WildOx Blog

The Blog of John K. Baw - Gibraltar

The Economist on Europe's P.I.G.S.: "They’re bust. Admit it."

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The Economist has a sobering article:  They’re bust. Admit it.

It seems that everyone knows what the politicians dare not mention - that Europe's peripheral economies Portugal, Ireland, Greece (Spain?) are effectively bankrupt. Yes sir-eeee: falido, fallito, πτώχευση, en quiebra.  Their costs of managing debt are spiralling out of control.

Someone should now tell Angela Merkel to mention the unmentionable:  "Europa ist pleite"

It was always doomed to failure - a monetary union that did not have a political union would always mean that the sensible and prudent economies would be at the mercy of their profligate neighbours.  Now Europe's weakest links are haunting the core states.

Why hide under false illusions and spin.  The truth. Always the truth.  Truth is good.  The truth will make us free.  Only then can we face up to the problems, make the tough choices and decisions, and start to address the real issues.  No more pronunciations please.  No more statements.  Truth, and action.

The faith of President Obama

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At the National Prayer Breakfast President Obama spoke from a somewhat personal perspective on his faith and what his Christian beliefs mean to him:

“My Christian faith has been sustaining for me over the last couple of years and even more so when Michelle and I hear our faith questioned from time to time,” the president said Thursday, referring to his wife. “We are reminded that ultimately what matters is not what other people say about us but that we are true to our conscience and true to our God.”


“When I wake in the morning, I wait on the Lord, I ask him to give me the strength to do right by our country and our people,” Obama said later. “And when I go to bed at night, I wait on the Lord and I ask him to forgive me my sins and to look after my family and to make me an instrument of the Lord.”


As a non-American I wonder at the candid public conversation about faith that is possible in the USA but totally unheard of in Europe (For now).  This is a little odd for me - Brits. and Europeans are not accustomed to hearing their leaders “do God” in public.

I guess people should stop speaking words of condemnation over the man, and start praying for him, and blessing him, and speaking words of life over him - that he would be endued with wisdom and strength to discharge his duties with integrity and to he very best of his ability during these challenging times.

And, by the way, stop saying that the President is a Muslim.  He is not.

Christians protect Muslims while they pray during protests in Egypt

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From Reddit.  An unusual headline that struck me.  Egyptian Christians have been making human chains around their muslim neighbours and friends, whilst these prayed, in order to protect them in the riots and disturbances.  This can make for some awesome conversation, and will no doubt stimulate all sorts of comments on all ends of the spectrum.  My slant on this?....... We do not fully understand the full implications of honour, and the life that will result if we are able to kill a few sacred cows of religious bigotry.

Feel free to give me your thoughts on this.

Burn a Quran day? - My view as an evangelical pastor

OK I have to speak out on this issue of burning the Quran on 9/11.  Terry Jones, pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center, a small, evangelical church in Gainesville, Fla., has stirred-up controversy by declaring that he intends to burn Islam's scriptures on September 11th.  As an Evangelical minister I feel outraged that another evangelical would even contemplate doing such a thing!  Nowhere in the teachings of Christianity does such an act find even a remote hint of validity. 
How in the world does he go from the quintessential teaching of Jesus "love your neighbours" (As I believe we are to see the Muslim world - as out neighbours) to "[the burning of the Quran is] a message that we feel we need to send." ?  If Jesus even advocated loving our enemies, how much more should the Muslim world perceive that we love our neighbours?
Pastor Jones, In doing such an act of provocation, you are definitely being very "anti-Christ".  Shame on you!

Nothing short of outrageous

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I wrote the following letter to the Gibraltar Chronicle after they published a story that a man who was caught in Gibraltar distributing thousands of the most extreme images of child pronography was sentenced to only 18 months in prison, due to a "glaring gap in Gibraltar law" (!) :

Dear Sir,

NOTHING SHORT OF OUTRAGEOUS

It is nothing short of outrageous that in a society like ours a man convicted of a gross crime against the weakest of all should be sentenced to only 18 months in prison.

I am not well read in the intricacies of law, but common sense surely dictates that aiding and abetting a crime must carry the same degree of guilt as the crime itself. So for example, if I purchase and supply the gun that is subsequently used to commit murder, I must be as guilty as the person who pressed the trigger.

Most readers will agree that this man has been an accomplice to the kidnapping, prostitution, physical and sexual abuse of minors, and the human trafficking otherwise known as the sex slave trade. He must be as guilty as the perpetrators of these crimes. For this catalogue of offences, Mr. Klinkiewicz will spend 18 months behind bars.

In sentencing, Mr. Justice Dudley said that "unfortunately" it was not an offence to process these images in Gibraltar. I would not call this unfortunate, I would call it scandalous. That our judges do not already have the tools in place to deal decisively with these heinous crimes constitutes negligence at best. At worst it sends a signal that we are soft on a perversion of the darkest genre, and we send out an open invitation for the breeding, cultivation and perpetuation of this deviant exploitation of minors. Somebody, it seems, has been asleep at the switch. The legislation in question must be fast-tracked into law now.

I also propose, that after this man has enjoyed the comfort of Her Majesty's hospitality for 18 months Government buy him a one-way ticket to a dubious destination far away from our shores.

Yours faithfully,

John K. Baw.