Sunday 6/1/08:

As I mentioned before, I am a seasoned watcher of EWTN, the catholic religious channel. But I find myself constantly being amazed, at the thoughts and ideas, constantly being spouted with great conviction, even in this apparently enlightened age. The real scarey thing for me, is that these people want to impose their belief systems on everyone else. They have gotton away with it for too long, many countries legal, health, education systems, etc have been shaped and moulded, by what I heard described on You Tube by a British commentator as the "delusional ramblings of desert nomads".

Now that Ireland is slowly disentangling itself, from the once suffocating grip of dogmatic catholicism, we should never become complacent, and ignore the very real threat of people losing the ability to live their own lives, the way they see fit. Censorship in ANY form, is repugnant, and should be fought actively against. They were saying on EWTN last night that "our lives do not belong to us", that its really all about God, and, our lifes purpose is really to discern God's mission for us. I have a major bone to pick with this, or indeed any ideology that puts people on their knees, or in any subservient position.

Any belief system or ideology, which attempts to curb peoples minds, by restricting what they can see, do, or read is bad! Apparently the Islamic religion, is on a major membership explosion. How anyone can believe that there is anything good, about this nasty cult, is absolutely beyond me. Just have a look at how they treat women, who always seem to be the first people to suffer under an oppressive regime. One of the saddest sights I've seen lately, was a woman in the Square Shopping Centre in Tallaght, wearing the full burqha, with even a wire mesh covering the eyes. And yet on tv, you can hear some of these women justifing this outfit , saying that its a visual sign of how their bodies are sacred, and only to be enjoyed by their husbands. As if the sight of even the slightest suggestion of female skin, would make men go crazy. What if the men around her were gay?

I'm sure the immans would say that there are no gay muslims, but its probably more true to say that there are no visible out living gay muslims. I remember years ago on the internet, reading the story of two young 16 year old iranian guys, who were hanged in a football stadium for being gay. I remember the haunting pictures of these two young guys, in tears, being driven to the packed stadium, for a public and gruesome spectacle. Can these peolpe not see that they are just brainwashed puppets? I remember being in Egypt 2 years ago, and we stopped the ship at some small town which I cannot recall, but the sounds of the immans were deafening, and I thought to myself it was almost impossible to live in this society and not be muslim. Any sort of religious creed, equals for me, relentless brainwashing.Thats all you know, or are allowed to know. You are born into a particular idelology, educated in it, and expected to follow a particularly rigid path.

I sometimes think of the great writers like James Joyce or Brendan Behan, and of how much guts it took, to strike out using their literary tools, at the repressive regime they were born into. At the moment I am reading Christy Brown, " The life that inspired My Left Foot " by Georgina Louise Hambleton. I literally just picked up this book on sale in Easons, and I am very surprised that we have not heard more of Christy Brown, the author and intellectual anywhere. To think that he painstakingly wrote all these letters to his family members in Kimmage, with such expert craftsmanship of the english language defies belief. Unfortunately I am one of these people who goes on book splurges, with great intentions, but usually it takes me ages to get through them as I usually have around 4 books on the go at the one time.

I believe, one of the main selling points of this book, is that it had been written in conjuction with some surviving family members.They dispel the Hollywood ending of the film version of his life story. Apparently the woman he married was not some benign nurse, but rather a lesbian prostitute who forcibly distanced Christy from his family, by first moving him to Kerry and later Somerset. One think I would strongly dislike (and I'm sure Christy did too) is when some people can only see the disability instead of the person. Mine and his disabilities cannot be neatly hidden away. They are horribly and publicly on view. I dont think I will ever fully accept my physical condition, and limitations that it brings. Its so difficult with FA, when you are deteriorating, and your needs grow bigger all the time, and your independence smaller. I often think that it would have been much easier to have been born this way, at least you don't miss what you never had.

But my over rididng thought is that we as humans go through so much, be it mental or physical. Half the world is either dying of starvation, in the middle of civil wars, having to eek out some sort of subsistance, while the rest of us are being treated for depression, being sexually, verbally, physically abused day in day out, or caught in a merciless rat race, which allows no reprieve. So personally I feel that seeing human beings on their knees relentlessly for some god or goddess, is maddening in the extreme.

I got a fascinating e-mail during the week from an Italian who had read my site and was very impressed by it. Unfortunately he's in Milan so I won't meet him in May. I googled his name, and he is a member of the radical party of Europe, which seems to have many of the same beliefs as I would have, so it seems that the only thing that makes them so radical is their belief in empowering the individual. I signed the on line petition against a ban on stem cell research for therapeutic purposes.

I strongly believe that stem cells will have great benefit in the future. However at the moment, the techonoly is just not there, and it seems to me that a lot of desperate sick people are being fleeced. Of course as the saying goes, "your health is your wealth". I remember chatting with Katie my friend with FA in the UK. She was telling me about a friend of hers newly diagnosed with FA. She was going for some revolutionary stem cell treatment in Holland costing 30,000 euro. The one thing that set alarm bells off for me was that she would be required to go back every 6 months for a top up. Stuff that! For me, if I am paying that much money, I would expect the benefits to be much more concrete and longer lasting.

As I was told, this particular girl has not physically improved that much, and is really clutching at straws. It seemed to me that poor health and money are a perfect recipe for poorly informed choices. There will always be unscrupulous people, who gleefully rub their hands at these unfortunate predicaments. I can't look down my nose too much at these people, as I am the first person into Natures Way, if i read a good review about a particular supplement or vitamin. At the moment, I have just started taking Udos oil, which claims to boost the energy level, improve co-ordination and turbo charge your metabolism. I really dont know if these things work, but even if I am clutching at straws, I'm still only down €15. But I will certainly keep you all updated.

I overheard a discussion recently where they said that money really is the root of all evil. I can't say that I agree with this at all. I think that I would be a lot happier with a couple of million in the bank. I am not sure if I would really like to win a serious amount of money, like the woman in Limerick who won the Euro Millions. It would'nt be nice to have every beggar and tramp in the country, knowing your business.

The thing with money is that you exchange one set of problems for another. Your are not worried about paying the electricity bill, obviously, but I suppose you have other problems, like everyone trying to ride on your coat tails, and not knowing who to trust. There was an interview that I caught with Ozzy Osbourne, he was saying how tough it was growing up in Birmingham. Everyone says that life is tough at the top , but Ozzy said that its a whole lot tougher at the bottom, and this sounds more right to me. Also, not to be a church basher, but is it not ironic that the church preaches very much against excess money, and yet they are one of the wealthies institutions in the world. So obviously they dont practice what they preach, to a large extent.

I am still trying to follow my ebay ambitions. I managed to make my first purchase on Friday of a usb cable for my digital konica minolta camera, which very kindly they stopped producing 6 months after I bought it. I stupidly brought the cable to India, and left it there. I had originally bought 4 concert tickets, one for me and Joe, and the other 2 for assistants. Now Joe is no longer in the picture ( and I'm not sure if Celine Dion would have appealed to him that much anyway) I was trying to sell them on ebay, but there is a part of the selling process that I cannot get past. It is more than likely something small. and I will try to ring or e-mail them tomorrow. It might appear a bit mercenary but I cant afford to give them away and get nothing in return, when they cost me €120. After all, I have holidays to plan and pay for.

I was delighted that my friends in Spain, suggested that directly opposite their parents homem is now an old folks home. My friend said to me that they were thinking that I could use the homes big accessible room, and their staff's services at night time, but that I would be with them all during the day. This sounds like a perfect solution for me , as things are a lot different for me physically than they were 5 years ago, and I would not like to blur the lines of friendship. Anyways I love bingo!

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