Canary in the Mine

What's going on in CYF? The number of staff misconduct cases have soared from 2 in 1998/99 to 46 in 2001/2002. Is it departmental culture, or workload stress?
Twenty-five years after it was launched, China's "One Child" population control policy is credited with cutting population growth to an all time low and contributing to two decades of spectacular economic development. But the costs associated with the policy are also apparent and are rising: a growing proportion of elderly with inadequate government or family support, a disproportionately high number of male births attributable to sex selective abortion, increased female infant and child mortality rates, and the collapse of a credible government birth-reporting system. (Comment: Also, what is the effect on children of having no brothers or sisters, and few cousins?)
Theodore Dalrymple says that in the long annals of judicial stupidity, there can rarely have been a more idiotic judgement than the recent British Court of Appeal decision which allows a Muslim girl to wear traditional dress at school. "It reads like the suicide note not of a country alone, but of an entire civilization." Dalrymple says that far from freeing Muslim women, the judgement will condemn Muslim women in Britain to a life of servitude, oppression and even death at the hands of their husbands, fathers and brothers.
Meanwhile, Kay Hymowitz asks why feminists are almost totally silent about the abuses Muslim women suffer. Her answer: Feminism has long been entwined with anti-Western, anti-nationalist and especially anti-American feeling. Radical feminists, especially those who congregate in the universities, view everyone in the Islamic world as victims of Western imperialism, exempt from all judgment. Criticism – even of, say, forcing a 13-year-old girl into marriage with her 40-year-old cousin, as is acceptable under strict Islamic law – smacks of "orientalism"; that is, the imposition of a Western value system on Eastern behaviour. In the eyes of the sisterhood, worse than stoning women for adultery or forbidding girls to go to school are the policies of white men such as George W. Bush.
Paul Rosenzweig of the Heritage Foundation, decries the trend towards more law. "Historically, criminal convictions required defendants be found guilty of both criminal intent (mens rea) and a criminal act (actus rea). Activist legislators such as Sen. Feldman aim to diminish -- or eliminate altogether -- the requirement of criminal intent and focus solely on the harmful act... When more and more ordinary (albeit unbecoming) actions are designated as crimes, more and more ordinary people can be classified as criminals. As a result, the stigma of being a “criminal” dissipates, in turn weakening the law’s ability to deter real crime. Overcriminalization is a slippery slope toward oppressive, centralized government power."
Newsweek's technology columnist Steven Levy has declared that the lack of "diversity" among the web's most popular blogs requires corrective action. (Levy's complaint comes on the heels of Susan Estrich's campaign against the Los Angeles Times for allegedly refusing to publish female op-ed writers.) "So here is the perfect medium for liberating all those qualified minority and female "voices" that are being silenced by the mainstream media's gatekeepers", says Heather MacDonald. "According to diversity theory, they should be far more heavily represented in the blogosphere's upper reaches than they are in traditional journalism. In fact, the opposite is the case. Why? Could it be that the premise of the "diversity" crusade is wrong — that there are not in fact hordes of unknown, competitively talented non-white-male journalists held back by prejudice?"
Political correctness has struck at Sesame Street. Cookie Monster is now advocating healthy eating habits. There's even a new song — "A Cookie Is a Sometimes Food."

Librarians have their own distinct sense of humour. To sample, try the Library Humour page. I particularly love the list of Forbidden Books for Children, and the Old Testament Library rules for students.

An Auckland lawyer, who's stupidity and greed meant he was defrauded of $1.2 million wants the government to make a new law to block the transfer of large amounts of money out of the country. Forget personal responsibility - it was the government's fault he fell for a con artist!
The UK Association of University Teachers is about to debate a proposed boycott of Israeli academics who refuse to denounce their government's policies in the occupied territories. But the motion will 'exclude "conscientious Israeli academics and intellectuals opposed to their state's colonial and racist policies".' So in true totalitarian tradition, those who denounce their own will be permitted to have a livelihood.
The Affirmative Action Myth. In the wake of the US Supreme Court's recent decision to uphold university admissions preferences, affirmative action remains a deeply divisive issue. But Marie Gryphon, from the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom, says recent research shows that college admissions preferences do not offer even the practical benefits claimed by their supporters, because preferences do not help minority students.
That won't deter the EU, which has established a Commission to promote gender equality in scientific research. In a recent report entitled 'Women and Science: Excellence and Innovation - Gender Equality in Science', disparities between women and men in high level science are diminishing too slowly. In the European Union, women represent 44% of graduates in science and technology, but only 14% of high level academics are women. In order to reverse this trend the Commission proposes to take various actions such as the allocation of 2 million euro to the creation of a European Platform of Women Scientists.
A Treasury paper obtained by the Herald under the Official Information Act shows concern at the growing state sector wage bill, which has grown by between $750 million and $1 billion every year since Labour came to power. Total state sector staff numbers in May 1999 stood at 245,201. By last September that figure had grown to 278,831 - up 33,630.
Suicide in NZ has dropped to its lowest rate since 1985 but is still the leading cause of fatal injuries. The figures for 2002 show that 460 people died by suicide, compared with 507 in 2001 and 458 in 2000. New Zealand's overall suicide rate of 10.7 per 100,000 people was the sixth highest among OECD countries with comparable data, but was higher than other OECD countries for females 15-24.
Labour has been accused of selling out Maori voters over its decision to support the first reading of a bill changing Waitangi Day to New Zealand Day. The member's bill was introduced by United Future leader Peter Dunne and passed its first reading in Parliament yesterday. The bill would rename Waitangi Day and see the new New Zealand Day celebrated on the Monday of the week in which February 6 occurs.
Tailpiece: It's been a busy week for Jean Wright – a 90th birthday on Monday and a wedding yesterday. The Paraparaumu retirement home resident yesterday married her sweetheart, fellow nonagenarian Tony Cleghorn.

10 reasons why Helen Clark should be Pope (courtesy of St Molesworth)
1. She passionately believes in the Holy Trinity: Helen Clark, Heather Simpson and Judith Tizard.
2. Celibacy won't be an issue.
3. She knows the last pontiff's distant relative, David Benson-Pope.
4. Judith Tizard looks better covered up in a nun's habit.
5. She wouldn't have to travel so far to her favourite ski fields in the Swiss Alps.
6. Her office is just like a bishopric, even though there are no bishops in it.
7. Her ability to survive in the polls despite having Brian Edwards as her media advisor proves she's capable of miracles.
8. At least we'd know the altar boys would be safe.
9. Everyone knows the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel would look better with her signature on it.
10. She offered to turn wine into water at Peck's farewell and water into wine during Tamihere's working lunches.
(Note: Personally, I don't think Clark would settle for Pope.)

Religious Hate-Speech Proposal Appears Doomed in Britain. The British government is expected to drop a contentious proposal to outlaw religious incitement, having failed to get the legislation through the House of Lords quickly enough to avoid running out of parliamentary time.
But the news is not so good elsewhere. Melanie Phillips has some sobering evidence on what happens when "tolerance" infects the law. "Tolerance now means tolerating the intolerable when practised by a designated victim group. Not to tolerate it is racist.This crazy and sinister thinking, which makes victims out of law-breakers and bigots out of the true victims of crime, has become the orthodoxy throughout the public services, including the police. Once the thin blue line defending a society’s fundamental values, the police have now grotesquely turned into a weapon against them. Rather than upholding justice and order, they have become the enforcement arm of a culture which thinks that prejudice and discrimination are the worst crimes that can be committed."
And Dr Chris Kempling received a standing ovation for this address delivered on March 4, 2005 in New York City at a United Nations Commission on Human Rights Delegate Briefing. In it, he details how hate speech laws are being used in Canada to shut down religious freedom.
The terrorist attacks in September 2001 reawakened among American intellectuals the theory that religious faith makes people violent. A new book, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, by Sam Harris, is getting a lot of media attention. In it, Harris says that in order to save ourselves from imminent destruction we should take all steps possible to abolish religion: "Words like 'God' and 'Allah' must go the way of 'Apollo' and 'Baal', or they will unmake our world." Matthew Simpson presents an excellent critique of the book, with good arguments to counter it.
Should the religious right be allowed to have a say in making law, asks Hugh Hewitt? Countering the critics, he says: "All of these charges--from the most incoherent to the most measured--arrive without definition as to what "the religious right" is, and without argument as to why the agenda of this ill-defined group is less legitimate than the pro-gay marriage, pro-cloning, pro-partial-birth abortion, pro-euthanasia agenda of other political actors. a strain of thought is developing that the political objectives of people of faith have second-class status when compared to those of, say, religiously secular elites."
Polls indicate a majority of French voters plan to reject the European Union constitution in a referendum on May 29, raising the prospect of France rejecting the charter and plunging the EU into crisis. The treaty requires the support of all 25 member states to go into force.
British bioethicist John Harris has again plunged into controversy by arguing that medical research is so important that people should sometimes be forced to participate. In an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics, he balances the rights of the subject against the society's need for medical advances, which he compares to taxation, jury duty or wearing seat belts. Professor Harris acknowledges that his idea would shake long-established conventions. Normally, competent individuals should be preferred as research subjects, but in extreme cases, it might be necessary to enlist the incompetent. Children and incompetent people, such as patients who are demented or in a permanent vegetative state, should also be forced to participate, if necessary, says Professor Harris. "The presumption should surely be that [children] would have wished to behave decently and would not have wished to be free riders" who benefit from research but do not contribute, he contends.
In the first successful "wrongful life" suit in the Netherlands, a severely disabled Dutch child has been awarded damages for having been born. Before Kelly Molenaar, now 11, was born, her parents knew that there was a risk of birth defects and asked a midwife at Leiden University Medical Centre whether tests were needed. They were told No and they proceeded with the birth. Had they known of Kelly's disability, they would have aborted her. The Dutch Supreme Court has ruled that Kelly was entitled to compensation for emotional damage because she had been born. Joep Hubben, a professor of health law at Groningen University, says that the judgement makes the Netherlands a "legal island". "Almost nowhere else in the world would this claim be allowed."
The governor of the US state of Illinois has used emergency powers to force a pharmacy to sell contraceptives. The state government will also charge it with "failure to provide pharmaceutical care" and "unprofessional conduct" after a pharmacist declined to dispense contraceptives to two women in February. The incident highlights the increasing number of American pharmacists who are refusing to fill prescriptions for contraceptives or the morning-after pill because it violates their moral or religious beliefs.
And now we have "Fertility Tourism". Americans are saving money by going abroad for in-vitro treatments and having a holiday at the same time.

Does Labour have a vision, and if so, what is it? Colin James gives some thoughts.
Is this just arrogance, or is it a sign of Labour's agenda to kill democracy? To quote Steve Maharey: "We see this as an historic election. It's the one we hope when we decisively put to bed the conservative vote in this country." (quoted by Colin Espiner)
The Herald in editorial says the government is mistaking human rights for social welfare. The Human Rights Commission has issued what it calls an "action plan for human rights". Among the items on the plan are proposals to tackle poverty, give every child and disabled person an adequate standard of living, and development of schools and preschool centres as "human rights communities". "The commission has taken it upon itself to uphold the right of parents to refuse to pay school fees. Nothing could better illustrate the minefield the commission is entering. Human rights are typically rights that everyone can enjoy equally at no cost to others. Society can recognise and uphold certain rights and freedoms because they can be applied equally to everyone; they do not require some people to be awarded rights at the expense of others. Social rights are quite the opposite. They can be awarded only at the expense of others."
Paul Buchanan says human rights considerations should not be dragged into the Ahmed Zaoui case. They will only cloud the issue. "The real issue in the Zaoui case is one of actual and imminent threat in the determination of risks to national security, not his human rights."
Legal, doctor-assisted suicide in Britain moved a step closer after a parliamentary committee overturned a decade-long policy that there should be no change in the law. A "substantial majority" supports the concept of allowing terminally ill patients to kill themselves, a report by a House of Lords special select committee concluded yesterday. Although the 12 peers stopped short of recommending that the law be overhauled, their conclusions were a significant shift from a 1994 report saying it would be impossible to legalise euthanasia or assisted suicide.
Should "evolving standards," the "weight of international opinion" and good ideas determine court decisions? Walter Williams's discussion is in the context of the US Constitution, but still contains some important considerations for NZ. Particularly important is the notion of the Constitution as a "living document" (sound familiar?)
University faculty are more liberal than first imagined. A study conducted by Smith College, George Mason University, and the University of Toronto indicate that 72 percent of professors on America's campuses call themselves "liberal," whereas just 15 percent label themselves as "conservative."
The Ministry of Social Development has just released it's 2003/2004 Statistical Report, which shows that expenditure on the DPB is higher than ever before. "The annual expenditure for 2003/04 has risen to $1.777 billion," said Lindsay Mitchell. "To put this into perspective, in 2003 we spent less on Law and Order at $1.734 billion and less on Defence at $1.199 billion."
The Australian economic party is over and might even end up in a recession, one of the country's most respected forecasters has warned.
A new government policy to fund sex change operations has got Rakaia MP Brian Connell hopping mad. The government quietly introduced funding of around $170,000 a year for the operations (including sending people to Australia for operations not possible here). How many cataract operations could be done for that money (but won't be)?

She won't aim low.
I disagree with Fran O’Sullivan’s contention that Helen Clark wants to be President of New Zealand. Clark would not settle for so little.