What is Easter

Easter is a pagan festival of various origins. It was associated with the vernal equinox and was a celebration of fertility in the re-birth of plants in spring. The name itself probably comes from Eastre or Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon name of a Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility. Her festival was celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox. Traditions associated with the festival survive in the Easter rabbit, a symbol of fertility, and in coloured eggs, originally painted with bright colours to represent the sunlight of spring.For the Greeks the the festival commemorated the return of Persephone, daughter of Demeter, the earth goddess, from the underworld to the light of day. Her return symbolised to the ancient Greeks the resurrection of life in the spring after the desolation of winter. The Phrygians believed that their deity went to sleep at the time of the winter solstice, and they performed ceremonies with music and dancing at the spring equinox to wake him.

The execution of Jesus was reputed to have been on the Jewish festival of Passover, or Pesach, from which is derived Pasch, another name for Easter, so this is the most direct link that Christians draw.

Just like virgin birth, resurrection was taken by the Christians from many preceding religions and traditions. Easter was a fertility celebration long before the Christians took it over Even the name pre-dates Christianity and it was not a bunny that was crucified and Jesus did not lay a chocolate egg.

I would like to say happy equinox, but, of course, the date of easter does not coincide with the equinox (or passover for that matter). The movable date was set by the Council of Nicea, which was convened by the pagan Roman Emperor Constantine, 300 years after Jesus to decide on the date of his death among other things. They could not agree on a fixed date so Jesus has the anniversary of his death on a different date every year.

Earth to Earth…

 

Where is the earth

from which I was born?

Which is the ash

of my birth?

 

How was the dust

from which I was thrust,

given breath and

life and girth?

 

Was it magical mixing

with bell and book,

plus the grace of a god

with a whim?

 

Or the sweaty poking

my mother took,

from my dad who

was drunken and grim?

 

Am I the mystical

gift of grace,

from a merciful lord

beaming down?

 

Or do I fill,

my dead brother’s place?

Just to lighten

my parents frown?

 

When I am cast,

back to the earth,

the ash and the

dust in the ground.

 

Will I be told what

my life was worth?

Or will it just end

in that mound?

Doh Re Mi

 

Doh doh doh, re mi fa soh.

Your song entrances

all who know.

 

The beauty of

your voice so fine.

Fa fa soh la ti doh.

Who Does The Dalai Lama Think He Is?

 

The Dalai Lama has made an announcement that he will resign as political leader of Tibet if the present opposition to Chinese occupation of the country gets out of hand. What exactly does he think he would be resigning from and what legitimacy does he have as a political leader?

 

I will start off by saying that the communist government of China is a vile and murderous dictatorship that has no legitimacy and I greatly hope that the Chinese people succeed in the not too distant future in replacing their oppressors with a democratic system. China claims that Tibet is an autonomous region within China, but the truth is that they occupied the country by military force and they maintain their presence there by an oppressive dictatorship which ruthlessly suppresses all opposition. The claims of autonomy are false. The people of Tibet have every right to determine their own affairs and form their own government irrespective of whether they choose to be some federal or confederal relationship or if they want to be wholly separate.

 

It seems that the Dalai Lama considers himself to have two roles. The first is the spiritual one which was conferred on him as a child when he was identified has being the reincarnated former Lama. This absurd process involves religious dignitaries searching after the death of a Lama to find characteristics by which they can identify the transition of the soul of the departed leader into a new human being. Well, you can believe that nonsense if you like, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the needs of the people of Tibet except insofar as they believe a lot of religious rubbish and they want to continue to be deceived.

 

The position from which the Lama is saying that he might resign is as leader of the Free Tibet movement. Why does he have this leadership? Quite a lot of people think that the Dalai Lama is a nice chap and that he has had a statesmanlike approach to the problem of the occupation of Tibet. However, this is really beside the point. The only credible reason for the Lama being accredited as the leader of the liberation movement is that he was chosen to be the reincarnation of the previous Dalai. Before the communist occupation of Tibet, the truth is that Tibetan society was a viciously poor, feudal enclave of superstition and manipulation by a mystical elite.

 

The Dalai Lama may or may not be a suitable leader of the Tibetan people. The problem is that we do not know whether he has the right to leadership of anything. It is right to oppose the Chinese occupation because they are an illegitimate occupying force who came to power in 1949 by force of arms and have only maintained themselves in that power by armed might and the prohibition of dissent. The Dalai Lame has no more legitimacy as a political leader than the communist government of China although he doesn’t share their crimes.

 

The Tibetan people certainly need to be liberated. They should have liberation from a tyrannical communist government that is occupying their country and they should also have liberation from the superstitious nonsense that finds reincarnated souls in little children and then imposes roles on these poor children for which they may not be suited and may not have any wish to occupy. As for the Dalai Lama, if he really wants to serve his people he should tell them that he is not a god, he does not have any divine powers and he is not appointed to leadership by anybody other than them.

 

The struggle for the Tibetan people to be able to run their own lives, control their own destiny and establish their own position in the world requires that they should be able to cast off the yoke of superstition as well as communist occupation.

Dockland

 

Down by the river

all along the dock.

You could find your way to Silvertown

by smell alone.

 

The clattering of bones

by the dockland rats

made you tremble as you

sniffed through the smog.

 

Stevedores and dockers slogged

through dark, black dockyards

heaving goods ashore

in the dawning grey.

 

The Silvertown explosion

flattened all about it,

but dockland shifted freight

and the rats gnawed on.

 

Now the smog is cleaned away,

all the dockers put in boxes.

Dockland stands in silence,

reaching for the skies.

 

Silvertown is fragrant,

past the still dock waters,

and a multi storey palace

teems with dockland rats.

Abolish Minimum Wage

 

Wages are the price of labour. All attempts to control prices against market forces create distortions that damage wealth. The minimum wage destroys jobs and adds to the black economy.

Abolish All Transport Subsidies

 

The people who use public transport should pay the market price for their seat. There is no justification for taxing poor people to subsidise the travel of others.

Disturbed Night

 

I woke to cracking roar above my head.

A moment of confusion, then I knew

the building blazed above

our basement room.

 

My friend had woken too.

Leaping to my trousers

on a chair,

he tried to put them on.

 

Fighting clothing far too small

he stumbled, coughing, to the hall.

A blazing stair was all he saw

and screamed,

“the house on fire”.

 

In clumsy haste

we sorted out the clothes,

and staggered

in the weak and eerie glow.

The light had gone

and smoke, about us swirled

as we heaved at ancient sashes

stiff with paint.

 

Climbing from the semi basement pit

to chilly night, just nearly breaking dawn.

We saw flames belching

outward from above,

and figure silhouetted

on the roof.

 

Shrieking sirens, roaring pumps

and voices rent the air.

Ladders crash and thundering feet,

people everywhere.

 

Seconds pass with splintering glass

and rush of mighty jet.

The flames are gone

and quiet falls

‘mid smells of dirt and wet.

 

The limp and frail figure

of a man swung into view.

Small, across the shoulder

of the fighter climbing down.

 

Passed with gentle power

to a medic at the base.

Fresh, clean mask was passed across

his grime encrusted face.

 

All is calm efficiency

as he’s stretchered off to care.

In no time at all, it’s finished

and the rescuers are gone.

 

We stand amid

the dripping stench.

A basement flat no more.

I say goodbye

and wander off.

I tell him I will call.

Abolish Farm Subsidies

 

Huge amounts paid to large farmers in Europe keep the third world poor. Free trade in all products and between all countries is the only way to ‘fairness’ and prosperity for all.

Desert Scorn

 

So this is the New Mexico.

What crap was the old one

to make this?

 

In Albuquerque from

Spider Spoon Restaurant

by fake antique bus

to Old Town.

 

Well, well!

There’s another failed actor

shot dead

in the middle of the street.

 

Yesterdaves with an Elvis suit,

Yuk Mexican food

and crap Indian ‘art’.

 

A soulless new, sprawling

concrete city with

a nice mountain outside.

 

The clowns in the civic plaza

clearly designed and ran the town.

 

A fire truck driven by a dalmation

trundled around.

Repeatedly saying

“whoops – excuse me.”

 

The singing horse

in a glass box

asking for a dollar,

was the friendliest

thing around.

 

No shops.

Not safe to walk

they said.

 

Homeless people hovered

around the outskirts.

 

At Roswell

aliens chose to land in 1947.

What taste can they have?

 

Branson is building his space port here.

No doubt to move the homeless

a little further away

so they don’t frighten

the conference trade.

 

Here lives ‘Strong City’

who know, through their Messiah

Michael that the end of the world

is to happen on 15^th December 2007

at midnight.

The calculation is certain.

Just like the last one was.

Oops!