Monday, December 12, 2005
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters ended a series of meetings in Malaysia optimistic about the road ahead for a grouping of Asian powers that could one day rival the European Union. Leaders from the 10 Asean countries - plus Japan, China, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia and India - are meeting in Kuala Lumpur for the East Asia Summit, the first time they have got together to talk about the possibility of a new power bloc.
The first woman to undergo in New Zealand a controversial "designer baby" test used overseas is on the way to having a child. Dr Richard Fisher, of Auckland fertility clinic Fertility Associates, said three patients were undergoing the testing, which is used with in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). One, a 39-year-old is six weeks pregnant after five years of recurrent miscarriages. Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD, was approved by the Government with strict conditions in March. In the past, women had to go overseas to have PGD, which in New Zealand is permitted only to test for genetic or chromosome disorders including Down's syndrome and single-gene defects like Huntington's disease and cystic fibrosis. Overseas, PGD has also been used for selecting the sex of babies for social reasons and some New Zealanders went to Sydney for this until Australia banned the practice.
A few years ago, the mere suggestion that a man on a plane could be a likely child molester, would have been greeted with derision. Now, however, not only has the concept been taken seriously by the airlines, but some public servants – including the Commissioner for Children - have said it’s a good idea. Stuart Birks, Director of the Centre for Public Policy Evaluation at Massey University, explores the emergence of this worrying trend towards the denigration of men.
A UK author and broadcaster condemned as "sinister" yesterday an inquiry conducted by police over comments she made about homosexuals on a live radio programme. Lynette Burrows, an author on children's rights and a family campaigner, took part in a discussion on the Victoria Derbyshire show on Radio Five Live about the new civil partnerships act. During the programme, she said she did not believe that homosexuals should be allowed to adopt. She added that placing boys with two homosexuals for adoption was as obvious a risk as placing a girl with two heterosexual men who offered themselves as parents. "It is a risk," she said. "You would not give a small girl to two men." A member of the public complained to the police and an officer contacted Mrs Burrows the following day to say a "homophobic incident" had been reported against her. "I was astounded," she said. "I told her this was a free country and we are allowed to express opinions on matters of public interest. She told me it was not a crime but that she had to record these incidents.
One of the central realities of the cultural darkness we see growing around us is the dawning of a post-Christian culture -- and a central reality of our emerging culture is the closing of the postmodern mind. Something is happening to the worldview, the mentality, and the consciousness of this age. If we listen closely, we can hear something like the closing of a steel door -- a solemn, cataclysmic slamming of a door. We have been watching the postmodern mind in its development, and it is now well developed. Not only do we see the themes of postmodernity taking hold of the larger culture, but we understand the challenge this pattern of thinking poses to Christian truth and Christian truth-telling. Tolerance is perverted into a radical secularism that is anything but tolerant. There is little openness to truth, and growing hostility to truth claims. Indeed, the postmodern mind has a fanatical, if selective, dedication to moral relativism, and an understanding that truth has no objective or absolute basis whatsoever.
Many big American “mega-churches”, with thousands-strong congregations will close on Christmas Day amid fears of poor attendance. Instead, they are holding multiple services in the run-up to 25 December and encouraging worshippers to spend Christmas day with their families. Revd Gene Appel, a senior pastor at one of the six largest US churches, the Willow Creek Community Church in Illinois, said. "We don't see it as not having church on Christmas. We see it as decentralising the church on Christmas. The best way to honour Jesus's birth is for families to have a more personal experience on that day." Although it’s common for the rapidly-growing “mega-churches” not to hold Christmas Day worship when it falls during the week, it’s rare to cancel a Sunday service.
A red crystal has been added to the red cross and red crescent as a third symbol for the worldwide relief movement. The decision of the 192 countries signed up to the Geneva Conventions will admit the Israeli humanitarian movement for the first time and create a “neutral” symbol that can be used where other emblems would be viewed as provocative. The Israeli Magen David Adom Society, which uses the Star of David within its own borders, has said it will use the crystal when working internationally. “The adoption of an additional emblem devoid of any national, political or religious connotation” will give “a new instrument ... to protect military and civilian medical services on the battlefield,” Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey told delegates in Geneva.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000085&sid=aBxkgLYC
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article331387.ece
The first woman to undergo in New Zealand a controversial "designer baby" test used overseas is on the way to having a child. Dr Richard Fisher, of Auckland fertility clinic Fertility Associates, said three patients were undergoing the testing, which is used with in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). One, a 39-year-old is six weeks pregnant after five years of recurrent miscarriages. Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD, was approved by the Government with strict conditions in March. In the past, women had to go overseas to have PGD, which in New Zealand is permitted only to test for genetic or chromosome disorders including Down's syndrome and single-gene defects like Huntington's disease and cystic fibrosis. Overseas, PGD has also been used for selecting the sex of babies for social reasons and some New Zealanders went to Sydney for this until Australia banned the practice.
A few years ago, the mere suggestion that a man on a plane could be a likely child molester, would have been greeted with derision. Now, however, not only has the concept been taken seriously by the airlines, but some public servants – including the Commissioner for Children - have said it’s a good idea. Stuart Birks, Director of the Centre for Public Policy Evaluation at Massey University, explores the emergence of this worrying trend towards the denigration of men.
A UK author and broadcaster condemned as "sinister" yesterday an inquiry conducted by police over comments she made about homosexuals on a live radio programme. Lynette Burrows, an author on children's rights and a family campaigner, took part in a discussion on the Victoria Derbyshire show on Radio Five Live about the new civil partnerships act. During the programme, she said she did not believe that homosexuals should be allowed to adopt. She added that placing boys with two homosexuals for adoption was as obvious a risk as placing a girl with two heterosexual men who offered themselves as parents. "It is a risk," she said. "You would not give a small girl to two men." A member of the public complained to the police and an officer contacted Mrs Burrows the following day to say a "homophobic incident" had been reported against her. "I was astounded," she said. "I told her this was a free country and we are allowed to express opinions on matters of public interest. She told me it was not a crime but that she had to record these incidents.
One of the central realities of the cultural darkness we see growing around us is the dawning of a post-Christian culture -- and a central reality of our emerging culture is the closing of the postmodern mind. Something is happening to the worldview, the mentality, and the consciousness of this age. If we listen closely, we can hear something like the closing of a steel door -- a solemn, cataclysmic slamming of a door. We have been watching the postmodern mind in its development, and it is now well developed. Not only do we see the themes of postmodernity taking hold of the larger culture, but we understand the challenge this pattern of thinking poses to Christian truth and Christian truth-telling. Tolerance is perverted into a radical secularism that is anything but tolerant. There is little openness to truth, and growing hostility to truth claims. Indeed, the postmodern mind has a fanatical, if selective, dedication to moral relativism, and an understanding that truth has no objective or absolute basis whatsoever.
Many big American “mega-churches”, with thousands-strong congregations will close on Christmas Day amid fears of poor attendance. Instead, they are holding multiple services in the run-up to 25 December and encouraging worshippers to spend Christmas day with their families. Revd Gene Appel, a senior pastor at one of the six largest US churches, the Willow Creek Community Church in Illinois, said. "We don't see it as not having church on Christmas. We see it as decentralising the church on Christmas. The best way to honour Jesus's birth is for families to have a more personal experience on that day." Although it’s common for the rapidly-growing “mega-churches” not to hold Christmas Day worship when it falls during the week, it’s rare to cancel a Sunday service.
A red crystal has been added to the red cross and red crescent as a third symbol for the worldwide relief movement. The decision of the 192 countries signed up to the Geneva Conventions will admit the Israeli humanitarian movement for the first time and create a “neutral” symbol that can be used where other emblems would be viewed as provocative. The Israeli Magen David Adom Society, which uses the Star of David within its own borders, has said it will use the crystal when working internationally. “The adoption of an additional emblem devoid of any national, political or religious connotation” will give “a new instrument ... to protect military and civilian medical services on the battlefield,” Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey told delegates in Geneva.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000085&sid=aBxkgLYC
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article331387.ece
