the drop » Justice & Civil Rights

WORLD WAR NO: Apocalypse Impending?

'The Middle East Theatre of War' (GlobalResearch.ca)

When a former Middle East bureau chief of The New York Times is writing that “War with Iran — a war that would unleash an apocalyptic scenario in the Middle East — is probable by the end of the Bush administration,” we should awaken to the possibility. When he continues, “It could begin in as little as three weeks,” concerned citizens everywhere should resolve to work together to prevent it.

Writing on Alternet on Tuesday, Chris Hedges warned of an American naval armada barreling towards the Strait of Hormuz: the 50 kilometer-wide, 21 kilometer-narrow waterway adjoining the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea…

“The aircraft carrier Eisenhower, accompanied by the guided-missile cruiser USS Anzio, guided-missile destroyer USS Ramage, guided-missile destroyer USS Mason and the fast-attack submarine USS Newport News, is, as I write, making its way to the Straits of Hormuz off Iran. The ships will be in place to strike Iran by the end of the month. It may be a bluff. It may be a feint. It may be a simple show of American power. But I doubt it.“

Three weeks ago, a Time magazine cover-story broke the news of a “‘Prepare to Deploy’ order sent through [U.S.] naval communications channels to a submarine, an Aegis-class cruiser, two minesweepers and two mine hunters” alongside “a second request, from the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO)” asking “for fresh eyes on long-standing U.S. plans to blockade two Iranian oil ports on the Persian Gulf.” A follow-up post in The Nation reported the public affairs office of the Navy Department at the Pentagon confirming that “the Eisenhower Strike Group, bristling with Tomahawk cruise missiles… is scheduled to arrive off the coast of Iran on or around October 21“ — next Saturday — just over two weeks before mid-term elections in the US.
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Violence Against Women Is A Violation Of Human Rights

WHO Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence against Women

The United Nations released a report late last week officially classifying violence against women as a human rights violation. From the Human Rights Watch press release:

“Human Rights Watch and the Center for Women’s Global Leadership welcomes the report that classifies abuse against women - whether it happens in the home or elsewhere - as a human rights violation. As such, states are obliged by international human rights standards to hold perpetrators accountable.”
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Death of a Journalist: Anna Politkovskaya

Time Europe 2003 Hero: Anna Politkovskaya © Time Magazine

Since the death of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, bloggers have been positing possible theories of her murder. At Global Voices, there’s a translation of one of the most popular posts in the Russian blogosphere, which discusses the journalist’s murder and her investigative work in Chechnya. The Diplomatic Times Review provides a good number of related links on the news of her death.
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A Look Behind the Prison Walls

Award-winning photojournalist Jane Evelyn Atwood ’s work reflects a deep involvement with her subjects over long periods of time. Atwood penetrates worlds that most of us do not know, or choose to ignore. Her project Too Much Time documents the lives of incarcerated women in the US, France, Russia, Czechoslovakia, Spain, Switzerland, India and Israel. Initially spurred by curiosity, the project went on to inspire the outrage that kept Atwood going with the subject for nine years.
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Purge of Liberal Academics in Iran and… USA?

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seeks to revive Islamic radicalism

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has just called for the expulsion of all professors from Iranian universities who do not submit to the fundamentalist doctrines that underlay the Iranian revolution of 1979. In what some analysts interpreted as the start of a clampdown, Ahmadinejad derided secular lecturers as a fifth column of Western colonialism which he said was seeking to expand into Iran.
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Arundhati Roy asks herself: What form of resistance is effective and acceptable?

Be sure to take a close look at Arundhati Roy’s provocative question about the future of non-violent resistance and armed struggle. “What is effective?,” she wonders. “What is the right thing to do?”
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Ghana Bans Gay and Lesbian Conference

Information Minister Kwamena Bartels: 'Unnatural carnal knowledge is illegal'

The Ghanaian government has banned a gay conference due to take place in the capital Accra later this month, claiming that homosexuality was illegal in Ghana. Information Minister Kwamena Bartels warned that disciplinary action would be taken if anyone was found to have contravened the law. “Government does not condone any such activity which violently offends the culture, morality and heritage of the entire people of Ghana,” he said.
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Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

July 2004 elections in Indonesia © 2004 AP

Global Voices On-line reports an interesting piece of “bridge blogging” about Islam in Indonesia which shows once again how the Western, mainstream media is being monitored closely via the net. Indonesian blogger Rasyad A. Payinduri of Sarapan Ekonomi takes on the Washington Times, and finds them guilty of fudging their statistics.
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Environmental Justice and Katrina

In the Wake of the Storm is a case-study based analysis of Katrina in the context of the greater movement for environmental justice, published by the Russell Sage Foundation. After the “Not In My Backyard” (NIMBY) trends of the 70’s, U.S. environmental justice campaigns became more prevalent in the decades following, in an attempt to protect minorities and the disenfranchised from disproportionate effects of environmental hazards within their communities.
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Right-Wing Bigotry

Pat Buchanan only want to allow white immigrants into America

Think Progress takes a look at Pat Buchanan’s new book state of emergency where he argues for “an immediate moratorium on all immigration.” Why? To preserve the dominance of the white race in America. Using racist arguments of ‘genetic superiority’, Buchanan explains that:

“America faces an existential crisis. If we do not get control of our borders, by 2050 Americans of European descent will be a minority in the nation their ancestors created and built. No nation has ever undergone so radical a demographic transformation and survived.”
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Law Clinics: Social Justice or Political Agenda?

Earlier this week, the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) announced the opening of South Africa’s first law clinic for media freedom and access to information. Citing growing restrictions on public protest and marches, FXI is hoping to counter the problem with legal aid relating to issues such as “gagging” orders and the protection of journalistic sources.
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112 Free Voices: “social storyteller” Jonathan Stack

“It takes one person intent on causing pain to explode misery throughout the planet. Can we explode love as effectively? Where will the answers to today’s problems come from? How can we empower hope? Maybe 112 people coming together in one place can generate sufficient energy to move us forward on a positive path. The truth is, there was nowhere I’d rather be this September 9 and so I chose to go.”
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A Lesson in Swedish Feminism

Logo of the Swedish Party Feminist Initiative (FI)

The Swedish political party Feministiskt initiativ (Feminist Initiative) was formed in 2005. One of the foundations of the party’s policy is the concept called Gender Power Hierarchy, a term used in Swedish feminism for the belief that women are systematically and structurally subordinated to men. The term is also endorsed by the ruling Social Democratic party. One of the party’s more radical proposals thus far has been to abolish marriage and other state-recognised cohabiting partnerships, and to introduce a new Cohabitation Act instead.
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An American Tragedy

Director Spike Lee in New Orleans. Photo: Charlie Varley

Director Spike Lee examines the collision of race and politics in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in his provocative new HBO documentary, When the Levees Broke. Lee’s new four-hour film premiered August 16 at the New Orleans Arena, a venue next door to the Superdome, the sports complex where more than 15,000 people sought shelter during the hurricane last year.
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A New Era for Women in Rwanda

Staff at the Rwanda Women's Network © Rwanda Women Network 2006

Feministing find reasons to be cheerful in this article from the Seattle Times about the changing status of women in Rwanda. Since the devastating genocide which left the country with a 70% female population, Rwanda has out-paced Sweden and Norway as the nation with the highest percentage of female legislators in the world. 48% of MPs are women, as are 50% of the judges in the legal system, the head of the supreme court and half of Rwanda’s college graduates.

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“What are the lessons from this war?” Bianca Jagger’s Call for Peace

“I believe in the right of Israel to exist… However, it is important that we send a clear message to Israel that they have to adhere to international law and that they can no longer commit and violate and be in breach of humanitarian law… We call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire right now!”
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A dropping knowledge production, a Copyleft FILM: ‘CeaseFire Now: a day with bianca jagger’

On Saturday, August 5, 2006, over 100,000 people took to the streets of central London to demand an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Lebanon. The largest emergency demonstration in British history was organized by the Stop the War Coalition and led by renowned peace advocate Bianca Jagger, who had invited dropping knowledge to join her on the march. Now you can see the results in CeaseFire Now: a day with bianca jagger.
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Aid Workers Murdered in Sri Lankan Violence

Internally Displaced Persons in northeast Sri Lanka.

Tens of thousands of Sri Lankans have been forced to flee their homes because of the escalating violence in the north-east of the country. A recent wave of killings across Sri Lanka included the execution-style murders of 17 aid workers. UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis told reporters at a briefing in Geneva that more than 50,000 internally displaced persons have had to take shelter in Trincomalee district, scene to some of the worst clashes in recent weeks. UNHCR is dispatching cooking sets, plastic sheeting, hygiene kits and other items to the affected areas, often in cooperation with local branches of NGOs.
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112 Free Voices: Oscar Olivera, the man from Cochabamba

“I would like to ask if we are prepared to continue to let ourselves be ruled by money, transnational companies, the World Bank, the IMF and governors who collaborate in the plundering of our natural resources. I’d like to ask if we are prepared to fight to dispel our own fear and to subordinate our own interests to those of achieving true emancipation for the world.”

Oscar Olivera is a former shoe factory worker and unionist who helped co-ordinate a movement against water privatization in his home city of Cochabamba, Bolivia in 1999. Following World Bank advice, the Bolivian government handed over control of the city’s water infrastructure to multi-national corporation, Bechtel, which then raised rates by as much as 300%.
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Gay Rights and the War in Iraq

The bodies of three men suspected of being gay and subsequently killed, March 20 in the Iraqi city of Ramadi (Photo by Bilal Hussein/AP)

There have been a wave of vicious attacks against gay Iraqi men and women by Shia militants who believe that homosexuality is against their faith. Men are the main targets, and several have been found “executed” or beaten to death – worse still, their murder has been recorded on camera. The Observer trailed a Channel 4 documentary on the escalating homophobia in an article last Sunday, noting, most shockingly of all, that the attacks are permissable under current Iraqi law:

Homosexuality is seen as so immoral that it qualifies as an ‘honour killing’ to murder someone who is gay - and the perpetrator can escape punishment. Section 111 of Iraq’s penal code lays out protections for murder when people are acting against Islam.

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South African Women Commemorate Historic March

Rate of violence against women in SA is among the highest in the world

Thousands of women marched in the South African capital, Pretoria, to protest the country’s high rate of violence against women. They are using the 50th anniversary of a historic demonstration against the apartheid regime to highlight the problems women of SA are still facing today. A South African woman dies at the hands of her partner every six hours, while rape and physical and mental abuse are said to be rampant.
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Iranian Government Cracks Down on Human Rights Group

Shiran Ebadi, image taken from her website www.shirinebadi.ir

The government in Iran has declared that:

“Any activity by [the Center for Defense of Human Rights (CDHR)] is illegal, and violators of this decision will be prosecuted,”

The NGO in question has provided legal aid for hundreds of dissidents, journalists and students who have spoken out peacefully against policies of the Iranian Government. Officials Kafka-esquely allege that the centre failed to obtain a permit to operate, although the organisation applied for one many times, and in any case, according the Iranian law, it is not even necessary for them to have such a permit.
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Veiled Threats: the Deterioration of Women’s Rights in Iraq

Women's rights are being compromised for the sake of big oil (© Ms. Magazine 2006)

A fortnight ago Prime Minister, Nouri Al-Maliki, pledged before the US Congress to improve women’s rights in Iraq. The statement was welcomed both in America and among Iraqi women’s groups, but Al-Maliki has a long way to go to prove that these are not just token words. Only 30 out of 275 members of his parliament have signed a declaration to investigate the decline of the basic rights that women took for granted in pre-war, secular Iraq, and to ensure that the police will uphold and defend these.
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Exxon vs. Gore? An Inconvenient Parody

From Alternet I switched to a Raw Story titled: “Parody of Al Gore film tied to ExxonMobil lobbying firm“. There are strong indications that the oil giant instructed public affairs specialists DCI Group to enter youtube with a bad attempt aimed at satirizing Gore´s blockbuster on climate change.

‘The Wall Street Journal’ followed the trail of the video´s publisher, nicknamed “Toutsmith”:

… computer routing information contained in an email sent from Toutsmith’s Yahoo account indicate it didn’t come from an amateur working out of his basement. Instead, the email originated from a computer registered to DCI Group, a Washington D.C. public relations and lobbying firm whose clients include oil company Exxon Mobil Corp.

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Elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Tomorrow, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will hold its first bona fide elections in 40 years. South Africa has been instrumental in helping to set up the electoral infrastructure and send observers who will ensure that after decades of conflicts and dictatorships, the population of 62,000,000 will finally be able to choose their government peacefully and democratically.
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Arundhati Roy asks herself: What form of resistance is effective and acceptable?

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Justice & Civil Rights

WORLD WAR NO: Apocalypse Impending?

Violence Against Women Is A Violation Of Human Rights

Death of a Journalist: Anna Politkovskaya

A Look Behind the Prison Walls

Purge of Liberal Academics in Iran and… USA?

Arundhati Roy asks herself: What form of resistance is effective and acceptable?

Ghana Bans Gay and Lesbian Conference

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

Environmental Justice and Katrina

Right-Wing Bigotry

Law Clinics: Social Justice or Political Agenda?

112 Free Voices: “social storyteller” Jonathan Stack

A Lesson in Swedish Feminism

An American Tragedy

A New Era for Women in Rwanda

“What are the lessons from this war?” Bianca Jagger’s Call for Peace

A dropping knowledge production, a Copyleft FILM: ‘CeaseFire Now: a day with bianca jagger’

Aid Workers Murdered in Sri Lankan Violence

112 Free Voices: Oscar Olivera, the man from Cochabamba

Gay Rights and the War in Iraq

South African Women Commemorate Historic March

Iranian Government Cracks Down on Human Rights Group

Veiled Threats: the Deterioration of Women’s Rights in Iraq

Exxon vs. Gore? An Inconvenient Parody

Elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo