Hungary: They want the benefits of the EU but not the obligations

Hungary takes the hypocritical approach in their relationship with the EU. Take all, give nothing !

https://www.socialeurope.eu/2016/09/folk-devils-moral-panic-hungarys-referendum-mandatory-eu-migrant-quotas/

Poland: Attacks on Women's Reproductive Rights In Poland by Catholic Church continue - by Gavin Rae

Polish PM Beata Maria Szydło

As the crisis around changes implemented to Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal continues, the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) has opened up a new conflict through an attack on the reproductive rights of women. This is significant as it would not only mean making abortion completely illegal in Poland, but also shows how the country is moving further away from being a democratic, secular state.

The hierarchy of the Polish Catholic Church is directly intervening in a major political issue and dictating how the government should act. This has caused an immediate reaction amongst those opposed to the tightening of the abortion law, with thousands already taking to the streets in protest.

Poland already has one of the most restrictive and repressive abortion laws in Europe.  Abortion was made illegal in 1993, in a move that was ludicrously described as a ‘compromise’. It banned abortion in all but three circumstances: where there is a high probability of severe and irreversible damage to the foetus or where it will have an incurable life-threatening disease; where a pregnancy threatens the woman’s life or health; or where the pregnancy is the result of a criminal act.

This draconian abortion law has inevitably resulted in huge numbers of Polish women either being forced to undergo illegal abortions in Poland or travel abroad to have their pregnancies terminated. It is obviously the least well off women – unable to travel abroad – who most often have to have illegal ‘backstreet’ abortions in Poland. It is estimated that around 150,000 illegal abortions take place in the country each year, which carry significant health risks.

The fact that women whose lives are at risk or have become pregnant due to rape would now no longer be able to have a legal and safe abortion, or that a woman could be prosecuted for having had a miscarriage that is deemed to be her fault, highlights the barbarity of the current proposal to completely outlaw abortion.

The second alarming factor in this situation is that the proposal has come directly from the top of the Catholic Church that is now directing government policy on this crucial issue. The Presidium of the Polish Catholic Bishops’ Conference issued a statement last week that Poland should not halt at the present ‘compromise’ on abortion, but move towards a total ban. This statement was then read out in churches throughout Poland on Sunday.

This has concurred with an action being run by the ‘Stop Abortion’ campaign to collect signatures in order to put forward a citizens’ bill to parliament to completely outlaw abortion in the country.

The Prime Minister, Beata Szydło, has said that she personally supports a complete ban on abortion. Even more disturbingly, the leader of PiS (and de facto the most powerful politician in Poland) has stated that as a Catholic he has to support the decisions of the Bishops, and that although his parliamentary group would have a free vote he was sure that the vast majority would vote for the bill.

Although support for the legalisation of abortion has waned during the past two decades, a large majority of Polish society is against it being completely banned (80% when it threatens the life of the mother, 73% when the pregnancy is the result of rape; 53% when the child would be born ill or handicapped).

However, the Polish government is now clothing itself in a cape of religious morality that cannot be questioned. As they are believers in the Catholic faith, they must simply do as the Church dictates. This moves Poland further away from a form of government based upon the opinions of the majority, and towards one that is run according to the ideology and decisions of a religious institution.

The present Polish government has been one of the most hostile to refugees and, after the recent terrorist attacks in Brussels, it quickly announced that it would no longer take the quota of refugees that it had agreed previously with the EU.

Therefore, whilst the conservative right in Poland is now talking about the ‘rights of children’ it is turning a blind eye to those refugee children being washed up on the shores of southern Europe, or the estimated 10,000 refugee children that have gone missing in Europe since the crisis began. 

The Polish Government of Beata Maria Szydło is acting less and less democratic and more and more hypocritical since they came into power last year.

Read more: Attacks on Women's Reproductive Rights In Poland

Paris Massacre: It's not only a "war on terrorism" but also a war on "political hypocrisy" - by RM

The tragic events in Paris are deplorable, but when you listen to the comments of the politicians, or most of the corporate controlled press, very few are focusing on the real reasons behind this ongoing  tragedy..Is it maybe that the root of the problem lies in the failure of the political establishment to accept failure and change course.?

In a way, it is quite simple. Anyone who has a bit of a brain and has been watching the developments in the Middle East over the past  20 years will be able to recognize that the result of this disaster really is the totally failed Western foreign policy in that region. .

Unfortunately even though the real culprits of this failed policy - based on lies and greed - are known - for some reason the facts are usually covered up.  Why are Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Tony Blair., still enjoying a comfortable life, instead of being locked up for war crimes and misleading the public about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and for leading the so called "coalition of the willing" -  which really should have been called "a coalition of the dimwits", - into a war, which basically destroyed the social and cultural structure of Iraq. A war, which also probably lies at the origin of the creation of ISIS. 

The political hypocrisy, however, continues unabated. 

Just look at the reasons politicians give us today when it comes to our ongoing friendship with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Israel. United Arab Emirates, and Egypt.. Terrorism, in this case, is the keyword  used for their smoke screen, and the cover-up of  the real problems. Right wing politicians even go one step further and blame it all on either the influx of refugees or the Islamization of Europe.

Therefore as is stated in 1 Thessalonians 5. - "Test everything - hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil".

Don't get misled by your politicians or Government. Keep asking  the critical questions and vote them out of office when they avoid telling the truth.

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