Spring Forward in Europe

On Sunday March 25, 2012, at 2 AM, Europe also starts Daylight Saving Time (DST) and "spring forward" the clocks to 3 AM.

This should alleviate some of the present confusion about time in SecondLife but we still have to wait for Australia (in the southern hemisphere) to "fall back" on Sunday April 1, 2012, for everything to go back to normal.

Bock in SecondLife is - as always - here to aid you and has a clock with the SLT in the right column for your convenience.

Henk and Organized Religion

Henk Heithuis 

The picture above shows Henk Heithuis, a young Dutch man in his early twenties. Henk was born in 1936 and was as a child - for unknown reasons - left in the care of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands. While living in a boarding home run by the Church Henk was sexually abused by at least two priests. In 1956 Henk, then 20 years old, reported the molestation to the Dutch police and the priests were convicted for having abused him.

Unluckily for Henk though he would remain in the loving care of the Church until he reached the age of majority in the Netherlands, which at that time was 21. 

The Church sent him to a Catholic psychiatric hospital where he, as court documents confirm, later the same year was castrated “as a treatment for homosexuality and also as a punishment for those who accused clergy of sexual abuse,”

Henk Heithuis was later killed in a car accident in 1958 at the age of 22.

Joep Dohmen, the investigative journalist at the Dutch newspaper The NRC Handelsblad.who uncovered the case, also found evidence that at least nine more young men had been castrated. "These cases are anonymous and can no longer be traced," Dohmen said. "There will be many more. But the question is whether those boys, now old men, will want to tell their story."

Henk, second from left

When my buddy Apmel Goosson first directed my attention to this story (The Telegraph; Dutch Roman Catholic Church "castrated at least 10 boys") I was totally shocked and could not believe it was possible. I felt sick to my stomach by the brutality and the inhumane actions of something that should be - and asserts itself as being - a protection for the weak in a not always kind world. As I thought more about it I became more and more enraged about the profound stupidity, heteronormativity and systematic homophobia that these actions are a symptom of. 

However the Roman Catholic Church is not alone in the total misuse of the trust given to them, the same goes for almost any organized religion. The fault lies not with the original prophets (Jesus, Mohammed etc). but in the way their teachings have been abused by interpretation by their followers and the organizational builders.

In order to grow strong, powerful, influential and rich every religious organisation of any size has always teemed up with the civilian authority. They have become their willing mouthpieces and propaganda machines with a joint mission; To keep the people in line.

Organized religions have always lent themselves to be well organized hate groups working viciously with excluding, condemning, repressing, persecuting or keeping in check

• the heathens or non-believers (Jews, Christians/Muslims, or believers in any other faiths except "the one true faith") which could be slaughtered, slaved or used like cattle if they did not convert to "the one true faith"
• the savages or other cultures (Jews again of course, Romanies, Africans, Asians, Native people all over the world), see above
• the poor and disenfranchised, should know their place, shut up, work hard and breed many children - rewards for being good and faithful would be collected in the hereafter/heaven/paradise, "you will get pie in the sky when you die", "72 virgins in paradise"
• the women, "women are dirty when they menstruate and have given birth", "women are dumb and cannot think properly or be relied upon to take care of themselves, they must be taken care of by their fathers, husbands or brothers", "women cannot be clergy" etc. etc. see above 
• the sexual "deviants", i.e. non-heterosexual, "just don´t do it" or "you are better off dead"
• etc. etc.

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Ugh, rereading what I have written so far I feel like a poorer variation of Karl Marx with his "Religion is the opium of the people". I will leave it anyway.

Believe me, I am not a communist and have nothing against religion in itself, just the hierarchical superstructure it gets when it gets organized and misinterpreted by the followers of the original prophets.

Organized religion - of any creed, although I am mainly thinking of Christianity and Islam - are the longest lasting, most widespread, most powerful and most vicious hate groups in our world.

Most mainstream Lutheran Churches seem to have backed off a little, but the Roman Catholic Church and the growing Pentecostal movement with its subsidiaries (among other Word of Life) seem to be still going strong in excluding anyone they do not consider worthy or wholesome or complying to their heteronormative belief system.

Henk to me represents one of the untold, unseen and unknown victims of the power mongering, money-grabbing and repressive forces that are unleashed by these organisations.

Lesson in Geography

Sweden and Finland highlighted

When I was talking with my brother in-law Dejerrity yesterday we somehow slipped into the unusual subject of geography.

Dej told me he new where Finland was because "the country looks like a penis".

I had to correct him of course, and informed him that the penis is in fact Sweden while Finland is the ball sack, or as the Urban Dictionary describes it "the hairy, hangy; unusual, disfigured sack that hangs precariously from a penis". I also told him that in first life I live way down south at the tip of the penis "where the external urethral orifice is normally placed" or words to that effect.

When teaching someone anything it is always an excellent idea to use images you and they are familiar with. Dej and I both know penises well.

Starbucks - Straight Ally

Hey there!
Starbucks stood up for gay rights, and their support for gay marriage was critical in the passage of gay marriage law in Washington State. Now the Nat'l Organization for Marriage is getting people to boycott them.

I want to thank corporations for doing good things, even if those corporations aren't perfect all the time. Will you join me in signing a thank you card to Starbucks?
http://sumofus.org/campaigns/thank-starbucks/?sub=taf

External Memories

Hermione Gingold & Maurice Chevallier from "Gigi" (1958)

I am always certain that I remember correctly, but from time to time I realize that my memory has a will of its own.and what I remember in hindsight may not be what actually happened. It as is at times like these that I heavily rely on people around me - in both my lives - to inform me of what really occurred when it occurred, who where there etc.,etc.

In my SecondLife I rely mainly on four people to work as my "external memories", these are in the order they appeared in my SecondLife Sarco Halderman, D R E Y, Millimina Salamander and Diana Gilderoy. They do not always have to give me very many clues or set me straight on something before the true memory comes to me, but my mind simply needs those inputs to start delving in the right places.

Just Because...

Photography by Ziggy Starsmith

This recent picture by my buddy Ziggy "the baddest bastard in the basket" Starsmith to me represents a lot of what SecondLife is actually about and the best part of it. I stole the picture from Ziggy´s blog "Ziggy On The Edge Of Second Life..."

We should always log into our SecondLife with an open mind, curiosity and a sense of adventure and a willingness to learn and to discover what is around the next corner. To meet new people and learn about them and from them and to share with them our own experience.

The picture also makes me think about two quotes by the venerable master Lao Tzu "A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving." and "This journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

Another thing I especially love about the picture is that I gave him the back-pack he is wearing. It is one that was made for the Bara Jonson Fan Gang group by Patrick Hufschmid Beaumont, the exceptional guitar-builder in first life and for awhile also in SecondLife. 

TESTIMONY

(via J.M.G.)

"TESTIMONY - Music by Stephen Schwartz

Lyrics taken from and inspired by the It Gets Better Project

http://bit.ly/Testimonysong

In writing TESTIMONY, Stephen Schwartz collaborated with Dan Savage, creator of the groundbreaking "It Gets Better Project." Schwartz has set the heartfelt words from the "It Gets Better" videos to music, weaving them into a breathtaking, emotional new masterpiece that speaks to anyone who has ever felt out of place.

TESTIMONY was recorded and engineered by Leslie Ann Jones, the legendary multi Grammy award-winning Director of Music Recording at Skywalker Sound. Performed by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus under the direction of Dr. Timothy Seelig."

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Blogger Joe Jervis (Joe.My.God.) is a crybaby - and I mean that in the best way possible. He recommends you have a box of tissues handy.

I was touched but not even close to crying, perhaps because I was lucky and had sensible. unprejudiced and open-minded parents who always showed me they loved me whatever I might be. Even-so I do remember a period in my early teens when I wished I had been born different, if nothing else than to fit-in with the surrounding norm.

Due to an email from my buddy Apmel Goosson, who graciously forwarded some news to me, I am at this time mostly thinking about how organized religion - of any creed - seem to be the longest lasting, most widespread, most powerful and most vicious hate groups in our world. More about this in a later post (hopefully during the weekend).