News

Not the New Age Goddess

Followers of that most charming of goddesses, Kali, have been taking her destroyer role a little too literally. Most recently, a man has been arrested in the east Indian state of Orissa after a seven year old boy was beheaded and his body offered to Kali. Arta Sahu allegedly kidnapped the boy on September 30th after the goddess told him in a dream to sacrifice the boy to save his own life. Last June a two year old girl was killed in similar circumstances. - Hindustan Times, October 4th 2002. ABC News(Australia), October 6th 2002.

A day later, on October 1st, four members of one family killed themselves so that they could see the goddess Kali and achieve mukti (total liberation). They committed suicide by eating poisoned sweets which they had offered to the goddess. - The Times of India, October 2nd 2002.

Love 'N' Care for Animals, an animal welfare group in Kolkata, is targetting this year's Kali Puja celebrations where some worshippers sacrifice animals to the goddess. One family sacrifices 13 goats and one buffalo each year. Group member Susmita Roy said "We do not believe in hurting anybody's religious sentiments so we will not force them to give up the ritual at once but we will tell them that it isn't possible to appease any good spirit by hurting someone else". - Times of India, September 26th 2002.

Merde

A French author has claimed that Jacques Chirac spent the equivalent of over a million pounds to ensure that France won the World Cup in 1998. In her book La Sorcellerie au coeur de la République (Witchcraft at the Heart of the Republic), Sylvie Jumel says the cash went as payments to Senegalese witchdoctors. He also used them, and French witches, to secure the presidential election but obviously did not pay out to help the French football team in this year's World Cup.

The book is published by Editions Carnot, who recently published Meyssan Theirry's books claiming that no aircraft crashed into the Pentagon on September 11 2001. - The Independent, October 3rd 2002.

Hypocrisy

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has recommended that 12 nations be designated as 'Countries of Particular Concern' under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. The independent federal agency told Secretary of State Colin Powell that Burma (Myanmar), the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, India, Iran, Iraq, Laos, Pakistan, People's Republic of China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam have engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom. The Act allows the US President to take a range of actions, ranging from absolutely nothing to diplomatic and economic sanctions.

"The designation of countries of particular concern is one of the most important human rights acts taken by any U.S. administration," said Commission Chair Felice D. Gaer. "The IRFA requires the U.S. to oppose these egregious and systematic violations, whether the government itself commits them or tolerates them. We hope to see actions commensurate with the severity of these abuses."

A "Watch List" of countries causing concern has also been created -- Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Uzbekistan.

"Commission Recommends 12 Nations for Designation As 'Countries of Particular Concern'"- USCIRF Press Release, September 30th 2002.

Cherry Popped

Canadian authorities have seized copies of a novel by British lesbian author Charlotte Cooper because they find a consensual fisting scene between two women to be obscene. Even though the law allows material of artistic merit, and the novel has received critical acclaim, the publishers face a long legal battle to get the work released for sale.

Canada has an allegedly feminist definition of obscenity, but so far, the law has been applied mainly against feminist and lgbt bookshops and small publishers:

"You might be surprised to find that a lot of literary fiction depicting peculiar sex acts and/or violence is allowed into Canada, including novels such as 'American Psycho' and 'Porno,' by Irvine Welsh. Moreover, books that have the protection of large corporate publishers and their lawyers also manage to sneak in. Canada Customs just seems to have a problem with the smaller scale stuff that deals with queer sex, and because independent gay and lesbian bookshops sell a lot of sex-related matter, they get picked on the most. For example, for a long time every shipment of books Little Sister's bookshop in Vancouver ordered was scrutinised by the authorities and material seized ­ including safe sex information. The shop is now involved in a long-running legal battle to overturn Canada Customs' censorship policies." - Charlotte Cooper, September 2002.

Shorts

A former nun accused of abusing children in her care at a fundamentalist Christian commune in Canada has said that the children were lying about the beatings:

Lucille Poulin, 78, told the court the five children she is accused of assaulting are wicked and "have been seduced by Satan to enjoy worldly pleasures."

But then she said that she did beat the children with a heavy wooden rod as legitimate corrections to keep her charges on the path to heaven, and that she would do the same to any other child she was asked to care for. She said that God told her to do it. "We decided to stop all this mushy, fleshy stuff of love, love, love." - The Star (Canada), October 1st 2002.


An Italian television psychic has been arrested and jailed. He had been a fugitive since December, when he was sentenced to four years on deception charges. He had been selling flats for souls to live in during the afterlife, and had charged one woman €50 000 to free her from witchcraft. - IOL, October 3rd 2002.


A group of Christians in South Africa want to change the name of a mountain because it has the word "Devil" in it. The African Christian Democratic Party want to call Devil's Peak, near Cape Town, "Dove's Peak" instead. - IOL, October 2nd 2002.


God ignored the prayers of members of a Tennessee Christian church and did not raise 15-year old Jessica Crank from the dead. At her funeral service, New Life Ministries leader Ariel Ben Sherman asked some church members, including the girl's mother, to pray for her ressurection. But God clearly thought it a Bad Idea and did nothing. Instead, Sherman and the girl's mother face charges of child abuse and neglect. Crank was taken to a clinic when a basketball-size growth appeared on her shoulder and workers there urged her mother to seek proper medical treatment. This apparently did not happen and the girl subsequently died of a rare bone cancer. - Associated Press, September 19th 2002.