Turn Right at Machu Picchu

Within this great book the author, Mark Adams, retraces the steps that led Yale Professor, Hiram Bingham, to discover Machu Picchu one hundred years ago, on July 24, 1911. The chapters more or less alternate between Bingham’s and Adams’ expeditions. The author packs a lot of information into the book. He includes anecdotes, observations and sometimes he tosses in hilarious wee humorous tidbits. He also includes information on the flora and fauna as well as Inca history of the area. He also describes what it is like today I am fascinated with Machu Picchu and have such a desire to hike to this famous lost city of the Inca's. Its top of my current (and very comprehensive) bucket list and one which I intent to tick off soon within the next 18 months. There are various trails including buses and trains but I really want to do the rough 10 days cross country trek, for this once in a lifetime trip I really want to experience the country and this book gives such a taste of Peru. I want to get off the beaten trail, my idea of hell is a package holiday, sitting by the pool, or eating the food you find back home….what is the point of this? What memories can such a holiday provide, it’s like when you step of the plane you leave your soul behind, no way…I want to meet real Peruvians, chew the coco leafs, travel the Inka Trail through the Sun Gate, get blisters and sleep like the dead each evening, hike up Montana Machu Picchu and feel like I have earned the right to be there, what’s the point otherwise? I want to do it when I am still young and fit enough to enjoy it with a passion, we all need to learn to live at times and these safe “package holidays” are a form of dying...for dead souls, I dont want to lay pissed at the pool, get off the route everyone takes and be that naïve Gringo, just always be respectful and people always seem to want to help….ooofff, I am writing too much about my feelings here when I sound talk about this great book, if you don’t already have a fire in your soul to see this great please then this book will ignite it for sure. Not only is this book a travelogue it’s also a smart and tightly written history and an investigative report into the greatest archaeological discovery of the last century. A fascinating story and wonderful account of Machu Picchu, excellently researched and very well written, a a page turner which you can’t put down, I was almost ready to pack my bags as soon as I reached the last page!! The book is just so charming, when I go I will surely have the book with me in my backpack and will read it under the stars there to milk every piece of magic and myth, such up the experience for everything it’s worth……total immersions!!!! One word of warning….don’t attempt to read this book if you are just going to vegetated on the sofa, this book is an inspiration to get out there and rough it, we are a long time dead!!!!

Jura and other literary boltholes

I am a huge fan of George Orwell who not only I consider him an author of rare talent. From his clever lampooning of The Russian Revolution and the rise of Stalin with his scheming pigs and gullible carthorses to the dark picture of a totalitarian Britain which was his book Nineteen Eighty-Four, the man was a visionary and genius. You may have read my previous post where I did a book review on Nineteen Eighty-Four, a book I have no hesitation recommending, you will recognise many words and phrases from this book such as "Thought Police", "Big Brother" and "Room 101", he was away ahead of the game. Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four May in 1946 when he stayed at the Scottish Island of Jura where he rented Barnhill, an abandoned farmhouse at the north end of the island. He spent much of the year there, then returned in April 1947, and again in July 1948 - only really leaving for East Kilbride, on the outskirts of Glasgow, during the winter of 1947, where his failing condition was diagnosed as TB.  I stayed a few days in Jura last year, just myself with Rocky my Parrot in his Travel Motel cage, a couple of books which of course included Nineteen Eighty-Four and a bottle of whisky not a Jura malt, I chose to bring my favourite single malt whisky which is a cask strength laphroaig which matched to the little peat burning fire in the little cottage just nicely. It was a solitude escape for a few days from civilisation and was a few months after my Mother passed away so it was nice to get out to get my head together and some peace to read a book staying only a couple hundred yards from where the author wrote it. I did have a little wander around Barnhill were Orwell stayed but it was locked up securely during my visit so I only saw it from the outside but I understand now that you can rent that little cottage. It will be short on mod-cons and 21st century gadgetry, but it can be hired from £1000 per week a price which reflects the fact that it sleeps eight, rather than revelling in the a-man-and-his-pen solitude that so inspired Orwell, but this place would only appeal to me for the solitude so would lose its purpose if I went with a large contingent so I guess the smaller little cottage a short walk away will be my lot. It’s a beautiful place to visit if you need to escape for a few days, a little remote cottage on Jura is a tonic, A sort of heaven certainly an idyll far removed from the dystopia and sense of dread which seems to penetrate the reader's bones through the pages of Nineteen Eighty-Four and in keeping with its heroic isolation, you’ll rely on a generator for electric light and charging phones although I had to walk up a little hill to get a reception and forget about Wi-fi or 3G.

There are other other literary boltholes where you can stay around the world if, like me, you are a bit of a bibliophile and total immersion sounds bliss staying close to where the book was written or based. Some examples are for example for fans of Ernest Hemingway there is Room 201 in the Gran Hotel La Perla, Pamplona where he wrote finest work The Sun Also Rises (1926) which is a love letter to Pamplona and its bull-running culture, set in the heady atmosphere of Spain in the mid-Twenties.  Or perhaps John Steinbeck fans would like Pacific Grove, California, Jamaica for the readers of Ian Fleming’s Goldeneye.

I always wanted to visit the Greek island of Cephalonia to sit by a fishing boat pulled up on the beach to read Louis de Bernières’s Captain Corelli's Mandolin which is one of my favorite books, perhaps even meet my own Pelagia and fall in love. Allow me to dream, in literature we can escape from the false people we met in this reality, perhaps its time for me to gather up a pile of books, my companion parrot and a bottle of laphroaig and escape from it all again, somewhere further, somewhere beautiful and above all ….somewhere isolated to leave this cancer of a society behind and the shallow false beasts who inhabit it.

Chicken-Licken in the "Modern" world

I can remember the first book I read, a tale which haunted me as a little child. My mum read it too me firstly and often a such a book is magical to a child, a comfort to hold and copy mummy by the child attempting to read himself or perhaps hold when mummy helps you pronounce the words, I can’t remember the actual exact circumstances but I do remember the story well and how It haunted me as a child. The book in question was Chicken-Licken, a fable also known as Chicken Little, I can hear you scoff already but allow me to tell you about it. My copy was published by Laadybird, I attach a library photo of what it looked like.

Its an cumulative tale about a youndg chicken (a chick) who believes the world is coming to an end when an acorn falls from a tree and hits him on the head, he believes that it’s the sky which is falling. Our wee chap is hysterical with a mistaken belief that disaster is imminent and runs around telling his mates, Henny Penny, Cocky Locky, Ducky Lucky, Drakey Lakey, Goosey Loosey, Gander Lander, Turkey Lurkey….the hysteria is contagious and they band together to tell the King until they meet Foxy Loxy who asserts an impression of helpfulness and offers to show them the way to the King, he takes them down into the fox hole where he and his fox cubs make a meal of them all abruptly ending the tale. No happy ending to be found in this story, just a lying fox to leads the naïve to a gruesome death. This was the ending in my Ladybird version, the ending I always knew. Can you imagine the fear this story delivered to a child who’s environment leads him to believe in “happy every after”? Certain a lesson in the real world that not all frogs are Princes or the hair dangling from the high tower leads up to a Princess. Only recently I found out about other alternative endings in other book…. How Foxy Loxy eats the chicken's friends, but the last one, usually Cocky Lockey, survives long enough to warn the chicken and she escapes or the characters being saved by a squirrel or an owl and getting to speak to the King; the characters being saved by the King's hunting dogs; even one version in which the sky actually falls and kills Foxy Loxy. There is a moral to this story usually interpreted to mean "do not believe everything you are told". It could well be a cautionary political tale: The Chicken jumps to a conclusion and whips the populace into mass hysteria, which the unscrupulous fox uses to manipulate them for his own benefit. There is a lot of psychological evidence that children need to be exposed to the idea of danger quite early so that they understand the world and aren't confused by it. It doesn't do any good to "shield" a child so that when their granny dies they have no idea what's going on (although mine on both sides were away long before I was born) Children accept the world in quite a matter of fact way, they don't have the same hangups as adults and stories are a good way to introduce concepts such as the fact that not everyone is friendly, there is danger in the world etc. The world is a big bad place and I have seen this very much from experience. Chicken-Licken is not the only story for kids with such an ending, remember The Snowman, and how me melts at the end. Some of these stories have since changed due to pressure from groups who are doing more damage than good. In the latest Little Red Riding Hood, even the wolf doesn't die, just gets stones in his body and has to eat sprouts. In the newest 3 little Pigs no pigs are eaten, and the wolf runs off. Are we really doing our kids a service with these new edition happy endings? The real monsters are still out there in this world, sitting outside a primary school in a car, planting an explosive device on a bus, grooming young girls and mounting pedestrian zones with vans…..Foxy-Loxy pales in comparison, the trolls out there are no longer found just under bridges, sleeping beauty wakes up and pisses off back to the arsehole who cursed her in the first place, kissing the frog gives you a STD and the Little Mermaid pulls you under the ocean to drown until your bloated crab eaten body returns to the surface. Death is not beautiful, often its slow, ugly and rips the soul out of you when you sit at a loved ones bedside watching and waiting for her final breath to turn to air. Life is a shit and experience will corrupt, but the saving grace is the beauty which is hidden and sometimes appears like a rose pushing its head through a fence. The moments when you touch your child for the first time, a piece of classical music that fills your heart or the most beautiful sunset on foreign shores, we plough on in this life because circumstances can change at any time and if you are a decent person then surely time will reward your efforts.....we need to believe this otherwise we would just lay down now and let the world grind us into the grave.

The Selfish Gene

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins is a book I have read 3 times now, the first time I read it was about 20 years ago, it was heavy going then for me. I read it a second time about a decade ago, I started to understand it more and I grew a spark of an interest in evolutionary biology, recently I read it last year and it felt like natures poetry, I absorbed very sentence and could understand it better. I have 3 copies of this book, a dog eared paper copy I bought 20 years ago, the hard back edition I got to look tidier on my book shelf and more recently the large extended hardback edition which had more materials added. The Selfish Gene is a very well written book that shows how beautiful reality actually is, just in case you needed reminding but especially if you never realised. The book is designed to show you just how much more pleasing it can be to hear a truth than to hear a lie; in a sense the book could be the basis for a truly objective view of aesthetics. Dawkins seeks to dispel the myth that truth and science (as a process of achieving truth) are cold and uninteresting; he also explains why this myth can be so damaging especially in light of the fact that this myth is so obviously false. The main points of this book discuss how Selfishness and competition is at the root of all biological phenomena - nature as "red in tooth and claw and that there is no basic "dis-continuity" between humanity and other animals - humans are not qualitatively different from other animals however there is no ethical dilemma between this basic fact and the human desire for goodness - since descriptive and normative realities are intrinsically separate (what is and what should be are independent of each other) when this book first came out in the late 70s lots of readers were left with a certain sadness and depression about us as a species, I can remember feeling similar thoughts when I read it in the 90s, but after more experience in life I understand and can accept more with clarity the concept, for example, the fact that there might be a gene for lying is should not be in dispute after the lessons in life I have learnt from certain individuals. (I even understand my companion Parrot’s behaviour better and the evolutionally reasoning behind it due to this book) I do recommend this book, although it would be handy to have some knowledge beforehand in biology (Biopsychology would be perfect but who knows about this? I certainly never) It can be hard going at parts so have google ready to elaborate on points but you will become a more enlightened person for your troubles pushing through and give yourself an education.

My Experience of Death (but not my own...yet)

There are essentially four ways to die: sudden death; the long, slow death of dementia; the up and down death of organ failure, where it’s hard to identify the final going down, tempting doctors to go on treating too long; and death from cancer, where you may bang along for a long time but go down usually in weeks. Suicide, assisted or otherwise, is a fifth, but I’m leaving that on one side for now. If asked, most people would chose sudden death. That may be OK for them but it may be very tough on those around them, particularly if they leave an important relationship wounded and unhealed. If you want to die suddenly, live every day as your last, making sure that all important relationships are in good shape, your affairs are in order, and instructions for your funeral neatly typed and in a top draw—or perhaps better on Facebook, let me state now that I have no preference, how would arrange my funeral or mourn me anyway? I have no family except for my son who I have not seen now for three years, through no fault of mine or his I may add, but my love for remains stronger and absolute than anyone could ever comprehend. Since his birth he brought forth emotions in me I never knew could exist but also he became an Achilles Heel for me, a weakness that could be exploited to hurt me when nothing else could. In a way, with him from my life this bleeds my heart like a death but without a chance to heal as the mourning never stops with every jolt of memory. All that would want to leave as a marker to my existence would be the knowledge within my son heart that his Father loved him and never stopped. Death from organ failure—respiratory, cardiac, or kidney—will have you far too much in hospital and in the hands of doctors. So death from cancer is the (sometimes) best, You can say goodbye, reflect on your life, leave last messages, perhaps visit special places for a last time, listen to favourite pieces of music, read loved poems, and prepare, according to your beliefs, to meet your maker if you have such beliefs or enjoy eternal oblivion. This is, I recognise, a romantic view of dying, but it is achievable with love, morphine, and whisky. But stay away from overambitious oncologists potentially leaving you to die a much more horrible death. My brother died the sudden death, oil rig explosion in the North sea during 1988 with 188 other poor souls. For me the most painful part was watching the hell my parents went through, the memorial service in Aberdeen, then in Falkirk then everything ripped open again when his body was recovered two months later. My Dad's death was slightly prolonged, it was cancer in the lungs, he was a smoker of cigars during his army days, although stopping when I was born they will got him in the end. Basically be drowned with fluid within his lungs as he lay in bed after being sickly and gradually getting worst for a couple of weeks, unfortunately he did not have the fore mentioned time to reflect and prepare, so much was still left unsaid, especially from me, I had so much to tell him which I never did in the end to my pain. The long, slow death from dementia may be the most awful way to pass as you are slowly erased, but then again when death comes it may be just a light kiss, this was how my Mum's life ended last year, her memories gradually scrubbed to a point where she did not recognise me and when shown a picture of my Dad, her husband, a man who passed way almost 20 years prior who she loved with a passion never again seen in this day and age, she gazed upon the photo in a frame I would hold up then say that she thought she went to school with him but could recall nothing further despite they were married for over 50 years and the happiest couple I ever met. Her life finally ended after being unconscious for 4 days and 3 nights, all of which I stayed by her side in her room within the care home. This may sound rough but it was a blessing as I pulled my seat right next to her bed and held her hand, she was unconscious so would not pull her hand away with a shriek believing me to be a strange in her dementia ridden mind instead of her son. I talked so much to her during that 4 days and 3 nights, I moistened her lips with a little sponge, I held her close when she moaned in her "sleep" and I said everything. I told her how much I loved her, I talked about her grandchild Sam and how much he loved her too, I read from a little book called In Praise of Shadows, I thanked her many times for the happiest childhood she and my dad gave me. Over the 4 days and 3 nights I saw her hand with I held darken and her face which I kissed upon the cheeks fall in upon its self until Sunday morning when she gave her final moans during which I cradled her head and repeated every affection I had for her then her final breath turned to air and it was over. Does this sound too personal a memory to share on a blog for strangers to read? But why? we are humans and as humans we share our experiences, sometimes take comfort knowing others have been through the same and I know I'm not the first nor will I be the last. Life is a beautiful gift, I remember my son being born, how when I put my hand in his incubator how he grabbed my finger and held on, I have never let go since! I remember the last time I felt love, chatting on an online messenger until the early hours of the morning, the feeling on my hand being stroked when at the cinema, the feeling in my heart during a hug and the tentative first kisses scared that there is is someone else in this world I care about again. I still remember the smell of Old Spice from my dad, how his rough callused hands felt. I remember how my brother, who was much older use to come home from his work and lift me up and spin me around the house as I giggled my head of and my mum watched with parental concern. These are the things that make us feel alive, yet all the people involved in this story are no longer in my life. Time robs us of such riches, sometimes we chase material things and ignore the important things. I am an Atheist, I don't believe in an after life, no theme parks of Paradiso and Inferno, no heavenly rides or hellish crowds, what we do in the here and now is whats important. Leave a legacy of being remembered as a good person, hide your pain like a clown hides its tears, ignore the bitterness of others and help these you can. Remember that every atom in our bodies came from a star that explode.To paraphrase a well know Scientist...The atoms in your left hand probability came from a different star to the atoms in your right hand. we are all stardust and would not be here if the stars had not exploded because the elements , carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and iron weren't created by a god at the beginning of time. they were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars and the only way they could get into our bodies is by the stars exploding. so forget about Jesus, its the stars which dies to give us life and to the stars we will eventually return, is that not poetic? Our clocks are ticking down, I dont fear death as such, why should I? the light goes off and thats it, what I fear in any pain and suffering, I fear my son won't have know me or remember how much I loved him. I fear people I love will never realise how much I care, I fear I will have been misunderstood by many, these fears dont make me unique in any way, these are the fears we all have and which we should start addressing now. As Shakespeare wrote "For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause"

Rohingya

Recently I have been watching a lot about Rohingya on the News.
The very disturbing scenes which usually show woman and children in the most horrendous conditions.

The media coverage is certainly directed for maximum impact and tugs on our heart strings, especially seeing the children, born into this situation and the woman who are cultural slaves to this horrible ideology which encompasses politics, religion and culture.
 I am very sick and tired of media manipulation over what is happening and the reasons, especially sick and tired of Labour's Jeremy Corbyn's blatant and flagrant pandering to the Muslim Brotherhood over this in the UK which ironically is showing a contradiction to democracy and human rights whilst attempting to stand for moral values, I feelings are very strong over this but my disenchantment with Labour is a different subject fr another day.

 What the news does not tell you is how the Rohingyan story is one of aggressor turned victim and should be a lesson to us all. There's a big misconception about the violence in Burma that has caused severe casualties to both Rohingya Muslims and Burmese Buddhists. Therefore it is important that a fair assessment to this issue is done to shed light on the grey areas and enlighten those who are clueless on the subject.

 The Rohingyas are a Muslim minority who migrated from Bangladesh and reside in Myanmar. The community procreated in large numbers within a very short period of time without any family planning and considerations to limited resources, because of which the native community in the area has become a minority and deprived of their own lands that were grabbed by increased population of Rohingyans.

 According to Rohingyas, they are indigenous to Rakhine State, while the Burmese historians claim that they migrated to Burma from Bengal primarily during the period of British rule in Burma, and to a lesser extent, after the Burmese independence in 1948 and Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. General Ne Win's government, in 1982, enacted the Burmese nationality law, which denied citizenship to the Rohingyas honoring the opinion of vast majority of Burmese. (96%) The decision also came as a result as the Rohingyas were rebelling the government for several decades with the support of external forces, mainly from separatists movements and extremist groups including Al Qaeda.

 The Rohingya insurgency in Western Myanmar was an insurgency in northern Rakhine State (also known as Arakan), waged by insurgents belonging to the Rohingya ethnic minority. Most clashes have occurred in the Maungdaw District, which borders Bangladesh. Local mujahideen groups were rebelling against government forces From 1947 to 1961, in an attempt to have the mostly Rohingya populated Mayu peninsula in northern Rakhine State secede from Myanmar, and have it be annexed by East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh).

In late 1950s they lost most of their support and surrendered to government forces. The modern Rohingya insurgency in northern Rakhine began in 2001 although Shwe Maung, the then MP of the Rohingya-majority, rejected claims that new Islamist insurgent groups had begun operating along the Bangladeshi border. The latest incident that got reported was in October 2016, where clashes have erupted on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, with Rohingya insurgents linked to foreign Islamists suspected of being the perpetrators. However Rohingyas have stayed in Burma for several generations and account for nearly 4% of Myanmar’s population.

 On the other hand the incident where brutal rape and murder of a Rakhine Buddhist women by Muslim men, followed by the killing of Rohingya Muslims (as retaliation) sparked the communal riots between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims. This was not exactly a one sided massacre, but a communal riot with victims from both sides.

 The issue became more severe when Rohingyas started killing monks too. Often by beheading them. At least 19 such monk killings were reported within a couple of months where monks started to take the side of the native groups who were fighting the Rohingyas.

Now the question every one of us must be asking is, why do Muslims kill Christians? Why do Muslims kill Muslims? pretty much everywhere in the world. None of the Buddhists we know did/ does / wants to kill Muslims, at least not because of any religious reasons. But in Myanmar we find low tolerance towards proselytism, this means there’s no problem with any religion you may have, as long as you stick to it and don’t attempt to convert others. The Christians have learned their lesson a long time ago although they continue to do it without being aggressive about it, the Hindus never had such ambitions, the Buddhists never engage in that, but the Muslims…Well…Well...Well On the other hand Rohingyas communities tend to be highly conservative of inter-faith marriages where they punish and sometimes kills their women in case they marry someone outside Rohingyas. While they are ready to marry Buddhist women and convert them to Islam. This doesn’t sit well with some conservative factions of the Buddhist majority, for obvious reasons. Christians and hindus, the 2nd and 4th largest communities, by population, are integrating just fine despite many Christian ethnicities engaging against the Buddhist Bamar (Kachin, Chin, Karen, etc), the disputes are historical, territorial and resource-based, never religious. Also, insulting religion, ANY religion, for whatever reason, is illegal in Myanmar and would land you in jail in a matter of hours. And that’s actively enforced, probably for good reason. Rohingyas Muslims were welcomed as guests in the beginning according to historians.

There was little or no problem at the beginning. Problems such as rebelling did happen later but an agreement was reached and they disarmed in early 60s. Although minor conflicts occurred among both communities, nothing serious occurred until about 5 years ago where Muslims gathered in numbers and walked the streets killing the minority natives in their areas. Which is why Burmese Buddhists started counter attacking the Muslims who were killing their brothers and sisters in Rohingyas lands. Therefore, it is critical that one needs to understand that Buddhists do not kill Muslims but the natives are responding to the rebels who are virtually on a ethnic cleansing mission is Rakhine State. If Buddhists were at fault, they should probably be attacking Christians too. At least some type of discrimination against Christians which is the 2nd largest religious community in Burma which has never happened.

 It must also be noted that no one should be linking the unrest to religious war. Its a political war where natives trying to protect their life from insurgents belonging to a migrated community. Who are not only trying to procreate at a disturbing rate but also trying to convert natives to their faith forcibly by direct and indirect means.

To make it worst, they are promoting Rohingyas men to marry Buddhists but has banned Rohingyas women to marry Buddhists. Its a riot the Rohingyas started by attacking Buddhists and other way round as it is evidently true to anywhere else in the world. It is Rohingyas who kill people Chanting Allahu Akbar and not a single Buddhist because Buddhists can't possibly justify killing according to their teachings. But their survival has become a priority which compel them to fight back. Buddhists in Burma have seen Rohingyas rioting against them for more than half a century for no apparent reason except the need to create a separate Islam region in Burma with the funding that come from extremist organizations and middle east in addition to the support they have from neighboring Pakistan and Bangladesh. Its as the last resort they have opted to deal with the obvious problem they have at hand.

It was simply a question for Buddhists weather they were willing to die at the Hands of Muslim separatists or try to prevail by fighting back. Rohingyas started killing Buddhists, raped their children, tortured people to death. Myanmar is forced to take action. What were they supposed to do? Let their country become another Pakistan?

Europe in its death throes

I would like to write a post about a very interesting and important book, I know I am covering a lot of book reviews in my Blog, I really don't want this to be considered as a book review blog but I do read a lot and books are a large part of my life, this is not only a book review but also me highlighting how our culture is slowing being taking from us, not only in the UK but all over Europe. I am against all religions and very vocally, you will perhaps know from a previous post that I consider Islam the very worst of all religions, its the mother lode of bad ideologies and you only need to read the news to see whats happening and how if be speak out to debate such bad ideologies any conversations are soon attempted to be closed by apologists, Islamic faithfuls and the plain stupid ignorant to who I include loony lefties (Jeremy Corbyn I now include as my faith in labour has dwindled dramatically over the past year) the world these people use is of course "Islamophobia" which is a nonsense word, but allow me to introduce you to another word...."Islamophile"which means someone who is not a Muslim but loves Muslims, Islam or the Islamic culture. Have you seen the marches where the LGBT people are holding placards up supporting "we welcome refugees" (well firstly these are not refugees as they have come to the west after already reaching safe countries and these people are mostly young Islamic men, granted there are some woman and chldrren, cultural hostages are better description...but I am not going to elaborate too much on this on this post) yet do these LGBT know how they would fair under the Sharia law if implemented here in the UK as the Islamic communities want, and they are gaining strength from waves of mass emigration and The Muslim Brotherhood are getting a gelling of Islam and "the state" through Labour led my Corbynites. How would LGBTs fair holding any public protest is Islamic countries such as the Arabic nations, Pakistan or Indonesia? he media is afraid to show any disrespect to Islam, when have you ever seen a documentary of how Mohammad came to power long ago and how the Islamic faith was spread? is there such a thing? The history is more recent than christianity which thousands of documentaries exist, and many make fun of christianity but never of Islam or on the few times they have then people have dies!!!! I am worried my views are sounding too "radical" these days and misunderstood but as a Secular Humanist my concerns are about fellow mankind regardless of race, creed or colour and how can I or anyone not have a view about this, we all need to speak out, when we don't this will continue to boil over and leave a vacuum for far rights and if history has ever taught us a lesson that is that we can never allow this to happen, if we don't face the problem and talk about it and debate then the Brown shirts will come out again and this is a fear as much as Europe becoming a future Caliphate and make no mistake.....this is where we are heading, down south Mohammad is already the most popular boys name statically. I am not against immigration as per say, we (Europe and the UK)need a certain level of diversity and cultures but we need a skilled intake and of cultures that can get on and tolerate each other, live side by side, tolerate genders, sexualities and the rights of people, yet what is seen in Islamic country are now seen here....acid attacks, honour killings, sex grooming by Muslim men who are protected by their own comumities. Crash barriers are being erected to stop cars mounting pavements and running people over!!!! These ARE uncomfortable facts. In The Strange Death of Europe Is by Douglas Murray (youtube him, a impressive debater) and the main objective of this post is to talk about his book but also some views here are my own with I want to bring attention to.

In The Strange Death of Europe, Douglas Murray argues that Europe is in its death throes. He reaches this conclusion by weaving together two arguments. First, there are too many migrants, especially of the wrong sort, entering Europe (Islam being oil on water assimilation). Secondly, they are coming at a time when Europe ‘has lost sight of what it is’. Hence, he argues, ‘the movement of millions of people into a guilty, jaded and dying culture’ cannot work. I feel this is a very important book for every one of us citizens of Europe to read (not even going to discuss the craziness of Brexit) No matter what part of Europe you were born in, or which part you chose to live or grown roots, there is an ingressing problem of mass migration and also of a culture here, a community formed by an ideology which is not tolerant of democracy. Its very difficult for anyone tackling subjects as contentious as immigration, identity and Islam (cue the idiots with their cries of Islamophobia and racist). And that is the relationship between cause and symptom. This book has also left a nasty taste in my mouth about the political party Labour especially under Corbyn and makes me think about something not in this book which is if he ever becomes prime minister how bad this will be, not even talking about Trident which I will not go into here but how for example women’s equality will go back years how the Labour party that counts the Muslim Brotherhood among its allies so will open channels for talks (again) over Sharia Law!!!...but I wander a bit Assimilation requires effort and determination from the host nation and the immigrant which in this case is Islamic Muslims with a culture that cannot assimilate with the west, not only the new waves of arrivals but the existing communities and even the “home born” Muslims, we have seen this although few will admit this and to deny it is to ignore it. The basic tenant is if you are a practicing Muslim (or engaged in that culture) then the pressure is on you to follow the Koran faithfully and please don’t defend this by attempting to contextualise the contents are you know fair well you are not allowed to (as Ayaan Hirsi Ali blunted pointed out to a Zeba Khan once in a debate) there are movements that want to contextualise the Koran within the Muslim communities but this is a drop in the ocean, a pebble on the beach as Muslim Brotherhood and Arabic organisations will not allow this…but again I’m wandering (slightly) off topic and onto a post I posted previously within this blog. Anyway….back to this book which tells us that during the 1950s and 1960s, West Germany, Sweden, Holland and Belgium instituted guest-worker schemes to meet labour shortages. Britain and France also relied on immigrants to fill labour shortages, but with their stronger colonial ties they often granted their immigrants the right of citizenship. But what none of these countries had expected was that the migrant workers would, even when their work was done, want to put down roots in their new countries and bring their families with them. Personally (and Murray agrees) I believe skilled workers are needed here (in this era) in the UK and other cultures to enrich this little Island and add to diversity but not to change its identity, although I am an atheist I still see the needs for this countries Christian values and roots with secular rights and the division between “state and church”…Islam does not offer this and will not tolerate diversity from itself. This book is not only about the migration into the UK of course, its as the title says…all of Europe. Remember Merkel’s response to the migrant crisis in 2015: ‘We can do this’ (‘Wir schaffen das’). But Merkel could not claim to be speaking for the German people, since the German public did not support more immigration, least of all an influx of one million asylum seekers in a year. Neither did she have any idea what ‘this’ referred to. But what mattered was that, as Merkel put it, ‘The world sees Germany as a land of hope and chances. And that wasn’t always the case.’ This was Germany’s chance to atone for the Second World War and to portray itself as a country that people would migrate into rather than flee from. Now we know very well what has happened to Germany since large waves of immigration which entered. Murray is particularly scathing of German actions and policies, ranging from the reluctance of the authorities to involve themselves at Cologne during the New Years Eve assaults, to a German politician suggesting to German citizens concerned about a centre for asylum seekers being built in their town that they should consider emigrating, to a German girl sexually assaulted by a middle east migrant who initially pretends that the culprit was a native German, and then writes to her assailant pleading common cause (you are a victim of racism and I am a victim of sexism). Allow me here to copy and paste a little of this book telling a little tale of the UK…and if was in the 80’s so nowadays this Gentleman would not even pipe up, in this era, there are few Mr Honeyfords who are intellectually strong enough to challenge the problem of parallel communities in the face of politicians who furnished a race-relations industry with money and prestige to celebrate cultural difference. Those who advocated a desire to see immigrants embrace liberal democracy are dealt with harshly not only here is Britain but over Europe too…but here …read this excerpt “the headmaster of a Bradford school, published an article noting the refusal of some Muslim fathers to permit their daughters to participate in dance classes, drama or sport, and the silence of the authorities on this and other cultural practices, such as taking children back to Pakistan during term time. He also argued for pupils to be encouraged to speak English and understand British culture. The race-relations industry, which Honeyford had also criticised, organised a campaign against him and the Muslim mayor of Bradford claimed that, for his ‘cultural chauvinism’, Honeyford should be sacked. ‘Racist’ Honeyford, as his critics dubbed him, was forced into early retirement for challenging parallel communities at a time when British politicians had abandoned any notion of assimilation in favour of its antithesis: multiculturalism.” But bad political ideas that go unchallenged by the political class will eventually be challenged by the public. And so it was that the advocates of multiculturalism generated a public backlash. In 2006, the Dutch justice minister, Piet Hein Donner, caused significant anger in the Netherlands when he suggested that Muslims could change Dutch law to Sharia by democratic means. There was at least equal public outrage in Britain when, in 2008, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, suggested that the adoption of elements of Sharia law in the UK ‘seems unavoidable’ There is slowly an acceptance what is happening, for example.. In February 2011, prime minister, David Cameron, gave a speech in Munich critical of ‘the doctrine of state multiculturalism’ by which ‘we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and apart from the mainstream’. A few days later, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, also pronounced multiculturalism to be a ‘failure’, saying: ‘The truth is that in all our democracies we have been too preoccupied with the identity of those who arrived and not enough with the identity of the country that welcomed them.’ But although these speeches of recognition skill the ingressing waves come in with an intolerant culture and we are expected to kowtow down and change our ways…and I talk for all of Europe here not only the UK, it’s not Spanish hotel workers who came into the UK running on a rampage with a knife and suicide vest, it’s not a intake from Portugal who demand we don’t call Christmas by its name, nor is it someone from Argentina here in the UK who is setting up grooming gangs in the West-Midlands praying on vulnerable young girls yet not being reported to the police as the violators are protected within their own community. But then neither are the Muslim communities marching to talk again these “so called minorities” yet we soon here Islamophobia being called out to stifle any debate. I am aware instead of discussing a book I am getting into a bit of a rant, and on a subject which I posted before albeit just skimming the surface but this is something I am very passionate about, being an Atheist I am vocal against all religions, specifically being a secular Humanist I recognise Islam as the worst plague we are facing so will always shout out against it without much prompting and anyone who does not understand the difference between a race or an ideology should not be critical of what I’m saying and should instead try to educate themselves!!!! The author of this book Douglas Murray is not an angry writer. Rather he coolly dismantles the oft-peddled official arguments for why large-scale immigration is good for us. I suspect many readers, such as I have been, will be simultaneously impressed and depressed by Murray's conclusions. Impressed because here is someone who's finally written a lucid, probing account into a mostly taboo subject that has always been difficult to broach without sounding strident or racist, and even more difficult to unpack from its layers of decade-long distortion, denial, and political correctness. Depressed because the fading of traditional Western European identity does seem bleak, perhaps even irreversible, and also depressing and we watch this happening like cowards, we fiddle whilst we watch Rome burn. Get into Italy or Greece and you have arrived is the migrants motto. Europe welcomes one and all. Gulf Arab states welcome no-one. Europe will be changed out of all recognition and people seem not to care, we will become a Caliphate by Sword or Womb. We still have not seen the trick the politicians have played on us. We see to have lost pride in our historic culture. Everyone in the world wants their own culture but Europe seems not to have pride or to care about what is being lost. This book shows how the art and literature of Europe proclaim the death of the culture; it’s a very sad story. Murray makes clear the European public is generally well ahead of the politicians in understanding the nature of the problem and its explosive future possibilities, and castigates the liberal elites for their deafness to such concerns,. Murray recognises that there are now no policies which could neatly solve the crisis of a growing Islamism in Europe and he is, in fact, pessimistic that we will take those measures that could reduce the problem, noting that a misguided optimism has created the crisis in the first place.

Feyman's Six Pieces

Six Not-so-easy Pieces: Einstein's Relativity, Symmetry and Space-time By Richard P Feyman consists of six chapters drawn from his legendary "Lectures on Physics. Some really complex stuff in here and gets heavy at parts but it’s often illustrated by original drawings by the author which help to convey some quite complex theories and certainly help me a lot as I do like visuals to go with lessons. His styles and analogies are now widely copied since first published but still well worth the effort here. The book also discusses the important concept of symmetry in physical laws. It has wonderful analogies that explain difficult ideas, and some mathematical equations for those who want to go one step further from just knowing the theory qualitatively (Though people who are not so sure of mathematics can also skip these without missing any descriptive content). This is a truly great book, something that everyone with an interest in modern physics should possess and enjoy. As you may have guessed, he also published an earlier book (to which Six not so easy pieces succeeds) called Six Easy Pieces: Fundamentals of Physics Explained (funnily enough) and perhaps a good place to start and of course much easier going. Richard Feynman was, until his death in 1988, the most famous physicist in the world. Only an infinitesimal part of the general population could understand his mathematical physics, but his outgoing and sunny personality, his gift for exposition, his habit of playing the bongo drums, and his testimony to the Presidential Commission on the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster turned him into a celebrity. He was often called 'the most original mind of his generation', while in its obituary The New York Tims described him as 'arguably the most brilliant, iconoclastic and influential of the postwar generation of theoretical physicists'. Understandably, given the date of the lectures (talking about 6 easy pieces here), there have been major developments in physics, and science in general, since the lectures were first presented. For instance, the talk on nuclear physics is very out of date because the make-up of protons and neutrons was not understand at that time to the extent that it is now. Likewise, the lecture covering the links between physics and biology pre-dates the discovery of the genetic code. Therefore, it is pointless reading this book to gain an understanding of the latest theories. Nevertheless, not everything has changed in 50 years and some lectures are as relevant today as they were then. For example, the lecture on the conservation of energy was wonderfully presented, especially the section on potential energy where Feynman used illustrated examples to explain the conservation of potential energy in reversible machines. On the other hand, I felt he made heavy weather of his account of the two slit experiment in his lecture on quantum mechanics and I've read much better explanations elsewhere. To a marked extent Feynman did over complicate much of his material but this is to expected since his stated intention was to teach to slightly beyond the level of the brightest students in each class; of course, whether or not this was the best strategy is open to debate. The first couple of chapters do drag a bit but it soon builds up momentum and simulates the old grey cells…the quantum superposition chapter particularly interesting The six chapters are: 1) ATOMS IN MOTION - an excellent overview of the structure and behaviour of atoms, this acts as a good taster for Feynman's down-to-earth approach in communicating facts and ideas with daily language and examples. 2) BASIC PHYSICS - a good run-through of some of the most fundamental principles, both before and after the advent of quantum physics. 3) THE RELATION OF PHYSICS TO OTHER SCIENCES - including chemistry, biology, astronomy, geology and even psychology. This might as well be described as a rapid-fire explanation of the whole world. Never again confuse your atomic nucleus with your cell nucleus. 4) CONSERVATION OF ENERGY - the fundamental principle of how energy can change form. Probably the most difficult chapter for a novice, but a decent introduction nonetheless. 5) THE THEORY OF GRAVITATION - charting the development of the theory of gravity, from Kepler through to Einstein. There's some mathematics here, but provided you pay attention, it's nothing to be scared of. 6) QUANTUM BEHAVIOR - includes a retelling of the double-slit experiment of quantum mechanics - an explanation which, in my view, remains unmatched for its clarity.

The Girl with all the Gifts

"The Girl with all the gifts" first came to my attention as a movie premier on Sky Cinemas. I had never heard of this movie before and it was billed as an intelligent zombie movie so I started to watch it and really enjoyed it, plenty of action and indeed a intelligent zombie movie which introduced a new scenario in a genre which I thought there was nothing new under the sun. The Movie is based on the excellent book of the same name by M.R. Carey who I had not heard of before my introduction to this movie so I bought the book and really enjoyed it. The review I do below is on the book, but I certainly recommend you see the movie, perhaps read the book first as there are some subtle changes in the movie, most notably the lead character called Melanie and also the ending but no spoilers here. M R Carey is a pen name for Mike Carey, comic book writer and other projects and so he has written this critically acclaimed zombie fiction. The zombie apocalypse has already occurred when we start this book, quite some time ago and in this novel it is referred to as the Breakdown. Every piece of zombie fiction has it's labels for aspects of the zombie apocalypse. In this the zombies are called Hungries. And they are not quite the braindead, fleshy, plodding creatures that we are used to. The book opens in a scientific military complex where children are kept captive and sometimes get wheeled away never to appear again. Miss Justineau is one of their teachers and she forms a close bond with one of the captive children Melanie. It becomes clear that the children are different and Dr Caldwell sees them purely as test subjects, available for dissection. Parks, a gruff soldier is seemingly untouched by events at the compound and is a soldier first and foremost. Anyway, one night Miss Justineau, Melanie, Caldwell and two soldiers Parks and Gallagher have to escape the compound together. And so begins a journey to another military compound where they think they will be safe again and Caldwell is determined to continue her research. She is searching for a cure to the zombie infection, but she is bloody minded in her approach and sees nothing but the end result. Far from being the dangerous burden of the group, Melanie proves herself to be the saviour. The Girl With All The Gifts has enough novelty and innovation to make it stand above the derivative masses, it's a good solid read with skillful story-telling and well worth picking up. There is a real life science to this book about Zombie Ants, turned into zombies by a fungus called Ophiocordyceps, if you run it through Youtube you can find a very interesting video narrated by David Attenbough on it, I may do a blog post about this on a later date as its an extremely interesting subject. All in all I highly recommend this book (also the movie shortly after)