Cluny Revisited

Since an almost 30 year-old pedophile scandal resurfaced a few weeks ago, the siege of Vatican does not cease. The news of a priest from Munich sexually harassing a young boy back in the 80’s made the current pope’s reputation tremble. As the details of the scandal emerged from obscurity, it turned out that from Switzerland to France and from Brazil to entire Africa, every country could come up with at least one child molester to feed the scandal of the Church’s collapsing reputation.

According to the psychiatrist of the molester priest of Munich, Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI.), although the archdiocese in Munich during the incident, did not eventually know about the reinstallation of the abuser into service. Today, Joseph Ratzinger is dictating letter after letter to the Polish, Irish and Swiss churches in order to come over the rising tension. Apparently, he has to stand firmly on his heels if he ever wants to provide a proper response to the major news outlets’ scream for scandal: “Irish disgust over Roman Catholic Church”, “Pope’s tarnished reputation”, and so on, just to name a few of the popular headlines.

Vatican experts claim that the current scandal is mainly due to the “dam-effect”: in case of such delicate issues (like: concerning morality), one spark is enough to evoke the flames.

The outcome of this current issue is especially relevant from the aspect of the long-awaited reform of priests’ regulations, especially the question of celibate. Back in the 11^th century, the reform of Cluny aimed at reorganizing the law of the Church to prevent priest from forming families and thus (via heirs) shoveling all the wealth out of the system. Today morality issues are the weakest link in a religion’s agenda, and while Ratzinger (sadly) needs to patch up his torn reputation, an even more interesting finale of the current issue is going to be the dilemma of abolishing celibate. Will this also abolish pedophilia? Is that the real remedy?

The Myth of the Accelerating Toyota? Give Us a Break...

The global news buzz over Toyota’s recall-scandal kicks off with a new chapter this month as another 4.2 million cars seem to be affected by the accelerator’s own personal life. According to reports, even after releasing the pedal, engines in various Toyota models would keep rotating at the same speed, or in some occasions, the cars could even accelerate.

During the autumn of last year, half a million of Toyota’s new hybrid car, the Prius, was recalled after hundreds of reports in the US: errors in the brake system of these cars began to crop up all around the States even only a few months after each car's purchase.

Throughout the months since October 2009, the rampaging battering ram of the US media managed to force the Japanese company to its knees. Akio Toyoda, CEO of Toyota Motor Corp. is now officially begging for the entire world’s trust. The day of the U.S congressional hearing, February 24, will now forever be remembered as the “day of restart for Toyota”.

Fair enough, but why does nobody hear about Ford recalling over 16 million of its cars just before the autumn of 2009, just before the juicy Toyota-scandal? Oh, and the story wasn’t merely about a dozen unverified complaints on unresponsive accelerating pedals – a problem that surely needs instant aid but which could be dealt with temporarily if one stepped firmly on the break –, but about ABS connection wires catching fire, or the melting (sic!) of the autocruise-buttons. Another example is the 2010 edition of Chevrolet’s Camaro: almost the entire new generation has been recalled by General Motors. The company’s discreet warning begged the customers not to drive their new cars since fire sparks in the engine due to an exposed power cable could lead to lethal consequences. General Motor also recalled another 1.3 million of its other models: in each case the problem originated in loosely grounded cables which could result in engine fire or even explosion.

Today, the horror-story of Ford’s death car, the Pinto, has already become a commonplace that can easily be referred to in the current situation, when the US Senate is constantly boohooing over the morality of Toyota’s policy in placing financial income above security and customer’s service. Back in the seventies, the Pinto’s unsatisfactory construction resulted in a total of 600-900 deaths – which had to be revealed by a sole investigative reporter. After any accidental rear crash, the Pinto’s gas tank would burst into flames, not leaving much opportunity for anyone sitting in the back to survive. Ford calculated on these casualties, but as it turned out, it was much cheaper to pay the insurance companies than to redesign and reissue one of its most popular models.

It would be ridiculous to blame the Toyota-scandal on such people as Nebraskan senator Mike Johanns, (who would actually ban every Toyota in the States) just because the US turns out to be revenge-thirsty after Japan’s official ban on American beef-import due to the BSE-disease. Still, one gets the impression that the Toyota scandal-balloon feeds itself from sheer – but subtle – aspersion. Guilty West versus the meticulously professional East? The saddest part of this current hype is stigmatizing Toyota, one of the largest motor manufacturers of the world and definietly the main pillar of Japan's car-industry, as immorally greedy. Oh my.