Random Thoughts

I have been reading news from back home in disbelief at the amount of violence that one crazy preacher in Florida has caused. It seems that the people of Jammu and Kashmir have decided to go back to curfews and violence and what not. The issues in that mountainous part of the world are exceedingly complex, but this much is clear: whatever illusions anyone had of peace and prosperity and improvements that were supposed to happen... cannot quell the underlying sense of anger that seems to exist there.  I feel sad reading about it. As a child, I remember listening to the news and wondering what these terrorists were; in Punjab, in Jammu and Kashmir, in Sri Lanka. So much violence. They used to rattle out how many paramilitary forces and militants were killed on a daily basis. I don't think it ever dawned on me that these were people... they were just forgettable numbers to me. They were these odd beings, these terrorist creatures... they died a lot.  Also as a child, I remember...

I am sure there are tonne of blogs about this topic out there already. But it bugs me, so I shall write about it. Apparently, an alleged man of god, somewhere in Florida decided to burn a few holy Korans to make a point. Somehow, he equated Islam to terrorism and decided that September 11 would be a great day to set them alight on a bonfire. This man is a pastor of a tiny church, supposedly bringing the word of god to his parishioners. Except this man isn't applying many of the lord's suggestions. Like love thy neighbour.  It is incredible that one lunatic person has managed to cause such a lot of trouble for so many people. I think I saw the American President talk about this whole book-burning-Islam-bashing event two or three times. It is sad that so many people take this man's threats to heart and believe that he is the voice of reason and representative of America. Because he's not. I am not American, but by all the gods, there are many that I know and they are not...

So, a couple of weeks or so ago, someone showed up in DC. He was an old man. They call him his holiness. Or the pope. He came to see his followers in the new world, to say hello and to create a buzz. Guess what? He did. The pope's visit out here seems to have been quite a successful venture for the Catholic church. He addressed probably the one big taboo that no one really thought he would... or perhaps he would brush it by or pretend it didn't exist or something else. But, refreshingly, he didn't do any of those. He took on the issue head on. He apologised for it. He prayed. He met with the victims of abuse. He apologised again. He told his flock to do better. I am impressed. While I am not sure if it was an elaborate ruse to put the sceptics off or not, whatever the case, he pulls it off without sounding smug or looking down on the rest of us. I fully would have expected those two options. But, he seemed genuine. And he reiterated it plenty of times. No, I am not about to...