Redefining Racism in Europe.

On the eve of the London Olympics in 2012, a Greek athlete has been disqualified for posting allegedly racist comments on her twitter account. Voula Papachristou commenting on the widely reported appearance of Nile-virus-carrying mosquitoes in Athens, she wrote: "With so many Africans in Greece, the West Nile mosquitoes will be getting home food!!!" 

Was that comment naive and ridiculous? Yes it was. But the Greek psyche has not been through what the American, British or South African "white" psyche has been. We do not have their complexes or sensitivities. Simply because we have been a homogenous nation every since we got our independence from the Ottoman Empire. 

Only recently Greece has found itself as a destination for immigrants, from being traditionally a country of emigration. And before we managed to master it or get the balances right, the severe crisis and economic downturn hit us. So as it was expected the first to get the blame were the immigrants. Not that this is ethical, but it happened so many times before in other countries. When the economy turns bad the minorities are the first to pay the price. 

It happened in most other European countries in the past too and in fact in some cases in much worse way. In Britain, many landlords that wanted to rent their property to white protestant British natives only, they used to place a sign on their windows "No Ni**%s No Irish, No Dogs." So I do not think that anyone can criticize Greece on the way we deal with our immigration problem. It is something new and it will take time to master or deal with effectively.

But it does explain how many young Greeks found as the only option for the country's future, the doctrines of ultra-nationalism and the far right. They just wish to return to what their fathers knew best, when we were a nation state and everything apparently was "rosy." When we apparently controlled our country's future and destiny. Who will tell them that those times are long gone and times have changed and that we should adapt accordingly. 

So that is how the Golden Dawn party got access to the Greek Parliament. But our politicians are only scapegoating athletes like Voula, because if she re-posted videos of the Golden Dawn from you-tube on her twitter account (as it is claimed that she did) she should not be the one to be punished.

If someone should get punished then our leaders must be the ones. They wrecked our economy and they are the ones who left Greece with no functioning immigration policies. They are responsible for the economic woes, the immigration problem, and the rising nationalism and anger among the Greek youth. Now to cover their failures and to show Europe and the world that Greece is a "civilized" country they destroyed one talented, yet naive girl's dreams. And what about the shame they have brought to our country with their corruption and incompetence? 

I agree that her comment was silly and unacceptable. And to actually support Golden Dawn definitely puts me off her personality. But the Golden Dawn has became an elected political party in Greece's parliament because of the chronic in-activeness of our ruling elites. And yes, Greece has an immigration problem that is no lie. Like most of the rest of Europe. 

But we should not deal with it by repressing freedom of speech, or trying to bring as an example a naive girl by destroying her dreams. In fact this made her a heroine and there was a huge support for her in many social networking websites.

 Any ordinary man will chose a joke like Voula's to express his or her frustration about an issue. Should we not be able to do so, in order to present ourselves as "progressive?" But that is the exact attitude who brought us to this situation in the first place. Blind and fanatical idealism of our ruling elites that left their ideas totally detached from the needs of their people. An open debate, education, the sports and arts together with inter-community projects will prove much more effective in battling racism in Greece and Europe.

Besides, the Greeks were always joking about someone. When there were no other ethnic minorities living in our country, there were jokes about the Pontic Greeks (Greeks that originated in Anatolia, on the coast of the Black Sea) the Vlach Greeks and so on. Islanders made jokes about the inhabitants of the neighboring island, northern Greeks about the southern ones and vice versa. 

Athenians made jokes about Thessalonicans and vice versa. We had jokes about the Turks, the Germans, the French or the British. Then our borders opened and almost one million of Albanians entered Greece. They were included in the everyday slander jokes of the Greeks. Nobody made any fuss about it. But now the Anglosaxon/ European disease of political correctness caught up with us and we want to prove to them that we are good boys.

Why having jokes about Africans are any different from having jokes about the Albanians or the Pontic Greeks? Or why telling a joke about any other  European ethnic group is not considered a punishable offense? The French joke about the Belgians, the Germans about the Austrians, the English about the Irish and the Swedes about the Finnish or the Norwegians. Is the only way to stop racism in Europe to force people to stop making any jokes about colored or non European people, or to ban any comments that show discomfort for an obvious problem that all countries in Europe face: immigration.

No I do not agree with Golden Dawn's doctrines of hate or with any rise of the far right anywhere in Europe. Nor I want to see "Greece belonging to the Greeks only."   But as long as everybody respects another and do not attack verbally or physically each other then I do not see why we tend to silence any voices that object to the current immigration trends in Europe. First of all Europe DOES have an immigration problem. But our leaders are to blame, not the immigrants so we should not take our anger on them. And how can we have democracy if we do not allow people to voice their opinions, doubts or opposition freely, as long as they do not offend.

Have it any other way and we could be compared to any other totalitarian regime we are so critical of. No, racism is not to question, object or express some worries about the current immigration trends in your country. If only we need to be discussing them freely. It is when we try to suppress them that they become an avalanche and break out with much bigger force than expected. If we try to educate, explain, and inform our citizens of what is happening in our countries and how we could benefit from all this, then perhaps we will see an open debate happening and a long lasting solution than trying to silence anyone who has any reservations.

I also think that if we are talking about integration, multiculturalism in Europe or the world, we must work on it both ways. All western European countries have embraced multiculturalism and soon the eastern European countries will follow suit. But what about the immigrants themselves? Those who come in Europe and expect to be accepted, back in their home countries have often problems or shameful past of their own. 

In order to discuss about racism and multiculturalism openly we will have to address inter-community issues, not just the issue of the white native European accepting the immigrant population. Racism is not only "white on black." Otherwise we are in danger of passing the message that only white people can be racists. 

How can a Pakistani for example accuse a British man for racism when themselves have an issue with Africans and Indians. If we want to create a racism free, equal society we must not focus only on the issues deriving from the objection of the native population on immigration. 

There is racism in Trinidad and Tobago between the communities of people of African and Indian origin. There is racism in India against the descendants of African migrants that arrived in the Asian sub-continent during the British colonialism. There is racism among Europeans and between the various African tribes. 

And if a Chinese man is accusing a European for racism, how is China faring in its human rights records and how they would deal with any immigrants coming outside of Asia? China is considered to be a neo-colonialist power on the African continent. I wonder how will they deal with any possible African immigration in the future into China, if they ever allow it!

Banning any silly jokes, punishing those who post them in their social networking websites, or deterring any debate or skepticism  on multiculturalism and immigration won't actually do any good on the fight against racism. If anything else, the best results can come from openness, education, willingness to discuss and readiness from both sides, the immigrants and the natives to compromise and work together to understand each other. 

And certainly any positive developments will come with a stable and thriving economy, prosperity and stability for everybody in a society. The worse enemy of a fair and democratic society is inequality, poverty and lack of education. Not the silly jokes that a young naive girl posts on her twitter account. 

The Greeks used to be a very welcoming nation and the first immigrants who entered Greece were treated nicely and respected. How we went from this to actually have neo-Nazis in our parliament is something that can be blamed solely in the horrendous mistakes that our Greek governing elite has made, with the encouragement of our European partners. 

You see multiculturalism for some is just trendy and for others just profitable business. They make millions out of the poor immigrants that are exploited in Europe. But for the ordinary citizens that no one explains to them what is going on, or even worse asks for their opinion the immigrants just remind them that their beloved country has changed and entered a new phase in its history. When this "new phase" turns bad, they simply want to reverse everything and they turn against the most obvious manifestation of it: the immigrants.

Racism always existed and most likely will always exist in a proportion of the human kind. So I honestly do not believe that there is a permanent solution to it. But if we can achieve tolerance and equality in our societies then we need not worry. Having so many races, people of different ethnic background, cultures and religions is what makes our world richer in heritage and more interesting.  All it takes is another formula from what our ruling elites have been practicing all those years, to ensure we can allow everyone in our countries to be part of this new multicultural model of our societies, benefit, be active and even celebrate it!

Europe in Space too?

Yesterday August the 6th, NASA was celebrating its first ever rover landing to Mars. The "Curiosity" rover made a perfect landing, after a nearly 9-month voyage from Earth.  That is the first major development in space for NASA and humanity, after so many years of efforts.

So while they are celebrating in America, what happens in Europe at the same time? We are dealing with the crisis while bickering between us, with inability to reach an agreement and the return to protectionism and nationalism as our only future. What will Europe have to celebrate in the decades to come? Will we always be admiring the achievements of others and follow the lead of USA, or will we start making our first steps towards achieving something as a continent again?

Russia in the past and recently China and India have also had their moments in space. As has Europe! Europe has E.S.A. the European Space Agency, similar to NASA. Many E.U. and non E.U. members are also members of ESA, but though ESA has close ties with the EU, it is an independent intergovernmental organization. It is comprised by 19 members (soon to be 20 with the accession of Poland) plus many more associates from all over Europe and Canada.

With administrative bases in most western European countries and its spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, ESA has been launching a series of rockets to space. The Ariane, Soyuz and Vega rockets have been launched over the years, sometimes with the cooperation of third countries like Russia, the US and Japan.

So what next for Europe and its Space exploration, could we one day have the jubilant news and reactions like those of NASA? Well for the moment there is no need in even dreaming something like that. What good would it be to send people or machinery into Space while Europeans are facing tough austerity and unemployment and when they can not make ends meet, while the future of Europe's currency is in doubt?

We do not want to become like India, a country with millions under the poverty line yet spending billions in their space and nuclear ambitions. That is plain unethical. But once we sort out what is really wrong in Europe and the EU now days, the democratic deficit, the cracks in our currency, the inequality and everything else, I believe that Europe could use Space exploration for its benefit in many more ways than just rocket launching.

Space exploration should be an option for the future. It worked well for America in the past. It united the nation and gave its population something to be proud of and stand united. It also gave the US huge prestige and a head-start for any further Space explorations. Perhaps we could use the same for Europe in the future. If else we need to give something to our citizens to be proud of, to have hope and faith in the European project and perhaps renew their interest for it. If Europe manages to create something of some greatness in a collective way and with the participation of many of its states, then perhaps it will help in creating a more collective consciousness among the European populace.

Individually the European countries are too small to achieve anything like what the US, Russia, China and India have achieved so far in that field. But cooperating together, with careful planning and appropriate budgeting Europe can achieve a whole lot more. After the storm of this crisis, we should rethink the EU budget, reform and re-prioritize. Perhaps we should reduce the funds for CAP (the Common Agriculture Policy) , from our military budgets (if we ever manage to have a common military policy) and other outdated policies and invest more in research and innovation; including the field of Space exploration.

It could create new industries and with them, new jobs. We could promote new subjects in our Universities for our youth to study and specialize on. With closer cooperation and coordination we could maximize the results. We could create factories in all participating states to build the components needed for this venture. Set up research centers for our newly specialized scientists to work on. Space exploration should not just be about wasting money for a dream, or a prestige contest in the World stage of politics.

Why Europe should always watch others achieving and always lack behind them? We have opened the ways for sea explorations in the past, we were the pioneers who changed this world for good and for bad. We were leading in all major developments of the human kind once. Will we just be observers from now on? 

(You can find out more about ESA in its website:  http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Space_Year_2007/index.html )

How we could benefit from multiculturalism in Europe.

I am Greek and I live permanently in Dublin, Ireland. Out of curiosity and excitement I decided to travel in Europe a few years ago, but fate had its plans as they say and I decided to stay abroad permanently.

Before I decided to leave home, I always wanted to see a modernized Greece, cosmopolitan and "colorful" or multicultural as we call it. Not because it is 'fashionable' in Europe. But because I personally believe that as a country we need to come more in contact with other nationalities and learn to think as Europeans and citizens of the world, if we'd like to take advantage of globalization and its advantages.

Globalization is a fact now and all nations are preparing for the new "status quo" on our planet. It has actually started centuries ago with the European conquests and colonization but has grown to its present form after several wars and ideological conflicts.

But multiculturalism gives advantages in a society only when governments manage the changes in the society positively, fairly and always with the contribution of public opinion. When I started traveling to Europe, I noticed that most European countries had failed in many points in the consolidation of a successful multicultural society. This does not mean that the idea is multiculturalism is wrong. Just badly managed in Europe.

And this happens for decades, which only resulted in the rise of many far right groups in many countries of our continent, the alienation and isolation of immigrants and their "ghettoization", but also the recent criminal terrorist attacks in Norway.

When I visited Belgium and saw that the majority of young men of Moroccan origin were unemployed and relied on the unemployment welfare for their survival, then I started to think that this can happen in Greece and many other countries. What is the point of giving approval to a large number of immigrants to enter your country, if you treat them like second class citizens with not the same rights in employment.

I began to understand that such style of multiculturalism is nothing but a modern kind of slavery. Immigrants never become members of the society where they live, even if they gain citizenship. This makes them more vulnerable to exploitation and condemn them to make a low-paid jobs in society.

Many of them start to exploit the "system" and are then regarded as parasites from the rest of the indigenous population. And of course with any economic crisis, immigrants and their mistakes or the problems that they bring in a society are the first to be addressed. The main issue then is why a country allows a large number of migrants in the country when it has not the ability or intention to give them equal rights with the rest of the population.

Personally I think that if a country wants to take advantage of multiculturalism, it should integrate migrants in its society equally. With all the political and social rights that every citizen has and equal treatment from the start. Once someone enters a country legally, pays taxes and contributes in this way in the economy of this country, he or she should have a voice in how those taxes are used.

Besides the real benefit of immigration comes when we do not silence the immigrants and thereby exclude some possible new ideas and opinions on the society we live in, or even criticism of it. Of course I'm talking about legal immigration, not illegal. Because illegal immigration contributes to the human trafficking crime through smuggling, with the only purpose of human exploitation.

Illegal immigration should not in any case be acceptable in a society. For the simple reason that encourages events such as violent and illegal smuggling of women from third countries outside of Europe or the E.U. to exploit them in prostitution.

A society should create a fully functional and controlled immigration policy in order to attract the right people with the right skills and education. In numbers that would not allow future ghettoization and unemployment, but depending on the needs of each country for skilled or unskilled labor.

But perhaps another issue for the inability of some ethnic groups to be integrated in a society, is the country of their origin. Some nationalities face difficulties in being part in the society they live in and this may be due to factors of discrimination and racism, but also prejudices or cultural issues and differences deriving from their home country's culture and heritage.

Mainly nationals from certain Muslim countries of Asia, face difficulties when it comes to marry the culture of their home country with their adopted European culture and to become part easier and quickly of the society in which they chose to live in. The result is cultivated hatred and antipathy towards their host country.

Possible solutions are to help the democratization of the countries of their origin through various institutions and programs and the participation of the EU, its member states and the countries of their origin. Alternatively, cutting  the number of immigrants from these countries and search for more compatible workforce that is closer to European culture. For example, many South American states.

And finally, new ways for integrating those immigrants through various programs, to enable them to understand the culture of their adopted country and to bring all communities living in it more closely. The arts and sport are two suitable instruments that could be used for strengthening the relations between migrants and the native population.

My personal view is that we should have less immigration in Europe, but with full integration of immigrants into our society and with equal rights as citizens from the beginning. The immigration of mankind existed and will always exist, playing a role in creating all the great cultures of our planet, including the Greek. To believe that it will just stop one day is simply silly.

This of course does not mean that we must open all borders and let immigration in our country uncontrolled. If this ever happens, it will be in a utopian global society with all countries having the same standard of living and people migrating simply for pleasure, or to study.

At the moment this has not been achieved. And I am neither willing to "downgrade" the Greek or European culture and lifestyle as many believe. I do not want to alter, as many ultra nationalists claim,  the lifestyle and our culture with the arrival of foreigners among us. Only to enrich the Greek and European culture with that of other nationalities. But this can only be achieved with a responsible and controlled immigration policy, which at present, Greece and Europe in general have yet to create.

The root of this situation lies with the interests and the greed of people who want to exploit other human beings and the unending desire for power and money. A common European immigration policy would be an institution of great help, but like anything else on our continent is very difficult to achieve unanimously.

Especially when the interests of different countries are in conflict and in many cases still keep their colonial past flavor. Too bad because those who lose out are ourselves. The USA, Canada and Australia have built successful working immigration policies that attract workers with the qualifications they want from the countries they want. In Europe in contrast we are left with mainly unskilled workers that enter our countries, and in many cases with very little education.

Some wonder why immigration in Europe has failed. But after all, all we ask for is cheap labor and in fact slaves to do the jobs we do not want to do. How you integrate a slave in your society? What benefits can you expect from them except their tireless work? But when you do not need them anymore what happens to them? You just enroll them in unemployment benefit schemes for the foreseeable future, with the hope that they and the economic and social problems they present will just disappear as if by magic.

With such attitudes in Greece and Europe in general, I believe that not only we are not going to solve the various problems that concern us on this issue, but that we certainly have no idea what we want to do and what we could have.

What has been achieved with austerity in Europe so far?

Last June the Greeks were called to vote on a new government. These last elections were actually given a referendum outlook by many in Europe; it was decision time for Greece and the Greeks had to decide if they wanted to continue being in the euro-zone and vote for a pro-austerity party, or risk to be kicked out of this special "club" if they voted for the radical leftist party, Syriza.

Under such pressure and with the use of lots of propaganda and scaremongering during the electoral debates, the Greeks decided to swallow the bitter pill of austerity in order to remain in the euro-zone.  Now the latest reports coming from many European officials and "analysts" say that Greece will leave the euro-zone anyway and in fact there are more austerity cuts announced for this winter! Are they joking us?

The Greek people can just hold their heads above water and they can not take any further reductions of their salaries. In fact austerity was so unsuccessful in Greece, simply because it did not push for any constructive reforms in the country, like the much needed tax system reform. The taxation system of Greece is rather outdated and purely unfair! The only thing that austerity has managed to achieve in Greece is the rise of far right and far left groups in the country's political life, the demolition of the Greek people's living standards and the total sell out of all national assets of Greece.

So excuse me, but to me this was the only reason that some wanted to impose austerity on the Greeks in the first place; the take over of all Greek natural resources and national assets and of course as someone had to pay for the damages in the banking system and cover the black holes that were created by the greedy attitude of the European bankers, well our elites chose the weakest links. Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Cyprus!! This is a disgrace!

Another thing that this austerity and financial crisis have achieved is the total division of the European population and the European public opinion. Our "national" media- the how national they are is another discussion- have been playing one nation against each other just like the Markets and the rating agencies like Moody's have. And of course that is for a reason! Divide and rule politics. Instead of mentioning the real cause of this crisis, the American irresponsible finances for the past few decades and the weaknesses in the euro-zone itself, they found it easier to scapegoat a few nations starting with the weakest.

The euro-zone was set up wrongly. It is not even a monetary union, rather just a currency union. Many countries with different economies just using the same currency! And the cracks became apparent only during the crisis. The euro-zone lacks a strong central bank and government and everyone was playing by their own rules, exposing themselves and all their partners who used the same currency to grave dangers and risks. Instead of naming those two factors our media blamed the Greeks. Now that Cyprus has also asked for a bail-out, a country that had a very strong currency and economy in the past and Moody's have threatened to downgrade Luxembourg, Germany and Holland, now our leaders have decided that something must be done about it....At last!! It is a case of when the fire is coming to your doorstep, the you realize that you have to do something to put it out, after it has already consumed the houses of your neighbors.

Meanwhile 2,000 Greeks are committing suicide each year because of the austerity and the economic crisis. That counts to a small town disappearing in Greece and in Europe if you like every year! And our leaders are still debating about it, they know what needs to be done they just don't want to do it! Because some will lose their interests and comfortable easy money and power. I wonder how our leaders can sleep during the night! I haven't seen a worse case of apathy, negligence, selfishness, stupidity and greed in Europe's recent history!

Will we ever see a true European solidarity?  And I do not mean more bail-out loans or money thrown into Greece and the other 4 EU states that have received similar "help" by the EU/IMF. It would be a case of solidarity if the loans came interest free. But now that there are high rates imposed on the loans, meaning that the lender countries will actually make profit out of these loans I see no solidarity there but an opportunity. And now that it became too costly, they just want to get rid of Greece out of the euro-zone, again for the detriment of the Greek people and their benefit.

I will bring the example of Italy. Many, many years ago, it was actually the South of the country that was rich and prosperous. After many wars that the country had endured things have changed, the industries have moved to the North and now it is the North that is the richest part. Why? Because simply they have won a few wars and they were favored by the victories of others. Something similar happened in the whole of Europe. It was always the South of the continent that was more prosperous and developed. After WW2 though things have changed dramatically and now most industrial activity on the European continent is gathered on the "North."

No, I am not suggesting that we should take all the industries back to the South, because that would mean a poor North again and we do not want that. What we would want though would be a fair and equal distribution of wealth, opportunities and industries throughout Europe, so that everybody can prosper and there will be no need for rich countries to carry the weight of the poorer ones. Our media have made this crisis all about the rich countries paying the mistakes of the poor, corrupt and dysfunctional states, something that is far from true. The crisis is about the interests of the rich few in the rich few countries and the preservation of the current status quo. Now why they are trying to mislead their citizens and make them think that it was the Greeks who caused all that and they should pay, well it is obvious; someone has to pay for all of that and it ain't gonna be the richer or strongest ones!

The only way to gain support by their citizens is this, but what they are actually doing is the widening of the gap between our communities, the mistrust and the lack of support for each other. How can you create a united Europe on this? How do our leaders believe that by allowing this to happen, the European project will eventually succeed, when the citizens think so bad of one another? Or do they actually want it to succeed? The Americans and the British must be rubbing their hands out of joy, as this is exactly what they wanted. To destroy any unification or harmonization in Europe, thus a Europe united challenging their hegemony. How can our leaders not be able to see this and do something about it?

To conclude to me this crisis exposed the real face of the economic system that we have created, the role of USA, Britain but also of the other European "powers" like Germany, France and their accolades like Finland, Holland, Belgium, Austria, Sweden and Luxembourg. Each to their own, allowing the Markets and the rating agencies to make huge profits out of the unfair competition against each other, the lack of unity, solidarity and the lack of trust. They play, they gain, we pay, go hungry and inevitably die! Not the Europe I want, not the Europe I have dreamed of!

The Property and the Power of the Church in Europe.

During the past few years of the economic crisis, many weak points of the Greek society became apparent and obvious. All the cracks, all the mishandling. Of course the only ones who were asked to pay the price were the people who had nothing to do with it in the first place; the ordinary Greek families, the Greek middle class.

The rich elite, the Greek politicians and all their supporters or accomplices were not affected. Them and another surprising group of people, the Greek Orthodox Church! The Orthodox Church of Greece, like most Churches in Europe and the world, do not pay taxes to the state. I think because obviously they think that their property is not of this world but divine, given to them by God himself!

In Greece particularly, if you want to become a monk or a nun you got to have property. If you want to join a monastic sect, you got to offer them all property you have, all land and money. If you do not have anything to offer, well usually they let you wait or you never join. A friend of my aunt has MS (multiple sclerosis) and is bound to a wheelchair. His is devoted to God and one of his greatest wishes is to join a monastery and serve the God he believes in. He wants to find a purpose in his life. But no monastery will give him this satisfaction. He lives on social welfare you see.

The Greek Church owns a huge number of sites on Greek soil. And according to Greek law that favors this medieval system, any land that is owned by the Church can not be developed unless there is a church built in it. For that reason in the city I originally come from, Thessaloniki in northern Greece, in order to develop a piece of land and turn it in a huge shopping mall the COSMOS- MEDITERRANEAN, they had to built an orthodox church in the middle of it. Because that piece of land they wanted to develop, belonged to the Church fully or partially.

The thing that annoys me the most is the hypocrisy. How can any religion preach that if we have two coats, we have to give one to the poor, seeks to collect more and more property. And not just that. While the Orthodox Church has organized soup kitchens and charities to help the poorest during the crisis, it has not whatsoever offered any of its property to the state to help the repayments. Nor they offered to pay taxes and contribute to the country's recovery.

They are rather like the Pharisees that themselves seem to detest for crucifying Jesus Christ! Numerous scandals broke out as far back as I can remember with priests or monks getting involved in illegal financial agreements and transactions. The most recent and famous one, was the case of the Vatopedi real estate scandal where the monastery was trading low-value land for high-value state property in a deal with the New Democracy government of Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis. The cost to the state is believed to have been at least €100 million. 

The battles for power between the Orthodox Church and the Greek state go back as far as my childhood. When the Greek state decided that it would be more appropriate to remove the statement of religion from our national identification cards, the Church saw it as the new cards of the "Antichrist" and they campaigned against the new proposed cards. No wonder nothing progressive blossoms in Greece and not just because of the Orthodox Church, but of the rather Byzantine mentality that modern Greeks have.

As if the Orthodox Church was not bad enough for Europe, we also have something worse and more sinister; the Catholic Church. In Ireland they are responsible for the raping, beating and abuse of thousands of children under their watch. And not just in Ireland, but in Germany, Belgium, Austria and many other Catholic countries all over Europe and the rest of the world. 

Because of the poverty that existed in Ireland years ago and after the end of British rule, the Catholic Church took the role of the leading force on the island. Families had no means of work and survival and many kids were sent to boarding schools to get some education or to reform schools to be "educated" for being wretched, corrupt and poor! Most schools in fact were controlled by the Church back then. Even rich families often chose to send their kids in boarding schools to offer their kids "proper and good" christian education.

The result was beatings, rapes and in my opinion broken whole generations of people. The trauma caused by the actions of those priests can never be compensated, not that there was any true effort made. Nobody was jailed, or paid for what he had done. The victims basically just got an acknowledgement, an official apology from the Church of Ireland and the Vatican. That's all. 

What I do find hilarious about the Catholic preachings is the fact that while the priests were prohibiting everybody else to have a satisfactory sexual life, they were the only ones who seemed to have one. They banned and condemned sex before marriage, gay sex even masturbation. Yet it was acceptable between them to rape young boys and girls! 

Human sexuality goes hand in hand with human creativity and freedom of thought! Suppress human sexuality and you suppress our ability to express ourselves, to think creatively and freely. You create unhappy people who follow rules, human robots who obey and can be controlled. The Catholic Church knows this and they still insist to promote those views. 

Even worse are their crimes in Africa, where they suggest that people should not be using condoms to protect themselves from AIDS, rather abstain from sex altogether! If it was into my power, I would charge such people for crimes against humanity. But then again who would be open minded enough to support such move and who would be rich and powerful enough to prosecute them?

If we take to account the properties that they also own around Ireland and Europe, always the largest and best estates, it is easy to see how they maintain their rule and influence over the European population. No, I am not against God himself, I am declaring myself also as a Christian. I just do not follow any dogmas, as I feel they are just political divisions that came to be because of the power mongering and politics of our "religious" leaders. And I do not really think that the Church today really represents anything divine! If they did, they would not give so much emphasis in material goods.

Of course not only the Orthodox and Catholic Churches are to blame for everything. Some protestant sects are as bad, like some Presbyterian and other conservative sects. Likewise many Muslim sects, the so called "new" religion of Europe. As Islam expands in Europe, the last thing we want is another ultra conservative, fundamental Islamic expansion and establishment. 

Us Europeans have fought hard to liberate ourselves from the clutches of the mind control of the established Christian dogmas. I accept Islam in Europe and Muslims in our lands, but I would like to see a more liberal, secular European version of Islam to match our values. I would never want to see Shariah law in Europe, I am against any extreme and fundamental religious doctrine, either Islamic, Catholic or Orthodox.

What I would like to see is a total separation between the State and the Church, with the roles of the second being limited in a more humanitarian and spiritual role. Totally separated by politics, education, property, finances and money. There should be no religious schools and the subject of religion should be taught with no books, just open discussions and readings from religious books of all dogmas. 

The Church should not own any property and if it does it certainly should pay tax on it, just like the rest of us. It should donate all of the treasures they got to the state and to the people they supposed to be serving and have them in a museum for all the believers to have access to. Or dedicate this wealth in building hospitals, schools, libraries, parks, and sport facilities that we and our children need.

I am not preaching for a Godless Europe. Rather a more spiritual one, in which religion will be there to answer all questions of the people about God and help them reach a level of knowledge and maturity. Whenever Europeans want to explore their spiritual side, the Church should be there to assist them. Not try to manipulate and control them.