Africa Dossier

 

Source: www.avert.org/aafrica.htm

 

Sub-Saharan Africa is more heavily affected by HIV and AIDS than any other region of the world. An estimated 22 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2007 and approximately 1.9 million additional people were infected with HIV during that year. In just the past year, the AIDS epidemic in Africa has claimed the lives of an estimated 1.5 million people in this region. More than eleven million children have been orphaned by AIDS.1

 

The extent of the AIDS crisis is only now becoming clear in many African countries, as increasing numbers of people with HIV are becoming ill. In the absence of massively expanded prevention, treatment and care efforts, it is expected that the AIDS death toll in sub-Saharan Africa will continue to rise. This means that impact of the AIDS epidemic on these societies will be felt most strongly in the course of the next ten years and beyond. Its social and economic consequences are already widely felt, not only in the health sector but also in education, industry, agriculture, transport, human resources and the economy in general.

 

How are different countries in Africa affected?

 

Both HIV prevalence rates and the numbers of people dying from AIDS vary greatly between African countries. In Somalia and Senegal the HIV prevalence is under 1% of the adult population, whereas in Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe around 15-20% of adults are infected with HIV.

 

In three southern African countries, the national adult HIV prevalence rate has risen higher than was thought possible and now exceeds 20%. These countries are Botswana (23.9%), Lesotho (23.2%) and Swaziland (26.1%).

 

West Africa has been less affected by AIDS, but the HIV prevalence rates in some countries are creeping up. HIV prevalence is estimated to exceed 5% in Cameroon (5.1%) and Gabon (5.9%).

 

Until recently the national HIV prevalence rate has remained relatively low in Nigeria, the most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa. The rate has grown slowly from below 2% in 1993 to 3.1% in 2007. But some states in Nigeria are already experiencing HIV infection rates as high as those now found in Cameroon. Already around 2.4 million Nigerians are estimated to be living with HIV.

 

<<-*-*-*->>

 

Source: www.undp.org/hiv/publications/issues/english/issue27e.html

 

Issues Paper No. 27

 

POVERTY AND HIV/AIDS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Desmond Cohen  

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

POVERTY AND HIV/AIDS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

 

HIV PREVALENCE -- THE EVIDENCE

 

POVERTY AS PROCESS

Poverty and HIV Infection

Coping with HIV and AIDS

Intergenerational Impacts of HIV

 

CONCLUSIONS

 

POVERTY AND HIV/AIDS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

 

There are two bi-causal relationships which need to be understood by those involved in policy and programme development. These are:

 

the relationship between poverty and HIV/AIDS -- which includes the spatial and socio-economic distribution of HIV infection in African populations, and consideration of poverty-related factors which affect household and community coping capacities; and  

the relationship between HIV/AIDS and poverty -- understanding the processes through which the experience of HIV and AIDS by households and communities leads to an intensification of poverty.  

To make sense of these relationships there has to be an understanding of the complex socio-economic processes at work in African societies, together with a conceptualisation of poverty which is multi-dimensional. It follows that analysis of the issues has to encapsulate:

 

the gender dimensions of poverty -- in particular that the poorest households are often female headed;  

the intergenerational aspects of poverty -- the importance of seeing poverty as part of dynamic social, economic and political processes;  

the qualitative as well as quantitative measures of poverty -- giving appropriate weight to those aspects of poverty which delineate and define capacities and contributions by individuals and households to socio-economic and political processes, and how these are changed by the epidemic; and  

the ways in which the HIV epidemic alters the complex relationships between the poor and the wealthy -- through changes in income and asset distributions brought about by the epidemic and through an intensification of processes of social exclusion.

HIV PREVALENCE C THE EVIDENCE

 

Of the global total of 30 million persons living with HIV in 1997 some two-thirds (21 million) are in sub-Saharan Africa. Infection is concentrated in the socially and economically productive groups aged 15-45, with slightly more women infected than men. There are significant differences in the ages of infection of girls and boys with infection occurring at younger ages for girls (with girls and young women in some countries outnumbering boys and young men by factors of 5 or 6 in the age range 15-20). It is estimated that 12 million persons have died from HIV-related illnesses since the start of the epidemic worldwide, of whom approximately 9 million were Africans. It follows that the cumulative affected population in Africa taking into account spouses, children and elderly dependents must be of the order of 150 million1. This is a staggering proportion of the total population in sub-Saharan Africa - more than one quarter of Africans are directly affected by the HIV epidemic. Few people can remain unaffected in indirect ways, i.e. through the illness and death of relatives and colleagues.

 

The levels of HIV prevalence in parts of Africa are extremely high - in Southern Africa there are now many countries with HIV infection rates in adults in the range of 20-25%. The gap between rural and urban HIV rates -- previously substantial -- is now narrowing rapidly in many countries. For some urban populations HIV is now as high as 40-50% -- rates of infection earlier considered wholly improbable. One consequence of the high HIV infection rates among women is the increasing number of children with HIV (through mother to child transmission). It is estimated that there are presently some 8 million children in Africa who have lost one or both parents to HIV-related illnesses, and that by 2010 these numbers will have increased to some 40 million. In many countries the proportion of children who have lost one or both parents will be as high as 20-25% by the end of the first decade of the new millennium (Fig.1). These trends have direct implications for intergenerational poverty and impose immense challenges for policy makers.

 

HIV infection is not confined to the poorest even though the poor account absolutely for most of those infected in Africa. There is limited evidence for a socio-economic gradient to HIV infection, with rates higher as one moves through the educational and socio-economic structure. It follows that the relationships between poverty and HIV are far from simple and direct and more complex forces are at work than just the effects of poverty alone. Indeed many of the non-poor in Africa have adopted and pursued life styles which expose them to HIV infection, with all the social and economic consequences that this entails. It follows that the capacity of individuals and households to cope with HIV and AIDS will depend on their initial endowment of assets - both human and financial. The poorest by definition are least able to cope with the effects of HIV/AIDS so that there is increasing immiseration for affected populations. Even the non-poor find their resources diminished by their experience of infection (morbidity and death), and there is increasing evidence in urban communities of an emerging class of those recently impoverished by the epidemic.

 

The effects of HIV and AIDS are reflected in the changes in Life Expectancy (Fig.2) which is the best summary indicator of the effects of HIV and AIDS on countries with high levels of HIV prevalence. These data are remarkable for what they illustrate of the demographic impact of the epidemic on African populations. In many countries adult mortality has doubled and trebled over the past decade and this is directly attributable to HIV and AIDS. What is now being experienced by these populations are levels of Life Expectancy which were typical of the 1950s. This is not confined to those living in poverty but nevertheless is concentrated on those living in poverty who account absolutely for most of those who die from HIV-related illnesses. These data reflect HIV infection which occurred in the late 1980s, and since then in many countries HIV prevalence has intensified rather than diminished. Thus the outlook for further declines in Life Expectancy is bleak indeed, both in the aggregate and for those who are the poorest.

 

POVERTY AS PROCESS

 

It is easier to understand some of these complex issues if the bi-causal relationships are analysed through partial analysis - specifically by segmenting the stages of the epidemic so as to isolate some of the causal and consequential factors at work in the processes of immiseration. These processes are well illustrated by the different life-histories which are in the various boxes -- selected precisely because they illustrate some of the important dynamic forces at work. But what needs also to be kept in mind are the aggregative effects of the HIV epidemic, for it will not only impoverish individuals and communities but will also erode the capacity of the socio-economic system through losses of human resources.

 

Poverty and HIV Infection

 

The characteristics of the poor are well known as also are some of the causal factors at work which contribute to a "culture of poverty" - the fact that the children of the poor often become the poor of succeeding generations. Poverty is associated with weak endowments of human and financial resources, such as low levels of education with associated low levels of literacy and few marketable skills, generally poor health status and low labour productivity as a result. An aspect of the poor health status of the poor is the existence amongst many Africans of undiagnosed and untreated STDs which is now recognised as a very significant co-factor in the transmission of HIV. Poor households typically have few if any financial or other assets and are often politically and socially marginalised. These conditions of social exclusion increase the problems of reaching these populations through programmes aimed at changing sexual and other behaviours.

 

It is not at all surprising in these circumstances that the poor adopt behaviours which expose them to HIV infection. It is not simply that IEC activities are unlikely to reach the poor (which is too often the case) but that such messages are often irrelevant and inoperable given the reality of their lives. Even if the poor understood what they are being urged to do it is rarely the case that they have either the incentive or the resources to adopt the recommended behaviours. Indeed to take the long-view in sexual or other behaviours is antithetical to the condition of being poor. For the poor it is the here and now that matters, and policies and programmes that recommend deferral of gratification will, and do, fall on deaf ears.

 

Even more fundamental to the condition of poverty is social and political exclusion. So HIV-specific programmes are neglectful of the interests of the poor and are rarely if ever related to their needs, and also unfortunately are other non-HIV related programme activities -- such as those relating to agriculture and credit. More generally it is the absence of effective programmes aimed at sustainable livelihoods which limit the possibilities of changing the socio-economic conditions of the poor. But unless the reality of the lives of the poor are changed they will persist with behaviours which expose them to HIV infection (and all the consequences of this for themselves and their families).

 

Two examples of this state of affairs will perhaps suffice to indicate how poverty leads to outcomes which expose the poor to HIV. Firstly, poverty -- especially rural poverty, and the absence of access to sustainable livelihoods, are factors in labour mobility which itself contributes to the conditions in which HIV transmission occurs. Mobile populations, which often consist of large numbers of young men and women, are isolated from traditional cultural and social networks and in the new conditions they will often engage in risky sexual behaviours, with obvious consequences in terms of HIV infection. Secondly, many of the poorest are women who often head the poorest of households in Africa. Inevitably such women will often engage in commercial sexual transactions, sometimes as CSW but more often on an occasional basis, as survival strategies for themselves and their dependents. The effects of these behaviours on HIV infection in women are only too evident, and in part account for the much higher infection rates in young women who are increasingly unable to sustain themselves by other work in either the formal or informal sectors.

 

There are increasing numbers of children infected with HIV through perinatal transmission (from mother to child). This reflects the large numbers of pregnant women who are HIV positive. Perinatal transmission is largely preventable through appropriate access to drugs (AZT) but these drugs and the necessary infrastructure for their delivery are more or less unattainable for most African women. Limitation of access to AZT is not confined to the poor although they account absolutely for most of the women who have the greatest need.

 

A related problem is the transmission of HIV through breast milk where there is now clear evidence that significant numbers of babies are infected by this route. This is avoidable and poverty is a clear factor in access to the methods for prevention of transmission to babies through breast milk. To prevent transmission through breast milk requires the ability to buy baby formula and access to clean water, plus an understanding of why these changes in practise are needed. Neither clean water nor the income for purchasing formula are available to the poor, so they are unable because of their poverty to adopt a form of prevention known to be successful as a means of limiting HIV transmission. This problem is resolvable through relatively inexpensive programme activities backed up by community mobilisation to ensure support to families. There are, therefore, no good reasons why action in this area are not being undertaken by governments, NGOs and donors.

 

Coping with HIV and AIDS

 

Individuals, families and communities are impoverished by their experience of HIV and AIDS in ways that are typical for long drawn-out and terminal illnesses. It is a feature of HIV infection that it clusters in families with often both parents HIV positive (who in time experience morbidity and mortality). There is thus enormous strain on the capacity of families to cope with psycho-social and economic consequences of illness, such that many families experience great distress and often disintegrate as social and economic units. This experience is well reflected by the testimony of Lucy (see Box) who has seen her expectations as a mother and grandmother completely overturned by HIV/AIDS. Integral to her experience is the disappearance of traditional support processes for the elderly who can no longer anticipate being supported by their children. Instead the old are taking on burdens of care for children under conditions of increasing personal impoverishment and with associated living and other problems for both generations.

 

--------------------------------------------------------

By the time my sons became ill with AIDS, one of my daughters-in-law had already died of tuberculosis, and the other had become mentally sick. So I was the closest person to my sons. I had to resume the role of a mother caring for her sick children. I was the only one who could ensure that their physical and emotional needs are met. It was very touching having to nurse my sons again and watching them bed-ridden and deteriorating day by day. My heart shrunk whenever I thought of caring for my grandchildren after the death of their fathers. Their sickness had started encroaching on the savings I had made for my own welfare in old age. It was very painful watching them die. When I was a young girl of 17 getting married, I never dreamed that someday I would see three of my sons die.

 

My sons left behind 6 orphans, and now I am once again a mother to children ranging in age from 8 to 15. Two of my grandchildren were also HIV infected. One has already died, and one is still living at age 8, though she has started falling sick. I am taking care of them alone because in our culture, it is the family of the father who must care for orphans. This is a great challenge having to look after young children again after counting myself among those who had graduated from the responsibility of being a mother.

 

Before my sons became ill, I had hoped that my role as a grandmother would be to care for my grandchildren occasionally during school holidays, but now I am alone in caring for them. In the old days, children were not exposed to so many outside influences, but now Uganda society has changed so much. I find that some of the tactics I used to instill discipline in my own children no longer yield the desired response from my grandchildren. I find the children less respectful and undisciplined in spite of my effort. I feel so sad that I have gone back to the beginning and I have to struggle to get resources to ensure that their basic needs are met, such as school fees, medical care, clothing and other needs. Lucy

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Poor families have a reduced capacity to deal with the effects of morbidity and mortality than do richer ones for very obvious reasons. These include the absence of savings and other assets which can cushion the impact of illness and death. The poor are already on the margins of survival and thus are also unable to deal with the consequent health and other costs. These include the costs of drugs when available to treat opportunistic infections, transport costs to health centres, reduced household productivity through illness and diversion of labour to caring roles, losses of employment through illness and job discrimination, funeral and related costs, and so on. In the longer term such poor households never recover even their initial level of living as their capacity is reduced through the losses of productive family members through death and through migration, and through the sales of any productive assets they once possessed. A true process of immiseration is now observable in many parts of Africa.

 

An important aspect of the coping experience of those infected and affected by HIV and directly related to poverty is the survival time from initial HIV infection to death in Africa. HIV infected persons in Africa live for a shorter time after initial infection than in developed countries, and this is not simply related to access to new anti-retroviral treatments (although this is now an important factor in the differential experience of rich and poor countries). Even prior to the availability of ARV in rich countries the evidence was that HIV infected persons in Africa had a survival time from infection to death of approximately 5-7 years, about half that in developed countries. The explanation is complex but is to a significant degree related to the poverty of most of those infected with HIV in Africa.

 

Elements in the survival-time-differential of Africans which are undoubtedly important include the inability to purchase relatively inexpensive drugs to deal with HIV opportunistic infections (such as TB and diarrhea), poor basic health and nutrition, limited psycho-social support and generally poor quality care both in hospital and home settings. These factors are all remedial through programme activities which can be provided at relatively low cost by the state and NGOs, although they remain well beyond the capacity of poor households to provide for themselves. Once provided they will extend and enhance the lives of those infected and will permit them to support both themselves and their families.  

 

Central to these processes are often conditions of isolation and discrimination such that traditional forms of social support for the poor and the sick become inoperable. Societies characterised by random events such as illness and death have developed mechanisms of social support -- traditional safety nets for those impoverished by disease and crop failure. What appears to be happening is that traditional systems of support are themselves in decline for structural reasons and are not being replaced by state mechanisms. At the same time the clustering of poverty caused by HIV, which concentrates spatially and in certain communities, places demands on disintegrating social support systems to which they cannot respond. Furthermore because HIV and AIDS are viewed in many communities as the outcome of reprehensible behaviour there is often an unwillingness both to seek help by those affected and negative responses often by those able to provide assistance. A dual process has emerged which is the antithesis of what is required if the poor are to deal with the social and economic costs of HIV and AIDS.

 

Intergenerational Impacts of HIV

 

These intergenerational effects of HIV and AIDS are the longest lasting of all and relate to the mechanisms whereby the epidemic intensifies poverty and leads to its persistence. They are those processes which generate over time a culture of poverty -- not created by the HIV epidemic but undoubtedly strengthened by the direct and indirect effects of the epidemic on social and economic development. They arise in part from the effects of the epidemic on human and institutional capacity where losses occur because of erosion of human resources. It follows that poverty reduction strategies will be increasingly ineffective in the face of an intensifying HIV epidemic which undermines sustainable development. Thus reducing poverty through sustainable development has become an even greater challenge than hitherto for countries in Africa.

 

It is possible to disaggregate the effects of the epidemic so as to perceive what is going on at the levels of families and communities. These will have their effects over many years and unlike the coping strategies noted above are longer term in their consequences. It is instructive to consider Kevina's story (see Box) in order to understand the processes at work for all of the elements necessary for poverty to persist over time are revealed by what she writes. These experiences are now being repeated a million fold by other children throughout Africa, children who represent the future -- who are the future for the continent.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------

My names are Kevina Lubowa. I am 14 years old. I have 4 brothers and 3 sisters younger than me. I come from Uganda. I am studying in Primary six. I have come here to say something about AIDS and its problems.

 

AIDS means acquired immune-deficiency syndrome. It's a terrible disease. It killed both my mother and father in 1992. It killed all brothers and sisters of my father. It has killed many men and women in Uganda.

 

Some houses have been closed. But our house was not closed because my father and mother left me with four brothers and two sisters. I look after them. I also look after my grandfather who lives near us, because his wife died and nobody was there to look after him. He is 84 years old. He lost his wife in 1992. The grandfather does not see. He has eye problems. It is me who looks after the family.

 

From school, I go to bring water from the well. I take a jerrican on my head. I tell my brothers and sisters to go in the bush and collect firewood. Sometimes, when we don't have fire, we go and get it from our neighbours. We cook potatoes, matooke, pumpkins and casava. But my brothers do not want cassava; they want only matooke. Our banana plantation is now a forest. We dig in our plantation on holidays and on Saturday. Our food is not enough. Some days we don't get food. We eat cassava with boiled water as sauce. We don't have money to buy sugar or tea leaves.

 

In the evening I make up beds for my young sisters and brothers. Every week we cut grass to use as our mattresses. We all sleep together and cover ourselves with blankets. Sometimes we sleep in the corner of the house because our house is leaking. Our blankets get wet and we put them near the fire or in the sun to dry.

 

There is the problem of disease. We get sick and go to the dispensary. At the dispensary they want money but we don't have the money. They give only tablets. We foot from home to the dispensary. You cannot stop a car because they also want money. Old women help us and give us leaves and mululuza to chew. This helps to get rid of fever.

 

Because I am a girl people think I am weak. So they come home and steal our cassava and fire wood. Because I am a girl even when I see them I can do nothing. Some people in the village are not friends. They shout at us, they don't give us advice; we don't have any one to call father or mother; we feel sad when we see other children laughing with their father and mother. In short, this is how I find life.

 

But other orphans have the same life. They don't have blankets; they don't eat meat; they don't have sugar; they sleep in huts.. Some go to eat at the neighbors or they get one meal a day. At school, life is good. The teacher calls us orphans, but I don't want that name. Even other children don't want that name. We think we are animals.

 

My friends, I am concluding by saying that the life of an orphan in Uganda is bad. Some people want us to work as their house girls and house boys. Now we want good food, blankets, education and many other things. We also want to live in good houses. So orphans need help. We need to grow and to be proud and happy people.

 

Let me stop here. Thank you very much. Merci beaucoup.  

 

Kevina

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Kevina's story contains all of the essential elements that contribute to intergenerational poverty. Children are left isolated who have lost both parents and access to most forms of social support. The mechanisms for socialisation of children no longer operate, so that systems for acculturisation do not function and the children become alienated from their community. It is the beginning of the process of alienation and anomie which have socially destructive outcomes for children and their communities, and ultimately for society.

 

There are also the direct effects of what has happened to the children which are material and damaging to their futures. Poor nutrition leads to poor health which is an important cause of low labour productivity and thus the persistence of low incomes for the poor. Poor and damp housing is a major factor in causing illnesses such as TB which is itself exacerbated by the HIV epidemic (where there is now a dual epidemic underway in Africa). These children will continue to experience poor health status over their lifetimes with all kinds of social and economic consequences for them and their families.

 

The children's chances of escaping from their poverty depends on access to resources which are self evidently missing. These include access to education which is the primary mechanism that the poor have for social mobility. But education is one thing that these children will not have access to in accordance with their abilities -- most evidently in the case of girl children. A generation is thus emerging with poor health status, few skills (not even those necessary for rural development), low levels of literacy and numeracy, little or no access to financial and other real assets (where their property and other rights will often have been infringed), and who have been deprived of normal processes of socialisation and social inclusion. Indeed they will face additional social exclusion because they come from families who have experienced AIDS.

 

These children display, in other words, all those characteristics typical of the poor and the disadvantaged. They are in effect the next generation of the poor, and are the outcome of ongoing structural processes which are being intensified by the HIV epidemic currently affecting so many Africans of all social classes and all ages. They also represent both the future and the challenge for sustained development in Africa. If their educational, health, housing and other psycho-social needs are not addressed through specific policies and programmes then it is difficult to see how national development objectives can possibly be achieved. Just as important is the fact that large numbers of children growing up in poverty will adopt precisely those behaviours which lead to HIV infection. They will in effect become the next cohort of the HIV infected; a state of affairs which will permit the epidemic to continue and intensify.

 

CONCLUSIONS

 

The HIV epidemic has its origins in African poverty and unless and until poverty is reduced there will be little progress either with reducing transmission of the virus or an enhanced capacity to cope with its socio-economic consequences. It follows that sustained human development is essential for any effective response to the epidemic in Africa. A conclusion that has yet to permeate approaches to the epidemic not only in Africa but more or less everywhere. While the HIV epidemic makes sustained human development more and more unattainable, and actually adds to poverty, it also destroys the human resource capacities essential for an effective response.

 

Herein lies the problem: how to achieve the sustainable development essential for an effective response to the epidemic under conditions where the epidemic is destructive of the capacities essential for the response. Simple answers to this problem do not exist, but at least recognition of its existence is a step towards its solution. The next step has to be the development of policies and programmes that address the inter-relationships between poverty and development and to actually put in place those activities that can make a difference for development outcomes. Central to these activities are programmes that address poverty today so as to facilitate future socio-economic development tomorrow. For unless the intergenerational effects of HIV are addressed now then it is optimistic in the extreme to assume that Africa will become a pole of development in succeeding decades.

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Endnotes

 

1. 21 million currently infected with HIV plus 9 million persons who have died from HIV-related illnesses times a factor of 5 to take account of those directly affected.

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

 

Desmond Cohen is an economist with university teaching experience in Africa, Canada, the UK and the USA. Formerly he was a Governor and Associate Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex in the United Kingdom and until 1990, he was Dean of the School of Social Sciences. He has both research and applied macro-economic policy experience in a number of African and Asian countries. Previously he was an adviser to the British Treasury on international financial policy. In 1997-98 he was Director of the HIV and Development Programme (UNDP), and currently he is Senior Adviser on HIV and Development.

 

 

 <<-*-*-*-><-*-*-*-><-*-*-*->>

 

 Mars Express (Beagle-2) Searching life on Mars...

Hungry child on Earth crawling toward food camp...

 <<-*-*-*-><-*-*-*-><-*-*-*->>

Homosexuality Dossier

1. Constants In Math And Human Life

Heraclitus said...

Change is The only constant.

Heraclitus was dead in 475 BC. Almost 2500 years are passed since his death.
I am seeing something "constant" which is not changed since last 2500 years. In mathematics, 2500 years ago 1+1=2. This simple truth is constant which is not changed. In geometry, equation of length of sides of right angle triangle c^2=a^2+b^2 which is not changed.



Mathematics and geometry are fundamentals of natural philosophy which we now call as "Physics". In last 2000 years, physics theories are changed many times but the math and geometry is constant. Governments, courts, democracy can not change these constant. If some person try to claim that 1+1=3 and he/she can develop more elegant physics theory then in my opinion it is absolutely stupid. If we tamper fundamentals of physics i.e math and geometry, all physics and hence technology comes down crashing.



Like math and geometry there are somethings in human life like sacred relationships and respect for our parents, brothers, sisters, relatives, friends and humanity in society which are constant. Governments, courts, democracy have changed these constants, and I see that foundations of human civilizations are crashing. Consciousness and hence intelligence level of mankind is falling.



British, Americans brought guns and made many countries part of their empire until 1950-1960. Now they have developed "sex guns" and they are firing "sex bullets" through Internet, TV, Movies influencing people in other countries by money and science to become their slaves. And people in other countries are becoming slaves so easily.



Once slave, always slave.



People in other countries are completely unaware that those money of western countries are because of science and scientists are not homosexuals, incest or pedophile.



If we take a look at history, we see many empires flourished and vanished. But those empires had almost no contact or absolutely no contact with other empires or kingdoms.
But the world is changed. Now something happens on planet and sensex of all stock markets on earth are affected in few seconds. Everything is connected. Culture, economy, communication. There are not many empires or countries all though on world map we see almost 200 countries.
There is only one empire, like that of dinosaurs who were spread everywhere on earth.



All though physical colonialism is ended, developed countries have found new way to colonise other countries psychologically through internet and other electronic media.



If this empire crashes, everything on planet earth comes down crashing...



Like the empire of dinosaurs who had started eating other dinosaurs and even their own children to get physically strong. Likewise human dinosaurs in this empire have started sexually eating family members, friends to get sexually strong.



<<-*-*-*-><-*-*-*-><-*-*-*->>

2. HIV Virus:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5012268.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2983092.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1846443.stm



1. Origin of mankind - Africa. Origin of HIV virus - Africa. Is this just coincidence?



2. Monkeys and Chimpanzees are our ancestors. Mankind evolved from monkeys. HIV virus is said to be evolved from SIV virus in monkeys and chimpanzees. Is this just another coincidence?





3. If HIV-AIDS is first spread in Africa, why no Doctor or any person ever documented people dying from mysterious illness in Africa?



4. Without causing havoc in Africa, HIV jumped to Haiti and then to USA. And first cases of AIDS were officially documented in gay people. HIV spreads through sexual contact. Why HIV caught gay people first?



5. Source of human life is male-female sexual intercourse. Why target of HIV is semen, vaginal fluid?



6. Since when SIV was present in monkeys and chimpanzees? Hundred years, thousand years, million years? Why it evolved in HIV at the height of human intelligence and gay-lesbian "evolution"? Evolution of SIV in HIV and evolution of mankind in gay-lesbian at the same time. Is this timing just coincidence?



7. Even if HIV is transmitted through sex, it should have limited to few families and it should have taken generations to spread. But HIV is spreading very fast. That means one infected person has sexual contact with many other persons. This can happen through gay-lesbian person having sex with many other gay-lesbians. Straight person committing adultery and having sexual contact with many other persons.



8. Why HIV virus is highly mutable? Why it is changing pattern? Is it "aware" of mechanism of developing vaccine by mankind? Is it "aware" of human intelligence? Is it "aware" of falling human moral values?



9. What makes mankind to believe that HIV can not spread through mosquitoes, air, water? If it can evolve from SIV to HIV to adapt to human body, it can adapt to environment in near future to spread rapidly



<<-*-*-*-><-*-*-*-><-*-*-*->>

3. Evolution on Fast Track:

http://www.livescience.com/animals/061116_lizard_legs.html

Short Legs Win Evolution Battle
By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 16 November 2006 02:01 pm ET

In a reptilian version of "Survivor," lizards with longer legs ultimately get booted from islands by their short-legged opponents.

Countering the widespread view of evolution as an eon-long process, evolutionary biologists discovered that when island lizards were exposed to a new predator, natural selection occurred in a six-month period, first favoring longer and then shorter hind legs.

The findings are detailed in the Nov. 17 issue of the journal Science.
Brown anolis (Anolis sagrei) lizards spend much of their time on the ground. But as previous studies have shown, when a ground-dwelling, predatory lizard is introduced, the anoles scamper up trees. They switch to an arboreal lifestyle to escape being eaten.

Anoles’ long legs make them fast runners, giving them an advantage in a ground-based setting where not much balance is necessary.
Researchers led by Jonathan Losos of Harvard University studied brown anole populations on 12 small islands in the Bahamas. They introduced a larger, predatory lizard (Leiocephalus carinatus) to six of the islands, while keeping six other control islands predator-free.

The scientists counted, marked and measured lizards at the beginning of the study, after six months, and again after 12 months. After six months, the anole populations dropped by half or more on islands with predators. On predator islands, the anole survivors had longer legs than non-survivors, a result the scientists suggest is due to longer-legged lizards being faster runners and better able to elude capture by predators.

Tables turned, however, during the next six months. The surviving anoles became increasingly arboreal, spending much of their time in treetops. At the end of the six-month stint, measurements showed surviving anoles had shorter legs compared with non-survivors. There was no significant difference in leg length between surviving and non-surviving anoles on control islands.

Shorter limbs are better suited for navigating narrow tree branches, which the scientists figure helped the lizards evade becoming dinner.

The researchers think that, over a longer period of time, the anoles in the presence of a predator would evolve much shorter limbs.

<<-*-*-*-><-*-*-*-><-*-*-*->>

4. Homosexuality: Nurture Theory - It's Not All About Genes

http://genealogy.about.com/cs/geneticgenealogy/a/nature_nurture_1.htm



You got your green eyes from your mother, and your freckles from your father. But where did you get your thrill-seeking personality and talent for singing? Did you learn these from your parents or was it predetermined by your genes? While it's clear that physical characteristics are hereditary, the genetic waters get a bit more murky when it comes to an individual's behavior, intelligence, and personality. Ultimately, the old argument of nature vs. nurture has never really been won. We do not yet know how much of what we are is determined by our DNA and how much by our life experience. But we do know that both play a part. What is Nature vs Nurture?



It has been reported that the use of the terms "nature" and "nurture" as a convenient catch-phrase for the roles of heredity and environment in human development can be traced back to 13th century France. Some scientists think that people behave as they do according to genetic predispositions or even "animal instincts." This is known as the "nature" theory of human behavior. Other scientists believe that people think and behave in certain ways because they are taught to do so. This is known as the "nurture" theory of human behavior.



Fast-growing understanding of the human genome has recently made it clear that both sides are partly right. Nature endows us with inborn abilities and traits; nurture takes these genetic tendencies and molds them as we learn and mature. End of story, right? Nope. The "nature vs nurture" debate still rages on, as scientist fight over how much of who we are is shaped by genes and how much by the environment.



The Nature Theory - Heredity



Scientists have known for years that traits such as eye color and hair color are determined by specific genes encoded in each human cell. The Nature Theory takes things a step further to say that more abstract traits such as intelligence, personality, aggression, and sexual orientation are also encoded in an individual's DNA.



The search for "behavioral" genes is the source of constant debate. Many fear that genetic arguments might be used to excuse criminal acts or justify divorce.



The most debated issue pertaining to the nature theory is the exsistence of a "gay gene," pointing to a genetic component to sexual orientation.



An April, 1998 article in LIFE Magazine, "Were You Born That Way" by George Howe Colt, claimed that "new studies show it's mostly in your genes."



If genetics didn't play a part, then fraternal twins, reared under the same conditions, would be alike, regardless of differences in their genes. But, while studies show they do more closely resemble each other than do non-twin brothers and sisters, they also show these same striking similarities when reared apart - as in similar studies done with identical twins.



Nurture Theory - It's Not All About Genes



http://genealogy.about.com/cs/geneticgenealogy/a/nature_nurture_2.htm





The Nurture Theory - Environment



While not discounting that genetic tendencies may exist, supporters of the nurture theory believe they ultimately don't matter - that our behavioral aspects originate only from the environmental factors of our upbringing. Studies on infant and child temperament have revealed the most crucial evidence for nurture theories.



American psychologist John Watson, best known for his controversial experiments with a young orphan named Albert, demonstrated that the acquisition of a phobia could be explained by classical conditioning. A strong proponent of environmental learning, he said: Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select...regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations and race of his ancestors.



Harvard psychologist B. F. Skinner's early experiments produced pigeons that could dance, do figure eights, and play tennis. Today known as the father of behavioral science, he eventually went on to prove that human behavior could be conditioned in much the same way as animals.
A study in New Scientist suggests that sense of humor is a learned trait, influenced by family and cultural environment, and not genetically determined.



If environment didn't play a part in determining an individual's traits and behaviors, then identical twins should, theoretically, be exactly the same in all respects, even if reared apart. But a number of studies show that they are never exactly alike, even though they are remarkably similar in most respects.



So, was the way we behave engrained in us before we were born? Or has it developed over time in response to our experiences? Researchers on all sides of the nature vs nurture debate agree that the link between a gene and a behavior is not the same as cause and effect. While a gene may increase the likelihood that you'll behave in a particular way, it does not make people do things. Which means that we still get to choose who we'll be when we grow up.



<<-*-*-*-><-*-*-*-><-*-*-*->>

5. Gay Men, Straight Women Have Similar Brains

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/16/AR2008061601038.html

Gay Men, Straight Women Have Similar Brains

By Amanda GardnerHealthDay Reporter Monday, June 16, 2008; 12:00 AM
MONDAY, June 16 (HealthDay News) -

MRI and PET scan studies are showing remarkable similarities between the brains of gay men and straight women, and between those of lesbians and straight men.
For example, the brains of straight men and of gay women share certain common features: both are slightly asymmetric, with the right hemisphere larger than the left, say the Swedish researchers.

On the other hand, the brains of gay men and straight women are both symmetrical.
Similar trends emerged when scientists tracked connectivity in the amygdala, the region of the brain involved in emotional learning and in activating the fight-or-flight response. They noted strong similarities between gay men and straight women, and lesbians and straight men.

The findings are published in the current issue of theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"This is a very interesting study demonstrating a possible neurobiological relationship in brain size between gay men and straight women," said Paul Sanberg, distinguished professor of neurosurgery and director of the University of South Florida Center for Aging and Brain Repair in Tampa.

"I do think this is pointing to some type of neurobiological underpinning [to sexual orientation]," added Keith A. Young, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine in Waco. He was not involved in the study.

"It's hard to know if that's related to genes, or what might happen in the womb -- I think those are the two primary options," said Young, who is also co-director of the Central Texas Veterans' Health Care System Neuropsychiatry Research Program in Temple. "How do those affect early brain development, and how might either genes or exposure to hormones in the womb change the trajectory of the development of emotional processing centers?"

The neurobiology of sexual orientation remains a controversial topic. Some research suggests that the brain activity of homosexual individuals in areas unrelated to sex mirror brain activity in straight individuals of the opposite sex. And certain psychological studies have revealed differences in how men and women use the brain's different hemispheres for verbal tasks, for example.

For this study, researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm first performed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on 90 participants -- 25 heterosexual men and an equal number of heterosexual women, plus 20 homosexual men and 20 homosexual women.

The right hemispheres of straight men and gay women were found to be bigger than the left, while the respective volume of these two cerebral hemispheres were about the same in gay men and straight women.

Fifty of the original participants also underwent positron emission tomography (PET) measurements of blood flow to the brain, designed to analyze connections between the right and left amygdalas. PET scans were performed both while the participants were resting and while they were smelling unscented air. Here again, lesbians appeared to react more like straight men, while gay men were more like straight women.

According to the authors, fight-or-flight reactions -- controlled in part by the amygdala -- are more common in men than in women.

The differences, which werenotrelated to sexual attraction, could be due to environmental effects, genetics or the influence of sex hormones, the study authors stated.

Although some sex differences in brain size are visible at birth, the brain continues to develop as the child matures, meaning that environmental factors could also play a role.

The current wisdom regarding genetics and sexual orientation posits that genes may play a role in male homosexuality but not in female homosexuality, the researchers said.

Experts have also speculated that exposure to sex hormones prenatally influence sexual preference. Male rhesus monkeys have more androgen (a male sex hormone) receptors in the right side of the brain, while females have an equal distribution of receptors for the hormone.

And brain asymmetry in male rats is established by early exposure to androgens. Symmetry in female brain hemispheres can be reversed by removing the ovaries soon after birth.

This study does little to clarify the reasons behind the differences, the researchers added, although it certainly does add to the debate.

<<-*-*-*-><-*-*-*-><-*-*-*->>

6. Fundamental Human Rights: Homosexual Sex On Streets Before Cameras

http://americansfortruth.com/news/tolerance-gone-wild-in-san-francisco-as-cops-stand-by-amidst-folsom-street-fairs-public-perversions-and-widespread-nudity.html



WARNING: NOT FOR CHILDREN; GRAPHIC IMAGES – DESPITE OUR EFFORTS TO CLEAN UP THESE PHOTOS DOCUMENTING RAUNCHY SAN FRANCISCO ‘FOLSOM STREET FAIR’



All Folsom Street Fair photos by Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth; permission to reprint given provided that credit be given to “Americans For Truth, http://www.americansfortruth.org/”; call 630-717-7631 for media inquiries.



PART ONE
By Peter LaBarbera and Allyson Smith, Americans For Truth exclusive
S Man bares all at Folsom Street Fair (he was wearing sneakers); right, entrance sticker given to attendees (by Christianity-mocking, drag-queen “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence”) reproduces blasphemous, sadistic “Last Supper” photo that drew national attention to Folsom.



SAN FRANCISCO — How do you describe the most depraved public event in the most depraved city in America? Well, we’ll let the pictures do the talking — with our strategically-placed black boxes so as not to reward the perverted exhibitionists who invaded the city’s streets Sunday for the “Folsom Street Fair.” The Fair is an annual street party for BDSM enthusiasts (meaning bondage, discipline, sadism, masochism — or domination/submission) held on several blocked-off city streets here, that reportedly draws hundreds of thousands of “leather” practitioners and curious spectators every year. All frontal nudity is blocked below.



At left, a young boy looks on at a booth sponsored by Steamworks, a local bathhouse (in Berkeley) where men go to engage in anonymous sodomies with other men. Organizers warned that Folsom was an event for adults, but parents were allowed to bring their young children. Steamworks also has branches in Chicago, Toronto, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.



Keep in mind as you look at these documented public acts of perversion that San Francisco police took a very passive, “hands off” role at the Fair — despite the national outrage and unprecedented media attention on Folsom following revelations that organizers used a perverted mockery of Da Vinci’s Last Supper painting as their promotional artwork. (The Last Supper rip-off adorned the small stickers given to every person who paid the $5 to get into Folsom; see photo above.)



Indeed, we watched as police standing on the street or just outside the blocked-off perimeter of Folsom did nothing as men walked by baring their genitals (only the men did this; some women bared their breasts). One extended orgiastic scene we witnessed involving several men (see photo below) took place on crowded Folsom Street as hundreds if not thousands of people walked by — yet police took no action.



We spoke with several policemen and security guards and the consensus was that rampant nudity and public sex are expected every year at Folsom Street (this was the event’s 25th year) and that it is the city’s politicians — from the Mayor on down – who are to blame for allowing it. (Mayor Gavin Newsom greeted Folsom Street attendees in a letter published in the Fair’s program, warmly telling them to “have a great day and enjoy this wonderful and exciting event.”) It seemed to us that the police, as law “enforcers,” were put in the very awkward position of overseeing sexual anarchy and general lawlessness, as clearly there was no expectation that laws would be enforced to stop the public sex and nudity — assuming such anti-lewdness laws exist in San Francisco and California.



In addition to the nudity and public sex acts, there were public whippings and spankings. Some were held at booths: the AIDS Emergency Fund was hawking charity spankings for $5 each — and others apparently occurring spontaneously, if you can say that about an act of consensual, “erotic” violence. We witnessed one man whipping his “partner” on a sidewalk, the “whippee’s” back becoming a brighter red with each round of punishment — done out of love, we are told by the sadists.



The annual Folsom Street Fair takes place in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) San Francisco district. Speaking to a local “gay” newspaper through her spokesman, Pelosi refused to condemn the blasphemous Folsom 2007 promotional logo — which mocked Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” painting by substituting “leather” men and women for Christ and His disciples. Click HERE to view the blasphemous ad, which was reproduced on Folsom’s stickers for paid attendees.



And we witnessed many ”master-slave” “couples,” one leading the other around with a dog collar, of both the homosexual and heterosexual variety. The Folsom Street Fair began as an event mainly for homosexual sadomasochists, but it now attracts many straights, as evidenced by the thousands of women visible at this year’s event.



Gawkers and photo-takers were everywhere at Folsom, adding to the surrealness of the experience. Twice we witnessed people posing for photos with totally nude men, one who had been masturbating at a curb, as if the latter were celebrities. The fair/freak show was truly an exhibitionists’ dream, made possible by San Francisco’s moral and legal laxity.



So pervasive was the public (mostly male) nudity that it seemed the more “modest” homosexuals were the ones wearing only underwear or leather chaps exposing their behind.



Man gets flogged at the “Mr-S-Leather” booth in the center of Folsom Street Fair as crowd watches and a man snaps a photo. Note the recipient’s red back.
After a day of walking through this bizarre and hellish “fair” — with occasional “normalcy breaks” to restore our sanity – what struck us was a sense of “tolerance gone wild” in the City by the Bay. If you can tolerate men having sex in the streets, then you can tolerate just about anything. During one respite, when I (Peter) complained to a San Francisco resident about the public sex and nudity going on at Folsom just a block or two away, he grew cold and said, “To each his own.”
To each his own? “I don’t prefer to have sex in the streets, but if that’s your thing, go for it”? San Francisco is a lesson in the evils of liberal, open-ended “tolerance.” On the one hand, the city’s supervisors and left-wing activists harass and condemn Christian youth who seek to promote virtue and a godly lifestyle to San Francisco teenagers. Then the same city leaders welcome with open arms — and emasculated law enforcement — the most perverted public street festival imaginable, with a strong dose of anti-Christian bigotry to boot.
More important than what Folsom says about sadomasochists — after all, those were proud perverts out on Sunday — is what it says about (mostly straight) social liberals and libertarians. Quick to bash – that is, judge – the “religious right,” they are deathly afraid of criticizing or “judging” anything homosexuality-related, even heinous perversion festivals where human beings are walked around with collars like dogs! How troubled are you that Speaker Pelosi has carefully couched her words so as not to offend those who would reconfigure the Last Supper to include sex toys and deviant “fetishists”?



More photos and incredible scenes we witnessed below:



Naked “leathermen” fondle each other in a public sex scene as passers-by stop to watch and take pictures. This scene (see next photo) went on for at least a half hour, as new men would come and join in the mutual masturbation. The smell of marijuana was in the air. And, yes, that is a baby stroller at the left of the photo. It occurred on the street directly in front of Weiss Welding (”since 1930″) at 1237 Folsom Street. At one point the man at left yelled out, “I’m seeing too many cameras and not enough dicks!” “Tolerance” has run amuck in San Francisco. Of course, it’s one-way: the same “Sisters” (see below) who welcomed the sadomasochists into Folsom Sunday protested vehemently against the Christian teen outreach group BattleCry, which held an evangelistic rally in San Francisco last year.



Man performs oral sodomy on another man in the same orgiastic street scene at 1237 Folsom Street above. When there is no law, perversion and lawlessness fill the void. The same principle applies toward sin and godlessness in the spiritual and moral realms. How can such open (and illegal) debauchery be allowed to go on year after year by the city supervisors and the mayor? One policeman said the city takes a laissez-faire approach just for Folsom, once a year, but other long-time San Francisco citizens said that public indecency is tolerated on other “special” days, like Halloween.



Hard-core pornography was easy to find, and buy on sale, at Folsom.
Man leads bare-breasted female slave “partner” around by a dog collar. It appears that in recent years, heterosexual perverts have joined their “gay” brethren at the “fair” in increasing numbers. Talk about a setback for women’s rights … On the flip side, women were also seen leading around their male “slaves” at the twisted “fair” (see photo below).



“They invent ways of doing evil” (Romans 1:30); “pony play” perversion on walking display at Folsom. What kind of movement — and city — celebrates human degradation of this sort? (And where is PETA when you need them?)
Miller’s full-page ad in the Folsom Street Fair’s program states: “Miller Brewing Company Proudly Sponsors the 2007 Folsom Street Fair.” That was until they got caught and hit with a boycott by the Catholic League – and now the company is rethinking its marketing strategy. Miller’s booth, above, was centrally located at Folsom.



We’ll end this segment with one of the “Sisters” … of Perpetual Indulgence, that is, since they greeted Folsom’s comers and goers. (At least one “Sister” was at every entrance.) The rabidly anti-Catholic and Christianity-mocking group – they’d deny that but trust us on this one – was a major beneficiary of this year’s Folsom Fair. The “order” of male drag queen “nuns” has now spread across America and abroad. This burly “novice” is Sister Mary Margaret MayHam of the “Missionary Order of the Grand Canyon Sisters,” in Arizona. The Sisters’ motto is, appropriately, “Go forth and sin some more!”



<<-*-*-*-><-*-*-*-><-*-*-*->>

7. Homosexuality Mental Illness And Substance Abuse

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08091011.html

Homosexual U.K. Documentarian Says Gay Lifestyle a "Sewer" of Casual Degrading Sex, Drug Abuse and Misery

By Hilary White

LONDON, September 10, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A British homosexual journalist admits that his documentary on the London gay scene is likely to "burn every bridge in the gay world I've got."

Simon Fanshawe is a writer and broadcaster who created the documentary "The Trouble With Gay Men" after becoming increasingly alarmed at the shallowness and destructiveness of the "gay lifestyle." The film, made for BBC 3 television, questions the emotional and psychological immaturity, narcissism, nihilism and self-destructive tendencies of many in the homosexual community. Fanshawe says he wants homosexual men to "grow up" and get beyond their state of "extended adolescence."
Fanshawe, who was involved in the early homosexualist political movement, says, "We've fought discrimination and prejudice, only to wreck ourselves with drugs and wild sex."

In his documentary Fanshawe admits that the homosexualist movement has in the main achieved its political goals of equalising homosexuality with natural sexual relations, in abolishing laws against sodomy and creating legal equivalency with marriage and adoption. Given these achievements, Fanshawe asks, "Why do we seem hell bent on behaving like eternal teenagers?"

"We're hooked on vanity, and regard older men with contempt. Despite AIDS we're still chasing the ultimate sexual high and what's more are determined to wreck ourselves on designer drugs. We're happy to assist the straight world in keeping alive the image of all gay men as limp-wristed queens."

He says that he has recently "started to worry" about the ways in which "gay liberation is celebrated" in his hometown of Brighton, a major centre of the homosexual subculture. At the annual "Mr. Gay" beauty pageant, which he describes as a "pathetic display of self-delusion", Fanshawe tells a contestant, "I'm old enough to remember when all those women were fighting against Miss World...What we're all saying about ourselves is that actually to be really gay, properly gay, what you've got to be is cute, and young."

"Extreme vanity" he says, has been "sewn into gay culture." It "is now so mainstream in the gay community that otherwise intelligent young men are happy to be treated as sex objects on a demeaning meat rack."

Gay men, he says, are so "hardwired" towards finding casual sexual encounters, some going as far as plastic implants to enhance their appearance, that finding genuine intimacy is "practically impossible."

"Vast amounts of our leisure time are organised around sex, straight or gay. But what gay men have done is organise our identity around sex. And that is corrosive. And to make things worse, promiscuity has become the norm."

The documentarian asks the proprietor of a gay sex bath house, "Paul", who had just related some graphic stories of group sexual encounters in the establishment, "Are we just swimming around in a sewer which we're just sort of saying is normal?"

For objecting to the lifestyle of pursuing casual and "extreme" sex and for holding genuine human intimacy as a goal, Paul told Fanshawe that he is "the closest thing to a straight person in a gay man's body I have ever met. There should be an operation for you, dear."

Paul was adamant and forthright in his belief that the gay lifestyle is incompatible with happiness and fidelity in human relations, expressing his dissatisfaction with civil unions legislation. "The temptation of other things will always stand in the way of two gay men having a long-term, loving, caring relationship."

Fanshawe says he is horrified at the lack of emotional involvement and at the willingness of men to engage in "unsafe sex." The film includes statistics that show the deadly consequences of the homosexual lifestyle. One in nine gay men in London is HIV infected and new cases of HIV have doubled in the city in five years.

Incidences of syphilis have increased in the same time period 616 per cent.

"Unsafe" sex, he says, is not the only way in which gay men are self destructive. "If there's a new drug, gay men will find it and take it," he states.

At one point Fanshawe interviews a homosexual man who has "done all the drugs" and now campaigns in gay clubs against the growing use of crystal methamphetamine. The man, who could not be identified for fear of reprisals from drug dealers, said that crystal meth is preferred in the gay community because it reduces the inhibitions and allows sex to be brought to an "animalistic" level "devoid of emotion." The film says that one in five gay men in London use crystal meth.

======================================
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2009/08/gays-lesbians-bisexual-mental-health-.html

When it comes to substance abuse and mental health disorders, gays, lesbians and bisexuals have been shown to have higher rates than the general population -- and the reasons for that are complicated. But, researchers say, this segment is also more likely -- twice as likely, in fact -- to seek mental health treatment than heterosexuals.

Researchers at UCLA parsed data on more than 2,000 people. They found that 48.5% of so-called sexual minorities had received therapy in the last year, but that only 22.5% of heterosexuals had.

(And this tidbit is no surprise, but let's point it out anyway: Lesbians and bisexual women were the most likely to seek treatment; straight men were the least likely.)

Among the researchers' conclusions: "The findings showed that minority sexual orientation predisposes individuals to seek out services, despite pervasive barriers that exist within the service delivery system that might even discourage their use by this population."

Here's the news release from UCLA.
Here's the full study, published Friday in the journal BMC Psychiatry.
-- Tami Dennis

============================================
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/sexual-minorities-are-more-likely-98582.aspx

Gays, lesbians more likely to seek mental health services, study finds

Greater levels of discrimination, stress may be factors, researchers say

By Sarah Anderson 8/13/2009 5:15:00 PM

Lesbians, gays and bisexuals are twice as likely as heterosexual men and women to seek help from mental health professionals, according to a new study by the UCLA School of Public Health. The study, published today in the journal BMC Psychiatry, examines the relationship of gender and sexual orientation to the use of services to treat psychiatric problems such as mental health and alcohol and drug disorders. Researchers collected data on 2,074 people, who were first interviewed in the California Health Interview Survey, in a new survey known as the California Quality of Life Survey. They found that 48.5 percent of lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals reported receiving treatment in the past year, compared with 22.5 percent of heterosexuals. Overall, lesbians and bisexual women were most likely to receive treatment, and heterosexual men were least likely. While men and women, regardless of sexual orientation, who had an alcohol and/or drug disorder showed no significant differences in treatment rates, the study found that lesbian and bisexual women who had not been diagnosed with mental and drug disorders were more likely to seek mental health counseling than heterosexual women. This is consistent with emerging findings from national surveys showing that many individuals who receive mental health treatment do not have a diagnosable disorder but may have other symptoms, such as psychological distress or impairments in functioning, that lead them to seek care. The researchers considered several factors that may explain these findings. Discrimination, violence and other stressful life events may be greater among sexual and gender minorities, they said, and homosexuality and issues associated with it may be construed as mental health problems — particularly among racial and ethnic minorities — which may encourage people to seek treatment. Further, in gay and lesbian communities, therapeutic services are considered appropriate places for coping with the stresses associated with being a sexual minority. "It is well known that health services utilization is greater among women generally," said Susan Cochran, professor of epidemiology at the UCLA School of Public Health and one of the study's authors. "Here we have shown that minority sexual orientation is also an important consideration. Lesbians and bisexual women appear to be approximately twice as likely as heterosexual women to report having received recent treatment for mental health or substance use disorders." However, the study found that ethnic and racial minorities overall were less likely to utilize mental health or substance use–related services. African Americans and Hispanics may underutilize services for mental health and substance use problems for a variety of reasons, including a lack of familiarity with the types of services available, prior negative experiences with service providers, or because of greater stigma attached to use of these services by their families and communities. According to the study authors, the findings show that minority sexual orientation predisposes individuals to seek out mental health services. The findings also have implications for the allocation of public funding for the provision of public mental health and substance abuse treatment. The authors suggest that service planning and public policy experts interested in cost of care should take into consideration the effects of environmental and life stressors, including experiences of discrimination, violence, and hate crimes, in incurring mental health costs not only to the individual but to society. Further, the study points to the need to examine how the treatment of individuals who do not have diagnosable disorders may reduce the likelihood that they will develop greater severity of distress, disorders or impairments in functioning in the future. Lastly, a better understanding of the factors that lead sexual minorities, and especially lesbians and gay women, to seek treatment may generate knowledge that can be used to improve delivery of treatment to those who would benefit from it or who currently do not take advantage of mental health resources. Cochran was joined on this study by her colleagues Vickie M. Mays, also of the School of Public Health, and Christine Grella and Lisa Greenwell of the Integrated Substance Abuse Program at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. The UCLA School of Public Health is dedicated to enhancing the public's health by conducting innovative research, training future leaders and health professionals, translating research into policy and practice, and serving local, national and international communities.

<<-*-*-*-><-*-*-*-><-*-*-*->>

8. Homosexuality And Cannibalism Mental Illness

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3146670/Mr-Gay-UK-stabbed-man-to-death-and-cooked-his-thigh-with-herbs-and-olive-oil.html

Mr Gay UK 'stabbed man to death and cooked his thigh with herbs and olive oil'

The first winner of Mr Gay UK stabbed a man to death before carving a piece of flesh from his thigh, seasoning it with fresh herbs and cooking it in olive oil, a court heard. Anthony Morley, 36, then attempted to eat a piece of Damian Oldfield's flesh before walking to a nearby takeaway and telling staff he had killed someone, Leeds Crown Court was told.

Morley, who worked as a chef, also cut a piece of 33-year-old Mr Oldfield's chest and nipple and left a bank card over the wound, it was claimed.Andrew Stubbs, prosecuting, said the two men had been involved some kind of relationship in the past and that Morley was troubled by his sexuality.

He said the two men arranged to meet in Leeds on April 23 this year and later went back to Morley's house, where the defendant prepared a meal for them both before the pair went upstairs to his bedroom.

It was alleged that sexual activity took place in the bedroom before Morley launched his attack on Mr Oldfield, cutting his throat and stabbing him numerous times.

Mr Stubbs said: "He continued to stab and stab and stab him until he died. Even when he was dead the attack continued until finally Mr Morley cut parts of flesh from the body."

The court heard six pieces of cooked human flesh, identified as being from Mr Oldfield's body, were found on a chopping board, while a further piece of flesh, which appeared to have been chewed, was found in a bin bag.

"From a chopping board on one of the kitchen units, six pieces of cooked flesh, which had been seasoned with fresh herbs and fried in olive oil were recovered. The flesh was human in origin," Mr Stubbs said.

"A further piece of cooked flesh, which appears to have been chewed, was recovered from a bin bag in the kitchen."

He added: "Having killed him upstairs, the defendant carved away a piece of flesh, took it downstairs to his kitchen, where he seasoned it, fried it and tried to eat it."
Morley denies murdering Mr Oldfield and told police when he was arrested that someone had tried to rape him.

Morley later walked into a nearby takeaway wearing a bloodstained dressing gown and flip-flops and told staff and police he had killed someone because he tried to rape him.
During the trial, Morley said he could not remember killing Mr Oldfield, who sold advertising space for gay lifestyle magazine Bent, or any of his subsequent actions.
He had denied murder on the grounds of provocation or diminished responsibility.



<<-*-*-*-><-*-*-*-><-*-*-*->>

9. Consciousness level, human emotions vanishing due to sexism: Parents dumping their kids...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-09-25-Left-kids_N.htm

Nebraska 'safe haven' law for kids has unintended results

By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY

Between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday, three fathers walked into two hospitals in Omaha and abandoned their children. One left nine siblings, ages 1 to 17. The men, unless proven to have abused the kids, won't face prosecution under a new Nebraska law that is unique in the nation. The law allows parents to leave a child at a licensed hospital without explaining why.

Other parents have also used the law to leave their children. Last week, a 13-year-old girl was left. The week before that, two boys ages 11 and 15. In all, fathers, mothers and caregivers in six families — some single parents — have bailed on 14 kids, including seven teens, since the law took effect in July.

"They were tired of their parenting role," says Todd Landry of Nebraska's Department of Health and Human Services. He says child behavioral problems, not family financial woes, were a factor in the earlier cases. He says little is known about the three new cases, which are under investigation.

None of the kids was in immediate danger, Landry says. He says the four oldest of the nine siblings were placed together in an emergency shelter and the others in a foster home. "They're struggling to varying degrees with what's happened to them."
Landry says the courts will decide whether to require the parents to pay child support or to try to reunite them with their children.

"This was never the intent of the bill," says Republican state Sen. Arnie Stuthman. He says he co-wrote it to protect newborns from abandonment, but to get enough support for passage, it was changed to cover all children.

"We really opened a can of worms," he says. "We have a mess." He says the law needs to be fixed.

All 50 states have "safe haven" laws, but the others apply only to infants less than 1 year old.

The Nebraska law is the "worst-case scenario of unintended consequences," says Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a research group. He says it allows parents to walk out on troublesome teens.
"We don't endorse the way it was done," says Tracey Johnson of the National Safe Haven Alliance.

<<-*-*-*-><-*-*-*-><-*-*-*->>

10. Western people walking naked like animals...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_nudity_places_in_North_America

List of social nudity places in North America
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of social nudity places in North America and adjacent islands for recreation. Includes free beaches (or clothing-optional beaches or nude beaches) and some resorts.
Contents 1 Canada 1.1 British Columbia 1.2 Ontario 1.3 Quebec 1.4 New Brunswick 1.5 Nunavut 1.6 Prince Edward Island 2 Costa Rica 3 Jamaica 4 Mexico 5 Netherlands Antilles 6 United States 6.1 Alabama 6.2 Alaska 6.3 Arkansas 6.4 California 6.5 Colorado 6.6 Connecticut 6.7 Florida 6.8 Hawaii 6.9 Idaho 6.10 Illinois 6.11 Indiana 6.12 Kansas 6.13 Maryland 6.14 Massachusetts 6.15 Michigan 6.16 Minnesota 6.17 Mississippi 6.18 Missouri 6.19 Nevada 6.20 New Hampshire 6.21 New Jersey 6.22 New Mexico 6.23 New York 6.24 Oregon 6.25 Ohio 6.26 Oklahoma 6.27 Pennsylvania 6.28 South Carolina 6.29 Texas 6.30 Utah 6.31 Vermont 6.32 Washington 6.33 Wisconsin

<<-*-*-*-><-*-*-*-><-*-*-*->>

11. Distributing condoms to students in schools...

In a dramatic and emotional session, the New York City Board of Education last night narrowly approved a plan to make condoms available on request to the city's 250,000 high-school students.



The decision was in doubt until Dr. Westina L. Matthews, an appointee of Mayor David N. Dinkins, announced her vote, making the outcome 4 to 3. In doing so, she cast a significant morsel of consolation to the three members who voted against the plan by promising to seek an amendment at a later date to allow reluctant parents to exclude their children from the program.



The decision was awaited by school systems and parent groups around the nation. The plan, first proposed by Schools Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez, is the most far-reaching in the nation, although Baltimore and a few small school systems have experimented with the concept. No Consent, No Counseling



The plan is intended to stem the spread of AIDS. Students will be able to request condoms from school or neighborhood volunteers without parental consent and without mandatory counseling. Schools will be asked this spring to draw up plans for dispensing condoms, and distribution may begin as early as September in about 30 high schools. Within 18 months, all 120 high schools are to be included.



While six board members indicated during the months of debate on the issue that they could accept the idea of condom distribution in the schools, three had reservations that put the fate of the plan in doubt until the actual vote. The chief reservation concerned the role of parents and whether they could bar children from receiving the condoms. Dr. Matthews, the pivotal vote, said she wanted such a feature, but she never said how she would vote on the plan. This increased the suspense for everyone, as well as the pressure on her from leaders like Mr. Dinkins.



She said yesterday that she had voted for the plan because of concern about babies in the city born with AIDS, many to teen-age mothers with AIDS.



"On behalf of a child's right not to lose his or her life, I vote yes," she said as cheers erupted around the hall of the board in downtown Brooklyn. Proponents and Antagonists
The vote was taken at a meeting crowded by proponents and antagonists of the plan, many of whom spoke before the vote was taken. The opponents, many of them priests or lay leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, warned that the plan could encourage premarital sex and end up increasing AIDS. It also shows, they said, how little self-control the board expects of its students.
The proponents argued that teen-agers were making their owns choices to be sexually active and that it was up to the board to protect them.



Almost all of the board members accompanied their votes with emotional remarks.
Ninfa Segarra, the Bronx representative, dedicated her affirmative vote to three cousins who died of AIDS. Carol A. Gresser, the Queens representative, said she could not vote for a plan that denied parents "responsibility for their children's welfare."



Dr. Luis O. Reyes, the Manhattan representative, said he was voting in favor "of life, not death." Dr. Gwendolyn C. Baker, the board's president, said she had long favored condom availability but was concerned about providing a good plan. She said she felt the Chancellor's plan was a good one. Threat to Abstinence Seen
Dr. Irene Impellizzeri, the Brooklyn representative, said distributing condoms would "undermine the educational message of abstinence."



Michael J. Petrides, the Staten Island member, said removing any provision for parental consent mocked the trend toward "parent empowerment." He said that in such a close vote on such a sensitive issue, "no one wins."



Mr. Fernandez, in an interview with reporters, said he was "thrilled" by the decision and hoped that the three board members who voted against the plan would come to see that it was a good one.



He said he would oppose any provision allowing parents to "opt out" because "children don't tell their parents when they're sexually active." Although officials in his administration have said the plan would cost nothing, since many of the condoms would be donated by manufacturers, Mr. Fernandez acknowledged for the first time that it would cost "tax dollars." Jockeying Before the Vote
Yesterday's vote followed jockeying by several members over how to get Dr. Matthews to vote yes.Dr. Baker said yesterday that she could support an amendment that would permit parents to exclude their children from the plan. "To prevent us from losing an opportunity of serving the students of New York City, I would support an opt-out provision, but I would not modify it any other way," said Dr. Baker, who was appointed by Mayor Dinkins.



Her comments were significant because they apparently signaled where the Mayor finally stood on the sensitive matter.



After four months of hearings, the mood of the board yesterday afternoon was best captured by Dorothea Kuritzkes, an aide to Mrs. Gresser.



"We're all in a state of suspended animation," she said. "We keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it won't drop."



A compromise had been floated by Ms. Segarra, a supporter of the original plan, and Mr. Petrides, an opponent. In addition to letting parents bar their children, the compromise would have scaled back the program to 15 schools and required an evaluation after six months before adding more schools.





Compromise Stalls



The compromise stalled after the Mayor on Monday announced his support for the Chancellor's plan without amendments.



Under the plan approved yesterday, the condoms will be handed out by volunteers in what would be known as "health resource rooms." Private counseling will be available to students seeking advice but will not be required to obtain a condom. However, all students are to receive periodic instruction in classes about AIDS, and the use of a condom might be demonstrated and the risks of using it may be explained.



The condom plan was proposed by the Chancellor last fall as a way of stemming AIDS in the city. The supporting language of the Chancellor's resolution says that "New York City is in the midst of a health crisis." It points out that "while only 3 percent of the nation's 13-to-21-year-olds" live in New York City, the city has "20 percent of all reported AIDS cases in this age group."





50 Cases in a Decade



Opponents of the plan assert that there have been roughly 50 confirmed AIDS cases since the disease was identified a decade ago and that most of those have been among homosexuals and intravenous drug users or their partners. They also argue that students, realizing condoms are sanctioned by their schools, would come to believe the condoms were a guaranteed safeguard against AIDS, would increase their sexual activity and thus become more vulnerable to AIDS.
The Chancellor counters that the number of teen-agers with AIDS is small because AIDS can appear 10 years after infection and may show up in statistics for adults. He also argues that "statistics demonstrate that a greater proportion of youth, as compared with adults, with AIDS are female, black and Hispanic and were infected through heterosexual contact." He has produced statements from Planned Parenthood and several doctors supporting the likely effectiveness of a condom program.



Photos: Members of the audience reacting after the New York City Board of Education, which met last night in Brooklyn, approved a plan to make condoms available on request to the city's high school students.; Dr. Westina L. Matthews, whose vote for condom distribution made the outcome 4 to 3.
Also see..
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000007104.cfm
-----
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/04/2645328.htm

Unwanted teen sex on the rise: report
By Bronwyn Herbert for AM

Posted Tue Aug 4, 2009 9:45am AEST Updated Tue Aug 4, 2009 10:52am AEST
Audio: Schools sex shock (AM) More teenagers are having more sex with more partners, but the amount of unwanted encounters is also on the rise.
The latest snapshot of teenage sexual behaviour has revealed that more than a third of high school students have experienced unwanted sex, particularly women.
The fourth National Survey of Students Sexual Health heard from almost 3,000 students in years 10 and 12, from state, Catholic and independent schools.
Associate Professor Anne Mitchell from the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University says there are some worrying behavioural changes and also some surprising knowledge gaps, including on cervical cancer.
"We've seen an increase overall in the number of students who've had sexual intercourse," she said.

"Probably most notably we've seen increase in the numbers of young women in particular that are having unwanted sex - that's up nearly 10 per cent from last time.
"It's a very significant change, really. You want to be seeing that go down, but instead it's a major increase as far as we're concerned.

"The reason that young people are... having unwanted sex is that it's either pressure from the sexual partner or being too drunk at the time."

She says that while the number of students drinking has actually decreased, those that still consume alcohol are drinking even more, which impacts on their sexual behaviour.

One of the more surprising trends from the study reveals an increase in oral sex amongst young people, particularly with multiple partners.

Yet Professor Mitchell fears that education programs into human papilloma virus and cervical cancer are not registering amongst young, sexually active teenagers.
She says the concern stretches back to when HIV and AIDS was at the centre of sexual education, with fewer and fewer students using protection.

"We were extremely disappointed with the answers that the knowledge of the human papilloma virus and of cervical cancer was quite poor when you consider that we have had education associated with the vaccination program," she said.
"It doesn't seem to have been effective in letting young people know what they've been vaccinated against and how that all fits together, so that's definitely an area where there's room for improvement.

"When the survey first started it was really geared around HIV and trying to make sure young people were protecting themselves against HIV...but we have seen over that time more young people having sexual intercourse, about a quarter of year 10 and half of year 12.

"We're also seeing an increase in the amount of condom use, although not a huge increase - 69 per cent of the sample used condoms.
"I guess for contraception more than STIs because when they're on the pill they tend to throw the condoms away.

"We're also seeing that by and large over that time young people are having sex when they want it and enjoying the sex.

"So in spite of some of the more frightening aspects of the survey, the base-line information that comes out of it is that young people are enjoying the sex that they're having and that they're able to look after [themselves]."

=============================
http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/condoms-for-a-14-year-old/

Giving Condoms to Your 14-Year-Old?
By Lisa Belkin
Teenage birth rates are climbing. They had been decreasing steadily from 1991 to 2005 (down by 45 percent during those years) but began to inch back up again since then — rising another percent in 2007, for an increase of 4 percent between 2005 and 2007, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, which released those numbers last week.
Some of those pregnancies have made the news. Bristol Palin and Jamie Lynn Spears come immediately to mind. It was striking that Bristol told an interviewer after her baby was born that being a teenage mother wasn’t “glamorous.” Her words hinted that other teenagers just might think it was glamorous, influenced by girls like Bristol Palin.
But odds are that most pregnant teenagers were not trying to become pregnant teenagers; the problem is they were not trying not to. Those who believe abstinence-only education is the solution here saw the data as evidence that more such programs are needed in schools. Those who believe the programs are ineffective at best noted that the increase in teenage pregnancy corresponds with a steady increase in funding for teaching abstinence-only.
To the writer Ayelet Waldman, the numbers were evidence that she was right to worry about her 14-year-old daughter — and that it was time to act rather than just talk. As Waldman wrote on npr.com last week:
A while ago I ordered some birth control for myself and my husband. When the box arrived, it included a freebie: a pack of 50 candy-colored condoms. I was about to throw them away, but after an internal debate that seemed at once to encompass every attitude, preconception, goal and belief I have about parenting, I took the bag and put it on the very top shelf of the cupboard in the kids’ bathroom.
A few months later, I heard a shriek of horror. I ran in to find my kids staring aghast at the bag of condoms.
I smiled shakily, “At some point in the very distant future, you’ll be having sex. And you’ll need protection.”
“God, Mom,” my daughter said, turning her back and stalking out of the room …. “That is so gross.”
What is the best way to reverse the teenage pregnancy trend? Does it include giving condoms to a 14-year-old? Would you give them to your young teenager?

<<-*-*-*-><-*-*-*-><-*-*-*->>

12. Giving "Emergency Condoms" To 10 Year Old Children...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1078849/Be-prepared-Scout-leaders-sex-advice-hand-emergency-condoms-children-young-ten.html

Be prepared! Scout leaders to give sex advice and hand out 'emergency condoms' to children as young as ten

By Sarah HarrisLast updated at 11:25 AM on 20th October 2008Parents waving their children off to Scout camp may soon have more to worry about than the youngsters swapping ghost stories after dark.

In a move that has alarmed traditionalists, the Scout Association is to introduce sex education for its young members.

Leaders will be able to give confidential contraceptive advice to under-16s and even hand out emergency condoms on trips.The Association insists the information will help Scouts resist peer pressure to have sex before they are ready.

But critics claim it will encourage boys and girls to become sexually active earlier. Nick Seaton, of the Campaign for Real Education, said: 'This will horrify a lot of parents.

'These things have nothing to do with Scouting. They should be sticking to the traditional activities of camp fires and sing- songs instead of learning about sexually transmitted diseases and emergency contraception.'The advice that leaders can give is outlined in a factsheet published today by the Scout Association, which has 60,000 girl members and 400,000 boys and young men.

Scouts aged ten-and-a-half to 14 will be able to discuss where to get contraception and pregnancy testing and how to find sexual health clinics.

Boys and girls aged 14 and above may be taken on tours of sexual health clinics and learn about diseases such as gonorrhoea, syphilis and chlamydia. The factsheet makes it clear to leaders that it is 'only acceptable to have condoms/femedoms available to young people in line with the Fraser guidelines'.These guidelines give under-16s the right to have confidential advice about contraception without parental consent if certain criteria are met.

They state that an 'adult should only provide contraception if they believe the young person is very likely to begin having intercourse with or without contraception'.A Scout Association spokesman attempted to play down the implications of the factsheet on Sunday, insisting that leaders will not want to hand out contraceptives as they are not health care professionals.

He said: 'The safety and well-being of the young people in our care is paramount and it's not appropriate to have sexual relations in the activities that we run.
'You don't go to camp assuming young people will have sex.'

But Margaret Morrissey, chairman of pressure group, Parents Outloud, claimed that the new guidance could encourage children to become sexually active too soon.
She said: 'The last people you would expect to be making children sexually aware is the Boy Scouts.

'They should stop trying to be politically correct. All the signs are that political correctness has got us in the situation we're in now where young people are trying to grow up too soon and can't cope with it.

'They're confused and do things they probably wouldn't have done if they hadn't had that information in the first place. If we overload young children with information they will use it in the wrong way.'

Norman Wells, director of Family and Youth Concern, said: 'Learning about contraception in local Scout groups gives the impression that young people are expected to be sexually active and that there is nothing wrong with teenage sexual experimentation.'

Chief Scout Peter Duncan claimed it was necessary to be 'realistic and accept that around a third of young people are sexually active before 16'.
He said: 'Adults in Scouting have a duty to promote safe and responsible relationships and as an organisation we have the responsibility to provide sound advice about how to do that.'

<<-*-*-*-><-*-*-*-><-*-*-*->>

13. College Presidents wants to lower legal age so that students can drink wine...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,405766,00.html

College Presidents Seek Lower Drinking Age
Monday, August 18, 2008
College presidents from about 100 of the nation's best-known universities, including Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State, are calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus.
The movement called the Amethyst Initiative began quietly recruiting presidents more than a year ago to provoke national debate about the drinking age.
"This is a law that is routinely evaded," said John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont who started the organization. "It is a law that the people at whom it is directed believe is unjust and unfair and discriminatory."
Other prominent schools in the group include Syracuse, Tufts, Colgate, Kenyon and Morehouse.
But even before the presidents begin the public phase of their efforts, which may include publishing newspaper ads in the coming weeks, they are already facing sharp criticism.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving says lowering the drinking age would lead to more fatal car crashes. It accuses the presidents of misrepresenting science and looking for an easy way out of an inconvenient problem. MADD officials are even urging parents to think carefully about the safety of colleges whose presidents have signed on.
"It's very clear the 21-year-old drinking age will not be enforced at those campuses," said Laura Dean-Mooney, national president of MADD.
Both sides agree alcohol abuse by college students is a huge problem.
Research has found more than 40 percent of college students reported at least one symptom of alcohol abuse or dependance. One study has estimated more than 500,000 full-time students at four-year colleges suffer injuries each year related in some way to drinking, and about 1,700 die in such accidents.
A recent Associated Press analysis of federal records found that 157 college-age people, 18 to 23, drank themselves to death from 1999 through 2005.
Moana Jagasia, a Duke University sophomore from Singapore, where the drinking age is lower, said reducing the age in the U.S. could be helpful.
"There isn't that much difference in maturity between 21 and 18," she said. "If the age is younger, you're getting exposed to it at a younger age, and you don't freak out when you get to campus."
McCardell's group takes its name from ancient Greece, where the purple gemstone amethyst was widely believed to ward off drunkenness if used in drinking vessels and jewelry. He said college students will drink no matter what, but do so more dangerously when it's illegal.
The statement the presidents have signed avoids calling explicitly for a younger drinking age. Rather, it seeks "an informed and dispassionate debate" over the issue and the federal highway law that made 21 the de facto national drinking age by denying money to any state that bucks the trend.
But the statement makes clear the signers think the current law isn't working, citing a "culture of dangerous, clandestine binge-drinking," and noting that while adults under 21 can vote and enlist in the military, they "are told they are not mature enough to have a beer." Furthermore, "by choosing to use fake IDs, students make ethical compromises that erode respect for the law."
"I'm not sure where the dialogue will lead, but it's an important topic to American families and it deserves a straightforward dialogue," said William Trout, president of Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn., who has signed the statement.
But some other college administrators sharply disagree that lowering the drinking age would help. University of Miami President Donna Shalala, who served as secretary of health and human services under President Clinton, declined to sign.
"I remember college campuses when we had 18-year-old drinking ages, and I honestly believe we've made some progress," Shalala said in a telephone interview. "To just shift it back down to the high schools makes no sense at all."
McCardell claims that his experiences as a president and a parent, as well as a historian studying Prohibition, have persuaded him the drinking age isn't working.
But critics say McCardell has badly misrepresented the research by suggesting that the decision to raise the drinking age from 18 to 21 may not have saved lives.
In fact, MADD CEO Chuck Hurley said, nearly all peer-reviewed studies looking at the change showed raising the drinking age reduced drunk-driving deaths. A survey of research from the U.S. and other countries by the Centers for Disease Control and others reached the same conclusion.
McCardell cites the work of Alexander Wagenaar, a University of Florida epidemiologist and expert on how changes in the drinking age affect safety. But Wagenaar himself sides with MADD in the debate.
The college presidents "see a problem of drinking on college campuses, and they don't want to deal with it," Wagenaar said in a telephone interview. "It's really unfortunate, but the science is very clear."
Another scholar who has extensively researched college binge-drinking also criticized the presidents' initiative.
"I understand why colleges are doing it, because it splits their students, and they like to treat them all alike rather than having to card some of them. It's a nuisance to them," said Henry Wechsler of the Harvard School of Public Health.
But, "I wish these college presidents sat around and tried to work out ways to deal with the problem on their campus rather than try to eliminate the problem by defining it out of existence," he said.
Duke faced accusations of ignoring the heavy drinking that formed the backdrop of 2006 rape allegations against three lacrosse players. The rape allegations proved to be a hoax, but the alcohol-fueled party was never disputed.
Duke senior Wey Ruepten said university officials should accept the reality that students are going to drink and give them the responsibility that comes with alcohol.
"If you treat students like children, they're going to act like children," he said.
Duke President Richard Brodhead declined an interview request. But he wrote in a statement on the Amethyst Initiative's Web site that the 21-year-old drinking age "pushes drinking into hiding, heightening its risks." It also prevents school officials "from addressing drinking with students as an issue of responsible choice."
Hurley, of MADD, has a different take on the presidents.
"They're waving the white flag," he said.

<<-*-*-*-><-*-*-*-><-*-*-*->>

14. Punishment for not promoting homosexuality "Religion"...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50764

Bill promoting homosexuality in schools OK'd

California Senate panel moves ahead controversial measure
Posted: June 23, 20061:00 am Eastern
© 2009 WorldNetDaily.com

A California legislative committee has passed a bill to defund schools that don't promote transsexuality, bisexuality and homosexuality on campus.

In a strict party-line vote, the Democratic-controlled California Senate Education Committee approved 7-2 the bill authored by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, a Los Angeles Democrat.

State funds make up about two-thirds of public school budgets.

Testifying against AB 606 was Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, a leading California-based pro-family organization.

"This is the first time in history the Democrats have pushed a bill that threatens to arbitrarily yank school funding," Thomasson told the committee. "By financially punishing schools that don't promote transsexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality to students, AB 606 is even worse than the other sexual indoctrination bill that the governor said he'll veto."

On May 24, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office announced he would veto SB 1437, which would make direct curriculum changes promoting transsexuality, bisexuality and homosexuality.

Thomasson asserts that, in contrast, AB 606 "alters educational materials through the back door." Thomasson said if Schwarzenegger vetoes the bill, the governor could earn back some of the conservative support lost by his recent appearance at a fund-raiser for homosexual-activist Republicans, who favor same-sex marriage.

Supporters of AB 606 argue the measure would help protect homosexual, bisexual or transgender students from harassment.

Thomasson argues existing state law punishes violence and threats of violence on school campuses.

Instead, he contends, "AB 606 focuses on publicizing controversial sexual topics to students and teachers" and allows "the California Superintendent of Public Instruction to mandate instruction that affirms transsexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality through 'trainings, curricula, and other resources,' which all school districts must follow under the threat of losing state funding."

Last month, Schwarzenegger broke a policy of not commenting on pending bills, indicating through a spokesman he will veto SB 1437, a measure passed by the Senate and pending in the Assembly that would remove "sex-specific" terms such as "mom" and "dad" from textbooks and would require students to learn about the contributions homosexuals have made to society.

SB 1437 passed the Senate May 11 with a 22-15 vote.

"The governor believes that school curriculum should include all important historical figures, regardless of orientation," said Schwarzenegger's director of communications, Adam Mendelsohn, according to the Sacramento Bee. "However, he does not support the Legislature micromanaging curriculum."

A third measure, AB 1056, would spend $250,000 in taxpayer dollars to promote transsexual, bisexual and homosexual lifestyles as part of "tolerance education."

<<-*-*-*-><-*-*-*-><-*-*-*->>

16. Like ancient trible people living in jungle, western people are tattoo fanatics...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,199143,00.html

Survey Shows 24 Percent of Americans Ages 18-50 Are Tattooed

Monday, June 12, 2006
WASHINGTON — A sun shines on Dan Yu's back, alongside a swimming koi fish. A tree soon may grow on his arm. "Your body's an empty canvas, so you almost want to continue to add to it," said Yu, 28, as he showed off his tattoos.
A generation or two ago, Yu's tattoos — to say nothing of his pierced nose — probably would have placed him in a select company of soldiers, sailors, bikers and carnival workers. But no longer: The American University employee is among about 36 percent of Americans age 18 to 29 with at least one tattoo, according to a survey.
The study, scheduled to appear Monday on the Web site of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, provides perhaps the most in-depth look at tattoos since their popularity exploded in the early 1990s.
The results suggest that 24 percent of Americans between 18 and 50 are tattooed; that's almost one in four. Two surveys from 2003 suggested just 15 percent to 16 percent of U.S. adults had a tattoo.
"Really, nowadays, the people who don't have them are becoming the unique ones," said Chris Keaton, a tattoo artist and president of the Baltimore Tattoo Museum.
But body art is more than just tattoos.
About one in seven people surveyed reported having a piercing anywhere other than in the soft lobe of the ear, according to the study. That total rises to nearly one in three for the 18-to-29 set. Just about half — 48 percent — in that age category had either a tattoo or piercing.
Given their youth, that suggests the percentage of people with body art will continue to grow, said study co-author Dr. Anne Laumann, a Northwestern University dermatologist.
"They haven't had time to get their body piercing. They haven't had time to get their tattoo. They are just beginning to get into it and the number is already big," Laumann said.
So why has body art become so popular?
Laumann and others believe it allows people to broadcast to the world what they are all about. Others call it sign of rebellion or a rite of passage. The survey found nearly three-fourths of the pierced and nearly two-thirds of the tattooed made the leap before 24.
"It's a very easy way to express something that you think represents part of your identity — that you don't have to tell someone but you can just have seen," said Chelsea Farrell, 21, an American University senior from Albany, N.Y. Farrell has a tattooed fish on each hip and a Celtic knot on the small of her back.
The survey also found that what your mother may have told you about who has tattoos is true: People who drink, do drugs, have been jailed or forgo religion are more likely to be tattooed.
The same holds for piercings, though rates do not appear to vary with education, income or job category. In that sense, they appear to be "different animals," said Laumann, who has traditionally pierced ears but no tattoos.
One obvious difference is that piercings can be easily removed, unlike tattoos.
"I guess I liked the way they looked and the rush of getting them pierced, as well as them not being permanent. I can take them out and the holes will close up," said Simah Waddell, 21, of Rochester, N.Y., of her pierced nose, tongue, belly button and ears.
Waddell, who is entering her senior year at American University, said she suffered no side effects, other than the anger of her parents. The survey suggests that is not always the case for others with piercing. Nearly one in four reported medical problems, including skin infections. Among those with mouth or tongue piercings, an equal proportion reported chipped or broken teeth.
For tattoos, 13 percent of respondents had problems with healing. Generally, the Food and Drug Administration receives few reports of complications from tattoos.
The industry is regulated by state and local officials, but not the FDA, and there is no such thing as an agency-approved tattoo pigment or ink. The FDA is considering more involvement, said Dr. Linda Katz, director of agency's Office of Cosmetics and Colors.
"If you look at the fact that a quarter of adults have a tattoo, it's amazing how safe the industry is," said Dr. R. Rox Anderson, a Harvard Medical School dermatologist and tattoo removal expert. None of the survey respondents had ever had a tattoo removed, though 17 percent had considered it.
Freedom-2 LLC, a Philadelphia company co-founded by Anderson, hopes to launch the first of two lines of not-so-permanent tattoo inks next year, though without FDA approval.
To create the ink, pigments would be encapsulated in a polymer and the microcapsules injected into the skin. A tattoo would be permanent only as long as its wearer wanted it to be.
It would only take a few pulses of a laser to break open the capsules and release the ink into the body to be safely absorbed, said Martin Schmieg, the company's president and chief executive officer.
A second ink, to be available in 2008, would rely on the same technology, except the capsules would dissolve on their own. Depending on the version, the tattoos would naturally vanish after six months, 12 months or 24 months.
"It will be like wearing a tattoo like it's jewelry, where you will be able to take it off. It will just fade on its own," Schmieg said.
The telephone survey on tattoos included 253 women and 247 men and was conducted in 2004. It has a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.

<<-*-*-*-><-*-*-*-><-*-*-*->>

15. Homosexuality leading to incest in families and hence pedophilia in families...

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/05/02/lawful_incest_may_be_on_its_way/

Lawful incest may be on its way
By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist May 2, 2007
WHEN THE BBC invited me onto one of its talk shows recently to talk about the day's hot topic -- legalizing adult incest -- I thought of Rick Santorum.
Back in 2003, as the Supreme Court was preparing to rule in Lawrence v. Texas, a case challenging the constitutionality of laws criminalizing homosexual sodomy, then-Senator Santorum caught holy hell for warning that if the law were struck down, there would be no avoiding the slippery slope.
"If the Supreme Court says you have the right to consensual sex within your home," he told a reporter, "then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything."
It was a common-sensical observation, though you wouldn't have known it from the nail-spitting it triggered in some quarters. When the justices, voting 6-3, did in fact declare it unconstitutional for any state to punish consensual gay sex, the dissenters echoed Santorum's point. "State laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestiality, and obscenity are . . . called into question by today's decision," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the minority. Now, Time magazine acknowledges: "It turns out the critics were right."
Time's attention, like the BBC's, has been caught by the legal battles underway to decriminalize incest between consenting adults. An article last month by Time reporter Michael Lindenberger titled "Should Incest Be Legal?" highlights the case of Paul Lowe, an Ohio man convicted of incest for having sex with his 22-year-old stepdaughter. Lowe has appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court, making Lawrence the basis of his argument. In Lawrence, the court had ruled that people "are entitled to respect for their private lives" and that under the 14th Amendment, "the state cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime." If that was true for the adult homosexual behavior in Lawrence, why not for the adult incestuous behavior in the Ohio case?
The BBC program focused on the case of Patrick and Susan Stubing, a German brother and sister who live as a couple and have had four children together. Incest is a criminal offense in Germany, and Patrick has already spent more than two years in prison for having sex with his sister. The two of them are asking Germany's highest court to abolish the law that makes incest illegal.
" We've done nothing wrong," Patrick told the BBC. "We are like normal lovers. We want to have a family." They dismiss the conventional argument that incest should be banned because the children of close relatives have a higher risk of genetic defects. After all, they point out, other couples with known genetic risks aren't punished for having sex. In any event, Patrick has had himself sterilized so that he cannot father any more children.
Some years back, I'd written about a similar case in Wisconsin -- that of Allen and Patricia Muth, a brother and sister who fell in love as adults, had several children together, and were prosecuted, convicted, and imprisoned as a result. Following the Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence, they appealed their conviction and lost in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Lowe will probably lose too.
But the next Lowe or Muth to come along, or the one after that, may not lose. In Lawrence, it is worth remembering, the Supreme Court didn't just invalidate all state laws making homosexual sodomy a crime. It also overruled its own decision just 17 years earlier (Bowers v. Hardwick, 1986) upholding such laws. If the court meant what it said in Lawrence -- that states are barred from "making . . . private sexual conduct a crime" -- it will not take that long for laws criminalizing incest to go by the board as well. Impossible? That's what they used to say about normalizing homosexuality and legalizing same-sex marriage.
In Germany, the Green Party is openly supporting the Stubings in their bid to decriminalize incest. According to the BBC, incest is no longer a criminal offense in Belgium, Holland, and France. Sweden already permits half-siblings to marry.
Your reaction to the prospect of lawful incest may be "Ugh, gross." But personal repugnance is no replacement for moral standards. For more than 3,000 years, a code of conduct stretching back to Sinai has kept incest unconditionally beyond the pale. If sexual morality is jettisoned as a legitimate basis for legislation, personal opinion and cultural fashion are all that will remain. "Should Incest Be Legal?" Time asks. Expect more and more people to answer yes.

<<-*-*-*-><-*-*-*-><-*-*-*->>

16. Lower IQ in sexist people...

http://www.springerlink.com/content/g06363t78l110r37/

(

1) Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto(2) Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto(3) Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto
Abstract: Ninety-one incest perpetrators were compared to 36 nonviolent nonsex offenders for the presence of neuropsychological impairment. The WAIS-R, Halstead-Reitan battery, and CT scans of the brain were used. The sex offenders were also examined for the presence of substance abuse, violence, pedophilia, and biological relationship to the victim. Incest offenders had significantly lower IQ scores than controls but generally were within normal limits. One in eight incest offenders was neuropsychologically impaired on the Reitan battery and one in four showed some CT abnormality, usually in the temporal lobe areas. Incest and offender control groups, however, did not differ significantly in this respect. Neuropsychological impairment among incest offenders was associated with violence and nonbiological relationship to the victim but not with substance abuse or pedophilia. Overall, 3 in 10 incest offenders showed some neuropsychological finding. Results suggest that neuropsychological assessment of incest offenders clinically is worthwhile.

<<-*-*-*-><-*-*-*-><-*-*-*->>

17. Semi-incest root cause of terrorism in Islam and low level of education...

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v266/n5601/abs/266440a0.html

Nature 266, 440 - 442 (31 March 1977); doi:10.1038/266440a0
Effects of inbreeding on cognitive performance
JOSEPH BASHI
School of Education, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
THE few studies1,2 in which the effects of inbreeding on cognitive performance have been examined revealed that offspring of first-cousin marriages had lower IQ scores than offspring of unrelated parents. These studies were, however, performed in societies where the population engaging in such marriages is a small (1%, 6%)2,3 and unrepresentative proportion of the total population. Possible confounding of the effects of inbreeding with the effects of other intelligence-related variables such as socioeconomic status may lead the effects of inbreeding to be overestimated2. Unfortunately statistical control may either over- or under-correct for the correlates of the independent variables, leaving one in doubt about the true effect of inbreeding. I have now examined the effects of inbreeding on cognitive performance in an Arab population with a high rate of consanguinous marriage which minimised the distortions due to non-genetic variables. I show here that offspring of unrelated parents performed better than offspring of first-cousin marriages in intelligence and achievement tests administered at grades 4 and 6. The lowest level of performance and a higher variance were found for offspring of double-cousin marriages. The inbreeding depression found in this study is consistent and cannot be explained by the effects of socioeconomic status. I drew a nationally representative sample of 3,203 children in grades four and six (approximate ages 10 and 12 yr) of the Arab educational system in Israel. This sample constitutes about 10% of the total population in these grades and includes only normal (not retarded) children. Column 1 in Table 1 shows the division of the subjects according to grade level and consanguinity of the parents. A first-cousin marriage is between children of siblings. Children of first cousins have, on average, 1/16 pairs of genes by common descent. Double first cousins are children of siblings married to unrelated siblings. When they marry, their children have, on the average, 2/16 pairs of genes by common descent.

References 1. Cohen, T., Block, N., Flum, Y., Kadar, M. & Goldschmist, E. in E. Goldschmist (ed.). The Genetics of Migrant and Isolated Populations (Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore, 1963). 2. Schull, W. J. & Neel, J. V. The Effects of Inbreeding on Japanese Children. (Harper and Row, New York, 1965). 3. Sterm, C. Principles of Human Genetics (Freeman, San Francisco and London, 1960). 4. Campbell, D. T. & Boruch, R. F. in Evaluation and Experience: Some Critical.(Issues in Assessing Social Programs (eds Lumsdaine, C. A. & Bennett, C. A.) Academic, New York, 1957). 5. Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. & Bodmer, W. F. The Genetics of Human Populations(Freeman, San Francisco, 1971). 6. Raven, J. C. Guide to the Standard Progressive Matrices. (Lewis, London, 1960). 7. MacLean, C. J., Morton, N. E. & Lew, R. Am. J. hum. Genet., 27, 365–384 (1975). 8. Morton, N. E. Am. J. hum. Genet. 26, 318–330 (1974).

========================================
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/4442010.stm

Many people would find the idea of marrying a first cousin shocking, but such marriages are not unusual in some British communities
It is estimated that at least 55% of British Pakistanis are married to first cousins and the tradition is also common among some other South Asian communities and in some Middle Eastern countries.
But there is a problem: marrying someone who is themselves a close family member carries a risk for children - a risk that lies within the code of life; within our genes.
Communities that practice cousin marriage experience higher levels of some very rare but very serious illnesses - illnesses known as recessive genetic disorders.
Open debate
Now, one Labour MP is calling for an end to the practice. "We have to stop this tradition of first cousin marriages," Keighley MP Ann Cryer tells Newsnight.
Mrs Cryer believes an open debate on the subject is needed because - despite the risks - cousin marriage remains very popular.
Mrs Cryer's constituency is in the Bradford area, where the rates of cousin marriage are well above the national average. It is estimated that three out of four marriages within Bradford's Pakistani community are between first cousins.
The practice remains so popular because the community believes there are real benefits to marrying in the family. Many British Pakistanis celebrate cousin marriage because it is thought to generate more stable relationships.
Strong unions
Such unions are seen as strong, building as they do on already tight family networks.
You have an understanding," explains Neila Butt, who married her first cousin, Farooq, nine years ago.
"Family events are really nice because my in-laws and his are related," she says.
"You have the same family history and when you talk about the old times either here or in Pakistan you know who you are talking about. It's just a nicer emotional feel."
But the statistics for recessive genetic illness in cousin marriages make sobering reading.
British Pakistanis are 13 times more likely to have children with genetic disorders than the general population - they account for just over 3% of all births but have just under a third of all British children with such illnesses.
Indeed, Birmingham Primary Care Trust estimates that one in ten of all children born to first cousins in the city either dies in infancy or goes on to develop serious disability as a result of a recessive genetic disorder.
Variant genes
Recessive genetic disorders are caused by variant genes. There are hundreds of different recessive genetic disorders, many associated with severe disability and sometimes early death, and each caused by a different variant gene. We all have two copies of every gene. If you inherit one variant gene you will not fall ill.
If, however, a child inherits a copy of the same variant gene from each of its parents it will develop one of these illnesses.
The variant genes that cause genetic illness tend to be very rare. In the general population the likelihood of a couple having the same variant gene is a hundred to one.
In cousin marriages, if one partner has a variant gene the risk that the other has it too is far higher - more like one in eight.
Myra Ali has a very rare recessive genetic condition, known as Epidermolisis Bulosa.
Her parents were first cousins. So were her grandparents.
"My skin is really fragile, and can blister very easily with a slight knock or tear," she says.
Myra has strong views about the practice of cousin marriage as a result. "I'm against it, because there's a high risk of illness occurring", she says.
Denial
According to Ann Cryer MP, whose Keighley constituency has a large Pakistani population, much of the Pakistani community is in denial about the problem.
She tells Newsnight that she believes it is time for an open debate on the subject: "As we address problems of smoking, drinking, obesity, we say it's a public health issue, and therefore we all have to get involved with it in persuading people to adopt a different lifestyle", she says.
"I think the same should be applied to this problem in the Asian community. They must adopt a different lifestyle. They must look outside the family for husbands and wives for their young people."

<<-*-*-><-*-*-*-><-*-*-*->>

18. Making Sense of it All...

Homosexual logic: If two or more consenting adults engage in sexual act in privacy then no harm done to society. It does not create law and order problems.

Same logic apply to many things which can turn mankind in animals.

1. If mother gives adult consent to adult son (and vice-versa) for mother-son sex, then no harm done to society. If daughter gives adult consent for father-daughter sex, then no harm done to society. If adult son and adult daughter gives consent for homosexual father-son, mother-daughter sex then no harm done to society. Hence itis valid. And court should legalise it so that these incest people get access to HIV/AIDS treatment.
2. If all family members live naked in their home without clothes then no harm done to society. Hence it is valid.
3. If people eat unclaimed human dead body or aborted human baby, then no harm is done to society. Hence it is valid.
4. If people use drugs in private home, then no harm done to society. Hence it is valid. In fact courts should legalise drug usage so that drug users come forward to get medical treatment.
5. People do not take consent of "unconscious" animals to kill and eat. So consent of "unconscious" new born human babies or aborted human babies is not necessary. Hence if people eat aborted human babies, then no harm done to society. Hence it is valid.
6. If people commit suicide, then no harm done to society. Hence it is valid.
7. If some person is injured on road then trying to save unknown person will waste time and money of other people on road. And as no harm done to those other people and society hence allowing that person to die is valid.

Are governments are supposed to take care of law and order problem on streets only? Isn't it responsibility of governments to promote creativity i.e philosophy, science, sports. Isn't it responsibility of governments to continue quest of mankind to search the truth, purpose of our existence, purpose of existence of universe?

Thousands of years ago different civilizations were spread across the globe and they were unaware of each other's existence. But they did one common thing. They abandoned, condemned, punished acts like homosexuality, incest, pedophilia. Without trying to find the answer why they did it, judges around the world allowed it.

I asked people on net how many homosexuals are excelled in creative fields? And they come up with very few names like Leonardo da Vinci, Alan Turing, Oscar Wilde.

What is the contribution of leonardo da vinci to society? Some paintings which common people on street do not understand and those paintings are absolutely useless for them.

Computer scientist Alan Turing was convicted and during interrogation it was clear that he was not gay since teenager. He made mistake in 1952 and committed suicide in 1954.

Oscar Wilde was dating women and he was married. He was dead in 1900 and his wife was dead in 1898. They had children. And even though he later on turned bisexual, homosexuality takes years to screw brain. It is like HIV virus, continuous homosexuality completely turn brain of man into woman in 15-20 years. Evolution does happen at fast pace.

I searched in science forums whether some homosexual has come forward with some physics theory. I found none. Not even single homosexual talking, discussing in discussion forums.

So now as homosexuality is accepted by white house and even NASA, why don't I see gay or lesbian scientists in NASA, ESA google search results? NASA celebrated "gay pride", why don't some gay scientist in NASA "Come Out" to declare him/her homosexual? How many homosexual scientists are in Houston Mission Control Center?

I entered keyword "gay scientists" in google and google suggested me to search for "gay scientists isolate christian gene". This is creativity of homosexuality. Religion is embedded in genes!

I asked those homosexuals that climbing Everest is not creative field anymore but at least you homosexuals can give a try. But nope. Their only agenda is eat and have sex like animals.

-----------------------------------
Since mankind gained consciousness, people in all civilizations (even though those civilizations were unaware of each other's existence) are asking and thinking over questions regarding nature, universe.

1. Does God exist?

2. If there is no creator of universe, how universe came into existence?

3. What is the meaning and purpose of our existence?

4. Why does universe exist at all?5. What is the ultimate truth?

6. How does our Universe work?

People in all civilizations tried to answer at some question by worshipping some "supernatural power" in this way or that way. So many Gods and so many religions to answer how universe came into existence.

But some people followed different path to answer these questions. Logic, observation of nature, debates, experimentation, presentation were tools of these philosophers. Because of these philosophers, mankind found way to move on path towards understanding our universe, truth. The quest of these philosophers was to understand, know the truth. Issac Newton named his book as "mathematical principles of natural philosophy". He didn't named it as "mathematical principles of physics".

But when we look at the world, we find that philosophers are almost non-existent. Their are only physicists, scientists who are extending technology based on theories developed until 1930.

These physicists, scientists are more interested in material gain than understanding the truth. Not only that, almost all the intellectuals have alienated themselves from society and even though they are aware what is right and what is wrong, they do not come forward. They do not want conflict with people around them. It is quest for material gain, not for truth anymore.
We are swayed from the path on which we were walking. The path, the quest to understand universe, truth, purpose of our existence, purpose of existence of universe. Governments, judges, scientists, intellectuals, society are directionless in pursue of material gains and sexual pleasure.

It is not just responsibility of governments to take care of law and order like preventing violence, theft, sexual abuse but it is also responsibility of governments to promote creativity like science, arts, sports so that mankind excel in this universe.

And I don't see any evidence that homosexuality is contributing to such philosophical questions which leads to discoveries and inventions in science.

I request all the governments, judges, religious leaders of all religions, intellectuals in world society to come forward and totally ban, punish this homosexuality which is leading to incest, pedophilia and hence total destruction of mankind.