RICHARD DAWKINS COMENTA E ENRIQUECE
O PROGRAMA DA TONY BLAIR FOUNDATION

(que, diga-se de passagem,
bem podia apoiar a candidata Laurinda)

(Blair says) "We are focusing on five main projects initially, working with partners in the six main faiths"

(Dawkins answers) Yes I know, I know, it’s a pity we had to limit ourselves to six. But we do have boundless respect for other faiths, all of which, in their colourful variety, enrich human lives. In a very real sense, we have much to learn from Zoroastrianism and Jainism. And from Mormonism, though Cherie says we need to go easy on the polygamy and the sacred underpants!! Then again, we mustn’t forget the ancient and rich Olympian and Norse traditions – although our modern blue-skies thinking out of the box has pushed the envelope on shock-and-awe tactics, and put Zeus’s thunderbolts and Thor’s hammer in the shade!!! We hope, in Phase 2 of our Five-Year Plan, to embrace Scientology and Druidic Mistletoe Worship, which, in a very real sense, have something to teach us all. In Phase 3, our firm commitment to Diversity will lead us to source new networking partnership opportunities with the many hundreds of African tribal religions. Sacrificing goats may present problems with the RSPCA, but we hope to persuade them to adjust their priorities to take proper account of religious sensibilities. (...)

(Blair says) "Children of one faith and culture will have the chance to interact with children of another, getting a real sense of each other’s lived experience"

(Dawkins answers) Cool! And, thanks to Tony’s policy of putting as many children as possible in faith schools where they can’t befriend kids from other backgrounds, the need for this interaction and mutual understanding has never been so strong. You see how it all hangs together? Sheer genius! So strongly do we support the principle that children should be sent to schools which will identify them with their parents’ beliefs, that we think there is a real opportunity here to broaden it out. In Phase 2, we look to facilitate separate schools for Postmodernist children, Leavisite children and Saussurian Structuralist children. And in Phase 3 we shall roll out yet more separate schools, for Keynesian children, Monetarist children and even neo-Marxist children. (texto integral aqui)

(2009)

EM NOME DA "MAIS VELHA ALIANÇA", DEPOIS DE

 SÃO NUNINHO, É FAZER CLAQUE POR SÃO TONI

Em directo do National Prayer Breakfast, em Washington, um guia de leitura do discurso de São Toni

Onde Tony Blair, olhando em plano picado sobre Jerusalém, consegue fazer a remix de meia dúzia das mais célebres ficções históricas, sem se rir:

"I spend much of my time in the Holy Land and in the Holy City. The other evening I climbed to the top of Notre Dame in Jerusalem. You look left and see the Garden of Gethsemane. You look right and see where the Last Supper was held. Straight ahead lies Golgotha. In the distance is where King David was crowned and still further where Abraham was laid to rest. And of course in the centre of Jerusalem is the Al Aqsa Mosque, where according to the Qur'an, the Prophet was transported to commune with the prophets of the past".

Ou "tirem-me o Dawkins da frente que um gajo já nem de autocarro pode andar em Londres descansado":

"Religious faith is assailed by an increasingly aggressive secularism, which derides faith as contrary to reason and defines faith by conflict. Thus do the extreme believers and the aggressive non-believers come together in unholy alliance".

Santa Cherie, a outra metade da Divina Sizígia

Para o que um pai ateu está guardado ou há profes que nunca é demais manter debaixo de olho:

"I remember my first spiritual awakening. I was ten years old. That day my father - at the young age of 40 - had suffered a serious stroke. His life hung in the balance. My mother, to keep some sense of normality in the crisis, sent me to school. My teacher knelt and prayed with me. Now my father was a militant atheist. Before we prayed, I thought I should confess this. 'I'm afraid my father doesn't believe in God'. I said. 'That doesn't matter' my teacher replied 'God believes in him. He loves him without demanding or needing love in return'".

...por outro lado, há "civil servants" que valem muito mais que o seu peso em platina:

"I recall giving an address to the country at a time of crisis. I wanted to end my words with 'God bless the British people'. This caused complete consternation. Emergency meetings were convened. The system was aghast. Finally, as I sat trying to defend my words, a senior civil servant said, with utter distain: 'Really, Prime Minister, this is not America you know'".

São Toni preenche o impresso de candidatura à beatificação mas sonhando, lá no fundo, com a canonização:

"I believe restoring religious faith to its rightful place, as the guide to our world and its future, is itself of the essence. The 21st Century will be poorer in spirit, meaner in ambition, less disciplined in conscience, if it is not under the guardianship of faith in God".

Um caso típico de "fala por ti" (porém, na circunstância, verdade, verdadinha):

"'Fear of God' means really obedience to God; humility before God; acceptance through God that there is something bigger, better and more important than you".

Tradução do inglês técnico - "naquele dia da cimeira dos Açores, eu tinha comido qualquer coisa que me caíu mal, foi isso":

"When I was Prime Minister I had cause often to reflect on leadership. Courage in leadership is not simply about having the nerve to take difficult decisions or even in doing the right thing since oftentimes God alone knows what the right thing is. (...) And it is in that 'not knowing' that the courage lies".

(2009)