It's the season for graduating students and there are a couple of commencement speeches that were published on commondreams.org...one is by Granny D Haddock and here are some quotes (was she giving this speech in kwt?) :
"Radical religious leaders—unlike the wiser men and women of their faiths—promote that hatred when they make people feel powerless; when their people are made to believe that all power comes from some selfish, egomaniacal God who shares none of His power with His people. With some shared power from on High, might not the people be able to shape a happier world—a world where the beautiful differences of lifestyle and belief are tolerated and celebrated--like so many different birds and flowers in God’s garden?
When people are made to feel powerless, either by religious despot or political preacher, they feel despair, even if they disguise the anxiety and pain of that powerlessness as piety or as patriotism--or both. "Doris “Granny D” Haddock
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Red meat linked to bowel cancer says a new study, but didn't we know that already ? Get your fibre and your water and eat your veggies folks..please...The Guardian has an article about how Michael Jackson ended up 270Million $'s in debt....Microsoft is helping China censor bloggers, WHAT?-By blocking words like "democracy' 'freedom' 'human rights' and communism' among others....
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Now this story about a Pakistani woman deserves to be quoted at length from today's Independent:
"On a terrible June day three years ago, 14 men from the dominant Mastoi tribe in Meeranwalla volunteered to rape Ms Mai as a way to settle a score after her 12-year-old brother Abdul Shakoor was seen walking with a Mastoi girl. The decision on retribution had been taken by a village court to preserve tribal honour. The jirga, or council of village elders, summoned Ms Mai to apologise for her brother's sexual misdeed. When she apologised, they gang-raped her anyway.
After the atrocity was carried out, Ms Mai was paraded naked before hundreds of onlookers. Finally, her father covered her with a shawl and took her home."...
..."The President even threatened to "slap" a reporter "in the face" for publishing details in an international magazine about Mr Mai's defiance. The reporter in question was Pakistan's leading women's rights activist, Ms Jehangir, who is also a UN special rapporteur on human rights."...Jan McGirk
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Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
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3 comments:
That Pakistani story is absolutely disgusting.
When will this all stop! the horror!
Hi folks, thanks for coming by...yes horrible isn't it?? Wen will people start taking responsibility for their violent instincts and try to end them instead of pretending that the law or religion somehow allows you to do such awful things...yeah they had a council meeting and decided that was the best way to solve the issue...sure...that's why they raped her..not because they wanted to, but because tradition says you should..very depressing..happens everywhere.
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