This is a static copy of In the Rose Garden, which existed as the center of the western Utena fandom for years. Enjoy. :)

#1 | Back to Top11-13-2015 06:00:54 PM

crystalwren
Dark Whisperer
From: Brisbane
Registered: 04-21-2009
Posts: 1172
Website

Paris

I.

HATE.

HUMANITY.


This is monstrosity, perpetrated by monsters. I don't know what the news is elsewhere, but I've had the ABC 24hour News on for the past five hours. I've heard ISIS mentioned...maybe twice? In all that time. Everyone is talking around it. No one wants to say it. It's pretty obvious why; any Muslim person, and their community, is at extreme risk of vigilantism and the last thing anyone wants right now are more innocent lives in danger. Still, there's one report that keeps coming up that one of the attackers cried 'Allah Akbar'! before they opened fire.

I don't know if this is true. But if it is, I think a more accurate term would be: "My god is the god of love, peace, justice and tolerance. And if you don't believe me, I'll fucking kill you."

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#2 | Back to Top11-14-2015 06:34:36 AM

Riri-kins
World's End
From: Cloud Nine
Registered: 09-22-2008
Posts: 2354

Re: Paris

In my opinion a few bad apples have made the whole bushel look bad but that's beside the point. Us Americans need to offer more than thoughts and prayers. The French are still our friends.


Proud Saionji and Mikage fangirl
My Utena fanfiction: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2000115/Riri-kins

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#3 | Back to Top11-15-2015 03:02:33 AM

Decrescent Daytripper
Best Disney Princess
Registered: 04-09-2007
Posts: 2791

Re: Paris

I love humanity.

This is a horrible thing yes, but it was such a tiny percentage of overall humanity doing something horrible, and a huge portion of humanity who are being sympathetic and kind and good about it.

I think it's vitally important to keep that in mind, that the vast majority of people really are straight up decent. Wherever you go in the world, any town, any culture, the majority of people are trying to do right and be generally good to each other. External pressures or traumas do disrupt that, and good people can act atrociously but in general, the real nastiness is always a small percentage of the overall population.


My Brain is the Wakaba and Shiori Funtime Hour. With limited commercial interruption.

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#4 | Back to Top11-16-2015 01:59:20 PM

satyreyes
no, definitely no cons
From: New Orleans, Louisiana
Registered: 10-16-2006
Posts: 10328
Website

Re: Paris

It's heartbreaking to see so many lose their lives to senseless terrorism, and it's even more heartbreaking to put these attacks into the context of a cycle of violence -- violence committed by so-called Muslims and Muslim nations, violence committed against Muslims and Muslim nations -- that has always hurt the innocent far more than the guilty.  Already we're seeing peaceful Muslims in Paris brace for the inevitable wave of hate crimes; we're seeing Germany reverse itself on welcoming Syrian refugees, while Poland backs out of its pledge to take in refugees altogether; we're seeing Republicans here in the U.S. call for a ground war against ISIS, because that did so much to help Americans and Arabs when we did it in Afghanistan and Iraq.

People aren't saints.  We are often moved by fear, anger, and self-interest rather than empathy and charity, especially when it comes to our dealings with faceless groups like The West or The Muslims or The Immigrants.  But I still can't help agreeing with Daytripper.  Most people want to do the right thing as best we understand it, even if our understanding is sometimes clouded by prejudice, ignorance, and fear.  It would sure help if people in positions of power would quit spreading prejudice, ignorance, and fear on purpose to serve their own agendas, though.  emot-rolleyes

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#5 | Back to Top11-17-2015 12:26:18 AM

dlaire
A Whole Orange
From: Poland
Registered: 04-08-2007
Posts: 2322

Re: Paris

It's a very difficult discussion, but I guess I can add some more info here.

A few days ago, my friend added her selfie with Warsaw-Paris tickets. This Saturday she added info about hiding in a hotel.

I thought that's my first friend who was at a heart of horror. But then I read news. Turns out, Ankara in Turkey suffered too, months ago. Beirut also suffered. It pisses me off that those news aren't this important for most of newspapers, because it manipulates the image of ISIS. ISIS isn't focused on Europe, it's focused on building an extremist regime in Syria.

Do you remember which countries were playing at the stadium in Paris that day? Germany versus France. What a splendid way to scare Germans away. Especially when you pick evenings and leisure activities when people are the most relaxed.

So ISIS doesn't want to conquer Europe nor America, it's too far away for that. And terrorism isn't about religion, it's all about power, dominance and money.
When it comes to discussing terrorism, Noam Chomsky captures the problem perfectly. We don't call Russian politics terrorism but it is. We didn't talk about terrorism when we talked about Cuba or Vietnam. Saddam Hussein didn't have weapons of mass destruction, whoopsie. Sorry.

Warsaw buildings still have holes after kalashnikov shots and the old generation still remembers the bombings. Poland doesn't want to be a part of another war, especially a religious one. I don't like seeing American media so eager to attack, because States have spent a lot of years fighting wars on different continents, whereas Trump is more reluctant towards Mexicans than Slavic governments towards refugees.

It's not so nice to fight the war when it's on your back yard.

The ISIS is obviously the problem and Syria needs help, but I don't see how another war could be helpful. I think the smartest thing to do would be infiltrating it and destroying it from the inside, then using armies to stabilize the situation. I think it's very unlikely to happen and I think Russia and States won't be subtle enough to kill ISIS members and spare innocent people because they won't have time nor ways to distinguish them. Then, they will argue over the corpse of Syrian country like vultures and Russia will try to annex it.

Russia still dreams of being the empire and States still see themselves as The Good Guy. The Good Guy who knows best what other countries need, in spite of being unaware of sociopolitical network and, therefore, the complex consequences of its intervention. I don't think Cuba, Afganistan or Vietnam citizens would agree. I think States see Russia as their hound dog, but they cannot predict what Putin will do.

So right here I think I hope German intelligence will be the brains of the operation because Angela Merkel isn't megalomaniac. Germany seeks redemption instead of glory and right now it makes it the wisest of the powerful countries to lead. France is weak and scared but other countries like it, so it will be the blond cheerleader of the following conflict.

Poland, other Slavic countries and Hungary will try to stay away from the conflict, so we might end up dealing with refugees later, whereas other countries will be the military force. We will be like teens who reluctantly share their rooms with a poor, strange cousin.

Spain and Portugal will feel it's not their bussiness but they - and Greece - will be pressured by Germany to help, since Germany is their sugar daddy. They deal somehow with the financial crisis mainly thanks to German loans. So they will help to still have their pocket money.

I think Germany secretly believes in Muslims changing their Weltanschaung in Europe. They believe Muslims will be behaving well, since they are guests, and they will be reeducated and they will develop more European view on everything. I guess it might happen, because they will be strategically located in groups too small to form Muslim communities.

So, to sum up, I really hope the intelligence will deal with ISIS, but I'm afraid military forces will screw this up and it will end into a blood bath.

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