They were brave. They were nervous. They were happy. They were sad. They were dapper. They were stunning. They were stunned. They were blinded by flash photography. They were graduates.
See it all here.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Graduation Day!
They were brave. They were nervous. They were happy. They were sad. They were dapper. They were stunning. They were stunned. They were blinded by flash photography. They were graduates.
See it all here.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Monday, February 13, 2006
Friday, February 03, 2006
Settle Down!
The outrage over a cartoon printed in a Danish newspaper deemed offensive by many over the world has proven to be more volatile than the initial insult itself.
A Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, originally ran the pictures in September 2005. They were recently reprinted in a French newspaper and that is when the real trouble began.
Before I go any further, let me say that deliberately offending any religion is bad form. Whether one believes in it or not, a religion is something important to someone else and should not be taken lightly or cavalierly.
That being said, what we are seeing now is not righteous indignation but self-righteousness in its ugliest form.
Of course Muslims have every right to be offended by what they see as a slight to their religion. That is the privelige and right of a member of any free society. In the Islamic tradition, it is forbidden to depict the prophet Mohommed or any other prophet, for that matter. In fact, The Passion of the Christ was not shown in some Middle Eastern countries because Jesus is seen as a prophet (not the Son of God). If they so wish, they may have peaceful boycotts or write angry, non-threatening letters to the editor. What has become intolerable is the violence, slurs and just plain irrationality of it all.
The pictures first ran in the Danish newspaper (and other Scandinavian papers) after the writer Kare Bluitgen expressed his frustration over not being able to produce a children's book about Mohommed for fear that radicals may attack him. How right he was! Everything from boycotts of Danish goods and newspapers to effigy-burning and violence has turned what is claimed to be a dialogue about freedom of speech on its head.
There are so many things to be said here that is hard to know where to begin.
I don't think Scandinavian countries are friends of religion and I would hardly call any member of the European Union (or would-be members) forward-thinking because they co-habit and have state-run healthcare. Anti-semitism and anti-immigration feelings are on the rise in Europe. The vanguards of social "easy-does-it" are now at the crossroads of their very civilisation- they are dying and those who will not assimilate are moving in. Perhaps this is another topic for another day so I'll wrap this up by saying there is a huge clash of ideas and values (used in the loosest sense of the word). A dead Dutch politician and a threatened director are proof of that.
Were the cartoons a case for freedom of speech? Were they a way for opening a dialogue on the socio-political nature of modern Islam? I guess we'll never know because we're not allowed to talk about it. Ever. The slightest criticism of Islam or its followers is verboten. One can place the Crucifix into a jar of urine or smear an image of the Virgin Mary with excrement and its called art. One can depict the now-stricken Ariel Sharon as blood-thirsty and it's dubbed freedom of the press. Ancient statues of Buddha can be reduced to rubble and there is nothing from UNESCO. Were not these acts offensive? Of course they were but it doesn't matter. Not one of the adherents of these religions will burn effigies or attack consulates. It's okay to offend Catholics. Jews aren't people. Buddhists don't have feelings like the rest of us. Oh wait! None of that is true! It's not okay to offend Catholics or snide Jews or Buddhists! How wrong we all were.
Now to the crux of this post (at long last!)- why is it that if something even remotely rubs some people the wrong way everyone must kow-tow to them before it really hits the proverbial fan? It's not like Islam is putting its best foot forward in all this. What is going on is hardly civilised. "We're burning effigies now. Our next step is to blow up a bus!" These are tactics of ill-mannered, barely educated bullies who will not be rational at any time, even in their displeasure with something.
Just write a letter to the editor like everyone else!
A Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, originally ran the pictures in September 2005. They were recently reprinted in a French newspaper and that is when the real trouble began.
Before I go any further, let me say that deliberately offending any religion is bad form. Whether one believes in it or not, a religion is something important to someone else and should not be taken lightly or cavalierly.
That being said, what we are seeing now is not righteous indignation but self-righteousness in its ugliest form.
Of course Muslims have every right to be offended by what they see as a slight to their religion. That is the privelige and right of a member of any free society. In the Islamic tradition, it is forbidden to depict the prophet Mohommed or any other prophet, for that matter. In fact, The Passion of the Christ was not shown in some Middle Eastern countries because Jesus is seen as a prophet (not the Son of God). If they so wish, they may have peaceful boycotts or write angry, non-threatening letters to the editor. What has become intolerable is the violence, slurs and just plain irrationality of it all.
The pictures first ran in the Danish newspaper (and other Scandinavian papers) after the writer Kare Bluitgen expressed his frustration over not being able to produce a children's book about Mohommed for fear that radicals may attack him. How right he was! Everything from boycotts of Danish goods and newspapers to effigy-burning and violence has turned what is claimed to be a dialogue about freedom of speech on its head.
There are so many things to be said here that is hard to know where to begin.
I don't think Scandinavian countries are friends of religion and I would hardly call any member of the European Union (or would-be members) forward-thinking because they co-habit and have state-run healthcare. Anti-semitism and anti-immigration feelings are on the rise in Europe. The vanguards of social "easy-does-it" are now at the crossroads of their very civilisation- they are dying and those who will not assimilate are moving in. Perhaps this is another topic for another day so I'll wrap this up by saying there is a huge clash of ideas and values (used in the loosest sense of the word). A dead Dutch politician and a threatened director are proof of that.
Were the cartoons a case for freedom of speech? Were they a way for opening a dialogue on the socio-political nature of modern Islam? I guess we'll never know because we're not allowed to talk about it. Ever. The slightest criticism of Islam or its followers is verboten. One can place the Crucifix into a jar of urine or smear an image of the Virgin Mary with excrement and its called art. One can depict the now-stricken Ariel Sharon as blood-thirsty and it's dubbed freedom of the press. Ancient statues of Buddha can be reduced to rubble and there is nothing from UNESCO. Were not these acts offensive? Of course they were but it doesn't matter. Not one of the adherents of these religions will burn effigies or attack consulates. It's okay to offend Catholics. Jews aren't people. Buddhists don't have feelings like the rest of us. Oh wait! None of that is true! It's not okay to offend Catholics or snide Jews or Buddhists! How wrong we all were.
Now to the crux of this post (at long last!)- why is it that if something even remotely rubs some people the wrong way everyone must kow-tow to them before it really hits the proverbial fan? It's not like Islam is putting its best foot forward in all this. What is going on is hardly civilised. "We're burning effigies now. Our next step is to blow up a bus!" These are tactics of ill-mannered, barely educated bullies who will not be rational at any time, even in their displeasure with something.
Just write a letter to the editor like everyone else!
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