RATIONALIST INTERNATIONAL

www.rationalistinternational.net

Bulletin # 58 (10 December, 2000)

IN THIS ISSUE:

• REFLECTIONS FOR ROMANS AND NON-ROMANS - Sanal Edamaruku
• THE NETHERLANDS: WOMEN ON WAVES
• DR SHAIKH CASE: FIR NOW AVAILABLE
• BANGLADESH: WOMEN JOIN THE ARMY
• VATICAN: WAITING FOR THE POPE STRIP

REFLECTIONS FOR ROMANS AND

NON-ROMANS

Sanal Edamaruku

There have been some interesting reactions on my article "Is the humanist movement dying?" in Bulletin # 56. Several encouraging positive reactions have come, but also four critical letters with very similar argumentation. Surprisingly, they misinterpret my article. I expressed my concern about the world humanist movement, which is very pluralistic, and my views were offered as constructive criticism in the hope that we can all, despite different nomenclatures, work together for the good of the movement. Though I did not name any special organization per se, they took it as criticism against the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) exclusively. I take the letter of Levi Fragell, President of the IHEU as a base for the following reflections.

The letter is short. Levi Fragell criticizes that my "very serious attacks on IHEU" should, in the interest of the "movement", not have been published in the Bulletin, "since it goes to thousands of subscribers around the world and can give rather one-sided impressions". He finds my description of the present situation of the IHEU "unjust and unfriendly" and points out that "the IHEU today does a tremendous job, representing humanism in places where we never before have been, from the World Parliament of Religions in Cape Town to the Oslo Coalition for Freedom of Religion and Belief".

It is, in fact, my considered view that only a process of self-criticism and re-evaluation can revive and re-vigor the movement internationally. In this light, confrontation with the unpleasant state of affairs, even if perceived as drastic, may indeed be useful - as would have been the warnings of Cassandra, if one would have bothered to listen to her in time. It is true that the call: "Rome is burning!" gives a rather one-sided impression, because it blends out so many happy things, which also could rightly be said about Rome. But it hits the essential point and may, if anything, prevent the worst.

Another question is, if it is tactful to ring the alarm when non-Romans are listening. I think it is. I like to see the "movement" as one, despite different nomenclatures and despite different organizational structures and substructures. There may be certain minor differences in questions of philosophy and practice, but finally we all should come to stand and fight on the same side of the barricades. If the movement is one, it does not make much of a difference, who is a Roman and who is not (except, of course, for the taxes!).

It needs some vision to imagine and draft an umbrella organization, capable to take lead and to unify and strengthen all forces in order to realize common potential and future growth to the maximum. And it needs hard work and uncompromising determination in tandem with honest self-criticism, to create it and get it function and let it more and more resemble our draft. This is, in my eyes, the way to further our movement. We need to keep setting high goals and achieving them. An umbrella organization can serve the movement by integrating its heterogeneous elements in a way that allows all of them to find their position and to contribute to the best of their capacities to the common goals. It has to be like an experienced general who is entrusted the task to form and lead an army out of all available forces. Village militia, tribal fighting groups, scattered units of national army and the palace guards will under his wise guidance fight together in mutual respect and recognition. What unites them is not a special uniform or a common symbol or a common name "without adjectives", but the will to defeat the enemy.

Back to the burning metropolis! The comparison is, of course, limping. While conflagration doesn't lack dramatic, the dying of the humanist movement does. And this exactly is the problem. The symptoms of the disease which may slowly lead to its death are: lack of money, lack of identified opportunities, lack of ideas, lack of dynamism, lack of vision and lack of courage. Sticking to existing structures, howsoever limited and insufficient they are, for no better reason than that they are existing, cutting our coat according to our cloth and finding consolation in the idea that it could be still worse than it already is, is not only unworthy and shameful, it seals the fate of the humanist movement.

Levi Fragell's letter made me sad. Not so much, because he has chosen to identify the IHEU as the exclusive aim of my attack - which was obviously launched against a far wider front -, but because he decided to interpret it as an unfriendly and destructive act. I would have expected him to understand that my alarm aimed at rescue operations, and to take the chance to open his heart for some self-criticism. It was, in fact, not for the first time that I knocked at his door. His letter seems to show more worry about the public image of IHEU than about the real state of the humanist movement. What saddened me most is his attempt to impress us with IHEU's "tremendous achievements". Isn't it rather humiliating for a respected world humanist leader to be invited to sit as an observer on the back benches of the so-called World Parliament of Religions and listen to the holy deliberations of the spiritual leaders?

While Rome is burning, should we pass time, dining with the incendiaries?

THE NETHERLANDS: WOMEN ON WAVES

Rebecca Gomperts, 34 years old gynecologist and public health activist from the Netherlands is going to make waves. She set up her own abortion clinic aboard a ship. Her adventurous plan is to offer the services of her team at sea, in safe distance from foreign coasts, to women who cannot get a legal abortion in their country. Legally, on a Dutch ship in international waters, the liberal abortion laws of the Netherlands are prevailing, as long as it does not cross the 12-miles-zone.

Rebecca Gomperts initiated the Amsterdam based "Women on Waves Foundation" to bring into world-wide public attention and discussion, what is in many countries still one of the darkest chapters of public health. Estimations range from 60,000 to 100,000 deaths per year as consequence of unsafe abortions. While some technical questions have still to be solved (for example how the patients would safely travel to the ship and back, and how follow up care could be guaranteed etc.), the publicity angle seems to become a full success. Before putting to sea, the 'Women on Waves' has already created a stir in Malta, one of the countries where abortion is strictly illegal. Advance publicity for the abortion ship provoked protest as well as unexpectedly vocal defense for abortion rights, and unleashed an open public debate in the media.

DR SHAIKH CASE: FIR NOW AVAILABLE

The English translation of the First Information Report (FIR) against rationalist Dr Younous Shaikh, who is in a Pakistan jail for blasphemy charges, is available now. To see the document, please click here.

BANGLADESH: WOMEN JOIN THE ARMY

An up to now exclusively male domain has opened up for woman in Bangladesh: 35 girls between 16 and 18 years have been accepted as the first batch for Army officer training and will join as cadets next month. A career in the Army seems to be attractive for Bangladeshi women. There have been 11,000 applications for the first ever training places.

VATICAN: WAITING FOR THE POPE STRIP

Batman, Snoopy and Spiderman can be happy. There will soon be an addition to the family of comic figures. He does not look especially colorful and does not promise too much fun either. But let's see. The Vatican is preparing a comic strip about the Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla's way to papal stardom. It is meant for worldwide circulation. Any takers?

How to contact Rationalist International? Postal address: Rationalist International, P O Box 9110, New Delhi 110091, India. Phone: +91-11-2253255, Fax: +91-11-914456201 (please note the change in fax number), Web Site: www.rationalistinternational.net Email: info@rationalistinternational.net

Honorary Associates: (alphabetically) Prof. Mike Archer (Australia), Katsuaki Asai (Japan), Prof. Colin Blakemore (UK), Prof. Vern Bullough (USA), Dr. Bill Cooke (New Zealand), Dr. Helena Cronin (UK), Prof. Richard Dawkins (UK), Joseph Edamaruku (India), Christopher Hitchens (USA), Lavanam (India), Prof. Paul Kurtz (USA), Dr. Henry Morgentaler (Canada), Dr. Taslima Nasreen (Bangladesh), Steinar Nilsen (Norway), Prof. Jean-Claude Pecker (France), James Randi (USA), Dr. G N Jyoti Shankar (meanwhile deceased) (USA), Barbara Smoker (UK), Prof. Harry Stopes-Roe (UK), Prof. Rob Tielman (The Netherlands), Jane Wynne Willson (UK), Prof. Lewis Wolpert (UK).

Sanal Edamaruku, President of Rationalist International, can be contacted at Edamaruku@rationalistinternational.net