Refugee families
  • Families with disabled parents or children
  • Fathers
  • Grandparents and extended kinships.

  • A universal, co-ordinated network of family support services, including support for parents of teenagers, so parents have a place to go for help when they need it, and high quality services for parents who are struggling and for vulnerable children.
  • A family justice system that offers support for parents and children during family relationship difficulties and separation whilst continuing to put children at the centre of every decision.
  • A continuing commitment to support parents' work-life balance, enabling parents to give their children the time and care they need.
  • A childcare strategy that provides parents with real choices and high quality affordable childcare.
  • An ongoing commitment to the fight against child and family poverty.
  • A legislative framework which encourages businesses, the public and the voluntary sector to make their services family-friendly, and protects the interests of parents and children.
  • A community regeneration strategy built on the recognition that local neighbourhoods are fundamental to the health and well-being of families.
  • A commitment to consulting parents about issues which affect their children and families so that they can feel confident that their views reach into local and national government.
  • Click on link to go to the Family and Parenting Institute site.

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    Jesus trunk: nature as well bears the imprint of religious zeal

    Jesus trunk: nature as well bears the imprint of religious zeal

    Filed under: Uncategorized — Roger @ 11:37 am Edit This

    Jesus trunk

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    Thursday 9 July 2009

    Omid Djalili becomes an Infidel - like many great comedians Omid is also a great actor

    Omid Djalili becomes an Infidel

    Omid Djalili (left) and director Josh Appignanesi (right) on the set of The Infidel
    Omid Djalili (left) and director Josh Appignanesi (right) on the set of The Infidel

    By Catrin Nye
    BBC Asian Network

    It's the story of a British Asian Muslim who turns out to be Jewish - oh, and he's played by an Iranian.

    It may sound confusing… but it's the plot for new British film The Infidel, which stars comedian Omid Djalili as a Muslim cab driver who finds out he's adopted from a very different religious background.

    "It's a funny old comedy about Muslims and Jews", says writer David Baddiel, clearly used to summing up his film in a soundbite.

    Director Josh Appignanesi (Song of Songs) is a little less succinct.

    "It's about a sort of everyman chap, second generation Pakistani, a lovable guy who's a Muslim in an everyday way. But he finds out he's adopted, and his real name is it's Solly Shimshillewitz and he was born a Jew. That throws him into comic situations".

    Click on lick to read the full article.

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    Is Alan Johnson an MP who really does have the guts to stand up for change?

    I want to believe you, I really, really, really want to believe you Alan;

    "Our miserably disempowering voting system is such that the citizen who admires the individual attributes of a local candidate but wants a different political party to form the government is forced to sacrifice one for the other.” - SEE Guardian article by Alan Johnson MP

    The question at the back of my mind is this; "If in the unlikely event that Labour had a large majority and you were leader would you still be in favour of voter empowerment?

     

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    UK Electoral Reform - London rally today 6.30pm

     

     

     

    ERS logo

     

     

     

     

     

    Rally for a Change –Today
    6:30pm, Methodist Central Hall

    Yesterday the Home Secretary reaffirmed his commitment to giving the public a choice on change. Today supporters from across the country will gather in Methodist Central Hall to call for a referendum on proportional representation.

     

    The Vote for a Change campaign is already making headway. If you haven’t signed up already head straight to www.voteforachange.co.uk. The Facebook and Twitter group are growing, and we need you to be part it.

     

    Speakers include Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, John Denham MP,  Billy Bragg, poet Dave Neita, Blur’s Dave Rowntree, Helena Kennedy QC, Peter Tatchell, Jo Swinson MP, Gerrard Battten MEP and surprise musical guest…  

     

    Watch twitter and facebook for more details.

     

    If you can’t make it you can still be part of the rally. Leave your questions for our panel of politicians here.

     

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    Tuesday 7 July 2009

    “How was your day dear.” – the place of story and narrative in our lives « 1000 WAYS ….. of celebrating the human spirit

    “How was your day dear.” – the place of story and narrative in our lives

    800px-Blind_monks_examining_an_elephant

    “A number of blind men came to an elephant. Somebody told them that it was an elephant. The blind men asked, ‘What is the elephant like?’ and they began to touch its body. One of them said: ‘It is like a pillar.’ This blind man had only touched its leg. Another man said, ‘The elephant is like a husking basket.’ This person had only touched its ears. Similarly, he who touched its trunk or its belly talked of it differently. In the same way, he who has seen the Lord in a particular way limits the Lord to that alone and thinks that He is nothing else.”

    This story is told in many cultures all over the world – see other versions HERE

    INTRODUCTION:

    It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of story/narrative, both in life generally and in my SunWALK model in particular.  We are a set of stories.  We live in sets of community-stories.  We mature according to the stories to which we subscribe.  Planning is just a projected narrative.  The past we choose to have is a story adjusted.

    In the SunWALK (human-centred studies) model stories are

    the glue that makes of the parts a whole

    the means for structuring experience in communities

    bridges for the flow of culture

    the primary act of mind

    sources of healing and mystical at-one-ment and connective flow

    sources of imagination and creativity

    the means by which we come to understand who we are and what we represent

    where the three forms of truth-telling can come together – the poetic, the objective and the moral

    the means for constructing education cetred on being human, in the world with others

    the means for creative the curriculum framework

    STORY and NARRATIVE:

    Stories Lives Tell; Narrative and Dialogue in Education
    is a study of the centrality of narrative in the work that teachers and other educators do. The three themes of the book are central to the SunWALK model. They are: that story and narrative are primary tools in the educator’s work; that education requires one to take seriously the quest for life’s meaning and the care for persons; and that narrative and dialogue can serve as teaching and learning models that transcend the boundaries of disciplines, professions, and cultures.
    Witherell, Carol and Noddings, Nel, (Eds.) (1991) Stories Lives Tell; Narrative and Dialogue in Education, NY: Teachers College Press

    MYTHS:

    “…man is in his actions and practice, as well as in his fictions, essentially a story-telling animal” MacIntyre takes the view that we/humanity are in the midst of a story & that is through the story/ies that we understand each other and ourselves. MacIntyre p 201

    Storytelling according to Chinua Achebe, the Ibo novelist is “the basis of our existence – who we are, what we think we are, what people say we are, what other people think we are.” John Windsor The Inde 20.8.94

    Myth is where the Muse lives – it is from here we get our creativity. We need to experience life as a poem.

    Through mythology we are not seeking truth we are seeking an experience of being alive in a great wholeness. Aunt Jane.

    All stories consist of – Exposition:Conflict:Resolution

    Narrative has been described as a primary act of mind; children construct their world through story…. This process should be an active experience, involving questioning, problem solving, hypothesising and imagining.’ Cox Report English 5-11, Nov. 1988

    FIRST SITUATION Man in the World and with The World, Nature and Culture – Freire

    “Through the discussion of this situation – man as a being of relationships – the participants arrive at the distinction between two worlds: that of nature and that of culture. They perceive the normal situation of man as a being in the world and with the world, as a creative and re-creative being who, through work, constantly alters reality.” - Paulo Friere, p.63, Education: The Practice of Freedom

    FROM ‘HARD TIMES’ a novel by Charles Dickens

    This tells everything about holism, and the three voices of being human – the Creative ‘I’ voice, the Critical ‘I’ voice and the Caring-moral ‘WE’ voice;

    “Its father as calls me Sissy , sir,” returned the young girl in a trembling voice, and with another curtsey.

    “Then he has no business to do it,” said Mr Gradgrind. “Tell him he mustn’t. Cecilia Jupe. Let me see. What is your father?”

    “He belongs to the horse-riding, if you please sir.” Mr Gradgrind frowned, and waved off the objectionable calling with his hand.

    “We don’t want to know about that , here. You mustn’t tell us about that, here. Very well, then. Describe your father as a horsebreaker. He doctors sick horses, I dare say?”

    “Oh yes, sir.”

    “Very well then. He is a veterinary surgeon, a farrier and horse-breaker. Give me your definition of a horse.”

    (Sissy Jupe thrown into the greatest alarm by this demand.)

    “Girl number twenty unable to define a horse!” said Mr Gradgrind, for the general behoof of all the little pitchers. Girl number twenty possessed of no facts, in reference to one of the commonest of animals! Some boy’s definition of a horse. Bitzer yours.”…………………..

    Bitzer,” said Thomas Gradgrind. “Your definition of a horse.”

    “Quadruped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth, namely twenty-five grinders, four eye-teeth, and twelve incisive. Sheds coat in the spring; in marshy countries, sheds hoofs, too. Hoofs hard, but requiring to be shod with iron. Age known by marks in mouth.” thus (and much more) Bitzer.

    “Now girl number twenty, said Mr Gradgrind. “You know what a horse is.”

    SOME ADDITIONAL SOURCES

    http://www.stevedenning.com/What_story.html

    Ver: 8th July 2009

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    At least the USA is going after some of the bastards who robbed us - Pick A Dick: Huffington Post's Dickipedia

    QUESTION: Why is the Brown govt. not only playing further into the hands of the banks but completely failing to put the previous round of crooks into handcuffs?

    Posted via web from sunwalking's posterous

    Sunday 5 July 2009

    I defy you to read these and not feel better - MyLifeIsAverage - the antidote to sick celebrity consciousness

    Truth, humour, reality & humanity comes in little packages.  Where can you get a daily supply?   Answer the 'MyLifeIsAverage' site.

    Here are today's crop of little packages of truth, humour, reality and humanity.  Ordinary folks microscopic confessions.

    I defy you to read them and not feel better about being you - and being in the world!


    Today, I was talking to myself in my house. The mail man saw me and gave me a funny look. I then pointed to the other side of me head to make it seem like I was wearing a Bluetooth. MLIA
    -0-
    Today my dentist asked me if I floss. I haven't flossed in years but I told him I do every day. He told me he could tell. MLIA
    -0-
    Today, a Billy Mays commercial came on. I felt guilty changing the channel, so I watched the whole thing. I felt as if I had paid my respects to him. MLIA
    -0-
    Today, while hanging out with some friends, I made a witty observation. Everyone laughed. Later that day while around different people, I told the same joke as if I had never said it before, and got a similar reaction. MLIA.
    -0-
    Today, I took a quiz on facebook on whether or not Megan Fox would date me. Even though I'm a girl and I'm straight, I felt quite satisfied to find out that she might date me. MLIA
    -0-
    Today I played basketball with a kid on my street I dont like that much. He complimented on how well I played. I like him more now. MLIA
    -0-
    Today, I needed to walk across a one way street. I still looked both ways out of habit. MLIA
    -0-
    Today I put on a pair of shorts that I haven't worn in a long time. I put my hand in my pocket and found a five dollar bill. I felt as if myself from the past wanted to give a gift to myself in the future. I was satisfied with the gift. MLIA.
    -0-
    Today, I heard a knock at the door. I looked out the window and saw a Fedex truck parked outside the house. I decided to wait until the delivery man was gone to get the package so I wouldn't have to interact with him. MLIA
    -0-
    Today, I was sad about Michael Jackson's death. So I looked up all his songs and downloaded them illegally, but I didn't feel bad cause he doesn't need the money anymore. MLIA.
    -0-
    Today, I sneezed while I was alone. I blessed myself. Then I thanked myself. MLIA.
    -0-
    Today, my parents weren't home so I decided to blast my music, since they always tell me to turn it down. After about 5 minutes, I lowered the volume because it was too loud. MLIA
    -0-
    Today, When I drove under a tree, one of the branches scraped the top of my car. As a reflex, I ducked even though there was no possibility that the tree could hit me. MLIA
    -0-
    Today, in the shower there was a hair on the wall. I didn't want to touch it so I got puddles of water and threw it at it in hope it would fall. It didn't. I then aimed the shower head at it. I fell. MLIA
    -0-
    Today, I wanted to make bubbles, but was too lazy to blow them. I put the bubble wand in front of a fan. It worked and I was amused. MLIA.
    -0-

    MLIA - MyLifeIsAverage is HERE - its the antidote to our sickening celebrity consciousness!

    Posted via web from sunwalking's posterous

    I love all images on the cusp between representational and abstract



    MY COMMENT: This is by Bernhard Edmaier - his book is 'Earthsong'

    SEE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhard_Edmaier

    Posted via web from sunwalking's posterous

    Twitterers please note the taking note of this notice

    dgbsgh

    via Dan Hollins

     

    Posted via web from sunwalking's posterous

    Saturday 4 July 2009

    Isn't this 'sidewalk chalk guy' brilliant!

    Click on link to see a range of his pictures.

    Posted via web from sunwalking's posterous

    Overweight? Want to slim? Want your real self back? Want to be inspired? Want to see the video?

    See the transformation in the Large Fella who went from 501 lbs to 170 lbs through buying and seriously using a bike!

    I still can't work out from his site what he did food wise - other than eat healthy stuff.

    His blog is really about learning to like himself and live truthfully.

    Posted via web from sunwalking's posterous

    Friday 3 July 2009

    Do you value freedom? - please add your voice to Julia Roberts, Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney and Bono's support for Aung San Suu Kyi

    Hi All

    I've just sent my  message of support to Burma's democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

    Add yours here: http://www.64forsuu.org/

    A simple greeting will do.

    Aung San Suu Kyi has now been imprisoned by Burma's brutal regime for over 13 years. 64forSuu.org is a website where celebrities, politicians and the public from all over the world are coming together to send birthday messages of support to the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner.

    Johnny Chatterton Project Manager 64forSuu.org says;

    Dear Friend,

     Today UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon arrived in Burma, as the regime once more delayed Aung San Suu Kyi's trial. When he arrived Ban Ki-Moon said it was his top priority to secure the release of all of Burma's political prisoners - this is a breakthrough for us as that's what we've been campaigning for him to do for many months.

    We need to ensure that Ban turns words into action. The regime is hoping that by stringing out Aung San Suu Kyi's trial the world will forget her; we can't let that happen. We need tens of thousands of people across the world to show that they haven't forgotten her by demanding that the regime release Suu Kyi and all of Burma's political prisoners at 
    http://www.64forSuu.org

    The global movement calling for the release of Suu Kyi has never been stronger. With over 16,000 messages, and the backing of political leaders, major celebrities  such as Julia Roberts, Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney and Bono, 64forSuu.org has demonstrated the scale of global outrage. Over a hundred thousand people support her on Facebook 
    http://www.facebook.com/aungsansuukyi, and thousands are supporting her on Twitter (by using the hashtag #ASSK64 Twitter). 
     
    TAKE ACTION: LET'S KEEP THE PRESSURE UP
    Aung San Suu Kyi is Burma's most high profile political prisoners but  across Burma there are 2,154 other political prisoners enduring appalling conditions inside Burma's squalid prisons. They face brutal torture, are banned from receiving family visits and denied proper medical care. Please go to
    http://www.64forSuu.org now and leave a message calling for their release.
     
    With your help we can show that no matter what the regime trys the world will never forget Burma's brave political prisoners.
     
    Thank you,
     
    http://www.64forSuu.org

    PS: If you're not already, please become a supporter of Aung San Suu Kyi on Facebook: 
    http://www.facebook.com/aungsansuukyi


     


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    Dera Gordon, Dave & Nick 14 Ground Rules for Respectful Dialogue and Professional Behavior

    14 Ground Rules for Respectful Dialogue and Professional Behavior

    Often times when we are communicating with our co-workers, partners or even loved ones we forget how to communicate effectively. Many times in-effective communication leads to conflicts. When we are involved in conflicts we tend to react rather then respond. I want to share some ground rules with you. Fellow entrepreneurs, take note. 

    These rules provide a framework that support open, respectful dialogue, and maximum participation for discussing controversial subjects. 

     

    1. Listen Actively -- respect others when they are talking and do not interrupt. 
    2. Treat others' feeling with respect and dignity. Do not dominate the conversation. 
    3. Speak from our own experience instead of generalizing. One way to do this is to use 'I' instead of "they," "We," and "you".
    4. Speak about problem(s) directly with the person(s) involved and avoid complaining to others about the problem. 
    5. Be candid and honest, but do not blame, attack, embarrass, or put-down other people. 
    6. Ask questions respectfully for clarification or to get information, but not to intimidate. 
    7. Refrain from personal attacks -- focus on ideas and core issues rather than personalities. Attack the idea or the problem, not the person. 
    8. Participate to the fullest of your ability -- a cooperative spirit and team progress depends on the inclusion of every individual voice.
    9. Instead of invalidating somebody else's story with your own spin on their experience, share your own story and experience.  
    10. The goal is not to always agree -- it is about hearing and exploring divergent perspectives. Examine consequences and consider alternatives. 
    11. As we think about the past, focus on  the lessons we have learned from the past. Focus on the future that you would like to create.
    12. Be conscious of body language and nonverbal response -- they can be disrespectful as words. This is specially true when working with people that come from different cultures and backgrounds.  
    13. Take responsibility for observing the ground rules. 
    14. Come up with your own ground rules. Rules that work for your team. Make sure everyone in your team or group agrees with the new ground rules. 

    MY COMMENT: Any chance you could instill your MPs with these rules - not just when they communicate with each other but when they communicate with those who elect them?

    Thanks dodeja

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