Members of a breakaway faction of the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe protest against homosexuality. Reuters Harry Dugmore, Rhodes University This article is part of a series The Conversation Africa is running on issues related to LGBTI in Africa. You can read the rest of the series here. Of the 76 countries that still criminalise same-sex relationships and behaviour, 38 are African. Recent surveys also show that the overwhelming majority of people who live in Africa strongly disapprove of homosexuality. This is even the case in South Africa, the only country on the continent that has legalised same-sex marriage. Last month,…
Author: Pride Team
Where do your allegiances lie – with your smartphone or with your partner? ‘Date’ via www.shutterstock.com James A. Roberts, Baylor University The majority of our relationships are in shambles. The U.S. divorce rate hovers at 40 percent, but that’s not the whole story. Many intact relationships are on life support. According to a survey by the National Opinion Research Center, 60 percent of people in a relationship say they’re not very satisfied. There are some familiar culprits: money problems, bad sex and having kids. But there’s a new relationship buster: the smartphone. My colleague Meredith David and I conducted a…
Specialized training is becoming more and more important to financial success in today’s labor market. U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Michael Ellis Shaun M. Dougherty, University of Connecticut During the 20th century, there was nothing that could help you achieve labor market success more than a good education. Even today, education is one of the strongest predictors of whether someone is employed and how much he or she is paid. Yet, the rules have changed. A high school diploma in 1950 (and maybe into the 1980s) could get you a solid, middle-class job. But a diploma today is a minimum…
HOLY HUMOUR Heaven is Where: The Police are British, The Chefs are Italian, The Mechanics are German, The Lovers are French and It’s all organized by the Swiss.. Hell is Where: The Police are German, The Chefs are British, The Mechanics are French, The Lovers are Swiss and It’s all organized by the Italians. Sunday Quote. God loves stupid people, because he made so many of them! SUNDAY JOKE Jesus Christ! A drunk staggers out of a bar and runs into two priests. He goes over to the first priest and says, “Dude, I’m Jesus Christ!” And the priest says, “No son, you’re…
What came first – all-seeing Gods or complex societies? God the Father and Angel, Guercino Giovan Francesco Barbieri via Wikimedia Commons Harvey Whitehouse, University of Oxford; Patrick E. Savage, Keio University; Peter Turchin, University of Connecticut, and Pieter Francois, University of Oxford When you think of religion, you probably think of a god who rewards the good and punishes the wicked. But the idea of morally concerned gods is by no means universal. Social scientists have long known that small-scale traditional societies – the kind missionaries used to dismiss as “pagan” – envisaged a spirit world that cared little about…
Reading 1 Jer 11:18-20 I knew their plot because the LORD informed me; at that time you, O LORD, showed me their doings. Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter, had not realized that they were hatching plots against me: “Let us destroy the tree in its vigor; let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will be spoken no more.” But, you, O LORD of hosts, O just Judge, searcher of mind and heart, Let me witness the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause!…
Perfectionism often develops in childhood, is impacted by parenting and can lead to mental health struggles in later life. (Shutterstock) Simon Sherry, Dalhousie University and Martin M. Smith, York St John University We recently conducted one of the largest-ever studies on perfectionism. We learned that perfectionism has increased substantially over the past 25 years and that it affects men and women equally. We also learned that perfectionists become more neurotic and less conscientious as time passes. Perfectionism involves striving for flawlessness and requiring perfection of oneself and others. Extremely negative reactions to mistakes, harsh self-criticism, nagging doubt about performance abilities…
Panic attacks occur when a high level of stress builds up. They can be scary, especially if you’ve never had one before. From shutterstock.com Justin Kenardy, The University of Queensland Panic attacks typically occur when a person is under stress. The stress can be physical, like being run down, or emotional, like a significant life change. Panic attacks are a relatively common experience with as many as one in seven people experiencing them at least once. A little more than half of those people will have repeated panic attacks. Our understanding of panic attacks has changed over time, but we’ve…
New fathers can feel low, too. loriZ, CC BY-NC Darby Saxbe, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Postpartum depression has become more visible as celebrity moms including Brooke Shields, Drew Barrymore and Chrissy Teigen have publicly shared their struggles with feeling sad and hopeless after birth. But when a father – Adam Busby, from reality TV show “OutDaughtered” – opened up about his own postpartum depression in 2017, he received instant backlash, including comments telling him to “man up.” Despite the skepticism, postpartum depression in fathers is very real, with estimates that around 10…
itti ratanakiranaworn/Shutterstock Werner van Zyl, University of KwaZulu-Natal The periodic table of chemical elements turns 150 this year. The anniversary is a chance to shine a light on particular elements – some of which seem ubiquitous but which ordinary people beyond the world of chemistry probably don’t know much about. One of these is gold, which was the subject of my postgraduate degrees in chemistry, and which I have been studying for almost 30 years. In chemistry, gold can be considered a late starter when compared to most other metals. It was always considered to be chemically “inert” – but…