I’ve mentioned Hans Rosling and his artistry in showing statistics before. Here he is again, this time taking the humble washing machine as the springboard for an exploration on its impact on society and the environment. Great stuff.
Category: Society
-
“A Disturbing Trend”
Today’s title is a quote from Archbishop Silvano Tomasi. Apparently, according to Reuters,
People who criticise gay sexual relations for religious or moral reasons are increasingly being attacked and vilified for their views, a Vatican diplomat told the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday.
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi said the Roman Catholic Church deeply believed that human sexuality was a gift reserved for married heterosexual couples. But those who express these views are faced with “a disturbing trend,” he said.
“People are being attacked for taking positions that do not support sexual behaviour between people of the same sex,” he told the current session of the Human Rights Council.
“When they express their moral beliefs or beliefs about human nature … they are stigmatised, and worse — they are vilified, and prosecuted.
“These attacks are violations of fundamental human rights and cannot be justified under any circumstances,” Tomasi said.
Oh, dear god, where to begin?
Well, perhaps with Russell Blackford:
The most important thing about this is its one small grain of truth: you should not be prosecuted for expressing such evil views as that engaging in consensual homosexual conduct makes you a “sinnner”, or “emotionally disordered”, or whatever else these bastards want to say. Freedom of speech should enable you to say, quite legally, all sorts of ugly, vicious things.
Freedom of speech also should enable others to point out that these are, in fact, ugly vicious things … and that only a vile person would say such things. When you say these things, it shows your true character.
Silvano wants his cronies to have freedom of speech. Fine. I agree. But he doesn’t want the rest of us to have it. He’s not only vile – he’s a hypocrite, like the rest of his kind.
And then, perhaps also Ophelia Benson has a point:
Or to put it another way, gay people are increasingly being attacked and vilified by reactionary religious fanatics who think they should have the power to tell everyone everywhere what to do down to the smallest detail.
But although I am disgusted by people such as Archbishop Silvano Tomani, I should perhaps take the line of Steve Zara, and laugh at Tomani:
I’m rather enjoying this, I have to say. I’m a relatively mild-mannered fellow who sort of muddles through life in a vague way, and now I’m becoming a threat to human rights and a source of evil. It’s all rather exciting. I need to think of an evil look. Perhaps I could wear sunglasses indoors or something like that. I have not put as much effort into being evil in the past as I might have.
Perhaps, when me and my partner had a civil partnership ceremony with our families and friends in attendance, we should have played the start of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor with evil laughter rather than Tales from Topographic Oceans as we signed the register. Our small house on the borders of Coventry looks rather meek and harmless. Perhaps we should attach some gargoyles and Satanic symbols. We have a gentle Labrador, when perhaps we should have got a white cat to stroke.
Yes, I know what you mean, Steve. Our Labradors bounce around rather too much, instead of snarling and showing their fangs. But, I suppose when you get down to the heart of it, Russell nailed it: what Archbishop Tomasi said was ugly and vicious. It shows his true character. I see you, Archbishop.
.
-
Dangerous Economics
While I don’t pretend to be an economist, I do have this nagging doubt that the economic policy being pursued by the current UK government is not, shall we say, the wisest course.
Johann Hari puts it rather more forcefully, and a good deal better. Example:
I doubt there was a single person who woke up on Wednesday morning, looked out across Britain, and thought: “I know what’s wrong with this country. Vodafone pays too much tax.” But George Osborne has acted on this belief all the same – in part because he genuinely seems to have no idea what life in Britain is like. He said recently that his school, St. Paul’s (annual fees: £30,000 a year) was “incredibly liberal. It didn’t matter who your parents were. Your mother could be the head of a giant corporation – or a solicitor in Kew.” That’s his internal vision of the social spectrum in Britain, with those pauper solicitors in Kew begging at the bottom. No wonder he doesn’t understand that (say) slashing Housing Benefit will turn 200,000 poor people out of their homes in London alone. He thinks they can take it: the rich need more.
-
Out of the Frying Pan…
A couple of years back, I blogged about a documentary made by Andrew Tait. It was Trouble in Amish Paradise, and followed the lives of two Amish families. Last night, the follow-up documentary, also made by Tait, was shown on BBC2: Leaving Amish Paradise. It was an equally extraordinary and revealing piece of work.
It followed the fortunes of the same two Amish families: Ephraim and Amanda Stoltzfus and their children, and his brother Jesse Stoltzfus, his wife Elsie and their children. By the time of this second film, Ephraim and Amanda had already left their Amish church for an evangelical Christian church, and Jesse and Elsie were on the point of doing the same.
By my lights, of course, leaving the Amish for evangelical Christianity strikes me as jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire, but Ephraim had no doubts whatever. Indeed his total, and unshakeable, belief that God would provide was either admirable or utterly foolhardy, depending on where you stand. That said, it was rather curious how money apparently turned up in envelopes to keep the family afloat, and the film opened with Ephraim and his family on a trip to Britain, which had been paid for by people who had seen the first documentary.
As I wrote last time, both families were very personable, but every now and then, something would be said that brought one up short. Usually it would be Ephraim; as for example when he said (apropos his handing out of messages from the Bible to passers-by):
People are more receptive here than in England. In England they’ve been taught Darwin for [pause] quite a few years more than we have here. The Bible says that in the beginning, God created the world in six days, and that’s what I… that’s what the truth… That’s the truth, that’s what happened in six days. Darwin doesn’t believe that way. Or he didn’t. He does believe that way now. Darwin now is saying “Yes Jesus was the Christ, and I didn’t acknowledge it in the past, but he is. And I wish I would have, you know”. Darwin is in Hell, today, according to the scriptures.
That’s his reality.
-
How Times Change
I see that the Isle of Man will make civil partnerships available to gay couples living there as from next month.
This is only five years after civil partnerships were introduced into UK law. I find that surprisingly speedy for the Isle of Man. After all, it took until 1992 before homosexuality was no longer illegal on the Island – a full 25 years after the UK decriminalised homosexuality.
I was born and grew up on the Island, so bore witness to the anti-gay bigotry and prejudice that existed there. The atmosphere resulted in a number of suicides of gay people. It seems as though things have changed, although judging by the comments of Peter Murcott, a Methodist preacher, there are still some old style bigots knocking about there:
“It will have a fundamental change in due course on how the next generation is brought up to conceive family life and ultimately it is going to introduce an anti-Christian attitude and it will be contrary to the beliefs of many other religions as well.”
Of course, he’s right when he says that “It will have a fundamental change in due course on how the next generation is brought up to conceive family life” – people may come to realise that families come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and that’s a good thing. But I rather think that Mr. Murcott sees the change only in negative terms.
Addendum: I came across this video with Alan Bell who does a good job explaining the background to the change in the law. Bell is a Member of the House of Keys (MHK) – a member of the Manx Government.
-
Twixt Scylla and Charybdis
Johann Hari has another thought-provoking article posted. This time it’s on our addiction to cheap oil. Worth a read.
-
Nothing “Pseudo” About It
Following hard on the heels of the murder of Salman Taseer comes the murder of Shabaz Bhatti.
I see that the Archbishop of Canterbury is reported as condemning the murder of Bhatti, and quite right too. But I did find one statement of his slightly jarring. He is reported as saying that there was a faction in Pakistan:
“wholly uninterested in justice and due process of law, concerned only with promoting an inhuman pseudo-religious tyranny.”
Er, excuse me, but what’s that word “pseudo” doing in that sentence? The sentence is just as true without it. I suspect that the good Dr. Williams just cannot face up to, or is not willing to state in public, the simple fact that there’s nothing pseudo about religious tyranny, and that Bhatti’s murderers sincerely believe that they were doing the right thing.
On a related note, it’s worthwhile reading Eric MacDonald’s piece today (note: link now removed because his website has been taken over by a Russian porn site – such is the internet these days). The key quote:
It is simply foolish and foolhardy to dismiss these extremists as merely extreme, as marginal expressions of their respective believing communities. What they stand for is always at the centre of the religious systems they espouse. Most people, with lives to live, and other goals to pursue, pay little attention to the intrinsically extremist language of their faith communities. But the language is always there. That’s why there are faith communities, because religions are essentially tribal and divisive.
-
Polling Day
Today is polling day for the provincial elections here in The Netherlands. It appears that us oldsters may have an effect on the outcome and impact the position of the current coalition government.
Meanwhile, the young appear to have swallowed the anti-Islam propaganda of the appalling Geert Wilders and his PVV party. You can guess who I won’t be voting for today.
-
PVV Absurdities
I’ve written before that I worry about the popularity of Geert Wilders and his Freedom Party (the PVV) here in the Netherlands. While I find the demagoguery of Wilders extremely disturbing, I take some comfort from the fact that others in the PVV seem to be little more than political clowns.
We’re about to enter into an election for seats in the provincial governments. So all the candidates are out there and using every opportunity for campaigning. No problem about that. But when one of the PVV candidates for the Gelderland province (where I live) calls for repatriation of Highland cattle back to Scotland and Polish ponies back to Poland, then I have to wonder why anyone should take clowns like this seriously?
Since some people have commented that surely no-one could be that stupid; I give you PVV candidate Olov Wullink, in person, uttering his inanities (from 1:10 in the second video linked on this page here). Sorry, the full absurdity is only intelligible to those of us who understand Dutch.
However, I think it’s worthwhile to remember that, while events like this have their humorous side, the politics, and subsequent impact on all of us, are deadly serious. The rise of Wilders continues to concern me. I don’t think it is good for us.
-
What’s Sauce for the Goose…
The serious assault on a CBS journalist, Lara Logan, in Tahrir Square has rightfully drawn widespread condemnation from many quarters, including women’s rights activists and pro-change protesters in Eygpt.
Of course, there were some commentators, such as Debbie Schlussel, who got into the “blame the victim” game, saying that the attack was partly Logan’s fault. That deserves the contempt that Schlussel got for her comments.
However, there was a reaction from Heather Blake, of Reporters Without Borders, reported in the Guardian’s story that I found rather interesting. She said:
“At the moment, female and male journalists have the same training. The truth is that female journalists need to be taught about different cultures and the ways in which men behave in those cultures. They need to know about gender-specific expectations in different countries, from what they wear to how they interact with those they met.”
I’m not sure that I agree with that. I think that both men and women journalists need to be taught about different cultures and the ways in which men behave in those cultures. It seems to me that consciousness-raising is just as important, perhaps even more so, to members of the male gender, who are often blithely unaware of, or complicit in, the various forms that oppression of women can take.
-
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)
Geoff Coupe's Blog 