FOR THE FREEDOM OF THE WORLD

"To free the oppressed, end genocide, establish democracy and defend liberty..."

At whatever personal cost: life, limb, liberty and livelihood; for the duration to peace, prosperity and security come. This is what it means to be an 'international' freedom fighter. "Dros rhyddid daear."

Self-styled Freedom Fighter

My life could become cultural artifact, the modern weapon of the peace-maker, if the narrative of my life is expressed metonymically.

The post-modern obsession with the denial of meta-narratives not withstanding; my nationalism can and should be viewed as consistent and complimentary to my internationalism; all part of the freedom struggle which is indivisible and self-justifying.

Some feedback on the roughdraft of my book would be appreciated.

New Journalism

I conceive my "book" once it is written in more the draft notes as piece of New Journalism adopting the style of a documentary novel.

I will hope to immerse my reference audience in the "excitement of the real" and the issues as they appear. At present only the political/analysis on the relevance of ethno-religious fundamentalism to the break-up of multi-national states in the modern era is developed properly.

My "book" would have to successively develop a personal narrative and have subtle descriptive detail that would bring my experience to life and explored motives and emotions from the immediately comprehensible. My accounts would compliment the works of others that witnessed the same events. Then a military historian could use us as source material to write an account of the internationals which lacked our personal agendas.

History is not however a news item or myth that is represnted metonymitically.

My personal work was designed to challenge the stereotypical image of the mercenary "Ronin" to appeal to the "knight errant" in all soldiers; the mythical, atavistic, archetypal poet-warrior-priest of cultural memory. And to explore the meaning such a figure has to contemporary ethnic conflict. But I will pursue these aims through a conventional autobiographical narrative within the confines of the genre.

Hopefully the political analysis will put our experience in context of the wider social and cultural movements that form the anti-globalisation "blowback" and the absolute moral relativism of post-modernity.

Ronin Samurai

Ronin in fiction
In modern works of fiction, ronin are often portrayed as yojimbo or as mercenary fighters. Akira Kurosawa's films Seven Samurai and Yojimbo are two widely known examples of jidaigeki that feature ronin. Thousands of other works of Japanese fiction, set in the Edo period, likewise have characters who are ronin.

Ronin have influenced western movies. Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name closely resembles a ronin. The movie The Magnificent Seven, a western remake of Seven Samurai, involves seven wandering men who are hired to protect a town against bandits.

"Ronin" as metaphor
The term rōnin is also used in modern Japan for those who have failed the entrance examination for a university (or other school). This use derives from their having no school to attend, as a ronin samurai has no leader to serve.

RONIN

A ronin (浪人, rōnin) was a masterless samurai during the feudal period (1185–1868) of Japan.

A samurai became masterless from the ruin or fall of his master, or after the loss of his master's favor or privilege. Since a ronin doesn't serve any lord, he is no longer a samurai. A samurai is a "servant", since the noun came from the verb "saburau" which is the Japanese for "to serve".

(In a parallel development, the word "knight" also originally meant "servant" and its German cognate "knecht" still means that.)

The word ronin literally means "wave person" - one who is tossed about, as on the waves in the sea. The term originated in the Nara and Heian periods, when it originally referred to serfs who had fled or deserted their master's land.

It is also a term used for samurai who had lost their masters in wars.

The passover Plot

In his book ''The Passover Plot"the British theologian, Hugh J. Schonfield, argued that the crucifixion of Christ was a conscious re-enactment of Biblical prophecy and Judas acted with Jesus' full knowledge and consent in "betraying" his master to the authorities.

Schonfield's hypothesis recognizes the fulfillment of prophecy in Judas' recorded actions without acknowledging that the prophecies were really fulfilled in history.

A similar interpretation became well known to the general population through Martin Scorsese]'s controversial film ''The Last Temptation of Christ", based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis. Kazantzakis' original conception was that Judas Iscariot's only motivation in betraying Jesus to the Romans was to help him, as Jesus' closest friend, through doing what no other disciple could bring himself to do. This portrayal shows Judas obeying Jesus' covert request to help him fulfill his destiny to die on the cross, thus making Judas the catalyst for the event later interpreted as bringing about humanity's salvation.

This view of Judas Iscariot is curiously reflected in the recently discovered and translated third or fourth-century text, the ''Gospel of Judas".

Strike a Balance

Was Jesus divine, or a human being with a powerful message?

In Channel 4's The Secret Family of Jesus, Robert Beckford explores the historical evidence for claims that Jesus had brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles and nephews, as well as a deep friendship with Mary Magdalene. Beckford and many other theologians believe that Jesus did indeed have an extended family that survived some 300 years after his death. However, they have been airbrushed from history and excised from the Bible as the result of a power struggle in the early church.

After Jesus died, those descended from his family and friends, led by his brother James, saw the original Christian message as a renewed version of Judaism, and first and foremost wanted to persuade other Jews to join them. In opposition to Jesus' family, Christians led by Peter and Paul wanted to establish a new religion to include non-Jews. Peter and Paul's version won out. They placed more emphasis on Jesus' divinity rather than his humanity, and wrote the human story of Jesus' family out of Christian history.

Peter and Paul's version of Christianity developed in opposition to the Jewish Christianity of Jesus family and friends and resulted in a seam of antisemitism down the ages. Some churches explain the references in the Bible to Jesus' brothers and sisters by saying either that they were not Mary's children but the children of Joseph from a previous marriage, or that they were cousins of Jesus. According to the earliest Gospel (of Mark) Jesus was a disciple of John, who taught and baptised him, and not the other way round. Jews and Muslims see Jesus as a prophet – a human being with a powerful message to change the world – rather than the son of God. Some say that the historical evidence of Jesus' humanity and teachings invalidates 2,000 years of Church teaching that has given more emphasis to his divinity. Some argue that Jesus' humanity and revolutionary teachings – his blueprint for a 'Kingdom of God on earth' – are the foundations of Christian belief.

Christian tradition says that salvation can only come through faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and a literal belief that he died and rose again.

A BALANCE MUST BE FOUND BETWEN THE DIVINTY OF CHRIST AND THE HUMANITY OF JESUS. RELIGUOUS JEWS LONG FOR ISIAIH'S PROPHESY OF PEACE AND CO-EXISTANCE TO COME TRUE. WE SHOULD NOT FORGET THE LEGACY OF 'JAMES THE JUST', JESUS' ELDER BROTHER AND FIRST BISHOP OF THE CHURCH OF JERUSALEM OR HIS PATRON MARY MAGDELENE.