furtherandfaster

Now that's what I call communication.. love that man

Tony Benn takes out the Beeb. On the Beeb.

Language dear boy language

In December a name began to be pronounced differently - Madoff hedge fund - a gift to headline writers.

From this morning we have the headline Tata steel workers. 

The unique gift language has to convey blunt facts while being able to simultaneously take more than one perspective on them.

And we have of course to revisit the word impartiality when BBC (aka Zionist lapdog) finds that when you go public about behaving impartiality you get into a lot of trouble because it becomes your responsibility to define what impartiality is. And it looks rather partial to a lot of onlookers. Apparently its OK to promote famine relief to relieve starvation as a consequence of war in Africa, demand medical supplies for Zimbabwe cholera victims, raise money for children in need (shouldn't the National Health Service be paying for that?). But not to help the injured from a conflict where a civilian population (50% under the age of 18) were unable to leave a warzone which journalists were not allowed to enter.

Alas the Good Samaritan would find it difficult to get the Sunday morning appeal slot on BBC radio - since the BBC would have no means of knowing if he is good (or had other motives) and we have no independent verification that a priest and a levite really passed by on the other side leaving the injured man for dead.   

Language dear boy language - the only means we have for saying the unsayable.

A case of quiet censorship -

The Church of England operates a lectionary: a set of readings to be read out in all churches when a service is held. In theory the lectionary follows a linear path allowing the entire Bible to be read over a 3 year period.  So I was intrigued to discover that there is a policy of omission. And this was what was left out today Jan 7th . I quote the passage in full the first 7 verses of Isaiah 63:

The Lord's Day of Vengeance

Is 63:1 Who is this who comes from Edom,
in crimsoned garments from Bozrah,
he who is splendid in his apparel,
marching in the greatness of his strength?
“It is I, speaking in righteousness,
mighty to save.”

2 Why is your apparel red,
and your garments like his who treads in the winepress?

3 “I have trodden the winepress alone,
and from the peoples no one was with me;
I trod them in my anger
and trampled them in my wrath;
their lifeblood spattered on my garments,
and stained all my apparel.
4 For the day of vengeance was in my heart,
and my year of redemption had come.
5 I looked, but there was no one to help;
I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold;
so my own arm brought me salvation,
and my wrath upheld me.
6 I trampled down the peoples in my anger;
I made them drunk in my wrath,
and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”

Now I am sure that when the lectionary was set, a passage which brings together the twin ideas of God harvesting blood instead of grapes, and behaving like a maniac on a killing spree was felt to be utterly out of keeping and irrelevant to anyone today. And then the Israelis attacked Gaza. On the one hand Hamas argue for the right to defend themselves which involves firing rockets as an act of provocation - it isn't stopping the conflict but stoking it. On the other hand the Israeli army use weaponry which makes it all but impossible in the crowded conditions of the Gaza strip to avoid civilian casualties. But hardly support their cause by refusing to allow in journalists to report what is happening on the ground.
Cries for revenge and questions about where God fits into the carnage are utterly relevant to the current situation - the savage fantasy in Isaiah some 2,500 years old about God running amok kickstarts many fair questions.

These are ancient words - but they don't date. Sometimes if you are a person of faith you need to be willing to stare into the abyss. The Church of England does no one any favours by turning the volume down.  And by the way some of these children are Israeli, some are Palestinian.