Faith, Relativism and Human Rights

The article written by Marco Ventura in Corriere Della Sera, has brought a issue that UTET has recently published a Dictionary on the Human Rights and has totally neglected purposely or negligently, which I don’t know, the stand point of Human Rights of the Church, which always in all its teachings, traditions, documents and activities gives much importance and thrust on this point.

 

The another important point to be noticed would be UTET being an Italian publication from a catholic country, Turin has failed to include the standpoint of the Church, with regard to Human Rights, in its Dictionary of “Human Rights.

 

By the way, Marco Ventura has not clearly expressed either the standpoint of the Church or the standpoint of the dictionary published by UTET in his article. Actually Pope Benedict XVI while he was addressing the international body of the catholic NGOs has denounced the logic of “moral relativism” which now dominates the United Nations and other international agencies.  He also added that there is a refusal to recognize the centrality of the “natural moral law” and the “defense of human dignity” and the same kind of explanations have been found in this dictionary.

 

He has mentioned that the Church is very traditional and very strict in its doctrines and tries to measure human rights and justice in its same traditional measure and other then this he has not clearly explained why the Catholic Church tries to be strict in its point of view about the Human Rights and Justice. Therefore this article is very weak in its formation and failed to make it clear in its standpoint.   

“We cannot rob our children of their future”

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon had urged the 10,000 delegates gathered in Bali from 190 countries to act fast. "This is the moral challenge of our generation," he noted. "Not only are the eyes of the world upon us. More important, succeeding generations depend on us. We cannot rob our children of their future." Ban said an agreement limiting emissions should be comprehensive, and should enlist the participation of both poor and wealthy nations. "Our atmosphere can't tell the difference between emissions from an Asian factory, the exhaust from a North American SUV, or deforestation in South America or Africa," he said.

Discussions over the aims and timing of a new global climate change treaty have wrapped up in Bali after two weeks of often turbulent bargaining. The next step will be two years of negotiations over the new treaty itself, which will become a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

The so-called "road map" that came out of the Bali conference was deliberately vague on both questions, leaving hard work ahead for the negotiators. In order to reach that goal, countries and environmentalists led by the European Union wanted the road map to specify sharp reductions in emissions: by the year 2020, they wanted emissions to be 25 to 40 percent lower than they were in 1990. The road map does call for global man-made emissions to peak in the next 15 years, and for emission levels recorded in 2000 to be cut in half by 2050. It also promotes a plan enabling wealthy countries to pay poor countries to keep remaining forests intact.

At last what can we say whether the two-week long United Nations Climate Change Conference at Bali, was a success or a failure? There is no easy answer. To the extent that after years of squabbling and finger-pointing, there is now a global consensus on, one, the reality of global warming and, two, the need to do something about it. 

Pluripotent stem cells can be produced in ethical way – Shinya Yamanaka

“Science can contribute greatly to making the world and mankind more human. Yet it can also destroy mankind and the world unless it is steered by forces that lie outside it,” insists the Holy Father in his new encyclical “Spe Salvi”

In the name of scientific researches and experiments in creating pluripotent stem cells hundreds and thousands of human embryos and oocytes  have been destroyed in the laboratories.

The debate over stem cells derived from human embryos has been made to appear as a conflict between science and ethics, with science arguing for the funding of stem cell research to cure currently incurable diseases and ethics arguing against it.  But ethically it may be more problematic not to fund human embryo stem cell research than to fund it, and scientifically no one can guarantee that cures for the currently incurable will soon be at hand.

The division between the moral opponents of human embryo stem cell research and its moral and scientific proponents is not of a sort that can be compromised.  If a fully human life exists the moment sperm fuses with egg, whether within a woman or in a Petri dish, there is no way of doing human embryo stem cell research cannot demand that people who believe a fully human life exists at conception give up this belief, nor can they claim that this belief, ad the case against stem cell research that follows from them, is unreasonable.

A much-admired stem cell researcher Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, has reported that he and his Kyoto University colleagues have successfully reprogrammed human adult cells to function like pluripotent embryonic stem cells. Because it circumvents much of the controversy and restrictions regarding generation of embryonic stem cells from human embryos, this breakthrough, reported in the journal Cell, should accelerate the pace of stem cell research.

These induced pluripotent stem cells, an invention of the Japanese biological scientist Yamanaka is an outstanding testimony for the other scientists, that is, any scientific research must not destroy the moral and ethical values and they must also remember “end can not justify the means”.

The untold Story of Indian Film Industry

The Indian film industry is the oldest and the largest in the world with over 1200 movies released annually. The majority of films are made in the South Indian languages mostly Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam, but Hindi films take the largest box office share. Mumbai (Bombay), Chennai (Madras), Kolkata (Calcutta), Bangalore and Hyderabad are the main film production centers. With more than12000 cinema halls, the Indian film industry turns out more than 1000 films a year to hugely appreciative audiences around the world. 

The history of Indian Cinema can be traced back to 1896 when the famous Lumiere Brothers' of France demonstrated six soundless short films in Bombay. By 1899, Harishchandra Bhatvadekar made India's first short film. This was one of the major milestones in Indian Cinema. Throughout the first two decades, the trend continued with filmmakers.  

Dhundiraj Govind Phalke produced India's first full-length silent film, 'Raja Harishchandra', in 1913. He laid the foundation for the beginning of a regular feature film industry in India. By 1920 there was a regular industry bringing out films starting with 27 per year and reaching 207 films in 1931. Many new companies and filmmakers came up during that period.  The 1930s saw sweeping changes to the industry, technically and stylistically. The most remarkable thing that happened in Indian film industry was in 1931, when India's first talkie, 'Alam Ara', directed by Ardeshir Irani was released. Dubbed into Hindi and Urdu, the film was a smash hit and a new revolution began in the Indian film industry. It's phenomenal success all over India lead to other 'Talking, Singing and Dancing' productions to be hurriedly put into production. At the same time, it marked the beginning of the Talkie era in South Indian film industries also. The first talkie films in Bengali (Jumai Shasthi), Telugu (Bhakta Prahlad) and Tamil (Kalidass) were released in the same year 1931. 

The 30's is recognized as the decade of social protest in the history of India films. In the 30's three major film centres developed which were based in Bombay (Mumbai), Calcutta (Kolkata) and Madras (Chennai). Of these centres, Bombay was known for the making of films geared for national distribution, while Madras and Calcutta were known for their regional films. 

From the 1940's to the late 1950's, the films with their concentration on vibrant song and dance were for many, the most memorable in Indian film history. Another factor that encouraged truly good Indian cinema was the establishment of National Film Awards, the Film Finance Corporations, the National Film Archives of India and the Film and Television Institute of India. The first International Film Festival in 1952 held at Bombay, Chennai, Delhi and Calcutta had great impact on Indian Cinema. 

“God is Hope”

The new encyclical “Spe Salvi” – saved by hope, by our beloved Holy Father Benedict the 16^th imparts an important message “Hope is God”. “Hope, in fact, is a key word in Biblical faith”.  Jesus Christ, who died on the cross and rose to life, brought this “Hope” to us. This trustworthy hope is stronger then any sufferings and slavery “ a hope which therefore transformed life and the world from with in”.

As our Supreme Pontiff correctly points it out neither the radical ideologies like Marxism nor the political structures or the modern scientific developments can bring the true hope to this world but instead they bring “greatest forms of cruelty” and science can contribute greatly to making the world and mankind more human.

The Christian message is not “informative” but also “performative” that is, “the Gospel is not merely a communication of things that can be know, but it is one that makes things happen and is life-changing”.

Moreover, our Holy Father insists that we must get rid of the individualistic understanding of salvation that is, “hope for myself alone, which is not true hope since it, forgets and over looks others”.

The Holy Father instructs us “the first essential setting for learning Hope is Prayers”.  When we pray properly we undergo a process of inner purification which opens us up to God and thus to our neighbors”.

Suffering is a part of our human existence. What heals man, the Holy Father teaches, is not “sidestepping or fleeing from suffering, but rather by our capacity for accepting it, maturing through it and finding meaning through union with Christ, who suffered with infinite love for us.

Finally The Holy Father goes on encouraging us to live with others, he says, “our lives are involved with one another, through innumerable interactions they are linked together. No one lives alone. No one sins alone. No one is saved alone. The lives of others continually spill over into mine: in what I think, say, do and achieve”.

I just would like to raise the same question, which the Holy Father himself left for our personal reflection “what can I do in order that others may be saved and that for them too the star of hope may rise?”