The U-visa is available to victims of qualifying crimes who cooperate with the authorities in the investigation of the crime. The overwhelming majority of cases I see are domestic violence victims. I see a lot of sexual assault of a minor as well. The purpose is to strengthen the relationship between law enforcement and immigrant communities, who are often afraid to report crimes for fear of being put in deportation.
The U-visa is relatively new, and regulations were only released a few years back. Only this year did the government begin to actually issue the visas. So we have had a wave of U-visa approvals coming into our office since about late July. It's amazing to watch the faces of these (often) women and children as they realize they are finally legally permitted to work, legally permitted to stay here, and given an opportunity to one day apply for residency. Sometimes, in my horrible Spanish, I say "Es el plan de Dios, de que a veces de algo malo viene algo bueno." It is God's plan, that sometimes, from something bad comes something good. The overwhelming majority of the time, the clients are overjoyed. They cry; they hug; they walk out of our doors clasping their permits as though they aren't real.
It is one of the great ironies of immigration law that from a legal perspective, a client's personal misfortune is our winning argument. Take a 601 waiver, where you are trying to prove extreme hardship to a USC or LPR. "Does your wife have any major health problems? No? Damnit." It's the awkward part of a U-visa approval as well. "See, aren't you glad now that your stepfather molested you?"
We had a family of four the other day that was approved. I asked the caseworker who saw them if they were happy. She paused and said, "No, actually. Not at all." For a moment I felt dismayed,that narcississtic part of me that loves the clients to love us feeling let down. But, the thing is, I realized, they used to be a family of five. On Christmas Day a few years ago, a drunk driver hit them and killed the baby boy. How did that mother feel, holding that approval notice that she only got because her baby was killed?
What has happened has happened. I know that them having legal permission to stay here will make their lives easier now. Maybe that's all I will ever know. It's just, like I said, bittersweet indeed.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Perspective from an Incoming Refugee to the U.S.
I work at Catholic Charities of Dallas in the Immigration and Legal Services Division. At our Staff Day recently, each division had a presentation to describe its work. The Refugee and Empowerment Services used the perspective of one of their clients to demonstrate what it is they do. I thought it was really interesting, so I asked for a copy:
It’s 10 o’clock on Tuesday night. Me, my wife, and our 4 children have just arrived at the Dallas airport.
We are scared, and we are very tired.
It’s been one whole day since we got on the airplane in Thailand
It’s been three days since we left the United Nations refugee camp on the border of Thailand and Burma.
It’s been fifteen years since we ran from our home in Burma to escape the war.
We all have a big white tag around our necks in case we get lost. But our case manager from Catholic Charities sees us and greets us and helps us get our bags. He takes us in a big van to our new apartment. There are beds, chairs, dishes and many other things in the apartment. There is rice and chicken already cooked, and we are hungry. After we eat, the case manager tells us all about the apartment. He shows us how to use the toilet, how to turn on the lights, and how to lock the door. He leaves and we go to bed
On Wednesday morning, our case manager knocks on the door and wakes us up. He takes us in the van to apply for Social Security cards. Then we go to the Catholic Charities office. Our case manager asks us lots of questions about our lives, what kind of work we know how to do, are we are healthy, what languages do we speak, and we fill out a lot of papers. He tells us that some of the papers will help us get Food Stamps and Medicaid. He gives us a check for pocket money, then we go to the bank and get real money. Our case manager takes us back home, we eat and take a nap
On Thursday, our case manager knocks on the door again. He asks us Is everything OK? Do we need any food? Is everybody feeling OK? He stays for a while, and shows us more things about the apartment. It’s hard to understand the thermostat but we try. He takes us next door to meet some other Burmese people. They are from a different township in Burma, but we are happy to meet some neighbors from our own country.Our case manager takes us to the Catholic Charities World of Goods store to get some clothes, and we pick out something for everyone
On Friday morning, a different case manager knocks on the door. She brings us back to the office and teaches us a class about American life. We ask her lots of questions. She tells us about our rights and our responsibilities, what Catholic Charities will do for us, and what we need to learn to do for ourselves.
After the class we meet our own case manager again to make a plan for our future. We talk about our budget and about getting a job. Our case manager takes us to the grocery store, then we go home again
On Monday morning, our case manager knocks on the door. He walks with us to English class, it’s very close. We meet the teacher and some other students from Burma, and some from Iraq, Bhutan, Somalia, Eritrea and other countries. We take a test so the teacher will know how much English we can speak and what we understand. I go back to English class every Monday and Wednesday morning for 2 months
On Tuesday morning we go to the Refugee Clinic. It’s very close, so we walk there by ourselves. We see a lot of other refugees there from many countries. The doctor examines us and asks us questions. The nurse give us many shots
We’ve been in Dallas for one week, and we’re not scared much any more
On Friday the Orientation teacher knocks on our door. We tell her what things we would like to learn about this country – how to ride the bus, how to get to the hospital, how to use the bank, and how to enroll in college. The teacher talks with us for two hours. Each week, she comes back and we learn more. Sometimes we take a trip on the bus to one of the places we asked about. Every two or three days, our case manager or somebody else from Catholic Charities comes to check on us
2 weeks later our case manager knocks on the door. He takes my wife and the 2 oldest children in the van to register the children for school. It takes all morning for the children to be tested and all the paperwork to be filled out. Then the case manager takes them to the school and introduces them to the teacher
The next day the van driver knocks on the door. My wife and the two younger children ride in the van to class. My wife goes to English class, and the babies have a teacher too. This is a different English class than the one I go to. My wife learns how to speak English, and how to read and write too. She also learns a lot of other things, like how to get ready for a job, how to count money, and how to tell time on the clock. She goes to this class 4 days every week for 4 months
Every month, Catholic Charities pays our rent, and gives us a check for pocket money. I know how to cash a check, and we can walk or ride the bus to the grocery store and buy our own food with Food Stamps. We have a TV and a telephone now.
Now two or three days every week, my case manager picks me up or I ride the bus to the office to meet him. Then we go out to look for a job. My case manager helps me fill out the paperwork every time and tells me what to say in the interview. I can speak a little English now, and I say “Pleased to meet you” and “I am a hard worker”.
One day I get a job interview and I talk to the boss. I am nervous but she likes me and I get the job. My case manager is very happy, and he takes me to Wal-Mart to buy me some work shoes. We go back to my apartment, and then we ride the bus together to my new job and back home again so I know where to go
The next day, I go to work by myself on the bus. It’s very exciting.
One month later, I get a letter from my case manager. It says congratulations, now you are working and you don’t need money from Catholic Charities any more. I’m a little scared about paying my bills by myself, but my case manager has told me many times when this day would come, and so I’m ready for it.
One year after we arrived in this country, we go to the Catholic Charities office on Maple Avenue to apply for our Green Cards. I am happy that we don’t have to pay anything for this.
Another year passes, and we go back to Catholic Charities.
We want to sponsor my brother and his family. They are still living in the refugee camp in Thailand. A nice lady helps me fill out the paperwork that asks the US government to bring my brother to Dallas so we can be together again. I’m sad when she tells me that it could take several years, but that’s up to the government and not to Catholic Charities.
Two more years pass, and my wife and I go back to Catholic Charities
We sign up to take classes to help us become citizens
The class is hard, and it’s all in English. But we come every week to learn everything we need to know to pass the test and be citizens.
Six months later, we go back to Maple Avenue to apply for citizenship. This time we have to pay a lot of money to the government for the paperwork. But my wife and I have good jobs, so I guess it’s OK.
And now it’s more than twenty years since we left our home in Burma and went to the refugee camp. It’s been six years since we first came to this country. But today we are very happy, because today we got the letter that says we are now citizens. We give our thanks to God.
It’s 10 o’clock on Tuesday night. Me, my wife, and our 4 children have just arrived at the Dallas airport.
We are scared, and we are very tired.
It’s been one whole day since we got on the airplane in Thailand
It’s been three days since we left the United Nations refugee camp on the border of Thailand and Burma.
It’s been fifteen years since we ran from our home in Burma to escape the war.
We all have a big white tag around our necks in case we get lost. But our case manager from Catholic Charities sees us and greets us and helps us get our bags. He takes us in a big van to our new apartment. There are beds, chairs, dishes and many other things in the apartment. There is rice and chicken already cooked, and we are hungry. After we eat, the case manager tells us all about the apartment. He shows us how to use the toilet, how to turn on the lights, and how to lock the door. He leaves and we go to bed
On Wednesday morning, our case manager knocks on the door and wakes us up. He takes us in the van to apply for Social Security cards. Then we go to the Catholic Charities office. Our case manager asks us lots of questions about our lives, what kind of work we know how to do, are we are healthy, what languages do we speak, and we fill out a lot of papers. He tells us that some of the papers will help us get Food Stamps and Medicaid. He gives us a check for pocket money, then we go to the bank and get real money. Our case manager takes us back home, we eat and take a nap
On Thursday, our case manager knocks on the door again. He asks us Is everything OK? Do we need any food? Is everybody feeling OK? He stays for a while, and shows us more things about the apartment. It’s hard to understand the thermostat but we try. He takes us next door to meet some other Burmese people. They are from a different township in Burma, but we are happy to meet some neighbors from our own country.Our case manager takes us to the Catholic Charities World of Goods store to get some clothes, and we pick out something for everyone
On Friday morning, a different case manager knocks on the door. She brings us back to the office and teaches us a class about American life. We ask her lots of questions. She tells us about our rights and our responsibilities, what Catholic Charities will do for us, and what we need to learn to do for ourselves.
After the class we meet our own case manager again to make a plan for our future. We talk about our budget and about getting a job. Our case manager takes us to the grocery store, then we go home again
On Monday morning, our case manager knocks on the door. He walks with us to English class, it’s very close. We meet the teacher and some other students from Burma, and some from Iraq, Bhutan, Somalia, Eritrea and other countries. We take a test so the teacher will know how much English we can speak and what we understand. I go back to English class every Monday and Wednesday morning for 2 months
On Tuesday morning we go to the Refugee Clinic. It’s very close, so we walk there by ourselves. We see a lot of other refugees there from many countries. The doctor examines us and asks us questions. The nurse give us many shots
We’ve been in Dallas for one week, and we’re not scared much any more
On Friday the Orientation teacher knocks on our door. We tell her what things we would like to learn about this country – how to ride the bus, how to get to the hospital, how to use the bank, and how to enroll in college. The teacher talks with us for two hours. Each week, she comes back and we learn more. Sometimes we take a trip on the bus to one of the places we asked about. Every two or three days, our case manager or somebody else from Catholic Charities comes to check on us
2 weeks later our case manager knocks on the door. He takes my wife and the 2 oldest children in the van to register the children for school. It takes all morning for the children to be tested and all the paperwork to be filled out. Then the case manager takes them to the school and introduces them to the teacher
The next day the van driver knocks on the door. My wife and the two younger children ride in the van to class. My wife goes to English class, and the babies have a teacher too. This is a different English class than the one I go to. My wife learns how to speak English, and how to read and write too. She also learns a lot of other things, like how to get ready for a job, how to count money, and how to tell time on the clock. She goes to this class 4 days every week for 4 months
Every month, Catholic Charities pays our rent, and gives us a check for pocket money. I know how to cash a check, and we can walk or ride the bus to the grocery store and buy our own food with Food Stamps. We have a TV and a telephone now.
Now two or three days every week, my case manager picks me up or I ride the bus to the office to meet him. Then we go out to look for a job. My case manager helps me fill out the paperwork every time and tells me what to say in the interview. I can speak a little English now, and I say “Pleased to meet you” and “I am a hard worker”.
One day I get a job interview and I talk to the boss. I am nervous but she likes me and I get the job. My case manager is very happy, and he takes me to Wal-Mart to buy me some work shoes. We go back to my apartment, and then we ride the bus together to my new job and back home again so I know where to go
The next day, I go to work by myself on the bus. It’s very exciting.
One month later, I get a letter from my case manager. It says congratulations, now you are working and you don’t need money from Catholic Charities any more. I’m a little scared about paying my bills by myself, but my case manager has told me many times when this day would come, and so I’m ready for it.
One year after we arrived in this country, we go to the Catholic Charities office on Maple Avenue to apply for our Green Cards. I am happy that we don’t have to pay anything for this.
Another year passes, and we go back to Catholic Charities.
We want to sponsor my brother and his family. They are still living in the refugee camp in Thailand. A nice lady helps me fill out the paperwork that asks the US government to bring my brother to Dallas so we can be together again. I’m sad when she tells me that it could take several years, but that’s up to the government and not to Catholic Charities.
Two more years pass, and my wife and I go back to Catholic Charities
We sign up to take classes to help us become citizens
The class is hard, and it’s all in English. But we come every week to learn everything we need to know to pass the test and be citizens.
Six months later, we go back to Maple Avenue to apply for citizenship. This time we have to pay a lot of money to the government for the paperwork. But my wife and I have good jobs, so I guess it’s OK.
And now it’s more than twenty years since we left our home in Burma and went to the refugee camp. It’s been six years since we first came to this country. But today we are very happy, because today we got the letter that says we are now citizens. We give our thanks to God.
Monday, August 10, 2009
My book has more bookmarks than pages
I was at a little bar in downtown Plano this weekend with a girlfriend when an older man, leaning on a crutch, wearing a sweaty, stained T-shirt, and rocking some seriously uncombed hair, jerkily walked over to us and told my girlfriend that she needs to stop listening to Rush Limbaugh. She was spouting off her opinions on healthcare, particularly how the government should play no role in it (“You got to understand, I’m from Philadelphia. I grew up learning exactly what our founding fathers meant for this country to be. I am a true patriot at heart.”) I hadn’t really said anything, because honestly, I figure I don’t really know shit about healthcare and what the government should do about it. I understand her viewpoint, which is likely shared by the solid majority of my family, and I know that it is rooted in an unwavering belief that free-market systems are the best choice for the people, sometimes because of the results, sometimes because of the principle of the thing, and sometimes because of both. Anyway, this man told us that he got healthcare in France and in Costa Rica to help him with his disability that he could not have gotten here, and that it had in his mind shot a hole in the entire theory my girlfriend was espousing. I could tell that not only did my girlfriend disagree with him, she was creeped out by him. So when he pulled out a pack of French cigarettes (“what Sartre smoked”) and asked if we wanted one, she said, “No, thanks, I’ve got to get back inside.” But me? Well, I respected that my friend wasn’t interested in hanging out with some strange older clearly-unwashed man, but sometimes you just have this instinct or lack thereof- I don’t know, something- that says to you, “No. I want to hear what this man has to say.” So he lit up a cigarette as my friend walked inside (giving me a bit of an eye as if to say, are you sure, girl? A good friend worries about you), and he began to tell me a story.
He was traveling with his girlfriend in the south of France, and they were going to Spain to meet up with some good friends of theirs. He described to me some of the places and people he met, his anticipation of things to come in Spain. And when he returned to France, he was going to study art and architecture. But as they were driving, another car hit them, killing his girlfriend and leaving him paralyzed in a French hospital for months. He was devastated, he said. Devastated. “But what helped me was when I went to go get this special treatment they had in Costa Rica.” He pulled down the collar of his shirt just a bit to show me a deep scar running across his neck and collarbone. “Yeah, I felt really sorry for myself, and then one day I saw this young woman, and she had a limp, too. And you know, you know how, man, that culture is just so patriarchal. It’s terrible, how some of the women there are treated. So I figure maybe her husband or someone beat her, and that’s why she was hurt. So I went up to her and I told her,’ you know, I understand what it’s like to be disabled now and how horrible it feels, and no pressure or anything untoward, but if you ever want to talk about it, I want you to know you could talk to me.’ And she looked at me and she said, ‘When I was eight years old, a group of men broke into my house one night and killed my mother. Then they gang-raped me.’ And my face went like this-” As he acted it out, his eyes widened and his jaw went slack with the look of someone who has just realized that they don’t know shit. “And twenty years later, here I am with my face still like that.” He took the last draw on his cigarette and put it out. “So now I send her $100 a month, but she doesn’t know who it’s from. I told her cousin to just say she’d won a contest or something. It’s just, man, most of us don’t even know how horrible it could be.”
There was along pause, and then I felt like I wanted him to know that I at least sort of understood what he meant, so I told him that sometimes I work with crime victims getting special visas, and sometimes the stories I hear are just so sad that it makes me feel so lucky no matter how upset with my life I was before. “Yeah,” he said, but I don’t think he really heard me. There was another pause, and he went to sit down on the bench (“Sorry, I can’t stand for very long”) and told some joke about Jesus. My friend came out looking for me, so I said goodbye to the man and went back inside. At the table, my girlfriend said, “I was getting a little worried about you out there. Sorry, but he just seemed really creepy.” “No,” I said. “He was actually pretty cool.”
And I think that the reason why I’m posting this after having abandoned my blog for a few months is that it somehow (oh, I can’t quite explain it, but I’ll try) sums up exactly how I’ve been feeling lately and why I haven’t been writing at all. I just have been overwhelmed, basically, with the process of trying to figure out what I think about the world. And what I want to do. And like, who I want to be and shit. I think one thing one day and a few months later I’ve learned that it’s all been naïveté, ignorance, immaturity, or just a phase. I can’t commit to any ideologies or theories about anything, because I’m scared I’ll just find out it was all wrong a few months later- so why make any decisions based on it now? But life is life, which means decisions have to be made along the way. So I’ve been trying to just go off instinct.
When I was little (and I’m sure I’m certainly not the only one), I wanted to fly. I mean, I really, really wanted it. I drew some wings- they looked like angels’ wings- and cut them out. I asked my aunt to tape them onto my back. I went outside, climbed to the top of our slide, and oh my goodness, the exhilaration I felt in that moment, knowing that I was about to fly. But it turned out, it didn’t really seem to matter how badly I wanted it. No matter how earnest I was, how heart-wrenching it was to think there was this thing I wanted so much that I could simply never have… Well, at some point, I must have come to terms with that. So I have some hope, maybe a sliver, that this urge I have - to conquer all the things I want to think and do and see, the thousands of books to read, the thousands of things and places to visit, the emotions and experiences to have, man there is just SO MUCH TO LEARN AND UNDERSTAND AND EMPATHIZE WITH- will be an urge I can one day come to terms with. Or, I don't know, maybe not. Maybe I shouldn't. It's just another something to figure out.
And in the meantime, I can just remember how lucky I am to have what I do have.
He was traveling with his girlfriend in the south of France, and they were going to Spain to meet up with some good friends of theirs. He described to me some of the places and people he met, his anticipation of things to come in Spain. And when he returned to France, he was going to study art and architecture. But as they were driving, another car hit them, killing his girlfriend and leaving him paralyzed in a French hospital for months. He was devastated, he said. Devastated. “But what helped me was when I went to go get this special treatment they had in Costa Rica.” He pulled down the collar of his shirt just a bit to show me a deep scar running across his neck and collarbone. “Yeah, I felt really sorry for myself, and then one day I saw this young woman, and she had a limp, too. And you know, you know how, man, that culture is just so patriarchal. It’s terrible, how some of the women there are treated. So I figure maybe her husband or someone beat her, and that’s why she was hurt. So I went up to her and I told her,’ you know, I understand what it’s like to be disabled now and how horrible it feels, and no pressure or anything untoward, but if you ever want to talk about it, I want you to know you could talk to me.’ And she looked at me and she said, ‘When I was eight years old, a group of men broke into my house one night and killed my mother. Then they gang-raped me.’ And my face went like this-” As he acted it out, his eyes widened and his jaw went slack with the look of someone who has just realized that they don’t know shit. “And twenty years later, here I am with my face still like that.” He took the last draw on his cigarette and put it out. “So now I send her $100 a month, but she doesn’t know who it’s from. I told her cousin to just say she’d won a contest or something. It’s just, man, most of us don’t even know how horrible it could be.”
There was along pause, and then I felt like I wanted him to know that I at least sort of understood what he meant, so I told him that sometimes I work with crime victims getting special visas, and sometimes the stories I hear are just so sad that it makes me feel so lucky no matter how upset with my life I was before. “Yeah,” he said, but I don’t think he really heard me. There was another pause, and he went to sit down on the bench (“Sorry, I can’t stand for very long”) and told some joke about Jesus. My friend came out looking for me, so I said goodbye to the man and went back inside. At the table, my girlfriend said, “I was getting a little worried about you out there. Sorry, but he just seemed really creepy.” “No,” I said. “He was actually pretty cool.”
And I think that the reason why I’m posting this after having abandoned my blog for a few months is that it somehow (oh, I can’t quite explain it, but I’ll try) sums up exactly how I’ve been feeling lately and why I haven’t been writing at all. I just have been overwhelmed, basically, with the process of trying to figure out what I think about the world. And what I want to do. And like, who I want to be and shit. I think one thing one day and a few months later I’ve learned that it’s all been naïveté, ignorance, immaturity, or just a phase. I can’t commit to any ideologies or theories about anything, because I’m scared I’ll just find out it was all wrong a few months later- so why make any decisions based on it now? But life is life, which means decisions have to be made along the way. So I’ve been trying to just go off instinct.
When I was little (and I’m sure I’m certainly not the only one), I wanted to fly. I mean, I really, really wanted it. I drew some wings- they looked like angels’ wings- and cut them out. I asked my aunt to tape them onto my back. I went outside, climbed to the top of our slide, and oh my goodness, the exhilaration I felt in that moment, knowing that I was about to fly. But it turned out, it didn’t really seem to matter how badly I wanted it. No matter how earnest I was, how heart-wrenching it was to think there was this thing I wanted so much that I could simply never have… Well, at some point, I must have come to terms with that. So I have some hope, maybe a sliver, that this urge I have - to conquer all the things I want to think and do and see, the thousands of books to read, the thousands of things and places to visit, the emotions and experiences to have, man there is just SO MUCH TO LEARN AND UNDERSTAND AND EMPATHIZE WITH- will be an urge I can one day come to terms with. Or, I don't know, maybe not. Maybe I shouldn't. It's just another something to figure out.
And in the meantime, I can just remember how lucky I am to have what I do have.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Keepin' It Classy with Michelle Obama
I hope I, too, can be a classy, intelligent, compassionate woman.
At Anacostia High, where children walk through metal detectors every day and only 21 percent of students read proficiently last year, Tiara Chance, 18, was surprised that Mrs. Obama had decided to visit.
“We don’t deserve it,” she said. “People are fighting and cussing all the time around here. Who would want to be around that?”
At Mary’s Center, a health clinic that serves a predominantly immigrant community, Akrem Muzemil, 16, who dreams of becoming an engineer, asked the first lady flat out, “Like, why did you want to come out here to meet us?”
Mrs. Obama told him, “I think it’s real important for young kids, particularly kids from communities without resources, to see me.” ...
At a school’s celebration of Cinco de Mayo this month, the first lady urged students to get to know the Capitol and the White House.
“That space is your space,” Mrs. Obama said. “It’s your democracy, as much as it is anyone else’s.”
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
a kiss in Paris
Friday, April 17, 2009
Israel: Reflecting on Israeli-Palestinian Relations
On Global Voices today are several Israeli bloggers contemplating the relationships between Israelis and Palestinians.
All of them have interesting things to say, but the one that really caught my eye was Bernard Avishai's entry on Israeli soldiers (can I hate the effects that Israel's policies have, can I abhor especially its military policies, can I hate what individual soldiers do, and still have empathy?):
All of them have interesting things to say, but the one that really caught my eye was Bernard Avishai's entry on Israeli soldiers (can I hate the effects that Israel's policies have, can I abhor especially its military policies, can I hate what individual soldiers do, and still have empathy?):
Let me get this straight. We take tens of thousands of 18 and 19-year-olds, young people who are little more than children themselves, and at a time of life when showing the utmost cool is a kind of sexual ante; a time when ideas about the world are largely received wisdoms; when bodies are at their utmost strength but so is the fear of death, which only reinforces the fear of displaying cowardice; when the people from whom wisdoms are received are parents or mentors loved to the utmost; when minds are just intimidated enough about life's scrum to feel utmost gratitude for family and commonwealth--when the desire to prove one's loyalty is at its most intense.
Then we take these youth--for God's sake, kids who can barely even remember the time of Rabin's assassination--and tell them that the Arabs, deep down, will never want a Jewish state in the neighborhood; that, in any case, the land is sacred, and giving ground is an utmost sin of Jewish law, as is showing mercy to those who would kill you; that "Oslo" offered Palestinians a deal with utmost generosity, but that they came back with terrorism nevertheless; that (though this much has been obvious) terrorism can come in any form, male and female, young and old; that protecting our civilians from random cruelties is the reason they are there.
We tell them, moreover, that the civilians they are facing at least tolerated, or even encouraged, the terrorism they must now root out, which is why terrorists are allowed to blend in; that these Arabs are secretly all waiting and hoping for Iran, the new Amalek, to incinerate Tel-Aviv; that if the world had not flinched from hitting at Hitler in 1938, the utmost tragedy would have been prevented; that, anyway, the strategic goal is to reestablish deterrence, which means scaring the shit out of Arabs, so that they will finally accept the fact that, as former chief of staff Moshe Yaalon put it, they are a "defeated" people; oh, and that our great friends in the Bush administration are about to leave office, so time is of the utmost importance, too.
Then, after our children have killed and killed for us, we turn around and tell them they did not take the utmost care in trying to save civilian lives; that "this involves taking some risk"--that if they were braver, more willing to risk their own or their buddies' deaths, they would not have violated the "norm" of combat--in effect, that if they were more worthy, they would not be war criminals.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
We know all of the things; time to party, bro
My friend put on her website (like her, it is whimsical and clever and comes with- for what it is worth- my stamp of approval) this explodingdog:
She said it made her smile, but it did not make me smile. Actually it made me sad.
It also made me wonder if these deeply painful personal conflicts...are a luxury. And that made me sad, too.
She said it made her smile, but it did not make me smile. Actually it made me sad.
It also made me wonder if these deeply painful personal conflicts...are a luxury. And that made me sad, too.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
I am just a poor boy though my story's seldom told
How poverty passes from generation to generation is now becoming clearer. The answer lies in the effect of stress on two particular parts of the brain
One of the best songs ever, which addresses poverty passing from generation to generation:
One of the best songs ever, which addresses poverty passing from generation to generation:
Shootings at Binghamton immigration clinic
I was on AIM with my aunt as this story unfolded and sirens went whizzing by. She grew up there, and she, my mom, cousin, and grandfather live there now. In fact my grandfather used to go to this building a lot (I can only assume to teach IRish dance classes =) ). My first thought, upon hearing that the nearby high school was on lockdown, was...wait where does Nathaniel (my cousin) go to school? Oh please let him be ok. Please let everyone be ok.
I also think my dad couldn't help but think, as he alerted me to the story, that this is the type of place I will be working this summer. Of course parents tend to worry about their kids. But there is no way I would not work with my immigration clinic this summer. I love that job, I love the people, I love the work, I love the clients.
Why, Mr. Wong? The story says he was upset over his unemployment and frustration over being unable to speak English. Only God knows what drove him to do this.
My heart especially breaks for the immigrants who were there.
I also think my dad couldn't help but think, as he alerted me to the story, that this is the type of place I will be working this summer. Of course parents tend to worry about their kids. But there is no way I would not work with my immigration clinic this summer. I love that job, I love the people, I love the work, I love the clients.
Why, Mr. Wong? The story says he was upset over his unemployment and frustration over being unable to speak English. Only God knows what drove him to do this.
My heart especially breaks for the immigrants who were there.
A Kurdish woman turned to Ms. Gruss and said, “They fire in Iraq. They fire in the United States.”And then, the touching determination...
“She was almost defeated in a way,” Ms. Gruss said. “She couldn’t find a safe haven. She was one of those who had to walk over the mountains from Iraq to Turkey to escape Saddam. Then they’re shooting at her.”
Ms. Thach said she would return to [the citizenship] classes. On Saturday morning, in the living room of her small house on Baxter Street, she went to her purse. Her hands shook as she reached for her citizenship manual.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Taliban publicly lashes a woman in Pakistan; women's rights take a hit in Afghanistan
Part of me does not want to post this, because part of what makes this so horrible is the public element of it, meant to humiliate this woman.
Part of me wants to post this, because I feel like we should know, be reminded, and maybe see it with our own eyes to reinforce it. This is the part that wins today.
From Deadpan Thoughts via Global Voices
In other disheartening news for women's rights, New-Yok based Egyptian journalist and blogger Mona Eltahawy has a post decribing her disappointment with the Afghan president having signed a new law in February that will apparently legalize rape within marriage and bar women from leaving their homes without their husbands' permission.
Of course Islam as a religion is beautiful and respectful of women; it is extremists and perverters of the religion who feed into the idea that it is otherwise.
Part of me wants to post this, because I feel like we should know, be reminded, and maybe see it with our own eyes to reinforce it. This is the part that wins today.
From Deadpan Thoughts via Global Voices
In other disheartening news for women's rights, New-Yok based Egyptian journalist and blogger Mona Eltahawy has a post decribing her disappointment with the Afghan president having signed a new law in February that will apparently legalize rape within marriage and bar women from leaving their homes without their husbands' permission.
Of course Islam as a religion is beautiful and respectful of women; it is extremists and perverters of the religion who feed into the idea that it is otherwise.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Israel Disputes Soldiers’ Accounts of Gaza Abuses
An article today counteracts the media whirlwind of accustions that Israel acted wrongfully in the Gaza conflict.
Personally, I can't say that I believe there is a a systematic effort by Israel to destroy Palestinians. But I don't doubt that there are some Israelis who would believe in such a thing; I don't like the attitudes from a lot of Israelis commenting on message boards in the wake of accusations that IDF acted wrongfully. The unwillingness to believe anything other than "IDF is the most moral army in the world", to do anything but revere the Israeli talking points, frustrates me. Of course...all of these things can be said, really, about any society; like the quote above says, there are always immoral idiots. I guess the hope is that people would realize that, and instead of trying to defend the idiots, try to understand how others might feel now because of those idiots, and try to understand all of the different biases going in from themselves and others, and try to focus as much on useful dialogue as on defending their own original stances.
Here is the open letter that Yishai Goldflam wrote: I am the soldier who slept in your home.
“When we entered houses, we actually cleaned up the place,” said Yishai Goldflam, 32, a religiously observant film student in Jerusalem whose open letter to the Palestinian owners of the house he occupied for some days was published in the newspaper Maariv. “There are always idiots who do immoral things. But they don’t represent the majority. I remember once when a soldier wanted to take a Coke from a store, and he was stopped by his fellow soldiers because it was the wrong thing to do.”
Yaron Ezrahi, a political theorist who lectures military commanders, said they rejected the notion of willful abuse by their troops. But the commanders say more civilians died than should have and attribute it to two factors: faulty intelligence that led to attacking the wrong houses, and a failure, after warning Palestinians to leave, to provide safe escape routes.
Personally, I can't say that I believe there is a a systematic effort by Israel to destroy Palestinians. But I don't doubt that there are some Israelis who would believe in such a thing; I don't like the attitudes from a lot of Israelis commenting on message boards in the wake of accusations that IDF acted wrongfully. The unwillingness to believe anything other than "IDF is the most moral army in the world", to do anything but revere the Israeli talking points, frustrates me. Of course...all of these things can be said, really, about any society; like the quote above says, there are always immoral idiots. I guess the hope is that people would realize that, and instead of trying to defend the idiots, try to understand how others might feel now because of those idiots, and try to understand all of the different biases going in from themselves and others, and try to focus as much on useful dialogue as on defending their own original stances.
Here is the open letter that Yishai Goldflam wrote: I am the soldier who slept in your home.
I am convinced that you hate me with unbridled hatred, and you do not have even the tiniest desire to hear what I have to say. At the same time, it is important for me to say the following in the hope that there is even the minutest chance that you will hear me.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
DREAM Act being reintroduced this week
by Sen. Richard Durbin and Sen. Richard Lugar.
From Citizen Orange.
Also, here is Citizen Orange's argument in favor of the DREAM Act.
From Citizen Orange.
Also, here is Citizen Orange's argument in favor of the DREAM Act.
Turkey's Sudan decision
As a temporary member of the United Nations' Security Council, which might vote on a motion to defer the ICC's warrant, Turkey may soon find itself having to take a definitive position on the issue. According to an article by Hurriyet's Barcin Yinanc, Ankara is leaning towards voting in favor of a deferral, something that could become a sticking point between it and Washington, which opposes putting off the warrant.
From Instanbul Calling.
Gaza-Sderot- new, post-conflict videos!
There are four new videos from each side. Here is the first video.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Congratulations, Mugabe!!!
You are the world's worst dictator!
Mugabe would like to thank torture and greed, without which none of this would have been possible.
Sorry, al-Bashir; maybe next year.
Mugabe would like to thank torture and greed, without which none of this would have been possible.
Sorry, al-Bashir; maybe next year.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Speaking in fewer tongues
A third of the world's languages are at risk
AROUND a quarter of the world's population speaks just three languages: Mandarin, English and Spanish. But out of the 6,700 of the world's identified languages, nearly 2,500 are deemed at risk according to UNESCO, the UN's cultural body. The imposition of a colonial language long ago in big countries such as Brazil and America is still endangering the diversity of native tongues. In America, 53 languages have become extinct since 1950, more than in any other country.
From the Economist.
AROUND a quarter of the world's population speaks just three languages: Mandarin, English and Spanish. But out of the 6,700 of the world's identified languages, nearly 2,500 are deemed at risk according to UNESCO, the UN's cultural body. The imposition of a colonial language long ago in big countries such as Brazil and America is still endangering the diversity of native tongues. In America, 53 languages have become extinct since 1950, more than in any other country.
From the Economist.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Daedalus
Also, when I'm not overdosing on Beirut (just kidding, that's not possible), I have this song stuck in my head. Thanks to Sadie's little brother for introducing it to Sadie, thanks to Sadie for introducing it to me, you're welcome to you from me.
Gaza-Sderot: A Tale of Two Cities
Ok, even better, even better (in fact I've deleted the other documentary, as this type of concept is what I should be focusing on instead), and this documentary project is brilliant for puposely humanizing both sides. This was filmed just before the start of the conflict in December.
It's also great because it is broken down on the website into short clips from each day, from both sides.
Here is an article about it from Time Magazine.
Watch it! Also for those in Austin this week for SXSW- it is showing on the 17th.
I wish I knew how to embed this, but I am too computer/internets ignorant- but I am so enthusiastic about this! Go watch it!
And also, this blog- Life Must Go On in Gaza and Sderot- is so great. Go read it!
(Ok, ok, I'm on a roll- here is another good exchange from over a year ago between two young women, one each from Sderot and Gaza. I'll stop adding links now because I need to step. away. from the computer.)
It's also great because it is broken down on the website into short clips from each day, from both sides.
Here is an article about it from Time Magazine.
Watch it! Also for those in Austin this week for SXSW- it is showing on the 17th.
I wish I knew how to embed this, but I am too computer/internets ignorant- but I am so enthusiastic about this! Go watch it!
And also, this blog- Life Must Go On in Gaza and Sderot- is so great. Go read it!
(Ok, ok, I'm on a roll- here is another good exchange from over a year ago between two young women, one each from Sderot and Gaza. I'll stop adding links now because I need to step. away. from the computer.)
Saturday, March 14, 2009
When Jobs Disappear
History implies that high unemployment is not just an economic problem but also a political tinderbox. Weak labour markets risk fanning xenophobia, particularly in Europe, where this is the first downturn since immigration soared. China’s leadership is terrified by the prospect of social unrest from rising joblessness, particularly among the urban elite.
From the Economist.
From the Economist.
Did the ICC do the right thing in issuing the warrant for al-Bashir's arrest?
The people of Darur think so:
Darfuris themselves are well aware of how they might be punished for backing the ICC; yet, despite the indictment of two Darfuri rebel leaders along with members of the government in Khartoum, it is hard to find anyone aside from Mr Bashir’s few Arab supporters in the main towns who opposes the court’s action. Justice matters even—perhaps especially—to people who have nothing.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Misc. beautiful stuff: Alhambra, Beirut
Something really beautiful I got to see in Grenada a few weeks ago- the Alhambra.
Too bad my memory card was full or else I would have taken so many more pictures.
Something else really beautiful is this new Beirut song I've gone playing practically on repeat:
This song was apparently on Natalie Portman's charity compilation CD back in late 2007, which I think should be a lesson to us all that doing good makes beautiful music (oh yeah and Natalie Portman is one of the coolest people ever)
Too bad my memory card was full or else I would have taken so many more pictures.
Something else really beautiful is this new Beirut song I've gone playing practically on repeat:
This song was apparently on Natalie Portman's charity compilation CD back in late 2007, which I think should be a lesson to us all that doing good makes beautiful music (oh yeah and Natalie Portman is one of the coolest people ever)
Friday, March 6, 2009
Prayers with Tsvangirai
Car-truck crash kills Zimbabwe prime minister's wife, injures him
"I'm skeptical about any motor vehicle accident in Zimbabwe involving an opposition figure," said Tom McDonald, the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe from 1997 to 2001. "President Mugabe has a history of strange car accidents when someone lo and behold dies -- it's sort of his M.O. of how they get rid of people they don't like."
Confronting myself
I have a confession to make. I am not proud of what I am about to admit, but, especially in light of my last post, I think I should admit it. Maybe it will hurt my credibility, but in the end I hope it actually helps it.
I was in London the summer of 2006. I was probably even more of a typical American tourist than I'd like to imagine. My friend and I were on one of those bus tours when we hit terrible traffic and were forced off the bus. There was apparently "some protest" going on, which was clogging the streets. Frustrated and probably still cranky from jet-lag (and the culture shock that happens, even in a Texas to London transition, as a silly 21-yr old girl who has never really been anywhere), we started to wander the streets. That's when we crossed paths with the protest. It was quite a sight to behold: people yelling, signs supporting Hezbollah.
"So...what's this all about?" my friend asked me.
And that's when I responded with, quite literally, every single little bit of knowledge I had on the matter: "Oh, Hezbollah is a terrorist group at war with Israel. They're supporting terrorists, isn't that nice?" And off we went, after snapping a few pictures, probably to find some chips or pints.
I did not know a lick of information about why these protesters were angry, what they knew, what their family and friends knew or had experienced. I did not even know what the war was about. And I judged the shit out them. Because I knew all I needed to know: Hezbollah = terrorist.
Now, I like to think I have grown up a little bit since then, and will at least make an attempt to learn about a situation before I get some opinion going about it. But I have to say, when you confront your own biases and your own mental shortcuts and your own cultural upbringing, and you start to see how they have failed....well, not only yourself but the rest of the world, in a way...it's hard to commit yourself again.
And then when you do...
I recently took a trip to Spain with my wonderful friend Sadie, during which I brought up the Facebook responses I got after posting the Palestinian death toll during the war. Sadie, who is Jewish, helped me understand something that I had not previously understood to the extent I should have: the way I went about conveying the message I wanted to convey was divisive. Although in my own head I wanted to address and bring attention to the human catastrophe happening, with some topics, especially ones as inherently sensitive as Israel/Palestine, the way you deliver a message can be just as important as what you say. Do I regret posting the death toll? I don't regret my thoughts on the matter, and I still hope that I opened up some eyes or at least made people think a little bit more about the situation. I do wish that I had found a less divisive way to do so, or at least fully recognized at the time how divisive the message was. In the end, after all, what I hope for is peace rather than division.
So in what may come as shocking news to some of my Facebook friends, it turns out that I support (....or at least don't NOT support) the decision of the U.S., Israel, and other countries to pull out of the Durban II conference due to its perceived Anti-Semitism. Sure, let's tackle discrimination. Let's tackle whatever you would call the way Israel treats Palestinians. But it shouldn't be done with finger-pointing and pretextual conferences. And Israel does deserve some recognition of its security concerns. This conference promises to fan the flames, and that is not something I think is necessary. To put it lightly.
Anyway. I am headed to Paris again this weekend (oh, how I love that city!), because the Paris Half-Marathon is Sunday. I will not be running in it after all; I incurred an injury a little over a month ago and have only been able to (gently) resume running this week. But...I had already booked the trip, so it is still a great opportunity to go see the wonderful city and cheer on Sadie.
I was in London the summer of 2006. I was probably even more of a typical American tourist than I'd like to imagine. My friend and I were on one of those bus tours when we hit terrible traffic and were forced off the bus. There was apparently "some protest" going on, which was clogging the streets. Frustrated and probably still cranky from jet-lag (and the culture shock that happens, even in a Texas to London transition, as a silly 21-yr old girl who has never really been anywhere), we started to wander the streets. That's when we crossed paths with the protest. It was quite a sight to behold: people yelling, signs supporting Hezbollah.
"So...what's this all about?" my friend asked me.
And that's when I responded with, quite literally, every single little bit of knowledge I had on the matter: "Oh, Hezbollah is a terrorist group at war with Israel. They're supporting terrorists, isn't that nice?" And off we went, after snapping a few pictures, probably to find some chips or pints.
I did not know a lick of information about why these protesters were angry, what they knew, what their family and friends knew or had experienced. I did not even know what the war was about. And I judged the shit out them. Because I knew all I needed to know: Hezbollah = terrorist.
Now, I like to think I have grown up a little bit since then, and will at least make an attempt to learn about a situation before I get some opinion going about it. But I have to say, when you confront your own biases and your own mental shortcuts and your own cultural upbringing, and you start to see how they have failed....well, not only yourself but the rest of the world, in a way...it's hard to commit yourself again.
And then when you do...
I recently took a trip to Spain with my wonderful friend Sadie, during which I brought up the Facebook responses I got after posting the Palestinian death toll during the war. Sadie, who is Jewish, helped me understand something that I had not previously understood to the extent I should have: the way I went about conveying the message I wanted to convey was divisive. Although in my own head I wanted to address and bring attention to the human catastrophe happening, with some topics, especially ones as inherently sensitive as Israel/Palestine, the way you deliver a message can be just as important as what you say. Do I regret posting the death toll? I don't regret my thoughts on the matter, and I still hope that I opened up some eyes or at least made people think a little bit more about the situation. I do wish that I had found a less divisive way to do so, or at least fully recognized at the time how divisive the message was. In the end, after all, what I hope for is peace rather than division.
So in what may come as shocking news to some of my Facebook friends, it turns out that I support (....or at least don't NOT support) the decision of the U.S., Israel, and other countries to pull out of the Durban II conference due to its perceived Anti-Semitism. Sure, let's tackle discrimination. Let's tackle whatever you would call the way Israel treats Palestinians. But it shouldn't be done with finger-pointing and pretextual conferences. And Israel does deserve some recognition of its security concerns. This conference promises to fan the flames, and that is not something I think is necessary. To put it lightly.
Anyway. I am headed to Paris again this weekend (oh, how I love that city!), because the Paris Half-Marathon is Sunday. I will not be running in it after all; I incurred an injury a little over a month ago and have only been able to (gently) resume running this week. But...I had already booked the trip, so it is still a great opportunity to go see the wonderful city and cheer on Sadie.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Who is a "terrorist"?
Great article from NY Times.
In Cairo, Wafaa Younis was seated on a curb, selling bread and green onions and mint leaves, as goats ate trash strewn across the street. She was asked what advice she would give Mr. Obama as he tried to repair the Arab perception that Washington was the enemy.
“You have to understand everyone’s opinions and demands, and negotiate,” she said. “There will be no peace without this.”
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Fleet Foxes
Mi hermanito favorito has the best taste in music. Here is Fleet Foxes:
My brother says this song- or at least the last minute and a half or so- reminds him of our childhood. Mostly he just loves the americana feel and, of course, the chords; they're beautiful.
My brother says this song- or at least the last minute and a half or so- reminds him of our childhood. Mostly he just loves the americana feel and, of course, the chords; they're beautiful.
Quote of the Day
On an Italian tourist to Baghdad, Renato Di Porcia, the deputy chief of mission at the Italian Embassy in Baghdad, had this to say:
"He is a little bit naïve."
"He is a little bit naïve."
Friday, February 6, 2009
Israel and Gaza, Extremism, Peace
Israel continues to disappoint me in its approach to Gazan aid distribution, denying even the paper to make anti-violence pamphlets:
I'm a firm believer in addresing the underlying attitudes in this conflict if peace is to be achieved, so this makes me really sad. I'm sure Israel has plenty of reasons they could give for why they aren't letting paper through, but frankly I'm sick of their reasons, especially ones I suspect are really just wrapping for political purposes.
Of course, not only Israel is to blame. Shame on Hamas for stealing aid from UNWRA workers. Shame on anyone who is hindering UNRWA relief, especially those who purportedly speak for the people.
I predicted, as did many others, that all this latest conflict would do is further flame extremism on both sides. And as usual, Gazans are being made to suffer. As Mr. Ging said:
I don't know, maybe the extremism has been brewing regardless of the conflict, but I would certainly not say it has helped. And what if real efforts at peace had been made, instead of politicspoliticspolitics? But what we have now is definite growing extremism. Take the upcoming elections in Israel.
And in Gaza:
To even talk about the conflict is drowned in conflict and polarization. I read a pretty interesting article about the difficulties on reporting about the war. Luckily, I am not a journalist so I am free from the burden of trying to carefully articulate things so as not to offend anyone. Not that I want to offend anyone! But I did notice that by posting a Facebook status tracking the many Palestinian deaths during the war, I was often deemed to somehow support Hamas. Well, no. I can sympathize with both sides, once I try to see what it is they are seeing. But it is quite disproportionately Palestinians who are dying and suffering, and, being an American, I am surrounded by friends and family who only know the Israeli position.
I just found this article today about what, normatively speaking, will be useful dialogue for achieving peace.
And another sad, beautiful example of why we should care:
Beyond the worsening shortage of food, mattresses, blankets and clothes for Gaza’s 1.4 million beleaguered residents, Israel’s continued closure of most access points is depriving the United Nations of paper to print out a human rights programme to teach children to eschew violence. “I’m being obstructed in printing out the human rights curriculum that we’re all so proud of having developed here and that is more important now than ever before to get on with the teaching of the responsibilities that go with human rights and to focus on making sure that these kids grow up with the right values,” the Director of Operations in Gaza for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), John Ging, said today.
I'm a firm believer in addresing the underlying attitudes in this conflict if peace is to be achieved, so this makes me really sad. I'm sure Israel has plenty of reasons they could give for why they aren't letting paper through, but frankly I'm sick of their reasons, especially ones I suspect are really just wrapping for political purposes.
“I don’t want to hear any more from people on the Israeli side the arguments about who might or might not benefit… The ordinary people on the ground are paying the price, not the politicians, and of course the inevitable consequences are entirely predictable: we’re going to have more desperation, more misery, more violence,” he said.
Mr. Ging, who has repeatedly warned that increasing misery in Gaza feeds extremism, cited UNRWA’s food distribution as a prime example of “how impossible it is being made for us.”
Of course, not only Israel is to blame. Shame on Hamas for stealing aid from UNWRA workers. Shame on anyone who is hindering UNRWA relief, especially those who purportedly speak for the people.
Mr. Ging also stressed that this week’s theft of UNRWA aid supplies at gunpoint by Hamas police was another challenge facing the Agency, adding that it was the first time the Islamist organisation had done so, and it must be the last. Hamas said it would give out the aid itself.
“I don’t know what they have done with it. I sincerely hope they have it intact because we want it back, that’s our message to them,” he stressed. “We won’t take seriously any commitments they give us vis-à-vis future action until they first and foremost return the aid that they stole and secondly make public their assurances that it won’t happen again, i.e. stop the nonsense that they’ve been coming out with trying to justify what they did and accept that it was an egregious error on their part.”
While the amount stolen was small, “it’s massive in its significance because they’ve crossed a red line,” he said.
I predicted, as did many others, that all this latest conflict would do is further flame extremism on both sides. And as usual, Gazans are being made to suffer. As Mr. Ging said:
...statements by Israeli opposition politician Binyamin Netanyahu, tipped by public opinion polls to win elections next week, that Israel has not yet finished the job in Gaza and Hamas must be toppled had caused heightened anxiety among a population that had already been at the receiving end of a massive military onslaught.
I don't know, maybe the extremism has been brewing regardless of the conflict, but I would certainly not say it has helped. And what if real efforts at peace had been made, instead of politicspoliticspolitics? But what we have now is definite growing extremism. Take the upcoming elections in Israel.
A THREE-HORSE race for much of the campaign, the Israeli election due on February 10th has a new hopeful. It is now a four-horse affair, with a long trail of also-rans. According to the polls, Yisrael Beitenu, previously a minor right-wing party led by Avigdor Lieberman, has been doing surprisingly well. ...
Mr Lieberman, the dark horse, is branded by the left as racist, even fascist. He wants Israeli Arabs, nearly 20% of the population, to pledge allegiance to the state and be required to do military or national service. “No loyalty—no citizenship” is one of Yisrael Beitenu’s election slogans, along with “Only Lieberman understands Arabic”. He also proposes a repartition of Palestine so that areas of Israel with large Arab populations can be transferred to the Palestinian Authority in return for areas of the West Bank settled by Jews. The Arab communities in question are unanimously and vehemently opposed to the plan.
And in Gaza:
...here in the ruins of El Atatra, perhaps the biggest damage has been to any memory of a shared past and any thought of a shared future.
“We used to tell fighters not to fire from here,” said Nabila Abu Halima, looking over a field through her open window. “Now I’ll invite them to do it from my house.”
To even talk about the conflict is drowned in conflict and polarization. I read a pretty interesting article about the difficulties on reporting about the war. Luckily, I am not a journalist so I am free from the burden of trying to carefully articulate things so as not to offend anyone. Not that I want to offend anyone! But I did notice that by posting a Facebook status tracking the many Palestinian deaths during the war, I was often deemed to somehow support Hamas. Well, no. I can sympathize with both sides, once I try to see what it is they are seeing. But it is quite disproportionately Palestinians who are dying and suffering, and, being an American, I am surrounded by friends and family who only know the Israeli position.
I just found this article today about what, normatively speaking, will be useful dialogue for achieving peace.
In our research, we surveyed nearly 4,000 Palestinians and Israelis from 2004 to 2008, questioning citizens across the political spectrum including refugees, supporters of Hamas and Israeli settlers in the West Bank. We asked them to react to hypothetical but realistic compromises in which their side would be required to give away something it valued in return for a lasting peace.
...
Many of the respondents insisted that the values involved were sacred to them. For example, nearly half the Israeli settlers we surveyed said they would not consider trading any land in the West Bank — territory they believe was granted them by God — in exchange for peace. More than half the Palestinians considered full sovereignty over Jerusalem in the same light, and more than four-fifths felt that the “right of return” was a sacred value, too.
As for sweetening the pot, in general the greater the monetary incentive involved in the deal, the greater the disgust from respondents. Israelis and Palestinians alike often reacted as though we had asked them to sell their children.
This strongly implies that using the standard approaches of “business-like negotiations” favored by Western diplomats will only backfire.
…
Absolutists who violently rejected offers of money or peace for sacred land were considerably more inclined to accept deals that involved their enemies making symbolic but difficult gestures. For example, Palestinian hard-liners were more willing to consider recognizing the right of Israel to exist if the Israelis simply offered an official apology for Palestinian suffering in the 1948 war. Similarly, Israeli respondents said they could live with a partition of Jerusalem and borders very close to those that existed before the 1967 war if Hamas and the other major Palestinian groups explicitly recognized Israel’s right to exist.[Politicians on bothsides mirroed these results] Making these sorts of wholly intangible “symbolic” concessions, like an apology or recognition of a right to exist, simply doesn’t compute on any utilitarian calculus. And yet the science says they may be the best way to start cutting the knot.
And another sad, beautiful example of why we should care:
Tears drop on her hands, hands that he had once kissed passionately, on her engagement ring, that ring he chose for her, on her cheeks that oust the redness of burning coals within her. The funeral is over now; his body is away, but the memory of him is as vivid as his own being yesterday. Dreams of a wedding, now written in the history of numerous deaths, is beyond of what reality can bring.
Her name is Hanaa, what means felicity. But, Hanaa shall know no felicity for many years now, overcoming the killing of her lost love, Mohammed, who was killed by IOF whilst at the Abu Middeen police station on December 27th, 2009. Red roses are thrown over Mohammed's tomb as he is carried through the streets of his neighborhood. Hanaa, her head bent towards the ground, stroking the ring on her right hand, nods her head accepting a reality imposed, one of which she had no choice in determining.
This is the case of many here in Gaza, where love has been targeted, where intimacy has been destroyed, where sentiments are victims of slaughtering and massacres. "We are just numbers in the media," says Hanan, a student at the Aqsa University in Gaza. "But, behind the numbers are stories, are loves lost, are childhoods devastated, choked."
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Sri Lanka: UN official concerned over shelling of hospital, worsening civilian plight
I do not know nearly enough about the fighting in Sri Lanka or the civilian situation. What little I do know I have largely gleaned from MIA's music and interviews. But it has certainly been in the news lately. For all the complaining I sometimes do about media neglect, I have to admit that it is often the other way around.
Anyway, my thoughts are with the many suffering civilians in Sri Lanka.
Anyway, my thoughts are with the many suffering civilians in Sri Lanka.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Save Zimbabwe Now!
I guess we will see how this new power-sharing agreement in Zimbabwe works out.
In the meantime, sign this Save Zimbabwe Now! petition.
In the meantime, sign this Save Zimbabwe Now! petition.
Shame on you, Thailand
Refugee Policy according to Thailand: just ship them out to sea. Who do they think they are, humans?
Ali from Gaza
Tonight I read a letter to President Obama from a seven-year old Gazan boy named Ali. It does not read like a seven-year old wrote it, but Ali has had to grow up a lot. The full text is here, but Ali is so thoughtful and and his words so heartbreaking that I want to share at least some parts here:
As a general observation, we Americans do not know enough about what is going on in Gaza, and we certainly don’t understand the role our own government plays in it. We operate, if at all, under shallow mainstream media assessments driven by exclusively Western perspectives. Take Ali’s play with the words “peace” and “terrorist” as a particularly poignant example. I have spoken with some people, often Jewish and mostly on facebook, about our different views on the war. I can’t help but be frustrated by what I feel is often (but certainly not always) a parroting of one-lines with no genuine attempt to understand the conflict from a Gazan perspective. Justify, justify, platitude, justify. But if America is going to hold Israel’s hand while Israel does what it has done to Ali and so many others, we should know. We should not just know, but KNOW.
There are intelligent people who support Israel. But it’s not just about intelligence, it’s about marrying that intelligence with some measure of compassion and empathy. Not the false, superficial kind. Not the war-is-always -horrible,- but…-with-no-real-attempt-to-identify-and-assess-your-own-biases- kind. And there are compassionate people who support Israeli policies, too; I guess it’s just that, in my opinion, they are listening to the wrong version of the “truth”. I can’t ask anyone to believe or not believe certain sources of information. After all, I’m sure that people who support Israeli policies in Gaza are thinking the same thing about me. But I can ask people to at least really, truly think about it before they make up their minds. Peace is not going to be achieved unless people LISTEN. And besides, Ali and his family, and all others who have died in this conflict, deserve it.
Call for accountability for abuses of international law in Gaza and southern Israel
From the AI email I got:
Thank you Mr. President, it was your speech that distracted me while I was collecting my sister’s fragments. I heard you saying: Israel has the right to defend itself… achieving peace in the middle east…. Hamas was sending rockets ….. democracy … and other words that I cannot remember. I am sorry again, I was striving to concentrate in your speech but the smell of my sister’s body and my fear that I may lose some of it didn’t help me to grasp what you were saying exactly. I just realised our neighbour’s anger when he turned the TV off murmuring that he wasted the battery for nothing. We had already pulled out the corps of my mother and half of the corps of my father; we couldn’t find the rest of his body. To be frank with you, I never thought of addressing any American president, I mean, it goes without saying that we are killed with American weapons and taxes. The doctors in the hospitals said that Americans were experimenting a new weapon called DIME in this war, I mean the war on Gaza. We don’t talk to the enemy.
But during the funeral I heard you...in an interview with an Arab TV channel saying that you want to deliver us a message that America is not our enemy. Oh, I felt responsibility, it seems Mr. President that someone is playing behind your back, it seems that you don’t know that we are killed with your weapons, it seems that those who use the veto to protect Israel and let it get away with its crimes against us in the security council are just doing this without even telling you, it seems that you don’t know that your country annually pumps a huge amount of money to Israel, well Mr. President, Israel is the enemy, and we didn’t choose it. We didn’t beg for check points, we didn’t beg for blockage, we didn’t beg for cluster bombs, phosphorus bombs and this new bomb you are experimenting on us.
Besides, I heard you saying that you want to achieve peace in the Middle East; I know, I know, it is us, we are the Middle East. Why Mr. President? Why do you want to achieve more peace in us? We had enough peace; we had more than enough peace during the last war. Do you want to achieve more? The blond woman called Livni said that she wants peace that is why Israel waged this aggression on us. I lost my whole family in this peace process. And those who imposed the blockage on Gaza – during which one of my cousins died because of the shortage of medicine – always talk about peace: Abbas, Fayyad, Mubarak. They are men of peace, exactly like Livni. They did all what they can to achieve peace, I don’t think that you need more peace, do you?
I went to my cousin’s home, he also lost all his family, I am in his custody now. He is my all family and I am his only family. He is twenty one years old as I told you before, he was a student in the faculty of medicine, but he was not allowed to graduate, the blockage and the bad circumstances pushed him to leave the university and work, then he joined the resistance during this last war. He is a Hamas member now....
[Y]ou want to harm my cousin too because he is a terrorist. I wonder what is wrong with terrorists like my cousin. He is a very nice guy, you would like him if you met him. He prepares breakfast for me, he cooks very delicious smashed eggs, he takes me to school, he stays all night besides me because I have nightmares every night, and when I wake up startled with the frightening nightmare he puts his hand on my forehead and recites some verses from the Quran and sing me beautiful songs till I fall asleep again. After school he plays with me soccer in the street, he tells me very funny jokes and gorgeous fairy tales, he swings me along with his friends whom you call terrorists and I laugh to tears.
On my neighbour’s TV I watched you practicing some terrorism with your daughters; you were playing with them exactly like my cousin plays with me. Why don’t you want my cousin to be a good terrorist like you? Why do you want to make peace in my country while you all live in terrorism happily? Did we annoy you Mr. President? We don’t even know you, if someone in my district did anything wrong to you just tell me and I will oblige him to apologize for you.
As a general observation, we Americans do not know enough about what is going on in Gaza, and we certainly don’t understand the role our own government plays in it. We operate, if at all, under shallow mainstream media assessments driven by exclusively Western perspectives. Take Ali’s play with the words “peace” and “terrorist” as a particularly poignant example. I have spoken with some people, often Jewish and mostly on facebook, about our different views on the war. I can’t help but be frustrated by what I feel is often (but certainly not always) a parroting of one-lines with no genuine attempt to understand the conflict from a Gazan perspective. Justify, justify, platitude, justify. But if America is going to hold Israel’s hand while Israel does what it has done to Ali and so many others, we should know. We should not just know, but KNOW.
There are intelligent people who support Israel. But it’s not just about intelligence, it’s about marrying that intelligence with some measure of compassion and empathy. Not the false, superficial kind. Not the war-is-always -horrible,- but…-with-no-real-attempt-to-identify-and-assess-your-own-biases- kind. And there are compassionate people who support Israeli policies, too; I guess it’s just that, in my opinion, they are listening to the wrong version of the “truth”. I can’t ask anyone to believe or not believe certain sources of information. After all, I’m sure that people who support Israeli policies in Gaza are thinking the same thing about me. But I can ask people to at least really, truly think about it before they make up their minds. Peace is not going to be achieved unless people LISTEN. And besides, Ali and his family, and all others who have died in this conflict, deserve it.
Call for accountability for abuses of international law in Gaza and southern Israel
From the AI email I got:
Hours before Israel announced a ceasefire, an Amnesty International fact finding mission gained access to Gaza. Their initial reports are disturbing: the team found first hand evidence of war crimes, serious violations of international law and possible crimes against humanity by all parties to the conflict. ...Obama on Israel-Palestine (Via the Traveller Within)
In the early afternoon of January 4th, three young paramedics walked through a field on a rescue mission to save a group of wounded men in a nearby orchard. A 12-year-old boy, standing by his house, assisted the operation by pointing to where the men could be found. An Israeli air strike on the area killed all four.
The bodies of the four victims could not be retrieved for two days. Ambulance crews who tried to approach the site came under fire from Israeli forces.
Our researchers later traveled to the scene of the strike with the two ambulance drivers who witnessed the attack. They met with the boy’s distraught mother and found the remains of the missile. The label of the missile read, “guided missile, surface attack” and cited the United States as the country of origin.
This is just one of many similar stories.
Under the Geneva Conventions, medical personnel searching, collecting, transporting or treating the wounded must be protected and respected in all circumstances. Clearly, this was not the case on Jan. 4th.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Speaking out against Holocaust deniers
Ban calls on world to fight Holocaust denial, anti-Semitism and bigotry
This all reminds me of the Free2choose post I made a few days ago
“We must continue to teach our children the lessons of history's darkest chapters. That will help them do a better job than their elders in building a world of peaceful coexistence. We must combat Holocaust denial, and speak out in the face of bigotry and hatred,” he added in the message, read at a ceremony at UN Headquarters in New York by Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro.The Literary and Debating Society here at NUI Galway has invited a Holocaust denier to speak on campus. I hope I am in town if/when he comes, and I hope the local stores are stocked with posterboard and markers. I hope the format of his speech allows for audience particpation at some point. I hope I am not the only one who shows to counteract free speech of the atrocious variety with free speech based on humanity.
This all reminds me of the Free2choose post I made a few days ago
Not good enough, Israel
At a Border Crossing, Drivers and Truckloads of Aid for Gaza Go Nowhere
Israel must allow full access for aid and supplies to rehabilitate Gaza – UN relief chief
There has been an outpouring of support for Gazans, mostly from the Arab world, but also from Europe, Venezuela and nongovernmental organizations, officials here said. Medical supplies go straight into Gaza through Egypt’s crossing at Rafah.
But Egypt will not allow anything else to pass through Rafah, insisting that all other aid travel first into Israel and then into Gaza. That is where the bottleneck has occurred. Two of the main problems have been the short window for supplies to pass and Israel’s decision to let few trucks go through, officials and volunteers here said. But another problem has to do with Egypt’s being unprepared to meet strict Israeli packing requirements, which would allow the goods to be passed through security scanners and onto Israeli trucks for delivery to Gaza.
The Egyptians tried to send through trucks carrying bags of flour and sugar, for example, only to have the Israelis send them back. Much has been repacked and reshipped, but some of the returned items are spilled out over the sandy earth at the crossing.
Israel must allow full access for aid and supplies to rehabilitate Gaza – UN relief chief
“Israel has a particular responsibility as the occupying power in this context, because of its control of Gaza’s borders with Israel, to respect the relevant provisions of international humanitarian law,” Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes told the Security Council in a report on his just-completed visit to Gaza, Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
“It is therefore critical that new steps are taken immediately by the Israeli authorities to move to the sustained re-opening of crossing points,” he said, stressing that improving the living conditions of Gaza’s 1.5 million people was vital to avoid further despair and undermining the two-state diplomatic solution to the decades-old Middle East conflict.
As he did frequently during the assault Israel launched on 27 December with the stated aim of ending Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza, Mr. Holmes meted out blame to both sides in the conflict.
Zimbabwean Refugees in South Africa
Deal or no deal in Zimbabwe?
Meanwhile...
NYT has a short slideshow about the refugees that I recommend.
Meanwhile...
NYT has a short slideshow about the refugees that I recommend.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Toky's Creation
Toky is a serious 11-yr old boy in Madagascar who builds toys for himself and for his neighborhood friends. His parents say he is very serious about his job.
From http://gasykool.wordpress.com/, via Global Voices. A note about this blog- the writer is part of Foko Madagascar's Blog Club, "which won the Rising Voices Micro-grant to teach youth how to use citizen media tools such as blogs, video and images to show others that Madagascar is more than jungle and lemurs."
From http://gasykool.wordpress.com/, via Global Voices. A note about this blog- the writer is part of Foko Madagascar's Blog Club, "which won the Rising Voices Micro-grant to teach youth how to use citizen media tools such as blogs, video and images to show others that Madagascar is more than jungle and lemurs."
Monday, January 26, 2009
Peace in Gaza?
Will They Forgive? Will They Forget?
Back to a kind of life: A shaken people still want an end to the siege, Palestinian unity, and peace:
In the streets you hear only support for Hamas. In more secluded conversations, views are more nuanced, with expressions of anger, fear and exhaustion. “People are furious with Hamas for bringing this on us,” says a taxi driver from Jabaliya, a big refugee camp in the north of the strip, after first making sure that the car windows were closed and no one was eavesdropping. “But they are too afraid to speak out. They know that if they say the truth about this war they may disappear.”
But he also describes how people’s feelings changed as the war went on. At first, some were delighted by the prospect of Hamas’s demise. But after days of bombs, sentiment shifted. “The Israelis made a mistake when they killed so many women and children. Everyone then supported Hamas. The Israelis made a big mistake.” He repeats that last phrase several times.
...Even those who refuse to blame Hamas want some sort of peace deal to let them think that all the death and destruction was not for nothing. Many say a proposed year-long ceasefire is not enough. Their main desire is for the borders to be opened and for the economic and physical siege to be lifted. “My brother’s wedding is in Cairo on Friday,” says a Gazan waiting at the still-closed Rafah crossing. “I want to be there.”
I'm watching with great interest how the international community responds to the renewed cries for MidEast diplomacy. As an American, I am especially curious to see what Obama and his administration will do. While the U.S. should certainly play a role in the peace process, I do not think anyone, including the U.S., should fool himself into thinking of the U.S. strictly as a neutral mediator of some kind. We should not expect Palestinians to like this any more than Israelis would appreciate Iran acting as a neutral mediator of some kind. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck...That said, I do think and hope we can play an important role. Go Georgie!
Some headlines from around the world
- Overcrowding of boat people on Italian island worries UN refugee agency
- Bolivia’s divisive new constitution grants greater rights to indigenous people
But "the new charter risks further dividing an already polarised country". As an example, YahooNews points out that 2007 anti-government riots led to the deaths of 3 college students as well as an incident in September where "13 mostly indigenous Morals supporters died...when protestors seized government buildings to block a vote on the proposed constitution."
- International Court Begins First Trial :
-Turkey changes some of its textbooks from "so-called genocide" of Armenians to "1915 events" (Via GlobalVoices)
- In Pakistan, Radio Amplifies Terror of Taliban
- Skateboarding in Afghanistan Provides a Diversion From Desolation
The article also addresses the difficulties some girls have trying to participate:
- Pope launches Vatican on YouTube:
Available data shows that many boat arrivals on the island are persons originating from Somalia and Eritrea.
According to preliminary figures for 2008, about 75 per cent of those who arrived in Italy by sea last year applied for asylum, and around 50 percent of those who applied were granted refugee status or protection on other humanitarian grounds.
- Bolivia’s divisive new constitution grants greater rights to indigenous people
Mr Morales, a socialist of Amerindian descent, has followed up his historic victory that made him the country’s first indigenous president with a triumph that will give a greater voice and share of land and resources to the country’s indigenous population. In the throng of miners in tin hats and indigenous women in bowler hats and heavy skirts there was an unmistakable sense of history on the march. After centuries of subservience to the “white” minority, they have mastered the country’s politics and reshaped its guiding documents.
But "the new charter risks further dividing an already polarised country". As an example, YahooNews points out that 2007 anti-government riots led to the deaths of 3 college students as well as an incident in September where "13 mostly indigenous Morals supporters died...when protestors seized government buildings to block a vote on the proposed constitution."
- International Court Begins First Trial :
Wearing a dark suit and red tie, Lubanga showed no emotion as his French lawyer, Catherine Mabille, said he pleaded not guilty to using children under age 15 as soldiers in the armed wing of his Union of Congolese Patriots political party in 2002-03.
Lubanga's militia ''recruited, trained and used hundreds of young children to kill, pillage and rape. The children still suffer the consequences of Lubanga's crimes,'' prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told a three-judge panel in his opening statement. ''They cannot forget what they suffered, what they saw, what they did.''
-Turkey changes some of its textbooks from "so-called genocide" of Armenians to "1915 events" (Via GlobalVoices)
- In Pakistan, Radio Amplifies Terror of Taliban
Using a portable radio transmitter, a local Taliban leader, Shah Doran, on most nights outlines newly proscribed “un-Islamic” activities in Swat, like selling DVDs, watching cable television, singing and dancing, criticizing the Taliban, shaving beards and allowing girls to attend school. He also reveals names of people the Taliban have recently killed for violating their decrees — and those they plan to kill.
- Skateboarding in Afghanistan Provides a Diversion From Desolation
“Afghan kids are the same as kids all over the world,” Percovich said. “They just haven’t been given the same opportunities. They need a positive environment to do positive things for Afghanistan and for themselves.”
The article also addresses the difficulties some girls have trying to participate:
But for Hadisa, a 10-year-old girl from a conservative family, skateboarding has not been accepted. She said two older brothers beat her with wires for skating with poorer children in September. Several friends said they had seen blood flowing from her leg.
“I’m not upset with my brothers for beating me,” Hadisa whispered on a recent day when she did not skate because her oldest brother was nearby. “They have the right.”
But some girls cannot skate enough because their window for participation is short. When Afghan girls reach puberty, they must be veiled and can no longer associate with men outside the family. Percovich said his indoor skate park could be part of the solution, with boys and girls in separate classes.
- Pope launches Vatican on YouTube:
The 81-year-old Pope's first YouTube message spoke of a new way to spread hope around the world:
"You must find ways to spread - in a new manner - voices and pictures of hope, through the internet, which wraps all of our planet in an increasingly close-knitted way," he said in Italian.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
With Leader Captured, Congo Rebel Force Is Dissolving
...the fierce rebellion in eastern Congo headed by Gen. Laurent Nkunda may be ending with his arrest. Rwandan troops captured General Nkunda along the Congo-Rwanda border on Thursday night.
...Peace, however, is far from assured. There are still many other rebel groups haunting the hills of eastern Congo. General Nkunda’s force was thought to number around 5,000 fighters, and many have simply melted back into the bush, possibly to fight on. His former chief of staff, Jean Bosco Ntaganda, a ruthless commander known as the Terminator, is the new rebel figurehead after having defected from General Nkunda.
...The Congolese government is urging Rwanda to hand him over to face war crimes and treason charges. But Rwanda may have a hard time doing that.
General Nkunda used to be a Rwandan Army officer, and until recently, top Rwandan officials were suspected of supplying him with weapons and soldiers. The Rwandan government seems to have struck a deal with Congo in which the Rwandans agreed to neutralize General Nkunda and in return Congo would let thousands of Rwandan troops hunt down Hutu militants on Congolese soil. ...
A joint Congolese-Rwandan force has killed nine Hutu militants in eastern Congo since Friday, Reuters reported.
Article.
Article on Nkunda's apprehension here.
...Peace, however, is far from assured. There are still many other rebel groups haunting the hills of eastern Congo. General Nkunda’s force was thought to number around 5,000 fighters, and many have simply melted back into the bush, possibly to fight on. His former chief of staff, Jean Bosco Ntaganda, a ruthless commander known as the Terminator, is the new rebel figurehead after having defected from General Nkunda.
...The Congolese government is urging Rwanda to hand him over to face war crimes and treason charges. But Rwanda may have a hard time doing that.
General Nkunda used to be a Rwandan Army officer, and until recently, top Rwandan officials were suspected of supplying him with weapons and soldiers. The Rwandan government seems to have struck a deal with Congo in which the Rwandans agreed to neutralize General Nkunda and in return Congo would let thousands of Rwandan troops hunt down Hutu militants on Congolese soil. ...
A joint Congolese-Rwandan force has killed nine Hutu militants in eastern Congo since Friday, Reuters reported.
Article.
Article on Nkunda's apprehension here.
Free2choose
My friend and I capped off the end of last semester with a weekend rendezvous in Amsterdam. As we finished up our tour of the Anne Frank Museum, we noticed a film presentation going on called Free2choose. Intrigued, we took some seats, which were equipped with little clickers. The film would show a short clip highlighting an incident where human rights and freedoms come into conflict with one another. For example, every year in Northern Ireland, the Orange Order has parades to celebrate Prince William of Orange's victory over King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Sometimes the marches go through Catholic neighborhoods. Opponents of this say that this is triumphalist and generally in poor taste given the history of Protestant-Catholic relations. On several occasions, violence has erupted as a result of tensions.
After the issue is presented, the screen asks the audience whether or not this should be allowed: should the Orange marches be allowed to go through Catholic neighborhoods? You respond on your clicker, and then the audience results show. Sometimes it was really hard to answer, but that also made some of the results all the more interesting.
I did get frutrated, however, with some the wording of the questions: should this be done vs. should the government let this be done? Because of course there are many things I do not think should be done, but it is another question entirely whether or not the government should play a role in answering that question. Sometimes it was not clear what was meant.
I also got a pamphlet highlighting some of the main themes. I think some of the quotes in here are interesting:
"Each person's freedom ends where another person's freedom begins."
-Proverb
"There are people who think that the right to ingratitude is the most important freedom."
-H. Poincare, French mathematician
"A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights."
-Napolean Bonaparte, French statesman and dictator
"It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them."
-Mark Twain, American author
"When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free."
-Charles Evans Hughes, American Supreme Court Justice
"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedomm of thought which they seldom use."
-Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher
"We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart."
-H.L. Menckn, American journalist
"Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a pooping tom to install your window blinds."
-John Perry Barlow, American singer and poet
"A free press can of course be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom it will never be anything but bad...Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better."
-Albert Camus, French author
"Freedom is fragile and must be protected. to sacrifice it, even as a temporary measure, is to betray it."
-Germaine Greer, Australian writer and activist
"It's not the voting that's democracy, it's the counting."
-Tom Stoppard, English playwright
Very enjoyable presentation, and according to the pamphlet, it has been financed with support from the European Commission to be presented in more European cities. So if you are traveling in Europe, keep an eye open!
After the issue is presented, the screen asks the audience whether or not this should be allowed: should the Orange marches be allowed to go through Catholic neighborhoods? You respond on your clicker, and then the audience results show. Sometimes it was really hard to answer, but that also made some of the results all the more interesting.
I did get frutrated, however, with some the wording of the questions: should this be done vs. should the government let this be done? Because of course there are many things I do not think should be done, but it is another question entirely whether or not the government should play a role in answering that question. Sometimes it was not clear what was meant.
I also got a pamphlet highlighting some of the main themes. I think some of the quotes in here are interesting:
"Each person's freedom ends where another person's freedom begins."
-Proverb
"There are people who think that the right to ingratitude is the most important freedom."
-H. Poincare, French mathematician
"A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights."
-Napolean Bonaparte, French statesman and dictator
"It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them."
-Mark Twain, American author
"When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free."
-Charles Evans Hughes, American Supreme Court Justice
"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedomm of thought which they seldom use."
-Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher
"We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart."
-H.L. Menckn, American journalist
"Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a pooping tom to install your window blinds."
-John Perry Barlow, American singer and poet
"A free press can of course be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom it will never be anything but bad...Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better."
-Albert Camus, French author
"Freedom is fragile and must be protected. to sacrifice it, even as a temporary measure, is to betray it."
-Germaine Greer, Australian writer and activist
"It's not the voting that's democracy, it's the counting."
-Tom Stoppard, English playwright
Very enjoyable presentation, and according to the pamphlet, it has been financed with support from the European Commission to be presented in more European cities. So if you are traveling in Europe, keep an eye open!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Jumping back in
I took about a month-long break here, mostly because I was home for the holidays without a very good internet connection. It's hard enough to keep up with headlines in one day; skip a week or month and it feels pretty overwhelming to try to catch up. So I suppose it's better for me to just pick back up and go. Bbesides, I vented a lot of my frustration over the Gaza situation on Facebook- probably got to more people there anyway considering the current readership here is like...2 people? Still, there's much more to be said and, more importantly, to be done.
On Gaza in the aftermath of this latest war:
Ban gets first-hand look at Gaza devastation
UN to embark on humanitarian assessment in post-conflict Gaza
On Gaza in the aftermath of this latest war:
Ban gets first-hand look at Gaza devastation
“This is shocking and alarming. These are heartbreaking scenes. I am deeply grieved by what I have seen today,” the Secretary-General said as he surveyed the aftermath.
Mr. Ban said a true end to violence, and true security for both Israelis and Palestinians, would only come through a just and comprehensive settlement to the long-festering Arab-Israeli conflict, including the creation of the State of Palestine living side by side with the State of Israel, in peace and security, consistent with relevant Security Council resolutions.
UN to embark on humanitarian assessment in post-conflict Gaza
“Mr. Holmes plans to stress the need to facilitate quick delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a news release.
The 22-day offensive, which Israel launched on 27 December with the stated aim of ending Hamas rocket attacks, claimed over 1,300 lives, 412 of them children, and wounded more than 5,450, 1,855 of them children, as well as causing widespread destruction and suffering.
The bombing and shelling caused extensive damage to civilian facilities throughout the Strip, and supplies of basic food and fuel, and the provision of electricity, water and sanitation services remain critical.
...OCHA reported today that Gazans displaced during the military operation continue to make their way home, but many of them are now homeless due to the extensive destruction of homes. As a result, they remain with host families or in UNRWA-run shelters. There were more than 18,000 people remaining in 30 shelters as of yesterday.
The UN Population Fund (UNFPA), for its part, will be working on two main fronts during the early recovery phase – restoring reproductive health care, including maternal and neonatal services, and providing psychosocial support to traumatized survivors.
UNFPA will focus on rehabilitating and restoring reproductive health infrastructure and services, including emergency obstetric and newborn care units. Some 3,700 women went into labour during the 22-day conflict, according to the agency. A number of them suffered death and delivery-related injuries due to lack of services to fully support them.
The Fund added that the entire population of Gaza, including health professionals, is at risk of post-traumatic stress in varying degrees. It will deploy social workers, counsellors and other trained professionals to work with those affected.
OCHA added that only $63 million of the $117 million needed for priority projects in Gaza has been committed or pledged so far.
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