But your mother is in love…
(The newspaper guy is not)

Maybe the newspaper guy has to take a look at the Republicans. With them he will feel more comfortable than with the Democrats.
I agree with you about avoidng conflicts. Conflicts consume too much energy which I want to spent on other things.

Avoiding conflict

sorry, Arnon, for directing my post to you, but your mother resembles a lot like mine, for she is a soft, poetic person doing good deeds , eating good food & and thinking good thoughts. She is a totally non-violent person. But then, women are the better part of the human race, after all.

The more women on high political places the merrier. Go, Hillary, go!

THE OTHER WAY AROUND

Buddhists say: there's no such thing as coincidence.
Is there? Well this is a true story (I'm not kidding)

That one time I was in India,(I 'm certain it was 1988) I clearly remember a guy called Muhammat, he ran a (Halal) restaurant ont the outskirts of (then) Bombay.
He was a Muslim and he told me to watch out for Hindus. He said: "You cannot trust a Hindu, mister. India is full of them so please beware !

To this day I haven't been able to find out, what makes a Muslim or a Hindu UNTRUSTWORTHY...
Who can help me out?

Ybe

Just read the texts they consider as holy, and you know who you are dealing with...

@Ybe
I want to help too, but I am afraid I would only makes things worse.
Never trust a Tsjeef, for example (a Roman Catholic - FYI)

@ Joep

I heard the expression 'Never trust a jew' a lot in my lifetime. Until now, an expression that remained completely false to me. At the contrary I only had nice encounters with jews. The same for the muslims I dealt with.
By the way, a lot of our holy texts, in the bible, are equally cruel.

@ Joep

I come from a flemish nationalist family. Flemish nationalism is a system in wich only another flemish nationalist is considered trustworthy, only another flemish nationalist is a good one , the only good jew is a dead jew, etc.. I found it a very narrowminded vision to live with, even more, a completly inadequate one to face the world. And my conclusion ,after getting to know there philosophy from the inside, is : Cover your back, that's the spot that they will be aiming for. So no, I'm not very proud of my background and I thank God for all the people I have met that proved them wrong.

Mieke

I'm not talking about race here, i'm talking ideology and conviction. I don't trust people who consider the koran or the bible as holy, because this implies that even the most cruel passages are considered by them as holy, no matter if they speak about it or not.

Mieke

For example: a friend of mine is christian, we avoid talking about it because you cant reason with someone who doesnt need arguments or evidence. Anyhow: it took a while to get it out of his mouth but yes, he thinks i am doomed by God. This God to him is holy, so the punishment of this God is right and justfull. So he thinks I deserve to burn in all eternity. I think 90% of all 'true' believers have opinions that are like this one. They will be rewarded for their believe, and the atheist will be punished, right?
So this is one of the reasons why i dont trust them.

@Joep

I think that goes for any ideology( or religion), aware of it or not. You"ll favour the ones who share your vieuws, you curse the ones who don"t.

@Joep

Your story made me think of something I experienced. I once communicated to a believer that for a buddhist God was nothing more than a concept wich was completely irrelevant to buddhism. I consider that a very comforting thought. God , Allah, Jahweh, nothing more than a concept, even more, without any relevance. The believer responded with rage to my suggestion: I will be doomed and ruined and one day I will have to eat from the garbagecans . It made me laugh.
So lets cheer to a God that is nothing more than a sheer concept.

Mieke

I thought that Flemish nationalists had bigger enemies than Jews.
You point out that your encounters with Jews have been pleasant up to now.
But what if some of these encounters had been unpleasant?

Of course the main goal for Flemish nationalists remains the founding of the Flemish state. The jewish problem ,as it existed in the thirties, isn't a topic any longer, but the the antisemitic thoughts and feelings haven't vanished yet and it was my conclusion that these convictions breed in larger grounds than merely flemish nationalist circles, because I have often been confronted with simular vieuws outside my upbringing. The only difference is that nobody writes it down any longer as people used to do in the past. Now it are remarks that stay restrained to the breakfast table and the inner circle. But it's my conviction that antisemitism hasn't disappeared from our society, it's only simmering.
To answer your question, how would I have reacted if my encounters with jews had been less pleasant. Interesting question. Would I be an antisemitic too?
Maybe, though I hope I would have been more lenient.

Mieke

Probably you are right. And maybe anti-Semitism is in Belgium more accepted than in the Netherlands or at least in certain parts of the Netherlands. I'm not sure. Of course Belgium has a different relationship with its past compared to the Netherlands.

To trust or not to trust

Sorry, but I guess best is to trust nobody until he or she has proven to be worth it........