[CS-FSLUG] Cursed is the man...

[Eduardo Sanchez]

This is a three-part stage drama.

Act1
Some days ago C.,, a long time (since early childhood) friend of mine 
contacted my wife. He is a lawyer about my same age, but as things go 
here, he has trouble getting clients and work despite being an expert 
with a J.D. degree in tax law from the University of Trier (Germany). 
He is the husband of A., a well-known state prosecutor.

C. told my wife that his wife A. was preparing the Government case 
against the former execs of the National Housing Committee. But these 
people were moving behind the scenes to get an indictment against A. on 
false charges in order to discourage her from prosecuting. Furthermore, 
one of the main actors of that behind-the-scenes comedy was Mr. T., 
Esq, one of the lawyers who works at my uncle’s law firm, and 
coincidentally member of one of the most influential families here. And 
finally, the report said, that in order to help this Mr. T., my uncle 
was also in the bandwagon. So, C. told me if I could please phone my 
uncle and tell him that A. is the wife of C. who happens to be my 
childhood friend, and that if he and his partners are going to press 
charges against her, to press only legitimate charges, and not fake 
ones? (wow, that was a mouthful).

Now, just to put you into context: my uncle is director of the J.D. 
doctoral program of the Catholic University here, is a renowned expert 
in civil law, and has an extremely successful law firm. He is also 
member of the Council of the Magistracy and the president of the Jury 
for the Judgment of Magistrates. 

I felt really uncomfortable about the whole issue. C. is, after all, my 
uncle’s colleague. Why didn’t he just contact my uncle through 
professional channels, appealing to professional courtesy to get an 
even treatment? I was really unsure, so I phoned Mom, who is often in 
touch with my uncle, and is an overall wise person. She said that she 
didn’t like the idea too much, either, but that it wouldn’t do anything 
if I called to the uncle and just told him the whole business, telling 
him clearly that I was just acting on a friend’s request. After some 
phone calls I managed to contact my uncle, and after I told him the 
whole issue, he said that he was surprised, and that he didn’t know a 
thing. Well, Ok, that’s right. 


Act 2
The other day one of my cousins received a strange phone call. Her mom, 
a sister of Mom and my uncle, usually lives in the U.S. but three 
months ago she built a house here, in Asunción, in a residential 
neighborhood. At that time she got an unlisted phone number. The caller 
was a male voice, who wanted at all costs to get my uncle’s home phone 
number. He said he was a reporter for a local radio station, and he 
wanted to warn my uncle that some fellows in his circle of friends were 
going to ’stab him in the back’. And then he hung up leaving my cousing 
wondering. How did that man learn of my aunt’s unlisted and recent 
phone number? Go figure…


Act 3
Finally the whole business seemed clear. The local press ran some 
stories where Mr. President himself (Spanish link: 
http://www.abc.com.py/articulos.php?fec=2004-07-08&pid=120985&sec=7) 
and some of his representatives openly criticized my uncle and the Jury 
for the Judgment of Magistrates. Some of the Jury’s members openly 
acknowledged that the pressure to cave into the demands of the 
Executive Branch were almost unbearable.


So this is the whole issue. I was a pawn in a high power game. Someone 
really clever wanted to play against my uncle, and this person used my 
own family against him.


Of course, this amounts to play dirty, very dirty. That’s no surprise in 
the world of politics; but the really sad part here is that our 
President identifies himself as an evangelical Christian. The First 
Lady is a member of Raíces (Roots) Mennonite Brethren Church; and he 
does worship there, though he is not a member (and some would add 
“yet"). There is a growing feeling of triumphalism among the rank and 
files of Protestant Christians here, because “Brother Nicanor", “one of 
us", is now the President. They just crave to be back into Emperor 
Constantine’s times, just to be in bed with the Government all over 
again, and they do not realize that they are being used as disposable 
stuff.


Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh 
his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD.”
 Jeremiah 17:5, ESV 

Eduardo
-- 
Prof. Eduardo Sanchez
Asuncion, Paraguay, South America
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 Ah! my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears
 TO-DAY of past Regrets and future Fears-
   To-morrow?--Why, To-morrow I may be
 Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n Thousand Years.

	-- The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
	   

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