June 15, 2009

Breaking (good) news from Iran



Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader and the man who has the final say on all strategic matters, has reversed his earlier decree that the disputed election result was fair—urging the country to unite behind Ahmadinejad—by ordering the powerful Guardians Council an investigation into the vote count, thus carrying out Mousavi’s (the defeated candidate) allegations of vote-rigging.

In the meantime tens of thousands of Iranian opposition activists have taken to the streets of Iran for a third day protesting against the presidential election (see the video below), defying a ban by the Interior Ministry, and European Union foreign ministers heve expressed “serious concern” about Iran’s use of force against post-election demonstrators, raising the prospect of a harder E.U. line against the country.

Michael Totten has an extensive set of key links, as does Andrew Sullivan who has comprehensive coverage, videos and photos of the demonstrations. Via Hugh Hewitt.

Iran. And yet something has changed


Notwithstanding the doubts and concerns the United States and other Western governments expressed, and in spite of the fact that several leading reformists have been arrested on Saturday night, after violent clashes following the disputed election result, les jeux sont faits in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This was not, of course, the result the West was hoping for: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won election with 62.6 percent of the vote, against 33.7 percent for challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi. But that’s what happened, better still that’s what the government says happened, which in that country is just the same as to say that we will probably never know what really happened..

Just as it was not enough, according to unconfirmed reports, Moussavi may have been detained by intelligence agents as he travelled to the Supreme Leader’s residence to meet with him. “It appears that a coup has taken place in Iran overnight to force the results on other parties. These elections cannot be considered fair by any measure under such circumstances,” said Hadi Ghaemi, spokesperson for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

In the meantime, Zahra Rahnavard, Mousavi’s wife, accused Ahmadinejad of “dictatorship.” She said: “The Iranian people voted to change Ahmadinejad, but this vote became a vote to solidify Ahmadinejad.”

What a pity! I know, it’s not a great comment, but my disappointment is overwhelming, and honestly I have no words. However, to see the cup half full instead of half empty, the aftermath of the election seems to have shown one important difference from the past: it is harder than ever for the authorities to clamp down on dissent, and this for the simple reason that something has changed in Iran. That’s why, at this point, I wouldn’t say rien ne va plus.

June 12, 2009

Mirino's Rainbow alphabet doggerel

Alphabet poems written for young French children to widen their vocabulary and help them with their English pronunciation. Young Italians might also be interested to use them to practice their English, provided their English teacher is with them to listen and correct them when necessary.

(Click on the above titles to go to the next two letters, or use the links below)



A
is for Anagram

An Anagram
Could be
A Ganaram.
It might even be
A Nagaram.
But if it isn't
A Magaram
Then it can only be
A Ragaman.

___


B
is for Bagpipes

Mc Tavish blew his bagpipes
As his kilt flapped in the wind
Standing nobly on the hillside,
Bonnier sight ye ne'er would find.

Both his blue knees they did tremble
With emotion and with cold,
But he tunelessly kept playing
Being deaf as well as bold.

___

'Bonnier sight ye ne'er' would find: 'A more beautiful sight you would never find'. (Scottish dialect)

___

Text & image © Mirino (PW) June, 2009

___

Scuola d'inglese

Con il prossimo post Mirino inaugura la sua collaborazione con questo blog. Si tratta di una doppia novità, in effetti, essendo la prima volta che la firma non è quella del sottoscritto, e poi la finalità, e soprattutto il target, cioè, rispettivamente: insegnare l’inglese e i bambini (ma non esclusivamente, perché se degli adulti si vogliono aggregare non sarò certo io a vietarlo, anzi, direi esattamente il contrario).

Quando Mirino mi ha proposto la cosa la mia reazione è stata entusiastica. Le novità mi fanno spesso questo effetto, soprattutto quando sono all’insegna della poesia e della creatività. Abbiamo bisogno tutti sia dell’una sia dell’altra. Soprattutto della prima, perché, come disse il mio amatissimo Friedrich Hölderlin, “poeticamente abita l’uomo su questa Terra.”

A Mirino va tutta la mia gratitudine per il contributo che si accinge a dare. Tra l’altro, va detto che il suo apporto non si limiterà all’aspetto linguistico e poetico, essendo egli una persona intellettualmente molto curiosa e, detto en passant, avendo la ventura di essere un artista anglo-scozzese che vive in Francia e che per giunta conosce bene l’Italia e quasi altrettanto bene l’italiano.

A lui un caloroso benvenuto a bordo!

"Italy's Obama"


“To tolerate illegal immigration above all harms those who enter our country with the desire to work and integrate themselves and to have a normal life.”

“The problem is that these people don’t have papers, they are very poor, so either they must steal to eat or they are exploited by employers who give them very little money and don’t care if they die.”


The person who spoke those words is Sandy Cane, a 47-year-old Italian-American who has been elected mayor of the small Italian town of Viggiu, close to the Swiss border. Predictably, she was backed by one of the two “anti-immigrant” parties of Italy. To be precise she was backed by the most “anti” of the two: the Northern League. But she is not a racist at all, for the simple reason that she is a black woman, being the daughter of a black American soldier and an Italian woman from Viggiu. And she told the press that the Northern League had “welcomed her warmly,” to the point that Umberto Bossi, the head of the party, is told to have had discussions with Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party, which does not accept non-whites as members.

Needless to say, Sandy supports Italy’s newly adopted policy of intercepting boatloads of immigrants as they try to cross the Mediterranean and forcing them back to Libya, where most of the boats originate. And her argument is not at all insignificant:

“The problem is far too big for Italy to handle on its own. I think the United Nations should have a much bigger presence in countries like Libya so that they can process people there. In any case, how many are really refugees, rather than economic migrants?”


What else? This for instance:

“People think the League is racist but now it is much stronger and more mature than it once was. It is not racist to be against illegal immigration.”

“In America I voted for Obama, in Italy for Bossi.”


Sandy is being hailed as “Italy’s Obama.”


June 10, 2009

'We're understanding what Obama is...'

“I mean in a way Obama’s standing above the country, above – above the world, he’s sort of God.”
—Evan Thomas, editor of Newsweek

Imagine for a moment that Limbaugh or O’Reilly or Malkin had uttered these little bits of adoration about Dubya. And now guess what the New York Times and CNN (or the Guardian if you are a Brit, or la Repubblica if you are an Italian, etc.) would do…

June 9, 2009

How to lose elections while winning them (and how to win them while losing them)

This time the lefty Guardian is right about Italy: in any other country the fact that the prime minister’s Freedom People movement took just over 35 per cent of the vote—only a couple of points below the party’s showing at the last general election and nine points ahead of the main opposition group, the Democratic Party (while in other countries the governments lost their consensus)—might be considered as a pretty satisfactory result. “But Italy is not just any other country. And what counts here today are the expectations that had been aroused.”

Actually, it seems that prime minister Silvio Berlusconi had hoped that his party would attract up to 45 per cent of the vote, to say nothing about some of his most trusted aides, who are thought to have been expecting the complete rout of the enemy and their consequent withdrawal from the world…, even though nobody could bear direct and explicit witness to such immoderate expectations. Evidently both the prime minister and his closest aides have been very effective in disguising their true intentions, as much as the Italian newspapers have been wondrously effective in unmasking them.

As a result of the above mentioned expectations, Dario Franceschini, the head of the Democratic Party, instead of being dejected by the severe defeat suffered by his party (7 per cent less than one year ago, while Antonio Di Pietro’s Italy of Values, the other opposition party, nearly doubled its vote to 7.9 per cent), is exulting at the incontrovertible fact that “these elections have debunked the myth of Berlusconi’s invincibility.” “An unstoppable advance—he said—had been announced, with the PDL [Popolo delle libertà, People of Freedom] between 40 and 45pct. This has not been the case, the PDL has remained 10 points below expectations. […] And therefore thanks to the Italian votes the risk for which I had warned, that the country would wake up under an absolute boss, has been warded off!”

However, sadly for Franceschini, for us normal people & men of little faith, results of the European parliamentary elections showed Italians remaining broadly supportive of the ruling coalition, despite controversy over the prime minister’s colourful and high-spending life-style, and allegations of corruption made by some—high politicized, according to Berlusconi and several millions of Italian citizens—Milan judges.

As it was not enough results of local elections have changed the political map in favor of the ruling coalition in many city and provincial councils, which had always been dominated by the left.

Nevertheless it must be said that the main winner is the anti-immigration Northern League, the main ally of Berlusconi, which achieved its best result ever, garnering 10 per cent of votes compared with 8.3 per cent in last year’s general election. But, unlike Di Pietro’s Italy of Values towards the Democratic Party, the Northern League has showed itself to be a loyal ally to Berlusconi’s People of Freedom movement. That is why Berlusconi can now rightfully thank

the millions of men and women who voted on Saturday and Sunday and confirmed their faith in the People of Freedom party and in me. I know that it was not easy to do this after an election campaign which was determined to strike me with a lot of slander. For this I thank you from my heart, because, in a democratic way, aside from my own personal comfort, you have ratified our victory both in the European elections and the local ones.
[…]
With your vote you have confirmed that the People of Freedom party is the main party in Italy in all five European territories, with a majority which is more than double that of one year ago over the biggest opposition party.
[…]
This is a result which makes us proud, because it confirms one more time that our government understood how to tackle the economic crisis better than others in Europe. In other countries the governments lost their consensus, while we have confirmed and consolidated our consensus and the stability of the government is strengthened as a result. Our government is committed to leaving nobody alone in this crisis. We will carry on doing this, and we will move ahead at an even quicker pace to carry out the reforms needed to modernize Italy.

June 6, 2009

Born Again American

Born Again American, which started at the beginning of this year, is “committed to the rebirth and re-expression of citizenship through informed and thoughtful activism.” Through its interactive website it offers visitors the opportunity to pledge themselves to be “their country’s keeper” and to reaffirm their belief in American values that hark back to the Declaration of Independence.

The Born Again American campaign also includes a specially commissioned song, written by Keith Carradine. Performed by singers and musicians from around the country, the song has become a music video. Here it is… enjoy!



(Thanks: Chris Janelli)

The Greatest Among You

“But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.” This famous statement by Jesus has been adopted by Steven Dexter, a longtime friend of this blog, as the leitmotif of his new blog, whose title echoes the motto itself: The Greatest Among You. In fact the new blog is about Service.

“My intention—wrote Steven in the first post—is to create an environment that will be used by organizations that use volunteers, the volunteers themselves, charities, churches, or anyone that is reaching out to help people that are distressed. […] I want this to also be a place where organizations that need some help can post what they do and what they need.”

My best wishes to Steven, and may God bless this praiseworthy initiative.

June 5, 2009

Sharks (and other underwater creatures)

I must admit that I was not pleasantly surprised, but rather quite disappointed, when I heard that Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini, with reference to the muckraking campaign orchestrated by some British newspapers (the Guardian, Times and Independent) against Silvio Berlusconi, had said the country could not ”leave the last word to the network of those who hate Italy.” It was, in my opinion, what is called in Italian una caduta di stile, a lapse of style. I don’t really believe there is an actual “conspiracy,” nor do I think we are surrounded by people who “hate” Italy. I would rather think that some of our fellow-countrymen—some of them actually very influential—hate Berlusconi to the point that they usually make their best to persuade the rest of the world to do the same. In some cases they succeed. Particularly when the haters are acting out of political motivations, or of personal interests. In both cases, however, it’s Berlusconi himself who gives them some good opportunities.

In the case of the Times, as I sketched in a previous post, it’s almost sure that the personal interests of Mr Murdoch have been crucial (here is an interesting update). As for the Guardian and Independent the political motivations must have been a decisive factor. In all cases “the network of those who hate Italy” has nothing to do with both the reality and the common sense.

June 4, 2009

When life was simple...

“ The object of education is to give man the unity of truth. Formerly, when life was simple, all the different elements of man were in complete harmony. But when there came the separation of the intellect from the spiritual and the physical, the school education put entire emphasis on the intellect and the physical side of man. We devote our sole attention to giving children information, not knowing that by this emphasis we are accentuating a break between the intellectual, physical and the spiritual life.

I believe in a spiritual world, not as anything separate from this world, but as its innermost truth. With the breath we draw, we must always feel this truth, that we are living in God. Born in this great world, full of the mystery of the infinite, we cannot accept our existence as a momentary outburst of chance, drifting on the current of matter towards an eternal nowhere. We cannot look upon our lives as dreams of a dreamer who has no awakening in all time. We have a personality to which matter and force are unmeaning unless related to something infinitely personal, whose nature we have discovered, in some measure, in human love, in the greatness of the good, in the martyrdom of heroic souls, in the ineffable beauty of nature, which can never be a mere physical fact, nor anything but an expression of personality.

Experience of this spiritual world, whose reality we miss by our incessant habit of ignoring it from childhood, has to be gained by children by fully living in it and not through the medium of theo logical instruction. But how this is to be done is a problem difficult of solution in the present age. For nowadays men have managed so fully to occupy their time that they do not find leisure to know that their activities have only movement but very little truth, that their soul has not found its world. 
”

—Rabindranath Tagore, “My School” (lecture delivered in America, published in Personality, London: MacMillan, 1933)

June 3, 2009

The vengeance of the Shark

Just a quick update on the Berlusconi-Noemi Letizia issue. Not that I have any wish to look after this, and besides I think I said everything I had to say about this subject, but, you know, The Times is the Times, even under Mr. Rupert Murdoch, isn’t it? Er, actually, I am not that sure anymore, but who cares? What matters is the substance of their comments, and the substance is a shower of abuse on a carefully chosen target…

Then again, not that I feel like I have to answer back. Besides, someone else, more entitled than me, already did it: the Milan newspaper Il Giornale, owned by il Cavaliere. What would be more appropriate than “a frank dialogue” between the two respective owners? Unfortunately Il Giornale still has not provided an English-language version of the full editorial, titled Murdoch lo squalo addenta Berlusconi per salvare Sky (“Shark” Murdoch Catches Berlusconi To Save Sky). It’s a pity indeed. But if you stick to essentials, there is an interesting piece by Dennis Redmont, in February 18, 2009 issue of Time Magazine, well worth reading: Berlusconi vs. Murdoch: Italy’s Real Reality TV. Very informative and enlightening! (Thanks: Alex)

June 2, 2009

Il Berlusca e il mentecatto


Dove eravamo rimasti? Con i post in italiano, intendo dire…, dall’ultimo essendo passata tanta di quell’acqua sotto i ponti che quasi non riesco a capacitarmi di come abbia potuto lasciar passare tutto questo tempo. Il fatto è che è più difficile di quel che pensassi tenere in piedi un blog bilingue: questione di atteggiamento mentale, di frequentazione e reperimento delle fonti online, di personali idiosincrasie e di chissà quanti altri fattori, circostanze, pulsioni, interessi, ecc.

Ma oggi è la festa della Repubblica. Il momento adatto per una blogosferica rimpatriata, ancorché tardiva, ancorché poco entusiasmante, data la particolarissima congiuntura “politica” (con le virgolette più o meno obbligatorie). Perché è chiaro che qui non si può parlare che del “caso” di cui tutti scrivono—se ne parlano pure non saprei dire, ma ho la sensazione che no, alla gente non gliene possa fregare di meno, con licenza parlando.

E allora, vediamo un po’ come la possiamo mettere. Dunque, ad uno lo stile di vita del Berlusca può piacere o non piacere, e a me personalmente non piace, e questo non da un punto di vista moralistico (come hanno giustamente detto i vescovi: ognuno se la deve vedere con la propria coscienza, punto e basta), bensì da quello del buon gusto, del senso di ciò che opportuno e di ciò che non lo è, ed anche, se posso dirlo, dell’intelligenza. Però la politica è un’altra cosa. Così uno può non essere un “berlusconiano” e ciononostante essere un elettore più o meno senza tante incertezze dell’attuale capo del governo. Si vota innanzitutto una politica, se poi la persona che la incarna ci convince, tanto meglio. Non viceversa. Ma si può star certi che, quanto a persone, se uno stravede per Franceschini o per Di Pietro, beh, allora qualche problema c’è. Quelli come Franceschini possono andare a genio a chi, non avendo mai fatto politica attiva e non sapendo nulla di come funziona, non immagina neppure lontanamente come un politico di professione abbia potuto far carriera: avete idea di quanta “eleganza e nobiltà d’animo” debba essere capace, o più prosaicamente di quanto “pelo sullo stomaco” debba avere solo per diventare assessore di un comune medio-piccolo? E allora, per favore, lasciamo perdere quel piglio di “superiorità morale” … D’altra parte, se uno non è un po’ sospettoso di un capo partito con la passione per il palcoscenico di un Di Pietro, che si vede lontano un miglio che la politica (o quella che a lui sembra tale) era il suo sogno anche quando faceva il pm, Ok, non ci siamo. Non ho nulla da dire a chi tifa per quei due: se li merita, se li goda.

Detto questo, non voglio sfuggire all’aspetto più spinoso della questione: credo che Berlusconi sia innocente, che non sia, cioè, l’uomo descritto dalla moglie (sulla cui buona fede non mi permetto di avanzare dubbi, ma non sono neppure disposto a prender tutto per oro colato). Il ragionamento di Berlusconi, in sostanza, mi sembra convincente oltre ogni ragionevole dubbio: se avessi avuto qualcosa da nascondere non sarei stato così stupido da farmi scoprire. E detto da uno degli uomini più ricchi del mondo, e che per giunta è partito da zero, c’è da credergli.

Certo la Repubblica ha tutto il diritto di fare la sua campagna, più copie vendute non sono bruscolini e il resto sono chiacchiere. Quel che non è accettabile è questa sinistra mentecatta che cerca di cavar fuori qualche vantaggio elettorale dallo scoop di Repubblica. Forse se si preoccupassero di meno della propria presunta (e contestabile, contestabilissima) “superiorità morale” e di più dei più bassi salari d’Europa percepiti dai loro ex elettori operai perderebbero con dignità e con onore le prossime elezioni e quelle successive, e invece perderanno e basta. E meritatamente, sul piano politico—se anche su quello morale, è una questione che, come si è detto, riguarda le coscienze individuali.

May 29, 2009

Character

“ There is in every man a determination of character to a peculiar end, counteracted often by unfavorable fortune, but more apparent the more he is left at liberty. This is called his genius, or nature, or his turn of mind. The object of Education should be to remove all obstructions & let this natural force have free play & exhibit its peculiar product. It seems to be true that no man in this is deluded. This determination of his character is to something in nature; something real. This object is called his Idea. It is that which rules his most advised actions, those especially that are most his, & is most distinctly discerned by him in those days or moments when he derives the sincerest satisfaction from his life.”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson [from his journals, Dec. 27 1834], in EMERSON IN HIS JOURNALS, selected and edited by Joel Porte, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachusetts) - London (England), 1982.

May 27, 2009

64 Words for Aung San Suu Kyi

Today marks a very sad anniversary for Burma’s pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi: 19 years since the vote in which she led her party to a victory the military refused to recognize. Since then this woman, who has been detained for over 13 years by the Burmese regime for campaigning for human rights and democracy, symbolizes the struggle of Burma’s people to be free.

As it was not enough, starting from May 18 she is facing trial in Burma after being arrested on May 14 for breaking the terms of her house arrest, which forbids visitors. In fact, an American man, John Yettaw, swam across Inya Lake and refused to leave her house. Aung San Suu Kyi is now being held in Insein Prison, a prison notorious for its terrible conditions and horrific treatment of prisoners, who are routinely subjected to torture and often denied medical treatment (there are serious concerns for Aung San Suu Kyi’s health in these conditions, particularly as she has recently been seriously ill).

But she has committed no crime, she is the victim of crime, and the United Nations has ruled that Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention is illegal under international law, and also under Burmese law. Furthermore, the United Nations Security Council has told the dictatorship that they must release Aung San Suu Kyi. But it was no use.

What can we do for her? There is a site, 64 for Suu, where anyone from around the world can leave a message of support for Aung San Suu Kyi. The idea is that of gathering hundreds of thousand of messages by her 64th Birthday, June 19, 2009. You can leave / view video, text, twitter and image messages. What about trying it out?

Robert Imbelli : Conflict and Hope at the University of Notre Dame


As everybody knows the degree “honoris causa” given on May 17 to President Barack Obama by the Catholic university of Notre Dame, in South Bend, Indiana, has produced many protests. In particular, the most drastic have been Michael Novak (see here) and George Weigel (see here), namely the standard-bearers of neoconservative Catholic thought.

Yet, amid the storm of controversy, Obama’s speech has been little read and analyzed. With few exceptions, among them, here in Italy, that of Giuliano Ferrara, the editor of Il Foglio newspaper and “a commentator beyond suspicion” (the most “Ratzingerian” of the secular defenders of unborn life), as Vaticanist Sandro Magister puts it. In fact, Ferrara published in his newspaper the full speech in Italian translation, “seeing in it common ground on which the “pro-life” and “pro-choice” can work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortion.”

Even less read and analyzed was another important speech: the one by Judge John T. Noonan, decorated in 1984 with the highest honor of this Catholic university, the medal “Laetare.” To fill this void Robert Imbelli, a priest of the diocese of New York who teaches theology at Boston College, wrote this article, published yesterday by Sandro Magister in his website. It analyzes both speeches, by Obama and Noonan. “It highlights their elements of conflict,” says Magister, “but above all of hope. With incisive, surprising observations.”

[T]hough on one level the President appeared primarily focused on respectful dialogue and “fair-minded words;” on a deeper level he seemed to be in search of binding principles that were, perhaps, at variance with his own stated positions. Indeed, these principles, if given full scope, might even lead the President (not without personal cost) to reconsider some of the practices he currently endorses.
[...]
Significantly, Noonan chose a striking example as illustration: the dispute between President Abraham Lincoln and the former slave, Frederick Douglass. It was Douglass’ moral clarity and conviction that helped guide Lincoln’s own moral compass to the point where he issued the “Emancipation Proclamation,” freeing the slaves in the secessionist states. The implication, subtly but unmistakably put forward, was that, like Lincoln, whom he reveres, President Obama may also come to greater clarity regarding the pressing moral issue of abortion.

May 26, 2009

Whom Obama should apologize to


Clive Crook in the Financial Times:

Critics in his own party and Republican opponents are attacking Barack Obama’s emerging stance on national security with equal ferocity. Many Democrats are furious that the president has broken his promise to abandon the Bush administration’s war-powers approach to fighting terrorism. Dick Cheney, the former vice-president, and other conservatives attack him for doing the opposite – for keeping his promise and emasculating the US anti-terror effort.
The left’s complaints make far more sense than Mr Cheney’s. Mr Obama is adjusting the Bush administration’s policies here and there and seeks to put them on a sounder legal footing. This recalibration is significant and wise, but it is by no means the entirely new approach that he led everybody to expect.
Mr Obama is in the right, in my view, but he owes his supporters an apology for misleading them. He also owes George W. Bush an apology for saying that the last administration’s thinking was an affront to US values, whereas his own policies would be entirely consonant with them. In office he has found that the issue is more complicated. If he was surprised, he should not have been.

May 25, 2009

The Hyphen

There is a quote by Margaret Thatcher that I have always treasured: “Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.” In fact, as a European by birth and an “American by philosophy,” what I really think, along with Theodore Roosevelt, is that “Americanism is a matter of the spirit, and of the soul.” Another great quote to ponder, which is about—however strange it may seem—the hyphen… Teddy Roosevelt was speaking to the largely Irish Catholic Knights of Columbus at Carnegie Hall on Columbus Day 1915:

There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all... Americanism is a matter of the spirit, and of the soul… The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic... There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else.

I'm sure this quote can help many people understand what America is all about and, in a sense, also what Memorial Day is all about.

Then again, to conclude on “the hyphen issue,” I think the following audio recording by John Wayne is superbly effective (thanks: Duane Lester):

May 23, 2009

Memorial Day


“Honor them by ensuring that our future was worth the sacrifice of their tomorrows.”
—Matt Burden (thanks:  Michelle Malkin)

Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. It commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in the military service. I want to join all my American friends in celebrating this day. Because this isn’t just an American thing : All free men, wherever they may live, owe a huge debt of gratitude to those men who sacrificed their young lives to defend their country and the cause of freedom all over the world.

May 21, 2009

Rotterdam, Eurabia

The Essalaam Mosque in Rotterdam, the largest  of Western Europe


“Listen up, crazy freaks, we're here to stay. You’re the foreigners here, with Allah on my side I'm not afraid of anything. Take my advice: convert to Islam, and you will find peace.”

One year ago, when the newspapers published the letter containing such a friendly message, sent to his non-Muslim fellow-citizens by Bouchra Ismaili, a Rotterdam city councilman, the city was buzzing. Yet, just a walk through the streets of the city is enough to realize that, at least in many neighborhoods, you are no longer in Holland or in any other European country, but somewhere in the Middle East.

The Netherlands is an extraordinary test case. It is the country in which, as everybody knows, individual license is the most extensive. See for instance the attitude towards euthanasia on children. It is a country in which, while the Christian identity is most faded, the Muslim presence is growing most boldly. It is also a country in which multiculturalism is rule. And Rotterdam— Holland’s second largest city by population, and the largest port in Europe by cargo volume—is the city where this new reality can be seen with the naked eye, more than anywhere else. Here stand the largest mosques in Europe, here parts of sharia law are applied in the courts and theaters, here many of the women go around veiled, here the mayor is a Muslim, the son of an imam.

This long and highly informative report on Rotterdam, published in the Italian newspaper Il Foglio on May 14, 2009 and made available today in English translation by Sandro Magister in his www.Chiesa website, gives an idea of what Dutch-style multiculturalism is all about. Here are some excerpts (if you are short of time), but I encourage you to take the time to read the full article.

Muslim lawyers in Rotterdam also want to change the rules of the courtroom, asking to be allowed to remain seated when the judge enters. They recognize Allah alone. The lawyer Mohammed Enait recently refused to stand when the magistrates enter the courtroom, saying that "Islam teaches that all men are equal." The court of Rotterdam has recognized Enait's right to remain seated: "There is no legal obligation requiring Muslim lawyers to stand in front of the court, insofar as this action is in contrast with the dictates of the Islamic faith." Enait, the head of the legal office Jairam Advocaten, has explained that "he considers all men equal, and does not acknowledge any form of deference toward anyone." All men, but not all women. Enait is well known for his refusal to shake hands with women, and has repeatedly said he would prefer them to wear the burqa. And there are many burqas on the streets of Rotterdam.
[...]
In some schools, there is a "room of silence" where Muslim students, who are in the majority, can pray five times a day, with a poster of Mecca, the Qur'an, and a ritual washing before the prayers. Another Muslim city councilman, Brahim Bourzik, wants signs placed in various parts of the city showing the direction to Mecca.
[...]
Sylvain Ephimenco is a Franco-Dutch journalist who has been living in Rotterdam for twelve years. For twenty years, he was the "Libération" correspondent in Holland, and is proud of his leftist credentials. "Even though I don't believe in that anymore," he says. […] "It is not at all true that Wilders gets his votes from the fringes, everyone knows that, even though they don't say it," he tells us. "Today educated people vote for Wilders, although at first it was the lower class Dutch, the tattoo crowd. Many academics and people on the left vote for him. The problem is all of these Islamic headscarves. There's a supermarket behind my house. When I arrived, there wasn't a single headscarf. Now it's all Muslim women with the chador at the register. Wilders is not Haider. His positions are on the right, but also on the left, he's a typical Dutchman. Here there are even hours at the swimming pool set aside for Muslim women. This is the origin of the vote for Wilders. Islamization, this foolishness with the theater, has to be stopped. In Utrecht, there is a mosque where they provide separate city services for men and women. The Dutch are afraid. Wilders is against the Frankenstein of multiculturalism. I, who used to be on the left but am no longer anything, I say we've reached the limit. I feel the ideals of the Enlightenment have been betrayed with this voluntary apartheid, in my heart I feel the death of the ideals of the equality of men and women, and freedom of expression. Here the left is conformist, and the right has the better answer to insane multiculturalism."

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This is not happening in Pakistan or in Saudi Arabia, but in the city from which the Founding Fathers set out for the United States. It was from here that the Puritans disembarked in the Speedwell, which they later exchanged for the Mayflower. This is where the American adventure began. Today, it has legalized sharia.