And what are the dhimmi European authorities doing about it? From AP, with thanks to Kemaste:
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) Novelist Yasmine Allas doesn't believe in happy endings.That's strange, considering her own unlikely road to success. The daughter of a wealthy army officer, she fled as a teenager from her repressive childhood in Somalia, where she had dreamed of becoming an actress, dating men, drinking wine and living the life she saw in movies.
Now in the Netherlands, having gained an audience for her bleak stories of oppressed women and failed immigrants, she finds she still can't escape fear.
Since the slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh last month in Amsterdam, there have been death threats against two prominent Muslim women politicians Ayaan Hirsi Ali in Holland and Mimount Bousakla in Belgium who have spoken out against repression in Islam.
Allas, 35, is among a growing group of young women from Muslim backgrounds who are making it in politics, the arts, media or the law in Europe, and in some cases are putting themselves at the forefront of the fight against extremism from two directions Islamic fundamentalists and Europe's far-right fringe.
From a television journalist in Italy to a standup comic in Norway, these women are speaking up in voices that may never have been heard had they remained in their native lands.
In Somalia, says Allas, ``If you are a girl, you always are in fear of your parents, your older brothers, your male neighbors. It is always the man ... It is always fear and fear and fear.''...
``When I came to Holland, for me it was, Whew! What freedom! What a country! It was love, immediately,'' she recalls.
``But Holland is not the same.''
AP then plays the moral equivalence angle:
Fatima Elatik, deputy mayor of Amsterdam's heavily immigrant Zeeburg borough, was assigned bodyguards after receiving threats from a right-wing Dutch extremist after the Van Gogh killing.Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks ``there's been a lot of Muslim- and Islam-bashing in our society that really was very frightening,'' said Elatik, 31.
She deals often with young immigrant men and women who want to be Dutch yet feel alien. Even though she wears a head scarf, she considers herself a modern, liberal Dutch woman.
``What is typically Dutch? I don't look Dutch, I don't have a Dutch name. But I wear Dutch clothes. Even my scarf, my hijab, I buy in Dutch stores. What more do you want from me?''
Umm, how about a definitive and trustworthy community-wide renunciation of any intention to impose Sharia now or in the future?
Elatik is one of those dangerous Islamists. She was in favor of stopping a play in Amsterdam about the wives of Mohammed after muslims threatened the director. I don't believe for one second her life is being threatened at all, there is a massive movement geared towards cuddling muslims at the moment and a huge backlash against rightwing groups although those are practically non-existent.
A study by radical leftists showed there are about 15 rightwing radicals in Holland. Every single attack in the last thirty years has come from the left but for some bizarro reason the media and the politicians have focussed on those 'dangerous' rightwing groups. They're trying to level the 'playing field' by arguing that those poor muslims and multiculturalists are also being threatened so that makes it tit for tat in their mind.
They found out last week that vandals that left White Power signs on a school did that to pin the blame on right-wing groups. The police refuse to tell us who burnt the islamic school, which could very well mean that either muslims or leftwing radicals were responsible for that one as well.
Wouldn't be the first time a muslim blew up his own grocery store to cry 'racism' afterwards. Because it works, people buy into it. Dutch citizens are completely brainwashed by the left, it's a matter of time before Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders will be taken down the same way Pim Fortuyn was taken down. The media aren't sure yet if they can build them up far enough to still be able to crush them when the time comes, the leftwing politicians argue that they will not make the same mistake again and that this time they will pay more attention to those citizens who are clearly 'xenophobic'.
Even with most of the criticism coming people with a foreign background, people like Hirsi Ali, Afshin Ellian, Sylvain Ephimenco, Haffid Bouazza they still hold on to the notion that the Dutch are racist and that they must be shown the error of their ways. They even call it 'new realism'.
For more on the Dutch sickness, go to http://www.gunzilla.net/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=35.
Umm, how about a definitive and trustworthy community-wide renunciation of any intention to impose Sharia now or in the future?
1) On the renunciation. You should elaborate on this. Who should make such a renunciation, what exactly should be renounced, what would make it definitive, trustworthy and community-wide, what can the lady in question do about this? Why should only Muslims be required to make such a renunciation. Why cannot they aspire, by legal means, to adjust the existing laws (I do not wish a sharia law, I do not think it will ever be applied in the Netherlands, but I think people have the right to express them being in favor of this law. All people in The Netherlands (this includes of course extreme leftists and rightists, ultra-conservative christians and Jews, and all kinds of fanatics - religion-inspired or not) have to live by the existing law, even though they might have an agenda to change the law to better suit their personal ideals.)
Things start to go wrong when fanatics start to impose their laws (illegal laws) on others. This also the moment that people must be stopped.
2) On the lady and the Muslims. I do not think that the lady in question has any intention to impose Sharia law, like at least 99% of the other Muslimes living in The Netherlands. It is wrong and counterproductive to implicitly accuse all muslims of wishing to install the Sharia law, just because a few of them may have said that they want this. Most of the Muslims in the Netherlands have been living there all their lives or for 30 years or more, and the murder on Van Gogh is the first religion-inspired crime committed by a Muslim in the Netherlands. BTW I have not read any trustworthy statement (I'm not asking for a definitive or community-wide one) from a Muslim in the Netherlands expressing their intention to install the Sharia in The Netherlands this, but maybe you can show me one
TvE
"Van Gogh is the first religion-inspired crime committed by a Muslim in the Netherlands."
That's bollocks. Apart from the fact that the newspapers reported there were two identical murders prior to Van Gogh's slaying that we never heard about I consider the 'honor killings' also inspired by the death cult. How do we lable the rapes of Dutch girls by groups of muslim men, are they also not inspired by Islam?
There are plenty of muslims that want to impose sharia in the Netherlands. A majoruty of muslims want to impose it in the UK so why would Holland be any different? Only very outspoken muslims like Mohammed Cheppih will come out and say it and you can find plenty of comments from young Dutch muslims on the internet that show they want an islamic state in Holland. Even if you ask them upfront they will mostly waffle about it saying that sharia is not used correctly in all those other islamic countries.
You'd have to be pretty dense not to see what these people want. Read between the bloody lines!
tve is a muslim.
I never believe anything that comes from islam, its apologists nor its defenders.
Isn't this title:
"Muslim women who speak out against extremism risk backlash"
a Cosmic understatement?
Unless the entirety of Islam is considered "extremism".
Because, to have the misfortune of being born a "Muslim" woman (or guy, for that matter) means that you are trapped in this patriarchal mind-death machine for life, since, to leave instantly requires your former co-cult members to kill you as an apostate.
Is that not extremism?
To quote the Qu'ran:
"And your companion [Mohammad] is not jinn-possessed. For indeed he saw him [the angel Jibreel] on the clear horizon. Nor was he niggardly concerning the Unseen. It is not the speech of a stoned Satan."
-Sura 81 "The Removal"
Sound like the speech of a stoned Satan to me.
And Pure Extremism.
Larded with a little artificial sweetener of incongruous "compassion" added on top of the incessant vengeful poison, to trick the 'tongue'. All of the pretend-positive 'faux christian' happy horsh*t "peace and love" sura-filler being utterly unrelated to the constant drumbeat of vendatta and vilification for anyone who disagrees with the Prophet (swt) or his schizoid dogma.
To start a paragraph "In the Name of All the Merciful, The Compassionate" and then go one to wish your neighbor eternal suffering in the boiling oil of Hell -for merely not agreeing with your particular interpreation of the Ineffable seems to be a sign of a bi-polar disorder beome a theology.
Muslim Women Wake Up!
Change your name, flee to a secular democracy, become a nondescript good neighbor and enjoy freedom and the simple joys of existence without having to worry that one of your Hadith-sick relatives or comrades thinks your smirked once when you said the word Allah (even though it was just a sneeze that passed), and gives your throat a "Columbian necktie".
I have no sympathy for those gals trying to excuse this misogynist sect's sillinesses and psychopathia.
That goes for whoever Naseem is, as well.
Read the Koran, lady. It ain't pretty.
"Dutch citizens are completely brainwashed by the left, it's a matter of time before Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders will be taken down the same way Pim Fortuyn was taken down."
Leveller
That's a bunch of bollocks Leveller. Give me a break. You really don't give the Dutch much credit, do you? The Dutch aren't brainwashed and the left or right or whatever has a right to ventilate their point of view. Personally I'd like to see the muslims take off to where they came from but I don't expect everyone to accept my view on things. And there's plenty of people from the left who aren't happy with the muslims, particularly the kut marokkanen, who is? It's probably better to have a balanced approach to the problem and it is just useless constantly blaming the "left" who have the most to lose by growing islamic influence. That being said instead of constantly insulting the left one should focus on those individual politicians, left or right, who insist on pandering the muslims.
Backlash? More like whiplash.
If they're lucky.
To Arhopala,
well, Leveller and many others put the finger into the wound: why is it so strange to see many leftists and liberals ( as well as the greens), still cultivate a right-wing paranoia in Europe?
I mean chanting rassist songs in soccer stadiums when a black player shows up on the soccer ground is one thing but what about "right- wing" action of Muslim immigrants.
Yesterday I posted a thread concerning social democrats in Germany who made silly statements about immigration. Defending them I thought it over..and yes I must agree that many where quite keen to critisize conservative politicians who warned against immigration, the definition of nationhood.
Mijnheer Gilders, I wish you good luck!
Classic taqiyyah:
Modern, liberal Dutch women don't wear head scarves to obey the dictate of some 7th century misogynist cult. You can buy burqas in Dutch stores also, but they are by no stretch of the imagination "Dutch". This sort of doublespeak babble is just lipstick on a pig.A Joachim Wtewael nude portrait, now that's Dutch.
Yasmine Allas and all others have forgotten that responsibility and obligation of ANY immigrant is to conform to the society to which they have moved. They should leave if that society is not appropriate for them.
Ms. Allas and all other Muslims immigrating to the West knew the expectations in advance and chose to move there in spite of the fact that Western laws and mores are not compatible to Islam.
Why did they make the choice? If wanted to be French, Dutch, Canadian, or American, for example they would leave behind or adapt their previous behaviors. Obviously they don't want to be French, Dutch, Canadian, American or a member of any Western culture because, despising Western culture, they invariably break the traditional immigrants pact with their host country.
Instead of going as a immigrant, they are in fact going as an invader, the vanguard, the first wave. Thus, when Ms. Allas tell us that she clothes herself from head to toe in Dutch clothing, she is in fact lying!!!! This is not rocket science.
Well, one can also hear the sarcastic undertone in her voice.
"Oh,look at me I am so smart 'cause I can do whatever I want...I am still the daughter of Allah"
Like the "soft voiced female Pakistani teacher" once mentioned in a thread.
Over here, Somalians seem to be the most fundamentalist brand of all Muslims. The women wear full burqas and are constantly pregnant; I actually wonder how they can all be heavily pregnant all the time, like the 8th month at least - logically, the bellies should be sometimes smaller... Maybe they don't go out unless they can expose a full belly under a burqa, or then, the figures just don't recover between too many pregnancies? The girls are packed in hijabs and tight ankle-long skirts so they can hardly move - all girls, schoolgirls as well as toddlers, ever since they start walking. Even veiling of 9-year-olds is pervert, but the Somalians start at 2. People who work at women's shelters and schools say many of those girls are incapable of learning, for constant violence and fear of violence at home. Officially, these problems don't exist, because to talk about them would be "racist".
Der Spiegel has some pretty disillusioned stories about the situation of Muslim women in Europe:
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,329060,00.html
and:
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,329261,00.html
To Nippon
I was specifically referring to Leveller's remarks about the Dutch being brainwashed etc., which I think denigrates the Dutch. I think the Dutch and Dutch politicians are taking a braver stance against islam than virtually every other western country. The fierce opposition to anti-immigration parties was also upheld by all parties, left and right, until quite recently. Look at the cordon sanitaire in Belgium. I therefore don't think it's a left- or right-wing thing. Unfortunately there are plenty of (left-wing or whatever) politicians who continue to pander to muslims. It's perfectly fair to question the wisdom of those individuals without resorting to sweeping generalisations about a certain political movement. I, for example, share many left-wing views e.g. am in favour of abortion, protecting the environment, animal rights, aiding (the non-muslim) third world, reducing income inequitability etc. but am totally against islam and favour repatriation of islamic immigrants. I'm also quite perturbed at some Dutch christians who argue the case of the Palestinians and say they have a common goal with their muslim monotheistic brothers. I'm not the only one, by the way, who holds such views, which makes any political generalisation simplistic at best.
To Arhopala,
I fully agree with you, the situation is too complex to make any judgements (lefist= wrong, rightist= right).
The point is: Every high ranking member of a certain poltical movement should be aware of the fact that a true Muslim isn't interested in politics of western style. So everyone of them shouldn't criticise his colleague.
True, Nippon
Although I don't agree with everything that Gert Wilders says or wants I agree wholeheartedly with him as far as islam is concerned. Luckily more and more people (left and right) are starting to realise that islam is a threat to the western world and style of life.
R E P A T R I A T I O N !!!! Free transport to Saudi Arabia, Somalia or the Sahara for all Eurabian muslims!
They repeatedly shit in their own nest, then act surprised when it starts to smell bad. Their "solution": move on to another nest!!! They never seem to reflect upon what happens to them when there are no more clean, cushy nests left to shit into. Sorry for the language, but can anyone refute the metaphor?
Geert Wilders has only talked about Islam so what else you don't agree with? He's got my vote, anyway. If he's still alive by then, that is. The Dutch secret service already warned that all of the people involved with his party will have to fear for their lives. Now, as for the Dutch I think they are mostly cowards. Afshin Ellian says he now understands why it took only five days for the nazi's to take Holland. People are flocking into the mosks now to get to know their muslim neighbours while at the same time the media and politicians are spinning out of control to warn against right-wing nazi's and 'gut feelings'. I'm not fooled by the social-democrats' 'new realism'. I have to admit that in Holland there's not really a right-wing party to speak of apart from this thing Wilders is trying to set up and we'll just have to see how that pans out taking into consideration the LPF (Fortuyn's party) fiasco. Basically all parties, including the liberal parties and the main christian party, operate left from center. In those parties you have conservatives but they are forced to either step in line with the rest or leave like Wilders did. The media are self-proclaimed pinko's as well. They all tried to silence the debate about the multicultural nightmare they imposed on the people. Now that people are allowed to discuss it, see what people leading those debates! People are still told along what lines to think but this time it's much more subtle. The Dutch have refused to think for themselves for so long it's a mircale their brains are still functioning. If (or should I say 'when') Wilders gets killed and there's no one to take over for him the Dutch will shrug it off, turn off the lights and step back into bed with the plague dogs.
``What is typically Dutch? I don't look Dutch, I don't have a Dutch name. But I wear Dutch clothes. Even my scarf, my hijab, I buy in Dutch stores. What more do you want from me?'' - Fatima Elatik
Get out of the country and settle in Saudi Arabia if you believe in covering up or wearing hijab.
Buying a hijab in Dutch store does not mean she respects western values. Just like her, the gas I use to run my car, is from muslim country. But I do not believe in what they do. And I will not settle in Arab country and ask them to change for me.
Ok, devil's advocate here:
I don't see how wearing the religious garb is an insult to one's country, whether one is an immigrant or tenth generation. When I still was a practicing Jew, I kept my head covered and wore long sleeves and skirts- and participated fully in Canadian life in every way except for eating pork. I have a hard time condemning a person of any religion for his or her appearance, having taken my fair share of insults even from 'normal' white Canadians.
Why is Muslim attire so offensive to many? Personally, I couldn't care less if any of you decided to shop at the Eddie Bauer Home Store for all your wearing needs, as long as you all didn't go around threatening my children, my government, my religion or my right to free speech.
/devil's advocate
Geert Wilders also had his "10 punten plan", which was'nt only about the islam although I agree that his stance on islam is enough for a vote and there are plenty of Dutch people who support him. Calling the Dutch mostly cowards isn't going to really help anything is it? The Dutch have a proud history and have or at least had a great way of life, which should be defended from the muslim onslaught. Again it doesn't matter where most of the political parties operate as long as they take a stance on islam and immigration. Bolkenstein did this back in the early 90's by the way.
libbysmom:
You've managed to observe your religious habits without imposing them on anyone else. You choose to avoid what is against your beliefs rather than tell others that they have to change rules to accomodate yours. GOOD FOR YOU. Good for all of us who do that. That's how life should be.
There's nothing wrong with wearing a hijab in Holland. But I'm sorry, it's not Dutch. The hijab is arab-desert islam inspired. Dutch is wooden shoes, tulips, that funny butterfly hat, windmills and the Dutch language. It may be a stereotype but The Netherlands is the only place in the world where you can find that combination of dress, language and things that are uniquely, well, Dutch.
When I visited Europe, I wanted to see and hear French people in France, Italians in Italy, Finns in Finland. I did not go there to see muslims. If I wanted to see muslims, I'd go to the 57 hellhole countries their islamic values have created. I don't plan to go anytime soon.
Europe has always been multicultural. Requiring every country in this world to be a United Nations is an islamic plot to invade the Dar-al-Harb under the guise of multiculturalism.
I'm sorry. Make that a Jewish plot.
The Dutch fought against the Nazi onslaught, as a military force, for about two weeks... then, under a terrorizing occupation, went underground, since they were absolutely outgunned and outnumbered. The Nazi's obliterated Rotterdam as an example of what they would do to the entire country if the Dutch did not give in. Rather than committ complete national sauicide, they did. With no help from the nearly-defeated English to count on, they choose to fight by other means.
They struggled for the next 5 years in every way they could, against the Wehrmacht, S.S. and Gestapo, and also battled with some homegrown traitors, like the local band of brownshirts (a little Dutch dicatator named Mussert was the tinhorn Hitler of Holland) called the NSB (whom my wife's Resistence member Dutch father always mocked as meaning "Niet So Bedoeld"* when they surrended, finally), including the type of bastard who ratted on the Ann Frank family -as average Amsterdammer's hid them, and others.
But, though it all, the people persisted in their almost-hopeless subterranean warfare, sabotaging what they could, passing on intelligence to England and the Allies, saving refugeees and escaped airmen and P.O.W.'s, and hoping the U.S. would finally join the battle for Civilization.
They did. And we all won.
Until the 1980's The Netherlands was firmly on the side of their Liberators (the U.S., England, Poland and Canada ) and NATO, but, with Reagan, and an-all-too-comfortable-post-war-peace, a stupid quasi-communist core of 'multiculturalists' started to sprout in their universities and cafe life. Ashamed of their colonial past, they seemed intent on destroying their own country- by allowing it to be swampoed by alien immigrants who despised what freedom of thought the Dutch had always represented (giving Spinoza sanctuary, etc.).
At the heart of the Dutch, though, a pragmatic and freedom loving kernal has always remained strong. The murder of Pim Fortuyn roused it some, but Theo Van Gogh's public slaughter has awakened about 40% of the people in the Low Country. That's probably better than any other European nation, and likely more than the U.S., as well- even with 9/11.
They will fight. But they will have to sweep away the traitorious, self-defeatist members of the government who are still laboring for neo-Maoi-sm and disguised Leninism and apologizing to their former colonies and feeling like former bullies and wishing to be humbled.
The farmers and taxi drivers and shopkeeepers and IT professionals haven't bought into this spineless, self-abnegating supra- socialist credo 'we're bad people because we explored the globe and invented the microscope and spread learning to those who were dining on one another's thigh bones the century before'. They like clean streets and safe neighborhoods and running water and a good laugh. (And fine beer, and satire and beautiful bodies and musidc and poetry and art and science and travel and exploration of the micro and macrocosm.)
They will resist.
The question is:
Will anyone else?
(* "I didn't mean it!")
The fight against islam in Europe is going to be the hardest fight our continent has ever seen. Not only because moslems are trying to breed us off the planet but because our own governments and media are against us. This is one of the few times in history when the Right (and by the right I mean those who control the economy - big business etc.) and the Left (multi-culturalists, utopians etc.) are on the same side. Neither of these groups is interested in our national identities or our cultural makeup. Big business couldn't care less if Britain is 90% immigrant so long as they have cheap labour and can make a profit.
corporations don't give a sh*t about society so they're more than happy for open door immigration for moslems .A former aristocrat turned company chairman said in the 60s when asked about third world immigration into England - "I don't care if they're Cockneys from the East End or Sikhs from Dehli, they're all bloody wogs to me."
Meanwhile the liberal Left hates the West so it has no interest in keeping alive any notion of a European identity. Moslem immigration is good to them because it hastens they're utopian "dream" of a multi-cultural Europe". So , there you have it , the Left-Right pincer that has Europe by the throat. To destroy it we're going to have to beat islam without their help and redefine the whole political landscape....
Libbysmom - It offends me in a visceral way when I see women wear the jihab or even a head scarf. Western women, especially, should know better. Even if they were naive enough to buy into a "peaceful" religion, how can they in good conscience wear an outfit that symbolizes the subjugation of women? As for the Muslim women who come here, I say, take the damn thing off or go back home.
I feel sorry for them, but Western women don't need other women living in this country who will teach their children that a woman's place is behind a man's. Just like I don't want female circumcision practiced. IT HAS NO PLACE HERE. Religion or no religion.
My sentiments exactly son of Albion. The industrialists in Northern Italy also "prevented" Berlusconi from implementing a stricter immigration policy so that they were sure of a continual supply of cheap labour. Don't these people have enough money? Why are they willing to sacrifice their own countries for a better profit margin?
As for wearing the hijab, I worry what message it sends about our own daughters who don't wear it, to Muslim boys. They're in the West, where we don't view uncovered hair as immoral and decadent. We view one's actions as a sign of one's morals or ethics. As it should be. But from what I can tell, using the Sydney rapes as an example, Muslim boys are obviously taught that uncovered women are sluts and free for the taking, no matter where they live. I've read of the nightmares in the Parisian banlieues, where even Muslim girls who are deemed "too French" are raped or murdered.
My daughter is not a slut. Yet to some, or many, Muslim boys and men who live here, she, and I and any other women not covered in metres of drapery, are. That's what bothers me about the Muslim hijab, burqa, scarf, etc. If it were just a sign of religion, like a crucifix, okay. But it seems to be a much bigger thing. A rather horrid and disgusting thing, from my perspective.
Libbysmom: I'm with you on this one. I saw plenty of Chassidim (including bewigged or kerchiefed married women) and various shades of ultra-conservative Mennonites and Amish long before I saw my first hijab-wearing Muslim female. If the Muslims show me respect, I'll return the compliment; if they think they can paw my niece because she doesn't cover her head, they're in for trouble.
I have just finished reading Bernard Lewis's _What Went Wrong?_ It seems that the Islamic world was marked by an incredible lack of curiosity. I don't think this is a product of a "book theism" per se, for Christian missionaries of the most biblicist kind nonetheless became capable and thorough students of the histories and cultures of the peoples they sought to evangelize. It seems that there's something specific to Islam that simply will not seek any understanding of the Other. The behavior of so many Muslims in the West, who think any woman in shorts is loose or who are incensed that they're not allowed to beat their wives or kill their cousins who become Christians or some other kind of non-Muslim seems a continuation of this utter incuriosity.
Then again, it seems that an awful lot of Muslims in the West who get honestly curious about what the rest of us believe end up apostasizing, and doing things like re-exporting Evangelical Christianity to Asia Minor.
>> Why is Muslim attire so offensive to many?
I think it has to do with how Muslim attire is applied in countries where it is mandatory. Other than muslim countries, I cannot think of any other nation that implements a certain, religiously-based dress code as national policy. In Saudi Arabia and Iran, not wearing it can bring about severe penalties by the government. And in other Muslim countries, the social pressure to conform is very real. You can bet that what we in the West consider even modest, conservative dress would be *highly* offensive to Muslims there. I can accept if such a dress code were confined to a small community (e.g. Amish) or school, where the option would be to go to another school or town. But it's not so easy to leave a country. Imagine if the U.S. or Canada were to ban wearing shorts....you can bet people will protest such legislation. In Muslim countries, you have no right to speak out if you want something different than what's mandated by Islamic governance. To implement religiously-based dress code as *national* policy and to punish people for wanting to choose a different dress for whatever reason makes me wonder about those who do adopt such dress in my own country (a non-Muslim one) and whether they wish for it to be national policy in my country someday.
Leveller,
In the sort of triangular debate you maintain with Arhopala and Nippon, it your position I identify myself with, due respect given to all sides. It is then for your perusal that I submit my own vision on the leftish/liberal tendency to paly it into the handas of anything that undermines all our Western Cicilization is about:
Nihilism is what the political left in Europe (and to some extent the radical wing of liberal America) feels… and is rapidly and irresistibly approaching. It all started when the Soviet Bloc crumbled and the Berlin Wall collapsed with a loud thump. All of a sudden, our Marxist socialists of old and more so their communist cousins found themselves like the guy who is painting a wall on top of a ladder and someone jokingly takes it away, leaving him with the brush as the only device to counteract gravity. Void of any sound reference, the leftists in our midst only have the metaphorical brush of their proverbial hatred towards liberal democracy and Christianity to hold on to, nothing of much usefulness in sight to replace the gone ladder. The discredited Marxist theory (and eloquently enough, its praxis too) has left the poor devils with all the negative aspects of their creed but none of the emancipatory impulses of the past that despite its delusory nature gave them the thrust to keep moving in the direction of their particular version of euthopia, a reason of hope after all. As said before, gone is the hope today; but the hate remains strong as ever.
The recent controversial movie “Mar adentro” (Deep into the wide sea) by one of our best directors here in Spain (Alejandro Almenabar, the guy who directed “The Others”, starring Nicole Kidman) portrays the real-life story of a quadriplegic adult who having lost hope decides to kill himself, just a personal decision out of one hundred similar cases of people who opt to live on. Unable to do it alone, the film’s main character convinces a ladyfriend to give him a helping hand, thus reviving in Spain for a few days the controversial euthanasia subject. It is irrelevant to the purpose of these lines to enter into the discussion of the ethical, social or religious debate it usually brings about, the nitty gritty of my message resting upon the applause this movie has received from the corner of the radical left, the film premier having looked more like a social gathering of the members of the Spanish Socialist government and the leftish MP’s than a commercial or, much less, an artistic event.
It is crystal clear to a dispassionate observer that there is a moral in this sad story beyond the anecdotal aspect of just another passable movie. The paralysis and the suicidal obsession of the wretched person in the Almenabar film can easily be construed as a socio-political symptom or, if you will, the portrait of a bourgeois society perceived through socialist eyes, that is, one in a sorry state, begging for a helping hand to meet its euthanastic happy end. It all sounds like a ‘here we are!’, uttered by the political personas who applauded with fervour the ‘happy ending’ offered by the leftish, homosexual Almenabar, never having crossed his mind that someone whose reproductive drive is nil, might in some ways present the same distressful, hopeless horizon, if not worse, than the one who is stuck to a wheelchair. After all, let me ponder: if anything, Nature has placed all living creatures on earth just to accomplish a superbly stated, sole purpose, that of perpetuating ourselves and, in doing so, our species, the rest of our activity on this planet being a mere rewarding tip so as to please our ego and keep us going, the carrot thing. Isn’t it true that failing on producing the next generation of humans means failing thoroughly in all but the anecdotal aspects of our individual existence, film making included? Let alone our communal hope for a promising, meaningful future. According to all this, those hybrid, leftish death wishers wouldn’t be extracting their tender mercies towards their hateful capitalistic brethren out of their defunct Marxist revolutionary creed any more, merely consisting in a purely sentimental pose.
Could it explain the otherwise inexplicable but blatantly visible tendency of these soulless, aimless group to play it in the hands of the new bred of body snatchers you and me call mussies? I wonder.