Providentia

Eight-Year-Old Boy Charged with Blasphemy in Pakistan

An eight-year-old Hindu boy has been formally charged with violating Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws over an incident occurring at a madrassa in Pakistan's Punjab province.  The boy's arrest occurred in late July of this year when a teacher at the madrassa laid a complaint after the boy allegedly urinated on a carpet in the madrassa's library.  Police promptly arrested the boy and charged him with blasphemy, holding him in prison for a week before a court granted him bail on August 4. 

Following the boy's release, protesters desecrated the Siddhi Vinayak Temple in Bhong village where the boy lived.   He and his family have since gone into hiding as have numerous other Hindu families living in the area.  Paramilitary troops have since been deployed to the area to diffuse the situation and prevent further unrest. To date,  50 people have been arrested for vandalizing the Hindu temple and 100 more are still being investigated.  

Muslim-Hindu tensions remain high this year with more than a dozen attacks on Hindu temples in the past twelve months.  Responding to international outrage over the latest incident, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has called for the arrest of all those involved as well as pledging that the Pakistani government will restore the temple.  As for the still-unnamed boy, the charges have been dropped following pressure from media and human rights groups.  Though Hafiz Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, the Special Representative to the Prime Minister on Religious Harmony and the Middle East, initially denied media reports, he has since called for an investigation of the police officers who laid the original charges.

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Remembering Sexual Assaults

Trauma survivors often report trauma events inconsistently over time. Many studies, for example, have found that people report having experienced trauma events that they initially failed to report or remember, a phenomenon called “memory amplification.” Other studies have found the opposite: people report experiencing fewer events over time. Nahleen, Nixon, and Takarangi (2019) asked participants at two time-points, with a six-month delay, whether they had experienced 19 sexual assault events on a yes/no scale. Participants reported fewer events over time, that is, memory for sexual assault did not amplify overall. In a new study published in the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, we assessed whether inconsistency in reports of trauma exposure over time may be attributed to changes in participants’ belief that certain events were experienced. We replicated Nahleen et al. (2019), but rather than respond to a yes/no trauma exposure scale, participants were required to rate the likelihood that each trauma event occurred on an 8-point scale (1 = definitely did not happen; 8 = definitely did happen). Results showed that participants believed that they were less likely to have experienced the sexual assault events at follow-up compared to the initial assessment.   We could not corroborate trauma experiences or determine causality with our design which limited our findings Further, not all of our findings were consistent with Nahleen et al. (2019). Conclusions: Sexual assault memories did not amplify over time, perhaps because, compared to other types of trauma, the idea of experiencing additional sexual assault events that were not actually experienced is less believable. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

What Determines Stress-Eating?

The relationship between stress and food consumption is complex and often characterized by substantial between- and within-person variation. From a theoretical and practical perspective, more research is needed to improve our understanding of the factors that influence this relationship. A new study published in the journal Appetite examined some of those factors to learn more about their effects on the relationship between stress and food consumption. Using semi-structured interviews, 41 adult participants (M ± SD age = 26.7 ± 6.3 yr, BMI = 22.9 ± 3.0 kg/m²) were invited to reflect on their food consumption following stressor exposure and to elaborate on the factors that influence stress-induced eating behaviour. Reflexive thematic analyses revealed insight into the different ways in which individuals respond to stress in terms of food quantity and choices, and more significantly, highlighted a range of factors that may influence stress-induced eating behaviours. These factors included the intensity and/or nature of the stressor, aspects of prioritization, rewarding, knowledge of and perceptions about food, normative (e.g., family, friend) influences, automated or habituated behaviours, the availability of food, and selected coping mechanisms. These findings present important directions for researchers seeking to study the variation in stress-induced eating and may hold substantial practical value by way of informing interventions designed to alleviate unhealthy dietary responses to stress. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

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Does Constant Daily Exercise to Keep the Doctor Away for People 55 Years or Older?

A study recently published in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being examined the role of using a gym as a mechanism for adherence to regular physical exercise among individuals aged 55 and over. Data were collected from face-to-face interviews and observations among 15 people who attended the gym regularly and then analyzed via content analysis. Results showed four main themes: (1) experience of health challenges (a meaningful starting point), (2) adherence motivated by increased life manageability, (3) comprehensibility through skilled instruction, and (4) social and professional support enhancing motivation. Subjects who participated throughout the entire group-based exercise intervention experienced improved health and function as well as their life situation. The participants have had positive changes in physical, mental, and social functions, and as a result, they have improved their motivation to adhere to regular exercise and positive behavioural changes, which are important to their everyday lives.

For the study (Open Access)

Zimbabwe Exorcism/Baptism Deaths Attributed to "Mermaids"

“I am shaken. I am beside myself. This has never happened in my life, and I do not know how to tell people about this, including my own relatives."

For self-styled prophet  Amos Chituri of Agness Access Apostolic Church (AAAC) based in Zimbabwe's Mutasa district, the combination baptism/exorcism he conducted last July likely seemed like a simple matter.   Instead, it resulted in three deaths and propelled Chituri and his fellow congregation members into a mystery that has generated international attention.  

Though the 49-year-old Chituri had been called to the nearby village of Tazvigwira to see a mentally ill child, he met with village elder Victor Tazvigwira as a courtesy.   Until Chituri "prophesized" that the elder was being haunted by the spirit of a man whose bones he had once found and needed to be cleansed as a result.   As a result, Chituri, Tazvigwira, the elder's wife, and two children, along with several youth members of Chituri's congregation, all went to the nearby Musogwezi River on July 21, 2021, for a combination baptism/exorcism ceremony.  

All nine people gathered at a shallow pool by the river and removed their shoes to prepare for the ceremony.  The pool itself was not considered dangerous and local children often swam there.  While Chituri stood at the pool's edge, other congregation members then began "speaking in tongues" and plunged into the pool.   They then reportedly heard "huge trembling noise from the pool and the hills above" and reportedly felt a force pushing them under the water.   According to Tazvigwira in an interview with media, "We could see each other as we struggled to escape from the bottom of the pool. Surprisingly we never bumped against one another, and we never gulped any water. I raised my hands to try and alert those outside of our predicament. After a while, I mysteriously found myself thrown out of the pool and lying on the ground. I still don’t know how I came out."  

It was only while recovering from the ordeal that the group noticed that three were still missing.  They were  Cosmas Mvicha, Witness Chirombo of Silas Village, and Fungai Berevedzai, a 14-year-old Form 2 girl at Mapakomhere High School.   After spending most of the day praying for their safe return, apparently in the belief that the others had been taken away by "mermaids"  (part of local folklore).  Realizing that their prayers were not effective, Chituri and the remaining group members finally contacted local authorities.  

A week-long vigil followed as people waited by the pool to see if the missing villagers would be returned.  Though police attempted to send in divers to investigate the pool and river, villagers blocked them, hoping that their traditional rituals might work in getting the three returned safely.   Spirit mediums also conducted ceremonies with no real results.  Finally, after seven days, the bodies of the three floated to the surface, one at a time over the course of several hours.   One of the emerging bodies was even photographed by local media.

While police are still investigating, villagers remain terrified about the mystery surrounding the three deaths.  Suffice it say, children are not swimming in that pool, anymore.

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Saving Ezra Pound

The end of World War II in 1945 was a time for celebration, but it was also a time of reckoning. While the Nuremberg trials for Nazi war criminals were still in the planning stage, legal proceedings against enemy collaborators were well underway. In Great Britain, the trial of William Joyce (a.k.a. Lord Haw-haw) for treason due to his Nazi propaganda broadcasts led to his execution in 1946.

And then there was Ezra Pound...

As a major figure in 20th-century poetry, Pound's expatriate life in Italy led to his becoming an advocate for the Axis powers. He opposed the war (particularly the involvement of the United States) and expressed his support for Mussolini and Fascism through numerous radio broadcasts and writings. Even after the United States entered the war, Pound continued to be active in Italian politics until being arrested by Italian partisans in 1945. His incarceration by American forces near Pisa (including 25 days in an open cage) led to a nervous breakdown. Only after the end of the war was Pound finally sent to the United States for trial but what happened then is still a matter of controversy. While being a world-renowned poet, Pound was also reviled for his anti-Semitic views and his role as a Fascist collaborator.

Since treason was technically a capital offense at the time, Pound and his defense counsel had ample motivation to arrange a plea bargain stating that he was unfit to stand trial. There was absolutely no indication that Pound was actually suffering from mental illness but the plea bargain was quickly accepted to avoid embarrassing publicity. It seemed likely that Pound and his attorneys were hoping that he could be released after the public furor died down. Unfortunately for Pound, this gambit backfired. He was sent to St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C. where he would spend the next thirteen years of his life.

His treating psychiatrists seemed confused about what to do with him and it was only in 1953, after considerable prodding from the Justice Department, that a formal diagnosis was given: narcissistic personality disorder. Despite the fact that he was never diagnosed as suffering from a major mental illness, Pound continued to be held in the hospital. There is also some controversy over whether Pound received special treatment while in hospital since he was able to continue with his literary efforts (he would write three books there) as well as receiving numerous visits from family members and fellow writers.  He even engaged in conjugal visits with his wife (not to mention his mistress).  While in hospital, Pound continued to have an influence on a whole generation of new writers. Despite being allowed some freedom to pursue his writing, Pound hated his hospital stay and depended on his frequent visitors to keep him sane.

Only after numerous appeals from his fellow writers (including the poet Robert Frost) was Pound finally released in 1958 into the custody of his wife, Dorothy.  Interviewed after his release, he gave the famous quip that " all America is a lunatic asylum" and returned to Italy to live for the rest of his life. Pound would continue to write avidly but lived as a near-recluse with his long-time mistress, Olga Rudge (he and Dorothy separated after their return to Italy). While he became a little less rigid in his declining years and disavowed many of his anti-Semitic views, he remained largely unapologetic to the very end.  Ezra Pound died in 1972, just after celebrating his 87th birthday, and is buried in San Michele Cemetery on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore near Venice.

What are we to make of this case? Critics of psychiatry often tend to paint Pound as a victim of psychiatric abuse while others regard him as a traitor who managed to escape justice.  Ezra Pound was not a sympathetic figure but his 13-year incarceration in a mental hospital remains a graphic example of how psychiatric hospitals can be used to "warehouse" people regardless of their actual mental status. It is a misuse of psychiatric hospitals that continues to occur in too many countries around the world.

Does Team Spirit Prevent Suicide?

Issues related to professional sport transcend far beyond the world of sport itself. Previous research on the topic of sport and suicide has found that a significant association exists between the success of professional sport teams and the well-being of people in general. A new study published in The Sociological Quarterly examines suicide rates in United States’ metropolitan areas from 2006 to 2007 and from 2009 to 2010 to measure the association between suicide rates and the success of professional sport teams in these same metropolitan areas. Results from statistical analyses reveal that the successes of professional sport teams are significantly related to lower suicide rates, while the only game in town hypothesis was not supported. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract.

"Virus Shut-Out" Lanyards and other Quack Anti-COVID Nostrums Still Popular Worldwide

They're known as "Toamit Virus Shout-Out" lanyards, which have already been banned across half of Asia.  But despite being denounced as ineffectual and potentially dangerous, the lanyards continue to be sold in shops worldwide.   The lanyards were even available on eBay for a time, at least until late last year when a  Massachusetts man was sentenced in federal court to one-year probation and ordered to pay $1,500 due to falsely claiming that they warded off viruses and infections in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Based on the eBay listing, the pesticide took the form of a “card-shaped device to be worn as a lanyard around the user’s neck,” authorities said. The listing also stated, “TOAMIT JAPAN VIRUS SHUT OUT SANITATION DISINFECT CARD DEORDORIZE SANITIZE.”   Other online listings for the same product included the explicit claim that the product would protect the buyer or wearer of the product from viruses or bacteria, stating that the product’s main ingredient was chlorine dioxide and showed images of the device’s purported removal of bacteria, germs, and viruses,” according to prosecutors.   Most of the lanyards were made in Japan though most of the labeling and medical risks have not been translated from Japanese.

The chlorine dioxide, which is one of the central ingredients of the lanyard, is basically a form of bleach and has already generated FDA warnings about its use in other anti-viral products.  Though the lanyard themselves are not considered dangerous to adults who handle them properly,  cases of adults being hospitalized after drinking chlorine dioxide products have already been reported.  Medical authorities have also warned about the potential dangers that chlorine dioxide exposure poses to children.   That includes concerns that children might open the lanyard packets and even drink the contents.  But early childhood centers in New Zealand and other places have already reported children being sent to class wearing the products.  

For now, the products continue to be sold, along with a wide range of other "anti-virus" remedies of spurious value.   As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, there is no shortage of business opportunities for hucksters hoping to make a profit.   No word on whether any of them have been vaccinated.