Beaten for a baby

A judge has refused to grant a divorce to a pregnant woman trying to leave her husband two years after he was jailed for beating her, ruling instead that she must wait until the child is born.

Shawnna Hughes' husband was convicted of abuse in 2002. She separated from him after the attack and filed for divorce last April. She later became pregnant by another man and is due in March.

Her husband, Carlos, never contested the divorce, and the court commissioner approved it in October. But the divorce papers failed to note that Hughes was pregnant, and when the judge found out, he rescinded the divorce. "

Only with love can we win a war

Yesterday, I had a very interesting conversation with a very bright woman. We were discussing how and why no one knew why our boys were in Afganistan. After determining it was because the country (ours) had originally caused all the conflict on that side of the world through the work of Lawrance of Arabia, that, the goverment didn't really want people to know. Of coarse, drugs are involved too.

Then, she said, that the Afgan's will always win, as did the Vietnamesse, and the Russians and the UK  (on their fronts in world war 2) because unlike the invaders, who are simply paid soldiers, the army on their own soil are fighting so no one kills their families, rapes their daughters, steals their home. For them, the fight is personal, where as, for us, and our men, it's just a job. The only persons the invader has to worry about is the man beside him, where as for the defender, he will either loose everything, kill the invaders, or die trying. What she said was true, only with love can we win a war.

What a wonderful Father's day

DADS HOUSE

Father-focused services are gradually gaining ground and this year a new service is due to open in London which will focus solely on lone fathers. Fresh on the scene, with registered charity status, Dads House wants to offer temporary accommodation for fathers and children — the first of its kind in the city.

In London alone, there are 16,473 "male lone parent households". In addition there are 180,366 fathers who are not living with their children and are classified as "absent fathers", according to national statistics updated in 2006. Figures from 2005 show there were 1.9 million single parents and 3.1 million dependent children in total, up to two-thirds of them living in rented accommodation. One in nine of the single parents is a father. Research suggests there are about 210,000 single fathers in the UK, with about 280,000 dependent children living with them.

Homes for Fathers and Families (“HOFF”) is a project aimed at providing the same degree of support for single fathers as is available for single mothers in the UK. Fathers who look after their children on their own have much the same difficulties as mothers. In addition they are not necessarily as naturally gifted when it comes to caring for their children, nor are they seen as needing help, for example by employers in regard to time off or flexibility in working hours. As a result, in many cases, their children suffer.

for more, click here:

http://www.dadshouse.org.uk/

...Well that was a waste of poaching

"African and Asian elephants are under threat from poachers who kill them for their ivory tusks.

 An international five-year moratorium on ivory trading was agreed in 1989, the year when President Moi publicly burned a large pile of ivory in Nairobi National Park under the direction of Kenya Wildlife Service's Dr Richard Leakey."

So, the elephants had been poached for the ivory, which is obviously poached because it has a use (otherwise why are these stupid men taking on the largest mammals on the planet?) so, instead of saving the ivory you have ready for the restrictions on ivory trade, to have a reserve for the demand, and therefore stop extra poaching, you burn the ivory that elephants had already been killed for? Clever...

PS
I took the picture myself (:

The scapgoats of insanity

Throughout western society, and probably eastern too, there is a stereotype on the stereotype of which we label "emo". The goths with feelings, the depressed, the sad, lonely teenager hiding behind thick eyeliner and dark fringes, supposedly prone to self harm. Now, being a teenager, I can name you hundreds of people who would argue against that, but is it true? In Russia, it was certainly considered to be so, and law's were passed against such sub-cultures, as it was considered dangerous. I'm not here to debate about that though, what I'm here to debate is, is thing singular stereotype simply taking the blame?

It is true that an alarming amount of teenagers who consider themselves to be amongst the darker stereotypes and social groups to resort to drugs, and self harm, but surly, they cannot be the only ones. In the UK, 84% of teenagers admitted to either self harming, or knowing of someone who had, now, you cannot tell me that all 84% were dressed in black skinny jeans. Has the label of someone who will self harm been thrown onto the most likely candidate to cover this up? If so, what effect is that having on the others?

People would perhaps consider the "popular girls" to be in hospital with an eating disorder, so does that make getting help harder for them? No such studies, to my knowledge, and therefore google have been carried out, so how would we know? Seeing as they play such an important (although, definitely not right) role in a teenage life, should sub-cultures and stereotypes be taken into account, or is it safer to ignore the lot? Just how big of an effect do clothes have on our mental health?

Meeting expectations...it's bone crushing

It has been an on going tradition in China, that, to keep women's feet small, and therefore avoiding big feet, which is considered unattractive, little girls in China had their feet bandaged until they were seven to brake the bones and prevent growth. To my horror I find that it is still happening, and because this passes as tradition, nothing (or very little is done to stop it)

Most countries have charities, and organisations to prevent child abuse, but, it seems being labelled as tradition give such a horrid action a "get out of jail free card". But, realising this has raised another thought to mind, crushing the feet of young girls isn't the only "tradition" to seem immoral, but accepted anyway. Human sacrifice, the killing of animals for religious reasons, placing Guy Fawkes on a bonfire, the list is endless. Should we draw a line? Or should it be accepted, because it's tradition? Where does the line draw? Where does it stop? Should we stop?

It's (not) hopeless!

Mark Twain, one of America's most well known authors, famous for his quotes on life, such as :

A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.

A man's character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.


A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read.

Never even made it through elementary school.


Still feeling hopeless?

The life expectancy of a gold fish is, your lucky, really lucky, ten years. Fred, the goldfish lived to 41.

Surly that's proof enough that no matter what happens, there's hope. Even if all the doctors, politicians, and priests think otherwise, there's still hope, and if there's hope their happiness. (:

Judging a book by it's cross dressing?

Let's be honest, drag and cross dressing have always been something questionable. They seem to either be glued to the stereotype of something odd, and slightly bizzare, or glitzy and glamourous. Well, why can't it be somewhere in the middle? I'm sure everyone out there has heard of the Greek and Roman hero Heracles (Hercules). You know the one, fighting lions, and Hydra's and crazy Goddess's. Well, at one period in his life, whilst under the ownership (as a slave) of Omphale, the queen of Lydia, Heracles was made to cross dress. At first, it was to humiliate him, and the Queen would wear his Lion's skin. However, she soon noticed it was just as much fun for him as for her, and it became an amusment between the two, as well as something sexually stimulating. In fact, Pan was caught Heracles in one of Omphale's nightie, of his own acord and mistook him for the queen. Of coarse, the invent probably makes him limp when he thinks about it now...

So, perhaps all drag queens/cross dressers aren't as camp and glam as we may think. After all, one of the most famous heroes of film and mythology had his cross-dressed moments himself...

Is racism all just black and white?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not shrugging off racism that's black vs. white, in fact, when I started this article, that was going to be my focus, (using the story placed at the bottom of this post, which for once, ends cheerfully) but then I found these figures, and asked myself, do we focus on the racism that's rooted in our skin too much?


1998
Out of 7,755 incidents, 4,321 were committed on racial, and 754 were on an ethnicity/nat'l origin bias.
This means roughly 6 out of every 10 crimes were on racial bias, blacks being 38% of the total.
Out of those 7,755 incidents, there were 12 murders--8 of which were on racial bias. That's two-thirds.
1996
Out of 8,759 incidents, 5,396 were commited on racial bias, and 940 were on an ethnicity/nat'l origin bias
This means roughly 6 out of every 10 crimes were on racial bias, blacks being 42% of the total.
Out of those 8,759 incidents, there were 13 murders--8 of which were committed on racial bias and 1 on ethnicity/nat'l origin bias

http://library.thinkquest.org/C006274/race/stats.html

Think about it, if you said a black joke (or a white joke) someone would call you a racist, or say you were out of order. However, if you said a German joke, or an Irish joke, or a Polish joke, they'd probably just say that that was harsh, after laughing. So are we focusing on the right racism? Or, have things just gone too far, and should we all ease up a little? Personally, I think this story tells me otherwise...

A group of seven teenage skinheads who carried out 19 racially-motivated murders in Moscow have been sentenced to jail terms of between six and 20 years.
The gang targeted non-Slavic migrants in Russia's capital between Aug 2006 and Oct 2007 and then posted evidence of the brutal murders online.

In addition to killing 19 people, the gang also tried to kill a dozen more, the court heard.

Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky, seen as the ringleaders of the group, were given 10-year sentences in a penal colony, the maximum the judge could give as they were minors at the time of the crimes.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/3777299/Russian-teenage-skinhead-gang-jailed-for-19-racist-murders.html

Although, that was four years ago, so, how about this, which was written in January, 2011.

In the last six months, a number of cases have been before the courts following attacks which appear to have been racially motivated.

From top to bottom: Nachhattar Singh Bola, Simon San and Papa Mbaye Mody.

Three of the four deaths detailed below took place in Scotland and one of these was on a takeaway worker, a profession at high risk of racially motivated attacks, identified in the IRR's briefing paper Racial violence: the buried issue.

Just last week, the young assailants of Nachhattar Singh Bola were all given life terms for the unprovoked attack. Indian man Nachhattar Bola (26) who was visiting friends in Renfrewshire, Scotland for a few months, was attacked on 2 July 2010. He was chased and then attacked by youths as he walked down Thompson Street in Renfrew. The group kicked and beat him, knocking him unconscious, stamping on his head and body. He was taken to the Royal Alexandra Hospital, where he remained in intensive care for five weeks until he died on 6 August 2010. His wife arrived from India in the UK too late to see her husband before he died (because of visa problems) and then did not have enough money to fly his body home. Two 16-year-olds were initially arrested for attempted murder. The charge was changed upon Nachhattar's death to racially aggravated murder, which they were formally charged with when they appeared in private at Paisley Sheriff Court on 16 August 2010. In January 2011, three young men - Dillon Cherrie (16), Dean Logan (16) and Stewart Patterson (20) - all pleaded guilty to murder and were sentenced to life imprisonment, with Cherrie and Logan ordered to serve at least nine years and Patterson ordered to serve at least ten and a half years.

In December 2010, Mustafa Elsherkisi, 40, from Libya, was convicted of the racially aggravated murder of his neighbour Mohammed Idris Mirza in May 2010. Mohammed, a 47-year-old Pakistani man who had lived in Stenhouse Gardens North, in Edinburgh, for fifteen years, had previously argued with his neighbour over the issue of his dog fouling their common garden. Edinburgh High Court was told how Elsherkisi, who denied the charges, had shouted racist abuse during the argument ('P*** bastard'). He had said that he had been carrying a knife for protection and that it was 'a terrible accident'. Elsherkisi was sentenced to life, and told he must serve fifteen years in prison before the possibility of release.

http://www.irr.org.uk/2011/january/ha000028.html


Is certainly raises the question of just how much racism still goes on. I mean, there are still websites online that offer you to join the KKK, I think it's sick personally. As much as the world moves on with technology, and medicine, we still haven't solved the basic issues that have been ongoing for centuries!

However, there is some hope, and justice in all this, (here's the story I mentioned earlier:)

On British Airways flight FR112 from Johannesburg, a rich, middle-aged white woman from South Africa was on the plane. She was running up and down the aisles she was that rich, and if people said stop she would give them money and say “now do I have to stop?” and then she’d keep on doing it. When the plane was about to take off she sat down in her seat and was immediately disgusted because she was sitting next to a black man.

“Stewardess, bleeeuurrrgghh,” she wailed to the stewardess. “Stewardess there’s a black man, bleeeuuurgh I’m going to be sick, this is repulsive euuurrrggghhh.” She kept making vomiting noises and pointing at the black man though she wasn’t vomiting. The black man was getting a bit embarrassed. The stewardess came over to the woman and asked what was wrong.

“You put me next to a black man, bleeeuuuurrghhh, that is so euuurrrghhhhh. I can’t believe this,” she complained and complained.

“Oh, I’ll see what I can do!” enthused the stewardess as she scurried up the plane and behind a curtain. After a moment she came back and said, “I’m soooooo sorry, but there are no more seats in economy, but there’s a seat in first class.” The rich woman’s eyes lit up. First class was her kind of thing. The stewardess continued talking, “it’s really rare that we allow this sort of thing, but we think it’s completely unfair that you have to sit next to such an obnoxious human being.”

“So that is why,” the stewardess went on, “WE ARE GIVING THE SEAT TO THE BLACK MAN because you (the woman) are the obnoxious human being I was talking about.”

For full story, click below:
http://blog.misterbrilliant.com/?p=18

Where were you when.... happened?

A total lunar eclipse is taking place on June 15, 2011, today! It is the first of two such eclipses in 2011, the second occurring on December 10, 2011.

This is a relatively rare central lunar eclipse where the center point of Earth's shadow passes across the Moon. The last time a lunar eclipse was closer to the center of the earth's shadow was on July 16, 2000. The next central total lunar eclipse will be on July 27, 201

8.

YOU!

Just a small note to say how happy I got, when I saw that at the age of 3 days old, the blog has had over 25 views, averaging at 9 a day, from everywhere from Germany to the USA. Thanks guys! (..and girls)

Don't forget, if you have any stories, you can always leave comments (:

A Female Jesus

Dike is a Goddess of Justice, and in Greek Mythology one of the Horae- three beautifully talented sisters who in their later life, were in charge of natural and moral law. Dike was born mortal, to keep peace on earth, however, when it didn't work, and the tides turned against her, she was dragged back up to Olympus by Zeus. Hmmm, sound familiar?

Thirsty to Quench you

The right to water constitutes one of the most fundamental human rights. Yet for local communities in many countries, this right is being undermined in the name of tourism. While tourists can enjoy several showers a day, swimming pools, golf courses and lush landscaped gardens, neighbouring communities often face severe water shortages. This can exacerbate already extreme conditions of hardship and poverty.

Despite this, after throurough research, nothing seems to be getting done, beside research to help the matter. Granted, there are charities helping thirst and water troubles in Africa, but not the places that are suffering for tourim. Nothing at all is being done, and it's due to selfish showers in hotels.

The story of the Two Wolves (within you)

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, "My son, the battle is between two "wolves" inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grand son thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

The European Martin Luther King

Oscar Romero was born in Ciudad Barrios, a small town in El Salvador . Longing to be a priest, he left home at fourteen as his horse picked its way to San Miguel, seven hours away, where he could begin preparing himself for his vocation

Coffee had been planted in El Salvador in 1828. International demand soon found private interests commandeering vast tracts of arable land while expelling subsistence farmers. By 1920 the landowning class comprised fourteen families. Dislocated peasants were now either rural serfs or urban wretched, in any case trying to live on black beans and tortillas. One-half of one per cent of the population owned 90% of the country’s wealth.

In 1932, 30,000 people died in the first uprising. Aboriginals were executed in clumps of sixty. The Te Deum was sung in the cathedral in gratitude for the suppression of “communism.” In no time El Salvador was known as yet another “security state”, a totalitarian arrangement that suspended human rights and slew internal “enemies” at will. Supporting a policy of “peace at any price”, Romero, now editor of the archdiocesan magazine Orientacion, contradicted the previous editor who had cried out against social injustice. Romero focussed on alcoholism, drug-addiction and pornography.

In 1975 the National Guard raided Tres Calles, a village in Romero’s diocese. (By now he was bishop of Santiago de Maria.) The early-morning attack hacked people apart with machetes as it rampaged from house to house, ostensibly searching for concealed weapons. The event catalyzed Romero. At the funeral for the victims Romero’s sermon condemned the violation of human rights. Privately he wrote the president of El Salvador , naively thinking that a major clergyman’s objection would carry weight.

His “turn” (such an about-face scripture calls “repentance”) accelerated. Plainly the church was at a crucial point in the history of its relationship to the Salvadoran people. Would it help move them past an oppressive feudalism or retrench, thereby strengthening the hand of the oppressor?

When Romero was promoted as Archbishop of San Salvador, the capital city, the ruling alliance intensified its opposition. Six priests were arrested and deported to Guatemala . One of them remarked that the church finally was where it was supposed to be: with the people, surrounded by the wolves. Romero’s first task as archbishop was grim: he had to bury dozens whom soldiers had machine-gunned when 50,000 protesters demonstrated against rigged elections.

By now Romero had turned all the way “around the corner.” Summoning priests to his residence (he had moved out of the Episcopal palace and was bunking in a hospital for indigents) he told them he required no further evidence or argumentation: he knew what the gospel required of church leaders in the face of the people’s misery. All priests were to afford sanctuary to those threatened by government hounds.

Immediately the “hounds” sent a message to Romero as Rutilio Grande, a Jesuit friend who had struggled to implement Vatican II reforms, was gunned down in his jeep, together with an old man and sixteen year-old boy. Undeterred, Romero prayed publicly at length beside his friend’s remains, and then buried all three corpses without first securing government permission – a criminal offence. Next he did the unthinkable: he excommunicated the murderers. In a dramatic gesture he cancelled all services the following Sunday except for a single mass in front of the cathedral, conducted outdoors before 100,000 people. When he went to Rome to explain himself, the pope replied, “Coraggio – courage.” Courage? Rightwing groups were leafleting the nation, “Be a patriot: kill a priest.”

Reprisals intensified. In one village anyone found possessing a bible or hymnbook was arrested, later to be shot or dismembered. Four foreign Jesuits were tortured, their ravaged bodies dumped in neighbouring Guatemala . Thousands of people disappeared without trace. In all of this Romero never backed down: Christ is King just because he brings his Kingdom with him, and in their discernment of this reality Christians must be “fellow workers in the truth”(3rd John 3) in anticipation of “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”(2nd Peter 3:13)

Romero insisted that he had not warped the gospel into a program of social dismantling, let alone malicious social chaos. He criticized priests who wanted to reduce the gospel to political protest without remainder. He deplored protesters’ violence, even as he admitted they were victims of long-standing institutional violence.



Knowing himself to be on the government’s “hit list,” he went to the hills to prepare himself for his final confrontation with evil. He telephoned his farewell message to Exclesior , Mexico ’s premier newspaper, insisting that like the Good Shepherd, a pastor must give his life for those he loves.

Romero was shot while conducting mass at the funeral of a friend’s mother. His assassin escaped in the hubbub and has never been found. 250,000 thronged the Cathedral Square for his funeral. A bomb exploded. Panic-stricken people stampeded. Forty died. In the next two years 35,000 Salvadorans perished. Fifteen per cent of the population was driven into exile. Two thousand simply “disappeared.”


For full article, visit
http://www.victorshepherd.on.ca/Heritage/Oscar%20Romero.htm

From Murder weapons, to art

In 2001, The Christian Council of Mozambique shared with us some of the work that they had been doing to build peace after the countries long civil war. They encouraged people to hand in the weapons that were the legacy of conflict, and the Swords into Ploughshares Project decommissioned them and with the help of local artists turned them into amazing sculptures.

Strenght in Music

Music inspires so many, and it helps by giving people a certain feeling, hope, happiness or even just the sense that someone else knows what you're going through. So, I figured it earned it's place amogst stories to change the world.

I don't own any of these songs, or materials, no copyright infrigment intended.

Click on a box to play.

A gay-right martyr before even the term gay (as we know it)

Oscar Wilde is widely celebrated as an artist persecuted for his homosexuality, a sort of protomartyr for the cause of gay rights. The current celebration of Wilde as gay martyr is certainly one legitimate interpretation of his life, but it oversimplifies his complexity; indeed, it ignores the major movement of his life, a life that may also be seen as a long and difficult conversion to the Roman Catholic Church.

Oscar Wilde
1854-1900
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He was homosexual, promiscuously so, and his downfall was precipitated by his passion for a younger man. It was this young man, Lord Alfred Douglas, who in one of his poems called their desire "the love that dare not speak its name." The tale of their romance has classic, even operatic, features — objections by the beloved's family, separation and exile, brief reunion before the lover's death. The heart left unmoved by their story would be hard indeed.

Yet this sad accounting fails to give us the whole of Oscar Wilde. He was prosecuted for "acts of gross indecency with other male persons, " found guilty, and sentenced to two years in prison at hard labor. But his reading during his imprisonment included works by St. Augustine, Dante, and Newman. When he emerged from prison, injured and in poor health, he fled across the channel to France to reunite with his lover. But his first act on his release had been to write to the Jesuits begging to make a six-month retreat at one of their London houses. Wilde is celebrated as the center of a circle of unconventional poets and artists known as decadents and aesthetes.



http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/arts/al0010.html

Inspiration in the small things

Ok, so, this one is something personal.

When I was in school, there was a girl in our year that everyone made fun of, because she was the type of girl who got herself into sticky situations (e.g. regarding a pornographic video being sent around the school) she smellt bad because, due to trauma (she was an orphan), she used to smoke and wet the bed. Her hair was always greasy, and she had an arbortian. In our prom, she asked if she could sit with me, and I said sure, after all it was prom, and everyone deserved a good time. There wasn't enough room around our table however, and seeing as non of my friends would make room (granted, there wasn't much) she sat behind us. When we got our food, I swapped seats with her so she could sit by the table to eat, and some of my friends still express their annoyance to this day about it. However, one of them, a rather close friends of mine, said she was proud of me, and I knew then that I'd done the right thing. The moral of the story isn't to fight the majority, although if you feel and know your in the right, then of coarse it's always the right thing to do, but that it's the little things that inspire and push people. Because, I'm not afraid to voice myself now, and all it took was swapping seats with a girl from school...

The same idea rests in what happened to me last week, I was waiting outside the bus stop, when an elderly man, whom I didn't know came up to me and said "Don't look so worried, it's never as bad as it seems."

I stand by your ears unseen,

I stand by your ear unseen.
Before the flogging they buried me to my waist in mud
One hundred times and one, they beat me with a cane
Because I was wearing a burqa
the mullah was spared the sight of my blood
When my family took me home I was unconscious
They were forbidden to seek treatment
When I died the next morning no one was surprised.
It was three days after my 18th birthday.

I stand by your ear unseen.
When I was 14 I wanted to be a teacher. I remember
laughing with my friends on the way home from school
I remember writing poems about the future
daydreaming at the window into velvet sky
Impossible, then, to believe what would come
after the Taliban took our town.

I stand by your ear unseen.
When I was 15 they came. The wide world choked shut
Collapsed to a point of fear, hunger. Constant
My sisters and I ate what brothers left. Little. They
could leave the house for classes, for work
My mother's office job was taken away
When my uncle would accompany her
she took her turn wearing a neighborhood burqa
so she could look for food. She sold our books

I stand by your ear unseen.
Three years. My youngest sister sickened
My father carried her to the hospital but
they told him to throw her away. She died at the door
That's when my anger endangered all of us
In her name I started a secret school. To read
to write, five little girls and I risked our lives
I would do it again. It was a way for ghosts
to have hands and voices for awhile.

I stand by your ear unseen.
When another decree was issued, that houses with women
have all windows painted black, we had no funds
My father was gone, forced into the militia
My mother had nothing left to sell
They marched in to bully us
found the hidden school slates behind my bed
Hauled to the mullah, I told nothing
He shut the door and raped me.

I stand by your ears unseen
Famine and depression make periods scant
I didn't know about the baby at first
My aunt had the right herb in a hidden pot on her roof
She stayed while my baby bled out
A new decree, forbidden to make sound when we walk,
caught her when she left. She didn't have shoes that were silent
They beat her on the street until her accompanying son
in his panic tried to shield her
by sacrificing me. The mullah learned everything.

I stand by your ear unseen.
He announced my offense of having an abortion
which proved I was promiscuous
My crimes cloaked his and no one
could do anything but pray I might survive
That prayer was not mine. I was ready to depart
I do not ask for personal mourning. Twelve million living
women and girls require your outrage
Lift your veil! Open your ear.


written by Sue Silvermarie, an American supporter of RAWA

Bedi Begum was murdered by flogging at the order of the Taliban in July of 1999,one of 60 women to die as a result of flogging this year. This narrative combines the elements of several true stories about various Afghan women

Memento Mori

"Memento Mori" is Latin for remember you will die.

We have two ways to view this:

1. As a gloomy phrase, to bring us down and make life seem pointless

OR

2. See it as a reason to fight, and enjoy the time you have. Take it as a reason to face your fears to challenge yourself to do more


There are always two ways to see things.

Bad press and sexism for alternative religions, even within it's own walls

I added this because not only does it show a basic sexist issue, misconceptions about alternative religion but also it gives an insight into how normal the believers of those religions are, hopefully fighting some stereoytype there too.

"Dudes. You see us on the street, in the clubs, the restaurants, the malls – we all look pretty normal, man. We’re builders, lawyers, and writers. I’m talking about guys like me. Guys like us. Witches. Male Witches.

We, like everyone else, have the same Pagan beliefs as everyone else [give or take a few]. We worship the Goddess and the God. We have our altar at home, in our apartments, the candles, the wands, the incense, the rituals, the drums, freaking our housemates and roommates out every so often. We even make our magickal circle look as elegant as yours.

The only exception however, is that we’re dudes.

We get given a lot of flak for being who we are, I’ll tell you right now.

That, and we’re under represented.

You girls have it easy; when you tell people you’re a Witch, people just sort of nod and smile. You can dress up any way you like, wear those darker coloured dresses, and wear all that jewellery, that dark make up. You can pull it off, easy. I’m not saying all female Witches do it because they don’t. Some girls, you can’t even tell… However, the point is, is that you girls aren’t going to get much jib-jab for calling yourself a Witch.

We dudes just don’t have it the same. We get triple raised eyebrows, quick glances left and right to see who else is cracking up, and a punch in the shoulder and before you know it you’re the laughing stock and someone’s buying you that drink because they reckon you’re pretty weird… but that’s cool, right?

Take me, for example. I’m a reasonably charismatic guy, and I like to present myself as best as possible because I know it’s my confidence that’s going to get me somewhere in life. Dark blonde hair, blue eyes, tall. I wear my Lacoste and my chinos; I play sports. I keep to a pretty hip group of people, and I go out most weekends, work my ass off during the week. I look after myself. I run, swim. We go out to restaurants, have nice cocktails, meet girls and boys, and spend our Sundays looking over the new project in the garage.

Football is another matter.

Point is I’m pretty normal to most standards. I don’t wear black clothing. I don’t suffocate myself in all this jewellery; I don’t have weird tattoos on my arms. And I wear deodorant. I don’t hang out with those Goths on the corner because I think that’s where I fit. My hair isn’t long and dark and full of wax.

And this is where it all stops. People don’t believe me if I tell them I’m a Witch. Even if I tell someone who’s reasonably educated, they’re going to look at me funny, and they do. The number of times I’ve had to convince people I wasn’t lying and that this is my religion, well, if I had a dime… you know the rest.

But even after I’ve convinced them [or I think I have] I’ve already lost the impending fight. They won’t believe a single word I will say about it, because I’m suddenly a break in the standards they would normally expect. Their illusion of Witches is suddenly shoved aside and well, if they believe me, then so be it. But more often than not, it’s just not the case at all.

They can’t seem to break the fabric, the one that only really includes females that dance around – naked – under the full moon going crazy. They really can’t see past that. Because A, why would a person of my status involve myself in witchcraft, and B, “No way, you just spent last weekend at the football and then got drunk with your buddies afterwards. I mean, come on, that’s silly. You’re being silly.”

See what I mean? They think I’m silly. And they don’t believe me.

You girls really do have it easy. You have no idea how much crap we have to deal with.

It would be all fine if we dressed in black and dyed our hair black and had an infinite amount of piercings in our face, didn’t wear deodorant [yes, you do know what I’m getting at here], and spoke in monotones… that would make it easier. We could tell people we’re Witches, and we’d get some recognition and some form of respect. Maybe not the respect that is wanted, but at least we wouldn’t have to sit down for hours convincing our friends that we really do love God – albeit the female version – and getting them, our good friends to take us seriously.

But thing is, we all don’t. And some of us… don’t want to.

Take me for example; I’m a little image phobic. I know if I wear that hoodie to a job interview, I’m probably not going to get it. When I’m just walking around in general, I like to look fashionable. I like to look tidy, and reasonably clean cut. You won’t find me with a tattoo anywhere. I come from a good family, let’s be honest. I realise the whole world isn’t as conservative anymore and if I do have that sleeve tattoo I’ve always wanted, well then I don’t think it will be too much of an issue in life. I guess it all depends on how we are individually raised and our different values and I definitely stay true to my roots.

I know a few other Male Witches who run the same track team as I do. You couldn’t tell them off the street. Some of them don’t say anything because they’re tired of the same-old-same-old when they talk about their religious affiliation. Then there are the few others I know, the more hippie-like ones, who wear tee shirts with holes, the long hair, the tattoos, a very bohemia-Witch-chic look I guess you could say. They don’t get hassled when they state their religious affirmation, because that’s not really a big surprise coming from the guy with the bong [It’s a hollow wand!].

To those who do dress up in dark clothing, have the piercings, the dark make up etc., I hope I haven’t offended – we’re getting into a major subculture here and that’s fine. There are many male Witches out there who do that, and that’s like, cool. But thing is, the majority of the population believe that if you are a Witch, apart from being a woman, that ‘we all dress like that’ and ‘behave like that’. And we all know that’s not a fact.

It gets worse too, especially if we go out, and you’re with your friends, non-Pagan friends of course – typical. You’re at a bar or club with all your friends; it’s a good time, and you’re chatting up all these good-looking girls and boys. Obviously it’s not the time to bring out the religion card, unless it’s that important to you, however if it is you’re pulling it out at the wrong place… Anyhow, it just so happens that one of these boys or girls you’re hanging out with is cool and you kind of like him/her. And he/she kind of likes you and you can work the rest out.

But then your buddy Jackson thinks it’s funny (though claims to respect your religious choice) to ask you about the Witch thing. And then the person you have your arm around kind of looks at you, smirking, waiting for an answer, mouths “What’s he talking about?”… It really all just goes downhill from here, and in two directions. That person gets scared off and goes back to her friends, or this person is ‘open-minded’, and wants to ‘understand’ you but really you know what that means. Jackson’s destroyed your mojo and your date’s friends are all giggling away.

However the more relevant and probably more critical example is your professional life and this is where it gets serious, whether that is in an office environment, you may or may not be a Law Graduate, or you’re just the supervisor of a video store. It’s all the same. You expect to have a bit of professionalism at any job you take and in situations like these, the religion card can be pulled for any number of reasons. But, for relevance, the example will be my own.

I’m comfortable with my religion, and in any situation, regardless of who I meet, whether it be the Prince of Wales or the President of the USA, my role model or my own boss, I’ll tell them what I am, and who I am. I’ll say it proudly and normally can counteract any missile questions that seem to follow.

I’ll say it, don’t you worry. I’m very driven in life. I like powerful people and I surround myself with them. I’m a very lucky Witch. I tend to treat it like it is a religious choice [and so should you] and the seriousness of my nature normally convinces them and shuts down any annoying questions. Unfortunately it’s inevitable that I lose a little respect, you know?

As I said before, some of these people have even asked me why I would involve myself in Witchcraft; I mean, its Witchcraft, right? Respect is important for me but at the same time I try not to compromise my own beliefs or my own self in order to impress anyone. I’m a Witch; I’m male. That’s weird to them, let’s be honest. But it does pain me sometimes, and I do lose sleep over it depending on the situation. For that reason, sometimes I don’t tell someone so as to avoid this situation because really, it’s a little difficult sometimes and more so than just the normal run-of-the-mill discrimination Witches get in general.

Nonetheless the question still stands – why should I have to be ashamed and even do that? I’m an open-minded guy and more often than not it just comes out like a verbal machine gun. I want to be respected, and according to my Star Sign, I ‘command respect’. But I don’t want people laughing at me, unless it’s because I’m a really funny guy for other reasons [which I am].

We all know why we shouldn’t be calling ourselves a Warlock although I am aware that many a Pagan actually does use the term. But that’s the other thing people say, “Isn’t a guy like a wizard or a Warlock? Yeah, you’re a Warlock [realising wizards don’t exist right?]. Only girls are Witches…” says the person who thinks he/she knows more about your religion than you do. This is the biggest most single annoying thing in the world for me personally. It pisses me off, to put it bluntly. It’s incredibly frustrating when people in life just don’t take you seriously, and for something that’s actually genuine.

And this is where it gets infuriating. I attended a Pagan festival in a nearby city several weeks ago. I brought a few Pagan friends along. I think I was wearing jeans and a shirt, and wore my necklace which consists of a beautiful Goddess symbol, and a pentagram (all on the same chain) which I’ve worn for years; the Goddess to represent my faith in the Mother, and Pentagram which to me is a symbol of humanity, and my religion, and path as a Witch.

However I was talking to a group of people around my age who seemed really nice and we had been chatting for a while. We were outside, the sun was shining, and there were tents everywhere. They told me they were going to be doing a Meditative Circle for the opening of the weekend-long festival. One of the girls, who seemed to be the inst igator of the group (there were several of them) , invited us to join. But suddenly another girl who I had noticed talking quietly with the others interjected. “We’re a closed group Mandy. If we’re going to be inviting people to join, at least make sure they’re Pagan.”

I replied, “I’ve been Pagan for over 13 years now.”

“Yeah well you don’t look like one to me, let alone a guy…” Mandy told her to back off and I wished Mandy a good weekend. She later contacted me that weekend to apologise.

Am I sensing something silly in the Pagan Community itself?"

For full article visit:
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usca&c=words&id=14529


Paganism is an earth based religion that believes in both a God and Goddess. Wicca is a neo-pagan religion that uses witchcraft along side those beliefs to keep a natural balance, communicate with deities and search the spiritual world. The stereotypes of it being a danger is myth, as Wicca follows a rede, of which, the most important rule is "and it harm non do what ye will"

Do we really care?

The number of orphans and street children continue to rise in Africa. orphans
In addition to war, HIV and famine, malaria continues to kill children in record numbers especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Meanwhile a mosquito net costs less than $1. The problem is worse in the villages and small towns where there are no hospitals nor clinics to help the sick. Malaria death toll rises extremely high especially in the rainy season which is the breeding period for mosquitoes.
Cozay: Poverty in Africa facts & Stats: diseases in Africa: Malaria kills in Africa

http://cozay.com/



Sometimes, in our western lives, with our western toys, and western wealth we forget about all this. I noticed on the BBC news today, as they interviewed people on the topic of the UK's donations towards jabs for children in poor countries, that of all the people shown, non of them understood why the money was given, when the UK's economy is in such a poor state. It's because we may be cutting down on holidays, and cars, and days out, but these people have nothing else to cut back on.

Growing up too quickly

Young Carers

The 2001 Census found there were 175,000 young carers, of which some 13,000 were providing more than 50 hours of help a week.

Megan Carr, 14, of Barnes Road, South Shields, grew up knowing her mother, Mandy, 42, suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.

She would help out around the house, but it wasn’t until last year that her caring role became more demanding.

Dad Darren said: “Mandy lost a lot of weight and the doctors couldn’t work out why.

“We found out afterwards that she had neutropenic sepsis, where the body doesn’t produce enough white blood cells to fight off infection.

“She was constantly tired and couldn’t do a lot for herself. Megan used to help her.

“She would go shopping and help out around the house.”

Although her parents were separated, Megan was helped by her dad and half-sister, Cheryl, now 21, but Mr Carr admits she did “the lion’s share” of the work.

He got in touch with the Young Carers Project, run by the Carers Association in South Tyneside, early last year to make sure she had support outside of the family.

Although her mum died in August, just a few months after she joined, Megan remains a committed member and helps out with the younger ones.

She’s just picked social care in her options at South Shields Community School and wants to work with young people in the future.

Megan said of her caring role: “I didn’t really mind doing it.

“I didn’t know anything different.

“I knew she had arthritis, but I didn’t realise how bad she was towards the end until we got her a stairlift and she started using it more and more.

“That is how I knew the illness was getting a lot worse. It was getting hard for her to walk up and down stairs. Sometimes she didn’t come downstairs at all.”

Being a carer didn’t affect her work at primary school, she said, but she found it more difficult to juggle her role with things like homework when she went to secondary school.

However, her parents were keen that she still saw her friends as often as possible.

She said: “I have got a lot of friends who knew about my mam and they knew when I said I couldn’t go out, I couldn’t go out, and that was why.”

Mr Carr said: “I think Mandy felt guilty having to rely on her daughters so much.

“There were times when they didn’t do what she wanted and she felt frustrated that she couldn’t do it.

“She wouldn’t ask for help a lot of the time, hence why she would often just stay in bed.”

As well as using her experience as a carer in a future career, Mr Carr believes it will make his daughter a stronger person.

He added: “She’s ahead of all her classmates in life. She’s had to grow up quite quickly.”

For full article, visit:
http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/health/young_carer_has_had_to_grow_up_quickly_1_3475100