Hello world!
August 13th, 2008 by hidayathWelcome to Mobiforumz.com. then start blogging ur own wap site!
Free Mp3’s 4 Ur Mobile
Free Full Games 4 Ur Mobile
Free Mobile Applications
Free RingTones 4 mobiles
August 11th, 2008 by hidayath
Sunday, 10th August 2008
Dolphins’ conditions
Tom Larkins, Essex, England
Thank you for your report about the conditions for animals at the Mediterraneo Marine Park (The Sunday Times, August 3). Dolphins belong with their families and companions swimming freely in their rightful ocean home, not in cramped, ugly tanks.
Our fascination with these intelligent, graceful, and affable marine mammals is no excuse for depriving them of their freedom and forcing them to ‘interact’ with us. People who patronise a swim-with programme can go home, but the dolphins are there until their dying day. When your tourist memories fade, the dolphins will still be confined, doing the same old routines for yet more curious customers.
As long as anyone buys a ticket for these exploitative and cruel operations, dolphins will continue to suffer and die.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080810/letters/dolphins-conditions
Dr Bernard Ratigan: Face to faith | Comment is free | The Guardian
August 9th, 2008 by hidayathRowan Williams: gay couples reflect the love of God | World news | The Guardian
August 7th, 2008 by hidayathAugust 3rd, 2008 by hidayath
Sunday, 3rd August 2008
Malta dolphin park listed among ‘cruellest’ destinations
Herman Grech
The Mediterraneo Marine Park in Bahar in-Caghaq has been listed as one of seven cruel destinations by the largest animal rights organisation in the world.
For several children and adults alike, the Mediterraneo Marine Park provides the perfect platform to observe closely the intelligence and beauty of dolphins. But for PETA, the ’swimming with dolphins’ programme has miserable consequences for these mammals.
Dolphins in this type of programme were captured in the wild or imported from conflict-ridden countries, it said. They would never be able to swim in the vast oceans, and may become frightened by being constantly surrounded by clambering tourists.
When asked why Mediterraneo has been put on the same list as the brutal bull-running festival in Pamplona, a spokesman for PETA UK told The Sunday Times that members of the public who had visited the Malta park were horrified to find dolphins kept in small tanks. They had also alleged that the dolphins showed signs of illness and injury.
“Dolphins are highly intelligent, social beings who travel with their close-knit families for up to 50 miles a day in the open ocean. By confining them for eternity to tanks that are, to them, the size of a bathtub, and forcing them to perform silly, repetitious and meaningless tricks and swim in endless circles, is subjecting them to unforgiveable cruelty,” the spokesman said.
PETA said dolphin shows provided no educational benefit for the public - in fact, they taught children all the wrong lessons about wildlife - and the ’swim with the dolphins’ programmes were universally condemned as humans brought diseases to dolphins.
“All that is taught is that these wonderful, social, sentient animals are ours to exploit and torture at will; not a lesson for the 21st century.”
PETA suggests an alternative - anyone who wants to get close to nature should take an approved dolphin and whale-spotting holiday and enjoy animals in their natural habitat: never by patronising aquariums and marine parks that involve stress, capture, close confinement and handling.
Animal prisons posing as fun-packed and educational attractions, like zoos and aquariums, are also on the list, which includes horse-drawn carriages in Paris and the Berlin zoo.
Efforts to obtain a reaction from Mediterraneo’s management proved fruitless.
For further information about dolphins in captivity log on to: www.cetfree.org
July 26th, 2008 by hidayath
Message of July 25, 2008
“Dear children! At this time when you are thinking of physical rest, I call you to conversion. Pray and work so that your heart yearns for God the Creator who is the true rest of your soul and your body. May He reveal His face to you and may He give you His peace. I am with you and intercede before God for each of you. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
Faith leaders out of touch about gays -Times Online
July 22nd, 2008 by hidayathJuly 19th, 2008 by hidayath
Saturday, 19th July 2008
Transgender characters from the Bible
Peterson Toscano, an American theatrical performance activist, will tonight present a piece on transgender characters un-earthed from the Bible.
Aptly named Transfigurations: Transgressing Gender In The Bible, the one-man show is about people who do not fit in the gender binary and who, in transgressing and transcending gender, find themselves at the centre of some the Bible’s most important stories.
Drawing inspiration from one-on-one interviews with transgender and gender-queer individuals, Mr Toscano weaves their experiences with the stories and lives of transgender people right on the pages of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures.
Hilarious and deeply moving, he deepens well-known, and lesser-known, Bible stories as he presents an array of characters with an array of genders.
Mr Toscano studied theatre and English literature at City College of New York. A comic character actor and a playwright, he often draws on poetry, the Bible and other texts as well as extensive interviews to inspire his work. He performs throughout North America and Europe and appears regularly on American television and in films.
As a gay man, his journey out of the closet was long and complicated. He spent years in therapy attempting to change from gay to straight, attending ex-gay support groups, enduring three exorcisms and even spending two years in an ex-gay boot camp but in 1998 he finally came out and fully accepted himself as a gay man.
Last year, along with fellow ex-gay survivor Christine Bakke, he launched , an online resource for ex-gay survivors. He speaks out regularly about the harms of therapies to change lesbians and gays and will be addressing the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, England.
The show is produced by Drachma, a Catholic group of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender people who meet to pray together, in collaboration with Warehouse No. 8.
Tonight’s performance will be held at Warehouse No. 8 at 9 p.m. Tickets cost €11.
For information call on 7947 5853 or 7905 7676.
For information call on 7947 5853 or 7905 7676.
July 16th, 2008 by hidayath
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Justin R. Cannon, Editor
http://www.sanctifiedanthology.com
admin@sanctifiedanthology.com
World’s first Gay Christian Poetry Anthology Published this Month–
Sanctified: An Anthology of Poetry by LGBT Christians
San Francisco, CA – This month marks the publication of the world’s first poetry anthology devoted exclusively to works by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans Christians. Justin R. Cannon, editor of Sanctified: An Anthology of Poetry by LGBT Christians, explains, “I am excited about this publication because LGBT Christians’ voices need to be heard not only in church meetings, city councils, and courtrooms, but also in the literary arena. I believe poetry is an intimate, very revealing form of writing, and that this anthology speaks deeply to the experience of queer Christians in our world.” He elaborates, “The many voices in this anthology reveal the deep pain and grief, longing and desire, and also the desires and joys of LGBT Christians, who are often caught between two world that are so often opposed to each other. These poems also give a glimpse of the many gifts we have to offer the church and society.”
Almost a year ago Cannon began collecting submissions from LGBT Christians through www.SanctifiedAnthology.com. He explains, “Reading through the countless submissions that we received was a crazy task–there were so many good poems that had to be narrowed down for the publication.” Remorsefully, Cannon confesses, “I knew I had to narrow it down, but it was still hard sending notices to the poets whose works were not accepted for publication. I am quite satisfied, though, with how the book has turned out.”
The final product is a beautiful tome of 142 pages featuring poetry by thirty-three poets including: Stephen Barlett-Re, Jeffrey Barnes, Ben Barton, J. Michael Braiden, Nathan I. Brisby, Justin Cannon, John Coons, Sharon E. Cutts, Trey Dayton, Edward Gerard Debonis, Christopher Alan Gaskins, Mario Gerada, Mario Gonzalez, Heidi Griepp, Chad Gurley, Linda Heidenreich, Lucas Roberto Hoare, Ryan Hollist, Timothy Holyoake, Wes Jamison, Jeffery Johnson, Henry Juhala, Erik J. Koepnick, Mark Koerber, Jose A. Lopez “Joalby”, Timothy Metzner, Lucas Mix, Al-Antony Moody, Connie Schroeder, Richard Tetreault, Robert Thompson, and Fred Turpin.
Sanctified can be pre-ordered at www.SanctifiedAnthology.com, and will also be listed on Amazon.com by the end of the month (ISBN: 978-1438247854). Cannon is also the director of Inclusive Orthodoxy, an online ministry to LGBT Christians (www.InclusiveOrthodoxy.org) as well as an LGBT Christian dating service, RainbowChristians.com. He currently lives in Berkeley, California where he is pursuing priesthood in the Episcopal Church.
July 13th, 2008 by hidayath
Toscano: “To people who are straight, I understand you don’t get it, but it doesn’t mean it’s wrong.” Photo: Jason BorgSunday, 13th July 2008
A musing
Ariadne Massa
A musing
Ariadne Massa
With his infectious smile, spirited remarks and positive energy, it’s hard to imagine how Toscano suppressed his true being for 17 years to fit in society’s pigeonhole of ’straight’ people. At 43, the long traumatic journey has failed to etch wrinkles in his flawless complexion, which he attributes to daily moisturiser and veganism.
“I knew I was different at six. I was on a cabin cruiser with my family and I was staring at these beautiful lace curtains and I just wanted to touch them. Suddenly my uncle roars: ‘Don’t wipe your hands on those!’ ” he says, smiling.
By the time he was eight, he had crushes on his male teachers , which he kept to himself.
“I got the message pretty quickly that boys are supposed to like girls, and I heard bad things about homos, fags and queers,” he adds.
“I got the message pretty quickly that boys are supposed to like girls, and I heard bad things about homos, fags and queers,” he adds.
Raised a Catholic and fascinated by spirituality, Toscano contemplated becoming a priest because being celibate meant he did not have to deal with his sexuality. He even went on a Capuchins’ retreat and that was where he confided in a priest.
“He said God could heal me. He had me lie on the ground and prayed to drive the evil out of me. That was my first exorcism,” he recalls.
Not finding the solution in the Catholic Church, at 18 he joined the Protestant Christians because the pastor told him God would “fix it”. This did not work either, so he joined an ex-gay group in New York.
“This was at the height of the AIDS crisis so it was yet another example of evil,” he says.
So why did he refuse to accept himself and prolong the agony?
So why did he refuse to accept himself and prolong the agony?
“I wanted to be a missionary, but I needed to tackle this problem, because I was told I couldn’t be gay and Christian,” he said.
“I swallowed the lies that as a gay I couldn’t be trusted, so I put my trust in older, wiser, straight men. The 10th Commandment says not to covet thy neighbour’s wife, but I was coveting my straight neighbour’s life.”
So intent was he on becoming straight that at 25 he married a woman. She knew his concerns, but the pastor encouraged it and they both believed God would work a miracle.
“We were compatible companions, but I never desired her sexually, which must be one of the cruellest things a woman must face. I battled with depression and even contemplated suicide,” he says.
After five years his marriage broke down and he enrolled in the ex-gay residential programme, Love in Action, which he graduated successfully from two years later. This period in life inspired his successful comedy Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo’ Halfway House.
After being a “phantom of myself”, he finally saw the light in December 1998, at the age of 33. Together with ex-gay survivor, Christine Bakke, he went on to set up Beyond Ex-Gay, an online resource for ex-gay survivors, and speaks regularly about the harm of therapies to change gays.
Toscano’s advice to gay people is: “It’s not easy or convenient, but if we’re ashamed of ourselves, it’s as if we give them permission to treat us shamefully.”
Toscano’s advice to gay people is: “It’s not easy or convenient, but if we’re ashamed of ourselves, it’s as if we give them permission to treat us shamefully.”
His brain finally cleared, he started doing what he loves best - acting and stand-up comedy, earning a global reputation for his work, featuring in The New York Times, People Magazine and The Tyra Banks Show, among others.
He is now in Malta to present two performances: The Re-education of George W. Bush on Friday, and the Transfiguration, Transgressing Gender in the Bible on Saturday, at Warehouse 8, in Marsa (park near BoV and follow the signs), at 9 p.m.
“The Re-education of George W. Bush is not just about bashing Bush; it looks at issues of racism and sexism. We all have a little George Bush inside us, we just have to re-educate him. It weaves comedy and pathos and raises a lot of questions. For some people it’s a bumpy ride,” he says.
Peterson is in Malta on the invitation of Drachma, a Catholic group of gay people.
For tickets call on 7940 4134.