Column by Walter William Safar
The most powerful and progressive nation in the world, the U.S.A., are about to elect a new president. It’s your choice, America: Walls or Bridges? “We build too many walls and not enough bridges.” Isaac Newton
Driving towards Zagreb in my good old Ford Mustang in the morning, I was enjoying listening to Radio Sljeme, one of my favorite radio stations. It’s not just because of the soulful music played by the excellent radio DJs, but also because of the interesting programmes. One of those I like is Meetings at the Mount. I’m not sure whether this issue is relevant for that programme, but the speech given by a priest on Radio Sljeme on Sunday, September 4th, 2016 A.D. at 7:45 in the morning provided me with the keyword for this article.
In any case, the priest was talking about Mother Theresa. Her very name makes one think of holiness, not because she had powerful PR, but because of the way she dedicated her life to the poor.
The priest (or perhaps it was a friar – I didn’t tune in at the beginning of the broadcast) said that millions of people were dying in India and around the world, while the U.S.A. invested 600 billion dollars in armament this year. This is true, but sadly, it is also true that people always blame someone else for poverty and war. There are only few who start with themselves when assigning blame. In order to change the world, one must begin with himself. Let’s be honest: when mad dictators slaughter their own people, like the North Korean master of life and death, Kim-Young Un, Saddam Hussein, Qaddafi, or Bashar Al-Assad, the U.S.A. are always called upon to help, and they wouldn’t be able to do it without a powerful army. Also, it is only fair to say that the wealthiest aren’t necessarily the least sensitive, because there are perfect examples demonstrating that those who are wealthy can also be compassionate: Warren Buffett – Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, / The Rockefeller Foundation. There is a long line of philanthropists in the business world, as well as in arts. Still, the greatest philanthropists are those who selflessly share love, compassion and hope. There is a reason why wise men say that poetry enriches the human soul with all those noble values that make us human. Yes, life teaches us that poets, musicians and artists are important to the human soul like water to a flower. What am I trying to say? India, in particular, is conducting dozens of nuclear device tests each year, while thousands of children are dying of hunger. That inhuman and hated expression ‘caste’ was coined in India, and it’s still very much alive and kicking. We should ask what Indian politicians did for all those millions of paupers. What did common people do for them? And after all, we don’t have to go all the way to India to see mothers and children beg in the streets. There are beggars in opulent New York, and there are beggars in the wonderful city of Zagreb (wonderful Croatia), in front of the cathedral. Instead of turning away from them and calling them professional beggars, religious people should ask themselves what they have done to make the world a better place.
Yes, we often see celebrities participating in charity causes on television, but after the cameras are turned off, the same celebrities would never roll down the windows on their limousines and look at THE STATIONERY BOY. Yes, a few years back, while walking down Vukovarska street, I saw the Lighthouse with its beam, showing the way. However, in order to see the light, you must look into people’s eyes, even poor people’s eyes, right? The paradox is that in these times of technological progress, people don’t look into other people’s eyes as much as they used to. They close themselves to others, as if the Lord didn’t mercifully teach us that we should open up, and His gates shall open for us. Do you feel the tenderness of that message? (Life is mercifully teaching us that the Lord is never far away. Each person who wishes unto others as he does unto himself, each person who reaches out to those in need, is rewarded with the bliss of mercy in which He resides. Yes, the Lord is inside every person who has a soul).
How great Thou art
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The priest was right to say that the U.S.A. are spending billions of dollars on arms, while children across the world are dying of hunger. But are the U.S.A., as the world’s wealthiest and most developed country, to blame for worldwide hunger? I don’t think so. Many years ago, I have been to Rwanda alongside Spanish and American missionaries, doctors without borders and friars, in the Ngoma-Kibungu, Rukiri and Rukumberi regions, and I personally witnessed local political overlords stealing humanitarian help and re-selling it to the hungry (Rwanda is only half the size of Croatia, but it has twice as many inhabitants). Being the naive poetic soul that I am, I went to Kigali to argue with those in power – like the Department of Agricultural Economics, led by Habyarimana (Hutu). What happened? If it wasn’t for a cunning Irish merchant, I would have ended up in a solitary cell in prison, and trust me when I say that few people ever return from Rwandan prisons. Once we were out in the streets the good old Irishman whispered to me: “Son, honesty is punishable in this country, do you understand that?” Sadly, this is also true for most African countries, which are suffering under corrupt politicians as we speak (in Zimbabwe, for example, the dictator Mugabe has been living in luxury and handing out blood diamonds as presents to his countless mistresses, while his people are literally dying of hunger just outside his palace’s windows). So, what is the point? That those who have the most responsibility politicians and citizens of the poorest countries.
When the priest emphasized that it is inhumane for the wealthiest country to invest billions of dollars in armament, while millions are dying of hunger, he forgot the old proverb: In order to change the world, you must change yourself first. Because while there are beggars in front of your cathedral, and there are people digging through trash in front of the most luxurious church buildings, it’s simply brazen to blame global hunger on others. Shouldn’t that priest wonder why the Vatican bank is one of the oldest and wealthiest corporations in the world? Why does the church in Croatia own so much prime real estate, the sale of which would easily feed all those who suffer from hunger in Croatia? Isn’t it sacrilegious to drink from cups of gold, while your brothers and sisters dig their way through trash in search of food? Isn’t idolatry a sin? (Let’s remember the golden calf). Didn’t our beloved savior, the son of God, Jesus Christ, walk around in rags and barefoot, his body almost transparent, hungry more often than not. Hasn’t Pope Francis told the cardinals, bishops and priests to open up and walk among the faithful? Hasn’t he replaced a cross made of gold with one made of iron? Those questions – and many others – are begging to be answered, just like those children beg to be noticed by the faithful and unfaithful alike. Of course, I wouldn’t want to generalize, because I have personally witnessed missionaries, friars and priests who dedicated their whole lives to help those in need, but whether we are ready to admit it or not, there is a hierarchy, and the higher you are positioned, the less you see. This isn’t just the case with the church, but with the world as such. Although, Pope Francis seems to above it all.
There are people who are willing to do anything to come to power:
1) Bashar al-Assad – Chemical weapons, torture, mass killings: The truth about … – Bild.de
2) Putin – Why does Russia support Syria’s Bashar al-Assad? – Telegraph
(but, praise the Lord, there are politicians who chose politics not to rule, but to serve the public – yes my friends:how can i stop believing in good? – ).
3) This is really scary: ‘Putin’s Rasputin’ Endorses Trump | The Weekly Standard
4) Trump: ‘Inarguable’ that Putin is stronger leader – CNN Video
http://www.huffingtonpost.de/
Ex-intelligence official warns: alliance between Putin and Trump could be a danger to the United States and Free World
http://www.huffingtonpost.de/
COLIN POWELL: Donald Trump ‘has no sense of shame’ – The most powerful and progressive nation in the world, the U.S.A., are about to elect a new president. In my opinion, Donald Trump is the kind of person who is willing to do anything to come to power. I am praying for faith to strengthen his weak spirit, because it is the weak-spirited who are quickly broken by greed. (People are correct in assuming that alcohol and drug addictions are perilous to the human mind and body, but we should still ask why the mother of all addictions, greed, isn’t classified as a disease. Isn’t human greed and lust for money and power to blame for the worst of this world’s wars and hunger? The reason behind this might be the fact that laws are created by the greediest among us? Here’s an illuminating poem for greedy people: Alley of Justice.) In one of his speeches, Trump ridiculed all those noble people who are warning mankind about the perils ofglobal warming. Donald Trump says he is “not a big believer in global warming.”He has called it “a total hoax,” “bullshit” and “pseudoscience.” Inebriated with himself, happless Trump doesn’t understand that in doing so he offended the best scientific minds, best scientific minds, artist, politicians, businessmen, countless associations who work towards saving our wonderful planet Earth and, eventually, every person who knows and feels that global warming is not a natural process, but a product of human greed. This is why it is of crucial importance to endure in working on a project of planetary importance, the Act On Climate.
The leaders of the free world should know that the man in the glass awaits them, just like he awaits any ordinary person, wherever they may roam. Still, political leaders have a great responsibility. There are forthcoming elections in the promised land. 10 times Donald Trump insulted groups this fall… – CNN.com
As a poet, all I can say is that I break out in cold sweat when I hear that people like Donald Trump are becoming favorites in the presidential race in my beloved America. Donald Trump: ban all Muslims entering US –Trump said that he would shut down mosques… Trump said that he would shut the door on immigrants -1- building a wall on the Mexican border. – 2 – Donald Trump’s entire immigration speech – CNN Video – CNN.com.
When a man, who doesn’t understand the first amendment to the American Constitution, the freedom of religion .When a person whose every sentence starts with “shut down” wants to, and stands a chance to become the president of the most liberated nation in the world, then we must ask ourselves – where is this America of ours heading to?…“
Remember that Mr. Trump Diversity is the greatest wealth of any nation, and this is why I believe that the American nation is blessed with diversity and thefreedom, as such, it is a beacon of liberty for many a last soul. Remember that Mr. Trump There is no other country in the world that can raise the torch of liberty quite as high as America can, there is no country in the world that can provide a creative person quite as many opportunities as America can… There is no country in the world that dreams like America. Life taught me to walk this path of dreams to become a missionary at the gates of a new city.
Great comments:
KRAMV
Posted 07/29/2016
My husband has a theory that the Republican party up until now could be roughly broken down into four different groups: true conservatives, pro-business, religious-based voters, and racists. Sometimes those groups overlap, and sometimes they don’t as much, but they are fairly distinct groups who were drawn to the Republican party for different reasons. (I might also add military-focused voters in there.)
In prior elections, Republican candidates spoke primarily to the first three groups — conservatives, business, and religious. This year, something changed, and the racists became the dominant group. Even though they were always there, and there was always some overlap, they didn’t have the volume that they do now.
So, many of the voters in those first three groups are realizing that the dominance of the racists is overtaking whatever it was that brought their groups to the party, and they no longer vote for the nominee.
Now we just have to hope that they carry this foward on Election Day. The conservatives can vote for Johnson, the pro-business might be able to vote for Hillary, or at least Johnson, and the religious … I honestly don’t know. That leaves Trump with only the most outspoken racists, and hopefully they will not prove to be a majority.
Kate
“Bridges are better than walls.”
* DD1 (8) * DD2 (5) * DD3 (2) * Love my 3 daughters! *
We build too many walls and not enough bridges. Isaac Newton
Pope to us: Build bridges, not walls
Yes my dear friends: We should never forget those values that make us human: compassion, love, hope, faith… I don’t know much about victories, but I am sure of one thing, that compassion is a victory of the human spirit. Allow me to quote the great physician, religious thinker and Nobel laureate Albert Schweitzer: “I have grown more and more certain that at the bottom of our heart we all think this, and that we fail to acknowledge it because we are afraid of being laughed at by other people as compassion, though partly also because we allow our best feelings to get blunted. But I vowed that I would never let my feelings get blunted, and that I would never be afraid of the reproach of sentimentalism.”
If people would wake that feeling of compassion within themselves, the suffering of others would affect them more often, and the desire to alleviate it, if not prevent it, would grow inside them. Then, the active involvement in the suffering of other beings would become the supreme life principle in everyday reasoning, feeling and the activity of individuals.
What the World Needs Now” (Video)
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If every person on this wonderful planet would talk to themselves in this blissful silence, the world would become a much more humane, just and beautiful place to live. In 1960, the famouse Maharishi Mahesh Yogi said that if only 1% of the world’s population would practice transcendental meditation, it would amount to huge changes around the world. This phenomenon was documented during the late seventies. Wherever there was a single percent of people practicing transcendental meditation, there was a significant drop in crime rates within the community, and the quality of life would generally improve. More than 600 scientific research papers from 200 universities and institutions in 30 countries have confirmed the so-called Maharishi effect. Thus, Maharishi was right! As a believer, I formly believe that mankind will find its path of dreams that leads to spirituality, like our brothers and sisters from our twin planet Kepler-425b, (Bonanza-poet/wyd*-7397/ccd) who have evolved far enough to take their civilization to the third degree. If we know that our civilization is still at the first degree, then we can imagine how far the road ahead is, the one that leads to a higher civilization. At the second degree, mankind will learn how to apply nature (the wind, the sun and cosmic particles) as a propulsive energy that will take us to other galaxies. Once mankind is spiritually evolved, it will be able to see dark matter. It is known that dark matter doesn’t react with normal matter in the usual way, which means that most dark matter particles simply pass through us as if we don’t exist. However, some dark matter particles can react with hydrogen and oxygen atomic cores, changing their energy and spin. It’s only fair – after all, can you imagine what humans would do to other beings in the universe, considering how they treat each other? So, many a stormy century shall pass before humans reach the second spiritual degree of civilization, and it will take much longer to reach the third. Our brethren from Kepler-425b (Bonanza-poet/wyd*-7397/ccd) don’t use dark matter, but rather create it in cooperation with nature in order to travel the universe, and so they can reach distant places with their minds that us humans cannot reach physically. This is akin to travelling the path of dreams that every human is searching for these days, and this is proof that the Lord created humans and nature from the same holy spirit.
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Massenet – Meditación de Thais
Yes, in order to change the world, we must start by changing ourselves. Each person has the freedom to choose, because it is easy to be “Robespierre”, to put the blame on someone else. I often ask this question of myself: do I deserve to walk the Road of Dreams? Do my sins exceed my virtues? Have I denied our beloved Lord by turning away from those in need? Is my spirit strong enough to resist greed? Is my love strong enough to resist sins that feed on raw lust? Is my love for nature and all living things strong enough to resist giving in to the nihilist stream of decadence? Only when I am capable of honestly answering such existential questions can I look at the man in the glass and understand the meaning of life. Only then can I start changing the world for the better.
Our duty is to gather the strength to look within, because all the answers are within us.
“Our tenure on this small planet we call Earth is very short, and thanks to it we have an excellent opportunity to leave behind us a world that is better than the one we came into, due to the way we decide to live.” (Sir John Templeton)-
Yes, my friends – Never Give Up For A Better World
Louis Armstrong-What a wonderful world
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