Friday, 4 July 2014

New book

My good friend, Jean de Beurre, has just published a new romantic novel set in Scotland about an angel intervening in the lives of ordinary Glasgow folk. Please take a look.... Click here to go to Jean's website...





Monday, 2 June 2014

Slavery in Britain today - a rant...

There are millions of people enslaved in our country today. They are prisoners of debt. They have bought into the credit dream - they can have anything if they borrow the money. "Borrow as much as you want" the credit companies and pay-day lenders say. The politicians egg on the lenders because the plebs will be enslaved. They will work hard for whatever wage they can get to replay their mounting debts. Britain is the only country in Europe where there is no cap on credit!
Consumer credit is a means of controlling workers with illusory dreams of prosperity.  It can be seen in the pressure to own your own home. Why buy a house? Because it is what everyone does. Because it will go up in value. Because if you don't buy one now you never will be able to afford it. But these are not good answers. You will mortgage your life to a small piece of real estate and your standard of living will be much reduced because of the proportion of you income that goes in interest to the real owner of the home you are trying to own.
The economy is skewed by consumer lending which is not real growth. Low interest rates are compounding the problem.
I am not an economist but I know something is wrong; very wrong! What do we do about it? 
I don't like most of the answers the politicians come up with and only the Greens have a view that makes sense!  

Saturday, 22 February 2014

Some days

This poem can be read at many levels - it can be seen as a analogy of society and those who really live and those who just survive. It is also an insight into the working of the church and ministry. Like all good poetry it needs reading several times to see the depth of meaning.

Some Days

 
by Billy Collins

Some days I put the people in their places at the table,
bend their legs at the knees,
if they come with that feature,
and fix them into the tiny wooden chairs.

All afternoon they face one another,
the man in the brown suit,
the woman in the blue dress,
perfectly motionless, perfectly behaved.

But other days, I am the one
who is lifted up by the ribs, 
then lowered into the dining room of a dollhouse
to sit with the others at the long table.

Very funny,
but how would you like it
if you never knew from one day to the next 
if you were going to spend it

striding around like a vivid god,
your shoulders in the clouds, 
or sitting down there amidst the wallpaper,
staring straight ahead with your little plastic face?

chitika