Homelessness Around the World

Boston conducted its 32nd census of the city’s homeless population earlier this week. A report to the United Nations in 2005 stated there were an estimated 100 million homeless people in the world, and an additional 1.6 billion living without adequate housing. Here are some images of homelessness across the globe, collected from wire images this year.

More in a moving photo essay here.

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

- Isaiah 58:7

What Do We Need

HT

Trafficking in Humans ‘Massive’ Worldwide

In The Washington Times:

Human trafficking has reached “a massive scale,” crossing international borders and involving loosely affiliated crime groups, making the prosecution of those involved difficult, according to testimony Wednesday before the U.S. Helsinki Commission.

“[I]t is not surprising that more and more organized criminal groups are engaging in human trafficking,” said Rep. Christopher H. Smith, New Jersey Republican and commission chairman, pointing out that it is the third most-profitable criminal activity in the world.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Greg Andres, a former organized-crime prosecutor in New York, said human trafficking cases involve “loosely affiliated networks of individuals” who tend to use “smuggling pipelines and money laundering conduits operated by other criminal groups.” He said, on occasion, human traffickers belong to a larger organized crime group.

The United Nations estimates that 2.4 million people worldwide are victims of traffickers…

More here.

 

Catholic Church Statistics

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – As every year, on the occasion of World Mission Sunday, October 23 this year, Fides News Service offers some statistics chosen to give a panorama of the missionary Church all over the world. The tables are taken from the lastest edition of  the “Church’s Book of Statistics” published (updated to December 31, 2009) regarding members of the Church, church structures in the field of  pastoral care, healthcare, welfare and education. Please note that variations, increase or decrease, emerging from our own comparison with last year’s figures, are marked increase (+) or decrease (-).

World Population To December 31, 2009 the world population was equal to 6.777.599.000 people, with an increase of 79.246 million units compared with the previous year. Population growth was registered on every  continent: Africa (+19,983,000); America (+8,744,000); Asia (+47,702, 000); Oceania (+967,000); Europe (+1,850,000) .

Catholics. On the same date Catholics in the world numbered 1,180,665,000 units with an overall increase of 14,951,000 units more than the previous year. The increase affects all continents: Africa (+6,530,000); America (+5,863,000); Asia (+1,814,000); Europe (+597,000), Oceania (+147,000). The World percentage of Catholics increased by 0.02%, settling at 17.42%. By continent: increases were registered in Africa (+0.3); America (+0.04) and Asia (+ 0.01), a drop in numbers was registered, like last year, in Europe (- 0.02) and Oceania (- 0.3).

Persons and Catholics per priest: This year again the number of persons per priest in the world increased by 139 units, average 13,154. The distribution by continent: increase in America (+70), Europe (+42) and Oceania (+181), and a drop in numbers in Africa (-313) and Asia (-628). The number of Catholics per priest in the world increased by 27 units, average 2,876. We have increases on every continent except Asia: Africa (+25); America (+32); Asia (-30); Europe (+16); Oceania (+25)…

Bishops: The total number of Bishops in the world increased by 63 units, to 5,065. Overall the increase in numbers regard both diocesan and religious Bishops. Diocesan Bishops number 3,828 (42 more than in the previous year); Religious Bishops number 1,237 (21 more). The increase in diocesan Bishops is registered on every continent: Africa (+2), America (+19), Asia (+1), Europe (+17), Oceania (+3). The only decrease in religious Bishops was registered in Oceania (-1), the increase was registered in Africa (+10), America (+4), Asia (+5) and Europe (+3).

Priests: The total number of priests in the world increased by 1,427 units more than in the previous year, to 410,593. The only continent which registered a decrease was once again Europe (-1,674), wheras figures grew in Africa (+1155), America (+413), Asia (+1519) and Oceania (+14). Diocesan priests increased by 1,535 units, reaching a total of +275,542, with increases in Africa (+888), America (+946), Asia (+780) and Oceania (+26) but numbers dropped in Europe (-1105). The number of Religious priests decreased by 108 units to a total of 135,051. Increases, following the trend of recent years are Africa (+267) and Asia (+739), but decreases affect America (-533), Europe (-569) and Oceania (-12) …

There’s more statistics here.

 

While I Was Sleeping…

At the start of a new week, here are some goings on on the .net while I was sleeping (that ‘station in the desert of this world’):

• Pope Benedict XVI: Do not forget your Guardian Angel.
• A Eucharistic miracle in Poland?
• Iranian Pastor faces execution, why silence from Holy See?
• A review of Fr Barron’s Catholicism.
• A campaign to save girl altar servers has has been launched.
• A ‘Church’ offers worship for pets!
• Mormon’s to launch a massive media campaign today.
• Do you think the Ark of the Covenant will ever be found?
• Israel supports a proposal to restart peace talks.
• A decline in Jewish studies?

Reasons for Riots: 3rd World vs 1st World Countries

Source

Earthquake in Washington Area, Felt on East Coast

 

AP is reporting:

A 5.9 magnitude earthquake centered northwest of Richmond, Va., shook much of Washington, D.C., and was felt as far north as Rhode Island, New York City and Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., where President Barack Obama is vacationing.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was half a mile deep. Shaking was felt at the White House and all over the East Coast, as far south as Chapel Hill, N.C. Parts of the Pentagon, White House and Capitol were evacuated. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

It was centered near Louisa, Va., which is northwest of Richmond and south of Washington.

Obama and many of the nation’s leaders were out of town on August vacation when the quake struck at 1:51 p.m. EDT. The shaking was felt on the Martha’s Vineyard golf course as Obama was just starting a round.

The East Coast gets earthquakes, but usually smaller ones and is less prepared than California or Alaska for shaking…

More here.

CNN also has the breaking news and video here.

Global Meltdown as Markets Crash

There are fears of a new recession:

Gripped by  fear of a new recession, Wall Street suffered its worst day Thursday  since the financial crisis in the fall of 2008. The firestorm of selling  that erased more than 500 points off the Dow Jones industrial average  then spread overseas.

The sell-off wiped out the Dow’s remaining  gains for 2011. It put the Dow and broader stock indexes into what  investors call a correction — down 10 percent from their highs in the  spring.

Across the financial markets, the  day was reminiscent of the wild swings that defined the financial crisis  in September and October three years ago. Gold prices briefly hit a  record high. Oil fell even more than stocks — 6 percent, or $5.30 a  barrel. And frightened investors were so desperate to get into some  government bonds that they were willing accept almost no return on their  money.

It was the most alarming day yet in the almost  uninterrupted selling that has swept Wall Street for two weeks. The Dow  has lost more than 1,300 points, or 10.5 percent. By one broad measure  kept by Dow Jones, almost $1.9 trillion in market value has disappeared.

For  the day, the Dow closed down 512.76 points, at 11,383.68. It was the  steepest point decline since Dec. 1, 2008…

More here.

The Telegraph is covering the news live here.

Why Has Britain Turned Into A Giant Rubbish Bin?

In Trash and Truth, writes Fr Dwight Longenecker:

Theodore Darymple writes here about modern trashy Britain. Litter, litter everywhere and nary a one to pick it up. The highways and byways of Britain, he says, are like one huge rubbish bin.

Darymple chronicles modern life with a jaundiced eye and is a critic of the left wing intelligentsia who have created an underclass of humanity who are dependent on the state, riddled with STDs, increasingly alcoholic and addicted, immoral and depraved. He’s a retired prison doctor. He’s worked with the people he writes about.

Lest we point the finger at our English cousins too much, America is going rapidly in the same direction. Why do people litter? Because they do not take personal responsibility for their actions. Why do they not take personal responsibility? Because they have been brought up to believe that the state will be their nanny. “I can throw litter. Somebody else employed by the local authority will pick it up.” Why does a person have this attitude? Because their mother taught it to them. I say “Mother” because chances are their father wasn’t on the scene at all.

Mother had a baby when she was fourteen because the state would provide her with an apartment, benefits, a weekly check (so she can buy ciggies and a lottery card) and all the goodies she needs for baby. There will be a social worker who drops by now and again to see that she’s okay and so she has another baby that the state will take care of for her. All this does is breed a dependent underclass who go on to have more kids who are also dependent on the state. Thus the great and cruel irony that Socialism creates poverty. It doesn’t cure it.

All of these are conclusions that Darymple would agree with. What he does not do is take the argument to the next level. Darymple’s an atheist who is sympathetic to the societal benefits of religion. However, the societal benefits of religion are not enough. The reason a person litters and does not take personal responsibility is that his mother didn’t teach him to, but behind that is the breakdown of the family, and behind that is a lack of personal sexual responsibility and behind that is a rejection of Christian morality and behind that is a rejection of Christian anthropology and behind that is a rejection of the notion that man is created in God’s image and behind that is a rejection of the creator himself.

Every argument is a theological argument. It’s simple: while I am not saying every atheist is a litterbug, it is true on a grand scale that disbelief in God leads to lack of personal responsibility which leads to trash. When a society (or an individual) departs from God and his truth eventually all you have is trash.

Litter in the streets is a sort of sacrament of this reality.

That’s why Our Lord’s image of Hell as ‘Gehenna’ is so apt. Gehenna was a huge landfill trash dump outside the city of Jerusalem. The sewers flowed into Gehenna. People dumped their garbage in Gehenna. Corpses of criminals were thrown there. It stank. It was fetid. The burning trash fires never went out. The maggots feasting on the garbage thrived and never died. This is where the trash was thrown and Our Lord (forgetting for a moment his ‘Gentle Jesus Meek and Mild persona’) says that’s what happens to the human trash: they get thrown out into Gehenna.

To deepen the horror further, in Old Testament times the same valley of Gehenna was where children who were the product of the orgiastic worship of Baal and Asherah were sacrificed to Moloch…a society following a religion that worships sex and treats their own children as trash.

So think about that next time you see some litter… (he said cheerfully!)

Japan: Scientists Synthesize Meat from Human Faeces

This is the kind of thing that makes me so glad that I opted for vegetarianism!

It’s being called the “poop burger”. Japanese scientists have found a way to create artificial meat from sewage containing human feces.

Somehow this feels like a Vonnegut plotline: population boom equals food shortage. Solution? Synthesize food from human waste matter. Absurd yes, but Japanese scientists have actually discovered a way to create edible steaks from human feces.

Mitsuyuki Ikeda, a researcher from the Okayama Laboratory, has developed steaks based on proteins from human excrement. Tokyo Sewage approached the scientist because of an overabundance of sewage mud. They asked him to explore the possible uses of the sewage and Ikeda found that the mud contained a great deal of protein because of all the bacteria.

The researchers then extracted those proteins, combined them with a reaction enhancer and put it in an exploder which created the artificial steak. The “meat” is 63% proteins, 25% carbohydrates, 3% lipids and 9% minerals. The researchers color the poop meat red with food coloring and enhance the flavor with soy protein. Initial tests have people saying it even tastes like beef…

Good grief!

There’s more here.

This world is certifiably mad…