Re-defining The Right Wing

The European perspective...

Motto: God, Nation, Family

Right Wingers make sure they let the world know how religious they are: they attend the church/temple every week; they heavily participate in every church/temple activity; they join certain groups (or agencies) and God is always present in their speech.
But then, when in the political arena, they seem to contradict spiritual values: they display bigotry, xenophobia; sometimes hatred, lack of concern for social matters (after all that is for the lefties), contempt and belligerent behaviour.

The Right Wing is more patriotic than any other Wing: it knows the national anthem and sings it; it respects the flag. It is proud of its nation’s cultural identity, values and history. It aims at a national common project (as long as it fits within its values).
But then, when in the political arena, it can stubbornly hold on to its ideals even if it means to bring the country to chaos. Flexibility is a word the Right Wing ignores.

The Right is all about family values: its partisans usually marry early; they have a lot of children; they display an image of a perfect familial unity and do anything (absolutely anything) to keep it intact. The Traditional Family (i.e. no gays) comes first.
But then, when in the political arena, some of them end up by seeing its true colours exposed: extra-marital affairs, homosexuality (the very thing most of them speak against), physical and psychological abuse within their family etc.

Furthermore, the Right Wing is viewed as being a cold-hearted capitalist, greedy; with no respect whatsoever for the environment (again, that is for the lefties); unethical and aiming at benefitting the private sector at all costs.

I am a Right Winger: I deeply believe in God; I seek the success of my nation and my family always comes first (no matter what or whom).
However, I (and those like me) endeavour to re-define the Right Wing...

Re-definition

Motto: God, Family, Nation

Right Wingers believe in God, but they do not necessarily have a religion. God is omnipresent, meaning that each home can be a temple. Community service can be done in several ways. Their speech and behaviour reflect their spiritual progress: Love, Humanity, Generosity; Respect and Peace (although fully conscious that in order to have peace some wars must be fought).

Right Wingers understand that families are the foundation of any nation.
They strive to re-instate family values, in our society, for it is the only way to bring back real order to communities.
Definition of family: A- two adults raising a child or children; B – An adult bringing up a child or children (of course, situation A is preferable, however if not possible mono-parental families are better than no family at all).
Marriage (between a man and woman) is essential. Legal Unions (between same sex couples) are a right. Living together, although respected, is not aimed at.
The Right Wing loves its country, its national identity & symbols (flag and anthem), and history. However, it also understands that its culture can be further enriched by other cultures that legally come to its nation and help in its development.
Right Wingers love law and order. They also seek the wellbeing of all the citizens of the country they love. They defend an ethical capitalism, philanthropy and social responsibility. Since they love the “Patria” they must care for its environment. They comprehend words like flexibility and compromise.

Presently, people see the Right Wing as the image of social division, snobs and “anything goes in Business” and, hence, turn to the left. It is time to re-define it.

For a North American perspective, please beam over to LS' place: Here.

The Lusosphere: Macau

1553-1554: The Portuguese arrive in Macau. They illegal & temporarily settle there under the pretext of drying their soaked up merchandise.

1557: The Chinese authorities finally give permission to the Portuguese to permanently settle in Macau; and grant them a fair degree of self-government. In exchange, the Portuguese had to pay an annual fee (of approximately 500 silver taels [1 silver tael = 40 grams]) and certain taxes to China (so that it could always be known that Macau was still a Chinese territory).

Ever since, Macau has developed and enriched by becoming an entrepôt of trade and the intermediary of commercial triangle between China, Japan and Europe (in a time when China prohibited direct trade with Japan for more than 100 years).

Besides being a transshipment centre, Macau was also an important disseminator of the Roman Catholic teachings throughout the Far East (specially China). For this reason, in 1576, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Macau was created by the edit of Pope Gregory XIII (which covered China, Japan, Vietnam and the Malay archipelago [excluding the Philippines]).

(Macau Trade Routes)

1583: The "Leal Senado" was created (some sort of City Council) which was in charge of protecting the commerce controlled by Macau; of establishing order and security and solving day-to-day issues.

1622: Due to its prosperity, Macau was attacked several times by the Dutch. The most famous attack occurred on the 22nd of June 1622, when 800 Dutch soldiers disembark on the city to conquer it; only after two days of combat they were heavily defeated and the Portuguese victory was considered a miracle given the fact that they were so unprepared.

1844-1849: Through a Royal Decree, Macau was officially considered a Portuguese colony (such decree was not recognised by China). Macau becomes a free economic zone. Governor João Ferreira do Amaral orders that the annual fee and taxes paid to the Chinese are to be ceased; that the mandarins are to be expelled from Macau and that the Ho-pu (Chinese customs) was to be abolished.

(Lesser Coats of Arms of Portuguese Macau)

1901: BNU (Banco Nacional Ultramarino [Overseas National Bank]) was authorised to issue currency (the Pataca).

1966: 3rd of December, a mutiny (known as the 12-3 Incident) occurred in Macau carried out by the pro-communist Chinese (who were unhappy and utterly inspired by the Cultural Revolution of Mao Tse-tung), which led Portugal to renounce its perpetual occupation of the territory.

1974: Right after its Revolution (known as the Carnation Revolution), Portugal declared the immediate independence of all its overseas provinces; but China cleverly rejected it and proposed negotiations. In the end it was decided that Macau would now be called Chinese Territory under Portuguese Administration, and that it was to be transferred to the People Republic of China on the 20th of December 1999 (through the Transfer of Sovereignty of Macau declaration).

(Macau Flag)

Language

The official languages are the Chinese and Portuguese (declared official by the Chinese government in 1993).

Very few people speak Portuguese in Macau but institutions like "Fundação Oriente" (East Foundation) strive to keep the language alive in that region.

Curiosity

I know a few people who came from Macau (mainly during the 90's) to Portugal and I can say that, just like any other person from the former colonies, they are absolutely fantastic (completely different than the Portuguese). They are dynamic, creative, open minded, out-of-the-box people, cultivated, entrepreneurs...simply amazing.

Portuguese Architectural legacy

Enjoy some of the images:

(St. Paul's Cathedral's whole)

(St Anthony of Padua's Church)

("Leal Senado" Building)

("Ponte da Amizade" [Friendship Bridge])

(International Airport of Macau)

Next Stop: Back to Portugal

All images (with the exception of "Friendship Bridge") were taken from Wikipedia.

Lies: The Universal Truth

It is so easy to turn a lie into a truth.

If we keep repeating a lie over and over again; eventually it will become true (since we begin to believe in that same lie). We cease knowing which one is which and then…we witness the birth of a whole new truth.

Consensual truth is a fine example of it.

A group of religious people (of any denomination) convenes and discusses several issues. Each party (or individual) offers its opinion, its own interpretation of sacred texts; its own version of the facts and then negotiations commence. After much deliberation, a consensus is reached and the intellectual fruit of their agreement (not necessarily true) is now considered a Truth.

And all members of the congregation are to learn and repeat it as if it were the absolute truth.

Governments gather and decide when the people should spend or save (i.e. they go to the television and repeat n times the same sentence “We are now in a recession!” [People start saving]; “We are now in recovery!” [People start spending]). They even decide when people should globally be concerned with environmental issues or not (ex: intelligence services had satellite images proving that the Arctic had been melting for years, but only now [now that nations want to develop green energies] they reveal these pictures…). Global warming was a “lie” before but now it is surely a universal truth.

Governmental lies can become universal truths, in such a fashion that wrong wars may end up being fought.

Marketing is the biggest lie-turned-into-truth industry in the world.

It decides when people need futile consumption goods that they don’t really need, and then fabricate lies in order to lead consumers to buy superfluous good (the latter, hypnotized by the machine of lies keeps repeating “It’s true; I do need it…I have to buy it!”).

The biggest example of a lie turned into a universal truth is the anti-cellulite creams: Lord Marketing says that creams will fight cellulite, but forgets to mention that for it to work one has to exercise, drink lots of water, eat healthily (McDonald’s, and alike, is the closest friend of peau d’orange [1]) and keep buying anti-cellulite creams for eternity…otherwise “Welcome back, lunar craters!”…

And then we have the most endearing party whose “lies” are a universal truth (in a sense that the people in this category behave the same way all over the world): I am talking about mothers.

When before danger or crises, the first thing mothers will say is “It’s all right! Everything is going to be all right!” (they can be dying with their heads cracked open and still they’ll say this).

Kids see that it is not true; nothing is all right; they even doubt things will ever be all right (specially when moms die) but in that moment, out of love, they take that lie for an absolute truth.

The absolute Universal Truth is: everybody lies.

I’d like to thank Alexys for having suggesting this wonderful theme: you know you rock, girl!

[1] Peau d’orange: cellulite (in French).

Image: The Astronomer (detail) by Johannes Vermeer

Is the 1st Amendment killing Americans?

America’s enemies are within borders.

2009 has been an odd year for this great country: threats to its President (simply because of his complexion); attacks against Jews (being the most notorious case the shooting at the Holocaust Museum, in Washington); terrorist plots to attack several buildings across America; and, most recently, the shooting at Fort Hood.

What do the authors of these threats, plots, attacks and shootings have in common (prior to committing their crimes)? They are all radicals (be it nationalists or fundamentalists). They all express their ideologies of hate through the verb and/or the Internet. They were/are all being observed and followed by security forces. They are all protected by the 1st amendment and thus pre-emptive measures are out of the question. Innocent people get killed.

I watched, this past weekend, the TV show AC 360º (that I had previously recorded) where an American citizen (a convert to Islam), in the middle of New York, was spitting words of fire and hate against Americans, against the President; claiming that those who do not turn to Islam should die; and that Allah commands all Muslims to terrorise infidels (as a means to fear Him). This individual (accompanied by his Jewish-Israeli-recently-converted-to-Islam friend) recruits, in front of a mosque, and incites other Muslims to violence against Americans, on American soil. Until they actually kill somebody or set a plan forward to kill people, the police can’t act for their speech is protected. They may not act but others, inspired by them, might. (N.B: these irresponsible radicals do not give a jot about the repercussions of their actions upon moderate Muslims).

Major Nidal Malik Hasan (an American citizen) used to express hatred against America (he even had a blog for this purpose). This caused him to be under surveillance for once again his logorrhoea was protected. Last Thursday he shot his fellow soldiers, his brothers in arms; causing 13 people to die and 38 to be wounded.

His cousin (in Ramallah) said that he was made fun of for being a Muslim (note: the man is a psychiatrist, for heaven’s sake...can he say “sublimation”? And if we are going to talk about humiliation and having been made fun of in the military, let’s recall what happened when the first black soldiers joined the forces...yet, none of them shot their comrades); that he wanted out of the military but wasn’t allowed (note: if the military invests in your education, you must return that investment – everybody knows this) and some other explanations based on victimisation.

There are no coincidences. This event occurred after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised Israel for its unprecedented steps for peace. Major Hasan’s family seems to be Palestinian – now, whenever the Israeli-Palestinian issue is raised, do these Palestinian-descendant-American citizens feel more Palestinian or American? That is the question.

Then we have Mr. James W. von Brunn, a white supremacist, who authored an anti-Semitic web site where he vomited all his hatred – his mental diarrhoea was also protected and under surveillance.

But since he never mentioned his intentions on his site, the police never saw him coming. On the 10th of June 2009, Mr. White Supremacist walked in the Holocaust Museum and began shooting the place up hoping t exterminate some Juden but the only person he murdered was a goy (Mr. Stephen Tyrone Johns, 40), a brave security guard.

This racist trash keeps society with Patriots and Neo-Nazis. He’s well known by security forces yet they could do nothing before an innocent person got killed.

Europe loves its freedom of speech (after all it did have the inquisition, fascism and communism) nevertheless the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms foresees a limitation of that freedom “in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or the rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.”…

So, what do you think: is the 1st amendment killing Americans?

Image: Burning of the Heretics (Auto da fé) by Pedro Berruguete

Irresponsibility Sexism and Violence

I love rap. I’ve been listening to it since I was 9 (my first rap song was “I need Love” by LL Cool J – so very cool).

There was a time when rap, in general, meant something; when it bore an important social message (injustice, segregation, human relations etc) and in a language free of filthy words (during the 70’s and 80’s).

But then came the 90’s...

Suddenly most rap equals to the F word; to killing people; to “the chronic”; to gangs; to women bashing and to defying the authorities.

The F word is horrible (I do not mean “Fornicate”, I am talking about its ghastly cousin). Is there really the need to include it in songs? I wonder if these rappers know that the usage of fowl language not only is vulgar but also denotes lack of intelligence and culture; for instead of saying F*** this and F*** that, they could enhance their message through the use of words that actually mean something (there are a lot of ways to protest without being coarse).

I bet they’d sell more CD’s if they’d obliterate this dreadful word off their repertoire; because people wouldn’t get lost in vulgarity and would actually pay attention to the message at hand.

Rap seems to romanticise gangs and incite people to violence.

Being in a gang is not the same as belonging to the Cosa Nostra; and if the latter can be awful (with all its codes of honour to protect families), now imagine what’s like to belong to a gang (where honour seems to be ignored and not intended to protect families – a gang is based on violence for violence and by violence) – it is not romantic, it is not cool.

The lyrics, in rap music, often embellish the act of smoking weed. This is irresponsible.

Smoking weed may lead to the consumption of hard drugs and abuse of other substances; which in turn will lead to depravation...

Speaking of putrefaction...let’s discuss women bashing.

One must really be doped up and drunk to bash women; to objectify a being that represents the generation of life, love, nurture, generosity, strength, resilience and power.

The Rap Industry must be all smoking crack not to realise that bashing women is the same as bashing its own mothers, sisters, wives, cousins, nieces, daughters and so forth. No money, in the world, justifies this.

Now, it is known that some women perpetuate this behavioural vulgarity and to them I say: you are a damn woman; where’s your dignity?

The police, around the world, make a lot of mistakes (it abuses its position of power); nevertheless it is a figure of authority that needs to be respected (if they mess up, there are ways to get them).

Some say that most rappers represent the stereotype of not having had a daddy around, which depleted them of the capacity to deal and respect authority – Nonsense!

Plenty of people didn’t have a father around and they chose to walk on the right path...towards a healthy and successful life.

Kids listen to rap and they like it. If they are fortunate enough to have a parent around all the time (like I did) to explain them that the contents of those songs are not a role model at all; great. But if they are not fortunate enough (like most kids today) then these children are being subjected to the Rap Industry’s irresponsibility, sexism and violence.

Image: Borrowed from Youth In Control