Quarter of men in South Africa admit rape, survey finds

• Research exposes culture of sexual violence
• Government criticised for 'woeful' conviction rate

One in four men in South Africa have admitted to rape and many confess to attacking more than one victim, according to a study that exposes the country's endemic culture of sexual violence.

Three out of four rapists first attacked while still in their teens, the study found. One in 20 men said they had raped a woman or girl in the last year.

South Africa is notorious for having one of the highest levels of rape in the world. Only a fraction are reported, and only a fraction of those lead to a conviction.

The study into rape and HIV, by the country's Medical Research Council (MRC), asked men to tap their answers into a Palm Pilot device to guarantee anonymity. The method appears to have produced some unusually frank responses.

Professor Rachel Jewkes of the MRC, who carried out the research, said: "We have a very, very high prevalence of rape in South Africa. I think it is down to ideas about masculinity based on gender hierarchy and the sexual entitlement of men. It's rooted in an African ideal of manhood."

Jewkes and her colleagues interviewed a representative sample of 1,738 men in South Africa's Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.

Of those surveyed, 28% said they had raped a woman or girl, and 3% said they had raped a man or boy. Almost half who said they had carried out a rape admitted they had done so more than once, with 73% saying they had carried out their first assault before the age of 20.

The study, which had British funding, also found that men who are physically violent towards women are twice as likely to be HIV-positive. They are also more likely to pay for sex and to not use condoms.It's rooted in an African ideal of manhood."

Any woman raped by a man over the age of 25 has a one in four chance of her attacker being HIV-positive.

One in 10 men said they had been forced to have sex with another man. Many find it difficult to report such attacks to the police in subcultures where the concept of homosexuality is taboo.

South Africa's government has been repeatedly criticised for failing to address the crisis. Only 7% of reported rapes are estimated to lead to a conviction. Jewkes said: "There's been a lot of concern about the way the criminal justice system works, because it's still woeful."

Before his election as president, Jacob Zuma stood trial for the rape of a family friend. His supporters demonstrated at the court house, verbally attacked his accuser and sang "burn the bitch, burn the bitch". Zuma was eventually acquitted.

Jewkes added: "The social space for debating these gender issues is now smaller than it was a few years ago. We need our government to show political leadership in changing attitudes. We need South African men, from the top to the grassroots, to take responsibility."

Anti-rape campaigners said the shocking figures demonstrated the need for reform. Dean Peacock, co-director of the Sonke Gender Justice project, said: "We need to make sure the criminal justice system is held to account. We have lots of discussion in this country, but not enough action is taken to ensure that perpetrators will face consequences."

Zuma, a polygamist, was criticised for emphasising his Zulu tribal identity and singing militant songs during this year's election campaign. He made comments that outraged anti-Aids and gender campaigners.

Peacock added: "We're at a complicated moment in South African history with revived traditionalism and there's a danger of gender transformation being lost.

"We hear men saying, 'If Jacob Zuma can have many wives, I can have many girlfriends.' The hyper-masculine rhetoric of the Zuma campaign is going to set back our work in challenging the old model of masculinity."continues here

Boy or a girl? It's in your genes, dad

A man's chances of fathering a boy or a girl are written in his genes, research suggests. 

Analysis of more than 900 family trees dating back to 1600 has suggested the existence of a ' fatherhood gene' that determines the sex of a man's children. 

As men inherit the gene from their parents, males who have lots of brothers are likely to have sons and those with many sisters have high odds of fathering daughters.

Corry Gellatly, a research scientist at Newcastle University, analysed the histories of 927 European and American families, comprising more than 500,000 people. 

The results suggested that a gene controls whether a man's sperm contains more X or Y chromosomes, which in turn determine the sex of his children. 

A child's sex is determined by the father because a woman's eggs only contain X chromosomes. When one of these combines with a sperm carrying an X chromosome, a girl is created. If it combines with a Y, the result is a boy. 


It is thought that the gene comes in three forms. Men that inherit the first produce more Y sperm and have more sons. Those with the second-type produce equal numbers of X and Y sperm and so are as likely to have a boy as a girl. 

The third form skews the tendency towards daughters, the journal Evolutionary Biology reports. 

Mr Gellatly said the simple system would help keep the number of boys and girls born roughly equal. 

He said: 'If there are too many males in the population, for example, females will more easily find a mate, so men who have more daughters will pass on more of their genes, causing more females to be born in later generations.'  continues here

Genetic MoT will detect disease in unborn child

Prospective parents will be able to screen embryos for almost any known genetic disease using a revolutionary “universal test” developed by British scientists, The Times has learnt. 

The £1,500 test, which should be available as early as next year, will allow couples at risk of passing on gene defects to conceive healthy children using IVF treatment. Unlike current tests it takes just weeks from start to finish and is suitable for couples at risk of almost any condition. 

The “genetic MoT” will transform the range of inherited disorders that can be detected in embryos and the speed and accuracy of such tests. At present only 2 per cent of the 15,000 known genetic conditions can be identified in this way. 

It involves creating embryos by IVF and removing a single cell from each when they are two days old. The cells are tested using a technique known as karyomapping before a healthy embryo is implanted.  

However, the advance will deepen the ethical debate over the creation of “designer babies” by widening the scope of such testing greatly. 

The test, developed at the Bridge Centre in London, can identify multiple genetic variations, so that scientists could screen for combinations that together confer higher risks of diabetes, heart disease or cancer. Such applications would first have to be approved by the regulator. 

The test also has implications for genetic privacy. As well as examining for mutations that cause serious disorders such as cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy and Huntington’s disease, it could also reveal an embryo’s future susceptibility to a host of other medical conditions. Parents could thus be told about their embryo’s future risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease or breast cancer. That would raise privacy issues by revealing sensitive health information about children who could not give consent. 

A further benefit would be to improve the chances of pregnancy for those who are infertile by selecting embryos that stand the best chance of developing normally. 

Professor Alan Handyside, who has pioneered the technique, will apply to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for a licence to use it. It will cost about £1,500, which is comparable to existing screening, but the price is likely to fall as the technology develops. “We are still validating it, but it is going to be a revolution if it works out,” Professor Handyside told The Times. “It makes genetic screening very much more straightforward.”  continues here

How becoming a mother can boost your brainpower

Many new mothers battling with tiredness and struggling to carry out the simplest of tasks would beg to differ. 

But according to scientists, giving birth supercharges brain power to equip women for the challenge of rearing their child. 

Having a baby produces a sudden surge of memory and learning ability that makes them more vigilant and alert, a study concluded. 

And the changes in the size and shape of many areas of the brain last for decades, protecting against degenerative diseases later in life. 

Researchers found there was often a decline in mental powers during pregnancy as the minds of mothers-to-be are remodelled. 

But hormonal fluctuations during birth and breastfeeding increase the size of cells in some areas of the brain leading to dramatic improvements in mental capacity. 

Studies on animals including rats and primates found mothers become much braver, are up to five times faster at finding food and have better spatial awareness than those without offspring. 

Craig Kinsley, professor of neuroscience at the University of Richmond, Virginia, said he believed the same results applied to humans. 'Pregnant women do undergo a phase of so-called baby brain, when they experience an apparent loss of function,' he said. 

'However, this is because their brains are being remodelled for motherhood to cope with the many new demands they will experience. 

'Many benefits seem to emerge from motherhood, as the maternal brain rises to the reproductive challenge. When the going gets tough, the brain gets going. 

'The changes could last for the rest of their lives, bolstering cognitive abilities and protecting them against degenerative diseases.' 

A 2002 study by Angela Oatridge, from Hammersmith Hospital in London, reported that brain scans of pregnant women showed a 4 per cent decline in size.

Last year, two Australian researchers found that pregnant women consistently performed worse on tests for memory and verbal skills. 

But Dr Kinsley believes this is because they are growing new sets of brain cells that he calls 'maternal circuits'. 

Nerve cells in areas known to be linked to parenting also expand and develop more connections with neighbouring cells during pregnancy to give mothers supercharged 'computing' power, he said. 

He added: 'Although most studies have so far focused on animals, it is likely women also gain long-lasting benefits from motherhood. Most mammals share similar maternal behaviours controlled by the same brain regions.' 

Another study by the University of Toronto has found rats that had given birth were protected against degenerative diseases, with lower levels of a protein linked with Alzheimer's disease in humans.  continues here

Leading geneticist Steve Jones says human evolution is over

“Small populations which are isolated can evolve at random as genes are accidentally lost. World-wide, all populations are becoming connected and the opportunity for random change is dwindling. History is made in bed, but nowadays the beds are getting closer together. We are mixing into a glo-bal mass, and the future is brown.”

Human evolution is grinding to a halt because of a shortage of older fathers in the West, according to a leading genetics expert.

Fathers over the age of 35 are more likely to pass on mutations, according to Professor Steve Jones, of University College London.

Speaking today at a UCL lecture entitled “Human evolution is over” Professor Jones will argue that there were three components to evolution – natural selection, mutation and random change. “Quite unexpectedly, we have dropped the human mutation rate because of a change in reproductive patterns,” Professor Jones told The Times.

“Human social change often changes our genetic future,” he said, citing marriage patterns and contraception as examples. Although chemicals and radioactive pollution could alter genetics, one of the most important mutation triggers is advanced age in men.

This is because cell divisions in males increase with age. “Every time there is a cell division, there is a chance of a mistake, a mutation, an error,” he said. “For a 29-year old father [the mean age of reproduction in the West] there are around 300 divisions between the sperm that made him and the one he passes on – each one with an opportunity to make mistakes.

“For a 50-year-old father, the figure is well over a thousand. A drop in the number of older fathers will thus have a major effect on the rate of mutation.”

Professor Jones added: “In the old days, you would find one powerful man having hundreds of children.” He cites the fecund Moulay Ismail of Morocco, who died in the 18th century, and is reputed to have fathered 888 children. To achieve this feat, Ismail is thought to have copulated with an average of about 1.2 women a day over 60 years.

Another factor is the weakening of natural selection. “In ancient times half our children would have died by the age of 20. Now, in the Western world, 98 per cent of them are surviving to 21.”

Decreasing randomness is another contributing factor. “Humans are 10,000 times more common than we should be, according to the rules of the animal kingdom, and we have agriculture to thank for that. Without farming, the world population would probably have reached half a million by now – about the size of the population of Glasgow. continues here

Sometimes I despair; sometimes I really can’t believe I live in such times, an age in which the rights of all others supersede that of my genotype, I have not the right to wish continuance ,should I, I am a hater, a bigot and a multitude of other names they endeavour to call me. Of course I don’t mind, its water of a ducks back, I embrace their hatred and throw it back at them, you see, I have more on my mind, more to occupy my time, than the rants of leftists.

Although I ignore them, I also despise them, loathe them, these happy killers, these crazed murders, serial killers extraordinaire, I believe I am predisposed to counter the left, genetically driven to combat them and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Yet it seems there are few though, few of us that can see through the murky waters, peer through the fog and discern truth, most seem dizzy with nonsense, bedazzled by prevaricators and busy with folly.

I stagger stunned by the realisation, that it is our time to die, we all die, for myself I do not embrace it, I do not rush for my meeting with death, yearn to feel his icy touch on my shoulder, race to cross the river, chatting aimlessly with Charon, as he takes me from those I love. Strangely the notion of death hurts, not because I am gone but for the sadness it may cause others, perhaps I am but a fool and none shall mourn my passing.

I like to believe differently, to believe that in leaving this world, at least one heart shall pine, one soul treasure memories and one mouth, flicker into a smile over times once had. We are all famous to those we love, some of us are lucky and memory of us lasts three generations, so that those that can never know us know of us, we all live forever of course, although our consciousness is no-more, we merely lend a part of ourselves to those to come, the shape of a nose, the chin, a laugh, perhaps intelligence and yes, even an illness we may pass on but pass it on we do.

Death is cruel yet life is sometimes crueller, poverty, illness any number of events, may all conspire to make of death reward, rather than a thing of dread, some go to rest with a smile others fight the event, yet we all cross the river, all of us pay the ferryman. We recoil from unfairness, the taking of a life, the murder of another, yet we are attracted to death we crane our necks at accident scenes, devour every word of macabre news-stories, fascinated, excited, scared and repulsed.

Sex sells and death sells and such will forever be the case, mankind is disposed to fight death, to contest it at every stage and we have done well, we are able to offer hope of life, where once there was none, cure ailments once mortal and ease pain, we also kill the innocent en-masse, slaughter infants, take life from the voiceless. Mankind is now a god, an un-clever god but a god nonetheless; we have complete dominion over our world to the detriment of all other animals, to the disadvantage of nature itself.

So we create death for the unborn, yet prolong life for the ill, we take from this earth yet never give, we are a malevolent Midas contaminating all we touch, most of us have no say in the workings of this world, we must place our trust in supposed better minds, we give office to representatives in hopes they cater to our need. They offer us democracy, this fable, this belief that the wishes of all can be carried through, yet sense would tell us, this can never be so, the ideas of one may be contradictory to another.

You believe it though and they, those chosen to represent you stab you in the back, they seal your fate, or that of our descendents, “the future is brown”, think about that for a minute, let it bounce around in your head, brown, now look at your children, or if none, children in your family or that of your neighbour, that is what they wish to kill off, is what by there actions they are killing off.

Yet I am the hater, I am the bigot, I am the one to be opposed, this evil scheme, these actions taken, by those who know their consequence, they know, they know the end result, no white people, no you or me. What right have they, to knowingly slaughter us, to genetically alter us in the name of their creed, have we not the right to exist, to reside upon this earth, to enjoy life, to raise our children and live in freedom?

Must they continue with this scheme unopposed, will no-one stand, no-one take up arms against true tyranny, in the history of our race, our culture we have never been so threatened, so attacked yet we let them carry through their scheme, conclude their malignant plan. We are not to survive it, this plan of theirs, this jaunt through madness, perhaps they will store our essence, our DNA, just in case, perhaps.

Yet for many this is politics, one ideology against another, a race to office that is all, for me it is a matter of survival, I don’t want them to turn us all the same, I want my children, my descendents to be the same as me, I want western civilisation to continue, I want in the final analyse, for them to simply leave us alone, let us live in peace, each in their own milieu.

Yet they give us no peace, we ask them, we tell them to stop, "no-more", we cry, in the fifties the dockers, in the seventies and eighties the front, the nineties the BNP and now we white nationalists, still they will not listen. Now though they prepare, their cameras, their surveillance, their supra-national rapid reaction force, we are almost in lockdown.

Perhaps then, regretfully, we must go out as white-men always have, surrounded, hard pressed but with pride, I can see no other way and they will surely kill us on the streets, slaughter us, should we stand against them. Of course, they must convince their forces that we are evil, that we stand against “democracy”, so perhaps white-men would not fire upon their own, yet in this age who can know.

For them it is a waiting game, breed us out of existence is the plan, or crush us should we resist, again many may die to fight leftist evil, there is a way, a chance, if we take it now, if we finally revolt throw them from office and begin again to clean up their mess. Nationalism now will not sanction it, will not countenance it, the removal of non-whites of all description and the protection of the west, for them we must agree terms, we must go softly, expect to have a non-white community in the after. Such stupidity, such an absurd notion 492 entered on the Empire Windrush, look at us now, look, open your eyes, “the future is brown”. 14

BABY WARNING FOR MARRIED COUSINS

MPs have called for a public debate about the high numbers of birth defects among children from marriages between first cousins in Britain's Asian communities.

Phil Woolas said that while health workers were well aware of the heightened risk of genetic problems, cultural sensitivities made the issue difficult to raise.

The Government minister, who represents ethnically-diverse Oldham East and Saddleworth, said: "Part of the risk, I am told by the health service, is first-cousin marriages. If you are supportive of the Asian community then you have a duty to raise this issue."

His call was supported by fellow Labour MP Ann Cryer who first raised the issue more than two years ago after research showed British Pakistanis were 13 times more likely to have children with recessive disorders than the general population.

She blamed a "medieval culture" of keeping wealth in the family and said some couples ignored warnings not to have more children despite the risks......article conts (-)

Political Views May Be Genetically Influenced, Twin Study Shows

Research by Rice University professor of political science John Alford indicates that what is on one's mind about politics may be influenced by how people are wired genetically.

Alford, who has researched this topic for a number of years, and his team analyzed data from political opinions of more than 12,000 twins in the United States and supplemented it with findings from twins in Australia. Alford found that identical twins were more likely to agree on political issues than were fraternal twins.

On the issue of property taxes, for example, an astounding four-fifths of identical twins shared the same opinion, while only two-thirds of fraternal twins agreed.

"What we found was that it probably is going to take more than a persuasive television ad to change someone's mind on a certain political position or attitude," said Alford. "Individual genes for behaviors do not exist and no one denies that humans have the capacity to act against genetic predispositions. But predictably dissimilar correlations of social and political attitudes among people with greater and lesser shared genotypes suggest that behaviors are often shaped by forces of which the person themselves are not consciously aware.".....Article conts (-)