In a speech to Latin American and Caribbean bishops at the end of a visit to Brazil, the Pope said the Church had not imposed itself on the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
They had welcomed the arrival of European priests at the time of the conquest as they were "silently longing" for Christianity, he said.
Millions of tribal Indians are believed to have died as a result of European colonization backed by the Church since Columbus landed in the Americas in 1492, through slaughter, disease or enslavement.
Many Indians today struggle for survival, stripped of their traditional ways of life and excluded from society.
Reuters, May 14, 2007 -- Brazil's Indians Offended By Pope Comments.
RAFTERMAN
You know what really pisses me off about these people?
JOKER
What?
RAFTERMAN
We're supposed to be helping them and they shit all over us every chance they get....I just can't feature that.
JOKER
Don't take it too hard, Rafterman. It's just business.
....
JOKER
A bro in Intelligence says Charlie might try to pull off something big during the Tet holiday.
LOCKHART
They say the same thing every year.
JOKER
There's a lot of talk about it, sir.
LOCKHART
I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. The Tet holiday's like the Fourth of July, Christmas and New Year all rolled into one. Every zipperhead in Nam, North and South, will be banging gongs, barking at the moon and visiting his dead relatives.
....
COLONEL
Son, all I've ever asked of my marines is that they obey my orders as they would the word of God. We are here to help the Vietnamese, because inside every gook there is an American trying to get out.
-- Full Metal Jacket.
Of course, an Iraq analogy might be more appropriate, but it's all part of the same mindset, obviously.
2 comments:
I'm reminded of this:
“American nationalism in its purest form thinks of the world as populated by frustrated or potential Americans.” – Loren Baritz
Rip:
Never heard that one before, but it pretty much sums it up. I think it's about the only way a putatively modern democratic state can rationalize its sordid misdeeds of imperial overreach.
And to the extent that it might even be true in some places for some people, it's obviously not for us to determine, but for them. Hardcore nationalists don't seem to know or care that the guy who reaches the "democracy-whiskey-sexy" conclusion on his own is a much better friend than the guy who has it imposed on him "for his own good".
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