God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

11/19/2020 • 7:11 am Comments Off on Truth, facts and lies

Truth, facts and lies

Living together as society means compromising on the way, we want to live together; it means tolerance towards the life design of my neighbour and to acknowledge the boundaries of what is still acceptable and what not.

For this to happen and for society to function we need to agree on some facts or truth, which build the base of every exploration of boundaries and limitations, freedoms and expectations.

The advent of social media and global connectivity via the internet has given rise to an ugly side of these advances which we call fake news, conspiracy theories or simply lies. This has brought us as societies, but also as human mankind in a danger zone.

For example Donald Trump lies regarding election results jeopardizes the US democracy with consequences for other countries and their safety and well-being. His lies and fake news about climate change has serious consequences for Mother Earth and the future of human mankind. His denial towards Covid-19 costs thousands of human beings their lives.

The denial of truth and the ignorance towards facts is not only in the political arena dangerous, also other organisations weaken themselves because of it. Look at the Catholic Church and its dealing with the topic “abuse”. Not acknowledging the facts brings besides pain and hurt also disrepute and a silent withdraw from many, looking for a new home for their belief system or drifting into the fake news corner and hoping that denying facts and changing the narrative rescues somehow their faith. We see this in so many instances in the USA even much broader than only in the cases of abuse or only the Catholic Church, looking at the Evangelical churches and major parts of the Catholic Church where meanwhile ideology, focusing on one aspect while actively ignoring or fighting all other not so convenient parts of reality trump (in the real sense of the word with a big T) religion and transform it into a blindly followed ideology.

Obviously fake news, lies, blind ideology have a shelf life, which is definitely prolonged by the use or better abuse of social media, the bitter flip side of something which was aimed to connect people and ended up to divide them in ways we never thought we will see. Do you recall the enthusiasm of entering a new millennium, the dream of a global village, the possibility to communicate and foster peace and dignity around the globe and the belief, that digital communication will bring all the positive goodies to the world we live in?

We are doing a detour now regarding truth and common grounds – and maybe as human mankind we are allowed to do so. But I would argue that the silent majority has now seen enough to determine the dead end and the destruction caused. Now is the time to stand up for the truth, for valid discernment and reasoning and I believe that especially religion – and religion does not mean necessarily church institutions – has a major role to play: the tradition of mystics (think Karl Rahner) and Global ethics (think Hans Kueng) and yes, the encyclicals and universal writings of Pope Francis are waiting to be more – or again – discovered and put into practice.

At the end truth will prevail – the costs to get there – that is the only thing we can determine as human beings and influence as part of societies.

Filed under: Catholic Church, General, Politics and Society, Reflection, Religion and Ethics, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

11/11/2020 • 1:48 pm 1

A fool as distraction?

Four years of tweets, lies and impossible behaviour are still not coming to an end – defeat is not one of the words used by Donald Trump and as it has been for the last four years; the press indulges in commenting and reporting on all the new lies, false facts, sexist remarks, insults and other neurotic patterns, this man brings on a daily basis to the table of news outlets.

Almost in the background it is currently noted that others are too afraid to speak out, especially after the lost election – and emphasis is put onto the fact, that Trump has such a standing in the Republican Party which hinders the righteous elite to reign in and stop the latest charade.

Maybe there is another story line to tell – the story of Mitch McConnell, Graham Lindsey, Rupert Murdoch and others who let the political fool dance in the front to the amusement or embarrassment of the political audience and electorate while those gentlemen pulling the strings, trying to keep an old world order in place: a world order which is white, male and racist.

For those having this world order in mind, Trump was a gift from heaven, easily to be manipulated via Fox News and lots of praise, slowly installing a reign of an egomaniac puppet delivering the right judges on so many levels. Governments coming and going, but to maintain a system, other levels of society have to be looked after and the right people positioned. And as Obama has used social media to garner the support – the political white racist right in the USA has quickly learned to adapt to the new tools available as well. For people like McConnell and Lindsey, Obama was a mistake not to be repeated and now Harris the next in line of those kinds of errors.

Democracy as the rule of the people for the people is an ongoing process of trial and error for most Americans – and even if it is an internal affair for this country, the consequences for the rest of the world have been felt the last years. Our global village is meanwhile so connected, that the faith of a major player is not an affair not noted by the rest of the world. Human mankind’s challenges are piling up, and they need new answers not forthcoming from those now pulling the strings in Washington.

Human mankind and the world order is in the process of changing – we live in times of an interesting and challenging battle of minds, which is even sped up by a small little virus called Covid-19.

Donald Trump should not be allowed to be a distraction in this process – too much is at stake for this world we call home.

Filed under: General, Politics and Society, Reflection, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , ,

09/24/2020 • 10:16 am Comments Off on Why preventing a second Trump term might be a global necessity

Why preventing a second Trump term might be a global necessity

Elections are national affairs and the saying goes that national affairs remain national. Nations insist on it; especially for totalitarian governments it is a happily used tool to defend actions against their own citizens which don’t match human rights or human decencies. And under normal circumstances elections are indeed a national affair when free and fair. But there are exemption of the rule and the November elections are falling clearly cut out under the exemption.
Why?
The reasons are divers of nature, but to name a few:

Environment: in our global connected we can’t afford any delay in changing our attitude towards climate change. The refusal of the US American President to come to the table has consequences which are far beyond national affairs. Environment is not national any more.

World Peace: The unilateral withdrawal from the deal with Iran regarding nuclear weapons is a clear sign, that international contracts are at liberty to be broken for no valid reason. We see already in Boris Johnson and the EU treaty a follower. Peace between countries is not national, but a global issue in our inter-connected world.

Truth and lies: In a world battling with the fall-out of social media imperia, which have changed the dynamics of every days’ life for almost all connected via internet, promoting obvious lies and so changing a narrative as one goes along in dramatic fashion is poison for the global village. It is an international concern if and when the boundaries between facts and distortion of magnitude becomes the new norm and is copied around the world.

Racism: The human race has come to a point where there is no justification any more for racism, white domination or the promotion of white genes as “good ones” – defending and standing for an artificial concept which has brought hurt, pain, suffering and injustice in the past is against global human and civil rights and no national affair any more.

Gender Equality: Fighting a womaniser is part of a fight for human rights, which are universal. Using and abusing women and young adolescents or making friend with people who do so – and even defending such people is a no-go. Leader of democratic societies have to be on the right side of life, when it comes to this topic. The #metoo wave has provided the clearest indication, that macho behaviour with disregard to women is no national affair any more.

Fascism: History has taught us where this leads to in a society and in a country: a leader, worshipped by followers cult-like and appointments to positions serving society with the only criteria “blind loyalty”  and inflated by pseudo-religious blessings, all before mentioned items are magnified. Being one of the most powerful countries in the world, such tendencies would be a danger beyond “America first”.

The question of Trump is not a question of party politics any more, it is not about different ways to find a way forward in a complex world. The question of Trump goes deeper and touches on core values of the human race, Trump  becomes more and more an ethical problem as he is not a leader of any small country hardly noticed in world politics but a major role player in global affairs.

The people of the USA have the right to abolish their dream of “of the people for the people”; they have the right to change their experience of democracy to whatever governmental form they wish, but in the times of global connectivity the question of environment and the value of truth as well as the abolishment of racism and inequality in all forms are not national items any more. It has become an ethical question that countries of leadership in the global village must be held to higher standards than others.

Trump has also become a symbol of a world system exposed and rattled by a digital future just beginning with social media and information exchange around the world almost in real time – nowhere to hide any more. His twitter account shows the ugly face of an unrestrained white dominant reality insisting of keeping the world as it has been.
Trump also has exposed that human mankind is not that far advanced as most of us thought we are – lies and conspiracy theories find fertile ground in so many people who feel overwhelmed with the new brave world entered by the digital revolution. So maybe a one-term presidency has the benefit of exposing the lack of human development and taught us a lesson needed.

But now we are at a point where the balance of benefit and disadvantage shifts, not only for the US American people but for the global village. Time to keep things in check – and for the sake of humanity, for the sake of the planet, for the sake of the future of the human race on this planet to avoid a second term by all reasonable means possible.

 

Filed under: General, Politics and Society, Reflection, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , ,

03/31/2019 • 9:41 pm 1

Fake News – Lies and Politics

Traveling from Africa via Europe to the USA I can’t escape the impression, that on all three continents fake news and blunt lies from politicians and other socially high-ranking individuals seems to become a global norm.

In South Africa I do understand the reason why there are so many people in society and politics, when caught in action or corruption simply start to lie with a straight face – even if the evidence is overwhelming. I guess it has to do with the times of apartheid where those oppressed had to learn to make a straight face while lying to the oppressors. Like getting accustomed in those times as a liberation movement to get everything for free which translates today in shameless corruption, so it seems there is a history which translates into lying without regret or bad conscience – and looking at some of the younger generation it is to fear that it got transferred to those who only know from history books what apartheid looked like.

In the USA a completely self-absorbed, egocentric and mentally autistic president paired with a last stand of white macho-behavior and white male dominance creates the poison of fake news – being then adopted and refined by Russian entities in a way threatening democratic process in its core.

In Europe anxiety about refugees triggered in Great Britain one of the greatest lying campaign in living history – promising e.g. millions per month for the ailing health sector in the clear knowledge that this would never happen. Amazing how those who pleaded with those arguments for the Brexit after the vote tried to disengage and leave the mess for others to sort out.

Reading social media coming from the AfD party and other right-wing organizations it seems that people learn quickly how to turn the truth around or how to mix truth and fiction in a way that distorts facts and leaves the reader at best confused. The way to see reality only through one pair of glasses and to refuse to walk in the shoes of others makes it even more militant and anti-democratic.

For me – the anxiety of a world to complex for most minds and anxiety for a foreign, emotionally not-known danger coming via strangers at the shores are the root source for those falling prey to all the fake news and even voting for those who lie without blushing and the question is: where are we heading? Is there no redemption or turn-around possible? Is there no way out or what will be the end of it all?

I am convinced that churches, religious organizations and NGO’s are here the first to stand up against fake news and falsehood – there are values not bound by denomination or creed which can be used to stand firm against a distorted world view made of fabrications – to call a spade a spade and to withstand the temptation to despair or give up or give in the current situation. I have to acknowledge that some churches e.g. in the USA support the current president, but looking closer one sees that faith has turned ideology and only the shell is called a denomination of faith.

Taking away the anxiety, taking away the fear and giving a meaning and sense to what is happening is the utmost duty of any faith – being ambassadors of hope and warriors against xenophobia,, fake news and violence is a natural consequence of working for the good of mankind. In this sense those entities play a far more important role within society than just the one limited to their respective chosen tasks.

Filed under: General, Politics and Society, Reflection, Religion and Ethics, Society and living environment, South Africa, , , , , , , , , , ,

11/13/2009 • 11:58 pm Comments Off on 13.11.2009 Blogs are read…

13.11.2009 Blogs are read…

With interest I have noticed that blogs, even such a small one like mine are read and that there is the possibility that one steps on a foot of somebody who calls directly for lawyers to threaten the writer. Amazing, as I try to be as truthful as only possible in all I am writing, I describe what I see, feel, sense – my impression. I also learn in these days that people cannot face their own little truth – denialism seems not only a topic within the portfolio of HIV and AIDS but also in other circles. Once again, we are not only, what we think we are, but also how other people perceive us. But we are all also good in persuading people to see what we want them to see. A funny world out there – I go to bed with these indeed philosophical thoughts.

Filed under: Reflection, , ,

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