Worth Your While
Fighting Against Communism
I'll use my story and research to speak out for 100,000,000 + victims of communism and the transformative power of restorative justice. Please see my book Victims of Communism and Their Persecutors EXPLORE 
“Communism has deflowered the citizens’ imagination. Anything good has to be rationed. Thus, desire has been quelled too, where wanting, is not part of their nature anymore.”
-Julie Newmar 
Marx began life in a God-fearing family. It is documented that he was once a Christian. But a drastic change at some point in his life led Karl Marx to a deep personal rebellion against God and all Christian values. Eventually, he became a Satan worshiper who regularly participated in occult practices and habit. By examining Marx's poetry, plays, correspondence, and biographical account, Richard Wurmbrand builds a convincing case for Marx's undeniably Satanic preference. Marx's own statements expose him as a hater of God, and therefore, a hater of God's creatures-those who have suffered under Marxism and communism.
Wurmbrand, who was imprisoned for 14 years in Europe for his outspoken views against communism, urges Christians not to be duped by Marxism's benevolent disguise as a mere political or economic theory. He reveals the true root of Marxist thinking so that Christians will recognize the evil therein and stand against it. Having been a prisoner of the Communist government in Romania, Rev. Richard Wurmbrand has thoroughly researched his subject and seen its effects firsthand. He and his wife founded Jesus to the Communist World to help Christians who suffer at the hands of communism and Marxism. 
Invitație la lectură: “Victims of Communism, and their persecutors” Gabriel Teodor Gherasim Întrebare: Care este definiția despre crimele comunismului? Misiunea Declarației despre victimele comunismului și despre persecutorii acestora: Să vorbească în numele victimelor comunismului. Pentru a informa și a inspira cititorii să evite anumite greșeli și, mai ales, să înțeleagă adevărul și să aibă curiozitatea de a fi informați mai bine, despre încercările pe care fiecare dictatură comunistă le-a însemnat pentru peste 100.000.000 de victime neajutorate până în prezent Antecedente, comportamente / crime, consecințe, discuții și soluții ale atrocităților comuniștilor Antecedente Teorii care subliniază conflictul (Victimele comunismului, p. 35) Lynn Mc Taggard (2002) sugerează că următoarele teorii au fost folosite ca raționamente pentru rasism, sclavie, superioritate de clasă, sexism, invazia națiunilor suverane, persecuții religioase, economice, etnice, politice și de război: Biologie: evoluția lui Darwin “supraviețuiește cel mai potrivit”. Psihologie: complexul oedipal al lui Freud. Sociologie: “Abolirea familiei” de Marx, “lupta de clasă” și “Revoluție continuă” (p. 17). Invitație la lectură: “Victims of Communism, and their persecutors” Deoarece toate aceste paradigme au creat conflicte de interese între indivizi (de la superioritatea eredității aristocratice a regalității britanice, până la superioritatea “originilor sănătoase” ale proletariatului comuniștilor ruși) sau “câștiga / pierde” (ei sau noi) paradigma, ei poziționau omenirea la antipodul soluționării conflictelor. Aceasta a condus la declanșarea escaladării conflictelor, a ipotezelor ostile și a comportamentelor distrugătoare față de celălalt, fie ea individuală, națională sau internațională. Mikhail Bakunin (Victimele comunismului, p. 38), un presupus anarhist ateist, a scris: “Diavolul reprezintă revolta satanică împotriva autorității divine, o revoltă în care vedem spiritul fecund al tuturor mișcărilor omenirii de a se elibera: revoluția “(Bakunin, 1970, p. 206). Comportamente / Crime Trauma fiziologică și modificări Termenul “psihopolitică”, (Victimele comunismului, p. 39) conform Prefata lui Warren B. Heath la Antiumanii lui Dumitru Bacu (1968) este: O tehnologie mai degrabă decât o știință, deoarece este o aplicație practică a datelor obținute prin cercetări în mai multe științe și poate fi definită ca arta de a controla o națiune, controlând mințile majorității politice dominante a populației sale (p. XVI). Dumitru Bacu (1968) menționează modul în care trecerea de la experimentele lui Pavlov pe animale, deținuții au fost aduși la suprasolicitare totală. Prin producerea de conflicte între reflexele stabilite, comuniștii s-au dezvoltat cu un procent mare de succes, tehnici stricte de a distruge conștiința victimelor și de a o înlocui cu condamnări utile de partid. Au folosit reflexe condiționate bazate pe abuz neuro-psihologic. Interesul comunismului a fost acela de a persecuta victimele, în timp ce în cele din urmă le-a instigat victimele să-și denunțe propriile idealuri și chiar le mulțumesc torționarilor pentru astfel de torturi. Autor: Gabriel Teodor Gherasim MA Victims of Communism and Their Persecutors Second Edition 2017 Vervante Press, available in Print and PDF at: gabrielgherasim.com/writing.html 
The Beatification of Monsignor Vladimir Ghika
Priest and Martyr Motto: ““Nothing is more precious than being jailed for Jesus Christ.” Monsignor Ghika By Louise Gherasim The last few weeks have seen much written regarding the Beatification of Mgr. Ghika, as well as, his life story. This Romanian priest who shared the same cell in the Jilava prison as my beloved husband, Dr. Teodor Gherasim, was a most remarkable man. In his autobiography, Astride 2 Worlds, my husband, who passed away on February 26, 2013, spoke of his friendship with this great man during those horrendous days and nights, in one of the worst of Romania’s cruel Communist prisons. “Here was a man who gave himself completely to God’s service…The great love of his life was to do good for the suffering humanity.” Both the Mgr. and my husband were originally from the same part of Romania, Bucovina. So a strong bond of friendship grew between them. They shared hours of prayer, meditation, and even food. The Mgr. insisted that Teodor, who was in his early twenties, should partake of his meager portion of bread: “You are young; you have more chances in surviving the Communist hell and tell the world about our ordeals. I know I’m going to die here, so my food is not as necessary for sustenance,” he would often tell Teodor. This saintly man died in his sleep at 80 years of age, following one of the many episodes of bestial torture, as he lay on the cold damp ground near my beloved husband in 1954, after two years of torment. Our son Gabriel, writing on the internet shortly after the Beatification Ceremony, about this beautiful friendship, was privileged to receive an answer from the great, great niece of Mgr. Ghika. She wrote: “I heard a lot in the family about the story of your father, how he had been supported during detention. I can put a name now on this person who made a lot for Mgr. Ghika’s memory.” Here she was referring to the many letters sent to the Vatican and other church dignitaries by my husband, Teodor, commending the saintly man. Who was the Priest-Martyr, Vladimir Ghika? From the National Catholic Register, we learn that this Romanian priest descended from French and Romanian nobility. He was born on Christmas Day 1873 in Constantinople, where his father was the Romanian ambassador to the Ottoman Court. He was baptized into the Orthodox faith of his parents. His education included medicine, art, botany, and political science in the schools of France. Later, he was drawn to theology and to Rome, where he converted to Catholicism at the age of 29. He spoke 22 languages and on the advice of his friend Pope Pius X, he became a lay missionary. Returning to his country, Romania, he created a foundation for Catholic charity works. He established the first free medical clinic in Bucharest and the country’s first ambulance service. During WWI, he travelled to many dangerous places attending the wounded and refugees, as well as, victims of cholera. He was 49 years old when he was ordained in Paris in 1923. He then spent the next seven years ministering to the poor in the most dangerous part of that city, Villejuif. In 1939, at the outbreak of WWII, he returned to Romania as the first priest with Papal approval to celebrate both the Latin Catholic Mass and the Byzantine-rite Liturgy, used by the Byzantine Catholic Church. As WWII ended, the Russians occupied Romania. His family urged him to leave the country under Soviet occupation, but his response was: “If God wants me here, then here I remain.” In 1952, the KGB from Romania called Securitatea, arrested him and every other Catholic bishop and priest in Romania, particularly of the Byzantine-Catholic denomination, now deemed “illegal”. In the notorious prison known as Jilava, he was brutally beaten, starved and attacked by Police dogs. Over 80 times he was tortured with electric shocks and strangulation, as the interrogators were trying unsuccessfully to force him to invent various “anti-proletarian” charges on innocent individuals, priests and parishioners. Eventually, he lost his eyesight and hearing as a result of this brutality. Nearing death, the saintly priest was heard to say, “Nothing is more precious than being jailed for Jesus Christ.” In closing this brief account of the life and death of this saintly man, I would like to recognize Victor Gaetan of the Catholic Register, who has provided us with some of this valuable information. About the author: Mrs. Louise Gherasim is a native of Ireland. She spent 35 years in classroom teaching everything from art, music, history, to English language and literature. She is an accomplished author, with an elegant literary style. She wrote 12 books for all ages, on Ireland and Romania. Books authored by the late Dr. Teodor Gherasim, include Astride 2 Worlds and Ancient Dictators, Modern Tyrants. More information is available on the link below: http://www.bestbitesbuys.com/ldpress.html Articol disponibil la adresa: http://www.clipa.com//a5856-The-Beatification-of-Monsignor-Vladimir-Ghika.aspx |
The Search for Happiness & Fulfillment
Looking for more happiness in your life? I've written a book called Happiness in Our Daily Lives that can help one find fulfillment.
SITE MOTTO "Never forget where you came from, never forget how poor you were in hard times, never forget the many times you cried and had to fight to survive. If you do forget or abandon all those feelings you lie to yourself and lose your true identity. Be proud of your beautiful country, be proud of your language, be proud of your music, and be proud of your way of living. Only then you can be fully proud of yourself as well.” – Gregor Serban Jr. EXPLORE 
Question: What is your definition of Communism?
Mission Statement of Victims of Communism and Their Persecutors: To speak on the behalf of the Victims of Communism. To inform and inspire its readers to avoid certain mistakes, and especially, to understand the truth, and have the curiosity to get informed more, on what the ordeals that every Communist dictatorship has been meaning for over 100,000,000 helpless victims to date Antecedents, Behaviors/Crimes, Consequences, Discussion, and Solutions of and to Communist atrocities. Antecedents Theories emphasizing conflict (Victims of Communism, P. 35) Lynn Mc Taggard (2002) suggests that the following theories were used as rationales for racism, slavery, class superiority, sexism, invasion of sovereign nations, religious, economic, ethnic, political persecutions and war: Biology: Dawin’s “survival of the fittest” evolutionism. Psychology: Freud’s “Oedipal complex”. Sociology: Marx’s “abolition of the family”, “class struggle” and “continuous revolution” (p. 17). Because all these paradigms created conflict of interests between individuals (from the superiority of aristocratic heredity of the British royalty, to the superiority of the “healthy origins” of the Russian Communists’ proletariat), or a “win/lose” (it’s they or we) paradigm, they were positioning humanity at the antipode of conflict resolution. It led to conflict escalation triggers, hostile assumptions and destructive behaviors towards one another, be it individually, nationally, or internationally. Mikhail Bakunin, (Victims of Communism, P. 38) a supposedly atheist anarchist wrote: “The devil represents the satanic revolt against the divine authority, a revolt in which we see the fecund spirit of all the mankind movements to free themselves: the revolution” (Bakunin, 1970, p. 206). Behaviors/Crimes Physiological Trauma and modification The term “psychopolitics”, (Victims of Communism, P. 39) according to Warren B. Heath’s Preface to Dumitru Bacu’s Anti-Humans, (1968) is: a technology rather than a science, since it is a practical application of data obtained by research in several sciences, and may be defined as the art of controlling a nation, controlling the minds of the politically dominant majority of its population (p. XVI). Dumitru Bacu (1968) mentions how drawing from Pavlov’s experiments on animals, the inmates were reduced to total prostration. By producing conflicts between established reflexes, the Communists developed with large percentage of success, stringent techniques to destroy at will the victims’ conscience, and replace it with Party useful convictions. They used conditioned reflexes based on neuro-psychological abuse. The interest of Communism was to persecute the victims while eventually inducing the victims to denounce their own ideals, and even thank their torturers for such tortures. In the Pitesti prison of Romania for example, the mind-deformation procedure which the Communists called “re-education,” had the stages of: a) associate words of beloved concepts with excruciating pain and horror (e.g. Pavlov’s bell adapted to human torture) as humans were rendered to animal helplessness in “hospital rooms,” by means of horrendous physical pain, and the prisoners were asked to “unmask” themselves and participate in denying any merit to experiences of “former” values (e.g. call their mothers “whores,” celebrate a mock Mass by eating feces and drinking urine, instead of the Holy Communion, call one’s country “a whore,” and praise the Communist Party as the “true and only ‘country’”); b) prisoners were asked afterwards to “unmask fellow cell-mates”, by provoking them in private talks, to anti-Communist discussions, and turning in those who had joined in criticizing the Party; c) following the turning in of the cell-mates, they would have to participate as torturers of their cell-mates, until the new prisoners would accept their own “re-education.” Those who would not give-in would be killed. Yet, any means that could have been used by the prisoners to inflict suicide were withheld (Bacu, 1968). In a documentary called The Soviet Story (2008), the director was able to give the audience a glimpse into the harrowing experiences of interpersonal damage Communism has meant for its subjects, which included but was not limited to, murder of millions of civilians through: arrests, torture, mass killings, organized famine, forced relocation, destroying the privacy of the institution of marriage, forced Russification, using family members as hostages in order to extort silence from refugees abroad, prohibition, or long delays in allowing family reunification abroad (Snore, 2008). Material Considerations Pitesti(Victims of Communism, P. 40) Dr. Florin Matrescu (1998) documents, how during and after the WWII occupation of Russian forces in Romania (including Republic of Moldova), in conjunction with local tyrants, the Communists, have used various methods of persecution, such as repeated deportations to Siberia (1941-1964), calculated famine (1946-1947), mass executions (1944), instant execution or imprisonment for refusing to hand-over personal urban property (1944-1958), raping of women by the Russian occupation army (1941-1956), confiscating the lands from farmers (1949-1955), fighting the anti-Communist partisans in the mountains (1946-1974), massive imprisonment (1944-1989), massive internment in forced-labor camps and mines (1944-1958), internment in psychiatric hospitals (1944-1989) and neo-Communist sponsored attacks against peaceful demonstrators (1989-1992). Total victims killed by the Communists in Romania, with its population of 24,000,000 (including Republic of Moldova), known so far are over 1,891,500 (Matrescu, 1998). This created a great societal trauma and divide between victims and oppressors, which will require private and governmental intervention to recalibrate the various levels of this society into a democratic and civil one. Pitting Victims against each others (Victims of Communism, Pp. 44-47) Also, some members of the Jewish communities consider that the Communists are to be forgiven and forgotten all their genocides and only admired for the saving of Jews from the Nazi Holocaust. For example, Efraim Zuroff, the director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Israel office, describes the failed effort in 2010, by six Central/Eastern European countries, to have the European Community condemn Communism, as a ‘false symmetry’: “For all the terrible crimes of the USSR, you can't compare the people who built Auschwitz with the people who liberated it” (Phillips, 2010). In general, (Victims of Communism, P. 43) as the documentary The Soviet Story (2008) details, to this day, there are double standards in universally condemning the Nazi crimes, but somehow defending the Communist genocides as “justified” or “necessary”. It is somehow unaccepted socially (and in some European countries illegally) to display the Nazi paraphernalia of the genocidal 6,000,000 Jews dictatorship, yet it is both socially and legally acceptable, including in the United States, to wear hammer and sickle t-shirts, or hats, not to mention Kremlin’s and Maoist red stars, or of Che Guevara’s likeness proudly, while these symbols also glorify the death of over 100,000,000 victims to date, killed by Communists all over the globe (Snore, 2008). Communist Chic President Obama’s 2009 White House Christmas tree displaying an orb depicting the genocidal Chinese dictator Mao (Foxnews, 2009 webpage), London Fashion Week having models wear clothes (including panties) with hammer and sickle and Che Guevara likeness on several occasions, or Tim Vincent of television’s Access Hollywood going on air in 2006 sporting a hammer and sickle t-shirt, are some regrettable examples of what is now called “Communist chic”. Meanwhile, when in 2005, Prince Harry wore a Nazi uniform to a costume party, there was unanimous scandal in the media. Also, when a clothing chain in London inadvertently stocked a bag whose design included swastikas in 2009, there was a big outcry, and its instant removal from the shelves. As a side-note, in all probability, the bag came from India, where the swastika (in its original shape, not the Nazi one, which is inverted), is an old and perfectly honorable symbol (Nordlinger, 2011 webpage). In one of Marx’s –the prophet of Communism- 1856 articles in The New-York Tribune, quoted by Wurmbrand (1994), Marx candidly states: “The fact that the Jews have became so powerful that they are endangering the life of humanity, determines us to unveil their organization and true purposes, so that the putrid smell they emanate will incite in the fight against them, the working class all over the world” (p. 49). As Richard Wurmbrand (1994) –an ethnic Jew himself- documented, Karl Marx was equally anti-German and stated that: “the only way to wake up the Germans is to slap them” (p. 50). Meanwhile, Frederick Engels, the other ideologue of Communism, also quoted by Wurmbrand (1994), called Slavs, along with Gaels, Bretons and Basques "national refuse" and claimed that they deserved: "to perish in the universal revolutionary storm" (p. 51). The applicability of Marxism by all the Communist powers that ever took control of any nation, was as deadly as it was Marx’s and other Communist writers’ dogmas for mass annihilation. The Soviet Story (2008) details in fact, how both the Nazis and the Communists used Marx’s writings to propagate their genocides. While the National-Socialists based their holocaust primarily on Marx’s false biology, the Communist-Socialists based their holocaust primarily on Marx’s false sociology (Snore, 2008). Furthermore, these two state terrorist systems colluded before WWII and until 1941, with the veteran and more homicidally experienced Communists (which had came to power in 1917), assisting the Nazis to attack, occupy and/or partition neutral countries (Poland, Norway and Romania), training Gestapo troops to run extermination camps, hand over Jewish refugees, provide oil and grain supplies to the Nazi war machine and army, and order the Communist International movements to sabotage anti-Nazi resistance in and assist Nazi occupation of Western Europe (Snore, 2008). From Marx’s and Engels’ instigations for revolution against middle-class and higher class individuals, as well as, from their xenophobia against Jews, Germans, Slavs, Bretons, Gaels, Basques and others, to the Communists’ actual classist and racist crimes, it is clear that the blanket demonization implemented by Communists spared no one ethnic group, and it involved Communist oppressors from each corner of a society respectively (including the infamous ethnic Jewish Soviet NKVD/KGB commissars and Politburo members), to perpetrate the atrocious crimes they committed (including being involved in anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist persecutions). The position of blanked exculpation of the Communist holocausts and the existing demonization of the Nazi holocausts should be replaced rather by lucid analysis and universal condemnation of each crime, both individually and systemically, and as equally outrageous by the world. Much in the same vein with the American poetess Audre Lorde (1983), it is also the opinion of this writer that there is no hierarchy of oppression for the victims, and nor should be one for those who analyze these crimes. Qualifying one tragedy as greater than the other (such as pitting the Nazi victims versus the Communist victims and vice-versa), will only serve to the various perpetrators’ propagandas and agendas, be they committed by left or right wing dictatorships, past, present, or future, according to the a adage: “Divide et Impera” (Divide and Conquer). Avoiding pitting victims against each others: (Victims of Communism, P. 52) In another interview I took for Romanian language publications from Ioan Rosca, a prominent spokesperson for victims of Communism from Romania, he adds to the ideas mentioned above: 1. Prohibition of their sacrifices to be used as pretext for violence against Communist civilians by right-wing governments. 2. Prohibition by corporations to use the Communist crimes’ specter in order to take over other countries’ economies and destroy those countries’ middle-class and local economy. 3. True representation with victims’ representatives when governments are discussing restorative measures. 4. Appropriate counseling and education of societies to treat the effects of over 100 years of neo-Communist brainwashing. 5. Make the West and the US aware of their countries’ own involvement (government agencies) and private institutions’ own responsibilities (banks, corporations) in supporting the inception and the perpetuation of Communist governments in, but not limited to Eastern/Central Europe (Gherasim, 2006, p. 13). Ioan Rosca, who runs a NGO committee in charge of the trials of Communist crimes, has established various kinds of crimes that will need to be considered for reparations such as: incarcerations, torture, overall terrorization, blackmail, infractions against human decency, theft, economical destruction, attacks on churches, betrayal of national interests, brain-wash, indoctrination, moral and spiritual alienation (Rosca, 2004). Consequences Dimensions of conflict: Intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup, intergroup individuals are affected by conflicts. Costs of conflict: (Victims of Communism, P. 37-38) Death, violence, planned starvation, planned diseases, imprisonment, torture, rape, deportation, property confiscation, withholding medical treatment, traumas, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, sabotage, are some of the costs. Psychological Modification. A Romanian priest, called Fr. Roman Braga, (Victims of Communism, P. 41) and who was imprisoned over 24 years in Communist prisons for his faith, told his fellow cellmate, pastor Richard Wurmbrand, why they were being tortured and asked by KGB commissars and Securitate agents to not only keep silent about their faiths, but to curse the Messiah: “If they just kill all of us, Christians, we will go to Heaven as saints. But they don’t want us to become martyrs. First, they want us to curse God, Jesus, and the Bible, so that after our deaths we’ll also go to Hell” (Wurmbrand, 1994, p. 74). Lynne Mc Taggart (2002) considers the existence of spirit (tainted or untainted), explained as an energetically fundamentally living and intelligent field, and that is a scientifically proven phenomenon. One may also explain how despite a draconic regimen of unilateral decimation, starvation, exposure to physical and mental abuse, some victims of Communism (and of other totalitarian regimes), managed to survive, prosper, recreate internal and external harmony, forgive, and even pray for their persecutors, just as many did not make it beyond the first interrogation. The intrapersonal influence we may have over the universe, based on our intentions, interpretations, and actions, may be that which the Communists tried desperately to inhibit in their victims, and at the same time that which was the saving grace for those very victims, in surviving, healing, moving on in life, despite their ordeals, or simply to die in peace. Yet, the effects of the forcefully inversed common sense values are still lingering with millions of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder victims among the masses. Stanislav Grof (2000) agrees by differentiating between people with different physical strengths or body chemistries that react differently to the same indoctrination, torture, environmental limitations, in surviving at all, or in healing afterwards. Grof (2000), also points to each individual’s self or societal expectations, emotional state, social role or spiritual affect, which may all contribute to that person’s intrapersonal traits and overall biological survival. Communism as trauma Trauma has been existing as long as has Communism. Issues such as private property versus nationalization, family versus state child rearing, citizens’ family values versus state values, post-Communism outcomes (i.e. neo-Communism versus bona-fide democracy), adjustments to meritocratic elites from bureaucratic or police-state elites, Communist transformation of societies through revolutions versus Communist power holding, Communism versus Capitalism, emotional, mental, physical, social, economical and personal stressors have been all affecting the above. Replacing recrimination, sabotage, collusion, stress, verbal, emotional, physical violence, with legal, economical, international, community, emotional interventions and psychological atonement, from the drama and trauma of the Communist holocausts, to both support mutual responsibilities (shared) and respect for the victims of Communism’s regained individualism and independence, is the sine qua non condition of the conflict resolution between the victims of Communism and their persecutors. Various attempts to create some sort of cooperation between the survivors and the oppressors of Communist atrocities, may include communal meals, national, cultural events and ecumenical conferences, which may give some good results, as long as the big elephant in the room is properly addressed: power imbalances between the affluent neo-Communists and the poor survivors. Issues need to cover topics of interest for both parties. Those related to survivors include civilian population destruction via arrests, confiscation of land, black-listing, deportation and deliberate impeding of freedom of movement. Those related to the Communist oligarchy, include security concerns from retaliation attacks, and law suits (Rosca, 2004). There seems to be however, insufficient concerns to make actual universal reparations to the victims, on the Romanian government’s side, except giving some lip-service rhetoric, sporadic media attention, or during private commemorations (Rosca, 2004). All these concerns need to be addressed in creating a sense of fairness from and trust in the other stake-holder. With continued self-justification for crimes against the innocents and lack of introspection, or wish to take responsibility for the past personal acts of generalized violence on the civilian population by the Communist culprits, not only will there not be any closure on past crimes, but there will be ongoing continuous injustices against the other stake-holder. There is no way to “extend the pie” in oppressor-victim negotiation, if the paradigms of these negotiation gravitate entirely on positions (power dominance) and with no chance to concentrate on common interests at all (security, sharing the same space, create a better world united) between these disputants. Israeli Supreme Court judges (Victims of Communism, P. 80) This is what the three Israeli Supreme Court judges wrote, in denying Ygal Amir’s appeal for clemency, for the assassination of a Nobel Prize winner and peacebuilder, Yitzkah Rabin: Every murder is an abominable act, but the act before us is more abominable sevenfold, because not only has the accused not expressed regret or sorrow, but he also seeks to show that he is at peace with himself over the act that he perpetrated. He who so calmly cuts short another's life, only proves the depth of wretchedness to which [his] values have fallen, and thus he does not merit any regard whatsoever, except pity, because he has lost his humanity. (Israeli Supreme Court Appeals decision, 1999, quoted from website) The need for an equitable reconciliation between victims of Communism and their perpetrators remains active to date. President George Bush Jr (Victims of Communism, P. 80-81) In 2005 President George Bush Jr. stated at Riga: As we mark the victory of six decades ago, we are mindful of a paradox. For much of Germany, defeat led to freedom. For much of Eastern and Central Europe, victory brought the iron rule of another empire. V-E Day marked the end of fascism, but it did not end oppression. The agreement at Yalta followed in the unjust tradition of Munich and the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Once again, when powerful governments negotiated, the freedom of small nations was somehow expendable. Yet this attempt to sacrifice freedom for the sake of stability left a continent divided and unstable. The captivity of millions in Central and Eastern Europe will be remembered as one of the greatest wrongs of history (emphasis added) (The Cranky Conservative, 2005, quoted from website). Yet in 2010, in the same year Georgia took down Stalin’s statue in Grozni (Al Jazeera, 2010), America raised a statue of Stalin in Bedford, Virginia, courtesy of the D-Day Memorial Foundation (Watson, 2010). It seems that the victims of Communism still have to live with the idyllic explication of their torturers, and persecutors, as somehow “justified liberators.” Discussion, and Solutions of and to Communist atrocities. Justice and Conflict resolution (Victims of Communism, P. 68-77) There are five types of justice to be considered: distributive (fair outcome), procedural (fair treatment), a sense of justice (experienced), moral justice (universal), and restorative justice (integrative) (Hemlick, and Petersen, 2001). Distributive Equity (economy): production equals consumption. Equality (social harmony): same rights for all members. Need (special groups focus): need based. Team spirit: player helps team and is rewarded (Hemlick, and Petersen, 2001). Procedural Fair treatment and procedures, “innocent until proven guilty” (Hemlick, and Petersen, 2001). A Sense of Justice Victims and victimizers have been living in the same system but have also been experiencing it differently. Very often the victimizers will justify their oligarchy by using logical fallacies such as: either/or; ad hominem attacks; all/none, band wagon, other generalizations, stereotypes and absolutisms (Hemlick, and Petersen, 2001). Moral Justice Why fight atrocious conditions and power imbalances, and maintain an integral self? Lynne Mc Taggart (2002) considers the existence of a strong, unbreakable life and energy-giving spirit, explained as: “an energetically fundamentally living and intelligent field, and that it is a scientifically proven phenomenon” (p. 15). Her book, The Field, tells the story of a group of ingenious scientists who discovered that the Zero Point Field connects everything in the universe, much like “the Force” in the movie Star Wars. The Field offers an avant-garde view of the way our living world and our bodies work, and gives both meaning to suffering and motivation to the oppressors to transform themselves into nobler beings. The human mind and body: “are not distinct and separate from their environment, but a continuum of pulsating energy, constantly interacting within this vast energy sea” (p. 19). The Field illustrates an interconnected universe and a new scientific theory which makes sense of supernatural phenomena. It talks about the juxtaposition of the Newtonian views on the world based on materially separated and distinctive particles, with the quantum physics paradigms, based on the Zero Point (e.g. the ocean of microscopic vibrations which is between and within beings). In other words, at our most basic essence, we are not a chemical reaction, but an (intelligent) electric charge (Mc Taggart, 2002). These paradigm distinctions are important for psychopolitical purposes, because according to the Zero Point perspective, there is a living conscience which observes, modifies and is modified, based on the intentions and actions being present. While many basal processes -such as feeding, digestion, sleeping, sexuality-, remain regulated by physical laws, it is the quantum physics perspective of interrelationship between living beings, that offers a more integrative view on consciousness, (e.g. that each living being has a field of influence over the world and vice-versa). Restorative Justice Karl Marx justified violent overthrow of societies (e.g. revolution) due to blaming specific ethnic groups (false biology) and specific economic groups (false sociology) for the misery of another specific group of people, the working-class (Wurmbrand, 1991). This in turn allowed for the Communists and the Nazis to create aggressive blanked demonization of nations’ civilians based on social class and ethnicity respectively, which in turn were subjugated, exploited, tortured and decimated in the name of “justice”. Whether it is a pick-pocket thief, a gang of revolutionaries, or a country taking over other countries (Germany, Russia), the first step in conflict resolution is to make the culprits accountable for their actions and return the stolen property. Therefore, both the Marxist theories that justified aggression, and their subsequent resulting criminal actions, need universal condemnation in order to create a basis of discussion for aggression, reparations, its elimination and the peacebuilding achievement and maintenance. Should condemnation of Communism not happen prior to mediating between the parties, the mediator herself may look favorably to Communism as a legitimate governing force and therefore, may interpret the Communist crimes as negligible, or as a necessary evil (Druckman, 2005). Instead, the mediator should strive to create reconciliation between abuser and abused, which would also be amenable to the reformed oppressor. The three subclasses of societal reduction of unforgiveness from the victims are: punitive justice; economic justice; and restorative justice (Hemlick, and Petersen, 2001). I recommend the restorative approach, due to the fact that punitive justice only continues to present a history of tit for tat crimes in post-Communist societies, and because economic justice alone, would bring no attempts of the parties to re-create a relationship of mutual accord and respect between these parties. Restorative justice however, in addition to addressing the material needs of victims and/or of their families on both sides, also creates an environment for both of the stake-holders’ unanimity of sincere condemnation to injustices, from victims and perpetrators (or their representatives), without turning a past abuser into a future victim. The goal of restorative justice is to establish a relationship of mutual dialogue and societal partnership in a more equitable society for all involved. While the South African Mandellian views of restorative justice involved bringing in some black figure heads into politics and eliminating all apartheid laws, the victims nevertheless didn’t receive appropriate restorative compensations, the white corporations and the status-quo remained, from the diamond and gold industries to the gated white communities (Hemlick, and Petersen, 2001). There was in other words, a moral sentiment of justice achieved for those victimized by whites, but this was mostly symbolic in nature and the commission was arbitrarily run (and terminated) by Bishop Tutu’s overseers (Hemlick, and Petersen, 2001). Also, unilateral condemnation should be applied by the international community, to Communist crimes, as it was applied to the Nazi crimes. As far as the societal dichotomy between the victims of Communism and their persecutors, what would reconcile victim and oppressor at the interpersonal level would be reframing the duplicity of “us/them” with the awareness of an “us all.” For example, preparing a report condemning the institution of Communism in 2006 by Vladimir Tismaneanu, a Communist leader’s son, which was read in the Romanian Parliament in the same year by Traian Basescu, a Securitate agent before 1989, turned afterwards democratic president of the country, meant symbolically that there were no more Communist handlers and their subjects in Romania, but only Romanian citizens united in decrying the crimes of the tyrannical past (Tismaneanu, 2010). Seeking the Israeli model of pursuing inveterate torturers, even internationally, and bringing them to justice (Matrescu, 1998), or the German model of state retribution to Holocaust victims, including but not limited to, the survivors’ relief, rehabilitation and resettlement (The Jewish Virtual Library, 1999), or the Swiss banks’ partial return of assets to victims of Nazi confiscated gold (Komisar, 1996), or the Volkswagen and Siemens’ return of funds to former inmates involved in forced labor (via German government) model (Mazal, 2004), may serve as good examples of material reparations for victims of Communism. Romania itself returned in 1990 only the gold confiscated by Communists from the gypsies in 1947, but did not return the gold stolen from the majority ethnic Romanians themselves (Romanian History and Culture Virtual Encyclopedia, 2005). Also, while a limited number of properties have been returned to former owners, such as King Michael’s palaces, (Timoc, 2005), the law is still applied selectively and lackadaisically with regard to most of the usurped owners (Rosca, 2004). To be sure, faith-based precedents of conflict resolution attempts, such as the Abrahamic reconciliation in Israel-Palestine, as a means of bringing about genuine social and paradigm change that provides a sustainable environment for peace, have been tried by more ecumenical groups such as the PACIS project, but these efforts have not addressed the core of Palestinian legitimacy over Palestine or the Zionist zeal to sustain the created state of Israel over Palestinian interests, which are the seeds of discord between these two communities (PACIS, 2010). Mahatma Gandhi, addressed in an essay published in 1938, some of the historical issues invoked by Jews to regain access to Palestine for historical perspectives. Gandhi makes the argument however, that massacres on both sides make no sense, especially since the Palestine of the Biblical conception: …is not a geographic tract. It is in their hearts. But if they must look to the Palestine of geography as their national home, it is wrong to enter it under the shadow of the British gun. A religious act, -the return of Israel's tribes to their ancestral land-, cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb (Gandhi, 1938, quoted from website). To paraphrase Gandhi, in a post-Communist context, a true revolution is bloodless, democratic and based on dialogue and respect for human liberty. The fervid enthusiasm for social architecture via demolition and destruction, of the Communists, should be reframed as a democratic process based on mutual interests. For the victims of Communism, the quest for justice should be reframed as a quest for an overall better society, where safeguards are implemented to stop any attempts of extremisms and dictatorship and tyrannical acts. Both the documenting literature on the Communist atrocities and the Conflict Resolution theories and methodologies proposed, are lackadaisical in terms of explaining and overturning the Western implicit or explicit acceptance of Communist crimes. With the duplicity of condemning one Marxist ideology and crimes (National-Socialism) but excusing the other Marxist ideology and crimes (Communist-Socialism), by the Western countries, Communist and neo-Communist governments have very little official motivation to want to be normal members of a society, when they can remain its privileged oligarchy. Neither the memorializing literature of the survivors, nor the conflict resolution praxis, can prescribe, under such Western duplicity, a material and social transformation in neo-Communist interests, so that their representatives will willingly come to the negotiation table with their victims. However, there is a two-fold solution implied, despite the governmental lack of interest to cede its power, at both the intrapersonal and at the inter-dependent levels. At the intrapersonal level, there is an inner human barometer of what’s universally good and what’s bad in the world, which makes us to seek inherently, fairness. Some want to “come clean” and bring closure while saving face for them or their parents, if belonging to the neo-Communist cadre of past or present times. One of them was Vladimir Tismaneanu, who in 2006 conducted and created a document condemning Communism in Romania, and naming among its culprits his own father (a privileged Communist party member) (Tismaneanu, 2006). His example was emulated by various children of notorious Communist apparatchik, who whether in Romania, Europe at large, Israel or in the USA, condemned the Communist crimes and their own parents and the injustices committed, even if they themselves benefitted greatly from a privileged life-style, until and after 1989, thanks to their parents’ Communist allegiances (Rajk, and Simecka, 2010). At the inter-dependent level, many Communists realize that they are just as dependent on the (formerly) subjugated population, as that population is dependent on them. At societal levels, due to religious conversions, living among “common” people and bonding with these peers, being the citizens of the same country, marrying into a family of survivors, living in the same environment and being linked in everyday activities, living or moving abroad and comparing Communism to a democratic society, led some Communists to make their own “mea culpa” at the individual level, be it privately, or during informal meetings with victims (Garner, 2009). Furthermore, many of the insiders or bureaucrats who were aware of Communist atrocities came out to unveil closely guarded government documents detailing some Communist crimes (Pacepa, 2006). Also, many artists and media people, who had praised the Party and various Communist revolutions before 1989, have been subsequently putting their talents in the service of documenting, emulating and praising the sacrifices of their peers, who had fought for the country’s freedom and democracy, at the cost of being fired, imprisoned, tortured, or killed (Hossu, 1991). Given the history of Communist monopoly, any arrangements between the survivors and their oppressors should be moderated by powerful and reputable third parties. The facilitators in charge should be also advocates for the victims, when need be, in order to balance the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual imbalance that the neo-Communist monopoly still exercises over the oppressed. Many interventions to condemn Communism and seek reparations at the government level for its victims, collapsed (Gherasim, G. 2006). Due to the Western governments’ complicity with the Communists, from the Yalta agreement (Ultima Thule, 2010) to the present day validation of the Chinese occupation of sovereign Tibet (New-Delhi Television, 2009), there is virtually no interest in taking actions to condemn, internationally, Communism in the USA or the European Community, be it legally, socially, morally or economically. Furthermore, from the loans awarded to Communists by US and Swiss banks (TheHiddenEvil.com 2010) to start their terror campaigns, until contemporary business arrangements with Communist China (Funderburk, 1990), there seems to be a banking and corporate approach to not only tolerate, but in fact to support the Communist terrorism in their countries, as long as Western establishments can turn in a profit in the process too. If neo-Communist governments however, continue unabated by Europe and by the USA, in their criminal and imperialist politics, such as Russia, by shooting dissenting journalists and civilians (list of journalists killed in Russia, 2010), killing oversees refugees (BBC, 2006), maintaining occupation armies in Georgia and Moldova (Voice of America, 2010), glorifying criminal dictators such as Lenin (Shlapentokh, 2009), imposing economic blackmail to former hostage nations (Reuters, 2010) and conditioning their delivery of resources (natural gas) to Europe, based on the European Community’s silence on Communist crimes (Gherasim, G. 2006), it makes no sense for them to negotiate, what essentially amounts to a voluntary decrease of power, to admit the inherent criminality of their system and to pay reparations. Also, if the Occident is directly or indirectly part of the Communist machinations (or too weak to control it), it creates lack of credibility in it, as a mediator, arbitrator, or litigator, for both victims of Communism and for their oppressors. The same goes for the neo-Communist governments in formerly communized countries. Strengths and Weakness of Conflict Resolution Techniques Strengths By employing intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup and intergroup theories and case precedents of application from Negotiation, Conflict Resolution, and Peacebuilding materials, would help resolving the separation in fabric between victims of Communism and their oppressors. Essentially, I see a combination of non-governmental and governmental efforts in mediating between the two parties, as the best form of reframing the antagonist victims/perpetrators positions with the interests of a mutually secure, united interdependent and peaceful society between these two parties. The non-governmental mediation would assist with the reconnection of dialogue and addressing the emotional aspects of this societal split with the stake-holders. It would also create a mutually satisfying framework of reference for governmental implementation at a later time. The government would add structure, expertise, and would implement the agreed upon actions, and would make official the closure of this societal divide, once the agreed upon restorative measures are satisfied. Weaknesses The principal problem I found was two-folded: conflict of interests between equally or more powerful international mediators and the oligarchic (neo) Communists, since they have to this day vested economical, political and raw materials dependency on (neo) Communist countries; and also, the existing legitimacy of the Communist system being still in place, despite having the same source of theoretical self-justification (Marxism) and the same genocidal practices as the Nazis. Memorializing Activities (Victims of Communism, P. 82) Developing and applying the concepts and methodologies from both the literature review and discussion sections of this book, involve organizing conferences, exhibits, conducting research, and design a curriculum to find and share useful information with conflict resolution theorists, practitioners and observers. Why should Americans care? Various attempts by the US government to condemn Communist crimes have been made throughout the years, from the 1950’s US support of Nationalist China, and standing by the West Germans’ when the Russians built the Berlin Wall (1) to the 2011 support of Vietnamese dissidents, including a church pastor and land activists, who were summarily convicted in a 1 (one) day trial to up to 8 years by the Communist government, for “attempting to overthrow” the Communist dictatorship, simply because they criticized the Communist government’s power abuses on the civilian population. Yet, in the West, including in the United States, the violent destruction of the societies so dear to Marxist activists, are flirted with by corporations, politicians, and citizens alike, including with the cute label of “Communist chic”, as if killing millions of farmers, workers, students, intellectuals and religious leaders (priests, pastors, imams, rabbis, and Buddhist monks) is a trivial thing. Without the condemnation of the Communist ideology and crimes, by the world at large, and without the inclusion of educational programs in schools all over the world, on the destructive premises of false sociology that Communism has been propagating from 1800’s Marxism to 2011 Chinese, N. Korean or Cuban dictatorships, the world will learn nothing from its crimes, and will therefore expose itself to new abuses based on similar criminal ideologies In fact, in 2010, in the same year Georgia took down Stalin’s statue in Grozni, America raised a statue of Stalin in Bedford Virginia, courtesy of the D-Day Memorial Foundation. It seems that without unequivocal and unilateral condemnation of Communism, including in the United States, the survivors of Communist atrocities, including the political and the religious refugees to this country, such as my father, still have to live with the idyllic explication of their torturers, and persecutors, as somehow being “justified liberators.” For those Americans who think that ignoring the victims of Communism and avoiding to condemn the violent aims and methods of Communist dictatorship, may not affect their life-styles, I may only suggest the Georgia Stones, a 1979 project which exists today in the Elbert county, Georgia, which under the idyllic nickname of the “Georgia Guide stones” suggests among other criminal ideas to: “Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance (?!) with nature.” (thus killing the “excess population” and prohibiting individuals to reproduce outside these standards). The Black Book of Communism, Stephane Courtois et al. 1997 Bless You Prison (Movie-Netflix) and or book by Nicole Valery Grossu 2004 The Soviet Story by Edwins Snore, 2008 Author Gabriel Teodor Gherasim MA Victims of Communism and Their Persecutors Second Edition 2017 Vervante Press, available in Print and PDF at: http://gabrielgherasim.com/contact.html |
Faith and Spirituality
What's the difference between having faith and being faithful? Some of my writing explores topics about applied spirituality, starting with understanding the foundation of the matrix of life: love.
Please see my book Theodor and Us EXPLORE 
How insignificant we are in front of God's Majesty!
Cat de insignificanti suntem in fata Maretiei lui Dumnezeu! 
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