Celebrating death!

This is what humanity has come to. It is no surprise because it has become culturally and genetically engrained to seek revenge for what you call a "closure." The United States is probably the most voilence-oriented nation. The sports and the entertainment all glorify violence, and identifies violence as "manliness." No wonder the Shiites are celebrating this man's hanging. Husseian is a person who could only be the ugliest face of huanity. But by celebrating his death, we just prove that we are no better than others who accept and rejoice in the suffering of fellow humans. Exerpt follows"

"In Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, victims of his three decades of autocratic rule took to the streets to celebrate, dancing, beating drums and hanging Saddam in effigy. Celebratory gunfire erupted across other Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad and other predominantly Shiite regions of the country."

Src: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061231/ap_on_re_mi_ea/saddam

Religious atrocity, again

In another example of religious foolishness, here comes a news from India. A group formed under the name of one of the Hindu "deities" feel that it is their duty to be moral police. In that quest, they deny basic human emotion to express and seek love.



Resorting to so-called moral policing, Bajrang Dal members raided Manuabhan Ki Tekri - a picnic spot in Bhopal - that also has a Jain temple within its premises and made young couples do sit-ups for indulging in actions against the "culture of our country".

[Source: Bajrang Dal targets young couples againIndo-Asian News ServiceBhopal, December 17, 2006]

Ignorance-thy name is religion

Ignorant humans are the ones who mostly are devout in their religions. Their ignorance is that they believe in fallacies. Faith does not need proof, hence everyone can make thier own truth according to their own beliefs. Hence religion remains the most divisive force in human history. They are only now reaching the magnitude of worldwide clash as never seen before. One prime example how religion makes people blind and has actually no basis on truth comes from the story of breakaway factions of Episcopalians in Virginia. The exerpt from NY Times today:

In Virginia, the two large churches are voting on whether they want to report to the powerful archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, an outspoken opponent of homosexuality who supports legislation in his country that would make it illegal for gay men and lesbians to form organizations, read gay literature or eat together in a restaurant. Archbishop Akinola presides over the largest province in the 77-million-member Anglican Communion; it has more than 17 million members, dwarfing the Episcopal Church, with 2.3 million.

If all eight Virginia churches vote to separate, the Diocese of Virginia, the largest Episcopal diocese in the country, will lose about 10 percent of its 90,000 members. In addition, four churches in Virginia have already voted to secede, and two more are expected to vote soon, said Patrick N. Getlein, secretary of the diocese.

The key to poverty reduction and development

It should be a no brainer that development in any society cannot occur unless all citizens are equally empowered. When gender bias is considered, it becomes glaringly apparent that most of the poor countries have inequality forced upon women. Women are actually more crucial to development than men. Women influence the whole family as the nurturer. So any foundation of developmental aspiration of poor Third world countries has to start with empowering women. The UNICEF report as quoted from The Hindustan Times confirm this crucial assumption:

"Gender equality and the well-being of children go hand in hand. When women are empowered to live full and productive lives, children prosper. This is the main conclusion of the Unicef report released on Tuesday in the Capital.

The State of the World's Children 2007 report says that the Millennium Development Goal 3 — promoting gender equality and empowering women — will reap the dividend of bettering the lives of both women and children and will also contribute to achieving other goals, from reducing poverty and hunger to ensuring universal education."