Shunned for centuries, Voodoo is mutating into a powerful religion Haitians seek solace in to thwart bloody gang violence
The syncretic religion that melds Catholicism with animist beliefs has no official leader or creeds. It has a single God known as “Bondye,” Creole for “Good God,” and more than 1,000 spirits known as the lwa — some that aren’t always benevolent.
High cost of unequal societies: Economic inequality, in effect, normalises immoral and unethical behaviour
The longer we let inequality define our contemporary daily lives, this new research helps us understand, the more unethical behaviour all around us will seem to reflect just the way our world naturally works.
China’s faces serious demographic crisis as its rapidly ageing migrant workforce can’t afford to retire
Pensions in China are based on an internal passport system known as hukou, which divides the population along urban-rural lines, creating vast differences in incomes and access to social services. Monthly urban pensions range from roughly 3,000 yuan in less-developed provinces to about 6,000 yuan in Beijing and Shanghai. Rural pensions, introduced nationwide in 2009, are meagre.
World Bank is transforming homosexuality into a political tool to graft Western values on Ugandans
Unlike in the case of the Anti-Homosexuality Act (2014) when the Uganda Constitutional Court ruled that it violated human rights, in the case of the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023, it on April 3 2024 ruled to uphold the law. However, institutions such as Human Rights Watch were not happy. They argue that the law has abusive and radical provisions, entrenches discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and queer (LGBTQ and makes them prone to further violence.
Barons behind the brands: Money, power, povery and the corruption of America’s food industry
Being from rural Iowa and witnessing the 1980s Farm Crisis take hold of my family and neighbours, “Barons” takes a long overdue stand for the farm community of my youth. It’s a painful loss knowing that today’s industrial food system rises from the ashes of America’s family farms. And it is no accident.
US Methodist Church unbans homosexuality, now defines marriage as between ‘two people of faith’ not man and woman
Also approved was a measure that forbids district superintendents – or regional administrators – from penalising clergy for either performing a same-sex wedding or for refraining from performing one. It also prohibits superintendents from forbidding a church from hosting a same-sex wedding or requiring it to.
Pot ‘crackers’ in US celebrate reclassification of marijuana but move won’t get drug pushers out of jail
Biden, a Democrat, supports legalising medical marijuana for use “where appropriate, consistent with medical and scientific evidence,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on April 25, 2024. “That is why it is important for this independent review to go through.”
New era for US drugs regulation as Biden administration reclassifies cannabis but pot businesses still can’t find a bank
Most Americans live in states where marijuana is legally available in some form. But there’s a continuing problem when it comes to banks: Many financial institutions don’t want anything to do with money from the cannabis industry for fear it could expose them to legal trouble from the federal government, which still lists marijuana as illegal.
Questions linger over marijuana legalisation, scars of drug war on Blacks and minorities in US
In Washington, an applicant must own more than half the business and meet other criteria, such as having lived for at least five years between 1980 and 2010 in an area with high poverty, unemployment or cannabis arrest rates; having been arrested for a cannabis-related crime; or having a below-median household income.
Covid cover-up: White House will never earn trust back from Americans by deeming information that it doesn’t like as misinformation
Upon questioning by Representative Debbie Dingell (Democratic-Michigan) and Representative Deborah Ross (Democratic-North Carolina) about communications between Fauci, Collins and Thorp in May 2021, Thorp said they supported an investigation into the origins of Covid-19 at the time and did not dissuade Science from publishing the Bloom letter.
