I always wonder why people wish each other a happy fasting.
Fasting doesn't seem to be a very happy thing to me.

If God is busy, he must be polishing his nails.

In Baden-Wuertemberg there is a dish called Maultaschen. But they are also called Herrgottverscheisserle, because there is meat inside the dough. On Fridays catholics are supposed to not eat meat. But god can't see through the dough.

Mendie, the fasting may not be particularly nice, but all the things that surround it must so much make worth the temporary `sacrifice' . Such as the festive joint meals after sunset, the colourful street-vendors offering all kind of special sweets to open the fast, the sudden rush in the streets when all try to get home in time just before the sirene announces the breaking-of-fast(in order to have the first bite at the prime moment, because than you will earn the most religious merit so I am told), a month of school holidays for children, a month-long devotion and holiness with the call for prayers filling the air with more zeal than ever. That at least have been my experiences with fasting, ehm... that's to say joining the festivities in Indonesia. My dear Acehnese friend who fled his country as a political refugee, says he still cannot really join in the fast with his Islamic friends in the Netherlands, because it revives his most sweet childhood memories and makes him feel the pain of not being able to be in his country.

And also, the fasting may be experienced as this comfortable longing for something you know you will get after a while. I never heard my Indonesian friends talk about food so much as during Ramadan!

Arnon, if I still may comment on yesterdays'blog, since that was one of the things we discussed. I spend much of my evening time in Washington with a Dutch military guy, trained as a marine. Heart in right place, very down to earth, man of "one piece" as we would say in Dutch, like you often find in the army, (at least in the Dutch. army that I know) He told me there is an unwritten rule to not assign military above 30 as commanders in difficult areas, since they usually have families and will therefore take less risk than those of around 25 years old. They would not do it consciously, they are and will still conduct their task to their fullest, but this is biology, nature. A fact that will to some extent impact on their decisions and which they cannot shut out, if they like it or not. It's human condition.

When I said the other day that I think people have a tendency to violence and cruelty, I think I refer to those situations where controle has gone. The Iraq's on this globe and maybe the vigour with which Taleban throw themselves before bullets, because they have nothing more to loose. If I think about Hannah Arendt and her distinction between violence and power, I think about those situations where violence is no longer used as an instrument by states to secure a limited defined goal, but where violence rules, or where a state maintains power only and alone because of its continuous use of violence and terror. It is good to know that even in those situations, there are always individuals who resist. But I am afraid that "normal human behaviour" of the majority will in those situations be governed by the need to survive, either through collaboration, or by killing the other. Or am I too gloomy again?
(And did you get my apology-mail?)

Eliane D

This summer these dumplings were served (indeed in Baden-Württemberg) to me as “Katholische Maultaschen“ – I like your name for these dumplings better.

Arnon

Why exactly were you not sure it was appropriate to wish him a happy Ramadan?

Like some obligations, I think rituals are a necessity or at least a blessing. Imagine a childhood without for example Sinterklaas. Rituals bring people together, but we should not overdo it. One of my girl friends is from Islamic descend, she still likes the rituals too; the food gifts, the sugar feast!...

Yom Kippur

I would like to add a comment to Ramadan, although I',m in a frightfully big hurry to take my kids out to Bosplan and walk the autumn walk (autumn starts September 23, 11.59 AM)
Being not Jewish, Jewish always played a fairly big role in my life. I will tell about it later....

Arnon

[slightly off topic]
Do you know anyone at the foreign desk of NRC Handelsblad?

Annette

I got your mail and you’ll get an answer.
For a while it was widely believed that the profile of the suicide bomber was a young male with no family of his own. Until they found out that women, pregnant women, males with wives and children, were also willing to die for their cause.
Before the USA entered WW II the US Army replaced most of the generals and a lot of commanding officers. They thought and probably rightly that being in that position for a while had made them conservative and less willing to try new methods and strategies.
Of course you have heard of the Stanford Prison Experiment.
Nevertheless I don’t think that people are equally sadistic or that all military personnel enjoy the killing.
Evidence suggests the opposite.
It’s hard work to make a soldier actually shoot. During World War I many guns remained unused, the soldiers just didn’t shoot, for whatever reason.
One of the reasons for the gas chambers during WW II was that the mass killings of unarmed civilians (mainly Jews) was causing distress among the soldiers and officers who had to conduct these killings. Even Himmler, who witnessed one mass killing, could not stand it and urged for cleaner methods.
This is not to say that there were not and there are not sadists who enjoy torture. But for most I would say killing poeple is just their work, as for a slaughterer killing animals is his work.

Batta

Why do you ask this question?

Arnon

which one?

Arnon

I did not mean to say people are sadists: sadism is an exception indeed. But I am referring to the calculated violence (Modernity and the Holocaust, and most of current international interventions), the violence committed in settings of group pressure (Stanford prison , Milgram experiment, honour killings) or because of sheer desparation and revenge (the mothers you refer too or even `crime d'amours). I would still say that even though people do not actually enjoy committing this violence, it is part of human condition to conduct violent acts under these and similar conditions. As the many continuous wars and conflicts prove. I am not judging this, but just observing that violence (not sadism) is very human.
By the way, otherwise I am a very cheerful and optimistic person, if the conditions are right, at least... ;-)

Batta

Your question about NRC Handelsblad.
The other question can be simply answered. It’s not really appropriate to say “have a good day of atonement.” If I’m not mistaken you say “May God write you down in the Book of Life.” But then in Hebrew. By the same token I thought it was awkward to say “have an nice Ramadan.”

Arnon

Don't wory. It's very common to wish someone a pleasant Ramadan. They normally say happy / blessed (mubarak) or generous (karim) Ramadan.

As for NRC Handelsblad, I already found another contact. Although I am not sure about it. I don't know; what would you recommend me if I want to bring a certain issue to their attention? Would it be better to contact a journalist or an editor?

Batta

I really don't know.

Arnon

But do you know someone at the 'buitenlandredactie'?

I know it's a cryptic question somehow, andnot specific enough for you but humour me for once.

I you want, I can send an email to Johannes with an explanation of the rationale behind this question. That is, if you know someone.

Batta

Send a mail to Johannes.