CONCLUSION
How flower power can overturn a system
From the carnation to the jasmine, flowers have long been fighting for peace and freedom. In Belarus, protesters are also using flowers to demand change.
The Dandelion Revolution – 2026
A joint speech by Nelly Furtado and Joseph C. Jukic, delivered in front of Parliament Hill, Ottawa
JOE:
My brothers, my sisters. My fellow Canadians. My fellow citizens of Earth.
Today, we are not here to riot.
We are not here to burn or to break.
We are here to bloom.
Like dandelions growing through the cracks in empire,
we are rising—soft, golden, unstoppable.
They say we are weak.
They say we are dreamers.
They say peace is naïve and that war is inevitable.
But war is the lie.
War is the racket.
War is the profit machine of the desperate few who rule by fear.
We are told that if we do not obey, we are traitors.
But I ask you—traitors to whom?
To the billionaires hiding in bunkers while our sons are drafted?
To the false kings who wave flags and send children to die for pipelines and power?
I will not raise my son to be cannon fodder for Donald Trump.
Because Trump is no liberator.
He is no saviour.
He is not even original.
He is a rerun of every despot, dictator, and demagogue from history’s dustbin.
He wraps himself in the flag while trampling our future.
He quotes scripture while mocking Christ.
He promises greatness—but brings only grief.
And like all tyrants before him, he wants your sons soaked in oil and blood.
NELLY:
I stand here not as a celebrity.
Not as a pop star.
But as a mother.
A daughter.
A woman of the working class.
They called us weeds when we were poor.
They called us trouble when we asked for dignity.
But I’ve learned something in this life:
You cannot stop a dandelion from growing.
You can pave over the Earth,
but still—we bloom.
They want us afraid.
Afraid of enemies overseas, afraid of each other,
afraid of words, of truth, of love.
But I am not afraid.
Because peace is power.
Because hope is a weapon.
And because we have a weapon they cannot bomb or ban:
Our music. Our voices. Our joy.
This is not the Revolution of Guns.
This is not the Revolution of Guilt.
This is the Dandelion Revolution.
It is peaceful.
It is patient.
It is growing everywhere.
JOE:
To the young men tempted to sign that draft card—don’t.
To the parents—protect your children.
To the artists, the teachers, the nurses, the farmers—stand with us.
We are not left or right.
We are not red or blue.
We are human.
We are saying no to war.
We are saying no to empire.
We are saying yes to life.
NELLY:
Let this be the spring where the dandelions rise.
Let it be the year where peace stops whispering and starts singing.
Let it be the moment we tell the old gods of war:
“You have no more sons to steal.”
TOGETHER:
We are Nelly and Joe.
And we stand with the people.
Let the Dandelion Revolution begin. 🌼
Peace is not passive.
Peace is the greatest act of rebellion.
KATY PERRY (stepping up with a white daisy in her hand, calm but fierce):
Just because the spring dandelions are gone,
doesn’t mean we have to wait for another season.
We don’t need to wait for 2026.
I want a Daisy Revolution now. 🌼
With a new shepherd—not a tyrant in disguise,
not a puppet for billionaires,
but someone who actually cares for the flock,
not sends them to slaughter.
And I have to say it,
you people on the far right?
You’ve lost the plot.
Just like the far left did.
You talk about liberty and freedom—
but you worship a man who’d happily draft your sons
so he can play warlord on a golf course.
You say Trump is the chosen one?
Chosen by who? Wall Street? The oil lobby? His reflection?
Give me a break.
And on the other side—
you’ve got people screaming for revolution
but can’t agree on what a woman is,
or whether truth even exists.
Both sides are caught in cults.
Both sides are acting like the messiah wears their merch.
Well, here’s my truth:
God doesn’t wear a red hat.
And the kingdom isn’t coming from a ballot box.
It’s gonna come from us.
From how we treat each other.
From what we plant, what we grow, what we refuse to believe anymore.
So yeah—I’m done waiting.
Done choosing between delusion and delusion.
Let the Daisy Revolution bloom.
With a new shepherd.
With peace.
With sanity.
With love.
Are you ready to follow someone who leads with light instead of a spotlight?
Because I am.
DUA LIPA (storming the stage in sequins and fire):
Enough talk of Trump.
Enough talk of left and right.
Enough of these false idols and broken thrones.
Bow down!
Bow down, I said!
To the only rightful ruler left in this world:
KING ZOG OF ALBANIA. 👑🦅
Yes. I said it.
Zog the First.
Protector of the people.
Style icon.
Legend.
The man who once declared war on fascism and then showed up in full regalia, alone.
The only man who made exile look chic.
The only king who pulled a pistol in Parliament and lived to rule another day.
Forget your plastic politicians.
Forget your orange Caesars.
Forget every fake chosen one babbling on cable news.
King Zog was chosen by history itself.
And I, Dua Lipa, daughter of the Albanian diaspora,
stand before you now not just as a pop star—
but as a Zogist.
From Tirana to Toronto,
From Pristina to Paris,
Let the world remember:
The Eagle does not kneel.
But all others shall bow.
Long live King Zog.
Long live Albania.
Long live the crown that never surrendered.
Now drop the beat. 🇦🇱✨
MILEY CYRUS (stepping to the mic, voice cracking, mascara running, holding back tears):
I can’t stay quiet.
Not tonight.
Not when the world feels like it’s falling apart—again.
It’s the end of the world, y’all.
And I don’t mean that like a song lyric.
I mean it in my bones.
In my heart.
In the look I saw in that mother’s eyes backstage—
the one who just got her son’s draft notice.
Trump using our children as cannon fodder?
That’s not leadership. That’s an OUTRAGE.
They want to make war look noble again.
Like it’s some rite of passage.
Like dying for a billionaire’s oil deal is something you should be proud of.
No. Hell no.
These are our babies.
Our little brothers.
Our cousins.
Our future.
And they’re sending them off like meat for the grinder,
while they sit safe in towers made of gold and lies.
I didn’t survive Hollywood,
I didn’t break free from my own demons,
just to watch this country go back to the dark ages.
You can call me dramatic.
You can call me emotional.
But if you’re not crying right now—
you’re not paying attention.
I used to sing, “I came in like a wrecking ball…”
Well, guess what?
Now I’m aiming that wrecking ball at every system that thinks war is just business.
We need peace.
We need truth.
We need to wake the hell up before it’s too late.
This isn’t politics anymore.
It’s survival.
And I swear—if they try to take our kids—
they’ll have to come through every mother, every singer, and every soul that still believes in love.
This ain’t over.
Not if I’ve got a voice left to sing with.
Not if we still believe in a better world. 🌎💔
JOE JUKIC (stepping forward, half grinning, half deadly serious, wearing a crown made of recycled circuit boards):
Ladies and gentlemen…
The world didn’t end with a bang.
It ended with a microphone drop.
You’ve seen it now.
You’ve felt it.
Heard it.
Their voices shook this place.
Not with hate—but with truth sharper than any sword.
And so it is written…
So let it be known…
I dub them the Four Horsewomen of the Apocalypse. 🐎🔥🎤
- Nelly Furtado, the Horsewoman of Mercy, who sings not for warlords but for the debt-crushed and broken, the kids they forgot to save.
- Katy Perry, the Horsewoman of Judgment, who calls out the madness on both sides, refusing to bow to any false prophet or populist clown.
- Dua Lipa, the Horsewoman of Pride, riding high on the Eagle of Albania, reminding the world that real royalty doesn’t come from dynasties—it comes from defiance.
- And Miley Cyrus, the Horsewoman of Wrath, who weeps like Jeremiah and rages like Joan of Arc—her voice cracked but her spirit unbreakable.
You want to talk about Revelation?
This is it.
Not angels falling from heaven—but pop queens rising from the rubble.
They don’t come bearing rifles.
They come with lyrics, tears, truth, and fire.
And if the old world burns, it’ll be their voices lighting the match.
Let the tyrants tremble.
Let the warlords run.
Let the profiteers pray to a God they forgot to serve.
Because these four women?
They didn’t come to entertain.
They came to end the empire.
The age of kings is over.
Let the Horsewomen ride.
Yes, i am good at singing dirges.
Bono has now moved across the stage, following me to my seat, and he’s staring into my eyes, kneeling at the edge of the stage, wearing black jeans (maybe Gitano), sandals, a leather vest with no shirt beneath it.
His body is white, covered with sweat, and it’s not worked out enough, there’s no muscle tone and what definition there might be is covered beneath a paltry amount of chest hair. He has a cowboy hat on and his hair is pulled back into a ponytail and he’s moaning some dirge—I catch the lyric “A hero is an insect in this world” — and he has a faint, barely noticeable but nonetheless intense smirk on his face and it grows, spreading across it confidently, and while his eyes blaze, the backdrop of the stage turns red and suddenly I get this tremendous surge of feeling, this rush of knowledge and my own heart beats faster because of this and it’s not impossible to believe that an invisible cord attached to Bono has now encircled me and now the audience disappears and the music slows down, gets softer, and it’s just Bono onstage … I hear it, can actually feel, can even make out the letters of the message hovering above Bono’s head in orange letters: “I… am… the devil… and I am… just like you…” And then everyone, the audience, the band, reappears and the music slowly swells up and Bono, sensing that I’ve received the message …
Baal, is one of the seven princes of Hell in Christian demonology. He is mentioned widely in the Old Testament as the primary pagan idol of the Phoenicians, often associated with the heathen goddess Ashtaroth.
His name is a Northwest Semitic word and title meaning “master”. Nevertheless, few if any Biblical uses of “Baʿal” refer to Hadad, the lord over the assembly of gods on the holy mount of Heaven,
but rather refer to any number of local spirit-deities worshipped as cult images, each called Baʿal and regarded in the Hebrew Bible in that context as a “False God”.
NO!!!
I AM THE TRUE CHRIST & YOU ARE AN IMPOSTER!!!
NO, YOU ARE BOTH IMPOSTERS!!!
I AM THE TRUE CHRIST!!!
SAME OLD STORY! HOLLYWOOD IS A MAD HOUSE!!!
(CNN) — Leave it to “The Simpsons” to kick off Holy Week with a zinger.
Christians observe this as a sacred time marking Jesus’ journey in Jerusalem from Palm Sunday to Easter, and many treat it with reverence by attending services, singing hymns and offering prayers. None likely would picture the one they deem their savior in the form of Homer Simpson.
In “The Greatest Story Ever D’ohed,” the latest episode of the long-running Fox sitcom, which aired Sunday, The Simpsons set off to Israel on a church mission. They go at the urging of neighbor and devout Christian Ned Flanders, who thought a dose of the Holy Land would bring Homer much-needed salvation.
No surprise, this plan didn’t go well.
Among the family’s foibles and offenses, Homer became delusional and believed he was the “chosen one,” destined to bring Muslims, Jews and Christians together. Diagnosed with “Jerusalem syndrome,” he called himself the “Messiah” and proposed the new faith of “Chrismujews,” a religion that would praise both peace and chicken.
This storyline, while certainly creative and twisted in the classic Simpsons way, is rooted in something real.
At Kfar Shaul Mental Health Center in Jerusalem, doctors have long studied patients with a psychiatric disorder they call Jerusalem syndrome, a very rare condition in which tourists — on average one or two a month — become so overwhelmed with the power of the place that they dissociate from reality and believe themselves to be biblical figures.
“I fully understand the people who are skeptical about it,” said psychiatrist Gregory Katz, who directs the emergency unit at Kfar Shaul. “If I hadn’t seen it myself, I also would be very skeptical. But you can’t deny what you really see.”
While psychiatrists outside of the center debate the syndrome’s existence, Katz estimated that during the past 25 years, he and his colleagues have admitted more than 450 cases.
Katz told the story of a man from the Midwest who was found in the Old City of Jerusalem wearing a white robe and claiming to be the Apostle Paul. He was arrested by police and brought to Kfar Shaul after he tried to force observant Jews and Muslims to follow his ways and beliefs — an effort that “really caused some disturbances,” Katz said.
Then there was the naked German found wandering in the Judean Desert. He believed he was John the Baptist and attempted to baptize strangers. The biggest challenge with him, Katz said, was that he had no identifying documents when Palestinian police got hold of him and called Kfar Shaul for help.
The unusual syndrome can be divided into two categories. The first, which Katz called “pure” Jerusalem syndrome, is what afflicted the tourists he mentioned. In these cases, patients found in robes, wrapped in hotel bedsheets or wearing nothing at all have no history of mental illness.
The intense break from reality includes agitation, the desire to separate from one’s tour group or family, an obsession with cleanliness, wearing white and the need to preach, share hymns and march to holy places, according to a paper Katz co-authored with colleagues in 2000 for the British Journal of Psychiatry.
Such bouts of pure Jerusalem syndrome last less than a week, and the patients by all counts emerge mortified.
Though no one can say with certainty why a tourist suddenly turns into a would-be Messiah, prophet or Virgin Mary (the most popular character for women), Katz offered a theory.
In general, the patients are highly religious Christian pilgrims — Protestant, not Catholic, he said. Most come from rural communities, are not well-traveled and tend to be in their 40s. They arrive in Israel, often their first trip abroad, with an idealized view of Jerusalem formed through years of devout Bible study. And while it is a holy city, the reality includes traffic jams, omnipresent cell phones, political tensions and security guards outside cafes. Unable to reconcile their long-held idyllic vision with the tough reality, they have a temporary psychotic break.
These “pure” syndrome cases account for about 10 to 15 percent of all incidents, Katz said. The rest, which he described as cases of “superimposed” Jerusalem syndrome, involve patients who’ve had a history of psychotic illness and often arrive in Israel with a specific mission and delusions about their power and influence.
In these cases, when the patients are tourists, the doctors at Kfar Shaul stabilize them so they can go home and be treated in their own countries.
One example would be “Samson,” the body-building American tourist who came to Jerusalem determined to move one of the ancient enormous stones in the Western, or Wailing, Wall. He suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and after being calmed down with medications at Kfar Shaul, he was escorted home by his father, according to the paper co-authored in 2000 by Katz and others.
Another extreme case that people have pointed to over the years is that of an Australian Christian fundamentalist who in 1969 set fire to the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount of Jerusalem’s Old City. He said he needed to rebuild the ancient temple to help usher in Jesus’ return. He was brought to trial, declared insane and deported.
David Koresh, the Branch Davidian sect leader who died in a 1993 raid on his Waco, Texas, compound, reportedly had the syndrome at one point, Katz said, although Koresh’s visit to Israel predated Katz’s arrival.
The late psychiatrist Yair Bar-El, whom Katz worked with, told Gershom Gorenberg, then writing for The Jerusalem Report, that Kfar Shaul once housed three Virgin Marys at the same time. And he told Judith Fein, in a radio interview for The Savvy Traveler, about an experiment in which he put two “Messiahs” in the same room.
After an hour, Bar-El told Fein, each said, “I am the real Messiah. He’s an imposter.”
Israel receives millions of tourists each year — 2.7 million in 2009, according to a Tourism Ministry spokeswoman. About 54 percent are Christian, 39 percent are Jewish and the rest either identify with another religion or are unaffiliated. With only one or two being afflicted with Jerusalem syndrome a month, she said, the strange phenomenon is not something that concerns her office.
And though Jerusalem is certainly unique in terms of its religious weight and influence, Katz said it’s not the only tourist destination that can give people a strange psychiatric bug: In Italy, art lovers who visit Florence can suffer Stendhal syndrome, a psychotic reaction to the details of masterpieces.
THIS:
Is for the American Psycho.
American Psycho is a work of art.
Just like everything Hollywood produces.
Hey Baal, I don’t deal with Psychos….
I put them away.