Where are we headed?
29/11/06 13:44 |News
This morning I took time out at my
favourite local coffee shop, the West Coast Coffee on Dublin's
Camden Street, just a few meters down from the pub where Bill
Clinton drank a pint during the summer of hope following the Good
Friday Agreement. Almost ten years on we are still fitfully making
progress towards the goal of establishing power-sharing structures
in Northern Ireland supported by the community.
As I often do on these occasions, I purchased the London Independent, a newspaper that, in my view, is one of the most articulate and courageous on social justice issues, despite belonging to the O'Reilly stable. Today's issue had two stories that caught my eye, one an inspirational account of movement towards a truth and reconciliation process in Northern Ireland, the other, a chillng account of the martyrdom of a teacher in Afghanistan who dared to teach girls. One wonders where we are headed as human beings when we appear to be capable of the most heinous actions in the name of religious belief. What kind of world is being born and what kind of beast makes its way to Bethlehem this Christmas?
The story of the martyred teacher is not new. A few months ago a woman who organised education opportunities for women in one of the Afghanistan provinces was also martyred. In the West, we take the right to education for granted. Since the 1950s we have experienced ever-widening access to education. Women, in particular, have benefitted significantly from new education opportunities. Often excluded, girls now have equal access to schooling. Indeed, girls often out-perform boys in academic achievement.
And, yet, as we know, there are still approximately 100 million children and young people to whom access to education does not exist. In many instances, this lack of access is due to the absence of infrastructure, teachers and a functioning education system. Often, too, it is caused by war and social upheaval. But the most heinous and downright immoral exclusion of people from education consists in the denial of the right to education itself. This appears to be the case in contemporary Afghanistan, and, presumably, elsewhere also. This denial borders on being a crime against humanity.
Read the story in the London Independent
As I often do on these occasions, I purchased the London Independent, a newspaper that, in my view, is one of the most articulate and courageous on social justice issues, despite belonging to the O'Reilly stable. Today's issue had two stories that caught my eye, one an inspirational account of movement towards a truth and reconciliation process in Northern Ireland, the other, a chillng account of the martyrdom of a teacher in Afghanistan who dared to teach girls. One wonders where we are headed as human beings when we appear to be capable of the most heinous actions in the name of religious belief. What kind of world is being born and what kind of beast makes its way to Bethlehem this Christmas?
The story of the martyred teacher is not new. A few months ago a woman who organised education opportunities for women in one of the Afghanistan provinces was also martyred. In the West, we take the right to education for granted. Since the 1950s we have experienced ever-widening access to education. Women, in particular, have benefitted significantly from new education opportunities. Often excluded, girls now have equal access to schooling. Indeed, girls often out-perform boys in academic achievement.
And, yet, as we know, there are still approximately 100 million children and young people to whom access to education does not exist. In many instances, this lack of access is due to the absence of infrastructure, teachers and a functioning education system. Often, too, it is caused by war and social upheaval. But the most heinous and downright immoral exclusion of people from education consists in the denial of the right to education itself. This appears to be the case in contemporary Afghanistan, and, presumably, elsewhere also. This denial borders on being a crime against humanity.
Read the story in the London Independent
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