Week to July 5, 2003

(Sorry to be delayed, I was not only busy but unwell over the weekend.)

On Saturday, as I walked by the Magazine rack in my neighbourhood Supermarket,
my eye was captured by the cover of the June 30 2003 Time magazine.

There we saw a clenched fist, grasping a golden cross against a chiaroscuro
background, with the caption: "Should Christians Convert Muslims?"

That all too caricatured cover, on public display at eye-level in a Caribbean
supermarket, says it all:

(1) The Secularists and neopagans frame the issues and decide what are issues.
So, why are we looking to the declared enemies of the faith to give us accurate,
fair and balanced news on matters of the faith? (If Christians are murdered
because of that cover, will Time pay compensation to the relatives? Or will
they extend the underlyiong theme of the story, and blame the victims?)

(2) When did you see a Time cover-picture of a bombed hospital in Sudan [just
ask Franklyn Graham if you need a file shot!] , with the caption whether muslims
can justify bombing, murdering, raping and /or enslaving or simply abusing and
exploiting those they call "kaffirs" i.e. unbelievers? [ http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=28335&d=4&m=7&y=2003
and http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33396
]

(3) Why wasn't the Caribbean's Templeton Prize winner --Dr Patrick Sookhdeo
-- on the cover instead, with his call to stop the wicked practice of murdering
muslims who decide that another faith better meets their spiritual needs? Or
is freedom of expression only a problem if the one who wants to express is a
secularist or neopagan? [Cf. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33406
]

(4) More generally, we need to reflect on what bat Ye'or calls "Dhimmitude."
[ http://www.dhimmitude.org/d_history.php
]

Clearly the news ain't fair, balanced, or responsible when it comes to Christians.
It is high time for Christians in the region to develop our own alternative
news sources and services. Why should we let those who obviously are enemies
of the faith define how we think about the world and its concerns?

CLIPS . . .

1. Cuba update

It seems Mr Martin Henry paid a recent visit to Cuba, and has some interesting
things to say: http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20030703/cleisure/cleisure3.html

"Cuba is among the last holdouts, alongside China and Vietnam, in the
collapse of Marxism. As the USSR learned, the economic opening of the system
is particularly dangerous to the political ideology. Cuba really has no choice
in the new world but to open its economy to free trade both externally and internally.
Those 1950s Chevvies can go on for only so much longer and there is no barter
of sugar for Ladas today. A vigorous tourist trade is emerging as the backbone
of the struggling economy. Both the Cuban and American governments tacitly recognise
that the blockade is full of holes. Maintaining each other as enemy is of enormous
ideological and political significance. It is very doubtful if La Revolucion
can survive the death of the Leader or the end of the blockade. A witty professor
of Humanities at La Universidad de la Habana declared Cuba to be in a time of
intellectual and ideological ferment . . . ."

2. Bigamy next

The so-called Christian polygamists want to follow up on the US SC privacy
rights hearing: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33409
. On the law, science and policy implications of the decision see http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33434
. let us pray that our region's intelligentsia does not pick up this trend any
more than was apparent on our chat shows last week!

3. Depression and Vitamin b

having heard the above, you may feel in need of some good old vitamin B, which
is now emerging as an anti-depressant, according to: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030705/hl_nm/vitamin_depression_dc_1