Jezus mag ook best een meisje zijn

HUMAN

Het valt niet altijd mee om christen te zijn, in deze tijden dat er elke week twee christelijke kerken worden gesloten. In de kerken die nog open zijn, is het thema dit jaar: “Welkom thuis!”. Zo probeert men de zieltjes vast te houden, die alleen maar even die ene keer per komen omdat er zo mooi wordt gezongen. In Soest kampt men met op een geheel eigen wijze met de steeds teruglopende opkomst, getuige dit bericht van het IKON:

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In de Heilige Willibrordparochie in Soest wordt elk jaar op Kerstavond een peuterviering gehouden waar de kinderen verkleed naar toe kunnen. Een baby zal symbool staan voor Jezus. Maar omdat er nog geen aanmeldingen voor Jezus zijn, mag het ook een meisje zijn.

De betreffende Kerstviering wordt altijd goed bezocht door kinderen die zich verkleed hebben als herder, engel of koning. Om het Kerstverhaal compleet te krijgen, is er ook altijd een kindeke Jezus aanwezig. De ouders van de baby kunnen Jozef en Maria zijn.

Maar omdat er dit jaar nog geen aanmeldingen hier voor binnen zijn gekomen, heeft het parochiebestuur laten weten dat Jezus ook een meisje mag zijn. “Anders wordt het een pop en dat is toch minder. Peuters en kleuters willen het liefst een echt pasgeboren baby’tje zien. Kindeke Jezus was een mannetje, maar van ons mag het best een meisje zijn. Maakt kinderen niets uit”, aldus Marijke Breukink van de parochie.

Toch sympathiek. Wie heeft er met de Kerst nog een baby over?


EEN DOCHTER VOOR EEN SCHOEN

De journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi, die op een persconferentie in Irak een schoen naar president Bush heeft gegooid, is uitgegroeid tot een ware volksheld.

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“De schoenengooier deed wat Arabische leiders nalieten”, zo kopte NRC/Handelsblad. “Moge God je prijzen voor je fantastische worp”, is de algemene strekking van veel commentaren op het internet.

De nieuwsdienst van Yahoo maakt melding van het volgende aanbod:

CAIRO (Reuters) – An Egyptian man said on Wednesday he was offering his 20-year-old daughter in marriage to Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush in Baghdad on Sunday,

The daughter, Amal Saad Gumaa, said she agreed with the idea. “This is something that would honor me. I would like to live in Iraq, especially if I were attached to this hero,” she told Reuters by telephone.

Her father, Saad Gumaa, said he had called Dergham, Zaidi’s brother, to tell him of the offer. “I find nothing more valuable than my daughter to offer to him, and I am prepared to provide her with everything needed for marriage,” he added.

Zaidi’s gesture has struck a chord across the Arab world, where President Bush is widely despised for invading Iraq in 2003 and for his support for Israel.

Amal is a student in the media faculty at Minya University in central Egypt.

Zaidi’s response to the proposal was not immediately clear.

Minder fijn is het bericht dat Muntazer al-Zaidi nog steeds vast zit en is geslagen in het Huis van Bewaring. Hij zou een gekneusde neus hebben. Duizenden Irakezen schijnen de straat op te gaan om voor hem te protesteren.

TALIBAN-BELASTING

Weer een Nederlandse soldaat gesneuveld in Afghanistan. Zielig om te sterven voor zoiets zinloos als de verheffing van het Afghaanse volk, dat daar helemaal niet aan toe is. Ondertussen gaat de strijd gewoon door. Op het Journaal verschijnen interviews met zogenaamde Taliban-strijders, die best zouden willen overlopen als er maar meer werkgelegenheid zou zijn. De Nederlandse interviewer lijkt me erg naïf. Dat voor geld alles te koop, maak ik op uit een fantastisch bericht dat stond op de website van The Times:

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The West is indirectly funding the insurgency in Afghanistan thanks to a system of payoffs to Taleban commanders who charge protection money to allow convoys of military supplies to reach Nato bases in the south of the country.

Contracts to supply British bases and those of other Western forces with fuel, supplies and equipment are held by multinational companies.

However, the business of moving supplies from the Pakistani port of Karachi to British, US and other military contingents in the country is largely subcontracted to local trucking companies. These must run the gauntlet of the increasingly dangerous roads south of Kabul in convoys protected by hired gunmen from Afghan security companies.

The Times has learnt that it is in the outsourcing of convoys that payoffs amounting to millions of pounds, including money from British taxpayers, are given to the Taleban.

The controversial payments were confirmed by several fuel importers, trucking and security company owners. None wanted to be identified because of the risk to their business and their lives. “We estimate that approximately 25 per cent of the money we pay for security to get the fuel in goes into the pockets of the Taleban,” said one fuel importer.

Another boss, whose company is subcontracted to supply to Western military bases, said that as much as a quarter of the value of a lorry’s cargo went in paying Taleban commanders.

The scale of the supplies needed to keep the Nato military operation going is vast. The main British base at Camp Bastion in Helmand province alone requires more than a million litres of diesel and aviation fuel a week. There are more than 70,000 foreign soldiers in the country for whom food and equipment must be imported, mostly by road. The US is planning to send at least 20,000 more troops into Afghanistan next year.

Other than flying in supplies, the only overland route is through Pakistan and Taleban-controlled areas of Afghanistan.

A security company owner explained that a vast array of security companies competed for the trade along the main route south of Kabul, some of it commercial traffic and some supplying Western bases, usually charging about $1,000 (£665) a lorry. Convoys are typically of 40-50 lorries but sometimes up to 100.

Asked whether his company paid money to Taleban commanders not to attack them, he said: “Everyone is hungry, everyone needs to eat. They are attacking the convoys because they have no jobs. They easily take money not to attack.” He said that until about 14 months ago, security companies had been able to protect convoys without paying. But since then, the attacks had become too severe not to pay groups controlling the route. Attacks on the Kandahar road have been an almost daily occurrence this year. On June 24 a 50-truck convoy of supplies was destroyed. Seven drivers were beheaded by the roadside. The situation now was so extreme that a rival company, working south of the city of Ghazni, had Taleban fighters to escort their convoys.

“I won’t name the company, but they are from the Panjshir Valley [in north Afghanistan]. But they have a very good relation with the Taleban. The Taleban come and move with the convoy. They sit in the front vehicle of the convoy to ensure security,” said the company chief.

The Taleban are not the only ones making money from the trade; warlords, thieves, policemen and government officials are also taking a cut.

A transport company owner who runs convoys south on the notoriously dangerous Kabul to Kandahar highway said: “We pay taxes to both thieves and the Taleban to get our trucks through Ghazni province and there are several ways of paying. This goes to a very high level in the Afghan Government.

“Mostly the [Afghan] security companies have middlemen to negotiate the passage of the convoys, so they don’t get attacked. They pay on a convoy by convoy basis to let the convoy pass at a certain time. They have to pay each of the Taleban commanders who control each part of the road. When you hear of an attack it is usually because a new small [Taleban] group has arrived on the road.”

Lieutenant-Commander James Gater, a spokesman for Nato forces in Afghanistan, said that the transport of Nato supplies was contracted to commercial firms and how they got them into the country was their business.

“I can confirm that we use two European-headquartered companies to supply food and fuel, though for contractual reasons it is not prudent for us to name them. They provide their own security as part of that contract. Such companies are free to subcontract to whomsoever they wish.

“We are aware they do prefer to subcontract from the countries in which they are operating. In Pakistan they prefer to use Pakistani trucking companies, in Afghanistan they prefer Afghan trucking companies. That is a commercial decision for them.”

A representative for the Swiss-based Supreme Global Solutions confirmed that the company held supply contracts with the military in Afghanistan.

However, last night the company denied paying protection money. “We categorically reject any suggestion that we now, or have ever, paid money to any individual for the safe passage of our convoys. Furthermore, we do not permit our subcontractors to do so on our behalf,” it said.

Ik bedoel maar als ze gewoon die Taliban hadden betaald, was die arme Nederlandse soldaat nooit om het leven gekomen. De vijand zit in onszelf, dat is de moraal, als je het mij vraagt. Gelukkig Nieuwjaar! En tot de uitzending van 9 januari.

Humanistische Omroep, 19 december 2008
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