Office of Religious Freedom Is Working Out Pretty Much How I Expected, Sadly.

What will the office of religious freedom do? For atheists,

apparently nothing. If you want it to look out of you, better

get religion.

You know, I've been real busy lately with the new house and it's not like I had oodles of time before either.  I frankly haven't been able to keep up with much of anything at all outside of renovations.

So I started this here blog post ante-domus and was a little concerned while the move was going on that it would become irrelevant.  Would the Office actually make a statement condemning the violation of the human rights of Bangladeshi bloggers?

Okay, that was selfish of me. I would have been thrilled if the Office had done anything at all to help anyone anywhere who is an atheist and is being persecuted by religiously-motivated governments. I would have blogged it happily and would have even put down my screwdriver and stopped my renovations just to type the post. But it turns out I had nothing to worry about. It seems as if Andrew Bennett is now squarely at the helm of his new ship and it isn't coming anywhere near to helping stranded and persecuted non-believers anywhere.

You see, back in April 4th, the CFI got to meet with Bennett for the first time ever. They, nor any other secular or atheist group, had ever been consulted before - although they did consult this beauty pageant contestant.  It seemed like finally they were interested in speaking with the non-religious, after a great deal of media attention about how they were snubbing us all along, naturally.

So during the April 4th meeting, Bennett apologized for this oversight and it looked like we might get some kind of help from the agency for non-religious who were being persecuted in the name of religion. So on April 14th, the CFI asked Bennett to truly show his commitment to secular and atheist victims of persecution, like the bloggers and Sharif Ahmed.

Well, I suppose talk is cheap. My hope is all gone.

I went back to the Office's website, in the media section, to check if maybe they did something under the radar that I missed while ferrying boxes in the past week or so. Here's a list of announcements since the Office was inaugurated back in February.

2013-03-08: None specified
2013-03-09: Christians
2013-03-13: Christians (Catholics, New Pope)
2013-03-22: Muslims
2013-04-02: Muslims
2013-04-25: Christians (Orthodox)
2013-05-03: Muslims (Bennett's first)
2013-05-06: Christians
2013-05-14: Bahá’ís
2013-05-17: Muslims

I'm showing the dates and the groups that are being identified directly as being victims of persecution or the subject of praise or congratulation (as with the announcement after Pope Francis was chosen - only a couple of these). I could be wrong here and there, I've done my best to keep things only to explicit mentions of groups.

I'm not begrudging these announcements. The Office appears to be doing its job and actively calling out human rights violations when it sees them. They just don't seem to be looking out for the human rights of atheists, that's all. It's not surprising and sad. If only we had an office of human rights to protect humans rather than this office that only seems to care about religions.  Oh yeah, we did have just that but it got killed while the ORF was still  in-utero by the very same government that was pushing the ORF down our necks.

Now the March 8th announcement doesn't name anyone specifically, but it does condemn the violent situation in Bangladesh. This announcement was done before the meeting with CFI, so I tend to disregard it.

Canada Condemns Deadly Violence in Bangladesh 

March 8, 2013 - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird today issued the following statement: 

“Canada is deeply concerned by the escalating and deadly violence that has injured thousands and claimed the lives of scores of Bangladeshis. We urge all parties to end the violence, to work toward peacefully resolving the conflict and to reverse the growing divisions in Bangladeshi society. 

“We also call on authorities to protect the rights and the lives of all Bangladeshis. 

“We condemn in the strongest terms senseless attacks on civilians, most notably those on minorities in their homes and places of worship. Canada has welcomed Bangladesh’s commitment to pluralism and religious freedom, and we encourage further efforts by the government and all parties to promote peace and tolerance throughout the country. 

“In the lead-up to parliamentary elections, we call on all parties to respect the rights to freedom of expression and of assembly and urge everyone to exercise these rights in a peaceful and democratic manner.”

I'm parsing this noble yet broad statement and the only noticeable group I can get out of it is most notably those on minorities in their homes and places of worship. I wholeheartedly agree, but what about those who do not attend places of worship? What about those who decide to exercise their freedom of speech on the Internet?  They're in jail right now and I see no mention of them here or in any following statements.

Just for completeness sake, I did the same thing for all the other announcements on ORF's media room site. I came up with this:

2011-07-07 Christians, Bahá’ís 2011-08-03 Christians 2011-08-16 None specified 2011-09-02 Christians, Bahá’ís 2011-09-28 Christians, Bahá’ís 2011-10-04 Muslims 2011-10-19 Christians, Bahá’ís 2011-11-05 None specified 2011-12-06 Muslims 2011-12-09 None specified 2011-12-16 Muslims 2011-12-25 Christians 2012-02-13 Jews 2012-03-14 None specified 2012-04-08 Christians 2012-04-22 Christians 2012-04-29 Christians 2012-05-14 Christians, Bahá’í 2012-06-19 Muslims

2012-06-20 None specified 2012-06-28 Jews 2012-07-01 Christians 2012-07-28 Jews 2012-07-31 None specified (as victims) 2012-08-05 Sikhs 2012-08-07 Christians 2012-08-20 None specified 2012-09-12 None specified 2012-10-14 Muslims 2012-10-26 Muslims 2012-10-26 None specified 2012-10-28 Christians 2012-12-10 Christians, Bahá’í 2012-12-14 Buddhists 2012-12-20 None specified 2013-01-29 Jews 2013-02-01 Muslims 2013-02-19 None specified

I even went ahead and threw the entries in from above and made a pie chart.  Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to see the government calling out persecution of these groups, but as you can see, non-believers get no pie. Yep, now that the heat is off from the press, it looks like the ORF is showing its true colours. Apparently there is no religious freedom problem in Bangladesh - religion is doing just fine there - there is merely a human rights problem. And it seems to me that this new Office of Religious Freedom is not interested in looking out for human rights, just religious rights.

So... Very... Busy...

So I don't usually get all meta with information from how things are going with the blog but some of you may have started wondering where the heck I've gone.

It's been over a week now since my last post and I thought I'd let you all know what's up.  This post isn't atheist related. It's mainly to explain why I haven't had a chance to update this blog in awhile and assure you all I haven't become disillusioned and ran back to church.

Believe me, I've been itching to blog. I miss it so much that it hurts. I really haven't run out of stuff to say.

Anyway, we bought a house and moved into it from our old apartment this past Saturday. So it's pretty self-explanatory, I think, why the post frequency has dropped down to practically nothing.

Have no fear, I am still officially a Montrealer. I just switched boroughs!

Okay so, let's just say I bought a pre-owned house. It's fairly used and I'm already giving it some much needed (emergency) love. I'll be working on the thing for awhile.

And no, that's not me wearing the snappy suit in the picture above. But the house looks pretty close to the sort of thing I got. For the first time, I've got a backyard to mow - It's nice.

So the lawn, cleaning, packing, unpacking, water tank replacement, electrician, plumber etc... etc.. have all been taking their toll, timewise. I just got back onto the Internet yesterday. The blog will begin crawling its way back up my priority list - so expect more posts to begin trickling back in soon!

Experts See Possible Future Conflicts Between Secularists & The Religious In Quebec

Minnesota Atheists participate in May Day Parade.

Katherine Wilton over at the Montreal Gazette wrote a rather provocatively-titled piece.

Secular vs. religious: more conflicts may be on horizon

It makes some interesting conclusions about a future increase of tension between the religious and non-religious in Quebec.  This is given the apparently dramatic increase of secularism within what has inarguably already been the most secular province in the country for decades.

The article takes its cue off the recently released 2011 National Household Survey.

Newly released data from Statistics Canada show that in 2011, 937,545 Quebecers had no religious affiliation, up from 413,190 in 2001 — a 126-per-cent increase.

It seems that the gist here is that the number of secularists is on the rise in Quebec (mostly at the expense of a ever fading religious Catholic population). While the number of recently arrived non-Christians (read: Muslims) is also on a dramatic rise. This, apparently will lead to a great deal of conflict moving forward according to experts like Jack Jedwab, executive director of the Association for Canadian Studies.

“Going forward, we can expect more debates about accommodation; they will be on the radar,” said Jack Jedwab, executive director of the Association for Canadian Studies. 

“In Quebec, you will see polarization between those who say they have no religion and those who identify with non-Christian faiths.”

The issue of Reasonable Accommodation came to the forefront in secular Quebec and culminated in highly publicized hearings across the province.  I can remember hearing a fair bit of what could be considered religious bigotry coming out of it occasionally, but it was a discussion that I believe was worth having. 

Wikipedia on Reasonable Accommodation:

There was extensive coverage of related issues in Quebec's news media in 2006 and 2007, which some analysts attributed more to the pressure of competition than to citizen concern. The media play reached such an extent that the premier of the province stated several non-negotiable values, such as "the equality of women and men; the primacy of French; the separation between the state and religion".

This idea played out to the tee recently in a Côte-des-Neiges sports center, where they had time assigned to gender-segregated swimming during the day: "Drainville said the segregated hours sends a wrong message about Quebec, all the while using taxpayer money."

So anyway yes, I believe Jedwab has a fairly valid point. It does seem that Reasonable Accommodation often forces one to consider a conflict between a secular state and a religious group or coalition of religious groups that are, to be frank, asking for special privilege or consideration.  

Take for example the religious public school system in Ontario that has been under some fire in the past few years and which a majority of Ontarians have even expressed favour of eliminating altogether (in order to establish a single secular public system in its stead). It is an example of Constitutionally-granted religious privilege. In Quebec, which has been largely secular for decades, publicly funded religious-run school boards were replaced wholesale with a single secular system.  In Ontario, I believe it's only a matter of time.

I digress. Back to the article. Although the scene seems to be set for a conflict between (mostly ex-Catholic or culturally Catholic) secularists and newly immigrated Muslims, Jedwab points out that many Muslims may actually be less fundamentalist than the media often portrays or even not religious at all.

Jedwab suggested that not everyone who identified themselves as Muslim practices the religion. 

“They vary in their degree of practice and their engagement,” he said. “Look at the number of people in Quebec who identify themselves as Catholic yet we live in one of the least religious parts of North America.”

I can only hope. And when it comes to Catholics, I cannot agree more. I proposed this hypothesis of cultural Catholics in my last post. I think that to some degree countries like France may have already entered this stage and the apparent conflicts between Islam and their secular government may be a sign of future times for Quebec. (Or it could just be right wing governments trying to stir a pot of fear of existential threat to the French culture in the name of votes, I don't know).

The article ends with sociology profession Morton Weinfeld commenting that the amount of future conflict also depends on the involvement of Quebec secularists.

“It remains to be seen whether the non-religious group are militantly secular or not at all interested (in religion),” said Morton Weinfeld, a sociology professor at McGill University. 

The changing religious landscape means that in the future, religious tensions will not be between Christians and non-Christians, but between the religious and the non-religious, he said.

On the whole, I agree. I wish they would not use that word militant though. Can we get over this, please?

(credit: http://www.atheistcartoons.com/)

Please, must we jump to this word militant when people are merely pointing out their difference of opinion and trying to make the state as neutral as possible to any and all religions?

Unless militant secularist is shorthand for someone who will attempt to dismantle any sort of privileged status religious people and institutions have - like being able to accept public money and indoctrinate children to your religious belief, or be a church that doesn't pay its taxes, or shelter pedophile priests and not get completely shut down as a criminal organization. You know, standing up for what's right and fair. If that's what militant means then I happily take on the title.

Serious Flooding In Kilembe Uganda. Humanist School Spared But Many People Need Help!

Picture by: Mulekya Edison, Chairman of Kasese United

Humanist Association

It's been awhile since I've made an update on the situation at the Kasese Humanist Primary School in Uganda. Since then, a whole lot of bad has transpired.

Disastrous Flash Flooding

On May 3rd, Kasese Humanist Primary School Project Director Bwambale Robert sent me the following update about torrential rains (it is their rainy season) that have lead to extensive flooding in the western side of the country.

"There has been a serious downpour where it rained for almost ten hours non stop on the Rwenzoris. So far, 6 people are confirmed dead and many have lost their properties in the floods fueled by rivers radiating from Mount Rwenzori glaciers. Its a rainy season here!"

The Nyamwamba river, which runs from the mountains north of  Kasese and alongside the school's new land to the southeast, burst its banks on May 1st and has flooded the Kilembe region again more than once since then. It has lead to chaos in the Kilembe valley.  It has caused extensive damage to houses and crops and has left many completely homeless.

I truly didn't have a feel for the level of destruction in this part of Uganda until Bwambale sent me a these videos shot by his colleague Mulekya Edison, who is the Chairman of the Kasese United Humanist Association. You can see the water spilling over the roadway, great amounts of soil having been washed away and quite a bit of structural and infrastructural damage.





A quick Google search on kilembe flooding or kasese flooding will give you an idea of the extent of the damage.  There have been at least nine confirmed fatalities and approximately 25,000 people have been economically impacted by this event.

KASESE, Uganda, May 9 — 28-years-old Robert Muhangi, a father of two children stared at what is left of his house and he bursts into tears. His home was torn into pieces by boulders during a heavy down pour in Bulembia Division, Kilembe Mines in the western Ugandan district of Kasese. The heavy rains forced River Nyamwamba to burst its banks breaking up homes, shops, washing way bridges and roads among others. 

Muhangi was not alone; he was part of the 25,000 people who have been affected by the flash floods in the district that experts have described as the worst natural catastrophe Uganda has ever faced in terms of physical destruction of property. 

Government statistics indicated that nine people have been killed and 25,000 others made homeless by the floods that started on May 1.

Even the Kilembe hospital has been seriously damaged and is now without any electicity, all the patients had to be transferred and a recently acquired X-Ray machine has been destroyed.


Unprecedented Destruction And The Threat of Cholera

Picture by: Mulekya Edison, Chairman of Kasese

United Humanist Association

Bwambale wrote me back a couple of days later.

The situation here in Kasese Town is slowly returning to calm starting from today but in the last days floods has been the story. For the last six days we have not seen the sun in the sky. The conditions have  been rain everywhere throughout the district causing lots of havoc like sweeping of crops in farmlands, loss of people household properties like domestic animals, birds, furnitures and loss of lives. 

Very  many people in the affected areas are now being put into camps and relief organizations are trying to bring in help. 

Some bridges connecting townships have broken down, especially those in Kyarumba, Kisinga and some in Kilembe. Right now a bridge along the Kasese-Fortportal highway on Mobuku River now shows cracking and big vehicles like trailers have been denied access into Kasese Town. 

It is a real disaster and there are fears of outbreaks of cholera in the camps and Kasese areas, as dirt is now everywhere.  However civil society organizations are coming in to help the situation. 

My family is okay and we were not affected at all by the floods but we feel touched by the suffering of the people. I have visited Kilembe three times since the incident and things are really bad there.  I will send you a couple of snaps and videos of the mess. 

Our KHPS land is okay and was not affected at all. Instead there was a deposit of sand on our side near the  river and this  morning I contracted a lorry to ferry10 trips of sand onto the site for a small  fee. There is lots of sand there that I am trying to gather and its a golden opportunity as we need it for the 2014 construction project.

How You Can Help!

(image source: Ugandan Red Cross)

Several relief organizations are beginning to swing into action. 

The Ugandan Red Cross seems to be playing an early and leading role. Bwambale himself has informed me that he's seen them in action already.

Here's an update from the Ugandan Red Cross website: 

The Danish Embassy has contributed sh130m and Danish Red Cross sh228m. Strides Family for Health has provided 800 water for health kits worth sh25m. Each kit comprises of two buckets of 10 litres, 1 piece of soap, a piece of cotton cloth, a wooden spoon, 90 sachets of PUR (water purification sachets) and a plastic bag for carrying.

You can donate to the Ugandan Red Cross here.

I also found an Indiegogo campaign for ACODEV here.  The Facebook page has more pictures and information of the disaster as well.  It appears to be a Ugandan charity and human rights promoter.

Action for Community Development (ACODEV) is a Uganda-based non-governmental organization working to employ innovative solutions in the areas of human rights, HIV/AIDS, reproductive and child health, and systems strengthening in Eastern Africa.

You can contribute to this Indiegogo campaign here.

Please consider making a donation to one of these relief funds, or any other agency you can find. In fact, if you do find other reputable organizations doing good work, please let me know!

Or just spread the word through your social networks! The initial disaster may be over, but there are many homeless, displaced and at risk for cholera who will need help to get them through the hard times ahead.

Picture by: Mulekya Edison, Chairman of Kasese United Humanist Association