Ne rien faire

Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu." Like a fairy tale, Ha Jin's masterful novel of love and politics begins with a formula--and like a fairy tale, Waiting uses its slight, deceptively simple framework to encompass a wide range of truths about the human heart. Lin Kong is a Chinese army doctor trapped in an arranged marriage that embarrasses and repels him. (Shuyu has country ways, a withered face, and most humiliating of all, bound feet.) Nevertheless, he's content with his tidy military life, at least until he falls in love with Manna, a nurse at his hospital. Regulations forbid an army officer to divorce without his wife's consent--until 18 years have passed, that is, after which he is free to marry again. So, year after year Lin asks his wife for his freedom, and year after year he returns from the provincial courthouse: still married, still unable to consummate his relationship with Manna. Nothing feeds love like obstacles placed in its way--right? But Jin's novel answers the question of what might have happened to Romeo and Juliet had their romance been stretched out for several decades. In the initial confusion of his chaste love affair, Lin longs for the peace and quiet of his "old rut." Then killing time becomes its own kind of rut, and in the end, he is forced to conclude that he "waited eighteen years just for the sake of waiting."There's a political allegory here, of course, but it grows naturally from these characters"hearts. Neither Lin nor Manna is especially ideological, and the tumultuous events occurring around them go mostly unnoticed. They meet during a forced military march, and have their first tender moment during an opera about a naval battle. (While the audience shouts,"Down with Japanese Imperialism!"the couple holds hands and gazes dreamily into each other's eyes.) When Lin is in Goose Village one summer, a mutual acquaintance rapes Manna; years later, the rapist appears on a TV report titled"To Get Rich Is Glorious,"after having made thousands in construction. Jin resists hammering ideological ironies like these home, but totalitarianism's effects on Lin are clear: Let me tell you what really happened, the voice said. All those years you waited torpidly, like a sleepwalker, pulled and pushed about by others" opinions, by external pressure, by your illusions, by the official rules you internalized. You were misled by your own frustration and passivity, believing that what you were not allowed to have was what your heart was destined to embrace. Ha Jin himself served in the People's Liberation Army, and in fact left his native country for the U.S. only in 1985. That a non-native speaker can produce English of such translucence and power is truly remarkable--but really, his prose is the least of the miracles here. Improbably, Jin makes an unconsummated 18-year love affair loom as urgent as political terror or war, while history-changing events gain the immediacy of a domestic dilemma. Gracefully phrased, impeccably paced, Waiting is the kind of realist novel you thought was no longer being written. --Mary Park

Le christianisme a contribué de manière significative à la paix dans le monde. A travers les organisations, le dialogue interreligieux, les déclarations communautaires, etc. , le christianisme opère dans un monde solidaire et permet aux autres de participer, créant ainsi la paix à travers le monde. Les adeptes du christianisme ont utilisé le Nouveau Testament comme guide pour passer leur vie en harmonie. En tant qu'exemple de paix, Jésus-Christ est représenté dans le Nouveau Testament comme un homme qui a promu la non-violence et a servi d'exemple de paix. Une personne doit d'abord être spirituellement calme pour exprimer ses sentiments de paix intérieure. Les principes chrétiens de non-violence, de justice, de réconciliation et de compassion se trouvent dans le Nouveau Testament. Ils peuvent le faire avec les enseignements de Jésus-Christ, qui se trouvent dans le Nouveau Testament et l'Ancien Testament. Il y a beaucoup de fausses critiques de cette religion, la dévoilant comme une source de violence et une religion qui parle de paix. Les enseignements de la Bible sur la non-violence, la compassion et la tolérance renforcent leur paix. Le christianisme a contribué à la paix mondiale par le biais d'organisations telles que les Nations Unies, qui utilisent plusieurs programmes, notamment la consolidation de la paix dans les zones de conflit, l'éradication de la pauvreté et l'exploitation de la santé et du bien-être des enfants. Cette organisation a opéré au niveau international pour réaliser la paix et a contribué à la paix mondiale. Le christianisme peut contribuer à la paix mondiale de diverses manières. L'une de ces écoles est un partenariat avec des projets vivants. Ces programmes sont conçus pour promouvoir la paix et l'harmonie et encourager les chrétiens et les non-chrétiens à vivre en paix de manière indépendante. L'un de ces projets est l'Union européenne en Europe, dirigée par des Etats européens pour travailler pour la sûreté et la sécurité des pays chrétiens et offre un large éventail d'éducation. Ce projet ne tente pas de fournir une réponse simple aux questions les plus difficiles de savoir si la religion est la cause du conflit, et si oui, comment peut- on prévenir la violence religieuse contre l'ouverture du nouveau millénaire...