Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Category: Society

  • Zach’s Back

    Zach has apparently returned from his stay in the Love in Action facility and announces the fact. The comments, and Zach’s occasional reactions in the comments thread make interesting reading.
     
    Bottom line? I don’t know what’s true and what isn’t in this story. If Zach has in fact written this last entry in his blog then he seems to be a strong young man who will bend with the wind in order to continue growing. I hope so.

  • Stevie and The Empress of China

    I make a point of reading Flea’s One Good Thing  blog, because her postings generally do one of two things (or both): they make me laugh out loud, or they make me reflect on the human condition.
     
    This post: Stevie made me do both. In it she talks about a documentary – Stevie – and muses on the real-life characters and the events that occur around them. I haven’t seen the documentary, but her description of the events and her reflection on how us humans can behave for good or ill makes me want to seek it out. The mainspring for the events in the documentary is how someone who was abused as a child can often grow up to be an adult who also abuses.
     
    That got me thinking about an old Dory Previn song, The Empress of China:
    i tell you how i hate you
    in the voice my father used
    you answer with your mother’s worn cliches
    and in another life
    your father hears his wife
    and i see his fury blazing in your gaze
     
    an echo hears an echo
    and my mother’s fist is raised
    the hand i clench at you
    shows her distrust
    the way one behaves
    is determined in the graves
    of all the great grandparents
    gone to dust
    I used to be playing Dory Previn’s records all the time in the early 1970s. I had the distinct feeling that she was slightly insane, but she had the soul of a poet and wrote eerie unsettling songs:
    did jesus have a baby sister?
    was she bitter?
    was she sweet?
    did she wind up in a convent?
    did she end up on the street?
    …
    did she long to be the saviour
    saving everyone she met?
    and in private to her mirror
    did she whisper saviourette?
    Whatever happened to Dory Previn? According to this web site, she’s still with us, for which I am glad. But, I think the opinion on this page comes closest to expressing my own feelings on the subject.
     
    Postscript: Dory Previn issued her own protest against the Iraq War in March 2003 – you can download it from here.

  • The Miniature Earth

    The Miniature Earth – go and watch it now.
     
    (hat tip to Alas, a Blog)

  • Love Is The Answer

    While I doubt that I would agree with Giles Fraser, vicar of Putney, over many aspects of his religion, he has always struck me as a particularly humane and sensible man. That feeling was confirmed when I read his latest column in The Guardian railing at the Bishops of the Church of England who have declared that "civil partnerships are not a form of marriage". As he says:
    Many bishops want the image of homosexuality confined to public toilets – so much easier to condemn. Consequently, clergy have been forbidden from blessing civil partnerships. We can bless battleships, and cats and dogs at the pet service: just not gay couples wanting to commit to a lifelong relationship.
    I think he’s just as exasperated as I am over their crass idiocy.

  • Dying To Kill

    "Dying to Kill" – that phrase graces the cover of the August 2005 issue of Prospect magazine. Given the moral universe in which I live, it’s a phrase that I find supremely unsettling. But clearly, there are those who live in a completely different moral universe and to whom this phrase is an edict of aspiration. One such, Hassan Butt, is interviewed in the magazine. Read the interview.
     
    Elsewhere in the web version of the magazine, Ayaan Hirsi Ali puts her finger on the definitions of the two moral universes:
    Those who love freedom know that the open society relies on a few key shared concepts. They believe that all humans are born free, are endowed with reason and have inalienable rights. Governments are checked by the rule of law, so that civil liberties are protected. They ensure freedom of conscience and of expression, and ensure that men and women, homosexuals and heterosexuals, are treated equally under the law. People can trade freely, and may spend their recreational time as they wish.
     
    The terrorists, and the Shari’a-based societies to which they aspire, have an entirely different philosophy. Humans are born to serve Allah through a series of obligations that are prescribed in an ancient body of writings. These edicts vary from rituals of birth and funeral rites to the most intimate details of human life; they descend to the point of absurdity in matters such as how to blow your nose, and with what foot to step into a toilet. Muslims, according to this philosophy, must kill those among them who leave the faith, and are required to be hostile to people of other religions and ways of life. This hostility requires them to murder innocent people and makes no distinction between civilians and the military. In Shari’a societies, women are made subordinate to men. They must be confined to their houses, beaten if found disobedient, forced into marriage and hidden behind the veil. The hands of thieves are cut off and capital punishment is performed in crowded public squares in front of cheering crowds. The terrorists seek to impose this way of life not only on Islamic countries, but, as Blair said, on western societies too.
    Give me the open society every time.

  • Crank Dot Net

    I came across Crank Dot Net today – a web site devoted to collecting links to material published on the web by cranks, crazies, and the simply misguided. It’s a salutary experience to use the site as a jumping-off point to visit the wider reaches of the human propensity for credulity. However, I do find myself having to come up for air after a very short while of trawling through the tripe.
     
    I think there must also be some sort of correlation between craziness and the inability to construct a web site without resorting to coloured text on a black background.

  • A Fatwa For Freedom

    A fascinating and true story by Robert Tait in today’s Guardian: the life story of Maryam Khatoon Molkara.

  • Bouyeri Behind Bars

    Mohammed Bouyeri has received a life sentence for his murder of Theo van Gogh. I trust that he will have a long life in the hope that he will reflect long and hard on what he did. Mind you, he starts from a bad place: ‘Clutching a copy of the Koran, he said that "the law compels me to chop off the head of anyone who insults Allah and the prophet".’ Clearly not too much remorse there at the moment, then. 

  • Franklin Kameny

    He was one of my heroes. Good to read that he’s still going strong.

  • What Not To Write

    Jason Kuznicki, over at Positive Liberty, quotes an example of the sort of letter he receives several times a year. The contrast between the fantasy of the letter-writers and the reality of Jason’s photos is very telling. But what I find distressing is trying to imagine the depths of self-denial and self-hatred that surely must seem to exist in the minds of these letter-writers. To be trapped in such a prison of your own making like that is not something I would wish on anyone.
     
    On a lighter note, I have to say that I’ve never received any letters like that. I’m obviously considered a lost cause.

  • How True It Is

    Aginoth revives some common memories – and the kick in the tail is all too true. Je ne regrette rien, though.

  • Unite Against Terror

    uat
     
    The world would be a better place if we could believe in the kindness of strangers. The narcissism, nihilism and fascism of terrorists such as Rudolph, Bouyeri and Bin-Laden have no place in a civilised society.
     
    I’ve signed – how about you?

  • Bad News

    Hard on the heels of the news from Canada comes this story of the hanging of two young gay men in Iran – because they were gay. One step forward, two steps back…

  • Excellent News

    The Canadian Senate has approved a bill legalising same-sex marriages, following a similar decision by the lower house of parliament last month. So Canada becomes the fourth country in the world to do so. Oh well, four down, only another 189 to go before common sense prevails universally. Mind you, I suspect that some countries, such as the Vatican, are likely to resist until Hell freezes over. 

  • Like Two Peas In A Pod

    Eric, meet Mohammed.
     
    I hope they will both be behind bars for a very, very long time. I doubt though whether they will ever flush the poison out of their minds.

  • The Power of Nightmares

    While I’m on the subject of the Internet Archive (see the previous entry), I also must mention that it holds a copy of one of the most riveting political documentaries I’ve seen in recent years: Adam Curtis’ "The Power of Nightmares".
     
    This film (in three parts) explores the origins in the 1940s and 50s of Islamic Fundamentalism in the Middle East, and Neoconservatism in America, the parallels between these movements, and their effect on the world today.
     
    Curtis delivers a powerful polemic, with some arresting images and ideas – I won’t forget that of the Taleban fighters dancing (apparently) to "Baby, it’s cold outside" for a long, long, time.
     
    The film, financed by the BBC, has (I believe) never been shown on the US TV networks. Why am I not surprised?

  • The Price Of Protest

    Jarndyce, over at The Sharpener blog, makes an eloquent point about the G8 and the Price of Protest. Go and read it. Now.  I’ll wait until you get back.
     
    So, I hope it’s made you think. Particularly the closing argument:
    Eight Men in One Room can change the world: the economic structure of it, anyway. But they won’t. These eight men didn’t get where they are by helping the world’s poor, but by pandering to lobbyists and agribusiness, and sending pork home from every international shindig. Ordinary people like us aren’t constrained. Given the choice between some very expensive awareness-raising plus a police baton charge or two, and 6,500 childhoods, I know which one I take. Every time.
    It got me thinking. I donate on a fairly regular basis to AIDS charities, and, like millions of others, was shocked into donating to the Tsunami relief fund. But it’s not enough. Perhaps the answer is, as Jarndyce suggests, to sponsor a child – and contribute to his or her education and healthcare. He suggests World Vision‘s scheme. But the way that it works – in exchange for your money, you get letters and photos from some poor unfortunate child in some far-off land thanking you – always struck me as slightly icky. I much prefer the anonymous benefactor route. I’d personally also prefer to be giving my money through a non-religious agency. So, time for some research into how to do more, and do it more effectively, preferably without religious trappings. Fortunately, I see that the practical Dutch have set up an organisation (the Donateursvereniging) that has already measured the charities and aid organisations missions and effectiveness against a plethora of attributes, to help undecided donors, such as me, make up their minds.
     
    The G8 leaders, as Jarndyce predicts, almost certainly won’t do a damn thing of any practical value. I really don’t know how they square it with their consciences. It’s that thought that spurs me on to take direct action via the aid agencies.

  • Cultural Combinations

    Via Dare Obasanjo’s blog comes this link to an intriguing commercial for Coca-Cola made for the Chinese market. I could understand if this had been made for the Japanese market, because the the mixing of cultural mores and leitmotifs between East and West has been going on for years, but I confess it surprised me to realise the extent to which this must now be happening in China.

  • An Introduction to Peak Oil

    Jim B. over at The Sharpener blog posts a sobering assessment of the Peak Oil phenomenon. Outcome: it’s going to happen, and this will change our world. I don’t think we fully understand yet how much this will impact us. But it ain’t going to be a picnic.

  • Make Prejudice History

    Prejudice is an interesting phenomenon. You assume that you know what the other thinks before he/she opens her mouth. So I thought well,  Elton John – celebrity, showman, clearly not a deep thinker. But then I read this piece in today’s Observer. And I thought – I was wrong. Good on yer, Elton.