Monday, August 01, 2005
The NZ Medical Association has decided to continue its official opposition to euthanasia, despite its UK counterpart caving in. “The NZMA concurs with the policy of the World Medical Association which opposes euthanasia,” says NZMA chairman, Dr Ross Boswell.
An Auckland clinic has been given the go-ahead to begin screening embryos for parents wanting to give birth to babies without genetic disorders. The screening technology - pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) - will allow parents who are at risk of passing on certain inherited diseases to choose a "healthy" embryo to start a pregnancy. The long-awaited move has been welcomed by parents keen to use the service, but opponents fear it is the start of a slippery slope towards "designer babies" and discrimination against those with disabilities.
What long-term sociological changes will be wrought by the impact of the student loan scheme? Nearly 450,000 New Zealanders have some type of student debt - and between them they owe more than $6.6 billion. Almost 600 people have debt above $100,000 - a 68 per cent increase from the same time last year. The average level of debt is $14,989, almost a $1000 rise since June last year. The concern is that high levels of debt can force social change and unseen consequences. Almost half of first-year doctors are putting off having children as they struggle to repay an average debt of $65,000, according to one report. More than 90 per cent of teachers graduate in debt, says another. One in three of last year's graduates planned to leave New Zealand almost as soon as he or she removed cap and gown, a survey revealed last December.
Church primary schools increase learning by as much as ten per cent, a new UK report says. A study published in the National Institute Economic Review yesterday found that church primary school pupils are a year ahead of their peers in state schools. Least able children benefit still more and receive an 18-month head start on their contemporaries. The findings come against some recent calls to abolish faith schools to create more harmony between different religious communities. Tony Blair, however, this week rejected the calls, saying that faith-based schools provide a "strong ethos and values" and do not teach children to "look at children of other faiths in a bad way".
At last, someone has come out with a reasoned response to the nonsense Lloyd Geering has been allowed to get away with almost daily in the media lately. Thank you, Brian Brandon:
"How can we understand the growth of secular belief and values in Western and New Zealand society? Lloyd Geering would have us believe that humanism, naturalism and our secular society are an outgrowth of Christianity itself, and worthy successors of it. He argues that just as Christianity emerged out of Judaism, so also secularism has arisen out of Christianity. He promotes a "religion without God" and claims a "supernatural, controlling, personal being" is fading from human consciousness. It takes a lot of twisted logic to come to this conclusion. Secularism has been an outgrowth of Christianity only in the sense that Christian faith has won for us freedom of belief and given us the basis for scientific inquiry. The 16th century European Reformation won for society new freedoms for individual belief. The rise of science in the 18th century, strongly fostered by Christian scientists, has won new freedoms to understand and use the resources God has given us on Earth. But if science and technology and the rise of a prosperous society have led people to leave God out, then surely our secularism is merely a new idolatry of bondage to material things and to our own needs... If there is no personal God who created us and who gives us our purpose, then all we are is a chance collection of chemicals who, therefore, don't matter in any ultimate scheme of things. There are no human rights if there is no ultimate source of what is right and wrong in the universe. Neither, if we live in a purely naturalistic world, are there any ultimate freedoms we can claim, because logically in a closed universe the laws of nature will determine our behaviour. Humanism and secularism are a terrible form of slavery."
The traditional terms of "spinsters" and "bachelors will cease to be used on marriage registers and certificates from December when the UK's new Civil Partnership Act comes into effect. The marriage laws in England and Wales will be revised to become consistent with the new Act and everyone getting married, whether gay, straight or divorced will be referred to as "single". The Times reports that the use of a single term is likely to be seen by some clergy as helping to undermine the institution of marriage. A Church of England spokesman said: "The words bachelor or spinster have never been part of the wording of banns, but many clergy customarily use them and will no doubt continue to."
Winston Peters's constant haranguing on immigration almost totally shuts down a reasoned and overdue debate on what we expect of people coming to live in this country. In England and the US, the debate has been badly clouded by terrorist fears. In either case, clear discussion is the loser. In a lecture at the Heritage Foundation, William E. Simon makes some important points that need to be faced: "In liberal circles, the [immigration] issue is discussed as one more phase in the movement for expanding liberty and diversity, with no attention to issues of national identity and unity. And for my friends in conservative circles, the issue is hotly debated as a contest between "law-and-order conservatives," concerned only with national security and control of our borders, and "pro-growth business conservatives," concerned only with the chronic labor shortage--again, with no attention to issues of national identity and unity. With little or no discussion of what it means to be an American, this narrow framing of the debate completely ignores the most important issue of all: the national implications of immigration without assimilation.
The Pentagon has released a long-awaited report, “The Military Power of the People’s Republic of China” — a document examining Chinese current and future military strategy. Tension between the United States and Europe over arms sales to China and a string of Chinese threats to use force (even nuclear weapons) in the event of a conflict in the Taiwan strait have raised concerns about China’s military capabilities and intentions.
The Heritage Foundation says that unless deterred by stronger reactions from the United States and Taiwan, China’s hardline military spokesmen will succeed in convincing Beijing’s more moderate domestic and social policy leaders that there will be no consequence to continued military expansion. A close reading of the report leaves no doubt that China’s “ambitious” weapons modernization and doctrinal reforms are aimed at promoting vast increases in its “comprehensive national power.” US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described this phenomenon in a February 2000 article: "…China is not a “status quo” power but one that would like to alter Asia’s balance of power in its own favor. That alone makes it a strategic competitor, not the “strategic partner” the Clinton administration once called it. Add to this China’s record of cooperation with Iran and Pakistan in the proliferation of ballistic-missile technology, and the security problem is obvious. China will do what it can to enhance its position, whether by stealing nuclear secrets or by trying to intimidate Taiwan."
Saturday marked the 200th birthday of Alexis de Tocqueville, one of the fathers of the thinking behind civil society. Alexis de Tocqueville championed liberty and democracy, and once observed that it is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth. His major work was written following a tour of America at a relatively young age, and is still relevant. This Wall Street Journal piece is worth reading, in case you missed it.
An Auckland clinic has been given the go-ahead to begin screening embryos for parents wanting to give birth to babies without genetic disorders. The screening technology - pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) - will allow parents who are at risk of passing on certain inherited diseases to choose a "healthy" embryo to start a pregnancy. The long-awaited move has been welcomed by parents keen to use the service, but opponents fear it is the start of a slippery slope towards "designer babies" and discrimination against those with disabilities.
What long-term sociological changes will be wrought by the impact of the student loan scheme? Nearly 450,000 New Zealanders have some type of student debt - and between them they owe more than $6.6 billion. Almost 600 people have debt above $100,000 - a 68 per cent increase from the same time last year. The average level of debt is $14,989, almost a $1000 rise since June last year. The concern is that high levels of debt can force social change and unseen consequences. Almost half of first-year doctors are putting off having children as they struggle to repay an average debt of $65,000, according to one report. More than 90 per cent of teachers graduate in debt, says another. One in three of last year's graduates planned to leave New Zealand almost as soon as he or she removed cap and gown, a survey revealed last December.
Church primary schools increase learning by as much as ten per cent, a new UK report says. A study published in the National Institute Economic Review yesterday found that church primary school pupils are a year ahead of their peers in state schools. Least able children benefit still more and receive an 18-month head start on their contemporaries. The findings come against some recent calls to abolish faith schools to create more harmony between different religious communities. Tony Blair, however, this week rejected the calls, saying that faith-based schools provide a "strong ethos and values" and do not teach children to "look at children of other faiths in a bad way".
At last, someone has come out with a reasoned response to the nonsense Lloyd Geering has been allowed to get away with almost daily in the media lately. Thank you, Brian Brandon:
"How can we understand the growth of secular belief and values in Western and New Zealand society? Lloyd Geering would have us believe that humanism, naturalism and our secular society are an outgrowth of Christianity itself, and worthy successors of it. He argues that just as Christianity emerged out of Judaism, so also secularism has arisen out of Christianity. He promotes a "religion without God" and claims a "supernatural, controlling, personal being" is fading from human consciousness. It takes a lot of twisted logic to come to this conclusion. Secularism has been an outgrowth of Christianity only in the sense that Christian faith has won for us freedom of belief and given us the basis for scientific inquiry. The 16th century European Reformation won for society new freedoms for individual belief. The rise of science in the 18th century, strongly fostered by Christian scientists, has won new freedoms to understand and use the resources God has given us on Earth. But if science and technology and the rise of a prosperous society have led people to leave God out, then surely our secularism is merely a new idolatry of bondage to material things and to our own needs... If there is no personal God who created us and who gives us our purpose, then all we are is a chance collection of chemicals who, therefore, don't matter in any ultimate scheme of things. There are no human rights if there is no ultimate source of what is right and wrong in the universe. Neither, if we live in a purely naturalistic world, are there any ultimate freedoms we can claim, because logically in a closed universe the laws of nature will determine our behaviour. Humanism and secularism are a terrible form of slavery."
The traditional terms of "spinsters" and "bachelors will cease to be used on marriage registers and certificates from December when the UK's new Civil Partnership Act comes into effect. The marriage laws in England and Wales will be revised to become consistent with the new Act and everyone getting married, whether gay, straight or divorced will be referred to as "single". The Times reports that the use of a single term is likely to be seen by some clergy as helping to undermine the institution of marriage. A Church of England spokesman said: "The words bachelor or spinster have never been part of the wording of banns, but many clergy customarily use them and will no doubt continue to."
Winston Peters's constant haranguing on immigration almost totally shuts down a reasoned and overdue debate on what we expect of people coming to live in this country. In England and the US, the debate has been badly clouded by terrorist fears. In either case, clear discussion is the loser. In a lecture at the Heritage Foundation, William E. Simon makes some important points that need to be faced: "In liberal circles, the [immigration] issue is discussed as one more phase in the movement for expanding liberty and diversity, with no attention to issues of national identity and unity. And for my friends in conservative circles, the issue is hotly debated as a contest between "law-and-order conservatives," concerned only with national security and control of our borders, and "pro-growth business conservatives," concerned only with the chronic labor shortage--again, with no attention to issues of national identity and unity. With little or no discussion of what it means to be an American, this narrow framing of the debate completely ignores the most important issue of all: the national implications of immigration without assimilation.
The Pentagon has released a long-awaited report, “The Military Power of the People’s Republic of China” — a document examining Chinese current and future military strategy. Tension between the United States and Europe over arms sales to China and a string of Chinese threats to use force (even nuclear weapons) in the event of a conflict in the Taiwan strait have raised concerns about China’s military capabilities and intentions.
The Heritage Foundation says that unless deterred by stronger reactions from the United States and Taiwan, China’s hardline military spokesmen will succeed in convincing Beijing’s more moderate domestic and social policy leaders that there will be no consequence to continued military expansion. A close reading of the report leaves no doubt that China’s “ambitious” weapons modernization and doctrinal reforms are aimed at promoting vast increases in its “comprehensive national power.” US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described this phenomenon in a February 2000 article: "…China is not a “status quo” power but one that would like to alter Asia’s balance of power in its own favor. That alone makes it a strategic competitor, not the “strategic partner” the Clinton administration once called it. Add to this China’s record of cooperation with Iran and Pakistan in the proliferation of ballistic-missile technology, and the security problem is obvious. China will do what it can to enhance its position, whether by stealing nuclear secrets or by trying to intimidate Taiwan."
Saturday marked the 200th birthday of Alexis de Tocqueville, one of the fathers of the thinking behind civil society. Alexis de Tocqueville championed liberty and democracy, and once observed that it is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth. His major work was written following a tour of America at a relatively young age, and is still relevant. This Wall Street Journal piece is worth reading, in case you missed it.
