Tuesday, April 29, 2008

More confusion on 'family values'

The Austrian case of multiple incest and domestic violence in a supposedly average family should offer warnings to anyone who tries to pretend that there is somehow something untouchable about 'the family'. Families, like most other institutions can be good and bad. Most murders and rapes happen within families. The obvious support given to the murderer of the young Goth woman in Bacup displays how families can be just as much part of the problem. It is the quality of living arrangements which matters -not the structure.

And remember the Catholic adoption agencies screeching about having to close all their adoption agencies because they would no longer be allowed to discriminate against gay people? In reality, none will close., What is happening instead is that the agencies - supported largely by the State, not Vatican plc despite its vast riches - are establishing themselves as independent agencies and they are signing up to the new regulations. because many of the well-trained social workers in their employ never wanted to discriminate in the first place, and will be able to provide a much better service outside the UK branch of Vatican plc. One really should question, given their record, whether the RC's are a suitable organisation to be involved in child care in any case. Thankfully, it appears their prejudices will help to make this branch of their 'work' history.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

In yesterday's Le Monde there is a piece on a ballet at the Grand Opera based on Federico Garcia Lorca's La casa de Bernarda Alba. The coreography is by Mats Ek. Bernarda is danced by a bloke. It was produced for Madrid in 1975.

A couple of friends and I went to Madrid the year after do study Spanish and saw another performance of Casa de Bernarda in an old theater near el Rastro the Flee market, also with a bloke in the leading role.

The stage was a room with padded walls. The padded room and Bernarda being a bloke underlined the trapping of the daughters. The sheer violence.

This is what I see in these Austrian situations...

http://gkochswahne.blogspot.com