Thursday, May 25, 2006
Family Values
UN investigates 'forced suicides' in Turkey
By Daniel Howden
Published: 25 May 2006
Yakin Erturk, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women, travelled yesterday to the eastern Turkish city of Batman to follow up on reports in local media that up to 36 women had killed themselves since the start of the year. This figure is already much higher than the number for the whole of last year.
Many of the women who have died were allegedly the victims of "forced suicides", where husbands or relatives pushed them into killing themselves to cleanse a perceived offence against family honour.
The family remains paramount across Turkish society and adultery or sex before marriage can be seen as crimes by more socially conservative elements.
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Fundamentalist Christians are only a few short generations from similar behavior. I am willing to bet some secretly envy these Turks who act as "instruments of God's judgment" in enforcing Biblical tenets.
By Daniel Howden
Published: 25 May 2006
Yakin Erturk, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women, travelled yesterday to the eastern Turkish city of Batman to follow up on reports in local media that up to 36 women had killed themselves since the start of the year. This figure is already much higher than the number for the whole of last year.
Many of the women who have died were allegedly the victims of "forced suicides", where husbands or relatives pushed them into killing themselves to cleanse a perceived offence against family honour.
The family remains paramount across Turkish society and adultery or sex before marriage can be seen as crimes by more socially conservative elements.
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Fundamentalist Christians are only a few short generations from similar behavior. I am willing to bet some secretly envy these Turks who act as "instruments of God's judgment" in enforcing Biblical tenets.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Illegal Immigration: Mexico is the Problem
Illegal immigration to the United States exists in the volume it does, because Central America already and Mexico on the verge, are becoming a failed states - states whose social and economic policy is allowing and encouraging unfettered emigration north. The reality is there are regions and cities in Mexico and Central America, which are outside of centralized government control. Can any American imagine the assassinations of numerous city mayors, chiefs of police, nationally recognized journalists, a Cardinal of the Catholic Church and a presidential candidate from a major political party? Can Americans imagine a Cabinet Secretary and a former president implicated in money laundering for a drug cartel? This is the reality of Mexico and Central American countries, functioning democracies in name only.
No pundit in the mainstream media has broached the root cause of illegal immigration –social and economic policy failure south of the border. Notice immigrants illegally in the country felt safer and embolden demonstrating and protesting in a country in which they have no legal standing, instead of demonstrating in equal numbers south of the border demanding the social and economic justice their own governments have denied them for generations and continue to ignore. America ignores this reality at our own peril. Vicente Fox will happily dump the problem on our laps while he and his cronies continue to rape the wealth of Mexico, et al. and contribute, through the drug trade, to the corruption and loss of our greatest natural resource – American youth.
Mr. Fox has called for open unrestricted borders on many occasions, making the American taxpayer the patsy for his failure in governance. Fine Mr. Fox, you want open borders. Let the FBI, the CIA and the UN in first. We along with the international community will come in and administer your country since you obviously cannot.
No pundit in the mainstream media has broached the root cause of illegal immigration –social and economic policy failure south of the border. Notice immigrants illegally in the country felt safer and embolden demonstrating and protesting in a country in which they have no legal standing, instead of demonstrating in equal numbers south of the border demanding the social and economic justice their own governments have denied them for generations and continue to ignore. America ignores this reality at our own peril. Vicente Fox will happily dump the problem on our laps while he and his cronies continue to rape the wealth of Mexico, et al. and contribute, through the drug trade, to the corruption and loss of our greatest natural resource – American youth.
Mr. Fox has called for open unrestricted borders on many occasions, making the American taxpayer the patsy for his failure in governance. Fine Mr. Fox, you want open borders. Let the FBI, the CIA and the UN in first. We along with the international community will come in and administer your country since you obviously cannot.
