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Rocket Launching United Nations Religion Shakespeare April 13, 2009
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CURRENT EVENT North Koreans Launch Rocket Over the Pacific by Chloe Sang-Hun and David E. Sanger April 4, 2009 SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
The motivation for the test appeared as much political as technological: After acquiring the fuel for six or more nuclear weapons during the Bush administration, and negotiating a halt of its main nuclear reactor in return for aid, North Korea’s recent statements appear to be a bid for attention from the Obama administration. The Japanese government strongly protested the launching over its territory and asked for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
N China and a series of United Nations orth Korea defied the United States,
resolutions by launching a rocket on Sunday that the country said was designed to propel a satellite into space, but that much of the world viewed as an effort to prove it is edging toward the capability to shoot a nuclear warhead on a longer-range missile. North Korea launched the rocket at 11:30 a.m. local time, or 10:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, said the office of the South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak. Early reports from the Japanese prime minister’s office indicated that the three-stage rocket appeared to launch successfully, with the first stage falling into the Sea of Japan and the second stage into the Pacific. South Korea vowed a “stern and resolute” response to the North’s “reckless act.” South Korean officials, after studying the rocket’s trajectory, said it appeared to have been configured to thrust a satellite into orbit, as the North had claimed. No debris was reported to have fallen on Japanese land. There has been no confirmation of whether the third and final stage of the launching took place. But what may have mattered most to North Korea was simply demonstrating that it had the ability to launch a multistage rocket that could travel thousands of miles.
Lee Dong-kwan, a spokesman for the South Korean president, said, “North Korea’s launch of its long-range rocket poses a serious threat to the stability of the Korean Peninsula and the rest of the world at a time when the entire world is pulling its wisdom together to overcome the global economic crisis.” Over the years the North has sometimes conducted tests as a gambit to extract concessions for more aid and fuel and to demonstrate its nuclear capabilities. Manufacturing a nuclear warhead that is small enough, light enough and heat-resistant enough to be mounted atop a missile is far more complex than building a basic nuclear device — and intelligence officials and outside experts believe North Korea is still years from that accomplishment. Typically, it takes many years of experimentation for a nation to learn how to shrink an ungainly test device into a slim warhead. Nonetheless, the series of tests in recent years — in 2006 and 1998 — is prompting fears of North Korean proliferation among Japanese, Chinese and Western leaders. North Korea’s missiles have ranked among its few profitable exports — Iran, Syria and Pakistan have all been among its major customers. If this longrange test ends up a success, it would presumably make the design far more attractive on the international black market. The launching provides one of the first tests of Mr. Obama’s reaction to a provocation, on the weekend that he is scheduled to lay out for the first time, in a speech in Prague, his strategy to counter proliferation threats.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has ruled out any effort to shoot down the missile if the mission appeared to be a serious effort to launch a satellite. Rather, Mr. Obama’s top aides said during last week’s Group of 20 summit meeting in London that if the missile were launched, they would seek additional sanctions against the country in the United Nations Security Council, perhaps as early as this weekend. President Bush pressed for similar sanctions after the North’s nuclear test in October 2006, but those sanctions had little long-term effect. “We have made very clear to the North Koreans that their missile launch is provocative,” Mr. Obama said Friday after meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France in Strasbourg, France. Mr. Obama took the issue up on Wednesday in London with President Hu Jintao of China. While Washington has signaled calm, the Japanese response has been unusually strong. Japan deployed ships into the Sea of Japan and suggested it would try to shoot down any “debris” from the launching that threatened to hit the country. However, there is no evidence they tried to do so, and on Saturday, to the embarassment of the Japanese military, the country falsely reported twice that the missile had been launched. With the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, reportedly recovering from a stroke last summer, the missile test may also be an effort by him — or some in the military — to demonstrate that someone is firmly in control and that the country’s missile and nuclear programs are forging ahead. In recent times top American intelligence officials have told Congress they believe Mr. Kim is back in charge of the country, but they admit considerable mystery surrounds the question of whether he has regained all of his faculties.
Rocket Launching United Nations Religion Shakespeare
Stephen W. Bosworth, Mr. Obama’s special envoy on North Korea, told reporters that while the United States would seek to punish the North for the test, it was also prepared to resume six-nation talks with North Korea to persuade it to give up its nuclear weapons program. “We must deal with North Korea as we find it, not as we would like it to be,” Mr. Bosworth said.
While many analysts have looked at the launching through a military lens, some say another perspective involves political rivalries on the Korean peninsula. For years, South Korea has been gearing up to fire a satellite into orbit and join the space club. Its spaceport of Oinarodo is nearly ready, but a launching scheduled for this month was delayed, giving North Korea an opening.
In addition to Japan, South Korea, which is in easy reach of North Korean missiles, deployed navy ships with missile tracking radar near North Korea.
“They’re racing to beat the South Koreans,” said Tim Brown, a senior fellow at GlobalSecurity.org, a private group in Alexandria, Va.
But President Lee, too, emphasized that the six-party talks should resume.
Obama’s Statement on North Korea Rocket Launching
North Korea tried and failed to loft satellites in 1998 and again in 2006.
Following is the text of President Obama’s statement Sunday on North Korea’s rocket launching, as released by the White House:
Western aerospace experts said the new North Korean rocket appeared to be fairly large — much bigger than the one Iran fired in February to launch a small satellite, and about the same size as China launched in 1970 in its space debut. David C. Wright, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a private group in Cambridge, Mass., said the North Korean rocket might be able to lift a small satellite of 220 pounds into an orbit some 250 miles high. If used as a ballistic missile, he added, the rocket might throw a warhead of 2,200 pounds to a distance of some 3,700 miles — far enough to hit parts of Alaska. Western analysts agree that North Korea’s missile launching is a military endeavor, despite its payload of an experimental communications satellite and its cocoon of North Korean propaganda. Starting with Sputnik in 1957, most of the world’s intercontinental ballistic missiles began life as satellite launchers. Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, told reporters in March that “North Korea is attempting to demonstrate an ICBM capability through a space launch.”
North Korea’s development and proliferation of ballistic missile technology pose a threat to the northeast Asian region and to international peace and security. The launch today of a Taepo-dong 2 missile was a clear violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1718, which expressly prohibits North Korea from conducting ballistic missile-related activities of any kind. With this provocative act, North Korea has ignored its international obligations, rejected unequivocal calls for restraint, and further isolated itself from the community of nations. We will immediately consult with our allies in the region, including Japan and the Republic of Korea, and members of the U.N. Security Council to bring this matter before the Council. I urge North Korea to abide fully by the resolutions of the U.N. Security Council and to refrain from further provocative actions. Preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery is a high priority for my administration. The United States is fully committed to maintaining security and stability in northeast Asia and we will continue working for the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through the Six-Party Talks. The Six-Party Talks provide the forum for achieving denuclearization, reducing tensions, and for resolving other issues of concern between North Korea, its four neighbors, and the United States. North Korea has a pathway to acceptance in the international community, but it will not find that acceptance unless it abandons its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and abides by its international obligations and commitments.
North Korea and the United States sign an agreement in which the North pledges to freeze and eventually dismantle its nuclear-weapons program, in exchange for help building two power-producing nuclear reactors.
— 1993 — 1994 — 1995 — 1996
The North fires a tw0-stage Taepodong-1 missile over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean. The firing sugests that North Korea has greatly increased the range of its missles.
— 1998 — 1999 — 2000 — 2001
North Korea admits it has been conducting a clandestine nuclear-weapons program for several years and that the 1994 agreement is “nullified.” The United States, China, Russia, South Korea and Japan hodl the first of several rounds of negotiations with North Korea in Beijing.
— 2002 — 2003 — 2004
North Korea agrees to end its nuclear weapons program in return for security, economic and energy benefits. Talks later resume to hammer our specifics, but the North backs out and rejects further negotiations The North launches seven missles over the Sea of Japan, including a new Taepodong-2 model that is designed for long range but explodes soon after launch. Other nations condemn the tests, and the United Nations Security Council later passes a resolution condemning them. The United States and four other nations reach a tentative agreement to provide North Korea with roughly $400 million in fuel oil and aid, in return for the North’s starting to disable its nuclear facilities and allowing nuclear inspectors back into the country.
— 2005 — 2006
how did we get here?
— 1997
North Korea, a dictatorship armed to the teeth but unable to feed its own people without foreign aid, has specialized in provoking the international community for survival. As it has wrangled invitations to talks and extracted fresh aid, it has never given up its trump card, its nuclear weapons program.
In a definat move against international pressure to inspect its suspected nuclear weapons development program. North Korea says it will withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which it ratified in 1985. The North begins stockpiling plutonium, but it later decides not to pull out of the treaty.
— 2007 — 2008
Rocket Launching United Nations Religion Shakespeare
1. Afghanistan
30. Cameroon
57. Estonia
77. India
86. Jordan
94. Lebanon
2. Albania
31. Canada
58. Ethiopia
78. Indonesia
87. Kazakhstan
95. Lesotho
3. Algeria
32. Cape Verde
59. Fiji
79. Iran
88. Kenya
96. Liberia
4. Andorra
33. Central African Republic
60. Finland
80. Iraq
89. Kiribati
61. France
81. Ireland
90. Kuwait
97. Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
62. Gabon
82. Israel
91. Kyrgyzstan
63. Gambia
83. Italy
64. Georgia
84. Jamaica
65. Germany
85. Japan
5. Angola
34. Chad
6. Antigua and Barbuda
35. Chile
7. Argentina
36. China
8. Armenia
37. Colombia
9. Australia
38. Comoros
10. Austria
39. Congo, Republic of
67. Greece
40. Costa Rica
68. Grenada
41. C™te d'Ivoire
69. Guatemala
42. Croatia
70. Guinea
43. Cuba
71. Guinea-Bissau
44. Cyprus
72. Guyana 73. Haiti
17. Belgium
45. Czech Republic
18. Belize
46. DPR Korea
19. Benin 20. Bhutan
47. Democratic Republic of Congo
21. Bolivia
48. Denmark
22. Bosnia and Herzegovina
49. Djibouti
11. Azerbaijan 12. Bahamas 13. Bahrain 14. Bangladesh 15. Barbados 16. Belarus
23. Botswana 24. Brazil 25. Brunei Darussalam 26. Bulgaria 27. Burkina Faso
66. Ghana
74. Honduras 75. Hungary
50.Dominica 51. Dominican Republic 52. Ecuador 53. Egypt 54. El Salvador
28. Burundi
55. Equatorial Guinea
29. Cambodia
56. Eritrea
76. Iceland
98. Liechtenstein
99. Lithuania 92. Lao, People's Democratic Re- 100. Luxembourg public 101. Madagascar 93. Latvia 102. Malawi
192 member states
LETTER TO THE EDITOR No Need to Replicate the U.N. April 29, 2009 Barend Frielink, Makati, Philippines Over the years we have seen that the United Nations has strengths and weaknesses. But there is widespread recognition that the U.N. system is not suitable for today’s world. It thus seems strange for Mikhail Gorbachev (“What role for the G-20?,” Views, April 28) to suggest that the Group of 20 nations should closely associate itself with the United Nations. The G-20 is a flexible organization without a sluggish bureaucracy. It should not be burdened with an expanded scope and become a parallel mini-U.N. Let’s see how alternative international governance systems evolve naturally and learn from the U.N. system but not replicate it.
A
gathering at the United Nations headquarters on Tuesday will address topics familiar to the international body: child soldiers, terrorism, human rights and religious extremism. Attendees will represent several nations, and one abandoned planet: Caprica. The Sci Fi Channel series “Battlestar Galactica” will be the subject of a panel discussion involving the creators of the show, two of its stars, Mary McDonnell and Edward James Olmos, and representatives from the United Nations’ offices of the secretary general and high commissioner for human rights. How a television series about interstellar travel, ancient prophecies and genocidal robots came to join forces with a terrestrial intergovernmental body relates to the Sci Fi Channel’s philanthropic activities and the United Nations’ efforts to become more media savvy. The channel, a division of NBC Universal, has worked with the educational nonprofit group ThinkQuestNYC to bring 100 New York City high school students to the event and have them participate in the discussion. For the United Nations, the event represents the second effort of its Creative Community Outreach Initiative. Announced by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at last June’s Jackson Hole Film Festival, the initiative is the organization’s attempt to “establish partnerships with the entertainment industry to tell the U.N.’s story,” said Juan Carlos Brandt, a spokesman.
103. Malaysia
111. Micronesia
120. Netherlands
104. Maldives
112. Monaco
121. New Zealand
105. Mali
113. Mongolia
122. Nicaragua
106. Malta
114. Morocco
123. Nigeria
115. Mozambique
124. Niger
116. Myanmar
125. Norway
117. Namibia
126. Oman
118. Nauru
127. Pakistan
119. Nepal
128. Palau
107. Marshall Islands 108. Mauritania 109. Mauritius 110. Mexico
Its first undertaking was to allow a television crew to shoot at United Nations facilities this month for an episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” about child soldiers.
163. Sweden 164. Syrian Arab Republic
Representatives from the Sci Fi Channel approached the United Nations early this year. “They came to us and explained that there were themes common to both the show and the U.N.,” Mr. Brandt said, “and that those themes could be discussed here in a serious manner.” Whoopi Goldberg will moderate the discussions. Since it began in 2003, “Battlestar Galactica,” based on a TV series from the 1970s, has gained attention for its frank treatment of issues that seem to mirror ones on Earth: resistance fighters who use terrorism to battle an occupying army; interrogation techniques and the rights of prisoners of war; genocide; and weapons of mass destruction. Its final episode will be shown on Friday.
165. Tajikistan 166. Thailand 167. The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 168. Togo
Intergalactic Representatives at the U.N. by Sam Grobart March 15, 2009
“The show has been a sort of laboratory for the choices and issues real people in governments are making every day,” said Ms. McDonnell, who plays President Laura Roslin on the program. “I’ve had the chance to meet some of those people,” she added. “Many of them are big fans of the show.”
129. Panama
140. Russian Federation
130. Papua New Guinea
141. Rwanda
131. Paraguay
142. St Kitts and Nevis
132. Peru
143. St. Lucia
133. Philippines 134. Poland
144. St. Vincent and the Grenadines
135. Portugal
145. Samoa
136. Qatar
146. San Marino
137. Republic of Korea
147. Sao Tome and Principe
138. Republic of Moldova
148. Saudi Arabia
139. Romania
149. Senegal
169. Tonga 170. Trinidad and Tobago 171. Tunisia
179. United States of America 180. Uruguay
172. Turkey
181. Uzbekistan
150. Seychelles
173. Turkmenistan
151. Sierra Leone
174. Uganda
183. Venezuela
152. Singapore
175. Ukraine
184. Viet Nam
153. Slovakia
176. United Arab Emirates
185. Yemen
154. Slovenia 155. Solomon Islands 156. Somalia
182. Vanuatu
177. United Kingdom 178. United Republic of Tanzania
186. Yugoslavia 187. Zambia 188. Zimbabwe
157. South Africa 158. Spain 159. Sri Lanka 160. Sudan 161. Suriname 162. Swaziland
Rocket Launching United Nations Religion Shakespeare
Let's face it: most Americans wouldn't know a Millennium Development Goal, a Monterrey Consensus or a Doha round if all three jumped out and hit them in the head. But those phrases have life-or-death importance to more than two billion people around the world who survive on barely anything. And yesterday at the United Nations, President Bush used them in front of the world. To understand this good news, here's a quick primer. The Millennium Development Goals make up an ambitious agenda adopted by the United Nations in 2000. Chief among them is the goal of cutting global poverty in half by 2015. They also call for tackling problems like hunger, disease and women's inequality. The goals include vague wording about how poor nations need to adopt good governance, and how rich nations need to give them money. As this week's U.N. summit meeting approached, Mr. Bush's flame-throwing U.N. envoy, John Bolton, struck all mention of the Millennium Development Goals from the text of the agreement the world leaders are supposed to sign. After saner heads prevailed, some of that language was restored, although the agreement remains weak. Yesterday, Mr. Bush said it clearly: "We are committed to the Millennium Development Goals." Full stop.
T
he United Nations anti-racism conference moved from rancor to rapport on Tuesday, overcoming a conference-opening denunciation of Israel by Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to adopt a consensus resolution that governments applauded as an improved basis for action against racism and xenophobia. The adoption of the resolution by the committee that coordinates the conference ended months of negotiation that removed contentious clauses referring to Israel and Palestine and trying to make defamation of religion an offense against human rights. The conference will formally adopt the document here on Friday, but it is no longer open to debate or amendment, diplomats said.
That's important because America, the richest country on earth, is most able to help poor countries reach these goals. That brings us to the Monterrey Consensus, named for the city in Mexico. (Diplomats like to name things after the city where they decided to do something.) In 2002, many members of the group meeting in New York this week trooped down to Monterrey to figure out how they were going to pay for the Millennium Development Goals. The text they signed said, "We urge developed countries that have not done so to make concrete efforts toward the target of 0.7 percent of gross national product as O.D.A. [official development assistance] to developing countries." Since then, Britain, France and Germany have all announced how they plan to do that by 2015. The United States, which was rated the world's second-stingiest rich country (behind Italy) by a U.N. report this month, gives just 0.18 percent of its G.N.P. to poorer countries. And since Monterrey, Bush administration officials have taken pains to tell everyone that the United States didn't commit to the 0.7 percent goal. But it's right there in Paragraph 42 of the Monterrey Consensus. Yesterday, Mr. Bush said, "I call on all the world's nations to implement the Monterrey Consensus." Including, we hope, America. We end today's lesson with the Doha round, the trade negotiations begun in (you got it) Doha, Qatar, in 2002. That was just after Sept. 11, 2001, when America and Europe, trying to woo poor countries to join the war against terrorism, finally agreed to start negotiating an end to farm subsidies. Those subsidies hurt farmers in poor countries because they keep the price of products artificially low, giving poor countries little chance on the world market. Since then, no one has cut anything, and the negotiations have degenerated into the usual bickering between Europe and America. Meanwhile, the poor keep starving. Yesterday, Mr. Bush declared: "The United States is ready to eliminate all tariffs, subsidies and other barriers to free flow of goods and services as other nations do the same. This is key to overcoming poverty in the world's poorest nations." These were exactly the right words, and we applaud them. Now, let's get to it. The world is waiting.
EDITORIAL Hopeful Words: On Helping the Poor September 15, 2005
U.N. Millennium Development Goals
1. eradicate extreme poverty and hu 2. achieve universal primary educat 3. promote gender equality and emp 4. reduce child mortality 5. improve maternal health 6. combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and 7. ensure environmental sustainabi 8. develop a global partnership for d
“This is very good news indeed,” said Navi Pillay, the United Nations human rights commissioner, who hosted the conference. “It’s the culmination of months of deliberation.” The announcement sidelined the outcry over Mr. Ahmadinejad’s speech, in which he attacked Israel as a racist state. His remarks prompted the Czech Republic, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, to walk out of the conference, and they left United Nations officials and diplomats fearful that the fallout might derail conference proceedings. In fact, the United Nations said Tuesday that Mr. Ahmadinejad had softened his speech, dropping language that described the Holocaust as “ambiguous and dubious.” The United Nations and the Iranian Mission in Geneva did not comment on why the change was made.
Announcing the adoption of the resolution to warm applause from delegates, the conference president, Amos Wako, who is from Kenya said: “What we have decided shows the outcome when you remain engaged in the process. It shows that boycotts do not assist.” Micheline Calmy-Rey, the foreign minister of Switzerland, speaking shortly after Mr. Wako, said that it was “the right answer to the disinformation, the misinformation that had raged throughout the preparatory process.”
The conference statement was a significant improvement on the outcome of the conference in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, officials said. Ms. Pillay noted that implementing the 2001 plan had suffered setbacks because of increased migration, terrorism and measures used to fight it. The new resolution showed “the process is therefore evolving in a positive direction,” said Peter Gooderham, the British ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.
Western delegates expressed particular satisfaction that Iran had found no support in preconference negotiations for its attempt to eliminate references to the Holocaust from the resolution and had not forced conference proceedings to focus on the Arab-Israeli conflict.
In a statement, the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said the final statement marked a victory over “those tempted to use the Geneva conference to forward their ideas of hatred and intolerance.”
Israel faced further denunciations for its “racist” policies toward Palestinians and the occupied territories from Arab speakers, including Riyad al-Maliki, the foreign minister of the Palestinian Authority.
U.N. Anti-Racism Meeting Reaches Consensus by Nick Cumming Bruce April 21, 2009 WASHINGTON
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other diseases ility development.
Rocket Launching United Nations Religion Shakespeare
Passover’s Over, and Bagels Are Back Big by James Barron April 16, 2009
G
iasuddin Ahmed ran through the timetable. “The guys arrive at 4:30 a.m. to make the bagels,” he said. “At 5:30 a.m., the coffee. Open, 6 a.m.” Bagel bins were empty at 72nd Street Bagel during the holiday. He left out one step. Someone had to tear down the white paper that had been taped over the plateglass windows of the store he runs — and the signs that said the store, 72nd Street Bagel, on the West Side, would be closed for Passover. Mr. Ahmed and other bagel makers say that the first business day after the holiday ends — Friday — is typically one of their busiest days of the year as Jewish customers line up to observe the passing of at least eight days of yeast privation. Bagel makers spent Thursday contemplating the end of Passover. Some, like Mr. Ahmed, gave their ovens and mixing bowls the once-over after time off during the holiday, which started at sundown on April 8. His store follows kosher dietary rules and treats Passover as an eight-day holiday, as many observant Jews do. (Reform Jews typically celebrate Passover for seven days, said Rabbi Andy Bachman, the senior rabbi at Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, Brooklyn.) During Passover, many Jews avoid leavened products in commemoration of the exodus from Egypt, during which, according to Old Testament tradition, the Israelites had so little time to flee that the bread they were baking did not have time to rise, and came out of the ovens as matzo. That means eight bagel-free days, unless you make bagels with matzo meal (there are recipes on the Internet). People who have not had a bagel in eight days make the post-Passover time busy — as busy, Mr. Ahmed said, as Thanksgiving Day, when crowds watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade stream down Central Park West, a block from his shop. “Generally,” he said, “we do one and a half times” the normal business on the day after Passover
ends. Some bagel shops shut down for part of Passover. Ess-a-Bagel, with two stores on the East Side, closed for the first two days of the holiday, said Florence Wilpon, who started Ess-a-Bagel with her husband and her brother in 1976. For some Jews, a Thursday evening bagel would have been premature, she said. “People who observe Passover would not eat from flour made during Passover,” she said. “They’d eat bagels made with flour and dough mixed after sundown on Thursday.” Lenny’s Bagels, on Broadway at 98th Street, was open during Passover. But Benjamin Choi, the owner, said that business was down 20 percent during the eight-day holiday. He said he typically makes up for that as the holiday ends. How many more bagels would Lenny’s make for Thursday evening and Friday morning? “I don’t count,” Mr. Choi said. But he did the math. “On an average day, we sell 50 dozen,” he said. “Thursday night and Friday, it’s 70 dozen.” Terrace Bagels in Park Slope was planning no such increase, but could handle a sudden jump in demand if it materialized. “We bake as needed all day long,” said Anthony Thompson, the manager. “Do I expect to sell more?” he asked. “Yes. It’s hard to say with the economy the way it is. You think you’re going to do good, you do nothing. You think you’re going to do nothing, you’ve got a line of people out the door.” He said there had been “a slight drop” in sales during Passover. “But I put that more to people going away for vacation because school is out,” he said. Rabbi Bachman said he knows more people who are hungry for pizza or pasta, which are also off limits during Passover, than for bagels. “Maybe what that tells you is that what we’re slowly experiencing is the Americanization of Jewish eating proclivities,” Rabbi Bachman said. “People will go out for more American food than the classic Jewish ethnic food of the bagels. People rush to eat after the Yom Kippur fast, but most people I know don’t rush for a bagel. They go for a slice with some pasta.”
“Everyone has a God-shaped hole in their soul,” he continued. “We all try to fill it with something — drugs, alcohol, work, sex — until we stumble upon God. He’s the only thing that fills that hole. I was a lot like you until I surrendered my life to God. Why not try it? It can’t hurt. Look at where you are with you in control. Get yourself to church, Billy.” It sounded right. More importantly, it felt like a way out. If Will had said in the same confident tone, “You need crack cocaine. That’s what missing in your life,” it probably would have sounded good, too. I was desperate enough to try anything that would get rid of the pain that had enveloped me like quicksand. “I’ll go to church this Sunday,” I said numbly. “Just tell me where.” WILLIAM LOBDELL former religion writer for the Los Angeles Times, excerpt from his new book: Losing My Religion
S
ure it is. Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens think that this fact about religion is enough to invalidate its claims. “[R]eligion and the churches,” declares Hitchens “are manufactured, and this salient fact is too obvious to ignore.” True to his faith, Dawkins finds that the manufacturing and growth of religion is best described in evolutionary terms: “[R]eligions, like languages, evolve with sufficient randomness, from beginnings that are sufficiently arbitrary, to generate the bewildering – and sometimes dangerous – richness of diversity.” Harris finds a historical origin for religion and religious traditions, and it is not flattering: “The Bible, it seems certain, was the work of sand-strewn men and women who thought the earth was flat and for whom a wheelbarrow would have been a breathtaking example of emerging technology.” And, they continue, it wasn’t even the work of sand-strewn men who labored in the same place at the same time. Rather, it was pieced together from fragments and contradictory sources and then had claimed for it a spurious unity: “Ever since the nineteenth century, scholarly theologians have made an overwhelming case that the gospels are not reliable accounts of what happened in the history of the real world” (Dawkins). Hitchens adds that “the sciences of textual criticism, archaeology, physics, and molecular biology have shown religious myths to be false and manmade.” And yet, wonders Harris, “nearly 230 million Americans believe that a book showing neither unity of style nor internal consistency was authored by an omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent deity.” So there’s the triple-pronged case. Religions are humanly constructed traditions and at their center are corrupted texts that were cobbled together by provincial, ignorant men who knew less about the world than any high-school teenager alive today. Sounds devastating, but when you get right down to it, all it amounts to is the assertion that God didn’t write the books or establish the terms of worship, men did, and that the results are (to put it charitably) less than perfect.
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But that is exactly what you would expect. It is God (if there is one) who is perfect and infinite; men are finite and confined within historical perspectives. And any effort to apprehend him – including the efforts of the compilers of the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Koran – will necessarily fall short of a transparency that will be achieved (if it is achieved) only at a future moment of beatific vision. Now – any now, whether it be 2007 or 6,000 years ago – we see through a glass darkly (1 Corinthians, 13:12); one day, it is hoped, we shall see face to face. In short, it is the unfathomable and unbridgeable distance between deity and creature that assures the failure of the latter to comprehend or prove (in the sense of validating) the former. O.L. (in a comment on June 11), identifies the “religion is man-made claim” as the “strongest foundation of atheism” because “it undermines the divinity of god.” No, it undermines the divinity of man, which is, after all, the entire point of religion: man is not divine, but mortal (capable of death), and he is dependent upon a creator who by definition cannot be contained within human categories of perception and description. “How unsearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counselor” (Romans, 11:33-34). It is no wonder, then, that the attempts to contain him – in scriptures, in ceremonies, in prayer – are flawed, incomplete and forever inadequate. Rather than telling against divinity, the radical imperfection, even corruption, of religious texts and traditions can be read as a proof of divinity, or at least of the extent to which divinity exceeds human measure.
The criticism made by atheists that the existence of God cannot be demonstrated is no criticism at all; for a God whose existence could be demonstrated wouldn’t be a God; he would just be another object in the field of human vision. This does not mean that my arguments constitute a proof of the truth of religion; for if I were to claim that I would be making the atheists’ mistake from the other direction. Nor are they arguments in which I have a personal investment. Their purpose and function is simply to show how the atheists’ arguments miss their mark and, indeed, could not possibly hit it. At various points Harris, Dawkins and Hitchens all testify to their admiration for Shakespeare, who, they seem to think, is more godly than God. They would do well to remember one of the bard’s most famous lines, uttered by Hamlet: “There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
THINK AGAIN Is Religion Man-Made? by Stanley Fish June 24, 2007, 7:17 pm
If divinity, by definition, exceeds human measure, the demand that the existence of God be proven makes no sense because the machinery of proof, whatever it was, could not extend itself far enough to apprehend him. Proving the existence of God would be possible only if God were an item in his own field; that is, if he were the kind of object that could be brought into view by a very large telescope or an incredibly powerful microscope. God, however – again if there is a God – is not in the world; the world is in him; and therefore there is no perspective, however technologically sophisticated, from which he could be spied. As that which encompasses everything, he cannot be discerned by anything or anyone because there is no possibility of achieving the requisite distance from his presence that discerning him would require.
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Shakespeare for Presidents by Barry Edelstein, April 25, 2009
P
resident Obama’s conscious emulation of Lincoln is a matter of record, whether it is in announcing his candidacy in Lincoln’s hometown or taking the oath of office on Lincoln’s Bible. Given Mr. Obama’s particular fondness for Lincolnesque oratory, it’s surprising that he hasn’t adopted one of Lincoln’s favorite habits: quoting Shakespeare. Lincoln was a lifelong Bardolater and serial Shakespeare-quoter, as Mr. Obama noted in remarks at the recent reopening of Ford’s Theater. Lincoln regarded Shakespeare, whose 445th birthday was last week, as many things: an oracle to be consulted for wisdom; a pastor with whom to share confidences and from whom to seek comfort, a friend. He kept a “Complete Works” close at hand in the White House. Sitting for one official portrait, for instance, Lincoln fought the tedium with a spontaneous performance of the opening soliloquy from “Richard III,” along with running commentary on how most actors he’d seen play the role had botched it. He knew much of “Hamlet” by heart, and shared with one correspondent his still unorthodox view that the best speech by the villain Claudius, “the soliloquy commencing, ‘O, my offense is rank’ surpasses that commencing ‘To be or not to be.’ ” It was “Macbeth,” though, that seemed to haunt Lincoln. He quoted from it countless times, and the “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” soliloquy gripped his imagination with unusual power.
Late one night in the difficult summer of 1864, John Forney, secretary of the Senate and frequent White House guest, found Lincoln asleep at his desk, “ghastly pale, rings under his caverned eyes.” His Shakespeare lay open beside him. Lincoln started awake and immediately read aloud the remarkable speech, with its imagery of life as bad acting and human endeavor as the noisy and meaningless soundtrack accompanying our progress toward death. When he finished, Lincoln told a stunned Forney that Macbeth’s extreme nihilism and utter hopelessness “comes to me tonight like a consolation.” Lincoln wasn’t the only president fascinated by “Macbeth,” although few were as compelled by its bleakness. Ronald Reagan recited the entire “Tomorrow and tomorrow” speech from memory at a school event in Tennessee. He construed the lines as a caution against the morbid mindset Lincoln found in them, telling his young audience, “I hope that none of you ever get that pessimistic or that cynical about life.” Bill Clinton reeled off the same speech at a White House celebration of American poetry. He observed wryly that “Macbeth” was “hardly designed to entice me to a public career” but that through the play, “I learned about the dangers of blind ambition, the fleeting nature of fame, the ultimate emptiness of power disconnected from higher purpose.” John Adams and Thomas Jefferson revered Shakespeare so much that they made a pilgrimage together to his house in Stratfordupon-Avon in 1786 (Adams was moved; Jefferson complained about how expensive everything was). Adams’s son John Quincy Adams was a serious Shakespeare lover, too, and the only president to have published a volume of Shakespeare criticism. James Garfield read Shakespeare to his young children in the White House; Millard Fillmore read Shakespeare to factory workers in his native Buffalo — part of his effort to encourage working-class literacy. John F. Kennedy hosted the first Shakespearean performances in the executive mansion and claimed him as “an American writer.”
George W. Bush knew Shakespeare, too: he told an interviewer that on vacation in 2006 he had “read three Shakespeares,” but he didn’t disclose the titles. Mr. Obama seems primed to join the ranks of Bard-quoting presidents. Like his hero Lincoln, he prefers the heavier works: his Facebook profile lists “Shakespeare’s Tragedies” among his favorite books. He has yet to cite them in public. His closest brush was in his Inaugural Address, where his evocative phrase “this winter of our hardship” glanced at Shakespeare’s “winter of our discontent” from “Richard III.” The step from literary allusion to direct quotation is small, however, especially since there is no shortage of Shakespeare with which Mr. Obama might address the country’s challenges. For example: On the trouble in the Gulf of Aden, he could say this from “Antony and Cleopatra”: “I must / Rid all the sea of pirates.” He could quote from “Henry IV, Part I” on limiting Wall Street bonuses: “A little / More than a little is by much too much.” When he cashiers the next Fortune 500 C.E.O., some “Pericles” might come in handy: “We would purge the land of these drones, that rob the bee of her honey.” Deploying more troops into Afghanistan, he could offer the Joint Chiefs this advice from “Henry V”: “In cases of defense, ’tis best to weigh / The enemy more mighty than he seems.” Should he ever bump into Dick Cheney he might recall some “Henry VI, Part II”: “In your protectorship you did devise / Strange tortures for offenders never heard of.” Imagine this plea for Congress to put patriotism before partisanship, from “Henry VIII”: “Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s.” Or this response, from “The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” when a reporter asks the president if the economy is going to improve: “Ask my dog. If he say ay, it will. If he say no, it will. If he shake his tail and say nothing, it will.”
During his precious downtime, at Camp David, say, the president might tell his staff to hold all calls with this line from “Coriolanus”: “My wife comes foremost.”
TIP OF THE WEEK: The Complete Shakespeare Reader J.D. Biersdorfer
He could whisper a benediction from “The Winter’s Tale” as he tucks Sasha or Malia into bed: “You gods look down, / And from your sacred vials pour your graces / Upon my daughter’s head.”
April 23 is traditionally observed as William Shakespeare’s birthday (and day of death), which is an excellent excuse to get a little more of his drama into your life when you’re on the go. The Complete Shakespeare Reader, a free Windows program available at snipurl.com/g1e94, brings the text of the author’s 38 plays to the desktop — great for netbook reading.
“What we can do, we’ll do.”
"The course of true love never did run smooth” “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” "Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more" "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!" "Everyone can master a grief but he that has it" "Good Night, Good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow." "Out, damned spot! out, I say!"
"T’is neither here nor there."
Shakespeare’s plays, sonnets and poems are also free for iPhone and iPod Touch owners with the Shakespeare program, available in the Books section of the iTunes App Store. Palm, BlackBerry and other smartphone owners can get portable plays and poems for $6 at snipurl.com/g1fy5.
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And when it’s time to gear up for 2012, Mr. Obama could substitute some “Timon of Athens” for his celebrated rallying cry:
bard exam Think you know your Shakespeare? Show your high school tragedy teacher it wasn’t all a wash. Identify the play each famous Shakespeare quote is from. When you’re ready for the answers, just fold this page on the dotted line.
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T GLOBESPOTTERS Celebrating Shakespeare’s Birthday in Iambic Pentameter by Pam Kent April 15, 2009 LONDON
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Hamlet
Julius Caesar
King Lear
his year’s celebrations of Shakespeare’s birthday, on April 23, will have an extra dimension since it is also the 400th anniversary of the publication of his Sonnets. Events will take place in London, in and around Shakespeare’s Globe theater, and in the bard’s birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon, 120 miles northwest of London. Activities start in London on April 18 with Sonnet walks devised by Mark Rylance, who was the first artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe for 10 years from 1995. Twelve actors (including Mark Rylance) will serenade walkers at various locations along two walking routes to Shakespeare’s Globe that inspired Shakespeare’s life and work. One, that starts at Westminster Abbey, meanders past places of law and aristocracy such as the Inigo Jones banqueting house on Whitehall where King Lear was staged, and where King Charles I was later executed. The other starts at St. Leonard’s Church, where the Burbage family are buried, and passes close to the site of Shakespeare’s original theater in Shoreditch, where one of the sonnets will be performed. Walks leave every 15 minutes starting at 10 a.m. and 12.45 p.m. and must be booked in advance. On Sunday, April 19, Shakespeare’s Globe will host a day of free activities, including an attempt to break the record of the most people ever to recite one sonnet. Among the many activities planned for the day, visitors will be able to watch sword fighting or collect love notes inspired by “As You Like It.” In addition, people will be invited on stage to say their names and silly things about themselves in iambic pentameter. There will be opportunities to dress up in costumes and to have their fortunes told by the dark lady (a regular subject in Shakespeare’s sonnets). www.shakespeares-globe.org.
In Stratford-upon-Avon, The Royal Shakespeare Company has teamed up with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust for a series of events and commissions. Starting on April 23 and running all year, aspiring detectives can take part in “Sonnet Sleuth”. Devised by Nicole Blackman, a New York poet and performance artist, Sonnet Sleuth is a literary scavenger hunt whereby participants have to track down 14 clue sites around the town and discover clues hidden in the sonnets. On April 25 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. “Sonnets on the Ferry” will offer trips from the Royal Shakespeare Theater’s gardens across the river Avon to the accompaniment of actors reading from “The Sonnets and Other Poems.” www.rsc.org.uk/birthday. Running from April 23 through September 6 at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is “Shakespeare Found: A Life Portrait,” an exhibition devoted to the recent discovery of a new portrait of Shakespeare, the “Cobbe Portrait,” which is the centerpiece of the exhibition. Also on display is a newly commissioned piece, “Ode to a Dark Star,” by George Chakravarthi, a video installation responding to the newly discovered portrait that seeks to present the nature of reflections, mysteries, legitimacy, love, loss and ambiguous identities. www. shakespeare.org.uk
Much Ado About Nothing
Romeo and Juliet
Macbeth
Othello
“His face is open and alive, with a rosy, rather sweet expression, perhaps suggestive of modesty. There is nothing superior or haughty in the subject, which one might well expect to find in a face set off by such rich clothing. It is the face of a good listener, as well as of someone who exercised a natural restraint.” From a brochure for an exhibition opening in Stratford in April, titled “Shakespeare Found”