Haram - Forbidden, but not to Boko Haram.

Haram means sinful & refers to any act forbidden by Allah.
The two types of haram are:
1. Things prohibited because of their essence and harm caused to an individual - Adultery, murder, theft.

2. Things prohibited because of external reasons that are not fundamentally harmful but are associated to something that is prohibited:-

• Ill-gotten wealth obtained through sin. Examples include money earned through cheating, stealing, corruption, murder and Interest or any means that involves harm to another human being. Also, a deal or sale during Friday's prayers.
• It is prohibited in Islam for a Muslim to profit from such haram actions. Any believer who benefits from or lives off wealth obtained through haram is a sinner.
• Prayer in a house taken illegally.

The religious term haram is applied to:

• Actions, such as premarital sex, murder, or getting a tattoo.
• Policies, such as riba.
• Objects, such as al-Masjid al-Haram and al-Masjid al-Nabawi in context as two haram (sacred) mosques.
• Food and drinks, such as pork and alcohol.
• Some ḥalāl objects, foods or actions that are normally halal but under some conditions become haram. For example halal food and drinks at noon-time during Ramadan, or a cow or another halal animal that is not slaughtered in the Islamic way and in the name of Allah 

Having discovered all this I am even more at a loss to understand the actions of Islamic fundamentalists, such as Boko Haram. How do they reconcile & justify their actions in the light of Islamic teaching & Sharia Law? Well, obviously they can't. They are so indoctrinated & far from the teachings of Allah that they simply cannot be called good Muslims.

The abduction of  276 schoolgirls in Chibok in Northern Nigeria is indeed such a "haram" act. It is indefensible under any religious or non religious law. They are children who have  been stolen from their families & friends. We cannot know what terrors they have experienced, but it is certainly harmful to each one of the children & the families involved. The terrorists want other terrorists to be released, so they aim to profit from a haram act which is also prohibited.

Finding these girls will undoubtedly be difficult given the terrain. If & when they are found the harm will be done. They will be traumatised. If there is a God I'm sure he will "reward" the terrorists in ways they cannot envisage & do not expect.

Is a house a home or vice versa?

When I was a child I lived in two semi detached houses in Birmingham. One was 37 Higgins Lane in Quinton, the other 187 Wolverhampton Road, still in Quinton. Obviously both were my family home, but I can't say that I had a warm, fuzzy feeling about either of them. In fact I was very keen to leave the second & go to College & when I graduated I got married as soon as I could so I wouldn't have to live there again.

During my marriage I lived in everything from a council rented terrace in Bracknell to our first owned semi in North Ascot, then a detatched in the same area, then a big extended detached cottage in a village outside Newbury. Finally we moved to a lovely detached house outside Stroud in Gloucestershire. These were homes. They were places I loved to be, where I felt safe from the world, where the people who were most important to me lived too.

So what makes a house a home? I think most importantly the relationships of the people who live there. The love & understanding & acceptance of the fallibility of the members of the family. Then there are the shared memories of what has happened in the home - good & bad. There is also the feeling of security in your own space. Finally there are the things we surround ourselves with that we enjoy, or which mean something to us.

The house I bought last year is my home & the things in it are mine, but I don't yet feel that it is a home. Maybe that's because I'm single now. I have done a lot to it to personalise it & it's the place where I spend most of my time. Maybe we humans need to share our nest with other people. On the other hand I value my peace & the fact that I don't have to compromise on anything now.

We British are unusual relative to Northern Europe in that home ownership is important to us. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_home_ownership_rate Europe. We close doors & put up fences & hedges to keep people out & mark our territory. Our homes are inviolable. Go to Mediterranean countries & a lot of life is lived communally on the streets.

Here there is a tendency to view our home as an investment in the future, fuelled by the remorseless increase in house values. Buying a house is a step up on the ladder of affluence. Owning your home & what sort of home it is says something about you in our eyes. Just look at all the aspirational TV programmes & house magazines. Style matters, we change our decor according to current fashion, not necessarily relative to comfort. Everything becomes obsolete in the blink of an eye, so we constantly re-furbish. It's truly a "throw away" society.

What does that say about our self image & individuality?

Streets of London & Oxford

It's very odd how life experiences converge. I've just posted 2 U Tube clips.

1) I met Derek Harris yesterday on Hampstead Heath overlooking a wonderful view of London, when I was taking an Ashmolean Friends trip to Kenwood. We chatted for quite a while because I liked his songs. His mum, who he had cared for, died 4 years ago & he can't get over her loss. He seemed very sad & depressed, but had taught himself to play the guitar & writes his own songs. I hope he will be able to see a more positive side to his life sometime soon.

I was feeling a bit down because, having done my bit with the group, I was wandering round the house & grounds on my own & realised how much I missed doing that with my husband. It suddenly hit me that it was the first time I had done something like this since 2009. It is quite hard not to be able to share experiences with someone else who is on the same wavelength.

2) All of this reminded me of the Ralph Mc Tell song which has always been a huge favourite of mine since it was recorded in 1969. I realise I've loved it for 45 years. It doesn't seem possible.

Which leads me to the next serendipitous event. Coming back from Oxford this morning I met one of the Big Issue sellers who are always on the corner of my road. He needs a stick because he has a lot of problems with leg ulcers which are painful. He told me his friend Paul had recently been knocked down by a bike when they were going into Oxford to collect their copies of the magazine from the Big Issue office. We do chat a bit, because I pass them most days on my way to swim. They are  really friendly & easy to chat to. I don't always buy the magazine because I don't tend to take any cash with me. When I saw Paul later he was on crutches. You have to admire them both. They are out there every day, all day, till they have sold their quota, in all weathers. I have never heard them be anything other than polite to passers by, most of whom don't really take any notice of them. Paul in particular always seems cheerful. I think they are a bit of an institution in Summertown, so some people do say hello & chat.

It's so easy to make superficial judgements about people based on what we can see. Everyone has their story. A lot of people have to deal with "stuff" which is quite hard.

Derek Harris on Hampstead Heath

Ralph McTell - Streets Of London (Live)

Birthdays

I am intriged. When I look at the birthdays of my friends & family there seems to be a statistical anomaly:-

• Jan 5th - CW & RA
• Jan 21st - Daughter & CW(2)
• Feb 21st - VD / Feb 22nd - EP
• April 1st - CW(3) & RF / April 3rd - DT
• April 16th AD & DM
• May 6th - DC / May 8th SB / May 12th - SB
• June 18th CC & CT
• Nov 1st - JF / Nov 3rd - EC
• Dec 20th - PS / Dec 24th JP

There are others in the same months in the clusters but  further apart. Spooky or what? Am I unconciously selecting astrological types? Or is it just coincidence? If so what is the probability? Maybe someone out there can suggest a solution.

Accidents & Emergencies

A week ago I had a fall while away for a weekend celebrating a good friends birthday. I was quite shocked & it was painful, but I was enjoying myself - Wine numbs pain. To cut a long story short, a finger went quite black & was very swollen. It didn't occur to me to take my rings off, so by the time I realised it was quite bad it was too late & the rings constricted the blood flow. Not wanting to spoil the weekend for myself or anyone else I didn't go to hospital, being reasonably confident that it could wait. I was fortunate enough to be spending the weekend with a whole crowd of people including 4 doctors. There was a lot of sympathy & black humour about what would happen if the tip of the finger went black too. Gangrene was mentioned!

I drove home from the Peak District - no problem.

I had been advised to go to A&E to get the rings cut off, so I set off as soon as I got back in the early afternoon on Sunday. Lovely daughter took me there in case I couldn't drive back. Fortunately I told her not to wait. There was a sign saying the wait time was 2 hours, but in fact it took over 4. I was quite happy, I read my book. In that time I was triaged, saw a doctor, had the rings cut off - (not easy & quite painful), had an X ray - (the radiographer was great & showed me the pictures), saw the doc again, had the finger splinted & arm in a sling & was given an appointment for the HAPI clinic on Tuesday - (Hand & Plastic Injury).

That was a misnomer. There was no indication of the wait time. Seemingly OK people came in & were seen before some of us who had been waiting quite a while. (One can understand if emergencies come in & take priority). Eventually, desperate for a drink & something to to read, (War & Peace?) - bear in mind I thought I had an appointment, I asked if I had time to go to the shop. No problem. My asking the question sparked off unrest amongst the other patients who thought they had appointments too - Times were compared.

Eventually I was called & taken to a curtained bay where I was left again, only this time I couldn't see anyone else or what was going on. A doctor came & told me what the problem was, a torn ligament had pulled off a splinter of bone. 6 weeks to heal, raise hand above heart & keep exercising so the ligament doesn't heal too short. I can cope with that. She went away & a while later a nurse came & put on a new splint.

All in all well over 6 hours of my life. I think the NHS is probably at it's best dealing with emergencies. I wasn't an emergency. But I do think that they still haven't learned the lesson about keeping the patient informed. Good communication is important. We do tend to think that an appointment is an appointment. If I'm on time, I don't expect to have to wait for hours to be seen. I have a life & I had a meeting I needed to be at. So I wasn't HAPI.