Happy Halloween... or Samhain

I’ve lived in Brisbane for 10 years, but tonight was the first I’d ever noticed Halloween celebrated. Up and

Me at the Zombie Walk - 2013

down my street there walked families, mostly mums and their small kids, dressed up like witches, ghosts, bats, bones and even cats. Far more people than I would have ever seen in Brisbane streets, except for the zombies walking a couple of years ago when I joined them. I wonder if any of today’s people know just what Halloween means.

31 October is the evening before the All Hallows Day, which is celebrated on 1 November. All Hallows Day, also known as All Saint’s Day or Feast of All Saints – amongst a few others – is celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church and various Protestant denominations. Catholicism holds their day in commemoration of all those who have reached beatific vision, the “ultimate direct self-communication of God to the individual person”. Other christian believers celebrate it in other ways, but still respond to the saints, even if “saints” for some Protestants are everyone! Good luck to all the christians. Saints, as Catholicism looks on them, don’t even exist for me.

So why do public people, many who we would never even believe are christian, go out and chase after lollies, presumably for their kids? And why do people in whichever house these grabbers have approached actually give lollies? Do any of the grafters know that Halloween was “influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, with possible pagan roots, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain”?

http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/it-s-a-celtic-feast

Christianity, which I’d been dancing around as a young child, had absolutely no acceptability for Celtic or pagan beliefs, yet I really don’t think that any religious people have done any real history about the reality of Halloween – the evening before All Hallows Day. There are quite a few websites who talk about true history. Jack Santino for The American Folklore Centre wrote about the “ancient, pre-Christian Celtic festival of the dead”. This started with the Samhain celebration, which wasn’t changed until 601AD by Pope Gregory the First who got his missionaries work to refine it to Catholicism. These dudes hated Samhain and called it “malicious”. Followers of this were labelled “witches”. Read his history.

The person who calls her/himself Spring Wolf has a website called ThePagan’s Path, and has written a long history of Samhain, Celts, pagans and Halloween. Very well written, but I guarantee that most Catholics, Protestants or any other religion who celebrates 1 November just won’t accept anything that doesn’t credit Halloween or All Hallows Day to their own god.

American pic - no different to what's here

Tonight I just took my dog into the house and shut the door. Perhaps my wee coloured wing-spinners might have put them off, or that my fence gates were shut, or that I wasn’t sitting outside to wait for them to come past my house. Good stuff, that! It got very loud up and down the street until about half an hour ago. I’m glad it’s over.

Oh, and did you know that Brisbane has a school called All HallowsSchool? Yes, it’s Catholic. It’s at 547 Ann Street, Brisbane QLD 4000, which I never knew about until tonight.

Well bite me.

What will NDIS do for us?

This morning I think I had looked at moving in some sort of abstract view. Last night we had had a thunder-and-lightning storm which had scared my dog, Jordie, so much that she got onto my bed and stayed there most of the night. I didn't get back to sleep until 3am, but I slept past my usual wake-up time... I didn't wake up until 7.30!

Well, I was supposed to leave only half an hour after that to get to Synapse in time for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) workshop. Brekkie for Jordie and me, shower, checking oil and water in my car, panicking!! I gave Jordie her chew bone and got out the door at 8.15. I did miss the train I thought I would catch, but I was at the station just in time for the next one. Train into CBD, bus down to West End, and I ended up at Synapse just in time.

There were 23 people - 2, I think, me and a chap who had both had a stroke - and 3 staff at this workshop, so it was being discussed as much as I'm sure that Kellie, Kate and Jessica, Synapse staff, had thought it would. The NDIS "Participant Print Pack" provided us with information of the Co-design Program 2015.

There were 5 activity areas for us to discuss. The first, which is listed as #5, was Local Area Coordination - LOC. There will be, it seems, 520 LOC people in Queensland, funded by NDIS. This sounded very strange to me - is this 520 "new" roles, or will there be 520 people who are presently in many different companies and organisations which are already providing support, which will close down and integrate with NDIS? No answer to this.

ILC means Information Linking and Communication, and sounds very useful. That was the second area. #1, "Information, linkages and referrals", started up a long discussion. This area is "about making sure people with disability, their family and carers have access to reliable, up to date, relevant information". This seems very much what I already do for Brain Aneurysm Support Australia (BASA) which is, unfortunately, very little from Australia. Brain aneurysms do not have ready information except for through BASA, or through Brain Foundation where this is logged under "Aneurysm". Brain Foundation already lists 72 brain illnesses. Very serious, but this organisation wasn't even known by many of the people who attended this workshop!

This area sounds important for people with disability. We talked about disability and mainstream services, aged care vs medical model, fear of going backwards, definitions, services which are de-specialising, a possible multi-layered technologies platform, linking child to adult services and the possibility of regularly updating relevant information.

#2 was "Capacity building of mainstream services", which looked at early intervention, upskilkling workers and keys groups which are already experienced in this sector.

"Community awareness and understanding" was #3, and we discussed awareness campaigns which focus on similarities rather than deficits; defunding of consultation groups; the approach to awareness; awareness multi-levelled through mainstream which is not different to disability specific information; and collaborative approach.

The "Individual capacity building", #4, looked at support of groups to build confidence, and online forums through peers, trust gained and individual capacity building.

By this time we had talked long about each area and we'd pretty much run out of time. This next part was Part 2, ILC Funding Areas, so Kate handed out 10 "brain" stickers each and asked us to mark on the five sheets what we would think was from essential to not important on the draft ILC funding area sheets.

The draft funding areas got the following:

1. A. Specialist or expert delivery - 46
2. E. Delivery by people with disability for people with disability - 44
3. D. Remote/rural solutions - 39
4. B. Cohort focused delivery - 28
5. C. Multi-regional supports - 15

This is very similar to how I had voted. The area "A" sounds like what I am already doing on BASA: "The NDIA recognises that ... a good example might be a website which provides information about a particular disability or condition..." For anyone on BASA, you would know the sort of information I have posted, which has predominantly come from USA, with a little bit from Australia.

So, how will NDIS work in Australia for all body disabilities? If Brain Foundation recognises 72 brain illnesses, how many more involve the entire body? Will this cover TBI, ABI, any other areas which look at multi-disability? How will this organisation get it's funding? How will it get its staff (520 LOC)?

And, in the end, will it work for every single person in Australia who is disabled, on DSP or working, supported, but below the "normal" health area? Personally, I think this is too late. Our bodies break down far too much and disabilities are spread far too far between too many organisations. Will NDIS help us? Will it educate every single person who is not disabled? Will it result in disabled people getting paid above the poverty line?

Or is this just another suggestion?

Happy birthday mum...

8 years after you died. I so often remember our life. I also remember how you looked at the hospital. You looked at peace. Ready to cross over to be with dad.

Today is your birthday, 20 October. I have had so many memories about you as you grew up and got married and started the family. Yes, I have pictures of you as my mum, and later as my children's grandmother. So few photos of you at your own birthday parties, but maybe we should have taken a whole lot more.

Now my photos are only of my memory of you.

Do you remember being a young woman - perhaps still a child? You had to take your brother, Uncle Brian, out of the house whenever your father would start to beat up Gran. Finally she had too much of it and got

you and Uncle Brian away from that relationship. She became a very good dressmaker, and made your special gowns, like the one for your 21st.  In the 60s Gran got married again, to our dear Pop. I know that your oldest daughter - my older sister - has the photo album.

Your photo when you got married to dad looks to be one of your happiest moments.That seems to reflect so many weddings throughout society, and yet they can't reflect how a marriage lasts. Yours did. You loved dad so much that when he died I think you died a lot inside yourself. He built our first home.

I don't know any more how a child can or will accept their parents. I did accept you and dad. I left when I was 18 to move to Wellington but I never gave you up because you were always so special. You were my mum, my masseur, my carer, my listener. You'd taught me how to cook dinners and bake biscuits, clean the house, use the washing machine, dig the garden, empty the ash from the fireplace, feed the cats and walk down the back of our home to visit Gran. You encouraged me to play the recorder and the violin, and bought a piano for all of us. You and dad took us to swimming club. By the time I got married you looked after my first child while I still worked.

You lived in our second home by the time I left Hamilton, and my two children and I moved in with you for a short time when we moved back there. I was divorced. We lived very close to your home, and the kids were very happy to catch up with you. You would always cook - I think that's how my son became convinced that he could do that too. I remember so many recipes you used to do - which we all loved!

Your life with dad never looked like it might fall apart - that is so unfortunate with so many people within society who can't stay with whoever they married, regardless of how much they should really try it. There are probably very few people married and stayed married these years. Those who find the right person should be congratulated. I tried twice but I wasn't picking properly. You only needed to choose once.

When I saw you in the hospital in Hamilton, New Zealand, you looked like you did recognise me. You held out your hand and I held it, stroking your hair, whispering to you. I never wanted to see you die... and I didn't. After you went I just had to sit at a computer and look through your photos and put them into the PC so I now have memories of you when you were very young, up until you died. These days every person has uncountless many photos taken by their mobiles. That never happened to you, so your few photos are very special and, for me, very valuable.

And, in the end, they remind me of you. Every one has a story or a message.

I think of you every single day. You filled more than 50 of my years, and I will remember you for whatever my life gets to. If you ever can still be wherever you went, look down on me and understand how I feel about you...

I love you.

 

How could this happen?

40 years ago I was gang-raped. I didn’t ask for it. I didn’t expect it. I have, my entire adult life, been against rape.  Is there a “nowadays” question?

What is “rape”?

I have been in DV protests. I have supported One Billion, both actively in Brisbane and on internet world-wide. I have written a book about a woman who is raped – fiction, but I know this subject. I HATE men who are hitting or killing women. I hate men who decided, after sex (no real reason), to leave their women; I hate managers from workplaces who sexually abuse their female employees; I dislike, a whole lot, men who argue that DV isn’t real.

But what is “rape”?

Last night I read an article about a young disabled woman in a “for-profit” supposed caring accommodation who was allegedly raped by a disabled man in the same accommodation. People commenting on this article came down on him completely, saying that he should be prosecuted, and yet, apparently, police had said that he shouldn’t be charged because he is disabled.

There are no details of what “disability” he suffers. This is why I ask what is “rape”.

I don’t believe that any person can or should write an article without details of the rape situation. For me, rape is an actual event which can happen by a NORMAL man - or group of them. If a man is disabled, and not in a good relationship, why are they ever allowed to be alone with a woman whether she is disabled or not? Why is his “disability” mentioned, but with no details included so that any reader won't know why he might have done what he did? Why do so many readers blame him, rather than where he was when this happened?

Disability, under a meaning, is “a physical or mental condition that limits a person's movements, senses, or activities.” If this rapist was disabled how did he rape? Was his disability in his brain or in his body? Did he truly understand what a rape is? If he was aggressive, why was he left alone with the woman that he attacked? Why – WHY – was he in the same “for-profit” supposed caring accommodation with the disabled woman he attacked??

40 years ago I didn’t even report my gang rape. None of the men who raped me were disabled. None of them were “good” men. None of them should have stayed out of jail, but I didn’t report it because I was far too scared. Things have changed so much in 40 years, and a long time ago I completely supported action against rape, DV and anything that was affecting women who were mistreated by men. 

The man who attacked this woman either didn’t know what he did or shouldn’t have been able to do it. I know, yes I truly know, what rape was or is, but no one should ever get raped by a man who is disabled and who is not, ever, kept away from any disabled woman by any person who is NOT disabled and who should be caring about anyone in the accommodation they are looking after.

This event is absolutely unacceptable – so prosecute the REAL rapist – the “for-profit” supposed caring accommodation!

Quote.. I said it!

"We are all humans until race disconnected us, religions separated us, politics divided us and wealth classified us."

On Facebook yesterday I saw a picture of a hand-written quote, without naming who they were quoting. 

This wound me up – as usual – so I decided to do some investigation. Different “authors” have said that they said this or they know who said it. 

Albert Sinnick says it’s from an Iranian atheist. 

Syed Mafiz Kamal says from Russell John - Bangladeshi Twitter activist. 

"Sketches of my Life" put the picture up and didn’t name whoever originally said this.

A user on Pinterest quoted the saying without any name or acknowledgment. 

The Human First website printed a longer quote: "We were all humans until race disconnected us, religion separated us, politics divided us, wealth classified us, gender isolated us and reductionist science compartmentalized and degenerated us." Apparently this was said by Beyond Industrial Civilization. 

Whisper, Sun-Gazing (also on Pinterest), "Banksy" allegedly quoted on Twitter by Tim Fargo, ConsciousLifeNews (also on Pinterest) and SpiritScience (the usual Pinterest, *yawn*) each put their own name on their quote pic.  Far too many who stuffed up for me to copy.

Good sites such as Humanist which has quoted "unknown", and EnchantedMinds which has quoted "anonymous", are good by realizing that the original speaker is not known. So many people who have claimed they have said this don’t figure out that it can or can’t be proven. 

Goodreads, on one page, listed this quote as "unknown" – very good - but on a Goodreads different page Pravinee Hurbungs appears to say it’s his own. 

QuotePix says that who posted it was "Anonymous" (Perhaps that’s the best…)!

I found a paper "’Race’and the Construction of Human Identity" written by Audrey Smedley in 1998, which didn’t say exactly these words, but I think that whoever wrote the quoted words could possibly have read this before they wrote “their” words. 

Still, I haven’t found who really said it, so my own opinion is that every unknown quote should ALWAYS be marked as “unknown” and should NOT be claimed by someone else!

I’d love you if you thought this too.

Talking about it...

If you were a 1% vegan, would you talk to everyone you met? What if you were a 5% vegetarian? Would you talk to anyone? What information do you give to anyone you have talked to? “Yes, I love my food” – or “animals shouldn’t be slaughtered”?

This blog is from me, not a vegan, not even a vegetarian, but so far I have met a real annoying veganist which has not yet turned me off meat. At least, meat containing pork, chicken and fish, and anything else with eggs, milk, yoghurt, and inserted into bread and – dare I say it?? – cakes. Yes, I know I didn’t mention beef or lamb – I don’t really enjoy anything that most chefs believe only need a “blue” grilling, so I’ve mostly stopped eating them.

Let’s look at the history, and see just where we all fit. According to Wiki, humans are historical omnivorous, and they have “hunted and killed animals for meat since prehistoric times”. Vegans, also from Wiki, apparently weren’t first recorded until Dr William Lambe in 1806. The word “vegan” was not recorded until 1944, by Donald Watson.

Veganism is growing, it seems. In 2010 a poll in Australia said 5% of Australians were vegetarian, but only 1% were vegans. If you’ve ever met a vegan they might just tell you that they are against animals being killed for meat. In the USA, however, many vegans just simply eat what they like – and can afford. They have turned away from meat and products. Even Ellen DeGeneres is a vegan, but I haven’t, so far, heard her yelling about any-animal slaughter. SMH’s photo in their article said that DeGeneres and her partner Portia Rossi “didn't feel ethically comfortable eating meat.” This is their own feeling, and good on them. I am grateful to DeGeneres for not yelling at anyone she speaks to about why meat is not good.

If every vegan just acted as good as DeGeneres I think I would thank them all.

Pictures of meat consumption throughout the world take space in Wiki and should be seen by any vegan who believes that meat shouldn’t be eaten. According to the pics, in the high stable level there are higher poultry in Canada, USA, Australia and NZ, and higher pigmeat in Europe and Japan. In the developing world (emerging economies) there are higher poultry in Brazil, South Africa, Russia and India, and higher pigmeat in China. How would vegans deal with all these meat consumptive countries?

I have my own thoughts, which, it seems, I can’t even bring out in front of a vegan, so here they are, in my own blog, which can be read by anyone who wants to.

• RSPCA has a very good informative article on how slaughterhouses should happen. Very good, I believe, that they accept that animal slaughter for meat still exists in this country.  
• CSIRO have produced a book for the slaughter establishments, which means good procedure. If the establishment follows this, the animals will not be in pain.  
•  The Social Responsible Agricultural Project in USA says “Animals raised for food should not be forced to live their lives in deplorable conditions and die cruel deaths.” I agree with this. This project does not completely argue against slaughter, but does argue against pain.

I do not believe in huge slaughterhouses. I do not believe in cramped cages. I do not believe in profit over the best meat. What I DO believe in are the decent conditions for any animal at a farm which provides meat, milk, eggs, or any food made from part of them. And count the fish on these as well.

Vegan has been online since – it seems – 2002, but the website is very hard to get into or get around. A different vegan website is given on this site, but won’t even open on my PC. I’m sure there are probably many other vegan websites, but I won’t go out looking.

I found a picture on Flickr which was a pic of vegan-meat-stuff called “Vegan with Vengeance”. This is what, ultimately, annoys the heck out of me – and, like I said, I am NOT vegan. 

Why do vegans argue, rather than just talk?

Why do vegans protest, rather than just talk?

Any why, why, would a vegan kick out someone they had told – earlier – was one of their friends? MY right is to return a comment to theirs. I fully intend to continue to do this.

Steak, anyone??