20061019

Psyche of Desperation

One-third support 'some torture'

Nearly a third of people worldwide back the use of torture in prisons in some circumstances, a BBC survey suggests.

Although 59% were opposed to torture, 29% thought it acceptable to use some degree of torture to combat terrorism.

While most polled in the US are against torture, opposition there is less robust than in Europe and elsewhere.

More than 27,000 people in 25 countries were asked if torture was acceptable if it could provide information to save innocent lives.

Some 36% of those questioned in the US agreed that this use of torture was acceptable, while 58% were unwilling to compromise on human rights.

"The dominant view around the world is that terrorism does not warrant bending the rules against torture," said Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), whose organisation helped conduct the survey.

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Other countries that polled higher levels of acceptance of the use of torture include Iraq (42%), the Philippines (40%), Indonesia (40%), Russia (37%) and China (37%).

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Source: BBC/Globescan/PIPA
i am both surprised and appalled by the mention of Philippines in this article. god! we almost equalled Iraq. while the saner majority of our people still has descent respect for life, it is very disturbing that for a country that has witnessed and subjected to such violent method many times in its history, almost a half of its population favor its use. torture is a shortcut to justice my doing the unjust. it proposes to save lives by degrading it. this psyche is a clear indication of our hopelessness as a nation. we crave for a just society but we haven't been getting it through our civilized front. we've become desperate.

god help us...

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