All entries by this author

Have Mercy

Jun 5th, 2005 2:45 am | By

Humans, humans, humans. One despairs sometimes, one really does. How can one help it.

Police and child protection experts are to investigate the extent of child abuse linked to religious practices after three adults who branded an eight-year-old child a witch and tortured her for months were yesterday convicted of child cruelty offences. The girl, known only as child B, was an orphan from war-ravaged Angola and brought to Britain by her aunt who falsely claimed to be her mother. She was cut with a knife on her chest, had chilli peppers rubbed in her eyes, was starved and repeatedly slapped, kicked and beaten…In one incident child B was bundled into a laundry bag and made to believe she

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Ordeal Lasted Months and was Nearly Fatal *

Jun 4th, 2005 | Filed by

Beaten with a stiletto shoe, cut with a kitchen knife, starved for days at a time. … Read the rest



Police to Investigate ‘Witchcraft’ Child Abuse *

Jun 4th, 2005 | Filed by

Child welfare groups warn there may be dozens of such cases. … Read the rest



‘In our community, kindoki happens’ *

Jun 4th, 2005 | Filed by

‘Kindoki is something you have to be scared of because in our culture kindoki can kill you’… Read the rest



‘Exorcisms are part of our culture’ *

Jun 4th, 2005 | Filed by

Members of communities which practice exorcism say it is not necessarily harmful. … Read the rest



‘Witchcraft’ Abuse Case May be One of Many *

Jun 4th, 2005 | Filed by

Four London charities told BBC News this was not an isolated case. … Read the rest



A Woman’s Life *

Jun 3rd, 2005 | Filed by

Deprived of five years of school, fired for man’s comment, shot in head.… Read the rest



UNESCO Head Condemns Rezayee Murder *

Jun 3rd, 2005 | Filed by

Murder cannot be considered an instrument for cultural policy.… Read the rest



Reporters Without Borders Voice Shock *

Jun 3rd, 2005 | Filed by

Rezayee murder shows press freedom still threatened in Afghanistan.… Read the rest



Rezayee Got Flak From Conservative Mullahs *

Jun 3rd, 2005 | Filed by

Two of her brothers being questioned in police detention about her murder.… Read the rest



Murder of Afghan TV Presenter Shaima Rezayee *

Jun 3rd, 2005 | Filed by

Two months after complaints from religious hardliners got her fired.… Read the rest



Shaima Rezayee or Shabina Begum *

Jun 3rd, 2005 | Filed by

Cultural imperialism analysis forbids people to change.… Read the rest



Meanwhile, in Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen *

Jun 3rd, 2005 | Filed by

Fiction about Schrödinger: physics unconvincing as narrative.… Read the rest



Things Are Against Us

Jun 2nd, 2005 8:27 pm | By

Oh dear – that’s one of the best laughs I’ve had in – well, a few hours, anyway. It was the surprise, partly. You know how a surprise can yank a loud sudden blurt of laughter out of you without your consciously intending it. It was that kind.

What, what, you eagerly cry, tell us so that we can laugh too. It was just a letter on the Letters page about my silly parodic wall article, which said ‘This is one of the silliest things I have ever read.’ Well good! That was the idea, so I’m delighted he thinks so! Mind you, he seems to have missed the fact that the silliness was intentional, but that’s all right – … Read the rest



Ability to Force Bibles on Ill People Threatened *

Jun 2nd, 2005 | Filed by

It’s outrageous, political correctness gone mad, Gideon pest exclaims.… Read the rest



Full Transcript of Hitchens Brothers *

Jun 2nd, 2005 | Filed by

Much longer.… Read the rest



Why Intelligent Design Isn’t *

Jun 2nd, 2005 | Filed by

Biologist Allen Orr on Behe and Dembski.… Read the rest



Smithsonian Disavows ‘Intelligent Design’ *

Jun 2nd, 2005 | Filed by

James Randi and science blogs asked questions.… Read the rest



John Mullan on Raymond Williams *

Jun 2nd, 2005 | Filed by

He was arguing with what he took ‘to be the official English culture.’… Read the rest



Cult Studs Textbooks Reviewed *

Jun 2nd, 2005 | Filed by

Cultural studies often called academic in-joke irrelevant to anyone else.… Read the rest