Thursday, 4 January 2007
wounds that never heal
We live in sad times, violent times, times when even the gentlest hearts are hardened by continuous exposure to crimes so chilling, we forget what it means to be shocked. Every now and again though, something comes up in the news to shock even the most obdurate hearts.
This is a tale of inhumanity. The inhumanity of men. In the endless war in the Congo, where prying television cameras don’t venture, and news headlines are not made, away from the conscience of the world; mass rapes are taking place on a scale unprecedented in all of history. Even worse, the mass-rapes are accompanied by the most brutal, gratuitous and deliberate wounding, often with guns, clubs, sticks and other crude implements, being stuffed into the victims causing fistula damage and further increasing the pain and humiliation. So deliberate and calculated is this violence that care is taken not to murder the victims but to leave them alive to endure lives of total bowel and urinary incontinence and extreme ostracization. I would not advise that anyone easily upset by accounts of gore click here. Newsweek's expostition of the violence.
"...But once fighting died down, victims began coming out of the jungles and forests and their condition was worse than anyone had imagined. Thousands of women had been raped so brutally that they had fistulas. They wandered into hospitals soaked in their own urine and feces, rendered incontinent by their injuries. "Pastors would say to me, 'Jo, I can't preach because the church is too smelly," says Dr. Jo Lusi, a gynecologist and medical director at HEAL. (He and Lyn Lusi are husband and wife.) "No one wanted to be around them. These women were outcasts even more than rape victims usually are. They would say to me, 'Dr. Jo, am I just a thing to throw away when I smell bad?' ""
The atrocities are not committed by any one group, although every group is said to have its specific signature style. The Interahamwe of Rwanda's genocide and the Congolese army itself are among the most brutal groups. The common thread is the enduring cry of anguish from the fistulas as the walls of the women‘s internal organs are torn apart. Afraid of losing their lives in open warfare against each other, the warring groups have decided instead to take it out on the women and children left in the villages of the Congo.
"....But more often the damage is caused by the deliberate introduction of objects into the victim's vagina when the rape itself is over. The objects might be sticks or pipes. Or gun barrels. In many cases the attackers shoot the victim in the vagina at point-blank range after they have finished raping her. "Often they'll do this carefully to make sure the woman does not die," says Dr. Denis Mukwege, medical director of Panzi Hospital. "The perpetrators are trying to make the damage as bad as they can, to use it as a kind of weapon of war, a kind of terrorism." Instead of just killing the woman, she goes back to her village permanently and obviously marked. "I think it's a strategy put in place by these groups to disrupt society, to make husbands flee, to terrorize.""
The questions linger on, even as tears of rage and sadness take over. Why this cruelty? What is it about men that turns them against women in this way, in Darfur, in Northern Uganda and in the Congo.
“All the armed men rape,” says Dr. Mukwege.
This is a tale of inhumanity. The inhumanity of men. In the endless war in the Congo, where prying television cameras don’t venture, and news headlines are not made, away from the conscience of the world; mass rapes are taking place on a scale unprecedented in all of history. Even worse, the mass-rapes are accompanied by the most brutal, gratuitous and deliberate wounding, often with guns, clubs, sticks and other crude implements, being stuffed into the victims causing fistula damage and further increasing the pain and humiliation. So deliberate and calculated is this violence that care is taken not to murder the victims but to leave them alive to endure lives of total bowel and urinary incontinence and extreme ostracization. I would not advise that anyone easily upset by accounts of gore click here. Newsweek's expostition of the violence.
"...But once fighting died down, victims began coming out of the jungles and forests and their condition was worse than anyone had imagined. Thousands of women had been raped so brutally that they had fistulas. They wandered into hospitals soaked in their own urine and feces, rendered incontinent by their injuries. "Pastors would say to me, 'Jo, I can't preach because the church is too smelly," says Dr. Jo Lusi, a gynecologist and medical director at HEAL. (He and Lyn Lusi are husband and wife.) "No one wanted to be around them. These women were outcasts even more than rape victims usually are. They would say to me, 'Dr. Jo, am I just a thing to throw away when I smell bad?' ""
The atrocities are not committed by any one group, although every group is said to have its specific signature style. The Interahamwe of Rwanda's genocide and the Congolese army itself are among the most brutal groups. The common thread is the enduring cry of anguish from the fistulas as the walls of the women‘s internal organs are torn apart. Afraid of losing their lives in open warfare against each other, the warring groups have decided instead to take it out on the women and children left in the villages of the Congo.
"....But more often the damage is caused by the deliberate introduction of objects into the victim's vagina when the rape itself is over. The objects might be sticks or pipes. Or gun barrels. In many cases the attackers shoot the victim in the vagina at point-blank range after they have finished raping her. "Often they'll do this carefully to make sure the woman does not die," says Dr. Denis Mukwege, medical director of Panzi Hospital. "The perpetrators are trying to make the damage as bad as they can, to use it as a kind of weapon of war, a kind of terrorism." Instead of just killing the woman, she goes back to her village permanently and obviously marked. "I think it's a strategy put in place by these groups to disrupt society, to make husbands flee, to terrorize.""
The questions linger on, even as tears of rage and sadness take over. Why this cruelty? What is it about men that turns them against women in this way, in Darfur, in Northern Uganda and in the Congo.
“All the armed men rape,” says Dr. Mukwege.
A ghost that will not rest
The venerable old British ex-detective Lord Stevens has finally laid to rest the ghost of Diana, formerly Princess of Wales and mother of the heirs to the British throne.
Famously beloved of the entire world, Princess Diana met her death in a Parisian underpass, her Mercedes Benz losing a battle of wills with a concrete pillar. With her in that fateful last ride and in death were her fiancée Dodi Al-Fayed and her driver.
Among those who benefited the most from her death were undoubtedly members of the royal family, whose spotlight she kept stealing. Also beneficiaries were the thousands of florists, postcard manufacturers, her former butler Paul Burrell and the Daily Express which took up with gusto a campaign to drive conspiracy theories and to make an industry of her.
The theories, like those that pop up whenever a famous person dies in their youth. Tupac, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Jimi Hendrix;the motif is worn and familiar. The wealth of fancies were predicated on the odd, fast life she led, and on the details of her death. An alleged pregnancy, her unpopularity with the Royals and her relationship with Dodi Al-Fayed all of them harbingers of a future in which the Princes Harry and William would suffer an Islamic half-brother.
That her driver Henri Paul was drugged at the time of the accident and that she was not wearing a seat belt, that she had told friends of her fears for her life and that her bodyguard pulled an escapist's trick in surving a 121 mile per hour crash served up more grist for the rumour mills. It was a fairy tale story, the unpopular royals, murdering the people's Princess in cold blood.
Her independence and feminism, the fact that she was often seen to be standing up to the Queen and the Queen Mother and to the stiffness of the nobility, that she was seen as too populist ensured she did not ever fully integrate into the Royal Family.
An angry Mohammed Al-Fayed long at odds with the British establishment and flush with cash did not let it rest, hounding the government for an independent inquiry until they gave in. This was also helped along by the fact that she was one of the most popular people on earth at the time of her death was never in doubt. Photos of her were a staple in every fashion magazine and tabloid, and doubtless many paparazzi became millionaires on her account. Her acumen at playing the crowds and picking causes that would distance her from the aloof Windsors and endear her to the world was the stuff of legend. A miracle or two and a conversion to Catholicism, and she would be a saint already. To her last she gave, bequeathing in her will all she had to the Dr Banardos Home for Retired Guide Dogs.
Today, the Lord Stevens inquiry lays to rest most of the conspiracy theories, and perhaps defrauds the Diana Industry of a cash-cow that was still very much alive. On that fact alone, we will not be laying her ghost to rest anytime soon. As one of the stretchier theories goes, fed up with the constant intrusion, she faked her own death and is living blissfully someplace, away from the madding crowd.
Famously beloved of the entire world, Princess Diana met her death in a Parisian underpass, her Mercedes Benz losing a battle of wills with a concrete pillar. With her in that fateful last ride and in death were her fiancée Dodi Al-Fayed and her driver.
Among those who benefited the most from her death were undoubtedly members of the royal family, whose spotlight she kept stealing. Also beneficiaries were the thousands of florists, postcard manufacturers, her former butler Paul Burrell and the Daily Express which took up with gusto a campaign to drive conspiracy theories and to make an industry of her.
The theories, like those that pop up whenever a famous person dies in their youth. Tupac, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Jimi Hendrix;the motif is worn and familiar. The wealth of fancies were predicated on the odd, fast life she led, and on the details of her death. An alleged pregnancy, her unpopularity with the Royals and her relationship with Dodi Al-Fayed all of them harbingers of a future in which the Princes Harry and William would suffer an Islamic half-brother.
That her driver Henri Paul was drugged at the time of the accident and that she was not wearing a seat belt, that she had told friends of her fears for her life and that her bodyguard pulled an escapist's trick in surving a 121 mile per hour crash served up more grist for the rumour mills. It was a fairy tale story, the unpopular royals, murdering the people's Princess in cold blood.
Her independence and feminism, the fact that she was often seen to be standing up to the Queen and the Queen Mother and to the stiffness of the nobility, that she was seen as too populist ensured she did not ever fully integrate into the Royal Family.
An angry Mohammed Al-Fayed long at odds with the British establishment and flush with cash did not let it rest, hounding the government for an independent inquiry until they gave in. This was also helped along by the fact that she was one of the most popular people on earth at the time of her death was never in doubt. Photos of her were a staple in every fashion magazine and tabloid, and doubtless many paparazzi became millionaires on her account. Her acumen at playing the crowds and picking causes that would distance her from the aloof Windsors and endear her to the world was the stuff of legend. A miracle or two and a conversion to Catholicism, and she would be a saint already. To her last she gave, bequeathing in her will all she had to the Dr Banardos Home for Retired Guide Dogs.
Today, the Lord Stevens inquiry lays to rest most of the conspiracy theories, and perhaps defrauds the Diana Industry of a cash-cow that was still very much alive. On that fact alone, we will not be laying her ghost to rest anytime soon. As one of the stretchier theories goes, fed up with the constant intrusion, she faked her own death and is living blissfully someplace, away from the madding crowd.
baby refrain
It really doesn’t come as a surprise that the AIDS message has become so commercialised and ‘sexed-up’ that today the primary focus, at least in the mainstream media, is on condom use to prevent transmission.
Equally prominent in the media have been attempts to villify religious organisations, in Kenya not just the Catholic Church and Council of Imams but also the Evangelical Protestants, for their strong stance in support of abstinence. True, there have been many campaigns against condoms that have bordered on farce and outright lies, but this should not lead us to an outright dismissal of the religious message. It is possible to promote abstinence as the primary preventative measure for HIV/AIDS without resorting to unscientific assertions about condoms.
If there is any influence among Africa’s youth today that can rival that of popular culture (especially that string informed by hip-hop and the glorification of promiscuous sex), it is religion and especially the charismatic churches. In the age group 15-25 that is especially vulnerable to HIV infection, studies have found that sex education which concentrates on putting off sex until marriage is much more successful than a mixed message that also pushes other options like being faithful to one partner, or using condoms.
While it is understandable that greater choice is the right of these young people, it is also true that their bodies and lives are in a rapidly changing state, and their minds not yet fully aware of, nor able to judge correctly the risks of their actions.
Uganda’s First Lady, herself an evangelical Christian, has been very keen on pushing the abstinence message, and so successful have these efforts been in Uganda that prevalence rates fell from 30% prior to emphasis on abstinence in 1994 to a lower 10% ten years later. While Ugandan officials still encourage condom use, infectious disease specialist Dr. Vinand Nantulya, who has advised Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on his AIDS prevention programs, said the nation's people "really never took to condoms."
Like parts of the Western world, Africa will also soon fatigue of the incessant barrage of condom adverts on television. Going bareback will become a risky, exciting fad; and with this dangerous development, the gains that have been made in reducing new infections over the last ten years will be eroded. In this light we must lend an ear to the faith message of teaching abstinence. This message would impart a more long-lasting heritage to the youth by a shift in behavioural patterns, such as to encourage young people to put off sex until they are ready to bear all the consequences of their actions. And this not just with regard to HIV and other STIs. The lesson we must teach is that in this like most matters requiring wisdom and judgement, later really is better.
Equally prominent in the media have been attempts to villify religious organisations, in Kenya not just the Catholic Church and Council of Imams but also the Evangelical Protestants, for their strong stance in support of abstinence. True, there have been many campaigns against condoms that have bordered on farce and outright lies, but this should not lead us to an outright dismissal of the religious message. It is possible to promote abstinence as the primary preventative measure for HIV/AIDS without resorting to unscientific assertions about condoms.
If there is any influence among Africa’s youth today that can rival that of popular culture (especially that string informed by hip-hop and the glorification of promiscuous sex), it is religion and especially the charismatic churches. In the age group 15-25 that is especially vulnerable to HIV infection, studies have found that sex education which concentrates on putting off sex until marriage is much more successful than a mixed message that also pushes other options like being faithful to one partner, or using condoms.
While it is understandable that greater choice is the right of these young people, it is also true that their bodies and lives are in a rapidly changing state, and their minds not yet fully aware of, nor able to judge correctly the risks of their actions.
Uganda’s First Lady, herself an evangelical Christian, has been very keen on pushing the abstinence message, and so successful have these efforts been in Uganda that prevalence rates fell from 30% prior to emphasis on abstinence in 1994 to a lower 10% ten years later. While Ugandan officials still encourage condom use, infectious disease specialist Dr. Vinand Nantulya, who has advised Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on his AIDS prevention programs, said the nation's people "really never took to condoms."
Like parts of the Western world, Africa will also soon fatigue of the incessant barrage of condom adverts on television. Going bareback will become a risky, exciting fad; and with this dangerous development, the gains that have been made in reducing new infections over the last ten years will be eroded. In this light we must lend an ear to the faith message of teaching abstinence. This message would impart a more long-lasting heritage to the youth by a shift in behavioural patterns, such as to encourage young people to put off sex until they are ready to bear all the consequences of their actions. And this not just with regard to HIV and other STIs. The lesson we must teach is that in this like most matters requiring wisdom and judgement, later really is better.
Born Again
I was surprised to read in the East African Standard's Christmas Day issue, and its headline that Kenya's youth were not finding inspiration in Christ and that they were deserting The Church.
This is in line with global trends among an elitist media and intellectual class to dismiss religion. The attempt is made to make out that religion is decreasing in popularity due to an alleged inherent dissonance with modernity. I have watched especially out here in the west as the whole world took to the streets in celebration of Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion. It is as though someone declared anew, God is Dead and the ululations of the cynics rent the air.
Contrary to what the East African Standard would have us believe, here is a link to the article Christianity is alive and well in Kenya. There may be something of a migration from established traditional Churches, but Kenya is certainly undergoing a Christian revival- and it is a large one.
The Economist's Christmas edition, captures this growth in its article titled ‘Christianity Reborn'. It cites the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life 's report on Pentecostals which states that ‘renewalist movements are the world's fastest growing religious movement.'
You have probably seen or heard Pentecostals, in the beautiful and large churches of the cities, or in overnight prayer sessions, in schools or in universities. Under trees and in mud-thatched huts, in wooden shacks and on open hills there's a resurgence in the Christian faith. The Church is making a big comeback. It is true, as the Standard report announces that traditional churches are facing dwindling numbers and empty pews, in the West and even in Africa. But you only need to turn for a minute to your television to see that this does not mean that Christianity as a whole is on the back foot.
Neo-Christians are a more active, more passionate Christianity. The Pew Forum report,in its preamble states,
'Pentecostalism and related charismatic movements represent one of the fastest-growing segments of global Christianity. At least a quarter of the world’s 2 billion Christians are thought to be members of these lively, highly personal faiths, which emphasize such spiritually renewing “gifts of the Holy Spirit” as speaking in tongues, divine healing and prophesying. Even more than other Christians, pentecostals and other renewalists believe that God, acting through the Holy Spirit, continues to play a direct, active role in everyday life.' Report
The reports states that fully 50% of all Kenyans who would describe themselves as renewalists; either Pentecostals or members of ‘charismatic' traditional denominations. Adding,
In the five other nations, pentecostals are more evenly divided between classical
pentecostal denominations (such as the Assemblies of God or the Church of God in
Christ) and newer pentecostal denominations. In the U.S., Brazil, Kenya and the regions
of India surveyed, for instance, more than four-in-ten pentecostals belong to other
pentecostal or neo-charismatic churches; in South Africa, this figure stands at 39%.
Charismatics tend to track with the religious affiliation in the general populations
of their respective countries. For instance, in countries with large Catholic populations
(such as Brazil, Chile, Guatemala and the Philippines), large majorities of charismatics
are Roman Catholics. By contrast, in countries where Catholics are outnumbered in the
general population by Protestants and other Christians, a different pattern emerges. In the
U.S., Kenya, South Africa, the regions of India surveyed and South Korea, for instance,
large majorities of charismatics belong either to Protestant denominations or African
Independent Churches
The growth in the ‘charismatic' denominations is even more significant. Here are people, who do not want to leave their congregations and places of worship, but who are choosing instead to reform the way in which they approach their faith.Of even greater significance is the fact that these people feel God's hand in their lives, in Kenya more than any other country covered by the report, 87% of the population claim to have either experienced or witnessed divine healing.
There lies the difference, the man with an experience is never at the mercy of the man with a doctrine. Modern Christianity is about the individual and her relationship with God, about breaking down the barriers that hold men back from God's grace. This is not about being born a Christian, it is about making a personal commitment to Christ.
The revival will continue to grow to have a positive effect on all those it touches. It is this viral marketing of the spirit that is driving the numbers. In the same way that myspace and you tube are creating networks among the youth, so is the Holy Spirit being shared from one joyous youthful convert to the next, each one of them exultant in the blessing and eager to pass it on.
This is in line with global trends among an elitist media and intellectual class to dismiss religion. The attempt is made to make out that religion is decreasing in popularity due to an alleged inherent dissonance with modernity. I have watched especially out here in the west as the whole world took to the streets in celebration of Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion. It is as though someone declared anew, God is Dead and the ululations of the cynics rent the air.
Contrary to what the East African Standard would have us believe, here is a link to the article Christianity is alive and well in Kenya. There may be something of a migration from established traditional Churches, but Kenya is certainly undergoing a Christian revival- and it is a large one.
The Economist's Christmas edition, captures this growth in its article titled ‘Christianity Reborn'. It cites the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life 's report on Pentecostals which states that ‘renewalist movements are the world's fastest growing religious movement.'
You have probably seen or heard Pentecostals, in the beautiful and large churches of the cities, or in overnight prayer sessions, in schools or in universities. Under trees and in mud-thatched huts, in wooden shacks and on open hills there's a resurgence in the Christian faith. The Church is making a big comeback. It is true, as the Standard report announces that traditional churches are facing dwindling numbers and empty pews, in the West and even in Africa. But you only need to turn for a minute to your television to see that this does not mean that Christianity as a whole is on the back foot.
Neo-Christians are a more active, more passionate Christianity. The Pew Forum report,in its preamble states,
'Pentecostalism and related charismatic movements represent one of the fastest-growing segments of global Christianity. At least a quarter of the world’s 2 billion Christians are thought to be members of these lively, highly personal faiths, which emphasize such spiritually renewing “gifts of the Holy Spirit” as speaking in tongues, divine healing and prophesying. Even more than other Christians, pentecostals and other renewalists believe that God, acting through the Holy Spirit, continues to play a direct, active role in everyday life.' Report
The reports states that fully 50% of all Kenyans who would describe themselves as renewalists; either Pentecostals or members of ‘charismatic' traditional denominations. Adding,
In the five other nations, pentecostals are more evenly divided between classical
pentecostal denominations (such as the Assemblies of God or the Church of God in
Christ) and newer pentecostal denominations. In the U.S., Brazil, Kenya and the regions
of India surveyed, for instance, more than four-in-ten pentecostals belong to other
pentecostal or neo-charismatic churches; in South Africa, this figure stands at 39%.
Charismatics tend to track with the religious affiliation in the general populations
of their respective countries. For instance, in countries with large Catholic populations
(such as Brazil, Chile, Guatemala and the Philippines), large majorities of charismatics
are Roman Catholics. By contrast, in countries where Catholics are outnumbered in the
general population by Protestants and other Christians, a different pattern emerges. In the
U.S., Kenya, South Africa, the regions of India surveyed and South Korea, for instance,
large majorities of charismatics belong either to Protestant denominations or African
Independent Churches
The growth in the ‘charismatic' denominations is even more significant. Here are people, who do not want to leave their congregations and places of worship, but who are choosing instead to reform the way in which they approach their faith.Of even greater significance is the fact that these people feel God's hand in their lives, in Kenya more than any other country covered by the report, 87% of the population claim to have either experienced or witnessed divine healing.
There lies the difference, the man with an experience is never at the mercy of the man with a doctrine. Modern Christianity is about the individual and her relationship with God, about breaking down the barriers that hold men back from God's grace. This is not about being born a Christian, it is about making a personal commitment to Christ.
The revival will continue to grow to have a positive effect on all those it touches. It is this viral marketing of the spirit that is driving the numbers. In the same way that myspace and you tube are creating networks among the youth, so is the Holy Spirit being shared from one joyous youthful convert to the next, each one of them exultant in the blessing and eager to pass it on.
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