Ying CAO

Falling rain covers
animal and plant
both distracting and invigorating,
warm, cold
providing life and sickness
for all.
Both beneficient and cruel
rain replenishes
rain destroys.

YING CAO

searching

The term King of Kings was associated with the Persian Emperors. Later with Christ and Allah.

When the Babylonian Hebrews (Jews) returned to the Jerusalem area in the 5th century BCE they returned as agents of the Persian king to ensure that the inhabitants of Palestine behaved themselves. They introduced their own version of the Hebrew religion, Judaism, the main point of which was to enforce control over the locals through a number of religious strictures.

searching for god and power

The Hebrew or Jewish commentators of the 5th century BCE constructed a god from the ruling political system, the Persian Empire. Such systems by tradition accorded peace and prosperity.

In Job, an extremely interesting document, god resides in a court surrounded by acolytes. God and Satan discuss the faithfulness or holiness of Job, the most holy and faithful of humans. They have a bet to see how faithful to god Job actually is and Job is then afflicted by all manner of disasters. He asks advice of a series of acquaintences who provide various theories for his misfortunes, including of course that he must have sinned (disobeyed god) at some point. These learned men meet with swift ends. This god does not like men to think, in the same way that autocrates disapprove of ideas. Now throughout this story god's nature changes, clearly the result of more than one writer.

The story ends frightenly with god declaring that reason is useless in trying to understand his actions. God is power, and that is it. God does things through whim like any ancient or modern potentate. God in fact is little more than a spoilt child.

'That is all ye know, and all ye need to know.'

GOD

I have written in my book Myth of Mind on this issue at length, but the early Judaic concept of an omnipresent god appears based upon the developing monarchy of Persia, which had an empire that stretched from present day Pakistan to the Mediterranean. The Persian king employed spies to ensure order in his vast kingdom, spying not only on the conquered populations but also on his satraps or administrators. From this political development we have a concept of an all-powerful deity. This can be seen in the changing nature of the Hebrew god particularly with the return of the exiles from Babylon, an intellectual, administrative elite. It is my contention that versions of god, most certainly that of the Near Eastern Book religions-Judaism, Christianity and Islam-represent fossilised political developments of a period centuries or millennium ago.

god

I have written in my book Myth of Mind on this issue at length, but the early Judaic concept of an omnipresent god appears based upon the developing monarchy of Persia, which had an empire that stretched from present day Pakistan to the Mediterranean. The Persian king employed spies to ensure order in his vast kingdom, spying not only on the conquered populations but also on his satraps or administrators. From this political development we have a concept of an all-powerful deity. This can be seen in the changing nature of the Hebrew god.

TEACHING

Ref. College where I freelance:

We had a meeting a few weeks ago during which the subject of standards and student attainment came up. The Head of Department spoke about management fears on the lack of numbers of students passing, without of course alluding to the management's shameless, irresponsible recruitment practices. One of the lecturers suggested that perhaps we should allow those students who lacked language skills, that is most, to cut and paste as even if their English was poor they still understood the material.


I wondered: did he obtain his own qualifications in that manner? Was he used to his students producing such efforts? What was his own marking like?

I immediately recalled an Asian lecturer from a previous, defunct college who gave distinction to student's efforts that were clearly copy and paste. One student, a lovely man but with quite a low intelligence, produced for him a wonderfully academic piece of work that he similarly marked. I discovered the piece on the internet. This lecturer no doubt acquired his own qualifications in the same fashion. I took over his students when he left and referred most.

teaching again

On Friday, next door's class erupted into a fight, which spilled out into the corridor. I was just glad that I wasn't the teacher this time on the basis I suppose of mere survival. Bear in mind nevertheless that many if not most of the students are genuine and hard working. Three of my students produced excellent work last week. I have now some ten potential merits.

teaching

At present I am teaching a Principles in Health and Social Care course on a freelance basis and therefore I do not write the courses. The actual compiler constantly employs cut and paste pieces from American online journals to reference health admin. problems that have nothing to do with British health and social care. The two systems are radically different. What idiots! Is this stupidity or laziness? Poor spelling, American vocabulary! I am ashamed to teach it!

R/T

It is extraordinary for anyone to declare that they know what god or a god thinks, that a god's internal manifestations are known to them and equally extraordinary that such an extreme deity would concern themselves with the humdrum of dietry matters, sexual matters and clothing.

R/P

Christianity proposes passivity and the aggression Christian countries have habitually displayed is a consequence of, where it depends at all on religious text, the Old Testament, the Torah of the Hebrews. 'Eye for an Eye', etc, which permeates Sharia law. Jesus's viewpoint insisted on the reverse, based upon forgiveness. But like most religious ideas this appears to be based on historically-rooted practicalities, the motivation for which has been lost. Where Hebrew cogitations on the nature of god were rooted in 5th century BCE political affairs concerning nationhood and kingship, and Islam in the political events of the 5th and 6th century AD, Christian ideas of forgiveness and passivity are rooted in the consequences of a small nation/religious group confronted by Rome's military expertise. Rebellion against Rome brought with it the genuine prospect of annihilation and even personal responses to Roman oppression could result in immediate beheading. A different strategy had to be formed therefore that did not entail resistance.

Islam is a completely different religion from the above in that it proposes resistance and aggressive evangelisation, although many Moslems insist on the peaceable nature of the religion. Still, it is the only global religion that fetishes violence to others to any extent, the sadism to Christian masochism. Islam insists on shared brotherhood, based upon an acceptance of unfettered, un-decorated monotheism which it shared with early Christian communal beliefs. In the case of the latter, this constituted, in its earliest days, a rejection of gender. Men and women were equal and the same.

Religion/politics

Tom Holland, writing in In the Shadow of the Sword, suggests that Mohammed was reacting to the monotheistic ideas that may have prevailed in the borders between Arabia and Christiandom. This seems to accord with Mohammed's understanding of religious views of his time. He may have erroneously believed that Christianity had a female deity. Holland believes that Mohammed was influenced by gnostic gospels and that accounts for the story within the Qur'an of Christ's survival on the cross and later life, first found in one of the former works. I've always held that this inclusion within the Qur'an throws no credit on its compilers and provides sufficient evidence by itself for its man-made roots.

Religion/politics

These books, Talmud, New Testament, and Qur'an were written by men (not probably by women) because that is exactly what  appears to be the case. For example: The Book of Job appears, in a number of its passages, to predate or come from another source other than Hebrew thought and philosophy. It seems to emerge from an intellectual climate beyond the Near East. It is certainly close to Islam in its emphasis on the power rather than love of god. All you need to do is obey, not question. Questioning is arrogance.

In Judaism and Christianity lose of faith is an essential component, as each contains a belief in continuous development, whereas Islam revokes the right to challenge.

Christianity contains philosophical concerns that are not within the teaching of the Christ figure. The gospels are notoriously written in poor Greek. Translation has transformed them. The Christ figure was one of several messianic figures of the period who initiated personal teachings related to cult practices.

Although the Hebrew texts contain dubious historical detail, there is much that can be verified. Islam is more universal in its approach but where historical detail is available within its text it appears localised in time and geography, that is to the decades of war between Iranshar and Eastern Rome. The Qur'an's internal/external religious debates seem to be confused and not connected with confirmed Christian or Zoroastrian beliefs. As many scholars have pointed out it references fields and cattle, elements of the natural world not visible in Arabia. Also, it is difficult apparently to find mentions of Mecca or Medina in historical texts of the period, even though the Qur'an indicates each was a bustling metropolis. This seems highly unlikely as each city was in barren desert far from trading routes.

Early next week I will have an interview at a private college with two of its management. One of these, an arrogant sort I've met already, appears to have dubious qualifications no doubt acquired through a private college. Google provides the tools to search everyone. Again, I note the convergence of arrogance and limited ability.

Religion/Politics

On the one hand, it is difficult for me to understand how religious books carry conviction, except within the theatre of group and personalised threats, through the indirect or direct theatres of power and authority, as the material each contains is often temporal and malicious.

I certainly think that belief in these books has much to do with the human conviction of our specialness. We are the only remaining Homo specie left, all the others died off, and our nearest relatives, chimpanzees, are sufficiently unlike us to be ignored. We look around and believe we stand alone. Therefore we require a relationship elsewhere, finding that relationship with a god.

Religion/Politics

In the next few blogs I wish to consider more weighty issues of a political nature, all under Religion/Politics. But first I must state my position as to the former of the above states.

I am not religious and find the return to irrational religious belief worrying and distressing as if all the scientific discoveries, historical research and profound reasoning of the last two centuries have come to nothing. For me, it is as if the political and social ideologies of the 1930s have been rehashed and once again hatred, fear and uncertainty are guiding people's lives.

An Unusual Power

An Unusual Power: The rise and influence of medical doctors.

How the medical profession affects modern perceptions, looking at the extraordinary power they wield in western societies. 


Academia.Edu

Al/El

Malaysian judges under pressure from religious groups have stopped Christians from using the term Allah to describe their slightly different god. While this appears to reflect political and social difference, the term comes from ancient Canaan several thousand years ago and was used for the prominent deity.  The original Hebrew god probably went under the name as of course did the chief god of the time BAAL. It was it seems a common term for a leading god.

It seems likely that the god/s of the present day had their beginnings in c1550 BCE, in religious and political ideas of present day Syrian and Lebanon, based upon or in the locality of Ugarit, an ancient city. In the early El/Al religions women were extremely prominent if not equal to the leading god, who was a god of war in some form or another. This role some might say El/Al still has.

Joseph Haines

How dark the end was without stars, without tears,
Surrounded by meditation
In a vast sea of unexpressed fears
A sharing of thoughts in an unavoidable situation.
We waited as the universe contracted
Our thoughts in extremis extracted.

In the end we did not pray
Or wonder about our continued existence
No one had anything wise to say
In the inevitable, unchanging sequence.
There was nothing we could do as the earth
Broke apart, but accept oncoming death

It crushed us in a second,
Rent limbs, leaving only dust,
The sun imploded
The planets went bust
And no memory remained of our history
Our passing unnoticed, unscrutinised sophistry.

Our philosophies, science, churches,and mosques un-constructed
In the flickering retreating waves of relative time,
All hot air. Our great ancestors un-created
Like this unwritten unpublished rhyme.
Our shared un-lived existence
Without precedence or consequence.




.

Joseph Haines

Ying Cao

It's not the night that frightens us
the unknown and unseen
it is the night within
that makes us tremble
the nightmares and the guilt.

Court

A recently retired Family Court judge has called for the system to be revamped as it does not reflect modern society. The Court's decisions affect society and can because of its prejudice against fathers  be held responsible for feral children and adults.

If a case reaches the Court one certain rule applies. A father will only be able to see his child once a fortnight unless the mother agrees to another arrangement. That rule applies even if the father was the main carer. Who suffers? Of course the father and the child.

Online magazines are a brilliant innovation except where, like Aphelion and a number of others, they decide they know what is and is not good literature or stories. One magazine owner, on rejecting one of my stories (immediately accepted elsewhere), lectured me on how short stories should be constructed. My mind drifted off to Hemingway, Cheever and other 'failures' who wrote work that did not conform to this gentleman's narrow, semi-literate understanding.

I certainly do not understand mags such as Aphelion who apparently utilise their friends to comment on matters they have neither skill nor judgement to comment on. Just be a magazine, please don't try to be experts!

Government colleges and private colleges.

I've just left an interview with a large government run college in North London and after a while the interviewer and I discussed standards in private colleges. She was shocked to learn of the delivery methods, the question and answer approach I've earlier discussed. You have therefore different standards at work-private colleges with lecturers who often have few genuine qualifications, who can barely construct a paragraph of correct English,  and government colleges with continually assessed teachers who know how to teach. OK its not quite so black and white, but in private colleges delivery and grading is fraudulent while at least the government colleges have some standards.

Aphelion

Aphelion is an American sci-fi webzine which publishes a number of good if not brilliant stories. But it is one of those sites that takes itself far too seriously. It reviews writers, or, at least, has a troupe of critics on hand to give their considered opinions. Arrogance and pomposity unbounded!

Unless you feel your work needs to be developed, avoid these kind of sites. Amateurs deciding on what writing is or is not. They cannot genuinely help aspiring writers and in fact can instead nip good ones in the bud. AVOID!

STORM

Dull pattering through agonised woods
fumbling winds, serrating storms
animals vanishing into the undergrowth
scurrying beneath the ground
birds huddling under leaves.
The river breaks its bank
water spreading out like vomit
villages swamped with infestation.
The storm batters and bruises,
bellowing through the night like a troubled god.

A. Dupois

Drugs

Is depression truly helped by drugs that merely squash feelings and memories? Is it so reprehensible to live with negativity? Do we always have to be positive?

A population fed with drugs is one that does not rebel. The triumvirate of drug-companies, medical profession and government is benefiting from this smothering of thought and action.

Ying Cao

When the sun falls and night appears
light is not lost, but renewed;
the day's warmth is paused
not removed. Goodness revolves,
and the light returns.

Yin Cao 10

In my garden, by the wall,
the dog peed.
The urine stain spread and
cleansed the age-stained brick
leaving it fresh and new.

Yin Cao

FAMILY COURT 2

Any discussion of the Family Court is illegal. A preposterous regulation.

After the breakup of my relationship with my son's mother, because of her manipulative tendencies , and her resorting to lies when faced with difficult situations, I chose not to talk with her but to concentrate solely on my son. Nevertheless, the court said that she had to confer with me as to any decisions related to my son. When I attempted to enforce this, she used an admiral, successful strategy. She would arrive at court an hour before the case came up and approach all senior people sobbing, wringing her hands and telling god knows what stories. She did this every time. Once outside the court all tears miraculously dried and her drama subsided.

When he was eleven she put my son into one of the worst local schools. My son is very intelligent and then was very frail. I was mortified and began court proceedings. I arranged for my son to have an interview with the top school in London. She arrived in court an hour early as usual and began, as far as I'm aware, her little games. When I arrived my name was mud and my intentions suspect. I found myself in a room with seven or eight women officers and a security guard. My son was hardly spoken of and, when the matter of my son's schooling was brought up,  the women officers sided with his mother. Another meeting was arranged.

Angry, I wrote a letter to head of court telling what the women officers had done and predicting how my ex would act in court immediately before the next meeting. She did exactly as I described. I went to the court with a local councillor as a witness. She recorded my ex's activity.

Unfortunately, as a consequence of the court my son lost his chance at the school and stayed at the awful one. I became involved with the school to ensure he thrived. He is now studying law at university but he should be studying at a topmost university and not the one he is at.

The court acted upon anecdotal evidence, and from what I saw, usually does. It checks nothing out. It doesn't have to because it is secret and no other body can review its activities. The court acted with discrimination and prejudice and harmed my son. They certainly did not put his needs first.

FAMILY COURT

The Family Court is the only court within Britain in which all matters are done in secret. While the rationale behind this unusual practice in a country that prides itself on openness is the protection of children it merely protects the discriminatory practices of the court and gives its members immense power.

Originally the Parliamentary Act that formed these courts ensured that the children's needs were paramount, court precedent afterwards reconstructed the Act's intentions by connecting children's needs with mother's needs. The court is often a place therefore manipulated by mothers, with the collusion of court members.

Education 10

Concepts of intelligence were previously fashioned by the elite. Two centuries ago those who went to university were from the landed rich and invariably took over the running of the country. They became politicians, and since their deaths have passed into the obscurity they deserved. Those who offered ideas and innovation usually did not receive a university education.

Of the poets, Shelly and Byron went to university, Keats did not. Of writers of the period, the majority did not attend university.

Since Thatcher and Blair, higher education has become democratised but does that mean lower standards? When I went to university, one of the highest ranked, as a mature student I quickly noticed sanobbish and tribal behaviour coming from both students and staff, especially the staff who strongly believed themselves to be members of a, largely self-selected, elite who represented the finest minds of their time. Limited in intellectual scope with little knowledge outside their chosen fields, I doubted that.

TONY BLAIR

His first education reforms in higher education resulted in increased funding for universities and a comparatively large increase in access to university education. This was controversial. Critics on the left objected to the introduction for the first time of student fees to pay part of the cost of higher education. Critics on the right argued that the increase in student numbers implied a lowering of educational standards. In 1998, one of Mr Blair’s first and most radical education reforms came in the form of means testing, and many university students in the U.K. paid tuition fees for the first time. 


My concern here is with the increase in student numbers, facilitated by colleges becoming universities. Did this actually lower standards in order that more people should acquire higher qualifications?

A Continuing debate: