756 words

8 May 2007

Irish Independent

English

(c) 2007 Independent Newspapers Ireland Ltd

There are times when religion, in all its glorious madness, can truly make the world a better, or at least brighter, place.

Whether it’s Pope Benny railing against rock music, that hideous little troll the Dalai Lama condemning oral sex or those Muslim chaps cutting each others’ heads off, it seems that religious types are always angry about something. Which, when you consider that they are all convinced that they, and they alone, are on the fast track to Paradise, seems rather peevish.

But it seems that even when they get together with other denominations to have a bit of fun things can still spiral out of control, if the recent attempts to stage a football match between priests and imams is anything to go by.

Last week saw an interfaith conference take place in Sweden and there were plans to finish the conference with a game.

Sadly, however, the imams objected to the presence of filthy women on their team and refused to play.

Then, just to further confuse matters, the Christian team agreed to drop its two women players and field an all-male team instead.

Which forced the Christian team’s captain to promptly storm off in disgust at the way the female members had been treated.

“Because we thought it would be a nice conclusion of the conference we didn’t want to call it off, so we decided to stage an all- men’s team game instead,” a spokesman said.

“We realise now that it was wrong to have a priest team without women.”

They can’t organise a match without falling out but they expect the rest of us to hand over our souls to them? You gotta love religious types.

Someone needs to get a hobbyWe are well used to politicians saying and doing stupid things. It’s one of the few reasons we keep them around, frankly.

Sadly, this current election campaign has been notable more for the weasel Ahern’s growing discomfort (when you have people cheering on Vincent Browne, of all people, over you, then you know the game is up) than any real gaffes, so we have to turn towards the frozen wastes of Canada for the most recent example of mad politician behaviour.

Local MP Mike Lake has decided that it’s time Canada gets serious about the real issues, which is why he wants to place Big Foot – or Sasquatch, if you’re a stickler for names – on the endangered species list.

The politician has collected 500 signatures in his home town of Alberta and wants to force the Canadian parliament to do more to protect the non- existent creature.

Bigfoot researcher Todd Standing, who was behind the petition, claims to have proof of the Sasquatch’s existence and says he fears for its safety.

Next week, Scottish MPs on why we need to protect the Loch Ness monster.

Junkie see, junkie doHaving already suggested that they might be interested in adopting their own little black baby, Kate Moss and Pete Doherty have now decided that they would actually like to have a baby the old fashioned way.

And while the thoughts of that scabby junkie engaging in any sort of intimate activity is rather repulsive, it seems that Moss refuses to listen to reason.

Doherty was once more arrested on Saturday night when he was busted with crack and hash in his car.

Despite the fact that Doherty is a serial offender, the judge refused to jail him on the rather remarkable grounds that he has been attending therapy sessions in the Priory.

Pity he didn’t get the judge who gave Paris Hilton a custodial sentence.

This is what you call a big whooopsSpare a thought for John Brandrick. He faces bankruptcy and will have to sell his house after he stopped paying his mortgage, donated all his clothes to charity and blew his remaining life savings on fancy meals and nights out.

And what was the cause of such profligate spending? Well, Brandrick was told he had less than a year to live because of cancer, and he decided to go out with a bang.

Now it has emerged that the test was incorrectly conducted and he is in fine physical, if not financial help.

Not surprisingly, he is planning to sue the hospital.

Still, it must be a record – is Brandrick the first man to become enraged by the news that hedidn’t have cancer?

This article is hilarious. It brings in a few religions together not through the story but an organised interfaith meeting, it simply discusses the novelty happening during it. It really is quite funny when you read through it. Also i liked it because it was from a different country, a more international story..

NEWS VALUES

Impact/Consequence – Strictly speaking this doesn’t really impact greatly on anyone, except those involved and those who disagree with religious ideas.

Conflict – There seems to be rather a lot of conflict between the faiths, not surprising really.

Timeliness – Yes, fairly so, it says it was last week, so it is timely…almost

Proximity – It brings together lots of faiths that are prevalent in Aus. which in this case brings in proximity.

Prominence – Yes, it talks about several highly regarded people, even if they aren’t quoted.

Currency – Not really, its not often you hear about interfaith meetings.

Human Interest – Yes, its funny and amusing, more human interest than hard news.

Unusual/Novelty – Yes, its all about a football game. Which is made novelty because it was played by religious leaders.