“Exorcisms” on the Rise in the Catholic Church
Newsmax reported on April 13:
“A new report says Pope Francis is playing a role in an increased number of exorcisms being performed worldwide. According to The Telegraph, Francis’ repeated references to the devil have spurred a rebirth of the practice that removes demons from people’s souls through intense prayer. The Vatican has also endorsed an exorcism conference taking place in Rome this week, which is hosting about 160 Catholic priests, according to The Telegraph…
“Pope Francis, whose papacy began two years ago, has made a habit of referencing the devil in his remarks. He linked Satan to Mexico’s drug problems over the winter, and has said in the past that the devil is trying to destroy the family… ‘Pope Francis talks about the devil all the time, and that has certainly raised awareness about exorcisms,’… Cesare Truqui, a Mexican priest trained as an exorcist, told The Telegraph. ‘But all Latin Americans have this sensibility — for them, the existence of the devil is part of their faith.’…
“‘Until a few years ago, a significant number of people in the church didn’t believe in the devil, but people are now going back to the Scriptures,’ an unnamed British exorcist priest told The Telegraph… ‘A few years ago, at least half the dioceses in England and Wales did not have an exorcist. Now, pretty much all of them do.’
“Truqui told the British paper that one-third of telephone calls made to the Diocese of Rome are related to exorcisms. Two years ago, after Francis became Pope, he was suspected of performing an exorcism in the middle of St. Peter’s Square after saying Sunday Mass. He placed his hands on a young boy’s head and said a prayer, to which the boy responded by heaving deeply several times and shaking before slumping back into his wheelchair. The Vatican, however, played down the incident, saying Francis simply said a prayer for a boy ‘who was suffering.’”
Satanic activities will drastically increase in the years to come. However, the Catholic practice of “exorcisms” will not really cast out a demon… even though it might appear to be the case. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Angels, Demons and the Spirit World.”
Pope Francis Angers Turkey
AFP wrote on April 12:
“Pope Francis uttered the word ‘genocide’ on Sunday to describe the mass murder of Armenians 100 years ago… In a solemn mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica to mark the centenary of the Ottoman killings of Armenians, Francis said the murders were ‘widely considered “the first genocide of the 20th century”’, quoting a statement signed by Pope John Paul II and the Armenian patriarch in 2001.
“Many historians describe the World War I slaughter as the 20th century’s first genocide, but Turkey hotly denies the accusations. ‘The pope’s statement, which is far from the legal and historical reality, cannot be accepted,’ Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Twitter. ‘Religious authorities are not the places to incite resentment and hatred with baseless allegations,’ he added.
“The foreign ministry summoned the Vatican envoy to Ankara to explain the pope’s comments. It accused the pontiff of engaging in a ‘one-sided narrative’ that ignored the suffering of Muslims and other religious groups at that time… ‘It was a very courageous act to repeat clearly that it was a genocide,’ Vatican expert Marco Tosatti told AFP. ‘By quoting John Paul II, he strengthened the Church’s position, making it clear where it stands on the issue,’ he added…
“The 78-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church had been under pressure to use the term “genocide” publicly to describe the slaughter, despite the risk of alienating an important ally in the fight against radical Islam…
“Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were killed between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart, and have long sought to win international recognition of the massacres as genocide. But Turkey rejects the claims, arguing that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.
“More than 20 nations, including France and Russia, recognise the killings as genocide…
“When Francis visited Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered the pontiff a pact under which he would defend Christians in the Middle East in exchange for the Church tackling Islamophobia in the West…
“Francis said the other two genocides of the 20th century were ‘perpetrated by Nazism and Stalinism’, before pointing to more recent mass killings in Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi and Bosnia. ‘It seems that humanity is incapable of putting a halt to the shedding of innocent blood,’ he said… He referred once again to the modern day as ‘a time of war, a third world war which is being fought piecemeal’, and evoked the ‘muffled and forgotten cry’ of those ‘decapitated, crucified, burned alive, or forced to leave their homeland.’”
As Jesus Christ foretold, we will experience more and more wars, until a coming nuclear World War will endanger the very survival of mankind. Insofar as Turkey is concerned, the Bible tells us that it will collaborate with Europe against Israel, but there is no reason to think that Turkey – a Muslim country — will ever become a recognized part of a United States of Europe under the leadership of the “beast” and the “false prophet.”
The Iran Deal—Would America Become Indirectly Responsible for Mass Murders?
Newsmax reported on April 10:
“Iran’s top officials, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani, are saying economic sanctions must end immediately and that UN inspectors will not be granted unfettered access to military installations and nuclear construction sites.
“But this may be nothing more than Iranian domestic political spin. And as long as there’s a potential deal, a critical point needs to be made: There is no provision for, or even discussion of, putting political restraints on Iran. That is, there is nothing in this deal that would force Iran to change its terrorist ways. Iran will continue to be the number-one state sponsor of terrorism in the Middle East, no matter what the deal.
“How can this be?
“Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Henry Kissinger and George P. Shultz make a crucial point: ‘Absent the linkage between nuclear and political restraint, America’s traditional allies will conclude that the U.S. has traded temporary nuclear cooperation for acquiescence to Iranian hegemony.’…
“Iran will continue to sponsor its terrorist proxies, like Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, keep proxy troops in Syria, continue its efforts to take over Iraq, further its designs on Yemen, and confront Sunni Saudi Arabia… Kissinger and Shultz write, ‘Iranian or Iranian client forces are now the pre-eminent military or political element in multiple Arab countries . . . With the recent addition of Yemen as a battlefield, Tehran occupies positions along all of the Middle East’s strategic waterways and encircles archrival Saudi Arabia, an American ally’…
“Make no mistake, the nanosecond sanctions are lifted U.S. and Western investment will pour into Iran. Looser financial sanctions will put an estimated $50 billion into Iran’s economy. And a number of European oil companies will jump to develop the world’s fourth-largest proven oil reserve and second-biggest national-gas reserve. Italy’s Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, France’s Total, Norway’s Statoil, German’s Siemens, and French car companies Peugeot and Citroën are ready to move. It’s reported that Boeing is looking to do business in Iran. HP and Google have been exploring contracts and licenses in Iran. Other major U.S. and European Internet companies have been approached by Iranian officials. And financial-service and credit card companies will move in quickly…
“Iran is our enemy, whether the president believes it or not. And if we cut deals that allow Iran to continue its terrorist and hegemonic activities, the Obama administration will have created an unbelievable Middle East powder keg, setting the stage for a conflict that could possibly dwarf any we’ve seen before. This is the worst U.S. foreign policy of my lifetime. It may be the worst in American history.”
Sadly, it looks this way.
Under the Deal, America Would Become Isolated!
On April 9, the Washington Post published the following article by Charles Krautheimer:
“As Kissinger and Shultz point out, we will be fought every step of the way, leaving the United States, not Iran, isolated. Obama imagines that this deal will bring Iran in from the cold, tempering its territorial ambitions and ideological radicalism. But this defies logic: With sanctions lifted, its economy booming and tens of billions injected into its treasury, why would Iran curb rather than expand its relentless drive for regional dominance?
“An overriding objective of these negotiations, as Obama has said, is to prevent the inevitable proliferation — Egypt, Turkey, the Gulf states — that would occur if Iran went nuclear. Yet the prospective agreement is so clearly a pathway to an Iranian bomb that the Saudis are signaling that the deal itself would impel them to go nuclear.
“You set out to prevent proliferation and you trigger it. You set out to prevent an Iranian nuclear capability and you legitimize it. You set out to constrain the world’s greatest exporter of terror threatening every one of our allies in the Middle East and you’re on the verge of making it the region’s economic and military hegemon.”
Another Sickening Compromise on the Iran “Deal”
Deutsche Welle reported on April 14:
“Senators from both sides of the aisle have compromised over a bill allowing congressional review of any final nuclear deal with Iran. The measure calls for the lifting of sanctions only with legislative approval.
“In a show of bipartisanship over what has been a hotly contested issue in Washington, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a measure Tuesday that struck a compromise between Congress’ wish to be involved in a final nuclear deal with Iran and the White House’s concern that such a deal be completed by June.
“The Senate panel unanimously approved the measure with a vote of 19-0. The Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 allows Congress to review the deal before any US sanctions against Iran are lifted, to be followed by a 12-day period for a possible presidential veto and a 10-day window for an attempt to override such a veto.
“President Obama withdrew his objection to the bill after language was removed obligating him to prove that Tehran was not engaging in terrorism. Another controversial amendment was removed by its author Marco Rubio… The amendment would have required Iran to recognize Israel’s right to exist.”
These compromises are sickening… with NO politician willing to stand up for their alleged convictions…
Russia Gives Green Light for Sending Missiles to Iran
Bloomberg News reported on April 13:
“President Vladimir Putin lifted a ban on the delivery of S-300 air-defense missile systems to Iran as Russia pushed for repeal of an arms embargo following an agreement on the Islamic republic’s nuclear program. Putin repealed its 2010 prohibition on S-300 exports to Iran… While the two countries had signed an $800 million contract for the systems in 2007, Russia halted delivery after the United Nations imposed an arms embargo three years later.
“The S-300 is a ‘purely defensive’ weapon and delivering it to Iran won’t ‘threaten the security of any state in the region, including, of course, Israel,’ Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday… Russia ‘will promptly carry out the order of the president’ and send the S-300 systems to Iran ‘if a political decision is taken’ to deliver them…”
Russia and Iran are in fact prophesied to collaborate against other nations, including militarily. For more information, please read our free booklets on “Biblical Prophecy… From Now Until Forever,” and “Middle Eastern Nations and African Nations in Prophecy.”
“Putin Warship and Nuclear Bombers Menace the UK”
The Daily Mail wrote on April 15:
“A Russian warship and two bombers strayed close to UK territory yesterday in yet another apparent attempt to test Britain’s defences. A destroyer equipped with missiles, anti-aircraft guns and torpedoes entered the English Channel along with two other Russian ships. It forced the UK to send a heavily-armed frigate to monitor the vessels.
“Just a few hours later, two Russian long-range Bear bombers, capable of carrying nuclear missiles, hugged British airspace – prompting the RAF to deploy two Typhoon fighter jets. Sources claim both incidents may have been an attempt to ‘snoop’ on a huge Nato war games exercise taking place in Scotland…”
The Shaky “Cease-Fire”-Agreement Between Russia and Ukraine
The Local wrote on April 14:
“The French, German, Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers expressed ‘grave concern’ Tuesday at a meeting in Berlin about violations of a shaky ceasefire in separatist-held east Ukraine… Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier admitted the five-hour-long talks had been ‘very long, very intensive and at times very contentious’ given the tense situation on the ground…
“European OSCE monitors reported ‘renewed intensive fighting’ Sunday around the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.. The results of the talks in Berlin will be discussed at a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in the northern German city of Lübeck on Tuesday and Wednesday. Russia will once again not participate. It has been closed out of the group of the world’s largest economies since the annexation of the Crimea in March last year.
“US Secretary of State John Kerry will arrive on Wednesday after attending a US Congress hearing on the nuclear deal with Iran on Tuesday. The discussions will lay down the groundwork for the main G7 summit to be held on June 7th and 8th at the Elmau Palace in Bavaria. The two meetings take place during Germany’s year-long chairmanship of the group.
“Other themes up for discussion will be the nuclear deal with Iran, the conflict with Isis in Syria and Iraq, and improving defence mechanisms against the Ebola virus…”
The controversy between Europe and Russia over Ukraine is bound to continue. Germany, as the current leader of the G7 countries, will have further opportunity to flex its muscles.
The Gap Widens Between Russia and the EU
Der Spiegel Online wrote on April 14:
“… the Russian president is preparing his country for May 9, which marks the anniversary of the end of the war with Hitler’s Germany. It is ‘our country’s most important and most honest holiday,’ Putin said in Staraya Russa. ‘It is the day of the great victory.’
“The end of the war will be commemorated in Russia for the 70th time this year. Since it was declared an official holiday in 1965, May 9, with its spontaneous gatherings of veterans in the streets, public festivals and gun salutes in the evening, has in fact become Russia’s most moving holiday — and perhaps the only one that has truly united the people…
“May 9, 2015 shows that… the war still hasn’t ended for Russia. It demonstrates that the country’s leadership needs the memory of that war more than ever… The parade in Moscow on the morning of May 9 is intended to set an example. It will be the biggest military parade ever held. Some 15,000 soldiers will march across Red Square, 4,000 more than at the last major anniversary. Two hundred tanks, artillery and missiles will roll past the Kremlin, and 140 fighter jets will crowd the skies over Moscow. Weapons will be displayed that ‘will astonish the entire world,’ wrote the tabloid newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda…
“The Kremlin had invited 68 leaders of foreign countries to the victory celebration, including the most important politicians in the Western world. So far, only 25 have accepted Moscow’s invitation. US President Barack Obama will not be attending, nor will British Prime Minister David Cameron or French President François Hollande. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be there, but only on May 10, the day after the parade. TV images from Moscow will illustrate how isolated Russia has become as a result of its policy on Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea…
“Senior representatives of only three European Union countries — the Czech Republic, Greece and Cyprus — are so far planning to attend the ceremonies… Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras also won praise from Russia during his mid-week visit to Moscow, when he paid tribute to the two countries’ joint struggle against Nazism and promised to return in one month to attend the parade on May 9… Former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, now the president of the European Council and therefore spokesman of the European heads of state and government, had declared weeks ago why we would not attend the Moscow parade on May 9. ‘A presence at the military parade, hand-in-hand with today’s aggressors and a person using weapons against civilians in eastern Ukraine? For me, delicately speaking, it’s too ambiguous,’ Tusk said…
“The controversy over the Moscow victory celebration on May 9 illustrates how far Russia has distanced itself from the Europeans, and just how wide the gap between the two sides has grown…
“Many Russians say that Vladimir Putin has repurposed it into a day that celebrates war itself and, most of all, Russia’s strength. For them, it is no longer a day of tears and commemoration…”
Germany Wants to Supply Lithuania Weapons Against Russia
The Local wrote on April 15:
“Germany said Wednesday it wants to sell howitzer-type mobile artillery vehicles to Lithuania as the Baltic NATO nation boosts its defences amid concerns over neighbouring Russia… German media reported the hardware was used by Berlin in Afghanistan and is now worth €15 million… the Baltic state [is] also mulling whether to buy German Boxer-type armoured fighting vehicles.
“Under Moscow’s thumb until 1991, Lithuania along with fellow Baltic states Estonia and Latvia launched a concerted drive to boost defences since Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine last year. NATO members since 2004, the three Baltic states have repeatedly asked allies to step up their presence to deter Russia.
“Berlin will send over 500 troops to Lithuania for military exercises this year. NATO is also reinforcing its defences on Europe’s eastern flank with a rapid reaction force of 5,000 troops and command centres in six formerly communist members of the alliance, including the three Baltic states.”
GOP Slams Obama Over Cuba Decision
Newsmax reported on April 15:
“Republicans slammed President Barack Obama’s decision Tuesday to remove Cuba from the State Department’s list of terrorism sponsors, with Florida Rep. Illeana Ros-Lehtinen accusing the White House of acting ‘only for political reasons and not in accordance with the law.’…
“House Speaker John Boehner said he was ‘disappointed’ by the decision, adding that Obama’s ‘cozying up to the oppressive regime in Cuba is a blow to all who long for liberty and dignity. It’s just one more example of this administration focusing more on befriending our enemies than helping our allies,’ he said…
“The move came three days after Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro met informally during a regional summit in Panama. The talks marked the first official meeting between the leaders of their countries in more than a half-century…
“Removing Cuba from the terror list could pave the way for the opening of a U.S. Embassy in Havana and other steps. The countries still on the list are Iran, Sudan and Syria…
“Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida also slammed Obama’s decision. ‘Cuba is a state sponsor of terrorism,’ he said in a video message. ‘They harbor fugitives of American justice. It’s also the country that’s helping North Korea evade sanctions by the United Nations…’
“Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who also is considering a presidential run, said after a speech of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce that ‘we’re not a step closer to freedom in Cuba because of the steps the president is taking’…
“And another possible 2016 contender, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, cited the decision as ‘yet (another) example of President Obama viewing the world through rose-colored glasses’…”
ISIS in Mexico and the USA?
Newsmax reported on April 14:
“The Islamic State (ISIS) is operating a camp in northern Mexico just a few miles from El Paso, Texas, Judicial Watch said Tuesday, citing sources that include a Mexican Army field grade officer and a Mexican Federal Police inspector. Judicial Watch sources said that ‘coyotes’ working for the notorious Juarez Cartel are involved in helping to ‘move ISIS terrorists through the desert and across the border between Santa Teresa and Sunset Park, New Mexico.’
“Moreover, east of El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, cartel-backed coyotes are smuggling members of the jihadi terrorist group ‘through the porous border between Acala and Fort Hancock, Texas,’ Judicial Watch reported…
“The watchdog group’s sources say the precise location where ISIS has established the base is approximately eight miles from the U.S. border in an area known as ‘Anapra,’ located just west of Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.
“Another ISIS cell is said to be located in Puerto Palomas, located to the west of Ciudad Juárez. That cell ‘targets the New Mexico towns of Columbus and Deming for easy access to the United States,’ Judicial Watch’s Mexican sources say…
“Judicial Watch — which has been successful in prying loose substantial amounts of information on an array of Obama administration-linked scandals, including the ‘Fast and Furious’ gun-walking case — told Newsmax that four ISIS members had in fact been apprehended after crossing into the United States.”
The media also reported on ISIS’s recent surprise attacks and victories in Iraq.
The UK and the EU
Express wrote on April 15:
“In news that is likely to bolster calls for the UK’s complete withdrawal from the EU, the president of the European Commission (EC), Jean-Claude Juncker, has put the brakes on reforming the relations between member states and Brussels. Mr Cameron has vowed to hold an in/out vote on Britain’s membership of the EU in 2017, but only after a series of talks aimed at reconfiguring the UK’s relationship with Brussels.
“But, now he appears to have been told Brussels chiefs will only negotiate two years AFTER that date – when Mr Juncker steps down from office. An official close to the EU’s top politician told The Times: ‘No treaty change proposals are envisaged until after November 2019’.
“British hopes for amendments are now likely to have to wait until as late as 2025, when EU treaties are scheduled to be overhauled…
“The fact that it is Mr Juncker who is said to be ruling out potential negotiations will be particularly galling as Mr Cameron had sought to block his appointment as EC president last June…”
UK Among the Least Religious Countries in the World
The website of itv.com reported on April 13:
“A new survey has revealed that the UK is among the least religious countries in the world. In a global ranking of 65 countries, the UK came six places from last with 30% of the population calling themselves religious.
“While 53% of people said they were ‘not religious’… 13% said they were a ‘convinced atheist’ and the remainder ‘did not know’. It compares to 94% of people in Thailand who are religious and 93% of people in Armenia, Bangladesh, Georgia and Morocco.
“At the bottom of the list was China where only 6% of people say they are religious while 61% say they are convinced atheists. It was followed by Japan, where just 13% of people are religious, Sweden with 19% , Czech Republic with 23%, and the Netherlands and Hong Kong with 26%.
“Jean-Marc Leger, president of Win/Gallup International Association, said globally an average of two-thirds of people still consider themselves religious. ‘Religion continues to dominate our everyday lives and we see that the total number of people who consider themselves to be religious is actually relatively high,’ he said.”
The website of wingia.com added on April 13:
“The research discovered that the most religious regions are Africa and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) where 86% and 82% respectively of the people consider themselves to be religious… Western Europe (51%) and Oceania (49%) are the only regions where approximately half of the population are either not religious or convinced atheist… The Swedish prove to be the least religious in the Western World with 78% saying they are either not religious or convinced atheists.
“In Israel, 65% of those asked said that they are either not religious or convinced atheists compared to just 30% who say that they are religious. Meanwhile in the Palestinian Territories (West Bank and Gaza) the population is considerably more religious with 75% saying that they are religious compared to 18% who say that they are not religious.”
Vaccination – Yes or No?
The website of skynews.com.au reported on April 13:
“Australian parents will lose thousands of dollars of childcare and welfare benefits if they refuse to vaccinate their kids… Thousands of families could lose payments, with the government estimating about 39,000 children under seven have not received immunisation because their parents are vaccine objectors… Children can still be exempted on medical or religious grounds, but… the latter exemption is ‘very narrow’…
“But there are some who strongly oppose measures that mandate immunisation. An online petition against compulsory vaccinations in Australia that states ‘all parents deserve to make an uncoerced choice’ has received more than 3000 signatures in five days. Parents have taken to the change.org webpage to express their concerns about vaccinations and what they view is a potential encroachment on civil rights…”
Reuters reported on April 14:
“A Washington state school district pulled 143 students who lacked documentation proving they had received required immunizations from classrooms on Monday, in a first-in-the-state clamp-down… All U.S. states require certain vaccines for students for diseases such as mumps, rubella, tetanus or polio, but school immunization laws grant exemptions to children for medical reasons, including an inhibited immune system.
“Almost all states also grant religious exemptions against immunizations, with 20 states also allowing philosophical exemptions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Parents who want to opt out of school shots on philosophical, religious or medical grounds in Washington state… must file a state-mandated waiver with the district…”
On March 30, the website of motherjones.com published the following article:
“The Waiting Room at Pediatric Alternatives in Mill Valley, a town in the affluent hippie enclave of Marin County, California, is a far cry from the drab doctors’ offices I remember from childhood… The practice’s five physicians have impeccable credentials, having trained and completed residencies at some of the nation’s top medical schools and institutions. Several are fellows of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“Given all this, it might surprise you to learn that one of Pediatric Alternatives’ policies is extremely unorthodox: It suggests that families delay certain childhood immunizations—in some cases for years past the age recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—and forego others entirely. A little less than 20 percent of the families the practice treats choose not to vaccinate at all. The rest use a modified vaccine schedule…
“Kenet Lansman tells me she would never deny any vaccine to parents who request it for their child. But she does share her personal beliefs with her patients: She fears that vaccines have contributed to the recent uptick in autoimmune disorders and other chronic conditions… She has a policy of giving only one vaccination at a time, and only when a child is completely healthy…
“The main reason for the delay, Kenet Lansman says, is that she still believes there could be a link between vaccines and autism. She acknowledges that the scientific community has rejected this theory, yet she says she has seen children from her own practice who begin to show signs of autism shortly after being vaccinated…”
Breitbart reported on April 14:
“Parents opposed to a California legislative effort to revoke their ability to exempt their children from some vaccinations… promise to yank those kids out of school if the measure passes into law.
“The Democrat-sponsored Senate Bill 277 was proposed in response to a measles outbreak whose spread began at Disneyland last December. If passed, SB 277 would remove parents’ ability to sign a waiver that currently allows them to exempt their children from one or more school required vaccinations… In related news, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine campaign… ran into trouble after he connected autism to the Holocaust.”
Late Günter Grass Warned of World War III
The Guardian wrote on April 14:
“Germany’s Nobel-winning author Günter Grass said he feared humanity was ‘sleepwalking’ into a world war in the last interview he gave before his death on Monday.
“’We have on the one side Ukraine, whose situation is not improving; in Israel and Palestine things are getting worse; the disaster the Americans left in Iraq, the atrocities of Islamic State and the problem of Syria,’ he told the Spanish newspaper El País in the interview published on Tuesday. ‘There is war everywhere; we run the risk of committing the same mistakes as before; so without realising it we can get into a world war as if we were sleepwalking,’ he added.
“Spain’s top-selling newspaper said the interview, carried out at the author’s home in Lübeck in northern Germany on 21 March, was his last before his death aged 87.
“Grass, who achieved worldwide fame with his debut and best-known novel, The Tin Drum, in 1959 was a pacifist, opposing the installation of nuclear missiles on German soil. In his lengthy interview with El País, he also expressed concern over climate change and overpopulation. ‘All of this together makes me realise that things are finite, that we don’t have an indefinite amount of time,’ he said. Grass pressed Germany for decades to face up to its Nazi past, winning the Nobel prize for literature in 1999, when the Swedish academy said his ‘frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history’”.
Other papers, reporting on the death of Grass, tried to discredit him by pointing out that he had first concealed, but subsequently revealed the fact that he had been drafted, as a 17-year-old boy (!), to the German Waffen-SS at the very end of World War II. Such hypocritical reporting in some papers is difficult to understand, and we chose not to quote any of these inflammatory articles. Grass declared that he never used his gun to shoot anyone and that he did not know anything about the Holocaust until after the War. The fact that he strongly opposed Nazism in all its different forms and shapes supports his claim.
Resurrecting Dead Animals?
The Independent wrote on April 13:
“De-extinction, or the idea of bringing extinct species back from the dead, has come a long way over the quarter century since Jurassic Park was first published. It has now matured into a quasi-serious science and has even been the subject of its own TEDx conference… some scientists are proposing to resurrect a range of other, more-recently extinct species such as the passenger pigeon and the gastric-brooding frog, both lost within living memory.
“There are quite a few animals that have become extinct relatively recently that are potential candidates for de-extinction. They include the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, a large marsupial carnivore wiped out by sheep ranchers a century ago, the Pyrenean ibex which was hunted for sport until the last one fell dead in 2000, and the Steller’s sea cow, a gentle giant annihilated by hungry sailors in the 18th century.
“Perhaps the most emblematic of them all is the woolly mammoth. There are few animals that better represent the lost world of the Pleistocene than these huge, shaggy relatives of the modern elephant. Woolly mammoths roamed the vast grassy steppe of Eurasia and North America for hundreds of millennia. The very last individuals were an isolated population of pygmy woolly mammoths that lived on Wrangel Island off northern Russia about 4,500 years ago.
“There is no shortage of woolly mammoth tissue, some of it remarkably well preserved in the permafrost of Siberia and some scientists are confident that they can extract its DNA to bring the species back to life, either as clones or as a kind of mammoth-elephant hybrid.
“Scientists in South Korea and Russia are collaborating on a project to clone a woolly mammoth by extracting a cell nucleus from frozen mammoth tissue and inserting its entire genetic material into the enucleated egg cell of an Asian elephant, which would also act as a surrogate mother. It’s the same basic cloning technique that led to the birth of Dolly the cloned sheep in 1996, except this time two species are involved rather than one – and one of them has been extinct for thousands of years…
“Another de-extinction approach is to cut and paste large fragments of mammoth DNA into the chromosomes of an Asian elephant, thereby creating a genetically-engineered mammoth-elephant ‘hybrid’. Scientists involved in this project prefer to think about it as a way of making a cold-adapted Asian elephant with mammoth-like traits, such as hairy skin and layers of subcutaneous fat for good thermal insulation.
“Scientists have already managed to sequence about half of the mammoth genome from the many small fragments of DNA isolated from frozen remnants of biological material, such as skin, hair, bone, teeth and even dung. They believe it is only a question of time before they achieve their ultimate de-extinction aim: a living hybrid…”
You might want to read our free booklet, “Heavens and Earth… Before and After the First Man,” which addresses many topics related to the gist and substance of this article.
