Monthly Archives: May 2013

uno-uncf

It’s Amman’s world.

The UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) has published its annual State of the World’s Children report with special focus on children with disabilities.

Among its findings:

In Jordan, 91% of girls think wife-beating is justified – in Timor Leste, 81% of girls think the same, compared to 72% of boys. Girls that are least likely to hold a belief that if married they could justifiably be beaten are in Serbia (2%), Ukraine (3%) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (4%).

Even more interestingly, this doesn’t appear related to access to information.

Girls in Jordan have some of the best access to mass media in the world with 97% using a newspaper, magazine, television or radio at least once a week. In Egypt, where the same proportion of girls have access to mass media, 50% believe that wife-beating is justified.

 

Where is the best country to be a child? (Guardian)

magdalene_sistersDONOHUEA new booklet The Myths of the Magdalene Laundries has been published by the American Catholic League.

Based on Martin McAleese’s sanitised report into state involvement in the laundries, the booklet claims to examine “the origins of the many myths that have surfaced”.

Bill Donohue (above), president of the American Catholic League, says:

Virtually all the horror stories that have been told—nuns cruelly torturing and sexually abusing “fallen” women—are lies. Worse, Irish officials, such as the current prime minister, Enda Kenny, continue to misinform the public, even in the face of indisputable evidence. Media outlets, the BBC and the New York Times, in particular, refuse to discuss the McAleese Report, leaving the impression that the falsehoods told by Peter Mullan in his propaganda film, “The Magdalene Sisters” (top) offers an accurate picture of what happened.

 

Copies are available to the public for $5 per booklet.

$5 you say?

Will we flock.

Bill Donohue

Lies Of The Magdalene Laundries (CatholicLeague.org)

Via: PJ Coogan

Previously:

 The Magdalene Report:A Conclusion

Result

Sister, Sister

66476_509247825764401_1577310682_n-493x350You may recall Vietnam-born Úna-Minh Kavanagh, above, from Co Kerry, and her plans to find her birth parents from earlier this year.

Una, on her blog, writes:

‘And you’re a fucking chink!’

That’s how I was greeted [yesterday] while hovering outside a hotel in Dublin City Centre while I waited for a friend. The group went by laughing, I exclaimed an exasperated ‘oh fuck off…’, one of the young boys then grabbed my face and shook it, I was spat on.

This was the first time I had received a physical racial assault – I was shook. I’m 21 and had become slightly desensitized to all the racial slurs I was thrown on a regular basis, but this was frightening. I felt humiliated taking the spit out of my hair and sadly no one came to my aid, even on this bustling street.

I met with my friend and contemplated what had actually happened. The more I thought about it the more I got the courage to act. This was the time to do something, anything, to tackle the closemindedness of a nation who prided themselves on being ‘welcoming.’ There and then it truly was a lie.

I gathered my thoughts and posted my outrage and I reported it to the Gardaí. It was horrible and terrifying but I am not a coward.

These kids were in their teens. What these boys did was unacceptable and foolish.

I shouldn’t need to hide or feel scared in my own country. Racism. Hate. How dare anyone think that this disgusting behaviour is ok?

Do I hate them? Absolutely not. I pity them and I pity their parents who have no idea of richness a multicultural society can bring. I feel sorry for them.

Oh and by the way, I’m Irish.

Today I was spat on because I looked different (Úna-Minh Kavanagh)

Previously: The Journey Home