For those who are interested, I am posting a link to a video that shows what some people think should be the proper way to celebrate the Eucharist. I would be interested in comments. http://www.sanctamissa.org/en/high-mass-dvd/index.html
I note that the participants all seem to be young white males with a penchant for kissing the hand of the rubicund celebrant. I do not remember this aspect of the old rite.
Saturday, 30 April 2011
Thursday, 28 April 2011
Easter holidays
Sorry for the silence. Have been having an Easter break. Back next week. It is nothing whatsoever to do with the royal wedding. Nice to see that it coincides with the feast of Catherine of Siena, great woman who stood up to the papacy of the day. To come next week: all the excitement of the Leicester south election, the mayor of Leicester election and the AV referendum why I shall be voting Yes or No.
Thursday, 21 April 2011
Home is....
A new series starts today 'Home is....." and to begin one of my dearest friends and comrades, Shirley Siriwardena from Sri Lanka.
This is Shirley's story. Do you have a story.....?
This is a post script from Shirley about how we met:
This is Shirley's story. Do you have a story.....?
Home is where the Heart is
Holiday to Sri Lanka always felt, I was returning home but after a week or two, I am desperate to return home to England. I have tried many a times to resolve this conundrum. After all, now I have started 38th year of my life in England. That is more than I have lived in Sri Lanka.
I arrived in England in 1974, on a cold, dark night on 16th of February. That was the first time I have ever being out of Sri Lanka. I have left my adopted family, friends, working colleagues and devoted comrades who took part in all our Trade Union and political struggles. It was frightening. I was apprehensive entering an uncertain future. What will the future holds for me? Have I jumped from a frying pan to an inextinguishable glowing fire? My confidence was not strong anymore!
I was very active in Trade Unions, in left politics - local and national. Defending Liberation Theology and critical of the hierarchy of the Sri Lankan Roman Catholic Church. I was always surrounded by friends, colleague and comrades. Never alone, or never fearing for the future. I was full of self confidence with a fighting spirit for social justice. I had an identity and community that accepted me. This is where my heart is and that is my country.
My first day in England, I felt soulless. Bitterly cold wind and dark gloomy skies did neither inspire me nor strengthen my drooping spirit. However, I survived the week and started work as a Lino-Type Operator in printing in a local weekly newspaper. It was difficult. For many natives that was the first time they have seen a non-white face. They were friendly but also frequently exercised what I call ‘selective racism.’ The controversy of the arrival of Ugandan Asians was still a heated debate amongst the host community. Leicestershire County Council purchased massive spaces in “Ugandan Newspapers” to discourage British Passport holders from arriving in Leicester.
I was not like those Asians in the eyes of my colleagues at work because I was granted a “WORK PERMIT” by the Home Office. I am not a Gujarati speaking Hindu. I am a good Roman Catholic able to converse in English. Gradually, I started being involved first with Church organisations and then with my Trade Union – National Graphical Association as it was then known. I enrolled on odd evening classes and gradually started making friends at work, in the church and in the area I lived.
I was offered employment in a rival newspaper about 12 to 14 miles from where I was. I accepted it, as it was on a better salary, better conditions and was in a thriving town as opposed to a village. My work colleagues in this new place were brilliant. Many of them joined this place after being sacked by their previous employer for taking part in a Trade Union dispute. They had a broader outlook on life and with the exception of one or two people, they were not racist. I started being active in the Union and was representing the Chapel at Branch Meetings. I was made the Deputy Father of the Chapel and later the Father of the Chapel.
I was now once again my normal self. Welcomed by my work colleagues and also by the neighbourhood I live. I regained my confidence and felt secure. I represented my Trade Union in the local Trades Union Council. With the time, I was nominated, voted and held the positions of President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer of the Trades Council for many years. I was also nominated to the local Commission for Racial Equality and to the Racial Harassment Committee of the local Police, monitoring the actions of the police on racial harassment complaints.
I have once again returned to the life I had in Sri Lanka. I am surrounded by comrades and colleagues. I am involved with many activities in the Trade Union movement, in local and national Politics and in many community activities. I have gained an identity once again. With this, I am also beginning to face a new challenge. My life experience has made me re-think about my political beliefs. I retain the same values but my approach has changed. For this, I am criticised by my friends and colleagues on the left. I have not sold out but I have deviated from the standard left-wing approach.
When Marx and Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto, they were 23 years of age. I am now 65 years old and unlike Marx and Engels, I have been a blue-collar worker and a white-collar worker. My experience with the ‘working class’ has made me more akin to Franz Fanon or Herbert Marcuse than to Marx and Engels. I am more experienced than Marx or Engels being subjected to harassment of racism and for trade union activities. Hence, I justify my new approach to new struggles.
I also now face racism at times from two sections of the society. Firstly from the prevailing ignorance in certain sections of the host community and from the Asian community, based on the wrong perception of what is to be an ‘Asian.’ The perception being that, one should be Hindu and able to speak Gujarati and Hindi, missing the fundamental point that, Asia is more than India.
I am able to cope with these problems now because I also have the good support of my comrades, and friends. My visits to Sri Lanka are like being in a science fiction. I never felt being at home. I was more of a visitor from another planet. The area, I grew up has undergone changes beyond recognition. Many of my friends and comrades are no longer in my home town. Families known to me are no longer in the area and the elders I knew have returned to their creator. I was a stranger in the town where I was born and brought up. I am no more part of this community. I do not have an identity here, I am now a stranger.
My heart is where I share my values and my hopes. Hope of a just world is where oppression is eradicated and rights of minorities are granted. Values are when you recognise that there is a vast difference between what you need and what you like and that, resources are there to be shared and not to be exploited for profits.
Being in a community that share these hopes and values is where my country is, my identity is and where I am not a stranger. For good or bad England is my home now because that is where I find that small community, sharing my hopes and my values. This where my heart is and my home. However, there are times, I still feel, I am an outsider here too, that is when the ‘big society’ tells me, “go back to where you come from” if you do not want to support our wars. For that, I have no answer.
Shirley Siriwardena
Loughborough
This is a post script from Shirley about how we met:
We first met in 1979 February at the first Anti-Nazi League meeting held at the Charnwood Pub (now Swan in the Rushes). Present you, me, Russ, Keith, David Paterson, Dennis Gardiner, Michael McLoughlin, Martin Gregory, Derek (Councillor and then Manager Carillon Precinct) and few others. You were in Frederick Street. Same year you played the Diabelli piece on the piano with Peter Wilson for Amnesty International at Martin Hall at the University.
Leicester mayoral candidates (some of anyway) at the LGBT centre
It is a measure of social change in the UK that most of the candidates for the elected mayor of Leicester turned up last night for a hustings at the city's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender centre. It was generally a polite and well mannered meeting, but so boring, until the back row interrupted the orderly timed Q&As. It seemed at first if this was going to be yet another safe event with the experienced showing they were experienced and the less so etc.
It came more alive when the prescribed order of things was interrupted by "supplementaries" which allowed a much more raw set of feelings and grievances to emerge. The candidates seemed to think that it was a case of more resources - some would allocate more, some were more wary. The idea that a change of attitude on the part of elected councillors and senior officials was needed seemed somewhat novel to the candidates. The lack of adequate monitoring of LGBT populations was highlighted as one area which meant that there were no established statistical norms by which to see if the equality agenda is being met.
The view that there were unconscious or conscious forces at work in elected councillors and senior officers that meant the LGBT community was either made invisible or certainly less visible than other minority groups for fear of upsetting religious or ethnic sensitivities was firmly rejected by some candidates yet made sense to others. What seem to differentiate the two responses was how closely they had been to the seats of power in the council. Those who had held office seemed to reject the idea and those who had not held power were at least able to entertain it as a possible explantation of the absence of a LGBT presence on the ONE Leicester material. It will be interesting to see how, once the mayor arrives in office, how things change.
It was stressed to the candidates that it requires moral courage to take a stand and support a minority which is often seen in a negative light. However, there was surprise when they were told that, not withstanding major social changes in UK society, there are still unacceptable high levels of physical and mental illness among LGBT community members. This is not surprising given the amounts of negativity and sometimes hatred shown to us.
There was recognition that the mayor could give a lead on matters such as homophobic bullying in schools and LGBT hate crime and set a model of good practice. The question of faith schools' policies on homophobic bullying was not given the consideration it needs especially where particular faiths have views on LGBT issues that, in my view, fuel attacks on our community.
The government proposals for the NHS and the implications for the LGBT community only got a small amount of attention, at the end, when people were tired. It needs much more thought especially with the city council taking over responsibility for some aspects of health care. Given the likely representation of LGBT people running these services there could be some useful further discussions that would inform the new administration of what is needed.
There was a challenge to those present to get their act together and present to the new administration what was needed to make LGBT a more defined community. What was not discussed last night, and slept like the elephant in the room, was the fundamental question of the language we use to talk about ourselves. What is a community? Are we a community of communities? Why is the LGBT centre so under-used?* Who should speak to the city council on behalf of the community?
It was sad that so few women were present. When the meeting ended candidates and attendees went downstairs only to meet many women using the centre as a social space. Pity more of them had not been present at the meeting upstairs. I wonder why?
The youngest candidate for mayor who was present was Mu-Hamid Pathan who surely has a political career in front of him. I end with a picture of him talking to one of the attendees in the ice breaking first half hour.
It was sad that the one glaring absentee was the Conservative candidate for mayor. I assume he had been invited but there was no message from him. We were left wondering what was the meaning of his absence and seeming failure to send a message. One of the independent candidates said he was gay/bisexual but no other candidates choose to announce their sexual orientation. Many of them said they had visited the centre in the past.
Last word: many of the candidates said that they had been surprised at the strong feelings expressed in the meeting, some even saying that they had learned something they did not know (here good marks to Rick Moore, who impressed many present). But if the candidates thought that this meeting was somehow special in its intensity it does give pause for thought. As a gay man well used to arguing politics and religion and culture etc I thought it only an average night. Perhaps we are more lucky than we realise.
*access point: the centre really does need to do some work on helping those with mobility problems to be able to get into the building more easily.
It came more alive when the prescribed order of things was interrupted by "supplementaries" which allowed a much more raw set of feelings and grievances to emerge. The candidates seemed to think that it was a case of more resources - some would allocate more, some were more wary. The idea that a change of attitude on the part of elected councillors and senior officials was needed seemed somewhat novel to the candidates. The lack of adequate monitoring of LGBT populations was highlighted as one area which meant that there were no established statistical norms by which to see if the equality agenda is being met.
The view that there were unconscious or conscious forces at work in elected councillors and senior officers that meant the LGBT community was either made invisible or certainly less visible than other minority groups for fear of upsetting religious or ethnic sensitivities was firmly rejected by some candidates yet made sense to others. What seem to differentiate the two responses was how closely they had been to the seats of power in the council. Those who had held office seemed to reject the idea and those who had not held power were at least able to entertain it as a possible explantation of the absence of a LGBT presence on the ONE Leicester material. It will be interesting to see how, once the mayor arrives in office, how things change.
It was stressed to the candidates that it requires moral courage to take a stand and support a minority which is often seen in a negative light. However, there was surprise when they were told that, not withstanding major social changes in UK society, there are still unacceptable high levels of physical and mental illness among LGBT community members. This is not surprising given the amounts of negativity and sometimes hatred shown to us.
There was recognition that the mayor could give a lead on matters such as homophobic bullying in schools and LGBT hate crime and set a model of good practice. The question of faith schools' policies on homophobic bullying was not given the consideration it needs especially where particular faiths have views on LGBT issues that, in my view, fuel attacks on our community.
The government proposals for the NHS and the implications for the LGBT community only got a small amount of attention, at the end, when people were tired. It needs much more thought especially with the city council taking over responsibility for some aspects of health care. Given the likely representation of LGBT people running these services there could be some useful further discussions that would inform the new administration of what is needed.
There was a challenge to those present to get their act together and present to the new administration what was needed to make LGBT a more defined community. What was not discussed last night, and slept like the elephant in the room, was the fundamental question of the language we use to talk about ourselves. What is a community? Are we a community of communities? Why is the LGBT centre so under-used?* Who should speak to the city council on behalf of the community?
It was sad that so few women were present. When the meeting ended candidates and attendees went downstairs only to meet many women using the centre as a social space. Pity more of them had not been present at the meeting upstairs. I wonder why?
The youngest candidate for mayor who was present was Mu-Hamid Pathan who surely has a political career in front of him. I end with a picture of him talking to one of the attendees in the ice breaking first half hour.
It was sad that the one glaring absentee was the Conservative candidate for mayor. I assume he had been invited but there was no message from him. We were left wondering what was the meaning of his absence and seeming failure to send a message. One of the independent candidates said he was gay/bisexual but no other candidates choose to announce their sexual orientation. Many of them said they had visited the centre in the past.
Last word: many of the candidates said that they had been surprised at the strong feelings expressed in the meeting, some even saying that they had learned something they did not know (here good marks to Rick Moore, who impressed many present). But if the candidates thought that this meeting was somehow special in its intensity it does give pause for thought. As a gay man well used to arguing politics and religion and culture etc I thought it only an average night. Perhaps we are more lucky than we realise.
*access point: the centre really does need to do some work on helping those with mobility problems to be able to get into the building more easily.
Wednesday, 20 April 2011
The campaigns here in LE2
Readers will know that here in LE2 we are having a number of elections culminating in the May 5th vote. By far the most interesting is that for an elected mayor for Leicester. I think there are 13 candidates with a wider range of experience represented among them. Although the (now former) MP for Leicester South, Sir Peter Soulsby is standing for mayor it is not going to be a shoe-in. The Tory, Ross Grant, seems reluctant to get the gloves off and the Liberal Democrat, Gary Hunt, seems low key. There is a business man standing as an Independent, with sponsorship by local boy Englebert Humperdink, who has to be taken seriously as he clearly has a forceful personality. One of the candidates, an 18 year old school boy, makes a good impression and, although he is not going to win, is clearly someone to watch in the future. Think of William Hague at 16 addressing the Tory conference. Our young man is Asian, bright and not given to displays of silliness. Poor UKIP, they chose an 18 year old young woman who has not been seen in the debates, so far.
Tonight the spotlight falls on the LGBT centre where the candidates come to meet the gay communities of Leicester. Watch this space.
Tonight the spotlight falls on the LGBT centre where the candidates come to meet the gay communities of Leicester. Watch this space.
Monday, 18 April 2011
Threat to Equalities Act PLEASE RESPOND BEFORE THURSDAY 21ST APRIL
It appears that the Government may be considering changes to, or perhaps the scrapping of, the 2010 Equalities Act. For further details see
Sunday, 17 April 2011
How many voting papers on May 5th?
This must be something of a local record. On May 5th we have votes for the AV referendum, the mayor, an MP for Leicester South and for local ward councillors. For those in the Labour Party, this has already followed weeks of canvassing for those wishing to be selected as official candidates for the Mayor and then to be the candidate for Leicester South.
A new house party game: ask visitors to explain the AV system of voting. As a warm up, we ask for an explanation of the off-side rule. Success at this does not ensure success at explaining AV but it is fun.
Next, who will be the first elected Mayor of Leicester? There is little apparent enthusiasm for such a departure with a number of the candidates announcing that, if elected, they will work for either the end of the post or for a referendum on such a post. The candidates, or some of them, have been making themselves available at 'hustings' (more correctly, Q&As) at various venues. The BBC staged one such at (the) Curve and there will be one at the LGBT centre. What is unclear is how many candidates will absent themselves from this and other so called 'hustings'. The Gay Centre meeting will be instructive if it reveals the extent of candidates' awareness of conflicts between sexual/gender minority groups and religious groups with homonegative agendas. Does ONE Leicester include LGBT people? If so, where or how is this represented in city council literature? The BBC meeting at Curve was allegedly 'representative' of the demographic of the city. It was unclear how this was achieved.
The election of a new MP for the Leicester South constituency is made necessary by the resignation of the sitting Labour member, and former leader of the city council, Sir Peter Soulsby. The local labour party chose Jonathan Ashworth as its candidate. The liberal democrats have chosen a local man who is campaigning against the labour candidate on the grounds that he comes "from Mansfield". Parochialism knows no limits. We await the depths the campaign may plumb in the next few weeks as the lib-dems attempt to defeat labour. It would be dangerous for anyone to assume that the seat is in the bag.
Meanwhile, local would-be councillors are busy knocking on doors, well some are. When the tory man came round here, we were pleased that he took the time to listen to our concerns even though he was aware that there were not likely to be any votes for him here. We will be pleased to see the lib-dems to ask what is meant by their 'anti Mansfield' campaign - is it official party policy?
Watch this space
A new house party game: ask visitors to explain the AV system of voting. As a warm up, we ask for an explanation of the off-side rule. Success at this does not ensure success at explaining AV but it is fun.
Next, who will be the first elected Mayor of Leicester? There is little apparent enthusiasm for such a departure with a number of the candidates announcing that, if elected, they will work for either the end of the post or for a referendum on such a post. The candidates, or some of them, have been making themselves available at 'hustings' (more correctly, Q&As) at various venues. The BBC staged one such at (the) Curve and there will be one at the LGBT centre. What is unclear is how many candidates will absent themselves from this and other so called 'hustings'. The Gay Centre meeting will be instructive if it reveals the extent of candidates' awareness of conflicts between sexual/gender minority groups and religious groups with homonegative agendas. Does ONE Leicester include LGBT people? If so, where or how is this represented in city council literature? The BBC meeting at Curve was allegedly 'representative' of the demographic of the city. It was unclear how this was achieved.
The election of a new MP for the Leicester South constituency is made necessary by the resignation of the sitting Labour member, and former leader of the city council, Sir Peter Soulsby. The local labour party chose Jonathan Ashworth as its candidate. The liberal democrats have chosen a local man who is campaigning against the labour candidate on the grounds that he comes "from Mansfield". Parochialism knows no limits. We await the depths the campaign may plumb in the next few weeks as the lib-dems attempt to defeat labour. It would be dangerous for anyone to assume that the seat is in the bag.
Meanwhile, local would-be councillors are busy knocking on doors, well some are. When the tory man came round here, we were pleased that he took the time to listen to our concerns even though he was aware that there were not likely to be any votes for him here. We will be pleased to see the lib-dems to ask what is meant by their 'anti Mansfield' campaign - is it official party policy?
Watch this space
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