Friday, November 25, 2005
Warzone..
Gunshot wounds 'endemic' in Rio de Janeiro Undeclared war between authorities and drug dealers
"Emergency room restricted due to overcrowding (risk of death)" is handwritten on a sign in huge letters on the door of the emergency room at Bonsucesso General Hospital in this teeming city.
On a hot Friday night on Rio's sprawling north side, where the heat radiates from the pavement even after sunset, the hospital, known as HGB, starts to boil, too.
"HGB is an international reference when it comes to gunshot treatment," Dr. Flavio Sa, in charge of registering the incoming gunshot patients, said with a mixture of pride and perplexity. "In the last four years, the increase in gunshot wounds has been significant, and today ... it is an endemic problem in the hospital."
At 8:40 p.m. this day, there were already four bullet wound victims in emergency. Four minutes later, another arrived. Among them was a police officer, Marco Antonio dos Santos, 34.
According to his police comrades, Santos and his partner, Edson Stocco, 36, were on a police call when they were attacked by bandits. Santos was hit in the eye by a bullet and by shrapnel from a grenade. His eye cannot be saved.
"This is getting worse than Afghanistan," said a female police officer who asked not to be identified because of the undeclared war in the city between drug dealers and police.
Brazil has the world's highest death toll from firearms. With 100 million fewer citizens than the United States, it has 25 percent more gun deaths, at about 36,000 a year.
Gun deaths are such a problem that the nation held a referendum Oct. 23 on a proposal to ban the sale of firearms and ammunition to anyone other than for police, the military, security guards, gun collectors and hunters. The proposal was defeated -- 64 percent of voters opposed it -- but the plan's supporters said the result reflected Brazilians' fears for their personal security.
"The Yes voters know that having firearms means danger rather than protection. ... The No voters think possession of a gun is an individual right and a need, since the government does not provide effective security," said Antonio Rangel, a sociologist and the arms control coordinator for the nongovernmental organization Viva Rio.
The homicide rate in Rio rivals even that of war zones.
A UNESCO study published this year found that the 325,551 deaths from firearms from 1993 to 2003 amounted to more than in 26 armed conflicts, including the first Gulf War and the first and second Palestinian uprisings.
"Unfortunately, Brazil is world champion in firearm homicides," said Brazil Senate President Renan Calheiros, the driving force behind the firearms referendum.
Bonsucesso hospital is surrounded by 24 slums, known unofficially as "the Gaza Strip," where shootouts are marked by indiscriminate gunfire between rival drug gangs and the police.
In 2004, HGB registered 352 cases of firearm victims and 82 dead-on-arrival cases, and the true numbers are probably higher because many never make it to the hospital.
With military efficiency, patients are sorted and labeled according to the seriousness of their wounds: PAF (firearm victim), ENTRADA (entry) and JA CADAVER (already dead).
If an urgent case arrives, others simply have to wait.
The area around the hospital is so dangerous that doctors work in 24-hour shifts instead of the customary 12 to avoid coming and going at night. A handful of projectiles pulled from the walls of the hospital testifies to the reality of the danger.
Most of the gun wounds treated are from high-caliber assault weapons, which only the armed forces are permitted to use in Brazil. The only protection from that kind of weapon is a 30-pound, level-4 bulletproof vest, the kind in use by the U.S. military in Iraq. Typical dress in the slums is flip-flops, shorts and no shirt.
Sa, by now an expert on bullets, explained the difference between the most common wounds from revolvers and assault weapons.
"The bullets from a revolver are bigger and go 260 meters per second," he said. "Assault weapon bullets are smaller but go 800 meters per second and cause much greater damage. High-speed projectiles cause more damage because of their kinetic energy. The hole is bigger, so patients can lose entire body parts.''
Young people from 15 to 24 are at the most risk. According to the UNESCO study, an estimated 550,000 people were victims of firearms from 1979 to 2003. Of those, 205,722 (44.1 percent) were between 15 and 24.
Firearms are the third leading cause of death in the country, behind heart disease and cerebrovascular diseases, the study says. For young people, they are No. 1.
In those 24 years, firearms victims increased by 462 percent, while the population grew 52 percent. Deaths by firearms have declined only once in the past 25 years, dropping 8.4 percent in 2004, during a "Lay Down Your Arms" campaign in which more than a half million firearms were turned in for $30 apiece.
At Bonsucesso hospital, the struggle for life spilled from the stretcher to the floor of the emergency room into red pools littered with gauze, cotton, plastic tubes and syringes. It looked like a battle scene.
Bruno Custodio, 19, was hit by a stray bullet during a shootout between drug traffickers and police, who went to the nearby slum of Manguinhos seeking revenge for the attack on a police patrol.
The other victims were residents of the slum, or simply passing nearby, such as bus driver Joao Carlos Ramos, 52, who was grazed in the left thigh by a bullet but still stopped to help Monica Morais, 36, and Marcelo Mendonca de Souza, 36. Morais was hit in the stomach and Souza in his left arm. As drips from their blood-soaked clothes stained the ground outside, they were carried inside. They would live, but Bruno Custodio was not so fortunate. He died a half-hour after he was admitted.
The Bonsucesso hospital made headlines in May 2001 when the comrades of drug trafficker Marcio Greick broke him out of the facility in a hail of gunfire.
Greick, 21, had been injured in a police chase and was handcuffed to his bed. In a lightning raid, 10 masked men armed with assault rifles and police-issue bulletproof vests entered the hospital, shot his handcuffs off and pulled him from the fourth floor to a getaway car waiting outside.
On their way out, the rescue squad shot dozens of people waiting for treatment. Seven were injured, two guards were beaten, and one police officer on duty at the hospital was killed. The 16 armed hospital guards, a detective and three police officers assigned to Geick were not enough to stop the drug gang.
"It was a war operation," said the director of the hospital at the time, Dr. Victor Grabois.
The urban guerrilla warfare takes its toll on the medical staff and the country.
"This (violence) spends a huge amount of money," said Dr. Marcelo Castro. "Those who are shot and have lasting injuries place an undue burden on the system, which can hardly treat the sick and injured anyway."
Sa is more sanguine. It's not really like practicing medicine in wartime, he said, "because here there are no huge explosions, except for the occasional grenade."
On the other hand, he added, "I've had days when I was operating on a patient and suddenly look out the window to see a police helicopter with cops hanging out of it shooting down below."
posted at
3:23 PM by
john
|
Rio Restricts Sale of Sexy Postcards
Visitors to Rio can gape at the girls from Ipanema wearing thong bikinis on the beach — or even less at carnival celebrations. But if they want a picture, they had better bring a camera.
A new law is restricting the sale of postcards showing scantily clad women, a campaign aimed at reducing exploitation and sex tourism that has drawn mixed reactions in Brazil's tourist capital.
The law, signed last week by Rio state Gov. Rosinha Garotinho, says postcards cannot show bikini-clad women in photo montages or outside natural beach settings.
Many vendors already have pulled postcards off the racks, but few think the law will have much impact on Rio's image.
Or on sales. Luiz Alberto, who runs a newsstand near Copacabana beach, said postcards of Sugar Loaf mountain and Christ the Redeemer are much bigger sellers.
"These cards were mostly for gringos," he said. "This ban is just silly."
Supporters of the ban say the images encourage sex tourism, a growing problem in Brazil.
"Showing women in skimpy outfits, usually from the rear, is a disservice to our country," said Alice Tamborindeguy, the state legislator who proposed the law. "It puts us on the list of countries that encourage sex tourism."
Rio's relaxed sexual mores attract men, many of them Europeans, seeking sex with young girls or boys. Sex has become a livelihood to support poor families in a country with a minimum wage of less than US$135 (euro115) a month.
"Postcards that exploit photos of women in skimpy wear suggest sex tourism, a practice that stigmatizes us with undignified labels," Rio Tourism Secretary Sergio Ricardo de Almeida said in a statement.
Sex also is a big attraction of carnival, the annual four-day, pre-Lenten bash that is Rio's top tourist draw. The city's traditional carnival parade features women dressed in little more than body paint and glitter, and the government distributes thousands of condoms free to reduce the risk of AIDS.
The postcard ban has not caught on elsewhere in Brazil, and its effect in Rio is being questioned. The city still allows bikini-adorned posters, billboards and life-sized photos advertising men's magazines — images that are far more visible than postcards.
Roberto DaMatta, a respected sociologist who taught at the University of Notre Dame, said the ban reflects the "puritan" background of Gov. Garotinho, a born-again Christian.
"It's rational puritanism. The United States has had it for ages," he said.
DaMatta said discussion of the ban has given Brazil a rare chance to shed a stereotype.
"The U.S. view is that Brazil is crime, street kids and slums. No one knows we build and export airplanes," he said. "We can't make a woman's butt the image of Rio. Rio has more than that."
Rosana Ribeiro, a vendor at a Copacabana kiosk, said Rio legislators should be concerned with more pressing problems.
Jesus, when they have a million and one problems to solve, what does the government of Rio do? Ban postcards, well im sure thats going to fucking help alot right? Im sure all those homeless and starving women and children will be jumping for fucking joy!..
"What about jobs, health care, needy kids? There are more important things, and they waste time on postcards," she said.
OMG..
Rio Restricts Sale of Sexy Postcards
Visitors to Rio can gape at the girls from Ipanema wearing thong bikinis on the beach — or even less at carnival celebrations. But if they want a picture, they had better bring a camera.
A new law is restricting the sale of postcards showing scantily clad women, a campaign aimed at reducing exploitation and sex tourism that has drawn mixed reactions in Brazil's tourist capital.
The law, signed last week by Rio state Gov. Rosinha Garotinho, says postcards cannot show bikini-clad women in photo montages or outside natural beach settings.
Many vendors already have pulled postcards off the racks, but few think the law will have much impact on Rio's image.
Or on sales. Luiz Alberto, who runs a newsstand near Copacabana beach, said postcards of Sugar Loaf mountain and Christ the Redeemer are much bigger sellers.
"These cards were mostly for gringos," he said. "This ban is just silly."
Supporters of the ban say the images encourage sex tourism, a growing problem in Brazil.
"Showing women in skimpy outfits, usually from the rear, is a disservice to our country," said Alice Tamborindeguy, the state legislator who proposed the law. "It puts us on the list of countries that encourage sex tourism."
Rio's relaxed sexual mores attract men, many of them Europeans, seeking sex with young girls or boys. Sex has become a livelihood to support poor families in a country with a minimum wage of less than US$135 (euro115) a month.
"Postcards that exploit photos of women in skimpy wear suggest sex tourism, a practice that stigmatizes us with undignified labels," Rio Tourism Secretary Sergio Ricardo de Almeida said in a statement.
Sex also is a big attraction of carnival, the annual four-day, pre-Lenten bash that is Rio's top tourist draw. The city's traditional carnival parade features women dressed in little more than body paint and glitter, and the government distributes thousands of condoms free to reduce the risk of AIDS.
The postcard ban has not caught on elsewhere in Brazil, and its effect in Rio is being questioned. The city still allows bikini-adorned posters, billboards and life-sized photos advertising men's magazines — images that are far more visible than postcards.
Roberto DaMatta, a respected sociologist who taught at the University of Notre Dame, said the ban reflects the "puritan" background of Gov. Garotinho, a born-again Christian.
"It's rational puritanism. The United States has had it for ages," he said.
DaMatta said discussion of the ban has given Brazil a rare chance to shed a stereotype.
"The U.S. view is that Brazil is crime, street kids and slums. No one knows we build and export airplanes," he said. "We can't make a woman's butt the image of Rio. Rio has more than that."
Rosana Ribeiro, a vendor at a Copacabana kiosk, said Rio legislators should be concerned with more pressing problems.
Jesus, when they have a million and one problems to solve, what does the government of Rio do? Ban postcards, well im sure thats going to fucking help alot right? Im sure all those homeless and starving women and children will be jumping for fucking joy!..
"What about jobs, health care, needy kids? There are more important things, and they waste time on postcards," she said.
posted at
3:16 PM by
john
|
Vatican ban for singer in anti-Aids campaign
A chart-topping singer, involved in Brazil's campaign against HIV/Aids, has been barred from performing in front of Pope Benedict XVI because of her views on contraception.
Daniela Mercury, who backed a ministry of health Aids awareness campaign during this year's carnival with the slogan "dress yourself: use a condom", was due to perform in Vatican City on December 3.
The singer was "incensed" by the decision. "I argued Brazil was the most Catholic country in the world and that my presence would make everybody happy but they didn't accept it," she said.
So now we can see the real truth behind the Vatican in Brasil. They dont mind taking poor peoples money for their prayers etc but when it comes to someone in Brasil trying to do something to stop the spread of AIDS here the Vatican shun and ban her from their city. What kind of fucking idiots are they? They should be cheering this Mercury woman not slapping her down. Granted her singing is terrible but at least shes trying to get something done. Brasilian Catholics and others should shun the churches in protest at this discraceful behavior..
Spite..
Vatican ban for singer in anti-Aids campaign
A chart-topping singer, involved in Brazil's campaign against HIV/Aids, has been barred from performing in front of Pope Benedict XVI because of her views on contraception.
Daniela Mercury, who backed a ministry of health Aids awareness campaign during this year's carnival with the slogan "dress yourself: use a condom", was due to perform in Vatican City on December 3.
The singer was "incensed" by the decision. "I argued Brazil was the most Catholic country in the world and that my presence would make everybody happy but they didn't accept it," she said.
So now we can see the real truth behind the Vatican in Brasil. They dont mind taking poor peoples money for their prayers etc but when it comes to someone in Brasil trying to do something to stop the spread of AIDS here the Vatican shun and ban her from their city. What kind of fucking idiots are they? They should be cheering this Mercury woman not slapping her down. Granted her singing is terrible but at least shes trying to get something done. Brasilian Catholics and others should shun the churches in protest at this discraceful behavior..
posted at
3:10 PM by
john
|
Brazil's first black television channel tackles legacy of 300 years of slavery With non-white faces a rarity in media and politics, a new station aims to bridge racial divide.
"Is it on air? We're on the air!" With the push of a button and these hesitant words, Brazil's first black television channel came into existence yesterday.
TV da Gente, which means "our TV", has been heralded as giant step forward in the country's fight against discrimination, and to mark the broadcast high-ranking politicians, celebrities and civil rights activists gathered at the Casa Verde studio in north Sao Paulo.
"This will turn out to be the most important development ever in terms of communication for black communities all around the world," a veteran American civil rights activist, 72-year-old James Meredith, told the Guardian. "Unlike the United States and South Africa, Brazil established a system of white supremacy without the obvious signs like segregation or apartheid. Until Brazilians start to face up to this reality the legacy of slavery will continue."
Mr Meredith's ideas are far from universally accepted in Brazil where, despite the social chasm between Afro-Brazilians and their white counterparts, many still insist on the idea of a "racial democracy", first expounded by the anthropologist Gilberto Freyre in the 1930s.
Statistics tell a different story, of a country split along racial lines. Afro-Brazilians form almost half Brazil's 180 million strong population yet account for 63% of the poorest section of society. The 2000 census found that 62.7% of Brazil's white population had access to sanitation compared with just 39.6% of its Afro-Brazilians, while a new UN report found that black men earned on average 50% less than their white counterparts in Brazil. Human rights campaigners underline the racial dimension behind Brazil's staggering murder rates. The majority of victims are young black men aged between 15 and 24.
The sprawling redbrick favelas that engulf large urban centres are predominantly, if not entirely, inhabited by black Brazilians. And barring a few high-profile politicians such as the culture minister, Gilberto Gil, Afro-Brazilian faces remain a rarity in politics.
In the nightly blockbuster soap operas - perhaps the best indicator of how things stand in Brazilian society - black actors are generally restricted to playing the roles of maids and porters who work in the glitzy apartment blocks inhabited by the wealthier, white characters. Indeed, while slavery was abolished more than a century ago in Brazil, many believe its legacy is harder to shake off.
This week a leading economist estimated that for Brazil's black population to have access to the same standard of public services as their white counterparts the government would have to invest 67.2bn real (£17.6bn).
TV da Gente's aims to change at least part of this. Its mission statement, mimicking the former president Juscelino Kubitschek, is to achieve "50 years progress in five" in black Brazil's fight for visibility. The man behind the media revolution that seeks to overturn this divide is Jose de Paula Neto, better known as Netinho de Paula, a media-savvy 35-year-old who rose from the housing estates of Sao Paulo to become a household name, first as a samba popstar then as a television presenter.
In recent years Netinho has become the favela's answer to Jimmy Saville: in his weekly show Dia de Princesa he roams Brazil's deprived periferia (outskirts) in a limousine, bestowing gifts upon impoverished families while dressed in his trademark dinner-jacket.
Netinho says his latest project - which sports a logo of an eye in the yellow and green shades of the Brazilian flag - aims to redress the racial imbalance in Brazilian television and society as a whole. "Our country is marked by racial mixtures. But the actual model of TV does not represent the majority of Brazilians. We are trying to help our own people, given that nobody else seems to want to do it. This is where the real fight starts. Those who say they want an integrated Brazil will really have to start showing their faces now," said Netinho.
Some believe it will be an uphill battle. For Joel Zito Araujo, campaigner and director of the documentary Denying Brazil - the Black Man in the Brazilian Soap Opera, the widespread exclusion of black actors from television reflects deeply ingrained prejudices in society.
"The [Brazilian] soap opera carries as its aesthetic and cultural discourse the ideology of whitening. This denies that which should be our greatest heritage: our cultural and racial diversity," he said. "The inclusion of black actors has improved with each decade. However, Brazilian society, in the main part, remains very prejudiced. Television and society are connected in terms of these racial taboos."
Yet despite the startling racial gulf, many point to recent advances for the black population, notably the partial introduction in 2002 of university quotas for black students. "Securing university quotas was the first real achievement of black society in Brazilian society. For the first time in our history being black brought some kind of advantage," said Araujo. "Only by developing talent within the black population, and them achieving positions of power will we be able to bring about structural change."
Initially the new channel, in which around R$12m has been invested, will be broadcast for six hours a day on terrestrial television in Sao Paulo and the north-eastern city of Fortaleza. People in other areas will be able to tune in via satellite, while viewers in Angola, from where a quarter of the investments have come, will be able to follow daily programmes, which include news, sport and a Brazilian hip-hop slot.
As Brazil marked its annual black pride day yesterday, black activists at the launch of TV da Gente celebrated the new channel. "TV da Gente will reproduce, for the first time, the true image of the people," said Netinho de Paula. "It's a huge victory for us all: for the black movement, for the white movement, for the red movement and for the Brazilian people."
From 1550 to 1888 the Portuguese shipped at least 3 million slaves into Brazil. Most came from the African colonies of Angola and Mozambique. They were put to work in the north-east's sugar plantations, but thousands managed to flee and set up quilombos, autonomous cities lived in and run by former slaves. The most famous of them - the Quilombo dos Palmares - was led by Zumbi. Brazil was the last state to officially abolish slavery - in 1888.
Finally something is happening for black people here in Brasil, unfirtunately though its just a TV channel. I would have liked to see something more such as money invested in social problems and health or schools but the ruling white parties don't really think that this is an important step. Even though most of the population here in Brasil are colored the government doesnt really do alot for them, well at election time they offer poor people bread and milk if they vote for them and to be honest they are so poor and desperate they will vote for anyone who offers them something even if in reality its just a sellout for votes. The governor of Brasilia for example always does this kind of crap which just results in an invasion of dirt poor people into DF where theere are no jobs and no place for them to live so they just rape, murder and kill any one they see to get cash that they then spend mostly on drugs or dirt cheap beer such as skol. Maybe its time the government here got of their arses and did something, yeah a TV channel for coloreds is a small and i mean very small start, but they still have a long way to go..
Finally..
Brazil's first black television channel tackles legacy of 300 years of slavery With non-white faces a rarity in media and politics, a new station aims to bridge racial divide.
"Is it on air? We're on the air!" With the push of a button and these hesitant words, Brazil's first black television channel came into existence yesterday.
TV da Gente, which means "our TV", has been heralded as giant step forward in the country's fight against discrimination, and to mark the broadcast high-ranking politicians, celebrities and civil rights activists gathered at the Casa Verde studio in north Sao Paulo.
"This will turn out to be the most important development ever in terms of communication for black communities all around the world," a veteran American civil rights activist, 72-year-old James Meredith, told the Guardian. "Unlike the United States and South Africa, Brazil established a system of white supremacy without the obvious signs like segregation or apartheid. Until Brazilians start to face up to this reality the legacy of slavery will continue."
Mr Meredith's ideas are far from universally accepted in Brazil where, despite the social chasm between Afro-Brazilians and their white counterparts, many still insist on the idea of a "racial democracy", first expounded by the anthropologist Gilberto Freyre in the 1930s.
Statistics tell a different story, of a country split along racial lines. Afro-Brazilians form almost half Brazil's 180 million strong population yet account for 63% of the poorest section of society. The 2000 census found that 62.7% of Brazil's white population had access to sanitation compared with just 39.6% of its Afro-Brazilians, while a new UN report found that black men earned on average 50% less than their white counterparts in Brazil. Human rights campaigners underline the racial dimension behind Brazil's staggering murder rates. The majority of victims are young black men aged between 15 and 24.
The sprawling redbrick favelas that engulf large urban centres are predominantly, if not entirely, inhabited by black Brazilians. And barring a few high-profile politicians such as the culture minister, Gilberto Gil, Afro-Brazilian faces remain a rarity in politics.
In the nightly blockbuster soap operas - perhaps the best indicator of how things stand in Brazilian society - black actors are generally restricted to playing the roles of maids and porters who work in the glitzy apartment blocks inhabited by the wealthier, white characters. Indeed, while slavery was abolished more than a century ago in Brazil, many believe its legacy is harder to shake off.
This week a leading economist estimated that for Brazil's black population to have access to the same standard of public services as their white counterparts the government would have to invest 67.2bn real (£17.6bn).
TV da Gente's aims to change at least part of this. Its mission statement, mimicking the former president Juscelino Kubitschek, is to achieve "50 years progress in five" in black Brazil's fight for visibility. The man behind the media revolution that seeks to overturn this divide is Jose de Paula Neto, better known as Netinho de Paula, a media-savvy 35-year-old who rose from the housing estates of Sao Paulo to become a household name, first as a samba popstar then as a television presenter.
In recent years Netinho has become the favela's answer to Jimmy Saville: in his weekly show Dia de Princesa he roams Brazil's deprived periferia (outskirts) in a limousine, bestowing gifts upon impoverished families while dressed in his trademark dinner-jacket.
Netinho says his latest project - which sports a logo of an eye in the yellow and green shades of the Brazilian flag - aims to redress the racial imbalance in Brazilian television and society as a whole. "Our country is marked by racial mixtures. But the actual model of TV does not represent the majority of Brazilians. We are trying to help our own people, given that nobody else seems to want to do it. This is where the real fight starts. Those who say they want an integrated Brazil will really have to start showing their faces now," said Netinho.
Some believe it will be an uphill battle. For Joel Zito Araujo, campaigner and director of the documentary Denying Brazil - the Black Man in the Brazilian Soap Opera, the widespread exclusion of black actors from television reflects deeply ingrained prejudices in society.
"The [Brazilian] soap opera carries as its aesthetic and cultural discourse the ideology of whitening. This denies that which should be our greatest heritage: our cultural and racial diversity," he said. "The inclusion of black actors has improved with each decade. However, Brazilian society, in the main part, remains very prejudiced. Television and society are connected in terms of these racial taboos."
Yet despite the startling racial gulf, many point to recent advances for the black population, notably the partial introduction in 2002 of university quotas for black students. "Securing university quotas was the first real achievement of black society in Brazilian society. For the first time in our history being black brought some kind of advantage," said Araujo. "Only by developing talent within the black population, and them achieving positions of power will we be able to bring about structural change."
Initially the new channel, in which around R$12m has been invested, will be broadcast for six hours a day on terrestrial television in Sao Paulo and the north-eastern city of Fortaleza. People in other areas will be able to tune in via satellite, while viewers in Angola, from where a quarter of the investments have come, will be able to follow daily programmes, which include news, sport and a Brazilian hip-hop slot.
As Brazil marked its annual black pride day yesterday, black activists at the launch of TV da Gente celebrated the new channel. "TV da Gente will reproduce, for the first time, the true image of the people," said Netinho de Paula. "It's a huge victory for us all: for the black movement, for the white movement, for the red movement and for the Brazilian people."
From 1550 to 1888 the Portuguese shipped at least 3 million slaves into Brazil. Most came from the African colonies of Angola and Mozambique. They were put to work in the north-east's sugar plantations, but thousands managed to flee and set up quilombos, autonomous cities lived in and run by former slaves. The most famous of them - the Quilombo dos Palmares - was led by Zumbi. Brazil was the last state to officially abolish slavery - in 1888.
Finally something is happening for black people here in Brasil, unfirtunately though its just a TV channel. I would have liked to see something more such as money invested in social problems and health or schools but the ruling white parties don't really think that this is an important step. Even though most of the population here in Brasil are colored the government doesnt really do alot for them, well at election time they offer poor people bread and milk if they vote for them and to be honest they are so poor and desperate they will vote for anyone who offers them something even if in reality its just a sellout for votes. The governor of Brasilia for example always does this kind of crap which just results in an invasion of dirt poor people into DF where theere are no jobs and no place for them to live so they just rape, murder and kill any one they see to get cash that they then spend mostly on drugs or dirt cheap beer such as skol. Maybe its time the government here got of their arses and did something, yeah a TV channel for coloreds is a small and i mean very small start, but they still have a long way to go..
posted at
3:02 PM by
john
|
Two-minute silence for murdered policewoman
Murdered policewoman Sharon Beshenivsky will be remembered by a two-minute silence on Friday in Bradford, the city were she was gunned down as she answered an emergency call about an armed robbery.
The Bishop of Bradford, the Right Reverend David James will lead a memorial service and, as the City Hall bell chimes at 3:30 p.m., silence is expected to descend on the city centre.
Beshenivsky, 38, a mother of three children and two step-children, was killed a week ago after she and fellow officer Teresa Milburn confronted men robbing a travel agency.
West Yorkshire Police said senior officers were expected to attend the memorial service.
After a number of initial arrests, several people have been released on bail and the police said on Wednesday they want to question three men and need information about a silver Toyota Rav 4.
"We know the identities of the men, but are not releasing their names at present," a police spokesman said.
The SUV was hired from Heathrow Airport on October 25 and is thought to have travelled north to West Yorkshire early on Friday last week.
Beshenivsky, who was shot in the chest, died on the day of her daughter's fourth birthday.
It makes me laugh when I read stories like this about the British police, yeah its sad that someone lost their life but this 2-min silence is a bit of a joke especially for British people like me who know that the police are a bunch of lazy gits who couldnt find a criminal if he was shoved into the crack of their arses. It takes them weeks just to get their arses in gear and then 99% of the time the criminals get away with lenient sentences handed down because the police didnt do a good enough job of building a case against them. Its more than likely that the criminals who shot this police woman have been slipping through the justice system in the UK for years with the police just turning a blind eye. If we had more strict punishments for lazy police and also criminals we wouldnt have to read this in the paper all of the time. I wonder if the police are going to start holding silent vigils for all the members of the public who have suffered from their fucking lazy attitudes towards catching criminals? Somehow I doubt it..
Sad..
Two-minute silence for murdered policewoman
Murdered policewoman Sharon Beshenivsky will be remembered by a two-minute silence on Friday in Bradford, the city were she was gunned down as she answered an emergency call about an armed robbery.
The Bishop of Bradford, the Right Reverend David James will lead a memorial service and, as the City Hall bell chimes at 3:30 p.m., silence is expected to descend on the city centre.
Beshenivsky, 38, a mother of three children and two step-children, was killed a week ago after she and fellow officer Teresa Milburn confronted men robbing a travel agency.
West Yorkshire Police said senior officers were expected to attend the memorial service.
After a number of initial arrests, several people have been released on bail and the police said on Wednesday they want to question three men and need information about a silver Toyota Rav 4.
"We know the identities of the men, but are not releasing their names at present," a police spokesman said.
The SUV was hired from Heathrow Airport on October 25 and is thought to have travelled north to West Yorkshire early on Friday last week.
Beshenivsky, who was shot in the chest, died on the day of her daughter's fourth birthday.
It makes me laugh when I read stories like this about the British police, yeah its sad that someone lost their life but this 2-min silence is a bit of a joke especially for British people like me who know that the police are a bunch of lazy gits who couldnt find a criminal if he was shoved into the crack of their arses. It takes them weeks just to get their arses in gear and then 99% of the time the criminals get away with lenient sentences handed down because the police didnt do a good enough job of building a case against them. Its more than likely that the criminals who shot this police woman have been slipping through the justice system in the UK for years with the police just turning a blind eye. If we had more strict punishments for lazy police and also criminals we wouldnt have to read this in the paper all of the time. I wonder if the police are going to start holding silent vigils for all the members of the public who have suffered from their fucking lazy attitudes towards catching criminals? Somehow I doubt it..
posted at
4:56 AM by
john
|
Pregnant - and fired!
Unwed pre-K teacher files bias suit vs. Queens Catholic school
An unmarried rookie teacher at a Queens parochial school confessed to her principal she was pregnant - and was promptly fired for violating "Catholic morality."
Now 26-year-old Michelle McCusker is suing, saying she was unfairly bounced just a month into her first full-time job as a pre-K teacher at St. Rose of Lima.
"I don't understand how a religion that prides itself on forgiving and on valuing life could terminate me because I'm pregnant and choosing to have this baby," said McCusker in between sobs with her parents by her side.
The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a federal discrimination complaint on the mother-to-be's behalf against the Rockaway Beach school and Diocese of Brooklyn yesterday, charging McCusker was wrongly removed and that the church's policy unfairly targets women.
"The school fired Ms. McCusker ostensibly for engaging in nonmarital sex but neither the school nor the diocese that runs the school enforces this policy against men," said NYCLU's head of Reproductive Rights Anna Schissel.
Principal Theresa Andersen commended McCusker's job performance in an Oct. 11 termination letter, writing, "Your teaching ability and love of your children was of a high degree of professionalism."
Andersen forwarded calls for comment to the Diocese of Brooklyn.
Church leaders said McCusker agreed to rules in their teacher personnel handbook, which states "a teacher is required to convey the teachings of the Catholic faith by his or her words and actions, demonstrating an acceptance of Gospel values and the Christian tradition."
"This is a difficult situation for every person involved, but the school had no choice but to follow the principles contained in the teachers' personnel handbook," said diocese spokesman Frank DeRosa.
Two days after McCusker, a Catholic who graduated from St. John's University in the spring, told Andersen that she was three months pregnant, she lost her $30,000-a-year job and health insurance. She is living with her parents on Long Island and working as a substitute teacher in city public schools.
"If I decided to abort the baby, the decision to fire me would not have been made because they would not have known," said McCuster.
A similar case was brought in 2003 when the unmarried director of an after-school program for Catholic Charities of Buffalo became pregnant. She was demoted and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found that the charity violated anti-discrimination laws.
Man, I ask you, can it get any worse? If they just flogged a few of these fucking blind pieces of shit in public a hew times maybe they would open their eyes and smell the coffee. How can you fire someone for not wanting to kill their baby? Fuck me, these people don't live on the same fucking planet as the rest of us! Hopefully this young woman will find a religon that values life and doesnt condemn everyone to feeling bad about who they are and who they were born as and drop this two-bit bullshite organization she was part of. I wonder who they are going to persecute next? Funny there was another organization that also witchhunted different kinds of people for not supporting their beliefs, The Nazi party. I'm beginning to see alot of similarities here, I can't help but wonder if Hitler simply remaned his party, "The Catholic Church"..
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Sickening..
Pregnant - and fired!
Unwed pre-K teacher files bias suit vs. Queens Catholic school
An unmarried rookie teacher at a Queens parochial school confessed to her principal she was pregnant - and was promptly fired for violating "Catholic morality."
Now 26-year-old Michelle McCusker is suing, saying she was unfairly bounced just a month into her first full-time job as a pre-K teacher at St. Rose of Lima.
"I don't understand how a religion that prides itself on forgiving and on valuing life could terminate me because I'm pregnant and choosing to have this baby," said McCusker in between sobs with her parents by her side.
The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a federal discrimination complaint on the mother-to-be's behalf against the Rockaway Beach school and Diocese of Brooklyn yesterday, charging McCusker was wrongly removed and that the church's policy unfairly targets women.
"The school fired Ms. McCusker ostensibly for engaging in nonmarital sex but neither the school nor the diocese that runs the school enforces this policy against men," said NYCLU's head of Reproductive Rights Anna Schissel.
Principal Theresa Andersen commended McCusker's job performance in an Oct. 11 termination letter, writing, "Your teaching ability and love of your children was of a high degree of professionalism."
Andersen forwarded calls for comment to the Diocese of Brooklyn.
Church leaders said McCusker agreed to rules in their teacher personnel handbook, which states "a teacher is required to convey the teachings of the Catholic faith by his or her words and actions, demonstrating an acceptance of Gospel values and the Christian tradition."
"This is a difficult situation for every person involved, but the school had no choice but to follow the principles contained in the teachers' personnel handbook," said diocese spokesman Frank DeRosa.
Two days after McCusker, a Catholic who graduated from St. John's University in the spring, told Andersen that she was three months pregnant, she lost her $30,000-a-year job and health insurance. She is living with her parents on Long Island and working as a substitute teacher in city public schools.
"If I decided to abort the baby, the decision to fire me would not have been made because they would not have known," said McCuster.
A similar case was brought in 2003 when the unmarried director of an after-school program for Catholic Charities of Buffalo became pregnant. She was demoted and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found that the charity violated anti-discrimination laws.
Man, I ask you, can it get any worse? If they just flogged a few of these fucking blind pieces of shit in public a hew times maybe they would open their eyes and smell the coffee. How can you fire someone for not wanting to kill their baby? Fuck me, these people don't live on the same fucking planet as the rest of us! Hopefully this young woman will find a religon that values life and doesnt condemn everyone to feeling bad about who they are and who they were born as and drop this two-bit bullshite organization she was part of. I wonder who they are going to persecute next? Funny there was another organization that also witchhunted different kinds of people for not supporting their beliefs, The Nazi party. I'm beginning to see alot of similarities here, I can't help but wonder if Hitler simply remaned his party, "The Catholic Church"..
posted at
5:05 AM by
john
|
Vatican says active gays not welcome in priesthood
Practising homosexuals, men with "deep-seated" gay tendencies and those who support gay culture should not be allowed to enter the Roman Catholic priesthood, according to an eagerly awaited Vatican document.
But it will allow men who have "clearly overcome" homosexual tendencies for at least three years to proceed towards the priesthood.
Key excerpts from the official English-language version of the document, to be issued next week, were read to Reuters on Tuesday by a Vatican prelate in possession of the document.
The document reinforces standing policy that many in the Church believe has not been properly enforced. Its urgency has been highlighted by the 2002 sexual abuse scandal in the United States, which involved mostly abuse of teenage boys by priests.
The document, only 21 paragraphs long, restates Church teaching that deep-seated homosexual tendencies are "objectively disordered" and that homosexual acts are grave sins.
The official English version of the document then adds:
"In light of such teaching, this dicastery (Vatican department) ... believes it necessary to state clearly that the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to Holy Orders those who practise homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture."
The document, an "instruction" by the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education, makes a difference between deep-seated homosexual tendencies and what it calls "the expression of a transitory problem".
TENDENCIES MUST BE OVERCOME
"Nevertheless, such tendencies must be clearly overcome at least three years before ordination to the deaconate," it says, referring to a position just one step short of the priesthood which usually precedes ordination by about a year.
"In order to admit a candidate to ordination to the deaconate, the Church must verify, among other things, that the candidate has reached affective maturity," it says.
The document, which covers one of the most sensitive issues in the Roman Catholic Church, does not affect those men who are already priests but only those entering seminaries to prepare for the priesthood.
Frances Kissling, president of the Washington-based dissident group "Catholics for a Free Choice", said the document marked a "sad moment" for the Church because it would "exclude faithful and good men who are called to the priesthood".
The U.S. gay rights group Human Rights Campaign accused the Vatican of "using gay people as scapegoats".
The English title of the document is: "Instruction Concerning Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with Regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in View of Their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders".
It is divided into three chapters -- "Affective Maturity and Spiritual Fatherhood", "Homosexuality and Ordained Ministry", and "Discernment by the Church Concerning the Suitability of Candidates".
It says heads of seminaries have a serious duty to see to it that candidates for the priesthood do not "present disturbances of a sexual nature which are incompatible with the priesthood".
"If a candidate practises homosexuality, or presents deep-seated homosexual tendencies, his spiritual director as well as his confessor have the duty to dissuade him in conscience from proceeding towards ordination," it says.
In his book "The Changing Face of the Priesthood", Father Donald Cozzens estimated that 40 percent of U.S. priests were gay but that only a tiny minority were practising homosexuals.
Other estimates have been as low as 10 percent and as high as 60 percent.
Look at this fucking witchhunt, how the fuck did they come up with the idea that it was gay priests that commited child abuse acts in the catholic church? Ive never heard such shite in all of my life. I think that the catholic church is getting so desperate for any kind of fucking news publicity they will attack anyone and everyone. Funny they didnt put the same amount of effort into putting their pedo priests in trial instead of hiding them by moving them around so the police couldnt bring charges against them. These bastards want their balls cutting off with a dull blade. What different should it make if someone is gay or not, it doesnt automatically made them a child molester just because someone prefers their own sex. Just another story of a religion thats losing millions of followers because they are waking up to the truth about catholicism and all of that cash they cant get their hands on trying anything they can to justify their bullshit fucking ideas - What do you expect though from a religion who votes for a fucking Nazi to be in charge of them? Maybe someone should just get a gun and kill this fucker, hmmm maybe they had the right idea when they tried to kill the previous pope. after all the best way it to cut off the head right? It's no wonder that Islam is the fastest growing religion in Europe with all of this shite going on. People must be running to leave and embrace another religion. It's only a matter of time now before Catholic religion will be the pariah of the modern world..
Witchhunt..
Vatican says active gays not welcome in priesthood
Practising homosexuals, men with "deep-seated" gay tendencies and those who support gay culture should not be allowed to enter the Roman Catholic priesthood, according to an eagerly awaited Vatican document.
But it will allow men who have "clearly overcome" homosexual tendencies for at least three years to proceed towards the priesthood.
Key excerpts from the official English-language version of the document, to be issued next week, were read to Reuters on Tuesday by a Vatican prelate in possession of the document.
The document reinforces standing policy that many in the Church believe has not been properly enforced. Its urgency has been highlighted by the 2002 sexual abuse scandal in the United States, which involved mostly abuse of teenage boys by priests.
The document, only 21 paragraphs long, restates Church teaching that deep-seated homosexual tendencies are "objectively disordered" and that homosexual acts are grave sins.
The official English version of the document then adds:
"In light of such teaching, this dicastery (Vatican department) ... believes it necessary to state clearly that the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to Holy Orders those who practise homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture."
The document, an "instruction" by the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education, makes a difference between deep-seated homosexual tendencies and what it calls "the expression of a transitory problem".
TENDENCIES MUST BE OVERCOME
"Nevertheless, such tendencies must be clearly overcome at least three years before ordination to the deaconate," it says, referring to a position just one step short of the priesthood which usually precedes ordination by about a year.
"In order to admit a candidate to ordination to the deaconate, the Church must verify, among other things, that the candidate has reached affective maturity," it says.
The document, which covers one of the most sensitive issues in the Roman Catholic Church, does not affect those men who are already priests but only those entering seminaries to prepare for the priesthood.
Frances Kissling, president of the Washington-based dissident group "Catholics for a Free Choice", said the document marked a "sad moment" for the Church because it would "exclude faithful and good men who are called to the priesthood".
The U.S. gay rights group Human Rights Campaign accused the Vatican of "using gay people as scapegoats".
The English title of the document is: "Instruction Concerning Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with Regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in View of Their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders".
It is divided into three chapters -- "Affective Maturity and Spiritual Fatherhood", "Homosexuality and Ordained Ministry", and "Discernment by the Church Concerning the Suitability of Candidates".
It says heads of seminaries have a serious duty to see to it that candidates for the priesthood do not "present disturbances of a sexual nature which are incompatible with the priesthood".
"If a candidate practises homosexuality, or presents deep-seated homosexual tendencies, his spiritual director as well as his confessor have the duty to dissuade him in conscience from proceeding towards ordination," it says.
In his book "The Changing Face of the Priesthood", Father Donald Cozzens estimated that 40 percent of U.S. priests were gay but that only a tiny minority were practising homosexuals.
Other estimates have been as low as 10 percent and as high as 60 percent.
Look at this fucking witchhunt, how the fuck did they come up with the idea that it was gay priests that commited child abuse acts in the catholic church? Ive never heard such shite in all of my life. I think that the catholic church is getting so desperate for any kind of fucking news publicity they will attack anyone and everyone. Funny they didnt put the same amount of effort into putting their pedo priests in trial instead of hiding them by moving them around so the police couldnt bring charges against them. These bastards want their balls cutting off with a dull blade. What different should it make if someone is gay or not, it doesnt automatically made them a child molester just because someone prefers their own sex. Just another story of a religion thats losing millions of followers because they are waking up to the truth about catholicism and all of that cash they cant get their hands on trying anything they can to justify their bullshit fucking ideas - What do you expect though from a religion who votes for a fucking Nazi to be in charge of them? Maybe someone should just get a gun and kill this fucker, hmmm maybe they had the right idea when they tried to kill the previous pope. after all the best way it to cut off the head right? It's no wonder that Islam is the fastest growing religion in Europe with all of this shite going on. People must be running to leave and embrace another religion. It's only a matter of time now before Catholic religion will be the pariah of the modern world..
posted at
3:54 AM by
john
|
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Shackles..
Great for school and church fundraisers and hurricane disaster relief fundraising
A federal district court in San Francisco has recently ruled that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional! Judge Lawrence Karlton ruled that the pledge's reference to one nation "under God" violates the right to be "free from a coercive requirement to affirm God." It just fucking goes to show you the things Cathlic church leaders will do to make money, even trying to use the recent hurricane disasters as an excuse to sell their vile crap. The lot of them want fucking flogging, publically to prevent this abuse of peoples misery and the deaths of loved ones. These people are a walking reason for keeping and also expending capital punishments. Even though the courts declare this thing as illegal they still try to ram this shite down everyones throats. Pass me that elephant gun..
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