Archive for the ‘Culture – How not to do it’ Category

Lawyers Broadside Mideast Bloggers, Media With ‘Hisba’ Lawsuits

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

– We in the U.S. say we are the beacon of freedom in the world.   And perhaps we are the freest country but I seriously question how we go about trying to spread the wealth of freedom.   We give a large amount of money every year to Egypt (Egypt and Israel are our two largest aid targets).

– But it is hard to see where any of this has been conditioned on advancements in Egyptian human rights and freedoms.   Apparently, we prop up their bullshit because they’ll support ours – hardly an active strategy for improving the world.  I would prefer to see us ‘walk our talk’.   Some might argue that in the short-term it might frustrate some of our geopolitical aims but I would assert that in the long-term it would gain us the genuine respect that wears better over time.

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CAIRO – Lawyers across the region have taken to filing ‘hisba’ lawsuits against bloggers, journalists and intellectuals in an effort to stem the flow of what they deem heretical Islamic ideas. In Saudi Arabia on Nov. 4 blogger Roshdi Algadir was arrested for a poem he posted on his blog roshdi.maktoobblog.com.According to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), Algadir was beaten and forced to sign an agreement to never again publish work on the Internet.

Hisba was established in early Islamic jurisprudence to enable individuals to publically discuss matters of religion. Leading Islamic scholar, Gamal al-Banna said that in the past it was “a construct used to promote the good and criticize the bad. Every individual in an Islamic society is responsible for the actions of the society.”

In more recent times, since the ascension of increasing radical notions of Islamic thinking in the region, hisba lawsuits – which are cases filed by private people in the name of protecting state interests – have been used to stifle rather than promote public discourse on Islam. Essentially, in modern times, hisba has been used as a means of accusing commentators of apostasy, a claim with far reaching consequences in Muslim societies.

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Burma blogger jailed for 20 years

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

A Burmese blogger has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for posting a cartoon of the military leader Than Shwe.

Nay Phone Latt, 28, was sentenced by a court in Rangoon’s Insein prison, said his mother, Aye Than.

Nay Phone Latt’s colleague Thin July Kyaw was sentenced to two years imprisonment, Aye Than reported.

Another dissident, Saw Wai, was sentenced to two years in jail for publishing a poem mocking Than Shwe in the weekly Love Journal.

The first words of each line of the Burmese language poem spelled out the message “Senior General Than Shwe is foolish with power”.

Nay Phone Latt was arrested in January; the sentence delivered on Monday included 15 years for offences under the Electronics Act, two years for “creating public alarm” and three and a half years for offences under the Video Act, his mother said.

One of his offences was apparently the possession of a banned video.

His blogs during the September 2007 uprising provided invaluable information about events within the locked-down country.

Aye Than said she was not allowed to attend the trial and Nay Phone Latt was not represented by his defence lawyer, Aung Thein, who began serving a four-month prison sentence for contempt of court last Friday.

“My son is a computer expert and he has not violated any criminal law. It is very unfair that he was given 15 years’ imprisonment under the Electronics Law for a crime he did not commit,” said Aye Than.

A spokesman for the opposition National League for Democracy party, Nyan Win, described Nay Phone Latt, a former party member, as “a young and intelligent blogger and computer expert.”

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– Just so no one forgets:   The junta came to power in 1988 after crushing a nationwide pro-democracy uprising, killing as many as 3,000 people. It organised multiparty elections in 1990 but refused to honour the results after Suu Kyi’s party won overwhelmingly.

Harsh sentences for Burma rebels

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

Fourteen “88 Generation” activists in Burma have been given jail sentences of up to 65 years over their role in anti-government rallies last year.

Another 20 leaders from the group are still being tried on numerous charges which could result in sentences of up to 150 years each.

The military authorities have arrested hundreds of dissidents this year.

Since July they have been put dozens on trial under tightly restricted conditions.

Severe

No-one is under any illusions over how harshly Burma’s military government is willing to treat its opponents.

Even so, the sentences handed down on 14 activists on Tuesday are breathtakingly severe.

They were convicted of four counts of illegally using electronic media and given 15 years on each charge, plus five years for forming an illegal organisation – 65 years in total.

The defendants include Nilar Thein and her husband Ko Jimmy.

He was arrested along with other 88 Generation leaders after the first small protests against a dramatic fuel price rise in August last year, but Nilar Thein went into hiding – leaving their infant daughter with her parents – and was only caught two months ago.

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– Just so no one forgets:   The junta came to power in 1988 after crushing a nationwide pro-democracy uprising, killing as many as 3,000 people. It organised multiparty elections in 1990 but refused to honour the results after Suu Kyi’s party won overwhelmingly.

How deep is the power of Corporations?

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

– A friend of mine sent me a copy of Obama’s most recent speech on the economy which was given on October 13th in Toledo, Ohio.    It’s an excellent speech with a lot of good ideas and moving rhetoric in it.  I like Obama and I think he’s going to make a good president – maybe even a great one since, if there was ever an opportunity to be a great president, this is the time.   The problems requiring new thinking and new approaches are everywhere he’s going to be going.

– But, I scoured  his speech looking for some recognition, some acknowledgment of the role multinational corporations have had in America’s decline – and I found none.

– I find it plausible that ideologues cannot see the role corporations are playing in the world today, but I do expect more from real intellectuals and thinkers.   And, I have to believe Obama *is* one of these.    He’s jut too good at what he does for it to be reasonable that he’s running on ideological auto-pilot.

– But, he doesn’t acknowledge, that I’ve seen, that he understands the place corporations occupy in the mess that America’s in.   And this, to me, is the best indication of just how very powerful and intractable the power of multinational corporations are – even in the highest levels of political power in the world.

– I believe he knows and I believe that he cannot say.    It would be political suicide for him.

– So, when he talks about creating American jobs and about how hard-working American workers are, he’s ignoring the huge back-drop that colors and underlies all of this.   And that is the fact that corporations, for the benefit of their shareholders, have utterly no compunctions about sending American jobs overseas.

– America’s manufacturing has largely gone to foreign shores.   America’s intellectual work has largely gone to foreign shores.   As Globalism has become a major thread in the economies of the world and in the strategies employed by multinationals, America has gone from being a wealthy nation of hard working producers generating profit for the country to a nation of consumers who sate themselves on cheap throw-away goods from China and other countries while borrowing ever more and sending our wealth overseas at ever increasing rates.

– What I want to know is just what America is going to use to rebuild itself?

– All the politicians talk about us ‘buckling down to work‘ and recreating America the strong, the prosperous, the productive.   Just what are we going to use to do this?   We are becoming a cardboard store-front nation.   We look good, we talk some bad jive but behind the scenes, there isn’t a whole hell of a lot left.   And what’s left, our growing negative balance of trade and deep consumerist obsessions are combining to  spew into the coffers of other countries and multinationals.

– And Obama and the other politicians tell us that we can overcome all of this – if we all just pull together and work hard.   Yeah, right.   That’s  like tell the band on the Titanic that they can prevent the sinking if they just play louder.

– Take a look through his speech here: and see if you can see any acknowledgment in his remarks of the place corporations and globalism are playing in the downfall of America.

– Folks, there is a very large elephant in the room that all of the politicians are afraid to mention.   But, until we take a square look at it, our economies, our global environments and our futures are going to be evermore in doubt.

– Research Thanks to Hans D.

Shocking acts of cruelty in religious strife

Friday, October 10th, 2008

– I’ve ragged on India before.   It is my strong opinion that if a nation wants to present a first world hi-tech face to the world, it might have a serious thought about correcting its third-world medieval problems at home as part of an integrated effort to bring the whole country forward.

– India is both blessed with some of the best hi-tech minds of the 21st century and some of the biggest hypocrisies in the world.   Stunning poverty, class prejudices, bride burning and on and on.   And now, the story below:

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As she recalled her awful story, Puspanjali Panda, 38, made no attempt to halt the tears pouring down her face.

Holding her daughter close, she told how a Hindu mob dragged her husband – a Christian pastor – from his bed, beat him to death with stones and iron rods and then threw him into a river.

She found his corpse two days later, washed up on the bank. When she went to the police, they told her to go away.

Panda and thousands of others like her are victims of the worst communal violence between Hindus and Christians that India has seen for decades.

For a country that boasts of its mutual religious tolerance, the long-simmering tension that has erupted in the Kandhamal district of the state of Orissa – a nun being raped, churches being burned, at least 35 people killed and thousands forced from their villages – is both a belated wake-up call and a mounting embarrassment.

More… (if you can stomach it)

Silence over suffering is deafening

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

We often read stories of India’s economic miracle, its IT revolution and its Bollywood culture. We’re keen to do business with India, and Indian migrants are regarded as highly skilled and hard-working.

Australia is even considering selling uranium to India, presuming its status as the world’s biggest democracy makes its nuclear programme less dangerous than that of Iran or Pakistan.

But what about human rights? We so often implement double standards when determining how human rights might affect our international relations.

The experiences of India’s religious minorities have generally been ignored by Western Governments and commentators.

India’s majority faith is Hinduism, an inherently pacifist and tolerant religion. Notwithstanding the caste system, Hindu societies have traditionally practised liturgical and doctrinal pluralism.

Yet indigenous Indian faiths also include Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism. Indian independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, a deeply religious man, borrowed freely from all Indian religious traditions.

Gandhi’s vision was of a truly civilised and democratic India which zealously protected its minorities. He fought not only the British Raj but also communal extremists who incited bloodshed between religious communities. His assassination occurred at the hands of extremists of his own Hindu faith. In recent decades, these forces have re-emerged in mainstream Indian politics.

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Second Chinese baby dies in tainted milk scandal

Monday, September 15th, 2008

– Was it just last year that pet food from China was laced with melamine and pets died all over the U.S. and there was a huge scandal and backlash? & &

– Well, now the same folks in China, who put making a bigger profit above all else, are at it again.   This time they’ve slipped melamine into the milk that goes into baby formula.  Unbelievable.

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China on Monday reported one more infant death from tainted milk powder, bringing to two the number of babies killed in an expanding scandal that drew an official product recall only after New Zealand blew the whistle.

The latest death blamed on infant milk powder made by the Sanlu Group occurred in Gansu province, a poor region in the northwest that was also home to the only other fatality blamed on chemical-laced milk, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

China has recorded nearly 500 babies falling ill from the tainted milk powder, including 102 in Gansu.

Sanlu, a milk powder producer 43 percent owned by New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra, was ordered to halt production last week after investigators found the chemical melamine in its powder was causing kidney stones in infants.

Farmers or dealers supplying milk to Sanlu may have diluted it with water and then added melamine, used in plastics, fertilisers and cleaning products, to make the milk’s protein level appear higher than it actually was.

Local Chinese officials only acted after the New Zealand government contacted the central government in Beijing, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said on Monday.

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17Sep08 – more…

Presidential Crimes

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Moving on is not an option

We have at the present time two government leaders, a president and a vice president, who, according to all available evidence, have carried out grave crimes. Will these two men leave office and live out their lives without being subjected to legal proceedings? Such proceedings will surely release new documents and provide additional testimony important in resolving their guilt or innocence. But the public record is now so elaborate, so detailed, and validated from so many directions that a weight is on the population’s shoulders: does our already existing knowledge of what they have done obligate us to press for legal redress?

The question is painful even to ask, so painful that we may all yield to an easy temptation not to pursue it at all.

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– Research Thanks to PHK

Enneagram U.S.A.

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

– Following along on yesterday’s theme of having great friends with interesting viewpoints, here’s another view that was shared with me recently by a friend. 

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Riso, a Jesuit, is brilliant, and  wrote a book about personality types based on The Enneagram.  The “Three” is the narcissist.  (Sarah Palin for example).

I read this 20 years ago when my counselor gave me this book.  Things haven’t changed.  🙂 v

The United States is becoming a “Three” culture: narcissistic, image- oriented, emphasizing style over substance, symbols over reality. The pursuit of excellence is being replaced by the celebration of the artificial as everything is being treated as a commodity—-packaged, advertised, and marketed. Politics is becoming less concerned with principles or the use of power for the common good than with the display of personalities. Politics serves public relations, selling candidates with their calculated positions to a public which can no longer tell a clone from a real person. The communications media, particularly television, are primarily concerned with attracting attention so that the public can be sold something. The shallow values and the beguiling glitter of show biz have become the norms by which everything is measured. The only guideline is the ability to gain attention: what is noticed and in demand has value. People are so seduced by the slick package that they often do not realize there is nothing in it. To paraphrase McLuhan, the package is the message. Calculated images successfully masquerade as reality, from the programmed friendliness of television personalities to the rehearsed sincerity of beauty contestants to the hard fluff of “evening magazine” shows. Exhibitionism and self promotion are becoming acceptable as people do whatever it takes to get noticed in an increasingly competitive marketplace. The ideal is to be a winner—–to be successful, famous, and celebrated. The quest for success and prestige is everywhere. Every day a new book comes out telling us how to dress for success, eat for success, or network for success. We are being sold a narcissistic fantasy: that we will be “somebody” if we are like everybody else, only better. If you manage your image properly, you too can become a star—–or a god. The personality type Three exemplifies the search for the affirmation of the self, a self which becomes more empty as its apparent perfection bids for more attention.

– Reasearch Thanks to Robert V.

Elephants Decimated in Congo Park; China Demand Blamed

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

– Entire species may disappear for transient human vanity.   My species truly embarrasses me.   We are not worthy to have the power we have over these innocent beasts.

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Since the beginning of this year, armed groups, soldiers, and poachers have killed 10 percent of the elephants in Congo’s troubled Virunga National Park—allegedly driven by rising Chinese demand for ivory—park officials say.

The announcement raises fears that elephants could disappear forever from Africa’s oldest and largest national park, which has recently made headlines for its gorilla murders.

Rangers plying the lawless central sector of Virunga have discovered the bodies of seven elephants in the past two weeks alone.

In one case they came upon Rwandan militia members hovering over the bodies of two elephants. The rangers managed to drive the men away before they could remove the animals’ tusks.

In all, 24 elephants are known to have been killed in Virunga so far this year.

“We believe that less than ten were killed last year,” said Samantha Newport, spokesperson for Virunga National Park. “Undoubtedly this year is a lot, lot worse. It’s catastrophic.”

(Earlier coverage: “17 Elephants Butchered for Ivory in African Park” [May 5, 2008].)

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