Cause I've been working quite a lot lately, 38 h a week, I have been exposed to all the activities in the city centre. The Pope is in Australia. He arrived yesterday to celebrate world youth day in Sydney. To celebrate his arrival the young and older catholics from all over the world has been standing in the Hay Street Mall singing some version of a hallelujah song in Italian, for days now. At the same time other youth groups are demonstrating against Scientology. (Sorry they are not youth groups they just seem young that's all, maybe its the masks).
I don't really know the connection between V for Vendetta and the religious demonstration but the demonstrators are wearing that same mask, you know the creepy one, the white one with a narrow chin.
One religion sharing the streets with anti-Scientology.
As a third party in this religious buffet the Hare Krishna is chanting and singing religious songs, walking/strutting/dancing up and down past the shop.
But the strongest presence is the one of the catholic youth. Because the Pope is in Australia the whole country is religious again, at least for a week or so, til he has left the country, and is back far overseas where he does not get a lot of attention or credit of power. But for the people, just knowing he is in the country he brings a spiritual buzz to the slight believers who get so excited that their faith is contagious.
I heard, on the news, that the people that will be attending mass this Sunday expect to have an express ticket to heaven. Good luck with that people. I mean, even if you are right in your beliefs I doubt that God would fall for that easy one.
In eighter case i think that it is quite interesting that people can get so effected by a person who, as the leader of Catholic faith, seems to have more power over the world than we are led to believe.
14 July 2008
Demonstrations
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3 comments:
The V Masks are actually Epic Fail Guy masks, harking to Guy Fawkes. While coming from V for Vendetta, they are more about protecting one's identity from scientology, known for trying to destroy its critics. The people who wear them are not a youth group, but a leaderless collective that calls itself Anonymous and encompasses all ages, socio-economic groups, ethnicities and religions/lack of religions. They are not protesting the religion of scientology, and not just because it is a cult and not a religion, as such but are protesting its abuses of both people inside the cult, and ex-members and critics outside of it.
Also, the protests this weekend had nothing to do with Pope Benedict being in town, as the protests occured globally, in over 100 cities and towns. It just fit in nicely in your local case, is all.
Go to whyaretheydead.net, xenutv.net or enturbulation.org to learn more, if you like.
My apologies- last paragraph, second link, should be xenu.net.
Thanks for that update, at least I know now what its about. I do apologise for my clumpsy formulation from which you understood that I was saying that the demonstrations had something to do with the pope, which I did not intend. However I think it is quite exciting to experience public discussion about faith, religions and cults. Even though I had no clue about the protest you are talking about. 100 towns and cities is quite impressive.
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