Tag: education

Buckfast Abbey - Rule of St Benedict!

Buckfast Abbey: The Magnificent Waterwheel! (4.4.2024)

The time of the day and season of the year was defined by the cycles associated with monastic life – with monastic life guided by the various Rules which guided the daily activities of the monks and nuns. Lay-people – or “Oblates” – also followed these rules – which permitted Roman Catholic spirituality to permeate English society. After its abolition – the Church of England was formed – which would eventually represent the capitalistic ideas of the new post-Catholic elites. As a consequence, it was only during the early 20th century that Buckfast Abbey was permitted to be re-built and for a population of monks to once again inhabit its interior.

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Inside the Castle!

Torbay: Berry Pomeroy Castle – Tudor Ruins! (2.4.2024)

During the 1500s, Elizabeth I was an absolute monarch (as was her father – King Henry VIII) – who preferred to live in and around the Nonsuch Park area – including Hampton Court Palace (which is no longer used by the royal family). However, there was once a “Nonsuch Palace” which does not exist today. After Elizabeth I died (1603 CE) – many of the castles she frequented were no long favoured by the royal family – leading to these buildings falling into neglect and ruin. This was the case with Nonsuch Palace which was so badly dilapidate that what was left of it had to be demolished in 1683 CE – for safety reasons – with the ruins being recycled into the constructon (or maintenance) of local buildings.

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68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68)

UN: Chinese Delegation Advocates orld Without Gender Discrimination at 68th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women!

Over the past days, the delegation participated in various multilateral activities, including a general debate, a ministerial roundtable, the high-level public debate of the Security Council, and thematic side events.

CSW68, the UN’s largest annual event dedicated to gender equality and women’s empowerment, takes place from March 11 to 22, at the UN headquarters in New York, under the theme “Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective.”

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William Shakespeare & Francis Bacon

Shakespeare: Mark Twain Was On the Scent! (12.3.2024)

Only then did the newly franchised Bourgeoisie begin to routinely mimic the upper-class they had politically replaced as controllers of the means of production – following the 1649 CE execution of King Charles I – and extensively educate their children in literacy (and all kinds of other academic subjects). After 1649 CE – this type of Bourgeois education slowly began to develop – but certainly did not happen to any great extent prior to this date. In this regard, Shakespeare seems historically out-of-place – like a technologically sophisticated and advanced artefact discovered on the floor of an ancient cave – how did such an object arrive in this position?

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Pen is Mightier Than the Sword!

My Shakespeare “Complete Works” Editions! (10.3.2024)

The first was in 1992 – purchased from a local WH Smiths in a place called ‘Tiverton’ in East Devon (I believe during the time that my Irish grandmother – Gladys Kilmurray – was very ill and when her British daughter and American grandchildren were visiting the UK from Seattle, US) – whilst the second was acquired from The Works in Torquay High Street in 2007 (five-years after my family had uprooted and migrated to the South Coast). Both are superb editions with the first being easy to carry around whilst the latter is a very large, impressive and “Grand” Limited Library Edition – designed as a “Reference” copy only NOT to be borrowed or moved about (it is far too heavy for that)! The first is compact – whilst the second is lavishly illustrated and easy to read.

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Small Buddha!

Richard Hunn’s Portable Buddha-Statue! (2.3.2024)

As it stands, Oxford University is the pinnacle of Bourgeois opulence, class distinction, grace and favour! Indeed, my mother’s family used to live in Lewisham (the East End of London) – before Hitler’s Luftwaffe bombed the area during September, 1941! Thousands of our bombed-out neighbours were moved into the Chislehurst Caves – where they created an underground City for the duration of War (in fact, until the incumbent Labour Party had finished building thousands of decent Council Houses in 1947) – whilst my family (the ‘Gibson’ Clan) were given a Train Pass and relocated to Oxford – where some of our relatives had been sent for work during an earlier bombing.

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