Post Lock-down reading

About two years ago I let my National Geographic subscription lapse as a protest to Rupert Murdoch taking a 75 per cent shareholding and with no editorial comment re Murdoch’s likely impact on the popular magazine.

  Recently I met up with a long-time colleague and former television reporter, Simon Williams. Simon visits the US occasionally to catch up with a daughter living near LA. He told me how he thoroughly enjoys reading the local newspapers. ``They are so beautifully written.’’ Got me thinking how much I enjoyed reading NG. I was even missing it arriving in the post-box month by month. Curiosity getting g the better of me, I picked up the June 2020 issue from my supermarket’s magazine corner.

The cover story recording the last voices of WW2 had contributions from US, British, German and Japanese veterans.  A British woman joined a messaging decoding division because she, ``wanted to contribute more to the war effort than making sausage rolls.’’

Further on was a story about Hiroshima 75 years on. I thought it was a fair reflection on the first ever use of an atomic bomb.  An environmental story was about Emperor penguins struggling with climate change in Antarctica. Finally, Leading the way was about the struggle for women making waves in politics. New Zealand got coverage that included a double page photo of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressing Parliament earlier this year as Covid-19 was starting to bite internationally. Jacinda Arden’s famous quote formed the bulk of the caption.

``I have a very keen sense of the magnitude of this moment. Kiwis go home. Be strong and be kind.’’ Her Government’s action in locking down New Zealand paid handsome dividends. Was great to see our PM getting generous acknowledgement in NG. The local New Zealand media, by comparison, has done little more than criticise the PM and her smart Government who acted on the best scientific evidence to hand and spared five million New Zealanders the brunt of Covid-19.

On another occasion while awaiting for a colleague who fortuitously failed to keep a café appointment, I fell into conversation with a stranger waiting for his takeaway coffee. I joined him on the stools near the takeaway window. He chatted about the book he was reading, The Expected One by Kathleen McGowan. When I introduced myself he told me I would enjoy the book. It includes some Sinclair history from the French Pyrenees.

I found the book on Book Depository and purchased my copy. ``The Expected One’’ is the only person who will discover a Gospel written by Mary Magdalene. The gospel and its hidden location is protected by supernatural forces. The account by Mary Magdalene claims Jesus Christ – referred to as `Easa’’ in the story was married to Mary Magdalene and the couple had children. The book is quite a page turner. (It is a New York Times best seller.)

``The Expected one’’ in the book is a journalist, Maureen Paschal, who has an intriguing cousin, Father Peter Healy. History will confirm when the bible as we know it was compiled it was a lengthy process of selection, editing and copying by hand. We know a pile of material available, including some gospels, was omitted. Hence the credibility Mary Magdalene wrote her version of events. McGowan presents the story as an historical novel as a cover while changing some names of real people. But she claims it is based on fact and extensive research. For McGowan, part of her mission is to restore credibility to women side-lined in history.

She asks if what is written is what actually happened? She started to question history despite it being composed by accepted academic scholars. ``History needs to also include personal accounts and culture.’’ The scholars however were men of a certain social and political strata.  ``The authenticated histories were written during dark ages when women had a status lower than animals and were believed to have no souls!’’

Women who did make it into history were frequently labelled as schemers, adulterers and villains –even murderers.  Hence they have been misunderstood and maligned over time. I found The Expected One as convincing as it is readable.