Tag Archives: 2020

10 years of guestwritings

Today, we may congratulate ourselves. WordPress has sent us a “Happy Anniversary”.

10 Year Anniversary Achievement
Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com!
You registered on WordPress.com 10 years ago.
Thanks for flying with us. Keep up the good blogging.

Ten years ago I wanted to create a kind of “Readers Digest”, in order to make a selection among the many publications that come our way and get to know articles worth reading to others.
This means that I have been trying to present fascinating articles for a decade now. Hopefully, my experiment may have been a little successful. However, I must admit that I am very disappointed that more writers have not offered to help propose a selection of articles here. Especially with articles published on WordPress, it is not that difficult to reblog them on this platform. But apparently, not many people want to do that on someone else’s website.

In 2014 I started off with 3.124 views by 1847 visitors. Climax was 2020 with 32679 views by 9477 visitors. In 2021 it was back down to 14414 views by 5835 visitors.
In 2017 I got 485 likes. The Corona year brought 606 likes onto this platform. For 2023 with only 5537 views and 3835 visitors, we got 659 likes.

In the meantime, in addition to my personal blog, several Christian blogs have emerged from my mind, which also require attention and material. This may mean that less can be published than originally thought, but I hope I have not neglected the intention to post articles about our lifestyle. We regularly propose some health items here. In addition, I continue to look forward to fascinating poems and life wisdom that can inspire us.

We may count on 395 subscribers (which does not seem to be much, according to me).

All-time stats

  • Views 102,968
  • Visitors 51,997
  • Posts 3,800
  • Comments 931

In any case, I will continue with this site and hope that it will continue to grow, in addition to the many other sites that I still maintain.

I hope to find you here in the future with many other visitors and wish you a lot of reading pleasure.

 

 

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Filed under Announcement, Cultural affairs, Headlines - News, Lifestyle

10 jaar voor gastschrijvers

Tien jaar geleden wenste ik een soort van “Readers Digest” te creëren, om zo tussen de zeer vele publicaties die op ons afkomen, een selectie te maken en lezenswaardige artikelen aan anderen te kennen leren.

Vandaag kreeg ik van WordPress een aankondiging dat ik al 10 jaar aangesloten ben. Dat houdt in dat ik dus nu al een decennium probeer om boeiende artikelen naar voor te brengen. Hopelijk mag mijn experiment toch wel een klein beetje geslaagd zijn. Ik moet echter bekennen dat ik zeer ontgoocheld ben dat er niet meer schrijvers zich hebben aangeboden mee te helpen om een selectie van artikelen hier voor te stellen. Vooral met artikelen gepubliceerd op WordPress is het namelijk niet zo moeilijk om deze te herbloggen op dit platform. Maar klaarblijkelijk willen niet veel mensen dat op een website van een ander doen.

In 2014 begon ik met 3.124 views door 1847 bezoekers. Climax was 2020 met 32679 views door 9477 bezoekers. In 2021 was het weer 14414 keer bekeken door 5835 bezoekers.
In 2017 kreeg ik 485 likes. Het Corona jaar bracht 606 likes op dit platform. Voor 2023 met slechts 5537 views en 3835 bezoekers kregen we 659 likes.

Ondertussen zijn er naast mijn persoonlijk blog nog verscheidene christelijke blogs uit mijn geest ontsproten welke ook aandacht en materiaal opeisen. Hierdoor kan er misschien wat minder gepubliceerd worden dan oorspronkelijk gedacht, maar de intentie om artikelen rond onze levensstijl te plaatsen hoop ik toch niet verwaarloosd te hebben. Regelmatig stellen we hier namelijk enkele gezondheidsartikelen voor. Daarnaast blijf ik verder uitkijken naar boeiende gedichten en levenswijsheden die ons kunnen doen inspireren.

Ik vind dat ik niet zo veel abonnees heb, maar die 395 geïnteresseerden zorgden er mee voor dat er wat bekeken kon worden over die tien jaar.

All-time stats

  • Views 102,968
  • Visitors 51,997
  • Posts 3,800
  • Comments 931

In ieder geval zal ik nog met deze site door gaan en hoop dat die ook nog verder zal mogen groeien, naast de vele andere sites die ik nog onderhoud.

10 Year Anniversary Achievement
Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com!
You registered on WordPress.com 10 years ago.

Thanks for flying with us. Keep up the good blogging.


Ik hoop jullie met nog veel andere bezoekers hier in de toekomst aan te treffen, en wens jullie nog veel leesplezier.

 

 

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Filed under Aankondiging & Introductie, Culturele aangelegenheden, Nederlandse teksten - Dutch writings, Nieuwsgebeurtenissen - Journaal, Publicaties + Uitgaven

Hou ontbossing van je bord!

Bossen wereldwijd hebben onze hulp nodig. Ze zijn essentieel voor ons bestaan. Ze voorzien de lucht van zuurstof, zuiveren het water dat we drinken en zijn de thuis van miljoenen planten, dieren en inheemse volkeren. Meer zelfs, gezonde bossen beschermen ons tegen ziektes en absorberen CO2 uit de atmosfeer. Maar bossen en andere ecosystemen staan onze zware druk en wij zijn mee verantwoordelijk.

Zonder het te weten eten Europeanen veel producten die komen van ontboste of omgevormde gebieden in de rest van de wereld, gaande van de soja in ons veevoer tot de cacao voor onze chocolade. Momenteel is het onmogelijk om precies te weten waar alle ingrediënten die gebruikt worden bij het maken van producten op de Europese markt vandaan komen, zoals het veevoer bij rundvlees. En omdat de vraag zo hoog is, wordt er steeds meer landbouwgrond gecreëerd ten koste van natuurlijke ecosystemen. Dit betekent dat wij Europeanen ongewild bossen opeten!

In 2020 namen bijna 1,2 miljoen mensen, waaronder meer dan 87 000 Belgen, deel aan de openbare raadpleging van de EU over ontbossing via de #Together4Forests-campagne om sterke, ambitieuze wetgeving te eisen om de voetafdruk van de EU op bossen en andere ecosystemen aan te pakken. Het was de grootste deelname ooit aan een milieuonderwerp in de geschiedenis van de EU.

Dit heeft ervoor gezorgd dat de Europese Commissie op 17 november 2021 dit langverwachte wetsvoorstel publiceerde! Een overwinning voor de campagne! Nu komt het erop aan dat lidstaten voor een sterke versie van deze wet stemmen zodat bossen en andere waardevolle ecosystemen effectief de bescherming krijgen die ze verdienen.
Daarom blijft WWF de komende maanden campagne voeren.

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Checklist voor een sterke wet

  • Grondstoffen en producten die op de EU-markt worden gebracht, voldoen aan milieuduurzaamheidscriteria die zijn vastgelegd in de EU-wetgeving, aanvullend op de wetten van de landen van oorsprong.
  • De wetgeving beperkt zich niet tot de ontbossing en aantasting van natuurlijke bossen. Ze houdt rekening met de conversie en aantasting van alle natuurlijke ecosystemen.
  • De wetgeving bestrijkt alle grondstoffen en producten die verband kunnen houden met de conversie van natuurlijke ecosystemen. Ze baseert zich daarbij op objectieve en wetenschappelijke criteria.
  • De wetgeving houdt rekening met schendingen van de mensenrechten.
  • De wetgeving voert verplichtingen in met betrekking tot de zorgvuldigheidsvereisten, de traceerbaarheid van de grondstoffen en de transparantie van de toeleveringsketens voor bedrijven en de financiële sector.
  • De wetgeving geeft duidelijke definities van de gebruikte termen en concepten.
  • De wetgeving garandeert een geharmoniseerde toepassing en een strenge handhaving in de lidstaten, met effectieve, proportionele en afschrikkende sancties.
  • De wetgeving steunt op aanvullende maatregelen in de strijd tegen de vernietiging en aantasting van natuurlijke ecosystemen.

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Filed under Ecologische aangelegenheden, Natuur, Nederlandse teksten - Dutch writings, Wereld aangelegenheden

The Fall of Kabul: The Return of the Taliban

To remember:

  • Mohammed Omar Afghan mullah (cleric) and mujahid commander who led the Taliban and founded the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in 1996.
  • Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second largest city after Kabul, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of 1,010 m (3,310 ft).
  • 2001 destruction of two giant Buddhas in Bamiyan by the all male group Taliban = lack of respect by the Taliban for historical &  cultural heritage of Afghanistan.
  • February 2020, Trump administration + Taliban signed historic deal in Doha, Qatar > 14-month timetable for America & NATO allies to withdraw all of its forces from Afghanistan. > Taliban agreed not to allow al-Qaeda or any extremist group to operate in the areas they control.
  • Since 2001 the war forced 2.7 million Afghans to flee their homes mostly to Iran, Pakistan and Europe.
  • United States of America Defense Department states > war- fighting costs over the years in Afghanistan total $815.7 billion; from food for troops to fuel; to Humvees, weapons and ammunition; from tanks to amoured vehicles to aircraft carriers to airstrikes.
  • Taliban = not strong in area of human rights or women’s right. impose strict limitations on women’s bodies & their human rights + women treated as possession of men
  • women are not allowed to dance in public, => bachas (boys), as young as 12, usually orphans or from very poor families, can be made to dance in women’s clothing + they are often sexually abused = bachabaze = playing with boys
  • Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) = second largest inter-governmental organization after the United Nations, + collective voice of Muslim world to ensure & safeguard their interest on economic socio and political areas

waykam

“Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.”- John F. Kennedy.

We have all seen the stunning and alarming images on our television; hundreds of Afghans both men and women running alongside a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane as it moves down a runway of the Hamid Karzai International airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. The script was not supposed to end like this. The Taliban have moved with fighting speed to control Afghanistan. The United States of American trained Afghan security forces hardly resisted the Taliban. This military maneuvering by the Taliban has led many to wonder whether or not the United States and her allies miscalculated the capacity and capabilities of the Taliban. Many will view the surrender of Kabul as well as the other provinces in Afghanistan with some suspicion especially since the former president Ashraf Ghani fled before Kabul fell to the Taliban. A significant…

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Filed under Crimes & Atrocities, Educational affairs, Headlines - News, History, Political affairs, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs, Religious affairs, Welfare matters, World affairs

Niet “de Moslims” maar de fundamentalisten zijn een probleem

Er waren Afghanen die zeiden dat zij wilden dat de Amerikaanse troepen zich terugtrokken, maar met een beter plan, en dat zij niet verwachtten dat het land zo snel zou vallen. Velen die diensten hadden geleverd voor de Amerikanen, Duitsers, Fransen, Nederlanders en Belgen hadden er op vertrouwd dat hun werk naar waarde werd geschat en dat hun werkgevers hen wel zouden beschermen. Dit was echter zonder de waard gerekend. Nu het ongelofelijke gebeurde, dat de Taliban zo snel kon oprukken en het land zo vlug kon veroveren, had vermoedelijk niemand verwacht.

Talibanstrijders houden de wacht langs de kant van de weg bij het Zanbaq-plein in Kaboel op 16 augustus 2021, na een verbluffend snel einde van de 20-jarige oorlog in Afghanistan, toen duizenden mensen het vliegveld van de stad overspoelden in een poging om te vluchten voor de gevreesde hardlinie van de islamitische heerschappij van de groep. Foto: AFP / Wakil Kohsar

Westerlingen veilig in Europa

Het is vreemd om te horen hoe bepaalde Westerlingen die hier in de Europese Unie in alle veiligheid zitten, de mensen proberen bang te maken voor naar hier komende Afghanen. Zo konden wij de voorgaande dagen enkel parlementariërs en vroegere generaals waarschuwen dat wij niet zo maar Afghaanse families op vliegtuigen naar hier laten komen omdat daar het gevaar in schuilde dat sommige van hun kinderen zich tegen onze maatschappij zouden keren en het Islamisme aan onze maatschappij zouden willen opdringen.

Er was zelfs een Belgische parlementariër die, ook al was hij zelf niet van Belgische origine, beweerde dat wij niet zo maar alle vluchtelingen in België konden binnen laten en dat wij hoognodig de al in België residerende Afghanen terug naar hun land moesten sturen.

Elk jaar zijn er wel een “Vredesweek”, “Mensenrechtenweek”, “Dag van Gelijkheid”, “Dag van de Vrouw”, “Dag van de Verbondenheid”, “Dag van de liefde”, enz., maar als puntje bij paaltje komt is er van al die mooie verkondigingen en beloftes op die dagen niet veel te merken na die dagen. Politici beloven ook heel veel, maar verwezenlijken weinig van de beloften die ze maken. ook zijn er weinigen die hun handen in het vuur willen steken om anderen te verdedigen. En vandaag komt het er zeker op aan om voor een bepaalde groep mensen op te komen en deze niet enkel te verdedigen maar ook om ze in veiligheid te brengen.

Penibele toestand in Afghanistan

In zeer korte tijd wisten de Talibanstrijders vanuit drie hoeken van het land verder meerdere streken van Afghanistan onder hun macht en controle te krijgen.

De Taliban hebben het standbeeld opgeblazen van een sjiitische militieleider die tijdens de Afghaanse burgeroorlog in de jaren negentig tegen hen heeft gevochten, zo blijkt uit foto’s die woensdag circuleerden, waardoor nog meer twijfel ontstaat over hun beweringen dat zij gematigder zijn geworden.

Elke actie van de opstandelingen tijdens hun plotselinge machtsovername wordt nauwlettend in de gaten gehouden. Ze houden vol dat ze veranderd zijn en niet meer dezelfde draconische beperkingen zullen opleggen als toen ze het laatst over Afghanistan heersten, waarbij ze de rechten van vrouwen vrijwel volledig afschaften, openbare executies uitvoerden en televisie en muziek verboden.

Ze hebben ook beloofd geen wraak te zullen nemen op degenen die zich tegen hen hebben verzet.

Maar veel Afghanen blijven zeer sceptisch, en duizenden haasten zich naar de luchthaven en de grens om het land te ontvluchten. Vele anderen houden zich angstvallig schuil in hun huizen, nadat gevangenissen en wapenmagazijnen werden leeggehaald tijdens het offensief van de opstandelingen in het land. Ook zijn er meerdere berichten dat er al Talibanstrijders van huis tot huis zouden gaan om vroegere medewerkers van de geallieerden buiten te sleuren en te straffen. Op televisie waren er al zulke beelden te zien van een man die letterlijk uit zijn huis werd getrokken en bijna gevierendeeld werd onder zijn pijn geroep.

Onder de Nieuwe wapperende Vlag

De opstandelingen hebben hun eigen vlag – een wit vaandel met islamitische opschriften – gehesen in de gebieden die zij hebben veroverd.

File:Statue of Mazari in Bamyan.JPG

Het standbeeld van Baba Mazari in de provincie Bamyan, Afghanistan. Abdul Ali Mazari was de politieke leider van het Hazaravolk en het hoofd van de politieke partij Hizbe Wahdat.

Terwijl de Afghanen en de internationale gemeenschap afwachten of de Taliban hun beloften gestand zullen doen, circuleren op de sociale media foto’s van het vernielde standbeeld. Op de foto staat Abdul Ali Mazari afgebeeld. Hij was de politieke leider van de Hezb-e Wahdat-partij tijdens en na de Sovjet-Afghaanse oorlog, die in 1996 door de Taliban werd gedood, toen de islamitische militanten de macht grepen van rivaliserende krijgsheren. Mazari was een voorvechter van de etnische Hazara-minderheid in Afghanistan, sjiieten die werden vervolgd onder het vroegere bewind van de soennitische Taliban.

Het standbeeld stond in de centrale provincie Bamyan, waar de Taliban in 2001, kort voor de door de VS geleide invasie die hen uit de macht verdreef, berucht werden door het opblazen van twee enorme, 1500 jaar oude Boeddhabeelden die in een berg waren uitgehouwen. De Taliban beweerden dat de boeddha’s in strijd waren met het verbod van de Islam op afgoderij.

Een andere belofte van de Taliban die nauwlettend wordt gevolgd, is hun belofte om te voorkomen dat Afghanistan opnieuw wordt gebruikt als basis voor het plannen van terroristische aanslagen. Dat was vastgelegd in een vredesakkoord van 2020 met de regering-Trump, dat de weg vrijmaakte voor de terugtrekking van Amerikaanse troepen, waarvan de laatste aan het eind van de maand zouden moeten vertrekken.

De laatste keer dat de Taliban aan de macht waren, boden zij onderdak aan Osama bin Laden en Al Qaida, terwijl zij de aanslagen van 11 september 2001 planden. Amerikaanse functionarissen vrezen dat Al Qaida en andere groepen zich opnieuw in Afghanistan zouden kunnen vestigen nu de Taliban weer aan de macht zijn.

Abdul Ghani Baradar

Moellah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund van de Pathaanse stam Popalzai

De Taliban hebben toegezegd een “inclusieve, islamitische regering” te vormen en hebben gesprekken gevoerd met voormalig president Hamid Karzai (van 2002 tot 2014),van de machtige Pathaanse Popalzaiclan, en Abdullah Abdullah, een hoge ambtenaar van Pashtunse en Tadzjiekse afkomst in de afgezette regering. Mohammad Yusof Saha, een woordvoerder van Karzai, zei dat de voorbereidende vergaderingen met Taliban-functionarissen de uiteindelijke onderhandelingen met Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, een van de oprichters van de Taliban in Afghanistan en de hoogste politieke leider van de Taliban, zouden vergemakkelijken.

Op foto’s die woensdag online circuleerden, was te zien hoe Karzai en Abdullah een ontmoeting hadden met Anas Haqqani, een hooggeplaatste leider van een machtige Taliban-factie. De VS hebben het Haqqani-netwerk in 2012 tot terroristische groepering bestempeld. De betrokkenheid van Haqqani bij een toekomstige regering kan internationale sancties tot gevolg hebben.

Reden om het land te ontvluchten

Als men na gaat wat er de afgelopen 20 jaar in Afghanistan gebeurd is kan men het niet verwonderlijk noemen dat er nu nog een grotere vluchtelingenstroom is opgetreden dan de vorige jaren.

Door de onzekerheid hebben duizenden Afghanen de afgelopen dagen geprobeerd het land te ontvluchten, en de VS en hun bondgenoten hebben geworsteld met het in goede banen leiden van een chaotische terugtrekking uit het land. De Taliban hebben dinsdag de civiele kant van de internationale luchthaven van Kaboel ingenomen en met geweld geprobeerd de mensenmassa’s in bedwang te houden. Zelfs een reporter van CNN botste op een lijn van Taliban strijders die een zeer agressieve houding tegenover de volgens Islamitische normen en in het zwart geklede vrouw namen, die voorzichtig achteruit stapte. (Men kan zich enkel afvragen wat deze Westerse vroouw daar nog deed en waarom zij nog niet teruggeroepen is naar Amerika, want haar leven kan daar duidelijk in gevaar zijn – wat werd aangetoond door de lichaamstaal van die Talibanstrijders.)

Voor het Westen is het makkelijk zeggen dat de mensen thuis moeten wachten op een oproep van de ambassade vooraleer naar de lcuhthaven te trekken. Hoe gaan zij dan op weg naar de luchthaven de controle posten van de Taliban kunnen passeren? Honderden mensen stonden woensdag vroeg buiten de luchthaven. De Taliban eisten documenten te zien voordat ze de zeldzame passagier binnenlieten. Veel van de mensen buiten leken geen paspoorten te hebben, en telkens als de poort ook maar een centimeter openging, probeerden tientallen mensen door te dringen. De Taliban losten af en toe waarschuwingsschoten om hen uiteen te drijven.

Welk gevaar vormen Afghaanse vluchtelingen voor het Westen

Al meerdere jaren proberen bepaalde politieke partijen hun landgenoten bang te maken voor een veroverende Islam. Hierbij vergeten ze dt het iedereen vrij is om een godsdienstige groepering al of niet te volgen. Als men zulk een angst heeft dat de Islam het christendom zou gaan vervangen, hoort men zich eerder af te vragen wat er verkeerd gaat in dat christendom dat mensen er een afkeer van krijgen.

Duidelijk is wel dat uiterst rechtse groeperingen totaal een vals beels schetsen van de Islam en dat zij alle moslims of Mohameddanen over de zelfde kam scheren. Zij doen er ook alles aan om “de Moslims” als gevaarlijke wezens af te tekenen. Zij willen iedereen doen geloven dat “de Moslims” een gevaar vormen voor de gemeenschap en de Westerse cultuur. Maar bestaat er wel iets zoals “Dé Moslims”? In de Moslimgemeenschap zijn er ook zeer veel strekkingen zoals men in het christendom ook zeer uiteenlopende strekkingen heeft en men daar ook niet kan veralgemenen om te zeggen “Dé Christenen”, ook al merken wij dat dit ook wel regelmatig gebeurd, vooral op de commerciële televisiezenders. Maar ook de stataszenders hebben het makkelijk over  “de christenen” terwijl zij in België dan feitelijk de Rooms Katholieken bedoelen, terwijl er in Nederland dan wel meer naar de “Nederlands Protestanse Kerk” of de “Gereformeerden” wordt gewezen.

Om dezer dagen geschoolde mensen te horen beweren dat men toch niet de Afhanen naar hier mag halen omdat zij dan een gevaar zouden gaan betekenen in de toekomst als hun kinderen groot zouden zijn en het Islamitisch geloof zouden gaan verkondigen, is waanzin.  Ten eerste kan het veel gevaarlijker zijn voor het Westen om nu al diegenen die de Westerse mogendheden geholpen hebben daar in Afghanistan in de steek te laten. Dat zal eerder een vijandig gevoelen tegenover de Westerse landen oproepen en een kiemend zaad vormen om wraak tegen die landen te nemen. En men kan er dan zeker van zijn dat die wraak niet zoet zal zijn.

Islamitisch en Christelijke fundamentalisme

De verstandigen zouden de mensen moeten doen inzien dat niet alle moslims even fanatiek zijn als die fundamentalisten. Islam, zo wel als het christendom heeft niets te maken met fundamentalisme, al kan men het even goed vinden in beide godsdienstgroepen.

Allah wil helemaal niet dat mensen elkaar uitmoorden. Wel is het zo dat Allah Al-Aliyy graag zou hebben dat meer mensen dichter tot Hem zouden komen en Hem herkennen als de Enige Ware God. Maar daartoe laat Hij iedereen vrij om zijn of haar eigen keuze te bepalen. God onderzoekt en kent het hart, dus heeft het helemaal geen zin om mensen onder dwang te ‘bekeren‘ en als Moslim of Christen – zij het Katholiek of Protestant– door het leven te laten gaan.

In de vorige eeuwen konden wij in het Westen ook meerdere fundamentalistische Christenen waarnemen. Ook zij gingen verschrikkelijk tekeer en lieten achter hen een enorm bloedbad. Vandaag zijn de fundamentalistische christenen wel minder gewelddadig, maar toch zien wij, vooral in Israël dat zij er nog steeds toe bijdragen dat er dodelijk geweld wordt gepleegd.

Als men meerdere debatten volgt valt het op dat er nu (zoals enkele jaren geleden) weer mensen zijn die de anderen bang willen maken dat de moslims de bedoeling zouden hebben om Europa, en eigenlijk de hele westerse wereld, te gaan onderwerpen. {multicultureel realistisch, moslims in nederland!} Vreemd genoeg zijn daarbij christenen die dan zeggen dat in Israël wanhopig onze westerse zaak verdedigt wordt zodat we niet overlopen worden. Maar zij zien over het hoofd dat zeer vele Zionisten eigenlijk land van anderen afnemen alsof het hun eigen grondbezit is. Verder zijn vele van die Zionisten ofwel zeer conservatieve Ultra Orthodoxe Joden, waarbij dikwijls de fout wordt gemaakt dat het allemaal Haredi zouden zijn, of helemaal geen gelovige Joden. Verder zijn er ook een heel groot deel Evangelische Christenen die met man en macht de Joodse gelovigen van hun geloof in dé Enige Ware God doen willen afzweren om hen ook hun valse Driekoppige godheid of Drievbuldigheid te gaan laten aanbidden. Hun aanwezigheid vormt trouwens nog meer olie op het vuur in het al woelige Midden-Oosten.

Iedereen moet beseffen dat elke vorm van fundamentalisme of uiterst orthodoxe theologische richting onverantwoord of zelfs onaanvaardbaar is, wanuit welke richting die stroming ook moge komen.

Maar men mag niet denken dat zulk een enge zienswijze enkel bij Moslims zou bestaan. Overdreven orthodoxie, een vaak anti-intellectuele tendens in de interpretatie van de kerkelijke leer kan men ook in bepaalde Christen gemeenschappen vinden.

Verlangen of terugkeer naar de wortels van een ideologie of geloof. Als zodanig is een fundamentalistische beweging een reactionaire beweging. Het doet opgang in verschillende stromingen van de Islam, evenals overigens in het Christendom en Jodendom. In de Verenigde Staten is het aan het einde van de negentiende eeuw opgekomen als reactie op Darwin’s evolutietheorie. {Cultureel Woordenboek.nl over Internationale politiek en fundamentalisme}

Beter bang voor de echte fundamentalisten

Men moet niet zo zeer bang zijn voor die Afghanen die naar onze streken zouden wegvluchten van de Taliban. Men moet eerder bang zijn voor die mensen die anderen hun gedachtengoed met alle macht wilen opdringen. Gevaarlijk wordt het zelfs wanneer bepaalde beperkingen voor de mensen in wetten worden gegoten waar niemand kan ontsnappen en waarbij zware straffen worden opgelegd. De verplichting die men volgens de wet heeft ten aanzien van wat men doet of nalaat gaat mee bepalen of er sprake kan zijn van fundamentalisme. Aansprakelijkheid kan vrijwillig zijn aangegaan (bijv. bij een contract) of door de wet zijn opgelegd en dan moet niemand voor zulk een akkoord gaan bang zijn. Aansprakelijkheid door de wet wordt wel gezien als het wezenlijke verschil tussen enerzijds klassieke en anderzijds sociaal-economische rechten. De klassieke rechten zijn meestal omgezet in wettelijke regels die de overheid bij niet-naleving aansprakelijk maken. Zo kan compensatie worden gevraagd in gevallen van marteling, een handeling waarmee het slachtoffer ernstige psychische of lichamelijkepijn wordt toegebracht, maar ook bij onwettige gevangenschap of hechtenis, of vorm van detentie waarbij de vrijheidsberoving door een overheid of een andere hogere (of sterkere) mach, en kan opheffing van censuur via de rechter worden afgedwongen. Sociaal-economische rechten zijn meestal als idealen geformuleerd, zoals de rechten op werk of huisvesting, waarvoor de overheid niet wettelijk aansprakelijk is. Maar ook aan sociaal-economische rechten wordt steeds vaker juridische aansprakelijkheid verbonden. Een rechter kan bijvoorbeeld boetes opleggen als vrouwen of leden van minderheden gediscrimineerd worden bij toegang tot bepaalde banen.

In Afghanistan en enkele andere Islamitische staten kan men zien dat de machtshebbers alles in het werk stellen om hun macht zichtbaar en voelbaar aan iedereen op te dringen. Voor die fundamentalisten is er geen sprake van andere ideologieën dan de hunne, en iedereen hoort zich naar hen te schikken.

Niet voor de vluchtelingen maar voor hen die deze mensen doet vluchten moet men eerder uitkijken en bang voor zijn. Het zijn diegenen die er een strenge eenzijdige interpretatie van een godsdienst op nahouden, die zich kenmerkt door religieuze onverdraagzaamheid.

De anti-semiet en evangelische prediker William Franklin (Billy) Graham jr., die een aantal ‘kruistochten’ organiseerde in de 20ste eeuw, waarvan er één leidde tot een groei van het evangelische christendom in Australië.

Velen vergeeten dat oorspronkelijk ‘fundamentisme’ de benaming was  voor een conservatieve beweging in het Amerikaans protestantisme in de 19e eeuw. Na de Tweede Wereldoorlog ontplooide de beweging zich vooral als een anticommunistische, evangelistische stroming vertegenwoordigd door predikanten als Billy Graham. Fundamentalisme was ook te vinden bij de Zuid-Afrikaanse Nederlands-hervormde kerk, of bij de Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk (afgekort NG Kerk of NGK) de oudste van de zogenaamde Drie Zusterkerken in Zuid-Afrika, die apartheid verdedigde als de wil van God.

Veel te vell mensen vergeten dat fundamentalisme heden ten dag voorkomt in alle godsdiensten.
Maar hier in het Westen lijken de mensen enkel oog te hebben op de fundamentalistische aanhangers van de islam die `islamisten` worden genoemd.

Men mag niet vergeten dat fundamentalistische opvattingen vaak strijdig zijn met de mensenrechten, zoals in de ideeën over de ondergeschikte positie van de vrouw, de verkettering en vervolging van degenen die geen of een andere godsdienst zijn toegedaan en de weigering om het gezag van internationale verdragen te erkennen. duidelijk kunnen wij deze kenmerken warnemen bij bepaalde Islamietische groepen zoals de Taliban, Boko Haram, Al Qaida of Daesh en andere.

Wat ook verkeerd gaat is dat heel wat mensen die fundamentalistische islam gelijk stellen met terrorisme en zelfmoordaanslagen, wat niet zo hoeft te zijn, maar toegegeven wel dikwijls gebeurd. Sommige fundamentalisten nemen inderdaad hun toevlucht tot geweld, maar er zijn veel fundamentalisten die langs vreedzame weg hun overtuiging uitdragen en veel islamitische terroristen gebruiken een fundamentalistische opvatting van de islam als een excuus voor het nastreven van politieke doeleinden, zoals het terugdringen van Amerikaanse invloeden in het Midden-Oosten.

Diegenen die nu Afghanistan in een zeer korte tijd hebben weten te veroveren zijn fundamentalisten waarbij de politieke en economische macht voorop liggen en die een geloof opdringen aan anderen om hun machtspositie te verzekeren en om met een angstpsychose anderen tot hen te binden.

Het is voor zulke gevaarlijke dwinglanden dat de wereld eerder bang hoort te zijn dan voor diegenen die Allah aanbidden in alle eerlijkheid en vroomheid.

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Voorgaande

Uit de oude doos: Soennitische en Shiitische Moslims

Het gevaar om niets te doen tegen de oorzaak en de kwaal

De haat van IS voor Christenen

Het failliet van de war on terror

Duizenden op de vlucht voor Taliban

Een leven terug onder taliban

Vluchten naar een hoopvolle toekomst

Migratie en veiligheid even geherformuleerd

Islamofobie is contraproduktief

Een leven terug onder taliban

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Aanvullende lectuur

  1. Uit de Oude Doos: Israël versus Hamas
  2. Hersenspoeling en voortdurende intimidatie
  3. Bekeerlingen en omgang
  4. Christen vervolgingen in het Midden-Oosten
  5. Wanneer de jongere oor kreeg voor Arabische klanken
  6. Gevolgen van beperkingen van vrijheid in Turkijë
  7. Angst en verlossing van het kwaad
  8. De Vredesweek vraagt Internationale Gemeenschap Verantwoordelijkheid te nemen
  9. Witte, grijze en zwarte tinten voor de Lage Landen en Europa
  10. Veroverende geloofsgroep
  11. Te late hulp voor Syrië uit Westen voedingsbodem voor Vechters voor een Islamitische Staat
  12. Fundamentalisme en religie #1 Noorwegen
  13. Fundamentalisme en religie #6 Versplintering
  14. 2015 het jaar dat ISIS duidelijk maakte dat het ook in Europa is
  15. 2015 het jaar dat ISIS duidelijk maakte dat het ook in Europa is – Vervolg 1
  16. 2015 het jaar dat ISIS duidelijk maakte dat het ook in Europa is – Vervolg 2
  17. Veroverende geloofsgroep
  18. Uitdrijving bevolking provincie Idlib
  19. Politici die trachten het geloof in de privesfeer te duwen of uit de maatschappij te bannen
  20. Noodzaak om ons sterk te maken tegen twee bastions
  21. islamitische militanten
  22. Uit het archief: Macht, Olie en Religie
  23. Fundamentalisme en religie #1 Noorwegen
  24. Fundamentalisme en religie #6 Versplintering
  25. Is een fundamentalistische kijk op de bijbel, de enige mogelijke kijk?
  26. Bestaat er iets als Christelijk fundamentalisme
  27. Jihad gedoe
  28. Geloven in God

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Gerelateerd

  1. Beschavingen… ’t is overal iets
  2. Democratie brengen
  3. Multicultireel, realistisch – Moslims in Nederland
  4. peterzijnblog
  5. Stop de islamisering en stem dadelijk PVV, de enige partij die NEE zegt tegen de islam in Nederland!
  6. Syrische rebellen, Afghanistan aan de Middellandse Zee?
  7. De islam, een anti-westerse veroveringsideologie wordt in Nederland al jaren geknuffeld
  8. Met de Resolutie van Straatsburg in 1975,werd Europa verraden en verkocht aan de islam
  9. De knikkers van Qadir
  10. In Ander Nieuws: week 24/25
  11. Afghanistan, een overdenking
  12. De val van Afghanistan
  13. Oud-ambassadeur waarschuwt: ‘Val van Afghanistan toont aan dat Israël enkel op zichzelf moet vertrouwen’
  14. Na 20 jaar,Afghanistan is opnieuw in handen van de Taliban islamofascisten
  15. Hamas feliciteert de Taliban voor zijn ‘overwinning op de Verenigde Staten’
  16. Iran, Oman, Qatar en Hamas omarmen gewelddadige machtsovername van Afghanistan door Taliban
  17. Bijleveld verantwoordt zich voor sturen militairen naar Afghanistan
  18. Afghanistan: De val van Kaboel is een wake-up call voor Israël
  19. Amerikaanse militaire delegatie bezoekt Turkije om de luchthaven van Kabul te bespreken
  20. Afghanistan: de VS druipen af, komt Turkije in de plaats?
  21. Val van Kaboel is grootste vernedering voor Amerika en het Westen in decennia
  22. Chaos op luchthaven Kabul, duizenden Afghanen proberen te vertrekken
  23. Talibanleiders gebruikten Twitter en WhatsApp om Kaboel te veroveren
  24. Taliban bedankt Afghanen voor achtergelaten wapens
  25. Onthoofdingen en executies: De bodem van het Ghazistadion in Kaboel was ooit doordrenkt met bloed
  26. Handleiding van de Taliban voor een perfecte steniging in Afghanistan [in beeld]
  27. Afghanistan, het spel van de schaduwen
  28. Zomaar een moment uit het leven van een bureaucraat
  29. Arabia
  30. Jeruzalem: leven te midden van religieuze fanatici
  31. ‘Het gaat niet om wat je gelooft, maar hóé je dat doet’

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Filed under Geschiedenis, Misdaden & Wreedheden, Nederlandse teksten - Dutch writings, Nieuwsgebeurtenissen - Journaal, Politieke aangelegenheden, Religieuze aangelegenheden, Wereld aangelegenheden

Anti-Semitism in the United States

Although in many ways the U.S. Jewish population is flourishing, concerns about anti-Semitism have risen among American Jews. In the recent Pew Research Center’s survey of U.S. Jews, conducted from Nov. 19, 2019, to June 3, 2020, three-quarters say there is more anti-Semitism in the United States than there was five years ago, and just over half (53%) say that “as a Jewish person in the United States” they feel less safe than they did five years ago.

Probably this has a lot to with the way Donald Trump created a poisoned atmosphere.

Politically, U.S. Jews on the whole tilt strongly liberal and tend to support the Democratic Party, but the last few years in that party were many extreme right people who wanted a white Christian nation. When the new survey was fielded, from late fall 2019 through late spring 2020, 71% a lot of Jews said  they were still Democrats or leaned Democratic. Among Jews of no religion, roughly three-quarters were Democrats or leaned that way. But those who saw how their president went in against God’s Commandments could not support that party that had betrayed all democratic values.
Orthodox Jews have been trending in the opposite direction, becoming as solidly Republican as non-Orthodox Jews are solidly Democratic. In the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, 75% of Orthodox Jews said they were Republicans or leaned Republican, compared with 57% in 2013. And 86% of Orthodox Jews rated then-President Donald Trump’s handling of policy toward Israel as “excellent” or “good,” while a majority of all U.S. Jews described it as “only fair” or “poor.”

Jews who wear distinctively religious attire, such as a kippa or head covering, are particularly likely to say they feel less safe. But the impact on behaviour seems to be limited: Even among those who feel less safe, just one-in-ten – or 5% of all U.S. Jews – report that they have stayed away from a Jewish event or observance as a result.

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Preceding

Seeds from the world creating division and separation from God

The Rise of Anti-Seminism

Growing anti-Semitism possible sign of certain times

Quiz questions, views, left- and right-wing anti-Semitism

Historian Deborah Lipstadt Assesses the New Anti-Semitism

Trump’s rhetoric is infusing a culture of Anti-Semitism

Month of freedom and liberty with Independence Day or Deceived day

Judaism and Jewishness in 2020 America

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Additional reading

  1. In Every Generation: The Return of Anti-Semitism – Pesah Day 1, 5779
  2. The fight against anti-Semitism is also a fight for a democratic, value-based Europe
  3. 2019 was #4 a Year of much deceit in Belgium and the rest of Europe
  4. ….a powerful way to put the universe on notice….
  5. A Secret of our Enemy :Inter-Ethnic Fault Lines Among the Jews (Full Article)
  6. A vibrant and inclusive movement within the American Jewish community

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Filed under Being and Feeling, Cultural affairs, Lifestyle, Religious affairs

Judaism and Jewishness in 2020 America

A new Pew Research Center survey finds that many Jewish Americans participate, at least occasionally, both in some traditional religious practices – like going to a synagogue or fasting on Yom Kippur – and in some Jewish cultural activities, like making potato latkes, watching Israeli movies or reading Jewish news online.  The same could perhaps be said for European Jews.

Among young Jewish adults, however, two sharply divergent expressions of Jewishness appear to be gaining ground – one involving religion deeply enmeshed in every aspect of life, and the other involving little or no religion at all.

For Europeans it might be strange that overall, about a quarter of U.S. Jewish adults (27%) do not identify with the Jewish religion. Like all over the world we can find the strong feeling of ethnicity, more than religiosity.  The 27% U.S. Jewish adults who consider themselves to be Jewish ethnically, culturally or by family background, even when they have a Jewish parent or were raised Jewish,  answer a question about their current religion by describing themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” rather than as Jewish. Among Jewish adults under 30, four-in-ten describe themselves this way.

The two branches of Judaism that long predominated in the U.S. have less of a hold on young Jews than on their elders.
In 2013 the Conservative movement was the second largest of the three main religious denominations within American Judaism, claiming 18 percent of American Jews. In some years in the 1950s, the movement was adding 100 new affiliate congregations annually.
In the 21st century, the movement’s long-term viability has continued to be drawn into question. The percentage of Jewish households that identified as Conservative dropped by 10 points — from 43 to 33 percent — between 1990 and 2000, according to surveys of the American Jewish population conducted in those years. By the end of the century, the movement was in serious decline, in such a way that some were fretting openly that Conservative Judaism was on the road to oblivion. About fifteen years ago Rabbi David Wolpe suggested that Conservative Judaism be rebranded as Covenantal Judaism. That name we hear also here and there in our regions, where some Jews and Jeshuaists consider themselves Covenantal Jews.
Today roughly four-in-ten Jewish adults under 30 identify with either Reform (29%) or Conservative Judaism (8%), compared with seven-in-ten Jews ages 65 and older.
Among Jews ages 18 to 29, 17% self-identify as Orthodox, compared with just 3% of Jews 65 and older. And fully one-in-ten U.S. Jewish adults under the age of 30 are Haredim (often known in English as “ultra-Orthodox.”), (11%), compared with 1% of Jews 65 and older. Approximately 1.2 million Haredim live in Israel, jealously guarding their traditions.

Strangely enough, or perhaps not, we can find several Jews who are somewhere “in-between”, themselves found to be not a believer, but who have not given up upon Jewish religious practice. some of them have even adopted more religious practices than they were ever raised with.
In the States, like in Canada and West Europe we find lots of Jews who adopted a religious Jewish lifestyle for themselves, in a similar way we have seen Christians also creating their own religious system and spiritual lifestyle.

In fora we can see that the participants who no longer believe were raised in various Orthodox communities around the world, ranging from Modern Orthodox to Yeshivish to Hassidic; and most spent their childhoods and years of their adulthoods studying in houses of Torah learning. Some were rabbis themselves, educators who dedicated years of their lives to spreading love of Torah and traditional Judaism among the Jewish people. {Why can’t I be secular?}

Remarkable is to notice that in the U.S.A. the youngest U.S. Jews count among their ranks both a relatively large share of traditionally observant, Orthodox Jews and an even larger group of people who see themselves as Jewish for cultural, ethnic or family reasons but do not identify with Judaism – as a religion – at all.  For non-Jews the difference is mostly not made, which gives a totally wrong view of Jews, them thinking all those things those civilian non-believing Jews do against Torah would be in line or acceptable to all Jews.

In the U.S., the same as in Europe, we can see that the youngsters, though not so interested to know if the food is kosher or not, still like a lot of traditional foods. As such, they like cooking traditional Jewish foods, visiting Jewish historical sites and listening to Jewish or Israeli music. Yet the survey finds that most people in the latter group (Jews of no religion) feel they have not much or nothing at all in common with the former group (Orthodox Jews). For many youngsters the Jewish traditions and lifestyle may feel outdated. Others may become unsettled because they find people in their forties searching for ways to live more in line with their ancestors, going back to the synagogue and praying again in the house. Some want to delve into the deeper meaning of Jewishness and Judaism.

It is a fact that Jews and Jeshuaists are a minority. For the U.S.A. in absolute numbers, the 2020 Jewish population estimate is approximately 7.5 million, including 5.8 million adults and 1.8 million children (rounded to the closest 100,000). The 2013 estimate was 6.7 million, including 5.3 million adults and 1.3 million children. The precision of these population estimates should not be exaggerated; they are derived from a sample of the U.S. public that is very large compared with most surveys (more than 68,000 interviews) but are still subject to sampling error and other practical difficulties that produce uncertainty. Furthermore, the size of the Jewish population greatly depends on one’s definition of who counts as Jewish.

Most U.S. Jews identify as Democrats, but most Orthodox are Republicans

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Find also to read

Judaism and Jeshuaism a religion of the future

Jewish Americans in 2020

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Related

  1. American Conservative Judaism
  2. Covenantal Judaism: Ki Tavo 5780
  3. On Rosh Hashanah, a sermon to the unwelcome
  4. Converting to Judaism sparks political uproar in Israel
  5. Opening Israel to non-Orthodox Converts Should Have Happened Long Ago
  6. A Journey of Discovery
  7. Messianic Jews Say ‘Fake Rabbi’ Was Wrong Way to Reach the Ultra-Orthodox
  8. Reform Jews Should Recite Qorbanot in Prayer
  9. Parshat Eikev
  10. Why can’t I be secular?
  11. The Jewish teddy bear
  12. What I’m Watching
  13. Oh, come on, or: Srsly?

3 Comments

Filed under Being and Feeling, History, Lifestyle, Religious affairs, Social affairs

Can China Become A Super-Power

 

Political And Developmental Thoughts

Throughout history, many superpowers that dominated the world politically and economically came and left, the Roman empire, the Byzantine empire, the Umayyad empire, the Abbasid empire, the Mongol empire, the British empire. In today’s world, the hegemon that can be said is the world power that dominates the world not only politically and economically, but also culturally such as by movies, media, music and literature is the United States. 

The United States became the new superpower after world war 1 when the British Empire lost that position due to the economic and political damage the war had cost. The Americans filled that space by entering and ending the war, helping Europe recover by financing projects to rebuild war-torn Europe, and spreading its muscle around the world.

Today many believe that in the 21st century the world will experience another…

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Filed under History, Political affairs, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs, World affairs

Vaccinations and anti-vaxers

Ex-president Donald Trump was against vaccinations and even did want Americans to believe the “Chinese disease would soon be over”. This ego tripper managed lots of Americans not to believe in the dangers of the Coronavirus.

By his misleading words he got many Republicans, evangelicals, but also poor blacks, and Hispanics to believe it are foreign forces and socialists or, worse, communists, trying to undermine the American society. Today many are suspicious of the government which would have become in power by a fraud election. Conservative evangelicals are among the quickest to share all those absurd stories about a.o. coronavirus-related conspiracy reaching to the highest levels of government. In many countries we can see that it is the Religious Right which is a hothouse of anti-vax activism and health fads.

Fools will readily believe a case without closely seeking out and attending to the criticisms of it (Proverbs 18:17). They routinely judge before hearing. They also attend to and spread rumours, inaccurate reports, and unreliable tales, while failing diligently to pursue the truth of a matter. The wise, by contrast, examine things carefully before moving to judgment or passing on a report. {Wisdom and Folly in Christian Responses to Coronavirus}

a lot of youngsters only go be the headings on their Social Media. Titles on You Tube or on Facebook, without going to read the article, let withstand to think about it and to examine what is said in it.

They do not follow up closely on viewpoints that they have advanced, seeking criticism and cross-examination to ascertain their truth or falsity. And when anything is proven wrong, they do not return to correct it. {Wisdom and Folly in Christian Responses to Coronavirus}

You would think, in the U.S.A., after the new president tried to get some order again, the American citizens would get back to their senses. The number of new Covid-19 cases per day has increased dramatically in the United States in the past month. New, dangerous variants have spread widely. At first Trump could convince people not to wear masks, but luckily now they show up in many parts of the country. Artists, often looked at as being “left”, went to get their vaccination as soon as they could. CEO’s also did not wait to long before getting vaccinated. But for the lowest-income groups, we can see it is more difficult to get people over the line. In the U.S.A. only 1.1 percent of the population of poor countries has received a single shot. Some people have surrendered to a sense of doom because they formed unreasonable expectations that the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines would miraculously obliterate the virus.

You would expect after the 2020 lockdowns, the 2.4 million Americans hospitalised and the 610,000 killed, more Americans would hurry to get the vaccinations over and done with. But the unmistakable fact is that they’ve made great progress in recent months to smother the virus and steer national life back toward normal. Where 5,463 people died from Covid-19 on one day at the beginning of the year, the daily death count is now bouncing in the low hundreds. One good thing may be that already an undetermined number of people have acquired some immunity from Covid-19 by exposure to it.

Today in America, severe Covid-19 infections and death are almost entirely in unvaccinated people. And the vaccines are still remarkably effective — of the 163 million fully vaccinated in the United States, only 1,141 have died from the virus.

It is known that the older you are, the greater the chance of getting seriously ill or dying from CoViD, and the younger you are, the less likely you are to have serious symptoms. This makes a lot of youngsters not worrying or not afraid of getting infected. For them there are many reasons not to receive an injection. Though lots of those reasons are based on absurd messages on Social Media. Social Media is doing a lot of damage and undermining national safety. One would expect them to see now, that because of the success of the vaccination in the older population, that the infection rate from the Delta variant has sent the number of infections soaring, the number of deaths, at least right now, is surprisingly low.

Young and old should come to recognise this virus is not an ordinary virus, like we have seen previously several viruses coming over the lands. It is not a virus that shall allow us to cry victory soon. No matter who might be president or in power, all shall have to start with acknowledging that it’s not within our power to eliminate Covid-19 from our shores the way we have polio, or to vaccinate every American against the virus. If we’re willing to agree on an end goal of dramatically reducing the severe illness and deaths from the virus, however, we might begin to see what winning is about.

According to Anthony Fauci the vaccines are even effective against the new variants that people fret so much about.

“A higher percentage of Americans have taken a Covid-19 vaccine in the past seven months than took a flu vaccine during the catastrophic 2017-18 flu season (37 percent of adults). Only 54 percent of the American population had taken the Salk polio vaccine six years after its introduction. Viewed from these angles, Americans in 2021 have not been particularly “vaccine hesitant.”

he says. But when we see news coverage and some documentaries about the handling of CoViD in the United States we got another view, with a lot of people between the age of 20-40 coming up with a lot of reasonable and sometime idiotic fantasies why they do not want to be vaccinated.

All over the world people should become convinced that it is a matter of not only protecting yourself, but out of love for the other, protecting those around you. The more people we vaccinate, the safer we all are today and how sooner we can go back to a normal life. We need everybody to be able to go to work, to have all the shops, pubs and event centres open again. Trying to get everything working properly again, we should safeguard ourselves by taking enough precautions that the illness can not spread. The less opportunity dangerous variants will have to emerge and spread tomorrow the better our life shall be and the better our economy shall be able to recover from those two years ‘disaster’.

So many in France and Germany shout about their freedom being taken, but do they ever think about what freedom really might be? Freedom is also respecting the freedom of others!

The age factor helps to explain why the rate of vaccination has stalled and is unlikely to accelerate, especially among the 19-to-49 crowd, many of whom feel immortal. We also hear that several of that age group in Europe went only to get their vaccination to be able to travel or to go to music festivals.

Some people also point to the fact that lots of people die in car accidents or find their death by having cancer. They say the older generation reacted to strongly on a disease which perhaps should be regarded like any other flu variant or a disease that comes over our countries once in a while to bring a clean brush against overpopulation.

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Also interesting to read

  1. Remembering what happened in the previous influenza pandemic
  2. According to Pew Most White Evangelicals Don’t Think COVID-19 is a Medical Crisis
  3. Undermining security and democracy via the Internet
  4. No time yet to relax the CoViD-19 restriction measures
  5. Lockdown greetings for a newer year
  6. Not created to be on our own
  7. CoViD-19 Curation
  8. A new start when the lockdown comes to an end
  9. NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo his state of the state address
  10. G7 and Building Back Better
  11. Good time to sort out your friends and contacts
  12. In Coronatime thinking about death
  13. A living Word giving confidence
  14. Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief

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Related

  1. Wisdom and Folly in Christian Responses to Coronavirus
  2. Employee shortage, COVID-19 surge leave ICU nurses exhausted
  3. Japan’s pandemic entering ‘new phase’ as Tokyo COVID-19 cases hit record high
  4. As delta variant spreads, New York City ramps up vaccination efforts among students
  5. Clubs NSW calls for COVID-19 vaccinated individuals to be allowed back into venues
  6. NYC, Big Employers Taking Hard Line Against Vaccine Holdouts
  7. Be aware of othersAugust 1, 2021
  8. Waking Up
  9. Anti Vaxers
  10. Hospital CEO tells anti-vaxers to ‘shut up’
  11. Public hearing underway as thousands want a say in the proposed ban on religious exemption for childhood vaccines
  12. How To Talk To Anti-maskers And Not Lose Your Mind
  13. Mick Jagger and Dave Grohl mock anti-vaxxers in new song
  14. Jaco: Welcome to the death lottery; wanna play?
  15. Re- emerging
  16. 07/12/2021 Summer Doldrums
  17. “Freedumb Must Reign!”
  18. 28 & 1/3 Grams
  19. It Sails Through the Air
  20. Covid returns again – Why are you still not vaccinated?
  21. I’m mad as hell, and not sorry
  22. Give Them The Stick, Not The Carrot
  23. Jaco: Make the anti-vaxers pay
  24. Those who not get to the vaccine
  25. Anti-vaxers had their fun
  26. Wild deer found to have coronavirus antibodies in four-state study

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Filed under Headlines - News, Health affairs, Lifestyle, Political affairs, Religious affairs, Welfare matters

Europe Floods: Death Toll Over 110 as Rescues Continue

Probably we are looking at more than 150 victims of the heavy rain and flooding which took parts of Germany, Belgium and the South of the Netherlands. Authorities said late Thursday that about 1,300 people in Germany were still listed missing, but cautioned that the high figure could be due to duplication of data and difficulties reaching people because of disrupted roads and phone connections.

In Belgium, Pepinster, Theux, Chaudfontaine, Spa, Liège a.o. got enough water to forget draughts for months. Most of the drowned were found around Liege, where the rains hit hardest. Skies were largely overcast in eastern Belgium, with hopes rising that the worst of the calamity was over.

Please find this report about the flash floods this week which followed days of heavy rainfall, sweeping away cars and causing houses to collapse across the region.

“Some parts of Western Europe … received up to two months of rainfall in the space of two days. What made it worse is that the soils were already saturated by previous rainfall,”

said Clare Nullis, spokesperson for the World Meteorological Organization.

Those who keep saying Climate chance is an invention of revolutionaries and lefties, should have a better look of how our weather becomes unpredictable.

Extreme weather events are hitting Europe more frequently as climate change warms the continent, experts agree.

2020 was Europe’s hottest year since records began over 300 years ago, according to analysis of global weather stations by Berkeley Earth, and eight of the 10 hottest ever years have been in the past decade.

The continent’s average temperature is now roughly 2C warmer than it was at the start of the 20th century – an increase that has come with a growth in extreme weather.

For example, warmer air holds more water which, in turn, can lead to extreme downpours.

Please find to read and watch another video > Europe Floods: Death Toll Over 110 as Rescues Continue by Frank Jordans

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Necessity of free press for Hong Kong

We are convinced there always has to be free independent press. We find that freedom of expression, speech, press, is essential for a community.

Since more than a year that freedom of thought has been brought in danger by silencing critical writers. With regret we have seen the many difficulties which inhabitants of Hong Kong, officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (HKSAR) have to face.

The highly developed territory and ranks fourth on the UN Human Development Index, its pictures show us a city that has the largest number of skyscrapers of any city in the world. Ranked 4th in the Global Financial Centres Index, one would think everything must go incredibly well in that city. But that is without regard to the overlooking and dominating power of the parliamentary communist apparatus.

What never should have happened, was presented by the agreement of the United Kingdom and China, Hong Kong being transferred to China on 1 July 1997, after 156 years of British rule. This instead of making Hong Kong an independent sovereign country.

Political debates after the transfer of sovereignty have centred around the region’s democratic development and the central government‘s adherence to the “one country, two systems” principle. After reversal of the last colonial era Legislative Council democratic reforms following the handover, the regional government unsuccessfully attempted to enact national security legislation pursuant to Article 23 of the Basic Law. {Wikipedia}

Before the British government handed over Hong Kong in 1997, China agreed to allow the region considerable political autonomy for fifty years under a framework known as “one country, two systems.” But probably they use another calendar than ours with very short years!  Soon they started to limit the inhabitants their movements and way of thinking.

From the central force in Beijing, everything was done to reduce the movements and influence of the Hongkongers. Beijing has cracked down on Hong Kong’s freedoms, stoking mass protests in the city and drawing international criticism.

In the wake of the pro-democracy Umbrella Movement as a non-profit outlet funded by Hongkongers, the newspaper Hong Kong Free Press was launched in 2015. Hong Kong Free Press is a non-profit, English-language news source seeking to unite critical voices on local and national affairs. Free of charge and completely independent, HKFP arrives amid rising concerns over declining press freedom in Hong Kong and during an important time in the city’s constitutional development.

In 2020, we got to hear how Beijing passed a controversial national security law and came to see how dozens of pro-democracy activists and lawmakers were arrested. We could also see the inappropriate violence coming from the government, and violence provoking actions of the police force, dimming hopes that Hong Kong will ever become a full-fledged democracy.

On 15 October 2015 a video shot by a TVB film crew appeared to show seven police officers haul off a handcuffed protester from a freshly cleared Lung Wo Road to a dark corner in nearby Tamar Park, Admiralty. As the officers circled the protester, some allegedly took turns kicking and punching him while others stood over him, keeping watch. Despite an effort by the station to downplay the footage and remove it from subsequent broadcasts, the video quickly took Hong Kong by storm, stirring public outrage and catapulting the victim of the apparent attack, Civic Party activist Ken Tsang, to the status of an instant icon. The Occupy protests were violently crushed without mercy, and up to today we regularly get new shots of press people and protesters being arrested by the police. From some people apprehended by the police a few months ago, nothing is heard any more.

No wonder the public lost their trust in the local police after the many secret missions of the forces and the many police interrogations, certainly after the 2015 blockage of the Hong Kong Free Press website in China. Any websites or apps that undermine Party rule, or have the potential to, are typically blocked. This consists largely of western news media, social networks, and sites built on user-generated content. Other content deemed vulgar, pornographic, paranormal, obscene, or violent is also blocked. Some western websites, apps, and services are blocked in order to prevent competition with domestic, homegrown alternatives.

blocked in china hong kong free press
(Find which sites are blocked in China by the Chinese Communist Party’s technological and legislative efforts to regulate the internet: >  censorship watchdog websites greatfirewallofchina.org and blockedinchina.net.)

The easiest way to access censored websites in China is to use a VPN (Short for virtual private network) But because VPNs being not so cheap subscription services that encrypt internet traffic and route it through an intermediary server outside of China, this allows only a limited audience to use it to bypass the Great Firewall and freely access the web.

In 2020 Hong Kong Free Press has been shortlisted by the UK-based Index on Censorship for their annual Freedom of Expression Awards.

index censorship hong kong free press

Hong Kong pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily continued its operations and printed 500,000 copies of Friday’s paper after its headquarters were raided by the police on Thursday 17 June 2021, and five senior executives were arrested on suspicion of violating the national security law.

Apple Daily raid June 17, 2021

Dozens of Hong Kong police enter Apple Daily’s headquarters in Tseung Kwan O on June 17, 2021. Photo: Apple Daily.

It was the second time in 10 months that the newspaper, founded by Jimmy Lai, had been raided. Police said the warrant used on Thursday was issued under the security legislation, and gave them power to search for and seize journalistic material.

Lai, 73, who was arrested during the first raid last August, is serving 20 months in prison for protest-related offences and also faces charges under the Beijing-imposed security law, which provides for penalties of up to life imprisonment.

According to local media, those arrested included Next Digital CEO Cheung Kim-hung and Chief Operating Officer Royston Chow, Apple Daily’s Editor-in-Chief Ryan Law, Associate Publisher Chan Pui-man and Cheung Chi-wai, who manages the newspaper’s online news platform. All were arrested in the early hours at their homes.

Police said their operation was not targeting the press, adding the force “had no choice” but to enforce the law inside a media company.

 

Please find to read:

  1. Hong Kong justice chiefs accused of ‘shameless double standards’ for dropping charge against reporter from state-owned media outlet
  2. Two senior execs at Hong Kong’s Apple Daily formally charged with national security ‘conspiracy’
  3. ‘Very heartbreaking’: Hong Kong media reel as security law targets democracy paper’s reporting
  4. Hong Kong police raid Apple Daily office, editor-in-chief among 5 arrested under national security law over articles
  5. Hong Kong’s Apple Daily may halt publication this Sat, pending Fri board meeting
  6. ‘#Hong Kong is very beautiful’ hashtag trends online after Watsons Water bottles taken off shelves
  7. Taiwan pulls trade office staff over Hong Kong ultimatum
  8. Embattled democracy coalition cancels Hong Kong’s annual July 1 march; will discuss disbanding

+++

Related

  1. Two Hong Kong newspaper executives charged under security law: police
  2. HK democracy supporters snap up Apple Daily copies
  3. Apple Daily: Hong Kong police raid sparks rush on newspapers
  4. Hong Kong’s RTHK fires popular pro-democracy radio host Tsang Chi-ho
  5. Post-Work Life in Hong Kong
  6. Blockchain could boost fintech in HK, but city is lagging
  7. Hong Kong newspaper chiefs on trial for security charge
  8. Pro-democratic executive of Hong Kong Media appears before court
  9. This is the worst of times
  10. Hong Kong court denies bail to Apple Daily’s editor, publisher
  11. Sunday Morning: News From Zurich, London, Copenhagen & Hong Kong
  12. Hong Kong seeks integration with mainland China, says Carrie Lam
  13. Hong Kong’s Apple Daily paper to shut within days
  14. John Ross: from Trotskyism to power-worship
  15. Hong Kong’s Apple Daily may halt publication this Sat, pending Fri board meeting
  16. Hong Kong pro-democracy paper Apple Daily says to decide on closure on Friday
  17. UN rights chief eyes visit to China’s Xinjiang ‘this year’
  18. Hong Kong’s Biggest Pro-Democracy Newspaper Likely to Shut Down This Week After National Security Law Raid
  19. Hong Kong’s last pro-democracy newspaper may be forced to suspend operations after government crackdown

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Filed under Activism and Peace Work, Headlines - News, History, Juridical matters, Political affairs, Social affairs, Welfare matters, World affairs

A dangerous turning point – Earth facing the collapse of everything

Despite so much evidence to the contrary, “experts” deny there is any threat to the world’s ecology.
Study Disputes That Earth is in a ‘Climate Emergency’

Brietbart 07-Feb-21 by Delingpole

“There is no “climate emergency”, according to a study for the Global Warming Policy Foundation by independent scientist Dr Indur Goklany.
Dr Goklany concludes:

“While climate may have changed for the warmer:  Most extreme weather phenomena have not become extreme, more deadly, or more destructive.  Empirical evidence directly contradicts claims that increased carbon dioxide has reduced human wellbeing. In fact, human wellbeing has never been higher.

Whatever detrimental effects warming and higher carbon dioxide may have had on terrestrial species and ecosystems, they have been swamped by the contribution of fossil fuels to increased biological activity. This has halted, and turned around, reductions in habitat loss”.

The report would make hugely depressing reading for all environmental activists — even the Pope – if it was
infallibly accurate – which it is not!
Dr Goklany says there is little to scare us:

Yes, there will be more hot days, but fewer cold days. Oh? Where?

In the Arctic and the Antarctic of course – silly!

*There will be less tornados – #in Great Britain?
* There will be less floods, less frequent and smaller!
# Perhaps Goklany slept through last year, but there were half a dozen cyclones causing death by floods, drowning, landslides and inundation from January to December 2020 throughout the Southern Hemisphere!
*There will be less droughts and less wildfires.

# When does this begin? So far so bad in California and many parts of Australia. In October 1917 intense, deadly fires killed 41 people in Spain and Portugal, and in 2020 fires affected Sweden and Northern France as well as Italy and Spain where wildfires are not indigenous!

In 2020 for months, Siberia has been experiencing extreme heat due to a combination of persistent sunny weather and human-caused climate change. In addition to producing Arctic temperatures that cracked 100 degrees in June, the heat has fueled an enormous outbreak of wildfires, including fires on Siberia’s tundra……

Breitbart News Desk February 16, 2021:

The deep freeze that knocked out power in Texas spread across the country this week. The agency that manages power in fourteen states from Texas through Oklahoma and all the way up to North Dakota declared a state of emergency and ordered utilities to initiate rolling blackouts to cut electrical demand and stabilize the grid.
Meanwhile, a lot of fracking for oil has been brought to a halt by the freeze. Twenty percent of the U.S. oil production has gone offline, and some of the biggest refineries have been shuttered. The big problem is that the Texas oil kits are not set up for arctic weather. Up in North Dakota the extraction process is winterized, but that’s not the case farther south. Even something as simple as picking up oil in a truck to move to a refinery can become impossible when your roads are iced over, there are no snow ploughs or road salt, and no one has snow tires.
Crude oil production is down by more than four million barrels a day, twice what was reported a day earlier. Prior to the cold crisis, the U.S. was producing around 11 million barrels a day.
The Permian Basin, America’s largest oil field, has been hard hit. Production in the area that straddles western Texas and
New Mexico is down between 65 percent and 80 percent.

The melting Arctic has been watched closely by countries like China and Russia who are looking to take advantage of the increasingly available shipping lanes. But scientists have lamented the latest milestone, and are sounding the alarm about further environmental degradation due to increased shipping activity.

It is a very dangerous turning point

says Associate Professor Nengye Liu, an expert in international polar law at Macquarie University.

In Revelation 6:8-9 we can see that “Global Warming” is the result of the 4th Vial of God’s Wrath

   8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. 9  And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

+

‘Too late’:

David Attenborough warns Earth faces ‘total collapse’

Nick Whigham ·Assistant News Editor | Yahoo News| 24.2.20-21

The world’s most famous naturalist has issued a dire proclamation about the state of the planet, warning Earth is facing “the collapse of everything” if we continue on our current path.

94-year-old Sir David Attenborough warned overnight that climate change is the biggest security threat modern humans have ever faced while addressing the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) session on climate, saying it was “already too late” to stem the diabolical impacts of global warming.

   “There is no going back, no matter what we do now, it’s too late to avoid climate change and the poorest, the most vulnerable, those with the least security, are now certain to suffer,”

he said.

“And if the natural world can no longer support the most basic of our needs, then much of the rest of civilisation will quickly break down.”

Arthur Wright, Kallangur, Brisbane

+++

Related

  1. Global Climate Change. Overstated or Understated?
  2. Earth Is In Serious Trouble If We Don’t Make Major Changes. Period.
  3. Stop the depletion of the earth
  4. Earth had its coolest February since 2014
  5. Climate Change Responsibility
  6. The Triple Crisis: Coronavirus is increasingly linked to global warming and remaking the economy, call it a socialist trifecta
  7. Sea-level rise caused by climate change> LTE Under Consideration: Re: March 1 Article, “Was climate change to blame?”
  8. Scientists stunned to discover plants beneath mile-deep Greenland ice
  9. New Permian Methane Leakage Study Confirms What We Already Knew
  10. Routine Gas Flaring Is Wasteful, Polluting and Undermeasured
  11. Rare Lizard’s Habitat May Open Up
  12. “Arctic air freezes Permian shale fields”… Fake news?
  13. Texas Oil Giant ExxonMobil Sells Some North Sea Drilling, Exploration Sites Amid Muted Oil Prices
  14. Clean Fuel Opens Door for Sustainability
  15. The two gravest threats to humanity
  16. 60,000 Belgians take government to court over alleged climate inaction

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Filed under Ecological affairs, World affairs

As West Bank Settlers Try to Take More Palestinian Land

Rabbi Arik Ascherman lets us know

As West Bank Settlers Try to Take More Palestinian Land

I am actually in a bit of pain. I have barely felt most of the blows I have received in recent days from settler youth sent by their elders to accompany cows and sheep on a rampage of theft in the fields of the Taibe junction we had planted with Bedouin shepherds. These are mere children trying to be tough. However, a week ago Tuesday one of them managed to hit me in the back with the stick he was brandishing. I am trying to avoid overuse of pain killers, except for the adrenalin every day when I return to keep the cows and sheep out of the fields.

In addition to the physical pain, there is the great sadness that adults are corrupting these children in this way. I have been oscillating between telling them that they are thieves, and we have nothing to talk about, and telling them that I pray they will find an uncorrupted corner of their souls that will inspire them to return to what God asks of them. Almost every day I ask them if they wish to act like the descendants of Abraham and Sarah, or like Amalek, summarizing the words of Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch I cited on my Times of Israel blog two weeks ago on the reading for the Shabbat before Purim, Deuteronomy 25: 17 – 19:

Don’t Forget:

Don’t forget a thing if the day will come when you will want to be like Amalek, and like Amalek you won’t want to remember your obligations or to know God, but will look for the opportunity in small or big matters to exploit your advantage to harm other human beings. Don’t forget this when the day will come, and you will want to rid yourself of your role and mission as the Jewish people that you accepted among humanity.

This week I have been suggesting to some of these troubled youth that we set up a “Reish Lakish club.” Reish Lakish was a thief who changed his ways and became a scholar frequently cited in the Talmud.

Last Thursday night, immediately after the reading of the Purim Megillah, we had an emergency meeting postponed from the previous night with a representative of the Taibe Municipality, a leading Palestinian activist, and legal counsel. As I will explain, the Book of Esther came to life for me.

For much of the past three years the struggle has primarily been that of Torat Tzedek and the Bedouin shepherds, with some support from the Municipality. Landowners have taken action when settlers tried to set up additional outposts on their lands. However, from the additional outpost Neriya Ben Pazi successfully set up on “State Land,” the settlers have taken their incursions, intimidation and theft of everything the shepherds plant for their flocks, to a new level. Our successes in 2019 to significantly cut down the level of theft were reversed in 2020 both because of this outpost, and because of incredibly heightened State support for settler aggression this past year. In 2020 settlers forced many Bedouin off the land, and now have begun to plow some of it themselves. Between fear of what the State can do to those who raise their heads, and tensions between the landowners and the Bedouin working and living on the lands, the landowners have been overly slow to take the steps necessary to save their lands.

Day after day, we have literally been holding them off. We stood guard as those shepherds who have not been totally intimidated planted. In areas where the fear was too great, we did the planting as well. We have been in constant conversation with the legal authorities, demanding that they do their job. Because last year’s losses have left family’s financially strapped, we helped secure financing for seed and tractors and contributed ourselves. Settlers have savagely responded by intensifying their attempts to ensure that their flocks eat everything that has been planted just as it is beginning to grow. They want the shepherds who dare to resist to believe that they will not benefit from even one stalk of the barley that was to feed their flocks from May through September. They call or “visit” the shepherds to warn them that they will pay a price for any connection with us. We call the security forces, who say they will do nothing until they see ownership papers, but have taken no action when owners have lodged complaints and even discouraged owners from doing so. They usually refuse to identify suspects, but last year froze a case by claiming that the perpetrators were not known. When there are enough of us, we can successfully keep the settler flocks out of the planted areas. I admit there have been days when I have broken the rules and been there alone, because I can’t bear to watch what happens otherwise. Expelling flocks alone is physically more challenging, and we are less likely to be attacked when the settlers know that we are filming them from several angles. I was alone when hit in the back on Tuesday.

Then, there have been the days I have just walked away and expelled flocks when the police have refused to do anything, and then had the audacity to order me not to do anything.

At the meeting, the lawyer explained the hard facts. With the settlers acting as if the land is theirs, and even plowing some of it, the next step will be to claim that it is theirs legally. They are already smirking and crowing that the Bedouin have fled, and won’t be coming back. On Friday, one of them scoffed at the idea that the ownership papers of “goyim” mean anything. At the meeting the Palestinian activist assured that many would support the Municipality and the owners and the Bedouin if they take the decisive legal and other steps that must now be taken.

For me the meeting was a Megillah moment. The most dramatic scene for me in Megillat Esther is the back and forth messages between Mordechai and Esther that transform her from a passive woman doing what she is told to a bold and brave leader:

Esther told Hathach to take back to Mordecai the following reply:

“All the king’s courtiers and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any person, man or woman, enters the king’s presence in the inner court without having been summoned, there is but one law for him—that he be put to death. Only if the king extends the golden scepter to him may he live. Now I have not been summoned to visit the king for the last thirty days.”

When Mordecai was told what Esther had said, Mordecai had this message delivered to Esther:

“Do not imagine that you, of all the Jews, will escape with your life by being in the king’s palace. On the contrary, if you keep silent in this crisis, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another quarter, while you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows, perhaps you have attained to royal position for just such a crisis.”

Then Esther sent back this answer to Mordecai:

“Go, assemble all the Jews who live in Shushan, and fast in my behalf; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens will observe the same fast. Then I shall go to the king, though it is contrary to the law; and if I am to perish, I shall perish!”

So Mordecai went about [the city] and did just as Esther had commanded him. (Esther 4: 10 -17)

Like Mordechai, I as a privileged Israeli Jew can paternalistically instruct Palestinians or Israelis in need of public housing, or whoever, what to do. Or, there can be a magic moment when the oppressed become empowered to be partners in fighting for their rights and dignity. We may have reached such a moment on Thursday – a moment in which we all realized that there is a reason why we are here. I use the word “partners.” Mordechai speaks of the salvation that can come from another quarter if Esther does not act. We spoke of all the aid that would come from other quarters if the villagers do act.

Ken Yehi Ratzon May it be the Will of God, Who is never mentioned in the Book of Esther, but was present. Together –– the privileged, the oppressed and God –– in partnership for a better world.

B’Vrakha (In Blessing),

Arik

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2020 Talking Points – Stuck with polemics, histrionics, and ad hominem denunciation

Continually the world turns around and time goes on. But it will not go on for ever with man being able to bring bad things to others.
There shall come a time that with a roar and fire, believers and non-believers still alive shall come to see the beginning of the Day of the Lord. The Great Tribulation will come bringing great sufferings, but it shall bring us our waiting to an end, making our hope coming into fulfilment, Jesus, the Prince of Peace and the great Reconciler of humanity with the Creator, coming back to judge the living and the dead, to allow the righteous to enter the gates of God’s Kingdom to live there forever without pain or sorrows.

*

The retired High School teacher and an ordained Christian minister in Ontario, Canada, Vincent finds that

No one who has lived through and is old enough to remember it will forget 2020 – the “Plague Year” of a century. We tend to forget that there have been many plague years in human history, and many far worse both in absolute numbers of victims and in proportion. {2020-2021 and Hope}

He was not without hope as we ended 2020 and began 2021 and writes:

Even in dark times like 2020, and there have been many much darker in many ways over the centuries, the Creator has not departed. He remains anchored among us through the presence of a living Redeemer, a presence shared far and wide wherever those who know Him bring His light. {2020-2021 and Hope}

He is also aware that we might be coming closer to the prophesised days of the end.

It may prove true that we are quite close to or even in the last, Last Days and on the verge of the Great Tribulation. I am aware that quite a few believe that we are now seeing such signs, and they may be right. My generation thought this back in 1973. People thought it in World War 1, and in WW2 called Hitler the Antichrist.

World.V.You

Like many I know, I have been paying less attention to the swirling morass of the news these days. Most of it is glum and discouraging anyway, and, here in the “Great White North”, summer is all too brief to waste on keeping up with the latest blasts in the present mockery of “discussion and dialogue” in uber-confused Western culture. Besides, between true news (??) and the boundless volume of the less reliable variety, it is often hard to draw a firm line in the midst of all the spin and vehement opinion masquerading as considered point of view.

Everyone has a point of view, of course. But the problem is that it is now uncommon to find any serious attempt to talk about an issue. Most of what passes for commentary consists of dismissing the writer-commentator’s submission as mere strong bias or even some sort of incipient “Communism”…

View original post 1,355 more words

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Filed under Crimes & Atrocities, Headlines - News, History, Political affairs, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs, Religious affairs, World affairs

Some Hope for 2021

Karla Surguine cried when the clock struck twelve on January 1st, 2021. She writes:

It never crossed my mind that I would be emotional about the moment wretched 2020 would turn to history, but my heart was relieved to see a conglomerate of pain walk away. I am not a believer that a different day immediately improved things; we are still in the midst of everything 2020 brought for us. However, I know for sure that 2021 is the year of hope. We hope that things will get better from here. They will not be as normal as a year ago, but we expect this year to bring healing to our bodies, hearts, and pockets. {My Hope for 2021}

At the beginning of the year, we all have a lot of resolutions or plans we want to realise in the new year. On the 31st of December many are waiting and counting down, ready for a fresh start and a New Year. Every year we want to have certain things of the previous year to be put in a bin to forget very quickly. 2020 brought us something we shall not easily forget, though we would love to see it soon over.

It’s crystal clear that 2020 was not as promising as we expected it to be, that was a year filled with challenges and hopes for a better future that we so craved to come as soon as possible and now it’s finally here but how can we manage to leave that outdated/shadowy mindset behind in order to bring up a fresh one that can take us exactly where we wanted to go in the former year but couldn’t utterly achieve? {Tips For a More Uplifting Mindset}

How many people do not spend their whole life stuck in situations where they wish to escape.  This last year was for many more a year we all want to leave behind. Though so quickly it shall not let us go loose. We must understand it is still going to be here for some while. So we shall have to be patient.

writes:

Last year was a hard/different year and even if we don’t see many changes in the beginning of 2021, we have to be positive and think that we learn some things in the hardest times, and that good times will come. The good thinks we learned should be remembered and applied in 2021 (and maybe for the rest of our life) but there are always more things that we can try to be better. {Our 2021 Resolutions…}

For many 2020 has shown the importance of finding bliss in the little things and of being able to be with our beloved ones, trying to stay save and uninfected. Many of us could find in 2020 so much more time for themselves, because they did not have to go to work or could not open their shop. The obligated time for oneself could enrich us. The time of isolation could also be for many a time for reflection. We clearly see the result of it, by having even people starting a new business in this crisis time. Others found now the time to work in the house, doing renovations, or working more in the garden; All the green fingers seemed to have come out of the soil.

2020 surprisingly was also a year many could find renewed energy to things that bring them pure happiness, learning that change is okay, and setting boundaries in order to be their best self. Many people their eyes opened how they were the other years taken by their job full of stress, more working instead of living.
2020 brought them down to earth to reconsider. It was really a year of reflection for many.

Marcella Marie confesses:

I often get so caught up in work, stress, + daily to-do’s that I forget to take a moment to look around me and appreciate everything that I have. This is something that 2020 has taught me to do, and I am so grateful. I hope to carry this mentality into the coming year, because it has shown me what is most important in life.{New Year, New Manifestations}

Ranjani writes:

With a deadly virus lurking in unexpected corners, it was critical for everyone to maintain a good physical health. But it did not suffice, did it? To sustain those prolonged durations of lockdown, distancing ourselves from our loved ones, isolations and taking responsibility of our dependents despite our precarious emotional states, achieving and maintaining a state of harmony of the body, mind and emotions had become inevitable. {Entering a new decade with old values!}

We can look negatively to those lockdowns, or we can be glad we still could make the best out of it and stay healthy. She continues:

we are a lot calmer than what we were a year before and have embraced the uncertainty, albeit gingerly. {Entering a new decade with old values!}

2020 was for many a year that showed reasons enough to be thankful.

There’s no such thing as not having anything to be grateful for, it might be the most modest thing we can possibly think of that it’s still going to count as something to be grateful for, so grab a pen and a piece of paper and go do some grateful thinking practice or just type it on your phone. Whatever you fancy! {Tips For a More Uplifting Mindset}

Probably for most people things didn’t go the way they wanted them to go. All over the world, we got taken by the unexpected. However, one thing is for certain, all over the world, people are looking forward to some change.

A change in perspective holds the power to highly influence in your outcomes regardless of your setting point. So, perhaps adjusting the way we perceive things to be might not just give us the results that we want plus also helps us discern our dreams and hopes from a brighter perspective. {Tips For a More Uplifting Mindset}

All people were taken out of their comfort zone. Most of us are not yet sure what perspective 2021 might bring. But we all hope we shall be able to put an end to this mighty coronavirus tickling our society for such a long time. For sure in 2021 we shall need another strategy than in 2020.

See, this is the moment when we are supposed to be courageous and driven enought in order to let go of the control and boredom and take over a whole innovative attitude on how to take actions that are just as reasonable and that can take you where you are intented to go. {Tips For a More Uplifting Mindset}

Last few months we were allowed to go easy on ourselves and allowing us to have time for resting and even perhaps some time to go lazy (who knows?).

2020 was a rough year in which required so much of us to merely make it through to get to this point and so just for that we are deserving of the greatest amount of respect we could ever nurture for anyone…

So, please in the name of quality of life, the next time we find us beating ourselves up let’s remember that that inner, ugly and powerless voice has no inpact on our reality unless we grant it the strenght to. {Tips For a More Uplifting Mindset}

One of the good things of 2020 was also that lots of people became more aware of the difficult position others are.

People, otherwise preoccupied with their mundane problems, turned crusaders in support of the less privileged and the needy. There are reports galore in the media of people donating their earnings to relief funds, supplying essentials, arranging transport services, serving food to frontline workers, volunteering along with health care professionals, working round the clock to bring relief to patients, supplying medicines and protective gears, sharing their resources and opening their heart, mind and arms to fellow humans, across the world. {Entering a new decade with old values!}

2021 shall not directly bring new days, but the hope might be here now that in lots of countries vaccinations have been started.

In our minds getting something done can be a huge elephant that we have to tackle when all we have to do is beat the potato sitting on us. What happens to our dreams? What happens to our environment? What about our friends? Do we just accept turning into a puddle of screens or a piece of that silver tape on our couch that will not budge? It’s not worth it. These mindless activities just cause emptiness and blend our free time away. Again, it’s not worth it. By shifting just a little bit we can move the potato off its position and gain some momentum. Potatoes aren’t particularly heavy. {The 10 Minutes that Will Change Your Life}

The time being we shall just have to make the best of the coming months. Therefore, take some good books with you and watch some nice films with your partner and your kids. Take some more time to play outdoors and to play some family games inside.

Deciding to pick up a book for a few minutes a day instead of my phone, will water me and make me very fruitful, enabling me to give to others. As a consequence, I hope to sleep better, try new things around my neighborhood, discover new interesting topics, learn a bit about art, and cook some new dishes. Reading will breathe newness and refreshment in me. {My Hope for 2021}

Choose for 2021 to

  • find happiness in the everyday
  • read more
  • set clear boundaries
  • continue to prioritize health + wellness
  • continue to grow
  • to make the best out of life

To end:

So often we try to work at ourselves to change ourselves. But is that always change for the good? More often we need to accept ourselves more and find a way to fit in this world of diversity. It is not bad to have plans for the future and to work at yourself, but always think very carefully about it and do not have too high expectations.

We don’t know what the new year has in store for us. But let’s pack some optimism and newfound values and lessons learnt last year in our benevolence bag and make headway with a big smile! {Entering a new decade with old values!}

Good luck.

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Find also to read

  1. In Coronatime thinking about death
  2. Today’s thought “A New Year” (January 01)
  3. The secular year coming to a close
  4. If you’re going to try, go all the way
  5. Good time to sort out your friends and contacts
  6. A new start when the lockdown comes to an end
  7. Do we need to learn to accept ourselves as we are?
  8. A living Word giving confidence
  9. We should use the Bible every day

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Related

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  11. Alive in the future – dead in the past

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Filed under Being and Feeling, Health affairs, Lifestyle, Quotations or Citations, Social affairs, Welfare matters, World affairs

Let’s change

 

THE SEMPILL THINGS

The worst year yet? A lot of people would say so: “I’m glad to leave 2020 behind”, or “F*ck you 2020”, or whatever the trending caption of the moment is. 2020 has been a difficult year, but without it we wouldn’t be where are now. It’s shaken up all of us. And sometimes we need a shake-up. 2020 changed be me for the better in many ways –some good things, some great things, and some painful things that I wish would have panned out in a different way. I haven’t even come to the pandemic thing yet.

I’m hopeful for 2021, just as hopeful as I was at the start of last year. 2020 delivered in many ways and I’m pushing for ’21 to do the same. The attitude of wishing last year to go to hell is beyond me; the shift from one day to another makes no difference……

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Where did we come from and who are we?

Having started a new year after one we probably all want to forget very quickly, we do hope soon to come out of the darkness.

At the beginning of all times there was also darkness and void. There was no form when everything came into being. In 2020 lots of things seemed to have lost form and meaning. Suddenly there seemed something wrong with the world. All over the globe people had become frightened by what one president smilingly called the Chinese disease. Many came to wonder:

What has gone wrong with the world? What can we do to fix it? How now shall we live?

2020 was a year that gave us enough time to think. Many were in isolation in their own home or were locked up in a care home. Lots of people suddenly got enough time for themselves and their own family. They got now some time to reflect on the response to the first and most foundational of these questions  –

where did we come from?

and

Where are we going to?

There are a limited number of answers at our disposal: We came about by chance (the naturalist contention), we don’t really exist (the Hindu response), or we were spoken into existence by God. Some believe mankind was placed here on earth by extraterrestrials.

For the Christian, the answer to

“Where did we come from and who are we?”

gives a foundation for thinking that no other answer gives. Because we were created, there is value in each person. There is meaning and purpose to every life. There is Someone above and outside our existence who stands over it as authority.

As human beings, all created in the image of God, somehow we all can carry something of God in us, even without knowing it or willing to know. Several people claim Jesus is God because there is written he was in the image of God. They forget that the first Adam was also created in God’s image like all the other human beings, but for sure they are not God, the same way as Jesus is not God.

Last month several Christians celebrated the birth of a man who changed the course of this world. They claim to be his followers though reject many of his words, his teachings and those values as a part of shaping our culture for the future. They look at a King, but forget that he came from the root of another king (King David).

Perhaps this world has gone “buzark” because people living in this materialist world have forgotten those important ethics and values. For centuries people were truthful to the teachings of Jesus, but they were always in the minority because their way of life was based on something not of this world that the world no longer recognizes.

After the darkness and isolation of the CoViD year there is some hope with the upcoming vaccines. Let us also hope more people would come to the realisation that we seriously have to do something to protect the animals and the nature around us. This so maniest coronavirus was a very serious one which had brought the economy and life to a standstill. It was a time to reflect and to think about the way we are treating mother nature.

With the opening of the “Newer Year” we do hope you and our other readers would find the way to make the best out of this life.

Stay healthy & All the best for 2021

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De ellendigste tendens van 2020

December 2019 bracht een eerste tijding van een soort virus dat in een marktplaats zou opgetreden zijn. Volgens China dat dit nieuws liefst niet kenbaar had gemaakt was dat vreemde nog ongekende virus dat in december 2019 in de stad Wuhan was uitgebroken, het coronavirus, van mens op mens overdraagbaar. De dokter die voor dat nieuwe dodelijke virus had gewaarschuwd was eerder wegens zijn slechte nieuwsvoering opgesloten in de gevangenis. Maar door de snelle verspreiding van het virus dat ook na het Chinese nieuwjaar buiten China werd gebracht, kon men de feiten niet meer stil houden. In Wuhan waar  zo’n elf miljoen mensen wonen werd de hoogste besmettingsgraad waargenomen in China en moesten de mensen zelfs 76 dagen lang in een harde lockdown, waarbij mensen helemaal niet naar buiten mochten. (Dus heel wat anders dan hier, waar meerderen steen en been kloegen.)

De nieuwsuitzending doorheen het jaar brachten ons allerlei corona weetjes. Uren radio en tévé geweld gingen aan dat coronavirus verloren. Soms leek het wel of er niets anders in de wereld gebeurde. Natuurlijk mocht Donald Trump op het palmares niet ontbreken. Met zijn bagatellisering van de “Chinese ziekte” en andere absurde uitlatingen mocht hij ook wel ons televisiescherm bijna dagelijks bezoedelen. Hierbij deed hij ons wel meermaals de ‘zure’ lach op anders ernstige gezichten brengen.

Naar het jaar 2020 dichter bij haar einde kwam doken wel wat meer positieve berichten op om die onverwachte pandemie klein te krijgen. Overall in de wereld waren dokters en verplegend personeel druk in de weer geweest om mensen er bovenop te helpen. Toch kwamen over geheel de wereld heel wat mensen te overlijden. 19.581 Belgen en 11.529 Nederlanders verloren het leven, wat niets lijkt te zijn tegenover de 346 000 doden die de Verenigde Staten moest optekenen, waarvan er honderd duizenden konden vermeden worden indien de president de nodige maatregelen had getroffen. In Nederland was de bevolking in 2019 nog gegroeid met 132.000 mensen, tot 17,4 miljoen inwoners, aldus het CBS. De sterkste groei sinds 1975, maar nu leek een uitdunningsslag begonnen te zijn.

Heel wat mensen in de rijkere landen vonden dat hun vrijheden werden beperkt en dat ze het oh zo moeilijk hadden dat ze het niet meer aan konden. Wat zij zeker niet zagen of niet in hun geest op riepen was datgene wat heel wat minder in het nieuws kwam maar daarom niet minder ernstig was.

De ellendigste tendens van 2020, waarvoor ook 2021 geen vaccin belooft, is namelijk die van vluchtelingenkampen en -stromen, en harde politieke dijken en dammen.2020 bracht geen einde aan de vluchtelingencrisis waarmee Europa al enkele jaren zit mee te kampen. Ook al mocht de pers er minder over gesproken hebben mochten wij dit afgelopen jaar  een recordaantal van bijna tachtig miljoen medemen-sen op de vlucht aantreffen. Ruim de helft van hen is ontheemd in eigen land, dertig miljoen hebben een erkende vluchtelingenstatus, ruim vier miljoen zijn in afwachting van hun asielaanvraag. Veruit de grootste massa’s vluchtelingen worden – geheel conform een populair politiek devies – ‘opgevangen in de regio’. In Turkije (uit Syrië), Colombia (uit Venezuela), Pakistan (uit Afghanistan) en Uganda (uit Zuid-Sudan, Congo en Somalië). Op een strookje als Libanon wonen naar schatting 1,5 miljoen vluchtelingen naast 4,5 miljoen Libanezen – en dan gebeurt juist dáár een ramp van nucleaire omvang, waarna de regering aftrad.

Erg genoeg waren er asielzoekers die ten einde raad hun tenten in brand staken, in de hoop beter onderdak te krijgen. Dit bracht hen echter in nog grotere ellende, onder de blote hemel in nachten die alsmaar kouder en natter werden. De komst van het coronavirus maakte de toestand nog nijpender, daar de gewone bevolking rond de kampen die mensen als een mogelijkedreiging begonnen te zien en hen afhield om verder hulp te bieden. De Verenigde Naties bleef vragen om extra noodhulp ter waarde van 500 mil-joen euro voor huisvesting, voedsel en gezondheidszorg. De extra belasting aftrek die door de Belgische regering werd beloofd voor giften aan goede doelen zal hopelijk toch ook iets extra hebben mogen bijdragen. De cijfers zijn hiervan nog niet gekend. Wel is geweten dat veel donoren toch nog aarzelden, want bij vorige acties bleek dikwijls het geld en goederen niet toe te komen waar het hoorde aan te komen. Omtrent Syrië was men ook bang dat het geld en de goederen in handen zou vallen van jihadistische strijdgroeperingen. Die bleven nog lange tijd doorvechten, omdat Idlib de laatste provincie was die nog niet in handen van Assad was en nog een goed toevluchtsoord leek.

De corona-epidemie beheerste zodanig het nieuws in 2020, en zeker in april, toen het virus zich wereldwijd uitbreidde en dagelijks duizenden levens eiste. Nieuws dat anders de voorpagina’s zou hebben bepaald, werd helemaal naar de marge geduwd. Waar dat sinds 2014 een burgeroorlog heerst, die aan meer dan 112.000 mensen het leven heeft gekost, kwam nog uitzonderlijk één Vlaamse reporter ons toch nog wat schrijnend nieuws brengen.

Over Jemen, bijvoorbeeld, wordt weinig meer vernomen. In het land, in het zuidwesten van het Arabische schiereiland, woedt de strijd vooral tussen de rege-ring en de Houthi-rebellen maar voort. Door bemoeienis van Saudi-Arabië, dat de soennitische regering steunt, en Iran, dat de Houthi’s steunt, bleef het conflict daar maar meer mensen verarmen en kampen met voedsel tekort maar ook met een tekort aan medische zorgen. Na vijf jaar oorlog is de helft van alle ziekenhuizen en klinieken verwoest. Er is gebrek aan voedsel, medicijnen en kleren. Miljoenen mensen dreigen te verhongeren.

Ook al mocht het positief lijken dat ISIS of Daesh zware tegenslagen had opgelopen in het Midden Oosten, konden zij ondertussen in Afrika nieuwe uitvalsbases oprichten. Dit deden zij door samenwerking met terroristengroeperingen als Al-Shabaab en Boko Haram. Aanslagen in Nigeria, Mozambique, Congo, Kenia en Somalië, kwamen eigenlijk onvoldoende aan bod in de Westerse media. Algerije en Ethiopië kwamen iets meer in de kijker doordat zuid Europa weer een toename van vluchtelingen te verwerken kreeg uit die streken.

Volgens de cijfers van de UNHCR zijn zestig miljoen vluchtelingen langdurig op de vlucht. De kans dat vluchtelingen naar hun land van herkomst terugkeren, neemt al jaren af. In de jaren negentig keerden nog anderhalf miljoen mensen terug, de laatste tien jaar is dat gedaald tot 385.000. Meer dan zestig miljoen vluchtelingen verblijven in landen of gebieden waar voedselschaarste en ondervoeding heersen, en waar de gevolgen van klimaat- en natuurrampen zich laten gelden. Een aanzienlijk deel van de tachtig miljoen vluchtelingen is nog kind: naar schatting zijn dat er tussen de 30 en 34 miljoen.

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#Omens&Symbols . . . Letting 2020 out

Let 2020 be carried away by strong winds bringing it out of our stratosphere.

New Year’s Eve…a blessing for all of us who await the light this night..whether that be the bright light of fireworks (televised only!), the still light of prayer, the inner light of hope, the new light of dawn… {Text https://www.facebook.com/1567391160191012/posts/2925267964403318/}

Purplerays

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La colonne vertébrale de la bienveillance

L’attitude de compréhension et d’indulgence qui permet de bien vivre ensemble sont très important dans notre vie.

2020 a été une année au cours de laquelle la population du monde entier a eu beaucoup de maux de tête. Ce fut une année où plus de gens se sont retrouvés enfermés et ont eu suffisamment de temps pour réfléchir sur eux-mêmes.

En cette année de crise et d’incertitudes, la bienveillance est plus que jamais une clé du bien-être et de l’épanouissement au travail. Mais cette valeur ressemble parfois aussi à un concept tarte à la crème tellement de clichés lui sont associés.

Comment passer de la théorie à la pratique ? La psychologue Christèle Albaret, auteure de Et si on osait la bienveillance au travail ? (Diateino), nous apporte son éclairage et des pistes très concrètes.

La façon dont on va dialoguer, prendre des décisions, avancer me semble encore plus importante cette année quand on travaille à distance, elle doit être accentuée car les mauvaises interprétations sont plus importantes quand on n’est pas face à face. La cultiver, c’est aussi nourrir le besoin de vous sentir bien quand vous allez au boulot, sans boule au ventre.

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La bienveillance n’est pas une solution miracle face aux difficultés, mais un ingrédient essentiel pour les traverser ensemble

 

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