Friday, December 16, 2016

Next time I see you, remind me not to talk to you.

Now, this could be worse, of course, if I wasn't such a heavy sleeper. I live by the side of a highway and near a train station, and if I didn't sleep so heavily, I might be awakened by the traffic or by trains stopping. But, luckily, I'm able to sleep right through. Now, at the end of the day, once I'm finished with uni or I'm finished with work, I'm usually pretty exhausted. So that means that some days I'll have a nap. And these naps can be anywhere from, you know, half an hour to three hours, depending on how tired I am.

According to the State Department's annual International Religious Freedom report, religiously motivated persecution continues to perpetrated by government and by violent extremist groups, such as Boko Haram and ISIL, also known as Da'esh, around the world. The 2015 report, released last week, highlights in particular the worrisome prevalence of blasphemy and apostasy law, which fully one quarter of the world's countries have on the books. Governments used these laws to "tighten their regulatory grip on religious groups, particularly on minority religious groups and religious which are viewed as not traditional to that specific country."