Faith in Life = Responsibility

Whilst Londoner Gerard Vowls, 47, was not able to disarm the 3 London Bridge terrorists who were eventually killed by 8 armed police officers firing 50 bullets he did affect their slashing and stabbing trajectory by distracting them with shouted taunts and thrown objects. He could have gone back to the pub where he was watching the Champions League final or gone home. But he could not. Instead he risked becoming a fatality at the hands of the terrorists or caught in the police gunfire as was one unfortunate person. Gerard could not turn his back as he saw women and men being coldly stabbed. He called the terrorists “cowards” and faced them.

Gerard took responsibility. He responded instead of avoiding. He faced reality. Taking responsibility means the ability to respond, it does not guarantee success.

What is your individual responsibility and can you take it? The worst, deepest existential death is to walk away from taking responsibility that you know is yours. Instead a person fills their life with pseudo-responsibilities, meaningless distractions and fake problems. If the mainstream media is able to sell fake news then it is in part possible because the human brain can be wilfully turned into a reality-avoiding fantasy factory.

Join ‘You Can Have Your Life Back’ for a live exploration or book a live stream of the video Replay.

Posted in Gerard Vowls, London Bridge Attack, London Bridge Terror, responsibility | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

No More Fake Profiles. Mark Zuckerberg and FaceBook are you listening? Like, share and comment if you are.

 A simple FaceBook post revealed the unvoiced concerns of ordinary FaceBook users that they want an end to endless spam, scams and catfishing of FaceBook’s criminal underbelly. Here is the post:
https://www.facebook.com/dave.oshana.enlightened.spiritual.teacher/posts/1324553287555062

FaceBook – a scammer’s paradise?

FaceBook has become overpopulated with spammers, scammers, catfishers and criminals. Let FaceBook know that you are want fake profile spam and catfishing to be detected and banned. Like and share this post. Keep FaceBook safe. Write a comment here like "I want a safe friendly FaceBook not a crook’s paradise". Let Mark Zuckerberg and FaceBook know your wishes. Stand together. Make your own voices heard. Let it start here today.

F = Fail! FaceBook could detect and ban scammers quickly but are failing.

FaceBook has the technological and computational resources to detect fake profiles that use fake pictures stolen from the internet of real people. FaceBook knows when someone shares a spam adverts selling Rayban sunglasses, sex toys, loan shark financial services, porn video images and links and dangerous "Nigerian 419" money scams.

FaceBook – Silicon Valley became Porn Valley

FaceBook could detect pornographic photos that break FaceBook’s ToS (Terms of Service). Why then does FaceBook wait for FaceBook users to complain when they could act as soon as a porno pic is uploaded? And why does FaceBook’s compliance investigations department fail to recognise obvious fake accounts? I know about actual cases where stalkers have created multiple fake profiles using photos that are too "good to be true" professional photos of celebrities and athletes. FaceBook can detect that the con-artist used the same computer and internet connection to create the multiple fake accounts because FaceBook is data-mining.
I reported to FaceBook a pornographic video image that was posted on my wall by a fake FaceBook profile. FaceBook reviewed the profile and reported that it did not break their ToS. Had FaceBook not viewed the porn video image as enough cause to ban the fake porn spamming account?

Fake Profiles Galore. Where are all the true friends?

I get over 100 FaceBook friends per day. I cannot accept all of them. I don’t want fake profiles. It wastes a space that could be taken by a real spiritual seeker desiring Awakening and Enlightenment. I sometimes do not have time to check all the FaceBook friend invites that I receive. I have over 700 friend invites to review. FaceBook has a 5000 friend limit.

Friends: Help me find you!

It would be helpful if spiritual friends send me a message so that I can see their friend invite. It would be helpful if spiritual friends show their spiritual interests in their profile description, public wall posts or cover photo. Then I can identify and accept them quickly.
I want real seekers as friends. Please invite friends who you know have spiritual and personal development interests to friend me – if you believe that they might be interested. Let’s fill our 5000 FaceBook friend quota with sincere friends.

FaceBook – a massive social profiling data mining intelligence gathering project?

Some people believe that FaceBook does not want fake profiles.  But a contrary opposing view is that FaceBook is performing experiments on its captive users so that they can fully profile their mind and behavioural patterns (evidence of this has been reported in the media).

Welcome to the Skynet future: Not FaceBook but FaceBorg!

Your habits are your real and are used to generate a hidden FaceBook profile, your true human identity, that could be used to drive a massive Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) program, just like the Matrix. FaceBook is full of so many fake friends that it starts to feel like an unreal dream. Some call it “FaceBorg” (a cross between FaceBook and Terminator Skynet cyborgs). Just add some Virtual Reality googles and you will be able to live in a world populated by surrogate fake friends and mafia owned script-kiddie pimped-out ‘bots’. Is this the FaceBook future?

< Mark Zuckerberg please take care of your 1 billion+FaceBook users? Could you spare 2 minutes and maybe 2 cents to comment?

Posted in Catfishing, FaceBook, Facebook privacy, Fake, Scam, Spirituality | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Protect from Dangers of EMF, WiFi, GSM, Cell Phone Radiation

EMF radiation is hazardous to your health, mental, emotional, hormonal development and functioning. Radiation exposure can cause headaches, insomnia and nerve pain.

Do not live near or work cell phone masts and repeaters. Many tall buildings especially in urban areas and by the side of motorways have EMF repeaters on the roof and the side of the building.

Unfortunately, cell phone repeaters have been sited next to schools.
Create a distance between yourself and EMF devices such as mobile cell phones, WiFi enabled routers and modems, DECT hands-free phones, games consoles and controllers (XBOX, Playstation), microwave ovens and Smart phones.

Disable where possible using software configurations and hardware switches WiFi and Bluetooth devices such as headphones, speakers, mouse and keyboard, printers, laptops and computers, iPad and iPhone, modems and routers, car Bluetooth connections (for phone and MP3 audio.

EMF/EMR that goes through walls can be reduced by 90% by using layers of aluminium baking foil (toxic to use in cooking but effective in reducing toxic EMF).

Posted in DECT Phones, EMF, EMR, GSM, Health Dangers, Health Risks, Insomnia, Nerve Pain, Radiation | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Protect Your Teenage Girls From HPV Cervical Cancer Jab

Does your teenage girl or relative think that she must have the HPV  (human papilloma virus) immunization injection? Is she worried?

Teenage girls report fainting spells following “the jab”. Is it safe?

Despite threats and pressure – this still insufficiently tested drug is not mandatory. many teenage girls refuse it when they realize that they have the choice to say “no”. Woman can make their own choices about what happens to their bodies.

How safe is the cervical cancer jab? Five teenagers reveal their alarming stories By RACHEL PORTER  05th April 2009
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1167803/How-safe-cervical-cancer-jab-Five-teenagers-reveal-alarming-stories.html

 

 

Posted in HPV, human papilloma virus, immunization | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Facebook Policy Change Vote Mechanism Failed Browser Security

Under pressure from a German law student Facebook have had to allow European Facebook users access to some of the data which Facebook have been gathering about them.

Facebook wanted to change their privacy policies again but declared that they would not if 30% of their membership voted against it. How likely is it that even 5% of all Facebook accounts ever created are active?

Facebook’s voting mechanism did not partly work unless browser security was dropped and security plugins disabled – even then it did not work. Was the vote simply another Facebook data mining opportunity?

See Max Schrems and Europe Vs Facebook

Posted in FaceBook, Facebook privacy | Tagged , | Leave a comment

True Friends Encourage You to Leave Facebook

Dear friends,

I am leaving Facebook – forever. I will exit some other dodgy sites in due course and let you know about it.

If you do not mind having your identity stolen, your computer hacked and sending out viruses to your contact list, your bank account cleaned out, your house burgled, going to court for expensive purchases which you never made and having children stalked by pedophiles through tracking their cell phone location then you do not need to read further.

When it comes to protecting your privacy you probably shrug and unthinkingly declare that you have nothing to hide. If that were true then you do not have a life, even homeless people have something to protect.

I am leaving Facebook and invite you to do so. You will probably postpone – I did. Some of you will procrastinate so long that you will be dead, Facebook will inherit your living memory in the form of your data: words, photos, videos and correspondence but more importantly your daily habits, preferences and choices. Facebook knows you better than you know your self. You cannot yet see it.

If you want your Facebook data then you cannot have it – unless you are European. You cannot insist that Facebook delete your data from their servers, unless you are European, but even Europeans cannot be sure that Facebook will comply. Your absolute privacy has never been protected by Facebook, it breaks their business model. You are an unwitting cog in huge marketing and advertising machine which will chew you up and spit you out because you are not the real customer, data-miners are. Data about you are is sold to businesses, governments and unethical enterprises and ultimately ends up in the hands of highly organized criminal gangs.

You are not safe today nor tomorrow. Years later, Facebook might sell photos of your naked party romps, or your birth, without your permission to just about anyone. You will never get a penny of Facebook’s billions.

When Facebook is not selling your data it is giving it away through Facebook Apps, deliberately poor privacy controls which are hard to understand and bad code which can be hacked and used to distribute viruses.

Your intimate communications and media can easily be all over the Net, bait for budding stalkers to archive, share and index, and then pick off your friends and family at their leisure with the handy geographical and cell phone tracking information which Facebook slurps up into its huge database.

Like tobacco smokers who refuse to believe their health is in danger, some of you tell yourself that Facebook’s motto is “do no evil” – which of course it is not. That dubious motto was designed by Google for itself. Being hopelessly naïve is a membership requirement of the masses. Only individuals think, and think independently.

An incomplete list complaints against Facebook:

  1. Your data is owned by Facebook
  2. Your data is not secure
  3. Your data is sold
  4. You have not been alerted to the various uses of your data
  5. You data is not portable. It is locked into Facebook’s structure
  6. If Facebook changes its policy, mission or goes bankrupt then you lose your friend network and data
  7. You are being data-mined
  8. Your FB presence creates a naïve impression that Facebook is innocent and harmless – and lulls your friends into a false sense of security
  9. Facebook’s mission is to get everyone in the world onto Facebook and provide an identity passport to all other sites. Facebook would have access to your other sites. Facebook Apps would have access to your identity which means they could access your accounts on other sites
  10. Facebook, like Google, tracks your surfing across innumerable websites and Facebook uses Google CAPTCHA
  11. Facebook insists on knowing who you are. Anonymity is not allowed. The new rules to open a Facebook account are that your must supply your cell phone number or, failing that, your government ID, photo and address.
  12. If Facebook cannot know who you are then you are excluded.
  13. Dissidents, those who protest against tyrannical or unfair regimes, have no protection on Facebook and risk having their network rounded up and executed. By being on Facebook you are helping to do the dirty work. No innocent bystanders and all that.
  14. Facebook requests your email account passwords so that they can spam your contact list. They should delete these passwords but hackers who cracked their insecure servers liberated the passwords and spread them on the internet. Is your email password now in the possession of internet scammers?

The Solution to not getting shafted by Facebook

The solution is to remove your data from internet giants such as Facebook and Google and move it to decentralised, privately owned servers. This can be done in stages.

Leaving Facebook?

Delete all your data first and leave a dummy photo behind. Remove all tags to you, private messages, wall posts, events, likes, fan pages, forum discussions, connect logins. There are apps that do that but they would risk your friend’s privacy, so delete as much as you can manually.

If you are in Europe there is a Facebook button to request a file of all remaining data which Facebook has. Check that nothing has been left behind.

If you use Facebook Connect (which I have not) then delete Facebook’s access to your accounts on other sites and find alternative credentials.

When all data is gone, and you have communicated with your friends about where they can find you, then you can delete your account. Deactivating your account is not the same as deleting it. Nothing guarantees that your data it is not in some psycho’s underground bunker waiting to deployed at the end of the world, F-Day!

I am leaving Facebook in stages. I have no need for Facebook. I might keep my account open only to tell others to leave Facebook. I will state that friend invites will not be accepted.

I resisted joining Facebook for several years. An account was made for me. I asked for it to be deleted. I joined Facebook to take a look and stayed. An omen, as I was joining Facebook, someone who I knew was leaving Facebook – forever. I wanted to leave, my “friends” wanted me to stay. Facebook is not for rats, they know when to leave a sinking ship, but for sheep who cower together wanting to be culled.

I had been told that Facebook was good for networking events. I disagree. Facebook is full of unavoidable clutter and useless spam which wastes valuable time to wade through and sort. Event promotion on Facebook is unproductive, and, for me, unnecessary. My own site list is infinitely better at getting targeted information to people who actually want it. I do not need a daily overdose of plagiarised poetry, schmaltzy pop-art, naïve app surveys and game scores. Facebook has no focus . The latest Facebook outrage is that you anyone can join you to a group which contains nothing but spam which will then fill up your email inbox.

Conclusion: Facebook is a waste of valuable time unless you like looking at photos. Whilst Twitter is the on a lower run of internet spam hell, Facebook is only fraction above it.

You can find me on my own site. A domain which I own. My site will not track you, serve adverts nor implant hidden beacons or virtually impossible to remove EverCookies on your computer. It is simply wrong that companies monitor your surfing habits. You would not like a stranger watching you, so why allow a company to do it?

In the future, we will all have our own sites. We will have our own decentralized social network when we choose to link and syndicate – the architecture already exists. You will not place your data in the hands of unethical and unscrupulous operators who will sell you and your grandmother’s grandmother down the river.

You can always find me and find out about me at DaveOshana.com. My domain. My design. No spam. No adverts. No third-party cookies or JavaScript.

You can read endless complaints about Facebook – you should learn them if you know someone who uses Facebook – like you. Facebook keeps changing its policies and architecture. Seek updated advice if you want to ensure proper and full deletion of your Facebook data and account.

Facebook does makes account deletion neither easy nor obvious. This was found on a website, not Facebook:

“To actually delete your account you have to visit this link after you log into your FB account.
http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account

Remember: True friendship is getting your friends out of the infernal, incendiary tower of Facebook Babel before they get charred alive.

The first article below, “10 Reasons To Delete Your Facebook Account” is an absolute must-read. Well-argued, quick to read and the comprehensive:

Finally a word from my sponsor Michael Jackson: i always feel like somebody’s watching me

Posted in daveoshana.com, FaceBook, Facebook privacy, FaceBook Virus, KooBFace virus, Leaving Facebook | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

H1N1 Vaccine Child Narcolepsy Pharmaceutical Lottery

Shocking but not surprising on the Finnish news tonight.

20 Finnish children had been reported to their doctors with symptoms of narcolepsy after being injected with the H1N1 vaccine.

h1n1 vaccine narcolepsy

h1n1 vaccine narcolepsy


A mother in my teaching group reported on Facebook that her child had sleep problems 2 days after being injected with H1N1 vaccine. She advised other parent’s to consider carefully if they would do the same for their child.

So today’s big question is: Who wants to play H1N1 vaccine pharmaceutical lottery with their child’s life?

Posted in H1N1 vaccine | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Why I am (still) on the notoriously bad Facebook (but not “bad” in the relatively respectable Michael Jackson sense of the word “bad”)

I said I was leaving Facebook. I didn’t leave but I have been inactive, which is worse because my presence on Facebook adds a silent air of credibility and consent to Facebook’s unethical intelligence gathering and data-mining operation.

I did take a break though and ignored the continuous stream of begging e-mails from Facebook to look at this thing, that thing and some unknown stranger’s ting-a-ling.

Have you counted how many types of spam Facebook sends you?

You don’t even have to be registered to get Facebook spam. They manage to find your very private e-mail address. How? By gate-crashing your friend’s address book and keeping it. Yes, it’s called stealing. Worse, they pretend to be your friend inviting you to join Facebook and surrender your contact list. That’s called phishing and it’s a crime. Insurance salesmen call it "referrals" and con-artists know it as "working the mark’s trust network".

Do you love your friends? If "yes" then protect them from FaceBook, don’t push them into Facebook’s abyss. Especially your techno-naive granny who will get a Facebook-specific virus like the kooBFace virus and lose all of her bank accounts and pension funds to the inevitable 419 scammer who will prey on her goodwill by pretending to be a god-fearing person in dire need of money.

Without Facebook, what a glorious month of peace, quiet and productivity it has been and no Facebook clouds on the horizon! No news of the latest Facebook privacy leak. No fear, just ease of mind. Priceless!

I spent most of the time by the water lounging in the hot sun. We get the benefits of global warming in Finland too. The polar bears are sliding in on melting polar icecaps up in Lapland. Come and see Finland meltdown next July!

Life without Facebook is fun!

First Belly Laugh! Then Learn Truth. OK?

It’s been a creative time for the Oshana Teaching. I managed to achieve previously unattainable goals:

So why have I returned to using Facebook?

The answer is right there in the title of Douglas Adam’s "Restaurant at the End of the Universe". It’s the second book in the very funny "Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe" trilogy. Which is not a trilogy at all but in fact 4 books. I like funny. Do you like funny? I bet most of you can can have more side-splitting belly laughs per day than contractual orgasms (the married kind).

I am using Facebook to promote my Transmission Teaching, especially my Live Online classes (every Sunday) and having fun watching the unethical T-Rex of a social networking dinosaur, Facebook, fall to the floor never to get up again because while it as has two good legs it has only puny arms.

I know some of you will laugh at my prediction because Facebook has 500 million Facebook users, reportedly, and rising. It seems that, like Caesar, it cannot fail. Go ahead and laugh, a big belly laugh, and then laugh some more. I will have at least achieved my first purpose in writing: to get you to laugh. Laugh loud and laugh long. After laughing long you might start to see more clearly. Once you drop your fear of losing your Facebook friends (if you lose them then you never had them) you will get what is going on here and everywhere.

I am on Facebook to watch the spectacular firework show as the monstrous edifice Facebook comes crashing down at the end of its dark Empire reign. Truly a Dark Ages for human consciousness.

If that sounds like harsh words then blame Facebook! The new legal defense heard in courts across every land is "Facebook made me do it" – and it will be very true. First, "They" corrupted the world with drugs, then baby milk power/formula, then Coca Cola and now Facebook!

As well as promote Enlightenment, I will spread an awareness of Facebook’s poor privacy practices and search for healthier social networking alternatives which allow you manage your own networks on your own computer. Ref: the fledgling “Diaspora” project.

My main Facebook teaching account will start again to provide spiritual teaching event dates under the Events section:

http://facebook.com/dave.oshana.spiritual.enlightenment.transmission?v=app_2344061033

But, what did I just say? It’s not really MY Facebook account – because Facebook totally owns it. They can cancel it at any time. Did you realise in your wildest dreams that they can lock you out, pretend to be you and play with my friends’ minds forever? Or worse archive your drunken lavatory photos and make them display them in their futuristic advert sing for time immemorial?

I will update you savvy Facebook dwellers about my Free Teaching audio and video recordings (hosted on DaveOshana.com).

BUT IF REALLY YOU WANT TO WISE UP, GO OFF-SITE. GET OFF FACEBOOK!

I would prefer that you don’t visit me on Facebook. Instead visit my real, self-owned websites – where you can get up-to-date information, articles and resources on Enlightenment, Awakening and come to know who you really are. Let’s avoid the unnecessary hassles of messing with Facebook’s poor and buggy pages. They clearly don’t know or care how to code user friendly pages that would actually work.

GET OFF YOUR FACE — BOOK.
You won’t miss it!

Find me for real at domains that I will actually own for perpetuity:

http://enlightenment-now.com/
http://daveoshana.com
http://blog.oshana.org/

PS It will really bother me in the afterlife if I have inadvertently caused anyone to join or remain on Facebook. Please leave now if I was the inciting cause and then take the time re-think your options. It probably wasn’t caused by me though. You were most likely stressed out by all that Facebook spam, fear of missing out and looking like a friendless loser.

Do you now realise that you you have no control over such things?

But you don’t have to be a victim. You don’t have to take it any longer.

There is life beyond Facebook! Trust me, I am a spiritualist 😉

Long Live the Miraculous Enlightenment Transmission!

Posted in Enlightenment, FaceBook, Facebook alternatives, Facebook privacy, FaceBook Virus, KooBFace virus, Spirituality | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Leave Facebook, Find Privacy Alternatives, Protect Facebook Friends

It’s not about me but about you and those that you care about.

I won’t be staying for much longer on Facebook. I do not want friend’s to assume that I support Facebook’s complete lack of ethics for user data privacy.

Facebook data is easy to obtain and could be used to harm individuals and their friends especially in countries under harsh regimes. The value of Facebook has been in seeing friend’s pictorial depictions of their lives. Facebook wall feeds though have been so busy that they are impossible to follow. Facebook gives little and takes away much. Facebook want to own your data including the choices which you have made.

Facebook’s control settings have been frequently buggy, crash or impossible to change (especially privacy options). No one should give Facebook their email password. Once your email account is compromised it could be used for Nigerian fraud scams, banking fraud or spam phishing. Was your password sent using HTTPS? If it was not then a criminal could have it. Even if you sent it by HTTPS then an unethical technician could have sold or abused it. I would not trust Facebook to be ethical nor sufficiently careful given their poor track record.

Facebook has deliberately and suddenly made private user data public.

The Facebook system has been easy to hack. Facebook have, by design, revealed information about user’s geo-location without their awareness. If your bank or email company were this negligent then you would be forced to leave.

I will support safer alternatives though. You can find me in future on my own private network at DaveOshana.com

I resisted joining Facebook for many years. Just before I joined I started to write a blog article about raising concerns about the misuse of privacy and Facebook. In the past year Facebook has blundered deliberately and unconsciously with private user date. I will be posting links before I leave.

Soon after joining Facebook I felt I should leave but others had wanted to do the same had said they would stay because I had joined and was posting. I have enjoyed seeing what is happening with others through their pictures – but you don’t need Facebook to publish on the internet.

I cannot recommend Facebook to anyone.

I don’t need Facebook for my most important life mission: sharing Enlightened Consciousness.

Most people who are interested in my spiritual teaching work have joined DaveOshana.com before finding me on Facebook. Facebook users may have learned about my work via Facebook friends. My opinion is that my presence on Facebook does not bring more attention to my work but gives a false sense of endorsing Facebook. As a person interested in supporting and protecting others I must vote with my feet by leaving Facebook but not without making those reasons clear first.

I encourage you to find social networks that you and your friends can keep private.

It should be possible to set up private networks between friend’s computers using trackerless torrent technology and to have Internet Messaging that does not have to use a 3rd party servers like hotmail, yahoo, skype, etc.

Basically, any company that holds most of your data, could act unethically – and when they are caught red-handed doing it many times over several years then it is time to move on.

My next project will to unhook from Gmail (GoogleMail). I hope there is a similar email product out there.

Blessings,
Dave Oshana
In future find me on
http://daveoshana.com/

Something to Hide?

If someone has something to hide – and people certainly do for a variety of reasons – like client confidentiality then they cannot expect Facebook to respect the need for privacy.

However people tend to naively trust web providers. As I wrote it’s particular dangerous to have your network exposed when a political regime changes – as I know full well happened in Argentina when people burned their address books. The world has not changed. This is one stark example.

It’s also insecure when Facebook users give their email password to Facebook especially if they use internet banking. These are flaws with Facebook’s way of operating that could have been remedied.

Disturbing reading about Facebook privacy violations (just a few examples):

If you understand the risks and consequences and still choose to stay with Facebook then check out this Facebook privacy settings plugin for Firefox:

  • http://www.reclaimprivacy.org/
  • Nothing can protect your Facebook data except leaving Facebook! Find safer alternatives. Protect your friends.

    Posted in Enlightened Consciousness, Spirituality | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

    The Matrix Meltdown at Christmas: Real Goodwill

    I received an email from a writer who complained of feeling “out of it” and disconnected from her family this Christmas. What’s a girl supposed to do?

    It comes as no surprise. One day the whole world will stand in wonder how they got duped by the Christmas marketing myth. (It’s going to be a long wait; we have to save the economy first by buying more state lottery tickets!)

    My point is nothing so unsubtle the common statements made by the regular debating crews of Christians, pagans, atheists and Jehovah Witnesses like “Jesus was not born at Christmas. It’s a pagan festival and the Bible prohibits trees to dress up.”

    We all know that Santa Claus, while bearing a resemblance to W. C. Fields, is not a living person who flits down from the North Pole every Christmas and merrily breaks into homes to deliver presents to sleeping parents. Every 5 year old knows that. So why keep up the pretence?

    A number of forces keep Christmas in place the most dominant of which is marketing. I am sure that if businesses did not promote Christmas then it would come and go, as unnoticed as, some of the other festivals on our calendar. In England that would be May Day. Except for a few curiously dressed men in shorts and white socks, British people, do not indulge in dancing around the phallic maypole banging sticks together with gay abandon. I would not be surprised to hear that they do that in Holland where they still wear wooden clogs and where the name for Santa Claus comes (or nearby Belgium, borders have changed).

    I gave up Christmas at the age of 17 to avoid meat eating. I headed out to an ashram and even there got a gift of Christmas – a pair of socks of course! It’s easy to feel that Christmas is some alien event when you have never, like some cultures, experienced it.

    Picture a bunch of sad people, wearing flimsy paper crowns made of 1-ply government issue waxy toilet paper, staring at a turkey’s ass on the table, gobbling goose carcass until they are stuffed, and drinking unto totally drunk because they cannot really communicate or socialise. The giving of presents is a momentary pleasure which can be fraught with embarrassment or disappointment. The biggest stress is negotiating the perilous Christmas crowds and being assaulted by hypnogogic Christmas jingles and ho-ho-ing Santa’s with dubious job histories. Christian carol singers have somehow bought into the Christmas myth in an attempt to bring the unfaithful to church and justify church taxes. In Finland, nearly everyone is automatically taxed by the Lutheran Church of the former Swedish occupation. These Finns believe, unchallenged by the priests, that they are Christians if they sing at Christmas in church. Instead of singing carol’s for pennies on the streets, these church chorists should be singing songs of hell, damnation and revolution against the materialistic masses.

    There are very few myths left but Christmas by the collusion of the church and big businesses advertising creating guilt if you should deliver presents on any other day.

    Instead of having an unreal Christmas have a real holiday.

    DO:

    Respect that that it is winter. Go for walks. Snuggle up early. Light candles and making twinkly things. Being loving, compassionate and kind – not just for one day but all year long.

    DON’T:
    Work. Shop. Cook all day.

    Give presents on another day – and be a bit unpopular – or leave a message on your answer-phone saying you are in China and will be back in the New Year. You then can give presents to whom and when you want. Christmas as Sting recently pointed out is about winter

    Posted in Big Business, Christ, Christmas, Finland, Jesus, Matrix, Religion, society, Spirituality, The Matrix | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment