don quixote's travels

a travelogue in the time of the information superhighway

1994

My story starts in drizzly, dreary, grey England. I worked as a nurse in a specialist cancer hospital in Manchester. One day, I suddenly entered her world, there she was. At once beautiful, but decaying visibly. Eyes that melt you, fumbled for reasons. High on morphine, she slumped on the chair. Her legs, previously long and graceful, were now fat and full of fluid. She was loosing her hair, something that upset her most. We all witnessed her struggling with the remains of her dignity and modesty, but she carried on fighting. Her mother applied facial cream like a corner man at ringside, her father just looked lost. She was a twenty seven year old woman, right before us, dying in her prime. She seemed to hold up a mirror to the thoughts sailing across my mind, a metaphor for what we've all become and what will become of us. So much potential, so much waste. It is at moments like this that we can take the looking glass to our own fragile existence, and ask questions of it. Cancer had infiltrated her womb, the very giver of life. I became aware of a feeling that her death had released something else, a thirst for living itself. She haunted me. Four months later, I set out on an adventure to view the world that she would no longer see.

Posted by don quixote

Friday 16 January 2015

Paris attacks, Islamophobia and freedom of expression


I have many conflicting feelings regarding the attacks in Paris.
Sadness and despair with both the increasing momentum of Jihadi fascism AND anti-muslim and anti-immigrant populism. Europe is sailing close to the conditions in the 30's that led to the democratic election of the National Socialist Party of Germany(Nazis) and fascism in Spain and Italy. Jews, gypsies and 'foreigners' were being blamed for all our woes in hard economic times.
As an atheist and secularist I instinctually defend the right for all of us to criticise and mock ALL those in power, politicians, bankers, corporations AND those who seek to influence our minds and have the power to do so. So that includes ALL religions, their gods, prophets, saints, their priests, imams and rabbis.

However, with the right to free speech comes responsibilities. As a humanitarian and internationalist, I don't want us to ferment hatred of religious communities and add to intolerance and violence. In the UK there are laws that restrict free speech if it crosses the line into inciting racial or religious hatred. This is, of course, not straight forward. People who want their belief system to be protected from offence, have to be careful. Other beliefs will demand the same. Pro-Israeli groups have attempted to use 'anti-semitism' to shut down criticism of Israel's brutal occupation of Palestinian land.
In a secular nation, no religion can have its belief system dominate the States laws and institutions. This not only protects citizens who don't believe in organised religion, but importantly, protects ALL minority religious communities from persecution and enshrines their rights to practice their faith in law.
Therefore, with freedom of expression, communities who feel they have been offended, have the right to campaign, to demonstrate, to lobby, to write and to draw. NOT to kill and intimidate.
My instinct is for publications to self censor against an image of Muhammad. However, to muddy the water, I can't help wanting to see the cartoon proposed by a British cartoonist on C4 news. It would have Muhammad with the words "not in my name" written on his shirt.
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