What happens when Mr. Vestergaard is killed?

First of a statement of my views in this matter; Ever since Jyllands Posten – www.jp.dk – decided to print the Mohammed cartoons in 2005 I’ve been in favor of this. Danish freedom of speech applies in Denmark and nowhere else, and as such we cannot tolerate that religious, political or any other dogma influences Danish legislation. We have a judicial branch in Denmark separated from religious influence and are to follow international laws and conventions, but through centuries of debating and development of our society we’ve come to accept that no one, with no(!) exception (The Queen – or King, whichever is present, our Prime minister, famous writers, sports stars, the religious organizations ect.) can avoid to be to be mocked or made fun of, this is a cornerstone of our freedom of speech. Only when such statements are of a libellous nature, then the attacked may plead his case to the court and whatever ruling is to be followed. I support the printing of these cartoons, the drawers, the papers that printed them as support later on. This isn’t a discussion of the legality of these cartoons or if they should be printed or not, no rather it’s a kind of what if? (i.e. what when)

I 1988 Salman Rushdie printed The Satanic Verses and in 1989 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini declared a Fatwa to kill Rushdie. The same hasn’t happened yet and there is number of reasons for this. None the less the cartoonist Mr. Vestergaard was brutally attacked in his home and apparently only survived due to his safe room until armed police agents arrived at the scene 3 minutes later and disabled i.e. shot the intruder in the hand and leg reportedly.

The Police haven’t been able to fully secure Mr. Vestergaard since this isn’t the first attack upon him since the drawing but it’s the first where Mr. Vestergaard almost got killed by, what appears to be and renegade Somali male, age 28 acting on his own as revenge for the cartoons.

Now we arrived at my point; when – not if – but when someone, and this ‘someone’ will probably be a younger male with radical Islamic tendencies, succeeds and kills Mr. Vestergaard, what will happen then? Angry editorials condemning the perpetrators? Thousands rallying in the streets to show their disgust of this horrible crime?

Denmark cannot retaliate on a terrorist attack, since a terrorist officially isn’t state sponsored, some are but this is a different discussion. Should we quarantine all whom show Islamic tendencies? Of course not, that’s a joke; I don’t claim to have an answer for this, rather I reckon that we should remember former Louisiana Governor Patrick Henry: “Give me liberty, or give me death”

I truly hope that the police are able to provide Mr. Vestergaard with enough liberty to ensure that he stays alive, rather than experiencing an agonizing death.

And just to nobody is confused; the cartoon is Mr. Vestergaards impression of Mohammed.

And here my own - not even remotely close to the masterpiece above:

/C

Why the COP15 isn't going to achive anything....

Currently there is major massive invasion of Copenhagen….sorry – Hopenhagen, in order to reach an equitable agreement on the environment under the Danish Leadership, but they won’t succeed in the long run.

Yes the industrialized world might present some realistic and measurable goals to reduce the impact on the environment caused by our demand for energy, but come on; who are we kidding? Name for me please somebody who would like to give up their iPhone? Their online surfing? Their blogging (-:? All that we do in the western world demands energy and really nobody are willing to scale back the comfortable way of life we’ve all come to enjoy; in North America, in Europe, In the Pacific and so on. Instead demanding that we scale our energy consumption back, thus reducing heating, transporting, entertaining our selves, it will be up to the private sector and the intelligentsia of our Universities and engineering and business schools to invent new ideas to produce co2 free energy, or at least co2 reducing energy.

We’re just leaving a decade of overconsumption, over usage in all ways. This produced individuals that are ready to take on commitments to the world, interested in solving the issues, not scaling back to a pre-industrialization society. Only when private corporations and the intelligentsia awake from its sleep something will happen in the industrialized world.

On the other side of the rugby field is the third world countries that are hit – and will be hit the hardest – from the current climate changes. They claim that the industrialized world needs to pick up the environmental bill from our previous abominations. Well this can be argued, and truthfully the industrialized world has a responsibility; to the past – not so much the future.

Fertility are just short of holding the euro-zone and North America above the 2,1 children that is considered to maintain your demography. In the third world women gets 3-4-5-xx kids and they produce co2, and this accumulates to an unprecedented magnitude in just a few generations. How to stop this? Simple; make sure that women all around in the third world have access to and are allowed the usage of contraception’s. Then the rate of women whom will get a education will rise, and thus again improve the quality of living standard.

So how are standing in the doorway? Islamic laws and habits and Catholic laws and habits. Overall those two religions preach the submission of women to men, and hereby greatly reduces the chance for a women to be considered equal to men.

So who am I routing for? Women in the third world. Whom do I trust to come at through first? Private corporations in the industrialized world, but since the religious dogma won’t change anything until they experience their own ‘catechisms’, things are likely to stay the same or even get worse….also after COP15 are over.

I'm not holding my breath...

/C

9th of November 1989 - 20 years later

20 years ago the animosities in eastern Berlin was almost at an end. Close to three decades of harassments from Stasi was ending with the opening of “Der Mauer” Ever since the Soviet dictatorship decided to build an "anti fascistic protection wall" in 1961, families had been torn apart and one of the most influential countries in Europe’s history began its healing towards its unification lead by brave men like Mr. Gorbatsjov, Mr. Kohl & President Bush. Communism did crumble and a free capitalistic market did emerge and Berlin is on the fast track to – yet again – become one of the leading cultural cities in Europe.

A lot of grim things have been said about capitalism over the last 12-18 months, but ultimately capitalism ‘just’ need to be tethered a bit and this have been deeply missing in the last few years.

I’d much rather have a kind laissez-faire economics environment, free press & freedom of speech, the possibility to travel when and where one sees fit, rather than a post-communistic plan economy where growth is zero or negative, a secret police within the state continuously spying on the citizens, no freedom of speech and with no places to go – other than where the state thought it were appropriate that you went…Gulag for instance.



Please take a moment to remember what was won 20 years ago. This day is every bit as important as the 7th may 1945 where Nazi-Germany signed the unconditional surrender to the allied forces, just a shame it should be another 45 years before thriving countries like Poland, Hungary, Czech republic etc. could taste freedom from oppression.

Happy E-Day.

/C