Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Category: Society

  • Life Was Simpler Then…

    …and Health and Safety issues were a thing of the future. Still, I’m sure a barrel with a pipe stuck through it worked out a good deal cheaper than the Playstations, Nintendos and Xboxes that today’s children have come to demand.

  • The Land of the Free?

    Well, not if you happen to be a transsexual, it would appear. A friend of ours has emailed me news of what has just happened in Largo, in Florida, where she lives. The City Manager, Steve Stanton, has been removed from his post. His crime? He is a transsexual who wishes to proceed to become female. And for that, the bigots in Largo have been out in force. People such as Peggy Schaefer and Ron Sanders. Over to Peggy:
    "I don’t want that man in office," she said. "I don’t think we should be paying him $150,000 a year when he’s not been truthful. We have to speak up. Of course, we don’t believe in sex changes or lesbianism. They have their rights, but we do, too." 
    And Ron:
    "Mr. Stanton is not a role model. He’s proven that. I think for the sake of our young people today, you need to do what’s right, and that’s terminate him. … If Jesus was here tonight, I can guarantee you he’d want him terminated. Make no mistake about it." 
    While there have been voices of moderation – such as the Reverend Abhi Janamanchi:
    "Do not give in to extreme pressure, because there is such a thing as the tyranny of the majority. … Make this judgment based on sound ethics, compassion, humanity, and truly show commitment to diversity."
    – the end result is that the City Commissioners voted 5-2 to remove Stanton from his post. Another victory for bigotry and intolerance. God bless America?

  • Reflections on a Mote of Dust

    Carl Sagan wrote Reflections on a Mote of Dust in 1996. His words remain as true today as they were then.
    Icecorescientist has set the words to images and music…
     
     
     
    (hat tip to the Bad Astronomer for the link)

  • Hell On Earth

    Hilzoy, over at Obsidian Wings, draws our attention to the situation in Northern Uganda. Heartrending.

  • Another Two Data Points

     
     
    An open and shut case – ineffably sad and a terrible waste of human potential of all concerned.

  • Voices From Nigeria

    That’s the title of a new report from the IGLHRC (International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission). It documents some of the stories of LGBT Nigerians who are attempting to speak out against proposals for a new law prohibiting same-sex marriage in Nigeria. It makes for heart-rending reading. Meanwhile, the flames of hate are being assiduously fanned by the vile Peter Akinola and others of his ilk.

  • Who Do You Think You Are?

    My brother has been trying to piece together our family history for some time now. He started long before it became fashionable. Unfortunately, the trail back through time peters out fairly quickly – the curse of having common family names, I suppose. We would like to know more about our mother’s side of the family in particular, because we have Indian ancestry via our great-great grandmother.

    The story goes that our great-great-great grandfather was serving in the British Army in India in the 1820s-1830s. We’re not even sure of his name and rank – family folklore calls him Colonel Murray Holmes, but we’ve drawn a blank on that name in the army records so far. Apparently he married an Indian, but after the birth of a daughter in 1833(?) (our great-great-grandmother) she died. The child was brought back to England by a Major Penrice, who became her guardian. What happened to Colonel Holmes, we don’t know. Did he go mad with grief over the death of his wife? Did he get killed? Did he go AWOL? We are unlikely to find out. In any event, the child grew up and in due course married into a farming family – the Johnsons – in Cumbria. The only photograph we have of her was taken in about 1900, we think. Our mother remembered her visiting the family in about 1910 – as an imposing old lady who arrived in a pony and trap. Our mother would have been about six years old at the time. This is the photograph.

    g-g-Grandmother Johnson, 1900

    The photographs that we have of our great-aunts (Corra, Annie, Ethel and Emily) and our great-uncle George are even more striking, as they clearly show our Indian roots. These were taken in 1915.

    G-Aunts Cora, Annie, Ethel, Emily, G Uncle George Johnson circa 1915
    G Aunts Cora & Annie, G uncle George Johnson circa 1915

    Of course, by the time you get to our generation, mongrelisation has well and truly taken over, and I suppose that all that’s left is my Lamarckian fondness for curry… My Desi roots are all but lost.

    Update 16 December 2007: Well thanks to Shelly, we’ve now gleaned a little more of the family history. It turns out that we didn’t have the correct name for our great-great-great grandfather. He turns out to have been Lieutenant Colonel George Home Murray in the 16th Lancers. He died in Cawnpore, India on the 15th December 1833 after a few days illness. It was possibly cholera, since in August of that year there was a cholera epidemic in the Regiment. 364 men out of a total strength of 580 were admitted to hospital during the period of 22nd August to 24th September, and 60 men died of the disease. Colonel Murray was buried in the Cawnpore cemetary, where a monument was erected to his memory by the officers of the Regiment. I wonder whether it still stands?

    My brother has also been busy. He’s engaged a genealogist, who, amongst other things, has turned up the last will and testament of Colonel Murray. It turns out that while he acknowledges our great-great grandmother as an heir, she is named in the will as “the daughter of an Asian woman”. Whether she was his flesh and blood or not (and the probability seems high that she was), she took the name of Corra Home. Another piece of the jigsaw fell into place when we saw that the executor of Colonel Murray’s will was a Thomas Penrice. Could this be the “Major Penrice” who became Corra’s guardian? In any case, we now know that Corra was apparently born in 1827 (not 1833) in Calcutta, and she married John Johnson, a soldier in the 2nd Life Guards. He was born in about 1821 in Macclesfield. Further digging is afoot…

    Update 17 December 2007: Shelly turned up trumps again – she’s found a photo of the monument to Colonel Murray. The internet is amazing…

  • Still Missing

    I see that Jim Gray is still missing. I’m afraid I fear the worst, although it seems that his family has not yet given up hope.

  • Friends and Enemies

    I’ve mentioned the ding-dong between Pascal Bruckner, Timothy Garton-Ash and Ian Buruma before. Other voices are joining in, but can I just refer you (at the risk of seeming a trifle immodest) to the excellent commentary on the whole affair by J. Carter-Wood over at Obscene Desserts…

  • The Book Of Rules

    The Taliban’s Book of Rules contains some breath-taking precepts:
    24) It is forbidden to work as a teacher under the current puppet regime, because this strengthens the system of the infidels. True Muslims should apply to study with a religiously trained teacher and study in a Mosque or similar institution. Textbooks must come from the period of the Jihad or from the Taliban regime.
     
    25) Anyone who works as a teacher for the current puppet regime must recieve a warning. If he nevertheless refuses to give up his job, he must be beaten. If the teacher still continues to instruct contrary to the principles of Islam, the district commander or a group leader must kill him.
     
    26) Those NGOs that come to the country under the rule of the infidels must be treated as the government is treated. They have come under the guise of helping people but in fact are part of the regime. Thus we tolerate none of their activities, whether it be building of streets, bridges, clinics, schools, madrases (schools for Koran study) or other works. If a school fails to heed a warning to close, it must be burned. But all religious books must be secured beforehand.  
    And while I’m reeling from this I come across:
    19) Mujahideen are not allowed to take young boys with no facial hair onto the battlefield or into their private quarters.
    Er, what?
     
    (hat tip to Norm) 

  • Jaw Drops…

    …I’m sorry, but this makes me want to scream. "Their money"? So that makes it OK then? With financial advisers like this, who needs people slitting your veins?

  • Punks In Niqabs

    Not Saussure illustrates his post on the recent Policy Exchange report on Islamism with a wonderful photograph – you must go and look at it. Punk rockers for the multicultural age. And while you’re there, read the rest of the post. As he says, the best thing to do is to keep a sense of perspective.

  • Ayaan Hirsi Ali

    There’s an interview with Hirsi Ali in today’s Observer. It’s worth reading.

  • Pomposity Pricked

    I mentioned a few days ago that I had read an attack by Pascal Bruckner on Ian Buruma and Timothy Garton Ash, whom he accused in turn of attacking Ayaan Hirsi Ali. I said at the time that I found Bruckner’s piece shrill and over the top.
     
    Well, via the editor of the New Humanist’s blog, I learn that Buruma and Garton Ash have both replied. And frankly, their replies confirm my original impression that Bruckner is a bit of a wanker. Well, quelle surprise…

  • Plus Ca Change

    In 1995, I bought a book called Prayers For Bobby. It is the true story of a mother’s coming to terms with the suicide of her gay son. I thought of that book today when I read Terrance’s post about another gay son. Go and read it. Plus ça change…

  • Indoctrination

    Dear lord, this is depressing. I have news for the young man who thinks he’s going to win a Nobel prize. Not in this universe, sunshine.

  • Our Maddy of the Sorrows

    I confess that almost anything that Madeleine Bunting writes usually has me rolling my eyes by the second paragraph. And that’s on a good day. Some of the pieces from Our Maddy of the Sorrows have been known to push me close to apoplexy. It’s really not good for either my sanity or my health. In June 2006, it was announced that she would be leaving the Guardian to take up the post of Director at the Think-Tank, Demos. Pausing only to wonder whether Demos would have to re-christen itself to be a Belief-Tank, I did permit myself a sigh of relief that I’d no longer be reading her rubbish in the Guardian.
     
    Alas, a mere six weeks after taking up the post, Demos announced her resignation, and she scuttled back to the Guardian. I wonder whether we’ll ever learn the true story behind that. The Demos press release is intriguing:
    Since it has emerged that her vision for Demos is incompatible with that of the trustees, she has decided to focus on her interests as a writer and a thinker at this point in her career. She will resume her regular column in the Guardian and her position as Associate Editor… 
    That’s the trouble with incompatible visions, always causing problems for someone or other.
     
    Anyway, she’s back, writing the kind of article that we have come to expect. I was going to comment on it, but I see that a far better class of fisking has been delivered by Opehlia Benson, over at ButterfliesAndWheels, and J. Carter Wood at Obscene Desserts. Go and read them and sorrow at our Maddy.
     
    Oh, and J. Carter Wood amplifies on something that struck me when reading AC Grayling’s retort to Bunting; that Grayling could be said to have delivered a hostage to fortune with the lax wording of his challenge. Fortunately, J. Carter Wood tightens up the challenge, and demonstrates that the essential point is that the religious have a distressing tendency to insist that their holy books must be right when science points out a discrepancy.

  • Bruckner on Hirsi Ali et al…

    Via the blog of the editor of the New Humanist, I’ve come across a defence of Ayaan Hirsi Ali by Pascal Bruckner against the "attacks" on her by Timothy Garton Ash and Ian Buruma. I must admit I found Bruckner’s piece somewhat shrill.
     
    While I haven’t got the writings of Garton Ash to hand that Bruckner quotes, I do have a copy of "Murder in Amsterdam" by Buruma that Bruckner uses as evidence of the attack on Hirsi Ali. And I have to say that I don’t recognise the portrait of Buruma that Bruckner paints from it. I thought that Buruma portrayed Hirsi Ali very sympathetically, even when he mentions what he sees as her shortcomings. His writing about the events and the participants are rounded and humane. I don’t think the same could be said of Bruckner:
    It is her wilful, short-fused, enthusiastic, impervious side to which Ian Buruma and Timothy Garton Ash object, in the spirit of the inquisitors who saw devil-possessed witches in every woman too flamboyant for their tastes. 
    Er, I’m sorry? As I said, Bruckner’s piece strikes me as being shrill and makes it difficult to be receptive to his argument. I felt as though I was being hectored by someone shouting in my ear and waving his arms about wildly…

  • The Sound of Woo

    Following on from Donnie’s musical offering, Orac treats us to the wilder shores of woo…

  • Blasphemy!

    If you didn’t catch the discussion (I wouldn’t call it a debate) between Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry at last year’s Hay Festival, then here’s your chance to hear it or capture it for posterity. Posterity will be moderately proud of you.