World Congress of Families II

The World Congress of Families II took place in Geneva, Switzerland, November 14-17. Doris Darvasi and Laurie Geschke represented REAL Women of BC and part of a group of over thirty Canadians among almost 1600 delegates from around the world.

At the opening plenary session held at the Palais de l’Office des Nations Unis, the results of an international poll undertaken by Wirthlin Worldwide were revealed. Almost 80% of respondents (18 years and older from 19 countries in 5 major regions of the world) agree that "a family created through lawful marriage is the fundamental unit of society". Also overwhelmingly reaffirmed by over 85% or respondents was the fact that the "natural family" is based on "one man and one woman bound in a lifelong covenant of marriage."

The study also found that 86% of respondent’s worldwide agree "‘it is better for children to be raised in a household that has a married mother and father." Regional dispatches appear on the issue of societal benefits from families with multiple children; but, even here, the majority of respondents from respondents from every region believe "that families with multiple children help to improve society."

Current trends, provincial, national, and international, if left unchecked, do threaten the existence of the natural family but there is reason to hope for better things in the future. This study confirms that most people throughout the world place a very high level of importance on marriage, children and the family.

The speakers list included some names with which you may be familiar: Darrel Reid, Ted Baehr, Joel Brind, Ph.D., Michael Farris, Esq., William Gairdner, Ph.D., Gwen Landolt, Dallas Miller, QC, Raymond Moore, Ph.D., Ted Morton, Ph.D., Philip Ney, MD., and others from around the world.

Topics included depopulation, media, parental rights and government policy, gender feminism, child rights and child protection, education, and future UN directed activism on behalf of the family. Both Doris and Laurie actively sought new contacts from around the world and strengthened existing ones. We discovered a published report on the failed "harm reduction: theory drug abuse program from Zurich which was cited by our provincial government as a model to be emulated at the time of the release, in July 1998, of the Special Report on HIV, Hepatitis and Injection Drug Use in British Columbia -- Pay Now or Pay Later, written by Dr. John Millar, the chief provincial medical officer. We also acquired a video, which was part of a longitudinal study on the effects of long-term group day care on young children. It shows, movingly and factually, the negative effects which "day orphanages" have on personality development in young children.

REAL Women of BC has an important role to play in the continued battle for the family at the UN level. Our web site, with its accessible wealth of knowledge and experience, is an essential educational and resource tool for pro-family groups in the developing nations. We continued work, which was begun in Beijing in 1995 and Istanbul in 1996, and are now finding our information to be much appreciated in many countries around the world. There is a great need for pro-family advocates to be present at the UN conferences and meetings to impact the decision making. Rather than taking a defensive stance, the pro-family side needs to go on the offensive by participating in the policy making.

UN Information Night Jan 19^th , 2000

Join us for an informal meeting on the World Congress of Families II, Geneva l999, at Surrey Pentecostal Church, 15145 68^th Ave., Surrey, Jan 19^th ,  at 7pm.  Laurie and Doris will talk about the Congress and will have information available for you, including tapes of the speakers. The purpose of this meeting is to inform you about the Congress and enable you to start planning early for the possibility of attending the next Congress in 2001.  Please RSVP (and for tapes) call  Lillian (597-0449) or Doris (576-3068). See you on the 19^th!

 

THANK YOU to those who renewed their membership. WELCOME to all our new members. It is great to have you on board.   REMEMBER - MOVED? LET US KNOW!

 

 

 

The 6^th Billionth Person:
(from an article by Steven W. Mosher of PRI)

In October l999, the 6^th Billionth Person was born on this planet. While the Population Research Institute celebrates the birth of the World's Six Billionth Person the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and other population control groups have used this happy occasion to perversely launch a worldwide media campaign to generate more support for population control programs.
 

A few seconds after midnight a baby emerged from the womb of its mother, drew its first breath, and announced its arrival into the world with a tiny cry. This is Baby Six Billion whose birthday is October 12, 1999. This day--the day that our planet becomes home to six billion human beings--marks an important milestone. But is it a milestone on humanity's upward path that we should celebrate, or a warning of impending catastrophe over which we should despair?

For the population controllers the answer is clear: They would have preferred that Baby Six Billion had never been born. We should, however, celebrate the birth of Baby Six Billion. This little child has been born into a world that is more prosperous than our forebears could have imagined. As our numbers have climbed so has our well being. In 1800, when there were only 1 billion people, per capita income was a mere $100. By 1900, as the population was closing in on 2 billion, it reached $500. Currently, with 6 billion people, per capita income has soared to $5,000. In 2100, when the population will be between 7 and 8 billion (and falling), it will be $30,000 in current dollars.

Driving the so-called "population explosion" has been a real explosion in health and longevity. As late as the 19th century, four out of every 10 children died before reaching age five. Today under-five mortality is under 7 percent. Two hundred years ago, human life expectancy was
under 30 years. Today it is over 65 years As people live longer, naturally there are more of us around at any given time.

By nearly every measure of well being, from infant mortality and life expectancy to educational level and caloric intake, life in Africa, Asia, and Latin America has been getting dramatically better. According to the World Bank, the average income in the developing world has doubled since 1960. Enough grain is produced for every person on earth to consume 3,500 calories daily. There is no need for anyone to starve in the midst of this plenty.

Population has doubled since 1960, but world food and resource production has never been higher. Economies continue to expand,
productivity is up, and pollution is declining. Life spans are lengthening, poverty is down, and political freedom is growing. The human race has never been so well off.

In fact, underpopulation, not overpopulation, is the threat facing the world. By the beginning of 2000, over seventy countries representing over half the world's population will have below replacement fertility--defined as 2.1 children per woman. The populations of the developed nations today are static or declining. The UN predicts that, by 2050, Russia's population will have declined by 25 million people, Japan's by 21 million, Italy's by 16 million, and Germany's and Spain's by 9 million each. Europe and Japan will lose half their population by 2100. Countries with below replacement rate fertility will eventually die out. It's just a question of time.

Even in the developing world family size has shrunk, from around 5 children per woman in 1900 to less than 3 today. And the decline
continues.  According to the UN's "low variant projection"—historically the most accurate--the population of the world will peak at 7 plus billion in 2040 or so, and then begin to decline. High fertility rates are becoming rare. The UN numbers for 1998 show only 10 countries with population increase rates at or above 3.0
percent. By 2050, persons aged 65 and above will be almost twice as numerous as children 15 years and younger. The economic consequences of population aging will be closing schools, declining stock markets, and moribund economies. Ignoring these facts, the population controllers continue to spread their myth of overpopulation.

The UNFPA and other population control organizations are loath to report the truth about falling fertility rates worldwide, since they raise funds by frightening people with the specter of overpopulation. They tell us that too many babies are being born to poor people in developing countries. This is tantamount to saying that only the wealthy should be allowed to have children, and is a new form of global racism. We should stop funding population control programs, and instead turn our attention to real problems.

Let us also join together in celebrating the birth of Baby Six Billion. He or she is a sign of our future, our hope and our prosperity. People are our greatest resource. Extraordinarily gifted people have helped to enrich civilization and lengthen life spans. But the fact is everyone, rich or poor, is a unique creation with something priceless to offer to the rest of us.

Baby Six Billion, boy or girl, red or yellow, black or white, is not a liability, but an asset. Not a curse, but a blessing. For all of us.

Women’s plight in Afghanistan

The government of Afghanistan is waging a war upon women. The situation is getting so bad that one person in an editorial of the Times compared the treatment of women there to the treatment of Jews in pre-Holocaust Poland. Since the Taliban took power in 1996, women have had to wear burqua and have been beaten and stoned in public for not having the proper attire, even if this means simply not having the mesh covering in front of their eyes. One woman was beaten to DEATH by an angry mob of fundamentalists for accidentally exposing her arm while she was driving. Another was stoned to death for trying to leave the country with a man that was not a relative. Women are not allowed to work or even go out in public without a male relative; professional women such as professors, translators, doctors, lawyers, artists and writers have been forced from their jobs and stuffed into their homes, so that depression is becoming so widespread that it has reached emergency levels. There is no way in such an extreme Islamic society to know the suicide rate with certainty, but relief workers are estimating that the suicide rate among women, who cannot find proper medication and treatment for severe depression and would rather take their lives than live in such conditions, has increased significantly.

Homes where a woman is present must have their windows painted so that outsiders can never see her. They must wear silent shoes so that they are never heard. Women live in fear of their lives for the slightest misbehaviour. Because they cannot work, those without male relatives or husbands are either starving to death or begging on the street, even if they hold Ph.D.'s. There are almost no medical facilities available for women, and relief workers have mostly left the country. At one of the rare hospitals for women, a reporter found still, nearly lifeless bodies lying motionless on top of beds, wrapped in their burqua, unwilling to speak, eat, or do anything, but slowly wasting away. Others have gone mad and were seen crouched in corners, rocking or crying, most of them in fear. One doctor is considering, when what little medication that is left finally runs out, leaving these women in front of the president's residence as a form of peaceful protest.

It is at the point where the term 'human rights violations' has become an understatement. Husbands have the power of life and death over their women relatives, especially their wives, but an angry mob has just as much right to stone or beat a woman, often to death, for exposing an inch of flesh or offending them in the slightest way. David Cornwell has said that those in the West should not judge the Afghan people for such treatment because it is a 'cultural thing', but this is not even true. Women enjoyed relative freedom, to work, dress generally as they wanted, and drive and appear in public alone until only 1996 -- the rapidity of this transition is the main reason for the depression and suicide; women who were once educators or doctors or simply used to basic human freedoms are now severely restricted and treated as sub-human in the name of right-wing fundamentalist Islam. It is not their tradition or 'culture', but is alien to them, and it is extreme even for those cultures where fundamentalism is the rule.

Besides, if we could excuse everything on cultural grounds, then we should not be appalled that the Carthaginians sacrificed their infant children, that little girls are circumcised in parts of Africa, that blacks in the US deep south in the 1930's were lynched, prohibited from voting, and forced to submit to unjust Jim Crow laws. Everyone has a right to a tolerable human existence, even if they are women in a Muslim country in a part of the world that Westerners may not understand. If we can threaten military force in Kosovo in the name of human rights for the sake of ethnic Albanians, then NATO and the West can certainly express peaceful outrage at the oppression, murder and injustice committed against women by the Taliban.

(Information received from CFAC)

 

Euthanasia for kids

Although not officially legal, euthanasia has been practiced in Holland for over 10 years. Apparently, there are an estimated 3,200 cases of euthanasia every year. It has also come to light that quite a few cases were not voluntary. Polls taken show that 92 percent of the people in Holland accept euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide.

 

Now the government wants to make the practice legal. The bill, however, has caused some controversy as it treats those 16 years of age and older as adults and gives 12 to 16 year olds the right to request euthanasia over the objections of the parents. That inclusion has now caused great concern even among some proponents of euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide. The Dutch Royal College of Physicians (KNMG) voiced their concern with the draft legislation allowing doctors to perform euthanasia on children as young as 12 against the parents’ wishes. The pro-euthanasia KNMG has no qualms extending euthanasia rights to children as young as 12 provided the parents are in agreement.  With this particular provision in the bill now changed, it is expected that the new law will sail through parliament and come into effect this year.

 

International Adoptions Concern

In September of 1999 a Swedish daily newspaper, the “Dagens Nyheter” had an interesting article in the Forum section. The article was written by several organizations, including adoption agencies, adoptees’ organizations and adoptive parents’ organizations. The article talks about the concern that these organizations have with respect to same-sex couples adopting children from other countries. Apparently, many of the countries where these children come from have a different opinion on the homosexual life style than the western countries. In many of the undeveloped countries, homosexuality is frowned upon and not put on equal footing with heterosexuality.This means that the parents or guardians of the children to be adopted do not want those children to go to same-sex couples. The article emphatically states that these children should not be used as missionaries for new forms of families and be exposed to a difficult life just to fulfill someone else’s own wishes. After all, every time someone asserts his or her rights it will affect others. Many of these adopted children will eventually go back to their original country to try and find family members. This causes situations of great awkwardness and difficulties as the families of the adopted children cannot understand that the children were raised by same-sex partners.  The article goes on to say that just because it is politically incorrect to talk about it,  we cannot ignore this problem including the fact that many children do not want to be adopted by homosexuals. In a society where we pride ourselves on our laws on children’’s rights, it is necessary to put the well being of the children first in this situation as well.

 

Additionally, the opinions of other countries have to be respected and it is wrong to ignore that many of these countries don’t want their children to be adopted out to same-sex couples. It is a well know fact that international adoption agencies are warning developed countries not to force other countries to adopt their children out to same-sex couples. If the children from underdeveloped countries continue to go to same-sex couples, it might lead to less international adoptions as the home countries of these children will simply no longer allow for their little ones to go to industrialized countries.

 

According to Swedish law, same-sex partners are not allowed to adopt children from other countries. However, the law can be circumvented by same-sex partners by simply withholding information when applying to adopt a child. In some cases, with the agreement of the guardian of a child, a private contract is arranged for same-sex partners to be able to raise a child. Even in these situations however, problems arise as it is important to the children to know that the adoption was legal and not just a private contract. These private contact situations could lead to problems for decades to come. It is well documented that children who are fully and legally adopted fair much better than children growing up in a foster home or orphanage. Long term effects of children from other countries adopted into heterosexual families are not yet known, even less so the impact it has when same-sex partners adopt children from other countries.

 

In order for the situation to change, the industrialized countries need to work  with third world countries slowly and long term. Eventually, the ideas on homosexuality in the third world countries might change as well but it is wrong to force them now. Unfortunately, the politicians are too afraid to tackle this problem as they will be stamped as being homophobic. However, the well being of the children comes first and it is essential that this problem be addressed no matter how unpopular it might be. Even the writers of this article do not necessary agree on everything and how this problem should be address. However, they do agree on the several points, including: adoptees of today are valuable sources of information on what it is like to grow up in Sweden as an adopted child and this information must be taken seriously;

n      we cannot steer this debate in such a way that we make a person’s life experience politically incorrect but have to take it seriously and listen to the problems; international adoptees need to be able to talk about their problems without be considered politically incorrect or homophobes;

n      orphaned children from poor countries should not be used to solve the problem of Swedish Society and the rights of children should not just be empty words.

 

My Upbringing was a catastrophe

(Letter printed in a Swedish newspaper. Letter was written by a young woman who was adopted by a lesbian)

I am really tired of hearing about the debate and letters to editors  about the “Homosexual’s rights to adoption”.  It is easy for an individual to think she knows more that she really does.  But it is impossible for a person to try to fit in to another individuals situation.

 

I know what I am talking about. I am adopted and have grown up with a lesbian mother and for my relative and me this has been a catastrophe.  I don’t believe that anyone would like to be in my situation or experience what I have during my upbringing.

 

It can be difficult to grow up and know that you are adopted, and my mother’s homosexuality made it even more difficult and complicated for me.  I am living proof that a person can not just adapt to any situation and home environment.

 

During my upbringing I was never accepted neither by the relatives nor by society.  I have been the subject of an experiment, and now other people try to ignore this.  Right now people are working toward the fact that other children will grow up under the dame circumstances.  Please, let us not do the same mistakes as we did 25 years age; let us instead learn from our mistakes.  Really, what price will the kids have to pay, do we have to suffer because of people’s selfishness and need.

 

Thinking about the hell we have grown up with, it would be a consolation to not hear the debate about homosexuals and adoption and the knowledge that we will never repeat the mistake to let internationally adopted children grow up with homosexual couples here in Sweden. 

 

How good is Canadian Education?

The Fraser Institute in Vancouver conducted a study, comparing the Canadian Education system with the systems of countries around the world. Unfortunately, the Canadians are nor fairing very well. According to the report of the Fraser Institute “the Canadian system of public education is inefficient and inadequate: 33 percent of Canadian high-school graduates are functionally illiterate; 27 percent of Canadian adolescents drop out of high school with no diploma. The academic achievement of our students is mediocre compared to that of their peers in other countries. Public-opinion polls show that confidence in the system is at a 30-year low. If it is not to become obsolete, Canadian education needs to be redesigned.

Over the past 30 years, our Ministries of Education have tinkered with a variety of reforms, including smaller classes and higher salaries, in an effort to improve the public education system. In doing so, they have tripled the real cost of education. Despite their variety and expense, these reforms have failed to improve student achievement, and failed to solve the problem of mounting public frustration with the education system.

Other countries have much to teach us. United States, New Zealand, Denmark, and Sweden have pioneered systems of public education that are characterized by accountability and parental choice. The tools they have used are charter schools, vouchers, tax credits, and school assessments. Evidence suggests that if the Canadian education system supported greater parental choice, student achievement would improve. It certainly has done elsewhere.

In the United States and New Zealand, researchers have measured the effects of the school choice on student learning and parental satisfaction. In both countries, evidence suggests that the new policy instruments are having a statistically significant impact on both. In all four countries, United States, New Zealand, Denmark, and Sweden, school choice is responsible for a wide range of benefits: greater responsiveness of schools to parental concerns, greater awareness of educational issues, and a more dynamic, innovative and equitable education system. The educational establishment has yet to propose a viable solution to the problem. International evidence suggests that public vouchers, private vouchers, or charter schools offer plausible answers. If we reject these solutions, it seems probable that Canadian education will continue to cost more and yield less.

 

REAL Women Feels Wrath of Feminists

Status of Women Canada invited 100 participants to a formal government “Consultation on Gender Equality”, December 8-11^th at the Chateau Cartier in Aylmer, Quebec.  Cecilia Forsyth, former national president of REAL Women, accepted this government invitation.  The consultation agenda distributed by the Status of Women on December 8^th, included a page notifying participants that “time had been set aside Wednesday afternoon and evening for participants to get together.”

 

The Wednesday evening “participant get-together” began with Nancy Riche, Canadian Labour Congress Leader and NDP activist, denouncing the inclusion for REAL Women of Canada at the government consultation.  In asking that REAL Women be removed from the meeting, she supported a demand by  Shelagh Day, who, ironically, is the Chairperson by the Status of the “Equality” Panel of the federal Court Challenge Programs, and the former Vice President of the National Action Committee (NAC).  Ms. Day, who describes herself as a “human rights specialist”, told Mrs. Forsyth that “Real Women’s ideology was not welcome as it did not agree with their [feminist] view on gender equality.”

 

Mrs. Forsyth responded, “REAL Women of Canada does, indeed, promote equality for women and there is a diversity of views and approached to equality  that exist among Canadian women.”

 

Ms. Riche and Ms. Day, however, refused to recognize any viewpoint, other than their own, or even the actual presence of any women in the room who did not totally accept their radical feminist perspective.  They repeated their demand that Mrs. Forsyth  leave the meeting  which, under the circumstances, left Mrs. Forsyth no alternative but to leave.  The Following day, December 9^th, at a workshop at the conference, Mrs. Forsyth presence was again questioned.  The conference participant refused to contine with the workshop and in fact walked out.  Jackie Claxton, Director General, Women’s Programs, Status of Women Canada, then deliberately engaged Mrs. Forsyth in conversation which prevented her for entering other workshops.  After lunch the feminists met privately, again excluding Mrs. Forsyth, and although they agreed to allow her to continue at the consultation, they nonetheless, refused her entry into the main workshop on Human Rights, and Ms. Claxton supported them in this decision.

 

In a free and democratic country, no group or individual should suffer discrimination because of an approach or point of view – especially at a tax-supported conference.

 

This silencing of women with a differing viewpoint by radical feminist and the Status of Women, is an insult to the intelligence, integrity and dignity of all Canadian women and makes a mockery of “gender” equality, when there is no equality among women themselves.

 

The people in Surrey have spoken

Over the last two years, the Surrey School Board has been fiercely attacked for declining the use of three books as resource materials in the classroom for kindergarten and grade one children. The books depict same sex couples and many people felt that the material was inappropriate for children that young. With the approach of the election of November 20, l999, the proponents of these books were busily working on ousting the Surrey Trustees. Even the Surrey Teachers Federation became involved. By the end of the day on November 20^th however, the case was clear. Not only is the SET team back on the Board, but they have taken an additional seat. The SET candidate with the lowest votes had about 3000 more votes than the candidate with the most votes on the other side. Of course, those that had hoped to get the SET team off the Board talked about the faulty election system and that the results simply did not mean anything. Well, for all those people that stayed home on voting day, obviously this whole issue was not important enough to them to make an effort and boot the old School Board out.

 

Update on Trinity Western University

Apparently it has now been decided that the Trinity Western University (TWU) case will go to the Supreme Court of Canada.  TWU was denied accreditation for its teacher’s certificate program because of a pamphlet that requests a certain conduct of the students attending TWU. Students were requested to refrain from such things as smoking, drugs, premarital sex as well as homosexual sex. The inclusion of homosexual sex  did it and accreditation was denied. TWU went to court and won. However, the other side has decided to take the matter all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. The case will be heard in the Spring.

 

Gay friendly school environment

An article in the Xtra West homosexual newspaper on October 28, 1999 discusses the Gay and Lesbian Educators of BC (GALE BC) plans to make school a safer place for gay students. Apparently GALE BC is planning on making schools gay friendly by working together with the BC Teacher Federation, neighborhood schools, area school boards and the provincial ministry of education. The main focus is at the school level. GALE BC’s position paper suggests 11 steps that can help to make a school “free from discrimination, harassment and prejudice based on sexual orientation. They are:

- Guarantee equality. At the school level, this includes clear policies that ensure students are safe and free from discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation.

n      Create a safe school environment. “Schools must make it clear that neither physical violence nor harassing language will be tolerated."

n      Provide positive role models. Teachers and support staff should be encouraged to come out as role models to gay students, “giving them hope for their own future.”

n      Provide support for queer students through curriculum changes, dispelling popular myths, queer counseling and school based support programs.

n      Provide training for faculty and staff.

n      Reassess the curriculum at all grade levels. “Children begin to develop their self-identity, family and relationships at an early age.”

n      Provide appropriate education and health care. Gay and lesbian students should have access to suicide and substance abuse programs, community information, counseling, guidance and student services.

n      Diversify library and media holdings. Age-appropriate resources should be available from kindergarten to Grade 12.

n      Provide information programs, including assemblies featuring gays and lesbians from the community.

n      Do not assume heterosexuality. “By reminding themselves that (queer) people are found in every staff, in every classroom and on every team, educators can “unlearn” heterosexism and become inclusive in both words and deeds.”

n      Community outreach. The province also needs to do more to ensure the next generation of British Columbians grow up to recognize the existence and needs of gays and lesbians. GALE BC wants the provincial Ministry of Education to:

n      Enact and enforce anti-homophobia and sexual harassment policies that explicitly include sexual orientation. These non-discrimination policies must protect the rights of teachers to discuss sexuality in an inclusive, accurate and specific manner.

n      Incorporate gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered issues throughout the curriculum. (Emphasis ours)