André
Sunday, December 9, 2007
I want it all
Today was a very beautiful day.Not really as if in weather but more as in a good time to receive a Gohonzon. One of my district members, who is an Indian woman who lives and works at this moment in Eindhoven, received her Gohonzon today. This meant that I had to leave early to our National Cultural Center in Zeist of SGI-NL. After the ceremony there where a few cultural acts of members. After the meeting we all went home to prepare us for the enshrinement on 16.00 hrs at her apartment. Besides 6 members there where also a few colleagues of her. After the official part, her colleagues started to ask questions about Nichiren Buddhism. Those we tried to answer as good as possible. During this dialogue we also talked about the origin of Buddhism. It surprised me how little my co-members knew about the origin of Buddhism. Maybe it would be a good subject for a distirct meeting.
André
André
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Paranoid
Watching the news the last few days, it frightens me. Especially what I hear and see about a Dutch member of parliament, Mr. Geert Wilders the fraction leader of the so called Partij Voor de Vrijheid (Party For Freedom). Mr. Wilders announced that he is planning a broadcast of a movie about the way Islam is treating women. Knowing Mr. Wilders as a right winged person he is and the way he talks and thinks about Islam and non-Christian/Jewish religions who he considers as inhumane or non-humanistic. It's no wonder that a lot of people are afraid that the Netherlands will be the next target of terorrism attacks. Even our parliament warned him for retaliation of the Islamic world and that it could be very bad for international relationships, national economics, riots and so on. According to the Justice Department, they have no means to persecute him within the confinements of the law.
What really frightens me is that I see history repeating itself again and it happened only 74 years ago. A certain Mr. A. Hitler blamed the Jewish community for the bad economics in Germany and the fact that most bankers, lawyers and doctors were Jewish and controlled almost every aspect of society back then. Now we see more or less happening the same to the Islamic community. The only difference is that they get blamed for radicalization within Islam, bad economic situations and financing terrorism. Instead of learning about Islam and engaging into dialogue and see what Christianity an Jewishm have in common with Islam, Mr. Wilders calls for hate, intolerance and persecution. If you ask me,it's getting time to stop this madness before it gets out of control. A good idea would be for Mr. Wilders to read the book "Global Civilization", written by Daisaku Ikeda, cover to cover.
A few lines ago I mentioned that our Justice Department said that they can't persecute him, I beg to differ. They could try persecution Mr. Wilder for spreading hate and discrimination. That is forbidden by our National Constitution, under Act 1 of the constitution. Also he endangers a whole country because the population will be suffering under terrorism only because he thinks he can get away by the way he discredits the Netherlands. I would dare to say that he is the new Mr. A. Mussert and his pary is the new Nationale Socialistische Beweging (NSB). In English, National Socialistic Movement. The NSB was a right winged Dutch political party in the 1930's till 1945 and the Dutch version of Hitler's NSDAP or Nazi party. And our Government is acting the same as the government under prime-minister Colijn during the 1930's. Meaning, waving away the danger till it was to late.
The most frustrating is that i can't do anything except chanting my ass of, praying that this devil of a man will come to reason and that the Netherlands will be spared of bombings and so on. Even the government isn't sure if they will be able to protect Mr. wilders as he currently has the highest protection level possible to make it possible for him to continue function within the parliament. And all of this scares me. The fact that a man like Mr. Wilders can make into parliament again and calls for hate instead of dialogue, mutual understanding, respect and compassion. Showing we have learned from history.
André
What really frightens me is that I see history repeating itself again and it happened only 74 years ago. A certain Mr. A. Hitler blamed the Jewish community for the bad economics in Germany and the fact that most bankers, lawyers and doctors were Jewish and controlled almost every aspect of society back then. Now we see more or less happening the same to the Islamic community. The only difference is that they get blamed for radicalization within Islam, bad economic situations and financing terrorism. Instead of learning about Islam and engaging into dialogue and see what Christianity an Jewishm have in common with Islam, Mr. Wilders calls for hate, intolerance and persecution. If you ask me,it's getting time to stop this madness before it gets out of control. A good idea would be for Mr. Wilders to read the book "Global Civilization", written by Daisaku Ikeda, cover to cover.
A few lines ago I mentioned that our Justice Department said that they can't persecute him, I beg to differ. They could try persecution Mr. Wilder for spreading hate and discrimination. That is forbidden by our National Constitution, under Act 1 of the constitution. Also he endangers a whole country because the population will be suffering under terrorism only because he thinks he can get away by the way he discredits the Netherlands. I would dare to say that he is the new Mr. A. Mussert and his pary is the new Nationale Socialistische Beweging (NSB). In English, National Socialistic Movement. The NSB was a right winged Dutch political party in the 1930's till 1945 and the Dutch version of Hitler's NSDAP or Nazi party. And our Government is acting the same as the government under prime-minister Colijn during the 1930's. Meaning, waving away the danger till it was to late.
The most frustrating is that i can't do anything except chanting my ass of, praying that this devil of a man will come to reason and that the Netherlands will be spared of bombings and so on. Even the government isn't sure if they will be able to protect Mr. wilders as he currently has the highest protection level possible to make it possible for him to continue function within the parliament. And all of this scares me. The fact that a man like Mr. Wilders can make into parliament again and calls for hate instead of dialogue, mutual understanding, respect and compassion. Showing we have learned from history.
André
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