(Curaçao Chronicle)
"Here I stand; I can do no other,” is the side script on a red pair of “All Star” knock-offs. It is Luther Year in Germany and everything sells. A candy shop has a special a grand selection of Praline in a deluxe box in shape of a Gutenberg-Luther Bible. Tetzel’s money boxes play a song when souls are released from Purgatory and jump into heaven.
Transparent umbrellas with built-in speakers will provide you with a divine “voice” from above when you go through a storm. And a replica book press à la 1600 is geared up to provide you with your favourite Biblical text. Ah, what would the world be without magic and marketing!
Hardly two weeks ago and 500 years after Luther unchained the Reformation, the Pope canonized three shepherd children in Portugal, who 100 years ago were jailed and threatened with being boiled alive in olive oil when they claimed the Virgin Mary appeared to them. The Fatima children’s reported visions would go on to strengthen the faith of Portugal's persecuted Catholics and make the small farming town of Fatima one of the world's foremost pilgrimage sites, with around 6 million visitors a year. It is one of the best “money bags” of the Church and Luther’s Reformation seems to have had no effect in Portugal.
As long as people are into magical thinking, they will throw their money and support at anything to satisfy their hocus-pocus fancy. Harry Potter, only a hardly disguised resurrection story, became a world success and spooks in all young minds of today.
President Trump, with his Papal Corporate Culture of grand fanfare and who rejects humanism, takes the world for an Abrahamic religious tour along centres of magic, from Mecca, or nearly, to Jerusalem and Rome. His ecumenical religious magic and the Fake News that it produces is not likely to have much success.
Magic is very competitive as any Potter child knows and the problem in the Middle East is not one of religion but one of inequality and horrible poverty. While Princes live in magnificent splendour, the man in the street dies from malnutrition and maltreatment.
ISIS and Al Qaeda had easy recruiting amongst millions of illiterates, not because of religion, but because of poverty. And once again in history, the USA is found on the side of the usurper, not on the side of the suffering masses.
The collective allied power of the new Trump coalition will simply wipe them off the face of the earth, like nasty flies. And the masses will cheer the Trumpists on, like many fascists and magicians before him.
Luther’s Reformation failed miserably.
By Jacob Gelt Dekker
Dear Editor,
It should feel good to know that also in St. Maarten there is support for the plight of the people of Statia in their battle with big bad Holland. It is, however, unfortunate to read that the arguments that are used are rather inaccurate. This is most likely results from the lack of knowledge of the exact circumstances. In a letter to the editor, Mr. Elton Jones mentioned that in anticipation of the evaluation the Dutch pre-emptively tried to have the islands absorbed into their constitution as so-called Kingdom Islands.
Dear Editor,
I was reading chapter 78 of the Book of Psalms, and immediately my mind started to race. My mind passed on someone whom I respect for their insight in life, who once told me that I should tackle the social behaviour of the community once in while in my letters to you. I also thought of Proverbs 22:6, and came to the conclusion that if same-sex behaviour has to be accepted, then put back the bible in the schools.
I believe the same argument that is used to accept same-sex behaviour (LGBT) is the same argument that can be used to oblige atheists to accept the billions of us who believe in God, and what is written in the Bible long before all of us who are currently alive, were born.
Even if I do not want to see people's openly homosexual behaviour and desire for the same sex, I am obliged to accept it, so they too have to accept my way of acquiring my desire for the knowledge of God. They even demand related rights and claim that those desires are legitimate. My desire for God is also legitimate.
If we want to compare who has the more logical argument, just look at the anatomy of man and woman and then compare it to what is written in the Bible and what everybody has experienced during his or her lifetime. It is all there in the Bible. Two women or two men cannot produce a child; it takes a man and a woman to do that, so that the same-sex couple can adopt that which was produced by the normal coming together of a man and a woman. Genesis 1:28.
Many believe they were born that way, billions more believe and live in accordance with that which is written in the Bible. Put back the bible in the schools. If one thinks that I am against LGBT, let me put it this way. Just check who is fighting tooth and nail for the world to accept that which is forbidden in the book that I believe in. Children who are instructed in the ways of the Lord, are less likely to end up in jail. Save the children!
Russell A. Simmons
Dear Editor,
I am one of many concerned parents that have a lot of questions since the two letters were given out by the schoolboard of Saba Comprehensive School last month. The seriousness of these letters is quite alarming. It makes me really wonder how the school got into this financial mess in the first place.
Now we are losing good teachers, some teachers have been here for years. One teacher has been here for 12 years. If all our Caribbean teachers have to go and we have the CXC system, the schoolboard can't expect to bring in Dutch teachers from Holland to teach CXC. They don't know the system and English can be a barrier. What will happen to those children in Form 5 for example? They are the ones that will be in the examination class.
If the classes are to be less, I am sure the quality of education will drop, despite what the schoolboard is claiming. I have spoken to different educational professionals, and they are very worried themselves about the direction our secondary education is heading.
There needs to be more stability in the school. Starting with a schoolboard that represents parents, teachers and children, not a schoolboard that is handpicked by the government. There needs to be at least 5 schoolboard members, not only 3 that they have now. There needs to be elections for a schoolboard in my opinion.
The school belongs to all of us, not only a selected few. The teachers in the school have tried their utmost best with all our children. It is not an easy job, but I say thank you for all you do. It is much appreciated!
I have been up there by the school so many of times, and you can feel it is not a happy environment. What changed? What went wrong? Who will take responsibility for all the issues the school is facing? Schoolboard, Principal, Island Government, Dutch Government, who? The parents waited long enough for the schoolboard (SEF) to arrange a meeting, so we had to take it upon ourselves to do it.
There was an urgent letter/notice, signed by 50 parents/guardians, requesting the schoolboard to attend a public meeting to discuss serious issues that are facing/affecting Saba Comprehensive School.
Due to the fact that these issues are very important and crucial, with the time also drawing near for the school to go on summer break, we need to know what is going on.
Even though this meeting is last-minute, we hope that all stakeholders will attend this very important meeting to receive the clarification that is badly needed.
Christalle Klaber
A concerned parent
(Curaçao Chronicle)
Pope Benedict XVI had a love for wearing 18krt golden medieval vestments, which weighted so heavy that he required the assistance of two or even four helpers. Followed by a procession of richly adorned Cardinals, the Princes of the Church all with biretta and golden rings as signs of their royal status, the Pope still puts on the biggest show on Earth. When His Holiness enters the Saint Peter’s Basilica, the richest religious temple in the world filled with endless wealth, he wears the “Triregnum,” a headgear with three crowns, also called the Triple Tiara.
