The feet of
those who bring good news
are not so beautiful these days
The prophet Isaiah wrote:
Isa 52:7 How beautiful upon the
mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace, Who
brings glad tidings of good things, Who proclaims salvation, Who says to
Zion, "Your God reigns!"
Isa 52:8 Your watchmen shall lift up their voices, With their voices they shall sing together; For they shall see eye to eye When the LORD brings back Zion.
At times like
ours, when the world is struck with tribulation after tribulation, nothing
would be more ‘beautiful’ and welcomed than a dose of good news. Alas, that role is not ours, but our
nemesis’. They can afford to give people what they want – good news even in the
worst of times. We, however, must pass
on God’s messages, and these days they cannot be more menacing: repent from
your exceedingly sinful ways or you will perish.
Our problem is that we are fighting a wall of opposition from all sides, but especially so from our nemesis who instead of crying aloud the sins of their people so as to save them from “utter destruction”, as God says they should, they would rather fight us.
Isa 58:1
"Cry aloud, spare not; Lift up your voice like
a trumpet; Tell My people their transgression, And the house of Jacob their
sins.
Isa 58:2 Yet they seek Me daily, And delight to know My ways, As a nation that did righteousness, And did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; They take delight in approaching God.
Isa 58:3 'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?' "In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, And exploit all your laborers.
Isa 58:4 Indeed you fast for strife and debate, And to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, To make your voice heard on high.
Isa 58:5 Is it a fast that I have chosen, A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, And to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, And an acceptable day to the LORD?
Isa 58:6 "Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?
Isa 58:7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
Isa 58:8 Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Isa 58:9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.' "If you take away the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
Isa 58:10 If you extend your soul to the hungry And satisfy the afflicted soul, Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday.
Isa 58:11 The LORD will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
Isa 58:12 Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
Isa 58:13 "If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy day of the LORD honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking your own words,
Isa 58:14 Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken."
Isa 59:1
Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, That it
cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.
Isa 59:2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.
Isa 59:3 For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue has muttered perversity.
Isa 59:4 No one calls for justice, Nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.
Isa 59:5 They hatch vipers' eggs and weave the spider's web; He who eats of their eggs dies, And from that which is crushed a viper breaks out.
Isa 59:6 Their webs will not become garments, Nor will they cover themselves with their works; Their works are works of iniquity, And the act of violence is in their hands.
Isa 59:7 Their feet run to evil, And they make haste to shed innocent blood; Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; Wasting and destruction are in their paths.
Isa 59:8 The way of peace they have not known, And there is no justice in their ways; They have made themselves crooked paths; Whoever takes that way shall not know peace.
These words,
written down some eight centuries before Christ, have never been more
appropriate for the world than they are now.
Let us compare them with the words of Malachi, the last prophet of the
Old Testament, who received his prophecy four centuries before Christ.
Mal 4:1 "For
behold, the day is coming, Burning like an oven, And all the proud, yes, all
who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,"
Says the LORD of hosts, "That will leave them neither root nor branch.
Mal 4:2 But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings; And you shall go out And grow fat like stall-fed calves.
Mal 4:3 You shall trample the wicked, For they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet On the day that I do this," Says the LORD of hosts.
Mal 4:4 "Remember the Law of Moses, My servant, Which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, With the statutes and judgments.
Mal 4:5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.
Mal 4:6 And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.
Did you notice
the connection? Although they lived four
centuries apart, the similarity of their messages is undeniable. They both put emphasis on God’s Commandments;
they both spoke of good news for those who honour God and delight in his laws;
and they both warned of dire consequences for those who are on the wrong side
of God.
Some people may well say that these prophets spoke for Zion, ancient Israel, not for our world today. Those who think that way are grievously mistaken, because what the prophets of old had written was not so much for their people as for us.
1Pe 1:10 Of
this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who
prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what,
1Pe 1:11 or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.
1Pe 1:12 To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into.
1Pe 1:13 Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
1Pe 1:14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance;
1Pe 1:15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,
1Pe 1:16 because it is written, "BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY."
Where then does
our world stand in relation to these messages if they are meant for us? The world has just come out of the
festivities associated with Christmas. Unfortunately Christmas of the year 2010
will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.
Instead of spending time with their loved ones, thousands of people in
Europe and North America spent it in airport lounges, in train and bus stations,
even in snow bound cars and busses. The
world has seldom seen such deep and widespread freezing conditions as in the
northern winter of 2010. Even in India’s
northern states, where winters are mild by comparison, people died of freezing
conditions. And, as if to prove that God
is not respecter of persons, He sent disasters of a different kind to the
southern hemisphere: Australia, Brazil,
Ceylon, and others, endured floods of a magnitude never seen before.
Our nemeses have the habit of blaming the Devil for these calamities, absolving God of any responsibility for them. But what does God say?
Hab 2:13
Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts That
the peoples labor to feed the fire, And nations weary themselves in vain?
Amo 3:6 If a
trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid? If there is calamity
in a city, will not the LORD have done it?
Pro 16:4 The
LORD has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.
Cardinal Pell
of the Catholic Church can find silver linings even in the worst of disasters.
Our readers may remember how for years he denied that there is any climate
change and global warming until he could deny it no more. Then he said that these could be a boon for
the world in that they would bring more rains and produce bumper harvests.
Well, Australia received a lot of rains in recent months, more so than at any time in the last century. And what did we have? Not increased harvests, but “one in a hundred years flood” that destroyed crops, animals, bridges, dams, roads, schools, supermarkets, mines, and thousands of homes! Not surprisingly, he found silver lining in this too.
“Christmas has again come upon us quickly, as we
gather to celebrate the most popular feast and festival in the calendar. In the Eastern
states the drought has broken after about ten years, as the rains started and
continued to fall. We thank God for all the long term good the floods will do
to the river systems and the countryside, while ruefully acknowledging the
dashed hopes for a bumper harvest.”
Instead
of asking why God has sent this calamity upon the nation, he is telling
Australians to thank God for “all the long term good the floods will do to the
river systems and the countryside.” He
must be living in a cacoon not to know what these floods have done to the
countryside. Crops to the value of six
billion dollars have been wiped out in Queensland alone; and the damages from
the floods in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, which are still ongoing,
is yet to be established. And while the
eastern states wallow in unprecedented floods, Western Australia had to cope
with devastating fires.
Torrential
rains and floods began in November, and continued long after Cardinal Pell
delivered his message, however it was clear by then that this was not just an
ordinary flood but one of ‘biblical proportions’ as some media have dubbed
it. An area the size of France and
Germany combined was under water. Dozens
of people lost their lives, and thousands were left destitute and heart broken
after seeing their life’s work go down the river, literally.
It is
nothing short of blasphemy to talk of the long term good of the flood in the
midst of such devastation, and not consider the even longer term damage to the
people, the country and the world.
Australia is a large exporter of agricultural produce, and because crops
were also damaged on a large scale in Russia and Pakistan, prices of food items
increased dramatically on markets around the world. The world is quickly
running out of food reserves, and moving towards a state of perennial food
shortages.
Now
just as the nation was mesmerised by the sight of an inland sea, where only the
roofs of tall buildings in submerged towns could be seen, and lest people think
that Cardinal Pell alone trivialises it, this is what another prominent
Australian had to say.
Australians glued to their televisions watching the dark tide of
floodwaters sweeping through Queensland may remember the earthquake that
flattened the capital of Haiti, Port au Prince, one
year ago today and killed more than 200,000 people.
Both natural disasters have caused chaos and death and both are
equally deserving of support and assistance. All natural disasters are
tragedies.
In Australia we are lucky to have a
strong and responsive government, access to financial support and effective
emergency services that allow us to respond. The Queensland floods underscore
the importance of what aid can do to help communities that do not have the
resources, the wealth or the capacity to bounce back from the very brink of
obliteration.
In Haiti, not only were many people
killed in the earthquake, but government infrastructure and basic utilities
were also destroyed, disabling much of the city's already inadequate water and
sewerage facilities. Many of the government's staff who oversaw Haiti's complex
land title and planning systems were also made
homeless or even killed in the quake, making it difficult to rebuild people's
homes.
The quake has had such a huge impact
on Haiti that decisions such as how to clean up rubble from damaged and
destroyed houses have remained unresolved. More than 10 million cubic metres or
about six full MCGs [Melbourne Cricked
Ground stadium] of broken concrete still clog the narrow streets of the
Caribbean capital.
Donors around the world, including
Australians, responded with incredible generosity to the quake in Haiti. The
large humanitarian organisations working with the
United Nations have since spent hundreds of millions of dollars to keep Haiti's
vulnerable people alive. Rapid humanitarian efforts and generosity from donors
meant that for most survivors there were - within weeks - at least a tarpaulin
or tent and some food shared around to ensure communities did not succumb to
the immediate threats. But repairing the country will be measured in decades,
and will cost billions. In this instant generation, sometimes the time scales
involved are hard to fathom.
Twelve months later, for the people
of Haiti and for others who are watching its recovery keenly, there are
legitimate questions about when things will return to normal. But no-one
aspires to return to what was ''normal'' for Haiti before the quake. The stark reality is Haiti was already one of
the world's poorest nations with appalling vital statistics. [It is also the world capital of zombies and
voodoo, the satanic religion brought by the slaves from Africa]. Four out
of five people did not have access to sewerage, and half of them even lacked
access to clean water.
Haiti has a history of poor and
sometimes brutal leadership. Even now its struggle for better governance
continues: disputed results from the November 28 presidential election led to
violence and rioting, throwing up another barrier to recovery efforts. Responding to an outbreak of deadly cholera -
one of the contagious diseases that can be planned for after a disaster but
rarely prevented - has become one of the most urgent needs, sidelining some of
the more fundamental reforms and decisions desperately needed for substantial
progress in this nation's recovery. More than 3000 people have died, and more
than 50,000 hospitalised. (Tim Costello, Chief Executive World Vision
Australia, Sydney Morning Herald, January 12, 2011)
There
were 64 comments to this article. You
will understand their tone from just this one.
While I agree with the thrust of your article Tim I do believe the
timing to be completely inappropriate. What is happening in Qld
and NSW is immediate and ongoing and I'm sure those being affected, indirectly
and directly, have more immediate concerns than the shocking events in Haiti.
Yes, Australia is blessed with a more solid economic and political bedrock than
Haiti, but I'm sure the projected $13 billion fiscal impact of the floods will
be felt by all Australians in the near to medium term. Perhaps greater
sensitivity to the plight of those being inundated with flood waters as I write
might have been more appropriate. (MoTzu, January 12, 2011)
What
this article and its comments do not reveal is that like Cardinal Pell, Tim
Costello is also a man of the cloak.
Before taking his position as Chief Executive of World Vision Australia,
he was preacher and National
President of the Baptist Union of Australia.
We did not give you the complete articles
of either Cardinal Pell or of Tim Costello, but we assure you that neither had
anything to say about the real reason for these “natural disasters”. Had they been politicians, businessmen, or
men of some other worldly interests, there would be no problem, but from
servants of God and ministers of Jesus Christ people expect a spiritual
explanation, not run of the mill comments that are highly inappropriate.
There is nothing “natural” about the
disasters that have befallen the world in recent times. Everything we see in the world is what Jesus
Christ and the prophets have spoken about in conjunction with the end of this
age. Biblical prophecies follow
a timeline which correlates perfectly with what is happening in the world at
present. This is why we began this work
– to warn people that the world had entered the dangers of the end time.
But an end of this world is the last
thing our nemeses will ever acknowledge.
In his Sunday Telegraph column
of January 16, Cardinal Pell said that this flood is merely “part of the
history of Australia’s weather patterns”.
He just could not bring himself to acknowledge that this “one in a
century flood” is different from any other, or that the disasters around the
world in recent times are in any way signs of the end time.
Scientists around the world have pointed
out that nine of the hottest years on record occurred in the last decade, and
the hottest year ever was 2010. Not
surprisingly, Cardinal Pell had something to say about that too. In his Sunday
Telegraph column of January 2, 2011, he went back to his old story of
denying global warming by saying that 2010 could not have been the hottest year
on record because air traffic was thrown into chaos in Europe and North America
due to unusual freezing conditions. He
forgets that those freezing conditions lasted about two weeks whereas a year is
52 weeks long, and that the world is much bigger than Europe and North America.
The idea that this world has an end is
anathema to the Catholic Church. Rome
would not be an ‘eternal city’ if that were the case. But an end this world will have, because God
has determined so. He should read our
article, “Humanity – wired to self-destruct in six thousand years” in The Christian Herald No 21 to understand
the plan of God.
A decade ago, we wrote the following
article in the Christian Herald No 11.
“And men were scorched with great
heat, and they blasphemed
the name of God who
has power over these plagues; and
they
did not repent and give Him glory.”(Rev 16:9)
In the year 2000, Australia dazzled the world with an
Olympic spectacle the likes of which this world had never seen. Everything seemed to go right for this ‘lucky
country’, but no sooner had the real Olympics closed, and preparations began
for the so-called ‘Gay and Lesbian
Olympics,’ which were to take place two years later, that things
began to go sour. The country’s fortunes took a nosedive, and the nation found
itself in the midst of the worst natural disaster in its history.
Ever since that time, Australia has been scorched by a
devastating drought. Lives have been lost and hundreds of properties destroyed
in uncontrollable fires that stretched on a scale that defied imagination. Yet
our leaders, in their customary wisdom, started talking about solving this
problem by impossible engineering feats – turning the rivers inland, instead of
taking the most obvious and easiest of ways – turning to God who has the power
to bless or punish any wayward nation.
History and prophecy have provided ample proofs that
everything that happens in this world has a spiritual underlining and a
predetermined consequence. But because we live in a world of pervading cynicism
and unbridled materialism, talk about spiritual matters renders one obsolete
and out of touch with reality. Yet, without reference to our Creator God, and
His divine laws that keep the universe turning and regulate our relationship
with Him and with each other, life is a meaningless chain of unrelated events,
fraught with pitfalls and difficulties for the unwary that choose the path of
unbelief.
The term ‘natural disaster’ is actually a misnomer for
this drought. First because even in a
country that is used to dry spells there is nothing natural about a drought
that covers almost an entire continent. NSW, the gay capital of the
world, is the worst hit State. Second,
because our Creator’s handbook – the Bible – tells us that drought in
agricultural areas is a consequence of national and personal sins.
“Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it
cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, that it cannot
hear. But your iniquities have separated
you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face
from you, So that He will not hear.” (Isa 59:1-2).
"Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently
obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments
which I command you today, that the LORD your God will
set you high above all nations of the earth.
“And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because
you obey the voice of the LORD your God:
"Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the
country. Blessed shall be the fruit of
your body, the produce of your ground and the
increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your
flocks. "Blessed shall be your
basket and your kneading bowl. “Blessed
shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. "The LORD will cause your enemies who
rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against
you one way and flee before you seven ways.” (Deu
28:1-7).
"The LORD will open to you His good treasure, the
heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work
of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you
shall not borrow. And the LORD will make
you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if
you heed the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and
are careful to observe them. "So
you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to
the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
"But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey
the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and
His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon
you and overtake you: "Cursed shall
you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading
bowl. "Cursed shall be the fruit of
your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the
offspring of your flocks. "Cursed
shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
"The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion,
and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and
until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you
have forsaken Me. The LORD will make the
plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going
to possess. The LORD will strike you
with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever,
with the sword, with scorching, and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you
perish.
“And your heavens which are over your head shall be
bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. The LORD will change the rain of your land to
powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are
destroyed.”(Deu 28:12-24).
Some people may wonder why we apply the warnings that
God gave to ancient Israel to a Christian nation today. That is because the New
Testament itself is telling us that the Old Testament had been written as an
example, for our admonition and correction.
“Moreover,
brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the
cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud
and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same
spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that
Rock was Christ! But with most of
them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the
wilderness.
“Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after
evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters as were some
of them. As it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose
up to play." “Nor let us commit sexual immorality,
as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted,
and were destroyed by serpents; nor
complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the
destroyer.
“Now all these things
happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” (1 Cor
10:1 – 11).
These things happened to them as examples for us, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Are we anywhere near the end of this
age? We are at the very door of it. If there ever was a generation upon whom the ends of the ages have come, surely
this is the one. (The Christian Herald No 11, p. 3)
That
draught which was then two years old lasted an entire decade. Now did our leaders learn anything from that?
Hardly! Have a look at this.
US embracing gay marriage.
Los Angeles: US Vive-President Joe Biden, increasingly visible as a key presidential adviser
on domestic issues, says the country is moving towards a growing acceptance of
gay marriage. Speaking on ABC’s Good
Morning America, Mr Biden compared the nation’s
changing views on gay marriage to the same changes he has seen on the
military’s acceptance of gays and lesbians serving openly.
“I think the country is evolving,
and I think there is an inevitability for a national
consensus on gay marriage” Mr Biden said. Same-sex marriages can be legally performed
in five states as well as in Washington DC.
Mr Biden
described how he had attended meetings during which President Barack Obama had sat down with military leaders to explain
that the administration was going to push for repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t
tell” policy.
Under the 1993 law, gays and
lesbians had to hide their sexual orientation or face dismissal from the military. Those meetings with military figures helped
prepare for the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell”, Mr Biden
said. [I saw] the same thing across the
country in regard to the issue of marriage,” he said of the law that was
repealed in the recently concluded congressional session and signed last week
by the President. The military is now
examining how to implement the policy.
Mr Biden
said he agreed with Mr Obama, who said at a news conference last week that his
position on gay marriage was evolving.
“At this point, what I’ve said is
that my baseline is a strong civil union that provides them the protection and
the legal rights that married couples have. And I think that’s the right thing
to do,” Mr Obama said. (Sunday Telegraph, Dec. 26, 2010)
Now what
does this have to do with Australia, some people may ask. Well, no sooner has the ink dried on those
statements that Australia’s Labour Government decided to discuss the question
of gay marriage in this country too. Where America leads, other countries are
sure to follow.
When Barack Obama became President of America, we defended him
against accusations that he is the Antichrist. While we still believe that he
could not be the Antichrist for the simple reason that that position has been
occupied since ancient times by a certain “abomination of desolation”, we can
now see that Obama is turning out to be far worse for America, and the world,
than we imagined.
America
has been left undefended exactly when it needs God’s protection most. God will never go out to battle with an army
that sanctions unspeakable acts of homosexuality. And if God is not with you, you better stay
home and raise the flag of unconditional surrender, for you will never win a
war without God.
Many
vultures are circling and ready to pounce if they see any signs of weakness in
America. They will see plenty of them
from now on. America now stands exposed
and castrated by its own leaders.
Where are America’s religious leaders and, for
that mater, Australia’s and the world’s?
Are they doing their job in the sight of God as they are supposed
to? Instead of watching world
developments and crying aloud the sins of their people, they are watching us and doing their best to nullify our
message and derail our work.
The
Christmas messages of our religious leaders received ample media
attention. And what did they
contain? Platitudes, inaccuracies,
inappropriate and insensitive comments, and not a word about the real reasons
for the deplorable state of the world!
None told their people to mend their ways and return to God in prayer
and repentance in order to allay the
wrath of God and, perchance, avoid further calamities.
This
is how Cardinal Pell concluded his Christmas message:
“The wonderful reception from almost
the whole population to the canonisation of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop demonstrated once again, like World Youth Day,
the respect and affection of majority Australia for Christianity.
It remains only for us as
Christians to practise what we preach and for me to wish everyone, especially
the sad and the sick, a happy and peaceful Christmas.”
Practise what they preach
indeed and none more so than Cardinal Pell himself.
Last year, Australian
Catholics were greatly excited over the canonisation of their first ‘saint’. Now Cardinal Pell assures us that Marry MacKillop is not merely a ‘saint’ for the Catholic Church,
but for Australian Christianity.
Well, let us make one thing
clear: she is not our saint and never
will be. We follow the Scriptures, and in the Bible the term ‘saint’ is always
applied to living people, and never to the dead. And something else: Christmas is not a Christian Holy Day. Jesus Christ was not born at Christmas, and
the Apostles and the early Churches of God never celebrated it. Christmas became a Holy Day centuries after
Christ, and only after the Romans imposed it on Christianity. Prior to that, it
was called Saturnalia, from Saturn, the Devil, and it celebrated the birth of
Mithra, an eastern pagan deity.
Christmas is not in the Bible. Not one of the Catholic Holy Days is in the
Bible, and not one of the biblical Holy Days is observed by the Catholic
Church, or by other mainstream Christian denominations for that matter. Those who wish to check out these facts for
themselves do not need to study the whole Bible. We have done that work for
them. All they need to do is go to our
web site and read the articles on this topic.
When Mary Mackillop was
declared ‘saint’ by Pope Benedict XVI in
October 2010, Australian Catholics, and many others, said that they finally had
someone to pray to. Well, it seem that they have not prayed hard enough, for
within a month of that blasphemous act Australia went from the worst draught in
its history to the worst floods.
Perhaps these Scriptures might tell them something.
Psa 115:1 Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, But to Your name give glory, Because of Your mercy, Because of Your truth.
Psa 115:2 Why should the Gentiles say, "So where is their God?"
Psa 115:3 But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases.
Psa 115:4 Their idols are silver and gold, The work of men's hands.
Psa 115:5 They have mouths, but they do not speak; Eyes they have, but they do not see;
Psa 115:6 They have ears, but they do not hear; Noses they have, but they do not smell;
Psa 115:7 They have hands, but they do not handle; Feet they have, but they do not walk; Nor do they mutter through their throat.
Psa 115:8 Those who make them are like them; So is everyone who trusts in them.
When will people learn that the Christian God is a God
of the living, not of the dead, that praying to the dead is a grievous sin in
His eyes, and that those who do so forfeit any chance of salvation? Those who
pray to idols are like their idols – dead while alive.
It will not be long now before people learn of the
unbelievable deception that has veiled this world, a deception which now
threatens to destroy humanity.
2Co 4:3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,
2Co 4:4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
2Co 4:5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake.
2Co 11:13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.
2Co 11:14 And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.
2Co 11:15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.
Mat 24:9 "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake.
Mat 24:10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.
Mat 24:11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
Mat 24:12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
Mat 24:13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
Mat 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Mat 24:15 "Therefore when you see the 'ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand),
Mat 24:16 "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
Mat 24:21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.
Mat 24:22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.
Preachers of all denominations have done
their best to deny any connection between the prophecies about the end of this
age and the times in which we live. And
why do they find it so difficult to make this connection? Because they have lost the sense of biblical
time! We will show you how both Jews and
Christians have tampered with the chronology of the Bible, and how in so doing
they have exposed humanity to the wiles of the Devil and allowed him to place a
veil of deception upon the whole world.
Why Convert
to a Dying Religion?
Jewish rabbis are engaged in a fierce debate about the
validity of their soldiers’ conversions to Judaism. Conservative rabbis want their soldiers to
fight for their country, but not to receive full rights as Jews.
ISRAELI DEFENCE FORCE CONVERSIONS INVALID
Hareidi Ashkenazic Rabbinic leaders
from the Lithuanian community and the Chabad-Hassidic
community voiced opposition to the conversions to Judaism conducted in the IDF.
Their statement of disapproval followed a ruling by Sephardi
religious leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef
who agreed with Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar's position that the conversions were valid and with
support for the IDF rabbis from religious Zionist rabbinic figures.
Several months ago, Ashkenazi hareidi
rabbis also caused a major uproar by declaring some of the conversions by
religious Zionist courts, then under the supervision of the venerable Rabbi Chaim Druckman, head of the Ohr Etzion Hesder
Yeshiva, invalid retroactively.
The hareidi rabbis who
oppose IDF conversions said that they believe that in the IDF converts are
allowed to proceed with their plans to convert even if they do not intend to
attempt to keep a halakhic lifestyle. They wrote:
“Everyone knows that these people did not plan to keep any of the major
elements of religious observance, not the Sabbath, not kashrut
[religious dietary laws], and not
family purity". The letter was signed by several leading hareidi-religious rabbis, among them Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, and Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky. Their source for
this generalization was not given.
Another letter, signed by a group of Chabad rabbis, warned that failing to hold would-be
converts to a standard that includes observance of Jewish law harms both the
converts and the Jewish people. Substandard conversions “pose a threat to the
existence of the Jewish people, and show ingratitude toward those who seek to
convert, by deceiving them in the name of welcoming them, and making their
lives miserable by giving them a conversion certificate that has no basis in
Jewish law.”
The Chabad rabbis criticized
the IDF's acclaimed Nativ pre-conversion program,
claiming that teachers in the program had mixed Torah messages with those
contradictory to Torah. “And the main thing: even the rabbis who performed the
conversions themselves left out, downplayed, or belittled the essence of conversion,
that is, the acceptance of the mitzvot [commandments] at the time of conversion
and the intent to keep them for the rest of one's life!” The Rabbi of Kfar Chabad, Rabbi Mordechai Shmuel Ashkenazi, made his opposition to the Chabad rabbi's letter public, stating that the Lubavitcher
Rebbe himself had said that conversions should be left to the Chief Rabbinate,
which supports the IDF conversions.
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a renowned Torah scholar and the spiritual leader of
Shas, stated that the IDF conversions are valid.
President Shimon Peres praised Rabbi Yosef this week for his stance on the issue. His ruling
“strengthens and unifies the Jewish people,” Peres said. (Maryana
Miskin, www.israelnationalnews.com, Jan. 28,
2011).
What these soldiers should ask themselves is why
convert to a dying religion when they have a real choice. Righteousness according to the Old Testament
dietary laws not only does not make one a real Jew, but takes him back to rules
and doctrines that belonged to a bygone era, doctrines which under the New
Covenant have become doctrines of demons.
1Ti 4:1 Now the Spirit
expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving
heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,
1Ti 4:2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having
their own conscience seared with a hot iron,
1Ti 4:3 forbidding to marry, and commanding
to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by
those who believe and know the truth.
1Ti 4:4 For every creature of God is
good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving;
1Ti 4:5 for it is sanctified by the word of
God and prayer.
Rom 2:28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is
circumcision that which is outward in the flesh;
Rom 2:29 but he is a Jew who is one
inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in
the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.
Now
if dietary laws and circumcision of the flesh do not make one a Jew, what does?
The New Covenant, that’s what, a fact confirmed by both the Old and the New
Testaments.
Jer
31:31 "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I
will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—
Jer 31:32 not according to the covenant that I
made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead
them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a
husband to them, says the LORD.
Jer 31:33 But this
is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those
days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their
hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
Jer 31:34 No more shall every man teach his
neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all
shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD.
For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
Rom 8:1 There is therefore now
no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to
the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Rom 8:3
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God
did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account
of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
Rom 8:4 that the righteous requirement of the
law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but
according to the Spirit.
Rom 8:5 For those who live according to the
flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live
according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
Rom 8:6 For to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is
enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
Rom 8:8 So then, those who are in the flesh
cannot please God.
Rom 8:9 But you are not in the flesh but in
the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not
have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
Rom 8:10 And if Christ is in you, the
body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of
righteousness.
Rom 8:11
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies
through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Rom 8:12 Therefore, brethren, we are
debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
Rom 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh
you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you
will live.
Rom 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit
of God, these are sons of God.
‘Sons of God?’ Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of
God! Does anyone remember why the
Pharisaical Jews killed Jesus Christ?
Joh 19:4 Pilate then went out again, and said
to them, "Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I
find no fault in Him."
Joh 19:5 Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown
of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, "Behold the
Man!"
Joh 19:6 Therefore, when the chief priests and
officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!"
Pilate said to them, "You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no
fault in Him."
Joh
19:7 The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and according
to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God."
“He ought to die because He made Himself the Son of
God!” If the purveyors of the Old
Covenant Judaism had their way they might kill another two billion people, all
who call themselves Christian, or at least those who truly believe that they
are the sons of God.
Shortly before they brought Jesus Christ before their
Court of Law, He quoted to them their own Scriptures which point out that they
too were sons of God.
Joh 10:23 And Jesus walked in the temple, in
Solomon's porch.
Joh 10:24 Then the Jews surrounded Him and said
to Him, "How long do You keep us in doubt? If You
are the Christ, tell us plainly."
Joh 10:25 Jesus answered them, "I told you,
and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear
witness of Me.
Joh 10:26 But you do not believe, because you
are not of My sheep, as I said to you.
Joh 10:27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know
them, and they follow Me.
Joh 10:28 And I give them eternal life, and they
shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
Joh 10:29 My
Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is
able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.
Joh 10:30 I and My Father are one."
Joh 10:31 Then the Jews took up stones again to
stone Him.
Joh 10:32 Jesus answered them, "Many good
works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?"
Joh 10:33 The Jews answered Him, saying,
"For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You,
being a Man, make Yourself God."
Joh
10:34 Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law,
'I SAID, "YOU ARE GODS"'?
Joh 10:35 If He called them gods, to whom the
word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken),
Joh 10:36 do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?
The Scripture cannot be broken: we are all sons of
God. Yet even after Jesus Christ made it
clear to them that He did not regard Himself to be exclusively the only Son of
God, and made them all sons of God, they did not accept His witness and still
crucified Him.
Apostle Paul, however, made it clear that it is not
good enough to be a son of God according to the flesh, according to the Old
Testament, or the Old Covenant as the Scriptures refer to it, but one must
become a son of God according to the Spirit if he is to ensure his salvation –
everlasting life in the eternal Kingdom of God where there are pleasures
forever more.
Psa 16:8 I have set the LORD always before me;
Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.
Psa 16:9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my
glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope.
Psa 16:10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
Psa
16:11 You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is
fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Now what do you think would happen if someone went to
the Jewish leaders these days and told them that he is a witness and a son of
God? They may not kill him, their nation’s secular laws may not allow it, but
they would certainly do their best to declare him mad and put him in a
psychiatric ward. They tried to do that
to me once.
For more than four decades, ever since the halcyon
days of the late Herbert W Armstrong, head of the Worldwide Church of God,
America’s fundamentalist preachers have trod the road to Jerusalem, urging the
Jewish leaders to rebuild their old
Temple so that Jesus Christ can return to setup the Kingdom of God on
this earth. And for two decades, ever
since we began this work, we have been telling them that this will not
happen.
How could the Jews be expected to build a Temple for
the Man they crucified when they know that if He ever came back to this earth
it will be the end of them?
Jewish rabbis hold on to their forefathers’ doctrines
therefore they too are guilty of their sins. How then are they expected to rebuild the
Temple in order to facilitate the return of Jesus Christ when they make
themselves guilty of His crucifixion?
Like their Christian counterparts, who have filled the
world with false gospels, they know that if Jesus Christ returns to this earth
in their life time they are finished, hence their reluctance to build, or rebuild,
that Temple, in spite of the urging of their American friends.
The truth is that Jesus Christ does not need a Temple
in order to return to this world. No Scripture, and no prophecy, makes such a
connection; those who preach it either misquote the Scriptures or do not know
what they are talking about.
Now here is a very important point about the sins of
the fathers falling upon their children.
This is a well established point in the Bible.
Exo 20:1 And God spoke all these words, saying:
Exo 20:2 "I am the LORD your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Exo 20:3 "You shall have no other gods
before Me.
Exo 20:4 "You
shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that
is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is
in the water under the earth;
Exo
20:5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the
LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
Exo 20:6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
When God says something, you
can be sure that He keeps His word, for good or bad.
Dan 9:16 "O Lord,
according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be
turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins,
and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a
reproach to all those around us.
But as one might have expected, God gave children a
way out of this predicament.
Eze 18:1 The word of the LORD came to me again,
saying,
Eze 18:2 "What do you mean when you use
this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying: 'The fathers have eaten
sour grapes, And the children's teeth are set on edge'?
Eze 18:3 "As I live," says the
Lord GOD, "you shall no longer use this proverb in Israel.
Eze 18:4 "Behold, all souls are Mine; The
soul of the father As well as the soul of the son is Mine; The soul who sins shall
die.
Eze 18:5 But if a man is just And does what is
lawful and right;
Eze 18:6 If he has
not eaten on the mountains, Nor lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of
Israel, Nor defiled his neighbor's wife, Nor approached a woman during her impurity;
Eze 18:7 If he has not oppressed anyone, But
has restored to the debtor his pledge; Has robbed no one by violence, But
has given his bread to the hungry And covered the naked with clothing;
Eze 18:8 If he has not exacted usury Nor taken
any increase, But has withdrawn his hand from iniquity And
executed true judgment between man and man;
Eze 18:9 If he has walked in My
statutes— And kept My judgments faithfully— He is just; He shall surely
live!" Says the Lord GOD.
Eze 18:10 "If he begets a son who is
a robber Or a shedder of blood, Who does any of these things
Eze 18:11 And does none of those duties,
But has eaten on the mountains Or defiled his neighbor's wife;
Eze 18:12 If he has oppressed the poor and
needy, Robbed by violence, Not restored the pledge, Lifted his eyes to the
idols, Or committed abomination;
Eze 18:13 If he has exacted usury Or taken
increase— Shall he then live? He shall not live! If he has done any of these
abominations, He shall surely die; His blood shall be upon him.
Eze 18:14 "If, however, he begets a
son Who sees all the sins which his father has done, And considers but does not
do likewise;
Eze 18:15 Who has not eaten on the
mountains, Nor lifted his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, Nor defiled
his neighbor's wife;
Eze 18:16 Has not oppressed anyone, Nor withheld
a pledge, Nor robbed by violence, But has given his bread to the hungry
And covered the naked with clothing;
Eze 18:17 Who has withdrawn his hand from
the poor And not received usury or increase, But has executed My
judgments And walked in My statutes He shall not die for the iniquity of his
father; He shall surely live!
Eze 18:18 "As for his father,
Because he cruelly oppressed, Robbed his brother by violence, And did what is
not good among his people, Behold, he shall die for his iniquity.
Eze 18:19 "Yet you say, 'Why should the son
not bear the guilt of the father?' Because the son has done what is lawful and
right, and has kept all My statutes and observed them,
he shall surely live.
Eze 18:20 The soul who sins shall die. The son
shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the
son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself,
and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
Eze 18:21
"But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has
committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall
surely live; he shall not die.
Eze
18:22 None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be
remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he
shall live.
Eze 18:23 Do I have any pleasure at all that the
wicked should die?" says the Lord GOD, "and not that he should
turn from his ways and live?
Eze 18:24
"But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and
commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man
does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be
remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin
which he has committed, because of them he shall die.
Eze 18:25 "Yet you say, 'The way of the
Lord is not fair.' Hear now, O house of Israel, is it not My
way which is fair, and your ways which are not fair?
Eze 18:26 When a
righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and
dies in it, it is because of the iniquity which he has done that he dies.
Eze 18:27 Again,
when a wicked man turns away from the wickedness which he committed, and
does what is lawful and right, he preserves himself alive.
Eze 18:28 Because he considers and turns away
from all the transgressions which he committed, he shall surely live; he shall
not die.
Eze 18:29 Yet the house of Israel says, 'The way
of the Lord is not fair.' O house of Israel, is it not My
ways which are fair, and your ways which are not fair?
Eze 18:30 "Therefore I will judge you, O
house of Israel, every one according to his ways," says the Lord GOD.
"Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not
be your ruin.
Eze 18:31 Cast away from you all the
transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a
new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel?
Eze 18:32 For I have no pleasure in the death of
one who dies," says the Lord GOD. "Therefore turn and live!"
When children turn to righteousness, the sins of their
fathers no longer affect them. “The soul
who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the
father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be
upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall
be upon himself.”
Now are the Jewish rabbis aware of this
principle? If they are, why do they
cling on to the sins of their fathers?
Why are they frozen in a Covenant that has outlived its usefulness? And
do you know what the link is between the Jewish rabbis and the fundamentalist
preachers who urge them to rebuild the Temple?
Doctrines of demons! Yes, you
read it right, they all preach the Old Testament dietary laws which have become
doctrines of demons under the New Covenant (See 1 Ti 4:1-5 quoted above).
Why have the dietary laws become doctrines of demons
under the New Testament? Because their
sole purpose was to bring us to Christ!
Gal 3:1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched
you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was
clearly portrayed among you as crucified?
Gal 3:2 This only I want to learn from you:
Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of
faith?—
Gal 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in
the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
Gal 3:4 Have you suffered so many things in
vain—if indeed it was in vain?
Gal 3:5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit
to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the
law, or by the hearing of faith?
Gal 3:6 just as Abraham "BELIEVED GOD,
AND IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS."
Gal 3:7 Therefore know that only those
who are of faith are sons of Abraham.
Gal 3:8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God
would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand,
saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed."
Gal 3:9 So then those who are of faith
are blessed with believing Abraham.
Gal 3:10
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it
is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT CONTINUE IN ALL THINGS WHICH
ARE WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO DO THEM."
Gal 3:11 But that no one is justified by the
law in the sight of God is evident, for "THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY
FAITH."
Gal 3:12 Yet the law is not of faith, but
"THE MAN WHO DOES THEM SHALL LIVE BY THEM."
Gal 3:13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse
of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "CURSED IS
EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE"),
Gal 3:14 that the blessing of Abraham might
come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of
the Spirit through faith.
Gal 3:15 Brethren, I speak in the manner of
men: Though it is only a man's covenant, yet if it is confirmed,
no one annuls or adds to it.
Gal 3:16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the
promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many, but as of
one, "AND TO YOUR SEED," who is Christ.
Gal 3:17
And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty
years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in
Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.
Gal 3:18 For if the inheritance is of
the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham
by promise.
Gal 3:19 What purpose then does the law serve?
It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the
promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a
mediator.
Gal 3:20 Now a mediator does not mediate
for one only, but God is one.
Gal 3:21 Is the law then against the promises
of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given
life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.
Gal 3:22 But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the
promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
Gal 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept
under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed.
Gal 3:24 Therefore the law was our
tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
The law Apostle Paul was talking about here is the law
of animal sacrifices which incorporated dietary restrictions. Those who continue to preach these laws are
simply asking for Jesus Christ to be crucified again. Their punishment will be commensurate with
their willful ignorance. Now have a
look at the rest of that chapter.
Gal 3:25 But after faith has come, we are no
longer under a tutor.
Gal 3:26 For you are all sons of God through
faith in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:27 For as many of you as were baptized
into Christ have put on Christ.
Gal 3:28
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there
is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:29 And if you are Christ's, then
you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Here we have again, the statement that those who turn
to Christ become spiritual sons of God.
Moreover, according to these Scriptures, the New Testament makes both
Jews and Gentiles fellow heirs of Abraham.
That is anathema to the Jewish leaders, so much so that they killed
Apostle Paul for it.
Act 22:17 "Now it happened, when I returned
to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, that I was in a trance
Act 22:18 and saw Him saying to me, 'Make haste
and get out of Jerusalem quickly, for they will not receive your testimony
concerning Me.'
Act 22:19 So I said, 'Lord, they know that in
every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believe on You.
Act 22:20 And when the blood of Your martyr
Stephen was shed, I also was standing by consenting to his death, and guarding
the clothes of those who were killing him.'
Act 22:21 Then He said to me, 'Depart, for I will send you far from
here to the Gentiles.'”
Act 22:22 And they listened to him until this
word, and then they raised their voices and said, "Away with such a fellow from the
earth, for he is not fit to live!"
Isn’t it extraordinary that Christian preachers should
ask the Jews, who have done so much harm to Jesus Christ and His disciples in
the early days of Christianity, to build a Temple and prepare the ground for
His return? Even these days, if a Jew turns to Christ he is virtually ostracized
in Israel, and denied many of the citizen rights of that country.
And what does it tell you the fact that God put a
Muslim Mosque on the very spot that the Jerusalem Temple used to stand?
Jews and fundamentalist preachers alike worship a god
that could not make provision for a Temple that is supposed to play such an
important role in the return of Jesus Christ, in the end of this age, and in
the setting up of the Kingdom of God upon this earth.
The truth is that no Temple is needed for the return of
Jesus Christ, and no Kingdom of God will ever be setup upon this earth. This world was not designed to be transformed
into the Kingdom of God, but to be destroyed after human beings have made a
mess of it.
2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His
promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing
that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
2Pe 3:10
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the
heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with
fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
2Pe 3:11 Therefore, since all these things will
be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and
godliness,
2Pe 3:12 looking for and hastening the coming
of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on
fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?
2Pe 3:13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens
and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Just like the Jews and the fundamentalist preachers,
the Apostles of Jesus Christ thought that Messiah would come to restore the
“kingdom of Israel” on the patch of that congested and contested ground in the
Middle East. And how did Jesus Christ
reply to that?
Act 1:1 The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
Act 1:2 until the day in which He was taken
up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles
whom He had chosen,
Act 1:3 to whom He also presented Himself
alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during
forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
Act 1:4 And being assembled together with them,
He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of
the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me;
Act 1:5 for John truly baptized with water,
but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
Act 1:6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying,
"Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"
Act 1:7 And He said to them, "It is not
for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.
Act 1:8 But you shall receive power when the
Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
There are certain mysteries about the Kingdom of God
that cannot be revealed to people who do not have the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ could not answer their question
because they had not yet received the Holy Spirit, which they would receive a
few weeks later on the day of Pentecost.
Here are some of the points of which He could not tell
them about at that time.
One: His return would be a long way off into the
future;
Two: He was not going to restore the “kingdom of
Israel” as the Jews expected;
Three: He would not return to set up the Kingdom of
God on this earth as fundamentalist preachers expect either;
Four: He would return to set up a thousand year
Kingdom, also known as the Millennium Kingdom, which is a continuation of life
on this earth as we know it for another thousand years after the devastation of
the Great Tribulation. The difference being that Satan would not be around to
temp people anymore, until close to the very end of the world.
Rev 20:1 Then I saw an angel coming down from
heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the
Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;
Rev 20:3 and he cast him into the bottomless
pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the
nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things
he must be released for a little while.
Rev 20:7 Now when the thousand years have
expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the
nations which are in the four corners of the
Rev 20:8 earth, Gog and Magog,
to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the
sea.
Rev 20:9 They went up on the breadth of the
earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came
down from God out of heaven and devoured them.
Rev 20:10 The devil, who deceived them, was cast
into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are.
And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Rev 20:11 Then I saw a great white throne and
Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And
there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great,
standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which
is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works,
by the things which were written in the books.
Rev 20:13 The sea gave up the dead who were in
it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were
judged, each one according to his works.
Rev 20:14 Then Death and Hades were cast into
the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15 And anyone not found written in the
Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
Rev 21:1 Now I saw a new heaven and a new
earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was
no more sea.
Rev 21:2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for
her husband.
Rev 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven
saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will
dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and
be their God.
Rev 21:4 And God will wipe away every tear from
their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall
be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."
Rev 21:5 Then He who sat on the throne said,
"Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for
these words are true and faithful."
Rev 21:6 And He said to me, "It is done! I
am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the
fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.
Rev 21:7 He who overcomes shall inherit all
things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.
Rev 21:8 But the cowardly, unbelieving,
abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars
shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is
the second death."
It was only after the Apostles received the Holy
Spirit that they understood the plan of God and the great hiatus between the
Jewish expectations of the Messiah and the purpose for which He came into this
world in the first place.
Unfortunately, Jewish leaders wallow in that ignorance
to this very day.
2Co 3:1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need,
as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of
commendation from you?
2Co 3:2 You are our epistle written in our
hearts, known and read by all men;
2Co 3:3
clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written
not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but
on tablets of flesh, that is,
2Co 3:4 of the heart. And we have such trust through Christ toward
God.
2Co 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of
ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our
sufficiency is from God,
2Co 3:6 who also made us sufficient as
ministers of the NEW COVENANT, not
of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives
life.
2Co 3:7
But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was
glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of
Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing
away,
2Co 3:8 how will the ministry of the Spirit
not be more glorious?
2Co 3:9 For if the ministry of condemnation had
glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.
2Co 3:10 For even what was made glorious had no
glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels.
2Co 3:11 For if what is passing away was
glorious, what remains is much more glorious.
2Co 3:12 Therefore, since we have such hope, we
use great boldness of speech—
2Co 3:13 unlike Moses, who put a veil
over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end
of what was passing away.
2Co 3:14 But their minds were blinded. For
until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the
reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ.
2Co 3:15 But even to this day, when Moses is
read, a veil lies on their heart.
2Co 3:16 Nevertheless when one turns to the
Lord, the veil is taken away.
2Co 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where
the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
2Co 3:18
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of
the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just
as by the Spirit of the Lord.
2Co 4:1 Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received
mercy, we do not
2Co 4:2 lose heart. But we have renounced the hidden things of
shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but
by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God.
2Co 4:3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,
2Co 4:4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded,
who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is
the image of God, should shine
2Co 4:5 on them. For we do not preach
ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for
Jesus' sake.
2Co 4:6 For it is the God who commanded light
to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
2Co 4:7 of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and
not of us.
2Co 4:8 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet
not crushed; we are perplexed, but
2Co 4:9 not in despair; persecuted, but not
forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—
2Co 4:10 always carrying about in the body the
dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our
body.
2Co 4:11 For we who live are always delivered
to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our
mortal flesh.
2Co 4:12 So then death is working in us, but
life in you.
2Co 4:13
And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is
written, "I BELIEVED AND THEREFORE I SPOKE," we also believe and
therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up
2Co 4:14 the Lord Jesus will also raise us up
with Jesus, and will present us with you.
2Co 4:15 For all things are for your
sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to
abound to the glory of God.
2Co 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even
though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed
day by day.
2Co 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but
for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory,
2Co 4:18 while we do not look at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are
seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are
eternal.
The surprise solution to the world’s refugee problem
The wall of refugees that clamor to reach
Christian lands could not continue unchallenged for much longer, not the least
because the two behemoths, India and China, have remained dormant so far. All we need is a crisis in these countries
and the world will literally be swamped by refugees.
Aside from the problem with Islamic
terrorism, India has a serious Maoist insurgency in its middle and northern
states, and we all know what people do when they hear of communism. The world may think that this ideology has
seen its nadir, but human beings have an unbounded ability to accommodate evil,
especially when they think it is to their advantage to do so.
China, on the other hand, has the problem
of the end of communism, at least the communism that we are familiar with. Its leaders and its neighbors dread the
thought of the Chinese masses rising against their dictators and rushing
towards their borders, as it happened when the Soviet Union collapsed. To this
day, European Union leaders grapple with a mass of unwanted migrants from the
eastern countries, in addition to the myriad of refugees from Africa and the Middle
East.
Somewhat surprisingly, tiny Israel finds
itself in a similar predicament. This much maligned country in the Middle East
is being swamped by migrants from Africa. If proofs were needed of God’s
promise to Abraham that in his seed all the countries of the world will be
blessed, this certainly is one of them; all the countries, that is except those
that refuse to accept His plan and want to carve out their own destiny and be
on top of the world too.
Gen 22:18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be
blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."
The result is much too obvious: the world
is sinking in a cesspool of misery, famine and travail. The solution to the
refugee problem is offered, of all people, by one of Israel’s rabbis.
RABBI'S
DRASTIC MEASURES TO STOP AFRICAN INFILTRATORS
Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, head of Zomet
Institute for Science and Torah, says Israel must build temporary refugee camps
for the thousands of monthly African infiltrators.
We
have gone nuts! Rabbi Rosen writes in his weekly column in the latest edition
of the Shabbat B'Shabbato pamphlet. Noting that an
average of 100 illegal African infiltrators, mainly from Sudan, sneak into
Israel each night, for a total of 3,000 a month, Rabbi Rosen writes that they seek
out Israel not because we represent the promised land of economic opportunity,
but rather because [we have] an unending abundance of 'human rights' and
humanitarianism.
The
only place in the Middle East where organizations for human rights exist, the
rabbi continues, is in Israel! The members and supporters of these groups are
willing to accept national suicide as a sacrifice to the 'religion' of human
rights. . . . Under the present circumstances, I am
convinced that this is bringing about a national and existential disaster for
the State of Israel.
I
can already hear the cacophony of shouts accompanied by pointing fingers, Rabbi
Rosen writes: A rabbi in Israel is heartless and lacks compassion! Where is his
merciful Jewish heart? Jewish refugees in the Holocaust were also denied entry!
Don't the Torah and Jewish Law require us to provide poor foreigners with a
livelihood?
I
close my eyes and try to imagine how a true Torah state of today would treat
the Sudanese refugees; and my answer is clear: Though we know 'G-d has pity for
all of his creatures' (Psalms 145), there is a [supplementary guiding]
principle that states, 'The paupers of your own city take precedence over
others' (Tractate Bava Metzia
71a). It is not only the economic considerations that force us to refuse to
absorb this [onslaught] of refugees, but also, and perhaps mainly, the social
and nationalist elements that are patently obvious. Following this halakhic
[Jewish legal] analysis, Rabbi Rosen proceeds to offer some drastic measures:
Not only the construction of well-guarded physical obstacles and barriers to
block the infiltrators, but also the construction of temporary refugee camps.
The occupants therein will be given minimal amounts of water, food, and
medicine, in exchange for public labor under control of the government's newly
formed 'Ministry for Non-Absorption of Migrants.'
The
people in the detention camps will be categorized as law-breakers. The standard of living quarters and
livelihood will be between minimal and sub-standard, mainly with the goal of
reducing the incentive for this African immigration. . . .
There will be a complete prohibition of any mobility outside the camps,
and will be allowed to travel around the country only in organized
transportation for work and for other vital reasons. This situation will be
explicitly defined as temporary until they are deported under international
agreements.
Rabbi
Rosen admits that his idea has slim chances of implementation; and you know
very well why this is so: We have too many 'enlightened' people in our country
who will never let it happen - knights of human rights, at the expense of the
country! (Hillel Fendel. (www.israelinationalnews.com, Jan.3, 2011).
It may surprise people to know this, but
this is what God is about to do with people of the whole world who survive the
impending Great Tribulation.
Isa 13:9 Behold, the day of the LORD comes,
Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, To lay the land desolate; And He will
destroy its sinners from it.
Isa 13:10 For the stars of heaven and their
constellations Will not give their light; The sun will be darkened in its going
forth, And the moon will not cause its light to shine.
Isa 13:11 "I will punish the world for its
evil, And the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the
proud, And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
Isa 13:12 I will make a mortal more rare than
fine gold, A man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.
Isa 13:13 Therefore I will shake the heavens,
And the earth will move out of her place, In the wrath of the LORD of hosts And
in the day of His fierce anger.
Isa 13:14 It shall be as the hunted gazelle, And
as a sheep that no man takes up; Every man will turn to his own people, And
everyone will flee to his own land.
People will have a better chance of
surviving the terrible Day of the Lord by remaining within their own borders
and turning to God now, than if they are found wandering and unsettled in
various countries of the world, where they will be not only undefended but
blamed for many of the local problems.
Only a blind person could not see that
this is where the world is heading at present.
Humanity’s Fateful Decade
Seldom in history has the world faced a decade with so
much gloom and doom as the one we have just entered. National economies are in a mess and on a
verge of collapsing into a greater meltdown than the one they have just come
out of, global warming and climate change are wreaking havoc around the world,
terrorism shows no signs of abating, pirates threaten to bring sea travel to
the dark ages of the past, and lawlessness, immorality, and a relentless quest
for pleasures of the flesh, have brought the world to where it was in the days
before the Flood of Noah.
For every person who speaks of good times ahead,
dozens more say that the world’s problems are only just beginning. It cannot be otherwise, for the problems that
have caused the financial meltdown of 2008 are still there, largely unresolved;
green gas emissions that have induced global warming are still on the increase;
and the battle with terrorists and pirates produces almost as many victims on
our side as on theirs.
Governments around the world have pumped billions of
dollars into their profligate banks in order to rescue them from bankruptcy
only to find themselves on the verge of bankruptcy now, only that this time
there is no one else to rescue them.
They all talk of getting out of trouble by reducing
government spending and improving their balance of trade. But we have seen what people do when they are
asked to tighten their belts: from Greece, to Spain, Ireland, France and
others, people have taken to the streets in angry demonstrations. As for their
trade balances, how can they improve on them when the countries to which they
export are in the same precarious condition?
Have a look at the following statistics and see what
they tell you.
“The World's
Biggest Debtor Nations”
“Throughout the financial crisis, many national
economies have looked to their government and foreign lenders for financial
support, which translates to increased spending,
borrowing and in most cases, growing national debt.
Deficit spending, government debt and private sector
borrowing are the norm in most western countries, but due in part to the
financial crisis, some nations and economies are in considerably worse debt
positions than others.
External debt is a measure of a nation's foreign
liabilities, capital plus interest that the government and institutions within
a nation's borders must eventually pay. This number not only includes
government debt, but also debt owed by corporations and individuals to entities
outside their home country.
So, how does the US debt position compare to that of
other countries? A useful measure of a country's debt position is by comparing
gross external debt to GDP. By comparing a country's debt to what it produces,
this ratio can be used to determine the likelihood that a country will be able
to repay its debt. This report takes a look at the world's 75 largest economies
to see which ones have the highest external debt to GDP ratio, calculated using
the most recent numbers from the World Bank. We've listed the top twenty here. The rankings may surprise you!”
1. Ireland
-External debt as % of GDP: 1,267%; External debt per capita: $567,805. Gross external debt: $2.386 trillion; 2008
GDP (est.): $188.4 billion
2. Switzerland
- External debt as % of GDP: 422.7%. External debt per capita: $176,045. Gross
external debt: $1.338 trillion; 2008 GDP (est.): $316.7 billion;
3. United
Kingdom - External debt as % of GDP: 408.3%. External debt per capita:
$148,702. Gross external debt: $9.087
trillion; 2008 GDP (est.): $2.226 trillion;
4. Netherlands
- External debt as % of GDP: 365%.
External debt per capita: $146,703. Gross external debt: $2.452
trillion; 2008 GDP (est.): $672 billion;
5. Belgium -
External debt as % of GDP: 320.2%.
External debt per capita: $119,681.
Gross external debt: $1.246 trillion; 2008 GDP (est.): $389 billion;
6. Denmark -
External debt as % of GDP: 298.3%. External debt per capita: $110,422. Gross external debt: $607.38 billion. 2008
GDP (est.): $203.6 billion;
7. Austria -
External debt as % of GDP: 252.6%. External debt per capita: $101,387. Gross external debt: $832.42 billion; 2008
GDP (est.): $329.5 billion;
8. France -
External debt as % of GDP: 236%. External debt per capita: $78,387. Gross
external debt: $5.021 trillion; 2008 GDP (est.): $2.128 trillion;
9. Portugal -
External debt as % of GDP: 214.4%. External debt per capita: $47,348. Gross
external debt: $507 billion; 2008 GDP (est.): $236.5 billion;
10. Hong Kong
- External debt (as % of GDP): 205.8%.
External debt per capita: $89,457.
Gross external debt: $631.13 billion; 2008 GDP (est.): $306.6 billion;
11. Norway
-External debt as % of GDP: 199%. External debt per capita: $117,604. Gross
external debt: $548.1 billion; 2008 GDP (est.): $275.4 billion;
12. Sweden -
External debt (as % of GDP): 194.3%.
External debt per capita: $73,854.
Gross external debt: $669.1 billion; 2008 GDP (est.): $344.3 billion;
13. Finland -
External debt as % of GDP: 188.5%.
External debt per capita: $69,491. Gross external debt: $364.85 billion;
2008 GDP (est.): $193.5 billion;
14. Germany -
External debt as % of GDP: 178.5%. External debt per capita: $63,263. Gross external debt: $5.208 trillion; 2008
GDP (est.): $2.918 trillion;
15. Spain -
External debt as % of GDP: 171.7%.
External debt per capita: $59,457.
Gross external debt: $2.409 trillion; 2008 GDP (est.): $1.403 trillion;
16. Greece -
External debt as % of GDP: 161.1%.
External debt per capita: $51,483. Gross external debt: $552.8 billion;
2008 GDP (est.): $343 billion;
17. Italy - External
debt as % of GDP: 126.7%. External debt
per capita: $39,741. Gross external debt: $2.310 trillion; 2008 GDP (est.): $
1.823 trillion;
18. Australia
- External debt as % of GDP: 111.3%.
External debt per capita: $41,916.
Gross external debt: $891.26 billion; 2008 GDP (est.): $800.2 billion;
19. Hungary -
External debt as % of GDP: 105.7%. External debt per capita: $20,990. Gross external debt: $207.92 billion; 2008
GDP (est.): $196.6 billion;
20. United
States - External debt as % of GDP: 94.3%. External debt per capita:
$43,793. Gross
external debt: $13.454 trillion; 2008 GDP (est.):$14.26 trillion.”
(Paul
Toscano, www.cnbc.com, Oct. 28, 2009)
Since this
article was published a little over a year ago, the condition of all these
countries has worsened. America’s debt
has ballooned to $16 trillion and growing.
Even so, the surprise of this pack is not America, but Germany. For decades, until two years ago, when it was
overtaken by China, Germany was consistently the greatest exporting nation in
the world. Now if a country with such a
good balance of trade finds itself among the countries with the worst external
debt, what hope is there for other countries?
According to
these statistics, Germany is in a worse condition than Greece, Spain and Italy,
countries that are expected to be rescued by Germany. So instead of Greece going to Germany for
help, it should be the other way around: Germany should go to Greece and
ask: how did you manage to have a better
external debt than us with all your intrinsic corruption, tax avoidance schemes,
and lazy work attitude?
Greece would
probably answer it is our beloved Orthodox Church that has instilled this
culture on us, unlike your Lutheran religion which preaches nothing but work,
work, work. You should see what
Orthodoxy has done to our neighbors –Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and
Russia.
Now, through its efficient industry, Germany
is able to service its debt, unlike Greece, Ireland and others, which clearly
are bankrupt and cannot. The question is
how long the German people will continue to bankroll the rest of Europe before
they say enough is enough, to hell with the European Union. The recent electoral defeats in local
elections of the Christian Democrats may be the harbinger of just such an
outcome.
In the midst
of all this debate, China jumped in and declared that it will take care of
Greece’s debt. Greece is now seen by
China as one of its many Third World client states. This should come as no surprise for even the
mighty United States of America has been its client state for decades. America is indebted to China to the tune of
trillions of dollars.
It is an extraordinary twist of history that countries
which have been at odds with each other for much of recent history, due to
their different political systems and competing geopolitical aims, have seen
their master/servant role reversed, and are now keeping the world in a
precarious balance, not because their interests have converged, but because
they are locked into a vicious cycle from which neither can escape without
bringing the other and the world to their knees.
Until about three decades ago, the USA was the world’s
undisputed banker and economic engine. China, on the other hand, was hardly
more than its Cinderella nation.
When America was at its zenith, it sought to lock the
world into a system that would safeguard its leading position
indefinitely. It has achieved anything
but:
“The Bretton
Woods Conference was a meeting that took place in the town of Bretton Woods, in
New Hampshire, in 1944. It was originally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, and essentially acted as
a meeting among the Allied nations to decide how the global economy would
function in the wake of World War II.
The Bretton
Woods Conference took place at the Mount Washington Hotel, and lasted for three
weeks, from the first of July to the twenty-second of July. At the end of the
three weeks, a number of agreements were signed by the forty-four various
nations present. The Bretton Woods Conference established many of the tools of
modern international commerce, including the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) which would later become the World Trade
Organization (WTO), and the International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (IBRD), the first of the five institutions that make up the World Bank Group.
One of the
major accomplishments of the Bretton Woods Conference was establishing a fixed
value to gold and other fairly tight currency regulations. In the wake of the Great Depression and the War, it was fresh in the minds of many nations that
the ability to easily devalue currency to become more competitive in the
international export economy was a profoundly dangerous situation. By
controlling the value of currency, the Bretton Woods Conference agreements
ensured that nations couldn’t easily devalue their currency. This system
endured until the early 1970s, when the United States bucked it in the face of
a dollar glut.
Fundamentally,
the Bretton Woods Conference largely marked the end of economic nationalism.
The Great Depression had made it very clear to everyone that the world’s
economies were intricately linked, and that what affected one nation could
quickly cascade to affect the entire world. As a result, the nations
represented at the Bretton Woods Conference agreed to tight restrictions, in an
attempt to stave off any future global catastrophe. In addition to the Western
powers creating the rules that would come to govern the global economy in the
future, they also agreed to take on responsibility for the global economy by
themselves lowering trade barriers and allowing capital to flow freely from their countries.
In addition to
setting up new institutions, the Bretton Woods Conference also acted in some
ways as a coming-out party for the United States, fully taking the stage as the
world’s economic superpower. The mantle of responsibility was also stressed,
and US President Franklin Roosevelt emphasized this point many times. Roosevelt
opened the conference by stating that, “The economic health of every country is
a proper matter of concern to all its neighbors, near and far.”
Two other
fairly important institutions were proposed at the Bretton Woods Conference but
ultimately were never agreed upon. One was the International Trade Organization
(ITO), which would have set up rules to mediate international trade. The ITO
was not created at the Bretton Woods Conference, but in 1995, the Uruguay Round of GATT finally reached agreement on an international trade
body, the WTO. The other organization was an International Clearing Union (ICU), which would
have acted essentially as a strictly regulated international bank. The ICU was
proposed by noted economist John Maynard
Keynes, but ultimately the United States was firmly opposed to the ICU, and it
was replaced with the IMF, which gave enormous powers to the United States, as
well as allowing developed nations unlimited credit, and giving the United
States dollar a position of privilege to ensure the United States would never
face an economic collapse as a result of debt.” (wikipedia)
Isn’t this extraordinary? The Bretton Woods Conference, which was
supposed to give “the United States dollar a position of privilege to ensure
the United States would never face an economic collapse as a result of debt”,
achieved the very opposite. Virtually
all the aims of that Conference have failed to materialize.
. Smooth running of the
world economy.
The world is facing anything but a smooth running
economy. Think of how many nations have
requested outside intervention in order to stave off bankruptcy – Greece and
Ireland being the most recent glaring examples.
The truth is that even after receiving help, these countries cannot even
pay the interest on their borrowed money let alone the principal. Many more
countries are expected to follow suit.
. Setting up tools for
modern commerce - the IMF, GATT, World Bank, etc.
Many nations wish they had never heard of the IMF or
the World Bank, particularly those in the Third World which say
that their medicines are worse than the diseases they are supposed to
cure.
. Currency regulation
through a fixed value of gold to national currencies.
This was designed to prevent nations from devaluing
their currency in order to “become more competitive in the international export economy
without creating a profoundly dangerous situation.” But this is exactly what Western nations are
accusing China of creating. Through its
system of centralized controlled economy, China has kept its currency
undervalued, wreaked havoc with the concept of globalization, and swamped the
world with products that other countries cannot compete against.
Few westerners
complained about China as long as its products were of abysmally low quality,
but when western companies, in their relentless quest for profits moved in to
take advantage of its low wages, they opened a Pandora box that no one knows
how to close anymore.
Quietly and
almost imperceptibly, China transformed itself from a paper tiger into a mighty
dragon that has to be reckoned with.
America’s
stimulus measures designed to get its economy moving after the financial
debacle of 2008 was achieved mainly with borrowed money from China and
South-East Asian countries.
For years, it
was feared that China was amassing American dollars in order to hold that
nation to ransom in their battle for Taiwan.
However, China is now discovering that things are not quite as simple as
that. It cannot do that without
diminishing its own treasury chest, causing chaos in its own and the world
economy, and possibly stirring up a military conflict with unforeseen
consequences.
The recent
Korean Peninsula crisis provided an example in point. North Korea would never have dared bomb South
Korea and scuttle one of its submarines without Chinese knowledge, approval,
and likely encouragement. The Chinese simply wanted to know the size of
America’s show of force, knowing full well that neither it nor South Korean
would start a war over that. And how did
the Americans react? They sent no less
than four aircraft carriers into the China Sea.
Then came the surprise: China revealed that it had developed
ballistic missiles that are propelled into out of space first before plunging
back into the enemy aircraft carriers.
That sent shivers through America’s military establishment, for there is
no defense against such weapons.
America thought
that it would send a message to China that it is still the one and only
military superpower, to which China replied, easy buddy, there is a new boy in
the neighborhood.
America should
never forget the Shanghai Treaty either, which links China and Russia into a
powerful military alliance. Russia and
China may not be natural bedfellows: Russia looking with unease at the growing
colossus on its southern flank, and China looking yearningly to the vast
under-populated Siberian steeps, but for now they both consider America to be
the greater threat.
President Bush (junior) once said that America
was prepared to go to war with China over Taiwan, even using nuclear weapons.
Was that because America was terribly in love with Taiwan? No, it was because at that stage, Taiwan was
far advanced of China in industrial technology and that would have given China
a real boost in catching up with America’s military might.
Well, China has
achieved that even without Taiwan, and now is bypassing America in the very
field that America thought it was impregnable.
Lenin once said, we will give the capitalists the rope by which they can
hang themselves with. That rope, of course, is the capitalists’ relentless
quest for profits. Trouble is, his
disciples made a mess of their ideal and got entangled in that rope before they
could strangle the capitalists with it.
Communism,
however, is not dead. It is very much
alive in China, and revived in Putin’s Russia. They call it a new communism,
one with ‘human face’ they say, as if that evil atheist ideology could ever be
tamed and humanized.
Anyone who
thinks that the world is heading towards tranquil times ahead lives in a fool’s
paradise. It is not a mere coincidence
that all these troubles converge upon the world at the exact time that the
Bible says the world is in transition to a new world order that will involve
neither rabid communists nor rampant capitalists.
Confucius says:
‘may you live in interesting times’. We
live in very interesting times; and very dangerous.
THE CHRISTIAN HOLY DAYS FOR THE YEARS 2011 - 2013
|
|
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
The Passover (Pesah – Nissan 14) Unlike the Jews, who used to kill the Passover lamb “at the twilight”
of Nissan 14 (meaning in the evening towards Nissan 15), we, Christians,
observe the Passover when our “Lamb” – Jesus Christ – was sacrificed.
That happened on the afternoon of Nissan 14, before the twilight of Nissan
14, meaning that we keep it a little earlier than the Jews. We
commemorate His death, not His supper, which occurred the previous evening,
as some churches do. The time when His body was broken, not when He broke the
symbolic bread. |
|
18
April |
6 April |
25
March |
Days of Unleavened Bread (Nissan 15 – 21) On the first and seventh days there shall be holy
convocations. No customary work shall be done
on these days. |
|
9 April –
25 April |
7 April - 13 April |
26 Mar. -1 April |
Pentecost (Shavuot – Sivan 6) |
|
8 June |
27 May |
15 May |
Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah – Tishri 1) |
|
29
Sept. |
17
Sept. |
5
Sept. |
Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur – Tishri
10) |
|
8 Oct.
|
26
Sept. |
14
Sept. |
Feast of Tabernacles (Succoth – Tishri 15
– 22) On
the first and the eighth days there shall be holy convocations. No customary work shall be
done on these
days. |
|
13 Oct. –
20 Oct. |
1 Oct. –
8 Oct. |
19 Oct. -
26 Oct. |
State of the World –
2011
Quality of Life Index
To produce this annual Index we consider nine categories: Cost
of Living, Culture and Leisure, Economy, Environment, Freedom,
Health, Infrastructure, Safety and Risk, and Climate.
This involves a lot of number crunching from “official” sources, including
government websites, the World Health Organization, and The Economist,
to name but a few. We also take into account what our editors from all over the
world have to say about our findings.
Below are the countries that win our top 10 in this year’s Quality
of Life Index and the final scores for each country in every category.
1. France
For the fifth year running, France takes first in our annual
Quality of Life Index. No surprise. Its tiresome bureaucracy and high taxes are
outweighed by an unsurpassable quality of life, including the world’s best
health care.
France always nets high scores in most categories. But you
don’t need number-crunchers to tell you its bon
vivant lifestyle is special. Step off a plane and you’ll experience it
first-hand.
I always wish quality of life indicators could measure a
country’s heart and soul. But it’s impossible to enumerate the joy of lingering
for hours over dinner and a bottle of red wine in a Parisian brasserie. Or strolling beside the Seine on a spring morning, poking through
the book vendors’ wares. Or buying buttery croissants in bohemian
Montmartre…hearing Notre Dame’s bells…walking antique streets paved with
poetry.
Romantic Paris offers the best of everything, but services
don’t fall away in Alsace’s wine villages…in wild and lovely Corsica…in
lavender-scented Provence. Or in the Languedoc of the troubadors, bathed in Mediterranean sunlight.
Provincial French properties are often keenly priced and
lifestyles are less expensive than Paris. The Southwestern Midi-Pyrenees region
is a particularly good hunting ground for village homes for less than
$100,000—and classic three-course lunches for $14. Houses cascade with wisteria
blossom; outdoor markets are everywhere. Foie
gras, pink garlic, Armagnac, and crystallized
violets aren’t gourmet fare for locals. Rather, just another day’s shopping.
2. Australia
They don’t call it the “Lucky Country” for
nothing. Australia is famous for its large beaches and temperate climate.
Across the continent, Aussies and those who’ve chosen to emigrate there have
access to an active and healthy lifestyle. But urban dwellers will find plenty
of great culture and excellent food in Sydney and Melbourne, and a cost of
living below that of some of the world’s other great cities.
Australia’s economy has managed to weather the Global
Financial Crisis better than any other Western country. For tourists and
travelers, this means you’ll be dealing with a strong Aussie dollar, making
your visit there more expensive. But if you plan to stay, you’ll find that few
English-speaking countries with quality health care and good infrastructure
will benefit as much as Australia from the economic booms in Asia and China.
The Australian economy is powered by agricultural, mineral,
and energy exports that feed the voracious appetite of rapidly industrializing
populations in Asia. Housing in Australia remains expensive by global
standards. But there are plenty of jobs for skilled expats who can ride the
Asian boom from the sandy, sunny, and safe beaches of the land Down Under.
3. Switzerland
For Harry Lime, in Graham Greene’s story The Third Man,
all the Swiss have to show for five centuries of
peaceful neutrality is the cuckoo clock. The rest of Europe, meanwhile, stumped
on through rivers of blood to create art, history, and civilization.
This is rubbish. Switzerland is an award-winning country
because it turned all its natural disadvantages to its own advantage, ending up
as a super-efficient, high-tech society while still managing to play Alpine
inn-keeper to the world. Moreover the cuckoo clock comes from the Black Forest
in Germany.
Lacking natural frontiers or a unifying religion, and
divided by five different languages, it sensibly decided that internationalism
was its calling, quickly adding English to the French, German (two kinds),
Italian, and Romansch (like ancient Latin) its people
already speak so that foreigners of every linguistic persuasion could feel at
home. Altruism followed from this and Geneva became home to the United Nations
and the Red Cross.
Landlocked, mountainous, and without
natural resources (except cheese), Switzerland still needed more than tourism
to provide a living. So it developed
secretive banks, whose potential clientele is numberless and efficient
engineering and pharmaceutical industries whose appeal similarly knows no
borders.
Such achievements reinforce each other. Tourists gladly
clamber into Alpine cable cars because they trust their Swiss steel cables and
electric motors. Jump on a Swiss train and you know you will arrive on time. Swallow
a Swiss pill and you know it won’t poison you. Likewise, you know the bank will
always be discreet and the hotel room spotless. You also know everyone will
speak your language. The Swiss succeeded because they made everything work.
4. Germany
Some Americans (often ex-military) retire to Germany. One
forum poster mentioned being thrilled that youth culture hasn’t taken over.
Techno-throb Berlin and numerous summer rock festivals refute that, but this is
the land of Goethe and Beethoven. Theater, art, and classical music concerts
aren’t considered elitist.
Will your medical insurance fund a health spa stay? Probably
not, but it happens here with a doctor’s recommendation. Despite the global
downturn, Germans have it pretty good. Along with 30 days paid annual holiday,
the average employee earns €41,509 ($61,433).
In Germany, everything works and works well. Its houses are
built to last, and their legendary autobahns are still mostly without speed
limits. If you enjoy sports, even small towns have numerous facilities. Some
odd ones too—the Harz Mountains now has a specialist
hiking trail for nudists. From spas to parks to North Sea beaches, Germany is
arguably the world’s most naturist-friendly country.
Romantics adore its Christmas markets and fairytale towns of
half-timbered houses. Some favorites are Quedlinburg
and Wernigerode in Saxony, and the Black Forest spa
town of Baden-Baden. The latter has a posh reputation, but you could buy a
55-sqaure-meter apartment for $160,000. Or rent for $673 monthly.
5. New Zealand
From Auckland’s waterfront to the Southern Alps,
English-speaking New Zealand boasts some of the most pristine landscapes on
earth. Much of the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy was filmed here. For
younger migrants with the right skills, it’s a wonderful place to relocate and
raise a family. There’s huge emphasis on sports, beach-life, and healthy
lifestyles.
New Zealand’s immigration department sums up the attractions
perfectly. “In many ways it’s not what we have that’s important to our quality
of life—it’s what we don’t have. We don’t have high crime rates, our police
don’t carry guns and instances of corruption are virtually unheard of. We don’t
have abject poverty or hunger and we don’t have the pollution, congestion,
health issues and cramped city living that we see elsewhere.”
Unless you buy your way in as an investor, it’s difficult
for retirees to get permanent residency. But you could rent or purchase a home
and live there part-time. Seasons are reversed, so it’s possible to enjoy two
summers a year. However, property prices are rebounding. Taken nationally,
latest figures show the average home costs $274,881.
6. Luxembourg
If we judged quality of life by a nation’s Michelin-starred
restaurants per square mile, the winner would be the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
A founder member of the EU, its national motto is Mir wëlle
bleiwe wat mir sin (we want to remain what we are).
Only 51 miles long and 35 miles wide, landlocked Luxembourg
is relatively unknown to Americans. Yet with per capita GDP of $88,000, it’s
among the world’s richest countries. Most apartments in its postcard-pretty
capital—also called Luxembourg—cost at least $7,400 per square meter. But they
come with an operetta scene of medieval turrets, bridges, and flower-filled
squares.
Ruled by a Grand Duke, a third of Luxembourg’s 420,000
inhabitants were born elsewhere. Add cross-border workers, and foreigners
account for 60% of its labor force. Although the official language is Lëtzebuergesch, English, French, and standard German are
widely spoken—cosmopolitan Luxembourg is an international finance center and
tax haven. However, its bank secrecy laws are now under scrutiny.
7. United States
From Florida’s palm-lined coasts to Alaska’s snow-covered
crags…from the dazzle of New York to the big skies of Montana…the U.S. has,
arguably, something to offer everyone. And no question: It is the land of
convenience. No place else on Earth is it easier to get what you want, when you
want it.
The U.S. is safe. It’s comfortable. It can even be affordable.
As readers will on occasion point out: It’s possible to rent
a place in central Nebraska for the same price you’ll pay in Merida, Mexico.
(Though that does beg the question: There amid the cornfields, can you see the
opera, enjoy the café culture, or be at the beach in half an hour?)
It’s hard to beat the day-to-day ease you enjoy in the U.S.
You can buy eye drops at a pharmacy at 3 a.m. and have dinner delivered to your
door in 30 minutes or less. We are efficient. (And, if you’ve ever tried to shop
on a Sunday in France or get a driver’s license in Italy in under
45 days, you appreciate the merits in that.) But—as our editors and readers
living overseas are quick to point out—convenience (and the frenetic pace that
comes with it) is often overrated.
8. Belgium
Divided into Flemish-speaking Flanders and French-speaking
Wallonia, Belgium also boasts high scores. Since medieval times, its
merchant cities have prospered. The capital, Brussels, grabs most attention,
but Bruges and Antwerp (famed for diamond trading) also flaunt stepped-gable
houses and splendid guildhalls.
Employing thousands of foreign staff, Brussels is the
headquarters of the European Union and NATO. A dreary place
of paper-shuffling bureaucrats? Not at all.
Ringed with parks, it’s Europe’s greenest capital. Along
with many international schools, it delivers all an expat could desire:
theater, English-language cinema, sports centers, great public transport, Trappist-brewed beers, numerous gourmet and ethnic
restaurants, and fast trains to London, Paris, and Amsterdam. As they rarely
plan to stay, most expats rent. In central Brussels, one-bedroom apartments
start at $740 monthly.
Like its delectable chocolates, Brussels has a soft-centered
heart. The municipality not only sterilizes stray cats, it appoints someone to
feed them. Its main library offers storytelling in sign language for deaf
children. And disadvantaged citizens can attend cultural events at hefty
discounts.
9. Canada
Stretching from the islands of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia
in the east to Vancouver Island in the west and north to the Arctic Circle,
Canada is a diverse country of incredible natural beauty and resources.
Health care and living standards are among the highest in
the world. Canada’s economy is based on vast natural resources, a robust
financial industry, and innovative manufacturing including the renewable energy
sector. Canada has remained resilient through the global financial crises. The
banks are considered “more Swiss than the Swiss banks,” and property markets
are “on fire.”
Canada’s major cities (like Toronto and Vancouver) offer
fantastic entertainment. Sports, theater, and concerts are widely accessible
and affordable and there’s a rich offering of free festivals.
Cost of living is affordable, although the strong currency
has made it relatively more expensive in recent times. Canada’s real attraction
comes in the form of nature and outdoor activities. In summer, there’s hiking,
boating, golf, and fishing. Winter offers outdoor activities like skiing, snow mobiling, and ice fishing. Canadians are warm, welcoming,
and fun, and the country still retains many of the charms brought by her early
visitors from Europe.
10. Italy
What Italians don’t know about la dolce vita (the
sweet life) isn’t worth knowing.
OK, trains are often in ritardo
(late), workers frequently strike, corruption isn’t unknown, and red tape comes
in slow-moving triplicate. But balance that against Rome, Venice, and
Florence…against mountains reflected in sapphire lakes…against golden beaches
and hill towns cobbled with secrets.
Then throw in 60% of the world’s art treasures. A national
health care system rated second in the world by the WHO. Sunflowers,
vineyards, and opera. And the best espresso, pizza, and ice cream you’ll
ever taste.
Admittedly, major cities and tourist hotspots are expensive.
But the Mezzogiorno, Italy’s deep
south, is different. Although unemployment is high and incomes far less
than in the north, it’s just as colorful. As historic, too.
Phoenicians, Greeks, and Saracens all left traces of their passing.
Southern winters are short and mild, summers are scorching
hot, and jugs of wine cost $6.50. On Sicily and in slow-paced regions like
Puglia, Basilicata, and Campania, affordable homes abound. Even farmhouses with
a couple of acres surface for $60,000. Many village houses cost even less.
Decent rentals start at $550 monthly.
2010 Quality
of Life Index for 194 countries
Our Western bias. Our sources, staff,
and contributing editors are all influenced by a Western bias. We have
definite, preconceived ideas about what constitutes a high or low standard of
living, what constitutes culture and entertainment, and what climate is the
most enjoyable.
Please
also remember that statistics obtained from official government sources are not
always current, accurate, or reliable. And some statistics are highly
subjective. What someone else might consider a museum, you and I might think of
as a garden shed. Other statistics may be estimated,
outdated, or incorrect for any number of reasons.
Since
the statistics we gathered don’t always reflect our own experiences, we
sometimes interject a subjective factor to make the numbers better reflect
reality. This is most often necessary in the “Leisure and Culture” category.
Southern
winters are short and mild, summers are scorching hot, and jugs of wine cost
$6.50. On Sicily and in slow-paced regions like Puglia, Basilicata, and
Campania, affordable homes abound. Even farmhouses with a couple of acres
surface for $60,000. Many village houses cost even less.
CAMBRIDGE,
MASSACHUSETTS — A Saudi, a Japanese and an Indian go
to a bar. But this is not a joke. An eager American, late for his meeting with
the three, arrives. They are in Milan. A problem presents itself: how does the
American greet them?
President Obama shaking hands with China’s Premier Wen Jiabao. He could kiss the Saudi, bow to the Japanese
and press palms before the Indian; but that may be a bit much. He could play
the American card and just shake their hands. He could do the Continental
European air kiss, since they’re in Italy. Or, like many others in this
situation, he could just stand there awkwardly and hope that someone else knows
the protocol.
It is
difficult enough pivoting between the two, three or four kisses of France;
between half-hugs and handshakes in America; between the semi-bows and
90-degree capitulations of East Asia. Around the world, at industry conferences,
corporate retreats or fashion weeks, globalized souls meet in globalized
environs and wonder whether to do it your way, my way or the local way.
President
Barack Obama, a son of blackness and whiteness, of Kansas and
Hawaii and Indonesia and Illinois and Kenya, illustrates the predicament. He fist-bumps his wife and the occasional American soldier; merely shakes hands with Republican rivals and with anti-American leaders
like President Hugo Chávez of
Venezuela; does the fraternity-style half-hug with
some colleagues; bear-hugs the occasional citizen-voter; air-kisses Secretary
of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton; and has stirred fury
for allegedly bowing too low before British , Saudi and Japanese monarchs. So even the U.S. president cannot deploy a
uniform greeting and expect others to conform. Even he must ask, Where am I? Who is this? What signal will it send? Whose
standard, indeed, should prevail? There is arguably a bias in globalized
gatherings toward the Western-style handshake. But it matters, even in such
settings, whether you are in Okinawa or Oklahoma City, whether the bowers
outnumber the shakers or vice versa, whether the firm is privately owned in one
country or publicly listed and owned by the world. Perhaps it is best to do
whatever the locals do, or to assume the least touchy greeting as the standard:
if there are both huggers and shakers, just shake; if there are both shakers
and bowers, just bow.
The
Internet offers endless counsel on how to greet in different countries. But the
advice is mostly on what to do here, or there. It all too rarely speaks to the
dilemma that so many actually face: what to do when it is unclear what the
relevant “here” is. One cost of
confusion is unexpected intimacy. Some Europeans, entering into a double kiss,
go for the left cheek first; but others go right, resulting in accidental lip
contact.
The
confusion also fosters inequity. At parties with diverse attendees, a newcomer
may greet a cluster of people with as many greetings as there are members of
the cluster: an air kiss for one, a hug for another, a
handshake for a third and a mere smile for a fourth, a stranger. Perhaps, as in
other fields — currency trade, the choice of language for treaties, the
measurement of weight and distance — a common standard could be found: an
International System of Greetings. What would we choose? The
intimacy of the Arab and European kisses? A halfway
solution in the American handshake-cum-hug? The touch-free Japanese bow
or Indian pressed palms and utterance of “namaste”? Last year, during the swine flu scare, a French town called Guilvinec
banned the “bise,” the kiss of greeting, for teachers
and students, asking them to exchange Valentine-like cards instead; several
French schools and businesses followed the town’s example. Meanwhile, the
American painter Kimberly Brooks suggested that Americans ditch their own
ritual: “The handshake is an obvious vestigial gesture left over from a time
when hands needed to be shown free of weapons,” she wrote in The Huffington Post. “It’s time to lose the handshake once and for all
and embrace Namasté as the new greeting.”
Rather
than destroy the beauteous diversity of greetings, we could turn to algorithms.
Imagine the smartphone app that would ask your
identity, the identity of the other greeter, where you both are and how many
times you have greeted each other. It would then propose a compromise — a namaste followed by a handshake, perhaps, or a bow
punctuated by a slap on the back.
Another solution would be simply to untether
greetings from their places of origin and let people choose from a global
smorgasbord of them. Greeting protectionism would end, and the best greetings would seize greater
global market share.
A
Japanese septuagenarian whose back aches but whose heart brims with love might
then elect to kiss instead. An Indian man with whom I once rode perilously on a
motorcycle would gain the liberty merely to bow his head while he drives around
— as opposed to his current practice of lifting his hands repeatedly to greet
acquaintances in the ancient (not-designed-for-motorcyclists) Indian way. Or perhaps we leave things be. Perhaps being
global requires not one standard, nor even knowing what to do each time, but
acceptance of negotiation and compromise, of an awkward averaging-out, as the
ethic of a tightening world. (Anand Giridharadas,
International Herald Tribune, October 15, 2010)
WHEN did growing old become an
illness and why are we so desperate to halt the sands of time? Today’s society and media place immense pressure on us to stay young.
We’re bombarded with images of youthful, flawless models and reality TV shows
where contestants are given extreme surgical makeovers in the pursuit of youth.
This fosters a disastrous image of old age, which can make it difficult for us
to be accepting of the changes that occur as the years trot on - especially for
women.
A 2006 global study conducted by Dove, entitled Beauty Comes Of Age,
found that nearly six in 10 women believe that while men over 50 are viewed as
distinguished, women over 50 are viewed as over the hill or past their prime.
Somewhat paradoxically, 60 per cent of women said they were not concerned about
the idea of ageing. So it would seem that it’s
society’s perception of ageing, rather than the fact that we’re getting older,
that’s bothering us. But can we shrug off these pressures placed upon us and
embrace getting older instead of trying to hold on to our youth? Or does the
answer lie somewhere in between?
Redefining ageing: “Women today are very rejecting of older norms and
expectations of how women have to age,” says US author Naomi Wolf. “We’re
redefining ageing. It’s all about power.”
Wolf wrote the international bestseller The Beauty Myth (Random House)
in 1991, in which she argued that “beauty” as a normative value is entirely
socially constructed. Now, almost 20 years later, she says the beauty myth has
been deconstructed, with women rewriting the rules and making their own
definitions of beauty and ageing. “Women
are much more accepting of themselves now, but they are pushing back against
middle age,” says Wolf. “These are the women who sit around having a glass of
wine with their friends, and when they see 20-year-old women walking by, they
admire their beauty, but wouldn’t want to trade places with them.”
Keren Smedley, a professional coach and author of Who’s That Woman In The Mirror? (Hachette Australia), says
feeling sexy as an older woman is all about confidence and attitude.
“You can be any age and feel awful, and you can be any age and feel
sexy,” she says. “Feeling sexy is all in your head and, as an older woman, your
brain still works pretty well! It’s about focusing on what you have, not on
what you don’t have or what you used to have.”
Ageing and attracting men: One aspect of ageing that many women find
difficult is the prospect of becoming “invisible” – especially to men. Smedley says women often lament that they don’t feel
they’re attracting men anymore. “The question you have to ask yourself is: ‘Who
do I want to attract?’ If you’re 50, do you really want to attract a
22-year-old man? Because you probably won’t. And is
that what you really want? As a 50-year-old woman, you will almost certainly be
attracting men your own age.”
But what if you do want to attract a 22-year-old? Well, it would seem
that’s not out of the question either, with the cougar now fast becoming the
new cultural icon. From Courteney Cox’s portrayal of
a 40-something women dating 20-something men in Cougar Town, to cougar poster
girl Demi Moore looking hotter than her much younger husband, Ashton Kutcher, cougars are being celebrated everywhere. “[As an
older woman] 30 years ago, you’d be drinking martinis at home and wondering
where your life went,” says Wolf. “So it’s very interesting that we’re now
seeing older women with trophy boyfriends 20 years younger than them.”
Wolf adds that while she does have some reservations about the term
“cougar”, there’s one huge positive we can take from it. “It’s all about
glamorising older women and celebrating them,” she says. “Especially
if they’ve been hurt in love before.”
A little extra help as we can for as long as we can, and there’s never
been so many ways to maintain your youthful looks, from anti-ageing creams to Botox and beyond. In a 2002 study, Australia ranked seventh
in the world in plastic surgery procedures per capita. But where do we draw the
line?
“Women often ask: ‘Where do you draw the line?’,”
says Wolf. “But I find it’s almost uncomfortable to have lines, so let’s get
rid of the line-drawing if we can. “My
goal is for every woman to get to decide what makes her feel good about herself
and her body. It’s all about why you’re doing what you’re doing. The problem is
when women are being driven to hurt themselves, or when they’re being duped by
anti-ageing creams that don’t deliver what they promise.” Smedley agrees that
you have to be sure that any steps you take are for the right reasons.
“Cosmetic surgery by itself won’t make you feel more loved or more popular,”
she says. “Are you feeling unattractive and finding it difficult to find a new
relationship? Or do you worry you’re not seen as sexy in an existing
relationship? You need to ask yourself whether it’s because you’re a bit older
or whether there are other things going on that could be the cause.”
Work and play: In 1910, the life
expectancy of an Australian woman was 58.8 years. Now, 100 years later, our
life expectancy is 83.8 years, so we are living – and therefore working –
longer than ever before.
“Women in their 40s are at the peak of their careers,” says Wolf. “And
there are so many role models, which is fantastic. We didn’t have that 20 years ago.”
Wolf cites author and teacher Erica Jong,
fashion designer Donna Karan and US Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton as examples of successful older women who display
confidence and charisma in their fields.
“We are being habituated to seeing dynamic women in their 40s and 50s –
there’s a real allure that comes with age and experience.” Smedley, who runs a
coaching company for the over-50s, Experience Matters, says many of her clients
are reinventing themselves. One of her clients, a woman in her 60s, sold her
home and moved to Japan, where she and her husband have been volunteering for
the past few years. “Their kids were grown up and they decided it was time for
something new,” she says. “You have to develop your own confidence and find a
new way of doing things,” Smedley says. “If you’ve always wanted to be a prima
ballerina, obviously it’s too late for that, but there’s nothing to stop you
becoming a salsa or ballroom dancer. If you want to dance, you’ll find a way of
doing it.” (Nicola Conville, The Sunday Telegraph, April 25, 2010)
SUMMARY: An 18-minute diversion of Internet traffic
through China has raised security concerns around the world -- especially for
governments and people in critical infrastructure -- and raises new concerns
for online shoppers just ahead of Cyber.
JUDY WOODRUFF: As holiday
shoppers flock to the Web to make purchases, new questions about Internet
security are surfacing. Last week, a
congressionally chartered commission released a report about what China's rise
means for the U.S. economy and security. Included in the
findings were the details of a little-known incident involving the hijacking of
online data by a firm owned by the Chinese government.
RAY SUAREZ: At a
communications company outside Washington, D.C., computer network engineers
monitor Internet traffic. Normally, the
Internet works by swiftly finding the shortest, most efficient trip between two
computers anywhere on Earth.
Electronic
routers direct the traffic flow, insuring the shortest path, like these green
lines here. But, back in April, electronic
communication looking for the shortest route was sent through China.
Watch the
red line. For 18 minutes, the traffic on
35,000 to 50,000 computer networks elsewhere in the world began flowing toward
China, before getting routed to their final destinations. China Telecom had created a massive detour.
But traffic
didn't stop. The affected computer
connections took just a tiny fraction of a second longer. Whether someone was logging into check a bank balance,
sending a child's photo to grandma, or shopping online, the Net still worked.
However, at
the computer operations center outside Washington, D.C., engineers noticed this
Internet routing phenomenon immediately. Their computer
screens lit up with red alerts.
RODNEY JOFFE, Neustar, Inc.: We noticed the
sudden change. During the period, there
were alarms that went off.
RAY SUAREZ: One of the
architects of the modern Internet, Rodney Joffe, said
this diversion was a very big deal. He says it was
caused when computer routers in China belonging to China Telecom began
signaling to other computer routers on the Internet that they could provide the
quickest path between different computers.
RODNEY JOFFE: They, all of
a sudden, began announcing the fact that they were an optimal path to about 15
percent of the destinations on the Internet, that, in fact, they were a way to
get to a large number of destinations on the Internet, when, in fact, they were
not. We have never seen that before on
this scale ever.
RAY SUAREZ: Joffe is senior vice-president and senior technologist at Neustar, a global technology and communications company. He's also a computer security expert who consults for
the U.S. government and industry.
RODNEY JOFFE: In the grand
scheme of things, this was a seminal event. So,
this wasn't a minor security event. This wasn't a
hiccup -- 99.9 percent of the world didn't even think this could be done. Engineers didn't even think about it.
Every one of
them is now thinking about it day and night, what the effects would be on their
networks, and how they might use it, depending on whether they wear a white hat
or a black hat.
RAY SUAREZ: Last week,
the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a congressionally
chartered panel, issued a stinging report.
Its conclusion? That a state-owned Chinese communications firm, China Telecom --
quote -- "hijacked massive volumes of Internet traffic."
The Chinese
government and China Telecom deny this. A Foreign
Ministry spokesman said, "This report ignores the facts and is full of
Cold War thinking and political bias."
When all the
communications from tens of thousand of computer
networks was routed to China, that included all the Web traffic, e-mail, and
instant messages to and from dot.mil -- that's the Department of Defense -- and
dot.gov -- those are U.S. governments departments. The U.S. Senate and NASA also had all their traffic diverted.
Companies
like Dell, Yahoo!, Microsoft and IBM had their data diverted by China Telecom,
too. On that day in April, officers
logging into a Pentagon Web site ended up looking at an image that came to
their screen via China.
It's not
clear what China did with the Internet traffic routed through its computers,
and it's not clear if the data that passed through China was saved to be
examined later.
But Larry Wortzel, a member of the commission that investigated the
incident, is worried.
COL. LARRY WORTZEL (RET.),
United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission: The real concern is that it was intentional, and these
communications were recorded, and that they will be exploited over time to
create either penetrations or to create networked malicious viruses.
RODNEY JOFFE: Once traffic
goes through Chinese routers or switchers, Chinese devices, it's possible for
the traffic itself to be manipulated. It could either just be filtered and dropped, or, in fact, it can be
read, so that a log could be made of the content of the traffic, or changes
could be made.
So, for
example, I could substitute one word for another or one e-mail for another, and the -- the users on both ends would have no
idea that this has occurred.
RAY SUAREZ: Joffe says hijacking Internet traffic is consistent with previous
Chinese activities.
RODNEY JOFFE: The Chinese
government has made it clear, as early as six or seven years ago, publicly,
that they can see that one of the next frontiers for conflict is going to be settled
in cyberspace. This would seem to be
something along the same lines.
RAY SUAREZ: Larry Wortzel came to the U.S.-China Commission after a career in
Army intelligence. He served as a
U.S. military attache in China.
COL. LARRY WORTZEL: I think it's
important to understand that you can do an awful lot with 18 minutes of
traffic. A good intelligence officer, for
instance, could get 18 minutes of traffic from the whole Department of Defense,
and -- and get the Internet address, let's say, to the military assistant or
the executive officer to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and everyone he communicates
with on certain issues, and their Internet addresses.
And then you
could socially engineer an e-mail, and make it look like it came from one of
those individuals in the network to all the others, and insert an attachment
that contained a very malicious virus.
RAY SUAREZ: Wortzel says he's been the subject of these types of
computer attacks.
COL. LARRY WORTZEL: About eight
months ago, I got an e-mail that looked like it came from the Naval Warfare
Systems Command that invited me to a meeting on a particular missile system,
and asked me to open the attachment to get the agenda for the meeting.
Well, I knew
very well that I had not communicated with anybody in the Navy for quite a long
time on that issue. And I actually
called the person that was purported to have sent the e-mail. And she said, "I didn't send you an e-mail."
So, we had
the attachment checked, and it was a very malicious virus that it would have
done exactly that. It would have
permitted somebody to take over a computer.
RAY SUAREZ: Even with no
evidence of mischief, tampering, or theft, Rodney Joffe
says governments and business have to harden their security systems, have to
make sure this so-called hijack is made harder in the future, and, just to be
safe, assume this wasn't an accident.
RODNEY JOFFE: If, in fact,
the traffic was being examined and your traffic passed through the network in
China, your user I.D.s and passwords may have been compromised.
If I was a
large enterprise or a large organization involved in critical infrastructure,
if I was in government, I would be sweating bullets currently.
RAY SUAREZ: And Joffe says the mere example of this hijacking taking place
has served as an inspiration to cyber-criminals around the world.
RODNEY JOFFE: We know that
the criminals already have been discussing this. We
have seen it for probably the last five or six months. It was a great event for them, because it's given them a
vector that most of them had never thought of.
RAY SUAREZ: Joffe and Wortzel agree that the Internet has
exploded into worldwide daily use in part because its daily operation is based
on trust. Lose that trust, and home users,
businesses, and governments will start to stay away, and begin the unraveling
of a modern marvel. (PBS Newshour,
Nov. 26, 2010)
Russia – “an Oligarchy run by the Secret Services”
PARIS
— Since a low-key Christmas Eve announcement of a
French sale of assault ships to Russia, high-level government
deal makers have boasted about the multimillion-euro deal like it was a soccer
game triumph. “France wins,” declares the Web site for the Élysée Palace.
But
critics — particularly among Russia’s neighbors including Georgia, Estonia and Lithuania — are raising alarms that France may have pioneered
the way for other Western countries to sell Russia whatever they have to offer,
from high-technology military equipment to rights for oil pipelines. “It’s a
scandal,” said André Glucksmann, a French philosopher
and critic of the deal. He said in an interview on Tuesday that the
announcement was timed for the busy Christmas season to bury the “dirty details.”
The
boxy, 600-foot-long Mistral vessel is an advanced helicopter carrier equipped
with a command center and hospital for military landing operations. It is the
first major arms purchase by Russia abroad and the first sale by a NATO country, illustrating the
shifting role of an alliance once conceived to counter Soviet military power.
One of the sticking points in negotiations was whether the deal would include
advanced naval weapons and defense systems. In the months leading to the deal,
a series of French officials softened their stand, saying that France was
willing to supply the technology without restrictions.
The
French have said nothing in the last few days to spell out the level of
technology the Russians will gain. But Russia’s neighbors are clearly worried.
“It’s a little bit premature to take this step because it establishes a
precedent,” said Rasa Jukneviciene, the Lithuanian
defense minister. In the past, she said, French officials assured Lithuania
that sensitive technology would not be included. “But now we are getting
information that it is included,” Ms. Jukneviciene
said.
The
Baltic states have long raised concerns, keenly aware
of the comments of Russia’s naval chief, Adm. Vladimir S. Vysotsky,
who last year bluntly evaluated the potential benefits the equipment could have
offered during the five-day Georgian war in 2008: “Everything that we did in
the space of 26 hours at the time, this ship will do within 40 minutes.” Nino Kalandadze,
Georgia’s deputy foreign minister, says that the ships can carry up to 16
helicopters and more than 450 troops, giving Moscow much greater command of its
coastlines.
“We
hope that Russia will use the ships according to international law as a
self-defense mechanism,” Ms. Kalandadze said. “But
Russia’s current leadership is not one that can always be trusted. It’s known
for its disregard for international laws.”
Urmas Paet, the Estonian foreign minister, took a more muted view
of the deal. “We do not see the sale of these two or possibly four ships as a
major challenge for the security environment in the Baltic Sea region,” he
wrote in an e-mailed response to questions. “The possible impact is still
something that we have to take into account in our long-term planning.” Under the deal, two of the ships will be built
in the French shipyards of St.-Nazaire on France’s
Atlantic coast and the next two will be built in St. Petersburg, Russia. The
sale underlines Russia’s rising military ambitions and the deterioration of its
own arms industry. It is struggling, for example, to finish repairs to upgrade
the Admiral Gorshkov, a heavy-aircraft carrier
purchased by India. Some analysts predict that construction of a Mistral ship
in Russia will also lag.
“In
principle, Russia is capable, but it will take a lot longer because the
productivity here is inferior. France is more technologically advanced and
also, there is no experience building a ship like this in Russia,” said
Konstantin Makienko, deputy director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and
Technologies, a Russian research
organization that analyzes the arms trade.
Much
of the geopolitical wrangling about the deal emerged in secret American
diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks. In February
2010, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates raised the issue with President Nicolas Sarkozy and
France’s defense minister at the time, Hervé
Morin. According to the ambassador’s
report of the meeting, Mr. Gates noted that Russia failed to honor an armistice
in Georgia brokered by Mr. Sarkozy. Mr. Gates also
was scornful of the top deal makers: “Russian democracy has disappeared, and
the government is an oligarchy run by the security services.” (Doreen Carvajal, New York Times, December 28, 2010)
Russia’s
leadership believes the country “needs authoritarianism,” Mikhail S. Gorbachev
said.
MOSCOW
— Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who once supported Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, is voicing growing frustration with Mr. Putin’s
leadership, saying that he had undermined Russia’s fledgling democracy by
crippling the opposition forces.
“He
thinks that democracy stands in his way,” Mr. Gorbachev said.
“I am
afraid that they have been saddled with this idea that this unmanageable
country needs authoritarianism,” Mr. Gorbachev said, referring to Mr. Putin and
his close ally, President Dmitri A. Medvedev. “They think they cannot do without it.”
In an
interview, Mr. Gorbachev even described Mr. Putin’s governing party, United
Russia, as a “a bad copy of the Soviet Communist Party.” Mr. Gorbachev said
party officials were concerned entirely with clinging to power and did not want
Russians to take part in civic life.
Mr.
Gorbachev was especially disparaging of Mr. Putin’s decision in 2004, when he
was president, to eliminate elections for regional governors and the mayors of Moscow and
St. Petersburg. Those positions are now filled by Kremlin appointees. The
impact of this change was illustrated in Mr. Medvedev’s dismissal last month of Moscow’s longtime mayor, who was replaced with a Putin loyalist.
“Democracy
begins with elections,” Mr. Gorbachev said. “Elections,
accountability and turnover.”
Mr.
Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, was giving interviews this month to promote
a benefit concert that his foundation is sponsoring in
March in honor of his 80th birthday. The foundation runs a research center and
has raised millions of dollars for charities for children with cancer.
Mr.
Gorbachev’s criticism of Mr. Putin, while not new, appears to have grown
somewhat sharper recently, as if Mr. Gorbachev feels that he put Russia on the
path toward being a functional democracy, only to have Mr. Putin block its
progress. Neither Mr. Putin nor Mr.
Medvedev has responded publicly to Mr. Gorbachev. Asked on Tuesday about Mr.
Gorbachev’s comments, Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov,
seemed to choose his words carefully. “We do feel the deepest respect toward
Mikhail Gorbachev, and we certainly respect his point of view,” Mr. Peskov said. “But that doesn’t mean that we agree with it.”
Mr. Peskov said opposition parties had failed to make gains in
Russia because their leaders were unpopular and had not developed attractive
platforms. “Neither Putin personally nor United Russia as a political party can
be held responsible for the inability of other parties to produce anything
promising for citizens of this country,” he said. Nursing a sore throat, Mr. Gorbachev spoke
with vigor and seemed hardly slowed by age. He met with reporters at his
foundation headquarters in Moscow, which is filled with hundreds of photographs
and other memorabilia that highlight his efforts to reform the Soviet Union. Still, nearly two decades after the Soviet
collapse, Mr. Gorbachev occupies an awkward place in Russian society. He is
arguably more respected abroad than at home, in part because some here blame
him for ushering in the political and economic chaos of the 1990s. It is
notable that the benefit concert for his foundation will take place at the
Royal Albert Hall in London, not in Moscow. Mr. Gorbachev, who oversaw the
Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, offered his observations about the current NATO mission in that country,
saying that success there was impossible for an occupier. “It would be
necessary to exterminate people,” he said, emphasizing that that was obviously
not an option.
Mr.
Gorbachev has recently dabbled in opposition politics. He is part owner of the
country’s leading opposition newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, several of whose reporters have been killed or wounded in attacks. He
tried to help form a political party to compete in parliamentary elections next
year, but gave up in the face of daunting legal hurdles. “For those who want to change the country in
order to advance these processes faster, advance democratic processes, the
participation of people is needed,” he said. “It is necessary to have parties.
But go and try to register a party!” Mr.
Gorbachev would not say whom he would endorse for president in 2012. Mr. Putin,
who became prime minister in 2008 after he was barred from running for a third
consecutive term as president, is thought to be weighing a return to the presidency.
TOO MUCH OF
A BAD THING: NEMTSOV'S ARREST
The authoritarian Russian government may have done too
much of a bad thing when it arrested Liberal opposition leader Boris Nemtsov and sentenced him to 15 days in jail for "disobeying police orders." The Nemtsov
arrest, coming shortly after the trumped up charges and kangaroo court
proceedings against former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky,
now rubbed against an already raw nerve in the West, prompting the Economist to
call for a serious response and even ejecting Russia from the G8.
If Putin and company could discount domestic and
Western protest over the Khodorkovsky Case, given the
public loathing for the oligarchs and their get obscenely rich quick schemes, Nemtsov is a different breed. A very young doctor of
physics, he was catapulted into post-Soviet reform politics and twice reached
the post of Deputy Prime Minister during the Yeltsin years. He didn't reach the
top rung, but left with reputation intact.
Lately Nemtsov has been part
of the opposition and has dutifully demonstrated every 31st of the month while
adhering to the terms imposed by the police. The last day of the month is
chosen to remind people of article 31 of the Russian Constitution that
guarantees the right to free assembly. Lately, freedom of assembly is not doing
that well in Russia. The opposition to Putin is down to its last legal
loophole. Lone demonstrators holding a placard do not have to secure a permit.
Putin supporters cannot even countenance the solitary demonstrators, and have
adopted the tactic of sending one of their own to stand next to the protester
thus transforming his quixotic gesture into an illegal demonstration.
Nemtsov was last arrested on August 22 when he carried a
giant Russian flag in the capital to celebrate Flag Day. This was the day in
1991 that former Russian President Boris Yeltsin claimed his moment of glory by
defying a hard-line Communist coup that sought to reverse the policy of Mikhail
Gorbachev and backfired into triggering the collapse of the Soviet Union, the
demise of the hammer and sickle and the revival of the old Russian flag. It has
been part of Putin's policy to discredit everything that occurred in the 1990s
and claim that historic progress began with his election in the year 2000.
The Obama Administration, that has been careful not to
offend the Russians whose support it needs in Iran, Afghanistan and North
Korea, was compelled to issue a mild complaint. The White House voiced its
surprise over the arrests since demonstrations up to now had been allowed.
Obama, the statement went on, had met with Nemtsov in
Moscow in July 2009 and admired his work in provoked promoting democratic
developments in Russia. Such admiration will not shield Nemtsov
from Putin. US Senators Joe Lieberman and John McCain felt less constrained. We
are deeply disappointed by the arrest of former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov and other members of the opposition, and by the
unjust prison sentences they have received.
The treatment of Mr. Nemtsov and other members
of the opposition should provide a stark warning to the rest of the world about
the disregard for rule of law that has come to characterize contemporary
Russia. The two senators' criticism produced instant response from Putin's
supporters. members of the ruling United Russia Party.
Mikhail Margelov, Chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee in Russia's upper house, the Federation Council, claimed that the
senator's remarks were jeopardizing the restart in US-Russian relations that
had found expression in the START Treaty recently passed by the U.S. Senate.
Obama, noted Margelov, had promised not to repeat the
mistakes of the Bush Administration by interfering in the domestic affairs of
other countries and attempting to impose democracy. (Amiel
Ungar, Israelnationalnews.com, Jan 8, 2011)
AL-ZAHAR: BRING EGYPTIAN
ARMY BACK TO SINAI
Hamas chief Mahmoud al-Zahar
said on Monday that while no one will ask Egypt to annul any agreements that
were signed prior to the recent uprising and are “in the interest of the
nation,” he believes that there are issues that should be looked at again right
now, including Egypt’s military presence in the Sinai Peninsula as well as the
sale of natural gas to Israel.
In an
interview he gave to the Asharq Alawsat
newspaper, al-Zahar said that Egypt can help Gaza
with electricity and oil and should also position its forces in Sinai, despite
it being against the agreements signed with Israel. Al-Zahar
said that the biggest loser in the recent events in Egypt is Israel, citing as
proof comments made by opposition leader Tzipi Livni at the Herzliya Conference
last week, where she said that the Israelis are now worrying about what will
happen next in Egypt.
Al-Zahar also expressed his hope that Egypt’s new military
leadership will open the Rafah crossing as soon as
possible, as the passage has been closed for about two weeks. He noted that
opening the crossing would be a way to renew the ties between Egypt and Gaza
and added that from the viewpoint of the residents of Gaza, the closure of the Rafah border is a type of siege.
Al-Zahar’s comments come following reports on Sunday that the
uprising in Egypt has had adverse effects on Gaza’s residents, including on
patients living in Gaza who are slated for medical treatment in Egypt, and are
unable to receive this treatment because the Rafah
crossing is closed.
In
response to the resignation of the PA cabinet and the decision by President
Mahmoud Abbasto hold elections in the Palestinian
Authority before the month of September, al-Zahar
said that it is impossible to hold elections in the wake of the “siege” imposed
on Hamas in Judea and Samaria and when there is no reconciliation agreement
between Hamas and Fatah. He made it clear that elections that take place under
these conditions will be considered fraudulent by Hamas.
On
Sunday, al-Zahar spoke to reporter Aaron Klein on New
York’s WABC radio, and said that the U.S. empire is in decline and will fall,
to be replaced by China and India as new world superpowers. During the interview, he also called the
Muslim Brotherhood the “most moderate organization, the mostdemocratic
organization, even more than the Western people.” (Elad Benari, www.israelnationalnews.com,
Feb.15, 2011)
HAMAS TAKES
RESPONSIBILITY FOR MERCAZ HARAV MASSACRE
Hamas revealed
statistics on Saturday that contradicted predictions by supporters of the
disengagement program in 2005 that the withdrawal from Gaza would led to peace.
Hamas also says it was behind the 2008 Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva massacre in Jerusalem. Abu Obadiah, spokesman for the Izz al-Din al-Qassam military
wing of the Hamas terrorist organization, confirmed predictions by nationalists
that the expulsion of 9,000 Jews from Gush Katif and
the withdrawal of the IDF from the area would be followed by an escalation in
missile attacks. He admitted for the
first time that Hamas was responsible for the massacre of young men, most of
them teenagers, at the yeshiva. The attack was carried out by a Jerusalem Arab.
Obadiah also said Hamas
was responsible for the murder of seven other Jews in attacks in the Hevron area and Samaria. He warned Israel that Hamas will
continue to attack Israelis, who he said have to choose between death and
leaving Palestinian lands. He also called on Israeli Bedouins, many of whom
have been involved in terrorist attacks and arms smuggling, to help carry
out attacks against Israelis.
His statistics on the
number of missiles, rockets and mortar shells fired at southern Israel since
the expulsion in 2005 thoroughly contradicted claims by the Sharon government
and supporters of the disengagement program that the withdrawal would led to
peace. Sixty-nine percent of nearly 11,000 mortar and missile attacks were
executed after the expulsion, according to his figures. He also said that of
the 1,808 Hamas terrorists killed since the founding of the terrorist group 23
years ago, 1,053 died after 2006, when Hamas won the first and only Palestinian
Authority legislative elections.
The escalation of
missile attacks on southern Israel after 2005, which brought the metropolitan
Tel Aviv area within the range of attacks, surprised political leaders who had
banked on the expulsion as the road to peace.
I did not imagine that we would leave Gaza and they would fire Kassams from there, President Shimon Peres commented in
July 2008. (Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu,
www.israelnationalnews.com, 12/27/2010)
FRENCH MINISTER ATTACKED BY GAZA MOB
French
Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie was attacked by
a mob in Gaza on Friday morning. Her attackers were enraged over statements she
had allegedly made the day before supporting human rights for kidnapped Israeli
soldier Gilad Shalit.
Alliot-Marie
was mobbed as she entered Gaza, with a crowd surrounding her car, pounding on
its windows, and throwing shoes at the vehicle. One person jumped on the car.
Two children were pushed in front of the first car in Alliot-Marie's
convoy, forcing the convoy to a stop while the attack continued.
One
sign at the rally had a picture of Alliot-Marie with
a red cross over her face. Others called on the foreign minister to leave Gaza.
Hamas
police eventually stopped the furious protest and allowed the convoy to
continue. Hamas leaders expressed sympathy with the rioters, saying Alliot-Marie's comments regarding Shalit
reflected a “total bias toward Israel.”
The kidnapped soldier, who Hamas claims to have in custody, holds French
citizenship.
Alliot-Marie
was not hurt in the attack. ( Maayana Miskin www.israelnationalnews.com , Jan. 22, 2011)
HIZBULLAH OPERATING IN GAZA
Hizbullah
agents have infiltrated Gaza and are teaching local terrorist groups more
advanced tactics, Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe Yaalon
warned Thursday. The Lebanon-based terrorist group even has a special unit that
deals with terrorists in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, he said.
The Hizbullah presence in Gaza began after Israel's withdrawal
in the 2005 “Disengagement,” he said.
Yaalon, a
former IDF Chief of Staff, said Hizbullah agents
could enter Gaza “like the Iranian rockets are coming to Gaza.” Rockets are
smuggled into Gaza from Egypt via a system of tunnels under the border.
Terrorists
can move from Lebanon to Sudan, then to Egypt, and from there to Gaza, he said.
Hamas
denied Hizbullah involvement in Gaza. “All the
factions in Gaza are Palestinians,” said spokesman Fawzi
Barhoum.
Previously
Israel has revealed that Hizbullah funds terrorist
groups in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, and helps train terrorists from those
regions who make their way to Syria.
Hamas
in Gaza in particular has used Hizbullah's strategy
in recent years as opportunities to infiltrate Israel dwindle. Instead of
focusing on suicide bombings as it once did, the group began putting its energy
into rocket attacks on civilians – Hizbullah's
favored form of attack during the Second Lebanon War. (Maayana
Miskin, www.israelnationalnews.com Friday, Jan. 28,
2011).
PERSECUTION OF
CHRISTIANS HITS RADAR
A recurrent theme of
Christmas messages by senior church leaders was the beleaguered state of
Christian communities in countries with Muslim majorities or Muslim populated
regions. These concerns were further punctuated by attacks in Jos, a state in central Nigeria, scene of conflict between
the Christian south and the Muslim north in that country. Christians were also
attacked on Muslim populated Jolo island
in the Philippines. The major concern
has been Iraq, where the Christian population has declined from 1,400,000 on
the eve of the 2003 invasion to 500,000 today. The October 31 attack on a
Christian church, Our Lady of Salvation, in Baghdad by Al-Qaeda resulting in
the massacre of 58 worshippers drew the attention of the Pope who said that
those living in Iraq needed comfort from their pain after deadly attacks.
Even the Archbishop of
Canterbury Rowan Williams, who has been accused of being too conciliatory to
Islam as in his 2008 remarks where he implied that Sharia
law should have a place in the legal system, was on the same page. He
specifically mentioned Asia Bibi, a Pakistani
Christian who is facing the threat of a death sentence for blasphemy. Williams
claimed that Christians who are suffering because of their beliefs would be
helped through the knowledge they have not been forgotten.
The outrages go beyond
attacks by Muslim fundamentalists. Christian groups currently charge that
government collusion encourages these atrocities. The Christian Association of
Nigeria said that for explosives to find their way into Jos
despite the high security presence is suspect. That it went undetected
means that there is some collusion between the security agents and the
perpetrators . . . these explosions must be investigated and the culprits
brought to book no matter how lowly or highly placed they may be. Similarly Christians in Iraq have claimed
that it is not only Al-Qaeda and its offshoots who have targeted the Christians
but also elements in the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government.
Lately the plight of
Christians under Islam is getting noticed both by the media and political
leaders. Stanford journalism professor and former New York Times correspondent
Joel Brinkley authored an article on the sweeping Christianophobia
summing up the contemporary persecution of Christianity. Tim Rutten wrote an article in the LA Times observing that what
is currently being perpetrated upon Iraqi Christians was perpetrated previously
against Iraqi Jews. This theme was taken up by the Orange County Register in an
editorial on December 16.
Rep. Anna Eshoo
(D-Calif.), an Assyrian Christian member of
Congress told The Hill that history is repeating itself; and the same
persecutions that her grandparents spoke of were recurring. Eshoo and, Rep.
Frank Wolf (R-Va.), want the administration to secure the welfare of Iraqi
Christians prior to the planned American withdrawal from that country. Perhaps,
suggests Wolf to The Hill, it can be done by carving out an autonomous region
similar to Kurdistan where Christians will feel protected. President of the
European Parliament Jerzy Buzek
said it was time for the Iraqi government to make sure Christians in Iraq enjoy
the same protection and status as Shiites and Sunnis.
The European Parliament
is very concerned about these developments and is a strong defender of human
rights, including freedom of religion, he said in his statement. We monitor the
situation closely and have adopted a number of resolutions to try to draw
international attention to the plight of Christian minorities. (Amiel Ungar, www.israelnationalnews.com, 12/27/2010)
We recall the night that
changed the face of Europe and the world. The night that, in
its unprecedented barbarity, was one of the principal stages for the beginning
of ''the ultimate solution to the Jewish question''. The dawn that
followed found the crematoriums of the Auschwitz-Birkenau
death camp filled with human ash.
Kristallnacht - ''The Night of Broken Glass'' - was unprecedented.
Not because the Nazis brutally plundered thousands of shops, destroyed hundreds
of synagogues, murdered dozens of people and arrested thousands of Jews in
Germany and Austria in 1938. But because, through the use of
perfidious propaganda, they created a situation where almost not a single voice
dared defy this pogrom. Hitler knew that German society was dominated by
Nazi ideology to the point that allowed him to embark on a path leading to the
Holocaust. Today we stand beside the last Holocaust survivors. People who
belong to two worlds: one that no longer exists, and ours, the postwar world.
Soon, only the words of the survivors will remain, together with the
authenticity of Auschwitz-Birkenau, preserved to this day as the enduring symbol of
the Holocaust. The words of survivors capture our imagination in a dimension we
hardly comprehend. Our sense of reason is unable to handle the writings of
Primo Levi, Elie Wiesel and Imre
Kertesz so we require the authenticity of the
memorial site of Auschwitz-Birkenau to reinforce our
imagination in a tangible, authentic sense. The Holocaust happened there, in
that very place. We have to listen carefully to every word the survivors found
necessary to tell us. Each word conveys part of the truth of the Holocaust. We
have to preserve every inch of the memorial sites. The largest and
best-preserved is Auschwitz-Birkenau, a symbol of the
cruelty of the 20th century.
The preservation of
Auschwitz-Birkenau for future generations is not
guaranteed. As years pass, it becomes increasingly difficult. That is why the
Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation was recently
established,
aiming to establish an endowment that will enable long-term planning of
conservation works, so that our children, grandchildren and their grandchildren
will know the history the site represents.
We owe it to the
survivors, but also to future generations. Auschwitz has become the heritage of
the world. Preserving it is our common duty.
When we walk among the
camp barracks and barbed-wired ruins, in the shadow of chimneys and
watchtowers, we ask ourselves more questions than we can answer. Among them is
the most persistent: why did the world do almost nothing to stop the Holocaust?
We cannot overlook the
fact that moral authorities stayed silent, that underground fighters did not
stop the transports, that the Allies did not bomb the Auschwitz-Birkenau crematoriums. There were too few of the Righteous Among The Nations. The measure of their courage
are those who survived. These facts bother not only those who lived
during those times, they bother us, today's
generation, as well, as they should.
We should not compare
tragedies or genocides but we ought to compare our passivity and silence in the
face of other tragedies. Millions visit Holocaust memorial sites and museums.
We read survivors' testimonies.
Yet, as we watch
television and browse the internet, confronting genocides, we do not react,
even though we can do so much more in today's global village. News circulates
freely and the possibilities of taking action seem infinite, yet still we
prefer to be bystanders.
It was for us that the Sonderkommando buried their diaries, along with the ash of
those who perished; for us, the prisoners saved SS archives; for us, the
escapees wrote reports.
We need to listen ever
more carefully to those voices, to the voices of survivors, to the authenticity
of the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Not
only to remember. Not only to be aware of the lessons of this tragedy. But also to awaken the consciousness of our own responsibility for
the world, today and tomorrow.
Only in this way will
the echoes of Kristallnacht, of the whining train
brakes and the opening doors of the cattle cars not fade. Only in this way will
the echoes of the innocent screams of those who were murdered in the gas
chambers not fade. Only in this way will our deeds and words carry the echoes
of their words. And their voices will not fade. (Piotr
Cywinski, Sydney
Morning Herald, Nov. 10, 2010)
Dr Piotr Cywinski is director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau
Memorial Site, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
and the International Auschwitz Council. This is an extract of a speech
delivered last night at a Kristallnacht ceremony
hosted by the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies.
Border collie’s one smart learner
Washington:
A lady called Chaser just might be the smartest pooch ever.
The border collie bitch has learned more than 1000 words,
showing US researchers that her memory is not only better than theirs, but that
she understands quite a bit about how language works.
Chaser
learned the names for 1022 toys, so many that her handlers had to write on them
so they wouldn’t forget, said study co-author Alliston
Reid, a psychology professor at Wofford College of
South Carolina.
As a
border collie, Chaser comes from a breed of herding dog known for its
intelligence, energy and enthusiasm to work.
Over the course of three years, in sessions of four to five hours a day,
trainers found Chaser could identify every item in a growing pile of doggie
toys. (Sunday Telegraph, Jan. 9, 2011).
Fish oil boosts memory in kids
Omega-3 fish
oils can help boos brain function associated with memory in children, according
to a study from University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in the US. A small group of 38 boys aged eight to 10
years were given daily capsules containing 400mg or 1200mg of DHA – the
brain-boosting” omega-3 essential fatty acids – or a placebo for eight
weeks. Both DHA doses were found to have
given increased neural activation, while there was decreased activation noted
within the placebo group.
Another
recent study from Galaxy Research has found that nine out of 10 Australian
schoolchildren are not consuming enough fish, which may be compromising brain
function and development, says GP Dr Ginni Mansberg. (Nicola Conville, News
Bites, Sunday Telegraph, Oct.17,
2010)
Bollywood applauds legalization of homosexuality
NEW DELHI: Bollywood which
'came out' of the closet with films like "My Brother Nikhil" and "Dostana" was unapologetic as it applauded the “hystoric” Delhi High Court ruling which legalized
homosexuality.
"This is a defining moment in the history of free
India. No state has the right to tell its citizens when or whom to love. The
only 'queer' people are those who propagate hate," filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt
said.
"It is a very important judgement, it sends the
correct signals across. It was not a overnight change.
People will now be able to live without any fear, fear of being blackmailed or
anything," said filmmaker Onir whose "My
Brother Nikhil" and "Bas Ek Pal" dealt
with the concept of homosexuality.
The law was never a part of our culture,
it should have gone away with colonialism. It only applies to Delhi
jurisdiction, but I hope it has a greater impact. It is a step which the rest
of the country should follow," Onir said.
Bollywood heartthrob John Abraham, who won over legions of gay
fans with his film "Dostana", said,
"I am personally very happy. I think everybody needs equal rights,
irrespective of being homosexual or heterosexual. I think it's a positive
step." (The Times of India, 2
July 2009).
NEW
DELHI: The view that the Delhi High Court judgment de-criminalising
sex among consenting adults of the same sex is "reasonable and
well-balanced" has gained ground in the Manmohan
Singh government, which is unlikely to oppose the order in the Supreme Court.
The
government feels that the judgment touched but on a small part of Article 377
when it decriminalised sex between two consenting
adults of the same sex in private, and that the alarmist interpretation that
the law itself has been upturned should not guide the
Centre's action.
There
was no bone to pick with this as it was in keeping with the laws of most
societies with stable democratic and judicial institutions, said a top
government official.
To
balance it, however, there is a view that the government may consider either
amending the Section 377 or enacting a new law to signal its zero tolerance
approach towards the abuse of minors and forced homosexual sex. Section 377 does provide a deterrent, but the
view is that the Centre may look at the option of making it tougher and unambiguous
by making the description of offence more elaborate. This can allay misgivings
and help the Centre explain its position to those who have opposed the court
judgment.
Although
a final call will be taken only after the ministry of law gives its opinion,
Union home minister P Chidambaram on Friday seemed to question the drastic
interpretation of the order by saying that the High Court applied itself to
only one aspect of the Section 377. Chidambaram was speaking to the media after
discussing the issue with his colleagues health minister Ghulam
Nabi Azad and law minister M Veerappa
Moily.
Sources
also spoke of the possibility of bringing a legislation
in case the law ministry advises so, though this was not likely to happen in
the current Budget session. The report of the law ministry, which has been
sought by the ministers who met on Friday to consider the verdict, will be
studied by the government and the Congress leadership before a bill is brought,
possibly in the winter session. The government feels it can wait till then as
it has no differences with the high court's ruling on decriminalizing
homosexuality. (The Times of India, July 5, 2009).