The name of the Rose

The AWARE saga is coming to a head. It seems to me the new Exco wishes to be martyrs. If the gahmen intervenes, it will play into their hands and their religious backers behind them. To these religious fanatics, if you are not with them, you must be against them.

Their tactic is to stop AWARE, and if they fail they will taint AWARE, tar it, bankrupt it, and drag it down with them.

It is like a napkin. Once a napkin is soiled it can never be the same as before no matter how you try to clean it. In this sense AWARE has been effectively neutered, and that is their purpose.

Whatever the outcome of this saga, the minority fundamentalists have won and society and moderates at large will be the losers.

And so far i see the PAP leaders once again lacking the political will to do the right thing...although I hope i will be proven wrong.




Suddenly I am reminded of this movie watched many years ago.

It is set during the times of The Inquisition, a dark period in Europe of religious fanaticism and oppression.

Mysterious deaths at a mountain monastery is fanning fear and hysteria. The monks attribute demonology as the explanation and proclaim the world is in its last days before the second coming of Christ. A Francescan monk, William of Baskerville (Sean Connery), does not think so and through logic and reasoning proceeds to solve the mystery.

In a pivotal moment, William discovers the real evil responsible - an old monk, Jorge de Burgos, who has been poisoning other monks for reading a forbidden book, a book of comedy and laughter...

Jorge de Burgos: Laughter is a devilish whim which deforms, the lineaments of the face and makes men look like monkeys.

William of Baskerville: Monkeys do not laugh. Laughter is particular to men.

Jorge de Burgos: As is sin. Christ never laughed.

William of Baskerville: Can we be so sure?

Jorge de Burgos: There is nothing in the Scriptures to say that he did.

William of Baskerville: And there's nothing in the Scriptures to say that he did not...

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