Tragic and Inhumane - Man's Inhumanity to Child

Yet more tragic reports of deeply unchristian abuse of children by Catholic Clergy in Ireland only too well summarised in today's Guardian newspaper headline reading:

The Irish church's legacy of abuse In covering up the appalling abuse of chlidren in its care, the Irish Catholic church broke its own rules, as well as the state's

That a generation ago the ethos of society was more geared to preventing the black ripples of scandal spreading more than absolutely neccessary, might explain why men of previous generations acted to prevent publicity but by the 21st century, Church hierachy along with every other establishment people must have appreciated that a lack of transparency compounds rather than diminishes the reaction to the scandal when eventually light is thrown on those darkest corners.

The teachings of Christ and the work of His Church on earth, underpin imho the whole purpose of each individual's existence on the planet. The dreadful malfeasance of priests no less than that of tyrants or malevolant dictators, does not detract from that fundamental truth. Yet in addition to the huge pain caused to children or other vulnerable or weak people and their families, the damage extends to rendering that Truth more difficult for them and others to discern - Alas a new kind of "Cloud of Unknowing".

The appalling actions of individual clergy being reported does however also beg the question of what kind of influences were brought to bear on those so called clergy men when they themselves were children growing up. There needs to be research into reasons for children's emotional development being so stunted during their formative years that they have become incapable when attaining adulthood of forming deep loving relationships with adult women and men. Education may be the key especially by parents. Schools too should give more of the curriculum to facilitating this fundamental human development amongst their pupils/students. Unfortunately the Government in England at least is now endeavouring to focus schools more on mechanical sex education than on adult respect love and the quest for Truth.

Going to the Dogs - Smoke Free

The 25th HCPT Racenight at Wimbledon Greyhound racing stadium last night was an unusual treat for 93 year old mum's birthday. The London Beaumont HCPT region with the Porters will have raised a good few £ks for the disabled children.
As an occasion to enjoy good food, fun, family friends and some silly betting (£2 a go on the Tote) it was as idiosyncratic as they come.

Mum was given a bouquet of flowers by the organisers and dad emerged £17.70p up
on the dogs at the end of the evening. The human race especially when the human hare was almost caught up by th ehuman hounds, was the source of the most laughter on the 93rd party table.

A serious difference between the atmosphere at London's last remaining greyhound racing stadium yesterday and a few years ago was the effect of the ban on smoking. A few years back the food and atmosphere were sour with acrid cigarette smoke. Last night the absence of smoke made for an evening which was far more fun. If the prohibition on smoking in public places has made so much positve difference to so trivial an event as a dog race obviously the benefits must be equally applicable to more significant human gatherings and overall the quality of lives for many many people must be better for it.

The Recession and Planning HCPT in 2009/10

This time last year the impact of financial pressures on recruiting helpers for the annual pilgrimage to Lourdes was great. The fare of c.£650 for the 5 days trip to Lourdes by air from Gatwick was too high for so many students and other prospecive helpers to raise by November 30th 2009, that it began to look as though the Group would not join the annual HCPT pilgrimage for the first time since formation by the late Brian Burgess. Thankfully there was a last minute rush of sufficient applicants to make the trip as worthwhile as it has always been.

For 2010 the outlook seems far brighter. We are taking Eurostar St Pancras/Paris thence an HCPT chartered train from the Gare du Nord overnight to Lourdes and as a
result the fare is about a third cheaper than the journey by air from Gatwick. This in turn has resulted in a wealth of new voluntary helpers so much so that we are being worked hard meet and greet etc them all but have started the processes now with optimism.


The lesson issurely that even when money is tight the old saying 'where there is a will there is a way' is true.

Remembrance and Reflection

Family commitments meant that we did not attend the Mass for the war dead at the Beaumont war memorial this year. However the prevalence today of many ceremonies honouring the dead coupled with the further tragic deaths in Afganistan did provide much food for reflection.

I have posted before about the pros and cons of the UK's involvement with the war in Afganistan. That so many more have fallen since then including some seven more British soldiers this week together with many more civilians caused me to reconsider.

The key to my reconsideration lies not so much in the fighting and dying but in the purpose of all those sacrifices. The outcome of the Afgan election process is deeply saddening and my thoughts began to revert to the let the locals get on with it type scenario as the idea that what happens in a far off country will affect UK security in significant way does not ring true.

However the subjugation of the female half the population and many of the ordinary men I still feel transcends political national and parochial issues. What is the point of such grandiose concepts as a universal declaration of human rights if those who have subscribed to them stand back and allow millions of individual humans to be denied virtually any of those alleged rights, simply because they were born female?

On the other hand if local regimes carry on in the same vein even after huge attempts are made involving deaths of many British soldiers, to ensure that such rights prevail, are we not simply wasting time and losing many more lives in so doing?

Last week, events in the law courts made me consider that the soldiers' efforts should continue. Trafigura a British company had been persuaded after dint of court actions to pay £ms in compensation to many ordinary people of the ivory Coats in Africa consequent on Trafigura's alleged (but denied) responsbility for causing major pollution. So far so good but then the local regime appeared to act to prevent the monies reaching the pockets of the ordinary people who had suffered. At that point I wondered if the West's concept of human rights is but a pipe dream if local regimes remain corrupt and power hungry despite the West's involvement. However last week the local courts ruled out the attempt to place power over the Trafigura £ms in the hands of one man's organisation and as the BBC reported:

People danced, cheered and hugged each other as those who'd made it inside the court building gave their verdict

It is early days yet but the outcome so far appears to be that constant pressures for good can bring benefits for the common good. The comparison with Afaganistan only goes so far though as the initial Ivory Coast defendant was anyway a Western company and the pressure was placed on the local power hungry through the courts rather than by guns. Still patience even in the face of murderous adversity may yet pay even in the most hostile of lands. It would begood to see local Afgans dancing in their streets too.

An Education

HMV, the CD/DVD/Music people, having decided to use the otherwise wasted space on the top floor of their Wimbledon branch, as a cafe and cinema area and having launched this with half price ticket vouchers, we went to watch the new British film "An Education" there last week. The bar manager/ticket vendor told me that business was slowly picking up. As this is so far a one off by HMV, advertsing is apparantly largely by word of mouth only. The bar anyway had a more grown up feel to it than more commercial cinema bars though we eschewed the beer/wine for chocolat chaud.

The cinema was cosily intimate and so new was pervaded by a scent akin to that of the interior of a brand new car. The 'word of mouth' comment of the barman was borne out by the presence for the afternoon showing, of only a few patrons, four of whom by coincidence were well known to us. The wife of one remarked before the film began on how most of the audience seemed of a certain age and on the absence of 'chavs'.

I knew what she meant but her comments probably owed more to the type of film and the time of day than anything else. As for the film itself:

An Education was set in the '60s. A really bright intelligent private school educated teenage school girl Carey Mulligan falls for and is seduced by spiv con man Peter Saarsgard twice her age. At first the drama and fun of the actions leading up to the seduction seemed to be glmourising the whole affair to such an extent that I felt increasingly uneasy as today such actions by the older man would be understood as unpleasant 'grooming'. The rigid but typical 1960's stance taken by the private school headmistress Emma Thompson, added to the that kind of bleakness if not blackness. However the superficially unattractive form mistress Olivia Williams, provided some early signs of possible redemption.
The girl's father and mother were portrayed as somewhat po-faced middle class parents overly concerned with money and status which they seemed complicit in securing vicariously so to speak, through their daughter's naivity.

The inevitable death in the moral sense occurred but redemption again in the moral sense ultimately prevailed and extended in my view to her dad as well as to his daughter who having been expelled from school and failed her Oxford uni entry went on, helped by Ms Williams, to learn some lessons of life and also got to Oxford.

A fine film imho.