Updates from India 70

Not many photos this month but will try harder next month.

Please read the comments below, we both feel so strongly that our country is sinking into totalitarianism.

What is happening to the UK?

Those who know me will wonder have I gone all right wing here, no I have not. But I am deeply concerned for the UK, and what it is becoming.

Is there freedom of speech in the UK?

Eamon O'Kelly Jan 11, 2016

No, the UK no longer has freedom of speech.  Paul Mainwood lists in his answer many of the types of restrictions that government may now impose on speech in the UK.  I would like to supplement this by providing some examples of actual, recent cases in which disfavoured speech was subject to criminal investigation and/or prosecution:

An atheist was convicted for placing sexually explicit images of religious figures in the Liverpool Airport prayer room. Atheist guilty over cartoons left at Liverpool airport

Five Muslim men were tried in Derby for distributing anti-gay leaflets. The Crime of Leafleting

A student was sentenced to jail time for posting racist comments on twitter while drunk. British Freedom of Speech Endangered

A Scottish TV personality was subject to criminal investigation for on-air remarks during the Ebola crisis. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-30641705

A college diversity officer (oh, the irony!) was prosecuted for anti-white comments.  Silly English Woman Is Being Charged for Tweeting Rude Things

A reality TV star (whatever that is) was convicted for advocating the killing of children born with Down Syndrome.  Tv star who said anyone with Down's Syndrome should be 'put down' faces jail

A singer was arrested for performing "Kung Fu Fighting" at a beach bar on the Isle of Wight.  Man arrested for singing 'Kung Fu Fighting'

These criminal enforcement actions cannot be redeemed by saying that they involved speech that is "offensive."  The whole point of "free speech" is that it protects expression that the majority of people disagree with or find offensive.  There is rarely any demand for banning inoffensive speech.

Which gets us to a second problem:  Who defines what is "offensive"?  In an age that is characterized by "trigger warnings" and "safe spaces," almost everything is at risk of offending someone with a sufficiently thin skin.  The "Kung Fu Fighting" case illustrates this perfectly (well, perhaps the song offends against musical good taste, but that's a different issue!).

It is the situation in the UK, then, that almost anything you say could cause you to be subject to a criminal investigation, prosecution, and possible imprisonment, as long as someone, somewhere decides to be offended by it.  It does not matter that most people can get away with offensive remarks without being hauled into court; as long as some people are investigated or charged (and these actions are made public), then everyone will be moved to self-censor to some extent.  As further reports of criminal investigations and prosecutions surface, this "chilling effect" becomes increasingly acute.

Neither does it matter that in many of these investigations the defendant is never charged or, if charged, is not convicted.  For most law-abiding people, the stress and expense of defending against criminal charges, as well as the damage to reputation and career, will be punishment enough.  In short, to suppress free speech, the sacrifice of just a few Muslim leafleters or drunken twitterers will suffice pour encourager les autres.

The UK no longer has freedom of speech.

Some other posters have contrasted the current speech regime in the UK with that in the US, where freedom of speech is protected by the First Amendment.  It is important to recall that when the American colonists rebelled against Great Britain, they were motivated by what they saw as the suppression by a tyrannical government of their ancient rights and liberties as Britons.  Foremost among these were freedom of speech and religion.  In the debates surrounding the adoption of the constitution, advocates both pro- and anti- appealed to the authority of British free speech traditions and thinkers such as John Wilkes and John Stuart Mill.  The so-called anti-federalists were concerned that the proposed constitution did not go far enough to protect the people's traditional British rights.  It was to mollify such objections that the  first amendment to the constitution expressly protected the freedoms of speech, religion, association, and the right to assemble peaceably.

The modern concept of free speech originated in Great Britain. It was exported to the colonies, whence it spread (however imperfectly) to other parts of the world.  It should be a cause for universal concern that free speech is now being strangled in the land that once was its cradle.

Tommy Robinson why he was arrested?  Source Fb Tommy Robinson.

The judge stated that Tommy reading the names of the defendants was contempt of court and risked the trial collapsing.

Tommy read the list in the livestream from a BBC article which was already out in the public domain. The list of defendants is publicly available on the court website! If you search google for that particular case you will find pictures and details of the suspects already printed by nearly every national UK newspaper. So what did Tommy do exactly that nearly every other reporter has not already done?

You have to ask yourself the question - why would one reporter outside a court case reading a charge sheet already publicly available across a number of sources suddenly risk collapsing the case?

Have you ever heard of another case where someone was arrested, tried, sentenced and transferred to prison all within the space of 3 hours? No, because it has never happened before.

Is this our Britain anymore? I may not agree with what someone says but I will defend the right to say it. If it offends then I'm sorry but it seems to me that if you say ‘you have got big feet’ someone will be offended. Our society has become super left super delicate and wrong! Will it help if I say I'm offended by the behaviour of our government?

Homelessness.

About homelessness, 57,890 households were accepted as homeless in England

Homelessness is devastating, dangerous and isolating. Source Crisis UK

On average, homeless people die at just 47 years old.

People sleeping on the street are almost 17 times more likely to have been victims of violence. More than one in three people sleeping rough have been deliberately hit or kicked or experienced some other form of violence whilst homeless.

Homeless people are over nine times more likely to take their own life than the general population.

What causes homelessness?

People become homeless for lots of different reasons. There are social causes of homelessness, such as a lack of affordable housing, poverty and unemployment; and life events which cause individuals to become homeless.

People can become homeless when they leave prison, care or the army with no home to go to. Many homeless women have escaped a violent relationship.

Many people become homeless because they can no longer afford the rent.

And for many, life events like a relationship breaking down, losing a job, mental or physical health problems, or substance misuse can be the trigger. Being homeless can, in turn, make many of these problems even harder to resolve.

How many people are homeless?

There is no national figure for how many people are homeless across the UK. This is because homelessness is recorded differently in each nation, and because many homeless people do not show up in official statistics at all.

Government street counts and estimates give a snapshot of the national situation. The latest figures showed that 4,751 people slept rough across England on any given night in 2017 - a 15% increase compared to the previous year, and more than double the amount in 2010.

Last year 57,890 households were accepted as homeless in England. In Scotland, 34,100 applications were assessed as homeless and in Wales 9,210 households were threatened with homelessness.

Food banks, The Trussell trust November 2017

586,907 three day emergency food supplies given to people in crisis in first half of this year, a 13% increase on the same period last year – 208,956 to children

Foodbanks in areas of full Universal Credit rollout for six months or more have seen a 30% average increase six months after rollout compared to a year before

Foodbanks report serious effects of six-plus week waiting period, poor administration and inability of the current advance payment system to support everyone on no income.

IS THIS THE BRITAIN YOU WANT?

Comments by Kris

May has been an interesting month, my birthday and our wedding anniversary, we plan to go out for a meal to celebrate later in the month when we can both relax and enjoy. The restaurant will be Wok by the Lake which serves authentic Chinese food and is very good, been before so know its yummy.

Prior to leaving the UK to move to India Chris made me a promise, that when we got settled and had some spare cash I could have a bathtub fitted in our home. Yey

The solar water heater has arrived

Well at long last we have a bathtub fitted, bathroom needs completing and tub needs to be boxed in but it is very useable. We have solar water heating on the roof and I never thought I’d say this but we have more than enough hot water for two or three baths a day at least. The best of it is the water is free, heated by the sun. We're having to put a cage around it to protect it when the monkeys jump over it on the roof

The large box is my bathtub 

Solar water heater on roof

Solar water heater complete with a monkey cage

The first bath water was run and I had to wait over one and a half hours for it to cool down so I could use it the water is just that hot. We have a tiny en-suite bathroom so fitting a bath in it was always going to be a challenge, but Chris and a friend-sourced just the right tub for me. I can lounge in the bath and soak all my pain away its great.

I also received another gift from Chris a plastic duck and ducklings to go in the bath, a bit twee but now I have them I love them to bits. The dogs are not so sure especially when I make them squeak, they just don’t know what to make of them, very suspicious and nervous at the moment

The wood is to rest my bathtub on as it does
not come with any other fixtures

New shower so I can wash my hair in the bath

.

I was so excited to get in the bath at this point and
it was worth the wait, so relaxing

We plan to have Chris’s sister Amba and the family over on Sunday for food and drinks so that will be fun. 5 adults, 5 kids, 2 dogs and my 6 chickens should prove interesting. At the moment the kids all want to come with Amba when she visits so it will be nice to have them all here at once. We may put the sprinkler onto the garden so they can play in the water as its still mega hot here. There maybe incriminating photos in the next blog watch out Chris I may set the hose pipe on you for a change.

 I keep thinking it’s that time of year when the exam results are out and people are applying for schools, colleges, universities and possibly jobs.

Does education matter, well emphatically I will say Yes but we have to accept that some people and kids will always be creative and practical rather than academic. I want to remind all parents that we should love and support the kids whatever their ability, and not place them under too much pressure to be something they are not. For many kids can’t take the pressure and may think the only way out is to kill themselves. Please don’t let your kids be in that position. I pray we value our children’s unique abilities, help them where we can but support them in their decisions and choices in life. I do believe emphatically in Education, but as a creative person I am lucky that I was into academics too which is quite rare, but I respect those that are purely artistic or practical also. I will always encourage our students to do their best and help where I can, but mental health is just as important as general health.

Chris preparing mangoes
for our mango surprise

Below are some photos of the vintage car museum we visited last month, they look better in the photos than in reality.

Well that's all for this month hope everyone is well and enjoying life

God Bless from Chris and Kris in sunny Udaipur

Updates from India 69

Amazing Grace.

What a wonderful hymn and testimony. Written by a man who was a deep sinner, profane and a slave trader who denied God, what changed him, and why the change?

Many people have written about the life of John Newton, his conversion and his work in the church from that time. What happens inside a man when God is finally allowed in? I cannot answer directly for John, but I can answer for myself.

Mine was a life of violence, drug use (class A) and debauchery, loyal only to those about me that I trusted. These were outlaw bikers, the law being an inconvenience if considered at all. I had no faith and frankly didn’t believe a God could even exist. My training was in science as an engineer I saw the universe as a natural phenomenon. Drugs enhanced my life and women were there to enjoy. Parties, alcohol and violence ruled my life. One of my proudest achievements was to be able to throw a knife and hit what I aimed at. This wasn’t a short spell either it was 50 years.

Many times in those years in days or weeks of distress I would call out that if there was a God….prove it to me, make that tree branch fall, change the wind direction, but he never did. Even if He had then I think at that time I would have called it a coincidence.

Then I went to the USA to ride from West to East with a friend. I rode up the California coast into the great Redwood forests of Oregon and to Lake Tahoe. It was a long climb for the bikes to the top of the volcano that has long been dormant but gives a great view from the top. Here I found the Lord. Not in the view but in the ride down the other side of that mountain. It was steep and twisting with only a few places guarded against the sheer drops beyond the road.

My rear brake failed, then the front burnt out trying to stop, the Indian I was riding didn’t change down well and I was afraid that if I tried I could end up in neutral and make matters worse. The speed increased and the bends came faster until I knew the next one was where I was going to crash. I wasn’t new to this, I had been a biker all my life so I prepared to bail off the bike as it hit the ground. The bend swept at me, I leaned into it until parts of the bike were making sparks on the road and it would lean no further. In front of witnesses at that moment, the bike stood up. I couldn’t let go of the handlebars (believe me I tried!) Against all the laws of physics it straightened up crossed the road towards the sheer drops and STOPPED. This was impossible, no brakes and leaning in the opposite direction, this could not happen but it did. I stress this was in front of witnesses who openly stated what they had seen could not happen. Well, I came off that mountain a changed man. Later that week in a small church I told my story, that day I accepted Christ as my saviour.

I want you to think about what you just read and read the words John wrote. For me life would never be the same. Everything was different, a whole new world about me, a great joy within me filling that part that had been empty for so long.

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far
And grace will lead me home.

It hasn’t been easy, many times I have been tested, my faith challenged but I know that Jesus is always with me and will be as long as I live. I am His servant and I serve with joy in my heart.

The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

  

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

One day I shall go to him not in fear of death but in gladness and peace knowing what awaits me.

I changed from the person I spent a lot of my life as into the person I am now. Now I serve Him in India, my work is among some of the poorest people. I don’t preach, that is not my gift but by example, I hope I show what his love has given me.

When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.

As John says for all time we will sing His praise, praise for what he did for all of us that accept His way. I was literally saved, and then spiritually saved.

If Jesus can save people like me and John, why can’t you be saved? You only have to ask.



A ride to Mount Abu

It had been decided for some time that a ride to the highest point in Rajasthan at 1220mtrs was a good way to get my back used to riding again. Kris can’t ride with me for a while so this seemed the ideal time. The ride was good and the scenery fantastic. I rode with a good friend Peter and stayed at his aunt's home.

She runs a small school (live in) and is a super person. I met Peters cousins and generally had a great time.

Rode home again the next day with no back issues. Glad to be home, it’s very rare for Kris and me to be separated overnight.

Tea break on the way. 180K

In solo mode

How many animals can you see?

Peter, a good friend who I rode down with.

That's bear claw marks

There are Crocs in that water........fancy a swim!

That's a volcano in the background. In fact, Mt Abu is a huge extinct volcano.

Home produce

20Kg of Mangos stoned and turned to
pulp.
Step one of our mango wine production

Kris can now make our own really nice bread.
the next one is multigrain.

Comments by Kris

Yet another busy month seems to have flown by. Chris is still having his anti-rabies vaccinations so I get to stab him on a regular basis, the last one will be on 30^th April. It is reassuring knowing I can administer these without having to traipse to the hospital on a regular basis. Funnily enough, lots of people thought the news that Chris was bitten by a rabid dog was him joking especially as he posted on April fools day, alas no it was very real, and the dog did die.

We have just returned from Ahmedabad in Gujarat the next state to Rajasthan. It was extremely hot, we had some time to spare so we thought we would visit the vintage car museum which had an excellent write-up and apparently had lots to do including a restaurant. Well, you should never believe publicity or advertising. We spent 45 mins travelling by taxi to get there, we were hot and tired so thought ah first stop the restaurant for a cold drink. Simple one would think and no it wasn’t a language or translation problem.

We went in and were presented with the menu, great lots of drinks to choose from but no although they were listed they were not available, so I asked for cold panni (water), again no not available so I pointed to the fridge with lots of bottles of panni inside. Yes panni but fridge was not switched on so water was hot. But we could have a warm coconut milk, yuk not particularly keen especially warm, so we left as we already had warm panni we were carrying with us. The museum was overrated, yes they have lots of cars, not in good condition and you could not see them properly as access was severely limited at best some you could view the front of the car but not the back or they cars in the row behind as it was roped off with many security guards watching your every move. Yes we were told these cars had belonged to the royal family, but believe me they were not in good condition at all. Some had been overpainted by hand badly, and many were incorrect with additions or pieces missing. I was most disappointed as I have a passion for vintage cars. There was a vintage car ride advertised at Rs1000 around £12per person, as the cars on show were in poor condition we decided to forego the pleasure. There’s a vintage car museum here in Udaipur which we have been told is better so we will visit this when we get time.

On a really positive note I got a days painting in when Chris and a friend Peter rode to Mount Abu. I really enjoyed it just did some watercolour practice pieces which turned out quite well. Really looking forward to doing more painting. I have also been practicing making my own bread, it’s a bit hit and miss at the moment as you can’t buy strong bread flour here, but it is really tasty and better than the bland sliced bread you can buy. Chris and I love home made bread and as my hands are not up to kneading we invested in a bread maker which makes things easier for me.

Work has been hectic, we’ve had a university inspection and COA (Council of Architecture) inspection in the last month so its stressful all round. Were still teaching Workshop with the first year and this semester were again teaching Landscape to the third year, so its never dull.

Chris and I often comment on how beautiful the drive is to college and how lucky we are to work in such natural surroundings. Of course its not very green now summer is here it looks kind of barren but come monsoon it will become very verdant again. Its amazing how resilient the plants and grass are to the harsh heat of summer and lack of rain.

Our tomatoes are now at an end, we’ve had bumper crops of cherry tomatoes for which our friends have been very grateful to receive.

I was just thinking over the last week how many people I now know in the city and how nice it is to go to their shops and stalls to buy my everyday needs. It’s like it was when I was growing up in New Brancepeth an old mining village, everyone knew everyone and if you went to the shop they knew you and what you wanted to buy. I now have that here there are many shops I go to where I chat and pass the time of day with the owners and staff, even the stall holders who sell vegetables know me. It’s kind of nice when I haven’t been for a while and they ask if I am ok. I really feel like part of the community and they don’t treat me as a tourist. I know some of their families and have been invited into their homes by many. Some practice their English with me and they help me with my Hindi or I use google translate when it gets really tough but you need to be careful as it doesn’t always translate accurately which can be quite funny. Body language and sign language help too, but they appreciate I try to use Hindi where I can. It’s not so easy as you get older to learn a new language but I will keep trying. (Hum Koshish Ker rahe he- we are trying). I often get offered chai (tea) which alas I refuse as it’s made with cow’s milk and I’m lactose intolerant. I have even been offered chai when I have gone to fill my scooter up with petrol at the local garage. I chat to the guys dispensing petrol about the IPL cricket as I have got very interested in 20/20 cricket here, it’s interesting and not boring like test matches.

At long last I am to get my bathtub, hopefully, more on that next month.

Well, that’s all, for now, hope you’re all well and having a reasonable summer.

Take care and God Bless

Chris and Kris in Udaipur