There was one of those horrifying moments in the news – the report of eight children mercilessly slaughtered by off-duty policemen in Rio, also known as the Candelária massacre. It brought a horrifying knowledge to a sanguine world that, despite all vacuous homilies about children being ‘divinely’ protected, it is an unsafe and insane world even for infants and toddlers.

‘Street children’  is

a term used to refer to children who live on the streets of a city. They are basically deprived of family care and protection. Most children on the streets are between the ages of about 5 and 17 years old, and their population between different cities is varied.

Street children live in abandoned buildings, cardboard boxes, parks or on the street itself. A great deal has been written defining street children, but the primary difficulty is that there are no precise categories, but rather a continuum, ranging from children who spend some time in the streets and sleep in a house with ill-prepared adults, to those who live entirely in the streets and have no adult supervision or care.

A widely accepted set of definitions, commonly attributed to UNICEF, divides street children into two main categories:

1. Children on the street are those engaged in some kind of economic activity ranging from begging to vending. Most go home at the end of the day and contribute their earnings to their family. They may be attending school and retain a sense of belonging to a family. Because of the economic fragility of the family, these children may eventually opt for a permanent life on the streets.
2. Children of the street actually live on the street (or outside of a normal family environment). Family ties may exist but are tenuous and are maintained only casually or occasionally.

Street children exist in many major cities, especially in developing countries, and may be subject to abuse, neglect, exploitation, or even, in extreme cases, murder by "cleanup squads" hired by local businesses or police.^[2]

In Latin America, a common cause is abandonment by poor families unable to feed all their children. In Africa, an increasingly common cause is AIDS.

Let’s take a gander at some stats, shall we?

• India 11 million
• Egypt 1,5 million
• Pakistan 1,5 million
• U.S. 750,000 – 1 million
• Kenya 250,000 – 300,000
• Philippines 250,000
• Congo 250,000
• Morocco 30,000
• Brazil 25,000
• Germany 20,000
• Honduras 20 000
• Jamaica 6,500
• Uruguay 3000
• Switzerland 1,000

The top 8 offenders are in bold. And, surprise! The top offenders are also the most highly religious countries.

One can easily ascribe these numbers to superstitious bullshit. India is often touted as the most religious country in the world. Egypt and Pakistan? Guess what those numbers are? The US comes in at a staggering 3/4 of a million to a million stray ‘sewer rats’.

I lay these crimes of overpopulation at the stair of superstition – I hammer this thesis to the door – I rant and rage at the bullheaded stupidity of ensoulment, for it is from this unprovable, ridiculous romanticism that is laying the bed of millions of vagrant children in blood and shit and tears.

Religion has done a piss poor job of controlling our loins, because it is fostered in the weltering weird fear of the sex drive, and it takes away the tools of education, the implements of prevention, the logic of critical thought, and replaces it with hierarchal horseshit and infanticidal delusions.

Religion. It’s gotta go.

Till the next post, then.

Imagine the dilemma:  A District Attorney is faced with the intransigence of parents who refuse to protect their children from harm.  What can he do?  He’s tried prosecution, and juries have found against the parents.  As a deterrent, punishment (ranging from fines to probation to prison) hasn’t improved the situation.  My guess is that the parents are subjected to a great deal of public shaming; and yet the parents show no remorse.

Children keep dying.  And it’s generational:  In February, a mother and father were found guilty and sentenced to 16 months in prison.  And in August, her daughter and husband were tried and found not guilty.  In the former case, their teenage son died of complications from an untreated urinary blockage.  The latter case involved a 15-month-old daughter who died of a blood infection; although they escaped a prison sentence, the father was convicted of :criminal mistreatment, a misdemeanor, for failing to provide adequate medical care.”

The state medical examiner’s office reported that during the past 30 years more than 20 children of church members had died from preventable or curable illnesses. The mortality rate for Followers of Christ children during that period is 26 times greater than the general population.

Yes, Followers of Christ Church.  You had already guessed that, I’m sure.

But how DO we protect the children from their lunatic parents?  After all, they have First Amendment protections.  And the children have their own rights.  If one should trump the other, the child’s welfare must be paramount.  The child doesn’t have the knowledge and experience it would take to manage his/her health crises.  That duty belongs to the parent/s.  But how do we get around the faith-based ignorance of zealots?

In a “for what it’s worth” gesture, the DA sent a letter to all 415 families of the fundamentalist sect.

“As a starting point towards a possible dialogue between the church and law enforcement, let me ask the following question: Is there an opportunity for us to agree under what circumstances parents should take their children to a doctor or hospital for appropriate medical care?” District Attorney John Foote wrote.

“Our goal would be to try and find ways to make sure that children of the church are safe and receive appropriate medical care. We would work with you to make that happen,” the letter said.

What to do?  We can’t police these people.  Nor can we visit them daily.  Do we take their children away?  Do we force them to leave, knowing they’ll likely go underground?  If the reasonable letter from a reasonable public servant accomplishes nothing, what then?

As a last resort, should we disguise a NursePractioner as a “faith healer”?

***

For those of you curious as to why this is titled “…part four”, here are links to the earlier posts:

Suffer the little children…, 05.19.07 (which may or may not be about hyper-fundi-ism)

Suffer the little children (genetically), 05.21.07

Suffer the little children (this is getting monotonous!), 06.01.07

Thanks to ChuckA for sending us this link to Austin Cline’s article about a 12-year-old Yemeni child bride who died of internal bleeding days after being married to a man more than twice her age.

Like a couple of other Middle Eastern Muslim nations, Yemen has a problem with little girls being married off to older men — and it’s a problem that just keeps getting worse. The latest incident involves a 12-year-old girl married to a man at least twice as old as her. Just three days after the wedding, she died of internal bleeding caused by intercourse with her “husband” (that should probably read “legally and religiously sanctioned rapist”).

While we would like to think that most Muslims do not condone this practice, we have to consider the fact that the Muslims’ main prophet Muhammed married and had sex with a girl just as young.

Cline writes:

Muhammad is supposed to have lived an exemplarily life — a life that all Muslims should strive to emulate if they can. Well, the men of Yemen are doing just that by having multiple wives and at least one child bride.

Like the Christians’ Bible, the Koran can be used to justify the most horrific of acts from blowing up skyscrapers, to raping young children. It’s all a matter of interpretation and what a person chooses to believe in accordance with his or her own desires.

What do officials in Yemen have to say about this tragic incident?

It’s not clear to what degree Yemeni officials are truly outraged over this and to what degree they are only outraged because of the international attention they are getting. Even if they were genuinely outraged, though, how easy would it be for them to change the religious culture of the people in their nation? A third of all girls in Yemen are married before they are 18 and most of them are married off to men who already have multiple wives. The parents are no help because they are happy to be rid of girls in a religious culture where females just aren’t valued — except perhaps for child-bearing and sex.

As we see from our own radical Christian groups here in this country, to rid a culture of dangerous superstition is extremely difficult, if not nearly impossible. However, we have laws in this country which protect the innocent from these sorts of horrendous acts and the perpetrators brought to justice if they are found out (except for the Catholic church however, who have the ridiculous power to protect pedophile priests.)

While some may argue that this is a cultural thing and we should not interfere, Sigrid Kaag, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa believes otherwise:

Her death is “a painful reminder of the risks girls face when they are married too soon,” Kaag said Thursday.

Amal Basha, chairwoman of the Sisters Arab Forum for Human Rights, a Yemeni human rights group, identified the girl Friday as Elham Mahdi.

“Elham was married on March 29th and died three days later” and lived in Yemen’s Hajjah province, Basha said.

This isn’t the only story that has surfaced in Yemen the past couple of years:

In September, a 12-year-old Yemeni girl forced into marriage died during childbirth. Her baby also died, according to the Seyaj Organization for the Protection of Children.

Fawziya Ammodi was in labor for three days before she died of severe bleeding, said Ahmed al-Qureshi, president of the organization.

While these things can happen to a fully-developed woman, what makes this different with these young brides is that they were forced into these marriages and pregnancies. It’s not their choice and they are the victims of their parents’ religious beliefs.

Suffer the little children . . . too often.

Just ran across this at Salon.com

Iranian cleric: Immodest women cause quakes
Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi issues a warning about seismically slutty dames

As we have discussed here on more than one occasion, when disaster strikes, lunatics come out in full force. Back in January, Pat Robertson attributed the earthquake tragedy in Haiti to a ‘deal made with the devil by Haitians to oust Napoleon’. An Iranian cleric is now blaming the recent number of earthquakes on “slutty women”.

Amid all the recent speculation over what only feels like an unusual number of earthquakes around the world, an Iranian cleric has offered a novel explanation for the source of seismic activity: promiscuous women. Unless Iranians “take refuge in religion” and “adapt our lives to Islam’s moral codes,” they can expect to be “buried under the rubble,” said Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, a senior cleric, during Friday prayers in Tehran. As usual, these moral responsibilities are projected onto women’s bodies: “Many women who do not dress modestly … lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes,” he said.

Every country has its own share of religious whackadoos.

Doesn’t matter what brand of Xian. When they are cornered and can’t find a way out of something they turn on the persecution complex and start boo-hooing that they are being unfairly picked on. Typical.

Vatican blasts anti-Catholic ‘hate’ campaign

VATICAN CITY (AP) – The Vatican heatedly defended Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday, claiming accusations that he helped cover up the actions of pedophile priests are part of an anti-Catholic “hate” campaign targeting the pope for his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.

Vatican Radio broadcast comments by two senior cardinals explaining “the motive for these attacks” on the pope.

“The pope defends life and the family, based on marriage between a man and a woman, in a world in which powerful lobbies would like to impose a completely different” agenda, Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz, head of the disciplinary commission for Holy See officials, was quoted as saying.

What a way to attempt to cover up their own shit with ironically their own bigotry and discrimination.

And of course, with the latest spate of child abuse scandals rocking the Catholic Church, who you gonna blame?

That’s right – the devil:

Holy See’s chief exorcist about abuse charges in Catholic Church: Satan is at work inside Vatican

Did the devil make them do it?

I think the answer should be obvious on this one.

The recent spate of sexual abuse allegations rocking the Catholic Church show that "the Devil is at work inside the Vatican," Father Gabriele Amorth, the chief exorcist of the Holy See, told the Times of London.

An exorcist? You mean the poor man’s version of a psychotherapist – somebody who has absolutely no clue about how reality works?

"When one speaks of ‘the smoke of Satan’ in the holy rooms, it is all true – including these latest stories of violence and pedophilia," Amorth told the newspaper.

That’s probably somebody just taking hits off their bong – come to think about it, it would explain a lot.

Amorth, who told the paper, that he knows a thing or two about exorcisms having handled 70,000 cases of demonic possession, said the Holy See was infested with "cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the demon."

So, there’s about 70,000 people out there who were psychologically traumatized by this fake shaman? The head shudders.

Amorth’s accusations come at a time when the Vatican is facing scrutiny on a number of fronts:

Doesn’t matter – a Catholic priest AND an exorcist? Talk about the medium of irrelevance.

* One of Pope Benedict’s ceremonial ushers was among those implicated in a gay prostitution ring – after being caught on a police wiretap.

* Catholic authorities in Germany on Wednesday announced a probe into allegations the Regensburger Domspatzen Boys Choir – once led by the Pope’s older brother.

* Major pedophilia cases involving priests have also surfaced in Ireland and the United States.

"Cardinals might be better or worse, but all have upright intentions and seek the glory of God," Father José Antonio Fortea Cucurull, another exorcist, told the Times of London. "To affirm that some cardinals are members of satanic sects is an unacceptable distance."

Well folks, the jig is up. There’s no one up in the clouds, or beneath us in the dirt. So there’s no more hiding behind vestments and imaginary people.

The days of blaming deities for one’s problems are over. Finito. Ended. No more. No ghosts, goblins, angels, devils, fucking phantasms to blame for your spasms (or illegal orgasms).

It’s time humanity came fully into the 21st century. Kicking and screaming or weeping and the rending of ash cloth, it doesn’t matter.

Live in the real world, with the rest of us.

Till the next post, then.

(Hat tip to Andrew Brown at the Guardian)

A gay witch hunt in Uganda

Why are the English archbishops silent over Uganda’s grotesque anti-homosexuality bill?

A bill currently before the Ugandan parliament (pdf) proposes seven year prison sentences for discussing homosexuality; life imprisonment for homosexual acts; and death for a second offence. Sober observers believe it will be passed. The Anglican church in Uganda appears to support it, and the Church of England in this country is absolutely silent. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Winchester solemnly denounce violence in the Congo, where they have no influence at all, but on Uganda they maintain a resolute post-colonial silence.

The position of the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, is more complicated, and his silence more eloquent. He is himself Ugandan by birth. One of his younger half-brothers, pastor Robert Kayanja, is a highly successful pentecostal preacher in Kampala, running a church called the Rubaga Miracle Centre. Such people are highly rewarded, and the business is extremely competitive. A rival preacher, the gloriously named Solomon Male of the The Arising Church was accused this spring of kidnapping Kayanga’s assistant and torturing him for five days to get him to confess that his boss was gay and partial to young men.

So…churches are big business in Uganda? Somehow this is no surprise. That these backwards assholes are discriminating based on sexual preference? It takes religion to do that. So, just who started this nonsense in the first place? Why, surprise! It was a Christian Fundamentalist group:

A United States fundamentalist group is at the heart of Uganda’s anti-gay law. Originally known as The Fellowship, an international organization founded in 1935, today it is known as ‘The Family’, described by Jeff Sharlet in his book The Family: Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, who investigates the political power of ‘The Family’, a secretive fundamentalist Christian association. ‘The Family’, under the reclusive leadership of Douglas Coe, is described by prominent evangelical Christians as one of the most, or the most, politically well-connected fundamentalist organizations in the United States.

Ugandan lawmaker and alleged member of the ‘The Family’, David Bahati sponsored Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, also known as the "Bahati Bill".

That these maniacs have in-roads to our government is scary enough. But that they can prevail on foreign governments to discriminate against their own citizenry? That’s just bugfuck crazy.

And America’s favorite ferret minister, the inestimable Rick Warren, while not at the heart of this, is still a voice in the chaos (but not one of reason):

The Ugandan parliament is currently considering an “Anti-Homosexuality Bill,” under which any person “convicted of gay sex is liable to life imprisonment.” If that person is HIV positive or has sex with a minor or a person with a disability, he or she would be guilty of “aggravated homosexuality” and face the death penalty. The bill also proposes up to three years of imprisonment for anyone who “fails to report within 24 hours the identities of everyone they know who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, or who supports human rights for people who are.” The bill would even “apply to Ugandans who commit homosexual offences, but who live overseas.” There are approximately 500,000 gay men and women living in Uganda.

Half a million? Get ready for the next big genocide, folks.

Pastor Rick Warren — whom President Obama controversially chose to deliver the invocation at his inauguration — is now refusing to condemn Bahati’s bill, which has been endorsed by Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa. Ssempa has been welcomed by Warren’s family and made appearances at his church. Newsweek reports that although Warren has distanced himself from Ssempa’s views, he won’t come out against the Anti-Homosexuality Bill:

The fundamental dignity of every person, our right to be free, and the freedom to make moral choices are gifts endowed by God, our creator. However, it is not my personal calling as a pastor in America to comment or interfere in the political process of other nations in anybody else’s business.

There, fixed that one for you, you weasel.

Really, the politicians of this country need to realize that civil rights are more important than the votes of some crazy ass fairy-begging fuck who can’t get a normal job and hears non-verbal instructions from the ether.

Till the next post, then.

Be forewarned: the video is both heart-breaking and rage-inducing. Apparently, child sacrifice is the latest trend in Uganda. And truly, what other reason besides religious ritualism could be behind it?

And as if that wasn’t enough horrific news, there happens to be a major trend in the Congo:

Crisis in DR Congo

12 year-old, Henri, which is not his real name, points at a large fresh looking scar on his midriff.

"People accused me of sorcery and my mother believed them," he says.
"Look, here on my stomach. She tried to kill me with a knife. It really hurt and I cannot understand why my mother did it."
Henri, who is now being given help by a children’s charity, had been playing outside his home in Goma, eastern Congo, when the accusations began.
His eyes begin to water as he remembers pleading with his mother, telling her that the claims were completely untrue. Not that this made any difference.
"She threw me out of the house and told me to go away," he says.
Henri was then forced to live on the streets until charity workers convinced his mother that the allegations were untrue.

Apparently, nobody’s passing out condoms in this country either. Because obviously Henri’s mother isn’t fit to take care of her own child.

Growing problem
His is just one of a fast growing number of children accused of sorcery to come to the attention of Unicef’s head of child protection in Congo, Alessandra Dentice.
"Children accused of witchcraft is unfortunately one of the major increasing child protection issues in the country," she says.

Well, anyone accusing anyone of witchcraft in this day and age means that the hugest issue of all is education. Because obviously, witchcraft is bullshit.

Unicef’s latest available statistics show that around one hundred cases of child sorcery allegations were referred to them in 2008 in the North Kivu province of Eastern Congo alone.
That number increased nearly fivefold to 450 in the same area last year.

Hard to believe in the 21st century, isn’t it?

I can’t speak for anyone else, but this sort of horse manure makes me grim with rage. It is yet another of millions of indictments against the bastions of belief, the spuriousness of superstition, the rottenness of religion. It signifies those predators upon the weak, the witch doctor, the shaman, the priest, the minister. It shows us that shadows have far too much grip upon feeble psyches, a fear passed down from ancient dead men with heads up their asses. It instructs us that the road to reason is an uphill battle of near Sisyphean proportions. It teaches us that others overvalue the afterlife far too highly above this one, an empty valueless existence then, for there is no life other than here.

It is to clench the fists whitely, gnash the teeth in snarls, and growl in rage and disappointment – for all that any religion teaches is to increase suffering in a life already complicated with enough of it.

Till the next post, then.