Imbolc is a Celtic Fire Festival – It is a time of New Beginnings. This year it is on the 1st February. Imbolc is known within the christian calender as St Bridgids day. Taken from the Celtic goddess Brighid, with her many aspects as a deity of fire and fertility. Imbolc is known as a day that lies between the solstice days (That being the winter Solstice of 21st December 2010, and the Spring Solstice of 20th March 2011). Imbolc reminds us that spring is on it’s way, that winter is passing, and the days of light are becoming longer.
A Story
I remember on the sunny morning of the 1st of January 2009, cycling down the great western road in Glasgow, heading to the Botanic Gardens, to enjoy the 1st morning of the western new year. As I approached Byres road, I noticed a man walking towards me as he read his local popular paper. I readied myself to say “Happy new year”, but the gent, being engrossed in the already now “old” news did not look up. Interested in the potentially positive headline the un-named paper was singing the new year in with, I swiftly guided my eyes to it’s front cover, and too my disbelief, I was greeted by the front page spread of “Body in a bag”
Now, I am all for freedom of the press, speech etc (One day it may just return) and would therefore not suggest censorship. Nor would I imply that the educated individuals who drafted up the story, photo, and authorised it’s publication weren’t fulfilling the job they had been paid for. But why not have written about some one of the many good events that undoubtedly happened in Glasgow, Scotland or the World the previous day? The answer to that question reveals more about humanity and the roll the media plays in modern life than can be answered here. So back to the thread of this post.
Another Story.
In the early days of 2011, again I noticed a full page story of an Orangutan named Mely living in Borneo, who had been imprisoned by it’s Indonesian owner, who shot her mother, and took baby Mely to be a kind of “Real-life Cuddly toy” for his kids, but we all know, puppies aren’t just for xmas. So Mely spent nearly 15 years of her life chained to a fence at her home, and reportedly fed scraps. The story went on to quote that Mely was being set free from a 15 year imprisonment, largely due to the raising of approx £8000 by the outraged readers of that certain paper. Great, one poor distressed Orangutan set free in Borneo, to hopefully regain a full recovery and finish it’s days in peace, living within it’s natural environment.
Problem? not as such, But:
It takes yet Another Story.
I had a pleasant conversation with a student last week, advising that they would be travelling to Borneo to help out with an internationally funded group to try and alleviate the damage and threat to “Orangutans” by securing a safe habitat for them, building bridges, fences etc. When I mentioned to them about looking into the “Penan” people of Borneo, they said they had never heard of them, and asked about them. I explained that the Penan tribe had been living in the forests of Borneo for as long as the orangutans, but due to the deforestation of their Forests, they too like the Orangutan had been pushed to extremes of hardship and deprivation by the loss of their habitat. I suggested that they look into the story, as it is important to treat all of Humanity at least as equals to any other living thing on planet earth.
Now, it begs the question. Why does our media focus on the plight of primates like Orangutans, when in the same place, Human-Kind are suffering hardship, so that they too can have readers raising £8000 to fight their cause for justice, and freedom, something that is written into the Article of Human rights.
Another example, just to stress the point, is our seemingly deep interest in the plight of cute white fluffy polar bears because of the destruction of their environment allegedly due to global warming, when nothing is much reported about the Human-Kind – Inuits. I am not sugesting that we should not show interest in the wellbeing of animals and nature etc, more that we all should look deeper into any kind of environmental impacts, not just on our furry cuddly animal friends, but also ask, is any Human-Kinds life degraded by said.
A time of New Beginnings:
The time of new beginnings is for me persoanlly to try and look beyond what the media wish to feed us, a time of new beginnings is not to accept words and information, because for some reason we may believe that we wouldn’t be fed misinformation, knowingly, or unknowingly. A time of new beginnings is to look to right that which is wrong within human kind, and after that, to look to the rest of life on our unique and wonderful planet
If you would like to read more about the Penan – Visit Survival International’s website:
Hi, great article, I really love this time of year. They way the Spring flowers start to shoot up really does symbolise new beginnings and offer hope for the future. About your story, i do think that people feel they need to help animals as they are seen as defenceless, where as people expect humans to help themselves. Its just human nature. But luckily for human kind there are some individuals who spend their entire lives helping others and its those people we need to be grateful for. Thanks for Sharing
Thanks for your comments.
The wonderful gift of humanity is Freewill
It’s so funny I came across this! Just as I was walking home I was thinking about this. (I think it was cause an ostara meditation track came on my ipod, must have sparked the thought). I feel like I am too wrapped up in everything I have to do to celebrate all the festivals I want to properly… I’m hoping to do something for Litha though, I try to do a seasonal meditation to help me step back and appreciate things.
Glad I’ve finally found something I agree with!
At last, someone comes up with the “right” answer!