GUEST BLOG: Ross Meurant – Only God knows why he did not protect Notre Dame Cathedral.

Ross in Damascus 

As the smoke drifts by and embers now die;           

Believers still cry to the open sky.                         

 Why? How?                

Only God knows why he did not protect Notre Dame Cathedral.

For my part, having had a childhood in a bastion of rural conservatism, with an Irish Catholic grandma on one side and on the other, French Huguenot pedigree, (which was persecuted by a French Catholic Monarchy and causing my gt gt gt grandpa to do a runner, with his son ending up in Kawhia where he married into Maori Royalty), I consider that the saga which followed the fire, to be an indictment on a large percentage mankind.

The prayers of the masses in silent and at times harmonious singing vigils at the ruins of a symbol of persecution of non-believers!  

Where were these believers in Christianity when French forces participated in an unlawful war (UN determination) against Iraq which manifest into ISIS which was a catalyst to the chaos accompanying the Arab Spring and expanding Middle East chaos – where thousands of civilian casualties (talking here about the survivors) now languish in pitiful refugee camps?

What stand do these paragons of humanity take now their President (Macron) pursues journalists who exposed French complicity in possible Saudi war crimes in Yemen.  

Millions if not billions of dollars pledged by oligarchs, many of whom by perception if not reality ( my only concession), despise the underprivileged, deny them as much of the taxation the State seeks to redistribute via utilitarianism and (this maybe cynical) hope to buy their way to Heaven after a life of swindling, cheating, subjugating and taking pleasures.

Where are the billionaires who perhaps seek final redemption and a key the Pearly Gates, when it comes to helping people in serious need?

STOP PRESS

I totally reject any and all forms of religion.  I had enough of that – force fed as a kid at stage of life when one is supposed to believe what the grown-ups say.  Today I have no problem with any religion as long as they who subscribe, keep their activity to themselves.

Religion may provide a moral code for communities to follow.  But, so to do rugby clubs: “Punch a hole in the toilet wall and you are out of the club, mate!”

Keep their activities to themselves?  

Well, I concede, that is a hard one – given how we have been subjected to religious crusades (bad word) since before Jesus was invented.  It’s become part of our daily bread.

Today our entire planet is gripped by mass delusion: Christianity, Judaism, Islam., Buddhism.

Across the globe … people are ready to defend to the death every word in the books which underpin these religions and which they hold so dear.  But what are these texts really based on? No more than legends and myths going back thousands of years. Abraham, a man who, if you believe the Old Testament, fathered a child at the age of one hundred and lived to be one hundred and seventy-five!  Mary, Mother of Jesus by immaculate conception!  The son of God! Jesus who walked on water; who cured a blind man and who came back from the dead.

As Mark Twain reckoned: “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”

It wasn’t that long-ago people believed that the earth was flat; that it was the center of the universe and that the sun revolved around us!  When Galileo came along and proved it was the other way around the Church almost had him burned at the stake. The same thing happened to Darwin – for his Evolution of Species.   

Is it such an astonishing thing that people two thousand years ago would believe such tales?  Where do we start to unravel this fascinating story? Well,

In a nut shell: (i) the Bible was not written until some 300 years after the birth of Jesus, (ii) that the material which some religious leaders (Irenaeus) finally decided to embrace as the truth about Jesus and include in his Bible, consisted of only some of the accounts which were available – being accounts  which had been transferred by word of mouth around campfires by suspicious and ignorant peasants over a period of several hundred years, (iii) that to assert the primacy of his view, Irenaeus (and his cronies) introduced supernatural powers to their man Jesus (e.g. walking on water) and then,(iv) decided to burn at the stake anyone who did not subscribe to their version of events.

Religion is all to do with FAITH (in my view). In Voltaire’s view, “Faith consists in believing what reason cannot.”

Religion is a curse on humanity where a religious code is abused, as it is in many Islamic countries with the persecution of women and other excesses and where it is abused in Christianity – Priest taking advantage of little boys and being protected by the Church, being one high profile example.   Extremist Judaism is as dangerous as Jehovah witness cults.

The preceding paragraph is, qualified by; “In my opinion”.

An even bigger danger is where religious creeds become conduits for sedition and fermenting civil unrest.  

Where a religious creed takes root in an underclass, that in my opinion, is a danger to a State.

Disciples who travel the globe representing a particular code, indoctrinating or enlightening (depends on your point of view), people, invariably target the lower socio-economic and/or people from rural or island communities where religious faith still lingers and conservatism is a path to ignorance.

These people are prime cannon fodder for a foreign State to discharge chaos into the streets, when a particular country fails to conform to “behaviour” acceptable to the State which funds the missionaries.

And here, I’ll let you join the dots.                                                      

Ross is an international businessman and entrepreneur. In 2016 Ross was appointed Honorary Consul for the Kingdom of Morocco. In New Zealand he is trustee and managing director of absentee Russian owned forestry and commercial property.

Ross has a bachelor degree in politics and management, a master’s degree in economics, statistics, law and policy and C.O.P’s in law.

From 2004 he lived and worked in Zimbabwe, Russia, Czech Republic, Thailand and the Balkans.

Since 2005 Ross has established business interests in aqua culture and fisheries development – from Morocco to Syria: U.A.E and North Korea.

In 2015 Ross was prime speaker on sustainable fisheries as guest of the Moroccan government at CRANZ Montana ‘Sustainable Resources: Africa’ conference, and an official guest at the 2017 forum.

A former Member of Parliament (1987–1996) and Member and the Executive Council of New Zealand in the National government, Ross was Under Secretary (junior minister) Agriculture & Forestry; Cabinet Committee Industry & Commerce & Chair Select Committee Fisheries.

Subsequent to parliament, he owned equestrian facilities; was elected to local government as a councilor; consulted to several major fishing companies, was engaged by parliamentary services as adviser to Rt. Hon Winston Peters and emerged as a key figure in the Scampi Affair, which falsely alleged political corruption.

Prior to entering parliament, Ross had been 21 years in the police.  Service included: detective on Regional Crime Squad and Drug Squad; 5 years Armed Offenders Squad, second in command of the infamous Red Squad, and commissioned officer in charge of police spies i.e. Criminal Intelligence Section and V.I.P. Security.