Sunday, October 08, 2023

Sexist outfits and underwear in public: Spanish city cracks down on hen and stag dos

By Rebecca Ann Hughes

The mayor confirmed that those who do not abide by the rules would face a fine.

The Spanish city of Seville has announced it will be cracking down on the antisocial behaviour of stag and hen dos.

The city’s newly elected mayor has said the council will bring in a law to curb “obscene acts” being committed in public.

Jose Luis Sanz, who took up the position as mayor of Seville in May, said rule breakers will face a fine.

Here’s what you need to know if you’re planning to party in the Andalucian city.

Seville bans ‘sexist costumes’

Sanz has declared that a new city council law will ban antisocial behaviour including wearing underwear in public and donning costumes with “sexist elements or messages”, UK newspaper The Times reported.

Outfits “that may violate the moral or sexual integrity of another person” will also be prohibited, as well as “performing or inciting the performance of acts that violate sexual freedom […] or committing acts of obscene exhibitionism.”

The mayor confirmed that those who do not abide by the rules would face a fine although the exact sum has not been revealed.

Sanz said Seville “has no interest whatsoever” in the type of tourism that some bachelor and bachelorette parties bring to the city, according to The Times.


“Anyone can celebrate their bachelor party in Seville,” said Sanz. “What we don’t view favourably are groups of people dressed as whatever, with brass bands behind them, disturbing the many residents of Seville - especially in areas of the historic centre - who also have the right to enjoy their city.”

Stag and hen parties are ‘shameful’

The new measure comes as residents have expressed anger and frustration at visitor behaviour following the rise in tourist numbers post-pandemic.

Inhabitants have applauded the proposed new law. One resident told a local radio station that the conduct of some stag and hen parties was “shameful”.

“People come naked. You can see everything,” the resident said.

Local newspaper ABC published an article saying the behaviour and clothing of some tourists “provoke looks of disgust, especially among the older neighbours.”

In 2022, the Spanish city of Malaga brought in fines of €750 for nudity in public, wearing underwear in the streets or carrying an inflatable doll.

In 2016, Mojácar in Almería banned the wearing of “phallic tiaras” and “unbecoming behaviour with inflatable sex dolls.”

 NO MORE PRIDE PARADES IN SEVILLE







 

New commission set to tackle rising human slavery in Europe - and beyond

By Saskia O'Donoghue

Headed up by former British prime minister Theresa May, the Global Commission for Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking seeks to eradicate the ever-increasing issue by 2030.

Modern slavery is "still the greatest human rights issue of our time”.

That’s according to former British prime minister Theresa May who has, this week, launched a new global commission to tackle modern slavery and human trafficking.

The aim of the Global Commission for Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking is to put pressure on governments to return the issue to the top of their political agendas as modern slavery sees an alarming increase worldwide.

It’s perhaps something you wouldn’t immediately associate with Europe but the prevalence here is rising too.

It’s thought that France alone has 135,000 of the 50 million global victims of modern slavery.

Since 2016, the Global Slavery Index and the United Nations estimate that some 10 million more people - up from 40 million - have been forced to work or marry, due to increasingly complex global challenges facing every walk of life.

"Modern slavery is hidden in plain sight and is deeply intertwined with life in every corner of the world. Each day, people are tricked, coerced, or forced into exploitative situations that they cannot refuse or leave. Each day, we buy the products or use the services they have been forced to make or offer without realising the hidden human cost."
 Global Slavery Index 
Definition of modern slavery

These vulnerabilities have been compounded further still by climate change, an increasingly digital way of life for millions, conflict - and COVID-19.

The pandemic exacerbated existing issues while creating new ones - from unequal access to healthcare and vaccines as well as increased economic insecurity across Europe.

The negative effects of climate change on agriculture and the food production industry have seen levels of poverty and food insecurity skyrocket and increased displacement for some.

The Index has found that this often desperate exile can lead to ever more exploitation and forced labour on the continent.

Conflict, too, plays a significant part.

The Commission says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has increased the risk of modern slavery, thanks to mass displacement and forced migration both in-country and across the region.

They found that Russia, along with Turkmenistan, have taken the least action to combat modern slavery and trafficking in recent years.

At the other end of the scale are the UK, followed by the Netherlands and Portugal, who took the most initiative in tackling the issue.

While the findings show that Europe has taken the most action of any region worldwide to tackle forced labour that ends up in global supply chains, it’s not all good news.

The Commission expresses that across all countries, governments must address significant gaps, including expanding the provision of safe and regular migration pathways for the most vulnerable, as well tackling underlying discrimination of migrants and other marginalised groups.

They will be hoping that a number of European nations, which score particularly badly on the Index, will take heed of that advice.

In Russia and Ukraine, it’s estimated that 13 and 12.8 people per 1,000 are currently trapped in slavery.

In Macedonia it’s 12.6 while in Belarus the figure is 11.3 and Albania has 10.8 people per capita defined as slaves.

While the UK, the Netherlands and Portugal are all actively trying to combat the situation, only the Netherlands are in the top 5 countries with the least slavery.

The rich, central and northern European nations Switzerland and Norway (with just 0.5 people per 1,000 in slavery each) are followed closely by Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, which all have only 0.6 people enslaved per 1,000.

Chaired by Theresa May, the Commission also features prominent members including Grace Forrest, the founder of human rights organisation Walk Free. Nasreen Sheikh, an author and survivor of modern slavery and Sophie Otiende, the Chief Executive of the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery.

Together, their aim is to firm up and support the implementation of every nation’s commitments to ending modern slavery and rooting out forced labour in global supply chains.

They hope to eradicate modern slavery and human trafficking by 2030.

It’s likely to be an uphill battle, though.

Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images
Theresa May during her tenure as prime minister, in 2019Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images

“More people are living in modern slavery today than at any time in human history. These crimes exist in all of our societies, and respect neither borders nor jurisdictions. Yet compared to other abuses, our collective responsiveness has been disproportionately weak”, admits Theresa May.

Ahead of the UN’s recent Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) summit, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres observed that only 15% of the SDGs on forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking are on track – with many seemingly “going into reverse”.

At the summit in September at UN HQ in New York, Guterres called on governments and other stakeholders to “come to the table with concrete plans and proposals to accelerate progress”.

The Commission says it has three clear objectives: to provide high level political leadership, to mobilise the evidence and knowledge base and to promote and facilitate international collaborations and partnerships.

They’ll also embed those with lived experience in both the governance and work of the high-stakes project - and will present their initial report on changes to Guterres in the spring of 2025.

The Commission is currently supported by both the governments of the UK and Bahrain.

In the middle eastern nation, the vulnerability to modern slavery level is 40 out of 100. In the UK, that figure is a relatively low 14.

The Commission says there is an opportunity for other countries to become co-convenors and for further Commissioners to be appointed - and, for now, they are full of hope that eradication of modern slavery and human trafficking is in sight.

“There is no doubt that more than ever we need collective action to address the issue of modern slavery. When policy makers, industry leaders, and activists are guided by the voices of those closest to and most affected by the problem, there's real opportunity for change”, Sophie Otiende explains.

ICYMI: German museum worker swapped paintings with fakes to fund lavish lifestyle

By Anca Ulea

In Case You Missed It: A German museum worker was sentenced for stealing and selling paintings from Munich's Deutsches Museum, replacing the originals with fakes.

A German museum worker was sentenced for stealing paintings from his employers and replacing them with forgeries, in order to sell the real ones to fund his “luxury lifestyle,” according to a district court in Munich.

The 30-year-old man, unnamed as per German privacy law, was also convicted of stealing three other artworks from Munich’s Deutsches Museum, where he worked as a technical staffer, according to a statement published by the court on 25 September.

He sold the originals through the museum’s own auction house and used the proceeds to pay for an apartment, a Rolls Royce and expensive watches.

In the two years during which the man worked at the Deutsches Museum, from 2016 to 2018, he first stole Franz von Stuck’s 1891 “The Fairy Tale of the Frog King,” which he sold for €70,000. He told the auction house the painting belonged to his grandparents.

He also stole and sold Eduard von Grützner’s “Tasting the Wine” and Franz von Defregger’s “Two Girls Collecting Wood in the Mountains;” he failed to sell the final painting he stole, Defregger’s “Dirndl”.

The Deutsches Museum isn’t an art museum, which is the main reason the paintings went so long without being missed.

While the Munich museum is a scientific and technical institution, it has a large collection of donated art in its archives, making it particularly vulnerable to this type of theft.

The “clumsy” forgeries were finally discovered by an in-house appraiser who was doing research and noticed the paintings he saw in storage didn’t match the pictures of the works in the museum catalogue.

The Munich court handed the man a hefty 21-month suspended sentence but said the remorse he showed – along with his clean criminal record – helped him avoid jail. He was also ordered to pay back the museum more than €60,000 for the stolen paintings.

“He stated that he had acted without thinking,” the court statement read. “He could no longer explain his behavior today.”

Additional sources • ArtNet, ArtForum

Dutch Royal Prince Bernhard's membership to Hitler's Nazi party revealed

By Euronews Digital & AFP

The Dutch Royal household has confirmed that Prince Bernhard - prince consort for decades after World War II and husband of former Queen Juliana - was a member of the Nazi party.

The membership card for the NSDAP, the German National Socialist Party attributed to Prince Bernhard, dates back to 1933. 

Historian Flip Maarschalkerweert, former director of the Royal Household Archives, discovered the map while making an inventory of Prince Bernhard's private archives at the royal Soestdijk Palace, located in Utrecht.

Prince Bernhard - who died in 2004 aged 93 years old - had repeatedly denied having been a member of the Nazi party, after revelations first emerged in the media in 1996. 

"I can declare it with my hand on the Bible: I was never a Nazi", he said in an interview published a few days after his death in the national newspaper De Volkskrant. 

Adding that he had "never paid a membership fee to the party and never had a membership card". 

Prince Bernhard was living in Berlin when he joined the party. He became prince consort to Queen Juliana in 1948 and was the father of Queen Beatrix, and grandfather of the current Dutch King Willem-Alexander.

HANDOUT/AFP
A scan of Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands' original NSDAP party membership card, from his private archives.HANDOUT/AFP

Popular discontent

"I can imagine that the news has had a major impact and that it has aroused many emotions, particularly within the Jewish community", King Willem-Alexander told television cameras on Thursday as he arrived at the Dam Palace in Amsterdam.

Part of the lower house of the Dutch parliament is demanding that the government launch an enquiry into Prince Bernhard's Nazi past, a demand so far rejected by the outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

The CIDI, a Dutch Jewish organisation, is also calling for an enquiry, citing "a new revelation that adds another black page to a painful part of recent Dutch history".

AFP
Dutch King Willem-Alexander (L) and Queen Maxima attend the presentation of the Apples of Orange, the annual prizes of the Orange Fund in the Hague, the Netherlands, on OctobeAFP

Declining royal popularity

The revelations surrounding Prince Bernhard come as the royal family's popularity has been falling for several years.

According to an Ipsos poll published in September, only 38% of Dutch people still "really trust" the King, compared with almost 80% in 2020. 

Some 26% of those questioned stated they want the Netherlands to become a republic.

In autumn 2020, while the government was asking the Dutch to avoid travelling because of the Covid-19 health crisis, the royal family tried to sneak off on holiday to Greece. This sparked a wave of indignation across the country.

Meet the 'nones': An ever increasing group across Europe with little to no religious affiliation


By Saskia O'Donoghue with AP
Published on 08/10/2023 - 

In Italy, the cradle of Catholicism, new research suggests that only 19% of citizens attend services at least weekly, while 31% never attend at all - and it's a trend already growing in some European nations.

They’re called the “nones” and are growing in numbers every day.

It’s a term for those increasingly rejecting organised religion, even in countries in which faith is typically at the core of their very identity.

Scandinavian countries and north west Europe - think France and the United Kingdom - have been well known for their widespread secularism for years.


But now, even in Italy - the long-standing home of Catholicism - things are changing too.

Vatican City - home to the Pope and many of the world’s most influential religious figures - is right in the centre of Rome, the capital.

Unsurprisingly, then, most people retain at least a nominal affiliation to the church, taking part in their many and varied traditions but, increasingly, with little adherence to doctrine or practice.

According to recent findings from the Pew Research Centre survey, 78% of Italians still profess to be of the Catholic faith.

So far, so believable.

Dig a little deeper though and you’ll see a very different picture.

The Italian statistics agency, ISTAT, says only 19% attend services at least weekly - while 31% never attend at all.

Experts say that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly accelerated a disengagement with Catholicism in Italy which started at least a generation ago.

It’s a trend that’s become ever more concerning for those within the church.

Domenico Stinellis/AP
The Rev. Giovanni Mandozzi celebrates Mass in Isola del Gran Sasso near Teramo in central ItalyDomenico Stinellis/AP

“‘I don’t have time, I don’t feel like it’ - there isn’t a real reason. That’s what’s scary”, the Reverend Giovanni Mandozzi, a parish priest in the central mountain village of Isola, tells AP.

Despite his attempts to persuade his parishioners to return to services - “I tell them, ‘I do Mass in under 40 minutes, you can leave your pasta sauce on the stove, and it won’t even stick to the bottom of the pot” - attendance is at an all time low.

Mandozzi is forced to preach in a former butchers shop after two earthquakes in the Abruzzo region have caused significant damage to Isola’s church since 2009.

In the shop, he told the Mass congregation, made up of fewer than two dozen local pensioners, “the sign of the cross isn’t a quick fly-swatting gesture”.

It’s a sight totally alien to the elderly audience who would have been used to a packed church.

Next door, though, the atmosphere can best be described as buzzy. The venue? A bar - packed with young families.

“Everything has changed,” the bar owner, Natascia Di Stefano tells AP.

“Sunday used to be church with your family. Now youths don’t even want to hear about it, like an ancient thing that’s useless”, the mother of two teens expands.

At another bar nearby - which, a little ironically, faces a mediaeval chapel - a group of friends in their 20s enjoy a drink.

They explain that they grew up attending Mass and catechism - only to bring their relationship with the church to an abrupt halt after being confirmed.

Traditionally a central practice to those of the Catholic faith, confirmation is a commitment to witness their faith through the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis
Posters at a bus staion (L-R) advertising a show of the Orfei Circus, a nighttime procession to the St. Gabriele dell'Addolorata sanctuary and a local religious festivalAP Photo/Domenico Stinellis

Today, though, it’s because little more than a last rite that people feel obligated by family tradition to partake in.

“It would have become just a routine,” 24-year-old student Agostino Tatulli tells AP, adding. “I’d say I’m spiritual. I don’t know if God exists.”

The reasons for this increasing lack of belief are numerous but Dr Nadia Beider, a Sociology of Religion research fellow at University College London tells Euronews that the research suggests that a decline in religious engagement often leads to a lack of affiliation and date somewhere down the road thanks, in part, due to the “level of effort required to sustain regular religious behaviour such as church attendance”.

“The process accelerates over time as people disaffiliate from the religion in which they were raised and an increasing proportion are raised without religion”, Beider adds.

Spirituality and tradition do, though, still seem to be at the core of many young Italians’ beliefs today.

Saints days and blessings from priests are particularly important - even if organised religion is proving less attractive for increasing numbers.

Domenico Stinellis/AP
Bishop Emeritus Giulio Mencuccini blesses the participants of a pilgrimage of bikers to the St. Gabriele dell'Addolorata sanctuary in Isola del del Gran Sasso near TeramoDomenico Stinellis/AP

Hundreds of bikers go to churches for an annual blessing, as do thousands of teenagers in the early spring for a ‘blessing of the pens’ before they take their final exams.

Catholicism is still a central part of another rite of passage for many - wedding ceremonies.

They remain the choice of about 60% of Italians marrying for the first time.

Catholic funerals, too, are still said to be favoured by 70% of Italians, although some funeral directors are opting to build ‘neutral’ wake rooms in their establishments to appeal to those keen not to focus on God at the end of their lives.

While lay people still cling on to some aspect of Catholicism from the cradle to the grave, there are logistical hurdles to overcome for church leaders too.

They’re already struggling with a significant drop in vocations that leaves many with barely the time to celebrate Masses in multiple villages under their care.

A wider European picture

It will come as little surprise that a continent as diverse and vast as Europe sees huge variations in religious affiliation across its 45 nations.

According to 2018 research from the Pew Research Centre - the latest on offer - Central and Eastern Europeans tend to be more likely than Western Europeans to be ‘highly religious’.

To qualify as ‘highly religious’, respondents had to tick at least two boxes out of the following criteria: attending religious services at least monthly, praying at least daily, believing in God with absolute certainty or saying that religion is very important to them.

In Greece, for example, roughly half of adults fall under that category whereas, in countries like Denmark, Sweden and the UK, that number falls to just one in 10.

That statistic doesn’t mean, though, that all countries in Western Europe have low levels of religious commitment - and also that not all countries in Central and Eastern Europe are at the higher end of the index.

Portugal, for example, has some 37% of its adult population fall into the highly religious category. At the other side of the continent, countries including the Czech Republic and Estonia have religiosity levels similar to Denmark - noticeably lower than those in most other Central and Eastern European countries.

These statistics, if they are to follow the trend of Italy, are likely to change - and fast.

In research undertaken by the World Economic Forum, also in 2018, it was discovered that young people - aged 16 to 29 at the time of the survey - are far less religious than their older countrymen. 

That poll found that young people in the Czech Republic are the least religious in all Europe.

Some 91% of 16 to 29 year olds say they have no religion, followed by Estonia’s youths (80%), Sweden (75%) and the UK, where 70% have no religion - and just 7% call themselves Anglican.

Across 12 out of 22 countries studied by the Forum, over half of young adults claim not to identify with any particular religion or denomination.

In many Central and Eastern European countries, that trend is very much bucked - and it’s down, in part, to the fall of the Iron Curtain.

More than 30 years on since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Pew Research found that religion has reasserted itself as an important part of individual and national identity in many of the countries where communist regimes once repressed religious worship and promoted atheism.

Now, religion and national identity are often closely entwined. In former communist states, such as the Russian Federation and Poland, many say that being Orthodox or Catholic is important to being “truly Russian” or “truly Polish”.

Interestingly, Catholicism in Central and Eastern Europe does not measure up to the levels in upsurge as Orthodox Christianity.

That seems to be down to the fact that much of the population in countries such as Poland and Hungary retained a Catholic identity during the communist era, therefore leaving less of a religious vacuum to be filled when the USSR fell.

There could be a relatively straightforward explanation for this trend.

“It seems that the more universal explanations of the link between religious decline and modernity such as the shift towards secular, rational modes of thinking, individualisation, and greater emphasis on self-actualization values, notably in societies whose citizens feel generally safe and secure, less so in countries suffering from conflict, dislocation and economic precarity help explain why secularisation takes place”, Dr Nadia Beider tells Euronews.

Domenico Stinellis/AP
Petitions to St. Gabriele are left in a bowl at St. Gabriele dell'Addolorata sanctuary in Isola del Gran SassoDomenico Stinellis/AP

Regardless of the status of conflict in a particular nation or, indeed, a person’s chosen denomination, it will be interesting to see when - not if - these more religious nations follow Italy’s lead.

Pietro di Bartolomeo, who hails from the city of Teramo, north of Rome, is fearful about the increasing secularisation of Italy and the wider continent, saying the decline in both numbers of priests and regular churchgoers is a real worry.

He’s proof, too, that questioning organised religion is nothing new.

As a teenager, he was bullied because of his family’s strong faith - so much so that he came to see “God as a loser.”

Now 45 and a father of five, he runs a Bible group for teens, trying to keep them connected to their faith after the critical juncture of their confirmation.

Speaking to AP, he emphasises that the church must increase their evangelising practice - or risk irrelevance.

“The old ladies sooner or later will go to the Creator, and that’s where the cycle stops”, di Bartolomeo says.