feminine-genius

Two-tiered health care

Belgium has come up with a plan:

More rigid regulations in the Flemish hospitals for Muslim patients, who refuse gynaecological care of male doctors: from today their desire will be respected, but not in cases of emergency, circumstances under which the doctor will be allowed to ignore the request of the patient for the sake of their health. The female gynaecologists have elaborated a real code of good conduct in order to treat the Islamic patients in cases of emergency or during night watch, when a female doctor is not always available. According to the new regulations, the medical personnel will have to indulge the patient's request only if it is put in writing or only if the ill patient herself asks for the intervention of a female doctor and not her husband or her family. The code of good conduct has obtained the approval of the female gynaecologists, of the association of the doctors' unions of and the centre for gender equality and fight against racism. (ANSAmed).

Doctors already have tremendous burdens. This is only one more.

Veiling to make a point

Europe is home to an initative that is raising warning bells about the indignity of blanketing women. Clever. Of course, the answer to veiling is not immodesty, but beauty -- the proof that there's more to women than skin. Unfortunately, so many flaunt vulgarity to combat oppression. Let's always promote authentic femininity as a response to both radical Islam and gender feminism. It's not a body of information as much as a way of life. Live it!

Between a rock and a hard place

I Just finished Murder in Amsterdam by Ian Buruma, which is a fascinating read. (Beware: vulgarity, irreverence, and not at all from a Christian perspective.) The author knew both Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh, the former a flaming homosexual, the latter a volatile and indulgent secularist. Each were killed in a shocking manner (publicly butchered) to make political points. The author also knows Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who is radically opposed to Islam, and perhaps all religion, as mysogynistic tools used to oppress women. She was elected to office in the Netherlands (where this book takes place) and eventually had to go into hiding and escape to the United States.

The thesis is that the tolerance for which the Netherlands is known (consider Amsterdam) is being undermined by the presence of Muslims who refuse to assimilate, and the cowardice of the locals must be bolstered by a return of ... Enlightenment Values. (God help us!)

At first glance, the clash of values appears to be straightforward: on the one hand, secularism, science, equality btween men and women, individualism, freedom to criticise without fear of violent retribution, and on the other divine laws, revealed truth, male domination, tribal honour, and so on. It is indded hard to see how in a liveral democracy these contrasting values can be reconciled... But a closer look reveals fissures that are less straightforward. People come to the struggle for Enlightenment values from very different angles, and even when they find common ground, their aims may be less than enlightened...

The pioneers of the Enlightenment were iconoclasts, with radical ideas about politics and life. The Marquis de Sade was a typical man of the Enlightenment, as much as Diderot... The [present day] conservative call for Enlightenment values is partly a revolt against a revolt. Tolerance has gone too far for many conservatives. They believe, like former leftists [remember: Dutch leftists], that multiculturalism was a mistake, our fundamental values must be reclaimed. Because secularism has gone too far to bring back the authority of the Churches [Christian as well as Muslim], conservatives and neo-conservatives have latched onto the Enlightenment as a badge of national or cultural identity. The Enlightenment, in other words, has become the name for a new conservative order, and its enemies are the aliens, whose values we cannot share.

Fascinating evolution, over the last four hundred years. The essence of the our response is that Catholicism is a bulwark against the depravity that ensues when Enlightenment Values really take hold, against Protestantism which leads to the ultimate lack of appreciation for the theology of the body, the gifts of women, and the family as essential foundation of a strong society, and against the mysogyny of Islam, that denigrates women and authentic freedoms based on the way that man images the Creator-God.

The fullness of faith has answers to all of these errors -- but we have to educate ourselves on the nature of the lies about the human person in order to respond with the complete truth.

Back to Buruma:

Islam may soon become the majority religion in countries whose churches have been turned more and more into tourist sites, apartment houses, theatres, and places of entertainment... And what better place to watch the drama unfold than in the Netherlands, where freedom came from a revolt against Catholic Spain, where ideals of tolerance and diversity became a badge of national honour, and where political Islam struck its first blow against a man [van Gogh] whose deepest conviction was that freedom of speech included the freedom to insult.

Please consider reading up on the history behind this, the theology of the body, and how promoting the good of women is the essence of building a strong and just society. This is our hour. This is our realm of influence. Live the truth, love the truth, share the truth. Authentic femininity is the answer.

[And pray for this initiative, which is making great headway in the Netherlands!]

At the service of the Church

Robert Moynihan always has the most fascinating personalities in his Top Ten List each year. This year, at the number two position, he highlights an Italian noblewoman, the Marquise Immacolata Solaro del Borgo.

Immacolata’s ancestors include princes and Popes, and she is among our "Top Ten" because of her commitment to building better relations between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, divided since 1054 -- now nearly 1,000 years.

She learned Russian in her 30's and now at age 77 is still involved in cultural projects that can unites members of the two confessions.

After making many trips to Russia, she has been able to build up a remarkable network of friendships and contacts in that country, especially among the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church. She counts as personal friends many of the leading members of the Russian Orthodox hierarchy, including Metropolitan Kirill and Metropolitan Sergei.

On May 13, 2007, though nearly 80 and suffering from soreness in her feet, she traveled to Kazan, capital of Tatarstan, bringing with her six precious relics of saints and a tiny fragment of clothing which once belonged to Mary, the mother of Jesus. The relics, belonging to St. Basil the Great, St. Blaise, St. Nicholas, St. Daria, St. Natalia and St. Pancratius, were collected in a single reliquary, fashioned by a Neapolitan jeweler in the 1600s, with a small silver box in the center where the fragment of Mary’s clothing was preserved.

"I bring these relics as my gift to you, and to the people of Russia, as a sign of my respect and love for Russia and all her people," Immacolata said to the Russian Orthodox bishop of Kazan, Anastasi, as she handed over the gift. "I hope the relics can enrich the new Marian sanctuary you are building around the icon of Our Lady of Kazan."

What dedication, which she combines with a rich family life and another apostolate -- to combat alcoholism in Russia.

"I believe each one of us has a task to perform," she says. "I believe that the Lord never asks us to do anything that is impossible. It is up to us to listen for his call and to accept it when we hear it, and act."

How to "fix it" (not!)

The World Health Organisation has gathered the numbers and posted the results:

More children are having sex in Britain than in any other country in Europe, according to World Health Organisation figures published on Monday. Girls outstrip boys in the numbers prepared to have sex aged 15 or younger - leading to 20 of them getting pregnant each day.

The spiralling level of teenage pregnancy not only robs young people of their childhoods but contributes to a vicious circle of family break-up, say experts.

Kindly read that last sentence again. It doesn't say that the promiscuity robs them of their childhood and weakens the family, only the pregnancies do. The silly ill-timed babies, presenting themselves as a nutty result of the union between fertile men and women (or boys and girls, as the case may be) are the culprits. Man the condoms! Arm the wombs! Away with the pesky beggars -- these sexually-active kids want ...[er] childhoods and happy families.

In response, the Government has announced a raft of measures, including personal contraception counsellors to stop teenage mothers from getting pregnant again.

God help these children. It's obvious that the "adult" decision-makers around them are incapable.

Dark side of secularism

Turkey has often been caught in middle of East and West, Christianity and Islam, religion and secularism. Integration with Europe has been a rough road, and within Turkey are all the above forces vying for a place in the national identity.

German women are speaking out against the abuse they suffer at the hands of male Turkish immigrants as this billboard indicates. The Turkish response is, as to be expected, boorish and unpleasant. My takeaway is that nothing replaces virtue and respect for the dignity of all persons. Nothing. Sadly, the dialogue will spiral around racism, freedom, and misplaced cues. Purity on both sides is the only dignified option, but is not part of the vocabulary of either culture. Dark prospects emanating from the caves of sexual excess.

The right to be mothers

No, this post isn't about China, but about Europe, where Britain is doing all it can to adopt the Swedish model of institutionalising children so that more women can work full-time. But after 30 years of near-full female employment outside the home, the numbers out of Sweden are sobering.

• children are losing academic ground because of early institutionalisation
• teenagers raised outside the home suffer high rates of depression and suicide
• women who work comprise only 1.5% of top management positions
• between 20%-33% of women are absent from work on a given day (private-vs public sector)
• 65% of Swedish women want to go home and raise their own children but cannot because of nanny-state tax structures
• many of the women end up simply manning the child care agencies to pay the bills and be near children

About these child-care centres, one stay at home mother of four (soon to be five) fills in as a nurse occasionally and shares this dark observation.

She says she has seen babies handed over by their weeping mothers at the doors at 7am before work. Worse, she has seen toddlers screaming as their parents walk away.

"We were told to tell the mothers that their children stopped crying when they left. But the reality is that some didn't stop crying for nearly three weeks, when they gave up hope. For the child, a state nursery is nothing like home. The routine is fixed. These are not relaxed and fun places to spend your childhood. The nurseries have so many rules to keep the children safe. They are often kept awake deliberately so they will sleep at night when their exhausted mother comes to collect them after work. It is like being in an institution."

Well, yeah, that because it is an institution. But women are rebelling and making the necessary concessions to be home when possible.

[Madeleine] gave up her job in computer marketing when she first gave birth and now works part-time from home.

"My children are proud that I look after them. They are happy, confident and contented. They want to run to me after school and tell me what has happened during the day. We don't have as much money as if I worked, we have not bought our own home. But there are other things that are more important for children than money. The parents in Sweden know that something is wrong with this system. But it has been in place for 30 years and most of them have been brought up in state nurseries themselves."

Consider the comment above about the infants ending their crying jags when "they gave up hope." It's impossible to quantify that effect on a generation, but evidently common sense and mother love are recovering, despite the brokenness of the last 30 years. Let's pray that Britain doesn't follow this tragic model that even the former proponents are gradually abandoning.

The vice grip

Europe has tightened the vice grip on women, attacking their dignity from two angles: the shabby lies of feminism that denies their integral feminine dignity, and the multicultural backdrop which turns a blind eye to the abusiveness of polygamous unions.

In theory, polygamy is prohibited in Italy and in Europe. But it increasingly happens, in the name of multiculturalism, that Muslim immigrants are registered as polygamists in the European continent: if a man is Muslim and married in his country of origin with 4 wives, we cannot but accept this as a given. All this goes against European laws and constitutions – which affirm monogamous families – but, in the name of a misplaced respect for cultures, any solution is deemed acceptable.

In Italy, some constitutionalists are suggesting, for the sake of letting people have it both ways, that only one wife be recognized as such, while the others are considered concubines: this would settle the situation of various Muslims who already have a wife in their country of origin and take another in Italy. Others think that a distinction could be made between civil marriage (at City Hall, with just one wife) and religious marriage in a mosque, where polygamous marriages could be celebrated. Naturally, to do this, they are proposing that the articles of Italian civil law, which affirm monogamy and the equality of men and women, not be read. A similar trend is spreading in Greece. In certain areas where Muslims are the majority, the government has accepted the principle that they manage themselves with their own norms. And so, in Athens, polygamy is prohibited, but in Muslim-majority areas, it is allowed, again in the name of cultural respect.

The greatest protection for women and children has been state-recognised and sanctioned marriages -- through which the fathers of children are required to act in their best interest and to provide for them. But now, the attacks on marriage which come from various quarters undermine the vulnerable members of society. The attacks come from feminists, who call marriage a mysogynist social construct; from homosexuals, who undermine it from within by separating it from complementarity and life-giving potential; and from Muslims, who deny women equal dignity before the law or the opportunity to pursue marriage as a mutual self-donation. Imagine: four women are called to give themselves totally to one man, who in return can only give a quarter of himself to each (at best).

The Catholic Church is the one stalwart institution defending the rights of women, who find their potential in being icons of the Bride, that Church herself. This is our struggle -- to present authentic femininity to a world which attacks it from all angles. Like the Church, we stand in the middle: reasonable, righteous, and true. On our part, it's not a matter of saying or doing anything -- but a matter of being. Authentic femininity is the sign of contradiction for our age.

Simply be, and be well.

_______________________________________

FOR THE RECORD:

Here is a transcript of Q & A with one imam on the rights of women:

In your opinion, are women equal to men?

No.  For example, women do not have the right to work alongside men, as they [women] could be tempted by adultery.

Must women necessarily be subjugated to men?

Yes, because the head of the family is always a man. But he must be fair to his wife: he must not beat her for no reason, nor consider her a slave.

Is this why you are favourable to polygamy?

Yes, a Muslim can have more than one wife. But not more than four!  Plus, there are conditions.

But why can women not have more than one husband?

Because no one would know who fathered the children!

Are you in favour of the stoning [1] of women?

Yes, because beating one’s wife is allowed by the Koran, but under certain conditions, in particular if she betrays her husband. Please note however: the man does not have the right to beat her everywhere: not on the face, but in the lower parts, her legs, her stomach, her bottom.  He can beat her vigorously so as to induce fear, so that she does not start again!

This is multiculturalism, and we hear nothing from the feminists. Baffling.

Hmm, what could be wrong...?

From Norway:

"I can say with my hand on my heart that this was a surprise. I would not have believed there were so many suffering," Professor Lars Wichstrøm of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) told newspaper Dagsavisen.

No, of course you wouldn't have, Lars. Because what is the surprise? Soaring suicide rates, especially in young women.

And now we look to this bewildered professor to ask what might have led to this.

His short list includes:

• fights with parents
• need to have good grades
• increased substance abuse
• needing the right clothes
• peer pressure
• psychological problems

Wow. All unique and too intense. Is there a tiny chance that some element is missing on this list, especially since most of the causes mentioned are symptoms of something else? Could we apply the scientific method to some other factors and see how they relate? Starting with just two, maybe:

• fathers living with biological children
• levels of sexual activity in the young

Lars may still be scratching his head, but the numbers are too alarming to misconstrue. Please don't simply tell teachers to cut back on homework and for parents to stop harassing their children.

For the record, the boys aren't doing too well, either.

NOVA also found a marked increase in the number of youth with depressive symptoms, especially boys. Twice as many boys were depressed in 2002 compared to 1992

Despite the first-glance analysis pegging weight concerns and problems with appearances (boys?!) these are the red flags of a terrible, terrible problem. With responses like that, it seems the "experts" could very well be a large part of the problem. Let's start with God's plan for the family...

Who's paying for multiculturalism?

In Sweden, it's the children, more specifically, the girls. The dwindling native population will be in the minority in a matter of years and heavily Muslim areas and schools are teeming with anger, violence, and action.

In December nine 15-year-old girls at the school went on strike after accusing male classmates of bullying. They say the boys used foul language, spat on them from a balcony and put sticky tape in their hair. There have also been reports of boys urinating in girls’ shoes, as well as threats and beatings on school premises.

Boys will be boys? That's the "innocent fun." In Malmö, jihadism is intrinsic to their entertainment:

Set to become the first major Scandinavian city with a Muslim majority a few years from now, it is the horror story in the ongoing collapse of Swedish society. about a high school teacher in Malmö, Sweden, who discovered that about a dozen Arab students were laughing and shouting “Allahu Akbar!” while watching a DVD of infidel hostages being beheaded in Iraq. The headmaster didn’t think the incident was such a big deal...

Recently, the city of Stockholm carried out a survey of ninth-grade boys in the predominantly Muslim suburb of Rinkeby. The survey showed that in the last year, 17% of the boys had forced someone to have sex, 31% had hurt someone so badly that the victim required medical care, and 24% had committed burglary or broken into a car.

And then, the mysogyny bubbles forth, making life a nightmare for the girls.

A report from organization Save the Children tells of how being a young Swedish girl today means feeling unsafe. The girls are scared of being raped, a possibility that appears very real to them. Many girls are planning how to go home at night, how to pretend to be talking on the mobile phone, how to keep their keys in their hand to defend themselves or how to simply run all the way home. Both the fear and the choice of strategies indicate that many girls feel genuinely unsafe outdoors during certain hours of the day. A striking number of girls have experienced harassment from boys or men. Most frequently, the harassment comes from boys of the same age as the girls. Being called “whore” has become so common in some schools that several of the girls say the teachers no longer react to this.

The rest is too rough for this space but available here. Fascinating that the Muslim boys don't rape the Muslim girls because they know the victims will be in enormous trouble in their families because of the loss of their honour. But Swedish girls are fair game because they're not usually virgins -- and it's no big deal.

“It is far too easy to get a Swedish whore…… girl, I mean;” says Hamid, and laughs over his own choice of words. “I don’t have too much respect for Swedish girls."

Where are the feminists? Where is the UN? Where are all the groups who jump when European men make the slightest noise about gender?

It's entirely possible that multiculturalism and the gender wars have shaken the last ounce of chivalry from Swedish men. Where are the angry fathers and brothers of these girls? I'm afraid to look up the statistics on "biological fathers living with their children," for what it would reveal. Without marriage and stability, the girls really must resort to "running all the way home." Women may have jettisoned all defenses in the name of progress.