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Friday 30 September 2022

ANCIENT ISLAMIC PRE-CAPITALISM


             I believe that modern day Capitalism is beyond hope, Please see

              IS THERE A SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE FORM OF CAPITALISM?    

However, the form of pre-capitalism introduced by the Holy Prophet Muhammad and his followers seemed to work well for a while, presumably because it was put under moral restraint and because it incorporated elements of 'pre-socialism'. The terms 'capitalism' and 'socialism' were not of course introduced until recent centuries. It is interesting to read the following WIKI accounts, where the authors seem to be describing 'pre-Capitalism' as 'Capitalism' without taking into account social context e.g. exploitation of the modern-day working class.


                                       




 A market economy was established in the Islamic world on the basis of an economic system resembling merchant capitalism. Capital formation was promoted by labour in medieval Islamic society, and financial capital was developed by a considerable number of owners of monetary funds and precious metals.


                                           CAPITALISM AND ISLAM


Though medieval Islamic economics appears to have somewhat resembled a form of capitalism, some Orientalists also believe that there exist a number of parallels between Islamic economics and communism, including the Islamic ideas of zakat and riba.[Others see Islamic economics as neither completely capitalistic nor completely socialistic, but rather a balance between the two, emphasizing both "individual economic freedom and the need to serve the common good."[14] Others point out that Islam has an inherently capitalist nature and argue this most through respect for private property as the foundation of capitalism in Islam, as well as the historical fact that the Prophet Muhammad was an entrepreneur, a merchant



                                                                      



                               EARLY ISLAM AND THE BIRTH OF CAPITALISM


Early Islam and the Birth of Capitalism proposes a strikingly original thesis; that capitalism first emerged in Arabia, not in late medieval Italian city states as is commonly assumed.
Early Islam made a seminal but largely unrecognized contribution to the history of economic thought: it is the only religion founded by an entrepreneur. Descending from an elite dynasty of religious, civil and commercial leaders, Muhammad was a successful businessman before founding Islam. As such, the new religion had much to say on trade, consumer protection, business ethics and property. As Islam rapidly spread across the region so did the economic teachings of early Islam, which eventually made their way to Europe.
Early Islam and the Birth of Capitalism demonstrates how Islamic institutions and business practices were adopted and adapted in Venice and Genoa. These financial innovations include the invention of the corporation, business management techniques, commercial arithmetic, and monetary reform. There were other Islamic institutions assimilated in Europe: charities, the waqf, inspired trusts, and institutions of higher learning, the madrasas, were models for the oldest colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. As such it can be rightfully said that these essential aspects of capitalist thought all have Islamic antecedents


                                                       CRESCENT CAPITALISM


                                                                


                                                   BOOK BY MAXIME RODINSON


                                                                                    



                                EARLY ISLAM AND THE BIRTH OF CAPITALISM


                                          Benedikt Koehler, a neo-liberal economist, is a member of

                                the Acton Institute . Neo-liberalist economists focus on capitalist profit,                                    

Friday 16 September 2022

REVIEW OF "THE BURNING GIRLS" by C.J. Tudor

                                                               

                                                                             






                                                  GOODREADS




                                                                           




An unconventional vicar moves to a remote corner of the English countryside, only to discover a community haunted by death and disappearances both past and present--and intent on keeping its dark secrets--in this explosive, unsettling thriller from acclaimed author C. J. Tudor.


Welcome to Chapel Croft. Five hundred years ago, eight protestant martyrs were burned at the stake here. Thirty years ago, two teenage girls disappeared without a trace. And two months ago, the vicar of the local parish killed himself.

Reverend Jack Brooks, a single parent with a fourteen-year-old daughter and a heavy conscience, arrives in the village hoping to make a fresh start and find some peace. Instead, Jack finds a town mired in secrecy and a strange welcome package: an old exorcism kit and a note quoting scripture. "But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known."

The more Jack and her daughter Flo get acquainted with the town and its strange denizens, the deeper they are drawn into their rifts, mysteries, and suspicions. And when Flo is troubled by strange sightings in the old chapel, it becomes apparent that there are ghosts here that refuse to be laid to rest.

But uncovering the truth can be deadly in a village where everyone has something to protect, everyone has links with the village's bloody past, and no one trusts an outsider.

                                                           

                               WATERSTONES


                               FICTIONOPHILE.COM




                                                      



 “The Burning Girls” by C.J. Tudor – Book Review

  1. Thomas Leonard says:

    A compelling though intricate plot. Maybe too intricate. The ‘mystery’ about Rev Jack was very predictable early on, the details relating to dystonia were unconvincing, and several of the ghosts were unexplained, But overall, a fantastic read

    Liked by 1 person


    • I agree. We must forgive the author a modicum of artistic license.

          Like

      Some favorite quotes from this novel:

      “I remind myself that old age is not a disease but a destination.”

      “Guilt is a little like grief. A cancer of the soul. They both hollow you out from the inside.”

      “We all have our hiding places. Not just physical ones. Places deep inside where we put away the things we don’t want others to see.”

      “Bad memories are like splinters. Sometimes painful, but you learn to live with them. The problem is, they always work their way up to the surface eventually.”

      “We think of love as being unconditional, but very few of us ever want to put that to the test.”

      “I think again how unprepared we are for illness and old age. How we trundle toward it unthinkingly, like lemmings toward the edge of a cliff. The tiny humans we coo over at the start of their lives, we shudder to look upon at the end.”




Thursday 8 September 2022

IS THE QUEEN'S DEATH PART OF A RIGHT WING PLOT? AND WHEREFORE CHARLES THE THIRD?

                                              REFLECTIONS ON THE QUEEN'S DEATH


                                                                Tom Leonard



                                                                     


                                                       BALMORAL CASTLE


The queen died on Thursday at a time yet to be announced, or maybe it was the previous night, or whenever. [ on 29th September 2022 the queen was officially reported as dying of 'old age' at 3.10 pm. See death certificate revealed] Since then the important news about the economy, and about protests and strikes against the new Tory regime, has been knocked off the media by a diatribe of propaganda that will immortalise 'Elizabeth the Great'  into perpetuity. (even though there's lots of adverse reaction in the former colonies). The British population is being told how to think. I have been alive for the whole of her reign, and I see a truly monumental figure and a strong calming influence, together with

(A) Her failure to say anything about Austerity or to abdicate over it. I thought she'd promised to protect all her people, but maybe I was much too naïve. I was a fervent monarchist until about 2012..

(B) Her unfailing support for her armed forces as they helped our upper classes to extract the resources from our colonies and other nations, while, for example, supporting Apartheid in South Africa.

(C) Her leadership of the Church of England and heavy involvement in the Church of Scotland, that are also heavily colonialist. With the exception of some enlightened parishes, these churches tend to be class divisive and not particularly accepting e.g. on LGBT issues.

(D) Far too many palaces, including Balmoral, Windsor, and Buckingham Palace.  Far too wealthy (at least £33 billion, maybe £72.5 billion) much of which came from the colonies.

(E) Several dreadful members of her family, at least two of whom (the alleged child abusers Louis Mountbatten and Prince Andrew) were protected by her to the hilt. Prince Louis (The royal family's much revered Uncle Dickie and the Viceroy of India during the partition) had a long-time propensity for 8 to 12 year old boys in orphanages, at least one of whom later committed suicide. Prince Louis was executed by the IRA in 1979, after being involved in a pedo-ring in Ireland. He was buried, with full ceremony in Westminster Abbey. The Queen and Prince Philip, both shocked and grief-stricken, were in attendance.



                                               


         .


                                                 

(F) The way Princess Margaret's life was ruined by the queen's refusal (while under severe institutional pressure) to let Margaret marry the boyfriend she loved.

(G) The Princess Di/ Camilla tragedy. Diana would have been a truly great queen, but now we've got Camilla.



                                                   




(H) Her support for racist/eugenicist governments in Canada and Australia that have repressed and physically harmed the indigenous peoples to this very day.

(I) The cover-ups during the Profumo/Christine Keeler scandal, which could well have brought down the House of Windsor (depending on which royal personages participated in the orgies in Kensington Palace with the Russian spy Yvgeny Ivanov). There was a joke circulating at the time that 'Christine Keeler had been found dead under the peer.' Everybody knew who the peer in the joke was. He was president of the Royal College of Science at ICL, which I attended as an undergraduate.

(J) The racial prejudice in the Royal family e.g. just prior to Diane's untimely death, and against the Queen's own great grandson Archie (who wasn't made a prince in accordance with a long-standing agreement and who shouldn't be blamed for his parents' follies).

(K) Her support during her reign for her uncle 'the traitor ex-King', the Duke of Windsor, who wanted to rule Britain as a puppet state for the Nazis, and for his venomous wife Wallis Simpson, 


                                      




While I have a vague suspicion* that the queen was hurried along her way (like George the Fifth, Princess Di, and the Queen Mother before her) my major concern is that the media will distort the news so much over the next few weeks, that the Truss regime will be able to get away with all sorts of neo-fascist stuff and further impoverish our working classes, who've felt scared to answer back ever since neo-liberalism set in, in earnest, during the 1980s. It's almost as if the queen's death has been incorporated in some sort of plot.

*Since writing this, a friend has quite independently suggested that the queen could have suffered from a stroke and might then have been given morphine, but this is just a hypothethical construction, Today (11th August) a lady in the choir at my Church came up with a similar suggestion. It has also been suggested that during her last days the queen was suffering from a heart condition (see last picture taken of her hand)

             

             


                                                  Credit: Reuters   

                              Last picture of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth



                                                              



                                       The Queen in Tuvalu in 1982


                                                           


                      


                                                          




                           UPDATE ON KING CHARLES' PROJECTED HEALTH

                                      13th September 2022

Some of my medical friends think that the King may be suffering from congestive heart failure, and that his recent more thickset features could be put down to him taking steroids. Therefore, the Prince of Wales may need to act as Regent, before he becomes King.

A number of Scottish middle aged people do not view Charles kindly because of the terrible way he treated HRH Princess Diana, his beautiful wife before God. It will never be forgotten.

To 'include' Camilla in their marriage generated huge problems for the generations thereafter, and we are all still suffering from the aftermath.

15/9/2022: The King has already 'flipped' and lost his temper about nothing twice in public. He is currently taking 'a day off to rest'. I wonder whether he will make his coronation? In the meantime he has made 100 of his staff at Clarence House redundant, so who gives a fig?

16/9/2022 King Charles has already been booed by protestors in Edinburgh and Cardiff.


                                           


A twenty-two year old, very pleasant man Rory is attacked and arrested
 after a relatively mild comment to the thoroughly deserving Andy Pandy. While constrained in police custody, Rory said " Powerful men shouldn't be allowed to commit sexual crimes and get away with it."




                                             

The police were violent to a young man, arrested him, and charged him, and all for making a relatively mild comment to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (who shouldn't have been allowed to participate in this state occasion following his public disgrace). I regard this as neo-fascism, and I now fear for the future of Scotland.

                                  


                                                        


                               Randy Andy proposes to look after the corgis


Much of the Queen's effective 'deification' has been in large part orchestrated by archbishops and bishops in the Church of England, an institution steeped in child abuse. See, for example, Archbishop Cranmer.com




19th September 2022, 1 pm. I have just watched the entire funeral ceremony in Westminster Abbey.  I wonder what God is thinking? Putting the monarch between the people and their God creates a massive ant/sheep mentality that causes much of the harmful, soulless repression in this world. 

                             

                                                         


                                          ****************************************** 






                                     FURTHER RELEVANT LINKS


FAIRLY COMPREHENSIVE OVERVIEW



MONARCHY AND COLONIALISM




BRITISH COLONIAL CRIMES IN KENYA UNDER QUEEN (VIDEO INTERVIEW)------https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLBAN45QS8g


                                                               




BRITISH COLONIAL CRIMES IN IRELAND UNDER THE QUEEN(VIDEO INTERVIEW)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zglTBGKgD3M&t=491s&ab_channel=BreakThroughNews

                                    
                                                                 










MORE DETAILED CRITICISM

http://pitchforkcosmonaut.org/queen-elizabeth-is-no-cuddly-old-dear/


                                                    




QUEEN AND PRINCE CHARLES  VETTING LAWS(ROYAL CONSENT)



QUEEN EVICTED COUPLE


PRINCES CHARLES HOME OWNERSHIP



ANTI-MONARCHY PROTESTS 2022

 https://www.thenational.scot/news/21272984.two-breach-peace-arrests-made-amid-king-charless-edinburgh-proclamation/

https://news.stv.tv/east-central/woman-charged-with-breach-of-the-peace-after-holding-anti-monarchy-sign-outside-st-giles-cathedral

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/woman-charged-breaching-peace-republican-sign-edinburgh-st-giles-cathedral/

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/protester-arrested-for-calling-prince-andrew-a-sick-old-man

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/video/2022/sep/12/andrew-youre-a-sick-man-police-drag-heckler-from-crowd-during-queens-procession-video

https://www.ladbible.com/news/protester-prince-andrew-sick-explains-20220912

https://www.thedailybeast.com/protestor-who-called-prince-andrew-sick-old-man-during-procession-is-arrested


https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/edinburgh-protester-charged-breach-peace-25003411
https://twitter.com/Lowkey0nline/status/1571087000610148352?s=20&t=beuMn4notKpFjOtJ8ji4OA

Saturday 3 September 2022

INDULGENT SPIRIT: Chapter 7 To Fresh Pastures

                                      

                                      Chapter 7: To Fresh Pastures

                            


           

                            

                                7.1.   The Ascension Chapel 


After taking a circuitous route around the Mu-Sun, Katrina seemed to take ages to

to travel to the Kappa solar system, and President Drew Rainbow lost count of the

days. She  spent much of the time in the suite in the Palace of the Immortals

which she shared with her three spouses, the angelic Angatums Sall and Crisp, 

and on occasion with her lover Chi Kit. 


Both Chi and Crisp enjoyed cheating at chess using sonic beads from Planet 

Magnus to transmit information to their brains about best possible moves. Chi

usually cheated better than Crisp, and was once informed well enough to 

announce mate in twenty-seven. Meanwhile, Drew played Naughty-Naughty

Patience with Sall, a most absorbing card game.


Drew, Sall and Crisp liked taking the omni-tube to the Hanging Gardens of Id,

to visit the Angatum refugees who were camping on the upper tiers of the Ninth

Wonder of the UniversesOne Tenth-Day morning, several of the refugees invited 

the co president and her companions to accompany them down to the Ascension 

Chapel, where the talking animals were celebrating High Mass prior to their

political discussions that afternoon in the gardens. Crisp had forgotten to 

remove his beads following a late night chess game with Chi, which Chi lost by 

forced checkmate on Queen's Rook Eight , but that added to Crisp's feelings of 

pleasure as he entered the chapel.


"Angatums are very welcome here," declared Kim Catworthy, with a probing, 

puma-like sniff. "Why don't you sit with the winged unicorns near the altar?"


The congregation rose and applauded as their co-president Drew walked down

the aisle. Then the unicorns hugged and embraced the Angatums, and invited 

them to sit down amongst them. The minister, an elderly Zebrid from the fourth 

moon of Planet Athanasius, led the hymn singing and presented a homily about 

the Holy Trinity, and his Saviour's, the Holy Zebrid's, last supper before his 

Ascension to Heaven.


Another minister, a middle-aged winged unicorn from Planet Centaur, took over 

during Holy Communion, and Sall and Crisp helped to hand out the bread and

the wine. Then, during the eating of the bread, the Holy Zebrid appeared

above the altar in golden and white striped manifestation, only to be joined by

the silver-skinned Holy Unicorn in full substantiation, her wings spread out

wide as the Messiah of the entire universe.


"There are many ways to God," declared the minister from Centaur, "but she will 

herself remain forever mysterious. To attempt to subdivide her is in itself 

blasphemous."


The Trinitarian minister looked startled at that, but didn't say a thing.


                                 7.2 Crisp is Arrested


"I find it difficult to believe that Ophelia is anything more than either a deception

or a delusion," said Drew, as they were leaving, and Sall and Crisp murmured

their agreement. When the minister from Centaur gave the angelic Angatums 

small gifts, their day seemed made. But they were walking down the chapel steps

when they were approached by two Eaglids wearing green berets, black vampire 

coats, and golden gloves.


The Eaglid with the straight beak flashed his K.M.P. (Katrinian Mind Police) card. 

"Excuse me, Madam President, Ma'am," she interrupted, with a slight  touch of

 sarcasm. "We're here to take the crass alien who calls herself Crispus to the

 Mind Control Centre for questioning on matter of interstellar importance."


"Why don't you question her in the palace?" Drew tersely replied.


The police officer licked his crustaceous lips. "Because it's standard practice to 

inject undesirable aliens full of truth serum, Ma'am, and this creep's certainly

undesirable." 


"I've not done nothing!" howled Crisp. "Please don't let them. They'll jag my 

lovely flesh with scopolamine!"


"Spot on!" reacted the Eaglid with the deformed beak, with a grin.


Chief Superintendent Kim Catworthy came running out of the chapel. "Stop right 

there!" she ordered, producing her Special Police ID. "You have no right to take 

anybody in without a duly authorized warrant."


"Sure we have a right," drawled the one with the straight beak. "We're from the 

 Golden Guanto security cell, and we're allowed to screw anybody over."


When they hauled Crisp into the Mind Control Centre, the Eaglids nailed her 

outstretched wings to the much-dreaded, hornet-infested brick wall. Then a po-

faced military officer came in, followed by a rat-like psychiatric nurse holding two 

huge syringes in her paws, both with glistening, six inch needles.


The dour Novogrian scratched a purple hole in Crassus's flesh, and rammed in the

first needle. "It's time to squeal, alien space cadet. You're here because we've 

heard some tittle tattle among the talking beasties about you and President

Rainbow."


"No, no, noooooooo...yowwww!" wailed Crisp, vibrating from the shock.


"They heard from a tiny festoonette in the bed linen that you were licking her

 sweat." 


"No I didn't. Take your claws away!"


"Ophelia wept!. You could have snuffed our co-president."


"Take that fucking needle out!" howled Crisp. "I only gave her a little kiss."


The second needle dug so deep into the flesh that it splintered Crisp's left femur.


"Way to go!" howled the Novogrian, the blood spurting down Crisp's thigh.

"I think that you discovered President Drew's nasty secret while you were in sixty-

nineWe'll know soon enough. The scopolamine  is already dissolving your 

septic biofluidsSo I'm just going to sit back and listen while you tell me the 

 whole lurid story."


The Eaglid with the straight beak produced a needle carved from a whale's 

tooth. "Two thousand grams of benzilate  for good measure, General?" he 

inquired.


"That should loosen her tongue." replied the terse Novogrian. "Try to take a

chunk out of her girdle."


"I know how to do that, General. It's used to cosh the senile crazies in the Dread

solar system before they suffocate them with pillows."


"Yowwwwwwwwwwwwwww!" wailed Crisp. 


The needle pierced Crisp's bone and the flesh beyond, her legs turned to jelly.

the drugs went straight to her head, and she struggled hard and long to 

remain silent. But then she went delirious and started to spew nonsense, 

and when the rodentine nurse did something really mean, Crisp found herself

revealing the full, shocking, details of Drew's long hidden secret.

 

The general looked perturbed and most disturbed. "I'd never have guessed

 that!! The paternity of any of the co-president's children is clearly open to doubt."


"There's oodles of time left for a totally manic Phase 2, General," advised the 

Eaglid with the deformed beak. "Why don't you recover from the stress by  

kicking the stupid creature senseless? Then I'll throw her out into the sewerage 

in the Draughty Wynd."


The general opened his tool kit, and pulled out a spanner. "Her frontal lobes could

be packed with state secrets," he replied. "Let's extract her wisdom teeth first."


                        7.3. The Co-Presidents Beg to Differ


Drew and Sall were still feeling very anxious about Crisp when they returned to

the Palace of the Immortals. 


Was it because of what I said to the talking vixens? wondered Sall. No,

they wouldn't have even dared to snitch.


Drew needed to make plans with her co-presidents Dr. Chi Kit and Admiral Nam

Nimitch concerning which planets to populate when Katrina arrived in the Kappa-

Sun system. The three co-presidents met in a reception room in the palace, and 

Kyle took the minutes. Drew was feeling a bit wobbly; she was bearing a 

Humatum baby in her womb.

 

Chi and Drew thought that it would be a good idea to send migrants from Katrina

to Planet Manifold, where there were several indigenous tribes of talking animals,

but which was not densely populatedThey thought that Manifold would be ideal

for the Angatums, possibly for the Zebrids, and for some of the Humatum babies 

who were born to Atum mothers and human fathers during the next year or so.


However, Admiral Nimitch wanted to colonize Planet Petreus and to exploit

the resident Gentoo. Chi and Drew argued that such old-fashioned colonialism

was not 'part of Katrina's designated mission'. Drew recalled that Ophelia had 

told her in a dream to populate Manifold instead of Retreus. She said she was

scared that Ophelia might really be all powerful, powerful enough to have

caused the disintegration of Torus and the subsequent destruction of Katrina's 

Seventh Corner because Drew had refused her request to seek the destruction 

of the Angatums.


"Stop being so fucking neurotic! " growled Nimitz. "The Gentoo are

 ripe for the picking and I intend to turn them into a slave nation whatever

 religious faction might see fit to object."


"But their civilisation is over two thousand years old," retorted Chi, "and they're

 all accepting towards other species. Don't forget that we're a triumvirate. You'll

 need one of our votes and the approval of Parliament to get your way."


"You don't know how much I've got on you shysters!" raged Nimitz. "I could

 destroy both of you in a flick of a forefinger. Would you like me to reveal Drew's

 dreadful secret to Parliament? They'd publicly shame her and then banish her to

 an isolated moon."


"Meeting's over!" shrieked the pregnant co-president, running out of the room.


"You're not even a real Atum," howled Nimitz, as Drew left.


"How dare you!"  raged Kyle, throwing the minutes into the air.


"I could destroy you too!" howled Nimitz, and Kyle shook in his boots.


                                    7.4. Into Circular Orbit


Kim Catworthy located Crisp Crispus a couple of days later, stumbling aimlessly

through the rats in the Draughty Wynd, with an injured back, his wings twisted

together, his skin stung to shreds, and blood pouring from his mouth. He scarcely 

moved his eyes while Kim was patching him up, and when she took him back to 

the palace in a wheelchair, he propelled himself into a corner without uttering a 

word. When Drew took him some lentil soup, he began to sob uncontrollably.


But Captain Korchov's pet koala yelped in delight when the orange Kappa-Sun 

appeared from behind a pear-shaped cluster of colourful plasteroids; all twenty-

two of its planets were in elliptical orbit, of which Petreus and Manifold were the 

largest.


Following political pressure from President Nimisch, Korchov put Katrina

into a circular orbit of Planet Petreus with radius five hundred thousand 

kilometres. Both Drew Rainbow and Chi Kit were unhappy about this, but

acquiesced, as co-presidents, primarily because of Nimisch's ongoing threat to 

publicly expose Drew's 'dark and terrible secret'.


Meanwhile, Nimisch had created an 'Alpha-Omega' task force, mainly consisting of

militant Eaglids, and of former Novogrian police officers who'd left relinquished 

their positions when Kim Catworthy made the special police force more

representative of the various species on Katrina.


Without even telling his co-presidents, Nimisch also arranged for the imprisoned 

Living Incarnate Sunny Z1 to be transferred to a secure room in his mansion. 

There he consulted with his evil former adversary as to how to best exploit the

Gentoo on Petreus. He supplied Sunny with two wiry Cyclops toy-boys from

the Second Corner Penitentiary to keep her in good humour, and she beat them 

raw with a kidney-flagellator before eating their noses and asking for more eyes.


In the meantime, Kyle calculated that, should anybody on Katrina visit Retreus,

then President Punkus and all the Gentoo on the planet would be existing on a

 time scale 1.08 Kepler seconds ahead. He based this assertion on the fact that

 the president had left Torus following a visit of 100 Strontian days. Chi Kit didn't

 understand Kyle's arguments but anyway made appropriate adjustments to the

 dials on his Harris-Easterner time compression device, in the hope of ensuring

 that the Gentoo and their visitors were  able to converse in synchronicity with 

 each other. 


                       TO BE CONTINUED

              

                Task Force lands in Novgorod with Sunny  Frees Splat and Bayesian biologist. from Gento College of Peace and Harmony,

 Creates 'Brave New World'.