進階英文聽力Human rights travesty

今天又到了進階英文聽力的單元
選了一篇比較長一些的文章
腔調算是比較英式的
不過談的主題有點沉重

但是聽完之後相信可以讓大家學到不少
記得不要先偷看滴兒打的原文答案喔

Human rights travesty




I understand that some bedbugs have been found at the United Nations building in New York,

which is unfortunate, but some good may come of it - you never know.

Maybe somebody could find a place for them on the Human Rights Council.

They may help to elevate the integrity of that forum somewhat.

Yes, it's that time of year again, when members of the cartel of third word dictatorships

known as the Organisation of Islamic Conference

take time out from brutalising their own people to force through a resolution

at the Human Rights Council against what they call the defamation of religions,

by which they mean telling the truth about Islam and the countries where it calls the shots.

They say they want to stop people wrongly associating their religion

with terrorism and human rights violations,

but I don't think anyone does. I think people correctly associate Islam with those things.

I certainly do, but then what do I know?

All I've got to go on is overwhelming evidence.

Also, at the risk of sounding like a racist xenophobic hate-mongering Nazi fascist bigot,

it does seem to me that allowing Islamic countries on to a human rights council

is like having a bunch of mafiosi on a parole board.

They've already made it perfectly clear that human rights don't apply to them

if they conflict with sharia, which of course they always do,

because civilisation conflicts with sharia.

In a sane world these countries wouldn't even be allowed to

look in the direction of a human rights council, let alone serve on one.

We're talking about places like Saudi Arabia where you can be executed for witchcraft,

and where pubescent girls are married off to middle-aged perverts

incapable of forming a normal relationship because of their religion;

or Iran, which executes children, and where you can be stoned to death

for getting into the wrong relationship.

Or Sudan, where slavery is practised by Muslims over non-Muslims,

where the government has murdered millions of its own people,

and where the president is an indicted war criminal.

We're talking about places dominated by bloodthirsty clerics

who embrace the brutality of sharia so enthusiastically

you get the impression they enjoy seeing people mutilated and murdered,

and their religion is just a convenient excuse.

Scripture-sodden oafs who seem to compete with each other

to see who can issue the most fatuous fatwa,

degrading and humiliating women as much as possible.

Recently, for example, one Saudi "scholar" declared that women could associate

with men they aren't related to by breastfeeding them,

which would technically make them their sons.

Resourceful, or round the twist?

Answers on a postcard to the king of Saudi Arabia.

Another Saudi "scholar" is on record as saying that women

should have to cover themselves so completely that only one eye is visible.

What, a whole eye? How shameless. Well, that's the modern world for you.

No doubt he would agree with the Iranisn "scholar"

who earlier this year made the extraordinary statement

that immodestly dressed women are the cause of earthquakes, no less.

Some of these guys really do have a very serious problem with women, don't they?

This is way beyond anything you'd call a simple neurosis

and deep into hardcore mental illness.

It's a shame that Allah, for all his omnipotence,

doesn't seem to know any good psychiatrists.

If the Saudis couldn't dig money straight out of the ground

they'd still be living in the stone age, as would the entire Arab world,

which has produced absolutely nothing of value to humanity for centuries,

thanks to a suffocating religion that fosters insularity and ignorance,

not to mention a chronic and crippling sexual repression

that makes Catholicism look like San Francisco in the 1960s.

And the damage this does can be seen in many places in the Islamic world,

not least in the country of Pakistan,

which is not, strictly speaking, an Islamic dictatorship, but it might as well be.

It's a democracy - a fragile and corrupt democracy with nuclear weapons. Great.

It's also a very Islamic country. How Islamic?

Blasphemy carries the death penalty, and it doesn't get any more Islamic than that.

Indeed, right at this moment, a woman is awaiting death by hanging

because she happened to get into an argument with some Muslims

who promptly accused her of blasphemy. That's how Islamic Pakistan is.

In fact, it's such an Islamic country that 80% of Pakistani women

are regularly beaten by their husband,

and in the area around the city of Karachi a woman is murdered every day.

However, the Pakistani government is less concerned about these cowardly atrocities

than it is about religious offence, taking care to block websites critical of Islam

because they don't want anyone's morals corrupted.

Meanwhile, Pakistan distinguishes itself on the internet

by leading the world in Google searches for animal sex, child sex and rape sex.

Normal consensual sex between human adults

is apparently something of a minority taste in that devout country, according to Google.

Given all this, you might be surprised to hear

that both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have recently been appointed

to the board of the new United Nations agency for women.

Yes, that's right, I said women.

Both of these countries will be doing all they can

to work for the empowerment and equality of women all over the world.

Isn't that great news?

And how wonderfully inclusive of the United Nations

to hand the fox the keys to the hen house yet again.

Yes, OK, these countries may well treat women like dogs,

but hey, that's their culture, right? And we've got to respect it, don't we?

Who are we to judge, after all? It's all just relative anyway, isn't it?

Just because a thing is insane and barbaric and downright evil

does that necessarily make it wrong?

Surely we're not arrogant enough to assume that our values are superior

just because they're more civilised, or that their values are somehow less valid

just because we've got stringent laws against them.

That would be disrespectful, and most intolerant,

and quite probably racist.

No, in the spirit of mutual understanding and tolerance and respect

and harmony and bridge-building,

and all the other bullshit buzzwords of the new PC totalitarianism,

we simply have to accept that brutalising half of humanity

for the sake of pathetically inadequate male egos and primitive superstition

is just part of the rich tapestry, the rich diversity

of cultures and faiths that so enrich us all. Isn't that right?

Well, isn't it?

You know those bedbugs at the United Nations?

I shouldn't worry too much about them.

I think they'll leave of their own accord when they realise the company they're keeping.

Peace out, everybody.
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