I have been called by the term ‘infidel’ by the members of all the religions. It’s offensive, it may hurt… but I do not give it a thought! (of course I had a stronger expression on my mind - self ‘censorship’).
I am an atheist, have been for a long time.
And yet, I thought that I would, maybe, have a positive opinion about the current Pontiff, since he seemed to open up on the possibility of the major changes in the rules imposed on the believers by the Church.
Well, until today. Today the Pope responded to some of the journalists questions during a short Press Conference on board of his plane flying toward Philippines.
Of course some questions asked the Pope for his opinion (or the opinion of the church) on what happened in Paris to the journalists of Charlie Hebdo. And then the Pope, who right after the terrorist attack condemned it strongly, this time stated:
“(…) We all have the obligation to speak openly. Have this liberty, but without offending. It’s truth that one can’t react violently, but if Mr. Gassbarri, who is my friend, says a bad word against my mother, he should expect a punch! And this is normal! One can’t provoke. One can’t insult the believes of others. One can’t make jokes about believes.(…)”(*1)
Oh really!? And I can’t say a bad words about your mother (=Church) even though ‘she’ is filled with the convicted pedophiles, and abusive-slave-running nuns (in Ireland in the 40-ties to 60-ties), and ‘she’ prefers to have millions of new AIDS infection instead of letting people in Africa use condoms…
Yeah, according to the Pope, you can’t offend anybody’s feelings, even though that person might be worst person on the planet.
You can’t offend the religion, even though it’s responsible for millions and millions of killed in it’s name?! And I am not talking about the Islam - I am talking about Pope’s religion, and not that far ago, just a few hundred years ago.
Are we forgetting about the Crusades?, Inquisition? - and other bright moments in the history of that religion?
Every Religion imposes on it’s believers it’s dogma, without questioning, without the right to express any free thought by anybody. And every religion punishes for any attempt to contradict it
Answering to a journalist’s question, the Pope confirmed that the Church (or/and himself) stands still for the censorship, and not the free expression.
Any form of censorship, political correctness (which is simply self-censorship) is harmful to the society as whole. Any form of that censorship allows the bullies to triumph. Any form of the censorship makes the truth vacant from the every day life of the people, replaced by the dogma, and the official, approved political line.
Do we want to live in the Orwellian 1984? No - the Pope is wrong. Je Suis Charlie.
________________________________
ad *1: http://www.corriere.it/esteri/15_gennaio_15/intervista-papa-bergoglio-filippine-sri-lanka-624f6434-9cab-11e4-8bf6-694fc7ea2d25.shtml
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
ONE LINER 0007 - War with Terrorism - and the role of Russia
On January 7, 2015 the Paris headquarters of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were attacked by 2 well armed terrorists. 10 journalists and 2 policemen were slaughtered… A same night another terrorist killed a police-woman and a day later barricaded himself with hostages in a kosher supermarket at the outskirts of Paris. He killed 4 Jewish customers of this market before being killed by police.
We all know about it. We all felt shocked and revolted by this heinous, barbaric attack on the French democracy, and all the principles of the modern, democratic civilization. We all joined the millions of other people in the peaceful protest, posting “Je Suit Charlie”, or “Je Suit Juif” - filling for the victims. And the victims are not limited to these 17 who lost their lives, but we all, without exception.
I discussed these events with my friends. 2 days after the terrorists were eliminated by the French special forces (about 88 thousands of the officers were called for this man hunt), I had a talk with one of my friends, who lives in Paris. He is of Jewish origins and lives in predominantly Muslim neighborhood of Paris. He has the best appreciation of the French society changing toward less and less tolerance. He has an appreciation of the loss of civil liberties, as governments react to stop the terrorist attacks. France had a very tumultuous period when the Algeria was fighting for their independence. The bombs were blown, people died, there was no peace on the streets of Paris in the 70-ties.
Now, when the terrorism incited by the misguided religious fanatics hits Europe again, the result is very easily predicted. The anti-terrorist squads in the Police, and the Army grow in numbers and in strength. The terrorism has to be stopped, or at least impeded as much as possible, and if in the process some civil liberties become extinct… It’s the cost everyone agrees on.
So, when I discussed this topic with my friend from Paris, he said something, what I initially discarded completely, as sounding preposterous. He said: ‘and now we can say “Good Bye” to the free Ukraine. It will be sacrificed in the war with terrorism’.
After a while it dawned on me - Putin, however crazy, imperialistic, and ruthless he is - has been quite successful in the fight with his domestic, terrorist threat coming from Chechen Republic, and other predominately Muslim territories. His hands are not tied up by the Democratic Virtues with which the powers of the West have to deal with. While we, in the West, realize, that the war with the terrorism coming from the Middle East, and Northern Africa is the most dangerous and destructive threat she have ever encountered, ANY ally in this fight is and will be welcomed.
This is why we never criticized the ruthless dictator of Egypt who kept everything ‘in check’… This is why we accept the completely anti-democratic government of Turkey… This is why we will give Putin what he really wants, to make him the active member of anti-terrorist coalition.
And what does he want? Ukraine. All other ‘former republics’ to the West from Russia are already the members of NATO, but Ukraine…
Europe has never been as decisive as the US in making the Russia suffer for his annexation of Crimea and the obvious invasion of the Eastern Ukraine. They do not want the war, even if it’s not bullets, but money, what is used as a weapon. It doesn’t make anybody in Europe sleep well. The specter of the ’long, cold winter’ without the Russian oil and gas is not easily acceptable by the Europeans. And now we have the next argument against ostracizing the re-born Russian Empire.
A few weeks ago Premier Renzi (of Italy) said: “La Russia che e’ debole, non serve nessuno” (Weak Russia is not useful to anybody).
I would like to be mistaken about that, but I am afraid, that it’s only matter of time (a short time), before we accept another change in the Ukraine government - the change for the pro-Russian stooge. Ukraine will be sacrificed, like Poland and part of Germany were at Yalta Conference, (February 4–11, 1945) - for the GREATER GOOD.
We all know about it. We all felt shocked and revolted by this heinous, barbaric attack on the French democracy, and all the principles of the modern, democratic civilization. We all joined the millions of other people in the peaceful protest, posting “Je Suit Charlie”, or “Je Suit Juif” - filling for the victims. And the victims are not limited to these 17 who lost their lives, but we all, without exception.
I discussed these events with my friends. 2 days after the terrorists were eliminated by the French special forces (about 88 thousands of the officers were called for this man hunt), I had a talk with one of my friends, who lives in Paris. He is of Jewish origins and lives in predominantly Muslim neighborhood of Paris. He has the best appreciation of the French society changing toward less and less tolerance. He has an appreciation of the loss of civil liberties, as governments react to stop the terrorist attacks. France had a very tumultuous period when the Algeria was fighting for their independence. The bombs were blown, people died, there was no peace on the streets of Paris in the 70-ties.
Now, when the terrorism incited by the misguided religious fanatics hits Europe again, the result is very easily predicted. The anti-terrorist squads in the Police, and the Army grow in numbers and in strength. The terrorism has to be stopped, or at least impeded as much as possible, and if in the process some civil liberties become extinct… It’s the cost everyone agrees on.
So, when I discussed this topic with my friend from Paris, he said something, what I initially discarded completely, as sounding preposterous. He said: ‘and now we can say “Good Bye” to the free Ukraine. It will be sacrificed in the war with terrorism’.
After a while it dawned on me - Putin, however crazy, imperialistic, and ruthless he is - has been quite successful in the fight with his domestic, terrorist threat coming from Chechen Republic, and other predominately Muslim territories. His hands are not tied up by the Democratic Virtues with which the powers of the West have to deal with. While we, in the West, realize, that the war with the terrorism coming from the Middle East, and Northern Africa is the most dangerous and destructive threat she have ever encountered, ANY ally in this fight is and will be welcomed.
This is why we never criticized the ruthless dictator of Egypt who kept everything ‘in check’… This is why we accept the completely anti-democratic government of Turkey… This is why we will give Putin what he really wants, to make him the active member of anti-terrorist coalition.
And what does he want? Ukraine. All other ‘former republics’ to the West from Russia are already the members of NATO, but Ukraine…
Europe has never been as decisive as the US in making the Russia suffer for his annexation of Crimea and the obvious invasion of the Eastern Ukraine. They do not want the war, even if it’s not bullets, but money, what is used as a weapon. It doesn’t make anybody in Europe sleep well. The specter of the ’long, cold winter’ without the Russian oil and gas is not easily acceptable by the Europeans. And now we have the next argument against ostracizing the re-born Russian Empire.
A few weeks ago Premier Renzi (of Italy) said: “La Russia che e’ debole, non serve nessuno” (Weak Russia is not useful to anybody).
I would like to be mistaken about that, but I am afraid, that it’s only matter of time (a short time), before we accept another change in the Ukraine government - the change for the pro-Russian stooge. Ukraine will be sacrificed, like Poland and part of Germany were at Yalta Conference, (February 4–11, 1945) - for the GREATER GOOD.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)