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"Troubles, and Other Insignificant Things.
Sometimes there come moments in my life when things seem to overwhelm.
I have become a master at the art of facade, and social chameleon. It's easy for me to wall out things which bother me, and masquerade as if I was happy with life.
I guess a descent into depression I hadn't felt in years began, right around when I became something I'd sworn to never be. I started hurting the one girl I'd ever truly been romantically inclined to. No one deserves the type of thing I do. If anyone could be considered a master of psychological warfare, it would be me. I began a subtle, subconscious, but steady campaign with an intent to hurt, yet it was unintentional at the same time. This stems from a childhood wrought with strife, where I learned that if I wanted something to go away, I'd manipulate it into doing so.
Now, this came into play with this girl. There had always been an... Obscene amount of strange connection, sexual tension, and unwarranted feeling between she and I. A previous escapade left us both with a bitter, bitter taste, which was only absolved by time and forgetfulness. Upon a whim, we reconnected, and this time swore to each other it would be different. And it was, it was pure heavenly bliss being with a girl who put up with my instabilities, my sociopathic tendencies. There was always an "I forgive you" inside of her. And with that sort of trust, a sort of nearly unconditional love, comes physical intimacy. And being young and unwise, we became intimate. All was well, for a while. I felt I had found someone that I could truthfully tell that I loved them, not in a familial way, but in a romantic way. The first real emotions I felt were when I was with her. More on this later.
I don't remember what period of time passed, but, one day I was informed by this girl that another guy had kissed her. She stressed to me, "I pushed him away, he did it to me!". I asked her, calmly albeit, who it was... And I guess this is where my warpath began. She would not tell me, told me that she had promised she wouldn't tell because I would harm the other guy. Thinking back, I still can't remember what I would have done. But I eventually got the truth out if her, after breaking up with her, and her showing up at my house in a state of distress I hadn't seen since my mother lost her wedding band. She refused to leave, until I took her back.
I don't know if I made the right decision then, but I took her back. From then on, things felt different. I began my charade that I had perfected, playing with my own emotions as well as hers, showering her with gifts and such. But these times were not without fights. You see, because of what happened, I guess I lost my trust.
I came back from Christmas, with my last ditch effort to convince myself. I spent around $240 of my money on lavish gifts for her, promising myself that I meant it, and telling her that we'd go somewhere fancy in her new dress and such, we'd be like the beginning. It was a fools endeavor. The aura around us was the same, strained.
New Years Eve, she and I are talking. What do we plan for the year? Will we see each other? The further the conversation goes, the more evident it is, that this feeling would come to an end soon. Eventually I grant her permission to be in the company of the guy who kissed her those months back. The night wears on, and I become increasingly aware of my loneliness as I frantically intake alcohol as a buffer to my emotions. Finally, the dawning of the realization that the end was near, my year was ending alone in my room, drinking my sorrows away and mourning the loss of my love, with no chance of a kiss from her, as she is with the guy who nearly tore us apart prematurely. So I ended it.
I still question myself whether it was the right decision. Do I continue to weigh her down with my baggage, and secretly continue my hate campaign against her that was almost suicidal in nature? Or was ending it then before I became hopelessly drowning in my self inflicted agony a better idea? The contrast haunts me still. I've told her, myself, "Move on, it's over. Do not dwell on the past, you'll miss your life."
But I am the largest hypocrite who has ever spoken those words. I cannot listen to certain music, because when I do I find myself submerged in my own head, swimming around in a muddy sea of thoughts as cloudy as the Ganjes. Yet there are glimmering and striking clarities there. The memories of feeling on top of the world while I was with her. It's this that baffles me the most. How can I be such an awful, and manipulative person, if all I can remember are the good things? For me to remember the bad things, I have to do it on purpose.
This is compounded by the daily reminder that I have grown so far apart from my childhood best friend that when I speak to him, it's like I'm talking to a stranger, or worse, someone I had known for my whole life yet wronged deeply. Even as I write this the tears stream down my face as I blubber about, reminiscing the past and what I could have done to save my REAL relationship. This guy, he's been here for me since before I had a real dad. He never changed his thoughts about me no matter what the hell I did wrong. I struggle to cope with knowing that I could have prevented a loss if this magnitude, yet I didn't. I can't express how much I love him. He was... Still is a brother to me, even though he probably doesn't feel that way about me. If I could change one thing, and one thing only, it would be to be as close to him as I used to. But I can't. The memories associated with this person.. they will never leave me, and the longing for them to be more vivid drives me to tears and sobs that wrack my body. We still see each other. There are weekly gatherings, and jokes, jibes, standard thoroughfare is exchanged between us. And even then, on rare occasion I'll see him in a more quiet setting. But it's not the same. I grow closer to adulthood, and leaving this place forever. And in effect, leaving him.
On my father: I was abandoned by my father before my memories take me back. The most vivid memory I have of my biological father is when he showed up at my mothers apartment with his new girlfriend. I guess this is the root of my trust and security issues. I tend to build up walls that are impenetrable by anything that could affect me emotionally. And not only that, I take an offensive stance on a lot of things. I fight back. Don't come into my heart, stay out, I'll never need it.
A man came into my life soon after that. He brought out emotions in my mother that quite honestly I'd never seen. She smiled. She laughed. She sang. Oh, her voice. I inherited it from her, and she still can make me cry by singing. But he did that. They were soon married.
The initial years of having a stepparent are... Awkward, to say the least. You must adjust, you must learn how they work. My mind hasn't developed into the cold, calculating, sadistic machine it is now in that time, but it was just as sharp. I watched this foreign man. Can I trust him? I would think. And I did. For years.
In the midst of this I was diagnosed with severe clinical depression. I can't say I remember ever being sad, or suicidal, but I watch videos of myself during that time and I see a broken hearted child. I look devoid of happiness. It's baffling how one so young can look like this, and it was like seeing something you'd see on a documentary. But it was there. I was prescribed almost every synthetic, psychoactive, mind altering drug ever produced. At this time, these pills were largely untested. Nobody knew the long term effects. I was a guinea pig for big pharma.
That's when I began a hate campaign against him. The one man, who had ever loved me enough to call me his own. I want even his. And yet he took the responsibility of raising me to become a real man. But I wouldn't have it. Everything was wrong. We fought. Screaming matches, "I hate you" ringing in my head from my own mouth for days after an argument. You see, the medication had taken its toll already. My mind was stolen from me. Guilt? The emotion does not exist anymore. A sense of when to stop? It's not there. All I knew was hate. And it got worse.
He was soon diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. The first operation was inmediate, followed by another and then the long road of chemo. Did my twisted mind care? No. We still fought. The same words, repeated. "I hate you". The pain in his eyes... It was pain from the treatment. But even that couldn't hide the pain he had from hearing me say that to him, as his body died, and was eaten away by something that we had no control over. I was off of medication at this point. But I would soon learn some things are permanent.
It took a near fistfight between me, and my father who was crippled by chemo and radiation for me to realize all of this. How I had these security issues. How I had built defenses into myself. How pills had stolen emotions from me, some of which now are faintly returning, but some of which I can't even remember the names, it's been so long.
I realize, that I love him. Despite all if the things I've done, to try to push him out, he has fought back with every ounce of strength he DOES NOT HAVE, to persevere through me destroying him.
And now I realize, that maybe the reason he's dying now is because he has used what was left of his will to fight to get me to realize all of this.
The feeling of knowing that someone who isn't even related to you, has most likely sacrificed his life, his actual life, to return you to a state if being where you are capable of true love... This is love. This is sacrifice.
The feeling of knowing that there was someone that always forgave you, that always looked past your awful, awful self destructive behavior and offensive being, and always stuck next to you when you needed him... That's love.
And the feeling of falling in love with someone you love to hate, and cutting her out of your life not only to save her, but to save yourself from imminent death... I guess that's love, in a way too.
I've been surrounded by this sort of thing my whole life. I've managed to destroy it every fucking time. And the more I dwell on it, the more I want to scream into my own face "You're fucking stupid. You are a worthless human being, built and engineered only to destroy what you are gifted, what you are given. You are the source of your own pain. You're not unfortunate, you're the cause of misfortune. Deal with your own problems, you selfish bastard. And you make damn well sure you fix it yourself, because you deserve no help from anyone you've ever associated with."
Even as these emotions pour out of me, I masquerade as a happy guy. I act the same in school. I don't get depressed. It's all bottled up, either in my heart or in my head. Don't let it out, I tell myself. You're weak, and you know it. So don't let it out.
So, I ask you. Can I let you in?" - Tyler Talley
www.booksie.com/memoir/short_story/whimsicalfuntime/troub...
.Harlon L. Dalton, Professor of Law at Yale University, not only objects to the Horatio Alger myth, but also maintains that it is socially destructive. Dalton explains that the Horatio Alger myth conveys three basic messages, "each of us is judged solely on her or his own merits; we each have a fair opportunity to develop those merits; and ultimately, merit will out. Each of them is, to be charitable, problematic." The first message is a variant on the rugged individualism ethos…In this form, the Horatio Alger myth suggests that success in life has nothing to do with pedigree, race, class background, gender, national origin, sexual orientation—in short, with anything beyond our individual control. Those variables may exist, but they play no appreciable role in how our actions are appraised".Dalton also believes that the deep appeal of the Horatio Alger myth is that it allows and even pulls people in the direction they want to go. Psychologically, the Horatio Alger myth opens many doors. When the odds are stacked unfavorably, one often has to convince oneself that "there is a reason to get up in the morning".Dalton also asserts that the myth serves to maintain the racial pecking order. It does so by mentally bypassing the role of race in American society, by fostering beliefs that themselves serve to trivialize, if not erase, the social meaning of race. The Alger myth encourages people to blink at the many barriers to racial equality (historical, structural, and institutional) that litter the social landscape and believe that all it takes to be successful in America is initiative, persistence, hard work, and pluck.According to Dalton, there is a fundamental tension between the realization of the American Dream based on the Alger myth and the harsh realities of a racial caste system. Obviously, the main point of such a system is to promote and maintain inequality. Conversely, the main point of the Alger myth "is to proclaim that everyone can rise above her station in life. Despite this tension, it is possible for the myth to coexist with social reality. Not surprisingly, then, there are lots of Black folk who subscribe to the Alger myth and at the same time understand it to be deeply false. They live with the dissonance between myth and reality because both are helpful and healthful in dealing with ‘the adverse events of life. Many Whites, however, have a strong interest in resolving the dissonance in favor of the myth. Far from needing to be on guard against racial "threat[s] or challenge[s]", they would just as soon put the ugliness of racism out of mind. For them, the Horatio Alger myth provides them the opportunity to do just that".The myth suggests we are judged solely on our individual merits, in turn implying that caste has little practical meaning, apart from race-based advantages or disadvantages. Generally Whites are more successful than African Americans, as they are facilitated by their preferred social position, while African Americans believe that they can "simply lift themselves up by their own bootstraps". It is in America's national interest, Dalton believes, to give the Horatio Alger myth a rest, because it is a myth that assures us we can have it all, when in reality, "we live today in an era of diminished possibilities"Associating Alger's stories with the "rags to riches" trope is somewhat misleading, as his heroes often only rise from poverty to the middle class. Though some of his novels, for example Jed, the Poorhouse Boy, do detail the story of a protagonist ascending from poverty to nobility.Some of Alger's novels assert how material wealth is insignificant unless it is paired with middle-class respectability. For Alger's characters, wealth was the product of a meritocracy, and the direct consequence of "honesty, thrift, self-reliance, industry, a cheerful whistle and an open manly face". However, in some of Alger's works there is also an implied belief in hereditary determinism, explicitly contrasting achievement based on merit. This contrasting achievement would often be another character such as a stepparent or the child of a rich family.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Alger_myth
Algiers (Arabic: الجزائر, al-Jazā’er; Algerian Arabic pronunciation: دزاير Dzayer, Berber: Dzayer tamaneɣt, French: Alger) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. In 2011, the city's population was estimated to be around 3,500,000. An estimate puts the population of the larger metropolitan city to be around 5,000,000. Algiers is located on the Mediterranean Sea and in the north-central portion of Algeria.Sometimes nicknamed El-Behdja (البهجة) or alternatively Alger la Blanche ("Algiers the White") for the glistening white of its buildings as seen rising up from the sea, Algiers is situated on the west side of a bay of the Mediterranean Sea. The modern part of the city is built on the level ground by the seashore; the old part, the ancient city of the deys, climbs the steep hill behind the modern town and is crowned by the casbah or citadel, 122 metres (400 ft) above the sea. The casbah and the two quays form a triangle.The city name is derived (via French Alger and Catalan Alger from the Arabic name الجزائر al-Jazā’ir, which translates as "The Islands", referring to the four islands which lay off the city's coast until becoming part of the mainland in 1525. Al-Jazā’ir is itself a truncated form of the city's older name جزائر بني مزغانة Jaza'ir Bani Mazghana, "The Islands of the Sons of Mazghana", used by early medieval geographers such as al-Idrisi and Yaqut al-Hamawi.
Hotel five stars El Aurassi was inaugurated and opened to customers May 2, 1975, part of the national heritage companies.
tagged.
1. i wish my hair was long right now. i feel like this sometimes.
2. the camera i use belongs to my dad. i don't know what i'll do when i move.
3. i hate not being the best at something. it makes me want to give up. but i won't. not this time.
4. i think i annoy people and make them not want to be around me.
5. i tend to be a little paranoid. see #4.
6. i seriously cannot wait to move out. i cannot describe my disgust and disdain for this place.
7. i have to have a fan on when i go to bed. it makes it hard for me to stay asleep otherwise.
8. i read before i go to bed no matter how late it is.
9. i do things at the last minute and they end up not being as good as they have the potential to be.
10. i still haven't found me yet. that sounds so corny.
sorry these aren't light-hearted and cute. i'm not in that sort of mood tonight. :/
NOTE: people i tagged; sorry if i don't know you, you don't have to do this. i just only know about 2 people on flickr personally. :)
One of those shots where you're really glad you have Pan-F loaded....
Merry Christmas all, and here's hoping for some good weather soon.
We are constantly on the lookout for anything different, however tiny and insignificant to the mainstream visitors, for there is such a wealth of unique creatures that can be so rewarding to see in person. In this case, the Beetle, known as the Four-Lined Plant Bug, caught our attention. Nature certainly has a way to express beauty in all sizes, and the patterns and colors on this tiny beetle were rather remarkable.
The late, Doris Duke, had left a wonderful legacy in converting a good portion of her magnificent estate into a Natural Wildlife Preserve for the public’s education and enjoyment—just short of 1,000 of the almost 3,000 acres is open to visitors. The other area is restricted to staff and for a wide range of projects. The paths throughout the estate offer such splendid scenery. One is forever exploring, always seeing something beautiful. There are so many pleasant surprises, from the general landscape scenery with the many lakes, ponds, and waterfalls, plus old stone structures in bridges and buildings, to the world of birds and other wildlife, including furry critters, tiny insects, and wonderful plants, from fascinating wildflowers to such impressive trees. The bucolic nature of the preserve is so relaxing—akin to meditating while experiencing the preserve. Also, if one appreciates fine, classic sculptures, some of Doris Duke’s collection can be seen around the park, including the statue garden court within the old hay barn ruin.
There is no best time to visit, for throughout the year’s seasonal changes, visitors will never leave disappointed, for each trip offers something memorable.
CHECK OUT OUR ALBUMS ON DUKE FARMS, FOR IT IS SUCH A WONDERFUL PLACE FOR ALL TO ENJOY AND LEARN ABOUT NATURE’S ENDLESS GIFTS.
I'm not sure how I feel about this picture, but I thought I'll upload it anyway!
Press L to view large if you wanna see the particles up closer
Modern cars can do over 100,000 miles without pausing for breath. If you really pile on the miles, you might have 200,000 or even 300,000 miles on the clock. If the car Gods are really shining on you, you might have managed more than half a million.
Prepare to feel insignificant. Irv Gordon from East Patchogue, New York, together with his Volvo P1800, a 1966 1800S, has completed over three million miles--a new world record for the highest number of miles driven by a single person in the same car. If you're after an arbitrary comparison to offer some perspective, that's around six round-trips to the moon, or 120 circumnavigations of Earth.
Gordon hit the three million miles mark on September 18 while driving near the village of Girdwood, on the Seward Highway, south of Anchorage, Alaska; one of the two remaining states where Irv and his famous car had not been together until now.
”It was all rather undramatic,” said Irv. ”We just cruised along and I kept an eye on the odometer in order not to miss the great moment”.
Gordon first bought his 1800S on a Friday back in 1966 and immediately fell in love. He simply couldn't stop driving the car and over the course of the weekend he had already covered 1,500 miles, causing him to return to the dealership he bought it the following Monday in order for its first service.
With a 125-mile round-trip daily commute, a fanatical dedication to vehicle maintenance and a passion for driving, Gordon logged 500,000 miles in 10 years. In 1987, he celebrated his one-millionth mile by driving a loop around the Tavern on the Green in Central Park, and in 2002 he drove the car's two-millionth mile down Times Square. Since then, Gordon has broken his record every time he gets behind the wheel of his beloved Volvo.
[Text from MotorAuthority]
History
The project was started in 1957 because Volvo wanted a sports car, despite the fact that their previous attempt, the P1900, had been a disaster, with only 68 cars sold. The man behind the project was an engineering consultant to Volvo, Helmer Petterson, who in the 1940s was responsible for the Volvo PV444. The design work was done by Helmer's son Pelle Petterson, who worked at Pietro Frua at that time. Volvo insisted it was an Italian design by Frua and only officially recognized that Pelle Petterson designed it in 2009. The Italian Carrozzeria Pietro Frua design firm (then a recently acquired subsidiary of Ghia) built the first three prototypes between September 1957 and early 1958, later designated by Volvo in September 1958: P958-X1, P958-X2 and P958-X3 (P:Project 9:September 58:Year 1958 = P958).
In December 1957 Helmer Petterson drove X1, (the first hand-built P1800 prototype) to Osnabrück, West Germany, headquarters of Karmann. Petterson hoped that Karmann would be able to take on the tooling and building of the P1800. Karmann's engineers had already been preparing working drawings from the wooden styling buck at Frua. Petterson and Volvo chief engineer Thor Berthelius met there, tested the car and discussed the construction with Karmann. They were ready to build it and this meant that the first cars could hit the market as early as December 1958. But in February, Karmann's most important customer, Volkswagen VAG, forbade Karmann to take on the job.[citation needed] They feared that the P1800 would compete with the sales of their own cars, and threatened to cancel all their contracts with Karmann if they took on this car. This setback almost caused the project to be abandoned.
Other German firms, NSU, Drautz and Hanomag, were contacted but none was chosen because Volvo did not believe they met Volvo's manufacturing quality-control standards.
It began to appear that Volvo might never produce the P1800. This motivated Helmer Petterson to obtain financial backing from two financial firms with the intention of buying the components directly from Volvo and marketing the car himself. At this point Volvo had made no mention of the P1800 and the factory would not comment. Then a press release surfaced with a photo of the car, putting Volvo in a position where they had to acknowledge its existence. These events influenced the company to renew its efforts: the car was presented to the public for the first time at the Brussels Motor Show in January 1960 and Volvo turned to Jensen Motors, whose production lines were under-utilised, and they agreed a contract for 10,000 cars. The Linwood, Scotland, body plant of manufacturer Pressed Steel was in turn sub-contracted by Jensen to create the unibody shells, which were then taken by rail to be assembled at Jensen in West Bromwich, England. In September 1960, the first production P1800 (for the 1961 model year) left Jensen for an eager public.
P1800
The engine was the B18 (B for the Swedish word for gasoline: Bensin; 18 for 1800 cc displacement) with dual SU carburettors, producing 100 hp (75 kW). This variant (named B18B) had a higher compression ratio than the slightly less powerful twin-carb B18D used in the contemporary Amazon 122S, as well as a different camshaft. The 'new' B18 was actually developed from the existing B36 V8 engine used in Volvo trucks at the time. This cut production costs, as well as furnishing the P1800 with a strong engine boasting five main crankshaft bearings. The B18 was matched with the new and more robust M40 manual gearbox through 1963. From 1963 to 1972 the M41 gearbox with electrically actuated overdrive was a popular option. Two overdrive types were used, the D-Type through 1969, and the J-type through 1973. The J-type had a slightly shorter ratio of 0.797:1 as opposed to 0.756:1 for the D-type. The overdrive effectively gave the 1800 series a fifth gear, for improved fuel efficiency and decreased drivetrain wear. Cars without overdrive had a numerically lower-ratio differential, which had the interesting effect of giving them a somewhat higher top speed (just under 120 mph (193 km/h)) than the more popular overdrive models. This was because the non-overdrive cars could reach the engine's redline in top gear, while the overdrive-equipped cars could not, giving them a top speed of roughly 110 mph (177 km/h).
1800S
As time progressed, Jensen had problems with quality control, so the contract was ended early at 6,000 cars. In 1963 production was moved to Volvo's Lundby Plant in Gothenburg and the car's name was changed to 1800S (S standing for Sverige, or in English : Sweden). The engine was improved with an additional 8 hp (6 kW). In 1966 the four-cylinder engine was updated to 115 hp (86 kW). Top speed was 175 km/h (109 mph).[3] In 1969 the B18 engine was replaced with the 2-litre B20B variant of the B20 giving 118 bhp (89 kW), though it kept the designation 1800S.
[Text from Wikipedia]
www.motorauthority.com/news/1087353_irv-gordon-reaches-3-...
This Lego miniland-scale Volvo P1800 Coupe has been created for Flickr LUGNut's 88th Build Challenge, - "Let's Break Some Records", - a challenge focused on creating vehicles that set some benchmark for biggness, fastness or other extreme of some specification. The Volvo model shown here claim, by far, the farthermost distance ever traveled by an automobile, at over 3,000,000 miles (4,800,00 kilometres).
Taken By : Thamer Alhendi
من عدسة : ثامر الهندي
Edit By : Thamer Alhendi
التعديل بواسطة : ثامر الهندي
A raindrop so small and insignificant not being noticed, like a single teardrop shed in sorrow.
7DOS - "7 Days of Shooting" "Week #22 - Slices (preferably not food)" "Minimal Sunday" - a slice of life (thnx to Julie for her suggestion)
Have you ever wanted to stop time or hold a moment in your hands?
You can with the slice of life way of thinking; you can dig beneath the surface of everyday life and unearth the beauty that has been there all along.
The slice of life approach to photography is a way of seeing, noticing and appreciating the nuances and details that make life special. It’s a way of embracing and honouring life’s imperfections; it’s about saying that life is just right the way it is.
ODC - SMALL is the topic for Saturday, 8th December 2012
Saint Philip PHAN VĂN MINH
Priest
(1815-1853)
* Prayer is Spiritual Food.
On the other side of Long Hồ River in Vĩnh Long province, and just outside Cái Sơn Bé, the authorities traditionally offered the last meal to “death-row” inmates before their executions. But prisoner Fr. Philip had refused, not for fear of indigestion, because did he not walk proudly and cheerfully to the execution site? And there was only a few minutes left to finish his worldly mission, a few short minutes but not an insignificant time, because it was the high point of a human life. To completely live out those short minutes, Fr. Minh had chosen a different meal, a more noble and necessary food: he knelt down, faced the heaven, and silently prayed. Then after his final spiritual meal, he gave the executioner a short warning: “I am done!”
Drum rolls and gong sounds were started; time seemed to stop at the divine solemnity of the priest’s last hour. The meaningful and perfect minutes passed, the priest stepped into the everlasting happiness after the executioner swung the saber completing the journey of giving witness to Christ.
* Dictionary Author.
Born into a Piusus and honorable family in the village of Cái Mơn, Mỏ Cày district in Vĩnh Long province, in the year of the Pig 1815. Philip Phan Văn Minh, whose parents were Mr. Dominic Phan Văn Đức and Mrs. Anna Tiêu, was the last son among 14 siblings. His parents passed away early, leaving the eldest sister as head of the household. This “second mother” diligently looked after her siblings spiritually and materially. Minh attended catechism classes, received first communion, then confirmation at 13. Afterward, he was sent by Bishop Tabert to Lái Thiêu seminary which was closed a short time later by King Minh Mạng’s edict of persecution of 1833.
Minh followed Bishop Tabert Từ to Thailand, then to Penang Seminary in Malaysia. He then had the honor of being selected by the bishop to go to Calcutta (India) to corroborate on a Latin-Vietnamese dictionary in 1838. After the bishop died, he returned to Penang to continue his theology formation. Professors and fellow students loved him, an excellent, studious and religious student.
* An Enthusiastic Disciple.
Finishing his studies at Penang, Deacon Minh returned to Vietnam and was ordained a priest by Bishop Cuénot Thể in 1840 in Gia Hựu[1]. Following King Minh Mạng’s death, the Church had a brief period of peace and tranquility. King Thiệu Trị ascended the throne, even though he did not abolish edicts of Christians persecutions, he did not press its implementation as violently as before. As a result Fr. Minh could visit, taught catechism to the faithful in the areas of Tiền Giang and Hậu Giang. Villages like: Đầu Nước, Xoài Mút, Chợ Bưng, Ba Giồng, Cái Nhum, Cái Mơn, Bãi San, Chà Và, and Mặc Bắc. are still imprinted with his footprints of evangelization. When King Tự Đức was crowned king in 1847, the persecution was still a low priority momentarily. But it then exploded more severe than ever.
After the edict of August 1848, especially the edict of March 1851 which ordered the beheading and throwing into rivers of all foreign missionaries, of torturing and executing of all stubborn native priests, and banishing all persons who believed in the “bad religion” of Christianity. The king even clearly instructed mandarins to strictly carry out his order.
Against this difficult backdrop, Fr. Minh serenely fulfilled his pastoral duties: he traveled around, giving encourages to Christians, opened religious classes, and celebrated sacraments.
In the village of Mặc Bắc at the time, a villager named Nhẫn, avenging the priest for not giving him some money, betrayed him to the authorities. On 2/26/1853, the mandarin sent soldiers to search Mr. Lựu’s house, the parish council president, looking for Fr. Lựu who had left. Meanwhile Fr. Minh and several seminarians were taking refuge at the house. To save Fr. Minh, Mr. Lựu told the commanding officer: “His Honor, there is no priest here named Lựu. Lựu is my name.” Dismissing the old man’s appearance as just a hapless farmer, they continue to search the whole house. Fr. Minh, fearing that the authorities might harm Mr. Lựu’s family because of him, presented himself and admitted that he was a priest. As a result, along with 7 other officials in the area, the priest was shackled, bound in cangue sand thrown aboard a boat to be taken to jail in Vĩnh Long.
In Vĩnh Long, the governor interrogated him about the whereabouts of other priests, his previous hiding places to no avail. The following days, the governor tried different means either by enticement or threats, and even had soldiers dragging the priest over the cross to make him renounce his faith. However, Fr. Minh maintained his views: loyalty to Christ and the Church. Admiring his youth, 38 years old, his gentle demeanor and his great learning, the mandarins tried to save him, they no longer demanded him to walk over the cross, but just to say, “rejecting my faith.” But Fr. Minh completely refused their proposal.
* The Road to Heavenly Home.
Judging that further efforts would also be futile, the mandarins ordered him jailed in Tuyên Phong, waiting for his sentencing day. Informed of the sentence from the royal capital, Fr. Minh got on his knees to give thanks to God, then said farewell to his fellow inmates, he said: “Brothers, maintain your faith and wholeheartedly entrust in God. He will not abandon anyone, and will reward abundantly those who worship Him with all their heart.” He also confided in a Christian on the outside to distribute all his money, if any, to the poor, not wasting it on his funeral.
His expectant day finally came; he cheerfully recited the Holy Rosary on the way to the execution site. Crossing Long Hồ River to reach Cái Sun Bé, soldiers prepared his final meal, but Fr. Minh no longer cared for food. He prayed attentively. After drum rolls and gong beats, the executioner’s saber sent his soul straight to Heaven. His last sacred prayer still resonated in the hearts of spectators:
“My God, please have mercy on me. Dear Christ, give me strength and courage to endure sufferings for your glory. Blessed Mary, please help me.”
The day was 7/3/1853. The martyr’s body was brought back to be buried under the foundation of a church Cái Mơn which was just burned down. In 1960, his relics were taken to the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Saigon in a consecration Mass.
I was holding back, even now. I was letting these insignificant hostages get in the way. What are two lives compared to the many the Joker has already taken? I gave in to The System.
My motions were a blur, things happened and I just sat back and watched. My fist smashed into the throat of the face painted goon, then claws raked across the bullet proof vest. A quick duck to avoid a hammer from the side, and I rose with an uppercut, sending Harley flying against the back wall. The goon stepped forward and I spun, placing my boot in his chest, sending him into the charred wall as well. With them separated, I raised my gauntlets to them both, prepared to fire bat-shurikens.
"Well now Bats, I think we get the idea, you're a tough guy now. But really, this new costume of yours, it seems so.... 90's." The voice lilted with pleasure. Glass crackled underfoot as the real Joker strode in the room. He was not what I expected. I thought he'd be taller.
"Tonight I avenge the blood you've spilled Joker!" I had so many options, end this quickly with a shot to his throat, set him on fire with the flame thrower I installed in the gauntlets and watch him writhe in agony, or break every bone one at a time and leave him here for the cops. Bruce would have left him for the police, and that's why he keeps getting free. No, best to end this quickly, there's more trash out there that needs my attention.
"You and I both know you don't play that game Batty Boy. You couldn't do it when I broke your poor Robin, and you can't do it nghh" I grabbed on to him and raised him in the air, prepared to throw him out the gaping hole in the wall to the streets below.
"Let these people go, or I let you go!" He choked and motioned for his goon to take them away. I gritted my teeth, prepared to throw him anyways. There was something still wrong, he wasn't afraid.
"If you'll draw your attention over here, in my little hand I happen to have a detonator. It could be real, it could be fake, but there also seems to be a lot of explosives lying around. I'm betting this new Halloween costume of yours won't save you." That was his game. In my focus to defeat them, I didn't even see the explosives wired all around the room, possibly all over the building. Or were they just road flares? St. Dumas help me I can't tell what's real right now.
Insignificant and tiny when faced by the majesty of the Buckle..
@ buachaille etive mor (Glencoe)
In case i need to point this out there is a paraglider on the right
tiny it is too ;-)
ALL rights reserved
just because its on Flickr it does not mean its in the public domain
this image is copyright protected and i will hunt down any unauthorised use.
should you wish to purchase any of my fine art prints my portfolio is on smug mug
no pinning on pinterest or uploading to tumblr
these sites are the axis of evil for copyright theft
thanks
John
Explore 357
12/8/07 : i can't seem to shift the feeling that i'm insignificant. yesterday i was told i was being a silly bunny when i raised it. today i was just ignored. it's a horrible feeling. it reminds me of how i felt this time last year. superfluous to requirements.
The universe was created in chaos and will end in chaos. This process takes so much time that we cant even grasp the immensity. We are here for such a tiny moment that even that fragment of time cannot be measured against the universe.
Take a minute of your own time and appreciate what is there to see, for that minute will never occur again in a billion billion years.
This image is discussed in the Image Creation Group www.flickr.com/groups/icwg/
Throughout the Bible, God reveals that He is always in control over His vast universe and even our seemingly insignificant lives. Here is a true-life story from a member of the persecuted church:
“I was the only convert of a man who died thinking he was useless to God. Both our crimes were for violent robbery and we actually shared a prison cell together.
“He told me about how—by mistake—he had been placed into a cell with a group of Christians. They were singing hymns at night and praising God together. He saw them as a soft touch and robbed them of their food parcels. He even beat them to show who was boss. For the first time in years he felt powerful again. But somehow they were not afraid of him and repeatedly shared their faith in Christ.
“One day in a fit of anger he took his knife to kill one of them. But something—or Someone—blocked him from bringing down the knife. For the first time, he was up against a force more powerful than himself, and one he could not understand.
“At that moment he put his trust in Christ. The prison authorities realized he had been allocated to the wrong cell and they moved him to solitary confinement. There he pleaded with God, ‘Lord, let me witness to Your power and love before I die.’
“One night the prison was overcrowded and I was put into his cell. I could see he was far-gone, barely conscious. He beckoned me close to his lips told me all about Jesus and how He loved me and wanted to save me.
“When I woke up in the morning, he was cold and dead. I was to be moved to a hard labor camp that day but the truck that was to take me there broke down. So I ended up in another cell—the one full of Christians.
“My truck was delayed a week. In that time the Christians told me the whole story about this man. They were delighted to learn he had witnessed to me before he died. The night before I was moved, I too trusted Christ.
“That’s the strength of suffering for Christ. It kept a dying man going because he wanted to witness. It kept those Christian prisoners buoyant all through their captivity. It gave me hope when I looked ahead at eight years of hard labor camp. I would have died if not for Christ.”
Standing Strong Through The Storm (SSTS)
A daily devotional message by SSTS author Paul Estabrooks© 2011 Open Doors International.
Min al Jinnati wa Naas
(From the Jinn and Mankind)
Part I - The Cause
April 17th, 2020: “Brave new world” by Aldous Huxley starring Demi Moore! The tag selling the show: A world where monogamy is illegal. “Yikes” I thought! Infidelity in marriages and otherwise single partner relationships being berated in Hollywood’s writing, or perhaps all of the West, is not new. It first became noticeable to me in the mid 2000’s, 15 years ago. But illegal? That was definitely a whole different story.
The episode I remember in particular is from Gray’s Anatomy. The most insignificant and plain character in an otherwise “beautiful” cast was moping around because he wanted Thursdays to himself to do whatever he wished with whomever he chose. His wife was apparently being a pain about it. The insert was horrendous in terms of its deliberateness.
In Lahore the idea appeared differently in my generation. People started hiding behind “philosophical” discussions of whether monogamy was really a part of human nature to avoid saying, “I’m dying to have an affair.” It’s not like infidelity is a new concept having been around since time immemorial. The generation before mine just accepted it for what it was; a transgression. Mine has always wanted things to be somehow deemed kosher by someone else.
For the millenials and whatever the generation after them is called, the stakes were even higher. They were being taught subversively that there was no such thing as fidelity to begin with. Like religion it was outdated and irrelevant. The most overt example for me came from the first season of Ryan Murphy’s The Politician, a dark comedy about high school seniors, out on Netflix this January, Alice says to Payton after getting caught cheating on him, “Sex has nothing to do with loyalty. We're not our parents.” If the diktat of Hollywood prevails, which history has proven it almost always does, perhaps we can also safely arrive to a society where monogamy is illegal.
It made me wonder what that meant in terms of the verses of the Quran that spelled out the future in clear terms for those who were about to embark on the journey of being available to all.
الْخَبِيثَاتُ لِلْخَبِيثِينَ وَالْخَبِيثُونَ لِلْخَبِيثَاتِ ۖ وَالطَّيِّبَاتُ لِلطَّيِّبِينَ وَالطَّيِّبُونَ لِلطَّيِّبَاتِ
(In the nature of things), corrupt women are for corrupt men, and corrupt men, for corrupt women - just as good women are for good men, and good men for good women – Surah An-Nur, Verse 26
Talk about going head to head on an issue!
I knew people personally who, come a certain age, upon reading these verses had changed lifestyles completely. They had dropped whatever they were doing for eons. It wasn’t so surprising. Who wants to be with a corrupt, also translated as “evil, impure, wicked, unclean, bad, vile, indecent and dirty” person? No one I would think. But Iblis has his ways.
Huxley wrote his novel in the 1930s. It was required reading by my Mamu but I stopped when I got to the part of “hundreds of naked children engaged in sexual play and games.” It was too disturbing. The plot of the book moves around “a futuristic society, the World State, and warns of the dangers of giving the state control over new and powerful technologies…In this society, emotions and individuality are conditioned out of children at a young age. The embyros hatched in a lab are divided into five castes and there are no lasting relationships because ‘every one belongs to everyone else.’”
“People are divided into five castes; Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, or Epsilon. The Alpha embryos are destined to become the leaders and thinkers of the World State. Each of the succeeding castes is conditioned to be slightly less physically and intellectually impressive. One group, the Delta infants, are reprogrammed to dislike books and flowers. This conditioning helps to make Deltas docile and eager consumers. The Epsilons, stunted and stupefied by oxygen deprivation and chemical treatments, are destined to perform menial labor.”
“‘Hypnopaedic’ (sleep-teaching) methods are used to teach children the morals of the World State. The State successfully removes strong emotions, desires, and human relationships from society. Religion is abolished because it causes wars, pain, suffering and tears. Ford is the perfect “god” for World State society because, in developing his Ford Motor Company, he invented mass production by means of the assembly line and the specialization of workers, each of whom has one single, specific job.”
There were too many boxes to check in terms of the novel resonating with what was happening today so I leave that to the reader. I guess if one was writing a novel of that nature today, the “god” could be named Schmidt or Zuckerberg although the most promising choice seems to be Gates. A good friend of mine had been very upset with the Common Core system that the Gates Foundation, had sold to the public school system in 2009, “spending 400 million itself and influencing $4 trillion in US tax payer funds.”
She thought its sole purpose was to sift students through math and standardized tests and divide them into leaders and welders. Alphas and Epsilons so to speak! Her son was on the autism spectrum. The program ignored children with learning difficulties altogether. The stranger thing was that “the (Common Core) program had no pilot…There wasn’t even a draft available to the public before the Obama administration hooked states into contracts.” Today it’s dead.
A billionaire had an idea of what counts as success, decided to put it to action through what is these days knows as “advocacy philanthropy” and ended with naught. Except that for many schools, books were eliminated and learning became technology based. Technology in education had already made its advent much before Gates. In the 1920’s came radio programming in schools. In the 50’s and 60’s instructional television was introduced with huge grants from the Ford Foundation. In the 80’s came the computer. And that’s when the Jinn apparently came into my life.
To be clear I never knew anything about this particular creation of God. Then in the early days of the virus, I received a video from a friend of mine on the Naqshbandi path. It was intriguing. The speaker was Sheikh Hisham Qabbani and this is what he said:
April 20th, 2020: “We are in a war that has not been known before. Everybody is involved in it. We leave it to Allah who knows best what He has created. We need to adhere to the Zikr (remembrance of God) that follows this battle, which is a spiritual battle. Involving Jinn and human beings, the righteous ones against the corrupt (fasid) ones. And we are the ones oppressed in this battle that has come upon us from every side, but in the end we are the victors. We are the victors and victory is for the people of Islam and for the entire community (of Mankind), so do not be afraid.”
“This is a battle involving Jinn because it is coming from corrupt Jinn. There will come a time when the corrupt ones will perish. Like other corrupt ones have perished before them. So stay steadfast where you are and do not be afraid. There is someone coming to purify the Earth and that is Imam Mahdi (as) and the family of the Prophet (saw).”
Jinn! The only thing I ever heard about them in my life in Lahore was of people reading verses of the Quran specifically to call them for furtive purposes. Information could be retrieved though them or other favours asked. There seemed to always be a clear code for the arrangement. Between the human beings money exchanged hands or other compensation was due. Between the human supposedly in control of the Jinn, if you asked anything from the Jinn one thing was certain; they would ask something of you.
The Naqshbandi Spiritual Masters have been giving lectures on a regular basis to prepare and support their disciples throughout the world through the crisis of the disease that had enveloped the world. One of my friends happened to send me one titled “Jinn, Demon and Technology” by Sheikh Nurjan Mirahmadi. But it was a year old so had nothing to do with COVID-19. I include parts of it throughout the piece.
Feb 10th, 2019: “In the way of knowing ourselves, Mankind invented computers…This is from the world of Jinn. This is the convergence of the Jinn world into the human world with the intention to overtake Insaan. They (Jinn) are the smokeless fire.”
I asked Qari Sahib where exactly their creation was mentioned in the Quran. It was in Surah Ar-Rahman.
وَخَلَقَ الْجَانَّ مِن مَّارِجٍ مِّن نَّارٍ
And He (Allah) created the Jinn from a smokeless flame of fire – Surah Ar-Rahman, Verse 55
“You are using a smokeless fire that is called electricity,” Shiekh Nujan said. “Before that was the ‘horse and buggy world.’ How much change came about in that time (in the lives of human beings)? As soon as the Jinn world was allowed to enter the Earth, it began to enslave Mankind to be worshipped and to be taken as lords.”
“There are Jinn who live amongst us and those who live outside of this planet. The computer is (to make us) enter into their world. The Jinn are spiritual beings whose subtle reality has no physical protection. As a result of their spiritual power but physical frailty they conceal themselves in different forms…The computer was their way of asking us to communicate with them.”
“They are a reality from the time of Sayydana Sulaiman (as) who was given command of them. Allah did not want to establish the sunnah (way) of the Prophet to ask the Jinn for anything so his vizier who had the knowledge of the Book said, ‘I will bring it.’ So then using the Jinn became a choice for Mankind; to rely on the Jinn or the heavenly Book and the people of the Book?”
I knew the story of the Prophet Sulaiman (as) somewhat but not in great detail so I looked it up. It was the proof that whatever ability a fasid (corrupt) Jinn possessed, humans surpassed and so were not in need of them.
“The Prophet Sulaiman (as) could understand the speech of animals, even of the lowly ant. He was grateful to Allah for all his gifts and he always tried to serve God. Hazrat Sulaiman (as) had Jinn and birds serving in his army as well as men.
The kingdom of Saba was ruled by a rich and powerful queen. She and her people worshipped the sun and other idols instead of Allah. The Prophet Sulaiman (as) sent a letter to the queen, greeting her and requesting her to submit to God. The queen consulted with her ministers. They informed her that the country had the strength to wage a war, but they entrusted her with the decision of whether to use her armies or seek a peaceful settlement. The queen was reluctant to expose her country to the destruction and waste that would accompany a war. Instead she decided to try to please Sulaiman (as) by sending him expensive gifts. Her chiefs and ministers agreed with her decision.
When the messengers of the queen delivered the queen’s presents to the Prophet Sulaiman (as), he rejected the gifts. He said that the gifts which he had received from Allah were infinitely better than those which she had sent. He sent the messengers back with a message to the queen that she had better submit or he would send armies which would thoroughly destroy the Sabaeans and their country.
While the Prophet Sulaiman (as) was awaiting the arrival of the queen, he desired that her throne be brought to him. A Jinn present in his court raised his hand.
قَالَ عِفْرِيتٌ مِّنَ الْجِنِّ أَنَا آتِيكَ بِهِ قَبْلَ أَن تَقُومَ مِن مَّقَامِكَ ۖ
وَإِنِّي عَلَيْهِ لَقَوِيٌّ أَمِينٌ
Said a strong one of the Jinn, “I will bring it to you before you rise from your place. And indeed, I am for it surely strong, trustworthy” – Surah An-Naml, Verse 39
The Prophet (as) demanded it be faster than what the Jinn had offered.
قَالَ الَّذِي عِندَهُ عِلْمٌ مِّنَ الْكِتَابِ أَنَا آتِيكَ بِهِ قَبْلَ أَن يَرْتَدَّ إِلَيْكَ طَرْفُكَ ۚ
Said one who, with the knowledge of the Book, “I will bring it to you before returns to you your glance (in the blink of an eye).” - Surah An-Naml, Verse 40
Sheikh Nurjan had said that the vizier in possession of knowledge of the Book was able to do that which the Jinn could not. Bring the throne as he said, within a fraction of second. Why was that? I looked up the exegesis of the verse by Hazrat Abdul Qadir Jilani who I will henceforth refer to as Ghaus Pak (ra);
“He, (the one who brought the throne), was the one bestowed a little from the Divine Knowledge and the Lauh e Mahfouz, The Preserved Tablet, as well as the knowledge of the Names of God and knowledge of the realities of each and everything. This empowered him to make anything appear or disappear in a moment or less.”
Just a little! The man was Asif Bin Barkhia. He was an Auliya Allah, a Friend of God.
Back to Sheikh Nurjan: “The Jinn want to be the lords of Mankind. This device of the computer and its technologies, this is the Jinn world…They Jinns preferred environment is the sand hence the silicon chip. They taught them to make a chip based on silica. ‘We can live there and facilitate for you whatever you ask of us.’”
Throughout this talk, the Sheikh never said who the “them” were but I was too busy thinking, “Wow!” Google must have the king Jinn because no one was bringing anything faster and with more accuracy than them.”
Sheikh Nurjan continued: “The Jinn want to bring you more but in exchange so they say, ‘We want you to worship us and you will have to think of us as your provider.’ Their intention is to be worshipped by Mankind, to set themselves as an authority that ‘we will protect you and if you don’t follow us, we will destroy you. Fear us and not Allah.’”
Verses in the Quran sounded what he was saying.
إِنَّمَا ذَٰلِكُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ يُخَوِّفُ أَوْلِيَاءَهُ فَلَا تَخَافُوهُمْ وَخَافُونِ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ
It is only that the Shaitaan frightens you of his allies. So do not fear them, but fear Me, if you are Believers – Surah Al e Imran, Verse 175
The exception was made for the believers. Everyone else would be scared. So who was it then that fell in the trap of fear? I looked up the Tafseer e Jilani again. It was the hyprocrites, the Munafiqeen. I went back to read what Hazrat Sahel had said about how one became a hypocrite; Sin, anything that torments the self, leads to disobedience. The disobedience is rooted in refuting something while knowing it’s the truth. The denial of something whole knowing it to be true leads to falsehood. The falsehood results in hardness of the heart. The hardness of the heart leads to hypocrisy thus rendering one of the Munafiqeen. Everything lay in the heart.
قال رسول اللہ :اَلاَ وَاِنَّ فِی الْجَسَدِ مُضْغَۃً اِذَا صَلَحَتْ صَلَحَ الْجَسَدُ کُلُّہٗ
وَاِذَا فَسَدَتْ فَسَدَ الْجَسَدُ کُلُّہٗ اَلآَ وَھِیَ الْقَلْبُ
Said the Prophet (peace be upon him): “There is a piece of flesh inside you, that if it is healthy the rest of the body is healthy and if it is sick, the rest of the body is sick. And that piece of flesh is the heart.”
Towards the end Sheikh Nurjan offered advice: “Now people are farther from their beliefs. The more they use these devices, the more they stop using their spiritual abilities. The heart has ability that exceeds that of a machine. You think this (pointing to his phone) can do anything, but what God created you deny? People have become idol worshippers. These are the idols of the modern times. You can use it as your servant or become a servant to it. Either you can use it to propagate the Message of Allah and the glory of His Prophet (saw) or be a slave to it.”
“But the reality is important to understand. We (humans) are a power source of Divine Energy. ‘We are going to absorb everything from you,’ the Jinn are saying. ‘We want to feed off what you have and what we were not given. We want to take away your belief in Allah’ and that’s exactly what has happened.”
I looked forward to my next class with Qari Sahib. I asked him two things. One, what made a Jinn good or bad? Qari Sahib explained that the Jinn were created from Iblis who is called Abu al-Jinn, the Father of Jinn, just like the Prophet Adam (as) is called the Abu-al Adam. Like humans, some were good and some, not so good.
وَأَنَّا مِنَّا الصَّالِحُونَ وَمِنَّا دُونَ ذَٰلِكَ ۖ كُنَّا طَرَائِقَ قِدَدًا
And among us are the righteous, and among us are (others) not so; we were (of) divided ways – Surah Jinn, Verse 11
The righteous brought faith upon God and the ones who did not were those who left for a path divergent.
وَأَنَّا لَمَّا سَمِعْنَا الْهُدَىٰ آمَنَّا بِهِ ۖ فَمَن يُؤْمِن بِرَبِّهِ فَلَا يَخَافُ بَخْسًا وَلَا رَهَقًا
Hence, as soon as we heard this call to His Guidance, we came to believe in it. And he who believes in his Sustainer need never have fear of loss or burden – Surah Al-Jinn, Verse 13
I wanted to know about the ones who did not. The Quran calls them the Qasitoon, the unjust. They are unjust because “they, in their disobedience, turned their faces away from the guidance sent upon them only to roam in the valleys of disbelieving the Truth in a state of perpetual bewilderment.”
وَأَنَّا مِنَّا الْمُسْلِمُونَ وَمِنَّا الْقَاسِطُونَ
And there are among us some who have surrendered (to Allah), the Muslimoon and there are among us some who are unjust, the Qasitoon – Surah Al-Jinn, Verse 14
Same as us pretty much!
The second thing I wanted to know from Qari Sahib was what it was exactly that we had that the Sheikh kept referring to that they might want. It seemed like they were the ones controlling the distribution of information, processing everything in milliseconds. What was it about us that they envied exactly?
وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ وَحَمَلْنَاهُمْ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ وَرَزَقْنَاهُم مِّنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ
وَفَضَّلْنَاهُمْ عَلَىٰ كَثِيرٍ مِّمَّنْ خَلَقْنَا تَفْضِيلًا
And certainly, We have honored (the) children of Adam and We carried them on the land and the sea, and We have provided them of the good things and We preferred them over many of those whom We have created with preference – Surah Al-Isr’a, Verse 70
Ghaus Pak (ra) says that this preference from God is granted in many forms; ability of reflection, moderation in behavior, a balanced disposition with attributes derived from the Attributes of God, a pleasing appearance, countless blessings of nature and livelihood from that which is kosher. The list went on and on. The human being is bestowed aql, the power of reflection, for a particular purpose; it is what allows one to gain from Divine Knowledge to become informed about the Essence of God and then worship Him by connecting with Him through His Prophets, His Books and His Friends.
But the Jinn are bestowed the power to reflect as well so as to gain the same recognition (ma’rifat) of Divine Reality. The purpose of our creation was exactly the same.
وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ
And I did not create the Jinn and Mankind except to worship Me – Surah Al-Isra’, Verse 56
Why was it then that the human being was chosen to be God’s Vicegerent, His Khalifa, the earthly representative in this world?
Ghaus Pak (ra) says when Allah wanted His Essence to be examined, it was through the one who is the perfect manifestation of His Attributes. Uzair explained in a lecture who this akmal, the most perfect, most complete being was.
“When Allah wanted to manifest Himself, He says he ‘loved to be known.’
كُنتُ كنزاً مَخفياً فأحببتُ أن أُعْرَف فخَلَقتُ الخَلْقَ لكي أُعرف
I, Allah, was a treasure hidden so I loved to be known.
Therefore I created Creation so that I will be known.
That love is the light of the Prophet Muhammad (saw) that Allah created from His Nur. The Prophet (saw) is the one who is the perfect reflection of all of His Attributes and a copy derived from His Essence. The Prophet Adam (as) is a copy of him and we, in turn, are all versions of the model of the Prophet Adam (as).”
Then he came to the verse.
وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ
And certainly, We have honored (the) children of Adam…
“Abdul Kareem Jili (ra) says that irrespective of your belief and what you do, whoever you are, there is a basic ta’zeem, an honour, that is bestowed upon every human being. But he asks, ‘What is in you that you deserve such greatness from your Creator?’ It is only and only that you are formed in the image of the Prophet Adam (as) and he is created in the image of the Beloved of God (saw). And the Beloved of God, the Prophet Muhammad (saw), is created directly from the Essence of God. That and only that is why you receive this exalted honour.”
وَإِنَّكَ لَعَلَىٰ خُلُقٍ عَظِيمٍ
And you, O Beloved (saw), are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence – Surah Al-Qalm, Verse 4
It was remarkable what Jili was saying; Nabi Kareem (saw) was the only one deemed by God to be the one who fulfilled His Rights as they were worthy of being fulfilled. In return, God bestowed for the sake of that perfect devotion of just one individual, an honour that permeated to all the other human beings who then came through him.
From the Tafseer e Tustari; “That is in the beginning when God, Transcendant and Exalted is He, created him (the Prophet Muhammad) as a light within a column of light, a million years before creation, with the essential characteristic of faith, in a witnessing of the unseen through the unseen.”
Elation is all I could feel to be included in that love between the two. It made me think of myself in a particular way which I had never done before.
(Audio by Ustad Imran Jafri @the.softest.heart)
جام ہر ذرہ ہے سرشار تمنا مجھ سے
کس کا دل ہوں کہ دوعالم سے لگایا ہے مجھے
Every speck of the goblet is intoxicated with desire for me
Whose heart am I that the two worlds are made to feel enraptured by me? - Ghalib
And it made me realize that envy was indeed the worst of poisons.
Sheikh Nurjan: “People have lost their humanity. Nobody even has the ability to communicate. Everyone is looking only at their phone. That is what Shaitan (Iblis) wanted. ‘Look at me, just look at me,’ he says. ‘Whatever you want, I will send it to you. You don’t even have to move. Just ask me.’”
I wanted to know more about Iblis, the master Jinn whose resentment ran so deep he was hell-bent on devouring us all as well. Qari Sahib told me to go to a most interesting verse of Surah An-Nisa.
لَّعَنَهُ اللَّهُ وَقَالَ لَأَتَّخِذَنَّ مِنْ عِبَادِكَ نَصِيبًا مَّفْرُوضًا
Allah cursed him and he (Iblis) said, "Verily, of Your Servants I shall most certainly take my due share – Verse 118
What was the share he wanted that he thought was due? Turned out it was stealing the faith of those who believed in God. He didn’t have to worry about the others. He possessed them in his control anyway.
Ghaus Pak (ra): Iblis is referring to the ones who are on the Path of Oneness. He vows to delude them and make Allah’s Truth appear hidden from them. Then he convinces them to take on other worshippers and speak against God. He knows better than anyone that disregard will render one deprived of the honour of His Closeness and safeguarding, instead becoming deserving of His Anger.
The next verse continued Iblis’ vow of devastation that he would unleash upon us.
وَلَأُضِلَّنَّهُمْ وَلَأُمَنِّيَنَّهُمْ وَلَآمُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُبَتِّكُنَّ آذَانَ الْأَنْعَامِ وَلَآمُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُغَيِّرُنَّ خَلْقَ اللَّهِ ۚ
وَمَن يَتَّخِذِ الشَّيْطَانَ وَلِيًّا مِّن دُونِ اللَّهِ فَقَدْ خَسِرَ خُسْرَانًا مُّبِينًا
“And I shall lead them astray, and fill them with vain desires. And I shall command them - and they will cut off the ears of cattle. And I shall command them - and they will corrupt God’s Creation!” But all who take Satan rather than God for their master do indeed, most clearly, lose everything. – Verse 119
“Command them” (twice)? The arrogance and rage was certainly palpable. “Cut off the ears of cattle?” What did that even mean?
Ghaus Pak (ra): “I will make them lose themselves in delusion and paranoia so that they leave the Oneness of God and become astray. I will sow in them greed for worldly life and the lust of indecency. They will go against the Laws and Commands decreed by Allah and cause harm to all of God’s beings, destroying and devastating them through that which is forbidden. In accordance with my will and pleasure, I will make them alter their natural being.” Hence the last line from God; Leaving the friendship offered by God, instead making Iblis an ally, was the cause of the the loss of everything.
“Check, check, check and check,” I thought. Iblis must be smug about his success in fulfilling his mission of our destruction thus far.
But all his promises are false and misleading, God says further in the next verse. “These vain desires will never be fulfilled because his promises itself are delusions. These false promises will never come to pass. They have no reality and existence and therefore no benefit or result.”
That explained the years of going around in circles if not physically, then in one’s own head. Except it wasn’t flat ground. It was quicksand, inching one deeper into it until there was just plain stuckness and a drowning in slow motion.
It was the promotion of indecency, fahsha’, that appeared to be Iblis’ most favoured mode of corruption.
إِنَّمَا يَأْمُرُكُم بِالسُّوءِ وَالْفَحْشَاءِ وَأَن تَقُولُوا عَلَى اللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
He (Iblis) will only command you to evil and indecency (immorality) and that you should say of Allah what you do not know – Surah Al-Baqarah, Verse 169
At 50 I had, for the most part, left the overt sins of my life. That’s one of the easier things to give up in the world, the worldly "forbidden" acts. Been there done that, moving on! But the Sufis explain indecency differently which makes it much more complicated.
“Fahsha’ (shamlessness) is a form of being wayward and astray. It refers to the corrupt ideology and intellectual doubts and misconceptions that are sowed in the hearts of those who are lost or otherwise immersed in lust of the world. Their state of darkness comes from the absence of the light of the Prophets, their disobedience towards them, their refusal to follow them. Therefore they are firmly attached to their own beliefs and their “grandiose” intellect. In that state when prodded by Iblis they say that which is inappropriate about God and completely incorrect.”
Sheikh Nurjan continued: “And the next generation (of technology) will be integrated with your thought. Because this (current) technology is only as good as the speed of your fingers. They say, ‘We want to integrate with your brain where we overtake your thinking process. Not wait for your command.’ Be aware, it’s not going to be singularity with the machine. It’s singularity with the Jinn world!”
It was most definitely an OMG moment! Elon Musk is the tech billionaire bringing that particular brand of technology to the city nearest you. Which luckily is nowhere near Lahore. Although I’m guessing India, which these days serves as the khalifa for Israel, will be all over it so who knows? I had read that the Modi government had recently mandated a contract tracing app in his country which had shocked even the West.
Contact tracing apps appeared to me as one of the most insidious yet transparent modes of the “enslaving” the Shiekh was talking about. Google and Apple have teamed up in the effort as they have between them 3 billion users. Almost half the world’s population! Everybody was doing it anyway but if all private information of one’s existence was handed over voluntary, there was really nothing left.
Every human being would literally become a data byte that could be sold or manipulated. The "social credit system" in place by the state (China) or private corporations in the West meant denial and access to services (Uber, AirBnB etc) for anyone would be in the control of others. The Factbook-Cambridge Analytica fiasco had proven elections could be won.
And if people weren’t willing, it seemed like they would be forced.
May 7th, 2020: “In early April, India’s government launched a contact tracing app that processes users’ travel history, symptoms, and location data to calculate their risk of contracting the coronavirus…The government has made the app mandatory for public workers and has ordered companies to ‘ensure 100 percent coverage’ among employees. In the city of Noida, near New Delhi, people caught without the app could be fined $13 or face six months in jail.” And this is the world’s largest “democracy!”
Only to be outdone by Israel again. On May 8th the Jersualem Post headlined, “Netanhayu suggests microchipping kids.” The man just straight up suggests it. This from a state that already has “a classified Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) database that stores information on all Israeli citizens and most Palestinians in the West Bank. The data tracked by the agency included movements, phone calls and text messages.”
Singularity with the Jinn world through the brain, although that is probably not how he would put it, was originally Musk’s brainchild. From what I have read nobody seemed clear on what it was really for. All I found was a lot of “it could be for this or that or something else.”
July 2019: “Musk presented the first product from his company Neuralink. It’s a tiny computer chip attached to ultrafine, electrode-studded wires, stitched into living brains by a clever robot. And it’s either a state-of-the-art tool for understanding the brain, a clinical advance for people with neurological disorders, or the next step in human evolution.
The operation of Neuralink will develop computer chips that able to be implanted in human brain. The implanted chip aimed to increase the capacity of brain to memorized as well as installing or downloading ‘thoughts.’
In 2019 Musk said the process “will take a long time.” Then just this month, May 7th, 2020 he said. “‘We may be able to implant a neural link in less than a year in a person I think.’…Musk likened the process of his neural stimulation device zapping the brain to “kicking a TV”… the purpose being to restore functionality where it has been lost. For instance, those with Alzheimer’s could have their memories restored…‘We are already a cyborg to some degree.’”
The kick in the head didn’t sound like bad idea (I jest). Of course Musk is not the only one trying to do this. Facebook is making its own inroads.
When I had heard Sheikh Nurjan say that Jinns were electricity I got the movie “The Current War.” It was about the rivalry between Westinghouse and Thomas Edison in making widespread the use of electricity in the States. It was also terribly boring. The only thing striking about the movie was how electricity was used for capital punishment for the first time, replacing hanging, in the effort to be more civilized. Only turning out to be “extra brutal” to put it mildly.
Edison had vowed he would never use his inventions for anything that was harmful for the human race. Until of course came the time he needed money. It’s always the same ending. Sometimes I feel what Allah said in the Quran about alcohol and gambling ends up being true of most things we humans do. It always starts off with something that is “good.” Before you know it has been overshadowed by unparalleled harm. Some subversive agenda appears reversing the “goodness” that was due in a matter of, more and more, just a few years.
يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْخَمْرِ وَالْمَيْسِرِ ۖ
قُلْ فِيهِمَا إِثْمٌ كَبِيرٌ وَمَنَافِعُ لِلنَّاسِ وَإِثْمُهُمَا أَكْبَرُ مِن نَّفْعِهِمَا ۗ
They ask you, (O Beloved (saw)), about intoxicants and games of chance. Say, “In both of them is a sin great, and some benefits for people. But sin of both of them is greater than the benefit of the two.” – Surah Al-Baqarah, Verse 219
The Sufis interpret the verse through another lens. The intoxicants are of two types, overt (zahiri) and inner (baatini). It is the intoxicants that sicken the soul they focus upon (baatini sharaab). Hazrat Najmuddin Kubra (ra) says that the ingredients of the latter are forgetfulness of God, indecency, lust for the forbidden and love of the world. All things that corrupt the mind and soul are harmful. Therefore, they are not allowed even in small doses and forbidden altogether.
I decided to read the Suraj Jinn in its entirety. One verse in particular popped out; the people who sought refuge from the Jinn.
وَأَنَّهُ كَانَ رِجَالٌ مِّنَ الْإِنسِ يَعُوذُونَ بِرِجَالٍ مِّنَ الْجِنِّ فَزَادُوهُمْ رَهَقًا
And there were men from mankind who sought refuge in men from the Jinn, so they (only) increased them in burden – Surah Jinn, Verse 6
I didn’t understand the translation so I asked Qari Sahib to explain it. His go-to is the same as mine, Ghaus Pak (ra). We opened the Tafseer e Jilani.
“The Jinn said (about that which he knew happened), ‘Before it was unveiled upon us the Oneness of Truth, there were some men amongst the humans seeking refuge from the men of the Jinns, when they traveled in desolate areas. Whilst in such places, the humans used to say, “I ask for refuge from the king of this valley from the wicked of his tribe.”’
“Then the humans thought we have received help from the Jinn and are in their protection. This made the Jinn and humans increased in their arrogance and wrongdoing and allowed the Jinn to snatch for them (secrets and information they did not know) as well as speak to them.”
I asked Qari Sahib, “But the Jinn is talking in the past sense, Sir. So this used to happen but a long time ago. How do we know it happens now?”
“Because Nabi Kareem (saw) already said,” my teacher responded, “that there is nothing forbidden that has happened before which my Ummah will not do again.”
أَنَّ النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ ، قَالَ : لَتَتَّبِعُنَّ سَنَنَ مَنْ قَبْلَكُمْ شِبْرًا بِشِبْر
وَذِرَاعًا بِذِرَاعٍ حَتَّى لَوْ سَلَكُوا جُحْرَ ضَبٍّ لَسَلَكْتُمُوهُ
The Prophet (saw) said, “You will follow the wrong ways, of your predecessors so completely and literally that if they should go into the hole of a mastigure, you too will go there.”
Man!
For me personally, the most harmful thing about the corrupt Jinns in machines was not about staring at a screen for eight hours a day or more. I don’t do that. It was about two things, the first being technology leading to over exposure, information overload and therefore the mass desensitization of the masses. It started a while ago with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan where the numbers of innocent civilians and children killed reached millions. Then came the terrorist attacks and the thousands of innocent civilians and children killed. That certainly muted reactions to the dying of others.
Time had confirmed that my own reaction to disturbing events was initially intense but always short-lived. Recent examples; Domestic violence is up 40% is Europe and the UK! Deep concern, next! Muslims in India are being targeted for “spreading the virus,” facing violence and denied medical services with some hospitals taking out full page ads in newspapers to say if they will not be treated if tested positive for COVID-19. Extreme rage, next! Tens of thousands of Americans are standing are standing for hours in lines to receive something to eat from food banks across the country, while Amazon clocks 10,000 dollars a minute. Genuine sadness, next! I hated it.
The second was what Huxley called ‘Hypnopaedic’ (sleep-teaching). In my world, the teacher of morality was popular culture, specifically the media which, through technology, had successfully stripped in two decades the values of societies thousands of years old. I witnessed such happenings countless times in my generation. Case in point; movies and the world’s largest film industry, Bollywood. The wheels set in motion in 2006. Disney started acquiring share in UTV, a Mumbai-based leading media and entertainment company. Within a decade India had fallen.
Other Bollywood studios started joint ventures with Hollywood and the on-screen erosion and systemic eradication of a country’s culture and religious morality began. We went from images of butterflies and birds as a proxy for intimacy in the 80’s to hook-ups between the young where you have sex first and ask the other’s name later. If ever! I literally saw that and it amazed me how anyone could even buy it.
In the writing New York or Los Angeles were transposed onto Delhi or Mumbai just like that and not a peep was heard. Not from the censor boards, not the clergy, not the actors who were “willing to go naked” to land roles, certainly not the viewer. The exact same thing happened in Pakistani cinema to a lesser extent but it didn’t matter. Up until all things Indian were banned recently, our society was imbued with Bollywood as much as the Indians. Mehndi’s had become sangeets and I don’t know who came up with the word “shandi.”
Then courtesy of the internet and smart phones, within a decade, South Asians became the top porn-watchers in the world. Sexual violence against women and children in conservative societies became rampant. Recently China has started flexing its muscles with Hollywood. Given the size of its viewership the state began to dictate content, censoring what was “against” them. They made no qualms about controlling the narrative or simply deleting what was offensive to their “values.” Kisses were edited out of upcoming movies like Mulan and songs, the cornerstone of a Disney flick, were removed. The driver remained the same; money begets control.
‘Hypnopaedic!’ For one generation a drug, marijuana, was illegal and criminalized so intensely, thousands of young African American men was incarcerated for years for minor possession. For another it was an ingredient for brownies and gummy bears sold in cafes and Maureen Dowd was writing an op-ed about her experience of edibles for the New York Times. Yet the same minorities continue getting brutally assaulted, if not killed by the police, most recently for not maintaining social distancing of all things, in the East Village of all places and everyone is programmed to swallow that with a sip of Diet Coke.
The Prophet (ﷺ) had told me what to do when faced with injustice for oneself or another.
“Whosoever of you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand. And if he is not able to do so, then (let him change it) with his tongue. And if he is not able to do so, then with his heart — and that is the weakest of faith.”
I felt upset that just expressing outrage in my heart or at best in my writing, was all I could do. I would feel bad but then I just forgot everything too as if it never happened. Till I read about it again. I asked Qari Sahib why I was like this, what was it that rendered me essentially unaffected by everything and anything. He gave me my answer.
أَفَلَمْ يَسِيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ فَتَكُونَ لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ يَعْقِلُونَ بِهَا أَوْ آذَانٌ يَسْمَعُونَ بِهَا ۖ
فَإِنَّهَا لَا تَعْمَى الْأَبْصَارُ وَلَٰكِن تَعْمَى الْقُلُوبُ الَّتِي فِي الصُّدُورِ
Have they, then, never journeyed about the earth, letting their hearts gain wisdom, and causing their ears to hear? Yet, verily, it is not their eyes that have become blind - but blind have become the hearts that are in their breasts! – Surah Al-Hajj, Verse 46
A heart being blind! What did that even mean? Ghaus Pak’s (ra) explanation was spellbinding.
“The world has been created for you to travel in so you learn from it and open your eyes. And your ears have been given the ability to hear so as to be informed of the news and the states of why others are destroyed and disconnected from their origins.”
“But did those before you learn from these stories and incidents? Their eyes were not blind because they watched their happenings and were informed. But their hearts were blind in seeing. They did not learn a lesson from them or open their eyes to their realities or see the happenings to gain insight as a thinking person. They were not being watchful.”
“Overall know this; The one who does not learn lessons from that which is destroying others from detriment, these people their hearts have become blind even though their eyes are well.”
It was emulation of the worst kind! I was reminded of Confucius who said that there were three ways of acquiring wisdom. The most difficult and most noble was reflection. The easiest was emulation. The most bitter, experience. It certainly didn’t seem like our lustful desire to experience everything that came our way from the West or even closer was going to end anytime soon.
Personally I was never an emulator of any kind but that’s easy when you live on the periphery of society. It doesn’t let you in unless you mainstream yourself to death so if you don’t mind being alone, I guess you are rendered safe. Finally I understood what it was that Iblis wanted from me at least. My softness was the best part of me so it was the slow but sure stripping of my ehsaas, the ability to be sensitive to the state of another’s heart, that him the happiest.
June 30th, 2015 Live Science “Our brains can't handle the barrage of emotionally draining stories told to us, and this leads to a negation or suppression of emotion that destroys empathy. The natural response is to shut down our compassion, because we are emotionally exhausted..."
"...However, if we are conscious of the diminishment of empathy, we can recover it… Remember that empathy is a muscle: The more you use it, the stronger it gets. So, flex those empathy muscles through storytelling and expand your notion of who is in your group (meaning only the ones you care about). Or, be willing to fall prey to the increasing ideological polarization of our time and face the global consequences.”
To better understand how to hold on to that which made me human, I decided to look up the verses of the Prophet Adam (as) after he and Amma Hawwa (ratu) were made to leave Heaven for a transgression they were enticed to commit. In their sadness of their error how did they react?
قَالَا رَبَّنَا ظَلَمْنَا أَنفُسَنَا وَإِن لَّمْ تَغْفِرْ لَنَا
وَتَرْحَمْنَا لَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ
The two replied, "O our Sustainer! We have sinned against ourselves and unless You grant us forgiveness and bestow Your Mercy upon us, we shall most certainly be lost!"
So one: blame yourself when you commit a wrongdoing and not the other, not even Iblis when it is him who misleads you. That was unexpected! Since he was the one who quite literally mislead them. Only when a mistake was committed by another person did the Prophet’s deflect blame from their loved ones to Satan. For sowing discord, as the Prophet Yousaf (as) had done when it came to his brothers.
وَقَدْ أَحْسَنَ بِي إِذْ أَخْرَجَنِي مِنَ السِّجْنِ
وَبَيْنَ إِخْوَتِي ۚ وَجَاءَ بِكُم مِّنَ الْبَدْوِ مِن بَعْدِ أَن نَّزَغَ الشَّيْطَانُ بَيْنِي
And He (Allah) was certainly good to me when He took me out of prison and brought you (here) from the desert life after Satan had caused discord between me and my brothers.” - Surah Yusuf, Verse 100
But when it came to their own selves and anything related to their lives, the Prophets never blamed anyone. Certainly never fate. Not during any trials. Not even though they were innocent, masoom, devoid of free will. It was because blame and accusation expels love from a relationship. But I digress. That’s another story.
Out of curiosity I asked Qari Sahib what it was exactly that Iblis had promised the Prophet Adam (as) when he lured him into doing that which was forbidden to him by God.
فَوَسْوَسَ إِلَيْهِ الشَّيْطَانُ قَالَ يَا آدَمُ هَلْ أَدُلُّكَ عَلَىٰ شَجَرَةِ الْخُلْدِ وَمُلْكٍ لَّا يَبْلَىٰ
Then whispered to him Shaitaan and he said, "O Adam! Shall I direct you to (the) tree (of) life eternal and a kingdom not (that will) deteriorate?" – Surah Taha, Verse 120
Eternal life! I had come across articles over recent years on the desire of billionaires to live longer.
Sep 2nd, 2015: “6 Billionaires who want to live forever” and the first line reads, “A growing number of tech moguls are trying to solve their biggest problem yet: Aging.” Who are they; Theil - Paypal, Ellison – Oracle, Larry Page – Alpahbet, Sergey Brin – Google, Zuckerburg – Facebook, Sean Parker – Napster.” Ellison’s quote; “Death has never made any sense to me. How can a person be there and then just vanish, just not be there?” I guess he hadn't come across the Quran : )
كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ذَائِقَةُ الْمَوْتِ
Every soul will taste death - Surah Aal e Imran, Verse 185
But perhaps many people not so rich want to live forever too. It was the second part of Iblis’ lure that I was interested in. Ghaus Pak (ra) defines the kingdom without decline in a particular way: “It is a kingdom that will only grow. It will be forever and it will be the first of its kind, not coming from another. It will never be in decline nor will it be transferred to another.”
I paused when I read the lines with Qari Sahib and looked at him in surprise. I didn’t know about the past but anybody could guess which “kingdoms” were the first of their kind in our lifetime.
“Maybe it was the banks before Sir or whoever but it’s definitely the tech companies now,” I spoke the words slowly. Nothing like them ever existed before. I guess that’s why they give their wealth to so-called philanthropy. The advancement of an agenda long after they’re dead must continue. Iblis offers them the wealth and the power that comes with it. Then he just keeps it while they die taking nothing to the grave. I had read about that being his modus operandi enough times in the books of the Auliya Karaam. It made sense why “advocacy philanthropy” or as I heard recently from enraged activists “philanthro-capitalism” was the call of the day.
But the most concise explanation of the problem with the corrupt Jinn lay in Surah An-Naas. In it is the last line of the Quran which formed the inspiration of the title of this piece. The surah was hugely significant. It contained God’s parting words to me. The strange thing was I knew the surah inside out because for my book where I had translated the entire tafseer from the Arabic so as not to miss a word. But I had done it entirely ignoring the word Jinn because I knew nothing about them. And what did it encompass; a warning!
(Begin excerpt “The Softest Heart”)
End of Part I - Click below to continue
www.flickr.com/photos/42093313@N00/49916190422/in/datepos...
I chose this photo because we can see how insignificant humans are compared with the immensity and strength of an ocean. A little fragile shell of a boat, two people and the swells crashing on the rocks.
Where is Cape Ortegal?
Cape Ortegal is located within the municipality of Cariño, in the province of A Coruña. It is the second northernmost cape of the Peninsula, only surpassed by Estaca de Bares, located less than 50 km away.
This area delimits with the Ortigueira estuary on the western side, one of the most important estuaries in northern Spain for its biodiversity and ecological value and is the limit of the Bay of Biscay.
According to the International Hydrographic Organization and the National Geographic Institute, Cape Ortegal is the symbolic mark dividing the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Cantabrian Sea.
I just love overflying oceans of clouds ... so high up there, there are no points of reference. DIstance and time are then just irrelevant ...
At such moments, one is so little, so insignificant.
Feeling part of what is eternal, infinite. Life and death make but one.
A glimpse of eternity?
Insignificant until all the boats are shut down due to high winds, if that sock is straight out, best head to the bus stop or monorail station...
Photo By Derek J. Ewing
Copyright 2023 - All Rights Reserved.
....so fragile, so small, so insignificant in contrast to Mother Nature, yet despite all of these short comings humanity managed to thrive, to evolve, to grow against all odds.......
The meaning of the word “Mensch” or its plural form “Menschen” is difficult to convey in another language such as english, I at least, have been unable to find one.
Please touch on this subject in your comments, your thoughts and opinion are highly appreciated.
Mensch = human, man; person, people (Wikipedia touches this subject....)
Please press L to VieW on BLacK
When I start to get overwhelmed in the run up to Christmas (which this year is worse, even though for the first time ever we're not going away or having family to stay), it's the little, repetitive actions that help to ground me, like moving Santa into the next pocket . Mum made this for me in the early 1990s and it comes out every year. It holds many memories and this year in particular it's providing a vital connection between us.
We’re Here: Banalities
MSH: Memories of Christmas Past
To be honest, posed next to Ratcliffe Power Station in Leicestershire, anything is insignificant! Almost silently and unseen, Rail Operations Group (ROG)/Europhoenix 37800 works light engine as the 0M59/1100 Preston to Leicester L.I.P. light engine move past the imposing power station, the loco having stabled at Preston for most of the month. Notice the railway vans, confined to storage sheds and in need of a good coat of paint! this location is just north of East Midlands Parkway station.
Image Ref: B21926 State Library of South Australia.
Site of St George’s School established 1848, demolished 1891: aka L S Burton’s School.
St George’s School was established 1850 as an adjunct of the Church of England.
The establishment was to be open to those of other denominations who wished to avail themselves of it. As a consequence, its scholars included Jews, Roman Catholics and others. Gawler was at that time an insignificant place, but its school did it credit.
The late Mr Leonard Samuel Burton was the eldest son of the late Mr William Burton, of Dent, Yorkshire, and Chester, England, and was born at Chester, on January 8, 1824. Mr Burton was educated at the King's school in his native town, and was afterwards engaged in business as a chemist and druggist. In 1849 Mr Burton gave up his business and sailed in the "Rajah" for South Australia, arriving here in April, 1850. In September of the same year the late gentleman entered Pulteney Street school as under-master, the Rev E K Miller being the head-master.
Mr Burton afterwards had a school at Saddleworth under the old Education Board, but in June, 1853, he received the appointment of head-master of St George's School, Gawler.
From that time Mr Burton resided in Gawler continuously until his death. He was therefore a resident of nearly 42 years.
On Mr Burton's appointment, sectarian teaching had to be relinquished during the ordinary school hours in compliance with the regulations of the Education Board. In 1857 the school building, which stood on the north side of Orleana Square and was only demolished two or three years ago, had a separate room for girls added to it, and about 30 years ago the present St George's Schoolroom was built. Mr Burton's appointment was fully justified and popular, and successful as the school was prior to that, it became much more so after. Indeed it was regarded as one of the best educational institutions in the colony, and students were sent here from various parts of South Australia. It is impossible within the limits of this sketch to give anything like an adequate notice of St George's School. It was one of the chief features of the town for many years, and the influence it exerted was important and far reaching. One cannot go into any important centre of Australia without encountering someone who is indebted to the instruction he received at St George's.
The late Mr Burton was of marked individuality, and the lines upon which he administered his school were well-defined. With a strictness of discipline he combined a zeal in the cause of education, a painstaking carefulness in the training of each scholar, and a sympathetic interest in the desires and difficulties of his pupils, which inspired confidence on the part of parent and scholar alike. As years rolled by this developed into affection, and there are few men living for whom a warmer regard by an enormous circle of colonists is entertained than for our late townsman. His thorough conscientiousness, his unflagging energy, and his transparent unselfishness were characteristics which marked him strongly both as a teacher and a citizen. St George's School continued to flourish and add to its laurels until the adoption of the Education Act of 1875, when educational matters in the colony were revolutionised. The introduction of the public school system spelt death to many private establishments, and St George's likewise suffered.
How Mr Burton received the appointment of headmaster when the Gawler Model School was opened; how he retained it for two years and six months; how he subsequently re-opened St George's School; how about eighteen months ago he removed the school to his own house; how he was the recipient of a handsomely illuminated address and purse of sovereigns in December, 1893, from his old scholars, are all matters of recent history.
He was one of the most prominent of the history makers of Gawler, and the record of long and useful service which he leaves should act as an inspiration to others to follow the excellent example which he has set them. [Ref: Bunyip (Gawler) 15 March 1895]
Mr Burton’s Funeral Gawler, February 25
The funeral of the late Mr L S Burton took place this afternoon, the cortege leaving the deceased gentleman's house in King Street for the Church of England Cemetery at halfpast 3 o'clock. For some time before a crowd had been gathering and vehicles were arriving in quick succession, making it evident that the procession would be one of the largest that had ever taken place in Gawler, and thus giving evidence of the high esteem in which the deceased was held by all classes of the community.
A number of beautiful wreaths were sent and placed on the coffin, the principal donors being the Gawler Corporation, the institute committee, the Lodge of Fidelity Freemasons, the Gawler Agricultural Society, the present scholars of St George's school, the immediate past scholars, the teachers of the Gawler public school, and many others from private individuals.
A trap containing the members of the corporation led the way and was followed by another with members of the institute committee. Just behind the Freemasons belonging to the Lodge of Fidelity mustered to the number of nearly 40, and, attired in regalia, marched the whole way to the cemetery.
The present and past scholars of the deceased were present in strong force, numbering about 80, and they also walked in the procession.
Next came the hearse, the coffin being almost hidden by wreaths, and after this the principal mourning coaches, followed by nearly 80 vehicles. Passing round by the Albion Mill into Murray Street, large numbers of spectators had collected, and many evidences of mourning were apparent, the shops having their shutters up, and the flag on the Town Hall flying at half-mast. On mounting the hill near the cemetery the sight was a most imposing one, the line of vehicles stretching back as far as the eye could reach. Conspicuous among the procession were the brass helmets of the Fire Brigade, the members of which were mounted on the reel. On reaching the grave, where the Rev Canon Coombs officiated, the burial service was conducted very impressively. The Masonic service was also read by Bro R K Thomson, WM. The chief mourner was Mr William Burton (son), who was accompanied by the Rev E K Miller and Messrs W Cherry and F King, who are intimate friends of the family. [Ref: South Australian Chronicle (Adelaide) Saturday 2 March 1895]
St George’s Anglican Church
The present St George’s Church, in Orleana Square, Gawler, was started in 1858.
Orleana Square was named after the sailing ship ‘Orleana’ which dropped anchor in Holdfast Bay January 1839 bringing Gawler pioneering families from Ireland, Scotland and England.
Those landowning pioneers selected the site of St George’s Church: of local bluestone, and slate tiled roof in 1864 to replace an earlier Anglican church built in 1848.
The buttressed tower, belfry and parapet was built 1910, with bells finally installed in 1921.
The church has stained glass windows lit up at night which display the Gawler Coat of Arms and a memorial to the Reid family amongst others.
A large brass plaque in the church, to the memory of the family of John Reid, a first settler, reads as follows –
“In Memory of
John Reid, of Newry, Ireland, 4th Son of Sam’l Reid Esq, Seneschal of that Borough
Born November 11 1795, Died October 12th 1874, who arrived in South Australia Jan 1839, by the Ship “Orleana” and who with H D Murray of Ochtertyre, Scotland, son of the Sixth Bart, took out the Special Survey and with others laid out the Town of “Gawler” and in whose house the first Church of England service held North of Adelaide was conducted by the Rev’d C B Howard MA.
And of his wife Jane Livingston Born March 11th 1795, died March 26th 1885.
And of their children,
Eliza Sarah born August 16th 1824, died 23rd December 1914.
Samuel born Aug 17th 1825, died March 8th 1859.
William Livingston born October 11th 1827, died July 16th 1900.
John Born October 25th 1929, died 24th October 1916.
Ross Thompson born Feb 2nd 1832, died 10th January 1915.
Richard Jebb Browne born November 7th 1833, died 27 July 1872.”
A pile of strategically placed stones - an insignificant symbol of an argument settled between old friends.
Looking a bit insignificant, 153324 arrives at Birmingham New Street on the 1403 Worcester Shrub Hill - Nottingham.
Wind turbines in the distance, calculated via OS Maps that these were very close to 20 miles away, taken with a 300 mm lens and cropped a bit. I like the way the big golden hour sky dominates this scene with tonal layering of the tree lined fields and buildings in the foreground, makes the turbines look fairly insignificant despite their actual size.
Sihanoukville (Khmer: ក្រុងព្រះសីហនុ, Krong Preah Sihanouk), also known as 'Kompong Som' (Khmer: កំពង់សោម), is a coastal city in Cambodia and the capital city of Sihanoukville Province, located at the tip of an elevated peninsula in the country's south-west at the Gulf of Thailand. The city is flanked by an almost uninterrupted string of beaches along its entire coastline and coastal marshlands bordering the Ream National Park in the East. A number of thinly inhabited islands - under Sihanoukville's administration - are in the city's proximity, where in recent years moderate development has helped to attract a sizable portion of Asia's individual travelers, young students and back-packers.
The city, which was named in honour of former king Norodom Sihanouk, had a population of around 89.800 people and approximately 66.700 in its urban center in 2008. Sihanoukville city encompasses the greater part of four of the five communes (Sangkats) of Sihanoukville provinces' Mittakpheap District. A relatively young city, it has evolved parallel to the construction of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, which commenced in June 1955, as the country's gateway to direct and unrestricted international sea trade. The only deep water port in Cambodia includes a mineral oil terminal and a transport logistics facility. As a consequence, the city grew to become a leading national center of trade, commerce, transport and process manufacturing.
Sihanoukville's many beaches and nearby islands make it Cambodia's premier seaside resort with steadily rising numbers of national visitors and international tourists since the late 20th century. As a result of its economic diversity, the region's natural beauty and the considerable recreational potential, a constantly increasing number of seasonal and permanent foreign residents make Sihanoukville one of the culturally most varied and dynamic population centers in Cambodia. As of 2014 the tourism sector remains insignificant in comparison with neighboring Thailand. Sihanoukville's future will largely be defined by the authorities' capability of a successfully balanced management in order to protect and conserve natural resources on the one hand and the necessities of island - and urban development, increasing visitor numbers, expanding infrastructure, the industrial sector and population growth on the other.
Despite being the country’s premier sea side destination, after decades of war and upheaval the town and its infrastructure remain very much disjointed and architecturally unimpressive. Infrastructure problems persist, in particular related to water and power supply, while international standard health facilities remain limited.
ETYMOLOGY
The official name of the city in Khmer is: Krong (city) Preah (holy) Sihanouk (name of the former king), which adds up to: "City of the holy Sihanouk" or "Honorable Sihanouk City". King Norodom Sihanouk (reigned 1941-1955, 1993-2004) was and still is revered as father of the (modern) nation. The name "Sihanouk" is derived from Sanskrit through two Pali words: Siha (lion), and Hanu (jaws).
The alternative name, Kompong Saom (also romanized as Kompong Som and Kampong Som), (Khmer: កំពង់សោម) means "Port of the Moon" or "Shiva's Port". Saom is derived from the Sanskrit word "saumya", the original (Rig Vedic) meaning of which was "Soma, the juice or sacrifice of the moon-god", but evolved into Pali "moon", "moonlike" "name of Shiva". The word Kampong or Kompong is of Malayan origin and means village or hamlet. Its meaning underwent extension towards pier or river landing bridge.
HISTORY
CLASSICAL PERIOD (BEFORE 1700)
Prior to the ports' and city's foundation works of 1955, the port of Kompong Som must have been only of regional significance - due to the absence of navigable waterways that connect the port with the kingdom's settlement centers. During the many centuries of pre-Angkorian and Angkorian history – from Funan to Chenla and during the Khmer Empire, regional trade was centered at O Keo (Vietnamese: Óc Eo) in the Mekong Delta, now the province of Rạch Giá in Vietnam. The township of Prei Nokor (Saigon) was a commercial center of the Khmer Empire. The Chronicle of Samtec Cauva Vamn Juon - one of the 18th and 19th century Cambodian Royal Chronicles - briefly mentions the region as the country was split into 3 parts during a 9-year civil war from 1476 to 1485: "In 1479, Dhammaraja took on the throne at Catumukh (Phnom Penh) and controlled the provinces of Samraong Tong, Thbong, Kompong Saom, Kampot up to the Bassak, Preah Trapeang, Kramuon Sah, Koh Slaket and Peam"[mouth of the Mekong].
EARLY MODERN PERIOD (AROUND 1700-1863)
From the end of the seventeenth century, Cambodia lost control of the Mekong River route as Vietnamese power expanded into the lower Mekong. During the Nguyen-Siamese War (1717–18) a Siamese fleet burned the port of Kompong Som in 1717 but was defeated by the Vietnamese at Banteay Meas/Ha Tien.[20] A Cambodian king of the late eighteenth century, Outey-Reachea III allied with a Chinese pirate, Mac-Thien-Tu, who had established an autonomous polity based in Ha Tien and controlled the maritime network on the eastern part of the Gulf of Thailand. Ha Tien was located at a point where a river linking to the Bassac River flows into the Gulf of Thailand. Landlocked Cambodia tried to keep its access to maritime trade through Ha Tien. In 1757 Ha Tien acquired the ports of Kampot and Kompong Som as a reward for Mac's military support to the King of Cambodia. Until its destruction in 1771 the port developed into an independent duty-free entrepot - linked with several Chinese trading networks.
Alexander Hamilton, who traveled on the Gulf of Thailand in 1720, wrote that "Kompong Som and Banteay Meas (later Ha Tien) belonged to Cambodia, as Cochin-China was divided from Cambodia by a river (Bassac river) of three leagues broad." and "King Ang Duong constructed a road from his capital of Oudong to Kampot". Kampot remained the only international seaport of Cambodia. "The traveling time between Udong and Kampot was eight days by oxcart and four days by elephants." French Résident Adhemard Leclère wrote: "...Until 1840s, the Vietnamese governed Kampot and Péam [Mekong Delta], but Kompong Som belonged to Cambodia. The Vietnamese constructed a road from Ha Tien to Svai village - on the border with Kompong-Som - via Kampot."
The British Empire followed a distinct policy by the 1850s, seeking to consolidate its influence. Eye witness reports give rare insights, as Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston's agent John Crawfurd reports: "Cambodia was...the Keystone of our policy in these countries, - the King of that ancient Kingdom is ready to throw himself under the protection of any European nation...The Vietnamese were interfering with the trade at Kampot, and this would be the basis of an approach..." Palmerston concluded: "The trade at Kampot - one of the few remaining ports, could never be considerable, in consequence of the main entrance to the country, the Mekong, with all its feeders flowing into the Sea through the territory of Cochin China The country, too, had been devastated by recent Siam - Vietnam wars. Thus, without the aid of Great Britain, Kampot or any other port in Cambodia, can never become a commercial Emporium." Crawfurd later wrote: "The Cambodians... sought to use intervals of peace in the Siam - Vietnam wars to develop intercourse with outside nations. The trade at Kampot which they sought to foster was imperiled by pirates. Here is a point where the wedge might be inserted, that would open the interior of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula to British Commerce, as the great River of the Cambodians traverses its entire length and even affords communication into the heart of Siam".
FRENCH RULE (1863-1954)
Under French rule Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia became a single administrative and economic unit. The coastal region Circonscription Résidentielle with Kampot as its capital contained the Arrondissements of Kampot, Kompong Som, Trang and Kong-Pisey. The establishment of another international trading center near the existing city of Saigon was not considered necessary. Focus remained the Mekong and the idea to establish an alternative route to Chinese and Thai internal markets along an uninterrupted navigable waterway from the Red River to the Mekong Delta.
INSURRECTION
An insurrection that took place from 1885 to 1887 further discouraged French ambition. It started in Kampot and quickly spread to Veal Rinh, Kampong Seila, and Kompong Som, where the insurgents were led by a Chinese pirate named Quan-Khiem. He managed to control the northern part of Preah Sihanouk for some time until he - an old man - was arrested by Preah Sihanouk's governor.
The most notable infrastructural improvements of this period were the construction of Route Coloniale No.17, later renamed National Road No.3 and the national railway system, although work on the "Southern Line" - from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville - only began in 1960.
AFTER INDIPENDENCE (SINCE 1954)
The city's and province's alternative name Kampong som (Kampong Som) was adopted from the local indigenous community. After the dissolution of French Indochina in 1954, it became apparent that the steadily tightening control of the Mekong Delta by Vietnam required a solution to gain unrestricted access to the seas. Plans were made to construct an entirely new deep-water port. Kompong Saom (Kampong Som) was selected for water depth and ease of access. In August 1955, a French/Cambodian construction team cut a base camp into the unoccupied jungle in the area that is now known as Hawaii Beach. Funds for construction of the port came from France and the road was financed by the USA.
During the Vietnam War the port became an intensive military facility on both sides, in the service of National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam and after 1970, under the government of Lon Nol, in the service of the United States.
The port was the last place to be evacuated by the US Army, only days before Khmer Rouge guerrillas took control of the government in April 1975. The events surrounding the taking of the US container ship SS Mayaguez and its crew on 12 May by the Khmer Rouge and the subsequent rescue operation by US Marines played out on the waters of Koh Tang off the coast of Sihanoukville. During the two days of action, the US commenced air strikes on targets on the mainland of Sihanoukville including the port, the Ream Naval Base, an airfield, the railroad yard and the petroleum refinery in addition to strikes and naval gun fire on several islands.
After the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 and the subsequent opening of the economy, the port of Sihanoukville resumed its importance in the development and recovery of the country. With the further opening of new markets in 1999, the city regained its role in the economic growth of Cambodia.
In 1993, the Ream National Park was established per royal decree of former King Sihanouk.
The Sihanoukville Municipality was elevated to a regular province on 22 December 2008 after King Norodom Sihamoni signed a Royal Decree converting the municipalities of Kep, Pailin and Sihanoukville into provinces.
In 2006 the Koh Puos (Cambodia) Investment Group submitted an application, planning to invest $276 million in converting the 116-hectare Koh Puos - Snake island into a luxury residential - and resort complex. After the completion of certain elements of the infrastructure, the investor announced alterations of the original blueprints, as "Reapplying for permission will happen in 2014..." according to the Council of the Development of Cambodia.
On 26 May 2011 Preah Sihanouk area joined the Paris-based club Les Plus Belles Baies Du Monde (The most Beautiful Bays in the World). The organisation officially accepts the Bay of Cambodia as one of its members at the 7th General Assembly.
BEACHES
Sihanoukville's beaches are one of the city's most valuable ecological and economic resource with varying degrees of commercial exploitation. The beaches listed in this section do not include any of the island's beaches.
- Ochheuteal Beach, ឆ្នេរអូរឈើទាល: is a 3.3 km long strip of white sand beach and although the name translates to "Creek/Estuary of the Tiel tree" it is lined with Casuarina and Tamarisk trees. Grass umbrellas, rental chairs in front of around 30 standardized beach huts serve meals, drinks and entertainment. Well established middle class hotels and high-profile residences flank the beach along its Northern part. The sustainability of Ochheuteal beach was a primary consideration of various stakeholders, which brought about the development of a tourism development and management plan in 2005. The Southern half remains - apart from some hotels at its far end - essentially undeveloped.
- Serendipity Beach: Technically the western end (roughly one fifth or 600 m) of Ochheuteal beach, is very popular with Western tourists and has a few small guesthouses right on the beach. It has been named by an American fellow, who came here in the Nineties. Struck by its (then) unspoiled beauty and pristine condition, he came up with the term, which quickly entered common vocabulary.
- Otres Beach, ្នេរអូរត្រេស: is around 4.6 km long and beyond the small "Queen hill" headland at the southern end of Ochheuteal Beach. Its long white sand strip, also completely lined with Casuarina and Tamarisk trees, is far less developed and commercialized than Ochheuteal Beach and has developed into a preferred lodging place for Western visitors. From 2004 to 2011 this beach was occupied by numerous bungalows and dormitories, run by Western people. Due to the element of illegality of on-beach accommodation, among other reasons, police cleaned up the area in May 2011, removing the greater part of the beach-side bungalows. Permanent structures beyond the beach road supplement the remaining places since 2012. It is a very popular, well established holiday retreat – where prices have risen considerably over the course of the last years.
- Sokha Beach: Sokha Beach is around 1.2 km long and located west of Serendipity Beach. The beach is privately owned by - and its southern half occupied by the Sokha Beach Hotel, the first five-star luxury beach hotel in Cambodia. While the beach is well kept and many facilities are provided, visitors have to pay for their use and beach vendors are not allowed.
- Independence Beach: Independence Beach is around 1.3 km long and located north-west of Sokha Beach. The beach is named after the Independence Hotel, another example of New Khmer Architecture, towering on top of a rock at the beaches northern end.
- Victory Beach: Victory beach is around 300 m long and situated at the furthest north of the peninsula of Sihanoukville. It was heavily used by backpackers and is still popular with budget travelers. The deep water port is located at the northern end of the beach. A consortium of Russian business people undertook large scale development here. The beach is regularly maintained.
- Lamherkay/Hawaii Beach: is the southern succession of Victory Beach, situated north of Independence Beach. It is a strip of similar length as Victory Beach - around 300 m. Here is the very place where the French/Cambodian construction team's groundwork began for the construction of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port in 1955.
- Treasure Island Beach south of Lamherkay/Hawaii Beach is less than 50 m long and its entire length is fringed with concrete steps and wooden pavilions of a big Cambodian seafood restaurant.
- Hun Sen (Prek Treng) Beach, ឆ្នេរព្រែកត្រែង: is the northernmost beach of the city with a length of around 1.5 km, situated behind the local port and essentially empty without beach huts and bars, it sees only weekend - and holiday visitors. The water is very shallow, but the area is lacking favorable infrastructure and is not regularly cleaned.
WIKIPEDIA