MONDOFUNZA

Today I read a comment by the Danish writer Kristian Ditlev Jensen in the Danish daily Politiken about a future possible “world religion”. He quotes Albert Einstein:

“Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: it transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural & spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity”.

Kristian claims that the three big monotheistic religions – Christianity, Islam and Judaism – fight because they are monotheistic and claim that there is one and only one God. Their God.

The Danish writer claims that in contrast to the above mentioned religions, Buddhism respects diversity and therefore is the religion of the future. Somehow more advanced than the more militant religions to appear after Buddha finally had his Nirvana. The bottomline is that you are nothing. In fact we are all nothing, which is something you can’t really preach. Can you imagine anybody fighting a religious war to persuade others to become…, nothing? Not really.

I made these photos in June, when I visited British Museum in London (please click  them for larger versions). The statue is centuries old. But look at the happy laugh and the potbelly that reveals a living far from today’s fear of getting fat. This guy has an inner peace that is bigger than all of us. And he loves it.

I have thought about blogging these photos ever since the row about the Muhammed cartoons started back in September, but I had to read Kristian’s comment today to get around it. You can make a statue of Buddha. I can take a picture of the statue. And love and spiritual energy stems from it. We need some love and the feeling of being nothing in the debate about the Muhammed cartoons.
More photos at fohns!

Så er den første podcast fra Transmediale 06 klar. Det er en reportage fra udstillingen. Den er ret rå og ikke særlig sofistikeret i lyden. Optaget på min iPod.

Om små 14 dage følger et par interviews.

All this is in Danish including most of the podcast except from a short interview with a robotmaker.

Download: Reportage fra Transmediale

Maybe this is better than excusing to people, who do not listen, because at the end of the day their agenda is not at all about Denmark and cartoons but something entirely different.

“Posts that contain Buy Danish per day for the last 30 days.

Get your own chart!”

The Danish division of Greenpeace has been convicted according to the Danish legislation on terror, due to an action against GMO soya. A fine of 50.000 dkr. Is this freedom of speech?

Terrorpakke i brug for første gang mod fredelige Greenpeace:
“Greenpeace-aktivister går frivilligt ud af Axelborg og arresteres af politiet.

København, Danmark — Dom vil stække foreninger, der anvender ansvarlig civil ulydighed. Som den første organisation nogensinde er foreningen Greenpeace Norden blevet dømt for at overtræde paragraffer indført med terrorpakken fra 2002. Det skete da Østre Landsret i dag skærpede en byretsdom fra juni 2005.

Retten idømte miljøorganisationen en bøde på i alt 50.000 kr. (25 dagbøder af 2.000 kr.) i forbindelse med en fredelig happening i oktober 2003, hvor frivillige aktivister hængte et banner ned fra Axelborg i København i protest mod gensplejset svinefoder.

‘Vi må konstatere, at Folketinget uden særlig forudgående offentlig debat har vedtaget en lov, som i praksis knægter ytringsfriheden for organisationer, der lejlighedsvis benytter sig af fredelig civil ulydighed.”

Read more:

(Via Greenpeace Denmark.)

A Danish citizen group have posted this on the world wide web and via e-mail. I post this to show the variety of opinions within the Danish society. The text is also published in Arabian on their website. I have not signed the letter and do not intend to do so. I too want to live in peace with the muslim world, but I want to live by terms set by a modern democratic society. Not by rules set by autocratic, fundamentalistic, religious regimes. The outrage about the Danish cartoons have other roots than the cartoons themselves. The cartoons and Denmark have just become scapegoats for social and political disorder in the Middle East. And it is by no means fair to condemn the cartoonists in this manner, as at least four of them not even portrayed Mohammed, but merely made a comment on the case that released the drawings in the first place, namely a pr-stunt made by the author of a children’s book about Mohammed. The book is by the way quickly becoming a bestseller in Danish bookstores, which means that his pr-stunt worked. Another thing is, how clean his conscience is knowing that several people have died the last few days as an indirect cause of his book.
Though I strongly support the freedom of speech, it’s still haunts me, if you should exercise this freedom with more care? But then again, I’m an atheist, I have my constitutional rights that other people have fought long to achieve on my behalf, I can’t just give them up. I have nothing against christianity, islam or other religions. But when they start to preach and act against basic human rights - count me out.

Another Denmark

“A letter from Another Denmark

Dear Muslim citizens in Denmark and the World

I wish to state the existence of another Denmark: A Denmark that wants to live in
peace with the Muslim world. There is another Denmark, which hopes for and believes
in respect and tolerance between religions and different groups of people.
As a Dane I have no responsibility for what a single and privately owned Danish
newspaper chooses to publish. Even so, I strongly condemn the actions of
Jyllands-Posten that have offended muslims around the world, and I understand the
need for an apology from the newspaper.

We all have a responsibility for treating each other, our religious faiths, and
convictions with dignity and respect. By publishing the caricatures of Muhammad, the
newspaper Jyllands-Posten failed their obligation to exercise with care and
consideration the right of freedom of speech.

I condemn all kinds of discrimination, prejudice and racism, whether it is directed
against Muslims, Jews, Christians or other groups in a society. Therefore, I reject
the hostile and prejudicial way of speaking that has marked several Danish,political
parties and media within recent years.

I want to make a request to all parts involved, that opinions and protests may be
conducted in a respectful and peaceful manner. Attacks on and threats against
individuals and assets only make the situation worse for all of us.

I believe in a world, where religions, ethnic groups and various political and
cultural opinions can coexist in an atmosphere of dialogue, tolerance and mutual
respect.
I wish to state the existence of Another Denmark that conceives itself as a part of
such a heterogenous world and humanity.

In the sincere hope of international tolerance and respect.”

(Via anotherdenmark.org.)

Already five months ago the Danish Mohammed drawings were published in Egyptian papers!

Documentation on these two blogs:

egyptiansandmonkey.blogspot.com

freedomforegyptians.blogspot.com

Monochrom’s wonderful tribute to the overhead projector, a media platform that is sadly passing away… Please download this song as an MP3: MP3 (5:25) This is the disco version.

FAREWELL TO OVERHEAD: “ 

FAREWELL TO OVERHEAD
(which had been a popular school broadcasting technique back in the old days)
monochrom in cooperation with Hangl and Kertal

 
Farewell To Overhead

When I was a little boy going to school
Everbody had this thing in use
It told us about history
It told us of democracy
It told us about how this world would be

Mostly you were stored aside
You stood there dreamingly and sighed
You did not even look too good
But everything was understood
Your apparatusness did shine
You waited humble and offline
But then they switched you on and went
On to some things to understand

Photosynthesis
and foreign places
Penis and vagina,
USA and Canada
Overhead was where it all was at

Overhead
You really drove us mad
You weren’t all that bad
On the walls we read
What they wanted to teach
What they wanted to preach
It’s over

Now you are dead media
Looked up on wikipedia
Not even the collector’s scene does care
But in this world of powerpoint
I miss you still my de”

(Via www.monochrom.at.)

I saw the journalist Mona Eltahawy in the Danish news yesterday. She has some very interesting points about being caught in the system of bipolar, religious extremism. On the one hand European right wing anti-muslim and on the other hand the extreme islamists.

Progressive muslims. I just wish that my fellow Danes will remember that not all muslims are fanatics. Reading this blog might help.

What Would Prophet Muhammad Have Done?:

“Detail from ‘The Night Journey of Muhammad on His Steed, Buraq,’ Leaf from a copy of the Bustan of Sa’di, dated 1514, Bukhara, Uzbekistan

By Tarek Fatah

Keep to forgiveness (O Muhammad), and enjoin kindness, and turn away from the ignorant. - The Qur’an, Chapter 7, Verse 199

During his lifetime, Prophet Muhammad endured insults and ridicule on a daily basis. His opponents mocked his message and used physical violence to stop him from challenging the status quo.

At no stage during this ordeal did the Prophet lose his temper or react to these provocations. Tradition has it that he would, instead, offer a prayer of forgiveness to those who showed contempt for him.

Today, however, many followers of Prophet Muhammad are acting the exact opposite. Reacting to the provocative Danish cartoons about the Prophet, they are burning newspapers, threatening journalists, issuing bomb threats, yet claiming they are standing up for the Prophet himself.”

(Via MWU!.)

Well, life can still be fun….

Sex Pistols spam: “

I just got a spam mail from Sid Vicious. He offers me what appears to be a great deal on Microsoft products and Photoshop.

”

(Via pollas.dk.)