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Details: Written by: Kamran Mofid; Published: 08 December 2020; Hits: 851

Pandemic, Lockdown, Isolation, Social distancing, Loneliness, Hopelessness, Fear and Anxiety

It's Hard to Picture a Better and a more Hopeful Future After the Pandemic.

But, For Sure, Together We'll Help Shape It

We can all imagine the world we want to build; now's the time to start its construction. Photo: Via the BBC

'Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future by Pope Francis and Austen Ivereigh (Simon & Schuster, 2020) explains why we must—and how we can—make the world safer, fairer, and healthier for all people now. In the COVID crisis, the Pope saw the cruelty and inequity of our society exposed more vividly than ever before. He also saw, in the resilience, generosity, and creativity of so many people, the means to rescue our society, our economy, and our planet. In direct, powerful prose, Pope Francis urges us not to let the pain be in vain. The book offers an inspiring and actionable blueprint for building a better world for all humanity by putting the poor and the planet at the heart of new thinking. For this plan, the Pope draws not only on sacred sources, but on the latest findings from renowned scientists, economists, activists, and other thinkers.'- Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology

Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future

“Let Us Dream is written in the spirit of that insight and throws down a spiritual gauntlet to the reader. The distillation of summer discussions with the English Catholic commentator and author Austen Ivereigh, the book is recognisably a product of that strange, surreal first phase of the coronavirus pandemic. As patients fought for breath in overwhelmed intensive care wards, our streets fell silent and lockdown brought the world to a shuddering halt. Calamities such as this, says Francis, can be a “threshold” experience, dividing one era from another. “This is a moment to dream big,” he writes, “to rethink our priorities – what we value, what we want, what we seek – and commit to act in our daily life on what we have dreamed of.

The Covid crisis, argues the pope, has given the lie to a “myth of self-sufficiency” that sanctions rampant inequalities and frays the ties that bind societies together. Pitilessly, the virus has demonstrated our mutual dependency and common vulnerability. We have collectively relied on the state as never before. The doorstep applause for the nurses and doctors risking their lives, and the key workers who kept essential services going, was a collective lightbulb moment: “They are the saints next door, who have awoken something important in our hearts … the antibodies to the virus of indifference. They remind us that our lives are a gift and we grow by giving of ourselves: not preserving ourselves, but losing ourselves in service. What a sign of contradiction to the individualism and self-obsession and lack of solidarity that so dominate our wealthier societies!”...Julian Coman, Let Us Dream by Pope Francis review – the holy father of fraternity

‘Francis writes that Covid has taught us “no one is saved alone”. That knowledge demands a new politics of inclusion, he believes. It equips us to avoid both excessive individualism and the aggressive populism that thrives on identifying enemies at home and abroad. “Fraternity,” the pope insists, “is the new frontier”, capable of knitting together the often competing demands of liberty and equality.’

Thus, the pertinent question is: ‘If we see this eruption of what Francis calls “fraternity” for what it is – for what it reveals about the human condition – might it become the launchpad for a new politics of the common good?’

Please see below for some possible and potential answer/s to the above question:

We are not mean people. We have hearts and minds, we care for each other still, we have our dreams, and in dreams, as the poet Delmore Schwartz once said, “In dreams begin responsibilities”.

"The Value of Values to Build a World for the Common Good"

Love and the common good to heal the wounds of the coronavirus crisis: Pope Francis

Fraternity, Social Friendship, the Common Good, Seeking what is Morally Good

Pope Francis urges the world leaders to provide “for the common good”

A reflection on ‘Evangelii Gaudium’, Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis

Pope Francis: Remember two things- human dignity and the common good

Oxford Theology Society Lecture: Values to Make the World Great Again

Pursuing the Common Good

What might an Economy for the Common Good look like?

Quakerism and Economics of the Common Good

Religion in Public Life

Economics, Globalisation and the Common Good: A Lecture at London School of Economics

Details: Written by: Kamran Mofid; Published: 07 December 2020; Hits: 963

A Churchill history lesson for Brexit Britain

As Churchill saw it in 1946, Britain’s glory was not to be found in isolation and pseudo-nationalism

Boris Johnson, a best-selling biographer of Winston Churchill, who also sees himself as a modern-day Churchill, has claimed the Great Man for the side of Brexit.

Writing below I offer the contrary argument that “everything we know” about Churchill suggests that he would “be a committed voter to remain” inside the European Union.

Thus, to my mind, like on many other issues, Boris Johnson has been economical

with truth and therefore has cheated us all again

A blimp depicting Boris Johnson hovers near a statue of Winston Churchill.SIMON DAWSON / REUTERS

Lest We Forget

EU has always been a Peace Project First and Foremost

Europe and the Europeans all together for the Common Good in Unity and Hope

“By the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone.”

‘It was always lost on Brexiteers – but the EU is fundamentally about peace.’

“The Most Successful Peace Project in the History of Mankind”

And Churchill understood and appreciated this. What a pity that the current Tories are so ignorant of his vision and dream.

Winston Churchill valued a united Europe

Commemorative plaque for the speech of Winston Churchill at the University of Zürich.

The final sentence: “Therefore I say to you: let Europe arise!”

“We hope to see a Europe where men of every country will think as much of being a European as of belonging to their own native land, and that without losing any of their love and loyalty of their birthplace. We hope wherever they go in this wide domain they will truly feel ‘Here I am at home. I am a citizen of this country too.”

Brexiteers forget that their hero knew exactly what was needed to maintain lasting peace after the Second world war

Being no longer Britain's Prime Minister Winston Churchill spent much time touring Western Europe in 1946 and received widespread public homage. On September 19th he delivered his most memorable speech of that period addressing the academic youth at the old university in Zurich.

Winston Churchill: called for a United States of Europe

Let Europe Arise! - Winston Churchill Great Speeches that Made History

On September 19, 1946, at the University of Zurich, Winston Churchill delivered one of his most famous speeches.

He advocated for a United States of Europe and for forgiveness between France and Germany.

He warned that the horrors of the past could still be repeated without fundamental change.

Watch this historical moment HERE

Churchill – a `founding father’ of the European Union

'Winston Churchill, a former army officer, war reporter and British Prime Minister (1940-45 and 1951-55), was one of the first to call for the creation of a ‘United States of Europe’. Following the Second World War, he was convinced that only a united Europe could guarantee peace. His aim was to eliminate the European ills of nationalism and war-mongering once and for all. He formulated his conclusions drawn from the lessons of history in his famous ‘Speech to the academic youth’ held at the University of Zurich in 1946: “There is a remedy which ... would in a few years make all Europe ... free and ... happy. It is to re-create the European family, or as much of it as we can, and to provide it with a structure under which it can dwell in peace, in safety and in freedom. We must build a kind of United States of Europe.” Thus the driving force behind the anti-Hitler coalition became an active campaigner for Europe’s cause.

It should also be remembered that in 1948 Churchill presided the Congress at The Hague leading to the establishment of the Council of Europe and the European Court for Human Rights’- The two institutions that Brexiteers despise!!

In short, this was the recommendation of a man who, for much of his life, had been at the heart of British, European and global politics, and a witness to a fragmented continent, including extreme nationalism, wars and destruction. To my mind, our eventual membership was surely in keeping with his thinking.'

Winston Churchill: calling for a United States of Europe

Winston Churchill, speech delivered at the University of Zurich, 19 September 1946

……

Brexit is a House of Cards Built on Shifting Sands: Its Foundation was Built on a Pack of Lies

We send £350m a week to Brussels
We can’t stop Turkey joining
We can’t stop a European army
We are still liable to pay eurozone bailouts
The UK rebate can be changed against our will
Our VAT exemptions will be ended
Cameron’s deal was not legally binding
EU law is adopted by unelected bureaucrats
We can’t control our borders in the EU
Criminals arriving in Germany can get EU passports and come over here
Health tourism costs us billions
EU needs UK trade more than vice versa
Past referendum results have been ignored
Auditors still refuse to sign off the accounts
CAP adds £400 to British food bills
British steel suffers because of the EU
Irish border will be unaffected by Brexit
UK can’t deport EU criminals
UK is always outvoted
60-70% of laws come from EU
Renationalisation of industries is impossible
We get no veto on future treaty change or integration
The budget ceiling can increase without our consent
We thought we were only joining a free trade zone
(Compiled by Richard Corbett MEP, Leader of the Labour Members of the European Parliament)...Continue to read

The Folly and Ignorance of Brexit to Grasp the TRUTH:

EU has always been a Peace Project First and Foremost

......

The Longest Suicide Note in History:

If this is not a sign of total madness, then what is it?

Leaving the Greatest Peace Project for a Shabby Pseudo independence

Photo: twitter

‘The Eton Boys are undefiled

The Bullingdon Boys, running wild

And England slides into the mist

No hope they’ll cease nor desist

They're making England great again

Make way for the bagmen

And when everything's been sold and bought

We'll soon be off the life support

This is an English public school

This is where Britain raised its empire

Rulers of yesterday

And still trains the leaders of tomorrow

They're making England great again

Make way for the bagmen

And when everything's been sold and bought

We'll soon be off the life support.’

Watch the video: Madness - The Bullingdon Boys

Time to Rejoice, Time to Celebrate!

The Eton Boys, The Bullingdon Boys, The Chosen and Exceptional Few,

Got their Brexit Done and Gifted us with ‘INDEPENDENCE’!!!

Photo: YouTube-Britannia Independence Day - Leave and Brexit

Not long to go before, what, some of our most ‘distinguished’ and ‘honourable’ leaders, such as Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Dominic Cummings, and Jacob Rees-Mogg- to name but a few- have called ‘The Independence Day’, when Britain will free itself from the shackles and chains of European imperialism and colonisation, and becomes great again.

The Independence Day Coming to a Cinema Near You on 1 January 2021

Great Again? Think Again!

And now watch George Monbiot explaining the falsehood and the lies of Great Again!

Details: Written by: Kamran Mofid; Published: 30 November 2020; Hits: 881

As in 1028 and 1946 in 2021 Britain is facing its moment of reckoning

Photo:Pinterest

Britain in 2021: When Pandemic Meets Brexit

What a crying shame when a great civilisation, culture and a beautiful green pleasant land, in the midst of a deadly pandemic, unprecedented economic and financial crises and huge level of personal and national indebtedness, can only be concerned about if it is going to become like Norway or Switzerland or Canada, US, Japan, China, India or Australia, or anywhere else for that matter, as it fully embraces its Brexit on 1 January 2021 and it ‘Takes Back Control’ and becomes ‘Independent’ again.

First a bit of History for Those Who Never Learn from it

Brexit and the Dismal Reality of “Take Back Control”

‘In at least one respect, Britain has gone backward in the past thousand years. In 1028, according to legend, King Cnut sat on his throne on a beach in the west of England and commanded the tide to stop rising. The tide disobeyed, and the king had to leap from his throne to escape the rising sea.

The point of the story is not that Cnut was an idiot, but that his courtiers were. They had wanted him to demonstrate his power. Had one of them been an ancestor of Dominic Cummings, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s chief adviser, he would doubtless have told Cnut to take back control. Cnut went along with the ploy, not to show that he was all-powerful, but to prove that he wasn’t.

Today, Johnson lacks Cnut’s self-awareness. Egged on by the campaigners for Brexit, he insists that Britain will flourish, whatever the UK’s relations with the EU will be when the current transition phase—in place since Britain left on January 31, 2020—ends in December.

On October 16, the prime minister warned that the UK might enter 2021 without a deal on the future relationship with the EU and be forced to trade on World Trade Organization terms. With no hint of doubt or irony, he advised Britons to embrace this prospect “with high hearts and complete confidence.”

This was the economic equivalent of promising to stop the tides. King Cnut would never have believed such nonsense.’...Peter Kellner

…...

Winston Churchill valued a united Europe

Commemorative plaque for the speech of Winston Churchill at the University of Zürich.

The final sentence: “Therefore I say to you: let Europe arise!”

Brexiteers forget that their hero knew exactly what was needed to maintain lasting peace after the Second world war

Winston Churchill: calling for a United States of Europe

Let Europe Arise! - Winston Churchill Great Speeches that Made History

On September 19, 1946, at the University of Zurich, Winston Churchill delivered one of his most famous speeches. He advocated for a United States of Europe and for forgiveness between France and Germany. He warned that the horrors of the past could still be repeated without fundamental change.

Watch this historical moment HERE

Churchill – a `founding father’ of the European Union

Winston Churchill: calling for a United States of Europe

Winston Churchill, speech delivered at the University of Zurich, 19 September 1946

……

Then, it must never be forgotten that the Brexit referendum vote and those who sold the idea to leave the EU, never told the British voters what leaving meant; they did not tell us what Brexit would really look like. The British people had voted to leave the European Union but did that mean leaving the EU so we became like Norway or Switzerland or Canada, US, Japan, China, India or Australia, or anywhere else for that matter?

......

Brexit is a House of Cards Built on Shifting Sands: Its Foundation was Built on Pack of Lies