Magic Statistics

A Toronto man named Seifu Getahun is afraid that his girlfriend has been thrown in prison in Somalia for refusing to marry a man of her family's choosing.

A Toronto man says he hasn't heard from his 25-year-old girlfriend Naja Jama in more than two months.

Seifu Getahun, 34, believes a marriage had been arranged for her against her will.

Getahun said he received several messages and phone calls from Somalia, but his last contact with Jama was a phone message she left at the end of July. "In the last one she [said she] was in big trouble and she need help from [the] Canadian government."
 
Getahun and Jama had been seeing each other for three years. He's of Ethiopian-Christian background and she's of Somali-Muslim descent.

The Department of External Affairs says it is trying to verify the report.

h/t: Bourque

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Today’s Ottawa Citizen reports allegations that the Federal Accountability Act has drastically altered the habits and practices of federal employees.  So, what has changed, exactly?

The rules-laden Federal Accountability Act is backfiring and creating a bureaucracy of risk-averse "Dilberts" who keep their heads down, don't trust anyone and put process ahead of getting things done, warns a report by Ottawa think-tank Public Policy Forum.

Sounds to me like business as usual.

h/t: National News Watch

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Cohabitation may be increasingly popular compared to marriage, but the previously well-documented health and social benefits of marriage persist.

A comprehensive and wide-ranging study by Britain’s central statistical agency presents much evidence that marriage is associated with better health for both adults and children.

The Office for National Statistics has published definitive proof that married couples live longer, enjoy better health and can rely on more home care in old age than their divorced, widowed, single and cohabiting peers. Children who live with their married parents are also healthier, and can expect to stay in full-time education for longer, whatever their economic background.
. . .
Mike Murphy, Professor of Demography at the London School of Economics and one of the authors of the report, said he had expected that society’s greater acceptance of divorce and single-parenthood would have eroded the benefits of marriage, on health in particular, but this did not appear to be so.

“The evidence of both mortality and morbidity data suggest the link between health and the family remain strong,” Professor Murphy said.

The study also reports that divorced and separated persons, especially men, suffer serious adverse mental and physical health effects.  Divorce is also seen to adversely affect children’s mental and physical health.  From pp. 57-58 of the full pdf report:

Parental divorce is not only associated with mental neurosis, but also helps foster ‘various physical diseases, including cardiac disorders’ later in their lives. [footnote omitted]

Similarly, children born out of wedlock experience worse health than children born to married parents.

The first statistical study of the relationship between marital status and mortality was conducted in 1858.  Analysis of data from France in the mid-19th century found significantly lower mortality rates among married adults.

The ONS study, entitled Focus On Families, is based on the 2001 Census and other sources, including previously published academic research.  It can be downloaded here.

h/t: MarriageDebate.com

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A brief interview with The Rev Canon Charlie Masters (at right), National Director of the Anglican Network in Canada, has been posted at Virtue Online.  He was asked about the plan for a new Anglican structure in North America, announced recently by the Common Cause Council of Bishops.

VOL: How do you see today's events?

MASTERS: It is very significant for the Network in Canada. We see ourselves as full members of the partnership and the formation of an ecclesiastical structure that was called forth at Kilgali, Rwanda in 2006. It is just as important for us Canadians as it is for Americans.

VOL: How big is the Network in Canada?

MASTERS: We have 16 parishes. About 500 have signed on as official members. We have significant numbers beyond that. Two bishops the Rt. Rev. Don Harvey, retired Bishop of the diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador and now the Moderator of the Anglican Network in Canada, and the Rt. Rev. Malcolm Harding retired Bishop of Brandon , ambassador for Anglican Renewal Ministries in Canada and has just joined Network since General Synod - are both important to us. Bishop Harvey is definitely our leader and is here representing us all here in Pittsburgh. I should also mention that about a third of all Anglican bishops in Canada are orthodox but how they all might approach the coming days in the Anglican Church of Canada is not clear.

VOL: Why is this event important now for you and orthodox Anglicans in Canada?

MASTERS: It's the timing. We came to the conclusion after General Synod that further attempts to turn the Anglican Church of Canada around were now impossible. The fate of the church has been irrevocably sealed. It has no future. It will die a slow but inevitable death. One has only to look at the statistics of my own diocese to see that. The Titanic is going down. It will take a while, but its death is inevitable.

Read the whole thing.

Canon Masters has served as Rector of St George’s, Lowville, Ontario, for over twenty-five years.  The parish is part of the Diocese of Niagara, one of the most liberal dioceses in the Anglican Church of Canada.

c/p: Anglican Essentials Canada Blog

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