Rio+20 summit, rhetoric, religion and deaf ears

There are 64 sources listed on the Google News online page today relating to the environment and the imminent staging in five weeks time of the Rio+20 summit. I read the Guardian article which starts like this:

Twenty years on from the Rio Earth summit, the environment of the planet is getting worse not better, according to a report from WWF.

Swelling population, mass migration to cities, increasing energy use and soaring carbon dioxide emissions mean humanity is putting a greater squeeze on the planet’s resources than ever before. Particularly hard hit is the diversity of animals and plants, upon which many natural resources such as clean water are based.

Here are some headlines from the other 63 sources:

Global biodiversity down 30% in 40 years

Earth in Crisis as wildlife numbers plummet

Report calls for action at Rio to reverse biodiversity free fall

Another Earth needed to meet human demands for natural resources

WWF: Over-consumption threatens planet

The world is not enough: soon we’ll need three earth planet Earths

Global and regional urgency to tackle climate change

China’s hidden waterways – a canal outside Beijing

The list goes on and we have heard and read it all before. The only change is upwards and the different names of species dying. Koalas extinct in 50 years; tiger and tuna decline sounds global alarm. Urban pollution is unmanageable in many areas. Pollution of ground water is on the rise.

I note that my home country has risen by one point to become the seventh–worst polluter on Earth. What a terrible statistic and in such a fragile ancient land. Australia certainly has had the highest ecological footprint per capita for some years now – it appears to be getting worse. The population growth in Australia is only just on the wane from the past 6 years. What is going on? Economic growth isn’t the sole reason.

The sun is good though.

It is very hard not to be depressed by this as I am also contributing to over-consumption on this planet as an inhabitant living in a  developed nation. Meanwhile, as a species, we keep breeding, all the while chasing a healthy longevity. It just isn’t sustainable.  I used to think, and still do really, that education, the free supply of contraception worldwide and open, free access to family planning clinics would curtail our global population and highlight the damage we are doing to our planet. We have needed to do something for so long that now we appear to be numb to the consequences of our behaviour. This article from January 2006 is as true to day as it was 30 years ago. Then, two years later there was another article this time relating more closely to the UK.

I see now that that process will take too long. The staggering rise in global population since we have learnt to use antibiotics reducing infant mortality and increasing longevity will always outstrip the slower educative process in teaching people to understand and training them to understand the disaster we are facing. It seems to be difficult for people to step outside their own comfort zone

It seems to me that contraception on a global scale is the best option we have available at this stage. Contraception has come a long way since the condom and the even the pill. Now, subcutaneous implants with an efficacy period of up to five years are available. I saw a TV programme where women in Rwanda were tackling the problem head on. What is going on there is a small ray of hope. I fear it won’t be anywhere near enough to inspire other African countries where poverty is rampant and natural population controls diminish with medical technology. The competition for scarce resources may propel population control forward as it is doing in Rwanda but it’s no guarantee.

Rwandan kiddies. At least they are happy.

Add to that the irresponsible teachings of religion on sex and sexual ethics with the rise of HIV and the future situation worsens. I listen to the Pope pontificating about sexual abstinence and I nearly fly off the handle. The man is a fool and very dangerous. He constantly sidesteps the contraception issue and the problem of HIV. At least the Italians have enough sense to ignore him and keep their annual population growth rate to 0.42% in 2011 according to the CIA and down from 0.65% in the World Bank figures for 2009.

It isn’t that far off before we really do run out of arable land, water availability and other resources. I feel so very sad for my grandchildren and their prospects.  It is worth remembering David Suzuki’s daughter Severn addressing the summit in Brazil in 1992. That was the Rio Earth Summit minus the +20 that it is today.

I know all the experts try to keep their chin up but even the optimistic David Attenborough looks grim when he talks about population, resources and habitat loss.

And it makes me feel more grim as well.

Related articles

• European Parliament has cancelled plans to send a delegation to the UN’s Rio+20 summit (seeker401.wordpress.com)
• Australia seventh-worst polluter on Earth: report (eco-business.com)

Ulema Council & Karzai hobble Afghan women (again)

In the middle of oppression, there is hope. I have written before above the cultures behind the wearing of the shapeless body and face concealing clothing. I have lampooned Lauren Booth adopting Islam (a capitalist westerner; loves photo shoots of herself doing ‘good works’).

Just prior to the Russian occupation of Afghanistan (1979 to 1989), in the midst of growing oppression of women in Afghanistan, there rose up a young woman known as Meena. She was, by all accounts, a remarkable woman who, with other women intellectuals, ferried women and children out from Kabul to Pakistan and an uneasy safety. She set up refugee camps and classrooms to combat female illiteracy and teach children in Pakistan. Their efforts were always fraught with raids by Islamist men. The women knew that education was the only way to break gender repression. The irony was that in the 1960s, girls and women, including Meena, were educated and intellectually productive members of life in Kabul.

Meena Keshwar Kamal

It didn’t last; it couldn’t last. Her head, once above the parapet after she addressed the Internationalist Socialist Conference in France in 1981 was in the sights of the then KGB and its Afghan agents, the Afghan Intelligence Service and the Islamist fundamentalists. She was eventually assassinated in February 1987 when she was only 30. Her activist husband had been murdered 3 months earlier. The whereabouts of their children is still unknown. Here is a link to Amazon where you can find her story written by Melody Ermachild Chavis.

The best known image of Meena

Meena was the founder of an organisation that became dedicated to equality and education for women and give a voice to the silenced women of Afghanistan. That organisation has grown stronger and more vocal over the decades.

 The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) is an extraordinary organisation that is more active today than ever before. Its struggle these days is against the ultra-fundamentalist Taliban, its repressive, anti-women and male-chauvinism orientation. It is highly scathing of the role played by the USA in Afghanistan.

Today in the BBC News online there is an article that, while worrying in its content, allows some hope to emerge notwithstanding President Hamid Karzai endorsing the further oppression. Karzai is widely perceived as a puppet of America.

 ‘After a council of Afghan clerics issued restrictive guidelines for women, later embraced by President Hamid Karzai, young Afghans streamed to social media sites to lampoon the rulings, reports BBC Afghan’s Tahir Qadiry.

“It’s outrageous,” wrote one young Afghan on his Facebook page.

“The next thing they’ll be saying is that Afghanistan needs to be divided up in two – one half for men and the other half for women.”’

What is heartening is that there are cartoons lampooning the mullahs and their edict. This would not have been possible earlier.

Lampooning and satire can work. The mullahs need to be caged!!

Here’s another article stating that:

‘Afghanistan’s top religious council has said women should not mix with men in school, work or other aspects of daily life. The Ulema Council has also said that women should not travel without a male relative.’

In a country where women can be jailed for being the victim of rape, this step by the Ulema Council is so retrograde that after 10 years of gender gains in Afghanistan, one can only hope that a modern backlash may finally have some political clout.

Same Sex Marriage in the UK

It would be really pleasant to be able to ignore the teacup storms whipped up by the religious over issues to do with modern society. These storms take on the appearance of tsunamis and distract everyone from the serious business at hand in running a country. Like repealing very, very expensive loopholes in legislation that are abused by the rich including the Queen. But that’s another story.

Keithie O'Brien in colourful drag

Looking at this photo of The Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church in the dioceses of St Andrews and Edinburgh and leader of the Church in Scotland in all his gloriously coloured pomp and ceremonial robes and mitre, I hope I can be forgiven for chuckling at Tim Minchin’s naughty Pope Song and the cartoon video that accompanied it. The video and the song went viral during and after the Pope’s visit in September 2010. The clergy were unusually silent about our Tim.

http://vimeo.com/11338327

Things must be moving too fast for religious dogma that is driven by age-old and static texts. Well, if not static (who reads original languages these days) then with essential tenets unchanged for millennia.

It is terribly hard lines for the Catholics in modern western society. Not only aren’t they allowed to hide the egregious and utterly inappropriate behaviour of a fair sized percentage of their clerics and other enforcers, they are having difficulty staying focussed on anything anymore. It’s raining in on them from all sides. The brickbats, slings and arrows just keep flying.

Cardinal Keithie O’Brien has made some amazingly silly and inconsistent claims this week over the intention of the UK government to legalise marriage for our homosexual community. He can be pretty offensive too.

Apparently the Roman Catholics in the England and Wales number about 5 million (hard to know for sure because of self identification). The population of England and Wales totals about 55 million.

It isn’t only the good Cardinal who has his knickers in a knot (maybe that’s the problem) but the Archbishop of Westminster, Most Rev. Vincent Nichols is on record with the same sort of complaint. At least he looks a little more like a person rather than a caricature, at least in this photo. Mind you, he can dress up too and looks quite like all other Archbishops.

Vinnie Nichols in his dog collar

There is a very good blog called Left Foot Forward with this article as a history lesson for the good Cardinal.

I understand that it would be very odd of them and the flurry of religious leaders on this island if they welcomed gay unions with open arms. Maybe they feel they have to stand up for their anachronistic organisations; after all they are paid by their churches and job loyalty ensures tenure of position.

Edit (7Mar) There are a couple of articles that I have found here from Stephen Hough in the Telegraph and here from the National Secular Society. Both articles are worth 50 of the articles from the religious.

My proposal is this:

The Registrar of Birth, Deaths and Marriages already registers births and deaths prior to any celebratory or funereal mourning ceremonies that may or may not ensue. Enable legislation that nominates the Registry as the sole registering body for all hatches, matches and despatches. Everyone who wants to marry can apply for the registration of their union with the registry and then go off and celebrate until the cows come home or they fall over, whichever comes first. However, it does create a level playing field for the registration of marriage. Make it secular first, religious afterwards like Births and Deaths.

Someone queried the white wedding and young girls’ desire to have the purported biggest day of their lives being lost in the greyness of the Registry.

Not so I pointed out. My marriage (ahem, the second formal one) was held at the Registry in St. Andrews (a pleasanter spot you’ll never find) with flowers, a new outfit, music and a delightful woman who conducted the process. During the war, many couples were married at Registry offices. Prior to the war and many moons prior to Christianity or Judaism and definitely prior to Islam, marriage ceremonies were held in fields, buildings, homes, beaches and in woodlands. All very charming and full of good cheer and well wishes for the couple, I am sure. In Perth, Australia, my son and his wife were married in King’s Park by a celebrant from the Humanists.

At St Andrews Registry Office - the old Mayor's Room

Why do the Christians feel they have the right to try to continue to punch beyond their weight and take the government to task on this issue? It seems to have something to do with their definition of the word marriage. They want it defined as in the umpteenth version or edition or translation of their holy book. The King James Version was published in 1611 and that is probably the one they use – very modern as things stand. Only 400 years old. And you should see who created it!! What a motley crew.

So what is the etymology of the word ‘marriage’? What’s more – what is the history of marriage itself?

Dear wiki:

The modern English word “marriage” derives from Middle English mariage, which first appears in 1250–1300 C.E. This in turn is derived from Old French marier (to marry) and ultimately Latin marītāre meaning to provide with a husband or wife and marītāri meaning to get married.

Long before that – it was just an agreement between two people. The female was not always consulted since she was seen as property to be traded. She had no rights until very recently. Marriages were arranged or forced. Some still are. These clerics need to get with the real world and stop being religiously myopic.

This again from wiki:

 Various types of same-sex marriages have existed,^[40] ranging from informal, unsanctioned relationships to highly ritualized unions.^[41]

While it is a relatively new practice to frequently grant same-sex couples the same form of legal marital recognition as commonly granted to mixed-sex couples, there is a long history of recorded same-sex unions around the world.^[42] It is believed that same-sex unions were celebrated in Ancient Greece and Rome,^[42] some regions of China, such as Fujian, and at certain times in ancient European history.^[43] A law in the Theodosian Code (C. Th. 9.7.3) issued in 342 CE imposed severe penalties or death on same-sex marriage in ancient Rome^[44] but the exact intent of the law and its relation to social practice is unclear, as only a few examples of same-sex marriage in that culture exist.^[45]

Terry and Mark and their wedding and good on them.

And then what about polygamy and polyandry? What about all different religious faiths’ requirement or lack thereof?

The Catholics and Protestants on this island are so hidebound by tradition they seem to think nothing happened until their arrival. What a jolt of realism for them to have to adapt to, but adapt they will. Eventually and dragged kicking and screaming to the altar of modern realism. It will be secular.

More on Religion in Politics and Education

Freedom!

Well, the pious and most precious Pickles has signed into law that part of his Localism Bill, creating a ‘general power of competence’ that overrides the High Court ruling on the illegality of prayers in the formal business papers of Councils in England.

He said he would do this in his massive hissy fit after the ruling was handed down and 7 days later, he did. He knows best after all. He must do, he is an evangelical christian and, ipso facto, seriously believes in the literal word of the christian bible. The only problem is that no one knows which version or edition of the bible he uses. There are hundreds after all.

However, the Communities Secretary does seem to have decided that he is the arbiter of what is right and proper in all local authorities in England. It’s enough to make me mutter sotto voce “bring on separation Scotland”.

Not that Scotland has much to crow about really. The Scottish Parliament did away with prayers at the time of Devolution but, as a sop to the religions, substituted a weekly 5 minute Time for Reflection (TFR) delivered mainly by Church of Scotland clerics. No Muslims yet. I believe there have been a couple of Humanists.

The Scottish Parliament's debating chamber

The good christians decided to form a group called the Parliamentary Prayer Group and attend each TFR. They call themselves non-denominational, but in Scotland that usually means Church of Scotland.

This photo from their website is taken in the Public Gallery and shows the Group in place. The times I have been, I have only seen the ageing ladies each wearing a bright red blazer and sitting in a block in the front rows to increase their visibility to the Chamber. There are about 20 or so of them and they smile a lot.

Photo-op for the Parliamentary Prayers

Devolution happened in 1999 and a deal was done between the new Scottish Parliament, the Catholics and the Church of Scotland to keep school prayers (suffer the little kiddies) in place and ensure that religious representatives had unelected places on local education committees.

Public funding is still in place for religious schools and I have come across the absurd situation where within the confines of one school property, the Catholics enter from one side and the Protestants from another. Two staff rooms, toilets, school rooms and playing fields. And, of course, two different complements of teaching staff, all in one building – a big building.

Shared separation at Motherwell primary

This is an excerpt from a letter written to the Belfast Telegraph on school integration:

‘In the Scottish shared-campus experiment, the old segregation problem still persists once children walk through the door, or, to be more precise, separate doors. In one attempt at a shared campus in Lanarkshire, the Catholic Church’s demands for separate facilities even stretched to different toilets for Catholic and non-Catholic teachers.

 The director of the Catholic Education Service in Scotland is on record as stating, “We are very concerned that the sharing of facilities, like staff rooms, will erode the Catholic ethos of a school.”’

Don’t you find this to be a bizarre state of affairs in the 21^st century? I have lived in Scotland for four years now and I have to say, I am learning more about the absolute idiocy of religion than I thought I ever would, especially in this country.

I really find it hard to believe that this sort of thing goes on in a mature, western society that is supposed to have emancipated itself from such religious bigotry in the 1800s. By the middle of that century the Scots were amongst the most literate people in Europe. This was the time of the European and Scottish Enlightenment after all. This little country boasts such people as David Hume, Adam Smith, Francis Hutcheson, Dugald Stewart and Adam Ferguson. And then there were all the scientific, engineering and medical advances that emanated from Scotland. There is so much innovation to have come from Scotland that other countries looked to Scotland for inspiration and erudition.

David Hume and Adam Smith in Edinburgh

What happened? Or, probably a better way to ask that question is why weren’t those wonderful achievements built on to the eventual eradication of superstition and religious dogma and bigotry?

Maybe the dénouement is still to be read. Reason and science certainly seem to be suffering a new endarkenment in the world in terms of acceptance, funding and government backing. Schools and teachers seem to be less prepared to undergo rigor in curricula or instruction. The mass media pump out poorly researched articles while TV has Buffy the Vampire with vacuously high ratings. Or Big Brother or other silly reality shows of which there is a growing and mindless plethora.

Even the BBC which the above letter writer refers to as Believers’ Broadcasting Christianity is the media apologia for religion in this island.

It’s enough to make you despair. Really.

Free from Religious Indoctrination

Council Prayers & Political Abuse

I have to say I am very cross at the reaction of some British pollies and religites to a High Court decision that judged Council prayers to be not part of normal council business papers.

Well, of course they aren’t! What on earth have prayers to invisible gods got to do with the normal, practical and very mundane business of roads and fisheries, sewerage and housing estate planning, road maintenance and play parks?

Answer – nothing. When I look at overblown multiple-chinned politician fat-cats declaiming about religion in public life, I seriously go puce in colour.

It is all very well for Eric Pickles:

Eric Pickles - will end up in a pickle over this

to talk about tradition and its longevity in this country. It was Henry VIII who inaugurated the Church of England – that’s only about 500 years ago. Long before electricity and other trappings of modern life. I also watched Michael Langrish, Bishop of Exeter in which the Council of Bideford in Devon languishes talk about the Christian tradition that underpinned this country. What! Since Henry or long before – around Boadicea’s time.

The Bish of Exeter

What about Hypatia of Alexandria, about 1,500 years ago who was obviously much smarter than either Pickles or the Bishop of Exeter? She is quoted as saying:

Hypatia of Alexandria

No triple chin on this woman – she was brutally murdered by Christian fanatics in March 415. Yes, religious murders have been going on a long time. We seem not to have changed much in 10,000 years or so. There is a movie – Agora (2009). I haven’t seen it but it traces Hypatia’s life and death.

On Friday 10^th February 2012, the British papers and the BBC TV news ran headlines because the High Court in Britain declared, in the person of The Hon. Mr Justice Ouseley, that there was no lawful place for prayer during formal proceedings of councils – that includes England and Wales. The rational amongst us were delighted as we belatedly ushered in the 21^st Century. The churches, some pollies and the bishops spat chips. You would think that the world had come to an end. Talk about inappropriate reactions.

I was reminded of Cordelia Fine’s book – A Mind of its Own. This is a quote:

‘We can’t allow everyone with a common or garden belief to be defined into madness – there simply aren’t enough psychiatrists to cope.’

The word Ouseley used was ‘formal’ after all. That was all. It wasn’t as though councils were barred on pain of death from saying prayers. Those who wanted to commune with their invisible friend could easily go into a committee room and partake of their rites prior to the serious business of running the local area which is what they were elected to do.

But, no, the good Bishop and the Secretary plus others want the non-religious to be left out in the cold while they warmly look for non-existent guidance from above to help them know where to plant a new housing estate or where the sewerage should be routed.

So we have to deal with the religious so long as they don’t get too much out of hand. But I have to say that these guys are looking decidedly wonky at this stage of the proceedings. I will wait but will guess that Secretary Pickles will have his way.

One day we hope to usher the 21^st Century in for good. Then maybe grown men and women will have eschewed fantasies and myths and embraced a potent and obvious reality that may allow our continued tenure on this earth. Religious beliefs certainly won’t.