Slave traders

At last an acknowledgement on the BBC that the Atlantic slave trade was not solely the responsibility of Europeans, but that Africans themselves provisioned it, that the slave trade itself was already in existence when we arrived and that it survived until the second world war despite our attempts to suppress it. You may notice however that the article reads more like the speech of Mark Anthony than an apology for any part played in the trade.

If it is true that the Nigerian ancestors who “sold slaves…should not be judged by today’s standards or values” why should Colston, Rhodes and Baden-Powell be so judged?

Now, and Coco’s comments are not in Mark Anthony tone, do not think that he is suggesting that the involvement of the African justified or excused our actions, but as it also tells us in this article the eradication of slavery was quite difficult as cultural and social attitudes had to be changed. That battle took place for us towards the end of the 18th century and by the early nineteenth had been largely won by the dedicated perseverance of Christian and other members of our society. The battle must continue today as men will continue to drift from the ethos which teaches that we are all created equal and must all stand as equals before the living God for judgement, as Paul reminded the masters of Colossae, a city in the Roman empire where slavery was commonly practised, Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven.


There are other resources available on the African slave trade, this is one on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQETbqyKHng) which has been available for many years. It speaks of the greater suffering of the African slave in the non-Atlantic slave trade, and suggests why it is that the evidence of the Atlantic trade is clearly visible today whereas the evidence for the other trade has been obscured.

Listen, watch and weep.

My Nigerian great-grandfather sold slaves


The legacies of colonial slave-traders are being reassessed, but what about the Africans who profited?

A matter of wind

In the days of lockdown one of our pastors thought Philippians would be a good place to be. Lockdown proved to be longer than that, so where then do you go? To that great and exciting book of reflections, the book of the wind or breath, no, not the Acts of the Apostles but the preaching of the Preacher, Ecclesiastes. PeteT asked for a profile, but what does a profile matter now? Three years ago it did a little; ten years it was worth something; twenty, thirty years ago surely it was something which we polished up now and again. The Preacher reflected: it was all wind or heavy breathing.

The lockdown is an enforced reflection, not to mention an opportunity to go through forty or more years of papers among which a Poisson distribution dated 8·11·73 on ticker tape had been secreted. Coco has promised himself, no longer having access to a ticker tape reader, that he shall scan it and attempt to decode it, but that is probably not the only type of promise Coco shall break without consequences. In the following reflection a profile may perhaps be discerned, as you will or not.

Continue reading

Carrots

Carrots are vegetables

Facebook seem to think that the post referenced here was in some way offensive for Coco, for one, can no longer access it.
Perhaps it really was to logicians, but Coco thought the argument had some merit, albeit small and inappropriately aligned, but to say offensive? To whom? Coco suspects this appropriately misaligned commentary will also be deemed offensive.

  • Carrots are vegetables, and
  • Black lives matter.

The two sentences are not comparable. One is a statement about the properties of carrots or an example of what the property vegetable is, the other is a political statement, the result of the condensation of a political manifesto or agenda into three words.

Of course additional words are required in order to explain what the political statement means. Should the first word be All, Most or Some? Does Black include brown, tan, olive, red, yellow – should Coco go on? If black only means black Coco understands, but if it means more than black why would it not also include pink? What does Matter mean? ‘Has value’ is probably what is implied.

… almost finished, two more points which are perhaps the most controversial. Is ‘Black lives matter’ true in the logical sense of true? I would suggest that those who hold this doctrine believe it is not true. They declare a contradiction. They use the slogan only because black lives do not matter and so declare an untruth.

Now please do not understand Coco, that was the penultimate point. The last point to make here is that the slogan lacks a reference point. In most cases where someone declares ‘It matters’ There is a preceding context which makes clear the meaning and to whom ‘it’ matters. ‘It matters to the customer, the boss, usw. ‘It’ is the Zanies’s hook and belt without which he cannot do his work. It matters to him, but not to Coco who would have no idea how to use it anyway. So this is the final point, to whom do the black lives matter to which this slogan refers? As Coco has said, there would be no need to say this if it were true, but it is not; black lives apparently do not matter to some. Who are the some to whom they do not matter? Coco leaves you, dear reader, to answer that question.

But let Coco affirm, just as carrots are a vegetable, Coco can use this slogan in a different way than intended: Black lives matter to God who made all men in his image, and because he has made us in his image men of all shades should treat every other man with the full respect that they expect for themselves. If you prefer to believe Darwin’s disciples rather than God then it is clear that you have no grounds on which to rest your case and claim that black lives matter any more than covid-19 virus lives matter. Sadly, we have not obeyed the commandments of God, we treat him with contempt; is it then a surprise to you than we treat other men badly? But God is not willing that we should perish, but gave his only Son to die on a Roman cross for our sins that we might be reconciled to him. Believe this and you shall live, and in Christ there is neither slave nor free, Jew nor Gentile, Greek nor Barbarian nor even Scythians we are a new one nation in him.

With apologies in advance for errors of syntax, orthography and grammar which may be found embedded in this document whether arising from oversight, incorrect application of language packs or generally any other misadventure; and in general for any offence given inadvertently or inappropriately or both taken or not taken by those whose sensibilities, whether grammatical, orthographical, moral or simply personable, have been offended whether, not or if you have not incorrectly misunderstood the content, intent, meaning and purpose of this article, and to those whose copyrights may have been inadvertently or wantonly infringed, but never as to cause damage the copy holder’s rights, and, if you have managed to read this far, for any errors or omissions whether wilful, unintended, innocent or deliberate in the content of this polemic, and with thanks to you who have made it thus far for your patience.

Black but comely

Do those words cause offence? Is it the sort of thing you should shout out in the streets these days? Does it make you think of skin colouring? There are many skin types from black through browns, olives, yellows, reds, pinks, pales to white. If Coco have missed any please tell me [off?]. Please do not think that Coco has forgotten about frogs, fish, flora and feathered friends whose colourings are far more vibrant than our own. Does it make you think of complexion? A dark (to submit to modern perspectives on the matter, but Coco really means black) complexion is much more robust than a pale [white] one and longer lasting. But it is not just skin colouring that is in view here.

One of my friends declared after a wonderfully warm and dry spell in Canada: I am black! Well if your first language is not English perhaps you do not notice the similarity in the words but in Spanish soy negra (which also happens to be close to the colour of the sauce) you would, and so may be forgiven for the declaration.

And perhaps this also gives you a clue as to what is being said in the opening remark.

If this had been said in the modern age then this is what the young lady would have written to her friends perhaps through the medium in which you are now reading it, or perhaps on a better known social media platform, (and if you are not reading it well, what can I say? You would not even know that this had been written anyway) whilst on her holiday in Tenerife or Lanzarote, but they were said three thousand years ago, albeit in not too dissimilar circumstances. We find them towards the beginning of a play which antedates even the surviving plays of the Greeks by just a little short of five hundred years.

At the beginning of a play, as we were being introduced to her, one of principle characters made this declaration to her teenage friends. We do not know what her complexion was, though perhaps it is likely to have been an olive shade, but we do know how she had come to say: I am black! She herself tells us that the sun had scorched her, as one of the translators puts it. We would say tanned. She was a farmer’s daughter and worked in the open air looking after her brothers’ vineyards (under duress) rather more than her own. Her exclamation and explanation tells us that the events here are taking place in the summer months possibly around or towards the harvest time for grapes.

She was a farmer’s daughter but in the manner picked up, but toned down also, by Disney was to become even more than the Disney princess. Without giving a spoiler the story also ends in a different place than you would expect the Disney story to end. So the timing of the play is also introduced to us, the events then unfold for us over a period of perhaps as long as three or four years. The stage directions have either been lost or not preserved depending upon your perspective on the matter so it is not entirely possible to be certain of them, but there is enough in the text to settle most of the possibilities. Now, it is not at this time I want to say any more about the play, but hope to return to it in the coming days (it is not possible to return to it in the preceding days you will take careful note).

Now you may wonder what a story about a teenager who had been sunbathing has to do with Easter weekend. Well nothing really, but we all make many allusions, correlations which have no actual basis or causation, but does it matter? In scientific (in the general sense) enquiry, yes of course it does, but not in literary works, you only need to read Lucas or Adams to understand that.

Now for those of you who missed your trip to Lanzarote, Tenerife or just St Davids, and longed to have been able to write home to say those opening words to your friends but have been unable to do so, and for you who merely read the opening words just to skip to the end and for those of you who have managed to climb this far, it is in common parlance Easter time:

The Lord rose from the dead on the first day of the week having fulfilled everything that he had been sent to do, having carried the just wrath of God, paying the penalty for our sin, lying in the grave after the manner of Jonah in the belly of the whale, therefore God has highly exalted him that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Let us worship him.

Pray!

Pray? Did I hear you say?

When did you last hear that said? We were reminded of that this morning. In these days of quarantine what do you do?

The Lord Jesus told his disciples that they too should go into quarantine. Those of you who have no interest in tax or law please skip the next paragraph. Those of you who do, please correct me. It does have a remote significance to the point I have to make, but skipping it will not harm.

Coco came across some notes of a discussion on charitable status which contained the following reference; for the purposes of obtaining tax relief, you would expect that a religious group would not find any difficulty in obtaining such a status. However the RC Carmelite Priory which housed a contemplative order, devoted to prayer, and therefore quarantined was found not to be charitable as the public benefit provided was not susceptible to legal proof, which the court required in order to act. Lord Greene did not argue that there was no public benefit but that the benefit could not be proven and without proof of benefit you cannot move from the position of being non-beneficial. That there is public benefit in private prayer is, as we shall see, without contradiction.

In the sermon on the mount, which you will know starts with the beatitudes: Blessed are the poor in spirit, etc the Lord goes on to say, just after the section dealing with charitable giving and good works where he says: Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing: when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room [quarantine yourself], and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place (Matthew’s gospel chapter 6).

When we are going to pray we are enjoined by the Lord to hide away in our own room away from others. It is there that we make our requests known to our heavenly Father, who hears us. Are we in our enforced quarantine making use of this opportunity to hide away and make our requests known? In times past our leaders have exhorted us in times of national distress to pray. We live in a day of international distress, do we hear that call today, or have some of our leaders lost their way?

The Lord went on in the sermon to say: your Father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly. Openly, in plain sight, in public that the benefit of your praying might be felt by all. Paul wrote to the Philippians (my paraphrase): For I know that through your prayer taken on by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance.

Coco wrote this before the Queen’s speech this evening. It was good to hear her words about people who pray. Coco asked, should he change any of this? Perhaps, perhaps not….you may judge.

But we, let us pray and seek the Lord that he may have mercy upon us and upon our land. It will be costly. If you will approach him you must have clean hands and a pure heart, and who of us can say to that I do? But he in Jesus Christ will provide that so we may come to him in Jesus’s name and he shall hear us.

Lockdown

Coco has been clearing out for shredding old files which have lain in loft space for twenty years….not much changes apart from the writing technology. The attached picture is a scan of the opening paragraph of a letter sent to him in the ember months of, Coco thinks, 1987 but it may have been ’86 or ’88.

It was written using a typewriter as you will be able to tell by the imperfections in the corrected letter i printed in white ink. Who remembers those typewriters?

Coco does not remember the reason for that lock down, and shall not tell on the two who broke it. It will now take East German technology to put the document back together. If you recall what caused the lock down and for how long it lasted, do, please, provide an extended discourse on the matter in this forum.

Thank you.

A great and terrible plague

When David counted

It occurred to me the other evening, or perhaps it was morning, evenings and mornings rapidly roll into one another, that after David had conducted a census of the people that there had been a plague, the proportions of which I could not remember. It is recorded for us in chapter 24 of the second book of Samuel. In the light of the pestilence that faces us I thought I should look it up.

David in conducting a census had done wrong, not because the census in itself was wrong but because David had succumbed to pride, pride in his own rule of Israel, and pride in Israel. He had forgotten the Lord. He understood this no sooner had the partial results of the census been delivered to him and he sought forgiveness. The prophet Gad came to him to offer him three things: famine for three years, war (and defeat in battle) for three months or plague for three days. David did not make a choice, but rather fell on the mercies of God and asked of Gad that he fall into the hands of the Lord rather than the hands of men. So the matter was settled and the land would suffer three days of plague. In three days seventy thousand men died. It is fair, I think, to assume that these were fighting men as the census was only of the number of them. The count had been around 1.2-1.5 million. In three days about one in twenty had died. That was quite some plague.

On the third day Gad instructed David to build in Jerusalem an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of a gentleman called Araunah. This David did. He paid a good price for the land and its equipment and offered there burnt offerings to the Lord. The Lord heard David’s prayer and at that time the plague was brought to an end. The destroying angel was told to restrain his hand and return his sword to its sheath.

We understand that the land which David bought would become the site of the temple which Solomon built. A thousand years later another sacrifice would be made on a nearby hill which would stem an even greater plague.

David had forgotten the Lord. In the pride he had in his achievements he turned away. The Lord is however merciful, and David was brought to repent, though it was not to be without no cost to his people. David threw himself upon the mercy of the Lord, and in obedience and reliance upon him offered an appropriate sacrifice. I am not one who looks into the book of Revelation and to say: Oh look, this is this and that is that. The trumpets sound, and the bowls are poured out. We live in a world where the trumpets sound each day – John Dunne put it:

Never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.

Plague and pestilence are neither novel nor unexpected, but the severity of them may be. We are faced with a severe plague, perhaps not so severe, though we have only seen the beginnings of it yet, as the great plagues of history, and nothing yet like the pestilence that David saw, but do we hear the trumpet in the plague? Do we hear the warning? Or are we like David so proud of our own achievements that we forget the Lord? The trumpet is sounding, but we still are not woken up. We only need to look at how little notice many have taken of the warnings of our governments to see how little notice is taken of the trumpet sounding.

David’s sacrifice did not actually stem the plague in his day. It was the mercy of the Lord that brought it to an end. But David’s sacrifice did prefigure the sacrifice of the one who now sits upon his throne, the Lord himself our Jesus, the Messiah. I mentioned that above that that sacrifice would stem a greater plague, the plague that has a hundred percent mortality. It is this plague that causes us to forget him, that causes us not to want to know him, that causes so much destruction, despair, and damage in this world, in our own lives and in other people’s lives by what we do and say. It is sin. Jesus died at the hand of both Jew and Gentile for the sins of the world. That he rose from the dead confirms that his sacrifice was accepted and we, you and I, may have peace with God and eternal life in him. And more, we can look forward to a resurrection like his, where we shall receive bodies which do not suffer the weaknesses of our present bodies.

The pestilence is sounding its own trumpet to us. When it has passed there are many here today who may not be here then, but before then, will we hear the trumpet and look to the one who can stem the plague?

God can justly show mercy and provide forgiveness to sinners.

A cross word

The other day Coco was looking at a cross word which contained at least two quite interesting words. The first letter of snow leopard was the third letter of a sailing vessel. Now Coco does not often have occasion to use the word sloop, but it set him thinking about related words. Slope is one. Have you ever wondered why English spellings appear to be so difficult. If however you listen carefully then you may notice some subtle distinctions which account for the differences in spelling which we often find.

Sloop and slope have very pure vowel sounds. There is a very clear oo, a long o (Coco shall not go into the phonetics of this, but shall leave it to those who are far better qualified than he in those matters) and there is a short o. But what happens when you take the L away? We have two collections of letters which do not form proper English words at all: soop and sope. However, did you also notice that when you tried to say these two words you told yourself that the spelling was incorrect. The words make sense but only when spelt differently: soap and soup. Did you also notice a slight change in the pronunciation? Try it again.

With the one there is the impression in the short o of the sound of water sloshing around, which is quite appropriate given the purpose of the substance, so you have the very slight diphthong o-a: so-ap. In the second, and this perhaps reflects what we have lost but is still apparent in the social etiquettes of some societies, for example in Japan, the inevitable manner in which a so-up must be eaten or perhaps more properly be sucked up into the prandial orifice. Again there is a soft diphthong present, though not as soft as the o-a of soap, oo-u and so we say soo-up.

Now Coco is not saying that the diphthongs are strong, though perhaps in some English (the language he hastens to add not the country) dialects they may be stronger than in others, so perhaps in Brummie, Glaswegian or Liverpudlian some of these diphthongs will be more pronounced than elsewhere. Coco hesitates to mention Geordie as they are either unlikely to have a need of the one, would never dream of swallowing the other or have their own completely different words unknown south of Jarrow or north of Gosforth for the two.

Coco mentioned that there was an interesting association with the letter L, which with a little thought you will find elsewhere. The presence of L produces a pure vowel sound, If you misspell sloup and sloap you will hear it. The slight diphthongs disappear. Perhaps this is to do with the placement of the tongue, as you will recognise in words such as pool and tool. Indeed if you work though the alphabet, ignoring the vowels of course, you will quickly understand this. These words have very a very pure long o:

Boule – this is of course the French spelling of the word as it is imported. The French do not have the same orthography as the English. The correct English spelling is bool.

Cool

Drool – Coco has to introduce the r as we have no word dool.

The next word requires no introduction as it is wonderful, a cool and drool description of anyone who has managed to read thus far and not remember that it is now April:
Fool.

Gaudeamus

Preparation for Gaudeamus

Having prepared the ground, which is obviously what you have to do before any building work is undertaken, Coco was dismayed to realise that the short version of a long story could so easily be misunderstood, by those whose minds are of a geometric, not to say rectangular, nature, where the tall version of the short story could be considered to be equal in meaning to the former if one were to think in two dimensional terms of course, and then of course one would have to wonder what the long version of the tall story might be or even the short version of the tall story, not of course forgetting that there would even be the short version of the short story, however thinking in two dimensional terms is alien to story telling whether it is of the long, short or tall kind as story telling can only take place in the one dimension which is of course the fourth, for it is not the space on paper which determines the story otherwise even War and Peace would be considered a short story if only it were printed at 0,1pt, but rather the impression made by it through the eyes or ears upon the neurones and across synapses over time, and with that in mind Coco shall close this post and progress to the presentation of the short version of the long story in the time it shall take for you to wind a piece of string into a neat ball.

Rant deferred

Have you noticed, a rant is relatively easy to produce, but have you ever thought that a rant is about as useful for the settling of the thoughts, or the removal of phlegm from the chest as a lump of sugar, which may provide the brief and passing, even less than ephemeral, notion of a greater strength and enthusiasm in the muscles than you know you have on a hot day half way through the marathon when what you really need is a glass of salted water to replace the fluids and salts than have for the past hour been flooding out of your gaping pores as if there were tomorrow?

It is the light of this thought that Coco resolved not to rant today but to prepare for you a short version of a long story* about the first Viennese school. Coco only has a few minutes now, but hope ere the weekend is over to have been able to prepare the said tale for publication to those who may have a small interest in it. In any event, it is not now an opportune moment in view of the affairs of state currently being discussed**. Coco would not want to distract you from consideration of these otherwise important matters by his little tale.

* The story had been published here before it was elsewhere, hence the inconsequentality of the dates.

** Something to do with a unilateral declaration of independence by an island off the north coast of France.