the god who hates

i first heard of wafa sultan on youtube while she was a guest speaker on al jazeera. it was highly irregular for anyone let alone a woman to be debating with an imam on islamic terrorism, islam itself, and as what she describes as the clash of civilisations so that it was not difficult to recognize her face printed on a book on a shelf months later while i was passing by the bookstore. i just had to have trhe book for i was already curious about her. i watched satisfied by the way when the imam resorted instead to strawman arguments for lack of anything better to say.

in the book however, i am not a fan of her writing style. it seemed repeatitious, disconnected, personal, and she seemed to make hasty generalizations about people but who is better and has the authority to talk about islam and its ills, than her -- a moslem woman who had lived in it and had actually experienced its horrors firsthand.

i also did not much appreciate her orgre metaphor. although she spoke the truth about the nature of fear and how it relates to islam, i felt that there has to be a better way to present the idea other than a parable about an ogre.

apart from her personal experiences giving insight on the origin and nature of islam, its followers and how they relate with other people, its fruits, she also talks about the obvious disconnect with what "moderate" moslems claim islam to be and what is happening in reality. it mirrors the state of christian theocracies all over the world. christian zealots behave much like islamic terrorists. people would always argue that these particular type of moslems have misinterpreted the real meaning of islam. that the true moslem never engages in violence and that they respect women. the evidence in fact showing the contrary is overwelming.

the koran is written solely in arabic, how likely is it that moslems outside of the arab world would have a filtered understanding of its teachings. meaning islam as a political doctrine and religion needs to present itself as something benevolent and beneficial in order to be accepted but the truth in detail is quite the opposite. just like the judeo christian bible, the koran is filled with archaic ethics giving justification to these brutalities all the way up to today the 21st century. and now it is encroaching in on secular societies like a disease as some put it.

wafa provides us with specific verses from the koran. too few in my opinion. but there is no escaping from that. muhammad had been very explicit and his ideas about women, jews, christians, and islamic morality questionable by today's standards. i am inclined to think that whoever subscribes to it is either ignorant, brainwashed, or have nitpicked specific teachings that suit their tastes just as moderate christians are doing with the bible.

my favorite in particular about her book is her observation about moslems living in the west. those who are reaping its benefits but at the same time claiming it to be morally inferior to their countries of origin. hypocrites. id say.

if living in islamic states is such a paradise then why leave at all. why the influx of immigrants from islamic states towards the west unless there be a sinister plot behind it all, that is to convert these secular societies into islamic states. as is happening all over europe and now even in the united states. how likely is it that people are oppressed in islamic societies and that most of them immigrate because they want to be free of it.

wafa paints a vivid picture of islam and what kind of societies it has produced. societies which lack in civil liberties, societies which slow or sometimes halt progress, where its inhabitants are automatons programmed to obey never to think nor question authority. a striking resemblance to christian theocracies. don't you think?

if immigration out of islamic societies not evidence enough that it is failed at making lives better for people, i dont know what else is.

rating 4 out of 5
****

the gnostic gospels

in 1945 a collection of early christian texts were discovered near the town of nag hammadi in upper egypt that came to be known as the nag hammadi library. elaine pagels, the author of this exquisite book, discusses in easy to understand terms, the contents of the collection.

The major theme is the rivalry between the gnostic and the orthodox christians. The doctrinal difference between the two groups over issues like martyrdom, participation of women, nature of the true church, nature of god and the trinity, and salvation, that is to say, only via the self serving bishops for the orthodox christians and thru gnosis for the gnostics.

the bishops threatened by the teachings of the gnostics labeled the latter as heretics. while the gnostics viewed the orthodox as immature believing in rituals and motions of traditional worship. the catholic church of today is notably the direct descendant of orthodox christianity which put much emphasis on the unquestioned authority and heirarchy of the bishops. had the gnostics won, christianity would have been very different.

it becomes obvious what sets the books of the nag hammadi library apart from the canonical books having gone as far as undermine the patriarchy and authority of the bishops.

it poses important questions especially to those who do follow and believe orthodox teachings. what makes one believe this set of books and not the other. because the priest/pastor says so and that's it? (kasi sabi ni pader?) héhé ..

another lucky find from booksale. i got it for only 150 PHP.

rating 5 out of 5
A must read.

over the edge of the world

je viens de finir le livre qui je lisais ces derniers jours. il raconte le voyage de magellan où il a fait le tour du monde au début du XVIe siècle (1521-ish). au fait, j'ai acheté ce livre d'un booksale pour seulement 100 PHP.

we are all familiar with the story of the portuguese, under the flag of spain, who for the first time had successfully circumnavigated the world and as a consequence discovered a water route to the spice islands across the "ocean sea" west of the new world.

magellan's encounters with fascinating natives and their customs including our own cebuans (to which i descend from) and the proud mactanese, betray european bigoted and self serving attitudes. they also betray our own weaknesses providing brief insight of why we continue to be divided even to this day.

pigafetta is i think as important as magellan himself for it was him who chronicled the entire voyage reminiscent of captain picard doing his log aboard the enterprise. besides being a representative of the pope, he also served as the ship's linguist and anthropologist. he (attempted to) put into writing the local languages and their sexual practices. this to me was a kind of expected. he was a man of the cloth and like many others, there was a kind of obsession with sex (just as it does today) and he means to impose his beliefs on to the natives. sans respect to their own beliefs.

most of the native chieftains who converted did so, mostly because they feared the armada de moluccas. magellan was all to happy to demonstrate their superiority. their weapons admittedly surpassed the bamboo javelins, bows, and poisoned arrows of the natives. and local politics paved the way for some of the chieftains to ally themselves with magellan thinking it would give them advantage over rival kingdoms.

i am surprised why his story had not yet made it on hollywood. it had the familiar elements of drama, political intrique, adventure, vicious villains, and noble heroes. vital ingredients that make up an epic adventure non fictional story.

rating 4 out of 5
an interesting and easy read

les bureaux de dieu

A social commentary that revolves around a family planning center, it's social workers, and the people mostly women, they take the time to listen and give advice to.

all the cases tackled by the social workers make the case for sexual education, women's rights, contraception, and abortion giving emphasis on having a personal and well informed choice on their respective matters as a crucial ingredient in making important decisions. we hear of cases where it is the total opposite when women don't have the choice at all.

this is in strike contrast to what we have today in the philippines where people are mostly ignorant and sans access to health services. it couldn't be more obvious why this is so when certain prominent religious institutions who have a hand on state policies (imposing their religious beliefs onto the rest of us) continue to halt progress on civil liberties and women's rights.

I find the movie socially relevant and mature especially on how the social workers sympathized with their (patients?). but not very entertaining for it lacked the hollywood formula much like a crutch or an addiction that we have grown accustomed to.

For french language lovers, it is a treat. but for the same reason, when a language is presented as english subtitles (and not entirely translated might i add) could fail to convey the actual emotion accross the language barrier, which could possibly lead non french speaking audiences unable to relate ..

Rating 3 out of 5 ***
women power!

Diosa

A local legend recounts the tale of a nature goddess who had an affinity with humans. Her name was Luciérnaga. One day, her father found out about her dealings with them, it made her father furious. He slapped her senseless breaking her crown of gems into pieces. Each piece transformed into a firefly. The entire mountain was swarmed by them to which the town was named after. Bayan ng Alitaptap (Firefly town).

Another legend spoke of her unearthly beauty wearing nothing but gem stones to cover herself up. During the spanish era, Luciérnaga fell in love with a spanish soldier. She made love to him but woke up with all her jewels gone. The soldier stole them and since then fireflies have disappeared from the town. And all male descendants of the spanish soldier had been plagued by a curse. Each of them die horrible deaths. This intruiging tale is the backdrop of the story.

teddy allegre is played by lloyd samartino
jaime allegre jr is played by alfie anido
luz is played by lorna tolentino
katrina is played lorna tolentino

Rating 4 out of 5 ****
Not bad for a pinoy fantasy

la papesse jeanne

joan (played by johanna wokalek) was born a genius. she had a talent for learning and a natural curiousity towards the world. she picked up things just by listening to them. she grew up with her father who was the village priest, a religious and ruthless man; her pagan mother and her two older brothers.

joan's father groomed her brothers to be servants of the church just as he was. the oldest brother, as soon as he discovers her extraordinary abilities, secretly took time to teach her how to read and write. while her mother taught johnna the ancient healing arts by way of herbs. she learned diligently. her father though thinks that she was an abomination (unnatural) and forbade her from learning anything at all. unfortunately, she lived at an age when there was a low opinion of women.

one day she was discovered by a visiting monk who recognized her gifts. he taught her alongside with her brothers, the classics, philosophy, greek etc. the monk, excited of his find, sent word to the bishop to have her immediately transfered to the school to be given proper education, even though education was traditionaly given only to christian boys, the monk thought that it would be a crime against god not to send her. her father grew exceedingly furious. he only agreed to it if one of her brothers would be sent with her.

when the bishop's emissary came for her back at the village later, and was instructed to bring just one child. her father insisted on sending her brother instead. it was the last draw, joan decided to run away and pursue her calling.

the story is about her remarkable journey to rome where she becomes the pope in a world where she was forced to hide behind a disguise -- that of a man. where only behind this mask that she could be free. she quickly made a name for herself going against tradition but not without adversaries and allies along the way.

she became a distuigished healer and an accompished philosopher infamously arguing for equality. she was a scribe translating into different languages knowledge of the classics. she knew the value of education and took the time to teach others who were willing how to read and write.

unfortunately we could never know if this is a true story or not for if there had been any record of her, it looks like it had long been (maybe intentionally) erased from antiquity. today her inspiring story survives as mere medieval legend.

the film gives us a realistic view of why sexism perpetuates to this day. that there must be a relationship between religious doctrine and how religious people view and treat women. we can see how the story bears comtemporary implications against modern day sexism, ignorance and superstition, against gender roles, of politics in the church heirarchy. and how equality remains to be, not only a religious but certainly a social and political question.

4 out of 5 ****
read more of st paul and st. aquinas views on women

agora

agora is a historical non fiction film about hypatia, an atheist philosopher who taught at the library of alexandria, 4th century AD in roman egypt.

this was at the time when the roman empire was crumbling and the number of christians
have swelled enough to take over the city. at the behest of the pagans who worshipped their ancestral gods (serapis, mithra, horus and the others - all of which by the way had similar attributes with jesus - virgin birth, saviour of mankind, miracle workers, teller of parables etc)

christian zealots performed spectacles like walking on fire to lure the superstitious crowd. and made challenges to the gods for their seeming absence in the mortal realm. they failed to apply the same standard of scrutiny however, to their own god.

the situation worsened, provoked by public mockery of their god, the followers of serapis attacked the christians. against hypatia's pleading for the church leader of serapis to instead file their case with the prefect.

much to their surprise, they find themselves face to face with the christian mob which retaliated en force. by the time the roman prefect intervened, the pagans and other intellectuals were trapped in the library surrounded by the christian mob outside which appear to be composed of slaves, the uneducated, the impoverished, the marginalized, and lead by warmongering zealots. this is significant as it reflects the same demographic of christians today.

it was painful to watch the christians laid waste to the library, destroying all nowledge of antiquity save a few scrolls which the pagans brought with them on their way out.

much later, it became fashionable to be christian. the social elite had for the most part had been converted. most likely to avoid problems with the then now established christian religion and its leaders.

hypatia in the meantime, lived quietly and continued to philosophize about the movement of the heavens, juggling between the ptolemy system, which had the earth as the center of the universe and the other heavenly bodies revolving around it in perfect circles; and the aristacus? system which had the sun as its center and the other heavenly bodies
revovlving around it in perfect circles as well. but something did not match up with her observations and measurements. this goes against the established biblical teaching, that the world is flat.

after the pagans, the christians when after its other rivals, the jews otherwise known as the beginnings of anti semitism. and then the status of women.

when hypatia's former students (now a bishop and the other a prefect) implored her to convert to christianity or else. she said she couldn't because unlike the christian bishop who don't question his beliefs. she must hers. the essence of what it is to be freehinker.

rating: 5 out of 5
*****

Les Fantomes de Goya

Francisco Goya was a court painter to the spanish crown. Ines Balbutia, daughter to a rich merchant, was one of his subjects. Another client of Francisco is Brother Lorenzo who is the one responsible for excacerbating the inquisition by re-establishing torture. Ines was accused of judaizing (practicing jewish traditions) and arrested because she refused to eat pork.

Such was the power of the Catholic church during those times. I watched horrified as they tortured the truth out of Ines. Although we are far from "those times", we could still witness this kind of barbarism in countries where religion/church reigns supreme. And this I believe is central to the message of the movie. It is a warning of what religion is capable of doing given sufficient power over the state.

There doesn't seem to be any justice for Ines even towards the end of the film where Brother Lorenzo was finally caught and executed because of something else (treachery) he has done.

Rating: 4 out of 5
I love history. See Peninsular War and French Revolution