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Someone doesn’t appear to understand the meaning of the term ‘hypocrisy’… March 8, 2013

Posted by WorldbyStorm in Recession, Same-sex marriage, Uncategorized.
31 comments

…when writing the following…though he claims he does (as well as perhaps not quite getting the concept of avoiding gratuitous offence)…in relation to the Cardinal Keith O’Brien case.

Our Martian might require some cultural and ideological clarification as to why it is that newspapers which campaign incessantly for the rights of gay people should in this instance become the instruments of the destruction of a man for behaving precisely as gay men might be expected to behave.

And what of this gem:

Hence, there is not ipso facto a conflict between Cardinal O’Brien’s exercising of his homosexual tendencies and his opposition to gay marriage.

Yeah, right.

“More people are now dying by suicide than on Irish roads” March 29, 2012

Posted by Tomboktu in Recession, Society.
7 comments

This evening’s BBC Radio 4 news programme The World Tonight had a taped piece about suicide in Ireland, and how the recession has led to an increase in it. It begins at about 16 min 35 seconds into the programme:

The introduction:

As the financial crisis continues to strike across Europe, one of its impacts as well as a loss of jobs and livelihoods is an increase in the number of suicides. In Ireland, the problem is particularly marked compounded by historical sensibilities and a feeling of shame about the issue that refuses to go away.

A quote from the piece:

International research suggests that for every 1 percent rise in joblessness, there is 0.7 percent rise in the number of suicides, and Ireland’s own figures have borne that out. The year after the big crash — 2009 — at least 520 people took their own lives. That’s 25 percent up on the year before. The latest official count is only for part of 2010, but it suggests a continuing increase. And experts say many more unexplained deaths mean the real toll could be much higher.

More people are now dying by suicide than on Irish roads, and among young men, suicide is the biggest killer. That’s not unique to Ireland, but the social taboo factor is particularly strong here, in a country where suicide was a crime less than 20 years ago.

The full programme is here.