Hello Cruel World

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Women & Children, et al

If you look at the behaviour and rhetoric of past Christianity and Orthodox Judaism, you'll find very similar attitudes to that of Islam. Orthodox Jewish women must cover their hair, for instance. Of course, all three of these religious traditions are closely connected, having evolved from each other.

Look at the history of repression of the whole population, and women, in Europe over much of the last millennium based on Christianity; extremely harsh punishments, punishments for religious differences or offences such as not attending church, blasphemy, or having an illegitimate child. Women in both Jewish & Christian thought are almost defined by having children.

Even the more militant versions of current Christianity, all you have to do is substitute God for Allah and the inflammatory speeches you hear reported as showing how Islam extreme is will be almost indistinguishable.

I heartily disagree with all of this type of ideology, whatever religious background it comes from.

My working theory is that the ideologues have seen how the progressive developments in Christendom have lowered the power of the church, and, in order to keep power, have decided that the only way is to keep the restrictions on as hard as possible -- see the history of how the Islamic progressive thought and science of some hundreds of years back was quashed. (And before you say that their intentions may very well be honest and good, so were Torquemada's.)

On another, not unrelated, subject [NEED LINK TO SMH ARTICLE]:
Perhaps the "militantly childless" are reacting to all those years of pressured bullying about their child-free status -- see also remarks about repression & reproductive definition of women, above. We definitely need less either less people in Australia or a more sustainable lifestyle, and recognising that women have lives (90 years of them) and interests beyond family support is one way of getting off the vicious cycle of ever-increasing human pressure on the rest of the world -- see recent report on human impact on the environment decreasing our children's' inheritance, excerpted and linked below.

www.millenniumassessment.org/en/index.aspx
Experts Warn Ecosystem Changes Will Continue to Worsen, Putting Global Development Goals At Risk
Wednesday, March 30, 2005 -- London, UK
www.maweb.org/en/article.aspx?id=58

A landmark study released today reveals that approximately 60 percent of the ecosystem services that support life on Earth – such as fresh water, capture fisheries, air and water regulation, and the regulation of regional climate, natural hazards and pests – are being degraded or used unsustainably. Scientists warn that the harmful consequences of this degradation could grow significantly worse in the next 50 years

... Ecosystem changes that have contributed substantial net gains in human well-being and economic development have been achieved at growing costs in the form of degradation of other services. Only four ecosystem services have been enhanced in the last 50 years: increases in crop, livestock and aquaculture production, and increased carbon sequestration for global climate regulation. Two services – capture fisheries and fresh water – are now well beyond levels that can sustain current, much less future, demands.

Experts say that these problems will substantially diminish the benefits for future generations

...The MA Synthesis Report also reveals that it is the world’s poorest people who suffer most from ecosystem changes. The regions facing significant problems of ecosystem degradation – sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, some regions in Latin America, and parts of South and Southeast Asia – are also facing the greatest challenges in achieving the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals ...

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