9th November 2023, Colombo/Sri Lanka - Wishes 82 / 83 / 84

In the name of Peace and Justice.

I have three wishes today, which I present to you in the name of Peace and Justice - in the hope they may be fulfilled.

My first wish for today is about women. They make up fifty percent of humanity - and it seems to me there is a lack of justice when  it comes to the women in this world. And, when there is a lack of justice, there can be no peace.

In many parts of the world (in "backward" societies, some people would say), women are underprivileged, they have no access, or very limited access, to education, they are forced to stay at home, or they are forced to hide under veils and dresses, they are treated as second class human beings, not equivalent to men. In other parts of the world (in "advanced" societies, some people would say), women are highly privileged, they enjoy the same access to education as men, they are free to move around and chose any job of their desire, they are treated as men.

In both cases, I think, there is something wrong. On the one hand it is but too obvious that women are not men, not by any stretch of the imagination - in the same way that men are not women, in most cases, at least. Men and women are different from each other, defined by their different biological nature. They are not the same, but they are equivalent to each other, they are two sides of the same coin, they complement each other. None is "worthier" than the other, none is inferior to the other.

My wish is that people start realizing (or rediscover and remember) this basic fact, and pay due respect to it.

And then, of course, it goes without saying that women should be treated (and treat themselves!) not as cheap objects of lust that can be exploited at will, but as wonderful proud worthy dignified partners in a sacred relationship with men, for the overall beneficial well-being of all of humanhood. Of course women have the right to receive the best available education, everywhere in this world, in every society. And of course women have the right to choose whatever profession that best suits her wishes and capabilities. No man should have the audacity to tell other people what to do. Nor should any woman be so stupid as to think she should be like men.

And with this I'm coming to my second wish for today, and it's about violence. Not just violence against women, but violence in general.

It seems to me: The more we're striving to reach global peace, the more we're inclined to accept violence in it's most diverse forms on a daily basis, be it violence in language, violence in a very direct physical form, violence in films, in commercials, even violence in the form of kids' toys.

This is sick! And it has to stop! We have to teach kids from an earliest age that we don't want violence, that we don't accept violence, that we want peace. That we have to resolve our problems in a non-violent way. Any form of violence must be banned, and certainly it has to be categorically and systematically banned in films, in ads, in commercials. We can have different opinions and different life-styles - we are in fact all different, after all - but violence in any form is a no-go, it has to stop!

My third wish is specifically about one particular kind of violence, or rejection: the one directed against what is somehow called "sexual deviation", the homosexual, trans-kind of behaviorism. Now, it's somehow funny, but most disturbing at the same time, that very often the very people who are the most outspoken against homosexuals and other sexually "non-conformist" people, are exactly the ones who, in their secret ways, practice the most perverse sexual conduct themselves. Among them are, very often, hypocritical priests and politicians of all shades.

We have to accept the fact that not all people on earth are sexually "conform". There is sexual conformity, and there is sexual non-conformity. So what? There are the ones who like comic books, and there are others who prefer books on astrology. So what? Let's be fair, let's be generous. Let's accept all forms of preferences, as long as they don't interfere with the rights of other people. But, at the same time: let nobody push his or her particular private preferences too forcefully into the open, because, really, it's nobody's business, and nobody's interest. Keep your preferences to yourself, please! 

Such are my three wishes for today, which I present to you in the name of Peace and Justice, in the hope they may be fulfilled.

In the name of Peace and Justice, thank you!