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- Written by: Seán Ó Séaghdha
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Officiel, officieux, officiel, officieux, officiel, officieux…probably good not to mix these up.
officiel, -elle [ɔfisjɛl] 1 adj (gen) official. (c’est) ~!* it’s no joke!, it’s for sure!* 2 nm, f official.officieux, -euse [ɔfisø, øz] adj unofficial. à titre ~ unofficially, in an unofficial capacity.
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- Written by: Seán Ó Séaghdha
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In 2006, Time named Jamaica the most homophobic country on earth. Whether that report was accurate or not, violence against LGBT people in Jamaica today is rampant. Police, schools, and hospitals discriminate against LGBT people in Jamaica. But attitudes are shifting and a heated public debate about LGBT rights is taking place within the government, in churches, and in both blogs and the mainstream media. The debate is spurred, in part, by the brutal murder last year of a transgender youth, Dwayne Jones. A mob chased the 16-year-old, who was wearing women’s clothing at a party, into a crowded street, where people stabbed him, shot him three times, and deliberately ran over him with a car. Rhon Reynolds, the researcher, talks with Amy Braunschweiger about the new Human Rights Watch report, Not Safe at Home, and what Jamaica should do to protect LGBT people.
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- Written by: Seán Ó Séaghdha
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“Once I tried to run, I tried to run and hide,
but Jesus came and found me and touched me down inside.
He is like a mountie, always gets his man,
and he’ll zap you anyway he can—zap!!”
Thanks to Geoff Irvin for bringing this to my attention...though as is the way with the Internet I’ve probably been here before.
This video made its Internet debut back in 2008 on the Dougsploitation blog and Doug even tracked down the lead singer, Sal Polichetti, for an interview. Some of your many questions may be answered therein. The full horror of Punch and Judaism (the previous act) doesn’t seem to be available on YouTube thankfully.
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- Written by: Seán Ó Séaghdha
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- Written by: Seán Ó Séaghdha
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Some shots advertising a documentary about a photographer wandering around northern Scandinavia for a month snapping the wildlife.
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- Written by: Seán Ó Séaghdha
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The (in)human dimension of Ghana’s prayer campsAmbamfo Ofori Atiemo says that prayer camps in Ghana deserve a closer look, as they are a supposedly compassionate, faith-based response to mental disability. Human Rights Watch’s research suggests otherwise – people with mental health conditions are treated inhumanely in these camps and this must end. Imagine being taken to a camp by a family member, chained to a tree or a concrete structure, sometimes without cover, and forced to urinate, bathe, sleep, and defecate in the spot where you are chained. Imagine being shackled there for days at a time, deprived of food and even water, with no access to adequate health care and no real way of getting out. This is the reality for hundreds of people with real or perceived mental health conditions whom we met or saw in a number of prayer camps in Ghana.
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Source: openDemocracy See also: Human Rights Watch |
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- Written by: Seán Ó Séaghdha
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Bill Maher got a lot of stick yesterday for posting on Facebook about this 2013 survey of Muslim attitudes by the Pew Research Center, but if you look past the top question about shari‘a (which seemed to upset people) there is some really interesting stuff here showing the diversity and otherwise of Muslim opinion. Of course, no survey can be a perfect representation of opinions so it should be taken with a grain of salt, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
Following on from Ben Affleck’s aggro attack on Bill’s guest Sam Harris recently, it seems like some people have decided that Bill is an Islamophobe for questioning the value of religious doctrine, which is pretty sad. Sam gives a fairly measured response: “Can Liberalism Be Saved From Itself?”.
At the end of that article Sam mentions Maajid Nawaz, who you should know about if you don’t. Maajid is a former Islamic extremist, who had a change of heart (partly due to support from Amnesty International while he was in prison) and formed the anti-extremism think tank Quilliam. I admire tremendously what he’s doing, even though it still seems simpler to me to just leave the religion behind. Still any attempt to solidify and elaborate a moderate position is definitely a good thing. He also wrote a book about his experience: Radical: My Journey out of Islamist Extremism.
If you don’t feel like you’ve overdosed on the Muslim ‘question’ already (like so many Bill Maher fans) you can see Maajid in action in this Intelligence Squared debate “Islam is a religion of peace” from a few years ago.
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I’ve noticed a lot of people lately standing up in support of Muslims who’ve been the target of public bigotry ranging from bogan dimwits to the government itself (is there a difference?). This is undoubtedly the right thing to do, but often it seems to tip over into a defence of Islam itself, which, given than many of the people doing it are not religious at all, seems a little weird. While most people (of whatever belief system) just want to live a quiet and good life, it’s very hard to get away from the fact that the religion Islam (by which I mean mainstream Islam as constituted by the Qurʼān, its abrogations and accepted ʾaḥādīth) is quite doomy.
Doom in the Qurʼān
Doom, Painful Doom, Awful Doom, Shameful Doom, Dreadful Doom, Heavy Doom, Harsh Doom, Lasting Doom, Evil Doom, Grievous Doom, Allah's Doom, Dolorous Doom, Everlasting Doom, Terrific Doom, Fearful Doom, Doom of Fire, Doom of Degradation, Doom of the Disdained, Doom of Hell, Doom of Ignominy, Doom of the Hereafter, Doom of Allah, Doom of Burning, Doom of Flame, Doom of Immortality, Gulf of Doom, Hour of Doom, Word of Doom, Doom of Humiliation, Doom of a Tremendous Day, Doom of a Disastrous Day, Allah Doometh, The Doomed, Doom to Doom, Doom, Painful Doom, Awful Doom, Shameful Doom, Dreadful Doom, Heavy Doom, Harsh Doom, Lasting Doom, Evil Doom, Grievous Doom, Allah's Doom, Dolorous Doom, Everlasting Doom, Terrific Doom, Fearful Doom, Doom of Fire, Doom of Degradation, Doom of the Disdained, Doom of Hell, Doom of Ignominy, Doom of the Hereafter, Doom of Allah, Doom of Burning, Doom of Flame, Doom of Immortality, Gulf of Doom, Hour of Doom, Word of Doom, Doom of Humiliation, Doom of a Tremendous Day, Doom of a Disastrous Day, Allah Doometh, The Doomed, Doom to Doom
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