R is for Revolution, Religion, Ratbags, and Ravioli.

 

R is also for Ravish and Radish: 

Two words, both alike in dignity,

In fair Maungatapu where we lay our scene…

 

But enough of that English scribbler’s maunderings. Enough, I say. For it is a cold day in Maungatapu. Even the sparrows are producing tiny puffs of steam as they breath: vapour trails at two meters. The cat hasn’t moved for three days, and the tui are avoiding the bird bath. They may be concerned about bouncing off.

It’s just not the weather to be considering a Revolution, yet we must. The Listener is sitting on our table, and the first few pages of Letters, Editorial, and Jane Clifton mention something about the Government’s Three Waters scheme. (Do you remember when the word “scheme” simply meant plan? But now “scheme seems to have taken on sinister overtones..)

It strikes me that there’s a few important points that the Powers That Be and The Commentators Who Commentate have all missed: water falls from the sky. And every house has a large water-catching device that can be used tio collect the sky-falling-water-substance.

Time was when many, many, many NZ homes had a water collection tank. And if every new home caught, say, 80% of their own water… then the demand on the local council’s water supply would be greatly reduced. And if every new house had a grey water collection tank, the demand on the local Council’s waste-water infrastructure would be diminished. And if every new home had either a solar or wind power-generating capability, then..

Oh , but these revolting ideas (they’re not my own, but I like ‘em) are revolutionary, and may inconvenience people who make big bucks from fleecing local Councils that are building more and more and more infrastructure.

The love of big bucks has become (almost) a religion. And, like many religions, it has the power to corrupt on a massive scale. The Catholic Church is facing fresh condemnations at the moment from the so-called Native Schools in Canada. Hundreds of graves of dead First Nations children – and that’s just three schools out of dozens run by the Catholic Church, and staffed by so-called “Fathers” and “Sisters”. Yes, the Nuns were as much to blame as the Priests, aka the usual suspects.

And it seems that the Roman Catholic Church has, historically, been involved in massive land grabs: they own somewhere in the region of 170 million acres of land, world-wide.

These stories and numbers have come from the Guardian newspaper, which I have found to be pretty darned reliable.

NOTE:  Although I am Atheist I do not hold religions or religionists in disdain. Many good people are religionists, and many religionists are good people. I am suspect of Utopian or Millennial religionists as a group: both Christianity and Islam fit into this category. But the contemplative religions – Buddhism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism etc – afford me some pleasure.

To say that Religionists often turn out to be evil Ratbags is fact so obvious that it barely needs stating. The Religionists have come close to giving Ratbaggery and ratbags a poor name. Once upon a time well-intentioned and unconventional Ratbags were revered in New Zealand: John A Lee was a ratbag. George Wilder was a ratbag, Barry Crump was a leading ratbag. Billy T James, David McPhail, Jon Gadsby, Rhys Darby… Ratbags all.

Even Muldoon – on the rare occasion that he was being benign – could have been described as a Capital R Ratbag.

But who are our Ratbags now? Umm. Hmm. Taika Waititi, definitely. Chloe Swarbrick, absolutely. Thinking hard, getting nothing more.

Do Ratbags eat Ravioli? I would suspect that they would, or should. “Yes, I’ll have a Ravioli starter, please, followed by a nice saucer of Tagliatelle. I’ll wash that down with a bottle of Lamborghini Riesling, please – the 1997 – and for dessert, the Ferrari Torana: chocolate, of course. Not caramel.”

 

R POETS!

JOHN RUSKIN!

A book worth reading is a book worth buying.

No art can be noble which is incapable of expressing thought; and no art is capable of exressing thought which does not change.

 

GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL

When steam first began to pump and wheels go round at so many revolutions per minute, what are called business habits were intended to make the life of man run in harmony with the steam engine, and his movement rival the train in punctuality.

 

We may fight against what is wrong, but if we allow ourselves to hate, that is to insure our spiritual defeat and our likeness to what we hate.