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[Ladypeartree]

:D Saw this and thought it toed into the many many discussions going on about " END TIMES " where we will be in a world wide single currency (??) and how that links in to religeous beliefs...........





The eurozone's religious faultlineBy Chris Bowlby

BBC Radio 4


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Discussion among eurozone leaders about the future of their single currency has become an increasingly divisive affair. On the surface, religion has nothing to do with it - but could Protestant and Catholic leaders have deep-seated instincts that lead them to pull the eurozone in different directions, until it breaks?

Following the last European summit in Brussels there was much talk of defeat for Chancellor Merkel by what was described as a "new Latin Alliance" of Italy and Spain backed by France.

Many Germans protested that too much had been conceded by their government - and it might not be too far-fetched to see this as just the latest Protestant criticism of the Latin approach to matters monetary, which has deep roots in German culture, shaped by religious belief.

Churchgoing has been in decline in Germany as elsewhere as secularisation has spread, but religious ideas still shape the way Germans talk and think about money. The German word for debt - schuld - is the same as the word for "guilt" or "sin".

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“
Start Quote
The 19th Century Latin Currency Union struggled to survive after a number of countries minted and printed more money than they were meant to”
End Quote Talk of thrift and responsible budgeting comes instinctively to Angela Merkel, daughter of a Protestant pastor.

Merkel's frequent assertion that "there is no alternative" to austerity policies (while reminiscent to Britons of Margaret Thatcher) has been likened to the famous stubborn statement by German Reformation leader Martin Luther: "Here I stand. I can do no other".

The new German president, Joachim Gauck, who might play an important role in constitutional arguments about the single currency, is also from the Protestant fold - he is a former Lutheran pastor.

The country's population is fairly evenly divided between Protestants and Catholics - as well as those of other faiths, or none - and Merkel's and Gauck's ascent symbolises changes in Germany since reunification in 1990.


Former West German Chancellor - and Catholic - Konrad Adenauer signed the unifying Treaty of Rome in 1957 Both lived in East Germany, a historically Protestant territory, while West Germany had several influential Catholic political leaders, who, in earlier post-war decades, had joined in broad Catholic enthusiasm for European integration.

Former West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, a Rhineland Catholic highly distrustful of Protestant Prussian traditions to the German east, led West Germany into the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957.

This created the European Economic Community, forerunner of today's EU. And there was a clear geographical fit between the six countries which signed and the territory of Charlemagne's Holy Roman Empire.

Charlemagne, claimed by modern European unifiers as a kind of patron saint, had created a new currency for his territories - the livre carolienne.

Helmut Kohl, who took Germany into economic and monetary union in the 1990s, was another Catholic Rhinelander constantly visiting cathedrals and speaking of the ancient spiritual roots of a united Europe.

There was much talk of the Germans sacrificing their beloved Deutsche Mark currency "on the altar of European unity".

But German reunification at that time also meant the capital moving back to Berlin, away from closer Catholic connections felt in the west and south of the country.

And the eurozone crisis has intensified a deep-rooted debate about whether Germans, shaped by Protestantism, are fundamentally different from Catholic "Latin" countries and their allies.

[buckthesystem]

You could be right of course. However, it looks like the single currency "euro" is a dismal failure and the great experiment of a single currency will come crashing down in tiny pieces too small to put back together.

Having this idea has aleady practically bankrupted a lot of countries in Europe and the only way out of the crisis, it seems, will be to "go back to what it was before".

The cashless society is more frightening. This is definitely coming and people are embracing it all over as it is seen as "so convenient". I can see the "end times scenario" of a cashless society and people paying by waving their foreheads or hands over a barcode scanner, coming to fruition. Far sooner than any of us would think.

As for "debate about whether Germans, shaped by Protestantism, are fundamentally different from Catholic "Latin" countries and their allies" - a workmate that I had from Russia spent ages trying to explain that to me, but I just didn't get it. Is that important?

::321:: ::321:: ::321::

[buckthesystem]

Perhaps this goes with the thread about Australia & NZ being the world's "guinea pigs" for "new measures" - a cashless society or large scale biometrics. However, it does also seem appropriate for this thread.

The first thing I noticed is "Seventy-nine per cent of Australians said they would be comfortable with fingerprint technology one day replacing their banking PIN and more than one third of Australians would prefer to live in a cashless world according to a new survey released today." Then I thought, "gee! How amazing! They took a survey of the entire population" - of course they didn't, I suspect they actually took a survey of about 100 people, probably bank staff. Though the "press release - plug for the new system" certainly makes it sound different than that.

It gives you a good idea of how the population can easily be manipulated into believing that everything is for their "convenience" and doing exactly as they're told to do.

http://www.4-traders.com/AUSTRALIA-AND-NEW...vey-r-15252115/

No cash, no worries your fingerprint will do, new survey reveals

snip