Stop Rape against Women in Conflict

The Nobel Women Laureates are today going to the Congo for a Conference with the above title.  Among the Laureates are Mairead Maguire and Betty Williams.

Please support those in the Congo conference and shout STOP to rape, murder and war - especially when women and children are the victims.

The true stories from around the world of the vicious rape and murder of women that appear on http://stoprapenow.org must be seen to believed

Rape of women seems to go along with army conquest. Rape is wrong but rapists get cover from governments who sponsor armies .

Governments and armies everywhere know and fail to stop the rape of women and children who find themselves facing down the loaded barrels of conquering bravados.

These bravados have been trained by armies, paid for by governments.

The crime of rape against these women and children is also a crime on the part of the armies and governments.  

The whistleblowers for war crimes are not rewarded by their governments but punished as traitors.   They are visited with degrading and inhuman treatment, as has happened in the ongoing case of Bradley Manning of the US army. 

Stop Rape Now is asking for pledges from individuals or organisations to do what they can to stop this heinous institutional crime against vulnerable and defenceless women.

Hamas Lose support for just Palestinian cause by cruel executions

The continuing occupation of Palestine by a cruel and unjust occupying Israel, the settler violence against Palestinians, the unjust laws and protocols that make Palestinian lives a matter of daily intimidation and harassment, the Israeli massacre in Gaza, - all of these have raised cries of protest from concerned people all over the world.

This cry of protest has no force of arms or physical power to change what is happening but is a human cry against injustice.  Its force is a moral one.  But for this it should not be disregarded.  From such moral outrage there often comes revolution and reform.  Without such moral outrage the revolution or reform, if it happens at all, will be either pathetically weak or itself unjust.

The news last week of three executions by the Gaza authorities, Hamas, makes sad reading for supporters of Palestinian rights.

Hamas who were elected to rule over all of Palestine have in effect been confined, by Israeli and international machinations to rule only over the Gaza peninsula - another injustice.

Hamas rule in Gaza has been under scrutiny by all supporters of Palestinian rights.  The fact that they have engaged in eleven executions since taking power there is a massive disappointment  for human rights supporters of Palestinians.

There is a particular sadness and outrage  about the three recent hangings - the names of the victims have not been revealed even in death.

No chance here of a Troy Davis style petition revealing the facts of the cases and trials before three human lives were taken.

No chance of the sad human face of the inhuman capital punishment being shown to the world. No chance for petitioners to ask for a reprieve.  No chance for humanity to enter the equation.

I appeal to Hamas to stop executions and abolish the death penalty.

The Pope is Wrong

Pope Benedict has again decided that women priests are not allowed in the Roman Catholic Church, that male priests must not marry (except for those who came en masse or separately from other religions because of decisions in their own churches with which they disagreed). 

The Pope is patently wrong on both counts. It is an injustice to 50% of Roman Catholics to exclude them from priesthood, the highest spiritual rank, power  and honour in the Church's gift.  It is also an injustice to demand compulsory celibacy from men on whom this same spiritual rank and power is conferred.  It is folly to make these two decisions in the name of the founder of Christianity.

The reasons given were usually about the fact that all the apostles were male, not female.  No mention that some of them were married, including the first Pope, Pope Peter.  Also "there were no women at the last supper".  Really?  The men did all the washing up?

But Benedict's reasons have more to do with obedience to him. 

Pope John Paul II (not to be confused with the smiling Pope John Paul I who was probably murdered in the Vatican) and Pope Benedict have stood like tigers against the ministry of women or relaxing the law of compulsory clerical celibacy.

They have not been as fiercely adamant about cleaning up the corruption that has pervaded the Vatican.

Parents Go Public Alleging bullying of Child

Appalling Saga of Bullying Alleged in Kells

The alleged bullying of a child in a Kells school is the subject of articles published in a number of Irish newspapers recently:

See: 

the Meath Chronicle


the Irish Examiner

The press release related to the above has been taken down by request

Strike the Gong - Bullying is wrong

Last Thursday I had to give a talk on Bullying to a group of Brownies.  It was the first time I had to talk to a group of small girls (average age eight) on this subject.  After a lot of thinking and searching for advice I decided to base the talk on three slogans:

1 Strike the Gong - Bullying is Wrong


2 Fly the Kite - Telling is Right


3 Reach for the Shelf - Stand Up for Yourself

With the aid of markers I drew (pretty hopeless) pictures of Gong, Kite and Shelf.
A scout leader made a Gong sound online!

To hear 25 Brownies yell these three slogans at regular intervals throughout the hour was heartening.

The leader e-mailed me yesterday to say that the girls really enjoyed it, went home and spoke of it and there was a great response from Parents also.

So now I'm adopting these three slogans as a theme for the Anti-Bullying Ireland site. Let's lift the roof now:

Strike the Gong - Bullying is Wrong


Fly the Kite - Telling is Right


Reach for the Shelf - Stand Up for Yourself.