Strange how a book can change you or maybe it just seems that way in retrospect. A year passes and you know you feel differently but you're not sure what, why or how so you cast your mind back for something that might give that difference shape. When you read about a historic and momentous world event for the first time which strikes a powerful chord with you, you remember the sight, sound and smells of the exact moment of where you were when you were turning the pages. Lying on a beach in Cape Town on January 1998 on a piercing hot day I learned about September 11th ....1973.What then happened on September 11th 2001, an ideology that was devised in American universities and reinforced by Washington governments decades earlier, had gone full circle and come home.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America was based in Santiago, Chile and throughout the 1950's until the mid 60's, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay looked more like Europe or America. Social democrats and developmentalists gave local business's generous subsidies, workers formed powerful unions who negotiated middle class salaries, children went off to newly built public universities and foreign imports were kept out by high tariffs.
The gap between the 'polo elite' and the working masses narrowed. Proof that smart, socialist, practical policies could close the gap between the first and third world. (The only people 'suffering' were the feudal lords).
But for the heads of U.S and U.K. corporations, those were dark days. A corporate, capitalist expansion was needed by 'discovering' new territories, grabbing land without paying for it and extracting the minerals from the earth without compensating the local populations.
Students from Chile and other Latin countries as well as Indonesia etc. were sponsored at the Universities of Chicago and Berkeley in California to train as economists effectively to dismantle developmentalism. The US government decided what their elite students should and should not learn.
Dr Allende was eventually murdered, the copper mines 'controlled' and military juntas, financially supported by the US throughout South America systematically tortured and killed hundreds of thousands of people. Leftist intellectuals and workers were drawn up on lists by the CIA, handed over to the generals and exterminated. The multinationals gave thanks and the directors and their ugly wives attended church.
In the sixties the left was the dominant mass culture ....poets, singers, artists, writers, actors were exterminated and tortured by the juntas determined to kill off socialism.
Five executives from a local car company were assassinated by the CIA. Ford and General Motors moved in and funded their own privatised torture squads. They supplied the military with cars and the juntas rid the assembly lines of troublesome unionists. The US trained economists implemented policies to flood the local market with imports, pay low wages and fire workers at will whilst sending profits home unhindered by regulations.
It was on a beach in South Africa whilst the country was itself, recently engaged in "combating communism" in Angola (for diamonds), that I realised and understood what enforcing 'pure capitalism' on a nation meant. I returned to London in early September 2001 and all I remember thinking about the 11th was... 'what goes around comes around'. I met my good friend from Iraq in Kensington the following weekend who's uncle had been a secretary in Saddams Ba'th party and who had eventually fled ten years earlier to Austria taking his whole extended family with him. We had a good laugh at Bush.
In 1996, I had just purchased my 4th house in a small village outside Cape Town and well before the sale ten years later I was absolutely sure that would be my last ever property venture. Having worked for multinational IT companies in S. Africa, Singapore, Germany and the U.S. I had made a firm decision that I would not prostitute myself or have their blood on my hands and that I would never tie myself into the banking system ever again to eventually have their policies backed up by a couple of thugs banging on the door should I decide to default on repayments.
Five years in Cape Town was good. My life consisted of playing squash, 'dining out' (Tracy may be reading this) with various women and weekends away whilst receiving a passive income. In time I came to despise the Mercedes and BMW driving elitists who lived behind their alarms, walls and razor wire and inviting me to their little dinner parties (chiefly to show off their homes)to talk a load of idiocy. Debates and arguments with Jews in cafe bars with diamond encrusted Rolex's who's sole ambition was to own all the properties along the coastal route started to become tedious.
The intellectual stimulation was dire. A new life for me was in its embryonic stage and it wouldn't all be legal...............
There has been much angst ridden breast beating hereon this morning over the Karen Matthews story. Personally, neither the existence nor the venality of such moronic dysfunctional families either surprises or interests me - at the end of the day "nobody died".
The one thing that did rather concern me, however, was the way in which the BBC cancelled it's scheduled programming to show an hour long Panorama special on the case. Clearly this program had be made in advance, at the license fee payers expense , in the hope and anticipation of those accused being found guilty.
I can only assume that its producer is the kind of cretin who bangs on the side of prison vans when child molesters and the like are being transferred from courthouse to prison.
It was not television, or journalism, it was voyeurism. The BBC should be ashamed of itself.
¿Qué es ser un ejemplo? El Diccionario lo define como: "cosa o hecho que se propone y cita para que se imite o para que se evite, si es malo" y "Persona cuyo comportamiento puede servir de modelo"
Hay personas ejemplares, y hay ejemplos que nos motivan y nos conducen a actuar...
"Los ejemplos son diez veces más útiles que los preceptos" (Charles Fox)
Pablo veía un ejemplo en Filemón:
"Pablo, prisionero de Jesucristo, y el hermano Timoteo, al amado Filemón, colaborador nuestro...Doy gracias a mi Dios, haciendo siempre memoria de ti en mis oraciones, porque oigo del amor y de la fe que tienes hacia el Señor Jesús, y para con todos los santos; para que la participación de tu fe sea eficaz en el conocimiento de todo el bien que está en vosotros por Cristo Jesús. Pues tenemos gran gozo y consolación en tu amor, porque por ti, oh hermano, han sido confortados los corazones de los santos" (Filemón 1, 4-7)
Asimismo, Pablo cuya vida ejemplar le daba autoridad, la dejaba a un lado ante este hombre...
"Por lo cual, aunque tengo mucha libertad en Cristo para mandarte lo que conviene, más bien te ruego por amor, siendo como soy, Pablo ya anciano..." (Filemon 8-9)
Evidentemente Pablo lo respetaba...
"Pero nada quise hacer sin tu consentimiento, para que tu favor no fuese como de necesidad, sino voluntario... Así que, si me tienes por compañero..." (Filemón 14,17)
Y también reconocía que la vida de Filemón era ejemplar, por su entrega al Señor...
"Porque oigo del amor y de la fe que tienes hacia el Señor Jesús...Te he escrito confiando en tu obediencia, sabiendo que harás aun más de lo que te digo" (Filemón 5, 21)
"Todo está perdido cuando los malos sirven de ejemplo y los buenos de mofa" (Demócrates)
Recordemos: Nuestra conducta puede generar muchas reacciones, pero si somos ejemplos, el respeto de los demás será evidente...
I have been quiet of late, after finishing my school libraries book I had a lot of work away with the Other Half, but now I am finally able to relax (kind of!) and catch up with everyone.
After receiving much inspiration from lovely EF, I have begun work on faerie sketches and paintings, it is a long time since I have painted properly and am sooo pleased to have found my way back to it! I have also bought some polymer clay to make faeries with too, again it is a long time since I have used this medium too. So thank you EF for reminding me to take up these hobbies again!
I will post my creations on here soon, I am hoping to put together a website in the new year for my art and sculptures, it will be called Realm of MerFaery. So excited, can't wait! Just had to share with my EF friends. :o)
I am also eager to get writing again after a few weeks' break, so look out for some new suite101 and AC articles soon - I have had so many lovely comments about the kitchen witch articles I will definitely be doing some more - you'll be pleased to know that they are my most popular articles on suite101!
The publishers who are printing my school librarian's guidebook also print a small range of children's fiction. Not mainstream, but what they call 'reluctant readers' - short, easy stories for those children who struggle with reading, or aren't very interested in reading. My next pitch is going to be for a range of faerie fiction based around helping the environment, so fingers crossed! Although their books are aimed at schools, anyone can buy from their website, so there will be more opportunity for these titles if they are accepted. Toes crossed as well!!
I'd like to stand up for Karen Matthews. Don't misunderstand me - I don't believe she is the victim of a miscarriage of justice after her conviction for kidnapping and incarcerating her daughter, Shannon, in an attempt to win reward money from The Sun.
But I do think she's a victim of a miscarriage of vocabulary. I've heard her called "the original Waynetta Slob", after the comedy character played by Kathy Burke, but that's just a sneering and snobbish slight from the relative comfort of better neighbourhoods.
There is nothing comic about the comment from Det Supt Andy Brennan, who led the inquiry into Shannon's phoney disappearance. He said: "Karen Matthews is pure evil. She is manipulative and has a remarkable ability to lie."
One can forgive a triumphant policeman at the end of a successful case for not choosing his words more carefully. And I'm sure he's right that Matthews is manipulative and peculiarly deceitful. But that doesn't make her "pure evil".
If being manipulative and having an ability to lie were the prime qualifications, most of our politicians - even Tony Blair perhaps - could be described as "pure evil". Quite a lot of journalists, too, for that matter. And maybe the odd policeman.
More seriously, we lose our moral scale when we call someone evil too glibly. Matthews isn't evil. She's dysfunctional, simple, quite cruel, probably disgusting and maybe even wicked. But evil? To label her so is to diminish the vocabulary that we apply to evil people.
And who would we suggest represents "pure evil"? Recently convicted rapist-murderers of teenage girls Peter Tobin and Maninder Kohli perhaps. Or the torturers and killers of Baby P. Or Moors Murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.
Even these may not be in the same class as Josef Mengele, the experimental butcher of Auschwitz. Or the architects of the Final Solution that put him there.
We're in very dangerous territory when we start to invoke evil whenever some human behaviour outrages us. Matthews is not evil. She's pathetic. Just look at the feeble plot she hatched with the uncle of her partner to hide and then "discover" Shannon. It's farcical and it's hardly up there with the plans of the aforementioned monsters, is it?
To put it brutally, Shannon was not cut up and buried in bin bags. And it's important that we distinguish levels of immorality, or we lose touch with what our rightful response should be to the most grotesque acts of which humans are capable. And, dangerously, we dilute our sense of what is really evil.
Both Matthews and the killers of Baby P will be sentenced in early 2009. We should truly be outraged if their sentences are not in different leagues to each other, because to be civilised is to recognise that their terrible deeds were also in entirely different moral categories.
They are taking Terry Wogan off the Eurovision Song Contest because he takes the mickey too much, and he's a whistle-blower on the corrupt voting for the dirges on display.
We only watched it for Wogan's asides, now that Eurovision has adopted the EU tactics on any criticism, as well as the EU tactics on protectionism, we won't watch any more, and I will urge that the BBC should stop ploughing any more licence fee cash into it
IT WILL BE MY FINAL TIME RETURNING... TO LIVE AND/OR TO VISIT...
Just like the FAT broad who is so unhappy who manages to drop something over my head when your show comes on, I don't recieve a reward and well I am just tired. I have done all I am going to do and well... entertaining you all really does not mean that much to me anymore...
You can read all of this but you can't read the rest...
I have selective hearing from this point on, from now until March (when my children come home, I have one goal, getting them back home then relocating somewhere where I am wanted, let me see... Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan!
My number one goal is to get as FAR away from www.LisaRaye.com as I possibly can and I NEVER want to see her ever again in my life the minute I can close THAT chapter in my life the better... this will the the LAST time she causes this kind of pain in my life... I will always choose my children over you and you cannot use your jealousy of my love for them to hold me back from them, ever again... never!
6:38 pm Just like the stupid people at "Hull House" and the folk that are covering that mess, the reason why so mnay old heads are dying off is because you touched my children and they are using them to hold as a way to protect themselves... but the problem is you can't hold them forever and if they get kept... you are all doomed! YES, because the bible said: Touch NOT my anointed and do my prophets NOT harm, you ALL knew they were ALL prophets and you sold us out... You knew what you were doing...
Andrea calls Deja unbalanced because she arches her eyebrows, give me a break, don't use my child for your I want to learn more about your people experiments, see that is why "Just Anybody" cannot handle my children, because some people want tehm to live by their rules, I want to tell all them tripper's Don't hate my child is great, she don't want to talk to you, she wants to talk to me... and so sorry ALL blackpeople are not stupoid and yes some black folk do know how to teach theri children at home (homeschool) we are not all strung out on crazk and sell drugs, but you know... we ain'ts suppos to know how's to count is we Massa...
What you did not know is you are in more danger by holding them than by letting them go, the longer you hold them the more danger you are in, they will foloow you until you let them go...
6:48 am Blagojevich... WHAT, see what I mean, I told you... I bet you thinmk we do not have tapes of EVERYTHING that has happened, every order you entereed against me, all of it and now it comees out, can you say some crap is about to jump off! Yeah!
Version: KJV
Rev 22
1. And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, [was there] the tree of life, which bare twelve [manner of] fruits, [and] yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree [were] for the healing of the nations. 3. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: 4. And they shall see his face; and his name [shall be] in their foreheads. 5. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. 6. And he said unto me, These sayings [are] faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. 7. Behold, I come quickly: blessed [is] he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. 8. And I John saw these things, and heard [them]. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. 9. Then saith he unto me, See [thou do it] not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God. 10. And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand. 11. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. 12. And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward [is] with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. 13. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. 14. Blessed [are] they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. 15. For without [are] dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. 16. I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, [and] the bright and morning star. 17. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. 18. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and [from] the things which are written in this book. 20. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. 21. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [be] with you all. Amen.
You hold them not realizing that you all (indiviually and corporately) are cursed because yo held them for no reason, I cannot even protect A'isha any longer because their covering of the children is weak, they only want the accolades and they do not want to do the work...
Stroger, this is your ship and Obama what you want me to say? What, I joke to keep my spirits up but I would not need all this attention if I were not helping you and I would not be helping you if I were not trying to get my children back so in essence you are only using me too...
Oh my god with the blood of the Hudson's you people watch like this is a MOVIE and you think it is funny, OK, Untracable did not tell you enough... then I cannot care any longer, I know Obama and I don't see eye to eye, but whatever!
N'Digo printed a story (when did Anna Harbin Johnson get married) in 1999 with Lisa Raye where she blasphemed me by saying, it ain;'t my fault you chose to have 4 children and your husband is kicking your A$$... or better yet what diud she tell you happened in PLAYER'S CLUB (no that was not Stacy that was me playing the live in cousin role) or better yet if that rape scene was not good enough I think Wesley said it better in SUGA HILL, which role do you want to pick!
Yeah I know... "her".. "that one"
Version: KJV
Rev 12
1. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: 2. And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. 3. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. 4. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. 5. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and [to] his throne. 6. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred [and] threescore days. 7. And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 8. And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 10. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. 11. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. 12. Therefore rejoice, [ye] heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. 13. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man [child]. 14. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. 15. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. 16. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. 17. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
I am sorry to see that Barack Obama, President-elect of the USA, has a poor opinion of the British - which, in American terms, usually means the English - but, as he was educated in the USA, this is not surprising. The USA is the only country where, in peacetime, I have been threatened physically because I am English. Remarkably, this hostile attitude exists despite the probability that very many Americans are themselves racially English, as, indeed, was the very first President of the USA.
Against the alleged violent treatment that Barack Obama's grandfather endured, presumably as a suspected supporter of the Mau Mau, I believe that the Mau Mau terrorists killed not only 30 Europeans but also 11,000 black Kenyans who opposed their savage attempt to obtain personal power. The violence that erupted earlier this year in independent Kenya shows that the internal power struggle continues.
Furthermore, I wonder why, in 1960, before Kenya became independent, Barack Obama's father was granted a scholarship in the USA to train him for ruling Kenya?
Finally, in view of Barack Obama's dislike of the English, it is ironic, if true, that he, himself, is racially half English, on his mother's side.
OK, Broyan, it might not actually be you. (Back row on the right?) But is this close to your heart? It looks, and sounds, like a flying clap-clinic to me, not Lassa Fever.
PLEASE, tell us your true identity in your previous life. Did you really have anything to do with
It will be said of Broxted in years to come "Did such a man as this ever walk upon the earth?". Read these testamonials. Mahatma Gandhi "I'd buy Ron a drink any day". Martin Luther King "He is way better than I". Dalai Lama "I thought I was good until I encountered the wisdom of Ron Broxted. It is time to give up the monking". Natasha Henstridge "The greatest bang since the Big one".Steven Hawking "He wrote my books but is such a nice guy he wanted me to have the credit".
OK, Broyan, it might not actually be you. (Back row on the right?) But is this close to your heart? It looks, and sounds, like a flying clap-clinic to me, not Lassa Fever.