La Guera le Gustas

the u-visa approval; a bittersweet victory

2009-10-30T21:58:00.004-05:00

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.

Perspective from an Incoming Refugee to the U.S.

2009-10-14T12:53:00.003-05:00

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.

My book has more bookmarks than pages

2009-08-10T19:05:00.004-05:00

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.

Keepin' It Classy with Michelle Obama

2009-05-16T09:49:00.002-05:00

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.”

Precious

2009-05-13T15:53:00.000-05:00

I am very excited to see this.

in favor of music in public schools

2009-04-28T07:21:00.000-05:00

a kiss in Paris

2009-04-26T10:50:00.004-05:00

From "Paris 2e, one of my favorite blogs.

(When can I go back, and will the D'orsay be open this time?)

Israel: Reflecting on Israeli-Palestinian Relations

2009-04-17T09:34:00.002-05:00

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?):

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.

We know all of the things; time to party, bro

2009-04-09T06:41:00.005-05:00

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.

I am just a poor boy though my story's seldom told

2009-04-05T12:46:00.001-05:00

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:

Shootings at Binghamton immigration clinic

2009-04-05T08:21:00.004-05:00

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.

A Kurdish woman turned to Ms. Gruss and said, “They fire in Iraq. They fire in the United States.”

“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.”

And then, the touching determination...

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.

Taliban publicly lashes a woman in Pakistan; women's rights take a hit in Afghanistan

2009-04-03T12:25:00.004-05:00

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.

The Daily Show takes on border control

2009-04-01T14:30:00.000-05:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

M - Th 11p / 10c

Borderline Cops

comedycentral.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Economic Crisis

Political Humor

Arab leaders frustrate me

2009-03-31T06:50:00.000-05:00

Often Split, Arab Leaders Unite for Sudan’s Chief

Remember when I was really naive?

2009-03-30T04:36:00.001-05:00

Oh, hope. It tends to take a beating.

But it's also a stubborn mother f-er.

a (belated but favorite) picture from Barcelona

2009-03-28T15:51:00.006-05:00

and a few feet away...

Israel Disputes Soldiers’ Accounts of Gaza Abuses

2009-03-28T10:00:00.002-05:00

An article today counteracts the media whirlwind of accustions that Israel acted wrongfully in the Gaza conflict.

“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.

Palestinians Serenade Survivors in Israel

2009-03-26T11:03:00.001-05:00

There is not just hate and violence.

DREAM Act being reintroduced this week

2009-03-26T10:55:00.003-05:00

by Sen. Richard Durbin and Sen. Richard Lugar.

From Citizen Orange.

Also, here is Citizen Orange's argument in favor of the DREAM Act.

Turkey's Sudan decision

2009-03-26T10:51:00.002-05:00

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!

2009-03-26T10:48:00.001-05:00

There are four new videos from each side. Here is the first video.

Save Darfur: Urgent

2009-03-23T13:34:00.000-05:00

Watch and donate today.

Congratulations, Mugabe!!!

2009-03-22T14:49:00.003-05:00

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.

Speaking in fewer tongues

2009-03-17T12:59:00.003-05:00

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.

Daedalus

2009-03-15T10:02:00.002-05:00

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

2009-03-15T09:52:00.006-05:00

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.)

When Jobs Disappear

2009-03-14T12:30:00.001-05:00

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.

Did the ICC do the right thing in issuing the warrant for al-Bashir's arrest?

2009-03-14T10:37:00.001-05:00

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.

Misc. beautiful stuff: Alhambra, Beirut

2009-03-13T19:19:00.007-05:00

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)

Prayers with Tsvangirai

2009-03-06T19:31:00.002-06:00

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."

al-Bashir, a real stand-up guy

2009-03-06T15:26:00.000-06:00

ACT NOW; Tell Secretary Clinton to prioritize Darfur

Confronting myself

2009-03-06T08:05:00.009-06:00

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.

Who is a "terrorist"?

2009-02-26T14:14:00.001-06:00

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.”

Fleet Foxes

2009-02-07T10:54:00.002-06:00

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.

Quote of the Day

2009-02-07T10:19:00.004-06:00

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."

Israel and Gaza, Extremism, Peace

2009-02-06T15:17:00.006-06:00

Israel continues to disappoint me in its approach to Gazan aid distribution, denying even the paper to make anti-violence pamphlets:

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."

Friedensreich Hundertwasser

2009-02-03T07:13:00.002-06:00

Surely an interesting and original feller.

Sri Lanka: UN official concerned over shelling of hospital, worsening civilian plight

2009-02-03T06:55:00.003-06:00

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.

Save Zimbabwe Now!

2009-02-01T16:58:00.002-06:00

I guess we will see how this new power-sharing agreement in Zimbabwe works out.

In the meantime, sign this Save Zimbabwe Now! petition.

Shame on you, Thailand

2009-02-01T16:55:00.002-06:00

Refugee Policy according to Thailand: just ship them out to sea. Who do they think they are, humans?

Ali from Gaza

2009-02-01T16:29:00.003-06:00

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:

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. ...
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.

Obama on Israel-Palestine (Via the Traveller Within)

Speaking out against Holocaust deniers

2009-01-28T06:25:00.005-06:00

Ban calls on world to fight Holocaust denial, anti-Semitism and bigotry

“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

2009-01-28T06:15:00.002-06:00

At a Border Crossing, Drivers and Truckloads of Aid for Gaza Go Nowhere

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

2009-01-28T05:59:00.001-06:00

Deal or no deal in Zimbabwe?
Meanwhile...

NYT has a short slideshow about the refugees that I recommend.

Toky's Creation

2009-01-27T07:20:00.002-06:00

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."

2Pac Heals

2009-01-26T08:37:00.001-06:00

From yesterday's PostSecret.

Peace in Gaza?

2009-01-26T08:19:00.007-06:00

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

2009-01-26T06:39:00.003-06:00

- Overcrowding of boat people on Italian island worries UN refugee agency

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.

With Leader Captured, Congo Rebel Force Is Dissolving

2009-01-25T10:23:00.002-06:00

...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.

Free2choose

2009-01-25T08:56:00.003-06:00

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!

Jumping back in

2009-01-22T09:45:00.004-06:00

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

“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.

So live your life

2008-12-16T16:02:00.000-06:00

“Well, actually, you can’t be whatever you want to be. The world decides what you can and can’t be.”

Oh, footnotes

2008-12-15T13:12:00.010-06:00

I'm reading (skimming, if we're going to be really accurate here) this article on feminist legal methods for my sociology of law exam tomorrow morning(...crap). I always enjoy reading the title footnote describing the author of the article, because it's always fun to find out that behind the text is an actual person. Also, just last week, I read this really engaging article about humanitarian intervention as a pretext and saw that my amazing criminal law professor, Derek Jinks, had contributed- always cool to see that.

Anyway- as someone who spent hours slaving over footnotes for the Texas International Law Journal and bemoaning the absurdity of how Bluebook adherence means editors all lose their minds just a little bit (sure, the real problem is how lazy I am, but hey, why get bogged down in the details), I thought hers was really amusing.* Just imagine the discussions that went on there; to be a fly on the wall in THAT final read...

* I need more sleep, less coffee.

The shoe

2008-12-15T11:16:00.008-06:00

It's hard to put into words how I feel about this. On the one hand, of course I try to understand the frustration and the pain that Iraqis feel about the war. I don't mean to undermine their very real concerns and anger and sadness.

But... I don't really believe in hating people or in treating them in an undignifying manner no matter who they are, even when (maybe especially when) we are holding them accountable. So although I don't know if I would say I blame Al-Zaidi, I also certainly can't say I condone his behavior.

The International PostSecret Exhibition opens today

2008-12-14T01:13:00.003-06:00

From an article on the opening:

For those who may not be familiar with PostSecret, it began four years ago when Frank Warren, a Germantown, Md., resident, decided to try an idea at the annual Artomatic exhibition in Washington, D. C. His idea: To pass out blank postcards to complete strangers in hopes they would return them with a personal secret and a doodle jotted on one side.

The postcards came pouring in and Warren put them on display, instantly becoming the talk of the exhibition. What Warren did not expect was that the postcards would continue filling his mailbox, long after the exhibition came to an end. Before long, he was receiving postcards with witty, depressing, shocking, engaging and even insulting secrets from every state in the country.

Warren decided to create an online blog to start posting the secrets he was receiving. Then, postcards started arriving regularly from Australia, India, the United Kingdom and beyond.

“ I realized I had tapped into something that was there all the time — something full of mystery and wonder, ” Warren said. “ I quickly realized I was no longer the leader of the project. PostSecret had a life of its own. ”

Four years later, Warren continues to receive more than 1, 000 postcards per week from around the world. The PostSecret site, www. postsecretcommunity. com, averages six million hits per month. To put things into perspective, that’s more visitors than eBay.

PostSecret — a sampling of more than 450 PostSecret postcards — will be on display Dec. 13 through Feb. 1 at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Over the past four years, the online version of PostSecret has become one of the most popular forums of conceptual art, possibly ever....

In addition to providing an important outlet, Warren believes PostSecret represents an opportunity for anyone, anywhere to add to the story of life. And that, he said, is the truest form of art.

Mugabe takes step toward power-sharing

2008-12-14T01:08:00.003-06:00

Wow, what a team player.

Thank goodness, who else would stop the genocidal UK bastards from spreading cholera throughout Zimbabwe.

Oh, Mugabe. Please just let go and step down.

Darfur, Another Year Later

2008-12-11T20:54:00.005-06:00

In January, President Bush said this about Darfur: “My administration called this genocide. Once you label it genocide, you obviously have to do something about it.”

Yet, last week — nearly one year later — this is what the International Criminal Court prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, told the United Nations Security Council about Darfur: “Genocide continues. Rapes in and around the camps continue. Humanitarian assistance is still hindered. More than 5,000 displaced persons die each month.” How can this still be?

The world has long declared its revulsion at the atrocities committed by Sudan’s government and its proxy militias in Darfur and done almost nothing to stop it. It took years of political wrangling to get the Security Council to approve a strengthened peacekeeping force with deployment set for Jan. 1. More than 11 months later, the Security Council has managed to send only 10,000 of the promised 26,000 peacekeepers. Large-scale military attacks against populated areas continue.

Much of the fault lies with Sudan’s cynically obstructionist president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir. But Russia and especially China — which has major oil interests in Sudan — have shamefully enabled him. So have African leaders. The United States and its allies also bear responsibility for temporizing, most recently over how to transport troops and equipment to the conflict zone.

President Bush said on Wednesday that the United States was prepared to provide airlift. So why has this taken so long?

Now, the war crimes charges Mr. Moreno-Ocampo has brought against the Sudanese leader for his role in masterminding Darfur’s horrors (the burning of villages, bombing of schools and systematic rape of woman) may — may — be changing the calculus in Khartoum.

Mr. Bashir recently agreed to peace talks mediated by Qatar and pledged to punish anyone guilty of crimes in Darfur. Until proved otherwise, the world must assume that all of this is theater designed to fool the Security Council into delaying his reckoning at the Hague.

The African Union and the Arab League, seeking to protect one of their own, are pressing the Security Council to delay a formal indictment and arrest warrant, saying it would hurt chances for a negotiated peace. The Bush administration has threatened to block such a move and we hope it stands firm. President-elect Barack Obama and his advisers have called for strong action to end the Darfur genocide. We hope the next administration moves quickly. But have no doubt: Fixing Darfur, which is increasingly engulfed in inter-rebel warfare, gets harder by the day. The indictment, expected in February, is undeniably deserved. United Nations officials say that up to 300,000 people have been killed in the Darfur conflict and that 2.7 million have been driven from their homes.

Still it might be worth delaying if Mr. Bashir called off his murderous militias, stopped obstructing deployment of a strengthened peacekeeping force and began serious peace talks. The world is waiting.

Article.

ADD YOUR VOICE!!! Ask Obama to keep his promise to make Darfur a priority.

Photo from Paris

2008-12-11T17:28:00.005-06:00

I've meaning to post this picture I took in Paris like two months ago, but I've been...what's that word for when you put things off for no good reason? Oh yeah: lazy. Now that I have finals to study for, though, it seems like a good time to do it.

Preventing genocide

2008-12-11T17:11:00.005-06:00

Dec 11th 2008
From The Economist print edition

Advice for Barack Obama on grappling with a problem from hell

A FEW years ago, Lexington visited a shabby church in Rwanda. Inside was a memorial to a massacre that took place within its walls in 1994. The most upsetting sight was that of small skulls which, unlike the larger ones around them, were mostly incomplete. Babies’ jawbones tend to break off when clubbed.

Preventing genocide is what one of Barack Obama’s advisers calls “a problem from hell”. But this week a group called the Genocide Prevention Task Force published some helpful guidelines for the president-elect. It is a serious group, led by Madeleine Albright (a former secretary of state) and William Cohen (a former defence secretary). And its report is steeped in good sense.

For a start, it avoids definitional traps. What, after all, is genocide? The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide is hopelessly vague, talking of “inflicting on [a] group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”. Read literally, that could include almost any atrocity. Gérard Prunier, a historian of Rwanda and Darfur, prefers a stricter standard: a deliberate attempt to destroy a racial, religious or political group in its entirety.

Ms Albright and Mr Cohen sidestep this muddle by using the word “genocide” colloquially, as shorthand for the deliberate mass-murder of civilians. They then suggest ways to prevent it. First, the president should make this an explicit goal of his foreign policy. This is not only a moral obligation, says Mr Cohen, but will help keep America safer. Genocide can cause a state to collapse, and failed states make good boltholes for terrorists.

For about $250m a year, the authors of the report reckon America can detect the early rumblings of genocide and silence them. The directorate of national intelligence should monitor every trouble spot for signs that men with guns or machetes are about to kill lots of unarmed people, and report regularly on its findings. In high-risk countries, American aid dollars should address the conditions that make genocide more likely, such as ethnic discrimination, armed insurgency and leaders who whip up hatred to cement their own grip on power.

When the signs suggest that mass-murder is being planned, diplomats should warn the would-be perpetrators of dire consequences if they proceed. If all else fails, America should send in the marines, but the authors hope that the mere threat of this will usually be enough. Finally, since America cannot monitor or police the world alone, Ms Albright and Mr Cohen call for the creation of a global network to share information and act together to prevent genocide.

Optimists think Mr Obama is just the man to put all these noble thoughts into practice. He is hardly an expert on the world’s hellholes, but he surrounds himself with experts. Susan Rice, his pick for ambassador to the UN (a post that will now carry cabinet rank) was a cog in the machine that kept America out of Rwanda, and is determined not to repeat that mistake. Samantha Power, a member of Mr Obama’s transition team, is a former war correspondent in the Balkans, the author of a Pulitzer prize-winning book on genocide and a professor at Harvard. Mr Obama’s favourite think-tank, the Centre for American Progress, houses the Enough project, which aims to put the “never” into “never again”. The head of the Enough project, John Prendergast, is a perceptive Darfur-watcher and has also written a book on genocide. He says Mr Obama has recruited a “dream team” to prevent genocide. He singles out the forceful Hillary Clinton and James Jones, a respected general who will be the next national security adviser.

All this is encouraging. But in his quest to deliver the world from evil, Mr Obama will face several roadblocks. From the moment he assumes office, the economic crisis, health-care reform and Iraq will gobble up nearly all his time, energy and political capital. Whatever Mr Cohen says about the national-security benefits of genocide prevention, a report that a massacre might be about to occur in a poor and obscure place is unlikely to shoot to the top of the presidential in-tray. And will Mr Obama really be ready to send in the marines if deterrence fails?

Curbing the atrocities that are known about is hard enough. Mr Obama will probably push for negotiations to end the war in Darfur. The leading killers on both sides are likely soon to be indicted by the International Criminal Court, which should concentrate minds and provide an American peace envoy with an opening. Mr Obama will also give a jolt to the peace process in eastern Congo, where mass graves have recently been found. But given America’s commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, there will be few American boots to patrol other war zones.

Easier said than done
And the trickiest challenge will always be the unexpected. Bill Clinton is often blamed for failing to stop the killing in Rwanda. He could have sent troops or at least jammed the radio broadcasts that told the killers where to go and whom to kill. But he had seen a humanitarian military intervention in Somalia go bloodily awry the previous year, so he did not. He said afterwards that he had not understood soon enough what was going on in Rwanda. Ms Power retorts that he “could have known...if he had wanted to know”. But that is easy to say with hindsight. The Rwandan genocide was the quickest on record. Even experts did not realise just how well-organised and systematic the killing was until nearly half the victims were already dead. Mr Clinton could in theory have wrenched his mind away from all the other crises in the world and grasped the Rwandan situation in time to save many lives. But in practice, how many presidents are that flexible?

Perhaps Mr Obama will do better. But even a quick brain, a legion of good advisers and the loftiest of intentions are no guarantee. The next genocide may erupt in a place or in a manner that no one predicts. And American interventions to crush murderous governments do not always go as planned. Ask George Bush.

Article.

György Kepes

2008-12-11T16:58:00.006-06:00

Wikify?

Today is the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

2008-12-10T08:48:00.000-06:00

UDHR 60: What image opened your eyes to human rights?

Human rights still not a reality for all, top UN official says

Corruption impedes development and human rights, Ban says on International Day

Elie Wiesel quote

2008-12-08T02:58:00.009-06:00

I was talking to my brother the other day about how my idealism has been taking a little bit of a beating lately, and this relates to my frustration over humankind's seeming lack of....awareness? humanity? At the end of the day, I still believe that people are good, and it isn't because they are incompassionate or bad that they don't seem to care. It is human nature to have a self-defense. In the genocide documentary that I posted about yesterday, Elie Weisel was asked about the tendency for the world to ignore the atrocities that are going on:

It's better not to believe, because if you believe, you don't sleep nights. And how can you eat? How can you drink a glass of wine, when you know?

I try to think in terms of this corollary as much as possible: how can I complain about (fill in the blank), because I DO know. I DO know how lucky I am, how wonderful my life is, and how blessed I am that God gifted me with this life, these opportunities, these people. But it is hard, isn't it, to avoid that guilt sometimes. There but for the grace of God go I... I want to earn it. I want to make it up, somehow.

A Happy and Blessed Eid

2008-12-07T22:38:00.003-06:00

to all!

Scream Bloody Murder

2008-12-07T09:25:00.003-06:00

The other day, I watched this CNN special on genocide called "Scream Bloody Murder", figuring it was a good substitute for, or at least complementary to, actually studying for my human rights exam. Also, oh yeah, I just wanted to.

Anyway, I just looked at the website and at the bottom there was a link to a poll, and I thought the results were interesting.

Quick Vote

Should military force be the first or last resort to end genocide?
First resort 79% 8447
Last resort 21% 2208
Total Votes: 10655
This is not a scientific poll

Obviously, not only is this not scientific, but it's arguably sort of a biased set-up: Hey check out all these horrible atrocities and no one did anything to stop it and that's horrible too, now take this poll. Then again, maybe the results reflect that the program made a good point. Who knows (not me)...

But it reminded me of a similar discussion we had in my class a week or two ago about whether or not, in the absence of UN support for intervention, a state should act unilaterally to stop human rights violations. Our professor took a quick poll of the class. I usually don't raise my hand in these sorts of situations, because a simple raising-of-the-hand doesn't let me qualify my answer, and I'm a huge relativist so like, that sucks. But I decided to go ahead and be really American and raise my hand "yes" (this felt awkward in the wake of the prof talking about countries using humanitarian intervention as a pretext, with Iraq as the example there). I saw several Irish students raise their hands "no", but I didn't really get the chance to see how other students answered. Ever since then, though, I can't stop thinking about all of the qualifications I would have liked to make to my answer.

Maybe it'll be an essay question.

Pictures of You: Images From Iran

2008-12-06T16:32:00.006-06:00

This is an amazing, beautiful project. I'm so enamored with it that I am using my last five minutes of computer power (indefinitely) (...long story involving my power cord and some weird angles) to post it:

ARTIST'S STATEMENT
One day, while photographing on the streets of Isfahan, Iran, I spotted a young Persian man wearing a Dixie Chicks t-shirt. I introduced myself, and I inquired whether his t-shirt was intended to signify his dislike for the American President Bush. He smiled, and replied that the shirt wasn't just about President Bush. He explained that shortly after the Dixie Chicks criticized Bush on stage, bootleg Dixie Chicks shirts appeared in stores all over Iran's major cities. He told me that the shirt represented the admiration that he and his compatriots had for Americans' freedom of speech.

That young man and his t-shirt have become a symbol for me of the basic philosophical compatibility of Iranians and Americans— and of Americans' unawareness of that compatibility. For example, few Americans understand that the Persian culture celebrates knowledge, personal freedom, and the enjoyment of life. Most Americans do not know that Iranian women, despite the obstacles put in their way, are a significant political voice, and make up a majority of the university students in Iran. It seems that Americans would ordinarily admire the courage and willpower of the Iranian people, but the current political climate makes it nearly impossible for Americans to recognize those qualities.

I want all Americans to have a chance to come face-to-face with their Iranian counterparts, and I want to document the Americans' responses to the encounter. For this reason, I am assembling a traveling photography exhibit entitled 'pictures of you: Images from Iran.' The show features portraits of Iranians printed on translucent silk. The images can be viewed from either side, and the translucency of the fabric permits viewers to watch as other people look at the installation. This serves to make viewers aware of other people's reactions to the images, and perhaps will cause them to reflect on their own responses. The fragility of the silk is intended to remind viewers of the significant effect that American misperceptions might have on Iranians and on Persian culture. I want viewers to have the sense that something beautiful is in jeopardy.

The installation will be shown in outdoor venues that are not traditionally reserved for art. It will be shown in high-traffic areas, so it will be encountered by viewers who do not typically seek out art. For example, we plan to show the exhibit at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, at a NASCAR event, and at select state fairs. Many viewers will simply happen upon the show without having heard about it. My intention is to reach a broad audience, and to evoke an unfiltered response to the photography.

For me, Americans' response to the installation will be the real point of the show. Many Americans have strong feelings and intuitions about Iran, and many of their ideas have developed in an environment tainted by ignorance and suspicion. While Americans are free to learn about Iran and engage in informed debate about foreign policy, so many of them choose not to use those very freedoms that millions of Iranians long for. I hope that the show will ultimately transcend the issue of Iranian/American relations. It will illustrate how Americans exercise their freedoms and privileges— including the privilege to remain uninformed about other nations and cultures without suffering any significant consequences.

The main title of the show, 'pictures of you,' is deliberately ambiguous. Viewers may assume the subject of the show— the 'you'— is the Iranian people. But the American viewer of the show is its subject— its 'you'— as much as the people of Iran are. I hope that the documentation of Americans' response to the installation will allow us to examine that part of American culture objectively and with compassion. My intention is that allowing Americans to see themselves in this way will encourage them to look more carefully at other nations and cultures.
The title of the show was inspired by a verse by the Iranian poet Rumi. In translation, it reads:

If my head holds one thought wise and clear, it's you.
Poor as I am, what I hold dear is you.
No matter how I see myself, I'm nothing.
Anything I am entirely is you.

from Rumi's Kolliyaat-e Shams-e Tabrizi

Source (including link to interview with artist)hurryhurrypostpostpost

Capital lacks clean water, cholera kills hundreds in Zimbabwe

2008-12-01T16:14:00.003-06:00

(CNN) -- Almost 12,000 people have contracted cholera since August in Zimbabwe, and the outbreak threatens to grow more dire -- and deadly -- because the nation can't pay for chemicals to treat water or for doctors to treat victims.

There was no running water Monday In Harare, the capital, according to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

Residents there were digging shallow holes in their yards in hopes of finding water. In some cases, nearby holes served as latrines. Other residents were getting water from polluted rivers....

Unemployment in Zimbabwe is about 90 percent, and the official inflation rate is 231 million percent, though unofficial estimates suggest it's higher.

The economic turmoil is compounded by the nation's political tumult. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the most votes in March elections but dropped out of the subsequent runoff, citing violence against MDC supporters.

Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe of the ruling ZANU-PF signed a power-sharing deal in September, but it has failed to take effect as the MDC has refused to form a national unity government, accusing Mugabe of taking all the key ministries.

Last week, Carter called Zimbabwe "a basket case" and blamed the cholera outbreak and other turmoil in the nation on "the poisonous effects" of the Mugabe regime.

Also last week, a group of Harare residents, led by Arthur Taderera, filed a lawsuit against the Zimbabwe government, saying, "Due to their lack of diligence and constant supplies of clean water to my place of residence, diseases like cholera surfaced and people are dying."

World AIDS Day

2008-12-01T16:00:00.002-06:00

A Day With(out) Art

Day Without Art (DWA) began on December 1st 1989 as the national day of action and mourning in response to the AIDS crisis. To make the public aware that AIDS can touch everyone, and inspire positive action, some 800 U.S. art and AIDS groups participated in the first Day Without Art, shutting down museums, sending staff to volunteer at AIDS services, or sponsoring special exhibitions of work about AIDS. Since then, Day With(out) Art has grown into a collaborative project in which an estimated 8,000 national and international museums, galleries, art centers, AIDS Service Organizations, libraries, high schools and colleges take part.

Obama picks Susan E. Rice

2008-12-01T06:29:00.001-06:00

Choice for U.N. Backs Strong Action Against Mass Killings

Running for Congo Women

2008-11-30T12:46:00.007-06:00

I just committed myself to run the Paris Half-Marathon on March 8th, and I am doing it for this cause.

If you have the money (I certainly don't, which is why I'm putting my knees through hell instead), sponsor a woman!

If you go to the website, they have a nice video about the program. I'm a sucker for a video.

But for a more "speaking" video, this is from a 60-minutes story called "War Against Women" in which they visited the Women for Women center:

Accompanying article here.

There is also a blog here from International Rescue Committee describing the situation:

"In the Democratic Republic of Congo there is a war raging against women. Here, women and girls are victims of rape on a scale never seen before. Whenever violent conflict escalates in Congo, so do incidents of rape. It’s happening right now in the volatile province of North Kivu. Gunmen are entering homes and raping and torturing women in front of their families. Others are being snatched from their villages or farms during raids or attacked while collecting water or firewood. They are sometimes kept for days, weeks or even months at a time and subjected to repeated gang rapes, beatings, and mutilation.

“Rape is used as a tactic by all the armed groups in Congo to terrorize communities and to control and humiliate families,” says Sarah Mosely, who oversees International Rescue Committee programs to aid rape survivors in Congo.

“It’s sometimes hard to describe just how horrific these assaults are, but I can tell you that it’s not uncommon for women to be raped with sticks and bayonets that rip them apart or for men and boys to be forced at gunpoint to rape, stab and shoot their mothers, sisters and daughters.

Before I came to Congo, I worked in Darfur aiding rape survivors. The situation is horrible there, but in terms of the frequency and the brutality of attacks, nothing compares to what’s happening to women and girls in Congo....

Tens of thousands of women and girls have suffered such attacks, leaving women and girls physically damaged and emotionally terrorized. Many victims are no longer able to bear children. Others end up suffering from fistula, a condition in which internal organs are so destroyed that the victims lose bowel and bladder control. Unfortunately, Congo’s war and ongoing conflict destroyed the health system in eastern regions, so there is a shortage of hospitals and clinics capable of treating rape survivors. And few can afford the medical help anyway.

A number of aid groups, including the International Rescue Committee, are working to change that and ensure that women and girls have access to critical medical and other needed support services."

A scattering of UN News Service headlines

2008-11-26T16:50:00.004-06:00

Ban hails Sudan’s election body as major progress in north-south peace accord

Zimbabwe’s humanitarian crisis likely to worsen, warns senior UN relief official

UN experts call for strong government response to anti-Roma violence in Europe

UN human rights office regrets Israeli pull-out from upcoming racism conference

UNICEF sounds alarm after brutal murder of albino girl in Burundi

Egypt: Uproar as Lawyer Suggests Raping Israeli Women

2008-11-23T12:57:00.000-06:00

Lovely.

Cleanliness is next to godlessness

2008-11-23T12:43:00.003-06:00

Nov 20th 2008
From The Economist print edition

Soaping away your outer dirt may lead to inner evil

PUBLIC displays of untidiness, such as graffiti, may promote bad behaviour (see article), but when it comes to personal cleanliness the opposite appears to be true. A study just published in Psychological Science by Simone Schnall of the University of Plymouth and her colleagues shows that washing with soap and water makes people view unethical activities as more acceptable and reasonable than they would if they had not washed themselves.

Read more about how me not washing my hair today makes me an awesome person here.

Carter, Annan unable to visit to Zimbabwe

2008-11-23T12:08:00.006-06:00

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- A group including former U.N. chief Kofi Annan and former U.S. President Carter postponed a visit to Zimbabwe meant to highlight the country's humanitarian crisis after the government refused to cooperate, Annan said. ...

The government denied that it barred the officials from entering, however, saying it instead asked them to postpone their visit....

Machel said she was "extremely disappointed."

"We want to talk to the people and hear their stories directly. We want people to know that we care and that we will do all we can to help them. People are dying from hunger every day in Zimbabwe, and hospitals are unable to treat the sick. With schools struggling to stay open, children are missing out on an education. One in four children has lost one or both parents. The government's attitude to our visit is deeply regrettable."

Carter noted that he supported Zimbabwe's liberation struggle, led by Mugabe, while he was the U.S. president.

"I am partisan. I make no apology for that. I supported Zimbabwe's liberation struggle, and I oppose suffering and misery. But I am very sorry that we are unable to visit Zimbabwe. We will continue with our plans to learn as much as we can while we are here in the region, where millions of Zimbabweans inside and outside the country face a daily struggle for survival."

Annan and Carter said they would remain in South Africa to monitor the situation in Zimbabwe.

Article here.

Iran Executes Man in Spy Case, and Blogger’s Arrest Is Reported

2008-11-23T12:01:00.002-06:00

By NAZILA FATHI
Published: November 22, 2008
TEHRAN — Iran has executed a man convicted of spying for Israel, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported Saturday.

Iranian news media reported in June that Mr. Ashtari, 45, had received a death sentence for spying. At the time, newspapers said he had been the manager of a company selling communication and security equipment to the Iranian government.

An Israeli official said in June that Israel had no knowledge of his case.

Tension between Iran and Israel has escalated in recent months over Iran’s nuclear program. Israel has not ruled out launching a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. Iran does not recognize Israel as a state and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has spoken of Israel with hostility since his election in 2005.

A Web site affiliated with the Iranian Intelligence Ministry has reported that a high-profile blogger, Hossein Derakhshan, was also arrested this month and accused of spying for Israel. Judiciary officials have not confirmed his arrest but the Web site, Jahan News, reported that he had confessed to spying for Israel.

Mr. Derakhshan, an Iranian-Canadian, had lived in Canada since 2000 but moved back to Tehran a few weeks ago. He traveled to Israel in 2007 and wrote about it on his blog.

Abraham Rabinovich, an Israeli journalist who interviewed Mr. Derakhshan in Jerusalem two years ago, described him in an op-ed article for The International Herald Tribune on Friday as an “Iranian patriot” who through his blog “offered the first views of ordinary life in Israel that Iranians had been able to see.”

Mr. Rabinovich quoted Mr. Derakhshan as saying: “I want to humanize Israel for Iranians and tell them it’s not what the Islamic propaganda machine is saying, that Israelis are thirsty for Muslim blood. And I want to show Israel that the average Iranian isn’t even thinking about doing harm to Israel.”

Article..

Religious unity: The Charter for Compassion

2008-11-22T12:47:00.003-06:00

Friday, November 21st, 2008 @ 16:39 UTC
by Juliana Rincón Parra

As children we may all have heard the Golden Rule expressed in many different ways, but the basic idea is: Treat others as you would like to be treated. This is Karen Armstrong's TED wish, to create a platform in which the different Abrahamic faiths could focus on what was common to all, the moral backbone of all their faiths towards a greater unity and better communication among people of different faiths. The Charter of Compassion is requesting stories of unity and compassion to be uploaded on their site, written or in video form, and that together, people may write this Charter of Compassion a document where this new image will be established, signed by sages and religious leaders. Different sections of the charter are opened on different dates, so feel free to stop by the site and write your perspective on the issue.

Karen Armstrong is a British born former Catholic nun who has written many books on Muslim faith and has taught in the Leo Baeck rabbinic college: this inter-faith knowledge led her on the path towards bringing this project into fruition. Her acceptance speech video is on YouTube, and in it she speaks about this desire of hers to work for the unity of the different faiths, to make religion work towards universal harmony:

The Charter for Compassion's YouTube channel already has some inspirational videos by people in Pakistan. Samia Shoaib shares her own personal compassion story of how we are all interconnected and what happens to our neighbor or someone down the street does concern us:

Arshad Mahmood also speaks from his Muslim faith, in how people should concern themselves about the fate of others, and how discrimination against those of a different faith should not take place:

The Charter for Compassion has opened the call for submissions where people can also tell their stories of compassion and change the image of religion as a harborer of intolerance, showing the world that compassion is and will be the cornerstone of religion, and the way towards change. You can participate by offering information in different languages so the message can get to more people, and by making a video with a story where compassion is featured, or writing your opinion or perspective on the Charter itself.

Article from Global Voices.

Artist's London giveaway begins

2008-11-15T03:10:00.002-06:00

Adam Neate is an urban artist who is leaving his artwork around London for people to find.

Article.

The Archipelago of Fear: Are fortification and foreign aid making Kabul more dangerous?

2008-11-15T01:09:00.006-06:00

Here is a long but fantastic article exploring the often complicated relationship between foreign aid and its recipients.

I'm really intrigued by this article's message, but I know that eight pages can uh, be a deterrent to some, so let me super-simplify and condense here: The way that foreign aid is being done in Kabul is basically 1) alienating the people and 2) possibly increasing the security risks for foreigners. The fortification and foreign aid referenced in the title are showing up via luxurious compounds for foreigners and corrupted officials, which stand in stark contrast to the 45% unemployment rate and s#!tholes-without-electricity-or-running-water that the people themselves enjoy. The people are distressed, and bombers go after the hotels, which make for obvious and symbolic targets. In the other hand, maybe if the aid was distributed in a way that seemed more...well, distributed, then the people would feel better off and the desperation that makes Taliban recruitment easier would dissipate.

I'm also really interested in the article's exploration of the relationship between the (very understandable) desire of aid workers and other foreigners to have increasing security measures put into place and the way this might actually court an increasing need for those very measures.

Mentioned in the article was the Turquoise Mountain Foundation, which I thought sounded really awesome. Basically they are committed to helping rebuilding in Afghanistan with a focus on reclaiming its history and culture.

Check out this photography exhibition called Return, Afghanistan. (Description: For over a quarter of a century, Afghanistan has been devastated by war, drought and famine. Her people have been displaced, and her culture eviscerated. The world renowned photographer Zalmaï, a former refugee from Afghanistan, now Swiss citizen returns after twenty-three years in exile, to re-discover his homeland at a crucial moment of transition.)

Also UNHCR is running a five-part series this month on "Afghanistan at the crossroads." Here are the first, second, and third reports.

Refugees in Gaza

2008-11-14T14:45:00.002-06:00

This is a five-minute clip from a documentary called Occupation 101 that I recently watched. Regardless of whether or not this documentary comports with your beliefs on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I urge everyone to watch this short video highlighting the refugee crisis. Very sad.

Gaza's Reality

Top UN officials tell world leaders it is time for action in fight against global woes

2008-11-12T13:23:00.001-06:00

12 November 2008 – The General Assembly President today told global leaders the world is facing its most difficult period since the founding of the United Nations and urged them to use their “moral strength” in finding solutions to the problems plaguing the Earth, such as global hunger, poverty and climate change.Speaking to over 70 heads of State and high-level officials at the “Culture of Peace” gathering, Miguel D’Escoto said that the world must choose between the values of consumerism and greed, or social responsibility and ethical behaviour, including the economic and political spheres.
“The United Nations has very appropriately elaborated a complex agenda for making the world a better place,” Mr. D’Escoto said in his opening remarks to the two-day meeting in New York.

“But progress is too slow. We are running out of time, and do not seem to have the energy and conviction required to move any faster,” he added.

Read the article. Please.

We have to remember

2008-11-12T12:49:00.004-06:00

In the midst of all the killing, raping, and looting in the Congo, the stalled power-sharing talks in Zimbabwe, pirating and other general lawlessness in Somalia...

let's hope the world doesn't forget about the tragedies still taking place in Sudan.

This is especially important given the Congolese refugees going into Sudan, stressing an already horrible refugee sitution.

It's not like reading the news makes me smile every morning, but today for some reason I am even more saddened than usual. Every day it feels like the news gets worse and worse, tragedy upon tragedy. And sometimes it feels like we don't even give two shits. Maybe it sounds like a broken record, but maybe that's because we aren't listening. People around the world are living in conditions that are unimagineable to most of us. And to them, it's not just a news story they read with their coffee. It's their LIVES. This is what they LIVE. These people could be you or me, had we only been born in a different place. These are mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends, and they deserve better than this. WE HAVE TO CARE.

As global talks on the economic crisis continue...

2008-11-11T10:58:00.004-06:00

Things still look bad and the world is still trying to figure it out.

With that said, I want to revisit what Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said a few weeks ago at a talk in the States:

“While recently we have heard much in this country about how problems on Wall Street are affecting innocent people on Main Street, we need to think more about those people around the world with no streets. Wall Street, Main Street, no street – the solutions devised must be for all,” he stressed.

I guess I say this because also in the news is:

People are still starving

People are still without basic amenities

People are still caught up in horrific conflicts

I really, really hope that as we go forward in this economic mess, we remember how big the world is.

Myanmar blogger jailed for 20 years

2008-11-11T10:45:00.001-06:00

Oh, nice.

In the second case, poet Saw Wai received a two-year jail sentence for a poem he wrote for Valentine's Day that contained a veiled jab at the junta's leading figure, Senior Gen. Than Shwe.

The first words of each line in the eight-line poem, "February the Fourteenth" spelled out the message: "Senior General Than Shwe is crazy with power."

...

How about a poem that spells out no s#!t.

Deprogramming Jihadists

2008-11-09T10:19:00.002-06:00

By KATHERINE ZOEPF
The Saudi government is trying to rehabilitate violent Islamists by addressing their psychological needs. Could therapy be the best sort of counterterrorism?

Interesting article

Getting Tough - Deported in Coma, Saved Back in U.S.

2008-11-08T19:16:00.002-06:00

GILA BEND, Ariz. — Soon after Antonio Torres, a husky 19-year-old farmworker, suffered catastrophic injuries in a car accident last June, a Phoenix hospital began making plans for his repatriation to Mexico.

Mr. Torres was comatose and connected to a ventilator. He was also a legal immigrant whose family lives and works in the purple alfalfa fields of this southwestern town. But he was uninsured. So the hospital disregarded the strenuous objections of his grief-stricken parents and sent Mr. Torres on a four-hour journey over the California border into Mexicali.

Article here. Wow.

John Baldessari

2008-11-07T08:40:00.002-06:00

Absurd, awesome, absurdly awesome, awesomely absurd:

Excerpt from this interview with the artist-

Nicole Davis: What led you to become an artist?

JB: I always had this idea that doing art was just a masturbatory activity, and didn't really help anybody. I was teaching kids in the California Youth Authority, an honor camp where they send kids instead of sending them to prison. One kid came to me one day and asked if I would open up the arts and crafts building at night so they could work. I said, "If all of you guys will cool it in the classes, then I'll baby-sit you." Worked like a charm. Here were these kids that had no values I could embrace, that cared about art more than I. So, I said, "Well, I guess art has some function in society," and I haven't gotten beyond that yet, but it was enough to convince me that art did some good somehow. I just needed a reason that wasn't all about myself.

The Take Away Shows

2008-11-05T11:02:00.003-06:00

My brother introduced me to this amazing concept they have going on at La Blogotheque.

Basically they invite musicians (typically indie bands and ...Jason Mraz?) to play their music whilst roaming the streets (typically Paris).

Check it out, it's awesome.

Human smuggling across Gulf of Aden and Mediterranean Sea keeps rising – UN

2008-11-04T22:42:00.001-06:00

4 November 2008 – The number of people illegally crossing the Gulf of Aden and the Mediterranean Sea is on the rise, the United Nations refugee agency reported today, as it confirmed that 12 people fleeing Somalia in the past week have been found dead on a beach in Yemen and 28 others remain missing.Smugglers forced up to 40 people overboard into the deep waters of the Gulf of Aden as they were on the last leg of the 36-hour journey from strife-torn Somalia to Yemen on Sunday, the 75 survivors told the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) at its Ahwar reception centre.

Article here.

Cuba, U.S.A.: Voting on the Embargo

2008-10-31T08:08:00.003-05:00

Cuban bloggers talk about the UN vote to lift US sanctions against their country.

The Cuban Triangle was of the opinion that the vote served to remind people of a few things:

"First, Cuba knows how to do multilateral diplomacy.

Second, while many governments agree with U.S. criticisms of Cuban human rights practices, virtually all agree, as the resolution says, that U.S. sanctions have “adverse effects” on the Cuban people. And virtually all are willing to vote to urge the United States to lift the embargo.
Third, if a new U.S. Administration decides that it wants to work more closely with allies and other countries on the Cuba issue, U.S. sanctions – from the embargo to direct action against third-country banks and companies – are an obstacle."

Meanwhile, El Cafe Cubano sought to draw attention to what he thinks is the real issue:

"Isn't that special…”The U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly for the favor of lifting the 46-year-old US trade embargo on communist-ruled Cuba.”
Alrighty then…What about FREE ELECTIONS and DEMOCRACY?"

Have Your Say: What does Africa want from the next US president?

2008-10-31T08:01:00.001-05:00

I thought this was interesting also- just a collection of reader input.

'Human catastrophe' grips Congo

2008-10-31T07:54:00.004-05:00

Fierce fighting between government and rebel forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo is causing a humanitarian catastrophe, the Red Cross has said.

It said the number of displaced people was growing by the hour and that the precarious security situation was making it difficult to deliver aid.

Intense diplomatic efforts are under way to end the crisis, which has displaced a total of 250,000 people.

A tense ceasefire is holding in and around the eastern city of Goma.
...
The BBC's Peter Greste in Goma says the road from the city is choked with human misery.

Article here.

Also read: Eyewitness: 'Chaos in Congo city'

More eyewitness accounts from bloggers in the area, including this heartbreaking video.

Here but for the Grace of God go I.

Tristeza en Colombia

2008-10-23T09:43:00.004-05:00

Colombia has a really beautiful culture, and a lot of it comes from the interesting mish-mash of people.

Barranquilla Carnival:

Unfortunately, while mish-mashes can make for beautiful music, art, and dance, they can also sometimes make for conflict.

Colombia: Indigenous Protests and Murders Under Media Blackout
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 @ 16:52 UTC
by Juliana Rincón Parra

From Colombia, the indigenous groups in the Cauca department have made an international SOS to call attention on their plight. On their website, cric-colombia.org they explain how they have been protesting the human rights abuses they have been victim of, represented by the murder of one of their community leaders by hit men and the death threats on other regional and community leaders and spokespeople.

CNN coverage:
Uribe: Colombian police fired on protesters

Video of the incident.

"Pre-Uribe confession" story here.

the Centre Pompidou and Jacques Villegle

2008-10-19T08:46:00.004-05:00

I quite recently had the wonderful opportunity to visit the Centre Pompidou.

My favorite exhibition was Jacques Villegle.

There was also a wonderful futurism exhibition.

Iraqis leading the way in growing numbers of asylum-seekers, says UN agency

2008-10-19T08:19:00.003-05:00

17 October 2008 – The number of people seeking asylum around the world is on the rise with Iraqis being by far the top nationality in search of safety, according to a report published by the United Nations refugee agency today.
Some 165,000 applications were submitted to the 44 industrialized countries included in the report in the first six months of this year, and Iraqis made up 12 per cent of all asylum claims lodged with 19,500 applications and some 20 per cent of those petitioning Sweden.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) report showed that the number of claims made by Iraqis was higher than the combined number of asylum claims submitted by Russia (9,400) and China (8,700), the second and third highest nationalities seeking asylum.

While the top three countries of origin for asylum-seekers saw either a downward or stable trend, the number of Somali claims lodged rose significantly, reflecting a deteriorating situation in the conflict-wracked Horn of Africa country. More than 7,400 Somalis were registered between January and June this year, compared to 5,000 for the same period last year.

Pakistan and Afghanistan also had large numbers of citizens seek asylum in the first half of 2008, with 6,300 claims each. For Afghanistan this represents a 22 per cent increase on the corresponding period for last year and a 42 per cent rise on 2006.

Although the total number of Iraqi asylum-seekers dropped by 18 per cent from the previous six months and 10 per cent from the first half of 2007, the overall upward trend of asylum claims continues. Data showed an increase of 9 per cent in 2007 compared to 2006 and 3 per cent from the first half of 2007.

According to the asylum trends report significant increases were registered by applicants from Mali, Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Côte d’Ivoire, Georgia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Assuming that current patterns remain unchanged, UNHCR say the number of asylum claims lodged during the whole of this year could reach 360,000, or 10 percent more than 2007.

The report also noted that an estimated 25,400 people submitted asylum claims to the United States, the largest recipient of new claims, representing 15 per cent of all applications lodged in the first six months of 2008. Canada ranked second as a country of destination with 16,800 applications, or around 10 per cent of all asylum claims lodged.

Article here.

Related: UN calls on European Union to uphold pledges to protect Iraqi refugees

Alma Har'el, Alphonse Mucha, my world goes in circles, I smile

2008-10-18T15:00:00.006-05:00

As seen in my last post, I am now an ardent fan of Alma Har'el. This discovery made today amazing, but the best part was seeing how wonderfully life can overlap itself sometimes. I was reading this interview about how she did the Elephant Gun video (SO GOOD), and I came across this part:

SRO: What inspirations helped you design and create the shoot for ‘Elephant’?

Alma: After meeting with Ben in NY, I went to Israel and stayed in my mother’s house for 2 weeks; I listened to the song late at night and dreamt what it would look like. I knew it would have a dance scene, but that the dancers would be tipsy and a little drunk— it’s that feeling at the end of the night when you feel you have a lot in common with everybody who’s in the room, whether you know them or not. Then Zach and I spoke on the phone about it and I asked him: “Zach, who is singing the song?” and he said - “a safari hunter”. That’s how it started.

It went through a few changes— In the beginning I wanted to shoot in a bar; then I decided on the space covered with old maps of the world, and I really got a handle on how I wanted it to look. The color palette was all coming from that and from Mucha paintings.

This was great, because I was just about to do a post on Alphonse Mucha. I even had this website about him open on my desktop as I read this interview. So I guess it's no wonder I was feeling the Elephant Gun video so much.

I'm typically a fan of art nouveau - and man, he's just the bee's kness. A classic! Offical website here.

I also really love this idea of decorating the walls with old maps. I hate modern maps, though. Maybe I should start collecting old maps and one day decorate my house like the Elephant Gun video...

Beirut

2008-10-17T19:51:00.007-05:00

Sadly, I'd never actually watched the music videos for these songs before tonight- they are AWESOME.

Beirut is really really cool, and now I additionally have mad respect for Alma Har'el who directed these videos

Rape Victims’ Words Help Jolt Congo Into Change

2008-10-17T16:20:00.001-05:00

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: October 17, 2008

BUKAVU, Congo — Honorata Kizende looked out at the audience and began with a simple, declarative sentence.

“There was no dinner,” she said.

“It was me who was dinner. Me, because they kicked me roughly to the ground, and they ripped off all my clothes, and between the two of them, they held my feet. One took my left foot, one took my right, and the same with my arms, and between the two of them they proceeded to rape me. Then all five of them raped me.”

The audience, which had been called together by local and international aid groups and included everyone from high-ranking politicians to street kids with no shoes, stared at her in disbelief.

Congo, it seems, is finally facing its horrific rape problem, which United Nations officials have called the worst sexual violence in the world. Tens of thousands of women, possibly hundreds of thousands, have been raped in the past few years in this hilly, incongruously beautiful land and many of these rapes have been marked by a level of brutality that is shocking even by the twisted standards of a place haunted by warlords and drug-crazed child soldiers.

After years of denial and shame, the silence is being broken. Because of stepped-up efforts in the past nine months by international organizations and the Congolese government, rapists are no longer able to count on a culture of impunity. Of course, countless men still get away with assaulting women. But more and more are getting caught, prosecuted and put behind bars.

Read the whole article here

Rain Forest Tribe’s Charge of Neglect Is Shrouded by Religion and Politics

2008-10-12T04:41:00.000-05:00

By SIMON ROMERO
Published: October 6, 2008

PUERTO AYACUCHO, Venezuela — Three years after President Hugo Chávez expelled American missionaries from the Venezuelan Amazon, accusing them of using proselytism of remote tribes as a cover for espionage, resentment is festering here over what some tribal leaders say was official negligence that led to the deaths of dozens of indigenous children and adults.

President Hugo Chávez expelled missionaries from the Amazon but has increased social welfare programs there.

Some leaders of the Yanomami, one of South America’s largest forest-dwelling tribes, say that 50 people in their communities in the southern rain forest have died since the expulsion of the missionaries in 2005 because of recurring shortages of medicine and fuel, and unreliable transportation out of the jungle to medical facilities.

Mr. Chávez’s government disputes the claims and points to more spending than ever on social welfare programs for the Yanomami. The spending is part of a broader plan to assert greater military and social control over expanses of rain forest that are viewed as essential for Venezuela’s sovereignty.

The Yanomami leaders are wading into a politicized debate about how officials react to health care challenges faced by the Yanomami and other Amazonian tribes. In recent interviews here, government officials contended that the Yanomami could be exaggerating their claims to win more resources from the government and undercut its authority in the Amazon.

Meanwhile, the Yanomami claims come amid growing concern in Venezuela over indigenous health care after a scandal erupted in August over a tepid official response to a mystery disease that killed 38 Warao Indians in the country’s northeast.

“This government makes a big show of helping the Yanomami, but rhetoric is one thing and reality another,” said Ramón González, 49, a Yanomami leader from the village of Yajanamateli who traveled recently to Puerto Ayacucho, the capital of Amazonas State, to ask military officials and civilian doctors for improved health care.

“The truth is that Yanomami lives are still considered worthless,” said Mr. González, who was converted to Christianity by New Tribes Mission, a Florida group expelled in 2005. “The boats, the planes, the money, it’s all for the criollos, not for us,” he said, using a term for nonindigenous Venezuelans.

The Yanomami leaders offer a far different image of the tribe than those found in anthropology books, which often depict it in Rousseaulike settings with painted faces and clad in loincloths.

There are about 26,000 Yanomami in the Amazon rain forest, in Venezuela and Brazil, where they subsist as seminomadic hunters and cultivators of crops like manioc and bananas.

They remain susceptible to ailments for which they have weak defenses, including respiratory diseases and drug-resistant strains of malaria. In Puerto Ayacucho, they can be seen wandering through the traffic-clogged streets, clad in the modern uniform of T-shirts and baggy pants, toting cellphones.

This and the rest of the article here

With Spotlight on Pirates, Somalis on Land Waste Away in the Shadows

2008-10-11T05:40:00.000-05:00

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: October 10, 2008

AFGOOYE, Somalia — Just step into a feeding center here, and the sense of hopelessness is overwhelming.

Dozens of women sit with listless babies in their laps, snapping their fingers, trying to get a flicker of life out of their dying children.

Little eyes close. Wizened 1-year-olds struggle to breathe. This is the place where help is supposed to be on its way. But the nurses in the filthy smocks are besieged. From the doorway, you can see the future of Somalia fading away.

While the audacity of a band of Somali pirates who hijacked a ship full of weapons has grabbed the world’s attention, it is the slow-burn suffering of millions of Somalis that seems to go almost unnoticed.

The suffering is not new. Or especially surprising. This country on the edge of Africa has been slowly, but inexorably, sliding toward an abyss for the past year and a half — or, some would argue, for the past 17. United Nations officials have called Somalia “the forgotten crisis.”

The causes are unemployment, drought, inflation, a squeeze on global food supplies and a war that will not end. Fighting between Somalia’s weak transitional government and a determined Islamist insurgency has been heating up in the past few weeks, driving thousands from their homes and cutting people off from food. The hospital wards here are one indicator of the conflict’s intensity.

“In the past two months,” said Muhammad Hussein, a doctor at a feeding center in Afgooye, “our patients have doubled.”

In August, 200 women with emaciated babies lined up outside his clinic every day. Today, there are 400.

More than three million people, about half Somalia’s population, need emergency rations to survive. Nobody seems to like it. Many say they feel humiliated.

“That’s all we talk about: when will the next handout come,” said Zenab Ali Osman, a grandmother raising her daughter’s children.

Before fighting drove her from Mogadishu, the capital, to Afgooye’s endless refugee camps of gumdrop-shaped huts made of plastic bags and in some cases soiled T-shirts, Ms. Zenab used to wash clothes for a living. On a good day, she made the equivalent of 80 cents.

The civil war has eviscerated the economy, leaving so many people to survive on pennies. But out on the high seas, it is a different story. Pirates thrive off this same lawlessness, making millions of dollars by hijacking ships in Somalia’s unpatrolled waters and demanding hefty ransoms to free them. On Sept. 25, a band of pirates seized a Ukrainian freighter full of tanks and other weapons bound for Kenya.

The pirates are asking for $20 million, an unfathomable amount here. Negotiations are still going on, and the price will probably be closer to $5 million. No one wants to pay the pirates, but in this case, with 20 crew members being held hostage on a ship full of explosives, giving in may be the safest way out.

But the pirates may be growing impatient. According to The Associated Press, they threatened Friday night to blow up the ship if they were not paid the money within three days.

“I pray to God they are caught,” said Dhuho Abdi Omar, a mother who was waiting at a feeding center in Afgooye with her 2-year-old girl, who had not eaten for two weeks. “These pirates are blocking our food.”

Not everyone agreed. Many young men in the camps seemed to lionize the gunmen of the seas.

“They’re tough guys,” said Muhammad Warsame, 22. “And they’re protecting our coast.”

The pirates have made the same argument, saying they hijack ships in response to illegal fishing and dumping.

“They’re our marines,” said Jaemali Argaga, a militia leader.

Somalia has not had any marines, or national army or navy of any significance, since the central government imploded in 1991. Clan-based warlords carved the country into fiefs, preying upon the population. People eventually got fed up, and in the summer of 2006, a grass-roots Islamist movement drove away the warlords.

Ethiopia and the United States accused the Islamists of sheltering terrorists, and in the winter of 2006, Ethiopian and American forces ousted the Islamists. But the Islamists are back. Supported by businessmen and war profiteers, Islamist guerrilla fighters are viciously battling the weak government forces and Ethiopian soldiers. Civilians are often caught in between. Thousands have been killed in the past year and a half.

Many aid workers have fled. The United Nations World Food Program is one of the last organizations with a large staff inside Somalia. Denise Brown, the deputy country director, said the environment was increasingly hostile. And desperate.

Thousands of hungry people besieged a convoy of 35 United Nations-chartered food trucks moving through Mogadishu two weeks ago. They stripped the trucks clean, looting more than two million pounds of food.

“It’s unprecedented,” Ms. Brown said “Things just went haywire.”

That has taken food out of the mouths of people like Ms. Zenab, whose daughter was one of the 20 street sweepers in Mogadishu killed by a bomb in August that was buried in a pile of garbage.

She is now helping raise several grandchildren. Amina, 13 months old, will not eat. The two sat the other day on a cot covered with flies. All around them were babies looking up at the ceiling with round wet eyes, some with faces covered in tape because they were too sick to swallow and were being fed milk through their noses.

Whom does she blame?

“Those with guns,” Ms. Zenab said. “Whoever they are.”

Source.

Lucia Cullinane

2008-10-06T05:19:00.000-05:00

An artist from Madrid, now living in Ireland:

A Tea Time / La merienda

Maddonna with child

The cover of Dublin's fashion magazine "Choice"

The Mermaid Dance / El baile de las sirenas

See her website for more. I think she's pretty rad.

Obligatory Economy Post

2008-10-01T06:29:00.002-05:00

Various articles:
here
aqui
and here

Really, I don't typically follow the business pages, and even when this started to hit the front pages, it wasn't as much on my radar as it should have been. But seeing how much it is also affecting the rest of the world has underscored its importance to everyone. What's going to happen to the global food prices crisis? Or the Millenium Development Goals? How will a huge government bailout affect the money given to humanitarian agencies or to foreign aid? How will charities fare?