three stories

18 Feb 2014

Looking at news stories

We split into groups and members from each group went and looked at three different stories and then reported back to the others in the group where they were discussed in the group.

The Archbishop of Cologne’s comments on Catholic and Turkish families

The Archbishop of Cologne had praised the high birth rate of many Catholics, telling followers: “I always say, one of your families to me makes up for three Muslim families”.

This had caused an uproar with many people commenting on these words.

The source for this story was here

You can read the article in PDF form here

Man loses benefits after having a heart attack while being tested for his heart condition

A man in Britain had his benefits stopped by the Department for Work and Pensions after he was tested and because he suffered a heart attack during the test and had to stop – he was classed as failing to complete the test. He went to Member of Parliament to seek redress from the authorities.
Here is a little video about the role of a member of parliament made by the Houses of Parliament Education Section:

The original article came be found here

You can read this story in PDF form here

Children have lunch taken away from them

Children in an elementary school in Utah had been given their lunch when staff were ordered to take the lunches off them because their parents had not paid their bill.

The story can be read about here or read as a PDF here

How we responded to these stories

We noted a lack of empathy by the people in power in all these stories and that it was easy to find alternative solutions to these problems. These problems were often caused by people applying the rules without compassion. They were all questions of social justice.

We also felt that newspapers thrive on this kind of journalism and were aware of other stories especially the one about the teacher who had failed to get her class ticket stamped and was turned off the train as a result.