Hello all my readers

Back from two weeks of sun and lazing in Malta. Had a great time and used my Kindle seriously for the first time!
The Return of the Exiles, Book 2 of my fantasy trilogy has now been edited and will appear on Kindle in the near future. You can buy Book 1 The Teacher of the Rombuli through Amazon now!
I'll be back to posting on my blog when the laziness wears off!

A conversation with myself about faith!

Somebody said something to me which caused me to think deeply about the nature of my faith. She were talking about a friend. He is one of the most gentle, honest and Christian people she knew. He tried more successfully than anybody to live out the spirit of the Gospel. Now he has terminal cancer. He is in pain and tries even now to be cheerful. What my friend asked was where is God in this. Indeed , she asked, where is God in such a strife ridden and evil world.
It is very hard to answer all these questions. It is very hard to retain ones faith in the light of these happenings. However, Jesus never offered a perfect life for everybody. If God has given us free will, we cannot expect Him to interfere all the time. Another thought is that a great deal of the strife caused in the world is man made. God, in my mind, did not order anybody to crash planes into the twin towers. God did not order soldiers to bomb or kill other humans whether other soldiers or civilians. Transport accidents are caused by human error whether from the operators, the crew or the designers and builders. Even starvation in the world is to a large extent man induced. It is solvable if only we had the will to solve it. If the same amount of resources was deployed in getting help to starving people as is deployed to rain bombs onto innocent peoples heads, the problem would be readily handled. Even natural disasters have some element of mans culpability. We have the know how to be aware of where the danger lies and to mitigate the likely effects of the danger. Usually greed nd corruption play a big part in those in authority ignoring the danger signs. Again, if everybody paid their fair share of taxes including the rich who get away with things, governments would be able to afford more socially cohesive policies.
As most religions exhort their followers in some way " Do unto others what you would have them do to you. Or Love thy neighbour like yourself. If the peoples of the world followed the maxim of love and sharing, many of the problems of the world would disappear.
There seems to be a need in most people for some form of spiritual background to their lives. Let us all try to live up to those ideals of the main religions and make the world a better place.

As this extract from my novel A CEREMONY OF INNOCENCE shows.

" Do you still go to church when you are at home? " Karen asked as they climbed the stairs to her bedroom. " I can't recall you going to church while you have been at the university."

" Yes I still go sometimes when I am at home though I think it is more out of loyalty to mum and dad than out of any true conviction," Jim observed. " It is pleasant for us all to go together as a family."

He lent against the bedroom door frame for a moment lost in thought. "Actually, I suppose it is not only out of loyalty to my parents. There is something about going to church on a Sunday morning that attracts me as well. I can't really explain what I mean to anybody else. Let’s face it. Most of my friends would wince if they heard me talk like this. When I walk through the door of the church after shaking hands with the elder, a sense of peace descends, a peace that has nothing to do with the people in the church or with the building. It is something to do with the atmosphere in the room. As the elders and the minister come into the church preceded by one of their number carrying the bible, a feeling of expectation fills the air. It is not the same excitement and expectation which fills a crowd at a football match but a sense of being part of something far more important than mere earthly problems. There is a joy in the hymn singing that does not accompany even the most popular songs. It is as though the congregation is uplifted by their singing and the music, as though they truly believe in the words they are singing. During the prayers, the silence is such that you could hear a pin drop. There is this feeling that all would be well in the world if only everybody would listen to the message. It is strange for an iconoclast like me but during the communion I have felt the presence of somebody else, inside but outside of me so to speak. I know most Christians are sinners during the week and saints on Sunday but they do attempt to follow their creeds. So you see it is not only out of a sense of loyalty to my parents which makes me go to church with them while I am at home."

Karen looked at Jim, her eyes wide with a sense of wonder. " I have never heard you talk like that about anything before."

A Ceremony of Innocence 

by 

Edmund Gubbins 

can be purchased through     Amazon or downloaded via Amazon to Kindle, iPad or PC.

Disrupted Concert

What were the Palestinian supporters thinking of when the interrupted the concert at the Proms by the Israeli Orchestra. One of the first things we have to learn in life is do not alienate those that support you. I soon learnt this at Grammar school. Even in the second year I was the smallest in the school. Therefore I had to make sure that I did not get bigger children against me. Coming back to the concert. This was a cultural event which many people had paid a great deal of money to listen to the music. I can understand if it was a speech by the Israeli Prime Minister. In fact I would be the first to stand and protest. All the demonstrators have managed to achieve is anger from many people who support their cause.
It reminds me of the Muslim demonstrators at Wooten Basset when they tried to boo the coffins of dead soldiers. No matter what they or anybody else thinks of the war in Afghanistan, and many ordinary British people do not support it, they have to learn to respect the dead soldiers who were only carrying out the orders of the politicians.
Palestinian supporters must learn when it is prudent to protest and wjhen the very protest goes against all the sympathy they wish to engender.

( In my book An Ordinary Life, Tom alienates the Vice Chancellor of his University many times. The VC and many of the other professors are jealous of his wealth and suspicious of how he came to be so wealthy. They wait for an opportunity to " get him". That arises when he is arrested by the police though released without charge and is forced to take early retirement.
This novel is available through Amazon.)

Over inflated egos.

Were does Alex Ferguson get his sense of being above mere mortals. There is no doubt that he has been a very great and successful football manager. In addition within the Man United football club he is in charge. He does not get questioned or get criticised. There is evidence that when somebody be it a player, fan or member of the administration asks awkward questions, that person is moved on.
It is the same for all people who think they are so brilliant and gain power. They feel that they are above the ordinary crowd. Any criticism is seen as a personal slight by people who are not worthy to be questioning their actions. All dictators are like this.
The FA should ignore any complaint from Ferguson and deal with him like anybody else in football. If it was some lower league manager making the comments he makes, they wold be fined and banned. Maybe it is that he still suffers from siege mentality. Let us have no more special treatment for Ferguson from now on.

(In my fantasy novel The Return of the Exiles, Book 2 of the Rombuli Saga to be published on Kindle in the autumn, the Duke of Marrinet has these attitudes to other what he sees as lesser mortals.

The old man looked sharply at Edward.  " Do you practice magic young man?"

Edward frowned and then shrugged his shoulders. " I would not say I practice magic, as you call it. I seem to have an in built power to do certain things that most people find impossible."

Boric reproved his friend. " Be careful Tag. You are embarrassing Edward. Now, your Grace, we were talking about the war and what happened."

The old man ignored Boric. " I have never met anybody who dealt in magic other than a member of the Covenent in all my dealings with the Empire. Oh, some of the priests from the Temples of the Sun God say they can do magic but I have always suspected that what they do is more tricks of sleight of hand than real magic. What can you do?"

Edward stared at the old man for a long time before replying. " This is not meant as a snub but I do not think that is any of your business."

For the first time since they came into the room, the old man sat up straight in his chair and glared at Edward. " When I ask you a question, I demand an answer! "

Edward rose from his chair and confronted the old man. He ignored the sharp intake of breath coming from Boric and signalled for Tag to remain seated. " Look old man, nobody demands to know what I can do with my power, not even Nelvask my teacher. I do not come from your estate or your country. Therefore, I am not one of your fawning sycophantic subjects. You may be able to demand instant obedience to your commands from those people but not from me. I can do things with my power and that is all you have to know. If I have insulted your sense of social class by being blunt with you, I am sorry but I am not used to being spoken to like one would to a servant. If my attitude towards you makes you feel I am not welcome in your house, have your servants load up my horses and I will find a place to camp until Boric and Tag are ready to leave."

Book 1 The Teacher of the Rombuli is available for download at Amazon.)

Loyalty.

Looking at the television at what was happening in Lybia set me thinking about the subject of loyalty. What do we mean by Loyalty?
In Lybia bit appears to mean blind following of a leader who to most reasonable people was a tyrant, a bully and a megalomaniac. Yet despite all that, to these people he must have had some charisma which makes them so loyal even tough it is obvious that the end of his dictatorship is at the end.
On a very shallow level I have a similar dilemma on Saturday. For 25 years I have supported Leicester City with my son. The problem is that when I was young I went to my first football match with my father at the old Dell to see Southampton. Some of my earliest memories are of Saturdays getting the bus full of excitement. Of the feeling of elation if they won or dejection if they lost. I can still the headmaster 's voice when he warned of the grave consequences if any boy bunked off school to see Stanley Matthews and Blackpool in a cup replay. ( No floodlights in those days so it was afternoon.) ~Half the school must have been there! Then the time I sneaked down from the Baltic Vanguard in Surrey Docks to see them with out telling my parents. Who should I meet on the way back to my car but my father. But my son, daughter and I have great memories of following Leicester City. Again there has been the elation and the depression. Wembley and the third division ( League 1 nowadays.)
On Saturday what will I do. Support the blue shirts I suppose but a little bit of me will still feel for the red and white stripes.
Then there is the idea of loyalty between the fans and the players. Nowadays there are not many players who are loyal to their teams. They are all mercenaries out to make as much money as they can. Contracts mean little though that is not entirely the fault of the players. If a team wants to cash in on a player they will sell him without any mention of his contract. Managers express their undying loyalty to the club and then leave the next week. Owners pledge their confidence in the manager  and then sack them the next day. Where are the Steve Walshes. the Terry Paines. the Mat Le Tissiers these days?
So what is loyalty? It is easy for me to pontificate about loyalty in terms of football but it must be hard when it involves life and death.
(My book Brotherly Love a Thriller obtainable for downloading from www.smashwords.com explores the loyalty question when a brother involves his sibling in what appears to be dubious actions. Should the sibling stay loyal to his brother or turn him in to the authorities? It is a story about fear, of somebody out of his depth in a world made strange to him by events he cannot fully comprehend. It is a novel about Ken Flood being pulled by family loyalties along paths of experience which would be best left unexplored.Ken Flood lives a quiet life with his wife, Doreen, and two daughters in Plymouth, working as a lecturer in the University. He minds his own business and is relatively happy with life. Until, that is, his brother Norman arrives unexpectedly one day asking for help.Norman works for the government or so Ken assumes.  What his brother asks appears to Ken to verge on an attempt pull him into the murky waters on the edges of crime. Ken has to decide quickly whether to help his brother out of brotherly love or let his brother face his unknown pursuers alone.Reluctantly Ken agrees to help and soon finds himself outside the law, being chased by people he does not know, trying to deliver a mysterious package, given to him by his brother, to a man he has never met in London Along the way there are chance encounters with people who through friendship are willing to help.) 

Warning!!!

Warning!!!

A question which has been bothering me for most of my adult life but has now more than ever been placed in sharp focus. Events in England over the last thirty years have made the answer imperative for our society to answer. 

Is it right that somebody who does nothing but dish the dirt on other people earns hundreds of thousands of pounds a year while a fitter and turner in a factory which creates wealth earns twenty thousand pounds a year. In addition those who earn vast sums live in this clique which looks after their own. They close ranks to exclude outsiders. When one of them is found wanting in moral fibre or truthfulness, the rest deny any knowledge of what was going on. Andy Coulson and his Oxbridge circle is a case in point. You cannot convince the bulk of the hard working population that those in authority did not know about what was going on. Yet after he left the News of the World not only did they employ him on a vast salary but turned a blind eye to his payoff and continued hush money from News International. The very people who say they did not know about this are the same who are running the country. Can there be any doubt why certain parts of our society have no faith in the common aims but think that they have to grab what they can.

There is a history in England stretching back to the middle ages of ordinary people getting so angry at the disparity in wealth between the elite and the rest that they rise up in protest. Though in the main the authorities win, the system usually has to change.

Are we now living through one of those periods? That there is a wide disparity in wealth and responsibility in this country there is no doubt. We have to learn the lessons of our history and somehow curb the worst excesses of those with power and wealth.

Where though is the Labour Party? The ranks of this political movement are now full of those coming from the same Oxbridge background as all the others. They laugh behind their backs at John Prescott but he worked for a living. Alan Johnson is sneered at in the newspapers which are run by members of the same clique. What is the difference in the Oxbridge mafia looking after their own and the gangs in the estates looking after their own. Gangs do not have the levers of power to pull or their weight of public opinion formers to keep their territory to themselves  but they have a strength in violence against other gangs. Is there any difference other than in the methods used?

If we are not careful the ordinary citizen will rise up in revolt against those with the power and the wealth just as over the ages English people have done.

( This theme is explored in my novel A Ceremony of Innocencewritten under my full name of Edmund J Gubbins. It can be obtained through Amazon both as a paper back or for download to your PC, Kindle, iPad or other readers.)

Warning!!!

A question which has been bothering me for most of my adult life but has now more than ever been placed in sharp focus. Events in England over the last thirty years have made the answer imperative for our society to answer. 

Is it right that somebody who does nothing but dish the dirt on other people earns hundreds of thousands of pounds a year while a fitter and turner in a factory which creates wealth earns twenty thousand pounds a year. In addition those who earn vast sums live in this clique which looks after their own. They close ranks to exclude outsiders. When one of them is found wanting in moral fibre or truthfulness, the rest deny any knowledge of what was going on. Andy Coulson and his Oxbridge circle is a case in point. You cannot convince the bulk of the hard working population that those in authority did not know about what was going on. Yet after he left the News of the World not only did they employ him on a vast salary but turned a blind eye to his payoff and continued hush money from News International. The very people who say they did not know about this are the same who are running the country. Can there be any doubt why certain parts of our society have no faith in the common aims but think that they have to grab what they can.

There is a history in England stretching back to the middle ages of ordinary people getting so angry at the disparity in wealth between the elite and the rest that they rise up in protest. Though in the main the authorities win, the system usually has to change.

Are we now living through one of those periods? That there is a wide disparity in wealth and responsibility in this country there is no doubt. We have to learn the lessons of our history and somehow curb the worst excesses of those with power and wealth.

Where though is the Labour Party? The ranks of this political movement are now full of those coming from the same Oxbridge background as all the others. They laugh behind their backs at John Prescott but he worked for a living. Alan Johnson is sneered at in the newspapers which are run by members of the same clique. What is the difference in the Oxbridge mafia looking after their own and the gangs in the estates looking after their own. Gangs do not have the levers of power to pull or their weight of public opinion formers to keep their territory to themselves  but they have a strength in violence against other gangs. Is there any difference other than in the methods used?

If we are not careful the ordinary citizen will rise up in revolt against those with the power and the wealth just as over the ages English people have done.

( This theme is explored in my novel A Ceremony of Innocence written under my full name of Edmund J Gubbins. It can be obtained through Amazon both as a paper back or for download to your PC, Kindle, iPad or other readers.)