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"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is
neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female", declared
the Apostle Paul, some 2000 years ago; but to this day, few have
taken notice of him. The bitter truth is that people love their
racism. What is racism? Basically, racism means any distinction
based on race or ethnic origin that results in the persecution or
the restriction of human rights of groups that are discriminated
against. The racist ideology or, rather, pathology, is abhorrent
and condemnable under any circumstances and excuses. Unfortunately,
there are still more subtle forms of racism, as e.g. against women
- in certain cultures and religions more than in other ones -
racism against old people, disabled people, the poor, the ugly, and
even racism against people living in a particular locality of the
same country. Yet, xenophobia, which is usually a reaction to mass
and uncontrolled immigration, is not exactly racism, at least it is
not the worse expression of racism. This is my opinion, anyway.
Xenophobia is an age-old universal
phenomenon, as it stems from man's basic animal instincts and/or
simply from pure common sense. It has to do with the powerful
instinct of self-preservation. If you suddenly drop an alien
chicken into a hencoop, most probably she will get head bitten to
the point of bleeding, or even to death, by the other chicken - old
inhabitants there. Why? Because the 'native' chicken feel
threatened. They will now have to share their food with a stranger.
Altruistic feelings are non-existent here. There might not be
enough food left for them. So it is in the poultry's best
interests to get rid of the new intruder. The same applies to men.
They feel threatened by foreigners - legal or illegal immigrants -
flooding their country. The strangers might take their jobs, as
they do. Right from the beginning, they flood their National Health
System and get treated free of charge, without having contributed a
dollar for insurance. Perhaps, if they don't get employed, they
may turn to crime in order to survive, which they sometimes do...
If they multiply rapidly, which is usually the case, they may cause
political problems in the future, perhaps social instability, by
forming inassimilable ethnic minorities and violently
demonstrating, advocating their rights. It is happening in most
countries, where immigrants often provoke the natives by burning
the host country's flag. Hence most people, whether they openly
admit it or not, develop a xenophobia. So, this kind of racial
discrimination is a natural phenomenon thriving from times
immemorial, and it is due to fear and to unregenerate and selfish
man's animal instincts.
Needless to say, the immigrants are not
saints. They themselves are racist, too, and they don't hide it.
If the situation were reversed, they would behave exactly the same
way against immigrants flooding their own country. But even in
their host country they exhibit racism against the natives. No
government or individual can ever do enough to earn their
appreciation and sympathy, let alone a trace of gratitude. They,
too, are xenophobic and suspicious. Add some inferiority complex to
it and you get an inflammable mixture. They even criticize openly
the natives and refuse to socially integrate, at least the first
generation of them. They want to guard their national identity as
the pupil of their eyes. When, through admittedly hard work, they
prosper, they often look down in a derogatory attitude to the
natives who are poorer than them.
So, racism and xenophobia are universal
phenomena, and it takes spiritual enlightenment and full
realization of the brotherhood of all peoples in order for one to
rise above those ugly but natural animal instincts. Under the
relentless pressure of populist political parties and demagogic
Media, a government might have legislated the best laws in order to
eliminate phenomena of racism, and most governments of western
nations usually do - some times exhibiting an anti-racist hysteria,
even to the extent of discriminating against the natives - but,
alas, racism cannot be deleted from the hearts of people with
external laws.
As regards the anti-racist hysteria that
is promoted by the Media and certain political groups or parties of
leftist outlook - the anarchists being at the top of the list - I
believe it has exactly the opposite effect. Instead of combating
racism, it gives rise to it, according to the law of action and
reaction. Take, for example, the worldwide systematically
orchestrated propaganda against anti-Semitism during the last
decades. I have no doubt that the Jews had suffered a holocaust in
the hands of the Nazis during the Second World War. They have all
my sympathy for that. However, to strive to keep alive the memory
of the holocaust does not help anyone. Besides, those who
perpetrated the genocide of the European Jews are now dead. Their
descendants, contemporary Germans, shouldn't be held responsible
for the heinous crimes of their ancestors, since the vast majority
has certainly denounced them. Most Germans, I am sure, even feel
ashamed for the crimes the Nazis committed not only against the
Jews but also against other European peoples. But it is only the
Jewish holocaust that must be commemorated forever and ever! For
what purpose? I was never able to fully figure this out. Other
genocides must be forgotten, if acknowledged at all, but for some
reason, not this one! In fact, due to the extended publicity it has
taken over the last decades, the memory of the Jewish genocide
becomes all the more vivid, as if it all had happened last year. We
have even arrived at the point whereby racism has become almost
synonymous of anti-Semitism, as if there existed no other racism at
all! Let the shrewd policy makers rethink about this, lest one day
it might bring on - God forbid! - the crisis that is dreaded. Just
as faith draws near that which is believed, so fear tends to draw
nigh and manifest that which is feared. It is nothing mysterious
about it. Forgetting, forgiving, expecting the best, and working
for peace, understanding, and cooperation among all peoples, is the
only remedy of deep old wounds in the collective soul of nations.
Talking about other unadvertised
holocausts, we must admit that most nations, and especially those
with imperialist records, at one time of history or another, have
been guilty of genocides, while all peoples have been stained with
racism. The native red Indians of the USA, having suffered their
own unadvertised genocide, are still struggling to get equal civil
rights with black and white Americans. Another ethnic group that
has been victim of racism is the Australian Aborigines. The same
have suffered genocide and discriminating policies implemented by
all Australian governments from British settlement (1788) until
today. Then there is the Armenian holocaust of 1915, which was
virtually the first genocide of the twentieth century, perpetrated
by the Turkish military. Few people acknowledge it and even fewer
talk about it... It is most surprising - but not unexplainable -
that the state of Israel has not recognized the Armenian genocide.
It is all politics... Still, there is the mostly unacknowledged
Greek genocide by the Turks (http://www.hellenicgenocide.org).
Further, there is the Palestinian genocide, the Kurdish Genocide,
the most recent Iraqi genocide, to mention but a few. The point I
am trying to make is that the nations of the world, instead of
dwelling in the past, nurturing and advertising nightmarish
atrocities, something that perpetuates self-pity, resentment,
hatred and distrust among peoples, each should acknowledge its own
crimes, ask for forgiveness and stretch forth a conciliatory hand.
We must realize, at last, that this is the only way to Peace.
At this point, it is worth having a look
at "sanctified" Biblical racism. To my knowledge, the first nation
to sanctify their racism and attribute it to God's preference was
the Jews. Their patriarchs called them, "the chosen people"! They,
alone were "God's people", and brainwashed pseudo-Christians
acknowledge them as such to this day. I have no idea whose people
are the rest of humanity... The Old Testament is full of references
where the prejudice of the Jews against the "gentiles" led them to
detestable crimes and genocides of entire tribes, all in the name
of Jehovah! I have written about this before, but I shall repeat
here that the Bible needs catharsis from such heinous records,
since it is used as a Christian book containing what is considered
to be "The Word of God". For the sake of truth, I shall quote a few
such instances, hoping that I would NOT be labeled as
"anti-Semitic". You see, the anti-antisemitism propaganda is so
prevalent in our societies that people are afraid to speak the
truth when this does not favor the Jews. Apparently, the
fundamental human right of freedom of speech seems to stop when it
comes to criticizing the Jews! And who wants to be falsely labeled
as anti-Semite? Here are some Biblical instances that refer to
genocides supposedly ordered by God!
---"When the LORD your God brings you into
the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears
away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the
Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the
Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than
yourselves, and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and
you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. You shall make
no covenant with them and show no mercy to them." (Deut. 7: 1-2)
---"Hear, O Israel: you are to cross over the Jordan today, to go
in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves,
cities great and fortified up to heaven, (...) Know therefore today
that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the LORD
your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. So you
shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the LORD has
promised you. (Deut. 9:1-3) ---"But in the cities of these peoples
that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall
save alive nothing that breathes; but you shall utterly destroy
them: the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the
Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the LORD your God has
commanded." (Deut. 20: 16-17) ---"And the LORD said to Joshua,
'See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and
mighty men of valor.' (...) And the city and all that is within it
shall be devoted to the LORD for destruction. (...) Then they
devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young
and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.
(...) And they burned the city with fire, and everything in it.
Only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and of iron,
they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD. (Joshua 6 : 2,
17, 21, 24)
It is one thing for a nation to commit a
genocide - many nanions have been guilty of this - and it is a
different thing to put words in God's mouth in order to sanctify
one's atrocities... The latter is pure blasphemy. I feel ashamed
on behalf of Chistianity that has kept such abominable records in
its official Scriptures and preaches that this book, in its
entirety, is the Word of God! But the Jews have not protested
against it either... I can find no words to express my indignation
over this. Another thing that has surprised me is the reference to
the Greeks in the O.T. as being Jehova's enemies! Just look at
this: "For I have bent Judah as my bow; I have made Ephraim its
arrow. I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O
Greece, and wield you like a warrior's sword." (Zec. 9:13) May I
take this opportunity to mention here that 20 years ago I had come
across some so-called "Messianic Jews", i.e. Jews who, supposedly,
had accepted Christ as the Messiah and had come to Greece to "pray"
for our nation! Incidentally I had been asked by a Greek-American
friend who organised those "prayer" sessions to be the interpreter.
I had accepted the "assignment", and so I learned from Wolf's
mouth that there are two spirits in the world: The Jewish spirit,
that serves God, and the Greek spirit that opposes God! I loudly
protested there and then, and as a result I was replaced from being
their interpreter. But it was only then that I understood the
meaning and the origin of the Biblical verse against the Greeks
that I quoted above. The free thinkers, and especially those who
have studied ancient Greek philosophers, can judge the motives
behind this age-old covert antagonism between the Jews and the
Greeks. Ambition and envy is all that is behind this rival, since
the western civilization has been shaped by those two "spirits"
that complement each other.
I close this article expressing my
heartfelt wishes for 2008: May there be Peace and reconciliation
among the nations; may we start realizing, at last, that all humans
are one family, with common roots and the same destination: DEATH!
Is it worth killing each other for land, for petrol and for power
over others? LIFE IS SO PRECIOUS, BUT ALSO SO SHORT! Let us live in
PEACE and LOVE, for everybody's sake. HAPPY NEW YEAR!
About the Author
Maria Seferou was born in an agricultural
family of Dendron, a small village of Peloponnese, Greece. She
studied Civil/Structural Engineering at National Technical
University of Athens and had a successful 20-year professional
career both in Greece and in England. Since 1985 she has been a
writer of non-fiction books and articles on religious,
philosophical, political and social issues.
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