Global Comment

Where the world thinks out loud

Must reads: Donald Trump, natural burial, cults, abortion, sodomy laws

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What are you reading this week? Can’t decide? Might as well start with what the Global Comment editors are enjoying, from abortion to outdated homophobic laws and more. And if you’ve got something you’re particularly enjoying, or a topic you’d like to see more of at Global Comment, drop us a line in the comments!

The secret truth about Donald Trump: The obvious story the media still won’t touch‘ (Salon)

Conor Lynch explores the media’s handling of Donald Trump and Secretary Hillary Clinton, noting that Trump is garnering billions in absolutely free publicity — good and bad — while his opponent on the Democratic side struggles to get the same amount of attention. With Clinton/Trump head to heads narrowing, this matters more than ever before.

While Trump and his supporters bicker incessantly about the biased media and its toxic political correctness, the same networks and publications provide Trump with billions in free publicity, contributing to his political rise for the sake of ratings. Meanwhile, Sanders has been often ignored throughout the campaign season, while Hillary Clinton — who has always had something of a hostile relationship with the D.C. press — has been plagued by her email scandal. If the the corporate media is trying to advance a liberal or left-wing agenda, it is doing a pretty lousy job.

A different way to die: The story of a natural burial‘ (Grist)

In the United States, death and burial are heavily regimented, but that’s beginning to shift with the growth of the alternative funeral movement, which bucks the American way of death in turn for something more natural, and traditional. More and more people are speaking out about their experiences with natural death and burial, and this piece is a particularly touching read.

On the third day, Jake’s family and friends placed mementos on his body and fitted him in a simple cotton shroud they’d ordered online. They drove two hours north to a natural cemetery in western Washington with Jake’s body in the back of a rental van. There, they lowered him down into a hole the funeral home had dug for them. Jake’s people spoke over the grave. Donna read a Leonard Cohen poem. It was a funeral like any other, says Tristan, but maybe not as sad. ‘There was never a somber moment,’ he says. ‘It was just incredibly peaceful.’

US taxpayers are financing alleged cult through African aid charities‘ (Reveal News)

For decades, the needs of impoverished African nations have been a cause for aid groups and international agencies. As this in-depth investigative journalism reveals, the fixation on foreign aid comes at a cost, as it leaves considerable latitude for the exploitation of charitable impulses.

Longwe and the other insiders who had access to the organization’s financial information told Reveal that they believe at least half of the donor funds meant for humanitarian projects was shuttled out of the country. While the purpose of the transactions is unclear, Longwe and others say they added up to fraud intended to reroute aid money to other purposes.

American Men Are Still Being Arrested for Sodomy‘ (The Advocate)

Many are surprised to learn that sodomy laws remain on the books, but they do, and they’re weaponised against gay men and other members of the LGBQT community. This trend highlights the need for legislative cleanup across the US to remove outdated laws, legislation that’s no longer enforced, and other errata from the books.

You may believe antisodomy laws are not harmful because they can’t be enforced. But they are an important symbol of homophobia for those who oppose LGBT rights. What’s more, the laws create ambiguity for police officers, who may not be aware they are unconstitutional.

Obama, muted on human rights, lifts arms embargo on Vietnam‘ (Politico)

The US president may be wheeling and dealing in the hopes of passing the TPP, but the costs could be considerable — the lifting of the arms embargo was clearly a play to drum up Vietnamese support, and as his tradeoff, the president declined to condemn the country’s human rights abuses.

Obama stood in front of the Vietnamese flag, alongside the Vietnamese president, and the closest he came to criticizing elections in which candidates could be kicked off state-approved lists for offenses such as claims they didn’t pay their sanitation fees was saying, ‘I made it clear that the United States does not seek to impose our form of government on Vietnam or any nation … at the same time, we will continue to speak out on human rights.’

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Photo: 白士 李/Creative Commons