Yesterday saw the Feast of Corpus Christi well and truly celebrated in Germany. Certainly in those parts where the Catholic Church influence is strong. For most of the Lande it was a Feiertag - a public holiday and many of the cathedral cities also marked it with a special Mass followed by processions through the streets.
It is nice to see a country that is still proud to celebrate the contribution of Christianity to its development despite the problems and the negative issues arising from the abuse scandals that have rocked the Roman Catholic Church. Much is made of the various high Holy Feasts here and it is good to see the children being given a prominent part in these celebrations.
The Feast itself marks the institution of the Eucharist as the physical representation of Christ Himself in the bread and wine of the Communion we share, an institution He commanded at the Last Supper. For the Roman Church the Bread and Wine become in the Transubstantiation, the physical Body and Blood, for others the Host and the Wine are an outward symbol of a deep spiritual grace. However Christians see it, the Eucharist of Bread and Wine should be celebrated as often as we can - it is, after all, what sets our Faith apart from all others most visibly.
We meet in His Name; we share His gifts of the Body and Blood and His eternal peace and hope.
Friday, 24 June 2011
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Book News
I have just signed a contract with Abbots Press to publish Harry Heron Number 4 - On The Run.
This is quite exciting as the book will also be available as an eBook and in the usual formats of Paper Back and Hard Cover. Now begins to hard work of getting it ready for print and there will, undoubtedly, be some editing and rewriting necessary to get it absolutely right. All I can say at present is, 'watch this space' and do visit my Website (See the side bar!) from time to time.
This is quite exciting as the book will also be available as an eBook and in the usual formats of Paper Back and Hard Cover. Now begins to hard work of getting it ready for print and there will, undoubtedly, be some editing and rewriting necessary to get it absolutely right. All I can say at present is, 'watch this space' and do visit my Website (See the side bar!) from time to time.
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Longest Day - Shortest Night
And it's overcast and raining...
Well, it is here anyway, so I can't get the lawn mowed and will soon need to hire a couple of horses to eat it down. To think its only a week or so back that I was worrying that we hadn't had enough rain to make it grow at all.
Did I mention it's also cold? Well, for the season anyway, let's face it 15°C is pretty warm for some parts, but considering we are supposed to be experiencing 20°C plus, plus ...
Oh well, the housework beckons.
Well, it is here anyway, so I can't get the lawn mowed and will soon need to hire a couple of horses to eat it down. To think its only a week or so back that I was worrying that we hadn't had enough rain to make it grow at all.
Did I mention it's also cold? Well, for the season anyway, let's face it 15°C is pretty warm for some parts, but considering we are supposed to be experiencing 20°C plus, plus ...
Oh well, the housework beckons.
Monday, 20 June 2011
Entertainment unlimited ...
Last night we saw my brother and his partner off at Frankfurt-Hahn Airport after a great five day visit. They were delayed getting here because a volcano in Eritrea had blown its top and sent columns of ash and muck into the atmosphere, and arrived at Frankfurt International twelve hours later than planned. Still it has been busy, but huge fun.
As they are both terrific artists, we took them to Würzburg to see the "Residence," once the palace of the Prince Bishops of Würzburg and now partly a museum and partly a part of the University campus. The incredible baroque paintings on the ceilings is just one part of the places stunning features. The artist, an Italian named Tiepelo, are 3-D and utterly amazing. Equally amazing is the hand created stucco work on ceilings walls and even fireplaces - all hand created by another Italian artists.
A trip on the Rhine allowed them to see the natural wonders of this part of Germany, and, of course, the many Rhine Castles.
The trip out to Frankfurt-Hahn was quite a trek, but again, it is good to know that they arrived in Montpelier, France, safe and sound and on schedule courtesy Ryanair. For those not "in the know," Frankfurt-Hahn is nowhere near Frankfurt International or even Frankfurt am Main... In fact it's the other side of the Rhine, in the Rhineland-Pfalz and used to be a USAF Airbase, now run for Ryanair ...
As they are both terrific artists, we took them to Würzburg to see the "Residence," once the palace of the Prince Bishops of Würzburg and now partly a museum and partly a part of the University campus. The incredible baroque paintings on the ceilings is just one part of the places stunning features. The artist, an Italian named Tiepelo, are 3-D and utterly amazing. Equally amazing is the hand created stucco work on ceilings walls and even fireplaces - all hand created by another Italian artists.
A trip on the Rhine allowed them to see the natural wonders of this part of Germany, and, of course, the many Rhine Castles.
The trip out to Frankfurt-Hahn was quite a trek, but again, it is good to know that they arrived in Montpelier, France, safe and sound and on schedule courtesy Ryanair. For those not "in the know," Frankfurt-Hahn is nowhere near Frankfurt International or even Frankfurt am Main... In fact it's the other side of the Rhine, in the Rhineland-Pfalz and used to be a USAF Airbase, now run for Ryanair ...
Thursday, 16 June 2011
Volcanoes and flying ...
My brother was due to arrive for a short visit on Tuesday evening. He didn't, and there was little indication of why until yesterday morning when I discovered an email, sent from an airprot waiting area, to say that they were delayed by a day because of a volcano in Eritrea ...
Funny thing, when the volcanoes in Iceland blew their 'stacks' and European and US airspace was affected, it was headline news with updates on the hour.
The volcano in Eritrea has been going off boom for over a week and so is another in Chile and apparently one in New Zealand as well with several more rumbling away. Any reportage of them or the CO2 they're blasting into the atmosphere? No, I thought not. Eveidently if it isn't somewhere some member of our political classes can make election points in - it just isn't happening ...
Funny thing, when the volcanoes in Iceland blew their 'stacks' and European and US airspace was affected, it was headline news with updates on the hour.
The volcano in Eritrea has been going off boom for over a week and so is another in Chile and apparently one in New Zealand as well with several more rumbling away. Any reportage of them or the CO2 they're blasting into the atmosphere? No, I thought not. Eveidently if it isn't somewhere some member of our political classes can make election points in - it just isn't happening ...
Sunday, 12 June 2011
Pfingster Sontag - Pentecost Sunday
Today the Christian Churches celebrate the "birth" of the church - the coming of the Holy Spirit upon those gathered in the Upper Room in Luke's account in the Acts of the Apostles, or who were "breathed on" by Christ before He "left them" to carry on the ministry He gave them. (St John, Chapter 20.)
The Holy Spirit is the third member of the Christian Trinity, the constant presence of God in our lives and in the world.
We celebrated it wel this morning in the Friedenskirche in Wiesbaden, with a Eucharist and baptism and followed by coffee and cakes. Pentecost is a big event here in Germany and tomorrow is a holiday to mark its importance.
The Holy Spirit is the third member of the Christian Trinity, the constant presence of God in our lives and in the world.
We celebrated it wel this morning in the Friedenskirche in Wiesbaden, with a Eucharist and baptism and followed by coffee and cakes. Pentecost is a big event here in Germany and tomorrow is a holiday to mark its importance.
Friday, 10 June 2011
Public Information versus "News"
A discussion on a forum I frequent has got me thinking on the manner in which the media reports any sort of crisis these days. Often it appears that the first casualty is fact.
From experience I know, to my cost, that often what is said, is 'filtered' by the media - not I hasten to add with malicious intent - because they have 'X' number of words to tell the story in, and this is where the 'Chinese Whispers Effect' sets in. What I may say and what a reporter hears me say may be the first step in 'message' drift and it becomes particularly acute when you are faced with a media scrum all shouting their questions and sometimes interpreting your not being able to provide the answer in a 'negative' way.
Communication is a major problem for all Emergency Managers, it becomes even more acute when, as happens in many countries, the professionals are told to 'brief' a senior bureaucrat or politician who then confronts the media and spins or edits the original without understanding the technicalities or the implications.
I've had to stand by fuming in frustration as this happened on one occasion. The message that went out, as a result, was disaster looking for a moment to happen. Fortunately, it was retrievable in that instance - but only because the media twigged there was something adrift in what they were being told and came looking privately for facts.
It is even worse when you have an outbreak like the present E-Coli/EHEC outbreak in Germany, where the causitive agent is not identified immediately and the media and populace must be told. What to say and what not to say becomes a major problem. It gets even more complicated when the media start rushing about trying to get interviews and reports from 'people close to the source' - which can mean the company Janitor if no one else can be persuaded to say anything.
I may say that the media and political handling of the Fukushima crisis typifies the problem.
The Greens and Greenstrife, Fiends of the Earth and all the anti-nuclear crowd have had a field day spinning and twisting fact with sheer fantasy. There isn't a single German Nuclear station built on a major earthquake fault line or anywhere it could get hit be an earthquake and a tsunami, but the Greens have demanded they are all closed down and nuclear banned, in case one is. They've bussed people from one site to another, they've mobilised their troops and even insist that a 9-11 style attack on one will result in a 'nuclear blast.'
Fukushima itself is presented as 'proof' that nuclear reactors explode, when the reality is that it was a hydrogen build-up in the buildings housing the reactors and not the reactors that blew. That has been said again and again, but Greenstrife et al insist it is a 'nuclear explosion' and the fear raddled foot soldiers have taken up the chant.
The result is the German government have set a nuclear plant shut-down deadline which will see the German's either buying their power from someone else, our turning off the lights in alternate cities in 2020. All of this the result of poor communication.
I'm sure there's a doctorate in it for someone.
I'm equally convinced that our 'Information Age' should be renamed the "Age of Mass Hysteria and Misinformation."
From experience I know, to my cost, that often what is said, is 'filtered' by the media - not I hasten to add with malicious intent - because they have 'X' number of words to tell the story in, and this is where the 'Chinese Whispers Effect' sets in. What I may say and what a reporter hears me say may be the first step in 'message' drift and it becomes particularly acute when you are faced with a media scrum all shouting their questions and sometimes interpreting your not being able to provide the answer in a 'negative' way.
Communication is a major problem for all Emergency Managers, it becomes even more acute when, as happens in many countries, the professionals are told to 'brief' a senior bureaucrat or politician who then confronts the media and spins or edits the original without understanding the technicalities or the implications.
I've had to stand by fuming in frustration as this happened on one occasion. The message that went out, as a result, was disaster looking for a moment to happen. Fortunately, it was retrievable in that instance - but only because the media twigged there was something adrift in what they were being told and came looking privately for facts.
It is even worse when you have an outbreak like the present E-Coli/EHEC outbreak in Germany, where the causitive agent is not identified immediately and the media and populace must be told. What to say and what not to say becomes a major problem. It gets even more complicated when the media start rushing about trying to get interviews and reports from 'people close to the source' - which can mean the company Janitor if no one else can be persuaded to say anything.
I may say that the media and political handling of the Fukushima crisis typifies the problem.
The Greens and Greenstrife, Fiends of the Earth and all the anti-nuclear crowd have had a field day spinning and twisting fact with sheer fantasy. There isn't a single German Nuclear station built on a major earthquake fault line or anywhere it could get hit be an earthquake and a tsunami, but the Greens have demanded they are all closed down and nuclear banned, in case one is. They've bussed people from one site to another, they've mobilised their troops and even insist that a 9-11 style attack on one will result in a 'nuclear blast.'
Fukushima itself is presented as 'proof' that nuclear reactors explode, when the reality is that it was a hydrogen build-up in the buildings housing the reactors and not the reactors that blew. That has been said again and again, but Greenstrife et al insist it is a 'nuclear explosion' and the fear raddled foot soldiers have taken up the chant.
The result is the German government have set a nuclear plant shut-down deadline which will see the German's either buying their power from someone else, our turning off the lights in alternate cities in 2020. All of this the result of poor communication.
I'm sure there's a doctorate in it for someone.
I'm equally convinced that our 'Information Age' should be renamed the "Age of Mass Hysteria and Misinformation."
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