Rajinder Puri writes in the Outlook issue on May 29, 2008
Who Gains From Reservation?
Obviously not the poor. But it is, less obviously, not even the leaders of the caste-based parties. The biggest beneficiaries would seem the big, corrupt eco-political mafia and its global partners. ...
Who gains most from caste-based reservation? Certainly not the poor. The poor dominate the OBC, SC and ST groups. The SC and ST are groups apart. Their special conditions inspired special treatment from the founding fathers of the constitution. They were granted job reservation to last for just the first ten years of independent India. After sixty years not only has reservation for them continued, not only has the scope of reservation greatly widened to include prosperous and domineering castes, but the benefits of reservation have reached only a small percentage of the castes and groups that qualify for reservation. This is the sad, incontrovertible truth.
The Chamars have hogged most of the SC reservation because the politicians who acquired power from among this group were predominantly Chamars. That is why the Balmikhis, the Bhangis and various other Dalit castes remain resentful. Within the OBC quota in the north it is the Yadavs who have hogged maximum benefits, because, as the largest OBC caste in the north, they acquired most political power. That is why OBC castes such as the Kurmis, Lodhs and others have organized their own caste-based parties.
Ironically, actual economic benefits in any substantial manner have not reached either the Chamar or the Yadav community. Reason? Jobs are too few and demand is too high. Even the limited number of reserved posts often remains unfilled, because there are simply not enough qualified applicants. Reason? Notional affirmative action has led governments to focus mainly on higher education. Universal primary education -- affordable within the budgetary allocations for education -- has tended to be ignored by governments.
The main fallout of caste-based reservation has been, therefore, fragmentation of politics into caste-based parties fighting for crumbs of a small cake. This has created many leaders who rely on their caste-based loyalists to wield political clout. Most analysts would describe these leaders as the biggest beneficiaries of caste-based reservation. The analysts may be wrong. Caste-based and community-based leaders are in actual fact small fry, fairly easy to manipulate. Consider the overall political context in which these leaders function.
Two glaring aspects of the current electoral scene are the proliferation of political outfits based on caste or community, and the inordinately high cost of maintaining these outfits. Add to these the high and rising cost of electioneering. In this scenario corruption grows, the number of parties grows, and the absolute reliance on money to sustain political cadres grows. So, who is the biggest beneficiary of these conditions?
On any sober reckoning the biggest beneficiaries would seem the big, corrupt eco-political mafia and its global partners. The crucial role of money and the fragmentation of the polity give this class virtual freedom to manipulate politics. The absence of ideology and policy among parties, with their survival directly or indirectly based on corrupt deals and funding, facilitates the making and breaking of political alliances. Recall how BSP and SP allied to win power and how they split to become bitter foes. Recall the ease with which BJP’s Kalyan Singh, the destroyer of Babri Masjid, defected to Mulayam Singh. And recall also the ease with which the BJP welcomed him back with open arms. Recall how Karunanidhi allied with the BJP, then with the Congress. Recall how Mamata Bannerji allied with BJP, then broke away, and now quite possibly is inching towards the Congress. Recall how Jayalalithaa was with Rajiv Gandhi, later with Vajpayee. Examples are endless. Power hungry politicians bereft of principles and policies, operating in a badly fragmented polity, provide the easiest pickings for this mafia.
The eco-political mafia therefore is the biggest beneficiary of caste-based reservation. It is the master that can install or destroy governments, can make or break political alliances. One might ask: but can politicians be influenced by this corporate class? To determine this, consider the Samajwadi Party (SP) which swears by Dr Lohia and is directed by Amar Singh. Even Mulayam Singh would not dispute Amar Singh’s phenomenal access to big business, with a reach that extends to the world’s richest as listed by Forbes. Or consider Laloo Yadav. Ignore the cases of corruption and disproportionate assets against him. These days he talks more about IPL cricket than about rural development. Or consider Mayawati, whose much-talked about obsession with personal wealth and property reflects big business aspirations rather than help and backing for poor Dalits. Or consider the BJP, in which many leaders, after assuming power, have transformed their lifestyles beyond recognition from their Spartan origins in the RSS. Congress leaders one need not consider. They have the longest record that attests to their orientation.
On any sober reckoning, then, caste-based reservation has helped the eco-political mafia the most to achieve a total stranglehold on India's politics. Let politicians make any claims. Thanks to political fragmentation caused by reservation, dubious businessmen call the shots.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Obama rejects pastor
Obama rejects pastor in latest Church flap
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama on Friday faced new questions over his Chicago church, after video emerged of a pastor mocking his rival Hillary Clinton with racially tinged rhetoric.
Obama rejected the remarks by Father Michael Pfleger, made in the same pulpit at Trinity United Church of Christ as inflammatory sermons of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, which pitched the campaign into turmoil earlier this year.
In a guest appearance at the church Sunday, Pfleger mocked Clinton for appearing to cry days before the New Hampshire primary in January, saying she was on the verge of tears because "there is a black man stealing my show."
"She always thought, 'This is mine. I'm Bill's wife, I'm white and this is mine,' Pfleger said in the dramatic sermon, which now has 100,000 hits on YouTube.
"And then out of nowhere came him, Barack Obama. And she said: 'Damn, where did you come from? I'm white, I'm entitled, there's a black man stealing my show!'"
"She wasn't the only one crying, there was a whole lot of white people crying," said Pfleger, a white Catholic priest.
Obama, seeking to quell the controversy that could provide ammunition to Republican critics, quickly rejected Pfleger's rhetoric in a statement Thursday night.
"As I have traveled this country, I've been impressed not by what divides us, but by all that unites us," he said.
"That is why I am deeply disappointed in Father Pfleger's divisive, backward-looking rhetoric, which doesn't reflect the country I see or the desire of people across America to come together in common cause."
It was unclear how deeply the new drama would damage Obama's campaign as he stands on the verge of capturing the Democratic nomination, with the last two primary votes on Tuesday in Montana and South Dakota.
Videos of Wright earlier this year claiming AIDS was a racist government plot and suggesting black citizens sing "God Damn America" to protest their treatment by whites threw his campaign into major damage control mode.
The Illinois senator initially declined to reject the pastor, using the row to make a wider comment about race in America in a speech in March.
Later, however, he later rejected Wright after a round of media appearances by the pastor reignited the affair.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama on Friday faced new questions over his Chicago church, after video emerged of a pastor mocking his rival Hillary Clinton with racially tinged rhetoric.
Obama rejected the remarks by Father Michael Pfleger, made in the same pulpit at Trinity United Church of Christ as inflammatory sermons of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, which pitched the campaign into turmoil earlier this year.
In a guest appearance at the church Sunday, Pfleger mocked Clinton for appearing to cry days before the New Hampshire primary in January, saying she was on the verge of tears because "there is a black man stealing my show."
"She always thought, 'This is mine. I'm Bill's wife, I'm white and this is mine,' Pfleger said in the dramatic sermon, which now has 100,000 hits on YouTube.
"And then out of nowhere came him, Barack Obama. And she said: 'Damn, where did you come from? I'm white, I'm entitled, there's a black man stealing my show!'"
"She wasn't the only one crying, there was a whole lot of white people crying," said Pfleger, a white Catholic priest.
Obama, seeking to quell the controversy that could provide ammunition to Republican critics, quickly rejected Pfleger's rhetoric in a statement Thursday night.
"As I have traveled this country, I've been impressed not by what divides us, but by all that unites us," he said.
"That is why I am deeply disappointed in Father Pfleger's divisive, backward-looking rhetoric, which doesn't reflect the country I see or the desire of people across America to come together in common cause."
It was unclear how deeply the new drama would damage Obama's campaign as he stands on the verge of capturing the Democratic nomination, with the last two primary votes on Tuesday in Montana and South Dakota.
Videos of Wright earlier this year claiming AIDS was a racist government plot and suggesting black citizens sing "God Damn America" to protest their treatment by whites threw his campaign into major damage control mode.
The Illinois senator initially declined to reject the pastor, using the row to make a wider comment about race in America in a speech in March.
Later, however, he later rejected Wright after a round of media appearances by the pastor reignited the affair.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Gandhian Sonia wants to end manual scavenging
Friday, May 30, 2008
Gandhian Sonia wants to end manual scavenging
New Delhi: UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi is all set to achieve a distinction what leaders of all hues could not achieve since India's independence. Quite befitting a Gandhi, Sonia has taken up cudgels for the worst-sufferers of the century-old tradition of manual scavenging, announcing to end the evil at the earliest.
The UPA government is all set to eradicate manual scavenging. While talking to a group of liberated scavenger women from Rajasthan's Alwar, the UPA chairperson assured that she would discuss the issue with the Prime minister to end the 'evil of the society'.
Manual scavenging was banned by a formal Act of Parliament in 1993 and it is called Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines Prohibition Act. Using or maintaining dry toilets is illegal and liable for criminal punishment.
But, paradoxically, official figures of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for 2007, reveal that there are at least 342468 manual scavengers in the country, spread over 21 states working at dry latrines and invloved in human excreta cleaning processes.
These 28 liberated scavenger women, who got a chance to meet UPA Chairperson on Thursday, are all set to walk the ramp with top models of the world at the United Nations in July.
With an aim on showcasing the path-breaking contributions of liberated scavengers in the context of social reform, Sulabh International has planned to take them to the United Nations General Assembly Halls on July 2, 2008, where ministers and officials from more than 150 countries will be present and where a book containing success stories of these women titled "Princesses of Alwar" will also be released.
The Congress president has expressed great satisfaction over the efforts of these liberated scavengers who have not only left the traditional practice of manual scavenging, but have also started social initiative to motivate other colleagues. Sonia Gandhi also appreciated the contribution of Sulabh and its founder Dr Bindeshwar Pathak in the liberation of manual scavengers in the country.
The journey from being a scavenger carrying night soil in a small town to a chance to walk on the ramp and rub shoulders with celebrities was tortuous but it happened like a fairy tale for each one of the 28 woman folks who hail from the lowest strata of the society. Four years ago, all the 28 downtrodden women were engaged in the traditional family practice of cleaning night soil in their localities. Each one of them is now an active member of a group that motivates their scavenger brethren to quit the lives of drudgery and humiliation.
They were helped in giving up their work by a vocational training centre, 'Nai Disha', an initiative of the Sulabh Sanitation movement in the Alwar district of Rajasthan. Now these 28 liberated scavengers have become role models for the society. According to founder of Sulabh movement Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, "I have been, in my own humble way, attempting, since 1968, to realise, in no small measure, one of the dreams of Mahatma Gandhi, to restore human rights and dignity to persons engaged in manual cleaning of human excreta and carrying it as headload."
The scavengers were termed as 'untouchables', prior to Independence of India, having been put to the lowest ladder of the caste hierarchy. Mahatma Gandhi, who became the voice of these 'untouchables', must be smiling from the heavens.
© Copyright 2008 HT Media Ltd. All rights reserved.
Gandhian Sonia wants to end manual scavenging
New Delhi: UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi is all set to achieve a distinction what leaders of all hues could not achieve since India's independence. Quite befitting a Gandhi, Sonia has taken up cudgels for the worst-sufferers of the century-old tradition of manual scavenging, announcing to end the evil at the earliest.
The UPA government is all set to eradicate manual scavenging. While talking to a group of liberated scavenger women from Rajasthan's Alwar, the UPA chairperson assured that she would discuss the issue with the Prime minister to end the 'evil of the society'.
Manual scavenging was banned by a formal Act of Parliament in 1993 and it is called Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines Prohibition Act. Using or maintaining dry toilets is illegal and liable for criminal punishment.
But, paradoxically, official figures of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for 2007, reveal that there are at least 342468 manual scavengers in the country, spread over 21 states working at dry latrines and invloved in human excreta cleaning processes.
These 28 liberated scavenger women, who got a chance to meet UPA Chairperson on Thursday, are all set to walk the ramp with top models of the world at the United Nations in July.
With an aim on showcasing the path-breaking contributions of liberated scavengers in the context of social reform, Sulabh International has planned to take them to the United Nations General Assembly Halls on July 2, 2008, where ministers and officials from more than 150 countries will be present and where a book containing success stories of these women titled "Princesses of Alwar" will also be released.
The Congress president has expressed great satisfaction over the efforts of these liberated scavengers who have not only left the traditional practice of manual scavenging, but have also started social initiative to motivate other colleagues. Sonia Gandhi also appreciated the contribution of Sulabh and its founder Dr Bindeshwar Pathak in the liberation of manual scavengers in the country.
The journey from being a scavenger carrying night soil in a small town to a chance to walk on the ramp and rub shoulders with celebrities was tortuous but it happened like a fairy tale for each one of the 28 woman folks who hail from the lowest strata of the society. Four years ago, all the 28 downtrodden women were engaged in the traditional family practice of cleaning night soil in their localities. Each one of them is now an active member of a group that motivates their scavenger brethren to quit the lives of drudgery and humiliation.
They were helped in giving up their work by a vocational training centre, 'Nai Disha', an initiative of the Sulabh Sanitation movement in the Alwar district of Rajasthan. Now these 28 liberated scavengers have become role models for the society. According to founder of Sulabh movement Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, "I have been, in my own humble way, attempting, since 1968, to realise, in no small measure, one of the dreams of Mahatma Gandhi, to restore human rights and dignity to persons engaged in manual cleaning of human excreta and carrying it as headload."
The scavengers were termed as 'untouchables', prior to Independence of India, having been put to the lowest ladder of the caste hierarchy. Mahatma Gandhi, who became the voice of these 'untouchables', must be smiling from the heavens.
© Copyright 2008 HT Media Ltd. All rights reserved.
Amnesty slams India on Nandigram
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Rights violated! Amnesty slams India on Nandigram
New Delhi: Global human rights watchdog Amnesty International has lambasted India for failure to book those responsible for the disappearance of hundreds in Kashmir, unlawful killing and evictions in Nandigram and police action against peaceful protestors against land acquisition for Special Economic Zones in Orissa.
"There have been atrocities against protests in Nandigram, Singur and Kalinganagar in Orissa. People's rights over natural resources have been denied. Dr Binayak Sen is still in illegal custody," said Mukul Sharma, director Amnesty International, India, releasing the body human rights report for 2008.
Pointing to the displacement of tribals, the report said, about 50,000 adivasis continue to be displaced from Dantewada areas and no effort has been made to ensure their voluntary return.
Civil rights activists like Saroj Mohanty and Roma were being hounded by government authorities.
The report said state and non-state actors in Jammu and Kashmir continued to enjoy "impunity for torture, deaths in custody, abductions and unlawful killings."
"A human rights organisation reported that in the past 18 years, 1,051 people had been victims of enforced disappearance in Baramulla district alone," the report said.
Human rights organisations have challenged official claims that there had been no disappearances until 10 November 2007, saying that 60 people had disappeared since 2006, including nine in 2007.
© Copyright 2008 HT Media Ltd. All rights reserved.
Rights violated! Amnesty slams India on Nandigram
New Delhi: Global human rights watchdog Amnesty International has lambasted India for failure to book those responsible for the disappearance of hundreds in Kashmir, unlawful killing and evictions in Nandigram and police action against peaceful protestors against land acquisition for Special Economic Zones in Orissa.
"There have been atrocities against protests in Nandigram, Singur and Kalinganagar in Orissa. People's rights over natural resources have been denied. Dr Binayak Sen is still in illegal custody," said Mukul Sharma, director Amnesty International, India, releasing the body human rights report for 2008.
Pointing to the displacement of tribals, the report said, about 50,000 adivasis continue to be displaced from Dantewada areas and no effort has been made to ensure their voluntary return.
Civil rights activists like Saroj Mohanty and Roma were being hounded by government authorities.
The report said state and non-state actors in Jammu and Kashmir continued to enjoy "impunity for torture, deaths in custody, abductions and unlawful killings."
"A human rights organisation reported that in the past 18 years, 1,051 people had been victims of enforced disappearance in Baramulla district alone," the report said.
Human rights organisations have challenged official claims that there had been no disappearances until 10 November 2007, saying that 60 people had disappeared since 2006, including nine in 2007.
© Copyright 2008 HT Media Ltd. All rights reserved.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Quit India notice to 5 foreign Tibet marchers
Quit India notice to 5 foreign Tibet marchers
27 May 2008, 0006 hrs IST,Shobhan Saxena,TNN
NEW DELHI: In a strange move, at a time when the government is promoting "Come to India — Walk with the Buddha" to attract foreign tourists to Buddhist circuit in the country, five foreigners have been given Quit India notice to leave the country within seven days "for participating in a religious activity".
James Petersen, Lex Pelger and David Huang from US, Maryla Cross from UK and Paul Christians Buntz from Norway were given the notices for "violating the visa rules" by Pithoragarh SP Puran Singh Rawat on Friday as they reached Banspatan in Uttarkhand's border district with the Tibetan marchers who have been walking towards Tibet since March 10.
While 19 Tibetans were jailed on Friday, the foreigners were detained for a while, given the notice and asked to leave the area immediately.
On Monday, even as the Tibetans were released from Pithoragarh jail, the five foreigners were desperately trying to get in touch with their embassies and trying to figure out the meaning of the notice.
Speaking to TOI from Nainital, James Petersen, a writer from Montana who has been with the "Tibetan Shanti March" since the beginning, said, "I can't understand why the world's biggest democracy has to deport people for taking part in a peace rally. I didn't know that you could be deported from India for taking part in the teachings of your guru. Does this mean all the people coming to India for religious and spiritual reasons can be deported if they take part in any activity?"
Interestingly, India gets maximum number of tourists from the UK (16%) and US (15%), the two countries whose citizens have been given the deportation notice for "violating their tourist visa". Many of the tourists from these countries, where Buddhism is growing very fast as a religion, come to India for religious reasons. According to a study released by the Ficci in 2006, about 200,000 Buddhist tourists visit India every year, spending about $125 million in the country. This number could witness a sharp rise of 400% by 2012 and yield India $1 billion annually in the next four years, according to the Ficci study.
The government insists that the five have violated visa rules. "On tourist visa, you cannot take part in a religious activity. If we allow that, you will have people coming here to propagate their religion. It's only for travelling and sightseeing, etc. So, they have violated the visa rule by participation in the march," said Ashim Khurana, joint secretary (Foreigners) in the ministry of home affairs.
However, legal experts TOI spoke to said the notice in this case seems to be illegal. "The Quit India Notice is a very serious matter. It's used sparingly only in such cases where the person is a threat to the national security.
In this particular case, it seems to be totally wrong, biased and prejudiced. There is no law in the country which prevents people, including foreigners, from taking part in a protest march or a rally," said Shilpi Jain, a lawyer who deals with immigration and visa-related cases. Calling the notice a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution, Supreme Court lawyer Mandeep Singh Vinayak said, "There are certain rights like right to equality available to everyone citizens as well as the aliens travelling on valid visas."
27 May 2008, 0006 hrs IST,Shobhan Saxena,TNN
NEW DELHI: In a strange move, at a time when the government is promoting "Come to India — Walk with the Buddha" to attract foreign tourists to Buddhist circuit in the country, five foreigners have been given Quit India notice to leave the country within seven days "for participating in a religious activity".
James Petersen, Lex Pelger and David Huang from US, Maryla Cross from UK and Paul Christians Buntz from Norway were given the notices for "violating the visa rules" by Pithoragarh SP Puran Singh Rawat on Friday as they reached Banspatan in Uttarkhand's border district with the Tibetan marchers who have been walking towards Tibet since March 10.
While 19 Tibetans were jailed on Friday, the foreigners were detained for a while, given the notice and asked to leave the area immediately.
On Monday, even as the Tibetans were released from Pithoragarh jail, the five foreigners were desperately trying to get in touch with their embassies and trying to figure out the meaning of the notice.
Speaking to TOI from Nainital, James Petersen, a writer from Montana who has been with the "Tibetan Shanti March" since the beginning, said, "I can't understand why the world's biggest democracy has to deport people for taking part in a peace rally. I didn't know that you could be deported from India for taking part in the teachings of your guru. Does this mean all the people coming to India for religious and spiritual reasons can be deported if they take part in any activity?"
Interestingly, India gets maximum number of tourists from the UK (16%) and US (15%), the two countries whose citizens have been given the deportation notice for "violating their tourist visa". Many of the tourists from these countries, where Buddhism is growing very fast as a religion, come to India for religious reasons. According to a study released by the Ficci in 2006, about 200,000 Buddhist tourists visit India every year, spending about $125 million in the country. This number could witness a sharp rise of 400% by 2012 and yield India $1 billion annually in the next four years, according to the Ficci study.
The government insists that the five have violated visa rules. "On tourist visa, you cannot take part in a religious activity. If we allow that, you will have people coming here to propagate their religion. It's only for travelling and sightseeing, etc. So, they have violated the visa rule by participation in the march," said Ashim Khurana, joint secretary (Foreigners) in the ministry of home affairs.
However, legal experts TOI spoke to said the notice in this case seems to be illegal. "The Quit India Notice is a very serious matter. It's used sparingly only in such cases where the person is a threat to the national security.
In this particular case, it seems to be totally wrong, biased and prejudiced. There is no law in the country which prevents people, including foreigners, from taking part in a protest march or a rally," said Shilpi Jain, a lawyer who deals with immigration and visa-related cases. Calling the notice a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution, Supreme Court lawyer Mandeep Singh Vinayak said, "There are certain rights like right to equality available to everyone citizens as well as the aliens travelling on valid visas."
Thabo Mbeki Calls Harm to Migrants a Disgrace
Mbeki Calls Harm to Migrants a Disgrace
Mozambicans returned Sunday from Johannesburg. Anti-immigrant violence that began in the city has killed 50 people.
Published: May 26, 2008 by New York Times
JOHANNESBURG — After two weeks of only faint and infrequent condemnations of the anti-immigrant violence that has troubled South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki on Sunday described the wave of xenophobic attacks as an “absolute disgrace” that has blemished the country’s reputation.
“Never since the birth of our democracy have we witnessed such callousness,” he said in a 10-minute nationally televised speech.
The president spoke after being roundly excoriated as lacking leadership during the mayhem that has left 50 people dead.
A leading newspaper here, The Sunday Times, called for his resignation in a front-page editorial on Sunday. “Throughout this crisis — arguably the most grave, dark and repulsive moment in the life of our young nation — Mbeki has demonstrated that he no longer has the heart to lead,” it said.
The newspaper faulted him for leaving the country as the violence raged and for not visiting any of the squatter settlements where the attacks had occurred. “Mr. President, it is clear you have lost interest in governing the Republic,” it said. “We appeal to you: Stand down in the interests of your country.”
A week earlier, Mathews Phosa, the treasurer-general of Mr. Mbeki’s party, the African National Congress, called for him to cut short his term, due to end next April, saying he had “lost touch” with the party’s mainstream.
Others in the A.N.C. hierarchy quickly said that the comment represented the views of an individual and not the party. But even for a lame duck, Mr. Mbeki has been in an extremely weakened position since he suffered a humiliating defeat in December, losing a vote for the party’s top job to Jacob Zuma, whom he fired as South Africa’s deputy president in 2005.
On Sunday, Mr. Zuma, presumed to be Mr. Mbeki’s successor, met with crowds east of Johannesburg where the violence has been severe.
In contrast, Mr. Mbeki made his prerecorded speech from a plush red upholstered chair, using the monotones and scholarly diction for which he is known.
“Whatever concerns that exist, including those about housing, jobs and so on,” he said, “this can and must be addressed in a manner consistent with the dignified, humane and caring characteristics that define the majority of our people, not through criminal means.”
Sporadic attacks on foreigners have occurred in South Africa for years, but two weeks ago assaults on immigrants in Alexandra, a township near the center of Johannesburg, quickly spread to other parts of the metropolitan area. In one attack in a squatter camp, photographers recorded a man being burned alive, an image that shamed much of the nation.
Though the violence in Johannesburg has slowed, the attacks have spread to other cities, including Durban and Cape Town. About 30,000 foreigners have fled their homes, seeking shelter in police stations and churches as the winter cold descends. Thousands of the despairing have left South Africa to return to Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi and other nations.
Most immigrants remain, however. South Africa, which accounts for a third of sub-Saharan Africa’s economic output, is home to an estimated five million foreigners. Many of them compete for jobs at the lower rungs. Amid high unemployment, woeful housing and rising prices in South Africa, outsiders are often made into scapegoats, the local poor focusing their resentments on the immigrant poor.
But there is dissatisfaction with the government, too. Mr. Mbeki took office in 1999 after a landslide victory, succeeding Nelson Mandela. And while he lacked his predecessor’s charisma, he seemed a calm, cerebral steward who was well respected if not deeply beloved.
Under Mr. Mbeki, the nation has had the longest period of sustained economic growth in its history. He was re-elected by a huge majority in 2004.
But the economic progress is unequally shared, bringing far more benefits to a small portion of the nation’s black citizens, the well connected and the highly skilled. Desmond Tutu, the retired Anglican archbishop and Nobel laureate, warned in 2004: “At the moment, too many of our people live in grueling, demeaning, dehumanizing poverty. We are sitting on a powder keg.”
The violence against immigrants seems to be a lighted fuse attached to that keg. It has happened as Mr. Mbeki has suffered so many setbacks that his legacy seems to be collapsing.
Besides his loss to Mr. Zuma, he has been tarnished by allegations that he sought to shield his police commissioner from corruption charges. He also has steadfastly refused to publicly criticize President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, whose policies have led that nation into economic chaos and caused some three million people to flood into South Africa.
The sustained economic growth Mr. Mbeki so proudly achieved is now endangered by a shortage of electricity that has forced industry to reduce production. By Mr. Mbeki’s admission, the government did not heed the warnings of experts that new power stations were required.
But last week, as the criticism of Mr. Mbeki was in crescendo, one of his top aides, the Rev. Frank Chikane, complained about the unfairness of blaming one person for a rash of woes. “It is a cop-out in a democracy to blame the president only for what goes wrong,” he said.
Mozambicans returned Sunday from Johannesburg. Anti-immigrant violence that began in the city has killed 50 people.
Published: May 26, 2008 by New York Times
JOHANNESBURG — After two weeks of only faint and infrequent condemnations of the anti-immigrant violence that has troubled South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki on Sunday described the wave of xenophobic attacks as an “absolute disgrace” that has blemished the country’s reputation.
“Never since the birth of our democracy have we witnessed such callousness,” he said in a 10-minute nationally televised speech.
The president spoke after being roundly excoriated as lacking leadership during the mayhem that has left 50 people dead.
A leading newspaper here, The Sunday Times, called for his resignation in a front-page editorial on Sunday. “Throughout this crisis — arguably the most grave, dark and repulsive moment in the life of our young nation — Mbeki has demonstrated that he no longer has the heart to lead,” it said.
The newspaper faulted him for leaving the country as the violence raged and for not visiting any of the squatter settlements where the attacks had occurred. “Mr. President, it is clear you have lost interest in governing the Republic,” it said. “We appeal to you: Stand down in the interests of your country.”
A week earlier, Mathews Phosa, the treasurer-general of Mr. Mbeki’s party, the African National Congress, called for him to cut short his term, due to end next April, saying he had “lost touch” with the party’s mainstream.
Others in the A.N.C. hierarchy quickly said that the comment represented the views of an individual and not the party. But even for a lame duck, Mr. Mbeki has been in an extremely weakened position since he suffered a humiliating defeat in December, losing a vote for the party’s top job to Jacob Zuma, whom he fired as South Africa’s deputy president in 2005.
On Sunday, Mr. Zuma, presumed to be Mr. Mbeki’s successor, met with crowds east of Johannesburg where the violence has been severe.
In contrast, Mr. Mbeki made his prerecorded speech from a plush red upholstered chair, using the monotones and scholarly diction for which he is known.
“Whatever concerns that exist, including those about housing, jobs and so on,” he said, “this can and must be addressed in a manner consistent with the dignified, humane and caring characteristics that define the majority of our people, not through criminal means.”
Sporadic attacks on foreigners have occurred in South Africa for years, but two weeks ago assaults on immigrants in Alexandra, a township near the center of Johannesburg, quickly spread to other parts of the metropolitan area. In one attack in a squatter camp, photographers recorded a man being burned alive, an image that shamed much of the nation.
Though the violence in Johannesburg has slowed, the attacks have spread to other cities, including Durban and Cape Town. About 30,000 foreigners have fled their homes, seeking shelter in police stations and churches as the winter cold descends. Thousands of the despairing have left South Africa to return to Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi and other nations.
Most immigrants remain, however. South Africa, which accounts for a third of sub-Saharan Africa’s economic output, is home to an estimated five million foreigners. Many of them compete for jobs at the lower rungs. Amid high unemployment, woeful housing and rising prices in South Africa, outsiders are often made into scapegoats, the local poor focusing their resentments on the immigrant poor.
But there is dissatisfaction with the government, too. Mr. Mbeki took office in 1999 after a landslide victory, succeeding Nelson Mandela. And while he lacked his predecessor’s charisma, he seemed a calm, cerebral steward who was well respected if not deeply beloved.
Under Mr. Mbeki, the nation has had the longest period of sustained economic growth in its history. He was re-elected by a huge majority in 2004.
But the economic progress is unequally shared, bringing far more benefits to a small portion of the nation’s black citizens, the well connected and the highly skilled. Desmond Tutu, the retired Anglican archbishop and Nobel laureate, warned in 2004: “At the moment, too many of our people live in grueling, demeaning, dehumanizing poverty. We are sitting on a powder keg.”
The violence against immigrants seems to be a lighted fuse attached to that keg. It has happened as Mr. Mbeki has suffered so many setbacks that his legacy seems to be collapsing.
Besides his loss to Mr. Zuma, he has been tarnished by allegations that he sought to shield his police commissioner from corruption charges. He also has steadfastly refused to publicly criticize President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, whose policies have led that nation into economic chaos and caused some three million people to flood into South Africa.
The sustained economic growth Mr. Mbeki so proudly achieved is now endangered by a shortage of electricity that has forced industry to reduce production. By Mr. Mbeki’s admission, the government did not heed the warnings of experts that new power stations were required.
But last week, as the criticism of Mr. Mbeki was in crescendo, one of his top aides, the Rev. Frank Chikane, complained about the unfairness of blaming one person for a rash of woes. “It is a cop-out in a democracy to blame the president only for what goes wrong,” he said.
Tax Exemptions for Charities: New Questions
Exemptions for Charities Face New Challenges
Allen Brisson-Smith for The New York Times
Minnesota’s Supreme Court said Michelle Finholdt’s child care center had to pay property taxes.
Article Tools Sponsored By
By STEPHANIE STROM
Published: May 26, 2008
RED WING, Minn. — Authorities from the local tax assessor to members of Congress are increasingly challenging the tax-exempt status of nonprofit institutions — ranging from small group homes to wealthy universities — questioning whether they deserve special treatment.
One issue is the growing confusion over what constitutes a charity at a time when nonprofit groups look more like businesses, charging fees and selling products and services to raise money, and state and local governments are under financial pressure because of lower tax revenues.
And there are others: Does a nonprofit hospital give enough charity care to earn a tax exemption? Is a wealthy university providing enough financial aid?
In a ruling last December that sent tremors through the not-for-profit world, the Minnesota Supreme Court said a small nonprofit day care agency here had to pay property taxes because, in essence, it gave nothing away.
The agency, the Under the Rainbow Child Care Center, charges the same price per child regardless of whether their parents are able to pay the full amount themselves or they receive government support to cover the cost.
“We were shocked,” said Michelle Finholdt, who founded the center in 1994 and scraped together the money to buy a building in 2002. “There are a lot of other organizations in our area that we’re similar to, and they are exempt from property taxes.”
The tax-exempt status of charities costs local governments $8 billion to $13 billion annually, according to various rough estimates.
And local assessors are not the only government officials scratching their heads over which groups deserve privileged tax status. Congress has threatened to impose a requirement that wealthy universities make minimum payouts from their endowments and raised questions about whether nonprofit hospitals are really all that different from their for-profit — and tax-paying — competitors.
And, concerned about the way some churches are spending money, the Senate Finance Committee has asked for detailed financial information from six evangelical ministries asking them to justify their tax exemptions.
Others are questioning whether some tax-exempt nonprofits, primarily universities and hospitals, have accumulated so much wealth that they should no longer be considered charities. In Massachusetts, where Harvard’s endowment has reached $35 billion in assets, legislators are weighing whether to impose a 2.5 percent annual assessment on universities with endowments of more than $1 billion.
The idea behind tax exemptions is that the organizations provide a public service or substantially reduce the burdens of government. Standards from property-tax exemptions are set by the states, while the federal exemption means charities are not taxed on their income.
Almost 88 percent of overall nonprofit revenues in 2005, the most recent year for which figures are available, came from fees for services, sales and sources other than charitable contributions, according to the National Center for Charitable Statistics. Nonprofit health care providers, day care centers and retirement homes, among others, are often difficult to distinguish from their tax-paying competitors.
“We’re all seeing the growth of revenue in this area we call earned income,” said Audrey R. Alvarado, executive director of the National Council of Nonprofit Associations, adding that the Minnesota court decision “is saying, ‘Wait a minute, charities are supposed to give things away for free.’ ”
“It goes to the core of how nonprofits are classified and defined,” she said, “and I think it is an example of the confusion in the public, and even among folks in the sector itself, about what a nonprofit is.”
Evelyn Brody, a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law and an expert on nonprofits and property taxes, said that, in studying the issue in 2002 and revisiting it last year, she had seen an explosion of cases across the country in which charities were challenged to say why they deserve their property tax exemptions.
As universities charge high tuitions, and pay large salaries to administrators, they have become prime targets. For example, New London, Conn., assessed property taxes on a skating rink owned by Connecticut College. Local assessors tried to tax Smith College in Northampton, Mass., arguing that the women’s college engaged in sex discrimination and thus was not charitable.
Smaller organizations that provide services like day care or drug treatment are being challenged, too. The Oregon tax court denied property tax exemption to a residential substance-abuse treatment center because it catered to “addicted professionals” and, like Under the Rainbow, did not give away its services.
The Minnesota Department of Revenue and county tax assessors say the uproar over the court ruling here has surprised them.
Allen Brisson-Smith for The New York Times
Minnesota’s Supreme Court said Michelle Finholdt’s child care center had to pay property taxes.
Article Tools Sponsored By
By STEPHANIE STROM
Published: May 26, 2008
RED WING, Minn. — Authorities from the local tax assessor to members of Congress are increasingly challenging the tax-exempt status of nonprofit institutions — ranging from small group homes to wealthy universities — questioning whether they deserve special treatment.
One issue is the growing confusion over what constitutes a charity at a time when nonprofit groups look more like businesses, charging fees and selling products and services to raise money, and state and local governments are under financial pressure because of lower tax revenues.
And there are others: Does a nonprofit hospital give enough charity care to earn a tax exemption? Is a wealthy university providing enough financial aid?
In a ruling last December that sent tremors through the not-for-profit world, the Minnesota Supreme Court said a small nonprofit day care agency here had to pay property taxes because, in essence, it gave nothing away.
The agency, the Under the Rainbow Child Care Center, charges the same price per child regardless of whether their parents are able to pay the full amount themselves or they receive government support to cover the cost.
“We were shocked,” said Michelle Finholdt, who founded the center in 1994 and scraped together the money to buy a building in 2002. “There are a lot of other organizations in our area that we’re similar to, and they are exempt from property taxes.”
The tax-exempt status of charities costs local governments $8 billion to $13 billion annually, according to various rough estimates.
And local assessors are not the only government officials scratching their heads over which groups deserve privileged tax status. Congress has threatened to impose a requirement that wealthy universities make minimum payouts from their endowments and raised questions about whether nonprofit hospitals are really all that different from their for-profit — and tax-paying — competitors.
And, concerned about the way some churches are spending money, the Senate Finance Committee has asked for detailed financial information from six evangelical ministries asking them to justify their tax exemptions.
Others are questioning whether some tax-exempt nonprofits, primarily universities and hospitals, have accumulated so much wealth that they should no longer be considered charities. In Massachusetts, where Harvard’s endowment has reached $35 billion in assets, legislators are weighing whether to impose a 2.5 percent annual assessment on universities with endowments of more than $1 billion.
The idea behind tax exemptions is that the organizations provide a public service or substantially reduce the burdens of government. Standards from property-tax exemptions are set by the states, while the federal exemption means charities are not taxed on their income.
Almost 88 percent of overall nonprofit revenues in 2005, the most recent year for which figures are available, came from fees for services, sales and sources other than charitable contributions, according to the National Center for Charitable Statistics. Nonprofit health care providers, day care centers and retirement homes, among others, are often difficult to distinguish from their tax-paying competitors.
“We’re all seeing the growth of revenue in this area we call earned income,” said Audrey R. Alvarado, executive director of the National Council of Nonprofit Associations, adding that the Minnesota court decision “is saying, ‘Wait a minute, charities are supposed to give things away for free.’ ”
“It goes to the core of how nonprofits are classified and defined,” she said, “and I think it is an example of the confusion in the public, and even among folks in the sector itself, about what a nonprofit is.”
Evelyn Brody, a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law and an expert on nonprofits and property taxes, said that, in studying the issue in 2002 and revisiting it last year, she had seen an explosion of cases across the country in which charities were challenged to say why they deserve their property tax exemptions.
As universities charge high tuitions, and pay large salaries to administrators, they have become prime targets. For example, New London, Conn., assessed property taxes on a skating rink owned by Connecticut College. Local assessors tried to tax Smith College in Northampton, Mass., arguing that the women’s college engaged in sex discrimination and thus was not charitable.
Smaller organizations that provide services like day care or drug treatment are being challenged, too. The Oregon tax court denied property tax exemption to a residential substance-abuse treatment center because it catered to “addicted professionals” and, like Under the Rainbow, did not give away its services.
The Minnesota Department of Revenue and county tax assessors say the uproar over the court ruling here has surprised them.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
U.S. Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson Claims Bible for Abortion-Rights
Monday April 18, 2005
courtesy: LifeSiteNews
Homosexual Episcopal Bishop Out to Claim Bible for Abortion-Rights Activists
Washington, D.C., April 18, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) The logical consequences resulting from the first ever consecration of a homosexual bishop continued to manifest themselves as Bishop V. Gene Robinson of the U.S. Episcopal Church addressed those Planned Parenthood's fifth annual prayer breakfast in Washington on Friday April 15th.
The Washington Times carried a news article in which Rev. Robinson was reported as directing his comments against "people of faith" and suggested that Planned Parenthood should target them so as to "promote abortion rights and comprehensive sex education".
The main theme of Robinson's comments dealt with the reasons surrounding last year's election results in the United States. The large number of people who voted for President Bush was, according to Robinson, a result of the disconnect between religious people and the pro-abortion mindset, saying, "In this last election we see what the ultimate result of divorce from communities of faith will do to us."
Robinson believes that the only way to defend the pro-abortion mindset is to reach out religiously. He noted that, "our defense against religious people has to be a religious defense. ... We must use people of faith to counter the faith-based arguments against us."
In essence Robinson is advocating the complete reinterpretation of the Scriptures. He is quoted in the Times article as saying "We have allowed the Bible to be taken hostage, and it is being wielded by folks who would use it to hit us over the head. We have to take back those Scriptures," he said. "You know, those stories are our stories. I tell this to lesbian folk all the time: The story of freedom in Exodus is our story. ... That's my story, and they can't have it. … We need to teach people about nuance, about holding things in tension, that this can be true and that can be true, and somewhere between is the right answer. It's a very adult way of living, you know. What an unimaginative God it would be if God only put one meaning in any verse of Scripture."
Rev. Robinson gained worldwide notoriety in 2003 when he was elevated to the office of bishop within the Episcopal Church (known as the Anglican Church outside the U.S.). Robinson had left his wife and two young daughters in 1986 and moved in with a man. His stand on abortion, however, mirrors faithfully the Episcopal Church's position on abortion, adopted in a resolution during its 71st General Convention in 1994, stating: "While we acknowledge that in this country it is the legal right of every woman to have a medically safe abortion, as Christians we believe strongly that if this right is exercised, it should be used only in extreme situations. We emphatically oppose abortion as a means of birth control, family planning, sex selection, or any reason of mere convenience."
Planned Parenthood has made limited inroads in subverting the Christian faith. The Rev. Ignacio Castuera, a Methodist and Planned Parenthood's national chaplain, indicated that the size of their clergy network, numbers around 1,400 pastors and clergy, mostly on the East and West coasts. However, Mr. Castuera said, "When you move further into the country it gets harder. ... In the center of the country we have a lot more conservative perspectives on the Bible and sex."
The comments and activities by Rev. Robinson and other clergy are not going unchallenged however. David Bereit, national director of Stop Planned Parenthood (Stopp), an organization that espouses the belief that life begins at conception and that abortion is murder, said his organization is "not going to allow Planned Parenthood to hijack Christianity." According to the Washington Times, Mr. Bereit said his group will work to build coalitions of churches who will then try to remove Planned Parenthood materials from public school sex education courses and lobby government against funding the group.
db
courtesy: LifeSiteNews
Homosexual Episcopal Bishop Out to Claim Bible for Abortion-Rights Activists
Washington, D.C., April 18, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) The logical consequences resulting from the first ever consecration of a homosexual bishop continued to manifest themselves as Bishop V. Gene Robinson of the U.S. Episcopal Church addressed those Planned Parenthood's fifth annual prayer breakfast in Washington on Friday April 15th.
The Washington Times carried a news article in which Rev. Robinson was reported as directing his comments against "people of faith" and suggested that Planned Parenthood should target them so as to "promote abortion rights and comprehensive sex education".
The main theme of Robinson's comments dealt with the reasons surrounding last year's election results in the United States. The large number of people who voted for President Bush was, according to Robinson, a result of the disconnect between religious people and the pro-abortion mindset, saying, "In this last election we see what the ultimate result of divorce from communities of faith will do to us."
Robinson believes that the only way to defend the pro-abortion mindset is to reach out religiously. He noted that, "our defense against religious people has to be a religious defense. ... We must use people of faith to counter the faith-based arguments against us."
In essence Robinson is advocating the complete reinterpretation of the Scriptures. He is quoted in the Times article as saying "We have allowed the Bible to be taken hostage, and it is being wielded by folks who would use it to hit us over the head. We have to take back those Scriptures," he said. "You know, those stories are our stories. I tell this to lesbian folk all the time: The story of freedom in Exodus is our story. ... That's my story, and they can't have it. … We need to teach people about nuance, about holding things in tension, that this can be true and that can be true, and somewhere between is the right answer. It's a very adult way of living, you know. What an unimaginative God it would be if God only put one meaning in any verse of Scripture."
Rev. Robinson gained worldwide notoriety in 2003 when he was elevated to the office of bishop within the Episcopal Church (known as the Anglican Church outside the U.S.). Robinson had left his wife and two young daughters in 1986 and moved in with a man. His stand on abortion, however, mirrors faithfully the Episcopal Church's position on abortion, adopted in a resolution during its 71st General Convention in 1994, stating: "While we acknowledge that in this country it is the legal right of every woman to have a medically safe abortion, as Christians we believe strongly that if this right is exercised, it should be used only in extreme situations. We emphatically oppose abortion as a means of birth control, family planning, sex selection, or any reason of mere convenience."
Planned Parenthood has made limited inroads in subverting the Christian faith. The Rev. Ignacio Castuera, a Methodist and Planned Parenthood's national chaplain, indicated that the size of their clergy network, numbers around 1,400 pastors and clergy, mostly on the East and West coasts. However, Mr. Castuera said, "When you move further into the country it gets harder. ... In the center of the country we have a lot more conservative perspectives on the Bible and sex."
The comments and activities by Rev. Robinson and other clergy are not going unchallenged however. David Bereit, national director of Stop Planned Parenthood (Stopp), an organization that espouses the belief that life begins at conception and that abortion is murder, said his organization is "not going to allow Planned Parenthood to hijack Christianity." According to the Washington Times, Mr. Bereit said his group will work to build coalitions of churches who will then try to remove Planned Parenthood materials from public school sex education courses and lobby government against funding the group.
db
Saturday, May 24, 2008
crackdown on godmen:Santhosh Madhavan,'Ernakulam Swami',Thanku 'Brother
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Kerala plans crackdown on godmen
Achuthanandan
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan Saturday said the state government may issue an ordinance specifically to rein in self-proclaimed godmen, and to investigate the wealth amassed by them.
"If need be, the government will not hesitate to come out with an ordinance to rein in people who try to commercialise religion. We will now form a new department, economic offences wing, under the crime branch (of the police) to look into the wealth amassed by such people," Balakrishnan told reporters here.
Two self-styled 'swami' (godmen) came into the police net last week at Kochi.
The first saffron-robed man to hit the headlines was Santhosh Madhavan alias Swami Amritachaithanya, arrested May 13 and charged with the rape of a teenage girl and possession of 'ganja' (marijuana). A tiger skin and a large number of pornographic films were also recovered from his house in Kochi.
The second godman, whose threats to shoot himself inside a police station in Aluva were beamed live on television May 17, is Himaval Maheswara Bhadranandaji, popularly known as 'Ernakulam Swami'.
Preliminary inquires by the intelligence officials revealed that these godmen have considerable wealth without any proper records or accounts.
Meanwhile, several self-styled godmen of all religious have been under attack from political parties and activists.
On Saturday, offices of Thanku 'Brother,’ who has established an independent church - Heavenly Feast - in Kottayam district were searched by the police. The Kottayam municipal corporation has already issued a notice to his followers to demolish their temporary structure built in the heart of city.
Around half a dozen ashrams across the state have come under attack by the youth wings of both the BJP and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).
"This would not be allowed under any circumstances and all those who have complaints (against the swamis) should cooperate with the police and not take law into their hands," added Balakrishnan.
Source: IANS
Kerala plans crackdown on godmen
Achuthanandan
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan Saturday said the state government may issue an ordinance specifically to rein in self-proclaimed godmen, and to investigate the wealth amassed by them.
"If need be, the government will not hesitate to come out with an ordinance to rein in people who try to commercialise religion. We will now form a new department, economic offences wing, under the crime branch (of the police) to look into the wealth amassed by such people," Balakrishnan told reporters here.
Two self-styled 'swami' (godmen) came into the police net last week at Kochi.
The first saffron-robed man to hit the headlines was Santhosh Madhavan alias Swami Amritachaithanya, arrested May 13 and charged with the rape of a teenage girl and possession of 'ganja' (marijuana). A tiger skin and a large number of pornographic films were also recovered from his house in Kochi.
The second godman, whose threats to shoot himself inside a police station in Aluva were beamed live on television May 17, is Himaval Maheswara Bhadranandaji, popularly known as 'Ernakulam Swami'.
Preliminary inquires by the intelligence officials revealed that these godmen have considerable wealth without any proper records or accounts.
Meanwhile, several self-styled godmen of all religious have been under attack from political parties and activists.
On Saturday, offices of Thanku 'Brother,’ who has established an independent church - Heavenly Feast - in Kottayam district were searched by the police. The Kottayam municipal corporation has already issued a notice to his followers to demolish their temporary structure built in the heart of city.
Around half a dozen ashrams across the state have come under attack by the youth wings of both the BJP and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).
"This would not be allowed under any circumstances and all those who have complaints (against the swamis) should cooperate with the police and not take law into their hands," added Balakrishnan.
Source: IANS
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The fall of a caste-wall in Uthapuram, Tamil Nadu
Frontline
Volume 25 - Issue 11 :: May. 24-Jun. 06, 2008
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU
SOCIAL ISSUES
The fall of a wall
S. VISWANATHAN
in Uthapuram
The demolition of a portion of the “caste wall” at Uthapuram marks a milestone in the history of the Dalit liberation struggle.
S. JAMES
The “caste wall” after the demolition of a part of it, at Uthapuram village in Madurai district.
THANKS to an effective and timely intervention by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led Tamil Nadu government in response to appeals and protests by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), a section of the wall that segregated Dalits from the rest of the residents at Uthapuram in Madurai district was demolished on May 6. While the Dalits were delighted that the government had, at least partly, conceded their demand, the predominant caste-Hindu residents (Pillais) left the village en masse, apparently not able to bear the sight of the demolition even before it started. For three weeks, they stayed at the foot of a small hill three kilometres from the village before the district administration could persuade them to return.
The 30-metre wall, variously described as “caste wall”, “wall of bias”, “wall of shame” and “wall of untouchability”, which was raised by caste Hindus in 1989 following “caste riots” in the village, was brought to public notice in March this year by a study group of the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF), which has undertaken a survey of the forms of untouchability practised in different parts of the State (Frontline, March 28 and May 9). P. Sampath, the State convenor of the front, who is also a member of the State Secretariat of the CPI(M), followed it up with petitions to the State government and the Madurai district administration in the last week of March demanding the demolition of the wall. The CPI(M) held demonstrations and meetings all over the State in support of the demand. Parties such as the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and the Viduthalai Ciruthaigal Katchi (VCK) supported the demand.
The wall received wider public attention when The Hindu reported on April 17 that the wall was found to have been electrified with the help of a device to prevent Dalits from climbing over it into caste-Hindu areas. When the issue was raised in the State Assembly, the government announced that it had defused the device. The Dalits of Uthapuram and the surrounding villages thanked the government and staged a demonstration in front of the taluk office at Peraiyur demanding that the wall be pulled down.
The CPI(M) stepped up its campaign to get the wall removed. Its State Committee decided on April 29 to intensity the agitation against untouchability. Its State secretary, N. Varadarajan, told mediapersons that if the divisive wall was not removed by the government, his party would pull it down. He also announced that party general secretary Prakash Karat would visit Uthapuram on May 7 to express solidarity with the protesting Dalits.
Meanwhile, the government was discussing the issue at different levels. The district administration was asked to interact with the caste Hindus and the Dalits of the village. Representatives of the caste Hindus reportedly insisted that the wall was only meant to “protect” their own people and that it was built in 1989 on the basis of an “agreement” that was signed by both the caste groups.
Tense situation
When talks between the government and the caste Hindus failed to make headway, the situation became even more tense. On May 5, the caste Hindus from the village went to the taluk office at Peraiyur and surrendered their family cards in protest. In Chennai, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi was engaged in consultations until late in the night. He took pains to ascertain whether the “1989 agreement” between the Dalits and caste Hindus over the construction of the wall was valid, whether the caste Hindus concerned (Pillais or Vellalas) belong to a sect that believes in living inside a fort as they do in the southern district of Thoothukudi, whether there were any sentiments attached to the wall, and so on. The decision to demolish a portion of the wall so as to provide access to the Dalits at one end of the village is believed to have been taken late in the night.
S. JAMES
A section of caste-Hindu residents camping at Thalaiyoothu on May 12.
On May 6, in the presence of a 100-strong police force, top officials of the district administration supervised the demolition. For the Dalits, it was a moment of great excitement.
Insult to dignity
The wall, apart from causing inconvenience, was an insult to their honour and dignity. Even before the operation began, however, the Pillais, numbering about 600, left for Thalaiyoothu, about 3 km from Uthapuram.
Welcoming the demolition, Varadarajan appreciated the government’s decision to convene a meeting of the communities in order to create a congenial atmosphere for the removal of the wall. He wanted the government to allot a special fund for the economic development of the village.
Greeting the Dalits the next day at Uthapuram, Prakash Karat said, “May 6 is a historic day for Uthapuram, Tamil Nadu and India as the wall of shame, which divided people for more than 18 years, and which symbolised caste oppression and discrimination, was razed down. This is the first step towards demolishing the wall completely.” He also wanted the State government to make sure that Dalits had access to all public spaces and common property resources.
The situation again became tense when the caste Hindus who left the village did not respond to the District Collector’s appeal “to return soon so that all in the village can live in amity”. When district officials met them, they made some demands: a patta for a temple where they have been worshipping for over 400 years; a permanent police outpost in the village; new houses for people whose homes were destroyed by “Dalit anti-socials” during the 1989 “riots”. On May 12, Puthiya Neethi Katchi president A.C. Shanmugam met them and reportedly promised to take up their demands with the Chief Minister. With a similar assurance from the District Collector, they returned to the village on May 13.
S.P. Murugesan, who heads the caste-Hindu group of the village, told Frontline at Thalaiyoothu on May 12 that his people left the village more out of fear than as a mark of protest. He said they felt insecure after the wall was pulled down.
Murugesan claimed that the Dalits in the village were now better off than they were in 1989 for most of them held government jobs or owned land. Indeed, the Dalits were on a “buying spree”, he said, and the Pillais feared that they might be forced to sell their properties to Dalits. “It is this fear that is haunting my people,” he said. An elderly person said the strong police presence in the village aggravated the Pillais’ fears.
Murugesan said that the wall was built not to reinforce untouchability but to protect caste Hindus. This was done on the basis of an agreement signed by representatives of both sides. The wall became necessary after violence against his people, he said. He said that there had been no major confrontation between the two social groups in the last 20 years and that there had been no need to file even a single FIR (first information report).
Denied access
The Dalits of the village, however, do not accept this version. They insist that they have been at the receiving end of intolerance, rather than the other way around, and that this was true even in 1989. “Most of the victims were from our side,” said A.K. Ponniah (65), an ex-serviceman. Some caste Hindus, he said, behaved violently with Dalits even now and recalled how Dalits had to put up with verbal abuse while celebrating a temple festival. He added that Dalits, who are denied access to public places and facilities and are not allowed to sit down at bus shelters, face untouchability in many forms. He questioned the validity of the 1989 “agreement”, pointing out that there were only five signatories on behalf of the Dalits and 200 representing the other side.
Prakash Karat, general secretary of the CPI(M), at a meeting at Uthapuram on May 7.
Murugesan, denied that the caste-Hindu group practised untouchability. “Indeed, we want them [Dalits] to visit our houses and chat and dine with us.”
Sampath told Frontline that the government should try to create a situation that facilitates friendly relations between the Dalits and all other social groups and that the social, economic and democratic rights of the Dalits should be protected.•
Volume 25 - Issue 11 :: May. 24-Jun. 06, 2008
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU
SOCIAL ISSUES
The fall of a wall
S. VISWANATHAN
in Uthapuram
The demolition of a portion of the “caste wall” at Uthapuram marks a milestone in the history of the Dalit liberation struggle.
S. JAMES
The “caste wall” after the demolition of a part of it, at Uthapuram village in Madurai district.
THANKS to an effective and timely intervention by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led Tamil Nadu government in response to appeals and protests by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), a section of the wall that segregated Dalits from the rest of the residents at Uthapuram in Madurai district was demolished on May 6. While the Dalits were delighted that the government had, at least partly, conceded their demand, the predominant caste-Hindu residents (Pillais) left the village en masse, apparently not able to bear the sight of the demolition even before it started. For three weeks, they stayed at the foot of a small hill three kilometres from the village before the district administration could persuade them to return.
The 30-metre wall, variously described as “caste wall”, “wall of bias”, “wall of shame” and “wall of untouchability”, which was raised by caste Hindus in 1989 following “caste riots” in the village, was brought to public notice in March this year by a study group of the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF), which has undertaken a survey of the forms of untouchability practised in different parts of the State (Frontline, March 28 and May 9). P. Sampath, the State convenor of the front, who is also a member of the State Secretariat of the CPI(M), followed it up with petitions to the State government and the Madurai district administration in the last week of March demanding the demolition of the wall. The CPI(M) held demonstrations and meetings all over the State in support of the demand. Parties such as the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and the Viduthalai Ciruthaigal Katchi (VCK) supported the demand.
The wall received wider public attention when The Hindu reported on April 17 that the wall was found to have been electrified with the help of a device to prevent Dalits from climbing over it into caste-Hindu areas. When the issue was raised in the State Assembly, the government announced that it had defused the device. The Dalits of Uthapuram and the surrounding villages thanked the government and staged a demonstration in front of the taluk office at Peraiyur demanding that the wall be pulled down.
The CPI(M) stepped up its campaign to get the wall removed. Its State Committee decided on April 29 to intensity the agitation against untouchability. Its State secretary, N. Varadarajan, told mediapersons that if the divisive wall was not removed by the government, his party would pull it down. He also announced that party general secretary Prakash Karat would visit Uthapuram on May 7 to express solidarity with the protesting Dalits.
Meanwhile, the government was discussing the issue at different levels. The district administration was asked to interact with the caste Hindus and the Dalits of the village. Representatives of the caste Hindus reportedly insisted that the wall was only meant to “protect” their own people and that it was built in 1989 on the basis of an “agreement” that was signed by both the caste groups.
Tense situation
When talks between the government and the caste Hindus failed to make headway, the situation became even more tense. On May 5, the caste Hindus from the village went to the taluk office at Peraiyur and surrendered their family cards in protest. In Chennai, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi was engaged in consultations until late in the night. He took pains to ascertain whether the “1989 agreement” between the Dalits and caste Hindus over the construction of the wall was valid, whether the caste Hindus concerned (Pillais or Vellalas) belong to a sect that believes in living inside a fort as they do in the southern district of Thoothukudi, whether there were any sentiments attached to the wall, and so on. The decision to demolish a portion of the wall so as to provide access to the Dalits at one end of the village is believed to have been taken late in the night.
S. JAMES
A section of caste-Hindu residents camping at Thalaiyoothu on May 12.
On May 6, in the presence of a 100-strong police force, top officials of the district administration supervised the demolition. For the Dalits, it was a moment of great excitement.
Insult to dignity
The wall, apart from causing inconvenience, was an insult to their honour and dignity. Even before the operation began, however, the Pillais, numbering about 600, left for Thalaiyoothu, about 3 km from Uthapuram.
Welcoming the demolition, Varadarajan appreciated the government’s decision to convene a meeting of the communities in order to create a congenial atmosphere for the removal of the wall. He wanted the government to allot a special fund for the economic development of the village.
Greeting the Dalits the next day at Uthapuram, Prakash Karat said, “May 6 is a historic day for Uthapuram, Tamil Nadu and India as the wall of shame, which divided people for more than 18 years, and which symbolised caste oppression and discrimination, was razed down. This is the first step towards demolishing the wall completely.” He also wanted the State government to make sure that Dalits had access to all public spaces and common property resources.
The situation again became tense when the caste Hindus who left the village did not respond to the District Collector’s appeal “to return soon so that all in the village can live in amity”. When district officials met them, they made some demands: a patta for a temple where they have been worshipping for over 400 years; a permanent police outpost in the village; new houses for people whose homes were destroyed by “Dalit anti-socials” during the 1989 “riots”. On May 12, Puthiya Neethi Katchi president A.C. Shanmugam met them and reportedly promised to take up their demands with the Chief Minister. With a similar assurance from the District Collector, they returned to the village on May 13.
S.P. Murugesan, who heads the caste-Hindu group of the village, told Frontline at Thalaiyoothu on May 12 that his people left the village more out of fear than as a mark of protest. He said they felt insecure after the wall was pulled down.
Murugesan claimed that the Dalits in the village were now better off than they were in 1989 for most of them held government jobs or owned land. Indeed, the Dalits were on a “buying spree”, he said, and the Pillais feared that they might be forced to sell their properties to Dalits. “It is this fear that is haunting my people,” he said. An elderly person said the strong police presence in the village aggravated the Pillais’ fears.
Murugesan said that the wall was built not to reinforce untouchability but to protect caste Hindus. This was done on the basis of an agreement signed by representatives of both sides. The wall became necessary after violence against his people, he said. He said that there had been no major confrontation between the two social groups in the last 20 years and that there had been no need to file even a single FIR (first information report).
Denied access
The Dalits of the village, however, do not accept this version. They insist that they have been at the receiving end of intolerance, rather than the other way around, and that this was true even in 1989. “Most of the victims were from our side,” said A.K. Ponniah (65), an ex-serviceman. Some caste Hindus, he said, behaved violently with Dalits even now and recalled how Dalits had to put up with verbal abuse while celebrating a temple festival. He added that Dalits, who are denied access to public places and facilities and are not allowed to sit down at bus shelters, face untouchability in many forms. He questioned the validity of the 1989 “agreement”, pointing out that there were only five signatories on behalf of the Dalits and 200 representing the other side.
Prakash Karat, general secretary of the CPI(M), at a meeting at Uthapuram on May 7.
Murugesan, denied that the caste-Hindu group practised untouchability. “Indeed, we want them [Dalits] to visit our houses and chat and dine with us.”
Sampath told Frontline that the government should try to create a situation that facilitates friendly relations between the Dalits and all other social groups and that the social, economic and democratic rights of the Dalits should be protected.•
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Desmond Tutu: Equality of U.S. blacks an 'illusion'
Desmond Tutu: Equality of U.S. blacks an 'illusion'
jwsheffield@satx.rr.com
View profile May 14, 1:32 pm
Newsgroups: alt.religion.christian.episcopal
From: "jwsheffi...@satx.rr.com"
Date: Wed, 14 May 2008 10:32:14 -0700 (PDT)
Local: Wed, May 14 2008 1:32 pm
Subject: Desmond Tutu: Equality of U.S. blacks an 'illusion'
By Storer H. Rowley | Tribune reporter
May 14, 2008
South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu weighed in on the presidential
campaign Tuesday in Chicago, praising America's ability to produce the
first viable African-American presidential candidate while describing
the nation as haunted by a racial divide that still offers blacks what
he called only "the illusion of equality."
"You are a crazy country," Tutu, 76, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1984, said in an interview with the Tribune. "You're a country that
has I think some of the most generous people I've ever come across in
the world."
But he chided Americans for getting "very, very upset" with the pastor
of Sen. Barack Obama, noting that Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. "may have
said more crudely what, actually, almost every African-American would
have wanted to say. I mean that is how they feel in your country, that
race ... is a very, very real issue."
"And I think on the whole you keep trying to pretend it isn't," he
added, noting the issue will haunt Americans until there is a way to
talk honestly about race, such as holding a reconciliation forum.
Tutu, who headed South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
probing human-rights abuses under apartheid, was here to receive the
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation's Lincoln Leadership
Prize, presented by Oprah Winfrey.
Unlike in South Africa's apartheid era, he said, where blacks were
treated as "nothing," in America, "You say to them, 'You're equal, and
the sky's the limit.' And they keep bumping their heads against this
thing that's stopping them from reaching out to the stars."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-tutu-obamamay14,0,...
jwsheffield@satx.rr.com
View profile May 14, 1:32 pm
Newsgroups: alt.religion.christian.episcopal
From: "jwsheffi...@satx.rr.com"
Date: Wed, 14 May 2008 10:32:14 -0700 (PDT)
Local: Wed, May 14 2008 1:32 pm
Subject: Desmond Tutu: Equality of U.S. blacks an 'illusion'
By Storer H. Rowley | Tribune reporter
May 14, 2008
South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu weighed in on the presidential
campaign Tuesday in Chicago, praising America's ability to produce the
first viable African-American presidential candidate while describing
the nation as haunted by a racial divide that still offers blacks what
he called only "the illusion of equality."
"You are a crazy country," Tutu, 76, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1984, said in an interview with the Tribune. "You're a country that
has I think some of the most generous people I've ever come across in
the world."
But he chided Americans for getting "very, very upset" with the pastor
of Sen. Barack Obama, noting that Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. "may have
said more crudely what, actually, almost every African-American would
have wanted to say. I mean that is how they feel in your country, that
race ... is a very, very real issue."
"And I think on the whole you keep trying to pretend it isn't," he
added, noting the issue will haunt Americans until there is a way to
talk honestly about race, such as holding a reconciliation forum.
Tutu, who headed South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
probing human-rights abuses under apartheid, was here to receive the
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation's Lincoln Leadership
Prize, presented by Oprah Winfrey.
Unlike in South Africa's apartheid era, he said, where blacks were
treated as "nothing," in America, "You say to them, 'You're equal, and
the sky's the limit.' And they keep bumping their heads against this
thing that's stopping them from reaching out to the stars."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-tutu-obamamay14,0,...
Gay-marriage ruling splits faith leaders
SOME REJOICE; OTHERS ARE 'SOUL-SICK'
By Mary Anne Ostrom
Nowhere is the opinion divide on gay marriage sharper than in the nation's religious communities. And last week's same-sex marriage ruling will do little to bring agreement on the definition of marriage, a social and religious touchstone that has torn apart families, congregations and entire dioceses.
"I don't expect the picture in the religious community to change very much with this decision," said Mary Tolbert, executive director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry in Berkeley. "As more and more gays and lesbians marry, it may become less of an issue, but right now I don't expect much to change, maybe not for a decade."
While clergy addressing Bay Area liberal congregations this morning, including pioneers in the battle to win legal recognition of gay marriage, are celebrating the decision, many others, including evangelical and Catholic pastors, are decrying the ruling that they say promotes a gay agenda and is at odds with their religious doctrines.
Thursday's California Supreme Court ruling allowing state-sanctioned same-sex marriages, of course, has no legal consequences for organized religions. Still, the controversial topic has not stopped faith leaders from crossing into the political arena. Faith leaders on both sides of the divide are gearing up for the expected battle over a constitutional amendment, likely headed to the November ballot, that would attempt to overturn Thursday's ruling and write a ban into
Advertisement
the state's constitution.
Several South Bay Christian churches are part of the umbrella group that worked to gather voter signatures needed to place the amendment on the ballot. The Secretary of State's Office is expected to announce in mid-June whether it has qualified. If it qualifies, the state's Roman Catholic bishops plan to urge their parishioners to support the measure, as they did in 2000 to pass Proposition 22, the law the state Supreme Court struck down Thursday.
"I'm soul-sick over this," said Pastor Dave Sawkins of Venture Christian Church in Los Gatos. "The Supreme Court is promoting a lifestyle that is destructive," he said. "We're not angry at homosexuals, we're trying to protect the family."
At San Francisco's Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, where the Rev. Cecil Williams has been officiating at same-sex weddings for 40 years, a special sermon is planned for this morning marking the landmark court ruling.
"My opinion is it should have come a long time ago," Williams said. "I think it is going to be more open," at least among some clergy. "We are rejoicing; there should be no barriers to same-sex marriages."
Even as secular opinions may be shifting toward gay marriage, many of the nation's biggest denominations remain resolutely against it, or are deeply split. Four years after Massachusetts legalized gay marriage, there has been no sudden shift to embrace such unions among major denominations that have long opposed the idea.
And where there has been movement to embrace gay rights, often headline-making fights have followed, leading to threats of breakups and secession, including among Presbyterian, Episcopalian and Lutheran branches.
The U.S. Episcopal Church split into camps following the 2003 ordination of a New Hampshire gay man, the Right Rev. V. Gene Robinson. Then in December 2007, the Episcopalian Diocese of San Joaquin, serving members from Lodi to Bakersfield, rebelled against the national church's support of gay rights. They voted to split from the national church.
As a sign of how deeply split many denominations are, faith communities often note if they're "welcoming" or "reconciling" to signal if they are gay-friendly.
During his American trip last month, Pope Benedict XVI told U.S. Catholic bishops to uphold traditional marriage. On Friday, he reiterated that message, saying, "The union of love, based on matrimony between a man and a woman, which makes up the family, represents a good for all society that cannot be substituted by, confused with, or compared to other types of unions."
California bishops, too, issued a statement in response to the ruling, saying it "opens the door for policy-makers to deconstruct traditional marriage and create another institution under the guise of equal protection."
But there are signs that just as public opinion is edging slowly toward accepting gay rights, including state-sanctioned gay marriages, so might religious communities.
Conservative Judaism, for example, recently voted to allow gay unions and ordain gay rabbis.
Rabbi Charles Familant, a Reform rabbi in Menlo Park, has been officiating at same-sex ceremonies for nearly two decades.
"It depends on the faith. There are some members of the clergy in liberal Protestant faiths who didn't want to do anything illegal, so now that it won't violate the law they may feel freer. There are more conservative religious groups, which I don't think will budge one inch," he said.
Many church leaders say their position against gay marriage is a moral one, based on the teachings in the Bible.
"The state is infringing on the church's rights to follow what the Bible says," said Pastor Mike McClure of Calvary Chapel San Jose. "I'm not condemning homosexuals."
Veteran San Jose gay rights activist Wiggsy Sivertsen, a San Jose State University counselor, and her partner, a San Jose police officer, are considering using their new right to marry to make a political point, and a spiritual one.
Saying she's not a religious woman, nor even that excited about marriage as an institution, Sivertsen and her partner may redo their commitment ceremony, held 12 years ago, as a marriage. A Methodist minister, a family friend, officiated over the first ceremony, and his church leaders criticized him for blessing same-sex unions, Sivertsen said. He has died, but his daughter is now a minister in the Unitarian church, which freely embraces gay marriage.
"If we recycle our ceremony, we'll ask her to do it."
Contact Mary Anne Ostrom at mostrom@mercurynews.com or (415) 477-3794.
SOME REJOICE; OTHERS ARE 'SOUL-SICK'
By Mary Anne Ostrom
Nowhere is the opinion divide on gay marriage sharper than in the nation's religious communities. And last week's same-sex marriage ruling will do little to bring agreement on the definition of marriage, a social and religious touchstone that has torn apart families, congregations and entire dioceses.
"I don't expect the picture in the religious community to change very much with this decision," said Mary Tolbert, executive director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry in Berkeley. "As more and more gays and lesbians marry, it may become less of an issue, but right now I don't expect much to change, maybe not for a decade."
While clergy addressing Bay Area liberal congregations this morning, including pioneers in the battle to win legal recognition of gay marriage, are celebrating the decision, many others, including evangelical and Catholic pastors, are decrying the ruling that they say promotes a gay agenda and is at odds with their religious doctrines.
Thursday's California Supreme Court ruling allowing state-sanctioned same-sex marriages, of course, has no legal consequences for organized religions. Still, the controversial topic has not stopped faith leaders from crossing into the political arena. Faith leaders on both sides of the divide are gearing up for the expected battle over a constitutional amendment, likely headed to the November ballot, that would attempt to overturn Thursday's ruling and write a ban into
Advertisement
the state's constitution.
Several South Bay Christian churches are part of the umbrella group that worked to gather voter signatures needed to place the amendment on the ballot. The Secretary of State's Office is expected to announce in mid-June whether it has qualified. If it qualifies, the state's Roman Catholic bishops plan to urge their parishioners to support the measure, as they did in 2000 to pass Proposition 22, the law the state Supreme Court struck down Thursday.
"I'm soul-sick over this," said Pastor Dave Sawkins of Venture Christian Church in Los Gatos. "The Supreme Court is promoting a lifestyle that is destructive," he said. "We're not angry at homosexuals, we're trying to protect the family."
At San Francisco's Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, where the Rev. Cecil Williams has been officiating at same-sex weddings for 40 years, a special sermon is planned for this morning marking the landmark court ruling.
"My opinion is it should have come a long time ago," Williams said. "I think it is going to be more open," at least among some clergy. "We are rejoicing; there should be no barriers to same-sex marriages."
Even as secular opinions may be shifting toward gay marriage, many of the nation's biggest denominations remain resolutely against it, or are deeply split. Four years after Massachusetts legalized gay marriage, there has been no sudden shift to embrace such unions among major denominations that have long opposed the idea.
And where there has been movement to embrace gay rights, often headline-making fights have followed, leading to threats of breakups and secession, including among Presbyterian, Episcopalian and Lutheran branches.
The U.S. Episcopal Church split into camps following the 2003 ordination of a New Hampshire gay man, the Right Rev. V. Gene Robinson. Then in December 2007, the Episcopalian Diocese of San Joaquin, serving members from Lodi to Bakersfield, rebelled against the national church's support of gay rights. They voted to split from the national church.
As a sign of how deeply split many denominations are, faith communities often note if they're "welcoming" or "reconciling" to signal if they are gay-friendly.
During his American trip last month, Pope Benedict XVI told U.S. Catholic bishops to uphold traditional marriage. On Friday, he reiterated that message, saying, "The union of love, based on matrimony between a man and a woman, which makes up the family, represents a good for all society that cannot be substituted by, confused with, or compared to other types of unions."
California bishops, too, issued a statement in response to the ruling, saying it "opens the door for policy-makers to deconstruct traditional marriage and create another institution under the guise of equal protection."
But there are signs that just as public opinion is edging slowly toward accepting gay rights, including state-sanctioned gay marriages, so might religious communities.
Conservative Judaism, for example, recently voted to allow gay unions and ordain gay rabbis.
Rabbi Charles Familant, a Reform rabbi in Menlo Park, has been officiating at same-sex ceremonies for nearly two decades.
"It depends on the faith. There are some members of the clergy in liberal Protestant faiths who didn't want to do anything illegal, so now that it won't violate the law they may feel freer. There are more conservative religious groups, which I don't think will budge one inch," he said.
Many church leaders say their position against gay marriage is a moral one, based on the teachings in the Bible.
"The state is infringing on the church's rights to follow what the Bible says," said Pastor Mike McClure of Calvary Chapel San Jose. "I'm not condemning homosexuals."
Veteran San Jose gay rights activist Wiggsy Sivertsen, a San Jose State University counselor, and her partner, a San Jose police officer, are considering using their new right to marry to make a political point, and a spiritual one.
Saying she's not a religious woman, nor even that excited about marriage as an institution, Sivertsen and her partner may redo their commitment ceremony, held 12 years ago, as a marriage. A Methodist minister, a family friend, officiated over the first ceremony, and his church leaders criticized him for blessing same-sex unions, Sivertsen said. He has died, but his daughter is now a minister in the Unitarian church, which freely embraces gay marriage.
"If we recycle our ceremony, we'll ask her to do it."
Contact Mary Anne Ostrom at mostrom@mercurynews.com or (415) 477-3794.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Smoking Causes Cancer
Sci. & Tech.
Researchers pinpoint how smoking causes cancer
Although it has been known that smoking causes cancer new research shows how it happens
PORTLAND, Ore. – Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute researchers have pinpointed the protein that can lead to genetic changes that cause lung cancer, says eurekalert press release.
Researchers discovered that the production of a protein called FANCD2 is slowed when lung cells are exposed to cigarette smoke. Low levels of FANCD2 leads to DNA damage, triggering cancer. Cigarette smoke curbs the production of ‘caretaker’ proteins, like FANCD2, which normally prevent cancer by fixing damages in DNA and causing faulty cells to commit suicide.
Research has shown that smoking is strongly linked to lung cancer, but this discovery may help scientists improve treatments for lung disease in the future.
“These findings show the important role FANCD2 plays in protecting lung cells against cigarette smoke, and may explain why cigarette smoke is so toxic to these cells,” said lead author Laura Hays, Ph.D., research assistant professor of medicine (hematology/medical oncology) and member of the OHSU Cancer Institute.
Senior author, Grover Bagby, M.D., further stated that: “Dr. Hays’ work shows that FANCD2 is an important protein in protecting against cancer, and cigarette smoke knocks out its production. Although there are probably other proteins involved in this process, we know this is a key one because cells with very high levels of FANCD2 were resistant to the toxic effects of the smoke.” Bagby is the founding and past director of the OHSU Cancer Institute and professor at the Northwest Cancer Veterans Affairs Research Center at the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
The authors created an artificial windpipe in the lab to replicate the environment of a smoker’s lung. They then studied the effects of cigarette smoke on different proteins in cells and found that FANCD2 levels were low enough to allow DNA damage.
FANCD2 is part of a family of proteins involved in an inherited condition called Fanconi anemia. People with the condition are more likely to develop cancers at a young age and have low levels of these proteins.
Lesley Walker, Ph.D., director of cancer information at Cancer Research UK, said: “This interesting piece of science adds to our understanding of why smoking is so deadly. Smoking is the single biggest preventable cause of cancer and causes nine out of 10 cases of lung cancer.
“But the good news is that quitting works – after five years without smoking, your risk of a heart attack will have fallen to half that of a smoker. And after 10 years, your risk of lung cancer will have halved too.”
Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the world, with 1.3 million people diagnosed every year.
Researchers pinpoint how smoking causes cancer
Although it has been known that smoking causes cancer new research shows how it happens
PORTLAND, Ore. – Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute researchers have pinpointed the protein that can lead to genetic changes that cause lung cancer, says eurekalert press release.
Researchers discovered that the production of a protein called FANCD2 is slowed when lung cells are exposed to cigarette smoke. Low levels of FANCD2 leads to DNA damage, triggering cancer. Cigarette smoke curbs the production of ‘caretaker’ proteins, like FANCD2, which normally prevent cancer by fixing damages in DNA and causing faulty cells to commit suicide.
Research has shown that smoking is strongly linked to lung cancer, but this discovery may help scientists improve treatments for lung disease in the future.
“These findings show the important role FANCD2 plays in protecting lung cells against cigarette smoke, and may explain why cigarette smoke is so toxic to these cells,” said lead author Laura Hays, Ph.D., research assistant professor of medicine (hematology/medical oncology) and member of the OHSU Cancer Institute.
Senior author, Grover Bagby, M.D., further stated that: “Dr. Hays’ work shows that FANCD2 is an important protein in protecting against cancer, and cigarette smoke knocks out its production. Although there are probably other proteins involved in this process, we know this is a key one because cells with very high levels of FANCD2 were resistant to the toxic effects of the smoke.” Bagby is the founding and past director of the OHSU Cancer Institute and professor at the Northwest Cancer Veterans Affairs Research Center at the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
The authors created an artificial windpipe in the lab to replicate the environment of a smoker’s lung. They then studied the effects of cigarette smoke on different proteins in cells and found that FANCD2 levels were low enough to allow DNA damage.
FANCD2 is part of a family of proteins involved in an inherited condition called Fanconi anemia. People with the condition are more likely to develop cancers at a young age and have low levels of these proteins.
Lesley Walker, Ph.D., director of cancer information at Cancer Research UK, said: “This interesting piece of science adds to our understanding of why smoking is so deadly. Smoking is the single biggest preventable cause of cancer and causes nine out of 10 cases of lung cancer.
“But the good news is that quitting works – after five years without smoking, your risk of a heart attack will have fallen to half that of a smoker. And after 10 years, your risk of lung cancer will have halved too.”
Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the world, with 1.3 million people diagnosed every year.
California Court's nod to Same-Sex Marriage
California Supreme Court Overturns Gay Marriage Ban
Article Tools Sponsored By
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 15, 2008
Same-Sex Marriage
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The California Supreme Court has overturned a voter-approved ban on gay marriage, paving the way for the state to become the second in the United States where gay and lesbian residents can marry.
The justices released the 4-3 decision Thursday, saying that domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage in an opinion written by Chief Justice Ron George.
Outside the courthouse, gay marriage supporters cried and cheered as news spread of the decision.
In striking down the ban, the court said, "In contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual's capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual's sexual orientation, and, more generally, that an individual's sexual orientation -- like a person's race or gender -- does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights."
The cases were brought by the city of San Francisco, two dozen gay and lesbian couples, Equality California and another gay rights group in March 2004 after the court halted San Francisco's monthlong same-sex wedding march that took place at Mayor Gavin Newsom's direction.
"Today the California Supreme Court took a giant leap to ensure that everybody -- not just in the state of California, but throughout the country -- will have equal treatment under the law," said City Attorney Dennis Herrera, who argued the case for San Francisco.
Article Tools Sponsored By
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 15, 2008
Same-Sex Marriage
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The California Supreme Court has overturned a voter-approved ban on gay marriage, paving the way for the state to become the second in the United States where gay and lesbian residents can marry.
The justices released the 4-3 decision Thursday, saying that domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage in an opinion written by Chief Justice Ron George.
Outside the courthouse, gay marriage supporters cried and cheered as news spread of the decision.
In striking down the ban, the court said, "In contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual's capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual's sexual orientation, and, more generally, that an individual's sexual orientation -- like a person's race or gender -- does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights."
The cases were brought by the city of San Francisco, two dozen gay and lesbian couples, Equality California and another gay rights group in March 2004 after the court halted San Francisco's monthlong same-sex wedding march that took place at Mayor Gavin Newsom's direction.
"Today the California Supreme Court took a giant leap to ensure that everybody -- not just in the state of California, but throughout the country -- will have equal treatment under the law," said City Attorney Dennis Herrera, who argued the case for San Francisco.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Plight of Palestinians
Memories of a distant home (an article from the Hindu Magazine)
VINITA BHARADWAJ
It’s been 60 years since the Naqba, when Palestinians were forced to flee their homes and land. In the desolate refugee camps of Lebanon, hope still thrives, that their homes will once again be theirs.
Determined still: Elderly Palestinian refugees at the Active Ageing House in the Burj el-Barajneh camp (above); Fadi Dabaja (left top) and Nazmieh Fathalla Abdelaal.
As a young bride in 1947, Nazmieh Fathalla Abdelaal honeymooned in Jerusalem, much against her wishes. It was, at the time, far trendier to be seen in Lebanon. Her husband promised her a holiday in Lebanon after the birth of their first child.
“We had our passports with visas ready,” she recalls of May 1948, “but we left our village, Tarshiha in Palestine, with neither passport nor belongings. We fled. The Zionists came and we left for Lebanon. My holiday in Lebanon was supposed to last two weeks, but it has extended to 60 years.”
Nazmieh is one of about 7,50,000 Palestinians who were forced to leave their lands and homes prior to May 14, 1948, when Israel declared its independence. Sitting in her living room in southern Lebanon and narrating the course of events of May 1948 — or the Naqba (catastrophe), as the Arabs call it — she holds onto a black and white photograph taken during her honeymoon in Jerusalem.
“The photo was brought back to us in 1952 by our neighbours. When we left, the resistance fighters told us not to take anything. They said we would return in two weeks,” she says.
The first generation of Naqba survivors all have the same memories. The “peaceful co-existence of Muslims, Christians and Jews”, “the arrival of the Zionists”, “the promise of a speedy return”, “the deception”, “house keys”, “land papers”, “the long walk to refugee camps” and “hope”.
Hoping against hope
With the nearing of the 60th anniversary of the Palestinians’ forced expulsion from their lands, the belief among the refugee population that they will regain lost homes remains remarkably strong. They know that in most of their villages and former lands, Israeli settlers have built new houses. They are aware that the world around them has lost faith. They also know that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is far from resolution and that the “right to return” does not figure anywhere near the top of the peaceniks’ agenda. However, they still hope.
In Lebanon today, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) estimates more than 4,00,000 Palestinian refugees, excluding the unofficial Palestinians, who haven’t registered with the UN agency.
Unlike their compatriots in other Arab countries such as Syria and Jordan, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon face specific problems. In addition to the loss of their home and identity, they have been excluded from the spheres of social, economic and political influence.
More than half of them live in deplorable conditions within densely populated camps. Lebanon has 12 refugee camps, with official populations ranging from 600 to 46,000. Camps are officially off-limits to foreigners, particularly outside of Beirut. Lebanese army officials man the entry points of the gates to the grim scenario that lies within.
Functioning as mini-cities, the camps are a stark contrast to Lebanon’s natural beauty. The labyrinthine network of alleys is dotted with photos of martyrs and deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Tangled webs of electric wiring extend between three-storey houses from which children crying, music playing, mothers cooking and other home sounds can be heard.
Out on the streets, young men smoke hookas and play cards on sofas whose innards are popping out. A former woodwork factory that was bombed by the Israelis in one of the many wars stands and functions as a car park for beaten up third-hand cars.
Although the camps have progressed from tents to concrete buildings, they have not expanded in area despite the growing population. As a result, they grow vertically, with a floor added to accommodate newer generations. Rents are cheaper within the camps as is the interrupted supply of electricity and water, prompting many poor Lebanese nationals to relocate to a refugee camp.
“Life in the camps, what can I say,” says Fadi Dabaja, a 38-year-old refugee living in the Burj el-Barajneh camp in Beirut, as he shows me around his home. Fadi is anything but the conventional refugee, as he was the first man to open and operate a ladies hair salon in the 15, 718 residents camp. “I’ve always tried to make my surroundings happy,” he says.
He works in theatre and the performing arts and is trying to use them as tools to make learning interesting for the camp’s children. A father of three, Fadi simply sticks his tongue out when asked about the quality of schools. “They’re sick. UNRWA schools are bad,” he says.
Vicious circle
Like many Palestinians, Fadi too, doesn’t solely blame UNRWA for the low standards. Limited budgets are compounded by rapidly rising numbers of refugee populations and the increasing costs of living are placing an enormous strain on the funds available for the UN body to administer proper services to the Palestinians in Lebanon.
Fadi grew up hearing about stories of his parents’ Palestine. “The olive trees, the beautiful house, the peace, of course, we are raised on that,” he says fondly of a place he has never been to, yet hopes to go to. “For the Palestinian people like me, we can love it even if we have not known it because our parents have passed on their hopes to us. The hope continues through our traditions — food, culture, music, dance, language. And we pass it to our children,” he says rubbing his son, Khalil’s head, who nods and states: “I’m from Palestine.”
On days when he’s relatively free, Fadi swings by the Active Ageing House in the camp. The centre is a meeting point for 14 elderly men and women, who assemble during the day and part after lunch. All Naqba survivors, they go silent when asked their stories. “For 60 years they’ve spoken of nothing else — to journalists, researchers, TV people, relief workers, oral historians and their families,” Fadi says, understanding their pause.
However, once the narrative begins, the memories overwhelm them and it’s the same pattern. “They came. We left. They stayed. We moved. They lied. We believed. They took our homes. We will go back.”
Robert Fisk, author of The Great War for Civilisation and Middle East correspondent for the British newspaper The Independent explains the invincibility of Palestinian hope as passing through phases. “First it was determination, then it became a desire and now it’s a dream. If they give up the dream it’s like surrendering and accepting that their lands have been taken,” he says.
Unlikely to happen
Fisk is candid in admitting that in his opinion the Palestinian refugees will never go back. “Many years ago, when interviewing Yasser Arafat, I asked him about the right to return [of the displaced Palestinian refugees]. He said, ‘Yes, they’ll be buried there.’ And I asked him again, ‘Can the Palestinians in the camps return to Palestine when they’re alive?’ And he said, ‘Yes, they’ll be buried there.’ So I guess that gives you a sense of the politics surrounding the right to return,” Fisk says.
Fadi smiles at Fisk’s analysis. For Palestinians in Lebanon, the options are few. In addition to the appalling living conditions, the refugees are discriminated against in Lebanon. Permanent settling in the country is close to impossible as the Lebanese fear that granting citizenship to a largely Sunni Muslim population would upset the fragile political and religious balance of the country. Also, many Lebanese still privately blame the Palestinians for the country’s 15-year-long Civil War.
Within this scenario, the Palestinians are officially not allowed to work in about 72 professional occupations such as medicine and law, resulting in high rates of unemployment and limiting them to work as unskilled labourers. They also don’t have the right to own property within Lebanon.
Although many Palestinians have migrated westward or work in Gulf countries to help move their families out of the camps, their laissez-passer [official document for Palestinian refugees] greatly inhibits their travel.
According to Fadi, 60 per cent of Palestinians in the camps live below the poverty line. “Basic essentials are absent. As a people we’ve seen displacement. We’ve seen armed militants in the camps during the Civil War in Lebanon. Many of us don’t have proper access to health and other necessities,” he says.
“For a refugee population with nothing,” he says, “the Palestinian people find great refuge in hope. It’s all we have.”
VINITA BHARADWAJ
It’s been 60 years since the Naqba, when Palestinians were forced to flee their homes and land. In the desolate refugee camps of Lebanon, hope still thrives, that their homes will once again be theirs.
Determined still: Elderly Palestinian refugees at the Active Ageing House in the Burj el-Barajneh camp (above); Fadi Dabaja (left top) and Nazmieh Fathalla Abdelaal.
As a young bride in 1947, Nazmieh Fathalla Abdelaal honeymooned in Jerusalem, much against her wishes. It was, at the time, far trendier to be seen in Lebanon. Her husband promised her a holiday in Lebanon after the birth of their first child.
“We had our passports with visas ready,” she recalls of May 1948, “but we left our village, Tarshiha in Palestine, with neither passport nor belongings. We fled. The Zionists came and we left for Lebanon. My holiday in Lebanon was supposed to last two weeks, but it has extended to 60 years.”
Nazmieh is one of about 7,50,000 Palestinians who were forced to leave their lands and homes prior to May 14, 1948, when Israel declared its independence. Sitting in her living room in southern Lebanon and narrating the course of events of May 1948 — or the Naqba (catastrophe), as the Arabs call it — she holds onto a black and white photograph taken during her honeymoon in Jerusalem.
“The photo was brought back to us in 1952 by our neighbours. When we left, the resistance fighters told us not to take anything. They said we would return in two weeks,” she says.
The first generation of Naqba survivors all have the same memories. The “peaceful co-existence of Muslims, Christians and Jews”, “the arrival of the Zionists”, “the promise of a speedy return”, “the deception”, “house keys”, “land papers”, “the long walk to refugee camps” and “hope”.
Hoping against hope
With the nearing of the 60th anniversary of the Palestinians’ forced expulsion from their lands, the belief among the refugee population that they will regain lost homes remains remarkably strong. They know that in most of their villages and former lands, Israeli settlers have built new houses. They are aware that the world around them has lost faith. They also know that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is far from resolution and that the “right to return” does not figure anywhere near the top of the peaceniks’ agenda. However, they still hope.
In Lebanon today, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) estimates more than 4,00,000 Palestinian refugees, excluding the unofficial Palestinians, who haven’t registered with the UN agency.
Unlike their compatriots in other Arab countries such as Syria and Jordan, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon face specific problems. In addition to the loss of their home and identity, they have been excluded from the spheres of social, economic and political influence.
More than half of them live in deplorable conditions within densely populated camps. Lebanon has 12 refugee camps, with official populations ranging from 600 to 46,000. Camps are officially off-limits to foreigners, particularly outside of Beirut. Lebanese army officials man the entry points of the gates to the grim scenario that lies within.
Functioning as mini-cities, the camps are a stark contrast to Lebanon’s natural beauty. The labyrinthine network of alleys is dotted with photos of martyrs and deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Tangled webs of electric wiring extend between three-storey houses from which children crying, music playing, mothers cooking and other home sounds can be heard.
Out on the streets, young men smoke hookas and play cards on sofas whose innards are popping out. A former woodwork factory that was bombed by the Israelis in one of the many wars stands and functions as a car park for beaten up third-hand cars.
Although the camps have progressed from tents to concrete buildings, they have not expanded in area despite the growing population. As a result, they grow vertically, with a floor added to accommodate newer generations. Rents are cheaper within the camps as is the interrupted supply of electricity and water, prompting many poor Lebanese nationals to relocate to a refugee camp.
“Life in the camps, what can I say,” says Fadi Dabaja, a 38-year-old refugee living in the Burj el-Barajneh camp in Beirut, as he shows me around his home. Fadi is anything but the conventional refugee, as he was the first man to open and operate a ladies hair salon in the 15, 718 residents camp. “I’ve always tried to make my surroundings happy,” he says.
He works in theatre and the performing arts and is trying to use them as tools to make learning interesting for the camp’s children. A father of three, Fadi simply sticks his tongue out when asked about the quality of schools. “They’re sick. UNRWA schools are bad,” he says.
Vicious circle
Like many Palestinians, Fadi too, doesn’t solely blame UNRWA for the low standards. Limited budgets are compounded by rapidly rising numbers of refugee populations and the increasing costs of living are placing an enormous strain on the funds available for the UN body to administer proper services to the Palestinians in Lebanon.
Fadi grew up hearing about stories of his parents’ Palestine. “The olive trees, the beautiful house, the peace, of course, we are raised on that,” he says fondly of a place he has never been to, yet hopes to go to. “For the Palestinian people like me, we can love it even if we have not known it because our parents have passed on their hopes to us. The hope continues through our traditions — food, culture, music, dance, language. And we pass it to our children,” he says rubbing his son, Khalil’s head, who nods and states: “I’m from Palestine.”
On days when he’s relatively free, Fadi swings by the Active Ageing House in the camp. The centre is a meeting point for 14 elderly men and women, who assemble during the day and part after lunch. All Naqba survivors, they go silent when asked their stories. “For 60 years they’ve spoken of nothing else — to journalists, researchers, TV people, relief workers, oral historians and their families,” Fadi says, understanding their pause.
However, once the narrative begins, the memories overwhelm them and it’s the same pattern. “They came. We left. They stayed. We moved. They lied. We believed. They took our homes. We will go back.”
Robert Fisk, author of The Great War for Civilisation and Middle East correspondent for the British newspaper The Independent explains the invincibility of Palestinian hope as passing through phases. “First it was determination, then it became a desire and now it’s a dream. If they give up the dream it’s like surrendering and accepting that their lands have been taken,” he says.
Unlikely to happen
Fisk is candid in admitting that in his opinion the Palestinian refugees will never go back. “Many years ago, when interviewing Yasser Arafat, I asked him about the right to return [of the displaced Palestinian refugees]. He said, ‘Yes, they’ll be buried there.’ And I asked him again, ‘Can the Palestinians in the camps return to Palestine when they’re alive?’ And he said, ‘Yes, they’ll be buried there.’ So I guess that gives you a sense of the politics surrounding the right to return,” Fisk says.
Fadi smiles at Fisk’s analysis. For Palestinians in Lebanon, the options are few. In addition to the appalling living conditions, the refugees are discriminated against in Lebanon. Permanent settling in the country is close to impossible as the Lebanese fear that granting citizenship to a largely Sunni Muslim population would upset the fragile political and religious balance of the country. Also, many Lebanese still privately blame the Palestinians for the country’s 15-year-long Civil War.
Within this scenario, the Palestinians are officially not allowed to work in about 72 professional occupations such as medicine and law, resulting in high rates of unemployment and limiting them to work as unskilled labourers. They also don’t have the right to own property within Lebanon.
Although many Palestinians have migrated westward or work in Gulf countries to help move their families out of the camps, their laissez-passer [official document for Palestinian refugees] greatly inhibits their travel.
According to Fadi, 60 per cent of Palestinians in the camps live below the poverty line. “Basic essentials are absent. As a people we’ve seen displacement. We’ve seen armed militants in the camps during the Civil War in Lebanon. Many of us don’t have proper access to health and other necessities,” he says.
“For a refugee population with nothing,” he says, “the Palestinian people find great refuge in hope. It’s all we have.”
World Vision provides Nighte Shelters to children of sex workers
Apr - 2008
Night Shelters to the rescue of children of sex workers
Twenty five year old Aarti belongs to a family of Devadasis and was dedicated to a temple God while she was a fifteen year old girl. But Aarti dreams for a better future for her children.
Trafficked to Pune with a promise of a good job. Aarti was sold to be a prostitute. She was shattered to know about her status. Aarti says, "I begged the lady to release me. I told her I wanted to go back but the owner told me there was no way out, If I did not obey her she would beat me and lock me up till I agreed to do what she says."
During the course Aarti also understood that she was not let to go because she was a virgin and much in demand by the male customers. Few years later, Aarti was again sold back to a brothel in Miraj city.
From then on Aarti’s had no other option. Aarti has two children aged six and three. She aspires for a better life for them.
World Vision’s Area Development Program in Miraj city works with nearly 300 sex workers. A discussion with them revealed that protecting their children remained a big challenge and needed proper intervention.
Children of sex wokers were usually sent out of houses to wander in roads or sedated to sleep in the houses, which makes them all the more vulnerable. Guarding the right to protection of every child, World Vision runs a night care centre for children of sex workers. This night shelter came as a sign of relief to Aarti.
Activities in the centre give opportunities for a better future for the children. Starting from 6 in the evening, the centre takes care of the children till they go back home next morning. Children are taken care of in this centre by two well-trained women staff.
Aarti is tested HIV positive and she is in regular touch with World Vision counselors.
She says, "I send my son to the night crèche, managed by World Vision. I do not want him to grow in this environment. I want him to become a doctor and live far away from this place. In the crèche they give him healthy food, and he gets to play and have a good night rest."
Having a girl child and the fact she was trafficked at fifteen, Aarti is very apprehensive. She says, "My life is spoilt but I want both my children to live a respectable life. I want to put them in a hostel once they grow big."
Night Shelters to the rescue of children of sex workers
Twenty five year old Aarti belongs to a family of Devadasis and was dedicated to a temple God while she was a fifteen year old girl. But Aarti dreams for a better future for her children.
Trafficked to Pune with a promise of a good job. Aarti was sold to be a prostitute. She was shattered to know about her status. Aarti says, "I begged the lady to release me. I told her I wanted to go back but the owner told me there was no way out, If I did not obey her she would beat me and lock me up till I agreed to do what she says."
During the course Aarti also understood that she was not let to go because she was a virgin and much in demand by the male customers. Few years later, Aarti was again sold back to a brothel in Miraj city.
From then on Aarti’s had no other option. Aarti has two children aged six and three. She aspires for a better life for them.
World Vision’s Area Development Program in Miraj city works with nearly 300 sex workers. A discussion with them revealed that protecting their children remained a big challenge and needed proper intervention.
Children of sex wokers were usually sent out of houses to wander in roads or sedated to sleep in the houses, which makes them all the more vulnerable. Guarding the right to protection of every child, World Vision runs a night care centre for children of sex workers. This night shelter came as a sign of relief to Aarti.
Activities in the centre give opportunities for a better future for the children. Starting from 6 in the evening, the centre takes care of the children till they go back home next morning. Children are taken care of in this centre by two well-trained women staff.
Aarti is tested HIV positive and she is in regular touch with World Vision counselors.
She says, "I send my son to the night crèche, managed by World Vision. I do not want him to grow in this environment. I want him to become a doctor and live far away from this place. In the crèche they give him healthy food, and he gets to play and have a good night rest."
Having a girl child and the fact she was trafficked at fifteen, Aarti is very apprehensive. She says, "My life is spoilt but I want both my children to live a respectable life. I want to put them in a hostel once they grow big."
UN Millennium Project
A new book on Malaria eradication
UN Millennium Development Library: Coming to Grips with Malaria in the New Millennium
UN Millennium Project
The Millennium Development Goals, adopted at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, are the world's targets for dramatically reducing extreme poverty in its many dimensions by 2015—income poverty, hunger, disease, exclusion, lack of infrastructure and shelter–while promoting gender equality, education, health and environmental sustainability. These bold goals can be met in all parts of the world if nations follow through on their commitments to work together to meet them. Achieving the Millennium Development Goals offers the prospect of a more secure, just, and prosperous world for all.
The UN Millennium Project was commissioned by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to develop a practical plan of action to meet the Millennium Development Goals. As an independent advisory body directed by Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, the UN Millennium Project submitted its recommendations to the UN Secretary General in January 2005.
The core of the UN Millennium Project's work has been carried out by 10 thematic Task Forces comprising more than 250 experts from around the world, including scientists, development practitioners, parliamentarians, policymakers, and representatives from civil society, UN agencies, the World Bank, the IMF, and the private sector.
Coming to Grips with Malaria in the New Millennium presents an innovative strategic framework for relieving the burden that malaria imposes on society through the implementation of tried and tested anti-malarial interventions designed to improve health nationally and to promote economic development locally. Recommendations include early diagnosis, treatment with effective anti-malarial medicines, the use of insecticide treated nets, indoor residual spraying, managing the environment, improving housing, extending health education and improving monitoring and evaluation systems.
The Millennium Project was commissioned by the UN Secretary-General and sponsored by the UN Development Group, which is chaired by the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. The report is an independent publication that reflects the views of the members of the Task Force on HIV/AIDS, Malaria, TB, and Access to Essential Medicines, Working Group on Malaria, who contributed in their personal capacity.
Contents
Executive summary * Introduction * The Millennium Development Goal and target for malaria * Organization of this report * The resurgence and burden of malaria * Health burden * Economic and social burden * Review of major initiatives and institutional policies for malaria control * Global Malaria Eradication Program * Global Malaria Control Strategy * Harare Declaration on Malaria Prevention and Control * Multilateral Initiative on Malaria * Roll Back Malaria initiative * Abuja Declaration on Roll Back Malaria * Medicines for Malaria Venture * Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria * Malaria control strategies * Disease prevention strategies * Disease management strategies * Epidemic prevention and control strategies * Information, education, and communication strategies * Monitoring and evaluation * Examples of successful scale-up of malaria control programs * Tigray region of Ethiopia * Highlands of Madagascar * Viet Nam * South Africa * Tanzania * Lessons learned * Priority challenges for scaling up malaria control programs * Strengthening health systems * Human resources capacity * Social mobilization of communities * Partnerships * Programmatic challenges * Developing a global plan to achieve the Millennium Development Goal target for malaria * Conditions for achieving a sustained impact * Developing a global plan for reducing the burden of malaria * Components of a global plan * Needs assessment: costing and financing * Resource mobilization: needs assessment at the global level * Resource mobilization: needs assessment at the country level—Ethiopia * Monitoring and evaluation * Monitoring and evaluation of health programs * Malaria-related Millennium Development Goal, targets, and indicators * Coverage measures * Main approaches to data collection for monitoring malaria control * Monitoring the effectiveness of antimalarials and insecticides * Developing geographic information systems and remote sensing * Cost-effectiveness of service provision * Linkage of malaria monitoring with poverty alleviation * Research and development to meet current and future needs * Ant malarial medicine development * Recommendations * Appendices *
UN Millennium Development Library: Coming to Grips with Malaria in the New Millennium
UN Millennium Project
The Millennium Development Goals, adopted at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, are the world's targets for dramatically reducing extreme poverty in its many dimensions by 2015—income poverty, hunger, disease, exclusion, lack of infrastructure and shelter–while promoting gender equality, education, health and environmental sustainability. These bold goals can be met in all parts of the world if nations follow through on their commitments to work together to meet them. Achieving the Millennium Development Goals offers the prospect of a more secure, just, and prosperous world for all.
The UN Millennium Project was commissioned by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to develop a practical plan of action to meet the Millennium Development Goals. As an independent advisory body directed by Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, the UN Millennium Project submitted its recommendations to the UN Secretary General in January 2005.
The core of the UN Millennium Project's work has been carried out by 10 thematic Task Forces comprising more than 250 experts from around the world, including scientists, development practitioners, parliamentarians, policymakers, and representatives from civil society, UN agencies, the World Bank, the IMF, and the private sector.
Coming to Grips with Malaria in the New Millennium presents an innovative strategic framework for relieving the burden that malaria imposes on society through the implementation of tried and tested anti-malarial interventions designed to improve health nationally and to promote economic development locally. Recommendations include early diagnosis, treatment with effective anti-malarial medicines, the use of insecticide treated nets, indoor residual spraying, managing the environment, improving housing, extending health education and improving monitoring and evaluation systems.
The Millennium Project was commissioned by the UN Secretary-General and sponsored by the UN Development Group, which is chaired by the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. The report is an independent publication that reflects the views of the members of the Task Force on HIV/AIDS, Malaria, TB, and Access to Essential Medicines, Working Group on Malaria, who contributed in their personal capacity.
Contents
Executive summary * Introduction * The Millennium Development Goal and target for malaria * Organization of this report * The resurgence and burden of malaria * Health burden * Economic and social burden * Review of major initiatives and institutional policies for malaria control * Global Malaria Eradication Program * Global Malaria Control Strategy * Harare Declaration on Malaria Prevention and Control * Multilateral Initiative on Malaria * Roll Back Malaria initiative * Abuja Declaration on Roll Back Malaria * Medicines for Malaria Venture * Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria * Malaria control strategies * Disease prevention strategies * Disease management strategies * Epidemic prevention and control strategies * Information, education, and communication strategies * Monitoring and evaluation * Examples of successful scale-up of malaria control programs * Tigray region of Ethiopia * Highlands of Madagascar * Viet Nam * South Africa * Tanzania * Lessons learned * Priority challenges for scaling up malaria control programs * Strengthening health systems * Human resources capacity * Social mobilization of communities * Partnerships * Programmatic challenges * Developing a global plan to achieve the Millennium Development Goal target for malaria * Conditions for achieving a sustained impact * Developing a global plan for reducing the burden of malaria * Components of a global plan * Needs assessment: costing and financing * Resource mobilization: needs assessment at the global level * Resource mobilization: needs assessment at the country level—Ethiopia * Monitoring and evaluation * Monitoring and evaluation of health programs * Malaria-related Millennium Development Goal, targets, and indicators * Coverage measures * Main approaches to data collection for monitoring malaria control * Monitoring the effectiveness of antimalarials and insecticides * Developing geographic information systems and remote sensing * Cost-effectiveness of service provision * Linkage of malaria monitoring with poverty alleviation * Research and development to meet current and future needs * Ant malarial medicine development * Recommendations * Appendices *
Televangelist John Hagee apologizes to Catholics - Yahoo! News
Televangelist John Hagee apologizes to Catholics - Yahoo! News
Televangelist John Hagee apologizes to Catholics
By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 16 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - John Hagee, an influential Texas televangelist who endorsed John McCain, apologized to Catholics Tuesday for his stinging criticism of the Roman Catholic Church and for having "emphasized the darkest chapters in the history of Catholic and Protestant relations with the Jews."
ADVERTISEMENT
Hagee's support for McCain has drawn cries of outrage from some Catholic leaders who have called on McCain to reject Hagee's endorsement. The likely Republican nominee has said he does not agree with some of Hagee's past comments, but did not reject his support.
In a letter to William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights, Hagee wrote: "Out of a desire to advance a greater unity among Catholics and evangelicals in promoting the common good, I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful."
Donohue, one of Hagee's sharpest critics, said he accepted the apology and planned to meet with Hagee Thursday in New York.
"I got what I wanted," Donohue said in an interview. "He's seen the light, as they like to say. So for me it's over."
The controversy had threatened to pursue McCain throughout the campaign, potentially hurting his standing with Catholic voters. A narrow majority of Roman Catholics voted for President Bush in 2004 and for Al Gore in 2000, critical votes in close elections.
The letter came after Hagee met Friday for lunch in a French restaurant in downtown Washington with 22 influential religious activists, virtually all of them Catholics.
Hagee has cited the Inquisition and the Crusades as evidence of anti-Semitism within the Catholic church and has suggested that Catholic anti-Semitism shaped Adolf Hitler's views of Jews.
"In my zeal to oppose anti-Semitism and bigotry in all its ugly forms, I have often emphasized the darkest chapters in the history of Catholics and Protestant relations with the Jews," Hagee wrote. "In the process, I may have contributed to the mistaken impression that the anti-Jewish violence of the Crusades and the Inquisition defines the Catholic Church. It most certainly does not."
Hagee has often made references to "the apostate church" and the "great whore," terms that Catholics say are slurs aimed at the Roman Catholic Church. In his letter, Hagee said he now better understood that his use of those descriptions, taken from the Book of Revelations, are "a rhetorical device long employed in anti-Catholic literature and commentary."
He stressed that in his use, "neither of these phrases can be synonymous with the Catholic Church."
The remarkable 2 1/2-page letter was no doubt inspired by the political storm Hagee's endorsement caused. Hagee leads a San Antonio, Texas, megachurch with a congregation in the tens of thousands. He has an even wider television audience.
When he endorsed McCain in late February, Donohue and other Catholic leaders demanded that McCain repudiate him. The Democratic National Committee also weighed in, highlighting Hagee's remarks over the years.
Some commentators even likened Hagee's affect on McCain to the controversy Democrat Barack Obama faced as a result of the views expressed by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
McCain initially embraced Hagee's endorsement, eager to reach out to religious voters by securing the support of a prominent Christian conservative. But he was soon forced to put some distance with Hagee.
"Any comments that he made about the Catholic Church I strongly condemn, of course," he said during an April appearance on ABC's "This Week."
Campaigning in North Bend, Wash., McCain on Tuesday said Hagee's apology was "very helpful."
"Whenever somebody apologizes for something they did wrong, then I think that that's a laudable thing to do," he said.
Asked if he or his campaign played a role in brokering Hagee's letter, McCain simply said: "I certainly wasn't."
During the early primaries, McCain won strong support from Catholic voters. But Hagee threatened to become an issue heading into the general election.
Hagee is no stranger to provocative remarks. On National Public Radio in 2006, he said Hurricane Katrina was God's judgment because "New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God." He has written that the feminist movement represents "a rebellion against God's pattern for the family." On Tuesday, the Democratic National Committee said that considering those and other comments McCain still should renounce Hagee's endorsement.
But Donohue said Hagee, by offering his apology now, may have defused a potential problem from the Arizona senator.
"Had this happened after Labor Day I think it would have been an insurmountable problem for McCain to reach out to Catholics," Donohue said. "Now, with this behind him, I think the raised eyebrows in the Catholic community will begin to normalize."
In a statement posted in the Catholic League's Web site, Donohue added: "What Hagee has done takes courage and quite frankly I never expected him to demonstrate such sensitivity to our concerns."
Televangelist John Hagee apologizes to Catholics
By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 16 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - John Hagee, an influential Texas televangelist who endorsed John McCain, apologized to Catholics Tuesday for his stinging criticism of the Roman Catholic Church and for having "emphasized the darkest chapters in the history of Catholic and Protestant relations with the Jews."
ADVERTISEMENT
Hagee's support for McCain has drawn cries of outrage from some Catholic leaders who have called on McCain to reject Hagee's endorsement. The likely Republican nominee has said he does not agree with some of Hagee's past comments, but did not reject his support.
In a letter to William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights, Hagee wrote: "Out of a desire to advance a greater unity among Catholics and evangelicals in promoting the common good, I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful."
Donohue, one of Hagee's sharpest critics, said he accepted the apology and planned to meet with Hagee Thursday in New York.
"I got what I wanted," Donohue said in an interview. "He's seen the light, as they like to say. So for me it's over."
The controversy had threatened to pursue McCain throughout the campaign, potentially hurting his standing with Catholic voters. A narrow majority of Roman Catholics voted for President Bush in 2004 and for Al Gore in 2000, critical votes in close elections.
The letter came after Hagee met Friday for lunch in a French restaurant in downtown Washington with 22 influential religious activists, virtually all of them Catholics.
Hagee has cited the Inquisition and the Crusades as evidence of anti-Semitism within the Catholic church and has suggested that Catholic anti-Semitism shaped Adolf Hitler's views of Jews.
"In my zeal to oppose anti-Semitism and bigotry in all its ugly forms, I have often emphasized the darkest chapters in the history of Catholics and Protestant relations with the Jews," Hagee wrote. "In the process, I may have contributed to the mistaken impression that the anti-Jewish violence of the Crusades and the Inquisition defines the Catholic Church. It most certainly does not."
Hagee has often made references to "the apostate church" and the "great whore," terms that Catholics say are slurs aimed at the Roman Catholic Church. In his letter, Hagee said he now better understood that his use of those descriptions, taken from the Book of Revelations, are "a rhetorical device long employed in anti-Catholic literature and commentary."
He stressed that in his use, "neither of these phrases can be synonymous with the Catholic Church."
The remarkable 2 1/2-page letter was no doubt inspired by the political storm Hagee's endorsement caused. Hagee leads a San Antonio, Texas, megachurch with a congregation in the tens of thousands. He has an even wider television audience.
When he endorsed McCain in late February, Donohue and other Catholic leaders demanded that McCain repudiate him. The Democratic National Committee also weighed in, highlighting Hagee's remarks over the years.
Some commentators even likened Hagee's affect on McCain to the controversy Democrat Barack Obama faced as a result of the views expressed by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
McCain initially embraced Hagee's endorsement, eager to reach out to religious voters by securing the support of a prominent Christian conservative. But he was soon forced to put some distance with Hagee.
"Any comments that he made about the Catholic Church I strongly condemn, of course," he said during an April appearance on ABC's "This Week."
Campaigning in North Bend, Wash., McCain on Tuesday said Hagee's apology was "very helpful."
"Whenever somebody apologizes for something they did wrong, then I think that that's a laudable thing to do," he said.
Asked if he or his campaign played a role in brokering Hagee's letter, McCain simply said: "I certainly wasn't."
During the early primaries, McCain won strong support from Catholic voters. But Hagee threatened to become an issue heading into the general election.
Hagee is no stranger to provocative remarks. On National Public Radio in 2006, he said Hurricane Katrina was God's judgment because "New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God." He has written that the feminist movement represents "a rebellion against God's pattern for the family." On Tuesday, the Democratic National Committee said that considering those and other comments McCain still should renounce Hagee's endorsement.
But Donohue said Hagee, by offering his apology now, may have defused a potential problem from the Arizona senator.
"Had this happened after Labor Day I think it would have been an insurmountable problem for McCain to reach out to Catholics," Donohue said. "Now, with this behind him, I think the raised eyebrows in the Catholic community will begin to normalize."
In a statement posted in the Catholic League's Web site, Donohue added: "What Hagee has done takes courage and quite frankly I never expected him to demonstrate such sensitivity to our concerns."
India has worst indicator of child malnutrition: Unicef - Yahoo! India News
India has worst indicator of child malnutrition: Unicef - Yahoo! India News
India has worst indicator of child malnutrition: Unicef
Wed, May 14 12:05 PM
New Delhi, May 14 (ANI): Over 1.5 million children in India are at risk of becoming malnourished because of rising global food prices, the Unicef, says.
It warns that food inflation could be devastating for vulnerable women and children right across South Asia.
According to the BBC, the region already has the largest number of malnourished children in the world and levels could get even worse.
Even before the current crisis almost half of all Indian children showed signs of stunted growth, Unicef says.
"It is a perfect storm, we have increasing malnutrition in an area that already has the majority of malnutrition in the world," Daniel Toole, Unicef's regional director for South Asia, said here on Tuesday.
"We have huge numbers of people living in poverty and a doubling of food prices. Those factors combined mean that we're going to just create tremendous vulnerability," he added.
According to Unicef's latest State of the World's Children's report, India has the worst indicators of child malnutrition in South Asia.
It claims that 48 percent of under fives in India are stunted, compared to 43 percent in Bangladesh and 37 percent in Pakistan.
The report further goes on to say that 30 percent of babies in India are born underweight, compared to 22 percent in Bangladesh and 19 percent in Pakistan.
Unicef calculates that 40 percent of all underweight babies in the world are Indian.
Put all that in hard numbers and the figures are stark. Fifty million Indian under fives are affected by malnutrition. Rising food prices, Unicef says mean 1.5 to 1.8 million more children in India alone could end up malnourished.
And already Unicef says more expensive food is having an impact.
Three hundred million Indians live on less than one dollar a day, according to the UN.
Poor families who cannot afford rising food prices are having to save money where they can, and that also means spending less on healthcare and education.
Food prices, he believes, will remain high for at least the next two years, and in that time it is
First the priority must be to feed the hungry across South Asia, Unicef says. India must invest more in agriculture, Unicef says. (ANI)
India has worst indicator of child malnutrition: Unicef
Wed, May 14 12:05 PM
New Delhi, May 14 (ANI): Over 1.5 million children in India are at risk of becoming malnourished because of rising global food prices, the Unicef, says.
It warns that food inflation could be devastating for vulnerable women and children right across South Asia.
According to the BBC, the region already has the largest number of malnourished children in the world and levels could get even worse.
Even before the current crisis almost half of all Indian children showed signs of stunted growth, Unicef says.
"It is a perfect storm, we have increasing malnutrition in an area that already has the majority of malnutrition in the world," Daniel Toole, Unicef's regional director for South Asia, said here on Tuesday.
"We have huge numbers of people living in poverty and a doubling of food prices. Those factors combined mean that we're going to just create tremendous vulnerability," he added.
According to Unicef's latest State of the World's Children's report, India has the worst indicators of child malnutrition in South Asia.
It claims that 48 percent of under fives in India are stunted, compared to 43 percent in Bangladesh and 37 percent in Pakistan.
The report further goes on to say that 30 percent of babies in India are born underweight, compared to 22 percent in Bangladesh and 19 percent in Pakistan.
Unicef calculates that 40 percent of all underweight babies in the world are Indian.
Put all that in hard numbers and the figures are stark. Fifty million Indian under fives are affected by malnutrition. Rising food prices, Unicef says mean 1.5 to 1.8 million more children in India alone could end up malnourished.
And already Unicef says more expensive food is having an impact.
Three hundred million Indians live on less than one dollar a day, according to the UN.
Poor families who cannot afford rising food prices are having to save money where they can, and that also means spending less on healthcare and education.
Food prices, he believes, will remain high for at least the next two years, and in that time it is
First the priority must be to feed the hungry across South Asia, Unicef says. India must invest more in agriculture, Unicef says. (ANI)
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Labor eHerald: OPINE: Resist the zealots
Labor eHerald: OPINE: Resist the zealots
The following article written by an eminent person like Bob Car drwas our attention to what constitutes our rights and freedom
Resist the zealots
By Bob Carr, Former NSW Premier.
Common sense, not a declaration of abstractions, will keep us free.
Date: 28 April 2008
Call it the first swallow of summer. Last week I met a lawyer who said while she opposed a charter of rights, all the barristers on her floor supported it, and for the obvious reason: the intoxicating whiff of litigation.
A bill of rights, or a charter, will lay out abstractions like the right to life, or privacy, or property, and thus enable judges to determine - after deliciously drawn-out litigation - what these mean.
A shift in power from elected parliaments to unelected judges, by a process of "judicial creep", is part of the bill of rights package. Canada has had its Charter of Rights and Freedoms since 1982, planted in the constitution. Before that there was only a legislative version.
Clearly this is something the zealots want to see happen here: the first step only a law, but followed by constitutional entrenchment.
Like Australia, Canada also has a shortage of doctors in rural areas. British Columbia came up with a scheme to encourage doctors to practise there, with a finely tuned system of incentives. The provincial Supreme Court struck it down, citing section 6 ("mobility rights") and section 7 (the "right to life, liberty and security") of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Canada's rural population is still under-served by doctors, thanks to judges who want to write society's rules.
The trouble
That's the trouble. A menu of abstractions - that is, any attempt to list rights - wrenches from the cabinet table and the legislature and delivers to the courtroom things that ought to be determined by governments.
Thus, in the most recent burst of judicial activism, judges in Britain have determined that the justice secretary can no longer block a parole board decision to release a dangerous prisoner.
Judges also determined that failed asylum-seekers in Britain could have access to the National Health Scheme, again something that should be a matter for elected politicians.
In Scotland, because of a delay in placing toilets in prison cells, the Scottish Law Reporter estimates that prisoners may be entitled to awards totalling pound stg. 76 million ($158.7 million) because their cells violated the European Charter of Fundamental Rights. The Government had been caught up with another priority, expanding drug rehabilitation programs for inmates.
Last year, pound stg. 750,000 was paid to 197 heroin-addicted prisoners who successfully argued that cutting short their treatment while in prison breached their human rights.
But there's another phenomenon that perverts proper process: police and bureaucrats in Britain anticipate getting overruled on human rights grounds and start to shape their responses. Pity the factory owner who, this month, had to pay pound stg. 20,000 to bailiffs to remove 40 Gypsies who had torn down a 2.4m fence and occupied his factory land. The police refused to act so as not to breach the travellers' human rights.
A friend of mine who sits in the House of Commons says when his constituents talk about loutish behaviour in the streets or around housing estates, they say: "I suppose the police can't do anything about it because of their human rights."
Thus creeping judicial activism around a charter of abstractions renders negative a concept that should sit nobly and proudly in thelexicon.
When Kevin Rudd looks at the 2020 Summit's endorsement of a bill or charter, he'll be politically astute enough to know a move to enact a charter or bill in any form would meet the same commonsense opposition that doomed it in 1988, when Australians voted it down 69 per cent to 31per cent.
The objectors
Consider the objectors. Business knows it just represents another layer of uncertainty; what judges will do with "a right to property" is anyone's guess. Churches are becoming aware their immunity from anti-discrimination laws - a justified immunity - will end with a charter or a bill of rights.
Church leaders can democratically lobby parliaments and cabinets, but not non-elected, tenured judges. The most obvious effect of a charter is to add opportunities to defence lawyers in criminal matters.
I look forward to advising victims of crime groups of the consequences of a bill or charter. The power of police to stop and search people for a knife, and remove the knife, which we enacted in NSW in 1998, would not survive judicial activism based on freewheeling interpretations.
And the decisive life sentences imposed on the state's worst killers (who were originally given indeterminate "never to be released" sentences) would also be found to contravene prisoners' rights, as in Britain.
Perhaps, as former justice minister Michael Tate seemed to foreshadow recently, we will see a proposal for a list of rights to be overseen by a parliamentary committee, not by judges.
A big retreat, but it will still be objectionable. I and others will take issue with any attempt by a group of zealots to arrogate to themselves the power to define, codify and nail down their definition at this time of what they think ought to be our rights. Talk about elitism.
Rights count. So much so they need the give and take of the common law, rowdy parliaments and the ebb and flow of public opinion.
It's the commonsensical ethos of a people - temper democratic, bias offensively Australian - not a declaration of abstractions that will keep us free.
The following article written by an eminent person like Bob Car drwas our attention to what constitutes our rights and freedom
Resist the zealots
By Bob Carr, Former NSW Premier.
Common sense, not a declaration of abstractions, will keep us free.
Date: 28 April 2008
Call it the first swallow of summer. Last week I met a lawyer who said while she opposed a charter of rights, all the barristers on her floor supported it, and for the obvious reason: the intoxicating whiff of litigation.
A bill of rights, or a charter, will lay out abstractions like the right to life, or privacy, or property, and thus enable judges to determine - after deliciously drawn-out litigation - what these mean.
A shift in power from elected parliaments to unelected judges, by a process of "judicial creep", is part of the bill of rights package. Canada has had its Charter of Rights and Freedoms since 1982, planted in the constitution. Before that there was only a legislative version.
Clearly this is something the zealots want to see happen here: the first step only a law, but followed by constitutional entrenchment.
Like Australia, Canada also has a shortage of doctors in rural areas. British Columbia came up with a scheme to encourage doctors to practise there, with a finely tuned system of incentives. The provincial Supreme Court struck it down, citing section 6 ("mobility rights") and section 7 (the "right to life, liberty and security") of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Canada's rural population is still under-served by doctors, thanks to judges who want to write society's rules.
The trouble
That's the trouble. A menu of abstractions - that is, any attempt to list rights - wrenches from the cabinet table and the legislature and delivers to the courtroom things that ought to be determined by governments.
Thus, in the most recent burst of judicial activism, judges in Britain have determined that the justice secretary can no longer block a parole board decision to release a dangerous prisoner.
Judges also determined that failed asylum-seekers in Britain could have access to the National Health Scheme, again something that should be a matter for elected politicians.
In Scotland, because of a delay in placing toilets in prison cells, the Scottish Law Reporter estimates that prisoners may be entitled to awards totalling pound stg. 76 million ($158.7 million) because their cells violated the European Charter of Fundamental Rights. The Government had been caught up with another priority, expanding drug rehabilitation programs for inmates.
Last year, pound stg. 750,000 was paid to 197 heroin-addicted prisoners who successfully argued that cutting short their treatment while in prison breached their human rights.
But there's another phenomenon that perverts proper process: police and bureaucrats in Britain anticipate getting overruled on human rights grounds and start to shape their responses. Pity the factory owner who, this month, had to pay pound stg. 20,000 to bailiffs to remove 40 Gypsies who had torn down a 2.4m fence and occupied his factory land. The police refused to act so as not to breach the travellers' human rights.
A friend of mine who sits in the House of Commons says when his constituents talk about loutish behaviour in the streets or around housing estates, they say: "I suppose the police can't do anything about it because of their human rights."
Thus creeping judicial activism around a charter of abstractions renders negative a concept that should sit nobly and proudly in thelexicon.
When Kevin Rudd looks at the 2020 Summit's endorsement of a bill or charter, he'll be politically astute enough to know a move to enact a charter or bill in any form would meet the same commonsense opposition that doomed it in 1988, when Australians voted it down 69 per cent to 31per cent.
The objectors
Consider the objectors. Business knows it just represents another layer of uncertainty; what judges will do with "a right to property" is anyone's guess. Churches are becoming aware their immunity from anti-discrimination laws - a justified immunity - will end with a charter or a bill of rights.
Church leaders can democratically lobby parliaments and cabinets, but not non-elected, tenured judges. The most obvious effect of a charter is to add opportunities to defence lawyers in criminal matters.
I look forward to advising victims of crime groups of the consequences of a bill or charter. The power of police to stop and search people for a knife, and remove the knife, which we enacted in NSW in 1998, would not survive judicial activism based on freewheeling interpretations.
And the decisive life sentences imposed on the state's worst killers (who were originally given indeterminate "never to be released" sentences) would also be found to contravene prisoners' rights, as in Britain.
Perhaps, as former justice minister Michael Tate seemed to foreshadow recently, we will see a proposal for a list of rights to be overseen by a parliamentary committee, not by judges.
A big retreat, but it will still be objectionable. I and others will take issue with any attempt by a group of zealots to arrogate to themselves the power to define, codify and nail down their definition at this time of what they think ought to be our rights. Talk about elitism.
Rights count. So much so they need the give and take of the common law, rowdy parliaments and the ebb and flow of public opinion.
It's the commonsensical ethos of a people - temper democratic, bias offensively Australian - not a declaration of abstractions that will keep us free.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Gmail - Inbox - jacobthanni@gmail.com
Gmail - Inbox - jacobthanni@gmail.com
A 'restaurant' for the destitute on Kolkata's rail tracks
Sun, May 11 10:29 AM
Kolkata, May 11 (IANS) One chapatti for 50 paisa, a plate of rice for Re.1, a bowlful of curry for Re.1...So reads the menu card of a 'restaurant' on railway tracks that has been running here for the last 51 years. In times of high inflation, it is a godsend for the poor.
Popularly known as 'Gariber Hotel' or food joint for the destitute, it is run today by 40-year-old Fatima Bibi at the southern division of Sealdah Station in north Kolkata. She sits with her bags full of leftover food, using up the space around a couple of unused tracks, even as trains whiz past on other platforms nearby.
She took over the business from her mother Nur Banu at the age of 11.
Fatima told IANS: 'I work as a part-time maid at various households and a few hotels. I collect the extra food, the leftovers or even slightly stale food at the end of the day from these places. The next morning I sell it to my customers.'
Her hotel on the tracks opens at 8 a.m. and shuts down at noon. And it has a faithful clientele of beggars, pickpockets, platform dwellers, porters and drug addicts, who troop in for an inexpensive bite.
'I have over 200 regular customers apart from the flying ones. The number of customers is increasing with such rapidity that I have employed my two daughters and two sons as household helps and hotel bearers. They too bring excess food from their workplace to meet the demand,' Fatima said.
Fatima and her clients sit under an open sky, sometimes putting up plastic sheets on bamboo poles as makeshift shelter from the hot sun or rain.
It goes without saying that the reason behind the humongous success of this 'hotel' is the compromise between hunger and poverty.
'We hardly earn Rs.25 a day. Surely, we can't afford to spend more than Rs.5 a day on lunch and dinner. Here we can eat to the fullest for Rs.3, that's what matters. Whether the food is leftover or slightly rotting, we don't care,' said Chanchal, a beggar at the station.
Some customers have just a bowlful of boiled rice water available for 50 paisa.
However, Fatima manages to make about Rs.800 a day from her 'hotel'. But just as there are no free lunches in this world, it seems there are no free businesses either - not a day passes without Fatima giving bribes to the railway police.
'Every day I have to pay the police personnel Rs.100 to allow me run my business peacefully. But policemen are like chameleons. On strict days they just kick my customers and me out of the tracks. However we don't give up. These tracks are ours and the next day we are back to our old place again,' said Fatima.
(Sreya Basu can be contacted at sreya.b@ians.in)
A 'restaurant' for the destitute on Kolkata's rail tracks
Sun, May 11 10:29 AM
Kolkata, May 11 (IANS) One chapatti for 50 paisa, a plate of rice for Re.1, a bowlful of curry for Re.1...So reads the menu card of a 'restaurant' on railway tracks that has been running here for the last 51 years. In times of high inflation, it is a godsend for the poor.
Popularly known as 'Gariber Hotel' or food joint for the destitute, it is run today by 40-year-old Fatima Bibi at the southern division of Sealdah Station in north Kolkata. She sits with her bags full of leftover food, using up the space around a couple of unused tracks, even as trains whiz past on other platforms nearby.
She took over the business from her mother Nur Banu at the age of 11.
Fatima told IANS: 'I work as a part-time maid at various households and a few hotels. I collect the extra food, the leftovers or even slightly stale food at the end of the day from these places. The next morning I sell it to my customers.'
Her hotel on the tracks opens at 8 a.m. and shuts down at noon. And it has a faithful clientele of beggars, pickpockets, platform dwellers, porters and drug addicts, who troop in for an inexpensive bite.
'I have over 200 regular customers apart from the flying ones. The number of customers is increasing with such rapidity that I have employed my two daughters and two sons as household helps and hotel bearers. They too bring excess food from their workplace to meet the demand,' Fatima said.
Fatima and her clients sit under an open sky, sometimes putting up plastic sheets on bamboo poles as makeshift shelter from the hot sun or rain.
It goes without saying that the reason behind the humongous success of this 'hotel' is the compromise between hunger and poverty.
'We hardly earn Rs.25 a day. Surely, we can't afford to spend more than Rs.5 a day on lunch and dinner. Here we can eat to the fullest for Rs.3, that's what matters. Whether the food is leftover or slightly rotting, we don't care,' said Chanchal, a beggar at the station.
Some customers have just a bowlful of boiled rice water available for 50 paisa.
However, Fatima manages to make about Rs.800 a day from her 'hotel'. But just as there are no free lunches in this world, it seems there are no free businesses either - not a day passes without Fatima giving bribes to the railway police.
'Every day I have to pay the police personnel Rs.100 to allow me run my business peacefully. But policemen are like chameleons. On strict days they just kick my customers and me out of the tracks. However we don't give up. These tracks are ours and the next day we are back to our old place again,' said Fatima.
(Sreya Basu can be contacted at sreya.b@ians.in)
Sunday, May 4, 2008
2,000 goats sacrificed in temple festival-Chennai-Cities-The Times of India
2,000 goats sacrificed in temple festival-Chennai-Cities-The Times of India
2,000 goats sacrificed in temple festival
4 May 2008, 0553 hrs IST,TNN
ERODE: At least 2,000 baby goats were slaughtered at a temple festival at Poosariyur in Erode district and their blood was consumed by the priests.
In an annual ritual during the Tamil month of Chithirai at Semmunisamy temple, hundreds of people gather for a bizarre thanksgiving. They come with baby goats, sacrifice them at the temple altar and hand them over to the three priests to taste the blood.
After drinking the blood of a few goats, the priests leave. And then it is free meat for all. From the police men on duty to the people who come from across the district, all take at least one or two of the sacrificed kids. Locals say people who suffer from ailments offer to sacrifice a baby goat if they get well. Every New Moon day, scores of mentally ill people come to to the temple get "". The priests hit their heads with neem leaves to ward off the evil spirits.
During the erstwhile AIADMK regime, animal sacrifices were banned in temples. However, following protests from devotees, the ban was lifted.
2,000 goats sacrificed in temple festival
4 May 2008, 0553 hrs IST,TNN
ERODE: At least 2,000 baby goats were slaughtered at a temple festival at Poosariyur in Erode district and their blood was consumed by the priests.
In an annual ritual during the Tamil month of Chithirai at Semmunisamy temple, hundreds of people gather for a bizarre thanksgiving. They come with baby goats, sacrifice them at the temple altar and hand them over to the three priests to taste the blood.
After drinking the blood of a few goats, the priests leave. And then it is free meat for all. From the police men on duty to the people who come from across the district, all take at least one or two of the sacrificed kids. Locals say people who suffer from ailments offer to sacrifice a baby goat if they get well. Every New Moon day, scores of mentally ill people come to to the temple get "". The priests hit their heads with neem leaves to ward off the evil spirits.
During the erstwhile AIADMK regime, animal sacrifices were banned in temples. However, following protests from devotees, the ban was lifted.
Most number of OBCs in IAS from TN-Chennai-Cities-The Times of India
Most number of OBCs in IAS from TN-Chennai-Cities-The Times of India
Most number of OBCs in IAS from TN
5 May 2008, 0328 hrs IST,Rema Nagarajan,TNN
CHENNAI: Politicians from the north might account for most of the sound and fury in the debate on reservations, but it is Tamil Nadu that gains the most from quotas, if recruitment to the all-India civil services is anything to go by. If people from reserved categories stopped appearing for the civil services, TN's representation would be very small.
TN accounted for nearly a quarter of the OBC candidates selected at the all-India level in both 2004 and 2005. In 2006, it accounted for 15% while Uttar Pradesh accounted for over 20% (one in every five selected OBC candidate was from UP). But TN has the largest number of OBCs making it to the civil services, much more than even UP, which has more than double its population. TN also has a larger proportion of OBCs than Delhi — from where the largest number of people get selected for the services. That is, of course, because people from all over India appear for the civil services exam from Delhi.
TN had just six general category candidates in 2004, of a total 44 selected from the state. The figures for 2005 were three out of 35 and for 2006, four out of a total of 36. From the OBC category, it had 25 and 22 candidates in the last two years, constituting more than 70% and 60% of the state's representation in the two years.
If we were to include the SC category candidates, numbering 8, 5 and 10 during 2004, 2005 and 2006, the reserved category share of the state's representation in civil services recruitment over the three years would be well over 85%, even touching 89% for the years 2005 and 2006.
The failing charm of civil services for the forward castes and the rising interest among the reserved categories, which see it as a means to empower themselves with executive power, are said to be the main reasons for the surge in reserved category candidates from Tamil Nadu and the steady decline in numbers from the general category.
P Shankar, secretary of the Retired IAS Officers Association of Tamil Nadu says the forward castes have become disenchanted with the civil services and have shifted attention to professional institutes or on going abroad.
Besides, he adds, it is a story of TN's success in affirmative action, thanks to people like Periyar. "Our OBCs are not really backward like in the northern states. The 69% reservation has been in place for a long time and so they are educationally not very backward."
Prof P Radhakrishnan of the Madras Institute of Development Studies, however, says the OBC representation is not necessarily an indication of backward class empowerment. "The OBC category in Tamil Nadu includes many upper classes and hence they do well educationally."
Most number of OBCs in IAS from TN
5 May 2008, 0328 hrs IST,Rema Nagarajan,TNN
CHENNAI: Politicians from the north might account for most of the sound and fury in the debate on reservations, but it is Tamil Nadu that gains the most from quotas, if recruitment to the all-India civil services is anything to go by. If people from reserved categories stopped appearing for the civil services, TN's representation would be very small.
TN accounted for nearly a quarter of the OBC candidates selected at the all-India level in both 2004 and 2005. In 2006, it accounted for 15% while Uttar Pradesh accounted for over 20% (one in every five selected OBC candidate was from UP). But TN has the largest number of OBCs making it to the civil services, much more than even UP, which has more than double its population. TN also has a larger proportion of OBCs than Delhi — from where the largest number of people get selected for the services. That is, of course, because people from all over India appear for the civil services exam from Delhi.
TN had just six general category candidates in 2004, of a total 44 selected from the state. The figures for 2005 were three out of 35 and for 2006, four out of a total of 36. From the OBC category, it had 25 and 22 candidates in the last two years, constituting more than 70% and 60% of the state's representation in the two years.
If we were to include the SC category candidates, numbering 8, 5 and 10 during 2004, 2005 and 2006, the reserved category share of the state's representation in civil services recruitment over the three years would be well over 85%, even touching 89% for the years 2005 and 2006.
The failing charm of civil services for the forward castes and the rising interest among the reserved categories, which see it as a means to empower themselves with executive power, are said to be the main reasons for the surge in reserved category candidates from Tamil Nadu and the steady decline in numbers from the general category.
P Shankar, secretary of the Retired IAS Officers Association of Tamil Nadu says the forward castes have become disenchanted with the civil services and have shifted attention to professional institutes or on going abroad.
Besides, he adds, it is a story of TN's success in affirmative action, thanks to people like Periyar. "Our OBCs are not really backward like in the northern states. The 69% reservation has been in place for a long time and so they are educationally not very backward."
Prof P Radhakrishnan of the Madras Institute of Development Studies, however, says the OBC representation is not necessarily an indication of backward class empowerment. "The OBC category in Tamil Nadu includes many upper classes and hence they do well educationally."
Gmail - Race & Faith 1960-2000 - jacobthanni@gmail.com
Gmail - Race & Faith 1960-2000 - jacobthanni@gmail.com
George Demetrion
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Afro-Centrist Theology and the Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement of the early 1960s was a major galvanizing force among mainline theologians, clergy, and congregations. At the center was the poignant rhetoric of Martin Luther King Jr., capsulated most fully in his "I Have a Dream" speech of 1963. King's inspiring vision of radical equality built on the twin foundations of the Declaration of Independence and the New Testament vision that in Christ we are all God's children regardless of race and other pernicious distinctions that separate groups from one another as a result of hatred and fear. The civil rights movement under King's leadership embodied a rhetorical and cultural force of major proportions which continues to resonate with the highest of national ideals some 40 years after his tragic assassination.
With King's death, "the new liberal consensus" (Dorrien, 1995), already shaky with race riots and protests over U.S. involvement in Vietnam, no longer held, as what became referred to as "identity politics" came more and more to the fore in the 1970s. With the advocates of black power, King, too, stressed the importance of economic justice, even as an unswerving commitment to non-resistance and the vision of a fully integrated society remained central planks in his program. The indubitable reality of "de facto" segregation in the urban north, arguably ever much egregious as legal segregation in the south, drew stark attention to the enduring reality of black poverty and the long legacy of slavery which was far from overcome with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1965. The quest for racial equality has continued to permeate the mainline social conscience and corresponding sense of prophetic biblical justice.
As the initial enthusiasm of the early civil rights era faded, the sense of dynamic vision that carried the mainline imagination in the early 1960s no longer possessed by the end of the 20th century, anywhere near the imaginative force it once had as a galvanizing source of congregational or theological direction. King's vision of racial equality holds in mainline congregations, a version of which has been appropriated in more recent times into current conservative political and religious thought and consequently re-defined. Nonetheless, the militant black theology of James Cone, however much it spoke "truth to power" from the symbolic voice of the racially "oppressed," could not provide a platform that would galvanize primarily declining, aging, and mostly Caucasian suburban-based mainline denominations. There were more moderating black theological voices than that of Cone's in the iconography of the conservative/progressive culture wars of the post-King era. Cone's voice, however, had a potent symbolic power in sharpening issues and polarizing sides in which any semblance of consensus upon which King sought to build was severely tested. The logic of Cone's economic, racial, and theological analysis appealed to the more progressive sectors within the mainline denominations. It was much less favorably received by those less predisposed whether or not they would directly speak out against whatever liberal orthodoxies prevailed among their denominational leadership. As the conservative movement became increasingly visible by the 1980s an articulated counter discourse arose which gave populist voice to such hot button topics as busing, affirmative action, quotas, and welfare reform against the professed claims of black "victimology."
Even if the shaper tones of this conservative discourse only modestly seeped into the mainline denominations, it nonetheless provided a language through which a formal opposition to the political culture and "relativism" of the progressive 60s could be mounted. By the end of the 20th century within much of American Protestantism, evangelical as well as mainline, a practical consensus stabilized around King's vision on the importance of character. The crowning achievement of this consensus was the widespread acceptance of the inviolability of formal equality as an unequivocal birthright of a democratic political culture and the plain teachings of Christian social ethics. So, too, was a broad understanding of the persistence of urban poverty and even the acknowledgement that the legacy of slavery continues to have, at the least, some lingering negative influence. However, the degree to which the impact is still pervasive, and therefore relevant has generated much debate, as reflected, for example, over the contentious issue of reparations for the injustice and inhumanity of slavery. Both conservative and progressive Protestants recognize that there is additional work to do and a broad range of practical steps that can be taken through various service projects and longer-range missions work in the inner city. Nonetheless, ideology remains a sticking point in which for mainline progressive Christians, King's "I Have Dream" speech was a starting point, whereas for conservatives it was the consummation and crowning achievement of the civil rights movement.
Thus, on the conservative reading, slavery was "a mistake." It was a singular blight that the nation corrected in the inevitable progress toward the trajectory of its fulfillment in human terms in the growth of American democracy as "the last best hope for mankind" as expressed in the evocative language of Lincolnian rhetoric. This was underlain by a continuous messianic strand within much of Protestant thought, building on the Puritan vision of a City on a Hill which interprets America as a Christian nation called to fulfill its destiny in bringing not only liberty, but God's own light to a needy world. With the correction course in place in the abolition of slavery and legal segregation, African-Americans could join the mainstream of American life in which they too could embrace the upward trajectory of the American Dream and concentrate on the core values of moral rectitude and individual salvation. This, in turn, would enable them, also to participate in missions and good works as the natural fruit of such character reformation.
In focusing more on the pressing reality of institutional racism, various advocates of a more progressive vein viewed things in a considerably different light. Such problems as teenage pregnancy, drugs, illiteracy, excessively high dropout rates, crime, and gang violence were not the result of a dysfunctional family as sometimes claimed by conservative commentators. Rather, as agued by liberals and progressives, these need to be viewed as symptoms of a broader structural problem rooted in urban poverty and the persisting endurance of de facto segregation. At issue was the availability of resources so that equal opportunity could become a live option, in which government could be viewed as a major, but far from only source of support. Thusly conceived, the federal budget was a major focal point, which telegraphed the true heart of the nation's commitment to the poor and oppressed. Advocacy in such areas as equal education, adequate housing, and job training represented more than simply "leftist" political polemics, as conservatives charged. Rather, progressive Christians viewed such commitment to the poor through the deployment of governmental resources as a core gospel mandate, a faithful application of the prophetic tradition in the contemporary setting. On this interpretation substantial social problems could never be resolved by voluntary associations, however important they remained as the echo of the nation's conscious and as a contributing resource in conjunction with more stabilizing sources of influence. In this respect there is clear lineage between contemporary political theology of the mainline denominations and the social gospel heritage of the early 20th century.
In the quest for relevance, mainline denominations often downplay the biblical and theological significance of this view of social missions, which makes it difficult for them to distinguish their objectives from those of other social and religious groups. Inter-group and inter-religious collaboration on the critical issues of the day is both essential and desirable in a pluralistic society. It would be extremely churlish even to equivocate about this Simply put, it is an act of humility, to say nothing of civility and common sense to draw support from a wide variety of sources in the difficult and proximate work of enhancing the social capital of the more marginalized sectors of the society. It is equally important for mainline Protestants to sharply articulate the biblical and theological rationale that grounds their social missions, at the least in terms of what Walter Brueggemann (1991) refers to as "behind the wall" conversation, that is within the life of the church itself and arguably as well in the broader public square (pp. 41-68).
This is essential for the very important purpose of establishing a strong and coherent Christian identity within the mainline denominations among the membership itself, and for articulating fully and without apology the theological basis upon which mainline social ethic is grounded. Justice is not an add-on to a strongly grounded biblical faith, but as Jim Wallis ably argues, a core component. This is a case that needs to be made within the context of a fully orbed biblical theology as a reflection of evangelical intent as well as missions, a position that mainline denominations should not shy away from both in terms of addressing their own house as well as speaking in an avowedly prophetic voice to the wider culture. Such speech requires humility, yet boldness as well and a firm acceptance of a comprehensive Christian orthodoxy (a generous one, to be sure) as the ultimate vocabulary upon which such claims are issued.
Given its crucial importance within the history of the United States, a biblically-based political theology which substantially addresses the issue of race can serve as a powerful organizing center to ground a broad range of social and political issues related to poverty, oppression, gender inequality, and the marginality of the socially outcast. Such work requires solid Christologies from "above" as well as those from "below." It is in this trinitarian nexus that the Suffering Servant knows and takes on our pain within the pressing realities of our daily lives, and participates in the struggle for social justice (Luke 4: 18-19) in a world turned upside down by Kingdom values. In short, a biblical theology that unequivocally addresses the challenging topic of race with God's grace, could be an important instrument in helping to unify an evangelical quest for the Kingdom of God in which "the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs" (Rom 8: 22). To the extent that it is acted upon as an imaginative and potent theo-political vision with consequences in the real world, "justice [itself will] run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream" (Amos 5: 24).
Such a vision will not come easy and may be fraught with considerable controversy, but one, if well constructed on solid biblical principles, could, as one of its pivotal linchpins, provide the mainline denominations with a degree of authenticity and authority that it currently lacks. Such a construction would require a great degree of theological acumen as well as political courage. Yet, it is one that brings together the fundamental tenets of the social gospel and the traditional biblical faith in God transcendent and richly immanent; of a God who participates in the joys and struggles of the daily existence of the marginalized and all who struggle with and for a kingdom view of reality.
George Demetrion
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Afro-Centrist Theology and the Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement of the early 1960s was a major galvanizing force among mainline theologians, clergy, and congregations. At the center was the poignant rhetoric of Martin Luther King Jr., capsulated most fully in his "I Have a Dream" speech of 1963. King's inspiring vision of radical equality built on the twin foundations of the Declaration of Independence and the New Testament vision that in Christ we are all God's children regardless of race and other pernicious distinctions that separate groups from one another as a result of hatred and fear. The civil rights movement under King's leadership embodied a rhetorical and cultural force of major proportions which continues to resonate with the highest of national ideals some 40 years after his tragic assassination.
With King's death, "the new liberal consensus" (Dorrien, 1995), already shaky with race riots and protests over U.S. involvement in Vietnam, no longer held, as what became referred to as "identity politics" came more and more to the fore in the 1970s. With the advocates of black power, King, too, stressed the importance of economic justice, even as an unswerving commitment to non-resistance and the vision of a fully integrated society remained central planks in his program. The indubitable reality of "de facto" segregation in the urban north, arguably ever much egregious as legal segregation in the south, drew stark attention to the enduring reality of black poverty and the long legacy of slavery which was far from overcome with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1965. The quest for racial equality has continued to permeate the mainline social conscience and corresponding sense of prophetic biblical justice.
As the initial enthusiasm of the early civil rights era faded, the sense of dynamic vision that carried the mainline imagination in the early 1960s no longer possessed by the end of the 20th century, anywhere near the imaginative force it once had as a galvanizing source of congregational or theological direction. King's vision of racial equality holds in mainline congregations, a version of which has been appropriated in more recent times into current conservative political and religious thought and consequently re-defined. Nonetheless, the militant black theology of James Cone, however much it spoke "truth to power" from the symbolic voice of the racially "oppressed," could not provide a platform that would galvanize primarily declining, aging, and mostly Caucasian suburban-based mainline denominations. There were more moderating black theological voices than that of Cone's in the iconography of the conservative/progressive culture wars of the post-King era. Cone's voice, however, had a potent symbolic power in sharpening issues and polarizing sides in which any semblance of consensus upon which King sought to build was severely tested. The logic of Cone's economic, racial, and theological analysis appealed to the more progressive sectors within the mainline denominations. It was much less favorably received by those less predisposed whether or not they would directly speak out against whatever liberal orthodoxies prevailed among their denominational leadership. As the conservative movement became increasingly visible by the 1980s an articulated counter discourse arose which gave populist voice to such hot button topics as busing, affirmative action, quotas, and welfare reform against the professed claims of black "victimology."
Even if the shaper tones of this conservative discourse only modestly seeped into the mainline denominations, it nonetheless provided a language through which a formal opposition to the political culture and "relativism" of the progressive 60s could be mounted. By the end of the 20th century within much of American Protestantism, evangelical as well as mainline, a practical consensus stabilized around King's vision on the importance of character. The crowning achievement of this consensus was the widespread acceptance of the inviolability of formal equality as an unequivocal birthright of a democratic political culture and the plain teachings of Christian social ethics. So, too, was a broad understanding of the persistence of urban poverty and even the acknowledgement that the legacy of slavery continues to have, at the least, some lingering negative influence. However, the degree to which the impact is still pervasive, and therefore relevant has generated much debate, as reflected, for example, over the contentious issue of reparations for the injustice and inhumanity of slavery. Both conservative and progressive Protestants recognize that there is additional work to do and a broad range of practical steps that can be taken through various service projects and longer-range missions work in the inner city. Nonetheless, ideology remains a sticking point in which for mainline progressive Christians, King's "I Have Dream" speech was a starting point, whereas for conservatives it was the consummation and crowning achievement of the civil rights movement.
Thus, on the conservative reading, slavery was "a mistake." It was a singular blight that the nation corrected in the inevitable progress toward the trajectory of its fulfillment in human terms in the growth of American democracy as "the last best hope for mankind" as expressed in the evocative language of Lincolnian rhetoric. This was underlain by a continuous messianic strand within much of Protestant thought, building on the Puritan vision of a City on a Hill which interprets America as a Christian nation called to fulfill its destiny in bringing not only liberty, but God's own light to a needy world. With the correction course in place in the abolition of slavery and legal segregation, African-Americans could join the mainstream of American life in which they too could embrace the upward trajectory of the American Dream and concentrate on the core values of moral rectitude and individual salvation. This, in turn, would enable them, also to participate in missions and good works as the natural fruit of such character reformation.
In focusing more on the pressing reality of institutional racism, various advocates of a more progressive vein viewed things in a considerably different light. Such problems as teenage pregnancy, drugs, illiteracy, excessively high dropout rates, crime, and gang violence were not the result of a dysfunctional family as sometimes claimed by conservative commentators. Rather, as agued by liberals and progressives, these need to be viewed as symptoms of a broader structural problem rooted in urban poverty and the persisting endurance of de facto segregation. At issue was the availability of resources so that equal opportunity could become a live option, in which government could be viewed as a major, but far from only source of support. Thusly conceived, the federal budget was a major focal point, which telegraphed the true heart of the nation's commitment to the poor and oppressed. Advocacy in such areas as equal education, adequate housing, and job training represented more than simply "leftist" political polemics, as conservatives charged. Rather, progressive Christians viewed such commitment to the poor through the deployment of governmental resources as a core gospel mandate, a faithful application of the prophetic tradition in the contemporary setting. On this interpretation substantial social problems could never be resolved by voluntary associations, however important they remained as the echo of the nation's conscious and as a contributing resource in conjunction with more stabilizing sources of influence. In this respect there is clear lineage between contemporary political theology of the mainline denominations and the social gospel heritage of the early 20th century.
In the quest for relevance, mainline denominations often downplay the biblical and theological significance of this view of social missions, which makes it difficult for them to distinguish their objectives from those of other social and religious groups. Inter-group and inter-religious collaboration on the critical issues of the day is both essential and desirable in a pluralistic society. It would be extremely churlish even to equivocate about this Simply put, it is an act of humility, to say nothing of civility and common sense to draw support from a wide variety of sources in the difficult and proximate work of enhancing the social capital of the more marginalized sectors of the society. It is equally important for mainline Protestants to sharply articulate the biblical and theological rationale that grounds their social missions, at the least in terms of what Walter Brueggemann (1991) refers to as "behind the wall" conversation, that is within the life of the church itself and arguably as well in the broader public square (pp. 41-68).
This is essential for the very important purpose of establishing a strong and coherent Christian identity within the mainline denominations among the membership itself, and for articulating fully and without apology the theological basis upon which mainline social ethic is grounded. Justice is not an add-on to a strongly grounded biblical faith, but as Jim Wallis ably argues, a core component. This is a case that needs to be made within the context of a fully orbed biblical theology as a reflection of evangelical intent as well as missions, a position that mainline denominations should not shy away from both in terms of addressing their own house as well as speaking in an avowedly prophetic voice to the wider culture. Such speech requires humility, yet boldness as well and a firm acceptance of a comprehensive Christian orthodoxy (a generous one, to be sure) as the ultimate vocabulary upon which such claims are issued.
Given its crucial importance within the history of the United States, a biblically-based political theology which substantially addresses the issue of race can serve as a powerful organizing center to ground a broad range of social and political issues related to poverty, oppression, gender inequality, and the marginality of the socially outcast. Such work requires solid Christologies from "above" as well as those from "below." It is in this trinitarian nexus that the Suffering Servant knows and takes on our pain within the pressing realities of our daily lives, and participates in the struggle for social justice (Luke 4: 18-19) in a world turned upside down by Kingdom values. In short, a biblical theology that unequivocally addresses the challenging topic of race with God's grace, could be an important instrument in helping to unify an evangelical quest for the Kingdom of God in which "the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs" (Rom 8: 22). To the extent that it is acted upon as an imaginative and potent theo-political vision with consequences in the real world, "justice [itself will] run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream" (Amos 5: 24).
Such a vision will not come easy and may be fraught with considerable controversy, but one, if well constructed on solid biblical principles, could, as one of its pivotal linchpins, provide the mainline denominations with a degree of authenticity and authority that it currently lacks. Such a construction would require a great degree of theological acumen as well as political courage. Yet, it is one that brings together the fundamental tenets of the social gospel and the traditional biblical faith in God transcendent and richly immanent; of a God who participates in the joys and struggles of the daily existence of the marginalized and all who struggle with and for a kingdom view of reality.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Sex Workers