(Image courtesy of atheistmemebase)
Removing the heads of the BBC is a Herculean task akin to fighting the Lernean Hydra.
The events leading up to the resignation of director general George Entwistle show the strengths and weaknesses of the BBC.
The shoddy journalism of the Newsnight team exemplified a woeful lack of quality controls before running with a potentially sensational story.
By all accounts, they relied on the testimony of one man (Steve Messham) without doing the most basic of checks to verify its accuracy. Lord McAlpine, the politician at the heart of the fake scandal was given no opportunity to defend accusations that he was responsible for sexual abuse. Continue reading
If I were a curator of an art gallery I would be very wary if a man claiming to be Banksy phoned to say he wanted to donate an exhibit.
The first question would be: is this a hoax? Then, if it could be established that this really was the enigmatic street artist, I would want to be reassured that the gallery wasn’t being taken for a ride. Banksy’s recent film for Channel 4, Antics Roadshow, showed that he is an admirer of pranks and anarchic publicity stunts designed to show up establishment figures and ‘straight’ institutions.
I’m sure there were plenty of behind the scenes debates surrounding Banksy’s adapted sculpture entitled Cardinal Sin but, to their credit, Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery have agreed to display the piece alongside 17th century religious art and ride out the possible backlash.
In comments to the press, gallery representatives have adopted an objective stance over the issue of child abuse that lies behind the artwork. Reyahn King, director of art galleries at National Museums in Liverpool states merely that: “it is part of an artistic tradition to show art that challenges people”.
Secretly though, I am convinced that they actually endorse Banksy’s critique of the Roman Catholic Church. The bust makes a powerful image which symbolises the church’s reluctance to name and shame its paedophile priests.
Instead of the Cardinal’s face, we see only small bathroom tiles which make it resemble the type of pixelated image you see on the evening news when there is a need to protect a person’s identity e.g. kids of movie stars, suspected criminals, rape victims etc.
The point Banksy is making is that high ranking church officials who are guilty of sin can remain anonymous even though they are not vulnerable, innocent or deserving of official protection. In this way he is highlighting the fallibility and culpability of the papacy. As Banksy says: “At this time of year it’s easy to forget the true meaning of Christianity – the lies, the corruption, the abuse”.
Despite appearances to the contrary, this mother is a monster.
There’s always a morbid fascination about extreme behaviour whether it be in sport, diet, drugs or, in the case of Tiger Mom, parenting.
Since yesterday was designated as mother’s day in Italy there was a newspaper article about Amy Chua, whose book ‘Battle Hymn For The Tiger Mother’ has provoked such a heated reaction, particularly in the USA (always good for sales!).
This book sets out the theory and practice of the upbringing methods she imposed on her daughters Sophia and Louisa.
In raising her children ‘the Chinese way’, sleepovers, Facebook, TV, video games are just some of the items on her banned list and her two kids must achieve top grades in all subjects (apart from drama or gym) or face the wrath of the tiger. Continue reading
There are some books that should come with health warnings and The Case of the Pope by Geoffrey Robertson QC is one of them. Reading it will make your blood pressure rise and fuel an uncontrollable rage towards the Catholic Church in general and the current Pope in particular.
Of course, you may not feel the same way about this.
For example, if you think that ordaining women priests is as serious as sodomising a child you’ll have no problem with the Vatican’s policy towards victims of child abuse. Also you won’t feel so enraged as I did if you consider that molesting minors is a sin on a par with masturbation. You will be able to argue calmly that, after all, both breach the Catholic rule that stipulates the “non use of the sexual faculty” .
So, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that a health warning needs to be directed at readers with hearts, minds and souls, and at those who place common sense above religious dogma.
This would alert those (surely the vast majority) who believe that abusing a child is not only a sin, but also a criminal act and one which demands not only that the perpetrators be brought to justice but also that the victims be properly recompensed.
And if you are hoodwinked by Pope Benedict XVI’s recent public apology on behalf of priests under his charge then Robertson’s book is essential reading. Continue reading
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