Journal Entries
'flu
Posted Jun 14, 2002
I hate 'flu.
Hopefully I'll be better enough to enjoy the weekend.
Discuss this Journal entry [2]
Latest reply: Jun 14, 2002
Bah!
Posted May 21, 2002
So I get up to early on Tuesdays to get into work an
hour earlier than normal for a meeting at quarter past
eight.
And when I get to the station I see the train on the
platform and run for it, twisting my ankle in the
process.
So I limp into work at half past seven.
And I go to my meeting at quarter past eight.
So I'm sitting there with various other un-awake
looking people.
And we're informed that the meeting has in fact been
permenantly changed to the same time on Wednesday
mornings.
So that's nice.
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: May 21, 2002
Thoughts
Posted May 10, 2002
Rights
Responsabilities
Religion
There's an excellent article here somewhere about the duality of Rights and Responsabilities. It explains how you can never have one without the other. People have a right to have children, but it comes with a responsability to look after them. People have a right to a roof over their head and food on the table, but also a responsability to make sure that their actions do not impinge on this right in others. I'm not about to spout the declaration of human rights because I don't know it. I don't think there is a declaration of human responsabilities though. I wonder if there should be. Maybe it is assumed to be implicit that everyone has a repsonsability to look after themselves and those affected by their actions.
In the absence of any international code of rights and responsabilities religion steps in to provide its followers with a code of conduct. In this way religion is by its nature an institution, in the same way as politics is. Yet also the institutions of the religions are their downfall. [Not in every respect let me add, the institution of the parish church is one that I respect. This example of a religious institution should be able to provide a focus point for all the local community to get together. In this way the community can share their problems, find and work to solutions, look after the vunerable and meet and greet one another each week. All this is presided over by one memeber of the community who acts as councillor and advice giver to those that seek it.] The aspect of institutionalisation that I object to is the way things get bogged down in dogma and personalities and power.
On the subject of dogma. We are very keen as a rule to preserve things from the past. For many things this is a good thing. A sense of respect for past customs and those older than you is a valuble quality. It should be tempered with intelligence, experience and common sense however. To pick an extreme example; I do not respect the practise of female circumsision - it may be a custom, it may be part of a religion, but it serves no purpose that I hold as valid. There are many less extreme examples of customs that are archaic in many religions.
Thus far I have been talking about religion with no mention of beliefs or god. In this particular context both are immaterial. The type of religion is immaterial. (I mention parish churches because I have been brought up as Christian in the Church of England) I am talking about religion as a system for imparting a generic code of conduct to its adherants. As such I think I am saying that an inherited code of conduct is one thing, and it may well be a good thing, but indivduals should study the code and look at it with common sense and intelligence and if at any point it goes against the principles of respecting and looking after oneself and all others it should be questioned. You have to be very careful discounting god from the argument at this point. If god has delivered this code of conduct personally to a disciple on earth surely we should follow his direcions to the letter. To not do so would be heresy. Yet it is also true that what god has said (in all the religions concerned with this) has been open to interpretation by countless humans ever since. Whenever you start letting any human interpret written word they will bend it towards their own set of priorities.
Read what you like, believe what you like, but above all Think. 
Before I sign off I wish to present some international (inter-religious) icons of humanity:-
Mahatma Ghandi
Martin Luther King
Nelson Mandela
Aung Sang Suu Kyi
Discuss this Journal entry [5]
Latest reply: May 10, 2002
No Logo
Posted Apr 17, 2002
It is a fact universally acknowledged that non-fiction books are not, as a rule, a gripping read. Interesting they may be, but un-put-downable they seldom are. Except this one. I am currently reading No Logo, by Naomi Klein, ten minutes on the train on the way into work and ten minutes again on the way home. It is a book that is forcing me to reasses the way I look at the world and evaluate the way I look in it and I haven't come up with all the answers yet.
Living in the heart of the city certain things are easier. There are a lot of shops and so long as one stays away from the city centre there are a lot of small and individually owned shops. So I've been buying my clothes in charity shops, yet I still regularly buy food in supermarkets. I commute to work by train and rarely use my car, however I do have one (and mostly it gets used by my sister). Nearly all the pubs and bars in this city are owned by one of three breweries. . . And of course theres the fact that I work for a large multi-national company which supports the new age habit of mobile telophany.
As I said, I haven't come up with any answers and my head's a bit of a jumble.
Discuss this Journal entry [4]
Latest reply: Apr 17, 2002
a little lehrer
Posted Mar 29, 2002
(from memory)
Spring is here!
Spring is here.
Life is skittles and
Life is beer.
I think the loveliest time of the year,
Is the spring.
I do.
Don't you?
'Course you do.
But there's one thing that makes spring complete for me
And makes every Sunday a treat for me.
If one Sunday your free
Why don't you come with me
And we'll poison the pigeons in the park.
Discuss this Journal entry [6]
Latest reply: Mar 29, 2002
purple dragon
Researcher U173090
Write an Entry
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."