Posted by Jim on August 2, 2019
WHAT WOULD JIMMY DO? 3RD ANNUAL GOLF OUTING
Join in celebrating the life of Jimmy Lanza and help raise donations to the Ray Pfiefer Foundation and the Stephen Siller Foundation on Wednesday, August 14, 2019, from 12:30 PM to 6:00 PM at Pelham Bay Golf Course, 870 Shore Road Bronx, NY 10464. Registrations start at noon. $160 a man includes golf, lunch/dinner and golf shirt. Please make every effort to register in advance online at https://tinyurl.com/y5v6ehb5 so that the proper arrangements can be made.
FDNY MARINE CORPS ASSOCIATION’S 1ST ANNUAL CIGAR NIGHT
FDNY Marine Corps Association’s 1st Annual Cigar Night will be held Monday, August 19th, from 1900-2300 hours at Vetro on the Bay (open air rooftop venue) 164-49 Cross Bay Blvd in Howard Beach, NY 11414. Cost is $130 per person and includes 4-hour open bar with premium liquor, beer and wine, 4-hour buffet catered by Russo’s on the Bay with top notch food and 4 cigars per person plus cutter. There will be raffle prizes as well as a 50/50 throughout the night. Space is limited to the first 150 people. No money will be collected at the door, so you must RSVP with either Joe Bachert at 631-605-1444 or Frank Ancona at 718-986-9822 and mail checks (made payable to FDNY Marine Corps Association) to Marine Corps Association, P.O. Box 1014, Smithtown, NY 11787 to reserve your spot.
STEUBEN ASSOCIATION BOAT RIDE
On Sunday, August 18, 2019, the Annual Steuben Association Boat Ride will be on the Art Cabana Yacht leaving from the Skyport Marina at 2430 FDR Drive Service Road East, (23rd St & FDR) Manhattan. Boarding begins at 5:30 PM (rain or shine); the cruise is from 6-10 PM. Tickets are $30 in advance or $40 at the door. Boat ride includes music by DJ Emjay, complimentary appetizers, and a cash/credit card bar. For ticket information, visit www.fdnysteuben.org or search FDNY Steuben Boat Ride at Eventbrite.com.
20 YEAR REUNION
A 20 year reunion for members in the August 8, 1999 probationary firefighter class will be held on September 20, 2019. For information, please contact Joe Brautigam at joeyb252@gmail.com.
Posted by Jim on
The Brexit crisis is another example of how the UK so often ignores the consequences of its conduct on its neighbor
Richard McMahon. Irish Times. Dublin. Thursday, August 2, 2019(Richard McMahon is a lecturer in history at the University of Limerick and an expert on the history of violence).
Boris Johnson’s approach to Ireland is part of an ignoble tradition in British politics. At its heart is the false assumption that superiority in resources and military prowess equates to a superiority in intellectual power and moral rectitude. In short, the idea that might is right and that, ultimately, Paddy should know his place. This assumption shaped and even, at times, dominated, policy on Ireland for centuries before independence[i.e. in the 26 Counties of southern Ireland but not in the Six Counties of Northern Ireland; Ireland was partitioned in 1920 by the British government].
It runs through 19th-century British depictions of the Irish as incapable of self-government, unreliable, lazy and inferior. For Benjamin Disraeli, a British prime minister who shares some personal characteristics with the current incumbent, the Irish were “wild, reckless, indolent, uncertain and superstitious”. Most obviously, this sense of superiority and a refined “moral” stance was clearly manifest in government policy during the Great Famine of 1845-49, which caused the deaths of more than one million people on the island of Ireland.
This consistently damaging strain of thought continued into the 20th century, with British military and economic power often used crudely to address deep-rooted political conflicts in Ireland, which refused, and continue to refuse, to allow for simple solutions. Ireland, the thinking went, should be the handmaiden for glorious Britannia – and this servile position is for Ireland’s own benefit and ultimately serves Irish interests.
Of course, within this particular strain of British political thought, the history of violence and tragedy in Ireland is sometimes portrayed as a product of Irish recalcitrance – a tendency towards disorder and conflict that fails to recognize the beneficence of British policy on the island. Britain, it is often suggested, is a guarantor of Irish stability, addressing and suppressing the inherent conflicts in Irish society, rather than a highly disruptive force that has often recklessly pursued its own interests at a serious cost to its nearest neighbor. This renders the current crisis part of a rather tragic re-emergence of a longstanding disregard for the consequences of British political action on the economic and political stability of Ireland. Sadly, this is because a powerful element within British political life refuses to accept that the blind pursuit of British interests can have deeply damaging consequences for those beyond its borders.
As Johnson now plays with dangerous ideas, promising a “golden age” while already seeking scapegoats for the failure of his vision, the genuine possibility of real and lasting damage to Ireland is compelling. The reintroduction of a hard border on the island is now a possibility. It would become a permanent target for republicans – and the social and economic damage could also serve as a recruiting sergeant for the disaffected to join the ranks of those committed to violent resistance.
More generally, it demonstrates a disregard for the costs inflicted on the basic standards of living of the inhabitants of both islands. That this prospect might be part of an elaborate and rather shallow bluff in the British government’s negotiations with the EU renders the actions of Johnson and his extremist cabinet all the more troubling. If true, Johnson appears to be depending upon reasonable people to block his unreasonable behaviour in the hope of benefiting electorally from their principled actions and, in the process, is risking stability and peace on the island of Ireland.
This reckless pursuit of a Trumpian, Britain-above-all policy, could unleash forces throughout the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland that Johnson may struggle to contain. The promotion of a deeper and greater sense of Irish history in Britain might serve to highlight this folly, although standing against Johnson’s destructive policies will ultimately have to be the work of committed activists and men and women of principle in the political realm.
Posted by Jim on July 31, 2019
By AM Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Clifford Peeples discusses loyalist bonfire culture in the context of a cultural war.
Gandhi related that “A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the souls of its people.” It is the life force that feeds through cohesive society, drawing a sense of purpose, identity, and belonging. It establishes a set of shared traditions and morals, that act as the adhesive which bonds a collective beyond gender, class, and generation. Culture, in essence, should be upstream from politics. However, in disputes, this is seldom the case and culture can become a mere tool of ideology. This aspect of what has been termed a “cultural war” can best be seen in a global context in the Cold War.
While many see ideology and culture as detached fields, during the Cold War the two would converge as the political direction of the juxtaposing opponents forged out cultures and then used modern mediums to project these to each other as proxy weapons. An understanding of the parameters of what is termed “culture” can be found in Marwick’s definition that it can be viewed as two concepts: the traditional view is that culture relates to expressions of art and forms of tradition and the second concept of culture, that it is “the network, or totality, of attitudes, values and practices of a particular group of human beings.”
While culture and ideology are looked upon as two distinct and separate entities, both can intertwine and in certain cases, ideological restructuring can take place and a new culture can emerge or surpass the old. This has led some to conclude that “Ideology is the intellectual dimension of culture.” This restructuring or manufacturing of a culture, to suit ideological beliefs, can be observed in a dramatic form within Germany of the 1930s. It is also found within Soviet states. Culture and ideology also morphed and became a weapon of the cultural Cold War. Professor Gienow-Hecht states that by 1947 the enmity between the West and the Soviet Union had moved “cultural life” and “cultural institutions” from “the sidelines to the centre of political confrontation.”
The use of culture as a weapon in the developing Cold War could be seen as competing ideologies constructing aspects of culture to suit each other’s emerging political programmes. While cultural and ideology are often seen as two very separate spheres, the two would merge in the Cold War. Shibusawa would conclude the follow on the intertwined nature of both:
Dominant ideologies, then, are a subset of culture, or a discursive system. This culture or discursive system shifts as a small number of counter-hegemonic narratives succeed in challenging the veracity and “common sense” of dominant ideologies.
Vladimir Baranovsky observes that Russia has been on a cultural journey of “self-identification” for the last millennia and, as such, there are those who argue that Russia is European and descended from the Western Christian tradition. This is countered by those who believe Russia is in essence Asian in its cultural outlook, having split with the Western Christian tradition in the 11th Century with Byzantium, forming a distinct cultural form of its own that would develop in parallel to the West. These cultural differences would be made more profound by Russia’s stunted growth compared to the West, both politically and economically. The failure to modernise facilitated, first revolution, then dictatorship. This, Branovsky states, gave “…a strong link between Russia’s culture, mentality, and historical legacy.” The Soviet State from its foundation used culture as a form of external projectionism. In this, culture became the expression of ideology. Rossen Djagalov would write:
From very early on in this state’s existence, it projected in its dealings with foreign countries a belief in literature’s capacity to change society; thus, it tried to organize ‘the progressive forces’ of world literature through international writers’ organizations, writers’ congresses, frequent bilateral visits, multilingual literary magazines and massive translation initiatives.
This view: that the state could use culture as a form of weapon in the transition of outside cultures, which in the Soviets’ view was interchangeable with ideology, was to transcend from written format to transmitted media. Thus, the main culture expression of Cold War Russia was formulated as a manifestation of ideology, this would be given its own genre: socialist realism, which would cover architecture, literature, and art. The linking of ideology and culture in such a fashion and its subsequent export to the rest of the Eastern bloc mimicked the cultural imperialism of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.
Most culture, in what we term the West, is less than 150 years old and most nationalities formulated a structure at about the same time. Some ancient traditions have survived and embedded themselves in popular culture: Puck, Halloween, Morris dance, Step dancing, Wassailing, Mummers, and fire celebrations. These remnants are intermixed with the greater Anglo-American culture that dominates the British Isles. Except for a few regional variants, the people of these islands are culturally indistinguishable: they follow the same sports, most of the time, they watch and read the same material; soaps, papers, and films. Yet there are elements that cause extreme views to overshadow some of the oldest cultural expressions on these islands. Expressions that are mirrored in in each community. Historical and religious orders, marching bands, and bonfires are all present in the divergent communities, nor are they exclusive to Ireland or the United Kingdom. However, every year bonfires become an issue.
Fire Festivals are present in every area and culture on the globe. They have been recorded as celebrations, sacrifices, and communal rites of passage. Bonfires in Northern Ireland fit two of the criteria, acting as celebrations and a rite of passage to those who participate. These fire festivals take many forms and are not without controversy. But to understand the significant cultural value to those who practice this form of celebration and to understand how we have got to this point they need to be explored.
Most Bonfires are small affairs, mostly made up of extended family and friends. They, in rural areas, consist of gathering that can be entertained by small groups of drummers and fifers. They are child-friendly and act as a cultural adhesive that bonds those taking part. Stories, mostly about family, music, and rural life permeate the air, along with the aroma of cut grass and smouldering wood. The music and patois swirl with the flames and embers into the night air. Nothing sinister, no gowns, just families under the stars, in front of a fire listening to music and sharing stories. The scene is timeless.
The mega bonfires or ones that have been looked upon as controversial, are urban and tend to take place in areas that acted as overflows from the sectarian violence and the redevelopment that drove tens of thousands from the streets of Belfast, to working-class suburbs of east Antrim and north Down. These mass pyres have resulted from a number of complex issues. They are not a traditional form of loyalist bonfire but are the result of external forces. Up until the 1980s, most loyalist areas had small street bonfires, similar in their nature to their rural counterparts. Redevelopment’s disruption of the century-old street structure brought new considerations. Belfast City Council took the decision that these small, but numerous, activities would be better contained as larger communal events. This attempt, at a form of regulation, had a number of effects: it brought in rivalry and took control away from parental scrutiny. Paramilitary structures replaced the community in a lot of occasions.
The difference between rural and urban bonfires can be understood in class. While urban bonfires are exclusively working-class their counterparts are made up of all sections on class. This, indeed, is indicative of loyalism. Urban loyalism’s link with the middle-class has been broken; this has increased its sense of societal alienation. As such, it has become its own subculture, developing and responding to other cultures around it. It has taken on dance music and a festival that was, in preparation for a few weeks, has now become several months long. The process of preparation has also changed: it gives adherents a prolonged sense of comradery, community, connection, and belonging in a community that believes it has been abandoned. This hothousing forms groups and friendships that most in society today cannot understand. They have as little regard for those who tell them that they are “polluting and destroying the environment”, while driving 4×4 and taking four holidays a year, as the accusers have for them. This alienation can be seen in the tyre issue. Some see this as a rage against those who are seen as the, would be, destroyers of their culture. The burning of tyres by a handful is an act of rebellion against regulation, the same regulation that brought about the conditions that gave rise to giant structures that cry out “we are here and we won’t be forgotten”.
The ideological war on loyalist cultural is reminiscent of aspects of 20th Century European extremism. It is portrayed as having no value, in any of its manifestations. It is sneered upon as squalid by those who live a few postcodes away. Nationalism and republicanism have debased themselves by demonising and continually attacking parts of the oldest cultural manifestations in Europe, due to their ideological differences with those who cherish it. While there are those who would destroy loyalist cultural expression, many are fascinated with it. I have a friend, a French linguist, who spends every July in Northern Ireland. Last year I worked with a sociologist who believed loyalism is the biggest working-class structure in the UK. There are social anthropologists, studying urban loyalism and its traditions. Social documentary programs are chronicling loyalist communities. What do all these have in common? They are the work of outsiders. The Cold War against loyalist communities has left the area of culture that toxic, that no local study of the views, motives, or aspirations of these groups is viable. John Abbott said “Every man’s ability may be strengthened or increased by culture” Whether that culture is of our taste is irrelevant, it is still upstream from the political ideologies which oppose it. A cultural war makes for a hard anvil, that will wear out many hammers.
* Anyone interested in the cultural aspects of loyalist bonfires should visit, Polish Photographer, Mariusz Smiejek’s South Belfast Bonnies 2019, Exhibition of documentary and portraits photography, Belfast South Community Resources Centre, 127-145 Sandy Row, Belfast, BT12 5ET. Which runs from 31 Jul at 09:00 – 1 Aug at 16:00.
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| Clifford Peeples is a writer and former loyalist prisoner. |
Posted by Jim on July 30, 2019
Leo Varadkar and Boris Johnson spoke by phone this morning
By Tommie Gorman. Northern Editor. RTE. Dublin. Tuesday, July 39, 2019
The Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister have spoken by phone this morning in the first contact since Boris Johnson took over in Downing Street six days ago.
Mr Johnson told Leo Varadkar that his government will approach any negotiations that take place with determination and energy and in a spirit of friendship.
Following this morning’s call, the Taoiseach’s office issued a statement, saying that Mr Varadkar emphasised to Mr Johnson that the backstop was necessary as a consequence of the decisions taken by the UK and the EU is united in its view that the Withdrawal Agreement could not be opened.
He told the prime minister that alternative arrangements could replace the backstop in the future, but “thus far satisfactory options had yet to be identified and demonstrated”.
The statement continued: “The Taoiseach restated the need for both governments to be fully committed to the Good Friday Agreement, the protection of the peace process and the restoration of the Northern Ireland institutions.”
The Taoiseach invited Mr Johnson to Dublin to “share further their respective analyses on Brexit and to continue discussion of bilateral matters including Northern Ireland, the Good Friday Agreement and the Common Travel Area”.
Mr Johnson’s spokeswoman said: “The Taoiseach congratulated the Prime Minister on his appointment and both leaders underscored their commitment to working closely together in the spirit of the warm and deep relationship between the UK and Ireland.
“On the process of restoring the Executive and Assembly in Northern Ireland, both leaders expressed their determination to see this happen as quickly as possible.
“The Prime Minister said the ongoing talks have his unequivocal support and that he wanted to continue to work closely with the Irish government to help drive the process towards a successful conclusion.
“He said he looked forward to visiting Northern Ireland shortly and talking to the leaders of the five main parties about this.”
The spokeswoman added: “On Brexit, the Prime Minister made clear that the UK will be leaving the EU on October 31, no matter what.
“He said that in all scenarios, the government will be steadfast in its commitment to the Belfast Agreement and will never put physical checks or physical infrastructure on the border.
“The Prime Minister made clear that the government will approach any negotiations which take place with determination and energy and in a spirit of friendship, and that his clear preference is to leave the EU with a deal, but it must be one that abolishes the backstop.
“The two leaders agreed to stay in contact.”
Elsewhere, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said on Twitter: “To be absolutely clear; the refusal by PM Boris Johnson to engage with European leaders and our Taoiseach without preconditions on the issue of Brexit is unacceptable and is not within the realms of normal diplomatic or political behaviour”.
Mr Martin made the statement following strong criticism of his party TD, Timmy Dooley, who blamed the stand-off on what he described as a failure by the Taoiseach to “engage in basic diplomacy over the past two years.”
In a tweet earlier, the Clare TD said: “The Government’s lack of experience and arrogance will hurt Ireland in the coming months”.
His comments drew sharp criticism from other parties who said he was trying to score political points at a sensitive time of Brexit negotiations and that they could be used against Ireland by British politicians.
Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin urged Mr Martin to clarify his party’s position.
“I don’t think for a minute that Micheál Martin wants to allow any divergence of view – any weakening of the solidarity that has been the strength of our negotiating position for the past two and a half years.
Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One, he added: “If we are not unified on the backstop, it will comfort to those who want to tear us apart”.
Fine Gael Senator Neale Richmond accused Fianna Fáil of trying to “undermine strong Irish consensus on Brexit.”
This evening, the Independent Alliance called on all parties and Independents in the Oireachtas to support the Government position on Brexit.
Speaking on behalf of the group, Junior Minister for Skills and Training, John Halligan, said support for the Government’s position on Brexit should be united.
“This is a crucial time for our economy and political relationship with the UK. It is vitally important that the UK goes back to the Withdrawal Agreement it agreed with the EU.
“The only way forward is the Withdrawal Agreement. This policy has been agreed by all parties in the Dáil and it is vitally important that we all stay united on this on behalf of the people of Ireland,” said Mr Halligan.
UK PM Johnson says now up to EU to compromise on Brexit
Speaking in Wales today, Mr Johnson said the next move in Brexit talks was up to the European Union, adding that he did not want to leave the bloc without a deal but had to prepare for that outcome just in case.
“If they can’t compromise, if they really can’t do it, then clearly we have to get ready for a no-deal exit,” Mr Johnson said during a visit to Wales.
“It is up to the EU, this is their call, it’s their call if they want us to do this.”END
Posted by Jim on
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Councillor Anne Mc Closkey discusses the availability of abortion services to the North.
Last week, of the ironically named “People” before Profit put a motion before Derry and Strabane Council which conflated the separate issues of marriage and decriminalising abortion. The motion was carried by seventeen votes to ten. There were many abstentions, presumably members either confused, or afraid of being called a choose-your-phobic, or denying the “choice” to end a human life. At the same council meeting, a motion was passed unanimously to prevent cruelty to animals.
Decriminalising abortion means the removal of all rights and protections in law from preborn humans.
Since then, in the parliament of Westminster, the decriminalisation of abortion has been imposed here in the north by politicians not one of whom was elected to represent us. Any six county MPs who were present voted against. Whatever your views on the question of abortion law, this is an assault on democracy. Little wonder we Irish, Britain’s first and last colony, don’t have much regard for the process.
Incredibly, erstwhile republicans lobbied in Westminster for such an outcome. New Sinn Féin’s leaders travelled, on three separate occasions, to ask that parliament legislate on this, despite claiming not to recognise the mother of parliament’s authority here.
The SDLP, anxious not to be out virtue-signalled went along too.
PBP, to be fair have at least been consistent on this. Their ideology is firmly based in their communist roots. The USSR was the first regime to offer abortion to the masses. PBP only put some people before some profit. The obscene returns of the multibillion-pound abortion industry, or the fact that many of the campaigns to decriminalise abortion are funded by the extreme right don’t seem to trouble them.
As an Irish Republican, I want self-determination for the people I represent. Many of us who witnessed the pain which the decades of struggle for national sovereignty caused our families and communities now wonder, watching these antics, what was it all about?
Despite the oft repeated mantra, abortion is not health care. Ireland, pre-January 2017 had one of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world, and Irish obstetricians were world- leaders in their field. The assertion that our pro-life laws here in the north have saved 100,000 of our peoples’ lives since the introduction of the 1968 act in Britain has been upheld in court.
Irish doctors repeatedly testified that they never were prevented from acting in the best interests of a mother by the constitution. But those other medics, some with financial interests in the abortion industry, won the hearts and minds of a compliant and shameless media.
A heart transplant has been successfully undertaken in a pregnant woman. Cancer chemotherapy is now routine. With regard to mental health issues, robust evidence exists to show that pregnancy is protective against mental health problems such as depression and that suicide and self-harm rates fall sharply. Conversely a study in Finland study published recently showed a six times higher rate of completed suicide in women who aborted their babies as compared to those who gave birth. In none of the medical literature is abortion provision cited as a treatment for mental illness. But ideologues don’t do science.
Sepsis is, after haemorrhage the commonest cause of maternal mortality worldwide. The mis-management of sepsis took the life of Ms Hallapinavar, and enquiries into her tragic death recommended a new maternity strategy to prevent further such failures. Since the law change in the south two women have died in Irish Maternity Hospitals, with nary a word, never mind candlelit vigils, and tear-jerking newspaper editorials. The funding to implement the recommended strategy to improve maternal health was cut by Simon Harris, to fund abortion provision. Again, the media largely were silent.
And what about the babies, those other members of the human family who are present in every pregnancy? I worked in perinatal intensive care in the Belfast Maternity Hospital, a job with little sleep, but one full of magic moments. These wee ones were born many well below the 28 weeks gestation which this bill will withdraw protection from. They undoubtedly felt pain, they fought us and hated us for annoying them with blood tests and ventilator tubes and machines. Yet to dismember them and take them piecemeal from their mother’s womb, without even pain relief, is now a choice in law, and approved by our local council. This is barbarism.
As a GP, I’ve helped hundreds of women through pregnancies, most celebrating the new life within, but some of in despair as to how they might cope. Even in the most desperate of cases, I’ve never had a woman come back and say I wish I’d aborted that child. And I’ve had some, not all, but many who’ve induced abortion and have suffered and regretted that decision for all of their lives. One young woman, mother of a toddler, tells me that every time she looks at her son, she remembers that he is her second child.
To decriminalise abortion leaves the unborn child, the place where we all began, without any
protection whatsoever. If these people have their way, every home, where children should be safe, can now become a back-street abortion facility, where lives are ended without medical supervision and help. Our hospitals, places of care and healing, will become places where the innocent and defenceless will be sucked thorough tubes, or taken piecemeal from the safety of our mother’s wombs. Those who don’t expire as expected will be left to die alone, and thrown out with the soiled bandages. No dignified burial, no memories, just denial of their human dignity because they were somebody’s “choice” rather than human infants, albeit small and undeveloped ones. Nott planned, privileged or perfect.
A few years ago, in Derry, some women, closely allied to PBP were offering illegal, prescription-only medication and credit facilities to vulnerable women, without license, insurance or medical cover, in the name of women’s “rights”. The media gave them extensive coverage. Last week outside the guildhall in Derry others, with whom PBP members freely associated, were distributing leaflets telling women who had problems with abortion pills and were seeking medical care to lie to their doctors.
These are the people who should be criminalised.
We know that if abortion is decriminalised in the north it will be largely Sinn Féin’s doing. As they did with the euphemistically named “welfare reform”, they get those bad Brits to do their dirty work, and then cry foul. Even when they had what passes for political power here, they delivered nothing of real worth for Derry-the medical school, (not the promised 9,000 new student places, but a start) an education system worthy of the name, infrastructure, jobs, justice for abuse survivors, and redress for decades of systemic neglect. Instead they give us culture wars that have little or no relevance to real people. We canvassed 7000 households in Ballyarnett, and none of SF’s red lines were mentioned on the doors. I speak Irish, and had useful conversations with some local wanes.
If the assembly is not reconvened by 21st October all protections for unborn babies up to 28 weeks gestation will be removed. O brave new Ireland.
I’ve spoken before about the role of men in story of human reproduction. I don’t blame them for choosing not to get involved in the abortion debate, such is the vitriol and abuse to which they will be exposed. Conversely, for the traffickers, the violent thugs and abusers, decriminalisation is a dream come true. It will do away with nasty doctors and social workers asking inconvenient questions.
Wee recap of some Key Stage 3 biology.
The mother’s womb, or uterus is a hollow muscular organ with an opening to the outside, which has no other physiological or practical function except as a place where human babies grow and develop till they are mature enough to survive on their own. Those who chant “get your rosaries off my ovaries” should know that the ovaries produce eggs only, which simply die if they are not fertilised. It’s called a period, and happens monthly to most healthy women.
However, if fertilised, the egg and sperm each contribute 50% of the genetic material which makes a new and individual human person. The baby is genetically distinct, a new and unique person who never existed before and who never will again.
The narrative which writes males out of the human story is pernicious nonsense. Fathers matter, and are 50% of who we are. I’m the spit and image of my father, and he was my guide and inspiration. I think about him every day.
The alarming rate of suicide and self-harming behaviour in young males may be related to this exclusion of them as co-creators of their children, and their relegation to essentially being sperm donors.
I am a Pro-life feminist of the left. We in Aontú, the republican party I represent are pro-life for all of life. There has to date been little class-based analysis of the complex issue of the right to life of children versus the advancement of women. What a sterile and narrow vision of progress is it, when women’s rights and welfare are pitted against the lives of her children. When women are forced to relinquish their maternity and deny their biology to progress their careers and sometimes to even survive in today’s world.
It is a fact that abortion disproportionately affects the poor, ethnic minorities, and those who have additional needs. Many women have their choice and bodily autonomy limited by government policies and systemic injustice which seem less important to political parties than their own promotion. Their exclusive preoccupation with the culture wars at the expense of making meaningful change for the majority is a cause of bewilderment to many.
Organisations such as Amnesty, which were once were progressive voices for the oppressed are now the paid puppets of the most right-wing and anti-people forces on the planet. Money movers, venture capitalists, currency speculators, who have impoverished tens of thousands across the planet now impose their world view, because money talks.
Planned Parenthood and Marie Stopes International are for-profit global businesses making
billions here and in the developing world. Globally, they have little interest in the things which hav been repeatedly proven to make a real difference to women’s health, things such as such as education, maternal nutrition, clean birthing rooms, antibiotic provision, the treatment of sepsis, or blood transfusion facilities and so on. They don’t divert their obscene profits to build roads and infrastructure which would mean women in obstructed labour don’t have to be transported in a wheelbarrow over dirt tracks to access care.
They offer abortion and contraception as liberty, and self-righteously carry the white man’s burden into this new millennium. Thankfully however, women in the developing world are now speaking out to reject this new imperialism.
Of course, worldwide, the most lethal of the fatal foetal abnormalities is to be female. There are 400m of us at a conservative estimate missing across the globe. Having Two X chromosomes merits a death sentence, and this is legal, totally, if abortion is decriminalised.
The parties who promulgate this culture of death should hang their heads in shame.
Have we no better vision to offer women, or society?
However, the tide is turning, as people across the planet wake up and realise that the future can be better. This is the human rights issue of our generation. All lives matter, not just the planned, he privileged and the perfect.
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| Clr. Anne Mc Closkey. MB. Aontú, Derry and Strabane District Council. |
