Atheism Corner — Humanity in Progress

North Korea Is the Worst on the Planet

February 18, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Read todays news and you will be transferred into a different time, although not so long ago but still something most of us think belongs to generations who are no longer with us. Some might be reminded of Nazi Germany, other the peak of Stalin’s evil rule of the USSR, the desperate fear of Romanians from secret police and the mass “disappearance” of thousands in Argentina in the 80s’, but North Korea seems, at least by this recent UN report on its human rights abuse, to top it all, and do this at global solitude.

Almost everyone knows that North Korea is a tough nut to crack, it has its nuclear weapons which every now and again it publicly threatens to make use of, and it is basically cut off from the rest of the world. Its former leader considered as a living god, its decadents turned gods themselves and inherit the country from their dead father.

The focus on the security council on the possible nuclear threat of North Korea’s weapon arsenal has created a situation in which the UN, as most other formal channels, ignore what is actually going on in this country, or at least the reports that manage to find their way to Western ears.

Getting out of North Korea is nearly impossible, the boarder with its much hated neighbor the South Korea is so heavily fortified and filled with land mines that it is impossible to survive the pass, the other boarder with with China, it is a rather large stretch of land that would have its successful travelers land in Chinese hands after they managed to dodge the North Korea army patrols. Those who are brave enough to try this know that if they get caught by the Chinese they will be returned to North Korea, because the Chinese, not great champions of respecting human rights, do not want to get any trouble over a few (or even many) North Koreans.

And so we get the news from the few, very few, who manage to escape the country and avoid the Chinese, and one can only imagine what a small group of fortunate individuals this makes. The descriptions of the horrors of the country are abundant, from government authorized murders and executions to near slavery conditions to men and pregnant women, the list is long and difficult to digest.

Every now and again when we discuss the crimes of the past, mass murder of people, the abuse of citizens by their governments and human rights abuses some good people ask themselves what would they do if they were living at the time these things took place, well this one is not a story or distant history – this is going on right now, and all the peoples of this world share this shame.

Torquemada’s Nightmare – Spain Wants Its Jews Back

February 11, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Nobody expects the Spanish in inquisition

The surprising news from Spain announce that the country is considering to re-invite its long lost Jewish community to the country by granting citizenship to those who will prove ancient roots in Spain. The mass deportation of Jews occurred in the times of the Spanish inquisition, who aimed mainly to clear Spain of all religious minorities and create a fully Catholic Christian society.

Beyond the curiosity as to why do this (at all, or now), the response this suggestion has from the Jewish side is almost as astonishing as the proposal, while many Israelis are happy to explore the possibility of having another passport some Rabbis already published strong opinions against embracing a Spanish citizenship. It is reported that Rabbi Aviner has a very simple reason for denying the Spanish gesture, “Jews should never forgive the Spanish for the inquisition and accepting the passport will be interpreted as a sign of forgiveness”.

But who is Rabbi Aviner actually angry with? People who lived (and died) 500 years ago? is he going to look for Torquemada’s descendants and let them know he is upset with their long dead – and whom had absolutely no influence of any kind – forefather?, this is a philosophical question, however it should be clear to anyone living today that having issues with actions and resolutions that are centuries old are not relevant to any living person today. Furthermore, letting go of this grudge risks yet another destabilization in the form and shape of the modern Jewish identity which is structured around the terrible things done to these people during the 2,000 years of Christian bigotry and proudly followed by the Muslim world, in other words forgiveness and acceptance are the biggest dangers that this Rabbi has in keeping his flock nearby.

Back to the Spanish, why would they do this right now?, well the reasonable answer is to right the wrong, to patch a significant period in its history and apologize for the victims of its actions. But seriously, Spain and Israel has good relations, as well as Jewish communities all over the world with Spain, so there is no issue here. Promotion the pluralist and tolerant Spanish culture was another reason, however anyone who visited Spain in the last 10 years knows the huge number of immigrants in its cities, Spain is one of the biggest immigration countries in the world.

The last possible reason, which is no doubt the most cynical one, is the financial crisis in the country, which is so dramatic and deep experts estimated a whole generation will live under it for most of its lifetime, is causing native Spanish to leave their country in search for a better life, an injection of a new type of population which Spain has not had for hundreds of years might just turn this thing around, however try and convince someone to move into a country he has no connection with only because 500 years ago an ancient ancestor might have lived there…

All of this reminds us of a great speech the wonderful Christopher Hitchens made, in which he mentions, naming one after the other, countries that forced its Jews to leave (or killed them) and eventually that country lost its power.

Putin Closet Issues

February 11, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Our best effort to ignore the winter olympics at Sochi, Russia are not working as well as we thought they will, first there was the fifth olympic ring that did not “open” up as the others did, just to show the good people of the world that no matter how hard you try, both in the natural world as well as the technological one, we are not living in an homogeneity like universe , meaning some things are different to others – which makes life better – not worst.

And now it looks like President Putin, who is (now) famous for his anti-gay opinions (and sadly, actions) is trying to find a way out of the homophobe closet he built for himself. It appears as though the highly involved president of Russia visited a night club in the Olympic village yesterday and paid compliments to a openly gay gold medal winer from the Netherlands.

Even more surprising is the fact that Russia and the Netherlands have been on a thin line of tension in the last couple of months, with the open minded and liberal Dutch stretching the diplomatically possible to a fine limit, with an arrest of a Russian diplomat on its soil and an incident with a Dutch vessel on Russia’s water.

The Global public scorn at the aggressive antigay actions in Russia could have led Putin to change his mind about this issue, and what better way to show it then by hugging an openly gay Dutch gold winer. As long as Russians come back to their senses and stop this middle ages behavior it does not really matter what brings the change – there is some light in the end of this tunnel.

From Tahrir Square to Alexandria Murder – Egypt Is Radical

July 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The current events are flowing non stop from Egypt, that it is easy to forget what happened just a couple of days ago. Before the army overtaking the country from its elected officials the news talked about a festive-like protest in Tahrir square, the same place that was the anti Mubarack protest in the end of 2011.

Tahrir is also synonymous with the abuse of woman, especially foreign reporters. The fist case was of Lara Logan who has been not only sexually assaulted in the square during the joy that overtook the country when Mubarack was removed, but she was also beating and physically attacked.

Natasha Smith was yet another journalist that was sexually attacked in the square as well as the (now famous) Egyptian blogger Aliaa Magda el Mahdi. Add to this the constant stream of reports by locals of the continues harassment by the army and the police (toward females) and you get one place you should not visit in Cairo – if you are a Western female.

Now the current story is of a Dutch young woman who was brutally assaulted in the square a couple of days ago, rushed to the hospital and later sent back to her country. The fact that there rapes do not stop is an indication that there is something deep within the current Egyptian society that is wrong, but the current trend makes it even worst – the “easy trigger” when it comes to foreigners, and while females are abused and attacked males are simply stabbed and killed.

As was the unfortunate case of Andrew Pochter from Maryland, who spent time in Egypt teaching children English, he was stabbed in Alexandria while watching a demonstration, he was not part of it, and he probably took a place of a spectator – mainly because he was an outsider. Someone grabbed the chance to stab and kill him, for the obvious reason of him not being Egyptian.

There are many signs that show the turning of the Egyptian society into a radical and non tolerant one, the extreme cases of the rapes and murders should be noted by those who thing of paying the country a visit.

Can You Get More Confused About Egypt?

July 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Oh, sure you can.

For lack of time, this post is presented in a form of “bunch of questions” that very naturally rise from the events of the past 48 hours, all are probably good titles for further posts on the subject of democracy, free speech, the unbelievable defeat the current American administration in its Mid-East foreign policy, and on top of everything is the Muslim brotherhood’s future.

Here are the questions – or simply things to consider about talking on the subject of Egypt –

When an army removes an elected prime minister/president can it ever be called a service to democracy? (lets answer this one with a clear “no!”, it has nothing to do with democracy or any kind of liberal thinking, it is a pure violent action that is contrary to any democratic idea).

Free speech – did the protest in the last couple of days bring about the removal of the Egyptian officials, was that a pure form of free speech that overtook the whole country?. Of course it was free speech and it was exercised to perfection, however one must wonder how this lighting fast mini revolution came to be, how could it be that it took under 100 hours to remove a party that won an election just a year ago by an overwhelming majority of the population.

The American failure – President Obama has another fantastic disaster under his belt now, his lack of intervention on Syria, his paralyzation in dealing with the “Arab spring” when it happened are now ballooning into a huge problem. The never ending mistakes with almost all the middle east countries has led to a rapid decline in the how the U.S. is perceived today. Even the loudest warnings from Washington are ignored by the people of the Middle East.

The people of Egypt did not revolt against the Muslim brotherhood because it was bad at politics, but because it failed the most basic elements of any administration – it did not get the population enough food, enough work, enough safety.

The Muslim brotherhood – after decades of waiting, not always quietly, for power, the brotherhood now lost it in a few hours, publicly humiliated and stripped of power it is indeed a surprise that this thing happened without much blood filling the streets of Egypt, however the backlash might still arrive, what is worst is that the followers of the party have a genuine claim, they were removed by force by the army.