The Iraq war has cost so far (according to the Congress of the United States) more than 450,000 million dollars. Each missile 'tomahawk costs about 2 million. The price of a nuclear submarine "Trident" is three times the budget of the WHO to eliminate malaria worldwide.

The barrel of oil has shot above 100 dollars and the world economy trembles. Or rather, the people tremble; the people who have to fill their gas tank to go to work, the shopping list of the housewife trembles and so are one’s savings at the end of the month. At the same time, just like everything else in this modern life, the number of sins rise. Now the seven capital sins have gone up to eleven, simply because they’ve been updated. May be the old ambitions, the old covetousness and enviousness have become obsolete with the new plans of mankind. The simple act of accumulating senseless wealth wins, and that, according to the chief of state of the richest country in the world, is the newest capital sin. And the word “capital” takes on a parallel meaning. Eleven sins, 11-S

It’s a pity that the real globalization lies on those capital sins, at the moment the only thing held in common between all human beings. Global outlines. It is the reason or reasons for virtually all the activity in the politics of the world. Let the old seven conditions for the poor. The new rich need novel and spectacular sins that match with their high status and their fortunes.

From now on, all those who play in the stock market with basic commodities of the world to get rich, are big sinners with an appointment in hell. President Bush and family, that calls on God so much acts outside his jurisdiction and not only gets richer but is also the president of the most contaminating country in the world. Will he go to hell? Contaminate is another capital sin in this day and age but, who doesn’t contaminate? Anyone who drives a motor vehicle is contaminating; anyone who uses air conditioning, plastic, fridges… anybody who doesn’t recycle garbage is guilty as well because the overall contamination of the planet isn’t the fault of the rich, but rather that of those of us who consume. It’s the sum total of those nearly imperceptible itty-bitty what makes the monstrous figures on a planet with 6,500 million people. Are We will go all to hell?

The dollar says “In God we trust” but those who use it trust more in its benefits. Can we make millions now without commit a sin? In sin we trust should say the users of dollars. Dollar and sin, match made in heaven.

There is no need to be the Pope or a saint to realize the evil around us, but we prefer to look elsewhere. Up to the sky seeking forgiveness, praying to be as far away as possible from being poor and homeless. It’s easy to say what the sins are when punishment doesn’t occur in this world or in this life. It’s easy to be the creator of the sins when you’re the owner of all pardons. This converts you into lord and master of the prayers, of the ambitions, of the fears. And while the Pope earns sixty million dollars just from his last published book, he scolds and threatens us so that we might never be like him.

The children will keep on dying of hunger thanks to this capital sin, but to whom does the capital really belong? On whom does the world economy really depend? It depends on the microscopic spending of us mortals, not on the banks or on the big multinationals, but rather on the small change in our kitchen jar. If the people believe there’s a crisis and don’t spend, the money stops circulating and recession rears its ugly head like a medieval plague. It turns out that the union of all the crumbs is really the big cake that others share. Once more it’s the union of the tiny and microscopic actions where the power of the great and gigantic governments lies. We have the big banks in our little pocket. We have the political parties and their leaders in our tiny and humble vote.

While the Pope is busy counting dollars and sins, children are dying in Palestine, people are tortured in Guantanamo and whole towns are relocated into the desert... It’s said that 800 million poor people die every year and the numbers go up just like a barrel of crude, and that is the crude reality. Guilt will become capital, the black product of sin. And while the Pope contaminates our conscience, he gets filthy rich along with all those who control our unconscious. So while the price of a barrel keeps on going up, perhaps to rise to heaven and buy forgiveness, we’ll be all that much closer to hell.
AMEN

Will our sickness, hungry, accustomed to daily feast of meat burned by Napalm not endures the sweetness of art and spits with unbridled disgust. Will it?

What hurts our sensitivity? Who has the rule to measure it? Is not obscene the advertising of luxury cars right next to the homeless sleeping on the streets? These poor invisible people no longer hurt the sensibilities of anyone anymore. Maybe if Carnach had painted homeless…
At this point, art is not suitable for all audiences. We should prohibit the entry to minors into museums, there are lots of scenes of nudity, immoral and dangerous. Better, send them to the bullfighting!

Democracy requires half of the population to live under the rules of a government elected by the other half, why not extrapolate these values to art? If more are those who see the picture with good eyes, then, those who see it with lascivious eyes will have to fold and live with the will of the majority. To look the other way instead of forcing others to stop looking.
Perhaps politicians and civil servants do not have eyes for the works of art. Perhaps the rulers are so corrupt, have so much perversion in their minds that see pornography in any thing, and shame, sin and lust in any type of nudity, either of the sixteenth century or XXV. They do not know how to look beyond, so cults and so powerful… They are afraid of a naked body.
Let's look at this place we never or almost never look, ourselves, and maybe the sensitivity regain its wisdom. For some reason we prefer not to look straight to the truth.

If this continues, soon, very soon, there will be a new board of dictators moralists who will look very closely everything that has to be seen and heard by the masses, for clearance or censorship. A giant step backwards, a step backwards on the path of freedom, in which the steps are so short.

The lambs continue being the meat of hungry shepherds.

In London, supposedly civilized city, has been censored and removed from the street a poster announcing the Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts, nothing more prestigious and intellectual.

According to the British moralists, the naked body of a human being turns out to be more hurtful to our sensitivity than the terrible news coming out of Nepal, the dark and terrible bomb in Iraq. Moralist said anything about to banseal coats in the subway, which respond to the cruel and sadistic images of their hunts in the Arctic. Are not these skins could injure more sensitivities than the painted skin of a woman?

The picture of a naked body seems more dangerous than a body maimed, hungry or tortured on the big NGOs advertising, used to emotional blackmail. For one dollar, one euro a year our sensitive conscience soothes.Ads that repeat not only on the underground in London.

IFEX - Rights activists angered by the Chinese crackdown in Tibet, including three members of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), were arrested on Monday for disrupting the Olympic flame-lighting ceremony in Olympia, Greece.  RSF general secretary Robert Ménard and two other RSF members unfurled a banner of the Olympic rings transformed into handcuffs and called for a boycott of the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Games in August. The incident occurred as Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Organizing Committee, was addressing thousands of dignitaries, Olympics officials and spectators, minutes before the flame was lit at the ancient Greek temple of Olympia amid a security detail of 1,000 police officers and commandos. The 24 March ceremony marks the official countdown to the Games. According to RSF, Chinese state television cut to a pre-recorded scene during the disruption, and Greek national television broke off its broadcast.

Moments later, about 10 Tibetan activists marched out of a hotel in Olympia and shouted slogans against Chinese rule in Tibet. One woman doused in red paint lay down in the town's main street in front of a torch runner. Police detained the three RSF members and some of the Tibetan activists. The RSF reps were charged for showing "contempt for national symbols" and will go to trial on 29 May. "We cannot let the Chinese government seize the Olympic flame, a symbol of peace, without denouncing the dramatic situation of human rights in the country," RSF said in a statement.
RSF, along with other IFEX members, has condemned China's human rights violations and the crackdown on press freedom in the face of rising civil unrest in Tibet.

Human Rights Watch says the Olympics officials' resolve to run the Olympic torch through Tibet's capital Lhasa on 20-21 June could invite new protests and provoke further repression. "Either Tibet is open or it's not. If it is, let independent monitors and the media go there. If it's not, the torch shouldn't go there either," says Human Rights Watch.
China is facing a public relations disaster since protests erupted in Lhasa on 10 March, the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule, and spread through Tibet and neighbouring provinces. The Chinese authorities responded by dispersing the protests, in some cases violently.

The government says 22 people have died in the clashes but the toll has been impossible to confirm because of a news blackout imposed by China on the country's interior. Tibet exile groups say at least 80 people have been killed.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), state media has not reported the spread of violence into western China. The government censors have access to overseas reports and online discussion, leaving many in China uninformed about the extent of the turmoil. Meanwhile, the state press is relaying one-sided statements by officials raging against the "Dalai Lama's clique", "rioters", and foreign news media, says RSF.

The Chinese government continues to ban and expel foreign journalists from Tibet and the neighbouring provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, and Sichuan, as well as the capital, Beijing, say RSF and CPJ. Journalists have been temporarily detained and followed. RSF has recorded more than 40 serious violations of the rights of foreign journalists since the protests erupted on 10 March.
"The Chinese authorities are in the process of dealing with the problem of Tibetan demonstrations by means of force and silence," says RSF. "After ridding Tibet and the neighbouring regions of undesirable observers - foreign journalists and tourists - the security forces are crushing the protests without the international community being able to watch."

Meanwhile, lines of communication have been cut or heavily restricted. International radio stations have been jammed in Tibet and Internet café owners are being forced to increase the surveillance of clients to prevent photos and videos from being sent abroad, reports RSF. At the same time, telephone services are still subject to extensive disruptions.
Nor is the crackdown contained within China's borders. Police in Nepal broke up a protest near the UN offices in Kathmandu by hundreds of Tibetan refugees and monks on Monday. The protesters, who were demanding a UN investigation into the crackdown, were beaten with bamboo sticks and at least 40 were arrested, say news reports.

Human Rights Watch has urged Nepal to stop doing "Beijing's bidding" and end its crackdown on Tibetan exiles protesting against China. Nepal, home to thousands of Tibetan refugees, has said it will not allow protests against any "friendly nation," including China.

IFEX members RSF, CPJ, Human Rights Watch, as well as ARTICLE 19 and the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) are demanding that the Chinese government lift its lockdown of all Tibetan areas and give media and independent observers full access.
Human Rights Watch and RSF are also calling for an independent investigation, ideally headed by the UN, into recent events in Tibet.