tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23455890376562091882024-03-18T21:05:30.981-07:00uni-taliana unitarian universalist in italyuni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.comBlogger193125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-55036245366044551342011-06-05T03:26:00.000-07:002011-06-05T03:28:16.638-07:00Boost for social justice from an unlikely source@ <a href="http://www.ukspirituality.org/blog/index.html">UKSpirituality</a>uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-73470284329872844892011-04-17T00:40:00.000-07:002011-04-17T00:40:00.161-07:00A sermon in ten tweetsby Stephen Lingwood @ UK Spirituality.uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-25902525807842866862011-03-23T10:51:00.000-07:002011-03-23T10:51:00.693-07:00Japan, after the news@ <a href="http://www.ukspirituality.org/blog/">UK Spirituality</a>uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-88276667444295765802011-02-10T02:14:00.000-08:002011-02-10T02:20:23.279-08:00Missing pages@ <a href="http://ukspirituality.blogspot.com/">UK Spirituality</a>uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-77224365314955142142011-01-26T12:28:00.000-08:002011-01-26T12:28:00.519-08:00Spiritual soldiers...@ <a href="http://ukspirituality.blogspot.com/">UK Spirituality</a>uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-70786374795231355572011-01-03T05:17:00.000-08:002011-01-03T05:19:18.478-08:00Agora<span style="font-style:italic;">Agora</span> appears on the surface to be a routine sword and sandals epic but as Roger Ebert points out is actually a film of ideas centred around the tragic, true story of Hypatia a female philosopher in late Roman Alexandria who fell foul of the Christian mob...<br /><br />Continued at <a href="http://ukspirituality.blogspot.com/">UK Spirituality</a>.uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-15801343508175331852010-12-21T00:32:00.000-08:002010-12-21T11:16:47.085-08:00uunitalian, no, wait... uni-talian...In the new year spirit of clarity, I've done something about the name - alright, I know "uunitalian" sounds a bit dumb, but "unitalian" also reads un-italian, which has always irritated me. The "UU" also has more meaning to me these days, as I feel theologically closer to the American than the British movements. So uunitalian it is - every bit as perplexing, yet to the point, as Unitarian Universalism. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">UPDATE</span> - swayed by Scott's sound advice, I changed it again!<br /><br />Now the <a href="http://www.ukspirituality.org/blog/index.html">UK Spirituality blog</a> is properly back on line (after 12 months! - I should get a UU medal of endurance for continuing to post up until 6 months ago despite the coding problems) I'm also going to try to concentrate more on that, although I'll flag posts up here. One modest attempt to inject some viscosity into the on-line <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_modernity">liquidity</a>.uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-71084588454927652662010-12-19T23:53:00.000-08:002010-12-19T23:53:00.390-08:00Einstein was right, you can be in two places at once<span style="font-style:italic;">A device that exists in two different states at the same time, and coincidentally proves that Albert Einstein was right when he thought he was wrong, has been named as <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/einstein-was-right-you-can-be-in-two-places-at-once-2162648.html">the scientific breakthrough of the year</a>.</span>uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-87740519214237297582010-12-04T01:34:00.000-08:002010-12-04T01:58:52.686-08:00Some kind of special<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqksNMsMfypTKjDf5rLYDBI0jCvGAHP1a6fwp3aF_aogltA7hukEVEmSMqN0LmDDr9ZyRlHmATtfw1hQXA4d5HGqyqx5pUraBh_0pyNR_w3hOt6ItiVZPkrbLjmo8N2DPfeb0VGHAFlPsd/s1600/images.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 278px; height: 181px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqksNMsMfypTKjDf5rLYDBI0jCvGAHP1a6fwp3aF_aogltA7hukEVEmSMqN0LmDDr9ZyRlHmATtfw1hQXA4d5HGqyqx5pUraBh_0pyNR_w3hOt6ItiVZPkrbLjmo8N2DPfeb0VGHAFlPsd/s320/images.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546762157593225186" /></a>A <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/britain-paranoid-about-special-relationship-us-officials-said-2151052.html">little nugget</a> from Wikileaks that lays bear the true nature of the, ahem, "special relationship" between the US and UK...<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">More than one HMG [government] senior official asked embassy officers whether President Obama meant to send a signal in his inaugural address about US-UK relations by quoting Washington during the revolutionary war, while the removal of the Churchill bust from the Oval Office consumed much UK newsprint... This period of excessive UK speculation about the relationship is more paranoid than usual... This over-reading would often be humorous if it were not so corrosive.</span>uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-45099991236144039882010-11-30T23:25:00.000-08:002010-11-30T23:27:09.480-08:00Unholy hairdryer<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wAo_rEgR4xU?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wAo_rEgR4xU?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-11154318272109366522010-11-20T13:41:00.000-08:002010-11-20T13:48:33.663-08:00Utopias inside and outWatching the interview with the director of the excellent <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Memory-Me-DVD-Saverio-Costanzo/dp/B0010Y9XV2/ref=pd_bxgy_d_h__img_c">In Memory of Me</a>, about a young man who gives up the easy life to become a Jesuit noviate, I was struck by his observation that <span style="font-style:italic;">this film could not have been made 30 years ago. Then there was ideology, the Cold War, communism and so on - people sought utopias in politics, the external world. Now all that has gone, there's nothing. We no longer seek our utopias outside, but in...</span><br /><br />And that's the tale he tells.uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-68825816728429766562010-11-19T00:12:00.000-08:002010-11-19T00:14:42.407-08:00UK only country where wealth does not determine access to healthcare<span style="font-style:italic;">Britain's health service makes it the only one of 11 leading industrialised nations where wealth does not determine access to care – providing the most widely accessible treatments at low cost among rich nations, a study has found.<br /><br />The survey, by US health thinktank the Commonwealth Fund, showed that while a third of American adults "went without recommended care, did not see a doctor when sick, or failed to fill prescriptions because of costs", this figure was only 6% in the UK and 5% in Holland.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/nov/18/nhs-best-free-access-healthcare">In all the countries surveyed except Britain, wealth was a significant factor in access to health</a>, with patients earning less than the national average more likely to report trouble with medical bills and problems getting care because of cost.</span>uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-53353288262218263872010-11-07T06:28:00.000-08:002010-11-07T06:29:21.323-08:00Remembering Sousa MendesThe "<a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Mendes.html">Portugese Schindler</a>" who saved 30,000, but got little thanks from his government, which condemned him to internal exile where he died in poverty in 1954. <br /><br />"I could not have acted otherwise," he declared late in life, "and I therefore accept all that has befallen me with love."uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-89366629011586122402010-10-29T00:05:00.001-07:002010-10-29T13:44:16.533-07:00What's fair?Huge debate about "fairness" as the government's "reforms" of the benefits system (basically - less) begin to bite, summed up by <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/oct/28/housing-benefit-cap-plan-backfire">this article in the Guardian</a> about the row over housing - on the one hand we have the Tory minister for housing saying, well if I can't live in the posh street why should people on benefits be able to do so, and on the other the Tory mayor of London (conscious of his soft-left constituency no doubt) arguing against "Kosovo-style social cleansing". <br /><br />Certainly I wouldn't dream of moving to an expensive part of town and claiming housing benefit (and knowing the rental market I'm not sure if this is more than a fantasy given the amount of deposit you usually have to pay up front, although I suppose <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1293730/Somali-asylum-seeker-family-given-2m-house--complaining-5-bed-London-home-poor-area.html">there are always exceptions</a>). The people this is more likely to hit, it seems to me, are the working class who have lived in areas for generations that have been gentrified around them. Housing benefit presumably allows them to keep doing so and families to keep together. <br /><br />Now, this may not be "fair" by the standards of a free market capitalist society, but is this the kind of "fair" we want? Isn't another kind of fair one in which communities consist of those on all rungs of the social ladder and working class people have the same access to decent state schools as their middle class neighbours? A communal fair as opposed to an individual one?<br /><br />Just because the banker in Kensington earns ten times more than the nurse or street cleaner next door, does this mean their work has ten times more value? That they have ten times more right to live in a better area with better amenities than their neighbours? <br /><br />Only by one extremely narrow definition, surely. <br /><br />Another definition of fair is one in which the differential between rich and poor is much less widely defined, and where the contribution of the people who run the railways is acknowledged as much as the people who travel upon them. Where we define fair by what we contribute to a community rather than simply what we can make for ourselves. <br /><br />Only 40 years ago, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notting_Hill">Notting Hill</a>, home of David Cameron, was a working class area. Over the past few decades it has been transformed in to one of London's most exclusive and fashionable addresses as <a href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Trustafarians">Trustafiarians</a> - like David and his wife Sam - bought up properties, in the process pricing out those locals who wished to buy (as opposed to rent, presumably supported by the benefit system). <br /><br />It is interesting then that the policy he is pursuing so aggressively will inevitably result in his own community being affected, with possibly even some of his neighbours forced to up-sticks. It probably won't seem very fair to them, but somehow I doubt David will be around to explain.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">UPDATE</span> - <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2010/10/uk-welfare-spending-in-one-easy-graph.html">UK benefits spending in one easy graft</a>.uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-34995027939876329262010-10-24T02:50:00.000-07:002010-10-24T02:50:00.132-07:00Heresy review by Andrew Pakula<span style="font-style:italic;">Insightful and compelling. Axam weaves three millennia of thought with his own self-realisation to offer us a faith for today.</span><br /><br />Largely thanks to you, <a href="http://throwyourselflikeseed.blogspot.com/">Andy</a>, I might add.uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-17146856404155658782010-10-22T10:12:00.000-07:002010-10-22T12:20:50.271-07:00Why Heresy Saved MeI'm being ironic, obviously, although what began as a dig at <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article735942.ece">an Anglican bishop who threw some Unitarians out of his cathedral</a> acquired greater meaning as I got deeper in to the book - that the modern heresy was declining to play the God/ no God game; how I arrived at this point by having my assumptions about the world gradually (and sometimes violently) removed; how Unitarianism helps provide the space for us to be who we are meant to be. <br /><br />If this sounds a bit heavy, well I promise <span style="font-style:italic;">Heresy</span> is not. Indeed, I specifically set out to write a book about spirituality that has a sense of humour (and actually as I was using myself as the source material, <a href="http://www.heresysavedme.com/samplepages.html">I found plenty to laugh at</a>), one that would do for contemporary faith what I've tried to do most of my career (with varying degrees of success, admittedly) for <a href="http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/">other</a> <a href="http://www.utalkmarketing.com/Pages/CreativeShowcase.aspx?ArticleID=17310&Filter=0&Keywords=&Order=LATEST&Page=1&Title=ANNAs_Nominee_4_%E2%80%93_February_10_%E2%80%93_Department_of_Health_%E2%80%98Alcohol_Effects_(Stroke)%E2%80%99">tricky</a> <a href="http://www.talktofrank.com/">issues</a> - make it accessible, refreshing, inspiring. <br /><br />I thought - wouldn't it be great for that UU kid in Manchester/ Minnesota to have something s/he can enjoy alongside the Twilight series, Chomsky and the Collected Works of Marilyn Manson; a slim volume they can read on the National Express/ Greyhound between home and college, that they wouldn't be ashamed to be seen with, even recommend... Nietzsche recently tweeted (who would have believed it!) <span style="font-style:italic;">Profundity of thought belongs to youth, clarity of thought to old age</span>. By declining to focus solely upon an audience of middle-aged farts like myself, I hoped to produce a book about spirituality that would have fresh appeal to young <span style="font-style:italic;">and</span> old, UUs and non-UUs, and yes, even middle-aged farts like myself. <br /><br />The craziest thing is it is not Unitarianism that truly inspired me, rather its absence: when I regularly attended church I had no notion or inclination to write. It was only after we moved to Italy - a true Unitarian wasteland - that I came to miss my community so much I felt compelled to fill the hole the only way I truly knew how, with words. And that's finally what the book is - a kind of letter home. <br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Heresy Saved Me</span> is now available on <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heresy-Saved-Me-Unitarian-Century/dp/0956609708/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1286788056&sr=8-1">Amazon</a> or through the <a href="http://www.heresysavedme.com/buyonline.html">website</a>.uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-1125948433000870992010-10-20T07:17:00.000-07:002010-10-20T07:17:00.171-07:00A book in the hand...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQTZdFVI2MJjMHlS-lPXlDjDG-HKtX3hvQFMCFaOJwImXLcxS2VoYU0bgbuJl1Mn3BGJjpIZ1cA5HqpaZAb0fBk9ZNig4VOWxg0szJBxTmy5QE-VkNRS1hgzptrIo8bdP3_EqzBWS8Sn-G/s1600/book.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 266px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQTZdFVI2MJjMHlS-lPXlDjDG-HKtX3hvQFMCFaOJwImXLcxS2VoYU0bgbuJl1Mn3BGJjpIZ1cA5HqpaZAb0fBk9ZNig4VOWxg0szJBxTmy5QE-VkNRS1hgzptrIo8bdP3_EqzBWS8Sn-G/s320/book.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526441417483429442" /></a>Almost, but not quite, the real thing - in fact what's known as the "uncorrected proof" that precedes the final print run, now due for delivery in a few days time. <br /><br />What a journey it's been though. Writing it was just the beginning. I finished <span style="font-style:italic;">Heresy</span> over a year ago, around July 2009 I think. It took me about six months in all - the rest has been proofing, design, production, although admittedly I haven't helped... for example the book <span style="font-style:italic;">should</span> have been on the shelves at the beginning of this month if I hadn't made some radical last minute changes. <br /><br />But despite the delays I'm really happy with <span style="font-style:italic;">Heresy</span> now. I am a much better writer in revision (and revision and revision) than first draft, and I have been told the book is easy to read and to the point (but I'll get to the what, why and how in a later post). <br /><br />Now undoubtedly the greatest challenge - marketing. Plainly I did not write a book about Unitariansism to make money or appear on Oprah. I began because I felt compelled to, continued partly because I was encouraged, and now feel a responsibility not only to myself but to the <span style="font-style:italic;">book itself</span>. Readers too: from the reaction I've had so far I feel reasonably confident people will get something out of it, despite the strongest responses being to parts I had least expected! <br /><br />As you can see, it has a revised <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heresy-Saved-Me-Unitarian-Century/dp/0956609708/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1286722045&sr=8-1">Amazon page</a>. You can place an order here now. If you do read it, by the way, and like it, please say so in the review! <br /><br />The book also <a href="http://www.heresysavedme.com/">has its own website</a>, which still needs a bit of work to be honest, but the advantage over Amazon may be that it's cheaper for postage overseas. <br /><br />Finally, I'm really keen to get it reviewed. If anyone has an established blog and would like a free review copy, just email me (see my blogger profile) and I'll pop one in the post.uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-11853662262245666802010-10-18T06:36:00.000-07:002010-10-18T06:36:00.137-07:00Druid time again<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyK8Rub9XNEJG3sFmI70zCAPvR9X0-IteuToXleeV-4eEWtJfkanJFBXnLSVA5TJu8Ys8ZSP9ohxTw0txpw0EXLIMSs3kaFTSZawqj4_HrtZq9RZGJZ9mrMmbl6PEBM10zMidWpKHSJb0x/s1600/druids_stonehenge.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 199px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyK8Rub9XNEJG3sFmI70zCAPvR9X0-IteuToXleeV-4eEWtJfkanJFBXnLSVA5TJu8Ys8ZSP9ohxTw0txpw0EXLIMSs3kaFTSZawqj4_HrtZq9RZGJZ9mrMmbl6PEBM10zMidWpKHSJb0x/s320/druids_stonehenge.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5528647669047940866" /></a>Pleased to see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druid">Druidry</a>, the ancient faith of Britain, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11457795">has received official acknowledgement as a religion</a> and duly been granted charitable status. The faith that built <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge">Britain's most enduring monument</a> has had to wait around 1900 years to get the nod from officialdom. <br /><br />That this has <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1317490/Druids-official-religion-Stones-Praise-come.html?ito=feeds-newsxml">prompted the rancour of Melanie "Mad Mel" Phillips</a> can only be a good thing. <br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Astonishingly, around 100 members of the Armed Forces now classify themselves as pagans, and a further 30 as witches. <br /></span><br /><br />Well, thank God we've got the witches on <span style="font-style:italic;">our</span> side, is all I can say. I could quote almost every one of her sentences for a choice absurdity, but like so much these days its actually beyond parody. One has to worry for her immortal-or-otherwise soul however. I mean really, it must take an enormous effort for an Oxford graduate and former Guardian journalist to manufacture such ill-informed outrage. Why <span style="font-style:italic;">bother</span>? <br /><br />Needless to say Druidism was actually a fully-fledged religion on British soil for far longer than Christianity has been to date, and had the further qualification of being home-grown. England was in fact a spiritual superpower, right up to the second Roman invasion when the Druids and their faith were suppressed, and its certainly no more silly than worshipping a dead Israeli prophet as a Sky God born of a virgin (no less), no matter how wise his words may have been. <br /><br />So congratulations Druids and, indeed, our <a href="http://www.cuups.org/index.html">Pagan</a> wing!uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-60221611240665170842010-10-15T00:03:00.000-07:002010-10-15T01:08:38.047-07:00The trouble with hipsters...<span style="font-style:italic;">I<span style="font-style:italic;">n the 50s and 60s, there are five people at the centre working very hard, miserably trying to write a book and around them there are 95 people more or less having fun," Greif explains. "In the hipster culture the people at that centre aren't necessarily producing art, they're actually working in advertising, marketing and product placement. These were once embarrassing jobs. Now it's meaningful in this world to say that you sell sneakers, at a high level.</span></span><br /><br />From <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href=""><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/14/hate-hipsters-blogs">Why do people hate Hipsters?</a></a></span> in the Guardian. I don't actually know anything about Hipsters. I didn't even know they existed, or if they are trouble (not to me, obviously). However, there did strike me as something unnerving about the paragraph above. On reflection, perhaps it shouldn't be. Who's to say <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Road-Jack-Kerouac/dp/0140274154">On the Road</a></span> is more important than an innovative digital marketing campaign or advertising for <span style="font-style:italic;">Nike</span>? <br /><br />No, that doesn't work, does it.uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-89315286955652594822010-10-09T02:39:00.000-07:002010-10-09T02:39:00.171-07:00Early Heresy reviewI sent out a few advance copies of the book and got this back from David Usher.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">If you are looking for something to give your mind and heart to, but can't accept what many churches say you must believe, <span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heresy-Saved-Me-Unitarian-Century/dp/0956609708/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1286004024&sr=8-1">Heresy Saved Me</a></span> is the book for you. Nicholas Axam tells the story of his own journey from cynical disbelief to open faithfulness with candour and insight. I recommend it to all who hunger for a spiritual home.</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/kent/content/articles/2008/05/13/david_usher_feature.shtml">David</a> is a member of Executive Committee of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches in the UK and was first President of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Council_of_Unitarians_and_Universalists">International Council of Unitarians and Universalists</a>. <br /><br />He's also a very kind man.uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-17250821441975366992010-10-03T12:33:00.000-07:002010-10-04T10:20:09.523-07:00Reasons not to be terrifiedI was pretty sceptical when the media reported the Mumbai-style terror attacks on European cities had been <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/09/29/130208869/reports-european-terror-plot-foiled-by-drone-strikes-in-pakistan">foiled</a> after zapping some people who <span style="font-style:italic;">might</span> have something to do with a plot they didn't actually have the details about, and in any case was still at the planning stage. If indeed there <span style="font-style:italic;">was</span> a plan, and these <span style="font-style:italic;">were</span> the people involved. It was like the RAF dropping a few bombs on Berlin in 1940 and announcing the invasion of Britain had been thwarted.<br /><br />Now it seems the authorities have also had second thoughts and <a href="http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Europe-Terror-Warning-US-State-Department-Warns-Of-Attack-And-Britons-Urged-To-Be-Vigilant/Article/201010115750223?lpos=World_News_Carousel_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15750223_Europe_Terror_Warning:_US_State_Department_Warns_Of_Attack_And_Britons_Urged_To_Be_Vigilant">it's alerts all over again</a>. <br /><br />At some point of course, the terrorists will get through. However, what strikes me is how limited the existential threat to the West really must be. Certainly the terrorist's penchant for committing suicide provides a frightening <span style="font-style:italic;">frisson</span>, but given the general level of hysteria you would think attacks would be a lot more common. And this can't just be thanks to our wonderful security services - look at the IRA. <br /><br />In London, from the 1970s to 1990s, terrorism was commonplace. From an early teenage trip to the centre with French exchange students when a big <span style="font-style:italic;">bang</span> and distant pire of smoke signalled a bomb that had hit a bandstand, the shocked survivors moving toward us across the grass like zombies, to my twenties when explosions were so commonplace I got to know the minutiae of their tactics ('What was that?' asked the Southern Irish girl across the computer bank in our office off Oxford Street. 'Sounded like a bomb,' I said. '<span style="font-style:italic;">No</span>,' she said, 'the back of a van.' 'There'll be another in a minute, as they run from the first,' I said. When it happened, she burst in to tears. 'Only a two-pounders,' said a chap from Northern Ireland in a vain attempt to comfort her) terrorism was just a fact of life. Indeed, attacks were considerably more numerous than the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in_London">wiki entry</a>. For example, the buggers <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/police-find-sixth-unexploded-device-in-north-london-sinister-change-of-strategy-by-ira-over-bomb-warnings-1508691.html">even blew up my local YMCA</a>. <br /><br />All this, <span style="font-style:italic;">despite</span> the thorough infiltration of the Irish Republican movement by the intelligence services - the IRA could still muster enough manpower to stage comprehensive and long-running campaigns. And remember - these were people who <span style="font-style:italic;">cared</span> about getting caught. Given this, one can only conclude that active support for Islamic terrorism in the West must be <span style="font-style:italic;">infinitesimal</span>. Yes, some terrorists will succeed, but they are never going to be a threat to our way of life, unless we let them. <br /><br />Of course that's not the case in the "East" - the Islamic "crescent" from Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Middle East and Africa. This is where the "real" war is being fought - indeed, from what little the media could gather about the current supposed plot, it was to bring the fighting in Pakistan <span style="font-style:italic;">to</span> the West in response to drone attacks. In Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Somalia, violence resulting in multiple casualties is a regular occurrence. <br /><br />The West is embroiled in a conflict essentially internal to the Islamic culture (and has inadvertently, and incalculably, empowered the forces of Islamism by its approach). It is worth remembering that even 9/11 was viewed by its perpetrators as a response to Western influence on Islam and <span style="font-style:italic;">not</span> as a precursor to some kind of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dawn_(2010_film)"><span style="font-style:italic;">Red Dawn</span></a>-style invasion - from their perspective the West orbited the Islamic sun, not the other way around. <br /><br />In this context, I suspect terrorism in the West will always be a "sideshow", no matter how much it feels to us like we are centre-stage.uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-67861517981181957522010-10-02T00:27:00.000-07:002010-10-02T00:36:59.429-07:00How does it feel?Love <a href="http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/new_orders_blue_monday_is_actually_an_early-century_jamaican_folk_tune/">this</a>, New Order's <span style="font-style:italic;">Blue Monday</span> re-imagined by septuagenarium Jamaican mento group.uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-92219558905859932092010-09-28T23:17:00.000-07:002010-09-28T23:17:00.927-07:00Here be no Unitarians?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAhDBpfeF9UvWhe4aSeUXz7mik3dQMfTNNsDaZU6ibcbRgIj0XZipwTqHij5BJnGK_Vs826i-W9Uf9RZCK400n5aEyrH5Twmcd2_Pvs-WTVXi1xOe8IHI8PwWR5VBhsiqoaL6khKAZ23-A/s1600/dragonsmap.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 266px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAhDBpfeF9UvWhe4aSeUXz7mik3dQMfTNNsDaZU6ibcbRgIj0XZipwTqHij5BJnGK_Vs826i-W9Uf9RZCK400n5aEyrH5Twmcd2_Pvs-WTVXi1xOe8IHI8PwWR5VBhsiqoaL6khKAZ23-A/s320/dragonsmap.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521475642388206962" /></a>It's always a pleasure to think that my jottings are not going entirely unnoticed, albeit by only a handful of curious souls every week. Over time these accumulate, leaving their mark on the world map at the foot of the site. But if you scroll down and take a look, you can see a broad swathe of emptyness, which must be Middle America - the Flyover States - I guess. Maybe its almost as lonely being Unitarian there as in Italy!uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-70080744325122163102010-09-26T10:26:00.000-07:002010-09-26T11:25:50.475-07:00Why it's not about Silvio (and what this could mean for Ed)The only bum note of our recent Jordan trip was at a bar one evening when our (Italian) tour group predictably got on to the subject of Silvio Berlusconi and his not inconsiderable sins. Everyone agreed he was the shame of Italy in much the same way I imagine a group of liberal UUs would have wrung their hands over Dubya. <br /><br />All that is except a woman from Rome who, her cheeks flaring (although maybe it was the beer, maybe the sun) said: <span style="font-style:italic;">Well who else is there? Tell me - who else is there to vote for? </span><br /><br />Cue embarrassed silence then everyone talking at once (ie, no change there). But I was left thinking (and I had plenty of opportunity to think, unable as I was to keep up with much of the discussion) she had a point. Not by voting for Silvio, I hasten to add, but that the existence of Silvio was not the fault of the right, it was because of the failings of the left.<br /><br />Silvio is successful not because Italians are intrinsically right-wing (if anything they err to the left) but because the left has consistently failed to reflect the concerns, or speak in the language, of ordinary people. Silvio does. <br /><br />I was reminded of this following <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/wintour-and-watt/2010/sep/25/edmiliband-davidmiliband">yesterday's election of Ed Milliband as the new leader of the British Labour Party</a>. Although the majority of party members and its MPs voted for his brother David, the endorsement of the unions swung it for Ed. Needless to say Ed was the more "left-wing" candidate, while David was much more popular in the country as a whole. <br /><br />Although I have nothing against Ed's politics, this does seem reminiscent of the Italian left, which, with the exception of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nichi_Vendola">Nichi Vendola</a> - <span style="font-style:italic;">the Obama of the South</span> - seems determined to ignore the voices of ordinary folk while it converses with itself, at the end of which it fails to understand why no one votes for it. <br /><br />Labour's (well, the unions) choice of Ed seems a bit of a missed opportunity, particularly when the Tory administration is about to embark on a highly unpopular - and ideologically-driven - series of cuts. Every time Ed opens his mouth, they will simply label him the voice of vested interest. What am I saying? <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/25/ed-miliband-victory-tories">They've done so already</a>. <br /><br />Or maybe I'm just sore cos I voted for David. And <a href="http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/38699/oona-united-team-labour-ken">Oona</a>. And <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/26/john-prescott-labour-treasurer-defeat">John</a>.uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345589037656209188.post-28876372347029934052010-09-24T03:18:00.000-07:002010-09-24T03:18:00.821-07:00The social media map<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY843H7qvZQ-r5KV6EaYhtA50Nr1UlTZrazt0c-9hb0BZ_XqgDdKbq_MmA0zZtmQbQGXO2KCCdHN-BNgR4FsCS3e0o28HXPkslO01Qo1L7RynPIz63tram0m6_p8nKy2uTspZMJf36hjha/s1600/socialmediamap2007.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY843H7qvZQ-r5KV6EaYhtA50Nr1UlTZrazt0c-9hb0BZ_XqgDdKbq_MmA0zZtmQbQGXO2KCCdHN-BNgR4FsCS3e0o28HXPkslO01Qo1L7RynPIz63tram0m6_p8nKy2uTspZMJf36hjha/s320/socialmediamap2007.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5515228072544285602" /></a>and how it <a href="http://www.wallblog.co.uk/2010/08/06/the-social-media-world-how-it-changed-2007-2010/">changed</a>.uni-talianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12130575625229865792noreply@blogger.com0