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Calvinist preacher Roger Williams emigrated from England to the colonies with a wave of Puritans in 1630. He was fleeing religious strife, but found controversies in America as well -with the leaders of his own sect.
Williams did not differ with them on any point of theology. They shared the same faith, all worshiping the God of Calvin, seeing God in every facet of life and seeing man’s purpose as advancing the kingdom of God. But the colony’s leaders, both lay and clergy, firmly believed that the state must prevent error in religion. They believed that the success of the Massachusetts plantation depended upon it.
Williams believed that preventing error in religion was impossible, for it required people to interpret God’s law, and people would inevitably err. He therefore concluded that government must remove itself from anything that touched upon human beings’ relationship with God. A society built on the principles Massachusetts espoused would lead at best to hypocrisy, because forced worship, he wrote, “stincks in God’s nostrils.” At worst, such a society would lead to a foul corruption—not of the state, which was already corrupt, but of the church.
The philosophy Williams developed to deal with the struggle came to be called “the separation of church and state.” And although the concept is a part of what the United States is about, people have argued over what it really means ever since. Smithsonian has an extensive article on Roger Williams and his ideas. Link
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Have you ever wondered how your city’s economy would compare to a small country? Well, if you happen to live in one of America’s larger cities, you can now find out thanks to this fascinating article on The Atlantic. Take LA for example:
With a gross metropolitan product (GMP) of $737.9 billion, the LA metro’s economy is bigger than Turkey’s ($732.2) and slightly smaller than the Netherlands’ ($782.3) — the equivalent of the 18th largest nation in the world.
If your city isn’t listed, where do you think it might fit in?
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On the surface, it seems ridiculous that governments would try to ban things like video games, certain clothing and hairstyles, or reincarnation without government permission. Weird, huh? Every one of these bans has a reason behind it, whether it makes sense to us or not. For example, in China, the movie Avatar cannot be shown unless it is the 3D version.
While the army in Avatar is undoubtedly American, the idea of people siding with an indigenous population against an imperialistic force is something that China was not comfortable with. That’s why shortly after the release of the movie in China, the authorities decided the movie could only be shown in 3D. Since there are very few 3D theaters in China, the move was effectively a ban on the film.
Read the reasoning behind the other bans at Oddee. Link
The August deadline for lifting the debt ceiling is looming. Will the US government default on its loans? Has that ever happened before? Yes it has -in 1979.
In the spring of 1979, Congress was in the midst of a similarly heated debate about raising the debt ceiling, Legislators eventually reached a last-minute deal to raise the debt ceiling and (they thought) save the day, but something went wrong. The Treasury didn’t redeem $120 million worth of securities that matured in April and May.
In other words, the U.S. Treasury defaulted on its securities even though Congress settled the debt-ceiling issue. What happened? It’s not totally clear.
Here’s the short answer: When all else fails, blame the computers. Read a more thorough explanation at mental_floss. Link
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Kids selling lemonade on a street corner is a classic American icon, but according to Georgia State Police, it’s actually against the law. Cops recently busted two tweens for selling without a business permit and a food vendor’s license. According to the police chief, the city won’t be backing down soon:
“We were not aware of how the lemonade was made, who made the lemonade, of what the lemonade was made with, so we acted accordingly by city ordinance.”
Who knew lemonade could be so dangerous to the public health?
Link Via Consumerist Image Via ChocoladeHam [Flickr]
The USDA food pyramid was revamped in 2005 as My Pyramid, with more accurate but also more confusing information about recommended nutrition. Now it’s been revamped again, and the pyramid is gone. The new graphic is called MyPlate, which somewhat resembles a pie chart laid on a table setting.
At a news conference Thursday morning, First Lady Michelle Obama, together with Surgeon General Regina Benjamin and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, unveiled the new icon, called My Plate. The plate features four labeled sections: two larger, equally sized sections representing vegetables and grains, and two smaller sections for fruit and protein. Perched on the right side is a smaller circle for dairy — perhaps for a cup of yogurt or low-fat milk — and to the left sits a fork, completing the full dinner-plate effect.
“When it comes to eating, what’s more useful than a plate, what’s more simple than a plate?” Obama said. She called the new design “a quick, simple reminder for all of us to be more mindful of the foods we’re eating.”
The balance between simplicity and comprehensiveness is never easy. Critics say the new MyPlate does not give enough information. Link to story. Link to website. -via J-Walk Blog
Do we really need government? That’s not an idle Tea Party-esque question in Belgium, where they’ve gone nearly a year without one:
Belgium tied Iraq on Tuesday for a very special world record: Number of days without a new government. (It’s been 289 days since the inconclusive June 13, 2010, election.) Has living without a government made any difference to the Belgian people?
Not really. It’s not quite accurate to say the country is without a government. In parliamentary systems like that of Belgium or the United Kingdom, the existing ministers remain in office when Parliament is dissolved in anticipation of an election. In the event that the elections are inconclusive, the ministers continue to perform their functions. They can’t undertake controversial new initiatives, because they don’t have a parliamentary majority to approve it, but they can accomplish administrative tasks.
Recent anti-government protests in the Middle East vary immensely regarding how much news gets to international audiences, and we can find it hard to keep up with developments in so many different areas. The successful regime change in Egypt and the violence in Libya tend to crowd out news from other nations. The Guardian has published an interactive time line that will help you catch up with developments in not only Libya, but also Tunisia (where it all started back in December), Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan, and other countries experiencing civil unrest. Link -via Metafilter
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From the 1958 until 1992, the Greenbriar Resort in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia sat on top of a secret. Underneath was a huge fallout shelter designed to accommodate members of the US Congress and their aides in case of a nuclear attack.
The 18 dormitories could sleep 60 people each on metal bunk beds. Each had a shower, toilets, and small lounge.
The clinic covered 600 square feet and had 12 beds, an operating
and intensive care room. It would be manned by military doctors and nurses.During its life, it was constantly maintained in a state of readiness. Communications, electronics, and mechanical equipment was updated as needed. Supplies were cycled to insure freshness.
A complete TV and radio studio was equipped with modern facilities including a 75′ telescoping antenna hidden on the top of the rise beside the new West Virginia Wing. Congressmen and Senators would broadcast to survivors important information, most importantly that the central government was still in operation.
The project was abandoned after a 1993 Washington Post article brought it to the public’s attention. Link -via Atlas Obscura
February is American History Month and here at Neatorama, we urge those of you who live in the states to celebrate your country’s past by getting to know a little more about its history. As a result, we’ve decided to bring you a selection of little known facts about American History. While the truth behind many stories may not be pretty, it’s far better to know the facts than to celebrate through myths.
The stories of Columbus celebrate him as an all-time American hero who was a genius explorer and first convinced the world that the Earth was round, not flat. In actuality though, the Columbus myth is far greater than the reality of the man’s accomplishments. To start with, Aristotle was the first person to prove the Earth was round and he did so by showing the earth casts a spherical shadow on the moon during an eclipse. By the time Chris was born, most people had accepted this truth. It wasn’t until the 1828 biography of Christopher Columbus by Washington Irving (the same man that created The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) that this myth was born.
Columbus simply believed that the circumference of the Earth was much smaller than it actually is and that by traversing the Atlantic Ocean, he could establish a faster trade route to India and China. Essentially, his discovery of the Americas was purely based on an economic scheme.
Columbus was not even the first European visitor to the “New World,” as it is widely accepted that the Norse had made the voyage over 500 years before him. Of course, the Norse failed to mistake the new country for India (thus resulting in the title of “Indians” for the native populace) and they also failed to inform the rest of Europe that this giant mass of land happened to be sitting in the middle of the Atlantic.
Columbus was actually a bit of a barbarian. In fact, he was arrested and returned to Spain after being found to be too barbaric a ruler in his role as governor of the Hispaniola colony. 23 people testified about his cruelty –which, given the time period, means he had to be a really, really bad guy. He even refused to let the natives convert to Christianity because Catholic law dictated that baptized people could not be enslaved. Studies show that there were between 250,000-300,000 people in Hispaniola, but within 56 years of Columbus’ voyage, the number was down to 500.
Also, another interesting fact, researchers believe his men were responsible for bringing syphilis into Europe and, thus, caused the deaths of as many 5 million Europeans.
The reason for his near-sainthood( literally, as the church considered turning him into a saint in the 1866) goes back even before Irving’s time. Essentially, Americans felt they needed a national hero and at a time when they resented the British rule over the colonies, he seemed like a great icon.
By the way, all those pictures you’ve seen of Chris (including the ones used here), are not accurate. There still has not been an authentic painting of Christopher Columbus discovered to have been painted by his contemporaries.
Sources: Interesting History, Wikipedia, Christian Science Monitor, Columbus in History
As you may have gathered from the bit about Columbus, Jamestown was not the first European colony in North America. In fact, the first temporary colony was created around the year 1000 and located in Newfoundland, Canada, by Norse mariners from Greenland. The first permanent colony in modern day America was actually located in St. Augustine, Florida and was set up by the Spanish in 1565.
Jamestown was merely the first British colony, and the first colony in Virginia. These settlers were the first European colonists to do one thing though –resort to cannibalism. Yes, during the exceptionally rough winter of 1609, the colonists were forced to eat their feces and their dead to keep alive. While this fact is undeniably dark, it does show the hardships these settlers went through and their dedication to survival.
Sources: PBS, 100 Things You’re Not Supposed to Know Image via Bill Barber [Flickr]
Speaking of the English connection to the new world, the famed explorer Sir Walter Raleigh is wrongly credited for two major contributions to English society. He did not introduce potatoes to England in 1586, as the veggies were first grown in Italy in 1585 and had already spread through Europe, including England) within the next year. As for tobacco, Jean Nicot (the inspiration for the word nicotine) introduced the plant to France in 1560, and it spread to England from France before Raleigh would have had a chance to bring it back to his homeland.
Also, while Raleigh was certainly a stud (see image above), he did not ever lay his coat down over a puddle so Queen Elizabeth could cross. This lovely story is yet another romantic tale of a past that never existed.
Source: Greatest Historical Myths
By now you probably know that George Washington never really did cut down the mythical cherry tree (this story came courtesy of Mason Locke Weems, a biographer that rivaled Washington Irving in presenting long-lived fabrications about their subjects). But were you aware that George Washington wasn’t actually the first president?
When you think back to history class, you may recall our first attempt at self-governance was chartered under the unsuccessful Articles of Confederation. Under this document, the first official President of the United States of America was actually John Hanson (seen at left). Hanson was actually quite a good leader and accomplished a good amount of work during his tenure, but he is poorly remembered as he led the country under the Articles of Confederation rather than the Constitution.
As for Mr. Washington, he is very well-remembered, but not for his flaws. Washington was not generally the great war hero we remember him for. He actually lost ever major engagement during the first four years of the war. He wasn’t even the great president we have been told about in our school lessons. In fact, he was the first president to get caught in a scandal when the Philadelphia Aura reported that he embezzled over $6,000 more than he was permitted to take as his salary during his term as presidency.
Sources: Wikipedia, Marshall Hall, 100 Things You’re Not Supposed to Know
Many people think that we went to war with the south over slavery and that we fought in World War II to help stop the Nazis. In reality, the goals of these wars were much less noble. The main things that led the Civil War were economic issues and slavery was only a part of these problems. When the economic tensions got too hot, the South fought for its independence and the North fought to preserve the Union. Most Northerners didn’t care about slavery all that much and many Southerners simply couldn’t afford to own slaves.
Even the reasons behind the emancipation proclamation were more political than moral. The so-called Great Emancipator, Lincoln himself, once said, “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.” The entire speech was merely a way to help de-motivate blacks who were fighting for the South so the North could get an advantage.
Prior to World War II, the majority of Americans were not only uninterested in the plight of the Jews in Germany, but many even supported the forced sterilization of the mentally incompetent, crippled or criminally-inclined. Many states also banned interracial marriages as an effort to prevent the tainting of the races. At least 10,000 Americans were forcefully sterilized, many after being labeled with such vague properties as “sexually wayward,” “depressed,” “deviant,” or “bad girls.”
As a matter of fact, America played a crucial role in Hitler’s rise to power and his efforts to create a “master race.” After funding a number of eugenics scientists in America, The Rockefeller Foundation helped create the entire German eugenics program and they even funded work by the infamous Josef Mengele worked before he went to Auschwitz.
Fortunately for us, the researchers believed Americans were not ready to support any “final solutions,” which is why our eugenics program largely stopped at the forced sterilization stage and negligent medical care for the “unfit,” whereas the German program extended into unbelievable horrors. Of course, if the U.S. eugenics scientists hadn’t come up with so many scientific studies and so much research to back their claims, Hitler would have never been able to convince the rational German public to follow his plans.
Sources: Interesting History, HNN
Regardless of your opinions on medicinal marijuana and the war on drugs, most people will agree that heavier drugs are not exactly great substances and shouldn’t be easily accessible to the general populace, particularly kids. A little over a century ago, public opinion was quite different and even companies like Bayer were producing opium products. In fact, Bayer invented heroin. These “medical breakthroughs” were even promoted for use on children.
So what would it take for the government to actually illegalize a drug in a time period like this? Racism. The first drug law in America was enacted in San Francisco and prohibited the use of opium in opium dens. The city claimed that they enacted the law because “many women and young girls, as well as young men of respectable family, were being induced to visit the Chinese opium-smoking dens, where they were ruined morally and otherwise.” Of course, using the drug outside of a Chinese opium den was ok.
Sources: Wikipedia on Drug Prohibition, Wikipedia on Heroin History
I know you Neatorama readers are a smart breed, so many of you probably already know these facts and others. What’s your favorite little known history bit?
An article from Slate looks at a forgotten chapter of Prohibition history: the government program to poison alcohol in an attempt to keep people from converting industrial alcohol into liquor —even though they knew that it would kill many, particularly those who were too poor to afford good-quality illegal liquor.
Frustrated that people continued to consume so much alcohol even after it was banned, federal officials had decided to try a different kind of enforcement. They ordered the poisoning of industrial alcohols manufactured in the United States, products regularly stolen by bootleggers and resold as drinkable spirits. The idea was to scare people into giving up illicit drinking. Instead, by the time Prohibition ended in 1933, the federal poisoning program, by some estimates, had killed at least 10,000 people.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by boschv.
I am fascinated by how technologically savvy these cyber-outlaws are. If I had the ability to crack into restricted and top secret sites to see the information that is available on them I would be tempted to dabble in hacking as well.
There are many types of hackers out there. The more traditional ones hack in order to uncover and understand the ins-and-outs of a technology, tweaking and breaking codes to discover new possibilities. Many of these guys (and yes they are often male) are committed to the open source scene, developing and sharing code with the purpose of improving the IT infrastructure. Unfortunately, these types of vigilante hackers are increasingly outnumbered by those hacking for monetary gain. In 2007, it was estimated that 67% of those who engage in web attacks are profit-motivated.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by mrmunchies.
Since the Internet began, people have been sharing lists of the weirdest laws in the world, even so, I can’t get enough of these absolutely inane rules. Elistmania has a great top 10 of these terrible laws, the best of which may just be “Single women can’t parachute on Sundays in Florida.”
Why in the world would this be a law, and how could it be legal to discriminate like this in modern times?
For more silliness, see the rest of the list.
Link Image Via Bloomsberries [Flickr]
Every once in a while, political parties or local groups will put an animal on the ballot for public office. Every once in a blue moon, that animal will be elected! These eight stories include three critters who actually served (although how well they served is a matter of opinion). Pictured is Clay Henry III, the beer-drinking goat who was once mayor of Lajitas, Texas. Link
Many people are aware that Harry Potter, The Anarchist Cookbook and Stephen King books have been banned from schools around the country, but as many civilizations have figured out, censorship is a slippery slope. It is pretty strange to consider Shakespeare has not only been banned from public schools over sexual themes, but that censored editions have been out since the 1700s.
Photo Via florian.b [Flickr]
Of the Radcliffe Publishing list of the top 100 books of the past century, almost half have been challenged by schools, many are banned in whole countries. Here’s a few banned titles that just may surprise you:
*Note: Plot summaries may include spoilers. I know all you Neatorama readers are pretty intelligent, so I wouldn’t doubt if many of you have read these books. I’ve included the summaries to give an idea as to why the books may have been banned.
Plot: A soldier, Henry, on the Italian front meets and seduces a young woman, Catherine. Their relationship continues as he heals a knee that was injured in battle. By the time his knee is fully healed, Catherine is three months pregnant. Unfortunately, Henry has to return to the war and the Germans break through the Italian lines. The Italians charge the soldiers for treachery for letting the Germans defeat them. Henry escapes during another officer’s execution and runs away to Switzerland with Catherine. They live happily until Catherine gives birth to a stillborn and then dies in labor.
Where it’s been banned: Published in 1929, this novel caused trouble immediately. Boston banned the magazine it was originally published in, claiming the story was too sexual. Italy banned the book because of its portrayal of the army’s retreat from Caporatto. The Nazis burned the book in 1933. In 1939, Ireland banned the novel. In modern America, plenty of school districts have banned the publication for sexual content.
Source | A Farewell to Arms
Plot: The book’s plot uses the same story line as Tarzan. A couple of civilized people, Bernard and Lenina, enter a primitive society and bring a “savage” back into their modern society. The difference here is that these “civilized people” live in a futuristic world filled with castes, happy drugs, sex without reproduction and euthanasia. Love, sadness and families have become obsolete, as well as self-expression and exploration.
The Tarzan in this piece is the son, John, of an ex-civilized woman who now lives with the “savages.” John was raised with family, love and Shakespeare. When they return to the city, John becomes a spectacle for society types and even Lenina starts finding him interesting. John begins falling in love with Lenina even as he is disgusted with the modern world and her role in it. John finds he cannot escape this world and eventually kills himself to discontinue playing his role as a tourist spectacle.
Where it’s been banned: This text is one of the most frequently banned books in literary history. It was banned in Ireland the year it was published, 1932. Multiple school districts have restricted access to this book because the atheistic people in the futuristic society it depicts take drugs and have promiscuous sex to avoid emotional connections. There are a lot of people who try to compare this book to our modern society, but if that was accurate, would we still be banning it from school?
Source | Brave New World
Plot: A teenage boy, Holden Caulfield, runs away to New York after being expelled from reform school. The book is a first person narrative and over the course of the story, you learn about his brother’s passing and how that has affected his present state of mind. Throughout his adventure, he drinks, smokes, hits on adult women, gets beaten up by a pimp, is hit on by a past teacher and deals with many other activities that a teen shouldn’t be going through. He constantly complains about other people his age, calling them “phony” or stupid. The novel explores Holden’s psychological need to grow up after his brother’s death. It also does an excellent job depicting his desire to protect young children from becoming adults.
Where it’s been banned: In 1960, a teacher was fired from her job for requiring her eleventh grade class to read the book. Between 1961 and 1962, it was the most censored book in high schools and colleges. This novel has been banned in schools throughout America for being anti-white, blasphemous, profane, racist and overtly sexual. How anything can be racist and anti-white, I don’t know.
Update: I meant this statement as how the book can be racist against both blacks and whites at the same time, which is what the people condemning the book seemed to imply. Personally, I don’t think you can be racist against your self and persons of other races at the same time, I think it makes you more of a person hater than a racist. Although I’m sure many readers would still like to disagree with this.
Completely unrelated but interesting: many murderers read Catcher In The Rye shortly before committing their crimes.
Source | The Catcher in the Rye
Plot: Considered to be the first modern erotic novel, there are quite a few naughty bits in this book, if you want to read a bit, there’s an excerpt on the Wikipedia page. The story revolves around a young country girl who must leave her village due to poverty. She is forced to work at a brothel, but escapes with her true love before she loses her virginity. When her love is forced to leave the country, she has to take on a variety of male “acquaintances” in order to survive.
Where it’s been banned: This book was monumental to both English and American obscenity standards. A year after the book was released, John Cleland and the publisher were both arrested and charged with “corrupting the king’s subjects.” They subsequently stopped publishing the novel, but it still managed to become popular thanks to pirated editions circulating the country. Cleland attempted to clean up the book and republished it in 1750, but he was arrested again, although this time the charges were dropped. The book continued to be published underground and in 1963 there was an obscenity trial against a book seller carrying the novel. Although the defense lost, it helped to shift public opinion about obscenity laws in Britain. In 1970, the unabridged book was legally published for the first time.
Over in the states, the book was banned for obscenity in 1821. In 1963, a publisher tried to re-release the book under the title John Cleland’s Memoirs of A Woman of Pleasure. The book was also banned under this title, but the publisher, G.B. Putnam, challenged the ban. The Supreme Court ruled the novel did not meet the standards for obscenity. This was the last book to be banned by the US federal government.
Source | Fanny Hill – Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure
Plot: Set in 1930, it tells the tale of a Tom Joad, a recently paroled murderer, and his family of farmers. The group is forced to leave their home in Oklahoma that has fallen victim to the dust bowl storms. They hope to find better luck in California, though on their way out West, they constantly run into other families hoping for the same luck.
When they get to California, they find the farmers have bound together to exploit the massive amount of laborers offering their services. When workers begin to unionize, the Joads work as strike breakers and end up involved with a bloody strike, forcing Tom Joad to kill again. In the end, practically all of the family’s actions prove to be pointless as they are starving and homeless in California.
Where it’s been banned: Published in 1939, this Steinbeck story caused an uproar as soon as it was released. These days, the book seems to be fairly mild, with a few references to sex and some minor curse words, but the book was quite racy for its day. Kern county was one of the first places to ban the novel as they were insulted by how Steinbeck depicted their citizens. It was immediately burned by the East St. Louis library, banned from Buffalo, New York and Kansas City. Since then, it’s been banned in many high schools -mostly for bad language. A parent in Burlington, North Carolina said, “book is full of filth. My son is being raised in a Christian home and this book takes the Lord’s name in vain and has all kinds of profanity in it.”
Internationally, the book has had trouble too. In 1953, Ireland deemed the book obscene and banned it. In 1973, eleven publishers in Turkey were charged for “spreading propaganda unfavorable to the state.” Why Grapes of Wrath would be seen as unfavorable to Turkey, I have no idea. If you do, please tell me in the comments.
Source #1, Source #2 | The Grapes of Wrath
Plot: Lady Chatterley’s husband has become paralyzed and impotent. She struggles to remain faithful to him, but ends up having an affair with the gamekeeper. The novel covers her struggle to live only mentally, although she proves to need physical stimulation as well.
Where it’s been banned: The Penguin Books 1960 British publication of Lady Chatterley’s Lover was one of the first novels tried under England’s 1959 obscenity law. This law gave publishers the right to release racy books, as long as the work was of literary merit. Penguin was found not guilty and the novel was legally available in England for the first time. The trial was later turned into a BBC show known as “The Chatterley Affair.”
Conversely, Australia not only found the book to be legally obscene, but also banned publication of a book depicting the British trial called The Trial of Lady Chatterley. A copy of the book was smuggled into the country anyway and published underground. Many people read the book and it eventually led to lesser censorship of books in the country.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Plot: Humbert Humbert, is invited to move in with a woman who wants to sleep with him. He is about to say no, when he sees her 12 year old daughter, Lolita, playing in the yard. The woman discovers his ulterior motive and plans to send Lolita to boarding school but she is hit and killed by a car. Humbert tries to drug the Lolita to have his way with her, but she instead seduces him.
Humbert becomes Lolita’s guardian and falls in love with her although she has very little interest in him. She escapes his guardianship by making plans with another pedophile. Humbert tries to find Lolita and her abductor, but gets nowhere. Two years later, a married and pregnant Lolita contacts him requesting money. He brings her money and tries to get her to leave with him. She refuses. She does, however, give him information on her abductor and Humbert tracks down the man and kills him. Humbert goes to jail, where he writes a novel called Lolita.
Where it’s been banned: The book was released in 1955 and received little attention until author Graham Greene sang its praises in an interview with The London Times. After reading the statement, the editor of the Sunday Express replied that the book was “sheer, unrestrained pornography.” That’s when the book was banned in Britain and all imported copies were ordered to be seized by the customs department. By December 1956, France followed suit, although both countries repealed the ban in 1959. Argentina and New Zealand both banned the book in the following years.
Surprisingly, the book wasn’t criticized as much in America, in fact, in its first three weeks available it sold over 100,000 copies.
This is the sort of thing that only government bureaucracy can come up with: Australian immigration authorities have decided that Rosabelle Glasby couldn’t bring her identical twin sister into the country because … they’re not related!
Adopted by different families shortly after their birth in Malaysia, Mrs Glasby and Dorothy Loader were separated for almost 50 years before finally meeting last September.
But now Mrs Glasby, from Margaret River, is facing an uphill battle to be permanently reunited with her twin, who lives in Malaysia. In a letter to Mrs Glasby last month, DIAC state director Paul Farrell explained that despite the circumstances, the present laws meant Ms Loader would not be eligible for family migration.
"Under Migration Law where the legal relationship between a child and his/her birth parents has been severed by adoption, the legal relationship between the child and his/her birth siblings is also severed,” he said.
"It therefore does not appear that your twin sister would be eligible for a permanent visa under the Family Stream of the Migration Program.”
Mrs Glasby said she was heartbroken that her long-lost twin did not qualify as family. "We’re identical twin sisters _ we’re the same egg,” she said. “Just because we got adopted into different families they say they don’t consider us related. It’s hard to get anyone more related to me.”
at Amazon
