russ ([info]goulo) wrote,
@ 2007-05-17 10:42:00
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the pope and silent longing / la papo kaj silenta sopirado
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070514/wl_nm/pope_brazil_indians_dc
In a speech to Latin American and Caribbean bishops at the end of a visit to Brazil, the Pope said the Church had not imposed itself on the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

They had welcomed the arrival of European priests at the time of the conquest as they were "silently longing" for Christianity, he said.

Besides being offensive, arrogant, ignorant, and unintentionally funny, I'm struck by how similar this sounds to a lot of unrelated current blathering, if one changes "European priests" to "US troops" and "indigenous peoples of the Americas" to "Iraq"...

Dum prelego al latinamerikaj kaj karibaj episkopoj je la fino de vizito al Brazilo, la Papo diris ke la Eklezio ne trudis sin al la indiĝenaj popoloj de la Amerikoj.

Ili bonvenigis la alvenon de eŭropaj sacerdotoj dum la konkerado ĉar ili "silente sopiris" al kristanismo, li diris.

Tio ne nur estas ofenda, aroganta, senscia, kaj neintence ridinda; ankaŭ trafas min la simileco kun multa alia aktuala blablaado, se oni anstataŭigas "eŭropaj sacerdotoj" per "usonaj soldatoj" kaj "indiĝenaj popoloj de la Amerikoj" per "Irako"....

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[info]elgrande
2007-05-17 12:17 pm UTC (link)
"Besides being offensive, arrogant, ignorant, and unintentionally funny, I'm struck by how similar this sounds to a lot of unrelated current blathering, if one changes "European priests" to "US troops" and "indigenous peoples of the Americas" to "Iraq"..."

Does anyone really say the Iraqis welcomed the US troups?

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[info]goulo
2007-05-17 03:45 pm UTC (link)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3080244/
VICE PRES. DICK CHENEY: My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.

(That was a laughably rosy prediction before the war. There are plenty of similar ones.)

As for post-invasion assertions, read any right-wing blog and you'll probably still find some True Believers who talk about how much better it is in Iraq now and how the people are so grateful to have been liberated. I regularly see blog and email memes on the subject; a favorite talking point of mine is that now for the first time women are able to go to school in Iraq (since women could go to school before the invasion, the writers are seemingly confusing Iraq with Afghanistan).

They also complain about the Mainstream Liberal Media only reporting about the Isolated Cases of violence and not reporting the True Story, that things are going great in Iraq. Like Senator McCain recently saying how neighborhoods in Bagdhad were as safe as in US cities (then famously going to Iraq for a photo op and walking around in a bulletproof vest with helicopters and 100 soldiers around him to secure his safety.)

However, I must admit I haven't seen as much of this True Believerism in the past couple of months. Partly because I've consciously been trying to spend less time reading stuff on the subject.

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[info]goulo
2007-05-18 08:06 pm UTC (link)
Bush from January 2007:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/14/bush.60.minutes/
"I think I am proud of the efforts we did," Bush said.

"We liberated that country from a tyrant. I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude.

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[info]elgrande
2007-05-18 08:52 pm UTC (link)
"We liberated that country from a tyrant. I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude."

Thanks for the quote. I do find that statement surprising if I remember how the world's (or was it just Europe's?) public was shocked by that video of Saddam Hussein's execution. But if I understand correctly, Bush said he expected gratitude but didn't say anyone was actually showing it. (It goes into the same direction as what the pope said, though. People "silently longing" for their liberator...)

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[info]arono
2007-05-17 01:30 pm UTC (link)
blablaado

Hehe. :)

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[info]orangepaisley
2007-05-21 06:54 pm UTC (link)
Seconded.

[info]goulo's blog: Come for the political commentary, stay for the clever Esperanto. :-)

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(Anonymous)
2007-06-05 01:19 am UTC (link)
Hi Russ. Still dissing the Church I see. Pray for him St. Rita! Take care.

kim

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[info]goulo
2007-06-05 04:52 am UTC (link)
Hi Kim,
Such a ridiculous deluded defense of the actions by the conquistadors is certainly worthy of dissing, regardless of whether it was said by someone in the Church or the US government or whatever. Or were the many Catholics who also called bullshit on the pope's speech also dissing the Church?

Anyway, thanks for stopping by. I thought about you recently and wondered if you ever read this any more. :)

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