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17-12-2007, 05:34 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2005 Age: 27
Posts: 435
| | | oh, and also, some of y'all got no sense of humor. :P | |
17-12-2007, 05:46 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 158
| | | It was no less a man than Jesus who said, “judge not, lest ye be judged”. I think the deeper meaning of that is that we humans like to make judgements on everything, and pretty soon we create divisions of right and wrong, good and evil, darkness and light, moral and immoral, believer and sinner, and so on. When two people/groups/nations are divided in their judgements, that’s when arguments start, that escalate ultimately into wars. What Jesus said, I think means just that. We should simply drop our judgments about people and things and how they should be if we are to truly understand the clarity of his message. Or at the very least, we just hold our judgments very lightly, enough to be flexible enough about changing it when new information comes to light.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the great American poet also said something like, “if we only knew the secret history of peoples lives, it would be enough to disarm all hostility towards them”. How profound! When we understand the other, we drop the very hostility that keeps in place their hostility towards us. We can disagree with someone, even vehemently, but a thin line divides that disagreement and hostility. It’s easy to overstep that line.
If we read some of the links posted up, especially the Newsweek one, it seems there is indeed a story and history behind what these people did that goes a long way in explaining why they did what they did. Who knows whether it was the right or wrong decisions, but it was not made lightly, and certainly with much pain and regret on all sides.  | |
17-12-2007, 06:07 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: in an underground bunker at an undisclosed location Age: 31
Posts: 1,263
| | Quote:
Originally Posted by Krad  On the upsides, dates would be a lot more interesting.
"Maybe we should just go Dutch tonight"
"Well, OK, but where are we going to find a small Korean child at this time of night?" | LOL........  | |
17-12-2007, 08:30 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2006 Location: Tai Po
Posts: 589
| | Quote:
Originally Posted by Skyhook Redwriter, I sincerely request you make a public apology to the European online audience here, your remark is highly offensive and entirely unfounded. | Agree with the sentiments but given the last few posts he has made elsewhere I doubt we will see one coming. | |
17-12-2007, 08:41 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 205
| | | I'm not sure why such a big deal is made about the fact that he is Dutch or a diplomat - would it be better or worse if he was Greek or American or nobody important? Oh but then it wouldn't be news. And of course no mention of the wife because she's 'just the wife' and nobody important. Sick world we live in because we aren't discussing any of the other cases of abuse / rape / abandonment that aren't newsworthy are we? | |
17-12-2007, 11:57 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Siu Lam - Near Gold Coast
Posts: 1,085
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pekkerhead Agree with the sentiments but given the last few posts he has made elsewhere I doubt we will see one coming. | Ha Ha, somehow, I do agree with you Peckerhead.
The most ironic part of which, was the discovery that Redwriter was a self promoting Christian during the "What religion" thread, but he cannot see it within himself to say sorry when he was categorically wrong.
I thought the whole point of being a good Christian was to express forgiveness, even when faced with thy enemy. | |
18-12-2007, 03:03 PM
|  | Resident Peacekeeper | | Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Pokfulam Age: 40
Posts: 10,303
| | | >> he is Dutch or a diplomat
Dutch is irrelevant.
Diplomat implies that the man should have some character, problem solving abilities and the ways and means to support a young child.
Would have been the same if he was the CEO of a large corporation.
Anyways .. lets see how this develops. I do have a feeling that we're still not judging these folks as harshly as they might deserve. | |
18-12-2007, 08:36 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 90
| | | I am particularly troubled by the fact that the man is an expat career diplomat.
Okay, I would not find it surprising if this kind of things happens to a destitute refugee in Calcutta, miserable and lost who has no choice but to give up his children to an orphanage so they stand a better chance of making it, or has been through so much in life that he can not think rationally and take care of his family.
This man is a Diplomat! Either the Dutch standards of decency are to be revised or they have a serious recruitment problem... | |
19-12-2007, 05:53 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 92
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20-12-2007, 11:24 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Kowloon
Posts: 96
| | | It's much easier and more politically correct to blame the Man these days.
Who do you believe wanted the child in the first place?
Who do you think had "buyer's remorse?"
Who is excused from liability for having emotional/mental issues?
I'm not assigning blame on women, but merely pointing out how natural it is for us to blame everything on the men.
My place is not to judge the Dutch couple. I don't know enough of what transpired to form an opinion on this case. I hope that we all do a lot less assuming and spend our energy on preventing future occurrences of this tragedy. | | Tools | Search | | | | | Rate This Thread | | | All times are GMT +8. The time now is 06:37 AM. | |
