A Breath of Fresh Air...



These Foolish Things from Bryan Ferry

Oh will you never let me be?
Oh will you never set me free?
The ties that bound us, are still around us
There's no escape that I can see
And still those little things remain
That bring me happiness or pain
A cigarette that bears a lipstick's traces
An airline ticket to romantic places
And still my heart has wings
These foolish things
Remind me of you
A tinkling piano in the next apartment
Those stumbling words that told you what my heart meant
A fairground's painted swings
These foolish things
Remind me of you
You came, you saw, you conquered me
When you did that to me, I somehow knew that this had to be
The winds of March that make my heart a dancer
A telephone that rings - but who's to answer?
Oh, how the ghost of you clings
These foolish things
Remind me of you
Gardenia perfume lingring on a pillow
Wild strawberries only seven francs a kilo
And still my heart has wings
These foolish things
Remind me of you
I know that this was bound to be
These things have haunted me
For you've entirely enchanted me
The sigh of midnight trains in empty stations
Silk stockings thrown aside, dance invitations
Oh, how the ghost of you clings
These foolish things
Remind me of you
The smile of Garbo and the scent of roses
The waiters whistling as the last bar closes
The song that Crosby sings
These foolish things
Remind me of you
How strange, how sweet, to find you still
These things are dear to me
That seem to bring you so near to me
The scent of smouldering leaves, the wail of steamers
Two lovers on the street who walk like dreamers
Oh, how the ghost of you clings
These foolish things
Remind me of you, just you.

A Great Speech by Desmond Tutu on Middle-East Politics

Desmond Tutu, Monday April 29, 2002, The Guardian
Apartheid in the Holy Land

In our struggle against apartheid, the great supporters were Jewish people. They almost instinctively had to be on the side of the disenfranchised, of the voiceless ones, fighting injustice, oppression and evil. I have continued to feel strongly with the Jews. I am patron of a Holocaust centre in South Africa. I believe Israel has a right to secure borders.

What is not so understandable, not justified, is what it did to another people to guarantee its existence. I've been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about.

On one of my visits to the Holy Land I drove to a church with the Anglican bishop in Jerusalem. I could hear tears in his voice as he pointed to Jewish settlements. I thought of the desire of Israelis for security. But what of the Palestinians who have lost their land and homes?

I have experienced Palestinians pointing to what were their homes, now occupied by Jewish Israelis. I was walking with Canon Naim Ateek (the head of the Sabeel Ecumenical Centre) in Jerusalem. He pointed and said: "Our home was over there. We were driven out of our home; it is now occupied by Israeli Jews."

My heart aches. I say why are our memories so short. Have our Jewish sisters and brothers forgotten their humiliation? Have they forgotten the collective punishment, the home demolitions, in their own history so soon? Have they turned their backs on their profound and noble religious traditions? Have they forgotten that God cares deeply about the downtrodden?

Israel will never get true security and safety through oppressing another people. A true peace can ultimately be built only on justice. We condemn the violence of suicide bombers, and we condemn the corruption of young minds taught hatred; but we also condemn the violence of military incursions in the occupied lands, and the inhumanity that won't let ambulances reach the injured.

The military action of recent days, I predict with certainty, will not provide the security and peace Israelis want; it will only intensify the hatred.

Israel has three options: revert to the previous stalemated situation; exterminate all Palestinians; or - I hope - to strive for peace based on justice, based on withdrawal from all the occupied territories, and the establishment of a viable Palestinian state on those territories side by side with Israel, both with secure borders.

We in South Africa had a relatively peaceful transition. If our madness could end as it did, it must be possible to do the same everywhere else in the world. If peace could come to South Africa, surely it can come to the Holy Land?

My brother Naim Ateek has said what we used to say: "I am not pro- this people or that. I am pro-justice, pro-freedom. I am anti- injustice, anti-oppression."

But you know as well as I do that, somehow, the Israeli government is placed on a pedestal [in the US], and to criticise it is to be immediately dubbed anti-semitic, as if the Palestinians were not semitic. I am not even anti-white, despite the madness of that group. And how did it come about that Israel was collaborating with the apartheid government on security measures?

People are scared in this country [the US], to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful - very powerful. Well, so what? For goodness sake, this is God's world! We live in a moral universe. The apartheid government was very powerful, but today it no longer exists. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pinochet, Milosevic, and Idi Amin were all powerful, but in the end they bit the dust.

Injustice and oppression will never prevail. Those who are powerful have to remember the litmus test that God gives to the powerful: what is your treatment of the poor, the hungry, the voiceless? And on the basis of that, God passes judgment.

We should put out a clarion call to the government of the people of Israel, to the Palestinian people and say: peace is possible, peace based on justice is possible. We will do all we can to assist you to achieve this peace, because it is God's dream, and you will be able to live amicably together as sisters and brothers.

Desmond Tutu is the former Archbishop of Cape Town and chairman of South Africa's truth and reconciliation commission.

Another interesting comment!

First, I suggest everyone to check Fox News. It is highly informative, in that, it teaches you how one-sided a group can become under strict monetary relationships and pressure.

Now, the comment that I was supposed to comment on is from UN Ambassador of Israel. He first said that the civilian people that are killed by Israel's intentional or accidental(!) (for instance 10-day old or a few months old babies *) had deserved to die if they helped Hizbullah. Then, he said that, I guess to save himself, those people were forced to help Hizbullah. An interesting turn. But, again, he didn't change his opinion, meaning that they again deserve to die.

Israel is doing what they criticized to be done more than 50 years ago. Attacking and killing civilians with no actual evidence and justifying reason. And in a way, they somewhat justify what the other terrorist organizations in that region are doing all along, which is along the lines of "If a person is found to directly help an enemy, even if that person is a civilian, then they deserve to die". Now, according to those organizations Israel is considered as enemy. If you think further, you reach a sickening conclusion. But I would like to ask you, on the basis, is this really much different than what Israel is doing right now?

* Just enter the websites of news organizations that are not directly controlled by people in blind-support of Israel - European news agencies for instance - , you will find unbiased information and see a few interesting pictures from that region that you cannot find on MSNBC, Foxnews, or similar sites.

Couldn't help but comment!!!

After seeing the crucifixtion that the Jews are doing once again, this time against Mel Gibson, it is hard to stay silent.

After the movie on Jesus, many were ready to throw him to the mud and feed his head to the wild boars.

Not understandable.

They were, rightfully, over protective because of the genocide happened during second world war. But, they had gone a bit too far.

You will be critized to the extreme when something bad happened to your people (genocide), and every painful detail of that incident will be forcibly pushed inside other people's heads. But when you did something horrible to an important figure of the past (Prophet), you should not be critized and the details should stay hidden. Why? Cause it is far in the past, or it can stir emotions against the Jews. Sorry, but truth should be told. People should be informed that the Jews of the far past were as cruel as the other nations of the past. If that will degrade the innocence they had created after the genocide, then they should be ready for that. The writing of the history hasn't started just before the second world war.

Regarding Gibson's comments, claiming the whole Jewish world was wrong and claiming them for all the wars is wrong, but his comments carry a piece of the truth. The wars that have been happening in Middle East were caused by what and whom? The will to protect Israel! Or the will to erase any kind of threat that might happen against Israel! And by Israeli people, the powerful Jewish people who are controlling the politics, media, and money in United States, and some other money/power lover crowd in US.

Just like Arabs not wanting a Jewish state in the Middle East, Jewish people of Israel want to have a bigger state in the Middle East, by forcibly migrating people previously occupying the grounds, assuming that the grounds were promised to them by the God. So they are not much different from each other. Just to make Israel feel comfortable, hundreds of thousand of people have already lost their life. And still they are not comfortable enough. Maybe they want a few thousands lives more to feel more comfortable (See the thousand civilians already lost their lives in Lebanon).

It seems to me the innocent Jews of the recent past has become the cruel side of the current time (mainly the Jews residing in Israel and US, who are strongly supporting Israel's highly aggressive politics - as usual does not include the whole community) - note that the politics of Israel should be taken as something that represents a big portion of the Jewish world, just like the Nazi politics were representing the majority of the Germans. And if Mel Gibson had similar kinds of feelings, then under the effects of alcohol him making such comments should be understandable even if not approvable. Israel's politics is the main driving point for many of the world threatening terrorist organizations to brainwash the youth people's minds. I guess, it should not be that difficult to see that Israel has a big encouraging driving effect on the current wars happening in the Middle East, and around the world by other terrorist organizations.

People of US should understand that critizing the politics of Israel (and US politics that support that) is not anti-semitism. It is a part of being human! But it is not their fault. The current media does not allow for the whole picture to be seen by its citizens. And the risk of being stamped as anti-semitist and the media scaring people with that is enough to stop people critizing the wrong politics.

Any country in which the religious leaders support the killing of civilians to achieve success should not be in hunger for hearing "You are rightful", "You deserve respect" kind of comments, they currently receive from the United States.