How To Decolonize The Permaculture Movement | HuffPost

How To Decolonize The Permaculture Movement | HuffPost


THE BLOG
01/31/2017 02:04 pm ET Updated Jan 31, 2018

How To Decolonize The Permaculture Movement

By Tobias Roberts


About a year ago, I posted an article in the Huffington Post detailing some of the reasons why I thought permaculture had become a “gringo” movement irrelevant to the majority of small farmers around the world.

There were a number of reactions, both positive and negative, but I was frustrated that very few people actually offered some sort of solution or proposal for how to “un-gringo” a movement and ideology that we find hope in.

After a good deal of reflection, I want to focus now on how to rescue the permaculture movement; how to save it from some of its most disturbing and troubling tendencies. I believe that permaculture does have a lot to offer to peasant and agrarian communities around the world, so I humbly offer these ideas and suggestions not as a judgement; but rather in the hopes that permaculture can become relevant and practically applicable to the majority of small farmers around the world.

Stop Buying Land in Shangri-La Areas Around the World

We need to understand the effects of our privilege. As a foreigner (most likely white and male, because that is the predominant demographic of the permaculture movement) we are inevitably going to change the dynamics of small, rural communities where we take up residence.

While there can be positive effects through bringing new knowledge and ideas into a community, there can (and often are) unseen and ignored negative effects. When wealthy foreigners buy up land in rural, agrarian areas, this inevitably leads to gentrification. The spike in land prices forces young people off of the land and causes migration.

I don´t excuse myself from this reality. As a white, North American male, my family and I bought a farm in the mountains of El Salvador that was the inheritance of a young man who was no longer interested in farming. With the money we paid him, he paid a human trafficker to try and make it to the United States and has failed twice. If he tries to go again, he´ll have to deal with a ridiculous wall, increased border militarization, and a racist president.

My only excuse is that I fell in love with a Salvadoran woman who invited me to be a part of her reality. If you do end up purchasing land in some hidden, agrarian community, make an effort to truly belong there. If you´re just buying a piece of land to have it as a vacation home and a place to host a couple permaculture workshops during the year, you´re probably causing much more harm than good.

Also, if you are interested in permaculture and are looking for land to create a vision of your own, why not look at land in rural Kentucky instead of Costa Rica? Not only is land in many rural areas of the U.S. cheaper, but there is also an urgent need to repopulate rural areas and increase the “eyes-to-acre” ratio that is necessary for proper land management and ecological care.

Don’t Make Permaculture Courses Your Primary Source of Income

I understand that a number of people in the developed world have the extra income to spend on a $2,000-dollar permaculture course. If they’ve got the money, why shouldn´t they pay?

The problem is that if you derive the majority of your income from offering permaculture courses, you´re automatically divorcing yourself from the reality of your neighbors who make their living from the land. You can´t claim to offer a viable economic alternative (no matter how ecological it may be) to your under privileged neighbors who see that your income comes from hosting wealthy North Americans.

What if we were to use that money to re-distribute economic opportunities to our neighbors? We need to be honest and admit that establishing an economically viable permaculture system takes time and money. I´m not saying that we should stop offering courses all together, but rather reconsider how to invest that money into the dreams and visions of neighbor farmers who don’t have the same economic potential as do we.

After all, isn´t that what the third ethic of permaculture is all about: redistributing surplus so that others can enjoy the long-term abundance that comes from ecological design?

Stop Appropriating Knowledge

There is nothing that angers me more than watching permaculture videos on YouTube where some permaculture expert claims to have “developed” or “invented” some revolutionary technique to help preserve soil, store water, or save the environment.

For example, recently I watched a video of a permaculture farmer who claims to have developed a technique to slow erosion through making banana leaf boomerang barriers on the slope beneath where he planted some fruit trees. The idea is no doubt a good one; but it´s far from a unique development. I personally have seen dozens of small farmers throughout Central America do the exact same thing. Of course, they don’t have access to a camera and the internet to show the world their invention.

To put it bluntly, this is appropriation of knowledge, and it´s the same thing that mega- pharmaceutical companies and agricultural corporations have been doing for years through the patenting of medicines and seeds that have been stolen from the shared ecological wisdom of indigenous and peasant cultures throughout the world.

Be humble, and recognize that while permaculture may very well have a number of unique skills to offer, many of these skills and techniques have been around for hundreds of years.

Stop Demonizing Small Peasants

There are a number of very serious problems with how many small farmers in Central America and other parts of the world farm their lands. The effects of the Green Revolution on small farmers around the world have led to an almost complete loss of traditional farming knowledge in some rural communities

The excessive use of pesticides and herbicides, burning crop residues, tilling hillsides, and other examples of ecologically damaging farming practices are obviously unsustainable, unhealthy, and damaging to the environment. The solution, however, is not to criticize these farmers, but rather to humbly seek to understand their situation.

If you had an acre of land and 6 children to feed, would you prioritize permaculture farming solutions that might offer abundance a decade from now or would you continue to follow the well-trodden path that while unsustainable, does offer subsistence and income?

Instead of criticizing small farmers who adopt unsustainable farming practices, it would be much more valuable to look at the sociological and systemic factors that lead to this adoption. Permaculture has not had much of a voice for advocacy, but it would be heartening to see permaculture “experts” around the world offer their voices to fight against unfair distribution of land instead of simply blaming small farmers for their “ignorance.”

Start Farming Grains

I understand that annual grain farming does come with a number of difficulties. The annual tillage of the land and the monocultures of one crop obviously present an ecological challenge. But you know what, agrarian communities around the world subsist on the farming of annual grains and that is not going to change. Even if you stoutly believe in developing a “food forest” or “stacked polycultures” of tree and perennial crops, dedicate at least a portion of your land to developing more ecological solutions for annual grain crops.

It takes years for a perennial food system to develop enough to offer any sort of subsistence or income, and almost no small farmer around the world has enough savings or alternative sources of income to wait around for their system to develop into the marvelous and awe-inspiring productive systems that you see on a 20-year-old permaculture farm

I´m not saying that we should throw out the idea of food forests or perennial crops, but avoid the tendency to offer those systems as the “only” way to grow food in an ecological and sustainable manner. When you show off your acres and acres of food forest to a small farmer in Central America, chances are that he or she might find it interesting but have little incentive to try and reproduce what you have created.

If, however, you had a diversified landscape with an acre of food forest, an acre of pasture, and an acre of annual crops, there is a far better chance that your neighbors will find interest in what you´re developing.

Despite the challenges, it is possible to grow grains in a sustainable, ecological fashion. Susana Lein of Salamander Springs Farm in rural Kentucky lived and worked in Guatemala for close to a decade. When she moved to her own farm in Kentucky, she started a no-till Fukuoka method of annual grain production that was adapted to the traditional corn and bean diet of Central American farmers. If she can do that in Kentucky, why aren´t more permaculturists doing the same in Central America, or experimenting with no-till rice harvests in Asia.

Be Aware of Alternative Epistemologies

The bread and butter of the permaculture movement is the PDC, or permaculture design course. The two-week curriculum has been offered by thousands of teachers in every part of the world and has been adapted to the specific and particular contexts of small farmers everywhere.

Many of the folks who critiqued my first article argued that they offered free PDC´s to their neighbor farmers. While I find that commendable, I think it´s also important to recognize that many rural, peasant and indigenous communities don’t learn the same us westerners do.

The pedagogy of a course with Power Point presentations, lectures and “visits” to the field might actually be so foreign to a small Guatemalan farmer that he or she might get nothing out of it. The Brazilian professor Boaventura Sousa Santos talks of the idea of epistemicide, the elimination of alternative forms of knowing through the colonization that comes through western academia and forms of learning.

An NGO that I worked with in Guatemala found that the best way to “teach” small Guatemalan farmers had nothing to do with courses, workshops, agricultural schools, or the like. Rather, they simply brought small farmers from neighboring communities together to tour the farms and lands that each one worked.

While one corn field may appear just like every other corn field to the untrained eye, these visits allowed for small farmers to learn of small variations in growing techniques, in seed saving, in the combination of companion plants, in soil preservation that many “experts” might never have noticed. At the same time, it allowed for small farmers to take pride in what they were doing which is so often criticized or ignored

Perhaps the famous PDC needs to be laid to rest and other, more appropriate pedagogies developed if permaculture is going to find relevance with small farmers around the world

Conclusion

I truly hope that this article doesn’t come across as a futile and derisive attack on permaculture practitioners around the world. I do honestly believe (and hope) that permaculture has a lot to offer the world. We need to recognize, however, that what´s most important isn´t the content or subject in itself, but rather how it is presented with respect for the local autonomy of the placed agrarian communities around the world.


Tobias Roberts
International Development Worker

The World Is Changing. This Trappist Abbey Isn’t. Can It Last? - The New York Times

The World Is Changing. This Trappist Abbey Isn’t. Can It Last? - The New York Times



The World Is Changing. This Trappist Abbey Isn’t. Can It Last?

Meet the monks of Mepkin Abbey, a Trappist monastery in South Carolina, who are trying to maintain age-old religious traditions in a rapidly evolving world.
ImageBrother Joseph Swedo, 90, a monk at Mepkin Abbey.CreditStephen Hiltner/The New York Times


By Stephen HiltnerMarch 17, 2018

MONCKS CORNER, S.C. — “A year and a half ago, I could do anything — run the chain saw, cut up trees, use a backhoe.”

Brother Joseph Swedo was bent forward in his chair, his rugged hands folded delicately in his lap. As a monk at Mepkin Abbey, a Trappist monastery in South Carolina, he maintains that Roman Catholic order’s code of prayer, work, seclusion, poverty and chastity. And for the last 73 years — since he joined the order at age 17, answering a call from God, he said — physical labor has been an integral part of his daily routine.

Lately, though, Brother Joseph’s health has taken a turn for the worse, narrowing the scope of his monastic life. He is no longer strong enough, he said, to regularly attend the first or last of Mepkin’s seven daily prayer services — vigils at 3:20 a.m., and compline at 7:35 p.m. Nor can he fully participate during the roughly five hours set aside each day for agricultural work and the upkeep of the monastery’s grounds.


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“Right now, it’s a bleak situation,” he said. “We’re all getting old.”

Mepkin Abbey — part of a global network of Trappist monasteries that for nearly 1,000 years have provided their communities with reliable sources of prayer, learning and hospitality — is edging toward a potential crisis. In keeping with broader declines in the ranks of priests, nuns and brothers, Mepkin’s monastic community is dwindling. Only 13 monks remain, down from a peak of 55 in the mid-1950s. Over the same period, the monks’ average age has steadily risen by nearly 50 years — up to 77, from around 30. The abbey is struggling to attract and retain younger novices.
ImageMepkin’s monks, led by the abbot, Father Stan Gumula, process from the church to the refectory.CreditStephen Hiltner/The New York Times

Another Trappist community facing similar challenges — the Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity, in Huntsville, Utah — celebrated its final Mass last August, then shuttered its monastery. Its eight remaining monks took up residence in a nursing home in Salt Lake City.

Across all orders, the number of Catholic brothers in the United States has declined by more than two-thirds since 1965, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. But Trappist communities may be particularly vulnerable, since their traditions are more isolating and, in many ways, more resistant to modernization.

While members of other Catholic orders — Dominicans and Jesuits, for example — focus partly on outreach, Trappists, who are formally known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, do not. And because Trappists see their lifestyle as a vocation, or a call from Jesus, they don’t actively recruit new members.

Their digital presence is also extremely limited. So far, Mepkin has shunned all forms of social media — both individually and institutionally. (Other religious organizations, like Hillsong Church, for example, have used Instagram and other platforms to reach and engage with younger generations.) And although they were quick to adopt a website, the monks have limited internet access and, with few exceptions, don’t use cellphones.

The economics of monastic life can also present challenges. “We don’t have a big financial reserve,” said Father Stan Gumula, Mepkin’s abbot, adding that an endowment, which the monastery does not have, “goes against what Trappists are for.” Even the profit margins on the monks’ agricultural business — which helps sustain the monastery and, by their accounts, is quite profitable — is limited by their daily prayer schedule, which severely restricts the number of hours available each day for work.


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These tensions pose a thorny question: To what degree can — and should — age-old religious traditions adapt to survive in a rapidly evolving world?
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The Cooper River runs alongside Mepkin Abbey’s 3,132-acre property.CreditStephen Hiltner/The New York Times

To be sure, many of the Trappist traditions at Mepkin are helping to sustain the monastery. Hospitality is central to the monks’ lives, and the beauty of the grounds at Mepkin is a major draw both for day visitors and for people who stay overnight at the abbey’s retreat center — which is often fully booked months in advance.

Monks at Mepkin also adhere to a strict vegetarian diet and maintain a largely silent atmosphere — “although it’s not as if we don’t speak,” Father Stan explained.

“For us, the silence is second nature,” he said, adding that visitors often find it conducive to a transformative experience.

The monastery itself, which comprises a church, the monks’ refectory (dining hall) and living quarters, administrative offices, and a library, is nestled within a landscape dominated by large oak trees draped in Spanish moss.

“In everything we do here, we try to respect the land, the ecology and the environment,” Father Stan said. “The main architecture is the trees. All the buildings have been built around the trees.”

The community sees itself as a steward of the monastery’s grounds, and as a leader in the local environmental movement. Founded by monks from the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky in 1949, after a 3,132-acre plot was donated to the Catholic Diocese of Charleston by Henry and Clare Boothe Luce, Mepkin was placed under a conservation easement in 2006, in concert with several neighboring properties.


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Work is another central pillar of life for the Trappists at Mepkin — as a means of supporting the community, providing solidarity with workers, and promoting a healthy mind and body.
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Father Gerard-Jonas Palmares inside one of the locations where mushrooms are grown at Mepkin Abbey.CreditStephen Hiltner/The New York Times

For decades, the monastery relied on an egg farm that produced as many as 30,000 eggs per day. But in 2007, in the aftermath of an immensely disruptive PETA investigation, the abbey announced plans to phase out its egg operation. Eventually the monks settled on growing mushrooms.

“We wanted a good product, a healthy product,” Father Stan explained. “And it’s not backbreaking work, because we’re an older community.”

(In the 1950s, when their numbers were higher and the average age was much lower, the monks’ working life was more varied and physically intense; they ran a lumber mill, raised cattle and had a large-scale bakery.)
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Photographs from Mepkin during the early 1950s capture a wide variety of work.CreditMepkin Abbey

The monastery now produces around 1,400 pounds of mushrooms each week — half oyster mushrooms, half shiitake. Most of the crop is sold fresh to local restaurants and markets in Charleston.

The monastery also generates income from the store at its visitors’ center, which sells dried mushrooms and a slew of other products, many of which are produced at other Trappist monasteries; its retreat center, which hosts both individual and group visitors; timber that is harvested by outside contractors; and a new nondenominational columbarium, which offers a place for funeral urns to be stored on Mepkin’s grounds.

While many monks at Mepkin are concerned about the monastery’s future, they also see this moment as an opportunity to pioneer a new form of monasticism. In recent months, the abbey, in response to its aging population and its lack of young novices, formed a committee for its future development and drew up a set of programs aimed at attracting a younger and more spiritually diverse group of people.


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Left, the church at Mepkin Abbey, and Father Stan Gumula, the abbot of Mepkin.CreditStephen Hiltner/The New York Times

The abbey’s new affiliate program will offer two new short-term monastic options for people of any, or no, faith traditions: a monthlong monastic institute, open to men and women, and a yearlong residency. And in a departure from its otherwise passive approach, Mepkin created an ad campaign — albeit a small and highly targeted one — to publicize the program. (It featured copy that read: “BE A MONK. FOR A MONTH. FOR A YEAR.”)

“We’re at such a — you might say desperate — point,” said Father Guerric Heckel, “that we’re being forced to try something new and innovative.”

Many young people of the Roman Catholic tradition, Father Guerric added, will simply not be attracted to forms of monasticism that require celibacy and a lifetime commitment. But there’s a growing belief among Mepkin’s brothers that certain elements of the Trappist tradition — its cultivation of mindfulness, stillness and inward exploration — are increasingly relevant to today’s youth. And the abbey, they say, is a repository of wisdom about the benefits of contemplative living.

“What young people keep telling us,” said Father Joe Tedesco, the chair of the committee for Mepkin’s future development, “is that they’re interested in the spiritual life journey, but not in institutional religion. So let’s give them an experience of the place without a commitment, and see what happens.”
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A Bible at the conclusion of vigils, the first of seven daily prayer services at Mepkin Abbey. It begins at 3:20 a.m.CreditStephen Hiltner/The New York Times

Mepkin’s interest in cultivating what they call “interspiritual” experiences — via the longstanding programs at their retreat center and with its proposed affiliate program — is evidence, Father Stan said, of the abbey’s welcoming and accepting nature. “We’re a very nonjudgmental and nonexclusive community,” he said.

That sense of acceptance was affirmed by Rob Hagan, who spent 30 years as a monk at Mepkin before leaving the monastery in 2007. (While there, he used the first name Aelred.)

Mr. Hagan, who is gay, said that he renounced his monastic vows to explore life as an openly gay man, free from the Trappist rules of chastity and seclusion. “I just felt like I had to acknowledge that part of who I am,” he said.


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“The brothers knew,” Mr. Hagan said. “I was very honest with them.”

“And they were just so,” he said, breaking into tears. “They were just so loving.”

“It took a lot of strength to leave,” Mr. Hagan said, noting that his fellow monks at Mepkin would have welcomed him to stay if he’d so chosen — in spite of the Catholic church’s official, if conflicted, position on homosexuality in the clergy. “And, for me, that kind of strength could only have come from having lived the monastic life in that community.”

“That sense of welcomeness and hospitality,” he added, “is just a wonderful aspect of the place. It really is the grace of Mepkin.”
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Brother John Corrigan during Mass.CreditStephen Hiltner/The New York Times

Despite their hope for the future, the monks at Mepkin are cleareyed about the likelihood that their new initiatives — which will probably attract young, interfaith and short-term visitors — will fail to attract Roman Catholics who are interested in a long-term commitment with the core monastic community.

Trappist monasteries in the United States are likely to consolidate, Father Stan said. And there’s a chance, too, that American monasteries will be forced to rely on the arrival of more monks from overseas. (Several Trappist monasteries in Africa and Asia, for example, haven’t been plagued by the same decline in vocations — and some, at least partly because of the stability of monastic life and the unfamiliarity of the message, Father Stan said, are brimming with young monks.) Some aging monasteries, including Mepkin, have had to rely on greater numbers of paid employees and volunteers, which has helped avert a shortage of labor.

Still, Mepkin’s future is anything but certain. “I don’t want to spend my remaining years simply hanging on,” Father Stan said. “I’d rather be in a community that has a vital energy and a good community life. And if that means closing Mepkin, that means closing Mepkin.”

“I believe there’s going to be a turnaround,” he added. “Is it going to be a turnaround that’s quick enough for Mepkin? I don’t know. But I have great hope in the future.”


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Father Columba Caffrey, the newest member of Mepkin’s monastic community who, at the age of 60, is also one of its youngest monks, was also cautiously optimistic. “If you’re waiting for a whole lot of people to come to the traditional monastery — well, that won’t happen,” he said. “But maybe a smaller number will. And maybe, by some creativity, looking to the future, they can help to hold on to, and spread, this tradition.”
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Father Stan prepares for the commencement of vespers, another of the seven daily prayer services, with holy water.CreditStephen Hiltner/The New York Times

The overarching sense here is that Mepkin has so much to offer to the world’s spiritual searchers — irrespective of their ties to any formal religion.

“There’s tons of young people who are interested in spirituality,” Father Joe said. “Maybe they’re not ready or able in this culture to make a lifetime commitment. But they’re interested in prayer, and they’re interested in finding ways to connect with their center.”

The Trappists, he added, have been around for a thousand years. “And we expect to be here for another thousand years,” he said. “But it’s going to look different.”

“And Mepkin Abbey, these monks present here — we want to be part of shaping what the future will look like.”



Stephen Hiltner is a reporter and visual journalist for the Surfacing column. A graduate of the University of Oxford and the University of Virginia, he joined The Times as a staff editor in 2016 after editing for six years at The Paris Review. @sahiltnerFacebook

북한 책 회고록으로 보는 세상이야기

회고록으로 보는 세상이야기










차 례



1. 《세기와 더불어》 주체사상 둘러보기



□ 《쨩즈궈즈》가 맺어준 《세기와 더불어》와의 인연

□ 간삼봉에 울려퍼진 아리랑 그리고 《아리랑》공연

□ 1933년 대황구사건과 2007년 정상회담의 대차대조

□ 《아는것을 알지 못한》 밀정 최용빈

□ 1931년 《만주사변》으로 본 《핵페기먼저》라는 오유

□ 유격구를 수라장으로 만들어놓은 좌경분자들

□ 《민생단》사건은 일제의 모략극

□ 《너 거기 있었는가 그때에》 《보도련맹》사건을 회억하며

□ 《주체료법(Juche Therapy)》과 장포리를 살린 경우

□ 사생결단하여 구원한 한봉선의 생명

□ 극좌좌경론리를 꺾은 김일성해학

□ 랭소주의를 랭소한 조선의 별들

□ 12. 19, 우리의 최대약점을 로출시킨 날

□ 배움의 천리길, 책속에 길이 있다

□ 계승과 혁신의 원리 그리고 《실용주의》

□ 항일유격활동은 거짓말과의 싸움이였다

□ 사립문을 나서며 《새날안고 돌아오리라》

□ 람스펠드와 거짓말변명의 론리

□ 항일유격대의 《색, 계》와 공화국헌법 63조

□ 조국광복회10대강령과 《취임사》

□ 체 게바라, 혁명의 진정성은?

□ 조선민주주의인민공화국

□ 락천가가 세운 나라 락관한다

□ 아직 회고록을 안 읽었다면

□ 망국론 5대리유 일깨운 회고록

□ 《비핵, 개방, 3 000》, 게임리론이 비웃는다

□ 일본을 혼쭐낸 《김일성전설》은 인민적성격

□ 동족 잡아먹겠다는 《상호주의》는 구루광우병의 일종 (1)

□ 동족 잡아먹겠다는 《상호주의》는 구루광우병의 일종 (2)

□ 《미국 믿지 말라》 했건만 못 말리는 MB사대주의

□ 항일유격대 일행천리전략식으로 재협상하라!

□ 백두밀림 우등불은 세기와 더불어 광화문초불로 오늘도 타오른다

□ 집단지성과 헌법 63조의 집단주의원칙이 웹 3. 0을 창조할 때가 온다



2. 《세기와 더불어》의 세계화 담론



□ 《墾島》에 가다 《看島》에 살다 《間島》에 죽다

□ 평등사회에서만 바로 《본다》

□ 밀림이 설레인다, 장군님 오신다고!

□ 운하(運河)를 파랴? 은하(銀河)를 쏘랴?

□ 미, 일에 부화뢰동, 손원금은 통곡한다

□ 《은하》, 《광명성》은 지구촌의 묵시록

□ 주체사상과 《은하》의 비밀

□ 빨리 망하려면 사대주의를 해라

□ 《잃어버린 10년》의 반을 잃어버린 2MB의 위기

□ 부엉이바위의 《나비효과》가 두렵다

□ 핵미싸일은 대동강문화론의 자존심발로이다

□ MB식《실용주의》 알고보니 사대주의

북한 책 일제의 100년 죄악사를 고발한다

일제의 100년 죄악사를 고발한다

북한 책 고난의 행군

고난의 행군

The Existential Jesus: John Carroll Amazon.com: Books

The Existential Jesus: John Carroll






Susette Ann Monk
4.0 out of 5 starsThe Existential JesusDecember 3, 2012
Format: Paperback|Verified Purchase

I found this book put into words many of my unspoken beliefs and opened a new way of seeing Jesus Christ. Well worth reading, but could be disturbing for some. Not everyone would agree with the doctrines espoused
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BRANDON KNOX
3.0 out of 5 starsChallenging interpretation of the Gospel of MarkAugust 30, 2012
Format: Paperback

To say that "The Existential Jesus" offers an unconventional interpretation of the gospels is an understatement. Carroll's thesis is that Jesus did not preach about an afterlife, or even about salvation in a broader sense, or even about ethical teaching (p. 9). Instead, he "is the archetypal stranger. He appears from nowhere, shrouded in mystery, but is soon gone...He is the existential hero - solitary, uprooted from family and home, restless, always on the move and, until the mid-point in his mission, blind to where he is going" (p. 1).

Carroll challenges the reader to look at Mark's gospel through a completely new lens. I found his interpretation of sin and the holy spirit intriguing. For the author the former is really a misnomer, positing instead that the original Greek meant something akin to "missing the mark" or a character flaw. Jesus's teaches was therefore not concerned with what we currently conceptualize "sin" to mean (i.e., doing something against the wishes or commands of God).

For me the most innovative and rewarding interpretation in the book was that of Legion - who he was, what he represented, and ultimately how he ties into later parts of Mark's narrative. Although the author uses Mark as the basis of his analysis, he also contrasts this gospel with that of John, showing how the two complement each other, with Mark showing an "existential" Jesus not concerned with the afterlife and John showing a "divine" Jesus.

While I found Carroll's underlying thesis challenging and thought-provoking, I feel he has skirted around some very fundamental questions. For example, he argues that the true meaning of sin (hamartia) and the holy spirit (pneuma hagion) were distorted over time, that Jesus used these terms very differently than we think of them today. This basic premise is itself on shaky ground. The gospels was written decades after Jesus's death, in a language (Greek) that he did not speak, addressed to a community of Gentiles (whereas Jesus preached among the Jews). To argue that Jesus's teachings were later twisted by the institutionalized church requires one to believe that the gospels themselves captured Jesus's teachings accurately, and that what he preached in Aramaic, with all of its supposed linguistic subtleties, was captured in koine Greek.

A similar critique could be made of Carroll's interpretation of the concept of the "holy spirit". He argues that "pneuma hagion" should be viewed as "the charged wind, the cosmic breath, the driving spectral force. It is also the directing power that drives the stranger [Jesus] into the wilderness" (p. 25). Such an interpretation puts the orthdox conception of the holy spirit on its head. However I struggle to believe that this is what the author of Mark had in mind when he wrote his gospel. Paul used the same term in his writings, which were penned roughly 20 years before Mark. I would be interested in knowing whether and how this Greek term had been used previously as well. Was it a term that appeared in Greek writings only with the emergence of the Jesus movement? I would need to see more than simply the author's critique to discard the orthodox meaning of the holy spirit.

Despite my disagreements with some of the fundamental arguments made by Carroll, I still found this to be a fascinating book. I found it an excellent critique of Mark's literary structure, as he explains the arch of the story, but I find his theological arguments much less convincing.
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Stuart Schulz
5.0 out of 5 starsStretch MarkApril 30, 2011
Format: Paperback|Verified Purchase

As the other reviewers attest, this is a powerful book. John Carroll is a wonderful writer, in the crazed literary critic mode, not that of the pedantic theolgian, digging deep for new connections, unafraid of over-stretching the simple truths of Mark. Which he does, often. He has discovered themes, parallels, motives, metaphors and allegories that never would have occurred to me upon five readings of Mark. And while I buy only half of them, this still represents a treasure of new insights presented in oftentimes aggressive, staccato sentences that practically poke you in the chest, and dare you to disbelieve. In fact, he at times almost sounds like the so-called primitive Mark himself. I recommend a slow read. Dont rush this book, for the wisdom of many of his ideas become apparent with several readings and consultation of the Notes in back.
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Sky Light Mine
5.0 out of 5 starsSurprisedOctober 30, 2009
Format: Paperback

This book really caught me off guard. I am not a fan of existentialism, and at first picked up the book expecting to be annoyed. I am glad I still am able to be pleasantly surprised.

This book takes a deep look at who Jesus is in the Gospel of Mark, a Gospel that, in many ways, is bare bones. This bare bones, however, as the author shows, betrays a masterful portrait of the mysterious humanity of Jesus. This he highlights with comparisons to John's Gospel, which he sees as being in many ways the antithesis and perfect, masterful compliment to Mark. I really enjoyed the different perspective this author takes, and one can tell he has really striven and wrestled with the text, whether he is a "believer" or not. I am a Christian, and yet find his, perhaps unconventional, insights most welcome and engaging. I think you will too, even if you do not agree with all he says.
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Dubious Disciple
5.0 out of 5 starsA Dubious Disciple Book ReviewJanuary 22, 2011
Format: Paperback

Ex-is-ten-tial -adjective: of or relating to existence, especially human existence.

This is Jesus, the way you've never read about him before. John Carroll draws primarily on the Gospel of Mark, a Gospel which rather quickly fell into disuse among early Christians as they favored the more majestic stories told by Matthew and the others.

Mark's Jesus is far more human. He sometimes questions, sometimes fails. He is ridiculed by his family. Carroll portrays Jesus as a lonely, mysterious stranger with an obscure mission. By the end of his journey, he has lost all of his followers. "His life reaches its consummation in tragedy--a godless and profane one--and a great death scream from the cross, questioning the sense of it all."

Mark's story then closes with a mystery. An empty tomb, and three women fleeing in terror, told to tell no one of what they saw--or didn't see. (Carroll is correct; the ending we have now in the book of Mark, describing the resurrection of Jesus, did not exist in the earliest manuscripts.)

Mark's Gospel is, of course, one of four. Over time, the Jesus story grew in splendor, and by the time the fourth Gospel was written, Jesus had become God Himself. When I complete my book about John's Gospel (yet a couple years away from publication), I am going to wander through every local bookstore and move my book next to Carroll's, where the two extremes can sit side-by-side.

The Existential Jesus - Book Reviews - Books - Entertainment - theage.com.au

The Existential Jesus - Book Reviews - Books - Entertainment - theage.com.au

The Existential Jesus
Gary D. Bouma, Reviewer
March 30, 2007
---

A fresh encounter with Mark's Gospel impresses with its unbiased approach.

JOHN CARROLL AND A group of colleagues have met regularly for years to read the Bible. No, this is not a Bible study group carefully applying given notes to unfamiliar text. The Existential Jesus has emerged from a deep and fresh encounter with the story of Jesus as told by Mark. Mark's Gospel is the least elaborate - no birth, only an empty tomb and the most roughly hewn - no softening of this at times raging, furious character.

Author John Carroll 

Genre Spirituality/Religion

PublisherScribeRRP$35.0

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While some may be challenged by what Carroll meets in this encounter, his aim is not to deconstruct or confront. He appears to have no agenda other than retelling Mark's story as he has encountered and understood it. The book has no audience, no desire to convert, just to recount an authentic encounter with Mark's story of the Jesus who said "I am" and demanded of others, "Who am I?"

Carroll says he has never been a practising Christian but considers the Bible to be so formative of Western civilisation that, like Shakespeare, it rewards close study. He brings a well-grounded appreciation of textual interpretation using his version of the analytical technique "midrash" - a Jewish term that means "to draw out meaning" - and the expanding knowledge of the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth.

He does not bring the biases and learned habits of churchly biblical interpretation. This leaves him free to encounter freshly the power of Mark's story of Jesus. Mark's Jesus is in a sense the most pre-Christian of the gospels, least shaped by the agendas of the emerging church.

Rather than a text-by-text or chapter-by-chapter approach, Carroll discerns the gospel's themes and how its characters represent them in the unfolding drama. The disciples don't get the message. Only a few - the demoniac Mary Magdalene, the woman at the well - see Jesus for who he is. Judas sees and rejects.

Carroll retells the story and then presents Mark's picture of key characters - Mary Magdalene, Peter, Judas and Pilate. Each has their own elemental response to Jesus' "I am".

Carroll, I think rightly, sees Mark's Jesus as profoundly anti-institutional. Jesus rages against the temple cult, a huge religious industry linking religion and state in a profit-seeking, order-enforcing and grace-denying institution. Jesus takes the man with a withered hand out of the synagogue to heal him, the blind man is healed in private, and the temple needs cleansing. Such an attack would make him a target. The attack is as fresh now as ever.

A withering and declining institution is no more Christlike than a flourishing one. Those who sacrifice others on the altars of human institutions are still with us, as are those who take a critically reflective view of these institutions sensing the total otherness of the one to whom Jesus pointed and referred to as Father.

The complex interactions between Jesus' emerging clarity about who he is, his relationships with disciples, family and the small but critically revealing cast of characters in this story are teased out by Carroll using his own responses, those of artists, and contemporary commentaries. I found new insights into some usually less well known characters.

The existential Jesus is a person whose very being is such that an encounter with him clarifies the existence and flaws in the being of those engaged. Jesus is not a moraliser; he's a teacher and a healer of being. There is no Gnosticism here. The encounter is with pure being, not with esoteric teaching or purifying knowledge.

Carroll's clarity of Jesus' diagnosis of the evils of human institution is not balanced by the good they do or a consideration of the impossible contradiction of the human condition - doomed to create organisations for good, which have in them the seeds of their own undoing and evil.

While in Carroll's hand Mark's Jesus is complex, evolving and immensely engaging, he seems more ready to point the finger than to wrestle with embedded contradiction. To seek such nuancing is to have two feet planted on the slippery slope to the church's establishment.

Carroll's Jesus is rabidly anti-church and uses Peter - the disciple who builds churches - as his whipping boy. For a gospel written about AD70, this is a reach; there would have been raging arguments about the nature of this new movement within Judaism - was it a Jewish sect or a new, separate movement? How should it be structured? This gospel may have been written into this conflict to call people away from forms and structures. While this is a voice that is needed in every age, each age answers with, "yes, but".

The Gospels, like the great stories of the Hebrew Scriptures, recount the experiences of humans interacting with the creative source of all that is. Few who encounter them are untouched.

I was struck by the freshness of this encounter, the willingness to pursue what was found using the tools of textual analysis to unlock the themes, the courage to let the text speak and then, having unpacked it, to just let it be. Like Mark, Carroll leaves unanswered Jesus' question, "Who am I?"

An extract from Existential Jesus will run in A2 next Saturday. 

Gary D. Bouma is professor of sociology at Monash University and author of Australian Soul: Religion and Spirituality in the 21st Century, published by Cambridge University Press at $39.95.

Bookshelf: John Carroll, "The Existential Jesus"

Bookshelf: John Carroll, "The Existential Jesus"

Bookshelf: John Carroll, “The Existential Jesus”
DECEMBER 25, 2008



Jeff Giles

Jeff Giles is the founder and editor-in-chief of Popdose and Dadnabbit, as well as an entertainment writer whose work can be seen at Rotten Tomatoes and a number of other sites. Hey, why not follow him at Twitter while you're at it?




John Carroll – The Existential Jesus (2009, Counterpoint)
purchase this book (Amazon)



You can’t claim to offer an interpretation of the Gospel of Mark that claims to offer up hitherto unseen angles — or title the result The Existential Jesus — without stirring up a few hornet’s nests, and that’s exactly what John Carroll has been doing in his native Australia since this slim 274-page volume was released in the fall. This is all well and good for Carroll, who made his bones on iconoclastic works such as Humanism: The Rebirth and Wreck of Western Culture, but will it help the casual armchair theologian come to a deeper understanding of the West’s most famous woodworking philosopher?

Yes and no. Carroll’s work isn’t the fumbling embarrassment that his detractors claim it is — but it is a scattered, conflicted book, one that attempts to shatter theoretical framework even as it relies upon it to make crucial arguments, and one that’s just as likely to draw upon established dogma (i.e. Judas as cartoon villain) as it is to try and break new ground (the whole “existential Jesus” thing, which really isn’t all that new, but let’s not quibble). To top it all off, Carroll’s writing style is always very dry and occasionally overly analytical; chunks of The Existential Jesus can be a bit of a slog.

It’s also difficult to put down. This is probably due more to the source material — Mark is the shortest Gospel, and for a book in the Bible, moves along at a pretty good clip — than anything Carroll does with it, but it still has the effect of turning The Existential Jesus into something of a page-turner. Hardcore theologians may take issue with Carroll’s interpretation of the book’s central figure; some reviewers have suggested that his Jesus is defined more by his doubt and self-absorption than his mission. But for open-minded religious readers — and anyone interested in gaining a bit of insight into what I’ll call, for lack of a better term, the “historical” Jesus — the book has a fair amount of wheat to go with its chaff. Carroll’s Jesus isn’t the beatific, divinely removed figure you remember from Sunday school, but he is about as bummed out and conflicted as you’d expect a young man with the literal weight of the world on his shoulders to be. It’s undeniably compelling stuff.

Where Carroll really stumbles is on his many interpretive dances — he engages in a recurring, and distractingly tenuous, examination of the psyche and motives of Simon Peter that finds Carroll reaching back to the apostle’s family history to suggest some sort of generational disconnect between heart and spirit. It comes to an undeniably gripping conclusion when Peter is confronted by a servant girl in the courtyard outside Jesus’ trial, but again, that’s the source material talking; although Carroll isn’t without insight, it’s hard not to feel like he could have done a better job of reaching some of his conclusions.

Ultimately, although The Existential Jesus isn’t the paradigm-busting work of genius it hopes to be (like, say, Jack Miles’ God: A Biography), it isn’t without its merits, and anyone with an interest in revisionist theology can safely part with the $12 Amazon’s asking for Counterpoint’s paperback edition to read it for themselves. As a truly existential Jesus might argue, it’s interesting both in spite of and because of its flaws.

Telling Stories About Jesus: A Conversation with John Carroll - Keith Tester, 2010

Telling Stories About Jesus: A Conversation with John Carroll - Keith Tester, 2010




Telling Stories About Jesus: A Conversation with John Carroll


Keith TesterFirst Published November 18, 2010 Research Article

Download PDF Article information


Abstract


Since the 1980s the Australian sociologist John Carroll has been engaged in a unique project. Over the course of a number of books he has sought to investigate the fate of authority, values and vocation in the tradition of Western culture. His books are characterised by a deep knowledge of the Western tradition of high culture, especially its art and texts; they are marked by historical sweep and seriousness of purpose. For Carroll, culture is the retelling of archetypal stories which take us beyond the ego and towards the work of soul-building. In 2007 he published the book The Existential Jesuswhich seeks to tell of the meaning of Jesus for contemporar y culture. This conversation uses the publication of the Jesus book as an opportunity to ask Carroll to reflect on his work. Consequently the article is also an invitation for the wider academic community to begin to engage with Carroll’s profound and challenging inquiry into the state of Western culture.
Keywords Archetypes, being, Christianity, Humanism, Jesus, Mark’s Gospel, meaning, mythos

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The Existential Jesus

The Existential Jesus



The Existential Jesus By John Carroll Scribe, 288pp, $35


MATTHEW LAMB
TheAustralian
March 10, 2007

NICK Cave has said he first read Mark because, of all the Gospels, it was the shortest. John Carroll in The Existential Jesus makes a case for the Gospel of Mark to be not only the biggest of the Gospels but perhaps also one of the biggest books of Western civilisation. This is a bold claim, but Carroll is not shy in making bold claims.



His first claim is this: "The Christian churches have comprehensively failed in their one central task: to retell their foundation story in a way that might speak to their times." This Jesus, Carroll argues, has been reduced to an abstract figure, an illustration of various hollow doctrines and laws. The result is that he is irrelevant to the everyday lives of people.



Carroll's second claim, in response to the first, is this: "Jesus is the core of Western Dreaming. His presence is vital to our civilisation and its individuals. He is known by his story." Against the abstract figure of Jesus, Carroll argues that it is through paying attention to the narrative structure of the Gospel of Mark, and to its underlying mythic substratum, that the importance of Jesus as an individual is to be found. His importance to us as individuals quickly follows.



Carroll's Jesus is therefore a figure for a post-church, secular society. This Jesus is "individual-centred and anti-tribal", outside of family and community, a figure in which "group traits and attachments have been stripped away". He is, as Carroll argues, an existential Jesus.



This retelling of the Jesus story is certainly compelling. Carroll offers us his own translation of the Gospel of Mark, accompanied by his always interesting commentary. But it also contains ambiguous claims that detract from its core concerns.



To reclaim Mark's Gospel from the churches, Carroll removes the story from its Judeo-Christian tradition and inserts it into the Greek tradition. From the opening verses of the Gospel, "Jewish history is made obsolete". And by its concluding verses, it presents an "anti-Christian ending", an anathema to traditional Christian churches. Yet Carroll constantly relies on the Jewish concept of midrash to justify his retelling of the Jesus story. But this concept refers only to reinterpreting such stories from within the limits of the same church teaching and scholarship Carroll rejects. Moreover, he relies heavily on the Christian notion of evil, which sets up a dualistic narrative structure, repeated in other parts of his story (insiders and outsiders, for example). But such dualism is very much a Judeo-Christian framework, absent in the Greek tradition (they preferred hubris).



Despite this, Carroll's commentary of Mark proceeds by linking most of the Jesus story to various Greek sources and ideas. He does this to elevate the importance of mythos in the narrative. His interpretations are convincing here, but this raises other problems: the more Mark is shown to be derivative of Greek sources, the less original this figure of Jesus appears to be. This is compounded by Carroll's retrospective reading of Renaissance and romantic conceptions of individuality back on to the Gospel, and his use of Freudian and Jungian concepts to justify pushing interpretations of the Gospel to suit his own ends.



A more ambiguous claim is Carroll's conception of an existential Jesus because the mythical figure presented is not existential at all but is, by Carroll's own repeated admissions, essential. It is by holding up this "Jesus essence" that Carroll bases his claim for the originality of Mark's Gospel.



The whole book is framed around a question of the "enigma of being". Carroll cites Martin Heidegger as leading the turn of philosophy back to being in the 20th century, but it is likelier Jean-Paul Sartre is Carroll's influence here. Yet the appellation of existential can apply to an individual only if their existence can be said to precede their essence. Carroll argues, however, that not only is the essence of Jesus his main focus, this focus is also based on the argument that Jesus is, indeed, the essence that precedes all our individual existences. Moreover, Heidegger famously criticised Sartre for dabbling in questions of existence and essence (regardless of which comes first), because such metaphysics (and, by extension, Carroll's theoretical framework) is still residing within the "oblivion of the truth of being".



Indeed, each of these ambiguous claims is associated with the theoretical framework Carroll calls on to justify his translation and interpretation of Mark.



But they detract from his core concern, which is to elevate the story itself, as a "self-contained numinous object", above such theoretical ballast. After all, it was the traditional churches' reliance on such hollow doctrines and laws that, Carroll claims, reduced Jesus to an abstract figure in the first place.



I happen to agree with Carroll's core concern and it is in this spirit that I offer these criticisms, not to dismiss his book but the better to focus on what is most interesting in it. And this is the concern with revitalising individuality in the contemporary world and doing so through the virtues of storytelling, as opposed to empty doctrine. It is interesting because it broadens the debate about Jesus beyond the restrictive framework of traditional church teachings and reminds us non-Christians that these stories are at the heart of our culture, too.



Most of all, Carroll's book is a rarity in Australian publishing in that despite its ambiguities, or perhaps because of them, it requires its readers to think. The Existential Jesus may not be the greatest story told but it is certainly one worth hearing.



Matthew Lamb is based in Dubai, where he is working on a PhD on Albert Camus.

安倍首相が日朝会談に意欲と韓国大統領府、日韓首脳の電話会談で （ロイター） - Yahoo!ニュース

安倍首相が日朝会談に意欲と韓国大統領府、日韓首脳の電話会談で （ロイター） - Yahoo!ニュース

安倍首相が日朝会談に意欲と韓国大統領府、日韓首脳の電話会談で


3/16(金) 19:21配信




　３月１６日、日本と韓国の両首脳は午後に電話で会談した。安倍晋三首相は文在寅大統領（写真）に対し、４月末に予定されている南北首脳会談で日本人拉致問題を取り上げるよう要請。韓国側の説明によると、安倍首相は北朝鮮との首脳会談への意欲も示したという。２月撮影（２０１８年　ロイター/John Sibley/File Photo）

［東京／ソウル　１６日　ロイター］ - 日本と韓国の両首脳は１６日午後、電話で会談した。安倍晋三首相は文在寅大統領に対し、４月末に予定されている南北首脳会談で日本人拉致問題を取り上げるよう要請。韓国側の説明によると、安倍首相は北朝鮮との首脳会談への意欲も示したという。

日韓首脳が会談するのは、３月６日に韓国と北朝鮮が首脳会談の開催に合意して以降初めて。同席した西村康稔官房副長官によると、安倍首相は「来たる南北首脳会談では、拉致問題を取り上げてもらいたい」と文大統領に伝えた。西村副長官は「詳細なやり取りは控えたいが、文大統領も理解してくれているものという印象だった」とした上で、「この問題について日韓で連携していくことを確認した」と語った。

一方、韓国大統領府の報道官は電話会談後、安倍首相が北朝鮮の金正恩・朝鮮労働党委員長との会談に意欲を示したと説明した。日本は北朝鮮をめぐり、核とミサイルに加え、自国民の拉致という独自の問題も含めた包括的な解決を目指している。

日本政府関係者によると、安倍政権は拉致問題の打開に向け、日朝首脳会談を模索していく考え。

このほか安倍首相と文大統領は、北朝鮮の非核化に向けて最大限の圧力をかけ続けることで一致した。安倍首相は４月初旬に訪米することを文大統領に説明し、「南北、米朝首脳会談に向け、日韓米でしっかり連携したい」と語った。

両首脳は中国も含めた３カ国の首脳会談を早期に開催することや、日韓のシャトル外交を実現させる方針も申し合わせた。

＊内容を追加しました。

(久保信博、クリスティン・キム)

安倍首相が日朝会談に意欲と韓国大統領府、日韓首脳の電話会談で （ロイター） - Yahoo!ニュース

安倍首相が日朝会談に意欲と韓国大統領府、日韓首脳の電話会談で （ロイター） - Yahoo!ニュース

安倍首相が日朝会談に意欲と韓国大統領府、日韓首脳の電話会談で


3/16(金) 19:21配信




　３月１６日、日本と韓国の両首脳は午後に電話で会談した。安倍晋三首相は文在寅大統領（写真）に対し、４月末に予定されている南北首脳会談で日本人拉致問題を取り上げるよう要請。韓国側の説明によると、安倍首相は北朝鮮との首脳会談への意欲も示したという。２月撮影（２０１８年　ロイター/John Sibley/File Photo）

［東京／ソウル　１６日　ロイター］ - 日本と韓国の両首脳は１６日午後、電話で会談した。安倍晋三首相は文在寅大統領に対し、４月末に予定されている南北首脳会談で日本人拉致問題を取り上げるよう要請。韓国側の説明によると、安倍首相は北朝鮮との首脳会談への意欲も示したという。

日韓首脳が会談するのは、３月６日に韓国と北朝鮮が首脳会談の開催に合意して以降初めて。同席した西村康稔官房副長官によると、安倍首相は「来たる南北首脳会談では、拉致問題を取り上げてもらいたい」と文大統領に伝えた。西村副長官は「詳細なやり取りは控えたいが、文大統領も理解してくれているものという印象だった」とした上で、「この問題について日韓で連携していくことを確認した」と語った。

一方、韓国大統領府の報道官は電話会談後、安倍首相が北朝鮮の金正恩・朝鮮労働党委員長との会談に意欲を示したと説明した。日本は北朝鮮をめぐり、核とミサイルに加え、自国民の拉致という独自の問題も含めた包括的な解決を目指している。

日本政府関係者によると、安倍政権は拉致問題の打開に向け、日朝首脳会談を模索していく考え。

このほか安倍首相と文大統領は、北朝鮮の非核化に向けて最大限の圧力をかけ続けることで一致した。安倍首相は４月初旬に訪米することを文大統領に説明し、「南北、米朝首脳会談に向け、日韓米でしっかり連携したい」と語った。

両首脳は中国も含めた３カ国の首脳会談を早期に開催することや、日韓のシャトル外交を実現させる方針も申し合わせた。

＊内容を追加しました。

(久保信博、クリスティン・キム)

한국일보 : 국제 : [세계의 분쟁지역] ‘반 아사드’ 서방 시각, 반군의 전쟁범죄는 가렸다

Okjin Park
5 hrs ·



시리아 내전 초기 세속주의자들이 주도권을 잡고 있었고 이들이 민주주의적인 시리아를 건설하려는 목적을 가지고 있었고 자유 시리아군으로(FSA) 자처하여 아사드 사회주의 정권을 눈에 가시로 여기던 서방세력의 지지를 받았습니다. 그런데 시간이 지나고 보니 알 카에다세력도 들어오고 IS도 들어오고 그리고 사우디나 카타르,터키, 아랍에미리트등의 외국 이슬람 국가들의 지원을 받게 되면서 자유 시리아군내부에서 이슬람 원리주의자들이 크게 늘어나게 되었죠.. 일단 전투능력에서 이슬람 광신도들이 세속주의자를 크게 능가했습니다. 이미 전투경험도 많고 게다가 죽음을 두려워하지 않는 대단히 공격적인 성향에 세속주의자 전사들은 맥을 못추었죠.. 그리고 이슬람 원리주의자반군들이 사우디등의 자금지원으로 돈이 풍부했습니다. IS의 경우에는 석유나 문화재를 밀매하여 돈을 벌어들여서 시간이 지나면 지날수록 반군내에서 세속주의자들의 비율은 크게 감소하였죠.. 세속주의자들이 돈때문에 이슬람 반군에 합류하기도 하고 이슬람 반군의 원리주의적 성향에 질려버린 세속주의자들은 이들의 위험성을 깨닫고 도로 아사드 밑으로 들어가 이슬람 반군과 싸우기 시작합니다.
즉 내전초기 민주주의를 지향하는 세속주의적 반군은 이제 전설의 저편으로 사라졌습니다...
결국 미국이나 프랑스등 서방세력은 더이상 반군을 지지할수가 없는 상황이 되어서 그 대안으로 선택한게 쿠르드족인데 터키가 개입하면서 이 계획도 파탄으로 직면하게 되었죠.
시리아 내전은 끔찍할 정도로 복잡해서 해결책을 찾기가 매우 난해합니다. 아마 결국은 아사드의 사회주의 정권의 승리가 아니면 시리아내전은 종료되지 않을 겁니다. 근데 이에 반대하는 국가들이 매우 많으므로 상황은 복잡하게 전개될 수 밖에 없습니다.
한국일보 : 국제 : [세계의 분쟁지역] ‘반 아사드’ 서방 시각, 반군의 전쟁범죄는 가렸다

[세계의 분쟁지역] ‘반 아사드’ 서방 시각, 반군의 전쟁범죄는 가렸다
등록 : 2018.03.16 20:00

• # 시리아 동구타 참상… 숨겨진 반군
• “큰 책임은 아사드와 러시아에 있지만
• 무장 반군과 서방 세계도 책임 있어”
• 영국 특파원 기사로 논란 촉발
• 동구타 내 4개 무장그룹
• 납치ㆍ살상ㆍ무차별 체포 등 자행
• 다마스쿠스 향해 포격까지
• 주민들 “극단주의자 떠나라”

시리아 정부군 공세에 4일 동구타 베이트 사와에서 주민들이 빠져 나가고 있다. 베이트사와= AFP 연합뉴스
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“동(東)구타 봉쇄에 대한 서방 세계의 공허한 울분: 우리는 민간인 구호를 위해 아무 것도 하지 않고 있다.”

지난달 21일 영국 온라인매체 인디펜던트의 중동 특파원 로버트 피스크가 쓴 기사 제목이다.


시리아 전쟁을 밀착 관찰해 온 옵저버들 사이에 뜨거운 논쟁을 일으킨 이 기사에서 그는 서방 언론의 시리아 사태 보도가 중요한 측면을 ‘생략’하고 있다고 지적했다. 한마디로 요약하면 “언론에서 (동구타) 무장반군의 모습은 찾아볼 수 없다”는 말이었다. 바샤르 알 아사드 시리아 대통령에 맞서는 무장반군, 나아가 이들을 지원한 서방 세계도 현재 동구타에서 벌어지는 민간인 살상에 책임이 있다는 내용이었는데, 이는 곧 ‘현 사태의 주범은 아사드 정권’이라는 엄연한 사실에 물타기를 하는 게 아니냐는 비판이 나왔다. 반면 그가 들춰낸 ‘불편한 진실’이 복잡한 구도 하에 진행되는 시리아 전쟁의 또 다른 절반을 드러냈다는 긍정적 평가도 있었다.

실제로 최근 동구타 참상 보도에서 이번 전쟁의 주요 당사자 중 한 축인 무장 반군을 조명한 언론은 많지 않다. 중동, 미국의 싱크탱크에 속한 전문가들 일부가 ‘아사드 정권의 대항마’ 정도로 묘사한 경우는 종종 있다. 또 좌파 진영 일부에선 서방 세계가 ‘아사드 정권 교체 시나리오’를 갖고 있고, 반군은 그 실행을 위한 ‘주연’이라고 보는 견해도 나온다. 하지만 이 같은 음모론적 시각의 문제는 아사드 정권의 행위를 ‘대 테러전’이자 ‘(동구타) 해방전쟁’이라고 지칭하면서 정당화하고 있다는 점이다. 이들의 레토릭에선 전쟁의 가장 큰 피해자인 민간인들이 뒷전으로 밀려나 있다.

그렇다면 봉쇄 5년째로 접어든 동구타의 ‘반군’은 정확히 누구이고, 무엇을 하고 있을까. 크게 네 부류로 나눠볼 수 있다. 

• 우선 가장 강력한 조직인 ‘제이쉬 알 이슬람’(Jayshy al-Islamㆍ‘이슬람 군대’라는 뜻ㆍ이하 JAI)’이 있다. 샤리아(이슬람 율법)에 의한 통치를 주창하는 수니파 극단주의자들, 이른바 살라피스트로 분류된다. 
• 
  
• 두 번째는 카타르와 터키의 지원을 받는 ‘페일라크 알-라흐만(Faylaq al-Rahmanㆍ이하 FAR)’인데, 이들은 ‘온건반군’으로 불리는 자유시리아군(FSA) 소속이다. 
• 
  
• 이 밖에 ▦살라피스트와 이슬람주의자(샤리아 율법통치를 고집하지 않는 이들)의 연합체인 ‘아흐라르 알-샴(Ahrar al-Shamㆍ‘시리아 해방운동’이라는 뜻)’ 
• 
  
• ▦알카에다의 시리아 버전인 ‘하이야트 타흐리르 알 이슬람(Hay’at Tahrir al-Islamㆍ‘레반트의 해방기구’라는 뜻ㆍ이하 HTS)’ 등이 소규모로 존재한다.

이들 간의 무장 교전은 시리아 내전의 대립구도가 그리 단순치 않다는 사실을 극명하게 보여준다. 예컨대 2016년 중반쯤 JAI와 FAR은 격하게 충돌했고, 이들을 중재한 건 카타르였다. 또 같은 해 10월 동구타 주민들이‘반군들의 단합’촉구 시위를 벌였을 때, FAR이 시위대를 상대로 총격을 가한 것은 악명 높은 사례로 남아 있다. 이듬해 5월에도 비슷한 상황이 발생했다. 

이번에는 JAI가 시민들을 향해 총구를 겨눴다. 시리아인권관측소에 따르면 지난 11일에도 동구타의 카프르 바트나(Kafr Batna) 지역 주민들이 정부군과 반군의 화해를 요구하며 행진을 벌이자 FAR는 옥상에 배치한 저격수를 배치하여 시위대에 총격을 가했다. 7명이 사망했다는 게 관측소 측 전언이다.

JAI의 창시자인 자흐란 알루쉬(2015년 사망)는 극단적인 종파주의자였다. 2013년 언론 인터뷰 당시 “수도 다마스쿠스에서 시아파, 알라와이뜨(아사드 대통령이 속해 있는 시아파 내 하위분파)를 모조리 청소해야 한다”고 했던 발언이 대표적이다. 샤리아 율법 통치를 정당화하려는 방편으로 “민주주의는 부패한 제도”라고도 주장했다. JAI는 2015년 11월 정부군 포로, 납치 민간인 등 수십 명을 대형 새장 안에 가두고 거리를 활보한 적이 있는데, 이는 아사드 정권의 공습을 막으려는 ‘인간방패’ 전술이었다.

유엔진상조사단은 지난 6일 발표한 보고서에서 “동구타 봉쇄 지역 내 테러리스트 또는 무장 세력들이 지속적ㆍ무차별적으로 다마스쿠스를 향해 포격하고 있고, (그 결과) 수많은 민간인들이 희생되고 불구가 됐다”며 “이 또한 전쟁범죄”라고 지적했다. 2015년 엠네스티의 발표 내용과 비교할 때, 현 상황이 거의 달라지지 않은 것이다. 당시 엠네스티는 “동구타 비정부 무장그룹, 특히 ‘이슬람 군대’(JAI를 뜻함)는 납치, 무차별 체포와 구류는 물론, (다마스쿠스를 향한) 무차별 폭격까지 하고 있다”고 비판했었다.

JAI가 납치했던 인물들 중에는 특히 2001년 이후 아사드 독재정권에 저항했던 인권변호사 라잔 자이투네도 있다. 세속주의자이기도 한 그는 2011년부터는 시리아인권침해센터(VDC)를 운영하면서 반군 측의 인권 위반 실태 감시활동을 펼쳤으나, 2013년 9월 동구타 두마 지역에서 돌연 실종됐다. 지난달 27일 VDC 주도로 시리아 54개 시민단체가 발표한 공개 호소문은 다음과 같이 극단주의와 분명히 선을 그었다. “분명히 하겠다. 동구타 주민들은 어떠한 극단주의도 받아들이지 않는다. 알 누스라 대원들, 알카에다 연계 대원들은 누구든 우리 지역을 떠나라.”

물론 이들은 동구타 참상의 가장 큰 책임이 아사드 정권, 그리고 러시아에 있다는 본질을 지적하는 일도 잊지 않았다. “시리아 정부 주장대로 극단주의자들과의 전쟁에 조금의 명분이 있다 한들, 유엔 결의안대로 국제인권법은 존중돼야 한다”고 주장했다. 지난 6일 VDC의 발표 내용은 아사드 정권의 잔혹함을 그대로 보여줬다. 지난달 18일부터 이달 5일까지 동구타의 사망자 수는 민간인 826명, 반군 29명이었다. 전체 희생자의 96.6%가 민간인인 것이다.

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이유경 국제분쟁전문 저널리스트

Western howls of outrage over the Ghouta siege ring hollow – we aren't likely to do anything to save civilians | The Independent

Western howls of outrage over the Ghouta siege ring hollow – we aren't likely to do anything to save civilians | The Independent

How can we complain when we will not ourselves deal with the armed Islamist opposition to Assad (I am not at this point talking about Isis) or try to arrange our own ceasefire, even with Russian help? After all, we’ve been arming these people for years
Robert Fisk Middle East Correspondent
@indyvoices
Wednesday 21 February 2018 13:00 GMT

9K
Civilians flee as Ghouta falls under attack Reuters


Here are some cruel facts about the siege of Ghouta. They have become buried in the real rubble and blood and the sham and apocalyptic expressions of horror from the West. The first and most important dimension to the siege was a remark by Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, who said on Monday that Moscow and the Syrian government “could deploy [in Ghouta] our experience of freeing Aleppo”. This single phrase – otherwise translated from the Russian as “draw from the lessons of Aleppo” – was regarded, when it was heeded at all, as a warning that Ghouta would be destroyed.

But the Russians spent many months, along with the Syrians, trying to arrange for the departure of Syrian civilians from eastern Aleppo before it was recaptured; after huge advances into the suburbs by Syrian troops, there was indeed an exodus of the innocent, in which armed opponents of the regime were also permitted to leave. Many were escorted by armed and uniformed Russian military police who took them to the Turkish border. Others preferred – rashly, no doubt – to move under escort to Idlib, the great provincial “dumping ground” for Islamist fighters and their families which is now, inevitably, also under siege.





Scenes of devastation in Syria after deadly shelling and airstrikes and eastern Ghouta

What Lavrov has in mind is a similar agreement with the armed rebels of Ghouta. Both the Russians and the Syrians have direct contact with those they speak of as “terrorists” – a word beloved of the West when they are attacking the same Islamist Nusrah (al-Qaeda) groups as the Russians; which is why, when the siege of the last rebel district of Homs ended last year, uniformed Russians troops stood next to the armed and often hooded Islamists allowed to leave for Idlib. I saw this with my own eyes.

The “rebels”/”terrorists”/“Islamists”/“armed opposition” – you must pick the mantra of your choice – are, of course, the one other “fact” of the Ghouta bloodbath which must not be addressed, spoken of, mentioned, referred to or even acknowledged. For the Nusrah fighters in Ghouta – whether or not they have brought pressure on the civilians of the suburbs to stay as “human shields” – are part of the original al-Qaeda movement which committed the crimes against humanity in America in 2001 and which have, more often than not, been prepared to cooperate in Syria with Isis, the vicious cult which the US, the EU, NATO and Russia (add here all the other usual defenders of civilisation) have promised to destroy. Nusrah’s allies are Jaish al-Islam, yet another Islamist group.

This is a very odd state of affairs. No-one should doubt the scale of the slaughter in Ghouta. Or the suffering of the civilians. We cannot howl with indignation when the Israelis assault Gaza (using the same “human shields” motif as the Russians today) while making excuses for the bloodbath in Ghouta because the “terrorists” under siege are Isis-tainted al-Qaeda Islamists.

But these armed groups are curiously absent when we express our outrage at the carnage in Ghouta. There are no Western reporters to interview them – because we (though we don’t usually say so) would have our heads chopped off by these defenders of Ghouta if we tried or even dared to enter the besieged suburb. And the footage which we receive shows – incredibly – not a single armed man. This does not mean that the wounded or the dead children or the bloodied corpses – albeit with faces “blurred” by our own thoughtful television editors – are not real or that the film is fake. But the footage clearly does not show all of the truth. The cameras – or their film editors – do not depict the al-Nusrah fighters who are in Ghouta. Nor are they going to.

Earlier archive film of sieges – of Warsaw in 1944, of Beirut in 1982, of Sarajevo in 1992 – show the actual fighters who were defending these cities, along with their weapons. But footage from Ghouta – like almost all the film from eastern Aleppo – contains not a frame of acknowledgement that these armed men exist. Nor have I come across a single mention of them in our commentaries of civilian suffering, save for passing references to Ghouta in the US and European media as “rebel-held”. Who, then, killed by mortar fire the six civilians — 28 were wounded — in the centre of government-controlled Damascus 24 hours ago? A tiny percentage of the Ghouta dead, to be sure. But were they done to death by ghosts?

This is an important omission – because the key to any end of this civilian killing-zone and its latest 250 dead lies in the ability to open some form of immediate contact between the armed besiegers and the armed attackers. Lavrov’s comments in the past two days suggest that the Russians had agreed a return to the weirdly-named “deconfliction” status of Ghouta, an effective ceasefire in which aid could be sent in to Ghouta and the wounded taken out. But – this, of course, according to Lavrov – al-Nusrah broke the deal.

Well, maybe. Yet how can we complain when we will not ourselves deal with the armed Islamist opposition to Assad (I am not at this point talking about Isis) or try to arrange our own ceasefire, even with Russian help? After all, we’ve been arming these people for years! But no, we shall take no such action. Thus we ring our hands with ever-increasing hypocrisy and ever more cringing hyperbole.

In the past 48 hours, for example – and let us pay attention to this – we have heard from the US, from the UN, from NGOs and from doctors in touch with the hospitals of Ghouta that the suburb is the scene of “flagrant war crimes on an epic [sic] scale”, “the day of judgement”, “the massacre of the 21st century”, of “hysterical violence” – whatever that means – and, from the poor old UN itself, that the violence visited upon Ghouta is “beyond imagination” to such an extent that they “have run out of words”.

Again, let us remind ourselves that the people of Ghouta are paying a grotesque and ferocious and disgraceful price in human suffering for their location in the Syrian war, at the hands of – yes – the Russians and the Syrians. 

But what do the preposterous saints of the UN bureaucracy – who, alas, will never, ever, “run out of words” — and those who describe the siege of Ghouta as “the day of judgement” really think they are talking about? Let us, amid atrocities, keep a sense of proportion here. Auschwitz and the Jewish Holocaust and the Rwanda genocide and the Armenian Holocaust and the countless mass murders of the 20th century (we might discreetly remember Russia’s losses at the hands of Hitler’s hordes) were a lot closer to the “day of judgement” than Ghouta. To compare this terrible siege with the crimes against humanity of the past century is to dishonour millions of innocent victims of far worse crimes.

The truth is that these expressions of horror from “our” side are substitutes. Why did not the UN “run out of words” in the first year of the war? Many of the Syrian victims had already run out of words by 2012 – not least because a large number of them were dead. The statistics we use suggest that 400,000 civilians are reported to be trapped there. What is the real figure, we might perhaps ask? We were told that 250,000 were trapped in Aleppo in 2016 and it turned out to be nearer 92,000. But 92,000 was war crime enough. What if only 200,000 are trapped in Ghouta? But that is enough to constitute a horror story on its own.

The reality is that the siege of Ghouta will continue until its surrender and evacuation. No words we utter will prevent this gloomy scenario and we know this – or at least those who lead our moral high ground do. Nothing on the ground will change. And when Ghouta “falls” – or is “liberated”, as its besiegers will undoubtedly tell us – then the destruction of Idlib city will begin. And once more it will be the day of judgement, “hysterical violence” and “the massacre of the 21st century” (presumably outdoing the Aleppo and Ghouta sieges together). No Western condemnation will stop this. We are bankrupt, bellowing our outrage without the slightest hope – or intention – of sparing the innocent. That is the sad story of Ghouta which, I fear, historians will record. Worse still is that they will be right.

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The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Audible Audio Edition): Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Clayborne Carson - editor, Levar Burton, Hachette Audio: Books

Amazon.com: The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Audible Audio Edition): Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Clayborne Carson - editor, Levar Burton, Hachette Audio: Books

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Audiobook – Unabridged
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Author),‎ & 3 more
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Avid Readers
5.0 out of 5 starsTop book for both learning about King and learning about leadershipOctober 26, 2015
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Phillips has written a few leadership books - and does a masterful job in each - yet especially here.

For this book, he weaves through with a leadership lesson in each chapter - and generally places the lesson tied directly to something King did - trying to stay close to chronological order. He also supplies us with key quotes from King at the beginning and end of each chapter - for a quick summary and overview.

Phillips sets the context in which King operated. This is huge! I don't believe you can't fully understand without immersing in the history, the mindset, the goings on of the time. Phillips doesn't assume the reader is familiar with King. He doesn't assume the reader knows the circumstances of King's time. Phillips pulls the reader in; explaining the leadership trait King embodied; he explains what in King's past helped him to get here. He explains the historical context of what the culture was like, what current events caused the situation, what players were involved and a little on their mindset and background. He points out how even a great man like King made mistakes, how we evaluated his successes and failures, and how he grew and improved throughout.

King's life was short and was lived mainly before I was born - he died at age 39 - and had learned more and accomplished more than many that lived to be twice his age. Being a student of leadership, but someone who knew very little about King, I chose this book to learn about both. It inspired me to read more about King. I am amazed at how he put his principles before even fear of criticism, family threats, and even death. I think the reader will learn a lot about King, his struggles, his faith, his life, his goals, and especially his leadership style. Yet, for burgeoning leaders, it is very insightful. It will make someone think about whether they truly want to be a leader and what sacrifices they are willing to make.

Phillips makes this an easy read - but not an easy one to just race through without reflection.

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Louis Thaddaeus
5.0 out of 5 starsEveryone who wants to understand America should read this book ...January 13, 2018
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It was unfortunate that Martin Luther King Jr. did not get a chance to write his own autobiography, but Clayborne Carson does a wonderful job piecing together Martin's life struggles, highlights and main ideas. Martin's honesty and quest for justice rings throughout. There were a few sections that were duplicative, but overall I thought it was an excellent, absorbing read. To me, the book really delivered toward the end. Discussions on the concepts of power and love and nonviolence and violence were exceptional. I also really appreciated Martin's digging down to the root cause of black thought in relation to America - why, for example, many young black people leaned toward violence as a method to gain freedom and respect. Finally, there were a number of passages that could have been written today - so many points Martin made are as fresh as ever. Martin's revelations are timeless. Everyone who wants to understand America should read this book.
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Grant Marshall
5.0 out of 5 starsEye-opening, and insightful. What an amazing story.September 11, 2013
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I bought this book for a number of reasons. Firstly, I knew precious little about the man who stands as a giant of history. I also knew little about the kind of Christianity he professed, and had heard some people scandalously say that King was in no real way a Christian (i.e. Christopher Hitchens). All I can say after reading this book is WOW - what an amazing story. I heard King's voice speaking every word of every chapter. It was like he was sitting next to you telling you the story of his life.

King was most certainly a Christian. He grew up in a Christian home, he went to Seminary, he became a minister and pastored a Church. He spoke of a personal relationship with Jesus. He depended on God for strength during difficult times, he prayed to Jesus, he worshiped Jesus, he preached about Jesus, and led a congregation of Jesus followers. If that's not Christian nothing is. Yet his theology was decidedly liberal. He was embarrassed by his fundamentalist upbringing, especially those who would check their minds in at the door of Church and stomp their feet during the service. He spoke candidly about denying the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and embracing the liberal view of man. However he was an honest man, who at times questioned his presuppositions. I was impressed how he preached a Gospel that led to action in the present world. Not just a gospel of Sunday pieties.

In story after story King recounted how he was committed to nonviolence because this was the way of Jesus (and Gandhi whom he was later influenced by). He didn't preach hatred of white people, but reconciliation, with an aim to a fully integrated society. If anyone had reason to hate it was King. His home was bombed, his friends homes were bombed, he and his family were verbally abused and threatened, he was stabbed, he was arrested more times than I can count, and was often the victim of gross injustice. Yet in all that he showed the world that he served another Lord, and preached a different Gospel. Violence, only begets more violence. My heart broke for those who suffered during the era of segregation. At times I was almost reduced to tears, reading about the horrors of what mankind has done to each other. Not only that but I finally came to understand a little of what it was like to grow up as a Black Man in a climate of racism, to suffer under such terrible injustice, disrespect and disenfranchisement. Blessed are the peacemakers like Dr King, for they will be called the children of God.

Yet there were times I felt that King's liberalism got the better of him. I felt that King's idea of heaven on earth was simply an integrated society where everyone had equal opportunity to all state services, good jobs, and so on. Yet this idea doesn't go far enough. What about personal repentance and transformation through the power of the Holy Spirit? Can non-violent action really bring this about? Does it treat the symptoms rather than the root cause of the issue? What God's kingdom coming to earth, and us anticipating it in the present, but recognizing it is a future reality? He condemned violent protest, and distanced himself from people like Malcolm X but didn't call on those who had been violent to repent and follow Jesus. 

Many times he simply rationalized their violence as the understandable reaction of those who had suffered for too long. He often saw the suffering of the negro community as redemptive. But that is to give the community too much power, and a job that only Jesus can truly accomplish. If King meant that through their suffering and weakness, they embodied Jesus' suffering, and pointed people more fully towards Christ, then I have no issues. King's views on poverty and military action were a little naive. Giving away surplus food from the western world to store it in the empty bellies of hungry Indian Children, is a noble thought, but nothing more than a short term solution to a systemic problem. Giving away food like that can drive down the prices of local produce and cause more harm for the local economy than good.

Yet those quibbles aside, this is still a fantastic book. Towards the end it gets a little dry and repetitive, but is very readable. If you only read one book on the Civil rights movement and it's pivotal leader, read this one.
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 starsGood ReadOctober 9, 2016
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I'm so grateful that I waited until now to read this book, and didn't read it years prior when I would have lacked the mental maturity to recognize the true power of nonviolent resistance! I'm forever grateful to Dr. King for his many contributions, and great sacrifice.

"True pacifism is not unrealistic submission to evil power, as Niebuhr contends. It is rather a courageous confrontation of evil by the power of love, in the faith that it is better to be the recipient of violence than the inflictor of it, since the latter only multiplies the existence of violence and bitterness in the universe, while the former may develop a sense of shame in the opponent, and thereby bring about a transformation and change of heart." -

 "The Autobiography Of Martin Luther King, Jr." Edited by Clayborne Carson, Pg. 26