There is no Day 4. It was good to have my son back -- safe -- from an overseas school trip.
Day 5: Mothering Sunday in Britain. This is usually the second week before Palm Sunday (third before Easter) where traditionally children return to their mothers' churches. It is now the official 'Mother's Day' in Britain.
One of the first thoughts that crossed my mind as I settled down in church was that there is one mother in Britain who will not be celebrating Mother's Day.
How could she after what her son had perpetrated on the innocents in London on Wednesday?
Is it her fault?
Of course it is, and of course it is not.
Mothers will always feel that it is their fault if their children do not turn out well. That is why we try our best.
It is not her fault because she probably did not have full control of her own life as a seventeen-year-old (ie herself a child) bringing a mixed-blood baby into being. We do not know exactly what her personal and family (if any) circumstances were at that time, and we must not cast stones.
What we can conclude is this: being a single mother is not easy. Being a single mother at seventeen is not something I would wish upon anyone's children.
What we do know, if this newspaper report is to be believed, is that he took welfare benefits from the taxpayer and then returned this act of kindness by killing innocents. I was angry (see previous posts) precisely because I felt complicit in this crime.
Law-abiding taxpayers are facing higher and higher tax bills to fund the activities of some extremists through the very generous welfare system and there is NOTHING we can do about it.
Every time a politician says we must change this system, they are faced with strong opposition from special-interest groups. Usually people from the welfare/disability/charity industry some of which CEOs are drawing incredibly obscene salaries. "Vested interests", "conflict of interests" come to mind.
Some argue that he is not a good Muslim; he may not even be a good terrorist. He was just a madman.
We must be careful we do not let the 'madman' justification stop us from looking at the whole picture.
I believe that we all have a God-shaped hole in our hearts. We yearn to fill it. Some will find God and rejoice. Others turn to sex, or drugs, and then crime to feed the drugs. When left with too much time to reflect in prisons, they then find a God through other devout Muslim inmates.
At some point the British public will have to choose: all these people going to prison for one crime or another, do we wish them to be radicalized by Islamist extremists in prison, or do we prefer that they turn to a God who commands his followers to 'love your neighbour as yourself'?
When we love ourselves because we know that God loves us, then only will we consider the consequences of our action (or inaction) on our neighbours.
For now, Christianity and Christians are often persecuted in this once-Christian country. While we ostensibly have freedom of speech, Christian preachers are convicted when they inform the public of what is being taught in the Christian Bible.
Are we reaping what we have sown? .
Sunday, 26 March 2017
Friday, 24 March 2017
London terror attack Day 3
Day 3 level of anger: perhaps ever so slightly lower, and only because I now know I am not the only one who feels similarly enraged.
In my rapid-fire reaction here , I speculated that the perpetrator was a person with some kind of purposeless past. We now know that he had been a criminal and was imprisoned. It has also be said that he was radicalized in prison.
Yesterday I asked if this man had multiple identities. We later learned that he had a name, but he was born with a different English name. Just a few minutes ago, Scotland Yard issued a statement that in fact he was registered by another name and has a few other aliases.
Was he on benefits? We have not been told. When his name was first announced, we were told that he was an 'English teacher'.
No one has come out to say, "Oh! That was my work colleague," or "Oh! He taught my son/daughter English." Did he work? Who knows.
It has been reported that he has children, and these children and the mother will inevitably be in receipt of some taxpayers' money. If the mother claims to be a single parent with a child under five, she gets income support currently at £73.10 a week (tax-free) (Source: https://www.gov.uk/income-support/overview), on top of Child Benefit, Housing Benefit, etc. For each child under 16, she could get Child Tax Credit of "up to £2,780" (Source: https://www.gov.uk/child-tax-credit/overview).
Why was I so angry yesterday? I felt that my taxes have been supporting this person and his families/children. If he had knuckled down to some hard work, finding a purpose in life, he would not have ended up the way he did. Innocent people would not have died.
I was angry because I felt that I was complicit in his crime because of the way the benefits system is set up.
In my rapid-fire reaction here , I speculated that the perpetrator was a person with some kind of purposeless past. We now know that he had been a criminal and was imprisoned. It has also be said that he was radicalized in prison.
Yesterday I asked if this man had multiple identities. We later learned that he had a name, but he was born with a different English name. Just a few minutes ago, Scotland Yard issued a statement that in fact he was registered by another name and has a few other aliases.
Was he on benefits? We have not been told. When his name was first announced, we were told that he was an 'English teacher'.
No one has come out to say, "Oh! That was my work colleague," or "Oh! He taught my son/daughter English." Did he work? Who knows.
It has been reported that he has children, and these children and the mother will inevitably be in receipt of some taxpayers' money. If the mother claims to be a single parent with a child under five, she gets income support currently at £73.10 a week (tax-free) (Source: https://www.gov.uk/income-support/overview), on top of Child Benefit, Housing Benefit, etc. For each child under 16, she could get Child Tax Credit of "up to £2,780" (Source: https://www.gov.uk/child-tax-credit/overview).
Why was I so angry yesterday? I felt that my taxes have been supporting this person and his families/children. If he had knuckled down to some hard work, finding a purpose in life, he would not have ended up the way he did. Innocent people would not have died.
I was angry because I felt that I was complicit in his crime because of the way the benefits system is set up.
Thursday, 23 March 2017
London terror attack 2017 Day 2
Update: Police Statement
As I wake up this morning to messages from friends enquiring about my safety, my overwhelming feeling is that of anger. No one -- no one -- has the right to cause suffering to innocents.
I think of the family of the dead policeman. Is one or more of his children preparing for a major exam? How is this going to affect their results and therefore their future?
As yet, the identity of the perpetrator has not been released after Channel 4 News made a boo-boo yesterday. This suggests that the identity of the attacker is difficult to pin down. Had he been using multiple identities? Remember, this is the country without identity cards because ID cards are deemed to be contrary to the principles of 'civil liberties'.
What now of the civil liberties of law-abiding citizens who only wish to go about their work and education?
What are the chances that the perpetrator was on benefits? IF so, it means that taxpayers had been supporting financially a person who did not think that the generous benefits given to him and his family are something to be grateful for. He goes and murders innocents, bit the hand that fed him.
How many more of such people do we have in this country?
If this government persists in developing a benefits system that makes it possible for such acts to happen, then surely we must look at the morality behind such a system. But who would dare say such a thing in public? By not saying anything, it makes us ALL complicit in this attack.
Someone commented that the perpetrator must be desperate to do something like that; he had nothing to lose. Exactly. (Was he desperate for food? Hardly.)
I would have a system where, if a member of the extended family going both directions for two generations commits such a heinous crime, then their extended family (grandparents, own family, and children's generation) be stripped of all entitlements to public resources for their life-time.
Then, maybe, people will think twice, thrice, before committing such cowardly acts.
Perhaps if they had been working at proper jobs in the first place, they won't have time to think up such murderous schemes.
I am SO angry.
Let me leave you with Bette Midler singing From a Distance.
As I wake up this morning to messages from friends enquiring about my safety, my overwhelming feeling is that of anger. No one -- no one -- has the right to cause suffering to innocents.
I think of the family of the dead policeman. Is one or more of his children preparing for a major exam? How is this going to affect their results and therefore their future?
As yet, the identity of the perpetrator has not been released after Channel 4 News made a boo-boo yesterday. This suggests that the identity of the attacker is difficult to pin down. Had he been using multiple identities? Remember, this is the country without identity cards because ID cards are deemed to be contrary to the principles of 'civil liberties'.
What now of the civil liberties of law-abiding citizens who only wish to go about their work and education?
What are the chances that the perpetrator was on benefits? IF so, it means that taxpayers had been supporting financially a person who did not think that the generous benefits given to him and his family are something to be grateful for. He goes and murders innocents, bit the hand that fed him.
How many more of such people do we have in this country?
If this government persists in developing a benefits system that makes it possible for such acts to happen, then surely we must look at the morality behind such a system. But who would dare say such a thing in public? By not saying anything, it makes us ALL complicit in this attack.
Someone commented that the perpetrator must be desperate to do something like that; he had nothing to lose. Exactly. (Was he desperate for food? Hardly.)
I would have a system where, if a member of the extended family going both directions for two generations commits such a heinous crime, then their extended family (grandparents, own family, and children's generation) be stripped of all entitlements to public resources for their life-time.
Then, maybe, people will think twice, thrice, before committing such cowardly acts.
Perhaps if they had been working at proper jobs in the first place, they won't have time to think up such murderous schemes.
Yesterday I took a jacket to a tailor to have the sleeves shortened. In conversation I realized that this sweet old man whose English was quite excellent had pictures of himself in the Taleban in his shop. Why can't refugees in this country be more like him?
I am SO angry.
Let me leave you with Bette Midler singing From a Distance.
Wednesday, 22 March 2017
London terror 2017
We knew it was going to happen. We were on 'high alert'. It was a question of 'when'.
Was the Westminster attack part of a planned campaign? Was the perpetrator a 'lone wolf'?
I don't have the answers as it is my bed-time and I can barely keep awake. But there is almost a sense of relief that it has happened. But fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, sons and daughters are still wary whenever their loved ones need to head towards central London to work every day.
I wonder though: what are the chances that the perpetrator is another 'lost, purposeless soul' (ie smoking, drinking, drug-dependent, womanizing useless lout) who finally found a purpose in some global 'religion of peace' that promises him very specific rewards in heaven?
Or will the authorities and media be satisfied that he was in fact mentally unstable and therefore not answerable to the terror he had wrought?
Other than that I can only feel very sorry for the families of the victims: The policeman who was stabbed had died despite valiant efforts by emergency services and passers-by (including an MP whose brother died in the Bali bombing).
Two others had died. One woman was rescued after she landed in the river Thames. Imagine her fear, if she was conscious enough, to feel fear. What a horrible, horrible feeling that must be.
There were children visiting from France. Imagine the horror their parents are going through.
There is no place in my heart for despicable cowards who kill and maim innocents.
Was the Westminster attack part of a planned campaign? Was the perpetrator a 'lone wolf'?
I don't have the answers as it is my bed-time and I can barely keep awake. But there is almost a sense of relief that it has happened. But fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, sons and daughters are still wary whenever their loved ones need to head towards central London to work every day.
I wonder though: what are the chances that the perpetrator is another 'lost, purposeless soul' (ie smoking, drinking, drug-dependent, womanizing useless lout) who finally found a purpose in some global 'religion of peace' that promises him very specific rewards in heaven?
Or will the authorities and media be satisfied that he was in fact mentally unstable and therefore not answerable to the terror he had wrought?
Other than that I can only feel very sorry for the families of the victims: The policeman who was stabbed had died despite valiant efforts by emergency services and passers-by (including an MP whose brother died in the Bali bombing).
Two others had died. One woman was rescued after she landed in the river Thames. Imagine her fear, if she was conscious enough, to feel fear. What a horrible, horrible feeling that must be.
There were children visiting from France. Imagine the horror their parents are going through.
There is no place in my heart for despicable cowards who kill and maim innocents.
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