Category Archives: human rights

October 20, 2011 · 3:59 pm

Politics are confusing especially if you are a Kurd

Kurds in northern Iraq/Kurdistan helped the United States to invade Iraq.  Kurds made it clear, that their enemies included both Sadaam Hussein and the government of Turkey.  I wonder how many Turks were killed with United States made ammunition?

The Turkish offensive across the Iraqi border included helicopter gunships, ground commandos and fighter jets, authorities said.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan canceled a foreign trip and labeled the operation a legal “hot pursuit” of terrorists operating out of Iraq’s Kurdish region. The overnight attacks were blamed on the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party, which has long used mountain bases in rugged northern Iraq to stage guerrilla-style attacks into Turkey, Erdogan said.

The PKK, which seeks what it calls equal rights for Turkey’s Kurdish minority, and Ankara have been locked in a decades-long struggle that has left tens of thousands dead and has recently heated up anew. Public anger in Turkey about the escalating violence has been mounting, putting pressure on Erdogan and other leaders for a robust response.

via Turkey pushes into Iraq after Kurd militant raids kill 24 troops – latimes.com.

Lets put this in context.  I suggest you learn from David Rovic’s folk song: “Good Kurds, Bad Kurds.”

Lyrics:

Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurdish people
Killed thousands in a single day
And twelve long years later
Uncle Sam said “you can’t treat your Kurds this way
“And furthermore all Kurds are freedom fighters
“Who’s resist this Iraqi tyranny
“And Uncle Sam will give them guns and maybe sometimes ammunition
“So the brave Kurds can fight until they’re free”

Meanwhile in southeastern Turkey
The Turkish Army had a unique plan
We’ll go in and burn down three thousand villages
Get rid of what they call Kurdistan
Well some of these pesky Kurds decided
That they would rather fight instead of die
So Uncle Sam said, “You are terrorists
“Because Turkey is our ally”

Geopolitics is confusing
In fact, it can be quite absurd
Especially if you value your freedom
You live in Turkey and you are a Kurd

Yes, when Iraqi Kurds are massacred
We say this is genocide
OK, we armed the Army through the eighties
But now we proudly take the Kurdish side
But in Turkey it’s an internal matter
And for us to get involved would be wrong
So we’ll sell some tanks and ‘copters to Ankara
And hope these poor folks can get along

Yes, geopolitics is confusing
And you can’t take the Yankees at their word
At least that’s distinctly how it looks
If you live in Turkey and you’re a Kurd

So when they talk about American interests
And it somehow seems that they’re not yours
Going all over the world
Bombing countries and starting up wars
You’d better leave it to the experts
Go on back to your Playstations
‘Cause our foreign policy only makes sense
To CEO’s of multinational corporations

‘Cause geopolitics is confusing
And if you feel like you’re not being heard
Just imagine how much worse it could be
If you lived in Turkey and you were a Kurd

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October 20, 2011 · 5:27 am

No honor in police violence

With all due respect to Marine Sergent Shamar Thomas there is no honor in killing Iraqis either.  But at the moment I suspect that would be a reasonable discussion at #occupy wallstreet.

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October 19, 2011 · 4:40 pm

Arundhati Roy on Indian Maoists

I like this article (and the original article) because of Roy’s awareness of how talking about ideas changes them.  This is at the core of the modern power of change — language and ideas.  Important stuff here.

“The country that I live in is becoming more and more repressive, more and more of a police state…. India is hardening as a state. It has to continue to give the impression of being a messy, cuddly democracy but actually what’s going on outside the arc lights is really desperate.”

But at the same time it remains an open society, and the arguments are there to be won. In 2009 the government announced Operation Greenhunt, a new, even tougher attempt to kill off the Maoist insurgency, but it sparked fierce resistance, both inside the forest and beyond. “Among the Indian elite it was okay just to call them Maoist terrorists: they had been de-humanised. So when I, who am not a Maoist, went in and wrote about who they were, it made them human beings, fighting for something very, very serious. And that makes a big difference.

“This is a very interesting time where I think the debates are being cracked open. Real intervention at a real moment can change the paradigm of the debate, even if it doesn’t instantly cause a revolution.”

via Arundhati Roy: ‘The next novel will just have to wait…’ – Features, Books – The Independent.

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October 12, 2011 · 3:42 pm

Illegal killings make us feel more safe

I’ve been thinking about the killing of US citizen and Yemeni firebrand Anwar Al-Awlaki.  We blew him up with a missile from a drone.  My basic take on this killing is that it is wrong.   I think that folks should be prosecuted, convicted, then punished. But I’m an old school 1776-type guy.

It seems like the pre-emptive assassination of American enemies has not served our nation well.  Here is President Obama’s press secretary explaining: piss off when a reporter asks if there is any evidence that can be shared with the public about Al-Awlaki’s actual evil deeds.

Thanks to What the fuck have you done, a website run by photog & scene guru Glen E. Friedman.

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October 5, 2011 · 6:04 pm

#occupy wallstreet gives some hope

So if we tax the rich and the corporations, and eliminate 95% of the military, there will be plenty of money, even in our depleted condition, to pay for what we need, which is environmental sanity, climate-friendly industry, energy self-sufficiency without fossil fuels or nuclear power, economic justice, and enlightened education that teaches respect for women, other races, other religions, and animals.

via Wall Street? Occupy Every Street! « Talkin’ Blues About The News.

I couldn’t agree more.

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September 12, 2011 · 10:02 pm

Sergio Romo and paternity leave

Photo: Joe Robbins Getty images.

ESPN has an interesting article on the new cultural changes associated with men and sport.  I’ll highlight one case of  SF Giants pitcher Sergio Romo who is taking time off from baseball to be with his family after the birth of a new child.

It’s hard to say for sure if Romo’s brief absence is going to impact the Giants’ postseason chances (the season-long lack of offense is much more glaring than any single pitcher’s missed games), but what isn’t difficult to see are his priorities. He chose family over career, something we’re used to seeing women do, but not men. It’s weird, I’m sure. But sometimes sports (or at least an individual athlete) is a step ahead of the rest of society when it comes to significant cultural changes.

A redefinition of what is considered manly would be yet another example of that.

via Mark Sanchez, Sergio Romo — their choices are ‘manly,’ too – ESPN.

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September 8, 2011 · 6:07 pm

Polishing the deck chairs on the titanic: climate change and boobs

We are doomed, for real.

I just watched a video with supermodels stripping while they narrate a bizarre rant about global warming.  Something about fifty parts per million.  This is the best that an active ecological movement can come up with?

1.  Layer this against people dying from global warming enhanced storms and diseases, flooding and wretched humans trying to survive in disaster zones.   The way to deal with this massive global change is not to get naked as the earth gets warmer.  Nor is it to gaze at supermodels hoping that people will be inspired. These ideas are dumb.

2.  The incentive for humans to want to address global warming should be self interest.  Do you want to cradle your dying loved ones in an atmosphere less hospitable to humans?  The advertisement suggests that the true incentive is to see some tits.  It is implied that if humans in the USA can reduce emissions sufficiently, then these models will strip fully naked instead of to their skivvies.  What a bargain.   I wonder if they got this in writing from the supermodels — some kind of hooker deal where they have to have sex with the director if humans can learn to live in a steady-state economy.

3.  Oppression of women and consumer fashion culture are part of global warming.  To layer more sexist and consumerist stuff (disney t-shirt in the strip show) as a placebo remedy is toxic.

No link or reference to the group or ad itself is intentional.  Why give them another platform.

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September 2, 2011 · 1:10 am

CIA accountability?

Pretty heavy report in the Washington Post on the CIA’s increased killing.  Some good questions about accountability, ethics and of course the return of hard power in the era of terror.

Human rights groups go further, saying the CIA now functions as a military force beyond the accountability that the United States has historically demanded of its armed services. The CIA doesn’t officially acknowledge the drone program exists, let alone provide public explanation about who shoots and who dies and by what rules.

“We’re seeing the CIA turn into more of a paramilitary organization without the oversight and accountability that we traditionally expect of the military,” said Hina Shamsi, the director of the National Security Project of the American Civil Liberties Union.

via CIA shifts focus to killing targets – The Washington Post.

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August 16, 2011 · 3:35 pm

Crane protest for South Korean labor rights

In 2003, after waging a three-month vigil to protest working conditions, Kim Ju-ik, a 40-year-old father of three, hanged himself in the crane’s control room. His suicide note proclaimed, “This is a country where a laborer has to risk his life to live like a human.”

Kim Jin-suk has no intentions of suicide, instead vowing to stay put until workers win back their jobs.

On the ground, dozens of private security officers roam the fences around the yard, which have been buttressed by spirals of concertina wire.

For her protection, fellow activists monitor Kim’s movements via a camera in a nearby apartment building — footage that is broadcast on the Internet 24 hours a day.

In June, officials cut off electricity to the crane’s control room. Each day, as her body weakens, Kim says, she thinks of the deceased activist for the willpower to continue her protest.

“I am sitting at the place where Ju-ik sat. I sleep where Ju-ik slept and I see the last view of the world Ju-ik saw before passing away,” she wrote in a letter. “And I am going to do it, the thing that Ju-ik wanted to do so much but couldn’t do at last: Walk down the crane of my own free will.”

via South Korea activist’s protest on cargo crane to enter 8th month – latimes.com.

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