Australia: feeding the elderly
One in three nursing homes still spend less than $10 a day per resident on food despite being given an extra $10 a day by the government to improve the standard of meals. A government audit of 2,600 residential aged-care facilities’ spending on food and ingredients for the last six months of 2021 shows average daily food spend per resident is about $12.35. 67% of residential services in the past six months reported an average daily spend on food and ingredients of more than $10 per day. The audit concluded that 2% of nursing homes are still spending an average of less than $6 per day. The aged care services minister said the sector’s performance ‘isn’t good enough’. All providers spending less than $10 per resident per day on food would be referred to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to consider regulatory action.
Mexico: Christians are persecuted
Christians are the majority of Mexico’s total population, but they are targeted by unlawful gangs for speaking out against criminal operations and violence. Cartels violently try to silence them. In rural indigenous communities, anyone turning away from traditional religious beliefs faces rejection and punishment in the form of fines, imprisonment, and forced displacement. Non-discrimination laws mean that any links between Christian faith and politics are placed under very strict legal scrutiny. In areas controlled by criminals or drug cartels, young Christian men are exposed to forced enrolment. Those who do not accept it face threats, potential abduction, and even death. Families are bribed and intimidated to force their children to obey the gangs. Church leaders are victims of blackmail because they have access to church funds. Mexico also has the highest rate of human trafficking in the world. Women are easy targets.
Israel: tensions soar
Israeli police entered the al-Aqsa mosque compound in East Jerusalem on Easter Sunday, leading to renewed clashes with Palestinians. Tensions flared during a rare week in which Easter, Passover, and Ramadan coincided. Police confined Palestinians in the compound to a small area and denied entry to those outside after dawn prayers so that Jewish worshippers could tour the perimeter of the complex under armed guard. Whilst Jews are allowed to visit the al-Aqsa compound, which they refer to as Temple Mount, they are not allowed to pray there. The Israeli police arrested nine Palestinians, saying that they had hurled rocks and firecrackers at them. Footage has emerged of Israeli forces using batons to beat journalists recording the clashes, as well as Palestinians who appear to be bystanders. Hamas warned, ‘Israel will bear all the consequences of the brutal attacks on al-Aqsa’.
Extreme forgiveness
Melanie Washington put her arms around the young man who killed her son and hugged him. She said, ‘It’s more important to love and forgive than to hold on to the pain and the hurt. I found myself putting my arm around him. I didn’t feel a murderer that killed my son. I felt my son.’ Today Melanie Washington lives in Long Beach, California and is helping troubled youth make it out of a destructive culture. She herself came out of a childhood that she said was ‘pure hell’ To read her story click more.
