| Millions
At Risk in Afghanistan
Assistance
for 7.5 million Afghans has been requested by the United Nations.
The request, the biggest in UN history, is based on a worst-case
scenario in attempting to meet the expected needs of fleeing
Afghans to survive winter.
Drought,
civil war, the Taleban's harsh efforts to force young men to
fight, the Taleban's efforts to cut off aid/food assistance
for refugees, Pakistan's closing of its border with Afghanistan,
and fear of expected American and international reprisals for
the Taleban's support of terrorism reside at the heart of the
current crisis.
Source:
Faith
Schools
In
America, until Bush came on the scene, we had secular schools
and were able, in large part, to keep religion apart from school
functions. The religious right has been persistent in their
efforts to tear down the separation of church and state, however.
Now,
after this islamic extremist terrorist attack, and with the
widely despised attempt by the religious right to blame Americans
for that, it's likely the whole effort to steep America in religion
will struggle, as eventually it will become evident to folks
that reliance on religion is the cause of many of America's
problems, not the cure.
Hopefully,
trying to blame "lack of religion" for America's problems
will fade into the Bush graveyard of discarded lies.
Our
good friends in Great Britain were trying to create "faith"
schools prior to the attack on America. Those endeavors are
now being reconsidered:
British
"Faith" Schools [link inactive]
Excerpt:
British
Prime Minister Tony Blair was under pressure from close allies
to scrap plans to build more faith schools, fearing they could
lead to increased racial tensions following the terrorist strikes
on the United States.
...
"The
situation in America is already causing problems within our
own society," the paper quoted the government adviser as
saying.
"I'm
not sure everyone has fully thought through this proposal (for
faith schools)," the adviser added.
Television
mogul Lord Alli, a member of the ruling Labour Party's campaign
team during June's general election, said: "Anything which
encourages isolation and segregation in communities through
education ... is a recipe for disaster."
...
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- - end excerpt - - -
Type
1 Diabetes Gene Found - Vaccine May Be Possible
The
gene that causes type 1 diabetes (also known as juvenile-onset
or insulin-dependent diabetes) has been accidentally discovered
in mice, by scientists in Australia.
The
discovery, made while researching why type 1 diabetes results
in the body breaking down its own insulin cells, may one day
lead to a vaccine against the disease.
Source:
- Australian
Broadcasting Corporation [link inactive]
US
Government $$$ Needed for Stem Cell Research
It's
widely recognized that the money and support for basic research
into stem cells must come almost entirely from the US government
and that those funds must be unrestricted or else research progress
will be slowed to a crawl.
Why?
The NIH budget for basic research, largest in the world by far
at almost $20 billion in 2001 and the reluctance of private
companies to do broad-based basic research which may not pay
off for years, if ever. Also, private corporate research findings
are proprietary and unshared in the public sector.
Source:
Related
Reference:
Web
Sites With Views of Earth
Your
view of any area of earth may be obtained from the eyes of roving
satellites and the following list of web sites:
Source:
- Excite
/ Reuters [link inactive]
|
Secular
Schools - Hope for the Children
A
word of advice, from a friend in Australia:
A
peaceful way forward beyond the prejudices of religion [link
inactive]
Entire
article:
The
kind hearts of children would be more inclined to stay that
way if schooling was secular only, writes Pamela Bone.
After
the countless thousands of words read, the unforgettable pictures,
the speeches of world leaders, it was the teachers and children
of an infants school in inner Sydney
who spoke most clearly to me.
I
was attending my five-year-old grand-daughter's school assembly,
to see her receive a merit certificate for good work.
I
don't know whether there has ever been a time in my life when
I have had to struggle so hard to keep the tears inside as when
I looked at the faces of those children, wondering what sort
of a world my generation was leaving them.
I
didn't quite manage it.
The
principal, a fair-haired, sweet-faced, youngish woman, said:
"Children, we are all a bit sad this week, aren't we, because
a very bad thing happened. Can you tell me what
we can do to make it feel better when bad things happen? Do
you think it might help if we are all very nice to each other?
Can you think of ways we can do that?"
The
children put up their hands. "We can play with someone
even if they're not our friend." "We can share with
each other." "If someone wants to get in when we are
lining up to go somewhere, instead of pushing them away
we can just let them in."
This
is a public school. The children are from many and different
racial backgrounds. They hold hands as they walk into the assembly
hall and later sing Advance Australia Fair. But they do not
say any prayer and the name of God is not invoked.
The
children at this school are not chanting verses of the Koran
or the Catholic catechism. They are not being told that theirs
is the one true faith or that they are God's chosen people.
They are not being taught that they are better or different
from others because of what they believe. They are simply being
told: be kind to one another.
This
is what last week's tragedy is about, surely? About what we
teach the children? The men who made missiles out of planes
were once some mothers' little boys. I look at the faces of
the children at the school and I think, "You could take
any one of these and teach them to hate. You could make them
think people of another race, another religion, another sex,
are beneath their contempt."
Five
thousand innocent people died terrible deaths because some men
were absolutely convinced they were fighting a holy war. People
who have never read a word of the Koran are now competing to
absolve Islam of any blame in what happened. Perhaps part of
the reason is that to blame Islam would force them to wonder
if all religion, even their religion, is to blame. Religious
fanaticism, not religion, is to blame, they say.
I
don't know at what point belief becomes fanaticism.
I
understand the comfort that religious ritual, prayers, the singing
of hymns, can bring: "Goodness and mercy shall surely follow
me all the days of my life ..." At these times we crave
goodness and mercy.
But
in the 21st century, can goodness and mercy be found just as
well outside religion as within it? Does religion make good
anyone who is not already good? It certainly makes some mad,
or bad, who would otherwise not be.
All
written religions have some terrible passages. Christians, in
general, appear more able to ignore the bad bits than some other
religions. There are plenty of exceptions, but in Western countries
at least, these days Christians tend to be not very close to
their religion. In a recent survey in Britain, only 11 per cent
of Anglicans but 75 per cent of Muslims said their religion
was "very important" to them.
Of
course people should be free to believe what they like. But
to believe too fiercely can be dangerous to others. Any decent
society allows religious freedom. The most humane countries
are those in which all religions are tolerated, but religion
is low-key (the fact that it is tolerated helps to make it low-key).
I
do not think schools that teach religion should be publicly
funded. I say this despite knowing that church-based schools
are mostly very good schools, in which good values are taught.
I think we should value and protect our free, public and secular
education. We should be grateful that young people of calibre
still want to be teachers.
"Be
kind to one another." Little children can understand that.
Maybe, without invoking a God to tell us whom we should hate,
we could all be kinder to one another.
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- - end of article - - -
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