An Act of God

An act of God is the miracle of creation (under its many forms).
An act of God is every expression of love, tenderness and care.
An act of God is every bond, connection and act of intimacy...

Yet there are other readings...
In law, this expression signifies events that are outside human control (ex: floods, tornadoes, volcano eruptions, earthquakes and landslides).
Should it be inferred that lawmakers (and people in general) admit that there is a God willing to provoke these tragedies of nature?
Let’s assume that yes, indeed God occasionally does these things: with what purpose?
Does He want to punish, warn us or simply hold us accountable for our nation’s actions as a people?

Punishment
If God were to use floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes and volcano eruptions as a means to punish nations, why would He punish some countries more than others? For example, why would He punish the American Samoa, and not (let’s say) some nations where women are disrespected, where human rights are constantly violated and where His name is used to justify dread, hatred and terror?
What is the Caribbean, year after year, being punished for? I wonder whether the 2000 floods in Mozambique meant that God hadn’t forgiven the implementation of communism in that nation (a regime that translated into re-education camps, torture, food rationing, oppression and misery).
What about Hurricane Katrina? An evangelical pastor claimed that God punished New Orleans (Louisiana, US) because of Gays and immorality...Hmm...

Warning
Perhaps the world is being warned of the advent of a new era – after all, so many natural disasters occurring, at the same time (for the past few years), around the world must be telling us something – but what would this advent translate into exactly?

Accountability
Imagine that the natives of some nations are being held accountable for the actions of the political leaders they elected (thus affecting the lives of so many others – on a national and international level). Imagine that people of some countries are being held liable for not fighting against despotic leaders that took power by force and inflict pain (either physical or psychological) on the nation they were supposed to lead and develop.

Many people believe that “an act of God” is indeed the expression of God’s anger.
Others suggest that, in some cases, the “Act of God” should, in fact, be labelled as the “Act of Man” for they believe some earthquakes and tsunamis occurring in the Indian and Pacific oceans are the result of military testing...

Share your thoughts with us: what is an act of God to you?

You are invited to savour a different and most interesting perspective from LS: Here.

The Lusosphere: East Timor

Timor derives from the Indonesian word Timur, meaning "east".

Before the Portuguese arrived in Timor, there was already in the island a small population of hunters and farmers. There is documentation proving that this island maintained commercial ties with China (around the VII century) selling slaves, bee wax, sandalwood and noble wood (used to manufacture luxury furniture).

1512: the Portuguese arrived in East Timor

For 4 centuries the Lusitanians only used the territory for commercial purposes (thus, exploiting the island's natural resources: sandalwood & coffee). Unlike they had done in the other colonies, the Portuguese never developed this island (for instance: only during the XX century, after the 60's, there was electricity, potable water, sewage systems, schools and hospitals in Díli [the capital of East Timor], all the rest of the nation remained undeveloped).

August 1975 (a year after the Portuguese Carnation Revolution of 1974): the Portuguese government decides to leave the island; passing on the power to the FRETILIN (Frente Revolucionária de Timor-Leste [East Timor Revolutionary Front]).

28th of November 1975: FRETILIN (supported by the People's Republic of China) declares independence.

But this independence did not last, since the Indonesian troops invaded the island (by orders of General Suharto, on the 7th of December, who was supported by the USA and Australia for fear of a communist domino effect), despite the repudiation expressed by the United Nations, making of it thus the 27th Indonesian province (called Timor Timur).

The Indonesians applied a genocide policy, which resulted in the massacre of the Timorese (for more details read here).

The leader of FRETILIN (Xanana Gusmão) was imprisoned; and when Nelson Mandela visited him (in July of 1997) the people were more encouraged to seek independence from Indonesia. The fight for liberation was extremely violent; which led the governments of Portugal and Indonesia (in 1999) to negotiate a referendum (on the independence of the territory) - on the 30th of August 1999, 78,5% of the electorate voted for the independence of Timor.

Meanwhile, Indonesia began a program of social development in order to improve its image near the Timorese people.

After the referendum, the militias (that were allowed to defend the interests of the Indonesian country, by decree) went to the streets to kill everybody suspected of having voted for the independence. Thousands of people ran to hide in the mountains, families were separated, foreigners were evacuated leaving, thus, Timor in the midst of violence between the military and the Indonesian militias.

Portugal (in the person of Durão Barroso, the present President of the European Commission) engaged on a serious diplomatic battle in order to ensure the independence of this nation, since Portugal felt responsible for the current state of affairs. The Portuguese, in national territory (from North to South), placed white sheets by the windows as a token of solidarity towards the Timorese people; and funds were raised to help the displaced families and refugies. During this time Portugal welcomed thousands of refugees from Timor.

20th of May 2002: Timor finally became independent and Xanana Gusmão (presently Timor's Prime Minister) was elected its President.

Language

The official languages are the Tétum and the Portuguese (although for business Indonesian and English are the elected languages); however there are 15 other national languages: ataurense, baiqueno, becais, búnaque, cauamina, fataluco, galóli, habo, idalaca, lovaia, macalero, macassai, mambai quémaque and tocodede.

Culture

The culture reflects the influence of several other cultures: the Roman Catholic tradition; Portugal and Malaysia.

The majority of the population is Roman Catholic.

The national Anthem is "Pátria" (Nation) and is sung in Portuguese only.

(Traditional house in Díli)

Architecture

There are some Portuguese-style buildings, along with the traditional lulik (sacred houses in tetum) and the lee teinu (houses with legs) in the region of Fataluku.

Video

Let's finish this article with some images from this beautiful island. Enjoy!

Next Stop: Macau

Misused Sex

I shall be direct & brief...

Sex is a wonderful thing. When done with love it becomes divine.

Two bodies intertwined in passion; the shawl of love sanctifying the blessed act; energies flowing; moist promising life; the lock that forever bonds a loving couple.

But then we have plain sex. An act based on pleasure for the sake of pleasure only; irresponsibly done and disposed of as if it were a commodity.

Two bodies intertwined in lust; the shawl of hedonism desecrates what should be a sacred act; energies flow only to block; moist promises death; the lock between a penis & a vagina bonds not.

People use sex to belittle and humiliate themselves.

When someone makes use of sex to get a job, a promotion or climb the social ladder, that individual is telling, not only the world, but mainly itself that it is incapable of finding a job through its own intellectual merit; a promotion through its creativity, intelligence, and hard work; and/or climb the social ladder by the respect gained through an honourable conduct (yes, money alone means nothing in certain circles: one’s demeanour is highly important).

A human being who uses sex in such fashion is acknowledging that it doesn’t respect and thinks not highly of itself.

On the other hand, doesn’t this being hold the right to do with its body whatever it wishes? The first answer that comes to my mind is: Yes, it does. But then I think to myself that even though it has the right to do whatever it wishes, it doesn’t mean that it is correct to do so.

Let’s delve into this: two people work in a company (or any other institution) and person A is dynamic, highly creative, it invests a lot of working hours, it knows the meaning of team work, it is a natural born leader, it is the apple of any company’s eyes; person B is a regular worker, sufficiently creative, it works from 9 to 5, it is slightly socially challenged, it is practically a median employee. When the time came to promote one of them, person B was the selected one.

(N.B: person B sleeps with the CEO)

I ask, what is it like to be inside the mind of these people? When they look at the poor competent colleague who missed its promotion because he/she is honest...do they think “You are an idiot. You should’ve slept with the boss, before I did: thank God you didn’t though”?

What are their conscience’s last thoughts before they fall asleep? Do they have any conscience at all?

Negative sex overshadows good sense and sensibility.

Image: Sculpture (Apollo & Daphne) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Journalism: Rest In Peace

Journalism lies in the hands of media groups; thus look what happened to its independence and ethics...

Friday evening: I turn on the TV and on a political show, on CNN, there is a discussion on an extremely crucial issue...David Letterman’s sex “scandal”.

Then I watch the Portuguese news channels and instead of analysing in depth the current quid pro quo between our president and the government, they comment on football (soccer), and nonchalantly suggest that some referees may be corrupt.

Saturday evening: on CNN, David Letterman’s sex adventure with some of his female staff is still “news”.

On the Portuguese news channels, finally, the municipal elections take over the scene: communist candidates look at decayed buildings and promise to tackle the situation (detail: some of these candidates have been elected aldermen for more than 13 years; so a question is in order: why didn’t they tackle the situation before?); socialist candidates cannot control their party members (who in a certain constituency beat up members of the opposite campaign [centre-right wing] – oh, classy!); social-democrat candidates (in some cases, in coalition with the Christian party [right wing]) present some decent electoral programs and at the same time engage in kitchen sink arguments with the socialists.

Sunday evening: I give the news a rest, hopeful that on Monday fresh news will be bestowed upon me.

Monday evening: on CNN, David Letterman’s sex extortion case is still hype and I nearly emailed the news network (in question) to tell them “Give it a rest! The man had sex: so what? Can we, please, go back to discussing the Goldstone report?”...but I didn’t...instead I decided that if Tuesday they’d talk about the same thing, I’d switch to that ghastly news channel called Fox News.

On the Portuguese news field, David Letterman’s case finally arrives, only extremely briefly (because even the Portuguese know that this is not a subject worthy of being the centrepiece of news – I even bet some Portuguese anchors and presenters [both male and female] thought to themselves “Lucky bastard! I wish...”). Then, thank God, they focused on our Republic’s anniversary: yes, sir...it is now 99 years old (Happy Anniversary, Portugal)! I even enjoyed watching the members of the “Causa Real (Royal Cause)” party waving the monarchic flag and promising to bring back monarchy to Portugal – good luck with that, mates!

This being said, gone are the days when the words journalism and quality walked hand in hand.

Long gone are the days when reporters would draw the public’s attention to real issues; when journalists transmitted the news with a respectable amount of impartiality (which encouraged people to think and make decisions by themselves).

Today, journalism lost its focus, its sense of purpose, its ethical code and nearly turned into a stripper dancing to the sound of marketing trash-music, while waiting for the ads to slip a 20 inside its knickers.

Image: Taken from here