SCAPEGOAT

SCAPEGOATING IN THE LIGHT

Our societies have wakened up to the fact that Australian award-winning journalist, Julian Assange, has been used as 

a SCAPEGOAT to cover up and distract us from investigating war crimes and crimes of governments which Assange, Wikileaks and Chelsea Manning exposed.

As we know, Julian Assange is incarcerated, charged by the US under the 100 year old Espionage Act. He was condemned by powerful governments even before any trial began.

Isolated in Belmarsh max security prison in London, he is refused the means to defend himself and is the recipient of years of public smearing and mobbing.  The years have played a toll on him. His friends fear his life is in danger.

He awaits his final hearing for Extradition to the USA, where he will face a secret court and will not have a chance to defend himself.

Chelsea Manning is still in prison in USA in spite of having had her sentence commuted by Barack Obama. 

Truly, a horror story.

In the ancient story of the SCAPEGOAT, it was believed that Peace would return to the land and the community would flourish once a scapegoat had been blamed, killed or expelled.

However, in order for this scapegoating mechanism to work, it must be UNCONSCIOUS.

The victim must not be recognized as an innocent scapegoat but as a vile entity who/which has done something awful and deserves to be punished.

When a society wakes up and becomes CONSCIOUS of the fact that the scapegoat is innocent, then it can no longer make use of the scapegoat - The “spell” is broken.

People all over the world know the truth:  that Julian Assange is a true journalist, a hero, a gentle soul who deserves recognition for giving us the Truth.  He is not  any of the 

 “vile human being”, “traitor” tags that were assigned to him by people who were using him as a scapegoat to cover up their misdeeds. 

When we know something of the myths and stories handed down to us by our ancestors, we can begin to understand the UNCONSCIOUS ELEMENTS that run through our lives and that of societies.

 

René Girard (1923-2015) explains that it was believed 

the death or expulsion of a scapegoat would bring  

                      PEACE TO THE LAND.                                 

Philosophical Anthropology - or - What it is to be human.

Please see Section 3: The Scapegoat Mechanism

www.iep.utm.edu/girard/#H3

It is an interesting read.  Girard also covers the Biblical perspective which is well worth reading.

I doubt that the death or Extradition of Julian Assange will bring PEACE TO THE LAND.

 

It is obvious that neither Assange nor Manning can be considered a SCAPEGOAT. They cannot continue to be punished to assuage the crimes they exposed. 

It is the public’s right to know about these crimes and wrong-doings.  Would you choose to go back to ignorance? Not me! 

Thankfully, darkness can no longer exist when exposed to the light.

Julian Assange must be given his freedom, compensated for all his losses and returned to his family. The same must be done for Chelsea Manning.

Shona Davidson November 14^th 2019

Margaret's Choir - The Littlest Conductor

Strangers are friends you haven't yet met.

August 6 2017

I am feeling very happy because I am having some home improvements done on the outside of my house. It  is beginning to look less sad and more cared for.   However, I would not have thought, until now, that there would be any other positive effects.

I was talking with one of the workers….I’ll call him Dan.   He was giving me information about what he was doing, replacing some rotting wood of the fascia under my roof.   At the end of his work-day, I decided to ask him about himself.   He told me he was from Ethiopia and that he had been in Canada for about three years.  I also learned that houses in Ethiopia are made of concrete and not at all like ours in Canada.  Dan enjoys what he is doing and finds that he is never short of work for renovations or carpentry.

Then I asked if he had family here.  His eyes immediately lit up and, with a big smile,  he told me he had a wife and a son who was three years old. His wife was pregnant, due to deliver a little sister for his son any day now.  I saw the joy in his face and immediately it brought back memories of when my own son was three or four  years old and I was waiting for the birth of my little girl. In an instant,  I was transported back to that time in my life and was able to share the joy he was feeling.  We were connecting as friends and I had genuine understanding of his happiness.

Dan probably did not realize he was giving me this beautiful gift of his joy and enabling me to bring back my own happy memories.   I hope it worked both ways and that his day was made a little better by sharing his story with someone who wanted to listen.

It is amazing to me that, because I decided to ask one little personal question, I made a new friend  and the result was that my day was more joyful too!  What a nicer world it is when we take a chance to open up to a stranger and that stranger becomes  a friend.



There is something quite spiritual about this encounter,  although, on the surface, it seems like such a small thing   A connection between people can happen in an instant.  I know that it happens all the time but sometimes, in our busy lives, we fail to notice.   I am glad I noticed.
 

Expo 67 and Canada Day 2017

Why Canada Day is special to me in 2017

This is my first attempt in writing a blog but I could not let this time pass by without recording my memories of a very special time.

Fifty years ago today,  July 1, 1967, I arrived in Montreal in the middle of the biggest celebration I had ever seen.  Expo 67,  The World Fair was in full swing.  The city was jumping with visitors from all over the world.  The world was an exciting place and Montreal was the centre of it all!

Having emigrated from Scotland a few weeks previously,  my former husband and I were ready to start a new life together.  We were young,  married less than one year,  with starry eyes and ready for unknown adventures.  Anything seemed possible and it seemed like Canada echoed our beliefs. 

I had arrived in Hamilton, Ontario on June 10th,, saddened by having said goodbye to my parents, sisters, family and friends back home and a bit apprehensive about Canada and my new home.  Little did I know that the world as I knew it would quickly change. 

I was gob smacked when I saw this country.  There were wide highways and roads for huge cars and it was normal for everyone to have a phone.   It was so easy to get around and I’d never experienced such a warm sun. The overhead electrical lines and garish advertising billboards were so different to what we had in Scotland.

My aunt and uncle from Hamilton made us very welcome.  They had arrived as emigrants from Scotland many years before and knew what these newcomers were feeling.    I remember lots of laughs and happy times with auntie Cath and uncle Stan and their two children, Marlene, and Robbie, in the few weeks that we stayed with them.   I remember being taken to Stoney Creek for ice-cream. I had never heard of  a banana split!  It was a taste of heaven!   My aunt took me to the market where there were fruits and vegetables that I could only have dreamed of in Scotland.  I was then introduced to the plague of new immigrants:  the mosquito.   Huge weeping blisters appeared on my legs and arms.  This would continue all summer as my immune system was making adjustments to these tiny critters.  They were fierce, not a bit like Scottish midges!  

After a few weeks in Hamilton we headed for Montreal where my husband had found a job.   We had packed up all our belongings:  a trunk (which I still have) containing our wedding gifts and a couple of suitcases. We were more than ready for our next adventure.

And so it was that 50 years ago today on a Saturday, that we arrived, tired and hot,  with no booked accommodation, in Montreal on July 1, 1967 right in the middle of a World Fair!     

Here are a few photos from my time at Expo 67: