Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Category: Society

  • The Value of Libraries

    A couple of days ago I mentioned someone’s idiotic idea to stop funding the UK’s libraries and use the money to give everyone Kindles. The idea came about because local government in the UK is looking to close many public libraries in a desperate attempt to save money. Philip Pullman gave a brilliant speech on the subject a few days ago, in which he defended the libraries from the bean-counters:

    I still remember the first library ticket I ever had. It must have been about 1957. My mother took me to the public library just off Battersea Park Road and enrolled me. I was thrilled. All those books, and I was allowed to borrow whichever I wanted! And I remember some of the first books I borrowed and fell in love with: the Moomin books by Tove Jansson; a French novel for children called A Hundred Million Francs; why did I like that? Why did I read it over and over again, and borrow it many times? I don’t know. But what a gift to give a child, this chance to discover that you can love a book and the characters in it, you can become their friend and share their adventures in your own imagination.

    And the secrecy of it! The blessed privacy! No-one else can get in the way, no-one else can invade it, no-one else even knows what’s going on in that wonderful space that opens up between the reader and the book. That open democratic space full of thrills, full of excitement and fear, full of astonishment, where your own emotions and ideas are given back to you clarified, magnified, purified, valued. You’re a citizen of that great democratic space that opens up between you and the book. And the body that gave it to you is the public library. Can I possibly convey the magnitude of that gift?

    Somewhere in Blackbird Leys, somewhere in Berinsfield, somewhere in Botley, somewhere in Benson or in Bampton, to name only the communities beginning with B whose libraries are going to be abolished, somewhere in each of them there is a child right now, there are children, just like me at that age in Battersea, children who only need to make that discovery to learn that they too are citizens of the republic of reading. Only the public library can give them that gift.

    Go and read the whole thing – it’s worth it.

  • Reaping the Whirlwind of Hate

    David Kato has been murdered. Given the climate of hate against LGBT people that has been encouraged in Uganda by both the State and organised religion*, it comes as no surprise. It still shocks though, and for those still in danger in Uganda, things must seem very dark at the moment.

    * Oh, and, we really should not forget, the sorry excuse for a human being who goes by the name of Giles Muhame. As the Guardian reports:

    He and other recent graduates of Makerere University in Kampala launched a newspaper late last year. With a circulation of fewer than 3,000 copies it would have remained obscure were it not for its anti-gay campaign.

    For its 2 October issue, it pictured Kato and another man on the front page under the words “Hang them”, and the sub-headlines “We Shall Recruit 100,000 Innocent Kids by 2012: Homos” and “Parents now face heart-breaks [sic] as homos raid schools”. The paper promised to expose 100 gay people, and printed the photographs, names, and in some cases home areas, of people it claimed were gay. A few weeks later Rolling Stone carried another frontpage story with the headline “More homos’ faces exposed”, with the identities of 17 people inside.

    I see that Mr. Muhame is reported to have said that “I have no regrets about the story. We were just exposing people who were doing wrong.”

    I’m sure that he does have no regrets. People like him never do. They just continue to cause misery and to make the angels weep.

    Further update: here are some other people, listed in a rightfully angry obituary who doubtless also have few regrets, but who should really recognise their responsibilities:

    The responsibility for the repeated harassment, beatings, death threats and now possibly his murder lies with all those politicians and religious leaders around the world who have led the campaign of hate against LGBTIQ people: David Baharti who introduced the anti-homosexuality bill in the Ugandan parliament; the Red Pepper tabloid which like the Rolling Stone had published names of people they alleged were gay; Martin Ssempa who led the Ugandan national task force against homosexuality; Ugandan Minister of Ethics Nsaba Buturu who has rabidly spoken out against homosexuality; the following religious leaders who have fueled the anti-gay campaign in the region: Archbishop of Rwanda, Onesphore Rwaje, Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda, the All African Bishops Conference, Apolo Nsibambi of Uganda, Rev. Bernard Ntahoturi of Burundi, Archbishop Akinola, Pastor Mulinde of Trumpet Church Uganda, Bishop Lawrence Chai of Free Apostolic Churches of Kenya and Sheikh Ali Hussein of Masjid Answar Sunna Mosque and Nicholas Okoh of Nigeria; Peter Karamaga of the National Anti-Homosexual Task-force Uganda; President Museveni who has showed no support for gay Ugandans saying that homosexuality is a western import receiving support from other African presidents like President Mugabe and Mrs Museveni who in the same vein has called homosexuals an abomination to African culture; American Christian right pastors Lou Engle, Rick Warren, Scott Lively and Dan Schmierer of the ex-gay group Exodus International, for their continued support of anti-gay legislation; South African diplomat Jon Qwelane and President Jacob Zuma. Finally, responsibility lies with those in power in regional and international bodies who have refused to take a stand on homosexuality as a human rights issue. Last year, the African Union denied the Coalition of African Lesbians observer status. Around the same time, the UN General Assembly Human Rights Committee passed a resolution condemning extrajudicial executions, deleted from this resolution was an amendment that explicitly addressed protections based on sexual orientation.

  • Dinner Table Talk

    Mo seems to have captured the false logic expressed by Baroness Warsi to a tee.

    As Ophelia points out, Anthony Andrews has also demolished the Baroness’s claims quite effectively:

    She wants to give greater voice to religion in the political arena, yet she also wishes there to be less criticism of religion, in other words, power without scrutiny.

  • Libraries Versus Kindles

    There’s an interesting post over at Stumbling and Mumbling that asks the question whether it would be more cost effective to stop funding the UK’s public Libraries, and to use the money to buy everyone a Kindle instead.

    My immediate reaction was that this was yet another example of someone knowing the cost of everything, and the value of nothing. However, I recognise that the question was asked with an air of enquiry. So it’s good to see that most commenters on the post are shooting down the premise, and that, at its most basic: “Public Libraries” do not equal “Kindles”.

    I’m a member of the public library in our local little town. I’ve never actually borrowed anything from it, but I continue to support it, because it’s a community resource.

  • It’s Not Your Body

    Eric MacDonald writes a good deal of sense in his blog Choice in Dying. Today’s entry is a case in point where he takes to task the trite observations from a hospice chaplain and puts the fundamental point that it’s simply not humane or justified to hold that Religion believes itself in the possession of absolute knowledge, applicable to all people, always, and everywhere.

    I have a friend who is currently dying. He has good days and bad days. I sincerely believe that it is his decision, and his decision alone, as to when he judges that his quality of life has passed the point of no return – not down to some religious meddler in other people’s lives, who would prolong his agony for the sake of some fictitious god and their own self-righteousness.

  • Religious Poison

    Very depressing news from Pakistan about Salman Taseer being shot by one of his own bodyguards. While the bodyguard was clearly influenced by his religious beliefs to commit cold-blooded murder, it would seem that he’s had ample encouragement from his religious leaders as well:

    A prominent group of Islamic scholars said that the funeral prayers should not be offered and warned that anyone who expressed grief for Taseer could suffer the same fate.

    The Jamaat-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat Pakistan group represents scholars from the mainstream Barelvi sect of Sunni Muslims. Although considered moderate, they have led protests in favour of the blasphemy law.

    “More than 500 scholars of the Jamaat-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat have advised Muslims not to offer the funeral prayers of Governor Punjab Salman Taseer, nor try to lead the prayers,” the group said.

    “Also, there should be no expression of grief or sympathy on the death of the governor, as those who support blasphemy of the prophet are themselves indulging in blasphemy.”

    At times like this, it’s hard to disagree with Christopher Hitchens’ view that “religion poisons everything”.

  • Carbideschieten 2010

    I don’t know where the year has gone, but here we are at the last day of 2010. And in the Dutch countryside, the last day of the year is celebrated by Carbideschieten. So once again, we enjoyed the hospitality of our neighbours; drank mulled wine, and ate oliebollen and snert. It was the very definition of gezelligheid – a practically untranslatable Dutch word.

  • UN Restores Resolution

    I noted earlier this month that a UN Committee had proposed removing the reference to sexual orientation in the UN’s resolution on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. It was a move led by African and Arabic nations – in other words, the usual suspects when it comes to their record on human rights abuses against lesbians, gay men and transgendered people. As the Swedish representative on the Committee said at the time:

    …sexual orientation had often been the motive for extrajudicial killings, and the deletion of the reference would amount to the Committee looking the other way concerning arbitrary executions based on sexual orientation.

    Quite.

    Fortunately, there has been a reaction to this draft resolution, led by the US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice. Now the UN has voted to drop the amendment and retain the reference to sexual orientation in the resolution against the unjustified killing of minority groups.

    While the original reference still stands for the moment, it’s clear that those who wish to reverse progress will not be giving up in a hurry. Typical of them is Zimbabwe’s ambassador to the UN, Chitsaka Chipaziwa, who attacked the US amendment, saying there was no need to refer explicitly to sexual orientation.

    “We will not have it foisted on us,” he said, according to Reuters. “We cannot accept this, especially if it entails accepting such practices as bestiality, paedophilia and those other practices many societies would find abhorrent in their value systems.

    Yep, I’m sure that he and others of his ilk are only too happy to heap up strawmen and turn a blind eye to what happens in their countries. As Hilary Clinton is reported to have said:

    The U.S. reintroduced the language to send an unequivocal message that “No one should be killed for who they are.”

    “Sadly, many people around the world continue to be targeted and killed because of their sexual orientation,” she said. “These heinous crimes must be condemned and investigated wherever they occur.”

    And for some of us, the struggle continues, with real and present danger.

  • Two Data Points

    While it is true that the Netherlands is one of the most prosperous countries in the EU, the other side of the coin is that there is also more poverty than in previous years. In particular, after a long period of decline, the percentage of poorer children in Dutch society increased in 2009.

  • Science or Dogma

    A few days ago, I mentioned Jacob Bronowski and his TV series The Ascent of Man. Here’s that scene of him speaking at Auschwitz, explaining the difference between science and dogma.

    (hat tip to Alun Salt for providing me with the link to this key scene)

  • My Father, The Bomb and Me

    When I was growing up. Jacob Bronowski was a presence on the telly. He was the scientist, the boffin, who could be relied upon to explain science to the rest of us. In 1973, he presented a ground-breaking series, The Ascent of Man, that gave him a platform to present his humanist view of the role that science has played in the development of our species.

    The bit that sticks in my mind, that probably sticks in everybody’s mind who saw the series, is the scene where he is ankle-deep in a muddy pool in Auschwitz, and he suddenly bends down to bring up a handful of mud before the camera, while talking to us in that faintly-accented voice of his. Except that this is not mud, this is ash. The ash of millions of human beings who were consumed by the ovens of the Nazis. I can never watch that scene without being overwhelmed.

    Last night, I saw that scene again. It was part of a documentary, My Father, The Bomb and Me, presented by the historian Lisa Jardine. She is his daughter, and she explored aspects of his life that she knew little of. For example, the fact that he worked in operations research during WWII, designing more effective bombs, and she wondered how she could reconcile that with the loving father that she remembered.

    Her documentary succeeded brilliantly, bringing to life a man who was both humane and who was deeply affected by remorse at some of the things that he had to do in his life. The depth of that remorse was expressed by the simple act of cleaning his glasses in public on a talk show. It sounds ridiculous, but watching his daughter watch the video of that sequence with her seeing the deeper meaning in what he was doing as he carefully sought for the just words to answer the interviewer’s question made everything come clear, and the thought arise, in my mind at least, that here was a good man doing the best he could, as he always had done.

  • The United Nations – A Force For Good?

    I hope that the above title is somewhat of a rhetorical question. I would hope that, on balance, despite its many failings, the UN still counts for something in this sorry world.

    However, when it gets down to a personal level, I find myself questioning whether the ideals in fact count for very much in the face of politics.

    I read two weeks ago Paul Burston’s blog entry where he wrote that he sat down and wept at the news that of the United Nations panel’s decision to remove sexual orientation from an anti-execution resolution. As he said:

    The resolution has contained a reference to lesbian and gay people since 1999. Today, it was announced that this has changed. Other groups are still covered, including those facing persecution on the grounds of religion. But not us.

    According to Pink News, “the vast majority of countries in support of the change were African or Arabic” – ie, those countries with the worst records on human rights abuses against lesbians and gay men, countries where gay people are regularly stoned, flogged and publicly executed.

    What surprised me is that I had not seen even a mention of this on any mainstream news web site (e.g. newspapers and the BBC), so I had hoped that Paul had been mistaken.

    But no, it does in fact appear that this has occurred. Here’s the UN record of the meeting.

    As William Crawley asks: Does the UN now support the execution of gays?

    I take a little comfort from the fact that the UK’s Association of British Muslims has condemned the removal of the reference to sexual orientation in the resolution. That is a statement of support from what will seem a surprising group to many people.

    I wrote yesterday that some of us are involved in a war that is not of our choosing. It now seems to me that there are more of us involved than I had at first appreciated.

  • The Unchosen War

    World AIDS Day was on December 1st. I had the luxury of reflecting on lost friends, since it is my good fortune to be living in the Netherlands.

    Some of us reflect on the fact that they are fighting in a war that is not of their making, and that the makers of that war are their fellow countrymen, who are in positions of political and religious power.

  • Living In Fear

    Brian Whitaker has an article in the Near East Quarterly describing the targeting of gay men in Iraq by vigilantes. It makes for sobering reading. Yet, at the same time, some of the absurdities that are resulting would be laughable, if it weren’t for the fact that their perpetrators wield guns and are only too prepared to use them:

    The problem in post-Saddam Iraq, though, is that the official legal position counts for less than realities on the ground. The wave of “gay” killings was made possible by the breakdown of state control and the rise of local militias, some of them seeking to enforce their own interpretations of Islamic law. That resulted in people being killed for the most trivial of “sins” – among them barbers who gave customers “un-Islamic” haircuts. It reached a peak of absurdity when al-Qa‘eda elements in Iraq sought to impose “gender” segregation of vegetables. Claiming that tomatoes are feminine and cucumbers masculine, they argued that greengrocers should not place them next to each other, and that women should not buy or handle cucumbers.

  • World AIDS Day

    Today is World AIDS Day. One of those occasions that you wish you didn’t have to have, but which is important to remember and do something about. 

    At  a personal level, it’s a chance for me to recall some lost friends: Kerry, Lance, Eric, Humphrey, Peter, John, Kingsley, Graham, and Neil. I’m sorry that you’re not around with the rest of us today.

    Ach, another year. Meanwhile, I have to ask myself WTF are the younger generation doing ignoring the lessons of history?

  • Statistics Made Fun

    Nobody does this better than Hans Rosling. Here’s a particularly nice example:

    (hat tip to Pharyngula)

  • Hitchens and Paxman

    Last night, BBC Two had a terrific interview of Christopher Hitchens conducted by Jeremy Paxman. It was a joy to listen to Hitchens laying out his ideas and thoughts on his life and politics. What was not a joy was to look at him and realise that he is not long for this world. He has a particularly virulent cancer that gives its hosts only a 5% chance of pulling through more than five years.

    Still, at least we will have the record of his work to remind us of the need to keep fighting for reason and the Enlightenment against the forces of superstition and theocracy. And for the moment, at least, we still have Hitch.

    …and here’s to KBO…

  • Price and Value

    I read in today’s Guardian that there was an auction today of Alan Turing’s papers. While I was pleased to see that Google had donated $100,000 to the bid of Bletchley Park to keep the papers for the nation, I couldn’t help but feel disheartened by the thought that Turing’s papers could potentially disappear into a private collection, to be gazed upon by a single, wealthy individual, quite possibly hailing from Silicon Valley.

    Turing was an important individual in the history of not only computing, but in the fact that Nazi Germany was eventually defeated by the Allies. And Britain repaid that debt by persecuting him because he was gay, with the result that Turing committed suicide by eating an apple laced with cyanide.

    I can’t help feeling that Turing’s papers should have been acquired for the nation and humanity at large. Once again, we seem to understand only the price of everything and the value of nothing.

    Perhaps all is not lost; if the new owner will arrange for the papers to be made available online, then something may come out of this. Perhaps the Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online can serve as a model here.

  • “Treating People Like Pigeons Really Does Work”

    Adam Curtis has another fascinating blog entry. This time he takes as his cue the Behavioural Insights Unit recently set up by David Cameron to advise the UK Government. Curtis argues that this unit is built on the Operant Conditioning ideas of B. F. Skinner.

    It makes for fascinating, and somewhat unsettling, reading. Do check out the videoclips that Curtis includes, particularly the one of the two market researchers and the final comment from Lewis Mumford.

  • It Gets Better–Part II

    Here’s another video response to the rising wave of anti-gay sentiment towards American LGBT teens. This time it’s from Google employees who are themselves LGBT.

    I think that the testimony of “ordinary” people as opposed to “celebrities” makes a much more powerful message. And good for Google for standing behind this video.