DogfightAtBankstown

the verdict is in

Lina Joy loses her final appeal.

Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim and Federal Court judge Justice Alauddin Mohd Sheriff delivered the majority decision dismissing her appeal. Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Justice Richard Malanjum (the only non-Muslim on the bench) dissented.

This means that not only does the government and/or a court decide if you are a Christian or not, or whether you can leave Islam or not, but Lina Joy cannot marry her boyfriend, a Christian.

Malaysia should be condemned and the international community should call for reform of the Malaysian consitution or for Malaysia to get rid of the ridiculous Sharia courts which run in parallel to the Malaysian legal system.

And anyone who wants to tell me Islamic law is synonymous with freedom much less justice can go talk to a wall instead.

Update:

The Malaysian Bar includes links to the judgments.  The comments are instructive. Lina's and other's reactions here.  This does not bode well for Malaysia's Hindu community either.

The Becket Fund for Religious Freedom, which sent a representative to Lina Joy's trial, offers a case page, legal analysis and opinion.

dafur

The problem with waiting for peace, as one administration official put it to me, is that "the regime only responds to pressure. It has no record of responding to positive moves." So the other option is to set out on a ladder of escalation that will compel acceptance of the U.N. force and the disarmament of the militias. This approach would eventually involve the threat of force by a coalition of the willing -- not invasion and occupation, but a no-fly zone and perhaps a blockade. It would also require a clear message to the regime that menacing the refugees would bring terrible consequences. The more credible this threat of force, the more likely that the regime complies without the use of force.

Given other commitments, the U.S. military has been reluctant to even plan for these contingencies. But this leads to the strangest of situations: The French may now be more willing to act against genocide in Darfur than is the Pentagon.

Michael Gerson in the Washington Post.  I have been saying for years that even a no-fly zone would have made a significant impact in Dafur. And the critics need to remember that this, the latest sanctions and just about any other measure, has been opposed by anyone from the U.N. to the Arab League to China, the biggest buyer of Sudan's oil.

How's this for letting your need for oil cloud your vision:

Liu Guijin, China‘s new troubleshooter on Africa, defended Chinese investment in Sudan on Tuesday as a better way to stop the bloodshed in Darfur. He said he saw no desperation in refugee camps in Darfur during a visit last week and found that international and Sudanese groups were working together to solve humanitarian problems there.

"The Darfur issue and issues in eastern Sudan and southern Sudan are caused by poverty and underdevelopment. Only when poverty and underdevelopment are addressed will peace be there in Sudan," Liu said.

No desperation? Either Liu Guijin is blind or all the refugees are dead.

Bush's latest attempt to internationalize the response to the crisis, in sanctions moved by America, Britain and France are welcome in my book.

Better late than never.

But there is something else to be gained here, which goes to the French.

In his first speech after his election, Sakorzy (who was raised as a Catholic by the way) warned Iran, Syria, and Libya that they could no longer play Europe off against America. He is moving to have Hezbollah listed as a terrorist organisation in the EU and has already signalled his support for the Lebanese government against the violence in Palestinian refugee camps - in line with U.S. foreign policy.  If Sakorzy and his "maverick" top diplomat can also move France to help take up some slack in Sudan - the U.S. is already stretched in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Germans are contributing to Afghanistan - and actually make an impact, there will be more than a few cheers for the French from those suffering in Dafur.

There will also be plenty of diplomats from the Middle East to China wailing and gnashing their teeth.  Because one more avenue for using the oppressed as a weapon against the U.S. or for the promotion of their own selfish interests - and bugger how much the oppressed suffer - will be closed.

And I really really like the sound of that.

lina joy

How many years does it take to leave Islam.

Lina Joy has been disowned by her family, shunned by friends and forced into hiding -- all because she renounced Islam and embraced Christianity in Muslim-majority Malaysia.

Now, after a seven-year legal struggle, Malaysia's highest court will decide on Wednesday whether her constitutional right to choose her religion overrides an Islamic law that prohibits Malay Muslims from leaving Islam.

Either way, the verdict will have profound implications on society in a country where Islam is increasingly conflicting with minority religions, challenging Malaysia's reputation as a moderate Muslim and multicultural nation that guarantees freedom of worship.

This is the bind of Malaysia's so-called 'secular' constitution:

About 60 percent of Malaysia's 26 million people are Malay Muslims, whose civil, family, marriage and personal rights are decided by Shariah courts. The minorities -- the ethnic Chinese, Indians and other smaller communities -- are governed by civil courts.

But the constitution does not say who has the final say in cases such as Joy's when Islam confronts Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism or other religions.

If Joy loses her appeal and continues to insist she is a Christian, it could lead to charges of apostasy and a possible jail sentence.

"Our country is at a crossroad," Joy's lawyer, Benjamin Dawson, told The Associated Press. "Are we evolving into an Islamic state or are we going to maintain the secular character of the constitution?"

The founding fathers of Malaysia left the constitution deliberately vague, unwilling to upset any of the three ethnic groups dominant at the time of independence from Britain 50 years ago, when building a peaceful multiracial nation was more important.

The situation was muddied further with the constitution describing Malaysia as a secular state but recognizing Islam as the official religion.

Joy's case "will decide the space of religious freedom in Malaysia," said Dawson. If she wins, "it means that the constitutionally guaranteed right of freedom of religion prevails. If she loses, that means the constitutional guarantee is subservient to Islamic restrictions," he said.

I will say it again: without freedom to apostasize there is no freedom of religion. 

And while some Muslims would say, 'there is no compulsion in religion', the truth is that there is no freedom to apostasize in Islam.

Even liberal Muslim states like Malaysia could not get around that.  Given that these sorts of contradictory and vague constitutions now exist in Iraq and Afghanistan, one wonders what sort of freedom we have bought with blood for Iraqis and Afghanis.

In any case, this is another warning for those who want to advocate for sharia courts in Australia or who are unconcerned if they operate legally or undercover, as a sort of parallel legal system - be it in all matters or just some family matters. 

Don't. Go. There.

And if you try, it will be over more than a few dead bodies.

Update: The verdict is in. No joy for Azlina Jailani 

more on death

Further to my previous two posts.

This time via Michael Jensen who points to an article on eulogies by Philip Jensen.  Michael notes:

What a culture says and does at death is always evidence of what that culture understands meaning, identity and purpose to be. Diarmaid McCulloch often cites wills, for example, as evidence for the change from old Catholic to new Protestant beliefs during the Reformation period

For his part, Philip Jensen, the Dean of Sydney's St Andrew's Anglican Cathedral notices other evidence of change:

Funerals are the last place you expect to see a revolution.

Funeral practices are often old fashioned. Solemnity matches grief and is most easily conveyed in formality. Formality tends to be expressed in yesterday's traditions. The funeral director is one of the few men who still owns and regularly wears morning dress.

But funeral practices have been steadily undergoing significant change. This is seen most clearly in the rise of the modern eulogy.

A eulogy is a speech in praise of somebody. It is a formal tribute to the dead person. At some modern funerals not one but several eulogies are given.

People chosen to make the eulogies, are naturally amongst the closest of friends or relatives. Their view is one of grief and sorrow. The eulogy, often as not, tells us more about the speaker than the dead person.

The question of who gives the eulogy is as difficult and sensitive an issue as the question of who proposes the toast to the bride and groom. But the eulogy is more central to the funeral than the toast at the wedding. The toast to the couple happens at the reception not in the wedding itself. The eulogy has increasingly become the centrepiece of the funeral itself.

In previous days the eulogies would be central to the wake after the funeral. There would not be one eulogy but many stories, informally told. These would often involve humour even and especially at the deceased's expense. There was always the possibility of telling both the good and the bad points of the dead person's character.

But in the funeral itself the eulogy can only always be positive about the deceased. Indeed there is one of the real problems with eulogies. They are so positive as to be unbelievable.

He concludes:

It is the sermon not the eulogy that brings reality in death and comfort in grief. It takes our eyes off what we have lost and reminds us of what we will gain.

It is the loss of God that has lead people to replace His word with their own sentiments. Not knowing His wonderful victory they seek to face death on their own terms. Praising the life of the dead is the illusion that we can deal with death unscathed.

God says that Christians are not to grieve as those who have no hope "For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

This reminds me of Cardinal Pell's warning some time back that some Catholic funerals are in danger of losing their essential nature and becoming mere settings for eulogies, prompting him to issue guidelines for Sydney's Catholic diocese.  There it seems, some eulogies have been believably embarrassing:

"It is not appropriate to admit elements foreign to its intrinsic nature," he said."Some dioceses, in all of Ireland and much of the US, for example, forbid any words by the laity at the funeral Mass, while others have no guidelines at all, with negative results. The Sydney guidelines, however, avoid extremes."The guidelines specify that a eulogy should not replace the brief homily by the priest based on the readings at that point in the Mass.The proper time specified for a lay person to speak at a funeral service (or Vigil) is after the concluding prayer, before the Blessing and Dismissal; if at a Funeral Mass, after the prayer after Communion; or at an ordinary Mass, after the Lord's Prayer; and at the Committal service (at the graveside or crematorium), after the Prayer of Committal, before the intercessions.The guidelines also specify that only one person should speak at the Funeral Mass or liturgy, although others may at the Vigil or Committal services. They were also the appropriate times for playing favourite secular tunes or showing slides or photos of the deceased.For lay speakers the guidelines say that the reflection should be brief - no more than three-to-five minutes (about one typed page). It should be prepared beforehand, rehearsed and ideally shown to the priest or presiding minister beforehand.Priests should suggest that storytelling, anecdotes, poems and songs, for instance, can form part of the Vigil or Committal services or would be better used in a domestic situation.The guidelines include clear reasons for their observance, such as to avoid inappropriate remarks about the deceased proclivities (drinking prowess, romantic conquests, etc) which could embarrassing the family, the priest and the congregation.

And from a different perspective, a reflection on Memento mori from Orthodox priest, Fr. Tobias.

I am sure this will not be the last I will write about this.

sunday architecture

Las Lajas Cathedral. Image: Jungle_Boy [Flickr]

Ten divinely designed churches, with free bonuses!  At Neatorama. 

Competition: note the one in greatest disrepair.

Hat tip: Webelf Report

sunday song

Imagine.

milestones

As with philosophy, I am not sure whether my efforts to understand Marxism were a complete waste of time, which I could and should have employed better. At any rate, when the  Soviet Union collapsed, no thanks to my efforts to understand Marxism, I  thought, ‘Well, at least I shall never have to struggle through any ideological nonsense again if I want to understand what is going on.’

How wrong I was! In short order, I found myself reading about Islam, a subject of great interest to scholars, no doubt, for nothing human fails to interest them, and of course also because Islam was the basis of great civilisations in the past, but not a subject (in my opinion) worth studying for any internal or new truths that it might be expected to yield me. No; I found myself reading about Islam because it had suddenly emerged as the next potential totalitarianism.

During my reading, I found myself swinging like a pendulum between taking Islam as a threat very seriously indeed, and not taking it seriously at all. The reasons for taking it seriously were that a large proportion of humanity was Muslim, that an aggressive and violent minority had emerged within that population with apparently very widespread, if largely passive, approval, and that the leadership of western countries was very weak and vacillating in the face of this, or any other, challenge. The reasons for not taking Islam seriously were that, in the modern world, it was intellectually nugatory, that the disproportion in power between the rest of the world and the Islamic world appeared to be growing rather than contracting, and that behind all the bluster about the certain possession of the unique, universal and divinely ordained truth for man was an anxiety that the whole edifice of Islam, while strong, was extremely brittle, which explained why free enquiry was so limited in Islamic countries. There was a subliminal awareness - and perhaps not always subliminal - that free philosophical and historical debate could quickly and fatally undermine the hold of Islam on various societies. Fundamentalism was therefore a manifestation of weakness and not of strength.

Recently, I have been reading one of Sayyid Qutb’s best-known books, Milestones. Of course, not being an Arabic-speaker, I rely on the accuracy of the translation. Qutb, who was hanged by the secularising nationalist, Nasser, in 1966, for allegedly plotting the overthrow of the government, was one of the most influential Muslim thinkers of the 20th Century. He did not start out as an Islamist, but became one partly in response to his sojourn in the United States. He was appalled by what he saw there as its moral laxity (though he went at a time now looked back on by moral conservatives as a time of great and even exemplary personal restraint, at least by comparison with the moral atmosphere of today). He was a cultivated man, and very far from an ignorant one. He did not deny, for example, the contribution that Europe (and America, which he regarded as part of Europe) had made: speaking of the Renaissance and the recent past, he said:
   This was the era during which Europe’s genius created its
   marvellous works in science, culture, law and material
   production, due to which mankind has progressed to great
   heights of creativity and material comfort.

He did not expect the Muslim world to equal the European world in wealth or power soon, but this did not worry him. Like many an intellectual from a materially backward society, at least by comparison with a much richer and more advanced one, he consoled himself with the spiritual superiority of his own society, at least in potential. (Actually, he was highly critical also of so-called Muslim societies, which he criticised for not being Islamic enough and for chasing after the false god of westernisation.)

Curiously, though, Qutb’s thought has many parallels with Marxism. Where Marx has Historical Inevitability, Qutb has God‘s Law. Marx, you remember, envisages a time when the state will wither away and history will end. In Marx’s vision, political power will have dissolved, and the exploitation of man by man will have ceased, to be replaced by the mere administration of things. (How anybody of minimal intelligence could have believed such a thing beats me.) In Qutb’s vision, all political power will have dissolved, replaced by man’s spontaneous obedience to God’s law. Just as the administration of things in Marx’s utopia will not confer power on the administrators, presumably because everything will be so plentiful that no one will be tempted to appropriate more than the next man, so in Qutb’s utopia no one will have to interpret the law and gain power from doing so. God’s law will be as evident as thing will be abundant in Marx’s classless society.

In both Marx and Qutb, the idea is expressed that, under the new dispensation, man will become more human, less animal. Personally, I have always found this kind of thought an appallingly arrogant slur on all the people who have lived before the thinker of it: does humanity really have to wait for Marx and Qutb before it becomes truly human?

Theodore Dalrymple, on no god but politics, where he compares Qutb's thought in Milestones with that of Marx.  My favourite paragraph:

Marx believed that man once lived in a state of primitive communism which ended with the division of labour. Qutb believes (much less excusably or plausibly) that the first generations after Mohammed lived in a perfectly functioning Islamic society. He doesn’t ask himself, at least not in this book, why it was, then, that three of the four supposedly rightly-guided caliphs were brutally murdered. This is a very odd kind of perfection, to say the least. But, just as the division of labour came and spoiled primitive communism, so did Greek philosophy and other innovations come and spoil the perfect Islamic society. Why perfection should fall apart because of outside influences - could perfection be as imperfect as that? - is a question Qutb does not ask himself.

Sayyid Qutb is a favourite amongst Islamists, having also given a theological basis for violent Islamic jihad. Perhaps that's better stated as a religio-political basis.

He also has an admirer in our own Catmeat Shiek: Al-Hilaly.

death and politics

The difficulty of maintaining cemeteries as people increasingly opt for cremation got me thinking.

Archaeologists, anthropologists and the like, have long looked at burial customs and cemeteries as windows into cultures.  And I wondered what future generations would think of contemporary Western trends towards cremation and even anonymous scattering of ashes and the banishment of cemeteries altogether.

Joseph Bottum writing in 20057:

San Francisco is a city without graves. In 1900, the board of supervisors passed an ordinance prohibiting burials within the city limits. In 1912, the board announced its further intention to eliminate the city’s previously existing cemeteries, and in 1914 removal notices were sent to all burial sites, declaring them “a public nuisance and a menace and detriment to the health and welfare of city dwellers.”

A long series of legal battles followed, but by 1937 the San Francisco supervisors had triumphed, and the graveyards were gone. The suburb of Colma—a two-square-mile town in which 73 percent of the land is cemeteries—took many of the bodies, but not all. Perhaps eleven thousand corpses still lie unmarked beneath the Lincoln Park golf course, over near the coast, and the broken headstones were used as rubble in Buena Vista Park, where fragments of their epitaphs can still be read in the retaining walls and drain gutters.

The last remaining exceptions to San Francisco’s ban of the dead are a few old Spanish-colonial tombs at the Mission Dolores, a federal military cemetery in the Presidio, and a tiny columbary in the Richmond district, left after the Odd Fellows’ graveyard around it had been evacuated. Efforts have been made in recent years to establish a new pet cemetery in the city, row after row of small markers to show the passing of dogs and cats and domesticated parrots. But human interment remains illegal, and, for most residents, San Francisco’s only public reminder of death is the Golden Gate Bridge: a famous magnet for suicides, the jumpers’ broken bodies pulled under by the current and lost in the north Pacific.

In its way, San Francisco’s turn against graves provides a nice synopsis of the twentieth century, all the forces of modern times pushing toward a single end. So, for example, whatever politicians may have thought they governed, American cities were actually driven, for much of the twentieth century, by the juggernaut of city planners and public-health officers, their eyes gleaming with visions of Tomorrowland’s immaculate metropolis. So, too, the great engine of modern finance put enormous pressure on real estate—skyscrapers! bank towers! the downtown office!—in narrow urban spaces such as the Golden Gate peninsula.

For that matter, San Francisco was merely echoing the twentieth century’s general conviction that the nineteenth century had taken funerals far too seriously—the Edwardians’ general belief that their Victorian parents had been a profoundly sick people: as infatuated with displaying death as they were obsessed with hiding sex.

Still, even the most ardent modernist might feel some misgivings about a rejection of the dead as complete as San Francisco’s. And such misgivings reflect, however dimly, a deep political insight—for a city without cemeteries has failed at one of the first reasons for having cities at all. Somewhere in those banished graveyards was a metaphysical ground for politics, and buried in them was a truth that too much of modern political theory seems to have forgotten: The living give us crowds. The dead give us communities.

Read it all.

mamma mia

That's some pork roast.

Or 500-700 pound of (what I would think as very scrungy gamy) sausage.

But even if you ignore the cries of fauxto and get some real perspective (scroll down for photos), that's still a pretty beefed up defence system against marauding jihadis.

specks and pots

The Jehovah's Witnesses have been battling accusations of sex abuse amongst their ranks for a number of years now:

From the time she was 10, until she turned 13, Heidi, a Jehovah's Witness, says she was molested by a member of her congregation. Finally, she turned to the leaders of her faith.

And what did they say?

"They asked me, do you think this could be a misunderstanding? And I said, no. No, I'm very sure of how his hands were on my body and there's no way to misunderstand that," Meyer said.

But the elders dismissed her plea for help and sent her away with a warning: "You need to keep quiet about this. You don't want to drag his name through the mud. You don't want to drag the name of Jehovah's organization through the mud."

Bill Bowen, an elder for more than 20 years explained, "Anything that an elder says is viewed as the direct word of God."

Bowen, a former Jehovah's Witness went on, "You could even be excommunicated for questioning what an elder tells you to do. There's no negotiation here. You must obey what the elders direct."

But what silences most victims is that Jehovah's Witnesses require either a confession or two eyewitnesses to any accusation -- making sexual abuse almost impossible to prove.

A number of cases have been settled. Earlier this month:

NASHVILLE, Tennessee: A victims' rights group released documents Thursday that showed the Jehovah's Witnesses recently settled civil suits with 16 people who claimed they were sexually abused by church elders or that church officials failed to act on abuse allegations.

The group, called silentlambs, held a news conference in Nashville to demand that the denomination change its policy for responding to sex abuse reports.

Settlements were reached in late February and early March, according to court records obtained by silentlambs and posted to the group's Web site. Fourteen of the cases were filed in California; the other two were in Oregon and Texas.

Details about the settlement terms could not be disclosed under confidentiality agreements negotiated between the parties, said Stephen Owens, a plaintiffs' attorney involved in the California cases. Other cases are still pending, according to silentlambs, which couldn't say how many.

But despite some public rhetoric, the Jehovah's Witnesses' private policy remains unchanged:

William Bowen, silentlambs' founder, was a Jehovah's Witnesses elder from Kentucky who quit the denomination after he said it took no action against a molester. Bowen said the settlements were bittersweet.

"On one hand, we're glad a few victims are finally getting some financial help," he said. "On the other hand, we're sad and worried because they've essentially been forced to give up their right to protect others by speaking out about their abuse to the public."

Bowen's group has criticized the Jehovah's Witnesses' policy that if an accused abuser denies the charge, two credible witnesses are required to establish guilt — due to literal application of such Bible verses as Deuteronomy 19:15 ("only on the evidence of two witnesses, or of three witnesses, shall a charge be sustained").

If two witnesses are lacking, the accused is deemed innocent, charges remain confidential and — silentlambs says — parents who warn others are subject to disfellowshipping for slander.

Disfellowshipping is an extreme penalty that means a total cutoff of relationships by family members, friends and business associates who are Witnesses.

Bowen also said Jehovah's Witnesses have a long-standing policy of not reporting molesters to police. He claims that the denomination has a secret database of accused abusers that they have not shared with law enforcement officials.

"They keep putting innocent kids and unsuspecting families at risk of horrible crimes because they value their secrecy and reputations more than they value children's safety," Bowen said.

Since establishing silentlambs in 2001, Bowen says about 7,000 people who claim they were abused have contacted his group.

Ted Olsen of Christianity Today notes the settlements and adds a personal anecdote:

A couple of weeks ago, I answered a knock at the door and found two eager young evangelists. I was watching my young son at the time, and was unable to invite them in, but I let them ask their lead-in question: "Do you think that the scandals in the various churches have affected their ability to minister effectively?" (I'm paraphrasing here; knowing a bit of JW theology, it's possible--even likely--that their question may have ended in a slightly different phrase than "minister effectively" and they might have had another word for "churches".)

"I'm not sure what you mean by the scandals," I said, thinking at the time that they were from evangelical and evangelistic church down the street. (They were dressed too casually to be Mormons.)

"You know, like pedophile priests," said the woman evangelist, the only one who talked during our brief conversation.

"Well, if you mean those particular priests, then yes, of course it's going to affect their ability to minister," I said. "If you mean the churches' witness or the witness of the larger body of Christ, I guess my view is that God always works amid man's massive sinfulness, and that when Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail against the church, he was talking about the hell of sin in the church as much as he was talking about anything. There are always consequences for sin, and I think we're seeing a lot of that right now, but the church is the Body of Christ and he's bigger than these scandals."

She smiled. "Sounds like you know your Bible," she said, and handed me her literature. "Here are just some items to help you as you read your Bible and look for answers..."

It was then that I saw the Watchtower Society name on the material. I handed it back. "No thanks," I said. They smiled and thanked me for my time, and were starting to turn around when I decided it wouldn't hurt to ask my question. I was curious about whether they had actually planned to use the Jehovah's Witness abuse scandal as an evangelistic tool. If so, that would have made quite an article.

"Um, you do know that one of the biggest abuse scandals right now is in the Jehovah's Witnesses, right?" I asked. It was immediately clear from the woman's expression -- a grimace, then the smile again -- that they had not intended to use their own scandal in their pitch.

"Oh," she said, "you mean that one case where a man followed a boy into the bathroom...?"

"No, actually, not just that. Massive numbers of accusations," I said.

"Well, the difference in our church is that we kick those people out as soon as we learn about the situation," she said.

"Actually, I work for a magazine that has done some reporting on this," I said, "and the big issue for me was that people making the accusations were saying they got kicked out because they didn't have 'two or three witnesses' to the abuse."

Ted wonders if this is a new opening line for Jehovah Witnesses evangelists. 

Comments ensue.

wrap me up with my stockwhip and blanket

The dinner was first-class, with butlers serving hors d’oeuvres and the strains of “Blue Danube” tastefully muffling the festive din. This nine-course re-creation of the last supper aboard an ill-fated ocean liner was the culmination of Titanic Day at Laurel Hill Cemetery, one of a growing number of historic cemeteries to rebrand themselves as destination necropolises for weekend tourists.

Historic cemeteries, desperate for money to pay for badly needed restorations, are reaching out to the public in ever more unusual ways, with dog parades, bird-watching lectures, Sunday jazz concerts, brunches with star chefs, Halloween parties in the crematory and even a nudie calendar.

Laurel Hill, the resting place of six Titanic victims, promotes itself as an “underground museum.” The sold-out Titanic dinner, including a tour of mausoleums, joined the “Dead White Republicans” tour (“the city’s power brokers, in all their glory and in all their shame”), the “Birding Among the Buried” tour, and “Sinners, Scandals and Suicides,” including a visit to the grave of “a South Philly gangster who got whacked when he tried to infiltrate the Schuylkill County numbers racket.”

As Americans choose cremation in record numbers, Victorian cemeteries like Laurel Hill and Green-Wood in Brooklyn are repositioning themselves for the afterlife: their own. Repositories of architectural and sculptural treasures, like Tiffany windows and weeping marble maidens atop tombs, the cemeteries face dwindling endowments, years of vandalism and neglect, shrinking space for new arrivals and a society that, until recently, collectively distanced itself from their meandering byways.

Although their individual circumstances vary — Green-Wood in Brooklyn, a newly crowned National Historic Landmark, has space for two more years of in-ground burial, while Laurel Hill is virtually full — what they share is a daunting number of tombs in need of repair. Woodlawn, in the Bronx, the final home of Whitneys, a Woolworth, Jay Gould and jazz greats like Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton, has 95,000 grave sites.

More at the Grey Lady.

“We want them to think, ‘Wow, I think I’d like to spend my eternity here,’ ” Ms. Page said of efforts to lure visitors. “It’s a way of saying, ‘We would love you to stay with us permanently.’”

Make that penultimately. It's only until the next merry meeting.

australia post

Delivers.

Very very early.

On Saturday mornings.

Just thought you need to know that.

amnesty international's demise

Is now complete.

One need not be a fan of the current Australian government's policies, but to speak of John Howard in the same breath as Robert Mugabe and  Omar Al-Bashir shows moral equivalence at its very best.

A once credible and valuable organisation is now the province of loonies.

Update: Via Missing Link:

Tim Dunlop and Jason Soon - in a nice bit of bipartisan agreement - both thought Amnesty shot themsleves in the foot rather badly, while Gandhi (as his wont) accuses Tim of crossing over to the Dark Side (presumably Mr Soon was there already). Pommygranate takes a more long-term view, considering the likely damage to Amnesty’s reputation.

This is not just bad publicity for Amnesty International but also for "the first woman, the first Asian and the first Muslim to guide the world’s largest human rights organization".

That would be Irene Khan. 

You really don't want to monitor the focus of campaigns and visits since the introduction of Irene's "new perspective."

And here is a reminder of Amnesty International's dirty little secret.

fx will be delighted

Hucksters and fraudsters kiss each other:

TAMPA - The red letters on the white sign in front of the Glorious Church of God in Christ read "Free Tutoring in the C.L. Kennedy Center." An arrow points to a building behind the church.

Every afternoon after school, as many as 42 Hillsborough County public school students gather for tutoring in reading and math skills. Most start with a Learning to Learn course, which teaches the basics of L. Ron Hubbard's how-to-study program.

The tutors, all wearing red vests, are members of the Glorious Church in East Tampa. They learned how to teach Hubbard's "study technology" at the Church of Scientology in Tampa.

Glorious Church's pastor, the Rev. Charles Kennedy, embraces Hubbard's education and drug treatment programs, which Scientologists say are secular. Kennedy also endorses Hubbard's moral code, outlined in a pamphlet called "The Way to Happiness," which is widely distributed by Scientologists.

Kennedy's bottom line is this: Hubbard's educational program works. And Scientologists do not push their beliefs. So he sees no reason not to provide it to neighborhood kids who need a boost in academics.

The Church of God in Christ is the largest pentecostal and African-American church in America.  I wonder if it should be called Christian.  If Kennedy feels compelled to embrace the "moral code" of Scientology, I'd really suggest you do not. 

This isn't just an innocent slip.  This relationship has been growing slowly for some time.  The same reporter in the same paper on the same topic in 2005:

In its three decades in the Tampa Bay area, the Church of Scientology has never before enjoyed such a level of acceptance and cooperative interplay with another local church.

Lynn Irons of the Church of Scientology Tampa said his first conversations with Kennedy touched on religion only briefly.

"We made an agreement," Irons said. "When we help with literacy and crime and drug addiction, then you and I are going to talk really seriously. How about that?"

But all together now, this year, the other lemmings and flat-pack program pentecostal Christians said...

Other Christian churches in Tampa and out of state have contacted him, he said, for advice about starting their own tutoring programs using Hubbard's methods.

Wow, that's great. The slime is oozing through both their pores.  How long before we get to the stampede over the cliff?

And given how the pente-shyster network works, who's up for betting how long before this finds its way to a Hillsong church near you?

Update: Hmm, spam.  Scientologists or their advocates who want to post their comments on blogs should be charged a fee - say AUD$150 per 25 words, invoiced to the nearest "Church of Scientology".

little mermaid

Is not having a great year:

3 March:
Pink paint has been sprayed on the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, Denmark Saturday, March 3, 2007. Vandals covered Copenhagen's famed Little Mermaid statue with pink paint, a police spokesman said Saturday, but said it was not clear whether it was linked to two days of left-wing youth riots in the Danish capital.

15 May: (photo)
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Copenhagen's famed Little Mermaid statue was covered with paint by vandals, the second time it has been defaced since March.

Tourists flocked to the landmark Tuesday to take snapshots of the bronze statue, whose face, left arm and lap had been doused with red paint.

A wooden picture frame sat next to the statue, with the word "AV" — Danish for "ouch" — written in green.

20 May: (photo)
The Little Mermaid statue in Denmark's capital was found draped in Muslim dress and a head scarf Sunday morning, police said.

After receiving a telephone call, officers drove to the site and removed the garments, said Copenhagen police spokesman Jorgen Thomsen.

She's been decapitated a couple of times (her first head has never been found), had her right arm sawn off, had red paint thrown on her a few times - once with a red bra painted on as well. She's been painted green with the words March 8, had a dildo attached to her head, and has also worn a burka.  Oh, and she was once blown off her rock with dynamite...a girl just can't sit quietly alone anywhere these days.

Update: 20 May photo added

after the international media attention

Farfur, the Hamas Hate Mouse, was only taken off air for a day, or maybe not even that.  He's still on Palestinian TV every Friday afternoon:

Farfur has thus far ignored the street fighting that has left more than 165 killed since the beginning of the year, choosing instead to attack the "oppressive invading Zionist occupation" that must be "resisted" at all costs.

"Hamas has turned Mickey Mouse into a monstrous figure," said the journalist, who describes himself as a secular and moderate Muslim. "When you spread such messages of hatred, especially among children, you then can't ask why young men grow up to become so violent and ruthless."

[...]

Instead of censuring Hamas for exploiting the character of Mickey Mouse to send negative messages to Palestinian children, [PA Information Minister] Barghouti chose to lash out at the foreign media for paying too much attention to the story. Barghouti said he could not understand the outcry in the world over the Farfur show at a time when Israel is continuing to "commit daily atrocities" against the Palestinians.

Fortunately for Barghouti and Hamas, the renewed fighting on the streets of Gaza has diverted attention from the controversial program.

Attention reporters:  please add the following pair of mutually exclusive words to your style manuals as an addendum until they are formally included in the next reprint:

ignorance, bliss

pocketmod

The Blackberry for luddites.

For email using PocketMod, see this manual.

heart pounding

Writes Tim:

Monday, 2 a.m., I woke suddenly, covered in sweat and clutching at my chest, within which two enormous, invisible hands were apparently squeezing the life from my heart. Belinda was with Charlotte in Sydney visiting family, so with nobody to turn to for comfort I spent the next twenty minutes or so pacing the house, oscillating between two thoughts: 1) I am not having a heart attack. After all, I’m only twenty-eight; and 2) I’m having a heart attack! And I’m only twenty-eight! As my discomfort increased and the pain radiated up to my shoulder then down my left arm, the latter thought gained ascendency and the former started to feel like wishful thinking.

Life threatening? Or lifechanging?

monkey see, monkey do

Source

I am always ambivalent when I see headlines like this:

Man-to-Monkey Billboards Used to Challenge Evolution

Billboards that show a man turning into a monkey and an online game entitled "Let's See How Evolution Works" are two elements of a new national campaign launched by a Christian group to call attention to the "lack of proof" for the theory of evolution.

Billboards at six locations in Oregon and Georgia ask "Are They Making a Monkey Out of You?" and additional signs are planned for Pennsylvania, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri, according to Julie Haberle, founder of the Who Is Your Creator non-profit organization.

The billboards direct viewers to the group's website, which presents a step-by-step summary of evolution and arguments against the theory.

Haberle told Cybercast News Service that the billboards were designed to be "a parody of evolution" since many scientists "now say that the process is not just going forward, it's also going backward."

"It's kind of funny because the theory of evolution is based on chance mutations and natural selection," she said. As a result, "the process can go either way."

Also this week, the site's forum began the "Let's See How Evolution Works" game, in which the hypothetical stages of evolutionary transitions used as proof for the theory are being presented and critiqued.

Sometimes that ambivalence morphs into annoyance, even antagonism when I read the full article.

In addition, the group is offering $5,000 for the winning submission of a four-part legal opinion that will present the scientific and legal aspects of teaching evolution and creation in public education.

[...]

"If you want to have the standard of empirical evidence only, then evolution doesn't make the grade," Haberle said. "For that matter, neither does creation. But if they're going to allow the teaching of evolution, they need to allow the teaching of creation, too."

According to an August 2005 Pew Research Center survey, "Americans believe in creation over evolution by a margin of 60 percent to 26 percent, and nearly two-thirds of Americans say that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public schools," she added.

"Probably in a perfect world, both creation and evolution would be taught in philosophy classes, not science courses," Haberle said. However, "we'd be completely happy if they'd just allow a critical evaluation of evolution."

On the plus side, I am always guaranteed of at least one good laugh. Here, from Glen Branch, the deputy director of the National Center for Science Education:

"By the way, the billboard captures the scientific illiteracy of Who Is Your Creator nicely," he added. "That's an ape in the last panel, not a monkey."

Now, without being a scientist (and what little science I did in the past, was at a time when the periodic table was considerably shorter than it is now. Come to think of it, we were probably still in primordial soup days) the obvious questions are already there:

What do these guys mean by evolution?

Are they talking common descent thesis, the construction of the tree of life, the mechanisms of evolution, what? Microevolution? Macroevolution? All evolutionary thinking? 

Similarly, and regardless of whether one talks of philosophy or science classes, what do they mean even, by creationism given that like evolution, the word encompasses a spectrum of theories and paradigms? Which creationism are we talking about?  Vedic creationism? Creationism of the Islamic kind?

OK unfair.  Given that this little stunt has been initiated by a "Christian group", and without bothering to investigate further (one can only take so much pain), we are probably talking Christian creationists of the peculiarly American kind.  Unfortunately, there is a small but burgeoning group of them here in Australia -  we may well be the deputy sheriff in that particular war as well.

I am usually loathe to wade into the mire of the creation-evolution debate.  I certainly have no interest or expertise to debate the whacky "science" behind "creationism".  Many have already done so anyway.

But reading this, and an off blog email exchange, prompted me to write  one or two blog posts as to why I am not a creationist if only to dispel any thoughts you may have of putting me in that box.

For a start, I'll define creationism as any paradigm about the origins of the universe, promulgated as scientific, and based on the underlying assumption that Christian Scriptures (usually the book of Genesis) can be taken at face value as accurate in their description of natural history.

And secondly, while I will throw out a number of reasons - in my usual  stream of consciousness disorder - many are interrelated.  And I would also say, that many of these reasons can also apply to why I reject a lot of skeptic's criticisms of Christian scripture or Christian belief.

flo forgotten

Cam has found a tea towel explanation of Australian politics for an American audience.

I guess the only tea towel explanation for the National Party has to be attributed to Lady Flo Bjelke-Petersen, retired national Party Senator for Queensland

"Everybody seems to associate me with pumpkin scones. It’s because over the years, when the media would come to visit (husband and former Queensland Premier Joh), he’d say, ‘Well, give them a cup of tea and some pumpkin scones, Florence’, so I used to make a batch for everybody. I think the media has got to the stage where they thought all I was good for was making pumpkin scones! But I like to think that people know me for the fact I was a senator, not just a pumpkin scone maker!"

"It would have been a fair while ago I first tasted Mum’s pumpkin scones – I would have only been about 15 or something like that. I didn’t even help her  make them, to be honest. I wasn’t given to cooking in those days – I had an office job, so I’d just go to work and leave Mum to do the cooking. When I  arrived home, the scones would be sitting there on the table.

"I didn’t really show any interest in the recipe for them until I got married.  Then I asked Mum for the recipe and, in fact, I asked her for lots of other nice, plain, wholesome recipes as well. After we were married, I came to live with Joh at Kingaroy (in Queensland) which was right next door to his mother’s, and I didn’t want him to have to go rushing home for meals. I wanted to be  able to provide them myself.

"It didn’t take me too long to master the scone recipe and I haven’t changed it  at all because it’s always worked for me. I think as long as you apply a bit  of commonsense when you follow a recipe, your meals will turn out OK. When  people tell me they can’t make scones, I say, ‘Well, what you do is handle them with TLC – don’t bash them too hard’.

"We have busloads of people come to ‘Bethany’ (the Bjelke-Petersen’s property in Kingaroy) for a property tour and I still make pumpkin scones for them. We had 50 here last week. I made 50 myself and so did my  daughter-in-law. I  allow a couple of scones per person. We put butter on a few, butter and jam on   some others, and jam and cream on the majority. That way, people have all the options, and I must say, there are rarely any leftovers.

"Since retiring from politics, I still have a lot to keep me busy. I have grandchildren who live close by, so I spend time with them. I do plenty around  the house and we have to visit Brisbane periodically. If anybody from the bus tour asks me for my recipe for pumpkin scones, I certainly give it to them. I don’t have a pile of photocopies on hand, but I do keep a few copies."
--as told to Rebecka Delforce

Here is Flo's recipe:

Pumpkin Scones, makes 16

20g butter, at room temp
110g (1/2 cup) sugar
1/4 t. salt
1 egg
235g (1 cup) cold mashed pumpkin
375g (2 ½ cups) self-raising flour, sifted
Butter to serve

Preheat oven to 225C.

Use a wooden spoon to beat the butter, sugar and salt in a medium mixing bowl until combined.

Add the egg and beat until combined.

Fold in the mashed pumpkin.

Add the flour and use your hand to mix until evenly incorporated and the mixture begins to hold together. Do not over mix.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently until just smooth.

Use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll out the dough until about 2 cm thick.

Use a round 5cm pastry cutter to cut out scones from the dough.

Place the scones about 1cm apart on a baking tray.

Bake in preheated oven for 15 min. or until golden.

Remove scones from oven and wrap them immediately in a clean tea towel.

Serve warm with lashing of butter.

Americans: forget the weighing. Try the tea towel version.

may 19

A remembrance day.

sarkozy

Names his new streamlined cabinet.

Centrist Francois Fillon as Prime Minister,

An American leaning Socialist foreign minister who backed Royale for the French presidency (bye bye Benedict), and France's first Muslim minister - Rachita Dati - as Justice Minister.

In the critical portfolio of Immigration, Integration and National Identity: longtime friend Brice Hortefeux.

Analysis by Stratfor: interesting times ahead for France.

because some men shall live by fatwa alone

But not me.

dude:

Like, Jo is back.

virginia tech

Echoes, rising.

and all the girls

Who think Patrick Stewart is a dream boat scream: n-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!

Now a question for those in the know: how many medical breakthroughs can be attributed to adult stem cells and how many to embryonic stem cells?

thank god it's friday

Wolfie: gone.

Eddie: gone.

Margaret: gone.

cyberwars

Senator Andrew Bartlett notes the increasing state control of blogs.  Latest victim: Fiji.  Thinking of you, you-know-who.

And remember that, ahem, "blasphemous" statue in Estonia?  Well the fracas seems to have escalated into a full-on cyberattack by Russia.

because my life is otherwise mundane

I missed this: Paris Hilton has a career.

so where the bloody hell is it?

After a multi million dollar publically funded campaign, the Australian government has conceded today that the work choices you have when you don't have work choices are really just that: no more work choices

THE term "Work Choices" has been officially banished from the vocabulary of staff employed to provide the public with information about the government's controversial workplace laws.

In a sign of the unpopularity of the laws, government newspaper ads on industrial relations issues no longer refer to the term “Work Choices.”

Staff on a Department of Workplace Relations information line have been told to stop using the term “Work Choices.”

The department's website [www.workchoices.gov.au] now refers to the “Work Choices Infoline” as the “Workplace Infoline” and posters tell call centre staff “all references to Work Choices should now be changed to workplace relations”. [but some references remain, although punters are referred to www.workplace.gov.au for details of changes so that one can progressively expunge the memory of choice from the collective psyche]

But as Uncle Joe put it at a doorstop , this has nothing to do with the policy per se - or even its disingeneous introduction and marketing as to its rationale and effect (simpler? fairer? choices?).  Rather, it is due to what Uncle Joe called the most sophisticated advertising campaign ever seen in Australian political history - that of the unions (if anyone has Hockey's exact quote, please post it).

Regardless of what one thinks about the government's or the opposition's industrial relations policies, this seems to be an interesting case study of how an advertising campaign has actually tapped into the popular mindset to both counter and call the government on its spin.

Sadly, I doubt even this will spell the end of postmodern politics. 

how to read a newspaper

This is the Washington Post.

This is Michael Gerson, former speech writer and policer advisor to President Bush.

This is his first, of what will be his twice-weekly column at the Post.

This is his thesis: the (relatively) conservative Christians of the Southern Hemisphere are gaining influence over their (relatively) liberal Northern brethren.

This is his introduction, with some links so you can see how well he did:

An epoch-dividing event recently took place in the religion that brought us B.C. and A.D. Too bad hardly anyone noticed.

For years, a dispute has boiled between the American Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion it belongs to, with many in the global south convinced that Episcopalians are following their liberalism into heresy. This month, Archbishop Peter Akinola, shepherd of 18 million fervent Nigerian Anglicans, reached the end of his patience and installed a missionary bishop to America. The installation ceremony included boisterous hymns and Africans dressed in bright robes dancing before the altar -- an Anglican worship style more common in Kampala, Uganda, than in Woodbridge.

The American presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, condemned this poaching of souls on her turf as a violation of the "ancient customs of the church."  To which the archbishop replied, in essence: Since when have you American liberals given a fig about the ancient customs of the church?

This is Gerson's assessment of the current state of Christianity in the global south:

The intense, irrepressible Christianity of the global south is becoming -- along with Coca-Cola, radical Islam and Shakira -- one of the most potent forms of globalization...

In 1900, about 80 percent of Christians lived in North America and Europe; now, more than 60 percent live on other continents. There are more Presbyterians in Ghana than in Scotland. The largest district of the United Methodist Church is found in Ivory Coast. And many of the enthusiastic converts of Western missions have begun asking why portions of the Western church have abandoned the traditional faith they once shared. Liberal Protestant church officials, headed toward international assemblies, are anxiously counting African votes, because these new voters tend to take their Bible both literally and seriously.

These are its vices:

This emerging Christianity can be troubling. Church leaders sometimes emphasize communal values more than individual human rights, and they need to understand that strongly held moral beliefs are compatible with a commitment to civil liberties for all. Large Pentecostal churches are often built by domineering personalities promising health and wealth.

This is its virtue:

But the religion of the global south has a great virtue: It is undeniably alive. And it needs to be. A mother holding a child weak with AIDS or hot with malaria, or a family struggling to survive in an endless urban slum, does not need religious platitudes. Both need God's ever-present help in time of trouble -- which is exactly what biblical Christianity claims to offer.

This is how Americans have responded. 

Christian conservatives:

Some American religious conservatives have embraced ties with this emerging Christianity, including the church I attend. But there are adjustments in becoming a junior partner. The ideological package of the global south includes not only moral conservatism but also an emphasis on social justice, an openness to state intervention in markets, and a suspicion of American economic and military power. The emerging Christian majority is not the Moral Majority.

Liberal Christians, especially Episcopal liberals:

But the largest adjustments are coming on the religious left. For decades it has preached multiculturalism, but now, on further acquaintance, it doesn't seem to like other cultures very much. Episcopal leaders complain of the threat of "foreign prelates," echoing anti-Catholic rhetoric of the 19th century. An activist at one Episcopal meeting urged the African bishops to "go back to the jungle where you came from." Not since Victorians hunted tigers on elephants has the condescension been this raw.

These are some comments to Gerson's article at the Post:

How appropriate that a GOP apparatchik, one of the architects of the disastrous