News articles
Wednesday, 15 September 2010 10:46![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
claidheamhmorSome interesting news articles this week.
Horror video shocks parents
Basically, parents of children enrolled at a child care centre saw a video which showed children being abused. Naturally, most parents withdrew their kids from the place immediately. What I found interesting was this:
Why Belgian Catholic church is ignoring hundreds of abuse victims
The Belgian Roman Catholic Church is afraid to give a full apology for the sexual abuse of children by its priests. Bishop Guy Harpigny said: 'If we say "mea culpa", then we are morally responsible, legally responsible, and then people come wanting money'
I think this is symptomatic of the whole problem. The Church, by protecting abusive clergy, is morally and legally responsible for the abuse. If it had handed abusers over to the police and cooperated fully, no-one would have been able to fault the church; by protecting and concealing the abusers, and moving them from parish to parish, the Church becomes an accessory to the crimes. Monetary compensation and an apology should be the very least the Church should be doing to atone for it.
Metro police hunt PigSpotter
There's a Twitter user called @pigspotter who is tweeting the whereabouts of police speed traps and roadblocks in the Joburg area. The the police want to track him down and catch him for defeating the ends of justice. Personally, I don't see what the problem is: he is making people slow down where there are traps. Isn't that what the police want? As for roadblocks - I'm all for the police catching criminals and drivers of unroadworthy vehicles at roadblocks, but I'd like to know where they are so that I can avoid the resulting traffic jams if I'm in a hurry.
Horror video shocks parents
Basically, parents of children enrolled at a child care centre saw a video which showed children being abused. Naturally, most parents withdrew their kids from the place immediately. What I found interesting was this:
When teachers register their children at the school, they sign a document which states "I give permission for my child/ren to be disciplined within limits".Apparently even parents aren't too clear on the law: a "whack on the bum", technically speaking, is illegal. From my point of view, there absolutely no way I would give any school permission to punish my child physically.
"Within limits means a whack on the bum. It's not a blow with a wooden spoon on the head or across the body," said the mother.
Why Belgian Catholic church is ignoring hundreds of abuse victims
The Belgian Roman Catholic Church is afraid to give a full apology for the sexual abuse of children by its priests. Bishop Guy Harpigny said: 'If we say "mea culpa", then we are morally responsible, legally responsible, and then people come wanting money'
I think this is symptomatic of the whole problem. The Church, by protecting abusive clergy, is morally and legally responsible for the abuse. If it had handed abusers over to the police and cooperated fully, no-one would have been able to fault the church; by protecting and concealing the abusers, and moving them from parish to parish, the Church becomes an accessory to the crimes. Monetary compensation and an apology should be the very least the Church should be doing to atone for it.
Metro police hunt PigSpotter
There's a Twitter user called @pigspotter who is tweeting the whereabouts of police speed traps and roadblocks in the Joburg area. The the police want to track him down and catch him for defeating the ends of justice. Personally, I don't see what the problem is: he is making people slow down where there are traps. Isn't that what the police want? As for roadblocks - I'm all for the police catching criminals and drivers of unroadworthy vehicles at roadblocks, but I'd like to know where they are so that I can avoid the resulting traffic jams if I'm in a hurry.