TOO BLESSED TO BE STRESSED? HOW CHRISTIANITY IS HARMFUL TO THOSE WITH MENTAL ILLNESS
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Posted:Apr 14, 2016 11:54 am
Last Updated:Apr 14, 2016 2:52 pm
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I consider myself a Christian. I believe in God, I read the Bible, I go to church. My faith plays a role in certain aspects of my disease, but this wasn’t always the case. Earlier in my Christian journey, and before I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I had experiences that would lead me to believe that Christianity and mental illness could not be reconciled. That information came not from the Bible, but from how some Christians exhibit their faith.
Some years ago, I was in the midst of a depressive episode but I didn’t understand what was happening to me. I knew that I was tired and teary and my brain was foggy. I’d thought about getting into therapy to talk about my feelings about a recent breakup and accompanying weight gain. Instead, my father convinced me to become more active in our church. This was supposed to deepen my relationship with God and make me feel better.
I took my dad’s advice and took a more active role in the church. When my favorite minister invited me to attend a women’s spiritual retreat one weekend, I agreed because I liked her and believed that it would help my mood. Expecting fellowship and sisterhood, what I experienced instead made me feel even worse.
Most of the women at the retreat were what I call “I’m blessed” Christians. You know, the kind of people who say “I’m blessed” whenever you ask how they are. They might as well answer “I’m Black.” These “I’m blessed” women that I met didn’t leave room for the emotional vagaries of the human condition, and certainly didn’t leave any room for me to talk about what I thought of as my emotional issues. “I’m blessed” is pretty much a non-starter, at least for me, because I never know how to respond. “Good for you” seems dismissive, and the only appropriate response is another declaration of faith. If all I was supposed to do was talk about God and religion whenever anyone spoke to me, I was sure that Christianity and mental illness — or at least emotional issues — had no place being together in this environment.
The women that I met at the retreat were also the kind of people who say, “I’m too blessed to be stressed.” I know they meant that their stress is mollified by their faith, or that God’s blessings are with them even in times of emotional tension. But did they feel stress? My whole reason for getting more involved in the church was because I was stressed. But being around a group of women who seemed to agree that anxiety wasn’t possible for them made me feel alone and so wrong. So when my minster packed her Bible into a case — one that everyone else in the room seemed to have but me — and asked me how my day was, all I could muster was a wan “It was a blessing.” What I really wanted to say was, is there any room for my feelings in this religious expression?
Fortunately, I eventually found professional help for my mental illness and a spiritual home in which I feel comfortable talking to my pastor about my condition. Instead of claiming my unlilateral blessings under all situations, I acknowledge the role that God has played in getting me to seek help and in making me smart enough to get the help I need when I need it. Unlike the Christians I met early in my struggle, I connect with God for strength that’s particular to my situation rather than repeating the platitudes that mark some religious experiences. Of course Christianity and mental illness can coexist in the same person, but Christians need to be more mindful of how their expression of faith affects us.
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I’ve spent 30 years counseling priests who fall in love. Here’s what I learned.
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Posted:Apr 7, 2016 4:29 pm
Last Updated:Apr 9, 2016 4:05 pm
5105 Views
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for Catholic priests, love plays a major professional role. They talk endlessly about the love of God, love for God, God's love of man, love of neighbor, even love of self, albeit this last one at times disparagingly. The one that lights them up the most, however, is their love of the priesthood, something every priest I know feels deeply.
But the actual mechanics of love between two humans — the many powerful and often conflicted feeling that arise — create problems that are very challenging and deeply personal.
I am a psychologist, and I have spent much of the past three decades dealing with those kinds of problems. The kinds that compel priests' superiors to send them off for treatment at a facility dedicated to priests. The sample with which I am familiar is biased — it only includes those priests whose behavior has been called into question, and it does not include those involved with minors.
I have dealt extensively with men who have been involved with other adults, both men and women. For the rest, I am sure there are many good men who have navigated the choppy waters of physical attraction with relative aplomb if not ease. In fact, I know some. I take them at their word.
In my first few months of counseling priests, I was shocked at the kinds of mayhem they could cause. I began to wonder why, if so many of them were so unhappy, they didn't just leave. Over 30 years I learned that the answer is more complicated than it looks — especially when the source of unhappiness is love.
One of the virtues of being a therapist is witnessing human beings up close, or as close as intimate conversation allows. And up close to those priests labeled as "troubled" reveals a sad if complicated story.
Why do men become priests?
Almost uniquely among human occupations, priests cannot marry, as a function of their vocation; nor can they engage in sexual acts, as proscribed by Catholic moral teaching. They live in a world unfamiliar to most of us, a world in which physical attractions and responses are not sought after and celebrated but instead are forbidden. Most people would not and do not volunteer to live in such a world, but men who would be priests do precisely that.
There are lots of reasons for this: a pious upbringing where priests are revered, or a desire to serve, to be special, to stand apart from others, to help humanity. Those are some of the satisfactory reasons. There are other, less benign ones, which a man contemplating the priesthood may not even himself consciously recognize at ordination.
People automatically accord priests a kind of deference available to few other professionals
What are those less benign reasons? Sometimes conflicts over sexual attraction or orientation, childlike shame over any sexual impulse, even limited ability to relate to people outside a structured role. And, paradoxically, a powerful desire for the esteem of others, for affirmation, and, yes, even for love. To be a priest is to be a leader esteemed and loved by Catholics everywhere. Naturally, he is the center of parish life.
People automatically accord priests a kind of deference available to few other professionals. So long as he is functioning in the role, he learns more or less how to behave. He learns that people attend to his reactions. Is Father frowning? Is he smiling? Does he approve? This makes for life in a kind of fishbowl where everyone outside is watching.
Given this, how does a priest manage the components of love — the physical responses, the emotional reactions, the attractions? How are they supposed to?
How priests find themselves falling in love
It is true that some priests "fall in love" the way most of us think about that: They meet someone to whom they are drawn; they get to know them; they get physical; they get sexual.
In the normal (i.e., noncelibate) world, this is usually a happy series of events. In the celibate world, it may be happy but constrained — by the watchful eyes of parishioners and superiors, by public expectation, by personal feelings of guilt, by the lack of a clear path toward commitment.
How Pope Francis brought me back to the Catholic Church
If this experience leads to a decision to leave the priesthood and marry, as it often does, there is no psychological problem. It is simply a life choice: a difficult one, to be sure, but not unlike decisions incumbent upon all of us.
More common is the case of Father D., a successful priest and administrator who finally revealed ongoing involvements with two women that lasted for more than a decade. The push to disclose came when he told Woman No. 1 about Woman No. 2. He was shocked at her (understandably) angry reaction.
That shock enabled him to tell the story of how he got involved, what was going on with him at the time, and how he allowed it to persist even as his career was blossoming and exposure became more threatening. This allowed Father D. to develop a more realistic approach to whatever intimacy needs he had while remaining within the bounds of a celibate priesthood if he so chose.
This is more typical of what is seen in treatment centers: men who yield to their passions but are unable or unwilling to leave the priesthood they love and on which they depend. Up to the moment it becomes known, it is a balancing act between the priesthood and a relationship, or series of relationships, which they come to believe they cannot live without. Is there love involved? Sometimes. But mostly it's a matter of juggling two incompatible things.
Curiously, not much attention is paid to handling love and physical attraction in the long years of priests' training. For the most part, priestly training involves morality — the dos and don'ts of priestly life. Mostly, as one might imagine, the don'ts.
The one thing that is imparted informally in training is male camaraderie: team sports, guys socializing, guy group activities. These seem to be the alternative to specific love interests. It is not the case, however, that this "alternative" is without complications. In all this male camaraderie, pair bonding is not unheard of, and hooking up privately is not unknown.
The real challenge comes after ordination, when the observing eyes of superiors are far away. Over the past 30 years, the number of priests has been going down dramatically. Young priests are often sent to parishes alone after minimal on-the-job training with an older colleague.
This can be heady, exciting, frightening, anxiety-producing, and even intoxicating. It is also easy in this context to feel lonely, misunderstood, and powerfully desirous of solace beyond the purely spiritual kind.
It is here that love can bloom more easily. Not the theoretical, theological kind of love discussed in training, but the actual, sensuous, immediate, and non-intellectualized power trip of falling for someone. The space where moral imperatives can easily get fuzzy and slip into the background.
It is common in priest circles to find reasons for things, and there are usually plenty on offer as to why an ordained priest would forsake his vows and get involved with a woman (to take the obvious case) or with another man: frustration, disappointment, loneliness, experiencing one's self as sexual once the microscope of training has ended — even the freedom a man experiences being on his own.
Does this happen to every young priest? Not by a long shot. But it does happen.
After all, a priest's parishioners mostly have families to which they return, primary attachments in the context of which they can bitch and moan and feel generally safe in so doing. For too many priests, this is just not available.
Why not? The world of the priesthood as I have observed it is, curiously, a male, even a macho one. Christian values might be called "feminine" (patience, forbearance, gentleness), but the purveyors of those values are expected to carry on often intense work in a solitary way with minimal support.
Bitching? Moaning? Those are for weaker men. It is the job of the priest to be strong in the midst of others' weakness. His own weakness, sadly, is a private affair.
And it is precisely this private aspect that makes a priest vulnerable to lapsing into a relationship. Frankly, it does not take much for a youngish man who has little actual support, perhaps no sexual experience, and a lot of high-stress work to respond favorably to the attentions of an interested love object. Confusion about sexual matters only makes him more vulnerable.
Once a priest presents himself as a chaste, committed celibate but is actually sexually active, he has destroyed one of the pillars of his mental health
It is easy to feel outrage at a priest who crosses professional or personal boundaries; the prospect of priests who abuse is nauseating. Without excusing any of this behavior, it is not hard to comprehend why men are vulnerable and why they would seek out what is probably the most potent form of comfort known to humans: intimacy, in whatever twisted form that might take.
It is possible to be "intimate" in a conversation: two people sharing the details of their personal lives qualifies. But when basic needs for support, warmth, and connection are unfulfilled, the impulse toward physicality increases. Everyone feels a need to be touched and to touch. Usually, such contact begins with an innocent hug, which then lingers, which then involves a kiss ... not so different in kind from what many people experience.
What happens when priests act on their attractions
There are important differences between those who seek out physical contact freely and openly and those who perforce do it on the sly. A major one is the guilt and shame about violating values. Also most priests tend to think in terms of sin, which works against their thinking deeply about what their behavior means and understanding it more realistically.
Priests often confess lapses over and over again, with little effect on behavior. How many men have confessed lapses over and over again, only to find themselves trapped in behavior they barely understand? Many.
The other issue here is violation of integrity. By "integrity" I mean simply being the person you claim to be. Once a priest presents himself as a chaste, committed celibate but is actually sexually active, he has destroyed one of the pillars supporting his mental health.
The significance of this can hardly be underestimated. While it is fashionable these days in mental health circles to conceive of anxiety as a free-floating condition, it is often related to such profound violations of personal integrity.
I’m a therapist. Here’s how I help people break their bad relationship habits.
Take the case of Friar F., whose debilitating anxiety earned him a list of powerful anti-anxiety medications and diverse psychiatric labels until he finally understood that his habit of frequenting prostitutes corroded his view of himself as a good priest. Professionally, he was capable; privately, he was torn asunder. He left treatment drug-free and considerably less anxious.
Piecing his life back together was not an easy process. Through regular sessions, he developed more realistic ways to manage his anxiety. He gradually withdrew from a slew of medications, began to see his history in a more realistic light, and recommitted himself to a sexually abstinent lifestyle, armed with the practical skills to do so. Therapy enables the freedom to make such a choice; it is not so concerned about the choice made.
For some men, when the heady romance begins to fade they may abandon a relationship; just as often, however, they try to keep juggling. This is sad in any relationship, but it can be tragic for a priest, whose life, values, and meaning have been swept away in a torrent of passion that he had perhaps unknowingly forsworn and the dynamics of which he barely understands.
Does this suggest that priests are as a group naive with respect to emotional needs and entanglements? Yes, it does. Certainly for that group unable to inhibit their behavior and face the difficult choice of whether celibacy is actually possible for them.
The corollary to this naiveté is the often shockingly low level of insight as to how a priest's behavior impacts the love object. Priests who cross the line tend to be notably self-absorbed — consumed with their own conflicted feelings — such that they overlook the sensitivities of the person with whom they are involved. The thought that a woman (or another man, for that matter) might want something from them feels alien.
Group therapy is especially helpful in situations such as these. The often shocked and sometimes angry reactions of peers is often more potent than that of a single therapist pointing out obvious insensitivities. A door is then opened to enlarging perspective, reducing self-absorption, and taking into account that all behavior has consequences. This is the purpose of treatment.
Vulnerability isn't the only problem — some priests truly are sociopaths
The situations I've been describing exclude, of course, those few men among clerics who are just narcissistic or sociopathic enough to take what they want, the rules be damned. This category includes the predatory sex offender and/or the compulsive sex addict.
Whether driven by compulsion, rage, or unremitting entitlement, such persons, who exist in any profession, cross boundaries not out of personal need or lack of support but because they are driven to such behavior by poorly understood psychological motives. Fortunately, such priests are rare. The most common trap door to crossing the line sexually has to do with personal vulnerability.
The problem of the celibacy requirement
What can we make of this situation? Would abandoning celibacy for diocesan priests help? The answer to the second question is: Of course it would. Would it solve the problem of wayward priests? Of course it wouldn't.
Human weakness cannot simply be eradicated, although measures can be taken to reduce it significantly. Generally priests already have access to mental health resources, such as psychotherapy; they also have less formal priest support groups to which they can turn for help. However, they tend to take advantage of resources under duress.
We know that education about matters of sexuality and intimacy and how it actually operates would be helpful. Empowering the laity to collaborate as equal partners in parish management is also an encouraging trend.
A more challenging development would be to expand priests' knowledge of human sexuality and intimacy as well as increase their regard for those critical parts of the human experience. This would require more candid and less judgmental communication about these aspects of life and would reflect a move away from the idealized role of the priest as a person without need. That is, after all, just a facade.
Curiously, not much attention is paid to handling love and physical attraction in the long years of priests' training
While some efforts have been made in this direction, there is a longstanding tendency in the Catholic tradition to value sexual abstinence over sexual relationships, committed or otherwise. Measures that level the field between priests and parishioners would help bridge the distance between the two, opening up more options for actual friendship and genuine collaboration.
But such changes call into question a major thrust of Catholic moral teaching, which emphasizes procreation at the expense of relationship. They would also impact how local churches are governed, another strong tradition. Reevaluating these major issues would be a tall order indeed.
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Another Dead Blasphemer—in Scotland
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Posted:Apr 6, 2016 5:09 am
Last Updated:May 10, 2024 10:1 pm
4578 Views
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he stench of Islamic extremism has become all too common among the religious and community leaders of the U.K.
LONDON — Asad Shah was a much-loved Muslim shopkeeper in Scotland’s second city of Glasgow. Embodying the slogan of his mosque: Love for All and Hatred for None, he would post inclusive social media messages such as “a very Happy Easter, especially to my beloved Christian nation,” and the locals loved him for it.
Yet, on the eve of Good Friday this year, Tanveer Ahmed, a fellow Muslim, appears to have driven 200 miles from Bradford to Glasgow in his licensed Uber car in order to stab Asad 30 times all over his body, stamp on his head and then sit laughing on his chest. Asad, tragically, died from his wounds later that night. With her nation in shock, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon attended a vigil in Asad’s memory, and he was buried just over a week later.
The truth behind why Asad was killed makes for uncomfortable and ugly reading.
Mohammad Faisal, a friend of the Shah family, described the murderer as “bearded,” wearing a long Muslim “religious robe” and addressing Asad in his native language before killing him.
Police have in fact charged the suspect Tanveer Ahmed with “religiously prejudiced” murder. For Asad was an Ahmedi Muslim, a minority sect persecuted as “heretical” by much of Pakistan’s Sunni Muslim majority. With these facts in mind, Asad Shah has probably become Britain’s first spillover case of Pakistan’s ongoing and vicious blasphemy inquisition being waged by that country’s increasingly belligerent mullah mafia.
The Ahmedis emerged in North India under the British Raj in the 1800s, and their founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmed from Qadian claimed to be the embodiment of Jesus the Messiah, returned. Such a claim has certainly caused controversy among the Sunni Muslim majority within the Indian Subcontinent.
Regardless, only the stone-cold and heartless could ignore the campaign of persecution that has been unleashed since upon Ahmadis by my fellow Sunni Muslims, especially those of the Barelwi denomination. Many would expect extremists, such as the Khatme Nubuwwat group that enforces the Finality of the Prophet, to celebrate Asad’s murder online. Beyond that, we would prefer to assume the best in Muslims, and insist that the extremists are but a “tiny minority.” A closer look reveals a dispiriting and disturbing truth.
Just how widespread and institutionalized this persecution is, are questions that few want to ask.
This is because, as the previous case of Salmaan Taseer highlighted, to defend “blasphemers” in Pakistan is likely to get you killed even if you’re the powerful governor of Punjab, Pakistan’s richest province. Taseer’s killer Mumtaz Qadri was recently executed by the Pakistani state, but nevertheless glorified and anointed by the inquisitor mullahs as a “ghazi” (warrior), who died a “shaheed” (a holy martyr), while defending namoos-e-Rasool (the honour of the Prophet).
After Qadri’s execution, the Barelwi Muslim leadership held widespread street protests in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, demanding that the government accept a list of their demands. These included imposing their version of Sharia as law, to immediately execute all blasphemers including Aasia Bibi (the allegedly “blasphemous” Christian woman Salmaan Taseer died defending), the immediate release of all those convicted for killing to defend the “honor of the Prophet,” for the state to officially declare Mumtaz Qadri a “shaheed” on national media, to expel all members of the Ahmedi community from Pakistan (that’s 2 percent of the population), and to terminate immediately the positions of Ahmedis working in government departments.
Most devout Barelwi Sunni Muslims in the West take their religious instruction directly from Pakistan, and there remains a powerful flow of ideas coming from their leaders in the Punjab.
Nearly a week before Asad’s murder the imam of Scotland’s largest mosque, also in Glasgow, Maulana Habib Ur Rehman used the messaging platform WhatsApp to show his support for the now executed Mumtaz Qadri. In messages seen by the BBC, the Imam said that he was “disturbed” and “upset” at Qadri’s execution. He then added the epithet “rahmatullahi alaih” after mentioning Qadri’s name. This is a religious blessing usually given to devout Muslims and meaning “may God’s mercy be upon him.”
In another message, he says: “I cannot hide my pain today. A true Muslim was punished for doing which [sic] the collective will of the nation failed to carry out.” This, from the most senior imam at Glasgow Central Mosque, a role which involves leading prayers and giving religious guidance to an entire community.
Police are also currently investigating links between Sabir Ali, head of religious events at Glasgow Central Mosque, with Sipah-e-Sahabah, a banned Pakistani terror group from the Deobandi sect that persecutes Shia Muslims, also for alleged “blasphemy.” And yet, just as Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon had attended the vigil in memory of Asad Shah, she also chose Glasgow mosque to hold a minute of silence after the recent Brussels attacks.
Few in wider society are prepared to acknowledge just how deep Sunni prejudice against alleged blasphemers can run.
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This thirst for an inquisition is not found only among extremist groups, nor limited to these key figures in the U.K.’s largest mosques. It is also present to worrying levels in the wider community.
Recently, Luton on Sunday, a local newspaper, carried a double-spread advertisement celebrating 125 years since the Ahmadiyya movement was founded. That paid advert prompted such a level of complaints from the wider Sunni Muslim community in Luton that it lead to this groveling response by the newspaper:
“Last week the Luton on Sunday carried an advertisement from the Ahmediyyah…We would like to make it clear that we completely disassociate ourselves from the content of the advertisement… On Friday we met with representatives from the Muslim community to discuss the advertisement which we had accepted in good faith but now understand has caused offence to members of the Muslim Community in Luton.”
Included is a quotation from one of the “community leaders” the newspaper met with which thanks them for their sensitivity over a matter relating to the “fundamental beliefs of all Muslims.”
But as with all things, the mosque imams and “community leaders” find succor in the stance taken by those in authority among them. Look no further than the Pakistani High Commission in London to behold the truly institutionalized nature of this “Blasphemy Inquisition.”
Any British dual-national seeking to apply for a passport, or even an identity card, to travel to Pakistan visa-free is asked to partake in the persecution. Upon applying for our papers we are expected to sign a declaration (PDF) attesting— among other religious interferences by the state—that “I consider Mirza Ghulam Ahmed Quadiani to be an imposter nabi (prophet) and also consider his followers whether of the Lahori or Qadiani group to be non-Muslim.” Hundreds of thousands of British-Pakistani Muslims have had little choice but to participate in this ritual that normalizes the Blasphemy Inquisition, in order to gain their identity cards.
If we contextualize Asad Shah’s murder by placing it in this hostile climate, as we must, then we begin to realize the horrifying level of persecution facing those deemed heretical, such as Ahmedis or other “blasphemers.”
Over the years, in survey after survey, British Muslim attitudes have reflected dangerously high levels of support for enforcing “blasphemy” taboos. A 2007 poll found that 36 percent of young British Muslims thought that apostates should be killed. A 2008 YouGov poll found that a third of Muslim students claimed that killing for religion can be justified, while 33 percent expressed a desire to see the return of a worldwide theocratic Caliphate. A ComRes poll commissioned by the BBC in 2015 found that a quarter of British Muslims sympathized with the Charlie Hebdo “blasphemy” attacks.
By any reasonable assessment, something has gone badly wrong in Britain, and a solution must start on the ground, within the communities where the problem has festered for so long. It starts from a recognition that religious extremism has gained significant enough traction for it to pose a danger.
For Asad Shah’s sake, for all those persecuted for their religious choices, or lack of, we must speak up. Just as all of us, black or white, are responsible for challenging racism, and just as all of us, gay or straight, are responsible for challenging homophobia, all of us, Muslim or not, are responsible for challenging this religious extremism. Denial that a generational struggle, no less than the civil struggle to challenge racism, lies ahead of us is no longer a viable option.
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Giant Mammoth Skull Discovered by Bulldozer Operator
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Posted:Apr 4, 2016 5:32 pm
Last Updated:Apr 5, 2016 7:40 am
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A bulldozer operator at a sand pit in northwestern Oklahoma got quite a surprise this month when he spotted a huge skull that belonged to a Columbian mammoth.
These giants were plentiful across the plains of Oklahoma during the Pleistocene epoch, which lasted from about 1.8 million to 11,700 years ago, said Leland Bement of the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey.
The discovery was not unheard of, as the Survey typically receives about three "mammoth-sighting" calls a year, Bement said. That made it now less exciting, though. "Archaeological fieldwork is always exciting. You never know what you are going to find," Bement told Live Science in an email.
He added, "When it comes to mammoth finds, we are always on the lookout for the next one that has projectile points or stone tools associated with it to indicate that the animal was killed and butchered. We have so few of these sites across North America and only one so far in Oklahoma." [Photos: A 40,000-Year-Old Mammoth Autopsy]
The skull had been deposited on the sandbar of a river channel, the archaeologists said. So far, the archaeologists have unearthed the animal's skull with a single tooth in place; apparently, another tooth had been removed from the skull during the clearing of the sand.
"We don't know the cause of death. There is no sign that people killed or butchered it," Bement told Live Science in an email. "Its skull was washed around in the river. The rest of the animal could be anywhere."
Though the scientists have not pinpointed an exact age for the skull, they know it’s more than 11,000 years old — the period when mammoths and other megafauna went extinct at the end of the Pleistocene.
Scientists have put forth several reasons for the extinctions, ranging from rapid climate warming to ice age human hunters. Others have suggested a perfect storm of culprits. One group of dwarf mammoths is thought to have survived in the Arctic, on Wrangel Island, until about 3,700 years ago.
Like other Columbian mammoths (Mammuthus columbi), this one was not the cold-adapted type and preferred more temperate stomping grounds in southern and central North America. The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), the kind portrayed in the "Ice Age" movies, would have called the chilly tundra home.
The Columbian variety was also much larger than the woollies, with Columbian males reaching up to twice the size of woolly males, according to Hendrik Poinar, an evolutionary geneticist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. Columbian mammoths also arrived in North America about 1.5 million years ago, whereas woolly mammoths stepped onto the continent some 400,000 years ago, said Poinar, who spoke with Live Science in 2011.
Finding mammoth bones, while a mammoth discovery, seems relatively common across the United States. This past January, a construction crew discovered the femur of a mammoth (possibly a Columbian mammoth) under the Oregon State University's football field. Last September, two Michigan farmers found a mammoth's skull and tusks while they were installing a drainage pipe. And, in October 2014, a volunteer "paleontologist" unearthed the skeleton of a mammoth on the banks of a reservoir in Idaho. That skeleton dated back more than 72,000 years, said the scientists involved in the excavation.
Next, the researchers, including Oklahoma State University geographer Carlos Cordova, will analyze the mammoth teeth for particles from plants encased in tartar buildup, Bement said. "That will tell us what the mammoth was eating and also help in reconstructing the environment at the time he lived."
The findings will be included in a broader study, by doctoral student Tom Cox, of the distribution of mammoths in Oklahoma, he added.
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Backlash halts removal of Confederate symbols in New Orleans
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Posted:Mar 26, 2016 1:19 pm
Last Updated:Mar 26, 2016 2:57 pm
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Backlash against a plan to remove prominent Confederate monuments in New Orleans has been tinged by death threats, intimidation and even what may have been the torching of a contractor's Lamborghini.
For now, at least, things have gotten so nasty the city hasn't found a contractor willing to bear the risk of tearing down the monuments. The city doesn't have its own equipment to move them and is now in talks to find a company, even discussing doing the work at night to avoid further tumult. Further complicating the issue was a court ruling Friday that effectively put the removal on hold.
Initially, it appeared the monuments would be removed quickly after the majority black City Council on Dec. 17 voted 6-1 to approve the mayor's plan to take them down. The monuments, including towering figures of Gens. Robert E. Lee and P.G.T. Beauregard, have long been viewed by many here as symbols of racism and white supremacy.
The backlash is not surprising to Bill Quigley, a Loyola University law professor and longtime civil rights activist in New Orleans who's worked on behalf of a group demanding the monuments come down.
The South has seen such resistance before, during fights over school integration and efforts in the early 1990s to racially integrate Carnival parades in New Orleans.
"Fighting in the courts, fighting in the legislature, anonymous intimidation," Quigley said. "These are from the same deck of cards that are used to stop all social change."
For all its reputation as a party city of fun and frolic, New Orleans is no stranger to social change and the tensions that come with it. It was the site of an early attempt to challenge racial segregation laws in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case and home to then-6-year-old Ruby Bridges whose battle to integrate her elementary school was immortalized in a Norman Rockwell painting.
New Orleans is a majority African-American city although the number of black residents has fallen since 2005's Hurricane Katrina drove many people from the city. Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who proposed the monuments' removal, rode to victory twice with overwhelming support from the city's black residents.
Nationally, the debate over Confederate symbols has become heated since nine parishioners were killed at a black church in South Carolina in June. South Carolina removed the Confederate flag from its statehouse grounds in the weeks after, and several Southern cities have since considered removing monuments.
"There is no doubt that there is a huge amount of rage over the attack on Confederate symbols," said Mark Potok with the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based group that tracks extremist activity.
His group counted about 360 pro-Confederate battle flag rallies across the nation in the six months after the church shootings. Such rallies were rare before then, he said.
In New Orleans, things have turned particularly ugly.
In early January, as it beat back legal challenges seeking to stop the removal, the city hired a contractor to remove the monuments.
But H&O Investments LLC. of Baton Rouge soon pulled out of the job, citing death threats, "unkindly name-calling," outrage on social media and the threat of other businesses canceling contracts.
One day, several protesters came while H&O workers took measurements. Some of the protesters wore materials "with affiliation to white supremacy groups," said Roy Maughan Jr., a lawyer for the contractor.
That same day, Maughan said, "a specific articulated threat" was phoned into city authorities warning workers at the monuments to leave for their safety. On Jan. 12, H&O sent the city a letter saying it was dropping out.
Then, on Jan. 19, a Lamborghini belonging to the owner of H&O Investments was set on fire. The sports car was parked outside his office near Baton Rouge, Maughan said.
A national rental crane company the city had hoped to hire also refused to be involved.
The FBI and local fire investigators declined to comment. No arrests have been made.
After H&O withdrew, the city opened a public bid process to find a new contractor — and things got messy again.
When the names of companies interested in the work turned up on a city website, businesses were reportedly slammed with emails and telephone calls denouncing their involvement. The protest was organized at least in part by Save Our Circle, a group touting thousands of supporters who want a massive monument to Lee in Lee Circle preserved in the spot where it has stood since 1884.
The city closed public viewing to the bidding process and has met with contractors without disclosing their names. The mayor declined requests for an interview.
Michel-Antoine Goitia-Nicolas said his reasons for supporting boycotts, making calls and joining protests on behalf of the monuments are personal: He traces his ancestry to Beauregard, a Louisiana native who led Rebel troops at the opening of the Civil War. A prominent equestrian statue of Beauregard at the entrance to City Park is slated to be taken down.
"It's totally divided this city," Goitia-Nicolas said of the city's plans.
Standing next to the Beauregard statue, Goitia-Nicolas said he was willing to chain himself to statues to stop the removal.
"Our lesson in history is that when we tear down the monuments of the past we rebuild the errors of our past," he said. He said he was proud of Beauregard, who he said "never owned slaves."
"Why take it down? Put a statue of somebody positive in black history right here, in the midst of Beauregard, or in the midst of Lee. We support that."
Just this month, a state lawmaker began pushing a bill meant to save the monuments. And on Friday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an injunction sought by opponents of removal. They argued that lifting and hauling the structures could cause irreparable damage that shouldn't be risked while appeals are pending.
"With this city, the way things go, it might not come down," Lisa Huber, a 39-year-old greenhouse gardener, said as she pondered the statue of Lee atop a 60-foot-high marble column, standing in his Confederate uniform with his arms crossed, staring down the North.
"I think it should come down, just because of the symbolism behind it."
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Prominent New York Doctor Indicted for Allegedly Sedating, Sexually Assaulting Female Patients
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Posted:Mar 26, 2016 1:13 pm
Last Updated:May 10, 2024 10:1 pm
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A prominent New York City emergency room doctor accused in January of sexually abusing four female patients was indicted this week on five criminal counts, PEOPLE confirms.
An indictment was returned Thursday against Dr. David Newman, a 45-year-old physician and book author who has given TED Talks and blogged for The New York Times and Huffington Post. An Iraq war veteran, Newman was the director of clinical research in emergency medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan.
Newman has since been fired, hospital officials confirm. Authorities initially arrested Newman in January after a woman claimed he had drugged, groped and masturbated on her, according to a criminal complaint obtained by PEOPLE.
Newman has been indicted on one count of first-degree sexual abuse and four counts of third-degree sexual abuse, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said in a statement. His alleged crimes occurred between August 2015 and his January arrest. • Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.
"As alleged in this indictment, four young women who came to the hospital for medical treatment were sexually abused by the very doctor entrusted with their care," Vance said. "One was sedated to the point of being physically helpless – a nightmare scenario for any patient to endure." Vance contends Newman allegedly sexually abused three of his victims who sought treatment in August, September and October. In January, Newman allegedly sexually abused a female patient who complained of shoulder pain. One of Newman's alleged victims, Aja Newman, filed a civil suit against the doctor last month, claiming he'd given her morphine during her visit and waited until she was sedated before assaulting her. The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages. It names other emergency room staffers who, the suit alleges, "failed to enforce internal policies." The suit also claims the hospital allegedly "negligently" hired, trained, and supervised Newman, according to court documents. Newman's Huffington Post biography claims his book, Hippocrates' Shadow: Secrets From the House of Medicine, "explores the underbelly of modern medicine and the fraying of the patient-doctor bond, using patient narrative and examples of misconstrued research."
Newman's attorney, Susan Necheles, did not return calls or emails seeking comment Friday.
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Thousands call for guns at US Republican convention
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Posted:Mar 26, 2016 1:11 pm
Last Updated:Mar 26, 2016 2:57 pm
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More than 22,000 people have signed a petition calling for Americans to be allowed to carry firearms at the Republican National Convention -- because the ban puts lives at risk.
Guns are not allowed inside the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, where the event -- which could descend into a heated battle for the party presidential ticket -- is taking place in July.
The petition went up on the Change.org website and by Saturday had been signed by 22,633 supporters in just a few days, with numbers rising fast.
"Cleveland, Ohio is consistently ranked one of the top 10 most dangerous cities in America," says the petition, which among others is addressed to the Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump and his rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich.
"By forcing attendees to leave their firearms at home, the RNC and Quicken Loans Arena are putting tens of thousands of people at risk both inside and outside of the convention site."
In the event of an attack on the venue people there "will be sitting ducks," raising the specter that the Islamic State extremist group could target it, the petition says.
"We are all too familiar with the mass carnage that can occur when citizens are denied their basic God-given rights to carry handguns or assault weapons in public," the petition adds.
Firearms were banned by the Secret Service at the Republican convention in Tampa in 2012, US media say.
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7 Ways Obamacare Failed Americans and Shortchanged the Country
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Posted:Mar 26, 2016 1:09 pm
Last Updated:Mar 26, 2016 2:58 pm
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Obamacare barely passed Congress in 2010. If people had known how it would develop, the health-care act would likely never have become law.
Back in 2009, when the law was proposed, and in 2010, when it was signed, the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) proponents were giddy with optimism. Proponents proclaimed the many promises of Obamacare. Millions of people would be enrolled by 2016. The number of uninsured would decline dramatically. Health-care costs and premiums would drop. Everyone would have coverage. The federal deficit would decrease. Of course, as President Obama promised, people would be able to keep their plans and their doctors.
The truth has turned out to be very different. That’s why all Republican candidates say they want to repeal the program. Here are seven things about Obamacare that turned out to be very bad.
1. Low enrollment. Many people would not have jumped on the Obamacare bandwagon if they had known the relatively small number of Americans who would actually be enrolled on the exchanges by 2016. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that between 9.4 million and 11.4 million signed up in 2016.
In contrast, in March 2010, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that 21 million people would be enrolled on the exchanges.
2. High numbers of uninsured. Under Obamacare, the number of uninsured was supposed to decline from 50 million to 22 million in 2016 and remain at that level. Instead, there are still 31 million uninsured, and the number is never projected to go below 29 million, according to CBO.
The Kaiser Family Foundation (February 2016) says that around 10 percent of the population (32.3 million of 316 million Americans) lacks health-insurance coverage. If the goal of health-care reform is to extend insurance coverage to more Americans, there are surely more effective — and less costly — ways to achieve this goal.
3. Lost doctors. In a presidential weekly address on July 18, 2009, President Obama said, “Michelle and I don’t want anyone telling us who our family’s doctor should be — and no one should decide that for you either. Under our proposals, if you like your doctor, you keep your doctor.”
Various sources note that a common (and popular) way to reduce premium costs has been to reduce the number of doctors in the insurer’s network, which leads to a much greater likelihood of people losing their doctors than without the ACA.
Initially the ACA required only 20 percent of “essential community providers” to be included in networks, but the number went up to 30 percent after there was a backlash from hospitals. According to a NIH study, 15 percent of plans offered on the exchanges exclude doctors from at least one kind of specialty.
4. Lost plans. Speaking in the Rose Garden, on July 21, 2009, President Obama said, “If you like your current plan, you will be able to keep it. Let me repeat that: If you like your plan, you’ll be able to keep it.” But it wasn’t true. Many plans disappeared because they did not comply with the ACA regulations.
Sen. Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska, recently released a report about Obamacare’s effects on competition among insurers, concluding that outcomes have worsened for most Americans, in terms of choice of insurers and plans. Over the past year, the number of insurers offering plans in exchanges has dropped by nearly 6 percent.
Many states have lost more than 80 percent of their insurers: Alabama went from 23 to 3, Arkansas went from 24 to 4, and Wyoming from 21 to 1, just to name a few. Only New York did not lose over half of its insurers, going from 28 to 15 insurers, a 46 percent decline.
5. Higher premiums. President Obama claimed that the Affordable Care Act would reduce annual insurance premiums by $2,500 for a typical family. Yet a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust found that, since 2008, average employer family premiums have climbed a total of $4,865. From 2015 to 2016, the most popular exchange family plan, Family Silver, saw a 10 percent average increase in its premiums. In some states, premiums rose by nearly 40 percent.
In 2015, the average annual family premium was $17,545 per year, and the average premium for a single policy was $6,251. Young men were particularly hard-hit. Average premiums rose by 49 percent from 2013 to 2014, the year Obamacare was supposed to go into effect.
6. Higher deductibles. Practically no one forecast that even after spending additional thousands of dollars a year for health insurance, families would have to spend thousands of dollars more on medical care before being able to take advantage of insurance for more than annual check-ups. Many people get sticker shock. The New York Times, long a cheerleader for Obamacare, reported that many people couldn’t afford to use the health insurance that they have purchased because of the deductibles.
New York Times reporter Robert Pear wrote that the median deductible in Miami was $5,000 in 2015. It was $5,500 in Jackson, Miss., and $4,000 in Phoenix. One Chicago family of four paid $1,200 monthly for coverage yet had an annual deductible of $12,700.
7. High costs. The Office of the Actuary of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has projected that Obamacare will result in an additional $274 billion in administrative costs alone over the period of 2014 through 2022. The most recent CBO analysis concludes that repealing Obamacare would result in macroeconomic effects that would decrease the deficit by over $216 billion over the 2016-2025 period.
Legislative options that would repeal and replace Obamacare, such as the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act — passed on Jan. 6, 2016, and vetoed by President Obama on Jan. 8, 2016 — are projected to save taxpayers even more: $474 billion over the 2016-2025 period, the Congressional Budget Office notes.
Many members of Congress voted for Obamacare to help the American public and put America’s health-care system on a sounder foundation. For most Americans, the opposite has happened. Health-care expenses for many individuals and families are higher, their insurance costs are higher, their choice of doctors and insurance is diminished, and the total costs of the program are burdening a weak economy. Had members of Congress known then what they know now, they would never have passed Obamacare.
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Teacher Who Told Student Her “Purpose Was To Have Sex And Babies” Resigned
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Posted:Mar 17, 2016 12:24 pm
Last Updated:Mar 17, 2016 3:59 pm
3474 Views
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The Georgia high school teacher who reportedly said to a female student “Your purpose is going to be to have sex and have because you ain’t never gonna be smart,” resigned Monday (March 14) amidst national backlash.
Former Greene County High School teacher Cory Hunter continued his verbal assault on 16 year old Shaniaya Hunter by saying he’d never come across someone as “dumb” as her.
“I have been around for 37 years, and clearly you are the dumbest girl I have ever met.”
Shaniaya, who has severe vision problems, began recording the lesson of the day on her iPad last December when she asked Hunter who Sojourner Truth was. Hunter then reportedly launched into a nearly five minute tirade in which he told the student her only purpose in life would be to have sex and . The entire incident was recorded on her iPad.
After seeing the recording, Shaniaya’s mother went directly to school officials, but no actions were taken. It was only when family lawyer Ben Windham threatened to sue the teacher and the school, Hunter resigned.
“He will not be returning to the classroom,”Greene County School System Superintendent Chris Houston told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution. “In submitting his resignation, he verbally expressed his apologies to his students and fellow staff members for any disruption caused to the school by the controversy over the last several weeks.”
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Thousands of cobia escape pens in Ecuador – why scientists are worried
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Posted:Mar 17, 2016 12:21 pm
Last Updated:Mar 17, 2016 4:00 pm
3479 Views
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It sounds like science fiction: tens of thousands of voracious, fast-growing fish escape from ocean pens in a foreign environment and begin migrating up the coast, wreaking havoc on native fisheries.
But this is really happening, as thousands of cobia, which are found in the Atlantic but unknown to the Eastern Pacific, were accidentally released from an Ecuadorian aquaculture facility during late summer.
They’ve since been detected off Colombia and Panama, and at least one scientist believes the “rogue” fish are headed to California, with potentially “horrifying” consequences.
Cobia2
Cobia prey on crabs, fish and squid, and are considered voracious. Photo: Courtesy of Milton Love
The cobia have been migrating north at a rate of about 200 miles per month, according to UC Santa Barbara research biologist, Milton Love.
Love stated recently that there’s a 50-50 chance that the cobia will reproduce along the way, and he added that water conditions will be prime for their arrival in Southern California this summer.
“The idea is intellectually interesting and vaguely horrifying at the same time,” Love said. “This is the first time that Southern California waters potentially could have a large and voracious non-native species invade.”
“What effect that will have on the native fishes, no one knows. It might not have any observable effects or it might have considerable ones. A possible scenario is for these fish to become well-established and start chomping down on native fishes.”
Cobia_on_ice
Cobia are an important aquaculture species because of their firm, white flesh. Photo: Courtesy of Wikipedia
Cobia, which can measure 6 feet and weigh about 100 pounds, prey on crabs, fish and squid. They’re also known to follow sharks and other large predators to scavenge on what they kill.
Cobia don’t travel in schools except during spring to early fall spawning seasons, and prefer offshore (pelagic) waters.
Their flesh is white and firm, making the fish ideal aquaculture specimens. The cobia being reared off Ecuador were in netted pens that somehow broke open. Those fish are now considered invasive, and their potential impact remains unknown.
Ross Robertson, a Smithsonian scientist, noted that the lionfish, an Indo-Pacific species now abundant as an invasive and harmful species in the Caribbean, “provides a compelling lesson about the strong adverse effects that alien marine fish can have on native ecosystems.”
Robertson added, “As cobia is the only species in its family, which is most closely related to remoras or shark-suckers, it too represents an unusual type of predator for the tropical East Pacific, which only increases both the degree of uncertainty about its effects and the potential for major disruption of the area’s ecosystems.”
Love, author of Certainly More Than You Wanted to Know About the Fishes of the Pacific Coast, noted that California’s crab fishery might be impacted, since crabs are a chief prey item for cobia.
The researcher said anglers might be the first to encounter cobia, which are an important angling species in the Atlantic and Caribbean (they’re sometimes referred to as black salmon).
“You might expect to see cobia as summer migrants like yellowtail,” Love said. “They seem to be able to compete well with other fish in the vicinity and are generalists as far as what they feed on. Here, they would be in competition with yellowtail, bonito or even with reef fishes like kelp bass.”
To be sure, Southern California anglers will be delighted to catch cobia. But from a fisheries standpoint, their arrival will signal cause for concern.
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Egyptian lawmakers want to ban Islamic veils in public
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Posted:Mar 11, 2016 11:31 am
Last Updated:Mar 11, 2016 4:18 pm
3873 Views
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Are full face veils worn by some Muslim women un-Islamic?
According to some Egyptian lawmakers they are. So much so that this predominantly Muslim country’s parliament is reportedly drafting legislation that would ban women from wearing the veil, known as the niqab, in public areas or in government offices. The niqab is typically black and covers the whole face, save for the eyes. It’s not uncommon to see conservative Egyptian women wearing the veil, especially in rural areas.
Throwing fuel on the controversy, Asma Nosseir, a member of parliament who backs the bill, says the veil actually is a Jewish tradition that was prevalent in the Arabian Peninsula before Islam. Nosseir, who is also a professor of comparative jurisprudence at Cairo’s al-Azhar University, argued in a statement and in local media that several passages of the Koran contradicted the use of the veil. The Koran, she said, encourages modest clothing and the covering of the hair, but not the face.
If the law passes, it could trigger a backlash from Egypt’s Islamists and deepen religious divisions and tensions. Under the current government of President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, thousands of Islamists have been imprisoned amid a spate of forced disappearances, alleged torture and other abuses by the state’s security apparatus.
Advocates of the potential ban, who say it’s needed for security reasons and to foster a moderate religious landscape, have found support in recent weeks. Last month, Cairo University banned doctors and nurses from wearing the niqab in medical schools and teaching hospitals.
“The decision bans them from wearing the niqab during working hours to protect patients' rights and interests,” read a university press statement.
Last year, Cairo University banned its professors and researchers from wearing the niqab in the classroom. At the time, university administrators contended that students had complained that it was difficult to communicate effectively with those who wore the veil. Lawyers on behalf of about 100 Cairo University academics filed a court case to lift the ban. In January, an Egyptian court upheld the decision by the university.
This is not the first time government authorities and institutions have tried to crack down on the niqab. Several attempts were made to curb public wearing of the veil under former president Hosni Mubarak, whose 30-year rule ended in 2011 amid the Arab Spring revolutions.
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A Catholic reads the Bible, Week 33: Jeremiah's long-winded lamentations
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Posted:Mar 11, 2016 11:26 am
Last Updated:Mar 11, 2016 4:18 pm
3707 Views
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Jeremiah, the prophet, lives forever in the dictionary. He is the basis of the word: jeremiad.
Merriam-Webster defines this word as a "prolonged lamentation or complaint; also, a cautionary or angry harangue."
Prolonged lamentation works perfectly: Jeremiah's book of the Bible is 51 whole chapters of warning about impending doom for Jerusalem.
In chapter 52, Jerusalem is destroyed. So, safe to say Jeremiah was right, and those first 51 chapters are full of foreboding.
Jeremiah started his prophecies at the age of 13 and ends up murdered by his own countrymen when he is in exile. A prophet's life wasn't easy, apparently. No one would listen to him. Then they killed him.
Over and over and over again, Jeremiah warns the Jews about the consequences for their lack of faith in God. Jeremiah reminds them that Baal is not their God -- there is only one true God. And when no one listens, he resorts to threats.
I collected my top threats for your reading enjoyment. I am not a list writer in my daily life. The "to do" list never ceases to end. But, as I was taking notes, I noticed that all I was highlighting were the threats.
So here it goes:
1. Wormwood
In Chapter 9, "Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: See now, I will give them wormwood to eat and poison to drink."
That sent me back to the dictionary. What is wormwood? It's a bitter shrub used for vermouth or absinthe. Or it's defined as a source of bitterness and grief. Both work here. No need to pick up any wormwood at the local greenhouse. Jeremiah uses this threat twice.
2. Clay pots
Sometimes, the best threats are based in what you know. Quoting God again, Jeremiah says, "I will smash this people and this city, as one smashes a clay pot so that it cannot be repaired." (Jeremiah 19:11) Everyone can figure that one out.
3. Desert
There is nothing worse than telling an Israelite that they are going to be going to be stuck in the desert forever. That happens too many times to count in Jeremiah. Be bad = doomed to the desert. And it is perfect during this time of Lent to realize there is no worse fate then being in the desert. Forever.
4. Sodom and Gomorrah
This comes up multiple times in Jeremiah, as well. It was interesting to me that it was a contemporary threat. It's like -- you know what happened to them? It will happen to you if you don't change your wicked ways.
5. 'A woman in travail'
This one sent me back to the dictionary. What in the world? Oh, it's pain like a woman in labor. Even in biblical times, that threat must have had resonance with the men hearing Jeremiah's wails. And it's funny to me that to this day, it still strikes fear in men. It transcends time.
And I would give honorary mention to the threat of locusts. Astute readers will know that will always get me.
Catholic Reads the Bible, Week 3: Get me out of Genesis
After I had written this and submitted it to my editor, my friend John passed me something he has been working on that quotes Jeremiah.
It was like another sign for me to read much more closely. Because while a jeremiad is a harangue, there was also some beautiful thoughts in the book.
My friend John quotes Jeremiah 29:11: It's Jeremiah talking about the Lord in a letter to the elders of Jerusalem: "For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for woe! Plans to give you a future full of hope."
It was definitely God's plan for John to share his writing with me. I was so focused on the harangues, and in my defense, there are A LOT of them. But I shouldn't lose sight of the hope.
On to Lamentations. Wait, isn't that basically what I just read?
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Chinese woman trapped for a month in an elevator starves to death
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Posted:Mar 6, 2016 4:14 am
Last Updated:Mar 11, 2016 4:19 pm
3973 Views
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Elevator maintenance men returning to work after a month-long break for Chinese new year made a horrific discovery last week when they opened the cab of a broken lift and found the body of a woman who had been trapped inside since late January and starved to death.
The gruesome incident in the western city of Xi’an, renowned as the home of China’s Terra Cotta Warriors, has sparked outrage over the apparent negligence of the elevator repair company and the building’s management office.
The property managers told the Beijing Youth Daily that the elevator cab was returned to the first floor and taken out of service after workers had “confirmed” that no one was inside. But police investigators said workers simply shouted to check whether anyone was inside and did not open the cab to perform a visual inspection, the news magazine Caixin reported.
Xi'an apartment complex
The complex in Xi'an, China, where a woman was trapped in an elevator for a month and died of starvation. (Courtesy Sohu News)
Authorities said the case involved “gross negligence” on the part of the elevator maintenance company and at least one “responsible person” has been detained in connection with the investigation, according to the magazine. The case has been classified as a negligent homicide.
The victim, believed to be in her late thirties or early forties, was identified only by her surname, Wu. Investigators said that when her corpse was found, her hands were mangled – apparently due to her attempts to pry open the cab doors.
Although a month-long wait to repair an elevator seems unusual even by Chinese standards, many businesses and services grind to a halt during the new year holiday. Although the official break lasts only about a week, many workers take time off before and o
See the most-read stories this hour >>
r after the holiday, causing serious disruption to many commercial services.
The Xi’an case revived memories of a tragic escalator death last summer also related to maintenance issues. In that case, a 30-year-old woman in the central Chinese city of Jingzhou, 130 miles west of Wuhan in Hubei province, was "eaten alive" when she stepped onto a loose metal plate at the top of an escalator in a shopping mall. The plate collapsed and the woman was pulled into the gears; she managed to shove her small to safety at the last minute.
But questions remained over how the woman in the elevator could have remained trapped for so long with neither her neighbors or her family realizing it. Local media reports portrayed the victim as mentally ill, and said that her family believed she had just gotten lost somewhere. They had reported her missing but did not take further steps to determine her whereabouts.
A resident of the apartment complex, surnamed Ding, told Sohu News that the building management service was poor and routinely ignored residents’ complaints about the frequently broken elevators and other matters.
“There’s now a shadow across my heart, it’s scary and it gives me shivers to pass by” that part of the building. “To think of this happening in one’s own building.”
After the woman’s body was discovered, residents staged a protest against the building management. Caixin said that local officials were taking steps to replace the building management.
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