“Abuse in the Church”
In many senses, the world is growing larger. Technology connects us. Global initiatives and concerns connect us… It would be easy to get overwhelmed when one imagines oneself adrift amidst the homogenous soup of modern living. In fear of inhabiting an Orwellian society, it is imperative that we establish the boundaries of any punitive institution.
Karl Marx once claimed that religion was “the opiate of the people.” Well, as much as the morality of religion might restrain grandma from rising in a coup, Marx’s one-liner hardly explains religious zealotry, holy wars, or the irate response of civilians to acts of impropriety performed by religious leaders. Of this last case, I point specifically to the consistent claims of sexual abuse levied against the Roman-Catholic Church.
The Church, operating out of the independent city-state of Vatican City, has come under heavy fire in recent years for protecting members of the clergy charged with sex crimes. Such individuals sometimes find their way to political asylum within the pope’s personal state. For victims of these crimes, this is somewhat of an unreal situation. To whom can they turn when society will not bring their tormentors to justice?
Thankfully, Pope Benedict XVI (who has long been criticized for his leniency in regards to sex offenders) has recently given these victims a glimpse of a more just future. In his most direct statement regarding these sex crimes and their perpetrators, Benedict said the following:
“The church has a profound need to relearn penance, to accept purification, to learn on the one hand forgiveness but also the necessity of justice. And forgiveness does not substitute justice.”
Few people want a global police force to challenge the sovereignty of nations, but people want justice. In order for this to happen, religious and state leaders (the pope being both at once) must subject their citizens to the application of reasonable justice.
- Joseph Fritsch
Image: http://www.businessvoice.com/bvb/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/pope_benedict.jpg
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/world/europe/12pope.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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A Family Feud
When one thinks of the age of the dinosaurs, they tend to imagine large, carnivorous species such as Tyrannosaurus Rex, as popularized by scientifically inaccurate movies like Jurassic Park. However, the dawn of the dinosaurs was not so glorious. In fact, their rather short, scrawny older brothers were easily bullied around by fellow archosaurs, the crurotarsans. New discoveries made in the famous Triassic Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona contradicts the original belief that crurotarsan archosaurs died out at the end of the Triassic due to competition with early dinosaurs in the same ecologic niche. Many of the Triassic fossils identified on the basis of teeth and jaw bones have been found associated with body fossils that indicate they are actually crurotarsans. “Scientists realized that the mistake called into question the identity of many other Triassic species represented only by teeth or jaw fragments…” (Barth,12). Indeed the crurotarsan finds such as Revueltosaurus, Popsaurus, and Shuvosaurus continue to supplant many on the prior list of dinosaurs. Now attested to with hard evidence, the crurotarasans were more diverse in species number and lifestyle. Taking the chronological cradle of the dinosaurian era into account, it seems the crurotarsans, rather than the dinosaurs, were destined to dominate the reptilian world. With sometimes the mere structure of an ankle bone being the different between dinosaurs and their crurotarsan contemporaries, scientists are still puzzled as to why the dinosaurs were able to survive the Triassic extinction and crurotarsans were not, despite their comparitively higher success rates. It was believed that the unidirectional breathing system still seen in dinosaurs’ descendents, birds, was a viable explanation. However, laboratory models which simulate the metabolic processes of crurotarsan morphology show that this trait was shared by both groups. The tattered geologic book of earth’s history occasionally opens up and reveals its pages, its message written in stone and bone. However, many important transitions between different chapters of life still remain missing. Without evidence, much like the discovery of two separate works produced by the same author out of context, their logical connection is purely conjecture.
-Ashley Cohen
Barth, Amy. “Battle of the Lizard Kings.” Discover Magazine. April 2009: 11-12.
Image: http://4us2be.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Volcanoes-Saved-Dinosaurs.jpg
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A Museum of Stuffed Animals?
In the city Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) they plan to open a museum of stuffed animals as part of the Mumbai Zoo (which occupies 53 acres of land)—does this sound weird? Well, not your typical stuffed animals, but the animals that have died will be preserved and placed on display as part of the $100 million dollar makeover at the zoo.
They will be preserved and displayed using the tedious art of taxidermy, which is the ancient art of preserving the animal’s skin and skeleton and stuffing it to make it appear lifelike. Taxidermy according to taxidermist and veterinarian, Santosh Gaikwad is a dying art because it is a “multi-disciplinary art.” It involves extensive skill and knowledge in leather tanning, animal anatomy, sculpting and painting. After hearing of this plan, museums across India are now sending animal carcasses to Mumbai. The Mumbai Museum of taxidermy animals will the only one of its kind in the whole of India.
This move is being placed in effect after the ban by India’s central zoo authority on keeping new animals enclosed in small spaces. When the animals die at the zoo they are unable to replace them because the existing enclosures do not meet the anti-cruelty guidelines. So, the Mumbai Zoo officials decided to open a museum housing these animal carcasses so people will still be able to view these animals.
Museum director, Sanjay Tripathi believes that this museum will be educational because, “the public will be able to see and appreciate the animals and even study their body structures.” But, not all are happy with this new plan. Animal’s rights activists feel that this may lead to illegal trade in animal skins and carcasses. Debi Goenka, an environmentalist who does studies in taxidermy also feels like the process of stuffing animals is not needed. She believes that it is an ancient practice that used to be used for scientific purposes or to show off hunted animals. Goenka quotes, “Both of these purposes seem redundant now. Hunting for sport is not allowed…so to stuff an animal’s body which has anyways lived in captivity is just adding insult to injury.”
There are many issues that surround this museum. On the one hand, the people will be able to see various types of animals that they wouldn’t have otherwise because of the ban on the spaces animals are kept in. But, on the flip-side the vast amounts of money that are going into this renovation could very well have gone into expanding the zoo and had more humane enclosures for the animals that they want to feature. But, then again should any animal that is supposed to be in the wild be reduced to a cage or a glass enclosure?
-Sabina Santiago
Article Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8680281.stm
Image Source:
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/47844000/jpg/_47844409_tigerskin466.jpg
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