by Peter | May 23, 2024 | Uncategorized
Every society has its norms. When you are inside, they seem permanent- they seem normal. In Hinduism, there is no clear right and wrong. Christians, Muslims and Jews are brought up on the idea of pairs of opposites, the idea that you are either for or against us, and...
by Peter | May 23, 2024 | Uncategorized
I had noticed stories – countless bizarre, baffling and intense stories- of India’s religious devotion. The fact someone was a ‘secularist’ by no means implied they were a rationalist; Nehru’s sometimes contemptuous dismissal of superstition was not a trait that...
by Peter | May 23, 2024 | Uncategorized
In 2010 the activist Chandra Bhan Prasad started a private school and built a temple dedicated to a new deity, ‘Dalit Goddess English’. His supposition was that Dalits, being socially and educationally excluded, should learn English so as to advance. The bronze image...
by Peter | Feb 13, 2024 | Uncategorized
The other week I was visiting Glasgow for four days for its Celtic Connections Music Festival. The following is my account of a disturbing scene while breakfasting in a Holiday Inn Hotel. I saw a couple in their, I would say late 30’s – early 40’s...
by Peter | Feb 13, 2024 | Uncategorized
Naming isn’t explaining! In the case of naming a child it’s linking a ‘sound pattern’ to the newborn. In those cultures where naming is delayed until the infants’‘character’ becomes apparent, naming is synonymous with placing the infant in the same ‘sound...
by Peter | Feb 8, 2024 | Uncategorized
The phrase ‘right hand man’ is a memory of fighting in a shield wall. Most warriors were right handed, and when they raised their sword arm to strike a blow, they exposed their ribs to the thrust of a spear or an enemy sword. The defensive role of the...
by Peter | Jan 27, 2024 | good-bad, left-right, live-die, Nazi
In her account of life in a Nazi concentration camp Isabel Lowy said that Josef Mengele chose who was to live or die by directing prisoners to the left (to die) or the right (to live). Another dreadful instance of ‘right’ being positive and...
by Peter | Jan 10, 2024 | handedness, Uncategorized
An absolutely fascinating BBC2 film by Vianet Djenguet about more than just Silverback gorillas. In this clip he talks about how his left handedness was treated negatively while growing up!...
by Peter | Jan 9, 2024 | brain
The role of the hands (mouth and family) in recovering from showing no signs of brain activity. Rupert Johnston had been in a coma for two months after a horrific car crash in February 1997 and was showing no signs of brain activity. Doctors advised turning off the...
by Peter | Dec 7, 2023 | Uncategorized
Bill Cooke gave a talk on 4th December 2023 on Anti-semitism (its history) to the Warrington Literary and Philosophical Society. He illustrated one manifestation of the conflict between two religions by showing a slide with two statues from the south portal of...
