Afternoon music
Note: readers of the blog may see some tweets reposted as links rather than embedded tweets. A technical issue that I have been unable to resolve so far.
A few thoughts out of season
Well, here we are on Boxing Day, and a few thoughts came to my mind as I perused the online newspapers and Twitter/X.
The first arose when I saw a tweet from a Jewish individual wishing readers a “Happy Hannukah” (also spelled “Chanukah”).
In the past, not only when I was a child in the 1960s, or a teenager in the 1970s, but also in more recent decades, the public expression of Jewish religion was rather limited. I do not recall having ever seen the word(s) “Hanukkah” or “Chanukah” (except in the odd book) until fairly recently, perhaps 1990s or later. Not in England, where I was mostly brought up; and not in Australia, where I lived from early 1967 to late 1969.
I certainly do not recall this Jewish festival being pushed into the public realm in the UK or even, when I was resident there intermittently in the years 1989-1993, in the New York/New Jersey area.
Now, it is different. 10 Downing Street has had a menorah, the multi-armed candlestick of the Jews, in its window, as well as an Israeli flag projected onto the facade of the building.
We also see the words “Happy Chanukah” projected onto, of all most prominent places, Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square.
In fact, menorah representations or sculptures, as well as Hannukah slogans, have suddenly appeared in towns and cities all over the UK (and elsewhere) in recent years.
This is in a sense strange. The actual Jewish population has not altered in size, substantially, for some years. Indeed, there is some evidence that numbers of Jews in the UK have decreased since the 1980s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Jews#Demographics.
The Jewish population in the UK is around 250,000-300,000, so far less than 1% of the whole UK population. Perhaps half of one percent. Yet their symbols have, in recent years, proliferated in public positions.
At present, the Jews are celebrating Hannukah, a religious festival of which Wikipedia says:
“Hanukkah[a] (/ˈhænəkə/, /ˈhɑːnəkə/; חֲנֻכָּה Ḥănukkā listenⓘ) is a Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE.[3][4]“
[Wikipedia]
In other words, it commemorates, at least inter alia, military victory in the Middle East, including the capture of Jerusalem well over two thousand years ago. Put another way, it can be taken to be an expression of Jewish ethnic supremacism (the same is true of many of their festivals).
The contrast with Christmas is stark; Christmas, with its message of peace.
“Originally instituted as a feast “in the manner of Sukkot (Booths)”, it does not come with the corresponding obligations, and is therefore a relatively minor holiday in strictly religious terms. Nevertheless, Hanukkah has attained major cultural significance in North America and elsewhere, especially among secular Jews, due to often occurring around the same time as Christmas during the festive season.[8]“
[Wikipedia]
It is common to see non-Jews in the UK etc, people who are no doubt well-meaning but ignorant, conflating the two festivals, for the simple reason that they occur not infrequently at the same time of year. They are, however, quite different, and actually have no connection with each other.
That Jewish ethnic supremacism can be seen in the tweet below, showing (and approving) Israeli Army personnel lighting a Hannukah menorah in a looted and occupied home in Lebanon.
Tweets seen
Seems that projecting political messages onto the buildings of others is a game anyone can play.
Interesting that Reform UK now has a greater number of members than the moribund “Conservative” Party. Of course, Reform is a mass movement, a grassroots movement, albeit one controlled and literally owned by a few people and, mainly, by Nigel Farage, whereas the Conservative Party is merely the rump, or fag-end, of a once ubiquitous grassroots party which (in the 1940s, 1950s, even 1960s) had literally millions of members (as also had Labour).
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14227257/Reform-memberships-surpasses-Tories.html.
So 70% of UK people now think immigration is now running at “too high” a level. Only 3% think that immigration is “too low”. I suppose that that tiny 3% minority includes Yvette Cooper, Starmer, and (other) very silly people such as Zoe Gardner (“@ZoeJardiniere”), who seem to live in some alternate reality. However, those pro-migration-invasion crazies are the ones often seen on TV, posing as “experts”. Coudenhove-Kalergi Plan…
I wager that, were only white English people to be counted in that poll, the 70% figure would rise to somewhere around 90%.
Ukrainians are refusing to fight for the regime of the Jew Zelensky, for his brutal and shambolic dictatorship.
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 