A British family is BANNED from boarding a Disney-bound flight by American immigration officials, altho’ they have visas and prior travel authorisation.
Of course this British family happens to be Muslim!
The ‘Trump effect’ is at work, alienating the entire Muslim population on the planet. And doing a great recruiting job for ISIS.
This is a major, unprecedented diplomatic insult to Britain.
If a British family isn’t allowed to visit Donald Duck we won’t allow Donald Trump to visit our shores and Duckingham Palace.
As we celebrate the holidays we should remember that for millions FAITH is a daily torment of religious repression – of fear, rape, murder – under the umbrella of » religious ethnic cleansing. »
Millions are persecuted and killed because their faith is NOT that of the majority in their community.
Believers, all of us, should listen to Archbishop Desmond TUTU who insists:
« God is not Christian, God is all and every faith. »
Refugees seeking asylum must be judged by their NEED and VULNERABILITY – not as Republican candidates demand by their faith, which violates all International and Humanitarian Law.
You and I can’t change the world, but WE CAN EMBRACE, without fear or favour, the multi-culturalism in our ‘hood. This the strongest and the right way to defeat hate, extremism and terrorism.
WE CAN TAKE A MILLION TINY STEPS FOR HUMANITY AND PEACE.
Today 5000 girls, some as young as 12, are exported into prostitution in Italy.
They come from Benin City, Nigeria where they have been sold by their family – a mother, brother, sister, cousin. . . to human traffickers, with the promise of work in Italy.
This starts with a ceremony where a juju priest gives the girl a strong drug, strips her, cuts her pubic hair and makes her swear an oath of obedience – otherwise the curse will kill her.
She agrees to pay a debt of as much as 30.000€ to the trafficker for taking her on a 3000 km perilous life threatening passage through Libya and on in a rickety boat or rubber dinghy to Italy. She survives in the freezing wet misery of serial rape and being robbed during the journey.
She is promised a job – but not told that this is to be a prostitute.
On arrival she is taken in charge by a madam and forced to « service » up to 20 men day and night. If she refuses she is beaten, if she doesn’t hand over her meagre earnings she is beaten, if she tries to run away she is beaten, starved or killed…
She survives in terror and humiliation – frightened of her shadow, of the juju curse that can kill her. Knowing that over 3 to 7 years she must repay the cursed debt or her family will suffer.
You may have seen her one evening outside a Gas Station in a small Italian town, looking for a John.
Some escape and are taken into care for a re-integration programme. A few make it back to Nigeria and a new life. Catholic volunteers try to bring them comfort and help to escape.
Most don’t make it.
The International Labour Organisation estimates that there are 21 million victims of forced labour, of which 4,500,000 are sex slaves. Increasingly girls and young women are profitable merchandise, for labour, prostitution, forced marriage, organ theft…
The Financial Times has launched an appeal with « STOP THE TRAFFIK » to help these victims of human traffickers.
YOU CAN HELP STOP THE ENSLAVEMENT OF OUR DAUGHTERS
Had Gould been born 50 years earlier than in 1932 he would probably have been destroyed musically by electric shock treatment – at the very least.
Gould was obsessive, with many tics and tocs – he didn’t like people, was rude and abrasive, was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. He hated Concert Halls and did his greatest oeuvre on his fetish Steinway, sat on a low, little folding stool in the recording studio, often humming, moaning and groaning as he played.
He was also analytical, intellectual, contentious, more perhaps for his manner, than his highly distinctive performance.
He was, in the opinion of many Bach lovers, the greatest baroque and contrepoint Bach master of the century.
GOULD’S GOLDBERG VARIATIONS AND HANNIBAL LECTER
Reportedly the music you have just listened to was the delight of Hannibalthe Cannibal when he was carving a new victim or « having a friend for luncheon ».
Sadly Glenn Gould didn’t live to learn this bit of filmic gossip. Suffering a massive cerebral attack which paralyzed his left side and later left him brain dead at the young age of 50. His father had the sad duty of instructing the doctors to shut off his artificial life supply.
Johann Sebastion Bach (1685 – 1750) continues to inspire through to today and beyond. . .
THELONIOUS MONK – MAESTRO – MADMAN
Monk (1917-1982) was distinctly weird, a man of fetishes who had difficulty dressing and performed little circular dances on stage when he wasn’t at the piano. He played with his massive hands and fingers impossibly flat.
He was also – you got it first time – analytical, intellectual and musically highly eccentric.
And a genius.
His early years were difficult as his compositions were considered too difficult to play… however his Ellington collection established him in the Jazz milieu and when he teamed up with Coltrane the world recognized their genius.
A BRIDGE BETWEEN BAROQUE AND BEBOP
Where is the difference? In my book there isn’t any. None whatsoever. These giants from different centuries, cultures and languages march together from the past into the future.
TOCCATA – FUGUE – OFF MINOR IT DON’T MEAN A THING IF IT AIN’T GOT THAT SWING.
TIME 4 AFRICA 