Good and Evil
Items on the problem of evil and responses to evil
The World Standing Beside Me
Tue 18 Nov 2008 • Responses: 0 • by Jo Kadlecek
She didn’t mean to make me sad. My colleague’s words were short and brave, but there was no mistaking the heavy worry she felt as a mother.
“He’ll be here for a ten-day break,” she smiled. “Then back to Iraq for another tour. But really, it’s been okay. He’s okay.”
When I asked how she was doing, she emphasized the ways in which her son’s courage had grown during his twelve months away from home, how his sense of humor was still intact and his weekly phone calls encouraging.
Korean Anxieties
Wed 05 Nov 2008 • Responses: 0 • by David Aikman
While the attention of almost all Americans and much of the world has been focused on the presidential election campaign that ended November 4, tensions are rising alarmingly in a part of the world thousands of miles away. North Korea is up to its old tricks, threatening fire and brimstone on the South, and keeping the world guessing as to the whereabouts, and indeed the health, of its “Dear Leader” President Kim Jong-il. The combination of leadership uncertainty in North Korea, a South Korean administration notably more hard-nosed towards North Korea than its predecessors, and an imminent political change in Washington, constitute the ingredients for a possible serious rise in tensions on the Korean peninsula.
The U.N.’s Human Rights Charade
Wed 13 Aug 2008 by Joseph Loconte
The Geneva-based U.N. Watch has just released its critique of the tenure of former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour. Entitled, “The Right to Name and Shame,” the report offers a clear-eyed look at the record of the U.N.’s most prestigious human-rights official. Sadly—but predictably—Ms. Arbour’s performance, painstakingly examined, receives mixed reviews:
Social Justice and Conservative Politics
Sun 10 Aug 2008 • Responses: 2 • by Joseph Loconte
Americans don't pay much attention to the domestic politics of other countries, but the tectonic shift of political fortunes in Great Britain deserves some reflection. In a recent cover story of The Weekly Standard, "First, Lose Three Straight Elections," executive editor Fred Barnes describes how the Conservative Party has emerged from a long and lonely trek in the wilderness. The youthful face and articulate voice of party leader David Cameron only partially explains their astonishingly strong support in public opinion polls. Once known as "the nasty party," Conservatives have redefined themselves—not only in style but in substance.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, RIP
Sun 03 Aug 2008 by TTF Staff
“A great writer is, so to speak, a secret government in his country.”
Broken Promises for Human Rights in China
Tue 29 Jul 2008 by Joseph Loconte
Though painfully overdue, a leading human-rights organization has finally focused serious and sustained attention on a leading human-rights abuser: China. In a scathing report released ten days before the Olympic Games in Beijing, Amnesty International has concluded that China “continues to persecute and punish” those who advocate for human rights and democratic reform.
Muslims Challenge Islamic Hypocrisy
Fri 25 Jul 2008 by Joseph Loconte
The Arab regime of Omar al-Bashir in Sudan has long been accused of ethnic cleansing in its war against black African rebels in Darfur. Since fighting broke out in the spring of 2004, various U.N. investigators and human-rights groups have offered strong evidence of government complicity in the destruction of villages, sexual violence against women, and the brutal dislocation of nearly two million non-Arab Sudanese. Indeed, last week the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Mr. al-Bashir, accusing him of genocide. Yet, as best as I can tell, not a single Arab state has spoken out clearly and forcefully against the Islamist government in Khartoum.
The manifest hypocrisy of the Arab world toward Sudan, however, is becoming too much for some Muslims to bear.
Zimbabwe, the Scandal of Africa
Tue 24 Jun 2008 by David Aikman
It certainly looks as if the Almighty’s help will be needed in removing Mugabe from power.
The average American—or average Irishman or Frenchman, for that matter—could be forgiven for not knowing the answer to the following question: which country in the world has inflation of more than 15,000 percent, unemployment of 80 percent, and the lowest life-expectancy rate in the world (age 37 for men)? The answer—Zimbabwe—is not only the scandal of Africa today, but also the current scandal of world politics.
The immediate crisis in Zimbabwe is that the country’s president, Robert Mugabe, seems quite determined not to permit opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to assume political power in the country. In an initial election March 29, Tsvangirai, leader of the political party Movement for Democratic Change, won 47.9 percent of the vote, to Mugabe’s 43.2 percent. The election results, however, were not released until May 2, however, leading the opposition to charge that Mugabe’s party, ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe African People’s Union—Patriotic Front), had suppressed the results.
Natsios on Darfur
Mon 16 Jun 2008 by Joseph Loconte
If there is a single foreign policy issue that shocks the conscience of activists and politicians of all dispositions, it is the ongoing humanitarian tragedy in the Darfur region of Sudan. Since fighting broke out between rebel groups and government forces in 2003, it is estimated that over 250,000 civilians have been killed, mostly at the instigation of the Arab supremacist regime in Khartoum. More than 2 million people have been displaced from their homes and hundreds of thousands languish in refugee camps. Meanwhile, the survival of Sudan as a state seems to be at risk.
Australia’s ‘National Sorry Day’
Fri 30 May 2008 by David Aikman
It’s always risky for nations to apologize, but Kevin Rudd’s act of contrition for Australia was based in Christian conviction.
On May 26, while Americans were barbecuing hot dogs and collectively grumbling over their beers and Cokes about the outrageous price of gasoline, Australians, fourteen hours ahead of America’s East Coast, were reflecting on their tenth annual commemoration of National Sorry Day.
To most Americans, that phrase might sound like a cynical skit from TV’s Saturday Night Live. But for Australians it is deadly serious. For ten years Australians have been annually reflecting upon the suffering that the country’s white settlers imposed on the indigenous Australians, also called Aborigines.
