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Additionally, please feel free to submit ideas, observations or any information of a random nature which maybe of interest to furthering the cause of humanity. Note that your submissions will be seen by the public and open to comments from visitors to BU. Confidential information should be submitted to barbadosunderground@gmail.com.
Ok Yardbroom I will behave myself and wont attempt to hook up.
But I do have pleasant memories of kissing by the pipe in the graveyard near the church prior to evensong in the early sixties. Perhaps I want to relive the old days and I am dreaming too much.
Maybe I should remember by grand mother’s axiom ” IF WISHES WERE HORSES BEGGARS WOULD RIDE!”
@GP / Yardbroom,
I must confess that being somewhat of a hopeless idealist, albeit a pragmatic one (an impossibility you say?), I must say GP do not give up on wishes.
However, you being a man of a ‘faith’ (of which definition is limited to a belief system, no deep analysis and I would never go there), and having achieved much, I am sure that I really do not have to tell you that things come to those who seek.
That said, unless of course, Yardbroom is protecting or has some other interest in keeping you from JC.
In which case a ‘brother’s’ respect must be honoured.
Crusoe I will have to see what decision JC takes on the matter. LOL
In my time the press made a collective decision not to carry stories or photos of students (even those at University) that found themselves before the courts.
Barbadian tax payers are the only people on the WHOLE world that carry the bulk of the economic costs for the training of the members of the legal fraternity. One would think that something in return should be forthcoming for this enormous and ongoing expense, like competent and affordable representation to ALL
I say stop funding the blasted Law Faculty, let dem brek fa demselves and put de money into training Doctors and Dentists and other Health Care peoples…
BAFBFP
@ Crusoe
You know how to stir the pot without discernible movement…I will have to watch you.
@ Georgie Porgie
As we grow older – I am not suggesting you have reached that stage – the assignations of youth burn ever brightly.eg
On Sunday nights after church service, walking behind the girls of the Gospel Hall Church, Dayrells Road and both groups of boys and girls, pretending we are not noticing each other…but we are.
However, parents know to the second what time their darling daughters should open the front door at home; or else they will come looking for them.
Or going to the Saturday afternoon fairs at the various secondary schools in the 1960s. Girls immaculately turned out and if you were lucky enough to get a dance with “the belle of the ball,” you could return to the boys group in triumph feeling important…don’t knock those memories they last a life time.
I have wandered…but beautiful are the moments of youth which can be relived, when the evening shadows creep across the lawn. I now return to where I started “Youths” in the court system.
We must consider our Youths they are the future, and if we hope to forge a better and fairer society in Barbados, it is incumbent on the press and the Court System to reflect this.
BAFP has come back again
Rome – Lloyd Jones
—————————————————————————————–
Locus Standi
Latin: legal standing before a court.
It’s all about the greed monies and bullshit (theft of properties)
there are no legal rights or remedies in courts of law circuses
——————————————————————————————
because they are so strong
they don’t care at all
…
what they do is wrong
they make the laws and the reasons
the judges and juries too
now we got to fight for our rights
that’s all we can do
Archive for Augustus Pablo
Tipps Tone Blues
Vibrate On
555 Dub Street
No need for a genius to see
What they are doing
They are sowing the seeds of their fall
And they don’t even know it
They say one thing today
And change it tomorrow
Now do they really believe
they can fool us forever ?
If you are planningto fish, catch a sunset or, go surfing or get a sea bath at Surfer’s Point, BEWARE! The main access path which you would drive to get there has been blocked by a metal stake cemented in the middle of the road. If you don’t know it is there and it is late in the evening your car could easily be damaged and/or you harmed. The stake is low enough not to be seen and high enough to pierce the bottom of your vehicle. This Window to the Sea is particularly popular for surfers and sea bathers alike. I have not noticed any line marks to suggest that this is not state land and there is certainly no sign indicating “Stay of The Property. Private Property”.
Is this legal? Was a prior obstruction removed after the intervention of the authorities? Is this another Windows to the Sea Issue. For photos and reports visit Hallam Hope Facebook and The Bajan Reporter.
Does anyone care enough to pursue this?
Hallam you must ask David to make this a topic a discussion separate from an entry in Submissions. Dis soun’ like a typical White people ploy and David could have his new found BFP crowd weigh in on this kind of tactic from beach front owners.
Kiki, a one man welcoming committee… I good, and you…?
Yardbroom
You are indeed most correct Sir!
As we grow older the assignations of youth burn ever brightly.
Are you saying that you attended Dayrells Road Gospel Hall?
Walking behind the girls of behind the girls of Dayrells Road Gospel Hall must have been a delight Sir
Going to the Saturday afternoon fairs at the various secondary schools in the 1960s as well as the Church Fairs was indeed a pleasant occasion Sir
…but beautiful are the moments of youth which can be relived, when the evening shadows creep across the lawn.
Man why do you waste your pristine prose on this blog nuh?.
Most of the jokers here don’t know about that kind of writing Sir.
BAFP
No I’m not alright. Court 22nd.
You try complaining about lawyers.
They charge £5k for each reply
@ BAFBFP // June 19, 2010 at 3:22 AM “Barbadian tax payers are the only people on the WHOLE world that carry the bulk of the economic costs for the training of the members of the legal fraternity… competent and affordable representation to ALL”
@ BAFBFP // June 19, 2010 at 3:24 AM “I say stop funding the blasted Law Faculty, let dem brek fa demselves and put de money into training Doctors and Dentists and other Health Care peoples…”
@ Yardbroom // June 19, 2010 at 4:32 AM “We must consider our Youths they are the future, and if we hope to forge a better and fairer society in Barbados, it is incumbent on the press and the Court System to reflect this.”
I wholeheartedly agree with both of you. I could not have expressed it better. Sad to say, I have come to the realization that none of these issues will change in my lifetime.
How Young People Should Be Treated In The Courts
“A 16-year old boy who fatally stabbed a former friend over “loss of face” after they traded insults on Facebook was jailed for at least 14 years yesterday.
The killer, who was 15 at the time and cannot be named for legal reasons, stabbed 18-year old Salum Kombo in the chest for the “pathetic” reason that the older teenager had called him a “pussy”.
Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith, sentencing him at Southwark crown court in London, said: “there was nothing brave about what what you did. This was quite simply an act of cowardice, as so many stabbings are.”
The Guardian London
Wednesday 23 June 2010.
As I said some days ago this is how young people should be treated in the Courts. Do note that even “after conviction” the young person has not been named and thus identified. His picture will surely not grace a National Daily unlike the unfortunate youth in Barbados “pre-conviction.” This is the issue I was addressing, some days ago.
@ YB
And we claim that we are a first world country! Stupse!
@BAFBFP
YOU ARE CORRECT in your comment couldn’t agree more!
@GP
When you ready I ready LOL!!!!!!
JC
You are a darling to take me back, after I was gave you away to Techie.
Thanks keep sweet.
But ya does mek a man wait two long for an answer.
Hope you got through your exams though
Wha kinda man would give away he girlfriend?
I will alllllways take you back! As I mentioned on another topic. I want you, AH and Co. back here in BIM. you are guys are damn smart and people just stupid and JEALOUS! Silly Lot!!!!!!!
Stand up and fight for our children that is what I would like you all to do! And GP don’t forget it aint only that you would be coming back for there will be ME waiting with open arms LOL!
Damn Smart!~
Breaking news from Toronto.Clashes with police broke out Saturday as an estimated 10,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Toronto as part of a massive anti-G20 protest that saw two police cars set on fire.
While most of the protesters were content to sing songs, wave placards and dance, a smaller group, estimated at roughly 100, were doing more serious damage, smashing windows at banks and shops in the downtown, as well as attacking two media vehicles.
There are three victims in the Sheraton Car park murder case.
The first is the deceased, Greg Taylor, whose family have not been given justice. His attacker is still out there.
The second is Julian Worrell, who was attacked not once but twice by the same gang, robbed and then persecuted up by the police and the justice system.
The third is the justice system in Barbados. We have a vindictive and devious deputy director of public prosecutions and a jury who did not take notice of any of the presiding judge’s guidelines on evidence.
Many of you know the real truth about this fiasco – please speak up about it and get this injustice corrected. Call the Attorney General, call the Chief of Police, Speak to your friends and neighbours about it and start the process of change.
Coincidence is the word we use when we can’t see the levers and pulleys- Emma Bull.
This BP thing, while it appears that some amount of recklessness and unpreparedness seems to have been a cause of the blowout, the timing being what it was, with the ‘great oil debate’ vis-a-vis offshore drilling versus Middle East oil etc, economy and oil price, I cannot help but have a suspicion that there COULD have been sabotage.
Oh, now it appears that Middle Eastern oil is buying into BP, at the ‘bargain basement price’.
Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
Interesting times indeed.
http://555dubstreet.wordpress.com/2010/07/03/parliament-funkadelic/
One Nation Under A Groove
{G Clinton, G Shider, W Morrison}
So wide can’t get around it
So low you can’t get under it
(So low you can’t get under it)
So high you can’t get over it
(So high you can’t get over it)
Da-yee do do do do do do
This is a chance
This is a chance
Dance your way
Out of your constrictions
(Tell sugah)
Here’s a chance to dance our way
out of our constrictions
Gonna be freakin’!
Up and down
Hang up alley way
With the groove our
Only guide
We shall all be moved
Ready or not here we come
Gettin’ down on the one which
We believe in
One nation under a groove,
gettin’ down just for the funk
(Can I get it on my good foot)
Gettin’ down just for the funk of it
Not to mention, Crusoe, that the second largest investor in BP is JP Morgan (29%) after Goldman Sachs liquidated their holdings just prior to the “disaster”.
Strange brew.
Doo-wop is a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music, which developed in African-American communities in the 1940s
* Sorry s/b Linked in with above post
http://555dubstreet.wordpress.com/2009/08/04/please-please-please/
http://555dubstreet.wordpress.com/category/doo-wap/
@ST re Goldman, I did not know that, now I do….
That is very…..weird? Hmmm. Wow, is all I can say?
@ David
Time to start a new submission thread man. Dis page tekkin’ too long to load up…! My God man, its three years old now, de longest running thread in WordPress history…!
Crusoe and ST
The shares Goldman Sachs sold in the first quarter represented only 44% of its holdings in BP shares, hardly a “liquidation”.
In all fairness, other asset management firms also sold blocks of BP stock in the first quarter. Wachovia, which is owned by Wells Fargo, sold 2,667,419 shares, 98% of its holdings and UBS, the Swiss bank, sold 2,125,566 shares, 97% of its holdings.
Wachovia’s parent company, Wells Fargo bought 2.3 million BP shares in the quarter, largely offsetting Wachovia’s sales.
On the evidence, I don’t see that any conspiracy theory can fly, at least, not in this direction.
I submit no theory Inkwell.
Just the facts.
There seems to be a press campaign that this disaster has been wreaked by a “foreign” company i.e. BP upon the GoM.
Whereas this may be technically true and only 49% is owned by US investors, there has been a massive failure of regulation within this whole operation.
BP – Global serial environmental transgressors
Trans Ocean -Swiss
Halliburton – Abu Dhabi?
As in all regulatory fields, the revolving door is turning for the hens to be recruited by the foxes.
Failure of regulations through their removal by Dick Chenney that continued into the Obama administration, the most glaring of which is the need for an “acoustic switch” required by off shore drilling operations in every other jurisdiction in the world…! Who does Ken Salazar really work for anyway?
Is that oil that is spilling into the sea not the oil that was destined to be drilled by Venezuela? In other words, is this not an attempt to stem Venezuela’s and Colombia’s (and Trinidad’s) oil supply by drilling deeper than anyone has ever done before?
When Last You See M.I.A.
I am a resident of Bush Hall. As close as I live to the constituency office of my parliamentary representative I don’t know when last I have seen her there. I have made several attempts to see her and can’t get a meeting. I would really like to know if she still resides in Barbados. Unless she is in parliament, when ever you hear a report from her, she is overseas. So it seems like now she is in opposition she can’t stay in Barbados. She is the representative for the St. Michael North East constituency the least she could do is make herself available to the residents.
I guess the same can be said for the residents of Christ Church West. My mother lives in Bonnetts and she would like to know where William Duguid’s constituency office is and how to get in contact with him. Should we leave a message with the check in counter for West Jet. Better yet maybe at the immigration counter for Diplomats. I would prefer him to get the message when he is arriving in Barbados. Hopefully he would do something about our concerns.
What really going on with these people that put themselves up for public office to assist people. That should be the priority for these parliamentarians. Help your constituents! Listen to their concerns so that you can find solutions.
Seems like the representative for St. Peter was successful in getting himself a senior consulting position with some of the regional Prime Ministers. He like consultants so much that he wanted to be one. I hope that those prime ministers who employed him know that consultants was one of the reason why he lost his prime pick. He gave Jamaica some fine advice when he was a consultant their. Look at where it left them. I wonder when last he consult with any of his constituents at his constituency office or even from his office at UWI.
When ever the representative from St. Andrew opens his mouth in parliament he either gets put out, walks out or he is out of order. It would be good if he would say something on behalf of the people of St. Andrew in a civil manner. St. Andrew is a beautiful parish and a lot more can be done there. It just needs proper representation.
Now that the opposition members of parliament have lost their ministerial picks seems like they using their unemployment benefits to travel the world. These people still too shame to face the public. I would leave that for the former representative from St. James South, the people clearly did not want to see her again. Newsflash for the oppositions members in the lower house of parliament. Your constituents still want to see you. They voted you in.
We are guardians, that seek a better way, that will guide for safe passage of the souls, much shall soon come to pass, the guardians must be prepared, must prepare.
Thou must listen and hear, there is much that man does not know, much that must be guided.
The guardian light must be strong, to lead.
Here is one for the history books, for the Hague and for such commenters as ‘Anonlegal’ and ‘Amused’ to enjoy deciphering.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/21/arab-guilty-rape-consensual-sex-jew
An Israel resident Arab, has been found guilty of ‘rape by deception’, quote from the Guardian, as follows:
‘Handing down the verdict, Tzvi Segal, one of three judges on the case, acknowledged that sex had been consensual but said that although not “a classical rape by force,” the woman would not have consented if she had not believed Kashur was Jewish.’
……………….
What were they smoking? Clearly a case of blatant racism, of miscarriage of ‘justice’ and completely against natural law i.e. basing a justification for a decision on race.
Now, even if for example, the defendant had claimed to be wealthy businessman while really being quite poor, thus not being able to provide a cushy life as promised, while such deception to get the girl would be cruel, nevertheless, such would not justify a conviction for rape. Indeed, some would think that she got what she deserved, if all she was after was a wealthy husband.
That said, this case goes one step further, into racial realms, by accepting the plea of prosecution that she thought that he was Jewish.
Funny, how laws are used, if it suits?
Now, in a perfect world, the Israeli government will publicly slam this decision as unjust and stand by its position that whether Arab, Jewish, Catholic, Yank, German, Atheist, everyone has a right to life and law, wherever they may be, whatever they may do.
That is the position, is it not?
To straight talk….regarding your “strange brew comment on JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs….
What I also thought was strange Straight Talk, that as someone who is deeply interested in symbolism; this was the 1.Deep Water Horizon Oil Rig, situated on the 2. Atlantis platform, and it collapsed into the sea on the day designated as 3.“Earth Day.” Lots of food for thought there if one knows how to connect the dots!
Cannabis gave me my life back’
Agonising migraines had put Marie Summers in a ‘prison of pain’, until she overcame inhibitions about using an illegal drug. The result seemed like a miracle
Tell someone that you suffer from chronic migraine and you’re unlikely to get sympathy in scale to the pain you suffer. Tell them you’ve got chronic migraine causing neuro-deficit, plus a small cavernoma with venous angioma and you will understandably get a blank stare. This collection of words is woefully inadequate at conveying the pain that has systematically dismantled my brain and disabled my body, but they are all I have without resorting to illustrations.
snip
Taking my inspiration from Bertrand Russell, who said, “One should as a rule, respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways,” I reflected on the aspect of staying out of prison. This is of crucial importance to me, not for my own sake (I can be sick anywhere) but for my young son’s. Once I resolved that I was prepared to fight any charge that might be brought upon me in the event I was caught with cannabis, the decision had made itself.
After managing to find some marijuana, it sat unused and hidden in a far corner of the house. I continued to suffer as before, but I’d lost my courage. I remembered being high as a teenager, and I didn’t want to be like that again. I didn’t want to lose control of myself amid a roomful of sober adults. My internal battle waged for four weeks. Four weeks of society’s conditioning wearing away while I wept. Finally one night when the pain became too extraordinary, it was either try the pot or go to A&E to be scanned in case I’d had an aneurysm. In my hospital-jaded and exhausted state, I finally opted for the pot, reasoning that if it was an aneurysm it would still be there afterwards, but if not I’d feel better and save myself an unnecessary trip.
Within minutes of taking a small amount of cannabis there was not an inch of my body in pain, and my tremors had stopped. My body felt at peace, and I don’t think I can ever convey the enormity of that to anyone. Nothing hurt or felt wrong. I was still weak, but I could move with as much ease and grace as I used to. Yes, I was intoxicated, but it was not how I remembered it from my teenage years. Perhaps it was the smaller amount I used, just enough to free my body from its prison. I felt I was smiling more than usual, but this truly seemed to be because the mantle of agony I am normally covered in had been lifted. I certainly wasn’t hearing or saying unusual things. Nevertheless, the “high” period was brief yet the health effects remained for a full 24 hours. It seemed to be a miracle. I tried to imagine the warning label if this was manufactured by a pharmaceutical company: “Will induce slight giddiness and loss of any concept of time for approximately two hours. Full beneficial effects will continue for 24 hours.” An acceptable trade-off?
I had two weeks of this beautiful cure, and every day of those two weeks I became stronger. I was able to take up activities long abandoned and sorely missed. The excitement my husband and I felt was palpable. If I took it slowly, I was nearly normal and every minute my brain was taken out of its loop it was being allowed to recover. Personally, this is a joy, but in the bigger picture it could be an economic blessing. If the sick and disabled can benefit from cannabis the benefits would be felt by relieving the strain on the NHS and allowing some patients or carers to return to the workforce.
snip
Most patients, friends, family members, doctors and politicians know that there is a great truth here that deserves more than it’s receiving. We need widespread medical trials now, and laws quickly changed to reflect the findings. It seems what is holding us back is not truth, but fear. Fear of a deluge of change and a “too liberal” domino effect that cannot be anticipated. My life and my family traded for your peace of mind, so you can be sure everything is as it always was.
Of course medicinal cannabis doesn’t have the same scope for making large pharmaceutical companies big profits that drugs such as Olanzapine or Lorazepam do. After all, how would you patent a daffodil? This would not be a deterrent for law-making in a civilised society, but in ours, perhaps. It’s time that we collectively grew up, and realised that the longer this issue remains unresolved we are throwing lives, money and progress down the drain. This may be one case where the grass really is greener on the other side.
At last, vaccines to make the peons and serfs happy and feel good about themselves
Wired Magazine writer Jonah Lehrer has labeled concerns that vaccines which alter brain chemistry and induce states of “focused calm” could be abused by governments to create lobotomized, servile populations as delusional, paranoid, and idiotic conspiracy theories, despite the fact that major mental health professionals are already pushing for lithium to be introduced into water supplies as a means of mass medicating against “mood disorders”.
Lehrer, an Oxford University graduate and a Rhodes Scholar, brazenly calls Alex Jones a liar in his article today after Jones put out a You Tube video in which he warned that new vaccines designed to reduce stress and neutralize people’s anger could lead to a nightmare THX 1138 scenario, in which the population is controlled and subjugated through the use of special drugs to suppress emotion.
Jones also encouraged listeners to Google search the words “brain eating vaccines,” causing the term to rise to the number 1 position on Google Trends for August 3rd.
In the video, Jones makes the point that vaccines being proposed by people like Robert Sapolsky to impose a state of “focused calm” by altering brain chemistry, as well as shots aimed at curbing drug and cigarette addictions, fit the very definition of being “brain eating” because they fundamentally rewire the brain and shut down innate processes that naturally produce stress, anxiety and aggression – which are all necessary human traits vital to survival and healthy mental functioning.
snip
Indeed, Lehrer’s own fellow Oxford luminary Julian Savulescu, in a 2008 white paper, called for populations to be mass-medicated through pharmacological ‘cognitive enhancements’ added to the water supply.
Of course, this is not the first time that we’ve warned against the dangers of vaccines and been proven right, despite being attacked as delusional conspiracy theorists for doing so at the time. The same claims were made about the H1N1 vaccine when Alex Jones and other leading alternative researches identified the ‘pandemic’ hype as a hoax to sell vaccine stocks and impose an untested formula created with cancer cells– now Wolfgang Wodarg at the Council of Europe has exposed that it was a false panic deliberately-fueled by WHO officials and vaccine industry representatives.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/brain-eating-vaccines-the-reality-behind-the-conspiracy-theory.html
HAPPY BIRTHDAYHoadie WuW………………………… enjoy your day. I”ll have a drink fuh yuh
@Hoadie
The best to you on this special day. Seems ac has been keeping tabs on you!
Chile’s Miners Trapped On Eve Of Cardinal Cross
I found it interesting that on the day of the Miners in Chile being trapped (33 of them), occurred when the planets Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto are in tight T-square arrangement on the 5th of August. The arrival of the old Moon into Cancer on the 6th August completes the long awaited ‘Cardinal Cross’.
Underground relates to Saturn and also Pluto of course. 33 just happens to be the Master number of 33, etc.
This comes on the heel of the amazing CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) from the Sun on the 3rd August 2010 which produced incredible auroras even in the United States, and also pounded into the earth‘s magnetic field with some force.
@ David
I don’t know if this is the best place to mention it but I would like to know if someone from some government office could enlighten me as to what are the rules in place for that “intersection” by the Polytechnic where that left hand lane diverts and then meets with traffic coming from the same Polytechnic round-about ( traffic circle) to go left into Parkinson Field. I was of the impression that traffic using that left diversion were supposed to yield to traffic to the right that is flowing from that round-about. The reason I ask is that this morning when I left the round-about to proceed left into Parkinson Field this vehicle came straight through on the left (I was on his right coming out of the round-about) almost colliding with me as I was negotiating to go left into Parkinson Field, needless to add the cuss out and horn blaring that was directed at me. I have observed previous “near collisions” at this same intersection with traffic refusing to even slow down much less YIELD when coming from this direction! So like I said could someone please help, I mean officially.
http:www.windmillworld.com/world/historicbarbados.htm
@de hood
You are correct in how you are using the round about.
9/11 Experiments: The Great Thermate Debate (video)
I did not realize that both Barbados Free press and Barbados Underground were basically the same.Until I gave my Email adress to one and immediately the other put it up…I dont know maybe just weird huh?
The article below was sent to the Nation Newspaper last week and was published on Friday December 03rd 2010. The critical points in this article were omitted by the Editor and was published, making little or no sense of what the writer was saying. This type of journalism not only reflects the lack of intelligence of the Editor but sadly of everyone within that organization. There was nothing libelous nor offending in the article, is it that the Nation Newspaper is scraping the bottom of the barrel for staff? How can we be standing tall and be proud of our ignorance? This is the original article.
Having now waited several weeks in vain for a discussion of what may
be the most momentous statement by a universally respected politician
in a decade, perhaps I can prime the pump. I hope Barbados is not so
parochial as to miss the watershed nature of these words.
It was once the great dream of Western liberal culture: a stewpot of
different religions, races, and ethnicities, harmoniously blended.
But German Chancellor Angela Merkel has pronounced the dream dead.
Multiculturalism, she said, “has failed, utterly failed”. Merkel is
not a nationalistic xenophobe, so her emphatic finality is all the
more startling. But many Germans and many Europeans share her
pessimism. The continent is recoiling from an influx of immigrants,
especially those from Muslim lands: The French and the Belgians have
banned burqas; the Swiss, the construction of minarets. Anti-Islamic
movements are gaining momentum in Italy, Britain, the Netherlands, and
even Sweden.
To dismiss these tensions as mere intolerance is, I think, naïve. The
boundaries between cultures are eroding, due to widespread
immigration, economic interdependence, and the Internet, forcing
modern societies into an uncomfortable paradox. We believe that every
cultural group, religion, and nation has the right to
self-determination. But we also hold as a bedrock principle that
every human being is born with inalienable rights – – – including the
fifty percent of us who are women. Is it our business to free Muslim
women from their shrouds and subservience, to bring a halt to female
genital mutilation in Africa and the Middle East? Do we have the
right to object to China’s insistence that democracy and human rights
do not apply there? Genteel tolerance alone will not resolve these
questions. The collision of values has begun. How that conflict
plays out will determine the shape of the next half-century.
My apologies, the formatting was messed up in the above posting.
Having now waited several weeks in vain for a discussion of what may be the most momentous statement by a universally respected politician in a decade, perhaps I can prime the pump. I hope Barbados is not so parochial as to miss the watershed nature of these words.
It was once the great dream of Western liberal culture: a stewpot of different religions, races, and ethnicities, harmoniously blended. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel has pronounced the dream dead. Multiculturalism, she said, “has failed, utterly failed”. Merkel is not a nationalistic xenophobe, so her emphatic finality is all the more startling. But many Germans and many Europeans share her
pessimism. The continent is recoiling from an influx of immigrants, especially those from Muslim lands: The French and the Belgians have banned burqas; the Swiss, the construction of minarets. Anti-Islamic movements are gaining momentum in Italy, Britain, the Netherlands, and
even Sweden.
To dismiss these tensions as mere intolerance is, I think, naïve. The boundaries between cultures are eroding, due to widespread immigration, economic interdependence, and the Internet, forcing modern societies into an uncomfortable paradox. We believe that every cultural group, religion, and nation has the right to self-determination. But we also hold as a bedrock principle that every human being is born with inalienable rights – – – including the fifty percent of us who are women. Is it our business to free Muslim women from their shrouds and subservience, to bring a halt to female
genital mutilation in Africa and the Middle East? Do we have the right to object to China’s insistence that democracy and human rightsdo not apply there? Genteel tolerance alone will not resolve these questions. The collision of values has begun. How that conflict plays out will determine the shape of the next half-century.
Charles Knighton
Dynamo Jack and his amazingly shocking control of Yin and Yang.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.