Cleaning athletics from drugs
27 Aug 2015
Last week Sebastian Coe was elected as president of the world governing body for athletics. This week Usain Bolt’s victory over twice banned drug offender Justin Gatlin delighted many who still appear not to trust athletes with regards to cheating. Bolt is a worthy champion and so is Jessica Ennis-Hill, winning the gold medal in the women’s heptathlon just 13 months after giving birth. Not everyone has the endurance, perseverance, ability and training to compete in any kind of athletics competition, never mind a world championship. Now that Lord Coe heads the IAAF he will look to the International Olympic Committee which is the only agency with both the funds and the vested interest to operate an effective drugs-detection programme . However, if the IOC is unwilling to exclude rogue nations from membership, no amount of testing will make much difference. Historically international governing bodies don’t cast off member nations, regardless of the depths of their offences. Witness state-supported athletes, Nazi repression of Jewish sportsmen, and twenty years of communist-bloc drug-programmes. All passed without a whimper.
In a day of remarkable evidence before the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, Bishop Geoffrey Robinson offered damning assessments of the most senior Catholic clerics on the planet. Pope John Paul II ‘handled the abuse poorly’. Cardinal George Pell was a ‘most ineffectual bishop’ and ‘the majority of the priests wished he’d get transferred somewhere else.’ Even Pope Francis is not providing ‘real leadership’. But his most chilling and telling statement about the Catholic church was the one he made about the church hierarchy’s response to revelations about child sexual abuse: ‘What we got was silence, so bishops were loyal to the silence.’ It speaks of the extent to which the church hierarchy exercises control – and enforces silence – through a combination of rigid orthodoxy, secretive practices, intimidation, and threat of exclusion or excommunication. Even many Catholics may not be aware of how the church leadership manages the institution, as most of us in the pews interact only with our local parish priest.
Assisted suicide becomes ‘routine’ if legalised
27 Aug 2015
A new review of a wide range of evidence on assisted suicide has been released ahead of a debate at Westminster when MPs will consider Rob Marris’s Bill on legalising assisted suicide on 11 September. This review has revealed that the practice becomes more widespread and more routine in places where the law has been changed. Produced by the Anscombe Bioethics Centre, the review links directly to official data from the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Oregon and Washington, as well as UK parliamentary reports and journal research. It says there are ‘common patterns’ emerging from places where assisted suicide has been legalised. In every jurisdiction numbers have increased over time and continue to do so; there has also been a shift from permitting assisted suicide for cancer victims to include other diseases. In Europe, this includes psychiatric conditions and problems related to old age, which are non-terminal. For helpful prayers into this subject, go to http://www.care.org.uk/our-causes/sanctity-life/assisted-suicide-euthanasia/what-you-can-do
A survey of nearly 64,000 people across the world finds Britain has one of the lowest numbers of people who declare themselves to be religious. Two-thirds of the population describe themselves as atheist or ‘not religious’. Only 30% of Britons interviewed by pollsters said they would describe themselves as religious, regardless of whether they attended a place of worship, compared with 53% who said they were ‘not religious’ and 13% who said they were a ‘convinced atheist’. The remainder were ‘don’t knows’. The study appeared to show that Christianity is on course to be a minority religion in the UK. Globally people aged under 34 tended to be more religious and the number of Muslim children in Britain doubled in a decade. The proportion of Muslims in Britain is predicted to be 11.3 per cent, or one in nine of the total population, by 2050. See also The Mill Gathering Statement at:
http://www.worldprayer.org.uk/news-wpc/itemlist/search?searchword=the+mill+gathering&categories=
Al Qaeda militants took control of a western district of Yemen's main port city of Aden on Saturday night, residents said, in another sign that the group is drawing strength from five months of civil war. The entrance of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula into Aden, once one of the world's busiest ports and the most secular and secure parts of an otherwise restive country, would be one of its biggest gains yet. Meanwhile United Arab Emirates forces based in Aden freed a British hostage who had been held by the group. The hostage, earlier identified by a Yemeni police source as an oil worker abducted in February last year, was taken to the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi on a military plane on Saturday night. Britain's Foreign Office confirmed that the hostage had been rescued in a military intelligence operation and was safe and well.
A journalist writes, ‘For six months, I have been recording stories for a two-year project documenting the long-term impact of conflict on communities and individuals around the world. There are few places that have seen more conflict in recent years than Gaza and the resulting psychological impact on the civilian population, especially on the young, has been well recorded. Less well covered, though, are the effects on the estimated 3,000 children with autism living in the region. There are also many others with learning disabilities and mental health issues. The war and ongoing embargo have affected support networks of schools and outreach programmes for these children. This has put extra strain not just on those living with disabilities, but also on their families and carers. I can never truly express the horrors of some people’s experiences – I’m not sure I even want to try.’
Beatings with iron bars and acid burns are used by security forces in Burundi to extract ‘confessions’ and silence dissent, according to an Amnesty International briefing published on Monday. It highlights an increase in the use of torture since April. The testimonies are devastating and disturbing (torture and ill-treatment are prohibited by the country’s constitution and international and regional treaties to which Burundi is party). Amnesty International said, ‘Such practices must stop and those suspected of perpetrating torture should be suspended immediately pending thorough, independent and impartial investigations and prosecutions.’ People are being tortured for their suspected participation in protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza’s election to a third term in office. A human rights activist and a journalist were also detained and tortured. One detainee said, ‘They told me, “If you don’t confess, we’ll kill you.” But I said, “How can I confess when I know nothing? You’ll have to just tell me what to confess to.”’
According to the Australian Prayer network, Nepali Christians fear that amendments to the new constitution, likely to come into effect after seven years of parliamentary discussions, could render all Christian activity illegal. Attempting to convert someone to another religion is already prohibited in Nepal, but the proposed amendments would mean that anything perceived as ‘evangelistic’ could be punishable by law and pave the way for an ‘anti-conversion clause’ in the penal code, resulting in prison sentences or hefty fines for offenders. Meanwhile on Monday the government enforced a curfew and sent the army to the west of Nepal after demonstrators armed with spears and axes clashed with police, killing at least eight of them, during escalating protests against the proposed new constitution. The charter was meant to draw a line under centuries of inequality, but the draft presented in parliament on Sunday sparked fury among marginalised communities, who say the new borders will limit their political representation.