1816 The Celestine Insights, the 4400 and the Ascent

Tuesday the 20th of October 2009 was an in between day in which I progressed plans to attend a funeral, had no inclination to go out after staying up late sorting out arrangements in my mind and through the internet searches. Yesterday the 21st is proving an almost identical day and my impression, inaccurately is that it has rained, sometimes hard for most of the time until shortly ago, after 4pm on Thursday

Ideally I needed to be occupied without challenging thoughts but as often is my situation what I chose to do was the opposite. I switched on the TV to relax and found what appeared to be a stock Sci Fi channel film called the Celestine Prophecy. This proved to be a bad film with poor script, second level acting and third level sets and is organised filmmaking construction but the ideas on which the film is based exceptionally interesting and fitting in with many of my own thoughts over recent years although with significant variations

The Celestine Prophecy was published in 1993 in the United State and is an attempt to explain the purpose of human existence through the ideas of Eastern religious beliefs and sold 20 million copies world wide. The author James Reffield has since published two more volumes on the same subject and is working on a fourth.

I begin with challenging the idea that human life has a purpose other than to live and live as well as its possible for an individual given their inherited body and personality and such abilities and capacities as their nature and nurture provides in the era and particular society and social circumstances in which have been. I am therefore in conflict with fundamental aspects of many faith systems which have arisen because the founders did not understand matter, energy, time and space, the infinite nature of the universe and the capacities and abilities of human beings, let alone of other beings which are likely to inhabit an infinite universe. We can all speculate and imagine and construct from the existing knowledge base of our particular human time but the bottom line is that without having the capacity to communicate and see across the universe we can never know and unless there are infinite sentient beings no being can ever know.

The big idea of the Celestine Prophecy, or more accurately Celestine Insights, is similar to the 4400, in that within every human being there are powerful forces, energies which can be unlocked and which enable individuals to establish a harmony and a connection with the universe, time past and present and yielding an insight into the nature of a heaven and hell experience within the human self conscious awareness and but which can also be shared with others. Having promoted ideas about the infinity of space and time, and that we inherent individual memories of ancestral experience and that we are all directly connected with time past as we are to the accumulation of good and bad thoughts and deeds and to the pull of such forces in a dialectic metaphysical as well as material. (Marx‘s failure of not understanding the true nature of matter as static energy and the nature of metaphysical energy?) , I was immediately interested and encouraged to find a film which dealt with some of these matters, however bad the cinematic film! I have not read the books or plan to do so.

My understanding is that the book and film are about the discovery of ancient scrolls, going back 600 years before the time of Christ in the former civilization of Peru and then hidden by the Catholic Church as the middle ages ended because of the challenge what they said posed for the religion as it had then developed. The discovered Scrolls consist of eight translated insights which have to be experienced in sequence before an individual becomes sufficiently enlightened to grasp the next and so on. Other scrolls are thought/known to have existed.
The First insight is that a new spiritual awakening is occurring in human culture: an awakening, a journey, in which we are led forward in mysterious coincidence. An Awakening brought about by a crucial mass of individuals who experience their lives as a spiritual unfolding. We are asked to accept that it was no accident that the insight came to someone 600 years before the Christian religions from a small Jewish sect promoting the idea of not being phased by every day realities including the persecution, torment and execution by the state and using non violent acceptance to combat the forces of violence and injustice in society. The hiding of truth then occurs before the age of Enlightenment in Europe and North America. However these truths have to be experienced before they can be understood and this implies that they are not truths for everyone.

I have never been happy with the concept of mystery because of its emotional connotations and believe puzzle is a more legitimate expression. I am at ease with coincidence because I believe that all events have a history related to each particle of matter of beings, human, animal fish etc. Because each event has a history it becomes predictable through the collation of all the information relevant to it.

The second insight appears created only for the present world in that it argues that through the awakening process human being will learn to break away from their increasing dependence on secular survival and technological progress and by turning away from the secular path individuals can learn their truth purpose and the nature of he universe. Now I doubt if in 600 BC there was the concept technology or dependence on consumer materialism. I also challenge that the majority of human being are dependent, including those in economically developed countries.

For most of the experience of humanity the belief was in a physical world which was static from an overall flat earth with starts and heaven above and the fires of hell below and that one would fall off into space if one reached the edge of the known world.

For the third insight the author uses the awareness of energy to argue that individuals can interact and harness energy in a constructive way. He does not appear to also make the point that such energy can also be harnessed in a destructive and negative way. This fits in with the 4400 belief that within the brain there is the capacity to use energy to move objects, and therefore rationally it should be possible for individuals with the developed ability to collectively harness such force into greater to both concentrated and distributed power.

Not having read the book it is difficult to criticise aspects of the propositions which he may have covered but the basic premise of the film is that modern day Catholicism joins forces with the military power seeker in Peru to destroy the insights so their power to create a new age spiritual world will be lost if not for ever, for the foreseeable future. This clearly is rubbish because throughout the history of the human kind while it is true that the already enlightened, as well as the powerful, tend to suppress knowledge and change which threatens their position there are those who also appreciate that the advances can be used to reinforce and widen power with evil intent as well as for good, with atomic and hydrogen energy the most obvious example. The last thing any tyrant would do is to destroy something which could aid their power and at the end of World War 2 Russia and Comrade Stalin used German Nazi scientists to the same extent as did the USA and the UK.

The Fourth insight concerns the nature of human interaction based on the natural inclination of human beings to influence and control, to lead and to dominate others in order to develop out a sense of worth security but which also results in other becoming weaker and provoking retaliation which is the root of interactive conflict.

This brings me to one of the one off episode of the 4400 called Carrier in which a woman who has been dominated all her life, experiencing disappointment, frustration and failure is a 4400 returnee who suddenly finds that when under psychological and emotional attack her metabolism changes and her hands explode into a virulent venom which first kills all 270 odd citizens of her immediate community, then an unmarried lorry driver who attempts to make her into an instant born again Christian is found and then the biologically protected suited government agents sent to help her, demonstrating that her force when roused is more powerful than any existing defensive system known to humans. At first she attempts to kill herself and the order is given to incinerate her in the vehicle she travels when she refuses to respond to the request to be helped, and then when she somehow escapes from this fate and is located moving into the most populated area she can find, believing the intention of the 4400 is that she should beg Armageddon, Diana manages to shoot her in the heart as Tom tries to reason with her.

Regarding the fourth proposition while I have sympathy as with the previous I do not accept that human brings are by nature intent on dominating each other and our history continues to be full of collective and individual collaborative relationships which improves the lives of those participating as well as of those who do not.

The fifth is that is security and violence ends when we individually experience the inner connection with the divine energy within, a connections described by mystics of all traditions. A sense of lightness and buoyancy along with the constant sensation of love are measures of this connection. My only issue is with the understanding of divine.

The sixth argues that the more we become and stay connected the more we become acutely aware fo those times when we lose connection, and usually arises in condition of stress, and it is through the connection that we come to understand our individual path in life and spiritual mission and which is the way we contribute to the future of the world. The author then argues that human tend to seek to become interrogators, Intimidators, aloof and Poor me at times as means of taking energy from others. The author called this stage Clearing the past and learning how to avoid continuing to travel along paths which take us away from our individual missions. To some extent this is what my work installations has been about although it is entwined with the overall mission itself.

The seventh is that when we know our mission and keep on the pathway and there will be a flow of mysterious coincidences to guide to our destinies but this is not an easy progression and we will have to understand and follow dreams, day dreams and our intuition and these insights usually come synchronistically through the wisdom of other human beings. Mumbo Jumbo alas although there are aspects which have a relevance

I find the eighth whimsical in that the basic proposition is fine that we are helped in our individual mission by helping others in theirs but we have to watch out for the problems which arises from romantic relationships and we need to be especially kind and loving towards children.

The ninth where the film ends is fanciful in that as we evolve and progress in the spiritual mission the technology will automate what we need to survive this free us to evolve into a higher form of life transforming the body into a spiritual force and enabling a unity with after life dimensions and thus ending the cycle of birth and death.

It will be appreciated that writing this cycle into a mystery thriller is quiet a task and which one will have to read the book(s) to come to a judgement. The author acknowledges the influence of the work Games People Play by Dr Eric Bernie which I acquired in paperback soon after publication in 1964. (The work is also said to touch on Zen, Chi, New age spirituality and other mystic and philosophical thinking0.

The film story is in the form of an adventure in Peru although the artificiality of the locations with their absence of bird and insect life is astounding as well as the use of colour filter lens to depict heightened vision and sensation is laughable. However there is a brave attempt to translate the propositions into cinematic action moments but it is understandable that unlike the book, the film flopped and has been consigned to free film channels.

So far there is yet to be any connection between the one off mini stories of the 4400 and the development of the main story and its characters and the series appears to be becoming vehicles for raising moral and social questions of the day. In Rebirth Richard is invited to the funeral and wake of one of his group in the Korean War and he sees this as an opportunity to confront the former colleague who was the main racist responsible for his being framed and beaten up. The others appear apologetic to varying degrees having adapted to present day North America. When he confronts his adversary he finds an unrepentant old man dying. But Richard is nevertheless able to close the door on this aspect of his past. It remains unclear what his power and mission for returning is other than acting as the Joseph figure for the Virgin Lily, Virgin only in the sense that she has been impregnated by Richard while they were away without either knowing of any previous contact.

In Hidden the issue is the position of War criminals who can make an important contribution to the future of mankind. On of the returnees is a Rwandan doctor who works as nurse in a USA hospital and uses an ability to repair brain damaged babies before their birth. He agrees to be assessed by the 4400 watch unit as long as his anonymity is protected. However the Collier Foundation also get to know of the development and its new managing director/communication/publicity Director leaks the information and the man is identified as a war criminal in that he was aware this his clinic used a sanctuary and for those being murdered was about to be raised and he did nothing to prevent his patients from visiting or to protect them when the military led mob arrived. The publicity outs his background but the government then decides that his curative powers are more value than his extradition to be executed by the present government in Rwanda. It is something which all governments have done throughout time

There was also no further major revelations. Alana, Tom’s other dimension wife of eight years now carries on where the couple left off although I am not clear if she has moved in permanently or is keep her own home as well as art gallery. She is not listed in teh Wikipedia information which suggests she either objected to the Wikipedia articles or had her credit removed from the series. I shall have to check the official site if there is one.

The continuation of another dimension relationship takes Kyle, Tom son, some getting used to as he becomes more and more brooding when he begins to realise that he was the killer of Jordan Collier. He runs off and is hidden by his natural mother, Eventually Tom works out that Kyle was involved during a blackout and manipulated by the 4400, fortunately just before other members of the unit begin to follow leads which brings them to a station left luggage locker in which they find a weapon bought at the same time as the riffle and also containing a photo of Jordan C. Alana finds the key for the locker hidden in Kyle’s room and they are able to remove and hide the incriminating weapon before the 4400 investigation unit arrives. Tom, his former wife and Alana then arrange for Kyle to hide in Mexico where Alana has family but someone else who also fits the identity picture is then arrested and brought to the unit and Kyle is told he can return home, which is obviously a stupid thing to do without knowing why he is having the black outs and recent memories of what he has done during them,

Diana had been warned by her psychic daughter Maia not to continue to be involved with the search for Jordan’s killer as it will lead to someone close to her being hurt. When the suspect is apprehended he pulls a gun out and Diana pushes Tom and the bullet misses by a micro second in freeze frame. Diana assumes this it what Maid has seen but when she says that Tom is safe, Maia comments, For now.

Diana is not fit for purposes in many respects as having an inbuilt second carer with her sister while she spend the greater part of the time in her work, she then throws the sister out who tries to use Maia to predict bets so she can made some money. Diana is also prepared to allow a colleague to fake Maia’s Diana. While I have sympathy about her guilt at having broken her daughter’s trust in reading it the diary in the first instance she was prepared to disclose its existence when it came to trying to prevent the death of Jordan Collier and then she decides to sit on whatever else the book reveals. I would have no hesitation in dismissing Diana on the spot and slapping a confidentiality order on her after gaining possession of the diary and the idea that the government would accept whatever she submits without first authenticating with the child is ludicrous.
The disappearance of Jordan Collier’s body, did he suddenly come alive and go to ground? Question is left in the air while Shawn is finding his role as centre Godfather and faith healer impossible and wants a sabbatical to heal himself and adjust to his new role as the Messiah. It is at this point that that a publicity communications’ man, a friend of Jordan, steps in to say it was Jordan’s intention that he should take over as Shawn’s MD and quickly establishes himself as more single minded, ruthless and devious in the cause than Collier himself, although he also confides that he is not a believer!

One of his first acts is to promote Lily as his Director of Human Resources and persuade Shawn not to go off but to restrict his healing to one case a day and to set up a Foundation with an international committee to decide on which deserving cases among the millions seeking help should be chosen. Shawn has made up with his young brother and his mother but when the brother is shown around the centre his tour guide is Liv. The attractive young woman Shawn rescued from street life poverty, drugs and prostitution and has become a study disciple at the centre. She steals some drugs which she uses to tempt the brother into a relationship but they are caught after Shawn has warned his brother from getting involved with the girl. However this is not out of protection for his brother but because he fancies herself himself. The MD steps in and warns Shawn that he is being unrealistic in contemplating having a relationship with the girl given her background. Shawn retaliates that teh role did not stop Jordan bedding every willing female in sight. The MD points out that Jordan was not the faith healer messiah that Shawn has become and that he better sooner than later get used to the demands and restrictions which are intrinsic in this role.

The effect on judgement and potential misuse of official position over a pretty face and yielding body is the subject of the great War time film find of the decade called The Ascent.

This 1994 film stars Ben Cross as the bitter widowed Major Farrell who is put in charge of a British POW camp in the foothills of what I thought was Mount Kilimanjaro which came to the attention of British cinema audiences in the 1952 film The Snows of Kilimanjaro with Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Susan Hayward. However on looking up the mountain and remembering something said in the film I realised the mountain was Mount Kenya, the highest in Kenya 17000 and the second highest in Africa to Kilimanjaro 19000.

The film centres on the Italian POW’s with records of opera in background and in particular the young handsome loner Franco Disassti played by Vincent Spano who has already made three escapes to the consternation of the camp commander and is recaptured on his fourth attempt after stealing a vehicle and crashing into another in which are Patricia Rachel Ward and her father who runs a local rural business which includes providing the camp with the timber for its construction and development. He fixes their vehicle and Patricia takes a shine to the young man but this does not prevent her father returning him to the POW camp. When the Commander, Major Farrell learns of this development when he comes a courting the daughter who is also a young widow he scurries back to the camp to punish the escapee with a further period in solitary confinement in a crude tin hut with only a grill for lighting and air.

The exploits of the escapee are also a thorn in the side of most of the other POW’s who want a quiet life, hoping the allies will quickly win the war so they can return home to their country and families. The major was away from the camp at the time of the escape following his ambition to climb the mountain but he has failed on this occasion as he has done on others. Franco lets it be known that he is an accomplished mountaineer and the one of leading Italian officers Aldo- Tony Lo Bianco hits on the idea of a small group breaking out of the camp, climbing the mountain and planting the Italian flag and breaking back into the camp in order to gain their self respect having surrendered and become POW’s and make a point to the Commanding Officer. Franco at first refuses to participate but then agrees giving a promise to return to the camp rather than go down the other side into Somalia.

The camp rallies around he enterprise giving rations to the Franco to build up his strength and making the equipment and clothing needed for the climb, setting up an Italian choir and band to mask the noisy work involved.

Then the Italian made saw mill breaks down and Patricia ask for the help of Franco a qualified engineer and reluctantly the Commander agrees proving his Sergeant as armed escort. However during the visit Patricia arranges for father to provide the guard with food and drink and while he is away she and Franco become lovers and he fixes the machine in such away that it will break down and require further attention in the future. The guard is suspicious about what has happened while he is away and works quit the machine has been fixed to break down again because of he use of materials and on return expresses his concerns to the Major adding that he believes the daughter is aware of what has been done. The Major gets drunk and threatens first Franco and then goes to the home of Patricia and her father to confront her in the middle of the night. Although her father comes to see what is happening, she is able to get the major calm and takes him to a room so he can sleep the drink off overnight and to have a serious chat with him in the morning after telling her he has planned to propose marriage to her.

When the Major returns to teh camp he finds that Franco, Aldo and German POW have escaped, the German POW has become the third member of the project offering his military compass as an incentive. However once outside the camp he breaks his word and goes along the road but is caught trying to steal a vehicle from Patricia’s home stead as one of the first places the escapee were expected to raid. The German POW is given the impression that the other have been caught and he unintentionally reveals that they are making their way to the mountain. The Major and Sergeant then travel by road to base of the mountain thus are within a short distance of them when the serious climbing begins. Aldo starts to be affected by the atmosphere and suffers from climber’s altitude sickness. He is found and taken back by the Sergeant to the homestead to recuperate before going back to camp.

Meanwhile the Major follows the Franco up the mountain. Franco then use a rope and within the camp to lasso himself from the peak he has climbed over to a point where the highest peak can be climbed and the Major uses the rope to follow him and then threatens to shoot him with a revolver as he starts to climb the last stretch. The major does not do this although he liked top saying he will not let Franco take her, Franco says no one can have her so beautiful she is. He reaches the summit and plants the Italian Flag and contemplated the freedom over the other side. But he returns down to the Major and offers himself as the prisoner just as it looks the major is considering killing himself. They return to the camp and Franco is allowed into the compound without punishment and the film ends as Aldo looks with his telescope to see the Italian Flag. The acting is excellent and script and story credible. My own quibble is the ability of Franco to lasso across to the peak which would have required a remarkable throw at the distance shown in the film

1282 Freedom Radio, Gospa Medjugorge and 7000th volume

I am constantly surprised by the unexpected journeys travelled during one day. This Monday morning it was a pleasant walking journey for over an hour first to look the redevelopment of South Marine Park where over a million pounds is being spent before August. The only indication of men working was a group of three or four painstakingly cleaning the narrow railings which surround the four sided park but everywhere there was evidence of the work to come . Fresh earth at a height of six to nine inches had been distributed evenly to form continuous new planting banks close the railings on all sides. The lake had been divided into two areas with one partially drained. At first I believed that this had led to a reduction in the number of swans which had numbered around 70-80 as the majority were congregated around someone feeding them so it was easier than usual to make a count of only fifty but then others were found in unexpected places nearby which suggested the overall number remained the same. The train had been in operation the previous afternoon but the station is one of two buildings possibly undergoing major change, the second is the building providing snacks, drinks and ice creams eaten at a small number of tables in the open air. Several other areas of the of the higher levels were fenced off with a pile of large rocks in one placer and a mound of earth in another. The most intriguing question is what is to happen to the four female statues intended for the front of the Town Hall but placed in the park when they were considered unsuitable. They had disappeared and everywhere there was fencing. .
There is an end of terrace property facing the River entrance which was previously similar in size to my home and which has been gutted retaining only some walls and which now has a new roof and extension and a signboard announcing the provision of three seaward facing flats and two maisonettes, five dwellings in total which I expect will sell for around £1000000 each. Elsewhere on the walk there was a similar extensive renovation underway, and this interested so that as I walked back down into the town centre I looked at the range of properties available noting that for £245000 you can buy an eight bedroom guest house facing the park and with presumably seaside views above the trees.
I then passed first test of the day by deciding not to buy a cut loaf of bread which would be used for cheese on toast snacks or mornings toast. For lunch on return one roll with a salad and in the evening the rest of the chicken from yesterday, some gravy and one portion of mixed vegetables, banana for lunch, grapes in the evening, no alcohol or fizzy drink but and some tea, no coffee, A small helping, porridge for breakfast and some cereal at bedtime.

I achieved the 7000th volume of main work during the day 168000 cards with the aim of reaching 200000 before the end of the year, a journey which is taking longer and longer as the number of diversions increased

The first diversion occurred in the early afternoon, a British wartime morale boosting propaganda film made in 1941 Freedom Radio which used the possibility of an influential doctor of the Third Reich risking and gives his life to make radio broadcasts to his fellow countrymen and women, denouncing the Nazi regime and the involvement of Germany in war, after witnessing the brutal murder of a clergyman for expressing devotion and commitment to his faith and supporting other clergy who had been removed by force from their positions and disappeared. The couple perish but the film ends with a second transmitter promising to continue the broadcasts. All the characters spoke with the BBC English accents of the day which gives the film its surreal quality, and the story was intercut with live footage of rallies which combined reminded that while the majority can quickly be swung behind accepting whatever changes in behaviour and attitude a government chooses, there are those, albeit a minority who are always prepared to challenge, bear witness to the truth and if necessary perish in their protest.

I had no previous knowledge that Gospa was a word for the Madonna, or knowledge of the apparitions believed to have taken place on a daily basis for decades at the town of Medjugorje Bosnia, Herzegovina from 1981 during the Communist regime domination, and during which 601 Catholic priests were murdered and others tortured and imprisoned. It is fact in that year six young people ranging from ten to sixteen claimed that the Madonna had appeared to them and gave them messages of peace, love and prayer. Four of the six have continued to experience visitations, originally on a hill near the town and then within the church. The formal hierarchical structure of the Catholic church has never recognised the authenticity of the original or subsequent events, and my understanding is that priests have been told not to organise or participate in formal pilgrimages though some 20 million individuals are said to have visited, and there are internet references to individuals beings recommended to visit by priests. It is understood that this is because commissions appointed by the church have not been satisfied that a supernatural event has occurred yet the available information suggests that Catholics and those with physical and mental problems have visited in numbers similar to Lourdes in France and Fatima in Portugal. There was a problem at first because the arrival of so many outsiders in an established communist country, restraining, as in Iraq, murderous ethnic divisions, was a problem for the Catholic Church as it was for the Communists. For both authorities to accept defiance on any scale was to risk the breakdown of all authority as we have all now witnessed in Yugoslavia and then in Iraq. The cure appears worse than the disease.

The Catholic Church has faced a problem accepting new miracles in terms of physical manifestations because of new knowledge of the age of the earth, the known extent and age of universe and the capacity of the mind to create physical events of extraordinary complexity and at this moment I can connect to radio and television from around this planet, or to live cameras, or communicate to anyone for less than £1 a day. By any standards this is miraculous and supernatural. It is also miraculous and supernatural that an idea, a belief, can unite people of different languages, races, ages, and lifestyles to the extent it cures and changes individuals for the rest of their self aware physical experience. If this is not a miraculous, if this is not supernatural, then sadly you do not yet understand the nature of human kind. I tread one report where the previous Pope, from Poland, is that said to have given his blessing to the priest who protected the then young people from the communist authorities who wanted him to declare them mentally disturbed so they could be taken into official care and helped. A similar approach was adopted towards a young woman in Freedom Radio who dared to complain about being raped by an officer who had come to arrest her grandmother after she had been reported for listening to music of a foreign radio station by the landlady she had offended by refusing to buy her off with additional rations. This was an all too common occurrence in Fascist, Communist, Africa, Asian and South American Dictatorship where the lower functionaries improve their personal positions and those of their families by becoming exempt from the general law and where their services, and their protection has to be bought. In fact this exists in some form in every society, but the scale varies as do mechanisms to uncover, eliminate and change.

There has also been controversy on the part played by the senior priest of the parish, a Franciscan, Fr Jozo Zovko, who was tortured and brought before a show trial, sentenced to death and then commuted to a year and a half in prison, for refusing to effectively condemn the young people and bring the public and media interest to an end. He became the Guardian of a Franciscan monastery while his defence counsel, the Chief Justice.

I have no idea if Martin Sheen who plays the priest, and Michael York, the defence Counsel, or those making the film had direct contact with Fr Zovko and if he authorised the version of events and the nature of he man revealed in the film. No punches are pulled. In the film the priest is having difficulties with his faith and the ability to attract and maintain parishioners, so he is renewed when his church fills and over flows and hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands make their way to the hill and then to the church to be with the young people as they see and hear messages. When the authorities try to prevent access to the church he and his fellow priests, monks and nuns defy and in the elation of the situation he renders a sermon of defiance against the Communist order. He is not only accused by the Communist authorities but by the Church authorities of being carried away and being more interested in his own position than with the long term welfare of the young people, his parishioners and the role and position of his church. The portrait is of a weak, worldly man, full of self doubts and uncertainties who finds that he the faith and the courage to meet and survive the severest of challenges.

It was of interest to me that I saw both films on the day the Archbishop of Canterbury faced his peers after daring to suggest that the civil law of the nation should take account of the beliefs of all the religions of its people as well as of those with no particular or any religious beliefs. My understanding is that he wanted to communicate that by understand an accommodating our different beliefs and styles we were more likely to achieve integration and harmony and thus prevent one group attempting to dominate all the others, Just a minute was not this the core message of Christ, Moses, Mohamed, and of the Protestants who left Europe to create the USA? Oh what shocking and dangerous thinking. The behaviour of some of his peers underlines that within religions there are fascists of the right and left, bigots and hypocrites as there are in any other collection of human beings. We should pity them.

1281 Church and State, Film Awards, A walk through town and a foorball match

“I have gone through my day in this way before coming to the subject which connects with others of the past ten days, the nature of being and the rules with live by or do not. I am in a dilemma over the what was recently said by the Archbishop of Canterbury before an audience of senior lawyers a week before the opening of the General synod or council of the Church of England and Protestant Anglicans around the world. My understanding is that he was suggesting that there ought to be debate about the extent to which the core principles of different faiths should be taken into account when forming the civil law of the country.

The emphasis is on civil law although the rational implication is that it should be taken into account in criminal law and from that it is only a short step to saying account and precedence should be given to these fundamentals in all aspects of political and social life. It is a sound argument to say that if a religion is valid as a system of rules and beliefs to live human life then it should govern every aspect of ones life and that if those of different religions can agree on common matters then these should become the governing basis for the society, especially if it is the majority view expressed through their representative democracy, or hybrid system such as the British which while giving token supremacy to the elected House of Commons continues to give considerable weight to House of unelected and appointed Lords, the advice of the Monarch and her Privy Council in the context of also accepting the supremacy of the rule of law as interpreted by the judiciary.

I have no problem with this and would prefer to live in such an environment as one wholly secular, especially if the alternative is a fascist dictatorship of the right or left, or one driven by secret bodies or uncontrolled capitalism.

My objection is about any ology or religion which seeks to impose one set of beliefs and one way of living on everyone else and where religions have tended to do this if they have the power as much as any right or left dictatorship or simple I am in charge dictatorship obey me or perish along with your family, friends and any supporters.

I am only comfortable if there is recognition of human and natural rights based on knowledge, understanding tolerance and respect for individuality. All life has value and should protected and valued as far as possible. What will appear contradictory to many is that I also accept that governments must govern with the function to collectively further the interests of everyone for whom they have responsibility Given our knowledge of human behaviour we all need to be realistic about the implications of this, as Government will concentrate on international solutions before national and national solutions and then before regional and local and neighbourhood.

However fromt he individual viewpoint ones interest comes first and usually those of aprtenrs, children and parents take precedence over that, then perhaps local community including local chirch and social groups with which one is associated and only the local and national interests and then the international.

The reality is that democratic government has to be representative government as we cannot afford to spend all out time in debate and trying to reach not just a consensus but agreement with everyone else. The majority are often wrong with horrendous consequences but if you set yourself up against the majority you must also accept the consequences. And thus I am on the side of the Archbishop, and the head of Catholic Church who has come out in support and against the ultra conservatives of the kind that wish the world was still flat and the inquisition was still in control.”

I wrote this at the end of my daily remembering but it seemed more important than the rest so I have switched the piece to the beginning.”

Sunday February 10th 2008 did not become the spring day forecast until mid morning but the sun was shinning when I was ready for a walk after lunch, and set off through North Marine Park where the crocuses and daffodils are beginning to peak out through the grass on large bank from the roadway, and where along Ocean Road there are several large beds of planted spring flowers to delight the eye and boost the spirit.

On my way home to call in at Asda I walked along Ocean Road and was struck by the popularity of the award wining fish ansd chip restaurant with prices to match, over £10 for large a cod or place. There was also queue of a dozen at its take away next door and similar queues at two other establishments along the same street although it was approaching 3pm in the afternoon. Most, if not all the other restaurants were not open. My visit to Asda was only for fruit and unlike other visits, usually later in weekday afternoons or early evenings trhere were mini queues at all check outs with everyone having substantial quantities of purchases. There was also a queue of five others at the hand basket till. The hill home proved a challenge and indicating the stone that has been put on since achieving the maximum reduction a year ago, including the half stone since the death of my mother. The problem, apart from the absence of regular walking activity is that with having such long days I have needed to eat more over all, coupled with eating energy yielding food when tired. I must begin to do less work, more exercise which does not become counter productive and of course eat less. I need to achieve the break through step. I have struggled and continue to struggle to do so since before Christmas. Good intention is not sufficient.

On the journey along Ocean Road I was struck by the frequency of changes among the restaurants and places of entertainment which are coming together in one area opposite the two storey Asda complex. At the commencement of the pedestrian area there is one of those bars in a building where all the windows have been sealed in order to dampen the noise and hide the activity within There. There is another proclaiming that it opens on Fridays and Saturday at the corner of the road leading to the John Wright centre and the Jane Fry Centres, to ensure that it distinguished from the closed boarded up establishments in other parts of the town. Next to the one opposite Asda trhere is an older three storey building which appears to have been gutted internally over time and then repaired and where the ground floor at least is being prepared for another entertainment facility called Palma, or something similar indicating a Mediterranean setting matching the recently opened Ocean Bar with the older Glitter Ball night spot of sixties, seventies and eighties music above. A couple of doorways further the restaurant which always seemed popular during the day with tables for smokers on the pavement has closed its doors. On my walk around Sunderland on Saturday, before the match, I also noticed similar changes with the closure of two pubs in the High Street a popular small day time restaurant with a traditional arrangement of tables with four chairs, up for sale although nearby several day time bars and pubs, especially those showing live sports or identified with Sunderland football club with posters, banners and pictures, including the Porterfield and Deano's were packed with people standing in the street outside drinking. I went to what appeared to be a converted bank, or former traditional stone covered office building which has been converted into a large bar and restaurant full of large TVs and projection screens and where half a pint of Fosters cost me only 75p and I would have got an additional concession with a student card. That lunchtime the place was full of Mackems Aston Villa supporters thrilled as the team scored goal after goal against Newcastle the other team I support Newcastle.' This is not a country for those with no or many allegiances. It is a country for old men.

Afterwards I walked back through town across the Wear river bridge to where the majority of spectators were on the concourse drinking and watching the closing minutes of Aston Villa's triumph and the subsequent realisation of Newcastle supporters, as they commented on the game in a regional after match review that the club had now joined the potential relegation clubs and where the recent form suggested they were quickly becoming the more likely candidates for the big fall just as Sunderland the Boro are edging there way into the top half of the relegation group. Everyone sitting around me agreed that Widnes were the superior al-round tea and should have scored at least four to six goals and taken the three points leaving us worried, but hopeful that Deano would recreate the winning streak of last year. Fortunately for us a mixture of poor finishing, a couple of brilliant saves and a lot of luck as balls screeched and whizzed inches away or hit woodwork and came back, enabled Sunderland to take the lead with an unmarked bullet header towards the end of the first half although it was some 34 minutes before anyone in the Sunderland team had a shot at goal. After the interval Widnes came out determined and played us off the park and we just did not believe the number of chances or that it would be our day, until one of the new men, bought from Charlton of the lower division came on as a substitute and made a breathtaking diagonal cross field pass to someone who teed up the ball and hit an unstoppable rocket over twenty yards on the underside of the cross bar and into the back of the net. The fourth home win in succession has provided a fighting chance of another year of the same unless proven premiership and world class players can be attracted to play for the city.

The morning had commenced leisurely and for a moment I thought the mist would clear early to enable a before lunch walk, but it quickly returned so I did some writing, watched political programmes and then decided on lunch and watching the first half of the Manchester derby uniting the city in memory of the event some fifty years ago of the Munich air disaster when the backbone of the Manchester team lost their lives and others were miraculously rescued and survived including the great Bobby Charlton who was in the stands and under much camera surveillance during the game in which Manchester city ended winners 2.1 for the first time in some three decades and of doing the double over their closest rivals. There is a different feel among the crowds of the two Manchester teams with the City being closer to Sunderland and Newcastle becoming closer to Man U, although it is questionable if Manchester United would be able to command the same degree of loyal support with a similar record of failure and poor performances before their home general and hospitality driven supporters.

On Saturday evening I watched the semi final of the tribute artist contest in which my forecast of the better performances was matched by that of the commentators and voting public. It is good to be with the majority and not always finding that one is swimming against the tide. I was delighted that the Frank Sinatra van driver has come of age, improving his performances each week, although I expect the winner to be Dusty Springfield. In the evening it was turn of the ice dancing although I enjoyed some of the 30th anniversary of the Antiques Roadshow where one man revealed his collection of Beatrice Potter original drawings and colourings, some 23, estimated to have a value of a quarter of a million pounds compared to detailed original framed drawings of the walker and writer Wainwright which had been bought for £35 and were said to be were a couple of hundreds or so. There was also a perfect pot with a value of £10000 and a 1960 contemporary art work bought for £3000, originally purchased by a company as a commission for a few hundred and now estimated to have a value of over £40000. The most intriguing lot was a collection of native American Indian memorabilia, one object of priceless historical value and which had been passed to a friend to meet the costs of looking after a horse after the death of its owner. I also enjoyed Lark Rise to Candleford with a moving story of how a major disappointment in a love relationship embittered and changed someone until he found loving care in his hour of need in the most unlikeliest of circumstances.

The decision was then taken to concentrate on the British Film Academy Awards which this year were held at the Royal Opera House boasting the longest red carpet said to exist in Europe and where in addition to extensive coverage of the arriving stars on both the Sky and BBC news channels but also this year by the full works USA entertainment channel, involving Ryan Seacrest of American Idol, two other interviewers and commentators in a long standing relationship, a fashion expert and fourteen cameras with the programme going to some 100 counties and several hundred million viewers. The Baftas bigtime has arrive because of the cancellation of one major award ceremony in the USA and fear that the Screen Writers strike would also result in the abandonment of the Oscars. Certainly there was better turn out of successful nominees than previously. What next well there is the Royal Albert Hall, but the new Wembley will be a bridge too far.

There were two moments of potential disaster when the fashion guru slammed he outfit of Tilda Swinton whose performance in Michael Clayton won her the best supporting female actor award. And who was hen interviewed by the long standing together couple and where previously they had ask everyone who had made their outfit and then said great, how wonderful you look etc. Tilda was given a distinctively oriental look with white powdered face, no doubt in homage to the developing interest in the far East for Hollywood although the costume was more Geisha than Forbidden City.

The whole business of the Red Carpet is an odd event on which fans scream as they catch sight of the celebrities of the moment, and ignore some of the greats of other years from lack of immediate recognition. There are banks of cameras and photojournalists, people with lists of who to look out for and who will be available for interview and the stars some who are genuinely amazed to be considered with the rest of their peers, some gracious and willing to try and give spontaneous and enthusiastic answers to the same question and then there was Kevin Spacey and Jeff Blum) spelling ? With the former barely containing his boredom and he latter his bemusement, as they plugged the coming Old Vic play where Spacey is the Artistic Director and prepared for a joint presentation for the award of Best film which surprising went to Atonement where the Dunkirk scene was filmed on Redcar beach. However the main reason for sticking with the programme was to see if Marion Cotillard( spelling ? a again) the in early twenties pretty actress would win the Best female actor award for her brilliant and truly extraordinary performance of Edith Piaf as she went from 19 to 47 and into physical and emotional declined. Everyone else other than the actress was rooting for her including Ms Knightly also nominated for the same award, and her gesture increased my estimation of her several fold as a consequence and there was the elegant and cultured Daniel Day Lewis playing another black character role and finally a fellowship award to another actor who is capable of transforming their facial and physical appearance, Sir Anthony Hopkins.

In order to watch the Baftas I was willing to sacrifice for one night the second episode of the penultimate series of Lost until discovering that there was a multi play with quarterly hour starts from ( and until11pm. I set the programme for the 11pm start with one minute to spare and then watch the last ten minutes of the Baftas on a separate television. The decision to watch the rest of the episodes was a good one as so much was revealed which tied in and up issues raised in the end of last series episodes and some of what has puzzled before. A part of four individuals arrive by helicopter on the island, three using parachutes, after the call signal had been received on the freighter from the advance drop of the young woman, killed by Locke under the influence of the island force, supported by Ben who argues that the visitors have not come as rescuers and will destroy everyone living on the island. Through the usual process of flashbacks we learn that the identity of the discovered plane at the bottom of the ocean with no survivors is not the same plane in a different dimension but that someone or organisation has gone to the trouble and expense to create a fake including skeletal decaying bodies. The identity of the pilot is challenged by the man who was due to fly it but had to drop out presumably because he was judged incapable because of an alcohol problem ansd we learn that he is pilot of the helicopters. There is a women archaeologist whop with learn has been investigating the discovery of the skeleton of a polar bear in the desert and an emblem of the same organisation who were researching on the island The advance drop was of a girl who appears top have been a proven action woman and appointed leader of the group and her brother who has a machine with appears to be able to communicate with the souls of the dead, especially those who are troubled. And the background of the other individual in the party was not disclosed or I cannot remember but who admits that they have not come as a rescue mission but to find Ben and to disable the transmission device(s).. Locke reveals how Ben's bullet passed through his and where his donated kidney would have been and that his interest in learning the nature of he monster he experience in the first series.

1786 Moral imperatives v Government Responsibilities

I want to write about sport and some good things but instead I feel duty to record the new horrors in Iraq which appear to have arisen directly from the withdrawal of USA forces to their basis and handing over responsibility for internal security to the Iraq government. Thus the US, the British and the rest of world that is opposed to terrorist states and terrorist religions have been outmanoeuvred again through a combination of media and public ignorance and sentiment. Of course it is horrible that young American and British soldiers are dying in a foreign land where a percentage of the population does not want them there. and it is no more horrible that the slaughter of Iraqi by Iraqi and the deaths of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of Iraqi non combatants who have died during the former regime and a direct consequence of the USA British intervention.

However as I head one young sounding Muslim woman say on the radio while I got myself ready for the day, we are in the era of the Muslim inquisition such as was experienced by Catholics over the world until some enlightenment came to the Catholic church and to the countries where it had become the dominant force in government and society. There will be some Catholics who even today would welcome the return of the Inquisition in relation to their faith, just as there are closet racists and white supremacists who will hold and pas on their prejudices what action government take. Intervention in Iraq may have been motivated by oil interests, perhaps capitalist interests, or political gesturing abroad to cover political inadequacy and incompetence at home and such like reasons but for me it was about opposition the religions and political inquisition.

Once the British and USA troops were restricted to a presence behind bases, the religious and political fanatics of Iran and Pakistan and elsewhere in the Muslim world saw the green light to organise terror in their efforts to achieve their aim of a fanatical Muslim state. There was an added problem because according one expert on the situation. the US government had been paying up to 100000 individuals around $300 dollars a month to provide them with information and keep on their side, that is $30 million month and $360 million a year.

I have started to read a history of the CND movement in Great Britain and the work commences with a chapter about what are nuclear weapons and what happened followed the detonation of two atomic bombs on the civilian population of Japan in 1945. It shortened the war and significantly reduced the number of allied casualties fighting an enemy that saw death in battle as honour and surrender and defeat as meriting suicide. It was the Japanese that made honourable the suicide bomber.

The insurance company who provided replacement money for the lost glasses asked if I had a criminal conviction so I said I had and they asked for an explanation which I then had to repeat to a senior officer so that it could be accurately noted to the database which is shared by insurers world wide. I explained what I did, the element of choice and that while I hated every moment of being in prison I did not regret having expressed my opposition to the use of weapons of mass destruction, nuclear, biological and such like whether aimed exclusively at a battlefield army or indiscriminately at a population. There is no moral justification, as there was no moral justification with sending millions of men over the trenches in the First World War knowing that the majority would be slaughtered or injured for life, or fore the bombing by the allies of German cities out of revenge. I accept that there no such thing as honourable combat and I have always accepted that Governments have duties and obligations and that these will cause them to do all kinds of things which are morally unacceptable. This does not negate my belief that ends and means are synonymous and that the majority of those who live by the sword also die by it.

I was also interest by the proposal, I am not sure where, that those writing on the internet about political, religious and such similar matters should be required to put all sides of any argument is much the same way as public broadcaster are required in the UK or at least signal that the writing is biased in favour of one religion or anti religion one party or against one political party. I am in favour of the latter but only if it applies to everyone all the time. This means that the media should also disclose on the internet the original piece of writing or script and the editorial changes made and the political and religious affiliations of all those contributing to the final work published. It is all very well having principles and policies but applying them effectively every day is more an art.

So to sport and Durham Cricket and weather permitting the game against Warwickshire at the Riverside could be the one that effectively settles the championship for Durham. The day did not look promising weather wise until after lunch when the sun came out in long burst and the temperature was hot. I had unintentionally timed my arrival to coincide with the umpires coming to the wicket and the news that Warwickshire had elected to bat.

After two overs Smith changed the bowling bringing on Thorp for Davies. In the early afternoon I was standing at the boundary fence when I was joined by a regular member just as Davies was coming over and who he greeted obviously having spoken to him before, he explained that her had a problem with his bat and although he could bowl again, he was not required given the performance of his colleagues. Thorpe took five wickets for 49 runs an amazingly former captain Dale Beckenstein who came on when the third pair had put on close to 70 and looked if they were settling in had Ar Botha caught when he was 23 and followed this up with Frost for 19 and Surrey for 0. Warwickshire were quickly doomed and despite some resistance by Tahir for 10 were all out for 135 with Sussex who followed Surrey in the batting order. Getting top score of 35.

Durham did not have it all there own way in their first innings with Di Venuto going with Stoneman when the score was 43, Di Venuto was looking exceptionally dangerous having thumped the first three balls on the innings for 4 and was 40 when dismissed with Stoneman getting the other 3. Smith went the score was 87, and Chanderpaul who still one of the great batsmen in the world playing today still finds the English County Game difficult and after scratching around was out for a zero thus taking Durham to 97 for four. It was at this point Benkenstein took on his main role as a batsman and took the score past that of Warwickshire before the day closed, He was joined by Ian Blackwell and both reached their fifties the following morning. The game started 45 minutes late because of rain and there was only about 40 minutes with lunch taken early. Durham had progressed the score to 219 for six with both Beckenstein and Blackwell out. It will be surprising if the lead does not progress beyond 100 so with Warwickshire unlikely to get over 200 in their second innings, only continuing bad weather will prevent Durham having their 7th victory of season getting 18 or 19 points and taken them to 185 points. Hampshire, second from bottom in the table are going exceptionally well at second from the top Notts so even if Notts get a draw this will widen the gap with Durham further. Sussex are nearly 500 for three weeks against Somerset so that game looks like a draw given the pitch or a Sussex win who are again no threat to Durham whereas Somerset are presently third. This only leaves Lancs with outside chance against Yorkshire savouring their first win batting carefully to reach 236 for 7 by this morning when rain has stopped play, so a another draw looks the likely outcome leaving Durham almost impossible to catch up. However I still remember the 12 point lead of Newcastle at the top of the Premiership which Manchester United overcame to take the title.

Newcastle also had a win at home the previous evening. Shola Ameobi scored his fourth goal of the season early on and but for goalkeeper would have had two more. However Newcastle’s frailties are still there and they were lucky to avoid an equalizer for as the second half progressed Sheff Wednesday looked more and more likely to gain the honours from the match, Newcastle held on and finished the evening equal 1st with 7 points and fourth because of goal differences. The interesting fact is that there was a bigger crowd at Newcastle over 43000 than at Sunderland to watch their defeat against Chelsea 41000. This confirms my belief that the people appreciate it is better to watch a team fighting for the Championship than trying to avoid relegation in the Premiership.

The event of the night was Burnley beating Manchester United 1,0 at their first home game at Turf Moor for over three decades. I think I shall say that again. Burnley beat the champions Manchester United by one goal to nil last night. There was dancing in the Kings Road.

I have watched one film, The Human Jungle made in 1954. A policeman passes his law exams and looks forward to spending more time with his wife and avoiding the periods of his job. He is persuaded with little difficulty to take over a precinct where the force has become inward looking allowing the local crime organisation to flourish. The death of one of the girls from the local strip joint 50’s style is the focus of the film and it is inevitable that the police solves the crime, despite the efforts to blacken the name oft he force by the crime boss and obtain his removal.

I enjoyed a previous edition of Torchwood having been interested by the recent series called the Children and which is a cross between the X files and Dr Who. In this episode a number of children are time and dimension disappeared into a rift, it was not explained why it was children and not all ages who disappeared in this way. The female member of the team discovers that her boss knows what has happened and is caring for those who have returned. The focus is the son of a woman that the Torchwood woman is asked by her policeman friend to investigate . The former children are being cared for in an old dilapidated underground wartime facility on an island. Although the boy has only been missing for months he has aged 40 years and is grossly disfigured. Against advice the Torchwood member brings the mother to meet her son who at first cannot cope with his appearance but then realises it is her child and wants to take him to look after him. Then the two realise the impossibility as the former child lets out an ear shattering scream which continues for the greater part of each day. The mother presses the girl not to put other parents in the same position. The truth is not always the best solution for everyone.

There was an element of this about the final Do you Think you are? Present series. Martin Freeman is an actor who starred in the comedy series the Office which brought fame to Rickey Gervais. I did not think he or the series was funny, amusing or entertaining. I can understand why the investigation of the paternal background of Martin Freeman is included in this series but not as the final episode unless it is to give a further warning to family historians that there are skeletons in more family cupboards than heroes and heroines.

The interest was his great grandfather and mother. His grandfather had died at Dunkirk as part of the Ambulance service and Martin was moved to find a plaque at the regimental Headquarters as well as documentation on the incident which caused the death. He was interested how the great grandparents came to Hull and discovered that the great grandfather had been an Organist and blind from birth and attended one of the national schools placed their by his parents who wanted him to have a better life than they could give him and their other children.

The programme revealed that after this education he had become a piano tuner in the Worthing area and played the organ at a local church, He had also become a supplier of piano and organs, married and had a large family of seven children. For some unstated reason it appeared he had been asked to leave the church although the implication was some kind of scandal. There was a gap in what then happened to him although it is then established that he was married two further times, having a child by the second wife and then a dozen children by his third wife six of whom had died in early infancy in succession. This led to the revelation that his wife had inherited a sexually transmitted disease from her father and that one consequence is that it affects the birth of children with miscarriages, followed by death in infancy and then early childhood from inability to thrive. This explained that the couple then had six more children. The great grandmother outlives her husband by several decades being twenty years younger than he on their marriage and she went on to marry twice. To reassure that the revelation was not as special as might be considered, the programme was at pains to point out that in Victorian days one in ten of the population were believed to be carriers of the disease which tends to raise questions about the emphasise suggesting that people had become more promiscuous and prone to sexually transmitted diseases as one outcome of the swing sixties.

I cannot end this piece without also mentioning that there was a lack of appropriate concern on the part of officialdom about the abuse of female blind young people in specialist institutions in the past and by specialist workers in the community. Hopefully the failures of the past have been remedied.

1280 Political speculation

I had intended to experience the film Mission to Mars in 2002 in theatre but the reviews were negative and space technophiles slammed the technical inaccuracies and improbabilities, but this may not have been the reason then why I did not see the film, but the use of subsequent knowledge applied to the past. On Friday February 8th I devoted my full attention to the film which was thoroughly enjoyed and much thought provoking, and where I also looked for relationships with work undertaken before.

The premise of Mission to Mars is a credible tale in which millions of years ago Mars was a living planet inhabited by a colony of advanced humans living a vast distance away from their home planet but with the means to return and to travel elsewhere. When the colony faced destruction they returned home or went off to settle in new worlds but in relation to our planetary system they took two decisions. The first was to launch human DNA potential onto the one planet which also had the potential to sustain similar beings, hence the comparatively sudden evolution of humankind on earth, and secondly they left a construction on Mars which comprised a hologram explanation what happened to the colony, the decisions then taken and the early development of beings into human kind on the earth. Given the proximity of the two plants one query potential story flaw is why some of the being did not immediately settle on the earth, or why it was necessary for the new races of humans to have to evolve in the way we have, reaching only a limited way along the journey of knowledge and enlightenment of the beings in the film, although one explanation for this latter point could be their knowledge of human evolution and that beings needed to advance to the development of having a world space station before deep space exploration becomes possible. The evident weakness of the film is that it is an American enterprise when anyone with any understanding of the way nations develop and then fall away understands that it will be a Chinese domination mission perhaps with Indian, Russian and a token American if such a Mission was to become a reality.

In fairness while the film does not go as far as stating that humans are the superior beings within the universe, the former Martian colonists have taken precautions to prevent non humans or humans without a level of knowledge and understanding, from being able to access the record fo what happened to the plant and its inhabitants. The film story also provides one craft to enable the humans to travel back to the home world/planetary systems. Or home galaxy. The film therefore has a more positive feel akin to Close Encounters of the Third Kind than The War of the Worlds or the Day of the Triffids. The film also has something of the pace of 2001 and 2010 which influenced me greatly at the time they were first released, then more recently because of their black monoliths, which was one inspiration for my concept of creating black monolithical constructions, large black four drawer filing cabinets with welded fronts to enclose the volumes of confidential material included in my 100.75 artman project.

It was purely coincidental that the film arrived within days of talking about the mind boggling endlessness of space and the possibility of individual human life existing in different dimensions. Increasingly I am of the view that although human beings have existed in their billions, speak different languages are of different skin colours and appearances their behaviour is remarkably similar at its core, There is the endeavour to create clones when is seems to me we are cloned already and given the collective sub conscious and collective memory it is understandable that we come to believe we have existed in different times.

This morning I awoke for the third time of the night having a dream where images have bee b retained. I was with a group of survivors rescued where the rescuer was requesting payment from what we had on us. The source of this aspect may have been the news that two sisters aged 106 and 104 and been robbed of cash kept under a settee by men posing a workers from a water company needing to make a check on their system. It will be evident from the report that the two men would have had prior knowledge fo where the money was located and that they kept such an amount of cash, although the amount was not stated. It reminded of the situation before I took over some responsibility for managing the affairs of my mother and her sister and where they kept all their day to day money fro making payments in envelopes in two metal boxes in their respect wardrobes, but as the illness of my mother progresses she commenced to spread the envelopes around he house until I was able to persuade that most of the income was paid direct into bank accounts which they agreed to open and for direct debits for the standing payments for services. They were particularly vulnerable in that they would give gratuities to any and everyone who visited or performed any service to them.

The next part of the dream was that on being rescued, by boat and brought ashore, I found myself in Wallington, but not of today but before I was born, moreover I met someone who had come forward and where trhere had been an article in a the local newspaper about someone with a vivid recollection of things past, which suggested that there had been some form of rip in time at particular place, themes of science fictions TV series and other films and where the concept of time travel and the ability to intervene in time and change the outcome, or not is also a common theme in series such as Dr Who and the Star Trek series.

While my interest in science fiction and the possibility of space and time travel continues to interest me as well as the philosophical and scientific questions of the nature and dimensions of space and time, I am more interested in the present day capacity to view, record and manipulate what we do and say at anytime and anywhere with the appropriate technology, from one computer to another and from satellites in space as well as from planted sound and vision devices and which in terms of my work and I believe the work of any creative contemporary artist should mean that what they do and the way they do it should be available at anytime to anyone anywhere with the technology although with the important caveat of separating that which can and should be public from that which should remain private.

I rarely miss the late night shown programme This Week in which the highlights of the previous political week are discussed by a regular participants chaired by Andrew Neil and former Ministers Ms Abbot and Mr Portillo together with an assortment of studio guests some more articulate and of substances than others. On Thursday of last week one subject which appeared to unite the regulars and those who appeared on Question Time beforehand was the disclosure that conversations between a Member of Parliament and a constituent had been monitored on the authority of the police. The sense of shock outrage by the politicians was not that this was being done in general, but it was being done to them, as many still cling to the belief that because they have become politicians they are exempt from the laws which govern everyone else. It was also evident that some politicians did not understand that the power to bug telephones is different from the power to exercise monitoring and surveillance, or the extent to which we are all now subjected to surveillance by different authorities and agencies officially as well as unofficially.

It is customary for those who operate in business for example or other areas of official and public life to arrange for their premises to be routinely checked for surveillance devices as well as maintaining surveillance system of themselves.

In Thursday evening's programme a studio guest made the accurate point that the controlled work of the official British Security Services was only a fraction of the extent to which public and private agencies were empowered to monitor and collate information and although this was said in defence of the official security services with the argument that because surveillance involved bureaucratic procedures and was time consuming in manpower and processing, its use was restricted to situations of special situations and therefore the Services and Governments could be trusted not to misuse or two widen to everyone. In this programme or discussions on the Daily Politics show the example was given of the situation in one former communist country, I believe East Germany, where it was established that one in every, a small number was involved in providing information to the authorities, a situation which existed to some level with the Communist counties in general, in Nazi controlled nations and dictatorship but not of course in democracies where the rule of law is supreme.

What surprised me in the media discussions is that no connection was made between the news that it was the police who had been empowered to bug the Member of Parliament and the granting by government of the power to monitor and collate information to hundreds of authorities and agencies, thus bring widespread surveillance of all us within the law. These powers often protect and therefore restrict the use of information gained to the particular authority and agencies without permissions. When I was shown around the surveillance system at Newcastle Football club which covered every seat within the ground, we were told that they were only empowered to monitor movement outside the ground within a define radius. I also had the experience of being shown around a different kind of surveillance system which arranged for surveillance both of private sites such as business premises and public car parks for local authorities, so that contact could be made with the those paying for the service and the police or the emergency authorities if a situation arose. There were audio visual records by every camera. In the United Kingdom there are now more surveillance cameras in operation in public and private places than anywhere else in the world. It does not take a genius to work out that it is not necessary for the official British security services to undertake most of the surveillance themselves as they can rely on any and all of the other empowered bodies to cooperate in relation to particular individuals and situations, or to draw attention to particular individuals and situations arising in the course of their day to day work. This however only covers official and legitimised surveillance from within the UK and there are two other sources which are additional to the accumulative and quantitative extent covered so far. The first is illegal surveillance conducted by competitors, the media and villains with the celebrated instances in recent decades involving member of the Royal family. However there is also the work of other security forces conducted from outside the shores of the UK and from space.

I decided to pass on this information to others before writing something of this which was intended to be put online through myspace last night but through tiredness did not do so and therefore could have incorporated the row which developed yesterday, but which because I was out for the greater part of the day and more interested in football than the news, until the ten pm news before Match of the Day, that the Oppositions leaders were calling for a major enquiry following the disclosure that police had operated a comprehensive surveillance of conversations at a maximum high security prison accommodation both those held or imprisoned in relation to security matters and other major criminals. The programme pointed out that an official statement did not deny the practice and a well known human rights lawyer argued that if this was correct then it had implications convictions where information obtained by such means had been used without the knowledge of the individuals and their legal representatives.
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It amazes me, and it also does not that Members of Parliament, especially those in the Commons, have only recently appeared to understand the law of unintended consequences as it applies to government, the making of or amending of laws and their administration. The subject was also recently covered in an exchange on the Daily Politics Show. It has been my experience that most politicians, the media and most of the general public take no interest in the implementation of new legislation and monitoring its effectiveness and usually the interest is only aroused when something goes wrong. Most legislation is not in fact implemented as intended by the Government or those within Parliament who scrutinise and debate. Sometimes the government does not introduce specific changes, although this usually happens when governments change, or change their minds with the most effective way of achieving inaction is not to subsequently approve the finance and the staffing required. Usually however the problem is that insufficient attention is given to unintended consequences. This is typical of bureaucracies especially those led by politicians. In business before any new plan or development is given the go ahead there is a detailed investigation into things like potential markets and costs and options available, but also to what can go wrong in relation to materials, and government and trade union involvements, hence the wisdom of moving production to countries with loss cost and fewest regulatory controls and that most companies aim to spread their interests between countries so that no one country can have a disproportionate influence over the direction and profitability of the company. I find it difficult to believe that governments of recent decades do not undertake an analysis of unintended consequences whenever legislation is brought before the Parliament in relation to new legislation, This used to be the situation and I retain the vivid memory on a visit to the House of Lords where I was monitoring the passage of legislation and had access to the visitors area on the floor of the House, where the Commons stands for the Queen's speech at the state opening of Parliament, to be advised that following representations by an interest over a good meal the Minister had instruction a new amendment which meant that an independent person had to be appointed in situations where a young person in what had been an approved school and which became a community home with education on the premises has been resident for three months without a visitor. Previously the responsibility for visiting such children had rested with the probation service and there was anxiety in some quarters about child care workers undertaking this role. However the amendment was introduced and passed in the lords, reported to the Commons who also agreed and the matter became law. Now here is the rub, when the matter came to be implemented it was discovered that no one in the approved schools/community homes with education on the premises qualified for the appointment of any independent visitor who had to be selected, trained and worked organised and monitored. However it was then discovered that the legislation did apply to special schools where overall responsibility rested with the Education Ministry.

This was clearly a good thing although it was an unintended consequence. The obvious way to avoid such situations is to ensure that before any new legislation is introduced or amended an analysis is undertaken of likely unintended consequences, Ever since attending the Henley Management college twenty years ago it has been my understanding the upper echelons of the civil services included creative intellects as do businesses of any substance and therefore I assumed that by now government, at least at national level would be automatically including an analysis of unintended consequences as part of the drafting and implementation planning process. I now suspect given the way the cost of some building projects have escalated from the Dome to the Scottish Parliament and the 2012 Olympic games, and the way in which collated data has being going astray, that this is not the situation, although the decision of the Prime Minister to initiate some fifty reviews hopefully indicates that this will now become the situation.

This brings me on to two other examples of the law of unintended consequences occurring over the past 48 hours or so. The minor one is the decision of the Premier League Chief executive to announce that consideration has been given to extending the league by one game a season to be played outside the united Kingdom, and this follows the decision to play one regular season American Football game at Wembley which was sold out. There has been almost universal horror expressed that this is a bridge too far, from the Prime Minister, top sports commentators and fans. What a lot of hypocritical baloney.
Some twenty years ago Professional football in Britain was in terminal decline, with grounds appalling and unsafe, attracting the foul mouthed, racists and bigots, breeding grounds for violnce in and outside the stadium. We were rightly kicked out of European competition. It has taken two decades and the involvement of Sky and other commercial TV interests to produce the situation today with all seater stadiums with a wide range of facilities to cater for most pockets except the poor, in safety, freed from violence, racism and swearing, enabling everyone to see live some of the best players in Europe and from further affield, whether they go to the stadium or on television, terrestrial, digital, satellite and cable and the internet in their homes or places of entertainment. The ambition of most premiership clubs and their supporters is also watch their team compete against other teams in Europe and when this happens there are always sufficient supporters willing and able to meet the costs of doing so at home and away, as well as for game played away from the home ground. The amount of games shown live with repeated viewings has been increasing and it is also possible to experience games from other European leagues particularly those in Spain and Italy which also compete for the best players and managers. It is not accident that some of the proven great managers now come to England, and that one of these has become our national manager or that clubs are being bought by individuals and consortia from around the world. It is inevitable that there will be development from a European to a an international scale. There have been and will be unintended consequences for all this.

The atmosphere at individuals games has changed and has at times to be organised, such as at Newcastle with the provision of free scarves to wave, or the issuing of coloured cards to create ground wide visual effects, whereas fans would congregate for an hour before game started now the majority take their seats within ten minutes of the start. This is sometimes bemoaned but was an inevitable consequence however unintended. If the majority of seats are season and controlled then families, friends and groups cannot chose where to congregate within the stadium seating so they meet up beforehand around the bars within and outside grounds. Another moan is that the time of games used always to be at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon with only international games played midweek and domestic cup replays games played midweek. Now games are not only played every day of the week but at weekends there are midday games early and late afternoon and early evening games played in addition. This is because of the increase in competitions and the commercial logic of not holding live televised games at times which could affect crowds at other games particularly the other league games using the traditional 3pm start. Doing this, far from adversely affecting the number of those buying tickets, travelling awayr or buying into viewing systems has had the opposite consequence and the only reason why fans stop going to games is when their team plays badly over a long period although some clubs can drop divisions or play badly for years and still command great support as with Sunderland and Newcastle who can fill 100000 seats although neither club has won any competition for thirty years and more, or at regulated Leeds or Manchester City before the arrival of an overseas coach.

For me with an interest in the creation of a European and Earth World order all moves which superimpose internationalism on nationalism are to be commended especially if there is appropriate analysis in advance of unintended consequences and planning to deal with these if the consequences are adverse to the extend that they will undermine the effectiveness of the desired change.

This brings me to the Archbishop of Canterbury and his statement part of a the world wide move by religious leaders that state law should take account of religious fundamentals as part of the growing awareness that the common ground of Godliness, morality and spirituality between religions is of great significance that the differences when it comes to confronting the ungodly and those without any morality or spirituality. Time has run out for me to day so I will refer again tomorrow.

1274 Matter, Time, Space God

I do not understand the true nature of matter, or the nature of our ability to measure, quantify, and define matter, and which in turn raises issues such as what is reality and do we only exist in one dimension at any one time, as well of course what do we mean by time and place?

I was stimulated to write this after staying up to watch a BBC 2 programme on the nature of the atom, its discovery, with that of anti matter, and the implication if matter and anti matter come into contact, the subsequent discovery of the composition of the atom into particles and the subsequent understanding of the existence of sub particles and the attempt to provide one unifying and coherent construction of the nature of matter, with what we know about the apparent absence of matter in terns of endless space and the concept of black holes, of gravity and light, in others words to understand the universe and therefore God. The main point of the programme was to make the case for the existence of different dimensions in which different versions of each of us exist.

There were three subjects arising from the programme that fitted in with my own thinking and understanding but also much which I need to study more and attempt to grasp the concepts.

This will be impossible without grasping, learning the language of mathematics and physics, and of philosophy and language itself and where I know that time has run out for me because of the difficulties I have in sustained learning. There have been subjects where I learnt the theory, the knowledge and the practical application, of psychology and psychoanalysis, of criminology, of child care social work, generic social work, local authority social services management, local authority management, general management and more recently art. I also know something of the histories, of logic and philosophy, of religions, of literature, drama, music and dance and I know that I can move from ignorance to understanding and enlightenment quickly if I have the interest and give my time and attention.

However there are some things which I have always find difficult to impossible and on of these is language, There was a brief period when at school I grasped the concept mathematics whereas now I cannot explain what algebra and trigonometry are. At the time the maths teacher spoke of me as having great potential as I had moved from the C to the B and to the A stream and became friends with a small group who were the brains of the class. I was handicapped in a way I or others did not fully appreciate or understand. I had been kept back at St Elphege to repeat the penultimate year and when I moved to the John Fisher School I had been placed in the third stream of the year for my actual age thus missing out all the basic learning of what should have been my introduction year, from playing cricket and football, to physics and chemistry, Latin and Greek, and French and not having been given the basics I was never able to catch up but managed to proceed with religious instruction, history, English Language and Literature and Mathematics and it was on the basis of these subjects that I was awarded the B form annual prize. Whether my experience would have been different had not lost that year and had reached the grammar school, I strongly doubt because of the way I had been brought up and the problem I had with learning the language of things and then remembering quickly enough, especially at examinations.


So I struggled with half baked questions and half baked knowledge until in my first year at Ruskin, we were invited to attend a series of weekly lectures at the college building in the centre of Oxford which attempted to explain the level of knowledge and understanding of man and he university in the early sixties. The lectures were a revelation as they answered so many of the questions, as well as identifying the issues where the questions remained to be answered. I became aware of what there was to know as well of what I did not know. I wanted to go on and take a degree in philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford where the college had a special arrangement which meant we could bypass the first public examination and which then involved a paper in Latin, if I remember accurately, but I could not grasp economic theory to my satisfaction although I obtained Alphas and Beta's double pluses from my tutor who was the deputy of the college much to the disbelief of the main economics tutor who knew that I had failed to work at the language and the building blocks to the subject and was hopeless when it came to quantification and statistics. So I opted for psychology and criminology and had the good fortune to be able to do this by stating I intended to become a social worker, a probation officer which seemed rational although the idea of being involved with prisons and adult criminals had little appeal, and it was again fortunate that that practical work involvement with the Family service units, which in turn resulted in my spending a long weekend with a group of young adolescents and I found I could communicate and this led to placements involving child care and the switch from probation to child care. Meanwhile I had been allocated a leading experimental behavioural psychologist as my tutor for psychology and he was to influence me to two very different ways. It was he who invited me to be a guest at a small university dining club of those who were not members of colleges and therefore were unable to enjoy the top table dining with influential guests and who created their own monthly occasions of several course quality meals with a variety of wines. Into days terms I am talking of £100 plus per participant. This opened up one doorway. The other was his attempt to persuade me to abandon the idea of social work and be considered for the other Oxford degree course where if selected one went straight on to the studying for the second public examination honours degree, philosophy and psychology. However I found incomprehensible the books which he game me to read and which required an understanding of the basic language, and this only reinforced my sense of limitation and the rightness of the course I was set on following.

I had these two experiences very much in mind last night when very tired I listened with an increasing of wow to the issues raised in the programme The first issue was that of the possibility that we exist in more than one dimension at any single moment. The following notes will only demonstrate to those with the knowledge and its language how much I have to learn and understand but I write it down as a means of seeing in the future where I was to when I have then reached

First the theoretical conceptual point that if everything, me, the rock beneath me and the plants and stars above me at this moment are all made of the same substance which exists as matter and anti matter but in combinations which result in the human form that can ask the question of why does one collection of the same material result in me and another as rock and more still as a planet and a star, and that each and every collection of matter exists with its anti matter but inhabits dimensions which if brought together would release all destroying energy that we exist in at least two dimensions at the same time, something explored in programmes such as Dr Who and Lost, the X files and the Star Trek series. What one leading British Physicist and philosopher attempted to explain last night is that the issues which have emerged through the find of sub particles to the particles of the atom and the discovery of a subsequent series of presently unconnected particles is the theoretical possibility of existing in an unlimited number of dimensions and which in turn raises important issues about the nature of reality. I have previously written about my mother and those with severe memory loss and clinical psychosis in which they believe in the reality of where they are and the time they are, so that parents, childhoods, and past experiences are as real to them as writing this at my desk is to me now. . One of my favourite dreams is when I can fly by propelling myself off my feet into the air. I am in my bed when this happens, and although I fall asleep on the settee or at this desk, I cannot remember ever dreaming, except when I am in my bed. However in the dream I am elsewhere and this is reality to me so I exist in two places at the same time and often in several places more comparable to travelling at the speed of light that than by conventional means or through my ability to fly without any energy as a propellant other than my will. Who needs substances Baby? (I use the Baby in salute to Mr Savalas whose comedy film with James Mason and Robert Culp entertained me over lunch).However the point of the programme was not to argue that we exist as one entity in different dimensions, as clones, but that different version of us exist in each dimension although we do not necessarily exist in every dimension. I hope that was he point being made.

Until tonight I have often speculated about the relationship between the emptiness of parts of space as well as the concept of its limitlessness. Brought upon the Catholic concept everything having a beginning and end, the concept of endless space has always been mind boggling, The concept of space has also been of emptiness as much as of matter, helped by the concept of the black hole and of the vacuum

What I learnt last night is that it is not correct to imply that at any point between measurable matter, including in the creation of a vacuum there are no particles of matter with their energy and the programme explained how this theory kept quite because the individual thought it would lead to ridicule was subsequently proved through experiment which if I understand involved two inanimate plates suspended motionless in space but where over time there is measurable movement.
In those lectures of 1961/1962 the one concept which lingered in temporary was the concept of number as a fixed reality based on what happened when you divided one by 3, 6 7 or 9. At one point the programme explained the ability to experimentally prove a definitive measurement but then went onto argue the limitations of all measurement, even through formulae, as this is only an approximation of the substance in its ever changing forms and to demonstrate the point went through a mock up what happens to a cat in a special box contained with internal apparatus which releases a lethal substance in such a way that in theory the cat is alive and dead at the same time but we can never know this because one the box is opened the cat is dead, a bit like trying to work out what happens to human beings before human being immediate before and after death from their perspective and experience rather than objectively monitoring what happens to them before and after death.

However the aspect which excited me most was the attempt to some to try and unify all the questions and available answers in relation to the atom has its particles with those in relation to gravity, and light and energy thus we have substance and the positioning of everything in relation to each other form of substances, the distance between substances and the ability to travel between substances, especially those at the furthest distances of our present ability to measure and to understand. That is the nature of universe and life and the nature of the reality of God once we jettison the concept of God as a human entity and accept that individual men and women are capable of understanding something of the nature of God and of communicating aspects to others and therefore can be considered to posses characteristics more like God than man, but this is not the same as being God or being especially chosen representative with the power to determine humans should live and not live. I had considerable sympathy with one contributor to the programme who argues that we should not devote time to trying to answer questions where we know we cannot answer and may never be able to answer but use our present knowledge to answer questions which can be resolved and which in turn will help secure and progress the future of humanity. However I also had sympathy with the programme author who reminded of the Spanish Inquisition which attempted to persuade Galileo to modify his position that the earth revolved around the sun into something which would enable the majority of believers to continue with the notion that the sun revolved around the earth with the concept of heaven above and hell below. I will reports on my progress from time to time

For the greater part of yesterday I was with my mother as I looked at the photographs taken during the four and half year she was in residential care, deciding on those to print to complete an album I had started at least a year ago, if not more. Nearly 100 were selected to add those already printed, a total of 116, two a sheet, leaving several pages for a version of the events in her life, which I will write later in the week.

I had planned to go out as the sky was blue and it seemed warmer but I decided to complete wok from yesterday, photographing the work and then a volume which was partially completed of large print descriptions of photographs and large print events in her life which she could read without glasses.

Because of the time needed to print photographs I was able to watch TV and after lunch of a large fulsome soup and a roll a great piece of nonsense in which Telly Savalas joined forces with James Mason and Robert Culp and others to break into a maximum security prison in Berlin holding a former Nazi who had been responsible for hiding gold for Hitler. Take him out for 24 hours while they persuaded him that Hitler was still alive and wanting to know where the gold was hidden and then returning him to the prison, only to find that the gold was hidden in what was East Germany when allied office could travel through the Wall blockade only to find that a new property had been built over the shelter when the gold was hidden, but a small explosion would enable them to reach the treasure and this then required the help of as former Nazi comrade of James Mason who in turn alerts the Communist authorities whose leader is open to corruption for a share arranging the building and neighbourhood to be evacuated to deal with an unexploded bomb, and who then attempts to take all the hoard but is fortunately thwarted and they are able to return to West Berlin, return the imprisoned Nazi and after some other potential disasters, get away with it. Which is unusually for Hollywood. This reminds sometime I must write about James Mason and his some 130 films made between 1935 and 1984 the year of his death, with the last film released in 1985 which is a rate of more than two films a year for half a decade. Amazing, what is also interesting that I appear to have seen at least one hundred of them.

Later in day as I printed pictures I was diverted by a good family film staring Johnboy of the Walton's Richard Thomas Winner for the Wonderboys who had become so preoccupied with his father's business that he had stopped listening to his daughter who was unhappy in college wanting to become song writer missing mother, just as her grandmother approaching the 50th anniversary of her marriage was missing her husband. Grandmother persuades grand daughter accompany her on 2000 miles road trip to the former home built with her husband to retrieve a lucky gold coin (one film flaw as it would have never been left when they moved or retrieved sooner to the church where they had married, arrested en route for skinny dipping in a private pool and then breaking out of the local jail ( also a credibility flaw(then winning at Vegas in the last throw of the dice so to speak, having used the pawned proceeds of the gold coin, then retrieved and handed to her son, who sees the light and rejoins them for the disbursing of ashes at Annie's point where they had hoped to buy land and build their ideal home at one point in their lives together, having shortly before the ending reunited with a brother separated for years because of differences. Despite all the sugar and story flaws it was an important film for me on what proved to be a significant day.

It had opened with a documentary profile on the Estafan's with that incredible moment of one day meeting the US President and the next day involved in an accident which threatened to make her chair bound and which nearly killed their son. They all survived to become influential figures in the music and entertainment business as well as leading Cubans in the USA.

The reality programme of the day was the third episode of Ross Kemp's tour of Afghanistan with the Anglian regiment and which ended with the circumstances of he death of one of their number and an interview with the mother and father, and that memorable moment she explained that he said he wanted her to be proud of him and bring her back a medal, and she had replied that she only wanted him to return unharmed.