Friday, November 18, 2005
New Zealand children are not as street-smart as they once were – thanks to over-protective parents, a new study shows. Over-protective parents were to blame for the "massive" decline in children's freedom over the past 20 years, University of New South Wales geographer Dr Paul Tranter told The Press yesterday. Their restricted environment had created a generation of obese, tense, unhealthy adults.
The Disney movie "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe," based on the classic by C.S. Lewis, will be out December 9, but some are arguing that schoolchildren should not be encouraged to read the book. One example: Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is sponsoring a contest urging students to read books in "The Chronicles of Narnia" series. Robert Boston, assistant director of communications for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (AU), said students should not be encouraged to read a Christian book. "Our attorneys sent a letter to the governor and basically asked that the state not sponsor a contest that revolves around reading religious material," he told Family News in Focus.
More than 60 Christian converts in northern India will be burned to death if they refuse to return to Hinduism by Sunday, a group of extremists has warned. The radical Hindus severely beat the converts' pastor, Feroz Masih, in a Nov. 4 attack in the state of Himachal Pradesh, accusing him of "forcibly converting" Hindus, reported Compass Direct, a news service that monitors persecution of Christians. The pastor's son, Ramesh, told Compass Direct the estimated 10 attackers were members of the World Hindu Council and its youth wing Bajrang Dal, which has been blamed for waves of attacks against Christians and other religious minorities since the rise of the Hindu nationalist party BJP in the late 1990s. The attackers forced Masih, 62, to sign a document stating his willingness to participate in a ceremony Sunday in which all of the Christians would convert back to Hinduism, Ramesh said. If the pastor or church members refuse to participate, they will be burned to death, the radicals warned.
It's good to know the Defender of the Faith is defending the faith: "The Queen opened the Church of England's General Synod yesterday with a ringing endorsement of the "uniqueness" of the Christian faith. In a speech that reflected her personal beliefs as well as her role as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, she contrasted the enduring nature of Christianity with the rapid changes in society. "For Christians, this pace of change represents an opportunity," she told a packed hall in Church House, Westminster. "When so much is in flux, when limitless amounts of information, much of it ephemeral, are instantly accessible on demand, there is a renewed hunger for that which endures and gives meaning. The Christian Church can speak uniquely to that need, for at the heart of our faith stands the conviction that all people, irrespective of race, background or circumstances, can find lasting significance and purpose in the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
"Believing they can find Zen in an overcrowded mall, some Canadians are turning their holiday shopping into unlikely spiritual missions. Inspired by stores that reconcile social responsibility with superfluous luxury, these deep-pocketed consumers believe the more they spend, the greater their contribution to the Earth -- and to their sense of inner peace. The ideology -- which takes the notion of shopping as religion all too seriously -- even comes with its own catchy name: metrospirituality. "A metrospiritual is a kinder, gentler yuppie," explains journalist Ariana Speyer, who identified the trend for BeliefNet.com. In a recent article for the popular multi-faith Web site, she describes the consumer practice as a mainstreaming of Eastern religious values into "an easily digestible, buyable form," rather like shopping your way to salvation.
"Christian feminists" have become "biblical egalitarians," though the former term is still used by some. Likewise, "patriarchalists," "hierarchalists," and "traditionalists" have become "complementarians." [you've got to keep up with the language, folks!]
Here is one of the unintended consequences of China's one-child policy: "Of all the impending Third World aging tsunamis, the most massive is set to strike China. Between 2005 and 2025, about two- thirds of China's total population growth will occur in the 65-plus ages--a cohort likely to double in size to roughly 200 million people. By then, China's median age may be higher than America's. Notwithstanding the recent decades of rapid growth, China is still a poor society, with per-capita income not much more than a tenth of the present U.S. level. How will China support its burgeoning elderly population? Not through the country's existing state pension system: That patchwork, covering less than a fifth of the total Chinese workforce, already has unfunded liabilities exceeding China's current GDP. Since the government pension system is clearly unsustainable, China's social security system in the future will mainly be the family unit. But the government's continuing antinatal population drive makes the family an ever-frailer construct for old-age support. Where in the early 1990s the average 60-year-old Chinese woman had five children, her counterpart in 2025 will have had fewer than two. No less important, China's retirees face a growing "son deficit." In Chinese tradition it is sons, rather than daughters, upon whom the first duty to care for aged parents falls. By 2025, a third or more of Chinese women approaching retirement age will likely have no living sons.
Two "wrongful life" cases are being studied by the High Court of Australia. One involves Alexia Harriton, a 24-year-old woman who is blind, deaf, spastic and mentally retarded after her mother contracted rubella during pregnancy. Olga Harriton, her mother, says that she would have aborted Alexia if she had been properly advised. The other case involves a 5-year-old girl, Keeden Walker, who has permanent brain damage, cerebral palsy and seizures because of a genetic disorder passed on by her father. Her parents say that they would have used IVF with donor sperm or would have aborted her if they had known. The two cases raise difficult issues of law. Recognising the notion of "wrongful life" might lead to a situation in which there is a duty to have an abortion, commented Chief Justice Murray Gleeson. As well, how can there be damages if there is no life before the negligence? Is there a potential conflict between the interests of the parents and the child? It will be some time before the High Court hands down its decision.
Only days after the world's leading embryonic stem cell researcher began receiving thousands of applications from sick patients who want him to make therapeutic clones with their genes, his project has sunk into a morass of scandal. Hwang Woo-suk became a world celebrity after creating the first human embryonic stem cell lines. Now he has been accused of lying and unethical practices by his American colleague.
~ Washington Post, Nov 12; Korea Times, Nov 14; blog.bioethics.net, Nov 13
The attempt by the United Nations to take over control of the Internet from the USA appears to have resulted in a stand-off, for the present. For the moment, the US will keep control of the domain name registration and allocation.
Once upon a time, conmen used to sell the London Bridge to unthinking Americans. These days, a Chinese company is attempting to sell one-acre plots on the moon to whoever will buy. How you can sell something you don't own is a moot point, of course.
The Disney movie "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe," based on the classic by C.S. Lewis, will be out December 9, but some are arguing that schoolchildren should not be encouraged to read the book. One example: Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is sponsoring a contest urging students to read books in "The Chronicles of Narnia" series. Robert Boston, assistant director of communications for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (AU), said students should not be encouraged to read a Christian book. "Our attorneys sent a letter to the governor and basically asked that the state not sponsor a contest that revolves around reading religious material," he told Family News in Focus.
More than 60 Christian converts in northern India will be burned to death if they refuse to return to Hinduism by Sunday, a group of extremists has warned. The radical Hindus severely beat the converts' pastor, Feroz Masih, in a Nov. 4 attack in the state of Himachal Pradesh, accusing him of "forcibly converting" Hindus, reported Compass Direct, a news service that monitors persecution of Christians. The pastor's son, Ramesh, told Compass Direct the estimated 10 attackers were members of the World Hindu Council and its youth wing Bajrang Dal, which has been blamed for waves of attacks against Christians and other religious minorities since the rise of the Hindu nationalist party BJP in the late 1990s. The attackers forced Masih, 62, to sign a document stating his willingness to participate in a ceremony Sunday in which all of the Christians would convert back to Hinduism, Ramesh said. If the pastor or church members refuse to participate, they will be burned to death, the radicals warned.
It's good to know the Defender of the Faith is defending the faith: "The Queen opened the Church of England's General Synod yesterday with a ringing endorsement of the "uniqueness" of the Christian faith. In a speech that reflected her personal beliefs as well as her role as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, she contrasted the enduring nature of Christianity with the rapid changes in society. "For Christians, this pace of change represents an opportunity," she told a packed hall in Church House, Westminster. "When so much is in flux, when limitless amounts of information, much of it ephemeral, are instantly accessible on demand, there is a renewed hunger for that which endures and gives meaning. The Christian Church can speak uniquely to that need, for at the heart of our faith stands the conviction that all people, irrespective of race, background or circumstances, can find lasting significance and purpose in the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
"Believing they can find Zen in an overcrowded mall, some Canadians are turning their holiday shopping into unlikely spiritual missions. Inspired by stores that reconcile social responsibility with superfluous luxury, these deep-pocketed consumers believe the more they spend, the greater their contribution to the Earth -- and to their sense of inner peace. The ideology -- which takes the notion of shopping as religion all too seriously -- even comes with its own catchy name: metrospirituality. "A metrospiritual is a kinder, gentler yuppie," explains journalist Ariana Speyer, who identified the trend for BeliefNet.com. In a recent article for the popular multi-faith Web site, she describes the consumer practice as a mainstreaming of Eastern religious values into "an easily digestible, buyable form," rather like shopping your way to salvation.
"Christian feminists" have become "biblical egalitarians," though the former term is still used by some. Likewise, "patriarchalists," "hierarchalists," and "traditionalists" have become "complementarians." [you've got to keep up with the language, folks!]
Here is one of the unintended consequences of China's one-child policy: "Of all the impending Third World aging tsunamis, the most massive is set to strike China. Between 2005 and 2025, about two- thirds of China's total population growth will occur in the 65-plus ages--a cohort likely to double in size to roughly 200 million people. By then, China's median age may be higher than America's. Notwithstanding the recent decades of rapid growth, China is still a poor society, with per-capita income not much more than a tenth of the present U.S. level. How will China support its burgeoning elderly population? Not through the country's existing state pension system: That patchwork, covering less than a fifth of the total Chinese workforce, already has unfunded liabilities exceeding China's current GDP. Since the government pension system is clearly unsustainable, China's social security system in the future will mainly be the family unit. But the government's continuing antinatal population drive makes the family an ever-frailer construct for old-age support. Where in the early 1990s the average 60-year-old Chinese woman had five children, her counterpart in 2025 will have had fewer than two. No less important, China's retirees face a growing "son deficit." In Chinese tradition it is sons, rather than daughters, upon whom the first duty to care for aged parents falls. By 2025, a third or more of Chinese women approaching retirement age will likely have no living sons.
Two "wrongful life" cases are being studied by the High Court of Australia. One involves Alexia Harriton, a 24-year-old woman who is blind, deaf, spastic and mentally retarded after her mother contracted rubella during pregnancy. Olga Harriton, her mother, says that she would have aborted Alexia if she had been properly advised. The other case involves a 5-year-old girl, Keeden Walker, who has permanent brain damage, cerebral palsy and seizures because of a genetic disorder passed on by her father. Her parents say that they would have used IVF with donor sperm or would have aborted her if they had known. The two cases raise difficult issues of law. Recognising the notion of "wrongful life" might lead to a situation in which there is a duty to have an abortion, commented Chief Justice Murray Gleeson. As well, how can there be damages if there is no life before the negligence? Is there a potential conflict between the interests of the parents and the child? It will be some time before the High Court hands down its decision.
Only days after the world's leading embryonic stem cell researcher began receiving thousands of applications from sick patients who want him to make therapeutic clones with their genes, his project has sunk into a morass of scandal. Hwang Woo-suk became a world celebrity after creating the first human embryonic stem cell lines. Now he has been accused of lying and unethical practices by his American colleague.
~ Washington Post, Nov 12; Korea Times, Nov 14; blog.bioethics.net, Nov 13
The attempt by the United Nations to take over control of the Internet from the USA appears to have resulted in a stand-off, for the present. For the moment, the US will keep control of the domain name registration and allocation.
Once upon a time, conmen used to sell the London Bridge to unthinking Americans. These days, a Chinese company is attempting to sell one-acre plots on the moon to whoever will buy. How you can sell something you don't own is a moot point, of course.
