Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comIn the coffee shop at this farming village on the northern Cyprus coast, the conversation jumps from one hardship to the next: a bad rainy season, a religion weakened by assimilation, and a division of the island that has lasted 36 years with no end in sight.
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Their way of life is dying and they feel lost. But '...most of them old-age pensioners.' Maybe the next generation will have a better grasp on reality and not waste their time chanting incantations to some non-existent god. Times change, life goes on, and most people will be happier without those superstitions.
And hopefully better educated and less biased too.
Shouldn't the headline read " Ancient sex hopes for boost from pope (Pervert IIXV ) visit"?
Why are they so excited about a visit from the pope? Do they think the ancient art of pedophilia can help them?
There is value in culture. It isn't necessarily something to idealize, but connecting to our past, to our ancestors is important. We would do well to respect our ancient heritage, which was rich and deep and offered a lot of local knowledge. We are all human of course, but assimilation isn't all it's cracked up to be. Our modern and western way of life is lacking in connection and respect for our Earth and all she provides. Too much has already been lost. I hope these people can hold on and be who they are. They have carried something very special, their culture and language, for so long and were lucky enough to be isolated enough to bring it to Modern times. Hopefully they can hold on a little longer.
In many respects I agree with you.
When languages and cultures die out, we lose just a little bit of ourselves. And, when we disrespect Gaia with oil spills and other pollutants, all life especially suffers, including us.
I knew a fellow from Iran who spoke fluent Aramaic. I understand that the language is steadily dying out. We discussed a project that he and his sister were involved in to try to record the language as it was spoken and to preserve the knowledge of the culture. I understand that his family was originally from Syria, where there remains a dwindling Christian community that only speaks Aramaic.
There are so many cultures and languages that offer diverse insights into life and history. Unfortunately, respect for others in these modern times among the majority is dwindling, too.
However, I can also see the other side to this. Some of the older views, which tend to polarize and separate us are also losing appeal. I can assume that many of the young people in this community became frustrated that they couldn't go out and socialize with those of other cultures. The pool of eligible mates was just not enough for them to choose from to find happiness and fulfillment.
I used to know older people who would identify each other by their national origin. "Oh, he's okay, but he's a ("___"), and you know how they can be."
Identity is good to a certain point, but when it reinforces separation, "us vs. them", that is where it seems that the newer generations start to walk away from this in its stricter sense.
I wonder how many little boys the Pope is going to get out of this visit.
This was a wonderful article about an amazing group of people who themselves come from and are tied to an amazing people. Unfortunately, most of the contributors to this blog know nothing -- and want to know nothing -- of history, culture, language: in other words, anything of human worth. Their heads are in the gutter; their thinking proves it; and their lives, I am sure, exemplify it.
When I was 25, I moved away from the area where I was born and raised, away from my friends and family, my culture and my ancestors’ language. I met new people, learned to live in a different culture and a different language; I had already given up on the Catholic Church, I replaced it with Humanism.
So what did I really lose? I gained! The new friends I made are every bit as ‘amazing’ as the old ones I had; I learned more about ‘history, culture, language’ that I knew then. I am now a better and more complete man than I was then, all because of all the new things I was exposed to, and the old fears and superstitions I abandoned. I don’t miss the ‘old days’. The old people of Cyprus might miss their ancestral ways of life, but their children walked away to a new world where they can be as happy as I am.
Life is change, and you should embrace it. If you don’t, you take the risk of staying with a Middle-Ages mentality like the religious fanatics who would destroy us.
In spite of the usual lump of pope-baiters this type of story always seems to attract, there is beauty in these old and sacred ways of contemplating the beauty and majesty of God. The Catholic Church, as the name from antiquity implies, is "universal" and has many such offshoots around the world, because it is they who helped form the present-day church..