“A World Of Wonder And Delight”: Christmas Messages 2011…
- December 26th, 2011
- Posted by EUEditor
Christmas celebrations in 2011 were marked with calls for the protection of innocents, love of family, and salvaging of the Earth itself.
Pope Benedict XVI in Rome said the earth was “stained with blood”, praying for the victims of war in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, and for victims of natural disasters.
The Christian festival, as sometimes will happen, saw the creation of martyrs. More than forty people were killed in a round of bigotry and religious hysteria in Nigeria, by bombs set off while they were in church, on Christmas Day (25.12.11). Blasts were recorded in the capital, Abuja, Jos in the centre of the country, and other places, in the North-east. Friction between Christian and Islamic communities in Nigeria has got worse in recent years. … Read More »
The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy (picture), is facing some daunting tasks to restore his position six months away from the presidential elections.
Along with the triumphal shouts and celebratory bursts of gunfire in the streets of Tripoli; unease still ruled in certain parts of town; the search for Muamar al-Gaddafi heated up, with offers of a bounty; and international gatherings began, aimed at funding the beginnings of a new order, and promoting a turn to democracy. 
OPINION: British police turned out in force late on Tuesday intending to smother the outbreak of rioting and arson in many parts of London.
COMMENTARY: The murder of innocents in Norway by a zealot identifying with the extreme right, called Anders Breivik, has caused some disassociation and position-taking by the so-called “new nationalist” parties in several European countries. These, like the Wilders party, PVV, in the Netherlands, or the Sweden Democrats, have made sudden electoral gains, on the back of campaigns against mass immigration, especially if Islamic. (See EUAustralia Online: “Finland vote latest in Euro-nationalist trend”, 22.4.11; “Voting: tense count in Sweden, 22.9.10; “Wilders, horse-trading …”, 5.9.10).
Overnight in Norway the number dead in the double outrage, inside Oslo and on Utoeya island, climbed to at least 91.