Lubricious interlude

Today, a mass was held for the late dictator and monster man of Chile, Augusto Pinochet, who died in his bed two years ago after evading justice more or less successfully for years by pretending to be demented or something. Of course, to preside over the killing and torturing of so many thousands, you have to be more than just a little dotty. But Cardinal Jorge Medina held a homily for the General, who, as a good Catholic, made sure that the rich in Chile became richer and that the rest of the economy hit a brick wall. (If this sounds familiar, then remember that Pinochet was the darling of such freedom fighters as Ronald Reagan and Maggie Thatcher and the entire horror chamber of neocons). Under Augusto, anyone raising objections was dumped alive in the Pacific from a flying helicopter after being used as a filament... or shot, or mutilated by some more pious people in uniform in a 20th-century dungeon.



Anyway: Excellency's eye apparently strayed onto some image of Madonna, who was in town, because Santiago is on her somewhat pruriently-named Sticky and Sweet Tour itinerary. Now that the dictatorship has been lifted and some joy has returned to the city, this kind of phenomenon is perfectly legal. Finally liberated from the moroseness of Catholic dictators, young Chileans apparently find her music attractive -- and I suspect her half-century old wiles are somehow energizing. A win-win situation, since Madonna obviously needs to sell more of her "Hard Candy" album (oh, what a subtle title!)

It's all rather innocent. But not for the Cardinal: "The atmosphere in our city is pretty agitated because this woman is visiting and with incredibly shameful behavior provokes a wild and lustful enthusiasm," he told his flock. Medina is entitled to his opinion, of course, but there are two points here that must be taken up with this Man of God.

First, his way of interpreting án eyeful of the American singer suggests that he finds her sexy. If he is turned on by Madonna and given to lubricious thoughts, I believe he should deal with it himself, whichever way suits him as long as he does not break the law. And if other people, male or female, feel some hormonal surge at the sight of the pop star, then so be it.... Maybe they will run home and stirred by the vision of Madonna's fishnets, will make babies. And that is very much the doctrine of the Church, right? The Church loves children, but must we remind the Cardinal, that for the most part children are made in a "wild and lustful" moment of enthusiasm. If nature -- or God for the believers -- had made sex something to be carried out tp the sound of a metronome ticking, the chances are there would not be 6 billion of us on the planet. Why do you have amuses-gueules, or appetisers, please.

(To be honest, Madonna does not interest me musically in the least. I think I can whistle one tune of hers, and the rest all sound pretty much the same. I'll take the Golberg Variations when I go to the desert island. And her version of "in-your-face" sexuality I find about as erotic as being hit with a sock full of wet sand.)


The second point is more dramatic: As mentioned above, it's a free world. So if the Cardinal feels like whooping up Pinochet and dissing Madonna, I guess he, too, is free. The photo on the left, then, is what his world might look like. It's his world, Chile, 1970s... Whoever that man was, let Cardinal Medina be reminded, he was somebody's son, and probably guilty of nothing more than reading a book or listening to the Bee Gees. And by the looks of it, he did not die from hearing Madonna or making lustful love to his girlfriend. Pinochet's secret police, the DINA, left bodies lying around not because they were sloppy, I suspect, but to make sure the people saw them. It's terror in its crudest form. And the head of the DINA, Manuela Contreras, even got an extra dose of prison time this year. Was Medina praying for the black soul of Mr. Pinochet?

And there were thousands more like this unknown fellow; many were shot in the infamous stadium at the time of the coup against Allende, many were tortured and/or killed later on. And each victim had a mother and a father and maybe syblings. And each one had a life, had learning, had love and even nautiness in his or her heart.

All that so the rich, the very rich, the owners of the latifundia, the oligarchs who went shopping in Geneva, New York, Paris, embalmed in wealth drawn from the country, could sleep peacefully, knowing their overflowing coffers were safe. And so the world could get some more cheap copper or some other commodity wrested from the earth by cheap labor. This is the true war and the only war. It is waged against people by men mad with power and money. And that power attracts others, like citizen Medina, because they feel it will rub off. And that is a plague.

What ignorant, self-deluded little men they are. And alas, still very virulent.