Four women and two men have been sentenced to death in northern ******** for singing and dancing at a wedding, police said yesterday.
Coincidentally, we are now ready to present our new quantitative analysis of international news:
Completely ridiculous
+ absolutely horrible
+ none of the locals seem to think it is either ridiculous or horrible
= it probably happened in Pakistan.More >>
As we search for meaning in the holiday season, trying to elevate the atmosphere of Christmas above the commercialism of it, various moral principles come to the fore of our minds at this reflective time of year: giving, forgiveness, love, kindness, and most of all, compassion.
The former nun and interfaith proponent Karen Armstrong’s latest book, “Twelve Steps To A Compassionate Life” argues that compassion as a principle lies at the heart of all religions. Others would argue that this is wishful thinking, as did philosopher Ophelia Benson in her straightforward response to Armstrong’s book: “The principle of obedience to God lies at the heart of many religious traditions, and it is a modern illusion to think that is identical to compassion.”
In any case, it seems clear that compassion is not a regular enough part of the practice of either the faithful or the faithless, whether or not it’s a principle we fancy ourselves as espousing.
By this I don’t mean to say that we don’t take care of own, but that much of the time,...More >>
In her book, “The Punishment of Virtue” Sarah Chayes wrote that, “Afghanistan is a place of too many layers to give itself up to the tactics of a rushed conformity. Afghanistan only uncovers itself with intimacy. And intimacy takes time.”
Too few Canadians have attempted to peel back the layers of Afghanistan’s complexities; and have rather, swallowed whole the portrayal we are fed by our mainstream media of a dark, dangerous and backwards country. Or, many have unquestionably accepted the propaganda of the “anti-war” movement, or more often, not noticed what it is that the pacifists fail to mention, not least of which is what will happen when the international community turns its back on Afghanistan and there is more bloodshed, not less.
This situation of manipulation and misinformation has led to the viral spread and ultimate entrenchment of some persistent myths about Afghanistan and Afghans among the Canadian public. It’s hard to know where to start in attempting to debunk these myths, but I rub up most often against those regarding Afghan women. So I’ll start there, posting...More >>
The Propagandist's own contributing writer Lauryn Oates will be joining Tarek Fatah, Aruna Papp, Morton Weinfeld, Alia Hogben and others October 1-2 in Calgary for the The Marsha Hanen Symposium on Ethical Leadership and Gender Equality, organized by by the Sheldon Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership. The symposium's topic is Gender, Culture and Religion: Tackling Some Difficult Questions. From the Foundation's website:
The Sheldon Chumir Foundation is concerned with how we organize ourselves so as to live ethically well together – peacefully, with dignity for all and in mutual respect. Equality issues are central to our mandate. This Symposium will provide an opportunity for thoughtful engagement with one set of equality issues – those presented by the tension between gender equality and Canada’s cultural and religious diversity.
...In the guise of an objective position, relativism is nothing more than protection for selfishness and preservation of insularity. Relativism implies the privileges and freedoms we expect in the West are values that only we
Margaret MacMillan, in "The Uses and Abuses of History" warns of how prone we are to manipulating stories of our past, in order to protect our interests in the present. In the case of the Canadian lens on Afghanistan, its the history of our own struggles for rights and freedoms that we ignore.
As we gaze upon the often deadly battle Afghan progressives wage to secure democracy, rights for women, and a more open society, we pretend those same battles never occurred here. It's as if it just were always so, not an incremental thing that occurred only as the culmination of a long, arduous struggle against the status quo. We deem the valuing of democracy, rights and personal freedoms is "ours" alone, inherent to western culture. This view makes it easier to dismiss the present-day ideological battle in Afghanistan, between the Taliban's death-cult and the masses who want the very same privileges we expect in our society: democracy, human rights, wealth, and the capacity to live a life of dignity and free of fear. As Adrian MacNair pointed out recently in...More >>
There is a stark contrast between the views of western observers who feel themselves gagged and bound by the need to respect cultural tradition and the views of victims, who want justice and accountability.
Take just two statements from The Guardian as an example:
"We know it happens here although we have no official statistics, but we have seen very successful partnerships and we don't want to alienate communities through heavy-handed tactics." - a detective responsible for investigating cases of female genital mutilation (or FGM) in London
"Culture should not be about torture." - a Somalian victim of FGM now unable to have children, when at age 12, doctors discovered "several years of period blood that had been blocked from leaving her body"
By being 'soft-handed' when facing something as inhuman and terrible as forcefully cutting off part of a little girl's vagina, British authorities have their ear turned more towards the adults in cultural communities complicit in committing this atrocious practice, rather than the children who are subjected to it against their will.
It's a story repeated time and time again, like when westerners are so keen to insist on negotiation and power-sharing agreements with the Taliban...More >>
In her book, “The Punishment of Virtue” Sarah Chayes wrote that, “Afghanistan is a place of too many layers to give itself up to the tactics of a rushed conformity. Afghanistan only uncovers itself with intimacy. And intimacy takes time.”
Margaret MacMillan, in "The Uses and Abuses of History" warns of how prone we are to manipulating stories of our past, in order to protect our interests in the present. In the case of the Canadian lens on Afghanistan, its the history of our own struggles for rights and freedoms that we ignore.
