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Teenage
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Thirty-year-old
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Researchers
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Church
demolition and banned march spark evangelical protests in Madrid
Madrid, January 9th, 2004
(ACPress.net).
The evangelical community
in Madrid is up in arms at the treatment received by an evangelical
church in the capital. The Ferede and the Evangelical Council
of Madrid responded positively to a request from the predominantly-gypsy
Philadelphia denomination to lobby the authorities who had ordered
the demolition of two church buildings belonging to the Philadelphia
group.
A public demonstration was organised for January 8th at 8.45am,
just a quarter of an hour before the scheduled demolition of
the buildings in the Carabanchel district of the city. The order
was questioned by evangelicals, as the buildings are designated
as places of worship. Agreements signed with the government
insist that such status be removed before a building can be
demolished. The Council promised to find a place for the church
to meet back in June 1995, and agreed they could occupy a green
site in the meanwhile. However, they are now proceeding with
the demolition of this temporary structure, without having found
alternative premises for the church.
A press statement was put out on December 31st in an attempt
to mobilise as much support for the protest as possible, as
the demolition was considered unconstitutional. A.C.Press joined
this effort on January 5th (in its Spanish edition) and is now
following up with the news in English. Evangelical leaders believe
the demolition is a clear case of discrimination against their
community, and are considering what action may be taken, including
an official complaint to the European Union on the grounds of
the violation of the right to worship freely.
It is rather ironic that the decision to demolish the buildings
coincides with a change in status in the land from a green site
to an urban one, and that the Council plans to build a chapel
of rest there! The gypsy church in Carabanchel does sterling
work with a marginalised group in society, combatting illiteracy,
drug addiction and delinquency. It also works with women - the
first gypsy women to obtain driving licences were evangelicals.
So far, letters to the relevant authorities - including central
government - have met with no response. And worse was to come.
The planned demonstration was banned by the authorities. Evangelicals
held a service on the same site instead, bringing the time forward
by an hour to 7.45 in the morning on hearing the news that the
Council were planning to demolish the buildings earlier than
originally stated.
Source & Editing: ACPress.net
Spain's leading newspaper cries: We are all Protestants!, after
demolition
Madrid, January 12th, 2004
(ACPress.net).
The two church buildings
were duly demolished but a useful meeting was held with the
Council at which the church leaders were told of several alternative
worship venues. One was chosen, and a second not too far away
is being sought. The Church asked the Council to put this in
writing. At the time of going to press, nothing has been signed
although there appears to be agreement. The Church concerned
is unable to hold its daily services - common practice among
the gypsy churches - although they hope to be offered a temporary
venue shortly. The evangelical community is asking why the Council
have acted in such an overbearing way.
The biggest-selling Spanish newspaper, 'El País', had this to
say on the church demolition: 'The test of fire for any government
which claims to be 'democratic' is the way it treats minorities,
because it is in the respect and fair treatment it shows towards
the weakest - in political and social terms - that one can see
the willingness and sensitivity of the government, and just
how close it is to the people it serves. It is also a way to
judge its stand on basic values of justice and democracy. It
is much easier to govern for the majority and the powerful;
this is what dictatorships do. This is why all citizens should
be concerned and sound the alarm bells when justice is trampled
on, even though the victims of such injustice are minorities
to which one does not belong.
On January 8th, 2004, the municipal authorities in Madrid trampled
all over justice in a case which should make all the alarms
sound...as I write these words, bulldozers are flattening the
buildings where around 400 members of the Evangelical Church
of Philadelphia - most of them gypsies from Madrid - hold their
peaceful and civilised worship services. They have done so for
more than a decade while waiting - or rather, they were waiting
- for the Council to give them a more suitable place, as the
Council had previously promised in writing. But these people
have got a serious problem: they are not merely gypsies, but
on top of that they are 'Protestants'. That is, a 'minority
among minorities', exposed to the greatest defencelessness.
This is why, today, on behalf of justice and in defence of democracy,
we should all cry: 'We are all gypsies, we are all Protestants,
we are all citizens!'
Source: ACPress.net
& El Pais. Editing: ACPress.net
Teenage
pregnancies have doubled in 10 years
Madrid, January
9th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
Last year,
18,000 girls under the age of 18 got pregnant. Only 13% of sexually-active
teenagers use reliable contraceptive methods. The Health Ministry
calls on parents to warn their children of the danger of unwanted
pregnancies, which have doubled in Spain in the last decade.
Health Minister, Ana Pastor, says it is vital that parents talk
to their children about the need to take precautions to avoid
unwanted pregnancies, if they are sexually active. She mentioned
a World Health Organisation survey which says that only 12.7%
of sexually-active 15-17-year-olds use what are considered to
be reliable forms of contraception. The rest either use nothing,
or unreliable methods. Pastor added that as the average Spanish
woman has her first child at the age of 30 or over, "one
assumes, without much fear of being wrong, that a high percentage
of pregnancies among the under-20s are unwanted."
Source: SERVIMEDIA.
Editing: ACPress.net
Thirty-year-old
teenagers
Madrid, January
9th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
Spanish
young people can be studious, hard-working, fun-loving, shopaholics
or homebirds, according to recent research (see next article),
but one thing they have in common is their liberal attitude
to ethical issues.
The vast majority think that both abortion and euthanasia should
be freely available to whoever wants it. They may well not have
thought through the issues involved, which makes their moral
indifference all the more worrying. A study of 15-24-year-olds
who live in the larger cities and who comprise almost 70% of
their age-group nationally, shows that they are extremely tolerant
of value-less ethics. Let people do what they want, seems to
be the motto.
The study sought to discover what this age-group is like, how
they behave, what they think about, and how they spend their
time. One of the most disturbing issues to arise was violence,
which young people seem to accept as part of the reality in
which they live. The commonest types of crime among this age-group
are street fights, drug offences and theft. This age-group consider
their spare time as more important than their work or studies.
The weekend is almost exclusively devoted to going out and having
a good time. So much so that 6.5% of these youngsters don't
get home until after 7.30 the following morning.
This phenomenon shows that many young people do not shed the
adolescent lifestyle based on weekend leisure and the ideal
of true friends, in some cases until around the age of 30. The
group of friends, based on cooperation and solidarity, has become
very important to the youth of today, some of whom leave home
to share a flat with them when aged between 21 and 24.
Source: ABC.
Editing: ACPress.net
Researchers
divide youth into five categories
Madrid, January
9th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
A recent
government study divides youngsters between the ages of 15 and
24 in five distinct groups: studious (42%), hard-working (23%),
fun-loving (17%), shopaholics (12%) and homebirds (6%).
Most of the first group are teenagers who live with their parents,
but though this is by far the largest group, researchers warn
that drug consumption is rising among this age-group generally.
Behaviour that leads to road accidents, criminal acts and sexual
risk-taking. However, they point out that drug-taking does not
necessarily lead to addiction or more than transient problems.
23% have been involved in street fights, 20% have bought drugs
at least once, 18% have stolen from a shop or bar, and 10% have
committed vandalism. The fun-loving group are mainly made up
of students aged between 18 and 22, most of them at university,
who live it up at the weekend. They head the drug and alcohol
consumption table.
From the age of 23 onwards, they enter the category of 'workers'
even though they do not share the traditional values of the
working-class. They have a job, and a quarter of them have left
the family home. There is an increasing trend towards independence
and flat-sharing. They go out drinking at weekends, especially
on Saturdays. They are also the most sexually-active group,
but at the same time those who take the most precautions.
The final two groups are those who are consumer-oriented (usually
men), and the homebirds (usually women). These conclusions were
drawn from interviews with 1,700 young people in towns and cities
with more than 20,000 inhabitants, as well as other recent research.
Source: EL
PAÍS. Editing: ACPress.net
Human trafficking
is third biggest racket in organised crime
Madrid, January
9th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
The International
Federation 'Tierra de Hombres' says traffic in human beings
is the third largest source of income for organised crime, after
illegal arms sales, and drugs.
Children are the most vulnerable group to this trafficking,
and the Federation says that a million boys and girls are victims
each year. For this reason it is calling on the United Nations
to create an International Day against the Trafficking of Children,
and has organised events in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Its aim is to "make people aware of the serious damage
done by exploiting children, who are treated as if they were
goods."
The coordinator of the campaign, Boris Scharlowski, says "the
United Nations should mark out a future path, emphasising the
fight against this atrocious crime", warning that "government
protection of children is insufficient." He adds that there
are many ways to exploit children to obtain benefits, such as
making them work on plantations, in firms or private homes,
selling them in brothels, forcing them to steal, beg or join
local wars.
Scharlowski explains that the traffickers often use the lack
of future prospects in the children's home countries as the
excuse to make them false promises of a better life, and then
keep them in conditions of slavery for years. They imprison
them, beat or rape them, and they have no means of escaping
from their exploiters. The Federation calls on governments to
help eradicate the problem by ratifying such international agreements
as the 'Palermo Protocol'.
Source: EFE.
Editing: ACPress.net
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