December 23, 2006
CHRISTMAS DAY 2006 is almost with us and our thoughts turn to the Birth of Jesus Christ and to Reverence for Mother and Child which is the common belief of all decent people. It being Christmas and because horrendous events in the Holy Land and the Middle East are so much in the fore of daily news reports, I have written a contemporary ANNOTATION of the Story of the Birth of Jesus as told in Matthew Chapter 2 of the beautiful King James version of the Holy Bible.
Because I am an agnostic humanist scientist concerned with excess mortality (excess death, avoidable death, avoidable mortality, deaths that should not have happened) my interspersed Annotations below are concerned with current acute mortality realities relating to the Matthew Chapter 2 story. In short, the King received Intelligence of a Threat to his Rule and was told by the Wise Men from the East that the Threat would be born in Bethlehem. After the Birth of the Holy Child, the Holy Family fled as Refugees to escape the horrendous Mass Infanticide ordered by the King, returning only when the King finally died, and, avoiding Judaea, go to reside in Nazareth in Galilee. Thus began the Life and Ministry of Jesus Christ whose Message of Love has inspired all People of Goodwill.
2:1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, 2:2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.
2:3 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
2:4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.
THREAT. The United States has about 4.7% of the population of the World but greedily consumes about 20% of its resources. Thus America uses about 60% of world oil production. Most of the currently exploited world’s oil is in Muslim countries and the US, inflamed by Racist Zionist (RZ) propaganda and driven by anti-Arab anti-Semitism and Islamophobia has been involved in both hot and cold wars almost from the Nile to the Indus. In 2006, the Bush War on Terror (in horrendous reality a war on Muslim Women and Children, or more generally a War on Asian Women and Children) continued to devastate Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan while threatening to expand into partially Israeli-occupied Syria and acutely threatening Iran with nuclear annihilation by US-Israeli State Terrorism (USIST). Of course the American-perceived Threat is one to Resources in general. As acutely seen by former World Bank president James Wolfensohn, China and India (former world economic leaders crippled by racist European violence and colonialism from the late 18th to the mid-20th century) are set to overtake the US and the G7 in the 21st century) .
2:5 And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, 2:6 And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.
2:7 Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.
2:8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.
LIES & EXCUSES. Just as the homicidal King Herod wanted to know where the Child would be born, so George Bush sought Intelligence and Excuses for War. After the 9/11 tragedy, Bush convinced America of the "official version" that the World Trade Center had been destroyed by "mad mullahs in caves", thereby confirming the utter gullibility of a society in which a big proportion of the population reject Darwinian evolution. Scholars for 9/11 Truth continue to present a far more plausible hypothesis that the WTC was destroyed by explosive demolition with the compelling implication – as asserted by top German and Russian Intelligence chiefs – that only a top National Intelligence operation could have been responsible for the atrocity (e.g. Intelligence associated with US-Israeli State Terrorism). Invasion and Occupation of Iraq required extensive lying about Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and we have now just been told by a top CIA official that Bush, Cheney, and Dr Rice (Dr Death) were actually told by CIA Director Tenet in Fall 2002 that Iraq had no WMD.
2:9 When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.
2:10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
2:11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh.
WORSHIP. Notwithstanding US-Israeli State Terrorism, the 9/11 Atrocity, the Bush War on Terror (a War on Mother and Child) and the horrendous abuse of Mother and Child in First World-dominated Spaceship Earth (16 million avoidable deaths each year of which about 10 million are under-5 year old infants, with this carnage largely occurring in the First World-dominated Third World), decent people worship the Truth and Beauty of Mother and Child. For my offerings, see 4 huge paintings I have created and which MWC News has published to spread a message of Peace, Love and Respect for Mother, Child and Woman: "Sydney Madonna": , "Manhattan Madonna": , "Qana": and "Truelove": .
2:12 And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.
2:13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.
2:14 When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: 2:15 And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.
REFUGEES. The Holy Family were the most celebrated Refugees. Their lot was that imposed by US-Israeli State Terrorism (USIST) on the refugee victims of the Palestine Genocide (0.7 million refugees in 1948; currently 6 million refugees, 4 million registered with the UN; 80,000 fleeing each year; 80% of the West Bank Christians have fled; 80% of the Christian Arabs of Bethlehem have fled); the Iraqi Genocide (2 million post-invasion refugees in neighbouring countries; the UN estimates that 100,000 are fleeing Occupied Iraq every month); the latest Israeli war on Lebanon (0.3 million homeless; much of Southern Lebanon made uninhabitable by hundreds of thousands of Israeli-delivered, US-made unexploded cluster bomb bomblets); and of the Afghan Genocide (3.7 million refugees in neighbouring countries).
2:16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.
2:17 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, 2:18 In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.
MASS INFANTICIDE. In October 2006 a top US medical epidemiology research group from a top department in a top US university (Johns Hopkins) published a peer-reviewed paper in the top medical journal The Lancet in which they estimated 655,000 (0.7 million) post-invasion excess deaths in Occupied Iraq. This estimate was in good agreement with 3 other estimates from 3 other data sets yielding post-invasion excess death estimates in the range 0.6 million to 0.8 million (see MWC News ). If one uses the UN-derived "annual death rate" figures for Iraq's impoverished but peaceful neighbours Syria and Jordan as a baseline, the post-invasion excess deaths in Occupied Iraq total 0.9 million. Using this latter figure for Iraq and a UN-derived estimate for Afghanistan, the post-invasion excess deaths in Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan total 0.9 million and 2.1 million, respectively – a total of 3.0 million deaths, 1,000 (one thousand) times the number of people murdered on 9/11. These estimates are consonant with independent UN data on post-invasion under-5 infant deaths, currently 0.4 million and 1.7 million, respectively, for Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan (see MWC News). Even in America itself, it is estimated that the warped war priorities of the evil Bush Administration have been responsible for 0.1 million avoidable under-5 year old American infant deaths over the last 5 years (see: MWC News).
2:19 But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 2:20 Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child's life.
2:21 And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel.
2:22 But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee: 2:23 And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.
RESURRECTION & RENEWAL. Just as Jesus survived Herod’s Massacre of the Innocents and went on to mature and teach his Message of Love, so we can Hope this Christmas that decent Americans will build on the recent mid-term election results and eventually re-take their great country from the evil, homicidal, pedocidal, anti-Christ, anti-Woman, anti-Child hands of the Racist Religious Right Republican (R4) Bush-ites – and that the World will shrug off the mass infanticidal, mass murdering, war criminal Bush-Blair nightmare that has been the horrible beginning of the 21st century. Spaceship Earth is acutely threatened by anthropogenic global warming. Peace, equity, non-racism and sensible, humane, universalist hands at the helm will hopefully guide a genuinely democratic Spaceship Earth into a peaceful zone of rational risk management, constraint and biological sustainability.
